Stars on the shoulder

Ramanna is a traffic police inspector in Bangalore. He has paid lakhs of rupees to be posted here. His station is near to national highway. This year again transfer season has started. He has to cough up few more lakhs to remain in the same place. Otherwise he will be transferred to some unprofitable location. So the pressure is on to grab as much as he can. He is working in night shifts also.

He catches Kariya, a cab driver. Kariya’s vehicle does not have permit to transport passengers. Kariya takes out fiftee rupees.

Ramanna “ Shishya (student) look on my shoulders, I have three stars. Give some respect for them. Give me one hundred fiftee. I promise no body will touch you for another six months”

The deal is settled.

Ramanna leaves the house early in the morning. He catches few Lorries from different states and makes some money. One lorry driver is pissed off since yesterday. He has paid bribe in too many places already. He sees Ramanna from a distance. Also the highway is empty, he takes a chance. He accelerates his vehicle suddenly, within no time Ramanna is dead.

His face is unrecognizable, only you can make out he is an inspector based on the stars on his shoulders. He is relieved of gold chain, rings and cash from highway robbers. His family members refuse to bring the body home. They want to finish off with religious formalities and burry the body the same day.

His colleagues say “His stars were not happy with him”. They meant stars from the astrology point of view.

New Wave...For Good

If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/ and search for 'Kannada' following are the highlights:

* Kannada is one of the oldest Dravidian languages with an antiquity of at least 2000 years.

*It is the 27th most spoken language in the world, with native speakers called Kannadigas numbering roughly around 35 million.

*Contemporary Kannada literature is the most successful in India, with India's highest literary honor, the Jnanpith awards, having been conferred seven times upon Kannada writers, which is the highest for any language in India

--

It's very evident that we Kannadigas have rich history to be proud of. Normally Kannadigas are peace loving and they embrace anyone who come down, settle and become part of Karnataka. Cinema is one field which pulls crowd in all languages, anywhere in the world. Kannada also has its golden history in this field. The captains (directors) like Puttanna Kanagal, Shankar Nag made ever lasting movies.

Last few years before the release of 'MungAru MaLe' we(kannadigas) were tortured with underworld, rowdy related movies. The movies(most of them) were made by third rate directors for third rate audience. Usually when you want to see a movie, it's natural to see it with your family. Now these idiots made such horrible, violent, vulgar movies that no true Kannadiga can be proud of.

OK..we stopped going to theatres to see movies. Fine now these cowards littered the precious walls of Karnataka with posters where whether hero is there or not ...we used to see a long(sword). These lazy buggers copied and mixed four five movies and presented as their own. How can you portray underworld cowards as heroes? I call them cowards because when they attack and kill the opponent it's done when opponent is not ready or does not have arms with them. Truely courageous people allow enemies to face them with similar weapons. So if a guy chases and kills another guy in the underworld..this killer becomes a hero in some leading news papers and they report history of the guy killed like a 'shaheed'. They will devote precious time and pages to write about it.

Fine..may be it's freedom of expression for media (news papers, cinema). So in that name they can slowly kill the wisdom accumulated since thousands of years.

It's all right now I want to write about the silver lining. The film directors like Shankar Nag , Puttanna never had any airs. First important thing they had was seeking mind. The hunger to learn and give best to the audience. They had love for literature, at the same time knew commercial aspect of cinema (like what will click and what will not).

'Mungaru Male' made with 1.5 crores budget returned 50 crores. It freed us(viewers) from meaningless movies made here. It broke all the myths of foreign location songs, big star cast and unwanted turns, twists. It was made straight from the heart with huge work put in to script and dialogues. It's creating a new wave for good.

I have a special friend who happens to be in cinema field. His name is Shrikanth Deshpande. He is very much the promising part of this new wave. With years of interaction with him, I am amazed by his knowledge of world cinema. He has a great seeking mind.

