Ending 2009 on a sad note

The last week of 2009 (and of this decade) is proving to be an extremely painful week for Kannadigas.

First, we lost C. Ashwath, a great singer and music composer who made "Sugama Sangeetha" a household name. Ashwath ensured that hundreds of poems written by various poets reaches the common man which otherwise would have remained only in books. C. Ashwath is most famous for composing music for Santha Shishunala Sharif's poems. Ashwath's high energy singing was very very contagious. My wife, who was lucky to have attended one of his concerts, remembered that when Ashwath sang, everyone had goosebumps. Some of his best ever compositions include - "Subba bhattara magale", "Badavanaadarenu Priye", "Kodagana Koli Nungitha", "Gupthagaamini", "Bangaara Teera kadalaache", "Shravana banthu naadige" and many, many more. Ashwath's versatile singing was evident in the song "Kechalo Machalo" from the movie Kariya which is one of the most youthful songs in Kannada.

I am sure that C. Ashwath's amazing rendition of "Taravalla Tegi Ninna Tamboori Swara" will remain with us forever. May the great soul rest in peace.

Just when we were all recovering from one big jolt, Kannadigas were hit by a lightening -- Sahasa Simha Dr Vishnuvardhan's untimely and tragic demise. Vishnuvardhan stormed the kannada film industry with a stunning performance as the protagonist in "Nagara Haavu". He won the best actor award for that movie. After this, Vishnu never looked back. Delivering hit after hit, Vishnu reached a stature next only to Dr. Rajkumar. In fact, Dr. Raj and Vishnu were regarded as the two shining stars of the Kannada film industry. It is unfortunate that the two acted together in just one movie - "Gandada Gudi".

Some of the star's hits were "Nagara Haavu", "Bhoothayana Maga Ayyu", "Guru Sishyaru", "Sahasa Simha", "Jayasimha", "Hombisilu", "Malaya Marutha", "Mathe Hadithu Kogile", "Veerappa Nayaka" and many more. In fact, the two biggest hits came pretty late in his sparkling career of over 3 decades. Both "Yajamaana" and "Aptha Mitra" smashed all records for collection prevailing during that time.

Can anyone forget "Bandhana" where Vishnu portrays a heart broken lover? Or "Muthina Haara" where he excelled as an army major? Or the action flick "Kotigobba" where he is a don in disguise? Or the thriller "Nishkarsha" where he leads an operation against deadly terrorists who have held a bank hostage? Or his heart rending performance in "Karna" where the hero donates his kidney in order to raise money for his sister's marriage? Or the freedom fighter's role in "Veerappa Nayaka"? Or "Maathaad Maathaad Mallige" in which Dr. Vishnu fights the bad forces through Gandhian style satyagraha?

These performances ensure that Dr. Vishnu will live with us forever. His last released movie was "Bellary Naaga". Everyone was keenly anticipating his next film "Aptha Rakshaka" which is dubbed to be the sequel of the super hit "Aptha Mithra". Vishnuvardhan was also keenly hoping that "Aaptha Rakshaka" would provide him the commercial success which had eluded him of late.

Even though Dr. Vishnuvardhan reached super stardom, he remained an extremely humble and a very friendly person. He always had a smile on his face. He had keen interest in philosophy and spirituality.

One of his songs instantly comes to my mind - "Ee Bhoomi Bannada buguri, aa shivane chaati kano; ee baalu sundara nagari, neenidara meti kano; ninthaaga buguriya aata, ellaru onde ota; kaala kshanika kano". The song is from the not so successful movie "Maha Kshatriya". It translates into something like this - "This world is a coloured top and the lord is the spinner; This life is a beautiful town, you are the architect; when the top stops spinning, its just one race..."

Truely, Dr. Vishnuvardhan is a "Kotigobba" (One in a million). May his soul rest in peace.

In search of topics to blog...

Its been a month since I wrote something. So, my mind was always on the prowl in search of blog matter :-)

There are so many things happening around the world. However, none of it is anything new.

