Raja Ravi Varma meets Madhubani paintings meets Eastman colour -- Nilofer Suleman's art gives you a smart tour of all the old-world hallis in Karnataka, with their collerful signboards, roadside Romeos with oiled hair and a handkerchief around their necks and coy Lolitas who keep their cellphones in their blouses
Raja Ravi Varma meets Madhubani paintings meets Eastman colouru00a0-- Nilofer Suleman's art gives you a smart tour of all the old-world hallis in Karnataka, with their collerful signboards, roadside Romeos with oiled hair and a handkerchief around their necks and coy Lolitas who keep their cellphones in their blouses. She talks about We Two, Ours One, her exhibition at Art Musings till January 12 next year:
Nostalgia natter
When I was a child, we recycled everything we usedu00a0-- Dalda boxes, soorma bottles, Afghan Snow or Lacto Calamine containers, calendars, magazines. Salons were called saloons. We were seven children and they'd actually dress all of us in clothes made from the same bale of cloth to go to the Taj! 
When we visited Bombay then, the high point would be to watch a wrestling match between Dara Singh and Randhawa.
Going for a film in those days was like a picnic. The whole family dressed up, packed sandwiches and samosas to eat in the theatre. We had to rush in quickly to catch space on those wooden benches.
There was a time when I wanted to be a nun (probably because I studied in a Convent) and then I saw Johny Mera Naam. Overnight I decided I wanted to be a cabaret dancer like Padma Khanna!
City witty
Bangalore's changed a lot in the last decade and half. All those small old world shops with their extraordinary roadside characters and patrons, broken English signboards, are disappearing behind the fibre glass fa ade of the city. Mumbai still has its old nooks and corners, like Bhendi Bazaar, Fort, Hill Road.
On my last trip here, I saw a bhangaarwala signboard which read, "Live life kingsize." It's not so bad here, but Bangalore has very few traces left of its old self.
I find it naive and endearing how shops used English to appear sophisticated. I love the kind of exaggerated, over-the-top posters our films had. I miss that age when everything was so vivid, colourful and melodramatic. I just want to relive that age and show a slice of life from those days.
Abtsract thoughts
Abstract art or surrealism is just pretentious if it doesn't come to you naturally. I'm more comfortable with narratives. Also, I find that art has become too solemn. Like theatre, art also needs the nava rasas.
I have lived in several cities in India and traveled through many and I have come to realise that we Indians are an emotionally happy people.
Our sense of happiness has nothing to do with our economic condition or progress. We thrive on hope and we express our aspirations through our Gods and cinema.
Who: Nilofer Suleman
What: Talks about depicting her favourite cities and times through art
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