Life is an illusion

The tragedy of modern day when many of us have no worries of roti-kapada ya makaan is that we don't have role models. We don't have a father figure or a mother figure we can aspire to. Every one seems to have feet of clay.  Take the example of Elon Musk. Before twitter, I read some where that he is this crazy genius, who is inventing one revolutionary technology after another - space travel, electric cars come to mind. Now he has taken over Twitter and facing hate and ridicule every single day.  That could be one of the reasons I am still continuing listening to Experiments with Truth by Gandhiji. He is some one our generation can look up to and idolize.  The Hindi as well as English translation (by Mahadev Desai) are written so well. And the story never appears self-righteous nor dogmatic. The words so sound so honest.  It is down to earth story of a down to earth man who shook the entire nation and the world. And it is the story of a man who is revered and respected all over

ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲೂ ಹಬ್ಬ ಭರ್ಜರಿ ಮಾರಾಟ - ಸೀರೆ ಯಿಂದ ಚಡ್ಡಿಯ ತನಕ ಗೊಂಬೆಯಿಂದ ಗಾಡಿಯ ತನಕ ೫೦-೬೦-೭೦ ಪ್ರತಿಶತ ಕಡಿತ   ನಾನು ಅಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಕಿದೆ ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಕಿದೆ ಚೂರು ಖುಷಿ, ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ನೆಮ್ಮದಿ, ಇಷ್ಟೇ ಇಷ್ಟು ಸಮಾಧಾನ ಸಿಗಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎಲ್ಲೂ ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ -ಸ್ಟಾಕ್ ಇಲ್ಲ  ಯಾವಾಗ ಬರುವದೋ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ  

 I had read already 3 books of the author Ann Patchett. So I decided let me read this 4th book by her.  Though I sat and completed the book - it did not reach the standards of her other books. The narration is excellent, but the story line is somewhat not as good as her other books.  The magician's assistant is a 50 year old Sabine whose husband, her long term associate and her only true love has died. And she is deep depression and spends her days just lying down. Until she receives an unexpected guest - her lawyer - who reveals a strange secret.  That her husband Parsifal has his family back in Nebraska - a mother and two sisters. And he has left behind some money for them. And also his real name was Guy Fetters.  Sabine is shocked beyond words - he had always told her that his family - father, mother and a sister all had died in an accident. And he would just not talk anything when ever she broached the subject of his parents. Why did he lie to her?  Sabine's parents suggest

 By the time I set the font, its size and also search back the site which has the book I was reading online, I remembered something in the kitchen and ran there.  See, the problem with free sites like readanybook, is they don't bother about prettiness of the site much. So it is slightly irritating to read your favorite book.  Yes, I selected comic sans. I am a boomer.  But this was just an unrelated rambling.  I have yet another enlightenment about democracy. The industrialists pay uncountable millions and buy the politicians. These politicians come to power and pay some millions to TV channels and buy them. And the TV channels do not pay a single penny (or paisa) and buy all of us - the gullible citizens. (Great is the power of jingoism and 'faith') So who is the ruler here ? The industrialists? Money? Our blind faith? Can I call this form of governance   buyocracy?

We are all angry about illegal immigrants - Rohingyas, Bangla-deshis. And in the case of America, everyone else. But do we really know their story? Do we bother to know those? Why would we? We see them as terrorists who have come to destroy our country.  Dunki - a Hindi film is about such immigrants - not from Bangladesh, but from India - from Punjab. Mannu and her friends want to go to London - to earn in 'Pounds' so that they can help to alleviate poverty of their parents. Their dream has its seed from people in their town who have 'havai jahaj' on their terraces. Those parents whose children have gone to UK, put up a plane on top of their terraces. And they proudly tell the success stories of their kids.  And these successful kids, come home occasionally and take away the pretty girls, breaking the hearts of local young men. So these trio want to go to UK. And they come across a kusti coach - Hardy -Hardayal Singh.  Hardy - SRK was one of the reasons I wanted to watc

When a person fears something, he becomes deluded, and is unable to think clearly. Makes mistakes often and as a result, faces further difficulties. So what does one fear? As we progress in our age, and become wise old men/women, there aren't many things we need to fear.  We don't fear the loss of our beauty, as it is a long gone. We don't fear the loss of our youth, again same argument.  We only have to fear jaraa mratyu - old age and death. And of course vyadhi - disease.  But me, I don't fear vyadhi much, because by God's grace, I am reasonably healthy. Except for occasional digestive disorders. And my laptop and phone are filled with remedies for bloating, acidity etc.  I think I fear uncertainty. For example take today - I had sudden stomach cramp. Now I started my endless cycle of thought-process. What might have caused it - did I have slight burning in my tongue as well? Do I have food poisoning? How and why?  Unfortunately these questions are not easy to ans

 I was happily writing ashtavakragita translation. Then I went back and saw that my viveka chudamani translation was incomplete and in a bad shape. So started fixing it - most of the work I do is to change colors and fonts and add some links. And reading and confirming that I understand the words and they are typo free.  Then some how I started reading about Sankhya philosophy. It appeared simpler and more non-abstract than advaita philosophy of Shankara.  So I discontinued Chudamani too. And have been currently watching youtube shorts and cursing the day I was born . And when I don't feel great due to any reason, I start to wonder - should I start my reciting again. Like all semi-believers, I try this clutch when I don't understand what to do.  It is funny to be thinking about repeating some prayers verses in an unknown language while trying to understand Sankhya. Because though Sankhya is an astika(accepts the authority of Vedas) philosophy, it does not say there is a God. 

