A farewell

I could n't understand why such a green stretch of land was made so grey in the books of geography
K Shivarama Karanth

A travelogue should be attempted with utmost care. So is any narrative on a piece of land, real or imaginary, where one was not born and brought up, either in dream or in the surreal. Why?Our poetic licence must do justice to each corner of the landscape so that it should never be made 'grey'. Fantasy and urge to fictionalise experience can vulgarise a space and dwarf its people.Geographical ethos people hold is much the same as their religious sentiments. Both have inflamed passion as well as revolution. Karnataka, a state nourishing and neighbouring many cultures, has blessed her children with the silt of Deccan and blood of common memories. An 'alien' pen should never be a dagger to wound them.It took two months for me to study what Kannadigas think of themselves and what their shared memories really are, two months of impersonation as an anti-Kannadiga and an ultra Mallu nationalist.The fervour with which my Kannada colleagues defended my 'onslaught', or colonialism of scorn, taught me the worth of a regional nationalism. There is much ado about the classical status given to Kannada both within the state and outside. I am not entitled to go in to its details. But the language, despite the IT revolution in Bangalore and sudden expansion of metropolis, has given Kannadigas a sense of identity- not a slight advantage, given the geographical vastness of the state. This explains why there is not short-sighted, piquant organisation like KRV in Kerala. (We will stand Malayalam being parodied by an outsider, but write poems on its deterioration later) The language here is a great wall of rootedness, which doesn't stop short of converting the name plates of city buses into serpent-like scripts, but creates a common culture based on shared dreams.
Planning a return trip
My first return trip was at a chilling mid-March midnight. I felt inexplicable relief when the bus got past each milestone on its way to Mysore. I was like Alexander the Great who was relieved to hear the hoof beats of his horses on his journey back to Greece after conquering the world. (The only difference: I didn't conquer anything. Nor was that my last journey).When the bus reached Mandya, it halted beside a teashop for some time. We (Myself and a fellow Mallu traveller)got down to have a glass of tea. The teashop was awake at that spine-chilling 2 am. The breeze which kissed on my cheeks bore Sunfeast particles. I stood and looked around the sprawling landscape, where there were huts intermittently. Will those huts ever be part of the dream that APJ Abdul Kalam asked Bangloreans to see a week back? I doubt.My musing was suddenly interrupted by a villager, who, barely protected from the hostile climate by a tattered shawl and soiled mundu, begged a few coins from me. I gave whatever coins were left in my pocket. Relieved, the man went back.'Really it's wonder', I told my companion.'What?''Begging at this chilling midnight. Begging sleeplessly''Sleeplessness is the difference between Mandya and Bangalore," he said in semi-philosophical tone.The bus moved on. The smiling face of SM Krishna was seen in a notice pasted atop the teashop. We all fell asleep, leaving Madya and the villager behind.But a story remains there yet to be unpacked.
Ootta
The search for delicacy in Bangalore will bring to you as many as 12 items on a plate, which Kannadigas stingily call oota. It's a cuisine of many tastes and as navarasas create the symphony of arts nine varieties of food create the symphony of taste.
My fellow expats in Madivala
Have an evening stroll along the Maruthi Nagar street in Madivala. You won't miss your favourite musicians there. Devarajan, Baburaj, Dakshinamoorthy Swami, Ilya Raja, MG Radhakrishnan, Raveendran and so on. They are all waiting there to sneak their way into your ears. Forget about switching over to any other language there. Malayalam spoken in its various dialectical avatars makes you forget you are an expat.The strategic location of IT firms, especially the adjacent Electronic City and the location of the very place en route Coimbatore, easy route to Kerala may be reasons why Madivala became the expats' paradise. Their work culture has imposed on these expats a lifestyle which they perpetuate through shopping malls and posh restaurants. Everyday, they dine mutually repellant dishes, as well as they sleep with strangers. The air they take in bears the germs of a social breakdown, which grow in tandem with their bank balance. What is exposed is the contradiction of the globalisation, which creates localised consumerism in each metropolis, a jamboree of parodied rituals
Thalassery
How come Thalassery, where the circus was born and cricket brought up, exists in Madivala? One may have to search in the ancient Kerala history to find an answer for this. European navigators settled in the coastal areas of north Kerala in the 15th century. These areas are broadly called Calicut. At that time what we call Thalassery was a busy commercial centre with the potential of being a spice market. Cuisine with spices as well as the fundamentals of commerce and trade became a speciality, which the natives developed and spread wherever they went (go). Once you taste Thallassery biriyani with date pickles, you will always crave for it. People of Thalassery know this and with, their genetic business knack, recreated a Thalassery in every nook and corner of this planet.It's said that the East Indian company and its officialdom were headquartered in Thalassery and after the independence took great pains to leave its cuisine.
My losses
You miss people once you leave a place. And here are they who were part of me in my brief stint at Bangalore Indian Express.
Ravi Joshi: He will teach you for a successful venture, one needs a Hitler, who loves you, but not your complacency
Vijay Simha: He knows by flexing muscles you can't meet deadline, but by standing with you when you are in trouble. No I-am-the-best-of-all airs, he is one among you
Vanaja, Bavana: They will help you get up, when you fall down. The mother and didi figure
Moorthy, Reddy: They won't buckle you down by their seniority. True to their work. True to you even in 'official' gossips
Arjun: You need him to share your great moments, thoughts and pleasentaries. Or you will have to voluntarily retire. I had to be a Communist to know he is a Pranab Mukharjee Congress man.
Prajesh: He is Mallu untainted by migration and long separation from home. A potential good young man who, though not satisfied with the job, is an aritist by destination.
Veena: Another didi who will share your mischief and pleasantries. Promote to engage in debates to remind you what you are and what not.
Amil, Ashitha:They share the boredom of subbing together. 'Let's suffer it together,' they told each other when they tied the nuptial knot. They, with , has proved a newspaper office can't dispense them.
Sunil: His co-operation is encouraging. Never leaves the desk in a dismal silence what with his jokes and enthusiasm
Jagdeesh, Tipe Rudrappa: Men over the phone. They tell you you have work to do, man.
Inchi, Keshu: They will teach you there is nothing in a dog to be afraid of.
Vinod, Ajilal, Jayamohan, Shareef, Seena: They will make you realise though they are not besised you they are with you
Finally, when you leave you realise your time here was not eventless.

Bangalore dairy 3

Spiritual void in the din

Didn't you see

The one who has chosen

his lust as god?

And you needn't plead for them-Quran

As in almost all cities, noise is the predominat element in Bangalore. Azure is its colour. An impulse for rashness its persisting sentiment. It doesn't flow. Nevertheless, it moves. It will erase you face. And replace it with a bloodless dummy.But its glosses create fantasy. It leaves in you the desire to yearn more. Until there remain two objects: You and what you seek. This bipolarity is suffcient for a belief system to deveop. Thus your need becomes your god.Since city leaves us to ourown devices, you can never be assisted by a commune.But solitude leaves a large space for us to thrash out strategies to live a life as sages told us to live.

Bangalore Dairy 2

Networking in the time of recession
New age barter: Swap till you drop

Shameer KS, Express News Service
Bangalore, February 25
While the recession has sent economists and politicians scrambling in the search for an exit door, a group of people have thrashed out a strategy to beat the turmoil. Their tool: social networking sites. The Freecycle Group, formed in the city in 2006, is the latest example of how social networking can be tailored to tackle the meltdown. The group is a non-profit organisation whose members exchange materials among themselves free of cost and on condition of bartering. Freecyclers now see the fraternity as an opportunity to beat the recession.A close look into the membership statistics of the group (the website,http://www.freecycle.org/group/IN/India/Bangalore) reveals that there has been a surge in its members since December 2008, when the global economy slid into the pits. Around 40 Of its 825 members joined the group last week and every day at least 10 members are added to the list. Bartering of materials is done by members through emails and SMS. There have been 289 messages among the group members since its formation in 2006. In 2009, there are 53 messages uptill now."People like me can't help using second-hand materials since an impending salary cut may turn the family budget upside down," says Prathap, an IT professional living in Koramangala. "Earlier, people who owned a five-year old laptop used to be mocked in my firm. Now survival is all that matters," he said. Prathap has got a television set from Rajanath, a student who after completing his MCA is leaving for Chennai. "Usually members who hand over materials to others enter an informal pact that objects having almost the same value will be swapped to them in future," Prathap says, adding that he had planned to give Rajnath his laptop once he leaves the field.For Harris, who works with a leading BT firm in the city, membership in the group has helped him give away his possessions ahead of packing off from the city. "It's almost four months since I last got my salary. My plan is to resign the job, join my brothers' business ventures in Badakara (Kerala) and settle there for the time being. I have decided to give my furniture, including a bookshelf and cot, to a Freecycler," Harris says. "Still," he adds with a wistful smile,"I have fallen in love with the city and I will come back here. Then I will depend on the Freecycle Club to get back the things I will lose now."The positive aspect of this camaraderie is that it is fast creating an economic model based on the ancient barter system at a time when consumeristic values are under threat.
(Published in The New Indian Express, Bangalore)

Bangalore dairy 1

Expectations are fragile structures. They fall down in the tempest of truth and when reality is exploded they are burnt into ashes, but always leaving a reminder to smoulder : dreams are futile in a cut-throat world.
*
The myth of Bangalore where I believed money is waiting for my arrival to sneak into my purse, got exploded at the first night itself. Money won't stay in your pocket unconditionally. Money needs you as much as you need it.
*

Bangalore gave me a friend, Anwar, and his fluid thoughts. Hypertextuality of the web world, where there are no linear narratives, seems to be the mould where Anwar's mind is cast (No wonder he is a technocrat). His urge to be on the move and to go into exile is to be connected with the randomness at which he thinks. Hyperlinks are the camps to slough off yesterdays and to defer tomorrows. A subversion of the grand narratives of settlement and linearity.His reflections are up against my desire to settle somewhere.I'am always in search of oasis, whereas he the deserts.Still, I can lend my ears to him.