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The Hindu : SHILPA SEBASTIAN R.

These stunning photographs of underprivileged children are bound to strike a note of empathy.

This photo exhibition is my way of raising funds for these beautiful children.

PHOTO: K. MURALIKUMARPortraits of hope: Giving the real picture.

Life through a different lens” an exhibition of photographs by Vaibhav Mehta, which put together images of underprivileged children was held recently. The images showed children from the poorest of circumstances, but for whom hope was still alive.Encountering reality

Vaibhav says that he gave up his career to become a self taught photographer. He encountered a child who was begging at a traffic signal, who was full of both despair and hope, and this made him decide to capture such children through his lens.

He got in touch with Outreach, an NGO that works with children of labourers in Bangalore.

Vaibhav started visiting thelocality, spending time with them to photograph them. “The older children took care of the younger ones as their parents were away at work. And I did not have to ask them to pose in any way. The idea was to catch them in candid moods. This photo exhibition is my way of raising funds for these beautiful children,” says the artist.

The exhibition also had children writing out their dreams on paper.Messages include: “I want to join the Indian army”, “I want to become an engineer”These notes were written by each child in English and Kannada, with drawings and are pasted on cardboards .“I let these writings do all the talking. We handed each guest these confessions so that they could get the real picture,” explains Vaibhav.

The funds raised by the sale of these photographs go to help these very children.

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The Hindu : y>Explore the most eco-friendly and plush homes in this new series

Lap of luxury Who said you had to choose between good living and green living?

Discovery Travel & Living’s innovative series World’s Greenest Homes is bent upon proving how eco-living and luxury can exist under the same roof. Host Emmanuel Belliveau takes viewers to the world’s most stunning eco-friendly dwellings on the planet and introduce them to the cutting-edge innovations that make these eco-palaces as green as they are glamorous.

“World’s Greenest Homes” airs on September 2 at 8.30 p.m. on Discovery Travel & Living.

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The Hindu : y>Check out Orkut Zeitgeist to find out what the favourite sport is

Men are more likely to use chat and sms functions on Orkut than women.A stock market tips community and one on Tamil cinema make the top 10 list of most popular Orkut communities at a National level, but Bollywood doesn’t make the cut. And here’s the kicker — football and F1 appear to attract more fervent fans on the social networking website than cricket does!

Welcome to the fun finds of India’s first “Orkut Zeitgeist”, a study of the aggregate usage trends on Orkut’s 40 million online communities in India done by parent company Google.

You might have heard of the annual Google Zeitgeist (zeitgeist means“spirit of the times”), which tells you what people are looking for when they hit that search button.

Now, we get a glimpse into what 17 million Indian users (48 per cent of all Indian Internet users according to ComScore data) are looking for and talking about every time they log in to Orkut.

Well, some things are as expected, given that the bulk of these users are teens and young adults in their 20s. MTV, eternal favourite Tom & Jerry and the TV show “Friends” make the list, as does ‘I hate to wake up early’ and (duck if Internet-speak makes you cringe) ‘StYlIsH PeOpLe’ and ‘Boys VS Girls (Who Is d Best?)’. But ‘India Stock Market (BSE NSE)’ (where intense discussions and stock tips reign) and ‘TCS 2009 Batch’ (where freshers at the company bond over football) were surprise top-tenners, according to Google product manager Vihari Komaragiri.

“We never expected something as serious as the stock market or something as topical as, for example, the ICET exam group, to generate enough activity to feature in top lists, nationally and regionally,” he says.

But that’s in keeping with a distinctly serious vein that emerges amidst all the fluff on the…More

The Hindu :

Rajendra Prasad, star of Quick Gun Murugunthat just hit theatres shares the experience

Humorous heroRajendra Prasad as Quick Gun Murugun

I am a Teluguguy, doing a Tamil role in a Hindi film, with a Bengali director, a Marathi make-up man and with the ethos and stiffness of an English man,” says Rajendra Prasad, describing his role of thecomic character Quick Gun Murugun.

The character, originallycreated for the launch of Channel V in 1994, became an all-time hit with people and the media. Quick Gun Murugan, who indulges in epic battles on different issues, wears a white cowboy hat, leopard yellow shirt and orange pants.

He sports a gun, a pink wallet and speaks mainly one-liners translated from Hindi to Englishin a typical South Indian accent. He believes in two things in his life: protecting cows (that’s why he is called a cowboy) and damsels in distress.

