The Indo-Japan Habba that was recently held in the City, did well to strengthen the bond between the people of India and Japan. It served as a perfect setting for interaction between the people of both countries.

The three days saw a number of performances and cultural exchanges at its best. Japanese working and living across the country flew down for the habba, with their families and all of them say that they made lasting friendships in the City.

The programmes that were spread across the three days had a good mix of performances by Japanese groups and a few from India as well.

Mayu Shirai, a dancer from Japan who specialises in ballet and western dance, says, “I admire the Indian dance styles and began learning bharatanatyam in Japan and now I’ve got a chance to perform here in India. I’ve specialised in free style and hip hop but I really like the Indian dance styles and hope to learn more of them.”
Akmal Burhanov, another Japanese expat, sang Sare Jahan Se Achcha in Japanese and Hindi.

 “We decided to mix both the languages. It took us a while to get used to the
pronunciation and the accent but we were keen to sing it right,” he says.

Yuvi, an Indian who teaches at the Japanese school, says, “Get-togethers like this not only help us learn about another culture, food habits and lifestyle but also give an idea of how others think. One just learns a lot by observing each other. We got some of our nursery school kids to sing a Bollywood song.”

There were many Indian women who have learnt ikebana and either run a business or teach other people. Deepika Mansigh, president of the Bangalore chapter of Ohara School of Ikebana, says, “There’s a certain logic that goes into an ikebana arrangement. The flower are not placed randomly. For instance, when you think about landscape you should have already designed where to place which flower. That’s why it isn’t easy to learn and practise ikebana.”