Perpetually Perplexed

I am depressed. Then I thought let me do what little I can do. So googled 2002 riots. And the wikipedia article was shocking. Let me give you some statistics. No, I don't want to do that either. See I am no politician and I do not get any gain by inciting any kind of disturbance among people.  Instead I just provide the link from wikipedia about 2002 , Please do read the article and decide for yourself. I will give an analogy here as a house-wife. Let  us say there are some twenty kids gathered in my home along with my child. They are all playing. And then they get into fight. They fight very badly and most of them are badly hurt. I am sitting quietly to myself. But is it not my fault that I let these children fight so much? What if in my defense I say that I did not hit any child, nor did I ask them to hit one another? Is my act pardonable? Is it just? Do read the article. If you feel that, the article in question is bigoted, refer other articles from all sides, and ...

I saw an advertisement about ranking of our politicians. In my new found worship for AAP, I clicked the ad and clicked for AK from AAP. Is this how fanship works? One more ranking in the site had rankings for PM of India. Among all known and unknown politicians of India, there were also the following names  Baba Ramdev - He is good yoga guru. But a PM ? Sachin Tendulkar - He himself would be shocked finding his name in the list Priyanka Vadra  Priyanka Chopra - These people are out of their minds Sunny Leone   Is this the biggest drawback of our democracy that people who do not know much will elect the people -  who do not know much !! or worse who know too much (on how to exploit the sentiments, not how to govern) ( am I unpopular because of my such a condescending attitude!) And you can add your own candidates also. I am thinking of adding the following people. Shahrukh Khan - If Priyanka Chopra can be a candidate, why not Shahrukh. He kn...

Wanted A live in maid. Should be good looking. Should be affectionate. Good cooking skills are essential. Must be able to keep the house in order always. Must have infinite patience. Should be intelligent enough to understand the great work I am doing and always be at awe about this. But not  any more intelligent to question anything. Should be a very good listener. But must have very limited talking skills. Salary is not provided. Nor are there any leaves. But good food  is not charged. And boarding and lodging is also free.

I am reading this book by Kuzhali Manickavel. I really liked the stories in the book. They are somewhat Kafkaesque in style but really interesting. And closer to heart because of Indian context. Funny thing is I did not know how to pronounce the name of the author and did not know whether the author is male or female. And you think that for us Indians Russian names are difficult to pronounce.  Well it seems she spent her childhood years in US of A. That could be the reason of her wonderful writing style. What a prejudiced mind do I have! Look at this story. "Paavai's husband was drowned in the sea and his swollen body was found. Few days after final rites, he appears in her dream and asks her why did she bury his watch. She tells him not to appear in her dreams again. But next day he still comes in the dream and asks about the watch. This repeats for many days. One day she digs out the watch from his grave. She carries it to the beach and throws it into the sea wher...

I don't want to offend anyone here. I just want to share my opinions and experiences here.  In our town there was a little girl hardly 4 years old, who was given pencillin injection by a doctor without a test dose. The girl became mentally retarded.  And there was another instance where pencillin injection (she had severe abdominal pain due to monthly periods) caused the my friend to lose consciousness. But luckily nothing serious happened after that. Recently my son had tonsil infection. The doctor here in silicon city Bangalore, did not give anti biotic for 3 days. So the fever and pain took one week to heal instead of 4 days and my son had to miss college for a week. I am not saying that people in other professions are always perfect. But a doctor needs to be better because our lives depend on him/her. And we know very little about their procedures so we completely believe them.  Regarding the medicine, how many doctors tell us what could be the side effects...

Listen to this song in RaguDixit.com . The music is really good. We know so little about Indian music. Our only knowledge of Indian music is item songs and other bollywood songs. Sad but true. And the best part is I came across this site by searching for #indianmusic in delicious. P.S. Wikipedia told me that Raghu Dixit is a composer, producer and musician from Mysore now settled in Bangalore. He has composed music for many movies including  Quick Gun Murugan and Psycho. Do listen to the song.

