PD Ponders

Article written for Vijay Times CIRCA ‎10 ‎October ‎2003, ‏‎01:27:34 Marathis in Karnataka  Karnataka has been the socio-cultural hub for many years starting from the time of Vijayanagara till the time of Bendakaluru.  Kannadigas have been known to welcome and accept new creeds into their lives.  One of the oldest communities is that of Marathas who have been part and parcel of our lives from hundreds of years. The history dates back to the Marathi's inscription at Shravanabelagola, which is found at the foothill of the statue.  Then during Shivaji Maharaj's time his brother Shah Ji who came in to Bangalore and then moved on to Tanjore and lived his complete life there.  His army and court men who stayed in Bangalore never got any instruction from their superiors to go back so they stayed on and the first major influx of Marathi's was on the history books.  The Bangalore presence can be seen in the stone inscription in the Kadu Malleshwara Temple in Mallesh...

Disclaimer: I wrote a series of articles for an online magazine called Cheers between 2004-2006, am putting them out here since I found them in Lockdown 2.0 Use and Need of Obscenity and Cultural ethos defining the change ‎ 20 ‎April ‎2004, ‏‎10:53:58 The play's promotional campaign reads, "Persons below 18 years will not be admitted".  It opens to a bunch of curious audience who get to see audiovisual images, which they are used to seeing on TV or in Movies.  Nevertheless, they are disturbed and could not believe their eyes and ears.  This is common with plays, which are purely for adults.   But this is true with most of the plays, which are being staged worldwide.  There has been a separate category created for such kind of plays called In-Your-Face Theatre.  There are many exponents for this play and this started as a parallel theatre culture to converse with the audience in more realistic and hard-hitting way. We could trace the history of this not...

Caution Long Post... PS: These are the trhee Indian Beach trees (ಹೊಂಗೆ ಮರ) planted outside Kala Soudha by me for shadow at the foyre for peopel to sit and relax during day time.  Well the post clearly is not about it. First it was Ravindra Kalakshetra, where even after prolonged protests plus assurances nothing yet has happend.  Secondly Town Hall where the rent was reduced to 80K rom whooping 1.5 Lakhs & still no takers.  Third wicket was Kala Soudha & Fourth Nrityagram, finally now NSD premice at Guru Nanak Bhavan. One thing common in all these cases, Government has overruled Arts, taken all artists for a lovely ride and left us high and dry. I can speak very well for Kala Soudha, remaining cases can be googled, well it all starts as a moment gets media momentum and dies with promises from the Government/Authority side.  Same happened to Kala Soudha too, I am not sure of getting the place to run again, hopeful that who ever gets it will do justic...