HAVING associated mostly with morning newspapers all through my career, I have missed out on evening life. There is no life for a journalist, working for a morning daily, outside of his office after dusk. Reporters get busy filing their stories gathered through the day while the editorial staff go about with the production part of the job. Habits die hard and I continue to remain ignorant about most routine things that go on in our own city during the evening hours. Any departure from these habits can be rewarding as I were to learn on a recent evening. I happened to be standing in front of the illuminated Mysore Palace with a friend last week. I was pleasantly surprised by this friend's revelation that Muslims visit the Anjaneya temple situated just outside the palace. In a while, came a woman, black-veiled, with a baby in her arms, stood in the queue, entered the temple, and came out in a while when I decided to meet her. What was an even more pleasant revelation was that she is a resident of Kyathamaranahalli, described variously as "trouble-torn, communally sensitive, and what have you?" The lady, too shy to be talking to a man, said that she had brought her child to get her a talisman from the temple. She wouldn't stand there for long - it was already close to 8 and she had no male escort. Understanding her urgency, I asked her for her telephone number. I should have guessed that she was too poor to afford one.
My friend later said that it was quite a regular site to find Muslims visiting this particular temple. Like their Hindu counterparts, they stand in the long queue to get the darshan of God Hanuman. It brought to my mind the description by Jnanpith winner, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, of the way in which Hindus and Muslims lived so harmoniously, the latter enthusiastically taking part in the former's temple fairs in his home town. Did any of you get to read/watch/hear any such report during the recent troubles in our city? Whoever talks about media troubles cannot be wrong after all! Deep-seated cynicism is but one professional hazard of a journalist.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Join the Movement
Dear Students,
It was great being with you all. I had five minutes in which to say what I had come there to say. But, there was so much to say and, since my speech was the last item on the agenda I got much more to say, having seen you all and witnessed some pleasant and heart-warming scenes. I tried to convert the challenge into an opportunity and decided to withhold what I came there to announce. A good way to create and build up some suspense, isn't it?
I was raised in Bangalore but I migrated to Mysore, having taken a liking for this city. You all said in unison that you all love Mysore, too. You also expressed your resentment at the suggestion of being called 'dirty Mysorean.' Please spend some time before the net and see how visitors, especially those visiting us from the developed countries, speak about us Indians, Mysoreans included. You will automatically feel the need to do something to set right the situation.
Four of us journalists are gearing up to launch a few initiatives with which to make things better for Mysore. Mysore City is the lab for our experiment and we will play the role of lab assistants. As media people our objective is to demonstrate that media can influence major behavioural changes in society.
This blog, which will in a short while from now become an integral part of a new website, is not only about keeping the city clean. There are other issues. One of them for instance, which needs urgent attention is security. You know how the country has been terrorised after the Mumbai attack. Recently, there were some disturbing incidents in our own backyard. As citizens our primary duty is to be alert. It is our responsibility as much as it the responsibility of the law enforcers to ensure societal harmony. In what innovative ways can harmony be achieved, is the question we need to address ourselves.
Can you, a students of the great Mahajana College toss up a few ideas as to how harmony can be achieved? You don't need to spend a week thinking about it or sacrifice your time earmarked for studies, games, or friends. As I mentioned yesterday, please devote haf an hour - only 30 minutes - for your city. Can you post your entries before Tuesday? Top three entries will be published in a bulletin being brought out in association with Mysore City police.
This is just a modest beginning we are making. It is more to feel your pulse. Once you justify our faith in you by participating in good numbers, we will offer you many more opportunities. The Dasara festival is our main target. We want to make the city completely safe - the way it is; the way it is known for. Strictly, we don't want to offer any incentive for playing your role as citizens. However, we assure you that you will have lot of fun on this very platform, in myriad ways. As we both have fun and derive benefit, we will see the city emerge as the best ever.
You have made a promise yesterday. I am sure you will keep your word. Thirty minutes a week. The other thing you can do is to spread the word about this blog. Of course, we will be reaching out to students of all other educational institutions before we launch our massive programme in September. We will demonstrate what the media can do for general good. But, needless to say, we can do nothing without your active support.
