Gangaavatarana (ಗಂಗಾವತರಣ )

Play:Gangaavatarana (ಗಂಗಾವತರಣ )
Language: Kannada
Duration: ~95 minutes
Genre: Dance Drama
Rating: Must Watch
Troup: Ranga souraba
Director: Dr Rajendra Karanth. 

"ಬೇಂದ್ರೆಯ ತ್ಯಾಗ ಅರದಿಲ್ಲವನು ಬೇಂದ್ರೆಯ ರಾಗ ಅರೆಯುವನೆ?", One cannot understand Bendre's works if he cannot understand Bendre's Sacrifices. This was one of the concluding remarks of the play "Gangaavatarana" which i saw a few days back at Rangashankara.  This aptly applies to me since i am trying to articulate an exceptional dance drama about the life, works and thoughts of Varakavi Dr Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre.


It is not easy to understand the works of Dr Bendre let alone writing about it. However , i am making a humble attempt of writing about a masterpiece of art that i saw.  Its not easy to articulate art particularly for a person like me who has no experience in writing or art. However it is an attempt. 

The play was weaved around the life, works and thoughts of Gnanapeeta award winner  Varakavi Dr. Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre (1896-1981). The main protagonist of the play was Ganesh murthy, a scholar who is obsessed with the idea of Dr Bendre. The play starts with his own unhappiness about his PhD thesis which will be on Dr Bendre. He withdraws his thesis much to the dislike of his wife. (Who would be in anticipation of few thousand extra salary that the phD would have fetched him).   

Ganesh Murthy will be fighting two battles at at a time. One within himself for the quest for the divinity which Dr Bendre possessed which made Dr Bendre produce his master works and the other on the domestic side, where he will be constantly bombarded with domestic chores.  Ganesh murthy's wife and her nephew will be behind Ganesh murthy to leave his obsession about Dr Bendre and write songs and serials for the audience of the day and time. (The "Amma Loose a" category)  

To aid his former quest, an abstract character is introduced into the play. Dr Rajendra karanth who plays the role of the soul (Athma) of the play (of Dr Bendre). The conversation between Dr Karanth (soul) and Ganesh murthy takes the audience into a captivating lovely narration about certain facets of Dr Bendre's life. The character of Dr Bendre is introduced here.  From here, the play splits into two threads. 

On one side, the soul will be watching Ganesh murthy struggling to convince his wife and other people in his family about his quest for knowledge and changes required in the society. He would be making futile attempts with the music directors to adopt his lyrics for their films. His family life keeps degrading to the point of frustration. 


On the other side, The soul would be conversing with Ganesh murthy on the need for a greater attainment, on the search for the true motivation which was behind Dr Bendre. Brilliant anecdotes from the life of Dr Bendre are enacted here. Notable among them are Dr Bendre's grief on the death of his child, his conversation with the astrologer, his conversation with the cobbler etc. It goes on to draw a vivid picture of Dr Bendre's personality.  In one conversation, Dr Bendre asks a beggar "ಏನಪ್ಪಾ ಎರಡು ದಿನದಿಂದ ಕಾಣಲಿಲ್ಲ?" (Where were you from the last two days?). He gives him his quota of money for the next three days and tells him "ನಾಡಿದ್ದು ಬಾ ಮತ್ತೆ"(come again day after tomorrow). That was Dr Bendre's affection for people. In  another similar incident, he pays a cobbler his full day's earning and asks him to get an umbrella instead of sitting in the hot sun. That was Bendre's concern for the people. 


Back home, Ganesh's murthy's domestic trouble continues and he finds himself in a contradiction between family and his quest for Dr Bendre. Ganesh murthy's obsession with Dr Bendre drives his family to frustration so much so that his wife destroys his mammoth work on Dr Bendre.  


On the other hand Ganesh murthy's son gets hospitalized and dies while Ganesh murthy will be nursing his pains of losing his years of hard work. The soul tells him that its impossible for Ganesh murthy to produce another such work again.  


"To make the impossible possible was "Gangaavtarana"". Another philosophical dialogue builds up between the soul and Ganesh murthy on the latter's Gangaavatarana. 
At the time of Bhageertaha, one Bhageeratha and one gange (ಗಂಗೆ)  was enough to cleanse the world. But now world has become so dirty with anger,hatred, corruption, pollution, mis-trust, selfishness and bad politics that we need numerous bhageerathas and many Ganges to cleanse the world. 


The play ends with Ganesh Murthy's renewed determination and his next journey away from domestic chores and relationships in quest for Dr Bendre's literary spirit followed by the lovely song of Dr Bendre "ಇಳಿದು ಬಾ ತಾಯೇ" (Come down oh the sacred mother, come down and bless us....... )


[Listen to a small audio piece on the life of Dr Bendre here]

Why only Kolaveri Kolaveri Di?

Le mama,  "Kolaveri Kolaveri di" super mama. Sounds weird, but has turned out to be a popular hangout usage among many people. Kolaveri, meaning murderous rage, is now popular in many parts of the country, thanks to the peppy song 'Why this kolaveri di?' from upcoming Tamil flick '3'. (Kolaveri Kolaveri ).

The song is written and sung by Dhanush, Son-in-law of superstar Rajanikanth. The song after all is a collection of colloquial words and slang rendered in a rhythm to a beat which is kind of striking chord with the masses. 

