Karthik Nagaraj's Daily Blog-O-Rama

Mundhinam Parthene song lyrics and meaning

2010-09-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Movie name: Vaaranam Aayiram

Tamil lyrics in English:

M:
Hi Malini..I am Krishnan…Naan Idha Solliye Aaganum..Nee Avlavu Azhagu..
Inga Evalu Ivlo Azhaga Oru…Ivlo Azhaga Paarthurka Maattaanga…and I am in love with you…

Mundhinam Paarthene Paarthathum Thotrene
Salladai Kannaga Nenjamum Punnaanathey
Ithanai Naalaaga Unnai Naan Paaramal
Engu Naan Poneno Naatkalum Veenanathey

Vaanathil Nee Vennila Yekkathil Naan Theivatha
Ippodhey Ennodu Vandhal Enna Oor Parka Ondraga Sendral Enna (x2)

Mundhinam Paarthene Paarthathum Thotrene
Salladai Kannaga Nenjamum Punnaanathey
Ithanai Naalaaga Unnai Naan Paaramal
Engu Naan Poneno Naatkalum Veenanathey

Kaadhale – Swasamey ...

Charanam 1

M:
Thulaa Thattil Unnai Vaithu Nigar Seyya Ponnai Vaithaal
Thoola Baaram Thorkaadho... Perazhagey

F:
Mugam Paarthu Pesum Unnai Muthal Kadhal Sinthum Kannai
Anaikaamal Poveno Aaruyire

M:
Oh... Nizhal Poley Vidamal Unnai Thodarvenadi
Pugai Pola Padamal Pattu Nagarvenadi
Vina Nooru Kanavum Nooru Vidai Solladi

F:
Mundhinam Paarthene Paarthathum Thotrene
Salladai Kannaga Ullamum Punn-Aanadhey
Ithanai Naalaaga

M: Oh my love
F: Unnai Naan Paaramal Engu Naan Poneno
M: Yes my love
F: Naatkalum Veenanathey

Charanam 2

F:
Kadal Neelam Mangum Neram
Alai Vandhu Theendum Thooram
Manam Sendru Moozhgatho Eerathiley

M:
Thalai Saaikka Tholum Thanthai
Viral Korthu Pakkam Vanthai
Idhazh Mattum Innum Yen Thoorathile

F:
Pagal Neram Kanaakkal Kanden Urangaamale
Uyir Rendum Uraaya Kanden Nerungamale
Unai Andri Enakku Yedhu Ethirkaalamey

M:
Mundhinam Paarthene Paarthathum Thotrene
Salladai Kannaga Nenjamum Punnaanathey
Ithanai Naalaaga Unnai Naan Paaramal
Engu Naan Poneno Naatkalum Veenanathey

Vaanathil Nee Vennila Yekkathil Naan Theivatha
Ippodhey Ennodu Vandhal Enna Oor Parka Ondraga Sendral Enna (x2)

Vennilaa ...

English meaning of the lyrics:

M:
Hi Malini, I am Krishnan.... I must tell you... you are so beautiful...No one could have seen such a beauty in a beauty and I am in love with you....

I saw you yesterday
I lost myself when I sighted you
My heart became like sieve
Where did I go without seeing you
Days were wasted due to that

You are the moon in the sky
I drain myself longing for you
Why don’t you come with me right away
Can we roam in the town together

I saw you yesterday
I lost myself when I sighted you
my heart became like sieve
Where did I go without seeing you
Days were wasted due to that

My love... My life...

Stanza 1

M:
If we weigh you on one side and gold on other side
weighing scale would lose out, my beauty

F:
You look at my face and talk, you gave first love
how will I go without hugging you, my sweet heart

M:
I will follow like your shadow
I will move around you like a cloud
Hundreds of questions and hundreds of dreams answer me

F - I saw you yesterday I lost myself when I sighted you...
M - Oh my love
F - Where did I go without seeing you...
M - yes my love
F - Days were wasted due to that

Stanza 2

F:
Ocean's blue is fading in twilight
Waves come and kiss our body
Heart will immerse in light wet mood

M:
You gave your shoulder to bury my head
You held my hands and came nearby
Why you are not ready for lip lock?

F:
I was day dreaming without sleeping
my life was freezing when I didn’t come near you
where is future for me without you?

M:
I saw you yesterday I lost myself when I sighted you...
You are the moon in the sky...

Sky...

In the courts we trust

2010-09-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

I was as usual reading techmeme.com and bumped into an article. Check it out for yourself at

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gJsoDp_yA1FHODNVS7KbuG0I0fwQ

I laughed out loud reading this article. So this guy is convicted for whatever crime he has done and when Google simply provides a suggested search based on the keyword they get sued. What has Google done and what has Mr. Schmidt done? What did the French government expect Google to do - sugar coat the search results and not give the correct information to the people searching.

If someone is indeed searching for the guy's name as the article says, 95% of the time people would expect to see some result associated with that person's crime since by then they already know what this person has done. They just want to read more information about him. I think this person has bigger things to worry about than accusing Google for his defamation case. Last I heard defamation case is for people have at least some fame and respect in the society. What respect does this person deserve?

61 years of independence

2008-08-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Googlers in Mountain View, CA celebrated the 61st year of Indian Independence in all pomp and glory. We had dance, music, singing, slideshows, videos etc., and mouth watering Jalebis and Jamuns. Below find the photos and video presentations. Watch them fully and enjoy. God bless India.

Photos Slideshow:

G-Walking Video: A spoof entertainment by several Googlers who were taken off guard when they were asked several questions about India and Google in general. Make sure your volume is turned up and you read the sub titles.

Unity in Diversity: An emotional video demonstrating India's unity amongst so much diversity. Make sure your volume is turned up and sit back and enjoy this.

Jai Hind!

Ilaiyaraja rocks

2007-10-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

How can anyone forget the music maestro who delivered the wonderful music in the Kannada movie "Geetha", the Tamil movie "Mouna Raagam" and many many many more such melodious music in Indian movies? The maestro recently delivered music to "Chini Kum" movie - a Bollywood movie starring the Big B and Tabu. Want to know the connection between all these movies? Check out the songs below and you will understand.

Chini Kum: Baatein Hawaein

Mouna Raagam: Mandram Vantha

Now listen to the latest Chini Kum: Chini Kum title song

Geetha: Jothe Jotheyali

Also listen to the Tamil version Nooravathu Naal: Vizhiyile Mani Vizhiyil

Now listen to the latest version from Chini Kum: Jaane Do Na (Listen to the audio and forget about the video)

Baazigar videos on YouTube

2007-10-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

Seeing these videos reminded me of those good old days in Bangalore when Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol rose to fame with such movies. Check out the videos and enjoy:

In the search of the perfect moon

2007-08-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

A shot with my 12x Panasonic 4.0 MP camera and then cropped to fit to size

So its just for entertainment now...

2007-08-11T07:40:00.001-07:00

Referring to article: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6176479.html

Its hard to digest the fact that the great Indian poem like Ramayana has after all become a source of inspiration not for the cultural and spiritual mind so much, but for the online multi player fantasy land game creators - Sony Online Entertainment (SOS). This morning I started off my day with the usual scanning of articles to know whats happening around the world and here is what I read - SOS and Virgin comics are going to team in bringing out a game titled 'Ramayan 3392 A.D'. Believe me - I actually found the article a little amusing because one Mr. Devarajan actually said this:

"In a world increasingly dominated with games influenced by a western Tolkien mythos, Ramayana will offer gamers a chance to experience a whole new universe of characters and archetypes derived from one of the oldest cultures on Earth,"

Just before Mr. Devarajan's statement here is what the article said:

"...game based on that label's futuristic reinterpretation of Indian mythology, Ramayan 3392 A.D."

So my inference from Mr. Devarajan's statement was only natural to think that the great Indian poem, Ramayana is not only going to be portrayed as a 'mythological' tell-a-tale but eventually there would be characters from Ramayana who would play and act out in an online game. Mr. Devarajan also believes that this game would give a different perspective to the characters derived from one of the oldest cultures on Earth.

Why is Ramayana considered a mythological story?
Why is Ramayana compared to the western Tolkien Myths?
How can you expect someone to get a different perspective to the Indian culture and its values when the very roots of it are splashed out on the computer screen as derived-gaming characters?
Is the gaming industry running out of ideas and character types that it has to derive them from our epic poems like Ramayana and Mahabharata?
What is the guarantee that the characters taken from Ramayana will not be misrepresented in the game?

Ramayana is the historical backbone of our Indian culture - it is not like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The characters of Ramayana do not deserve to be in a game like King's Quest, Space Quest or some other fantasy game for multi players. Its time people started showing a little respect for the Indian culture and not make a spectacle of it by taking the pillar stone epics and poems out of context.

How can you expect someone to connect to the Indian cultural values by playing a game in which you take on the character as 'Ravana' or 'Rama'? How would anyone understand the meaning of the poem? People, please make an attempt to understand the real meaning of the poem, otherwise please follow the philosophy - "Ignorance is bliss." But, please don't spoil the sanctity of our culture for the future generations to come.

Remnicising the cotton candy

2007-07-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

I still remember the good old days of Bangalore when I was young and I used to enjoy the cotton candy. The pink sugar only cotton candy was the dream candy of every kid back then. On Friday in the Google family picnic I got a chance to enjoy the pink cotton candy once again after so many years. It was fun with all the sugar in my mouth but not so fun with the stickiness that remained on my beard and mouth.

Morning office welcome

2007-07-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning 9:30 am - the fire alarm at work started blowing its top off. We all started to walk towards the stairs and nobody really knew where the fire was. I thought it was some sort of fire drill. The first floor cafe had set off the alarm blaring into our ears, but luckily it was a very small incident.

Something funny to end this post: Borrowing a funny line from Seinfeld, only putting different words - fire alarm day is the probably the most exciting day in the life of the alarms - them seeing us running towards the door ought to give them a little fun. But seriously, although they are noisy and irritating, they still save our lives in times of fire. Hence don't mess with your fire alarms at home, it is not only a crime but is unsafe.

A chat with Steve Chen

2007-04-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

It was just another regular day at work and I heard that YouTube was having an open house event. I thought, apart from the YouTube swag, there would be the founders of YouTube. I was really excited to meet them. So I went on to the event and to no surprise it was packed. So the usual talking began and after about 30 minutes or so we all got a chance to converse with Steve Chen, one of the founders of YouTube. Chad Hurley was not there. I walked up to Steve and chatted with him for about 15 minutes. Steve was born in 1978 and that makes him about 29 years old, a year younger than me. Their (Steve, Chad and Jawed) idea was so simple - getting users videos on to the net without all the nitty gritty details of video encoding. They did their part and enticed Google to buy them out for 1.65 billion. He was a fun guy to talk to and I overheard someone else telling Steve that children in Taiwan look at Steve as one of the role models. Its always motivating to talk to such brilliant software engineers who brings their ideas to life and best of all - it clicks!

Java's idiosyncrasy

2007-04-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure others also would have encountered this frustation with Java's idiosyncrasy in giving definition to the 'final' keyword. The keyword is pretty much overloaded in its meaning and it exhibits traits of polymorphism.

'final' used as 'const'

In C++ the 'const' keyword is used with utmost importance to how stable your pointer intensive applications can be. Basically the keyword signifies that the identifier (object/primitive type) in front of it cannot change values. It is pretty simple to understand. And the const keyword has no other meaning. Java decided to use final for specifying constant objects. So use 'final' to statically profile your java program for any silly overwrites you might be doing for your objects. So far so good!

'final' used in front of a 'class'

If we use final in front of a class definition then it means that this class cannot be inherited from. Now technically speaking it means that's the end of the class cycle and no more classes can be derived from that class. But why use 'final' again? Someone would think they are making the class a const, which is not true since the objects of the class itself can be used, but cannot be derived from.

'final' used with methods

When 'final' is used in front of methods, then it makes the method non-overridable in the derived classes. Basically this means that a final method cannot be over-ridden in the derived classes. Again, why use 'final'?

I understand the intentions behind using the final keyword for all 3 operations but it just makes the language a little quirky and not to mention an initial confused learning curve.

Caveat: In their book, Java puzzlers, Neal Gafter and Joshua Bloch mention a catch with this 'final' and how suggestions are being made not to have such keywords in the future releases of the language. When the keyword is used for a method, no doubt it makes the method non-overridable in the derived class but the same is not true for data members that are final within a class. The derived class could very well override the parent class final data members. It is just not possible for the methods. Very slick huh?

Weekend KaHaNi (story)

2007-04-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

It had been nearly 16 years since I had met Kala, my good old classmate from NPS. She left school in 1991 and it was only on Friday that I got a chance to meet her when she decided to take a so-called "short weekend break" in the Bay Area. She stayed at my place for the weekend and it was so much fun. Harsha, another classmate from school was with me until class X that passed out in 1993. He has been my friend even after school until now and he lives pretty close-by to where I live, hence nothing much has been lost between the two of us ever since we left school. Nikhil Pai, another old chum from school left in class IX, year 1992. It had been 15 years since I had met him or even talked to him. This weekend brought us all together for a few hours and we caught up on old times and a trailer version of our life so far. Instead of the traditional lunch/dinner get-together, we decided to trek in the East Bay mountains and believe me, it was fun! A good hour and a half of walking up and down the Sunol mountains pretty much burnt out all the calories accumulated from the sumptuous lunch prepared by Priya (my wife) that afternoon. After the trek we went for bowling in Fremont. Although we could not get 2 lanes that evening, we had to squeeze into one lane. An hour of play and we finished one game (10 frames) with Arvind winning the game. Nikhil and Harsha trailed into the 2nd and 3rd positions. We were famished by then and thus headed out for dinner at Spice Hut. All in all it was a fun day, and a fun weekend. Though the NPS alums were just 4 in number, we all enjoyed a colorful weekend with Kala, Harsha and Nikhil. Of course the fun increased with Priya and Arvind (Kala and Harsha's friend) too joining in for the trekking, bowling and dinner.

Pictures time

All the pictures can be chronologically located at my album: http://picasaweb.google.com/karcoms

Friday, March 30th 2007

Picked up Kala at the airport and dropped off Harsha to his place. Chaat at my place with Kala. Thanks to Haldirams for the ready made Bhel-puri mix. We had Bhel and Chhole Samosa chaat.

Chaating with Kala

Saturday, March 31st 2007

We all had breakfast - dosa and chutney. After breakfast Kala and Harsha left for a get-together with their Talisma colleagues. Thats pretty much all of Saturday.

Saturday Morning Special

Sunday, April 1st 2007

Harsha joined us for staying over at my place for the night. We all chatted until 1:30 early morning and then retired for the night. The next day was a pretty fruitful day with all of us in action. We had breakfast - wonderful vermicelli upma, then chatted for a while, got ready, had lunch - wonderful onion sambhar and potato curry prepared by Priya, met up with Nikhil Pai in the Sunol wilderness for an evening of trek and bowling.

Sunday Brunch

Sunol Wilderness Trekking

Mowry Lanes Bowling

Dinner at Spice hut

Monday, April 2nd 2007

Kala's flight was in the afternoon and before leaving for the airport she visited the Google campus with Harsha. We had lunch and then bid goodbye!

Kala & Harsha visit Googleplex

Overall it was a fun weekend and a fun get-together with the good old chums from NPS.

India's rollercoaster inconsistent performance

2007-03-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm talking about cricket and not anything else. Do a simple wiki search for World Cup and you can pull up the stats for the previous World cups (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_World_Cup). Lets take them one by one:

World Cup 1975

The Group A standings were as follows and Group B had Pakistan in the 3rd place. So as you already must have guessed India did not make it to the Semi-final and hence lost the race along with Pakistan in the first round itself.

World Cup 1979

The performance in this World Cup was even worse than the previous World Cup. India did not win any match in the preliminary rounds and hence got knocked out. To their bad luck in Group A, Pakistan did go through to the semi-finals but did not win to proceed to the finals.

World Cup 1983

This is probably the only World Cup victory we Indians can get to taste. I wouldn't say that it was India's best performance in batting against the West Indies bowling atack, but the Indian bowlers did a good job exploiting the field to bowl out the WI for 140 and win the World Cup by 43 runs. So, what would you say? - It happened by chance? or was India really strong enough a team to beat the Indies? Hard to tell - whatever, the Indians did win the 1983 World Cup and we need to congragulate them for that.

World Cup 1987

A good performance by India. They lost just one match and stepped into the Semi-finals. Unfortunately they lost the semi-finals to England. At least the performance was not below par! Come to think about it - the World Cup was played in the Indian subcontinent, so, was that an advantage?

World Cup 1992

Not only did India's miserable performance cost them a place in the semi-finals, Pakistan went on to win the World Cup. Haven't you started to notice the roller-coaster performance of the Indian cricket team?

World Cup 1996

India really had to swallow its pride in this World Cup. She was not the only one to have won the World Cup in the sub-continent. Pakistan won the previous one and this time it was Sri-Lanka. At least the Indian team went on upto the Quarter final round ahnd lost in the semi-final round.

World Cup 1999

If Pakistan would have won this World Cup, India would probably have abandoned cricket. Look at the Super 6 table above and how much more pathetic can the Indian tally look. They lost against Zimbabwe in the preliminary rounds. Australia registered its 2nd World Cup victory in this series.

World Cup 2003

This must have been India's best performance in any World Cup, after the 1983 victory. India won all the matches in the preliminary round except against Australia as the first table shows and the Super 6 table clearly shows India in the final round. They lost the final against Australia. Australia butchered the Indian bowling to make a stunning 359/2 with Ricky Ponting at 140 in 121 balls. Indian batting crumpled and they were all bowled out for 234 in 39.2 overs. Australia registered their World Cup victory. They are the leading champions right now with amazing batting lineup and bowling attack.

World Cup 2007

One of the most misreable performances. With the introuduction of the knock-out stages and the Super 8, India's performance was really measured and they failed to excel in the preliminary stage. They lost to Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka. Earlier even with 4 or 5 losses a team could go ahead into the semi-final round, but now with the Super 8 stage before the Semi-final round, it is not easy to proceed further with 2 losses. India and Pakistan had a premature exit from the World Cup and sent a lot of bookies/advertisement agencies tossing out for a huge loss. I think its time for the senior members to retire and allow India to build a younger and stronger team for the 2011 World Cup.

The old and the new Super 8

2007-03-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

World Cup 2007 has been quite a surprise so far. With the introduction of the knock-out stage matches and the Super 8 the teams really cannot afford to loose more than 1 match. Take Pakistan for example: They lost their first match against West Indies and then went on to loose the second to Ireland. With that loss to Ireland, Pakistan was kicked out prematurely out of the tournament. Pakistan's neighbor, India was no better in their performance. They lost an easy match against Bangladesh and then butchered the Bermudans for 413 record score. But what's the use? They lost miserably against Sri Lanka, the most important match for the Indians. With that loss, India was sent packing out of the tournament but hung by a thread to see if the Bangladesh team would suffer a loss against the Bermudans. Fortunately, Bangladesh won against Bermuda and relieved the spectators like me from the agony of sitting through the Indian team getting sacked by the Australian and South African teams in the Super 8. Honestly, India has displayed poor quality of play in this World Cup and did not deserve a place in the Super 8. Veteran players like Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid could not live up to their demi-god status they are given back home. They needed to retire when the going was good and let young people show their display of energy in the field. India badly needs a restructure of the team and get them ready before the 2011 world cup that is going to be held in the Indian subcontinent. Here is a look at the Super 8 standings of World Cup 2007:

Take a look at this table and just relive the monents of the previous World Cups when in place of IRE was IND and in place of BAN was PAK. There goes the usual suspects. So India and Pakistan: be prepared for much more better performance from tier 2 cricket teams in future world cups.

