While visiting an art gallery for fun might be a distant dream, attitude towards art is changing, writes Reshma Krishnamurthy Sharma

While browsing a newspaper are you tempted to skip the art exhibition listings? Do you feel movies or malls can be entertaining but a visit to an art gallery is not for you? Is it lack of interest or awareness that keeps many people from venturing into an art show?

Indira Bhardwaj, partner Rightlines Art Gallery, feels that people commonly consider an outing to an art gallery elitist. “Over the years basic art forms like glass painting or something on fabric may have become accepted in the society but when it comes to larger canvases, people prefer to shy away. Of late there has been awareness amongst youngsters, yet I do wish that people understand art is something that is very much a part of our life!”

She adds, “One must also get rid of this notion that visiting an art gallery means you cannot look and come out without buying.”

S.G. Vasudev, a well-known artist, says the scene has changed greatly in the last ten years, but galleries will never attract the numbers that a music performance does. “It is not just traditional any more. A lot of experimentation has gone on, unlike music which is more traditional. This is slowly making people interested in art. It is also heartening to know that many art spaces are trying their best to get more people to visit them and their artist’s works.”

Strangely, while parents encourage their toddlers to draw or colour, they worry if their older child spends more time on art than on academics.

Srividya G.S., a watercolour artist, feels this is also changing. “I feel a lot of parents have realized this is a viable career option in recent times. As far as understanding on the subject goes, more people seem to understand art and view it even as an investment.” Still, she adds, buyers prefer traditional figurative art over abstract art.

Meenu Jaipuria, owner of the Mahua art gallery, says, “We have worked with children on folk art, etching and printmaking for adults, but the initiative of taking art to common person has to begin from school and institutional levels along with galleries as a collaborative effort. Thankfully parents are slowly encouraging their children to follow their talent. However, I think this ratio has to rise in huge number to make art a regular part of our life.”

Vasudev feels that society must be educated to appreciate contemporary art. “Artists should be employed by schools so that the children get better education in art. It’s time that children should be taken to museums to keep them updated on various interests in life. This has been done in the west. We do not have the habit of visiting art galleries and museums. Only when the child starts going to these places, the adults will follow.” He and other Bangalore artists have formed a group called Ananya Drishya to run workshops and lectures on art appreciation and to create a digitized library on art.

While it may be a long time before art can actually be seen in every person’s drawing room, smaller initiatives could make many of us look beyond malls and movies for entertainment.

Published in the Hindu Metro Plus on February 29th 2012.

Link to the article- http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2942086.ece

More and more children now speak only in English, and are losing sense of their mother tongues completely. RESHMA KRISHNAMURTHY SHARMA tries to figure out where the problem lies.

“Ruchika, do you want this book on Winnie-the-Pooh or the Doraemon series toys?” asks Sandhya Rao to her two-year-old at a bookstore. It may seem ordinary, but the toddler replies in a language that was never her grandmas’s or even her mother’s own. An increasing number of children, especially in urban areas, are speaking more English than any other language. Has English become the new mother tongue in many homes? Given the environments in which Gen X children are growing up, the answer seems to be ‘yes’.

One contributing factor could be that in recent times the country has seen a significant rise in inter-regional marriages. Perhaps parents feel it is better to communicate in one universal language than to speak to the kid in two regional languages.

Shiril Pinto, a HR professional, talks to her three-year-old in English. “I am in a mixed marriage where my mother tongue is Konkani and my husband’s is Bengali. As we were unable to learn each other’s languages, we have resorted to speaking to our kid in English. Also, as we have always communicated to each other prior to marriage in this language, it just continued as a natural progression of communication at home.”

Chaitra Kiran has different reasons for choosing English. “I do speak in Kannada and am married into my own community. Yet, I feel parents like me have started stressing English because we see children are not able to understand anything if they are not fluent in this language and somehow it has become the common spoken language in activity centres, play areas, in upscale apartments and so on.” Book stores, children’s activity centres, play-homes, and even workplaces encourage the use of English than any other language. The presence of international schools in cities and strict codes in even regular schools on the use of one common language has somehow pushed English into homes as well.

Moreover, parents often believe that speaking in flawless English from a young age, children are better equipped to work in global environments, so they converse in this language predominantly so that their child is not left behind.