If popular literature is all about arranging unconnected colloquial words and slang in a weird sequence so that the masses catch a single word to hum around, then kannada songs of recent times scores much over Kolaveri Kolaveri. 

Bizzare lyrics, sometimes even vulgar lyrics are quite common in Kannada cinema these days. Like kolaveri, we have numerous songs which have virtually (or literally) zero literary value. They are just a few lines of local slang. 

Though not in the same context, close competition to Kloaveri in kannada is  "Chambeshwara" (""ಚಂಬೇಶ್ವರ") written by Yograj Bhat and sung by Punith Rajkumar (Son of legendary actor and singer Padhmabhushana Dr Rajkumar). The song makes no sense and has no essence of literature. It is just a song inserted in the stupid movie for the heck of it. The song has no message and is just a sequence of colloquial words arranged for a beat. But the song was a phenomenon hit. I watched the movie on the day of release in a packed multiplex hall. The crowd whistled to glory once this song started (The movie was so stupid that all the over enthusiastic crowd regretted their whistle) 

Typical example of bizzare and awful lyrics is the song "Amma loose a? " from the kannada movie Dhool (Listen to it here). I do not know the lyricist but whoever he is,  is a causality  with  creativity.  The words are idiotic, sentences are unconnected and there is absolutely no sense in the song. But this was the most popular song in this year's Street Ganesha festival (ಬೀದಿ ಗಣೇಶ. Local artists made merry with this song at all roadside orchestra during this year's Ganesha festival). 

I will be doing unpardonable injustice to Kannada literature if i miss out "Soap hakolo, mi ujkolo" from the movie Junglee. The bizzare lyrics is just a testimony to the fact that popular literature has stooped to such a low level in the state/language which has got eight jnanapeeta awards. 

The list can go on like "Thaglakonde " and "kuri kolina" (ತಗ್ಲಾಕೊಂಡೆ , ಕುರಿ ಕೋಳಿನ) from Shivrajkumar's Jogaiah. Both songs are awful. 


Most kannada songs these days have very low or no literary value. They are seldom completely Kannada. They will either be Hindi or English mix.  Most songs will be a set of awful words rendered to a popular beat. 


It is disheartening that kannada film songs which were at one time, not so long ago, were composed by likes of Hamsalekha, Jayanth kaikini, Monomurthy and host of other literary geniuses is losing its value and charm. Who can forget Hamsalekha's "Devaru hoseda premada Kanava " from the movie muttinahara (ಮುತ್ತಿನಹಾರ).  prema loka, Nanjundi Kalyana, Amruthavarhini, Mungaru male etc are landmark films in the context of kannada film songs. Kannada film industry was the only regional cinema industry which could easily adopt compositions of Popular saints like Purandara dasa and Kanaka dasa into popular cinema. They are perhaps the only industry which could easily adopt poetry from the stalwarts of kannada literature into popular cinema. Goplakrishna Adiga's "yava mohana murali kareyitu" from the movie "America America", Adiga's "Aluva kadalolu theli baruthide nageya haayi dhoni" (ಅಳುವ ಕಡಲೊಳು ತೇಲಿ ಬರುತಿದೆ ನಗೆಯ ಹಾಯಿ ದೋಣಿ) from the movie matadaana and a host of kuvempu songs serve as examples.  Over the course of time , somewhere somehow kannada film industry lost the creativity in song compositions and also started giving up the practice of adoption from popular poetry. 


Anyway back to Kolaveri, i think Kannada camp is not behind in making this kind of compositions. The examples at the start of this essay are tough compositions to the genius of Superstar Rajani's Son-in-law. 


Kannada films and Kannada film songs do not reach the Indian audience. For historical reasons and for a much much better position of Tamil music and Tamil cinema vis-a-vis kannada cinema in the Pan India context, the diffusion and acceptance of Tamil music is faster and deeper. Also the Tamil music and Film cater to a far wider diaspora (Malaysia, Singapore and other eastern countries). Whereas Kannada cinema does not enjoy such a diaspora. But i am sure that the genius of "Chambeshwara" and "Soap hakolo" can one day overtake Kolaveri !!!. 

[PS: This article was published in the the weekendleader (www.theweekendleader.com). It drew considerable flak from both Kannada and Tamil cinema fans both claiming that they can make worse lyrics.]

Morality Crisis

Over the last few months, we are seeing one scam after the other. One or the other scam surfaces every fortnight. It all started with 2G, then CWG. We then had the Adarsh housing society scam. Then the mining scam and so on and so forth. 

Media is kept busy with high profile people frequenting Tihar jail on one side and Parapana Agrahara (In Bangalore ) on the other. In turn media is keeping the people of the country busy by bombarding news (sometimes speculations) and hosting talk shows (PS: No one is facing the nation ). 

People are no doubt frustrated and at the same time helpless. One great paradox of this country is that we are so proud of our vibrant democracy but at the same time, the confidence we have in our elected representatives is at an all time low. 

Nevertheless, People in the country are helplessly watching these developments. Most people have helplessly resigned or are not bothered by the scams. Some end up discussing the sorry state of affairs during the family supper time. Little more frustrated lot have joined the Anna Hazare camp and in their own way trying to do something. One way or the other, most concerned people are giving some vent to their frustration. We just witnessed a while ago an agitated guy taking his anguish on the ICC president (Who also happens to be the agriculture minster of India).  

A former cabinet minister in the central government was arrested in February this year. Later, we have seen a bunch of high profile arrests in Karnataka including its former Chief Minister. Other than him the former tourism minister and the former BWSSB minister of Karnataka were also arrested. However the former CM managed to get bail. 