Take the Copenhagen climate summit for example - The hype given to it by the media was unprecedented. However, as usual, the talks are heading nowhere. The rich countries don't want to pay for their earlier misdeeds while the rest of the world is hell bent on committing the same mistakes. The bottom line - Global warming and climate change deserves only lip sympathy.

Next on my list is the Telengana issue. I have lost count of the number of times the Congress Party has hit the khuladi on its own leg (Apne hi paav par khuladi maarna). This time, its on the brink of losing its government in Andhra Pradesh. Poor Mr Rossiah.

Next is Tiger Woods. Looks like he is a serious competition to Bill Clinton. Poor fellow was enjoying the best of all worlds till a few days back. Unfortunately, his luck ran out. But if everything written about him is true, he was living a dream life :D

There you go. Hopefully, I will have something meaningful to write next time around :-)

Austerity - A mere buzz word

Of late, "Austerity" has been the buzz word in government circles. Our central government, the Finance Minister in particular, has been trying to introduce various measures which cut unnecessary government expenditure. These steps include - ministers flying economy class, staying in official residences, etc.

Even with all these in place, the FM must realise that the government is doing precious little to save costs. The money which elected representatives make would envy any businessman/CEO in the world. In addition, they enjoy many perks including exorbitant DA, TA, telephone allowance, etc etc. Add to this, the yearly MPLAD and MLALAD funds which the representatives must ideally use for development works in their constituency. How much of this reaches the people who faithfully elected them is a million dollar question.

All of this is legal money. One can only wonder what is the illegal wealth which each one has amassed.

The latest slap on the face of austerity is by our Karnataka's ministers. Not surprisingly, our CM is leading from the fore front. He has spent 2 crores to renovate his official bungalow and a mind blowing 35 lacs to renovate just one bedroom!! Other ministers have spent anywhere between 10 lac and 80 lacs for their house renovation. And mind you, all these are official bungalows which they need to vacate when they lose power. The next person will redo everything according to his whims by spending an even higher amount of money. I feel sick when I realise that the money these people spend belongs to tax payers like us, who struggle all our life to have a decent livable house.

I can only wonder about the audacity of our politicians who are spending crores on frivolous reasons when lakhs of people are suffering due to floods in north karnataka. No wonder politics is the profession of choice for many people, today.

Indian cricket team selection - The joke never ends!

Today, the selection committee announced Indian cricket team for the forth coming seven match ODI series against Australia. As has been the tradition, the selectors have again made a joke of themselves. This time and not for the 1st time, the scapegoat is Rahul Dravid.

Just a couple of months back, the K. Srikkanth led selection committee had recalled Dravid into the ODI fold for Champions trophy after nearly 2 years in oblivion. The explanation given at that time was that Dravid's technique and temperament was essential in South Africa against a battery of fast bowlers. He was to be the linchpin of a floundering middle order. At that time everyone in the echelons of power in BCCI were waxing eloquent about Dravid's excellent batting ability and class. Its another matter that the same BCCI had done the grave mistake of ignoring Dravid for almost 2 years.

Dravid justified his selection. He scored 180 runs in the 6 matches that he played (Compaq Cup and CT) at an average of 36. He was in fact the top scorer for India in the champions trophy. It was not an extraordinary performance, but what else can be expected from a person coming out of a 2 year rut.

Now when Dravid was looking good for a couple more years of ODI cricket, he has been sacked. The explanation being offered now is that youngsters should be given a chance. One really cannot understand the logic behind this move. The very reason of including Dravid was to improve our middle order against fast bowling. Has our batting become so strong in just 2 months that we will be able to face the Australian fast bowlers. Agreed, we are playing at home. But there are a zillion instances of our team struggling against fast bowling even at home.

Its really a shame that a legend like Rahul Dravid has been subjected to such humility by the BCCI. No one can question Dravid's contribution and commitment to Indian cricket. He has scored more than 10000 runs in both forms of the game and has been the mainstay of our batting for more than a decade. He has been an excellent and a dignified sportsman - a great ambassador for Indian cricket.

