I am a die-hard Bangalorian. A student from Delhi Public School, Bangalore, i grew up in a very cosmopolitan environment. Anything other than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, was "behenji" costume! Anything other than MTV and Channel-V was equal to not watching television! Only Nickelback and Oasis made music- no one else in the world could. Anyone who did not speak fluent english was a "villager". School got over, but I still remained the little snob from DPS. :p
Eleventh and twelfth standard taught me humility. It taught me to accept other people's intelligence, and also that it is alright to learn from someone who's smarter!
Then came that phase of my life when i was lost. I suddenly found myself in a town in Tamil Nadu, filled with, obviously, tamilians, and really smart ones, away from home, away from BANGALORE! Boy was that hard to digest! Being a "tam-brahm", as they call it in Bangalore, I found it tough to survive between carnatic music, bharatanatyam and curd rice, more because in a standard tamilian household, they are three very essential components of survival! People around me discussed M.S.Subhalakshmi and Vani Ganapathy- now that is something I had never done!
As the days passed by, I realised that carnatic music, bharatanatyam and curd rice are actually interesting things! Carnatic music was like food for the soul, bharatnatyam was food for the heart, and curd rice with some delicious "avakkai oorga" was food for the, let's say, a happy tamilian! I found myself getting inclined towards all this, and develop a special liking for the beautiful culture that I belong to, that runs in my blood, that I've been ignoring for so long. A small inclination took the shape of interest, and interest slowly developed into a feeling of wanting to be a part of the culture.
And that's how I took my first step towards becoming a hard core tamilian- I started taking bharatanatyam lessons! I enjoy every moment of the wonderful dance form now. My friends introduced me to the world of carnatic music, and now, solving math without T.M.Krishna or Ranjini Gayathri seems incomplete. My tamil improved, I started to feel comfortable in a salwar-kameez, and most importantly, I started to feel a sense of belonging to the culture every time i saw the Periya Kovil in Thanjavur.
Out of the four years of my engineering, two have come to an end. In these two years, I have seen myself change so much, that I cannot recognise myself anymore! But one thing is for sure. The new person that I see in the mirror everyday, is certainly better than the one that I used to see two years back! :)
Eleventh and twelfth standard taught me humility. It taught me to accept other people's intelligence, and also that it is alright to learn from someone who's smarter!
Then came that phase of my life when i was lost. I suddenly found myself in a town in Tamil Nadu, filled with, obviously, tamilians, and really smart ones, away from home, away from BANGALORE! Boy was that hard to digest! Being a "tam-brahm", as they call it in Bangalore, I found it tough to survive between carnatic music, bharatanatyam and curd rice, more because in a standard tamilian household, they are three very essential components of survival! People around me discussed M.S.Subhalakshmi and Vani Ganapathy- now that is something I had never done!
As the days passed by, I realised that carnatic music, bharatanatyam and curd rice are actually interesting things! Carnatic music was like food for the soul, bharatnatyam was food for the heart, and curd rice with some delicious "avakkai oorga" was food for the, let's say, a happy tamilian! I found myself getting inclined towards all this, and develop a special liking for the beautiful culture that I belong to, that runs in my blood, that I've been ignoring for so long. A small inclination took the shape of interest, and interest slowly developed into a feeling of wanting to be a part of the culture.
And that's how I took my first step towards becoming a hard core tamilian- I started taking bharatanatyam lessons! I enjoy every moment of the wonderful dance form now. My friends introduced me to the world of carnatic music, and now, solving math without T.M.Krishna or Ranjini Gayathri seems incomplete. My tamil improved, I started to feel comfortable in a salwar-kameez, and most importantly, I started to feel a sense of belonging to the culture every time i saw the Periya Kovil in Thanjavur.
Out of the four years of my engineering, two have come to an end. In these two years, I have seen myself change so much, that I cannot recognise myself anymore! But one thing is for sure. The new person that I see in the mirror everyday, is certainly better than the one that I used to see two years back! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment