LEISURE

Vinay Chandra is a man with a mission. What started off as a personal interest in nature, farming and organic agriculture, has for the last year become a zealous drive to help more and more city dwellers like you and me to make our own little patch of green. Square foot garden. Pic courtesy: Vinay Chandra. Before starting his initiative to help set up kitchen gardens, Chandra did a lot of ground work. He spent a lot of time with with organic farmers and activists and read a lot on organic farming. He visited many organic farms in and around…

Radish grown in Manikandan's terrace garden. Pic Courtesy: P Manikandan. P Manikandan used to garden during his school days. After a break prompted by preoccupation with higher education, he restarted in January 2008, at his fourth floor apartment on Bannerghatta Road. So gardening, he says, has always been a passion. He now grows his own vegetables using organic methods so that they are pesticide-free. He also has ornamentals that include roses, Crotons, Coleus, Dahlia, Zinnia, Rudbeckia, Oleander and Jasmine. P Manikandan. Like most planners and gardeners, Manikandan first decided on a few key aspects like the size of the garden,…

'Behind The Seen' at 1, Shantiroad (on till September 1st), digs into visuality and the very idea of ‘a show'. It has successfully attempted to turn the canvas to face the wall and coax the viewers to see what is hidden behind that beautifully painted picture. This is the display of the productions of four individuals who work as technicians, doing numerous odd jobs at four dynamic art spaces in the city. Curated by city based artist Surekha, ‘Behind the Seen' is in honour of the quiet ones who work behind the scenes making many of the major shows in…

Murder mystery games have been a popular form of entertainment, where a group of people get together and play the roles of various people in a murder mystery, trying to solve the mystery. Once a parlour game, it has now become a popular exercise for corporate Human Resource initiatives, where people participating in the exercise are also involved in the development of the 'murder' situation. A scene from the interactive play. Pic: Deepa Mohan. M D Riti, who established Riti's Murder Games in 2004, has been staging  murder mysteries for corporate clients for six years now. She recently staged one…

Onam Sadya is a tradition at the Ranga Shankara cafe. Anju Sudarshan, the lady who runs the cafe, puts her heart and soul to whip up a buffet that brings the flavours, tastes and colours Kerala to Ranga Shankara. This year, the Onam Sadya lunch is set for 1 PM t0 3 PM, Sun, Aug 22. Prior reservation necessary -- please call 9900064931.Onam- the harvest festival of Kerala is celebrated during the Malayali month of Chingam (Aug- Sep). This festival lasts for ten days and marks the homecoming of the legendary king Mahabali. These ten days bring out the best…

Step into Tuscany and you get a sense of space. Open and airy, this eatery on the periphery of Jayanagar's 9th Block welcomes you with its bright colours and sweeping flow. But more than the physical area, this is a space for the individual. You could just sit quietly by yourself and read a book, or have a leisurely chat with friends, or immerse yourself in the gentle house music, or pick up the microphone and test your singing ability at the karaoke space. If you are there at the right time, you could even participate in a workshop or…

 Seen at Sankey Tank, Malleswaram.  Hope the board works. :) Pic by Ravi Kaushik ⊕

Amoghavarsha, an experienced wildlife photographer, is conducting another monsoon wildlife/photography expedition.The next monsoon expedition to Agumbe is scheduled for 28th and 29th of August. This will be the last expedition in the peak monsoons, after this the monsoons will subside and so will photography opportunities.The last expedition was exciting and very fruitful with sightings of 2 wild King Cobras at close quarters and of course many more snakes, frogs and nocturnal animals.Do take a look athttp://amoghavarsha.com/workshops/agumbe/for more information, testimonials and photographs.If any of you are interested, contact Amogh at +91 99010 44344.

It is very easy to review a play which has had a house-full audience, which was cheered to the echo, and was obviously enjoyed to the hilt by every child in the audience!"Tale of Haruk", a Korean fairy tale, staged by TUIDA, a Korean performance group (that aims to be nature-friendly in play-making) was brought to the Bangalore children by way of Ranga Shankara's AHA! initiative to provide theatre for children, supported by Britannia. The production used puppetry, some amount of sleight of hand, a set of musical instruments that are recycled from items of ordinary use,and a talented cast…

For a long time, I've heard references by foodies to J P Nagar being  "Cheapie Nagar"  as there were only eateries, no "restaurants" in the area. Well, this seemed to suit most people fine, as they would drop in at a Darshini, or an IT-service eatery, to have a quick bite, and "dining out" meant dressing up and going to the centre of the town.As traffic increased, so did the reluctance of the people of south Bangalore to brave logjams to go out for dinner...and perhapss gap and decided to fill it. "Aroy" ("delicious" in Thai) opened a few months ago,…