Members of the Mangalore Bicycle Club planting saplings at Baikampady Industrial Estate in Mangaluru on Sunday.—Photo: special arrangement
Members of Mangalore Bicycle Club plant 50 saplings
Members of the Mangalore Bicycle Club celebrated the fifth anniversary of the club founding day in a manner suitable to what they stand for—preserving the nature and conserving the environment—by planting 50 saplings of different varieties of trees and undertaking the responsibility of their growth.
Nearly hundred cyclists, who assembled at the City Corporation Circle at Lal Bagh early Sunday morning, pedalled towards Baikampady Industrial Area in Mangaluru and converged on the Prakash Offset Printers’ premises, which belongs to one of the members, Anand Prabhu. As they regrouped themselves, Lions district past governor K.C. Prabhu and environmentalist Dinesh Nayak, addressed the gathering.
Mr. Prabhu commended the riders and said that more Mangalureans should come forward for such initiatives. Mr. Nayak spoke about the medicinal values of saplings that were ready to be planted.
He said that fruit-bearing trees too were important for the conservation of environment as they were the ones sustaining the fauna in the environment. The saplings were provided by the Forest Department.
Later, one plant each was taken by two members, who planted them along the boundary line of the premises.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – June 28th, 2016
Archaeologists have not just discovered 70 burials from the Iron Age in Koppa, Karnataka.
Koppa is an early Iron Age megalithic burial site, located on the right bank of the Cauvery in Periyyapatna taluk, Mysuru district.
The discovery at Koppa in Mysuru district shows people also grew crops alongside
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Archaeologists have not just discovered 70 burials from the Iron Age in Koppa, Karnataka, they have, for the first time, shown that people also lived near burials and cultivated ragi and paddy crops. Koppa is an early Iron Age megalithic burial site, located on the right bank of the Cauvery in Periyyapatna taluk, Mysuru district.
“Koppa was discovered in 1868 by captain Cole, who was then the superintendent of Coorg (under Madras presidency). In the same year, he opened up 17 megaliths or burials. Later, KK Subbayya excavated a few more burials in Koppa. We, however, had no information about their habitation. My aim was therefore, to ascertain where people lived and I started my investigations from 2013,” Arjun Rao, archaeologist from the department of archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, told Bangalore Mirror.
Though more than 3,000 burial sites have been identified across the Deccan Plateau and burials range from five to 1,000 at these sites, little is known about their habitation and settlement patterns. The current study is an attempt to bridge this gap. The author initiated explorations across five densely spread megalithic sites across the Cauvery river bank, covering Kushalnagar, Kudige, Ramaswamy Kanive, Heggedehalli and Koppa. Intensive and systematic archaeological explorations were conducted during 2013-2015 in a nine square km area, centring the Koppa burial site.
While archaeologists believed that the megaliths had been destroyed, Arjun during his explorations, discovered that around 70 of them existed in the periphery of the villages in Koppa on granitic escarpments. Bunding of field boulders across the agricultural fields helped in locating the site.
“The ongoing surface survey project has gained enough evidences to consider Koppa as a habitation-cum-burial site, with major offsite activities,” said the findings published in the Current Science journal.
Iron Age in Koppa, according to the research paper, was a dispersed settlement and had a strong belief in megalithism or honouring the dead, which was at the “centre of their habitation and overall functioning of the society”. “The significance of this research is that for the first time, we have an understanding of the landscape and their settlement pattern over the upper reaches of the Cauvery river bank. We can now conclude that people had located themselves within the given natural resources under tropical wet climatic condition of Western Ghats and the control of such resource locations might have played a decisive role in the societal and political functioning,” said Rao.
Till recently, experts believed that either the habitational evidences were covered by forest regeneration, or that the society was largely made up of nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoral communities, resulting in flimsy settlement deposits. However, since a decade, experts are getting a better understanding of their habitation and subsistence activities.