For all the 'leader' of the world title we have obtained recently and all the 5-10-20 trillion economy we will soon be having, we may not after all be a very great nation. See, in all these 76 years, we have never had any coups either by the military or citizens. Unlike all our neighbors. We have never had any capitol hill kind of riot - where people collected all their danda- machchu and other handy weapons and seized our parliament.  Strangely enough, there were no coups, even  in previous regimes of last 70 years, when not very brave, not very patriotic, not very great politicians were feigning to rule our country. Some thing might be right( or wrong?)  either with our politicians or with our people to have had a successful democracy for 3/4th of century. Touch wood.

ನಿನ್ನೆ ಒಂದು ಯೂಟ್ಯೂಬ್ ವಿಡಿಯೋ ನೋಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೆ. ಅದರ ಕಂಟೆಂಟ್ ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟರ್ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಒಂದು ವಿವಾದಾತ್ಮಕ ರಾಜ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅವನು ಹೋಗಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಜನರ ಜೊತೆ ಸಂವಾದ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದ. ಒಬ್ಬ ಹೇಳಿದ - ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಸುಟ್ಟು ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ - ಯಾಕೆ? ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇವಲ ದಿನದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಗಂಟೆ ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ - ಆ ಸಮಯದಲ್ಲೇ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಜನ ಅವರ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾಡಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಓವರ್ ಲೋಡಾಗಿ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಸುಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಅವರು ಕಂಪ್ಲೇಟ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಮಾಡಿ ಸೋತು ತಮ್ಮ ದುಡ್ಡಲ್ಲೇ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ರಿಪೇರಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಹೇಳಿದ - ಅವರ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗೆ ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇ ೨೦೧೬ರಲ್ಲಿ. ನಾನು ತೆರೆದ ಬಾಯಿ ಮುಚ್ಚಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಮ್ಮ ಊರೂ ಕುಗ್ರಾಮವೇ - ಆದರೆ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ್ದು - ನನಗೆ ನೆನಪಿದೆ - ನಮ್ಮ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಕರೆಂಟ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ದು  ಸುಮಾರರು ೧೯೭೫-೭೬ರಲ್ಲಿ. ಇವತ್ತಿಗೆ ಸುಮಾರು ಐವತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ. ಅವರು ಪಾಪ ನಗುತ್ತ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾರೆ - ನಾವು ಇನ್ನೂ ೧೯ನೇ ಶತಮಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದೀವಿ. ಅದಾಯಿತು ಬಿಡಿ - ಜನ ಅದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಗೋಳು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವದು ನೌಕರಿಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ತರಹದ ಸರಕಾರೀ ಅಥವಾ ಖಾಸಗಿ ನೌಕರಿಗಳಿಲ್ಲ. ಓದಿರುವ ಯುವಕ-ಯುವತಿಯರು ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಖಾಲಿ ಕುಳಿತಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಪಿ. ಎಚ್. ಡಿ. ಮಾಡಿದವರು ಸಹ ಕೆಲಸವಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ

 ಹೆದರಬೇಡಿ. ನಾನು ಓಪನ್ ಆಗಿ ನನ್ನ ದೋಷಗಳನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ತಾ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಶಬ್ದಶಃ ನುಡಿಯ ಅರ್ಥ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ನೀವು ಭಾರತೀಯ ಮಹಿಳೆಯಾದರೆ ಒಮ್ಮೆಯಲ್ಲ ಒಮ್ಮೆ ನಾನು ಈಗ ಹೇಳುವ ಸಂಕಷ್ಟವನ್ನು ಅನುಭವಿಸಿದ್ದೀರಾ. ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಎದ್ದು ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಹಾಲು ಹೆಪ್ಪಾಗೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ದಿನದಂತೆ ಹಾಲಿಗೆ ಹುಳಿ ಹಿಂಡಿ - ಅಂದರೆ ಹೆಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿ ನಿರಾಳವಾಗಿ ಮಲಗಿದ್ದಿರಿ. ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಈ ಭಾನಗಡೆ. ಈಗೇನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಪ್ಪಾ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ - ಚೂರೇ ಚೂರು ಬಿಸಿ ಮಾಡಿದರೇ ಹಾಲು ಒಡೆಯಬಹುದು. ಬಿಸಿ ನೀರಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಇಟ್ಟರೆ ಹೆಪ್ಪಾಗದೇ ಉಳಿಯಬಹುದು. ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಪ್ಪ. ಒಂದು/ಅರ್ಧ ಲೀಟರ್ ಹಾಲು ಹಾಳು ಮಾಡಿದ ಪಶ್ಚಾತ್ತಾಪ ಒಂದು ಕಡೆ, ಇನ್ನು ದಿನವಿಡಿ ಬೇಕಾಗುವ ಮೊಸರಿಗೆ ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಸಂದಿಗ್ಧ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಕಡೆ.  ಅಮ್ಮ ಹೇಳದರು - ರಾತ್ರಿ ಹೆಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿದ ಮೇಲೆ, ಆ ಪಾತ್ರೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಮುಚ್ಚಿಡು. ಅದನ್ನು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸಿದೆ. ನನ್ನದೇ ಅವಿಷ್ಕಾರವಾದ - ಹೆಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿದ ಹಾಲಿನ ಬೋಗುಣಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಭಾರ ಹೇರಿ ನೋಡಿದೆ. ಕುಕರ್ ಒಳಗಡೆ ಹಾಲಿನ ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಇಟ್ಟು ನೋಡಿದೆ.  ಉಹುಂ, ಏನು ಮಾಡಿದರೂ ಹಾಲು ಮೊಸರಾಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೈ ಚೆಲ್ಲಿ ಛಳಿಗಾಲವಿಡೀ ನಂದಿನಿ ಮೊಸರು ಅಂಗಡಿಯಿಂದ ತಂದು ಬಿಟ್ಟೆ. ನಂದಿನಿ ಮೊಸರು ದಪ್ಪಗೇನೋ ಇತ್ತು, ಆದರೆ ಏನೇನು ಹಾಕುತ್ತಾರೋ ದೇವರಿಗೇ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಈ ವರ್ಷ ಒಂದು ಐಡಿಯಾ ಹೊಳೆಯಿತು. ಅಡಿಗೆ ಮನೆ ಮೂಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗುಮ್ಮಣ್ಣನಂತೆ ಕುಳಿತು

