Season 6: From January 2020 onwards
The Bliss Catchers™ - Season 6 - November 2020
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Kumaran Mahalingam
A low phase in his career as a geologist in 2014 led Kumaran providentially to check out Stand Up Paddling (SUP). He recalls feeling an “instant connection”. In the last six years, he has paddled in 50 lakes in three countries, he has notched up three Limca Book records for long distance SUP, he holds the record for SUP at the highest altitude – at 16,618 ft, across Tso Ltak lake in Ladakh – and he has paddled on the Ganga for 101 days, from Devprayag to Gangasagar. But SUP to Kumaran now is more than just an adventure sport; it is much bigger than setting records. His deep understanding of geology and his love for SUP have blended; they have transformed him into a champion for conservation of inland water bodies. So, in 2016, he set up Paddle For Future, a destination sports and awareness organization that operates out of Chennai and Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. His mission is to promote SUP so that people recognize the importance of preserving the ecosystem of our water bodies. “I want to keep doing SUP as long as I live. It has given my Life a Purpose,” he says. Aditya Ramkumar He may have well been a cricketer – he captained the PSBB (his school) team in Chennai and definitely showed promise to rise on the national scene. But a chance rendition by him of Mannipaaya, from Gautham Menon’s Tamizh film Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya, at his school assembly changed the course of Aditya’s Life. His school’s then chief, Ms.YGP, encouraged him to deep dive into music. She connected him to A R Rahman’s fabled KM Music Conservatory. So, even as he studied for his BCom program, Aditya immersed himself in learning Sufi and Hindustani music at KM – and, important, in learning to “dream big”! In this time, he skilled himself in audio engineering too. Now, although he’s a certified auditor and company secretary, and also runs his family’s organic farm, Aditya believes he wakes up only to create music. He’s already composed over 1000 original tracks that are awaiting release; plus, he and his composer-partner Vishal have produced several notable albums, singles and film songs together. “I can’t really explain this logically, but I forget who I am when I make music. I want to keep composing music that will make the world a better place,” he says. |
The Bliss Catchers™ - Season 6 - October 2020
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Krithyka Subhash
Exhilarated and fearful at once, when skydiving from 4000 meters in September 2018, in Bovec, Slovenia, Krithyka had only two thoughts strike her: 1. Who would take care of her two-year-old daughter? 2. Would she ever design jewelry again? Two years before this moment, she had quit her secure IT job to allow herself to be drawn into the mystical world of jewelry design. However, a few circumstances had derailed her journey. But that moment in the sky above Bovec gave her the clarity and conviction to follow her Bliss. That’s how, in 2019, Krithyka launched Venya – a custom line where she designs jewelry that her clients have always “wished for”. “This is not just another business for me. The joy of creating something new and seeing the Happiness it gives a client – that is my Bliss,” she says. Vijay Jayapal As a kid, Vijay always believed that “going to the movie theatre was like going to the temple”. Yet, he lacked the conviction to follow his Bliss. And so, he “drifted” through multiple jobs for many years. In end-2012 though, when he was 30 and was “confused and clueless over everything in Life”, he asked himself: “What can make me truly happy?” The answer he got was this: “Cinema”! That’s when he decided to take the plunge and quit the HR job he had at a multinational bank. Through making his first three films, all shorts, Vijay embraced, understood and learned the art form. Since then two critically acclaimed, independent, features, Revelations (2016) and Nirvana Inn (2019), have followed. “The amount of Happiness filmmaking gives me is unparalleled. I know I belong here,” he says. |
The Bliss Catchers™ - Season 6 - September 2020
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Dr.Yamini Saripalli
Growing up in St.Louis, Missouri, Yamini recalls, she was always musically inclined and drawn to dance. In 1994, when she was in her teens and was watching a dance performance, she had an epiphany. She did not understand literary Telugu or Sanskrit back then but she says, watching legendary Kuchipudi maestro Vempati Chinna Satyam’s Haravilasam, she had this “inner urge”: “I have to learn this. I want to dance for the rest of my Life. I want to dance Kuchipudi.” Staying true to her calling, and with her parents’ support, over the years, Yamini went on to learn the dance form from Chinna Satyam. Parallelly, she graduated in medicine, with a specialization in dermatology. But in 2015, just when her career in medicine was beginning to yield dividends, she decided to be a part-time dermatologist – only so that she could invest more of herself to train in, to teach and to perform Kuchipudi. Today, she lives the most-part-Kuchipudi-evangelist and some-part-dermatologist Life – and she loves it being this way! “I find Happiness through dance. My dance is my Life, it is more than money or anything material to me,” says Yamini. Hans Kaushik When he finished high school in 1973, Hans says he never fit into any of the “conventional boxes that society normally slots young people in”. So, he dropped out of his Economics program at college in Madras and spent over three years “hanging around, doing nothing”! A cousin’s random suggestion led him to do a four-year Fine Arts program at Baroda’s MS University. Arriving there, Hans instantly felt he had “come home”. The legendary artist K.G.Subramanyam, who interviewed him at the time of enrolment, suggested that he take up sculpture-making. And Hans’ initiation into theatre too happened around then. He recalls that every moment through that program had been, well, “rapturous”! So, he decided to thrive on his inner joy; he resolved to invest his Life in teaching art and theatre to children, in being an artist and being in theatre. 35+ years on, Hans’ contributions to theatre, to art and to grooming generations of children in these two disciplines is part of Chennai’s folklore – he is greatly respected for quietly, steadfastly, following his Bliss. “I believe in being myself, being authentic. And the Universe has, unfailingly, taken care of me,” he says. |
