Society

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…

In Bangalore, Yours Truly Theatre (YTT) has been working on a form of theatre that has been tried in a few places around the globe; it's called Interactive Theatre, where the members of the audience are active participants in the production. In several plays, so far, Yours Truly Theatre has stopped the storyline at some point, asked the audience for inputs and the cast then act out the denouement of the play according to the directions that the audience members give. Scene of a play at YTT (pic: Deepa Mohan) Taking this initiative further, on 22nd February 2009, at the…

In 1996, noted writer and publisher, S V Sreenivasa Rao, was given the Aryabhatta award, in recognition of his contribution to Kannada literature. Thereafter he was awarded the ‘Kannada Sri' from the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (2000) and ‘Karnataka Sri' from Karnataka Rajya Prashasti (2005). Rao has also won Attimabbe and Ranne Sahitya Prashasti for Mahitikosha, his encyclopedia on Kannada writers. Sreenivasa and Anusuya Rao (pic: Sudha Narasimhachar) Winning awards is a habit for 76-year-old Rao. His drawing room has no more space, given the awards that he's won; starting from school days, through college life, until today. Strangely enough, this…

PaintingsA stunning new collection of paintings by artist Shan Re was unveiled at F&B Restaurant, Papanna Street, off St. Mark's Road , Bangalore. The exhibition was on between 30th January and 15th February . The collection comprised only of oil on canvas with interesting and brilliant use of colours. Just as one entered the cafe, the paintings on the ‘art wall' created an extremely inviting atmosphere, leaving a strange sense of happiness lingering among visitors. Although the general inspiration was nature and flowers, the pan flow and effect was extensively used, giving an impression of a view from a window…

Life on a road with all the hustle bustle goes on as usual. One fine day, residents and traders on that road wake up to the fact that there are strange markings on many of the properties which have appeared overnight. The President of the Traders Association gets a letter from the municipality that the road where they do business and reside is up for expansion. Reason: need for better connectivity from the city centre to the new international airport. A couple of days later, overcome with grief, the man suffers a heart-attack and passes away. Undeterred by the official…