Friend Suraj G. Krishnam, the biking-alumnus from your college with whom I had a word after the assembly yesterday, is already charged up. He has promised to get dozens of biking enthusiasts for the cause of Mysore. How many can you get? They need not be bikers. Any child or adult Mysorean is wecome to join this movement in the making.
Good luck
Vijendra Rao
It was great being with you all. I had five minutes in which to say what I had come there to say. But, there was so much to say and, since my speech was the last item on the agenda I got much more to say, having seen you all and witnessed some pleasant and heart-warming scenes. I tried to convert the challenge into an opportunity and decided to withhold what I came there to announce. A good way to create and build up some suspense, isn't it?
I was raised in Bangalore but I migrated to Mysore, having taken a liking for this city. You all said in unison that you all love Mysore, too. You also expressed your resentment at the suggestion of being called 'dirty Mysorean.' Please spend some time before the net and see how visitors, especially those visiting us from the developed countries, speak about us Indians, Mysoreans included. You will automatically feel the need to do something to set right the situation.
Four of us journalists are gearing up to launch a few initiatives with which to make things better for Mysore. Mysore City is the lab for our experiment and we will play the role of lab assistants. As media people our objective is to demonstrate that media can influence major behavioural changes in society.
This blog, which will in a short while from now become an integral part of a new website, is not only about keeping the city clean. There are other issues. One of them for instance, which needs urgent attention is security. You know how the country has been terrorised after the Mumbai attack. Recently, there were some disturbing incidents in our own backyard. As citizens our primary duty is to be alert. It is our responsibility as much as it the responsibility of the law enforcers to ensure societal harmony. In what innovative ways can harmony be achieved, is the question we need to address ourselves.
Can you, a students of the great Mahajana College toss up a few ideas as to how harmony can be achieved? You don't need to spend a week thinking about it or sacrifice your time earmarked for studies, games, or friends. As I mentioned yesterday, please devote haf an hour - only 30 minutes - for your city. Can you post your entries before Tuesday? Top three entries will be published in a bulletin being brought out in association with Mysore City police.
This is just a modest beginning we are making. It is more to feel your pulse. Once you justify our faith in you by participating in good numbers, we will offer you many more opportunities. The Dasara festival is our main target. We want to make the city completely safe - the way it is; the way it is known for. Strictly, we don't want to offer any incentive for playing your role as citizens. However, we assure you that you will have lot of fun on this very platform, in myriad ways. As we both have fun and derive benefit, we will see the city emerge as the best ever.
You have made a promise yesterday. I am sure you will keep your word. Thirty minutes a week. The other thing you can do is to spread the word about this blog. Of course, we will be reaching out to students of all other educational institutions before we launch our massive programme in September. We will demonstrate what the media can do for general good. But, needless to say, we can do nothing without your active support.
Friend Suraj G. Krishnam, the biking-alumnus from your college with whom I had a word after the assembly yesterday, is already charged up. He has promised to get dozens of biking enthusiasts for the cause of Mysore. How many can you get? They need not be bikers. Any child or adult Mysorean is wecome to join this movement in the making.
Good luck
Vijendra Rao
Terrifc Feeling
YESTERDAY, I had the privilege of addressing the students of Mahajana First Grade College at their weekly assembly, incidentally, the first in their just-started academic year. It was a great feeling to be amidst them, youngsters, who stood for an entire hour in which a couple of new teachers were welcomed; a few others, as well as students, were feted for their achievements; reports were read out by way of keeping the entire college informed of what had happened since the commencement of the new year; the weekly newsletter, a colourful single-sheet, tabloid size, having the inspirational editorial from the Principal, Prof KV Prabhakara, was released. The highlight of the function was the honours extended to Suraj R. Krishnam, a BBM student of earlier years, for his feat of having motorcycled across the country, from Kayakumari to Kashmir, on his Pulsar bike, which was also so thoughtfully and inspirationally kept on display. I felt thrilled to be part of the felicitating team. I did not lose the great opportunity to tell Suraj that I would be on his pillion on his next expedition (provided his wife wife gives me a no-objection certificate!)
