Dream Big

[Following is the story narrated by one of the co-founders of Infosys, Mr.Dinesh, in our college function when I was doing my engineering.]

There was a cowboy in a village. He stole an egg from the nest of an eagle atop the hill nearby. He kept it along with the other eggs of his hen. They all hatched and the baby eagle became part of hen's family.

While his comrades were following the mother hen keeping their heads down, this baby eagle looked up towards the hill and wondered how beautiful it was. It aspired to reach there.

It tried everyday to fly there but it failed in the halfway as it would get too tired. But it didn't give up. It kept on trying until it succeeded one fine day. His comrades were awfully stunned watching him fly to the top of the hill which they hadn't even dreamt of.

Moral: Think big to achieve big.

A Letter to God

[ I believe CBSE English Reader/Supplementary books of all classes are beautifully composed keeping in mind the age and thoughts of students. I dont remember when we had this, but a nice story worth reading. Lencho is a farmer who writes a letter to God when his crops are ruined, asking for a hundred pesos. Such was is innocence and faith! Read on... ]



THE house — the only one in the entire valley — sat on the crest of a low hill. From this height one could see the river and the field of ripe corn dotted with the flowers that always promised a good harvest. The only thing the earth needed was a downpour or at least a shower. Throughout the morning Lencho — who knew his fields intimately — had done nothing else but see the sky towards the north-east. “Now we’re really going to get some water, woman.” The woman who was preparing supper, replied, “Yes, God willing”. The older boys were working in the field, while the smaller ones were playing near the house until the woman called to them all, “Come for dinner”.

It was during the meal that, just as Lencho had predicted, big drops of rain began to fall. In the north-east huge mountains of clouds could be seen approaching. The air was fresh and sweet. The man went out for no other reason than to have the pleasure of feeling the rain on his body, and when he returned he exclaimed, ‘‘These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins. The big drops are ten cent pieces and the little ones are fives.’’ With a satisfied expression he regarded the field of ripe corn with its flowers, draped in a curtain of rain.

But suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large hailstones began to fall. These truly did resemble new silver coins. The boys, exposing themselves to the rain, ran out to collect the frozen pearls. ‘‘It’s really getting bad now,’’ exclaimed the man. “I hope it passes quickly.” It did not pass quickly. For an hour the hail rained on the house, the garden, the hillside, the cornfield, on the whole valley. The field was white, as if covered with salt. Not a leaf remained on the trees. The corn was totally destroyed. The flowers were gone from the plants. Lencho’s soul was filled with sadness. When the storm had passed, he stood in the middle of the field and said to his sons, “A plague of locusts would have left more than this. The hail has left nothing. This year we will have no corn.’’ That night was a sorrowful one. “All our work, for nothing.” ‘‘There’s no one who can help us.” “We’ll all go hungry this year.”

But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope: help from God. “Don’t be so upset, even though this seems like a total loss. Remember, no one dies of hunger.” “That’s what they say: no one dies of hunger.” All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience. Lencho was an ox of a man, working like an animal in the fields, but still he knew how to write.

The following Sunday, at daybreak, he began to write a letter which he himself would carry to town and place in the mail. It was nothing less than a letter to God. “God,” he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year. I need a hundred pesos in order to sow my field again and to live until the crop comes, because the hailstorm....” He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope, put the letter inside and, still troubled, went to town. At the post office, he placed a stamp on the letter and dropped it into the mailbox.



One of the employees, who was a postman and also helped at the post office, went to his boss laughing heartily and showed him the letter to God. Never in his career as a postman had he known that address. The postmaster — a fat, amiable fellow — also broke out laughing, but almost immediately he turned serious and, tapping the letter on his desk, commented, “What faith! I wish I had the faith of the man who wrote this letter. Starting up a correspondence with God!”

