Pensive

Yesterday I attended the first birthday celebration of Anagha, grand daughter of G.L.N. Simha at the Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, Nanjangud. There, I saw this beautiful lady with a serene look on her face.

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I am Mysore

I am Mysore, I am old
I am mellow like a wine.
If you have an eye, I am still
beautiful, fresh and fine.

The haunt of poets and writers
is now where joggers train.
The silver jubilee clock tower,
has gone silent again.

Radio house and summer blooms
still charm at Cheluvamba Park.
Dufferin tower and market front
beneath the sky - blue and stark.

The imposing banyan tree -
a place of quiet, time to spare.
Golden canopy of my maharaja -
known as statue square.

I age with every passing day
I age with every week and year.
I want to be beautiful always, forever
Only if you protect me, my dear.

Mirror Replies

Mirror mirror on the wall
Measure my heart, wide and tall!
'My fair master, evident two are shadows cast,
A life of present and a breathe of past'

Wonders of Mysuru

Recently, there was quite a media hullabaloo to list out new wonders of the world. The seven wonders of the world were given a new phillip and a renewed publicity through primetime TV slots, print media, blogs and what not.

When I was thinking the about the necessity of such media circus, the fact dawned on me. These days media is cluttered with negative news, they really need to bring home a positive and heartwarming story and also the need to publicise these most visited spots of the world. Of course seven wonders of the world are the hottest tourist destinations, this fact was driven home to me when my friend Dileep visited them within a span of half an hour.

Okay, please don't stare at the monitor in disbelief. No, I am not drunk and am not blabbering. It is true; he did visit them, at least not personally. He went to all these spots by Google Earth (do I hear 'oh...'!).

Well, the point is, people are visiting these places either personally or through post cards, or Google Earth, or by whatever means they can get. This is serving one primary thing - tourism is thriving at these places.

Suddenly, my thought switched over to my beloved city- Mysuru. It is also a tourist hot spot. It has got some beautiful and wonderful things. So, why not I list the wonders of Mysuru? Well, enough of my winding introduction to the main content of this post. Here it is, the wonders of Mysuru.

• Illumination of Amba Vilas Palace - Breathtaking
• Chamarajendra Zoological Garden
• Nandi on Chamundi Hill - Monolithic statue of bull
• St. Philomena's Church - largest in south India
• Lalitha Mahal
• Inlay craft cluster - largest in the world
• Nada Mantapa - music concerts therein
• Bidara Krishnappa's Sri Prasanna Rama Mandira

Well, mine is not the last word. You can add your list too. Leave a comment if you want to add some more.

List of my favourite food - 2

This is a sequel to my original post.

Kim's Chicken at Rice Bowl Restaurant of PL.A. Residency, Tanjavur (Tanjore)
Paan Meetha a sweet dish from Agra Sweets Agra Mithai Ghar, Charminar, Hyderabad
Kajjaaya a traditional south Indian sweet from the famous sweet shop, G Pulla Reddy Sweets, Nampalli Road, Hyderabad
Gudbud at 'Ideals' the famous ice cream parlour at Hampanakatta of Mangaluru (Mangalore)
Pongal at any hotels in and around Tanjavur and Kumbakonam
Alu Chat and other Chat items in Varanasi(Benares or Kashi)
Masala Dosa with Red Chutney at Bhairappa's mobile hotel, Chat Street, Mysuru (evenings only)

Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone - Quotes

Here's more on Harry Potter, my favourite character of fiction. These are some of the quotes from the first book 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' that will make you think twice.

• 'It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.' - Albus Dumbledore. The Mirror of Erised. Pg 157.


• 'After all, to the well-organised mind, death is but the next adventure.' - Albus Dumbledore. The Man with Two Faces. Pg 215.


• 'As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things which are worst for them.' - Albus Dumbledore. The Man with Two Faces. Pg 215.


• 'Always use proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.' - Albus Dumbledore. The Man with Two Faces. Pg 216.


• 'The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing and should therefore be treated with great caution.' - Albus Dumbledore. The Man with Two Faces. Pg 216.


• 'There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.' - Albus Dumbledore. The Man with Two Faces. Pg 221.

Negative Aspect of Education

There is absolutely no denying the fact that education is a great leveller and gives immense opportunities for a person along with wider choice to choose from, in his/her life. But as with everything else, education has a negative aspect which is completely neglected.