The landscape of the site, water availability and a look at the grain evidences from habitational sites or directly from the burials reveal that ragi and paddy cultivation could have been near the habitation and streams. Abundant supply of newly introduced crops like paddy and ragi (continued from southern Neolithic phase) in the burials substantiates large-scale production and practice of both wet and dry cultivation, says the findings. “Koppa burial excavations have given us the abundant supply of such food grains, so that means that they were locally produced crops,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bangalore / Mihika Basu, TNN / June 27th, 2016
Bengaluru mom Laxmipriya Srivastav bagged the first runner-up and the Mrs Beautiful Smile at Mrs India International contest held in Chennai recently.
The contest saw 40 finalists from across the country. It comprised six rounds and workshops for self-assessment, time management, innovative ways of draping sarees, hair care and styling, followed by yoga and meditation to overcome anxiety and stress before the finale.
Laxmipriya, native of a village near Allahabad, has always admired Sushmitha Sen, former Miss Universe, a single mother, and an independent woman.
Laxmipriya lives in the city with her husband Tanmai and their three-year-old son Vivaan.
She works in Pharmed Limited as Senior Product Manager. Her professional career has been progressive in the past eight years. She has also the title of ‘Junior scientist’ from The National Academy of Sciences India to her credit.
As a teenager, she won a painting competition organised by the Indian Oil Corporation, and represented Allahabad in a play during Natya Mahotsav, a cultural event organised by North Central Zone Cultural Centre (NCZCC).
Writing, painting and acting are among her passions.
She cherishes two years of working with Doordarshan as a 12-13-year-old. Currently, she is editor of her company’s in-house magazine Supermom.
She is also associated with NGOs like Aasra and Global Headstart Mission to address medical needs and contribute to the education of the underprivileged.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express Features / June 22nd, 2016
Maharaja of Mysore Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar will today tie the nuptial knot with Trishika Kumari Singh , who belongs to a royal family of Rajasthan.
The iconic Mysore Palace Amba Vilas Palace has been decked up for the royal wedding of Wodeyar family scion Yaduveer.
Trishika is the daughter of Harshvardhan Singh and Maheshri Kumari from the Dungarpur royal family in Rajasthan. The marriage ceremony will take place at the kalyana mandapa at the karkataka lagna and savitra mahurat time between 9.05 a.m. and 9.35 a.m.
The elaborate pre-marriage rituals had commenced on June 24.
The groom took a ‘yenne snana’ or oil bath early on Saturday morning, followed by a ‘pada puja’ of Parakala Mutt’s Abhinava Vagheesha Brahmatantra Swatantra Swamy , who is the family’s rajguru.
As per established custom, the rituals began in the Mysore Palace in the presence of Pramoda Devi, the Queen mother and other family elders.
24-year-old Yaduveer was crowned as the ostensible head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family in a traditional ceremony held on May 28 last year.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / New Home> City> Bangalore / ANI / June 27th, 2016
Researching historical details can get confusing at times. This story for instance, begins in a Scottish city called Glasgow on a street named after the Saracen people from the Middle Ages. It then gets directed to a Victorian bandstand in a historic park laid out by a military engineer in South India’s tech-hub, Bengaluru. And if you think it’s quite knotted up already, that’s not the end of it. But maybe that’s also the fun of it.
Parks historian and author Paul Rabbitts says that the bandstand (or `band house’ as it was first called) was perhaps inspired by popular 18th century pleasure gardens like Vauxhall in London who also offered music pavilions and exotic entertainment including hot air balloons, tightrope walkers and fireworks. The bandstands were envisioned as a decorative focal point for the park and provided acoustic shelter for the brass, wind and military bands that played there. Their rich decorative elements and curved shapes also seemed to reflect oriental influences like the pagodas and chattri’s from the eastern corners of the empire. The first domed structure was reportedly built in 1861 at the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington. The concept soon captured the imagination of 19th century Britain where he says, approximately 1,200 bandstands were built between 1860 and WWII. Though these public parks were primarily designed for relaxation, they were also interpreted as an attempt to `humanise’ the grim townscapes that emerged during the Industrial Revolution.
The Cubbon Park bandstand with its traditional octagonal shape sits on the same axis as the Vidhana Soudha, Attara Kacheri and Government Museum. It is said to have been gifted to the park in 1914 by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore and initially placed near the Seshadri Iyer Memorial Hall. It was shifted to its current location in 1937, over what was once called the Ringwood Circle.
