Bengaluru – Literature, Poetry and Reading.

*Publisher- Reliable Copy*
*Genre- Non-Fiction, Essay*
*Rating- 5/5*

Flexing Muscles is an amalgamation of a long form essay in English and Kannada by Ravikumar Kashi. The book is a meditation on the political flex banners that have helped shape the narrative of Bangalore in recent times. The book is replete with photographs collected by the author- of political flex banners and some ancient paintings which help us understand the format of present day flex banners. The author reflects on the history of flex banners and their significance in urban Bangalore’s visual popular culture and changing political narrative.

The essay is divided into five parts. In the first part titled ‘Navigating the City’, the author describes the changing demographic of Bangalore. He also writes about how Bangalore became the silicon valley of India and a cosmopolitan city.

In ‘Optics and Narratives’, the author reflects on the history of how flex banners became popular for reaching out to large audiences and their emergence in the city- flex banners were and continue to be a suitable medium for visual communication due to their cheap production costs and durability .

In ‘Posture and Position’, the author reflects on the format of flex banners- how the photos of the people on these political banners reflect the hierarchies and relationship between the persons- he also compares them to some paintings from the past. For instance- in a flex banner, the most prominent person’s image will be the largest and those of his followers will be smaller in size; similarly in a painting of Lord Vishnu, he occupies the center position and his character is greater in size than goddess Lakshmi who occupies a much smaller space in the painting – thus, there is a common thread that connects historical paintings and today’s flex banners.

In ‘Age of the Sene’ the author writes about an aggressive and chauvinistic side of Bangalore- the one that uses these flex banners to evoke authority, support and power from the local people. Multifarious sene groups have emerged on the scene in the last decade who seek to protect their culture, land and language from “outsiders”. They’ve taken up their roles as protectors exposing their hyper masculine intentions of protecting their supposedly feminine and fragile land and language.

In the last part titled ‘Echo Chamber’, the author writes about how the messages and sentiments expressed through flex banners is a significant one due to their scale and physical presence. Simply removing these banners does not change the latent anxieties that need to be resolved; by removing them, we make these anxieties invisible instead.

Political flex banners tell us a lot about an area- changing through time and space, marking new territories and shaping new narratives. Flexing Muscles is a book that explores the significance of these banners in present day visual culture and political narrative of Bangalore. It was a fast-paced essay and one that was well-researched and informative with interesting citations, illustrations and personal anecdotes. The Kannada version of the essay is also available in the same book. I enjoyed reading it thoroughly and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning and reading about Bangalore or flex banners.

I was reading Kundera’s ‘The unbearable lightness of being’ when I came across this line-

“and now he realized that those years were more attractive in retrospect than they were when he was living them”

It strikes a rather painful chord inside me but having realized this bitter truth now, I’ll make an effort to may be not complain about my life in the present. I would often complain to my friends about Pune- how people are not crazy about books, education, music, culture, etc. but I was only ignorant. (How many maharashtrian friends did I have anyway?) The Bengali chauvinist inside me would die within a week of stepping into Calcutta. I would miss Pune terribly- the cleaner roads, the better weather, the better friends, lesser politics, the freedom of wearing shorter clothes, of not being leered at and everything else. Pune gave me a place to breathe and be myself- this was extremely difficult in Calcutta, being surrounded by a so-called ‘upper caste’ family who were inherently bigoted, casteist, capitalist and sexist even though they were not inherently ‘bad people’. It is only because of Pune that I had friends that belonged to different classes, castes and cultures. I wonder how much of that would have been possible if I stayed back in Calcutta, studying at La Martiniere, where everything is inherently linked to status, class and caste. Mixing with people from the so called ‘lower caste’ was looked down upon, at least within our social circle in South Kolkata.

Pune not only introduced me to misal pav, pohe, dabeli, and puran poli but also to neer dosa, filter coffee, dal bati churma, puliyogare, malai kofta and Kashmiri kahwa tea- such was the diversity within my circle of friends and also my parents’. I cannot think of a city more cosmopolitan and more tolerant towards other cultures- something that I find seriously problematic living in Benagluru or hearing from my friends and relatives back in Delhi. I don’t think people in Pune care enough- as long as there is good food, loud guffaws, a little fervour during Ganesh Chaturthi, we mind our own business at the end of the day and nobody cares enough to argue on whose culture is better or worse and why. We will embrace yours without expecting anything in return. I’ll never say Pune is the best city to live in, but I sure as well had the greatest time of my life there. We may not have the best airport, not even a decent one but try stepping out of the airport and you’ll know what I am talking about. We sure have a house in Bengaluru now, two more houses and most of my family in Calcutta, and I am mostly in Cuttack for law school, but there is no other place other than Pune I would call home. And now, more than ever have I realized the stark and sombre difference between a house and a home and perhaps this is why, I find myself belonging more to the state which is a gateway to both- the north and the south.

Happy Maharashtra Day!

Tag: Bengaluru

Flexing Muscles by Ravikumar Kashi

A place to call home: Pune