Read this blog

I was browsing through internet and ended up in reading this blog, I wish few more people would read it.

http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=9190

Mansoon

Monsoon started here in Mumbai.
Every monsoon, brings back so many memories................ some are heart warming some are depressing ............... mixed feeling
ಅನುಭವವು ಸವಿಯಲ್ಲ ಅದರ ನೆನಪೇ ಸವಿಯು
ಅದ ಕದ್ದು ಮೇಯದೇ ಮನವು?
ಕಡ೦ಗೊಡ್ಳು ಶ೦ಕರ ಭಟ್ಟರು.

Sagara Bus-stand

Ambika hotel, anyone remember....
It was there at the heart of Sagara bus-stand when I was studying in high school. You have to enter the bus stop thorough two or four stone pillars , you go sideways inside, on left and right side you have long cement seats to sit, red oxide one and all the side was covered with iron mesh. At the center of this U, Ambika hotel was located. This bustand/hotel complex was again situated in the U of bus stop; on either side of the hotel buses were halted. Our Siddapur ST bus was parked on the left side of the bus stop. Across the road , Himalaya cool drinks Karnataka stores, Kinimamu shop, and one more shop in the corner I hardly remember name of the shop, but I do very much remember all the girls who were standing there!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then many more memory snaps.........
Hebbar 1/2 coffee in PUC........
Evergreen heroes in kinimamu shop they were there from my high school days to college days, they watched infinite number of girls
Lot of girls on the corner shop , I mean standing and waiting for bus , especially from Hamsgar village or that side villages, they had only one bus at 1.15 pm, then you had another group from Nichodi village, so on so forth ( let me write this in detail some other day)
Then, there is a Sharada temple in Railway station road, there also few girls !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometime we had idli in Ram bhavan in front of police station..
Hall-ice in Himalaya cool drinks...
Just opposite to the Ambika hotel, there was ST bus office, we stood there and took our monthly pass for Rs5 I still have a copy of that pass
Then there was Priyadarshini hotel next to Jyoti petrol pump on the other side of police station.
There were pan shops , which were favorites with many.......... I never had...
In high school days it was all about LB college and many more gossip from the seniors.......
Our ST bus would go for Varadalli a short trip and will go to Siddapur at 5.30pm, there was a Harishi ST bus too. there was always competition between the two, students after Ulavi /Nisarani always travelled in Siddapur ST and Ulavi/Sorab students in Harishi ST, but students in between ( Lingadalli and Padagodu) they were never loyal to any bus,,,
Apart from that Limbu peppermint, was regularly sold.. and given as nutritious and cry stopping diet by all village mothers, babies crying, their sticky nose mouth and hands...........a common seen in bus stand.
Let me stop here........ and let me tell many small stories revolved around this bus stand.......

ಬಾಗಿಲೊಳು ಕೈ ಮುಗಿದು............

ನಿಜವನ್ನು ಹುಡುಕುವುದು - ಸುಳ್ಳೇ ?

ಇದ್ದಿರಬಹುದು... ಆದರೆ ಈ ನಿಜ ಹುಡುಕುವರಿ೦ದ ನಮಗೆ ನಿಜ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದೆಯೋ ಇಲ್ಲವೋ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ.... ಆದ್ರೆ, ಇವರುಗಳು ಪ್ರಪ೦ಚದ ವೈಚಾರಿಕ ಸ್೦ಪತ್ತಿಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು ಅಗಾಧ. ನಿಜ ಹುಡುಕುತ್ತಲೇ ಗ್ರೀಕನ ಮಹಾನ್ ಫಿಲಾಸಫರ್ ಗಳು ನಮಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಅಪಾರ. ನಮ್ಮ ವೇದ, ಉಪನಿಶತ್ತುಗಳು ನಿಜವನ್ನೆ ಹುಡುಕುಲು ಹೊರಟಿದ್ದು. ಗೌತಮನು ಹುಡುಕಿದ್ದು ಇದೇ............. ಇವರಿಗೆಲ್ಲಾ ಅವರವರ ಮಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ನಿಜ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದೆ............. ಅದರೆ ಅದೇ ಸರ್ವಕಾಲಿಕ ಸತ್ಯವೇ?,,, ಹಾಗೆ೦ದು ಸತ್ಯ ಹುಡುಕುವರು ಇಗಿಲ್ಲವೇ... ಕವಿಗಳು, ನಮ್ಮ ಕಾದ೦ಬರಿಕಾರರು, ಈ ನಿಜದ ಹುಡುಕಟದಲ್ಲೆ ಇದ್ದಾರೆ. ನಾನು ಇದರ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನದಲ್ಲೇ ಇದ್ದೆನೆ , ಇವತ್ತಿನವರೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ ಸಿಗದೆ ಅ೦ತರ್ಪಿಶಾಚಿಯಾಗಿ........ ಉಳಿದಿದ್ದೇನೆ................. ಉತ್ತರ ಸಿಗಬಹುದು ಎ೦ಬ ಆಶಾಬಾವ!!!!!!!!!!

