‘Change’: A threat to traditional entertainment?

A tiresome Friday is followed by a much-awaited weekend. A movie in the multiplex, a hangout with friends, a party, a drive, some shopping, great food and quality time with the family! Looks like a perfect one! In a way, this is what entertains most of us. But for many in the villages, for men and women who toil hard for a meager amount, ‘entertainment’ is altogether different.

A village farmer redefining agriculture sutra!

Well, it’s not the tigers alone on the ‘list of endangered’in India. A heart-to-heart discussion with an earnest village farmer and you would end up including to the above list, an exhaustive range of rice varieties of India, mostly traditional and indigenous.

Kodiyala - A village of weavers who wove clothes for the Maharajas

Small houses on either side of narrow roads, busy traditional bazaars that bountifully display spices & vegetables, old-fashioned name boards that remind you of the 80s and a group of elderly at the pocket-sized tea shops who make you forget GPSs and Google Maps... that’s a scene from a small village called Kodiyala located a few kilometers away from the historical town of Srirangapatna that was once ruled by Tippu Sultan. What makes this village unique is the fact that the weavers of Kodiyala wove the clothes for the royal families of Mysore, Tippu Sultan and many political leaders. This village is a home to hundreds of ‘Padmashalis’, a Telugu-speaking weaver community known to have migrated from Andhra Pradesh hundreds of years back. 

Mattur and Hosahalli: Villages that speak ‘Sanskrit’, uphold ‘Gurukula’ and promote ‘Gamaka’ art!!

“Don’t give man a fish as you feed him just for a day. Instead teach him how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime” says a famous Chinese proverb. Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik quotes that the  ancient Indian version of education system believes, “Don’t give man a fish. Don’t teach him how to fish either. Instead INSPIRE him to DISCOVER his own method of fishing. Then, it is HIS”.......