My endeavor with reservation system

yeTo quote my example itself, I studied in a rural area. My school/village had only a few so-called upper caste students/teachers, and most of the 'others' were peasants.
But still the treatment meted to everyone was same. That was the basic education for me, it was a Govt. school. We were all same when came the choice of education. There was only one difference in the education facilities provided in that village. There was a different school for Urdu learning people and a normal Govt. school for all the others! For this reason I hated the Govt. much earlier then.
Then some convents opened and even Muslims started to admit their children in those schools. So another level of equality achieved.
Then we all had to join a private high school, since we didn’t have a govt school in my village back then, it was a private high school with long history and stuffs. Treatment was same there too. Everyone had his share of "matriculation" there.
But amidst all these things, Govt. used to send some kind of scholarship to SC/ST (only) students, others even if they come from peasant poor background, had to pay the fee as prescribed.
Can you think of the impact these discrimination seals on a child's ability to think?

Till then I thought we were all same and then these people are getting rewarded from the Govt for what they have not achieved (Here, the amount of scholarship becomes unimportant). The discrepancy was brought in by the Govt.
My first experience with the real caste-ism is that. When urbanars talk of caste system in rural areas they tend to generalize and say the system is too bad!! How untrue?! Not all the rural areas are same.

Long back, as far as I know, many villages accepted Gandhiji's version of looking at things, even when practicing their family traditions. It all is in the attitude of the people.
I have also been a witness to one such change. Before 1985, in our village, the scavengers were kept away from entering the temple; but it is interesting to note that people did not avoid them as being shown in movies. Even those people used to attend the school with us and teachers would not treat them any lesser!! (May be I was fortunate enough to have such teachers and all)
But later on, I have witnessed a change in that rule and the village chieftains permitting them inside the temple,

There were so many families that were poor, peasant, home less, and still wanted their children to study, but they were not from the so called SC/ST communities, so had to fund their children's education from their pockets, thus ending their dreams of seeing their children as officers :(
On the other hand, there were some SC/STs who had good cultivable lands in the village, still their children got admissions in good colleges, free of cost; of course through reservations. These children of fortune ended their studies later abruptly. It means they blocked entry for a few of other 'brighter' students, also spoiling the resource of the Govt. for a few years. How shameful.
Please note that, I've never said 'all' in any case,

Also, these reservations have helped some notorious people form groups of their own, miss lead the failed children of a 'lower' community and crying on road for every small issues so as they have to be completely taken care by Govt and they don’t have any responsibility for the society/for themselves!!
This point shows the blacker side of the reservations, I'd rather say its the achievement of reservations, apart from it, the concept has not changed anything in the society.
I rank my village chieftains way higher than the Govt itself, for their honest effort in bringing the equality in their regions.


Now, coming to the ground reality,
Reservations have failed in uplifting the reserved community's standard of living, standard of thinking.
Reservations have failed in removing the rich-poor barrier.
Reservations have created un called for barriers between the communities in the form of community groups.
Reservations have created a kind of irresponsible environment in some of the communities.
I can list so many other things....

Finally what point I wanted to make is, apart from giving some politicians a political mileage, reservations have failed out right, at least in my village and its neighborhood.
I totally oppose the reservations based on castes.

Trip to a mysterious Ganesha temple.

Ganesha is unarguably the most loved God amongst all the Gods. Shaivas, Vyshnavas, Shakthas and anyone would love to worship Ganesha. In fact, it is a mandatory that we take blessings from Ganesha before starting anything afresh. He is considered to be Vighneshwara, one who surmounts the obstacles in one’s path.

A concept of some one removing the suffering from one’s life, no wonder this God is so widely worshipped. He has a strange shape also to add to his popularity among the children. He has an elephant’s head, a big belly, a snake around his belly and happily traveling on a mouse!!

Because of our love to Ganesha, we give him all sorts of new fashionable looks like KBC Ganesha, cricketer Ganesha, Titanic Ganesha, Veerappan Ganesha… My God!! He loves to be like us all. We know he doesn’t mind our childish giggles; He always blesses us with protection, prosperity and success.

Ganesha is also a unifier..! I mean he bonds the people with an everlasting friendship. For this reason, Balagangadhar Tilak selected Ganesha chaturty to unify the disturbed Indians that proved to be a boon for the national struggle for freedom. Ganesha has helped us in times of troubles and emergency.