I have read somewhere about 'sage ruler'..it seems they appear once in many hundred years. Shrikanth has been a sage for some part of his life, roaming as a sage to get answers for some basic questions of life. So in a way he has necessary experience of spirituality, literature to come out with brilliant works.

He has a good sense to judge people, and their expectations. In the hard way he has learnt, how not to let others take advantage of your goodness. Very rarely you find people not affected by mud of animality thats prevalent in dream factories(cinema world). Shrikanth stands out as Lotus --ever pure...ever strong.

At such an young age he has been Associate Director to Nagabharana in Kallaravi Hoovagi movie.

Shrikanth will be promient among film captains in few months from now. Just wait and watch the rise of this cool sage from Koppala to treat us with movies for mass and class.

I wish you all the best sir...

Picture: Shrikanth saying 'Hi' to Sun.

From Ralph Waldo Emerson

But when the mind opens, and reveals the laws that traverse the universe, and make things what they are, then shrinks the great world at once in to mere illustration and fable of this mind.
A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue. Then he is instructed in what is above him.

Divinity School Address Chapter
Book: Nature and other things.

Shishya in Singapore

Naga is famous as biscuit Naga among his friends. A classmate from BE days.

A very determined and diplomatic(thats why title biscuit), never gives up anything he sets his mind on. Last one year he has been searching for 'suitable girl'. He was not getting one. They were just girls not suitable girls. He never gave up. After one year he got engaged this month. So Naganna will be son-in-law of Chitradurga from now on.

After BE when we were care of foot path (coutesy IT Slowdown), our hero wanted to tame the CAT(common admission test). But after the results he thought it's not for LIONs like him. That was end of CAT story in Nagannas dictionary.

He worked in telecom domain and then went in to retail. Now he is in to banking. Last saturday night, his majesty left for Singapore. He will be working for a company in Singapore.We can expect Singapore biscuits now. We all miss him here.

Universal Love…

Daisaku Ikeda: It is impossible to achieve universality of love if one’s emotions are narrow and prejudiced in their application. Moreover, the love that is not universal but founded on prejudice is not love in the truest sense.
The Highest Human Value Chapter—Book: Choose Life-A Dialogue-Arnold Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda.
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My Opinion: Due to media the love is projected as one that happens between a man and woman. The influence of this is so subconscious that when you say word love, most of us relate to this kind. The ideals such as universal love are hardly discussed or cared about.

Self-mastery….

Arnold Toynbee: The most important objective for a human being, both for his own sake and for the sake of the society, is to improve his karma. The only way to improve it is for him to increase his self-mastery, and the struggle to master one’s self is the personal action of an individual human being. Individual spiritual progress and regress fluctuate.
Good and Evil Chapter-Book: Choose Life-A Dialogue-Arnold Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda.

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My Opinion: Trying self mastery is going to be tough. For that we need to have faith in ourselves and others around us. It’s to believe in the highest potential of all and never to judge or look down on anyone. It’s not easy to have self mastery of this kind, as mind is frequently dragged in to greed, anger and stupidity. But the journey of self mastery is interesting one, provided we accept it and try to move on that path.


Choose Life: Oxford University Press.

Mass or Class? How about both?

I was just thinking about this today. Movies like Munnabhai Series have again brought back hope that films can be made for both mass and class. It's just the pure hardwork and simplicity thats required. Most of these guys who stand in extremes of mass or class concept are either insecure or arrogant. To put it straight they do not have the guts to believe in good humor and underlying message.

Many Raju Hiranis required to revolutionise and popularise this movement. At the end of the day a director or story writer has his or her own freedom to make whatever kinds of stories they want. But most of them are failing due to pressures of commercial cinema. At the other end is art movies which definitely are better than pure commercial ones, but somewhere do not relate to all kinds of people. Inspite of technologies, new ways of doing things we do not have directors like Puttanna Kanagal, Shankar Nag or Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who excelled in knowing the pulse of viewers. A movie made from heart touches everybody. But all they do is believe in brains and make movies from there instead of hearts, they will not stand out in peoples memories after few years.

