I was just revisiting all the books that i had read in the last decade. Iam also going to write about the authors who have written the book. Whenever i read a book and I feel that the book has enriched my life, i go and compliment the author of the book saying the book has really given me a new perspective.
In the course of my random wanderings, i had read this book "Tunnel of Time by RK Laxman". I wanted to meet him but did not get an opportunity to meet him. He came to bangalore to inaugurate a cartoon exhibition in bangalore. I met the organizers of the exhibition and found out that he was staying in the hotel near MG road.
The host for RK laxman had fixed an appointment with RK laxman and i was on time and RK laxman had just finished his breakfast.
He was chatting with everyone, as many of his friends had come to wish him. Later i was given a time of 10 mins to ask him questions. I had thought that since RK laxman had observed the political scene he would have had a vision about a alternate political philosophy than the current system.
I asked him , 'Sir, You have observed the nuisance of the modern day politics, do u have any political vision that can provide a more mature leadership for the country. '
The reply was, "You are stupid. That shows you have no idea who iam ? You have not gone through my work. I do not think my cartoons ".
The reply was very blunt. I did not know what next to ask for. I silently moved besides his wife and sat on the sofa. Then i showed my other questions to his wife,
1> How does he get to be creative each day ? What is the state of his mind when he is creating a cartoon ?
2> What motivated him to be a political cartoonist ?
3> About his love for Ganesha and the crow ?
I had some more questions, but i was afraid to ask the same. His wife asked him not to be so rude to young people like me. So he said "Go on ask me the next set of questions"
1> How does he get to be creative each day ? What is the state of his mind when he is creating a cartoon ?
>> My state of mind is empty and I search for the cartoons everywhere in the road, in the shop, in the office everywhere i find my common man. I do not make an effort and i'am not even self conscious about my creation.
2> What motivated him to be a political cartoonist ?
>> During those times there was no one in this space and i asked my self "Why not ?".
3> About his love for Ganesha and the crow ?
Ganesha i see him everywhere.. and in everything.. crow is very intelligent and understands human beings better...and it puts up with us.
He finally asked me "What do you do young man ?"
Sir I promote cycling ..
"Bicycle ??"
"Yes Sir .. Good work.. we need more cycles"
I had carried his cartoon which spoke about too many cars on the road with no space for walking. I requested him to make some more cartoons with bicycles and the common man.
He asked his wife to give me the address of his residence and asked me to write. But few days later I read the report that he was not well. So did not write to him for the cartoons.
But here are some things from his book "Tunnel of Time"
His childhood is really free with absolutely no control and all his brothers taking care of him. In the school , He draws the cartoon of his teacher - and is caught. In his cartoon he depicts the teacher as a tiger.
Laxman and Bicycles
One of the unique things in his cartoons of yesteryears are the bicycles. He used to go cycling in Mysore, in pursuit of landscapes and artistic structures on the outskirts of the city. He also had a close friend with whom he used to bicycle all around the city. This friend HK had joined the "Bicycle Brigade" to fight for the freedom of the nation. "The group went cycling all over the city shouting anti british slogans and courting arrest" - is what RK Laxman says. I was thrilled to read the contribution of these cyclists from the "Bicycle Brigade" who fought for the freedom of the nation.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Who should be my neighbors
A friend of mine recently wrote a blog, highlighting the neighbors, she wanted in her neighborhood. That made me think about my current neighbors and the choice i have made by staying in the current place. This is not just a wish list, i would really attempt to create the neighborhood in the next few years at least.
Kaveri I would like to have a Sacred River in my neighborhood. Just watching the river flow silently is so soothing for the soul . Apart from this you can watch kingfishers of bright colors diving into the river.
Krishna Temple - Old Hoysala Style My second preference would be a temple of Sri Krishna in Hoysala style, small , yet aesthetic and beautiful. It would be the best place to read a poem of kalidasa or valmiki and get inspired to do some thing new.
Elephant & a Horse Stable
I would like to have either a elephant or a horse stable , so that you can go and feed them and also go for a ride occasionally. Sometimes Bicycle is so boring - especially during some climbs when u r hungry and u want some one to take u for a ride without polluting.
I will definitely have a home besides Kaveri river and also own a horse.
Pradeep, Shreya & Family
A fellow cyclist, we met @ IIMB during a workshop and became very very close. He understands me and respects my stand on many issues. I would not have done much in cycling had it not been for his support and guidance. Whenever i fix an appointment with a minister or a senior IAS officer, he is there to speak with "Perfect English and Perfect Delivery" with full spontaneity. He is our spokesman. I do all the necessary action in the background.