So, in order not to shake the writer’s faith in God, the postmaster came up with an idea: answer the letter. But when he opened it, it was evident that to answer it he needed something more than goodwill, ink and paper. But he stuck to his resolution: he asked for money from his employees, he himself gave part of his salary, and several friends of his were obliged to give something ‘for an act of charity’. It was impossible for him to gather together the hundred pesos, so he was able to send the farmer only a little more than half. He put the money in an envelope addressed to Lencho and with it a letter containing only a single word as a signature: God.

The following Sunday Lencho came a bit earlier than usual to ask if there was a letter for him. It was the postman himself who handed the letter to him while the postmaster, experiencing the contentment of a man who has performed a good deed, looked on from his office. Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his confidence — but he became angry when he counted the money. God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested. Immediately, Lencho went up to the window to ask for paper and ink. On the public writing-table, he started to write, with much wrinkling of his brow, caused by the effort he had to make to express his ideas. When he finished, he went to the window to buy a stamp which he licked and then affixed to the envelope with a blow of his fist.

The moment the letter fell into the mailbox the postmaster went to open it. It said: “God: Of the money that I asked for, only seventy pesos reached me. Send me the rest, since I need it very much. But don’t send it to me through the mail because the post office employees are a bunch of crooks. Lencho.”

Author: G L Fuentes

Lucy Gray

[We had this poem in class X. It literally teared my eyes whenever I read it. I am one of those believers who think Lucy Gray is still alive and she resides on that moor far away and her solitary song can be heard.]



Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray:
And, when I crossed the wild,
I chanced to see at break of day
The solitary child.

No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor,
--The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!

You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.

"To-night will be a stormy night--
You to the town must go;
And take a lantern, Child, to light
Your mother through the snow."

"That, Father! will I gladly do:
'Tis scarcely afternoon--
The minster-clock has just struck two,
And yonder is the moon!"

At this the Father raised his hook,
And snapped a faggot-band;
He plied his work;
--and Lucy tookThe lantern in her hand.

Not blither is the mountain roe:
With many a wanton stroke
Her feet disperse the powdery snow,
That rises up like smoke.

The storm came on before its time:
She wandered up and down;
And many a hill did Lucy climb:
But never reached the town.

The wretched parents all that night
Went shouting far and wide;
But there was neither sound nor sight
To serve them for a guide.

At day-break on a hill they stood
That overlooked the moor;
And thence they saw the bridge of wood,
A furlong from their door.

They wept--and, turning homeward, cried,
"In heaven we all shall meet;"
--When in the snow the mother spied
The print of Lucy's feet.

Then downwards from the steep hill's edge
They tracked the footmarks small;
And through the broken hawthorn hedge,
And by the long stone-wall;

And then an open field they crossed:
The marks were still the same;
They tracked them on, nor ever lost;
And to the bridge they came.

They followed from the snowy bank
Those footmarks, one by one,
Into the middle of the plank;
And further there were none!

--Yet some maintain that to this day
She is a living child;
That you may see sweet Lucy Gray
Upon the lonesome wild.

O'er rough and smooth she trips along,
And never looks behind;
And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind.

- William Wordsworth

What's in a name?

Sometimes I wonder why my father chose such a weird name 'Puttajunjaiah' for me when his own name is Krishna Murthy and that of brother's Karthiveera and mother Lalithamma which all sound good. As a child, it never mattered to me because I grew up in a village where the name was familiar to everyone. My name in the school register was ‘Junja’ till 5th std. My family deity is lord Junjappa (not sure reincarnation of which main God) and hence my father preferred this name for his younger child i.e. me(the victim). In 5th std, my father asked my head master to change my name to ‘Putta Junjaiah’, adding prefix and suffix to the original name. He even paid Rs.50 for the same(which I still remember). For me, it still did not matter since that name was used only during attendance calls. Friends and others still called me Junja. In the same year, I wrote Navodaya entrance exam and got through it as well. Navodaya is a boarding school run by the central govt.

I joined Navodaya the very next year. Here you find students from across the district. When I aired my name, they were all laughing. For the first time I felt there was something unusual about my name. Equally weird is my village name 'Yadaladaku'. I refrained from making it public. No one in my village knows the meaning of it. I have asked the oldest man in the village Sanjeevajja regarding this but to no avail.

