Culture Rings was recommended by a colleague for a private tour with a female guide who would give some real insights into the city. She was not wrong. Jackie's tour was simply a brilliant day out after a tough work week. It felt like going on a jaunt with a really interesting and very cultured friend who loves her city and who knows people everywhere. I am skeptical of overly positive reviews on TA, but in this case I am now sure these ones are true. You won't regret taking this tour. Just let your guide know what you will like and they will tailor around you for a great experience.

This is a complex topic and hopefully, it'd be read and understood with an objective mindset. The tradition of holybull walking, particularly in the auspicious months of Tamil Month Marhazhi is very precious. The Bull walker usually accompanies a Wind Instrument - Nadaswaram" - and plays that to the tunes of "Bhajans" and / or songs of divinity and seeks alms from houses. They are also particular to seek alms only from those houses where the house is decorated with "Rangoli" and flowers to indicate that the residents are pious and generous. Generally the house people see the Bull as the "Vahan" of Lord Shiva and offer fruits, rice and similar other things, pray nd seek blessings. The walker also is offered raw rice, and some other vegetables etc., as their life support to them. The walker also for his part would play the instrument to the tunes of divine songs praising Lord Krishna and / or Shiva and pleases. He leaves collecting whatever is offered, blesses, asks the Bull to bless the house / home and leaves. But it has slowly petering in to a personal life saving event for the Walker and he's keen to seek money and quality goods for his survival.

This was really something unique, moreover, the tour guide (also interpreter) who was with us always did more than just the expectations. We went into real, local temples for visits, where people were still living their traditional religion. Like worshiping snake or tree gods. We also had the chance in another prayer place to be part a bit of the ceremony. Also to talk, walk by locals at the market, and visit a small village in the village with cows. It was really to get connection with these people living in this traditional area. It was also good for us, maybe for them (as a financial aid) and for the agency/consulate/tour org as well. It was fun to work with one of the washer men, know his family, eat with him/them, have a break with the other 'colleagues'. These people really work hard and are almost workaholic. :) It was even more interesting for me who is working in an office space, there is a huge gap between these workplaces. Some of the workers were more than friendly, and we also can have questions to and about them. The director of the place visited and ate with us, and we also went to his place for a traditional lunch with his family. His wife is an angel, and really served delicious food. :) It was one of the most complex tours I've ever taken. The drive itself was like a tour, we met with a cow walking on the streets, on our way to the Dhobi Ghat. Best part? Maybe the temple visits, being more informed about India by the tour guide, meet with local people, the lunch at the director, some phases of the work itself. (As I could try all phases, except folding and ironing... which are not my favorite, anyways. :D ) These were the highlights.

Outstanding! Thank you, Lina, and Manesh at the Four Seasons for connecting us. Lina customized a private four-hour tour of Bangalore. We saw the Snake Temple, Saree Weavers’ Colony, the Nandi Bull Temple, KR Market and Washerman’s Village. A treat for the senses and amazing photos to share. Unlike so many tours that include shopping stops, this one, at our request, did not - so pleased. The experience was priceless.

My daughter arranged for me to go on the Foodie Tour while I was in Bangalore for three days, and I'm really pleased that she did. I took an Autorick from Ghandi Nagar to UB City where I was met by Sushil in the porch area of the UB City shopping mall. Sushil proved to be a very amiable and knowledgeable guide. We drove to our first restaurant where we started with a typical breakfast of Onion Dosa, which was sensational, followed by Sambar Vada and chai. We walked to the remaining places on the tour. I didn't take note of the establishments we visited, other than Mavalli Tiffin Rooms and Empire Restaurant, however we visited at least six different places to sample the wonderful food on offer. I asked Sushil to write down for me the names of all of the foods we sampled, which he did, so that I can try these when I get back home to Australia. The sweets we sampled were particularly delicious; Rasmalai and Gulab Jamoon. Mine was a one-on-one experience, we spent three and a half hours on the Foodie Tour and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'd like to extend my thanks to Sushil for being a top guy and great host. I would most certainly recommend the Culture Rings Bangalore Foodie Tour.