India looses and Pakistan is forced to exit

2007-03-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

After 7 years I get to watch live cricket online and what do I get in the first match of India against Bangladesh - a pathetic attempt from our Indians trying to defend their paltry 191. The Indian batting sucked right from the beginning. Sehwag and Uthappa collapsed on early for single digit scores. Ganguly made efforts to hold onto the wicket by playing "extremely" cautiously and Tendulkar carelessly threw his wicket for CBW. Rahul Dravid was no angel either. He got a mere 14 before he was declared LBW. It was the partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Saurav Ganguly that increased India's hopes of hitting more than their lowest ever ODI score of 125 against Australia. The score was around 157/4 when things were going pretty well that doomsday struck the Indian batsmen, yet again. In the next 16 balls or so, India lost Ganguly, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Agarkar. The score was now 159/9. The 2 bowlers Munaf Patel and Zaheer khan displayed much better batsman spirit than Tendulkar and any other top order Indian batsmen. They added about 31 runs to bring the total score to 190 before they got all out when 3 balls were remaining.

Bangladesh displayed amazing bowling and fielding prowess. The young lads pounced on almost all the boundary long drive shots thereby preventing India from getting the 4's and 3's. They stopped the 2's at 1 and stopped the 1's for mere dot balls. The first 10 overs which is always a mandatory PowerPlay did not provide any edge for India and India did not show any power in their play during these overs. Bangladesh cashed in on this and continued the PP for the next 10 overs too, the score remained almost less than 3 runs per over. The Indians were very slow in running between the wickets. They failed to convert many of the 1s into 2s and many of the 2s into 3s.

The Indian fielding was no great sight to watch either. They did a lousy job of defending their score of 191. The bowlers gave way to a pretty good start for the Bangladesh openers. The run rate was always in the range 3.8 to 4.2 runs per over. Fielders did not show a good support for the bowlers. They dropped catches that were not too difficult for a top-tier team like India and they did not control the 1s and 2s. between the wickets. Wickets was what India needed the most but the bowlers could not get them for Rahul Dravid. Their fielding had so many gaps that were potential 1 run hot spots. Add in the poor fielding by our Indian team, it results in a 2 or 3, especially with the quick young lads running between the wickets.

All in all, the end result: Bangladesh registered their first victory against India in a World Cup and Mortaza was given the man of the match award for his bowling figures. Well, I guess the sloppiness of the Indian batting, running between the wickets, bowling and fielding cost us the match that everyone hoped India would win. The chances for India qualifying into the Super 8 is looking bleak unless they bring about a change in their attitude and field upto the par of a top-tier cricket playing nation.

I guess the Indian top order batsmen like Ganguly and Tendulkar are getting old. Its time they moved those guys out to make space for more qualified runners and fielders. Harbhajan Singh has been on the team for quite some time but his bowling figures were not so impressive today. The young lads of Bangladesh seemed to be trained in attacking any kind of delivery. The Indian bowlers lacked the knowledge of changing the tune of the ball and to complement, the fielders and the fielding arrangement in general gave way for 1s and 2s that cost the match for India.

Elsewhere Pakistan was playing against Ireland and Pakistan were 131 all out. Ireland won the match in spite of the number of overs being reduced (due to rain and poor light). Ireland's victory cost Pakistan the world cup hopes. In all practicality Pakistan will not be able to qualify for the Super 8. They lost their match against West Indies and Ireland. So there are ambivalent feelings in the Indian sub-continent now: India has lost 1, Bangladesh has won 1, Pakistan has lost 2 and certainly will be out of the world cup, Sri Lanka has won 1. Lets hope India wins against Bermuda on March 19th. If India looses on 19th, they might as well join Pakistan on their flight back home. I would say "Go back home and get some net practice guys - Shame on you!" As much I dislike telling this: Bangladesh played really well today and deserved this victory against India.

Google and Cricket

2007-03-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Google India rocks! Check out the screenshot below and you will understand why.

Am I getting too old?

2007-03-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I cannot stay hungry for too long these days. I also realized that after eating I just want to sit in one place or rather sleep. I sigh every time I sit on my sofa and equally sigh when I get up, which is not very often, though. Oh, I meant the getting up part! I have to get pushed to go to the gym and I get tired after running a few steps on the treadmill. I have also started to realize that long drives along the wonderful coastline of California does make me tired and I need the sleep more than ever. Sometimes I forget to do things and I have been nicknamed as the "absent-minded professor." My neck hurts, my lower back equally hurts and so with my right knee cap. I wouldn't even want to start with my thumbs hurting and the infamous carpel tunnel syndrome is a house guest of mine. Thanks to the advancement in computer technology, not only can we learn what those are, you can live with them too. I feel like I'm the oldest guy in my team @ work. When all the 20-year olds are creating software like Youtube and WordPress, I'm uploading videos and posting blogs using those same tools. So what was my 20s like? - Learning how to use computers using MS-DOS? What happened in the last 10 years? So, in short, am I just being lazy or am I getting old? I would say a bit of both - laziness is every man's birth right and getting older is the primary characteristic of such a birth. Thanks to all my friends and family members for their good wishes on this day! Way to go - 29 down and 30, here I'm! Wow - what an effort I had to make to type this out and post it on blogger.

This picture is worth a 1000 memories

2007-02-13T01:31:00.000-08:00

My latest project has been to digitize all my older photos by scanning them into their respective folders. I decided to start this project by first scanning my "first few days into this world" pictures. Here is one that really made me remember so many things of my family, my home where I grew up and the people around me:

When I observed this picture really closely I was able to identify the following:

The calendar correctly shows the page for March/April 1977. I confirmed it from this website. You would think Windows calendar would give you this information, but no! I really cannot believe this picture is almost 30 years old now. So March 15th 1977 was a Tuesday.
The Krishna idol behind my aunt (holding me in this picture) is the same Krishna's idol that we still have in our home even today in the living room.
Observe the picture hung right above my aunt's head in the picture - that's the group picture taken when my grand-dad's brother got married - my mom was not even born then and my mom's elder sister was just about 3 or 4 years old. Wow, what a classic within a classic!
Observe outside the window and you will read "Corner" - that is one of the stores right opposite our home and that would make this room to be the present living room in my grandparent's home.
On the table you can see radio set (covered with a dust cover) and a huge speaker next to it - we still have that classic radio set - at least it was there until I left India 7 years ago.
The brass flower vase on the side table to the right is still there at my place.
Not to forget the wires hanging around is pretty much the same sight even today at my grandparent's home.

I just wanted to share this nostalgic piece of memory and I'm still wondering what life was back then without so much technological overflow - look how peaceful I'm in my aunt's hands - 30 years has moved on pretty damn fast.

Check out more of my baby photos at my picasaweb album or click the album below to go there directly.

As a baby...

Choose your own battlegrounds

2007-02-12T17:32:00.000-08:00

Fight your battles in your own battlegrounds

An interesting episode comes to mind from the great Mahabharata: The Kauravas (the evil cousins) have closed all doors for any possible reconciliation with the Pandavas (the good brothers) owing to the confusion of the 13th year exile. Pandavas and all their allies sit together to discuss the situation and it is then that Krishna suggests that he will go to Hastinapur as a peace messenger and ask for peace rather than war. Krishna warns that this war will be a total-annihilation war and that it would cost many people their husbands, children, friends and relatives, hence it is important to avoid the war.

Dhristadhyum's revenge

Dhristadhyum, king Drupad's son and brother of Draupadi questions Krishna's gesture to still seek peace with the Kauravas. Dhristadhyum reminds Krishna of the insult to Draupadi by the Kauravas and how Draupadi was waiting every moment to seek revenge against the Kauravas. Krishna, known for his clever and witty remarks instantly quipped that Draupadi's insult was the problem of the Pandavas and not Dhristadhyum's nor king Drupad's. Krishna clarified the real reason behind both the father and son pressing for a war. It was to seek personal revenge for king Drupad's insult by killing Dhronacharya. This reply from Krishna silenced Dhristadhyum and the rest of the people at the court.

Shikandi's impatience

Later that night prince Shikandi visited Krishna's cottage and expressed his impatience in starting an all-out war to avenge his insults. Krishna responded eloquently that Shikandi's insult had no connection whatsoever with the war between Kauravas and Pandavas. Shikandi's insult was indeed the insult met by princess Amba from Bheeshma (Trivia: Shikandi was the result of Amba's repeated rebirths). It was only a personal revenge. Krishna curtly replied to Shikandi that every person should choose their own battlegrounds and not mix personal feuds in seeking revenge through others' fights. This war was purely a family feud between the Pandavas and Kauravas, and no third party needed to intervene.

The great war did happen...

Needless to say, the great war of Mahabharata eventually marked the culmination of all personal feuds and everyone got a chance to get even with their foe. Dhristadhyum wanted Dhronacharya dead, Shikandi wanted Bheeshma dead, Shakuni wanted the entire Kaurava race to be extinguished, Karna wanted Arjuna dead and many more such personal feuds...

What is the relevance of this snippet for today's issue?

I'm talking about the Cauvery issue. The Cauvery issue is not something that has sprung up in the recent months, but the issue has been an impasse for more than 15 years now. I particularly want to recoil my memories of 1991-92 when my sacred place of education, National Public School (NPS) was set ablaze and the school burnt in the flames of personal anger/vengeance. It was during this Cauvery dispute that Kannada activists started violent demonstrations and destroyed a lot of their own public property. No doubt the strike and demonstrations started out with the intentions to protest against Tamilnadu's demand for more Cauvery water, but somewhere down the line the direction of the dispute turned to avenge personal afflictions and NPS was one of the worst affected victims. The entire event turned out to be a staged political drama and many people quenched their angers by setting the school on fire, stealing its computers and destroying its property. What had the school got to do with the Cauvery dispute? What did these people achieve by torching the school? Contrary to the miscreants efforts to thwart the school's progress, the administration diligently worked towards getting the school back on its track, went on to earn autonomy and built a more stronger student body. But the Cauvery issue still remains a moot point.

Politicians try to politicize every issue and it is politicians like Bangarappa, Deve Gowda and Jayalalitha who fan the flames of political backlash on innocent people and public property for something that can be resolved in a more humane, organized and non-political manner. Why can't these politicians seek their own battlegrounds in avenging their so-called personal insults/hurts? Why should the public pay more taxes in restoring the public system that was damaged by these politicians? The Cauvery issue has resurfaced to the limelight of politics between Karnataka and Tamilnadu - wonder when Kannada activists will learn that burning their own schools, buses and public property is never going to teach the neighboring Tamilians a lesson not to ask for more water.

Music India Online Site Ads

2007-01-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

Everyone must have at sometime visited the musicindiaonline.com website that hosts streaming music in almost every Indian language. The site also hosts devotional songs. I like the site for what it has to offer but the Ads displayed on the site are so out of place and in some cases offensive and obscene. I browsed to the Devotional section and found these ads being displayed as shown below. I then browsed to other sections and found that the ads simply get pushed onto the page at fixed intervals. They have absolutely no relevance to the information being displayed. Among several offensive ads included "Meeting Singles.net", "Finding a partner for ...", etc., - now tell me one thing, if someone was really looking for that information, musicindiaonline.com is probably the last website they would visit to find that link to the ad. I wonder what MIO is trying to push through its music hosting site - its music or a perverted ad display system to attract traffic. This is what happens if ads are displayed just for the sake of displaying it - no direction in marketing. There are so many other Indian music websites that concentrate on hosting music and not pushing stupid ads onto the web page. Take a look at all the different ads displayed in the Devotional and several other sections of the MIO website. Sometimes it looks more like a website promoting xxx/sex stuff. I wonder if people at work wouldn't mind me opening this site for listening to music. Its a question the MIO folks need to ask themselves if they don't mind their kids seeing these obscene ads especially when they are looking for some music.

So, I sent an email to the MIO team using their feedback form. My email is shown below. Let us hope they take some action regarding this.

Labeling my posts in blogger

2007-01-21T23:29:00.000-08:00

All I did in the past hour was port my other blogs to my main blog and label my posts - Ah, the new blogger, thank you for labels!

Indian Entertainment news in Google News

2007-01-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

My favorite mashup is the Google News site. It has links to edit the interface the way you like it. Today I visited Google News and what do I find? Abhishek Bachchan has made it to the top news category and his wedding with Aishwarya Rai had also made it to the top 5 news listings under Entertainment. Wow! I mean really, wow - if Google News is pulling off XML news listings from top Indian newspapers I think it is high time the west start to give in some recognition to the East Indian cinema - its gossips and the vineyard tell-tale! I do know that msn.co.in has a lot of gossip of Hollywood in the front page and the actual Indian stuff is pushed off to the side. So much for creating a localized MSN site for India. And oh, by the way, these news listings of Abhishek and Aishwarya are in the US pull down news listings.

Blogger hack: labels

2006-12-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

In my previous post about Blogger I expressed desire that the Blogger team should go ahead and provide a widget for collecting all my labels and displaying as a pull-down menu option. Well turns out a simple Google search revealed a nice little hack that someone has already provided. Follow the link to their post and you will know how to do it.

http://hackosphere.blogspot.com/2006/09/multi-style-labels-widget-for-blogger.html

Turns out the new blogger language - Widget Scripts intermixed with JavaScript can really spruce things up on your blog. And with the layering you will never have to redo your customized work each time the template changes. I already implemented the code, customized it and have a nice little pull down menu showing all my labels.

Blogger graduates from Beta

2006-12-27T19:32:00.000-08:00

This is a pleasant surprise - One of Google's product has passed the scrutiny of being in Beta and has thus graduated. Its very rare that Google's products graduate from beta as their products undergo constant use and updates and the label comes off only if they are confident that the product is good. So does this mean Google's version of Blogger is ready for prime-time usage? Well, I have been using Blogger for about a year now and I have been using Blogger Beta for about 3 months. If my memory is right, Beta was launched sometime in August 2006. Blogger Beta was cooked in Googleplex on top of the infamous Blogger that was purchased sometime back.

I hated some of the things in the old Blogger:
[1] Template information and customized data co-existed seamlessly. Every time I changed the template, I had to go back and put in all my customizations into the new one
[2] No template choices that stretch across from one end of the screen to the other. We all had to be happy with the blogs being displayed in a small rectangular frame in the middle of the screen that grew downwards. To customize the size I had to tinker around with the actual template values for size
[3] Spell check popped a separate window - that sucked big time!
[4] No labels whatsoever for the posts
[5] To edit a post that was just published needs at least 1 screen hop and a lot more clicks

Some of these were fixed in Blogger Beta:
[1] Templates are separate and customizable data are all widgets - Amazing layering design. Now the widgets can be moved around with the mouse without having to deal with the crappy HTML cut and paste
[2] Stretchy template - Yoo Hoo!
[3] Labels - These guys are definitely on a run!
[4] Instant publishing - no more freaky creepy "Publish/Republish" stuff
[5] Spellcheck a part of the document window itself and suggestions are a mouse click away - Whew!
[6] The most recent published post can be edited quickly by a click

Some of the stuff I feel that could have been made a little more better:
[1] Upload pictures - why pop a dialog box guys? - Its Google - Come on, lets see some of that in-line Ajax stuff like Gmail
[2] Autosave option - just in case the browser acts a little frenzy on us - hey give it a break alright - FF can also give you a really hard time especially on Mac/Linux boxes
[3] Widget for displaying all the labels as a pull-down list - how in the freaking world would anyone know the labels on my blog to choose from other than the ones that are visible to the user?
[4] Make transitions from older Blogger to the new Beta Blogger easier and also send invites to all at once, why keep them waiting?

All in all, Blogger Beta from Google was a good release and a much needed one! One of the main issues vexing Blogger was its overloaded customer base and its inabilities to handle the huge load. Many a time I have noticed Blogger being pulled down for maintenance, publishing stuck at 100% forever, site taking until eternity to load and many more like these. I wonder if the latest release of Blogger has been able to resolve the issues. I do notice the site is much faster but sometimes my dashboard takes a long time to load. But indeed the Beta is far better than the older Blogger. I love blogging and I will continue to use Blogger now that it has all these cool new features.

I wonder if arctic is warmer

2006-12-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

The year 2006 has been pretty bad in terms of weather. This year we did not have a proper Spring - it rained all along till March/April. Summer was a scorching oven that baked us all at about 110 - 115 degrees temperature. Winter - its pretty harsh with temperatures going as low as 35 - 40 degrees. I had parked my car outside one night and the next morning I had to use a snow scraper to get out the thick ice on my windshield and windows. Face it folks - the effects of a warmer planet is probably setting in more earlier than expected. My vegetable and flower beds have all shivered and withered in the cold and we need to constantly put on the gas to heat up the home. Last winter was not so bad after all comparing it to the current one. A possible greenhouse side-effect very soon: Snow in the Bay Area (not just in the mountains) - get ready to face it or do something about it!

When did rats become so intelligent?

2006-12-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the middle of October my grandmother complained that she felt a rat whistle past her legs when she was making coffee in the kitchen. She was pretty casual about it and so was my grandfather. Well, we would have been cool too, had it been back home - rats are a common nuisance back home owing to the fact that the indoors are not so air-tight compared to the indoors in America. Hence the worry on our faces when she announced it! Well we started discussing methods of trapping it and thus started all the hoopla about "Catching a rat."

We were well advised that the rats of today were not so dumb as their ancestors to fall for a simple trap with some cheese/food hanging on the side of the gauntlet. Oh no, sir - they will not fall for that trap - they are far too intelligent for that these days. I remember asking the Wal*Mart guy - "Which of these mouse traps do you think arr effective?" For which his reply was - "It depends on how intelligent the mouse is". To increase the chances of us catching the rodent we ambushed our kitchen area with not only rat poison pellets but also a so-called "humane" rat trap with some bait inside. The stage was all set and we were all eagerly waiting for the rat to fall for the trap.

A couple of days passed by and all we could notice was the "humane" trap being knocked off its usual place. Then one day while cleaning the kitchen floor we noticed that the poison pellets were missing. Voila - the rodent had consumed all of the poison and death was guaranteed in 4 days unless of course it can find water in which case the rat would survive the poison consumption. To its good luck and our bad luck it did find water under the sink U-bend pipe and our uninvited guest felt all the more indomitable. This, we realized only a few days back when the rat activity had significantly increased in our kitchen over the last couple of days.

Then my mom suggested we place sticky pads at various places and that way the rat can get stuck on them while falling for the bait (if they fall for the bait, that is). My mom assured me that the sticky pads were the "ONLY" way rats could be caught these days. I slid a few under our cooking range and a pad under the kitchen sink. A couple of weeks passed by and we did not notice any rat activity and hoped that the sticky pad had caught them - Yes sir, yesterday when we pulled the mats out from under the cooking range - there was a tiny little rat stuck to it. It was dead!

After disposing off the dead rat we sighed a huge relief. After all nature teaches not just man, any living thing on this Earth to adapt to situations around. The rats of yesterday fell for a simple mouse trap bait but rats of today simply ignore the booby-trap. So sticky mats it is for today's rats!

Electric Cars Showcased at Google

2006-10-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

From Electric Cars...

Google hosted the usual Zeitgeist 2006 conference and there were various people exhibiting some of their amazing inventions and amongst them were the Electric cars that were actually built from scratch. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, got a chance to test drive most of the cars. Here I have captured some pictures of the cars and some material to read up on them. Check it out at the Picasa Web album below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/karcoms/ElectricCarsShowcasedAtGoogle

All this makes me feel confident that there are people out there who still care about the environment and want to contribute to increasing the green of it and not the warmth of it. These cars shake the traditional belief that the complete-electric cars are only golf caddy cars that are boxy and not attractive. The cars displayed were ranging from taxi cabs to commuter cars to sports cars and last but not the least commuter sports cars. They were all electric that could be charged off your plug point in your garage. Its good that these cars are all electric and not hybrid like the Prius because, believe me, its hard to beat the Prius in Hybrid car segment, Toyota is the leader in that market, so forget about the Insights and the Civics! And one of the cars was actually owned by George Clooney. I was actually surprised that all these cars had amazing safety measures to ensure the driver was safe. I wish these guys all the best and wish these cars become a mass producable cars that us common people can afford the now $100K a piece cars! I have fresh renewed confidence in my environment being green tomorrow when I get up.