I have a unique problem of my router acting bad very very frequently. I used to grumble, nag family members, try to fix it, fight with bsnl. Nothing seems to have worked. Now router is said to be spoiled. So I thought of another solution. Why not use mobile for internet. Kids always do that. So I bought an internet plan. This is essential, otherwise your mobile currency will be drained in less than a day. Activate your mobile data . In my samsung phone it is pull down the status bar. There is an option for mobile data. Click on that You should see an indicator which might say either 3G (if you have 3G internet plan) or H with two arrows in it. If it is not shown, internet is not active. Check if you have dual sim and is the mobile data using the correct sim. Mine had that problem.  If you want to connect only one device, say a laptop, the better option is connect to internet using usb Connect your phone to laptop using usb cable Start usb tethering using settings....

I googled how to close facebook account. Did I finally got rid of my facebook attachment (I won't say addiction as I open that only once a day, go through and close it)? No, but I had an earlier facebook account. Had closed as I got paranoid. Some how that keeps sending me friend requests in my mail. And that is irritating. Hence I googled. And found the solution. Do I google about it? For future reference - for me? I again had a technical issue with my internet connection, router, wifi. This time the issue was serious. Do I blog about how much depressive thoughts I went through and how did I overcome - the technical problems and hence depressive thoughts. Do I blog about the technical - at least for me - details about how I resolved the problems? My ankles are -  not killing me, but hurting nevertheless. Whenever I walk. And hence I limp a little. Is it due to the terrible cold here in Bangalore. Do I blog about that - the Bangalore cold, my leg pain(s) and what am I doing abo...

The purpose of life is life of purpose. -Robert Byrne  

Yesterday in our class we learned about how to empower the counsellee using their own strengths to  cope with  the problem. Each and every one of us have inherent strengths. Many a times we are unaware of these because we tend to focus on our weaknesses. It is certainly essential to understand our weaknesses and work towards overcoming them. But if our thoughts are completely occupied with these, our confidence reduces and that will make things worse. Normally psychology concentrates on abnormal behaviors and treating mental illness. But positive psychology teaches people to change negative thinking, thereby creating more positive emotions. Positive psychology has 3 different concerns which are positive emotions, positive traits and positive institutions. Positive emotions are being content with one's past, happy in present and hopeful of future. Positive traits are one's strengths and virtues. Positive institutions are study of meaning, purpose and strengths that creat...

I am not doing Ikkeri Basava here. Don't you know Ikkeri Basava? There is a famous statue of a Bull in Ikkeri in Karnataka. The story goes like this. A tourist once put his finger in side the nose of Basava and a scorpion bit his finger. Of course the bite was not serious or fatal. But this man told everyone that you should find out what is inside the nose of Basava because it is a great experience. So many other curious tourists got bit by scorpion and spread the awareness :) No, I am not doing that. I think. Here are few points why driving in our roads is good for you Do you know the cheeks of Hema Malini. Not now, But when she was the dream girl. According a politician - driving in his home state was like driving on the cheeks of Hema Malini. So you don't want to miss that experience! Whether you are monotheist, polytheist, atheist or some other theist (in plain English, whether you believe in one God, many Gods or no God), you will remember your God/s when driv...

I am really in the middle of dhcp soup. You don't know what is that? You don't want to know. Anyways, one good thing about all these is knowledge. I came to know that someone can hack and introduce a rogue dhcp server in your home network. And second good thing is courage. I fought with BSNL on their help line. Yes, you don't need much courage to fight over phone with help line people. But I need. And the best part is ISP people tell us, there are some technical problems. What are the technical problems? Tell us. May be, we will be able to help you. Or at least we will try to google and find help from internet. So does the word "technical" mean, we don't know what the hell is happening. But  think we have scared you enough not to pursue it further? I thought that word was  magic or witchcraft. :(

Today I saw blog of a man  who stated that his ideal job was house-husband, but he could not get it. He thinks he is being funny. Or may be sarcastic. But believe me. Being a house-wife or a house-husband sucks. No amount of blogging, googling or any other activity can fill the huge empty feeling you have always. The reasons could be various. When your kids grow up, you really don't have to take care of their needs so much. They make it clear that they don't need you. And after such long marriage, you are not very important in your spouse's life either. You are not master of the house. Nor are you a servant. Who are you? Do you belong to the house at all? If you do not belong to the place where you stay 24 hours, where else do you belong?  May be I like to play the victim card. Like they say everyone of us want to feel rightfully wronged. But let me make it clear that no one stopped me from being a working mom, other than  my  incredible laziness. But dear gir...

