Perpetually Perplexed

The difference between crime and public service is more of station than of substance. When I was small, there were many poor people, and rich were the enemy. Now rich are still there, poor are also enemy. Any society worth its salt, will stop itself from self destruction. We are not doing it. So we are not a society at all or we are not worth our salt. Such quotes are numerous in the book and are more and more sarcastic. Bruce Gold is trying to write a book on Jewish experience in America but he hardly remembers anything about his childhood.  So he asks his elder brother Sid - the same Sid who always tries to pull his legs. Sid remembers. He is new to school and English language is new to him. So he speaks it in a funny accent. Other children in the school imitate him and he does not even realize he is being made fun of. Even in the neighborhood other children let him play with them. But often treat him very cruelly. He does not complain for the fear of losing his play...

Gold is a professor and a writer. But in his father's eyes he is a complete Idiot. Father does not leave a single opportunity to condemn his son. And his siblings too are not proud of him because he writes something which they can not understand. So Gold is treated as baby by his sisters. Mocked by his father, step mother and brother. And he still feels hurt because no one appreciates him, not even his children. So far I can understand the protagonist, relate to him and feel sympathetic with him. But when I see that he does not work honestly as a professor, he misguides kids to lure them into English department, I stop relating with him. What a hypocrite I am. If the hero of book is rude, self centered, almost anti-social, it is OK. But he should not go against my value system. (Do I have one?) So suddenly all my enthusiasm to read "Good as gold" by Joseph Heller evaporated. So back to TV and mobile games. Nothing succeeds as planned : So Gold feels all his...

ಏನಾದರೂ ಆಗು ಮೊದಲು ಮಾನವನಾಗು says a kannada poem. We all need to know that and remember that phrase always. Whether it is IS or Sanathana sanstha, do these people not agree that we are all children of God? And if they agree, do they ever think about why HE  would want some of his children to be killed by other children? Did you know that the founder of this Sanstha was a hypnotist earlier and people have filed a case against him saying he uses hypnosis to convince people to join the organization and perpetrate violent acts? We the common men and women need to think about this.  Should we say that Hindu terrorism is justifiable because of the presence of muslim terrorism? And don't we want to become good humans first? With little bit of tolerance?

Rao a middle aged government servant, starts working in a TV serial  as Gandhi. Gradually he finds himself understanding and following principles of Gandhi. But ours is not a time where Gandhigiri brings positive result. Rao's only son leaves his house and later is arrested because he has a defaulted a loan. His mentor's son - whom he promises Godse's role, loses the role. And Rao feels utterly helpless. Compromising with the situation and willing to pay a bribe for release of his son, Rao feels he is not worthy of playing Gandhi's role. Let us look at one scene. In the studio where the serial is being produced, some evil looking men enter. One of them keeps asking the prices of various recording equipments. Then he asks "why are you casting Rafeeq as Godse? Don't you have any one from our community to play the role? If you do not remove him, all these equipments will be broken". Looks familiar, isn't it? 2011 film by Girish Kasaravalli makes ...

Aung San Suu kyi

We Bangaloreans are facing 4 hours of scheduled power cut and some more hours of unscheduled power cuts as well. Let us return this unscheduled to our leaders. Let us give them unscheduled elections. Are we not disgusted with the pre-poll alliance, all the juggling, and then post poll alliance and resort politics - as is happening in Bangalore now. We are. All this circus is done to win the elections. Imagine a situation where elections are announced just one week in advance - just enough time for the administration to make arrangements. There will be no closed door meetings between leaders of different parties. Also no election campaigns where people will be brought in lorries to clap for the leaders, with our money. No distribution of sarees, lungis and hooch and biryanis. Then again, if they do not campaign how does the voter know whom to vote? They do have eyes and brains. They can see how the parties are ruling, which of their problems are resolved and which are newly creat...

You are feeling blues, you want to lighten mood. You search for a joke. And what do you get, a dirty bundle of text full of innuendos which make you sick. Why can not any one write simple clean humor? Which is not a rambling like mine.   One writer who used to write excellent subtle humor was Wodehouse. His stories of Bertram Wooster and his "gentleman's gentleman" butler - Jeeves, are "ekamevadvitiya".  Most of us grew up reading his books and chuckling in the class room. But his books are not of the type which make you guffaw like "Three men in a boat". Again, if you have not read TMIAB, you are not literate at all. Sorry, some serious flaw in flow today. Make a point to read the book immediately. You can read it online from Project GutenBerg Raold Dahl's William series are good, suitable more for children. I tried to remember another author whose satire was excellent. He is Saki - Victor Hug Munro. Saki's works are also availabl...

We all read in history lessons that to teach a lesson to European rulers, our fore fathers banned European clothing. Now we do not have colonial rule. Those hoarders are our own people. But does that mean we let them loot us? We should teach these people - people responsible for sky high onion prices, also a lesson. Not to chase them out of the country, but to make them less greedy. I am no economist and not even a bachat centric mom. But even I know the supply demand rule. If the demand for onion reduces in large amount, the price should come down. Let us all decide to use very little onion in our cooking. Morning chutney does not need onion. Nor does the Sambar. Yes, you can cook sambar without onions and tomatoes, and it does taste equally good. For our palyas or sabjis, we can add asafotida, curry leaves or coriander leaves for flavor. I do not know much about North Indian foods or Non-vegetarian foods. But I am sure these cooking can also be done without onions or with ...

We Indians are a patriotic lot. In spite of cursing our country and its law makers thousand times a day, we strongly believe that India and Indians are THE BEST. But most often our patriotism is expressed in limited ways. Pakistan bashing (rarely) America bashing Calling any one who opposes our leader as a traitor   Only people who actually care for our country and save its borders are our soldiers. When all of us say "jeevam bhadrani pashyanti", these soldiers play with their lives to save ours. We the common Indians, remember about the word - patriotism only on Independence day. May be this rule applies to citizens of other countries as well. But not Beirut Banksy. He draws cultural figures on the walls of Beirut. It is his effort in reuniting the Lebanese, who are divided in political and sectarian divisions. His real name is Yazan Halwani. 22 year old Halwani peels of political posters off the walls to make room for his murals. Lebanon has undergone c...

As my cable connection is playing tantrum, I am not watching GA today, instead I will blog about it. What is the problem with cable connection? Who knows, the cable operators say it is some problem on our side - just like telephone. Just like telephone. Grey's anatomy is Grey - Meredith Grey's story. Almost all the characters are some how related to her. And since the story is about a hospital, all of them are doctors, and honest, empathetic, unrealistic doctors. There is handsome Derek Shephard - Grey's boyfriend. He has run away from his very beautiful doctor wife Addison because she cheated on him with his best friend - Mark Sloan. The story drags a lot here, Addison too comes to same hospital with the intention of patching up her marriage. Mark Sloan comes there too. And there is a huge mess. Then there is Calliope Torres, she is having on and off relationship with Mark Sloan - Shephard's best friend. This Dr. Torres marries George O'Malley...