G Ulaganathan By Express News Service BENGALURU: This year marks the 125th birth anniversary of spiritual thinker J Krishnamurti and as part of the celebrations, the J Krishnamurthy Foundation is organising an exhibition, The First Step Is the Last Step, for three days. It began on Friday at the Valley school, Thatguni Post, Kanakapura Road, Bengaluru. The exhibition, which opens its doors from 10 am to 5 pm every day, will pay a tribute to his life and teachings. It was earlier held in Chennai in the first week of this month and thereafter travelled to Varanasi, before culminating here. The event has been conceived and curated by KFI and envisaged by Miti Desai, a Bengaluru-based dancer and designer. According to her, ‘The First Step is the Last Step’ draws inspiration from Krishnamurti’s dialogues in which he sees the “attentive mind as being fully capable of perceiving the ‘what is’ for itself”. KFI, in collaboration with the schools run by it and the study centres, is also drawing up a number of plans throughout the year for creating an awareness of the teachings, which will include events, public talks, seminars, video screenings of his talks and dialogues, photo exhibitions, programmes to share Krishnamurti’s vision of school education, and release of new books in English and their translations in Indian languages. In Bengaluru, the exhibition will feature a curated walk, a dance performance, a concert and a talk on the spiritual leader. On Friday, the highlight was a classical dance production, ‘Roots’, which was choreographed by Bharatanatyam dancer, Bengaluru-based Chitra Chandrasekhar Dasarathy. The dancers are from her Ameya Repertory. Roots explored the deep organic resonances between nature and the people, an aspect that was close to Krishnamurti’s heart. February 29 will have a confluence of music and dance called ‘Journey with Krishnamurti and Kabir’, from 5 to 6 pm. This would be presented by the NGO Goonj and The Valley School. On March 1 at 10 am, there will be a lecture ‘My Journey with the teachings of J Krishnamurti’ by SP Kandaswamy, Secretary, KFI and at 4 pm there would be a curated walk ‘J Krishnamurti’s Philosophy - A designer’s perspective’ with designer Miti Desai to help the viewer understand the exhibition design process. KFI runs study centres in Chennai, Uttarkashi, Sahyadri, Bangalore, Rishi Valley, Mumbai, Kolkata and Cuttack. These centres reach out to schools, colleges and public through programmes. For details, reach out to office@thevalleyschool.info or +91 77601 60004/ 96062 30230.

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