Perpetually Perplexed

At no time in the history, have so many people with so few things to say have written so many things which so few people read.

You cheer them, you encourage them, you bite your nails and sit on the edge of the couch holding your breath. Then you jump up and dance. You always do this whenever your hero jumps from a 100 feet tower, drives the car over a bridge or does some other equally heroic act. Escpecially so if you are a child or a male. But you do know for that all these heroic acts are not performed by your favorite hero but by a stuntsman whose name nobody knows and nobody cares. When Sr Bachanji got seriously hurt decades back in a stunt the entire nation was with him. But these men fall, get hurt, many a times will become invalids for life or even lose their life. Do we ever notice this fact? In NatGeo channel  they were showing a young man who did not have the word "fear" in his vocabulary, named Vidya Shetty. He used to perform many types of stunts for different actors including jumping from helicopter. In one such action he fell and hurt his neck, due to which he has became paralyzed....

I am staring at my hand. Not searching for fine lines (wrinkles) as the advertisers make you think every middle aged lady does. But I am looking at the dried and parched palm and fingers. The result of mopping the floor with water mixed with soap powder. Shouldn't I be remembering my own words "Pushpa (or Savitha or Shantamma or whoever is the current domestic help) see the floor is not looking very clean. Add soap powder (phenyl) and  then mop. Why is the floor too wet?" And I do not want to go to the kitchen because the sink  overflowing with dirty vessels will give me a threatening look. And I remember my grumbling with my maids about vessels not being cleanly washed. The floor is dirty. Clothes are not washed. And in one sentence my life and house are in a mess. Why do we Indians never learn to take care of our own homes? I have been repeatedly telling everyone and myself that I do not depend on maid servants for my house work. I don't think anyone is convi...

Most of our problems have really simple solutions. But we tend to ignore them and instead keep crying mommy.... Some trivial example here. I was having severe cold and cough. I kept grumbling, crying and lying down for 2 days. Then I just took a cough syrup and see now I am back at blogger. And because of cold, my tongue was tasteless and I wanted to eat crisp and spicy fried food. Then I realized a simpler solutions. I put a small piece of tamarind in my mouth. I felt equally better without the consequences like worsening of cough or acidity. And did I tell you about how I paid 1600 rupees to IndusInd bank for a deficit account. Yes, I had an account, and there were not much funds. But they did not inform me until November. And by that time maintenance fees has gone upto 1600 (275 rs per month). When I went to close the account, the helpful lady told me that I have to pay that amount before I close the account. I paid cursingly. And the best part of is today I got a second lett...

I am a great fan of dummies books and articles. And I always wondered how is that, there was no article   in the category for cooking and cleaning. So I am giving you a few points I learnt .(the hard way) If you have kept milk on the stove, never leave the kitchen, under that false hope that you will come after some time to check it. Believe me, you won't. More so, if you are under the spell of comp.  All your milk will pour out of the vessel, or worse still, some of it which is left in the vessel, would burn and burn the vessel.  It is better to multi-task for this situation. You cook something else when milk is on stove. But you say you have only 2 burners. Then you invest in new fancy 4 burner stoves with glass top. They are worth the occasional burns on hands. And glass top gives your kitchen a classy look and yourself some - extra work to clean it 20 times in a day.  If pressure cooker is on the stove, make a point to check it at least after half an ...

Last one need not be true.     healthylivingforyou.tumblr.com

Wilhelm is lonely, jobless and separated from his wife. And he does not know how to solve any of these problems. He tries to get sympathy from his father Dr. Adler. But Adler is sad but irritated by his son and does not want to accept another burden in his eighties. For him both his children Wilhelm and Catherine who at forties still has an ambition of becoming an artist, are great disappointments. Wilhelm left college and home with a dream of making it big in Broadway, knowing too well he might be committing biggest mistake. After failing to make a career there, he becomes a salesman, get married and has children. Now comes another woman who being a catholic wants to marry him. Wilhelm tries to get divorce from wife Margaret who will not give it. He has difference in the office and leaves the job. But his wife still expects him to pay for the maintenance of her and her children. What little money he has, he gives it to friend Tamkin again knowing that this man is not to be truste...

I had this idea, when I was riding. I do get ideas only when I am riding. Because then the second form of Idiot box (computer) will not be in front of me tweaking my brain. And I go very slowly and hence get plenty of time to think. So the I had this doubt regarding the name Manish when I saw the name at the backside of an auto. What does manish mean? Normally Isha is Lord. As in Ramesh, Suresha, Dinesha etc. etc. But what does mani mean in Sanskrit? Or was the name originally manuhsa which later got changed to Manish? Or is it a name coined by new age desperate parents who want their children to have a completely unique name? And did these parents create the name money+isha. One who has mastered money. But most of us are mani-dasas. (slave of money). May be that is the reason these parents decided to make their child lord of money. Then I reached home and that was the end of thinking. Once we catch hold of computer, we substitute thinking by googling.  According to wikipedia,...

