haraTe Mail an article to kulki. Back to Kannada Saahitya PuTa This has all the 'haraTe' I keep writing on a.c.k. I hope to do it more seriously, at regular intervals. You are welcome to contribute. Think of it as a column, with guest writers. Post-nishchaya: Some thoughts I -- Di Ech Kay Post-nishchaya: Some thoughts II -- Di Ech Kay Morning Pleasures -- Prabhu Kandachar Dattana ichchaa 2 -- Di Ech Kay Cereals and Idli Sambar -- Di Ech Kay Modern kannada literature -- Chetan Hublikar Naanu manege hogidde -- Di Ech Kay Dattana ichchaa 1 -- Di Ech Kay Nangu Madhuvay Aagbayku....... -- Ram Prasad Cockroaches and myself -- Pavanaja U. B. mysoora malligeya kampu -- Venkatesh Prasad What next? ("mundaenu?") -- Di Ech Kay Ajja, DaRa Bendre -- Di Ech Kay bichchOle gouramma baare -- Di Ech Kay Samskaara -- Di Ech Kay avvana mosaravalakki -- Di Ech Kay Hindustani thavarumane -- Di Ech Kay 30 is old? -- Di Ech Kay It is easy they said -- Di Ech Kay Friendships Di Ech Kay Post-nishchaya DiEchKay, Some thoughts for the searching II Di Ech Kay In the last 'haraTe', I rambled on about the positive attitude one may have to have while searching for a soulmate. Vimalakka's follow up prompts the next logical haraTe. You are searching for a soulmate (by whatever means), you are meeting them, and now 'How does an "Yes" come about?' I will try to answer that here. But remember that it is an extremely subjective decision, and just take what I say as a weak guideline on way to a good decision ;-) The married of the kannaDa baLaga, please do give feedback to those searching to make good decisions in life. In my case, I guess it was small things here and there over email and phone, and later meeting in person for couple of days. So, with Suhasini, I guess our 'Yes' came in bits and pieces. So providence avoided me facing the big question in one shot. I can tell you what was the last bit of 'Yes' though: We do have some difference in the background in which we grew up. I grew up in a modest but overachieving family nearly entirely in a village. She grew up in comfort in the city itself. I found that this did not matter to her at all. To my pleasant surprise she had thought about it, and in fact is proud of my family's achievements. In short, she knew she likes the 'haLLi mukka' or 'maNNina maga' just the same. Well, I guess I was lucky that I answered the big question in incremental fashion. But, many are not that lucky. So, how does the answer come about. It is a hard question, I know. I have previously been in situations, where I was in the border of 'Yes' and 'No', and certain things prompted a 'No'. 0) First basis, I do believe, is an element of spark. That you do think the person is attractive, even if in a mild way. At the same time, remember that we are not 'Juhi Chawla's' or 'Sharukh khan's'. It is an average person meeting another average person. Most delays in marriage happen because of unrealistic expectations. Eventhough everybody dreams about the most beautiful/handsome partners, I bet the marriage of beauty and the beast won't last -- there is no sense of equality. (There goes DiEchKay again, overly frank in opinions ;-) ) 1) Knowing that there is at least a mild spark, factor it away for any further decision process. That is, just because you find the potential match extremely attractive does not mean he/she is a good life partner. Have the courage and determination to say 'No' when you feel it is not going to work. **same sentence repeated** 2) A good beginning for living together I think is common interests. Liking old Hindi vs liking new Hindi music is not a difference. Such differences should not matter in the long run. 3) Adjustment is a key ingredient even for the best matches on earch. Do you feel the person can adjust? For people living outside India, typical question is she/he willing to move? Only few of us know where we will be 5 yrs down the road? Is she/he open to where to live. Don't get me wrong, this is important. I met one woman last year who said she wanted to work for company xyz in India until 97! She could not even think how married life can be sustained for 2 yrs long distance. Another's biodata read "Objective: to live in advanced countries like US and Canada"! Compare this with a third person who said "That depends, we will go wherever we are happy". You see that willingness to adjust? 4) Communication is another ingredient. Does she/he freely talk? Does she/he freely express feelings, wants and dislikes? 5) Sensitivity: Does she/he seem to care what your feelings would be before saying something? Was there an instance where she/he wondered what your parents might like before doing something? 6) Attitude: What seems to be her/his attitude towards you? "Just another match? I must impress guy/gal because it helps my career?" or "This is one of the nicest people I have met" or something like that? Does she/he seem to be proud of your achievements and values in life? Does she/he sound like somebody who will go about telling her/his friends what a nice guy/gal you are? Are you proud of her/his achievements? A healthy and positive attitude is a beginning of mutual respect. I would stay away from fire brands (personally, I cannot deal with them). 7) Is the person cheerful? Is the person short tempered? Well, I am sure I missed many things and it is getting late. I guess important thing is that one can call it a good beginning for a relationship if "each person considers she/he is getting a match that is better than they deserve or hoped for". Please feel free to add to the list and discuss with friends and help them to make good decisions. And, lastly, don't let relatives force on you a decision. Opinions are fine, but saying "If you don't marry this person your uncle will feel bad", or something more serious is not reasons to marry a person, I think :-( nimmava --Di Ech Kay Post-nishchaya DiEchKay, Some thoughts for the searching Di Ech Kay Thanks for all the mails of the kannaDa baLaga congratulating on me settling down finally in life. I know some of you as well as me had given up any hope on this happening. 'gaNeshana maduveyu u.nTe'? Several asked how it feels to be engaged, especially considering all the moody haraTe I used to write. In short I feel happy as never before. I could not have asked for a better match than Suhasini even if I had set about describing the ideal one. I will write about those things later. But now, some things that come to mind, especially pertaining to those still looking for soulmates. Since I am brutally frank and open about how I feel and what I have to say, here goes my two cents. Hope it is useful information and suggestion. I mainly felt two things, I suppose: 0) 5 yrs of PhD frustration and cynicism had made me to wonder whether they had done a permanent damage to my personality. I used to be bubbly (never walked always ran type), cheerful and optimistic. But recently I had begun to wonder whether I can get those traits back again, and if I can how to get them. I was surprised to find that being normal is natural and effortless. After meeting Suhasini, it was as though the surface was scrubbed to let the inner me shine. 1) I felt a strange calmness inside me. Desmond Morris would say that my harmones had eased to an equilibrium without having to actively search for a partner anymore. It is hard to describe. I can just say that you look at the people you come across and world at large in a different way. So, there is a message here for those who are still searching for a soulmate. 0) The frustrations of the search (remote search for those living outside India) are temporary. It is a transitory phase where you feel insecure. Just be patient and confident. This phase will disappear overnight and without any effort. 1) Many of you know I hate to go into love marriage vs. arranged marriage discussions. We are not SCI we are SCIK. But, nearly all of us go through a phase debating with ourselves which of the two is good. My debate ended with an open-ness, saying whichever does not matter. Whichever clicks first is what I take. But, in about 100hrs I spent with Suhasini I discovered that many of the matches fall into a very wide grey area between the two extremes. It is okay to be in this grey area -- but to be there, key idea is to have an open mind, 2) I think. Looking for a bride/groom in the same geographical area, with similar cultural and family backgrounds takes out so many blocks on the way that it may be worth doing so. We do belong to a newer generation which believes in free exchange of ideas and likes and dislikes. So, I suggest that you try to spend as much time as possible with a prospective match. Feel free and frank. Take a few deep breaths and let transcend beyond physical things. Try to dip into the person inside. This does not happen with chosen questions. This happens with long walks, telling things to each other, about school times, friends, family, films. You will be surprised how much the mundane things can tell about a person. 