SloganMurugan's Slogans

Nithya muktha, nithya samsaari, nithya naraki

2010-09-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

From Churumuri...

"Kuvempu’s impatience with the Madhwa philosophy can be understood in the context of his broad humanist position. The “Nithya muktha, nithya samsaari, nithya naraki” (“One who is forever free, forever involved in worldly affairs and forever goes through the torments of hell”) philosophy of Madhwacharyaholds that the human being and the world do not change."...

Read the full story here.

Keep Walking

2010-06-01T00:54:00.000-07:00

It's a mere slogan for an alcoholic brew but it holds a world of meaning for the human race. Among all the things that have made us humans the most successful species, this one is the most under rated. Our ability to keep walking.

According to evolutionary biologists, we humans on two legs could not outrun almost all our prey but we could chase them at our walking speed until they tire. Like the proverbial tortoise, we walked our way to become the top predator.

Before we invented ships and rockets, we walked our way across continents. And when the first human landed on the moon, it was the small step that Armstrong took, that captured the imagination of the world.

Among religions, the Jains take walking very seriously. Their ascetics and nuns believe that walking is a form of meditation. It's when they walk that they think. Our master idea man Mahatma Gandhi also walked a lot. He called it a March, but his walk to Dandi with the people following him changed the history of our nation.

Even though we have invented wheels, look around us and we will see that walking still holds a very important place in society. It's probably embedded in our genes... the need to walk.

That's the reason, why thousands of people who walk every week to the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Central Mumbai. That's the reason there are groups of Sai Baba Devotees who walk from Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra to Shirdi. The Kavadi bearers who walk to Haridwar. The Ayyappa devotees who walk to Shabarimala.

So the next time you have a worry, or you need to think, walk and see difference. The destination is only an excuse.

Sai Baba devotees from Mumbai walking to Shirdi.

Chinese method

2010-03-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

Aman Ki Asha

2010-01-26T05:36:00.000-08:00

We are on top when it comes to writing slogans.

The Great Railway Bazaar. Part 2

2010-01-19T04:43:00.000-08:00

Like most rail fans, I was a great fan of the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux as a child too. The local circulating libraries in Bangalore always had a copy and I have borrowed it several times from every library I have been a member of, especially during the summer or Dassara holidays to laze around and dream of far away exotic train journeys. In the book, Theroux travels in a wide circle, clockwise, from London, Europe to the Far East and back through the USSR by train.

Over the years, I have been reading other travel writing by Paul Theroux and luckily, he has travelled a long distance since. And when I saw his latest travel book 'Ghost Train to the Eastern Star' retracing the original Bazaar route, it was too hard to resist.

The book is like the trains he took along the revisited route. Some chapters are First Class. Most are good but some are like the General Compartment in a train that's headed for UP/Bihar.

In the earlier book, the Indian leg of the journey was good. He wasn't famous then and he spoke to regular people and stuck to describing what he saw. In the new book, he seems to get lazy. If he had spoken or met more people, it's not reflected in the book. It reads like a superficial journey a Western journalist on a hurried trip to India would write.

But he's right about the various new traits he has noticed among the 21st Century Indians, the Times Of India and ET reading types, especially the ones he meets in Bangalore.

This is how he sums up Bangalore:
"The longer I stayed in Bangalore, the less I liked it. Many of the Indians I met there wanted me to be dazzled by the changes, but I was more horrified that awed. What went under the name of business in Bangalore was really a form of buccaneering, all the pirates wearing dark suits and carrying mobile phones instead of cutlasses. The place has not evolved; it has been crudely transformed..."

This is what happens when you rub shoulders with the IT people and Call Centre guys in Bangalore. What would you expect them show a visiting American writer who came to Bangalore to know what Banagalored meant?

(Also, there are a lot of factual errors. Eg.: Puttaparthi is on the road to Hyderabad from Bangalore. not Chennai. Anyone from India can spot them. And if the Indian stretch has mistakes, so could the other parts he's visited. No editor?)

But his Chinese section is the most interesting. He doesn't even bother to hang around. He says:

"China exists in its present form because the Chinese want money. Once, America was like that. Maybe this accounted for my desire to leave...
Who wants to hear people boasting about their greed and their promiscuity? ...
Ugly and soulless, China represented the horror of answered prayers, a peasant's greedy dream of development. I was happy to leave."

I'm sure that description holds good for the kind of people he met in Bangalore or Mumbai too.

The rest of the book is very interesting, there are quite a few valuable insights and quotes that will be remembered for decades to come. But the book, is like that drunk man Floyd's cooking (when he was in India). It's entertaining.

Ram Rajya

2009-10-23T23:14:00.000-07:00

If the most famous king to rule from Ayodhya was to come back to life today, to be banished into the vastly depleted forests, he would be witnessing the same war they say he successfully fought many centuries ago, when he protected the sages tormented by the people who lived in the forests, where they went to find peace and perform fire powered yagnas.

Ram won the battle but the war continues. The haves of today are performing a prosperity yagna that demands a lot of sacrifice from people who get nothing in return for giving up their forest land. We the land hungry city dwellers and people who till the land and graze the holy cows are still looking to gobble up the resources that lie in tribal hands. It would be great to remind ourselves. the Aam Aadmis, the Rams of today, that they are equal citizens of India and they are only reacting to what we are imposing on them.

The New Economy Class

2009-09-15T01:55:00.000-07:00

The UPA Government's austerity drive came a little too late for one CM, the high-flying Reddy of Andhra Pradesh. Or was it his crash that started this austerity drive? The politicians want to take a few more people along with them when they go down

OK TATA BYE BYE

2009-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Is it OK Tata Bye Bye to the old Tata image?

A village in West Bengal.
Turtles in Orissa.
And now that silly business around OK Tata Bye Bye.com

The new, aggressive Tata brand will soon need to spend a lot of money to retain its century-old people-friendly image in the Indian market.

Metal Mettle

2009-09-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

The good thing about scam ads created for awards by ad agencies are that no people are killed in the process. However, if you are a cop and if you are desperate for a metal, you can do what Indian cops in Gujarat did. And what cops across India do.

Fatherhood. Lesson No 1: The Lullaby

2009-08-18T00:53:00.000-07:00

There isn't a human being who cannot sing. Put a crying infant in the hands of a man with Amrish Puri's voice and within minutes he will be humming a tune. And for good reason.

All music in this world started with a lullaby. The hum to silence the child's cry that will attract the nocturnal hunters or in this day and age, the red-eyed, sleep starved man living next door.

Like many other things, the lullaby evolved with us. Calming, comforting the nerves of not only infants, but the restless young and the old alike. Over time, the lullaby has evolved into the screams and screeching that has calmed the pumping adrenaline of the rebellious youth as well as the soft strains of classical music. We even find its calming effect in flowing water and the waves that follow waves on a beach. We find it on the ticking of the clock and the rhythmic movements of our machines. We have learnt to speed up our heart beats to the beats of our music. We use it calm nerves of young boys sent out in tanks and trenches to kill other people. And whatever the type of music we create or love, when someone puts a crying infant in our arms, the original song come automatically to our lips. The lullaby.