Katie Couric goes to CBS

2006-09-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Glad to note that Katie Couric is anchoring the CBS Evening News - amazing! If you have your Google homepage customized then you should be able to add Katie's Google gadget. This is something innovative a news anchorage person is offering to us - A tabbed Google gadget - Videos, Highlights and something about Katie herself. Do check it out and oh btw she has her own photo album on Picasa - http://picasaweb.google.com/KCouricCBS/KatieCouric

Katie's Google Gadget

Way to go Katie - I have watched her co-anchor in NBC and it is really exciting to see her in her new career! Good luck!

Mysore Infosys Campus

2006-08-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

Got this from someone just this morning - some amazing pictures of the Infosys Campus in Mysore!

Lipogram

2006-08-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

A Lipogram is a piece of literary work with particular letters of the alphabet excluded. Got this link from my colleague:

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/01.html

Well, this book has about 50000 words and the letter 'e' is excluded from it. Check it out for yourself. Amazing work of literary art.

Read more about Lipogram at its Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipogram

FAMILY

2006-08-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

My parents just left for India day before yesterday and this morning they confirmed that they have reached safely. They were here with us (my wife and myself) for about 5 1/2 months. It feels really boring at home when we come back from work. I don't know if it is sheer coincidence but I was listening to a drama in Kannada online at work and in that somebody expanded the meaning of the word - 'FAMILY'

Family means "Father And Mother I Love You"

Wow! What a powerful meaning rendered to a simple term. Definitely we both love you Mom and Dad!

US opens its eyes, at least virtually

2006-08-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

This morning I was reading an article that can be located at this link:

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=136595

The funny part of this article is that US has at least "virtually" lent its support acknowledging the fact that there does exist "some anti-India" terror groups in Pakistan, if not wholly accepting the fact. Let us rewind the scenes of Indian independence and the split of Indian and Pakistan in 1947. Since then India and Pakistan have been at a constant fight over the border lines and the wars speak for themselves to what the situation has grown to today.

India has been a constant target of foreign invasion - the Spanish, Portuguese, French, British and the Moguls. The last two invaders created an ever-lasting footprint in India and played a major role in inducing several cultural changes across the country, some of which we are paying for even today. Apart from the fact that India got its independence in 1947 - almost 59 years ago - our country has been a constant bulls eye target for terrorist attacks from the neighboring country - Pakistan.

A brief recap of history

March 12th 1993 - Bomb blasts in Mumbai
October 21st 2001 - Bomb blasts in Kashmir
December 13th 2001 - Parliament attack
February 2002 - Ayodhya train attack
May 14th 2002 - Attack on Kashmir
September 25th 2002 - Temple siege in Gujarat
March 13th 2003 - Mumbai train blasts
August 25th 2003 - Bomb blasts in the financial district in Mumbai
July 11th 2006 - Commuter train blasts in Mumbai

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13815387/?GT1=8307

Oh, forgot to add one more thing:
December 28th 2005 - attacks in IISc, Bangalore

Pretty much all of these have Pakistan based terrorist groups written all over them (we all know this not by speculation but from the news we hear). Why then is it so difficult for the "developed" nations like US to accept the fact that there are other nations in the world map too that suffer from terrorist attacks, not just once in a lifetime, but almost everyday. When the twin towers were attacked in September 2001 (9/11 attack) US literally got pissed off with "Bin Laden" as, for once he actually became successful in breaking the US security and crashing the air-planes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon. Afghanistan bore the aftermath of the US ire over Bin Laden. Iraq was not late in following suit to be tortured by the US.

India has been living through the trauma of terrorist attacks since the time she got her independence. So my question is why is it so difficult for US to accept that Pakistan has been harboring and promoting anti-India terrorism attacks for a very long time now. Considering the extent of agony that the Indians have had to bear with the neighboring country, how much pissed off should our Indian folks be at Pakistan. Well, we have not - so far! We are a peace loving country and do not want to get into the entails of the war and its aftermath - we have seen enough struggle for peace and independence 60 years ago. So don't take our peace loving nature to be a terror absorbing sponge that will keep enduring all the nonsense that is showered on us - even we can revolt - after all revolution is something that is beyond endurance - there is no acceptance in this!

All in all, it will be nice if US (and the United Nations in general) is more disciplined towards its actions about "all" terrorist harboring nations like Pakistan and not support them by supplying more money and weapons. The good thing is that Indian doesn't really care about the US not supporting India - even during the time when the 2 nations (I and P) were at the brink of a nuclear attack, India did not seek the US help in driving out the Pakistan based terrorist groups out of the LOC near Kashmir. That shows the determination of India in letting US know not to interfere with the politics of other nations. Not all nations would cave in their self-respect for exchange of $$$$ and weapons - but then again, most of them do and some of them don't. Its very true that "God sees the truth, but waits..."

Jai Hind!

Dreaded E18 Error

2006-07-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had put my Canon Powershot S80 in my pocket and walked around. The camera must have been in my pocket for about 4 hours. When I returned home and emptied my pockets, I found that my camera wouldn't close or open - the lens was halfway through stuck. I could hear the motor running like Wrrrrr Wrrrrr Wrrrrr and finally gave up by displaying the E18 error message. I googled the E18 error message and found that it can be fixed easily by pushing the lens back in place. Tried it and it worked fine. Wow - thought i had to send the camera for repair. Why do Canon Powershots have these kind of issues? The shutter is badly designed - not suitable for constant use - can easily dislocate the springs holding the shutter in place and now the lens can be dislocated from its place and many more to come... Remember one thing - dont place your camera in your pocket - constant moving can cause the shutter to open and close many times inside the pocket without your knowledge, owing to the contours of your pant and legs, that can cause the camera lens to dislocate. Anyways I'm happy that the camera is back in working condition.

Today's Fortune on Orkut

2006-07-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

I logged into Orkut this morning and learnt that my fortune was "You are going to inherit a lot of wealth and be rich". Wow - wonder who that big donor of the wealth will be to make me rich. Just thought of penning it down for remember sakes...

From 9/11 to 7/11

2006-07-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

Just heard this morning about the deadly blasts in Mumbai - 7 bombs on local trains at 6:00 pm. Its very devastating to watch the scene as 147 are dead and more than 300 are injured. MSNBC has some nice links that I would like to share in my blog.

Timeline of attacks in India

Video - India train Blasts

Video - Over 100 dead in India train bombings (Possible suspect)

Through this blog entry I convey my condolences to the berived families

Science and God

2006-06-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

I got a forward from my cousin sister this afternoon and it was an article about Science and God. It tries to fathom the concept of "faith" - a term so loosely supported in the field of science. I liked the article and found it interesting enough to be posted in my blog. At the end it says that the person was Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India. I have no particular proof for that and I dont intend looking for one too. But the conversation itself is interesting and we all can learn a lot from this. Thanks to Kavya for forwarding this to me:

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem Science has with God, The Almighty. He asks one of his new students to stand and.....

Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?
Student is silent.

Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good?
Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.

Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God...

Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.

Prof: So who created evil?
Student does not answer.

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?
Student has no answer.

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes Faith. And that is the problem science has.

Now the student asked "Can I ask something to you Professor?"

Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it. (There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?

Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light...But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? then you are not a scientist, but a preacher?

(The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

WANT TO KNOW WHO THAT STUDENT WAS? This is a true story, and the student was none other than Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India.

See no evil, Hear no evil, Say no evil

2006-06-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Visited a few places with Gautam last week and happened to glance these items show cased at various places. Thought it might make an interesting entry in my blog and add to my photo collection of wierd thingys. Its fun - check them all out. Some people do have ideas running up their minds.

Frogs croaking ...no evil...

Dolphin, Whale and Turtle ...no evil...

Fishes spawning...no evil...

Pigs Oinking ..no evil...

Monkeys chattering ...no evil...

Dinner @ Lu Lai Garden

2006-06-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

It had been a long time since we had a change in out food, so today we thought of having dinner at the Lu Lai garden Vegetarian restaurant. The restaurant says it is 100% vegetarian and they also say that some dishes might have eggs and milk. Of course the dishes with the eggs are marked out and you just don't choose that if you don't eat/like eggs. Pop Question: When did egg become vegetarian that needed a separate warning label stuck next to the "100% Vegetarian"? The food was good though - we chose fried rice and soy vegetable curry.

The Lu Lai garden is located in Milpitas, South Bay. It had been almost 2 years now, since we last visited this place. When we walked in, the ambience brought back memories and we felt the atmosphere was the same including the restaurant management. The menu was the same with no particular new additions. One thing we had forgotten from our experience at this place - the quantity of food here is enormous. You need to really downsize your food size by atleast 50%. Hence for 4 people we just ordered 2 fried rice and 2 gravys. If you are in the South Bay and would like to have a vegetarian chinese hangout, this might as well be the place. Make sure you have cash as these folks do not accept credit cards.

Mom trying to pick up the tofu with the chopsticks

Outside the Lu Lai Garden Restaurant

Dad trying his tricks with the chopsticks

Crazy Motorist on 580W

2006-06-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

This morning I had the most harrowing experience of my life - a carzy motorist smashed the driver side mirror on Highway 580 and sped past me so fast that I had no clue what happened for a couple of minutes. It was the morning rush hour traffic on 580 W at around 9:10 am and I was near El Charro/Fallon road exit on Lane 4 when a motorist merged onto 580W and he was changing lanes to the 3rd lane from the 4th lane. As soon as I saw him change lanes to the 3rd lane I went past him. Maybe this pissed him off for whatever reason (maybe he was on the line separating lane 3 and lane 4 and he expected respect for his bike on the road, which I may not have given by indefinitely waiting for him, hence he got pissed) - he sped towards me and smashed my side of the mirror with his hand. Wow - what might have been his momentum to smash my mirror such that the mirror fell off on the highway. For one moment I did not know what happened and by the time I realized it he had slipped past many cars and disappeared into thin air. So much for motorist safety regulations on the road. I wondered if 911 would be an appropriate call as I was unsure whether this would be a case of emergency. I tried to take the exit and come back onto the highway to grab my mirror that was fallen on the road, but only in vain as I could not locate my broken mirror. I was hoping all this would be some bad dream that I can wake up and go back to sleep, but no, it was real! So I reached my work and then visited the local CHP (California Highway Patrol) office and registered a hit-and-run case. The officer there asked me why I did not call 911 and he advised me to do so next time anything like this happens. So that's where it stands - Motorists should be made to obey the same rules as cars - no passing in between lanes. When cars have to obey lane rules, motorists also should be made to obey, otherwise maniac stupid motorist drivers like this cannot be avoided and they are nothing but a nuisance on the road. Glad nothing else happened to me!

Madharasi - Chennai Kaaran?

2006-06-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

After a long time yesterday we got a chance to watch a Tamil movie - 'Madharasi' . It sounded weird because Madras is no longer called Madras - its name is now 'Chennai' and I always wondered what the people in Chennai would be called as - 'Chennai-kaaran'. Noticed that the movie had Arjun as the star and I like Arjun as an actor. Although all his movies are violent, his acting is still good. So got the movie and popped it into the DVD player. Learnt that the movie was directed by Arjun himself. Then I started to get my doubts about the movie but still continued to watch it. Let me give you a brief synopsis of the movie and then I will tell you my opinion about it.

Synopsis: Arjun's screen name is Kasi and he is a violent hitman who simply smashes people's bodies if they commit a mistake. Kasi's parents are brutally murdered by 3 people while Kasi was still a young lad. The now grown-up Kasi is in search of the 3 murderers to avenge his parents' death. Kasi's friend (Vivek) is in Mumbai (Bombay) and he spots the 3 murderers and lets Kasi know of this. The remaining part of the movie is in Mumbai. Kasi kills 2 of the murderers and the last one flees the scene. Amidst all this, there are 2 gangs in Mumbai run by 2 brothers. The 2 brothers hate each other to an extent that one keeps plotting against the other to kill him. Kasi joins one of the brother's gang to safeguard the interests of a colony of people in which Kasi's lovergirl is also residing. In the other gang there is another guy namely Siva who is as powerful and witty as Kasi. The games begin now against each other, Siva and Kasi hating each other's guts. As fate has in every gangster movie, Siva turns against his leader and leaves his brother in custody of Kasi (although he hates Kasi, he trusts him), Kasi refuses to hand over Siva's brother to his leader and hence is forced to leave the gang, the 2 gang brothers get together and plot against Siva and Kasi and in the process they kill Kasi's lovergirl and Siva's brother. Rest is predictable - Siva and Kasi get together and kill the entire gang of the 2 brothers. Finally, Siva dies leaving one of the gang brother's son (a good son who would have left his father owing to his father's gang business) and the son's would-be wife in custody of Siva.

My opinion: The movie in short was a load of crap but still sat and watched it, that's besides the point. At first the movie feels as if Kasi is hunting for his parent's killers and once he finds them, the climax is how he manages to bring them to justice. But then that plot would become too common and hence in the first 30 minutes or so of the movie the first 2 of the killers are already sought and killed by Kasi. So remains only one of them - the movie revolves around Kasi's activities with the gang and how Siva and Kasi meet and fireworks emerge with each other. The very fact of avenging the parent's killers becomes a side-story and Kasi's and Siva's love/marriage story takes new turns. From the beginning to the end there is violence, killing, gun shots and fights. Meaningless firings in Mumbai city - makes one feel as though the city is always in tension with these gangs floating around. As usual in all Hindi movies the police is made a laughing stock and this movie does not spare that thought too - the police are unable to prevent any violence in the city in this movie. Not one police investigation occurs for any of the murders, not once is Kasi scared of getting arrested by the police. In my opinion this movie should have been named as 'Siva-Kasi' as it revolves pretty much around the 2 characters - Siva and Kasi, and also SivaKasi is a brand name for fireworks and all this movie had was fireworks when these 2 characters met.

My rating: Not fit for any rating, Sorry but true. Meaningless movie with predictable tragedies and moments and no firm storyline - blind gunshots and violence!

NPS Alumni meet @ Thai Chamchagalu....

2006-06-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Saturday of June 10th was so blazingly hot that the entire journey from East Bay to West Bay and then further to South Bay and then back to East bay I had the car AC turned on. The temperature was about mid 80s and it was sucking out all the energy and water in my body. But one thing amidst all this excited me - the NPS (National Public School) meet - the first of its kind in the Bay Area. A few Bay Area folks (northern California) decided to meet up at Thai Spoons (Chamchagalu for all the Kannada speaking folks out there) in Sunnyvale for lunch on a bright Saturday afternoon. We expected about 10, but only 7 turned up eventually at around 1:30 PM. A few others had other things and hence could not make it.

Rap sheet of the gang:

[1] Prashanth Holenarsipur and wife Nanditha Nadig (left)
[2] Arvind Prabhudev and wife Prafulla (right)
[3] Anand Rangaswamy (right behind Arvind)
[4] Vaishnav (left behind Prashanth)
[5] Gautam Ramachandran (left behind Vaishnav)
[6] Harsha Ramakrishna (left behind Gautam)
[7] Karthik Nagaraj (right behind Anand)

Prashanth and Arvind are from NPS-INR '92 batch (XII). Anand and Vaishnav are NPS-INR '99 batch. Gautam is NPS-RNR '92 batch (IX). Harsha is NPS-RNR '93 batch (X) and myself is NPS-RNR '95 batch (XII). Prashanth and Arvind studied together. Anand and Vaishnav have studied together. Harsha, Gautam and myself have studied together and I know them for a long time now.

So you can see that about half were from RNR and half from INR. We shared nostalgic experiences from each other's branches. It was fun in its own way. We all shared some common experiences like how we all got punished at school, how the principal was strict in checking our neatness and cleanliness (nails not cut, hair not cut...).

One common question we asked amongst ourselves - How our experience at NPS was? Was it good? Did we like it? The answer was pretty unanimous - Yes and Yes! We all enjoyed our experiences at NPS and definitely feel good as to where we are today and attribute it to the good education our parents gave us through this good school. Today we are all working in various companies and exhibiting various qualities that have made us excel in our field of work and I feel it is the result of a good education from NPS and how the school has honed our brains to apply our skills to good use.

Three cheers to NPS - Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Hurray! Hope we can have a larger crowd next time and hopefully we can meet more often and not just food, but for playing tennis, basketball et al.

P.S: I remember when I used to study in the school, the name was NES - National English School at RNR and the INR branch was called as NPS - National Public School. Why did they change the name to NPS altogether - its no way a public school - the fees is humungous! Anyway the name can change but the school itself is still the same for me - my best years of my childhood there!

The entire album can be located at the following link:

http://imageevent.com/karcoms/npsalumnimeet

All traffic leads to Hacienda Dr

2006-06-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I would leave a little early to work and so I left at around 8:45 am. Usually the traffic on 580 W is heavy between 8:30 and 9:30 in the mornings but today was somewhat killing. The freeway had literally become a parking spot and we were just short of taking short breaks to Starbucks. I could see various people taking off on the shoulder to slip into the nearest exit and get out of the road. I wondered, if the cops were present, these folks would not even dare to step into the shoulder lane, let alone drive on the shoulder. Just as I finished my thought, I could see several cop cars whizzing past me with full blown lights and siren. Definitely there was an accident somewhere and I could hear the lady on the news in the radio was cautioning people of Hacienda drive near Pleasanton on 580 about the accident that had occured. So I call my work and tell them that I would be in a few minutes later than usual owing to the deluge in the traffic and it was stuck - literally stuck! At about 9:30 I saw the exit to Hacienda Dr and a sense of rejoice soaked my tiresome legs and was excited that in another few minutes I could be out of the damn freeway. Coming to think about it, I had travelled only 6 miles from my home so far. As I approached the exit, I noticed had happened and there was no sign that anything had happened in the past 1 hour. Why then the cops made such a big deal out of it? What could have slowed the traffic down to 5 miles an hour for about an hour and why all of sudden everything was clearing up? I will never get an answer to that. Anyways this reminds me an old adage - 'All roads lead to Rome' and it felt that everyone was heading towards Hacienda Dr today. So it was quite a venture, 7 miles in just under an hour, Woo Hoo!

The 99 Club

2006-06-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

An interesting story that can teach us a very important lesson. Got it through one of the forwards from my wife. Read on:

Once upon a time there lived a King who despite his luxurious lifestyle was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he the Supreme Ruler of the Land unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy.

The King asked the servant, "How come you are so happy?"

The man replied, " Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."

The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, " Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."

"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.

The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is - Place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."

When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy, wow, so many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, " What could've happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins! " He looked everywhere he could but that last coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection. From that day the servant's life changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He felt so unhappy all the time, he stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, " Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club." He continued, " The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented because they're always yearning and striving for that extra 1 and are always telling themselves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life."

We too can be happy with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better we need to watch out for our monkey minds which may want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness and we hurt the people around us. All these as a price for our growing needs and desires. It's really up to us, whether we want to join 'The 99 Club' or not!

Amul - The taste of Indiaaaaa...

