The ‘Intellectual’ Barks Again

It was time. He was not in the news for so long. It must have made him real uneasy. So, U.R.Ananthamurthy decides it is the right time to start another controversy, and lo, his name is all over the newspapers. Vijaya Karnataka has his photograph on the front page. That must have made him happy, at least for now.

URA first takes a dig at S.L.Bhyrappa’s latest novel ‘AvaraNa’. He does not like the novel. Fine, there are tons more who don’t like that novel. He says that the writing is more like a debate than a story. Sure, again, there are several more people who agree with that. Now, the next statement is scary. URA thinks SLB is not a good story teller at all. Really?!?!?! The dude should realize that there is a Karanth, there is a Masti, there is a Bhyrappa, and then the rest of you.

Apparently URA is scared to see so many copies of ‘AvaraNa’ being sold. Well, there you go dude, that show’s SLB’s popularity. But the great intellectual that URA is, he comes up with a brilliant theory and says that the RSS and right wing hindu nuts are responsible for  the success of ‘AvaraNa’. Come on man, I know it is painful, but you can’t be that jealous, can you? Oh well, maybe you are capable.

URA and his attitude sickens me to the core. He writes well, and that’s about the only thing which he does well. Peace!!!

Chatting With Burkha On

I don’t get it. I simply don’t.

Why do people wear the “Invisible mode” burkha when they login to messenger? It just doesn’t make sense to me. You would want to login only because you want to chat with others. If you are not in the mood to chat or if you are busy with other tasks, then why don’t you politely send a “Sorry, I am currently busy” note when someone tries to chat with you? Being in “invisible mode” gives you an unfair advantage of starting the conversation when YOU want to chat. Since I don’t know that you are online, I have to always wait for you to start the conversation. If I am feeling low, or want to just say Hello, then I don’t have the right to do that. because you and only you control the keys for chatting. We always have to chat when you decide that it is the right time, not when I want. Is that fair? I am pretty sure that it is absolutely not. 

Same deal with your brothers and sisters who go to “Idle” mode in yahoo and “Away” mode in MSN. I was arguing with one of my friends who is always “Away” in MSN messenegr. His argument was that all his friends know that he is always in “Away” mode and thus it doesn’t matter. Nope, that is quite foolish. I don’t know if you are really away or simply “Away”. If I try to chat with you, you may not respond because you are really not at your desk, or you may not respond because you don’t want to. See the difference? Again, you get the upper hand to choose when you want to talk.

A good friend of mine once said that he calls such people as chatting burkha dhAriyaru (people who chat with a burkha on). How true!!!

To Know Or Not To Know

You are in the middle of a conversation. You suddenly realize that you were not aware of some fact mentioned by the other person in the conversation. You feel terrible that you didn’t know such a silly thing. Has it ever happened to you? It certainly has happened to me a few times. It makes me wonder how or why I didn’t know what I should have known. They are such trivial and stupid things that I curse myself for being so dumb.

Here are a few examples:

• I did not know that Shashi Deshpande was Sriranga’s daughter. Infact, I had no idea that they were related.
• I was not aware that Eduard Shevardnadze was from Georgia. I just associated him with USSR and didn’t delve any deeper.
• I had no idea who Ayaz Memon was (and still can’t remember his name). I was happy reading R.Mohan and listening to Harsha Bhogle.
• I vehemently argued that actress Saritha’s mother tongue was Tamil. I should have known she spoke Telugu at home.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are so many useless things which fill our brain. Some of mine are:

• Mumtaz was the original selection to play the lead role in the superhit ‘Seetha Aur Geetha’. She demanded way too much money (and regretted later) and Hema Malini became a superstar.
• I know the venues of all the Asian Games from New Delhi 1951 to Incheon 2014 (well, you can add Olympics as well).
• I remember the exact days on which I went to several tours and trips since my childhood. This memory thingy is quite useless sometimes and has too much information.
• For the most part of 80’s and 90’s, the aMbAri Elephant in Mysore procession was Drona, the paTTada Ane was Mohana, and the two elephants which walked in the beginning of the procession were Bhaskara and Mary.

Well, there you go. It is quite common that we do not know certain things which we should and we know a lot of things which don’t really matter. I am sure each and every one of you are in the same boat!!!

Kannada Sahitya Sammelana at Chicago

The two day conference in Auroa, near Chicago, on May 19th and 20th 2007, was a well organized and well attended event. This is the third such conference in America, under the banner of Kannada Sahitya Ranga.

It always amazes me to see so much talent here. There are such wonderful Kannada writers in the US of A. The main aim of such conferences is to promote Kannada writing and writers in America.

Infact, there was an event where five books, written by five different writers residing in America were introduced and discussed in detail. Get this, these writers live in Missouri, DC area, Florida, California and Minnesota. All over the map, huh?

There was another event where 13 different writers from all over Karnataka presented their prose and poetry. This was very well conducted and most of the presentations were humorous, since the main theme of this conference was “Humor in Kannada literature”.