The food subsidy bill passed by the government yesterday is too ambitious and not very far sighted. Food subsidy may be needed for the poorest of the poor. But is it needed for 75% of rural and half of rural population? People want to work so that they can buy  food grains. So poor must be provided with jobs. And also there must be some way of controlling the inflation so that poor can buy their two wholesome meals with the money they earn. And as people are saying everywhere, public distribution systems are so inefficient and corrupt that a major portion of these grains will be drained away before it reaches the poor. There must be a better way of implementing the food distribution. One thing we can all agree is that poor and even lower middle class people find medical expenditure too expensive to bear. There are government hospitals who provide services. But people prefer not to go there. So subsidies in medicines and hospital bills will be more beneficial to peo...

This book by Kazuo Ishiguro is quite an interesting book. Initially I had to struggle to continue reading. But it was worth the struggle. The narrator, Mr. Stevens is a gentleman's gentleman - a butler in his late years. He recollects his former employer and the happenings in the house during 1930s. He is advised by his current employer Mr. Farraday to take a road tour which he does after initial hesitation. He has another motive. He wants to bring back the formal employee Miss Kenton, now married back to the house. He is short of staff members. He remembers various misunderstandings he and Miss Kenton had and also the last days of his father. He also feels happy that he has maintained one quality for a good butler which is dignity. When his father had attack and is taking his last breath, a very important conference is going on  in the house. Mr. Stevens does not let this event affect the conference in any way. On the whole a reasonably good book.

Are you really tired of asking your husband to help you in chores? Does he lie there watching TV when you literally run to keep the house and family members in a good shape? Well, I think he inherits this trait from other mammals. I was watching on nat geo channel how mama lion was planning for the meal of the day, watching the meal, planning how to approach and attack it. Where as papa lion was doing what he is very good. Just lying on his back. He is too conspicuous to hunt because of his mane it seems.  (Don't we know about the vanity of males?) He just idles away his time waiting for the mama lion to catch the prey. When she attacking the prey, he makes a dramatic entrance and helps with the attack. So much for the male pride!

My kannada keyboard is ready to use (beta version ). Please feel free to use it and give me lot of feedback. Here is the link  kannada keyboard Screen shots "Open kb " will display the virtual keyboard on the screen. Type the contents using this keyboard and you can save it in a file or even copy and paste it to mail or any other program. I think I have created a kb with static libraries so that program would work even without qt in your computer. If you face difficulty running the program something like unable to load library, please let me know.

I was listening to some kannada song with reasonably good lyrics and not too bad music. How did that happen? Because I only listen to radio one or one not four which play Hindi songs. It happened thus. The mobile was in my jacket pocket. And I was washing vessels. May be when I bent, the channel changed. I was reluctant to switch back the channel. So I ended up listening kannada song. And I was happy for the turn of events(channels).  Decided to myself I should listen more kannada songs. Then came the opening line and I was crest fallen. The line was" kariya I love you...". Kariya in kannada is blacky. Hey girl, aren't you supposed to love a fair boy with blue eyes Hritik-ish? This is the color prejudice all of us Indians share. Fair is pretty, black is ugly. I know it is completely wrong. But prejudice is prejudice. I remember one incident from my childhood. One of my uncles is pretty dark and looks more so because his other siblings are all pretty fair. My three y...

Had read somewhere that human stupidity is infinite. No, what is infinite is human cruelty. Today's TOI has a news that a man  killed his three year old step son for asking for food. He lifted the child, rammed his head against the wall. Are we going back to a barbaric era? It seems he was in an inebriated condition.  And we hear many such tales of families going through hell because of alcoholism among these people. Here I feel religious organizations can be of help. They can take steps  to prevent alcoholism among poor people. They should convince people that if they drink they will go straight to hell. And graphically explain what awaits them there etc. etc. Coming from a their mouth people will believe this. 

This may read like a Hindi comedy film. I had my pan card. I needed the details for my android market. When I just verified the details in the income tax website, just to be sure, I realized that the department calls me as Hegde Usha where my name is Hegde and family name is Usha. This initiated the circus. I, self proclaimed computer expert searched a site, (in fact it is nsdl site ) where I can apply online and make payment of some 97 rupees from debit card. That step was not so difficult. Then I posted the acknowledgement along with my photo and copy of previous pan card and xerox of my passport as proof of my identity. But I think when printing the acknowledgement, I printed the entire page in A4 sheet which caused the acknowledgement to be shrunk. For fifteen days, I did not get any news. That is nothing new, considering the number of applications they may be getting. Then one day, I got an email from them saying there is a problem with my photo, and it is not of the proper ...

He was sitting in front of his shop. If you can call that as a shop. A small stand which is covered with some cloth and converted into a goodu where his wares are displayed. I could not quite make out what is that he is selling. No customer is present. Nor is he tensed for this lack. He is in fact asleep on the steel chair kept in the front. What sorrows and worries is he hiding behind that slumber? What burden he is shouldering so that he still has to work in hot sun in his age? May be this will be story of all of us. 

I have almost stopped stumbling and started savoring. Don't think that this is my bad effort in poetry. It is not. I am using delicious instead of stumbleupon as a time pass. Stumble upon would invariably make me read jokes which will make me laugh. And that is all. Even though I had listed around 30 interests - other interests would not interest me.  May be I am not yet fully aware how to stumble across truths. Where as delicious is better.  And I came across TED from delicious and I like it.  I even tried digging, but it did not yield much fruit. So what are you waiting for start using delicious. 

