GENRE: Voices

Just as I rued missing a January evening of South and West Asian folk music, thanks to my inertia, I was delighted to hear of the Kabir Festival, from 23rd February to 1st March, at various venues across Bengaluru. It promised to be a week of films, music and enjoyment. And so it was... A photo of Shabnam Virmani and her friends during a spontaneous singing session at the festival (Pic: T.B. Dinesh) An exciting and enchanting journey that began with the thought provoking and soulful 'Kabir ke dohe' (Kabir’s couplets), the festival offered an opportunity to interact with Shabnam…

'Anti Terror Awareness to Students, Bangalore' witnessed a huge rally by the ruling government for the above subject and the life of the common man was put to inconvenience to a certain extent. Is it the correct way of spreading the subject matter? At whose cost is this being done? Are we paying the taxes for the government to spend lavishly on such unwanted issues? Will this put a barricade to the terrorists? Will this create a fear amongst the terrorists? Will the terrorists omit Bangalore OR Karnataka from their attack lists? Don't you all agree, that the correct way…

All footpath slabs uprooted. Sewage water over flowing on the road. Dozens of school children and IT employees have to wait beside this health and acident trap every morning. This is NH209! There is a tussle between the BBMP and the Highways department ever since the Kanakapura road has scaled up as NH209.My photograph of the problematic area was published in the Times of India on 18th December, 2008, followed by a mail to the chief minister, the commissioner of BBMP and the Director of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Delhi. If you would like to volunteer to…

Defence Colony, Indiranagar of the 90's was famous for its large number of "Beware of Dog" signs. Each house had a retired defence force personnel, and apparently, a dog. Some signs were more affectionate. "Watch out for my darlings". I grew up cycling those streets and a lot has changed since then. No more do you see afternoon tea breaks on the lawn or friendly open streets that just invited the daring cyclist to go 'hands free' on steep slopes downhill. Defence Colony had a charm that emanated from its overflowing gardens. That was why it was a garden city.…

"Footpath mel hogi ma." - (Go on the footpath, Madam). This was a policeman.Though I felt like retorting back, I kept quiet as I always try to avoid these uniformed men.Frankly, where are the footpaths? The first hurdle is to get on to the footpath which is at least one foot high in many parts. Once you get on them there are any number of hurdles. Thirty per cent of them are occupied by construction materials. Iron rods that almost tear your sari. Maunds and maunds of brick and mortar pieces which can make you trip and fall; sands and…

Some of my European friends visited India last year and we met. I was eager and waiting to hear every detail about their brief stay in India. As we ran through photo slides of Rajasthan, Delhi and Mumbai, I heard everyone say "India is magnificent". A little later, small irritations surfaced: from why "people stare" to the "so persistent beggars" and the "unbearable traffic" and the "lack of pubs". It was New Year's time when my friends were in Delhi and it had not been easy for them to find a pub. They could not imagine spending their time in…

This New Year began with reaffirming my resolution to regularly attend the Iyengar Yoga classes conducted at Nirguna Mandir located at 4th Block Koramangala, adjacent to ST Bed Layout. Apart from the significant improvement in strength, stamina and concentration that my weekly classes have provided, my primary motivation has been the steadfast guiding presence that my yoga teacher provides. K. Mahadevaiah (Courtesy: Ajay Bhaskar, student of Iyengar Yoga Classes) Simple, unassuming, modest; these are the words that come to most of our mind when we think of K Mahadevaiah, our yoga teacher. But to me he epitomises all that is…

The property tax collection by BBMP for the year 2008- 2009 has been in the confused state.It started from changing to CVS from SAS,than to UAV and latest being UAV with old SAS rate. Now, if one calculate there is not much change in the revised tax if the building is used for residential purposes comes under the same zone, but there are instances of increase of nearly 45% if there is a jump to next higher zone (E to D) - please refer to the chart below for an example. We from the Citizen Action Forum and Jayanagar 5th…

I have been working in a very reputed BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) firm in Bangalore for the last six years. Today, during our tea break, the question, "Why we work for a BPO?" was raised. Post break I came back to my work station with my thoughts lingering about what we had discussed. Most of us in my group joined because we were either graduates or post graduates and not every one of us could get into management (or) technical trade. In the beginning, all of us felt it’s a 'no other go' scenario and found it difficult to explain…

It's usually people who quit regular jobs to follow their passion make news; but here is somebody who moved from a government organisation to the business sector to pursue, quite literally, matters of the heart! Prof. A V Ramani (pic: Deepa Mohan) Professor AV Ramani is unusual by any standards. Educated to be a chemical engineer with a wide knowledge of material sciences, he taught metallurgy at IIT, Madras. Also experienced with electrochemical technology, he put in 11 years, from 1968 to 1979, at National Aeronautical Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, where he became conversant with non-conventional processes like spark erosion. What…