Royalty, Cricket and Mobiles

The title of my post reminds me of the name of a Kannada movie - kurubara lakkanoo elijabet raaNiyoo - "The shepherd Lakka and Queen Elizabeth". Perhaps appropriate.

Whenever I see the signs of Britain's preoccupation or fascination with their royalty, "we were amused" oops, I mean, I am amused. Their monarch reigns over a country where the sun almost never rises having once reigned over an empire on which the sun never set. Well he does rise but is obscured by the clouds, most of the time.

My amusement itself amused me because I myself belong to a country where royalty is not even officially recognised any more and we are still fascinated with it. The privy purses they were entitled to was abolished in 1969? But we too are still fascinated by our former royalty.

I was once incenced that the Deccan Herald referred to Srikantha Dutta Narasimha Raja Wodeyar (the son of the erstwhile maharaja of Mysore) as the "Raja himself". The papers and tabloids refer to an actor, the son of a former Nawab as the Chote Nawab. Nawab of what? Bollywood bunkum? There are many politicians who contest elections under the name of Maharani so-and-so and such. 60+ years after gaining independence from the biggest imperial force of the times should have made us immune to royalty. But alas, it has not!

The latest instance of our preoccupation with royalty is evident in the names of the teams of IPL. Royal Challenger, Super Kings, Kings XI (Roman numerals, for chrissake!). The most ridiculous is the Knight Riders. The only (k)night we ever knew was the long night of the British rule.

So being completely democratic I have decided to support only those teams which do not have a royal name. That leaves Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers. Which one of them should be my favourite?

Mumbai has usurped the title Indians. If there was another team with the name Indians attached to it, I would not have minded. So, Mumbai is out. Daredevils. I don't care all that much for daredevilry, so Delhi is out. That leaves the Deccan Chargers.

Now here is a name that is truly pan Indian - even though The Deccan itelf is not. We are neither a very equestrian nation nor do we have a great cavalry tradition. So, the only charger we know is the battery charger. It appears to me that the whole of India is preoccupied with mobile phones. Someone recently wrote that in India there appears to be an unwritten law which goes like "Thou shalt answer the call on your mobile, even if you are at a wedding and it is your own" Next to the phone itself, the most important gadget is the charger.

So Deccan Chargers it shall be that I support!

Puttachi Chronicles - Jag's Chapter

You have to go here for Puttachi Central.

I went to Puttachi's place and gave her a small present. A (stuffed toy) rabbit I bought in Aachen. She loved it.

She was more fascinated by the silk band on the rabbit than the rabbit itself.

When I was leaving her home, her father told Puttachi that she should return the rabbit to me. I was astounded when Puttachi ran in seriously, picked the rabbit up and offered it to me!

When I told her that it was, in fact, her own, she shook her head vehemently and wanted me to take it back. I had to convince her that I had bought it just for her and hence she should have it.

Amazing kid!

Disabled Friendly

Can you guess what the equipment which looks like an ATM is?

This is a device for people on wheel chairs to seek help in the Charels de Gaulle airport, Paris.

A wheelchair-bound person navigates his wheelchair to the machine and presses a button. The blue and white pad on the floor senses if there is really someone at the machine, a camera sends the image of the person someplace and within minutes there is someone to escort the wheelchair-bound person to wherever she/he wants to go in the airport. Very efficient. Very disabled-freindly.

India is supposed to have 70 million disabled people. They are mostly invisible. What is more, it is said that until the 2001 census their number was not even known!

As far as I can see, ours is a very disabled-unfriendly country. Try taking a wheelchair-bound person to a movie in Bangalore and you will know.

Even though, in terms of facilities, we are disabled unfriendly, I should say that the amount of pesonal help rendered by people is staggering. All you have to do is ask. Since most of our disabled are invisible, most people in public places are unaware of how to deal with them. But once you request them and tell them what to do, what you can get done is staggering.

And staggeringly touching and heart warming.

What the people in power have neglected is compensated for by the ever obliging public. Many even look as if you have done them a favour after helping you, instead of the other way around.

