ARTS and CULTURE

For our English readers: Mandram is a global platform for like-minded people with interests in Tamil language and literature. It marks the coming together of people from different backgrounds to share their perspectives, journey and success stories for everyone to be inspired. Despite the Internet binding us all together, we still stay polarised. Mandram looks forward to be a TED in Tamil. The first ever Mandram was organised in Chennai which had speakers from varied backgrounds like science, art and culture sharing their perspectives. தமிழ் மரபை பறைசாற்றும் பொங்கல் திருநாள் ஒரு புறம் நகரத்தில் களைகட்ட, தமிழ் இலக்கியம், எழுத்து மேல் உண்டான ஆர்வம் காரணமாக…

Mention Mylapore and the most prominent images that pop up are the iconic Kapaleeswarar temple and the lively Mada streets bustling with activity around it. The temple and its tank steal the show, and rightly so as the village of Mylapore and its agraharams grew organically around these two iconic structures. But, hidden behind the stretch populated by roadside vegetable vendors and the rows of parked cars lie vestiges of a glorious past – richly detailed, quaint little houses which have managed to withstand the test of time. A short walk into the narrow alleys around the temple literally transports…

Nearly a kilometre of a busy road blocked for transport an entire day in Bengaluru! And there are thousands of people if not lakhs, who do not mind that - they look forward to it, in fact. Barring the residents of the said road, of course :-). Sounds surprising? Not if you have been in Bengaluru during the first Sunday of January these past decade and half. This is the day reserved for the renowned Chitra Santhe organised by the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. The 15th edition of the Chitra Santhe (Painting Fair) was held on Kumara Krupa road whose both…

An informal ban on dubbing of movies from various languages into Kannada, for more than six decades, seems to be taking a few steps towards being dubbed banned. Vega Mattu Udvega 8, the Kannada version of Fast and Furious 8 hit the theatres recently. It immediately set the pro-dubbing activists on fire. “So happy to see this happening,” was the first reaction by Pavan Srinath, a public policy researcher with Takshashila Institution, based in Bengaluru, who has been involved in related debates. What is the ban about? Although there has never been a legal or constitutional ban on dubbing in…

On Thursday, November 9, at 7:30 pm, Aditi (name changed) walked down a major thoroughfare in Mylapore, wading through a seeming ocean of people, towards Sai Baba Temple. They were there to pray to Shirdi Sai Baba (1838-1915), a saint who is considered by devotees today to be the representation of the supreme God. It is often said that Sai Baba grants anything a devotee asks for. A paduka, or wooden footwear, of the saint had been brought to the temple from Shirdi, the saint’s hometown, and they would soon be paraded along the streets around the temple. Aditi saw…

Contemporary Bangalore or Bengaluru is typically seen as a modern ever-expanding city. Its boundaries stretch in different directions based on intense clusters of development. For e.g., Sarjapur road, Whitefield - Varthur, Devanahalli, Yeshwanthpur - Peenya - Magadi and Kengeri. One such cluster to the city’s north-west is Yeshwanthpur. And often like the other clusters named above, it is seen as “greenfield development” i.e. development of agricultural but uninhabited land. Loss of such land is not seen to be of much value or rather such land is not considered to have any socio-cultural significance or history worth recording. But such an…

A conversation from a few weeks ago: Paul : So, what was that ChukuBuku Beku thing about? You guys did that after the steel flyover beda, right? Me: That was to bring attention to the long-pending demand for suburban train service. We see local train as a great solution to our traffic woes and pollution. To make that point, more than a thousand of us took a train from Cantonment to Whitefield station to generate public support for the cause. Paul : Oh! interesting. Back in the day, we used to wear our suit-boot and take the train to Whitefield…

Sampige Road, the road that leads to Malleshwaram, has something to offer to everyone. Nestled close to the famous Holige Mane and Bhagyalakshmi Gulkhan shop is an informal bookshop, next to the pavement. A quick look at the book collection on the Rajyothsava day reveals many English pulp fiction — but no Kannada books. A few shops ahead, there is a board: ‘Gupta Circulating Library.’ The shop houses many old books — bound, numbered and neatly stacked, presumably constituting the library part of it. Many contemporary Kannada magazines, shloka and devotional literature occupy the front, visible part of the small…

It’s that time of the year, when crackers compete with lights. It is also the time when eye hospitals are on alert to attend to emergency cases. This is when Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) starts measuring air pollution in Bengaluru diligently and collects data to compile reports on air quality. This is also when activists, media and government agencies start coming up with fire safety guidelines. And this also is when activists who advocate eco-friendly celebrations are countered with whataboutery on crackers:“What about animal slaughter done by other religion?” “What about industrial pollution?” “Don’t you pollute air by…

Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF), Bengaluru’s flagship community-funded literary event on the cultural calendar of the city, is all set for a sixth edition on October 28 and 29 at the Hotel Lalit Ashok lawns in Kumara Krupa High Grounds, Bengaluru. Building on the success of over the past five years, this year Bangalore Literature Festival (#blrlitfest) has a “Speak Up, Speak Out” theme and will feature a host of distinguished authors, speakers and artistes including Ramachandra Guha, Perumal Murugan, Paul Zacharia, Ambai, Hardeep Singh Puri, Suketu Mehta, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, NS Madhavan, Girish Karnad, Sonal Mansingh, Gideon Haigh, Twinkle…