Hello, Hollywood

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Still reliving the experience of acting alongside Alec Baldwin in his debut film, B’luru boy Rohan Gurbaxani is now looking forward to three more Hollywood releases.

Bengaluru :

Even after acting alongside big names in Hollywood, Rohan Gurbaxani feels shy when people ask him about what it means to him to be living his Hollywood dream. The Bengaluru boy, after all, has shared screen space with Alec Baldwin, Malin Akerman and Bella Thorne in Chick Fight, the action comedy that was released last week. 

Ask him about acting alongside Baldwin and he says it was a “surreal” feeling, with him soaking the same excitement that any of the star’s fans would have. “This was my first film, and he has done many. But we had this common ground where he also went to NYU and one of his professors taught me too. That was a nice conversation-starter with him. I, of course, observed him a lot, and learnt from him. He was such an approachable person,” says the 23-year-old. 

The newbie is now looking forward to his next film, Knuckledust, which is an action thriller releasing in December. It stars Moe Dunford and Gethin Anthony. The ball doesn’t stop rolling here. In 2021, he has two releases – RED 48, featuring John Malkovich and Tyrese Gibson; and Confession, starring Sarah Hay.  Gurbaxani may be currently living the life many dream of, but for him, acting in Hollywood was never the goal. “My initial dream, since I was in Class 8, was to go to New York.

I still don’t know why I picked the city. I never even participated in plays, but it was just a far-fetched dream,” says Gurbaxani, who has a Bachelors in Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has also trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Stonestreet Studios, and attended the Tisch Stanislavsky and Brecht program in Berlin. 

While he continues to revel in the experience, it was not easy for him to live away from home, “in isolation”. Luckily, he says, by the third month, the shoot for RED 48 had begun. “It was an interesting experience as we underwent three Covid tests every week. By the end, I had around taken 10 tests. There were Covid supervisors on the sets,” says Gurbaxani, who was a part-time Covid supervisor as well. 

He calls it unsettling to be based in two cities – New York and Bengaluru – but now Gurbaxani is back home after two years and is glad he could spend Deepavali with his family here. And the young lad is all praise for the city he grew up in.

“In Bangalore, I studied in two schools. I initially started off in a public school and then Class 8 onwards, I moved to an international school. I loved to dance and got a chance to join troupes. I don’t think my life would have been the same if any of these things had not happened,” explains Gurbaxani, who is currently also looking at projects back home.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 19th, 2020

Bengaluru teen singer Tanya Shanker releases new album

Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Tanya Shanker   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Tanya’s debut pop-rock album ‘Battlefield’ is about teenage experiences

Shanker wrote a song about her mother, ‘Thank You Mum’, when she was 10. It fetched over 20,000 views within a fortnight. Tanya was elated. It was a small validation of the little girl’s talent. Four years later, she has released her first album — another significant step in her nascent career. Battlefield, released on November 14, is about the experiences and emotions that teenagers like her deal with. “The title is a metaphor for the mental chaos and conflicts,” she explains.

Tanya, understandably, is excited about releasing her début album. She started training when she was nine. “My parents were into music. So, I was inclined towards it. One of my early music teachers told me I could pursue a career in music. That is when I entertained the idea. It was crazy to see my single get 20,000 views,” she says.

Tanya now trains with her mentor-manager, Richard Andrew of Moksha Academy. “When I saw her five years ago, I felt she was talented but needed a lot of practice. She has improved a lot ever since. She is one of the few talents that gives me joy as a producer,” says Andrew.

Tanya has performed with several independent musicians, including Girish Pradhan and the Chronicles, Perfect Strangers, Carlton Braganza, and Ritwik Bhattacharya.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Praveen Sudevan /November 18th, 2020

Bridging the gap

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

How a hole in a boat led to the emergence of Bridge Man of India.

Gudaari in Odisha

Mangaluru :

For him, it was not a bridge too far. Though a mechanical engineer, he learnt — that too by chance —   that one can transform lives by building bridges. In the last three decades, he has built over 130 such structures, the latest one being built in Telangana.

Girish Bharadwaj (70), fondly called the Bridge Man, is seen as a messiah by many villages. His journey started with a hole in the bottom of a boat. For decades, the poor people of Aramburu, a remote village in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada, were dependent on a country boat to cross the Payaswini river to reach the mainland for all their work.

Kanive in Kodagu, Karnataka

But whenever the only boat developed a hole in the bottom, the village used to come to a standstill until it was fixed or a new boat was built. Fed up, in 1989, the villagers decided to find a permanent solution to their perennial problem and approached Girish Bharadwaj, a young graduate in mechanical engineering who was running a fabrication unit, with a request to construct a footbridge to tide over the crisis.

Initially, Bharadwaj laughed at the villagers’ innocent belief that all engineers can build bridges. But he finally decided to give it a shot after the villagers refused to believe that a mechanical engineer can’t build bridges and also seeing their pathetic situation. With the help of engineering friends from other streams and referring to books on bridges, he designed a plan for a low-cost hanging bridge. It was a crowd-pooling project with some villagers even offering  ‘shramdaan’.

 Apart from other labour costs and sponsored construction materials, the project cost less than Rs 2 lakh. The villagers were immensely happy as the bridge ushered in a new life. Months later, the economical bridge caught the attention of a senior government official who had flown to Mangaluru from Bengaluru on some work and he called him.

After going through the bridge design, the official requested Bharadwaj to join hands with the government in providing connectivity to several isolated villages in Malnad and the coastal region.  The journey thus started took him to various parts of Karnataka and even Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha where he built more than 130 bridges in over 30 years and became popular as the Bridge Man of India. His contribution to the rural empowerment was recognised by the government and he was bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2017.

