Representation of Needs

Arali mara (Ficus Religiosa)

Peepul tree is a sacred tree. Why? Because my grandfather told me so! Even otherwise there are reasons.

But the one in our village is not only sacred but also dangerous! How to measure its height? How do we know how many houses it is going to destroy if it falls?

Think of an easiest way to measure a trees height without climbing it. It is easy. I will explain what I did to figure out if the tree is going to kill us on a stormy day!

left side or right side?

It was -50 degrees with windchill today. I was destined to walk 3 kms in snow and on road. Sidewalks themselves had forgotten for a while where they were! Where should I walk? left side of the road or right? With many vehicles moving on the road I did not want some one kill me from behind. Brave men have hated showing their back haven`t they?

Walking on the left side is illegal? I do not know but that saves life! All drives looked at me thinking ths guy is loose walking on the wrong side! But I was saving my ass. By walking on the left side I can see all the vehicles passing by.

So left side or right side? Which is safe? The right answer is: wrong side of the road.

intuition

Buddhi is explained as "intuitive intelligence". Whatever it means, it is not mere intelligence.

A Prof said in a CBC BBC programme that gut feeling/intuition is not a crude way of decision making but is based on more sophisticated mechanism that we do not understand yet. It was shown that partial ignorance can help in better decision making! (Something my grandmother knew too!)

Logic has limits. Incompleteness theorem hints intuition might not be a bad thing at all.

Where are we heading? Other day I just realised even my head is incomplete! I could not understand whole mess about formal systems.

~rAGU

Views of Victims

Gadhayudha (The Battle of Mace)

One of the greatest poets of Kannada Kavi Ranna wrote famously wrote Gadhayudha (SahasabhimaVijaya). Kannada Yakshagana Prasanga are based on Kannada epics. This rendered in Yakshagana is an amazing piece that shows Suyodhana/Kaurava as a victim of fate.

It can be found here:
Kannada Classic - Yakshagana Gadhayudha

Dhuryodhana - Sri Gode Narayana Hegde
Bhagavataru - Divangata Sri Gundmi Kalinga Navada

My favourite padya in the entire prasanga follows the monologue:
Suyodhana ninnu duranta nayaka...duranta nayaka... naninnenu maadli yellige hoogi heege badikkolli hayayyoooo.....

Padya
Daatugedadaitaruvaa... kurukula naathananu kaanutta Sanjaya nootu... Sanjaya nootu manadolu chintisuta kaalgeragi....

I can not stop eyes going wet... a master piece...

Podavi paalaka bhagya daayakaaaa Podavi paalaka bhagya daayakaaaa nudiyadelli nedevee oorvaneeee. badive ripugalanembachalagala nudiyadagi heegaaayiteee punya palaveee....

In the shadow of powerful ideas!

We are shocked by some ideas words and actions. Sometimes it has to do with our exposure however sometimes it has to do with the power of the idea behind the expressions.

Such shocks kill our ability to react and kill also our composure. Emotions come out and they might leave us perplexed. Tendency is not to react and accept the idea.

Where does the power of the idea come from? It appears is a mixture of many things. I list them.

Complexity - there are sometimes complex and take our time before we can analyse them. Simplicity - very simple but only in the reach of lateral thinking and easily would have missed the ambit of search.
Aggressive - Beyond the accepted limit of intimidation but less than what is clearly not acceptable. Clearly bring out our gray areas.
Unconventional
New
Apparently Logical

I used the word "shadow of" because we are so much influenced by their power that we can not react with our usual abilities. There is no comeback sometimes.

How to deal with them?
Experience.

Recognising that we are in the shadow is the first step. Good luck, when you are shocked next time!

~rAGU

Tabla on its way back to shape.........

Why 1=1?

This is not a joke; this is a serious question. Let me think and come back to write something that makes sense. This is about formal systems.

Home they brought her warrior dead....................

The life would not stay with her! (Sriram trying to run away, their age together: 1+100)

Bhavani the eldest child of Subbayya and Duggamma: my great gradparents, died yesterday 4th January 2006 5.30 PM IST. She was 100 years and few months old. (She was the elder sister of my grandfather.) She was in perfect health. She was born in November 1907, if you want some hooks: an year before Khudiram Bose, a boy from the civil society attacked British, several years before Jalianwala bagh massacre and many years before two world wars broke.

