Yoohoo...

I will join office again tomorrow after a break of 3 months. Really excited about it :-) .

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

happy anniversary

Dear Viswam babai and Padma Pinni, Happy Anniversary and many happy returns!

Fusion music...

I recently found this artist's albums in youtube while I was searching for
carnatic, fusion type music. He is Sri V.S. Narasimhan. He is very well known for his violin work for the album 'How to name it' and 'Nothing but winds' by Illayaraja.
His recent albums are of fusion nature(Carnatic Classical and Western classicals).

I recently listened to his latest album called 'Raga Saga'. The blend of Carnatic and Western classical is just divine. Being an ardent carntic music lover, I was able to truly enjoy and appreciate fusion music. Primary instruments being used are viola, violin, and few other Western instruments.

Worth a try listening...

Few youtube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcpVyvn5vKk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hND-f9zKGbE&feature=related

More on music later...

Anaconda: Terror on Pookot Lake

For the 1st time on TV, presenting the preview of Anaconda-III! On a sleepy afternoon in Wayanad, Kerala, a pedal boat with Poonam was drifting along on Pookot Lake...when suddenly, a water snake attacked! As luck would have it, the paparazzi were around to record these startling reactions. Enough said..just watch the exclusive video! (And don't forget to turn on the speakers for the thrilling sound effects!)

poll

yeah i know! U can vote multiple times.
but it was a wake up call and nothing more.
did it nt stir many people.
BUT ALAS! THE RESPONSE IS STILL POOR!
krups! the ayes are SSV 3 times and Sudha once i b'lieve. and one no each too--- and Poonam too has cast a double vote according to her confession.
So that is that.

My new kindle

I just got a Kindle today, an early New Year gift :-) It's definitely easier than carrying multiple books around and is comfortable enough for reading. Standby for a detailed review.

Matahari in action!!!!

Neighbors are asking when is the last fight???????

Avatar

Went and saw the movie in IMAX 3D. Loved the technical effects. The 3-d came a long way in capturing movements etc, but emotion is still missing, especially in the eyes.

Story interpreted in multiple ways, following the latest preachy trends of ......you know whats!!!!!

Giovanni Ribisi - George W. Bush or Original Settlers
Omaticaya - Iraquis or Native Americans
Pandora - Iraq or America
Unobtainium - Oil or Land

Greedy invaders vs. good local people!!

Well deserved compliments

here it goes....

We were invited to a lunch party with some common friends who were visiting the area, and we invited a majority of that set for dinner for the same day.

Our original menu was kobbari annam, raita, roti and paneer butter masala, mainly because of a combination of easy to make and what my cook can cook. But when went to lunch we found the exact same menu, which forced us to do a last minute menu change. Amma rose to the occasion magnificently. With me being the helper, the work including prep, cook, clean and plate( as in serving presentation) was done in barely an hour. The final menu ended up as follows

1) Vankaya Kura - originally scheduled and already done
2) Mentikoora pappu
3) Kobbari perugu pachadi
4) Kandi pachadi
5) Pachi pulusu
6) Chintakai pachadi - "refreshed with popu"
7) Sambar
8) Appadams & vadiyams
9) Genusugadda sambar - "refreshed with popu and sambar podi"
10) Perugu
11) Avakaya - already made
12) Payasam - already made

I cooked 9 cups of rice for 11 people and ended up running out of rice. So sudha and I hung back while rice was still being cooked and ate in the end. Perugu pachadi and chintakaya were wiped out.

Big Big Kudos to amma.

On the same vein, we went to a potluck dinner tonight, where amma made her easy-peasy pulao that became a sensational hit. Once again, I underestimated the taste of the food, and unfortunately no one was able to get a second helping, and a few did not even get a first helping.

This is the third time in recent memory where I have run out of food when having people over. Either the food is tasting too good or I am skimping too much. I prefer to think it is the former..........

