ತಂದೆ, तंदे
ಅಪ್ಪ, अप्पा
ಅಯ್ಯ, अय्या
The meaning of these words is "Father". Thande is used more when writing or when you are inquiring about someone else's father. Ayya was used in olden days. Appa is usually used when you are talking to your father to address him.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Thaayi, Amma, Maathe, Janani
I couldn't think of a better word to begin this journey where I will teach a kannada word every day.
All these words mean the same - Mother. Janani specifically means "the one who gives birth".
Amma is more commonly used, but you will find Thaayi and Maathe when you are either reading Kannada or when someone is addressing a Goddess.
All these words mean the same - Mother. Janani specifically means "the one who gives birth".
Amma is more commonly used, but you will find Thaayi and Maathe when you are either reading Kannada or when someone is addressing a Goddess.
Sirigannadam Gelge, Sirigannadam Baalge
Wondering what the title is? People from Karnataka and who admire Kannada would actually get goose bumps reading this!
What does it mean? I searched on the internet to see if some scholar had already put up the meaning of this shout. But couldn't find one. But many people seemed to use it out of patriotism towards the region/state/language.
I will make an attempt to translate what this means. Be warned that I'm no scholar in Kannada. All I know is what I learnt through my schooling.
The phrase is a combination of the following words. The words belong to Kannada as spoken in ancient days.
Siri - Rich
Gannadam - Kannada
Gelge - Win
Baalge - Live
Roughly, the title phrase translates to:
The richness of Kannada will triumph,
The richness of Kannada will live on!
And what a wonderful day to blog about this. Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the Republic of India recognizing all Kannada speaking regions in South India as Karnataka. It is what we call the "Karnataka Rajyotsava" (Festival of the [Formation of the] State of Karnataka), celebrated on the 1st of November every year.
Thanks to Seby, for giving this wonderful idea about blogging about Kannada on this day. He suggested that I teach one word a day, through my blog, to people who are interested to learn Kannada.
The journey thus begins!
What does it mean? I searched on the internet to see if some scholar had already put up the meaning of this shout. But couldn't find one. But many people seemed to use it out of patriotism towards the region/state/language.
I will make an attempt to translate what this means. Be warned that I'm no scholar in Kannada. All I know is what I learnt through my schooling.
The phrase is a combination of the following words. The words belong to Kannada as spoken in ancient days.
Siri - Rich
Gannadam - Kannada
Gelge - Win
Baalge - Live
Roughly, the title phrase translates to:
The richness of Kannada will triumph,
The richness of Kannada will live on!
And what a wonderful day to blog about this. Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the Republic of India recognizing all Kannada speaking regions in South India as Karnataka. It is what we call the "Karnataka Rajyotsava" (Festival of the [Formation of the] State of Karnataka), celebrated on the 1st of November every year.
Thanks to Seby, for giving this wonderful idea about blogging about Kannada on this day. He suggested that I teach one word a day, through my blog, to people who are interested to learn Kannada.
The journey thus begins!
Me or the Readers?
Who do we write blog posts for?
Is it for ourselves?
Is it to vent our feelings/ideas/ideals/experiences?
Or
Is it for our readers?
For them to learn/laugh/explore from our feelings/ideas/ideals/experiences?
This question strikes me whenever I think about my blog posts. Tonight I have chosen a stand. For now, I will go with the first option. I will write blog posts for myself. The title of this blog post makes this obvious. I have put me before the readers, ain't I?
The best case is that my friends would read it and the worst case is that they might hate it!
Is it for ourselves?
Is it to vent our feelings/ideas/ideals/experiences?
Or
Is it for our readers?
For them to learn/laugh/explore from our feelings/ideas/ideals/experiences?
This question strikes me whenever I think about my blog posts. Tonight I have chosen a stand. For now, I will go with the first option. I will write blog posts for myself. The title of this blog post makes this obvious. I have put me before the readers, ain't I?
The best case is that my friends would read it and the worst case is that they might hate it!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Trip to Dandeli - The start of the journey
Before I start, I want to dedicate this post to Sowparnika. Had I not seen her comment in the previous post, I wouldn't have started writing this now.