He has a beautiful little daughter,Shreya who can speak pure Kannada, pure Tamil and little english. Well versed in all subjects and expert in giving spontaneous ideas for implementation. Whenever i run out of ideas in business, i just ring him up and he simply dissolves my problem. We will be working on multiple projects in the future like - Tour of Kaveri and Training for Mapping Technologies eventually. He is temporarily in Yahoo , will soon join our company.
Sudhira, Ramya & Family
We call him "Chanakya, DR , Professor". He is one of the young guys to complete PHd with international rankings from IISC. Multidisciplinary personality - Knows everything about birds, remote sensing, system design, physics, operations, ecology.
He is the founder of Gubbi Labs and he simply pulled me to work on cycling and just focus on cycling and nothing else. We have worked for almost 3 years now designing conceiving couple of projects for Bangalore. But he loves his small town Gubbi and setting up a super speciality lab @ Gubbi after getting recognition from Department of Science and Technology. Loves Birds so much that all the people who went to his marriage got a Bird Feeding Nest as a Gift. He meets only very few people , very reserved and very distant from the world. Totally avoids people who are clever and cunning. Ramya is his wife and they just got married in a simple marriage. I would any day want to be very close for the simple reason that life is simple with simple people like him. He chides me for being insensitive sometimes.
Guru & Family
My room mate for 4 years in engineering in Mysore. When i met with a severe accident in my first semester, i stayed in the hostel room close to the college with my mother. Guru was there by my side, daily bringing all the materials to cook and helping my mother to take care of me. I could not even walk to the examination hall as the leg was severely damaged. Guru got my classmates to lift me and carry me on the shoulders to the examination hall (Distance should be atleast 1/2 Km). I used to shout "Ram naam satya hai"..when they were carrying my body in public. He gave me confidence to write the exam inspite of my accident and get a distinction in my first semester exam. We never fought a single day in the four years of our stay. Sharing and Caring is so natural that even now he is always asking about me and checking out what iam doing.
Shiv & Pavithra
He will go all out for enabling kannada in all computers. Absolute hacker is married to a hacker - Pavitra. Totally selfless when it comes to doing some thing for kannada. We will work on producing and building a common platform for kannada literature in urban design, engineering etc. We planned lot of things , but i got busy in cycling and planning , so could not give him my ideas.
MK Pranesh, Praveen Godkindi, Ned
These three flautists are gems in the music landscape. Ned is so passionate about carnatic music that he has started a Carnatic Music Lab in Netherlands.
He comes to india to learn Carnatic Music and during all his stay never wastes a moment . He practices 6-8 hours of playing flute everyday. I wish i had the same dedication that he has for our culture. Also he wants to travel on a bicycle :)
MK Pranesh is my guru. Iam yet to make him happy as far as music is concerned. Busy with too many activities..need to pay more attention to music.
Vani Akka and Vijaya Akka/BHava and Nikita/Pranav/Suhaas
My sisters are very close to me , but they have always stayed very far from my home. One is in vijayanagara and another in NewDelhi. I miss my Bhava very much.
My Bhava is a hero for me from my childhood - be it engineering design, mathematics, management - he is always the best guy. A football player and a athlete - spends 1 hour doing hard exercises.I still cannot defeat him in running and cycling.
He is the Best Father i have seen in my life - absolutely innovative with kids and seeing him teaching kids - science is fun - to watch. He reached the top of corporate sector at a very young age. But i want him to work with us - planing to pull him into our company later. Best All round personality !!! Lucky to have my sister married to him.
My niece, Nikita - i can do some sketching and painting with her. She enjoys painting that she can spend a entire day painting . Her largest painting was atleast 6 ft that took her six hours when she was eight years. Very disciplined and keeps things very tidy and in order ,never loses anything and does not lend anything to anyone.
I need to learn this from her.
Dr Bhat & Y Manju & R Manju
Dr Bhat is my child hood friend. All four of us - R and Y manju, Dr Bhat and myself studied in Chitradurga, JnanaBharathi Vidya Mandira. I should say Bhat & Manju transformed my life. Their friendship made me pay more attention to studies and books. Manju's father had a library for keeping many books on various subjects. I used to borrow them and start reading as a kid.
Those days the Russian Gvernment - MIR Publishers used to supply science/ mathematics books at a subsidized rate. The paper quality was too good and the binding was of superior quality.
We used to do experiments to build our own Telephone System, by stealing telephone handsets from the telephone exchange. Bhat was a Rank Holder all thro' his career. He is now a pediatrician in Bangalore. He was there with me when my father expired.He even accompanied me to the crematorium and held my hands tightly as my fathers mortal remains turned to ashes. In sorrow and In joy he is there. In times of medical emergency he takes care of our family. My sister had a sudden decline in the blood platelet count, due to dengue. He made all arrangements at Wockhardt hospital ICU and made sure that blood transfusion was done in the midnight and my sisters life was saved. Even now whenever i get a fever i call him and he is our mobile doctor.
