A Very Interesting TED Talk - Anders Olson on Breathing

 'Change Your Breath, Change Your Life' 

Really interesting stuff!

Raag Darbari - Shrilal Shukla

 The 1968 classic by Shrilal Shukla was originally written in Hindi and fetched the beaurocrat a Sahitya Academy award. It was translated from the Hindi by Gillian Wright in the 1990s. Much has been surely lost in translation but thanks to Wright I could get a sense of the original.

The story is set in a fictional town called Shivpalganj (inhabited by a bunch of chilled out villagers who called themselves ganjahas). One young man Rangnath, fresh from University with his head full of noble ideas of the world comes to the place to regain his health and stays with his uncle Vaidyaji. Vaidyaji is an ayurvedic doctor, President of the Cooperative Union, founder of the college and be all and end all of the village. His two sons. Badri, a wrestler and Ruppan Babu, a student leader, lend him their muscle. Vaidyaji rules the village and controls everything through his stooges such as the Principal of the college, a no gooder who he props as the village pradhan and so on. Trouble brews when Rangnath's ideas of justice and fairness upset the equilibrium of the village and others such as Khanna master who protests against the Principal rebel. A disturbed Vaidyaji resigns from his post and promptly props his eldest son to the post of President and gets rid of the masters and so on. Rangnath also leaves, when he finds that his health is much better but not before experiencing the full gamut of the ways and means of society's machinations and manipulations. Posts, cops, common men, lies, emotions, grandstanding all work together and create a satirical take on life as we know it.

Raad Darbari is a complex tune they say and the novel which represents a microcosm of India and its complexity is named after it. Shrilal Shukla brings to life the rhythm of society in India - privilege, caste, politics, duplicity, hypocrisy, helplessness - all within that little town and its few characters. It's funny because its just too true and Shrilal Shukla captures every bit as it is. Thanks Vinod bhai for the book. Loved it.   

The Hyderabad Literary Festival 2026

 This time there were no names I knew so it was more to check out the place. Vinod said he would go all three days and I found a nice gap on the afternoon of the 26th so I headed straight there from the Heritage walk. We went straight into lunch at the food court, ate a bit and then sat in a panel discussing Digital something - Santosh Desai (I liked his 'Mother Pious Lady') and Vandana Vasudevan. Then we strolled over to get a look at Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee and it was full house so we sauntered back to the food court and snacked on stuff.

The best venue for HLF for me has been HPS. I loved the food court there - a nice open tent where you could sit for hours!

Met Vijay of Blue Pencil, Praveen, Suresh, Sridhar Sattiraju, Vinod Pavarala, Serish Nanisetty, Naren, Shwetha among others Bought Serish's book on Hyderabad 'Golconda Bagnagar' and got it signed. Vinod recommended it highly. I also wanted to meet Namita Devidayal if I could but missed her. I loved her 'Music Room' which I remember was instrumental in making me visit the Mahalakshmi Temple in Kolhapur.

I never get the energy at Sattwa which is too dissipated.

Anyway, we split at around 430 because I had to go someplace.

Hyderabad by Walk - British Residency

 I did visit British Residency twice before last year - once in one of my tanhai walks and once with Tanya - but this one was different. It was by Deccan Archives and I quickly checked if Vasu was game and he was. So a quick breakfast at Poorna Tiffins and we joined Safwan and gang for a dekko at the British Residency. Dheeraj led the walk in the absence of Sibgat and Wahaj. There were some 15 participants which included Ajay and Mukhtiar.

The British Residency from the back (or front)

Empress Gate

Empress Gate

Off we went to the Empress Gate which was the gate that was the main entrance - huge to let elephant's pass. Anyway it faces the Musi and the old city which is where the Nizam's lived. 

A High Flood Level mark indicates the height to which the flood rose. Then to the cannon presented by Mahbub Ali Khan to the Resident. Through the Lansdowne gate to the Rang Mahal garden where the renovated British Residency model stands. 

Stepwell

Cannon presented by the VIth Nizam to the British Resident

Going right through the middle of all this are excavators, trucks and stuff which are engaged in constructing a new sports field in the place where the kitchen once stood. Anyway I walked through the small cemetery where several Britishers are laid to rest. 

Model of the Residency

Cemetery

Darbar Hall

Then to the British Residency itself where there is now a few of 100/150 bucks to enter and another 100 or so to take pics inside. We saw the lions outside (earlier sphinxes), the columns, the pediment, the capitals, the coat of arms. Then the darbar hall, its magnificent ceiling fully restored, the climb down to the dungeons, the climb up to the Oval office. Dheeraj said this design may have influenced the design of the White House.

