Deluge: The floods of ’99

A few decades back if you asked an uneducated person in Kerala his age, the answer might have been that he was born two years after the flood, or something like that. Events were linked to the flood of ’99. For two generations, that was a reference point in time...

Terror Noose Channel!

With dedicated channels already for Sports, Music, Food etc., it won’t be surprising if a dedicated News Channel for Terror comes on the airways soon. A peek at the sample News…

This is the Terror Channel Hq , Here’s the Zero Hour Noose:

Devastation in the Nilgiris

Reports of people being buried under landfalls and houses that crumbled under the onslaught of continuous rain and wind and mud that came suddenly sliding down trickled in by word of mouth because power lines lay broken as trees crashed everywhere blocking off road access for many hours. We didn’t have access to radio and were spared the sights on TV news channels for a few days.

The Great Wall of Mumbai

Yesterday was incredible!
Yesterday I drove by the Tulsi Pipe Road from Mahim to Lower Parel and was blown away by the graffiti art on what has now been dubbed the Great Wall of Mumbai. It has totally transformed the dirty, drab wall along the Western Railway line until it is one of the most interesting, vibrantly colourful pieces of public property I've seen in a very long time.

The Music Teacher

He stood at the front gate, a short, tubby man, young but balding, his forehead liberally smeared with holy ash, a large red dot in the middle. He hesitated a little before sliding the bolt back and opening the gate. The barking of the resident dog sent him scampering outside, bolting the gate safely behind him.

“Who is it? What do you want?”
More

The Tiffin People

Now how do we tackle this delicate problem? It is not nice to not share food. But they had their tiffins too. Besides we felt that they were not realizing what they were doing. We tried everything to tackle our hunger problem. I bought extra food, but it was to no avail. One guy got up and went and sat at another table, but the guy and gal merely wandered to his table and helped themselves to the food. We went for lunch early, late, very late, but the duo was always onto us. It was an embarrassing situation and none of us knew what to do...more

The Lady At The Temple

It was during one of the pradakshinas I was taking around the Devarajaswamy Temple, Kanchipuram I came across this sight of an old lady filling lamps with ghee(Indian clarified butter). She was pouring ghee in to the lamps with so much of concentration and devotion, Read more here...

The transformation to Bharathanatyam

But it was destined that two aristocratic South Indian Brahmins would save the dance form, streamline it and make it into a pride of India...

"Peppermint Thatha"

I was cleaning up all the clutter on my desktop today, and I chanced upon this ancient folder, which I haden't opened in a while. Curious, I peeked in, and thousands of childhood memories rushed back to me. They were the stories and snippets I had penned three years ago, on the malfunctioning laptop back home. They were written without any specific intentions, before I even thought of creating a blog for myself,...More

The Harassments Of N-E Youths In Delhi – A Long Term Effort Is What We Need

The government (not only the Delhi or Central government, but all relevant government entities) must start educating the so-called mainstream Indians that the North-East people are not aliens from the Mars, but are our own brothers and sisters from a certain part of our motherland which is geographically just a little isolated from the rest of India (Or is it really isolated? I have been to so many places in North-East, and I do not think so). There should be an all round and continuous effort to allay misconceptions about the North-East region and its inhabitants. More...

RK Laxman, Meeting The Uncommon Man

As I write this post The Uncommon Man is in our city Mysore, The City where he grew up. And I had the opportunity of meeting this creative personality.India's greatest Cartoonist, Mr RK Laxman. I have always wanted to meet him but more so off late because I've been harbouring this idea of starting a Walk on Malgudi Days in Mysore

Photos: Flowers from a Chennai florist

The mysteries of the heart

Rajiv worked in the same department as I. He was a nice guy, who knew how to treat a college going girl…like a big brother. Anita badgered me to introduce her to Rajiv. I was scared. I regarded him like I would an elder brother and did not think it was respectful to be doing such a thing. But Anita was persistent. One day while we were having coffee at the Foodcourt, she came and sat down next to me. I introduced her to everyone at the table including Rajiv. I let out a sigh of relief. I did not have to do the intro now. During the course of the evening, Anita talked only to Rajiv getting monosyllabic replies. But she was undaunted. Pretty soon she had added him to her Orkut account. But Anita was just another pesky fly for Rajiv. He rarely replied to her scraps. He rarely replied to anyone’s scraps. When he was not working he was battling rock faces...more.

The road to terror

David Coleman Headley (until 2006 he was Daood Gilani) caught my eyes yet again this morning....

Why does Kavitha the wife of Hemant Takare need to file an application for the right to information for her husband’s missing vest? Has the nation forgotten this hero already?

25 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

This is my 100th post on "Blog-Capt. Anup Murthy". Not counting my other Blogs on Blogger. I was in India last two weeks and it hit me that this year is an Anniversary of sorts for me.

I remember what Singapore looked like back then, a small but very neat and clean place 25 years ago. It's spread out now but still neat. Read more...

Can we have our revered Judges back?

If there was a news over the last week (heard on TV too) that warmed my heart it was this:

Justice Dinakaran’s name withdrawn from list for SC appointment

What Do They Really Want?!

Each of the MLA in Karnataka should have his / her own Helicopter. Given the pathetic state of roads that have been reduced to in the last 60 years, it is better MLAs hop around in Helicopters than travel by road to speedily attend to flood / drought relief work...More...

The Perfect Head

"Hair by hair maks the carl bare", says an old Scottish proverb. The head of hair is homo sapiens' crowning glory. It is for this reason that even a little loss of hair on the crown or its whereabouts, makes the young man under it panic. Panic, because this 'thinning process' is famous for its ...Continue...

Photos: Dusk

Typesetting

Look at the way Nature/God has created us. Each species is divided into Type A and Type B. Type A and Type B are equipped to produce more Type A and Type B so that all the species on Earth reproduce and keep the natural cycle going.

But in the case of humans, if a Type A goes with the Type B of another Type A it becomes adultery. Because he is supposed to stick with his Type B and vice versa...more.

Revisiting Mysore schoolyard banyan

The banyan on the Baden Powell schoolyard has been so much a part of our landscape that most of us in Mysore pass by the green sprawl without pausing for look-see. Other towns brag about their banyans,hailing them as a living heritage.. . More...

Do some people think the Mallus are dumb?

Yesterday the by-elections to three Kerala State Assembly constituencies, Alleppey, Ernakulam and Kannur, were concluded peacefully.

So what is there to write about?

A strike of sorts - to get shorts stitched

Seldom do watch-repairers, goldsmiths or tailors keep up their ‘promises’ of delivery dates, much different from the EDD that gynaecologists are familiar with. So, it was no wonder when my tailor kept 'that reputation' up, esp. once, which led to a bizarre and memorable incident, much to the tailor’s surprise. Read on....

Promoting India Abroad As A Favoured Tourist Destination – Customized Marketing Is The Key

For example, when we are trying to promote India in Switzerland, then it is stupid to talk about the beautiful snow-clad mountains that we have, because that will understandably fail to woo the Swiss people. So we should tell them about precisely all those features that they do not have – the desert of Rajasthan, the golden bitches of Goa and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, etc. Similarly, while promoting India in Mauritius and Caribbean Islands it is meaningless to talk about the golden bitches of Goa and Andaman, but highlighting our mountains and jungles (with rich wildlife) will be a great idea. And again, trying to woo the people from countries like Kenya and Tanzania through our jungles and wildlife will be a foolish plan, but they can be enthused to visit our land by talking about the mountains and sea bitches (yes, these countries have beautiful Kilimanjaro, but they will always find visiting Himalayas a good idea). More....

Sports in the blood

Sports and talent also run in the blood. It is quite a unique and fortunate thing to be blessed with! Read More....

Where have the dragonflies gone?

There are so many amazing things happening around us in nature that we are not aware of. Take the case of dragonflies, the pretty but feeble looking insects...

A Divine Labour Ward

Gods were created by men. So say some. I have no quarrel with anyone claiming that or the contrary.
But it's always a privilege to get to watch "Gods" being created by men.
In Swamimalai.

Of mimic tweets, and proxy blogs

Techgirl’ who authored the short-lived ‘Tharoor Twitter’ (not to be confused for the real one maintained by the ‘cattle-class’ minister himself) was evidently on to something that had been tried out some five years back in the UK through blogs. Tim Ireland, a web marketing guy,sought to get elected representatives in Britain to interact online with their constituents...More...

A petty issue

Have you noticed how you're getting short-changed at the shops nowadays?
Every time I go to a provision store or a supermarket, I'm handed a bill which totals up to an amount that has been rounded off... almost always to the next highest 50 paisa denomination.
I get bills for xy Rupees twenty-eight paise or sixty-nine paise. I mean , come on! Is a proper change for such amounts even existent in our currency?

Aurora Surrealis?

Overhead, there were fluffy cirrus clouds, looking like tiny lambs. The quality of the light was such that you could sense the distance between the clouds and the sky beyond. Now that's a thought for All Souls Day.