Story of Stuff

Yesterday we visited Sairam Bava (Ma's eldest brother's son)- we were discussing with him things on sustainability and other green stuff and he showed us this video in the same context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

This video answered lot of questions- biggest of all - growing unhappiness in people in todays world even when they have best of the stuff/luxuries for a common man which 100 years back even a "Raja" could not afford.

paa

me and sudha had private show of PAA screened for us.ha ha for that show he sold only TWO tickets

What happened to the recent comments widget?

Not Enough but it did create a stir even if I say so.

I anticipated this response. But not enough by my standards.

Gopal did come out. But otherwise the responders are the usual writers-posters.

I do agree with SRN and SVK.
It is an inspiration to many. Padma was telling me 2 days back that she reads it once a week and gets updated. So on and so forth.

21 authors and 26 votes!!!! who are the extra five? or was there false voting?
Who are the 4 ayes?

I. But the art of communication, in the present world, is the need of the hour and especially for the kids.
In the present job market, you should speak out and have your opinions which you should be able to justify.

You should have knowledge beyond your text books. Current themes and topics should interest you--anything from movies to politics to global warming. ANY thing, anything at all. We are a family known to argue about nothing. And yet , we disagree only to agree finally.

This blog is where you should express yourself, get corrected, correct the correctors and win or lose your arguments.
We the elderers guided the kids through the walking-running stages, saw them thru school and are seeing them thru college.

we want to see them become vocal, expressive and may be a little opinionated.
Too much to expect? I donot think so!!!

II. Poonam the artist has done really well. Sudha too can do it.
All the kids can do some posting. So can the silent (majority) adults.
If I am interested only in getting applauded, yes! this is the place. Let this not become a wahwah meeting of shayarees or the Subhakankshalu blog.
It reminds me a little of the marriage of camels.:)

III. Those who stand and serve are also fighting ( W. Churchill) Is that what Krupakar says? But it will be more fun and lively if everyone posts once a month at least. Why should they stand and cheer.they too can join the fun.
"come on in! the water is fine" is the usual Seaside invite. That is what I am saying.
Let orkut or twitter or facebook interest the interested. There need be no clash. All of us have our private circle and family circle.

IV. YES it IS titled happenings but anything is a happening because it happened.
If i got a grade A it is a happening. if there was a funny incident in the class, office, bus or train or in the airport that too is a happening. we go home and talk to the immediate family or "friends circle". Spread it a bit more and spread more cheer. No need to be diffident or shy.

A happy new year to all of you in advance. (This is not the purpose of this blog)

to be or not be

well!!!!!!
i can support krupakar citing some incidents.my colleague sakuntala told me that she was told by her daughter in us that she saw madhavs photos in our blog when he visited kavali in feb. rangarao my friend was in denver and wanted to greet on my bday.he confirmed date of birth by seeing the blog.kuppamma told me that she was inspired to hold a feast after seeing "kartheeka vanabhojanam"s photos. santhi and her husband pavan are visiting hawai now.mrudula told me many of her friends follow this blog.
do i need to say more?

stop it!

స్వీట్ హోం నవలలో విమల" స్త్రీ కి విద్య అవసరమా కాదా" అన్న టాపిక్ కి స్పందన గుర్తుకొస్తున్నది .
స్త్రీ కి గాలి అవసరమా ,తిండి బట్ట అవసరమా అని ప్రారంభిస్తుంది .
should we stop breathing?
should our hearts stop beating?
i implore everybody of singampalli clan to actively participate.(particularly me and my daughters )
my heartfelt appeal to mitigate first and then vanquish the genuine heartburn of whoever started the poll .

In defense

Saw the poll on the sidebar...I think there is no need to close the blog. Given that everyone is spread around the world, what we have now is still better than the total silence that would replace it.

And in defense of Singampalli kids, participation need not be in terms of writing something...I contend that a follower of the blog is as much a participant. I am part of a couple of a mailing lists, Twitter too, where I am totally passive, but still consider myself an avid participant.

I think the kids (Swathi and all kids after that) are currently leading busy lives and are preoccupied with the usual 'giant' problems of those times :-) They will probably come around to blogging in a few years when Orkut and Facebook are passe'. Of course, all the adults can certainly do more blogging if they choose to.

