Z-Blogs

On the 29th of March, I went to Lalbagh to join the joint Max Mueller Bhavan /  Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) -organized Heritage Walk. Having taken many people around Lalbagh, I wanted to know if there was anything I had missed learning about....here's some of what I saw.We all met at the 3-billion-year-old (give or take a few hundreds!) sheet rock on which one of Kempe Gowda's towers stands, and marvelled at the range of pre-history to history; we then walked towards the Glass House, where the Lions of the Ashoka Pillar are etched into…

At the Bannerghatta Zoo area, I saw the hinges of a van had been painted this way....Unhinged patriotism is called jingoism...what is "hinged" patriotism called? :)⊕

Sorry for this post. But today's headlines from the Hindu is so depressing.  Controversial satellite launch by North Korea triggers alarmTaliban threatens two attacks per week in Pakistan  andthis..    Antarctic iceberg ‘set to collapse'  So dont worry about Korea's ballistic missiles that can reach as far as Japan or Taliban's systematic annihilation of Pakistan; if nothing works out, global warming will certainly help us to doom.  Oh yes, by the way, some cheer. India is on the verge of winning the NZ Test series. What a satire! ⊕

Tat Tvam is a young Bangalore theatre group; and "God", by Woody Allen, was their first production. They are a group of amateur artistes; many of them are IT professionals, but a few of them are students, too. For a first production, "God" was a fairly ambitious project to choose, and they did manage to do a good job of the production."God" is a half-absurd,half-metaphysical play, and the locale and the characters change with bewildering rapidity between ancient Greece and Manhattan!In the words of Miracle Entertainment, the group that had earlier staged this play:"Set in an empty Greek amphitheater, this…

The seats decidedThat rather than be dividedThey too, would get togetherAnd sit in conclave,Debate on pleasure and pain:They, too, would discuss the weatherTalk of the bold and the brave...They would gossip and chatLike the people who satOn them. Will they return to their places again?Or will they remain,Forever united,Conversational partners in the park,By the light of the day, and in the dark? ⊕

I went all prepared. Ear phones for my phone radio, comfortable clothes and footwear, a light bag, though I did forget the bottle of glucose. No, I didn't go to an adventure camp. I was getting set to go to the Voter Facilitation Centre. As election fever is running at an all-time high in the city, I wasn't left far behind. The bug caught on to me too. And here I am, joining the bandwagon of those who have been ranting about their journey to get the 'impossible' - the Voter ID card. I am proud to say that I…

A few months back, the road leading to our area was given a makeover. Once pot-holed with moon craters, it is now a smooth ride. But without any pavements, the pedestrians, cars, dogs, dump trucks, buses etc all share the shiny road. There has been a lot of complaints & rants in Citizen Matters, on the usage of pavements as extended shops and garages. But all that does not answer my question - When will all roads in our city get pavements? Good pavements that are user friendly - no teetering granite slabs, no overgrown trees without concrete borders that…

I was coming back from the Central Business District, and waiting for a friend to pickme up at the junction of Richmond Road, where Brigage Road starts calling itself Hosur Road. Right next to Thom's Hotel, I looked in the cool greenery of All Saints' Church, and on an impulse, walked inside.What an oasis of peace it is! True, the roar of the traffic is unrelenting...but the beautiful, low-set church, and the huge trees (there is one huge Millingtonia, or Sausage Tree, in full bloom and fruit just now) and the birds in them give the effect of stepping into…

Citizen Matters Magazine - Vol 1 Issue 5Dear Readers, Happy Ugadi to you all! Elections are around. Well they’ve always been around you might say. After all our democracy is over 60-years-old now. What’s different this time? No, not really, it’s not the politics. It’s not the policy promises either. It’s the interest in voting amongst the middle and upper classes -- the groups who are usually scorned by politicians and NGOs as too aloof to dirty their hands with ‘running to file a form’ or ‘going to the booth to stand in line to vote’. Scores of hitherto non-voters…

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