There’s a sketch of a waiter carrying dosas at a popular south Bengaluru restaurant, and then there’s another of a palace-like store that was a huge sensation when it opened way back in the 90s.
These are just some of the slices of good ol’ Bengaluru that lawyer and artiste Kruthika NS has been doodling in her Bengaluru Nostalgia series on her Instagram account ‘theworkplacedoodler’. While she’s sketched artwork featuring various themes previously, her special series dedicated to namooru’s famous joints and people has struck a chord with hardcore Bengalureans, who grew up visiting these hubs. From Rahul Dravid to Cubbon Park and Vidyarthi Bhavan, Kruthika has depicted a range of artworks that is bound to evoke a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia.
Talking about how she got the idea, Kruthika says, “When I was in Goa recently, I saw Mario Miranda’s art works that captured the essence of the place and wondered why we can’t have something like this here. There are a lot of legendary places in the city and things that you associate with your childhood. When I came back from Calcutta (I studied law there at NUJS) after five years, it felt like our city had completely changed and my friends too felt the same. We felt the need to get back and hold on to some memories and try to preserve them. The Bangalore that I grew up in and the B’luru right now are so different — I terribly miss the old ooru, so I conjured up this idea in the middle of the night.”
Apart from sketching places that she visited while growing up, she also started having Instagram polls asking followers to pick between places like CTR and Vidyarthi Bhavan. “Even though I really like both places, I drew the one that got most votes and people used to ask me why I hadn’t drawn the other one, so I ended up drawing both! I didn’t make an effort to promote the page, but I’d tag the famous Bangalore pages and some of the admins would like my posts and share them on their respective pages. If people reach out to me for specific commissions and gifts, I do it for them,” she says, of her page which got its name thanks to the fact that Kruthika used to doodle during her work breaks.
The lawyer, who works at LawNK, is also a researcher for the Sports Law and Policy Centre and interestingly, her main focus has been gender inclusion and sport. “With regards to gender inclusion, I focus on women’s rights in India, the general feminist movement and LGBTQ rights. As for my artwork, I did one series on inspirational women, the MeToo movement and the Sabrimala incident. A lot of my art stems from what I’m actually doing outside. My art is also a way to get out my opinions,” says the alumnus of Sophia High School. This versatile hudugi, is now working on a long graphic essay with an organisation called The Polis Project. “It’s going to be on the Metoo movement and the responses to it,” she adds.
