With life coming back to pre-pandemic ways, the year 2022 has been an eventful one. Here are some headliners from a busy year
Getting candid with Prakash Padukone
In August, veteran badminton player Prakash Padukone spoke frankly to CE about his stint with badminton, his expectation from the emerging talent Lakshya Sen, and his focus on bringing up talent from the grassroots level. Getting quite candid in this story published on August 18, Padukone recalled the time when they were worried about the daughter Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, who moved to Mumbai at the age of 18 to follow her dreams of being in the glamour world.
What make the Shahs click
In a story published on January 24, actor Shefali Shah and her husband, director Vipul Shah spoke to CE about their series Human (based on a medical scam) that started streaming on Disney+Hotstar on January 14. Shefali, who was supposed to come to the city for the launch of her restaurant Jalsa, shared how she picks her roles, working with her husband after 17 years and their secret of successfully working together as a couple.
Stepping foot into musical success
Singer Sid Sriram, whose song Srivalli featured in the movie Pushpa: The Rise (Telegu, Tamil and Kannada), took the world by storm, chatted with CE – in a story published on February 3 – about his musical journey, collaborations with AR Rahman, and his thoughts about his song being used extensively in reels.
Dating back the currency
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, who was in the city in March, paid a visit to Rezwan Razack’s Museum of Indian Paper Money. Rezwan Razack, the owner of the museum and collector, shared with CE in a story published on March 28 about Das’ interest in early bank notes, and the ones published before the formation of the RBI. Das was accompanied by his wife and R Gurumurthy, the regional director of RBI, Bengaluru.
Bidding farewell to home
As the month of September came to a close, it cast an air of nostalgia and grief over Bengalureans. It was the last few days of the iconic Samrat Restaurant as it got ready to relocate from the Chalukya Hotel, its home for 40-odd years. On the final day, the environment seemed as if everyone were donning sepia-toned glasses and memories were the most ordered item from the menu, observed CE in their story that was published the next day on September 26.
Concerns for Lanka from the Garden City
After painfully observing Sri Lanka’s devastating economic downfall and the chain reaction of instabilities that rose from it bleed the once-a-travellers’-paradise nation dry, Lankan nationals working in Bengaluru opened up about the plight of their families back home in this story published on April 7.
The country and its people
In October, renowned editor and author TJS George came out with his new book, The Dismantling of India: In 35 Portraits. It constructs the history of India through 35 biographical portraits of personalities who have held the nation’s attention, for better or for worse. For a story that was published on October 29, George spoke about the process of coming up with his list of 35 personalities, press freedom in modern journalism and his hope for India’s future.
Back in time
Decades after she shot for Dharmendra and Shammi Kapoor – starrer Shilmar (1978) in Bengaluru, legendary actor Zeenat Aman stopped by in Bengaluru once again, and went down memory lane as she reminisced about her chance entry into Bollywood, which she eventually went on to conquer. The actor who ruled the silver screen in the ‘70s and ‘80s, confided in CE for a story published on July 23 that she has no regrets at all.
Travelling into immersion
As a new travel trend this year, Bengalureans had opted to live closer to local communities, understand their culture, learn more about it and volunteer with them. In a story that came out on May 3, CE found out that back during the summer, travel was more off-beat and immersive with various activities ranging from learning to brew local beer using foraged produce, to discovering the indigenous music from different states.
In conversation with a cricketing great
In November, CE caught up with former Indian women’s cricket captain Mithali Raj about the recent Bollywood biopic on her and her decision to retire from international cricket. In a story that came out on November 10, the 40-year-old attributed the box-office failure of Shabhaash Mithu to a trend of meagre reception to biopics from Indian audiences. “I’m not coming back into international cricket for sure,” she said about returning to the field for Women’s IPL in 2023.
Notes of the father
Raghu Karnad, Girish Karnad’s son, fondly remembered his ‘Appa’ in a story published on June 9. Raghu shared his family’s decision to push the initially-reluctant Girish to get the podcast The River Has No Fear Of Memories: Girish Karnad recorded.
The arc of Infosys
For a story published on December 20, CE spoke with author and chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murty about her new book The Gopi Diaries. In an expansive conversation, Murty spoke candidly about her role in Infosys’ founding, her marriage with billionaire husband Narayana Murthy and raising her children amidst money.
As Infosys turned 40, CE touched base with the first-generation entrepreneurs on December 22 who look back at the risk they took to turn Bengaluru into the ‘Silicon Valley of India’.