Star Of Mysore has an editorial today on court judgments being written in Kannada. The editorial questions  P. D. Dinakaran’s (the new Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court) call to lower court judges to write judgments in Kannada. Let me quote two paragraphs in particular.

It has been made out that if judgements are written in Kannada, the petitioners will clearly understand the ruling. That is a bit hard to concede because Kannada in use in the State has distinct variations. Influence of Malayalam and Tulu in Dakshina Kannada district, that of Marathi in Uttara Kannada district, Urdu in Hyderabad-Karnataka region, and lastly, Telugu and Tamil in districts bordering Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu can yield court rulings not 100 per cent intelligible to petitioners.

Higher courts in which judgements of lower courts are questioned will have to wrestle with the aforementioned variants of Kannada even if translated into English for the benefit of Higher Court Judges who do not know Kannada.

Now this line of argument is nonsense. Variations in Kannada aren’t so radical as to prevent a Kannadiga from Bellari understand the judgment given in Kodagu. Kannada has been used for writing for over 1600 years and it has functioned quite well if only because written language is always by and large shared by all Kannada speakers. And then to suggest that English is without variants and perfectly transparent to everybody is idiotic.

Finally, why is this question of translation such a big issue? At any given point of time, there are less than thirty non-Kannada speaking High Court judges. Give each one a personal translator and the problem is solved.

The most-written, over-hyped, over-NBCed (rest of the world is lucky that it is not subjected to NBC’s ghastly coverage of Olympics) Olympic hero Michael Phelps (and his coach, Bob Bowman) nevertheless must have this feeling of true satisfaction. Everything they had planned, hoped and aspired for worked out. Beyond all the money and fame, ultimately, that’s the goal and for a coach and athlete, there is no greater feeling than a job done well.

Usain ‘the lightning’ Bolt was just fantastic.

Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, is an idiot.

ಗಿರೀಶ ಕಾಸರವಳ್ಳಿಯವರ ಗುಲಾಬಿ ಟಾಕೀಸ್ ಅವರ ಉಳಿದೆಲ್ಲ ಸಿನಿಮಾಗಳಿಗಿಂತ ಭಿನ್ನವಾದುದು. ಈ ಭಿನ್ನತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಕಾಣಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಚಿತ್ರ ಕಥನದ ಹೆಣಿಗೆ ಮತ್ತು ವಿನ್ಯಾಸದಲ್ಲಿ. ಒಂದು ಸಿನಿಮಾವನ್ನು ನಾವು ನೋಡುವಾಗ ಮುಂದೇನಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬುದೇ ನಮಗೆ ಮುಖ್ಯವಾದರೆ ನಾವು ನೋಡುವ ಬಗೆ ಬೇರೆ. ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಮುಂದೇನಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬುದು ಅಮುಖ್ಯವಾದರೆ ನಾವು ನೋಡುವ ಬಗೆ ಬೇರೆ. ಸಸ್ಪನ್ಸೇ ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟರೆ, ನಾಟಕೀಯತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಸಿನಿಮಾ ತನ್ನ ಶಿಖರ ಸ್ಥಿತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಚೂಪಾಗುವ ಚುರುಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪಿರಾಮಿಡ್ನಂತೆ ಮೇಲೇರುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಸಿನಿಮಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಂದೇನು ಎನ್ನುವುದು ಅಷ್ಟು ಮುಖ್ಯವಲ್ಲ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಹೆಣಿಗೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಅದ್ಭುತವಾದ ಅಲ್ಲಲ್ಲೇ ಸಲ್ಲುವ ಸಾಂಧ್ರತೆ ಇದೆ. ಸಿನಿಮಾದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಕಾಣುವುದೆಲ್ಲ ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಇಳಿದು ಕಾಡುತ್ತವೆ. ವೈಚಾರಿಕವಾಗಿಯಲ್ಲ; ಅನ್ಯೋಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು (ಅಲಿಗರಿಯನ್ನು) ನಾವು ಬಗೆಯುವ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಲ್ಲ; ಬದಲಿಗೆ ಕಂಡದ್ದನ್ನೇ ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಇಣುಕುವ ಒಳಾರ್ಥಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಳೆಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲೆಂದು, ಕಂಡದ್ದರಲ್ಲಿ ತಂಗುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡುವ ಧ್ಯಾನಶೀಲ ಮನಸ್ಥಿತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ.  read more »

India is a civilisation and not a Nation in the sense Europe evolved the notion of nation states after the collapse of Papal power. Both Tagore and Gandhi had realised this during the struggle for freedom in India. In his Hind Swaraj Gandhi thought that 'modern western civilization' was evil and our struggle for freeing ourselves from British rule should be a struggle to free even Britain from its bondage to the notions of modern civilisation. After what we have seen of the failure of the Soviet Union and the avaricious culture of modern China, and the globalising India we have come to realise that concentration of power in any form is evil, and we need not reject wholesale the great ideas of anarchist thinking that is seen in visionary thinkers like Tolstoy and Gandhi. They believed in self regulating small communities, largely rural communities in the case of Gandhi, for human kind to be creative and live in harmony with Nature.  read more »

Visited Kokkare Bellur again, 15 months after my first visit. There were not many birds this time. Painted Storks were around 20-25 in number.

