Hosted by PES Institute of Technology (south campus), Mayaa 2013, the fifth edition of the technical and cultural fest here saw participation from colleges across the city.
Taking off on a light note with Mad Ads for which PESIT (west campus) bagged the first place, the two-day-long fest offered students an opportunity to participate in individual and group competitions. Other events included group singing and contemporary dance, all of which culminated with a fashion show.
The second day saw Battle of Bands where professional as well as amateur bands vied for the top spot. Participants included popular student bands like 1Fret Away, Djentle Symphony, Fantom, Traces and Broken Membrane, the last bagging the prize.
Mock Rock, where participants told stories through musicals, followed next, after which came the Western and Bollywood dance rounds.
The highlight of the day was the Crossroads Concert featuring progressive-rock band Slain performing live with The Choral Riff, a professional choir group.
Apart from the culturals, for the more outdoor-friendly, the fest also had street basketball, football and cricket to offer.
In keeping with this year’s theme of Mayaa, Cinema and Eentertainment, there were screenings of movies throughout, while the decor simulated movie sets.
A treasure hunt and Sudoku had participants racking their brains, others like paper toss, Limbo and Beg-Borrow-Steal tested their capacity to convince strangers.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express Features – Bangalore / October 30th, 2013
After successfully completing two years of the ‘Inter-Parish Wilfy Rebimbus Konkani Singing Competition’ in memory of Konkani legend Wilfy Rebimbus, Jeppu parishioners are once again back this year with the third edition of the competition.
The competition is organised by Jeppu parishioners every year in memory of Konkani singing legend Wilfy Rebimbus who was born and brought up in Jeppu and also contributed his services in a significant way to the parish and the entire Konkani speaking community spread across the globe.
This competition has two-fold purposes, says Fr Nelson D’Almedia, parish priest of Jeppu. First, to pay homage and revere the memory of the late Wilfy Rebimbus, and secondly to raise funds to meet the educational and medical needs of the less fortunate parishioners. ‘Jeppu Parish Welfare Fund’ started in 2011 has reached out to many needy people till date. “We have given Rs 1,89,000 as charity from this fund for various needs of our people,” Fr Nelson said.
For the last two years Cordel parish has been taking home the prestigious Wilfy Rebimbus Memorial trophy. Approximately around 1,000 Wilfy fans have been witnessing this unique competition. This year the qualifying round for this inter-parish contest will be held on November 3 at 3 pm in Maria Jayanthi Mandir, Jeppu and the grand finale will be held on November 17 at 5.30 pm at St Joseph’s Church grounds, Jeppu.
Speaking to daijiworld, parish priest Fr Nelson D’Almedia has appealed to all Wilfy fans to come forward and be a part of this celebration as an honour to the great singing legend, who throughout his life contributed his talent to the good causes in society.
Daijiworld is the official media partner for this event.
For any further queries, contact Laveena D’Dias on 9901189195 or Pamela Santos on 9880332911.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Top Stories / Media Release / Mangalore – October 30th, 2013
Whyoffashion, based in Bangalore, introduces India’s first open fashion project. The project is aimed to provide consumers with information on fashion, which will allow them to make informed choices while purchasing fashion. Grape5, the digital marketing partner of Whyoffashion, conducted a study, in which it found that only 7.3% of Indian fashion consumers purchase branded fashion. In a market perspective, out of 200,000 Cr per annum revenue of fashion in India, only about 15,000 Cr is branded.
Since the majority of the population of India has no access to information regarding the latest fashion, the average consumers go to non-organized retailers for their fashion needs. Whyoffashion is an open fashion project that brings consumers the latest fashion information. This helps consumers in making informed choices for their fashion needs from retailers across India.
Poulomi Banerjee, the Brand Manager at Grape5, the digital agency of Whyoffashion says, “We studied a lot of the existing fashion content available for consumers. What we found was good information, but lacking simple expression. This sparked the origin of Whyoffashion, to provide users with a portal to fashion in simple expression.” Whyoffashion, keeping the consumer in mind, created this open project, with principles of transparency, simplicity, and diversity.
The inclusiveness approach creates a community where people participate and share their view on style and fashion. Ever since its inception, the Whyoffashion project has gained good appreciation. The team believes that soon the project will be accepted globally.
About Whyoffashion:
Whyoffashion, based in Bangalore, India, is an open fashion project. It brings information on fashion inspirations to consumers, so that they make informed decisions while purchasing their fashion from retailers across India.