How about celebrating the festival by visiting a Ganesha temple? Excited with the plan? Come, I’ll take you to a lesser-known Ganesha temple this time… Yes you guessed it right, just like my previous posts, I’m taking you to a forgotten place with a huge heritage, located in Kolar district.

During Ramanavami, we went to Yeldur,
On Aug 15th we visited the martyrs of Vidurashwatha
And now, its Vinayaka chaturthi, lets go to Kurudumale and seek the blessings of the destroyer of all the evils.

Kurudumale was actually ‘Koodu-Malai’, a Tamil name meaning ‘meeting hill’. This once supposed to be a meeting place of Gods for the purpose of recreation. It’s a beautiful place with rocky hills all across and an un-attached village in between. A small village which has, like any other village in the area hard working worker-class people who strive hard for their two-meal-a day life at other’s fields. Work hard, eat well, watch a few Telugu serials and be ready for next day’s routine is the life of these people. As usual, we tend to shy away from expecting anything apart from ordinary in this kind of environment. But be prepared to get yourself treated with an unusual sight. Just at the roots of the hill there is one half constructed temple with great calmness and with highly addictive sacred vibrations.

Yes, we’ve reached Kurudumale Maha Ganapathi temple. As we enter the premises, we will be filled with a divine feeling that gives us a blessed notion. Come in…! Can you believe your eyes? It’s huge!! Bigger than our Dodda Ganesha in Basavanagudi!! It’s in fact, 18 ft in height. As huge as it gets..! Some one says, bigger is not beautiful; but here, Ganesha is beautiful, solacing, embracing, and making you forget the world. He’s our God. See he’s come to life before us…! The feeling of standing before a statue of this statute itself is a blessing!!

It’s believed that Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara, the Trimurthis, themselves installed Ganesha here to bless the land with prosperity. It’s said that the Trimurthis performed the pooja for Ganesha here as well. The belief gets life in the fact that there’s no evidence of the installer of the statue in Kurudumale.

Vijayanagara emperors built a temple around Ganesha; its evident from the construction technique and emblems embedded on the walls.

Surprisingly, this is not the end of the story here. There’s one more temple, that is of Hoysala architecture, across the road, a few furlongs afar. Biggest co-incidence is, this temple is half constructed too!!


This is Someshwara temple, with a powerful Shiva linga being worshipped daily. The temple premises also contain some ruined small shrines across the main temple body. The temple is completely in Hoysala style of construction, but there is a point to be observed. Half of the temple has carvings of one type on the walls, and the other half has carvings of another type, more sophisticated and intricate. Legend says that the former half was built by Jakanachari and the later half by Dankanachari, Jakana’s son. Mysteriously enough, there’s no proof supporting this argument. However, this temple looks beautiful and mysterious. This is an example of architectural beauty, which, our ancestors good creating at.

One major engineering marvel about this temple is that this is a temple that is carved out of stone without a foundation!! Believe me..Its true.


There is one more masterly work not to be missed in this temple, a Ganesha statue, sadly, which is in ruins today. Interesting thing about this Ganesha is that this is completely a stony miracle that is hollow inside and upon gently hitting the surface produces a kind of musical note!! Unfortunately, our people, without the knowledge of what they’re doing, spread a rumor that one who visits this temple must hit this Ganesha with stone.. and so did our poor illiterate people…and sadly we’ve lost that mega wonder just in front of us. After the loss, archeological department finally came to the rescue of this Ganesha and have now banned stoning it and have now included it in a protective cover. There cant be a better example to show how irresponsible Indians can get in saving the heritage of the country.

The whole place seems divine, beautiful and mysterious for a serious visitor like me. How did the visit feel like to you? Did you enjoy the trip?

May God Ganesha bless one and all. Happy Gowri-Ganesha festive season.

Role of Information Technology in the development of India

Recently the sensex touched 12K..! ‘How??’.
Recently US president fought his colleagues over a nuclear deal with India… WHY?!!
When Dr. Manmohan Singh visited US early this year he was treated as if he has descended from the heavens… WHY?!!
When Bill Gates visited India, he announced that he was hiring Indian graduates to work in his personal group….WHY??!!

We daily see hundreds of corruption charges against our politicians and administrators…
We daily see hundreds of protests on streets demanding for justice…
But still Indian economy is on a roll.. India Raising! How is it possible? When our administrators are selfish and corrupt, when many people are hungry and un happy… how is it that world recognizing as the most promising economy of the present day?!!