Or at least once in three four days. And by praying I mean, not just mumble few words of God, the traditional way of going to the God's room (the room to which you have confined God or assorted Gods as in our case ), and lighting a diya and prostrate with some incantations prayers. With diya, and more so with the electric light, you can see the cob-webs on the roof and on walls and make a mental note of removing them soon ! If you are procrastinator like me, as usual when doing one unwanted to task, you will remember many other tasks you could be or should be doing and the chances of getting them done is higher. And chances of remembering these tasks is not very high on other times as your nose is glued to TV or laptop on all other times. The exercise of prostrating and touching your forehead to floor is a good exercise for your tummy and you feel happy that your exercising for the day is done ;). Ask Baba Ramdev.  It is like kapal bhati. The more namaskaras (as this ...

I am reading Mohammed Yunus - the Grameen bank fame and Nobel peace prize winner. His book "Banker to poor" is inspiring and thought provoking. Second chapter I think is about his childhood. He talks about pre-independence days. He says his family and all relatives were pro-partition. That made me prejudiced about him. He was pro-pakistan. That means he was against India. And why am I reading his book? Of course I am not reading the book for his political views. That is of no concern to me. I am really happy about the way he helped the people of his country overcome their poverty without losing their dignity. All these feelings of us vs them are really irrational. I used to feel offended when somebody scolded Brahmins, Kannadigas, Indians. OK, the person who generalizes and blames or makes fun of a community are really ill-mannered to say the least. But I am stupid to feel offended by it.  No matter who we are, we are all human beings. And are descended by common anc...

I saw this image in facebook saying "Your mama is so fat that her weight is negative". Though offended about reference to mama, I got curious. How can weight be negative when it is too high. Then I remembered 16 bit signed integer, if exceeds 15 bits, becomes negative as the sign bit becomes 1. But what is even more interesting is one of the comments "It clearly shows you have run out of arguments to make mama comment". So true in our current political scenario! Look at the comments all these political parties are making about each other. The comments are  really because they don't have things to talk about their achievements and do not know how to solve the problems in the future. And top it all, they blame others saying "they started it". Preposterous. Even children stop saying this after an age of 8-10. Why don't any party tell us, how are they going to reduce inflation, reduce corruption, provide bijli, makaan and paani (power, house and w...

I was not feeling so well. Emotionally. Without any particular reason. I went to terrace to walk as usual. Then I remembered a certain person who walks in a very arrogant way. As if the arms are wider than they are and body erect and head held high. I started imitating that way and immediately I felt better and calmer. How it happens, I am not sure.I am no psychologist nor a medical professional.  So through out the day, I practiced that reminding myself to be straight and each time I instantaneously felt better. I need the reminder, because I am your average middle aged under confident woman.  Hence I feel, these kind of techniques should be advised to people and believe me, they help better than any medication. Note:  It seems the power postures really work. For example, according to a lifehacker post,  before an important meeting, instead of hunching in front of a smart phone, if you are stretched with a news paper, your confidence is increased.

Image courtesy : blog.madeforschool.com.au Yes, it is our duty to teach our children to be proud of who they are and value their strengths and understand their weakness. We need to praise them genuinely for their achievements and not be to harsh them on their failures. But we have to be vigilant that we don't make them feel that they are better than others. This will make them arrogant and which creates problems in social interactions. Let me assure you that my parents are not at all responsible for my low or let us say negative self esteem. If at all I am able to survive today, that is because of love my parents showered in childhood. Remember we are talking about a story 40 years ago. My parents never told us to be submissive just because we were girls. They never dragged us to temples for every festival or forced us to  pray daily.  I experimented with my religious beliefs and finally have realized that God is like an SOS number, whom you can call when you scared in...

On 4th November, activist Sharmila's fast entered 14th year. She has been fasting since Nov 4th 2000, asking the government to repeal AFSPA. Sharmila is from Indian state Manipur, and is political and human rights activist and a poet. She is currently facing trial for "attempt to suicide". AFSPA - armed forces special power act - is being used in Manipur and other north eastern states since 1980s. This act gives the power to the armed forces  to arrest anyone without warrant, on the suspicion that they have committed or about to commit a cognizable of fence. Sharmila claims that this act is the root cause for violence in Manipur. On Nov 2 2000, 10 civilians were shot dead in Malom a town in Imphal valley of Manipur by Indian paramilitary forces, while waiting for a bus. Next day newspaper carried images of these people. November 4th Thursday, Sharmila started the hunger strike requesting the government to repeal the act. She has contacted various political...