Pelicans were very less in number. I counted 7 or 8 pelicans. I tried to get a decent shot of these big birds, but in vain. That pelican was hiding behind the tree branches as if its being guilty of something :P

Few of the sun-bathing Storks posed for the camera without hesitation.

And so was this squatting one

Bellur, became famous & got the prefix 'Kokkare' (Storks) because of these beautiful birds & is home for hundreds of storks & pelicans. The village is on the banks of river Shimsha, which flows on to join river Kaveri.

We thought of going on a coracle/boat ride & headed toward the river. Being summer the water was less & had to return back without luck.

Doe (Do), a deer, a female deer
Ray (Re), a drop of golden Sun
Me (Me), a name I call myself
Far (Fa), a long long way to run !

I am sure most of you recognize this song from the classic movie – “The Sound of Music”. The song tells about the seven musical notes used in western classical music – do re mi fa so la ti do.  Here, in this gentle introduction to Indian classical music (ICM) I am going to tell you about another set of 7 notes, sa ri ga ma pa da ni –the very same notes as they are known in India.

Indian musical traditions date back to several thousands of years. Around the 13th -14th century AD, it started splitting into two streams. Both these systems are in vogue today. The basics of the two systems are the same, but there are differences in style and presentation. The system prevalent in most of the northern India is called by the name Hindustani, or uttarAdi (northern music). This had an influence from Persian music during middle ages. The music in the south retained more of original elements of Indian music, is called Karnataka or dakshinAdi sangeeta (literally, southern music).

I will compare and contrast Indian music classical with western classical music to make this an easy learning experience. Just keep in mind that whenever I refer to western music or Indian music, they refer to the classical variety.

Let me first tell about the similarity. Both western and Indian music are based on an octave with 7 notes and 12 semi-tonal intervals. A note is called svara in Indian music. The 7 notes are shadja, rishabha, gandhara, madhyama, panchama dhaivata and nishada. Don’t worry about the complicated sounding names - These are always represented by the solfa syllables -sa ri ga ma pa da ni while singing.

There are some key differences that can make Indian music almost alien sounding to an ear trained to listen to western classical music. The first difference is that the notes in Indian music are seldom played or rendered plain at their nominal position. The notes generally descend from a higher note or glide from a lower note or oscillate around the nominal value. This is called gamaka , and this technique of singing a note is employef commonly in Indian music.

The second difference is the floating key used in Indian music. The compositions in western music are set in and are always performed at a certain key. There is no such hard and fast rule in Indian music. A performer uses a pitch in which he or his instrument sound best. This is normally set by the sound of a drone, called the shruti. In a performance, all the singers and the instruments set their pitch to the shruti set by the main performer.

Coming to the next difference, harmonic elements are almost absent in Indian music, while western classical music has abundant harmony. In western classical, you will find combination of notes that sound nice when played together form chords. You may also find different instruments, or vocals singing a different note blending very harmoniously. On the other hand, Indian music most of the time does not use of playing or singing different notes at the same time. Indian music a melodic system, where compositions are set in different melodies, called raagas. The term rAga actually means color, and indeed is a true representative of Indian music. There are hundreds of raagas which have individuality by the notes they use, the sequence of notes, and also the gamaka or the variations on the notes in the raaga, and the mood they create.

Last, but not the least is the importance of improvisation. In a western music scenario, most of the pieces you would get to listen in a performance are pre-composed. The performers may also have the notation in front of them when they sing or play. On the other hand, in an Indian music concert, there is heavy emphasis on improvisation and elaboration. There are compositions, but the artist would augment it with his own imagination and explore the contours of the raaga he is performing.

There is a saying: “Shrutih mAtA, layah pitA” - Being in tune(key), and keeping a good rhythm are like parents to have good music. There is a well defined rhythmic system in Indian music. It can be as simple as keeping the rhythm by hand or use a plethora of rhythmic instruments.

To conclude here are the key take-away points. Indian musical system is based on the same 7 notes and 12 semitones as the western music. However, absence of harmony, increased use of melody, the glides on the musical notes and the emphasis on improvisation make it distinct.