Iron was strong, durable but light. Molten iron could also be poured into pre-fabricated moulds. This enabled accurate replication and extensive repetition. `Cast’ iron therefore became popular for ornamental and commercial purposes. The framework for Cubbon Park’s cast iron bandstand took shape in the Glasgow based Saracen Foundry, owned by architectural iron casters Walter Macfarlane and Company Ltd. The company was set up in a disused brass foundry on Saracen Street in 1851 and soon became a famous designer-manufacturer of ornamental fountains, park and garden seats, conservatories, flower vases, baths, pipes and fittings right up till WWII.
Bandstands fell out of favour following WWII but iconic Macfarlane and Co. Ltd cast iron designs were still spotted around the world. They included the main (northern side) entrance gates to Lalbagh and the conservatory style Glass House.
The Lalbagh bandstand is believed to have been conceptualised during the tenure of Superintendent Mr. William New (1854-1864). He organised the first few `Lalbagh Shows’ around it in the late 1860’s before the Glass House came up in 1890. Mr. John Cameron who succeeded New in 1874 recorded its repair and renovation; a granite platform was also added and the wooden roof was improved.
Old timers recall orchestras and military bands playing regularly at bandstands in the city, including Cole’s Park, while city chronicler Mrs Maya Jayapal mentions that live music was scheduled for the fourth Thursday of every month in the 1920’s. The bandstands now accommodate deep breathing pranayama practitioners in the morning, sleeping somari’s in the afternoon and performances by local school children and classical musicians on weekends. It’s always fascinating to see how our local history runs alongside, intersects with or unites stories of people and places around the world.
The writer is a cultural documentarian and blogs at aturquoisecloud.wordpress.com
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Columns> Others / by Aliyeh Rizvi, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / June 26th, 2016
About 20 volunteers turned up at the hackathon on Sunday
Bengaluru :
An app that would help the visually impaired catch buses on their own was the highlight of a hackathon held in the city this weekend.
This was one of three hacks that 20 members of Random Hacks of Kindness (RoHK), a Bengaluru-based community, started working on Saturday. The team designing it hopes to help the visually impaired find bus stops, and identify buses that take them to their destination.
“Google Maps is only accurate up to 100 metres,” says 22-year-old engineer Yashaswi Bharadwaj, who is part of the team. “We are working on a code to help them find the exact location using a Bluetooth beacon. It should also have a text-to-voice and voice-to-text interface.”
The hack that he and his teammates come up with can be integrated with an existing source code. “We will also need data about the number of buses to a particular destination, the route numbers, and their expected time of arrival,” he said.
The second phase of the project would involve working on an image recognition system to inform users of the arrival of buses at their destination.
The theme of this edition of the hackathon — perhaps the 14th in the city and 20th in the country, according to RoHK managing trustee Chinmayi S K — was disability.
While the community gets together twice a year for two-day hackathons to work on tech-based solutions to various civic problems — including disaster management and gender-related issues — accessibility and disability have been recurring themes.
“Muthuraj, who works with the NGO Enable India, is here for most of our events,” says Chinmayi. “And we often partner with the organisation that works towards empowering the disabled.”
Yashaswi’s team is counting on the NGO’s cooperation to take the bus stop project forward. “We can’t integrate our hack with the BMTC app because we don’t have their source code,” he says. “But if Enable pitches it as one of their projects, the data will be made available.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / June 20th, 2016
The funeral service will be held at St John’s church on St. John’s Church Road at 2.30 pm on Saturday
Aruna Sunderlal (77), the Founder and Managing Trustee of Bangalore School of Music, passed away on Thursday evening after a brief illness. She is survived by her daughter Shefali S. Chandel, son Vikram Sunderlal, and brothers Deepak and Vijay.
The funeral service will be held at St John’s Church, St. John’s Church Road at 2.30 pm on Saturday June 25, said officials at the school.