Columnist Jug Suraiya writes in Times of India that Congress policy is not exactly pro-poor, but rather it is pro-poverty.How else do you explain the fact that the party could not eradicate poverty even after ruling the country for almost seventy years? And let us not single out Congress party. Each and every party will produce some populist scheme or the other at election time, just for the sake of votes. Free electricity, free TV. I think you have read about Akhilesh's free laptops getting spoilt in a godown as he isn't getting time to distribute them. Do you expect people to work, if they get rice at Re 1/kg? Some one should remind these people the proverb "Give a fish to a man, he will eat one day. Teach him fishing, he will eat his entire life"

 I don't think you assumed that I  visit Kashi(Varanasi), Rameshvara, Gokarna etc annually.  I don't. In Indian Institute of World Culture (IIWC - located  near Taxi stand bus stop, Basavangudi, Bangalore) library every year on November 1st, there will be sale of old and discarded books. And some of the books will be really in OK condition and quite inexpensive. So I go for this sale every year. This year, I once wondered whether  I should  go? I hardly find time to read 2 books (again borrowed from this library) in one month.  What will I do buying more books? I told spouse these books are for old age. He asked why can't I buy them then? Why? I am not have enough energy to go so far independently. But sadly by the time I reached all the fiction books were sold out. But the place was filled with Engineering and IT books . What will I do with those books?  Came back empty handed. Not exactly empty handed. I bought 12 clay lights for 30 rup...

King Henry is having lot of problems. His wife Anne is not very faithful to him. At least that is what the people talk. His ex-wife Catherine who is under house arrest is plotting against him. The pope is against him for divorcing the first wife and he is threatening to ex-communicate him. And to top it all, the king does not have a male heir to the throne. Which is one of the reasons for divorcing Catherine - and defying Rome. But there is a person to think, ponder and try to solve all these problems. He is Thomas Cromwell, master secretary and king's right hand man. He is so much devoted to the king that when he hears about the pregnancy of the queen Anne, he immediately talks to the family of Jane Seymour about how she can be of king's service. He encourages king to completely ignore Pope. He goes to visit ex-wife Catherine to ensure that she is not planning something against the king or queen.  But Cromwell is a sad man. He has lost his wife and two daughters few years...

"I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone." - Bjarne Stroustrup

Heard elsewhere How does history remember our head of nation?  "He loved his job" :)

Today in our class, our faculty was explaining about tarka, kutarka and vitarka. Tarka means debate or reasoning. Or to some extent logic. Ku as a prefix in Sanskrit means bad. Bad logic or argument with a bad motive. And vitarka is special reasoning or thinking outside the box.  So I wanted to write some funny logic or shall I say kutarka? I searched the net for such jokes. All of them concluded that the person is not gay or gay? Really, all of them.  OK, I got something different. But not exactly vitandavada. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station. so..... And one more Love is God. Love is blind. So God is blind. One more quote by Stephen Colbert God is love. Love is blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God. The one I liked is this I am nothing Nothing is perfect So I am perfect This kind of deducing by the ...

We are what we watch. No? Then it must be we become what we watch. Our mind, body and even girth are decided by which channel we watch always. Let me explain with examples. You are tired and exhausted - may be doing your chores inside the home, or may be doing little bit of gardening outside, or even trying to draw a nice background for your app using image editor - thinking that owning an image editor (free one, of course) will make you a graphic designer. So you are tired and you want to relax and you switch on the TV. You go to Star world , Zee cafe or Comedy Central. Of course they are telecasting re-run of a serial which you must have watched 100 times. You get angry at yourself for watching it, but you decide to watch it anyway because in half an hour, another serial will come, hopefully with an episode you have not watched, at least not on the same day. You stretch your legs and you slowly stretch on sofa. But if instead go to a movie channel and luckily find a movie wort...

