Vol. 15. No.6. June - 2015

KARNATAKA

BhavanBharatiya VidyaBharatiya VidyaBharatiya VidyaBharatiya VidyaBharatiya Vidya

NewsNewsNewsNewsNews

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Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,Race Course Road, Bengaluru - 1.

Tel.: 2226 7303, 2226 5746.Fax : 2228 7373

Website : www.bhavankarnataka.comwww.facebook.com/bhavan.bengaluru

e-mail : contactus@bhavankarnataka.com

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There are pockets of voices in

the wilderness which try to keep afloatsome of India’s ancient history andvenerable cultural and spiritual roots.The takers are not many for suchorganized discourses, the cross-sectionof audience invariably falling into themiddle-aged bracket.

Most such events turn out to bemere academic exercises which hardlythrow up any new speakers or

challenge the audience out of theirgroove vis-a-vis their professional andmonetary pursuits.

The Bengaluru Kendra of theBhavan organized two highly ambitiousNational conferences on the Vedasand the Upanishads these past twoyears. Ambitious in terms of costs,logistics, the scores of scholarsinvolved, and most importantly, ropingin audiences, without whom the entireexercise would be a cipher.

MEGA EVENT ON MAHAPURANAS :A TAKE AWAY GIFT TO PUBLIC

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ISKCON, Bengaluru, knownas much for its multifarious, well-packaged spiritual activities as forits religious practices indisputablyaccording to the Aagama Shastra,partnered with Bhavan, in gettingup the two mega events—VedaSamvada and UpanishadhSandesha. One had attended theevents at ISKCON both in 2013and 2014, and admittedly, theywere hugely successful in terms ofthe wide variety of participatingscholars, their lucidity ofpresentation, traditional ambience,complete with recitation of theVedas, and with classical musicand dance recitals forming anadjunct to the conferences.

However, the highlight ofboth conferences was their beingcontextual to the times, withpractical utility value particularly

to the youth. Both Bhavan andISKCON have attempted toreach out to youngsters in manyof their activities; these twoconferences managed to appealto youngsters, becoming aresounding success by thatyardstick. The key to getting themto participate lay in the relevanceof the topics as applicable to dailylife, and the packaging of suchancient wisdom in useful format.

Buoyed by thisexperience, the two beaconsof true Indian culture arecoming together again for afive-day meet—Message ofMahapuranas— from June 23.There is nothing that theMahapuranas, numbering 18,do not dwell upon at length—Agni, Bhagavata, Brahmanda,

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Garuda, Harivamsa, Markandeya,and Padma, to name a few.From esoteric bearings, theMahapuranas will transform intomodules of information for leadinga happy and successful life; it isperhaps for the first time that theMahapuranas are being broughtto the forefront as comprising a

vast body of knowledge that ismore than applicable andcontextual to the times.

The conference will be amulti-layered event with thecommon thread of expoundingon the ancient sacred texts ofIndia.

Aptly, it will begin with arecitation of verses from theMahapuranas. From here, theconference takes off into manywindows of issue-based themes,none irrelevant, none giving theimpression of mumbo jumbo;every topic occupies strategicimportance vis a vis knowledge,usefulness, and easy applicationby anyone—a takeaway gift tothe public.

Starting from the beginningsof creation as detailed in theVayu Purana, political thought in

“

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Garuda Purana, Ecology, andManagerial Aspects in thepuranas, on the inaugural day,the sessions will delve into anarray of subjects such as tantricelements, history of Kashmir,Kannada works, festivals, populartales, astrology, katha keerthana,chanting, impact on Indianlanguages, and personality ofKrishna, among others, drawnfrom varied puranas.

If these will introduce theaudience to not just the richnessof the puranas but to the religious-cultural history of India datingback to millennia from “pre-historic” times, environment,relevance of Padma Purana tomodern times, managerial aspects,social concepts, personalityassessment, ayurveda, nationalintegration, moral elements,educational concepts, yoga,consciousness, etc are just a fewsubjects that one can immediatelyconnect to with a degree ofcomprehension. These sessionswill literally form the “here and

now” of the five-day congress,with interactive sessionsenhancing their worth.

Said to be compiled byVeda Vyasa, this ancient bodyof literature has within it theessence of the Vedas, put forthin a simple way for the commonman. The Mahapuranas not onlyunfold the principles of Hinduism,but contain lessons of life that arenot limited by time.