Nagarathna Hegde comes from a lower middle class parents. Her mother works as a cook and her parents also work in a cashew nut factory. But both their children were hard working and studied with the help of scholarships.  Few months ago, Nagarathna wrote a thesis for Cambridge University regarding  thiostrepton,  a molecule which could stop the spread of breast cancer without surgical removal. Source : Economic times 

ಆಗ -   ನಡೆಯುವ  ದಾರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ   ಕಲ್ಲು ಮುಳ್ಳುಗಳು ತುಂಬಿರುತ್ತಿದ್ದವು. ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವರರ ಪಾದ ಗಾಯಗಳಿಂದ ಆವ್ರತವಾಗಿರರುತ್ತಿತ್ತು ಈಗ - ಗಾಡಿ ಓಡಿಸೋ  ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ   ಹೊಂಡಗಳು, ಮ್ಯಾನ್ ಹೋಲ್ ಕವರ್ಗಳೆಂಬ ಪರ್ವತಗಳು ತುಂಬಿರುತ್ತವೆ. ಗಾಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗುವವರ ತಲೆ ನೂರು ಹೋಳಾಗದಿದ್ದರೆ ಅವರ ಪುಣ್ಯ. ಆಗ - ದಾರಿಯ ಮಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ನದಿಯೋ ಹೊಳೆಯೋ ಅಡ್ಡ ಬಂದು ಮುಂದೆ ಹೋಗುವದು ಹೇಗೆಂಬ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆ ಎದುರಾಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಈಗ - ರಸ್ತೆಯ ಮಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಪಾತ ಅಡ್ಡ ಬಂದು ಗಾಡಿ ಓಡಿಸುವವನು(ಳು)  ತಬ್ಬಿಬ್ಬಾಗುವ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿ. (ಉದಾ .ಬಸವನಗುಡಿ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಆಫೀಸ್ ಎದುರು ನೋಡಿದ್ದೀರಲ್ಲ ) ಆಗ - ಕಾಡು ಪ್ರಾಣಿಗಳೋ, ಹಾವೋ ಬರ ಬಹುದೆಂಬ ಭಯವಿರುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಈಗ - ಟ್ರಾಫಿಕ್ ಪೋಲಿಸ್ ಎಂಬ ಗುಮ್ಮ ಬಂದು ರೊಂಗ್ ವೇ ಎಂದೋ, ಕೆಂಪು ಸಿಗ್ನಲ್ ಕ್ರಾಸ್ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೀಯೆಂದೋ ದಂಡ ಹಾಕಿ ಬಿಡಬಹುದೆಂಬ ಭಯ ಈಗ ಹೇಳಿ. ನಮ್ಮ ಕಾಲ ಸುಧರಿಸಿದೆಯಾ ?

Dear namma sarakar, why are the snatching our pens (keyboards?) from us? (I can not say snatching bread from our our childrens' mouths. Nobody is gullible enough to believe that a blogger lives from blog earning) If you decide that we can not write about God, we can not write about netas, whom do we blog about? We can not blog about our husbands(or wives). They will have to feed us (or cook for us -whichever is the case). We can not blog about sabziwalla, dukanwalla or even our maids. We do need them. We thought HE is too far away to come here and trouble us when we caricature him. And we were sure that he does not have any kith and kin here who may trouble us. Like "I may fight with my husband twenty times in a day. Who are you  to ask ?" , it is our personal matter. I find different ways of making fun of him and he will find different ways of putting vighnas(stumbling blocks) in my ways. We have a good mutual understanding. And I am sure he is not that sensitive....

Background : I am not so good in Hindi. Most of hindi I learnt is from films. So I thought let me get the proper meaning of the song I posted in the morning. And my dictionary was not having one out of three words I was searching. So I resorted to technology viz google. I typed the song in google translate. And this is how it is translated the song मै ज़िन्दगी का साथ निभाता चला गया हर ज़िक्र को धुएं  में उडाता चला गया गम और ख़ुशी में फरक न महसूस हो जहाँ मै दिल को उस मकाम पे लाता  चला गया Translated text in English I   went   to play   with   life Every   mention   of   the   smoke   went   Udata Where   sorrow   and   feel the   difference   in   happiness I   went   to the heart   bring   on   the   Kingdom It is like the time when one of my friends was trying to add 33 and 10 using a calculator and got 40 as the answer.  Well may be ther...

गम और ख़ुशी में फरक न महसूस न हो जहाँ मै दिल को उस मकाम पे लाता चला गया (कोशिश तो कर रही हूँ ) हर जिक्र को धुएं में उडाता चला गया जो मिल गया उसी को मुकद्दर समझ लिया जो  खो गया मै उस को भूलता चला गया हर जिक्र को धुएं में उडाता चला गया Heard this song yesterday. One of my favorite songs from the film Hum dono. Am trying to put it into practice. 

