There are some things money can't buy

This morning I stopped at a petrol bunk and bought ₹1500/- worth petrol. It was around 8.30AM, they had a limited number of newspapers over there, and the guy handed me a newspaper as a gesture of good will. They are probably advised to give newspapers to anyone who bought above ₹1000/- or so. That's not the point, I was amazed by the fact that I got a prajavani newspaper. Although I have Vijaya Karnataka newspaper subscription delivered to my home everyday and I don't look often because newspaper in my view is (bad)newspaper, because they always have news of someone died of accident, money fraud, stock market loss, bad movie reviews etc. Irrespective of that, a free newspaper lifted up my mood today. Sometimes, simple things bring back the smile we lost or often ignored in the hurry of life. 

As one of mastercard ad goes, there are some things money can't buy, for everything else, there's mastercard. I am not paid to post this, it just came to my mind, as the conclusion for this short story. 

Uncle, Lift Please

This morning I was on my way to work and I have crossed Chickmagalur city limits and I was almost at the end of city premises and as I was passing by, listening to 90s Kannada songs and there were two kids, probably high school, or little younger, standing on the side of the road. At first I didn't noticed them, but they suddenly waved hand, asking for lift. They probably had the school bus missed or waiting for private bus, because rural route and all, I stopped suddenly. They asked, they have to go to Hukkund, the place I didn't know either, but I was pretty sure it was within 7km. So, I said yes and one of the kid sat on the back and I thought one more kid also sat behind him, I thought I felt the weight on two kids on the back of my bike and started the bike and started moving forward. The kid beside me and the kid on the ground, who has not sat yet apparently, which I didn't checked apparently, started shouting Uncle Uncle. I realised my mistake and stopped, the kid sat and we started moving forward. On the way, they were discussing about academics, that preetham guy from their class, Pushpa movie and various other things. While I was just focusing on the music in top shirt pocket, music playing out loud, not earphones plugged, I couldn't stop overhearing them talk. I relived few moments of school days, thought about the silly things we did and all the things we wanted to do when we would grow older. Their school destination arrived and they asked me to stop, they said thanks and waved me goodbye and continued their talk on various topics. And so, they went on their way and I started my bike to go on my way. 

Here's How I Think Pushpa 3 Should End

I wrote Pushpa 3 Climax even before watching Pushpa 2, so if there are any continuity errors, please ignore.

This morning I woke up at 2.30AM or so and I was casually surfing social media and such and there was a scene posted in X, saying, "Why did they deleted this scene in from movie?". The clip had a sequence from Pushpa 2, where there is a kid's cricket tournament, and he hands cup, cricket bat and such to kids and a bunch of kids dress up exactly like him and they start dancing and Allu Arjun joins them and it goes on. As of 19/12/2024, I haven't watched Pushpa 2 movie, so I didn't knew if they had kept or deleted that scene from the movie. After a while, I was on YouTube and a song was recommended to me on my timeline and It was Pushpa Pushpa song from Pushpa 2, halfway through it, I saw that exact scene with kids and sports tournament in song and was confused, did they deleted that scene or kept it, it's just pure elevation sequence written around Pushpa, and I also came to knew they have kept plans to make Pushpa 3 in the near future and all these kids dressed up as Pushpa, everyone giving respect, obeying all his orders etc got me thinking and I was trying to sleep, but couldn't and I thought of perfect way to end Pushpa 3.

After a while, I thought, maybe the ending I thought was inspired from Kaddipudi movie, so original or remake or inspired, thought to present what I had dreamt off. Pushpa succeeds to overcome all the hurdles and challenges life thrown at him and he becomes a politician llmuch like Rao Ramesh in the movie and may become Chief Minister also, how he ends up there is not my problem, it's Sukumar's as he has to write the whole movie, I only wrote climax. Jokes aside, Pushpa is now CM and one day he travels from Hyderabad to his village near Tirupati or a temple Pooja or something and everyone was waiting for him and he enters the arena, he takes off his footwear and starts walking barefoot and everyone sat on the chair starts standing up as he is the chief minister of the state. One kid, probably 13 years or so, sat at the end of the line wouldn't stand up, his Orphanage teacher scolds him that he should respect elders, teachers and the people who run the state and so, He says, "51/100 people have voted for him, that's why he's Chief Minister, if the same 51/100 people have voted you, you would also become Chief Minister, there's nothing greatness in it, any criminal can become CM" and says the following in Telugu, Nellore slang, "Daaniki, meelaga chadavala enti, vaadi kosam nenu enduku nilchivali". The scene cuts to the kid and it's revealed he's the song of Jaali Reddy, one of his rape victim, thought to keep the baby, despite everyone saying no. 