2006-06-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

My friend sent me an email this morning that had cartoon clippings of faux Amul Butter Ads. They were all funny as they related to real Ads and movies shown on television. Check them out:

The three stooges meet again

2006-06-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

At San Francisco Airport when Gautam arrived
(June 4th 2006)

After about 6 1/2 years the 3 stooges met and had lunch together. You might be wondering who the 3 stooges are - one of them is surely me, the other 2 are my close friends - Gautam and Harsha. It was about 9:00 pm Jan 1st 2000 when Gautam and myself bid goodbye to Harsha in Bangalore and left for Chicago to pursue further studies. Then in May of 2001 I bid Gautam goodbye and started work in the Bay Area. Then Gautam returned to India and its been 5 years since I had even seen him. Harsha joined me in San Jose in Dec 2002. So it had been 6 1/2 years for him since he had met Gautam. So one morning as usual when I was checking my emails, I get an email from Gautam that, he would be visiting Redwood City for about 3 weeks. I felt joyous in my mind thinking of meeting my pal after so many years. And since Harsha was also located so closeby, we all felt its high time all the 3 meet at one place - and lo behold - the reunioun was at my place. It felt nice seeing Gautam coming out of the airport and meeting him after so many years. Welcome back dude! Here are a couple of pictures from an old album - you can see how we have all changed in these past so many years. Three cheers for our friendship!!! There is another close friend we have - Bhavin, who is still in India - wonder when the Gang of 4 can have a reunion

Gautam and myself in my room before leaving to the airport (Jan 1st 2000)

Harsha and myself at the airport (Jan 1st 2000)

Harsha with Gautam at the airport (Jan 1st 2000)

Does this have any eggs, meat or ...?

2006-05-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

Thought I would take some time to write this article - the life of a vegetarian in restaurants. Bay Area is one place in United States where one cannot complain about food and believe me - this article is not about me cribbing me about food. This article is not written with an attitude of repugnance and abhorrence against people who eat meat (that includes eggs too). Please have an open mind in reading my thoughts about this and there is no need to have any antagonistic feelings, right? This article is just a recount of something my ears caught this afternoon in "Garlic Di Pasta" restaurant and how I feel about it.

Our engineering team decided to go out for lunch to Garlic Di Pasta, Italian restaurant. If you still have not guessed it so far, I'm a vegetarian (that includes all living animals/birds that move/don't move and all animals/birds that have yet been born too). We sat at our table and started to look at the menu. Everything on the menu had something to do with either meat or eggs. To top it off, there was cheese too, a real health killer. So, I skim through the menu from top to bottom, making sure I read everything what the item had in it. When my turn came up, I did order the Tortillini Primavera and it read as follows: "Cheese Tortillini with vegetables and Alfredo Sauce". Hmmm, this looked to be a safe wager for me. While ordering, I asked the lady a couple of questions and the following conversation ensued:

Me: I will have the Tortillini Primavera
Lady: Sure!
Me: Does this have any meat?
Lady: No!
Me: Does this have any eggs?
Lady: Hmm, that, I'm not sure, let me ask the cook

She goes in for a couple of minutes and returns

Lady: The sauce does not have any eggs
Me: Cool (I wondered what she meant by telling the sauce did not have any eggs)
Lady: Do you want salad or soup with the Entree?
Me: What salad do you have? (I knew there was no point in asking what the soup had, because all the soups have beef base/chicken base for the broth)
Lady: Vegetable salad with vinegar and cheese
Me: There is no meat in the salad right?
Lady: No!
Me: Then I will have the salad without the cheese
Lady: Sure, but the tortillini has cheese, are you ok with that?
Me: Yes, I know, you cannot make tortillini without cheese
Lady: Ha Ha Ha, yes

So, we all engage in some conversations with each other when the lady comes back to me and,

Lady: The cook just told me that the tortillini itself has egg
Me: Then I will have something that has no eggs, why don't you suggest something?
Lady: Why don't you have the Fettuchini?
Me: Fine! Thanks for letting me know that, I appreciate it!
Lady: Sure, no problem

Thats when it occured to me that the lady infact had told me that the "...sauce does not have any eggs" and it completely slipped out of my mind to ask if the pasta itself has eggs. Good that I learnt something today. Then I just stepped out my table and walked across the restaurant hall to the outside when I overheard another Indian ask the lady: "Does this have any meat or eggs?". Thats when it striked me again that I'm not alone in this venture to not eat meat or eggs and still learn to enjoy with people and get-togethers with friends. In that aspect, Bay Area has given a lot of oppurtunities for vegetarians to maintain their vegetarianism and not force them to convert to eating meat. I would say, eating meat (that includes eggs) is only a matter of choice and cannot be justifiable by any other reason other than the fact that the person relishes it. Pristine! Ain't it?

Many people have asked me this question: "Why don't you eat egg? Is egg meat? I dont think so! You drink milk which is an animal product. How then can you defend your vegetarianism?" Interesting question and I didn't know how to answer the question until a couple of years back when my seer answered that question for me. Here it follows: There is no concept of Eggitarian. Egg is not vegetarian - Why? Is milk ok? Yes, because milk is a product that is produced by the mammary glands of the cow. Consider the case of the egg - its actually a little disgusting to know what the egg really is - it is the menstrual discharge of the hen that unfortunately did not go further to become a chick. Just as how the women in human beings discharge the egg every month (if there is no sperm to further become a fetus), even the hen discharges its fluids as an egg and people consume it thinking it is vegetarian. More than debating about whether egg is vegetarian or not, now you can comprehend about the fact from where the egg originates. So, that answers some basic FAQ.

Coming back to the topic, its interesting how the restaurants really do have vegetarian options for people who really want to be one, you just have to ASK for it. If you don't ask, then you will not get it by default and these options are not advertised in the menu. For instance, eggs is by default considered vegetarian by the folks out here. Too bad for them that its not and people like me insist on asking before ordering anything. So finally I got the fettucini and it was ok, but very creamy and cheesy. Cheese - oh boy, thats another story that needs a blog entry of its own! Its as bad as the meat (including eggs) but thats the best I could go. Overall, enjoyed the lunch with colleagues and friends.

Blaise Pascal's quotes

2006-05-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

I was reading my mail as usual and Google was pushing in some quote of the day stuff in my gmail browser window. I usually don't care about it but something caught my eye towards the news, it was a quote that read:

"Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience."

I clicked on the link and followed to the site that had various quotes from Pascal. I have here a few that I found interesting. Its amazing how much power is packed in a line or 2 of his words.

Some of the quotes on faith are:
[1] Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.
[2] Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.
[3] Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.
[4] Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other

Some general quotes are:
[1] Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back
[2] It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory
[3] Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason
[4] Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth
[5] Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary
[6] Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself
[7] Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical
[8] Law, without force, is impotent
[9] Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere
[10] Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary
[11] You always admire what you really don't understand

I found the above quotes to be interesting because I can relate every bit of it to some incident in my life. Its amazing!

Dumped the Philips DVD player

2006-05-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

I really was getting frustated by the entire design of the remote for the new DVD player I had bought. It was so bland and the buttons were closely placed that my fat fingers would not be able to handle it. So I decided to dump it for a DVD player from an Indian store - Kumud Electronics. I bought a Daewoo player that can play all formats, work for both India and US voltage supplies and also be able to play all region DVDs. This was fun and interesting. I checked out the remote and found it to be very nice and handy. The cost was pretty much what the Philips was, but since it had all these extra fancy stuff that you dont usually find in American store players, the cost was about 20 bucks more. But hey, i dont need to crib about the remote anymore right? So, now I'm happy body enjoying my DVDs!

DVD player remote does not have Open/close button

2006-05-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

As word has it these days, electronic items are bound to blow on your face anytime. So we went to Walmart last night to pick up a new DVD player. This time my eyes caught a Phillips DVD player. It was nice and it was sleek. It would play all formats, literally everything except a hit on the head! So bought it home and hooked it up - everything was fine. Then I thought, I should fit in the batteries to the remote and try it out too, just to make sure everything works fine. I was literally searching for the open/close button on the remote for almost 5 minutes. I could not locate it and neither could my dad. The only way we could eject/close the tray was using the control on the player itself.

What a load of crappy engineering reasoning - the engineers at Phillips would have probably thought that the eject/open operations are associated with ONLY loading and unloading the DVDs/CDs, so anyway the person has to make a trip to the player and do the job, so why not cut off the button altogether and save some remote space. I guess they did not think about the time when the player begins to act crazy and you have open and close the tray with the DVD/CD in already, a zillion times until the zillionth time it recognizes that it has the DVD/CD in. Well, I guess at that stage it is better to get another Phillips, that's probably the reasoning behind their engineers in their Functional Design and final product release. For whatever it worth - the player is working fine and I hope it remains to be in working condition at least for another year. Forget about you planning on buying new electronic stuff when they come out, now a days, the players have an auto-off switch that refuses to work after certain time periods, thereby removing any chance of your planning, instead forcing you to buy a new one/upgrade. Ironically I work in this field too, so let me quit cribbing and go home and watch some nice videos with my parents. Good night folks!

Childhood memories

2006-05-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

This has been moved to the following location:

http://tvmoments.blogspot.com/2006/05/childhood-memories-ek-anek.html

$10 and Rs.10 - Deal

2006-04-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

Wanted to post a blog on this topic for a long time, but never got a chance. It was the end of day after a busy week and we wanted to relax a bit and stretch out. So we decided to play carrom. Mom and dad proposed a deal - If they win, then we, Priya and myself have to give them $10 and if we win, they would give us Rs.10 A unfair deal - but still thought we would give it a chance. Of course we were all joking here, but the fun part is the game itself.

For the first few boards each of us were warming up and took almost 5 to 6 shots for each pawn. Then when things started to get set - the score was already 19 to nothing, my parents leading. Then we got 6 points. With all the squeezing and charging, my dad and mom pulled their score to 25. Then in one of the boards my mom put in our pawn instead of theirs and got us another 6 points. So it was 25-12. We pulled the board along for another 2 boards, each time giving them only 1 point to add on. So the final board, score was 27-12 - my dad demonstarted his power stroke by clearing 3 pawns, one red and a cover for red, all in a row. So the game was over - 29 to 12. We lost $10. Then Priya remembered some other bet with my dad in which she had won. That bet was for Rs.500 and now in fact they have to give us Rs.50 It was nice playing carrom after a long time.

Nah, the guy ran away...

2006-04-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I had bought an axe from Home Depot. Why did I buy an axe? - to chop of some short trees in my backyard. When I realized that the axe was so heavy I could not even lift it properly, let alone strike it. I didn't realize its heaviness at the store. So I decided to return it back today. I took to the lady at the front register and told her that I was interested in returning the item. She as usual asked me for the reason why I was returning the item. Usually they need to ask, because if there is some defect in the item, she has to file it accordingly. I told her that the axe was very heavy and that I could not even lift it, let alone use it. To that, the lady standing next to her, very wittingly shot back telling "Nah, I guess the guy he was chasing ran away, so the axe is of no use now, so he is returning it." We all had a wonderful laugh. I got my money back for the axe and I returned back to my shopping @ Home Depot.

Hmmm, it was not just another hot day

2006-04-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I remember sitting in my seat at work working my ass off, sorry, sweating my ass off, when someone told me that the temperature inside was around 75F. Wow - no wonder it was getting a little too uncomfortable, so we got the thermostat dialed down to 68F. Still we were seating. Finally we all left for home at around 6:30 in the evening hoping tomorrow would be a pleasant day. We get a mail from our admin that the air conditioner had conked out since yesterday and that the maintenance were fixing it. We have about 20 computers around each other in the engineering department and this is just shy of sitting on Mt. Helena, when she is just about to go off. So it just wasn't another hot day, it was something more than that.

What does it take to be an MLA in India?

2006-04-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

I was reading the news from India as usual from my various sources (www.msn.co.in) and I bumped onto this article on MSN-India. It was pretty interesting. Veerappan's wife, Muthulakshmi is contesting for elections against the DMK and AIADMK in TamilNadu. Excellent - another feather in the cap of Indian politics. The article explains why the folks in the Dharmapuri forest area are willing to support Veerappan's wife in the elections and that she should become a MLA. The people of Dharmapuri forest believe that Veerappan was a very good man, who has done good deeds for them. They believe that in the eyes of the law, he was a criminal who had killed almost 125 people including lots of police. Making the long story short, they believe that Veerappan was like the Robinhood of Dharmapuri forest village.

Robinhood, maybe, but at the same time, a highly corrupted Robinhood who robbed much more than what the poor needed. Reading this article made me feel what our Indian politics is becoming off lately. What are the minimum qualifications to become a MLA/MP? This is a highly controversial question - Let me tell you why even I have conflicting thoughts about this. An MLA is the one who promises people to help the people of his/her own district and make things happens for their community. So, looking from the perspective of reaching out to the people, it is only people who are influential and people who are trusted, best suited for the job. Looking at the perspective from the society, those who do not have a good name in all respects of society are highly unqualified for the job. Now you understand my dilemma.

So, coming to Muthulakshmi - probably an innocent wife of Veerappan, I don't know anything about her, do you think she is fit to be the MLA? Is it going to be an insult to our Indian politics? Not that our Indian politics is highly ranked amongst the most respectable post, but still in the annals of our history, such comedies will be inked forever for future generations to loose respect and value in our system. This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in our system - take Phoolan Devi, bandit queen, who was successfully elected in the Lucknow elections.
I'm in no capacity to comment on what amendments need to be done for improving the selection criteria to contest for elections, but it definitely makes me put my head down in shame when people like Veerappan are given the status of "being good" (ironically, a mass murderer) and that his popularity is being used to support his wife win the elections.

Picture Credits: www.msn.co.in and www.pbs.org

Latest Technology in ringtones

2006-04-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

This has been moved to the following location:

http://tvmoments.blogspot.com/2006/04/latest-technology-in-ringtones.html

$3.13 and still rising

2006-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of days back the gas price near my home was $3.05 and yesterday I saw it rise to $3.13 -> straight 8 cents in one night. Wow! Its going to be one rough ride for everyone.

U-haul standing, hauler missing

2006-04-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

The other day when I was driving to work, I noticed that the traffic in front of me wasn't moving even though the signal was a green. Hmmm, then I saw a huge U-haul truck in the front was not moving, so everybody had to change the lane to their left and go ahead. While I did so, I noticed the driver in the truck was missing in action. He had dumped the truck right in the middle of a busy road. I wish I had my camera, I could have shot a picture of the scene. Anyway, by afternoon they had towed the truck away from the signal.

Full tank, 51 bucks please

2006-04-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

Gas prices have risen so much that I started to feel the pinch of it when I filled my car with gas a couple of days ago. I was billed for 51 bucks - 17 gallons @ 3 bucks per gallon, lowest grade gasoline. My wife's car - full tank is about 10 gallons, so that comes to 30 bucks. Wow! Luckily I don't have to drive as much as I used to a few months back. Starting today, I stopped going home for lunch to save on the extra 17 miles that I was driving back and forth from work to home in the afternoon all these days. My car is a bigtime gas drinker. So now, I drop my wife to station in her car and take her car to my work. Her car is more fuel-efficient than mine. Let me see if that is going to save up on some gas money.

Bush has ordered an investigation as to why the gas prices rose so quickly around the nation. We Californians get affected by this so much more than everybody else as everything here is expensive and gas is the last thing we want expensive. What would happen to this country if one day, we all run out of gasoline and there is absolutely no gas anywhere? Lets take that as a hypothetical situation - think about the consequences. We keep moving forward thinking that some scientists somewhere will come up with some indigenous idea of running a car on water, but we fail to understand that the root of all problems lies in our habits and the way the society is built on. In US at least, I see ads for cars/SUVs/trucks almost every 10 minutes once in every channel. Vehicles like Hummer and any other gas hogging machines need to be de-advertised, instead the government has incentives for potential buyers, what a joke! Why can't hybrid cars be more affordable, so that people will have a choice to at least think about buying it. Make the non-hybrid cars more expensive, and make the hybrid cars lesser expensive. Try to charge more taxes for new buyers of non-hybrid cars and @ the same time give in more incentives for hybrid buyers.

Certain amount of the American population thrives on having speed and more horsepower for their cars. I heard one guy, on television the other day, tell the news reporter that he rather pay more in gas by driving a big powerful SUV/car than drive a small fuel-efficient car. How much more dumb and uneducated can a person get? We have seen computer models sketch the shaky future we have with the global warming warnings and we just keep buying more and more automobiles everyday. Bush and Arnold keep blaming India and China for the rising fuel costs. There logic is that India and China have various resources that use gasoline in very inefficient ways and that impact is being borne by drivers like you and me by paying more for gas driving in this country. I don't get this logic. America spends almost 60% of the natural resources to feed 80% of its people who drive automobiles everyday. How then can India and China be the consumers of this market that would drive the oil price up for America? Hasn't anyone thought about the war that President Bush is fighting in the Middle East, slowly trying to empower every Middle East country's oil resources. Well, Bush can argue that he is safeguarding the interests of Americans, who need the oil to be moving ahead of everyone else and stay ahead but, to me it is dumb. I think, when Bush says, Americans, he is referring to the big red chunk in the electoral map that voted him to be President twice. Anyway, I don't want to make this blog a political one, but then dude - this price is pinching me and I wish it stabilizes below 3 and not @ 3 or above 3, but below 3. It should stabilize below 3 so that we have room for growth of inflation tomorrow when it really reaches 3 and up forever. Then think about when gas prices go upto $4/gallon.

Personally, what I feel is that, even if the oil prices go up, the crowd is not going to give up driving all of a sudden. How can people get to work? There is no public transport in some places. It will take a while until people start to feel the pinch of it and then by the time they start to make amends, the prices steady out at $3.XX and then its 'Ahhh, lets make amends some other time, looks like the price is stabilizing...". Then another wave of price hikes gush in and history repeats itself. Why don't we learn from our lessons, why can't there be any public transport like what the Europeans and Japanese have. Folks in Europe travel from Paris to London for work in public transport (a 3 hour commute one way). Here, the Bay bridge itself takes 3 hours to clear on a busy Monday morning and that too with almost 50% of them traveling in BART. I heard the last time when BART went on strike Bay Bridge was clogged for 8 hours.

The tales of human nature and how we adapt to certain things is in itself a science to study and we can look at it some other day. In short, people tend to adapt themselves to whatever is there and nobody makes an attempt to do something else that should have been done a long time ago. What happened 6 years ago when gas prices shot to 2 bucks - all the hue and cry died and now why are we cribbing about gas prices when it is @ $3. We asked for it, we should pay for it, but then it hurts. It pinches and it hurts and I know this because I paid 51 bucks for filling my gas tank for the first time in my car driving history. Wow, thats something I can feather in my cap of achievements. I have to run now to pick up my wife from the train station.

Launched a Puzzle blog

2006-04-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Not that I'm a puzzle guru or something but just wanted one place with all puzzles and its related discussions. This way we can all brainstorm some really nice questions on the web and come up with good solutions. Launched a blog last night:

Puzzle guru

Enjoy folks!

Blogger publishing was down until now

2006-04-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

At last I was able to publish after almost 24 hours. Rumors are that blogger was splogged. SPLOG - wow that's a new buzzword. Spam Blog - so spammers have attacked the blogosphere too. There were so many folks since yesterday on the Googlegroups blogger group posting messages about their inability to publish their posts. I noticed the problem yesterday morning at about 10:30 am and since then blogger had been behaving a little rudely, not allowing me to view by blogs and not allowing me to publish my posts. status.blogger.com had no news of this problem and it was pretty frustrating.

This morning I was reading some posts on the group related to Blogger and its service. Some folks were of the opinion that Blogger, being a free service from Google, that provided lots of free service with no ADs on the blogs, should be given a fair chance for the engineers to come back on Monday and looks at the problem. Some other folks were of the opinion that even though it was a free service, it ought to care for its customers. Wow, so much for blogging. Just then it occurred to me that - yes I'm a blogoholic and I was getting pretty frustrated about blogger giving lots of troubles lately. So last night I tried out some other blog worlds like Wordpress.

What can I say - the interface is nice and it is pretty responsive than blogger. Blogger has given me some trouble in the past. I registered and setup my blogosphere. The good thing they have is "Import", so I imported all my blogs from blogger and it did a pretty good job at importing. Wait until I opened the blogs. I opened my blog entries one by one - it looked good until I hit across some images. All the images were still referenced to the http://photo1.blogger.com/... - I can understand this as it is just reading the feed from blogger but all the formatting was screwed up. In blogger I had text starting off right after the image and it adjusted itself correctly. Here in WP, the text would not go near the image. It always started off below or at the bottom of the image. The sizes of the images were screwed up too. How in the freaking world can I update my template? I can only choose how my presentation is. I cannot add/delete any template settings as what I do in blogger. I may be new to WP and I still do not know the hacks around it but my first look, I felt comfortable in my land - Blogger. So I waited until now for them to fix all their shit and start publishing again. Although blogger is free, it has a lot to offer. I know there are no categories. Maybe Google will think of getting them in. But for now I'm sticking with blogger.

Blogging tools

2006-04-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Folks,

I got frustrated using the typical browser blog editing - I had to switch between IE and FF lot many times. So I searched on-line for some blog editor clients.

Writely - no way, Google has stopped all registrations for Writely.

Blogger for Word - No No No no way, I don't have Word!

So I found an editor, "Zoundry" and its pretty good. I'm posting this entry from Zoundry. Check it out - its easy to setup and easy to use. It has support for lots of blogs and Blogger happens to be one of them. It supports getting all the blogs from your site, to view all entries, create new ones and delete existing ones.

Zoundry Blog editor

The Zoundry blog

Caveat: If you post an entry with an old date, no doubt the archive html page will get created if it does not exist but if the archive HTML page does exist then you have to use blogger to republish your site to reflect the posted blog. But thats OK for me

Pramod Mahajan shot by his brother

2006-04-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

It was in the morning at around 10:30 and my dad was calling for me to see the news on Aaj Tak - Pramod Mahajan was shot. The news in the channels like Udaya TV, Sun TV and Aaj Tak narrated that it was his brother who had shot him - Pravin Mahajan. The cause was - property scrap. Well, the police had already arrested Pravin Mahajan and had seized the weapon. Pramod Mahajan was admitted to the Hinduja hospital in Mumbai and he was in intensive care unit to remove the 3 bullets that were shot at point blank range. Doctors have tried to remove all the bullets but were unable to remove one bullet that has damaged the liver very badly. They have called a liver specialist from Australia. He is to diagnose the critical state that Pramod Mahajan is in.

Is it political? Is it property? Is it because Pramod Mahajan did not give time for his brother? We do not know, right now it is because of property. I'm sure hindu.com and Google search will take you updated information. May god bless Pramod Mahajan and help him recover soon!

A few pictures of Pravin Mahajan taken from Hindu.com

A blog you can read (but I don't know how authentic it is): http://pramodmahajan.blogspot.com

Long live those school days

2006-04-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got an email from my cousin sister in Bangalore and the email was funny. There are 4 pictures here and they show how a student has scribbled some answers in his exam paper. This is for fun, so don't go off arguing as to whether this is real or not and all. Hence, have fun... Please click on each picture to see it big.

kcolc sdrawkcab eht

2006-04-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

People, this is not any French/Spanish/Latin/Alien language. Its simple plain English but written backwards. I saw this clock long time back at my wife's relative's place and since then I'm intrigued by the design of it. How can people come up with wierd ideas like this and still make your mind work "clockwise." Your mind is so set to read the clock in the "clockwise" direction that it takes a while to even accept the fact that there could be something showing the time that moves in an anticlockwise direction. How did the clockwise direction get its name as clockwise? Probably the guy who designed the clock first made it go in that direction and hence it got the name. Yet again thanks to Google search and the guy who designed the flash version on it.

The link to the flash version of the backwards clock is here.

Clock code originally from Herly Ersan.

Car Car Car, Ellnodi Car...

2006-04-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

I was driving to work today and just as I was about to change lanes to the exit only lane, I noticed a guy in a Mercedes car trying to change the lane to his left. He was about to change the lane when he suddenly changed his mind - good, because there was someone in his blind spot. I was wondering why he did not notice it before planning on changing his lane, when, I got to know the reason why. Just as I pulled next to him after he had safely changed the lane, I noticed he was shaving with his rotor shaver while he was driving at 60 miles per hour.

Just then I remembered the song "Car Car Car, Ellnodi Car..." from the Kannada movie "Nanna Preetiya Hudugi". In that song, is depicted various things we people in America do while driving - shaving, makeup, eating, drinking and also making out. "...singal nalle shaving maadi, traffic nalli makeup maadi, parking lottal preethi madtharooo..." Not that I have not witnessed this before but today when I saw a similar incident, it just occured to me how true the song is to its lyrics and how funny it is when you actually see it happen. I believe we need to have some traffic safety sense and not divert our attention to anything while driving. Anyway, just wanted to put this down in my blog. Be careful folks, drive safely - driving is a privilege and not a right. The picture shown on the left is the typical scene I witnessed today. Thanks to whoever put this image up and thanks to Google search.

SF celebrations - an article by KTVU

2006-04-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Before I loose this page and the video link, here they are:

San Francisco's celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Quake

Video of the SF Celebration - by KTVU's Rita Williams

Unsexiest men named by Boston Weekly

2006-04-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

Just logged in to read the news on MSN.com and what do I find - an article linking me to the top 100 unsexiest men. What a load of crap! Here is the link to the direct site:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12371978

I don't understand what gives the right to these people to name someone sexy or someone unsexy over someone else. Isn't that rude? How would these folks feel after seeing their names in the the top 100 of the unsexiest list? On the contrary these folks are celebrities so they get some publicity mileage, but still consider if the a similar analogy is applied to normal people like you and me. How would you like it if your friends circle put out a list - the most friendly, the most handsome, the most sexist, the most unfriendly, ... How would you feel if your workplace were to put out such lists. Just because some folks are celebrities, doesn't give anyone any right to comment on their personal hygiene, sexiness, or unsexiness.

What has the world come of to? Can't we even respect the privacy of other people? A famous personality or an infamous personality - they are still humans and they still lead a life like yours and mine. The basic essence of existence is met with both the groups of folks, forget about the standard of living. I'm not talking about the rich and the poor here.

I find this article to be totally abrasive to all the people around the world and not just those who have been listed as the top 100 unsexiest men. To top it all, Osama bin laden has made it to the list. What a shame - this country's media derives pleasure in putting out such lists and they believe that if Osama's name appears somewhere, someplace then they can draw more mileage towards their headlines. The authors of this article are 2 guys and why did they rule themselves out of the cut? Idiots!

Bay area remembers the quake of 1906

2006-04-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

April 18th 2006, exactly 100 years after the dreadful quake of 1906 that shook San Francisco for 50 seconds. The city was wrecked by the earthquake at 5:13 a.m., and then destroyed by the seventh Great Fire that burned for almost four days. The ground beneath liquefied and thousands of people were trapped underneath. In 1980 it was estimated that the damage in 1906 was about $500 million USD. Almost 3000 people lost their lives in that fatal quake that might have measured between 7.7 and 8.3. There is an interesting article as to why scientists cannot agree upon one figure for the magnitude. Check out the article here:

What was the magnitude?

KTVU has some amazing pictures put up on their website and these pictures bring out the scene 100 years back after the devastating quake. Some of these pictures were delivered to KTVU by gran children of the quake affected victims who are now about 103 to 109 years old. Thanks to all of them for making these pictures available to us so we can at least try and imagine how the secnario was at that time. Thanks to SFMuseum.org for making certain pictires available to KTVU. KTVU has some videos too of the great quake of 1906. Do check them out. In all cases all these pictures and videos are copyrigthed material of KTVU and they may be used for informational purposes.

Link to the original page on KTVU's website

A few pictures from the slideshow on KTVU's website are shown below. For the complete list of pictures that were shown on KTVU's website please visit the gallery @ the following link:

http://imageevent.com/karcoms/1906earthquake100thanniversary

Some of the videos shown on KTVU's website are:

San Francisco prepares for the centennial of the 1906 earthquake

Words of warning from Scientists

San Francisco during the 1906 quake

A quake victim's experience in 1906

Another website that has some good information on the 1906 quake with some pictures

SFMuseum.org's link to the quake timeline

Ramanujam goes to Hollywood - Tribute or Insult?

2006-04-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Folks, I was browsing through some of the archives in Deccan Herald newspaper and I found an article in the April 15th paper that was titled "Ramanujam goes to Hollywood". Make sure you read the article before reading my blog entry. The article can be accessed by the direct link below:

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr152006/foreign1621112006414.asp

I would like to comment a few words on this - I wonder if this movie is going to be a tribute or an insult to Ramanujam. You might ask me why, and yes, I do have an answer to my wonder. The United States, or as a matter of fact, the western civilization is not very well known for retaining historical facts. They always seem to portray what they want to for their readers or viewers and in due course of time, history looses its originality and people begin to accept the so called flaunted theories and explanations. This has been true for various works related to our Hinduism, its related Spirituality and the Indian civilization in general. Hence I'm not a keen believer in American works of Indian people and Indian culture. They do not seem to portray the real being. I may be wrong here and that's why you can name my feeling as being skeptical.

Take Gandhi, for example - it was not directed by an Indian and more so ever, Gandhi was played by Ben Kingsly. Admitted that the entire screenplay and the scripts were immaculate, but who is there to verify the authenticity of the take. I'm really not sure of some of the things that was portrayed. Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong - we will never know. I'm glad that there are some people who are interested in bringing out a movie based on a very famous icon of India, but at the same time I feel bad that our own Indian producers or directors, so far have not attached importance in bringing out such iconic movies. Even if they did, they would intermix it with love, songs, dreams and many such melodramatic sequences that would make the viewer feel bored about the entire movie. Take Bhagat Singh for example - so many versions of Bhagat Singh were released a couple of years back. Each version portrayed different scenarios of Bhagat Singh and finally as a viewer I was confused as to which version to believe in. Maybe it is better if Indian folks do not do such iconic movies as they tend to overdo certain things. Maybe it is better if American/British folks take up such projects BUT only if they are willing to go the extra step and make sure they get the facts straight as lots of people, especially Indians living in the western lands, are going to watch the movie.

When I say that the western people sometimes tend to mess up the facts of the Indian civilization, I mean the western theatrical society. I don't know what the books in the western lands portray of our culture and civilization. I don't know what the professors in schools and colleges teach about our culture and civilization. There could be some delivering the right education and some not. I have heard some nasty stories of textbooks in California spreading some crazy ideas of our Hindu culture and system. Maybe another blog entry needs to be devoted for that. But for now I do wish these American folks a very good luck in bringing out a movie for Ramanujam and I do hope it will be a movie we can proudly dedicate to him as his tribute. Looking forward to the movie...

Raaga Sangeetha Sandhya

2006-04-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

It was a nice break on a Saturday evening amidst all the tax-filing tantrums. BTW, the last date to file taxes is April 17th 2006 in case you forgot. Raaga, a Kannada musical band of Northern California, entertained us with melodious Kannada film songs, short jokes and dances. The band members are all working professionals and they all work very hard in delivering the entertainment they promise to spectators like myself.

Raaga, although a band that performs by itself at several places in the nation, sometimes performs for a charitable organization, OSAAT. During this time the entire profit that is derived from the show goes towards the non-profit charitable organization, OSAAT. At this juncture I would like to pen a few words on OSAAT. OSAAT is an abbreviation of "One School At A Time" and they concentrate on upbringing the schools in the rural part of Karnataka. Most of the schools in rural Karnataka do not have proper facilities for classrooms, drinking water, restrooms and playgrounds for kids. OSAAT takes up one school at a time as a project to provide necessary infrastructure for the school to operate and deliver basic education to kids who otherwise can never get to learn anything. OSAAT's website is www.osaat.org and the organization has already finished one such project in Bajegoli, Karkala Taluk, Karnataka. Typically a project can cost about 40,000 USD depending on how much portion of the school needs to be improved. This time OSAAT has taken up the project at the Bannerghatta Primary School in Anekal taluk, Karnataka. OSAAT was established in 2003 and there are no operating costs for OSAAT as the entire organization is run by volunteers. Hence the $$$ derived from charity shows like Sangeeta Sandhya goes completely towards funding the new project of OSAAT. It is an interesting project that OSAAT as an organization has taken up and probably I would like to devote a blog entry for them to congratulate the great project they have begun.

Coming back to the event, Raaga group of people entertained us very well with songs from various artists, dances, short jokes and of course food to eat. The event was at Chabot college, Hayward and we had fun for 4 hours from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm. The atmosphere was so vivacious with about 1800 Kannada folks from various parts of the Bay Area. Amidst all this festiveness, no one forgot the fact that our Annavaru, Dr. Rajkumar was no more with us. At the entrance was placed a photograph of Annavaru with a garland. When the program started we all stood silently for 2 minutes and paid our tributes to the departed soul and then the program was started.

Some of the songs that I can remember from the show are:
Poojyaya Raghavendraya - Rajkumar Devotional
Moodala Mane - Belli Moda
Shiva Shankari - Jagadeka Veerana Kathe
Yenono Aase - Giri Kanye
Bhagyadha Lakshmi Baaramma - Bhimsen Joshi version
Tere Dhide Mane, O Baa Athithi - Hosa Belaku
Aananda, Koodi Haadidhare Aaananda - Rathasaptami
Ondhe Ondhu Aaseyu, Ninna Muddhalu - ?
E Sambhashane, Namma E Prema Sambhashane - Dharma Sere
Uttara Dhruvadhim, Dakshina Dhruvakku - Sharapanjara
Baara Baara, Sanihake Baara - Aptamitra
E Sundara Beladingala - Amrutavarshini
Nighooda - From KKNC's staged drama
Chikku Buku Railu - Jogi
Joke, Naanu Balliya Minchu - Paropakari
OLage Seridhare Gundu - Nanjundi Kalyana
Ello Jogappa - Jogi
Naariya Sere Kaddha - Daari Tappida Maga
Pata Pata - Aptamitra
Kokorekoko Kokorekoko Ko - Sipayi Ramu
Kenchalo Bachachalo - Kariya
Huttidhare Kannada Nadalli Huttabeku - Aakasmika

If I missed any of the songs that were sung, excuse me for my human brain that can forget some things. The songs were mixed with loads of laughters - for example during the song "Bhagayada Lakshmi Baaramma..." the team wonderfully performed the snippet. They acted as though the main singer had cough and that somebody else had to sing the song. Rafiq was chosen to sing and he did sing, but knocked everyone out of their chairs with laughters. With pronunciations of "Itt beetu, Beras beetu, ..." the entire composition was a good laugh.

After the first half of the program, we broke for about half hour for coffee and snacks. The second half of the program started off with the Nighooda song from the staged drama of KKNC. The song was composed by one of the Raaga band members. All the songs of the second half were intermixed with dances not only from the band artists but also from the audience. Overall the program was worth its money and the satisfaction that our money would go towards a good cause for uplifting schools in rural Karnataka, our enjoyment knew no bounds. Thanks to the Raaga team for delivering a quality performance once again.

Some of the photos from the event are here below. For a complete list of pictures please visit the event's gallery @ http://imageevent.com/karcoms/raagassangeethasandhya

Chaos and violence in Bangalore city

2006-04-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised how people reacted on the cremation day of Dr. Rajkumar. Police had to open fire and an orgy of violence claimed 6 people and others injured in the lathi charge. One of the 6 persons who died was a police constable. As much as I'm inclined to say that the government could have done better in ensuing the proper channels for people to witness the cremation, but I would like to say that controlling such a huge crowd needed certain measures. Everybody's life is at risk here - the police and the people. The people have to understand that everybody cannot be allowed to do everything they wish for their beloved artist and at the same time the police have to understand that lathi charge and violence cannot bring the crowd to rest - the crowd will turn to mob and chaos will ensue. There are both sides to this coin and I cannot blame anyone. I was reading today's Deccan Herald newspaper and in that Congress has urged that the present Karnataka government be dissolved as CM Kumarswamy could not keep the city under reins during the cremation of Annavaru. What do you say for that?

There are certain things I felt that could have been done in better ways and I did not expect that from CM Kumarswamy's government. This is only my personal feeling and this is what I felt after watching the cremation on Udaya TV:

[1] People were in huge numbers to watch Annavaru at the Kanteerava Stadium. They were running here and there and police were charging some people with Lathis. Why? Why couldn't they have made an orderly line that people would be allowed to get into and get out after seeing Annavaru? People kept rushing in and those who stood at the back never got a chance to view their demi-god. Of course human mentality strikes in and violence will ensue. I actually saw on TV that people were pushing each other and trying to see Annavaru and convey their condolences. This could have been organized in a better way. Have 2 lines - one for delegatories and one for the general public. This way no one stands to loose and no one will be upset.

[2] Cremation at Kanteerava Studios - people were thronging around Shivrajkumar during the cremation at the Kanteerava Studios. It felt like they were pushing each other and Shivrajkumar had difficulty in performing the last rites to his father. People: Please respect your idol - give some space for Annavaru's family. Before any of you, it is Annavaru's family for Annavaru. Security could have been beefed up here and they should have had all the people under control and made them to be at a respectable distance so that the cameras of channels like Udaya TV could have captured the cremation much better than what Udaya TV could do so that people would prefer to watch the cremation from home. All we saw on the TV screen was heads and heads, not Annavaru, but lots of heads. I don't understand why it could not have been dealt in a much better way. What could have been done - Have an area designated as Annavaru's family only and then after a certain distance allow people to witness the cremation. Then allow one by one in a line to view the cremated body. This way things would have been much better and there would not have been violence as all the people would have got a chance to see their demi-god cremated.

CM has told that the violence was incited and that Annavaru's fans are not involved in this. My only sincere request to all you politicians out there - please don't make this a political drama. The families of these people who are dead are even yet to react to the situation and already the media is talking about a political drama in play. Please don't re-enact the scenes from a Devraj film by inciting violence as it is the real people's life at risk and not just some stuntman doing some stunts for some money. If this was a political stunt to pull Kumarswamy down - Shame on you politicians. If it was not a politically staged drama then I'm unhappy at the state of affairs that Bangalore is in. This is no way to pay respects for your departed demi-god artist icon. Shame on myself for being a part of this community who pelt stones at the police, torch buses, kill their fellow human beings and tarnish the name of their own icon. I pity you people.

Overall, I'm very sad at the demise of Annavaru and at the same time I'm sad that so many people had to die and get injured. My condolences to all the departed souls and speedy recovery for all the injured ones.

God bless all.

I have put some pictures here of the violence and these pictures have been taken from various sources I found on Google Image search and each of those papers and sites hold the rights to these pictures:

Annavaru's Movie list

2006-04-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

This list has been taken as is from the following site:

http://members.tripod.com/~arvintripod/rajkumar.html

Why did I copy it here - fear of the site not being available later but all credits go to the person who originally compiled this. Thank You !

**********************************
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Kannada Actor Rajkumar: A Filmography
#
# Posted by: ADhareshwar@worldbank.org (Ashok Dhareshwar)

# Sources collected by :- Aravinda Kebballi - arvinkn@hotmail.com

--------------------------------------

Here is an attempted filmography of Kannada actor Rajkumar, assembled
from various sources. Many gaps remain. I'll be grateful for help in
filling them.

The entry on Rajkumar in the 'Encyclopaedia of Indian Films.'

------------------------------------
Rajkumar (b. 1929)
------------------------------------

Kannada superstar born in Gajanur, Karnataka; made over 200 films (25% of the industry) since the mid-50s. Child actor for Gubbi Veeranna playing Arjuna in the stage spectacular 'Kurukshetra (1924).' Broke through in R. Nagendra Rao and Subbaiah Naidu's theatre company, playing Narada in 'Bhukailasa' (repeating the role in K. Shankar's 1958 film version *1) and Ramakant in 'Ambarish.'

