Lore and behold

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http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/kids/features/lore-and-behold

A new book club in the city gives children plenty of reasons to rejoice

Bangalore now has a “big little book club”, named Bookalore, created by the people responsible for some of the more interesting children’s literature in the country. “Bookalore is a collective enterprise and the people behind it have several years experience in writing for children, illustrating children’s books and editing children’s fiction,” said author Asha Nehemiah. Members of the club will participate in monthly activities that will be held in different venues. Asha Nehemiah discussed the idea with Time Out Bangalore in an email interview.

Tell us about Bookalore.
A group of us – authors, illustrators, editors of children’s books and magazines – decided we wanted to do something more than just create books for children. We wanted to become part of the process of actually reaching out and taking books to children in a way that is exciting and interactive. We’d been talking about things which concerned us all deeply: are children getting to read the works of Indian authors? Why is it that Indian children stick with reading the usual bestselling books when there’s a world of fantastic new books that they’ve never tried or explored? To our delight, librarians and educationists became a part of our mission and that is how Bookalore was born. Bookalore hopes to partner with performers, storytellers and other artistes to hold monthly events for children and young adults. These will be held across Bangalore at libraries, schools, bookshops, art galleries, museums and theatres.

What can we expect to see over the next few months?
Our launch event gives you a flavour of the sort of things children can expect from Bookalore. We have a dramatised story-reading of The Story of the Road by author Poile Sengupta for children in the three to five years age group. For slightly older children, we have a wonderful performance by the kids from theatre group Natakvalas; they will be reading from two of my books: Meddling Mooli and the Blue- Legged Alien and Meddling Mooli and the Bully-on-Wheels. For kids aged eight to 12 years, there’s “Magazine Mazaa” where they actually write and put-together their own magazine.

Children will get an opportunity to meet authors and illustrators and buy books. In the next few months, we are planning a Bookalore Folklore Festival, celebrating folk tales which have been retold with a contemporary flavour. Author Roopa Pai will conduct an exciting quiz type of activity with children based on her Taranauts series.

What are the age groups that you are looking at?
We will basically be catering to kids aged three-12 years. We will also have events for young adults and will be introducing them to a genre that is fairly new in children’s publishing in India – young adult fiction, that is.

What prompted you to start a book club in the city?
The fact that all of us live in Bangalore made this city the venue for our early activities. Already, we’ve received requests to have events in other cities and we will consider it at some point if it’s viable. But for the moment, we want to take our events to every part of Bangalore. Bookalore is not a traditional book club. It’s more of a travelling book carnival offering different types of events and activities based around children’s books.

Who else is involved?
There’s writer/poet/theatreperson Poile Sengupta, who has been writing fiction, plays and magazine and newspaper columns for children for many years – decades actually. Roopa Pai is young and dynamic and involved with children in so many ways. She’s written an amazing series of fantasy-adventure books for kids: Taranauts. She also conducts history and nature walks for children. Aditi De has written books for kids and also edited children’s pages in newspapers and a children’s magazine, Junior Quest. Vidya Mani and Shyam Madhavan Sarada have edited and designed children’s magazines for over 15 years – Chatterbox earlier and now Hoot and Toot.

Vimala Malhotra has been something of a pioneer in setting up a dedicated library and activity centre for children (Hippocampus) and is a library consultant working on helping government and private schools set up libraries. Vijayalakshmi Nagaraj – storyteller and author – worked with children in areas such as Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East.

I have been writing for children of all age groups for several years. Apart from these people, there are so many writers and illustrators who’ve come forward to offer time, space, talent to us.

At a time when literary fests are everywhere, conversely book spaces are dwindling. Do you think such initiatives will help bring visibility to the right books?
Literary festivals (with the exception of children’s book festivals like Bookaroo in Delhi and Junior Bug in Bombay) do not give much space or attention to children. I think initiatives such as Bookalore will definitely bring visibility to children’s books.

The Bookalore Launch will be held on Sat Feb 9.

By Bijal Vachharajani on February 01 2013

 

Mixed signals

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http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/film/features/mixed-signals

What’s the city’s most scholarly film critic doing in a short film?

A traffic signal is often a blind spot for commuters – people sigh exasperatedly waiting for the signal to turn green, they hop out of their vehicle to buy a pack of cigarettes or shop from the many vendors who peddle wares at these junctions. Filmmaker Alan Aranha was at one such crossroads in Mumbai when he found himself surrounded by a group of flower-selling girls. An idea bloomed. He talked to his friends Bharat Mirle and Sudhanva Atri. They made a 1.30 min film called Junction. The action, brief as it is, unfolds at a traffic signal.

The movie tells the story of a girl selling flowers on CMH Road in Indira Nagar, when a car pulls up. When the passenger, a slightly taciturn gent in a blazer, finally notices her, the film’s conceit becomes evident to the viewer.

