Avalokana - A retrospect

All, have a blast this new-year’s day and achieve wonders thru the coming year :).

2006 was really an eventful year for me.

I have to categorize the year based on three different aspects... Personal, Friends and Family.

On Personal grounds, it was fabulous. I experienced Bellari (Hampi) summer, a monsoon trek in Agumbe and Sringeri, a winter trek at Sharavati valley.
Here and there, I did a Hyderabad, Davanagere, Gorur and Mysore trips. Had been on a few short bike rides too. In all, it was personally a fantastic tour-filled year for me personally. Also, this is the year I was introduced to the world of blogging and I started my own blog. I can’t write more about it. I re-started my music classes and visited a few places where my visit mattered to a certain extent (About it sometimes later).

My friends.. The year where my friend circle grew, just from my school friends, college friends, hostel friends, now I have a very intellectual MB friends!! Meeting them all had been a fantastic and thrilling thing I experienced in 2006. Ranganathittu trip was an added feather to it :)
Apart from it, a few of my friends got married this year. Two got engaged and three got married in the same calendar year. And I attended all of them, so, cant ask for more, isn’t it. It was a wonderfully threaded(!) year for my friends. Also, how can I not mention about those wonderful gifts a few of my friends got in the form of babies. Yes, a few became proud parents.

For my family, it was a fabulous year, we had our own house constructed and shifted there in Feb2006! we shifted off from our native to Bangalore, our scattered family in re-union! We had a family trip to a mutt called Swarnavalli near Sirsi in 2006 for one uncle's Shashtyabdi. It was a fantastic experience again.

2006 had its lowly moments for me as well. My father met with a small accident and had to undergo a surgery. That ended being strenuous and pressure some period for us.

It had another ugly face, my Dodamma succumbing to the deadly diabetic related ill ness. She was a wonderful musician and it is an unfortunate thing for us to lose her.

In all, 2006 had its share of good, bad and ugly moments for me. It also had better and best moments.

So, I must rate this year among one of the best ones for me, considering all the fun and events.

Happy new year!!

Indian reply..."TIT FOR TAT" with a difference!!

This is Sreesanth, of India, responding to Andre (the Giant) Nel of South Africa by scoring a six.

Disclaimer :
I try very hard to be away from cricket, not to watch it, not to talk about it and not to discuss about it. But, I admit that I fail very miserably, like this.
So... forget about all those said in many of the previous posts, or may be thats how a fan behaves at glory and at lowly times. :-)

Whatever it is, the moment, displayed above, has brought out loud laughters in all the Indian cricket fans, and also a sort of relief and pride. And I guess you guys agree with me. This picture will be etched for a long time to come in the minds of Indian cricket followers.

Hearty congratulations to our cricket team on their wonderful, historic victory on the South African soil.

Iqbal Part II

A poor family..

All it needed was Roti kapda makaan.....

Family shifted to PUOUKKOTTAI in search of the same.

Father started to work as a brick slain worker in some construction company…

Mother working as a maid in some household….

Family was blessed with a daughter…..And the family cursed God for giving her a girl….

They all ate ganji..(last resort of a food, prepared by water and a little bit of salt and rice grams)

They couldn’t afford to get her to the school…….

A few athletes spot the child and coach her to run fast and smart….

She learns to run and wins hearts…..

She wins at state level national level events…

Selected to represent the country at international level…

Wins a place in finals at Asian games 800 mts running….

Steps back for the lack of sponsores….

Some brave hearts from home town sponsor for her practice and her track suits…

Steps in for the country with renewed hope and aspirations………

Secures second place, beating a whole lot of acclaimed international athletes……..

And thus starts the career of one of the up-coming Indian athletes..
A girl from a poor background making it big at an inter-national compitition of huge importance………

One word that can sum-up the story… : INCREDIBLE!!
And this lady is 25 year old SOUNDARAJAN SANTI.

She has made India proud with her brilliant performance.

Her brief profile is here :

Name SOUNDARAJAN Santhi
Country India
Date of Birth 17 APR 1981
Gender Female
Height 161cm Weight 54kg
Discipline Athletics
Residence PUOUKKOTTAI


And why am I telling you this story??
Yes, its the way India glows and its the way Indians par!!
Everyone can become Santi and every child in India has that zeal in him to make India proud.
And it shows India has something outside cricket

UPDATE :
Shanti failed the gender test. This is a highly disgracing and emberrasing news that one can hear. At once I thought of deleting the post, but finally decided to keep it as I feel this would be a good lesson to others practicing such. This might be a story of other Shanti who really achieved glory. Let me keep the post and all the comments. Thanks to everyone for dropping by the post.

A stranger that was not

She was a total stranger before I got in to the bus, but during that hour long journey, she became my closest friend, my sweetheart.

I dont know where she lives now, but I will always have this picture as a reminder of that beautiful moment.

I also gifted her a red rose ;)

She smiled as I entered the bus, then I requested her to sit with me for the rest of the journey and she did. She talked to me so many things, half of which I did not understand, and half of which her expression alone explained me.

However, I don't know why I am writing it here, or why should I share it with you people, but I couldnt resist when I was having a look at the picture I took with her.

So... here is her picture!!

MukthabaLaga!!

Now, people..!
You know, I know..and all the frequenters at Mukthabalaga know about the screen above. Due to some bug in some code of wordpress plugin, sanjay's blog behaves weird sometimes.

And you know..we being so much addicted to it, have no option but to get frustrated looking at it, curse it and click on refresh with a ray of hope.
We are, by now, almost used to all the Hmmmmms.....Grrrrrrrrrs etc... with this weird screen.

I, as always, had a weird thought of making this screen my next blog item, and here it is... :)

And one more thing...If u get that screen again on mukthabalaga, feel free to come here and continue with the wonderful discussion that is going on. This is also wrt some of the members suggesting one of the other bloggers having a back-up page somewhere so that no one needs to feel lost in the hucks of hues or wherever...

Aa yaa India.....!!

I watched the brilliance of Dhoni as a keeper to get Hall run out, cheating him to get the wickets down.
I watched the opposition batsmen struggling to hit the boundaries in the last over.
I was pretty impressed!!