Y Manju was my very best friend, till he got married. He used to call me once a month from america . After marriage he shifted his family to US - saying India is painful.
He was a gem of a person. we studied Highschool, Pre university college together. Now no phone calls and last time i made a call to him and met him when he was about to return back. He is changed a lot - become a total capitalist.
Lavanya is another good friend of mine, She will share her knowledge on agriculture & sustainable living.
Sheelraj Shetty is another close friend , i met him in Pondicherry during my visit to Auroville to learn sustainable technologies. I have to learn from him Pottery and building mud homes and bit of architecture. He is a senior architect with Chitra Viswanath.
VedaVyasa & His Son Shuka Muni
I can listen to stories of Krishna directly from the author and in this kaliyuga where you get to listen only horrific stories it is a pleasant to listen to krishnas story so that u will taken back into the heroic age in a moment. Now in his absence i read his books and feel his presence in his words. Some words are immortal, Some people are immortal, Some books are immortal..Vyasa is not just a immortal sage.. he takes you also from mortal outlook and makes u immortal.
Another thing about Vyasa is that he never misses the details. Like in MahaPrasthana when Pandavas are quiting the city a dog follows. We all forget about the dog , but at the end, Dog is nothing but YamaDharmaraya, ought to test his son again.
Kalidasa , Bana Sanskrit Poets
Kannada Writers - Kuvempu would be my best friend i presume
I have so many people to add in the list - the list is endless - hence making space in my mind for all these great people who have enriched my life in one way or the other.
Kaveri I would like to have a Sacred River in my neighborhood. Just watching the river flow silently is so soothing for the soul . Apart from this you can watch kingfishers of bright colors diving into the river.
Krishna Temple - Old Hoysala Style My second preference would be a temple of Sri Krishna in Hoysala style, small , yet aesthetic and beautiful. It would be the best place to read a poem of kalidasa or valmiki and get inspired to do some thing new.
Elephant & a Horse Stable
I would like to have either a elephant or a horse stable , so that you can go and feed them and also go for a ride occasionally. Sometimes Bicycle is so boring - especially during some climbs when u r hungry and u want some one to take u for a ride without polluting.
I will definitely have a home besides Kaveri river and also own a horse.
Pradeep, Shreya & Family
A fellow cyclist, we met @ IIMB during a workshop and became very very close. He understands me and respects my stand on many issues. I would not have done much in cycling had it not been for his support and guidance. Whenever i fix an appointment with a minister or a senior IAS officer, he is there to speak with "Perfect English and Perfect Delivery" with full spontaneity. He is our spokesman. I do all the necessary action in the background.
He has a beautiful little daughter,Shreya who can speak pure Kannada, pure Tamil and little english. Well versed in all subjects and expert in giving spontaneous ideas for implementation. Whenever i run out of ideas in business, i just ring him up and he simply dissolves my problem. We will be working on multiple projects in the future like - Tour of Kaveri and Training for Mapping Technologies eventually. He is temporarily in Yahoo , will soon join our company.
Sudhira, Ramya & Family
We call him "Chanakya, DR , Professor". He is one of the young guys to complete PHd with international rankings from IISC. Multidisciplinary personality - Knows everything about birds, remote sensing, system design, physics, operations, ecology.
He is the founder of Gubbi Labs and he simply pulled me to work on cycling and just focus on cycling and nothing else. We have worked for almost 3 years now designing conceiving couple of projects for Bangalore. But he loves his small town Gubbi and setting up a super speciality lab @ Gubbi after getting recognition from Department of Science and Technology. Loves Birds so much that all the people who went to his marriage got a Bird Feeding Nest as a Gift. He meets only very few people , very reserved and very distant from the world. Totally avoids people who are clever and cunning. Ramya is his wife and they just got married in a simple marriage. I would any day want to be very close for the simple reason that life is simple with simple people like him. He chides me for being insensitive sometimes.
Guru & Family
My room mate for 4 years in engineering in Mysore. When i met with a severe accident in my first semester, i stayed in the hostel room close to the college with my mother. Guru was there by my side, daily bringing all the materials to cook and helping my mother to take care of me. I could not even walk to the examination hall as the leg was severely damaged. Guru got my classmates to lift me and carry me on the shoulders to the examination hall (Distance should be atleast 1/2 Km). I used to shout "Ram naam satya hai"..when they were carrying my body in public. He gave me confidence to write the exam inspite of my accident and get a distinction in my first semester exam. We never fought a single day in the four years of our stay. Sharing and Caring is so natural that even now he is always asking about me and checking out what iam doing.