Apparently this all is because of Indian corporate raise. Indian IT engineers have done the trick for India, is said everywhere. Bangalore is termed as the next Silicon Valley. 750 million Indians are still under 35 years of age!! The youth power has given India a new identity in the world. Indian IT entrepreneurs are being recognized as most intelligent race in the world.

Friends do you also think IT has done India so good? Please post your views here. What’s the role of Information Technology in the raise of India?

Ustad for all seasons, all religions and for all minds.

Copied from RK's page :
My friend’s father had the honour of meeting the Ustad. He shares his experience thus:

One morning in the late 1980s, I had the rare honour to meet the maestro in Mumbai. He shared his approach to music thus. “I do not know where the concert is, because, for me every dais in the world is the same, because my job is only to play the Shehnai.”

“Don’t think that the Surs (notes) are mere keys or points on instruments. Each Sur is a living entity. So, the first musical note Sa has its own home. Enter that home, stay there for a few years, understand it and then open a window of the house and look out. You will notice that the second note Re has its house just next door. Observe Re while still living inside Sa for a few years and then move out to stay in Re for a few years, closed doors. After you have assimilated Re’s essence, open windows on both sides of Re’s house. You will see that the third note Ga has built a house for itself just next to the house of the note Re. From Re’s home, relate to Sa on one side and Ga on the other side and so on.. Get into this dialogue, and drink in the elixir. My dear son, that’s music and it is surely not a mission to be completed in one birth.”

His Shehnai made us realise the divinity in music. A man of all religions, he was indeed a divine soul ,yet again incarnated in India to show us that beyond all religions there are subtle and sublime things in life which can bind us together. Though he was born as a muslim, his music was apt for all religous functions of all religions.He was the Kohinoor amongst musicians and his loss is beyond descriptions by words.He has returned back to his celestial world but his music will linger for ever in our hearts.


Yes, In deed, a great gem is lost today. Its lost to some place from where we can not recover it. Well.. friends, we are talking about Ustad Bismillah Khan. His demise is a great loss to the country in particular the Indian music. Any person who enjoys music should always be greatful to the Ustad. His music is apt for every mind, every season and on every occasion.

This is a small homage to a great saint of Shehnai. Hope his soul rests in peace!!

100 Years of a heritage…….

This is the centinary year of Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Naranayanaswami, to be specific, R. K. Narayan.


R. K. Narayan is the most widely read and cherished Indian novelist in English.
He was a master story teller, who made stories out of ordinary instances. All of his stories were characterised by simplicity and gentle humor. Only few writers can bring the fiction to reality and R.K.Narayan is definitely the one.

He is unusual among Indian authors writing in English in that he has stayed contentedly in India, venturing abroad only rarely. He rarely addresses political issues or tries to explore the cutting edge of fiction. He is a traditional teller of tales, a creator of realist fiction which is often gentle, humorous, and warm rather than hard-hitting or profound. Almost all of his writings are set in the fictional city of Malgudi, and are narrowly focused on the lives of relatively humble individuals, neither extremely poor nor very rich.

Narayan lived till ninety-five, writing for more than fifty years, and publishing till he was eighty seven. He wrote fifteen novels, five volumes of short stories, a number of travelogues and collections of non-fiction, an English translation of Indian epics, and the memoir My Days.

A town called Malgudi
A railway station serves as the main entry point for the town called malgudi. It's here you could find Raju, a guide who helps you to explore this hamlet. On the way through Lawley's extension, you'll find Ananda Bhavan where you can have a sip of coffee and continue your journey. During your journey to malgudi (which in fact even God doesn't have the capability to create such an exquisite village), you'll come across the talkative man (who keeps gossiping about anything and everything), the financial expert (who earns money by providing loan and financial advice to villagers), Mr. Sampath (the owner of truth press), the English teacher and list goes endless. As you explore further, you can come across this small creature called Swami. And further, most certainly you’ll see yourself some where there.

Centenary year.
This is the centenary year of RKN’s birth. Its still not known about how the Governament plans to observe this memorable occasion. But as an admirer of RKN’s works, Mr. Chaturvedi, the Hon. Governor of Karnataka, has suggested the Railways ministry to name the Chennai-Mysore express as “Malgudi express” to honour the legend on this occasion.