This is the best way to see Bangalore. We started at a colonial era coffee house, had a meal in a snake temple, and block printed a silk scarf to name a few. My guide, Jackie, was so fun and knew everything there was to know about Bangalore and India. If you have a day of sightseeing in Bangalore, this is the only way to do it.

Introduction          Raj Shekhar is a famous and a well recognised potter in Pottery Town in Bangalore, Karnataka. He is a 50 year old entrepreneurial businessman, who has been in the pottery business for the past 42 years. On Tuesday, me and my group had the opportunity to travel to Pottery Town and meet the well known potter. There, we asked different questions to the talented potter about his business and we had a briefing of his personal life. During the visit at the potter’s place, we learned a lot about Rajshekhar’s business and how he works with his family to keep the cultural pottery business in Bangalore alive. Background Life of RajShekhar        As mentioned before, RajShekhar is a famous potter with a charming personality, in Pottery Town of Bangalore. What is the story behind all of his beautiful pottery? Who helps him? Does anyone help him? RajShekhar is a 50 year old man who lives with his wife and has two beautiful daughters.        His family is very supportful in the potter’s business. The potter’s family works day and night to to provide his customers and client with beautiful and traditional pottery. His first daughter studies hotel management whereas the younger, goes to an art school, Chitrakala Parishad. Despite this difference, both of his daughters, have an interest in pottery like their father, and are looking forward to keeping their father’s pottery business alive.          When asked “Sir, but what are your future plans?” , RajShekhar dreams of earning enough money to send both of his daughter abroad for studies and travelling abroad himself along with his wife. He also dreams of buying a car! Above all of this, to keep his pottery business alive, he wishes to build a factory for both his daughters that would produce pots and teacups, though, keeping the culture of making traditional pottery alive. My Experience        I had an amazing experience at RajShekhar’s working space, watching him spin the plate on which he smacks the raw clay, that he later shapes into beautiful vases and teacups. It was very satisfying observing him shape something that was extremely shapeless to something that is sold to customers for use and for decoration. When we first walked into his space, we saw clay all over the ground and walls.        Well, “Every Artist has a messy working space to create something beautiful”. We walked in completely clueless about RajShekhar’s business. We saw the old potter, with a slab of shapeless clay on his wheel. He started to spin the wheel, dipping his hands in water to shape the clay, perfecting it’s curves and edges. It was so mesmerising watching the potter work with the clay, with so much precision. After 10 whole minutes, the slab of clay was transformed into a classy vase. After asking many question to the old potter about how he runs his business, we headed to the kiln, where the talented potters around Pottery Town come together to burn their dried pottery. As we walked through the town, we came upon another potter’s house. This house was different. It was full of pots stacked up in shelves and even in the nooks and corners. Why did the potter store so much of pottery? The potters around the town have a lot of work to do when the Indian festivals of the year in Bangalore are around the corner. After, coming out of the house, I saw couple of rickshaws driving with so much of pottery stacked up in the backseat. They were delivering the handmade pots and teacups to clients and customers around the city.          Overall, being able to understand the life of Raj Shekhar and his business, was an extremely interesting experience. I was able to comprehend how his business worked and what he would do with the money would earn. Conclusion           When leaving Pottery Town, I had a sense of satisfaction of being able to meet a dedicated potter, RajShkehar. I left the town, with an abundance of knowledge about the pottery business and industry. Although, the town has potters with competition between them,  they all have their own unique style of creating charming and dazzling pots and teacups. After watching and learning about how a RajShekhar creates his pottery, I myself have become interested in pottery and I am looking forward to also being able to create something cultural and beautiful that represents the Indian culture.

Compared to some of the other businesses I felt that he was better off than others. Rajashekhar has a lot of goals that he plans to do in the future. Some of these goals are to open a factory and to sent both his daughters abroad to study. Rajashekhar said that be knows that value of education. Rajashekhar also wants to buy a car with his wife in the future as well. I noticed that Pottery Town has much teamwork as the village works together in terms of taking turns in the klin or furnace. Just as Rajashekhar has said before, he works in a high trust environment. I feel that we all can learn from Rajashekhar, as he works hard but at the same time he has hopes and goals for the future.

