Under 'Brand Bengaluru', 50 additional parks are being developed: Official
Bengaluru, May 17 (PTI): Under the 'Brand Bengaluru' initiative, 50 additional parks within the limits of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike are being developed and the rest are being upgraded, a senior official said on Saturday.
Speaking after inaugurating the "Bengaluru Habba" cultural programme held at Bugle Rock Park in the Basavanagudi, Special Commissioner of the Forest, Environment and Climate Change Management, Preeti Gehlot, stated that the BBMP's Horticulture Department is continuously engaged in the maintenance of parks.
"There are 1,287 parks within BBMP limits, all of which are being equipped with seating arrangements for citizens, greenery, fencing, and other amenities. Upgradation work is ongoing across all existing parks. In addition, soak pits (Ingu Gundi) are being constructed in the parks to improve groundwater levels," she said in a statement.
To encourage people to spend more time enjoying the environment, all parks will remain open daily from 5 AM to 10 PM, she said.
She urged residents to help maintain cleanliness in their neighborhood parks and to promote awareness about keeping public spaces clean.
According to the statement, to enhance the park experience for visitors and morning walkers, a unique programme called "Bengaluru Habba" has been launched. It features traditional cultural performances, including Dollu Kunitha (folk drum dance), folk singing, light music, and performances by folk art troupes showcasing the city's heritage and artistic traditions.
"In each of the 27 Assembly constituencies under BBMP's limits, cultural and art-based programmes aimed at promoting children's creativity and public engagement will be conducted in one park per constituency, from now until March 2026," it said.
As part of the "Bengaluru Habba" celebrations, an awareness rally featuring cultural troupes was also organised from Ramakrishna Math Circle to Bugle Rock Park to raise public awareness, the statement added.
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Robert Duvall, Oscar-winning actor and 'Godfather' mainstay, dead at 95
Los Angeles (AP): Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor of matchless versatility and dedication whose classic roles included the intrepid consigliere of the first two "Godfather" movies and the over-the-hill country music singer in "Tender Mercies," has died at age 95.
Duvall died “peacefully” at his home Sunday in Middleburg, Virginia, according to an announcement from his publicist and from a statement posted on his Facebook page by his wife, Luciana Duvall.
“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” Luciana Duvall wrote. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented."
The bald, wiry Duvall didn't have leading man looks, but few "character actors" enjoyed such a long, rewarding and unpredictable career, in leading and supporting roles, from an itinerant preacher to Josef Stalin.
Beginning with his 1962 film debut as Boo Radley, the reclusive neighbor in "To Kill a Mockingbird," Duvall created a gallery of unforgettable portrayals.
They earned him seven Academy Award nominations and the best actor prize for "Tender Mercies," which came out in 1983. He also won four Golden Globes, including one for playing the philosophical cattle-drive boss in the 1989 miniseries "Lonesome Dove," a role he often cited as his favorite.
In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts.
He had been acting for some 20 years when "The Godfather," released in 1972, established him as one of the most in-demand performers of Hollywood. He had made a previous film, "The Rain People," with Francis Coppola, and the director chose him to play Tom Hagen in the mafia epic that featured Al Pacino and Marlon Brando among others.
Duvall was a master of subtlety as an Irishman among Italians, rarely at the centre of a scene, but often listening and advising in the background, an irreplaceable thread through the saga of the Corleone crime family.
“Stars and Italians alike depend on his efficiency, his tidying up around their grand gestures, his being the perfect shortstop on a team of personality sluggers,” wrote the critic David Thomson. “Was there ever a role better designed for its actor than that of Tom Hagen in both parts of The Godfather?'”
In another Coppola film, "Apocalypse Now," Duvall was wildly out front, the embodiment of deranged masculinity as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who with equal vigour enjoyed surfing and bombing raids on the Viet Cong. Duvall required few takes for one of the most famous passages in movie history, barked out on the battlefield by a bare-chested, cavalry-hatted Kilgore: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of em, not one stinkin' dink body.
"The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like — victory.”
Coppola once commented about Duvall: "Actors click into character at different times — the first week, third week. Bobby's hot after one or two takes."