-neelanjana

p.s: This is a speech I gave at my Toastmasters Club

The Bahubali statue is on the peak of a hill. It was erected by the king Verapandya in 1432 AD.

From the hill, one can view the lake Ramasamudra surrounded by greenery.

As I was reading a subhAshita toady, I was stuck by the resemblance between that verse and a vacana of Akka Mahadevi, a Kannada poet-saint from 12th century.

Here is the subhAshita I am referring to:

छिन्नोपि चंदनतरुः न जहाति गंधं
वृद्धोपि वापणपतिः न जहाति लाभं ।
यंत्रार्पितो मधुरतां न जहाति चेक्षुः
क्षीणोपि न त्यजति शीलगुणान् कुलीनः ॥

ಛಿನ್ನೋಪಿ ಚಂದನತರುಃ ನ ಜಹಾತಿ ಗಂಧಂ
ವೃದ್ಧೋಪಿ ವಾಪಣಪತಿಃ ನ ಜಹಾತಿ ಲಾಭಂ |
ಯಂತ್ರಾರ್ಪಿತೋ ಮಧುರತಾಂ ನ ಜಹಾತಿ ಚೇಕ್ಷುಃ
ಕ್ಷೀಣೋಪಿ ನ ತ್ಯಜತಿ ಶೀಲಗುಣಾನ್ ಕುಲೀನಃ ||

The Subhashita tells that how noble men (or women) do not drift away from their good nature even when they are facing bad times. I just could not stop using two lines from AkkamahAdEvi’s vachana “chandanava kaDidu koredu tEdoDe” (ಚಂದನವ ಕಡಿದು ಕೊರೆದು ತೇದೊಡೆ) to bring this subhAshita into KannaDa, for they make such a perfect match!

ಚಂದನವ ಕಡಿದು ಕೊರೆದು ತೇದೊಡೆ
ನೊಂದೆನೆಂದು ಕಂಪ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿತ್ತೇ?
ಕುಂದಿದಾ ದೇಹದ ಮುದಿವ್ಯಾಪಾರಿಯೂ
ಹಿಂದಾಗಬಿಟ್ಟಾನೆ ಗಳಿಕೆಯನ್ನು?
ಸಂದು ಸಂದು ಕಡಿದ ಕಬ್ಬನು
ತಂದು ಗಾಣದಲಿಕ್ಕಿ ಅರೆದೊಡೆ
ನೊಂದೆನೆಂದದು ತಾ ಸವಿಯ ಬಿಟ್ಟೀತೇ?
ನೊಂದರೂ ಕುಂದಿದರೂ ಶೀಲಗುಣಗಳನು
ಒಂದೇ ಮನದಿ ಕಾಯುವರು ಅಗ್ಗಳರು!

(ಮಹಾದೇವಿಯಕ್ಕನ ಎರಡು ಸಾಲುಗಳನ್ನು ಸಾಲ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡಿರುವೆ - ಅಂತ ಸೊಗಸಾದ ಸಾಲುಗಳನ್ನು ಬಿಡಲು ಮನಸಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ - ಆ ವಚನ ಚಂದನವ ಕಡಿದು ಕೊರೆದು ತೇದೊಡೆ ಎಂದೇ ಆರಂಭವಾಗುತ್ತೆ )

-ನೀಲಾಂಜನ

If, as SOM reported yesterday, Mysore Deputy Commissioner Manivannan comes through on his promise of separate bicycle lanes in city roads, that would be splendid.

It is important to encourage bicycle riding in a city like Mysore, which is still manageable and where people can get around on bicycles. I do not know whether Manivannan’s move will result in anything concrete but I commend any bureaucrat who took a moment to notice the traffic on our roads and especially, the plight of bicycle riders.

Manivannan himself promises to ride a bicycle as from November 1st as long as he is posted in Mysore and use his official car only when necessary. Good for him.

"Come saar, I'll take you to the other side of the river. It's safe to play in water & take bath" called the boatman, while we were looking for some place on the crowded bank of river Kapila. Though it was 3.30PM the place was crowded, few devotees & many other trying to beat the summer heat. We decided to cross the river on the coracle to avoid the crowd & it was worth the decision. While my friends were enjoying playing in the water, I sat on the sand repenting for not bringing an extra set of clothes.

We started from Bangalore a bit late at 11AM as drive was completely unplanned. We had no particular destination for the day as our idea was to spend a day with friends. We were in no hurry & took our own time to cover the distance from Bangalore to Mysore. After the lunch break at Maddur, we decided to visit Nanjanagudu. We reached the place by 3.30. Another hour spent in playing in the river Kapila. And then we paid a visit to Srikanteshwara temple (temple of Lord Shiva).