I fully acknowledge the fact that we need to groom youngsters. Obviously the seniors cannot go on for ever and we need to nourish our bench strength. However, that doesn't explain the now on and now off stand taken by the BCCI. The BCCI will have to understand that it cannot treat the senior cricketers in such a shabby manner.

I really hope that the BCCI corrects its mistake and take back Dravid into the ODI side as soon as possible. He is still hungry for runs and his fans like me are hungry to watch him in action. After all, we are not playing many test matches, are we.

An Appeal to our Chief Minister Mr B.S Yeddyurappa

Its strange how the climate changes so fast. Till a few days back, Karnataka (and our entire country, for that matter) was in drought. Now, North Karnataka and Andhra are ravaged by floods!

North Karnataka has the distinction of bearing the brunt of nature's fury on either extreme.

The situation is very grim. Hundreds of lives have been lost. Lakhs of people have been rendered homeless. Infrastructure - bridges, buildings, roads - worth crores of rupees - has been washed away.

The state government has started the relief and rehabilitation work in the right earnest. Displaced people have been accommodated in various shelters. Food and medical relief is being provided to them. The chief minister himself is on the ground coordinating relief work. However, the disaster is of such great magnitude that it has affected 1.8 crore people in almost 1500 villages. Rebuilding the lives of so many people is not a small task and the money needed is enormous.

Naturally, the state government has appealed to the centre for aid. Knowing the fact that central aid will take its own sweet time, our Chief Minister has also appealed to the general public to donate liberally to the CM's relief fund.

In fact, the CM will kick off a rally in Bangalore to collect funds. He has also specifically appealed to the industrialists to donate liberally. He has also ordered all state government employees to contribute one day's pay towards flood relief. I am personally glad that the state government is so proactive in ensuring that the relief work doesn't get hampered due to lack of funds. However, our chief minister must understand that money collected is only half work done.


There are enough kind hearted people, philanthropists, noble organisations in our country who readily donate in such times of crisis. However, they all have second thoughts for only one reason. The money they donate with such good intentions should reach the final beneficiary in totality. It should not be siphoned off by middlemen, local politicians and corrupt government officials.

So, Mr CM, here is my appeal. While appealing for donations, assure people that the collected funds will reach the beneficiary without any pilferage. Follow up this assurance with results on the ground - Account for every rupee collected. Spend the collected money to bring succor to the millions of flood affected victims.

When this is ensured, Mr CM, donations will flood your relief fund. Also, you would have earned the people's goodwill which will take you a long way.

Mr. X, Mayawati and statues

My lunches are usually uneventful. I go with a few friends, talk some crap over food and come back to my workplace. However, a few days back, I overheard a person in the next table speaking thus - "When the Gandhi's/Nehru's can do it, why cant she"? We got instantly hooked into the conversation.

A very polished young person (lets call him Mr X) was vehemently arguing with his friends that Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Mayawati's statue construction craze is justified and she should not be stopped. We were all shell shocked. If a well educated engineer is supporting such a brazen act, where is our country heading towards?

The supporting claims that Mr X was making were also equally bizarre -

1. He claimed that when there were Gandhi's statue in every nook and corner of the country, why cant UP have Mayawati's statue?

Mahatma Gandhi is the father of our nation whose contribution to India's freedom movement is unquestionable. Gandhi is a person whom India worships and his virtues are taught to children in school. In comparison what has Mayawati done which is worth noting? In her tenure as CM, corruption has reached its peak. She has amassed crores of wealth in a remarkably short period of time. She is charged in the Taj corridor corruption case. There are umpteen reports about her lavish birthday celebrations and the related forceful fund raising activities by her goondas.

Given all this and more, how can Mr X compare Mayawati to Mahatma Gandhi? I felt Mr X was out of his senses.

2. Mr X claimed that Mayawati was the tallest dalit political leader in the country today and she ought to celebrate her success to motivate other underprivileged dalits.