3) Please do make sure you meet as few people at a time as possible. You will be confused thoroughly, and you will also not do justice to the people you meet. It is okay to make another trip to India the following year. 4) The most difficult that I had to deal with was peer pressure. Having taken long roads to career, I was crossing 30 and seeing every friend settling down with careers and family was pressurizing. I remember that once I nearly succumbed to it, but luckily escaped. With peer pressure, it is very easy to make wrong choices. Just stay put and follow your own dreams. 5) The search process is a long one for most of us. Do not hope to find a match in a one month trip. Very few have been lucky and things did turn out for the better. But having made 3-4 trips I know the kind of matches I would have found with time pressure and how wrong it would have been. Most of the matches occur by networking. Mention to as many friends, as many relatives. A good idea is to write a one page bio-data and send it to them. 6) It is a good idea to spend time thinking about descriptions of the person you would consider an ideal match. In the modern world qualifications have become inherent part of a personality. But, the person is still very important. So, do try to overcome the materialistic goals and try to view persons you meet as equals. Well, we never know how things work out finally and where our match is. The joke is after a 2-3 year search, Suhasini happens to live 3 houses from my sister's house. It is funny how things work. Goodluck, just do not get despaired or pressurized. --Di Ech Kay Morning Pleasures Prabhu Kandachar Whenever I think of the good old days at Mysore/Bangalore, in the morning on my way to work through the traffic packed hectic highway here in The Netherlands, I think of the pleasant leisure back home. Back home, I used to get up slowly around 7 AM to be greeted by the bisi bisi coffee, rich with the aroma of Peabody and Arabica mix, thickened with Chicory, with fresh and fatty milk to enliven the taste. The street was already buzzing with people, rikshas, buses, lorries and cows. It was always, practically always, dry and sunny. I was absolutely in no hurry, even on working days. The second coffee will come later on, but let myself go through The Deccan Herald, either sitting on a comfortable chair in the verandah or upstairs in the balcony. Early morning sun on my body, just draped in banian and panche, is very soothing, especially when you have experienced the cold and wet mornings of West Europe. I had all the time for the newspaper, including non-news items in the classified advertisements. On Sundays, I would just walk out in my panche to buy another newspaper or a magazine just around the Ballal Hotel corner. Then someone would announce that the bachchalemane is free. Just run and occupy before anybody else does. It really did not matter whether I had shaved my face or not before the shower, as far as I am concerned. My mother would however frown at me if I did shave after the shower. The day I have my oil bath is an entirely different story, with an exponential increase in the morning pleasures. When I was ready, the next delight was also ready. It was either idli or dose or uppittu or rotti or any one of those innumerable and mouth watering dishes, simply classified as thindi. You will get a great respect for all those Indians who, after this most enjoyable and delicious feast, would patiently wait for the overcrowded bus, somehow hang on to it and spend the best part of their day in an utterly uninteresting activity, simply classified as office work. How totally different here. It is warm here in only one out of the twelve months. I cannot just walk out in my panche. Firstly, the doors have to be kept closed all the time. Secondly, I would perhaps get some objectionable reactions from my western neighbours. Lastly, shops are not open on Sundays and there are no newspapers on Sundays. On working days, I cannot afford to be lazy, like at Mysore/Bangalore. If I want to avoid all that heavy traffic, I should ensure that I am at my work at 7.30 in the morning. There are some kinds of morning pleasure here, however. The coffee percolator at my office works always and there is a never failing supply of water and electricity. The coffee powder is of excellent quality, thanks to the big local market. I can just throw away the filter, unlike my poor mother, who would clean the (once white) dark brown cotton filter for reuse. Environmentally friendly, though. With the bisi bisi coffee, the first thing in the morning to do is of course to look at The Deccan Herald home page. The time difference - I am ahead by some 3 to 4 hours - between India and The Netherlands works to my advantage. It feel at home. Some 20 years back, when I moved over to here, I had only coffee in the morning and no Indian newspapers. I had subscribed to one of those weekend editions, but it would have to arrive by airmail, and I was running behind my mother. Thanks to all the brilliant boys and girls who have invented Internet, WWW, and what have you, I have now Deccan Herald, in addition to coffee, at the same time, my mother is reading at Mysore. One day the world will progress to such an extent that I will get my bisi bisi thindi every morning delivered right here within a fraction of a second and I can fetch the Sunday newspaper in my panche without offending my neighbours. Dattana ichchaa 2 Di Ech Kay (This came to me over a day, and I wrote it in about 40 minutes. I don't know why and how, and I only hope I get direction to live by it. --- kulki) Peace, Happiness and Self A few weeks ago we talked about how a conscious attempt to be happy is often lost in the daily grind of life. This is particularly so, when the society or the work place promotes short term goals, where more time is lost in fixing the broken old than in creating the new. In creating a solution that survives than the solution that succeeds. Similar to a motion picture which is made with thousands of individual snaps, life is made with millions of tiny experiences. Just as the quality of a film depends on each of those snaps, quality of life depends the richness of those tiny experiences. Just as a small mistake in editing is noticeable and ruins the picture, a few bitter experiences can affect the life. Just as the theme of each snap affects the direction of the movie, each experience can affect the direction life takes. For happiness one should be conscious of each of those tiny experiences and attempt to make them rich. It is the unparalleled situation of taking a role in the film and directing it as well. You decide how to take an experience and how that should affect the following events. One thing that helps you to be the actor and the director is 'empowerment of the Self'. The self we are talking about is not the Self the great Shankara and many Gurus have talked about. The Self does not have any properties. A Self realized person is above all problems we face and is indiffernt to the joys the sorrows and perils of life. Since it takes a great mind such as the great Gurus to realize Self, we want to talk about the Self as trapped in our bodies. It is the Self that drives your mind and body. We will seek the help of this Self to control unhappiness the mind and body lead us to. We assign the complete power to this Self over our mind and body. Imagine this Self as a yourself overseeing the mind and body. Suppose you are doing or forced to do something that is unpleasant, Self is the voice that tells you to stop. Suppose you go out of the way to help a needy, Self is the voice that pats you on the back. The Self in every person has the same origin and does not have any vices and blemishes. When we say see good in everybody, we mean take a peek at his Self. The secret of happiness is in creating occasion in every step in life a victory to the Self over mind and body. This is what the 'yogis' called as disciplining the mind the body. A student finding it hard to keep pace with the demand for energy, will find that waking up much earlier than his body wishes, working much later beyond body's biological rhythm, brings in a sense of success. That is the celebration of Self's power. When the mind is occupied with daily life and the life seems a lightless tunnel, take a walk on green grass in bright sunshine. Suppress all mind's urge to gt back to the chore it is used to. Gradually, mind comes to control and suddenly a bigger picture looms. Quit things you are habituated to for some time. You will be restless in the beginning, but slowly you know you are in charge. What is necessary is not quitting, a conviction that you have control over it. Switch that television off for a day, on a day