ನಿಜ - ಸುಳ್ಳು

ನಿಜ

ಸುಳ್ಳು

ಯಾವುದು ನಿಜ?

ಸುಳ್ಳು ನಿಜವೋ..

ನಿಜವು ಸುಳ್ಳೋ..

ಕಳೆದು ಹೋದವು ದಿನಗಳು

ಉತ್ತರ ಹುದುಕುವಲ್ಲಿ.

ಸುಳ್ಳು ನಿಜಗಳ ಉಯ್ಯಾಲೆಯಲಿ,

ಉತ್ತರ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳು ತಿರುಗುಮುರುಗದವು.

ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ

ಉತ್ತರಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ

ಹುಟ್ಟುತ್ತಾ ಹೋಯಿತು.

ನನ್ನ ಆತ್ಮಸಾಕ್ಷಿ

ಯಾವುದನು ಹಿಡಿಯುವುದು ಎ೦ದು ತಿಳಿಯದೆ

ಅ೦ತರಪಿಶಾಚಿಯಗಿ ಉಳಿಯಿತು.

ಹುಡುಕಾಟ

ಕಳೆದು ಹೋದದ್ದ ಹುಡುಕುತ್ತಾ...

ಹುಡುಕಿದ್ದು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದಾಗ

ಮತ್ತೊ೦ದನ್ನು ಹುಡುಕುತ್ತಾ

ಹುಡುಕುವಾಗಲೇ

ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದನ್ನು ಕಳೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳೂತ್ತಾ

ಬದುಕಿನ ಗಾಲಿ ಉರುಳಿದೆ

ಹಿ೦ದೆ ಬದುಕಲೋ

ಮು೦ದೆ ಬದುಕಲೋ

ಇ೦ದು ಬದುಕಲೋ

ತಿಳಿಯದೆ

ಈ ಮೂರರ ಕಲಸುಮೆಲೋಗರದಲ್ಲಿ

ನಾನಿದ್ದೆ!!!!!!!

ಹಿ೦ದೆ ಕಳೆದದ್ದನ್ನು

ನಾಳೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹುಡುಕುತ್ತಾ

ಇ೦ದು ಖಾಲಿ ಆಗಿದೆ...

ಹಿ೦ದಿನ ಜ್ಞಾನ

ಇ೦ದನ್ನು ಮು೦ದನ್ನು

ಅಳೆಯುವ ಸೇರಗಿದೆ..

ಹಿ೦ದಿನ ನಾನು ಎ೦ಬ ಜ್ಞಾನ

ಇ೦ದಿನ ನಾನಾರು ಎ೦ದು ಕೇಳದೇ ಹೋಗಿದೆ!

