Shakuntala Devi,  mathematician and astrologer, passed away earlier today  in Bangalore. She was in her early 80′s. Often  dubbed as the “human computer,” she earned a name for herself in the Guinness Book of Records for her mathematical prowess. She wrote a number of books, including a cookbook. Like any non-mathematically inclined person from the desi community in [...]

We are doing a  ”Women Achievers Special” for the month of March and continue with it for the rest of the year. We will be highlighting women from different walks of life from the ordinary to the extraordinary and listen to their stories of how they did what they did and how they continue to [...]

Peter Colaco’s book Bangalore: A Century of Tales From City and Cantonment with illustrations by Paul Fernandes makes for a delightful read, and introduces  you to an old, forgotten Bangalore. This books is a tale of “two cities,” the British Cantonment area and the city that consits of Jayanagar, Malleshwaram and other “pettais.”  By reading the [...]

When Mona Webber, a die-hard Bangalorean, moved to Kuwait a few years ago she missed that familiar symphony of “Sounds of Bangalore.” She fixed that void in her life by recording the sounds of Bangalore and playing it every morning, and this ritual made her feel right at home in Kuwait. While I connected with [...]

Craving for American food in Banglalore? Not a problem. The concierge at your hotel will rattle off a list of places where you can get your cravings fixed and might even mention a well-known fast food joint. But back in the 1960s and 1970s there was just one place that served American food like steak [...]

Bangalore. Every year for a few weeks I become a Bangalore local, and try to pick up the threads from where I  left it the previous year. I have been doing this exercise for over over a decade. Before Bangalore, it was Madras (Chennai) where I spent a few weeks of my precious vacation before [...]

I have known about  Bridget White Kumar  for over 6 years, and every year on my purpose-filled trips to Bangalore, I’d promise myself to meet her. Every year her name would dutifully appear on my list of people to meet in Bangalore, and every year I’d carry her name forward to the next year’s list. [...]

Bangalore’s Jahnavi Barua’s novel “Rebirth”  is nominated for the  2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. This is Barua’s first novel.  Other authors nominated for their first novel in the Commonwealth book prize category include Jamil Ahmad, Christopher Currie, and Rahul Bhattacharya. You can check the complete list here. The winner of the Commonwealth book prize will be [...]

  Bangalore special so far in case you missed listening or watching the interviews in our life, people and ideas channel. Our goal is to highlight Bangalore, a city in rapid transition, while remains of an older and gentler times still exist in pockets of the city. Every Thursday, you can expect to see a [...]

Could this be the most photographed person in Bangalore? Well, while there is no way to establish that fact, it may be safe to state that he is probably photographed quite a bit. But, wait a second. Now that I think of it, another most photographed person (well, persons actually) could be the 2 doormen [...]