We have all heard the classification of religions as monotheistic and polytheistic (and atheistic if you want). But what is henotheism? Max Muller - British orientalist  coined this term to describe Indian religions - particularly Hindu religion. Henotheism is the worship a single God while not denying the existence of other Gods.  He noticed that the scriptures in our religion mention various deities as if they were one ultimate God/Goddess.  The origin is hen (one in Greek ) + theism (theos in Greek = God).  A related word is kathenotheism is the worship of one God at a time. Which we can relate to - Ganesha when starting any task, Shani on saturday, Goddess on Friday and Tuesday etc.  The abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) are all monothiestic. They believe that there is only God and often ridicule other religions for multitude of their Gods.  But again we Hindus always know that the God is one and we just call him by different names and give him different attrib

 What is a slur nowadays in India? One of them is left liberal. Where as right wing is a title of honor almost. So what are these words and what are the origins of these political terms?  A leftist ideology is liberal, rooting for change, for equality and modernism. It advocates the rights of poor people. Right wing ideology gives importance to order, it is conservative and it is on the side of rulers and rich people.  According to wikipedia which is modern day bible -  Generally, the left wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as freedom , equality, fraternity, rights, progress , reform and internationalism" while the right wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as authority , hierarchy, order, duty , tradition, reaction and nationalism". And these words have their origin in French revolution. Soon after french revolution, in the french assembly, people who were loyal to the church and the king sat to the right of the president and suppo

 I re-watched House of Cards series in Netflix. Is it scary, very much so. But not in a sci-fi or ghost-zombie type of scary? It is real world scary. Looking at the dealings the politicians make, which we will never be aware of, I will re-iterate my previous quote - "आसन्द निमित्तं बहुकृत वेषम्". Asanda in sanskrit means chair - kursi - the throne if you may.  I wonder when ever our politicians take oath on the Holy Gita or other holy scriptures - will be they be imagining this book "the house of cards"? Will the new interns into political parties be taught this book/videos one lesson at a time? In times of crisis, will the 'leaders' lock themselves in their chambers and look into this book for guidance? For those of you who are living under rocks - 'House of cards' is a TV series about a very ambitious couple Frank Underwood and Claire Underwood and all their 'struggles' to become president and then to retain that power.  The struggle involv

 There are too many elections all across the world, that took place this year. And most have the same result - throw out the current government and bring in a new one. It does not matter if it is right wing, left wing, pro-rich, pro-poor. Just kick out the old government.  So people all over, are frustrated with inflation, unemployment, poor infrastructure and lack of accountability of their governments. And they hope (a faint hope)  that the other party they are voting to power may some how be a better one. Even a tiny bit better.  So the winner is not left or right, but anti-incumbency. Then what did happen in our good old country? Why didn't we kick out the incumbent government? But the numbers tell us that people were not happy with incumbent government.  Is this change, the change people want and change people brought in is any good for the society? It is a little bit good - because the governments, and the politicians will have to be more careful. They must have realized that

Some times we write on topics which we need to know, realize and practice. So here it is - yoga poses for various age related ailments.  Currently I am using an app called " Yoga " (concise name, no frills). It has a lot of guided sessions in free version too. Like yoga for back pain, for digestion, for anxiety etc.  I think I have been benefited by that app.  (Well, when you eat, drink and sleep with the app, the least we can do is use the app for some long term benefit.) But when suddenly, you realize you need to know which  poses should be practiced for a particular problem,  or you want to tell your friends and family about the yoga poses which are helping you a simple diagram - either line or normal, will help a lot. Provided you have some idea about these poses already.  And here are the pose-sets for digestion.  Now suppose you suffer from bloating - that feeling when your stomach has swelled with gas and you have lot of uncomfort. Here are the poses for bloating. An

 I have been trying to translate Ashtavakrageeta to Kannada. Is it the effort of my subconscious mind to make me a little bit stoic? Or is it my silly mind just doing the things because it can.      By the way, any one can now. Without much effort. Because apparently google translate can translate from Sanskrit to any language. But at times, I think the words and phrases are repeated so often in this book. For example something like - "you see yourself in all beings. And see all beings in you".(सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि ).  How many times has it appeared in the book? Ya, ya, repetition makes the concept sink into my thick brain, agreed. But ye to kuch jyada hi ho gaya. And then there is verse which says - "Know that passion and hatred are the nature of the mind. And the mind is not yours"(रागद्वेषौ मनोधर्मौ न मनस्ते कदाचन ). Alright, if the mind is not mine, then whose is it? And why do I feel the feelings of "not my" mind so strongly?  Or is