when there is your favourite program, and talk to your family. Get up one day, and go for a jog you have promised yourself. Go do yogasana that you postponed for so long. Next time you find a begger on street, stop all those feelings of whether you can afford to throw away 5 bucks and buy him a meal. We are fundamentally simple creatures. We need food, we need some place to live, and water to drink. Given those things, the Self is more than happy. We complicate it in this modern world. We create expectations, by peer pressures, family pressures, society pressures. Take away the expectations, you are happy. Why should it be that we eat the best food -- isn't simple rice enough, why Basmati. Why do we need a half million dollar bungalow? Why do we need those expensive and harmful things to drink? Won't water, milk and fruits do? What we really need is to let the Self convince the mind and body that they don't need all that. Tell them Self is the king that rules and Self is minimalist. Dattana ichcha --kulki Cereals and Idli Sambar Di Ech Kay Before we noticed, we have spent nearly half a decade in North America. Indian community is known to eat mainly Indian food, mingle with Indian families, in general live like in a B'lore cloned from original B'lore. Even then, we have gradually changed our living style. This time, think how our food has changed. Have you noticed what you buy in grocery store? Cereals -- Fruit and Nut, Nut and Fibre, Fibre and Oats, Oat and Honey, Honey and Raisins, Raisins and Almonds, Almonds and Tropical Fruits so on. Then the breads, white bread, whole wheat, sour dough, home style, scone, rye, garlic, italian, raisin, orange rind, bagels and its tens of varieties. We use one of the many items on it; jams, spreads, vegetables and the not-so-humane ones meat of many animals. Breakfast is not complete without juice -- so you buy orange, home style orange, grove stand, pulp added, pulp removed, sugar added, sugar remove, from concentrate, not from concentrate, fresh squeezed. All berries -- raspberry, cranberry, blueberry and their indescrete mixes with more voluminous apple, banana, and cherry. Of course, not all of us are grown up, so milk -- Homogeneous, 2%, 1%, skimmed, lactaid, spiced, chocolate flavoured so on. Point is where did we leave our nice breakfasts. Hot idlies, a spot of butter, coconut chutney, and a spicy sambar. Perhaps, dosa, plain or masala. Or aval, upama, pongal. Many (not me) have even changed to the extent of complaining indigesion when they go to India. Don't even ask about lunch. Long forgotten are chapati & sabji, a lunch box of sambar and curd rice with a pickle on the side. We go to Druxy's for a bland cream cheese bagel, perhaps a vegetarian sandwitch. Submarine chappie is all amazed when I ask for a veggie without cheese, olives, pickle or mustard. May be we get a personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. A tasteless salad. Pasta may be. Burrittos work fine for a busy day, or chinese for a more relaxed schedule. No tiffin or evening tea, we head home for an early dinner. This has not changed much alright. But, hardly any variety. Rice, sambar, rasam, some sabji. Basmati does not taste as good as the high price in India hinted. It is hard to get anything other than large eggplants, potato and spinach. I have been a little lucky and get some were-fresh-when-put-on-Air-India Indian vegetables. Call me cynical, even that occasional trip to Indian restaurant does not taste good. Same naan, roTi, gobi masala, chana masala. It cannot match the B'lore Pavitra, perhaps the missing ingredient is B'lore water. I have devised an alternative way to enjoy food. Just don't think. Once in a while, I venture out and try some international food. Italians are good cooks. Pasta primavera, eggplant parmesian, tortellini, zuchchini appetizer are all tasty. Falafel is permitted once in a while. Mexicans are decent too -- wish they improved the portions. No French for me -- 50 quid is too much to blow up. I hate to eat pizza out, so gone are those days. Thai is hot enough for a Telugu, Malaysian is good too. But still, why do I miss my mom's roTis? Modern kannada literature Chetan M Hublikar This survey draws the broad contours of the development of modern consciousness and sensibility in kannada literature over a period of nearly two centuries. It also highlights the salient features on such a literary relief map. The source of this information is taken from the book Modern Kannada Literature by Sheshgiri Rao. Modernization forces aided by werternisation have during these hundred and seventy five years modified our sensibilities and helped to develop new genres and new techniques. Major developments have been the evolution of prose which had been at best a poor relation of poetry to a position of predominance and the rise and growth of drama which was practically non-existent. With the evolution of prose and with environmental changes and under western influences new genres like the novel, the short story and the essay have developed. Modernization and westernisation along with the political, economic, social and cultural changes have stimulated a succession of different responsive movements. Kannada has displayed a vital and vibrant growth all through ever responding to challenges and making continual advances. In these nearly two centuries literary works of outstanding excellence have been produced which merit national and international notice and acclaim. It is certainly not without significance that Kannada has secured a record six "Jnanapit" awards, the highest national award in literary field. The recipients of the award - Kuvempu, Bendre, Karanth, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Gokak and Ananta Murty. This page is arranged in four sections, the first covering literary works in the nineteenth century and the remaining three sections covering the works in the successive first three quarters of the current century i.e. Navodaya - I , Navodaya - II , Navodaya - III . These sections outline the advance of what has come to be known as the Navodaya or Ramya movement(Romanticism). Nineteenth Century : (1800 - 1900) The notable achievement of the 19th century was the development of Kannada prose. Since the time of the 'Vaddaradhana' and 'Chavundarayapurana' in the 10th century almost all literary prose was that comprised in Champu Mahakavyas, prose that was highly stylized. Krishnaraja Wodeyar III and the writer of his court produced a spate of readable narrative prose, whether in the form of romance in the tradition of 'Kathasaritsagara' or in the form of prose renderings of Sanskrit epics and plays. Some of the notable works of Krishnaraja Wodeyar are 'Krishnaraja Vani Vilasa', 'Ramayana Teeku', 'Uttararamacharita Katha', and the voluminous romance 'Sougandhika Parinaya'. The term 'Kadambari' used for the novel in kannada was first used by Lakshman Bhima Gadagkar to describe his 'Suryakanta'(1892). Poetry: British officers, Lewis Rice and J.F.Fleet brought to light numerous inscriptions and while Rice write a brief history of Kannada literature and helped to edit and publish literary classics, Fleet collected and published contemporary folk ballads. These ballads with their stirrings rythms make poetry out of the important historical events of the day. To name a few works - 'Sangolli Rayana Dange', 'Girija Kalyana' by Aliya Lingaraja. 'Savithri Charite' of Basappa Shastry. 'Sri Rama Pattabhishekam' by Muddana. Navodaya-I : (1900 - 1925) If the 19th century was a period of preparation, the first quarter of the 20th century was the seed time for the golden harvest to come in the next half of the century. Institutions like Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha in Dharwad and the Kannada Sahitya Parishad which was established in Bangalore in 1916 and the University of Mysore which came into being also in 1916 did yeoman's service in reviving Kannada literature and in working towards the integration of all the Kannada-speaking areas. Translations continued to be made in the fields of poetry fiction and drama but original creative work of a seminal kind also started which unlike as in the past established a living and continuing tradition. To name a few works: Poetry: Dilipacharithre (1897), 'Ajanripacharitre' (1900) by Prof. Narasimhachar. 'Thenkana Gaaliya', powerful original poems like 'Huttari Hadu' and lovely children songs like 'Nagara Have' by Panje Magesha Rao. 'Madalingana Kanive' one of he finest narrative poems in the language by Masti Venkatesha Iyengar. The first sonnet in kannada 'Kavithavatara' by Govinda Pai acclaims compassion as the essence of poetry. Drama: 'Gadayuddha Natakam' by Prof. Srikantaiah. 'Tollu Gatti', 'Poli Kitti', 'Tali kattoke kooline?' by T.P Kailasam. 'Suguna Gambhira' by Samsa. Novel:'Madhava Karuna Vilasa', Kumudini' by Galagantha. 