GENRE: Features

A Colonial era law makes millions of sexual minorities in India, second class citizens. This law leads to harassment, denial of justice, inheritance issues, healthcare denial and more. This year, individuals and organisations, under the banner of Campaign for Sex-workers and Sexual Minorities Rights (CSMR), organised a week-long festival beginning with a cricket match on 21st June and culminating with the Bengaluru Pride March on 28th June. The march began at National College, Basavanagudi and ended at Puttanachetty Town Hall. Bangalore’s sexual minorities demanded their rights in this colourful annual protest parade, most of them with their faces covered in…

I have run a full marathon and a couple of half marathons but I never really enjoyed running. I did it more as a chore, somewhat like eating healthy food and doing laundry. That is until I started running with Asha, an NGO working on children's education in Bangalore. Initially it started with a curiosity as to what drove Santhosh Padmanabhan, an Asha volunteer and marathon runner in Bangalore to do a 24 hour/156 km non-stop run. I learnt that it was a fund raising activity for education related causes. Padmanabhan, a software engineer, spends innumerable hours in education related…

Is it a memoir or another book depicting the glory of old Mysore? Is it about the politics and administration of the kingdom of Mysore? It is hard to categorise MA Sreenivasan’s ‘The Last Mysore Pradhan’. I presumed it would be the author’s autobiography when I had started reading it. But the book had much more to offer.Sreenivasan started his career as a young Mysore Civil Service (M.C.S) officer in 1918. He served as with both Mysore Kingdom and then the Government of British India. He was made a minister (pradhan) in 1943. In 1947, he was invited by the…

Bangalore witnessed the first event of its kind in India on the 14th of June, a duathlon! Runners for Life (RFL), an organisation dedicated to runners and running, partnered with Ride a Cycle foundation, a non-profit organization which encourages cycling as a form of recreation, sport and a means to commute to work. A duathlon is an athletic event that consists of a running leg, followed by a cycling leg and then another running leg. First leg of the duathlon (pic: DS) Many of the city’s seasoned as well as first time runners along with cyclists were gathered at the…

Deepti G (who lives off Bannerghata Road), mother of a ten-year-old daughter with fixed opinions of her own, prefers not to go for shopping for school supplies with her child anymore. With the incredible amount of school products available, shopping can get out of hand. "Every year we end up with pencil boxes, tons of sketch pens and markers, calculators, pouches and snack boxes that we never end up using," she reasons. File pic: Meera KSo what is the best way to shop for school supplies? First, make a list. I asked some experienced parents and they said a very…

Bindu and Ajay Agarwal from Sarjapur Road have been on a shopping spree lately. Their only daughter Ritika, four is on her way to ‘Big School' and the proud parents have been pampering her with brand new school goodies. But behind all the excitement, Bindu has a constant worry: Will Ritika be as happy in the sprawling school as she has been in the tiny four room nursery next door to her home? Ready for big school (pic: Supriya Khandekar)Bindu's troubles aren't new. If the time has come to send the apple of your eye from the cosier, smaller environment…

It was not a typical Sunday when people wake up leisurely for brunch. Bubbling energy and enthusiasm radiated from Kanteerva stadium Bangalore.Kanteerva stadium saw Derbia Merga winning Men's event and taking home a prize of USD 1,55,000. The day belonged to the Ethiopians.Mergia Asslefech - Winner of women's 10k raceIt was a good idea to have an exclusive prize for Indian athletes in men's and women category. Kavita Raut from Maharastra was the winner in the Indian women's category. Participants were running like a storm. Nothing but energy and enthusiasm:The best part was the Kingfisher Run-in-costumes: It made the entire…

This morning, Bengaluru put on its running shoes to sprint up to 10 kilometres. There is all the fanfare and hooplah surrounding the 10 kilometre Sunfeast run, most often mistaken for a marathon (a marathon’s distance is about 42.2 kilometres). Runners at the Kanteerava stadium (pic: Naveen Ningaiah) With such hype, one often wonders what goes into organizing and preparing for a mammoth event such as this. Rumors have begun to do rounds - the celebrities who have pledged to raise funds are failing and backing out. People are highly likely to continue with some ever-so-often-heard rants – “The traffic…

Authenticity is a tough art to master. There was one time when I went to a restaurant abroad that claimed to be Chinese, had interiors that was roughly Korean, displayed Japanese art and was called, hold your breath, Dalchini (Cinnamon in many Indian languages). The Confused Orient would have been a better name. A food critic once wrote about how any self respecting European chef would take the next flight out; livid with shock, on seeing what was passed off as Italian cuisine in the city.You must sympathise with the purists for the raw deal they get. Or perhaps, you…

The well known artist G Subramaniam's works were on display at Silk Interiors in Bella Vista on Lavelle Road earlier this month. This store for interior décor artifacts houses a gallery named "iArt". Artwork by G SubramaniamG Subramaniam has a fascinating and unique way of expressing his creativity. He creates collages on canvases. Yes, the same collage techniques from your college and school competitions! Subra as he is popularly known in the art field, has combined this with his imagination and created a splendid new image. Most of his works revolves around Indian deities; Krishna, Brahma and Ganesha. Subra says,…