Film debut in HLN Simha's Gubbi-Karnataka production based on GV Iyer's play 'Bedara Kannappa,' which established him as a mythological hero overcoming the severest tests of conscience to prove his devotion to his ideals. Formed a loose collective with GV Iyer, TV Singh-Thakore, Balakrishna, Narasimharaju, et al, the Kannada Film Artists Association, which produced one film 'Ranadheera Kantheerava.' Although the group did not survive, it became the nucleus for a Kannada film industry.

His image, mainly moulded by GV Iyer, was politicized into a quest for Karnataka's cultural glory. The bulk of historicals ('Ranadheera Kantheerava,' 'Immadi Pulikeshi') and mythologicals were geared to a populist regional-chauvinist version of Karnataka's history in terms of a return to the Southern Kingdoms from the 7th century Pallava period and to the 14th century Vijayanagara Empire, focussing on Dravidian feudalism's resistance to the North Indian agrarian systems. In his films, Rajkumar often absents himself as he weaves through the bewilderingly complex narrative and kinship structures toward the final assertion of truth, unfailingly built around soliloquies expressing moral dilemmas redolent with political wish-fulfilment. Expanded the medium from the early mythologicals into the contemporary with 'Bangarada Manushya.' His persona takes upon himself all the burdens, which in Tamil DMK films would be distributed across several figures. His effectiveness is illustrated by the way he modulates his performances from the historical to the mythological ('Sri Kannika Parameswari Kathe'), from contemporary melodrama ('Karulina Kare') to James Bond thrillers ('Goadalli CID 999' and his Dorairaj-Bhagwan films).

Retired after making 200 films to become a producer promoting his sons, Shivraj Kumar (introduced as hero in Singeetham Srinivasa Rao's "Ananda,' 1986) and Raghavendra Rajkumar. Shyamsundar Kulkarni published a monograph 'Dr. Rajkumar' (1988) and P. Lankesh edited a special issue of 'Lankesh Patrike,' ('Innooru Chitragala Raj', July 1988), devoted to the star.

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Filmography

The entries are in chronological order of release in Bangalore, to the extent possible. Complete entries have the following information:
year, banner, director, co-stars, lyricist, and music director. The film names are in ITRANS format.

1 1954 beDara kaNNappa
Gubbi Karnataka Films Dir: HLN Simha
Pandharibai, Rajasulochana, GV Iyer, Narasimharaju, HR Shastry
Lyr: S. Nanjappa Mus: R. Sudarshanam

2 1955 sOdari
Vishwakala Chitra TV Singh-Thakore
Pandharibai, GV Iyer, B. Raghavendra Rao, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Mus: HR Padmanabha Shastry, GK Venkatesh

3 1956 bhaktavijaya
Jagannatha Productions Dir: Aarooru Pattabhi
Pandharibai, Mainavathi
Lyr: Anand Mus: P. Shamanna

4 haribhakta
Vishwakala Chitra Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Pandharibai, Mainavathi, GV Iyer, Narasimharaju, HR Shastry
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

5 OhilEshvara
Vishwakala Chitra Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Kalyan, Sriranjini Jr, Narashmharaju, Meenakshi
Lyr: Vijayanaarasimha Mus: GK Venkatesh

6 1957 raayara sose
Panduranga Productions Dir: R. Ramamurthy-TSR Gopu
Pandharibai, Kalyan, Narashimaraju
Lyr: P. Gundu Rao Mus: Diwakar

7 sati naLaayini
Kamadhenu Films Dir: TSR Gopu
Pandharibai
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

8 1958 bhuu kailaasa
AVM Productions Dir: K. Shankar
Jamuna, Kalyan, B. Sarojadevi, Ashwath
Lyr: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry
Mus: R. Sudarshanam, R. Govardhanam

9 kRshhnagaaruDi
Nandi Pictures Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Suryakala, Revathi, Siddaiah Swamy, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: Pendyala Nageswara Rao

10 aNNa ta.ngi
Girija Prductions Dir: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry
B. Sarojadevi, Jayamma, Vidya, Balakrishna, Narasimharaju,
Ashwath, Easwarappa
Lyr: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry Mus: GK Venkatesh

11 1959 jagajyoti basaveshvara
Shashikala Chitra Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Honnappa Bhagavatar, B. Sarojadevi, Sandhya, Leelavathi,
Balakrishna, GV Iyer, Chi. Sadashivaiah
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

12 dharmavijaya
HM Baba Productions Dir: N. Jagannath
Leelavathi, Harini, Lalitha Rao, Narasimharaju, Varadappa
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

13 mahishhaasura mardini
Vikram Productions Dir: BS Ranga
Uday, Sandhya, Sowcar Janaki, Narasimharaju, Ashwath
Lyr: Chi. Sadashivaiah Mus: GK Venkatesh

14 abbaa aa huDugi
Jamuna Prouductions Dir: HLN Simha
Rajashankar, Pandharibai, Mainavathi, Pantulu, Rajamma
Lyr: HLN Simha Mus: P. Kalingarao

15 1960 raNadhiira ka.nThiirava
Kannada Film Artists' Association Dir: NC Rajan
Leelavathi, Uday, Sandhya, R. Nagendra Rao, Balakrishna,
Narasimharaju
Lyr: GV Iyer Mus: GK Venkatesh

16 raaNi honnamma
Girija Productions Dir: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry
Leelavathi, Lalitha Rao, Balakrishna, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry Mus: Vijayabhaskar

17 aashaa sundari
Gowri Productions Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Harini, Krishnakumari, Shiv Shankar, Narasimharaju
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

18 dashaavataara
Vikram Productions Dir: GV Iyer
Uday, Leelavathi, Rajashri, Rajashankar, Ashwath, Narasimharaju
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

19 bhakta kanakadaasa
Shyam Prasad Movies Dir: YR Swamy
Krishnakumari, Uday, HR Shastry, Ashwath
Lyr: Kanakadaasaru, Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: M. Venkataraju

20 1961 shriishaila mahaatme
Shreeshaila Picures Dir: Aarooru Pattabhi
Krishnakumari, Sandhya, Dikki Madhav Rao
Lyr: Vijayanaarashmha, Ratnakara, Hunsur Krishnamurthy, Sorath
Ashwath, M. Narendra Babu Mus: TA Kalyanam

21 kittuuru chennamma
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
B. Sarojadevi, Leelavathi
Lyr: GV Iyer Mus: TG Lingappa

22 kaN_teredu nODu
Arunachalam Studios Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Leelavathi, Vandana, Rajashri, Balakrishna, GY Iyer
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

23 kaivaara mahaatme
Kaivaara Films Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Leelavathi, Vasantha
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

24 bhakta chEta
Venkateshwara Films Dir: MB Ganesh
Prathima
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

25 naagaarjuna
Nandi Pictures Dir: YV Rao
G. Varalakshmi, Sandhya, Narasimharaju, Ashwath, Nagendra Rao
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Dir: Rajan-Nagendra

26 1962 gaaLi gOpura
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
R. Nagendra Rao, Leelavathi, Chindodi Leela, MV Rajamma
Lyr: GV Iyer, Vijayanaarasimha Mus: TG Lingappa

27 bhuudaana
Aananthalakshmi Pictures Dir: PS Gopalakrishna, GV Iyer
Kalyan, Uday, Leelavathi
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

28 svarNagauri
Shyam Prasad Movies Dir: YR Swamy
Krishnakumari, Rajashri
Lyr: SK Kareem Khan Mus: M. Venkataraju

29 deva su.ndari
Munaas Pictures Dir: CV Raju
B, Sarojadevi, Kalyan
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

30 karuNeyE kuTu.mbada kaNNu
Shailashre Productions Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Uday, Leelavathi, Chi. Sadashivaiah
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

31 mahaatma kabiir
Sarvodaya Pictures Dir: Aarooru Pattabhi
Krishnakumari
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

32 vidhi vilaasa
Murugan Productions Dir: Mahesh Bhagwan
Leelavathi
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

33 tEjasvini
Panduranga Productions Dir: HLN Simha
Pandharibai
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

34 1963 na.ndaa diipa
Sri Bharathi Chitra Dir: MR Vithal
Harini, Leelavathi
Lyr: Sorath Ashwath Mus: M. Venkataraju

35 saaku magaLu
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Kalpana, Sowcar Janaki, Rajashankar, Balakrishna, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakara Shastry Mus: TG Lingappa

36 kanyaaratna
DBN Productions Dir: JD Totaan
Leelavathi, Sowcar Janaki, Chi. Sadashivaiah, Balakrishna
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakara Shastry Mus: GK Venkatesh

37 gauri
Kalabharathi Chitra Dir: SKA Chari
Sowcar Janaki, Arathi, Ashwath
Lyr: Rashtrakavi Ku.Vem.Pu., KS Narasimhaswamy, and ?
Mus: GK Venkatesh

38 jiivana tara.nga
Shyam Prasad Movies Dir: Bangara Raju
Leelavathi, Ravathi Jr.
Lyr: SK Kareem Khan Mus: M. Venkataraju

39 malli maduve
Jupiter Films Dir: GR Nathan
Uday, Sowcar Janaki, Leelavathi
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakara Shastry Mus: GK Venkatesh

40 kulavadhu
Shailashre Productions Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Leelavathi, Ashwath
Lyr: Rashtrakavi Da. Raa. Bendre, Kanagal Prabhakara Shastry
Mus: GK Venkatesh

41 kalitaruu heNNE
Ganesh Chitra Dir: NC Rajan
Leelavathi, R. Nagendra Rao
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

42 viira kEsari
Rajalakshmi Production Dir: B. Vithalacharya
Leelavathi, Narashimharaju
Lyr: Ku.Ra. Seetharama Shastry, Sorath Ashwath Mus: Ghantasala

43 vaalmiiki
Jupiter Fims Dir: CS Rao
Leelavathi, Rajasulochana, Narasimharaju
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

44 mana mechchida maDadi
Sarvamangala Production Dir: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry
Leelavathi, Uday, Ravathi Jr, Balakrishna
Lyr: Ku.Ra. Seetharama Shastry Mus: Vijayabhaskar

45 cha.ndrakumaara
HM Baba Production Dir: NS Varma
Krishnakumari, Rajashri
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

46 sa.nta tukaaraama
Ganesh Prasad Movies Dir: Sundararao Nadkarni
Leelavathi, Uday, Rajashri, Pandharibai, Sundarrao Nadkarni
Lyr: Chi. Sadashivaiah Mus: Vijayabhaskar

47 shrii raamaa.njanEya yuddha
Amritha Kala Production Dir: MS Nayak
Chandrakala, Uday, Jayanthi, Pandharibai
Lyr: Geethapriya Mus: Sathyam

48 satishakti
Mata Pictures Dir: Kanagal Prabhakar Shastry
MV Rajamma, Sowcar Janaki, Ashwath
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakara Shastry Mus: TG Lingappa

49 1964 navakOTi naaraayaNa
Shyam Prasad Movies Dir: SKA Chari
Sowcar Janaki, BV Radha, Dikki Madhav Rao
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

50 cha.ndavaLLiya tOTa
Pals and Company Dir: TV Singh-Thakore
Uday, Jayanthi, Rajashri
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: TG Lingappa

51 shivaratri mahaatme
Ambika Films Dir: PR Kaundinya
Leelavathi, Chi. Sadashivaiah
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

52 annapUrNa
Panduranga Productions Dir: Aarooru Pattabhi
Kalyan (?), Pandharibai, Mainavati, Nagendra Rao, Balakrishna
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

53 tu.mbida koDa
Sri Venkatesha Chitra Dir: NC Rajan
Leelavathi, Jayanthi, Jayashri
Lyr: KS Narasimhaswamy, Ku.Ra. Seetharama Shastry
Mus: GK Venkatesh

54 shivaga.nge mahaatme
Balakrishna Movies Dir: Govindaiah
Harini, Rajashri, HP Saroja
Lyr: Sorath Aswath Mus: GK Raghu

55 muriyada mane
Karnataka Films Dir: YR Swamy
Uday, Jayanthi, Vanishri, Pandharibai, Balakrishna, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Ku.Ra. Seetharama Shastry Mus: Vijaya Krishnamurthy

56 pratiGYe
Vikram Productions Dir: BS Ranga
Jyanthi, Ashwath, Pandharibai
Lyr: Chi. Sadashivaiah Mus: S. Hanumantha Rao

57 naa.ndi
Sri Bharathi Chitra Dir: N. Lakshminarayan
Harini, Kalpana, Balakrishna, Vadiraj
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: Vijayabhaskar

58 1965 naagapuujaa
Maruthi Films Dir: DS Rajgopal
Leelawathi, Jayashree
Lyr: Geethapriya Mus: TG Lingappa

59 cha.ndrahaasa
Vasanth Pictures Dir: BS Ranga
Leelawathi, Uday, Sudarshan, Balakrishna, Narashimaraju
Lyr: Chi. Sadashivaiah Mus: S. Hanumantha Rao

60 sarvaGYamuurti
Niranjan Chitra Dir: Aruru Pattabhi
Balakrishna, Harini, Mainawathi, Uday, Niranjan
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

61 vaatsalya
Suchitra Movies Dir: YR Swamy
Jayanthi, Leelawathi, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

62 satya harishcha.ndra
Vijaya Production Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Pandharibai, Uday, MP Shankar
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: Pendyala

63 mahaasati anasuuya
Vikram Productions Dir: BS Ranga
Pandharibai, Narashimharaju
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

64 idE mahaa sudina
Shanth Films Dir: BC Srinivas
Leelawathi, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

65 beTTada huli
Bhagawathi Productions Dir: AV Seshagirirao
Jayanthi, Uday
Lyr: Geethapriya Mus: TG Lingappa

66 sati saavitri
KVM Pictures Dir: PR Kaundinya
Pandharibai, Uday
Lyr: Chi. Sadashivaiah Mus: GK Venkatesh

67 maduve maaDi nODu
Vijaya Production Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Leelawathi, Uday
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: Ghantasala

68 pativrataa
Chiranjeevi Films Dir: PS Murthy
Harini, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

69 1966 ma.ntraalaya mahaatme
Jagajyothi Films Dir: TV Singh-Thakur
Jayanthi, Kalpana, Uday
Lyr: Sri Raghavendra Swamy, Raja S. Gururajacharya, GV Iyer
Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

70 kaThaari viira
Saraaswathi Chitra Dir: YR Swamy
Udayachandrika, Balakrishna
Lyr: Sorath Ashwath Mus: Upendrakumar

71 baalanaagamma
Sanatana Kalamandira Dir: PR Kaundinya
Kalpana, Rajashri, Nagaiah
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: S. Rajeswara Rao

72 tuugudiipa
Lalitha Films Dir: KSL Swamy (Ravi)
Leelawathi, Narasimharaju
Lyr: PV Nanjaraja Urs, RN Jayagopal, KSL Swamy
Mus: Vijayabhaskar

73 prEmamayi
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: MR Vithal
Leelavathi, Ashwath, Raanga
Lyr: Vijayanarasimha, M. Narendra Babu Mus: R. Sudarshanam

74 kilaaDi ra.nga
Vasantha Pictures Dir: GV Iyer
Jayanthi, MP Shankar
Lyr: GV Iyer Mus: GK Venkatesh

75 madhumaalati
Trimurthi Films Dir: SK Anantha Chari
Bharathi, Uday, Ranga
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

76 emme tammaNNa
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Bharathi, Latha, MV Rajamma
Lyr: GV Iyer Mus: TG Lingappa

77 mOhini bhasamaasura
HM Baba Production Dir: NS Varma
Leelavathi, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

78 shrii kannikaa parmaeshvari kathe
Evergreen Production Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Kalpana, Jayashri, Dwarakish
Lyr: ? Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

79 sa.ndhyaaraaga
Shailashre Productions Dir: AC Narasimhamurthy, SK Bhagwan
Bharathi, Uday
Lyr: Purandaradaasaru, GV Iyer
Mus: GK Venkatesh, M. Balamuralikrishna

80 1967 paarvati kalyaaNa
Vikram Productions Dir: BS Ranga
Chandrakala, MP Shankar
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

81 sati sukanya
Bhuvaneshwari Production Dir: YR Swamy
Harini, Ashwath, Balakrishna
Lyr: MN Aradhya Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

82 ga.nge gauri
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Bharathi, Leelawathi, MP Shankar
Lyr: GV Iyer Mus: TG Lingappa

83 raajashEkhara
Vasantha Pictures Dir: GV Iyer
Bharathi, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

84 lagnapatrike
Bapa Movietone Dir: KSL Swamy (Ravi)
Jayanthi, Radha, Dwarakish
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Vijayabhaskar

85 raajadurgada rahasya
Krishnodaya Chitra Dir: AC Narasimhamurthy, SK Bhagwan
Bharathi, Uday
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: GK Venkatesh

86 dEvara gedda maanava
Bhavanarayana Production Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Jayanthi, Narasimharaju
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

87 biidi basavaNNa
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Bharathi, Vandana, Dinesh
Lyr: ? Mus: ? TG Lingappa

88 manasiddare maarga
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: MR Vithal
Jayanthi, Rajashankar
Lyr: M. Narendra Babu Mus: M. Ranga Rao

89 ba.ngaarada huuvu
Srinivas Chitralaya Dir: BA Arasukumar
Kalpana, Uday
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Vijayanaarasimha Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

90 chakratiirtha
Bagavati Production Dir: Peketi Shivaram
Jayanthi, Uday
Lyr: Rashtrakavi Da. Raa. Bendre, Ta. Raa. Subbarao, RN Jayagopal
Mus: TG Lingappa

91 immaDi pulikEshi
Sri Venkatesh Chitra Dir: NC Rajan
Kalpana, Jayanthi, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

92 1968 jEDara bale
Mantralya Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Jayanthi, Ashwath
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

93 gaa.ndhinagara
Vijayavardhan Movies Dir: KSL Swamy (Ravi)
Kalpana, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Sathyam

94 mahaasati aru.ndhati
Sanjeevi Pictures Dir: Aruru Pattabhi
Kalpana, Uday
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

95 manasaakshi
SLS Production Dir: SKA Chari
Bharathi, Narasimharaju
Lyr: Ku. Raa. Seetharamashastry, Vijayanaarashimha
Mus: GK Venkatesh

96 sarvama.ngaLaa
Naagendra Kalachitra Dir: M. Subramanyaraj Arasu
Kalpana, Ashwath, Sampath
Lyr: KS Narasimhaswamy and ? Mus: Sathyam

97 bhaagyadEvate (kaaDu siddammana kathe)
Manoranjan Films Dir: Rathnakar, Madhu
Leelavathi, Radha
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

98 'Bangalore Mail'
Gowri Art Films Dir: LS Narayan
Jayanthi, Radha
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Sathyam

99 haNNele chiguridaaga
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: MR Vithal
Kalpana, R. Nagendra Rao
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: M. Ranga Rao

100 bhaagyada baagilu
SJK Production Dir: KSL Swamy (Ravi)
Vandana, Dwarakish
Lyr: ? Mus: ? Vijayabhaskar

101 naTasaarvabhauma Bhaarath Enterprises
102 rauDi ra.ngaNNa
Sriram Enterprises Dir: R. Ramamurthy
Chandrakala, Jayanthi
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Sathyam

103 dhuumakEtu
Sri Bhagawathi Art Production Dir: RN Jayagopal
Udayachandrika
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: TG Lingappa

104 ammaa
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Bharathi, Pantulu
Lyr: GV Iyer Mus: TG Lingappa

105 si.mhasvapna
Gowri Art Films Dir: WR Subbarao
Jayanthi, Uday
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: S. Dakshinamurthy