An old post from an old blog.  It was late in the evening. I was walking on the street to purchase curds. Suddenly it started raining - pouring heavily. I ran and ran with all my might to the near by temple. See! This is dramatization. It was evening but did I say it was dark? Nor was it lonely. It was a busy street.  Nor did I run a kilometer. Temple was just across the street. Then why did I run ? It was raining, right. I did not want to get drenched completely.  Why temple? Why not? Though I have not made up my mind whether to be an atheist or a budhdhist or a plain half-believing  hindu, waiting for the rain to subside in a temple is better than waiting outside a grocery shop for the crab  I am (Less people in the temple you see. If you do not include the multitude of Gods!) I made one circumambulation  of God (pradakshina) or rather Gods. There are 3 of them (I am not a believer of holy-trinity. In that temple, there were three gods). I did one big bowing as well. See Ramdev says

Now Satyavati is married to Shantanu and is living happily ever after. But what happens to her children. She has two children called Chitrangada and Vichitraveerya. The elder son Chitrangada is coronated as the king while Shantanu goes to the forest for his last days. Chitrangada - her elder son. has to fight a war with Gandharva’s - people from Gandhara. And is sadly killed in the war. So the throne comes to her younger son Vichitraveerya. And he, with the guidance of Bheeshma is ruling the country from Hastinapur.   Now the king of Kashi had three daughters of marriageable age. What was the marriageable age in those days - thousands of years ago? Who knows? May be as soon as they hit puberty. Anyway, the king arranged a swayamvar for his daughters.  Swayamvar is a  gathering of suitors - all kings and princes. The suitors will stand in a line and declare their qualifications. And the bride will chose the groom and garland him. This  was called swayamvar - swayam - self, vara - to wed

Ha, isn't it ludicrous? Me writing about kitchen tip is as appropriate as a politician writing about honesty and hard work. Kitchen Tip : If you have a lot of oil left out after frying, store it in a pet bottle and use it for lighting diyas for God. Backstory:    In the initial days of my friendship with net - was it 2000's?, I used to search for kitchen tips and save them in a file ! Imagine that! No, even then I wasn't a kitchen  person. Lack of awareness. I did not know back then, that there are million better ways, to kill time on   use  internet.      The second part of the title, is because mom (may be even my spouse) would be outraged if she reads this tip. Is it not sacrilageous to use used oil for God? Won't he(God),  be unhappy with her daughter and what if something bad happens to her?       But my opinion is, no he will not be outraged. First of all, he won't be bothered. In fact, he will be glad that, at least I did (finally) light some diyas fo

Why is he so helpless? Let me make myself very clear here. I am not talking about any ministers, or governments or even citizens. I am not at all talking about any mortals on this earth. Instead I am talking about mightier than all, the almighty God. We have been told that, he is supposed to help the good and punish the bad. (परित्राणाय साधूनां, ...) But if you look at newspapers everyday, you can very well see,who is being paritranified - saved and who is being vinashified - destroyed. Why, why, why is HE letting all this happen? Now let us look into little bit of physics.  Laws of physics says that matter can not be created , nor it can be destroyed. But the same physics laws state that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa.    Initially there was nothing.- Shunya.  No matter, no earth, no sun, no moon, no nothing. Then HE created it all. How? By conversion!!! He converted his energy to create mass.  And lord, that does need a lot of energy. 

Frank and Cee are just two scared children. Running away from home and then coming back, never really finding where their home is.  First they run from Texas leaving behind their field, their crop and their horse Sarah. In fact at that time, Cee was still in her mother’s womb. They escape from Texas, from what kinds of atrocities, we don’t know. They arrive at Lotus, Georgia with the hope that their grandpa Salem Money will give them shelter.  He did give shelter - but barely that. His new wife Lenore, did not like the arrival of this large family in their house barely large enough for 3 people. And she expressed it often. Salem did not dare to criticise his wife, as she is the one who held the purse string. As Franks’ parents were   out of the house working, the children were the ones facing the brunt of Lenore’s anger and frustration. Frank and Cee never really complained to Ma and Pa about the mistreatment at the hands of their step grandmother. But even if they had done so, their p

  Devavrata So it all started with goddess Ganga marrying the mortal Shantanu. With a condition that he should not question her - no matter what her action is. And that results in 7 children of the Kuru king being thrown into the river Ganges. When she tried to carry the eighth son too, king stopped her and questioned her. And the end result is she deserted him, but didn’t drown the eighth child - our protagonist Devavrata.  Ganga nurtured this boy in heaven and when he is eighteen brought him back to the king. And everything was hunky dory for a while. Until a day, the king ventured to the river again.  He is attracted by a heavenly fragrance and went in search of its origin. Of course it is a young lady, this time not a goddess, but a young girl. King is enamoured by her beauty and wants to marry her. He approaches her father and asks her hand in marriage.  Funnily the fisherman was not so subservient. He asked whether the king will promise that his daughter will be a rajmata. Will h

 Continuing my efforts with "maha" bharatha, I tried reading the story of Shantanu. Shantanu was the king of Hastinapur and was the son of Prateepa. He spent most of his time hunting. May be because, his time was peaceful and his army was strong and people were happy.  One day in one of his hunting expedition, he saw a beautiful maiden - as beautiful as an apsara.  He fell in love with her and begged her to marry him. The lady in question turned out to be Ganga from heavens, daughter of Jahnu.  It is a funny story that this Ganga had previously begged Shantanu's father Prateepa to marry her. She straight away sat on his right thigh. He being a gentleman told her that he does not entertain other women. And also she sitting on his right thigh, can be his daughter or daughter in law, not his wife. Rejected Ganga went back to heavens after promising him that she will marry his son. So coming back to Shantanu, he asked the pretty lady to marry him. She obliged but with a pre-c

 I read a few things in the last few days. a. He surrounded himself by "yes men" and they were not giving him good advice. Did you think that I am talking about politics, you are 100% wrong. I am not talking about any political leader. Not this time. But about a Kannada actor named Darshan who is currently facing murder charges.  b. BBMP - bangalore city corporation body has invited individuals and institutions to adopt parks and squares. They can develop and maintain these. What will they get in return? A beautiful city which was once called garden city. But that news got me thinking. (Thinking is the only thing I do almost 20 hours a day). What if the welfare schemes like free ration/subsidized ration, free bus fares for women etc. are also outsourced to willing institutions? Let us say a company like Google can easily provide ration to poor of Bangalore without any burden. In return, the local body can provide infrastructures to the city which will help Google and others.