Jiye Jiye Pakistan?

2009-04-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

Our brothers in Pakistans get sadistic pleasure in naming their missiles after the invaders from Afghanistan. The missiles are usually called Ghaznavi, Ghori, etc. Names that sent Punjab, Sindh and surrounding areas of the Indian subcontinent shivering with fright because of their brutality. After all, they were battle hardened Afghan and Central Asians descending from the world's roughest neighbourhood.

However, most of the places these people attacked are in what is now Pakistan. And when a new generation of battle hardened men are descending from the mountains, isn't it time for the Punjabis and Sindhis who run that country to rename their missiles or will they just surrender and claim how prophetic their naming skills are?

Chicks dig my ride

2009-03-05T00:06:00.000-08:00

"Chicks dig my ride" says the t-shirt of a bicycle enthusiast at Lalbagh. He wants to make cycling cool and decides to spread the message among the health conscious at Lalbagh . But a rude, high-decibel uncle has a problem. He gives us a lesson on how to communicate a slogan.

When you coin a slogan, it can flip both ways. It helps to keep the target audience in mind and the place where it is communicated. Or this could happen to you.

Video source: Rohan Kini's Youtube.com page

Please pay attention to the reaction and soundbites (in Kannada) from the onlookers.

Also. Why do Bangaloreans raise their hands and voices all the time? Like Dr. Rajkumar once asked: Bisiusiru eke?

Pink Chuddies

2009-02-10T03:30:00.000-08:00

To find out why it's called Pink Chuddies, click here.

VI th

2009-02-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged by Chethana and Diti to:

- Pick the 6th picture from your 6th photo folder.

- Tell the story around it.

- Pass it on to 6 other people you like.

Picture:

I have a daily photoblog where I post a picture of Bangalore streets. I usually take a different route to work everyday. Usually though Shivajinagar or City Market. As I was passing the beef market, I saw that the kites that hover over the market were excited and flying around. And as I usually do, I clicked it.

I'm tagging Just Jo, Sanjukta Basu, Amulya, Aloke Toonfactory, Tanuja Goyal and Shambollic.

Slogan Festival

2009-02-02T04:10:00.000-08:00

BJP's LK Advani - He's going to become the unlikely messiah for online advertising India. You couldn't have missed it online - the sloganfest on LK Advani's website. Here's a list of some of the slogans on the landing page.

- LK ADvani - For a strong propserous and self confident India.

- Ek Kaam Desh Ke Naam.
- A lifetime of service to the nation.
- Ek kaam, desh ka naam.
- Let's make hunger history.
- Quality education for every Indian.
- Har haath ko kaam. Har kheth ko paani.
- Netaji fought for swaraj. We should strive for Su-raj.

- Tum humein samarthan do; hum tumhe sushaasan denge!

Moving beyond the slogans, this campaign is surely going to make brand managers look at online advertising seriously.

Save the planet

2009-02-01T02:48:00.000-08:00

Hard Rock Cafe - Save the planet. WTF?

Guilt

2009-01-01T22:21:00.001-08:00

Party without guilt. All you need is a picture of the people who died in Mumbai strung up outside the venue.

Stateless Players

2008-12-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

Now that's one more name to the list.

The night sky over Karnataka

2008-12-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

10,000-Hour Rule

2008-12-18T03:45:00.000-08:00

From Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell's Success Story

"The most obvious candidate for memification in Outliersis a little gem Gladwell calls the 10,000-Hour Rule. Studies suggest that the key to success in any field has nothing to do with talent. It's simply practice, 10,000 hours of it — 20 hours a week for 10 years."

Unity in Biodiversity

2008-12-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

Mapping India's biodiversity is a mammoth task. But now, we have technology to rescue us. Here's a portal that brings together several stake holders who have the data and use the data to map our diversity. And the good news. You can sign up and become a contributor. Log on to www.indiabiodiversity.org now.

Lal Salaam (Red Salute)

2008-12-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

NH212. Sultan Battery, Waynad Dist., Kerala

It's not the alcohol...

2008-12-09T00:06:00.001-08:00

Location: NH47, Palghat, Kerala

Rain or shine....

2008-12-08T23:58:00.001-08:00

Alleppey

Gateway to change

2008-12-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

Finally. People are asking questions.

Lead India

2008-12-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

The hunt is on, for last year's winner.

Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

2008-11-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

Came across this slogan pasted outside the JN Auditorium at IISc which was hosting foss.in. The place was the target for a mad man with a gun some years back.

Jai Karnataka

2008-11-24T01:18:00.000-08:00

When Times Of India meets Muthappa Rai

Versus

When Wired meets Muthappa Rai

Kalasipalaya

2008-11-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

My photo story of the Kalasipalaya truck terminus is on Bangalore Citizen Matters this week.

Empires of the Indus

2008-11-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

Finally here's a travel book that doesn't just take you places but also back in time. Alice Albinia's first book - Empires of the Indus deals with a river that we derive the name of our Nation from and a river we Indians hardly know anything about.

The book and Alice Albinia's travel begins in Karachi close to where the Indus 'empties itself' into the Arabian Sea and ends in Tibet, where the river in born close to Mount Kailash. In between, she explores the present, recent and not so recent history of the places Indus and its tributaries shape - Sindh, Punjab, NWFP, Eastern part of Afghanistan, Swat, Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet.

Among the places, I was most fascinated by the description and recent history of that missing place mentioned in the Indian national Anthem - Sindh. Many travelogues have been written about the other places mentioned in the book and a lot of them have followed the path of Alexander through the mountain passes of North West Pakistan. A lot has also been written about Punjab and the Indus Valley Civilisation but the meandering course of the river and the history of the people of Sindh is a must read, especially for an Indian reader.

As for the author, she reminds me of William Dalrymple who began his career with a 1989 travelogue called In Xanadu. And we are in for a treat if she follows his footsteps.

Before you buy, borrow, steal and read the book, have a look at the photographs from the book. It's a nice idea to share them, like they have on the book's website.

"War for peace" & "Liberating the Tamils"

2008-10-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

It was our raping, looting Vietnam. And stinking, bleeding Afghanistan. I still remember the continuous rumble of our creaky Russian-made planes carrying the IPKF up the invisible ram sethu for Sri Lanka many years ago. Sooner than expected, mauled and wiser, we withdrew and our war over there was over. But the lions called Sinhalese and the Tamils led by tigers continue to fight. And ever since I saw the bharat ka lal called Advani take off on his Rath Yatra, I'm constantly reminded of the reason why lions and the tigers in a tear-drop shaped cage continue to kill each other. In Sri Lanka, it was how the Buddhist Sinhalese majority imposed themselves on the Hindu, Christian and Muslim Tamil minority. In India, it is the Hindu Majority versus the rest. It's easy to repeat the same mistake the Sinhalese politicians made. Hopefully, Indian democracy will control the hero of the Kandahar hijack drama and his cronies. Afterall, it's easier to light a fire.