Only the previous day, I had visited the college to attend to senior friend, Group Capt (retd) Rajgopal's guest lecture, organised to commemorate the Kargil Divas. The lecture by the Captain (as I affectionately and respectfully call him) was as meaningful as it was appropriate on part of the college authorities to have arranged the lecture. It was the first in My Country lecture series initiated by the college, to infuse GenNext with patriotism. I am inclined to believe that Prof Prabhakara, the energetic principal who works with the efficiency of a corporate CEO, is the brain behind this initiative, given his NCC background. He must be the best-dressed male in the college - students don't need to feel J when I say, it includes them!
I was not aware of the lecture. I just went to college for a different purpose and serindipitously discovered that the lecture was going on. I missed out the better part of the lecture, but was there to hear him make a frontal attack on the UPA government for making a political issue of the Vijay Diwas, on its decennial celebration. Any Indian, even with an iota of patriotism, must pay his respects to the super heroes of the country for their valour and sacrifice. It was poignant to know how a Kargil hero from our own state had to wage another battle, with his limbs lost in the war, to get a grand pension of Rs 5000. I couldn't help admiring the students as they listened to the lecture with rapt attention, though I would have loved to see them pose more questions in the question-and-answer session. (Nor could I help admiring this lone student in the front row in the assembly that I addressed the next day, for the fervour with which he sang the national anthem or for the gusto with which he hailed the Motherland after the anthem. He threw his right hand up in the air at an angle, with his chest thrust out, and loudly said, 'jai' when the group of lead anthem singers prompted the audience to do so with the nationalistic, if customary, 'Bolo Bharat Mata ki ...' crescendo. Of course, there were a series of other things to admire about the college. They were so many that the minority students could be condoned for getting restless towards the fag-end of the assembly).
My special attraction for the college is for the reason that Shri MN Jois was one of its founders. I had interacted with Jois - and a photographer-friend once even clicked me in his company, without me being aware of it. Jois was right on dot at a function he had been invited to, but the organisers were not to be seen. I happened to be there at the venue, The Institution of Engineers, and led him to his seat, offering the nonagenarian some support. This photograph is one of my proud possessions. I could not meet Jois as frequently as I would have loved to else, I would have recorded his talk on my tape-recorder. More recently, I happened to get a copy of his biography, in Kannada, from a Gandhian. Every Kannadiga, especially the staff and students of Mahajana College, must read it and, they would have an added reason to feel proud to be part of the great institution. One day, I want to make a feature film on Jois for the global audience. Hope the day will come very soon. To a man like me who was born many years after Gandhi died, Jois was more than a compensation. He was no less than Gandhi. His sacrifice was no less than the Mahatma's.
My utmost gratitude to Mahajana College for having allowed me to step inside its premises. I would cherish the day for long.
Vijendra Rao
Only the previous day, I had visited the college to attend to senior friend, Group Capt (retd) Rajgopal's guest lecture, organised to commemorate the Kargil Divas. The lecture by the Captain (as I affectionately and respectfully call him) was as meaningful as it was appropriate on part of the college authorities to have arranged the lecture. It was the first in My Country lecture series initiated by the college, to infuse GenNext with patriotism. I am inclined to believe that Prof Prabhakara, the energetic principal who works with the efficiency of a corporate CEO, is the brain behind this initiative, given his NCC background. He must be the best-dressed male in the college - students don't need to feel J when I say, it includes them!
I was not aware of the lecture. I just went to college for a different purpose and serindipitously discovered that the lecture was going on. I missed out the better part of the lecture, but was there to hear him make a frontal attack on the UPA government for making a political issue of the Vijay Diwas, on its decennial celebration. Any Indian, even with an iota of patriotism, must pay his respects to the super heroes of the country for their valour and sacrifice. It was poignant to know how a Kargil hero from our own state had to wage another battle, with his limbs lost in the war, to get a grand pension of Rs 5000. I couldn't help admiring the students as they listened to the lecture with rapt attention, though I would have loved to see them pose more questions in the question-and-answer session. (Nor could I help admiring this lone student in the front row in the assembly that I addressed the next day, for the fervour with which he sang the national anthem or for the gusto with which he hailed the Motherland after the anthem. He threw his right hand up in the air at an angle, with his chest thrust out, and loudly said, 'jai' when the group of lead anthem singers prompted the audience to do so with the nationalistic, if customary, 'Bolo Bharat Mata ki ...' crescendo. Of course, there were a series of other things to admire about the college. They were so many that the minority students could be condoned for getting restless towards the fag-end of the assembly).
