bangalore the first day the people came in hordes just watching him work the coffee came on the second day and on the third it was time for ragi mudde young artist gautam rao predicted this would happen much before he came to bangalore from the university of pennsylvania as he stood outside the city temples streets mosques and terraces painting sometimes for hours bangalore folk would just gather and watch rao at work often indulging in friendly banter or bringing him something to eat now rao has not only become a favourite in jp nagar but he also acquired the status of a raconteur his days are filled with events and people as bright as the colours he uses when i am back home in philadelphia my paintings are an end in itself but here the people are more important than the process in bangalore i selected the places on the basis of whom i wanted to meet says the winner of the susan coslett cromwell travelling fellowship but its quite possible that not many bangaloreans would have heard of him rao who is doing his masters in fine arts has been living with his grandparents in jp nagar since the past two months his idea was to tell peoples stories through the places they live in so he decided to come to what is now known as the silicon valley of india and paint the surroundings i had been hearing the news about how the city has changed from garden city and i wanted to see how this had affected the landscape explains rao but his notions changed over time i thought there might have been a radical change but i found that the change was isolated to some areas it was gradual and not so farreaching many places have still remained untouched says the 23yearold artist as he paints a tiny kaka shop in the premises of a temple most of his paintings were of places near his house i would just walk around in different directions everyday and then set up at a spot that i wanted to paint and its never a dull moment he laughs as he indicates towards the crowd of people that have gathered around him luckily for him rao speaks working kannada so that gets the point across people are always curious and yes things will get comparatively dull when i go back he adds rao has also put down his experiences in writing one particular incident deserves mention painting outside has acquainted me with the vagaries of bangalore weather and it was during a sudden evening downpour that i realised the lengths that bangaloreans will go to be generous as the sheets of rain came down i attempted to continue painting a small boy rain out of his house with an umbrella and much to my surprise he held it over me till the downpour ceased so that i could paint uninterrupted when he goes back rao plans to have