Went to open terrace with some colleagues after a long time by 8.45pm. Nice breeze. Somebody recalled shayaris from radio city. We were discussing fringe benefit tax fundas. Since we hold foreign stocks we have cough up 30 percent tax. Then we talked about global warming. The smokers among the group said they are preparing themselves for the days ahead, due to global warming:) Nice way of defending their smoking. Friday night and lots of things to do in the weekend.

Picture:Raju Hirani--Lotus Flower in the mud of commercial cinema.

Rambo Rama

I call him ANNA(thats what Bollyhood calls Sunil Shetty). Ramachandra Vutty is one of my closest buddies since college days. We worked out together in college gym and ofcourse we have been classmates. He introduced me to a senior in college called Nanda Kumar from whom I learnt martial arts and ofcourse got introduced to wondeful world of Soka Gakkai--Global lay Buddhist organisation based on Lotus Sutra and lead by Dr.Daisaku Ikeda.

After BE Anna went to Mumbai to do his MBA and now is a Senior Business Analyst in Cognizant. Enjoying longterm onsite in Switzerland..

Although he talks English with perfect Brit accent , you will find he is very spiritual. Reads a lot about it and discusses depending on your interest. You can talk about anything to him..and he will add two or three points. He had his own share of downs. But through it all, I have never seen him losing composure or disturbing his daily activities. Let world turn upside down he will get up early in the morning... jog for few kms... ride bike to office...work hard, come back and smell the iron in the gym in the evening...if a friend calls for company in a pub... he will be there even if it is other corner of the city, never touching alcohol, cigar,and hits bed by 12 in the night...if a friend does not call after gym, Anna will read some book and doze off:)

He has great stamina. He can jog like mad for kms together. Still keeps on. Before he went off to Switzerland we(Anna, me and Eiji-friend from Japan) used to go for morning jogs near to Girinagar. After that we used to have a kadak chai or hot coffee(i mean coffee only)... I miss those days.

I always wonder how he has resisted alcohol,chicken and cigar all these years. May be he is already enlightened and I think he will walk out of secular life one day like Shakyamuni Buddha did. Hope that will not happen in Switzerland. Anna are you hearing?...:)

B.V. Karanth sir

At any given time I will try reading two books. One Kannada and one English. After passing tenth exam I have not been able to catch up with Hindi Literature. But will do it soon. Right now I am reading “Illiralare Alli Hogalare”(meaning neither I can stay here nor I can go there). It’s collection of experiences by B.V.Karanth. I am also reading short stories from Hemingway.

B.V. sir reached level of president of National School of Drama. He started his drama life in Gubbi Veeranna’s company. Gubbi Veeranna’s company has given many great people in the field of acting to Karnataka and India. Gubbi Veeranna was a great mentor. Dr.Raj Kumar (Annavru), Bala Krishna, NaraSimha Raju from this company went on to become legends of Kannada film field. B.V sir went on to head NSD at national level.

The book has beautiful description of the glorious days of Gubbi Veeranna company. The elephants, deers and many other animals were used for coming out with real life like dramas. When the company had to go Andhra Pradesh for play, one train was booked. Nearly six bogeys had animals and remaining the company people.

It’s a must read for fans of theatre and cinema. I am still completing the book. Hemingway won noble prize in literature. His short stories have characters whom you can feel like real. I will write a review once I finish this book.

Picture: BV Karanth sir

Cool SK..

All close friends call him SK. He is Santhosh SK. A classmate from BE in Bapuji Engineering College Davangere.

Very few people I have seen, who have undergone great tragedies but still undefeated. SK is one of them. Soon after BE was completed he lost his parents due to illness within span of few months. Adding to this tragedy was his brother’s death in Tunga Bhadra river in Harihar after playing Holi.