In the class, every teacher pronounced my name in their own way. Hugar sir called me Putgunja. Nirmala madam called me Putnanja and Abhed Nago sir called me Puttanjaneya. Likewise, every teacher had their own versions of my name. It was embarrassing for me during attendance calls as the whole class would burst into laughter when my turn comes. I would almost feel like crying. For God sake, one teacher pronounced my name correctly. That was Vanajakshi madam, perhaps since she was a Kannada teacher.

When my father came to meet me on a sunday, the first question I pounced at him was, why did you choose such a funny name for me? I explained him how I was made fun of by other students. He consoled me saying it is a God’s name and shouldn’t feel bad. As the days rolled, people got used to my name. They preferred to call me Putta rather than the full name.

After 8th std, I moved to JNV Khiriya Devath in Madhya Pradesh. I knew, people over there cannot pronounce my name. I was mentally prepared. They pronounced it in numerous ways but I was least bothered. Most peculiar was that of the post man’s which I don’t remember but it was very funny. In 10th std, I had the option of changing my name as it would be the final throughout my life. Nishad sir asked me if I wanted to change my name, but I said no since I was emotionally attached to that name by then. Moreover, I thought that might hurt my parent’s feelings.

There were relatively few embarrassments in degree because if somebody asked my name I would say them I am Putta, which is quite a normal name and easy to pronounce. After my degree, it was the turn of job interviewers. Many interviewers have asked me this question: what’s the meaning of your name?

It did not stop there. I was working under a Chinese manager who would address me as ‘putha’. Once, while introducing ourselves to the client team, I introduced myself as Putta and immediately there was a question from Pete Moreno if my name was Pete or something else.. I had to clarify, my name is Putta and not Pete.

Of late, I have started looking for my life partner. A girl asked me if I can change my name to some fashionable one. But I politely rejected. Because, I have lived with it almost half of my life and would like to carry the same for the rest. I hope to make it more pronounceable like Vishveshwaraiah perhaps by achieving something noteworthy.

But then, there is an advantage that this name offers to me. People readily remember my name more easily than any other because it is unique. Try my name in google you’ll find only my information. Try yours, I am sure you’ll not find your info in the first 10 pages. My name along with my village name forms the strongest form of key in database terminology.

ಅಜ್ಜಿಯ ನೆನಪು

Coming soon...

Slum Boy

[ I have made an attempt to translate a story that appeared in Udayavani, a Kannada daily. Original author is Adeeb Akthar.]

Naga was preparing to sleep in a corner, reciting himself the list of tasks he has to do tomorrow and a day after as there was an holiday on account of Sankranthi festival. He is very studious and very much interested in studies. Unlike his other counterparts he would not play after the school hours. He would rather go out for rag picking with a dusty bag on his shoulders. Back home, he would study upto 10 pm in the night with the help of a kerosene lamp before going to sleep. He had slept for a while until his drunken mava (brother-in-law) Murthy came in shouting at his sister Radha and disturbed the sleeping baby on her lap which burst into cry.

Murthy was angry since Radha had given birth to a baby girl second time. She was warned before leaving his home for maternity that she shouldn't return with a girl child. He was howling he would crush the baby and even tried to snatch her from Radha's laps. Radha's parents resisted and assured him that they would take care of the new born baby. Naga felt happy hearing this. He was afraid his mava would kill her. He thought, he just have to work a little extra to take care of her and for Sankranthi he would get her a new pair of dress.

Next day, Murthy came to take back his wife. He left the new born baby in Naga's house itself. Naga was very happy and he took the baby in his arms and kissed her tender cheeks. He decided to name her 'Kareena'. Now his duties have increased. He has take care of his ailing mother, an unmarried sister Padma and of course Kareena.