You walk miles With aching feet Dry throat Only to find You came back To begining Nullifying entire Journey

Tie a rubber band across your old sauce bottle and then paint.

My imaginary interview with an imaginary minister - Me: Sir, You have done  great work in Odisha and Andhra by saving so many lives despite such a large cyclone. I.M. : Of course, of course. And all that is because we  a most inspiring great leader who motivates us to help people in distress. Me: So around 7 lakh people are evacuated and are staying in shelters. That is really great. And hardly a single casualty. (mumbling) Lessons are learnt from Uttarakhand. I.M. : Pardon me? Me: No I told your government was really prepared this time to save people. And I am sure you have plans for rehabilitation of all these people. Building housing colonies for them, providing them jobs, rebuilding their shops and businesses ? I.M. : Um, Er., Um, See all these works fall under state governments. They will have to help these poor people who have lost everything in cyclone. Me: But your government will sanction enough funds for these works and send a team to oversee the progr...

Our CM Siddaramayya has promised that he will visit Chamarajnagar despite its reputation that when any Karnataka CM visited that town, he loses power. Hence S Bangarappa, M Veerappa Moily, HD Deve Gowda, JH Patel, SM Krishna, N Dharam Singh, BS Yeddyurappa and DV Sadananda Gowda avoided visiting Chamarajanagar. 

 We are told to praise the Lord morning, evening and night. What is the use of it? He is not going to hear us, nor can he come and praise us back. And I don't think he needs any more self confidence. What with some versions of him supposedly saying ( I am making this up! Forgive me, Lord)  if you look at other gods, you will rot in hell. Instead praise your children. They are hungry as much for your positive stroke as much as for the food you burn cook. You are talking over the phone for the past one and a half hour , your little one tugs your arm and shows "Amma, amma, look I have drawn the sky and tree". What do you do? You say "not now" and chase him away and finally when your tele-conversation is over, you burst on him/her"You are not letting me talk at all. And why are you drawing that stupid thing? Don't you have any home work to do? Now let me look at the drawing again. Why is it so ugly? Why have you not colored neatly? When I asked you to go...

Bangalore has its own all women fleet cabs : Angel city cabs has taxis driven by women exclusively for lady passengers. So you no longer have to be tensed  and worried to travel in a taxi . Hit and run victim rescued by young girl : Smriti Srinath was hit by a speeding bike on Residency Road Bangalore and was lying on the road. While others were just turning a blind eye, Aparna an MBA student saw her and pulled her in the auto single handed and took her to Hosmat hospital. The auto driver also helped her and even did not take the money for the ride . Note: If you have such positive stories please add them.

Durga Nagpal reinstated with ‘full honours’, inquiry called off ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nonsense, says Rahul Gandhi about ordinance shielding criminal MPs. "What the hell!" responds BJP ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Aam admy party said it has so far received over Rs 12 crore as donations from cross section of people and most of them are the first time donors to a political party. -------------------------------------------------------------------------  Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani teen shot by the Taliban, talks to Harvard audience Note : I wanted to high light the these stories as I felt the need to share the positive elements in the news

We have people who do not know what to do with their times and hence with their lives. We also have people who do not even have time to breathe properly. 3 rich girls so bored with their lives go in search of fantasy lives and land up with 3 equally rich and equally spoilt brats. Only to be murdered brutally and their scalp cut by these boys. A middle aged University professor has lost his wife and his direction and is begging to join their club. Why do such intelligent people fall for such traps? And he pays the price with his life.  OK, the story happened in US of A not our Bharat. And also it is part of "Fury" novel by Salman Rushdie. That does not stop you from feeling for all these people. What is wrong with their and ours also, society which drives our youth to the path of horrid crimes? How does one orient their energy and intelligence in the right direction? And who does this almost impossible task? How can media play a role in it? So one wants become prasidha ...

Saw a poster near Corporation. Similar in message but different image of Ganesha Thanks to http://bikesansar.wordpress.com for the image.