This character has been portrayed in bits and pieces by Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth many times to bring an element of humour in his films, while advertisements and cartoons have often conveyed their points through him.

But a full-length feature film on the character is a first time venture, directed by Shashank Ghosh (of “Waisa Bhi Hota Hai” Part II fame) . A veteran of 32 years in the Telugu film industry and seven times National Award winner, Prasad takes the role as a privilege.Endorsing vegetarianism

“I took only five minutes to listen to the story and agreed. Earlier Kamal Hassan was approached for it but he had problems with the dates. This film takes up the issue of vegetarians versusnon-vegetarians. Quick Gun Murugun endorses vegetarianism.”

Prasad feels it isa “major difference” from the earlier “quick guns”.

“Shashank has tied my hands in this film. He hasn’t let me speak. I don’t even smile in the whole film. I remain stiff as an English man, say the funniest things in the most serious…More

The Hindu : y>Actor-politician Jayaprada tells BHUMIKA K. that the world of politics or films aren’t dirty by themselves. It’s the way you see it

PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.A serious role Jayaprada: ‘The credit of my winning goes to good politics’

It’s easy to scoff at actors who get enticed into the whirlpool of Indian politics. It’s easier still to give them the “glamour-doll-drawing-votes” tag when the actor in question is a woman. But there must be something Jayaprada is doing right. She was elected a second time as Lok Sabha MP from Rampur in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh. An admirable feat for a woman who couldn’t initially get roles in Bollywood because she couldn’t speak Hindi. Even more admirable considering the dirty games her senior colleagues played this election to humiliate her.

One wonders what really drove her away from Bollywood into far off Rampur; not even back to home turf Rajamundhry in Andhra Pradesh. Jayaprada, the reigning traditional beauty of the 80s from the South — she of the long braid, the doe eyes, the perfect mole above the lips, and an actress who could really dance and is immortalised as the “dafliwaali” from her Hindi debut film “Sargam” — didn’t seem like she would go further in the political arena beyond a cursory campaign magnet.

But the actor took her voters seriously, unlike many other star colleagues who’ve been questioned for doing a cameo election-time appearance only to ask for votes. “It wasn’t my decision really to enter politics,” says Jayaprada, more than a decade after she first became a Rajya Sabha MP in 1996 from the Telugu Desam Party. “I love to be in films. My passion is music and dance. But when you think of reality in the real world… that’s what made me turn to politics,” she explains.

Jayaprada was in the city as brand ambassador for the Jewels of India…More

The Hindu : y>

Village Art and Craft Foundation is holding a cotton and silk festival that brings craftsmen directly in touch with customers. Saris, dress material, carpets, wall hangings, shawls from Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat,Rajasthan, Chattisgarh are on sale. The exhibition is on till September 2 at the Princess Academy, Palace Grounds. Contact 0-98333-23333.

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The Hindu : y>Kolkata Today concert will feature Rupankar and Mir

Maam Entertainment is organising a “Kolkata Today” concert with Rupankar and Mir. The concert will be held on September 5 at 6.30 p.m. at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.

Rupankar is so passionate about music that now the music studio is his home. He not only brings out albums but also performs on stage and sings for films and serials. Some of the award he has won are — Best Playback Singer from Sunfeast Pratidin Tele-Samman, 2007, for the serials “Sonar Harin” for ETV Bangla, Best Playback Singer for “Andarmahal” from Ananda Bazar Patrika and the “Uttam Kumar Award” in 2006.

Mir who has a comedy show to his credit was born into a conservative Bengali-Muslim family, and would listen to the radio for hours (television was allowed into the house only after he had completed class 10). “I used to spend hours tuned into one radio station or another, though choices weren’t many back then,” he says. He chanced upon an advertisement which said that auditions were being held for radio jockeys for a radio station to be launched in Kolkata. He gradually shifted to TV, where his shows made him a household name in Kolkata. The duo is performing in the city for the first time.

Tickets priced at Rs. 500, Rs. 300 and Rs. 200, will be available at K.C. Das (Church Street – 9343767470), Calypso (Jayanagar 22452368), Bangaliana (Koramangala – 25711058) and Total Mall (Madivala – 9845366458). Tickets are also available onwww.indianstage.in.