On the day of Sankranthi, Naga woke up quite early than usual. It was dark yet. He scratched his head for a while and set out with his bag towards the main street. He said to himself that he should return with enough rag so he could buy a pair of dress for the kid. He found a pen on the way. He wrote 'Kareena' on his left hand to confirm it wrote well. His father had once told him that he might find some valuable things such as gold ring, a 100 rupee note etc. during rag picking. Naga aspired that should happen today. After reaching the main street, he ran for a while in the deserted street and took a sub street towards the new town.

Far away in that street, a white car came and stopped near a dustbin. A person came out of that car with something in his hand covered in white cloth. He hurriedly dumped that thing into the dustbin and drove away his car. This happened in a fraction of minute. Naga stood watching this from a distance.

He soon rushed towards the dustbin and jumped into it. To his surprise, he found a just born baby wrapped in a piece of cloth which was crying weakly. He took the baby in arms and said to himself, if he wasn't there in that minute, then this baby would have been eaten by street dogs. He thanked God for sending him so early to save that child. He ran towards his hut. Meanwhile he wanted to see what baby was that.. male or female. But he thought it wouldn't matter anyway. All it requires is, some more rag picking.

Laugh your Life :)

Woman's bathroom
A man has 6 items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of Dial soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 437. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

Boarding from what gate?
At the airport for a business trip, I settled down to wait for the boarding announcement at Gate 35. Then I heard the voice on the public address system saying, "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Delta Flight 570 will board from Gate 41."

So my family picked up our luggage and carried it over to Gate 41. Not ten minutes later the public address voice told us that Flight 570 would in fact be boarding from Gate 35.

So, again, we gathered our carry-on luggage and returned to the original gate. Just as we were settling down, the public address voice spoke again: "Thank you for participating in Delta's physical fitness program.

Little Johnny
Teacher: Why are you late, Johnny?
Johnny: Because of a sign down the road.
Teacher: What does a sign have to do with your being late?
Johnny: The sign said, "SCHOOL AHEAD. GO SLOW!"

Wife Wanted
A man inserted an advertisement in the classifieds "Wife Wanted".The next day, he received hundreds of replies, all reading the same thing: "You can have mine."

The way God operates
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

Great Writer!
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

Teacher about whales
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah". The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him"

Laboratory
You enter the laboratory and see an experiment. How will you know which class is it?
If it's green and wiggles, it's biology.
If it stinks, it's chemistry.
If it doesn't work, it's physics.

Mime
One day an out of work mime was visiting the zoo, where he attempted to earn some money as a street performer. Unfortunately, as soon as he started to draw a crowd, a zoo keeper grabbed him and dragged him into his office.

The zookeeper explained to the mime that the zoo’s most popular attraction, a gorilla named Sparky, had died suddenly and the keeper was worried that attendance at the zoo would fall off without him. The zookeeper offered the mime a job to dress up as Sparky until they could get a new gorilla. The mime accepted.

The next morning, the mime put on a gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd arrived. He discovered that it was a great job! He could sleep all he wanted, play and make fun of people and he was drawing bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime.

However, eventually the crowds tired of him, and he was getting bored just swinging on tires. He began to notice that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition, and dangled from the top over the lion’s cage. Of course, this made the lion furious, but the crowd loved it. At the end of the day the zoo keeper was thrilled, and even gave the mime a raise for being such a good attraction.

This went on for some time, the mime kept taunting the lion, the crowds grew larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day when he was dangling over the furious lion, he lost his grip and fell. The mime was terrified. The lion gathered itself and prepared to pounce. The mime was so scared that he began to run round and round the cage with the lion close behind. When no help came, and the crowd looked on in shock, the mime started screaming and yelling.

Help, Help me!" he screamed, but the lion was too quick and pounced. The mime found himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion, who was just inches away from his face when he whispered, "Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?

Computer industry vs Auto industry
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself):

"If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1) For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2) Every time they painted new lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
3) Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4) Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5) Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT". But then you would have to buy more seats.
6) Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
7) The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
8) New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9) The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10) Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
11) GM would also require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12) Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13) You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.