About a months ago, another high profile arrest happened in Bangalore. But for a change it was not a politician but a film actor. That was Darshan Tugudeepa , who is branded as the "challenging star" in the Kannada film Industry. He was arrested on charges of domestic violence and assault. 

The arrest of Darshan and the former CM of Karnataka and his subsequent release on bail were accompanied with lot of high drama and activity. Though the emotions accompanying these incidents were high and intense, it was not a positive one. 

First, Mr Darshan was arrested of charges of brutal violence. He was reported to have physically assaulted his wife, threatened her on point blank and had held his three year old son by neck and had threatened to kill him. In return, when he was arrested on these charges, huge crowd gathers outside the police station and demands his release. People go on a rampage and damage furniture in the police station demanding the release of their "hero". It was very disturbing to see  some senior people in the kannada film industry also supporting Darshan.  Further, the film industry bans a heroine from Tamil Nadu who apparently had an affair with Darshan from acting in Kannada cinema. They hold her responsible for the imbalance in Darshan's family. 

Rest is history. The film industry influences Darshan's wife to withdraw her complaint and Darshan's film "Sarathi" gets released and its supposed to have done well in box office as well.

The former CM of Karnataka was arrested on charges of corruption involving de-notification of land. Its only second time in the history of this country that a private complaint has lead to  the arrest of a former CM. All in all the former CM is accused in 5 cases including the mining case. 

No doubt,  the former judge of the supreme court of India Justice V.R.Krishna iyer has correctly said "Bail is the rule, Not Jail". Accepted that the charges against the former CM is not yet proved. At the end of the day he may be clean. But the fact is that the former CM is accused of criminal charges. Its now for the honourable courts of this land to deliver justice. 

It is disturbing to see how certain sections of the society have reacted to the former CM's release on bail. We witnessed a festive atmosphere outside Parapana Agrahara when he was released. Crackers, sweets and drums were seen outside the jail premises. He was treated as though he was a "War Hero". There were facebook updates like "Triumph of truth", "Justice delivered" etc etc.  It was after all Bail and not an acquittal. He still faces criminal charges.

Next he goes to Bellary, the political hotspot of Karnataka. He is welcomed with a huge crowd as though he is a hero. Facing criminal charges, having lead a cabinet with two tainted ministers both of whom are in jail now, the former CM addresses a rally and asks for votes. He claims that his party is clean and the administration provided by them so far is the best. (or is that what the people of this country deserve?). Wherever he goes,  a huge crowd rally behind him and   he manages to garner plenty of support. 

It is not about politicians or about people with money. It is about  public reaction and public perception.  It is shameful that an actor who abused his wife and gave her physical torture managed to get so much support (hopefully not sympathy) which eventually lead to the withdrawal of case against him. Its even more shameful that a leader facing criminal charges is welcomed, greeted, honoured and even appreciated in public for his works.  

Morality is seemed to be buried in oblivion. Brazen illegal activity seem to be the norm. The audacity with which immorality is justified in public space is scary. "Hero-worship" was always done in this country. But the recent developments particularly in the case of Darhan is a sign of worsening public values.

(PS: I had met the former CM of Karnataka in a TV program. Later had a chance to make my representation to him. He also acted upon my representation and my problem was partially addressed too) 

Art Appreciation Course

After my tour of the chettinad and Madurai last week where i was exposed to a certain form of Chettiar art, i took a more formal "Art appreciation" course in the weekend (21,22 and 23). The course was a part of the annual theater festival at Rangashankara .

Last year me and my cousin Pavan Rao wanted to attend a similar course but due to some travel commitments we could not make it. So this year we made sure that we keep ourselves free to take this three day course. As a matter of fact we were one of the first to enroll for the course. 

The course was designed and curated by the well known art critic Sadanand menon. Sadanand menon was earlier with Economic times as their senior journalist and Art editor. After 1995 he has taken up many positions in India and abroad in the fields of art journalism, art critic etc and has served on certain commissions and committees under department of culture, Government of India. 

The three day programme was well attended by students, journalists, senior bureaucrats, senior artists, corporate employees, art lovers and laymen like me. Well known theater personality Padhma shri Arundathi nag was present  on all the three days. It was an opportunity for many people like me to have a critical discussions with Mrs Nag on various topics covering art, art appreciation, art forms, framework of art etc. She was more than happy to spend time with people like me who have no great eye for nuanced art forms and art elements.

The programme was conducted at Aurobindo complex J.P.Nagar. The programme was divided into six sessions spanning over three days. We also watched a play every evening on these days and discussed the play with the directors and actors at the end of the play.  

I will briefly try to highlight the six sessions. I must put a disclaimer here that i have no experience in art or theater. I am just a fan of theater and ever since Rangashankara has come to J.P.Nagar, i been a great fan of it and i have been following certain theater activities. As such my poor writing cannot do any justice to the kind of art forms and theater performances that i witnessed. 

Session 1: Session on frameworks for critical engagments with arts with Sadanand Menon : This session was like an introduction to Art and was kind of a perspective on Art appreciation. Dr Menon took us on a political journey of art development in independent India. He explained the fine conflict of politics and art and what has the former to do with latter. Dr Menon spent some time in introducing national school of drama (NSD), the great dramatist Kanailal and his political theater. Then he introduced us to certain movements in the Art history of india. He particularly spoke about Indian People’s theatre association (IPTA). Later he introduced us to Sri udayshankar and his form of art . The session was concluded by a discussion on various politico-cultural questions. 