What’s unusual about the film isn’t the choice of subject – the flowers the girl clutches in her hand is, in a manner of speaking, meant to induce a Chekhovian plot twist. Rather it has to do with a casting decision: that of the actor in the car. The role is played by the incisive, sagacious and often vitriolic film critic MK Raghavendra. “This is the first time I have acted in a film,” Raghavendra said. “Anybody can do a oneand- a-half minute film. They [the filmmakers] put together a context in which certain expressions could be exhibited.” For the filmmakers it was a convenient choice. “We needed someone who was a little elderly, and had his own blazer… he fit the bill,” said Aranha. It helped matters, it would appear, that Raghavendra is Mirle’s father.

This is the first time that the three filmmakers have collaborated on a project.Junction was selected for the Berlin International Directors Lounge last month. The story, it seems, has struck a chord. “Incredible things happen in seemingly ordinary places and situations,” said Aranha. “A traffic junction is a treasure trove of fascinating experiences. Once you get out of the rut of life, you discover that what goes on in ordinary life is in fact extraordinary.
Junction can be viewed on www.youtube.com.

By Bijal Vachharajani on March 15 2013 5.46am

 

The idea of arrivals

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When the results of the Fifteenth Indian Census were declared, in March 2011, it became evident that the urban sections of Bangalore were the most populated in Karnataka, growing at a decadal rate of 46.68 per cent. In their analysis of the data conducted soon after the numbers were revealed, social scientists KNM Raju and Madheswaran S of the city’s Institute for Social and Economic Change suggested that migrants to Bangalore constituted a significant portion of this burgeoning population. In the two years since the consummation of that official enumeration, the city has continued to draw a gush of migrants: deposited on its shores by every manner of mechanised transport.

In attempting to create a fragmentary record of this daily arrival for Time Out’s photography special, Selvaprakash L clambered onto trains, boarded buses and journeyed to the airport in Devanahalli, asking each intended subject* to pause for a picture and a breviloquent summary of their journey, a soupçon of a life.

In doing so, he discovered that the air-conditioned coaches in trains, much like the airport bus shuttles, foster exclusion, where people plug into their iPods and shut out fellow-passengers. Buses, he was told, don’t engender neighbourly feelings either: if the onboard movie doesn’t silence conversations, the hermetic confines of curtained sleeping berths force strangers to remain strangers. In contrast, the general compartment of a train, he ascertained, is like a commune: cards are dealt, food distributed, cover drives analysed, and, at the journey’s end, phone numbers exchanged, and lives invented.

*Barring two, the travellers we encountered refused to provide us full names.

Documenting the city’s immigrants

http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/bangalore-beat/photo-essays/idea-arrival

Testing times

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Guilt-free cosmetics’ shopping

 

For animal rights activists, March 11, 2013 marks the day the European Union’s ban on animal testing for cosmetics officially comes into effect. This fortnight, the Indian arm of the Humane Society International, an animal protection group based out of the US, is kick-starting a week-long campaign called the Be Cruelty-Free Week. The aim of the campaign is to ask the Drug Controller General of India to implement a similar ban in the country. Lush, The Body Shop, and Shahnaz Husain are some of the cruelty-free products that are available in India. That means they don’t use animal ingredients in their products and don’t test on animals. In an email interview with Bijal Vachharajani, Alokparna Sengupta, the Be-Cruelty Free Campaign Manager at HSI detailed how readers can get more involved.

Tell us about the Be Cruelty-Free Campaign.
The campaign aims to create the political will and consumer pressure needed to ban cosmetics animal testing wherever it takes place. Millions of animals including rabbits, mice and guinea pigs are made to endure obsolete, cruel and painful tests for cosmetics. With the EU banning product testing including a ban on sale and marketing of animal tested products, the Be Cruelty-Free campaign aims to emulate this worldwide including India. We are working with the Drug Controller General of India who is the main regulator of cosmetic testing in India to change India’s policy. We are reaching out to consumers and working with the cosmetic industry to urge them to take an animal-friendly approach to safety testing.

What are the some of the cruelty-free products that are available in India?
Our partner, Lush is a cruelty-free cosmetic brand, apart from The Body Shop, St Ives, Biotique, Forest Essentials, Lotus Herbals and Shahnaz Husain products. A lot of Vicco and Himalaya products are not tested on animals. To ensure that the product you’re buying is cruelty-free, check the packaging for a “leaping bunny” sign [an internationally recognised logo for animalfriendly products].

Is there a dichotomy in industry standards where brands do not test on animals globally, don’t hesitate to test here?
There is a possibility that international brands that are not allowed to test in their own countries, contract these animals tests to countries like India and China where animal testing for cosmetics is still legal and facilities are cost effective. In India, testing is not a mandatory requirement by the Government of India; the government has left it up to the manufacturers to test on animals if they feel it is necessary.

What do you think will be the outcome of the campaign?
Research and experience has proved that animal testing is not required for cosmetics. There are more than 18,000 chemicals that have already been tested and whose safety is known. More than 400 companies are currently cruelty-free and do not test on animals. Europe, the world’s largest market for cosmetics, and Israel, have already set a precedent on the prohibition on animal testing.