My special attraction for the college is for the reason that Shri MN Jois was one of its founders. I had interacted with Jois - and a photographer-friend once even clicked me in his company, without me being aware of it. Jois was right on dot at a function he had been invited to, but the organisers were not to be seen. I happened to be there at the venue, The Institution of Engineers, and led him to his seat, offering the nonagenarian some support. This photograph is one of my proud possessions. I could not meet Jois as frequently as I would have loved to else, I would have recorded his talk on my tape-recorder. More recently, I happened to get a copy of his biography, in Kannada, from a Gandhian. Every Kannadiga, especially the staff and students of Mahajana College, must read it and, they would have an added reason to feel proud to be part of the great institution. One day, I want to make a feature film on Jois for the global audience. Hope the day will come very soon. To a man like me who was born many years after Gandhi died, Jois was more than a compensation. He was no less than Gandhi. His sacrifice was no less than the Mahatma's.
My utmost gratitude to Mahajana College for having allowed me to step inside its premises. I would cherish the day for long.
Vijendra Rao
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Not alert enough?
DID I set up this blog in a hurry? That is the question dominant on my mind at the moment. It has been a couple of weeks since Alert Citizens Team came into being and for almost the same duration has this blog remained in existence. Except two of our eminent citizens - Prof Shivaram and Dr Dasan, none has contributed as yet. ACT is a good and major initiative that some well-intentioned individuals have launched in our city with active support from the police commissioner. Let us not allow it to lapse with our passivity. In order to pep up members of ACT as also others, I am furnishing herewith a link to an interesting article by Beena Sarwar, a Pakistani journalist based out of the US. Beena - I am a member of her group - writes extensively on Indo-Pakistani issues.
http://in.mc949.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&.rand=509534623&da=0&midIndex=0&mid=1_8844468_ALQRaMsAAK17SXseOgphxDaSJQw&f=1&nextMid=1_8843740_AKwRaMsAAQeASXsN1AQ%2FLHZ56Os&m=1_8844468_ALQRaMsAAK17SXseOgphxDaSJQw,1_8843740_AKwRaMsAAQeASXsN1AQ%2FLHZ56Os,1_8842970_AKwRaMsAABjFSXr5pQNjBCxQiYc,1_8842223_AMARaMsAAG7PSXrxQQ03Hkr4pz0,1_8841480_AJwRaMsAADfzSXrvDA8vKh%2BaNBo,1_8840769_AMQRaMsAAXQHSXrpswql6y4dymc,
http://in.mc949.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&.rand=509534623&da=0&midIndex=0&mid=1_8844468_ALQRaMsAAK17SXseOgphxDaSJQw&f=1&nextMid=1_8843740_AKwRaMsAAQeASXsN1AQ%2FLHZ56Os&m=1_8844468_ALQRaMsAAK17SXseOgphxDaSJQw,1_8843740_AKwRaMsAAQeASXsN1AQ%2FLHZ56Os,1_8842970_AKwRaMsAABjFSXr5pQNjBCxQiYc,1_8842223_AMARaMsAAG7PSXrxQQ03Hkr4pz0,1_8841480_AJwRaMsAADfzSXrvDA8vKh%2BaNBo,1_8840769_AMQRaMsAAXQHSXrpswql6y4dymc,
Monday, January 5, 2009
Act 1, Take 1
YOU are what climate you live in. The characteristic affability of the archetypal Mysorean offers an eloquent commentary on the cosmic and celestial nepotism they have pampered him with in terms of benevolent, even somnolent, latitudinal (12 degrees 18 minutes North) and longitudinal (76 degrees and 42 minutes East) co-ordinates. (Look at that, not a single odd number!). The Mysorean wears these degrees with the pride that an accomplished student wears theirs on their graduation day. His body language says it all and you can spot the Mysorean from afar. Even when he is actively engaged in any activity, he seems disengaged so much so even a Mahendar Singh Dhoni or Bjorn Borg would look to be warm-blooded in comparison. Is it not paradoxical that the shock waves caused by a wayward supersonic jet, with its lightning sortie through the city's airspace over the weekend, did not go unregistered on the soporific denizen? Well, that was not the only paradox. At best, it was the beginning. Next day, 04 January 2009, brought out another paradox (and the paradox was accentuated by the fact of it being a Sunday): when the city launched a purposeful initiative to trace the factors fuelling pervasive terror and combat the same with a view to making Mysore a safer place.
