The launch of the Bangalore Brevets ride will happen on Sunday, December 5. This is a launch ride for a series of brevet rides that will be held in the city next year as qualifiers to the prestigious Paris-Brest-Paris event. More details are here: http://www.bangalorebrevets.in

The event is expected to see nearly 200 cyclists gather to do distances between 50-200 kms! The participants are given 13.5 hours to complete the whole distance of 200kms. There will be time stations along the way, but the ride is going to be self supported. This means that participants will have to take care of their food, water and other needs on the way by themselves – making this event more challenging!

The route is on Airport road, starting from Cubbon Park. It’s going to be a collective mileage of 25,000 Kms that will be logged in, which is more than 60% of equator! (And 8 times Kashmir-Kanyakumari!). This is going to be a totally voluntary effort, run by the very enthusiastic cycling community of Bangalore, comprising of members of Bums on the Saddle, a vibrant initiative to bring about a cycling revolution in the city and Cleated Warriors, a team that is made up of like-minded folks who are passionate about cycling.

So if you’re interested in cycling and want to give this a go, be there on Sunday at Cubbon Park! Remember that you can do smaller distances too if you don’t feel upto the 200k!

More information: http://www.bangalorebrevets.in/LaunchRide.htm

In the month of July, Vikap Bengaluru brings you two films:

1. July 16th
Mean Sea Level
by Pradip Saha

Time: 6.30 pm
Venue: Alliance Francaise, 108 Thimmaiah Road, Opp.UNI Building Vasanthnagar, Bangalore
Phone: 4080 8181 / 4123 1340

2. July 17th
THE SPEAKING HAND – Zakir Hussain and the art of the Indian drum
by Sumantra Ghosal

Time: 6 pm sharp
Venue: Centre for Film and Drama, 5th floor, Sona Towers, 71 Millers Road, Bangalore
Phone: 22356263

Both the screenings are free and open to all.

Filmmakers of both the documentaries will be present for their screenings.

(more…)

The third Bus Day, one of BMTC’s successful campaigns urging people to commute by public transport, will be observed on April 7 (Wednesday) instead of the usual 4th of every month. The change is because April 4 is a Sunday and April 5 is BBMP poll counting day. This time, buses will be deployed in five corridors.
The last two Bus Days in February and March received a positive response with NGOs and MNCs supporting the cause. The campaign also encouraged the use of company buses and employees of tech majors like Wipro and Infosys bussed to their campuses in large numbers.

This time, the campaign will focus on five corridors; Bannerghatta Road, Hosur Road, Sarjapur Road, Old Airport Road to ITPB and Old Madras Road. BMTC met with several NGOs and associations on Thursday and representatives of tech companies chipped in with their inputs on scope and schedules for April 7.
[Link from TOI]

March 22nd World Water Day

New bill to penalize those wasting drinking water-Deccan Herald, Bangalore March9

Privatisation no solution to tackle water shortage in city- Deccan Herald March 9

Water Crisis to worsen in city- Deccan Herald March 12

City is the second highest water waster in country at 50.9% New Delhi tops the list at 52.4%- Deccan Herald March 13

While all these questions remain unanswered and new ones added, the city gets thirstier under the scorching summer sun and the water vendors make a fast buck( in some instances as much as Rs 1000) for a tank load of water.

A consortium of concerned organisations and institutions working on water and environment issues invite you to a panel discussion and film screenings on the use and abuse of water:

March 22nd & 23rd March, 2010 at Ashirvad, 30 St. Mark’s Road Cross, Opp. State Bank of India at 5.45pm.

Programme details

5.45 pm: Tea

6 Water Songs by Bhoomi Thayi Balaga,followed by Panel discussion: on the use and abuse of water

Panelists:

1. Prof. Stewart Ayash will speak on the Global Use and Abuse of Water. He is a scholar on international health issues, health communication and consumer health issues.