Session 2: Session on Dhrupad [Hindustani Classical] with Ramakant Gundecha : Dhrupad is a form of classical music practiced in certain parts of cental and North India. Dhrupad is the oldest form of Hindustani classical music. Dr Ramakanth Gundecha is one of the most popular singers in this form of Hindustani classical vocal. Dr Ramakant went on explianing the fine points of swara, shruthi and raaga associated with this form of singing. Frankly i did not understand anything. But one interesting observation was that harmonium is not used in this form of Hindustani vocal. Unlike Khayaal and other forms of Hindustani music where harmonium is an integral part, in Dhrupad, harmonium is not used and sarangi is used as an accompanying instrument. More about Dr Ramakant Gundecha and Dhrupad is available here.

Session 3: Session with Sunil Kothari on contemporary Indian dance : Padma Shri Dr Sunil Kothari is a Gujarati by birth and a charted accountant by profession. But he took great interest in dance and took to writing about Dance as a full time career. He is today an authority on the subject of contemporary dance and dance forms. He is also a trained Bharathnatyam dancer. To his credit he has 12 books and many papers. 

His talk was mainly on the dance forms practiced by legends like Kumudini Lakhya and Dr Chandralekha. His talk also touched upon the social milieu in which these dance forms originated and flourished. He focused on the issue of contemporary dance and transition from traditional to contemporary dance. The session concluded by a pretty engaging discussion on creating and transcending notionary paradigms like "Traditional" and "contemporary" .

Session 4: Session with Margi Madhu on classical Sanskrit Theater [Koodiyattam] : This was the most captivating session in the whole course. The speaker and demonstrator was Dr Margi Madhu. His session was on a traditional form of Sanskrit theater called "KUDIYATTAM" . A scholar, a practitioner and a teacher of Kudiyattam, Dr madhu did complete justice for the three hours allotted to him. Unlike other speakers, Dr Madhu performed ceratain important features of Kudiyattam accompanied by the the traditional Mizhavu  drum. Kudiyattam is an extremely nuanced form of theater. At more than 2000 years old, the Sanskrit theater form from Kerala is the oldest known form of theater. It has highly stylized and complex theater language replete with elaborate traditional hand gestures and facial expressions. UNESCO has declared Kudiyattam as " Masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" .

Dr Madhu divided the session very well. After introduction to the form of art, he went on to explain the subdivisions and demonstrated the finer details of it. He rendered a few dialogues just to explain how fine and how nuanced is the form of expression and rendering. 

He demonstrated various objects in the kudiyattam form like dancing peacock, lion, rabbit, train etc. Each of his performance was followed by a standing ovation by the observers who were just perplexed and speechless. He explained the Mudras and very succinctly demonstarted each one with a context. 

His penultimate performance was the "Navaras" or the emotions. By far this was the best performance that i have seen on Navarasas. I just cannot believe how quickly one can change his emotion and do it so well. 

Dr Margi Madhu concluded the session with an amazing 15 minute performance. The 15 minute experience was just a different world experience  beyond words. 

I was so moved by his performance that i have taken his address and phone number and will be traveling to Cochin later in the year to see a full night performance.  

Session 5: Session with Maya Krishna Rao on contemporary theater and comedy : Maya krishna rao is a slightly different theater personality. As she puts it , she gives only "High risk" performances. Known very well for solo performances, she has traveled a wide horizon from extremely serious solo plays involving props to sexual comedy to cabaret. She has carved a great niche for herself in the theater space.Her niche is a "certain uncertainty". Though most of what she spoke was above my head, i found her practice of theater very interesting. 

Session 6: Session with Balan Nambiar on modern art & sculpture : Balan Nambiar is a world renowned steel sculptor and is best known for his steel sculpture for Texas instruments where he sculpted the concept of DSP (digital signal processing) in a steel sculpture. 

He is also a great art historian and one who has documented 148 forms of Theyam (A traditional art performance in kerala). 

He started his career by writing, documenting and photographing theyam. Later moved on to canvas painting, stone sculpture and finally to steel sculpture. A true genius, Dr Nambiar is also sitting member of many commissions on art and culture under ministry of culture, government of India.

The three day session was concluded by a discussion on the proceedings of   the three days and certain questions that it raised. Personally for me, though most of the things were above my head,i atleast got to know that such great scholars  are involved in such rich and nuanced art forms in this great country. Henceforth, i am sure i can look at any piece of visual or performing art with a little greater and broader detail. 


I will not be able to articulate the exact experience of the three days nor will i be able to articulate how that experience is going to help me but i am sure that i will be able to connect the dot someday somewhere. 

Its all about Passion

Ever since i have started thinking about entrepreneurship and business, i have always wondered what is Entrepreneurship all about. There are many classical definitions and many many examples of great entrepreneurial activities. But one definition that caught my thinking is the famous definition by Professor Peter Ferdinand Drucker which goes "An Entrepreneur is one who creates wealth where it is not present". 

So an Entrepreneur stands out and takes the onus of wealth creation. An entrepreneur has to look for right opportunity, mobilize enough resources, manage the resources and finally deliver a product or service which can be marketed and affordable to consumers. 