Again Mr.X's thoughts are miserably misplaced. Dalits want an icon, no doubt. But they want an icon who is tirelessly working for their upliftment. Not an icon made of stone and which stands still. Mayawati would do good if she concentrates on good governance. The government's primary responsibility is development, infrastructure, upliftment of poor, providing jobs, to name a few. The government's responsibility does not include spending thousands of crores in building statues of chief minister and her kith and kin.

Finally, MR. X, the state of Uttar Pradesh is one of the most backward states of our country. It is currently under severe drought with more than 20 districts declared drought hit. Millions of people are affected due to this. Common sense (I hope you have at least a bit) tells that using money for drought relief make more sense than splurging on all kinds of statues. Instead, Mayawati spends state's money on statues and asks money from the centre for drought relief. I am sure our Mr. X appreciates this complex money management!!

Wake up Mr. X, before its too late! People are going to trash your leader in the next elections if things continue this way.

Started, at last

There are days when I have felt that I am simply wasting my life and whiling away my time. I have always had the urge to do something on my own. But my mind goes blank whenever I think about what I should do. When such days became more and more frequent, I told it to a couple of my close friends. They said that I was not alone. Even they felt the same way.

There are striking similarities between them and me. We are stuck in a job which we dont particularly love for various reasons. We want to do something different - something on our own. We want to give back to our society and our country in a big way. We, like everyone, want to make a name for ourselves. Finally, we, like most people, dont know how to acheive the above :-)

This became the hot topic of discussion whenever we met. However, the discussions were not translating into any sort of action. Our desperation was increasing. One fine day, we decided - enough of talking, its time we act. We gave ourselves a few months time to think and generate ideas. Later each of these ideas would be discussed threadbare and the shortlisted ideas would move to the next round of deliberation.

I can now proudly tell that after several meetings and deliberations, we have shortlisted one idea which we are taking up for implementation. We have started the ground work and you will hopefully hear about our progress soon.

I am really excited and plan to give my everything to make this small venture of ours, successful. I hope your best wishes and support are with us.

BJP - Bharatiya Jagada Party

There was a time when the BJP proudly boasted that it was a party with a difference. It proclaimed that it was a highly disciplined political party. Even the people of India believed that the BJP deserved a chance and gave them a mandate to rule. They did a commendable job for the 6 years they were in power. That was when it was led by arguably the best politician this country has ever seen - Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, our former PM. He was a leader par excellence. Mr. Vajpayee was the liberal face of the BJP. He had a great vision to take this country forward.

It was probably the best decade for the BJP. Then, it lost power. That was the beginning of the decline. It simply lost the charisma it enjoyed during the Vajpayee era. It has now lost back to back general elections and with it, the stomach to digest and learn from defeats.

As a result, the BJP today has become a party of diffidence. The only other leader who has national appeal - Mr. LK Advani, is being undermined by his own party colleagues. The 2nd rung leaders like Modi, Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh etc are capable but except a couple, lack a mass base. They are always trying outdo each other and harming the party as a result. The BJP national president Mr. Rajnath Singh, a typical UP satrap, and is pitting one leader against another in a bid to stay on the top.

The principal opposition party in the country today, is totally confused and directionless. Every other day, the party is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Immediately after the 2004 election debacle, Advani realised that Vajpayee's liberal way was the only way to power. So, when he went to Pakistan and called Jinnah secular, he had a bigger picture and 2009 elections in mind. Unfortunately, his colleagues were not so shrewd and made a big hue and cry. Advani had to resign from the party President's post. It's a different matter that Advani was then again acknowledged as the BJP's best bet and he was projected as the BJP's PM in waiting.

However, Advani's dream remained just that - dream. BJP's leaders and strategists committed so many crucial blunders in the run-up to the elections - Arun Jaitely getting miffed at a crucial time; Narendra Modi being projected as bigger than Advani; losing crucial allies like BJD; and to top it, Varun Gandhi's communal comments - All these were nails in the coffin for Advani's hopes of his entry to 7, Race Course Road.