Sloganless post

2008-09-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

There are three kinds of things created by man.

The first is beautiful and it surprises you. A surprise that wears off with time. The beauty too. Sometimes fast. Usually slow. Like today's music. The ugly side slowly reveals itself and so does our disappointment.

The second is ugly and it makes you hate it. And sometimes when you look closely, its beauty reveals itself. Slowly.

And the third is the balance we seek in everything around us. And it's the beautiful that does not turn ugly. Beauty that can conquer time, whims, fashion and our fickle eye. And we are not satisfied with seeking it. It's human nature to try and create it.

And that is what we call art

Haste waste

2008-09-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

Wait for your heart beat to slow down
Wait for the chai to cool
Wait for your turn to speak
Wait for the storm to pass
Wait for the fool to spend his words
Wait for the impatient generation to grow older
Wait for the old to wither away
Wait for the needles on a clock
Wait for your thoughts to reach your mouth
Wait for your mind to see and not your eyes
Wait for people to digest your ideas

Wait for the age when you will finally be wise

3 tier

2008-09-08T02:45:00.000-07:00

When proud and ancient races like the Persians accept a religion that was born among the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula, can you expect them to follow it to a t?

Definitely not.

That’s the reason; they have evolved a system within Islam that allows them to be distinct. The Persians are not alone and the Gulf is not the only gulf that divides people. The people who live on plateaus or mountains usually gravitate towards a religious system that set them apart from the people who live lower down on the plains. Like the people of Jammu and the Kashmiris. Or the Kashmiris and Ladakhis.

I bet each of the main constituents of the three-tiered Jammu and Kashmir state think that they are better than the rest. And as usual, they will be using their toilet habits and gods to prove that they are a step above the other. And sadly for us, the geographical divisions that separate them can’t be leveled easily.

Kannadave Kamadenu. Karnatakave Kalpavruksha

2008-08-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

A slogan that is commonly printed inside BMTC buses in Bangalore.

Well, who said that Indians do not consider that this country as a land of opportunities?

Spade

2008-08-17T01:27:00.000-07:00

"On August 15, India celebrated independence from the British Raj. But Kashmiris staged a bandh demanding independence from India. A day symbolising the end of colonialism in India became a day symbolising Indian colonialism in the Valley." - Swaminomics.

Jammu Vs. Kashmir

2008-08-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

Jammu vs. Kashmir and no one seems to care. Meanwhile, here are a few slogans that I found online.

Shipping news

2008-07-31T04:10:00.000-07:00

The Government of India is planning to look for a new place to dig the channel across Palk Strait. Luckily, I have already spotted the best location. It will not only save a lot of our tax money, it will make sure that no channel needs to be dug. The route I propose is around Sri Lanka.

David Davidar thinks aloud

2008-07-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

I think that I will use it as my online name - Godless. The name David Davidar gave to the dog of one of the characters in The Solitude of Emperors. And a book I felt was authored by Davidar to try and understand why India goes into a periodic fits of religious violence.

Sadly, as I was reaching the book's climax, bombs were going off in Bangalore and later in Ahmedabad. Suddenly, the story about a place of worship (like Baba Budan Giri) under siege because a politician (a shadow of Balasaheb) has his own agenda and axe to grind seems like a story for a different age.

Even though Davidar managed to explain the cycle of violence in a rather short book, Indian religious violence seems to be evolving into something more complex than the story in his book. It’s restricted to the cycle of violence up to the 90s. But then, it’s a book set in the 90s. But with bombs going off left, right and centre, I couldn’t but help connecting it to what’s happening now.

Coming back to the book, I was left hoping that Davidar would dig a bit deeper into why the violence happens. Did he edit many of his thoughts out? I wished that he had carried his thoughts further. But that’s ok. It’s his observations and insights into life that made the book an interesting read for me. Because the book is also about the rites of passage of three different people from diverse backgrounds who come together on a slippery hilltop in the Nilgiris.

I loved their journeys more than the backdrop that brought them together.

Bendettu Bengaluru

2008-07-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

From western pop to sikappatte kannada, Bangalore's radio stations have changed a lot over the last 3 years. But here's the twist in the tale. From Churumuri.

Ten

2008-06-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

Tagged again and this one demands a lot from my goldfish memory. Ok Santy, here they are.

10 of myfavourite literary (and not so literary) characters are:

1,2) Asterix and Obelix
Fantasy travel and history. Killer combo.
3) Inspector Morse
4) Jeeves
5) Winston Smith, 1984
6) Saleem Sinai, Midnight's Children
7) The guys who went around the world in 80 days
8,9) Tintin and Captain Haddock
10) Swami!

Mumbai ka live, ticking hindu bomb kaun?

2008-06-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

Gujarat Asmita

2008-06-17T05:35:00.000-07:00

Challenging the imbeciles at the Centre is easy. Someday, you could be the PM and at the Centre.

Mumbai has MRF Rain Day. Bangalore has…

2008-06-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

…the Sloganmurugan Deep Blue Sky Day.

Every year, MRF Tyres releases an ad that wrongly predicts the day the monsoon rain will hit Mumbai. Proving correctly that nothing can be predicted with accuracy and that there’s no truth in advertising.

Unlike Mumbai, Bangalore does not have an MRF Rain Day. That’s because Bangalore is one of the few places in India that gets more rain in the month of May (Mean monthly rainfall: 119.6mm) than in June (80.6mm). However, Bangalore has a beautiful phenomenon to announce the arrival of the South West wind. It’s what I will call the Deep Blue Sky Day.

The day the Monsoon reaches Bangalore, the sky turns a crisp, deep shade of blue. I assume that the winds chase all the dust from the atmosphere rendering the sky pristine blue. It even drains the rising and setting sun off the red and orange hues, making it shine a bright white.

It’s also a beautiful day to click photographs.

For 2008, that day was yesterday: June 6th.
In 2007, it was on May 29th.

Faith and doubt

2008-06-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

Faith and doubt.
New Yorker's set of must-read essays by: Uwem Akpan, Edwidge Danticat, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, Allegra Goodman, George Saunders, and Tobias Wolff.

The Gujarat Model...

2008-05-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

...me thinks is not a Gujarat Model. It's a great way to fund elections and make black money and has been used in almost every state from time to time. Ban arrack or impose total prohibition and divert money that fills the state coffers every evening to the politicians' pocket.

RIP methanol drinkers.

Let's never get lost again

2008-05-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

That's the main message in the ad for Nokia6110 Navigator mobile phone for the Indian market.

The ad shows a young lady in Delhi being guided by the map in her mobile phone to her destination. To emphasize its effectiveness, the ad shows groups of aam janata on the street guiding her and the auto as she finds her destination.

