Society

A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest on July 19, 2014. Pic courtesy: Reuters Some time ago, a couple of days after the rape of a school girl in a leading school, there was this very striking image, published on the front page of a leading newspaper; it was that of a visibly angry young woman who was part of a protest group appearing to shout at someone, maybe at someone in the school (we will probably never know). That face and that anger which was so palpable, in essence captured the anger of a whole lot of people, be…

One of the origami cranes with the message of acceptance on the bottom of the wings is shown above. Credit: Shivani Pal Shivani Pal, a fan of Origami, residing in Bangalore, firmly believes she can overturn the societal conviction where inter-caste marriage is treated as a “crime.” Shivani is working on a project to promote acceptance of inter-caste marriage as part of her education at the Landmark Worldwide group. The project is two-fold: Her and a close group of family and friends make origami cranes with a message about “A Community of Love: Look beyond caste, creed and religion” with…

Preschools are much-needed in today's situation, but the sector is unregulated, so does not have any norms. File pic. There has been a preschool boom in Bangalore. Each layout, especially the residential ones, has at least a dozen preschools. The reasons seem quite obvious. What was once a play home for toddlers has now evolved as a lucrative business. Playschools have upgraded to preschools, which is undoubtedly a welcoming development for parents. What is unfortunate is the way this progress has blatantly turned into a money-making opportunity. A few years earlier, preschool education was a choice. Today, preschools have become…

A view of the lake in the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Pic: Christopher Martin Lopaze Here are a few things listed by a Bangalorean for a first-time visitor to namma Bengaluru. Bangalore is the capital city of Karnataka state in South India. Kannada is the local language spoken in the city though in the current times, most are well-versed with English and Hindi as well. There are a significant number of people who can speak Tamil, Telugu and other Indian languages, even though it may not be their native language. Similarly, there are migrants to this city who are from various…

As a fervent traveller around the country, having visited most of the megalopolises, often I have been asked to elucidate on those places which I had visited. The queries time and again revolved around some of the aspects like beauty, development, fashion, modernity, people etc of those places. However during my recent visit to my ancestral home for a wedding, I have been asked by a fifteen-year-old girl, a question that left me in thoughts. Since the wedding was more like a platform for rebuilding the lost relations, I was keen in talking with the 10th standard girl, who was…

T V Mohandas Pai, Chandrashekara Kambara, Vikram Sampath and Shinie Antony speaking to the media. Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF), the flagship literary event on the cultural calendar of Bangalore city, is all set to roll out its third edition from 26th to 28th September, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza, Velankani Tech Park in Electronics City. In its third edition, this renowned literary conclave which brings together hundreds of stalwarts from the world ofliterature and ardent book lovers, will have a special focus on the North-East. This edition is dedicated to the memory of the recently departed literary giant Prof. U…

  James Kingston, is a British freerunner and film stuntman, who visited Bengaluru earlier this month. On his Facebook page, Kingston describes himself as a person 'constantly looking for adventure.' This professional adventurer, travels around the world in search of new heights to scale. Once he is atop a building or a bridge, he shoots a video of the view around him. His adventures have led him to hang off the top of a 250 feet crane in Southhampton, leap from rooftop to rooftop around Cambridge and do a backflip off the 115 metre tall, Moscow bridge. He visited Bangalore to…

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthmurthy, one of the stalwarts in Kannada literature who got 6th Jnanpith award for Kannada, passed away on Friday, August 22, 2014. This leaves a deep void in Kannada literary world, leaving behind very few independent and fearless voices. He was suffering from diabetes, and his last days saw severe kidney failure which finally proved fatal for him. He was admitted to Manipal Hospital recently. On Friday, August 22nd, his blood pressure levels dropped and he had to be put on ventilator. He was declared dead by the doctors in the evening. Born in the pre-independence era, on…

Pigeons feeding in the Ram-Anjenaya temple premises. Picture: Ashok Kumar S I saw a person on the premises of Ramanjaneya temple at Basavangudi, Bengaluru. He looked to me like a middle-aged person; he must have been in his 50s. He had come there to walk, like everybody else. He carried with him a bag of food. The bag contained wheat grains, bread, milk and water. I wondered why he had brought along all this food, and whom did he bring it for. I continued watching him, to know what he was up to, and find out what he was going to…