Z-Blogs

Last week, on a social networking site, I put up a post about my cook and her barely-18 year-old daughter. The girl had just completed a sponsored and very expensive beauticians' course at a top city beauty training institute. I had hoped she would start working and earn a steady income, thereby helping her hardworking mother who is a cook in two households. Instead, her mother got her married. It is not too difficult to predict that the girl will soon become a young mother herself. If she is not allowed to use her training, why she may even end…

I have been terribly busy this month. I have a wee pup at home who is taking over all my time. I have been visiting CUPA during weekdays to work with troubled dogs there. One of the days, just as I was finishing my work, the guys at the shelter were standing around a little black mound and discussing how to transport that mound. I had arrived in a car and offered to do the honours. The mound turned out to be a listless little pup – the smallest pup I have ever seen. I gingerly picked up the pup…

Photo by: Karthik Dwaraknath The mridangam is a barrel-shaped drum used as a percussion instrument in a classical concert. It is a double-headed drum, with multiple layers of stretched leather skin covering either end of the cylindrical body. The word “mridangam” comes from the union of two Sanskrit words mrida (clay) and angam (body) as the instrument is made from hardened clay. Mridangams are of two types – kutchi and kappi. In the former, thin wooden sticks or reed (from a plant) are inserted under the top layer of the skin, which gives the mridangam its distinctive sound.  In kappi…

Can we really change our colour-conscious culture? I have a good friend Monisha, an ardent gardener. She grows and sells ornamental plants so she is out in the sun a lot. Which means her fair skin gets a bronzed glow quite often. She doesn't mind that at all. What irks her, however, is the reaction she gets from friends and extended family. “When they see me, they invariably exclaim, 'Oh, you've become so tanned!' I love darker skin tones and I really don't care how tanned I get. So why do other people,” she wonders. Why indeed? There's this remarkable…

Anvitha S writes: The sightings of fruit eating bats hanging dead on power lines have become increasingly common nowadays. These bats are victims of the poor electric wiring system of our country. In most cases they get caught in the power lines while flying to a tree that has either grown through a power line or is very close to it.   An electrocuted bat hangs from the electric wires. Pic: Anvitha S. I happened to see one such electrocuted bat in August. There was a fruiting fig tree very close to a power line in Hampinagar. It used to…

The upcoming Sontakke Global Music Festival from 15th December to 25th December 2013 in the city promises to bring a variety of music genres ranging from carnatic, hindustani through jazz and all the way to Rabindra sangeet. The festival is organized by Prakash Sontakke, a phenomenally talented and popular musician from Bangalore who has carved a niche for himself in hindustani classical and fusion music. Citizen Matters caught up with Prakash Sontakke in a freewheeling conversation about the upcoming festival and his thoughts on the music scene in Bangalore. What is your motivation to conduct such a music festival? Tell…

Kitchen gardening has always been about growing my own food so that I know exactly where it came from, but along the way it also serves to give me a much deeper understanding of nearly every ingredient that comes into my kitchen. It started very simply for me – when my methi and coriander started flowering and then developed into seeds – it was an Aha moment – so that’s how the seeds form and the plant comes full circle. Just when I thought I knew how the seeds came about, I learnt about the lovely radish seedpods that are…

As part of my “bite series”, I want to focus on the beginning – where it all starts. So, are dogs born biters or do they become biters? Do they learn to bite as they grow or are they born biters who learn not to bite? This question is a bit twisted. It’s like asking if a human learns to grasp another’s hand and break it or if a human is born with that knowledge. Most humans are born with opposable thumbs. They do have innate ability to grasp that they quickly learn to use in different situations. Depending on…

In popular imagination the Vindhyas represent the boundary between north and south India. In the case of music, that boundary while far more diffuse inarguably runs through Karnataka. While Dharwad, Hubli and Belgaum in the northern parts of the state have spawned Hindustani musicians such as Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal, Bangalore and Mysore in south Karnataka have been nurturing grounds for Carnatic musicians. The Mysore school of music has produced several renowned Carnatic musicians from veena vidwans such as Veena Seshanna, Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar to violinist Chowdiah and the present-day violinists (brothers) Mysore Nagaraj and Mysore Manjunath to name…

Did you know that so many amenities exist in the Bangalore City Railway Station? Here is the list of amenities provided at the City Railway Station. Such things as, "Comesum is a 24hr multi cuisine food plaza located near the entrance to the foot over bridge. Passengers can order food from here to be delivered to their respective coaches by calling 56904478."   and "RETIRING ROOMS AND DORMITORIES - These are located on the first and second floors of the station building, above platform 1.There are 27 rooms in all, including 8 AC rooms, 18 Non-AC rooms and 1 room…