This ad, reminded me of an interesting insight one of my earlier bosses had when he lost his way somewhere in Surrey, England. He landed in London, hired a car and drove to his sister's place. All he had was her address. He expected it to be easy to find her place. Despite being guided by his sister over the phone he lost his way. His main complaint, he couldn't find anyone to help him with directions.

It's not because we Indians don't understands maps but it's because our streets are filled with people that we don't rely on maps. For instance, in the Nokia ad, they had to use people to illustrate the effectiveness of their offering. And I'm sure that we will always double-check Nokia Navigator's instructions with the roadside paanwalla.

A perfect relationship

2008-05-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

When you are alone or the going gets tough, don't panic. Pick me up. Hold me in your hands. Don't take your eyes off me. Listen to me as I speak. If you do not comprehend what I'm saying, pause. You can even shut me anytime you want. Or leave me whenever or wherever you want. But I will not walk away. I will be where you left me. Because this is a relationship where we are always on the same page - Yours. Pick me up. I'm a book.

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo

2008-04-30T01:39:00.000-07:00

Galli v/s Galli, Colony v/s Colony or Locality v/s Locality, on playgrounds across the country, 20 overs has always been the most popular form of cricket for decades. And finally it's become the most popular form of cricket on TV too. But can we have a smaller dose of that SRK please? Korbo, Lorbo, Poda-po.

Different People

2008-04-20T23:28:00.001-07:00

"Different People" - The Benglure kanglish slang for homosexuals.
Usage: "Avaru different people sir, different type of love-u"
(Spotted by Vwake Ear2zground)

Beta Testing

2008-03-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Congress is Beta Testing its 5th generation version of politicians from the Nehru-Gandhi stable in the Silicon Valley of India this week. It's painting the city saffron, white and green for a product that shares its name with No 1 favourite among Indian advertisers - Rahul.

The proprietary family owned business with vast experience in the world's largest illiterate market it created seems to believe that the only thing that is going for the product is his age. No wonder it has unleashed a campaign celebrating youth as the future of Karantaka and India.

The distributors have lapped up the product. The senile Congress workers have quickly pasted their pictures next to the product being tested hoping that his juvenile look will reflect off their blind eyes. That is why every illegal hoarding and banner in town has a disclaimer that say Donate Eyes Gift Sight. And thanks to the wonders of digital vinyl printing, every historysheeter-real estate shark-KD neta made sure that he had a picture garlanding the new import from Delhi pasted on walls, within hours .

Thanks to their photographs, we now know that the product has an animal caught in the headlights look. However well informed, eager-to-please-the-high-command newspapers have term the look as that of Discovering India.

As for the product, it is supposed to be a marvel of Indo-Italian technology. Good care has been taken to deliver a look that is a hit with young females from Kavalbyrasandra to Colombia. As for substance, how does it matter. The manufacturers are hoping that the decades of investment in building the hijacked Gandhi name, keeping the consumers illiterate, under-fed and ignorant will pay off soon.

Free Tibet

2008-03-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

It's too late. You are not going to get what you have lost. And it's not about Tibet. It's about identity and lifestyle of living in both occupied as well as free lands on every continent. However the Tibetans have someone to blame.

Long sight

2008-03-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

I don't watch too many movies and when I do I have difficulty paying attention to the dialogues and story because what's happening in the background is much more interesting.

Old streets
Hoardings
Calendars on the wall
Newspapers
Traffic
Clothes extras wear
Electronic Gadgets
Weather
Clothing styles
Vehicle Interiors
etc.

Killer and the killed

2008-03-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

What's happening inside Iraq.

Power of the printed word

2008-03-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

He's nearly 18 years old. Plays video games, watches TV and hangs out at malls. He can talk for hours, listen to music, watch videos and does many other things with his flashy mobile phone. However, he had never bothered to read a book, other than textbooks. But this weekend, he spends a whole evening with his nose buried in a book. Immersed in it like it is a new version of a popular shooting game.

Reading isn't dead. I believe that reading can be an activity a person can grasp at any age. How does it matter if the book is called 'One Night @ a Call Centre".

Left right left

2008-03-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

For many years, no one outside of North Kerala really cared when the foot soldiers of CPI-M and the Sangh Parivaar killed each other. However the fight reached New Delhi last week and had a sparsely reported fallout in Bangalore also. On March 9th, the home of VJK Nair, the CPI -M leader from Karnataka, was vandalised by people who claimed to be from the right.

Why in Karnataka?

Yaake Terror Link?

2008-03-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

The Hindu's Praveen Swami studies the South-side Terror Connection:

1. Terror in the Cyber City.
2. Terror in "God's own Country"

Kannadave Jaati. Kannadave Jeeva.

2008-03-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

A lot of people see red when they see the red and yellow flags that the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike surface. Given its presence on the streets, and its MNS/Shiv Sena like activism, I have always wondered why the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike remains a Vedike and not a Political Paksha. After the states were divided along linguistic lines, Manina Maga or Bhumiputra parties have always converted their ideas into strong political movements, except in Karnataka (Maybe JDS is a regional party?). This character sketch (found on ChuruMuri) of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike leader Narayana Gowda, by the charismatic Deepak Thimaya of Udaya TV will probably help us understand why.

Deepak Thimaya newspaper interviews.

And now that the Times Of India constituency in B'lore has finished sms voting a media savvy B'lorean, you can find out what the real politicians from the state have to say on Deepak Thimaya's Jedara Bale, on Udaya TV.

Why Kings Wear Crowns.

2008-02-28T02:56:00.000-08:00

Damn the Presidential system. No damn crown to hide the shaggy mop on our Ex-President's high IQ head and the current one is forced to cover her hair with silk.

Actuality Programme

2008-02-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

That's the Malayalam Television Industry's term for Reality Shows.

Tagged: A to Zed of me with a few pics

2008-02-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

Sur Notes has tagged me and I have photographs, as requested, but only for a few of them. :)

A -Available?
No

B-Best friend:
I'm married to her. But she will say that it's my camera. Here's the three of us.

C-Cake or Pie?
Neither. C for Camera. A yum Canon A530 Kavita regrets having bought for me.

D-Drink of choice:
Draught Beer.

E-Essential thing used everyday:
Camera again

F-Favourite colour:
Blue. And here's picture with a lot of blue.

G-Gummi bears or worms:
Worms

H-Hometown:
Bangalore when I'm in Mumbai. Mumbai when I'm in Bangalore.

I-Indulgence:
Aimless online surfing

J-January or February:
Doesn't matter.

K-Kids and names:

One. Kartik.

L-Life:
From 9th Dec., 2007, it's...

M-Marriage date:
May 16

N-Number of siblings:
One. I have an elder sister - Raji.

O-Oranges or apples:
Neither. I like fruits of the sea.

P-Phobias:
Heights.