She was a window most of her life. She was married when she was a little girl and her husband died at an young age. Widow marriage was not moral those days (morality is amazing, huh?); she never married again. Pure, she wanted to be; she was named after river Ganga after all.

She could sing folk composition of whole Ramayana by heart. Folk Ramayana in Havyaka tradition is a huge collection of folk poems narating Ramayana. She used to sing songs for everything from pissing to philosophy, a song about cooking another about grinding countless. She spent time making Donne. Donne is the disposable cup made out of "bale ravadi" (dry bark of the banana plant).

She started her day with soorya namaskara and some one told her that I knew few shloks that she did not know. She asked me to teach her those. She was only 90 then! Last time I visited her she reproduced the sholka and said "you see, I remember it!". I dropped her home and gave her a bag of pepper mints which she chewed whenever she was bored.

Her desire for long was to die in her mothers house: that is in our house in Kattinakere. She used to say I want only two things, "easy death and death in Kattinakere". She had seen a long life all she wanted was death! She was very weak a few months ago everyone thought she would die. But she did not. She wanted to come to Kattinakere and my bro went to her house in Madasooru and picked her up. Two days after she came she said her stomach was aching. My father called a doctor and doctor was to arrive late in the evening. She even had one Holige in the afternoon. When my mother asked her if her relatives should be called, she said "I am all right, I will be ok after a while, do not worry". She died lying down, eye bolls locked themselves up and tongue came out, I was told. She did not even know she was dying: easy death and in Kattinakere. I do not know how many of her dreams in her young age were buried in the coffin of morality, her last wish is fulfilled.

Home they brought her warrior dead:

She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry:

All her maidens, watching, said,

"She must weep or she will die."

She did not weep, she died but long after her warrior was dead, very long, after all most a century.

Tabla Saathi

Robert Helgason (Giteelu) , Navdeep Sidhu (Throat), Aratrika Aktar (Neck), Ragu (Bajantri)

Black Powder

Why is face powder white?
It is said in the Indian epics that most beautiful women were black. I must tell you I have seen some of them my self :) (I mean "looked", okey?)

It is no secret, Indians love light skin. I have seen and heard old women in villages bless kids, "may you get a light skinned wife!". In Delhi airport, I have seen how a dark Tamilian was discriminated by the light skinned North Indian security personnel. Light skin has come to be seen as more cultured. Even in India? My God, there is not even 0.00001 corrilation between those two.

There are blonde hair colours, even red, my goodness, for people not comfortable with their own skin and hair. But why not black powder?

We had an adervertisement competition in the final year university. I advertised black powder; its wonders and how great people would look after applying them. Needless to say my performance was mediocre and so I lost. But this idea still comes to my mind every now and then.

Wear black face powder, look amazing. Ponds Jasmine black powder! Let me write Ponds now!

Inhibition of Expressions

Unlike love at first sight or first love (whichever is more apt), first thing that comes to our minds appear more appropriate than others in day to day life. I was looking for a headset in an electronic shop. I had read reviews and had some information on bad headsets. I saw a person picking up a headset and thought of telling him that it is not a good choice! I stopped. Started looking for my brand and after a while gathered courage to tell other person that "other pesons choice was fragile and was known to break in weeks". The person appriciated that. Conversation went on. He gave me some information. That was mutually beneficial.

I have found myself stopping from whatever I wanted to say or do, many times. I have realised later that it would have been better, had I said or did what I intended to say or do. The first thing that comes to our heads seems to come from US: may be intution. Unless it is an extremely negetive thought such urges are a good thing to go after.

The problem is, inhibition that comes from the same US (ME actually, I am generalising to stop feeling lonely). Something tells me to keep quite, which is not so good. Following the natural urges oftentimes makes me much more useful individual and also keeps me relaxed.

All right. New Year. Happy New Year. Wait why are there 30 days in a month and 31 in many of them? Why not 27? Mess man mess. Head goes reeling if I recall that leap year thing form the Clark's Table.

Any way:
Happy new year to you
Happy new year to you
Happy new year to dear blah.