Life & Style

Pickleball is the new posterchild of the sports world. This fast growing sport that was started by Joel Pritchard, William Bell, and Barney McCallum in 1965 in the US, now has fans all over the world. In Chennai, this game attracted more players post the lockdown phase. Few years down the line, it has a dedicated following with many former tennis and badminton players also taking to it. The growth spurt can be measured by the number of pickleball courts that have popped up across the city.

And now, Chennai gears up for the Rise Up Championship, which brings together pickleball players from all over India, with a side of music and food. Titled Pickleball By The Bay and Music Festival, the three-day long event, on the lawns of VGP Golden Beach, is organised by the Rise Up Championship (RUC) foundation in association with the Indian Pickleball Association (IPA), Tamil Nadu Pickleball Association, Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating (DUPR) and Pickleball World Ranking, making it one of India’s first PWR 1000 sanctioned tournaments.

“Launched three months ago, the foundation aims to provide a platform for players across sports who have achieved a lot but don’t get the support they need be it infrastructure or basic facilities or brand association,” says Selvakumar Balu, founder, RUC foundation.

The courts being set up

“Players across the ages of 18 to 60 years are playing pickleball,” he says. With pickleball being all the rage now, the team at RUC decided to go with this sport for their first-ever tournament. So this seemed like a good choice to begin with, he says. Next, there will be an e-sports and golf tournament.

Seventy two players have registered for the championship that begins on Friday. While there are participants from Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi, the majority is from Bengaluru and Chennai. The players — in the 17-52 age category — have been selected by the Indian Pickleball Association, based on their (DUPR) rating.

What to expect?

A temporary court, with a view of the sea is being set up for the event. The 12,000 square feet air-conditioned, indoor area will have two courts and can seat 800 spectators. It will also have VIP lounge areas.

The organisers want to create a carnival atmosphere. The games will begin in the morning and continue till evening. By 7pm the lawns will come alive with the sound of bands and DJs and chatter from the food stalls. Day one will have DJ Lash and Aishwarya, Day 2, DJ Sparrow, Vinaitha and band, and Pineapple Express and Day 3 will feature Sublashini and band, Masala Coffee, and DJ Veekay.

“You know what IPL did for cricket. We will be doing a similar format for other sports,” says Selvakumar, adding that, “The idea is to make sure everyone picks up a sport; and if from the spectators attending even if five people take this up, it’s good,” he adds.

Passes are priced at ₹499 per day. Available on in.bookmyshow.com. For details, log onto riseupchampionship.com

When we first spoke of my writing a column about life in Sri City, my editor and I decided I’d pen eight installments. The idea was that this wide-eyed Himalayan kid would chronicle the wonders of living in rural Andhra Pradesh. There would be ruminations on idli and chutney, Japanese restaurants and Korean menus, monkey infestations and house parties. Eight pieces became 10. Ten became 12. Twelve became 15. I don’t even know what number this story is, but it’s time for the weekly column to gracefully bow out. The editors at The Hindu have become friends. They now know exactly when to expect a message from me.

Week after week, I look forward to the word play in the headlines and decks they concoct. Week after week, I look forward to Saai the illustrator’s rendition of me in glorious caricature.

The past four months, I have greatly enjoyed letting you into my little slice of Sri City and Chennai, both of which have become homes in that strange way I wouldn’t like to give much thought to. This weekly column is, by far, the most disciplined thing I have attempted. I become insufferable when I write against deadlines. When the deadline is weekly, the self-righteousness compounds.

To be honest, I had initially thought I’d give up after a couple of weeks. What, after all, was there to write about a city few knew existed? I surprised myself.

Yes, I wrote about luxuriating in home deliveries in Sri City and about my quest for the perfect dim sum in Chennai.I wrote about finding a cook who doesn’t understand my oil rationing and about getting my Hindu on at the Kapali temple. I deliberated on clubs and restaurants. I knew declaring the Madras Club the best club in the country would wound half the world, but I had little idea that a story listing what I loathed about Chennai would be better read than all the other pieces combined. At the end of the day, I guess we are all a tad masochistic.

The best part about the ample love and some derision that came my way was encountering emotional readers, invested readers, meticulous readers, the kind who found holes in stories. Take, for instance, the gentleman who decided that I had misrepresented the size of the gap between my bathroom wall and ceiling. He stated — correctly, I must confess — that the wall separating my two bathrooms didn’t go only three-quarters of the way up but four-fifths of the way. Or that one poet who told me that the Chennai airport was like his mother — mother! — and that no one should insult his mother. Or the genius who declared, with the conviction only a South Asian male can muster, that I wrote about all the partners of The Hindu as though Tulika Books and the Kapali temple and Murugan Idli ran ads worth millions in the paper. Just yesterday I was accused — good-naturedly, I hope — of making a story out of something as trivial as my beloved driver’s sneeze.

For every heartfelt reaction, well-meaning people wondered if writing about the competition between Japanese restaurants in a town no one cares about was judicious use of space. “You need to talk about politics,” a friend said. “You could comment on what’s happening to our country.” I could, yes, but why would I want to do that? The chase for the perfect dosa stuffing keeps me up at night. The rave reviews some restaurants receive fill me with wrath. I don’t want to be friends with anyone who doesn’t feel strongly about Kappa Chakka Kandhari’s cloud pudding. I am offended that it hasn’t yet found a place on our State-dinner menu. I want to give the light-hearted and the happy-making stuff its due. If you’d like to read about all the evils plaguing the country, there’s always Twitter.

For now, though, it’s goodbye. Thank you for the love. I shall soon resurface on these pages (and the Weekend pages). I will likely continue writing about southern living, if only slightly less frequently. But I’ll also write about my life in the Himalayas and my life in New York and my life up in the air, all of which can’t be justifiably encompassed under the “Southern Living” umbrella. I am particular about mundane matters like that. If you’d like me to address topics close to your heart, dear reader, please talk to me. You aren’t one to mince words, I know. Until then, re-read all the Southern Living pieces like you will be quizzed on them. Vanakkam.

Prajwal Parajuly is a novelist. Karma and Lola, his new book, is forthcoming in 2026. He teaches Creative Writing at Krea University and oscillates between New York City and Sri City.

Gond art takes on a contemporary touch in the works of artist Japani Shyam. The daughter of Gond artist, the late Jangarh Singh Shyam, Japani is showcasing her works for the first time in Hyderabad.

The show The Living Bond at Alliance Française Hyderabad (AFH) presents 14 works. Rooted in nature, the imagery draws on many inspirations — watching her father draw and listening to his stories in childhood, cultural narratives, and frequent trips to the forests near her village, Patangarh in Madhya Pradesh. Some themes are drawn from her imagination and surroundings, particularly those that resonate with women in society.

On interspersing contemporary messages with a traditional art form, she says: “Being a woman, I understand the challenges that women face every day. They have many dreams, but bound by societal norms and constraints, they are unable to move ahead in life.”

Of folktales and myths

Her canvases reflect her love for Nature
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement

Born and raised in Bhopal, Japani grew up watching her father draw pictures of gods and goddesses, forests, and trees filled with birds and animals. “He would narrate these folktales and myths to us as he painted them,” she recollects.

From observing him deeply immersed in his art to eventually working alongside him, Japani’s tryst with Gond art was organic. At 11, one of her submitted works won the Kamaladevi Award (The Kamala awards also known as Kamala Devi Puraskar honours the legacy of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, a prominent figure in India’s craft revival movement. The awards are presented by the Crafts Council of India (CCI) award to honour outstanding contributions by artisans and activists to preserve and develop Indian crafts.) , which helped her develop her own visual style. “When we returned home after school, he would ask us to draw on white paper. He knew what our strengths were and how much we enjoyed the activity.”

Inspired by her father’s advice — “I am your art teacher, but do something on your own to stand out” — Japani, who was named after Japan where her father happened to be at the time of her birth, now uses only two colours in her works. This dual palette — either black and white, or a combination of dark and light tones — has become a distinctive aspect of her work. “I did not find working with many colours appealing. In fact, I would get confused by them, not knowing which colour to use with which design.”

Rooted in Nature

The artist uses only two colours in her works
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement

In canvases filled with intricate patterns, a love for nature takes centre stage. Japani travels to her village Patangarh twice a year to experience forest life. “Jungle mein chalna bahut accha lagta hai (I love walking in the forest). I feel calm and inspired when I am in the wild, surrounded by trees. I see the animals, listen to birds chirping, and soak in the tranquillity of the forest — all of which reflects in my works,” she says.

She reflects on the community’s close connection with nature: “Gond artists have a profound connection to the natural world. Tribal communities have a deep respect for the environment, and this closeness is experienced from the time a child is born. Many tribal customs — like making the newborn sleep in a leaf cradle, feeding with a leaf, or using leaves for worship — strengthen this bond. Nature se saari cheezein uske liye kaam mein aati hai. Aur jab marta bhi hai toh usi nature se use hoti hai. (Everything in life comes from Nature, and when a person dies, he too returns to nature.) Every story, every religion, has its origins in nature.”

Does she feel pressured by comparisons with her celebrated artist-father? “There is no pressure, because I am still a student and have a long way to go.”

Japani Shyam showcases her works at a show The Living Bond at Alliance Francaise -Hyderabad (AFH). The exhibition is on till September 27

In 1873, Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar started a free English primary school in Bengaluru’s cantonment area for the benefit of socially-disadvantaged students. A vegetable trader, his visionary move came at a time when such educational opportunities were the purview of the elite and Europeans.

Since then, the institute has come to be popularly known as RBANM’s after its founder, and has grown to include four schools, a pre-university college and a degree college. In keeping with the ethos of Arcot Narrainswamy, a Trust ensures underprivileged children secure not only education but also get a chance to express their creativity.

Expanding Imaginations is an exhibition of the art work by the students of RBANM’s and has been curated by Clare Arni, a British photographer who has made Bengaluru her home. Clare, who has been the head of arts programming at RBANM’s for three-and-a-half years, says, “This show is a culmination of the work I’ve been doing at the school, and includes the efforts of its students from classes seven to ten.”

From Expanding Imaginations, an art exhibition by the students of RBANM’s school
| Photo Credit:
MURALI KUMAR K / The Hindu

As part of the programme, she invites artists from various disciplines to conduct workshops for the children, including stained glass artist Asad Hajeebhoy, who taught them to fashion lightboxes from waste,and miniaturist Mithra Kamalam. Clare teaches the students photography and has designed the curriculum so that each child has one-and-a-half hours of art class a week.

Apart from artists invited from other cities and experts visiting to see the programme firsthand, others such as Bengaluru-based Paper Crane Labs, which combine science and art, also hold programmes for the students.

“There is a broad spectrum of things the children have made over the years including crafts, photography and dance videos, which they choreographed on their own, that are on display,” says Clare, adding that she collated individual art works on to larger panels in order to display the maximum number of pieces.

“When I first started working with the children, they had not studied art before as it was not part of their curriculum. What I’ve tried to do in class is to encourage individual expression and that has really grown over the years. This is reflected at Expanding Imaginations where so much variety is on display.”

From Expanding Imaginations, an art exhibition by the students of RBANM’s school
| Photo Credit:
MURALI KUMAR K / The Hindu

Clare says the artists and others working with the children would give them the basics of a craft and then allow them as much freedom as possible within its scope. “And the resulting diversity is amazing,” she adds.

This is the first time the students are exhibiting their work created over the past three-and-a-half years.

“The high point was having the children see the work they’ve created beautifully displayed in an art gallery. While they were absolutely thrilled to see their work, watching the public come in and appreciate it gave them such a boost.”

Expanding Imaginations will be on display at Sabha till September 25, from 11am till 7pm. Entry free.