Perpetually Perplexed

I finally did buy Mankutimmana kagga and started reading it. I am so happy to read it. It has such profound knowledge given in such simple language. You really feel happy to read each and every verse (those which you understand. I admit some of them have too difficult words for me.) Look at one example here. ಒಂದೇ ಗಗನವ ಕಾಣುತೊಂದೆ ನೆಲವನು ತುಳಿಯು ತೊಂದೆ ಧಾನ್ಯವನ್ನು ಉಣ್ಣುತೊಂದೆ ನೀರ್ಗುಡಿದು  ಒಂದೇ ಗಾಳಿಯನುಸಿರ್ವ ನರಜಾತಿಯೋಳಗಿಂತು  ಬಂದುದೀ ವೈಷಮ್ಯ ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮಾ My translation of this would be All these people, seeing the same sky, standing on the same earth, eating the same grains and drinking the same water and breathing the same air, how are they hating each other so much?  ಅಜ್ನಾತವಾದುದನಭಾವವೆನೆ ನಾಸ್ತಿಕನು  ಅಜ್ನೆಯವೆಂದದಕೆ ಕೈ ಮುಗಿಯೆ ಭಕ್ತ  ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸ್ಯವೆಂದು ಪರಕಿಸತೊಡಗೆ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ ಸ್ವಜ್ನಪ್ತಿಶೋಧಿ ಮುನಿ ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ  When there is an unknown phenomena, the atheist will call it as nothing and leave it, the pious will call it as God and pray to it. Scientist will find it curious and start investigating it and the sain

 Why are you actually here? You need not have disguised yourself as brahmin vatu. Even if you had come in your original form I would not have denied you. I never say no to anyone.   But is there no end to your devious ways? You are capable of everything - the omnipotent. Then can't you make Arjuna defeat me in war without all this drama?    To start with why did you bring me to this earth? To tell everyone see this is one person to be pitied - because his mother does not want him. His teacher curses him. His brothers don't know his existence. He is a servant even though he is the eldest of Pandavas. Madhava, is there no end to your play of hurting your own children and enjoying it.     Ok, I can guess the end of all this. You have already placed Shikhandi infront of Bheeshma and sent him to sharamancha. You asked Dharma to tell   "Ashwathamo hataha kunjaraha " and made Drona not listen to kunjaraha as that time you blew your conch and caused his death. Now you are a

I wanted to write about Karna as my part 2 of Bharatha because he is the real tragic hero of MahaBharatha. But net is filled with writings about him. So let me write about little known son of Arjuna called Urdhvaroma. And I don't want to write as twisted tale but as I have heard it from my Yankatte (atte - aunt). Yankatte was my mother's aunt and she was widowed in childhood. She would spend some time in my granny's house and some time in her husband's house. She would tell us all beautiful stories. UrdhvaRoma was a son of Arjuna (I think. Or may be Bhima's son. I don't remember clearly. ) He was living in the forest. One day when he was practicing archery, Arjuna and Krishna were passing by. Krishna indicated Arjuna to hide and watch. This boy shot an arrow to a large tree. And all the leaves of the tree fell down except for 5 and a half leaves. Krishna and Arjuna came forward and asked him what was all this about. The boy told " After few years there wi

Duryodhana depicted in folk art Yakshagana You don't know my name at all. Have you heard of Duryodhana - the ugly villian of Maha Bharatha? That's me.    My actual name is Suyodhana, not Duryodhana. Because I am said to be very bad person, I came to be called as Duryodhana. Am I really Duryodhana?    From my childhood I am the black sheep. "Look there, Prince Yudhistira is going, how calm and good he is", "Look at Prince Bheema, such a sweet little mischievous boy", "There goes cunning little Prince Suyodhana" How does one boy become cunning and wicked and the other is called mischievous for similar actions? It is always Arjuna, Bheema and Dharma who get all praises from public. Never me and my brothers. It was so unfair. We are also princes. In fact our father is the king not theirs.    Leave outsiders. Even GrandPa Bheeshma was always showering all love and affection to poor little Pandavas. If I go near him, he will ask me in a gruff voice

I was sad to read  our PMji commenting on Advani saying that Advani thinks it is his birth right to be PM. We did not expect this from Manmohan Singh. He is an erudite, honest politician, very rare in Indian political system. He should not have  gone  to their level and made such comments. Be a Roman when you are in Rome is fine to some extent. But you don't have to "Be an Indian Politician when you are an Indian politician."

