My latest poem…..and the BEST ever!

My best poem

ಯಾವ ಹೂವು ಯಾರ ಮುಡಿಗೊ?

It’s been two years since appa died. It’s weird! It’s different!!

My father believed in rituals, a lot. So, I make it a point to go through all the rituals and ‘officially’ remember him on chaitra shuddha trayOdasi every year. Well, it’s just been two years now. It was very different, two years ago. I cried uncontrollably. Now, I take a different route. I try the escapist path. I try not to think of him too much during the rituals. It’s very hard not to. When you repeat his name, his father’s name, his grand father’s and the gOthra, several times during the process, it’s hard not to have moments of flashbacks.

They say time is the healer. But I think that’s only partly true. Time is a healer just because we choose it to be. There are several days when I suddenly go back to ‘thinking of everything to do with my father’ mode and silently sob. So, where did that ‘time is the healer’ thingy vanish?

If it is this bad for me, I can certainly imagine how bad it is for my mother. Then again, she is such a strong woman, who has gone through so much pain in her life. So much braver and stronger than I am. There is a reason pathos are melodious, right?

I never saw my father’s father or his grand father. But, here I am praying, so that they can attain mOkSha! Isn’t that strange? As a famous poem in Kannada goes – ಎತ್ತಣ ಮಾಮರ? ಎತ್ತಣ ಕೋಗಿಲೆ? ಎತ್ತಣಿಂದೆತ್ತ ಸಂಬಂಧವಯ್ಯ?

Foolish Ramblings

I cannot begin to count the number of blog posts that I lit in my mind and just flickered it away. Call it work pressure, TV addiction, shopping spree or the lovey-dovey wifey. I just call it laziness, period.

You know, if I were to get paid for blogging, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be this lazy to write. Oh well……Every time I talk to my mother on the phone, she asks me if I have writen anything new. At least this time, I can claim a blog post. Baby steps, you see.

Now, there are too many things to write about. I just look around and see Varun Gandhi, Sanjay Dutt (and Manyata, ooops) and their antics. Not too intersting, really. Maybe I should just write about Sharad Pawar and his new found love in third front. Again, boring. Writing about politicians is perhaps not the best way to start a new month.

So, how about Aishwarya Rai accepting the “coveted” Padmashree (*cough* *cough*). I hope you don’t mind, it’s just that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a little too long for me. I actually started off hoping to write something meaningful. Something like the best comeback in the Indian cricket history or the G-20 summit. But then, former is old news and latter is no news.

Isn’t it amazing that not writing for so long has made me so rusty? Well, probably not. That’s how I’ve always been, I just realized it today 🙂 And to think that I will restart blogging. What’s today’s date again?

How Black Is Black?

What I like about Barack Obama is his ability to capture people’s hearts and minds just by talking. The cool headed dude from Chicago certainly has an amazing capacity to reach out and reach out far. Guess what? My mother called me all the way from India today morning, right after Obama’s speech, to tell me how thrilled she was to listen to him. She is completely convinced that the World is going to be a much better place, now that he has taken the reins of the most powerful nation on Earth.

It makes you think, doesn’t it? My mother, sitting in the other part of the World was inspired and thrilled by Obama’s call. Can you imagine the state of affairs here in the United States? Is it the charisma? Is it the energy? or is it just the simplicity? What he has successfully done is to transform the region and the World with the lights of hope. And, that ain’t no easy job.

I am convinced he will be a terrific President. He has the brains and the will to change the country and the World. He has the right people around him. And, last but not the least, he is a very shrewed politician. Did you guys notice how he mentioned about his ‘father’ twice during the inaugural speech? I do not recall any mention of his mother. Just so that we are all on the same ground, he was brought up by his mother’s side of the family and had hardly any contact with his father. Now, that’s what I mean by a shrewed politician. Go figure!

There is still one thing which I fail to understand. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, in a white family. And somehow he is treated as an ‘African-American’ because of one magical sperm? I am sorry, but his childhood was not in Bronx or Mississippi. To be fair, he is more white than black.

So, really, how black is black?