I was reading a Ted Conversation started by an American about right to recall. But in Indian context will it ever work? Look at the situation here. The two major national parties and many many other regional parties - have you ever heard of any party selecting a candidate based on his efficiency, his performance and his will to work for the constituency? I haven't. What are the criteria for selecting the candidates? In this constituency, which caste/community has majority votes? Which person has lot of money to distribute during campaigning?etc. etc. If such is the case, which candidate will we vote for? And after they get elected, do we expect anything from them? And once they get elected, they do really get busy. They have to find out which party comes to power and how can they join that without getting disqualified from anti-defection laws? And if by chance their entire party (may be consisting of 4 elected representatives ) decides to support the government, which ministries...

As I mentioned earlier, I had developed a soft keyboard - kannada/devanagari for android mobile phones. Then I thought, why not write a similar app for pc. My baraha latest is not working. Even if we can type in kannada, guessing how to type ತ ತ ಠ etc. is really cumbersome. As we all know, great programmers steal , or rather use open source software and change a line here and a line there and publish it in their name. So I got a keyboard widget from qt app website, modified it and lo my kannada keyboard is ready. But only catch is,  I can type the content into their window, not in blogger window like this or msword. For the curious (i know the chances are 0.0001%) here is the screen shot of my keyboard.

I think I was (still am to a large extent) too haughty. Anything traditional was according to me too silly. So I did not know any of the songs to be told to God, I did not know how to draw a rangoli. So much so that, I even did not know how to make a garland from Jasmine flowers. I was under the impression that I am too much of an intellectual to care for these things. It was not to be. So I am learning these things now. I learnt some simple rangoli designs without using dots by observing the domestic helps. Now I have decided that everyday I will learn one new rangoli from the net and put it in front of the door. Two days are completed. And things have gone well so far. And the title? Well my family thinks that this new craze too will pass. 

ಚರಿಪಾರಣ್ಯದ ಪಕ್ಷಿಗೊಂದು ತರು ಗೊಡ್ಢಾಗಲ್ ಫಲಂ ಈವಿದಾ ಮರಗಳ್ ಪುಟ್ಟವೆ ಪುಷ್ಪವೊಂದು ಬಳಲಲ್  ಭ್ರಂಗಕ್ಕೆ ಪೂವಿಲ್ಲವೆ ನಿರತಂ ಸತ್ಕವಿಗೋರ್ವ ಗರ್ವಿದಂ ನೃಪ ತಾಂ ಲೋಭಿಯಾಗಲ್ ನಿಜಂ ಧರೆಯೊಳ್ ದಾತರು ಪುಟ್ಟರೆ ಹರ ಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನ ಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರ Will a bird in the wild go hungry just because one fruit tree dries up? If one flower withers, will not the bee get any flowers? If one haughty king is miserly, will there be no patrons (of poetry) on this earth? ಕೆಲವಂ ಬಲ್ಲವರಿಂದ ಕಲ್ತು ಕೆಲವಂ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಂಗಳೋದುತಂ ಕೆಲವಂ ಮಾಳ್ಪವರಿಂದ ಕಂಡು ಕೆಲವಂ ಸುಜ್ಙಾನದಿಂ  ನೋಡುತಂ ಕೆಲವಂ ಸಜ್ಜನಸಂಗದಿಂದಲರಿಯಲ್ ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞನಪ್ಪಂ ನರಂ ಪಲವಂ ಪಳ್ಳ ಸಮುದ್ರವೈ ಹಾರ ಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನ ಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರ Learning from wise men, reading from good books, observing others  work and learning from good company, these are the ways a man becomes omni-scient (sarvajna - one who knows everything). Just like many streams join together to make an ocean. P.S. 1) If you find some of my wordings in this shataka is wrong, please let me know. It is a 40 year old memory. 2) There are also...

Borrowed(stolen??) from India today "Honesty in politics is like oxygen. Higher you go, rarer it becomes."

idenu, mincha?

Many birds will be flying with me in the evening. Of course I will be walking, not flying. Today I saw two crows flying and I was happy. I knew them by name. Crow and crow. You say lame? Yeah. 

(Husband) was watching yakshagana "Lankadahana". Lanka was the town of Ravana. It was burnt by Hanumantha when he went there in search of Sita and the demons tried to put fire to his tail. I remembered a story about Hanuman and Sita. All the monkeys were eagerly waiting for Sita as they heard lot of accolades about her beauty. When she arrived from Lanka, they were in for a shock. One of them exclaimed "who says she is beautiful? She does not have a tail at all" Yakshagana : a folk art form popular in South kanara and North Kanara districts of Karnataka Sita : The main character of Ramayana. She was the wife of Lord Rama and was kidnapped by Demon Ravana.  Hanuman : A devout follower of Lord Rama. Is a monkey. Helps Rama in finding and rescuing Sita Lanka : The town of King Ravana - said to be current day's Sri Lanka

Bangaloreans, you must have heard about Indian Institute of World Culture's library which has a very large collection of books and costs you next to nothing. You pay an annual fees of some 500  odd  then you can borrow books and magazines and keep them for up to 15 days and return them. Please make a point to visit there and see. But there was one problem. The books will not always be new (how childish complaint) and you do not get recent magazines (which is not so good). The children's section has lot of books on different academic subjects along with fiction. Your children can make use of the library in weekends. But yes, I did find another library nearer to my house and reasonably good (though not very cheap). Yes, there is Just books near my house and today I became a member. I was happily surprised to see the collection of books there, not only thrillers and romances, but classics as well.

