Life is an illusion

In English - Perhaps I am ridiculous I am unable to make my android app size zero. No matter how much I try. I blame gradle and my limited knowledge. So I tinker a little bit and then happily move on to other things. Like Ozark in Netflix - that is yet another sad crime story. So I watch these kids - Ruth, Jonah and I wonder. This is not the age for them to be in world of narcotics and money laundering. They must be hating their parents, going and not going to school and trying to rebel. Secretly wishing to be rescued by their parents.  Then when I feel upset that I am wasting my "precious" time on these frivolous TV series, I go to "brainy" apps. That is how  I restarted my duolingo Latin lessons. And Latin lessons are different - they have a section called 'gods'. With funny sentences like 'Fortasse dei non sunt sapientes' which translates to 'Perhaps the Gods are not wise?'. So I put this sentence as my about section of whatsapp with the t

 I realized yet another thing today. As we age, our resilience reduces. Mine has. And my morning prayer is I can't take any hate today.  But funnily enough, after finishing yet another Netflix show, I go back to twitter - hatewitter - to make myself fall asleep.  And I pray that let there be yet another outage of whatsapp, twitter and facebook which must last at least for a week.  At the end of it, people may find their smile returning to their faces and world will have lesser violence, physical and verbal. Do you agree?

 I walk there every day and I observe the road being muddied - dust mixed with water making a wet red muddy surface. Though not a big hurdle, it is not a very pleasant experience to walk there.  So I wondered how does the road get wet here every morning without any rain. Today I saw the revelation - a lady standing in front of her house was spraying water onto the road. Aha, I can relate to her. Having your home next to a main road is like standing in a shower of dust. The omnipresent dust never ends - it is on your furniture, on your doors and windows, on your curtains. You clean it every day and it comes back immediately. So she is trying to reduce this dust pollution by spraying water to the road - the culprit.  How I wish I could so easily see others' viewpoints for everyone of my problems. Yes, the dust. I see a small temple on my walks. Shutter happy me, why don't I click it already? Because this temple is coated with a layer of dust. So are all the buildings, trees, plan

 Yosokawa is the Japanese industrialist in the book "Bel canto". The name reminded me the name - kavva in our dialect.  Our havyaka dialect is a kannada dialect used by us havyaka people in coastal karnataka districts.  Let me see how we call our family members - appayya - is appa - father. Aayi is mother. I think this word is  of Maharashtra origin. Older name for mother was abbe. Then sister - elder one is akkayya. And elder brother is annayya.  These will often have adjectives - shannannayya is younger (shanna -sanna -small) elder brother, doddannayya is bigger elder brother. Thamma or tamma is younger brother. But normally girl child is called koosu and male child is called maani. These names will stick even after they become adults and sound funny. Koosatte, manibhava etc.  Mava, atte, chikkayya, chikki, doddappa are all similar to kannada words. But doddamma - your mother's elder sister or your uncle's wife is called doddaayi - dodda ayi. And aunt - your father&

I am talking about the book “bel canto” here by Ann Patchett. The story starts with a birthday party in honour of Japanese businessman thrown in a South American city. The party is attended by all rich and famous people and many foreign dignitaries. And there is an opera by a famous singer Roxanne Cass. Who is the only reason, Hosakawa has agreed to attend this party and has no intention of investing in this country. There is also Vice President present, a small man both in appearance and stature. The actual president cancelled at the last moment as he didn’t want to miss his favourite tv show. Roxanne is singing beautifully. Then all went dark. All the lights are off, and surprisingly even the candles on the tables are not glowing. Grabbing this opportunity, the accompanist kissed Roxanne. After a minute or two, lights come back. But people realise that they are being surrounded by terrorists. Who are literally dirty, are wearing torn shoes and are of age from 14 to 20. They don’t loo

 Which means “God out of a machine”. This was some kind of plot used in early Greek and Roman plays.  I heard this phrase in Murukamis book. There is never ending pandemic all over the world. But countries are busy with their usual infightings and very dangerous power plays. The situation is worsening each day for common man. But he is instead actively participating in systematic ruination of his life. The planet is heating up, polar ice is melting, coastal towns are on the verge of inundation. There seems to be no respite in sight for our earth and our earthlings. But suddenly God appears out of nowhere. Spreads his kind rays everywhere. COVID virus disappears. Rulers of countries are metamorphed into kind, caring, visionary leaders, who care for their people and their planet. This is dues ex machina - a Latin phrase which translates to God out of machine. So, in early Greek and Latin plays, most often in plays of Euripides, seemingly unsolvable situation is resolved by God appearing