Oval Office

Some advice to the girls

Many pics and such. This one written on the wall - A girl should be like  a butterfly, pretty to see, hard to catch! 

Vasu, Mukhtiar and me walked out, had a chai and then I got dropped off at Jubilee Hills to go to the Hyderabad Literary Festival where Vinod was waiting to have lunch.    

Thought for the Day - Trying is the Key to Success

It is not failure or success one needs to focus on - the word is 'trying'. One must die 'trying' which means one keeps at it despite ups and downs.

Our life is not about the ends - it is actually the journey or the process. Our life ends when we reach a 'success' or 'failure' so until then we must keep 'trying'. And if we are at it, chances are we will crack something, enjoy the journey and be able to smile.

That is all there is to it. Try and try again - until the end. 

Tere Ishq Mein - Movie

I stopped writing about movies for reasons best known to me but there are movies that make me want to write about them. 'Tere Ishq Mein' is one such. I like Anand L. Rai's work generally but what happens once in a while is that we have an idea in mind that is so subtle that it sometimes does not translate like how we want it to. I feel TIM is one such.

My guess is that the one liner - 'no one after our generation will ever know what it is to love like we do'  is the inspiration. And to prove this premise we need two people who love like no other generation can - ever. So we have a DUSU (Delhi University Student's Union) President who is very very very angry man inside and a v v v violent one too (like throwing Diwali rockets into crowds of people, beating up bus drivers until they bleed and such other stuff). He is capable of intense stuff you see and just does not care. Then we have a Psychology student whose thesis is to prove that violence in people can be cured - and she finds Mr DUSU President as the ideal subject for her study. When given the proposal he asks (as any sensible fellow would) why he should be subjected to whatever she wants to do. Of course the great academic that she is - she is ready to do anything to prove her thesis and further scientific knowledge (including booking a hotel room to give her study a taste of 'fun' - of which he seems to have no clue about). Anyway no fun occurs as he is put off by her aggressive methods.

Meanwhile, her methods to cure his violence include holding him and telling him not to hit people, to remember what she told him (which is not to be violent) and other such powerful stuff and he finally stops himself from hitting someone while her guides are watching - thus earning her a pass. That ends her love affair with him.

OK, there happens a dialogue where she says she will do what she has to do for her work and he will do what he has to do (basically be non violent) because of love. Now how they get into this situation I do not know but slowly she leans more to work and he leans more to her. In his love for her, he reveals his mother's name to her (which is a sign of vulnerability) but she does not really care because her work is done. I forget now why she visits him at his low class house where his notary filling father and his friend and he are eating dinner (he is eating sambar rice with a spoon for some reason) but she ends up inviting him home to meet her IAS Officer father who lives in a mansion more like a mafia don's and behaves like one. He has some dangerous dogs too which are in the background. Anyway he treats our man badly and we expect him to beat him up but our man suddenly has become completely helpless after he has fallen in love - which seems to be the real cure for violence and not her stupid methods.

Anyway he becomes completely pliable and also loses his mind - like not knowing what UPSC is and confusing it for CBSE (its a wonder if he knows what DUSU is also). Anyway mafia IAS man behaves like a full mafia don and tells our DUSU President that he can come back after clearing IAS prelims to ask for his daughter's hand. DUSU Pres promises like a good boy that he will come back after clearing prelims and until then he will not be in touch with her. His only condition (like true lovers) is that she should pick up his call when he calls. She agrees - probably hoping to change her number before that occurs.

While our man is trying to figure out what UPSC is and CBSE is and IAS is and such basic stuff, our heroine moves on to find a cute boyfriend confident in her knowledge that DUSU Pres will never clear anything now that he has fallen in love with her. She heads off to the USA for some higher degree. Meanwhile our man fails Prelims for two years and then clears in the third year - all because he wants to marry the young lady who does not love him. Somewhere here the boy, his father and friend decide that it is an occasion to buy new clothes as if they have been invited to their engagement and when they visit her house they find that they are dressed up - for someone else's engagement! They leave I think.

Anyway our non-violent man comes back when she is getting engaged to her boyfriend and she does not pick up the phone. Non violent man turns into an arsonist and decides to burn the house down because he has promised her that if she does not pick up his phone he will burn Delhi down (which he does not - he only burns a few curtains). Anyway cops and fire brigades come and take him away.