God knows is such a beautiful book at times comic, at times sad. Few more quotes from the book. (yes,  I am still reading it.) He (Moses) was as nearly perfect as it is possible for a human to be. He asked nothing for himself and nothing is what he got. "It takes very little to make us (women) happy and more than what is contained in heaven and earth to keep us that way" says Abigail - one of Kind David's wives. "....My father, the king was mad. Then I realized something worse. The Lord my God was also mad. And when I realized that, I began to weep. My heart was broken and I did not care" says Jonathan King David's enemy Saul's son. Solomon talks of building luxurious temples. "Isn't that all highly extravagant?...How will you pay for it" Asks king David. "I will tax and spend, tax and spend"  (Now we know Indian politicians have read this one book for sure) "No I have never understood why I've never be...

Today there was a news article saying that a place of worship has imposed a dress code for the people visiting there. (Hence forth, I will not use names, I will try to be subtle, and tactical here because I do not want to get in the wrong terms with fanatics   hurt the feelings of any religion.) The statement given by the authorities says that the people must dress decently. Their attire should not distract other worshipers. What is your take on that, O Almighty? Do you mind if people dress not so decently when they give you a visit? Or will you be distracted as well or may be embarassed?  When you are telling to whomever that " bless this little girl who is wearing uh uh , what was I saying again?". But you are here for thousands of years when the dressing modestly was had a more liberal meaning. When people used to dress in much lesser items. Well anyway if you still feel embarrassed in front of your children, who are being economical in their dresses, you can watc...

Do you ever wonder I always post pictures of flowers, sky, tree etc, but never of any human beings. (As if any body cares!) Many other bloggers keep posting each and every step of their children. Of course when children are babies or toddlers and mine is neither. But the truth is I do not post the photos of fellow human beings because everyone hates me !! (mhp is my own abbreviation for most hated person)

I was on the terrace walking my evening walk. We Indian urban women have to have a maid servant to clean our house, clothes and vessels. Then we have to walk in the evening to exercise our body. So I was walking on the terrace, with the headphone thrust in my ears and some meaningless (which means I did not understand lyrics ) songs playing straight into my brain. Then I looked at the sky, the sky is blushing or is it turning red, from too much laughing. At the futility of my effort (not even 1 nm of my girth would be reduced from my walk).   As I kept looking, sky turned from red to scarlet to purple. Then it gobbled up all these colors and turned a gloomy dark blue. I was left alone with a bird flying high in the sky. Both aimless wanderers. Both bird brained.  As I decided to end this  and come down to earth   house, there appeared in the sky a little star, telling me "don't feel so very sad. mai hun na". I know, I know, it is not a star. It is just the p...

One of the greatest Asian women, Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent almost 15 years in house arrest, many times spending time in prison as well for protesting against the military junta in Myanmar. She was released in 2010.  She was awarded Nobel peace prize in 1991.  She is the daughter of Aung San who negotiated Burmese freedom from British government in 1945 and later assassinated by political rival. Her mother Khin Kyi was Burmese ambassador for India and Nepal in 1960.  Suu Kyi was married to Micheal Aris in 1972 when she was working in UN. But later when she returned in Burma, he was denied entry visa. Even when he was ailing with Prostrate cancer, and many world leaders pleaded for his visa, the Burmese government denied him the visa, instead asking Suu kyi to leave the country and visit him. She did not do so, as she was afraid, when she wants to return, she would be denied the visa.  In 1990 elections, her party won 80% of...

I will have to provide the answers to my earlier quiz , though most of you have found the answers yourselves.  The number whose square is same number is One .  1X1 =1.  (I think that is the only answer) The value of g is 9.81 m/s2. This is the acceleration by which you will fall down if you jump from height. (e.g. fifth floor of a building). Try it once ;-) Hydrogen is the element with no neutrons in its nucleus. It has atomic number of 1 and weight of 1. In its nucleus it has only one proton, but no neutrons The author of War and Peace is 19th century Russian author Leo Tolstoy Published in 1869, this book is considered as one of greatest books in World literature Anna Karenina is another famous  book by Tolstoy Stockholm is the capital of the country Sweden (I honestly did  google only after guessing the answer correctly) In 1757 battle of Plassey took place Siraj Ud Daul and Robert Clive leading East India Co...

I am really running out of ideas to write today. Too much of stumbling and neck pain caused from that. Anyway let me write a set of quiz questions for you to answer. Maths : Which is the only number whose square is equal to original number? Physics : What is the value of g - acceleration due to gravity? Chemistry : Which element has no neutrons at all in its nucleus? English : (should I say literature) Who is the author of the book "War and Peace"? Geography: Which is the capital of the country Sweden? History (Indian) : What was the major event in 1757 in Indian History? GK :  Who is the chief minister of Bihar? And of Uttaranchal? Puzzle : If your son's age is one third your age now, and his age was one fourth of your age five years ago, what is your son's age now? Cricket : Which Indian cricketer has the nick name Jammy?  Entertainment(Bollywood) : In which popular Hindi film had the famous character Basanti? If you know the ans...

Currently I am reading the book with this title by Joseph Heller. The same Joseph Heller who wrote "Catch 22".  It is the story of biblical king David. The book is really interesting. And satirical. See just two examples. God said "Who says I have to be fair? " "When God is not there, you need things like witchcraft, religion and all. " I will add more quotes from the book soon. 

