CITIZEN JOURNALISM

The birth centenery of Prof.V T Srinivasan, who was one of the founders of Bangalore High School and Vijaya College falls in the year 2012. Prof. V T Srinivasan was born in the year 1912. His ancestors hailed from Vengalathur, North Arcot District and the place is located near Kanchipuram. His father was V T Ekambarem, who served as a Tahsildar in Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh and his mother was Kamakshi. He studied in Madras Christian College and in Annamalai University.Along with K Srinivasa Rao and K Lakshminarayana Rao, Srinivasan started The Bangalore High School, which soon became well known for…

Last night, I was returning from the house of a friend. We were a group of six, and all sober. We realised that a few in our group were hungry, and headed to Paramount in Koramangala for dinner. The time was around midnight, and the cops were at the door ensuring that no impressionable, upright citizen was enticed into the den of vice.. Oh sorry, they serve only food! The moral indignation of the police was to be seen to be believed. I understand the concern behind having bars/pubs open late. But I cannot for the life of me understand…

Saturday, November 14th 2009 saw a different kind of Children's day event in Jayanagar. Kids were not dressed as Nehru or Indira Gandhi and were not singing or dancing. Instead, they all came out on their cycles and demanded safer roads for cycling to school.About 200 students from various schools in Jayanagar, including MES school, Good Shepherd school, JSS school, Vijaya school were joined by Transport Minister R Ashoka, Jayanagar, MLA B N Vijayakumar and film actor Pooja Gandhi in a cycle rally. Justice Saldanha also spoke on  rights of children in roads and urban spaces. On Children's day around…

Life throws pleasant surprises along the way when you least expect it. Until Friday afternoon I hadn’t really planned on attending the launch of Yt’angle (Yours Truly angle for children by the theatre group Yours Truly). But one thing led to another and me, a reluctant theatre enthusiast jumped at the chance of introducing my children to theatre. They were not entirely enthusiastic about this last minute Saturday program to go watch a play when they could be home with video games and television. The chock-a-bloc traffic and losing our way to JC Road didn’t help either. But we reached…

This year's Bangalore Book Festival was neither better nor worse than usual, which is to say that it mainly offered the advantages of visiting a number of more or less ordinary bookstores in a single venue. I am always on the look-out for translations of literature from different countries and regions into English, but if this was a focus area at the Festival, it was not evident to me in the few hours I spent there. By and large, apart from the special focus sections on Kannada literature, the exhibitors had the usual run of the mill fare you find…

Some weeks ago I was driving my red Omni car through the Richmond Town area, heading towards Domlur. I needed to turn right at Johnson Market-Hosur Road towards Austin Town. It was close to noon and traffic is often sparse at that time of day. The light was green and I followed the other moving vehicles. Suddenly, the traffic from the other side started moving. It was then apparent that the light had turned red for us and I had failed to stop. I managed to avoid the oncoming vehicles and complete the turn into the right lane, only to…

Glass House in the Rain. Pic: Srikanth A P.Ducks in the drizzle. Pic: Srikanth A P.Just drizzled. Pic: Srikanth A P.Something hot. Pic: Srikanth A P.Dining table of Lalbagh. Pic: Srikanth A P.State Central Library in Cubbon Park. Pic: Srikanth A P.‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); ⊕

Hampi – this word alone is enough to bring to mind pictures of grandeur, vastness, architecture, history and  destruction. The magnificant scenes of Hampi were captured  in more than 30 paintings by artist Ganesh P Doddamani. The paintings were on display and sale at Chitrakala Parishat last week. Artist Doddamani with his paintings of Hampi. Pic: Deepa Vaishnavi. Ganesh Doddamani, a native of Ramdurg Village in Belgaum, hails from a family of artists. He first began painting when he was around 12 years of age and further honed his skill in Shantiniketan, West Bengal. The peace and  tranquility there led…

That Bangalore is fast gaining recognition (long overdue, some may argue) as a hub for art related activities was further reinforced when ‘Art Etc’, a magazine of contemporary art and culture, published by Emami Chisel Art, Kolkata, was released at Chitrakala Parishat on  November 4th 2009.Dr Annapurna Garimella, art historian specialising in India, released the magazine. While addressing the gathering, she spoke about the importance of art journalism. She also spoke about the history of art journalism in India and mentioned about the trends in it during the colonial period and post independence (which saw the rewriting of Indian history…

Every once in a while things fall in place. The volunteers turn up, the media opens its ears, the funding starts flowing in and the world sits up and take notice. Every once in a while, strangers who have no obligation or responsibility step up and make that tiny dent in the universe. 350 formation by cyclists. Pic courtesy: Sohan Maheshwar. This Oct 24th, Bangalore was witness to one such event. Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) in association with a 17* government and non-government organisations pulled off a successful international day of climate action. The activities carried out on the…