With these trials in life he came to Bangalore little later than all of us. He was a brilliant student scoring distinction in all semesters. But due to IT slow down he had to work in part time jobs. He struggled this way for two years. He refused put any fake experience in his resume. He competed directly with freshers.

Now he is working with Exilant Technologies since last three years. He is one of the most trusted guys in his company. When you talk to him for an hour, you will find he rarely speaks about himself. Very modest, does not make noise about his technical skills although I find him far above average in these. It’s very rare to have such friends today.

His family has many brothers staying in Harihar. They are all staying together in a joint family. I feel happy to interact with his family members who still believe in joint family values. SK does not take any major decision without permission of his elder brother. Such a fantastic INDIANNESS in their home.

SK believes that by being good human being in thoughts, words and actions with all, he can serve his parents who are no more here to enjoy his success.

Picture: SK and me in a party thrown by Ramachandra (another classmate who went for onsite to Switzerland).

Gautham goes to Goa.

After coming to Bangalore, I was fortunate to have good friends in fields other than IT. Gautham Krishnan is one among them. He is a research scientist in Bio Technology. When he was in Bangalore he worked in the field of vaccine research for Diabetes.

He had an ambition to do PhD, but could not get through in the institution that he dreamt of. But mystically without PhD he has got in to field of research which he always dreamt of doing.

One thing I liked about him was his down to earth personality. He is always approachable and never puts on any airs. Always talks about life and spirituality gyan. We both share a common interest in Lotus Sutra.

Recently he shifted to Goa, after quitting his job in Bangalore. When he was traveling in his car on the way he passed through Davanagere. He called me to tell about it as Davanagere is where I did my engineering from. We spoke at length about recent events in our lives.

Gautham is loving Goa. He also spoke about people of Goa who opposed any plans of industrial growth that will affect the natural settings. Hats off to them, the plans by politicians to damage nature is prevented. This shows how much the people love nature and consider it part of their life. Gautham is lucky to have shifted there.

Picture: Gautham and me on the way to Delhi.

Ravi Passes SSLC.

Ravi is my schoolmate from my village. He failed once in fourth standard. That’s due to his devotion to climb trees in the village. By that age he loved trees very much, so spent all his time learning to climb trees than social science, science and mathematics. When he went to high school he failed in four subjects. With this qualification he landed up in Bangalore.

He worked as cleaner in a Vehicle and later learnt driving. He also fell in love with a girl. This love cost him his job as relatives of the girl wanted his head. Because of that he left Bangalore and was working in farms.

Last year my driver Nagendra resigned and in exit interview in a Bar, he said he has got a better offer in Airport of Bangalore. My elder brother Siddeshanna appointed Ravi. The thought that my schoolmate is going to work for me as a driver, took time for me to decide. But as he had wanted to earn for his parents, I said yes with a condition that salary will be given directly to his parents.

He had not taken SSLC exam for last ten years. I motivated him to give it a try. I also gave him the fees, book and one week leave. This I did not add or subtract from his salary. He gave the exam in March. The results were out last month. Ravi has passed SSLC. So in his wedding card he can write his qualification now. He is planning to apply for government job.

Picture: Ravi on the first of his job

Unforgettable Lingappa Master.

My first teacher in the first standard is Lingappa Master. My villagers called him Lingappa Meshtru. He was known for his strictness, discipline, and good heart. I remember once receiving beatings from him.

His village Karakala Ghatta is few kilometers away from my village Sompura. For many years initially he walked everyday from his village to mine. He is disabled in one leg. Apart from school I used to encounter him near my farms also, which is located on the way to his village. When I passed Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya school entrance exam in fifth standard, he took active interest in getting me the transfer certificate. One senior teacher in the school was not happy that I was leaving this school. So she tried convincing me about it. But Lingappa Master was proud of me as I was the first student in the history of our village school to pass this exam. Navodaya Vidyalaya changed my life.