Even our religion is better than yours.  It is such a pity that you have only one god. We have so many. And each one is a specialist. One for wealth (Laxmi), one for education(Saraswati), one for courage, one for trouble (Shani)(!) and so on. Can your religion ever beat that? Image courtesy : The Hindu Note : Idella sumne tamashege. I do not intend to hurt the feelings of any community including mine. Note 2: The moment I posted this and looked into the tag humor, I started getting two scary ads in my blog, one some inappropriate site showing the image of a woman and the other one asking whether the reader wants to know such and such religion. Do the advertisers (or the programs which are written for them) think that just because a person makes fun of the religion, he/she is a pervert or he/she has decided to convert to some other religion? Now I am breathing easy after going to adsense settings and blocking religious or sexual or dating ads. Please remember,  we ha...

God saw that man is getting smarter day by day and ignoring him. God was perplexed. He thought for a while and then gave man a spouse! And man became devout again!

ಏನಪ್ಪಾ ನಮಗೆಲ್ಲ ಗವರ್ಮೆಂಟು ನಲವತ್ತೈದು ಸಾವಿರ್ ರುಪಾಯಿದು ಒಂದೊಂದು ಐಪ್ಯಾಡ್   ಕೊಡತೈತಂತ್ ನೋಡ್. ಐಪ್ಯಾಡ್ಅಂದ್ರ ವಿಮಾನದಾಗ ಕಣ್ಣ ಮುಚಗೊಳಾಕಂತ  ಪಟ್ಟಿ ಕೊದತಾರಲ್ಲ.  ಅದ ಏನು ? ಅದಕ್ಯಾಕ ಅಷ್ಟೊಂದು ರೊಕ್ಕಂತ ? ಆ ಐ ಅಲ್ಲಪ  ಇದು . ಕಣ್ಣ ಐ ಅಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ನಾನ್ ಅಂತಾರಲ್ಲ ಆ ಐ . ಹಂಗಾದ್ರ ಇಡಿ ಮೈಗ ಪ್ಯಾಡ್ ಏನು? ಬುಲ್ಲೆಟ್ ಪ್ರೂಫ್ ಅಂಗಿ ಹಂಗ ? ಹಂಗಲ್ಲಪ. ಐಪ್ಯಾಡ್ ಅಂದ್ರ ಒಂದು ಸಣ್ಣ ಕಂಪ್ಯೂಟರ್ ಇದ್ದಂಗ ಇರತೈತಿ  . ಆದ್ರ ಮೊಬೈಲ್ನಂಗ  ಸಣ್ಣ ಇರತೈತಿ. ಕಂಪಯುಟೆರೆನು? ಚಲೋ ಅತು ಬಿಡು. ನನ್ನ ಮನಯಾಕಿ ಬರಿ ಗಲಾಟಿ ಹಚ್ಚಿದ್ಲು. ಲೇಡಿಸ್ ಕ್ಲಬ್ಬನಾಗ್ ಎಲ್ಲಾರು ಈಮೇಲು ಆಮೇಲು ಅಂತ ಮಾತಾಡ್ಕೋತ ಇರ್ತಾರ. ನಾನು ಆ ಈಮೇಲು ನೋಡಕ್ ಒಂದ್ ಚಲೋ ಕಂಪಯುಟರ್  ತಂದ ಕೊಡ್ರಿ. ಅಂತ.  ಇದನ್ನು ಆಕಿಗ ಕೊಟ್ರ ಅತು. ಏ ಹಾಂಗ್ ಮಾಡಬ್ಯಾಡಪ್ಪ. ಇದ ಕೊಡ್ತಾ ಇರೋದು ನಿನ ಹೆಂಡತಿಗ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ್ಗ ಅಲ್ಲ. ನಿನ್ನ ಸ್ವಂತ ಉಪಯೋಗಕ್ಕ.  ನೀನು ಸಭೆಯಾಗ ಮಾತಾಡಾಕ್, ಇದರಾಗ ಬರಕೊಂಬಂದು  ಓದಕ ಅಂತ . ಮತ್ತ ಅದರ ಟೆಂಡರ್  ಯಾರಿಗ ಬರತೈತಿ  ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೋಗಿ ವಿಚಾರಿಸೋಣೇನು ? ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸುಮ್ಮಿನಿರು ಮಾರಾಯ ನೀನು. ಈಗ್ಲ ಪರಪ್ಪನ ಅಗ್ರಹಾರದಾಗ್ (bangalore prison) ನಮ್ಮ ಮಂದಿ ಕ್ಯೂ  ಹಚ್ಯಾರ . ನಾವೂ ಅಲ್ಲಿಗ್ ಹೋಗೋ ಕೆಲಸ ಬ್ಯಾ...