DVG

My life would have been something else without these three letters. I wonder, how this person can be so simple? I was introduced to him in my 5th standard by Vasuda teacher, long back, I still remember the story she told about Kagga, and why and how it was written. After that I tried to read Mankutimmana Kagga, it was bit difficult for me... After that, Kagga and me didnot meet for long time, till my graduation. There I met him again, after that till today he is a great companion to me. Day in day out he is with me, in my most difficult situation he pulled me out. All great literatures are produced in poems, because it can be remembered and songs can be sung... this was true with Kagga, I wrote these poems on first page of my notebooks. Daily read them and try to put them in practice or for inspiration...
When I felt lonely
When I lost hope
When I struggled to find purpose in life
When I try to understand God
When I lost hope in humanity
When I felt down
many more 'when', but always DVG was around..... guiding me, taking care with all love and assurance. I learnt to look at life in a funny way, or keep asking questions, I also learnt like DVG not to answer all questions of life, leave some of them as it is. Ask and leave it.......... And also learnt to look around the beauties of life and have a 'wow' feeling about it. I also learnt who is poor.. ಬಡ ಮನಸ್ಸೆ ಬಡತನವು.... learnt to live in family, learnt to balance the life.
.... hunger and desire........ ಗುಟ್ಟು ಕೀಲುಗಳು ಸ್ರುಷ್ಥಿಯ೦ತ್ರದೊಳು................. isn’t it true? I read many self-help books management books, nothing was Mankuthimmana Kagga, it was always one step ahead.

DVG- too many things can be written about him..... but he never liked lime light. He gave us most wonderful things. He changed many lives (including mine) but never spoke about. What he advised, he lived that, very rare thing ... Even the most honest writers I have seen and heard, found it difficult to do it; from somewhere hypocrisy peeps in. Even in his 4th edition of Kagga (1964!!!!) , he was so humble, acknowledging readers for the sucess of Kagga!!!!!!!( look at me, even one comment for my blog will change my walking style!!!!!!!!!!!!). and then he writes ..ಬಹು ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯರಾದವರ ಮನೆಗೆ ಇದು ಒ೦ದು ತೊಟ್ಟಿನಸ್ಟು ಎಣ್ಣೆಯ೦ತದರೆ ನನಗೆ ತ್ರುಪ್ತಿ.... but it has become guiding light for life to many people
DVG fragrance is around, but flower is not to be seen, .....ಕಾನನದ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆಯು ನಿಜಸೌರಭವ ಸೂಸಿ, ತಾನೆಲೆಯ ಪಿ೦ತಿರ್ದು....... ವನಸುಮ...... I have tried to be like this, failed utterly.
Instead of complicated mantras I adapted this poem as prayer, not to pray anyone but to remind me, how to live........... it is difficult.. but as he said... keep trying.. Some day I may achieve.........
Finally, I couldn’t meet him, here is all gratitude and thanks to him; I know only way to thank him is to live like him...............

ಪ್ರಯಾಣ

ಹಳೆದು ಕಳೆದ೦ತೆ
ಹೊಸದೊ೦ದು
ನೋವು (ಸುಖ!!!)
ಮುಗಿಯದು ಈ
ರೈಲು

ಮದ್ಯ ಹಾದು ಹೋಯಿತು
ಗುಡ್ಡ ಬಯಲು
ಏರು ಹತ್ತುತ್ತಾ
ಇಳುಕಲು......,
ಇಳುಕಲಲಿ ಮರೆತೆವು
ಮತ್ತೊ೦ದು ಏರು.

ಎಲ್ಲದರ ಮಧ್ಯ
ಕೆಲವೊಮ್ಮೆ ಸ೦ತಸದ ಪದ್ಯ
ಆಗ ನೋವು ತೆರೆ ಮರೆ ಸದ್ಯ!!!

ಬಿದುಗಡೆಯ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ,
ಗೊತ್ತಿದ್ದು ಆಗದೆ೦ದು;
ಮರಳಿ
ರೈಲಿನಲಿ..............
ಪಯಣ

ಬ೦ದು ಹೋಯಿತು
ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸಣ್ಣ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ
ಕೆಲವು ಚ೦ದ,
ಕೆಲವು ಹೊಲಸು
ಒಮ್ಮೊಮ್ಮೆ ಅನಿಸೀತು
ಚ೦ದದ ಊರಲ್ಲಿ
ನಿಲ್ಲಬಾರದೇಕೆ?

ನಿ೦ತೀತಾ.......?
ಹ.... ಹ... ಹಾ............


ಕೊನೆಯ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ
ಬರುವರೆಗೆ....
ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಕನಸು

ಬಿಡು..............

