Bangalore Panorama @BICFEST

Arun is a Bangalore lover and enjoys its stories and history. In 2005, he took a few people for a walk on MG Road and told them the city’s story – and has been doing it as a profession ever since. He founded BangaloreWALKS which has conducted city walks every weekend for the past 13 years, which is surely some sort of record.

Dr Narendar Pani is Professor, School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Management Studies and the Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Policy (CiSTUP) at the Indian Institute of Science. He did his PhD in Economics from the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore. He had earlier done his MPhil in Applied Economics at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum; MA in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and BA (Hons) Economics from Bangalore University.

Aliyeh Rizvi is the Founder of Native Place and works to build awareness of Bangalore’s local history and culture through curated experiences, travel writing and city based collaterals. She is an avid traveller, both in the city and out of it and is a contributing writer to the National Geographic Traveller magazine and dailies including the Bangalore Mirror, the Hindu and DNA.

Her talk `The Past in the Present’ will look at how a shared local history contributes to our collective and personal identities as Bangaloreans. It will also explore ways in which we can continue to create space for it while moving into the future.

Professor Sanjeev Jain is Head of the Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences, Bangalore which he joined in 1986. there He is a well known advocate for public health, especially mental health and is engaged in extensive research on psychological disorders. His publications and studies continue to receive international acclaim.

Naresh V Narasimhan is a practitioner and leader with three decades of experience in architecture and urban design. He is best known for his association with Venkataramanan Associates – an award winning architecture firm.

As co‐founder of MOD (an international collective of urban designers, researchers and curators), founder & trustee of Imagine Bangalore and founder of Cobalt (a new concept of a work and meeting space that facilitates serendipitous encounters) Naresh has fuelled a variety of progressive causes in the city.

Maya Jayapal is a teacher, writer, columnist and counsellor residing in Bangalore. This is her third book. She has travelled widely and has spent twenty-four years in Singapore and Indonesia. In 1993, she returned to India and settled in Bangalore. She has also authored two other books Old Singapore and Old Jakarta. Her books are a result of her abiding interest to know more about the place where she lives. She is a regular contributor to The Hindu, Deccan Herald and other magazines. In her spare time she enjoys walking, reading, writing and knitting.