And for me, this is like the hole in the ground from the 'Rajugaari Chevulu Gaadida Chevulu' story...like the barber, I would not have an outlet to blurt out my thoughts...

And finally, there are a lot of avid followers of the blog beyond the Singampallis, who would probably be disappointed if this shuts down. Suren's wife (Bindu) was just telling me and Poonam that this blog was a big source of time-pass for her when in the UK. I know 3 others who follow it more or less regularly!

Our school in the news

Pratibha Patil is visiting Sri Venkateswara Children's School, apparently! Is this the same thatched roof , one floor school we used to attend and got our heads banged by Pushpaveni Miss?

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article67127.ece

My Website

my website

Do MOMs make you lazy?

Since amma got here, I have been notably absent from the blog. With amma taking care of stuff ( i.e aditya, house, food and everything etc...) one would think that I would pursue "other" activities such as contributing to the blog. However, I have discovered that the presence of amma seems to resurrect a level of laziness that lies dormant and turn me into a veritable sloth.

Pourquoi? Je ne sais pas. C'est la vie.

Wonder what the effect on Aditya would be?????

Happy Birthday!!

Dear Ma & Mama, Many many happy returns of the day from all of us!! :)

retirement

i retired from service on 30-11-09.there was function arranged by staff and students of maths dept.it was a unique touching experience.actually u can see one snap of durga completely brokendown.
thanks for all those who wished on that day.
here is the link
http://picasaweb.google.com/ranganadhams/Retirement#

And of course...

I knew Laurie Baker was a 'Gandhian' architect by reputation. But from his website I came to know that he was acquainted with and interacted with Gandhi a few times. But this excerpt from his website is revealing.

Here, as an aside, I would like to mention that I believe that Gandhiji is the only leader in our country who has talked consistently with common-sense about the building needs of our country. What he said many years ago is even more pertinent now. One of the things he said that impressed me and has influenced my thinking more than anything else was that the ideal houses in the ideal village will be built materials which arc all found within a five-mile radius of the house. What clearer explanation is there of what appropriate building technology mea than this advice by Gandhiji. I confess that as a young architect, born, brought up, educated and qualified in the West, I thought at first Gandhiji' ideal was a bit 'far-fetched' and I used to argue to myself that of course h probably did not intend us to take this ideal too literally. But now, in my seventies and with forty years of building behind me, have come to the conclusion that he was right, literally word for word, and that he did not mean that there could be exceptions. If only I had not been so proud and sure of my learning and my training as an architect, I could have seen clearly wonderful examples of Gandhiji's wisdom all round m throughout the entire period I lived in the Pithoragarh district.

So all the fancy terms of sustainability and organic materials that are now in vogue were voiced a century ago by Gandhi! I think I will never cease to be amazed at the wisdom and all-pervasive influence of Gandhi.

Laurie Baker

Since we are now in the process of building a house, that too an unconventional albeit traditional house, I have been reading about architecture in India. I was recommended Laurie Baker's website as a good source for this. Laurie Baker, as I am sure everyone is aware, is an Englishman who settled in India and has been a pioneer for low cost housing in India (primarily Kerala). The website link is:http://lauriebaker.net/site/info/photos-and-videos.html. There are some pictures of the houses he has designed, and all of them look wonderful. They remind me of the Kavali house, specially in the times when we were children, and there were huge open spaces at the back and side of the house, populated only by cattle, us kids and trees.

On that website, I found an interesting article (http://lauriebaker.net/work/work/alternative-building-materials-timeless-mud.html) about the use of mud as a construction material (he has another article about Lime as well). Some excerpts:

Before we came along with our high technologies and our science, people over thousands of years were doing what we are now pleased to call research and development. Anywhere you go in India, any village, any rural area (and remember, there is still over 80 per cent of the population in rural areas and their needs are 80 per cent of the needs of the nation), there is this, `rural' design that is steadily going on, and this research is not something that was thought out suddenly. They did not have research institutes. It was a system of trial and error — an empirical form of development. People have used what is actually underneath them and around them: the earth, the things that they can pull out of the earth and so on. They used simple materials to protect themselves from the rain, sun, animals, insects and other human beings. They had very primitive forms of transport, and there was never any thought of importing materials, all of which has resulted in this very distinctive architecture. I insist on calling these 'rural indigenous designs' for building. I think they're very fine examples of pure architecture because they use materials honestly and straightforwardly in an enormous variety of ways, and find solutions to all the problems we human beings have, living in a somewhat hostile world.

{another section of the article}

I have to think twice when I have to build a house — an ordinary 2,000 ft for middle class/upper middle class persons, because I'm responsible for the death of four large trees! In Kerala, all bricks are burnt by wood; we don't get coal. It's too far away and transport is too difficult, so I have had to lay off wood. What are my alternatives to things that bricks normally do? One of them is stone, another of them is mud. The biggest problem that I have in using mud is not with the mud itself, (I have done two-storeyed buildings with quite heavy roof structures and so on, and intermediate floor structures with mud) but it is the client: "We don't want mud", or "Mud? You mean to say I should build my house with mud?"; "But you do understand, don't you, that in my position...." This is the usual reaction of so many of our clients and we just give in and say, "Yes, all right, if you don't want mud, we'll have brick." We don't tell a client that he is going to destroy four full-grown trees to have his bricks. Are we using our knowledge and our position and our professional status to suggest these things and even insist on them with a private client, and these private clients are probably only 0.01 per cent of the population?

There are other compelling arguments in that article why houses (specially for the poor) can be built at a low monetary and energy cost, just using timeless techniques from India. Made me thank my stars we had the good judgement to choose the house we are now building is to be made precisely of that material: MUD. They are compressed mud bricks, not fire burnt bricks. Here is the link to the architect who is building our house (http://www.biome-solutions.com/). My question is: Why are not more people doing this?

Bhramaramba Avva

Dhulipalla Bhramaramba was my father’s paternal aunt. She was fair, beautiful, well read and highly intelligent. She was called “gouramma” (gora=fair) by the servants who could not pronounce her name.

She was married to dhulipalla sundara ramiah, who was her maternal uncle. He was no match to her in any way. It seems after the marriage he was found jumping with joy saying “where will she go now. She is mine”. She has never gone to attagari illu; instead he came and lived here. She was called by every body singampalli bhramaramba and not dhulipalla.

He used to borrow money, buy registration stamps and sell them on credit. The buyers never returned money and this resulted in bad debts. After his death she collected some of the debts ruthlessly going to villages, confiscating even a cow or crow. That made her very hard boiled .Still most of property was lost, and that is how the house next to viswams house was sold away. She was child less and bequeathed her remaing properties to my mother. They were like mother and daughter with well defined boundaries in house management.
My father was only 13when grand father died. Grand mother rangamma (after whom I was named) was very innocent and not worldly. So the burden of managing properties, educating, marrying and settling the young boy fell on her shoulders, which she did with great efficiency. They put up family in Nellore and then at Madras for his higher education (at that time the house was rented for 4or 5 years).In fact we can say that she was the pillar on which the prosperity of singampalli family rested.
She was embodiment of vyangam, terror of the street. Our friends were terrified to come to our house. The” durvasa” my father was like a pilli in front of her. Many a times we were saved from his beatings by her intervention.
There is much to be told about her and friends as remarked by gopal, but may be in a later post.
You now know from where the strong genes of all singampalli girls come!!!!!!!!!

Hats off to you Attah

Attah remember Krups had called you the other day to ask about how to engage kids in the school, for the same class sometimes Krups is not there and I go to teach those kids. Being a short tempered person it is so difficult for me to manage them :), I really admire you for being patient with kids and also you must be a fantastic teacher as kids love you.

One more thing I have realized that as we are adults now and we work in offices, we are hardly in touch with kids so it is difficult to relate with them and with their psyche. Like after sometime kids start losing concentration, all of them would want to go to the toilet, suddenly they will start talking...phew... :)

I didn't have much agenda on this post just wanted to share my experience with you. :)