Fern Hill in Ooty, Tamil Nadu

Bharadwaj said he adopted the technology of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo, both suspension bridges and considered marvels of modern engineering, and simplified it to suit the local needs. His suspension bridges are cost-effective compared to conventional ones. Though they are built as a matter of temporary solution to last for 10-20 years, many of them have stood in good condition even after the estimated life. Also, the bridges saw advancements in designs over the years.

With his work, Bharadwaj has also built bridges in the hearts of several villagers as they consider him as a messiah who lifted them from their miseries. In most of the work sites, he and his team of 30-40 workers pitch camp till the work that takes 3-6 months, is completed. While a majority of bridges are government-sponsored, there are a few, constructed with funds pooled by the villagers. For such projects, he offers his services for free. In some cases, when the project could not be completed due to lack of funds, Bharadwaj has spent from his pocket to complete it.

Bharadwaj was delighted when he received an individual letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his support for Swachch Bharat in which he recognised his ‘Sethu Bandhu’ work to have empowered poor villagers and has connected them to the world of opportunities. Bharadwaj says the demand for footbridges is almost nil now as people with four-wheelers prefer big RCC structures. Now, Bharadwaj’s son Pathanjali Bharadwaj, who is an M.Tech graduate, is continuing the work.

FABRICATION WORKS
After completing his engineering from PES College, Mandya in mid 1970s, Bharadwaj had dreamt of becoming an MD of some factory. But his father who was an agriculturist, encouraged him to aspire to become an employer and provide jobs to others rather than being just an employee under someone. Thus, he set up Rational Engineering Works in Sullia which carried out general fabrication works and manufactured farm machinery

IN NUMBERS  

Bharadwaj has built 

95 bridges in seven districts of Karnataka

32   in Kerala

05 in Telangana

03 in Odisha

One more in Telangana is under progress now

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Vincent D’Souza / Express News Service / November 15th, 2020

 

Noted journalist Ravi Belagere dead

Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Editor of Hai Bengaluru, Ravi Belagere   | Photo Credit:  The Hindu Photo Library

Noted journalist and Kannada writer Ravi Belagere, 62, died of a cardiac arrest in the wee hours of Friday.

Owner and editor of a Kannada tabloid Hai Bangalore, Ravi Belagere was also a novelist and translator. He also started Prarthana, a noted school in South Bengaluru.

Ravi Belagere’s tabloid was widely read for its extensive coverage of the underworld. His columns such as Love Lavike, Khaas Baat and Paapigala Lokadalli were popular. Many of them were brought out as books. Hailing from the border district of Ballari, he also translated several Telugu works.

Ravi Belagere authored over 70 books in all, many if which were best sellers.

Constantly finding himself in the middle of controversies, he was pulled up in 2017 by the Karnataka Assembly for his “defamatory writings” against Congress MLA B.M. Nagaraj and BJP MLA S.R. Viswanath. He eventually got relief by the Karnataka High Court in the case. He was also imprisoned in connection with the attempt to killing of a journalist Sunil Heggaravalli.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – November 13th, 2020

New agricultural technologies on display at Krishi Mela in Bengaluru

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology
A view of the Krishi Mela in Bengaluru on Wednesday.   | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain

The three-day Krishi Mela 2020, organised by the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore (UAS-B), began here on Wednesday. This year, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mela is low-key with limited number of people physically participating and limited number of stalls.

M. Byre Gowda of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) said 17 new agricultural technologies and three new varieties of crops, including groundnut, had been released this year for the benefit of farmers.

Demonstrations and information about the new agricultural technologies and three new varieties of crops were made during the the Mela.

Inaugurating the Mela, A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension) Division, (Extension) Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, said the UAS has been continuously supporting farmers in the use of technologies.

“The Government of India and the ICAR have developed State-specific documents as to what has to be done in each State and how agriculture universities and ICAR institutes and farmers should work together so that the technologies that are required for doubling farmers’ income could directly go the farmers,” he said and added that they were working in 2,000 villages across the country to develop a model for doubling farmers’ income.

“ICAR has recently developed around 70 bio-fortified varieties which have micronutrients. Hence, there is great scope for bio-fortified research and practice in the country,” he said.

V. Venkatasubramanian of ICAR said that they were focusing on increasing the productivity of the crop and livestock, as also the cropping intensity.

“Around 33 Krishi Vigyan Kendras in Karnataka are working to strengthen the quality and quantity of the produce and continuity of the produce based in the market demand and consumer preferences. We are apprising the farmers on generating resources on their own farm to reduce the cost of cultivation,” he said. Such efforts would yield better results in the future, he said.

Awards were given to progressive farmers at taluk level, district level and State levels at the Mela. Around 25 stalls on new technologies, including drone technology for farming, drew attention of farmers.

Those who are not able to physically attend the mela can watch it online on the website, YouTube, and social media.

Around 200 farmers were allowed at a time, and all anti-COVID-19 precautions, like face masks and social distancing, were in place. Only those in the age group of 18 to 60 are being allowed to physically attend the Mela.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / November 12th, 2020

Subbanna Ambesangi passes away

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All

Writer Subbanna Ambesangi (70) died in Eklaspur in Bidar district on Monday.

He retired as a college lecturer.

Apart from creative works, he produced scholarly thesis on the problems of Kannada-speaking population in the border districts.

His poetry collections, Kadinalli Hidida Grahana, Aralu, Chetana and Balliya Hoo, have won awards.

He was also a recipient of the district level Rajyotsava award.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Belagavi – November 09th, 2020