Makes me feel that ours is a terrible country manned by a terrific people.

But, the fact remains that a disabled person should feel no need to seek help to lead a normal life. It should be his for the taking, not for the asking.

Blogging in Kannada

It continues to be a painful experience to blog in kannaDa.

I love blogging

I love Blogger and what it offers me.

But Blogger's kannaDa transliteration drives my crazy.

I have been using the transilteration used by baraha and it appears to me to be the most complete tool developed for writing in kannaDa. I do not understand why blaagar I mean blogger cannot just integrate baraha into it and make my life easier? Does anyone know how I could tell Blogger about this?

The silliest thing is that I can write kannaDa properly in kannaDa in blogger. That is the least one could expect. Is anyone from Blogger listening to this cry of frustration?

It used to amuse me no end that the spelling check of Blogger did not know blog, blogging and Blogger. Now it does! It still does not know Blogger's!

This gives me some hope.

Does anyone know how we can help Blogger do a better job of this?

I am waiting, hopefully not for Godot!

Attention to Detail

I came across a board while driving to Ramanagara from Bengaluru. On the way back, I stopped to photograph it. It is an advertisement for a college of management and there is a spelling error in the board.

My further comments are in kannaDa - Here.

Five weeks at Aachen

Here are some of my favourite pictures from my visit to Aachen and the stay of five weeks there. I uploaded the pictures in chronological order and ended up having them in the reverse chronological order. It should not really matter to you as you can see them as individual pictures. I have provided a brief description of each. Here you go!

This is the statue of Gänseliesel. One of the symbols of the city of Göttingen. The city is also called the city of science (Stadt der Wissenschaft) to which title, Aachen also lays a claim. Gänseliesel - loosely translated as Liesel with geese is called the most kissed girl in the world because the tradition in Göttingen is that a new doctorate from the university has to kiss this girl!

Visiting Göttingen was a long standing ambition of mine because of the seated man in the picture of the sculpture above - Gauss - a man who needs no introduction. The standing man is Weber. I felt that it is "blasphemous" that someone has placed a can of coke or red bull in Gauss' hand! I tried in vain to dislodge it before taking the picture. It originally held a (representation of) a copper wire, now lost. The locals call this statue, "It is not fair, you should let me sit too" or some such thing!

This is the grave of Gauss. Next to it is the grave of another great scientist Gmelin.

I call this picture the Bidige (The second day of the lunar fortnight) Chandra (Moon) from Göttingen. I happened to be there on the day after Yugadi (one of the many Hindu New Years days) and the clear sky after a very rainy day was too tempting not to shoot this.

This is another symbol of Göttingen. The towers of this church St. Johns Church are dissimilar. Viewed in brilliant evening sun after the very rainy day. It is the oldetst of the Göttingen churches - originally built in the 15th century. (I have not found out the reason why the towers are dissimilar, yet)

During my stay in Aachen, I stayed in an apartment in Burtscheid. Burtscheid was once a separate village and is now a part of Aachen. The picture of the church of St. Johann (John the Baptist), was shot from the window of the drawing room of my apartment.

A sunset in Aachen. I was returning home after shopping for some food and this was what I saw, from Eupener Straße. One end of this road, meets Weisshausstraße and at the junction is was my office.

The first time I saw frost. A rainy day, followed by a very clear night, the temperature dropped, the dew froze and . .

This is a wall made of trimmed trees. This was in a place called Kalterherberg (Cold Hostel - literally). Trees are planted very close to each other and repeatedly trimmed to make walls out of them. You can see doors and windows cut in them too, Very popular in the region.


A statue on the streetside, in Burtscheid.

Moonrise seen from a small alley called Soldatengässchen (Soldiers' alley) on the way from my office to my apartment.

Fresh overnight snow. I had only seen fallen snow - like this and far thicker too earlier. But never - falling snow. Aachen provided me an opportunity. It was raining - at about 9:30 in the morning and I looked up from my monitor and it was snowing. Got out of the office to the car park in the basement and shot some stills and shot clips too.