ಓ ಇವರೆ,
ನಿಲುಗಡೆಯಲ್ಲ ಗುರಿ,
ಮತ್ತೆ............
ಪ್ರಯಾಣ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ....
ಪ್ರಯಾಣ.....

ಇವಳು

I wrote this for few people who were close to her. It was read out for them, they appreciated and also suggested many more things to add, but I couldn't do much on that. And I am too lazy to write whole thing in Kannada on web , since I am not used it ( learning...........). Therefore, I am giving this link to a PDF file, If any one wants to read it they can go to this link and read it. Please excuse me for bad handwriting and poor spelling. I have tried my level best not to mention any name and place to keep the anonymity, if anyone feel so please let me know, I will remove this blog. Few people can easily make out who is this and I am not worried about them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here it is
http://nishachara101.googlepages.com/blog.PDF

My friend in a marathon…

Sun is setting. It was a long run. Suffocating, exhausting and lactic acid had built up to maximum. Whole body is aching. Now there is a distinct feeling of “mind is out of body” and legs are running as if they belong to some one else. Mind has stopped responding to the pain. What lays inside which is making him to run and reach the goal. Long back his fellow marathon runners have reached the stadium and even they may be taking rest in Olympics village. He is more than 6 hours behind the leaders. Only difference is he is running with a broken leg. He is running with a physical disadvantage but not the mental one. Now he is near the stadium. It is almost dark. Except his team and his girl friend none are left on roads. Lonely figure enters the stadium. His long evening shadow reflects his limping movement. Huge stadium. As he expected, none were there in stadium; but not empty. There were few waiting for him. Claps followed him as he finished each lap in the stadium, as he collapsed near the finishing line, there was a standing ovation with claps echoing the giant stadium reflecting the will to win over adversity. This is a story or a similar one I had read long back in some magazine (may be Readers’ Digest) .
Recently my friend finished her PhD. When she finished her viva and called us I remembered the above story. That was a long run for her. “Six and half years” is a long run. She collapsed many a times. She got up and ran again. She reached at last. But what she gained? Similarly, that marathon runner what he gained, there was neither gold medal waiting for him nor any newsagents. Then, why they have to finish? They would have left it somewhere in between?………This quality sets them apart from ordinary crowd.
She took a problem, which was very difficult to solve in her lab conditions and setup. There were many more troubles. She has to find out protocols, she has to look into results, which were of worth or not. One experiment led to another with some exciting results but ended up in several dead ends. Again she has to find her way out of maze with new set of experiments. The problem she had chosen involved laborious and toxic procedures. She had to handle lot of solvents, which were allergic to her. Now this allergy made her research (running) much more difficult. Often she wore a mask; and a lab coat. Lab coat had many holes because of acid spillage; she washed and kept even that coat as bright as possible. She worked in cold room, lot of moisture deposited on her spectacles, she cleaned it in-between and continued working. At the end of the day many times we had lot of discussions on her work. Each one of us suggested one or other methods. Poor girl, which method will she do? For us, it was easy to suggest but she has to do it! At the end of the day she has to travel back home more than an hour in Mumbai traffic, she always took last bus available (8.30pm) and she took earliest bus available from home (7.15am) to come back to lab, even in weekends!!!!. I remember the day of Great Mumbai flood. The water was entering into the lab. All of us are running here and there. She was busy in protecting her lab books. When we were back in home she was worried that, if water level increases, she may loose all the data of five years. She was anxious; called the security people to make sure that water level has not increased. They were safe. She fiercely guarded her chemicals and instrument, not because she is selfish, but because some one may misuse it, and her work will be delayed further. (These are only glimpse of her hard work and dedication.). Her delayed work and frustrating times easily would have led her to manipulation data but she never compromised with scientific integrity.
There were so many moments, just like last lap of marathon, compiling the data and writing the thesis. She had to bother about writing, printer, paper and binder. All of us made her more anxious by asking her, how many chapters got corrected. She answered us patiently, but she was restless. Many sleepless nights were put into thesis writing. Finally it was over. But referees took long time to give their opinion. One day her viva was over and was awarded PhD
That was the day we waited for her, it was very late. In our stadium, her PhD batch mates, her class mates were not there they were gone long back She is the lone runner, but we were there to congratulate. It was more than an hour we waited, after that she turned up, but none of us showed any irritation instead all of us were congratulating as she crossed the winning rope.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
( Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken (1915))

An appeal to my friend - read Kannada……..

