Jaipur Journals- The Traveling Trio again

I found these pictures from our Delhi-Uttarakhand trip where Jeet bhai and I traveled to Delhi, Malavika reached Delhi and was waiting for us. We began this journey on April 17. The day after I decided to work on Colourless. 

This time, we took a bus ride to Delhi rather than the usual train route. Train or bus, we never sit idle when we traveled. We discussed work and many more ideas, issues that was happening around us. 

As soon as we reached Delhi, Sandeep picked us up at one point and we were off to Dineshpur. 

Jeet Bhai on Phone

Our bags neatly lined up in Sandeep's Car

Malavika and Jeet Bhai at Metro Transit

Jaipur Journals- The Travelling Trio

Actually, we are fantastic four. Narasimha, Malavika, Jeet Bhai and myself. All four of us, traveling together is a memorable journey. Ever since Narasimha left for Finland, three of us visited couple of places in the limited time we got. Soon after one academic year, Malavika and Jeet bhai got busy with National Education Policy 2020 work and I traveled most of the places alone. 

Here are some images from our Barmer Journey. Malavika came from Baroda, Jeet Bhai and I traveled to Barmer from Jaipur. 

Jeet Bhai with our colourful bags. 

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All Set to go

In Between the Pages-Sweet Gift from A

Going through my photo gallery, I found this piece which was gifted to me by A. This is so sweet. Thanks a lot A. 

Movie- Songs of Scorpions

Ever since I got to know about this movie in 2019, I've been waiting to watch this. Starring Irrfan Khan & Golshifteh Farahani, set in rural Rajasthan. Nooran lives with her mother and sings along, to soothe and cure many people's illness, especially the one whom the scorpions are bitten. Aadam, a camel trader, falls in love with Nooran and follows her everywhere. As he begin to lure her into marriage by deceit, nooran eventually gets married to him and loses her mother, her soul and the spirit with which she sings to cure the pain. 

How she regains and finds her voice is the cinema. Set at realistic pace and striking raw background score, Irrfan Khan and Farahani are imppecable at it. I fell in love with desert, the voices, the lives and the stories that surround them, again and again. 

At once, I felt, it's easy to exoticise the Rajasthani artist's work and ignore their struggles and pain. To live in a desert and make a living in the world that's pacing crazily is an adventure. I've spend good time at Jaisalmer talking to people, artists, who lived there. How do they find a living in a seasonal economy?

Good Shopping Experience at Max

I'm never a big fan of brands and expensive tags that come along with. I find Max econimical and has the most comfortable wear. Mostly tees and some jeans. After buying a couple of shirts and pants, I returned to the store for size exhange. Mukthiyar picked my bag from the desk and offered me to help. He began to find out the size I wanted in the pant. We couldn't find it but subtly, he offered me the other varieties they got. He was there without intruding much, waiting for me to decide rather than deciding it for me. I went on to check other stuff and he found out the fabric I wanted and showed it to me to decide. As I returned to shop after a small accident, I couldn't hold the bag for long time. He held the bag through out and helped me till billing and made my shopping experience very smooth and enjoyable. Good job Mukthyar

Garden of Love and Compassion: Mindful Education in the 21st Century | L...

After a long time, I enjoyed watching this TEDx talk. Genla in his own style, sharing his story and also what compassion, love means. He gave a glimpse of what convenient and inconvenient compassion means. 

There's more about how we need to unbecome rather than become right from the childhood, as none of our childhoods begin with goodness. 

It's time we change our question- How do you want to contribute to the Humanity rather than what do you want to become?

This talk starts and ends with a simple story that's striking and stayed with me. 

A person asked  Buddha, 'What have you gained from Meditation'

"I have gained nothing" Buddha replied, "but I have a lost a lot. My anger, my anxiety, my insecurity, my greed & my fear."

The Last Story- 

"What's the best medicine for pain?"

"Love." 

"What if it doesn't work?"

"Increase the Dose."

Sirohi to Switzerland - Thinking Intuitively

 Listening to various accounts and other usual fears, I got swamped by a lot of negative thoughts. I may not be able to stay connected with my family, I may struggle at foreign land, I may starve, I may not really enjoy, I may miss my people and a lot more. 

For once, I realised that I'm thinking too logically. Given the finance situation and other conditions, I've begun thinking that I may struggle in every aspect. Reflecting on my history, I've never faced any difficulty despite the odds I was at. I lived in a small town where I got a great house to live, with a hill view. 

I never had a problem for food. I never compromised on houses, even in the big cities. I lived in the best space at unbelievable economical rent. 

