Deepa's Jottings

Everyone identifies…

Not everyone is capable of starting a revolution, but sometimes, when one person stands up for a cause, many others identify with him.One of the moving scenarios about the slave, Sparatacus,occurs  in the movie of the same name ....when  the Roman masters come looking for him and ask, "Who is Spartacus?" so that they may punish  him, each man in the hordes of slaves stands up, saying, "I am Spartacus!"..identifying with the rebel, and confusing the Romans utterly.The same sense of identifying with someone has occurred recently, all over India....  I hope we continue to identify with Anna Hazare in…

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Happy Janmashtami!

There seems to be a little confusion as to which day JanmAshtami (the eight day of the lunar calendar, which, in this month, marks the birthday of Krishna) falls. Yesterday at my friend's home, I was told it was yesterday. Today, when I visited my friends Hema and Ganu, she had just lit the lamp and made the little "foot marks" of the baby Krishna: So I offered geetAnjali...I sat and sang "sri krishNam bhaja mAnasa sathatham" in Todi, a majestic kriti, and then "maNi nUpura dhAri" by OotthukkAdu in nIlAmbari...and she lit the karpoora Arathi: Outside her front door,her maid had…

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Here's a snake catcher in Bangalore city...well-documented and written about by Nishant Ratnakar, in his blog. Read about Shivappa click here for the post. Nishant adds, "He goes by the name 'Snake Shivappa'. If ever you need someone to rescue snakes in any corner of the city, then get in touch with him." As Nishant records, His real name: Devaraj K S His occupation: Snake Rescuer His mobile no. 99808 55720 Area of operations: Any corner of Bangalore City! So, if you see a snake, do not kill it, or allow it to be killed; please call Snake Shivappa. Readers…

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Blood Donation Camp

The following two blood donation camps will take place at Bangalore this weekend: 1. On Sun 14th Aug 2011 between 11.00am and 1.00pm at Jerusalem Mar Thoma Church, Hebbal Kempapura.( Behind Esteem Mall after Hebbal Flyover en route to new Airport.) To turn right to entrance, one has to go upto Kodigehalli Cross and take U turn and come back to Esteem Mall and take left. 2. On Mon 15th Aug 2011(Independence Day) at Shiridi Sai Cultural Centre, 2, Syndicate Bank Colony, opp Kamakshipalya Police Station, Basaweshwaranagar Post from 10.00am to 1.00pm. Those staying in and around those areas and…

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Hailing from a State where politicians are often figures associated with writing, folk theatre and entertainment (Tamil Nadu), I was intrigued to see rafiki, the Bangalore theatre group, advertise their production of “The Memorandum”, a play by Vaclav Havel, the first President of the Czech Republic. The translation was by Vera Blackwell. Here’s the information I got on the net about the play: “The Memorandum is one of Havel’s best known and most popular plays. Inspired by the absurdities of life in Eastern Europe under Communism, Havel began writing the satirical play as early as 1960. Rewritten many times over…

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Explore the dark caves, enjoy the art of rock climbing & experience the misty morning camp at Jogimatti Peak. Nisarga is conducting this adventure packed camp with loads of activities & an amazing camping program during the long weekend on 13, 14 & 15th of Aug 2011. “Jogimatti” is one of the highest peaks at a height of 1323m above the sea level & surrounded by the reserved forest with huge rocks all around. The activities conducted during the program are Trekking, Rock Climbing, Rappelling, Cave Exploration, Water Sports etc. For more details please Click here -- Karthik G.K. Wildlife…

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An old house…

I went to attend a wildlife photography workshop by Rathika Ramaswamy, for Pixetra...but that's not what this post is about. As I walked to the venue, I saw this old house... I mused on when the house was built, how proud the owner (Mr Vaz) must have been to see this bungalow coming up in the beautiful city of Bangalore....here, you can see his name in the gate-post, and the name of the present owner... I can say, "It Vas a very nice house once!" Today, the house is taken over by weeds, and in the grip of Strangler Figs:…

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I went to the Southern Railways site to book a ticket and got this message: " E-ticketing facility has been temporarily stopped. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.". Why are we at the mercy of a monopolistic service who are so customer-unfriendly? Not a word of explanation....or any information about when the service will be restored. Why do we get such shoddy service from our Government departments?⊕

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A few months ago, all cooking gas agencies made their customers submit documents asking for the RR no. (the consumer no for the electricity connection). This was a bid to weed out the bogus customers. Recently, consumers were asked to check the status of our cooking gas connections online. Presumably, if the online status was "OK", there would be no problem in ordering a gas cylinder. But this is not always so. Unless a person from the gas agency had come over home and verified the consumer's gas connection physically after s/he submitted the documents, her/his consumer no. will be…

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