An appeal to my friend - read Kannada……..

I was born and brought up in a small village of Karnataka. Kannada is the vernacular language, and I studied the same. That is my mother tongue too. There was no TV for entertainment. Only some village play, cricket and yakshagana ( a type of classical dance form). My grandfather had a small library in-house, called Sadhana Pustaka Bandara. Many books were there to read. I started reading with Dabu, a cartoon strip published in Kannada weekly Sudha. Later I read Kiriayara kana in the same magazine. By the third standard, I upgraded myself to read Chandamama it had great series like Moovaru manthrikaru, Rakksakolla, Papanna, many more stories. In between, my aunt left a trunk full of Amarachitrakata before they left for Algeria. It was great to fun to read from that, however many of them were in English, which I couldn’t read but I glanced through pictures. By the fifth standard, I was reading novels. I remember my first novel. It was entu koleya bhanta, by Narasihmayya. I recall that day, it was in May end, a day with heavy pre-monsoon rain with lightning and thunder. It was a great thrill to read that book. Later, I read many books by this author. Soon after, I shifted to thriller authors, some secret agent Mahesh; he had a knife Raja and a pistol Rani, so on so forth. By the time I reached the eighth standard, series Kannada translations of Telugu novels were available. They were very famous, especially of Yandamurivirendranath, Malldi. I could recollect few of them, duddu, duddu, beladingala bale, kappaanchu biliseragu much more. They thrilled me, and they are like Sidney Sheldon novels. But most of the time these stocks would be over, nothing to read, so I stared reading books from my grandfather's library. He had a great collection of Shivaram Karanth and many Bengali novels in Kannada. I read all of them. I liked Gora ( Tagore), marli mange, kanndiyalli kandata. One of the most excellent books ever read is Krishnavatara by Munshi, translated by Siddvanalli Krishna Sharma. Great book. I don’t know about original, but in Kannada, it is most wonderfully written. Many of the above books I may not be able to read now especially thriller fiction. But Krishnavatara is an all-time great book. Must be read in Kannada to enjoy the language.
I have a friend who is a voracious reader. He devours books whole. His reading range is vast, thriller to philosophy geography, freedom fighting, partition, filmmaking, economics and much more. Like me, his mother tongue is also Kannada. All these days he read only in English. English has vast literature; he must have never felt the shortage of literature. Maybe there was no need to read Kannada books. English books satisfied all his intellectual thrust. English is a great language, ever growing language and all language books are available in English. So why to read Kannada? Well, I am not a Kannada movement activist to tell around you should read and write only in Kannada. In fact, here in Mumbai, I am the most random member of Kannada organisation. Moreover, I  do not believe in this kind of enforcing a language or bias towards one language. What is the logic behind reading Kannada book? Each language is a representative of a culture and suitable for that culture and can be best expressed in that language. There are different words for certain things, which are endemic to that region. There is no translation for these words.
Well, forget about all these things. Tell me is it possible to translate D.R Bendre poems to English?, how we can impart Daravad kannad into it. How I can translate words like
“Antina nantu” it would be “sticky relationship” ha ha . How can I translate Dibbana . It is next to impossible. G.P.Rajratnam’s Rarnana padagalu, with a great flavour of Bangalore village language. The beauty lies in the voice of locality.
So friend, why don’t you read Kannada? Let us give a try. Start with simple language book like Krishnavathara . Read few pages per day. Carry this book everywhere so you may tend to read one or two pages while drinking coffee in some Dharshini. Maybe Krishna or Bhima take you away to Dwaparayuga . Just like, it happened to me when I started reading English in Readers Digest. Sometimes just I got carried away and for a moment and just forgot which language I was reading in. Let us take a fascinating novel like Hamsaraga or Thirugubana by Ta Ra Su. and travel around Chithradhurga. Maybe sometime you should know Masti. He achieved a significant level of simplicity in writing. But sometime back, you had told me you don’t like something put simplistically. But here is a simple, straightforward narration except for the complex relationships they handle.
I am here, expecting your call, someday you may call and tell “Batta, I finished with this Kannada book and it was a great experience to read”.

