Prana…Prana, Pranayama and Hanuman

Vinay Varanasi calls himself The Jack of All Trades. An architect by day, Vinay has been in the field of architectural and design education. He set up a start-up that looks into ways of adding value into the way architecture is taught. They conduct immersion programs which has been their flagship focus in terms of taking architects and designers on rural journeys, and exposing them to how our design is present in the grassroots and the complicated layers around this. Vinay also studied design education with a focus on how to design better education. Vinay does not think he is a storyteller per se, because he does not have the boxes to check, saying he has formally learned it. His strong interest in all things Puranic goes back to as long as he can remember, and I think the explanation comes in terms of both storytelling - orally and visually - comes through art. Vinay wants to create an experience for people, such that they leave with a feeling; neither they have to leave with facts nor do they have to remember anything. Vinay also writes lyrics and a few pallavis.

Vivek Sadasivam is a Carnatic singer who began learning music at the age of five under his grandfather and grand-aunt in Kolkata. He comes from the direct Shishya Parampara of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. His great-grandfather Shri Ananthakrishna Iyer learnt under Shri Ambi Dikshitar who happens to be the great grand-nephew of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. After being in Kolkata for generations, the family moved to Bangalore. Vivek continues to learn under his father and under Shri Rudrapatnam Thyagarajan and Shri Sanjay Subramanyam. Prior to taking up music full-time, Vivek pursued an engineering degree and also worked for a few years. However, he decided to dedicate himself to music thoroughly and has been performing for the past fifteen to twenty years.