Society

Meta-Culture, a Bangalore-based Relationship and Conflict Management consulting company, organised an event called Bengaluru Speaks on 21st February 2009 at the Ashirvad Community Centre on St. Mark’s Road. Bengaluru Speaks, a community conversation series is one of Meta-Culture’s community-focused initiatives, and had for its eighth theme: “Competing Cultures: Morals, Malls and Marriages”. The stated goal of the programme was to engage the people of Bengaluru in constructive conversation about critical issues so as to strengthen relationships across the city and create a more secure, cohesive and viable community. The event was organised to facilitate dialogue ‘in times of a rapid…

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists, principally, in dealing with men", said novelist Joseph Conrad, and for one who has been working for the welfare of women for the past 30 years, this is a reality. In a male-dominated society, Geeta Rao has been relentlessly working towards women empowerment, stalking the corridors of power, seeking justice, roaring like a lioness, and making a difference. "I have always been aggressive", says this compact bundle of energy, "nobody can take me for granted!" Geeta Rao felicitated at a function (pic courtesy: Geeta Rao) Forty-nine year old Geeta…

Education Namma Bengaluru mispresented in ICSC text book How is Bangalore- it is a city of traffic jams; how does Kannada sound- it sounds like mix of Tamil and Telugu… You will find such startling revealations about Namma Bengaluru in the 4th standard Geography ICSC text book. There are many such derogatory comments about Kannada, Bangalore and Karnataka in this text book called 'New starting Geography'. The book is published by Oxford Publications, New Delhi. (Vijaya Karnataka, Monday, Mar 9) 9 quota seats in MBBS go 'missing' Nine MBBS seats reserved for talented poor students are found unaccounted for in…

Just as I rued missing a January evening of South and West Asian folk music, thanks to my inertia, I was delighted to hear of the Kabir Festival, from 23rd February to 1st March, at various venues across Bengaluru. It promised to be a week of films, music and enjoyment. And so it was... A photo of Shabnam Virmani and her friends during a spontaneous singing session at the festival (Pic: T.B. Dinesh) An exciting and enchanting journey that began with the thought provoking and soulful 'Kabir ke dohe' (Kabir’s couplets), the festival offered an opportunity to interact with Shabnam…

On 8th March, the Fearless Karnataka group, in collaboration with the Blank Noise Project, responded to the attacks on women in Bengaluru between 6th and 28th February. They marked Women’s Day by conducting street plays and opinion polls, conversed with men and women on the streets, and distributed posters at Rest House Road, Vasanthnagar, CMH Road, Ulsoor and Cunningham Road. These were the very localities where attacks on the women were reported. The group wanted to spread awareness about the violence, and more importantly, to sensitise bystanders to respond proactively to such situations. Pranesh Prakash, a volunteer for the activities…

Sadrushya - the exhibition at Chitrakala Parishat, held from 28th February to 5th March, was an unusual one. It was a collection of paintings by Ashok V Bhandare, Ramesh Babu, Ramaiah, Raju D P and Venugopala A, all of whom once worked as artists for film banners. With the advent of digital printing and computer aided advertising having effectively wiped out the art of manual painting, these talented artists had to move onto other platforms to keep their art alive. Clockwise from top-left: Ganesha by Ashok V Bhandare, Shapes by Ramaiah, Mural by Ramesh Babu and Abstract by Raju D…

A Carnatic music aficionado new to Bengaluru may wonder how to go about attending Carnatic music concerts. In this city, Carnatic music festivals are oriented towards some commonly celebrated Hindu festivals. The concept of a season-specific festival, such as the ‘Margazhi festival', in Chennai, which always happens from mid-December to January, is not there in Bangalore. Sri Rama Lalitha Kala MandiraDifferent organizations and groups across Bangalore have been organizing music concerts and festivals for a long time now. These past few years have witnessed the likes of well known artistes like Dr. Balamuralikrishna, Sudha Raghunathan, Sanjay Subramaniam, Vishaka Hari, Kadri…

Runners For Life, a community of people who run to get fit announced their new event ‘Feet on the Street', a 5km run to be held in the city. The organisers will share a portion of the proceeds from the event with Dream A Dream, a local NGO working with some of Bangalore's most vulnerable children including orphans, street kids and other children in slum communities. The format of Feet on the Street is unique. These are monthly runs. It is not a track and field event, but will be held in a central location, Cubbon Park. In addition to…

I had been told about the Fireflies festival, an all-night event filled with music and gaiety. I had heard about the singers who come here and perform for 20-25 minutes but remain in the minds of the audience for the rest of the year. I had always wanted to go to Fireflies but could not do so due to various reasons. This time, on 22nd Feb, determination set the course and I made myself free for the event. My friends and I packed our bags well as we were told that we'd need mattresses, cushions, blankets and whatever it took…

It was good to see flights take-off once again at the old HAL airport last Sunday. Only, the planes that had a smooth takeoff and landing were made of paper. And the pilots were college students dressed casually in jeans and T-shirts. Redbull Paperwings contest underway (pic:PD) Red Bull, the energy drink maker, had organized a paper plane flying contest for college students in India for the first time, as part of a worldwide contest, held first in 2006. The qualifying rounds that were conducted in five major cities - New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, over January-February, attracted…