‘Open ‘city, ‘Soft’ city
When contemporary dance and information technology took a morning walk to talk about Bangalore.
(March, 2005 – The Week)By N. Bhanutej
Nobody could have guessed Tripura Kashyap and Subroto Bagchi were meeting for the first time. Their diverse passions notwithstanding - Tripura is a contemporary dancer who works with the visually impaired; Subroto, as part of MindTree, is an IT success story in Bangalore - the two got along like a house on fire.The Week decided to bring the two together for an informal conversation on their impressions about the city they had made their home. Initially, Bangalore Beat wanted to get two IT leaders together. Then we wondered if two IT people would make the conversation a little too IT-centric. A person from the world of arts would add a different flavour to the discussion, we decided.
Both Subroto and Tripura liked the idea. But they differed on what the topic should be. Subroto preferred to talk about how he spent the week-ends in Bangalore. Tripura wanted to talk about what they liked about the city. We decided to make it a combination of both.
Subroto offered to host Sunday morning breakfast in his house. Tripura agreed, but she said she had to rush off to a dance session at 10 a.m. So we decided to take both to an environment that represented Bangalore- the Cubbon Park, High Court and Vidhana Soudha area. That would also have made it easier for Tripura to reach the venue of her dance session. As it turned out, Tripura’s dance class was postponed, everyone made it on time and walking and talking was underway, with myself trying to be as unobtrusive while recording their free- wheeling conversation, interjecting an occasional comment to keep the talk on track. The two other avid listeners were our photographer and Manoj Chandran, a senior manager of Mind Tree, who takes care of Subroto’s engagements.
One had thought that the only meeting ground between Subroto and Tripura was their love for Bangalore. It was only when their hour- long walk came to an end near the steps of the Vidhana Soudha, that they themselves realised the world of similarities in their experiences, passions, goals and concerns.
Bangalore had preserved and nurtured both their talents. Both, for instance, came to Bangalore in the late 1980s (Tripura in 1989 and Subroto in 1988). Neither could have made it big in their respective fields-so they agreed-had they been in any other city. Both shared a deep concern for the differently abled. Subroto spoke movingly about how he saw his blind mother cope with the challenges of life. Tripura told him how teaching dance to the visually impaired made life meaningful for her.
Subroto: Hello Tripura. I read about all the interesting things you do. Software is not so interesting. Your work with the visually impaired is inspiring. And, did you know that the logo of MindTree- depiciting bound-less imagination-was designed by a boy with a cerebral palsy? So, we are connected in a lot of ways.
Tripura: I was just wondering how Bangalore being an “open” city has so much to do with our kind of work.
Subroto: I would call Bangalore a ‘soft’ city. Openness and receptivity are female characteristics. It is about softness. Bangalore reminds me of a rainforest eco-system whose floor has to be soft and fertile. This city has retained its softness despite what we people have done to it.
Tripura: I was born in Mysore, lived in the US and in Africa. I wonder if the kind of experimental dance I do would have been acceptable in any other city, at least in southIndia.
Subroto: What you say is just like how this city has accepted IT. When you see it as a whole there is a deep connection between what we are all doing-your work, my work, the media’s and the private sector’s. At the same time, Bangalore is an aspirational city.
(Subroto had everyone laughing when he said how building IT is something akin to a college love story where the entire community participates in getting a boy and girl to all in love. “Even the autorickshaw driver knows about IT in Bangalore. He feels he is doing his bit too,” Subroto said.)
Tripura: I will be missing Bangalore because my husband, Bharat Sharma, who is also a choreographer, is moving to Hyderabad. But I know that I will keep coming back here.
Subroto: You can get out of Bangalore but Bangalore cannot get out of you. I travel 15 days in a month. When someone asks me where I live, I tell them that my kitchen is in Bangalore. Once the aeroplane’s door opens at Bangalore airport, I am transported back to a different state of consciousness. I know I am home.
(Whenever an intense point was made, the two would come to a halt, bang in the middle of a road engrossed in the subject. It took a few minutes for them to collect their thoughts and move on.)
Subroto: I will tell you about three of my memorable weekends in the last 90 days. Then, you can tell me about yours. One weekend, I drove to Chickamagalur. Many Bangaloreans have no idea how beautiful it is to see the earth, mountain and sky come together; and it takes all of 5 hours to reach. On the way, we stopped at Belur, Halebeedu and came face to face with a 1,100-year-old-temple. Taj Mahal is a brand, and it is marketed well. But real architecture is what you see here.
