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...