'Yadu Maharaja', 'Bhratrighataka Aurangajeb' by Kerur Vasudevachar. 'Madiddunno Maharaya' by M.S. Puttanna is of historicaal as well as of intrinsic importance as the first full-fledged novel in Kannada. 'Musugu Thegeye Mayanagane', first biography in the language - 'Kunigla Ramashastriya Charitre' by Puttana. Short Story: 'Kelavu Sanna Kathegalu' by Masti laid the foundation and established a tradition. Navodaya - II : (1925 - 1950) If the first quarter of the century was a period of creative experiment and innovation of 'Navodaya', the succeeding quarter is a period of creative achievement. It is in these years that modern Kannada literature comes of age. Poetry: Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre (1896 - 1981) is undoubtedly moderns Kannada's outstanding lyricist. 'Gari', 'Nadaleele', 'Sakhigeetha' by him are some poems. 'Nanna nalla', Chennamalla Halsangi. 'Samudra Geethegalu' by Vinayaka Krishna Gokak. 'Gilivindu', 'golgotha', 'Vaisakhi' by Govinda Pai. 'Kattuvevu Naavu', 'Mohana Murali', 'Athitigalu', 'Samaja Bhairava' by Gopalakrishna Adiga. A tovering figure on the navodaya poetic landscape is Kuppali Venkappaiah Puttappa (Kuvempu). Some of his works are 'Kolalu', 'Sri Ramayana Darshanam'. 'Navaratri' collection by Masti. 'Mankuthimmana Kagga' by D.V. Gundappa. Navodaya - III : (1950 - 1975) The third quarter of the century witnessed the emergence of new forces and trends like Pragatishila and Navya movements as well as towards the very end, the Bandaya or the dalit movement, each a reaction against what went before though the Navodaya school went off the centre stage, significant work continued to be produced by Navodaya writers. Poetry: 'Aralu Maralu', 'Mugilu Mallige' and 'Naku Tanti' by Bendre. 'Sri Rama pattabhisheka' by Masti. 'Sri Haricharite' , 'Maledegula' by P.T. Narasimhachar. 'Bharatasindhurashmi', 'Baladeguladalli', 'Dyavaprithive' by Gokak . His poems in 'Indilla Naale' composed during a visit to U.S.A constitute a revealing critique on the insecurities and vulnerabilities of advanced western civilization. Novel: It is in the field of fiction that Navodaya writing excelled in this period. 'Alida Mele', 'Manimanagala Suliyalli', 'Mookajjiya Kanasagalu', 'Dharmarayana Samasara', 'Marali Manige by Karanth. 'Malegalalli Madumagalu' by Kuvempu. 'Samarasave Jivana' by Gokak. 'Channabasavanayaka', 'Chickavira Rajendra' by Masti. 'Shantala' by G.V Iyer. 'Hemanthagana', 'Anurakte' by Vyasaraj Ballala Short Store: 'Tolstoy Maharshiya Bhoorja Vrikshagalu', 'Iruvegala loka', 'Vichitra Prema' by Masti. Drama: 'Shokachakra' - Sriranga 'Kadalida Neeru' - G.B Joshi. Dattana ichchaa Di Ech Kay (A mail to friend's circle) Hope everybody is bubbly. I see that there has been a silence in the circle. Perhaps those working are caught up with North-American fancy for short-term goals and on-the-toes life. There are very few left in school -- but they too seem to be caught in a different microcosm where hurdles look big not because they are big but because there is very little energy to cross them at the end of four years. Some of you are married and established a new world. Whatever is the case hope everybody is happy. I thought I should say something with respect to life style and attitudes. Remember always 3 things most important in life: Pursuit of Happiness, Dreams and Friendships. My observation is that the North-American mentality, way of living, thinking and business does not support any of the above three. Happiness is sought in materialistic aspects which is shortlived, dreams are shattered to point where life is daily basis, a survival gig, and there is very little room and depth for feelings. Why did I say this. Over 3 weeks break I thought about what ails us. It bothered me to see years pass by without much progress in the person inside. Not long ago, I was happy with little money -- a dreamer, I was at the top of the world with friends closer than family. I think, all three have thinned in the past 5 years. Unless you take a break, sit on a shore on a summer evening, it is hard to notice the change we are going through. Here is a suggestion, save aside some time for yourself -- think where you are headed and whether you are happy, whether you are on track towards your dream, and how many friends you have to count on (not those that say hi in the corridor, the real ones, who know how you feel.) --kulki on a serious note Naanu manege hogidde Di Ech Kay Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian.karnataka Subject: Re: Kavi Nilaya References: <4nv8ek$3d1@explorer.csc.com> vsiddali@csc.com (Vimala Siddalingaiah) writes: >Suswagatha Kulakarniyarige. Hegithu nimma oorinia pravasa. Ellaru >soukyave? Male Bele vishaya enadaru gothe? I am touched by Padmanabha, Vimalakka and Pavanaja's welcome. Thanks :) I returned from 3 week trip to India err.. Dharwad. It was a hectic trip, could not go anywhere outside Dharwad. What did I do? (Other than eating and sleeping) 0) Ate lots of eeshaaDi and aapus maavinahaNNu. I may not be living in Dharwad anymore, but I still have ability to spot the genuine eeshaaDi :) Have you tried to select eeshaaDi mangoes? First, they mix other variety, so you should know the right smell of eeshaaDi. Usually, when I pick one or two, the bhaagwan (guys who sell fruit) either says, "beDaa saar, neevu buTTeeli iro asali ella khali maaDteeri", or he will appreciate my skill and say, don't worry sir, I will give genuine ones, only if you buy here every time. Oh the fun. Second, if you don't buy the right ripeness, it goes bad, "haLasatada haNNU". Any case, these Mexican mangoes can't come close to our mangoes. 1) Ate lots of unDi, chakkali, hoLigge etc. My favourite food is still rural Dharwadi. joLada nuchchu, ambli, hurakki hoLige, roTTi, agasi hinDi, doNNa meNasinakai pallya, hesara kaaLina pallya. so on. Are you watering :) 2) Visited my village, Mugad. Our village temple is being renovated. I did my bit to help. It looks real nice now. Hope I can return in time for jaatre. They were all getting fields ready and waiting for first rain. Apparently they are growing lot of onion, chillies and potato besides bhatta and joLa now. 3) Met Vamanrao Bendre, younger son of Da Ra Bendre. Bendre smaraka is coming up real nice. 46 lakh budget, hope the govt finishes it fast. Vamanrao said, he is holding off the publication of Bendre samagra kavana sankalana for now, not much money to publish it. I told him how active we have been on the internet, and about Saahitya puTa. He was quite pleased. 4) I met Prof. Purohit from Mysore, a linguist. He has TeX fonts for kannada. We the SCIK baLaga and KALE may wnat to get in touch with him. 5) I bought some cassettes too (audio). Only a couple of Hindustani. I was hoping to get house recordings of Pt. Basavaraj Rajguru, well next time. I bought a few Vachanas by Jambaladinni, subhdra mansur etc. I also bought a few yakshagana -- draupadi pratapa, bheeshma vijaya etc. 6) I bought a few books. KS Narasimhaswamy's malligeya maale, his samagra kavanagaLu. BTW, he got this year's Maasti award. Also PuTiNa samagra kavana. 7) Did a lot of thinking on life -- we will discuss them eventually on 'haraTe' 8) Visited nuggikeri hanumappa. Oh well, the tank is nearly dried up. 9) Oh, yes. I did look for a Bichchole Gouramma, but did not find any ;) Matte barteeni --Di Ech Kay maduve maaDi noDu Di Ech Kay "maduve maaDi noDu, mane kaTTi noDu". The original intent was that both are hard, and without the facade of political correctness, it was targeted at the difficulties in finding a suitor for a woman and managing all the wedding hoopla and the hysterics of the relatives. Times have changed. Hoopla is handled by contractors or done without. Relatives do not care as much -- or have learnt to let you live -- or talk behind your back to a person you are connected by more than six degrees. In the modern times, all the difficulty applies to finding suitors. Things are more equal now -- so apply to men and women (more or less). For the better or the worse situation is changing. Women are in a better position simply because people have not realized that it is equally hard to find suitable brides. No, no, we are not going into the conclusion-and-clue-less debate of love marriage vs. arranged marriages. ... later....' Cockroaches and myself Pavanaja U. B. pavanaja@po.iams.sinica.edu.tw My interaction with cockroaches dates back to my childhood days. Visualise yourself a calm and pleasant village at the foot of western ghast with full of greenery in the Dakshina Kannada district. Our house was one of those old styled with Mangalore tiles, very large from present day standards. There used to be one large wooden box measuring almost 12 ft x 4 ft x 5 ft in size. It was used to store cattle feed, called as hinDi in local language. As most children we also used to play hide and seek. One day I thought I will hide myself inside that