Bhavana penned

27-Oct-2011 It was a very cloudy morning and looked as if it was going to rain heavily. I took my tram and travelled for nearly 20 minutes to city center where I work. I then got down at my tram stop in city center and the weather was still terrible and it had started to drizzle slowly. I did not feel like taking my umbrella out. Tram Stop: Riverside walk to Business park: From the tram stop in city center, I have to walk for 5 minutes to reach Business Park where my office is situated. There are many employees from the business park working for different companies, who get down at the same stop as I do. We have to cross traffic signal once and walk next to river and it is a very soothing morning walk, but for few smokers who smoke while walking as well (pity them) ! Today while crossing the traffic signal I happen to hear a conversation behind me. The conversation was between an obese American (it might be due to the result of Mac Donalds and KFC,...

I was 6 years old when our Kannada film director Puttanna Kanagal died and even today I fondly remember his movies and most kannadigas do so too. He was one the best in the industry (I can say, one of the best in entire Indian film industry itself!!) who made movies on social evils and issues such as handicapped people's life, life of prostitute, life of a wife whose husband becomes impotent, life of a doctor who falls in love with his mental patient and cures her and after cured she falls in love with someone else and then he goes mad, about education in villages and politics in the education system, life of conservative village and women's life in conservative village and the pros and cons of inter-religious relationships in conservative villages, women's independence, theme of psychological problems, double standards applied to men and women, lonely life of an actress and so on. Most of these films were based on Kannada novels and Puttanna himself wrote the screenpla...

There are several reasons for me to love Mysore, 1) being my native is/was in Srirangapatna, a village in it which is now submerged in Kaveri waters called "Gibikote". 2) Mysore Dasara celebrations 3) Mysore is the cultural capital of Karnataka and many others. I would love to introduce you to a Mysorean board game called "Chauka Bara". This is primarily a game of chance, but involves thinking and planning. It also helps in developing counting skills. It is an interesting and fun way to develop strategy skills. The rules for this board game can be found in here  http://kreedaakaushalya.blogspot.com/2008/05/chauka-bara.html We got a chance to introduce this wonderful game in Czech Republic among our friends in a restaurant which was previously a wine celler. I would love to share some of the pictures Kiran Explaining the rules At the end of the day I was really proud of myself and Kiran and we decided to keep such lovely evenings again and...

What is this about? In the main city Square of Brno, the second largest city of Czech Republic after Prague, a giant Clock is installed. This does not look anything like a clock. Then why is it called a clock and why it is such a main attraction in Brno nowadays?? -Picture Source:  http://brnonow.com/2010/09/brno-cock-clock/ This is not a giant clock dildo but,  the clock symbolizes a bullet. It reminds the 1645 battle of Brno , in which the town defended Swedish army by a smart trick: the Swedish wanted to abandon the fight if they wouldn’t have conquered the town until 12 p.m. – so people of Brno chimed noon earlier, at 11 a.m.. More info:  http://brnonow.com/2010/09/brno-cock-clock/

We in India are very keen on celebrating many Anniversaries such as Independence Day, Republic day and so on. But we are not trying to know the actual history behind these important days. During these days, you hear “patriotic” shouts and screams from “aam admi” but try asking one among them what the importance of Republic day is for instance, they just babble. On the other side, our education system is systematically and effectively stopping the students in knowing the history of our own country- the usual logic is: can our history provide us jobs? My answer is: you don’t have to study your history, if you know that’s enough. There is a saying “If you don’t know your history, it is bound to repeat”. So the only way to know our history and also letting our future generation know our history is by reading it and letting the children read them too- of course, those “busy” souls can read them in their free time. Since I strongly believe in “Practise before you preach”, I have s...