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Hello there!

Thank you for your interest in the activities of The Bangalore Ring aka IBM Ring 177. We have since moved our web-presence to The Bangalore Ring website at www.ibmring177.in 

We request you to visit us at our new website and connect with us there.

Thank you for your attention and continued support! 

A Magical Pat on the Back

BANGALORE, JUNE 7: The IBM Ring 177 was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from the International Secretary of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (USA).

Reproduced below is a part of the email received from Don Wiberg - the International Secretary and Past President (1984-85), regarding the activities of IBM Ring 177:

Dear Nakul:

I sent you an earlier email to acknowledge receipt of your reports. Since then I've had a chance to go to the links you provided and read the reports. As we would say in our country, WOW! I am very impressed with the reports. The Ring appears to have many worthwhile activities and they are presented in an attractive way. A side benefit of reading the reports is to connect names and faces of magicians who share our love of magic and the I.B.M.

The Ring 177 and its members are elated by the kind words of appreciation sent in by the International Secretary -- especially since the Ring has been getting back on its feet for just about an year. Further, this pat on the back of its activities from Don will go a long way in encouraging all the officers and members of the Ring to double their efforts at achieving all the goals and dreams for the IBM Ring 177.

The Ring Coordinator Nakul Shenoy says, "This has been possible only due to the kind support extended by all the members in reviving and running the Ring. We look forward to the continued support and active participation of all our friends in the magic community to make this a highly successful initiative".

Nakul's long-term aim is to make this Ring, which is headquartered at The Magic Space (Bangalore), one of the most reputed and coveted Magic Rings in the world. "Together we can," he adds enthusiastically.

The IBM Karnataka Ring 177 is a local chapter of The International Brotherhood of Magicians (USA) and meets on the second Sunday of every month at its Ring HQ: The Magic Space in Bangalore.

Spirit of the Festival of Magic Empowers May Meet-up

BANGALORE, MAY 14: The May Meet-up of the Karnataka Ring 177 was held immediately following the Great Indian Festival of Magic, which was held in Bangalore on May 11-13. The festive spirit of the magic convention expectedly carried on to the Meet-up held the next day at The Magic Space.

L to R: Giridhar Kamath, Raja Dayanand, Vikram Shetty, Prahlad Acharya & Rajamoorthy R

The May Meet-up inadvertently became a joint meeting of IBM Rings 177 and 261, with members of both Rings turning up at The Magic Space, but also involved IBM members from all across India, and even one representation from British Ring 25! What followed was an open exchange of ideas, loads of magical fun and of course the usual IBM related activities.

With a room full of magicians from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Karnataka, and even London, it was truly a pan-India gathering, and enabled discussions on the challenges facing running an active magic society in today's day and time. The importance of continued close-cooperation of the only two active IBM Rings in India was highlighted by Nakul Shenoy, who was presiding the meet-up.

Kumar Kalathil shared an update of the experiences of IBM Fiesta 2012 that was organised by the Ring 261, while Magician Darius from London shared the various ways in which the British Ring 25 attracted newer members. Rajamoorthy, a member of Ring 177 and a Director at the Magic Academy Trivandrum, laid stress on the importance of having numerous activities useful to the fraternity at large to maintain an active inflow of new members.

This was followed by an extended trick session, with all the attendees trying to one-up the others. The performers including Mhelly Bhumgara from Mumbai, Prahlad Acharya from Bangalore, Raj Kumar from Delhi, Kumar Kalathil from Calicut, Rajamoorthy from Trivandrum, Ali from Hyderabad, Yona from Coimbatore, Vikram Shetty from Ooty, Samir Patel from Ahmedabad, and many more -- made it a fun magical experience for each and all.

Back Row (L to R): Prahlad Acharya, Rajamoorthy R, Giridhar Kamath, Nakul Shenoy
Front Row (L to R): Darius, Ali, Raj Kumar, Samir Patel, Mhelly Bhumgara, Kaizad Bhumgara
Sitting (L to R): Suresh, Vikram Shetty 

The meeting extended much beyond the regular planned duration, and magicians were still seen hanging around exchanging thoughts and ideas for nearly. This meet-up has undoubtedly rejuvenated the efforts of the Ring to organise many more such awesome meet-ups.