Nana patekar ऊपरवाला  देख के  शरमाता होगा कितनी खूबसूरत चीज बनायी थी इंसान देखो सब के सब कीड़े बन गए  हैं

How do we remove the hostility between two groups? Give them a common enemy and a common task which involves defeating that common enemy. This was the solution given in our class today. But I am not able to understand how to put it into practice. Between Hindus and Muslims, us and them, in our country, the common enemy is politicians. But try telling it to these warring people. My own husband says yes, the enemy is Congress, but BJP is not pseudo secularist. It is there to protect us and show them their place etc, etc. It is very easy to divide, but very very difficult to join what is broken. Our India, India for which our fore fathers fought - but with non-violence, for which Gandhiji fasted innumerable times, is needs some kind of fewi-kwik. To join the cracks of religion, language, class, region. And a leader like Gandhi who will convince the people that our country needs this binder.

Malik Solanka is angry, furious with everyone, with himself. So angry that one night, he finds himself standing with a carving knife next to his sleeping wife and 3 year old son. He is scared of himself. He is afraid he will hurt his family. So he flees. He leaves the country and the continent. He tries to forget his past and start a new life in America.  But here too, he sees rage everywhere.  Eddy was ten years when his mother coaxes his uncle Ray to leave forest and come and live with them. Ray was living in the forest thinking others are not safe from him. Eddy's mother, Judy takes little Eddy to forest and tries to convince him to come back. Finally Ray comes back and abashedly tells Judy that there is another reason behind his home coming. And her name is Carole. Tobe, Eddy's drunkard father started guffawing saying didn't Carole had enough fun with us that she had to go and bring you from the forest. Ray's face becomes ashen. He leaves the house, and shoot...

Most people( including me :) ), talk about politicians as if they are the root of all evil. But do we ever notice the good politicians who try to help people? Kimmane Ratnakar, Karnataka minister from Tirthahalli was traveling from his native town to Bangalore. He noticed a car sinking in a lake near Beguvalli. He jumped into the lake along with his guards and saved the family of six in the car. The car belonged to Uday, an electrical goods shop owner. Uday says it is like a rebirth to him and he does not thank the minister enough.  

Now it is evident that, the police did not do anything to stop the rioters. No, not because of laziness of police, not even because they were corrupt. Because they did not have any clear instruction from the government. If they wanted, the police could have stopped the mahapanchayat from happening. They could have stopped inciting speeches from various politicians. Now how do you expect us to vote for you in the next general elections Congress : You did not take any action against the state government for its inability to stop violence. You did not even reprove the state government. SP : You let the violence continue for a week without taking any action against rioters. You did nothing to stop the violence spreading to entire district. Only thing you did was blaming BJP. Even after knowing the names of politicians who gave hate speeches there by escalating the violence, you did not make any arrests. BJP : Your leaders were actively involved in adding fuel to the fire in this s...

Quote courtesy : lefunny.net

In our country, each state has a government, which is supposed to protect the citizens, rule them and regulate the law and order. Should we be having at least 3 governments, one for hindu citizens, one for muslim citizens and one for christians, each one governing AND PROTECTING the respective people. If we look at the events in Muzaffarnagar in UP, that seems to be need of the hour. The political parties are playing with lives of people. They can only see the election coming in 2014. And they want to polarize people, no matter what is the cost. Again my doubt is,  what is happening in Muzaffarnagar is not sedition?   Why are all those involved in spreading the hatred among people, not arrested? If they are not arrested, how are we sure that they will not use the same mode all over India? Are we willing to have  that kind of violence in every city, town and village ?

 When I was buying few books of Shlokas (Hindu verses praising God/s), I used to see the above sentence on the books and used to wonder why would anyone print the contents of the book in such fat letters. Now don't start asking, why would I, the little bit atheist, and a person who always makes fun of God and his believers, buy a book of shlokas. The book was for my mother in law. OK, I may be a semi-atheist, but I am certainly not a liar. I bought these books for myself. I don't know whether  reciting many verses of Sanskrit, whose meanings I do not understand, will help my well-being. But nevertheless I give it a try. So I used to wonder, why would the publishers print the book in large letters. Are these printed thus, so that God from wherever he is can read them and gloat about his praises? I don't think so. He must be above all this. Especially so, when there are so many people all over the world, who are ready to work for him, till the last drops of others their...