a Sukumar film strikes on the screen 

Roll Credits

Between The Rock and A Hard Place

(Before You Read This: I filtered out few parts of my previous article Sigada Aakashakke Kai Chaachi and added few things, it's almost same except few parts, it may give slightly different feels or not, I don't know since I'm not a reader, hope I have cleared it up for you, and now please, read on)

The other day I asked a question on my WhatsApp status, "Are you happy?". An hour later, it had 48 views, but nobody responded. I was disappointed and thought to delete it, but couldn't do it. I thought to myself, "I don't know, if they're happy or not, they're are certainly busy". I slept off and I woke at 2AM to drink water, turned on net and went to kitchen and while coming back, my phone is ringing with back to back notifications. One of my friend replied with "Not sure, probably yes". I forgot the question I asked few hours ago and replied with question mark emoji and he said that it was his answer to my question, "Are you happy?". It was a simple yes or no question, I was prepared for a yes answer and a no answer. I wasn't prepared for a 'in between' answer. It opened up a chain reaction of thoughts that sparked both of us with self awareness and burden of philosophy, like that Danny Boyle movie, 127 hours, figuratively stuck 'Between A Rock and A Hard Place'.

It took me back few days down the memory lane. A kannada movie named Koti released few months ago starring Daali Dhananjaya. The movie is basically about a lower class guy, who tries to attain a happy and comfortable life for him and his family. That's all I know about that movie. If you are retired from watching movie at theatre like me, or watch one or other movie like one in Sankranti and other in Deepavali, you too probably wouldn't know much about this movie either as It didn't had any big promotion events or such. I was randomly watching YouTube and it had a video of an interviewer asking, what would you do if you get One crore now? At this day and time, It's almost impossible to make a feature length movie under one crore. Movie making has become the costliest business industry in our country. You win big or lose big and straight one way ticket to C/o footpath. Of course there are multiple movies that made more than ₹1,000 Crores this year. That proves one thing, India is not a poor country and you ca definitely make a ₹1,000/- crore movie with proper attempt. But the number of people that disappeared trying to do so is Error 404: Data not found. Coming back to that YouTube interview, few said, they would buy car, start own business, buy an home and settle all the loans etc. As per one of the reports from Deccan Herald newspaper, India's top 1% of rich population holds, 40% of country's wealth. It means if India is a classroom with ₹100 rupees, 99 students has ₹60 altogether. That's not even ₹1/per student and it's definitely concerning. Earning one crore in a lifetime is a dream milestone achievement for many of us, correction , all of us. Considering the inflation and all, imagine an average household income of a middle class family is nearly ₹30,000/- for a family of 3 people. Hypothetically speaking, let's say, a family of three, where both husband and wife are earning, and they earn together ₹30,000/- pm and assuming they have saved each rupee assuming they don't need food, shelter and other basic needs, they would almost need to work for 28 years. Hypothetically speaking, let's say I have One Crore with me now. Even if I have that, I am already poor than several million people in my country. But I'm richer than crores of people in the same country. So, should I be happy about the fact that I have One Crore, or should I be sad that even if I have One Crore, I will just be rich for the majority of the country but a poor fellow when compared to Richie Rich type of people. It's a glass half full, half empty approach. I also thought what would I do, If I had One Crore with me right now. I had various plans to spend or save or invest my hypothetical One Crore. There are many things I thought I would do If I accidentally had One Crore. I stopped for a while and thought about something other than this. Wait, before I had this hypothetical One Crore, Was I happy? Or the arrival of this hypothetical One Crore made me happy? I think I was happy and after attaining the hypothetical One Crore I would be happier. Let's say, I will have One Crore for one year and it's not spent till another 365 days. So, for rest of the year, would that One Crore stop me from being sad for any reason? Because, technically, I was happy before the money, I was happier after the money, the happiness is increased, and over a period of time, If I still have that money and be sad, what's the point of having it? Technically I am richer than yesterday me, but I'm poorer than tomorrow me, which brought me back to my friends answer to my question "Are you happy?" He said, "Not sure, probably yes" and his answer started to make sense to me.

