Two years ago, Ekta Mittal, co-founder, Maraa and Yashaswini Raghunandan, a film maker and artist started working on their film “Behind the Tin Sheets”, a production that documents the lives of workers involved in building the Bangalore Metro.

garage-sale-poster

Here is a synopsis of the film from their website: “There is no simple meaning to the film, it sets out to locate and map multiple meanings from the migrating world(s) of the worker – at home in the city, at work on the Metro, in his dailyness – the mundane and the magic – he emerges as the storyteller. In search of the workers stories, philosophies and fantasies, the film will blend magical elements from their stories within the realistic environment that they inhabit.”

A fellowship from the Centre for Media and Culture Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences supported the making of the film to a certain extent. But the duo need another lakh of rupees to finish the post production including the sound, editing etc.

To help complete the film and mobilize finances, a garage sale is being organised in the premises of Variety Book House on Church Street, from 4-8 pm on Saturday, March 26.

There will be books, trinkets, paintings, Cds/DVDs, t-shirts and other knick knacks contributed by people, available for purchase. You can participate by either donating items, buying items available during the sale or sending money directly to Ekta and Yahas.

For more details, email Ekta at forekta at gmail.com and Zainab Bawa on bawazainab79 at gmail.com.

Perhaps this is one of the biggest desires everyone will have in the city, the Metro, with news claiming that the Metro network will be fully operational by September 2012..

“The project, consisting of seven underground stations, will be commissioned by September 2012. On completion, train service will be provided at an interval of four minutes initially, and it will be reduced to three minutes in due course,” BMRCL has committed to get the entire network ready by that month in an affidavit filed in the Karnataka High Court. Hope this deadline does not remain on the affidavit alone…

All of you who are ready to get married and have got bored of registering in all the matrimony websites, here is Bangalore’s solution to find your partner. No more paid websites, no more newspaper columns!!

Get Married!!! Pics: By Author

Get your own Pics: By Author

 

Up for sale? Pic: By Author

Can you think of a better way of finding your life partner or want to just buy your bag before its too late?

Earlier this week(April 13 and 14), the Bangalore Metro Rail corporation (BMRCL) has demolished over 500 feet of Lalbagh’s wall and cut down 5 eucalyptus trees inside Lalbagh. BMRCL proposes to have a Metro station inside Lalbagh itself – Bangalore’s distinctive botanical garden!

Lalbagh is protected by a separate, stringent law. In a highly undemocratic move, the Karnataka Government changed the law by moving an ordinance to acquire Lalbagh land for the Metro, rather than prefer a debate over the changed law, in the Assembly. The opposition has also failed to protest this undemocratic move.

Lalbagh and Lakshman Rao Park on R.V.Road, (also called the AC Road, Nanda Road ), both major landmarks and heritage of Bangalore are being destroyed for the Metro. This when the High Court is hearing PIL over alternatives in Metro alignment.

What seems like a minor portion of Lalbagh gone today will surely lead to greater portion of the park being taken away to create parking zones and malls that the Metro plans at its stations.

When they sought clearance, Metro authorities claimed trees on Nanda Road will be pruned, and not felled. Now they want to cut 323 trees on Nanda Road(R.V.Road) alone.

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Hasiru Usiru, a network of community organisations, residents associations, project affected communities, voluntary organisations and individuals concerned about protecting equitable access to public spaces such as roads and parks in Bengaluru, invite you to participate in a Walk to Reclaim Bengaluru on November 9th 2008, at 11 am at Lalbagh West Gate. The key purpose is to highlight the extensive damage that road-widening and Metro projects are causing to the city, destroying in the process lives, livelihoods and thousands of trees. This walk is also to demand an inclusive planning process in shaping our city and ensuring that short-sighted, elite induced, infrastructure development, does not cause irreversible damage to the city and ruin the lives of thousands.

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This is the Airtel office on Bannerghatta Road, near the Jayadeva flyover. True to the “modern” trend in architecture, the facade of the building is all glass; but look at the effect on the inside.

Since one entire wall is glass, the afternoon/evening sun pours in through it.

This is all very well for cities in cold countries where sunshine is a rare commodity, and buildings need to be heated. But here, where the mercury yesterday was at 34 degrees Celsius, it meant a huge volume of space where things were very uncomfortable.

Here are the staff, who have to sit facing the hot and intense sunlight throughout the afternoon:

The customers also have to sit in the sun, but at least they have their backs to it..and they are there for far less time.