Relationship

We belong to a group of animals which live in groups , I mean social animals. That has led to great success of our species create and destroy what we want collectively developed relationships. ( antina nantu -- DR Bendre)they are strange never remained same with circumstances it will change, some time these relations look like very stable and strong and bring out wonderful things out of us. Same relationships can be spoiled in no time , with a simple comment or listening to some one else.Relationship is like a cast iron; very strong, you can not bend it but if it falls down it will break. When relations sore, I feel like a single animal instead of social animal ha ha.We cant live in isolation, we need relationships, at the same time we need maturity to understand strength and weakness of relationship to get it going. At the end of the day the great social animals like us are also individuals; we live together but we don't think together nor our brains don't express emotions similar to given circumstances. This further makes it much difficult to understand your fellow human being. A bomb blast --- "ho no" , one says, another- mera train ka kya hoga , so we cant expect second person to as sensitive as first one. But we always try to look for the people who responds like us to given situation and we will appreciate it. Relations strength vary with age also. A teenager finds everything his or her friend doing is right, once hormone levels go down many differences surface--- after all we are animals most of our days actions are controlled by our instincts so we bark like animals instead of think like humans. So relationships are need to be handled with much care and maturity-- failures are there but we need relationships to go on --- to see the bright side of our social engagements. Keep looking for good relationships for difficult time--

Roots

I moved to Mumbai from Karnataka. I am from a village and whole mind-set up is of village. I learnt hindi here, and managing some how. But I miss my village. I really dont miss parents or relatives. But I miss everything that made the whole thing. Component include roads, ponds, trees, roadside snake gods, parents, friends, old barber shop, a curve in road, how much more shall I wired?. I happened search my village in goggle earth. It was a great experience . 2hr of searching and finding my village was really so fascinating. I couldn't get at first. So I went to my district ie Shivamoga. From there, I started searching I followed the honnavarahighway, wow, soon through Ananthapura I reached Sagar. It was great, I just saw my highschool on the way ( at that point I felt like I was in pushpakaviman) then Ganapthi kere (pond), the road took a bend moved ahead. Now I reach a crpss and took a right turn, it is Jail road, I can see Jail, (not the inmates) ,now I reach vardha river bridge , then raiwaycrossing, wow- goa ahead, then on the road to Sorab , I find one by one village passing by, each road curvatures and small and large bridges passed by , I could recognize each of them, in one village there is large rice field, wow it looked great. took a turn we are near Ulavi (near by village) here I have to take a left turn. My heart beat was in raise. I couldn't contain my excitement, now I am moving my mouse slowly, navigating in excitement, I reach twin villages just before my village, teh mud road has crossed the main road looked like a PLUS mark. Moving ahead , one bend one down , now I am deviating ,to my village road. Now I am dead slow and viewing from 2993feet, I reach near our village pond and little further , my home, wow wow, I can make out coconut trees behind and arecanut trees infront, from that height also there is a textural difference between two trees. Ican make out tailed foof top of my home, and next to that my uncles home, remarkable....... Icalled home and taked mother and father, I told them whole thing, my father still don't belief it , I am plannig to send one photoI will write second part of roots later.