Birthday present
It was the kindergarten teachers birthday and the students decided that they would each buy their teacher a gift.

The first student, whose parents own a florist shop, gave her a present. She held it and said
- "I guess that it is flowers".
- "How did you guess?" asked the little boy. She laughed and thanked him.

The second student, whose parents own a candy store, gave her a present. She held it and said,
- "I guess that is some candy."
- "How did you guess?" asked the little boy. She again laughed and thanked him also.

The third student, whose parents own a bottle shop, gave her a box which was leaking. The teacher touched the liquid with her finger and tasted it.
- "Mmmmm is it wine?" she asked.
- "No," said the little girl.
So she tasted it again.
- "Is it champagne?" she asked.
- "Noooo," replied the little girl, "It’s a puppy."

Five tips for a woman....
1. It is important that a man helps you around the house and has a job.
2. It is important that a man makes you laugh.
3. It is important to find a man you can count on and doesn’t lie to you.
4. It is important that a man loves you and spoils you.
5. It is important that these four men don’t know each other.

A group of sincere students were tossing a coin to find out what is their next program. It was decided..
if the coin turns head everybody should go to bed,
if the coin turns tail they would go to second show cinema,
if the coin stands straight on the ground they would go for a walk,
if the coin stays in air they would sit and study!!

One day little Johnny was digging a hole in his back yard.The next-door neighbor spotted him and decided to investigate.
"Hello Johnny, what are you up to?" he asked.
"My goldfish died and I'm gonna bury him," Johnny replied.
"That's a really big hole for a goldfish, isn't it?" asked the neighbor.
"That's because he's inside your cat!"

"If you had a dollar," quizzed the teacher, "and you asked your father for another dollar and fifty cents, how much money would you have?
"One dollar." answered little Johnny "
You don't know your basic math." said the teacher shaking her head, disappointed.
Little Johnny shook his head too, "You don't know my daddy."

It took a minute to meet you, it took an hour to know you, it took a day to fall in love with you, but it will take a lifetime to forget you...

Old software engineers never die, they just logout.

[P.S. This list grows as and when I find real good ones :)]

Quotable Quotes

Do not take life too serious because it is silly.
- Putta

Drop the question what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that fate allows you.

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible.

If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

Good fences make good neighbors.

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

Life isn't worth living, unless it is lived for someone else.

Never argue with an idiot. They pull you down to their level, then beat you with experience.

Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

I tried changing the world. No, it did not happen, so I changed myself.
- Putta

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Childhood is that wonderful time of life when all you need to do to lose weight is take a bath.

Its better to keep mum than to open your mouth and clear all the doubts.

Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise.

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill

When a man steals your wife there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.

We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.

Love is like a war, easy to start, difficult to stop, and never to forget....

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.

I never knew what real happiness was until I got married, and by then it was too late.

Economy is the art of making the most of life.
- George Bernard Shaw

Children really brighten up a household - they never turn the lights off.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
- Albert Einstein

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
- Albert Einstein

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
- P. J. O'Rourke

If I am not looking good to you, then it is not my problem; I too have a problem, because you are no good either.
- Putta

Three women can keep a secret provided the other two are dead.

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour.

Contentment is the only real wealth.
- Alfred Nobel

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
- Mahatma Gandhi

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

P.S. This list keeps growing as and when I find a good one.

School Time

This picture caught my eyes while I was browsing through some blogs.
Do they remind you of your glorious school days? Perhaps not for all.. especially those who were not fortunate enough to study in a rural school.

Usually, primary schools are setup in almost all the villages but high schools are not. Rural folks will have to move to a smaller town nearby for further studies. There comes the necessity of a bicycle. It was a thrill riding to the school everyday with friends. Often, there would be a race and some used to hurt themselves in an effort to prove their strength. But I was playing it safe. I would rather give up after giving it a small try :)

Bhairappa, the owner of the papaya plantations was the man in deep trouble. He ought be present during the hours the student community crossed his farm, both morning as well as evening. Else, his papaya trees will be without papayas.