Then I continued to be hooked to the channel, in spite of constant pressures from mother to shift to her favourite serial.
I watched Indian batsmen stumbling…still continued with it…
It was getting late at night…I chose to watch it completely….
I knew that off late they have been playing pathetically, but still had some hope of a turnaround…

Wickets fell like the drops of a monsoon rain..sudden and in a flash.
It seemed as if they were in competition to get back to the pavilion faster….
Dhoni hit a six..and another boundary..I was cheerful..
I was struggling to be awake…Rubbing my eyes....
I knew I had to get up early for my daily exercise…I still chose to watch it..

There again started the competition…One fell..after another…
Tried to keep my eyes open, but couldn’t do it…and so because of my spirit of watching the game dying.

It was past 1AM the next day and I had to call it quits.. And yeah I did; realizing I must be up at 5AM again.

Morning 5AM, my alarm rang, I stopped it and said oh! Not so sooon, and slept back.
When I looked at my watch it was 7:30 already…and time to rush for the work…
Blamed myself for being lazy and headed for the wash.



Now…when I usually get up late…I behave so crazy that I end up spending twice the amount of time for doing same thing than a normal day…and a being of dullness…oh! That’s disgusting…
So one full day wasted!!

When I think of it all….I sacrificed my good sleep….I sacrificed my early morning Jog…I sacrificed my music practice…I sacrificed my whole day’s active being…and so on… One day of mine is sacrificed for the team that didn’t do well..And I'm sure that there are millions who would’ve done the same across the country…Millions of days wasted…!

After all these, there's one un-answered question :
Is our cricket team really worth our sacrifices??

A few habitually superstitious moments!!

Narayana Murthy started watching the cricket match. He saw Indian wickets stumbling against Pakistan. Fed up, he went in and slept. Morning he grabbed the newspaper with a coffee. He was surprised to learn about the Indian victory the previous night. Analytical as he is, tried to find out the reason for this fortune turnaround. He found none. He declared in a press meet, which he attended that day, that because he did not watch the later part of the match, Indian team got all the luck that was required and he declared that India wins every time he stops following the match after a while. No one knew that winning a cricket match was as easy as that!!

My classmate, she always used to stand first in my class, every semester. Once, probably in 6th semester, that day we had received the previous semester’s results. She had topped again. We all started hunting for her to pass our congratulations. She was not to be found anywhere. When enquired with her roommates also we didn’t get to know about her whereabouts. She was seen in the college previous day, but was not present on that result day. It was late in the evening; she came rushing to the college, to see her results on the notice board. I spotted her then, congratulated and asked her about her whereabouts from morning. She told me, “I get weird results when I see it with a different pair of dress. I learnt in the morning about the result being displayed today and also I realised that I had left this dress at home. So rushed home and got it to see the result.” Would the result be different had she been wearing a different set of dress that day?

When Ganguly got out that day, he could not believe India was loosing again on a big final match. Having played excellently throughout the tournament, he was a bit disappointed. He sat on the couch in the player’s lounge thinking about this particular set back for his team. He had his T-shirt removed in a relaxing way. As soon as he removed his shirt, he saw kaif getting a hit to the fence. He sat there itself, in the same posture for next few minutes. Yavraj also started getting runs, both of them playing incredibly well. Someone asked Ganguly to meet a visitor. He refused to get up. He didn’t want to move because had he moved an inch from that place, his team would get unlucky and loose the game out. He refused even to wear the shirt. He remained in the same posture until his team won. He thought he brought good luck to the team by sitting on that couch bare-chested. Wouldn’t have India won had he gone out to meet his visitor or had he worn the T-shirt?

One of my friends bought a particular shirt to be worn for the final round of the interviews at a big company. He was wearing it on that day, but was rejected later by that MNC. Disappointed, he attended another big interview a few days later. He wore the same shirt in that interview as well. But unfortunately he was not selected that too. Next thing he did was to change his business attire and that particular shirt which was bought a few days back was thrown out of his house. And yes, he got a job at the next interview he attended!! This attire change brought him any luck?

I had to call up one of my friends, dialed his number on my mobile, but got connected to a wrong number. The guy who was on the other side of the phone was a fresher giving some interviews it seems. As I got a hint that I was speaking to a stranger, I was getting ready to hang the call. Same time, he said, “Please hold Sir! I’m getting another call.” He put me on hold and started conversing on the other call. Annoyed, I hung it. Soon, 5 minutes later, he called me and said, “Hey! You proved me lucky man. I got the job!! I’ll give you a big party.” And then we became friends. Would he have not got the job, hadn’t I got the wrong connection?

I used a particular pen, gifted by one of my uncles, when I was in school, to write my exams, any exam. I used the same pen for my 10th, II PU, all the eight semesters of my engineering. I cleared all these in flying colours. I was so fond of that pen, for all these reasons. I would take it out of my bag only for the exams. One day after my 8th semester exam, I was displaying it to my friends with an unprofaned pride and was telling them all the stories associated with my little wonder. Then, while handing it to one of them, it fell down and broke. My treasure lost forever. That day was gloomy for me of course; but gloomier, that day was, when I had my GATE exams. I cleared that exam, but not with flying colours which was required in it. I missed my long-served mate that day very badly. Was he to do anything in my GATE exams?

These things are just about a few of the experiences of superstition I’ve come across. Of course there are loads of such examples, I’m sure.
Are we really DUMB to follow anything so faithfully like these? Or is it just COOL to be following some ritual like these? Or is it an inherent fear in each individual that makes us follow something superstitiously? Or is there anything that makes us US, only if, we follow something special like that?

No answer can be found for these things. We follow something blindly and having a complete faith in that exercise that it’d bring us good LUCK is a mystery that has stood out of unraveling path.

I think superstitions make us disciplined being. We draw a virtual boundary around us with superstitions, if we follow it, be in this boundary, we’ll be contended about our work. If we try outside the box of our superstition and fail at the first effort itself, we start blaming ourselves for going out of our boundary. Isn’t it true practically?

If a hotel has seen more number of suicidal deaths in one particular room, does it have anything to do with it being numbered 13?

