GENRE: Features

For Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu, the urge to give back to his roots was unrelenting. And that's what led to the founding of his initiative KisanRajaFRESH, that delivers fresh fruit, procured directly from farmers, to homes and offices. This, he feels, will help both the cultivator of the fruit and its end consumer - the consumer will pay less than he presently does and despite this, the farmer will earn more. Fresh fruit, straight from the farmer A chemical engineer with a post graduate degree in computer science from IIT Madras, Dinnepu embarked on this enterprise as a natural extension…

With a large number of international schools thriving on the fringes of the city, Bangalore could well emerge as the school destination not only for those who are looking for a global flavour in schooling but also for many across the globe aspiring for quality education. These schools not only take pride in their world class infrastructure, they actually give competition to legacy schools like Sophia, Baldwin, Bishop Cotton, and Cathedral. International Schools such as The International School Bangalore (TISB), Treamis World School, Ryan International School are usually spread over 2 to 7 acres of land. "Schools are coming up…

"I am so glad I share a blooming passion with Tipu Sultan!" exclaims one of Bangalore's top florists Dr Norma Prabhu, while browsing through the blossoms at the city's Republic Day Flower Show 2013 in Lalbagh. A homeopathic doctor, Norma also devotes a lot of time to her flower retail outlet Simply Elegant and is a well-known name when it comes to marriage hall decorations across Bangalore. Her beautiful arrangements are partly fed with flowers that she farms herself. And just as her regal idol over 200 years earlier, she harbours an overwhelming affinity for flowers and a widespread knowledge…

Cartoon by Rohan Chakravarty. Bird Race time again! Or to be more precise,The HSBC Bangalore Bird Race is what it's known to the wise.As soon as the registration was declared open,Thirty-six teams registered, every person hopingThat he or she would be the one to sight so many birdsThat "You're the best!" would be the judges' appreciative words.The Bird Race team consisted of a lot of names with S's...Srihari, Subbu, Sunjoy, Swarna..to sort out all the messesAnd successfully stage the event.Thanks to their work, it all wentSmoothly, with sponsorship from HSBC...A day of being in the open air, sighting birds happily.One…

Aruna Chandrasekhar's phone hasn't stopped ringing since Tuesday evening. Her desperate call for relief for people at Ejipura had actually reached a significant number of people. This, thanks to involved citizens reaching out through their personal and social networks.Aruna, in her twenties, is a freelance photographer and writer has long been involved in social activism, particularly in environmental and mining-related issues. On the morning of January 18th, her friend and activist Kaveri Indira Rajaraman, a post-doctoral fellow at the Indian Institute of Science, called her. Kaveri has been fighting for the rights of those residing in Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker…

"If someone's looking for Salman Rushdie's Sea of Stories, sail to White Field," I heard a fellow bookworm tell me. So I wiggled out of a dying week and curiously headed out for a truly enlivening time. Over the past weekend, Bangalore was treated to a journey into the literary mind. Novelists, playwrights, short-story authors, poets, lyricists, journalists and droves of word-junkies converged at White Field's Jagriti theatre for the Lit-Fest Lekhana.  After readings of their Indian-language poetry, Indian Ensemble Theatre's Abhishek Majumdar and Sandeep Shikar, chat with their listeners. Pic: Jatin Prabhu From January 18th through 20th, this popular…

After the disappointing 7 Khoon Maaf, Vishal Bharadwaj makes amends with Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola. With this film, Vishal Bharadwaj lives up to his previous cinematic work that includes Ishqiya, Kaminey, Omkara, Blue Umbrella, Maqbool and Makdee. But the subtle humour that we saw in earlier work like Ishqiya and Kaminey now moves into a fullblown political sattire. It's a new genre for Bharadwaj, and he makes the transition gracefully. When Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola works, it does so because it is a film that runs at many levels. At a most basic analysis, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka…

Mother and father are discussing family matters. They deplore the mischief of their two boys, and also express wry amusement at the younger one's original thinking, that lies behind the mischief. However, the father predicts that this boy will leave footprints on the sands of time, and go on to become famous. Almost a scene played out in every home, one may feel...but it was, actually, a scene from a play on Tipu Sultan, by the late Dina Mehta, who was an award-winning playwright and Fiction Editor at the Illustrated Weekly of India. The father in question in this play…

It's been my experience that when re-introducing people to Nature, two kinds of instruction are necessary. I call the process a re-introduction, because all of us are part of Nature; it's only that in the rush and stress of urban life, many of us lose touch with the environment that we were created in. We are fortunate to have Bannerghatta forest at our doorstep, with so much scenic beauty! Here's a photo of a pond near the Bannerghatta Zoo: Kingfisher Pond in the Bannerghatta Zoo area. Pic: Deepa Mohan On one hand, I feel strongly that a hands-on approach works…

Noel and Lindsey are good hospitable souls. When a troupe of 10 of us landed up at their house this Sunday, December 22nd, they welcomed us warmly into their beautifully decorated Christmas home. We gorged on Marzipan, rose cookies and kul kuls, sipped mint flavoured lemonade and admired their Christmas tree decorations. A quiet house tucked into a corner of the heart of the city, it is graced by one of the tallest Christmas trees I had ever seen. The lovely Christmas decoration at the Noels' house. Pic: Rajeev R We were a bunch of people part of a Christmas…