Renu ka Blog

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. ...