L to R: Giridhar Kamath, Vikram Shetty, Raja Dayanand,
Rajamoorthy R, Prahlad Acharya, & Nakul Shenoy

Note: The next meet-up of Karnataka Ring 177 will be held at The Magic Space on Sunday the 10th of June At 9:30AM.

April Meet-up Springs Much Surprises and Joy

BANGALORE, APRIL 9: The monthly meet-up Of the Karnataka Ring 177 was held at The Magic Space this Sunday, the 8th of April. The meeting was well attended By IBM members and guest magicians from Bangalore, Ooty, and Chennai.

This month's IBM Ring 177 meet-up brought some interesting performances, teach-in and sharing sessions, a magic lecture, and a surprise guest.

The meeting was presided by Nakul Shenoy, the Ring Vice President, who called the meeting to order and presented the monthly IBM related updates and news. The aspect of increasing the membership, especially by drawing in young and newer magicians was discussed, and the need for the newer bunch to take on the mantle as Ring Officers was highlighted.

The first lecture of the evening was a presentation by HA Jayasimha. Jayasimha is a successful entreprenuer and conducts workshops on personality development, where he utilises magic as a tool to communicate the ideas.

Jayasimha shared some of his trademark routines and explained his thoughts on how to integrate a message into a magic act to communicate the same effectively.

This was followed by an open trick session were the members and guests in attendance presented a motley of their favourite effects. The performers included Sanjay Subramanyam, Kartik, Karun Krishna, Vikram Shetty and MD Kowshik. Some of the acts also adhered to the monthly theme of April Fools / Sucker Effects.

Srikanth VC, as part of his session on history of magic presented an interesting set of thoughts to the plausible first instance where the illusion of a woman being cut in half was presented -- tracing it to the Indian epic Ramayana, where Indrajit performs an mass-illusion where he shows Sita cut in two parts.

That was the cue for our surprise guest to make his entrance. Rakesh Syam, who was back in Bangalore on a break from his cruise line performances amazed the gathering with his irrepressible card miracles.

Rakesh also shared his experiences of being on disaster-struck David Sandy magic cruise, and spoke highly of all the magicians who were a part of that never-to-be-forgotten experience.

Rakesh closed with his fabulous card memory effect, where he recounts the cards in a fully shuffled pack, first by colors and then by their suits and values.

The impressive meet-up was brought to a close with Nakul Shenoy presenting a small lecture on sucker effects, and sharing insights to presenting a mind mystery as a sucker effect, with a power punch.

The meeting closed with most participants looking forward to catching up at the forthcoming Great Indian Festival of Magic on May 11-13 in Bangalore.

Note: No meeting will be held at The Magic Space on Sunday the 13th of May, as most members would be busy attending the Great Indian Festival of Magic.

Monthly Meeting Promises Exciting Times Ahead

BANGALORE, March 11: The IBM Ring 177 (Karnataka Ring) met for its March monthly meeting at the Ring HQ - The Magic Space. Owing to various unavoidable reasons, this meeting was sparsely attended by the members.

The meeting had the main agenda of sharing information regarding the upcoming 'IBM India Magic Fiesta 2012' to be held on March 25. This one-day fun event is being hosted by senior magician and IBM member P M Mithra at his Kerala hometown of Melukavumattom (a rustic village in Kottayam District), and will include a picnic to the famous Vagamon Hills.

The IBM Magic Fiesta is being held under the banner of IBM Ring 261, and will see IBM Ring 177 actively participate as a joint collaborator. This event is one in a chain of events being organised jointly by the only two active IBM local Rings in India, in their effort to strengthen the presence and activities of the IBM organisation in this country.

Our Ring Coordinator Nakul Shenoy read out the letter received from Prof Shankar (Ring President, 261) inviting the members of Ring 177 to join the IBM Fiesta in full force and make it a success. This was followed by a small discussion on how best to leverage this event to enroll more magicians into the IBM.

Next on agenda was the topic of the 'Great Indian Festival of Magic,' being organised by the Magic Academy, Bangalore on May 11-13, 2012. This International festival of magic is already making much news, and since some of our Ring members are closely associated with the event, there is an opportunity to leverage the local IBM Ring at the convention. It was decided that Nakul Shenoy would pursue this topic further with Praveen Kumar, a member of our Ring and part of the organising committee at the Magic Academy, Bangalore.