In the course of 6 years work life, I had the best bosses. No complaints at all! Also, I got flexibility in my work life from Day1. If I continue, the list is too long to note. 

All these happened in my life very organically. If I had begun to think logically, none of the above, would be logical, in my life. 

I have realised that I need to leap in and believe. Stockdale Paradox. Face the brutal reality yet, always believe in what you have always wanted. 

Movie- Vicky and Her Mystery

A father along with his daughter moves to his old place after losing his wife. The daughter is gifted a pup by a stranger whol helps them when they were stranded in a trek. The daughter brings the pup and cares for it. The pup has rekindled new energy in their life. As they get attached to it, they realise that it's a wolf but not, a dog. They have to leave it in the wild and live. How they live after that realisation is the movie. 

This movie is based out of real story. I planned to watch a french movie and glad to pick this one. 

Movie- Thiruchitrambalam

I watched the trailer and never bothered to watch this movie. I wonder why I chose to ignore this movie for so long? I enjoyed watching this. 

Pazham & Shobhana are childhood friends and live in their small world. Pazham(Dhanush) lives with his grandfather & father with whom there's a difficult dynamics. Pazham doesn't talk to his father but shares a beer with the grandfather. Grandfather is a pivot in their life since the time the son has lost her mother and sister due to father's small mistake.  

Shobhana plays the child hood friend who cheers for every high and share a shoulder whenever there's a heart break & low point in life. As the tiff relation between father and son goes awry, the grandfather witnesses for a better patch up. What happens in their lives as the time pass by is the movie. 

The movie is like a breeze where it takes you for a ride and makes you smile at the end. Enjoyed it. 

Movie- Labor Day

Recently as I had to answer the question- Favourite TV show/Film, I could think of few people and few movies. As it came by, I wrote- "All Golshifteh Farahani movies & Maryan(Tamil)"

Thinking on that question, now, I'd like to answer as, "All the movies I watched of Kate Winslet"

Katewinslet makes it all real. The first movie I watched of her, is Titanic and there are gems, I watch again and again just to fall in love with Kate winslet and her acting. 

A son and a mother lives alone in a house. An escaped convict walks into their lives and begin to stay with them. Eventually they find his mysterious past and will they stay together or not, is the cinema. 

I love the writing. There's so many perspectives to build from these three main characters- Henry-the son, Adele-the mother & Frank-the uninvited guest.

In the movie, there's drama throughout and watching this movie, I wondered if humans are wired for love. If we are wired for love, how are we also violent?  Does violence come out of love? If so, is it just?

I'd come back to this, like I return to all Kate winslet movies, when I wish to watch some brilliant mellow mood movie.

The Cloudy Cycling Ride

After a long time, I got back on my roadeo and headed to deserted roads. Despite being windy, I decided to go out for an hour or two. Sometimes, the wind was graceful and helped me to attain speed, sometimes it dragged me down and gave tough time. The sky was ready to burst at any second. At first, I was not keen to record the numbers for this ride but, used Strava to check out the details of the ride. Listening to some melodies, I went on for one and half hour, cycling 23 kilometres. Most of the time, the sight that grabbed my attention were the trees and some visual compositions arranged by discarded gates, roadside houses with children playing literally on the roads, the new green nurseries that I never spotted a year ago. 

No sooner I was a few metres away from home, it rained heavily and I got wet before I reach home. Enjoyed it. 

WhatsApp at it's Whim

All of sudden, my WhatsApp data got lost. A lot of pictures, videos got erased. Even the backup couldn't restore a lot of pictures. It's annoying to rely on the cloud when a lot of data is at the whim of tech giant-Meta. I've lost a lot of writings in the past. Now, I feel sad to lose a lot of files. the poem, Digital files became food for thought to ponder over it. 

Are we good at cherishing experiences as memories? or

Did we lose the habit of cherishing experiences, in a race to make every moment a deceptive memory through flickering digital files?

Colourless Art Exhibition in Colours

 Anuranjan and Ashish have captured the moments in captivating way. 

Gaurav & Ashish setting it up. 

Abhishek & Ayush viewing at the painting- The Family

Mumal and her friend at the exhibition

Anubhuti at Exhibition

Glad to see them being keen

Art- Colours and Craftsman

Wandering through the streets of Kadapa, I stopped a side to attend a phone call. Looked around and found this beautiful sight of craftsman creating symmetrical shape in aesthetic colours on a cot. Patterns and geometry seems to be everywhere, if one takes effort to view. 