Her name is Nethra. She is in her prime - twenty five years, though she is as thin as a school girl. In an age where she must be savoring all the good things life has to offer, she is lying in a hospital bed, attached to a dialysis machine. She travels two hours in the morning, reaches this hospital and gets dialysis done and goes back home in the evening with her brother. She has no hopes about her future. She must spend her entire life in this way, visiting the hospital twice a  week for her dialysis. Why can't she go for a kidney transplant? Because none of her near-ones are willing to donate the kidney and buying a kidney cost 20 to 30 lakhs. She can't even think of that kind of money what with working class family and every one except her elder brother, being alcoholics. We Bangaloreans pride ourselves for our techies who can be seen wherever we go. Can these techies do something about people like Nethra, some kind of machine which can be implanted in the body to clea...

I many times get a mail asking how to write ottakshara in Kannada or arkavattu in Kannada keyboard for android phones. In order to explain I have to write answer, I will have to open blogger and change language to Kannada and type there. Some how my gmail has stopped showing language options. I downloaded my own qt application for kannada keyboard for windows. But not anymore I have found a better way now to type in Kannada in windows 7 First go to - Control Panel-  Clock Language and Region and select Region and Language and select the tab    Keyboards and Languages You should see a screen like this Click on Change Keyboard button  Now in the next screen you with existing languages and keyboards. Select the Add button   In the add Input Language screen shown below, move down and select Kannada as shown. You can optionally select Hindi also. Once Kannada is enabled, you should select a key sequence to change to Kannada and back t...

You try to read Sartre, you do not understand anything, OK, understandable. You read Jiddu's books and you are completely lost, instead of being enlightened. That is also OK. Gunter Grass books drive you completely confused and then blank. OK, that too is acceptable. But if you are confused after reading a thriller, some thing is seriously going wrong with you, lady. Buckle up. Said me to myself, after reading Calcutta Chromosome. But no, I have not understood the book  and I do not want to read it again. You all know how busy life I lead. Who is this Mangala Bibi? Is she an illiterate village cleaning woman cleaning the home of the researcher Cunningham in the 19th century? Or is she the researcher who finds out avian version of Malaria virus plasmodium and finds out how this can cure syphilis? Is she responsible for the invention of mode of malaria transmission by mosquitoes by Ronald Ross? And who is Antar, the Egyptian living in 22nd century? Why does he want to know abo...

Ellunde recipe (Sesame seeds sweet ball ) Take a pan, a thick pan. Wash it with water  and then keep it on stove. Once the stove is dry - (did you ignite the stove?), keep pouring sesame seeds to the pan, until your outer voice (as opposed to inner voice) says "that is enough". Roast it till seeds turn slightly reddish. At least some of them. Now add liquid jaggery to the pan. You do not have liquid jaggery? Close this window and go back to facebook. Add liquid jaggery to the pan, again until your outer voice asks you to stop. Keep mixing until the smell changes - yes, not the color. Until you get a very mild jaggery burnt smell. Remove the pan from the fire. And wait for 10-15 minutes. Keep checking if the ellu-bella mix is not too hot to touch. Once you can touch it, take a spoonful of mix in your palm and try to roll it into a ball. Wait till the hot sesame seeds burn your hand and also stick to your hand. Do not run to sink to wash off. Keep rolling like a brave girl...

There was this article in TOI saying unlike Christianity, Hinduism does not advocate celibacy for spiritual leaders. The rishis in vedic period and people like Ramakrishna Paramahansa were married but still in spiritual path. May be that is a valid point. But what is wrong is  quoting this in the context of Asaram.  Hindu rishis were married to one person, not acting like a sanyasi, and taking advantage of women who believe them to Gods. And certainly they would have been aghast at the very idea of abusing a fifteen year old. Does the article justify Asaram's heinous crime. I feel newspapers and other media should be careful about what they say and also what they imply.

Flash back to early 1990s: I had a friend. Yes, in those days, I too had friends. Her name is, well I don't remember her name. It will come to me. I remember she was very fair. Too fair like a north Indian. She would say "The vegetables are so very expensive. So most of the days, I cook different pulses - (kaalu) instead of vegetables". Yes, they were expensive. If I shop for Rs. 10, I would get vegetables for only 3 days. And I did not forget a 0 in the above number. I would shop for Rs. 10 and buy vegetables for 3 days in a near by shop. Now give 10 rupees note a kid and he will retort "What do you get for 10 rupees" Flash back to early 2000s: My neighbor, a good old lady who would talk non-stop, crib about husband, in-laws. She would send her retired husband to buy soppu ( leafy vegetable) each morning. He will buy it for 10 rupees and she will make sambar for the entire family. Today: I went to Reliance. Supposed to be cheaper than street vendors. I bro...