“It’s shocking. Mrs. Sunderlal was more than the founder of the school. To all those who knew her, she was our mentor,” said Jagadeesh, Director (Operations), Bangalore School of Music.
Aruna Sunderlal was born in Delhi in 1939. She had studied singing privately in England and Germany. She founded the school in 1987. It was the country’s third and youngest formal school for Western music.
Beginning with three students, the school functioned from her home for 22 years. In 2008, she built a 12,000 sq feet building in R.T. Nagar equipped with classrooms, recording studios and an auditorium with support from trustees, board members and music lovers. Over 9,500 students have been imparted formal music education in the school. BSM’s Music Outreach programme has enhanced the lives of over 5,500 underprivileged, physically challenged children through formal music education.
At present, the school boasts of 418 students.
“Music for Peace was her last unfulfilled wish that Mrs. Sunderlal shared with me last week. She was making arrangements to take a bus-load of musicians to Lahore (in Pakistan),” said Chiranjeev Singh, former bureaucrat and writer, who is a trustee of BSM. “Although her friendship mission remains unfulfilled, what the people of Bengaluru need to cherish is her single-handed effort to raise funds to build BSM that will turn 30 in February next year.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – June 25th, 2016
Tradition:Farmers taking their cattle in a procession to mark Kara Hunnime in Amlapur village on Monday.— Photo: Gopichand T.
Kara Hunnime, a festival where farmers worship their cattle and begin sowing operations, was celebrated across the district on Monday. Farmers washed their cattle, oiled their horns and toes, and decorated them using balloons, ribbons, flowers and pieces of copra. Farmers took their cattle in a procession before reaching their farms.
In Amlapur village, farmers organised a running race for bulls.
In Ashtur, M.A. Patil, a farmer and his family performed a pooja to their cattle. Mr. Patil said he was thankful to the rain gods for the initial rain in the district.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bidar – June 21st, 2016
Padhma Priya, research scholar. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan / The Hindu
Padhma Priya, who is researching the art of the region, talks to Lalithaa Krishnan about its distinct features.
Describing herself as an amateur artist who grew increasingly interested in the theory and practice of visual art, Padhma Priya allowed her passion for Mysore painting to lead her towards post-graduate studies in Art History from the Chitrakala Parishad, Bengaluru. Her thesis dealt with the ‘Quality of Art Work’. At present, engaged in an extensive research on Mysore paintings, she shares her insights.
What factors contributed to the creation of this distinct pictorial style?
Rooted in the Vijayanagara art tradition, the pictorial vocabulary of the Mysore style was nourished by the versatile talent of migrant artists who worked in different mediums, their intensive, long-drawn training under their gurus and thorough knowledge of Hindu mythology and religious texts helped them compose amazing themes. So, it appears that a deliberate effort has been made by Mysore artists to stand out and create an individualistic style gradually over a period of time.
Mysore painting at the C P Art Center. / Photo: K.V. Srinivasan / The Hindu
What are the chief features that distinguish Mysore painting from Thanjavur art?
The differences are evident in terms of methods and materials used. Thanjavur painting is traditionally executed on a jack wood plank with a ground preparation of tamarind seed powder and chalk, while Mysore painting is done on paper. Both schools use jewellery crafted on a flat surface but their techniques differ. Thematically, they share Hindu mythological characters and tales, but my research shows that the Mysore school has a fantastic visual narrative that no other artists of traditional schools have brought forth.
You collaborate with artists, epigraphers and historians. About their valuable inputs…
The foundation for my research is collecting a large, unpublished, unrecorded database across five districts and five taluks of Karnataka. My field work is a rich digital resource database of themes and narratives, artists of Mysore and other arts and crafts of Karnataka. I am grateful to the Karnataka State Archaeology Department, the district administration, Mr. Murari, whose door-to-door survey helped me to locate rare paintings, Mr. Kharbade DG ,NRLC, Lucknow, my art history teachers Dr. R.H. Kulkarni and H.A. Anilkumar of Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru, scholars Dr. Jaisree Narasimhan and Dr. Banumathi for deciphering the content of labels and slokas in the paintings, artists K.S. Srihari, Sridhar and R. Sivakumar, who helped document the traditional methods and materials in Mysore paintings.
