"Classical" Kannada....

For a few years now, I had been listening to this fight that "Kannada" should be granted the classical status. I never really knew the exact implications of this. But, I used to blindly ( but passively) wish that we got this status. I had merely observed, a few famous and respected scholars/writers fighting for this cause.

But this article in todays Deccan herald helped me understand what exactly this means.

Here are the main outcomes..

1. Two major international awards will be instituted annually for scholars of eminence.
2. A center of excellence for studies will be set up and UGC will be asked to establish professional chairs in various Central univerities.
3. The Centre to give grants upto 100 crore for promotion of the language. Every year, State may get a budgetary allocation of upto 5 crore from the center.
4. The grant is mainly to setup a Kannada Language Promotion Board under the chairmanship of an eminent scholar.
5. Kannada study centers in various international universities depending on India's bilateral agreements.
6. Opportunities for scholars to undertake research on the origin and history of the langauge.

Having read all these I feel it is indeed a major achievement. Lets hope that the funds will be used sincerely to promote Kannada. Also, it could not have been more timely for its our Rajyotsava Day, which makes it all the more special.

On this occastion I will list a few of my favorite kannada songs that inspire a sense of belonging to our state.

• ಹಚ್ಚೇವು ಕನ್ನಡದ ದೀಪ ... ಕರುನಾಡ ದೀಪ ಸಿರಿ ನುಡಿಯ ದೀಪ ಒಲವೆತ್ತಿ ತೋರುವ ದೀಪ ....
• ಜೈ ಭಾರತ ಜನನಿಯ ತನುಜಾತೆ ....ಜಯಹೇ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಮಾತೆ .... (ನಾಡ ಗೀತೆ)
  
• ಜೋಗದ ಸಿರಿ ಬೆಳಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ..ತುಂಗೆಯ ತೆನೆ ಬಳುಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ..ಸಹ್ಯಾದ್ರಿಯ ಲೋಹದಲಿನ ...
• ಎಲ್ಲಾದರು ಇರು ಎಂತಾದರು ಇರು ...ಎಂದೆಂದಿಗೂ ನೀ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಾಗಿರು.. ಕನ್ನಡ ಗೋವಿನ ಓ ಮುದ್ದಿನ ಕರು...
• ಬಾರಿಸು ಕನ್ನಡ ಡಿಂಡಿಮವ ....ಓ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಹೃದಯ ಶಿವಾ..
  
• ಉದಯವಾಗಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಚೆಲುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ನಾಡು ...
• ನಾವಾಡುವ ನುಡಿಯೇ ಕನ್ನಡ ನುಡಿ .. ನಾವಿರುವಾ ತಾಣವೇ ಗಂಧದ ಗುಡಿ ....
• ಅಪಾರ ಕೀರ್ತಿ ಗಳಿಸಿ ಮೆರೆವ ಭವ್ಯ ನಾಡಿದು ...ಕರ್ಣಾಟ ವಿದುವೆ ನೃತ್ಯ ಶಿಲ್ಪಾ ಕಲೆಯ ಬೀಡಿದು ....
• THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.... :-)
  

At the same time, congratulations to all the telugu speakers for 'Telugu' also gets the same classical status today....

Lost and found....my pencil sketches....

This weekend turned out to be serendipitous...

During school, I belonged to the "drawing hobby" group. And we had developed a craze for sketching portraits of actors and actresses. I had done fair a bit of sketching too...

I had lost these sketches a long time back. But quite unexpectedly found them in the corner of one of those less accessed cupboards.

Although not in the league of the best portraits, if you strain your eyes a little and be a little considerate towards me, probably you can come close to guessing the persons, whom I have assumed to have sketched. :-)

Here they go...

supposed to be Aishwarya Rai..


supposed to be Hritik Roshan....


supposed to be Madhavan...


supposed to be Shar Rukh (from Dil Se)...


supposed to Salman Khan...

supposed to be Kajol...

Thats it...those were the sketches that I had done... Hope to do more and hope to achieve greater resemblance to the subject.... :-)

No Man's Land...

For a few years now, I had a touch of contempt for this movie "No man's Land", for it had snatched the oscars from "Lagaan". But having watched the movie, I must say the contempt is replaced by awe and respect.