 What should I write? When this mind has become a mess? There is nothing in it except for hundreds of detectives I watch. I thought and decided I will start translating again - this time the one and only epic - Mahabharatha. Good and ambitious decision. But how feasible is this? I started with source - there is no dearth of Mahabharath source. The best according to me is Sanskritdocuments which converts the languages also for us. So I need Vyasa's Sanskrit verses in Kannada language -   change the language in the top widget. Lo, I have it in Kannada. So I copied the first parva - aptly called adiparva (adi - beginning), first chapter. And saved it safely in my editor.  Then came the actual work - translation. I had already decided not to go for word by word translation - what with the obstacles I faced during translation of ashtavakragita etc. So I easily selected an English translation from wisdomlib.org which also has grammar analysis of original words.  Narayanam namaskrutyam na

 I miss this. I miss writing something, anything in my blog.  And translating school lessons, even with tool tip texts is not quenching this need.  Innumerable times I have thought about lines to write - then decided against it. Thinking what am I trying to tell. Which is not said by thousand others in much better, much poetic, much stronger words. But as the song goes "I am not singing for you to listen. Singing is my dharma". So writing is for my own peace of mind.  By the way, I noticed a comment by an unknown person for my previous post asking if I wrote the post myself. My inner voice had some strong words, why does my inner voice gets angered so fast? But then, any comment is good comment, right? So I have question to the world in general - our "nation" in particular. How and why did a party with muscle power, man power, institutional power and "divine" power, lose so many seats?  Ah, by now I am tired of so many people analyzing what went wrong in

 ನಿಮಗೆ ರಾಬಿನ್ ಹುಡ್ ಕಥೆ ಗೊತ್ತೆ? ಅವನು ಶ್ರೀಮಂತರನ್ನು ಲೂಟಿ ಮಾಡಿ ಆ ಹಣವನ್ನು ಬಡವರಿಗೆ ಹಂಚುತ್ತಿದ್ದನಂತೆ. ಈಗಿನ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿರೋಧ ಪಕ್ಷಗಳು ಆರಿಸಿ ಬಂದು ಸರಕಾರ ರಚಿಸಿದರೆ ಅವರು ಈ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನೇ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರಾ? ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಎರಡು ಎಮ್ಮೆ ಇದ್ದಾರೆ ಒಂದನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗಿ 'ಅವರಿಗೆ' ಕೊಡುತ್ತಾರಾ ? ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ಹೆಂಗಸರ ಮಂಗಳಸೂತ್ರವನ್ನೂ ಸಹ ಕಸಿದು 'ಅವರಿಗೆ' ಕೊಡುತ್ತಾರಾ?  ಅವರು ಎಂದರೆ ಗೊತ್ತಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲವಾ - ಅದೇ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶಕ್ಕೆ ಅಕ್ರಮವಾಗಿ ನುಸುಳಿ ಬಂದವರು, ಬಹಳ ಮಕ್ಕಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವವರು. ಇನ್ನೂ ಎಷ್ಟು ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಹೇಳಬೇಕು ನಿಮಗೆ? ಅರವತ್ತಕ್ಕೆ ಅರಳು ಮರುಳು ಎಂದು ಏನೇನೋ ಬರೆಯಬೇಡ ಎಂದಿರಾ? ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದಿತ್ತಲ್ಲ - ಚುನಾವಣೆ ಪ್ರಚಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿಯವರೇ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದು.  ಇದು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಡೇಂಜರ್ ಅನಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ ಅಲ್ವಾ. ಆದರೆ ನಾವು ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಹಿಂದೂ ಧರ್ಮದ ರಕ್ಷಕ ಪಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ ವೋಟ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಗೆಲ್ಲಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ ಬಿಡಿ ಅಂತೀರಾ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಇತಿಹಾಸ ನೋಡೋಣ.  ನೀವು ಅಥವಾ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪತಿ/ಪತ್ನಿ/ ಮಕ್ಕಳು ನೌಕರಿಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದೀರಾ? ಹಾಗಾದರೆ ನೀವು ಆದಾಯ ತೆರಿಗೆಯನ್ನು ಇಷ್ಟು ವರ್ಷ ಕೊಡುತ್ತ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀರಾ. ಆದರೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ಆಳು, ಡ್ರೈವರ್ ಅಥವಾ ಅಡಿಗೆಯವರು ಆದಾಯ ತೆರಿಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರಾ. ಇಲ್ಲ ತಾನೇ. ಹಾಗಂತ ಸರಕಾರ (ನಿಮ್ಮ ತೆರಿಗೆಯಿಂದ ಬಂದ ದುಡ್ಡಿನಿಂದ) ಕಟ್ಟಿದ

