Society

If kite flying has ever caught your fancy, ‘Gaalipata Time' maybe a good place to start. Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Citizen Matters are organising this community event on Sunday, February 12th.  Time: 9 am - 3 pm, February 12thVenue: Koramangala 3rd block playground, next to Post Office, 12th main, 3rd block. Kite expert and former state award winner Sabir Hussian will guide those participating in kite flying. "There will be some 50 varieties of kites for sale and exhibition at the event. In additional to traditional kites, there will be designer kites with bird and animal patterns. Kites will be…

As some of you may have seen the announcements, Citizen Matters' second print edition has launched in Koramangala-HSR layout from 14 January. This is a very exciting development for us and is inline with our plan to foster hyperlocal communities around Bengaluru through independent coverage of current affairs, communitiy and culture. Two fortnightly editions are currently going out of our office every alternate week, one for the JP Nagar-BTM-Jayanagar area and one for Koramangala-HSR. Like the active community in Jayanagar-JP Nagar area, Koramangala and HSR Layout's citizens too are at the forefront of several city reform initiatives. Many of them…

‘Varna Mythri - Centenary Retrospective 2011' was launched in December 2011 to commemorate the birth centennial of artist Rumale Chennabasaviah. The retrospective is being held by National Gallery of Modern Art NGMA, Benglauru. Play of light, High Court, c 1960 - oil on canvas. Pic courtesy: NGMA The programme was to end on 31 January but the date has been now extended. "By popular demand, the last date for viewing has been extended until 19 February 2012", shared Shoba Nambisan, the director of NGMA.The programme included insightful weekly discussions by artists and art historians on Rumale's paintings, landscape art and…

The Bengaluru Habba featured the staging of Robert Bolt's A Man for all Seasons. For those of us not familiar with Bolt's name, he was an Oscar-winning screenplay writer and playwright, who wrote the screenplays for Dr Zhivago (one of his Oscar efforts) and the legendary Lawrence of Arabia.His other Oscar came from the screenplay adaptation of this play, A Man for all Seasons. The play for the Habba was stage directed by Arjun Sajnani, who is of course known for the high quality of his productions that include Fire and Rain and Tughlaq. This play was no different in…

Filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli has won hearts and stimulated minds for a few decades now. Ghatashraadhha to Gulabi Talkies, his films have won him great accolades. He offers interpretations of the stories he chooses, something not usually done by directors. Citizen Matters caught up with this resident of BTM Layout for an interview. I see a shift in your film-making. Recent films, especially those after Gulabi Talkies seem to be explicitly ideological in nature. They ‘tell’ more than ‘show’, I think. What do you mean when you say ‘ideological’? My films have always had a political-social message, if you like. It…

This is not the story of someone who fought against an indifferent system and brought it to its knees, rather of someone who made her peace with the system and worked patiently from within, to achieve the best results possible. Pic: Manvel Alur Manvel Alur's connection with the environment seems almost karmic, with her choices in life steering her on the green path quite early on. Even as a child growing up in Bangalore, she was environmentally aware enough to write in to the National Geographic magazine on various issues and it seemed like a natural transition that she went…

On Sunday, 29 January, Kumara Krupa road was transformed into Montmartre, art village of Paris. About 5 lakh people visited the 9th annual Chitra Kala Parishath's (CKP) Chitra santhe. Traffic was blocked on the Kumara Krupa road upto Shivananda circle and neighbouring roads from 7am to7pm to make room for art. Pic: Deepti Sarma Chitra Santhe is held on the last Sunday of January, every year. This year over 1600 artists from all over the country displayed their work. The number of visitors this year has gone up by about 50%. This could be because of more publicity feels C…

Clint Eastwood continues to increase his repertoire as a director. This time, he returns with the historical documentary film J. Edgar.The film is FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’ story, and a glimpse into the life’s work that went into the making of the FBI. Besides giving us an interpretation of Hoover’s personal journey, the film also has a telling take on contemporary American political life. Source: Wikipidea Yet within a genre of films perfected in Hollywood, and epitomized in the work of directors like Oliver Stone (JFK and Nixon) and Martin Scorsese (Aviator), Clint Eastwood’s attempt seems to fall short.…

There's more to being a parent than posing prettily with the cherub, wrote a slightly hassled friend on Facebook. The reason? Her son's upcoming birthday or at least the decision making process of it. I could not resist an evil and slightly relieved laugh. So it wasn't just me who dreaded the birthday juggernaut- the planning, the presents, the cake, the theme and of course, the return gift, which is a must give these days unless you have been living under a rock or are very brave and do not care for public opinion, especially from pint sized people.At our…

"Every morning in Africa, when a Gazelle wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."We've heard this quoted every time when talk veers about running. For humans though, running is not a means for survival, but it certainly is a means for healthy living.I am a resident of Chaithanya Samarpan, a…