The movie revolves around the two soldiers who end up in the no mans's land. Interestingly, they are from rival borders and are left with one more soldier whose is alive but lying on a land mine in a trench. The role of the UN and the press is shown in an interesting manner. From the helplessness of the UN officials on the field to the irritation caused by the reporters is well portrayed. However, the intention of the press is to get the truth and hence any amount of irritation seems justified. The film itself is well made. The ending is cunningly subtle.

One funny conversation that I remember..

UN Official 1: A bomb diffuser makes only one mistake in life...(smiles)
UN Official 2: Well...actually two.
UN Official 1: How is that?
UN Official 2: First, when he chose the profession.

Apart from this the last scene is quite tragic and hence, seems to persist in your mind.

An explaination to the current financial crisis...in (almost) lay man's words...

A friend of mine sent the link to an article in the Hindu daily. If you want to know how and why all this financial crisis is happening, then do read this article. Its a well-written piece of writing.

Article - When the bubble burst...
Link - http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/10/05/stories/2008100550010100.htm

A few take-aways from this article....

• I got a hang of whats happening and why all this financial crisis.
• I realized I don't even qualify as a "lay man" when it comes to financial jargons ...
• Investment Bankers are super jazz givers and Investment Banking is all about GAS (packaging and selling) ;-) This was in a lighter vein. I do respect them.
  

[PGW Quotes] first installment...

Came across a few of my favorite PGW quotes...

" It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't. "

"The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun"

"The shock to Colonel Wedge of finding that what he had taken for a pile of old clothes was alive and a relation by marriage caused him to speak a little sharply."

"He had a face like a gorilla. More so indeed, than most gorillas do."

"it was as if nature had intended to make a gorilla and had changed her mind at the last moment"

"his IQ is about thirty points lower than what you’d expect from a not-too-agile-minded jellyfish"

"He uttered a sound much like a bull dog swallowing a pork chop whose dimensions it has underestimated."

"It was the look which caused her to be known in native bearer and halfcaste circles as 'Mgobi-'Mgumbi, which may be loosely translated as She On Whom It Is Unsafe To Try Any Oompus-Boompus."

"Sir Roderick Glossop ... is always called a nerve specialist, because it sounds better, but everybody knows that he's really a sort of janitor to the looney-bin."

"His locality at this moment is as difficult to ascertain as that of a black cat hiding in a coal cellar on a moonless night"

"He was built on large lines, and seemed to fill the room to overflowing. In physique he was not unlike what Primo Carnera would have been if Carnera hadn't stunted his growth by smoking cigarettes when a boy."

"Unlike the male codfish which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons."

"Honoria . . . is one of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welter-weight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging over a tin bridge."

"Fond as he was of Pongo, Lord Ickenham could not see him as a breaker of hearts. Yet it appeared plain that his loss had left a large gap in this girl's life."

"After all, golf is only a game,'' said Millicent. Women say these things without thinking. It does not mean that there is any kink in their character. They simply don't realise what they're saying.

[Favorite songs] ತೇರಾ ಏರಿ ಅಂಬರದಾಗೆ...

After long I found this song on Youtube... also somebody has written the entire lyrics in the comments..so thot i will just copy paste this song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_DMD0LzVGY

ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ: ದೊಡ್ಡ ರಂಗೇಗೌಡ
ಸಂಗೀತ: ರಾಜನ್-ನಾಗೇಂದ್ರ
ಗಾಯನ: ಎಸ್.ಪಿ. ಬಾಲಸುಬ್ರಹ್ಮಣ್ಯಂ

ತೇರಾ ಏರಿ ಅಂಬರದಾಗೆ ನೇಸರು ನಗುತಾನೆ..
ಮರಗಿಡ ತೂಗ್ಯಾವೆ...
ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಹಾಡ್ಯಾವೇ...
ಬೀರ್ಯಾವೇ, ಚೆಲುವಾ ಬೀರ್ಯಾವೇ
ಬಾ, ನೋಡಿ ನಲಿಯೋಣ ತಮ್ಮಾ
ನಾವ್, ಹಾಡಿ ಕುಣಿಯೋಣ ತಮ್ಮಾ