Come father of the arsonist and mafia don makes him fall at all his servants feet to apologise for his son's mistake and we all cringe at it but actually he totally deserves it for messing with the IAS don. IAS Don tells him to collect his son who has been beaten black and blue which is also fair since that fellow tried to burn Delhi down. On their way back home father tells his son something he never told him all these years - that he wants his son to fly the fastest plane in the sky because he could not afford to buy his son a toy plane when he was a kid. Why he never told his son such a nice dream in all these years I do not know but he says that and then decides to show his son that his old Bajaj scooter can ride as fast as a plane and crashes - and dies!

Non violent boy goes to Varanasi with his father's body (that should be an expensive affair - ambulance etc) instead of simply taking the ashes and meets one crazy guy who seems to talk in riddles about Shiva and Mukti and Shankar and Parvati and tells the boy to burn in his love. Something happens after that and suddenly girl falls in love with our man and takes to drinking while boy finds meaning in life - to become a fighter pilot - in fact the best fighter pilot ever. She becomes an alcoholic pregnant counsellor with the defence academy.

Now the face off - our man has been grounded by his boss for disobeying orders and suddenly war had broken out - and we need our best pilot. But hey, he needs clearance from the alcoholic, drug addicted counsellor who is pregnant and deeply in love with the guy she never loved. She does not want to sign because if she signs he will fly off and die and if he does not fly her husband will drown and die (he is in a ship you see). Anyway our man promises like the noble Karna that one will remain - he or her husband and then flies into one solo enemy ship and that ends the war and the film.

How this has proved that love like this will never ever happen for generations ever I did not understand. In fact if this is love it is better that the generations to follow do not subject themselves to it. It has arson, self hate, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, suicidal tendencies, philandering and many such illegal stuff. In the end there is an imaginary scene where she is walking with our man to the fastest plane and his father is dancing in the background! Someone tell me who loves whom and how it is actually being shown - she loves booze, he wants to die - that's what I figured.

Overall, amazing! Like I once wrote a novel because someone wrote a bad novel, I am sure someone will get inspired to make a film after watching this. There are many small details I am forgetting but it is already too long and I feel I have also got it out of my system by writing. Hey, maybe I think I should be the one to write scripts now.          

Thought for the Day - The Quiet People

The world is full of quiet people. They know they truth but fear saying it. 

The world is also full of noisy people. They mostly speak untruths or half truths. 

Wonder if there will be a balance between these two ever.

Sufi Basant Tradition - Dargah Hazrath Shaik ji Hali RA, Urdu Shareef

When I first saw the news item in the newspaper about this event I decided to attend. Luckily Vasu was game so we headed off to Pathergatti. Considering the traffic we parked near Salar Jung Museum and hitched an auto ride to Pathergatti.

The entrance to the Dargah

The tombs of the Sufi saints

The Dargah Hazrath Shaik ji Hali RA, Urdu Shareef is in a small gully off Urdu Gali and we could see the sign from afar. The entrance to the Dargah was painted yellow and we knew that this was the place. 

Marble structures decked in yellow

The musicians with the organisers

Fully decked up

We stepped in and there were these beautiful marble structures over the tombs in the middle. They were decked up in yellow, there were chrysanthemums by the dozen, yellow lights on the top in celebration of Basant Panchami or spring. 

The stage where the musicians played from

The dress code was specified as wearing something yellow so we both wore yellow kurtas. We also bought yellow caps which were being sold and for good measure got a yellow pagdi done up for us. Since we were early we sat and waited. There was a stage like space to the far end with chairs so we sat and waited. 

According to Muzaffar Ali Soofi Chisti who has been organising this event since 2014, it is a 750 year old Sufi Basant Tradition which goes back to the times of Nizamuddin Aulia. When he lost his nephew and withdrew his disciple Amir Khusrau wanted to lift his spirits. He saw men and women dressed in yellow singing songs and playing the dhol and found that they were celebrating Basant Panchami. He also dressed in yellow and went to his master singing songs and this lifted his spirits. This is the tradition that is being continued. 

Govind ki bandi

The crowd was of multiple faith - there were Buddhist monks, pastors, holy men of all religions. Some foreigners, students, beurocrats, civilians. People sat on chairs, on the floor. Some VIPs came and were seated.

