A memorable trip to Kathlekaan and Gerusoppa!!

Well,it was completely unplanned for me!When Guru asked me to accompany him to Shivamogga, it was basically for the periodic check up of mother and an overdue consultation with doctor! Well, that got over on schedule and a change in dosage and medication with more emphasis on exercise and input control(which was excellent), what set in store for the next day was not dreamt also!! Next morning, he said we will go to mavinagundi to meet shri Ashok Hegde, and discuss the setting up of a portable weather station just imported!! And he had casually mentioned going around to nearby places!! Not in the habit to ask details, I sat in navigator's side, and the brothers conversation in that trip would have made the dialogue writers job easier for main stream cinema/media!! We reached  Kathlekaan in about an hour or so!! What lay in store in the deceptively simple woody/jungle surrounding was unravelled in an excellent fashion by that person who knows it like the back of his hand!! He is doing research in that area for close to around 17 years now and I can say with certainty each individual tree/ shrub and the habitat talks to him!! Courtesy of his leading the way, he got a tick or two embedded in him!! And as he had done the recce, I was neither sprung the coils of vipers or the inoculation of ticks!! The myristica swamp which unravelled in front of us is a treasure trove of natural history and ecology!! Though guru was giving me the scientific name of the trees which have adapted themselves to the marshy nature of the area, I was awestruck at the sudden cool ambience with clear stream flowing and the roots in various shapes and sizes spread across that sacred zone!! He showed once more plant used for making natural yellow dye!! And roots of some of the plants were like the one in kannada or a reverse U!! In between i have missed out on these plants,which somehow reminded of the Avataar movie and we strangers were encroaching on their lung space!! So, having spent nearly an hour in that place and filled lungs with enough oxygen to last for next visit, and the placard showing the incremental growth recordngs of forest trees by that englishman used even to this day by researchers and students alike!!

TENTH EDITION OF BANGALORE BOOK FAIR

      Tenth edition of bangalore book fair got underway at palace grounds today. As promised to son Paawan, I went along on the opening day itself. The thrill of going around stalls displaying various language books is something I still have not lost. But, to my surprise and dismay, there were more stalls peddling car-go lots in various forms and many prominent publishers were conspicuous by their absence. Paawan picked his series finishing lemony snickets while I scrounged unsuccessfully (chaya was extremely happy for this!!)for long lost friends in wildlife/ornithology and general fiction. There was a book release function attended by dr chandrashekar kambar, dr suryakant mohapatra, and other dignitaries. It was an evening well spent. But, has bangalore lost out on the charms of book fair? or is it too early to be commenting?

AN EVENTFUL DAY WITH P SAINATH

I had planned to be present at the start of the function for the release of kannada book "ಬರ ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಇಷ್ಟ " translation of the seminal work everybody loves a good drought by sainath p published in the ninetees. I had read the book, and wanted to meet the person in flesh and blood, who through his unbiased and hard hitting reporting had bought national as wellas international attention on the plight of rural indian. by the time i reached gandhi bhavan, the crowd had spilled out of the hall probably seating around 300ppl; I took a vantage spot on the side ledge of a window, where in I could view the proceedings inside without hitch. two free lance journalists were honored on the occasion 1st jul 2012,by counter media awards. one is the person speaking in the photo with sri sainath, sri tk dayanand, who had reported in the media about the ramapant practice of carrying of night soil in kgf which had drawn media attention. other journo honored was smt gayatri, who is propagating the rural agri practices with a periodical from the past ten years.

       In the morning session, sainath had only given an appetiser of a speach while congratulating the winners and the main course was to follow in the afternoon. sri devanoor mahadeva, who had revolutionised the poetry with his rich imagery and coarse words from the humble background to carve a niche for himself in the kannada literature circles also spoke at length on the need for education for the rural masses. in the lunch break that followed, i had the opportunity to accost sri sainath for 10-15 minutes on the topic close to my heart. sanitation has become an unending problem from the day human waste ie., urine and fecus were isolated from the earth and sent on a separate course where it will not become earth. while i was espousing the need to create that scene where u can again, regain that control on the human waste by circulating it back to earth, by having urine and fecus separated at the starting point itself, sainath avoided the issue by stating that it was a different issue and needs to be looked at differently. by then, others had gathered around and luch got over. we went back to hall, to have our main course.

