Weekend Nuts is in news again :) City Buzz. Magazine, 8 July 2011. It's 2 page article (tabloid version) published in centre-spread 12-13th page! Thanks to Radhika Vitla from CityBuzz Magazine, who spotted "Weekend Nuts" & its creatively crazy activities & events. Cheers! City Buzz! Cheers! Weekend Nuts! Ruu & Ben Weekend Nuts www.WeekendNuts.com

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I-FOR-IDEAS
CITYBUZZ - Bengaluru, July 8, 2011
ZOOm-in CITYBUZZ - Bengaluru, July 8, 2011 13
POETRY/SHAYARI WITH WINE
Nuts about weekends
Are you a working professional sick of
spending your weekend sleeping, laz-
ing or roaming around malls? A dose
of ‘Weekend Nuts’ might just be what
you need to make your weekends more creative.
A casual gathering of 15 to 20
working professionals who write and enjoy shayari/
poetry. Participants came from companies IBN, Yahoo and others.
SMILEY DAY
An open speech
platform for working professionals,
it welcomes speakers on any subject related to cur-
rent affairs, social issues and so on. The purpose is to get people to
share their concerns and make them think about the world around them. Each
participant is given five minutes to speak, followed by a five-minute discussion involving the audience.
The event was held in November 2010, and had nearly a dozen speakers who address the audience.
PHOTOGRAPHY EVENTS
RADHIKA VITLA "It was from the feedback I got there that Smiley Days in the course of a year, which has
Bernard (who was then a friend) and I realised proved to be one of their most popular activi-
I
f some of us look forward to the weekend as that a large number of working professionals in ties.
the best part of our week, there are others the city typically spend their weekend lazing or As of today, Weekend Nuts boasts of over
who groan at the thought of it, if only roaming around. There were many 600 members in Bengaluru and the
because they are new to the city or are simply who wanted to do something number keeps growing.
unable to think of anything new to do. creative, but lacked the direc- Membership is open for all A
But for working professionals Rupa Patil tion to do so. We decided who love to spend their hugely popular activity
and Bernard Corrayya, this was just not done. to do something about, weekends doing some- organised by Weekend Nuts, it is all about
And so it was that the couple got together a and in February 2010 we thing worthwhile or cre- spreading smiles on the faces of the needy or the stressed out. A
bunch of like-minded people to form Weekend came up with the idea of ative, and there is no reg- small bunch of group members go out interacting with stressed workers, street children
Nuts, a casual group of working professionals and so on, and also distribute goodies that make them smile. 10 Smiley Days organised so far.
Weekend Nuts, and istration fee involved,
who come together every weekend to celebrate within just three weeks although members are
their weekends in a unique and creative way, turned it into reality!" expected to share what- CHILDREN'S DAY OUT
and when possible do their bit for society as Rupa says that the ever cost incurred by
well. basic idea was to bring the particular activity.
Weekend Nuts is the brain child of Rupa, a together young working In the year 2010,
32 year old electronic engineer who is original- professionals who had Weekend Nuts was short-
ly from Mumbai but settled in Bengaluru for the common interests and get listed as one of the top 850
past seven years. Her idea received the full sup- them engaged in many ideas by the Economic
port of Bernard, a 30 year old sales professional activities including creative Bernard and Rupa Times in under their Power of
who is originally from Kolkata and who has work and community service. Ideas 2010 feature.
lived in Bengaluru for over seven years. Finding Weekend Nuts has since organ- It's about six months ago Rupa and
that they shared similar interests, the two ised activities like Smiley Days, Photography Bernard are happily married. This couples are
friends (now married) nurtured their dream Contests, Excursions and Day Outs, Poetry still continueing their passion of involving with
project of Weekend Nuts, initially in a small with Wine, Wine-tasting for Amateurs, Ghazal their brainchild Weekend Nuts. Marriage has
way given their hectic weekday schedules. The evenings, i-for-ideas (an open speech event), not stopped them engaging these activities in
group proved wildly popular, and today attracts Scooter Rally for ladies, and many more. their weekends. Hats off to this couple.
large numbers of enthusiastic corporate profes- Among them, Smiley Day- which was all about Apart from founding members Rupa and
sionals and others who join them in the many spreading smiles in the faces of needy - espe- Bernard, Weekend Nuts has a core group that
creative activities they organise every weekend. cially clicked with the corporate crowd, say consist of Vipin Vinchurkar (chief events man-
Rupa says that idea first came to her when Rupa. She explains that apart from her interest ager), Soumya Gopi and Priyal Date (Smiley
Weekend Nuts she was invited to speak on 'creative weekends' in travelling and public speaking, community Day specialists) and Samuel Raj (photography
has so far held three events at Ignite Bengaluru 2008, an event for corpo- service has always been a passion for her, which specialist).
related to photography; an online photogra- Smiley
phy contest and two 'Photographer's Day Out' events off
rate professionals talk about and discuss all prompted her to design a weekend activity To join Weekend Nuts, visit: www.week- Day is not just about handing
Mysore road. The teams of photography enthusiasts were led by well- kinds of topics that interested them. Says Rupa, designed around it. So they have conducted ten endnuts.com out goodies to the needy. Other activities include
known concert photographer Lawrence Samuel Raj, who guided the participants in spending time with inmates of old age homes or the differently abled, clothes
various techniques of photography. collection drive and so on. Here, it’s a Children’s Day Out at the museum.