Old city comes alive

How cool it would be if we could go back in time and relieve the old Bangalore charm. While this is not possible in reality, artist Bakula Nayak, through her whimsical illustrations and paintings, gives one a chance to peek into the golden yesteryears.

Known to include art and humour in one frame, her latest work showcases her days as a child living in Rajajinagar.    

"I lived in Rajajinagar for 25 years and I have a strong connection with this place. There are so many interesting things about these older parts of Bengaluru that are unsaid. Now that I am staying away from this area, I miss the sense of community that the place had."  

Bakula Nayak recently displayed her nostalgic illustrations at Phoenix Kessaku; works that reflected love, curiosity and a childlike fascination for the world. The exhibition was called 'Confessions of a Love-a-holic' where she took a journey down memory lane.

There are two series that she worked on - 'unplugged series', where she goes back in time to look at Indian literature, history, architecture  and paintings - and 'confessions of a love-a-holic' is where she talks about the things she is in love with.

"All my paintings have little love boats. I feel we should float more love boats. We need more love in this world."

When asked how she got the idea of working on a series dedicated to Rajajinagar, she says, "I am in love with this area but I find people cribbing all the time. I want to show them that there are enough things to see and love but somehow by focussing on the negatives, they are not looking at these things. We still have the Gulmohar trees with little birds chirping. We just need to find them."  

Bakula  has a love for vintage things, be it newspapers, restaurant bills or saris. A few years back, she found  about 500 old letters that her parents wrote to each other.

"It was a glimpse of my parents I had never seen before. It was like a revelation for me. In my grief of losing them, I started drawing on these letters, which continued to the other old papers I had."  

Bakula has used a bakery bill where she has illustrated a work on. She says, "It is a bill  for bread from 1937. There was a neighbourhood store where my crush at that time used to go to buy bread, I used to make an excuse to my mother that I need to go to the shop. We used to buy at the same time. I knew he loved me and I was so in love with him. I have narrated this story on that bill.

She says people connect  a lot with her illustrations just as they can relate to the stories she is narrating.