There is a little risk in every entrepreneurial initiative. Every entrepreneur has to enjoy this uncertainty. I believe that an entrepreneurial initiative can be successful only if the entrepreneur enjoys creating something from scratch. An entrepreneur must enjoy the risk to be successful. All said and done, at the end of the day "Its all about Passion". 

I have been dreaming about Renewable energy, water security etc ever since i got the idea of a company. Being a nature and bio-diversity lover, having traveled a little bit in the country,  i am musing around the idea of a bio-mass plantation in certain waste lands and generating energy from biomass. 


For almost a year now, i am meeting people in the field, reading research papers on this subject, trying to raise resources and doing a lot of other leg-work. I am supported very well by colleagues Ajay and Kiran rao. 

In the course of our leg-work, as  it usually happens while networking, we bumped into a fine gentleman by name Sam few months back. He calls himself an "Energy farmer" . A 70 year old young man has already given meaning to the idea. A fine gentleman who earlier worked in a very senior position in the Indian Air force has started a company called "Energy Plantation projects india limited" in 2007. The company is based out of Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu.  

We got a contact person in the company and they were kind enough to share a lot of details about the project. Last week we decided to check out their 400 acre plantation in a village called Natasankotai in Sivaganga. 

Our contact person in Bangalore was Mr Jayanth. He asked us to meet Mr Chinmay at their office in Sivaganga. So we set out for Sivaganga on the 19 of October. We left at 7 AM from my house in J.P.Nagar and we were in Madurai at 12:45 PM. After negotiating the hectic traffic of madurai, we reached the Plantation at 2 PM. We were greeted by a fine Young man Mr Chinmay Anand. One year junior to me in Civil engineering, after having worked in India for a while went on to do a masters in Australia. He has since returned to India and is managing this plantation in the remote chettinad town of Sivaganga. 


He took us around the Plantation. He showed us their research work. He explained to us with great passion their niche, their achievements and struggles. We very quickly struck a very personal chord. We soon started talking about how difficult it it to pursue an unconventional business idea particularly in the context of an urban middle class family setting. 

Nevertheless, their passion and perseverance needs standing ovation. A predominantly kannada speaking group venturing into the dry lands of rural Tamil Nadu, buying 400 acre of fragmented land from local villagers, encountering hostile villagers and yet converting this barren land into a rich green forest in a matter of 4 years is an amazing achievement. It is just pure passion that is the driving force for Chinamy and other three youngsters who were managing the plantation there. They have achieved a Bio-mass yield of 150 to 200 tons per acre which is impossible for even the forest department. Some of the trees were weighing 280 kgs with a calorofic value of 3800 KJ/Kg.

So we drove through the 400 acre plantation examining various species of trees. Chimany was generous in sharing the knowledge with us. 

After quite a strenuous tour of the plantation, we set out to an old Kalainar Someshwar Koil about 20 Kms from Natarasankotai. This is a huge temple with a lovely Kalyani. We were pretty much only people vsiting this temple that evening. Soon we were joined by a few local crowd. So the priest took us around this huge temple explaining to us in Tamil, the temple diety, its architecture etc. We were just nodding our head. 

Back in the Guest house at 8 PM, we were greeted by another young man Mr Avin. The guest house was an old chettiar bunglow on the outskirts of Natarasankotai. The guest house was huge and very silent. It was a huge building with 7 or 8 rooms and all other basic facilities. Built in the typical chettiar architecture, it was surrounded by other similar bungalows. 

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After a quick hard water shower, we sat down for a round or chit-chat. Being the only teetotaler in the group, i was only offered some lime water. Others enjoyed a smooth round of whiskey.  Over a few pegs of whiskey and lime water , we discussed business, plantation and a host of other things. I was just thrilled by these young people. Both Avin and Chimay have MBA degrees from foreign universities, both have had well paying Jobs earlier. But they have quit lucrative careers in developed countries and are involved in giving a shape to a start up company working in a hot,humid and barren lands of rural Tamil Nadu. This is the true meaning of entrepreneurship as stated by professor peter drucker. Thanks to the efforts of Sam, jayanth, Chinamy , Avin and few other people, 400 acres of land which was barren just a few years back stands out as a superb example of  green "Energy farm". 

The next day morning we took a small tour of the village. This village has some of the fantastic bungalows built in Chettiar architecture. This village was once the home of chettairs who are a trading community, on their heyday of business were trading with Burma,Malasia and other eastern countries. It is for this reason that most of the timber used for construction of these bungalows are called "Burma wood" or "Burma teak"  Today most of these bungalows look like haunted houses since most of the owners and their next generations are settled abroad. But interestingly none of the houses are sold and the owners visit the houses once or twice a year for a traditional festival .

We were then served awesome breakfast by a local cook there. Avin had to leave early in the morning to Sivakashi for a business meeting. Chinmay accompanied us for breakfast and saw us off at 10 AM. We reached Madurai at 12 PM but again could not get the darshan of Meenakshi devi thanks to just awful and pathetic traffic and infrastructure of Madurai. We left Madurai by 2 PM after a small tour of the city. 

It was a very educative and inspiring tour. I hope to create such an enterprise one day which will do good to society, environment, stakeholders and to myself. 


(Some Pictures of the trip are here )

Whose independence is it anyway?

Thanks to a little confused state of mind and not so good time in business in the last few months, i never got the patience to write about many interesting thoughts that came to me. Now i am not able to recollect those thoughts to write about it. So one of the "Independence day" resolutions is to write as often as possible. 