My experiments with car

I always drove a car in child-hood with a steel plates as a steering wheel; some times sitting on the top the gate post and using the fence bush branch as a clutch. Those days are past. Finally I decided to buy the car. But financial condition was not that great that I will afford to buy a car. Well , I managed some money and started hunting for car in net, a best place to find. After a month search, finally narrowed down on a car in Chembur which is the nearest suburb to us in Mumbai. We met a car dealer Mr Perriera with a French beard and he showed us a Maruthi Zen ; one of the most popular model ever to hit Indian road.It was looking very dull. He used all his marketing skill and finally convinced us to buy that. After two days of deliberation we finally paid him two thousand rupees as token advance and he promised by 2 days he will give a call, but he never turned up and later he paid back money saying that the car owner is not willing to sell the car.So our dream is shattered more than me my wife Pammi's face was like a dry tomato. Well, I was also disoppointed , I always saw all Zen, in particular white cars ( the color of the car which we were supposed to buy) I imagined my car would be like this !! Once again we were at zero and search continued. Ravi one of my friend's brother told me there is a zen just outside the gate of our campus. I was excited ,"that is great we will go and see it" The same day evening both of us went and saw the car . The car owner's husband said it must be 98 model and repainted and in good condition. And estimated price of 1lakh. I came home and told pammi ( my wife) , she said we will buy it !! By this time our patinence was at limit and we were ready to buy anything shown to us!!! Finally deal was struck at Rs.90 000/- and we bought it.There are many small details in-between, like how we showed to mechanic , how I marveled at his Mumbaia Hindi, how I took all 80, 000 cash from one bank and put it into another and fear in the stomach when we wihtdrew 90 000 cash, how I formatted different letters which would legalized sale( Most of the letters I did not use and they are still laying in my bag) and I paid money to the car owner all these are the part of the big story finally most funniest thing is that I myself don't know driving . I took one of my friend who drove the car from it's old owner's place to my apartment and parked it in-front of our building. I went up in the lift to my flat in 6th floor. From balcony I bent and saw my new ----old car which is happily or gingerly standing (parked) infront of the building. I had many things to do. I have to transfer the car to my name.Iwent to a person called Vicky in Govandi. His office was inside a gully. I handed over all the papers of the car and signed blindly on all the places he showed me with great confindence.Later two days there was no phone from him !! Now I am in fix I said to myself how foolish I am, blindly believing the people. It was may be because of my laziness I have to pay heavy price. All possible bad thoughts passed over the mind. Nothing that bad happened he transfered the car on my name and gave it on third day afte i handed over him all ht documents. Wow now RC-book has my name as the owner of the car.
During all these time , I was still driving illiterate!!!. I joined Balaji driving school. They charged me 2500/- for license and driving lessons. I gave some ten copies of my photos and money they asked me to come in the next week. I went for the first class. I was sent towards a golden colored car ( model Maruti 800 ). One man in his fifties with black and white mustache with typical south Indian outshirt was standing next to car. He asked me get into the car. I sat on the driving seat and was horrified to see the road ahead of me. All the road has been dug up by the municipality and there was a terrible traffic chaos. I told to him I can't take car on the first day through this mess. He said nothing doing you have to drive through this. After a while he said OK . He took the wheel and drove into relatively empty road. He parked the car on the road side and introduced himself. I am Sanjeev Master!!. HE asked me whether I know any driving? I said no .He explained every thing clutch break accelerator gear etc. Eventhough I knew and even I drove a bit in village i didnot show my little knowledge. He always said petrol for accelerator.Here is a sample class. As soon as you enter the class I mean car.... Seat belt, seat ( u have to adjust seat according to your leg space) first gear.... petrol ...........clutch ...... petrol ...... clutch choddo (leave the clucth) petrol oaur petrol ( bit more petrol ), left....... Second .... clutch.... petrol ......cum petrol ( less petrol) never gave more petrol , in 20 classes I never drove that car beyond 20km/h !!!now he will take to different roads of the Mumbai suburb. To give you cofidence, he will take you to the roads which are filled with heavy traffic or small roads which are busting with life, all the U-turns , circles , difficult signals ( bekhar signals) , and also he taught me how to get started in up using the clutch and petrol. At the end of the classes he gave all the possible hints about Guru dhakshina ( teacher fee ) and he said you need to take care of your teacher , Well I did it with 100 rupees!!!.
As all these things were going on I tried all possible things with my own car. Second day after I bought the car , all of us were planning to go to Ganesha temple. Now I have to take the car. I was just one day old in car driving , with all courage I got into the car..( during that time I was not even aware of how to open the door lock) I and pammi are accompanied by our great friends Sachin , Shruti and Bhibuti. Now all of us sat in the car , sahcin sat besides me , he is the navigator. I managed to reverse the car and took onto the road , with great difficulty car went to first gear. Our great journey around our campus started. We have a long way to reach the temple it is almost one km. Now we have reached the main road at each turning I used whole road, sahcin constantly navigated how much I should turn the steering wheel . Finally we managed to reach the temple.The priest did all the pooja and he made me to reverse the car and put into east west direction; with all friends constant cheer and guidance after 10min I managed it the priest did all the pooja and sprayed some flowers and sreegnada on car . We turned back and our journey towards home started. All of them decided to visit Sahyog's ( one more friend's home , who is at that time was on his Honey moon). place. His home is located bit interior from main road , a small road connects to his house. Now I have to turn the car in that narrow road. I was nervous , all in back seat suggested against it. I managed it with Sachin's brilliant navigation there our journey started again towards my place. Now I cant reverse the car in that road. So I took a complete round of the building to reach the main road , from there with out much fuss we reached home.
Story of the window. One window glass was gone down in between the door the glass moving mechanism was broken. I took a driver , since my driving was still in infancy!!! I replaced it in a local garage , well that was my first experience with car garage he charged me just Rs.500 /-
After that till today I am finding new things on the dash board, like parking light on the back of the steering wheel , and KM count down below the speedometer!!!! many more things'
let me stop here.

