A journey from freedom to liberation: Mukta

T. N. Seetharam's much followed teleserial Mukta's title song Mukta.

ಮುಕ್ತ
ದೂರದಿಂದಲೆ ಜೀವ ಹಿಂಡುತಿದೆ ಕಾಣದೊಂದು ಹಸ್ತ
ಆದೇವೆ ಬಂಧ ಮುಕ್ತ |
ದೂರದಿಂದಲೆ ಜೀವ ಹಿಂಡುತಿದೆ ಕಾಣದೊಂದು ಹಸ್ತ
ಆದೇವೆ ಬಂಧ ಮುಕ್ತ ||

ಕಾರು ಮೋಡ ಮಳೆಯಾಗಿ ಸುರಿದಾಗ ಕಣ್ಣ ಹನಿಗೆ ಮುಕ್ತಿ..

ಮರದ ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಮರಿ ರೆಕ್ಕೆ ಬೀಸಿದರೆ, ಅದರ ಗರಿಗೆ ಮುಕ್ತಿ |
ಎದೆಯ ನೋವು ಹಾಡಾಗಿ ಹೊಮ್ಮಿದರೆ, ಭಾವಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದ ಮುಕ್ತಿ...
ಎಂದು ಆದೇವು ನಾವು ಮುಕ್ತ ಮುಕ್ತ ಮುಕ್ತ ||

ಏರು ನದಿಗೆ ಇದಿರಾಗಿ ಈಜಿ ದಡ ಸೇರಬಹುದೆ ಜೀವ?
ದಾಟಿ ಈ ಪ್ರವಾಹ? |
ತಾನು ಬೆಂದು ತಿಳಿ ಬೆಳಕ ಬೀರುತಿದೆ ಒಂದು ಇರುಳ ದೀಪ,
ನಿಶ್ಚಯದ ಮೂರ್ತ ರೂಪ..||

ಮೊಗ್ಗಿನಿಂದ ಸೆರೆ ಒಡೆದ ಗಂಧ ಹೂವಿಂದ ದೂರ ದೂರ,
ಎಲ್ಲುಂಟು ಆಚೆ ತೀರ
ಮೊಗ್ಗಿನಿಂದ ಸೆರೆ ಒಡೆದ ಗಂಧ ಹೂವಿಂದ ದೂರ ದೂರ,
ಎಲ್ಲುಂಟು ಆಚೆ ತೀರ

ಕಾರುಮೋಡ ಮಳೆಯಾಗಿ ಸುರಿದಾಗ ಕಣ್ಣ ಹನಿಗೆ ಮುಕ್ತಿ...
ಮರದ ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಮರಿ ರೆಕ್ಕೆ ಬೀಸಿದರೆ, ಅದರ ಗರಿಗೆ ಮುಕ್ತಿ...|
ಎದೆಯ ನೋವು ಹಾಡಾಗಿ ಹೊಮ್ಮಿದರೆ, ಭಾವಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದ ಮುಕ್ತಿ...
ಎಂದು ಆದೇವು ನಾವು ಮುಕ್ತ ಮುಕ್ತ ಮುಕ್ತ....||

You can download this beautiful song at Pratap's page

Too much is too bad.

Well c'mon people, but this is getting just too much. There were the newspapers, and then TV, then satellite, and there's Google now. I mean, isnt there an end to how much information you can have at your finger tips?

The day is not going to be far when people are going to search for the meaning of their lives on the Information giant that Google is. "I am feeling lucky?" is not going to help them!

Fortunately there is a way to escape from all this Information Overload.
See The Cure for Information Overload.

The crown jewel of BengaLooru.

It had never crossed our minds to go in there, but now that we were so close, it would be ridiculous to pass it by. So we sat down inside the winding tunnel. The fans were running at full throttle, but nothing could clear the room of the smells. It will not be hard for the average Bangalorean to imagine this setting immediately after I give away the spoiler; beNNe masaale?


Vidyaarthi Bhavan might have made news lately with it's 2 minute flashes on BBC and Udaya, but it goes back in time to 1938.

Our waiter eased his way in the narrow aisle between the tables. All the while I was counting the plates he was carrying. Considering he was already a quarter way through the aisle of neatly stacked 4 seaters, he must have started out from the kitchen with atleast 20 plates balancing on his left hand. This must be a good assumption, as most people come there only for the beNNe masaale dOse, and rarely have enough tummy space to try anything else after a couple of dOses.