Today there is a new crisis in bhajapa of namma karnataka. Sriramulu has stated he will contest as an independent from Bellary rural constituency. The party is having lot of problems already with former cm just out of prison, MLAs not attending Advani yatra in Karnataka. Don't ask tumhe kya. I have enough problems of my own from sar se paanv tak. But my problems are not blog worthy. So BJP is having yaadvi kalaha. But it is not the sole political party which has infighting. Congress in our state was not able to use the opportunity even when Yediyurappa had to resign, because of similar problem.  But what is this yaadavi kalaha? When people fight among themselves, instead of enemies, it is called yaadavi kalaha. The word has an interesting origin. Once sage Durvasa visited Dwaraka where yaadavas had created a city in the middle of sea . Yaadava is the dynasty to which Sri Krishna belonged. So Durvasa visits Dwaraka. Some mischievous people, bring a boy - I think Krishna'...

Burnet is having cancer. He undergoes treatment from the best doctor in town and recovers. But few months later when visits the doctor again, doctor takes samples of his tissues. And asks him to come back after six months. This continues for quite long time. By now Burnet is sure that cancer has relapsed even though Doctor has not explicitly told so. He sells his house and starts living in a smaller apartment. He starts living like a man his days are numbered. But his health has not deteriorated and doctor gives him more and more forms to sign. When he gets a form which says his cells will be used for commercial purposes, he declines. And thus starts a battle between a common man and a influential biotech industry. Burnet realizes that doctor has sold his cells to a Biotech company called BioGen owned by Rick Diel for millions of dollars. His cells have a special feature of fighting cancer. When he asks for his share, doctor declines. And the irony is doctor wins the case, as the cou...

Somebody from Indiblogger community had written a blog post asking us to google our own blog title. I did that. And even after 14-15 pages, still no sign of poor me. Then I consoled myself. This question is a very profound one. Almost everyone in the universe  faces this question one time or the other in their life time. Even if 0.0001% of them blog, then that would be.... a large number. So it is okay. Then today I had better idea. I googled for hegde blog. Again no sign of my blog any where. How many Hegdes are there. And I should say I was happy to see so many hegdes blog. Last resort, I tried googling why am here with hegde with blog. Yes finally I was able to find myself (!). Good. Google can find me. But seriously I need to find more ways to write better articles so that people would like to read them. So far what I am writings are just ramblings, not stories. So that google can find me!

Digvijay Singh  wonders why his statements trigger controversy

Yes, it is possible and is being done in Saudi Arabia.  Al Qaida terrorists of Saudi origin  arrested in Pakistan, Iran etc are brought to Thumamah a prison/rehabilitation center run by Saudi Government, which is half an hour drive from Capital Riyadh and provided all facilities including swimming pool, gym. In the evening the inmates can play football or learn art.  The inmates have luxurious quarters. They attend various classes including classes on religion which helps them in alleviate the misconception about Islam and jihad. Their families can come and visit them on weekends. The only difference between outside world and inside is the fenced compound. After completing the program, the government pays them monthly allowance of 3000 riyals, a car and a job. This center has successfullyfully rehabilitated more than 3500 Al Qaeda men. We can take this concept and try to adopt it for our Naxalites and other militants/terrorists. Of course we may not have as much fin...

Last two decades our country has seen lot of changes. There are more jobs and much less unemployment. But let us not ignore the negative side of progress. As we are becoming economically stronger, are we changing to callous and almost cruel human beings? Look at two unrelated news items which appeared today. In a government hospital in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, a newborn baby and mother were cleaned with acid, instead of antiseptic which resulted in the death of the baby. The hospital is giving conflicting statements, saying that a cleaner might have replaced antiseptic with acid and saying that the baby was still born. But mother says the baby was born alive and it cried. In another incidence in Bangalore,  a trucker who was carrying cows from Bellary district was beaten and thrown out of elevated expressway by some group of Animal lovers. The truckers was carried to the hospital but died. How can a hospital which is supposed to make us well, cause death? And do ...

Selco a solar manufacturing company from Bangalore is providing school children solar LED lamps and batteries. It has implemented this in few schools in Mandya district. Children can charge their batteries in centralized grids in their schools and use them at homes to study in the evening. Read the article from Times of India  Dear namma governments, you can also start a project similar to this. Will help thousands of children in villages who are suffering because of 6-8 hours of power cuts. 

God has infinite names. At least our Hindu God has. And one of them is Kusumakara. I was intrigued by this name. (I hope intrigue is same as ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸೆ in Kannada) Kusuma is my husband's childhood friend's wife. Sorry, I was joking. Kusuma is flower. kara is hand. Kusumakara means one who is holding a flower. But we thought God is holding this earth.  Why on the earth is God holding the flower? May be to give it to Goddess (or an apsara, but let us assume that he wants to give it to goddess his respective goddess for god's sake.)  As we can not go there ( with this body at least), and as there will be no live telecast or youtube video, we will have to use our imagination. Our God says " As the children say on that planet earth, will you be, er.. my.... er... valentine. I am not sure what this valentine. I assume it is something like priyatama. But sounds more cool. I know, I know what you will say." You can't even get a proper gift. Look at all other Go...

I was reading first headline of today's paper. Something was not right. India will recruit 11 soldier in China border. Biggest ever expansion. 11 soldiers? And biggest expansion. What is this? I asked husband "11 soldier recruiting, is biggest expansion? How is that?" He told just " ninna kannadaka hakko" (wear your glasses). I did and saw that it is not 11, but 1L- L for lakh. So much for the abbreviation. And thus is my eyesight.