Continuing from the previous post: The 8 of us met on the Rani Chenamma Express train and exchanged pleasures. And of course plans. Because of which we finally realized who's coming back from Dandeli when! :)
We found our seats and started cribbing about the stink from the adjacent toilets. The benefits of booking tickets online. It always allocates tickets from the outside to the inside. That means the chances of getting seats near the toilets at either end of the bogie is almost certain.
While we were at it, a familiar face came and stood beside us stretching his/her hands. Could you guess? I'm not sure if Eunuch is the right word for them (because I just did a look up of Eunuch and now I'm unsure). I said familiar because we had encountered the same person when I made my last trip to Cochin (for my alleged Bachelor's Party). And something really funny (not for the hero of the story) had happened.
I'll quickly recall what happened that night. Yes, it was around the same time that night on Trivandrum Express I think. This person came up to us and asked for money. None of us gave any. This person was facing my friend - Guru and I was behind this person. Guru and I could see each other. When that person was pestering Guru, I couldn't help but giggle. You know, smile spreads like wild fire sometimes. And this is exactly what happened.Guru couldn't help and started giggling too! That person got really annoyed and slaped him on his face and ran away! Yes, our hero was slapped by him/her! And none of us knew what to do!
Back to the current story. This time, we didn't want to take any risks and specially when Guru was still with us on the train! We gave some petty coins and sent the villain away!
The train started moving on time and we had begun our journey now. I made an announcement saying that I had done an search on Google just before I left home. I wanted to know which platform at the Bangalore City Railway Junction this train starts from. I searched for Rani Chennamma Express on Google (and not Bing this time because I was using Google Chrome). In the first page itself, I saw this link, which basically gave the news of the train derailing at Kakol earlier this year. It happened between 4 and 5 AM. It was thrilling for a few seconds and we all just at each other and jovially decided to wake up at 4 AM just in case! :)
Most of us had dinner before we left our homes, so we didn't order any food on the train. But after some time - after talking nonsense for about a couple of hours - we were naturally hungry. One of us had brought a big cover of puffed rice with masala which kept us going for the next half an hour. We finally gave up and went off to sleep among all the cockroaches on the roofs and walls and rats on the floor!
Fast forward to the morning, because I don't remember what I dreamt! :) We all woke up when we were close to Hubli. We had to get down at Alnavar, which is 2 stations away from Hubli. I opened Google Maps on my Blackberry Bold and kept track of the distance of the train from Alnavar. Time pass activity until we reached there. It is so hard for guys to keep away from their gizmos. I could have enjoyed the early morning scenery from a moving train but I was more happy to find geo-stationary satellites finding my phone more often that Guru's! Silly boys!
Continuing from the previous post: The 8 of us met on the Rani Chenamma Express train and exchanged pleasures. And of course plans. Because of which we finally realized who's coming back from Dandeli when! :)
We found our seats and started cribbing about the stink from the adjacent toilets. The benefits of booking tickets online. It always allocates tickets from the outside to the inside. That means the chances of getting seats near the toilets at either end of the bogie is almost certain.
While we were at it, a familiar face came and stood beside us stretching his/her hands. Could you guess? I'm not sure if Eunuch is the right word for them (because I just did a look up of Eunuch and now I'm unsure). I said familiar because we had encountered the same person when I made my last trip to Cochin (for my alleged Bachelor's Party). And something really funny (not for the hero of the story) had happened.
I'll quickly recall what happened that night. Yes, it was around the same time that night on Trivandrum Express I think. This person came up to us and asked for money. None of us gave any. This person was facing my friend - Guru and I was behind this person. Guru and I could see each other. When that person was pestering Guru, I couldn't help but giggle. You know, smile spreads like wild fire sometimes. And this is exactly what happened.Guru couldn't help and started giggling too! That person got really annoyed and slaped him on his face and ran away! Yes, our hero was slapped by him/her! And none of us knew what to do!Back to the current story. This time, we didn't want to take any risks and specially when Guru was still with us on the train! We gave some petty coins and sent the villain away!