A ‘Noble’ Story

Kuvempu

The break was great!!! I didn’t want to close the blog because I knew I would want to come back and write more. There were several instances when I wanted to start blogging again – Sarah Palin, Economic mess, Listening to ‘Jolene’ the other night, and of course Sachin Tendulkar‘s (aka GOD) world record. But, nothing triggered me as much as this news item did. Now, I know what my passion is 🙂

Kuvempu is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers in Kannada. He is in the elite group with such greats as Bendre and Dr. Shivaram Karanth. Around 20 years ago there was a lot of talk about Kuvempu’s name being considered by the Nobel committee for an award in literature. If he had won the Nobel, it would have certainly been great for India. He didn’t and it’s history now. Not winning Nobel in no way diminishes the greatness of Kuvempu as a writer.

Fast forward to 2008. Kuvempu is dead. There is a symposium about Kuvempu’s work ‘Sri Ramayana Darshanam‘ in Mysore and Kuvempu’s self-proclaimed disciple Dr. S. Prabhushankar comes up with a brilliant story. Apparently, he was carrying Kuvempu’s works to New Delhi to the Indian Nobel committee. When he reached the railway station, there was no seat reserved for him. Finally, some ‘North Indian’ (that’s the key) threw Kuvempu’s books into a corner and treated it like trash. And thus, because of some North Indian conspiracy, Kuvempu didn’t win Nobel. Dr S. Prabhushankar came out with this colorful story in 2008, long after Kuvempu’s death.

The media has carried the story with all the color and prominence. These self-proclaimed disciples of Kuvempu always had problems. De. Ja. Gow for one, I have absolutely no respect for. Now, Dr. Prabhushankar joins the same bandwagon?

A few innocent questions for Dr. Prabhushankar:

• Why did you keep quite for so long? If the story were true and if you had made this public at that time, maybe Kuvempu would have won the Nobel. So, I guess you are really responsible for Kuvempu not winning Nobel.
• The Nobel committee in Delhi wanted you to carry all of Kuvempu’s works in a train from Mysore? Really, they didn’t know who Kuvempu was, huh?
• It must have been quite hard to travel in an unreserved compartment. Did you get good sleep?
• Sorry, but I have to ask you this, when the ‘North Indian’ threw Kuvempu’s works away, did you cry? If so, how much? Did you make sure someone took a photograph? That will come in handy very soon, I am sure.
• Did you happen to ask the name of that ‘North Indian’ idiot?

Well, I have way too many questions, I will just stop here. Isn’t it sad that everyone wants to do politics and somehow want to see their name in the newspapers?

In this case Dr. Prabhushankar is the first culprit and media (as usual) is the second culprit. With all due respects, it’s time people start completely ignoring anything and everything which comes out of the likes of De. Ja. Gow and Prabhushankar.

Well, at least Karnad and URA are intelligent…….

Communists At Their Best

Just when I think that they cannot beat their previous circus act, they come up with a brand new one!!! CPM decided to oust Somnath Chatterjee from the party because the veteran politician brought ‘shame’ to the party.

With all the political parties fighting hard to win the “worst party in Independent India” award, I have to give it to the communists. They have far outpaced the peers. Some idiot named D. Raja comes on TV and claims that Chatterjee was expelled from the party “because he disobeyed the constitution”. Alright, I agree that English is certainly not one of D. Raja’s strengths. But to call a person – who upheld the dignity of the speaker’s chair – as someone who broke the rules of the constitution is absurd, immature and illogical.

So, for one, D. Rajas of the party should NOT come and open their mouth. But then, the smart mouths like Karats have a totally different problem. They live 100 years back!!! And, it’s impossible to bring them back to the present time.

There’s only one solution for this. Our dear Bengali babus in and around Calcutta should realize the blunder they have been committing by electing jokers to the Lok Sabha. Guys, it’s time to wake up and vote for the Congress, or the Trinamool, or the BJP or whatever the other junk is.

Every politician in India – from Advani to Manmohan Singh (read as Sonia Gandhi) – have to be ashamed looking back at the events which happened over the last one week. But, the communists have the uncanny ability to beat them all. Throwing Somnath Chatterjee out of the party is the biggest shame on the party. Oh wait a second, there’s always a new day. I am sure they have something better up their sleeve. They are bound to come up with a bigger joke tomorrow!!!