"ನಾನು ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡ್ದಾಗ ನೀನ್ ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡ್ತಾ ಇದ್ಯಲ್ಲ. ಅಷ್ಟೆಲ್ಲ ಹೊತ್ತು ಏನೆಂದು ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡ್ತೀಯ?" "ನಾನ್ ನನಗೊಬ್ನಿಗೆ ಅಂತಲ್ಲ. ಸರ್ವೇ ಜನಹ ಸುಖಿನೋ ಭವಂತು ಎಂದು ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ" "ಮತ್ತೆ ಸರ್ವೇ ಮಾಡ್ದೆ ಇರೋರು ದುಃಖಿ ಅಗಬೇಕ? " Both of these are civil engineers!

Have been reading "nanna bhayagraphi" by kannada author Beechi . It is a beautiful book. Beechi was the first humor author I read. In our childhood, we used to read his jokes - with the character  timma and loved them. Even today, he is considered one of the great authors in Kannada. But as a song in Hindi says " तुम इतना क्यों मुस्कुरा रहे हो क्या गम है जिसको छिपा रहे हो" , the author had a very, very difficult childhood. He lost his father as soon as he was born. The boy was so sick that he was kept outside the house - as it is considered bad omen in Brahmin houses, if someone dies inside the house. His mother died when he was hardly eight years old. He was looked after by his aunt whose son would beat the child first, then talk to him. May be it was his way of telling God (he was an atheist) that he is no coward. When his mother was alive, they had just enough for food and shelter. But what about the one and quarter rupees of school fees. Beechi would ...

We are so much engrossed by glamorous people, we do not pay attention to actual talent. We shed tears and bade our farewell to Steve Jobs. But we did not even notice that, the inventor of C language and Unix operating system - Dennis Ritchie passed away on October 12th. Much of modern computers, mobiles, net books, servers etc. use some variation or other of Unix operating system. Similarly Java, java script, C++ languages are based on C languages. Hence we are all indebted to Ritchie for all our computing experiences. His famous quote: UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity.   

I delayed writing this post for I was not sure whether I am entitled to write this post. If I put my photo along, I should also add that I do not use Dove shampoo, so that it will serve as a warning to people , if they don't use a proper shampoo, their hair might also look like mine :-( :-( :-( Things (on my head) were not this bad always. I had long black and reasonably thick hair, nicely plaited, when I was a child. In fact I would be sitting on my plaits - they were so long. And to top it all, one of relatives used to say " you say you will be taller and your hair will say it will be longer" or something like that. (Now I have ended up 5.2 ft  and my hair also short sob....) Back then, how did I nourish my hair?I did not do much in fact. But mere paas maa thi. She would religiously oil my hair - everyday. But not soak my head in oil. She would just put half a teaspoon of oil to my head. Then brush my hair nicely and put 2 tight plaits before sending me to school. T...

Well my previous post about rangoli was not my creation. Here is my rangoli. Quite down to earth, isn't it. But dear friends, I know few more designs. In fact 4 of them, which I learnt as a kid. Let us gimp it. I could not gimp them. Let us try painting them.  Here the left ones are 3-5-3 and right top is 1-4-1 and right bottom is 1-3-5-3-1 Left top most is 4-7 and so is top row second one. Bottom row, last one is 6X6 The remaining 3 are free hand I created them with paint. Let me tell you a  secret. Practice is all that requires and a little bit of experimentation. 

Deepavali is a festival of lights. You will decorate the house and surroundings with lights. In our childhood, women would draw a face of Bali Chakravarti on a cucumber. Then this will be kept on a peetha adorned with arecanut flowers. For 3 days, Bali will be prayed to like God. He will be decorated, a sweet called Kadubu - an idly like sweet made with pumpkin and ground rice will be offered to him. Women will sing songs like - raaya balivendrange naivedyava needidare. And on third day will be sent - in fact sent flying on the roof  - not the cucumber but the arecanut flower, telling him that please do come and visit our house next year. On Bali Padyami day - Go Pooja will be done. The cows will get a nice bath , will be decorated with garlands made of arecanut fruits. Then arati will be done to them. Next part is interesting - then all these will be sent out. . These cows and calves will run and children run behind them trying to snatch the areca garlands from calves of neighbor...

These are some flowers which are not fussy at all, so down to earth unlike roses Spatika But then there is sevantige. As I wrote earlier, it is a surprise that it has flowered at all

I am an easy going person. I feel happy for small events, when I see a little bird in my garden, when I see a new flower blooming, when I see sun rising from a coconut tree (new thing, isn't it? But there is a coconut tree, and I see early sun behind that). But feeling euphoric, not so easily. Yesterday  I was euphoric actually. And the event was - not getting a diamond bangle, not getting a really expensive/beautiful/new saree/dress or not even seeing my ad-less free app for which I get 0 revenue getting more downloads. I saw a wall paper on ubuntu screen. And the wall paper was looking so nice and the colors were so enhanced, I was terrifically happy. The fact that I could install Linux, in a matter of 3 hours might have added to the happiness. I don't know the reason. But images in Linux look many many times prettier than in Windows. I tried googling the reason, but did not get answer. Now I am getting some idea why people are so crazy about high density images.