ulsoor

  James Kingston, is a British freerunner and film stuntman, who visited Bengaluru earlier this month. On his Facebook page, Kingston describes himself as a person 'constantly looking for adventure.' This professional adventurer, travels around the world in search of new heights to scale. Once he is atop a building or a bridge, he shoots a video of the view around him. His adventures have led him to hang off the top of a 250 feet crane in Southhampton, leap from rooftop to rooftop around Cambridge and do a backflip off the 115 metre tall, Moscow bridge. He visited Bangalore to…

She welcomes me into her home in Ulsoor wearing a beautiful hand woven Bailou saree. It is simple and elegant, much like Nagamani herself, exuding a quiet beauty and grace you hope to have when you reach her age. We get to know about ‘Mani aunty' from Mala and Sonia Dhawan, the enterprising sisters who run A Hundred Hands, a nonprofit trust that aims to introduce and promote handmade crafts, art and food. Located in Bangalore, they hold an exhibition of creative art, crafts and concoctions every year. The Dhawans tell me how Mani auntie's herbal oil is a product…

Despite the downpour last Saturday night, you could see an eager and motley group waiting near/opposite Ulsoor Police station a little before 8 am last Sunday (July 11th) morning; for the Ulsoor Parichay (introduction). This was a part of the series of heritage walks organised by the Bangalore chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) as part of its Parichay programme, an initiative aimed at raising awareness of Bangalore's heritage among its citizens.The parichay was planned so as to walk through some parts of Ulsoor where we could witness and discuss processes of urban change.…

Parvathamma Aiyappa runs a small tea shop in a village near Kengeri. This is where she lives. She also works occasionally as a domestic helper. With some savings, she managed to get her two  sons – Shivaraj, 12, and Amar, 13, to a not-so-nearby school run by a welfare society, where she has to pay a nominal fee for books, admissions and uniforms. Her husband is a labourer. Parvathamma Aiyappa with her children. Pic: Lavanya Keshavamurthy. Being the self respecting mother that she is, she refuses to accept any donations for their education from the well-off families where she works.…

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL)’s plan for shopping space inside the to-be-built metro stations is likely to leave many displaced traders stranded. Except two stations, one on M G Road and the other at Byapanahalli, and possibly a third -- the Trinity Circle station, all other stations will not have shops inside, according to K Nagendra, Public Relations Officer at BMRCL. Nagendra says that Metro stations which will have provisions for parking lots and integrated transport facilities will be the ones earmarked for inclusion of shops. The other stations are going to be basic. The crane moves at…