This particular theory haunts even the most educated, belonging to any faith, caste, culture. There’s no difference between an atheist and a theist in observing a superstition in individual terms. It changes from one individual to another. A followed superstition may not be same in case of two individuals. Some people just follow what their elders tell them superstitiously, some others don’t listen to their elders, just frame their own superstitions. It is actually a complex psychological construct that determines our superstition levels. And it purely depends on the individual tastes.

Let me here not put my own ideas whether following a superstition is good or not. Let us discuss more about such experiences than debate whether it is good or not. Let’s just share our experiences and have fun.

A nice thought for today

There are those who do not realize
that one day we all must die.
But those who do realize this
settle their quarrels.

- Budha

Living perplexed with a news

One fine morning I got up from bed, late. It was a Monday morning and already the ‘Blues started haunting me.

Without even making the bed, I grabbed the newspaper, anticipating some holiday announcement. Father shouted, “Wash your face, make your bed and then read it, it’s all the same you know, nothing new or nothing special.” With no mood to say a word in reverse to him, I went in reluctantly, finished my morning duties and came back to see if some politician is dead or if some terrorist planted a bomb in my office or something like that… but to my surcprise I read the following news : “A software Engineer was riding a two wheeler without wearing a helmet on the Ring Road and ended hitting the median. Bleeding through the head, he died on spot.” I thought, ‘Oh! You poor creature! Why did you first of all travel to work on a Sunday of all the days’ and continued reading.

The paper read the poor creature’s name as Srikanth P. I was horrified! I rubbed my eyes yet again, and read. I was not wrong, it was the same name. I screamed loud. Father came back, “Oh! Are you not up still? What’s that noise?” ‘Oh! Me.. He can hear me! But what’s written here?!’ I was perplexed at what I was reading and could not believe that I was dead!!

A sense of freedom erupted in me. I was now free to do anything, no need to go to office, no need to have my morning coffee and perform all those idiocy. I could now run over the Bangalore traffic with no one noticing me! I need not pay fine for breaking a rule, I can speak to those whom I love in the ‘Sixth sense’ type and have fun all alone… ‘Oh! Why no one can be so fortunate like me….’!

Then there came the voice “What did I tell you yesterday? I asked you to bring some vegetables from the market on your way back. How could you forget?” It was my Mother asking a reason for my failing the duty…. How could I explain her that I was no more a mortal and no food would ever be needed by me..! Pity of her…she still thinks I’m to follow what she tells me… I am no more entitled to any such harsh words, even from my Mother. I tried the ‘Gayab’ style, tried to elope into the wind, but could not, so had to answer my Mother. I thought I was still an amateur and so that art(of eloping) would be embracing me in some time, after much practice.

Then I got a weird thought, how if I meet a girl who is also dead. Oh! Ours would be a beautiful life together..!

I thought someone was pushing me hard from my back, turned and found my sister bating me for not having the coffee that was getting cold. ‘You fool!! I no more need your dirty coffee, I have my life open, lively and lovely! How would you know? Poor fellow.’ I wanted to tell her, but didn’t for reasons that she would get angered early morning and all that.

But then my mobile started ringing, all three at home started abusing me for wasting the morning idly and asked me to pick the call up. My sister peeked in to see who was on line. I was wondering what is it all, the ‘dead’ life, about? Why should I pick the call? She was holding her coffee that incidentally touched me. I felt something hot scratching my arm and cried ‘Ah! What’s that?’ She said, “Your BOSS on line, tell him that you’re still on bed dreaming!!” I picked the call, he asked me to come fast to the office so that I’d be in time to attend the phone-in conference. Suddenly I was on my toes and got ready and started to the office. I forgot that I was dead and all.

But when I was about to put on my helmet, I remembered the news item….and started with flash back. ‘I was not attending office yesterday at the first place, and moreover, to reach my office, I need not take the ring road, and of all, I never travel without a helmet’!!

I went in again and snatched the newspaper from my sister and read the news item again. It clearly said that the guy called Srikanth P was a native of Andhra Pradesh and worked with some company in White field, and was much elder in age to me…!

“Uffff! I’m alive…”

P.S. I pray in God that the other Srikanth P’s soul be rest in Peace.

Suvarna Sambhrama in Suvarna Karnataka

Here are a few wonderful postcards from Karnataka. Most of the pictures are taken from my hands.

I am really glad to announce that This is my 50th post. A mile-stone achieved!!
Its more heartening to see it coming on the 50th anniversary of formation of Karnataka.
"Suvarna Sambhrama on Suvarna Kannada Rajyotsava in Suvarna Karnataka"!
What a clever co-incidence!!

"EE PATRAVANNU ODUTTIRUVA YELLARIGOO SUVARNA KANNADA RAJYOTSAVADA SHUBHASHAYAGALU".

ಕನ್ನಡ ಡಿಂಡಿಮ

ಬಾರಿಸು ಕನ್ನಡ ಡಿಂಡಿಮವಾ
ಓ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಹೃದಯ ಶಿವ

ಸತ್ತಾಂತಿಹರನ್ನು ಬಡಿದೆಚ್ಚರಿಸು
ಕಚ್ಚಾಡುವರನು ಕೊಡಿಸಿ ಒಲಿಸು
ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಯ ಕಿಚ್ಚಿಗೆ ಕಣ್ಣೀರ್ ಸುರಿಸು
ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಬಾಳುವ ತೆರದಲಿ ಹರಸು

ಕ್ಷಯಿಸೆ ಶಿವೇತರ ಕೃತಿ ಕೃತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ
ಮೊಡಲಿ ಮಂಗಳ ಮತಿ ಮತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ
ಕವಿ ಋಷಿ ಸಂತರ ಆದರ್ಶದಲಿ
ಸರ್ವೋದಯವಾಗಲಿ ಸರ್ವರಲಿ

ಕುವೆಂಪು

ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ

ಜೋಗದ ಸಿರಿ ಬೆಳಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ
ತುಂಗೆಯಾ ತೇನೆ ಬಾಳುಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ
ಸಹ್ಯಾದ್ರಿಯ ಲೋಹದದಿರ
ಉತ್ತುಂಗಡ ನಿಲುಕಿನಲಿ
ನಿತ್ಯ ಹರಿದ್ವರ್ಣ ವನದ
ತೇಗ ಗಂಧ ತಾರುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ
ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ ತಾಯೇ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ
ನಿನಗೆ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ
ತಾಯೇ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ

ಇತಿಹಾಸದ ಹಿಮದಲ್ಲಿನ ಸಿಂಹಾಸನ ಮಲೆಯಲಿ
ಗತ ಸಾಹಸ ಸಾರುತಿರುವ ಶಾಸನಗಳ ಸಾಲಿನಲಿ
ಓಲೆಗರಿಯ ಸಿರಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ದೇಗುಲಗಳ ಭಿತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ
ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ ತಾಯೇ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ

ಹಲವೆನ್ನದ ಹಿರಿಮೆಯೇ ಕುಲವೆನ್ನದ ಗರಿಮೆಯೇ
ಸದ್ವಿಕಾಸಶೀಲ ನುಡಿಯ ಲೋಕವೃತ ಸೀಮೆಯೇ
ಈ ವಾತ್ಸರ ನಿರ್ಮಾತ್ಸರ ಮನದುದಾರ ಮಹಿಮೆಯೇ
ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ ತಾಯೇ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ
ನಿನಗೆ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ
ತಾಯೇ ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ

K S ನಿಸಾರ್ ಅಹ್ಮದ್.

ಕನ್ನಡವೀೆ ಸತ್ಯ ಕನ್ನಡವೀೆ ನಿತ್ಯ.

ದೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ತೋಡು ಇಂದೀೆ
ಕಂಕಣ ಕಟ್ಟಿಂದೆೀ
ಕನ್ನಡ ನಾಡೊಂದೇ
ಎಂದೆಂದಿಗೂ ತಾನೊಂದೇ

ನೃಪತುಂಗ ನ ದೊರೆಮುಡಿ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ
ಪಂಪ ನ ಪದ ಧೂಳಿಯ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ
ಕೂಡಲ ಸಂಗಮ ನೆಡ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ
ಗದುಗಿನ ಕಲಿ ವೀರನೆ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ

ಇಡು ಕಾವೇರಿಯ ಮೇಲಾಣೆ
ಇಡು ಸಹ್ಯಾದ್ರಿಯ ಮೇಲಾಣೆ
ಇಡು ಚಾಮುಂದಿಯ ಮೇಲಾಣೆ
ಇಡು ಗೊಮ್ಮತ ಗುರು ದೆವ್ರಾಣೆ

ಕಾಣಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವ್ಯೊಮಾಕ್ಷಿ
ನಿಲ್ಲಲಿ ರವಿಚಂದ್ರರ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ
ಎಳಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ಪಶು ಪಕ್ಷಿ
ಸರ್ವ ದೇವಗೂ ಅವ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ

ದೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ತೋಡು ಇಂದೀೆ
ಕಂಕಣ ಕಟ್ಟಿಂದೆೀ
ಕನ್ನಡ ನಾಡೊಂದೇ
ಎಂದೆಂದಿಗೂ ತಾನೊಂದೇ

ಕುವೆಂಪು

She's looking at me!!

Festival of lights..

Deepawali is a festival of spirit...
Deepavali is a festival of joy.....
Deepavali is a festival of songs.....
Deepavali is a festival of virtues.....
Deepavali is a festival of celebration.....
Deepavali is a festival of humbleness.....
Deepavali is a festival of re-union.....
Deepavali is a festival of thanksgiving.....
Deepavali is a festival for worshipping.....
Deepavali is a festival for friends.....
Deepavali is a festival for forgetting everything else in the world.....
Deepavali is a festival of LIGHTS.....

Here are two kinds of beautiful thoughts for the festival of lights :


1. Lead Kindly Light

**********************************
2. Allow Your Own Inner Light to Guide You

There comes a time when you must stand alone.

You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your own dreams.

You must be willing to make sacrifices.

You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities so that your final goal can be achieved.

Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged.

There are times when you must take a few extra chances and create your own realities.

Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better.

Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by.

Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life.

Don't stand in someone else's shadow when it's your sunlight that should lead the way.
**********************

These good thoughts for the festival of lights was sent by one of my friends through mail.


Wish everyone a grand, prosperous and happy Deepawali.

Janapada Jatre

In our village, there was a real huge tamarind tree just behind our house. It was so big that during summers, when it fruited, some ten-fifteen people would take 2-3 days to pluck them from this tree. I would wait eagerly for this part of the year because, those people would sing songs when they did their work! Amazing!!

I was not able to get the exact words, but the rhythm in those un-heard songs would make a grand impression up on me. This was a regular happening when I was a school going, probably in the late 80s or early90s. I would've heard them sing these folklore for probably three consecutive years, but later, sure there were tamarind pluckers, but there was no music, they would just chat while doing work, to my disappointment. I kept asking my mother why they wont sing, she had no visible answer, but would soften me by saying next year they would definitely do it. But that next year never came. I also realised that those songs were on the extinct way. The songs the villagers sung, was not written anywhere. It was not taught in any school either. Still, they had some nice essence about them; those songs would make any dull day bright. The tiresome long days at physical work of those tamarind pluckers would be well forgotten. I am eagerly waiting for those songs, somewhere...somehow...I might get them back!!

That day, probably, has come back. In an effort to bring the folklore to the city, the Karnataka Govt. recently organised a "Janapada Jatre"(FOLK FESTIVAL) in Bangalore. The tamarind plucking songs might not be back, but the essence and the feel of it would. In this way, this Jatre is really welcome.

Oh! How I miss those wonderful rhythmic songs!!

P.S. Follow the link to see some brilliant pictures of the event Courtesy Mr. Prashant Reddy.

Tracing the foot steps of the master in Malgudi.....