This is an interesting device. You can see such contraptions at the doors of many old houses. It is for scraping caked mud off your shoes when you return home on a rainy day. Perhaps nowadays this is no longer of any use in cities - with excellent roads and pavements.

A piece of streetside art on a street in Aachen. This was perhaps erected during an equestrian meet held in Aachen years ago. The horse looks as if it is in a cage but there is no gap between the horse and the vertical bars.

Near the Soldatengässchen mentioned above, is a Kindergarten. Quite a few posters were hung on its fence - all with the same message. The inscription reads "This is no toilet of dogs" to ward off dog walkers using the fence for the mentioned purpose. Looked effective too. Graphic graphics, apparently made by the students of the Kidnergarten!


The drawing room of my apartment and the window from which I shot the church of St. Johann. So this was home for five weeks full of learning.

Away at Aachen

People who know me, find it difficult to believe that I have been "silent" - in terms of blog posts, that is - since February 24, 2009 - that is 7+ weeks.The reason for my silence is that I was in Aachen, Germany. I was being mentored there in the art of drafting patent applications. It was a time for serious learning and I enjoyed it. I had a grand time personally too.

Off office hours I had no access to the net and hence I could not blog. My mentor told me that once I start drafting patent applications, writing for pleasure, like blogging for instance, may feel different. Patent applications are documents written to secure a legal right on inventions - Interllectual Property. Achieving that purpose is paramount and the beauty of composition is the first casualty!

Charles Darwin found that writing the Origin of Species ruined his ability to enjoy literature. My earlier job involved reading patent documents and other technical literature. That did spoil my pleasure of reading literature - especailly pulp (Oxymoron?)! I do sincerely hope that patent application drafting won't spoil the pleasure of writing for pleasure!

Pardon me for talking about myself in the same paragraph mentioning Darwin. No comparisons intended. (Even if it was intended, who would believe it anyway)

Some say that his magnum opus actually contains some really lucid and beautiful prose, though! I have the book but I have not progressed beyond the first ten pages. One day . .

In any case, the camera I bought for the purpose of digitally recording my trip to Aachen has done its job well. I will post them in the next post and the rest of them on Picasa.

Spring in the Air - 2

I had celebrated the arrival of spring with some pictures last year too also. The difference is that this time the camera is my own!

I am preparing to go to Germany for a month and one of the first things I did was to buy a camera! A Sony Cyber-shot DSC W210. I am yet to get used to it - having done all my earlier photography with a Canon T70. Here are some of the first results. Hopefully, more will follow before I leave, in about a week and of better quality than these.

Rain trees with new leaves. N R Colony, Near Nettakallappa Circle

Yellow flowers in bloom. Botanically oriented may please supply the name of the tree. These are to be seen on the from National College to Gayana Samaja.

Spring in the Air

Don't say "Why should I?" like in the joke by George Mikes famous for his impossibly hilarious books such as "How to be an Alien" and "How to be decadent"!

This picture is to celebrate the arrival of Vasanta - Spring - in Bangalore.

This tree in full bloom, is jut around the corner from my home.

Anti-Superstition

At last there is one advertisement to cheer about.

The ICICI Prudential advertisement makes some remark about the futility of adding letters to your name. Kkaran, in this case.

After Jayalalithaa and Yeddiyoorappa successes, perhaps this madness had gained in strength!

So, this advertisement is a welcome change.

Gandhi and Madonna

I am sure that the title is catchy enough. But there is a reason for this title, other than an effort to make it catchy. At least, I did not put Madonna before Gandhi!

The Saturday issue of Deccan Herald carried two small news items. I had missed them and Jayanth Laxman, a friend who could always be relied on to bring such things to my notice, did bring them to my attention.

One said that a nude photograph of Madonna fetched some 37,500 dollars in an auction.

Right below this piece of information was the report that Gandhi's memorablia - sandals, watch, glasses, etc. will be auctioned soon and is expected to fetch 20,000 to 30,000 dollars.

No comments.

The Land of Kamasutra!

I should perhaps write this in my Blog Peripatetica as it concerns an incident from my not so frequent travels. But the context is here and now.