It is almost lunch time. But I am not cooking. Point #1 I am alone at home. Son and husband eat in their canteens. Point#2 My refrigerator is filled with stuff. Like, one cup of lady's finger gojju made yesterday (which was too salty) , 1 cup of bitter gourd sasive from yesterday, some cooked rice and some idli batter. I have already placed idli batter and rice in the cooker (who will take all the trouble of putting the batter in molds!) So I will use all these with different permutations and combinations and eat .     So I am not cooking and I got too bored of aimless googling. Switched of pc and switched on tv. In Chandana Kannada channel, one swamiji kind of person was reciting something. He was quoting some of the poems from "Mankutimmana Kagga". Beautiful verses. Mankutimmana kagga is written by D.V.G. and is called "kannada Gite" (Bhagavad gite).     I had to google it. I got two very good sites on. Read my favorite verse "hullagu bettadadi " i

Was reading Bhagavad Gita. Aloud. (ಬದಿಯಲಿದ್ದವರಿಗಶ್ಚಾರ್ಯ ತೋರುವದು!!) Why Gita? Am I not atheist? But I have told you to add confused before atheist.     So I was reading Gita. Tried reading it in Devanagari script. Could not. Fast forwarded to last page. Arjuna says " Thanks dude, you opened my eyes. Now I will". Hold on. Those of you - non-Gita-knowers , tell me how will he complete the sentence after listening to and digesting the most profound philosophical work of India. " I will be a saint". "I will be a non-violent person", " I will be do-gooder" None of these. The correct answer is " Now I will do yudha (war - the famous mahabharatha war).    A little bit of background story here. War has started between Pandavas and Kauravas who are in fact cousins for the kingdom of Hastinapura. Pandavas are on the right side and Kauravas on the wrong side (Does that remind you of Obama and Qaddafi) . But one of the Pandava brothers - Arjuna when he s

There is a commercial of Tata capital where a little boy changes the label of his and his brother's gift. And on the larger gift which was to be his, he pastes his brothers' name. The voice says "it feels good when somebody cares about you rather than themselves". Cute. But whoever conceptualized that ad do not have children and haven't seen children!    Will any normal child will take a smaller gift instead of bigger one and gives the bigger gift his sibling? NEVER!! He will happily take the bigger gift and jump up and down in front of his brother saying " I got a bigger gift, I got a bigger gift". And the brother will start a tantrum and start a fist fight with this one. To begin with.    My sister has two daughters. She used to bring everything in duplicate. Toys, dresses, bangles, anything. She knew that if she fails to do that, there will be another world war at home. Even when the elder daughter was participating in a dance for which she was supp

One sample of  Bangalore potholes A biker died because of pot hole in Bangalore . His two-wheeler skid off the road and he hit his head against a road divider. He was not even speeding. Now will anybody please take BBMP to the court for causing the death?   We do not have numbers of accidents caused by these potholes. Why doesn't anybody care for the lives of people here?  What happens to all the money sanctioned for road constructions and repairs? And why do the roads get completely bad within 3-4 months of repair?

One of the resolutions made by me in 43things site is "do one thing which makes me happy every day..."  Today this thing which makes me happy is - finally understanding how not to make money easily.  I was reading some articles about a tech gadget and happened to come across Automated Profit Package - the way to make money easily, that too hundreds of dollars every month staying at home. My smart mind started action. I closed the window and googled for that word Automated Profit Package. Sure enough I came across a site with review about this site and many comments from users who told us it is a scam. In contrast to the readers from their site which had all praises.     So now viewers, if you a JL SAHM and/or  looking for earning money from home the easy way,  and come across advertisements or sites about online work, make sure do some background check before you pay a very small investment into that site. Because the net is filled with such scams. One google is all it take

When I chanced upon this book by Upamanyu chatterjee, I immediately picked it up and brought it for reading. All previous two books "English August","Mammaries of Indian state"   I had read were good. But this one is no good.    The story is simply not good and not realistic. Well a middle class teenage kid will not be like that.  Half way through the book I decided that I will stop reading the book. Many a times I returned back unfinished books back to the library. But most of the times, the books will be too profound and time consuming to be read. Never was the reason getting nauseated. So may be I should read some pages before bringing the books even if they are by well known authors.