Come November, and your city starts gearing up to celebrate the vibrant festival of lights — Deepavali. While innumerable cracker stalls start mushrooming, several interesting exhibitions to purchase knick-knacks for the fest also start showing up all around. However, a few of the many fairs that come up are unique. One such is this expo and sale of the diwali diyas and candles made by the differently abled.
Starting tomorrow, city’s Mythri School, a school for specially abled kids run by the Mythri Charitable Trust will host a two-day exhibtion of Deepavali diyas and candles, made by the school’s children. This is the second edition of the expo where the items will be available for appreciation and sale.
Speaking about the fair, School’s Managing Trustee, Pruthvi explains, “we are hosting the Deepavali Diyas and candles sale made by our students for the second consecutive year. We conduct various fairs such as painting, candle and jewellery exhibitions, to ensure that the children of Mythri are self sufficient and also improve their skills in various areas.”
When asked if the sales did good last year, Pruthvi says, “yes, it did, for we use quality products in making the crafts and all items are made by the students under our supervision. However, unlike last year, we have several young volunteers from institutions such as Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), National Institute of Engineering (NIE) and several other colleges, infusing that enthusiasm in kids and helping us organise this year’s fair in a much better way.”
The exhibition will include an array of crafted diyas, candles and decorative rangolis made on transparent plastic sheets which are prepared by those in the age group of five and forty, who are all eager and are looking forward to the event. “We are all very excited about the fair. We are doing the best of work we can with complete dedication. We can’t wait to see who will buy our creations,” say the artists Rakshita, Tabu and Srinivas.
Apart from the Diwali diyas and candles fair, the school also organises exhibitions of artificial jewellery, pottery and paintings made by the children every year.
The Diwali fair will be held at the school premises in Krishnamurthypuram opposite Ambedkar Park for two days starting Oct. 31 from 10 am to 5 pm.— AN
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / October 30th, 2013
The sixth Pustaka Parishe is here, bringing with it the promise of free books and a mission to ensure the reading habit stays in fashion
I first met GP Rajarathnam, one of Kannada literature’s eminent writers, when I was in pre-university. He was the chief guest at a function. After a brief but interesting speech he said all of us should buy one book each from him and opened a box. Several years later, I came to know that he followed this practice everywhere.
Rajarathnam wrote extensively for children, but had no intention of writing poems for them. It was when he saw a Kannada textbook for kids while standing in for his ill father, a teacher at a school, that he decided to start. That evening, he wrote the poem, Bannada tagadina tutturi, which is now considered a classic. Naayi Mari, Taata butti tumba rotti, Putaani Krishna, Haavu bantu haavu bantu, Kuri mari byaa and Namma maneyalondu sanna paapa are some other well-loved poems. Often, children start to learn Kannada with them.
They say even Galaganatha, the father of modern Kannada novels, carried books in a bundle on his head from door to door and sold them. With visual media having taken over, how tricky is it to market books today?
The weekly “Top Ten” list published in popular newspapers makes it tough to identify a type of bestselling book — seems like anything from gardening to creative writing sells. Yet, publishers complain that apart from sex and humour, nothing sells — not poetry, not plays.
Bucking that idea is the sixth edition of Pustaka Parishe (Book Fair), which has been organised by NGO Srushti Ventures for the past three years. Twenty lakh Kannada books will be on display at Basavanagudi National College grounds on October 27. The best part? Every visitor gets to leave with a book of his or her choice free.
“We came together in 2005 to organise awareness programmes for children and have done more than 2,000 programmes so far. In 2010, some of our members said we should donate books that we have read and do not want to dispose off as junk,” says Vedesh Gangoor, treasurer, Srushti Ventures. “We collected and displayed 7,000 books and got a great response. Six months later, we displayed 12,000 books. By the third Parishe, we had collected 28,000 books and organised it on a bigger scale at N R Colony circle. We decided to make it an annual feature. Last year at National College grounds, we displayed 10 lakh books. This year there will be 20 lakh books.”
Organising a book exhibition of this scale requires manpower and planning. “Volunteers work round the year collecting books and categorising them. Visitors to Pustaka Parishe can take any book of their choice, free. We call it ‘Reinvigorating the Book Culture’. Last year we had one and half lakh visitors,” Gangoor says.