Nanjangud is a temple town and is on the banks of the river Kapila (a.k.a Kabini). The place is 23 km from Mysore & around 160KMs from Bangalore. The temple of Lord Srikanteswara was built by the Gangas in 9th century. Nanjanagudu is also famous for 'rasabaaLe', a variety of banana & at one point of time (during late 80s) the place was also famous for the 'Nanjanagudu tooth powder'.

By the time we started back from Nanjanagudu, our stomachs started grumbling which reminded us of the food which one of us had packed from home. We found a peaceful place - an old temple in the middle of paddy fields. We finished the food & spent some more time watching the Sun going down. And then we headed back home.

Thought coracle ride was of short duration, it was fun sailing on the smoothly flowing river. It was as if sitting in a cradle. How I wished for a coracle ride all the way back to Bangalore from Nanjanagudu :)

The other day, while working with some shell scripts I thought I could add some better usability into the mix - and hence whip up some dialogs using zenity (gdialog’s new avatar). And while at it, I had an enjoyable 20 minutes with good old unix concepts. Here:

I needed to figure out how to use zenity, the man pages didn’t tell much. So I went on a hunt for other scripts in the system that might use zenity; I was on Debian Etch system running the usual Gnome Desktop and quite a few applications from the Gnome bunch.

shashi@anacoluthon:~$ for p in `echo $PATH|sed 's/:/ /g'`; do find $p -type f|xargs grep -il zenity; done
/usr/bin/zenity
/usr/bin/gdialog

Eh! Only two programs and that too zenity itself and a wrapper over zenity for backward compliance. It’s not much popular is it ? If it isn’t why don’t I remove it from my system ?

$ su -c 'apt-get remove zenity'
Password:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gnome-desktop-environment zenity

uh! oh!! gnome-desktop-environment!!!??? WTF ? So, what dependencies does this package have ?

shashi@anacoluthon:~$ apt-cache rdepends zenity
zenity
Reverse Depends:
|ssft
gnuvd-gnome
|peercast-handlers
|eclipse-platform
eclipse-platform
eclipse
gnomemeeting
powersaved
gdm
gnome-desktop-environment

heh! heh!! So much for a core dependency. Should it be such a core dependency in the first place ?? Anyway it has it’s own place in the software trove.

An interesting tidbit about zenity. This was the first program I translated to Kannada way back in 2002-2003. But it never made it to the repository.

BTW, another interesting program: PySchoolClock

In an interview with the Portfolio magazine, Nassim Nicholas Taleb says

Do you realize that we don’t understand globalization? Globalization increases Extremistan. That’s one problem with this Tom Friedman guy—he [the bestselling author of The World Is Flat, which argues the advantages of globalization in the internet age] didn’t seem to understand the very simple dynamics that globalization forces redundancy out of the system. And whenever you don’t have redundancy, you have Extremistan. Things are way too efficient, so the smallest mistake blows up. We depend so much on the internet. Tomorrow, if there’s a problem in Bangalore, we’re toast for a long time, you see?

I’m on a committee at the Pentagon, [the Highland Forum, a study group on risk] and one of the founders of the internet is on it and all these people understand that we need more redundancy in the system to avoid a second crisis that may come from the internet, because we don’t understand it.

And to think of it, the Internet was founded to provide redundancy in case of an emergency.

Life’s awesome

I pitied the forest guard when he asked for a newspaper of the day while we started to return back from Lakya Dam. It is a tough life for him in this heavy rain with no other means of entertainment.

It was a day of heavy rains and mist. I was behind the steering and the drive was fantastic. Never before I had an experience of driving in the ghats during rains.

Kadambi falls is seen from the road itself. It is great to see how rains change the way the falls look.

We were at the gates of Hanuman Gundi falls at 4:30PM. The forest guards were getting ready to close the gates and leave. They had to go to SK border and catch a bus to their village. We offered them to drop them at SK border it they allow us to see the falls for which they happily agreed. One must appreciate Forest Department for the way they are maintaining this falls. They charge an entry fee of Rs 20/- per head but have constructed nice concrete steps to the base of the falls and also railing to hold near the falls.

The falls was in full flow and with rains lashing heavily, it was a tough task to even take the camera out and click a snap. What a place!!

After dropping forest guards at SK border, we continued our journey towards Karkala. On the way, somewhere in the middle of the ghat, there was an accident between a car and lorry. The car had rammed into a lorry. The car was completely damaged but luckily there were no deaths. Since we had some space in our vehicle, we took two of the injured to Karkala and admitted them to a hospital there. It was then hunt for the place to stay. Locals referred to Hotel Prakash, and we promptly checked-into the hotel.

What an eventful day it was!!!!

To be continued…