box. I opened the box, went inside, sat there and closed the top. Very soon hundreds of cockroaches became alert, started moving and some even started flying (just like in Speilberg's Indiana Jones ...). I had to come out very soon and naturally lost. That was my first encounter with cockroaches which I lost in turn losing the hide and seek game with other children. I lost all my successive encounters with cockroaches. I can bet there will not be a single human being on this earth who can boast that he (or she) has defeated cockroaches. Once my cousin had come from USA. He came to India for one months vacation looking for a bride. He could not get one. On his way back to states, he stayed in my house in Mumbai for a day. I was alone as my family had gone to native place. After hearing his sad story of not finding a suitable girl I told him not to worry. I asked whether he will take milk. He said yes. When I went to kitchen to give him milk I noticed a dead cockroach in the vessel containing milk. I could not offer him milk and made him more sad. There are many such instances where due to cockroaches either I have got disappointed or I had to disappoint others. Many a times I wonder why nobody is carrying out any research on cockroaches. They live in almost all hostile conditions. They are there inside the TV near the hot picture tube. I have seen cockroaches inside the control room of a nuclear reactor. They can survive the chilling inside a fridge. I used to call fridge as 'thangaLu pettige' meaning stale food's box. But now I wonder that it is a misnomer as it is also the residence of live cockroaches. A friend of mine suggested me (Indians are very good in giving suggestions, many a times even if it is not asked for) to use a ball made up of boric acid and sugar to get rid of them when all other insecticides failed. I was bit lazy to do that. Then I found such tablets are available in the market. I bought them and put in every nook and corner of my one-room palace of Mumbai. For some time it seemed to work. But my happiness was short-lived. Another friend suggested to use crazy lines. For those of you wondering what is crazy about lines let me explain. It is like a crayon. You draw lines all around your house. When a cockroach crosses the line it will die. This is also called as Lakshman Rekha. This method also worked, again for a short time. Cockroaches have terrific immune system. They adapt to new situation very fast. That is why I ask our genetic engineers to find out the gene responsible such a mechanism in cockroaches and isolate them. Then we can produce a new species of humans resistive to any hostile environment. Finally I gave up the fight. I started believing in peaceful co-existence. I even penned a chutuka (small poem) in Kannada as follows- nanna maneyalli naanu henDathi makkaLu jiraLe soLLe noNa ellara shAnthiyutha sahabhALve [in my house myself my wife my children cockroaches mosquitoes flies all have peaceful co-existence] When I got an offer for carrying out post-doctoral research in Taiwan I was happy for many reasons. The first one is computers are cheap in Taiwan. Taiwan being an advanced country compared to India, I thought cockroaches will not be there, I assumed. When I tied my seatbelts at Sahar airport I bid goodbye, for the time being, to my country and cockroaches. I had to stay in Hong Kong for getting visa for Taiwan. First thing I noticed in the hotel room was cockroaches. They were eagerly waiting for my arrival. So I had to postpone my plan of bidding goodbye to cockroaches (for the time being) till I reach Taiwan. Two days later I was in Taipei. I was taken to the Institute's guest house. At the entrance I was asked to remove the shoes as done in India. I was happy to note that the tradition is kept alive by Chinese. There was a shelf to keep the shoes. On top of the shelf there were two cylindrical containers looking like aerosols. I thought they may be deodorant sprays. Everything was printed in Chinese. Only one character, rather a picture, that I could recognise on the container was the picture of a cockroach. I asked my colleague, who accompanied me, what is that. To my surprise, he said it is an insecticide to kill cockroaches! jiraLe zindabad (long live cockroach), even in Taiwan. Return to the LIST Nangu Madhuvay Aagbayku....... Ram Prasad rprasad@Legato.COM Nangu Madhuvay Aagbayku....... ============================== DhoDDorgaylla Buddhi illa vodhko barko anthaaralla Nannaya Kashta kayLorilla Madhuvay Andhray raygthaaralla Amman KaNNal naaninnuunu yenu ariyadha koosay anthay koosugaLago Vayasaagidhru naaninnuunu chikkovnanthay nanneee vayasali nannaya appa maguvina thandhay aagidhralla idhay vayasigay nannaya thaatha nanagay thaatha aagidhralla nangaynantha dhuraasay illa hema maalinin kayLthaa illa pakkadha manay-ya seethamnora thikkal magaLnay vopthinalla ayyo dhayvray neenay ivargay voLLay budhi kodbaykappa nangu madhvay makkaLu anno bhagyaan karuNisi kaaybaykappa Return to the LIST mysoora malligeya kampu Venkatesh Prasad venpra@bnr.ca "mysoora mallige" geetegaLa sarasa mechhidenu naa adanu Odi manasA padyagaLa nene nenedu kANutihenu hagalu kanasa aa malligeya kampiddare, nityavU "valentine" divasa -venkat. What better thing we have on Valentine's day, than to talk on "mysoora mallige". Just the fact that it has seen 22 re-prints in 42 years(last edition came out in 1994) speak for its greatness and its popularity. I think these are the first love poems in kannada written in such a simple language which carry plethora of feelings and sentiments. Reader will immediately identify himself in the poem and enjoy the rich experiance of love and "rasikatana". I just love the poems of "mysoora mallige" for its simplicity and clarity of the feelings expressed by its characters. One interesting thing in these poems is, most of them are love songs between husband and wife. although, there is no name for the male character of the poems, there are more than one heroines(paduma,gouri,girija,...). Following are a few of my favourite lines from the different poems of the collection. Both the love and the lovers who appear in the poems of "mysoora mallige" are eternal. They don't have any pain or death. In the poem "grihalaksmi" KSN says: tengu garigala mEle tumbu chandira bandu beLLI hasugala hAlu kareyuvandu angaLada naduve, brindAvanada baLi nindu hAduvevu siriyA kandu. tAregala meeTuvevu, chandirana dATuvevu olumeyoLagondu nAvu; namagilla sAvu, nOvu In the poem "bAre, nanna shArade!" he gives the reason why we should express our love without caring for what others say("janara baayigilla beega") baduku neLala bisila dAri mittu kaLLa bekkinante honchutihudu. yAra dAri- gelli kOneyO ! indinante nALe yennalAgadu, itta siriyu nilladu; matte yella dorakadu. Isn't it a valid reason ? In the poem "kAma dahana" KSN brings out the importance of kAma in our life. He dared to say that it is not a bad thing in that time itself(1930s). He says shiva could burn only half of manmatha and no other god dared to kill him completly. He says, nEtrAgniyali shivanu dahisidanu kAmananu muttydeyAgendu ratiya harasi stOtrakke maruLAgi mOsahOdanu haranu kAmanoLagardhavanu mAtra urisi shivanAda mEle shree vishnu kolalunTe? manmathage tanuvitta tandeyavanu: bramhanige shrushtiyali kolalu ky biDuvunTe ? manmathanu chiranjeeviyAgiruvanu He has ended the poem with these meaningful lines: modalu kAmavE barali; konege prEmava tarali ninnantha abhimAni dAtarilla The poem "mAvana maneyalli"(rAyaru badaru...) tickles us with its humor. I presume every netter knows that poem very well and I will not trouble you with that. "shAnubhogara magaLu" is one more of such type where humor appeal to us. In that song, shAnubhogru is worried because mother-less child seetha is already 12 but still unmarried. One day, tAvaregere priest's family will come to see her - monne tAvaregereya jOyisara mommaganu heNNa nOdalu bandanavara manege. "vydhikara manegaLali oota hottaguvudu:- olle" nendaLu seethe kONeyoLage! Ofcourse, later she tells the real reason to one of her friends. In the poem "maduvaNagittiya manassu" poet wonders from where did the love come from. Just one month back he saw the girl, today he is marrying her, and is already in love with her!. And in the next lines he beautifuly justifies it. It is a wondeful poem. andiginnu avaLa kandu tingalashte prEma bandihudu yellindalO kanDu kELira bEke, kooDi ADira bEke kanDa hudugiyarella ky hidiyuvare ? rAyara henDati is a lone daughter for her parents. So, they keep troubling him by asking him to send her to their home for a few days. But, rAyaru's complaint is, she is a lone wife for him too!. In the poem "obbaLE magaLu" he laments, maDadiyobbaLe nanage; moodutihudemmolume obbaLane karevirEke ? muDida hoovanu muTTI, kaLuvihirA obbaLane yendEkO naguvaLAke throughout the poem he banters his father-in-law for not inviting him along with his wife. But, he is not a rude or wicked person to not to send his wife to her parents place. When his FIL actualy arrives to take his daughter home in the poem "bisila kOlu", he treats him well and gracefuly sends his wife with him by saying: "hOgibaruvenendu" adigeragi kolladiru hOgennadenna manasu And immediately adds: kooDidare nore hAlu, agalidare kene mosaru olumeyoLagella sogasu nOdi naguvudakkinta neneyuvudE balusogasu olumeyadu honna beLasu Now, his wife is at her parent's place and he is alone. Everything in the house reminds him of her. He is missing "akkareya daniyAke" terribly! akkareya daniyAke, sakkareya nuDiyAke sikkidare biDadAke maneyoLilla chikka maneyoLagenna pakkadali naguvAke ukkuvolmeya maDadi maneyoLilla After a few weeks, the day she had promised to return has come. But,she did not. After waiting for her one more week he writes a letter to her. No use! But,still he is not blaming her in "nALe baruvaLu gouri". Infact he defends her. Such is love ! Ole talupirabahudu; nillalaraLu innu nALe baruvaLu nanna prEmalahari!