The Airtel office is air-conditioned; I can also guess at the amount of energy and electricity it must be taking to cool down the space heated by the glass design of the building.

The architect who designed Jal Bhavan (it’s the building in the dead centre of that map, next to that “pleated” building) has said that glass is a bad material for architecture in India; it heats up the inside of the buildings, which then have to be cooled down at enormous cost in terms of electricity/energy.

Having been in the Airtel office, I would tend to agree.

Those who belong to the “mainstream” are often unaware of some events that touch the lives of those who belong to the “fringes”.

I was walking down the Jayadeva flyover when I noticed these posters:

Here’s the English one:

and the Kannada one:

I had never been aware at all that there was this kind of initiative to give some voice to some of the minority groups in our city. Unfortunately, the posters do not clearly specify where the venue is (I do not know where Bannappa Park is) and so might have lost a lot of their effectiveness in getting a gathering there.

I wonder who organized this rally and cultural event, and how it went.

Life is tough enough when one belongs to the “normal” category; I can only imagine how it must be if society in general does not accept one, and one faces derision and castigation at every turn….many people handle it by not being open about themselves. Those who are honest enough to declare themselves as being “different” are those who face the maximum difficulties.

I saw the posters too late to attend the event; but they made me think a lot about the human condition, and tolerance, or the lack of it, in our society.

Dr K J Yesudas’ inaugural concert for the Ramanavami series at Sri Ramaseva Mandali, Chamarajpet on Ugadi Day (April 7), with the classic pieces like the well-beloved “Vatapi Ganapathim Bhaje” as well as lesser-known padams like “Enanittu Mechisuveno” was good …… but if only he hadn’t also studded the concert with the speech, no, preach, about money, remuneration for artistes, sponsors, and so on….that really did not go with the mood of the concert.

In fact, there are times when I wish that even if lecture-demonstration concerts, there is less of the lecture and more of the singing! But this of course is only my opinion….

But music lovers have many good concerts in store yet, but how people are expected to arrive for a concert at 5 pm on a working day is not something I can understand…nor the different timings on different days. However, there must be some logic to this.

Venue: Government Junior College, Fort High School Grounds.

Monday, April 14:

5pm, Saptha Swara award presentation to the following artistes, Parasala Ponnammal, T K Govinda Rao, Manakkal Rangarajan, Tiruananthapuram R Venkataraman, Mysore Mahadevappa, H G Krishnamurhty.

6.45pm, Kadri Gopalnath on the saxophone, with Kanyakumari on the violin and percussion by Harikumr, N Amruth and B Rajashekar.

Tuesday April 15:

5pm, Manasi Prasad and party.

7.15pm, Pattabhirama Pandit, TKV Ramanujacharyalu, Arjun Kumar and B N Chandramouli

Wednesday, April 16:

5.15pm: Kamakshi and Meenakshi, vocal duet.
6.30pm: R K Padmnabha, Parur M A Krishnaswamy, H S Sudhindra, and Sukanya Ramgopal.

Thursday, April 17:

5.15 pm: C Arvind Athryea and party.
6.30pm: N Vijaya Siva,N Charulatha Ramanujam, Neyveli Narayanan, N Amruth.

Friday, April 18:

5.15pm: Padmashree and Godamani, vocal duet
6.30pm: Malladi Brothers, Sriram and Ravi, TKV Ramanujacharyalu, K V Prasad, and B N Chandramouli.

Saturday, April 19:

5.15pm, Surabhi and party
6.30pm, Mysore Nagaraj and Mysore Manjunath, violin duet, Tiruvarur Bhakhtavatsalam and Vaikom Gopalakrishnan.

Sunday, April 20:

Founder’s Day.

9am: Felicitations to senior musicians and musicologists. Nedunuri Krishanmurthy, Nagai Muralidharan, K V Prasad, N Amruth.

6.30pm:Hyderabad Brothers, Raghavachary and Seshachary), S Varadarajan, Mannargudi Easwaran, B R Ravikumar.

Do enjoy as many of these concerts as you can!

Spotted this lovely slogan….

Surely something that the BBMP can remember, in their haste to cut down as many trees as possible in the quickest time…

At this house…..

the election campaign for the Janata Dal is beginning, with this vehicle. Here’s the front view:

The back view:

and the side view:

the name says, “jAthyAtheetha janatha dal” (secular janata dal; literally translated, “beyond caste”).

Then comes the banner that asks if you are on the electoral rolls, and if not, tells you what to do:

The elections, they are a-coming, and we’re getting ready, too……