Date:14/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/14/stories/2006121417400200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

India was a revelation to these students

Staff Reporter

25 students are here on a four-week study tour of the city

BANGALORE: For the 25 American University students who landed in Bangalore for a four-week study of this city, India was a revelation. They had several points to ponder and compare the city to New York, the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, Beijing and Shanghai. If the local culture inspired them, the slums took them back to the outskirts of the two Chinese cities and the underbelly of Buenos Aires.

First, the basics. The students were here as part of a four-city tour, a four-month multi-university exercise required under the International Honours Programme (IHP). Bangalore being the last leg, they had plenty to talk about, to share experiences about and to recollect. And that they did with finesse, combining theatre with art, simple skits with serious short talks, dramatic high-energy histrionics with text projected onto a screen.

"In Bangalore, I saw a lot of art on a 10-minute walk. Temples with intricate carvings, heavy gold jewellery on a woman apparently heading back from a wedding, blue and green decorative art inside an autorickshaw and dozens of posters of films." This was Emma's story, as she ventured deeper into urban Bangalore.

She and her colleague Natalie had observed that art, wherever it was, formed an integral part of the local culture.

In Beijing, and by implication China, propaganda art had ruled for decades. But in the last 15 years, freer art forms were making their presence felt. "Contemporary Chinese artists are getting more creative after getting out of the restraints of the Cultural Revolution," recalled Natalie.

The tango ruled in the streets of Buenos Aires. Among the 25 was an Indian, Afzal, who had last seen India when he was only two. For him, Bangalore was a culture shock.

But the reunion with his cousins tempered that shock.

"I had imagined India would be sweltering hot and be full of mosquitoes and snakes. My first few days in Bangalore were trying. But the city offered a lot of opportunities to learn about Indian culture, the movie Rang De Basanti, the India-South Africa cricket match. Now I realise I am not an Indian or American, but a proud Indian American."