- toura baLagada kOTe kottalava dATibahu- dEnu sulabhave? innu hudugi gouri. One of the memmorable characters of "mysoora mallige" is "baLegAra chennaya" in "baLegArana hAdu". Whenever I read that poem or listen to that song(rendered by Ashwath) I get goose pimples. Throughout the poem the "love" and "abhimAna" he shows to rAyaru and amma is unique and overwhelming. At the end he tells "rAyaru" that if he is angry with her father, it is not her fault and pleads in him to go and see her atleast once. Hats off to the poet who can write a poem like this. muLisu mAvana mEle, magaLEnu mADidaLu nimagEtakI kallu manasu hOgi banniri omme ky mugidu bEduvenu ammanige nimmade kanasu Just as to prove that he can not only write simple,great love poems he has 2 or 3 poems on child in the same collection. One which particularly kindles our imagination is "toTTila hAdu"(attitta nOdadiru attu horaLADadiru). In that a mother is trying to put her child to sleep. How about these lines: tAregaLa jaratAriyangi toDisuvarante chandirana tangiyaru ninna karedu hoova muDisuvarante, hAla kuDisuvarante veeNe nuDisuvarante sutta neredu Let me conclude this by qouting DVG in his "munnudi" to "mysoora mallige": "jeevAnubhavavidda ee padyagalannu Oduvavarige tamma hrudaya dhwaniye alli horaDuttiruvante kELibandeetendu nanage annisuttade. antha swAbhavikate, antha saraLate, rujate - ivugaLannu neevu varavAgi paDedukonDidderi; nimage yAra shiparassu yAtakke ? "ballavane balla bellada saviya." saviyanendu haTatoTTavana hangu bellakke bEkAgilla." "malligeya tOTadalli nintAga dhArALavAgi usirAdirendu kannadigarige hELabEkAda kAla bEga kaLedu hOgali. nimma malligeya baLLi yella rutugaLalliyU nagunagutirali." - DVG. Return to the LIST What next? ("mundenu?") Di Ech Kay It is a while I wrote anything, I mean other than technical papers. I am at the end of tunnel, a pretty long one relative to my age, called PhD. With the prospects of getting my thinking beyond the research microcosm, I am beginning to wonder what to do with rest of my life. Academic life has the advantage that you can be selfish. You are supported to think more about yourself besides the research problem. I have come to understand parts of me that I did not know that existed. The later half of my twenties seems to have passed without notice. It struck me cold when I realized I was 30, and nobody knew how painful that birthday was. It is true however that in the five years I have grown more than 5 years wiser. Friends always told me that I put work before play -- I will suffer later. I seem to be now -- with a general non-cooperation movement by various parts in the body. They also say it is just the end of PhD stress. May be. The fact is, I am not only 30, I feel 30. Half of my life is over. I know, I know, I have done reasonably well for myself in these 30 years. But, who did it benefit? Not a single person in the society directly. Nearest family may be. I know there is a design for me -- I am meant for something. What is my role? Am I doing what I was sent to do? When I talk to friends about my job preferences and life plans, in general things to do, they think I am dreamer. Dreamers are the ones who succeed isn't it? I am just afraid that I will be lost in the grind of day to day life, family, debugging, deadlines that my dreams may be lost. Unfortunately, in this modern world, you need money to do anything. For instance, I know how hard music students in Dharwad work, and how much they suffer. With a gold medal in MA, a friend does not have a job. I have seen him in the same shirt for the last two years. He is a good singer, practices hours a day, but shouldn't I support such people? Kannada schooling is in shambles. Kids by default call daddy and mummy, not appa and amma. A visitor is an uncle. Every school is convent, where as kannada govt primary schools can hardly afford to get kids a decent play ground. I remember how hard it was for appa to raise money for two additional rooms for schools. My village still does not have a library. There is no bus station of any sort. The high school is mediocre. Roads have not been repaired for 15 years. The village tank, once a fisherman's delight, is nearly dry. There is no ambulance. No permanent doctor. What am I doing about that? With all the noise about reservation policies, I am sure none of the lower middle class brahmins will ever get a decent chance. What am I doing for them? My grandpa arranged annually datta jayanti, and by way of that did many a social work. Marriage of poor families, mass munjive so on. Now that he is gone, shouldn't somebody in the family continue it? I know I cannot do everything, I definitely do not have the resources. In the process of getting the resources, wouldn't I forget all the things that I care for. May be I am in the wrong place. May be not. Whatever it is, I should decide fast. Half life left is also half life spent. Return to the LIST Ajja, DaRa Bendre Di Ech Kay Bendre ajja had rented out parts of his house and around. My friend from high school and a distant cousin lived there. Only a locked door separated the two houses. So, while Bendre thatha sat on his easy chair in the Dharwad son, we played cricket. Vaman-kaka came out and talked to us, but then we did not much (even now) to discuss, and spent time playing with his daughter who was 2-3 years old then. He visited my village and my appa's school. When Bendre-ajja died, I was in 9th grade I think. The entire school went to kaDapa stadium to pay tributes. It was painful to us, because he was a regular visitor to our school (karnataka high). We cried, mostly because of missing the ajja, although we hardly knew him as a writer. They instituted a prize in karnataka high in his name -- and yours truly was the first recipient. He came to my grand-pa's place, Tadas, for Datta Jayanthi. Talked about this and that. At the end, he said, "Namaskara, andra, eraDu kai joDise-maaDbeku. 5-5 hatthu beraLu, naanu mudaka manashyaa, nimmannella "haththisigo" thraaNa illa, adaakka", and he opened his umbrella which had a embroidered folded hands on it. Thus was ajja's ego. My drawing teacher, SV Kulkarni was working very closely with DaRa towards the end. We only heard that ajja had taken a keen interest in statistics and number theory. I don't know what came of it. Even today, I miss ajja more than the poet DaRa. Return to the LIST bichchOle gouramma baare (Since some really got bowled by this one, a note, bicchOle gouramma is yet to be found :) Gouramma saddhyakke kaalpanika maatra. ) (Addendum: Well, I found my bicchole gouramma in Suhasini. So, this article is dated I suppose.) Di Ech Kay Mahesh-a came up with an interesting idea -- a page on kannaDa saahitya puTa for "nuDigaTTu" -- pithy sayings that say more than 1000 words a picture can. "aDDa goDi myaale deepa iTTanga maathaaDabyaaDa" -- don't make ambiguous statement -- neither this side nor that side. They are alos used as cliches I guess. "En, Joisara (Joshi-avara) Bombay nimmoru-aaythu enu-eega", "En maaDoodripa, ella 'anukoola sindhu'" -- aka his family settled in Bombay, so he had to like it. They do beautify the conversation though. Then, I said, "Mahesh, why not weave them into some plot?" It is not very easy to weave a plot at 4am, nevertheless. So the plot below is rather crude, unfortunately I don't have time to polish it :( When on the last last lap of a PhD, supervisor "sugrIvA(g)ne" (command from high level that cannot be ignored) takes priority over few weeks of lost sleep. I have to plan to go to India too. It is time to take that well-trodden road to "grahasthaashrama" -- "kaasige hogiddaaythu". That too, how can I ignore avva's orders to settle fast? "Anthoo horaTe, manege". I reached Dharwad, early in the morning, early enough to catch all thathas on their morning walk. Even before I had a shower, illa