A crisp dOse was placed beside me, and immediately followed by a generous dollop of kaai chutney serving. The beNNe on my dOse was already melting. My restraint was melting too. Yet another story can be written about the mashed potato masaale inside, and the freshly spiced chutney.. but I deem it in my welfare to stop, and let you go and have a taste yourself..

No. 32, Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore. Bon appétit.

Pronunciation tips for the uninitiated:

beNNe
bεNNε. Fresh butter.

masaale
mŭsälε. Boiled and mashed potatoes seasoned with spice mixture.

dOse.
thōsε. The crowning glory of South Indian breakfast. Simply indescribable!

kaai.
käĭ. Grated and seasoned coconut used for chutney.

The Corrupt: Worse than the world's oldest professionals. Are you one?

The bloody scenes of Rang De Basanti have still not been fully cleared off our memories. The students on national television werent made to scream "The fire you have ignited will burn in our hearts" just for a different climax. It's not for a whim or fancy that such a supreme effort has been made.

The Post Graduate Entrance Test, Karnataka (PGET2006) recently conducted by the health university, has shown the kind of totally unwholesome and sick levels of immorality that both officials and students have lowered themselves to. The glaring fraud is evident from a simple glance at the top 100 rankers themselves.

See this:

1. Student x gets a rank in the top 10 (inspite of 5 answer keys found wrong)
2. RGUHS re-publishes answer key, and re-arranges ranks.
3. Student x's rank slips to within top 20. (note here that new answer key has 15 wrong keys)
4. RGUHS re-re-publishes answer key and re-re-arranges ranks.
5. Student x's rank remains within top 20.
6. Punchline: x never was a topper or high scorer in the course or degree exams.
   

Does it need Einstein to scream humbug at this 'doctored' arithmetic?
It does not take the wisdom of a doctor, or the calculative ability of an engineer to smell out all these x's???

It's amusing to say this, but I am reminded of KCET that I took in 2000. That year too, we saw many 'toppers' never losing their position even when the wrong answer keys were withdrawn and correctly re-published.

The root of the evil lies in the students who are readily forking out lakhs to get their hands on answer keys. It's a shame on the schools that made such monsters who don't mind spending their parents' money to get a coveted PG seat.

If you personally know someone who has done this I challenge you to turn them in. Better still turn in the person who took the money. You owe it to this country.

Blackouts: An experience in Time dilation.

Everything went black at 6:30 p.m. yesterday evening.

The Sun was still hanging on to the last few clouds. The unexpected blackout found us scurrying around for the candle and the kerosene lamp. The lamp had existed since the time my grandfather was still earning; and my father a student. It had seen a half dozen students thrash out their exam woes and come out in superb colours. So we had decided not to replace it with the new fangled 'Backup flash lamps'. That would completely beat the purpose of a blackout.


Ajji settled down comfortably on the floor mat with a bucket full of avarekaaLu pods to peel. This let her sit down for while, keep herself occupied, chat, and in the meanwhile get some useful work done. My aunt realised that her favourite Kannada soap had started, in all the television sets of the world except the dark one that sat in the corner. That explained her fidgeting with the newspaper, pretending to read a full page in few seconds. I was on the bed beside reading a section of my current book Electron: Physics for everyone. At that time, the electrons were deciding whether to team up as super couples and coast along the lattice, or just carry on their usual lone battles with the oscillating bully moleclues blocking their way out to the most attractive terminal.

Ajji brought up her favourite topic. Thatha, her husband. She loved telling stories of how as a revenue inspector, he would ride around on his bicycle from village to village checking out if even the smallest farmer had made sure his patch of green was blooming, and he had paid the government his dues, and if all was well everywhere. She would even recount her son's pranks of filling in water in his father's lunch boxes, and packing them off on a hot summer day. His father's fury that noon was something we still have a good laugh at.

Many stories and smiles later, it was time for dinner. Steaming rice with piping hot saaru never turned anyone away. The kerosene lamp was attracting a new kind of attention. We simply had to capture it for posterity. So came out the camera, and the dozen designer clicks.


The surreal mood suddenly burst like a balloon. Power had been restored. Instinct turned us towards the wall clock. In those adventures, those black and white tales of honour, and moments of pride, we had slowly gained many hours in time.

The time was 8:00 p.m.

I just love seeing this page again and again!!

Personal computers worth more than a lakh are now here!