The train started moving on time and we had begun our journey now. I made an announcement saying that I had done an search on Google just before I left home. I wanted to know which platform at the Bangalore City Railway Junction this train starts from. I searched for Rani Chennamma Express on Google (and not Bing this time because I was using Google Chrome). In the first page itself, I saw this link, which basically gave the news of the train derailing at Kakol earlier this year. It happened between 4 and 5 AM. It was thrilling for a few seconds and we all just at each other and jovially decided to wake up at 4 AM just in case! :)
Most of us had dinner before we left our homes, so we didn't order any food on the train. But after some time - after talking nonsense for about a couple of hours - we were naturally hungry. One of us had brought a big cover of puffed rice with masala which kept us going for the next half an hour. We finally gave up and went off to sleep among all the cockroaches on the roofs and walls and rats on the floor!
Fast forward to the morning, because I don't remember what I dreamt! :) We all woke up when we were close to Hubli. We had to get down at Alnavar, which is 2 stations away from Hubli. I opened Google Maps on my Blackberry Bold and kept track of the distance of the train from Alnavar. Time pass activity until we reached there. It is so hard for guys to keep away from their gizmos. I could have enjoyed the early morning scenery from a moving train but I was more happy to find geo-stationary satellites finding my phone more often that Guru's! Silly boys!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Trip to Dandeli - Part 1
The List
Dandeli was in my list of places to visit for a long long time. Never had the time to spare or the courage to drive that far (It is about 500 km from Bangalore).Finally, I got a chance to strike it off this week. My friends and I made a quick trip to Dandeli for 2 days this week and it was an activity packed trip.
The Planning
As usual, the plan for this trip started 3 weeks ago. How to go? Where to go? Who all to go? When to go? Where to stay? What to do? and the sorts.
We had a Monday and a Friday off this week and thought that if we took the Tuesday, Wednesday and the Thursday off, we will have 10 days of leave and we could have a lot of time at hands to visit a lot of places. But due to many reasons, we had to cut down the trip to just 2 days - on Tuesday and Wednesday. Funny, as most people go on vacation when they have holidays. I actually applied for leave and went on a vacation and chose to stay at home during the holidays (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday). But I think it is good to get our minds off office once in a while like this.
We first made up a list of all the places where we could stay in Dandeli. After a few email discussions, we settled down on one that was of moderate cost, not too high, not too low and filled with just enough activities for 2 days.
We initially thought of going by car and have a 5 day fun filled road trip. But the rain havoc across Karnataka made us rethink this situation. Finally, we settled down for buying tickets on our favorite Indian Railways. Cheap and convenient. If we had gone by car, we would have spent about 2,500 INR per head as against 500 INR that the Indian Railways charged. And not to mention the strain of driving and the waste of days for travel (we don't prefer to drive by night usually as it is risky - specially during rainy days).
The Confusion
A couple of our friends had to return back on Thursday, one of them had to return back by Friday and the rest were free till next Monday. Though we all knew when we were going, there was a confusion as to who would return back when. It was when we all met on the departing train, that this confusion was cleared. 5 of us decided to return back by Thursday morning and the rest, by Saturday morning. The 3 decided to go to Jog Falls from Dandeli and then come back on a train from Shimoga.
I will pen down the rest in Part 2 and Part 3.
Dandeli was in my list of places to visit for a long long time. Never had the time to spare or the courage to drive that far (It is about 500 km from Bangalore).Finally, I got a chance to strike it off this week. My friends and I made a quick trip to Dandeli for 2 days this week and it was an activity packed trip.
The Planning
As usual, the plan for this trip started 3 weeks ago. How to go? Where to go? Who all to go? When to go? Where to stay? What to do? and the sorts.
We had a Monday and a Friday off this week and thought that if we took the Tuesday, Wednesday and the Thursday off, we will have 10 days of leave and we could have a lot of time at hands to visit a lot of places. But due to many reasons, we had to cut down the trip to just 2 days - on Tuesday and Wednesday. Funny, as most people go on vacation when they have holidays. I actually applied for leave and went on a vacation and chose to stay at home during the holidays (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday). But I think it is good to get our minds off office once in a while like this.
We first made up a list of all the places where we could stay in Dandeli. After a few email discussions, we settled down on one that was of moderate cost, not too high, not too low and filled with just enough activities for 2 days.