Q-Quote:
I discovered the beauty of the world around me when my wife gifted me a camera.

R-Reason to smile:
Happiness on a loved one's face.

S-Season:
Mumbai Monsoon. Here's a picture of Rain Day 2006, Mumbai. Stuck at Malad Stn. Pf. 1.

T-Tag three people:
PeeVee, Treasure of Baghdad and Monsoon-Dreams. Here's a picture of PeeVee.

U-Unknown fact about me:
A majority of my close friends and acquaintances end up having relationship problems with their respective partners. Luckily, I don't think they know about my blog.

V-Vegetable you do not like:
All of them.

W-Worst habit:
Biting nails.

X-x-rays you have had:
Skull/Nasal Passage.

Y-Your favorite food:
Rice, coconut chutney and fried fish in Central Travancore style.

Z-Zodiac:
Virgo

Jodhaabai Akbar

2008-02-19T07:18:00.000-08:00

New Yorker Magazine and Ashutosh Gowarikar have one thing in common: They need and they take a lot of time to tell their stories and this week, for some strange reason, New York and Bombay are both offering the same story - Jodhaa-Akbar.

I'll skip Gowarikar's latest offering for Salman Rushdie's roller-coaster style version of the story here.

3rd class English Medium education

2008-02-18T08:09:00.000-08:00

Alien tongue that cover my eyes lift wide open when I see friends from small towns pick up interesting books written in the local tongues. Jalebi and pointed scripts burrow and poke into worlds I will never see and will only imagine outside a train window in the dead of the night as I shuttle between cities where I can easily be myself with my alien tongue over my eyes.

Shubh Yatra. The Great Railway Bazaar

2008-02-14T05:03:00.000-08:00

Paul Theroux was in town yesterday and I have armchair-travelled to many places, across continents, through his eyes. Here are a few pictures for him.

UAM - LOV (SR)

WR. Near BDTSMAS -SRNear BDTS - WRLOVDRD -WR
MAS -SRTHVM - Konkan RailwayKQN - SR WR Malad

SBC- KQN (SWR/SR)LOV -SRCST -CR

DDR - WR

BNC -SWR
Near BCT, WR

SBC - SWRSBC- KQN (SWR/SR)
SBC-SWRSBC- KQN (SWR/SR)UAM - SR

RIP: Common Man

2008-02-12T00:34:00.000-08:00

By April, the common man can return to travelling by trains and those who cannot kick the flying habit can max out their credit cards. The Common Man’s airline, Air Deccan or Simply Deccan is to become Kingfisher Airlines by April. Wonder how many days before the UPA government that came to power on that Aam Aadmi Ke Saath promise packs up?

More about the original common man from RK Laxman himself from the CNN IBN interview:

Anuradha SenGupta: What would you say if I said that today there are signs – especially in the media, be it newspapers, be it television – where we are trying to give the common man a platform and a voice to speak up and to be noticed? Would you not agree that this common man is different from the Common Man that you have created? That the Common Man is beginning to speak out today, instead of being just the spectator?

R K Laxman: No, if he's a common man, he will always be a spectator, not start talking.

Anuradha SenGupta: You are a cynic, Mr Laxman, as you admitted.

R K Laxman: I told you. You can't make him speak. He doesn't want to speak, because he knows it won't help.

Anuradha SenGupta: I thought there would be hope…

R K Laxman: How? Sense of humour does not give hope. It has nothing to do with it. Hope means what? Tomorrow everything will be all right? There would be a nuclear war? There would be Iraq, there would be Bush… that kind of hope? Things are getting from bad to worse.

The medium is your mother tongue

2008-02-10T00:08:00.000-08:00

Outside a Tamil medium School at Ulsoor.

Tamil and Telugu in Bangalore. Telugu in parts bordering AP. Marathi in Belgaum. And Kannada and Urdu across the state. The Karnataka state believes in imparting primary education in the mother tongue. But if you can afford it, the preferred medium is Angla or English.

Tamil School at Blackpally (today's Shivajinagar)! No money to change the board.

My eyes are never on the road: Bangalore Cantonment.

2008-01-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

Traffic. 21st Century Bangalore's No 1 subject of discussion.

In a city that always measured distances in miles and then kilometers, the transition to a time based measurement system that's home to Bombay is bound to lead to a lot of debate before we decide on the optimum time it should take from Point A and B.

Bangalore traffic is killing. And while everyone is busy cursing the others stuck in this ever increasing traffic, I decided to shut my mind and click pictures of interesting things by the roadside.

Yes, my eyes are never on the road and I take a longer time to go from Point A to Point B, but then, I have amassed a fair amount of pictures of things the others don't pause to admire over the past year.

In this post, I would like to share some pictures from the Cantonment area of Bangalore.

For the uninitiated, Bangalore is divided into two parts. The Cantonment and the City. Once upon a time, the Cantonment was occupied by the British and the City was part of the Mysore Kingdom. Today, they are part of the same city, but there are quite a few things that separate them. However, explaining the difference will require a different post.

Why my eyes are never on the road. See these pictures:

Ulsoor Lake

Modern Bangalore's history begins with a series of wars between the British and Tipu Sultan. So its no wonder that the Cantonment became a very important part of the city. The British camped around the Ulsoor Lake. Painted on the inner wall of tank bund that holds its oxygen-free water are the words, "Celebrating the 225 years of Madras Sappers". It was from the banks of this tank that the Sappers, fighting for the East India company launched a long and successful campaign to eliminate Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. Here they practiced and planned their attack on the Island fort of Srirangapatna. Coincidently, Tipu's Bangalore Palace and Fort forms the heart of of the City (near KR Market). Long after the defeat of Tipu in 1799, the Bangalore Cantonment was to become the place where the weapon now known as the Bangalore Torpedo was invented, in 1912.

Tipu Sultan holds his head high on the wall of the Urdu Medium School at Richmond Town.
Bangalore Cantonment Railway Station

MEG Barracks. Murphy Road.

Someshwara temple at Ulsoor/Halasoor

Bazaar Street, Ulsoor / Halasoor

What started off as an attempt to outwit traffic lights and bumper to bumper traffic led me to the patli gallis of Ulsoor. Riding down the busy Bazaar Street I could see that parts of Ulsoor still retained some of its old charm. Its narrow lanes, a far cry from the wide roads lined by bungalows that lie in the vast area that lie between Ulsoor and City. Here, after the Mysore Wars, which was the last war to be fought in Southern India, the colonial masters settled down in their bungalows.

Richmond Town

An old house on St. Marks Road

Stopping at the many, but slowly disappearing buildings from the early 20th Century, I could help but notice were the decorative ramparts. Were these homes built to withstand a siege? Or was it just decoration? The less humbler homes had to make do with strong doors. Like this one from the Indian part of the Cantonment.

