The Hindu

Today's Paper » NATIONAL » KARNATAKA

Bangalore, January 12, 2013

Play bats for Puttenahalli lake

Staff Reporter

ALL ABOUT TIMING: The play has at its heart the game of cricket itself, chronicling the growing commercialisation in the game with humour.

Watch a play about cricket — and help in the upkeep of a lake, in one stroke.

That’s what Bangaloreans can do this weekend, when Doosra: The Story of Cricket , will be performed on Sunday, to raise funds for the upkeep of Puttenahalli lake in J.P. Nagar’s 7th Phase.

Cricket would be the perfect common factor to draw in crowds, and so the Doosra collaboration came about, said Usha Rajagopalan, chairperson of the Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT), which maintains the lake.

The play has at its heart the game of cricket itself, said director-writer Anand Raghavan. Through the story of protagonist Ganesh, it chronicles the growing commercialisation in the game. “It’s a humorous play. It’s a forum to reach out to more people, the perfect way to generate greater interest.”

Proceeds from the play would be used to create a corpus fund and interest from this will be used in future to maintain the lake.

While they would have raised about Rs.4 lakh if all tickets were sold, they have managed to raise about a quarter of that amount, Ms. Rajagopalan said. The play is one of a series of fundraising efforts planned through the year to improve amenities at the lake. The trust plans to hire maintenance staff such as gardeners and sweepers, and plant more trees (she estimated a current number of 320 trees) at the lake in the coming year.

As of May 2011, the PNLIT has been in charge of maintaining the lake after they signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike; it has been doing so on the basis of donations primarily, said Ms. Rajagopalan. This was the first time they were tying up with a cultural event to raise funds.

When and where

Doosra: The Story of Cricket will be staged on Sunday, January 13 at the MLR Convention Centre, Brigade Millennium, J.P. Nagar 7th Phase. There will be two shows, one at 3.30.pm. and the other at 7 p.m. Donor passes, priced at Rs.200, Rs.500, and Rs.1,000, are available online at www.indianstage.in and

www.bookmyshow.com.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Read the report online here.