We initially thought of going by car and have a 5 day fun filled road trip. But the rain havoc across Karnataka made us rethink this situation. Finally, we settled down for buying tickets on our favorite Indian Railways. Cheap and convenient. If we had gone by car, we would have spent about 2,500 INR per head as against 500 INR that the Indian Railways charged. And not to mention the strain of driving and the waste of days for travel (we don't prefer to drive by night usually as it is risky - specially during rainy days).
The Confusion
A couple of our friends had to return back on Thursday, one of them had to return back by Friday and the rest were free till next Monday. Though we all knew when we were going, there was a confusion as to who would return back when. It was when we all met on the departing train, that this confusion was cleared. 5 of us decided to return back by Thursday morning and the rest, by Saturday morning. The 3 decided to go to Jog Falls from Dandeli and then come back on a train from Shimoga.
I will pen down the rest in Part 2 and Part 3.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Dog Seizure
The Dog
You can see my dog and part of my mother in this photo here. His name is Chotu (In Hindi, it means - a little one). He got that name because he was the smallest of the litters from his mother, a pure white Pomeranian dog. (Yes, Chotu is a cross-breed).
Chotu is almost 8 years old now and has been a very active dog throughout! He loves being with my father and is almost always taken care of by my mother.
Chotu doesn't play the usual dog games like fetch and shake hands etc. (C'mon! Why would dogs enjoy doing things we ask them to do!) Chotu plays games that as a kid, I enjoyed! He'd play 'Run and Catch' (Jute, Jutis etc in local slang) in which we would take turns to catch the other one who'd be running hard! And then, the good old I-Spy (Ice Pice in local slang) where in one of our family members would hide and Chotu would search and finally find that person.
The Seizure
On monrning, my mom noticed that Chotu had wet it's bed (Yes, he's got his own basket and a bed, though it's not shown in the pic). We dismissed it thinking he might have had a nightmare just like human kids.
After a few days, he started coughing and suddenly fell down on his back. We had never seen him fall on his back ever before. I mean, he would slip a lot on our floor due to the polishing on the floor and his claws, but he'd never fall. This time, we noticed his eye balls were upwards and it wasn't responding to our calls. The next thing we guessed was that it was unconscious. After about 20 seconds, it urinated - involuntarily!
We took him to the doctor. He was also due for his yearly vaccines. After the injections, the vet asked us to carefully notice Chotu the next time some such thing happens. She specifically wanted us to notice if his limbs are stretched out and stiff during such incident.
This week, he had 3 such occurances, 2 in a single day. And yes, his limbs were stretched out and stiff and so were his jaws. It was confirmed that he had a seizure.
We took him to the same vet again and got him a dose of medicine. He will now be taking a tablet every day for the next 3 months. And the doc has said that if it doesn't recur, then we can withdraw the medication.
What, How, Why?
I'm not going to answer these questions here. Because there are plenty of articles on the net already and most of them say the same things. I found this site pretty useful. If this is the first time you're witnessing a pet seizure, I recommend you to read this site and update yourself.
Though, I wish you don't have to read it anytime!
You can see my dog and part of my mother in this photo here. His name is Chotu (In Hindi, it means - a little one). He got that name because he was the smallest of the litters from his mother, a pure white Pomeranian dog. (Yes, Chotu is a cross-breed).
Chotu is almost 8 years old now and has been a very active dog throughout! He loves being with my father and is almost always taken care of by my mother.
Chotu doesn't play the usual dog games like fetch and shake hands etc. (C'mon! Why would dogs enjoy doing things we ask them to do!) Chotu plays games that as a kid, I enjoyed! He'd play 'Run and Catch' (Jute, Jutis etc in local slang) in which we would take turns to catch the other one who'd be running hard! And then, the good old I-Spy (Ice Pice in local slang) where in one of our family members would hide and Chotu would search and finally find that person.
The Seizure
On monrning, my mom noticed that Chotu had wet it's bed (Yes, he's got his own basket and a bed, though it's not shown in the pic). We dismissed it thinking he might have had a nightmare just like human kids.
After a few days, he started coughing and suddenly fell down on his back. We had never seen him fall on his back ever before. I mean, he would slip a lot on our floor due to the polishing on the floor and his claws, but he'd never fall. This time, we noticed his eye balls were upwards and it wasn't responding to our calls. The next thing we guessed was that it was unconscious. After about 20 seconds, it urinated - involuntarily!
