Mysore Dasara Exhibition Memories

Dasara Exhibition at Mysore has always been quite famous but was certainly more charming in those times.  Let me share unforgettable memories from my childhood and with a little bit of history.  This is a longish post because the memories are many. Read further....

Cobblers, Tyre sandals

Cobblers are an integral part of our society, along with barbers, tailors, doctors and so on.  Some prefer to be called as 'shoemakers' instead of 'cobblers', the same way, barbers like to be called 'hair dressers' or tailors like to be called as 'dress makers', etc.  Why, even the 'housewife' is now wanting to be called a 'homemaker'!  Read more....

Earliest memories of watching a movie

My earliest in my memory timeline of watching a film in a theatre dates back to the early 1960s. It was a matinee show.  The theatre was Ganesh Picture House.  The movie was Absent Minded Professor. (Read more..)

A magazine called Sport and Pastime

The Hindu is also probably the first to publish an exclusive magazine dedicated to sports. It started "Sport and Pastime" in 1947 under the leadership of S.K.Gurunathan...... (Read more..)

About Pencils

As young kids we yearned to get promoted from the slate and chalk (baLapa) level to the pencil and paper level.  The newer generation urban kids begin with the latter and they may not even be aware of the slate and baLapa though they know the blackboard in schools.  There used to be a 'slate baLapa' in the form of a pencil!  I used to write with ... Read more.....

Butterflies in my yard

Who does not want to stop and watch a colourful butterfly flutter by?  If you have a few flowering plants, shrubs and trees in your yard, the butterflies find them. It is for many reasons butterflies are great attractions to children and I grew up watching them in our yard, which hosted much greenery.  I still do.  Earlier we just watched them without observing much.  Read and see more images...

Toy Cars and Buses

Often, we young boys did not need a toy bus or a car to play the game of driving.  Just some running space was enough!  What a pleasure and feeling it was to 'drive' barefoot, making the most pleasant sound of the engine using the lips - 'brrrr brrrrrr'  and sometimes 'bbrrrooooom', when we sped!  While we had to make a horn, the engine had to 'stop'!  The 'vehicle' can be made to turn in sharp angles as well without changing gears.  When there was an opportunity to travel by..... Read more....

A strange coincidence of WTC 9/11

It is already ten years now since that fateful day which came to be referred as “9/11”.  The US has got rid of its mastermind (OBL) recently.  I don't need to decipher.  I would like to share a strange coincidence I came across in relation to this infamous terrorist act which has stuck in my memory.  I was in Chennai for a cricket engagement.  Read more...

About Pencils

The pencil was one of the most fought for item among school-going brothers or sisters at home.  Everybody wanted the longer or new pencil.  When I used to visit my maternal grandparents' house, I used to get attracted to the shortened pencils of my uncle lying in the shelf with his books.  See more...

Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting - how I have done

I collect from a rooftop area of about  380 square feet into the sump through filters. Using that calcuator, I get about 65,000 - 70,000 litres per annum. A rough figure from wastage from 'first flush' deducted. The sump capacity is about 7000 litres.  We will be using municipal water supply usually but during the regular rainy season, I stop the supply and utilize rainwater which keeps topping up the sump. See more.....

Wild Elephants run amok in Mysore City!

Morning of June 8, 2011, the news about a few (wild) elephants which had entered the city was spreading like wildfire all over.  Our mobile phone received a call too. Those who had cable TV network were watching live coverage of the 'event'. The local TV cameraman was there to catch the action. See more....

Clocks and Watches

The clock has always been a curious object wherever it is.  I grew up admiring a few of them at home as they ticked and showed time, effortlessly. I also used to wonder how they worked and what made them tick.  When I was old enough I discovered it when I laid my hands on them.

(Read more... in three parts/posts)

Zoology Practical Dissection

I have always been one - not one in a million, but among millions! -  to nauseate and run miles at the sight of a cockroach, leave alone slap at it with a broom when they were sighted in our house in their nocturnal outings.  [Read more...]

The days when we used to get our paddy

At the end of each harvest season our share of paddy used to be delivered at home in bullock carts. The good fortune of witnessing the grand arrival of paddy grown in our own land is mine.  I vividly remember .... (read on..)

Hotel Dasaprakash at Chennai to go

....... I had to read it with some curiosity because the great Hotel now stands for sale to give way to a multi-storey residential complex in a multi crore project.  My curiosity about this was because of its imprint in my memory from 27-4-1966 .... (read more.. )

Orchestra pollution

Noise and music, both are poles apart. Yet, Orchestra Parties produce the former in the name of the latter.  More the decibels, grander they think it is. They appear to be tuned to...more

Dasara Festival Doll Show

The festival of Dasara in our part of India is a very traditional one.  It is a time when all the toys and dolls go on show in our homes.  The festival usually comes in the end of September or early October. 

read on....

Mysore Dasara Horticultural Show

Another favourite rendevouz for locals and tourists alike, aside from the Palace and the Exhibition, during the Dasara festival, is the Horticultural Show at Curzon Park. Do you know that the first of the Mysore Flower Shows was organized nine decades back? It was opened by HH Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV on.... Read on..

Memories of my visit to Brihadeshwara Temple

After coffee, she asked me “Tamil terimaa?” (Do you know Tamil?) Boastingly, I replied in fluent Tamil, “Mmm, koncha koncha ...... Read more.

I happened to see a cyclist speed through. Suddenly I heard a man shouting ‘catch him’, sprinting towards me for help because he saw me 'on the blocks' of my scooter. By the time he could explain, gasping, the ‘cyclist’ had vanished in darkness (.....continue reading)