Lingappa Master recently completed 22 years of service in our school. He had rejected the offer of head master from some other school. We old students of the school and villagers wanted to thank him for this service to the village. Everyone including many villagers who were not his students spoke on this occasion. We celebrated presence of such a teacher in the school, by offering food to all those who attended the function.

Picture: Lingappa Master felicitated by Tumkur Ramakrishna Ashram Swamiji and Sompura Someshwara Mutt Swamiji

Influential

I have many schoolmates from my village who dropped out of school. Some of them are in Bangalore. I met two of them recently. A is working as an agent who will get you driving license, although you might know little driving. B works as security guard in a private company near MG Road.

We settled for beer as its summer. A started talking highly of his contacts and money can buy anything here. He worked hard in a driving school for one year. Later he came to know that many of these schools bribe the traffic inspectors who take the test. He learnt the trick here to get familiar with traffic police inspectors. Rather than working hard at school, he started befriending people coming for driving license tests. Especially those who failed in the test used to be his targets.
He made some easy, illegal money and it went in to his head. Slowly he became a bucketwallah of the influential. The bucketwallah is borrowed term from rural side. It’s referred to a person who will hold bucket for influential, to everything they have to dispose off. Now don’t ask me what all influential people dispose off!

I received a call meanwhile, I went out to. By the time I came back A was shouting at the hotel staff “You know who I am? Don’t play with me”. I had to intervene and prevent any further incident there.

We sent off A home, I started talking to B. He said his job is weird. He had to do night shifts many times. Recently he had to lie about his job to a prospective father-in-law. No father agrees to give his girl for a security guard. When there was a confirmatory visit to his office by this father-in-law, he had to be in formal clothes. He had told him that he works an administrative staff. I encouraged him to enroll in to distance education. But not to take short cuts, like becoming a bucketwallah.

Meanwhile one hotel staff I knew was leaving for the day. I asked him the reason behind the scuffle with A. He informed that A spoke very cheaply with one of them. If not for the intervention they (hotel staff) would have celebrated his birthday and played soccer of him.

I see a big change in A, as I know him from childhood. It’s the same change you see in people believing that knowing influential people is a great protection for them. Every now and then we observe this kind of attitude with relatives of politicians, policemen. So INFLUENTIAL will haunt common mortals, even when they are sitting somewhere else.

1.Ray of Hope 2.Game On

Raja, Thimma and Jaggu are returning from the fields in the evening. There was eagerness in their steps. They had finished the work very much in advance. Jaggu buys a bundle of beedis (poor man’s cigarette) and match box for the drama master Ramayya. These three and others, who are part of drama to be played, are now stars in the village.

In the whole village, the drama was the headline in everybody’s thoughts, words. Everybody waited for the evening, for the practice to start. Children are running around, playing and imitating the dialogues, actions of this drama, which is based on Mahabharatha. All know up to what stage it has come now, which dialogue is the last one. When Thimma fell sick all prayed for his fast recovery.

Enters the age of cable TVs, now for last five years no drama was practiced. Everyone is busy watching serials and crime stories. Although some programmes like crime story are never meant for children, parents are not bothered even if they see it.

Group of five children are playing together. One boy who watched a gang war report in crime story the previous day is the leader of today’s play. He is explaining others how the first group was chasing the other in Bangalore. How they hacked when they actually caught them. Since the children did not have weapons, they were holding wooden sticks. Elders are not bothered about this imitation; they are too busy to worry about future of this future generation.


Now with so many play groups, there is a RAY OF HOPE in the creative fields. Most of them have people who are amateurs, who are never worried about commerce or mathematics of personal gain. With the revival of these fields, they are shifting the focus of the viewers from MIND TO HEART.

Game On:

Puttu is boy of age twelve. As soon as he comes from school he has to play a computer game. In that game he has to kill at least five people. After this only he will have his food. His parents are working in highly stressful IT industry. They never bother about this aspect of his life. They get him whatever he wants.