 I wanted to add hover text with English meaning for Sanskrit words - as the website greenmsg does. I had done it earlier. But forgot how to. Then google told me after a while - that it is title attribute with span tag - because for each word. Then came the problem of typing the whole Sanskrit text. I do have Hindi keyboard - Devnagari keyboard and almost have mastered it. But of course it will take more time than copy pasting the text.  How do I copy paste the Sanskrit text? Which was taken from a pdf file? Because it uses a font other than unicode , so it not compatible. As per son's advice I tried asking chatGPT - a fancier google. But without ugly and misleading promoted answer. Not yet. It initially told me. It should be in unicode. Some how it sounded like a man. So sure of himself never even thinking that he may be wrong. When I told it, that it is wrong, it suggested, I check the font using online font search tools. These tools - there are plenty. But none of them could tel

 I was listening to a youtube video about the sexual abuse of Prajwal Revanna. And I kept wondering - what happened to our humanity.  No political party is asking why is he not arrested yet. No celebrity leaders asking questions about why was he let to contest the election. His uncle has the audacity of blaming other parties for distributing the CD.  Remember there was a gag order on some 50 plus new media about not publishing this news back in November last year. So BJP, Congress and JDS all must have known about this. And yet no action was taken on him until now.  And latest news is his father got bail on the kidnapping case - in a country where an 80 year old man who never got bail, was rotting in jail for years and died there.   So the mighty can do any kind of heinous crimes in this country. And we dare not ask them questions. I even heard some youtubers questioning the women in the videos - saying they were not protesting. Can't they just see that the videos were taken withou

 How many years does it take to change an entire nation of more than a billion people? Ten years - it appears. We have become completely divided - we are either left or we are right. We are either communal or we are secular. We have empathy or we are just cruel bigots. And we believe everything some one says or we disbelieve everything that same person says.  How did this happen? When there is no credibility left in media, we turn to internet and social media. And this social media like a mother of a spoiled child says "my little baby loves hating left/right/partyA/partyB. Let me give it more and more reason to do so" and continuously feeds us hundreds of information(?) supporting our belief. Per day. So we are happy - see I always doubted them to be bad - I didn't realize the situation is this terrible.  Situation? Or concoction? We received all those stories   facts because the algorithm knows that feeding us these half-truths, outright lies is the only way we keep scro

ನಿಮಗೆ ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿಲ್ಲ ಅಂತಾ ಯಾರ್ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು?  ವಿಕಾಸ ಬೇಕಾದಷ್ಟು ಆಗಿದ್ಯಲ್ಲ.  ದ್ವೇಷ ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಈಗ ಎಪ್ಪತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವಾಗಾದರೂ ಇಷ್ಟು ಓಪನ್ ಆಗಿ ಬೇರೆ ಧರ್ಮ, ಬೇರೆ ಜಾತಿಯವರನ್ನು ವಿನಾ ಕಾರಣ ಬೈದು, ಬೈದು ನಮ್ಮ ತಲೆ ಹಾಳುಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತದ್ದೆವಾ?  ಬೇರೆಯವರನ್ನು - ಬೇರೆ ಜಾತಿ, ಬೇರೆ ಧರ್ಮ, ಬೇರೆ ಭಾಷೆಯವರ ಕಂಡರೆ ಅಸಹನೆಯ ವಿಕಾಸ ಅಂತೂ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಆಗಿದೆ. ಇನ್ನು ಸತ್ಯದ ತಲೆ ಮೇಲೆ ಹೊಡೆದ್ ಹಾಗೆ ಸುಳ್ಳು ಹೇಳೋ ಕಲೆ ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಟಿ.ವಿ. ಚಾನೆಲ್ ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಳಿತ್ಕೊಳ್ಳೋರ್ ನೋಡಿ. ಅವರಿಗಂತೂ ಸತ್ಯ, ಸುಳ್ಳಿನ ಅಂತರಾನೇ ಮರತು ಹೋಗಿದೆ. ಅವರ ಮಾತಿನ ಪರಿಣಾಮ ಏನಾಗಬಹುದು ಅಂತ ತಲೆ ಕೆಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳೋದು ಅಂತೂ ಇಲ್ಲವೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಇನ್ನು ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿನೂ ಸುಧಾರಿಸಿದೆಯಲ್ಲ - ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್ ಬೆಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಕಾಳು, ಕಡಿ, ಹಣ್ಣು, ತರಕಾರಿ ಇವೆಲ್ಲವುಗಳ ಬೆಲೆಯಂತೂ ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿ, ಆಗಿ, ಆಕಾಶನೇ ತಲಪತಾ ಇದೆ. ಇನ್ನೂ ಒಂದು ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿದೆ - ನಮ್ಮ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಜಕಾರಣದ ಹೆಸರಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ ಜಗಳಗಳ ವಿಕಾಸ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಸಬಕಾ ವಿಕಾಸ - ಸಬಕಾ ವಿಕಾಸ!

 I started reading 'Jaya - an illustrated retelling of Mahabharatha' by Devdutt Patnaik. Well, initial few pages, I did feel good. His writing style is engrossing but light hearted too. But may be a little bit flippant.  On the other hand, with such a large epic, a reader needs shorter and faster sub-stories. Otherwise, he/she will have to dedicate their life to reading one book.  So I started reading the book. As is my habit, I shared the pdf source too.  But then I started feeling infuriated, appalled. My God, this is not the story to be revered. By women.  Where have I read yet another 'holy' book with such infuriating, non-divine etc. stories. Ha, it is old testament! That too has too much of violence towards men and women.  Coming back to Mahabharatha - let us consider the story of Madhavi. She is the daughter of Yayati. King Yayati. So you expect this princess to lead a normal peaceful life. But no. The kings always want to display their might and want people to k

 Days are not going good. By now, I should have been nauseated by youtube shorts and Netflix. Because I have been doing only these things from early morning to night. No work for the brain, nor for the body. And both are screaming in pain. I also have been visiting the e-commerce sites for clothes. And that is worse. Who invented stupid sarees and who decided that we need to wear those darned things on family functions. Why can't be I in my t-shirts and pajamas or its Indian version - nighties?  If I become God, I will declare that every man, woman and child will only wear comfortable clothing on all days. Plain shirts which all will be of same color and design. And I will declare that men, women and children should try to look beautiful from the inside - in their heart and minds. Not outside.  And I know that all women will grudgingly agree.  The weather is terrible - it feels like 100 degrees.

