Sunday, June 28, 2009

Team Trip to Janapada Loka & Kanva Dam

We were looking out for an opportunity to break free from the routine and relax over the weekend. A quick getaway we could think of was Janapada Loka the Folk Museum that beckons the people interested to get re-introduced to their roots. Janapada Loka (JL) is situated around 50 Kms from Bangalore (one hour’s drive) on the Bangalore-Mysore Highway. It’s placed next to Kamat Upahar. It’s a convenient place to plan a half-day outing.





























Eleven of us from the Creative Production and Design team at Target met near BHEL on a fresh Saturday morning and set out to have fun! We stopped at Bidadi to savor delicious Tatte-Idlis (Plate Idli) and continued to reach JL by 9:30am.











































Janapada Loka (JL): The entry tickets were as low as Rs. 10 per head. We went in taking pictures of the well-designed gate of the JL. Inside we found that they had several small buildings that hosted different exhibits. While one had all the Agricultural, Kitchen and Fishing appliances used in the villages from old times, the other had pictures and stories of all the tribes that inhabit Karnataka and their special arts, crafts and significance. There was one hut that had different folk arts of Karnataka on display. There was also one that introduced HL Nagegowda, an IAS officer who personally instilled this treasure trove of folk knowledge. We got to learn that this JL has recorded folk art content that runs over 1500 hours of video and over 2500 hrs of audio. Mr. Nagegowda has written around 40 books of folk background.































Well amidst spending some time going through all these stuff on display, we spent lot of time experimenting with photography (naturally so with all of us being such awesome models). Some of our team also went to Kamat for a second breakfast. ;-) In between all this one part of the team reached the Greek style open air theater in one corner of the JL where lot of visiting school children and their teachers were having some fun event.















After enjoying our time in the Janapada Loka, we attacked the Kamat Upahar next door to enjoy sumptuous Jowar roti meals. The food was excellent and so was our appetite, soon we were full and lazy.
























































It was still1:15 pm and none of us were in a mood to go home, so we extended our trip to the Kanva dam 10 Kms ahead. After driving 2 kms towards Mysore we took a right turn and then traveled 8kms to reach the Dam across Kanva River. The Dam was in ruins and the river was dry. The small trace of water made it look like a pond or tank. But, it was again a calm place to hang out without crowd or pollution, the weather was cool and the breeze was happy.




























So we settled on one of the stairs and started cutting jokes, singing and the lead guitarist of the team Anand also tried out some of the new things he was experimenting with. Again we took lot of pictures…. and relaxed for some time.




























Just then we found that some rain clouds were gathering and we didn’t want our bikers to get stuck in rain. So we called it the end of the day and left on a route that directly took us to Ramanagaram. We again regrouped at the same restaurant where we had Idli in the morning for some Coffee/Tea before bidding one another good-bye resolving that we’ll do more such trips in the future. We were back home by six to relax looking forward to the Sunday and fondly remembering every moment of the day that we enjoyed as a team.



Monday, January 26, 2009

Chitra Sante - 25th Jan 2009

What happens when you get to enjoy an extremely delicious course meal is, you enjoy it to the core in the beginning, you intend to savor every variety served, you do a great job of it till some time. By that time you are so stuffed and satisfied that you can’t take any more, you want to take more of it but you can’t! Your senses are craving for more but you are saturated! According to me THAT’s total happiness!
That’s exactly what we felt by the time we had explored the Chitra sante for 3 and half hours! :) And I get the same feeling every time I visit this event..


Chitra sante (Art fair/sale): Sante is the word for the

roadside markets many small towns and villages conduct mostly once in a week where everything you need is available and at great prices. Chitra Sante is an Art Fair that Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat - a renowned college for Art and Design – conducts once in a year for a day. You normally have more than a thousand stalls put up by Artists of all calibers and statures from students to amateurs and from experimental explorers to commercial artists. They come from different parts of Karnataka and from all over India. The purpose is to bring art close to common man and provide a great platform and exposure to lesser-known artists.


This time was no different from earlier years; there was a huge variety of art from Water colors to Acrylic to oils,
from Madhubani, Rajasthani to Mysore to Tanjore art, from Abstract to nature to heritage to even replicas of great art works. Some art was very close to handicrafts. Prices of art varied from Rs.5 to Rs.1 Crore! (Rs 10 mn).

We were a team of 6 team members from Marketing – Keshav with his Wife and baby, Bhargobi, Prathima and her Dad, Noor, Amey and Prashanth. We all had great fun watching so much art at once, exploring, understanding, discussing and resolving to go back home and make some art ourselves. (Well, unfortunately resolutions are seldom kept.. :) ) Along with that we also enjoyed some Ice-Candy and a quick snack at the Adigas.
Overall it was an experience we enjoyed to the core and a nice team event for a design team like us!