As a lover of Narayan’s works, myself plan to buy all of his books this year J Yes, I really mean it. Though I’ve read most of the works of the master, I’ve read most of them by borrowing from someone/library. So, this year, as my personal homage to this legend, I’ll buy his books and read them all again(;)).
Let me also wait for Govt to declare some sort of respect to this legend of Malgudi.

Today's special

Pooor guy....

What else he can do...?!!


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Happy Raksha Bandhan!!!

Tagging game!!

Tagging in dictionary gave me the following results :
->Attach a tag or label to/
->Touch a player while he is holding the ball/
->Provide with a name or nickname/
->Go after with the intent to catch/Supply (blank verse or prose) with rhymes

I was not really interested in knowing the meaning of getting tagged until a hallucinator forced me to learn it. Who’s that? A professor?! Might be.

I was about to ask her what a tagged person does in this new on-line game, but by then a rambler asked her the same.
Well… She had replied :
>> you just copy my post, retain the words in bold, and delete the rest, and put >>in your own responses and post it on your blog. At the end, you "Tag" five >>people - it just means that they have to make the same list. That's it!
>>Of course, you are completely free to ignore the Tag too! :)

Oh! Well.. I thought of opting the obvious choice, but since its my first ever tag, changed my mind and decided trying it out myself and pass the ball to some one else, so that I might not get caught later ;) .

I’m thinking about:
the person who first thought of the internet, for without his/her ideas, we could not have found these funny games.

I said:
”I can create the world,” but no one listened.

I want to:
learn everything, absolutely everything under the Sun.

I wish:
I could turn my head 360 degrees, so that I can acknowledge every one around me.

I hear:
my friend calling out “Maga…”

I wonder:
why can’t every one think along the same lines.

I regret:
being born 50 years late, or else I’d be a part of Indian independence movement.

I am:
always happy.

I dance:
with ‘Himnnnnnnnnnnnesh’ kind of music.

I sing:
Well, they say. I’ve not felt so, so, shy away singing in public. Of cource, no practice is also a bane.

I cry:
Ganga-Kaveri when I’m told some emotional story, in a movie or through a book or....

I’m not always:
rude.

I make with my hands:
some one happy, by embrasing them.

I write:
Coz I can not be friends always.

I confuse:
the meaning of myself.

I need:
Lots of good friends and their company 24/7.

And finally:
I tag, since I read very little on-line, I’ll tag all those sites which I visit - Shruti, Sanjay, Mridula, Raj, Ajeya Rao, Glenn Richard, Bellur,
Anoop,Vikram Karve.

Remembering Independence

I was typing out about this place, just then I saw this article on http://www.ibnlive.com/!!
Just a co-incidence? really..

Yeah I was typing a post for the Independence Day spirit, the August analog of the country. My post was on a forgotten story in our history. And here, anyways, let me post it. Here it goes, the story.

As a child, while reading the history of Indian freedom movement, I always wondered what the role Kannadiga and my personal fore-fathers played in it..! I always used to quiz one elder for this. She would say something and escape, always. Her usual answer was “Elroo tumbaa galate madta idru.. navu bagilu haki kolta idvi..”[There used to be protests, but we were not bothered about it.].. very womanistic answer…

Well.. I couldn’t get much info about what I was looking into. But I didn’t stop there, kept collecting information from every one I met. Was thrilled to know one of my mother’s aunts was a satyagrahi and an active and staunch Gandhian, membered the Congress committee long back. A post on her…later.

On some other occasion, I happened to visit Gauribidanur. I was getting bored sitting at our family friend’s home. So, asked one of their children to take me out. He said, lets go to Vidurashwatha. I agreed instantly as the name of the village sounded interesting.


Yes, it lived up to my expectation, the place, Vidurashwatha. A divine feeling of sacredness can be perceived there. The name Vidurashwatha is derived from the brilliant character of Mahabharata, Vidura. It’s believed that Vidura planted a tree of his brilliance here, which grew to be a grand Ashwatha Vriksha, a male variety of Banyan kind.

Ashwatha vriksha is also called peepul, another kind of fig tree.