Movie- Nude

A woman badly abused by her husband walks away from her home to raise his child in the big city of Mumbai. She does not find any job and resorts to nude modelling. she gets to do this with the help of her sister, Chandrakala who is been doing it for 15 to 20 years. No one knows about the job. Yamuna does it only to support her son's education. Later, she poses for other students and also ends up posing for  MF Husain. Although she does all this to educate his son, he assumes that his mother gets money through prostitution. Yamuna's son leaves her and plans to go to gulf. Chandrakala gets bedridden due to old age  she realises that she may also get into that stage and she kills herself.

After few years her son checks out a nude art gallery out of lust. He enjoys the painting until he realises that it's his mother and he slaps the artist.  There's a lot of sub text in the movie. This movie shows the struggle of woman and the choices they make. I learnt that this movie is based of directors own experiences as art student. Glad to check out this movie. 

I began my day watching interview of MF Husain wanting to know more about him. I watched his movie the eyes of a painter. Intrigued by his compositions, I watched couple of interviews and eventually planned to watch Marathi movie named Nude.

Little did I know that this movie revolves under the controversy that troubled MF Husain at his later years. This movie revolves around Art, Nude modelling and stories of the nude models. 

Movie- Through the Eyes of a Painter

M.F.Hussain directed this movie. There are no words in this movie. Camera flies as we travel through Rajasthan. There are videos ranging from cows, birds, women, along with Sandal, Umbrella and other objects along with the painter, painting some visuals. 

The music synced very well in the movie and it's innovative to make this kind of film back in 1960s. In those days, the content seemed to be in focus along with the medium. Now the medium seemed to take the front seat and drive a lot of the work. 

Movie-Series-Becoming Elizabeth

I picked up interest behind the name Elizabeth and the queen, only after meeting the long last friend Elizabeth at TCS. At first, she told me the story of Queen Elizabeth, her mother and the history behind it. Since then, I always took keen interest and got to know a lot about England history, crusades, the fight between protestans and catholics.

I found this on Lionsgate Play. 

It begins with King Henry VIII's  death and takes along how politics shift and Elizabeth struggles to survive amidst political turmoil and becomes queen. There's so much drama and suspense. Enjoyed it. 

Movie- Manmarziyan

 Tapsee is the reason I began to watch this. Knowing that this movie is directed by Anurag Kashyap, I was curious to see this movie. 

Rumi, a impulsive red haired, hockey player, bike rider is madly in love with DJ Sandz, who struggles to be responsible. Mad lovers they are and Robbie walks in, interested to marry Rumi. Whom does Rumi marry is the story. 

A lovely screenplay and good background music. The last climax of slow motion run is something I haven't expected of Anurag Kashyap. I wanted to stereotype Anurag Kashyap but, he always surprises me. Good one. 

Au Revoir Jaipur

After moving in and out of several places I've realised that we leave places and we need to accept that. Sunshine or rainfalls, we can not return to the exact place, we lived as it is always a past.  Several times, not being ready to accept the feelings, we tell ourselves 'it's not a good bye, see you soon.' In reality, even though we may return to the same place, it'd never be the same. The place grows, we grow and it's a dream to return to the past which we cherish. 

On 3.July.2023, I'm leaving Jaipur. I began my day late and headed to Maah Space to fetch the paintings and other material. As soon as we went there Vritika and Gaurav were waiting for us. There's nothing much to talk about. Their hugs and handshakes communicated a lot. Another moment to be grateful for having meeting these beautiful people and spending time with them. Shailja and I packed and returned home getting all the paintings. No sooner, we reached, the Gati packers were ready to pack and move the stuff. In hurry, we did all the packing. In the last minute, Shailja helped me pack and we could pack everything in such a short notice. 

Every friend who visits my place gets a chance to catch up with Piyush ji. Shailja & I sat for half an hour with Piyush ji, chatting about everything. Piyush ji wished me the best and gave a lot of advice on handling documents, artefacts, paintings. "This is just the beginning. Continue doing what you do," he wished me on my painting journey. 

Like old times, Shailja and I had our lunch from Behrouz Biryani discussing JNU, movies and all that we love about. 

Given an hour time to rest, we packed our bags and did some random blur hazy photography. Shailja to Delhi and I'm off to the city, for one last time. 

We headed to Gandhi Nagar Railway Station and Shailja bidded good bye saying, "keep sharing all that you do when you move to Switzerland." I'm so happy to have her on the most important day of my life. 

