Z-Blogs

Amit Kumar Chaudhary, who is also a member of the cycling mailing list that I belong to, had recently cycled to BIAL, where he made a discovery that would benefit all of us. Here's what he said in an email to the rest of us:"For those who wish to have garma-garma Idli and Tea/Coffee at  regular prices at BIAL, there's a Shanti-Sagar type resturant called Parking-Cafe. It is located behind "Pay & Use Toilet" but the Cafe is clean and hygenic.I had little bad experience today and that led me to this discovery."What was the experience, and what was the…

In some ways, a theatre group has it easier when it is playing to an audience of children. Children are much more willing to suspend disbelief, and are easily entertained....and if the audience that I saw queueing up at Ranga Shankar on the evening of the 1st of September was any indication, that was true that day, too.I asked a few children, and their mothers, how they had heard about "Tenali Raman", the play that Bangalore Little Theatre was putting up that evening. Padma said that she had received an email from Indianstage, and Ranjani said that she often came…

The morning walk is something I look forward, as it is a feast for all my senses. I step out, and the green canopy of the trees in the Mini Forest greets me and envelopes me. I feel the cool morning air; it invigorates me and encourages me to walk faster.Just outside my gate, I can see a variety of colours...the different vegetables and fruits which the vendors bring in the mornings, to sell to the walkers and joggers. My feet feel the hard cement of the road....and also the broken edges of the potholes that the road is liberally…

We've all noticed him there....lying under the first table in the Ranga Shankara cafe, and sometimes ambling around as if he owned the place. Well, he did....! Murthy had been a fixture at Ranga Shankara ever since I started going there, and I was sad to find that an obituary notice had been put up at Ranga Shankara... Murthy loved the theatre, and would attend all platform shows.....here's wishing farewell to a staunch fan of the performing arts, who did not need to have the ability to speak a human language to like Ranga Shankara and its environs... ⊕

I have been following the fortunes of Yours Truly Theatre (YTT)for a while now, in keeping with my interest in the young theatre groups of this city. Yours Truly has been a pioneer, in Bangalore, in staging Interactive Theatre, where the audience takes on an interactive role in the staging of the play, rather than be passive spectators to a preconceived ending. Now they have several other initiatives, too, such as plays for children, students, and for underprivileged people,I've watched their last play, "Common Man", but had missed the earlier shows of "Bhagwan Dhoondo", and so decided that I'd go…

Identifying Traditional and Responsible ways of Celebrating Ganesh ChaturthiA One Day Workshop for Children (Ages 9-15)Ganesh Chaturthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu God. As we all know, He is a very popular god in India and has become a popular symbol around the world too. Ganesha in different art forms has broken many boundaries of caste, race, religion, and nation and has found a space in many living rooms around the world. He is a favorite among the children too. The story of his birth and the variety of delicacies made on this day are enjoyable…

⊕Pic by Ravi Kaushik  

Where is the world's highest motorable road? And the nectar of seabuckthorn (better known as Leh berry)? In Leh, Ladakh, obviously! As many of us know, recently, terrible landslides and flash floods devastated this exotic part of India. Some of us have heard, seen and read heart rending accounts of the resulting death and destruction. And probably want to reach out to the people there. Feeling the same, a group of five friends in Bangalore, namely, Manjari Ranasaria, Christina Daniels,  Lakshmi Karanth, Swathi Chaturvedi and Mayur Jain pondered about various ways to do that. Not wanting to ask people for…

If you are a parent who wants her child to do activities that require her to think and use her imagination, you've probably scoured the market for suitable craft kits. Yes, there's a lot of stuff available but after a point, most seem similar, with instructions that are often hard for kids to follow. It was the search for safe activities and crafts for their kids to do, that drove sisters Anu Parthasarathy and Rupa Vijendran to launch craft kits for children that are not only easy to make but also introduce them to traditional techniques like Channapatna woodwork, terracotta…

Can you see what's strange about this building?I have no clue why this should have been built in this way...it's fascinating! ⊕