 Well, I got interested (addicted) to this new game called Wood Nuts. The name does not justify the addictive nature beauty of the game - where you are supposed to remove nuts from wooden planks to drop all of them to the ground.  No, I am not going to write about that game. What was bothering me was the ads. Every time I lose my lives I have to see the ads - most often ads of Royal match. That advertisement is quite popular. The premise is like this - there is this king who always gets into trouble. You have to rescue him and save him from snakes, fires, floods etc etc. Because when the king is in trouble, your kingdom is in trouble and so is your faith. So save the king. Well, if you keep rescuing the king again and again and again, when is he going to return the favor? Aren't kings supposed to save you instead of you saving them?  Aren't kings supposed to be brave instead of moaning and wailing about how everyone is trying to kill him and shrieking 'Help me'? Strang

Being resident of Bangalore - what other title can I give to my post?  If you are not aware, Bangalore is facing is a major water crisis. And there were no summer rains either. And the mercury is soaring. Competing with the price-rise.  Today there was an advice to the residents in the newspaper -  hydrate, drink tender coconut, butter milk, fruit juices. Etc, etc. And also preferably eat home cooked meal.  I wondered about the last piece of advice. Why can't one hydrate in a restaurant or nearest watering hole ;)? Then I remembered.  Just last week I was traveling from one end of the earth to the other end. Sorry - hyperbole! I was just traveling from west end of Bangalore to east end. But it sure felt like I was traveling across the entire earth.  I took plenty of breaks though. At every #$## traffic signal. Which there were plenty. After awhile I decided - I need an actual break - where I can sit on something other than my scooter. And I need to drink something other than fumes

 I used to listen to ghost stories as a child. (Who didn't? )I remember one such story, where the ghost who is sitting near a wooden stove would extinguish the flame with her bare hands. Aha divine power. Or should we say devvi power.? (devva in Kannada means ghost) I remembered that today when I was holding the tea vessel with my bare hands - and not because of nervous oversight. Induction technology.  I am not really sure how it works - the stove heats the content in the vessel, but not the vessel itself. (which game me super power to hold the vessel with my bare hands).  Small, easy to maintain, super fast. Why don't we use this type of stove more often? May be we believe in the "hard work" principle. Food is not good enough, if you have not done donkey work for an entire day. Is it not what our mothers taught us? Or tried very hard to teach us? But there are other drawbacks too - may be palya - or dry curry may burn easily. And the vessels must have a

 A J Fikry - how do I even pronounce it? fikri? fikai? And what type of a name is it? Currently reading "The storied life of A. J. Fikry". And liking it too. May be it is a cliche of a widower feeling so depressed in life that he wants to destroy his business and himself. And finding a little girl to take care of and thus reigniting the kindle of life. One day Fikry hears some one crying when he comes back from his running. He searches all around and finds a a little child sitting in between racks of books. But who leaves a child in a book store - in this day and age when book stores are as outdated as clocks, calendars and movie theaters. And who leaves the door unlocked in this day and age? So a hapless mother, out of her wits' end sees an unlocked door and leaves her child inside. But the note attached says "I want my daughter to be brought up in a place surrounded by books".  But Fikry - a rational man does what anyone in that situation would do. He takes th

I know this sounds really childish. Or aimless work. But still I do have some quiz questions on triangles and their properties . If you want to go back to childhood or to showoff to someone about your geometry prowess, try this simple quiz.  And my work with Ashtavakragita is progressing. At snail pace. But progressing nonetheless. Having a physical book beside me seems to help and motivate me. But mani mani, right. When all of these works of mine do not give any monetary benefit, am I supposed to be spending money on these projects? I or any one else may never read these books later.  Blogger you must know is not a very helpful platform for any kind of UI improvement. For creating a simple table creation, you will have to resort to HTML. But if you have a Sanskrit shloka in one column and its meaning in the next column, it is easier to read, re-read, re-read and understand a little bit. So I am trying to change all my other Sanskrit shloka posts into table form - one post at a time.

 What is Ahaan - An exclamation you make when you are trying to be polite to a speaker? Ahaan, OK, OK...? No, apparently it is a name. Name of a rich shahzada who is going to inherit a very large business empire.  That's not my only grouse about the HotStar serial "Karmma Calling". Who uses double mm in Karma - this is not an astrology believing Bollywood star's name.  No, my grouse is not about the name of the serial either. It's about ending of the disappointment followed by rage. I was on edge after watching a murder in first episode and watched patiently remaining 6 episodes , just because I wanted to know who murdered the victim. (No spoilers here.) Only to watch the season ending without giving any clue.  Now who was the murderer, what was the motive? So I am left to wait patiently until they broadcast the second season. If there's going to be one.  But the lead actors are not bad to look at and the Karma has acted reasonably well. So has Raveena Tandon