I am  assasin Guilty of butchering My Own child I tried Cajoling, convincing, shouting You are too young You do not know of The wolves out there Waiting to devour you You did not listen Thought This lady Old fashioned, old Does not know to Get a Life! I am helpless What will I do? Tried to get help They are your teachers Like another parent to you Why did you get angry Enough to kill yourself You killed me child!! Now i am zombie Walking with the only futile hope Of your return In memory of Sayoni Chatterjee

What do we find funny? What makes us laugh? How come what is so funny to one person is disgusting/cruel/gross to another person?    When my son was in nursery, he used to find the words kakka and sussu very funny. All his jokes and stories would revolve around these. He would twist the story of "three little pigs" and bring in a lot of above mentioned stuff in that and laugh uncontrollably. Not any more. Now, what does he find funny? I don't know. But whenever I try to say something witty to him, he will just say " amma, how many times I should tell you , you are not funny".    And husband. In the early days of my marriage, I used to tell him jokes. Not once he laughed. I have stopped trying. He watches "bakra" kind of programs on TV and laughs.    Why is making others look foolish so funny? Is it because we feel, thank god, I am not in his place. Or is it because " hey, look at him. I am smarter than him" kind of feeling. I do not feel t

Should I change the name of my blog to "Jobless in Bangalore"? Which other house wife would sit to blog at 8 in the morning?  She will be scrutinizing each nook and corner of the house may be with a lens for a speck of dust and cleaning it.  She will be cutting vegetables for dinner. She will be ironing a mountain of clothes of children and husband. She will be cleaning kitchen platform/ ward robes/ wash basin. She will be washing bucketful of clothes too new to be washed  by maid.       But no, not me! I have my priorities set. If house hold chores are to be done, they better tell me so. Dust. what dust? I can not even see wrinkles on my back of palm. (They are very much there.) How can I see dust? Maid has cleaned the house once right? Isn't it enough? And kitchen platform, OK I can clean it when/if the power goes and I feel too bored to read the thriller book. And vegetables cutting for dinner, how much time do you need to cut 1 carrot and 10 beans? I can start that a

In those days, the houses in Malanad region of Karnataka were quite large. Let me describe my father's ancestral home.     When you enter inside the compound wall, there will be a quite large courtyard. This courtyard will have 8-10 pillars normally logs of arecanut tree. In summer, pillars will be used to create an atta, a kind of temporary roof from sliced areca logs. Atta is used to dry the arecanuts.   So from courtyard, you climb some steps to enter into the roofed veranda. It is called hebbagilu ( large door in Kannada). It will be open. If not, there will be wooden planks and grills. So hebbagilu will be always well lit and airy. It will have some benches. We call them sarakurchi.    From Hebbagilu, you go inside the house to enter into jaguli. which is the hall. Jagauli will be main sitting area, with mats and cushions for men of the house and guests to sit and play cards . in the evenings. We children could never imagine sitting with elders in those days. The door lead

It is for the parents ! I am sure all you out there with teenage son or daughter completely agree with me. I am hearing some strange noises from the neighboring house. They too have a teenager. Daughter. I want to run there, give a jadoo ka jhappi to that girl and console her. But when my son starts shouting at me, standing in a threatening pose, I start yelling. I forget all "Let be's and Let go's" of Aastha channel. I am sure this neighbor would feel sorry for my kid at that time.    Isn't there some kind of "how to" manual to handle teenage kids ? At least there must be a "A Dummy's guide to Managing a teenager without serious casualties" !! Is there one? If yes, please let me know.

I completed reading this book by Khaleid Husseini. It is a good book. My heart goes out to Mariam. Her mother always keeps cursing her father. But father is so nice. He talks so sweetly, he brings gifts to her, he can not be bad , she thinks. She with her mother is living in a hut though her father is rich cinema owner. One fine day she decides, she will visit her father's house. She goes there only to realize that she is not even allowed inside the gate of the house. Sleeping on the street, whole night, next morning she is dropped back to her hut. But now she does not have a mother. The mother has hung herself from a tree.     Now her father has no other option but to keep her in his house where his 3 legitimate wives and 10 children are staying. Step mothers find a way to get rid of her permanently. They find a match for her, who is a middle aged widower. Her protests to this match are unheard. Now she enters her another hell. The story goes on like this. Your heart bleeds.