The index of happiness is always moving and nothing gives us happiness anymore. We can be happy for some time, but the happiness wouldn't last long. Because, you know what makes human happy? Nothing, nothing makes us happy. Of course, money may solve many of the problems, but it wouldn't solve all of the problems. Poor people have sad moments, rich people also have sad moments in their life. The only difference is one cry sleeping in footpath and one in their multi bedroom villa. So, even if we are happy now, we always will crave more. 

Some say, when you're happy, you enjoy the song, but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics. Going back to the question, "Are you happy?" Both me and friend are definitely more rich than few people in our society, Ignore society, we are atleast some percent rich than what we were few years ago, considering inflation too. We are earning more, spending more, heck we are also saving more, but why did it stopped us from saying yes when me and friend when we asked each other the same question, "Are you happy?" Because, even if we are higher and closer to sky than we were yesterday, the sky is and will always be more far and will remain unreachable, and it always feels we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We can never ever be satisfied with what we have today, the sky is always expanding and the wealth is never enough. I kept thinking about that line often and now and made me think, why we bother reaching the sky when we never will be able to reach it, Instead let's just be happy that we are still touch with the ground, standing on earth, smelling the roses and such. But never give up on yesterday's dreams to achieve it tomorrow. It's okay to try to reach the sky and fail, but it's never okay to not try. I asked my friend for advice on upcoming promotion exam, he only said one thing, "Move On, Grow On, Don't get stuck on the same page of that book, Read On further." And somehow it made sense to me and hopefully to you too. Have a Happy Today, Happier Tomorrow.

Sigada Aakashakke Kai Chaachi

The other day I asked a question on my WhatsApp status, "Are you happy?". An hour later, it had 48 views, but nobody responded. I was disappointed and thought to delete it, but couldn't do it. I thought to myself, "I don't know, if they're happy or not, they're are certainly busy". I slept off and I woke at 2AM to drink water, turned on net and went to kitchen and while coming back, my phone is ringing with back to back notifications. One of my friend replied with "Not sure, probably yes". I forgot the question I asked few hours ago and replied with question mark emoji and he said that it was his answer to my question, "Are you happy?". It was a simple yes or no question, I was prepared for a yes answer and a no answer. I wasn't prepared for a 'in between' answer. It opened up a chain reaction of thoughts that sparked both of us with self awareness and burden of philosophy, like that Danny Boyle movie, 127 hours, figuratively stuck 'Between A Rock and A Hard Place'.

It took me back few days down the memory lane. A kannada movie named Koti released few days starring Daali Dhananjaya. The movie is basically about a lower class guy, who tries to attain a happy and comfortable life for him and his family. That's all I know about that movie. If you are retired from watching movie at theatre like me, or watch one or other movie like one in Sankranti and other in Deepavali, you too probably wouldn't know much about this movie either as It didn't had any big promotion events or such. I was randomly watching YouTube and it had a video of an interviewer asking, what would you do if you get One crore now? At this day and time, It's almost impossible to make a feature length movie under one crore. Movie making has become the costliest business industry in our country. You win big or lose big and straight one way ticket to C/o footpath. Of course there are multiple movies that made more than ₹1,000 Crores this year. That proves one thing, India is not a poor country and you ca definitely make a ₹1,000/- crore movie with proper attempt. But the number of people that disappeared trying to do so is Error 404: Data not found. Coming back to that YouTube interview, few said, they would buy car, start own business, buy an home and settle all the loans etc. As per one of the reports from Deccan Herald newspaper, India's top 1% of rich population holds, 40% of country's wealth. It means if India is a classroom with ₹100 rupees, 99 students has ₹60 altogether. That's not even ₹1/per student and it's definitely concerning. Earning one crore in a lifetime is a dream milestone achievement for many of us, correction , all of us. Considering the inflation and all, imagine an average household income of a middle class family is nearly ₹30,000/- for a family of 3 people. Hypothetically speaking, let's say, a family of three, where both husband and wife are earning, and they earn together ₹30,000/- pm and assuming they have saved each rupee assuming they don't need food, shelter and other basic needs, they would almost need to work for 28 years. Hypothetically speaking, let's say I have One Crore with me now. Even if I have that, I am already poor than several million people in my country. But I'm richer than crores of people in the same country. So, should I be happy about the fact that I have One Crore, or should I be sad that even if I have One Crore, I will just be rich for the majority of the country but a poor fellow when compared to Richie Rich type of people. It's a glass half full, half empty approach. I also thought what would I do, If I had One Crore with me right now. I had various plans to spend or save or invest my hypothetical One Crore. There are many things I thought I would do If I accidentally had One Crore. I stopped for a while and thought about something other than this. Wait, before I had this hypothetical One Crore, Was I happy? Or the arrival of this hypothetical One Crore made me happy? I think I was happy and after attaining the hypothetical One Crore I would be happier. Let's say, I will have One Crore for one year and it's not spent till another 365 days. So, for rest of the year, would that One Crore stop me from being sad for any reason? Because, technically, I was happy before the money, I was happier after the money, the happiness is increased, and over a period of time, If I still have that money and be sad, what's the point of having it? Technically I am richer than yesterday me, but I'm poorer than tomorrow me, which brought me back to my friends answer to my question "Are you happy?" He said, "Not sure, probably yes" and his answer started to make sense to me.