106 'Goa'dalli 'CID 999'
Anupam Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Lakshmi
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

107 maNNina maga
Sudarshana Movies Dir: Geetapriya
Kalpana, MP Shankar, Jayakumari, Sampath
Lyr: Geethapriya Dir: Vijayabhaskar

108 1969 maargadarshi
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: MR Vithal
Chandrakala, Sampath
Lyr: ? Mus: ? M. Ranga Rao

109 ga.nDo.ndu heNNaaru
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Bharathi, Pantulu
Lyr: Vijayanarasimha Mus: TG Lingappa

110 mallammana pavaaDa
ALS Production Dir: Puttanna Kanagal
B. Sarojadevi
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakara Shastry Mus: Vijayabhaskar

111 chuuri chikkaNNa
Sriram Enterprises Dir: R. Ramamurthy
Jayanthi, Jayakumari
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Sathyam

112 punarjanma
Sri Bhagawathi Art Production Dir: Peketi Shivaram
Chandrakala, Jayanthi
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: Dulal Sen

113 bhalE raaja
Sri Rajeswari Pictures Dir: YR Swamy
Jayanthi, Ranga, Nagappa
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

114 uyyaale
Bhaarath Enterprises Dir: N. Lakshminarayan
Kalpana, Ashwath, Balakrishna
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Geethapriya Mus: Vijayabhaskar

115 chikkamma
SVS Film Combines Dir: R. Sampath
Jayanthi, Srinath
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: TV Raju

116 'Mayor' muttaNNa
Dwaraka Films Dir: Siddalingiah
Bharathi, Dwarakish
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

117 'Operation Jackpot'nalli 'CID 999'
Anupam Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Udayachandrika
Lyr: Narenra Babu Mus: GK Venkatesh

118 1970 shriikRshhNadEvaraaya
Padmini Pictures Dir: BR Pantulu
Bharathi, Jayanthi, Pantulu
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakar Shastry Mus: TG Lingappa

119 karuLina kare
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: Puttanna Kanagal
Kalpana, Renuka
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: M. Ranga Rao

120 naaDina bhaagya
Narayan Chitra Dir: R. Nagendra Rao
Sudarshan, Srilalita, Surekha
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

121 hasiru tOraNa
Trimurthy Films Dir: TV Singh-Thakur
Bharathi
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: Upendrakumar

122 bhuupatira.nga
Bhaskara Movies Dir: Geethapriya
Udayachandrika
Lyr: Geethapriya Mus: TG Lingappa

123 'Mister' raajkumaar
Vikram Production Dir: BS Ranga
Rajashri, Dwarakish
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: S. Rajeswara Rao

124 bhalE jODi
Rajkamal Arts Dir: YR Swamy
Bharathi, Dinesh, Balakrishna
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: R. Ratna

125 'CID' raajaNNa
Sriram Enterprises Dir: R. Ramamurthy
Rajashri, Dwarakish
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

126 nanna tamma
Vijaya Pictures Dir: Baburao
Jayanthi, Gangadhar
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakar Shastry Mus: Ghantasala

127 baaLu beLagitu
Chitrasri Pictures Dir: Siddalingiah
Bharathi, Jayanti
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Vijayanaarashimha Mus: Vijayabhaskar

128 dEvara makkaLu
Bhaarath Enterprises Dir: YR Swamy
Kalpana, Jayanthi, Rajesh
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Vijayanaarashimha Mus: GK Venkatesh

129 parOpakaari
Bhagawati Production Dir: YR Swamy
Jayanthi, Sampath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Upendrakumar

130 1971 kastUrinivaasa
Anupam Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Arathi, Jayanthi, Ashwath
Lyr: RN Jayagopal, Vijayanaarasimha, Chi. Udayashankar
Mus: GK Venkatesh

131 baaLa ba.ndhana
ALS Production Dir: Peketi Shivaram
Jayanthi, Sampath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

132 kula gaurava
Easwari Production Dir: Peketi Shivaram
Jayanthi, Bharathi
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

133 namma s.msaara
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: Siddalingiah
Bharathi, Padmanjali
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: M. Ranga Rao

134 kaasidre kailaasa
Sriram Films Dir: K. Janakiram
Vanishri, Srinath
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

135 taayi dEvaru
Jain Movies Dir: Siddalingiah
Cast: ?
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

136 pratidhvani
Anupam Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Arathi, Dinesh
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

137 saakshaatkaara
Mullick Production Dir: Puttanna Kanagal
Jamuna, Prithviraj Kapoor
Lyr: Kanagal Prabhakar Shastry Mus: M. Ranga Rao

138 nyaayavE dEvaru
Maharaja Movies Dir: Siddalingiah
B. Sarojadevi, Arathi
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

139 shriikrishhNa rukmiNi satyabhaama
Raghunandan Movies Dir: KSL Swamy (RAvi)
Bharathi, B. Sarojadevi, Arathi
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

140 1972 janmarahasya
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: SPN Krishna
Bharathi, Ashwath
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

141 sipaayi raamu
Sri Bhagawathi Production Dir: YR Swamy
Arathi, Leelavathi
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: Upendrakumar

142 ba.ngaarada manushhya
Srinidhi Production Dir: Siddalingiah
Bharathi, Arathi, Balakrishna
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy, Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

143 hRdaya sa.ngama
MJM Production Dir: Ramnath Shivram
Bharathi, Pandharibai
Lyr: Geethapriya Dir: Vijayabhaskar

144 kraa.ntiviira
Sriram Enterprises Dir: R. Ramamurthy
Jayanthi, Dwarakish
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Sathyam

145 bhalE huchcha
Srinidhi Production Dir: YR Swamy
Arathi, Srinath, Kala
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

146 na.ndagOkula
Shyam Prasad Enterprises Dir: YR Swamy
Jayanthi, Ashwath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Vijayabhaskar

147 jaga mechchida maga
Srigowri Enterprises DIr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Bharathi, MP Shankar
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

148 1973 dEvaru koTTa ta.ngi
Raghavendra Producion Dir: KSL Swamy (Ravi)
Jayanthi, Srinath
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

149 biDugaDe
Ramesh Movies Dir: YR Swamy
Kalpana, Bharathi, Rajesh
Lyr: Chi. Sadashivaiah, Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

150 svaya.mvara
Karnataka Films Dir: YR Swamy
Bharathi, Dinesh, Sathya
Lyr: RN Jayagopal Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

151 duurada beTTa
Srinivasa International Dir: Siddalingiah
Bharathi, Ashwath, Sampath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

152 ga.ndhada guDi
Bharani Chitra Dir: Vijay
Kalpana, Vishnuvardhan
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

153 muuruvare vajragaLu
Devendra Arts Dir: YR Swamy
Arathi, Manjula
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

154 1974 ba.ngaarada pa.njara
Raja Production Dir: V. Somashekhar
Arathi, Balakrishna
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Raghu

155 eraDu kanasu
Anupama Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Kalpana, Manjula
Lyr: Sri Raghavendra Swamy, Chi. Udayashankar
Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

156 sa.mpattige savaal
Padmasri Enterprises Dir: AV Seshagirirao
Manjula, Vajramuni
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

157 bhakta ku.mbaara
Lakshmi Films Combines Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Leelavathi, Manjula
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: GK Venkatesh

158 shrii shriinivaasa kalyaaNa
Srinivasa Arts Dir: Vijay
B. Sarojadevi
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

159 1975 daari tappida maga
Jayaprabha Production Dir: Peketi Shivaram
Kalpana, Manjula
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

160 mayuura
Ramesh Movies Dir: Vijay
Manjula, Srinath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

161 trimuurti
Purnima Enterprises Dir: CV Rajendran
Jayamala, Surekha
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

162 1976 prEmada kaaNike
Jayadevi Films Dir: V. Somashekhar
Jayamala, Vajramuni
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Vijayanaarasimha Mus: Upendrakumar

163 bahadduur ga.nDu
Srikanth and Srikanth Dir: AV Seshagirirao
Arathi, Jayanthi
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

164 raaja nanna raaja
Madhu Arts Films Dir: AV Seshagirirao
Arathi, Balakrishna
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

165 naa ninna mareyalaare
Easwari Production Dir: Vijay
Lakshmi
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

166 baDavara ba.ndhu
CSR Shakti Production Dir: Vijay
Jayamala, Ashwath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

167 1977 babruvaahana
Rjkamal Arts Dir: Hunsur Krishnamurthy
Jayamala, Ramakrishna
Lyr: Hunsur Krishnamurthy Mus: TG Lingappa

168 bhaagyav.ntaru
Dwarkish Chitra Dir: Bhargav
B. Sarojadevi, Ramakrishna
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

169 girikanye
Padmasri Enterprises Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Jayamala, Vajramuni
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

170 sanaadi appaNNa
Anandalakshmi Enterprises Dir: Vijay
Jayapradha
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh, Bismillah Khan

171 olavu geluvu
Sinu Creation Dir: Bhargav
Lakshmi
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

172 1978 sha.nkar guru
Dakshayani Combines Dir: V. Somashekhar
Jayamala, Padmapriya
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Upendrakumar

173 'Operation Diamond Racket'
Anupam Movies Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Padmapriya, Vajramuni
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

174 taayige takka maga
Purnima Enterprises Dir: V. Somashekhar
Padmapriya, Vajramuni
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

175 1979 huliya haalina mEvu
Rajkamal Arts Dir: Vijay
Jayaprada, Jayachitra
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

176 naanobba kaLLa
Rashi Brothers Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Lakshmi, Kanchana
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

177 1980 ravicha.ndra
Purnima Enterprises Dir: AV Seshagirirao
Lakshmi, Sumalatha
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Upendrakumar

178 vasa.nta giita
Nirupama Arts Combines Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Gayathri, Srinivas Murthy
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

179 1981 haavina heDe
Purnima Enterprises Dir: V. Somashekhar
Sulakshana, Prabhakar
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

180 nii nanna gellalaare
Vaishnavi Movies Dir: Vijay
Manjula
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Ilayaraja

181 bhaagyava.nta
Nirupama Arts Combines Dir: BS Ranga
Arathi, Master Lohit
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: TG Lingappa

182 keraLida si.mha
Srirajarajeswari Film Combines Dir: Datturaj
Saritha, Srinivas Murthy
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Sathyam

183 1982 hosa beLaku
Kathayayani Cine Arts Combines Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Saritha, Srinivas Murthy
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

184 haalu jEnu
Purnima Enterprises Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Madhavi, Roopa, Shivaram
Lyr: Purandaradaasaru, Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

185 chalisuva mODagaLu
Vaishnavi Movies Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Saritha, Ambika, Ashwath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

186 1983 kaviratna kaaLidaasa
Anandalakshmi Enterprises Dir: Renuka Sharma
Jayapradha, K. Vijaya
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

187 kaamana billu
Padmavathi Cine Arts Combines Dir: Datturaj
Anant Nag, Saritha
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

188 bhakta prahlaada
Vaishnavi Movies Dir: Vijay
Saritha, Master Lohit
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: TG Lingappa

189 eraDu nakshhatragaLu
Kamakshi Enterprises Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Ambika, Master Lohit
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: GK Venkatesh

190 1984 samayada go.mbe
Tripurasundari Combines Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Menaka, Roopadevi
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: M. Ranga Rao

191 shraavaNa ba.ntu
Chandrakala Arts Enterprises Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Urvashi, Shivram, Srinath
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

192 yaarivanu?
Dakshayani Combines Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Roopadevi, Srinath
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

193 apuurva sa.ngama
Navin Combines DIr: YR Swamy
?
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Upendrakumar

194 1985 adE kaNNu
Hayavadana Movies Dir: Datturaj
Gayatri, Satish, Vadiraj
Lyr: ? Mus: GK Venkatesh

195 jvaalaamukhi
Kathayayani Cine Arts Combines Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Gayatri
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

196 dhruvataare
Nirupama Arts Combines Dir: MS Rajshekhar
Geetha, Deepa
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Upendrakumar

197 1986 bhaagyada lakshhmi baaramma
Dakshayani Combines Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Madhavi, Ashwath, Balakrishna
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Singeetham Srinivasarao

198 anuraaga araLitu
Bhargavi Arts Movies Dir: MS Rajshekhar
Madhavi, Pandharibai
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: Upendrakumar

199 guri
Purnima Enterprises Dir: Vasu
Archana, Tara
Lyr: ? Mus: Rajan-Nagendra

200 1987 o.ndu muttina kathe
Padmasri Enterprises Dir: Shankar Nag
Archana, Sundar Raj
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: L. Vaidyanathan

201 shRti sEridaaga
Nikhileswari Cine Combines Dir: Datturaj
Geetha, Madhavi, Ashwath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar Mus: TG Lingappa

202 shiva mechchida kaNNappa
Banner: ? Dir: Vijay
Geetha, Shivarajkumar
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

203 1988 dEvataa manushhya
Banner: ? Dir: Singeetham Srinivasarao
Geetha, Sudharani, Kanchana
Lyr: ? Mus: ?

204 1989 parashuraam
Banner: ? Dir: V. Somashekhar
Mahalakshmi, Vani Vishwanath
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Hamsalekha Mus: Hamsalekha

205 1992 jiivana chaitra
Banner: ? Dir: Dorairaj, Bhagwan
Madhavi, Sudharani
Lyr: Chi. Udayashankar, Moogooru Mallappa Mus: Upendrakumar

206 1993 aakasmika
Nirupama Arts Combines Dir: TS Nagabharana
Madhavi, Geetha, Vajramuni
Lyr: Hamsalekha Mus: Hamsalekha

207 1994 oDahuTTidavaru
Lakshmi Art Combines Dir: ?
Cast: ?
Lyr: Sriranga, Hamsalekha, M. Vyasarao, Geethapriya,
Vijayanaarashimha, Chi. Udayashankar
Mus: Upendrakumar

Note: There appears to have been a trilingual film 'Tenali Ramakrishna' made in 1956, with male actors being different in the Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada versions. Not included in the list above. In addition, there is some doubt whether 'Annapurna' (1962) is a Rajkumar film. This one is included above (#52). Also, it is not clear that 'Natasarvabhauma' be counted as a film.

Karnataka Nata Saarvabhouma Dr. Rajkumar is no more

2006-04-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

It was a very sad day for me - my favorite thespian passed away. Dr. Rajkumar, Natasaarvabhouma, Padmabhusan Annavaru Dr. Rajkumar. Thought, I would give my tributes through my daily blog. I remember those days in my childhood when I used to listen to songs like "Yenu Maayavoo, Yenu Marmavoo...", "Jagave Ondhu Ranaranga..." and many more. I used to wonder how much more talented a person can be - Dr. Raj, then called as Rajkumar, used to act in all kinds of roles, after some time began producing his own movies with wife Pravathamma Rajkumar, started singing for his own movies and so on. One thing I always noticed in his roles was that, he was very fluent his deliverance. He never made the spectator feel that he was made to deliver that line. All roles suited him and all dresses suited him. Almost all of his movies used to run in theaters for months together. In a nutshell, he was really an assert to the Kannada cinema.

When I used to talk to my friends in Chicago about movies in general, they all used to ask me if I have seen any Rajkumar movies in Kannada? The interesting fact here was that all of them knew who Rajkumar was and they only knew Rajkumar. They did not know any of the other actors or actresses. Interesting! He was that famous an icon that even non-kannadigas knew him very well. They all knew him not only because he had etched an excellent career in his acting, but he also looked handsome. The vicious cycle of life had to show its face yesterday and that was the last Dr. Raj breathed. He was 78 years old. He was born in 1928 and his original name was Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Mutturaju. He was born in Gajanur, near Chamrajnagar District, in Karnataka, South India. He dominated the kannada screen for nearly 40 to 50 years acting in more than 200 films throughout his career in cinema. Although he is not here with us today, his movies are always going to cherish his memories and are always going to be a constant reminder to us that, we have indeed lost a true Kannada artist.

Before Dr. Raj began singing songs, it was the great P.B Srinivas who used to be the playback singer for Dr. Raj. And in those days Dr. Raj had already made his career in acting by being the lead roles with leading directors and producers. When he began singing for his own movies in late 1970s, his fans circle only grew more and more and Dr. Raj's career in singing took a parallel success stream flowing alongside with his successful acting career. He started singing devotional songs for Lord Hanuman, Sri Raghavendra Swamy, Lord Krishna, Ayyappa Swamy and many more...His voice was so melodicious that even today if I were to listen to his songs all day long, I would not feel bored. He was liked by all, young and old for his natural charismatic acting and melodicous voice.

I can bravely say that I must have seen almost all of Annavaru's movies. Starting from a B&W movie to the latest movie in color I have seen and enjoyed Annavaru. Another fascinating thing about this great person is - he has acted in almost all of the devotional movies and all of them are classic hits. His first movie "Bedara Kannappa" was a major hit. Some of the other devotional movies that I can remember at the top of my head are:

Sri Srinivasa Kalyana
Babruvahana
Bhakta Prahlada
Bhakta Kumbara
Kaviratna Kalidasa
Sri Krishna Deva Raya
Parvathi Kalyana
Sathi Savithri
Satya Harishchandra
Bhakta Kanakadaasa
Manthralaya Mahatme
Bedarappa Kanappa
...

Some of the other movies I love of Dr. Rajkumar are: (of the top of my head)

Eradu Kanasu
Naa Ninna Mareyalare
Premada Kanike
Aakasmika
Jeevana Chaitra
Bangarada Manushya
Devatha Manushya
Daari Tappida Maga
Gandhada Gudi
Haalu Jenu
Baagyadha Lakshmi Baaramma
Jwalamukhi
Lagna Patrike
Jenina Hole
Shruti Seridhaga
Kasturi Nivasa
Shaakashtkaara
Bahudar Gandu
Boopathi Ranga
Bhagyavantaru
Raja Nanna Raja
Hosa Belaku
Dooradha Betta
Shankar-Guru
...

I can keep writing on and on and I will still have more to write. I pray, his soul rest in peace. God bless his family. He is survived by his wife, Parvathamma Rajkumar, 3 sons (Shiv Rajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar, Puneet Rajkumar), 2 daughters and 12 grand children. After his brother, S.P Varadaraju's death couple of months back, Dr. Raj suffered a lot of mental stress and finally gave way to God yesterday afternoon. Dr. Raj passed away at 1:45PM due to a cardiac arrest at the M S Ramaiah hospital, Bangalore. Bangalore city was shocked on hearing the news and a city-wide bundh was declared all around.

Hon. Chief minister Sri Kumarswamy arranged for all respects due to Dr. Raj. The body was kept in Kanteerava Stadium for 2 days and his body was finally cremated at the Kanteerava Studios. Why Kanteerava Studios? - Dr. Rajkumar in 1944 inaugurated the Tunga Badra Shila at this place. Since Dr. Raj had set his foot at this place and the occasion was auspicious, this place was chosen for his cremation. An ocean of people visited the stadium and the studios to watch their artist-god being cremated.

God bless his soul and God bless their family!

External Links

Profile of Dr. Rajkumar: http://www.chitraloka.com/sections/stock_shots/profiles_rajkumar.html

Chronological order of Dr. Raj's movies starting from 1954 to 1994
http://members.tripod.com/~arvintripod/rajkumar.html

Bangalore Metro rail

2006-03-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

I login to to check my email this morning and one of my friend's had sent me this picture that showed the proposed plan for the Bangalore Metro rail. Its amazing! I'm glad good things are happening in Bangalore and all this job outsourcing after all might help my home town grow better. Also shown is another picture that depicts how many vehicles are being registered per day in Bangalore. Wow !!!