Little Pleasures!!

Think of these moments:

Some day you wake up early in the morning , have a bath and take a stroll on a mud road covered on either side by lush green paddy fields dancing to the tunes of a breeze. The sun is just then opening up in the east and the fog is making way for him. Birds are stepping out of their nests chirping and singing for their routine work. How do you feel? I'm sure you would feel 'Heaven on Earth' especially if you are accompanied by your wife/GF ;-).

You are fast asleep on a sunny afternoon and when you wake up you notice dark clouds covering the sky. It is about to rain but has not rained yet. And that is the first rain of the season. A cool breeze is blowing. A few drops from sky touching the ground spray an aroma that of mud. Minutes later, it rains cats and dogs. When the rain stops, you go with the crowd to watch the near-by stream/river to see how full it is.

You are in your hometown/village and you join with a gang of lilliputs and play Gilli danda/Goli/Lagori etc that you used to play as a kid. You receive punishments promptly, in case you loose(I'm sure you will) like frog jump,sit ups etc just like those lilliputs do. At the end of it you rush back to your home and sit for breakfast. Think how good it might taste since your damn hungry. The same breakfast would have tasted bitter if you had done nothing since morning.

You find an old suitcase at home and out of curiosity you open it and pull out things one by one. You find in it the text books that you had studied in your primary school, the notebooks in which you had written home work and some secret crush names in that last page... which only you can understand.... ;-) The joy that you get is boundless!

These are just a few illustrations of how God has kept Happiness in small things. But most people miss these little ones in their pursuit for Big pleasures. In my opinion, if you learn to enjoy the small pleasures of life then you dont have to chase bigger ones because when you add up all the little ones, they outweigh the Big. Afterall life is so short and you can't afford to waste it chasing the bigger ones. Happiness is the sole motive of every living creature. You work,beg,borrow,steal... just to achieve that. Its upon ourselves to be wiser in choosing between the two.

What do you say?

A journey through Vijayanagara Empire - ನಮ್ಮ ಹಂಪಿ ಪ್ರವಾಸ

It is my maiden attempt to write my travel experience. Hope it comes out well :)

It was one of my childhood dreams to visit the capital city of erstwhile Vijayanagara empire and particularly to see the Raja beedi where people of that time used to trade muthu-rathna,vajra-vaidoorya in seru (a measuring equipment .. equivalent to 1 kg) and imagine myself being in that era. That dream was transformed into a reality on Dec 23rd 2006.

I floated the idea of Hampi trip among some of my like minded friends through a series of emails to which most of them agreed but some took exceptions in the last minute. Finally we were 3 , Myself,Gopal and Prashanth Acharya popularly known as PAM. It was decided, all three of us would head from different directions(Bangalore,Mangalore and Pune) towards Hampi and all would converge at Hospet on 23rd morning.

The D-day arrived and Gopal and PAM had already reached Hospet on 23rd morning but unfortunately my bus got delayed by 3 hours. So I came at 12:30 noon. By then Gopal had already finished one round of nap. A quick decision was taken to see the Hampi that day itself skipping TB dam. We hired a car and started our trip. We were all very hungry and hence the driver was directed to take us to a good hotel. He stopped at KSTDC hotel and we ordered for lunch. The lunch was so meagre, we had to order an extra bowl of rice. But when the bill came to desk we were shocked! It was a KSTDC hotel after all.

We headed directly to the Raja beedi leading to Vittala Devalaya and just then my childhood dream turned into a reality. I could see the merchants selling diamonds and pearls in heaps on either side of the street. I imagined buying a seru of vajra for my wife ;-)..