Muniyappa’s Biography Muniyappa is a cow owner who owns 14 cows and his main job is to sell milk to the customers in the city. He is 62 years old and his family has been in the business for over 80 years. He has been working since he was 14 years old and he was helping his father grow the business. Muniyappa has a wife whose name is Gajalakshmi and she helps him with the cow work and has a second job which is massaging women and children. His cow shed is located in Malleshwaram and he delivers his milk products to customers who are in the nearby city. What I Noticed about the Place As I visited his place, I could easily notice that his cows were all crammed together in small spaces under a shed and the whole area was extremely messy. He had only one drainage system which was not efficient enough to clean the entire place an thus evidently there were feces and urine all over the place which the cows thrived in. There were small houses where he and his family lived in nearby but their houses very extremely small that you could touch the ceiling. I noticed that Muniyappa was very hardworking and spent most of his time throughout day milking and cleaning the cows. He also loved cows so much and would never give up on them. Even though most of the cow owners would kill the cows for meat once they grow old an stop producing milk, Muniyappa loves and nurtures his cows and would keep them or send them to the ashram to give blessings. What I Felt about Muniyappa Muniyappa is very hardworking. He works a lot but his reward is very less. Unfortunately his strong bonds with cows means that he will not change at all and thus this will be the life he choses to pursue. I felt really sad for him because he puts in a lot of work but his income is very less. He lives in very unsanitary conditions but he is not bothered by it at all. I feel happy for him because he will keep working like this and end up dying doing what he loves. I also felt sorrow for him and his family because they really were living on edge and struggling to keep up with the growing industry and city Bangalore around him. My Experience As an individual, I thought it was really interesting to be learning about a small business but dwelling so much into detail. It was unique to see how people who do not have lives as privileged as us lived their lives living their life day by day without knowing what could happen to them next. It was wonderful to see how these small businesses worked and how we as youths could do our bit to help them improve in any way possible. Even though the place was not clean, I learnt that we must not disrespect his job as everyone with an occupation has a value and something to do which has importance to the community and thus we respected him to the best we could. Conclusion In conclusion, this trip to see Muniyappa and his family was really informative and interesting for us as it gives us a perspective on people’s jobs who are not as privileged as us. We got to see how these people live their lives every day and what they do during times of profit and losses. We really understood what life was like when they were living on edge, what kind of sacrifices they had to make in life and what changes they had to do to survive for themselves. Thus I found this project very interesting and will definitely help us in the future when handling bugger businesses.

This dobhi ghat is in Malleswaram, the manager’s name is Putraj. He is the main person there, he left school at 5th grade and started his family business that was dobhi ghat. He works hard every day. He works form 7 to 9 in the night. He earns around around 1 lakh every month from this business. He gives around 10 thousand every month to each person which leaves him 6-7 thousand for him. He has a lot of problems in his system but water is the most important as well as electricity. Without electricity he cant wash and he needs his faculty to wash it manually. Water is also important because they cant afford, there is a politician helping for water and other resources named ashwath. He was not that positive about his job and he did it because he has to. He also told us that his People are not that happy with the job. But they worked together really well, they were doves. They had great synchronization between them and were experienced in the job. When we solved the problems for them they were resistant to change.

Muniyappa is a milkman since he was 14 years old. When he was young, he learned from his dad that he should do the milkman that their generation did for 80 years. He is 62 years old now, and he is starting his day at 5 o’clock and ends at 19 o’clock. He usually cleans the cow for all day and feeds him. He is working for himself, but his family don’t help him. His wife just help him fro the morning and goes to her job and his sons don’t wants to do the milkman. We found out some of the weakness and strength about the milkman. There were weakness as less quality of the milk, less cows, less quality of the feed, and no profit. So we made some ideas to improve the business. We told that the cows listen to jazz music, better feed not food waste, getting more cows, and getting more lands to give more space for the cows. In this ideas, Muniyappa’s wife told us that these are possible to do but, we are too old to do and we are going to leave the milkman. For individual of me, I was actually panicked about the cow’s smell and things that comes out from the cow. At the pasture, I was hard enough to give some questions to him about the business project. So I was just talking about some kinds of question that some other can say to him and thinking about the ideas to advice him. At the last to say the advice to Muniyappa’s wife, I was happy that she was saying that it is possible to do this ideas. In conclusion, I was interested enough making a business project about Muniyappa’s pasture. During this week, I was able to get some advice from the IB1 students and think more better for the adults. I think this could make more better increasing me for the future.

