EVENTS

Common Purpose, sponsored by Comic Relief, is running an online crowd sourcing challenge to explore how we can increase civic engagement in Bengaluru. The Common Purpose Challenge, which is also running in Manchester, United Kingdom is asking residents of both cities to work together to generate new ideas that will increase civic engagement. The winning ideas will be presented to a distinguished panel led by Academy Award winner David Puttnam, and including Director General of Police, Karnataka, MN Reddi and Trustee of Bangalore Little Theatre, Vijay Padaki. The challenge is hosted online through Crowdicity, an innovative crowd sourcing platform. Residents…

Bengaluru has over 200 churches and some of them date to even a couple of centuries old. Locals and tourists alike are drawn to these majestic old houses of prayer. While some seek it to find solace, some others pay a visit to simply take in the grandeur of these buildings. And come Christmas, one can be sure to find these churches lit up, thronging with crowds who have come to attend mass or just to take in the spirit of the festival. There are several organisations like INTACH, Bengaluru Walks, Unhurried, Bengaluru By Foot and others that take you…

When I was a kid, every so often, something in the house would go kaput, many a time, because my brother or I felt the need to meddle with it. Living in a remote area in the Nilgiris meant that we would have to wait to get it fixed till we travelled to town. My father would try disassembling and assembling to fix that VCR or whatever small item that was acting up. The times have changed though. But in a changing environment, where people don't have the time to go to a service centre or more often, find nobody…

Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF), the flagship literary event on the cultural calendar of Bangalore city, is all set to roll out its fourth edition on December 5th and 6th 2015 at Hotel Royal Orchid, Old Airport Road. The BLF has emerged as the second largest literary conclave in the country that brings the best of minds in the world of literature to Bengaluru. Building on the success of the earlier editions, this time the festival brings together nearly a hundred stalwarts from the world of literature, in various languages, both from India and abroad. Subodh Sankar, Vikram Sampath and Shinie Antony…

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time - Thomas Merton Bengaluru is teeming with artists of every kind. For the visual arts, there are several great places that showcase diverse works by artists - featuring both Bengalureans and out-of-towners! National Gallery of Modern Art The National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru was opened to the public in February 2009 at the Manikyavelu Mansion at 49 Palace Road, Bengaluru. The gracious heritage building, previously a residence, transformed into an art gallery with plenty of space for displays  - both for its permanent collection and the periodic…

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling on engineers, designers, the scientific and innovation community, persons with disabilities, humanitarians, manufacturers, investors and entrepreneurs to join forces in the ‘Enable Makeathon’ to develop affordable solutions for challenges faced by persons with disabilities in rural areas. Image source: Nihal Kashinath, IoTBLR The Enable Makeathon is a 60-day programme taking place between November 2015 and January 2016. It consists of an ‘Online Track’ for teams from all around the world, and an ‘Onsite Track’ with a series of events in Bengaluru. Teams will work towards finding innovative solutions to nine…

Another evening, another Ganesha procession passing by to get to the Mallathahalli tank. It has been more than a month since the Ganesha festival, but the sounds of passing processions—typically a tractor with a massive Ganesha, surrounded by hooting teenage boys, drums in front and more boys (younger and teens) dancing around it—is still not unusual. One of the perks of living close to a lake, I guess. If there are still idols being dumped in the lake, wonder what the situation would have been over the month. The area for dumping is a small pond cut out from the…

Bengaluru. Snarling morning office traffic. A population of 10 million jostling for space. Boring office, same old chores. Two million working executives struggling for breath. Snail-paced late evening traffic back home. No small wonder that three-fourths of the respondents in a recent survey commented that they are deeply demotivated; They are not stimulated enough, either in their personal or professional lives. We could relate to these boring data points without too much difficulty – because we are part of Bangalore too, and we are going through the same rigmarole. Based on the idea that was thrown up by Benedict Paramanand,…

For the past two years, a group of people have gathered together during Daan Utsav (India's Joy of Giving week) to camp out under the stars. This is so they can experience, to a tiny degree, the realities of homelessness for thousands of people in Bangalore, and million others in India. In 2015, Under the Stars is being held at Indiranagar Club on October 2nd.  What is Under the Stars? Under the Stars is a collaborative platform for NGOs to raise funds and awareness about homelessness. It is a overnight sleep-out in Bengaluru on the night of October 1st and is the first…