It was also decided to accept the TVP (India) Solyl Kundu's kind offer of visiting the Ring for a regular meeting. It was unanimously felt that the opportune moment for this would be in the month of May, as the monthly meeting would coincide with the international convention being held in the City, and may provide the TVP more magic-related things to do, in addition to attending the monthly meeting of the Ring.

Srikanth C, Raja Dayanand (guest of the day), and Nakul Shenoy performed at the trick session, with the latter two sharing insights into making an effect your own by bringing in subtle differences to the method and performance.

The meeting was adjourned till the next monthly meeting of the Ring, which will be help on April 8th and will host a magic lecture too. Many members would anyway be meeting at the IBM Fiesta on March 25th in Kerala.

Ernakulam hosts first combined meeting of Rings 261 & 177

BANGALORE, February 10: IBM Ring 177 joined forces with IBM Ring 261 to hold the first-ever joint meeting of these two local rings of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (USA) at Ernakulam. This meeting was held on the sidelines of the 29th Vazhakunnam Memorial Magic Convention in Kothamangalam, in Ernakulam district of Kerala.

The meeting was well attended by IBM members of both the rings, representing the south Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The meeting was called to order under the leadership of senior member P M Mithra, from the host Ring 261. Nakul Shenoy presented a quick briefing of the activities of Ring 177, and the various initiatives being planned by the Ring to expand its activities and membership. Prahlad Acharya built on this by explaining how Ring 177 wished to worked closely with Ring 261 to extend and popularise the activities of the IBM in India.

Left to Right: ND Kunhabdulla, Subramanian M, Sudheer Madakath,
PM Mithra, Prahlad Acharya, Raja Moorthy, Nakul Shenoy 

The newest member of Ring 177 R Raja Moorthy was welcomed into the IBM by Prahlad Acharya and wished all the best by PM Mithra.

This was followed by PM Mithra proposing his idea to host the IBM India Annual Fiesta in the month of March as a two-day fete for IBM members of both the active Rings and other members from across India. This proposal was quickly accepted and the date for the Fiesta has been fixed as March 24-25.

The thoughts and ideas of Prof Shankar and Shankar Junior who could not attend this meeting owing to prior engagements were conveyed to the group by Sudheer Madakath. Others who spoke at the meeting and presented their inputs to the IBM Fiesta included Kunha Abdullah, N Kumar Kalathil, and Joy Olivier.

It has been decided that both the Rings would work together to make this upcoming IBM Fiesta a successful venture. More details and schedule will be posted on the IBM Ring 177 & 261 websites soon.

The important matter of the TVP (India) Solyl Kundu's upcoming visit to the Rings was discussed, and it was decided that Nakul Shenoy was authorised to finalise this matter on behalf of both Rings in consultation with Mr Kundu in the following weeks.

Sudheer Madakath presented the vote of thanks and brought the first combined meeting of the two IBM Rings of India to a close, wishing the newly formed close association all the very best. Both Rings and its members are very excited about working together for the development of the IBM and magic in India.

IBM Rings 261 & 177 to meet at Ernakulam on Feb 9

BANGALORE, February 03: The International Brotherhood of Magicians Karnataka Ring - IBM Ring 177 heartily welcomes our new members as the latest additions to the Ring.

• HA Jayasimha (Bangalore)
• Srikanth Canchi (Bangalore)
• Karthik Rao (Chennai)
• Raja Moorthy R (Trivandrum)

We hope our new members find and add value to the Ring and its activities, and together we will scale newer heights in magical performance.

With this, the membership to the IBM Ring 177 has grown to 20 members! We take this opportunity to thank all our members and well-wishers who supported our efforts at reviving the IBM Ring 177. If you are one of those, give yourself a pat on the back for all the support you have given in reviving the IBM Ring 177 and making it a success.

Taking our discussions of developing a close association with the IBM Ring 261, we are joining a combined meeting of IBM Ring 261 & IBM Ring 177 Meeting at Ernakulam (Kerala) on February 9.

This combined meeting of the two active IBM local Rings in India will be held on the sidelines of the Vazhakunnam Ugami Memorial Magic Convention, being held at Ernakulam on February 9th. Details of the convention has been posted at www.themagicspace.net

We invite all our members to join the meeting that will be held at the convention premises, during an opportune break. As mentioned before, Prahlad Acharya and Nakul Shenoy will be travelling to Ernakulam for this and will be joining the combined IBM Rings 261 & 177 meeting.

We hope you will join in too.