The guests of honor were Prof A.R.Mithra and Prof. H.S.Raghavendra Rao. Their speeches were educating, encouraging and presented excellent insights and ideas.

The conference also had music and drama by the local artistes. There was also a book exhibition where a lot of American writers sold their books.

I will try and write more about the event at leisure, if I get some time. Don’t count on it though :). This post is just an overview of the event.

Oh, and I have to admit that the Balaji temple in Aurora, Illinois is awesome, inside and out. Very well maintained and an excellent place for worship and community events. It is certainly one of the best temples I have seen in America.

Old Lady Blues

I am sitting in my office, seriously working on a bug fix and my cell phone rings. I pick up the phone and there is an older lady with a husky voice on the other end.

“Hi sweety!!!” she says.

I am like “Hello, who’s this?”.

She is definitely in the mood….”Ummm, what are you doing?”.

Well, I am at work and this sudden call from some unknown lady. I am totally lost “Hello, who do you want?”.

By now the voice is really soft and husky “Ahhhh Ross” she says.

“Nope!, you got the wrong number” was my immediate response.

And, the huskiness goes away. The voice is suddenly completely normal. “Ooops, sorry” were the last words I heard before the call was abruptly disconnected.

Well, I still have her number in my caller ID…hmmmm…..

Solitude

I was zipping past the streets of Phoenix, changing the FM stations at regular intervals. And, 99.9 soft rock started playing the ever melodious “There she goes, There she goes again”, by ‘Sixpence None The Richer’. That band is very artistic and creative. Alas, they split. Anyway, I am digressing here. I love that song and I also know that it is one of her all time favorites. I couldn’t help but think of one of my poems.

               ಏಕಾಂತ

ಮೌನ ತಬ್ಬಿದ ಕಡಲ ತಡಿಯಿದೆ
ಹರೆಯದಿಳೆಗೆ ಹಸಿರು ಬಳೆಯಿದೆ
ರಸಿಕ ಜೀವಕೆ ಮತ್ತ ಬರಿಸುವ
ಚಿತ್ತ ಚಂಚಲೆ ಎಲ್ಲಿಹೆ ?

ರವಿಗೆ ಉಷೆಯಲಿ ಸ್ವರ್ಗ ಸುಖವಿದೆ
ಚಂದಿರಗೊ ತಾರೆಯರ ಜೊತೆಯಿದೆ
ಮದನನಾಟಕೆ ಪದವ ಹಾಡುವ
ಸರಸಿ ಬಾರೆಯ ಇಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ?

ಬದುಕು ಬಯಸುವ ಸಿರಿಯ ಸೊಗವಿದೆ
ಮನಸಿನಾಳದಿ ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಹದವಿದೆ
ಪ್ರೇಮದುಲ್ಕೆಗೆ ತಂಪನೆರೆಯುವ
ಸಂಚ ಮರೆತಿಹೆ ಏತಕೆ ?

ಬೆಚ್ಚಗಿನ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಗೆ ಮುದವಿದೆ
ಯೌವ್ವನದ ಬಿಸಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹುರುಪಿದೆ
ಕನಸ ಕನ್ಯೆಯೆ ಸ್ಪರ್ಷ ಭಾಷೆಗೆ
ಕವಿಯ ಮಿಡಿತವು ಸಾಲದೆ ?

How Green Is My Valley ?

It is always a treat to watch Maria Bartiromo. She is beautiful, she has a radiating smile and above all she knows what she talks – unlike other down the drain anchors such as Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith.

Now that Maria has been busy announcing the new highs and records for Dow Jones Industrial Average, day in and day out, I am sure the CNBC viewership has increased considerably.

This is the time to invest you would think, huh ? Make hay while the sun shines, sure. But, hey there are so many things which are not right, so just be cautious. Dendreon Corporation lost 65% today, since FDA did not approve the prostate cancer drug they came up with. Agggh, ironically, that must have hurt the stockholders in the wrong part of the body.

And then we have Mr. Greenspan (yeah right Mr. Bernanke, but I still think Greenspan is smarter, so I will stick with that name) reluctant to bring down the interest rates. Come on, look at all the people sitting on the fence wondering whether this is the right time to buy a new home. Sure, you live in a villa. Let the others too, bring it down buddy.

Also, get this…oil prices are coming down big time. But NOT at the pump. Apparently the repairs and internal problems at the oil refineries are making sure that the price of gas in USA is reaching record highs. Long live the Oil magnets. I have always sweared by Exxon, Shell and Chevron and I will continue to do so.

And, did you hear about that Hong Kong couple who have made tons of money through Dow Jones stock? SEC has decided to investigate the issue. They believe that it was all due to insider trading. But then will China cooperate with USA and hand over the couple to the US officials? Common sense tells me that such things never happen in the World we live.

So, there is a lot of money out there folks. It’s time to test your smartness. Figure out the best investments…and let me know too!!!