Society

Pandit Ravi Shankar's farewell to Bangalore a while ago brought back old memories of the great musician's concerts I attended in Bangalore and elsewhere. The first time was a late evening concert in the Town Hall in the late '50s. I was supposed to escort my sister and her friends back home after the concert. I reached a half hour before the concert was supposed to end. The side doors were kept open. I was in college. I had put on a Gandhi cap (we used to wear it for the PT classses) and that too with a hole in…

It isn't often that you hear voices on the radio talking about Bengaluru's public matters, concerns for the city and the interesting changemaking work going in the city. Even on occasions where you hear a little, it is not at the level of depth you will read in a newsmagazine. Vasanthi Hariprakash.Pic courtesy: NBF. On December 2nd, Sunday, between 9am-10am, M A Saleem, the city's traffic police commissioner and P Manivannan, the head of BESCOM were on the air. They were speaking and responding to questions from noted radio and television journalist Vasanthi Hariprakash. Vasanthi has been hosting this series…

The woman got on to the bus, gave the conductor a two rupee coin and prepared to get off two stops later. I caught her eye and said, sternly, "Pay proper charges and get a ticket, or you'll be fined Rs 150." "All right amma, sorry" she said, alighting at the new flyover, "I work here, sweeping the rubble, and earn Rs 2,000 a month, I have to live on that."The budget for the flyover is several crores. Workers like her who build it, earn for a whole month's work, what an entry level software employee in our IT city,…

This November, it's Hindi cinema's season of film launches. So first, there was an overdose of Shahrukh Khan and Katrina Kaif in promos for "Jab Tak Hai Jaan", and now Aamir Khan takes over with the release date for "Talaash" just around the corner. While it was Aamir who first set the trend of intelligently aggressive film promotion, other Indian filmmakers have been quick to join the bandwagon. "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" promos had Shahrukh on every English language television channel, and even holding forth in a keynote address at the Hindustan Times' "Leadership Summit". The questions he fielded here…

Project Cinema City, a multidisciplinary art exhibition recently concluded at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore (NGMA) on December 2nd 2012. This project began as an effort to chart the relationship between cinema and Bombay/Mumbai and chronicle the imaginary space where the two converge. It is also a chronicle of Bombay's metamorphosis into Mumbai.I was fortunate to be able to attend a walkthrough conducted by Madhushree Dutta on November 24th. Madhushree is the executive director of Majlis, a rights discourse and inter-disciplinary arts initiative based in Mumbai. As the curator and producer of this project, she has been working…

They began as wishful lamentations that soon turned into hushed whispers transforming eventually into convincing rumours. With all those regular claims about being home to culture, heritage and genteel intellectuals, how is it that Bangalore was missing a multiple day, A-Lister- filled literary fest?The optimists amongst us knew it was only a matter of time. When news of it finally came, Bangalore's very own literature festival, unlike those preceding it, emerged to find a ready audience. Where other literary events have had to slowly build audiences, BLF suffers a large crowd bouncing excitedly on its feet, waiting to be let…

Courage without compare. Bravery beyond belief. In 1962, a thin line of India's finest stood their ground in the face of aggression. A grateful nation can never forget their sacrifice or their fortitude. 50 years later, on 17th November, Indigo Live and Flags of Honour Foundation commemorated these martyrs of the Himalayan heights with the Cry Freedom concert at Counter Culture in Bengaluru's Whitefield. Featuring Chennai bands Scrat and Frank's Got the Funk, the concert which kicked off at 6:30 pm was organised by the Flags of Honour Foundation. A non-profit entity based in Bangalore, the Flags of Honour Foundation…

Nadasurabhi, a leading cultural organisation of Bangalore conducted its 19th Annual Carnatic Music Festival from the 20th to 25th November with seven programmes. The venue was the new auditorium attached to the St.John's College of Nursing in Koramangala.The opening day saw the famous Mysore brothers, Nagaraj and Manjunath demonstrate their proficiency in violin by a vibrant performance. Poorvikalyani and Varali were dealt with in detail, and a Ragam Tanam pallavi in Charukesi was presented with aplomb. The second day sobriety, serenity and excellence were on display in the vocal concert of Maharajapuram Ramachandran who comes in the illustrious lineage of…

All of us are looking forward to Diwali this year aren't we? The bursting of crackers and sentimental pooja truly makes this occasion special. But there are many others out there who don't get this chance. So I decided to do something about this. As Diwali celebrations are coming up, my mum had been asking me to dispose of my huge collections of comics and story books, my old school books, clean up my room and get rid of what she calls all the junk. I thought, why not put some of this stuff to some good use. I reached…

Last year he called it Holiween. I didn't make any attempts to correct him and he didn't remember it beyond that point either. Why bother when it isn't a festival that belongs to us? Pic: wikimedia commons This year, he is close to seven and the Halloween monster has struck us hard. We now know the correct pronunciation and the fact that it's an American festival that has "something to do with ghosts". We also know somewhat hazily about pumpkins and trick or treat. The problem is we live in an apartment complex that isn't as Halloween friendly as the…