Nevertheless, this post is about a strange situation i got into a couple of days back. This happened in the junction of Bannerghatta road and ring road. This is also known as Jeedi mara sighnal or J.P.Nagar third phase. 

Mostly by culture and a little by default, i generally have opinions on many things and controversies. One of it is begging at the traffic signals. I am vehemently against begging and i get little worked up when i see small kids and middle aged women begging on the streets. I have got into serious arguments with friends who encourage  begging by giving money to the beggars. Its alright to help handicapped or old person struggling to make a living in this world, but i just cannot reconcile to the fact that middle aged women and children take to begging.. 

On the other hand, i have respects and sympathy for children who sell flowers or toys at traffic signals to make a living. I have been following one such kid by name Mahesh (or manjunath, not sure) who regularly sells flowers at the third block Jayanagar signal. He studies at MES school in Ninth standard and to support himself, he sells flowers in the evening for about 2 to 3 hours. He always gives change after the purchase (unlike the auto drivers of Bangalore). 

It was the auspicious day of Varamahalakshmi festival on 12 august 2011. Since Independence day was round the corner, it was common to see small kids selling small flags and other patriotic emblems on the streets. I met one such kid in the jeedi mara signal. I was on my car waiting at the signal. A small girl about 7 or 8 years old came walking to my car with a few flags in her hand. She was looking little strange. Her face was slightly deformed and she looked badly malnourished. The window glass was up. She tapped the glass. I ignored her since i was not interested in buying the India flag. She dint give up and kept tapping with her face on on the window. So i was forced to open the window. She literally cajoled me to buy a a flag. She said "ಬರಿ ಹತ್ತು ರುಪಾಯೀ" (Only 10 rupees). I replied saying that i am not interested in the flag but would give her 10 rupees. I gave her a 10 rupee note. She took the 10 rupee note and dropped the flag on my lap.She refused to take it back. She would not just take that 10 rupees as a charity. 

Behind her came a small boy, equally malnourished, may be a year or two older than this girl. But the difference was that he was begging. He went car to car tapping windows and begging. Some people did give him some change but i refused. 

While i appreciate the little girl's patience and spirit, it only shows the bad state of affairs in our country. In Bangalore, we have hundreds of children like this who sell cheap Chinese toys on the streets or beg on the streets. Abolition of child labour , right to education etc are looking good only on paper but not in spirit. It seems we have more laws and less justice. 

It is the 65th year of our independence and we are yet to give basic minimum education and nutrition to masses in our country. Tomorrow a few hundred children chosen from a few elite schools of south Delhi  will repeat a few sentences of inspiration, motivation and greatness of the country after our prime minister at the "INDEPENDENCE DAY" function. But there are many many children in our country who still do not know what is the occasion on 15 August. 

Before i sign off "Happy independence day to all independent people" .. 

Enterprising Peers

Its been almost two years since i started my journey as an entrepreneur. So far it has been very satisfying. Recognition of work and a genuine gratitude from a happy customer brings immense joy to an entrepreneur. It keeps him or her motivated and breeds more innovation. Creating a job opportunity is another great feeling for an entrepreneur. Not that i have been doing very well and given employment for many, but in my own little way, i have given small jobs to a few people. The joy i experienced when i saw the joy on one of my contact worker's face when i paid him an additional 5000 rupees when he worked on the Ugadi day is unmatchable. An ipod or an holiday at Kabini for the same amount would not have given me the same joy and happiness. These little things have lot of value. One has to experience it to understand it. 

Over the last year, my work took me to quite a few places. I traveled mostly in southern Karnataka and few places in central Karnataka (Some pictures of the travels are here. Of course i also had an opportunity to make a round-trip to delhi by road . I had an opportunity to meet variety of people in different bands of the economic spectrum.  From school children with no footwear, dedicated school teachers working for meager salaries, people with no toilets, illiterate entrepreneurs, dedicated entrepreneurs in small towns to the likes of Suresh kumar (Minster in Karnataka), Sudha murthy, Rohini nilekani and Subroto Bagchi. I also had a chance to meet with the Chairman of ONGC (Sep 2010). So it was a very enriching experience having conversations with such variety of individuals.  

Much is written and known about the people i just mentioned  They are all very inspiring. They are all great people with exceptional achievements. 

Here i am writing a bit about my contemporaries and friends who in their own way have carved out a niche for themselves. They are all innovative, dynamic and enterprising. They are all a part of starups working on certain innovative and challenging areas.  Let me tell you that my poor writing cannot do justice to the individuals they are. They are far more and far better than what is written below. 

I must start with Jaydeep Mandal. Probably the most dynamic, most talented and the youngest among my entrepreneur friends. My association with him started in late 2007. He was interning at IISC and had called me to attend a lecture on scouting and commercializing innovations. I was impressed with his attitude and vision. He was all but 22 and had decided to be an entrepreneur. I was then 24 and had no vision in life.

He is an engineer and a MBA in innovation and entrepreneurship. He has founded two organizations at the age of 26. He is presently the director of Aakaar ventures which works on commercializing grassroot/rural innovations. He has already set up a factory in Uttarakund under a licence model. 

He has also founded Berhampore sarvodaya which also works on scouting and diffusing grassroot innovations.

His business model is unique and very innovative. Though he is not an innovator himself, his works in identifying the innovator and commercializing an innovation is commendable. 

