Renu ka Blog

The ancient semi-classical dance from Orissa is winning fans in tech city Bangalore. Till a few days ago, very few of Bangalore's young people had ever heard about 'Gotipua'. So when the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY)'s Bangalore Chapter proposed presenting the semiclassical Indian danceform at Peoples Education Society Institute of Technology (PESIT), an engineering college in Bangalore, the staff organised a 'lucky dip' contest with pendrives as give-away prizes to entice students into attending the dance show. But post the performance, students in PESIT have become fans of this danceform from Orissa, a precursor of the world-famed Odissi. The dance earned hundreds of admirers as the group charmed audiences. The artistes danced an unadulterated form of 'Gotipua', (literally, 'single boy') a dance in which boys dress up in women's costumes and makeup and perform the 'bandha' -...

A media friend who joined the most famous IT company in Bangalore was discussing with me how different it is to work in a software company from being in the media. After a stint of three years in an IT company, and some years in the media, I told her what I think of it: working in an IT company is not-so-easy everyday but you get great joy at the end of month when one checks the bank balance. Working in the media may not have the same effect on the balance but the joy it everyday outweighs every other "plus" of the other profession. Another difference is the wires of the desktop computer tether you in IT companies. The work cube is your world. In the media, the world is your cube.

It is strange how one can become friends with total strangers when you must live together. At a week-long Yoga break in a place on the outskirts of Bangalore, I went, as a stranger, to learn Yoga, along with a motley group of 90 other people from all over India. By the time we returned, we were one big 'Yoga family'. You become friends when you eat, do 'aasanas', walk, and sing together with unknown people, and do Yogic 'kriyas' that make you puke together. For a week, we led a regimented life. It began at 4.30am, went on to prayers, Yoga 'aasanas', breakfast, meditation, more 'aasanas', lunch, some more meditation, and dinner. We did get short breaks, during which Yoga instructors would record our previous day's diet, activities, weight and BP. Had I known before life there would be so strict, I would never have stepped into it. But I had joined and getting back to Bangalore was even tougher than staying on. I decided to stay on and enjoy i...

I first heard of a game called 'paintball' some years ago. A few weeks ago, I got to play the game. I am told it is now quite popular. Though fun, the game does have edge of danger to it. It is an outdoor game with two teams. All team members get "guns" with 50 paintballs as ammunition. Everyone gets into a tree-covered area that has lots of bunkers in it. The idea is to hide behind the bunkers and "shoot" a member of the other team. All participants get protective gear -- jackets and a helmet -- because the paintball bullets can hurt if they get you on the wrong places. It is fine so long as people get hit by the "bullets" on areas covered by the jacket. Otherwise, the bullets can hurt enough to form ugly welts. Once the game gets going, you can see the way people play the game reflects their real life attitudes. While some people hardly pulled the trigger (and save all their bullets for other members of their team), others kept shooting quickly e...

Ten days ago, I got a call in office from a man who said he had a collection of souvenirs, which he wanted me to see. His name sounded familiar. It was the same as the name of a fairly well-known brand of biscuits. Last week, I got to meet the 'biscuit raja' with his set of souvenirs. I was unsure what the collection would be about, wondering if it was worth the effort of driving to the other end of the city. But once I reached there, I knew it was not a wasted trip. He has designed and got handcrafted hundreds of tiny souvenirs that are microcosms of what India means to people. Made of epoxy, ceramic and various alloys, they were mainly 'fridge magnets' as also plates, bells, boxes, keychains and thimbles. The fridge magnets were just like biscuits -- inches big, rather inches small, and had '3D'-ish 'sculptures' (for lack of a better word) on them of monuments such as the Taj Mahal, Charminar and Vidhana Soudha. There were also animals -- elephants, ti...

This week, a boring Press Meet about an existing hotel in Electronics City in Bangalore getting a new management became interesting for me. For lunch, the hotel hosted for us its best -- Italian cuisine. For starters, they served us a platter of some assorted snacks. I ate a squid mistaking it for an onion ring. It tasted like cheese first but later it tasted very different and unusual. I asked a colleague who had no clue what it was. Then I asked the waiter and he told me they were squids. Because I think I must not eat animals, it was difficult for me to continue eating the squid. I had not swallowed it and was able to spit it out in the washroom. More than the taste, simply thinking that I had eaten something that had eyes and a nose led me to throw up. How much the mind influences us! So I forced myself to stop thinking about that. That shift in thoughts and a strong mint toffee from a public relations girl quickly blocked the squiddish taste and I was fine. Anyway, I got curious ...

