Column: Radio Active Bangalore

Bengaluru has many NGOs working on social sectors, and HIV affected community is one of the sectors of focus. Leelavathi, the vice-president of Arunodaya NGO explains what NGOs are doing for HIV communities. She also talks about dealing with tuberculosis in HIV affected people, and the care to be taken, diagnosis, treatment, medication and related issues.

Food is something that connects easily with everyone. Manorama Joshi spreaks about Malnad cusine and their effort to get people in Bengaluru to sample their cusine during the Malnad Mela for the past 10 years.

Part-time fashion consultant and drag performer Jabez Kelly speaks about being gay, artistic and loving heels. He shares about the challenges and harassment he has faced while in college, and how he has dealt with them. He further talks about how he has grown as an individual and how he is eagerly looking forward to an upcoming visit to Australia.

Bengaluru has a vibrant community of sexual minorities, and has caught the attention of the mainstream 'society' through the  Director Suhas and the actors Suhas and Chandrasekhar speak about thier short filim about sexual minorities.

Storytelling by Vikram Sridhar. Pic: Neralu FB page Save the Tree - Street Play 'Kallada' A theatre troupe based out of Bengaluru put on a Street Play on Day 1 of Neralu. The play was in Kannada, and spoke about motivating people to be concerned about the preservation of trees around them by humorously painting trees as an entity capable of producing wi-fi - maybe only then people will take the initiative to preserve trees. Festival of Stories As part of activities for Day 1 of Neralu, storyteller Vikram Sridhar regaled children with a story about how to protect our…

This Phoenix Rising is a tribute to all women rising, across the world! Rising to Resist, Rising to Change, Rising to Express, Rising to Transform, Rising to Celebrate! Listen to women present poems on Rising in Solidarity. As Audre Lorde said, “For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is the vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we give name to the nameless so it…

In a world increasingly beset with conflicts and the use of violence as the means to resolve these conflicts, Gandhian nonviolence continues to renew and offer relevant and sustainable alternatives. “BeyondThresholds of Conflict”, an International Film Festival on Peace, brings together path breaking films from around the world, that celebrate women’s immensely significant role in nonviolent conflict resolution in their own diverse, and often complicated contexts within their families, communities and countries. This two-day film festival is the travelling edition of the Peace Builders International Film Festival held in New Delhi in Oct’16. The festival will showcase documentaries, animation and…

Women from Ambedker Colony, Ullal Upanagar (A suburb in south west Bengaluru) talk about the problems associated with their Ration cards. Their problems relate mostly to ad hoc cancellation of the Ration Cards and non issue of houshold rations from active ration cards. Sometimes they have to go to a designated ration shop far away from their homes, to collect thier rations and involves travel cost and time away from work.

Ravindra Kalakeshtra, the cultural centre in the heart of Bengaluru was opened in 1963 to commemorate the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in 1961. Listen to one of the performances on the occasion of celebration of 50 years of Ravindra Kalakeshtra.

Dr Shekar Sheshadri talks about the POSCO act and child abuse at the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Asia Speciifc Conferance 2016, organised by Department of Psychiatry MVJMC and RH Nimanhs and IPS Karnataka Chapter.