Ganesh Shankar. I have no words for him. My best efforts of writing will not do an inch of justice for the character and person he is. To start with he is just in absolute love with life. An awesome writer, a cyclist,  a trekker, a traveler. I must say a life enthusiast. He just enjoys what he does to the fullest. A character i have very high admiration for. 

My association with him started way back in 1999 when i was in National college Basavanagudi. We were in the same batch of PCME class. He was (and is) super intelligent. Since we were staying pretty close to each other, we use to take the same bus. I still remember some of the conversations we use to have in the bus about calculus, physics, about our lecturers, about organic chemistry etc etc. Of course i could never match him in intelligence, academics or for that matter anything may be apart from eating. His thinking was multiple folds higher than mine. He had suggested me a book on physics by name "Fundamentals of Physics" by Halliday and Resnick. I am still using that book to understand certain concepts in physics. 

He holds a masters in communication from IISC. He quit a comfortable and highly rewarding career in GE avionics to pursue his passion in the renewable energy field. He has already done some amazing work in the forests of western Ghats in tracking Tigers. 

Kiran rao. Another example of someone who quit a highly rewarding job to pursue something different. Kiran rao was my classmate in Engineering. Both of us never did very well in academics. I was adorned with one star while he got two (Each star = one subject fail). But we enjoyed experimenting. We were the only two to take finite element analysis as an elective for the whole university. In spite of flunking elasticity in 6th semester , kiran rao made a bold decision to take finite element in the 7th semester when all our friends chickened off after disastrous results in elasticity. 

Like me, he holds an engineering degree in civil engineering. But he soon shifted to software and was well employed at infosys. Like ganesh Shankar, after a 4 year stint at Infosys, he joined me as a director of Hinren technologies to pursue some interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary (sometimes confusing) entrepreneurial venture. He joined me when i was struggling to set up a business and arrive at a business model (confused even now). He brought in lot of value particularly in technical matters and pricing. Though i am still unable to reward him enough for his efforts, he has stuck on bringing in a lot of value.

Apart from getting confused and sometimes frustrated over our business model, we enjoy traveling and  we casually get into amateur discussion on literature.  

Diwakar Reddy. A passionate speaker and a great clean energy campaigner. We were batch mates at BMS college of engineering. Though i have not interacted much with him, i have been following him on social networking sites and am a regular visitor to his blogs. He recently designed and commissioned a wind mill at a school in Chikballapur. 

This is what he has written in one of his blogs "We cant afford to sit back and just wait and see what happens. If we want to deal with the future challenges of climate change we have to act today. Let's see climate change as an opportunity. Make everyday a Earth Day... " 

I have been associated with these men and few others for a while now. I am sure that i get more to learn from them in the coming years.

For me all are of them are very enterprising. Apart from these, i have met few other entrepreneurs either in the renewable energy space or in sustainability space. One thing common about all these people is that they are all enthusiastic about life and are radiant with energy. I have hardly seen them cribbing or complaining. 

Its my hope and wish that all of us end up one day as very successful entrepreneurs doing good to others and to ourselves. 

[Over the last couple of years, i also had a chance to meet number of enterprising people (whom i cannot call contemporaries or peers). I have already written about most of them .  Lokesh, the masala puri entrepreneur http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2011/02/masala-puri-for-thought.html, Sandeep,the activist http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2011/01/sandeep-real-hero.html, Inspirational bridge builder Girish Bharadwaj http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2010/12/bridge-builder-girish-bharadwaj.html , Jyothi raj, the student of the monkey http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2010/08/prince-of-chitradurga.html , Happy man Vijaykumar http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2010/08/happy-man.html , Educator Kalappa http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2009/07/bmv-education-trust-at-bhaktrahalli.html , Camel ride entrepreneur Bharat http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2009/06/bahrath-aur-sharukh-khan.html , Nobel sister http://sonublogs.blogspot.com/2009/06/dreams-on-fire.html]

Language and regionalism..

This may be considered as a sequel to the previous blog. Here i am putting my take on language and regionalism.. 

Let us look at language as an axis of distinction and try to debate its efficacy in the Indian scenario. Let me not go into the State reorganization committee and its reports. That will be just a debate for the heck of it. Instead let us look at some historical evidences vis-a-vis language as a basis of division.

Many obituaries have been written about India and Indian democracy right from Mirza Asadullah Khan Galib in 1827 (Chirag-i-dair) to many many western liberals as early as 2000. All the obituaries were attributed to multi language and multi ethnic virtues, heritage and culture of India. The fact is that all of them were proved wrong to the amazement of many western observers and few Indians as well. 

In my opinion (Largely influenced by Dr Ram Guha), one strong reason for this is our rich linguistic tradition and division of India on basis of language. Let me substantiate this with historical evidences rather than putting my own arguments.

Indian national congress in the 1920s spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi reconstituted the provincial committees on linguistic lines to foster administrative unity and efficacy. Congress also made promises that the states in India will be reorganized on linguistic lines post independence. Immediately after independence Gandhi advocated division of states on linguistic lines. 

Joseph Stalin, the Russian dictator tried to impose Russian throughout USSR without giving freedom and recognition to other languages. He was quoted as saying “ A national community is inconceivable without a common language and that there is no nation which at one and the same time speaks several languages”. This lead to the language policy of USSR where learning Russian was made obligatory (Source: Epilogue of "India after Gandhi" By Ramchandra Guha). We all know what happened to USSR in 1991.