On another weekend, I visited Nrityagram. It was early morning and two gurus were practising. It was a spiritual experience for me. In MindTree, we believe in learning from unusual sources.
(Subroto’s humour is very ‘desi’. His patient drawl had a slant towards the philosophical. He came across as a serious person, packing knowledge and humility in his words.)
Subroto: Another weekend, I was chasing a story (I write for Business World) on the micro-credit movement in India. An organisation called Grameena Koota, a women’s empowerment group, was my focus in the village. The contrast was glaring-15 km from the Vidhana Soudha, in any direction, you can’t find water in taps and there are no sewers. I was face to face with another reality. Here, I met a woman called ‘Huchu’ Fatima (meaning, mad Fatima). She had been deserted by her husband, and her daughter had been deserted by her husband. She was bitter about life, and cursed everyone. When microcredit system started in the village, the villagers did not include her. She fought and got herself in, took a loan, sold clothes for a business and now has repaid the loan.
(The two were engrossed in an animated conversation as they reached the magnificent High Court building, unmindful of the camera clicking away. Morning walkers cast sidelong glances at the ‘walk the talk’ in progress. Subroto built a case for some privacy. “Lest people think we are Kannada film hopefuls.” When I pointed out that “but you are not dancing around the trees” the two shared a hearty laugh. “I wouldn’t mind that” said Tripura. They settled down on the steps with the imposing Vidhana Sudha in the background)
Tripura: A couple of weekends ago, I took my 13-year-old daughter to Sting’s concert. There were so many people enjoying themselves. The sound and lighting were amazing. You can’t find that in India. Sound everywhere is so bad. Every performance is like a disaster management in India. This was different.
Then, last weekend, I started working with a group of Bharatanatyam dancers who are blind. They wanted to do a fusion piece, which I was choreographing. It was very touching… the way they were picking up the movements and the way they related to dance at such a physical level. They lost fear of space. The moment they started dancing, it didn’t matter anymore; their bodies were free.
Subroto: I have seen my mother, a blind person for 30 years. I believe the fear of space is inside of us, not outside. At 48, I thought I was comfortable with space, but I started doing some balancing asanas that need you to close your eyes. I could not do them eyes closed.
(Tripura had Subroto stumped when she said, “I started learning dance because I was cross-eyed. Someone told my parents that Bharatanatyam can get rid of the squint. In six months, it was gone.” Apparently, the hand-eye co-ordination, which is part of Bharatanatyam, does the trick. Subroto suggested that all children with squint eyes be sent to Bharatantyam classes.)
Tripura: In fact, many normal people are handicapped in many ways. I do dance workshops with people from different sectors, including IT. I realise how handicapped they are when it comes to balancing; they have problems with coordinating different parts of the body, problems with social skills. These are things that come out in a movement workshop. People are very scared of their bodied. It shows through their movements. You can’t lie through movement, but you lie through words.
Subroto: That is so beautifully said. You must speak to our leadership team. How did the fusion dance choreography go?
Tripura: They had done Bharatanatyam before, but they had no idea of contemporary dance. When I made a movement, they felt the movement by coming near and touching me. It was beautiful. Before the weekend was over, I was able to teach them a 20-minute performance. It was most touching.
(Tripura was much like a young schoolgirl-bright and bubbly-with an infectious energy. Between bouts of laughter, she can throw a piece of serious stuff, like; “When I dance,I sweat. It is the sweat that gives me new ideas. Sweat can make people creative.”)
Both felt that travel was important to make their work stimulating. “Sometimes, Bangalore also dies. It gets very bland,” said Tripura. Subroto agreed. “True, Bangalore doesn’t arrive on time, but Mumbai does not allow you to set your time. Mumbai has only one time, which is Mumbai Time.”
Tripura complained about the lack of initiative among Bangaloreans. “You have to initiate things on your own. People around you are not ready.” Subroto’s riposte: “But that is part of the pain of a thought leader.” They were back talking about philosophical things.
Subroto: They say our bodies are like chariots in which the souls are riding. How do you, for instance, take care of the body?
Tripura: Bodies are homes inside which we live. We nourish our minds a lot, but we do not nourish our bodies. I like to do different things: yoga, swimming walking, dance to any music. It is like movement meditation. I can’t sit in one place and meditate
At the end of the talk, Subroto decided to call Tripura over to MindTree for a meeting with his leadership team. Tripura, whose book Creative Dance Therapy is due to for release in May, readily agreed. Both, in turn, thanked Bangalore Beat for making this meeting of minds possible.