It's easy to see why these buildings are slowly disappearing. They are difficult to maintain and with the soaring real estate value, it makes no economic sense to keep them standing for nostalgia sake. But many still stand in various stages of decay for rats, as unofficial Nirmala Bangalore Urinals that don't charge and for the benefit of amateur self-christened shutterbugs like me.

Central Street

Queens Road

Soon I got addicted to the wonders of the narrow lanes and the lanes of the Shivajinagar area are the most interesting. Things haven't changed much here. Not just in the narrow lanes but even the main markets. The main markets in the Cantonment area continue to thrive and serve more than just this part of city. I was happy to Russel Market get a fresh coat of paint a few days back.

Aquarium decoration

Sometimes, there are sights that you just can't miss. This place seems to have a very well established and sometimes illegal trade in pets, fish, birds and animals. However not everything I found was fresh, alive or kicking. The Cantonment is also home to Bangalore's second biggest Kujli or Scrapyard. Only the one in the City Market area is bigger.

If I braked, I braked most for these guys. For the rich and colourful animal and bird life of the Shivajinagar area of the Cantonment.

This image desaturation/Photoshopped by Vivek Dhage

And I was sure to get a surprise at every corner. Like this sight I saw on the Slaughter House Road.

Wait! Before you call PETA, I would like to clarify that this animal is very much alive. He is lying down to have horseshoes (or its equivalent) attached to his feet.

Enough about animals. Now let me introduce you to the people.

Imagine a person on a scooter, face partially covered by a crash helmet and pointing a camera at you. What would you do? I'm sure that your expression will not match those of these wonderful people.

Pecos. We play tapes.

And since I'm in the Cantonment, the original home of Bangalore's Pub Culture, I had to add these pictures from one of my favourite pubs - Pecos. At Pecos, they still play tapes. No digital perfectness piercing your eardrums here. Just watered down draught and popcorn for your parched throats. However, the youngsters seem to be moving away, to Cafes that have Pied Pipered the youngsters away from the smoke, draught and rock music. But the real reason is the afford-ability. But then I always found there's something for everyone in the Cantonment.

Carrying the camera along also made me stop at places I would never have stopped earlier. I'm an Atheist and I have no business at places of worship. But when you are in the Cantonment area, you cannot escape the devout and their colourful places of worship. I have developed a new respect for other people's beliefs.

But if shopping is your religion, the Cantonment is the place for you. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of its main shopping areas that amazingly seem to be holding out against the mushrooming malls. But I do know where you can oil your rifles and guns and gather some ammo if you own one.

And I do not recommend it if you have a running business feud like this one on Commercial Street.

I'm almost done now. I hope to add to this post as and when I get interesting pictures from the Cantonment. And I promise that my eyes will continue to stay off the road. However, I'm not responsible if you end up in hospital following my example.

For a daily dose of Bangalore pics, please check my Bangalore photoblog. Which Main? What Cross?
My rest of India pictures here: Eye for India

"Music is not like religion...

2008-01-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

...devotion is not enough." From the movie, The Gig.

Robert J Waller's Second Conjencture:

2008-01-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

Existence takes on a new meaning only when you give it meaning by making it meaningful. And how do you make it meaningful? By listening to those almost-secret voices within you, at certain times, whisper, "This is me."

From Old Songs In A New Cafe

The curse of living in the present

2008-01-26T06:24:00.000-08:00

"It was both odd and unjust, said Gauss, a real example of the pitiful arbitrariness of existence, that you were born into a particular time and held prisoner there whether you wanted it or not. It gave you an indecent advantage over the past and made you a clown vis-a-vis the future.

- From Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring the World.

Heavy Heat

2008-01-25T19:08:00.000-08:00

Overheard Conversations.

1. Temperature rising.

Middle aged Man: Neevu dappa agideera.
Lady pushing her 30s: (shy)Howda? Neevu Sanna agideera.
Man: Ennu madodu, eradu dinagalinda maiyyalla onde heat.

2. VLCC programme for schools?

Lady: Nimma chikkavanu hege iddane?
Man: Iga schoolalli idhane. Ille park side-al iro school.
Lady: Aa Schoola? Thumba heavy saar

3.
Middle-age couple huffing a puffing through their morning walk.
Man: No! Saraswat is the not the same as GSB!

4.
Two fat men talking to a fit man on his morning walk.
Fit one: First Class-agi meenu thinnabeku.

5.
Girl talking on her mobile phone outside the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium: "Where is the indoor stadium?"
Turns and looks around, "I can see some volleyball nets... that-ah?"

What is love?

2008-01-24T21:00:00.001-08:00

Jiye Jiye Bhutto

2008-01-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

Dawn's Cowasjee digs this out of his memory and an old newspaer,

"In his Pakistan Chronicle, published posthumously in 1993, Sir Morrice James, Lord St Brides, has this to say about Bhutto:

“Bhutto certainly had the right qualities for reaching the heights — drive, charm, imagination, a quick and penetrating mind, zest for life, eloquence, energy, a strong constitution, a sense of humour and a thick skin. Such a blend is rare anywhere, and Bhutto deserved his swift rise to power. From the end of 1962 onwards, I worked closely with him and it was a pleasure to deal with someone so quick-witted and articulate. We got on remarkably well…

“But there was — how shall I put it? — the rank odour of hellfire about him. It was a case of corruptio optimi pessima. He was a Lucifer, a fallen angel. I believe that at heart he lacked a sense of the dignity and value of other people; his own self was what counted. I sensed in him a ruthlessness and a capacity for ill-doing which went far beyond what is natural. Except at university abroad, he was mostly surrounded by mediocrities, and all his life, for want of competition, his triumphs came to him too easily for his own good. Lacking humility, he thus came to believe himself infallible, even when yawning gaps in his own experience (e.g. of military matters) laid him — as over the 1965 war — wide open to disastrous error.

“Despite his gifts, I judged that one day Bhutto would destroy himself — when and how I could not tell. In 1965, I so reported in one my last dispatches from Pakistan as British high commissioner. I wrote by way of clinching that point that Bhutto was born to be hanged. I did not intend this comment as a precise prophecy of what was going to happen to him, but 14 years later that was what it turned out to be.”

Rest of the article here.

People at Work. ಕಾಯಕವೀ ಕೈಲಾಸ.

2008-01-21T21:35:00.001-08:00

Peoples' History: William Dalrymple's Last Mughal

2008-01-17T05:42:00.000-08:00

Atanu Dey wonders if the Tata Nano is the Peoples' Car or the People's Car and having worked with a a few Tata Brands over the past few years, I can safely say that Tata usually understands exactly what needs to be communicated and that it was not a mistake. Moreover, if newspaper reports are to believed, the Nano could also be made in Thailand and could reach Peoples' home across the continent. But this post is not about cars. It's about history.

In today's world, everything boils down to the people. Sure, the influence of the extremely rich and the powerful (the Tatas?) is as evident as it always was but ultimately, it is how anything matters to the anybody individuals like you and me that matters. It's the same with the study of history.