In front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris I came across the most unusual description of India.

There used to be a perfumes seller in front of the famed cathedral. He had a donkey kart filled with all kinds of perfumes. This ‘caricature’ of a Frenchman spoke several languages, flirted with all his women customers blatantly but charmingly. I watched his performance for a while and when my turn came (yes there is a queue in front of so humble a shop) I told him what i wanted. As he was preparing my order, he asked me, with a twinkle in his eyes: “Where are you from, Sir?”

“India”, I said.

He stopped his preparations and raised his hands in the air and looked heavenwards with reverence on his face, “Aaaah! The land of the Kamasutra!”. If he had mathematical bent, he would have said, “Aaaah! The land of zero!”, perhaps. Since he was an admirer of the ‘gentler’ sex, as evident by his flirting, it had to be Kamasutra, I guess.

If this happened today, what would he say? I wonder.

“Oh no, the land of the Kamasutra that does not tolerate public kissing?”

"Oh no, the land of Kamasutra that does not like Valentine’s day?"

No, I will not provide a link to that one. Why publicise something that craves just that?

I do not like Valentine’s day, which is just a commerce driven event that destroys the environment – with all the cards that are exchanged. The suspicion is that this is a non-event made big by the greeting card industry – as is often claimed.

But ban it? Threaten the couples with dire consequences – like marriage for instance!!!!?

Amreekandesi took objections to calling the happenings in Mangalore Talibanisation. I wonder if he will change his opinion, after this. Taliban imposed strict “Islamic behaviour” before it could get that kind of power. Men should have beards, women should be in Purdah, etc., and punished the offenders brutally. That was the first step.

A character in James Michener’s “Caravans”, set in Afghanistan, says something like, “Don’t give power to the mullahs. It will ruin the country.” It really does not matter if it is a Mullah or a priest in any other garb, power mixed with religion is ruinous.

I hope that we, as a nation, are better or luckier.

Women Are from Venus . . .

Australian Open mixed doubles final. Great day for Sania Mirza. She has won her first grand slam title. Great day for ‘Hesh Mahesh Bhupati. This is his nth (n>10) grand slam title.

Prize distribution ceremony. The cup is given away and collected gleefully. The check is given away and collected gleefully.

Then the Australian special comes in. Two Teddy bears are offered and Sania’s hands are full – the large trophy. ‘Hesh collects it for her graciously and hugs one and dunks the other FACE DOWN (or bottom up) in the trophy Sania is holding. Sania says something sharply to ‘Hesh. He looks sheepish (or did I imagine that?) and adjusts the Teddy so that it faces the waiting cameras.

. . . . Men Are from Mars

Music or Noise?

Indian classical musicians make all kinds of interesting gestures with their hands when they perform. Each musician has his or her own characteristic gesture, as distinctive as their voices or singing style.

But, all of them seem to share one gesture. Let me try to describe it in words. Left hand pointing to or touching the microphone and the right hand moving jerkily upwards, with the palm facing up. This gesture is performed invariably with the musician's face turned towards the person manning the amplification system. Even the accompanists are no exception to this. They repeatedly interrupt their playing and make this gesture.

The result of this is: EAR SPLITTING MUSIC . I stopped myself from saying noise. At that volume it is very hard to make out the difference.

You might say that I am being overly critical. But I am sure there are many who agree with me. When will our musicians see light? Not that there are none. Sri T N Krishnan for one, pushes the mic away, as soon as he settles down. So does Dr. N Rajam. Runs in the family, perhaps.

Recently, I heard Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe's concert. A rare early morning concert so that morning ragas could be presented. She sang Nat Bhairav and Bilaskhani Todi. Very good renderings. But the mic was so close to her mouth and the volume so high that we could hear sounds that should not be heard.

A week before that, I heard an all-night concert in which the same phenomenon was to be seen. I mean heard. There too Dr. N Rajam's concert was the sweetest (Darbari Kanhara. It was excellent.) as the sound level was on a human scale.

