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Encounters
with R K Narayan
It's
not everybody who has had the privilege of being
R K Narayan's neighbor for about two decades,
which I did when I lived in Yadavagiri Extension
in Mysore city. I had a chance "encounter"
with him playing cricket with my younger brothers
in the summer of 1982 and I developed a special
personal relationship with him. It is only fitting
that I should like to write about it on the first
death anniversary of this literary genius, a noble
soul with a warm and humane personality who lived
in an "ivory tower" and was yet accessible
to people. Read
On
"Horse-trading"
an alarming trend in Indian politics
The
'defection' of NCP MLA Padamkar Vali to Shiva
Sena which he now claims to have been under duress
(that is under the threat of blackmail and his
latest turn about and 'redefection' to the NCP
have given a bizarre dimension to the political
crisis. Is then there not a case for amendments
to the anti-defection law so plug the loopholes
in it? It is a case of the remedy being worse
than the disease, as the prospective defectors
and their abettors have to engineer defections
on a fairly large scale to circumvent the anti-defection
law. Thanks to their evil genius, the Indian ruling
class is able to circumvent any law, which ties
them down to a set of democratic norms. Read
On
The
Fable of the donkey in the guise of a Tiger
This
comes in the wake of the vulgar display only last
week of strength by the major political parties
in support of their candidates in the run up to
the filing of nomination papers for the Narasimharaja
Legislative Assembly seat in Mysore city especially
by the Congress party was sickening. The most
objectionable part of course was the tableau portraying
the saint among kings Hazrath Tippu Sultan-e-Shaheed
as part of the procession, which was in bad taste.
Read
On
My
Father
No
body bothered to contact my father after the release
of the cine-actor. Quite a few people felt that
Mr. Rajkumar should have called on my father as
a matter of courtesy. But my father has no regrets.
As a matter of fact, none of us has any
regrets over it. We are all very happy that he
was released safe, true to our hopes and expectations.
It was a spineless establishment dancing
to the tune of the outlaw that believed that something
terrible might happen to the hostages, if they
did not capitulate to the bandit's demands, until
the Apex Court showed them their place on my father's
Appeal. Read
On
Azeez
Sait...
It
was sickening to read about the episode involving
Azeez Sait who smoked cigarettes at public functions
on August 11th and again on the Independence day
in utter violation of the ban on smoking in public.
In the first incident, he smoked right under the
nose of the Home Minister and what is more the
DGP & IGP of Karnataka, even as the authorities
looked on helplessly. Read
On
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