Perpetually Perplexed

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. 

I ate a bowl of raw vegetable salad for evening snacks today. I felt much better, not heavier, not guilty. And even my mood was elevated. Think I should have done this, 8 cookies and 3 papads earlier

HE keeps receiving lots - millions of requests every day. "Please give me car like my neighbor has" "Give me a wife like neighbor has" "Give me a bike like my classmate is flaunting" "Give me a diamond bangle at least this Diwali - like Mrs. Big B" "Give me this" "Make me prettier" "Make me younger" "Make me intelligent" There is a very very long list. We all send our requests many times. Don't we? And sadly 99.99% of the times, we do not see any response. Not even "Sorry bro, can't do". Did you ever think why? Today suddenly I had a vision and I found the answer. We do not receive any reply - because ........ server is busy. Do not close the window  yet. The story is not yet over. I was thinking about this nice understanding and planning this particular blog- chuckling to myself. My ghee - clarified butter started overflowing. I reduced the flame. Still, the oily ghee is flowing li

Recently my blogs are taking turn towards feminism. Am not sure why. But today I read two interesting blogs when stumbling upon. One is from a man who is a feminist and another is from a girl about how much precautions a girl/woman needs to take before going for jogging at night. Please read them. Why I am a male feminist Personal Responsibility  

Finally I obtained some solace from an article today. I am not alone who feels the need to communicate 24X7. It is in our genes. By our genes, I  mean human genes, not just Y chromosomes. :) According to this article in Psychology Today, all other animals are born with survival skills. They can walk, they can run away from predators, almost as soon as they are born. But a human baby has only one survival skill, communicating, in the form of crying. Whenever a baby feels threatened, it cries so that its protector will come and help it. Great for a survival instinct, isn't it? So a baby cries whenever it feels its survival is threatened. So humans have learnt since babyhood that communication is essential - very much essential for survival. No wonder, our teenagers (many adults as well) are glued to their tele-communicating device i.e. mobile. And no wonder we the good old ladies, talk so much (not on the mobile - because we are tired of listening to "mobile bill kya te

Dear GOI and GOK, (Govt. of India and Govt. of Karnataka if you haven't guessed yet) Looking at the current events, I feel there is a serious and urgent need for a new ward - in the prisons. At least the prisons in state capitals and Delhi. And this ward will be minister ward. The aforesaid ward will have at least the following facilities 24 hour hot water supply a sofa or at least a bench for the chelas followers and fans of the minister facility to get food cooked from home usage of mobile - to shout at lawyers to get bail immediately  to discuss with citizens about their woes a large screen TV - to see and understand the current affairs   to plan how to take revenge on opponents  And I humbly request you to build these wards ASAP, because we never know whose turn will come next. 

 If you love Hindi film songs, and if you love semi-classical songs, then you should visit this link of musicindiaonline .  And this link  I am sure you will thank me for providing this link

Was planning to write this blog few days back. Since I read about Darshan - the infamous movie star who beat his wife, apologizing to his fans and his wife Vijayalaxmi saying that she gave the complaint in a fit of anger. What is wrong with people who publish this!! He should apologize to his wife not to the fans. And she should not try to be apologetic about giving complaint, instead she should be apologetic about bearing with his violence all this time. Then today's TOI has the article, which says that this event is a norm rather than an exception. Most women give another chance to their abusive husbands. Because of financial dependence, because of kids, because of social stigma. Even their families would expect the daughters to adjust  with their husbands. Are you giving him another chance to beat you, threaten you with gun, to burn you with cigarette? Or do you seriously think that, he will suddenly become a good person and treat you if not like a wife, at least like a fello

Do you know what happened today!!! With this comes lot of giggle and enthusiasm and eagerness to share the event with friends. But that would happen with kids. :-( Anyway what happened today is I participated in Famous quotes competition in Gild   knowing too well that I may not do well. I visit this site often, to make myself believe that I know programming by scoring anywhere from 30/100 to 60/100 in programming quizzes. Anyway after writing C elite programming challenge and scoring a 55/100 (shame !!-  I taught C for almost 4 years), I took this famous quotes puzzle. And it was worse than I thought. I did not know a single answer. I did what every student in such a situation does - ಅಂದಾಜ್ ಎಂಟಲೇ ಎಂಬತ್ತೆಂಟು - guess the answers. And here comes the best part I scored 50/100.  Tells a lot about probability theory, I think. But still, each objective question had 4 answers not just 2. And the second thing which happened today is I have started learning drawing. Of course online!!