jaLaka, and avva noticed the missing "janivaara", discussion was deep into potential candidates. I hated it, but then "Avvana maathu andra lakshmaNa rekhe". Sorry, Susans, Yaasmins and Paaroos, you don't have a kunDali. Well, where is my story going? Back to the track, I need the plot for the remaining nuDigaTTus :) "iroade eraDu, namaga sari bandiddu", you know both the families. I wondered what predicament I was in. I realized that all the time I was chasing ranks and certificates I was actually aging. "Halliddaaga kaDale illa, kaDale iddaaga hallilla" -- when young, obviously I was not settled, and when about to settle, I am too old (according to many, for the story sake anyway :) ) Finally I met both the candidates -- Ishwara Bhattara magaLu -- Savitha -- is no resemblance to bright sun (as the name says) -- "thoLada kenDa". Haveri Desai-yavara magaLu -- "bichchOle gouramma". My sister was very happy both did not look as good as she did, she will still remain the main power -- nevertheless "en aNNa chulo kanya-na baralilla" -- I know, "ella mosaLe kaNNIru". I decided it is better to be convinced and rational than compromise on "abhaava vairaagya". I talked to both, and realized the person inside is much different and better. "Gouramma" was indeed my type -- simple, no pretentions, and just like me, average :) So I married. Returned, and told the news first to Ramesha. "Avanobba hittALe kivi", everybody would know the news, and without much effort :) Gouramma is here. "simhAvalOkana maaDidaga" in the few months I have realized every Gabriel Anwar would only be a "muttugada mara" when compared to my "bichchOle gouramma". Oops, I must have been dreaming, my life is still stuck at para one -- following the "sugrivaagne" :) Return to the LIST Samskaara Di Ech Kay "Samskara" Di Ech Kay SuthikshaN Kumar-avaru UR Anantha Murthy-avara "samskaara"-da parichaya maaDikoTTru. I never watched the movie version, but, I do remember my appa mentioning narayaNappa and others very frequently. I read AbraahmaNa by KT Gatti (correct?) last year. It is more of a drama than one that deals with caste differences. The hero, a prof in udipi college, marries a lower caste woman. Well, even though, they have a nice life, his mom has set her mind on separating them. Ultimately, she does some "manthra-thanthra", but the hero dies. I do not know how many of you grew up in villages -- it is not only that the caste separation was explicit, it is taken for granted. Do you know Brahmins are called "Haaruva-s", the reason is they jump as soon as they suspect something is not "maDi" -- shuddha/pure. Now here are two sides: It was a norm for villagers to visit us for common medicine (appa is a teacher, but had to take up medical certificate as well since places he worked in did not have doctors). Most did npt even have 10-25 paise to pay for the tablets. Important thing is, we gave common stuff liek APC when dad was busy or away. My mom always yelled from the kitchen when she heard some familiar harijan voice "dooradinda kaiyoLaga haaku". They never seemed to mind it, and they loved "appa" and "avva" nevertheless. Avva gave the best food made in the entire village. Appa, as a school teacher made sure they sent kids to school, helped them thru college so on. They did resist the separation others, mainly farmers, tried to impose. Ironically enough, one of the powerful deities in the village is "Mushyamma" -- a shakti avataara -- but the pujaari is an untouchable. All these people go to her temple without fail -- they refuse to touch the pujaari -- but pujaari can touch the deity. And ofcourse, deity is supposed to be in "maDi" or pure, even if they want to farmers cannot enter the inner sanctum sanctorum. Even then compared to Brahmins, farmers were more liberal because most harijans worked in their fields. Most of them for very poor wages, things may have changed a bit now. But now question is this -- who separated them most -- Brahmins who did maDi, but in fact helped them come up -- or the farmers who were more liberal -- but subdued them? Return to the LIST Avvana mosaravalakki Di Ech Kay Avvana mosaravalakki Di Ech Kay A sunny white Christmas day outside. The sun is bright, and the fresh snow makes it even brighter, for a moment I imagined a summer day. Such imagination can work wonders on a Toronto mind depressed with winter blues. What would be an ideal snack coming from a "kaai-palya" shopping in the market? No trick here -- mosaravalakki with a pinch of "puThaani chatNi puDi" on the side. Yum, yum, cool and filling, damn those who said my skinny frame is due to excess avalakki. I am fortunate to be in Toronto where you get atleast 2-3 varieties of avalakki. I soaked them for a minute, added 2 percent yogurt, a little milk, a little water, alt, and yes, authentic "chaTni puDi". Damn, it is not the same. Where is "kene mosaru" and where is 2 percent yogurt? Although a decent cook, I am not mom am I? What is avva's secret recipe? I will never guess -- certainly whoever marries would failingly try to convince there is not really much difference in taste. Coming to think about it, it is the same story with "mosaranna". When I was late for school, or in a hurry to catch Bangalore train, avva would spend few minutes to make the tastiest mosaranna. What all does she put in it? Hmmm, rice a little cooled, cardamom, and some "vaggaraNe", and salt ofcourse. It tasted best, after a few hours. I am sure, kene-mosaru made the difference yet again, but what else? I have successfully copied some of her recipes -- hoLige, baTaaTi palya, damn -- I cannot get that doNNa-menasinkai palyaa and eNNegaayi badanekai as well -- well there are others I can do, even Shri khanDa. Are they easy to do? That may not be the reason -- mosaravalakki is easy to do as well -- in principle. Perhaps, the recipes I can manage just do not require as much love in them. "Avva, ivaththenu aDigi?" Hindustani Thavarumane Di Ech Kay My passion for Hindustani music has been recent. The past 4 years have made my love more intense than ever. The first concert I ever attended was at Music Academy in Madras in 1989. Pt. Bhimsen Joshi gave a concert that recruited me for life. It was an irony -- one born and brought up in Hindustani-Thavarumane Dharwaad, and listening to a celebrated Dharwadi in Carnatic-Thavarumane Madras. Even today, I find it a little embarassing to admit to music circle friends that I am from Dharwad. They find it hard to believe that my "Sa" changes with the singer! I am proud that Dharwad has produced musical stalwarts such as Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Mallikarjun Mansur, Smt. Gangubai Hangal and Pt. Basavaraj Rajguru. Pt. Mansur's son, Dr. Rajshekar Mansur is a professor at Karnataka University, and is considered a very competent singer. Pt. Mattikatti is a senior student of Mansur-thatha. Pt. Madhav Gudi has settled in Dharwad (I hear). There are some juniors you may eventually hear -- H.K. Nagaraja, Mathura Dixit, Sangeetha Katti, Rohini Deshpande etc. I wonder how we have become to be so prolific in music. Perhaps attending a concert in Kalabhavan gives some hint. You will see people from all sorts -- very knowledgable retirees, college students, Univ and other employees, and considerable from the villages. AIR Dharwad has done more than its due to promote artists. My aunts sing Purandara keerthane without even a hint of what is classical music. My 5 year old nephew uses brass thalas without knowing he is playing ek taal. If you grew up in a village you would know that there exist Nataka and Doddata/sannata groups (although the number has reduced). A percussion group in my village, Mugad, is famous all around, is impossible to book in marriage seasons, and I don't think they ever learnt thaLa or theka. Perhaps, music is in our blood, and I love it :) Return to the LIST 30 is old? Di Ech Kay Self consciousness is most predominant in the bathroom; surfacing at its best while intently shaving the stubborn stubble, while taking a shower, or while combing hair, carefully watching for the occasional gray. It was one of those Saturday late mornings. After a tennish arise, a lazy glance at the headlines of the morning paper, a brushing followed by a half-an-hour-tea, and a ten minute contemplation of shave-or-not-shave that I decided it is time to take a shower. My mind desulted through a score of topics; my research, the cyst that is developing at the back of the head, the hair that needed a visit to the salon, the dreadful idea of having to iron the clothes, a wonder as to whether the moisturizing soap does what is advertised at all, a decision to buy a non-advertised shampoo so on. I normally am done when thought lingers back on research followed by a reminder of the promises made to the supervisor. But for a change, today I stoppped when I realized that I am twenty-seven and that is three