The evening began with a Sarangi-Sitar jugalbandi by Md Aslam Khan and Sai Santosh. Then there was a semi-classical vocal recital by Bhushan on tabla with Aslam Khan on sarangi. The final piece was a Qawwali by Warsi brothers Nazeer and Naseer and Shabaz Ali Khan. The sound system was below par.

Vasu and I sat near the tombs where many people slowly drifted to thanks to the loud sound system. We headed out after the Qawwali and snacked at Govind dosa followed by a lassi at Agra Sweets. Loved the street food, the old city vibe. Decided to come back again and walk the streets sometime soon.

Overall a nice experience.

All About H. Hatterr - G.V. Desani

 Govindas Vishnoodas Desani (1909-2000), journalist, writer, lecturer and educator, was born in Kenya in a family that owned a general store selling wood fuel. A rebel, he ran away from home a few times, was expelled from school, and went to England to escape an impending arranged marriage. He did not know English and taught himself the language - worked as a film extra, an artist's model, a journalist, worked with the BBC. He wrote 'All About H. Hatterr' in 1948 about the plight of the common man in a multicultural world. Smart he was, teaching himself Hindi, Urdu, Sindhi, Sanskrit, Pali and English. Unhappy, he went seeking gurus and fakirs in India and learned Vipassana. He worked for the 'Illustrated Weekly' then. Fro someone who never completed school he became a Professor at the University of Texas in 1969 and taught Buddhism, yoga, Nadi astrology, occult craft etc. After 40 he went into learning obscure mantras and tantrik crafts. Many times I feel the story of the writers is even more fascinating than the characters in their books. 

'All About H. Hatterr' (1948) is a classic for its unique use of language while addressing the common man's stupid dilemmas. DV Desani has a crazy sense of humour as can be seen from his small conversation with his literary agent who asks him what this work should be called - he says it should be classified under a 'gesture'/ To which the agent says that the 'rank and file' would not know what a gesture was and Desani says, then classify it as  a novel for the rank and file. 

Hatterr is an Anglo-Malay (English father and Malay mother) who is brought up by a Scot in India and who is in search of wisdom and enlightenment and in his search meets sages of Calcutta, Rangoon, Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Mogulsarai-Varanasi and even an All India sage. Along with his pal Banerji who encourages Hatterr (who has a penchant to fall into traps set for him by these holy men), the road to wisdom is paved with trouble. He finds himself giving his clothes to a sage in exchange for a towel stolen form the Railways only to find that the sage and his assistant are running a second hand clothes racket under the guise of being a sage. Another time he ends up trying to win the affections of a married lady who entices him to lie down in front of a lion which is supposed to eat its dinner - a slice of meat - off his chest. Another sage finds him facing a charge of taking money from someone which he had not. Characters like Y. Beliram, Advocate, Sadanand or always happy, Master Ananda Giri Giri keep popping up as Hatterr embarks on his mad hatter journey in his search of enlightenment and frequently finds himself at the wrong end of the stick - losing his clothes or money or something else.

I cannot review this book because it is so fantastic in its style, structure, narrative, characters, their motivations, their language. It is as it begins, so irreverently, as a 'gesture' and takes us through a merry go round of their common dilemmas, wants, desires and how each time they find themselves justifying their fate when they end up being conned. The end was even more fantastic as he writes a series of notes which I could not help reading despite knowing that it will just drive me up the wall. But it is compelling and you don't want to miss a word though it does not make sense as a linear structure - it's best described then as he says it 'a gesture'. And so it will go into books like 'Kim', 'Kanthapura', 'Catch 22' and such which I think will have no parallel in their uniqueness.

Fantastic. Thanks Vinod bhai for the gift.      

Thought for the Day - Stress and Control

When we are stressed we are trying to control and outcome. Let go of control and there's no stress. 

It doesn't mean we don't follow process. We just don't try to control the outcome. Do your best without attachment to the outcome. No stress.

 Whatever is best will happen. 

Hyderabad by Walk - Chilkur Excursion

Deccan Archives posted a walk to Chilkur today and I decided to join up. I went early and the maps took me to the middle of a small town, past the road that goes to the famous Chilkur Balaji temple or the US Visa Balaji temple. The roads split left and right and I stopped in the middle and headed to the little hotel and ordered an idli. Never do that normally but I did. Steaming hot and four in one plate which I did not expect.

Oldest temple in the region - Chenna Keshava temple perhaps

Chilkur I gathered is a village established 1500 years ago. It was ruled by Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Kakatiyas, QutbShahis, Nizams. The Archeological Department began excavations in 1948 and many inscriptions of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain temples have been found and shifted to the Golconda Archeological museum.