I was puzzled on my next destination as I had few hours before I head to airport. I planned to visit old city but, moved to WTP due to traffic. Walked a bit and headed to office on Abhishek's suggestion. Caught up with Paresh, Parul, Pooja, Shravan, Avina, Sanjeev. Went out with Parul and Pooja for a fruit juice. I'm so happy that they finally moved on from the chai.

Along with Abhishek, I headed to Jawahar Kala Kendr for one last time. Ashish joined us and we spent some time chatting. Finally as I had to leave, we took few pictures and Ashish took me on a ride to drop me at the airport. 

We went to office to pick my bags and he gifted me a wallet, a pocket notebook, along with the pen. In the wallet, he put 101 rupees, saying, his mother gave that money, advising that one should not gift an empty wallet. 

Thanks Ashish for the gift. Means a lot. Finally, we reached airport and I walked in, trying to be in the present and be thankful for everything I had till then. 

This moments and time would never repeat for me or for anyone. I'm glad to take up this journey and move ahead from here. Thanks everyone for making this as beautiful as it can be. 

Until next time and even if next time doesn't come, will cherish and celebrate you Jaipur. Au Revoir. 

Interesting Abstract Painter- Hiroshi Matsumoto

 https://www.gabrielegallery.eu/en/hiroshi-matsumoto-2/

Browsing instagram, I found this artist Hiroshi Matsumoto who is very consistent at painting and keeps sharing his work daily. The idea of creating work itself is very inspiring. In addition to it, he keeps sharing it. Glad to know and check out this work. 

Making of Colourless Art Exhibition

I wanted to work on exhibition and had no idea where to start. I approached Malavika for the help and she suggested me couple of ways to approach the galleries and spaces. I listed down the spaces I wanted to try and finalised one space that I really wish to work with- Maah Space. I shared my new book-Colourless, on which I wanted to do an exhibition. Further checking out my work and the book, Shreya, owner of Maah Space decided to collaborate and host the exhibition. 

Blue Love

In a minute, both of us discussed the logistics and got it finalised. From another side, Ashish jumped in, to curate my work for this exhbition. He spent good time, checking out my art and posed right questions to know more about the paintings and the thoughts behind those paintings. 

As ashish curated the work, he guided me on how to go about it. First, get the work ready for the exhibition. That meant that, all the paintings need to be coated with varnish and screwed to hang in the gallery. 

I chose to go with Brustro Matte varnish as it would not give any glare under the light. I coated all the paintings. 

While Shreya and I decided on logistics, Kaamakshi, co-owner of Maah Space helped me in the operationalising it. Together, we walked through the space and discussed how I want my work to be placed. The lights, space and the nails at the right spots-everything got discussed and all the friends jumped in for some action. Vritika, Gaurav, Ashish, Pooja, Somesh helped in setting the work. I was merely walking around trying to compose the paintings in the space. All the hard work was done by my friends. Without them, I don't think, I'd have pulled this at such short notice. 

Soon after we hit the nails at the right place, tie the strings to the paintings and place the lights at the right spots, we left the space, excited to revist tomorrow. 

Next day, on the D-day, we walked in and Shailja was already there, equally excited for my exhibition and helped me out in finalising everything. Gaurav, Ashish into action. Despite sleep deprived, they slogged at the last minute, to finalise everything. 

Gaurav and Ashish at work while the studio person witnessing it all

Kamakshi suggested the seating space in the gallery. Shailja suggested for the playlist. I began to curate a playlist for my art exhibition. I was happy to create this playlist since there is a series titled in the exhibition- Paths,Playlists & Conversations. 

A lot of ideas and we changed our plans according to the time and energy we had in our hand. I wanted to place some text in the exhibition yet, some part of me wanted viewers to imagine what they wish to and share those stories with them. 

I didn't place any title or text near the paintings. Instead, I chose to place two poems of mine to display at the exhibition. 

For the rest, I wished to discuss with viewers instead of letting them read on their own. In retrospect, I realised that I couldn't catch up with many as a lot of people came at once. Neither their responses were captured nor my thoughts were shared with them. Hope they return to the art in their own way as we always do. 

My Thaatha's journey

My grand father's name is Ramiah. I hardly saw a person calling my Thaatha, by his name. There was no one of his age, who could call him by name. 'Naana, Mama, chinnana,Abba'- I heard a lot of them calling him differently but, not by his name. 

He passed away on 4.July.2023. Estimating his age, there are several accounts. My mom was born when my grandfather was 40 years old. My mom is 54 years old. That makes his age 94 years. 

