Anne Frank diary-keeper dies

Miep Gies,to whom all those across the globe who cherish human values owe a deep sense of gratitude, for having guarded this extraordinary document and giving a new lease of life to this young girl, died at the age of 100 in Amsterdam...More....

Primary School Drop Out Honoured by Engineers

The Institution of Engineers ,Mysore Chapter, honoured one such “uneducated” person last year, breaking its old two and a half decade old convention. What are the special traits, attributes or qualities these engineers saw or considered in that uneducated person as to distance itself from its self- established norms as to bring this fifth standard drop out as to drape him with shawl, read citation and eulogizing him along with retired engineers on the same dais....More

Happiness

People with varied interests, background and different strata of society come to my newspaper office daily. Some of them walk into my room and if I am free engage myself in conversation with them for a few minutes. Recently, a person, known to me for a long time, well placed in society, who retired after serving as a senior officer in the Central Government ,had come to meet me. He is fond of cars and changes his automobile whenever a new brand comes into the market...More

Sabu: Mysore's 'Slumdog', Hollywood millionaire

If there is an Oscar for life-time achievement of an actor in real life, it should have gone to Selar Shaik Sabu... Sabu, brought up in poverty in Mysore, and discovered by a British film maker, made his million in California...More...

Memo to TV9: Don't Give Up

Film stars, who with one voice, backed the TV 9 channel in calling for Government action. I wish TV 9 doesn't leave this here; would like to see their campaign taken to its logical conclusion,lest we forget Unnikrishnan and his sacrifice......

Heegu Untoe

TV 9 Kannada Channel in its programme Heegu Untoe (Can it be so), featured a phenomenon which like Cassandra in Greek mythology prophesies about the evils that befall upon those who intend to mine in the area,....

Media insensitivity

Journalists are given to adopting such clinical attitude to human tragedy , in their eagerness to get a good lead. I wonder if we react the same way, if the victims included our kith and kin.. . .More. . .

Rupee value of happiness

Mysore hotelier, Mr P V .Giri, once said observing the way in which construction workers lived and worked. In a moving lorry laden with “jalli” (gravel), Mr Giri observed, a coolie could have sound sleep, unmindful of the sharp edges of the gravel. . .More. . .

A Reddy Story

A leader whose loyalty was suspect got marginalized. This seems to have been the case with Mr Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. He was A P chief minister twice, AICC president, Lok Sabha Speaker, and the President. Yet Mr Reddy, in death, didn’t get the recognition he deserved from the ruling establishment of the day. . .More. . .

Krishna Vattam's Mission Karanji

I went to the zoo the other day on a search mission; to locate a mango I had planted by the Karanji Lake some 22 years back... While the others planted whatever sapling that was handed down to them by zoo officials, I was choosy about mango...More...

Anne Frank's ailing chestnut tree

Like most others the world over, I was touched by the concern and commitment of the people and authorities in Holland to preserving all that is associated with Anne Frank. In a sense, they are responding to the Anne’s urge “to go on living after my death”. . .More. . .

Vattam's encounter with the collector

One day as I was settling down behind some shrubs the district collector, returning home after morning stroll, along with his wife, spotted me . He stopped, picked up a stone, and flung it at me...More...

Krishna Vattam on the stir over a book

If only they (protestors) had gone through the book , they would have seen that their Leader, whom, they feel, was being pilloried by Mr Viswanath, was, in fact, glorified...We act impulsively, not realising that all of us are endowed with thinking faculties...More...

Animal torture

Seven bulls were sacrificed in this most cruel manner. Lakhs of people were witness to this barbaric ritual telecast by E TV Kannada On January 22 2008. This comes on the close heels of an another ritual of a differeent kind of torture of animals...More...

Krishna Vattam takes you back to 1975

I got lost going through the interim report of the Shah Commission when the New Year ticked by, Indian Standard Time. Not the best way to bid 'bye, bye' to 2007, but it wasn't my conscious decision to spend this moment refreshing myself about our days during the Emergency (1975-77)...More...

Of the judiciary and its activism

But I have not heard or read about a bench of the Supreme Court passing remarks on fellow judges of the same court. This act of the two-judge bench caused me concern for more than one reason...More...

The huttu habba mania

But in the recent years we are reminded of huttu habba of second line or third line leaders at district and taluk levels, not to speak of current or former ministers, what with sponsored ads , in colour, are published in regional Kannada dailies...More...

Of Gowda and Gandhi

If the general feeling in Karnataka is that JD(S) is a great betrayer, and a feeling that may be mellowed down as days pass on, it is not an issue concerning BJP or Lingayats to which community Mr Yediyuruppa belongs.It is one of values of Trust and commitment.. .More. .

Lakshmana's bombshell

Any hint that IT companies may be disinclined to start their units in Mysore or may shift the one established in Mysore will scare the real estate business houses who have in the recent past gone on investing money on the purchase of land by offering huge sums of money to farmers in and around Mysore. . .More. . .

A wildlife phenomenon

According to The Guardian, over ten million people have watched (click to access the story and watch the unmissable video clip) the “epic scrap since he put it in May, and one of the Web-site founders, has proclaimed as his favourite clip of all time... .More. . .