A crore for Kukkarahalli

Yay!!!! Reading through the boring and lengthy transcript of our honorable Chief Minister’s budget speech, I instantly spotted a gem. Government has set aside a crore for the improvement of Kukkarahalli Lake in Mysore. What a wn, finally!!!

The chirping birds, morning joggers, housewives and retired clerks will surely be happy. Hide-and-seek pairs from the nearby (and faraway) colleges will definitely appreciate the grant. Certainly one of the most beautiful places in Mysore, the lake has seen it’s good and bad days. Last decade has seen quite some improvement, but more money from the state government will hopefully see much more of it.

Peaceful, serene and heavenly are just words. Nobody can describe the beauty of Kukkarahalli Lake in three paragraphs (or four or five….). Last year, when we were in Mysore for several months, my wife and I visited the lake so regularly. You get to see so many people and you get to hear so many stories. You see several birds and sing with them. Ahhhh, a poet’s paradise!!!

One other note. State government has put in 10 crores for Mysore Dasara and another 5 crores for the development of Vivekananda Youth Center. A Dakshina Kannada writer friend of mine once wrote, that of all the Kannadigas he has seen in America, Mysoreans are the most passionate about their city. Just trying to prove that here 🙂

NPR = Nasty Public Radio?

I was listening to ‘Talk of the Nation’ on NPR while driving home for lunch and listened intently at the discussions surrounding innocent people being unjustly accused by the law enforcement agencies and media and the traumatic experiences around it. They also talked about how different people build their lives after the ordeal.

Immediately what stuck my mind was the Aarushi murder case in India, which is the prime headline news from past two months. Her father Dr. Rajesh Talwar was kept behind bars for 49 days and suddenly police realized their mistake last week and released him. Can you imagine his plight? Forget grieving for his daughter’s loss, that had to wait 50 days!!! Media played such a bad role, coming up with all kinds of juicy stories from Dr. Talwar having an affair with some other person, to Aarushi’s character assasination.

Dr. Talwar’s case deserves at least a few lines of my post. I should probably dedicate an entire post some day. Coming back to the topic, I thought of calling NPR and telling them about Dr. Talwar’s case. Since California has a new law that we cannot talk on our cell phone hand set while driving, I didn’t want to risk getting a ticket. It was just a few minutes from my home anyway.

I rushed into my home, picked up the phone and immediately called the toll-free number and to my horror(!) got the following recorded message:

“Hey there sexy guy, welcome to an exciting new way to go live one-on-one with hot horny girls waiting right now to talk to you. Lie back baaaby, relaaaaax and get ready to meet real local students, housewives and working girls from all over the country. Hundreds of hot girls call free all day and night because we loooove nasty talk as much as you do.”

I immediately disconnected and checked the number I had called. I had pressed ‘1-866’ instead of ‘1-800’, which confirmed that ‘N’ in NPR still stood for ‘National’.

P.S: The only reason I know the complete message from that 1-866 number is because I called the number another 3 times to just get the complete message correctly so that I can blog this story. I swear, that was the only reason 😉

GTN

Prof. GT Narayana Rao passed away last week. His passion for music and science reminds me of Einstein. GTN, as he was fondly called, lived very close to my home in Mysore. I remember how he brushed his teeth in the evenings with sticks wrapped in neem leaves. And, he tried to make me do that. Well, the high school kid with a sweet tooth never did that.

Perhaps he is the first person who explained to me the basics behind astronomy. As I stood amazed and delighted gazing at hundreds of stars in the night sky, he explained the principles of astronomy in such a simple way that the primary school student didn’t find it hard to understand.

Most notably, GTN was the revered and favorite music critique for Mysoreans. His writings in the local newspaper, Star od Mysore, was truly cherished.

Who can ever forget GTN walking in and around Saraswathipuram, wearing the regular pristine white dress. Did I say that he reminds me so much of my grand father?

The last time I saw him, I was sitting in the living room, crying uncontrollably. He didn’t say a word, just looked down and walked away. Yes, he knew my father very well.

GTN, salut sir. May your soul rest in peace (I am not so sure you believed in that though!)

Going South

For the next two weeks, I will be sailing on the Amazon and hiking at Maachu-Peechu. I will be back rejuvenated and re-energized, and of course with LOTS of pictures.

See ya then!