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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Know Your City: Bangalore International Centre, an engaging community space in a fast-growing metropolis
As the city expands and the 'old Bengaluru' that long-time residents were nostalgic about slowly fades, the conversation around the city's public spaces has emerged. Often, these are centuries-old lakes and monuments, and parks dating back to the era of the Raj. But just as worthy of conversation are those public spaces that bring visitors together to share culture, music, or art. One of the foremost such spaces in the city today is the Bangalore International Centre (BIC), located in Domlur, just off Indiranagar's 1st Main Road. Scroll through the list of events being held here, and you might see a prominent local musician performing, an interview with an internationally known author, or an exhibit of the works of a legendary cartoonist. The venue has seen events from cricketer Javagal Srinath discussing the physics of a cricket ball, to conversations with RBI governors. Recently, it even hosted writer-translator duo Deepa Bhasti and Banu Mushtaq, barely weeks before Mushtaq's short story collection The Heart Lamp won the International Booker. While the BIC has operated out of its own premises since 2019, when it originally started up in 2005, events were hosted on the premises of the southern regional centre of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Bengaluru. According to V Ravichandar, who became a member of BIC's board in 2010, the India International Centre in New Delhi served as an inspiration. He said, 'November 20, 2005, was when Abdul Kalam came to inaugurate the centre (BIC)…we continued using the TERI premises until 2019 as the building project took nine years.' He recalled, 'We used to average about five events a month – now it is closer to 40. Now that we have our own centre we have been able to ramp up to about 480 programmes per year.' Ravichandar noted that a committee of around 15 members is responsible for coordinating the events at the centre. There are three main sources for these events – walk-in inquiries where people approach the centre regarding a programme; programmes with partners such as the Science Gallery Bengaluru; and in-house efforts to conduct programmes. An example of in-house efforts is the upcoming June 7 event for World Environment Day, which will feature exhibitions on topics as diverse as coffee and cartoons, alongside children's workshops and film screenings with discussions. On how the centre keeps the process funded, Ravichandar said, 'We have about 1,100 members paying about Rs 7,500 per year as an annual subscription, who are doing it because they believe Bengaluru needs a place like BIC. It is not a club, which is more exclusive, but an inclusive space that is free to attend. Another source is the rental of the space for events with objectives similar to BIC, such conversation, art and culture.' Prominent persons had also pitched in to cover two-thirds of the costs for the building and land in Domlur, including Nandan and Rohini Nilekani, the Azim Premji Foundation and Mohandas Pai, to name but a few, with members covering up the rest of the cost. Ravichandar recalled a competition in around 2011 where 84 architects from around the world applied to design the BIC and Bijoy Ramachandran of Hundredhands was selected through a jury. 'We always joke that we wanted two acres by the lake but got half an acre by the drain. The location was a challenge. The question was how do you build a public space in a residential area? The scale cannot be different. How do you build a space that looks spacious in not that much space? Bijoy has achieved this very well,' Ravichandran said. Sharing the thought behind the building with The Indian Express, architect Bijoy Ramachandran described it as an unusual project for an architect. 'Something that is open for everybody to use….a lot of what we did is examine what it means to make a public building, what kind of space is truly public, what about its space, materiality, its connection to the outside and what makes it feel like a communal space?….we realised that the holding was smaller than what we did in the competition. We had to completely reform the building in the new site boundary. The real challenge was to have this kind of public building which feels generous and open in a very tight site,' Ramachandran said. Those interested in attending events at the BIC may consult their website at Events are largely free, with a few rare exceptions, though some have RSVP requirements to manage effective seating.