years from thirty. I only remember that I thought about it for a long time. I don't know how long I was in shower, how I got out of the bath and dressed up, how I finished my brunch, and how I rushed to the school and started typing. Turning thirty is having crossed a milestone in life, a significant portion of the life spent. A time when one starts to ponder why he didn't realize he was going to be thirty soon. A man scrambles through his behaviourism and starts pretending to be a matured one; a woman searches frantically for signs that might still indicate she is early twenty. Both continue to do so till they reach fourty. Thirty is one third, and for many of us half of the full life. The thoughts that never crossed the mind before start bothering constantly. The missed oppotunities, the unexpected successes, the loves and infatuations, the friendships made, the friends lost, trusts gained, the trust betrayed, the lessons life taught and the life's unsolved mysteries, the chase for an education from the best schools, and the lost family bonds. Two decades of a paper chase, needs an evaluation. Was it worth the sacrifices the family made for you? Was it worth the oil you burnt? Does it promise a better future? More importantly, has it taught me about life? We did enjoy the brief periods when we received an academic mention. Did I make the right choices at the right point? Would a medicinal study have made me a better person? Would I have been more successful as a manager? Would I have been better as an artist? It is the most amazing part of life. We exist in a world where the time is linear, the choices are irreversible, and inspite of all this we continue to act. The end of academic chase seems to bring a void. Now that the sole purpose of academic achievement is over, it is hard to fix the next target. The short term and short sighted academic goals seem to have rendered us incapable of thinking what to do next. What is that I have to achieve in life? What is the purpose of my existence? In these years we may have met thousands of people. It puts the most gregarious person to shame to know that we have continued to associate with at the most one hundredth of a percent of them. Even the fewer percent that we knew closely seem to have enriched the life so much. There are friends who taught you how to enjoy even the most insignificant thing in life. There are friends who helped you understand atleast some aspect of who you are. There are those who helped you make the right choices and avoid the wrong ones. There are friends who taught you how to tie a tie and how not to make a slurping sound while drinking tea. There are friends who showed you what the fuss is about a beer. Some amazed you with their frankness, some confused you with their ambiguity, some frustrated you with their vanity, some sought you for an ideal, and some hated you. Even the ones who hated and betrayed me seem to have contributed to what I am today. I realized today that the number of new friends I am making has dropped, and the old friends seem to have grown apart faster. Perhaps this is the time we start enriching our lives with our own understanding of life. I don't know. I have spent a good portion of the life, but hardly seem to understand what is life. Philosphers have spent lives over generations to define it. As a less scholarly human I want to understand at least what is living, and how to live well. That too a realization that living is a one time affair, and every second spent shortens the time available makes one desperate. An urge to do the right things everytime; an effort to utilize every minute; and wish to see and experience everything that there is engulfs. Something that I noted long ago from Reader's Digest, seems to serve as the best advice (it is by Cathy Bates). "Each day that we awake is a new start, another chance, why waste it in self-pity and selfishness? Run your hand along the spine of the precious 24 hours and feel the strength in sinew and bone...". Return to the LIST It is easy they said Di Ech Kay It is easy for you, they said Di Ech Kay "It is easy for you", they said, "unlike us". I have heard that from every possible female relative. "Anna, they will line up", teased a lovely cousin, exasperated with three years of groom search that never seems to end, "guy like you is rare these days". Before I left for India the last summer, friends asked me, "so, you are going to get married"? I thought, "perhaps, I should know how to go about it anyway", and talked to friends. "You have to maximize your choice you see, did you give an advt in Times"? First thing is to decide that it is time to settle down. The academic race never seems to find an appropriate point that is stable. Before you know, you would have spent a few years trying to see whether it is the time at all. Any how, the time settles the question, "it is ticking, buddy", the mortal clock. Several uncomfortable situations help too. "Did you know I was only 22 when I married your friend? Bye the way, have you noticed you have gray hair even on the side". "Your sister is married no? what are you waiting for", I don't usually say, "the right one". "Oh well," I think, "perhaps it is time." Unfortunately, that is when the problems start. My parents are happy, their son finally agreed. But then the specification starts. "Do you want a science graduate, or any degree will do?" Ofcourse they don't ask whether she should be of the same caste. "You don't want somebody very modern, do you?" Modern ofcourse could mean anything. "We think she should knwo music". "They surely should be from our side". So on, a thousand things. How do I know whether I will be happy with an arts graduate or a science graduate? Just because mathematics is my life does not mean I should be happy with a mathematician, does it? Then I tell them when I plan to visit next. They say, "don't worry, we will finalize something by then". I do not understand what that means. You get a series of mixed news -- she is good looking, but does not have a good degree; she has a master's degree, but we don't like the family; it sounds ok, but she is one inch taller; perfect match for you, but has same naadi. Ofcourse, even if you match few parameters of horoscope you reject a large percentage. It is an equally never ending process. Worst of all, I am here, when they make decisions. I perfectly trust my dad's definition of good family; my sister is as strict as a judge for a beauty pageant; my brother has the widest contacts; my mother does not exactly love material things -- but somehow I am helpless. I realize in the process, a lot is lost. I used to have good ideas about my likings. They don't seem to matter now. The set of parameters seems to have changed. I have started distinguishing fantasy from reality. The urge to look for potential romance is lost. I have been house trained to think the way world does. Gabrielle Anwar is for the movies, not real life. I meet a few, my parents think are the most potential -- in other words have set their hearts on. I talk to them for a couple fo hours. I know that it takes a very little time to notice obviously incompatible (which parents themselves would have eliminated anyway.) It may also take a little time to find somebody very attractive. What about the huge majority in between, which most of them happen to fall into? How do I know it is a match. How do I find she loves the smell of first rain too? She may be very pleasant to talk to, but how does that guarantee a person who will face life with me? How do I know it is not her trainign in years of search that is tricking? I frankly do not know how an 'yes' comes to occur. I strongly suspect, we the unfortunte over here, usually make a futile first trip. Nearly as disastrous second trip, only to finally nod since you run out of time. An aunt's advice, "how long do you intend to search", helps, perhaps. Perhaps, I tell myself, that is a compromise, just like which grad school to join was. In the process, I realize, getting married is not about romance at all. It is getting a long term room-mate. If I told my cousin, "Sumi, I really don't know whether it is an 'yes' ", unsure as ever, "even if I said yes, do you think she likes me, her parents would agree"? She would laugh hysterically, "she must be the dumbest to say 'no', who will get somebody like you, Anna". Indeed, it is neither about a match nor a romance -- it is a convenience, a path of least resistance to all parties concerned, at that point of time any how. It is scary, but then I don't think I should be bachelor for so long. A married friend scares further -- "No, Kay, we pretend marriage is a solution, an end to a search, a settling option", he says very quietly, "it is only the beginning of a differetnt set of problems". Oh boy! Return to the LIST Title Author Text... Return to the LIST Back to Kulki's home.