Closer home, in 1956 when India redrew her map based on linguistic lines, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) did not recognize the separate state for Tamils and tried to impose Sinhala as the sole language. The county was torn by armed rebellion for over 50 years.

Jinnah warned the people of East Pakistan soon after independence that “Without one state language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function and that state language of Pakistan was Urdu and the people of East Pakistan have to take it up sooner or later” Bengali was never recognized as an official language of Pakistan and in 1971, we had a torn Pakistan. And today Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh.(Source: Epilogue of "India after Gandhi" By Ramchandra Guha)

There are many many such evidences in erstwhile Europe and USSR.

While we may think that language is a barrier and linguistic distinctions may foster balkanization, in reality it’s not so. On the other hand language has provided the basis of administrative unity and efficiency. It has also lead to an efflorescence of cultural creativity, as expressed in film, theater, fiction and poetry. 

It is Utopian to have these barriers vanished (It need not be considered as a barrier. Pride in one's language, in India, has rarely been in conflict with broader identification with the nation as a whole. Examples of secessionist movements in Nagaland (1950s), in Punjab (1980s) and in Kashmir (1990s) have affirmed religious and territorial distinctiveness, not a linguistic one)

Sociologically speaking, the “in-group” feeling is inevitable. Nationalism and regionalism stems from this and it’s a group phenomenon. Rashtrakavi Kuvempu who gave the world the “Vishwa manava Sandesha” (ವಿಶ್ವ ಮಾನವ ಸಂದೇಶ ) in the same breath said “Kannadave sathya, Kannadave nithya”(ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ಸತ್ಯ ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ನಿತ್ಯ)

Belgaum ,Aishwarya rai and Vishwa Kannada Sammelana.

I am writing this essay in continuation with the ongoing debate i am having with few of my friends on the issue concerning the recently concluded “Vishwa Kannada Sammelana” at Belgaum.

The issue which has created the controversy amongst us is the participation of Aishwraya Rai Bachan in the event as one of the Ambassadors for the language. There are other small debates on necessity of such events and that these events only increase linguistic barriers and regionalism amongs people of India. There is a powerful school of elite thought that linguistic division of states is harmful to the human spirit in general and democracy in particular. Let me try to address these issues.

Let me put my view about participation of Aishwarya rai in the event here. I will talk about my opinion on regionalism and language in the next blog.

First things first, the Vishwa Kannada Sammelana at Belgaum was just not a Kannada festival but largely a political event. Its arguable that the political dimension was indeed necessary for the cause of Kannada. Belgaum was carefully chosen since it is the border district and is a major zone of contention between Maharashtra and Karnataka. Belgaum has a significant Marathi speaking population and we have had sporadic secessionist movements in the area. Government of Karnataka has been progressively trying to consolidate its position in Belgaum. It has been officially declared as the second capital of Karnataka. Given the delicate geographical and linguistic position of Belgaum and in the wake of the Mahajan commission report, the choice of Belgaum as a venue was quite obvious. No other venue would have given the government the same political mileage.  No wonder the next event is planned at Kolar bordering Andra Pradesh. The subsequent event may be in Kodagu.

Politically, Aishwarya Rai bachan was an excellent choice as a participant in the Programme. Lady of Karnataka origin, brought up in Maharashtra (Mumbai), settled into a Hindi speaking, Mumbai based high profile family,  former miss world, Padmashree awardee, brilliant actress  and arguably the most beautiful woman in the world. She ignored the threat from a strong regional right wing pro Marati shiv sena and attended a kannada event in a politically sensitive area of Belgaum. Government in Karnataka could not have asked for more. Aishwarya rai’s presence has scored a huge political score for the Government of Karnataka vis-a-vis Maharashtra trying to consolidate its position over the border areas of Belgaum.

Keeping politics apart, lets try to debate if Aishwarya rai was the right choice for the event?. The arguments in favour of her presence are very powerful. Mostly it is to do with her many credentials which are recognized around the world. It is argued that she represents the Kannada people particularly the youth to the world. Given that this was the Vishwa (world) Kannada sammelana, Aishwarya rai having world recognition was the right ambassador.  It’s argued that only because of her presence and of course Narayan Murthy’s presence, the event got recognition on the front pages of the leading English newspapers including the Hindu. It is further argued that  her presence has taken the message of the event to the world.

The counter argument is predominantly coming from some of us who do not have anything against Aishwarya rai but are little upset about the choice of Aishwarya rai as an ambassador for the language at the event (and by the way she spoke Kannada , Listen to it here). It has certainly not gone well with certain sections of the society. Let us look at it from first principles. What was the message of the event? According to me the message was to get the world to acknowledge and appreciate the language, its richness, its diversity and its heritage and the same time promote it as much as possible locally and globally. It may be too early to say whether it has achieved this objective. Moreover we hardly have any metrics for its measurement. But let’s look at the ground evidences. It’s true that the event was featured in the front pages of English newspapers, but not beyond Karnataka. The regional newspapers in Tamil nadu did not even report the event let alone the foreign newspapers. None of the major electronic media reported it.

Secondly, we cannot have a brand Ambassador for the language who does not know how to even speak few sentences of it. How can we just accommodate someone just because she is beautiful and famous? What are her Kannada credentials?  She has not acted in a single Kannada film. She cannot speak a few sentences in Kannada.  Agreed that she is a brilliant woman, but did she fit properly as the Ambassador for the language?  I feel we just compromised on certain values for Glamour and popularity.