Off the overpass on Ramana Maharshi (Sankey) Road

With petrol expensive by eight rupees more, and with the day when it will cost a hundred a liter not far, yes, it is good to walk.

RMV 2nd Stage, Bangalore

It is raining figs on the corner of the park that I pass thrice daily morning. You can hear them fall as you dance around, trying not to step on them.

“I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody.” — Michael Caine

I shouldn't be telling you all this.

The hall faces the bedlam of Bellary Road at the Mekhri junction, but it is serene inside. Anyway, the extraordinary eyes of the sage in his large picture engage you instantly, and constantly, and you are meditative even before you begin to close your eyes. The noise leaves your consciousness quite soon. The couple of staffers who attend to the place tend to speak loudly outside the hall, but you are in a forgiving state of mind, and their shouts and banter recede from the mind too. Other devotees come, squat in a favorite asana, meditate, and leave, and one is consumed completely by the silence in Ramana Maharishi's aspect. It is said that the saint's best pravachanas were administered through silence, whereas his spoken answers were a lesser experiencing of him.

Now I hope that not too many of you will see this little post and begin to visit the hall: I so treasure the quiet of the place, even if I must share the knowledge of its existence with you.

Girish Karnad sees the beginnings of Bangalore to be in truth from the time of setting up of a British cantonment. He traces its history down to twenty years ago, when he moved into Bangalore from Mumbai, and built an architect-designed home in a residential area. He doesn't say why he moved, but I'd say he moved in because he found Bangalore beautiful two decades back. Then he updates history to the current day, when, having reached a good stage in its plans to parallel Singapore, the City Administration of Bangalore has commenced to compete with Beijing, and in that fantastic effort, it is widening the road before Karnad's house into his garden. Karnad fears his living room might be taken as well.

It is a story with a sad ending, and one can't tell from it if Karnad is wishing these days to go back to Mumbai. To his credit, his travail is in only two lines in the end, and it is not the core of his piece, published in The Daily Beast.

On either side of the track up to the temple. I was in line for about forty minutes, and I saw very few people buy these sweets, so the piles of them were mere ornamentation on the path.

Suggi at Ballupet, yesterday

To say it like the Christians, the parish of the Kenchammana Hosakote Temple comprises 42 villages around it. Today was the day of the yearly jathré, when the deity is given a new face, and the devotees are permitted to touch the feet of the Goddess. On only one other day may devotees seek her blessings touching her feet, which is during the Deepavali festival.