For instance, there's a whole chapter on the greatness of the rulers of the Vijayanagar Kingdom in the Karnataka State school history textbook. But the textbooks concerns itself only to the greatness, valour and grandeur of the Kings. But what about the people? What the textbooks never said that they usually had an average life expectancy of about 30. And I'm quoting a higher figure.

Interesting read: Food habits during the days of Vijayanagar.

Yes, the Pharaohs built the pyramids but I want to know if it was slaves who built the Pyramids. Or were they paid? How did they live? What did they eat? Yes. Historians have been studying that for ages but now, people with interest in history would like to know that too. And there are many books out there in the bookstores that let you travel back in time through the eyes of the people. Like William Dalrymple's "Last Mughal".

William Dalrymple's "Last Mughal" is a misleading title. Yes, the Last Mughal Emperor is the thread that holds the book together but the book makes for interesting reading because it takes you to Delhi of that time through the eyes of many uncommon common men and women. It's a view of one of India's most defining moments from the ground. It surprises you with the associations you will make with present day India and Delhi. The concerns of the people are closer to our lives now as it was then. Delhi was as worried about security, the price of onions, or if milk would be available the next morning or what will the newspaper headline be. The defining moments of 1857 that barely covers a few pages in our text books come alive in ways that you could not have imagined. Thanks to Peoples' History.

Another Fatherhood Post.

2008-01-16T01:03:00.000-08:00

I always thought that fatherhood happens when men hung up their dreams and then slave-drive their children to achieve what they couldn’t.

Now, I have become a father.

What's on your eyes man?

2008-01-14T03:59:00.000-08:00

Ayn Rand brand of eyeglasses.

In college, there were several people walking around with it. It’s like this; a battered copy of Fountainhead goes around and soon a whole generation is marching out of colleges trying to do a Howard Roark. That was one phase, but each one of us wears a different brand of eyeglasses through each phase of our lives. Ayn Rand used to be one of the most popular brands for that phase of life. But not for long, because on the street called life, there are several glasses to pick up.

These glasses come in various types; in fact, they are as innumerable as the number of little things that exist in the world. It could be a book, a skill, a hobby, or a person. Usually it lasts as long as the latest fashion, but sometimes it could be something that’s for life. It’s a trial and error method and you usually become a better person as long as the glasses you have picked up aren’t something addictive like alcohol.

I have noticed that it is the people who can wear several of these glasses without messing up their thinking who are the better people to work, live or hang around with.

In the initial days of one's life and career, it pays to wear a single pair of glasses all the time, even if there are many options staring in your eyes. Like horse blinds, they guide you up a certain path.

In the world I live in, advertising, it pays to wear the advertising glasses in the initial years of your career. The flashy, sleep depriving, Advertising brand of glasses, coated with wide eyed enthusiasm for how people eat, spend, or even massage their egos. But that’s about it. These are the people who are considered to good in the business. But the best in the business are those who learn to wear several of these glasses at the same time.

They don’t just have their Advertising glasses coated with enthusiasm for the trade but they take time out to wear different glasses. Some of them even go on to do advertising while wearing an entirely different glass. And these people usually are the best among the best. I think that it’s the same in any profession and every aspect of life too.

The Peoples' Car

2008-01-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

A few decades back, you had to be a Prime Minister's uncrowned prince to harbour such a dream. Thankfully, times have changed.

Hospital news

2008-01-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

The richer you are, the less you read. At least, that’s what I read from the looks of a newspaper/bookstore in a top Bangalore hospital. Patient or not, a hospital is a place where people learn the art of patience. There’s tonnes of waiting to do and turning a few pages is the best way to make that needle on the clock move faster.

However, at this hospital meant for the better off and I assume, better read, there are fewer newspapers and books sold than in or outside humbler hospitals in the city. After Mumbai, Bangalore probably has the largest number of newspapers in different languages and they too are conspicuous by their absence. No Daily Thanti or Eenadu. And the Malayali Nurses, all they seem to be reading are Visa Applications because the Malayala Manorama Weekly and clones are missing too. Even a makeshift Chai-shop outside a construction site beyond Whitefield has a better selection of newspapers.

That’s not all, when you browse through the 10 books on display you will discover the depths to which our nation’s reading taste is diving to.

However, it seems a little unfair to judge the reading habits of people based on a single hospital, so I will just assume that those who read do not have to wait at hospitals. So keep reading.

Take it easy

2008-01-04T02:49:00.000-08:00

That's the title of the book about menstrual hygiene that is to be distributed to school girls in Krishnagiri District where are silent sanitation revolution brought about by Sanitary Napkin vending machines in schools.

More here

Why Baby Girls are born stronger.

2008-01-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

"How could this small body hold/So immense a thing as death?" - S.H .Hay.

And when it's in a Neonatal Intensive Care unit (NICU), the soft flesh and blood that quivers with uncertain life cannot find a smaller human form. Dainty they may seem, but let us just say that looks can be deceptive. I think that staying alive comes naturally to us humans, it's fear and death that is learned and taught. But then, death is a natural outcome of life and some people wish for death even when they set out to create a new life. And an Indian hospital is a great place to observe the lengths to which people wish for death. In India, despite the law on paper, you can get away with murder and the gender ratio among infants is proof enough to show how many maut ke saudagars are rubbing shoulders with you when you are in a crowded street or bus.

A few days back, the family of a little girl born premature was asked to sign a consent form to administer breathing support for the baby. The family refused even though they could clearly afford it. They refused to sign any of the required consent forms to administer life saving equpiment for the little bundle of strength who fought to stay alive for a week with no help from the family. How could they close their eyes and shut their hearts to the feeble cry of that little girl?

In the same NICU, a 20-year-old college going girl tends her premature daughter alone. Her 23-year-old husband has left her because his mother wanted a baby boy.

Another baby girl fights a bad infection in the same room as the above infants. She was abandoned by her mother and her bills are being paid by a social organization.

The same week, a Software Engineer and family carted in their new-born, premature twins, a boy and girl, into a same Neonatal Intensive Care. The family begs the doctor to save the weaker child, the boy; It’s OK if they lose the daughter.

Only the girl survived.

I spoke to the father a few days after the incident. I could see that he learnt a lesson. I 'm glad that his little girl has made a difference while she is still fighting for her life. She will surely survive to see the world outside.

Podi Kochchu

2008-01-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

“Podi Kochchu” or “Powder/Dust Baby” is a Malayalam term for a little baby. And some babies can be very small; small enough to slip through you fingers.

Since Dec 9^th, 2007 I have been spending a lot of time outside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Manipal Hospital which is home to many such Powder Babies. That’s because our son, Kartik, was born premature and is trying to put the Podi Kochchu tag behind him, one gram at a time.

Most of all, there is a long list of people to thank. Not the old man or woman above but all of them with their feet firmly on the ground and heads on their shoulders. They had no business being there on those cold nights when they should have been in bed, or giving us strength through the torturous wait, or lending the ear when they had their own problems drumming against theirs, or praying for us, or are waiting patiently for us to return to normal life.