The Hindu
25-04-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Beyond the bill: how food business is dealing with price rise
Opening a cafe is a dream for many, but sustaining a restaurant business in Bengaluru is not an easy task. The city leads the way in food trends and hip new restaurants. However, it is a different story if you dig deeper. It is not all smooth sailing, especially in light of the new price hikes in coffee, milk, and gas cylinders. Across the city, small eateries, cafes, and bakeries face several challenges. Rising costs Udayshankar Shenoy is the chef and owner of Lazy Suzy, a popular cafe in Indiranagar. 'Many places are shutting down within the next four months. We are fighting now to survive and not be one of them. Good business, profit, growth ... These are far-off topics now,' he laments. He explains how prices on the menu at restaurants are based on many factors. 'We cannot decide prices on our whims and fancy. It depends on things such as raw materials, price of labour, the price of electricity and more. And then there is a margin. The profit margin is usually only about 15%. And that is also different for different dishes. A caramel custard may be 10%, while a Belgian chocolate cake that uses imported and expensive chocolate only gives you around 6%. The price of chocolate has doubled in the last eight months.' Narasimha Rao is a retired bank manager who opened Aaha Thindi, a darshini on Cunningham Road, last year. There have been three or four restaurants that have come and gone at the location in a decade. He says Cunningham Road may be a posh and central area, but the average spending power of customers is low. Darshinis are particularly struggling with milk and coffee price hikes. Currently, they charge ₹15 for a coffee; roadside stalls offer it for ₹10. They have not yet increased prices for these reasons, and it is the business owners who take a hit. Why raising prices is not an easy option 'No matter what we do or say, customers have a set pattern in their minds. They feel, a microbrewery can charge such an amount of money, while a cafe can only charge only that much,' says Udayshankar. Chef Tresa Francis transitioned from being a home caterer to running her restaurant inside the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) in Domlur. She serves home-style food from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. She launched in July 2024. Hailing from Kerala, she has been in Bengaluru for almost three decades now. Her main challenge was moving from her own space to trusting others to do the cooking in a commercial set-up. 'It is difficult to find people to come and work with you if you do not come from this industry. You do not have as many contacts,' says Tresa, who used to be a corporate lawyer. For a small business like this, the cost of produce makes a big difference. 'When I started in July, the cost of one coconut was ₹25, right now it is ₹55. That is more than double. Especially for Kerala food, I use 50 coconuts a day. When I designed the menu, it was designed with that cost in mind.' Tresa changes the menu based on seasonality, for example, she is using raw jackfruit as it is in season. 'This gives me more freedom to take the prices up accordingly.' In February, she increased the prices of appams by ₹20. It used to be ₹80 and now it is ₹100. 'I had someone come and point it out. But I do not have a choice.' Staff woes Many restaurants in the city provide staff with rented accommodation, medical expenses, and food. This accommodation is usually in the vicinity of the restaurant, and when it is in a location such as Indiranagar or CBD, these costs add up as well. Dechen Belliyappa, along with her husband Sujith Belliyappa, runs Utse Kitchen on Kamaraj Road, a Tibetan and Nepali restaurant. They opened the restaurant in January 2017. Dechen says prices are increasing, not just of milk and produce, but also of meats such as mutton, which is now around ₹800 a kilogram. 'We have not cut down on salaries or fired any staff. We work with what we have and do not hire new members.' Her solution? 'We cross-train our staff and cut costs in the kitchen in sustainable ways.' Most of her staff come from Nepal and Assam. A few local single mothers from the area are employed in the housekeeping department. Even if they do not come for the full shift, they do part-time shifts. The staff stay in accommodation provided by her, close to Utse. 'We train everyone in different roles. So a lady in the kitchen will do housekeeping, or sometimes, if we are really busy, she helps out in service too. By cross-training staff, they ensure that staff from other departments can multi-task in the kitchen or vice versa,' she explains. Strategies for survival Satyendra Chaupal has been running small eateries in Bengaluru since 2013. Hailing from the Madhubani region of Bihar, he first came to the city in 2010. Before the pandemic, he had three restaurants in the Dairy Circle and Koramangala area, mainly catering to college students and office workers. These had to close due to the lockdowns. A jolly man and a follower of the poet Kabir, Satyendra did not lose hope. Today, he runs an eatery called Sparsh Grand in Koramangala that serves home-style, simple north Indian fare to residents of the area. 