We took him to the doctor. He was also due for his yearly vaccines. After the injections, the vet asked us to carefully notice Chotu the next time some such thing happens. She specifically wanted us to notice if his limbs are stretched out and stiff during such incident.
This week, he had 3 such occurances, 2 in a single day. And yes, his limbs were stretched out and stiff and so were his jaws. It was confirmed that he had a seizure.
We took him to the same vet again and got him a dose of medicine. He will now be taking a tablet every day for the next 3 months. And the doc has said that if it doesn't recur, then we can withdraw the medication.
What, How, Why?
I'm not going to answer these questions here. Because there are plenty of articles on the net already and most of them say the same things. I found this site pretty useful. If this is the first time you're witnessing a pet seizure, I recommend you to read this site and update yourself.
Though, I wish you don't have to read it anytime!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Blog Hosting Dilemma
Shopping
I almost bought a web hosting package from Network Solutions today. Why? - To satisfy my urge to start blogging. Then I suddenly realized, that I almost always take wrong decisions when I'm impulsive (Strange that I could realize this when I was in the process of impulsivse buying!). I closed the browser soon - the only way I could save myself from another impulsive shopping attack!
The Enlightenment
This is not about impulsive shopping anyways. This is about blogs and hosting. What are the most common things that bloggers consider when they first start blogging? (Other than Should I start today? Or should I start at all? I mean, there are thousands of bloggers already, who's gonna read my thoughts on the web? - Let's assume that we have crossed this stage). I mean, do you buy a domain and find a hosting provider (There are supposedly free hosting providers, just Bing them - yes BING, it's new and gives the results, so why not use it?) Or do you just go with a blog service? What happens about the data if your blog service provider goes down, to the center of the earth and comes out of the other end and escapes into the black hole of the universe (OK, I'll stop its journey there). What if I want to create a brand at a later stage? Wouldn't the service provider's url be in its way?
Yes, these are the questions I asked myself. And you know what I chose!
Blogger!
And my thought process to land in this decision was simple. This is my first blog post (yes, I finally added my share to the noise). I don't know if I can blog at all! So, going with a free blogging service provider like Blogger was the obvious choice. I could play around here, learn to write and use it like a launch pad for something big. I could even point a domain to this site. And guess what, I don't even have to reveal my name! (Those who know me closely, know this screen name of mine - But they know my other abnormalities too anyway!) So, if this turns out to be a bad experience, I can still move on! Easily!
Any beginners out there who've had similar experiences? Would love to know!
I almost bought a web hosting package from Network Solutions today. Why? - To satisfy my urge to start blogging. Then I suddenly realized, that I almost always take wrong decisions when I'm impulsive (Strange that I could realize this when I was in the process of impulsivse buying!). I closed the browser soon - the only way I could save myself from another impulsive shopping attack!
The Enlightenment
This is not about impulsive shopping anyways. This is about blogs and hosting. What are the most common things that bloggers consider when they first start blogging? (Other than Should I start today? Or should I start at all? I mean, there are thousands of bloggers already, who's gonna read my thoughts on the web? - Let's assume that we have crossed this stage). I mean, do you buy a domain and find a hosting provider (There are supposedly free hosting providers, just Bing them - yes BING, it's new and gives the results, so why not use it?) Or do you just go with a blog service? What happens about the data if your blog service provider goes down, to the center of the earth and comes out of the other end and escapes into the black hole of the universe (OK, I'll stop its journey there). What if I want to create a brand at a later stage? Wouldn't the service provider's url be in its way?
Yes, these are the questions I asked myself. And you know what I chose!
Blogger!
And my thought process to land in this decision was simple. This is my first blog post (yes, I finally added my share to the noise). I don't know if I can blog at all! So, going with a free blogging service provider like Blogger was the obvious choice. I could play around here, learn to write and use it like a launch pad for something big. I could even point a domain to this site. And guess what, I don't even have to reveal my name! (Those who know me closely, know this screen name of mine - But they know my other abnormalities too anyway!) So, if this turns out to be a bad experience, I can still move on! Easily!
Any beginners out there who've had similar experiences? Would love to know!
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