2. Viswanath Srikantaiah will speak on Water through the Ages in India. Vishwanath is a well known water activist from Bangalore who is deeply committed to water conservation and rain water harvesting. He is the founder of Rainwater Club Bangalore.

6.45 pm: Film Screening:˜Water and a City” directed by Swati Dandekar, followed by discussions.

Professor Patricia Zimmerman will lead the discussion on the Film. Prof. Patricia Zimmerman from Ithaca College USA is a scholar on cinema, photography and media arts and the co-director of Finger lake environmental film festival.

7.30 pm: Film screening ˜Living on the Edge” directed by Raseena Sherif and Anu Priya, students of Jyothi Nivas College, followed by discussions.

Mr. Leo Saldana, of Environment Support Group and environmental justice campaigner will lead the discussion.

Tuesday 23rd

6.30 pm: 6.00 pm: Film screening a) ˜Publos unibos: swineflu ground zero in mexico”- directed by Felipe Casanova and Miguel Angel Tiaz & b) ˜From big easy to big empty”- directed by Greg Palaston

Discussions with Prof. Patricia and Prof. Stewart

For Synopsis of the film,click

here

Contact: 25493705/9886213516

———————————————————————————————————————
Organised by Bangalore Film Society, Bhoomi Network, Green Path, Voices from the Waters, Environment Support Group (Environmental, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives). Suchitra Film Society, Rainwater Club and Samvada

In association with Decathlon Sports, Kalenji Club, OnMobile and Forum Value Mall, Runner Girls India is proud to present the second edition of “Girls on the Run”.

Details

* Distance: 5k, 10K
* Registration time: 6 am
* Start time: 6.30 am
* Registration fee: Rs 100*
* Date: March 28, 2010
* Venue: Decathlon Sports, Sarjapura Road

* Registration process:
Call +91 505 101035 to register
(Only Visa Cards accepted and Call charges Rs. 6/- per minute)
OR
Walk-in registrations at Decathlon store March 15 onwards (10 am – 7 pm)

DIRECTIONS TO THE VENUE:
Get onto to Sarjapur Road (you will cross Springfields Apartments on your right) till you see the WIPRO office on the left.

After WIPRO, keep going straight towards the railway crossing on Sarjapur Road (away from TOTAL Mall), you will come to the Bellandur intersection and Bellandur bus stop.

Continue straight and cross the railway crossing. Then immediately you will see the store on your right.

Visit: Runner Girls India

Girls on the Run

Robinson & Crusoe
February 5 to 7, 2010 at Ranga Shankara

Meet Robinson & Crusoe … Two soldiers … One roof … Ocean all around… No common language … Friendship prevails! Action and fun like never before. For the young, young adults and young at heart.

Robinson & Crusoe is a Ranga Shankara production directed by Gracias Devaraj, who starred in the original German production by Schnnawl which played at Ranga Shankara in 2006, and who started his theatrical career in Bangalore. Tickets are available at

Ranga Shankara

36/2, 8th Cross
J P Nagar, II Phase
Bangalore – 560 078
P: 080-26493982 / 26592777
E: rstheatre@gmail.com
W: www.rangashankara.org

and

www.indianstage.in.

On Sunday, 25 October 2009, join a bunch of enthusiastic, energetic girls for Bangalore’s first women’s only running event – brought to you by RunnerGirlsIndia (RGI)! Come and run or walk with us!

This Girls on the Run event is partnered with YLG Salon and Spa; each participant will receive a YLG MyWaxer Gift Voucher! Come to experience breakthrough services at conveniently located YLG salon and spa exclusively for women in Bangalore. And do join YLG on Facebook, just click here.

We would love to see women coming forward and joining us – and don’t worry if you’re not confident about running – the event is mainly to encourage all of you to get out your shoes and get walking, skipping and active and maybe rediscover your love for the outdoors! So drop your inhibitions – you have nothing to lose but some morning sleep!

The directions to the venue are on this page.

Don’t forget to send off a mail to girlsontherun at runnergirlsindia.com register for the run. And please spread the word around!