Shiv & Pavithra
He will go all out for enabling kannada in all computers. Absolute hacker is married to a hacker - Pavitra. Totally selfless when it comes to doing some thing for kannada. We will work on producing and building a common platform for kannada literature in urban design, engineering etc. We planned lot of things , but i got busy in cycling and planning , so could not give him my ideas.
MK Pranesh, Praveen Godkindi, Ned
These three flautists are gems in the music landscape. Ned is so passionate about carnatic music that he has started a Carnatic Music Lab in Netherlands.
He comes to india to learn Carnatic Music and during all his stay never wastes a moment . He practices 6-8 hours of playing flute everyday. I wish i had the same dedication that he has for our culture. Also he wants to travel on a bicycle :)
MK Pranesh is my guru. Iam yet to make him happy as far as music is concerned. Busy with too many activities..need to pay more attention to music.
Vani Akka and Vijaya Akka/BHava and Nikita/Pranav/Suhaas
My sisters are very close to me , but they have always stayed very far from my home. One is in vijayanagara and another in NewDelhi. I miss my Bhava very much.
My Bhava is a hero for me from my childhood - be it engineering design, mathematics, management - he is always the best guy. A football player and a athlete - spends 1 hour doing hard exercises.I still cannot defeat him in running and cycling.
He is the Best Father i have seen in my life - absolutely innovative with kids and seeing him teaching kids - science is fun - to watch. He reached the top of corporate sector at a very young age. But i want him to work with us - planing to pull him into our company later. Best All round personality !!! Lucky to have my sister married to him.
My niece, Nikita - i can do some sketching and painting with her. She enjoys painting that she can spend a entire day painting . Her largest painting was atleast 6 ft that took her six hours when she was eight years. Very disciplined and keeps things very tidy and in order ,never loses anything and does not lend anything to anyone.
I need to learn this from her.
Dr Bhat & Y Manju & R Manju
Dr Bhat is my child hood friend. All four of us - R and Y manju, Dr Bhat and myself studied in Chitradurga, JnanaBharathi Vidya Mandira. I should say Bhat & Manju transformed my life. Their friendship made me pay more attention to studies and books. Manju's father had a library for keeping many books on various subjects. I used to borrow them and start reading as a kid.
Those days the Russian Gvernment - MIR Publishers used to supply science/ mathematics books at a subsidized rate. The paper quality was too good and the binding was of superior quality.
We used to do experiments to build our own Telephone System, by stealing telephone handsets from the telephone exchange. Bhat was a Rank Holder all thro' his career. He is now a pediatrician in Bangalore. He was there with me when my father expired.He even accompanied me to the crematorium and held my hands tightly as my fathers mortal remains turned to ashes. In sorrow and In joy he is there. In times of medical emergency he takes care of our family. My sister had a sudden decline in the blood platelet count, due to dengue. He made all arrangements at Wockhardt hospital ICU and made sure that blood transfusion was done in the midnight and my sisters life was saved. Even now whenever i get a fever i call him and he is our mobile doctor.
Y Manju was my very best friend, till he got married. He used to call me once a month from america . After marriage he shifted his family to US - saying India is painful.
He was a gem of a person. we studied Highschool, Pre university college together. Now no phone calls and last time i made a call to him and met him when he was about to return back. He is changed a lot - become a total capitalist.
Lavanya is another good friend of mine, She will share her knowledge on agriculture & sustainable living.
Sheelraj Shetty is another close friend , i met him in Pondicherry during my visit to Auroville to learn sustainable technologies. I have to learn from him Pottery and building mud homes and bit of architecture. He is a senior architect with Chitra Viswanath.
VedaVyasa & His Son Shuka Muni
I can listen to stories of Krishna directly from the author and in this kaliyuga where you get to listen only horrific stories it is a pleasant to listen to krishnas story so that u will taken back into the heroic age in a moment. Now in his absence i read his books and feel his presence in his words. Some words are immortal, Some people are immortal, Some books are immortal..Vyasa is not just a immortal sage.. he takes you also from mortal outlook and makes u immortal.
Another thing about Vyasa is that he never misses the details. Like in MahaPrasthana when Pandavas are quiting the city a dog follows. We all forget about the dog , but at the end, Dog is nothing but YamaDharmaraya, ought to test his son again.
Kalidasa , Bana Sanskrit Poets
Kannada Writers - Kuvempu would be my best friend i presume
I have so many people to add in the list - the list is endless - hence making space in my mind for all these great people who have enriched my life in one way or the other.
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