Live your life, take chances, be crazy.

Don’t wait because right now is the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will ever be.

(Forwarded)

Kittur Fort (Ekaant, Epic Channel, 27 January, 2015)

This episode was about the fort of Kittur (Karnataka) and the Queen whose name is forever linked to this fort – Raani Chennamma.

This fort was constructed somewhere in the 16th century by the Desai dynasty and converted into their kingdom’s capital. The story of Chennamma’s marriage with the Kittur King Malasaraja can be an inspiration for a Hindi movie. She was very proficient in horse-riding and archery. One day she had been to a forest and the King was there as well. Their arrows happened to hit the same lion but Chennamma insisted that the lion died from her arrow. The King was impressed with this feisty lass and she became his second wife. This kingdom was so rich that by the turn of the 17th century they had about 15 Lacs Rupees cash along with other precious stones and ornaments in the state coffers.

Needless to say, other kingdoms were looking for a chance to lay their hands on this fabulous wealth - the Peshwas being one of them. They imprisoned the Kittur King but his health deteriorated in captivity. Fearing a backlash from the general populace of Kittur if anything happened to the King, the Peshwas released him. But he died on his way back to Kittur. His first wife Rudramma dedicated herself to religious activities after this. And Chennamma declared the firstborn of the King and Rudramma as the new King. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a weak ruler and died young. Now the reins of the Kingdom were in Chennamma’s hands and she ruled well.

But the British had their eyes on this tiny kingdom. In 1824 the Dharwad collector of British East India Company attacked Kittur. Queen Chennamma didn’t allow him to set foot in the fort and the British were mightily defeated.

Unfortunately, they did not take this defeat well. Chennamma must have realized that another battle was inevitable. Hence she had started the settlement process with the Governor of Mumbai – on the condition that her adopted son’s rights would be recognized and protected. She had also offered to release the British war-prisoners of the 1st war. The governor got his men released and then with the help of battalions that were brought from Mumbai and Mysore attacked Kittur in 1829. They did this under the pretext that the kingdom didn’t have a legal heir because their true motive of attack – to get their hands on the royal wealth – would have alarmed other Indian kingdoms. Chennamma had been preparing for war. And she would have won as well had it not been for the age-old curse of treachery that plagues this land. The traitors mixed cow dung in the ammunition and Kuttur was defeated. The Queen and her adopted son were imprisoned in a nearby fort.

Despite the defeat the people of Kittur were far from accepting the British rule. A common man by the name of Sangoli Rayanna made life hell for the British with his constant surprise attacks. However, he too was caught with the help of traitors. The British hanged him in the village of Nandgad.

Kittur’s struggle for freedom ended with Sangoli Rayanna’s death. The British left in 1947. But the fort that had defeated the British suffered abandonment and neglect at the hands of its own countrymen. Though much of it is still standing, the ASI has put up boards to indicate what purpose certain places served during the years gone by because their present condition is a far cry from their yesteryear’s glory.

I wish we common people could do more to preserve our heritage. :(

Dariba Diaries, Adrushya – 26th January Episodes

Lately, I seem to have got hooked on to this channel. The programs that are aired are very different than the stuff dished out on rest of the Hindi channels. If I find myself in front of the TV with some time to kill, I invariably reach out to this channel in hopes of finding something edutaining.

The latest episode of Dariba Diaries had a plot that must be as ancient as humanity – an old person marrying a younger woman, disgruntled sons and a violent death. I was also keeping in mind the fundamental tenet of crime stories – the most innocent-looking person is usually the culprit! And yet, there surely was a twist in the tale. :)

6 episodes of Adrushya were aired back-to-back on 26th morning but I could watch only the first one in its entirety. It featured Maratha king ShivajiMaharaj’s head of espionage – Bahirjee Naik. The episode covered all events right from how the King came to know of Bahirjee, killing of the Bijapuri knight Afzal Khan, defeat of Shahistekhan to take back Lal Mahal and the looting of the city of Surat. In the afternoon I managed to catch the 2nd half of the episode on the Bangala Desh war. Retired officials from RAW narrated a lot of interesting facts – like e.g. how the armed forces already knew that Pakistan was planning a surprise (!) attack on Indian Air Force bases. A lot of original footage was also shown. I wished I had watched the episode right from the beginning.

My personal favorites so far are – Dariba Diaries, Adrushya, Ekaant and Raja, Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniya. Hope to catch an episode or two of Sanrachana – from the promos it looks like the program tells us about the architectural aspects of our old monuments. If you are yet to tune in to this channel, do take a look. I am sure you will find a host of interesting programs to choose from.

These days walking back home in the evening has become a hazard. Nope, I am not referring to the unruly vehicles that seem to ply on the roads with the sole aim of bumping off as many pedestrians as they can so as to do their bit in controlling India’s population. Let me tell you what happened yesterday.

I was hurrying along the footpath when I noticed a family of 3 standing in front of a shop – a man, his wife and a kid sleeping with his head on the wife’s shoulders. At first, I thought that they have just walked out the shop or perhaps are waiting for someone until the man called out to the guy walking in front of me. Then the realization dawned upon me. I have met their kind before. They will accost you in the street and tell you a sad story of how they have landed in the city from some village, have run out of the money and now need some either to feed the kid or to return back home. My mom, on being accosted by one such lady with a sad story, had offered to pay her in exchange for some household work. Needless to say, the lady had promptly walked off.

In the past I have stopped and listened to them just to figure out if theirs is a genuine case. But it is hard to judge and I, for one, am not willing to part with my money just to give them a benefit of doubt. Moreover, I don’t even feel like spending two minutes to stop and listen to them. This might sound callous but I guess it is needed because the sad truth is that begging has become a profession in this country.

So I walked on, shaking my head as the man called out to me.

A few meters down the lane, I saw a group of 2-3 girls waiting to pounce on unsuspecting pedestrians. They had leaflets of some kind with them. A new shop has opened up close by – a sort of diagnostic center or something like that. During first half of December I was called out 2-3 times by one of their representatives asking me if I had two minutes to spare. I am not sure why they chose evening time to do this because that’s the time when all that most of those returning from their offices can think of is reaching home. Then a college-going girl standing right outside the center had told me that they have free medical checkup over the weekend. I politely said that I was not interested. ‘But it is free’ she said with a note of astonishment as if it was a gift from the heavens. I fought off the urge to tell her that there are no free lunches (or health checkups for that matter!) in this world. And finally, sometime in the last week of December, a lady had forced her business card in my hands and asked me to attend the checkup. For the next few days, I had walked past the center half expecting two bouncers to physically lift the pedestrians and carry them inside – for a free medical checkup!

The girls I saw yesterday seemed to belong to this center. But since I had spotted them from a distance I walked off the footpath, walked along the road and then got on to the footpath when I had safely cleared their area. The point is that I could do so yesterday because I had seen them already. If I fail to do that today, I am destined to walk right in the trap.

Oh well, if nothing else they would teach me to be more ‘mindful’ of my surroundings :)

अर्ज किया है.....

ये कफन, ये जनाझे, ये कब्र सिर्फ बाते है मेरे दोस्त
वर्ना मर तो इंसान तभी जाता है जब याद करनेवाला कोई ना हो

(Forwarded)

Bizarre Signboards #7

Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes - by Maria Konnikova

Masala Lemonade

I am not one of those who after tasting a dish goes about deconstructing and trying it in their own kitchen. Some things are best left to the chefs!

But the Masala Lemonade served at the Pizza Hut seemed simple enough – and tasty enough – to make me want to try my hand at making it. There surely cannot be more than 4-5 ingredients – soda, sugar, lemon juice and jaljira powder, right? So on my way home, I purchased a bottle of soda and a pack of and jaljira powder, tinkered about in the kitchen for a while and then eagerly tasted the end product. Similar but not quite like it. Time to hit the internet. Most of the recipes had listed the same ingredients until I chanced upon one which mentioned the use of 7Up. Aha! This could be the ‘secret’ ingredient. Plus it would save me from the tedious task of dissolving sugar in water.

The next day I mixed a bit of lemon juice with a pinch of jaljira powder and poured in 7Up. Yeah! That’s more like it. Probably a drop of sugar syrup would bring it closer to what I had in Pizza Hut. This one is surely going to be one of my all-time favorite poisons! :-)

Supernatural – The Hunter Games

This episode was aired after such a long gap that I am afraid I have forgotten most of this season’s storyline. But then there isn’t much to remember, is there? Right from the first episode I have this sinking feeling that the latest season isn’t going to match up to a few earlier seasons. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I would say that it ‘still’ feels as if the writers are looking for the story’s central idea. It probably would have been better to keep Dean on the darker side for more episodes.

To my intense annoyance, Metatron is back. I hate his knowing smile, I hate his plotting and moreover, I hate that Dean, Sam and Castiel are somewhat at his mercy. Though I am worried about Dean becoming demon again I am relieved that Castiel is finally free of his insistence on setting things right for Claire.

And I hope and pray that Crawley is not as thick as he appears to be when it comes to his mommy dearest. Would hate to see Rowena spoil the game for the Winchesters – though I am sure that’s exactly what’s going to happen. :-(

House, M.D. – The Series Finale

Judging by House’s monkeying around throughout this show, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had killed himself in the final episode. But when a body is charred beyond recognition, you can bet anything under the sun that the dental records have been tampered with. So I wonder why ‘Entertainment Weekly ranked House faking his death at number three for "Single Most Clever Twist" for the 2012 TV Season Finale Awards’.

That said, I think that the final episode did manage to show a different side of House’s selfish, weird and misanthropic nature. He made up for his lifetime of harassing Wilson by making sure that he is by the side of his friend when he most needed it – no matter what the personal cost. As character after character from his past (Dr. Lawrence, Dr. Amber, Dr. Cameron and Stacy), some of them quite dead, made their appearance as his subconscious, I wondered why Dr. Lisa Cuddy was excluded.

There is no denying, however, that it felt good to see Wilson and House ride off together into the sunset. I was mightily relieved when they didn’t show Wilson dying. Most of these shows have a habit of going dark as the series draws to a close (e.g. the firm was dissolved at the end of Practice, Scully and Mulder had to run away at the end of the X-files and so on) so I was half expecting to see dead bodies of House and Wilson in the final episode. Thank God for small mercies!

Another plus point was that the stories of the other characters – Cameron, Foreman, Chase, Taub - were also given a sort of a closure though nothing is revealed about what happens to Dr. Jessica and Dr. Chi. But I had to turn to Wiki to figure out why Foreman smiles when he discovers House’s ID card under the wobbly table’s leg.

Finally, I absolutely loved Warren Zevon’s "Keep Me in Your Heart for a While". Goodbye Dr. Gregory House. I am not going to miss you much but I am glad that you are one of those guys who leave the party before people want them to.