Recently, I visited Malgudi. I stayed there for a few days. "My days" in Malgudi started with cricket. "Swami and Friends" played with me. After the cricket, I was walking down the "Lawley Road" towards the "Boardless hotel" when I met "Mr. Sampath". He was doing fine. Now a days the "Boardless Hotel" has "The Dark Room" which had captivated "A Tiger" sometimes back. This tiger was "The Man-Eater of Malgudi", whom the "Talkative Man" killed on "An Astrologer's Day". I met "The Guide" in the hotel who then took me to "The astrologer" who was sitting "Under the Banyan Tree", who told me that he was going to shift to some other profession from "Next Sunday". I also saw "A Horse and Two Goats" besides him. I had a small nap on the bank of "Sarayu" river, which was all "The World of Nagaraj". Here I dreamt of roaming on "The Emerald Route". I spoke to "Raju, The Guide" about it, who then remembered his "Grandmother's Tales" which also had similar stories! Then I met "The Vendor of Sweets" who was renovating his shop, had "Painter of Signs" working for him that day. He was very particular about the Indian tri-colour be painted on the board. I visited "the temple" and came out, I found my chappal worn on one side. I got it repaired from "The Cobbler" who sat next to the temple, under the shade of the tree. When I was getting my foot-wear done, I saw "the beggar" approaching me, and I gave him a coin. As I was roaming on the street, there I saw "Leela" waving her little hand at me. I played with her for some time and then looked at the next compound where the "Margosa tree" had been grown to be three times bigger than my last visit! Then I saw "Eshwar", who sat in the far-off corner of the "Ellaman Street" and dreamt of passing "The Bachelor of Arts" exams. Finally there came "The English Teacher" walking on with "The Doctor Raman", "Gopal" was on the other side of the doctor. They were all heading to the garden off the "Kabir Street". I wished all of them happy time. There came "Talkative Man" again. He said there was a warning about "Cyclone" in "Dodu". I travelled in the taxi to the other end of Malgudi to "Palace Talkies" to watch a Tamil movie. I saw "Mr Lawley"'s statue being re-instated by the corporation, and also observed the "Road Roller" being removed from the ground. On my way back to "Elma Road", I saw "Margayya" busy sharing his "Financial Expert"ise in front of "the bank". "Railway station" was not crowded this time, so I could talk to the "Railway Master" without any hicups. But the "Market road" was much crowded than ever. I was walking back to "Lawley Road" when I met "The Post Man", and had a casual chat with him. I also saw "The Watchman". He was again into creating the clay articles with his bare hands. There was that little "Naga" playing with the snake. This time I walked past the "Nallappa's Grove" to the "Untouchables" colony where people were "Waiting for the Mahatma" to come and reside there. After meeting all these people, I was reluctant to come back. This is "The world of Malgudi" for me. But I had no choice this time. I again had a cup of coffee at "The Boardless" and boarded my train at "The railway station" reading my "Dateless Diary".

Some writeups from the fans of RKN :
1. My tribute to RK Narayan
2. Great tribute from the biggest of the fans of RKN
3. 100 simple years
4. RKN Smriti
5. RKN on Rediff
6. Hindu's tribute

And here the legendary Indian writers group up for RKN
1. V S Naipaul
2. Shashi Tharoor
3. Jhumpa Lahiri

Many more links are there, please provide the same if you have any.

Mercy upon one kills the nation as a whole!!

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, “I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, all quarrel with one another. They haven't the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Shiva and the Primal Shakti, and that it is He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. "There is only one Rama and He has a thousand names.” Truth is one; it is only called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the disagreement is due to differences in climate, temperament, and names. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart.”

How simply he suggests one and the only solution to most of the problems the world is facing today!! Don’t you think leaving a human being to behave himself would solve our daily quarrels? And after all, we quarrel for a Ayodhya, we quarrel for a Baba Budan Giri, we go to the extent of killing some people in the name of God (!), we pelt stones at a worshipping ceremony, we kill a person just because he doesn’t worship some one whom I do. What a pitiful situation! What a barbaric state of mind we are in today!!

Having said that, how should a civilized society behave when someone tries to go beyond all the boundaries of civilization to spread a word that his God is great or something like that? Do we treat him in the same manner as he did to others in the society? Or do we say he is innocent, or do we forgive him?

As an answer, Bhagawan Buddha unravels the following wisdom:
“May all creatures, all living things,
all beings one and all,
experience good fortune only.
May they not fall into harm.”
And yes!! Thus we should not allow a person to teach hatred among the people thriving for the only one-ness. How should we handle such a person? We should stop such people from preaching the “unessential” to be the “essential”, “heedlessness” to be the “heedfulness” in life.
Buddha also enlightens us with following words :
“The worse of the two is he
who, when abused, retaliates.
One who does not retaliate
wins a battle hard to win.”And Jesus asked the people : “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”!! Which meant no one is without a sin, no one is without suffering.

Does it means we must ‘pardon’ that person who does the un-lawful or do we have to keep quiet when some-one is calling us to fight a battle? Answer is a plain NO.

Srikrishna Bhagavan in Bhagavadgeeta interprets, We must not keep an eye on the out-come(PHALA) of an event, we just have a task to conclude(KARMA) and that we should concentrate on!!

Keeping all these things in mind, one can conclude that if a person offends the social harmony, such person is punishable according to the rule of Karma. If we do not punish him, there is either of the following two out-comes
· One is an emotional and social change, which changes the way that person thinks and those supporting him too will change to be good.
· On the other hand, this forced ‘mercy’ shows the cowardice of the law of the land, and thus it prompts other people with similar criminal inclinations to indulge in such a heinous activity. This seems to be more dangerous and derogating to the whole social set-up of the society.

So, friends, lets take an example and try to implement all these knowledge upon it, The case of Afzal Guroo.
· He is the person who is proved to have been masterminded the attack on Indian parliament. Parliament is the heart of Indian democracy, which is fancied for over a half century and taken pride in by every Indian. So, by putting this attack in action, he has committed a heinous crime of mockery-ing the pride of a nation.
· When the parliament was attacked, some of the security personnel guarding the Indian constitutional symbol were killed, 7 of them in total. This means he has taken the lives of 7 people for granted and has written a deadly-fate for them himself. He is at false for committing the murder of human beings against the nature.
· He did all these things in the name of a religion, in the intent of declaring ‘his God’ the biggest God of all, which must be condemned in any case.
· He masterminded the attack and executed it thru some of his followers (resulting in their deaths too), whom he preached all hatred for other Gods and other people in the same society, which is more serious and ill willed.

The Four major points I put here are enough to conclude that this person has no reason to be ‘pardoned’; we can ‘forgive’ him for all his crimes and pray in God not to punish him, however, if he is allowed to roam freely again in the society, then he would fill few more young minds with hatred and influence them to wage a war against the nation and resulting in spoiling many more families!! Should this be allowed? This decision is pending with the President now. He has the duty upon him to take all the right decision to Hang Afzal Guroo or to pardon him and be a cause for the birth of hundred such Guroos.