       It was a listeners delight, with sainath talking straight through for about an hour. trying to desribe that whole speech is beyond me. it was like a ride in the torrents of ganga, u go smoothly for a minute, u jump a boulder, then crash a few hundred feet, then climb up the rocks, then smoothly glide for a while, then with great roar fall down the gorge. the speech was about the journos being the conscience keepers of the nation, and how are we faring at it, with ample examples from around it was a talk the journalism students would give them right ear for. glimpses of the same would be available in you tubes. next almost an hours inter active session with questions thrown in from eager audience was deftly handled by him.

     For a long time, i had religiously used sundays only for roaming in search of second hand b ooks, but jul 1st proved to be a bonus where i could get the first hand book and the man behind it for chatting.

AN INTERESTING BOOK RELEASE FUNCTION!!

You are wondering on seeing the heading, whether the book release function was interesting or the book? But in reality, both were interesting. The day was the save frogs day ie., 28 Apr 2012. Location: Patanjali Yoga hall, Gubbi. Book: The Pictorial guide to the frogs and toads of western ghats. Author: Dr Guru raja KV. I was invited to the function and was looking forward to it from 7am as that was the time to board the taxi to gubbi with dr NA Aravind. Since all three of us (Manju the saarathi, me and aravind didn't want to miss the adrak chai) shared and sipped the hot chai, the ever present delay raised its head right there. After picking the author and preeti, we headed towards gubbi on a pretty uncluttered highway. Whatever size pins, the passengers used, manju refused going beyond 70kmph on that stretch. Other reason was we were all feeling the hollow sounds in the tummy! So, with gr8 fanfare, kvg announced that the alpahar will be at kamat just before tumkur. One common feature of all the eateries around bangalore is most of them are crowded beyond normal capacity on holidays by the 5day week crowds!! The angry looks, hungry waits, and sambar abhishek to appease manju was worth in the end. Idli, wada were worth the wait. Coffee was also good. It was 9-15 and we were still an hour from destination. KVG received the anxious call from gubbi labs director, and i think he assured that we will not break the tradition of maintaining the schedule (ie., if the event is at 10, presenting oneself at 1030 at the earliest!!)Post breakfast, manju flew us into gubbi by 1015. On getting the directions from Dr Sudhira, we arrived at the venue. Hurriedly, the kids who were in quite a large number enjoying their outdoor activities, assembled into the hall in  remarkably neat rows. Official photographers of the function, Mrs Ramya and Preethi, set their equipment unobtrusively in the corner for capturing the event. At 1030 sharp, Shri Satyanarayan along with two eager kids released the book in the presence of our future generation. I believe the release was exemplary because of the utter disregard for the fanfare and hoopla. It was a fitting celebration of the save the frogs day 2012. Immediately after the book release, we broke off for a cup of tea and snacks. This was handled with elan by Sudhir's mother along with a few volunteers.
Best part of the book release function was in store. KVG spoke at length about the frogs, why they are called amphibians, what are their role in ecology and what is happening to them and how we can help save them. This was an enlightening talk on the role of frogs. Kids participated in gusto with cross checking the small photos they had of frogs with actual id. This, I felt would go a long way in making them open to identifying, recording the frogs. Murali, of namma cycle fame had some interesting folk tales about frogs, which prompted sri satyanarayan to recollect some from his memory. I will give the links to the event subsequently.
Click here for the flier made for the event. And here are some more photos of the event.here you will find aravind, guru, sri satyanarayan along with curious kids who released the book.
At the end, we all went to sudhir's house for a sumptuous, gregarious meal topped with mysore pak. 
Post lunch, a drive around the field lab of gubbi and lots of photo graphing later, we had a surprise coffee. Special mention must be made of this coffee, because very rarely you get wonderful coffee which lingers on your taste bud. Thanx to Sudhir's mother and attige and ramya we had the coffee to die for. Return journey was mostly eventfree as sonia had already left tumkur and roads were free!!
All in all, a memorable day and the maiden publication from gubbi labs could not have asked for more!!!