Smitha Roy, a communication professional, did not make a conscious decision to speak in English to her three-year-old daughter Aahana. She and her husband have always spoken in English as a matter of convenience. She adds: “Somehow, even my parents conversed with me and my sisters generally in English, perhaps because we went to a convent school. I ensure Aahana learns Kannada from her grandparents. I don’t her to feel she did not get the opportunity to learn any other language.”

According to Nandini Ashok, an educator who runs a preschool, “I personally think parents these days find the interview process at the kindergarten level cumbersome. It is unfair that the child is spoken to in English, and there are lesser opportunities for Indian languages to be learnt and of course, this in a certain way pressurises parents to speak more in English.”

Yet parents who speak to children only in English are content that it is a global language and that their children will learn other languages if they are interested in them. Fifty years down the line, will we be surprised if English becomes the single spoken language and kids go to special schools to learn India’s regional languages?

Published on www.thehindu.com under LifeStyle and Society section on February 12, 2012

TRENDS-  Bangalore’s affair with darshini hotels has been a long and steady one,  observes RESHMA KRISHNAMURTHY SHARMA. Even in the face of MNC eateries, what wins the foodie’s heart is the taste of home food

Even in the face of MNC eateries, what wins the foodie’s heart is the taste of home food What defines Bangalore’s culture? If you look at the lines on the street corners, the answer seems to be the darshinis. At any given time, thousands of people in the city are bent over their idlis and coffee at these convenient and affordable eateries.

Today there may be debates over how many can actually survive competition from international chains and the test of rising prices, but darshinis have ruled Bangalore for over 30 years. True darshini eaters vouch that these little joints serve as their second home, and many have their favourite darshinis for different foods such as dosas or coffee. Darshinis are everywhere. They allow diners to be themselves, without bothering about dressing up. Hot food is served almost instantaneously and diners often share tables with those from different walks of life, adding to the cosmopolitan opportunities of Bangalore. A neatly dressed corporate executive could be sharing his table with an auto driver. They need not make eye contact and yet they can both enjoy their snack or meal. Why do darshinis hold a special place in the Bangalorean’s heart?

Says Sriharsha, a businessman who eats at a darshini almost four days a week either for breakfast or lunch: “It’s no frills and that’s what attracts a person like me, where I can save time and eat food that I have grown up eating in the most economical manner.”

For Leela G., homemaker and mother of a seven-year-old, “If I am not cooking at home, the easiest, cheapest, nearest, and come to think of it, the most nutritious food that comes to my mind is getting idli or upma or some rice preparation for my son from a darshini. The international fast food chains or high-end restaurants are reserved for special evenings but something that is immediate, almost like home food, prepared in a hygienic way has to be from a darshini.”

Does she think the darshinis represent Bangalore culture? She adds, “I am not too sure about that, but I do know Bangaloreans would not want to miss out on having darshinis in the city and nothing immediately can replace them.”

Most Bangaloreans are used to eating South Indian food daily and the quickest way to find it outside their homes is to head to these tightly packed little spaces. One of the pioneers in running such a business is Radhakrishna Adiga, who runs Brahmins Coffee Bar in Shankarapuram. “It was Brahmins that started this concept of standing and eating together since 1965,” he says, “but a few others marketed their business with the word darshini and that became popular. The word darshini means having an open kitchen in front of customers.”

He points out that customers nowadays often want to sit and eat more leisurely, but he feels that those darshinis will survive that have won their customers’ hearts by serving tasty food over many years.

Darshinis are also serving food other than traditional Karnataka cuisine. Radhakrishna adds, “With just about 20 per cent who are Bangaloreans and the rest of the city population coming from other States, the food at darshinis has moved away from just south Indian cuisine to north Indian, Chinese and few other snacks.”

For Goutham Halkurke, a software consultant, darshinis are a place in which to chill out with friends. He is fond of particular eateries like Veena Stores in Malleswaram, Mangala in Srinagar, and certain SLV restaurants and Brahmins for the idlis. “If you ask me, darshinis have become part of Bangalore evolution. We have grown up seeing these eat outs, eating here, and as long as they serve food that is good they will not leave Bangalore.”

Priya Sebastian, illustrator and avid food lover, says, “I completely enjoy a snack at a darshini that is nutritious and low on calorie content compared to any fast food chain.” She cooks many south Indian dishes herself and relishes eating, either alone or with friends, at eateries that make authentic food.

As a food blogger puts it, darshinis will forever echo the vibe of Bangalore.

(Published in The Hindu Metro Plus on February 7th 2012)

An online link to the article- http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2869327.ece