Lets wait and see if Mercy Cures or if Mercy Kills. I strongly feel showing mercy to one such individual would be a bane for crores of people, but whereas by showing mercy on crores of people, if one Afzal Guroo is hanged to death, then hundreds of such Guroos would be destroyed and taken off guard.

It would be Merciful on our behalf to hang him, than leave him off freely for all his wrong doings and ill wills. We should hang him not because he indulged in clear mockery of Indian democratic credentials, but because he preached hatred among the Indian youth. Everyone must fight this battle of good over evil in a very broad and indigenous sense.

WHO AM I

Here I am. Take a guess and find me out!!
I here give you three clues :
1. I am a Sardar.
2. Today(27/09) is my birthday.
3. Above pic was taken when I was 17 years old, I was at Amritsar, and I was the editor of two dailies, one in Punjabi and another in Urdu.

Now tell me WHO I AM, before wishing me a happy birthday!!!!!

TO BE ALIVE WE NEED FRIENDS

The following is an old mail written by me to revive a dead group.
I shall describe the situation as follows…. A group was formed as soon as we finished the college, and as usual in the beginning there was so much enthusiasm and JOSH, which eventually faded and everyone got busy with their own lives..some got married, some went abroad, some to study, some to job. Each went on busy in finding answer to who and what everything….

In this situation, had some one reminded us there were better things to make us happy, those things seem small, but they really do make us forget everything and gives us an immense sense of pleasure and gay……. It happened one day to me at my office, a lost friend came to visit me!! I became so happy at this re-union which then I shared my pleasure with all at the said forum, which revived the group and made it lively again…. The following is the mail…

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Well friends,
Here is a story that I would like to share with my so called friends...

There are times when we are happy and there are some when we are still learning to be so, Read it even when u don’t have time for it... ITS AN ORDER.

He was a person who believed in sharing and caring. He wanted to be with all his friends thought his life. He stayed with them all for four years when studying, at a hostel. He enjoyed each and every moment of the life with friends. It was a real Heaven for him, those years.

But the reality was a bit harsher on him. All of his friends left him alone in search of their destinies, better money and other things. He was also carried away with his work, studies and other personal things. He was now all alone to face the life, deriving strength day by day in growing alone. He thought that was life, no sharing and no caring!!!!

He also thought Whatever he earned was his and he need not care for others, Life was just get-up, go to work, get-back home late night, eat if wanted, sleep, get-up...... A routine, like the programs he write. He had no idea of how insecure his life was getting before him; he had no time to think apart from work!!!!!

One bright day he was again busy with what he always did, the same old art of introducing bugs (called coding)... He was told that he had a visitor waiting for him. He guessed it would be some bank guy asking for a loan or credit card, but with whom he saw there... he was suddenly brought down to earth, and was reminded that he had so many better things to think of!!!

It was one of his friends from college, with whom he had spent some of his life's invaluable years. Other guy was also in a similar situation, paid this visit on work, and suddenly bringing happiness to both of them. It was the first time that they both met after the college, in so many years!!! And this guy had not even visited his old friend on his wedding day!!

Lack of interest??? Really no time?? CHOLESTEROL??

This visit made him remember his old friends, reminded him of his old days...
This visit brought happiness to both of them.
They chatted, exchanged their experiences, ate together, joked of each other's appearances, cursed themselves for being not being kept in touch...
And most importantly, PROMISSED TO BE FRIENDS FOR LIFE, this time REAL FRIENDS!!!!

And there ends the story...

Now friends, tell me u want to be like this guy, keeping busy even when he was not so... avoiding friends when he could have easily stayed in touch,

I feel we all want good friends, not merely for enjoyment, not also for the heck of having some, not also for help when needed, but 'TO BE ALIVE' we need friends, We need them to share our happiness and also sorrows...

I felt like this shameless guy when SAI visited me today.
It was a surprise for me(!) and a reminder that I am moving away from my good friends.
I was really happy to receive him here!!
Thanks Sai for coming here and making my day.

Friends, do u also want to feel this way (Surprise rather than being happy) when a FRIEND visits u?? No nah?? At least keep this group active; which is the least u can do for ur friends.
Hope u all understand!!

- Lots of Love,
Srik.

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Programmer's day today

Programmer's day is a "holiday" on the 256th day of the year celebrated mostly by computer programmers (reason: 256 = 2 to the power of 8 = the number of values representable in a byte of data).
Traditions include drinking, behaving silly, coding silly programs, mini computer games, playing with old computers, etc. That, of course, includes the condition that the developer who chooses to celebrate, needs to have done decent coding on all the other days and had tried the best not to behave silly on the other days. For those programmers who are used to the 'celebrations' in their every day lives, this 'holiday' becomes unjustified!
Programmer's day usually falls on September 13th; on leap years, it is September 12th.In India it is not celebrated.

If you happen to be a software programmer, then my hearty wishes to you on this special day.
Here are some funny situations of a poor thing called a programmer. Enjoy!!






Courtesy : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer%27s_day
and all the other web-sites with the cartoons above on display

Time to sing "Krishna nee begane Baaro"!!!

(picture courtesy : pravsworld.com)

Patriotism doesn’t need anyone’s patronage, Vande Mataram

We need no one to dictate us on how to be patriotic!! We know how much patriotic we are and we are happy about it. Think of India as a whole…a vast country with diverse culture across it and beauty spread allover in diverse form. There are thousands of Gods, lakhs of temples, millions of festivals, crores of followers, billions of historical places, various types of philosophical groups, same number of food habits.. amidst all these lies a nation of a billion people which the west call ‘mystic’.

When there’s a lot of scattered mechanism of living lives within a country, when the primary aim of the people is to get roti, kapda aur makaan where’s the time to think about country, and also when at times if there’s a question of the pride of the nation how will these varieties of people react to it, bear with it, come with each other?!


That was on display for the entire world during the great “Indian freedom struggle” and guess who bound the disordered people together? Who was instrumental behind the achievement of the up-hill task?
It was nothing but a song. A song which fills everyone listening to it with a never before feeling of pride for the mother land, a song which treats Mother as the Mother-land, a song which implies Mother, Mother-land, Mother-of-the-universe (Durga) are all one and the same… And that song was “VANDE MATARAM”.