I was and still am in a dilemma, whether to write this post here or in Android tips and tricks. Anyways I feel this is the better place. I finally completed (hopefully) my new version of Kannada-Hindi keyboard with all new features. I was working hard with hard keyboard support and predictions. Then my son told me off handed that no one will have patience to type ಕ ಾ  etc as they want to type fast. So using his suggestion, I added transliteration feature. That is , you do not have to search where is  ಕ . Then how will I add ಾ. You type in English keyboard kaa, lo, your ಕಾ is shown on the phone. And the words you type, whether in Kannada, English or Hindi will be remembered and shown as predictions. Don't you already feel it is awesome? It really is ;-)  Now my keyboard supports transliteration, prediction, number in Hindi/Kannada and a small note editor. You can pay a tiny amount of 50 rs and download it from  google play

Munna does not have a proper name. Because his mother is bed-ridden. And his father is busy pulling rickshaws in town faraway from home. So teacher names him Balaram. But he gets a better name - "White tiger" by the school inspector who was really impressed by the correct answers provided by this kid and says he will recommend a scholarship and a better school for Munna. But the pride does not last long. His family has to spend a lot of money for the marriage of Munna's cousin. And so Munna is taken out of school and put in a tea shop. His father falls very sick. He is vomiting blood. He with his cousin take the father to a town hospital. But the doctor is not around. Nor does he come in the evening when he is supposed to be coming. And father dies there in the hospital, uncared for. Who will bother about one more death in the darkness?  In the tea shop, Munna sees the drivers and is enchanted by their uniform and their lifestyle. He wants to be a driver. He begs a...

I wanted to write a post about late Narendra Dabholkar who was killed last week for because he had the courage to fight against superstitions and so called babas. He was trying for a long time to bring the bill against superstitious practices. And the irony is Maharashtra government passed this bill immediately after his death. But I did not write that post. One: because I was busy with other important things - like TV and my coding. Two, I felt I have some superstitions of my own, which I am unable to overcome. But why do I believe in such things whenI do not even know for sure if God is present or not(absent :) ) ? But one thing I certainly do not believe in, is the idea of heaven and hell. Come on, who can believe that once we die, our souls -assuming that they are present, will either rot in hell or enjoy in heaven!! How can be there pleasure or pain without the body? I seriously suspect that this concept of heaven and hell was invented in order to keep people away from mischi...

In a school in Bangalore, a class  6 student was upset because she scored low marks and teacher asked her to bring her parents. Upset girl tried to commit suicide by jumping from the canopy of first floor in school. Teacher Barnali Raut who observed this rushed to save the girl, but fell down. She sustained severe injuries. We normally hear stories about how bad people are, politicians, police, teachers, any one and everyone. But we rarely hear or rather remember the stories of good Samaritans.  The reason why we remember only bad stories may be we want to believe people are bad. And our mind tells us see how good I am  among all these bad people. There is another aspect to this. Media will highlight such stories of corruption, rape, violence etc. Even today the story of this teacher was not on the front page. It should have been. Is it possible that people who read about violence in papers, watch such thing in news and movies, unconsciously become more viole...

I was sitting next to my sulking husband in the car. There is nothing new to it. Whenever we have to go out, he sulks. He feels I waste his time and money going to malls, where I window shop or buy some trifle like soap. I retort saying I would have bought many more things, but I know he would not agree. But if I give up and we stay home, he will stare at some Bachchan film after crime patrol after CID after Savadhan India after some other film. And I will be forced to watch these. instead of Big bang theory or GA or How I met your mother.     So, if we stay home....... he will be sulking, may be a little less. See I don't get to sulk, because we need a viewer to sulk, and he can not see me, as I do not appear on TV. So he was sulking and driving and I was seeing vehicles and people. Suddenly the FM started the song "It happens only in India". I woke up to the fact that the day was Independence day. The day when our forefathers released us from the foreign rule and mad...