Last friday I attended a meeting organised by the southern centre of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) at Bengaluru. Various scholars and researchers from across south India attended the meeting to discuss traditions that are fast disappearing. I went there with R.G. Singh who gave a presentation on the 'Traditional Board Games of India'. This meeting was an eye-opener regarding the negative aspect of the present education system as practised in India (which is an hangover from our colonial past where British wanted to create a class of white-collared indentured labourers to serve their mighty empire and rip India off its riches accumulated in the primarily agrarian society).

The tradition of chanting Jaimineeya Samaveda in a remote corner of Kerala is virtually dead with only three men, in their eighties, having the knowledge of entire text and no youngster is interested to learn. Among 70 families in a hamlet of Andhra Pradesh, only three remain who can recite 20 different variations of Telugu Mahabharata. These oral traditions involve learning thousands of verses by heart along with unique way of rendition. This means that children have to learn these daily from an early age.

Nowadays children are sent to schools to be formally educated which does not allow them time to learn their hereditary traditions like chanting, recitation etc. Once children are educated they are no longer interested in learning the traditional chantings and rather work as either an engineer or doctor and earn loads of money.

The current schooling system is single dimensional in its approach and does not make room for the multi cultural and multi traditional backgrounds from which students hail from. It is wiping clean the rich, innate, culture-scapes and tradition-scapes from each student and etching common and mundane things in the name of education.

Thousands of years of ancient knowledge systems are being wiped off with a stroke of common education system. Unless checked in time, this will render our society shallow and heartless.

List of my favourite food

This is a list of all delicacies that I liked along with places where I found them best. This is not a one time entry. I will keep coming back and update it or else there will be add-on posts to this some time in future. Don't blame me if you start drooling, here I go...

Masala Dosa with Benne and Saagu at Mylari Hotel, Nazarbad, Mysuru
Idli Chutney and Masala Dosa at Gayatri Tiffin Room (GTR), Chamundipuram, Mysuru
Idli Chutney at Hotel Harihara, Agrahara Circle, Mysuru
Prawn Soup at Hotel Regaalis, Mysuru (Mysore)
Pineapple Pastries at Hotel Regaalis, Mysuru
Mutton Biriyani at Sri Kanteerava Narasimharaja Sports Club, Mysuru
Mutton Shorba at Hyd Mahal, Church Street, Bengaluru (Bangalore) (This restaurant is closed)
Upma or Uppittu or Kharabhath at Vasudeva Adiga's, KG Road, Bengaluru
Fish fry at the restaurant next to Hotel Rivera, Poonamalee High Road, Chennai (This restaurant is closed)
Button Idli in a bowl of Sambar at Hotel Saravana Bhavan, Chennai
Khichdi at Surti, Kalbadevi, Mumbai
Pomegranate juice at a shop in Chandni Chowk, Delhi
Bhindi Fry at Quality Inn Hotel, Nampalli, Hyderabad
Pongal at Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple, Srirangapatna (prasada given during festivals)
Curd Rice at Hotel Saiba, off Station Road, Kolhapur
Cheese Chutney at Julie and Vivek Cariappa's farm house, near Sargur
Bitter Lime Pickle at Surya Condiments, Chamundipuram circle, Mysuru
Strong Kaapi (Coffee) at Hotel Mysore Refreshments, Near Zoo, Mysuru
Kundapura Masala Fish, a restaurant by the highway, Kundapura
Chicken Kalmi Kebab at Chirag Restaurant, Ittigegud, Mysuru (This restaurant is closed)
Hyderabadi Biriyani, at Hotel International, near GPO, Hyderabad
Vegetarian Meals (Maharashtrian Thali) at Durvankur, Tilak Road, Pune

'Yugadi' if you please...

It is disappointing to see 'Yugadi' being spelt as 'Ugadi' in majority of English print and electronic media. Not only advertisements but also headlines spell it as 'Ugadi' with elan.

The word Yugadi is made of two Sanskrit words 'Yuga' meaning year and 'Adi' meaning beginning (yugasya adi = yugadi, beginning of the year). In Roman script the former word is always written as 'Yuga' not 'Uga'. If it is so then why would one write the word in question as Ugadi when it is an extension of Yuga?

If one still insists on sticking with 'Ugadi' then 'Yoga' will be 'Oga', or 'Yahoo' should be 'Ahoo' or better still 'You' should be 'Ou'.