She was a sweet little girl. Chubby cheeks, dimples in these cheeks, full of laughter and vivaciousness. One day she did what changed her life for ever. She fell in love!         People accepted this and decided to marry her to the boy of her choice. Not actually a boy, he was in his early 30s and she was just sixteen. But he was a good boy, Parents were good and they were of same caste, sub-caste. They were financially well to do unlike the girls' parents. Girls' father is not very intelligent and mother is not worldly wise. And the girl had too many siblings.   So they thought it is a blessing in disguise. They might have found it difficult to find a match for her. So they happily married the girl to her sweet heart. And then they lived happily ever after.    Living happily ever after is a myth. The girl saw to her horror  that his occasional drinking and playing of cards did not remain occasional. He started losing lot of money in these and hardly ever paid any attenti

We have read many honour killing news from India, Pakistan where the brother and/or father of a girl will kill the girl and her lover if they do not approve the match. A few days back, in MTV music channel, audition for a reality show - Roadies was going on. A boy, may be in his early 20s was sitting in the hot seat. He was asked a question "What will you do if your sister, runs away with a boy and then marries him (bhagke shadi karegi to tum kya karoge)." He answered immediately " I will kill her". Then he defended himself, his father is not well, he will not be able to withstand this attack on his honour etc, etc.    Now the father's honour will be lost if his daughter runs away with a boy. So the son must correct this by killing the cause for this.  But won't the honour be lost, if his son kills his own sister? What kind of honour is it? After all she is getting married to that boy. Not just living in with him.  And this statement from a boy who is

I recently started another blog about recipes. Yeah, you heard it right. A RECIPE blog. Somehow does not sound right? I completely agree with you. I am not well qualified to write anything about recipes. And yes, my conscience is pricking me. If I let out the reason for my blog, may be you will understand and conscience will keep quiet for some time.      I very badly want to earn money from my blogs. (who does not want to ?). I started googling about that topic viz how to earn money from internet. Somebody suggested "they like sports so write about sports, they like to cook so write about recipes". The former is out of reach for me. Never in my life I have played any sports, nor do I watch cricket ( which is synonymous with sports in our Indya). So I can not possibly blog about sports.      But I do cook, right? I cook 3 meals a day for my family  (in fact currently it is 4 as son is having holidays and he will not eat anything unlike his father). Does it not qualify me t

What government do we have in Center? UPA right? What is upa? When there is more than usual fight for the post of CM during a government formation, the other strong candidate would be made deputy chief minister viz upa mukhya mantri. Some times there will be two upa mukhya mantris (happened in Sep 2010 in Jharkhand) Now we have upa government. If this government is upa government, where is the main government? Some where in the Janpath road?

I am feeling really sad to hear the debate over why NRN should not be inaugurating the Vishwa Kannada Sammelana. I do not think there is any one better qualified than him for this position.      Once upon a time when many of you were still children, in 1991, India had to pledge its gold to IMF to procure a loan. Our economy was really bad. We were a developing country which was almost synonymous with poor country. Today in 2011, we are a global power to reckon with. Our economy is one of the strongest.?What caused this unbelievable transition? It is IT industry.  And the IT revolution started with none other than INFOSYS started by Narayan Murthy.    Narayan Murthy has brought Bangalore and Karanataka in world map. He is one kannadiga everyone must be proud of. So don't you think he is better qualified for this inauguration?     Baraguru Ramachanrappa says NRN has not developed any kannada software and he is against kannada as the medium of instruction in schools. Let me ask y

How many times do you curse when the vehicle in front blinds your with its high beam? You may not have to worry about this problem much longer.  Mr. Narang from Jabalpur has invented a device which will automatically adjusts the headlight from high beam to low beam on sensing light from opposite direction. So if another vehicle is coming in opposite direction your vehicle goes to low beam mode. Please read this article in today's Bangalore mirror. But suddenly my enthusiasm dropped. How can we be sure that other vehicles will attach this device? The people who do not have curtsy to change to low beam for us will spend money (it will not be more than Rs.100 for 2 wheelers and just Rs.150 for 4 wheelers) and buy and attach this device? They won't. So what should be done? One solution  is,  the auto manufacturers can make this as a regular feature in their forth coming models. And government can make this device compulsory for existing vehicles and levy fines for not abiding

 No, no, Pranobda did not tell us about this tax (as far as I have read). Nor did anyone else in the government. Well, you are not gullible enough to believe that an Indian government will bring such a tax! But I strongly recommend this tax  to be levied immediately for the benefits of our country and its economy. Well it works like this. In any bribe situation, everyone from chaparasi to mantriji (only if he is involved. I am not the one to point fingers) who has received the bribe, will pay 2% of the amount they have received as the c tax to the government. And this tax is imposed for each such transaction. This 2 Rs out of 100 is not at all a large amount for the tax-payer. But it will add up to a considerable amount of revenue to the country. You do not think so? Let us try to collect some numbers from internet.    Look at one simple example, according to Central Vigilance Commission, the CWG scam itself had misappropriation amount upto Rs.8000 crores. How many zeroes go there?