ARTS and CULTURE

This is a son’s tribute to a great lady who would have been 100 years old this year- a well known social worker of Bangalore in the last century. Jayalakshamma was born in Hassan 100 years ago, the youngest in a family of four. She was pretty, dark and short. At the age of 12, she was married off to an idealistic youth, P R Ramiaya who had run away from Mysore to Benares when he was in school. He was about to complete his Master’s in Chemistry when the pied piper from Porbandar called upon the youth of the…

Urban Changes photo exhibition, 19th August 2008. Pic: Deepa Mohan.If any city can claim to have changed drastically in the past few years, it will surely be Bangalore. The city’s constantly changing skyline speaks volumes for the social and economic changes that have seen Bangalore morph from a pensioner’s paradise to India’s IT capital. It was thus fascinating to see the photographs at the ‘Urban Changes’ exhibition which captured the spirit of a redefined city, among others. Organised by Max Mueller Bhavan at IndiraNagar, at the culmination of the Bangalore Walks programmes of Bangalore City Project, the exhibition highlighted the…

Called Kalpavriksha (‘the wish-fulfilling tree’) in Sanskrit (and also Ashwattha Vriksha), the Banyan tree is given a holy status in our culture, with Lord Krishna himself declaring “Among trees, I am the Ashwattha” in the Bhagavad Gita. In India, it is revered as a holy tree that enhances fertility. The Banyan symbolises eternal life due to its ability to support the extending canopy by its prop roots. Big Banyan Tree (Pic: Poornima Dasharathi)The word ‘Banyan’ is said to be derived from the word ‘Bania’, referring to the Indian traders who used to conduct their everyday business under the shade of…

‘.. in a democracy such as ours, people make their own meanings of urban space, in both physical-material and mental-imaginative ways.’ ‘…negotiations contribute to the production of space in the city and any understanding in the changes of urban morphology goes well beyond, or below, the two dimensionality of the map.’– Janaki Nair, in The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore’s Twentieth Century.The Bangalore City Corporation (1949) is the result of a union between Bangalore City (the present old city area or pete which was founded in the 16th century) and Cantonment (which was established in the 20th century under the…

‘Kote Katti Merdavrella Yenadaru?’ (‘What became of those famous persons who established forts?’) – lines of a popular yesteryear Kannada film song rang in my mind as I glided on the smooth Bellary road towards Devanahalli. Much as I tried to throw it out, the ditty rang louder and I was on the verge of humming it aloud. To my relief, I reached Devanahalli town limits. Tipu Sultan's birthplace. Pic: PD.As you enter the town from Bellary Road, one has to take the first left to reach the fort. Alternatively, cruise down a kilometre ahead on Bellary Road and take…

The Udayabhanu Kala Sangha located in Kempegowda Nagar (Basavangudi) is a volunteer-based literary, cultural and social organisation. Founded in 1965 by L Venkatappa and M Narasimha (who also serves as secretary), the 43-year-old organisation had its beginnings in a small reading room. Says Founder-Secretary M Narasimha, “The Sangha started in a small 10X10 rented space, as a public reading room that stocked works of renowned Kannada litterateurs.” Some of these writers like Dr U R Ananthamurthy and Professor Vinayaka Krishna Gokak went on to become future Jnanapeeth awardees and regular contributors to the Sangha’s innumerable publications. Secretary M Narasimha. Pic:…

Colville's Glory is one of the many picture perfect trees in Lalbagh. The tree is named after Sir Charles Colville who was Army Commander-in-chief in Bombay from 1819 to 1825 and subsequently Governor of Mauritius from 1828 to 1834. Colville's Glory tree Pic: MS. Colville's Glory flowers. Pic: MS. Squirrel on flowers of Colville's Glory. Pic: MS. Bojer, an Austrian Botanist, first found a single cultivated tree in 1824 in Madagascar when he mounted a specimen collecting expedition from Mauritius. Further, he described, in 1829, the flamboyant (Delonix regia or Gulmohur) which also he found in Madagascar. Eight of the…

An unremarkable, crumbling old house in a calm corner of Basavangudi is the venue for unusual artistic performances. Every Sunday evening, the spooky house opens for an hour long performance of Rasaloka, a novel classical theatre in miniature art form. Ganga River descending from Sky (pic: Monideepa Sahu) Artist Deepika Dorai of Bimba the Art Hut has recreated with her own hands a miniature rendering of a cosmic moment frozen in time. Since the past three years, she has added the storytelling element in a formalized theatre like setting to bring the special moment to life. "I want to share…

When I went to college to study Computer Science at BITS, Pilani, located in a remote village of Rajasthan, I never expected the remoteness of the place to exceed the extent of not having a cinema hall. How could we sustain an existence of 4 years without the staple Indian diet of bollywood movies? Thankfully BITS fostered a strong sense of multi-cultural living, in addition to of-course studying computer science. So enough and more emphasis was laid on participating in variety of activities like college fests, theatre, photography, dance, music etc. through the form of various clubs. Inherit the Wind…

I have lived in Bangalore for most of my life. But if you quiz me on anything related to Fraser Town or Cox Town, I would go blank. And yet Bangalore is my home. Home to me was speaking in Kannada, eating South Indian food and visiting the temples (on the eve of exams). And Cantonment? It was as alien to me as London or New York was. The only parts of Cantonment (also called Cantt) area where people from the pete (city) went to were M G Road and Brigade Road. We went to watch English movies at Rex…