ಬೇಲಿ ಮ್ಯಾಗೆ ಬಣ್ಣ ಬಣ್ಣದ
ಹೂವು ಅರಳ್ಯಾವೆ
ಆ ಹೂವ ಮೇಲೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಸಣ್ಣ ಚಿಟ್ಟೆ ಕುಳಿತ್ಯಾವೆ
ಬಾಗಿ ಬಾಗಿ ಅತ್ತ ಇತ್ತ ಬಾಳೆ ಬಳುಕ್ಯಾವೆ
ಆ ಬಾಳೇ ವನವೇ ನಕ್ಕು ಕಣ್ಣು ತಂದ್ಯಾವೆ
||ಕುಂತರೆ ಸೆಳೆವ, ಸಂತಸ ತರುವ||
ಹೊಂಗೆ ತೊಂಗೆ ತೂಗಿ ತೂಗಿ
ಗಾಳಿ ಬೀಸ್ಯಾವೇ
ತೇರಾ ಏರಿ ಅಂಬರದಾಗೆ ನೇಸರು ನಗುತಾನೆ..
ಮರಗಿಡ ಕೂಗ್ಯಾವೇ...
ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಹಾಡ್ಯಾವೇ...
ಮರಗಿಡ ಕೂಗ್ಯಾವೇ...
ಚಿಲಿಪಿಲಿ ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಹಾಡ್ಯಾವೇ...

ಭೂಮಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಚ್ಚ ಹಚ್ಚಗೆ ಹಾದಿ ತೆಗೆದಾವೆ
ಆ ಹಾದಿ ಅಕ್ಕ ಪಕ್ಕ ಬಳ್ಳಿ ಬೆಳಿದ್ಯಾವೆ
ಸಾಲು ಸಾಲು ಬೆಟ್ಟ ಗುಡ್ಡ ಮೌನ ತಳೆದಾವೆ
ಆ ಮೌನವ ಗಾನ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಮನಸಾ ಸೆಳೆದಾವೆ
||ಭಾವಾ ಬಿರಿದು, ಹತ್ತಿರ ಕರೆದು ||
ಮಾವು ಬೇವು ತಾಳೆ ತೆಂಗು
ಲಾಲಿ ಹಾಡ್ಯಾವೆ
||ತೇರಾ ಏರಿ...||

ಭೇದಭಾವ ಮುಚ್ಚುಮರೆ ಒಂದು ಮಾಡ್ದೇನೆ
ಆ ಸೂರ್ಯ ಒಂದೇ ಬೆಳಕ ನಮಗೆ ನೀಡ್ಯಾನೆ
ಗಾಳಿ ನೀರು ಎಲ್ಲ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಜಗವ ನಡೆಸ್ಯಾನೆ
ಆ ಸಿರಿಯ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡರೆ ಬಾಳು ಸವಿಜೇನೆ
||ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಬೆಳೆದೆ ಸ್ನೇಹ ಕಳೆದು||
ನಗುತ ನಗುತ ನಾವು ನೀವು ಸವಿಯುವ ಸುಖವನ್ನೇ

Kudos to the directors and actors..for such awesome films and songs...

Stack Overflow - not a "problem" but a "one-stop solution"...

For hard-core fans of Joel, I am sure this is no news. But for others, here is a website where you can go for any technical snag...

The link to the website is - www.stackoverflow.com

I have been using it ever since it was launched, about a month ago. A very useful site and a highly responsive one. On an average I get answers to my queries in like 10 or 15 mins... So it has quite a strong user network for a site that is just 1 month old. And the best part about the site, is the integrated voting facility. Because of this, wrong answers get voted out. So unlike in a discussion forum where you will have to dig deep for the diamond, here you have the right answers at the top. And mostly these are verified answers. Apart from that, the other good feature that I liked is, as soon as you type the title of the question, the website shows a set of related questions. This not only avoids duplication at the root, but also provides us with a quick way to search if such a quesiton has already been asked.

For detailed information on this , you can get it right from the horse's mouth here.
And for those of you who dont follow Joel's blog I stronly recommend you to start. Its an awesome tech blog.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com

Its interesting how we (or alteast I) usual think that most of what we can innovate is already done in some fields. Yet we find the results of great minds at work manifesting in such products/sites...