His teacher asks him what he did for his birthday. He says his dad gave him 2500 Rupees. He took his friends for movie and later had dinner at a good hotel. The teacher’s observation is that he is very stubborn. He has an attitude problem; he wants whatever he wishes for then and there.

I met this teacher; she is worried about children like Puttu. She concluded that to cover the guilt, that parents have for not giving enough time to kids they pamper them like this. She observed a remarkable difference in kids who come from baby sitting (play home) backgrounds. They are impatient.

There are few internet cafes, near to my home. There most of the times it’s filled with children playing computer games. A friend of mine whose parents never gave him required time and attention during his childhood says he does not feel like respecting them. He feels he does not owe them anything. He is ready to give them some money every month, which they don’t need. The time and love he says he can’t as he has not got them.

The Japanese Philosopher, Buddhist thinker Dr.Daisaku Ikeda (whom I consider my mentor in life), coined a term called “Glass Children”. It means that they do not have toughness to stand failures or setbacks.

Puttu is sad not because his best friend was wounded today at school, but because his PC is crashed. He can’t play his game for few more days and therefore he can’t kill those guys in the game. So in his thoughts now the GAME IS ON.

Evolution

A, B, C and D are final year engineering students of some engineering college in Bangalore. It’s evening 7.30PM that day. All of them have met for partying. The place is a bar near the main road which connects Mysore road and Banashankari Ring road.

They have drunk more than usually they do. Nobody is bothered about the amount of the bill.
A says to B “Maga (son) let’s do Annamma dance (some form of folk dance in Bangalore)”.

B who is bald headed joker said “Brilliant idea shishya (student)”.
He invites C and D. They are lost in the smoke of their cigarettes. Smoke created a scene like you find in mythological Indian movies, in which deities walk.

C says “Don’t disturb us. We are thinking about EVOLUTION”.
D says “Somewhere something went terribly wrong, that’s why we are here”. They are looking towards sky.

A says “True... something went terribly wrong between your parents and that’s why you are on earth”.

Everybody burst out laughing.

B started dancing and after some time kept beer mug on his bald head. He started dancing while balancing the mug.

They are partying using somebody else’s money. They have been organizers of educational tour in their college. They were appreciated by all for their dedicated efforts in meeting travel agencies and so on. Their work was called “selfless dedication”. But they did all this for this party. They stuck a deal with transport and other guys for commission.

They are all students with high IQ. But their moral intelligence is zero. In future what kind of leaders they will become? Will they build trust in all aspects of their lives like professional, personal and social?

Well this is all the result of too much importance to IQ from school level and “it’s OK” attitude about moral intelligence. Hope A, B, C and D will evolve as human beings.

Happy Independence Day

Putti is studying in 6th standard and stays in next apartment. Today is her birthday; I came to know only after coming form office. I went in to their apartment; few from other apartments were also there.

The cake is already cut. Putti is waiting for one more uncle from another apartment. He arrives from office. She runs to his apartment and looks for if he has any gifts in hand. He says he still has to go and bring a gift. He says it’s unfair that she has already cut the cake. She says the cake is big and she can cut it again. Also she reminds him that she is ready to wait. That means he has no other option but to go and come back with gift.

Meanwhile she comes back and goes in to her room. She has bought gift for all of us. She will not display them to us. May be she thought that we might ask for more or gifts of our choice. She gave me the gift at last when I was leaving. I had not bought any gift for her. But finally she decides to make peace with me. Next day she comes in to my apartment and looks in to each and everything. She asked lot of questions, time and again she reminded me I owed a gift. She is very clever and cute. Still I forget about the gift whenever I am outside, but she has not stopped coming and having a conversation with me each day morning.