Parenthood. It’s the most important among those personal milestones of our lives that circumstances brought people around us, without whom we couldn’t have made it through safely. And when things slowly settle down, and as we move along in life, their faces fade into the horizon.

Turkaru

2007-12-21T23:50:00.003-08:00

That is one of the street names in Kannada for Muslims. After all, the Turk influence extended all the way into the Deccan during the days of the Ottoman Empire. However, this post is about three books I have read over the past month that's taking me through the domains of Turk Influence.

The first is 'Shadow of the Silk Road' by Colin Thubron. Thurbon travels through the Central Asian republics who are of mostly Turk stock and ends his journey at Antioch (where the Christians first called themselves Christians), in present day Turkey. The second book is 'The Pillars of Hercules' by Paul Theraux. He too travels through Turkey and Cyprus and spends some time in Antioch. And finally, I'm in love with a random book I picked up from Blossoms over a year back by an Albanian writer called Ismail Kadare. The book is called 'The Palace of Dreams' and it takes you back to the days of the Ottoman Empire. In the book, a young man from a influential Albanian family working for the Ottoman Empire begins his career in a department that keeps tab of the people's dreams. Using the Palace of Dreams, he weaves a nightmare that takes us deep into the Ottoman world. Kadare's idea was to create a world that resembles hell on Earth (like Albania during the Cold War?) and he succeeds, and how!

Confession: When I read Ismail Kadare's book, I imagined it to be set in a blue tinged hell inspired by the set Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his art directors visualised for Saawariya.

La Legge

2007-12-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

The word used ti describe ingrained contempt for the law by Italians.

- From 'The Pillars of Hercules' by Paul Theraoux.

Kunstlerschuld

2007-12-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

German for Artist's Guilt.

The emotion a painter feels over his frivolity in a world in which people work in a rut that makes them gloomy.

Blinded by Photography

2007-12-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

My obsession with my humble Canon A530 camera has made me a visual voyeur. While my eyes discover new things, I have become blind to most things to the world, including work, friends, politics, and wars. Especially wars. Browsing through newspapers, the wars these days seems to have changed character since I was last in touch with the newspapers. It's all become low intensity Pakistan- in-Kashmir kind of wars these days. In Iraq, Ethipia, Somalia, Central Africa, Afghanistan, Everywhere! Looks like shock and awe has over-awed good old fashioned wars.

I can only imagine what the people in conflict zones are going through and I have made a mental note to check out what people from the conflict zones have to say in the age of blogging. Blogtips welcome.

Welcome to Scotland

2007-12-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

Scotland spent £125,000 to come up with the new tourism catchphrase: Welcome to Scotland.

Mahesh Shantaram: Also A Wedding Photographer

2007-11-15T05:46:00.000-08:00

Maga! I wish I knew him when I tied the knot.

Mahesh. Also a Wedding Photographer.

And here are a couple of pictures I clicked...

Hamare haath aam aadmi ke saath

2007-11-14T21:42:00.000-08:00

How far back was that? When the India Shining campaign met its Waterloo with a surprisingly simple advertising line. And with an election looming in the not too distant future, dekho... haath ab kiske saath hain. Only if ruling a country was as simple as advertising.

Daughter of the East, the Star of the West

2007-11-07T05:00:00.001-08:00

That's Benazir Bhutto. The daughter of the man who once said that all Indians are dogs.

Swat the F***!

2007-11-07T04:52:00.000-08:00

The cancer spreads. The Dawn newspaper of Pakistan reports that a third town in Swat, Pakistan is now under the complete control of Islamic Militants.

How to use the bayonet.
Irfan Husain on what's happening in Swat and thereabouts.

Generation Next.

2007-11-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

Pictures of children I have clicked in the last few months.

New York. In India.

2007-11-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

If Americans can name their towns after places around the world, why can't Indians?

Introducing the village of New York. Formerly known as Hunnanadoddi. You will find it a few kilometers south of Maddur Town, on the Kollegal Road in Southern Karnataka.

Trivia: Doddi is what you call a sheep pen in Kannada. Hunanadoddi probably means a place where someone named Hunna had his sheep pen. A few kms. south is a village named Kuntanadoddi or the Doddi of a man who limps. Doddi's are most commom in the southern part of Bangalore Rural District and Mandya.

Mera number kab ayega?

2007-10-31T06:08:00.000-07:00

As long as mob rioting and killings are condoned, there's always the risk of violence being engineered by old men living in protected bungalow and Govt. accomodation nursing their hatred. And in nation where each one of us can be some kind of minority. Be it Muslim, Sikh, Low-caste Hindu or High caste, speak the different language, Adivasi, or Marginal Farmer, who knows, you could be confronting a zero IQ mob when you least expect it.

"Maaro. Khaato. Jalado."

2007-10-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hui Hui

2007-10-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

We Indians give each other a lot of names. From Madrasi to Bhaiya and Surds to Golts, we have enough to fill a bloody thick book. But our names for each other fail to sting in front of the name the Han Chinese have for Chinese Muslims. They are called 'Hui Hui', or the people who must go back to where they came from.

Source: Ten thousand miles without a cloud by Sun Shuyun.

The things we learn in school

2007-09-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

I used to march around in oversized boots and starched shorts in school as part of the National Cadet Corps. This was roughly around the time the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) had gone to Sri Lanka, by air and sea and not over a bridge to disarm the Tamil Rebels. They didn’t succeed but the Army men who came to make us march about in the hot sun told us about how they and their mates used to hunt down LTTE women cadre, rape them and they always killed them and buried the evidence.

“No God But Allah. Al-Qaeda is the Enemy of Allah”

2007-09-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

Treasure Of Baghdad on recent happenings in Iraq

Eye like it

2007-09-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

If you don’t see many entries on this blog, it’s because I’ve been time travelling over the last couple of weeks. Slowly making my way through the streets of Delhi along with William Dalrymple during the last days of the Mughal Dynasty. In his book, Dalrymple brings alive a tumultuous city that Delhi was during the siege when the Last Mughal and the Sepoys held on to Delhi as the British were trying to pack him off. However, Dalrymple’s book does not have a detailed map. Actually, his descriptions are good enough, for a reader to create a vivid picture of what the city was like. But this post is not about the book or about the map in it. This is to thank the Air Traffic Controller at Palam for asking the flight I took to Delhi to hover over the city for a few minutes. The flight path took me along the length of the Yamuna to the east of the city, the ridge, Nizamuddin, Old City and other places which formed the stage for the action. Even Google Earth’s fly past view is nothing compared to the view from the window seat of a domestic flight.

Life is a game...

2007-09-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

...And I thought that I was supposed to play to win. However it took an old friend to point it out to me that I was wrong. Play it for fun. That's the only way to win this game.