A TALE OF MOSARANNA ALIAS CURD BHATH

Chaya was preparing curd rice for the get together at her papa's place. Incidentally, she makes nice saaru, north indian dishes and a wonderful home maker if you ignore occasional battles across borders. So, this narrative may take different twists, as I try to be as faithful to the events that unfolded. She is preparing rice for the mosaranna. Mobile disturbs. the call is from ananya. chayatte, you make the most wonderful mosranna. only if you allow the oggarane items to remain crisp how good it would be. so, chaya prepares oggarane (really, special one: uddina bele, sasve, godambi fried to rose brown with karibevu leaves) and packs it separately in a box. next caller is keshu, he has a grouse! chayatte, you are partial to girls because you dont have one and cheat the boys of godambi in oggarne, so to play fair, please count them and distribute equally amongst boys n gals! ok. this wish can be fulfilled as the oggarne is kept aside. Now the mixing is taking place with dalimbe and other ingredients, phone rings for the third time its varshini the bean pole! chayatte, if only if your mosaranna sticks to its very basics  and lots and lots of curds with no kaat kasa leaves in between how wonderful it would be. chayatte is in obliging mood. so she stores the kaat kasaa, ie, kottambri leaves and other things separately in one more box. the fourth call was near about direct. its from her son paawan. amma, don't you make anything other than mosranna as a special, something say like a pizza or a pasta or a...

cruel are the ways of the world, which while enjoying a lovingly made mosranna still grumbles with it how better it could have been and so on..

Parents: Should they try to be their kids' friends?

With so much input coming from all kinds of specialists and especially from the western world (I have nothing against them personally) the current tendency of parents in Indian cities trying to be their kids' friends is setting an alarming behavioural pattern in the kids. Kids always were smart now more so because of the exposure to  all media. While trying to be friends, parents forget that they are parents first, they have a job (a thankless one at that) and any slack on their part would make the job of developing their kids into responsible citizens a muddled one. I am no academic in kids psychiatry, but you would accept my view that when u are trying to teach some value, firmness is essential. Consistency in imparting is a foregone assumption. Above all, since the kids see with their ears and hear with their eyes, practising of  what is taught is also of paramount importance if it is to be inculcated without failure. Citing my own example, as well from those around me in all spheres of life, I have seen a disturbing trend. Children are becoming more self-centered, loud mouthed, mean minded and devil-incarnates, when parents are taking their role of parenting casually. The usual excuse of what can I do, if that is the fate, unfortunately will work in reverse here because of the easy nature. A non-conforming act/talk/behaviour should be dealt decisively and firmly. It has no place in our society, if we want what we have lost. Other wise, in the coming decades, we can see the decadence of western society, seething into our very own veins, and killing us morally completely. We depended on foreign investments, for our industries and economy but we did have a wonderful culture of our own, which was vibrant having stood the test of time. Alas, now it looks like we are going to succumb to that western influence and are heading towards a path of no return if there is no correction immediately. Parents, please look back on what you cherish most and what is the best you have learnt from them and try to impart that to your kids so that they may also feel empowered to face the world with sound values. This whole article needs a bit of re-look and I would definitely welcome a debate on the points raised and methods to achieve.

A Blood Donation Camp Hosted at Gunata Vihar

It was proposed to have a blood donation camp On 8th Nov 2011 at our residential quarters, gunata vihar. Nimhans blood bank had been approached to collect the blood and sanjaynagar lions club would assist with the conduct of the camp along with us volunteering residents. The camp preparation had been done previous day itself with all furniture, wastebaskets chairs etc in place. On 8th at 9.15am the team from Nimhans came with all the donor beds, blood extraction kits, and donor refreshments. We added large sized banans for replenishing the sugar and salts in the body of donors. Camp started in right earnest at 1030am with our Controller coming with his family to donate blood. But only his daughter could donate blood as he was deferred for high blood pressure. We were in for a surprise when eight ladies came to donate blood all of them donating for the first time. Hats Off to you all ladies may you donate many many times more in your life!!! Also, there were a unique couple, col SK Mishra and his wife leena Mishra who donated blood creating a record in the campus. The volunteers team of sanjaynagar ably lead by Shri Kurien matched the vigor and smile of the RWA team comprising Saravanan and his friends. I had a whale of a time interacting with first time donors, there were 31 of them to make sure, they do indeed come back to donate many times in future. The camp was a roaring success with 68 units collected from the camp. Here once more to all those 68 donors, a hearty congrats and thank you for saving lives by donating blood and thanx to all those volunteers who made the event a memorable one.You may watch the photos of the camp by clicking on the links below.
Voluntary Blood Donation & CARDIAC Screening Camp
Blood donation camp photos.https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1888235504167.74563.1789843046&type=1https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2222562239617.2098315.1114550859&type=3