8th century Rashtrakuta time pillar

By the time i was done with my four idlis Sahwan called and asked me to join them at the lake bund. I headed back and met them at the bund. 

Kakatiya time lake - one of the oldest in the region

Kakatiya time weir

The lake they say is one of the oldest. To prove that there is a small weir at one end built by the Kakatiyas. A couple of small half done pillars there which Dheeraj said had Rashtrakuta influences. The concept they said was of TTT - temple, tank and town. Then a lovely stone sculpture of a woman.

Katta Maisamma temple with pillars

Rock sculpture - just lying there

Across the road was a Katta Maisamma temple and there were these pillars again. Further up we walked into the village and saw another old temple which they said could be one of the oldest, maybe even 8th century. It was built over and made bigger. Right next to it was a Qutb Shah mosque, again, built over and modernized. 

Old dargah with deep sthamb

Old temple - Mallikarjuna temple I think

Hero stone

Another temple which had stone plaques with hero stones just placed there. Quite interesting. 

Lovely old house

Old tomb

Qutb Shahi era mosque

We found the fortifications in the village, a couple of bastions, one well preserved. Lovely little houses, old tiled roofs. Can't escape the creeping concrete though. 

Bastion - rammed mud

Statue of Sardar Paparayudu

We walked back after a couple of hours. One big realisation I had was that I would have missed every single one of these historical pieces if I had just driven through (I did many times before and never saw anything). In fact a couple of times I could not see what was right in front of my eyes. Made me aware of a whole new way to look at things around.

Loved the experience. Thanks Deccan Archives.

Thought for the Day - Happiness is Freedom

When will you be happy? When I'm free. When will you be free? When i have no shackles and nothing to stop me. 

When can you shake off your shackles? When I have clarity about what I want and act accordingly. When will you have clarity? When I don't have two thoughts - about what others will think about me and my actions. 

So, happiness comes from feeling free of shackles, from clarity that keeps you and what you want in focus. 

Simple.

Thought for the Day - Like Kites Tangled in Trees

Was watching kites being flown from Neville's terrace yesterday. So many houses and terraces full of people fitting kites, playing music, livening up their lives. The joy of seeing their kite flying and the sadness of losing a kite.

And then i saw this tree full of tangled kites that once flew and now got stuck in its branches. And next to it is a terrace full of washed clothes pinned to the clothes line so they will not fly away. Both kites and clothes bound from flight. 

And like kites we get tangled in trees. And if we're lucky we get to fly again. Or maybe there's hope, like with the clothes, that someone will release you.

Happy Bhogi!

I love walking the streets during Bhogi and Sankranti time. The morning bhogi bonfires, women cleaning up their front yards and settling down to draw muggulu, people flocking round the fires.

 

So when I stepped out of home at 615 it was just dawn but on both sides I could see the glow of beautiful bhogi fires. As I walked past them there was this warmth that came through. Couple of old gentlemen in our colony went about complimenting each fire maker.

 

And then this, two women from the house in front of mine, deeply engrossed in drawing the muggu. The care they take in drawing, coloring and giving messages is beautiful. Its as if they are given permission to do that this particular day or festival. And they do it with all the passion of an artist.

Bhogi mantalu

Most had proper logs. Few had old wood to burn. One place I saw an old stool being burnt. Then many rotten old planks that were being burnt. One cute one in SR Nagar with twigs and dried wood. I saw one solitary old man with the littlest fire and he was burning some cloth.

Big one!

This was a huge one, with big logs, the biggest I have seen in years. Some of them had a vessel on the fire - wonder what they were heating!  In this big fire, some of the logs were colored - again, wonder if there is some significance. 

Happy Bhogi

Liked the symbol of a fire and the message!

Beautiful

This one I saw in front of a house in SR Nagar. It must have been done well before my walk because the door and the gate were shut. But it was so striking. 

Another elaborate one with a message 'Sankranti Subhakankshalu'.

I found that colonies like ours or Czech colony had proper fires with logs and even a base. I could see the watchmen of each apartment going about making arrangements. I decided to go to the Sanatnagar area where the roads are narrower. Surprisingly far fewer fires there.  

This was one of the few fires and I liked how most people in the apartment came down and clicked a picture. In fact the one clicking a picture is a passerby they caught and got to click. One happy bunch they were.

Happy Bhogi!