Who gave it to us? One great poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.


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Some history of the song
It is true that Vande Mataram blossomed forth in Anandamath, but it is even true that it was Bankim's intention that it should blossom forth beyond Anandamath. For Vande Mataram, the song, was composed before Anandamath was written.

How Bankim saw the wonderful vision that worked as a most powerful spiritual lever in the movement for his country's liberation, how he immortalised that vision in the hymn is not fully known. But this much is known that one auspicious moment arrived, in 1875, when Bankim took a holiday to escape from the hectic life of Calcutta. He boarded a train bound for his native town Kantalapada. As the city left behind, there was greenery all around and his heart filled with joy. The contemplation of the motherland with her rich rivers, flowers, fruits and forests sent a pulsating current through Bankim. In that instant the sod was turned into divinity by magic. His eyes and ears became alert, hungry. His inner eye beheld the motherland in all her rich variety and beauty; his inner ear listened to voices from the earth, the air and the sky. And Nature begot her song! She gave it to benevolent Bankim! He bowed and received the gift. And then he reduced it to writing, as one who saw and heard the whole of it.
********************************************************



Here’s the beautiful song in original format for you :



vande maataraM
sujalaaM suphalaaM malayaja shiitalaaM
sasyashyaamalaaM maataraM




shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiiM
pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniiM
suhaasiniiM sumadhura bhaashhiNiiM
sukhadaaM varadaaM maataraM



koTi koTi kaNTha kalakalaninaada karaale
koTi koTi bhujai.rdhR^itakharakaravaale
abalaa keno maa eto bale
bahubaladhaariNiiM namaami taariNiiM
ripudalavaariNiiM maataraM




tumi vidyaa tumi dharma
tumi hR^idi tumi marma
tvaM hi praaNaaH shariire

baahute tumi maa shakti
hR^idaye tumi maa bhakti
tomaara i pratimaa gaDi
mandire mandire


tvaM hi durgaa dashapraharaNadhaariNii
kamalaa kamaladala vihaariNii
vaaNii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaaM
namaami kamalaaM amalaaM atulaaM
sujalaaM suphalaaM maataraM




shyaamalaaM saralaaM susmitaaM bhuushhitaaM
dharaNiiM bharaNiiM maataraM

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And here is the English translation of the same by Sri Aurobindo



Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When the sword flesh out in the seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Though who savest, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foeman drove
Back from plain and Sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nervs the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.


Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair
In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Lovilest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!


********************************************************

Mother, I bow to you, I prefer you, my Motherland, to anything else in the world. Same feelings reflected by Bhagat Singh, same reflected Mahatma Gandhi, same reflected Netaji, and same is loved and respected by all..But how unfortunate it is that this beautiful song, which has successfully raised the patriotic spirits of crores of people for over a century now, which has a greater historic role played in shaping the spirits of the country than our National Anthem Janaganamana, is being termed communal and anti-national? How un-civilized those people would be to consider Vande Mataram anti-national! How does singing Vande Mataram offend some body’s religion? How does this beautiful song doesn’t implant patriotism in some people? How does it sound so offensive to them? Who are they? Those who consider religion at a higher level than country is talking these, I’m sure. Should we allow such people to spill the hatred even after over a century? Should we not consider Vande Mataram as our National Song?

Remembering my teachers on teachers' day

To remember my teachers,
First comes my father, then my mother!!
Yes. My Father used to teach me math and science
And my Mother, music. In my school, there were some teachers who stayed permanently in that school. Some had experience of over 20 years, some 30 years!!
It was too good to be learning from all of them. There was a specific teacher to a specific class. Like Padmathamma for nursery, Muniyappa for 1st standard, Ramakrishnamachar(Swami master) for 2nd standard, Doreswamy for third standard and so on...
For us math, science and social science would start from third standard onwards. Till then we used to learn how to read and write, playing so many games, some rhymes, songs and stotras!
I still remember the Kannada rhyme which goes like this: "Baro Baro maLe raya... bAleya toTake nErilla"(This was taught when there was no rains during the monsoon season as a prayer)!
Oh! How good those days were!
We were not allowed to enter the classrooms with slippers. This was just because we needed to treat the classroom as a prayer hall or as a temple. What a sacred feeling. Teachers also would leave out their slippers outside just before entering the classroom.
On the classroom walls there used to be good sayings written allover and the teacher would light an insence stick(sambhrani kaddi) the first thing in the morning; what a good practice!
Later on as we entered 5th standard, our teachers introduced us to grammars and freedom struggle and so many other things.
There was a strange incident once in a social science class. Every one of us was given a portfolio in a mock ministry. I was made the chief minister and some of the others cabinet ministers and some state rank ministers; we were all asked to read newspaper and write down something about the then ministers of our portfolios!
What a novel way of introducing one to political science!
oh! How can I forget MVenkatappa! he was our English teacher. Since it was a remotest village and most of the parents being illiterates, English teaching was the toughest job of all. But this teacher was, I consider him to be, successful in planting the English seed in most of us. We started learning English in 5th standard.
He used to prepare small post cards and distribute it to all the students, guess what he would write on it?! Name of the person it was distributed to! And more, he would take time, write it in bold with sketch pens so that the stamp always remains in the minds rather than the paper. Some people left English learning at it, sadly and some moved on to be IAS officers!!
All the above facts were of the Govt. primary school. I don't think they still maintain the standard of teachers as it was in our times!

Then the high school. It was a good platform for our analytical development. Apart from just studies, as sadly so many schools now a days prefer, we had so many competitive programs in singing, reciting, cultural, educational, recreational, vocational, sporting and others like drama.
There used to be a science competition for which we used to prepare for over a month. Participants would come from allover the district and it used to be a very nervous time to perform (teach in science) in front of so many judges and teachers! We all learnt so many things, apart from just the exam-lessons, from these programs.
I thank all of my teachers who made these moments momentous and confidence building moments.

