Society

Bangalore Gayana Samaja is one of the oldest institutions, promoting classical arts, in the city. The 45th annual conference of the Samaja concluded in the last week of October. For Carnatic music buffs, this was a week-long feast of lecture-demonstrations (lec-dems as they're refered to) in the morning and concerts every evening.  Each year, the conference also bestows the prestigious 'Sangeetha Kalaratna' award on a musician. This year's recipient was the violinist Mysore Mahadevappa. The second concert of this year's conference was by T V Shankaranarayanan (TVS) on Monday, October 21. Sankarnarayan's vocal recital was marked with rich classicism and…

Every one of us who’s been to a Bharatanatyam dance recital would have heard a tillana. Tillanas are recognisable due to their use of rhythmic syllables such as ta ka dhimi, takita jham jham. In fact, the word tillana itself is onomatopoeic. Tillanas in addition to their rhythmic syllables or jathis also have a few lines of lyrics or sahitya. The sahitya appears in the charanam or the last part of the composition. A lecture demonstration (lec-dem) on the tillanas of Veena Seshanna was held on Wednesday, October 23, during the annual conference of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. Mysore Subramanya,…

Every one of us who’s been to a Bharatanatyam dance recital would have heard a tillana. Tillanas are recognisable due to their use of rhythmic syllables such as ta ka dhimi, takita jham jham. In fact, the word tillana itself is onomatopoeic. Tillanas in addition to their rhythmic syllables or jathis also have a few lines of lyrics or sahitya. The sahitya appears in the charanam or the last part of the composition. A lecture demonstration (lec-dem) on the tillanas of Veena Seshanna was held on Wednesday, October 23, during the annual conference of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. Mysore Subramanya,…

“Do you want to catch this 'Purusha Sukta' at Ranga Shankara? After a long hiatus, the spouse was finally trying to get our social life in gear. “What is it? A play? A concert?” While I always briefly scanned the daily listing of classical concerts in Bangalore, having two teens meant we had little time to catch the performing arts. Now with both the kids in college, we've finally re-awakened to the arts scene in Bangalore. Bangalore's messy and seemingly chaotic growth has seen it evolve a more cosmopolitan cultural milieu. Avante-garde theatre and art, Mediterranean food and music of…

“Do you want to catch this 'Purusha Sukta' at Ranga Shankara? After a long hiatus, the spouse was finally trying to get our social life in gear. “What is it? A play? A concert?” While I always briefly scanned the daily listing of classical concerts in Bangalore, having two teens meant we had little time to catch the performing arts. Now with both the kids in college, we've finally re-awakened to the arts scene in Bangalore. Bangalore's messy and seemingly chaotic growth has seen it evolve a more cosmopolitan cultural milieu. Avante-garde theatre and art, Mediterranean food and music of…

Report by Prasanna Vynatheya of PNLIT The event 'Raise Your Voice Bengaluru', as I understood it, was to bring those concerned people who would like to participate in their own capacity to make our Karnataka a better place for us and our posterity. The venue was NMKRV College, Jayanagar 3rd Block on Sunday the 27th Oct 2013. The lead person of the organizing group Mr. Rajeev Gowda spoke eloquently and sincerely, so too each and every one of the other seven speakers. The message was loud and clear! People come out and participate as rightful citizens of this nation, demand quality in all…

Report by Prasanna Vynatheya of PNLIT The event 'Raise Your Voice Bengaluru', as I understood it, was to bring those concerned people who would like to participate in their own capacity to make our Karnataka a better place for us and our posterity. The venue was NMKRV College, Jayanagar 3rd Block on Sunday the 27th Oct 2013. The lead person of the organizing group Mr. Rajeev Gowda spoke eloquently and sincerely, so too each and every one of the other seven speakers. The message was loud and clear! People come out and participate as rightful citizens of this nation, demand quality in all…

My main long-term aim with growing vegetables, as with most other home gardeners, is to be self-sustainable and not need to buy anything much from the vegetable market. Though I have a way to go for achieving this, there are days when all the dishes on the tables have vegetables only from my terrace or my patch from Green Thumbs; and that is such a thrilling feeling for me J.   I spoke about sowing winged beans in an earlier post, so I thought I must share a pic of my harvest as well: Pic courtesy: Jyothi Vaidyanathan Last week…

My main long-term aim with growing vegetables, as with most other home gardeners, is to be self-sustainable and not need to buy anything much from the vegetable market. Though I have a way to go for achieving this, there are days when all the dishes on the tables have vegetables only from my terrace or my patch from Green Thumbs; and that is such a thrilling feeling for me J.   I spoke about sowing winged beans in an earlier post, so I thought I must share a pic of my harvest as well: Pic courtesy: Jyothi Vaidyanathan Last week…

It is really the small changes, the ones that you see everyday, but don’t quite remember seeing, that seem to change a Street. As one street changes from being a quiet street to being a busy street, somewhere else another street begins its transformation. Every changing street changes its neighbourhood, and every changing neighbourhood changes the city. The small changes are seen everywhere, in almost every city in India. In Bangalore, it’s the Adiga’s lane off Bannerghatta road, in Mumbai, it’s the Hill road in Bandra - streets that are “not the same anymore”. Here, in Bangalore, we have been…