Society

At the 7th edition of Samarthanam's Bailley Bengaluru walkathon on Saturday 10, December, nearly five thousand people participated. MLA B N Vijaykumar, and Byrasandra Corporator N Nagaraju, inaugurated the walkathon at the Kittur Rani Chennamma Stadium, Jayanagar. Dr Raksha Jayaram with her students. Pic: Sridhar Comaravalli In his brief speech MLA Vijayakumar, promised to make the stadium disabled friendly. Corporator Nagaraju, hoped to start a sports academy at the stadium that would match international standards. Others present on the occasion were restaurateur Sadananda Maiya, Raj Rajkumar, Director, T E Connectivity, Rev Fr Arul Raj Sampath, Parish Priest, Christha Prabhalaya Church,…

Alliance Francaise hosted Kaleidoscape 2011 an exhibition of paintings, photographs and sculptures by seven eclectic artists on 10th and 11th December. Philippe Gasparini the Director of Alliance Francaise inaugurated the event. Pic: Suja Sukumaran Ramesh Nambiar, Pooja Surana and Adithi Sarovar presented their paintings while Chandrashekar Naik, Yatiraj M and Hemavathi S L exhibited their sculptures. The group of seven diverse thinkers with their medium and tools captured the imagination of the viewers in the gallery making it an enjoyable evening.Pooja Suvarna a student of Chitrakala Parishath (CKP), gold medalist and rank holder in Arts was thrilled with the prospect…

The winter chill of a December night did not deter over 8000 people geared up to run at the fifth edition of the Bengaluru International Midnight Marathon (BIMM) at Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization (KPTO), Whitefield on 10th December. Apart from runners from India, BIMM saw international particpation as 18 runners from Ethipoia, Kenya and a few other countries took part. The Ethiopians dominated the marathon as they won most of the events. In the closely-fought men's full marathon of 42.195 kms, Yeshewa Abate of Ethiopia pipped fellow-countryman Alemayehu Negash to the first place with a timing of 2 hours 28…

JP Nagar now has a wide variety to offer for food lovers. From chaat to north Indian cuisine to chinese food the options are plenty.A new restaurant in JP Nagar called Dilli has just opened up which offers authentic Dilli chaats, Kababs and Tandoor. Dilli is a pure vegetarian restaurant. "It's just been about three weeks since the restaurant has opened, but the response we are getting from our customers is tremendous", says Sudhir Boury, 48, the owner. Paneer Tikka Achari at Dilli Pic: Nagashree Gururaj Boury, a Punjabi, born and brought up in Bangalore, is a photographer and filmmaker…

On one run through Bangalore's Cubbon Park, Pankaj Rai, one of Bangalore's several runners and a senior executive at an IT giant, muses, "Where else can one carry on stimulating conversations with such a diverse set of runners while running at the same time?" The city of Bangalore will witness the 5th edition of the Midnight Marathon in less than a week from today. Over 7500 participants (as per the organisers) will toe the starting line for various events which include not just the half and full marathons but also other events such as the corporate relay and a unique…

      The Water Station is a critically-acclaimed play written by the Japanese playwright Shogo Ohta. It is the most famous piece of his "Station" trilogy, which includes The Earth Station and The Wind Station. The play was first performed in 1981 with a Japanese cast, and has since been performed all over the world with various actors of diverse origins. Director Sankar Venkateswaran of Theatre Roots and Wings first directed the play for Ninasam in 2010, and this time around he has put together a varied cast auditioned from all over  India. Scene From the rehearsals. Pic courtesy:…

An early morning walk in Kempegowda's pettah would not sound welcoming to most Bengaluru folks. But thanks to Poornima Dasharathi's insight, the Pettah Walk turned out to be a comprehensive introduction to Bengaluru's beginnings. Yelahanka Gate Anjaneya temple. Pic: Poornima Dasharathi We were scheduled to meet up at 7am near the Anjaneya temple, Mysore Bank Circle. I got there 20 minutes late and was touched that Poornima and the team of enthusiasts were waiting for me near Cauvery Bhavan.We started off by briefly introducing ourselves. Poornima traced Kempegowda's family from Yelahanka and beyond and provided historical reasons for Bengaluru's location…

Academy of Music, one of Bengaluru's premier music establishment, organised a glittering function at Chowdiah Hall on 27th November to confer the K K Murthy Memorial Chowdiah Award 2011 to Padma Bhushan Madurai T N Seshagopalan and the Rudrapatnam Brothers R N Thyagarajan and Dr R N Tharanathan. K K Murthy Memorial Chowdiah awardees T N Seshagopalan and the Rudrapatnam Brothers R N Thyagarajan and R N Tharanathan. Pic: C R Sridhar After vedic chanting and a prayer, the programme began with a welcome speech by Dr G K Veeresh, President of the Academy of Music. Later Subbaraj Urs, Secretary…

After Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, the Milan Luthria-Ekta Kapoor-Shobha Kapoor trio are back with The Dirty Picture, and it's a collaboration that holds much promise for Hindi cinema. Source: Wikipedia While one misses the edgy unpredictability of Luthria's earlier film Taxi No 9211 or the grit of Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, The Dirty Picture creates its own cinematic place. While based on the story of South Indian female actor Silk Smitha, the film also explores sensuality on celluloid and the meaning of success. But be warned that the film is not a biographical history. Instead, it…

As a young girl growing up in Chennai (then Madras), I always enjoyed school excursions and day trips with friends and family to Mahabalipuram also referred to as Mamallapuram. En route to this seat of splendid ancient heritage of the Pallava dynasty that ruled parts of southern India, is the well known Cholamandal Artists' Village. It is believed to be the largest artists' commune in this country, I remember it as a place filled with artists, craftspersons and visitors. Although Cholamandal always attracted my attention, I never got an opportunity to spend too much time there. So, meeting with and…