This weekend is about soaking in the cultural variety the city has to offer. From the Bengaluru Habba’s expansive fare to Sankranti feasts and an underground music concert, After Hrs rounds off the five events that underline the city’s culture-rich tapestry.

Festival for the city

Nandini Alva, the co-chairperson of Bengaluru Habba hits the nail on the head when she describes the Bengaluru Habba as “a festival that treats the common man as a VIP and brings the city together.” She says, “When we started it, we wanted to keep the joy of the habba (as a platform of performing arts) alive. We also wanted to bring the city together, once a year. As urbanites, there is a sense of longing, of wondering what did the city offer me this year to add value to my life?”
With diverse events catering to all the performance arts —all genres of music, dance, painting, theatre and films — in various venues across the city, an endearing facet of the Bengaluru Habba is that it takes the arts to the people, as opposed to getting people to come to the arts. The diversity of programmes and managing to pull it off, every year, without any sponsorship, “is the challenge,” evinces co-chairperson Padmini Ravi.
Elaborating more on the preparation, she says, “The preparation for Habba is year long. It takes a long time to decide on the performers and to connect with them, too.” The seemingly-daunting task however doesn’t make the duo nervous. “There is a sheer sense of excitement,” Padmini states. “The sense of challenge it throws is a good thing,” she avers. And then of course, the encouragement they get from the audiences is motivation enough for the two best friends to jump headlong into organising it.
For complete schedule log onto www.bengaluruhabba.co.in.

When On till January 22
Call 23610920 / 23614443
— As told to Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran