Bengaluru: “We don’t need to be soldiers or poets to love our country, common people can be patriots too.” That is the sentiment driving TechiesForKannada, a group of techies (as the name suggests) from MNCs in Bengaluru who have decided to do their bit towards promoting Kannada as a language.
Their song, Jagadalli yelle Hodaru, Moodada Mohaka Anubhava is a patriotic number that describes their love for Karnataka and its culture.
Their first album, Baa Sangaati, brought out under the banner of the KChords Trust, was released by Dr Sudha Murty in 2013. Their second album, Ananya Aalaapana, is slated for release on November 2.
It is the first Kannada project to be backed by an European orchestra the Czech Symphony Orchestra. “We have roped in musicians like Shaan and Sadhana Sargam, who haven't really sung much in Kannada, which is a way of exposing them to the language as well,” said Karthik Somanath, who is behind the initiative.
As Bengaluru’s IT industry has brought in people from across the country, Kannada is slowly being pushed into the background. “English and Hindi are the most common languages, even among the Kannadigas,” said Karthik Somanath.
A senior technology architect at Infosys, he has been in the IT industry for 15 years, keeping his love for music alive alongside. Soon after he finished his engineering degree, Somanath began studying music, something he wanted to do since the age of six.
“My sisters were studying Carnatic music and their teacher was a very learned man. I like to think that music found me,” he remarked. He studied light music, trained in the acoustic guitar and moved on to Carnatic and Hindustani styles.
It was after he got his first break as a composer in the Telugu music industry that he and his friend, Krishnamurthy (Kris), decided to tap into the talent in the IT industry.
They spread the news through word of mouth and applications started pouring in. Paawana Poonacha, who works with a leading IT firm in Mysore, was one of those who sent in her lyrics.
“We gelled immediately and she started sending in lyrics for our songs,” said Somanath. Dr Amrit Kaler, an assistant professor at a medical college in the city also became part of the team.
“Kannada was the common thread that held us together, so we started our TechiesForKannada initiative,” he said.
