Life is an illusion

Ha, the title tells you that it will be a comic retake on Jane Austen's classic "Pride and prejudice." That was the impression I got when I started watching the movie  on TV. Who does not like a Victorian lifestyle with a sprinkle of 'undead'? And my impression was strengthened when the narrator said that " the rich sent their children to study in Japan and wise sent them to China." Even in this movie, Mr. Bennet has 5 daughters of marriageable age but no means to marry them off. So his wife is always on the look out of rich 'matches' for her daughters. So far, so good. But where do zombies come into picture. Narrator also says that Zombies or undead are always attacking the humans which makes it necessary for people to be always armed and well trained in sword fighting. Even girls!  Yes, the all five Bennet girls are very good fighters and have swords and knives with them always. Now the story line continues in this manner. The arri

ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಎದ್ದು ರೂಢಿಯಂತೆ ಟೆರೇಸಿಗೆ ಹೋದರೆ ಅತಿ ಸುಂದರ ದ್ರಶ್ಯ ನನಗಾಗಿ ಕಾಯುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಬಣ್ಣ ಬಣ್ಣದ ಹೂವುಗಳು ಚಿತ್ತಾರ ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಮುಗುಳ್ನಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದವು. ತಕ್ಷಣದ ಇನ್ಸ್ಟಿಂಕ್ಟ ಓಡಿ ಹೋಗಿ ಕ್ಯಾಮರಾ - ಕ್ಷಮಿಸಿ  ಮೊಬಾಯ್ಲ ತರೋಣ ಎಂದು. ಇದೂ ಕೂಡ ಒಂದು ರೀತಿಯ ದುರಾಸೆಯೇ!  ಪ್ರಕ್ರತಿಯನ್ನು ಸಹ ಹಿಡಿದಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು ಜಂಭ ತೋರಬೇಕು ಎನ್ನುವದು! ಅಥವಾ ನಮ್ಮ ಸೀಮಿತ ಭಾಷಾ ಚಾತುರ್ಯದ  ಪರಿಣಾಮ. ಇದನ್ನು - ಈ ದೈವೀ ಸ್ರಷ್ಟಿಯ ಕೌತುಕವನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಲಿಮಿಟೆಡ್ ಭಾಷಾ ಜ್ನಾನದಿಂದ ಹಿಡಿಯಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ. ಕನಿಷ್ಟ ಚಿತ್ರದಲ್ಲಾದರೂ ಹಿಡಿಯೋಣ, ಎಂಬ -  ಭ್ರಮೆ. ಆಗಸದ ತಾರೆಗಳು ಕೆಳಗಿಳಿದು ಭುವಿಯ ಅಲಂಕರಿಸಿದಂತಿರುವ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆಯ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ. ನಾನು ಇನ್ನೂ ಚಿಕ್ಕವಳು ಎಂದು ಜಂಭದಿಂದ ಕೆನ್ನೆಯುಬ್ಬಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಕುಳಿತಿರುವ ಗುಲಾಬಿ, ಹೂವ್ಯಾಕೆ ನಾನು ಮೊಗ್ಗನೆ ಪೋಣಿಸಿ ಮಾಲೆ ಹೆಣೆದಿರುವೆ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಿರವ ರತ್ನ ಗೆಂಟಿಗೆ. ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಕೇಳಿದವು ಒಂದೇ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯ  - ಈ ದೈವೀ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ ಸಿಕ್ಕೀತೇ ನಿನ್ನ ಮರುಳು ಮೊಬಾಯ್ಲಲ್ಲಿ ?

ಬುದ್ಧನಾಗಬೇಕು ಅವನು ಕಾಣಲಿಲ್ಲ ಯಾವುದೇ ಕಷ್ಟ ಮುಪ್ಪು ರೋಗ ಸಾವು ಪರರ ನೋವನು ನೋಡಿ ಬುದ್ಧನಾದ ಅವನದೇ ಸಂಕಟವಾದರೆ? ಬುದ್ಧನಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದನೇ? ಕ್ರುದ್ಧನಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದನೇ? ಬುದ್ಧನಾಗಬೇಕು ಅಳುವು ವಿರೂಪ ಕುರೂಪ ನಿರಂತರ ಅಳುವು ಕಿತ್ತುಕೊಳ್ಳುವದು ನಮ್ಮ ತನವ ಮನವ ಒಳ್ಳೆತನವ ಆದರೂ ಬುದ್ಧನಾಗಬೇಕು ನೋವಿಲ್ಲದ ನಲಿವಿಲ್ಲದ ಚಿಂತೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ ಅನಂತ ಆಕಾಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಲೀನವಾಗಬೇಕು ಬುದ್ಧನಾಗಬೇಕು ಹೇಗೆ? ಹೇಳಿಕೊಡಿ ಒಂದಿಷ್ಟು

All my life I have been thinking "what will she think", "what will he think", "what will they think" etc.. Yes, that is called worrying about other's reactions. And it has not served me well. Though I have been thinking so much, I rarely understood what I am thinking. But my mother used to say   ನಿನ್ನ ನೀ ಅರಿಯದಿರೆ ನಿನಗೆ ನೀನೇ ಅರಿ Ha, you know something friends, my ubuntu language switch works much better than the kannada transliteration tool provided by blogger. OK, what the above Kannada saying means is "if you don't understand yourself, you are your own enemy (ari)." Yes, I have been doing this all my life - being my own enemy. Not standing up for myself, not taking responsibilities of my deeds and misdeeds and so on. So I have decided to understand - especially when I am upset, I am boiling, my head is exploding, to analyze myself. What am I thinking and why? Why does that make me so angry or worried? Lekhana Keyboard Fo

I am an insomniac. Have been for quite some years. What I have observed lately is listening to some audio lets me fall asleep. Doesn’t matter what that audio is. It can be some spiritual audio or technical or even Ted talk. The question arises- what is the reason behind this phenomenon? We all have so many problems- unsolvable, unfathomable and some times completely non-existant. We think and worry and dissect and imagine so many scenarios endlessly.  These demons attack us so much that it is unbearable. What an audio does is it tells us that there is a world outside of ourselves too. And our minds calms down and invites sleep. Many of these self help books and articles keep telling us that we have to reserve some “me” time. Let me tell you something else - we need the opposite. We need to reserve only an hour a day as me time and the rest as “anything but me time”. Do you agree?

I have published my third Kannada keyboard for Android phones - which is called Lekhana keyboard. This keyboard has some wonderful features like ease of use, ability to switch between keyboards in single click and transliteration. Transliteration is the process where you type using English normal qwerty keyboard and the letters are converted to Kannada. So the idea is, the keyboard is convenient for people who prefer English keyboards for Kannada and also for people who prefer to use Kannada letters to type. Another feature which is not found in many other keyboard apps is ease of writing ballis like ಕ ಕಾ ಕಿ etc. You just type ಕ and the entire balli appears in a window. You have to select the required letter. No need of searching throughout multiple screens. Ottakshara typing is also easy. In qwerty keyboard to type ottakshara, you just type first letter followed by second letter. To type  ಕ್ಷ  - you have to type k followed by sha. To type ತ್ರ --you type t followed by r.