ARTS and CULTURE

Yezdi Roadkings at last year's Jawa Day. Pic:Raj Photography Come Sunday, the 13th of July, witness a spectacle that happens only once in a year - the largest gathering of Jawa’s and Yezdi’s in Bengaluru. Manufactured by the Ideal Jawa Company in Mysore until 1996, these 250 cc bikes known for their distinct beats from its twin exhaust, will come back alive on the road to celebrate the 12th International Jawa Yezdi Day. The International Jawa Yezdi Day is an annual celebration held on the second Sunday of every July across the globe to celebrate the power and legacy of…

In a symphony of horns and beeps, cars, buses and motorcycles bullet past the populated Springfields apartment complex, the enormous Wipro campus, and the multitude of schools that dot the famous Sarjapur Road. It turns from a mellow street at night into a hub of pandemonium we witness during the day. Narrow and long, it stretches on for kilometers, providing access to thousands of residential complexes and immense corporate offices. Smaller streets branch out of the main spine of Sarjapur Road like tributaries, spreading to Electronic City and Marathahalli. As it trails away from Bangalore city, it dissolves into the…

What does a typical day in Bangalore feel like? One can’t help but think of the traffic, the potholes, the never-ending garbage crisis and the rampant corruption. But there are lovely things about the city too - the trees, the lakes, the melting pot of people from all over, the weather, the work culture... the list is endless. For many old-timers, as well as folks migrating to the city, Bangalore seems to be a near-perfect city. Bangalore is also the state capital, and houses most of the administrative wing of the state. It also has its own municipality - the…

View of the Somanathapura temple from the porch entrance. Pic: Wikimedia Commons The temple at Somanathapura took 58 years to build with 500 sculptors ceaselessly working on it. A true work of art, the Gods come alive in the stones of Somanathapura.  The stone figurines speak to you, be it is the ornately carved temple ceilings, the intricately carved pillars or the heavily sculpted star shaped Trikuta style temple of Somanathapura.  Somanathapura as the name suggests, is not a Shiva temple; it is a famous Hoysala styled Keshava temple. A brief history The temple was constructed in 1268 AD by commander…

Pic: Huda Jaffer Drum beats and illuminating LED bulbs powered by the sun... do they have anything in common? Naah, nothing! Ponder over it for a minute. How are drums made? The typical response would be that the workers gather raw materials, add their labour and voila, the drums are ready.  Here we have workers who actually make drums under light bulbs powered by solar panels. Isn’t that exciting? Eco-friendly drums! A 500 year old craft In Thannisandra, a locality of Bengaluru, there is a small community of Mirasis living under the roof of tarpaulin tents. The Mirasis are a…

                                  A young tree lover at Neralu. Pic credit: Suchi Govindarajan   NERALU, the crowd-funded 2-day Urban Tree Festival concluded at Cubbon Park on Sunday, the 9th of February 2014. Citizens of all ages participated enthusiastically in tree walks, and appreciated the specially curated movies and the display of Rumale Chennabasavaiah’s paintings of Bengaluru’s trees. Visitors listened to a range of talks by noted naturalists, ornithologists, and Urban Ecology experts. Children learnt about trees and their importance through a range of experiential activities such as…

Come 8 and 9 February, Bangalore will play host to Neralu, a citizen-led Urban Tree Festival. The first of its kind in the city, and probably in the country, Neralu will bring together ecologists, artists, researchers, technologists, homemakers, professionals, adults and children in dialogue, to celebrate the spirit of Bangalore, its rich natural heritage and its trees. The event promises to have something in store for everybody and will feature a multitude of visual and experiential activities; walks, workshops, story-telling sessions, art exhibitions, movie screenings, children's activities - there’s plenty to choose from. You can have a look at the event schedule here. …

In September last year (2013), I quite fortuitously ran into a group of excited Bangaloreans who had begun discussing doing something around the trees of the city. This is where we began conversations about a possible tree festival for Bangalore. Anush, Arpana, Sangeetha, Uma, Mallik, Jahnavi and I met at Airlines hotel one evening. Janhavi Pai, a researcher friend had told me that these folks were interested in Bangalore’s trees and their stories and were discussing various ways to expand and share their experience. It almost seemed like a call and a dream come true. For over 8 years now,…

It is a known fact that areas like Malleswaram and Basavanagudi play a significant role in shaping the city's love for classical music. Other than Indian Heritage Academy in Koramangala and BTM Cultural Academy, there are very few places easily accessible to classical music fans living in South-East Bangalore. Ranjani Fine Arts (RFA), a non-profit charitable trust, has stepped in to bridge this gap. ‘Enable, Educate, Access,' are quite possibly the words that define Ranjani Fine Arts’ raison d'etre. Ranjani Fine Arts (RFA) has for the past two years, been nurturing and developing the cultural landscape in the Sarjapur Road - Outer Ring…

Though the recent release of her latest novel, Ghost Hunters of Kurseong, a children’s book, has kept Shweta Taneja  busy, she was kind enough to take time off her busy schedule to spend some time answering a few questions and discussing her inspirations, writing and her new book.Growing up in Delhi, surrounded by a large and loving family, she had a penchant for narrating scary stories to her cousins on nights, especially on those nights ravaged by storms, when the electricity flickered out. Excerpts from the interview: Q. How did you get into writing? Is this something you’ve always known…