Which institutions impart formal training in the art? Can artists move beyond creating reproductions and how affordable are Mysore paintings?
The Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru, imparts technical training periodically via short-term courses but the need of the hour is to provide long-term training in both theory and technique. Once the artist has a solid grounding in Hindu mythology, iconography and iconology, he can break away from the cliché of mechanical reproduction and create original art works with rare themes. Depending on size, theme and workmanship, prices begin at Rs. 8000 for a 12’’x 15’’ work, to Rs. 200,000 for larger ones.
A note on the conservation of paintings.
I am a quality consultant in fine arts. Through scientific methods, I help buyers check the quality of the art works. Preventive conservation of paintings is my core research. My two-volume publication on the Mysore school is planned for 2017.
Your personal favourites that rank as must-views?
All the paintings in the Mysore palace, Jaganmohan palace and the CKP museum are fantastic collections.
Unusual collection
A connoisseur with a keen eye and memory for detail, art dealer Vitthal Rao brings 40 years of expertise in the field to bear upon the superb collection of Mysore paintings that graces the main gallery, C.P. Arts Centre. Priced between Rs.10,000 and Rs. 40,000, the collation spans myriad deities that include Siva, Vishnu, Kodanda Rama, Krishna, Saraswathi, Lakshmi, Ganesha and Anjaneya and diverse themes such as Pattabhisheka and Rathi-Manmatha. In an unusual portrayal of goddess Tripurasundari, Lord Narayana is shown assuming the form of a bangle seller who fits the ornaments on her hands, as any mere mortal would be burnt by her touch. Varying depictions of a single deity, Chamundeshwari, reflect the vision of different artists. While Yedur Siddhalingeswara, Kalikamba Viswakarma, Tripura Samhara and Dhruva Narayana are rare pieces, the colossal, exquisitely detailed Koteswara Siva and Viswaroopa evoke awe and wonder.
Antique works from royal houses as well as paintings by contemporary artists B.B. Ramakrishna, K.S. Srihari and Dinesh are on display till 18 June. (Timings: 10 am – 8 pm).
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review> Art / by Lalithaaa Krishnan / June 16th, 2016
Renowned Indian-American author and philosopher Raja Rao’s archive that includes a broad range of materials from unpublished works to manuscripts of his well-known novels has been acquired by the University of Texas for advancing the study of arts and humanities.
Rao’s estate donated the archive to the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at the University of Texas in Austin.
According to the centre, “It’s a notable acquisition in part because Rao is widely considered to have been one of India’s most noted authors, having received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and other honours.”
The Harry Ransom Center specialise in the collection of literary and cultural artefacts from the U.S. and Europe for the purpose of advancing the study of the arts and humanities.
Rao (1908-2006), considered one of India’s earliest and most outstanding English-language novelists, was the author of numerous works of fiction, short stories, poetry, talks, essays and The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi (1998), about Gandhi’s time in South Africa.
Rao’s archive includes manuscripts of his well-known novels Kanthapura (1938), The Serpent and the Rope (1960) and The Chessmaster and his Moves (1988).
Screenshot of the Harry Ransom Center site shows a photo of renowned writer Raja Rao’s 1969 passport.
“Departing boldly from the European tradition of the novel, Raja Rao has indigenised it in the process of assimilating material from the Indian literary tradition,” said R. Parthasarathy, professor emeritus of English at Skidmore College.
Educated at the Aligarh Muslim University and the University of Madras and other foreign universities, Rao was already an internationally known author when he was recruited by former University of Texas president John Silber to teach Indian philosophy and Buddhism in Austin.
His archive contains materials in several of the languages that Rao spoke, including English, French, Sankskrit and his native Kannada.
Rao won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 for the philosophical novel The Serpent and the Rope. In 1969, he was the recipient of the Padma Bhushan and in 2007 he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
Alongside the archives by Rao at the Ransom Center are manuscript collections of prominent international writers including J.M. Coetzee, Anita Desai, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amos Tutuola.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Authors / PTI / Houston – June 16t, 2016
