Z-Blogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUwxV7_pYyE&feature=youtu.be The film was taken in 2010 and the background music is a recording I made from the loudspeakers that played on Bull temple road during the Kadlekai Parishe (Groundnut fair) that same year. The purpose of the film had been a simple one - to record how people use space on an everyday basis. It was a time when the street vendors had not yet been evicted. That happened in Jan 2012. The reason cited by the government for the eviction was that the gandhi bazaar main road was becoming very congested. But, was this the only solution? In…

I met a lot of interesting people today. My friend Jayashree Govindarajan put me in touch with Nidhi Manoj and Reshmi Chakraborti, who have been, for the past two years, running an e-magazine called Silver Talkies , for those above 55 years of age, Today (7th March, 2014) Silver Talkies, along with Suchetadhama (run by Shanthini Dawson) and artist Paul Fernandes’ gallery of Curious Memories, held their maiden event, “Art, Coffee and Conversation”, at the gallery, with high tea at The French Loaf, situated in a heritage house across the road. The idea was to share thoughts and discussions, and…

A friend and I are at a local café, with her daughter (nearly 4) and my son (5). Now this café is one of those small, cosy places, where you're encouraged to sit close to your love and gaze into his or her eyes, and occasionally bite into your blueberry muffin. Or sip your cappucino. So yes, space is rather at a premium, inside. Naturally, it's also the kind of place hungry, active children love to go to. And are terrible to manage once within. Because either they burn themselves on the tall cauldrons of scalding soups (helpfully placed bang…

Even after the elections are notified, all the parties have kept their list of candidates in suspense. However, here is some gossip from the political corridors for you! Enjoy reading! What is Congress doing? Congress is experimenting in Bangalore North with ‘primaries’ where internal voting will be done by the party members and the winner will contest the elections. Primaries will be held between Rajeev Gowda, B L Shankar and others, on March 8. Rajeev Gowda is an ex-IIMB professor, who also headed IIMB’s Centre for Public Policy. B L Shankar is a veteran politician with relatively clean history and…

A workshop on "Wikipedia and the Indian Wilderness" by Shyamal Lakshminarayanan, was organized on the 1st of March, 2014, at ThoughtWorks, Koramangala. Shyamal's presentation started with a short history of Wikipedia, and how the present structure of Wikipedia and its administrators has evolved. He narrowed down the field to contributions to the field of natural sciences, particularly in India, and pointed out how contributions by each "ordinary person" could somehow add value to the information available on the net. He fielded several questions from the audience, and proceeded to demonstrate how people can contribute both content and images on Wikipedia.…

As Sivaratri is being celebrated tonight by millions of people, here are some Carnatic songs that extol the greatness of the Hindu God Shiva. Tyagaraja's Naada Tanumanisham in raga Chittaranjani, Shambho Mahadeva and Shiva Shiva Yena Radha in raga Pantuvarali, Raga Sudha Rasa in raga Andholika, Ilalo Pranatharthi in raga Atana to Dikshithar's Akshaya Linga in raga Shankarabharanam, Shri Matrubhootham in raga Kannada and Shri Vishwanatham Bhajesham Chathurdasa Ragamalika are some of the songs heard on the Carnatic platform. There are innumerable compositions on Lord Shiva in Carnatic music by different composers. Some of the popular ones in Tamil are…

Having watched Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research (what a mouthful, I'll call it ALTAR for short!)'s earlier production, "The Tenth Head" at Ranga Shankara, and reviewed it here, I was prepared for an interesting evening when I went to watch "Nidrdravathvam". The play is about two brothers of the protagonist and the antagonist of the Ramayana: Lakshmana and Kumbhakarna. They are connected in having received boons that, in the words of the excellent brochure provided by ALTAR, "dramatically alter their cycles of sleep and wakefulness." Kumbharkarna's tongue is tied by Saraswati, and instead of asking for "Nirdevatvam" (destruction of the Devas) he…

Spot the fairer of the two? A woman walks into a local health/beauty store. She has some beauty essentials to buy — lipstick, moisturiser, some talc. And a particular brand she likes for face powder because it claims to follow Ayurvedic principles in preparing it's formulations. So, she goes to the counter for that brand. Surprise, surprise, that face powder is not available anymore. Instead, the brand has, in similar packaging, launched a 'lightening' or brightening or fairness-enhancing variant. “What happened to the 'non-lightening' variety,” she asks the sales girl who is, as usual, hovering so close that if the woman…

Gayathri Kesavan and family The story of Putana is part of the Lord Krishna folklore. Putana which means “devoid of virtue” was a demon sent by Kamsa to kill his nephew, the baby Krishna. When Putana in the guise of a stunningly beautiful woman came to Yashodha, the latter believed the demon to be a virtous woman and gave the baby to her for nursing. Little did Yashodha realize that it wasn’t mother’s milk but a poison that the baby was meant to suckle. Putana’s plan backfired and Krishna ended up killing her. This was the central theme of Gayathri…

The familiar face of wrongdoing...two scooterists who are caught breaking a one-way rule are being nabbed by the policeman. I could not wait to see what the outcome of this encounter would be. Would the people on the scooter pay the required fine? Would they try to bribe the cop?   Would they be successful if so? Or would they try to "beg forgiveness" and plead to be let off this once? Or would they try to intimidate the cop by dropping the names of bigwigs they know, or are related to? I had to move on, but did not…