Musicians seem to have forgotten that they are practitioners of a fine art!

Are the musicians and organisers listening to this plea? Or should I turn the VOLUME WAY UP?

Has Darwin Failed? II

Quite accidentally I came across the English version of Ist Darwin gescheitert? on Spiegel Online!

Here it is.

Now, I plan to compare this with my own translation and see how I have done. The first paragraph was very encouraging.

Prof Aprameya - A Tribute

I heard that Professor Aprameya of NIE, Mysore, passed away on 5 January, 2009.

He was a legend. I had heard of him even before I started studying in NIE.

The sheer influence of his personality was such that while other teachers struggled to establish some kind of authority over the students, Prof. Aprameya, well, just had it.

Since I was a student of electronics engineering, under normal circumstances, I would not have had the good fortune of being taught by him. But, thanks to an unusual set of circumstances, I did attend one of his classes. We had a greenhorn teacher who enraged us by his behaviour. When he came in to our next class, a roof high tower made out of stools used in the drawing classes confronted him. He promptly made a hasty about turn and went to the staff room and complained to Prof. Aprameya. He came into the class and in a very casual manner, without even looking at the offending tower, asked us to bring it down. It was, pronto. We thought he would chastise us. He gave affectionate advice instead. He told us how we should treat the new teacher like a friend and get along happily. He cited how "Prasanna" (The inimitable E A S Prasanna, who was an alumnus of NIE) played cricket, enjoyed college life and went on to achieve great fame, etc.

He took the day's class himself and taught us some engineering drawing. The way he could draw lines on the black board was unbelievable. The drawings came to life.

It is difficult to write about such a man as he. In lieu of it here is what the others have said about him. Sri Bapu Satyanarayana, one of the writers to be found in this site, kindly sent me the link, so that I could add it here.

Has Darwin Failed?

This year is a year for a double celebration - in science.

• 150 years since Charles Darwin published his "The Origin of Species"

• 400 years since Galileo turned his telescope towards the skies and changed man's concept of the world and himself.

Both brought man down from the pedestal he had placed himself on. There are debates about who did more in that direction. Galileo showed that we are not the centre of the Universe and Darwin showed that god did not create man after his own image.

In honour of these two events, there are many interesting articles in the press. I came across one of them and decided to translate it for myself. I did and here it is for your reading pleasure - hopefully.

The Original German Article from Spiegel Online: Ist Darwin Gescheitert?

My liberal translation of it: Has Darwin Failed?

Zamana Badal Gaya

This has been bothering me a long time.

Indra Nooyi is awarded the Padma Bhushan. Pullella Gopichand, the Padmashri.

Wondering what the connection is?

Nooyi is the CEO of a company that is actively contributing to the ticking time bomb of diabetes in India. The products of her company symbolises imprudent consumption. It uses water that is scarce and converts into a drink that has no benefits, except to the people who make it and sell it.

Pullela Gopichand, a fine human being and a great achiever, refused to endorse some Cola, perhaps even Pepsi. The offer must have been lucrative and hard to resist, to anyone, except Pullela.

Our omniscient government deems it fit to honour her and not him.

This has been boiling inside me from the day Nooyi's award was announced. The anger or frustration was so much that I did not blog it. Today the nudge from a friend finally made me write this. Thanks friend!

Pragmatism

I was reminded of
Cromwell's admonition
To his troops,
"Put your trust in god,
But, keep the powder dry",
When I saw
The three spikes
Of a lightning arrestor
Atop the tall tower
Of a house worship

Mera Bharat Mahan

I was watching some “nature” channel on TV and the programme was on snakes, cobras in particular. It took us to various lands and showed us the different species of cobras in those lands.

The location shifted and there were huge boulders and the presenter was walking on them towards a snake. I could see that there were inscriptions on the rock. No, not the type that would interest an epigraphist. More recent graffiti and quite large. I tried to read what was written and at the back of my mind derived some satisfaction that it was not only in our country that people leave their (ugly) mark on otherwise beautiful rocks.

My satisfaction was short lived.

That new country turned out to be, you guessed it, India.