In a similar situation about a name being written wrongly in Kannada, I told a former editor of a widely read Kannada newspaper about it. A few days later, after consulting a couple of linguists, he told that the popular usage is alright even if it is lexicologically wrong. I was flummoxed. It is the case of a lie turning into truth when told over and over again.

Now, do 'ou' want to correct the mistake or commit it time and again until it becomes the norm? As the Kannada saying goes, raayara kudure katte aagutta? Will the king's horse turn into a donkey? 'Ou' decide.

My Blog is Going Places

Yeah, you heard it right! My blog is going places. Other day I came across an online article on doll tradition of south India and when I checked the 'source' section at the end, I was grinning wide at the monitor when I saw that my blog had been given a pride of place there. The article by Annapurna Garimella is well written. You can find the article here.

Childhood Jingle

Avalaki
Pavalaki
Kaanchana
Mina mina
Daam... Doom...
Duss... Puss...
Koin... (n is nasal)
Kotaar...

I heard this jingle today after a long, long time since my childhood. Whenever someone farted, we kids used to sing this to embarrass them. We used to pinch close our nose and I think we were also dancing in a particular way while singing so that it sounded and looked awkward.

The jingle does not mean anything because except two nouns (Avalaki and Kaanchana) all other words are gibberish. This jingle brought a flood of memories of those years.

Encounter with an Eminent Lensman

Early in the morning this wednesday, Gyani and I drove to the house of legendary photographer, T.S. Satyan who lives in Saraswatipuram. After we got the octagenarian on board, we drove to a small hamlet, Hemmaragaala which is about 15-20 kms after Nanjanagud towards Chamarajanagara. We were on a mission of photo shoot at Santana Venugopalaswamy temple there.

T.S. Satyan is a celebrated photojournalist of India; he was born in 1926 in Mysuru and after a highly successful career in photography he returned to his beloved city for good.

As an amateur photographer, I always harboured a desire to see this living legend at work. He had seemed elusive and unresponsive during all my previous encounters with him, though I never vocalised my desire which laid buried deep down inside. When Gyani told me about the trip on Tuesday evening I was like 'hey some one pinch me...'

At Hemmaragaala Satyan was in his elements. The pristine and quaint charm of the hamlet impressed the photographer and he started shooting immediately. He saw me carrying a digital camera and without me asking started telling how to compose a photograph, which angle looks good, what kind of light is better, etc. Only then I could muster myself and asked him, why does he prefer black-and-white photographs over coloured ones. Well he seemed disappointed with my question, of course it was stupid, but nonetheless explained why.

Satyan showed me the scene he had just shot and told that the if the photo were to be in colour it would be dull but when it is in black and white, we can click it in a higher contrast and the texture of the scenery is highlighted which would otherwise get distracted by the colour. It was a revelation for me.


During our drive back home we crossed another hamlet of Badanavaalu. Satyan became nostalgic and said that he had taught in that village. This came as a surprise since we didn't know he had worked as a teacher. When Gyani told him that, his reply was amazing.

In pre-independence India Mysuru was being ruled by Wodeyars and under kings like Mummadi Krishnaraja, Chamaraja, Nalwadi Krishnaraja and finally, Jayachamaraja, Mysuru progressed in all aspects, be it infrastructure, culture, irrigation, economy, literacy, etc. One among the many things that Mysuru pioneered was the adult literacy programme. For the first time in the country Mysuru initiated this concept and college students were supposed to go to rural areas and teach adult village folk. This was kind of a rural posting which they had to do for a few months in order to qualify for the graduation and Satyan was posted at Badanavaalu and surrounding villages.

Satyan revealed that along with adult literacy another movement that was initiated in Mysuru was Youth Hostel which has now grown into the gigantic Youth Hostels Association of India. He started recounting his fellow scouts and friends who went on to occupy international offices.

At this point my eyelids started growing heavy and I was lulled to sleep by the drone of the car and the breeze. Though I consciously love it, unconsciously I still seem to get bored of unknown names and dates of history. My snores betrayed my best intentions and I was later told by Gyani that they earned a look of disapproval by Satyan. Well, that's my encounter with T.S. Satyan as close as I have ever got.

Miss You

Your smile has faded for me, I miss you...

My arms've forgotten your hug, I miss you...

I can't smell you anymore, I miss you...

No more of your sweet lips, I miss you...

Oh, that song again, I miss you...

You can never be mine, I miss you for good...

...