ARTS and CULTURE

It is always pleasant to go to a play which is for children, and even more so when it is being staged to celebrate something good. In this case, it was the play, "Robi's Garden", which was an original play by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC).BLT was founded in 1960, and is the city's oldest theatre society. In 2006, BLT set up a separate Academy of Theatre Arts. BLT has a strong programme for children's theatre, and usually stages a major production every year in the August/September period.…

In 1892, Whitefield was the only settlement in India that European and Eurasians could call their own. Old chronicles narrate that David Emmanuel Starkenburgh White decided to set up setttlement on a donation of land from the Maharajah of Mysore as a ‘self sufficient Anglo-Indian village’, where everyone worked for ‘the common good’. More than a century later, across a landscape where flashy malls and exclusive gated communities abound, Whitefield is home to the offices of multinational corporations like IBM, Hewlett Packard, SAP Labs, Dell, Cap Gemini, Oracle, GE Medical Systems, ABB and Unilever. Whitefield Diaries is screening again on September 24th at…

The Joy of Giving Week is a national movement that hopes to engage every Indian in "acts of giving" - money, time, skills, resources or love. To be celebrated every year for a week including Oct 2, the week aspires to become a "festival" of giving that unifies India across its classes, castes, socio-economic strata and the urban/rural divide. This year the week is celebrated from Oct 2nd to Oct 8th, 2011. As part of one of the programmes conceived for this year, there will be fund raising dinner with a musical concert by singer M D Pallavi at the…

Whitefield Diaries Screening followed by panel discussion Sep 10th, 2011 6-7.30pm Whitefield Club, Bangalore Map to location All are welcome A series of six short films, titled Whitefield Diaries is being screened a special event on September 10th, 6-7.30pm, at the Whitefield Club. The films capture the transformation of Whitefield from its origins in the 1880s to the present day, especially more recently, with rapid urbanisation. The famous inner circle and outer circle of Whitefield, and the Waverly Inn where Winston Churchill stayed are covered in the films. Whitefield is tucked within the great triangle between KR Puram, Marathahalli and…

A group of like-minded individuals some curious, some creatively inclined and some very talented assembled at PageTurners Bookstore, MG Road on Saturday, September 3, for a popular event called the Open Show. I probably belong to the category of the curious and creatively inclined and couldn't wait to check it out. Open Show organises events around the world where the public can see compelling work and interact directly with photographers, filmmakers and multimedia producers. Free monthly social screenings give five curated presenters (from students to professionals) 10 minutes to project a 20 image project or 3‐7 min. multimedia work with…

"It can be presented as a speeding arrow reaching its target or as an intimate conversation between spouses." That's how R Visweswaran, veena maestro from Mysore describes naya or the rakthi raga Begada in his talk, "Classification of ragas as Ghana, Naya and Deshya ragas." He was speaking at  Shabda  an unusual performing arts event held recently at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja in Chamarajapet, recently. Shabda came into being when three carnatic musicians T M Krishna, H K Venkatram and R K Shriram Kumar met at the Music Academy canteen last December in Chennai. While T M Krishna and R…

The students of MES College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Malleshwaram, led a very spirited march called the ‘ECO-Ganesha awareness campaign' on Sunday August 28th around the Malleshwaram to raise awareness about the pollution problems associated with immersion of painted Ganeshas made from plaster of paris. Marching for a cause. Pic: Suja Sukumaran They set out into the streets with banners, posters, pamphlets and a street play bound to entertain and educate the public regarding the merits of using clay Ganesha idols instead of painted ones. Every year hundreds of Ganeshas are immersed in the lakes all over Bangalore. Along…

As I walked past the market a week before Ganesha chaturthi, a wayside seller was bringing out from his shed large idols that he had not been able to sell the previous year, and was ‘touching up' the paint, to put it on sale again. He had a few more ‘leftovers', large and small, inside the shed, waiting to be ‘recycled'. I chatted him up, and got confirmation that these were indeed ‘leftovers'. File pic: Siri Srinivas When I was a child, each family fashioned its own clay images of Ganesha, with the children of the household enthusiastically fetching some…

When I knew that Ranga Shankara was premiering a play under their AHA! banner, which promotes theatre for children, I was very keen to attend the first show, and I did so, on the 11th of August, 2011. AHA! is Ranga Shankara's Theatre for Children programme in association with Britannia Industries Ltd., "Dhaam Dhoom Suntaragaali", in Kannada, is a play based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, adapted by T Vaidehi. It  is directed by directed by Jeevan Ram Sulya and is in association with the troupe "Natana" of Mysore. Designed especially for children, the play takes children on a wonderful journey…

Unnati Center will reverbrate with heavenly music from renowned artists and their excellent accompanists as part of Utsav, from August 6th - 26th. This cultural event is organised around Gokulashtami/ Janmashtami every year. Around 75 musicians, 16 concerts, one lecture-demo, three days of Bhajans and four days of discourses will jump start the musical event. A lot of meticulous planning and arrangements have gone into this mela. Unni Krishnan performing on the weekend. Pic : SGBS The musical festival was kicked off on the weekend with concerts from the sisters Shanmughapriya and Haripriya and Unnikrishnan P. "For 34 years we…