Society

A wall is a wall, whether it is plain, peeling or broken. But it is much more when it is painted with flowers, animals and mystical beings. It is street art. On Rest House Road, off St Marks Roads, one can see flowers, clouds and a man reading under a tree.Shilo Shiv Suleman, Siddharth Chadha and Ridhi D Cruz are the three young people who painted this wall. Ridhi is a Bangalorean, trained as a journalist, who freelances with independent media projects. Chadha who is from Delhi and Ridhi’s J-school classmate, is a film maker and researcher. Shilo is a…

One can get a peek into the Bharatratna and Oscar Award winner’s life at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on Palace Road, where slew of photographs by Nemai Ghosh titled, “Satyajit Ray: From Script to Screen”, are on display. They are on display till November 27th of this month. One of Satyajit Ray's photographs displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Pic: Deepa Vaishnavi It is said, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ This is indeed the case with these photographs which have been selected from over tens of thousands of photographs taken over a period…

Life throws pleasant surprises along the way when you least expect it. Until Friday afternoon I hadn’t really planned on attending the launch of Yt’angle (Yours Truly angle for children by the theatre group Yours Truly). But one thing led to another and me, a reluctant theatre enthusiast jumped at the chance of introducing my children to theatre. They were not entirely enthusiastic about this last minute Saturday program to go watch a play when they could be home with video games and television. The chock-a-bloc traffic and losing our way to JC Road didn’t help either. But we reached…

Meteor showers happen when masses of meteors fall into the earth's atmosphere in a shower, producing heavenly fireworks. They are named after the constellations in which they are seen. On October 24th, we had the Orionid showers, and on November 17th, we are about to witness the Leonid showers. Expected peak of the Leonid Showers over India Approximately midnight to 3.40 AM on the night of the 17th/early morning of the 18th of November, 2009. (Actual time may vary). The showers can be viewed with the naked eye and no telescope is required. For more info see here and here.…

Children of Government Kannada Lower Primary School, Kattigenahalli (Yelahanka Post) decided they had had enough. Potable drinking water at school had been a problem for them for a long time now. They approached their neighbours – Astra Zeneca. In a couple of days, they had a water filter donated and installed. On the other side of town, children from RV Public School, VV Puram Bangalore were bothered by the chronic shortage of blood for emergency procedures. They launched a door-to-door awareness campaign to explore popular myths, and misconceptions about blood donation. The children persevered even when professionals and educated citizens…

Ever heard of a rock concert especially for inmates? In what may well rank as India’s first ever rock concert for prison inmates,  Raghu Dixit Project rocked Bangalore Central Jail on November 11th with their upbeat songs. "This is to celebrate life". Pic: Ganesh Raghunathan. Raghu Dixit Project, considered one of the country’s finest rock bands had a one hour concert for around 4500 inmates of Bangalore Central Jail, between 11.30 and 1PM. The jail is located at Parappana Agrahara, Hosa Road, Bengaluru.“This is to celebrate life,” says Dixit adding “No matter what you have done in the past there…

From avid book lovers to light readers, the Bangalore Book Fest is catering to all types of visitors. Children's books seemed to be the most popular genre and almost two thirds of the books displayed are meant for junior readers. Navya M Gowda, all of four and a half, seemed extremely thrilled with her copy of “Clifford’s Loose Tooth” from Scholastic. Pic: Deepti Sarma. The festival has been on full swing at Palace Grounds, from November 6th when it was inaugurated by Rastrakavi Shivarudrappa. With over 350 stalls, the festival is slated to end on Sunday November 15th. In 2008, 10…

This year's Bangalore Book Festival was neither better nor worse than usual, which is to say that it mainly offered the advantages of visiting a number of more or less ordinary bookstores in a single venue. I am always on the look-out for translations of literature from different countries and regions into English, but if this was a focus area at the Festival, it was not evident to me in the few hours I spent there. By and large, apart from the special focus sections on Kannada literature, the exhibitors had the usual run of the mill fare you find…

Glass House in the Rain. Pic: Srikanth A P.Ducks in the drizzle. Pic: Srikanth A P.Just drizzled. Pic: Srikanth A P.Something hot. Pic: Srikanth A P.Dining table of Lalbagh. Pic: Srikanth A P.State Central Library in Cubbon Park. Pic: Srikanth A P.‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); ⊕

It’s as if it was just last weekend I realised that the strange-shaped building coming up near my home was ready and would be a new hub for theatre in south Bangalore. The years that followed established this role firmly, and it was with pride that I took my place in the queue for the first of the plays that Ranga Shankara was staging to celebrate its fifth anniversary. It’s time to take stock, perhaps, of what Ranga Shankara has achieved and what it yet needs to do. Srinivasan and Jagadish of Ranga Shankara ensure that all aspects of plays…