The Be Cruelty-Free Week is from Mon Mar 11-Fri Mar 15. To get involved, visit www.hsi.org. 

 By Bijal Vachharajani on March 01 2013 12.49pm

Link here: http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/shopping/features/testing-times

50 classic Bangalore rivalries

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 Here are 50 classic Bangalore match-ups on which we’d gladly place our bets on

As far as we can tell, the first recorded Bangalore rivalry dates back to 1789, when Charles Cornwallis, the Earl of Cornwallis – he of the heavy jowls and mildly dilated pupils – squared off with Tipu Sultan – he of the fearful symmetry. But that was 224 years ago. And as a fortnightly, all we care about is that this Siege of Bangalore resulted in the Madras Engineering Group setting up shop here (go sappers), and the installation of the Wodeyars on the throne of Mysore (more power to Palace Grounds). But don’t get us wrong, we love a healthy brawl just as much as the next tottering, pickled fellow at the local hooch hole – only, the rivalries we are concerned with are the ones embedded in our living memories, not the battles and sieges and crusades recorded in most textbooks. Here are 50 classic Bangalore match-ups on which we’d gladly place our bets. Illustrations Abhishek Choudhury and Malvika Tewari.

The complete story is here: http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/bangalore-beat/features/50-classic-bangalore-rivalries

Home food cravings

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It’s not often that I write about food, but this story happened because I was craving undhyu in Bangalore.
http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/restaurants-caf%C3%A9s/features/foody-goody

Foody Goody

Dig into undhiyu and other scrumptious Gujarati dishes
Undhyu
Winter means one thing for Gujaratis. It’s time to tuck into undhiyu, a Surati mixed vegetable dish composed of brinjals, purple yam, sweet potatoes, unripe bananas and papdi, flat beans. Traditionally, undhiyu is cooked in an earthen pot that is buried upside down underground and then fired from top. The vegetable is cooked in a sea of oil (effectively quashing all health benefits) and eaten with hot puris. This is nearly impossible to achieve in Bangalore, of course – most households here cook undhiyu on a stove. The season for the dish has almost passed, but this fortnight, caterer Shweta Kantaria will make her last few batches of the winter vegetable before summer creeps up on us.

While there are two types of undhiyu that are usually made, Kantaria’s version is the Kathiawadi one, which is created from spices such as garam masala, coriander-cumin powder and red chillies. She also adds generous amounts of muthiyas (fried dumplings made of besan, methi and spices). When we tried the undhiyu, it transported us to childhoods spent on rooftops, flying kites and taking breaks to eat piping hot undhiyu with puris and pickle. Of course, living in Bangalore means she has had to tweak the recipe a bit, replacing green tuvar (pigeon peas) with avare kai (beans) and purple yam with plain yam. Kantaria, who holds a business degree in finance, and her husband, Ramesh, moved to Bangalore five-anda- half years ago. She took a break from her job in human resources when their son was born. “I used to go to birthday parties with my child and found that most parents would hand over readymade boxes of burgers, pizzas and doughnuts to the kids,” said Kantaria, whose son is now four years old. “I found it odd that you’re inviting someone and then giving packaged food.” Then two years ago, Kantaria, who loved to cook, decided to start her catering service, Foody Goody.

Since then she’s been making regional snacks such as vada pav, dhoklas, chaats and dabeli (sweet- and-spicy potato mixture mixed with peanuts and pomegranate sandwiched between a pav) and international fare such as pizzas, noodles and pastas. The paneer roll – samosa shells stuffed with a mixture of cottage cheese and Italian herbs – is the star of her menu. She also offers a range of desserts including angoor rabdi, gajar ka halwa and cakes and cookies. Apart from birthdays, she prepares food for house parties and business dos. “Last year, I made 2,500 mini pizzas,’ claimed Kantaria, who lives in Brookefields. “This Sankranti, I made 22 kilos of undhiyu in just two days.” But despite the Gujarati items on the menu, the couple said only 10 per cent of their customers are Gujarati.

Kantaria credits her husband for fuelling her passion. “We are all foodies in the family,” said Ramesh, as he packed dabelis for an order. “Even when I am home on weekends, she’s busy in the kitchen. But it’s good because we get something delicious to eat.” Business is thriving, and Kantaria’s putting off the inevitable: moving to a bigger kitchen to take in all the orders. “But I promise homemade food,” she pointed out. “Then it has to be cooked in the same kitchen using the same ingredients that we use, right?”

Undhiyu will be available on Sat Feb 2, Sun Feb 3, Sat Feb 9 and Sun Feb 10. Call Shweta Kantaria on +91 90360 68550, email her on info@foodgoody.in or visit http://www.foodygoody.in. Prices start from R15; Undhiyu R350 per kilo. Delivery charges extra.

By Bijal Vachharajani on February 01 2013 8.53am