We went to Dhobi Ghaat and it was a positive learning experience. We learned about the struggles they face and how we don’t connect them because of society and an invisible wall dividing us. I also learned how unhygienic it is for the workers and the customers giving their clothes as the water and chemicals they use are harsh and spoil the workers’ skin. The manager was called Putraj and he ans been working there since he was 15th years old. However he is supporting his sons and helping them receive a good education. Overall, it was an amazing and learning experience.

G.Rajshekhar is one of the best and most famous potters of Pottery Town, Williams Town, Benson Town, Bengaluru, Karnataka. An entrepreneurial businessman, who started this wholesale business at the age of 17. Since he was 8, he’s been doing this craft with his father who was also a potter. This skillful craft has been in the family for 4 generations. He works in his workshop with clay, completing around 2000 orders a day. Rajshekhar makes product ranging from diyas to disposable tea cups. He works with his family. Him, his wife and his two daughters work everyday to complete orders for companies like ITC and Nandini. We entered the house and felt a sudden humidity surround us.It was a tight space, yet we didn’t feel claustrophobic but more homely, and retro.I was instantaneously fascinated as I saw Rajshekhar (the potter) do his work. The wooden wheel spun slowly, slowly shifting the direction of the pot.His hand smoothly curved around the edges of clay and the clay flowed on his hand like a river. He was beautifully crafting a large decorative pot with a lot of skill and accuracy. We began to ask him questions five minutes in the space. He introduced himself while he was working. His name was Rajshekhar and he was an entrepreneurial potter who started his business at the age of 17. For 4 generations the business had been running in his family and the government had given him this workspace to continue his craft. He next began to explain his process towards making the pot. So the basic overview of his daily routine was that he would sleep for 6 hours and work the rest of the day.Every 20 days he would run out of clay to make the pots with, so he’d order 1 and a half tonnes of clay and receive it the next day. He would then start the most difficult part of the process moistening the clay by needing it 8-10 times. Next came the pottery, where he and his family work everyday to make 2000 pots a day. He would mess up 50 of the cups at least, due to the incorrect thickness of the clay.Electricity is also a large issue for him because power cuts stop his work, but he has a generator for back up. After making the pots, he would then dry the pots and bake it in a kiln. The most important thing I learnt from understanding his perspective was importance of culture and art. When we visited him today, we noticed that the potter and his family were quite resistant to change. Also, when recommended about using machinery for pottery to speed up the process, he declined this advice because he believed that technology and modern machines would ruin the amount of skill and precision it took to execute this art form. Rajashekhar was very conservative of the pottery tradition and did not want to eradicate the culture of these handmade pieces of art. We also discussed with him about art and he said that the value for art was decreasing because he had less consumers for his best works such as his interior decoration pots. The potter though is attempting to open the world to this art form. He is saving his profits for his daughters to explore their interests in art and buy them factories. He also plans to send his children abroad for further education. He believes they can learn more art from there and spread his art of pottery to other communities as well. In conclusion, the main reason he works as a potter is for his daughters. While he’s more open minded than other traditional Indian men, I love his attitude towards conserving this beautiful culture. Rajshekhar was a delightful man to meet and had a very strong yet humble personality. We asked him many questions and he responded with no intention to boast or complain. His value for art and culture were a treasure to keep. The amount of skill and precision he puts into every pot he makes is very impressive to me and has inspired me to learn pottery. When we reached there I felt the same as last time, except I was more comfortable than the first time.We entered the house for the second time to pitch our ideas and felt ,not a sudden humidity , but a breeze and a sudden cold coming from the clay. It was a tight space, yet I didn’t feel as claustrophobic as last time but even more homely, and I felt a less tense environment.I was still as impressed as last time, as I saw Rajshekhar (the potter) do his work. The wooden wheel spun slowly, slowly shifting the direction of the pot.His hand smoothly curved around the edges of clay and the clay flowed on his hand like a river. He was beautifully molding a tea cup with excellent precision and craftsmanship. Rajshekhar continued his work as we walked in and politely asked us to leave and come back after he ate breakfast, since I perceive that we arrived slightly earlier than scheduled. We were then guided towards Rajshekhar’s competitors workspace where we noticed a huge difference in space. Rajshekhar had a very tiny and congested space to work in while his competitor had enormous space for storage and work. The main difference though was that his competitor focused on big Matkhas while Rajshekhar focused on disposable tea cups. It was then time to return. We waited for Rajshekhar to finish his breakfast and then stepped in once again. An awkward silence hung for a minute or two until Rajshekhar requested us to start pitching our ideas to him. We began with our first proposal of using solar energy. He was okay at first but I think he was thinking of the drawbacks while he was agreeing to our idea because a minute later he declined our idea by talking about cost. His argument was that he was only going to work in this business for 15 more years, so there was no point in making a large long term investment when in those 15 years he could make enough money to achieve his ambitions of sending his daughter abroad and getting them a factory. Later in the evening, Miss Kaveri suggested that we could use biofuel instead because there is so much waste that is not being utilized. This was a great idea and I feel upset that we couldn’t suggest the idea to Rajshekhar since the public capital investment would’ve benefited him and Pottery Town. Our second idea was advertising and using the advantage of the multiple benefits of earth clay over other hardware materials which our competing with clay products. At first he was with our idea but later on after thinking about why the idea wouldn’t work he went against our idea. His first reason for this was money, it would cost more to advertise. To add on to this point he said there would be no point in advertising since word of mouth works better here. Many of the ideas we had suggested he had tried out as well. For example we had suggested him the idea of opening up to the plant pot market he had already tried it. He said his wife was already selling the pots online but wasn’t making much money out of it. This took away our idea of opening up to an online market as well, since he had already sold these pots online. When the idea of collaboration with other potters were proposed he also mentioned that he had tried them. Three years ago he did this but the other potters became jealous of him and took land away from him, this negative experience was the reason he declined this idea. Many of his rebuttals to our proposals were that he didn’t have enough man power. Why couldn’t he do a retail business?Because it would require more staff. Why couldn’t he increase the aesthetics of his product? He would gain more sales and customers meaning he would require more man power. Why couldn’t he just hire more staff? Because there were less people experienced in this field. Overall, I thought Rajshekhar was cautious and while he was putting our ideas into consideration, he didn’t want to take much of a risk with the ideas of 14 year olds. This extra caution he took might have just saved him, because after listening to his rebuttals, I think if he considered our ideas his business would mostly go to waste. However, there were some parts of our ideas that he could implement very well such as the benefits of earth clay to attract customers and the plant pot market by selling it to retailers instead of selling it online.