I did not mention about pannerala hannu. It was special because, it would grow on tall trees and normally an adult, dad or uncle would pluck some and give us pieces. And mangoes. Well, mangoes were not to be found in the wild. But my granny's house will be full of them in the summer. We would eat a lot and then there will be payasa in the dinner. When we were in Muscat, we used to get Pakistani mangoes. We would get alphonso mangoes, but instead buy Pakistani mangoes as they were cheaper. And these were available throughout the year. I would cut a mango each evening. I would eat a little piece, my husband will eat another small piece. Then son will sit in front of the plate cross legged and enjoy the rest. Funny part is he did not like apples at all. Jamun or nerale as we used to call them would grow in the forest. One of the older children would climb the tree and pluck the fruits. We would all eat them. But only problem was the fruit would make our mouths purple. Then there

I am proud that this year's Nobel peace prize has been awarded to 3 women, Tawakkul Karman an anti-government activist from Libya, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia who campaigned against rape as a weapon in her country's civil war. Tawakel Karman was born in 1979. Her father Abdel Salaam Karman was a politician and once was legal affairs minister and then resigned in Ali Abdullah Saleh Government. She is married to Mohammed al-Nahmi and is the mother of three children. Karman is a writer and civil rights advocate. She is also the member of Al-Islah - main opposition party of Libya. She protested against corruption in the government. She protested also against marriage of girls below the age of 17 in Libya. She also led the protest against neglect and malnutrition of girl children in Libya. She founded "Woman journalists without chains" with 7 other journalists to promote human rights. She was a leader in jasmine revolution and

These are s not the largest chrysanthemums nor are these the most beautiful ones.  But they have bloomed in my garden. Good enough reason to make them special for me. As the old kannada bhavagite says ಎಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಂಗಳದಿ ಬೆಳೆದೊಂದು ಹೂವನ್ನು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪಿಸಿ ಯಲಿಡಲು ತಂದಿರುವೆವು  I have been trying to grow chrysanthemums in my garden since we came to this house. This is the very first time, the plant is still alive and is blooming.  Let us look at some more flowers Well you well discerning readers, might have judged my gardening skills, photography skills looking at these photos  :-(

Like all things hip, even I decided to go green. The supermarket nearby has started charging 2 rupees for plastic cover for your veggies and groceries. So today I told them I have a bag proudly. I even go one step further. Unlike other shoppers, when I pick vegetables and fruits, I do not put them in small plastic covers (which are not charged) But after carrying the bag till my scooty, I realized that the bag is little too heavy and it may not withstand the weight. I transferred 3 apples to another plastic bag which the metal shop person had given and which already had 10 steel glasses and 2 glass bottles. The bigger bag, I secured in the box under the seat. And I came home feeling really happy about how I am doing my bit about environment. I stopped the vehicle in front of my house. There are two more apples on the ground. I was pleasantly surprised. There are not apple trees any where near by. (In southern India, apple does not grow!!) Has it started raining apples? I thought I wi

I am reading "ಋಜುವಾತು" by U.R.Anantamurthy. He is talking about different types of Gods. Or rather different ways in which people perceive him. For Advaitas in Hindu religion, he is nirguna, nirakara (without any attributes and without any form). For Muslims and Christians, he is saguna, nirakara (with attributes but without form) and for us he is saguna, sakara (with form and attributes)  But he asks the question, is there something like Nirguna, sakara? Well, we are like that, we have a form quite a huge one at that. And we are without any attributes, not anything to boast about.  ಋಜುವಾತು is a good book. It is collection of articles published in Udayavani about politics, culture etc. 

Around 9 countries (according to wikipedia article) have witness protection program where if the witnesses and their families under danger are provided protection when the trial is going on. But normally it is provided when the witnesses are threatened by organized crime. Do we have such a programs? No, I don't think so. Do we need one? Of course and not only for witness in case of organized crimes but also witness who are whistle blowers against politicians. Look at what is happening to Sanjiv Bhat! His house was searched.  He is sent to Sabarmati Jail. His wife feels there is danger to his life. A constable K.D. Pant filed an FIR stating that Bhatt, threatened him to sign a false affadavit  about high level meeting called by Modi. All this because Bhatt filed an affidavit in supreme court implicating Narendra Modi in 2002 riot case. In this democratic country, does the common man have a right to protest against a minister? Very few of us will be courageous enough to protest

We build large homes for ourselves (well, we do not build them, the workers build them while we are blogging/stumbling), then fill it with stuff which we have convinced ourselves as essential, then complain that house is small. We try really hard to get married (in Indian cases, our parents do), then spend the rest of the life, fighting with spouses 24X7. We blame men, saying they are inconsiderate, are not mature, are callous, are self centered, on the whole a beta version (many people have written first man created man, then he improvised and created woman!!). But we marry these people, produce children with them and continue to live with them, all the while maintaining the same opinion about them. (If you are male, replace men with women, and replace the adjectives with appropriate ones) We watch a TV shows in which eminent panelists discuss, how TV is harmful to the children, how their education and overall growth is hindered by TV.  Trying to hush  our child who is telling us