Other assumption is that, my grandfather is 8 years elder than paternal grandfather. who must be 80 years old, if he survived. Then, my thaatha must be 88 years old. Unsure of the documents that exist. Irrespective of how many years he lived, people declare that, he had a good death. He didn't struggle for too long to die. Everyone agrees on this. 

Multiple times, he survived through hospitalised visits and other ailments. I always knew him by his sheer grit and perseverance. As my mom says, he didn't had land, money or parents. He came to my great grandfather's house and worked in their house. Expecting an alliance, he always felt as family and strived for them. As soon as the promise was not kept, he walked out of home, found a girl, married and raised a family. His family comprises of 4 daughters and 2 sons. 2nd eldest daughter is my mother. The eldest daughter died due to ill health and the eldest son, Eeswariah killed himself. 

Penny by penny, my Thaatha saved and bought land & worked on it. As far as I remember, whenever I visited his farm, he had lemon trees. Also, Silk worm crops were there. There are couple of wells in which water was always available. Shared by him here and there- he went to far off places like karnataka and maharashtra to sell off his yield. No matter how far he traveled to sell off his crops, he always returned home to have a proper meal. He'd rather stay hungry but, not eat outside. Mostly he'd be surviving only on water. I can imagine him traveling with the crop and go to the big city, only to do his business and then return. If I would be in his position, I'd be wavered off by what the city had to offer. 

Back in his days, he has never seen homes filled with electricity. Electricity for the crops were a dream. I visited village, once a year, during my childhood. I remember him waiting at the pongame oil trees- the unsaid bus stop for the villages around. He was always happy to see us and walked us a great distance to the home. Sometimes, I remember being picked up by my mama on his shoulders.

He stayed pensive and grieved a lot for his loss. He lost his son, daughter, wife and has witnessed a lot of life. A hearty laugh and muffled voice. Will miss him walking into the house, whenever we visit the village. 

Whenever we came home, we were offered sharbath, a great electrolyte booster to cool off in the scorching sun. The house was simple- a huge porch and the two rooms.  Of two rooms, one was used as living room, kitchen and other as store room. There's no concept of bed room. We always slept outside. In winters, it's cozy and cold. 

We always came home during the summer holidays. As a kid, i didn't enjoy much but, whenever I came my mama or Thaatha used to hand me money which I always looked up for. 

Some interesting stories I'm amused of my Thaatha are he is a great walker. He walked distances. People of his generation walked a lot. The recent story that amused me was, he had no business with alcohol as he doesn't drink. During the election time, he was there where there was huge amounts of alcohol. He was also taken and put in prison. He stayed for a day and walked out of jail. He walked nearly 25 kms reaching our home, which is on the other corner of Kadapa.

He held a bet of 50,000 that TDP would win the elections. Till 2017-18, he put some crops in his land and had an income through agriculture. Still, I wonder how he'd just does that.  There are many more stories that I always got amused of. How does this frail person has such grit as well as kind heart. He always cared for his daughters. He lost his first son and the youngest son always had a difference of opinion with the father. 

The one thing that I'd regret is to not arrive home early as he waited at my home for weeks for my arrival. "Chinnodu bayatiki velliopothadu kadha, raani, kaluddham." The younger one would go out of the country right? Let me meet as he comes. 

He had to finally leave to village for his pension on June 31. As soon as he returned to village, he fell sick and couldn't recover. He passed away peacefully without much struggle. 

Colourless Journey

On 18.May.2023, My publisher has called me and said the book-Colourless got listed on Amazon and is available for public to buy the book. He also couriered the copies to Bangalore from Delhi. I felt happy to listen to him and looked at the link. I looked at the book for couple of seconds and decided to share the news with few people. I'm grateful to have people who would be equally excited, happy, as you'd be, for your endeavours. 

I shared the news with dear ones. After a long wait, the books finally reached  on 24.May mid night at Azim Premji University, the place where I was staying. At night, I walked to the mail room and received the package. Taking out the book into our own hands is a very special moment. I had a smile, all over my face, taking out the book and shared the news with the person who handed out the package, "My new book is out. It's my 4th book." 

As I walked out, I ran into couple of people and then Bharath, a person who has great admiration for books and value them the most. I sat with him and showed him the book. I was happy to share the copy with him. He was excited for my endeavour and wished me the best. 

I spent good time at the campus, alone, reading my own book and looking at the print. The words in print has a different influence on you. As I was returning to room, I could already find my copy circulating amongst many of them for some glimpses. A few were curious. A few were impressed. I enjoyed watching the reader reactions to my writings. 