"Safe Mysore," the new drive, is a citizen initiative under the banner "Alert Citizens Team (ACT), which is also the title of this blog. With patronage from the police department, the campaign has taken its first major step towards achieving the goal of safeguarding the interest of the city. That there was enthusiastic participation from the stakeholders, who spent the best part of the Sunday deliberating strategies to achieve the goal, suggests that the paradox no longer exists in their minds. It must go to the credit of these Mysoreans that they are perhaps the first in India to have turned proactive in their response to the Mumbai carnage. It is bound to send out a strong message that if Mysore can do it, why not the rest of India.
The purposefulness of the day-long exercise was borne out by the number of organisations that lent support to the event as also by the profiles of the many dignitaries hand-picked by the organisers to speak. Justic MN Venkatachaliah, Chairman of Human Rights Commission; Dr Ajay Kumar Singh DGP (Corps of Detectives); Lt Gen Arjun Ray, CEO of Indus International School; KPC Gandhi (Truth Labs, Hyderabad) and Firoz Bakht Ahmed, writer and social activist. So reads the list.
This forum seeks to dwell at length upon the issues contributing to terror, citizens' role in mitigating the menace, sensitizing the public to the ugly phenomenon, enhancing the level and quality of discourse on the subject, etc. It is by no means restricted to Mysoreans; anybody from anywhere can share their views, offer their ideas and suggestions, talk about similar initiatives, besides, of course, being free to borrow from the experiment that ACT has just launched in Mysore. The blog will keep a regular tab on progress achieved as a fallout of the workshop held on the Symbolic Sunday when Mysore, of all places, sought to announce its readiness to combat terror. It has just about begun to fight the paradox associated with its existence. It is for all those global citizens exposed to the mindlessness called terror to act now in a concerted manner. This is just the first take of the first ACT!
"Safe Mysore," the new drive, is a citizen initiative under the banner "Alert Citizens Team (ACT), which is also the title of this blog. With patronage from the police department, the campaign has taken its first major step towards achieving the goal of safeguarding the interest of the city. That there was enthusiastic participation from the stakeholders, who spent the best part of the Sunday deliberating strategies to achieve the goal, suggests that the paradox no longer exists in their minds. It must go to the credit of these Mysoreans that they are perhaps the first in India to have turned proactive in their response to the Mumbai carnage. It is bound to send out a strong message that if Mysore can do it, why not the rest of India.
The purposefulness of the day-long exercise was borne out by the number of organisations that lent support to the event as also by the profiles of the many dignitaries hand-picked by the organisers to speak. Justic MN Venkatachaliah, Chairman of Human Rights Commission; Dr Ajay Kumar Singh DGP (Corps of Detectives); Lt Gen Arjun Ray, CEO of Indus International School; KPC Gandhi (Truth Labs, Hyderabad) and Firoz Bakht Ahmed, writer and social activist. So reads the list.
This forum seeks to dwell at length upon the issues contributing to terror, citizens' role in mitigating the menace, sensitizing the public to the ugly phenomenon, enhancing the level and quality of discourse on the subject, etc. It is by no means restricted to Mysoreans; anybody from anywhere can share their views, offer their ideas and suggestions, talk about similar initiatives, besides, of course, being free to borrow from the experiment that ACT has just launched in Mysore. The blog will keep a regular tab on progress achieved as a fallout of the workshop held on the Symbolic Sunday when Mysore, of all places, sought to announce its readiness to combat terror. It has just about begun to fight the paradox associated with its existence. It is for all those global citizens exposed to the mindlessness called terror to act now in a concerted manner. This is just the first take of the first ACT!
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