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Some interesting facts about the pipul tree.
1. In Puri, state of Orissa, the original image of Jagannath was found at the foot of a fig tree, in the form of an Indranila or Blue Jewel. Its blinding brightness, had prompted the deity, Dharma, to request it be hidden in the earth.
2. The peepul [also, pipul] tree under which Buddha Shakyamuni sought enlightenment, is a fig (ficus religiosa after that event) and like the banyan or nyadgrodha, it is a representative of the World Tree as axis mundi or turning point of the world. It is venerated by Hindus and Buddhists.
3. The one that is standing today in an enclosure in Bodhgaya, Bihar, India is regarded as the same one by many people. Legend has it though, that King Ashoka (3rd c. CE) cut that one down and burnt it, but that it grew back. He was so overcome that he would not return home, and so his queen arrived to do the same. Again it re-grew.
4. The leaves of this tree also symbolize compassion/love, and appear in many emblems.
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Our Vidurashwatha can also be added to the above list of Puri and Gaya banyan trees. It’s a huge and divine tree. People worship the tree, even today. There is a small temple constructed at the front root of the tree, an idol of Ashwatha Narayana swamy has been installed there.

The belief is that if someone worships Ashwatha narayana here, they will be blessed with prosperity, many childless couple goto Vidurashwatha and perform Naga prathishte to pray for the issues. And in deed, the believers say that the Tree God (Vriksha raaja) blesses every couple who performed the pooja there with intelligent children.

Well.. I was wandering along this temple space, suddenly some stone monument fell under my eyesight. I asked my friend to explain about that monument. He couldn’t, because he never bothered to see it, nor tried to learn about it.
I went there, read each and every word on that ‘stupa’, which brought tears in my eyes. I read there, the monument said, on April 25, 1938, the British cops massacred 10 villagers who were among the 100s taking out a peaceful satyagraha on that very land, for the freedom of ‘India’.

Would they be heard?! A small village in an un noticed place, would the cry of it be heard by the dynasty sitting thousands of miles away?! The satyagrahis never bothered, all they wanted was to cry out to the country that the villagers were with the Gandhian principles, and they supported the non-violent freedom movement.

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Eighty-five-year-old Narsimhaiah was one of the lucky few who escaped unhurt that fateful day.

"That day there was a meeting happening, the police asked us to go elsewhere but we didn't. It was a peaceful gathering, suddenly they started firing and we ran helter-skelter,” Narsimhaiah says.

"It is for this kind of freedom that we fought. Earlier we had to do whatever they said. Now we are free to go and do whatever we want," he says.
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That moment, history was crafted. That history, which no Indian bothered to look in to, but every one must be proud of the heritage.

That village seemed to me a deserted place, than a divine place at that moment. Vidura’s Ashwatha was forgotten, I came out of it with tears.

Where my countrymen laid their lives for the sake of the freedom that we enjoy today, but we don’t mind forgetting them?! The monument is today standing at Vidurashwatha without any one taking a good care of it.

This is supposed to be a national monument, but the fate of which is not expected to be like this. The story of Vidurashwatha martyrs is supposed to be told in the History books, alongside the Jallianwala bagh. But it is lost somewhere in the ‘itihas ke panne’.

At least after 68 years of the incident, lets pray for the martyrs and try to make use of the freedom they’ve gifted us in a better way.

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram

Religious freedom?!!, To whom?

For more, click here

T O T A L K A N N A D A D O T C O M

T O T A L K A N N A D A D O T C O M

Gabhari AagbeDi. Name is in English, but the services completely Kannada. And its not just another site on the World Wide Web, but also a store in Jayanagar, Bangalore, which offers total Kannada services to the clients. We can get here all the available Kannada books, CDs, music collection, recipes, novels, stories, poems…etc…

They sell books of greats like KuVemPu, Bendre, Tejaswi, Byrappa, Masti, Karnad and all. It’s a store by Kannadiga & for Kannadiga.

It’s a never before kind of experiment in Karnataka. Hope this store gets the much deserved support of the ‘TOTAL’ Kannada population.

Another good news is they have an online store that is meant to cater the needs of the Kannadigas away from home.

And the music store has the latest, old movie songs, devara nama, dasara padagaLu, Bhava geethe, janapada geethe, classical collection, Bhajans, Harikathe and many more Kannada collections.

Banni, nodi, enjoy madi, encourage madi… For more details click here.

Complete address :
Total Kannada Dot Com
Shop No. 4, Basement, #658-57,
Lakshmi Venkateshwara Arcade (Opposite Pai Vijay Hall)
11th Main, 33rd Cross, Jayanagar 4th Block, Bangalore – 560011
Phone : 080-41460325, Cell: 9448884373
On Web at : www.totalkannada.com, Email: somashekart@totalkannada.com


Note :
This store has also decided to donate 3% of the profits from their
Bangalore Stores for the benefit of Rural Schools in Karnataka