Next day on May 25, I walked out to Sonia, Malavika, Sonu, Jeet, Ruchi, Rajashri and a few more to share my work with them. I'm grateful to have people who were excited for my work and were supporting me all through out. 

Colourless- Thank you Pooja

I've seen ample number of performances by Pooja. Love her work and the way she presents herself on the stage. I'm grateful i got this opportunity to work with her. Working with Pooja on the colourless, she guided in my right direction, listening to all my random ideas and gently helping me to see how crazy and not-so-contextual they are.  Watching her, I learnt a lot on how to handle oneself on stage. She handles herself so well that I'm in awe of her performance and hated myself for being so mediocre infront of her. Nevertheless, I feel it's an amazing opportunity to work with her and learn from her. I wanted to share a lot of things to her and I ended up writing a poem to her, thanking for everything. 

Planned to walk

Over the memories and moments

Over teh colours and crossed paths

Joyful soul, I ran into

Amidst the colourful city- The

Pink city. Amor she is

Regaling her self with pens, pondering thoughts

Elated I'm, to spend seconds, minutes and hours with her

Making memories, learning life lessons through her

Soulful artist she is, strolling with a mellow voice

Apprising her thoughts through silences and smiles

Heartened I am, to listen to her

Alive, I fell

Yearning to walk again

Crossing paths

Creating memories

Cherishing experiences

Thank you so much Pooja for everything.

Colourless Exhibition- The ones who made it all

I'm grateful to see how a intense random wish comes true with help of all the loved ones.  July.2.2023, the wish has turned into reality. All thanks to these lovely people who stood by and stayed with me and supported me all through out. As soon as I arrived at Jaipur from Bangalore, I reached out to Pooja and bombarded the idea of Colourless poetry performance. I'm grateful to her, for agreeing to work on the idea and help me to craft the beautiful piece. She also put up with my random, crazy ideas which we had to cut it out for obvious reasons. Along with her, stayed Somesh, being poised and advising wherever needed.  In the span of a week we got to prepare, despite a lot of intense schedule, Pooja's commitment and dedication to her work, is inspiring. While we were brainstorming ideas, Chandrika walked in sharing some suggestions. Thanks Chandrika for those brainstorming ideas. It really helped. 

Everyone were quite supportive and curious of how it was turning out to be. While juggling on lot of engagements, Vritika, in the last three days, walked in with a grace and handled everything that fell in the right place. Besides full support in all the errands, she worked on the lights and emceeing which set the right mood for the evening. Gaurav composed the whole exhibition and set it up from the scratch. Along with him, stayed Ashish. Gaurav did the hard job of fixing the paintings and setting it up in the space. Thanks a lot Gaurav for jumping in and also for being a rock pillar support, gently. 

No sooner Ashish knew my interest in painting, he always took a special interest and helped me by sharing little tips here and there. In the last week of my Jaipur journey, Ashish took up the responsibility and curated my art for this exhibition. Thanks a lot Ashish. 

Colourless wouldn't have been so colourful, if not for the print images of my paintings in my book. Anuranjan a.k.a AJ helped me at the crucial moment, handing out his camera to digitze my paintings for the book. On the special day, again, he walked with the camera and did the magic. Thanks to him, the Colourless memories are in color-bright and beautiful. 

L to R- Somesh, Gaurav, Myself, Vritika, Pooja, AJ, Sitting-Ashish

Stories on Wheels- Namma Yatri

 After a poetry session at Koramangala, I chose to walk on the by lanes rather than take the main road. After a distance, I tried few apps to get a ride for more than 10 minutes. After trying out on Ola, Uber & Rapido, I went ahead and asked the nearby Autoperson. Haggled a bit but decided to take me to my destination. 

Talking of apps, this person has suggested me Namma Yatri, a better app than any of those Ola, Uber and Rapido as they charge the rider and driver and take more percentage. Curious of Namma Yatri, I enquired and got to know more about it. Further we discussed on Bangalore traffic and his personal journey. 

Venkatesan aged 60 as of this year, has been driving auto since 20+ years. "I ventured into road works, building works and alot more. After all the hustle, I took an auto and am riding it from 20 years." 

 "I chose to go when I wish to. I rest when I want to." He stated. We had the whole conversation in Kannada and he asked where I was hailing from. Parvagilla, Kannada channa barathu. He complemented on my kannada spoken skills. Credits should got to all my Kannadiga friends. 

Thanks Venkatesan. I'm glad I didn't go the app way to choose a ride.