The team also organised a special two-day Parishe for students in 2011 called Vidhyarthi Pustaka Parishe, displaying only academic books, of which students were allowed take a maximum of five free. They now plan to take the event statewide, and also organise cultural events and discussions. This year, they have already gotten over 2,000 enquiries, enthuses Gangoor.
Who are his favourite writers? “DV Gundappa,” comes the answer promptly. What about contemporary writers? “I hardly have time to read!” he exclaims. “All my time is taken up in organising programmes!”
With the response the fair is getting every year, it’s very clear that neither reading nor writing will go out of fashion any time soon.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Entertainment> Lounge / by Prathibha Nandkumar, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / October 25th, 2013
Sotheby’s inaugural auction of Art of Imperial India here has attracted bidding from around the globe to hit a whopping sales figure of Rs 182,598,304.
The star lot of the sale, an extremely rare 18th century enamelled and bejewelled gold tray and casket (paan-daan), sold for Rs 65,819,539 (662,500 pounds more than double its pre-sale estimate of 200,000-300,000 pounds).
Over 90 exquisite lots reflecting the broad artistic traditions of Imperial India came up for this first-ever sale by the world-famous auction house, encompassing almost 500 years of every kind of decorative art produced in the region.
“The auction captured the attention of collectors from around the world, with the pieces attracting bids from institutions and private collectors alike,” said Benedict Carter, director and head of auction sales for Middle East at Sotheby’s.
“Interest in Indian works of art has been growing in recent years and the prices achieved at Wednesday’s auction bear testament to the increasing demand for desirable works relating to India,” he added.
A group of 11 works relating to Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan were among the prized collection, selling for a combined amount of Rs 38,689,470. Tipu’s sword, fitted with an English blade, was bought for Rs 97,85,999 by a mystery bidder on the phone.
An 11-bore silver-mounted flintlock duck gun from the armoury of the king fetched 88,900 pounds and a sword taken as booty at the Siege of Srirangapatna, of Eastern-European manufacture, sold for the same amount as well.
Among some of the other highlights included a gem-set gold pocket watch with a painted cover depicting Maharaja Mahendra Singh of Patiala, which sold for 62,500 pounds and a Mughal jade-hilted dagger (khanjar) and scabbard, which fetched double the estimate amount of 20,000 pounds.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by PTI / October 11th, 2013
The doyen of Harikatha world, Sri Achyuta Das, is no more. In his passing away, he has left a void probably never to be filled.
Harikatha is one of our ancient, traditional art forms where philosophy and life values are taught to people in a musical form. My father K. Srikantiah, time and again says, “One can with effort become a singer, a dramatist, an orator, a scholar, a humorist, a linguist. But only a combination of all these qualifications added to excellent memory can make a person a Harikatha Vidwan.”
Such is the depth and merit of our Harikatha Art. This dying art was kept alive, thanks to a few scholars like Sri Achyuta Das. His Harikathas would have flashes of Karnatak music, Hindustani music, bhajans, humour, bhakti, satire, navarasas and worldly knowledge. No wonder it would reach out to a large number of people and attract a huge fan-following. Achyuta Das performed in various languages like Kannada, Marathi, Konkani, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Listening to three hours of his Harikatha would be equivalent to reading 300 hours of various books. That was the sort of knowledge that a listener would gain!
Achyuta Das was a very close friend to my father. His Harikatha performance was a regular fixture in our annual Sri Ramanavami Music Festival at Mysore for the past 40 years. He was a ‘Sadhu’ in the true sense of the word. Such was his affection for my father that he himself, would call us around December-January, give a date for his performance for our festival and then start off on his far-flung tours. And on the day of his programme, without any prior intimation, he would be at the venue of the programme in Mysore promptly at 6 pm, be it from Bangalore, Hassan, Maharashtra, Andhra, or even a place as remote as Chambal Valley! He used to tour all over India in his well-equipped caravan-like orange coloured van. He always had a kind word, a blessing, an encouragement to anyone and everyone who came to him.
Sri Achyuta Das has without doubt led a worthy life – touching a lot of lives with his discourses. It was our proud privilege to honour this saintly Vidwan during our silver jubilee Ramanavami Festival at Mysore in the year 1994. May his soul rest in peace.
Remembering Santa Bhadragiri Achyuta Das
by K. Vijay Kumar
With great sadness, I read about the demise of Harikatha Vidwan, exponent of this age old Katha Keerthana, Santa Bhadragiri Achyuta Das, only after reading Chiranjiv Singh’s fortnightly column in Vijaya Karnataka on Oct. 26, but not from any of a few prominent newspapers that I read daily.