Vittala gudi is full of stone buildings and this is where the world famous stone chariot is. By looking at the stone carvings we felt its useless if we just look at them, so we thought of hiring a guide. We enquired a guide about his fees. Ooops ... that was too much. Just then a foreigner troup had hired a guide who knew a bit of English. He was explaining in aruku-muruku Kinglish and Gopal was following them silently. We too then followed him. We came to know through him that each stone in that complex has a magnificient story to tell. I was just stunned by the music those stones make. Each stone makes a different sound that matches with one of the musical instrument. Hats off to Sri Krishna Devaraya. I wish I was in that era if not as a soldier, at least as a guard ;-)

We then moved to the river and enjoyed local boat ride. Then comes the interesting part ie Queens Bath. We were puzzled why would the queen require such a big swimming pool. I convinced myself, may be Krishna Devaraya had many wives. Water supply to this pool comes through a stone pipeline! From here we moved to Mahanavami Dibba. This is a high place where the Raja used to witness the games and kasarathus during Dasara festivities. You can see many ruined underground constructions but there is no one to tell you what they were. You can assume anything you would like.

Our next move was to Lotus Mahal. History says music concerts used to be held in this building which resembles Kamala hoovu. Also it is naturally air conditioned! Very near to this is a row of gopuras which used to be dwelling places for elephants. They were interesting to watch.

Finally, we reached Virupaksha devalaya which is the epicenter of the Hampi town. On the way we had stopped at monolith Laksmi Narasimha and sasive kaalu Ganesha and Kadlekaalu Ganesha. We could not watch the latter as the sun had already set and Ganesha seemed to be sleeping with lights off. Virupaksha was the family deity of Sri Krishna Devaraya. This is the only temple in Hampi where there is an idol and poojas are being offered. Otherwise all the other temples were empty without God. All of us were atheists and hence were not interested in offering poojas. We just saw the temple and returned back.

It was around 7:30 pm and Gopal was crazy about Mango tree restuarant which he had heard from Naidu that it was famous for lassis. And we drove towards Mango tree ... We stopped at some place and a boy with a lantern came to pick us up. We just followed him. he took us through the banana tree plantations and that was exciting. We reached Mango tree restuarant after walking a short distance. Wow ... fantastic !! Its very different from other restuarants as it was spread around a huge mango tree facing the river with a Uyyale hanging in the middle. The ambience was awesome and we were all greatly impressed. We ordered for lassis,pakodas and special meals. In that kind of ambience anything would taste great. But we regret we should have visited that in the daytime. Myself and Gopal enjoyed the swing after the meal but PAM hesitated as he feared he might be thrown out into the river ;-)

We returned back to Malligi Hotel at around 9 PM. I had decided i would go for a Kannada movie, so asked other's opinion. PAM denied saying he is tired. Gopal agreed instantly and we both went to Ravichandran's "NeelaKantha" in a near by theatre. Needless to say Ravichandran will definitely pay back your ticket money in the first one or two scenes itself, howsoever the story may be ;-) I enjoyed the movie, donno about Gopal. We came back from movie and had a sound sleep. So curtains down for Day 1.

Next morning, we woke up fresh with a new bout of energy and got ready by 9 am where in we had to check out the Hotel. We checked out and kept luggage there itself and went to TB dam. We enjoyed the scenic beauty of the dam and the water and the park. Meanwhile somebody(PAM or Gopal) suggested Chitradurga as our next stop for visit and I just wanted that. I put forth a suggestion to visit Chitradurga instead of Badami,Aihole,Pattadakal and Bijapur. I had come from north and did not want to go backwards. My idea worked and they both agreed for Chitradurga.

So , we boarded a Bangalore bus and reached Chitraduraga at around 5:30 pm. Without wasting any time we rushed to the spot ie the fort and tried to cover as much as possible before dusk. We saw the Obavvana kindi and Gopal even came out of it like a Hyder Ali sainika. Thank God.. there was no Obavva with onake :) Gopal survived. We appreciated Obavva for her braveness and at the same time felt ashamed of ourselves...;-)

We again took a Bangalore bus and I got down at my home town Sira on the way to Bangalore and bid them good bye. That marked the end of our two day trip and we enjoyed it a whole lot.

Your comments are welcome!