Then the college, National College Basavanagudi. I think its better to keep quiet than go in detail about each and every person who made an impression there. It was everyone who made it a great stay in that college, In spite of tough competitions from the private tuitions, we used to go there just to attend classes,
U would've all read their text books, PL Seetharam(PLS, Zoology) and Y Tulajappa(YT, Botany), there was one Anantha Rangan(AR, Math), one MSVR, one SVSubba Rao(SVSR, chemistry), one SBalachandra Rao(SBR, Maths), one ShakuntaLa(English), one DShashidhar(DS, English)....list grows...
Best part of my stay in NCB was the NSS activities, dramas apart from other things.

I will leave out my Engineering days to be listed on some other occasion. The post is already a Hanuman tail(hanumanthana baladante agide).

To Sirs with Love....

GOD MADE TEACHERS . . .
- from an unknown author.

God understood our thirst for
knowledge, and our need to be led
by someone wiser;
He needed a heart of compassion,
of encouragement, and patience;
Someone who would accept
the challenge regardless of the
opposition;
Someone who could see potential
and believe in the best in others . . .
So He made Teachers

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Why God Made Teachers
(with due respect to Kevin William Huff)

When God created teachers,
He gave us special friends
To help us understand His world
And truly comprehend
The beauty and the wonder
Of everything we see,
And become a better person
With each discovery.

When God created teachers,
He gave us special guides
To show us ways in which to grow
So we can all decide
How to live and how to do
What's right instead of wrong,
To lead us so that we can lead
And learn how to be strong.

Why God created teachers,
In His wisdom and His grace,
Was to help us learn to make our world
A better, wiser place.
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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

Zara Yaad karo Qurbani.

He told her, "I will be back for Diwali."
Those words couldn’t stop her tears for she knew Diwali is another 8 months from then.
He again broke the silence and said, "Hey you mad fellow, I'll be calling you often and will be writing a letter every now and then."
She un-controllably hugged him and said finally, "Fine. Promise me that at least one call every weekend." He answered, "OK baba, now come on, smile a bit." He hugged her as if they were floating in eternal time.

Then his mother came. She put Tilak on his forehead and said, "I'm proud of you, Son! We'll inform you of your sister's marriage well in advance so that you can apply for leave before hand." He touched her feet and asked for her blessings. Mother affectionately kissed him.

He then left announcing to his sister that he'd be back and arrange the marriage like never before in town. Every one smiled and bid adieu.

As promised he came back, but not for the marriage, nor for Diwali. He came well before that. He came back with draped tri-colour on his body. He came back in a decorated-coffin, with many people guarding him around!



The family sank with shock, but the head of the family stood the grief, came forward and saluted his body first. And said the grief stricken crowd around that his son has achieved what he couldn’t himself!!, a "Veer Maran" which made his family proud.
Then the body was cremated with 21-gun salute.

This is not the story of one family, my dear friends. In fact, its the story of some 600 families across India who lost their loved ones to secure our borders.
Eight years back (in 1998) Pakistan had infiltrated inside our Borders on the high-bound areas of Kargil. Brave Indian soldiers and air force personnel handled those terror spreading maniacs with guts and gallant vision to safeguard our borders all along LOC (Line of control). Close to 600 Indian soldiers/officers lost their lives in the war.



To honor them the Indian Govt. declared a day on Indian calendar in their memory. And today is that day, friends.

Lets all remember those martyrs today who faced the opposition of well-equipped terror mongering neighbours to give us a glimpse of Indian might and the strength of Indian Unity.

Its not only a day of celebration for us, but also a day where we need to pray to God that we don’t get to such a situation again where it is inevitable but to fight our neighbour for our rights.


Let the soul of all the martyrs rest in peace.

Children for equality

Yesterday I had an opportunity to visit a place as the first project of our team Dhwani.
It was a visit, feel and a first hand experience of sorts for me.
I went to a place where orphan children are taken care in good spirit and never let them feel that they are without any support.
The children are living in good, healthy environs. They are offered good tasty food (we had food there yesterday), normal education and other basic facilities.
The mentor Mr. Lakshminarayana proudly showed us around the place, facilities and their plans.

As we entered, in the outer premises, we were greeted by three dogs, Scooby, Johnny and another whose name I forgot.
And when we were to enter the confines of the hostel, the children came out with flowers in their hands and wished all of us, by giving us the flowers that were grown in that campus.
And I observed, there was no artificiality in their attitude.

The place is called Chaitanyananda Ashrama. It exists in a calm and peaceful locales of Kodigehalli, some 20Kms from Bangalore off Magadi Road.
On the occasion of the death anniversary of Mr. PNR Rao, his wife, Smt. Prema Rao had organised for a lunch in his honor for the children of the house.
I went there with Mrs. Prema Rao and some of her family friends.

Even though its called an ashram, there is no swamiji in it. But the aashramic environment is provided.
There is a garden taken care by the children themselves, where they grow the vegetables, fruits and flowers.
An area is of three adjacent sites of 30*40 dimension.


The best part of the aashram is, after the school timings, the children are engaged in playful things, apart from the curricular studies, they are being taught bhajans, songs, paintings, making chalk pieces for commercial purposes, and other handicrafts.
The mentors and teachers are open to suggestions from the out-siders/donors.

About the project, it was started in 1996 and housing about 20 children and 4 care-takers since 1998.
Age of the children range from 8 years to 15 years, as of now.
There are some people who have contributed heavily for this noble cause there, but most of the Godfathers are no more.
And Mr. Lakshminarayan says that the organization is completely dependent on the donations that flow in from the society, not a single Rupee has come from the Govt.

The children are spending days of their childhood, in a good place, with good friends and an equality-empowering system.
They have a time table that starts from morning 5 and ends at 10PM night.
This makes children understand the importance of being discipline, time sharing and learning while playing.


Apart from all these things, they provide the children an environment of Gurukula, the pride of ancient India, a basic vision of Indian culture and the values.
There's no distinction of caste or religion here, in fact there are children from all communities, there was a Christian, a Muslim and some SC/STs and also form other castes, but it doesn’t make them get different treatment from anyone, be it a visitor, or a teacher.
They all work in empathy with the children.

In all, this was a nice place, which welcomes the orphans and provides them a quality living.
Believe me, its no different a place from any of the residential schools, except for the luxuries and the often visiting parents.