Barring the inaugural daywhen the meet begins at 11 am,the rest of the days start at 9 am.The day-long sessions willconclude with traditionalmusic, dance and drama. Anexhibition and sale of books,CDs, and DVDs is also on.The venue is Hare KrishnaHill, Rajajinagar. Entry is free.

- Jyothi Raghuram

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The convocation of the

Bengaluru Bhavan’s GandhiInstitute of Computer Educationand Information Technology forthe October-December 2014,and January-March 2015batches was held at the Bhavanon May 10.

Sri K. Jairaj, former addl.chief secretary (retd), Govt. ofKarnataka, who was Chief Guest,distributed the certificates.

Pointing out that learning hasno boundaries, he stressed on theimportance of soft skills to makegraduates employable in an ever-changing market, upgrading one’sknowledge, and using onlinelearning programmes. “Studentsshould put into practice the

‘SOFT SKILLSMAKESGRADUATESEMPLOYABLE’

Japanese philosophy of “Kaizen”or continuous improvement,where small, incremental stepswill help to achieve one’s goals”,he said, adding that the benefits ofsuch positive steps and disciplinewere applicable to every aspectof life.

Sri Praveen Kumar ofESSGEE Educational Services,which conducts the computerclasses, said that over 500students had trained at the

Sri K.Jairaj former Addl Chief Secretary, Govt of Karnataka and Sri. N. Ramanuja,Chairman, BVB, handing over free computer education Diploma certificate to

Kum B.V. Priyanka , Dr. V. Parameshvara, Vice-Chairman, BVB andSri. H.N. Suresh, Director BVB, look on.

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Bengaluru centre since late 2013.Some 120 students receivedcertificates at the convocation.Sri Kumar, who is in charge of thesouthern centres, which number11, said the Institute had so fartrained about 25,000 studentscountrywide.

Some of the recipients ofthe certificate recounted how thecourse had helped them find jobs,become tech-savvy, and helpedopen up a world of informationto them, literally at their finger tips.

The most heart-warming words came from

Dr. V. Parameshwara,Vice-Chariman of the BengluruKendra, who appreciated thecommitment of the Institute’s staffin imparting quality training, andsaid he was proud and happy thatat the age of 86, he was a studentof the same Institute just sixmonths ago, which had helpedhim to hone his computer skillsto the level of a professional.

The Institute staff Shwetha,Kusuma, and ShwethaN, besides Praveen Kumar werefelicitated for their good work.Bengaluru Bhavan Chairman,Sri N. Ramanuja, presided.

Sri. H.N.Suresh and

Sri N.Ramanujahonouring

Sri. K. Jairajand

Sri. Dr. V.Parameshvara

look on.

Sri. K. Jairaj,intaracts withSmt. & Sri.Bhandarisenior -

citizens whoreceived

certificates

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The Bharatiya Vidya

Bhavan-INFOSYS Foundation“Outreach Cultural Programme”truly took off in the Northeastwhen it held a traditional danceevent at Narsinghar in Tripura,on April 29, marking its foray intoone of the most remote parts ofIndia.

The third smallest State in thecountry, Tripura, which shares aninternational border withBangladesh, and is peopled byindigenous communities, is cut offfrom the cultural map of majornational cultural festivals. With thislandmark project making its debutin the State, mainstream Indiancultural elements have taken abow there, providing the initialfillip and exposure for culturalorganizations to take the cue.

Being a first-of-its-kindfestival for the Bhavan’s AgartalaKendra too, the programme drewState dignitaries and the media.One calls it a festival because halfa dozen dancers took to stage,

BVB-INFOSYSFOUNDATIONCULTURALOUTREACH INNORTHEAST

covering a gamut of dance formssuch as the classical Odissi,Kathak, and Bharatanatya,besides a refreshing harvestdance, which traced the cropcycle itself.

One has to admit that theNortheast remains an exotic landMiss Pujayita Bhattacharjee

Miss Anwesha Dasgupta

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to most Indians. Yes, it is exotic inits landscape, customs, cuisine,attire etc. But its ethnicity neednot make it distant from the restof the country. In a way, this gapwas bridged by the outreachcultural programme, and one ofthe main aims of INFOSYSFoundation—to give and takewith the North East, culturally,began on a sure footing.

