LEISURE

At a time when Bangalore's restaurants are more interested in hanging 30 ft high billboards that says "Buffet at 199", "Combo meal for 99" than serving an authentic meal, I happened to visit Fiorano, a classy Italian restaurant which believes in marketing their restaurant purely by the ‘word-of-palette'. In fact, this restaurant is so understated from the outside that we spent a good ten minutes to locate it despite knowing exactly where to look. This upscale restaurant’s interiors, though simple, are quite elegant. Pic: S K Shivashankar Located on the busy 100 ft road in Koramangala, Fiorano is one of…

Of the 47 teams that took part in the HSBC Bangalore Bird Race, I am only talking about Team Black Stork.... comprised (in alphabetical order) Gayathri, Mani, Saandip, Uma...and me.We certainly had a wonderful time that day, and we certainly never had any expectations, as bird-sightings are so much a matter of luck! Our list had 123 birds, and I never did photograph most of them. I'm hoping that the others will put up their bird-race photographs up soon! We started at my top favourite birding location, the Bannerghatta Zoo area. A bird that I enjoyed seeing was the handsomeLARGE CUCKOO-SHRIKE:The Zoo…

When most citizens of Bangalore were wrapped up under blankets on a cold Saturday morning, 43 adventure lovers set out to cycle, kayak and go bouldering. Bangalore Adventure Race or BAR 101 kicked off from Turahalli, off Kanakapura Road, Southern Bangalore at 4.50 am. The participants cycled 50 kms to the Manchanbele reservoir to face more tasks to test their endurance. Cycling part of the race. Pic courtesy: Bangalore Adventure Race. The 15 teams made it to Manchanbele in about two hours. And plunged straight into trail biking, bouldering or Kayaking, depending on the tasks they felt most confident of.…

To increase public awareness on using cycles, Bangalore's Ride A Cycle Foundation (RAC-F), an NGO, has announced a host of competitions for students from 7th to 10th Standard. The following are the competitions:1. Essay Writing Competition:Topic :Me and My Bicycle.2. Letter Writing Competition:Topic : A letter to your parent asking him to bicycle along with you to school once in a week. 3. Drawing Competition: Theme 1: Share the road with cycles.Theme 2: Cycle Friendly cities / Children friendly cities.1st Prize : Hercules Bicycle + Rs.20002nd Prize : Hercules Bicycle + Rs.15003rd Prize : Rs.35003 Consolation PrizesThe entries need to…

My friend Vishwas and I went to see an exhibition of Hollywood photographs at Tasveer Art Gallery I enjoyed the photographs on several levels. The first reaction, of course, was to the technical excellence of the photographs themselves. In the era of black-and-white photography, when photography was a cumbersome and tedious process, these photographers have yet produced such gems! Portraiture, to me, is one area where black-and-white photography still holds its own against colour.Portraying people noted for their looks, as well as their talent, can hold its own challenges. Which aspect would you highlight as a photographer? Some photographs, such…

If cave temples, glimpses of mythological history and trekking is in your weekend itinerary then visiting Kaivara just 2 hours drive from Bengaluru, is a good option. Located near Chikballapur in the Chintamani district the place is replete with historical and mythological tales of Mahabharata and Ramayana.  The zigzag plains of Kaivara perhaps leave one confused when visiting the place for the first time. That is why the need of a ‘Kaivara' or a compass to traverse the place. Hence the name Kaivara. Kaivara: View from Ambaji Durga. Pic: Usha Hariprasad.Kaivara: AmarNarayana temple. Pic: Usha Haripasad.Kaivara: Ambaji Durga Cave temple.…

   Water. We don't appreciate it enough.  Pic by Ravi Kaushik

Namma Bengaluru - the so called 'naturally air-conditioned' city has long since lost its claim to this epithet. We do have summers and winters now and for all practical purposes, winter is not far away. Growing Radish in containers. Pic: Manikandan P. For me winter typically conjures up images of cold weather warmed by the winter sun, yummy carrot halwa, hot radish /cabbage parathas with pickle, comforting soup and masala tea. And a recent trip to the hills not only convinced me completely that cold weather makes one eat more; It also reinforced the excitement and joy of growing one's…

   I got a reference to this on another mailing list, and have been singing this:http://ingeb.org/songs/daisydai.htmlThere was supposed to be a tandem initiative in Bangalore:http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=10&contentid=20100909201009090155111273efd521dwhat happened to it? I didn't hear anything more about it.....who stocks tandems in Bangalore, and do they hire them out?How wonderful it would be if we could have someone like Chris Gerli whom I've met often in St.Louis:http://citycyclingtours.com/We could have specially painted cycles and tandems (to prevent theft, like they have in IISc...perhaps they could even have embedded chips for location?) for hire in Cubbon Park and Lalbagh; surely it would popularize cycling? ⊕

Sunrise at Bilekal Rangaswamy Betta. Pic: Deepa Mohan. When four friends from varying backgrounds share a love for the outdoors, and decide to do something about it, a good initiative is born. The four friends are Anand Sankar, Lionel Prem Lobo, Srinidhi Raghavendra and Sandeep Komarla, and together, they've created Basic Halli, a tented eco-resort a little beyond Kanakapura, about 70 km. from Bangalore. Anand had organized a bird survey in the area, so I had gone with a group of  fellow naturalists,  to  document the bird (and butterfly) species in the vicinity. "Our location is a great plus," smiles…