 ಮಹಿಳಾ ಕುಸ್ತಿ ಪಟುಗಳು ಕೂಗಿ ಅತ್ತು ಕರೆದು ಬೊಬ್ಬೆ ಹೊಡೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಲಿ ಬಿಡಿ. ಮಣಿಪುರ ಹೊತ್ತಿ ಉರಿಯಲಿ ಬಿಡಿ. ಹಲ್ಡ್ವಾನಿಗೆ ಸೇನೆ ಕಳಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಬಿಡಿ. ನಮಗೆ ಅದೆಲ್ಲ ಬೇಡ, ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಏನು ನಡೀತಾ ಇದೆ ನೋಡೋಣ.  ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಚುನಾವಣೆ ಮುಗಿದು ಫಲಿತಾಂಶವು ಬಂದಿದೆ. ಪೂರ್ವ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ನವಾಜ್ ಶರೀಫರ ಪಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ ೭೫ ಸೀಟುಗಳು, ಪಿ ಪಿ ಪಿ ಪಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ ೫೪ ಸೀಟುಗಳು ಬಂದರೆ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳು ೧೦೧ ಜನ ಆರಿಸಿ ಬಂದಿದ್ದಾರೆ.  ೧೦೧ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರರು ಹೇಗೆ ಅಂತೀರಾ - ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಪೂರ್ವ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ಇಮ್ರಾನ್ ಖಾನ್  ಕತೆ ಕೇಳಿ. ಇಮ್ರಾನ್ ಖಾನ್ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾರತೀಯರಿಗೆಲ್ಲ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಅವರು ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ಕ್ರಿಕೆಟ್ ಆಟಗಾರ. ೧೯೯೬ರಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನ ತೆಹರಿಕೆ ಇನ್ಸಾಫ್ ಅಂತ ಪಕ್ಷ ಸ್ಥಾಪಿಸಿ, ೨೦೧೮ರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿಯೂ ಆದರು. ಆದರೆ ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದಂತಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಮಿಲಿಟರಿಯ ಬೆಂಬಲ ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡರೆ ಯಾವ ಸರಕಾರಕ್ಕೂ ಉಳಿಗಾಲ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಇಮ್ರಾನ್ ಖಾನ್ ಅವರಿಗೂ ಅದೇ ಆಯಿತು. ಮೊದಲೆಲ್ಲ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದ್ದ ಅವರ ಮಿಲಿಟರಿಯ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಹಳಿಸಿತು. ಪರಿಣಾಮ, ೨೦೨೨ರಲ್ಲಿ ಅವಿಶ್ವಾಸ ಮತ ಮಂಡಿಸಿ ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಇಮ್ರಾನ್ ಖಾನ್ ಸೋತು ಹೋದರು - ಅವರ ಸರಕಾರ ಉರುಳಿತು.  ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ನಿಲ್ಲಲಿಲ್ಲ - ಅವರ ದುರ್ದೆಸೆ. ಭಯೋತ್ಪಾದನೆಯ ಗಂಭೀರ ಆರೋಪ ಹೊರಿಸಿ ಅವರನ್ನು ಬಂಧಿಸಿದರು. ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನಿ ಎಲೆಕ್ಷನ್ ಕಮಿಷನ್ ಅವರ ಪಕ್ಷವನ್ನು ರದ್ದು ಮಾಡಿಬಿಟ್ಟಿತು.

 My introduction to YouTube was some lady from Rajayoga who kept repeating that “tum ek sakshi ho”.  Sakshi - witness, that’s all we are. A mute witness who can’t alter things, can’t judge things, nor in anyway take part in this drama of life.  We witness the new direction our nation is taking. The adharma which is happening in the name of dharma. The mass mania which is being spread using tv, social media and WhatsApp. The religion which is more about exclusion than inclusion, which more about hate than love. We witness the leaders who preach and practice “hodi, badi, kollu” being brought to the centre stage. We see them justifying their hatred. We witness all these and we fear the day when we in a meek voice repeat these war cries.  We witness humanity being defeated and destroyed by nationalism, religious fanaticism. Scientific temper being defeated by glorification of old, orthodox customs.  And I know I am repeating the same thing like a broken tape recorder.

 I am currently reading this book by Ann Patchett. A really intriguing book about the life of doctors, medical researchers and drama and politics around them. Marina - Marina Singh is half Indian - I am proud already - about a fictitious character just because she has a father who is some part of India which is thousands of miles away from me.  Anyways Marina a researcher, and is shocked to find that her colleague and friend Anders has died in far away Brazil two weeks ago. Or may be earlier.  The news came via a postal letter - in this day and age of internet.  And there are not any details about how and why he died. Just the news of and that he was buried there to avoid the complications involved in bringing the body to US.   Unfortunately Marina must be the person to inform Ander's wife. Karen is in shock - and she is incredulous too. If her husband is dead , where is the body? What does tell their three children?  To help Karen find out the details of his death and to confirm t

 If you like maths puzzles, here are some recent ones from my blog. Running track.

Dharmadhvaja (धर्मध्वज).—1. adj. one who displays the flag of virtue, a hypocrite.  A historical event! We got back our freedom! Freedom from colonial mindset! A triumph after 500 years of wait! So what do these quotes refer to? Well, you all know what happened yesterday on Jan 22nd 2024. "The" temple has been consecrated - fulfilling the promise the incumbent government and prime minister. (Funny the only minister we could see was the prime minister and RSS chief. The rest were absent!) So entire nation - the visible and vocal one - is celebrating with pomp and fervor. In far away Bangalore, in this upscale apartment complex, there have been pheris (parades)- not the saath phere type, but the orange type. There are recitation of holy books, distribution of akshata - holy rice grains etc.  So is the case in smaller towns in Karnataka. In our hometown, people have distributed forms along with akshata - requesting devotees to say 108 hymns of Lord Sri Ram.  And as far as telev