Bangalore Habba time again

ARE YOU READY? IT IS HABBA
Times of India

Bangalore: Much like Bangalore’s older flagship event IT.Com, here’s something for the city’s culturati, literati, connoisseurs, cognoscenti or simply, we the people — Bangalore Habba 2004.

From December 5 onwards, around 500 artistes across seven venues, Bangalore Palace and four temples promise some sensory inputs for eight days. A food fest too will be thrown in for good measure. Strings, Shankar Mahadevan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, a fashion show by Mysore Maharaja are just some items on the sensory menu.

Organised by AFFA, (Artists’ Foundation for the Arts), the largesse comes in after the Bangalore International Art Festival in October and some time before Vasantha Habba. Organisers say they are working with one conviction — making a Bangalore Habba a la Edinburgh Festival or a Singapore Art Festival.

What is the supply-demand of artefacts in city and how enthused are Bangaloreans about a habba that “celebrates the spirit of Bangalore”... more pertinently, what difference does it make to the lives of a population of 70 lakhs?

Organisers say they recorded over three-lakh footfalls last year. Sensitising people to art and culture is Hariharan Chandrashekar’s take-away. As the director of Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd, he has been organising cultural

getaways called ‘Rainseed’ for a few months now. “There are values we need to celebrate so I’d say an emphatic yes to fests. We need a discerning fest not kitsch that does not celebrate the finer sense of life and living.’’
For some others, it provides a much-needed respite — a “festyzesty’’ atmosphere after being glued to TV.
The cosmopolitan city has on innumerable occasions been hailed for its multi-lingual presence, so what is the incentive for a non-Bangalorean? Explains Vasudev Murthy, author of What The Raags Told Me: “For the large population of nonnatives, a fest gives them greater bonding with the city. The enthusiasm of a cultural extravaganza is infectious. While selecting artists if the strategy is to use big names and intersperse it with lesser-known ones, there’s no harm done.”

Noises have been made on occasions about the choice of artistes. “When there is so much talent in the state why call others” is a popular refrain. Something that musician Prakash Sontakke has encountered. “Even when we go outside for performances, there is a similar feeling but much lesser. At a place like say, Kolkota, if there is a seven-day fest, there will be 60% representation from local artistes.’’