The index of happiness is always moving and nothing gives us happiness anymore. We can be happy for some time, but the happiness wouldn't last long. Because, you know what makes human happy? Nothing, nothing makes us happy. Of course, money may solve many of the problems, but it wouldn't solve all of the problems. Poor people have sad moments, rich people also have sad moments in their life. The only difference is one cry sleeping in footpath and one in their multi bedroom villa. So, even if we are happy now, we always will crave more. It brings me to the title of this article, Sigada Aakashakke Kai Chaachi, the line is taken directly taken from Guntur Kaaram, Maava Enthaina song. It's a typical Sharan movie type "Enne Song", but in Telugu. On the outside the Thaman beats makes you want to dance, but Ramajogayya Sastry lyrics makes you question the existence of our life in the tiny rock called that's floating in the infinite universe. The beats overshadows the pain in the song, some of the lines include, "Yaado Ledu Lopam, Naa Meede Naaku Kopam" or the another "Naajukaina Naabotodiki Dina Dina Oka Narakam" and so on. But the line , "Andananna Aakashaniki Enthagani Egabadatham" caught me off guard as I wasn't prepared for philosophy in Enne Song and that too in Telugu. Some say, when you're happy, you enjoy the song, but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics. It brings us to the ethical dilemma of Thanos Snap, Avengers Infinity War movie brought us to. The movie released more than five years ago and we are still debating If Thanos was right?! He made half of population disappear, so that other half of humanity would thrive on the resources. There's also a theory where some said, he could've just doubled the resources. That sounds right, but we wouldn't know the practical feasibility of it and to experience that, we have to live in the Earth where superheroes are real, and as I much as I enjoy those superhero fiction, no I wouldn't live in the superhero world, thank you. Coming back to the song, I was vibing to Thaman beats and thought about the line, Andananna Aakashaniki Enthagani Egabadatham and I translated it to Kannada, "Sigada Aakashakke Kai Chaachi" and typed in notepad and thought it would be a good title to an article in future I may write someday. Going back to the question, "Are you happy?" Both me and friend are definitely more rich than few people in our society, Ignore society, we are atleast some percent rich than what we were few years ago, considering inflation too. We are earning more, spending more, heck we are also saving more, but why did it stopped us from saying yes when me and friend when we asked each other the same question, "Are you happy?"

Because, even if we are higher and closer to sky than we were yesterday, the sky is and will always be more far and will remain unreachable, and hence the title ಸಿಗದ ಆಕಾಶಕ್ಕೆ ಕೈ ಚಾಚಿ. We can never ever be satisfied with what we have today, the sky is always expanding and the wealth is never enough. I kept thinking about that line often and now and made me think, why we bother reaching the sky when we never will be able to reach it, Instead let's just be happy that we are still touch with the ground, standing on earth, smelling the roses and such. But never give up on yesterday's dreams to achieve it tomorrow. 

ಸಿಗದ ಆಕಾಶಕ್ಕೆ ಕೈ ಚಾಚಿ ಏನು ಫಲ?

ಜಗದ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಖುಷಿ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಇರುವಾಗ!

ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಸಾಗಿದೆ ಸುಂದರ ನಾಳೆಯ ಕಡೆ,

ಆದರೆ ಈ ದಿನವ ಕೂಡ ಸವಿಯೋಣ, 

ಮಳೆಯಲಿ ಜೊತೆಯಲಿ,‌ just ಮಾತ್ ಮಾತಲ್ಲಿ 

- PT

Kabhi Alvida Kehnaa

Chickmagalur is a tourist place, one of the perks of staying in a tourist place is we get to experience various languages and cultures at the compound of our own home, hypothetically speaking, doesn't mean standing exactly inside home compound. That being said, I was waiting for my bus and I was few minutes too early. It's December aka winter, so there's a high chance of your kids asking you permission to go on school tour. I was waiting for my bus, having coffee, noting down important tasks that I have complete today and etc, I was in completely different zone and while I was in that zone, a big travels bus full of kids passed by and it kinda slowed down near my stop because of the traffic. Kids, as you already know, are full of energy and enthusiasm, two of them in the bus were peeking at me and waving bye to me. I don't know them, they don't know me, and get they were waving alvida at me and it kinda confused me. They waited for many few seconds and the bus started moving and they were still waiting and waving me and then I kept my coffee glass aside and waved them back. They burst out smiling that I waved them back and waved again with more enthusiasm. That brought smile on face, and I went on ahead with a smiling face and then I was interrupted by shopkeeper saying, "Saar, Bill?!" I snapped back to reality, paid my bill and we moved on, as Oliver Tree song goes, "Life goes On" 

Sam's Rose

The other day I was going to work and saw two roses in our home garden. I remembered that quote, "The beauty of life is in each small moments, Stop and Smell the Roses". I also remembered I was later for work so I walked further faster. While I was coming back, there were few kids on the street bursting crackers, some coming back from tuition and such. J saw my sister talking with this 6 year old neighbour girl and I saw my sister offer those two roses, "Pick anyone among these two, one for you, and one for me" she said. Normally, I would not interact with kids, doesn't mean I hate kids, I usually avoid, because they're like these unskippable youtube ads, always high on energy and such. But I was curious, so I stood there at from distance, locked my phone and paid attention. She was happy that she got the rose and she was smiling, giggling and dancing, saying Thanks Akka and all that, and she picked the big one among two, leaving the half bloomed rose on my sister's hand. My sister got the small unbosomed rose and as she was about to place that rose on her hair, that little girl's mother intervened and said, "Sam, pick the small one". I kind of understood Interstellar, but I couldn't understand the mother's reasoning for picking small rose. I thought, picking a rose is like picking a smartphone, some like it big and latest, while some prefer minimal. But it was something more. The little girl was puzzled because she didn't understand the math behind her logic either. She kind of argued with her mother that she want the big rose, her mother went on to explain her. "The big rose is already fully bloomed and you can wear it on your head for one day, or it would last only half day if it's too sunny. But if you pick the small one, and place it in the glass with water, it'll bloom a little tomorrow and you can wear it for almost two days, you can wear that rose to your uncle's wedding too, which is two days from now. My brain couldn't fathom all that intelligence behind a simple choice of picking one rose when two roses are offered. The little girl nodded saying she understood what her mother said, but I doubt that. And then the little girl chose the small rose and she became happy for two days wearing that rose and she was bright and smiling on her uncle's marriage group photo. Two days later, that little girl Sam brought sweets to our home from her uncle's wedding and she offered it to me, I couldn't see her as I was busy calculating Income Tax deductions and other usual stuff. She said, "Uncle, take these sweets, I am very busy". I snapped back to reality and got sweet from her and said thanks to her. She happily smiled and while she was walking away I saw that rose on her head. It made me think, there were two ways to look into this. Sam is a little girl, she's living in the present, and as that line from kannada movie Nodi Swamy Naavirodu Heege goes, "Indu Enu Beku, Adara Chinte Saaku". She was all about having that pani puri today, if her stomach is upset because of that tomorrow, that's tomorrow's Sam's problem, not today's Sam's problem. While the mother had past experience, present data and future planning. So, she planned well and picked the small rose, a different choice that would give maximum benefits on her decision. One cannot always live in the past, it was beautiful or horrible, we cannot go back. Also, when we start living in the present, the present becomes the past and the future we waited for is already here as present. To conclude, there are more than one way to look at a problem, some think in the present and while some plan for the future. Either way, by the end of day, Sam had a rose and smile on her face and we should too, because life is all about those precious little moments, if we keep rushing, we wouldn't be able to stop and smell those roses.

Sigada Aakashakke Kai Chaachi Handwritten Version

I had the title for this article first and content later like around two weeks later. This article is raw copy of how I used to write before started typing directly in mobile. I kept my mobile for charging and didn't had any gadget in hand for like 30 minutes and hence this article is just like what it was before digital writing which involved usually lot of writing, strike off thoughts or inserting images. If you can not see the text clearly, I will send pdf to your mobile. If I get time, I will type and convert it to digital as usual, until then, please enjoy like old times, read on.