Talent, passion and hard work can make a person a winner A throwback interview with Karnataka's stellar cameraman, VK Murthy On the occasion of Karnataka Rajyothsava, I remember the late V.K.Murthy (died in 2014) of Karnataka, who left an imprint in the world of films. Not much is known of the wonderful life of this creative cameraman, who fought all odds, to win the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2010. I had met him just after the Phalke award had been bestowed on him, at his home in Chamarajpet, where he had returned to live a quietly after retiring from a lifetime of working in Bollywood. Talent, belief in your talent, passion, hard work, ambition, honesty and grit -- we keep hearing these words but when I met cinematographer VK Murthy, I thought his life showcased all those virtues. When I went to meet Murthy at his home (with a 'verandah', red oxide floors -- a place with all the charm of old-world Bengaluru) in Chamarajpet, he was being interviewed by a TV channel. ...

I was determined to start gymming in the new year. In 2010, I promptly signed up for a month at a nearby gym. It is brand new and everything -- from the floor to the new age machines -- is shining, all metal and steel. Uptil now, it has been quite fun. The one-hour consists of some conditioning, some time on the treadmill, the cross-trainer, cycling and then some more push-ups, sit-ups and stretching. The first day I was dawdling over the cross-trainer, which I found a bit strenuous. I saw somebody coming. I thought it was one of the instructors and started pedalling faster till I realised it was an old former colleague from nine years ago. Then I slowed down the cycling. The guy and his wife have been gymming for the past two months at the same gym. Later, I wondered why I had to pedal faster, even if it was the gym instructor!

About 60 Bangaloreans from different parts of the city descended on a place in Bangalore because they were all alumni from St Xaviers, Bokaro Steel City. Schools, and particularly St Xavier's Bokaro, have that ability -- to draw old students from everywhere. The reunion of the Bokaro Old Xaverians' Association (BOXA) on Sunday, January 10 2010, was for everyone who had studied at St Xavier's Bokaro and not limited to any batch. I was there at about 6pm. Including me, there were three people from my batch. Though I could recognise the teachers very well, I was unsure who the others were. It was the same with them I guess. They did not know who I was. So though we had studied at the same school, it was much like meeting a new set of people. Yet, there was a thread of commonness and nobody felt uncomfortable. Nobody pretended to be what they were not. I think that happens when you know you are part of the same past.

On January 7, I happened to meet Rev Otis Moss. I had not heard of him until January first week. When I discussed the meeting with someone else, he said the name reminded him of a brand of lifts. Anyway, the meeting, I thought, was memorable because I was able to hear Moss, who speaks so well. To meet Moss, who, I learnt, is a member on the Advisory Council to President Obama on "faith-based partnerships", I drove to the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), along with a photographer. When we reached the auditorium, Moss was already speaking. He is what he is described as -- an eloquent speaker. After his talk, I got a chance to chat with him for about 10 minutes. When I asked him what brought him to India, he said he had for long wanted to visit "the land of Gandhi", that he was visiting India "for the first time in person but many times in spirit". I thought that was a rather lyrical answer. Of course, that is only part of what he spoke about. ...

Hi, I have been thinking for long about starting a blog. Two reasons in particular led me to start this blog. One, 2010 -- with a new year beginning, I thought now is a good time to convince myself to start blogging. Two, the year started with some fodder for sharing -- a meeting with Rajmohan Gandhi and Rev Otis Moss in the first fortnight of 2010. So the fuel for the blog was ready. I found and deleted two existing blogs of mine -- earlier attempts at blogging that went nowhere. Now I hope this blog, begun in earnest, will fare better. The idea is to record and share whatever comes to my mind, meeting people and different thoughts. I think some of the content on the blog will be about the people I meet and talk to as part of my work of gathering news. I also hope to post some photos that I take from time to time. -Renu