Bangalore. Every year for a few weeks I become a Bangalore local, and try to pick up the threads from where I  left it the previous year. I have been doing this exercise for over over a decade. Before Bangalore, it was Madras (Chennai) where I spent a few weeks of my precious vacation before heading back to the US of A. My ties to both the cities go back to my childhood, Madras is where I grew up, and Bangalore is where we drove up every year for our annual pilgrimage in our trusty “Amby” or Ambassador car.The drive from Madras to Bangalore would take the better part of the day, and the minute we spotted signs for Kissan factory, we knew Bangalore was not too far off.

Excited at the prospect of visiting our favorite city, we would stick our heads out of the car, and watch the car roll into South Parade Road or Mahatma Gandhi Road. The minute we spotted the familiar red color building that houses Cauvery Emporium, we knew we were a hop, skip and a jump from our favorite lunch stop – Brindavan Hotel. Sadly, Brindavan Hotel is on the verge of being pulled down. Back then Bangalore had  few cars on its tree-lines roads, and it had lots of roundabouts. Bangalore simply felt, looked and behaved differently from Madras, whose roads and flyovers were filled with cars and autorickshaws rubbing shoulders with a mix of old and new buses from the trusty old Pallavan Transport Corporation. That was in the 20th century.

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I have known about  Bridget White Kumar  for over 6 years, and every year on my purpose-filled trips to Bangalore, I’d promise myself to meet her. Every year her name would dutifully appear on my list of people to meet in Bangalore, and every year I’d carry her name forward to the next year’s list. Finally, last year I met Bridget at her home in Koramangala, Bangalore and unbeknownst to me I had been driving past her house every other day on my annual pilgrimage to Bangalore!

We spent a lovely afternoon talking about her passion: Anglo-Indian cuisine. She had rustled up a meal with laid out on her dining table was a typical “Sunday meal” special at a Anglo-Indian home complete with coconut rice, dhall, foogath, Grandma’s country chicken, cutlet, devil’s chutney and an array of desserts, including a few Christmas specials. We spent an afternoon poring over her books, old Anglo-Indian recipes (video link) and photos. I recorded a part of our conversation. I wanted to do a longer one but I had forgotten to bring my digital recorder.

And then things happen as it often happens in life. My audio recorder went kaput, and I was frantically trying to get a new one. Kingston-based Annie Paul came to the rescue and got me one from London and dropped it off on her whistle-stop trip to Bangalore. My loss was nothing compared to the personal loss of Bridget, who lost her husband a few weeks ago. Bridget and her husband had just come back from a vacation and visiting their extended family in Andhra Pradesh.  I was quite devasted when I heard about her loss and offered my condolences on the phone and planned to stop by her home on one of my frequent trips to Koramangala. I was rather reluctant to approach her to do an interview during her period of loss.

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Ashton Kutcher’s “brownface” advertisment for Popchips has roiled the calm waters of the desi community in the US and other parts of the world. Did Popchips forgot to factor in how tightly networked the desi community is in the online world?  So, the question is did Popchips and Kutcher push the envelope on this one?  Here is a link from The New York Times on the Popchips campaign.

Popchips roped in Kutcher as their brand ambassador a couple of  years age and made him the President of Pop Culture . In their latest media campaign  ”World Wide Lovers,”  he appears in 4 different avatars and that is the one that has created a lot of buzz.  One of the avatars that Kutcher plays is as “Raj” Bollywood producer and speaks with a thick Indian accent. Clearly, the desi avatar of Popchips “World Wide Lovers,” does not sit well with the desi community.

Here is an update from Huffington Post on the controversy with a clarification from Popchips about the advertisement.

Note: For some inexplicable reason I was not able to locate the Popchips advertisement, but found the clips embedded above. If you find a link please let me know. Thanks.

Bangalore’s Jahnavi Barua’s novel “Rebirth”  is nominated for the  2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. This is Barua’s first novel.  Other authors nominated for their first novel in the Commonwealth book prize category include Jamil Ahmad, Christopher Currie, and Rahul Bhattacharya. You can check the complete list here. The winner of the Commonwealth book prize will be announced in June at the annual literary The Hay Festival in Wales.

Barua joins the growing rank of physicians cum writers like Abraham Verghese and Sidhhartha Mukherjee.  She has been writing since 2004. Her first book was “Next Door,” a collection of short stories.  “Rebirth” (Penguin India)  was  previously shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.  Assam figures quite prominently in her writings, which is where she grew up. She now lives in Bangalore.