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The Hindu :

There’s no need to worry. Bedwetting, a common problem among kids, can be overcome

Photo: KAMAL NARANGLOVE AND SUPPORT It’s the best way to help your child cope with an embarrassing problem

It is a midnight ritual that has continued all of eight-year-old Roshan’s life — being woken up at midnight to go to the toilet. A great many of us are able to sense when our bladder is full, feel the urge of a full bladder and wake up tourinate. But many children like Roshan do not get woken up by the sensation of a full bladder, and therefore wet their beds. Roshan’s parents are worried he has still not gained bladder control at night.

They are not alone. Many kids, teenagers, and even adults, bed-wet every night unless they are woken up. While Roshan’s parents need not be alarmed, it is, however, time to take action, as bedwetting traumatises a child psychologically, not to mention the physical hassle. But the good news is the condition is curable.

By the age of four or five, most children achieve night time bladder control, while day time bladder control is achieved by about three years. Bedwetting or enuresis is three times more common in boys than in girls.When to seek help

“Ten to 20 per cent of boys over age six have this problem. If bladder control has not been achieved by that age, it is time to seek help,” says Dr. Shanthi Raj, consultant paediatrician.

Strangely, bedwetting is higher among children who have problems with tonsils or adenoids. And when you explore the family history, you will often find that the child’s father or an uncle would have had the same problem — enuresis runs in families. If the problem persists after age six, paediatricians explore the causes.

“While in many cases, the underlying reasons are not clear, in some children it may be…More

The Hindu : y>Jinson P. Alex talks about the problems that pedestrians face in the city

The time is 8.40 a.m. I am on my company bus, on the way to work. In peak hour traffic, school and college buses are making their way through with loads of bags and children, the office goers make brave attempts through tiny gaps in the traffic stream, with the police watching the drama, even as an elevated highway is being constructed. Did I miss someone very important? Yes, the poor pedestrian on the road.

There are scores of pedestrians on the road, who easily outnumber the traffic. However, neither the traffic agencies nor the construction companies are concerned about these people. This situation leaves the pedestrian being forced to dodge speeding bikers, time-conscious office cab drivers and many reckless drivers every day. The traffic police are unable to control traffic at lockjams, resulting in mayhem on a regular basis. The question arises on how we could escape from this perpetual mess. We must take steps to educate the drivers and passengers about traffic rules, rights and duties and must ensure that the traffic police are able to control the situation easily.

Meanwhile, it would be ideal to construct bus stops away from traffic junctions that would reduce traffic blockages and help pedestrians also. Construction of more subways and over bridges can also help in easing traffic pressure and make the passage safer for pedestrians. The traffic police must be provided adequate training on traffic control and must be given more authority.

Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst? Pen it stylishly and you might get it published. Don’t forget to attach your photograph.

And dash off your piece with your photograph. Email it tobangmetro@gmail.com or post it to MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road), Bangalore 1.

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The Hindu : y>The Raghu Dixit Project will perform on September 4

Photo: Bhagya Prakash k.INSPIRED BY FOLK Raghu Dixit’s earthy tunes

Colourful lungi, ghungroos, guitar, and a mind-blowing voice — the combination that is Raghu Dixit will rock Bangalore in a concert on September 4.

Indian Stage, an entertainment firm, is organising this concert of The Raghu Dixit Project — an open house line-up of musicians blending their artistry with Dixit’s arrangements.

He is supported by Gaurav Vaz on bass guitar, violinist Jithin Das, Vijay Joseph on the lead guitar and Siva on drums and percussion.

Seamlessly weaving traditional notes with Sufi and rock, their music was a hit on the UK tour. They enthralled crowds at the Lovebox and WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) and in clubs at London, at Gibson Guitar Studio, at the Von Underbelly, the Regal Room, Birmingham. Making music for well over a decade now, Dixit’s self-titled debut album “Raghu Dixit” was the highest selling non-film music record of 2008-2009. Raghu’s debut as a film music director in Kannada was with the movie “Psycho” in 2008, with the most famous track being “Mahadeshwara”.

He has just finished recording the song “Murugan Superstar” for the movie “Quick Gun Murugan”.The concert is on September 4 at 7.30 p.m., at Chowdiah Memorial Hall. You can also look forward to folk dancers adding their charm to the concert.

Tickets priced at Rs. 299, Rs. 499, Rs. 799 and Rs. 999 are available online atwww.indianstage.in. Or call 9880036611.

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