ALTER IDEM

Ever since that dramatic day 6-7 months ago, when namma MP became namma Mukhya mantri , we knew it.... by-elections would be forced on us. And, today, we, the people of the Chikmagalur - Udupi Lok Sabha constituency had to choose our new representative. I have been unenthusiastic about this by-election right from the start. For one, I have not been able to tell the difference between having & not having a representative in the Lok Sabha! Secondly, those noises Mr.Y has been making about returning. Lastly, those noises didi has been making about mid-term polls. Mid- term or full term, our new representative doesn't have much time to prove himself. And, quite frankly, I'm tired of all the petty bickering and scams. I decided to skip the parties and vote for an independent candidate this time. My choice would be someone with a likeable symbol. Our representatives may be a little muddled up about their responsibilities, but, we, the dutiful citizens of the country aren...

The other Sunday, the newspaper supplement had a write-up on some of the erstwhile royals of Tamil Nadu - the Sethupathis of Ramnad, one among them. The current 'Raja', while talking about his duties & responsibilities, had mentioned a century-old school in Madurai that he had to look after. So, imagine my astonishment when the book I read last week was a school days memoir of someone who had studied in the same Sethupathi School - the school where M.S.Subbulakshmi made her debut as a singer! 'Green Well Years' by Manohar Devadoss is about this gang of 5-6 adolescent boys. Schoolmates, these boys spend most of their free time together. Their favourite hangout place is a large, open well on the outskirts of Madurai. The water looks green....hence, the title! The author weaves a series of autobiographical incidents from his boyhood days with the history & geography of places in and around Madurai. In fact, life in Madurai during the early years of Indian In...

Road - widening hits home : ( When the announcement had come two years ago, all of us had accepted the fact. Yes, our roads were too narrow to accommodate the sudden increase in traffic - both local & tourist.... and, widening them was necessary. Proposed & approved way back in the 70s, financial shortcomings had post-poned the widening works till now! Those of us along the proposed widening path were hoping that the financial crunch continued & the proposal would remain just that! Alas! it didn't happen that way. Today, the dreaded moment arrived and was gone within a couple of minutes, leaving all of us sailing in the same boat ...... Most neighbours have lost old, high yielding coconut trees, mango trees, etc. Some have lost a portion of their verandas. We have lost about 8 feet of our garden. My favourite corner would look like this at this time of the year. Now, it looks like this ..... Soon, it will be tarred and be called 'road' .......

The other evening, my friend and I were in her veranda - talking about this and that - and her farm hand walked in. He had finished his day's work. As my friend got him his tea, she told him, "Heard that your son's post has been made permanent. Now, you should think of getting him married". That was all the opening he needed - to pour out his opinions, quite oblivious to the presence of a stranger. "What 'permanent' akka . With his Rs.7,000 per month income, I'll have to look around for a girl who earns at least that much. Otherwise, how can he manage? Just see...both of us leave home at around 8.15 in the morning. While my work place is at a walkable distance, he spends Rs.20 one way as bus fare.Then, amidst work, I have proper lunch, tea,...& walk back home, in time to do some chores there. For this, I earn about Rs.6,000 per month (Farm hands in these parts are paid Rs.200 - Rs.300 per day, plus meals). I save whatever remains after spendin...

The other day, on our way to Chikmaglur, we passed by this pond near a sleepy hamlet..... and, we saw something that we had never seen before! Monkeys, or any other animal in the wild for that matter, do not like human attention/ interference. When they are in a group, they are fearless and do not hesitate to show their dislike. Fearful of attack, I didn't dare to go closer than about 40 feet! That's why, in this pic, one can just about make out that these monkeys are eating some part of the lotus plant! As a term, 'lotus eater' is synonymous with 'pleasure seeker'. On the other hand, it is a well known fact that the entire lotus plant is edible in one form or the other - roots, stems, leaves, flowers & seeds!! I remember seeing lotus stem in brine on the shelves of some super markets. As food, roots, leaves, etc. are supposed to have several health benefits. Curiously, the seeds are supposed to be slightly narcotic. Whether they were having a ...

Whenever a farmer comes to my doorstep selling vegetables, I buy them. The other day, one of the regulars dropped in. This time, he had only ash gourds. Since my own ash gourd vine was looking good, I had to tell him that I didn't want any. He then expressed a desire to see the vine - to check out the variety, etc... Soon after seeing it, he told me that the vine would produce only one gourd and that I should be offering it to some temple instead of using it! Well! I hadn't heard this one before! Though nobody knew why, every single person advised me against using the ash gourd if it turned out to be the only yield from that vine. And, 'Give it to some temple' was the final line that everyone added! You know, as far as vegetables and beliefs go, the ash gourd is one that has many attached to it... each one of them, meaningless and without logic. My mother believed that a whole ash gourd should not be cut with a knife by people whose parents were alive. Fortunat...

There is a belief among farmers - that for best results, seeds of flowering plants should be sown during the period of the waxing moon & seeds of vegetables & fruits, during the period of the waning moon. The same belief holds good for planting cuttings/ saplings of flowers/ vegetables & fruits. Of course, there is no logic or scientific explanation to this - only a psychological comfort that one has begun correctly! Early summer is the best time to grow vegetables, if one can ensure plenty of water to the plants. But, for most of us, summer is the time for vacations - quite inconvenient to provide constant attention. Early monsoon is also okay, but, the saplings could waste away if heavy rains set in just after sprouting. Of course, the quality of seeds are very important. Sometimes, seeds that are more than a year old don't sprout at all :( The grower's woes begin right from the moment the seeds are sown - ants simply love them. The organic method is to spri...