'I have five staff members in my restaurant currently. They all come from my village, and we all know each other back home.' He says the biggest challenge he faces is managing the staff. Everyone wants holidays at the same time, for example, when there is a festival, they all want to go home, since they are far from their families. At times like these, Satyendra resorts to his people skills. 'I have a great rapport with my staff. Many of my employees return to work with me after getting other jobs, because I know the value of treating people well,' he says. Service charge dilemma The Delhi High Court recently ruled that service charges or tips are a voluntary payment by the customer, and they cannot be made mandatory by hotels and restaurants. In the restaurant business, the usual practice is to collect the service charge over the month, and at the end of the month, it is distributed among the staff and towards the facilities provided to them. Most of the staff at Lazy Suzy come from Darjeeling, Manipur, Assam and Odisha. Udayshankar says, 'My boys, apart from their salaries, were getting the service charge. They usually send all the salaries home, and with the service charge money, sustain themselves here.' The service charge is a huge incentive for them. 'A few years ago, I was not charging service tax. For that reason, finding staff was difficult. They would ask, 'Do you have a service charge? If not, we cannot work here.'' The cafe has 18 staff members. In an establishment such as this, for someone making a salary of ₹16,000, they get an additional ₹2,000 in service charge. That may change if the service charge tab is removed from the bills. Bittu K. is a 23-year-old who works as a waiter in a small eatery in BTM Layout. He says living in a city like Bengaluru is very difficult for him. He has a big family back home in Bihar that he needs to support, and the wages are not enough. He says unfair treatment from the restaurant owners and long working hours add to their distress. He has changed jobs twice in the past two years because of either the restaurant shutting down or the behaviour of the owners. He adds that many of his co-workers are in the same boat, but they do not want to talk about it as they are afraid of losing jobs. Across the city, in Fraser Town, lies a legacy brand, Albert Bakery. The bakery has been dishing out khova naans and puffs for 123 years now, since it began in 1902. Sabir Faizan, who runs the family business, says, 'So many of our ingredients have gone up in chocolate, margarine, frying oil. Eventually, we incur the costs. It is our staff that faces a lot of problems, as there is also an increase in the cost of living for them. Ongoing road work in our area has reduced the rate of walk-in customers as well.' He says just breaking even is a challenge. About the key to surviving in the business, he says one important aspect is being content with what you have. The bakery has one outlet, and they open only at 3 p.m. They make everything fresh daily and use no additives in their products. 'Even if I open ten branches, I may feel it is not enough for me. I have sustained by keeping my products simple and good.' Chethan Hegde. Bengaluru chapter head of the NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India) says restaurants all over the State are struggling and there has been a massive slowdown in business. Announcements are made about increased costs; there is no system to it. They face competition from online aggregators, and cannot pass on the costs to the customers. 'The restaurant industry is the DNA of the city. If these cost rises are not addressed soon, it will be a killer blow,' he added. Customers, too, are facing the brunt of it. Aasaavari Mohana Gobburu is a 22-year-old college student. She says, 'On a student budget, I cannot eat out more than twice or twice a month. There was a restaurant I used to frequent last year, where my average bill was under ₹500. Now, in the same place, it is around ₹800. They have increased their costs.' She feels it is not worth eating out. When there are no other options to eat in hostels or PGs, students would rather just eat a packet of chips or fast food instead.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- General
- Time of India
‘Our city could also become an art and culture capital', says V Ravichandar
An evident lack of public spaces and infrastructure that Bengaluru's art and culture scene requires has prevented the Garden city from including another much-deserved adage — that of being the capital of art and culture. But, we may not be too far from that, either. The recently restored 160-year-old school building in the heart of Bengaluru that has been transformed into an art hub called Sabha Blr is proof of that. The man behind this initiative, V Ravichandar , whose social media handles describe him as the 'self-appointed' Mayor of Public Spaces, has also been instrumental in bringing the Bangalore International Centre to the city, and has been part of the organising team of the much celebrated annual Bengaluru Habba , held for over a month in the city's public spaces. We speak to Ravichandran to understand his ideas behind these initiatives. 'Everyone knows Bengaluru as the tech capital of India, but it should also be known for its arts and culture,' he states. 'In the recent past, there have been instances where international artistes have refused to perform in the city due to a lack of infrastructure. Bengaluru should not be a city with such issues. We need five times more public spaces than we now have. Public spaces and community centres bring like-minded people together. It is also a space for people who are not from Bengaluru. They can get to know more about the city, and make new friends with like-minded people,' he added. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 10 Mysterious Photos That Cannot Be Explained True Edition Undo Restoring an old building is expensive. If the same space was built on an empty piece of land, the total cost would have been reduced by 40 per cent. But, there is a value of restoring a 160-year-old space like Sabha, which can't be measured by cost V Ravichandar About his recent restoration, Sabha Blr, Ravichandar says, 'My motivation was to create another public space in the city. But I had three things in my mind. One was to create a public space in the city for arts, crafts and culture. The second was to protect heritage structures when a lot of heritage buildings are coming down and modern buildings are taking over. And the third was to set an example and inspire others to recreate more such spaces and make more space for art and culture,' he explains. 'Govt should become an enabler for private art-related initiatives' Yes, there is government support and initiative when it comes to creating more such public spaces. However, in my opinion, while our government can do a lot more, they are constrained in some ways. I feel the government needs to increasingly become an enabler by encouraging the private firms to do work on more such developments. For example, the land belongs to the government, but it can invite a private company to restore, renovate and run these spaces as centres for arts and culture. Best Hindi Movies | Best Tamil Movies | Best Telugu Movies | Best english Movies | Best Malayalam Movies |
Indian Express
22-04-2025
- General
- Indian Express
160-year-old Bengaluru heritage building gets new lease of life as public space for a noble cause
As you walk down Kamaraj Street in Bengaluru, a newcomer may not realise that the building opposite the Sri Vittoba Temple is over a century old. Known as Sabha, it has undergone significant changes over the years but has now been restored to its original appearance, reminiscent of the time when Rao Bahadur Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar, a well-known philanthropist, built it over 160 years ago. RBANM's Educational Charities, founded by Mudaliar, owns the building and seemed to have been run as a school for some time past 1945, according to surviving documents. The premises lay unused for over a decade when the Ammini Trust undertook the restoration efforts. V Ravichandar, who runs the trust alongside his wife Hema, said, 'I was aware of the building about five-six years ago and brought some potential donors to restore it, but it did not work out. We decided to do it ourselves as it was a project worth doing.' Ravichandar was previously involved in constructing another public space, the Bangalore International Centre, and is one of the major forces behind the Bangalore Literature Festival each year. He added, 'We have shrinking public spaces in the city… A lot of buildings like this are coming down. Hopefully, somebody else could be inspired to restore a building like this instead of bringing it down.' Apart from two courtyards, the location has two buildings. The older one, dating back 160 years, is a flat-roofed 'Madras terrace' reinforced from below with teak wood beams. The other building, around 130 years old, features sloped roofs and circular rose windows that were in vogue then. Due to the various complications and damage from age and water, he estimated that the project cost was 40 per cent higher than building it from scratch. (Express Photo) However, it was not all smooth sailing. The age of the building necessitated the aid of specialist carpenters from Kerala and a veteran adviser in the field from Vadodara, R J Vasavada. Ravichandar noted, 'These buildings were made with lime mortar with jaggery as a binder. We have followed the same principles to restore the Madras terrace. Several wooden beams had to be replaced, with the bent beams re-used as rafters… We have stayed true to the design principles which were followed at that time.' Due to the various complications and damage from age and water, he estimated that the project cost was 40 per cent higher than building it from scratch. Architect Bijoy Ramachandran, who also worked on the Bangalore International Centre, said, 'This is a low-lying area close to the Ulsoor Lake, so there is a lot of underground water just three or four feet below the surface. So a lot of the walls were damaged by water rising from below.' 'By inserting stone into the wall along the periphery, we stopped the water from climbing up the masonry and damaging it. We also added a set of perforated pipes under the floor so any water enters a drainage system. The roofs were also badly damaged over the replaced large portions of both the roofs,' added Ramachandran. According to Ravichandar, Sabha is intended to be a self-sustaining venue. While it is owned by RBANM, the Ammini Trust will manage Sabha, which will be rented out for artistic and cultural events. Surplus income will be used to benefit underprivileged children, sixty of whom have signed up for art classes at the venue, which was formally opened on April 12. Interested visitors may find the building opposite the Sri Vittoba Temple on Kamaraj Road, some distance past Commercial Street, and can enter the building using a side entrance.
