Blogs

On 13th April, a sunny Monday, we (PNLIT trustees) saw water entering Puttenahalli Lake from the rainwater diversion channel at the lake entrance near the Brigade Millennium arch. It was so little that we thought it to be the usual wash from the adjacent MLR Convention Centre.    However, a couple of days later when we found it increasing in volume and forming a black stinking mass in front of the diversion channel at the lake bed, we immediately informed BWSSB and BBMP. BWSSB's Junior Engineer, Mr. Nagaraj came to inspect the spot. He said that the sewage drain connected to…

Krishna Murthy, whose email id is flutekick@gmail.com writes: This incident happened today at Hebbal lake. We went birding today to Hebbal lake in the morning at 7 30 am. I had parked my car just outside on the road (service road) near the lake entrance, (as the parking lot opens only by 9 30 am). I had taken my camera with me and I had left the bag in the car back seat. We returned by 9 30 am and found that the car glass was broken and the bag taken. The bag had lot of camera accessories.   Fellow birders and…

Bengali plays are not very common at Ranga Shankara, so I was quite keen to watch this Badal Sircar play, produced by Centre for Film and Drama (CFD), and directed by Nilanjan  P Choudhry.   For this play, a neat brochure had been prepared by CFD  and the write up described it as a "fast-paced comedy".   Bogota(sic) Charit Manas depicts the journey of a young orphan, whose naivety and lack of self-esteem leads him to be bullied at every turn. Driven to the brink of suicide at the prospect  of having to become a "ghar jamai" at his maternal…

I recently read that Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) may soon be taking over the bus stops from Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).   When bus stops and shelters seem to have so much of space to spare for advertisements, why is it not mandatory for every bus shelter to have the route numbers of the buses that stop there?  Why is this essential information missing?   Also, there are so many places (eg in Gandhi Bazar in Basavanagudi) where it is not even clear where the bus stop is. Hunting for one on my way back from the Basavanagudi…

I thought it was difficult to write a review of a play I liked very much; I did not want to sound as if the theatre group had sponsored my review!But alas, the difficulty of that task is nothing compared to that of writing a review for a play that left me completely cold. Whatever the impression the play has on a member of the audience....the fact remains that a lot of effort and time has been invested in the production. For this reason alone I would like to find some positives in any play that I watch, and write…

Occasionally, instead of a light-hearted evening of theatre, one gets a  powerful, thought-provoking play to watch. My friend Shangon and I braved the rain to go and watch Michael Freyn's play, "Copenhagen" which was being produced by Centre for Film and Drama. I had not read up about the play, or watched it before.There can be no better synopsis than the online one that Ranga Shankara has on its online schedule:"Frayn's play, Copenhagen, speculates what might have transpired during a meeting between Nobel laureates Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in September 1941, at the height of the German…

Theatre Professionals, a part of the  Drama School, Mumbai, staged "The Dragon", translated from the Soviet author and playwright, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Shvarts">  Evgeny Shvarts </a>This  is a play written in 1944.. The excellent translation, bringing the action forward to a contemporary time, was done by  Harsh Khurana.As a reviewer, I usually watch the first show.  This time, for a change, I decided to watch the last one, and see how the successive stagings had honed the production values.A film of the play was made in 1988. I thought it would be interesting to watch how germane the concepts of totalitarianism, first…

Today two young teachers who work at Indira Priyadarshini School in J P Nagar came over to conduct a caste census. Amongst other things, I was asked what caste I belong to, and what sub-sect of that caste I belong to! I cannot understand either the reason or the goal of a caste census. We are officially supposed to have left caste behind several decades ago. So why is a caste census being done?  There still is so much opacity about these enumerations undertaken by the Government, using public money. If my mother was a Christian, and my father a…

Cycle Days that are periodically organised in different parts of Bangalore are so much fun! Cycle Day is an open streets event conducted by Bengaluru Coalition of Open Streets (BCOS) with support from local partners and organizations like Bangalore Police (Traffic and Law&Order), BBMP and others. The area around Allalasandra Lake, Yelahanka that hosted Cycle Day on 12th April 2015 saw a few thousand citizens take to the streets on their bicycles (and feet!). Among them were the local Yelahanka MLA Yelahanka MLA Mr S.R. Vishwanath, BBMP Ward 4 Corporator Mr Muniraju, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Directors Mr Kaveriappa and…

A blind adherence to regulations today made a bank manager give a suggestion that was, at the very least, inappropriate.Let me recount how this came about.My maid, before she came to work for me, opened a savings account. Not being aware of the options, and being barely literate, she slowly wrote her name on the specimen-signature card. She then realized that she would have to sign exactly the same way whenever she wanted to withdraw money; so she started worrying about not being able to.She therefore requested me to come with her to the bank, and ask them to change…