Here is an interesting interview with Jahnavi Barua.

Photo credit: Penguin India

Rajnee vs. Chuck Narris served with a strong Indian flavor from Expedia India is brilliant, so kck back, grab that cup of strong South Indian filter coffee and watch. This East-West connection had  to happen in this fast, shrinking world. Chuck Norris and “Superstar” Rajni had to meet in the virtual world.

Bangalore special so far in case you missed listening or watching the interviews in our life, people and ideas channel. Our goal is to highlight Bangalore, a city in rapid transition, while remains of an older and gentler times still exist in pockets of the city. Every Thursday, you can expect to see a new audio interview on the website. Along with the new interviews, we include interviews from the archives.

We started off the Bangalore special with 91-year old Leela Chander taking us back to 1930s and through her we discover places that still exist, while some others have disappeared.  Through the audio and video interviews featured in our life channel, Mrs. Chander takes us back to a Bangalore that was known for its slow and gentle lifestyle. While listening to her you realize how much Bangalore has changed, and has yet managed to retain some of those old established places like MTR or Albert bakery. To go with the 1930s theme and some of the places she mentioned, there are related videos on Albert bakery and hot cross buns from the bakery to mark Easter celebrations in the city.

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Could this be the most photographed person in Bangalore? Well, while there is no way to establish that fact, it may be safe to state that he is probably photographed quite a bit. But, wait a second. Now that I think of it, another most photographed person (well, persons actually) could be the 2 doormen at Leela Palace Hotel in Bangalore. Perhaps, you have seen them?

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Bangalore special.  This month’s  focus is on life, people and ideas from Bangalore, one of the fastest growing cities in India. Often referred as Silicon Valley of India, this once laid-back town known as “pensioners paradise” is fast morphing into vibrant, ever-expanding megapolis in India.

Megapolis you ask? Consider this. Whitefield was once considered a far-away place, way out of Bangalore. Today, Whitefield is a hi-tech hub and known for its educational institutions and is part of Bangalore. Hebbal, Sarjapura, Bannerghata, Yeshwantpura, Jalahalli and Devanahalli are areas located on the  periphery of Bangalore – far from MG Road and the laid-back Cantonment area. But, these areas are either part of Bangalore, or will become part of Bangalore shortly. Before you know it Tumkur, Mysore and other areas might become extensions of Bangalore and that could mean only one thing – Greater Bangalore Region, right?

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What is India becoming? That is the $64 billion question that pops into our mind every now and then. Now, if you are a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or a Non-Returning Indian (as some folks gleefully like to point out) then that particular question of “What is India becoming?” pops up during our annual pilgrimage to the country. That question pops right up when the big metal bird deposits us safely in one of those new, swanky International airports dotting the country. As we descend into the baggage claim area in the shiny, new escalator and look up to see bill boards for EMC or HP it looks all too familiar and you wonder where you have seen all this once before. Wait, did I not see those very bill boards when I left the airport in the San Francisco bay area? Oh, right EMC and HP have offices in India too. 

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Ravi. Many of us knew him just by his first name. I will hazard a guess that if you watch Hindi films or listen to Hindi songs then you must have heard his music at some point in your life.  Ravi, (86), passed away on March 7, 2012 in Mumbai. He leaves behind a rich repertoire of music that span various genres and languages. To some he was known as Bombay Ravi since that was his South Indian avatar.

Like many young people in 1940s India, which was going through a fair bit of turmoil, Ravi chose a safe and stable job at the Indian Post and Telegraphs department. Music was his passion. He took a plunge in the 1950s and decided to try his luck at Bombay’s nascent Hindi film industry and got a break working with music director and singer Hemant Kumar. Eventually, Ravi struck out on his own and become a successful music director. He worked with talented directors like Guru Dutt, BR Chopra and Shakti Samantha.  He worked with the singer Mahendra Kapoor quite extensively, and some of the best songs of Kapoor are from his collaboration with Ravi.

Interestingly in the 1980s Ravi made a comeback as a music director for South Indian films, especially Malayalam pictures. He was known as “Bombay Ravi” in the South.

Here are a few songs from Ravi’s repertoire from the 1950s onwards. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s Ravi composed music for a string of iconic films and gave us a lovely collection of classic hits. 

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