You’ve heard me complaining, pointing my fingers at the roadblocks, diversions, traffic, corruption, politicians... (Well, not all of them, I agree...). But know what, I am officially licensed to do those now. How, you ask? Look at my finger in the photo, I voted!
After all the Jaago re campaign and the great list of candidates, I would say I was motivated. Moreover, there were some campaigners who had given out my electoral details like the polling booth number and serial number and stuff like that, which helped me avoid the long queues of searching for names in the finalised list.
I was through with the enthusiasm of writing this post and almost saw it through. But seeing at the voter turnout, I was shocked. My constituency, Bangalore South had a voter turnout of just over 44%. Well, I was balled over the indifference that the voters managed to show. I agree there were a certain number of voters whose names went out missing in the final list, but a 56% no show is a real shame. Constituency like mine had such credible candidates and we fail to vote, it’s a disgrace. Ananth Kumar, Krishna Byregowda, Prof. Radhakrishna, Capt. Gopinath, Vatal Nagaraj are a few names and I bet any elected MP could be seen or heard in the Parliament.
So all those who feel ‘I love democracy but hate voting to the politicians’, stop complaining. You don’t have the right. The right now rests with the able and responsible citizens like me.
April 24th. What bells does that date ring in your head? You think of Sachin’s b’day? Move on from Sachin, I’m talking about the phenomenal, Dr. Raj Kumar. He would have been 80 yesterday.
Talk about Raj Kumar to some of your elders. Not one would ever stop praising about this legend. At my home at least, I hear the movies in which all of them sat together and cried at some point of time in the movie at his plight, his movies they went to see in the ‘tents’ evading their strict parents, the effort that they took to amass the money for the tickets. The story goes on...
Every time the topic arises, the amount of respect for this idol goes on increasing. When you hear not some, but all of them sharing the same standpoint, you can’t even think of questioning the amount of regard they have on him. And why not? After hearing so much and watching so many of his movies, there isn’t a shred of exaggeration if I say he’s the best in the business, the country has ever witnessed. The sheer screen presence, the roles he has donned, the social message his movies give out, the songs, impeccable acting skills, the storyline in his movies... I can keep going.
Being an extended holiday till Monday, I was thrilled that I would get to watch a lot of his movies that TV channels would air as a tribute – only to be disappointed. Only Chandana aired “Bhakta Kumbara” that day. The coloured version of “Satya Harishchandra” was today. A couple of movies I watched were “Aakasmika” and “Sanadi Appanna” – a movie I’ve watched the most number of times. Talking about Sanadi Appanna, the great Shehnai player, Bismilla Khan who contributed to the movie’s soundtrack, was deeply moved by Raj Kumar’s acting and commented that he felt Raj Kumar himself was playing the Shehnai in the movie. This was just an instance of how his acting was so close to real life. My salutes to a great man – personally and on screen.
April has always been a great time of the year. What better way to start the month, celebrating the fool’s day. Coming to the more fun part, the holidays. The month on a calendar, in which you can find the most ‘red’ coloured dates is April. And how we spend these days is what best we do – go places (I mean, literally!) After a lot of ‘planning and scrapping’ of plans, we finally rounded up Hogenakkal to be our destination. If planning was difficult, getting together the guys for the trip was close to impossible. The reason others gave us for not coming along would have been another post in my blog! Amidst all the uncertainties, 9 of us were all set for what would be one ripper of a trip.
It was a great day, I thought, as I stepped out of my apartment – I was ready, before the sun was ready to rise (I love writing that sentence...). You’ve ever been on any trip without hassles? I’ve not, certainly, and this was no exception. The taxi, which was supposed to come at 6, came at 9. It came, fortunately! We started, at 9 in front of the temple of our college (yet again). Philosophers say, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Our journey was no less interesting. With Darshan’s songs playing out loud in the stereo, our talks became more interesting. The talks ranged from politics, chicks, gadgets, movies, college fests, MTV roadies and, believe it or not, our future!
By the time we reached Hogenakkal, it was 1PM. With no further holdups, booked two boats (what we call, teppa). Probably, this was the only time I would love to see that there was less water in Kaveri. Being aquaphobic, I would have hated to see a lot of water (especially when you have friends who think a guy less would mean more room in the cab). With the river no deeper than the necks, it was a Shangri-La to play. Splashing water, trying to swim and being carried away in the current, running against the current – we had an awesome time. We also tried our hands in rowing the boats (hoping for a part time job in this recession!). The next part was the most boring part. 3 of the 9 guys were veggies. The other 6 relished on the freshly caught and fried fished. We had to live on some biscuits and cool drinks. Refreshed with the rest, we were ready to hit the road again – now back home.
Facts that may help (or not!): first of all, sorry folks, this time around, I am not the one with the exact details. There are 2 routes to get to Hogenakkal. One comes to around 190Kms from B‘lore and the other nearly 160Kms. The boat ride costs depending on the type of ride. My suggestion would be a longer ride, which would include the time you would spend playing in the water. It would cost you around 150 bucks if you are a pretty good bargainer. And another thing, Kannada works out just fine even in this part of Tamil Nadu (if at all it is).
And, by the bye, the photo I've used here is, in fact not what we clicked. The photos we clicked are here...