 I must have realized that staying in this cozy (read tiny) apartment and staying inside always, will have consequences. Other than not catching corona. (But I did catch it though). Now, the moment I step out of the house, my knees start complaining, then shouting and then screaming. They don’t like walking either. But why am I glorifying this natural, age related, inactivity related arthritis? Because, normally I do not have knee pain and I do walk at least 1000 steps. Walking round and round inside the 'cozy' house, like a toddler.  What I have is ankle pain, not knee pain. Then knee pain which appears when I go outside, must have some thing to do with at least hundred steps each shop has in our dear Bangalore a. But again, can you really  blame the shopkeepers for having these hundreds of steps? They do not want to get flooded each time it rains, knowing our dear Bangalore.  (Of course I am exaggerating, I don't think these areas will be water logged in rainy season unl

Yesterday, I was tired - my brain was tired. So I tried the usual thing I do to divert and relax my brain - the scrabble app, the wordle unlimited. Nope, they weren't working. Then I went to twitter. And I could engage myself. Because social media like twitter, facebook are easy. Unless you are social media expert hired by a company for their product advertisement.  You don't need any brain. You just need your eyes. You just keep scrolling, and clicking heart button or emojis if they are allowed. You keep scrolling, keep scrolling - sky is the limit. And adding your bit of venom to this already fractured society. Social media have realized that hate is what makes posts engaging rather than love. And they want more and more interactions, so they propagate such divisive posts instead of removing them.  And at this rate, the day is not far away when all of us have to walk on the streets with talwar or gun or some weapon of our choice. Because we are  made to feel angry at so many

 I had read an earlier book by the Japanese write Haruki Murukami "Kafka on the shore". Its magic realism was too much for me. Fish raining from the sky? What am I? 3 year old?  I am not a fan of fantasy literature. Harry Potter being only exception. So I was slightly skeptical about reading this book Norwegian wood by the author . But thankfully so far fish are not raining and no "magical" event has happened.  It's the story of man remembering Naoko  - his friend and his college days. OK, this concept is familiar and we do understand this. That is why we accept it. Watanabe and Naoko are both grieving the death of their childhood friend Kizuki. Naoko was kizuki’s girlfriend. Both are finding it really hard. They both leave behind their home town and go to Tokyo for college. Where they meet regularly and walk. Aimlessly. They do talk a lot, Naoko talks a lot. But they avoid all mentions of Kizuki. Then on her 20th birthday, Watanabe goes to her apartment with ca

Delhi chief minister might be good after all. Because he did get elected second time with a thumping majority.  But the only sad thing is he tries to compete with the other party in appeasing the majority. Which does not help at all, because its supporters ridicule him always, like they ridicule any outsider. But here some one else is trying to copy his odd and even rule. The Bangalore sun. On odd days he just snoozes his alarm and goes back to sleep. Let the fog play havoc and make the sky look very gloomy, and us -the mortals gloomier. He isn't concerned. On even days he is up early, chirpy and spreading orange light on tall apartments and tiny houses without any discrimination.  4th Feb Today is an even day. But early at 9 am, the sun is glaring through the gaps of the curtain. No pleasant breezes like yesterday which was odd day.  23rd Feb Now it feels as if we have passed winter. Mornings are OK but noons and evenings are quite hot. Hey Bhagawan, May be kya hoga?

 The sculpture is that of a ghost. But the question is when and how do  the ghosts  model for the artist? :) Well these sculptures are found in Vezio Castle in Italy. One website says You hear that the view of Lake Como from Castello di Vezio above Varenna (Italy) is amazing but when you get there, you wonder ‘what’s with all these ghostly figures?’. It isn’t hard to find out HOW they got there, but it’s harder to determine WHY! HOW?  The ghosts are made with a help of tourists who offer to be put in position and then covered with gauze and plaster for about an hour until the it is dry. The sculptures then remain in the castle grounds until the snow comes and destroys them.  WHY? The information I found online was somewhat confusing but one website cites a legend that the construction of the castle in early medieval times is linked to a will of the Lombard queen Teodolinda who spent the last years of her life in this area. it is said that her heart and soul are within the

 I understand that these are writers who may not have been born exactly a  with silver spoon, but had quite a comfortable life. So they spent their time bar hopping, chasing skirts, fishing trips and lamenting secretly about their current female interest.  ( Now I can understand the contempt less fortunate ones feel about richer people. ) I wouldn't have dared to write these lines about none other than the great Hemingway if I had not watched some youtube video about him being misogynist, racist, arrogant macho man. Well, in those days, these adjectives were not in use. So may be every white man was like that. And I certainly didn't google for the author's bad qualities. In fact I wanted to see the beautiful Spain and its beautiful river Irati in action. Which Hemingway describes so much in the book "The sun also rises".  But you know that, internet always provides you with answers you were never looking for. So the sun rises, the moon sets. But shouldn't the