Knowing about the Kannada author Nemichandra

It’s always interesting to know about the history behind places you see everyday. ‘Multiple City’ helped me understand some such things about Bangalore/Bengaluru. I’d prefer to call that – ‘common man’s history’. I don’t want to bother myself about the societal impact such studies have, though. I just enjoy reading and understanding the past and present of common people, their lifestyles then and now. I am not interested on pontifying about the benefits of reading such accounts either

Coming to the point, I’d been to ‘Woody’s’ in Jayanagar, just few weeks ago. Little did I imagine that I’d be reading the story behind that location so soon. The essay which told me this story is – “In Search of the star of David” by Nemichandra, in the collection – ‘Multiple City‘. Woody’s was actually the place where the oldest jewish family of Bangalore’s family shoe store once stood!

First, I got curious about the topic of the essay. Towards the end, I got curious about the author herself. Googling over her name, I found out that she is an active writer as well as an Engineer who works for HAL. I fall in love with such multifaceted people instantly :p Having parallel careers in different fields – is something that I admire a lot in some people. If the concerned person is a woman, I admire her even more. So, here I am, despite not having read anything about Nemichandra, having read only a single essay by her – I am already curious about her writings and herself!