I tried to recall all my school days in every rainy season, it is a really nostalgic feeling, and it is of too much. The wet smell from the clothes and one more peculiar smell I remember was when I used dry the clothes on hot hande or when I hold in front of fire it will smell very peculiarly with a lot of steam evaporating from it. All our books are kept in a plastic cover then kept in pati cheela!!!!.. Along the road there was a lot of water oozing out of the ground, we always identified them and named them as if we have discovered new river…. When coming back from school always, we fought with an umbrella, by sprinkling the water by rotating a big umbrella. The coffee in the rainy season is a great thing. Steaming coffee one of the most beautiful thing in the world !!!! I don’t know how many people agree with me, but in our family, everyone agrees overwhelmingly!!!!!. (Song playing now: banigondu elle ellide). How uncomfortable stay in school to be with wet clothes on, as u change the sitting position all uneasiness would start again. It is a fantastic feeling to wear dry cloth, sit in lantern light and sip coffee and eat alakalu. There are many frozen pictures of the rainy season.
In school, we hanged our umbrella outside ( some students even used to bring kmbli koppe) and water trickle from umbrella’s sharp steel end. We took that drop on the nail, it shined like a gem and in an almost spherical shape ( due to surface tension!!!! Recently acquired knowledge). On more most awaited thing is when our Kere would fill and kodi’s fall, it was a great discussion topic, “oh today it has rained very heavily, the water level must have reached the thoob”(gate that allows water to thota) and next day we run excitedly to see till where water has reached. We claim our prediction is correct. There was always plastic slippers in rainy season and for all time water and sticky sand used be there in slipper and cause great discomfort, and now then slipper was washed in small streams. Halfway through rainy season places become slippery; when you fall, it is as if the earth has lost all its gravity. And amrithanjan was put into good use. Travelling by bus was always the most beautiful bumpy thing. All Gajanana buses were fitted with vertically folding shutter, water still seeped through it. One side of the body will get wet in spite of fighting water seepage using an umbrella, moving buttocks away from the window seat and facing sympathetic looks of co-passenger. Holiday in the rainy season was a fantastic experience.
Stand and watch the rain, how it proceeds across the landscape. If the wind is there, it will continue like waves and create beautiful music of increase and decrease in rain intensity (in the background u should not miss doddappa shouting to close the door, ‘water will come inside’). Whenever I slept in maadi room during the rainy season, I always enjoyed the raindrops fiercely hitting the hanchu ( tails). Nadahalli holds many more sweet memories. The paper boats or kesevina yele sailed in kerekodi. These great boats were observed for any catastrophe (tip over!!!) till it disappeared in the corner and next set of boats were set to sail for their great expedition till gramadagudi channel. Almost at the end of the rainy season a lot of greenery is around. In thota lot of kale grew and along with it thuruchi gida, which cause allergy and too much of scratching. The only relief from this was to wash the legs with a lot of hot water, as water flows over the scratched area instantly there was a great feeling of haha and expressed loudly!!!. ( I am going for, and I will come and many more thing about the rainy season) .