GENRE: Features

"Double Road nalli jaaga yellide", (where is the space on double road?) I quizzed my friend on the phone. As the soon as the words came out, the question's literal meaning immediately dawned; I was grinning as I entered the busy KH road (or double road as we still call it). Luckily my friend knew of ‘Jaaga' and gave directions. The new ‘Jaaga' is bang on KH road, opposite Corporation Bank and lurking from behind a bus stop; a huge space with some iron constructions. Aarti Mohan, one of the organisers & co-founders of the Alternative, a magazine that covers…

Eugene Ionesco, a Romanian/French playwright, was one of the pioneers of the Theatre of the Absurd, along with such playwrights as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter. Since he uses gibberish and parody and, sometimes, non sequitors (Latin for "it does not follow." It is most often used as a noun to describe illogical statements) as the basis of his plays, it was a fairly difficult task for the group to stage the play. In "The Bald Soprano", too, one has to use the words "allegedly" and "apparently" very often. The excellent brochure that  Little Jasmine, the theatre group…

It is always pleasant to go to a play which is for children, and even more so when it is being staged to celebrate something good. In this case, it was the play, "Robi's Garden", which was an original play by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC).BLT was founded in 1960, and is the city's oldest theatre society. In 2006, BLT set up a separate Academy of Theatre Arts. BLT has a strong programme for children's theatre, and usually stages a major production every year in the August/September period.…

In 1892, Whitefield was the only settlement in India that European and Eurasians could call their own. Old chronicles narrate that David Emmanuel Starkenburgh White decided to set up setttlement on a donation of land from the Maharajah of Mysore as a ‘self sufficient Anglo-Indian village’, where everyone worked for ‘the common good’. More than a century later, across a landscape where flashy malls and exclusive gated communities abound, Whitefield is home to the offices of multinational corporations like IBM, Hewlett Packard, SAP Labs, Dell, Cap Gemini, Oracle, GE Medical Systems, ABB and Unilever. Whitefield Diaries is screening again on September 24th at…

A group of like-minded individuals some curious, some creatively inclined and some very talented assembled at PageTurners Bookstore, MG Road on Saturday, September 3, for a popular event called the Open Show. I probably belong to the category of the curious and creatively inclined and couldn't wait to check it out. Open Show organises events around the world where the public can see compelling work and interact directly with photographers, filmmakers and multimedia producers. Free monthly social screenings give five curated presenters (from students to professionals) 10 minutes to project a 20 image project or 3‐7 min. multimedia work with…

"It can be presented as a speeding arrow reaching its target or as an intimate conversation between spouses." That's how R Visweswaran, veena maestro from Mysore describes naya or the rakthi raga Begada in his talk, "Classification of ragas as Ghana, Naya and Deshya ragas." He was speaking at  Shabda  an unusual performing arts event held recently at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja in Chamarajapet, recently. Shabda came into being when three carnatic musicians T M Krishna, H K Venkatram and R K Shriram Kumar met at the Music Academy canteen last December in Chennai. While T M Krishna and R…

It is always difficult to deal with the subject of a person who has passed away very recently. One is always worried that the perspective of time and distance may be lacking...so any work dealing with such a person is something very interesting and intriguing. It was with this spirit that I went to watch “Amrita, A Sublime Love Story”, produced by K K Kohli, staged by Impresario Asia, a troupe from New Delhi, at Rangashankara.In this production,  M S Sathyu, the noted film-maker, handles a play about Amrita Pritam, the noted poet and literatteur. Written by Danish Iqbal, this…

During the launch of her book 'The Bad Boy's Guide to the Good Indian Girl' this month in Bangalore, co-author Annie Zaidi talked about a friend in college. Though Annie was close to her friend for three years, she never realised that her friend used to smoke through college even though smoking was banned in campus. It was many years later, when they met again, that Annie came to know about this.The book by Annie and Smriti Ravindran explains why Good Indian Girls (GIGs, as they are called in the book) have to be ashamed of something as simple as…

It was 10 am on Sunday August 28th at Freedom Park when nine people who had remained on indefinite fast since drank coconut water. They ended their fast along with Anna Hazare in New Delhi. N Ravi, 28, one of them says, "I am happy as the struggle of 12 days has paid off. The government has listened to us. I will continue to be there at Freedom Park till the issue has resolved." Talking about his experience, Ravi says, "It has been a difficult time as we went through a lot physically and emotionally. However, the joy of succeeding…

Those of us who have had green around our homes must have had perennial Money plants tucked in collectible pretty bottles (which could never been thrown away) or even pots that had the creeper trailing on the wall or balcony.  They were sunned once in a while or may never have seen the sun but yet they gave out new leaves and looked healthy.  If you now go to a nursery and ask for indoor plants you will be shown a wide range to choose from.   Indoor potted  plants thrive in the shade and beautify our homes and give us…