The Hindu : Karnataka News : Cultural sprouting on a hilltop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Cultural sprouting on a hilltop

Vishwa Kundapura

Shivagange village on Terahalli Betta is witnessing a cultural and literary revolution

UNDER THE FULL MOON: A scene from a drama presented by children trained at Adima camp.

KOLAR: Terahalli Betta, a part of Shatashringa chain of hills on Bangalore-Chennai Road, is not an ordinary hilltop. Situated about six kilometres away from the district headquarters of Kolar, Terahalli Betta is making news among literary and cultural circles of the State. Shivagange village on this hill is witnessing a cultural and literary revolution. The boulders on this hilly region are reverberating with the songs and dialogues that form part of dramas. Adima, a cultural organisation, is fast developing the area into a cultural hotspot of the drought-prone but culturally vibrant district.

The men, women and children of surrounding villages are being fed with various cultural feasts.

With help from likeminded people, scriptwriter Kotiganahalli Ramaiah founded Adima to do constructive work and breed good taste among the people. To translate his dream into reality, Mr. Ramaiah chose theatre as the medium and took up folk art as a major aspect of campaigning. Adima has enlisted the revival of the dwindling children theatre as another major objective.

“The country is going through a tough time. The evil of globalisation is encompassing the whole spectrum of life. Cultural invasion is being used as a tool to spoil the minds of the youth,” says Ramaiah while speaking about the inspiration behind founding the organisation.

“Raising slogans against the evils of globalisation does not serve any purpose. How to counter it and save the people’s cultural tradition assumes importance. It is in this background Adima adopted constructive activities in the arena of culture,” he told The Hindu.

Theatre workshops, drama shows, translation workshops, literary discussions, film shows, cultural jathas, etc., formed the main components of its activities. Though the spot lacks transportation facility, a summer camp conducted by Adima for children went well with parents and schoolchildren who participated enthusiastically. Three dramas produced at the camp, “Dyavarappa”, “Ratnapakshi” and “Hakkihadu”, have attracted the attention of theatre people and acclaimed as valuable contributions to the field of children theatre.

Hunnime Haadu is an innovative programme of Adima. Dramas are being staged every full moon day on the hilltop with boulders and trees forming a natural stage. As many as 15 dramas from different troupes have been presented under the full moon so far. A five-day translation workshop helped translate many Telugu folk songs into Kannada. Some of them were adopted into ballet format.

With Telugu being entwined with the life of the people of the region, the organisation decided to bring the rich folk literature of that language to the benefit of Kannada-speaking people. Now, it has embarked on a two-month cultural jatha in which three dramas throwing light on the adverse effects of liberalisation and globalisation would be presented in the district.

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