The young dancers—JagritiDas, Pujayita Bhattacharjee,Swarnali Saha, and AnweshaDasgupta, are regularly training inclassical dance at Tripura, hard asit is to believe that even Kathakand Bharatanatya have foundplace there.

The lone non-classical itemlent variety to the evening—Mamita, an agricultural festival,is celebrated with dance duringthe harvesting of paddy crop inwinter. It was performed by

Barsha, Monika, Priyanka,Barnali, Salpa, Niha, Tapasi,and Jenevi of Bhavan’s TripuraVidyamandir.

Dr. Padmini Chakraborty,former principal, GovernmentMusic College, was Chief Guest ;Dr. G.V.Subramanian, JointDirector, Bhavan KolkataKendra, was the Guest ofHonour, and Smt. Alpana Sinha,Vice Chariman, Agartala Kendra,presided, in the presence ofProf. Kashinath Das, Director,Agartala Kendra.

Master Soumyadeep Bhattacharjee

TRICHY BVB-INFOSYS OUTREACH PROGRAMME27.6.2015, 6.00 p.m. - Venue : Aruna Theatre, Woraiyur.

Violin ConcertArtist : Sri Raghavasimhan and Sri. Sankaranarayanan

Dance : Students of Salangai Academy

KOLKATA BVB-INFOSYS OUTREACH PROGRAMME12.6.2015, 6.00 p.m. - Venue : BVB Auditorium

Hindustani Vocal : Smt. Mythri Sinha13.6.2015, 6.00 p.m. Venue : BVB Auditorium

Odissi Dance by students of Sangeeth Shikshan Nritya Ashram

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Less-heard genre

Anjana Kasargod will presentBhaktigeethe on June 12 as partof the BVB Infosys CulturalProgramme at the Indian Instituteof World Culture at 6 pm.Daughter of noted writer BharathiKasargod, Anjana, like manyother young artistes of today, hasan academic background well-worth pursuing parallel to herart—she has a post-graduation inBio-Informatics, while preparing

WATCH OUT

FOR....

JUNE 12, 13 & 27.

for the Vidwat examination inCarnatic vocal.

Anjana stepped on to thestage when she was just 10 yearsold, participating in the musicprogrammes of her teacher,Thirumale Sharadha.Devaranama, bhajans,bhavageethe and vachanas arepart of her repertoire, which shewill bring to the fore at theInstitute concert. Jayadeva’sGeeta Govinda is anotherfavourite of hers, a few of whichcompositions she will present too.Anjana, who also teaches vocal,is an auditioned artiste of AIR.

Rare Solo Bharatanatya

There is such a surfeit ofBharatanatya recitals in Bengaluruthat it is as if one is almostspoilt for choice. There are somedancers whose performance isworth making that trip to.By today’s standard, wheneven a difference of five years isconsidered a generation gap,Bharatanatya teacher and dancerP. Praveen Kumar can be calledP. Praveen Kumar

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an old-timer. He was one of thesenior wards of Guru Narmada,and set up his Chithkala Schoolof Dance, to which many of hisGuru’s wards gravitatedsubsequently.

Even as he was making amark as an individual dancer, hisname kept recurring quite oftenas a creative teacher who wasgood with the cymbals too.He began training from Prof.C. V. Chandrasekhar.His teaching ability and hisstrength of performance are onan equal footing today. He is adancer worth watching on stage.Praveen’s recital is on at Bhavanon June 13, under the ICCR’sHorizon series, in collaborationwith the Bhavan, at 6.30 pm.

U Shrinivas’ Ward to Play

June 27 will see a mandolinconcert of Akshay V. Mandolin issynonymous with U Shrinivas.Perhaps one can get to revisit thebrilliance of Shrinivas’ music,

when Akshay plays, as he haslearnt from Shrinivas and hisbrother, U. Rajesh. Akshay tookhis bow in 2012, after which hisconcert outings became frequent.Such was the impact of hismaiden concert.

An engineer by profession, hesays music is his passion, and willcontinue to be inspired andpropelled by his Gurus.Performances at the Ramanavamifestival at Fort High School,for several sabhas in Chennaiduring the music season, andparticipating at the ThyagarajaAaaradhana at Thiruvaiyaaru areamong his musical outings.

Akshay’s concert, underthe BVB-INFOSYS FoundationOutreach Cultural Programme,will be at the Prof. B. R. SubbaRao College, Vidyaranyapura.Accompanying him will be ArjunDivakar (violin), K. Suresh(mridangam) and T. Nataraj(ghatam). The programme isat 6.30 pm. Akshay V.

BVB-INFOSYSFOUNDATIONOUTREACHCULTURALPROGRAMME

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BHAVAN-INFOSYS FOUNDATION

OUTREACH CULTURAL PROGRAMME - 3

Multi - Violin Concert :Violin – Vid. T.S. Krishnamurthy, Violin –Master Tarun Ravikumar,

Violin – Master Anirudh, Mridanga – Vid. Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma,Ghatam – Vid. Phaneendra Bhaskar

on Friday, April 24, 2015, at 6.00 p.m. at Vasavi Education Trust,No. 99, Diagonal Road V.V. Puram, Bengaluru .

BHAVAN-INFOSYS FOUNDATIONMUSIC PROGRAMMES ATINDIAN INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE,

BASAVANAGUDI, BENGALURU

Instrumental music by Vid. Chandrashekar Badigere.

Tabla : Raghavendra Nakod and Harmonium : Vid Venkatesh Alkod

on May 8, 2015.

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A BOOK TITLED JEEVANAKALEBHAGAVADGITE LAUNCHED ON MAY 6, 2015

AT BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN

The dignitaries are from L to R. Sri. Mallepuram Venkatesh, former Vice-Chanceller,

Karnataka Sanskrit University, Sri. H.N. Suresh, Director, BVB, and

Sri. S.V. Manjunath author, and Dr. Wooday P. Krishna, President,

Gandhi Peace Foundation

SRI. G.V. BHAVE AND SMT. LAKSHMI BHAVE

MEMORIAL ENDOWMENT MUSIC

PROGRAMME ON MAY 8, 2015 AT

BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN

Kannada Natya Geethegalu by Vid. Gajanana Hedge.

Tabla : Vid. Prashanth Hegde and Hormonium : Vid. Satish Kolli

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PROGRAMME :JUNE - 2015

Fri 6.00 p.m. - Vadya Vybhava12. Sugama Sangeetha byKum. Anjana Kasargod(in association with InfosysFoundation)Venue : Indian Institute of WorldCulture, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru

Sat 6.30 p.m. - Khincha Hall13. Bharathanatya RecitalArtist : Sri. Praveen KumarDisciple of Guru Smt. Narmada(In association with Indian Councilfor Cultural Relations)

Tue - Sat. 10.30 a.m. - ISKON

23 - 27 Inauguration, followed by five-day programme on“Message of Mahapuranas”.(for details please see page 5 to 10)

Fri 6.00 p.m. - Khincha Hall19. Smt. S.P. RajalakshmiEndowment : Bharathanatya RecitalSmt. Pratibha Ramaswamy andSmt. Shalini Srikanth

Thu 6.00 p.m. - Khincha Hall25. Jyothi MemorialEndowment. : Devotional SongsArtist : Apoorva, Shravya, Sahanaand Nichitha.Direction : Guru Bharathi

Sat 6.30 p.m.27. BVB Infosys Foundationoutreach cultural programmesCarnatic Music on Madolin

Artists : Sri. V. AkshayViolin : Sri. Arjun DinakarMridanga : Sri R. GaneshGhatam : Sri. T. Nataraj Venue : Prof. B.K. Subba RaoCollege, Vidyaranyapura

Sat - Sun 9.00 a.m. - ESV Hall27. - 28. Rudraksha Healing :

Prana Vidya - Vedic HealingMiracle by Swamy Omkar, Founder,Pranava Peetam Trust, Coimbatore.

Smt. PratibhaRamaswamy

Smt. ShaliniSrikanth

Sri. Praveen

PRINTED BY L.V. SRINIVASMURTHY AT THE BANGALORE PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO.,LTD., 88, MYSORE ROAD, BENGALURU -560 018 AND PUBLISHED BY H.N. SURESH FOR THEBHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN BENGALURU KENDRA, RACE COURSE ROAD, BENGALURU- 560 001. EDITOR : H.N. SURESH

"Registered News Papers"

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Bengaluru Kendra News

Reg.No. : KARENG / 2001 / 6498 / 29 APR 2002

June - 2015