Today is august 15th, as it’s a holiday I am still in my bed. Watchman’s daughter called me; to give my credit card bill. She is elder to Putti by two years. She has not joined any school so for. Her younger brother goes to school. Near my apartment there are lots of construction workers. Their children never study, as the families keep shifting places. As they have come here from villages, they do not have votes here. So when you don’t have vote in India, you may not exist at all in policy maker’s memories. I am reminded of ‘LES MISERABLES’ of Victor Hugo.

I got in to my car and started typing some blog. I usually type them when traveling. My driver Ravi was annoyed with a boy on the road. He is playing on the mud road, never caring for the car on its way. The boy is from construction worker’s colony, he is wearing a T-shirt which is soiled. It’s written “happy independence day” with tricolor below on that shirt. May be the boy wanted me to see it, that’s why he was there. The distance between our apartment and this colony is just few meters, but when I recall lives of Putti and these less fortunate, the gap is probably not just few meters.

With rapid growth of Bangalore, more construction workers will move in. So Bangalore will grow at the cost of education of their children. It’s time that education department wakes up and does something about this.

Finally I gave Putti a gift. It's a cardboard replica of Taplow Court building in UK. She is very happy.

We hate IT

There is a serious discussion going on within group of people, in a locality of Bangalore. It's house owner's association meeting. The focus is on the question 'how much rent has to be increased in general this year?' Some have come with their home work well done. Without looking in to any document, they are able to say the percentage increase. The top priority on everybody's mind is to increase the rent beyond 5 percent, that's specified by the government.

My friend in non-IT industry described this to me. He said "You IT guys have altered everything in Bangalore. Non-IT people cant even dream of owning house here. The deposits for rented houses are going up enormously. I have observed few IT guys, coming for rent. Neither they bargained rent,deposit with the owner, nor they asked with anyone what is the normal rent in this locality. They behave as if every now and then they ink crore rupees worth deals!"

An auto driver I met while travelling late in night told me his part of story. "Sir I am working 18 hours a day. My house is in the outskirts of the city. I sometimes sleep in the auto rickshaw itself. The call centre, IT cab drivers are eating in to our business. Whenever they have vehicle empty, they lure our customers with minimal fare. Atleast in the night I get one and half fare. It was not like this before IT people came here."

Lastly, my friend from teaching field told me" I have been searching for a girl to marry, since last one year. Most of the parents prefer a boy from Software background. What have we done man?"

Bangalore may have become silicon valley of Asia, but that has come with a price.

Election in a village…

Those of you who have not stayed in rural India, I guess you miss lots of fun which happens there. Let me narrate you the local election that happened in my village.

Election happens once in five years. The drunkards in my village regret this. Every election is a festive season for them. They get free the packets (the ultra invention of liquor companies to address the needs of people below poverty line or consumers at the bottom of the pyramid!), bottles (some serious brands). So the D company (Drunkards brigade) becomes extremely alert during this season.

They say good bye to work and roam with candidates for campaigning. They represent the candidate who has provided liquor the day before. They call this guy ANNA (elder brother) and describe him to be “generous”. But their loyalty changes every day. So organized is the group that they lobby seriously as a group. Believe me they get the best deal with each candidate.

Hanumantha was a worker in our farms. He was introduced to the world of drinking during one of such elections. He was physically strong and good to people in general. He is called “BIG BOSS” by everyone, after a popular movie. The drinking ruined his life. Since he became best in everything he did, he became leader of this D company. Now his parents stay separately, so that they don’t have to face his violence (verbal and otherwise) everyday. When I met him last time, he looked very weak. Each time I meet he asks for ten rupees (cost of a liquor packet). This time he asked for fifteen rupees, inflation has not spared Hanumantha also!

Who is responsible for all this? The political parties spend hugely on liquor; I hold them responsible for fostering many Hanumantha’s in rural India.

After voting I came out and met Hanumantha. I asked him whom did he vote for and why? He said he wants to be loyal to all as everybody gave him liquor. He has voted for all candidates in a single vote! I had to believe him, as he was drunk. So vote is invalid, and waste on evil budget of evil parties.