I was so fond of listening to him, I would rarely miss any of his Harikathas from the days of his week-long programmes every year at Geetha Mandira in Halladakeri years ago.
Now I would like to recall how I had invited him to ATI somewhere in 1992 or so when Chiranjiv Singh was Director and I a Faculty Member, to address my Department’s (Information and Publicity) probationary officers who were undergoing a job course. I had suggested Achyuta Das to speak on effective communication and ethics in administration, as I had considered Achyuta Das himself a very effective communicator.
Our probationary officers were very apprehensive to listen to a Harikatha Vidwan. But, the Director Chiranjiv Singh himself sat through the session along with the officers.
It was a new experience to probationers to listen to him, who at the end wanted Das to come again to address them. After the session, Chiranjiv Singh took Achyuth Das to plant a sapling in the ATI, which is there even today as a remembrance of this great Harikatha Vidwan. May His Soul rest in peace.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / October 24th, 2013
Yet another flash mob rocked the conscious of Bangaloreans in the heart of the city—Brigade road.
Students of The Frank Anthony Public School in the Interact Club, affiliated to Rotary Club danced and spoke in public about women safety, gender bias and female feticide issues at Brigade road.
About 70 odd students from standard 8 to 12 participated in the flash mob events. They requested the men folk to change their mentality and the way they look at the feminine gender and also told them not to judge a girl by what she wears.
Principal of their school KV Boye was also there to support the children in their attempt to cleanse social evils.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore / by Aparajita Ray, TNN / October 22nd, 2013
Bangalore Mirror presents Cranium 2013 where the finalists will contest on the sea en route to Singapore, Phuket and Langkawi
Ever thought of participating in a college fest while sailing on the sumptuous blue ocean? Bangalore Mirror presents Cranium 2013, a first of its kind of B-School fest, where the students of India’s top business schools will gather together to test their mettle against each other. And after the nerve wracking prelims, the grand finale will take place on the sea in a plush cruise that will sail to Singapore, Phuket and Langkawi.
Though it might sound tempting, the fest that is organised by CMS Business School, Jain University, promises to blend pleasure with strict business. The sole objective of the fest is to find the finest MBA aspirants who top all the four verticals of business world — marketing, finance, human resources and operation skills.
The prelims are scheduled on October 21 and 22 at CMS B-School. Following the prelims, the finals will be held between November 15 and November 19 on the cruise. With over 50 colleges participating for the coveted prize, the fest promises to be a keenly contested affair. “We have roped in some of the best judges to have a fair evaluation,” said Rahul A Jain, one of the organisers.
He also said that to maintain transparency, the organisers are keeping out of the contest.
The event is the brainchild of the dean of Jain University, according to the organisers. Dinesh Neelkant, dean of CMS Business School, said, “We have always encouraged our students to take risks and think big. We wanted to redefine the concept of management fest and Cranium is a result of that.” He added that the fest aims to test the abilities of management students at the highest level and give them a platform to showcase their skills and reach the peak of management performance.
“This is the first edition of Cranium and we are going for an overseas finale. Not just that, during programmes, we want to expose students to the social issues of today and hence we have tied up with an NGO,” said Manjushri Shenoy, a second year MBA student and an organiser.
As the main attraction is the finale in the cruise, the organisers expect it to be one of the best fests with tough competition.
“We have raised the difficulty level of the competition so that only the toughest and the smartest can claim the top honour. We hope the fest is going to be a grand success,” added Varun Aggarwal, another student organiser.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Sridhar Vivan / October 18th, 2013
The couple at the welcome place are owners Nagaraj Gopal and wife Poornima.
A few days back I went visiting an old friend at his apartment to enquire about the post-surgery progress of his wife’s knee problem, the arthritis. There was good news, but it came along with painful periods spaning over two months. Some times I feel that physical pain of threshold level and even beyond, is more dreadful than death itself. That, no doubt is one of the reasons why euthanasia is advocated. Which is why the english poet Keats says that pleasure is often a visitor; but pain clings cruelly to us.
Anyway, having heard the good news, we decided to eat-out for dinner. My friend’s choice was the newly-opened hotel ‘Malgudi’ a ‘pure vegetarian’. Is there an impure or adulterated vegetarian hotel? His wife stayed back as there was climbing involved and she was not yet quite ready for that adventure.