I loved how new this experience was. I had never heard of a dobhi ghaat and I loved it. Miss kaveris team made it amazing and easier through the process of our project. It helped my experience and I learned a lot from

Rajashekhar is a potter who work in the pottery town. He is live and work with his family, Business mapping project Experience: pottery towns Rajashekhar, his wife and his two daughters. He is sleep 6 hours in the day and mostly he make the pottery to pot, cup....etc many thing he make. He trying hard to make the pottery and sell them to earn money, and also he do other work to earn money. In the first day of meet Rajashekhar, he make the pot with his hand. We talked him about our questions, and he replied kindly. So we get the information of our question, how much he earn, how much he sleep, the most sell things, the least sell things, where he sell, his partners, how much time the pot is dry.......etc. After question all, we went to the oven and we see how to shape the oven and heard about how to cook the pot. After see the oven, we are going to other pottery house, it has many pots and cups they made, and there I also saw all of pottery town, it was big as I think, and it views good. They use the solar system, it is different thing I saw in the school. Then our first trip of pottery town was end, and we turn back the school and trying to make presentation in Wednesday. When the presentation was done, we presented teachers and we get the advise to how to change the presentation, and Thursday, we talked him about our idea, and argued, some of idea can do, but many of our ideas had problems to do or hard to earn more money. That time I get the experience in the business, have many problems earn more money to other things, and our second trip was end. Finally, if I will do my own business, trying hard to find the way how can I earn more money, and trying it as many as I could.