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
How Kishori Amonkar and her mother Mogubai Kurdikar blazed a trail in Hindustani music
Her music '...for me, is a painting that embodies every detail of someone's life. And in that there is great happiness, great sadness, great anger, great frustration, desperation — everything in one concentrated little piece'. This is how Ustad Zakir Hussain described stalwart musician Kishori Amonkar in Bhinna Shadaj (Note Extraordinaire), a documentary by Sandhya Gokhale and Amol Palekar. Hindustani vocalist Radhika Joshi created 'Mai ri', a special tribute to this musician, whose story is entwined with that of her mother and guru — the doyenne Mogubai Kurdikar. Radhika's 'Mai ri', rooted in the music and life stories of Kishori Amonkar and Mogubai Kurdikar, was part of Bangalore International Centre's special programming for Women's Day. The story of this mother-daughter duo who irreversibly transformed how raags would be sung and heard begins in a small village in Goa. Born in Kurdi in 1904, Mogubai was orphaned early. Even as a child who had to find her path in the world, she knew that her mother had wished for her to not just sing but to also make a life of it. Having worked as an actor in more than one theatre company, Mogubai was no stranger to the stage. She had also trained in Kathak and ghazal singing. When work in the theatre stopped, she fell ill and travelled with a relative to Sangli for treatment. There, her daily music riyaaz drew the founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana Ustad Alladiyan Khan Saheb to her doorstep, and he offered to teach her. When Ustad Alladiyan Khan moved to Mumbai shortly after, Mogubai followed him. Radhika describes in 'Mai ri' that this was radical in those times, also because of differences in religious backgrounds. It was not a rosy path for Mogubai in Mumbai. She had to contend with prejudice against women from 'respectable backgrounds for choosing to sing on stage'. Widowed young, Mogubai raised three daughters on her own, while working as a professional musician and teacher. She chose to pass on her musical teachings to her eldest daughter Kishori tai (as she's known). Juxtaposed with Radhika's renditions of Mogubai and Kishori tai's compositions, spanning an array of raags and musical formats, were narrations about the duo that conjured up images of two strong-willed women, passionate about music, not always in agreement with each other, but determined to sing and grow their chosen musical form. Radhika sourced information for 'Mai ri' from biographies on Mogubai and Kishori Amonkar besides having detailed discussions with her guru Pt. Raghunandan Panshikar, who studied music directly from both. 'Finding information about Mogubai's music was challenging, because there are fewer resources available on her. With Kishori tai it was the opposite problem — there are many newspaper articles and interviews, but since she evolved musically over the decades, some of her thoughts may seem contradictory to what she said earlier,' Radhika points out. Though Mogubai was 'a firm believer of maintaining the purity of the tradition and wasn't one to experiment too much, she composed drut bandishes as at that time there weren't fast paced compositions in many ragas characteristic to the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana such as Shuddha Nat, Sampurna Malkauns or Gauri'. 'Kishori tai was more open to experimentation. She would spend hours trying different combinations of raags. Some jod raags created by tai are Anand Malhar and Lalat Vibhas,' shares Radhika. Kishori tai's love for light music and ghazals was rooted in the fact that her mother sent her to train in other forms and in other gharanas. When Kishori tai sang a film song, however, Mogubai warned her that she might never touch her tanpura again, if she didn't remain faithful to classical music. Radhika says that Mogubai has taught her the power of dedication. 'In most traditional Indian art forms, students are taught to simply accept what the guru says. By challenging norms and if required later, even admitting mistakes, Kishori tai made space to question texts and what earlier masters had to say,' she says.