Being an ardent admirer of R.K. Narayan I instantly accepted my friend’s choice of the hotel more for its name than any other reason. Being located on K.D. Road, as youngsters call the Kalidasa Road, there was the problem of parking which made me reconsider his choice. But he was determined to take me there and explained why. The hotel true to its name ‘Malgudi,’ a fictional town created by that famous Indian-english novelist R.K. Narayan has got its walls painted with images from the Malgudi town as described by the author in his famous works and also from the successful TV serials directed by Shankar Nag also titled ‘Malgudi Days.’
This was enough for me to shut my mouth deciding to open it only at the hotel while eating. After some efforts to park the car in the pouring rains, we got into the hotel where the owner Nagaraj Gopal and his charming wife Poornima received us with broad smiles and warmth. I know we were in for a free dinner. I know that in America it is a common saying that ‘there is no free lunch’ in life, meaning you got to pay for everything in life.
But then we are in Mysore where these days some newspapers are offering free advertisements or for a token tariff. Let it be. But I got a free dinner at hotel Malgudi. Thank you Nagaraj Gopal and Poornima. Food was good and came in a variety that needed three floors to serve, each dedicated to a speciality food. And the walls of every floor are painted with images and pictures of characters that appear in R.K. Narayan’s books and stories revolving around the fictional town Malgudi.
And as we left the hotel under heavy rains, my mind continued to engage instelf with the thought of R.K. Narayan who was fond of me. We used to interact occasionally while he was at his Yadavagiri residence.
I felt sad that his house built in 1948 here at Yadavagiri, from where he wrote most of his books, is standing there in a dilapidated condition, partially demolished, with a guard keeping watch. When BJP government was in power and K.S. Raikar was the Corporation Commissioner, the government intervened to stop the demolition of the building by a contractor. The house was sold by Narayan’s son-in-law after Narayan’s death on 13th May 2001 in Chennai. The government bought the house and the BJP government declared that it would be converted into a memorial for the great writer with a museum, seminar hall etc.
However, with the fall of the BJP government, there was no one to take the idea of the memorial forward. Just as it has happened with the memorial for Swami Vivekananda at the grounds of the almost defunct government NTM School after the new Congress government came to power.
This is the fate of a memorial for Narayan who is credited with bringing Indian writing in english to the rest of the world. His greatest achievement was in opening a window through his works for the world to see India and understand her.
Narayan’s works were acknowledged as of world class by world class writers like Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, John Updike, E.M. Forster, V.S. Naipaul and others. Narayan has won many awards and honours — Padma Vibhushan, Central Sahitya Akademi award, Rajya Sabha member, doctorates and more. He was also mentioned for Noble prize for literature in TIME magazine.
Many may not know that Narayan worked for a time as a reporter to the Madras-based paper called “The Justice” dedicated to the rights and causes of the non-Brahmins despite being a Brahmin Iyer himself. It is significant that there was always a hidden message in his writings — about the injustice suffered by women due to the socially accepted practices, plight of students, domestic discord between husband and wife with the latter having to put up with the husband’s cruelty or non-sense etc.
And I feel sad that a city known for its cultural heritage is unable to recognise its great son with a memorial ! A Society which does not remember and honour its famous sons is doomed to remain static. No wonder we are already perceiving that atmosphere in our city. What the government or our city could not do to honour R.K. Narayan’s memory, the hotelier Nagaraj Gopal seem to have done in his own way !
Tailpiece: It is interesting to know how and when the name Malgudi, the fictional semi-urban town in South India was conjured up! Narayan created this town in 1930, incidently on Vijayadashami Day which we celebrated on 14th of this month. Indeed an auspicious day to build a town! It appears, his grand mother chose the auspicious day!!
The exact location of Malgudi is a matter of speculation and to my mind seemed to be either near Coimbatore or Mysore itself. The name, it is possible, could have been inspired from a real town Lalgudi on the banks of river Cauvery.
However, my host Nagaraj Gopal of Hotel Malgudi says his research showed that the name was coined by taking three letters from Bangalore’s Malleshwaram and combining them with the last four letters of Basavanagudi — Mal+Gudi=Malgudi. Howzzat?
e-mail: kbg@starofmysore.com
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Abracadabra……Abracadabra / by K.B. Ganapathy / October 24th, 2013
