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Showing posts from August, 2012

The Lower Octave

In high school, my first language was Sanskrit. Correspondingly, Kannada became the third language. Third language Kannada was basically a repetition of what I learnt from Class 4 to Class 7. After Class 10, I didn't study Kannada formally at all.  In spite of that, I had absolutely no difficulty in reading/ understanding the 2010 Saraswati Samman winner by  Sri.S.L.Bhyrappa --- Mandra. The moment this book arrived a few months ago, I had decided to make it my 'monsoon reading'. At nearly 600 pages, of size slightly larger than the usual books, it had the qualifications to make my lonely evenings something to look forward to! Well! monsoon arrived late this year. By then, I had finished reading the book! Mandra is about the turbulent life of a classical musician, Pandit Mohan Lal. Panditji's journey begins from Haridwar  - as a bhajan- singing beggar-boy on the banks of the river Ganga - and reaches international fame, after plenty of twists and turns...... lik