Finally the workstation is up

2006-03-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

After about 4 months of storing the computer workstation parts in our bedroom, yesterday night it was officially setup and we all heaved a sigh of victory. The problem was with the parts - oddly enough, when I bought the ALVE workstation from Ikea, some of the parts were missing. So I placed a request with the customer service and he told me that within 5 business days, I shall have the parts delivered to my home. It was not until 2 months after I placed a request for the parts that I had to call up the customer service again, only to learn that the case was closed. After frustating conversations with the customer service @ Ikea (which btw sucks) I decided to make a trip to the store and order it.

At the store the lady tells me that the customer service department over the phone have no clue of what they are talking and that only she could help me. Strangely enough after 30 minutes she comes back with the missing parts and also gets me a spare parts kit for a similar workstation. I decided to take them both as I did not want to drive another 40 miles only to get a screw that the geniuses in Sweden designed for the model. After playing a lot of mix and match from both the kits, my dad and myself finally managed to pull it off. Amongst all the frustations I have for the people @ Ikea, I still thank that lady who helped me in getting the parts. There are some nice people in the world - just that its hard to find them.

Vacuum cleaner needed vacuuming

2006-03-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

On Sunday as usual we started to vacuum the floors and realized that the vacuum isn't really sucking anything. I was happy all along to find the dirt container empty after long hours of vacuuming. It was a short lived happiness though - I opened up the vacuum cleaner inside out and found many suction points overloaded with paper and dust. We cleaned the bristles, the containers and the pipes. After putting everything back to together the vacuum started to hum and its suctions was back to its usual power. Wish they make vacuum cleaners for cleaning vacuums or better - self cleaning vacuums.

Saturday work is boring

2006-03-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today was the most boring day for me. Forget about me - think about Priya, she had to work today. The fact that she had to work on a Saturday made me feel bored. But anyway, I dropped her off to work and headed to the temple with my parents. I had to discuss certain things there about the next week's activities. In the evening I had to spring by the school again to pick up Priya and head back home. A whole Saturday spent working :(

Accident - not a stereotypical movie

2006-03-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

This movie was directed by the late Shankar Nag. The movie has been taken very professionally. It is a 1984 movie. Believe me - when you see the movie, there is nothing about 1984 in that. There are instances shown about how teenagers enjoy smoking and having sex. There are scenes where the youngsters smoke grass (drugs) without the knowledge of the parents. Convertible cars and dirty politics. The thing that best impressed me was the investigation procedure of the brutal man slaughter - it all relates to modern day serials like CSI. There is mention about forensic department wherein they analyze the dust from a telegraph pole to which the speeding car had supposedly hit. Police collect shards of broken glass from the head light on the walkway where the car had butchered 17 people. In the lab the shards are analyzed to be from a foreign car (which is true) and of course they do analyze the tire thread marks. Wow - all these fascinated me about the movie. There are no songs in the movie and it is a brilliant masterpiece from Shankar Nag.

Synopsis of the movie: 2 boys, drunk and drugged, run their car over a walkway one night killing about 17 people. Only one survivor amongst the 18 who were sleeping on the walkway at night. All the 18 were homeless people who had come to city seeking jobs and to earn money. The driver happens to be a big politician's son and obviously the politician, who wants justice to be met but not at the cost of his son counting bars, hatches a plan to ward off the investigation by buying the police, scape-goating his own house servant and also almost killing the press writer who was writing articles about the entire incident. The single survivor in the incident is unwittingly convinced to provide evidence against an innocent old man thereby allowing the politician's son to flee to America for further studies. The politician's son, is over-burdened by the guilt of the accident whenever he comes in sight with the only survivor of the accident. In that process while driving to the airport he hits a tree and dies. All this for what - just to have an untainted political party and to show the supremacy of money over poor helpless people.

Hats off to the brilliant direction of Shankar Nag - of course the actors are classy - Arundatti Nag, Ananth Nag, Ramesh Bhatt, Shankar Nag, ...

Anniyan - alter ego of a simple Brahmin boy

2006-03-21T23:55:00.000-08:00

Just finished watching the Tamil movie Anniyan. The movie revolves under the typical multiple personality disorder. Anniyan is the alter ego of a simple brahmin village boy. Anniyan is the one that gives punishments to people who do mistakes like bribery, stealing, lying, ... And the punishments are according to the Garuda Purana. The movie is pretty gruesome with the type of punishments that are given to the people who commit different kinds of crime. The concept of the movie is pretty good but I don't quite understand one thing - why choose Garuda Purana and its way of punishing people?

Did some research on Garuda Purana - certain portions of the purana has prescribed certain punishments for certain types of crimes after the person dies and reaches Naraka Loka or Hell. That's why they say - "Don't do bad things, you will suffer in hell." I don't understand why the director thought it might be good if the concept were to be brought down to Earth while the person is alive itself. Its kind of funny, although I kind of get an idea about the intention in the mind of the director - mainly to highlight the multiple personality disorder in a slightly off-guard way for viewers so that the audience would not infer the movie and loose interest. It is all to just to spice things up a bit. Going the traditional way was just too boring especially for MPD, a very common topic for today's movies - be it Bollywood, Kollywood or Tollywood. The movie kind of gives away the MPD in the very beginning and this shows that the director wants people to know that it is because of MPD that Anniyan was born and then on, it is all how the MPs interact with each other.

What am I concerned about most - people who do not understand the inner essence of the movie and our culture might be getting the wrong message from this movie. They need to understand the fact that Garuda Purana contains prescriptions for punishing the bad only after they are dead and that too in hell. The movie might depict that our shastras have prescribed this kind of punishment while the person is alive and that too on earth itself. Its not very uncommon for many people to assume this and spread the wrong message to others, as word of mouth spreads faster than any wind or twister.

Anyway, I just penned down my thoughts about the movie. Feel free to comment on this. But don't write a comment syaing - "Take it in the lighter sense dude!" - I have taken the movie in the lighter sense and that is why I have explained the real inner essence of the movie.

Returning NYPD Blues DVD

2006-03-21T20:45:00.000-08:00

Returning the NYPD blues DVD was fun @ the Best Buy store. I searched for the receipt and could not find it (of course got scolded a million times by the home minister). So I go to the store and ask the customer service for a copy of the receipt, telling her that I have lost it. She prints me a copy of it and then I ask her to take the DVD back. She did it, but somewhere in my mind I was feeling a little odd. These guys are funny - If you say that you have lost your receipt, they don't offer to search the receipt and honor your request for taking back the DVD. But, this way - they did not utter a word. So there's your trick. Be sure you go before 30 days for the return policy to work.

Torrents unlimited

2006-03-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

Today it was pouring so badly that I could not even see the car in front of me (a few feet) on the highway. Luckily everyone was driving very slowly and I wonder why people cannot switch on their head lights when they turn on the vipers. Its so difficult to see people in such heavy rain without some tail light...Anyway glad that the rainy season is almost coming to an end. Waiting for April Spring.

Rush to Ikea

2006-03-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

Harsha stayed over at our place after the party last night and he wanted to leave early so as to get the connecting train/bus to San Jose. I thought why not go over to Ikea and get the parts for the ALVE computer workstation. It was already 8 pm and Harsha told me that he was willing to be dropped off at Ikea so he could get the Line 22 from Palo Alto.

Headed off to 580W and found that the traffic is tied up from the 680 junction (about 10 miles). It was already 8:25 pm when we crossed the 680 junction and I thought - lets do it, we can make it. We did make it at 8:55 pm and luckily the elevators and doors were still operating. Got all the parts and dropped off Harsha straight at his home in San Jose. He had been a good boy without whining and crying that day so he ought to have gotten a ride home. :)

False Alarm

2006-03-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

It was 4:28 in the morning and somewhere I could hear some siren sound and amidst all that I could hear my dad screaming my name. I got up immediately and realized that the Brinks alarm had set off. I ran downstairs and entered the code and disabled it. Just as I disabled the alarm, I got a call from Brinks. I ran to pick up the phone but in that moment of urgency I missed the call and they called my cellphone. Luckily I picked it up and the Brinks security person at the other end asked me if everything was ok. She told me that the alarm came in from the Patio door. I told her it was a false alarm and I checked that the sensor that was stuck on the metal casing in the patio door had come off. Found the cause of the false alarm. Anyway, after disabling the alarm, we all went back to sleep. We all thought - the day we got the alarm fixed, that day itself a burglar was caught in his act, but god willing no such thing happened.

Brinks in our home

2006-03-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

For a long time now we were thinking of getting Brinks security installed at our place. Finally we made the call and got it installed this morning. It took the guy almost 5 hours to fix the 3 sensors to the door and the 2 motion detectors. The system is completely wireless hence less drilling of holes in the walls. Finally we have a security system @ our home.

Padosan - Reminicising Kishore Kumar

2006-03-16T22:30:00.000-08:00

We all saw Kishore Kumar's movie - Padosan. The movie itself and the songs made us all feel nostalgic about Kishore Kumar and his days of talent in the Cinema. A very talented singer, talented actor, musician, lyricist and what not. We definitely miss this gem of the artist and his songs will always remain as a cherished memory in our minds and hearts

My dad turns 56

2006-03-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Today - my dad's birthday and he turned 56. Born in 1954, he is a proud father of a son who is blogging his 56th birthday. Well, need to get him some nice shirts and pants. Good bye folks! Party next week for him and a friend.....of course my wife might be throwing one for me as tomorrow is my birthday...let's see.

Mom and Dad arrive

2006-03-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

We were very excited today as my parents were to come in the afternoon. They flew from Bangalore to Singapore to Seoul and then finally arrived in San Francisco today afternoon at around 2:30 pm. Everything went of well and they have got a 6 month entry into the US. Cooooooool! We came home at around 4:00 pm owing to the slow driving due to the rain. Had our lunch and then opened up all the baggages. Both Priya and myself got a lot of goodies - Sarees for Priya, CDs/VCDs for me wowie!!. My mom and dad were tired and they slept for sometime while I rummaged through all the baggages for more goodies. It is fun having parents over. It is their second time and I hope this time too, they will enjoy their stay here. Good night folks, I have wish my folks good night too.

Chayote Squash Salad

2006-01-24T20:03:00.000-08:00

For those folks who do not know what a Chayote Squash is, here is a picture from one of the Google Searches. It is called as Seeme Badhanekayi in Kannada. I like the vegetable a lot especially if two items are prepared with it - Upma and Raita. So, as usual my wife (Priya) gets into the kitchen to make the night's dinner. It was tacitly understood that she would be preparing Papdi Lilva Sambhar and Rice. Now we needed some curry to eat along with the sambhar. So, Priya gets to chop the Squash. I jumped in and seized the moment - I told her, let's make raita with the squash instead of the plain curry. She agreed and continued to cut the vegetable. Needless to say we all enjoyed the food with the raita. Here is how you can prepare it too and enjoy then same...

Ingredients:
[1] Chayote Squash - 3 to 4
[2] Mustard seeds - 2 teaspoons
[3] Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
[4] Urad Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
[5] Chana Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
[6] Chillies - 4 to 5 depending on the level of hotness you want
[7] Coconut - 1/2 to 1 cup (I know the size of the cup is left to you, but still ...)
[8] Turmeric - a pinch
[9] Buttermilk - 2 cups
[10] Cilantro leaves - 1/2 a bunch finely chopped
[11] Ginger - a bite to taste
[12] Salt - to taste
[13] Water

Recipe:
[1] Start out by chopping the Squash into fine pieces
[2] Place the frying pan on medium flame. Add some oil and allow to heat for sometime
[3] Put in a teaspoon of mustard seeds to the heated oil and let it spatter
[4] Then put the chana dal and the urid dal and nicely stir to fry the dal. Make sure you don't burn the dal and believe me the urid dal is the one that gets black first :)
[5] After the dal has fried to brownish color, add the chopped the Squash and allow to cook
[6] Add some water and close the lid to make the cooking faster, but make sure you keep the flame in low heat as the high flame might burn your pan
[7] Stir occasionally until the Squash is cooked
[8] While the vegetable is getting cooked, prepare the raita masala
[9] Put the coconut in the mixer along with the chillies, cilantro, turmeric, ginger, cumin seeds, and mustard seeds. Add some water and nicely grind the mixture to make a fine puree
[10] Then add some buttermilk to that and mix well
[11] After the vegetable is cooked turn off the flame and allow to cool
[12] Once cooled, add the buttermilk mixture to the vegetable andmix well
[13] Add salt to taste and serve with chapati or rice

How does it look? Does it look like the picture below? If not then don't worry - just tinkle in to our home and we will make it and also serve it for you. What do you say?

Friends, hope you are enjoying my blog on Indian Vegetarian recipes...

Good night until tomorrow

Papdi Lilva Sambhar

2006-01-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

I still remember those days in Bangalore when I grew up around Papdi Lilva. For the non-kannadigas papdi lilva is the twisted english version of avarekayi. Actually papdi lilva is not the exact english phrase for avarekayi, but still its fine to pull out a conjecture. See the adjoining picture and you will get a clearer picture of what it is we are going to talk about. So coming back to those good old days I grew up in Bangalore, I still remember my mom and grand mom preparing every dish with avarekayi. In the season the beans sell for like 5 bucks a kg and we used to bring in loads of it. Hence it is pretty natural for me to love this particular beans in the family of beans. Although papdi lilva is not termed as beans, it is a bean after all. What do you say? Check out the picture for goodness sake, isn't that a bean? :)

After having my afternoon lunch I left for work as usual today and when I came back home, my grand dad had kept the papdi lilva ready to be cooked. It was decided that we make sambhar with the lilva (believe me it is actually a discussion to decide what needs to be done with this papdi lilva, as anything can be done). What I like most of the papdi lilva - it is ubiquitous. Any dish can be prepared with this. So I started to help my wife in the kitchen to prepare the dish. I know you must be thinking - hey dude, cut the crap and tell us how to make it...Here I unroll it for you

Ingredients:
[1] Papdi Lilva - 3 to 4 measures
[2] Toor Dal - 2 measures
[3] Tamarind
[4] Tomatoes - 2 to 3
[5] Chili powder
[6] Sambhar powder (prepare one on your own, I will tell you how later someday in my blog OR get it from a strore selling MTR products)
[7] Mustard seeds
[8] Asafoetida (Hing, dude)
[9] Turmeric
[10] Oil
[11] Salt - to taste
[12] Water

Recipe:
[1] Take some dal in a pressure cooker and to that add the papdi lilva and water. Add enough water depending on the quantity of the sambhar you want to prepare
[2] To this add a spoon of oil and some turmeric
[3] Do I need to need to tell what to do next? :) Put the cooker on a flame and allow it to whistle 2 or 3 times. Once the dal is done you can turn off the flame under the cooker
[4] Its not that the cooker is going to whistle the moment you keep it on the flame, so lets get to work with the tamarind paste while the dal cooks :)
[5] Chop some tomatoes and put it in a mixer. To this add some tamarind (either the paste or the actual tamarind) and water and grind nicely
[6] Filter the tomato and tamarind liquid from the tomato skin/tamarind seeds into a separate vessel
[7] Put the vessel on a medium flame and begin heating
[8] To this add about 3 or 4 spoons of chilli powder and nicely mix the powder in the liquid making sure there are no knots
[9] After the liquid boils add some sambhar powder (3 to 4 spoons depending on how thick you want the sambhar) again making sure there are no knots formed
[10] Allow to boil for some time until the masala cooks
[11] Hopefully you have not forgotten to turn off the flame under the presssure cooker...
[12] Now add the dal + papdi lilva to this liquid and nicely mix the two
[13] Add some salt to taste
[14] Add some seasoning - to some heated oil add mustard seeds and allow to spatter and then add some Hing
[15] Serve hot with rice

Here is one tip: If you want to make sambhar that is less viscous, you can skip Step [9]

Enjoy folks, this dish is very tasty. My stomach is already rumbling

Good night!

Yellow Coconut curry

2006-01-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well, Raddish is one of the stinky vegetables that no one wants to open it's dish in public. Yet, yet it's dishes are indeed tasty (provided you stick to eating them @ the luxury of your own home, better yet in your own room). Today we had prepared Raddish Kolumbu. It was indeed yummy with the Apples & Bell peppers Gojju. Want a 'byte' of the kolumbu - here it is... Want to know how to prepare it?

Items you need:
[1] Raddish - a couple
[2] Coconut - depends on how many chillies you put
[3] Turmeric - a spoon
[4] Mustard seeds - a teaspoon
[5] Cilantro seeds - 10 to 15 seeds
[6] Red chillis - depends on the level of hotness
[7] Toor Dal - 1 or 2 measures
[8] Rice - a handful
[9] Salt - to taste
[10] Water - the universal requirement

Recipe:
[1] Put some Toor Dal in the pressure cooker alongwith some water (as if you did not know that). Put water enough to soak the dal and the quantity is upto you depending on how much kolumbu you want.
[2] Chop the Raddishes into roundlets. Put the cut raddishes in a vessel. Yes, you need to add water. Put the vessel for boiling in moderate to high flame.
[3] While the 2 are getting cooked, you are ready to make the spicy gravy for the kolumbu.
[4] Put some coconut, cilantro seeds, rice, turmeric, mustard seeds, red chillies and water into a mixer and grate them finely.
[5] Once the pressure cooker whistles for about 2 or 3 times, turn off the flame under the cooker and allow to cool.
[6] Check if the raddish is cooked and if so, add the grated gravy to the raddish
[7] Let the mixture cook for sometime under a low flame (Please take care in continously stirring the mixture as the base might get burned on the inside giving you a burnt taste)
[8] Once the mixture is cooked, add the cooked dal and stir to completion
[9] After it is cooked and boiled turn off the flame under the vessel and Raddish Kolumbu is ready!

Wasn't that easy? Just make sure you dont burn the vessel used for the Kolumbu.

Enjoy folks, feeling really sleepy after the sumptuous dinner.

Good night!

Apple and Bell Peppers gravy

2006-01-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

As usual I came home this afternoon and to my surprise my grand dad had prepared Apple and Bell Peppers Gojju. For those who do not know what Gojju is - it is a tangy gravy usually prepared from Tamarind. Needless to say, the gojju was excellent and I enjoyed my afternoon food. The best part of this dish is that it is very healthy - it has apples. Thought I would share the recipe with you all:

Needed Ingredients:

[1] Apples (of course) - quantity as much as you need
[2] Bell Peppers - quantity as much as you need
[3] Mustard seeds - a teaspoon
[4] Oil/Spray - a couple of teaspoons
[5] Red Chillis - about 4 or 5 depending on the level of the hotness
[6] Tamarind paste - about 1 or 2 teaspoons
[7] Sugar/Splenda - depending on the amount of tamarind you put (usually 1 or 2 teaspoons)
[8] Salt - to taste
[9] Water - as much as is needed

Recipe:

[1] Scrape the skin from the apple and cut it into several small pieces (Disclaimer: Wash the apples first)
[2] Cut the Bell peppers into small peices
[3] Place a frying pan in low flame and put some oil (healthier choice: Fat-Free Oil Spray). Allow the oil to heat for some time
[4] Once the oil is hot enough, put some mustard seeds into the pan and allow the mustard seeds to spatter
[5] Then add the apples and the bell peppers to the pan and mix well
[6] While the mixture of the apples and bell peppers cooks under low flame, prepare the tamarind solution - Mix some tamarind paste to water making sure the paste completely dissolves in water (result should be a black solution)
[7] Pour the tamarind solution into the apples and bell peppers mixture and allow the contents to cook well under low heat
[8] Add some salt and sugar (healthier choice: Splenda) to the mixture. Sugar/Splenda reduces the intensity of the tanginess of the tamarind. You forget to put this, you will end up with a very tangy gravy.
[9] Allow to cook for a few minutes. Check to see if the bell peppers and apple pieces are cooked. Once cooked turn off the flame and serve hot with rice/chapathis

I have shown a snapshot of the vegetable prepared at our home. It was really tasty especially for people who love tangy flavored dishes.

Enjoy people!