Men, do encourage the women in your lives to participate and don’t forget to forward this message to them!

First, I was wearing a winning smile and authoritative tone to respond to unwanted calls from insurance, credit card and even stock broking houses ringing in… since Sept 2008 I was informed my number is on a” National DO NOT call list” the much hyped process that delivered just a promise of respecting my privacy… it is been a while now and the I have matured! I came to know that there is nothing in India that is promised and delivered as a system when it comes to such arrangements. The very fact that each operator first took your complains and never let you know if they have informed the caller or even bother to keep track of the numbers that called me umpteen number of times that was directly proportional to the complaints I registered…

Soon came the prohibition of SMS, that were too drafted in that act to provide additional layer of the comfort to all user that the respect for privacy comes along in made shapes and shades…the shady work continues as operators now send me SMSs using a character name of sender so that your can not identify the number from where they were sent as well as you can never complain against them… the saga continues raising the tolerance levels as I continue to change and learn patience… the program which should have been called NATIONAL TELECOM USERS STRESS MANAGENT was yielding results in the context of useless words and never even successful marketing initiatives amidst the unsolicited calls… the years passed by!!

As a matter of fact I now have learned to accept that each of such calls make me speak to someone who also is under the same stress management program but gets paid to do so. The aggression has tamed down and given my way to politeness eventually…I learnt it hard way and thanks to “whom so ever” drafting the act and the process thereof” I continue to be polite, indifferent to the callers and the principle who continue to boost corporate social responsibilities by their honchos yet enable triggers that ring in me time and again…!!

Here’s an announcement from the Bangalore Bikers’ Club, a community I am proud to belong to!

Groundbreaking Children’s Ride.
When are we riding: Sunday, September 6th 2009
Starting point: Sarjapur Road.
http://quikmaps.com/show/113961 shows the directions from the junction of Outer Ring Road/Sarjapur ring road to the starting point. PLEASE NOTE THE GREEN ARROW IS THE STARTING POINT

Gathering time: 4:00PM
Departure time: 4:30PM
Expected finish time: 6:30PM
Ride type: All Road Child Friendly RIDE
Distance: two circles – one each 3KM and a 5KM circle. We will try to identify some place where we can stop for ice creams or kid-friendly snacks after the event.
Number of children: Unknown at this time. (Will circulate this when we are done)

NOTE: THIS IS OUR FIRST RIDE. SO PLEASE BEAR WITH US AND GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK ON WHAT WE CAN DO TO IMPROVE YOUR CHILD’S EXPERIENCE. WE ORGANIZERS ARE PARENTS TOO, SO WE HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN THIS EVENT :-)

Started in 2007, this is a series of quarterly lectures this year on science, technology and the internet in India. The lectures, under the banner of the Yahoo! Big Thinkers India series, bring together academia, scientists, the corporate world and the media.

The speakers are acclaimed experts from the Yahoo! International team. They bring with them the expertise and global perspective of the constantly changing world of technology, online products & communities and the internet space in general.

This time the topic is:
Sociotechnical Design and Engineering: Putting People First

The speaker is Elizabeth Churchill, a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research, where she manages the research area of Internet Experiences. A psychologist by training, for the past 15 years she has drawn on diverse areas to consider how to design effective communication situations both face to face and technologically mediated. Applications developed and/or evaluated include cell phone interfaces, textual and 3d graphical environments, interactive digital posterboards and animated interface personas.

Abstract: Sociotechnical design is concerned with understanding how users and technologies shape each other. When studying how people use systems and applications, it is often possible to see inconsistencies between anticipated use and actual use in everyday life. By taking a social and human activity-centered perspective, we can tease out where expectation and practice converge and diverge – allowing us to identify opportunities for innovation, and to design more useful applications and services. In this talk Churchill explores these topics through case studies of several internet applications.

More details are here…

If you find the topic of interest and relevance, you can register yourself for the event.

Date/Time:
Friday, Sep 11, 2009
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Grand Ballroom, The Leela, Bangalore