The Bliss Catchers™ - Season 6 - July 2020
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Apoorva Jayaraman
When her kindergarten teacher used Bharatanatyam mudras to tell stories, Apoorva remembers being instantly awestruck by the grace of the art form. At 16, she moved alone to Chennai to train under Kalanidhi Narayanan. And when she went to study Physics at St.Stephens, New Delhi, she made a pilgrimage every quarter to Chennai, to learn dance from Priyadarshini Govind. Over the years, even as her unwavering devotion to Bharatanatyam brought her acclaim, Apoorva went on to qualify as an astronomer – with a Master’s from Oxford and a PhD from Cambridge. With those stellar academic credentials, naturally, lucrative professional opportunities came calling. But Apoorva calmly reasoned with herself that dance is her Bliss, that “it isn’t about having a profession and a hobby”. So, she decided to invest her lifetime in dance. She says: “Dance chose me. I didn’t choose dance. When I dance, nothing else matters.” Palghat Ramprasad Born into a family that thrives on music (he is Mridangam maestro Palghat Mani Iyer’s grandson), Ramprasad started singing when he was a toddler! Even so, after high-school, he “went away” to scale many academic and professional peaks. He’s a brilliant quantitative economist with a PhD in Economics from the University of Georgia and a post-doctoral degree from Harvard. He has worked for top Fortune 100 companies and has published highly-acclaimed research papers. One would have then expected Ramprasad to stay on in the global corporate league. But in 2016, when he was 36, a slew of soul-searching questions forced him to review his Life and choices. Who am I? What am I doing? Is this where I want to be? Where do I belong? What makes my Life worth living? All answers, inevitably, pointed to his Bliss – music! So, in March 2018, he quit his high-paying corporate job to immerse himself in music, full-time. He says: “It has been a very rewarding choice. I lose myself in music, it helps me live celebrating the present.” Born into a family that thrives on music (he is Mridangam maestro Palghat Mani Iyer’s grandson), Ramprasad started singing when he was a toddler! Even so, after high-school, he “went away” to scale many academic and professional peaks. He’s a brilliant quantitative economist with a PhD in Economics from the University of Georgia and a post-doctoral degree from Harvard. He has worked for top Fortune 100 companies and has published highly-acclaimed research papers. One would have then expected Ramprasad to stay on in the global corporate league. But in 2016, when he was 36, a slew of soul-searching questions forced him to review his Life and choices. Who am I? What am I doing? Is this where I want to be? Where do I belong? What makes my Life worth living? All answers, inevitably, pointed to his Bliss – music! So, in March 2018, he quit his high-paying corporate job to immerse himself in music, full-time. He says: “It has been a very rewarding choice. I lose myself in music, it helps me live celebrating the present.” |
The Bliss Catchers™ - Season 6 - May 2020
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Vaishali Srinivasan
While in high-school, bullying by boisterous schoolmates had left Vaishali very quiet, withdrawn and listless in academics. Important, she stopped doing what she loved – drawing! When Vaishali was preparing for college admissions, a career counsellor pointed her in the direction of architecture, given her natural flair for drawing. And that’s how art came back into her Life – as design. Her Life has since been a continuous process of discovery, of “learning to capture the essence and aesthetic of human and spiritual expression” through design. Refusing to be constrained by the contours of industry and practice, Vaishali set up her own multi-disciplinary design studio – 85isto15 – in 2018; she currently works on graphic design, furniture, interiors and architecture. “I have chosen Happiness above all else. It is important for you to do what inspires you – every day,” she says. Kishor Lakshminarayanan Kishor’s dad literally raised him on a filmi diet – together they watched, well almost, a movie a day and often spent countless hours immersed in music, exploring M.S.Viswanathan’s and R.D.Burman’s compositions! So Kishor is not just another filmgoer; he’s not even a reviewer or a critic. He is a film appreciator – he loves understanding the why and how of each film that he watches! In 2016, Kishor set up Moving Images, his popular YouTube channel. In the last four years, he has created and hosted over 35 video essays on the films that have inspired him the most! Although he is an accomplished academic in biomedical engineering, he says that appreciating films gives him “a high” and the opportunity “to work alone, to be himself and to surrender to the medium”! |
The Bliss Catchers™ - Season 6 - January 2020
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Harish Srinivasan
Harish may well have ended up as an engineer-turned-corporate-warrior! But, while in Engineering school, in an ambitious bid to find a cure to “fix our unimaginative education system”, he asked a question that led him to follow his bliss: “Are we willing to listen to the voices of children?” He explored this question and its possible answers with two of his classmates, Aravind and Jaikanth. Straight out of college, the trio set up Infinite Engineers in 2014. As this company’s uber-cool Learning Experience Designer, Harish’s current mission is to make science fun for children. “I am hoping to inspire a few generations to use their intellect to not just acquire knowledge, but to do, think, learn and innovate,” he says. Wide Angle Ravi Shankaran Ravi believes it is destiny that led him to his Bliss. 35 years ago, playing around with a doctor friend’s camera, Ravi fell in love with the medium. Then, the venerable news photographer Subha Sundaram, his mentor, instilled in him a value that he strives to live by daily – which is, “to bring his unique creative vision into every picture he shoots”. And then came the opportunity to learn from the Master, P C Sreeram, who taught him how “to create art with the magic of light”. “Each of these events were simply meant to be. They have shaped my Life,” says Ravi. True. Without them, there may be no Wide Angle Ravi Shankaran – an ace photographer who straddles the business, news and celebrity genres seamlessly; a brilliant cinematographer who has done documentaries, ad films and several full-length movies; a #BlissCatcher who has showcased his works in five exhibitions! |