Unfortunately for BJP, the trouble simply doesn't seem to end. The party is going downhill at a furious pace. After the elections, when some top leaders like Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie etc tried to pin the reasons for the defeat, they were silenced. The party President started acting like an autocrat just to save his skin and due to this, other top leaders started expressing their feelings in the public. This lead to chaos and widespread criticism.

The latest in this BJP saga is the unceremonious sacking of Jaswant Singh. It is quite ridiculous that one of the founding members of the party -- one who held such crucial responsibilities both in the NDA government and in the party -- was dumped in such disrespectful manner just for writing a book.

Clearly, the BJP is doldrums. Party workers and rank and file are disillusioned and have started deserting it. However, it is very important that BJP remains a potent political force in our country to avoid a one party show. It should get itself out of the rut and perform the role of a responsible opposition. Else, it won't even be the main opposition party in the next election and will go into oblivion.

There are a few steps which the BJP must immediately take to avoid sliding further. They are -

1. Sack Rajnath Singh and his cronies immediately and declare Advani as the interim President.

2. Stop infighting.

3. Take back Jaswant Singh.

4. Disown Varun Gandhi.

5. Draw a line between the roles played by RSS and BJP.

6. Groom young leaders who have the capability to take the party forward.

7. Listen to leaders' views in party fora and act on them so that they don't vent it out publicly.

I pray that the political party which I once respected and even considered joining, regains its glory and does justice to Mr. Vajpayee and his vision.

Rain Rain come today...

When we were kids we learnt a rhyme which went like -- Rain, rain go away, come back another day... Essentially, it was a hope that our day wasn't wasted indoors.

Today the situation has drastically changed, at least in India. The finance minister has just announced that around 161 districts of our country are facing drought.

It is amazing how one phenomenon can affect a billion people.

Almost 60% of our population, which depends on agriculture, is drastically affected due to this drought. Irrigated land comprises of just around 35% of the entire agrarian land in India (558,080 sq km of the total 15,34,166 sq km). So, most of our farmers are still dependent on rain for their crops. Those who have sowed are devastated since their crop is failing. Others who havent sowed are worried since they cant pay back the loans they have taken in anticipation of the sowing season.

The common man, is the next worst affected. Though inflation is negative and still going down, food prices are sky rocketting. My mother tells me that her grocery budget has more than doubled (thank god, i dont need to manage that one!). Due to the sky high prices, people have started changing their eating habbits and moving over to less costly food items and vegetables.

The rural India, which was fast becoming a major spender, will no more be so since their income is adversely impacted. The urban people will have less disposable income since their cost of living has gone up considerably. So, the industry will suffer due to less demand and sales growth.

The political class is by and large immune to any problems in our country. However that's not the case this time around -- Every politician worth his salt will be worried since his vote bank is directly affected. Its interesting to see how people in places where elections are due next will react.

Given all of these facts, it is not so surprising that we hear one or the other minister speak about the steps being taken by the government to improve the situation. It remains to be seen whether these steps will be effective in easing the pain endured by the common man.

The panacea however, are rains and its time we all start praying.

Lai - Story of a cancer fighter

Anyone feeling low in life, read this blog about a man who is down but surely not out. He is my best buddy Kiran's friend. He is suffering from nose cancer (I was not even aware that such a thing exists!!). We are doing our bit in spreading the word about this brave man. He is doing a wonderful job motivating other people who have suffered in life. Here hoping that he continues to blog for a long - very long time.

Back!!

This is my first post in almost an year. I used to love blogosphere once upon a time. Then, I just lost the motivation to write, though I am unable to comprehend why.

However, what I am sure about, is that this sudden loss of creativity affected me in more ways than one. My life turned very routine. I had become more like a machine doing the same stuff day in and day out. Though I knew what was happening, I didn't have the will to come out of it.

And then, I read this book -- "the five people you meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. Its about a man who does the same routine job for decades and dies at the age of 83 while saving a little girl. He then goes to heaven and understands the meaning of his life.

Well, more about that book later. But what it did is to spur me back into life. So, I am here after an year -- Hopefully for a long time.