Om Namah Shivaya

Ekla Chalo!

Don't Mess With My Bangalore!

Don’t Mess With My Bangalore!

Where are the trees?

All cut up and logged!

Made way for roads that’re always packed;

"Roads add value, trees subtract"!

Where are the roads?

All choked up and clogged!

Spare our roads, use Namma Metro;      

That’s the mantra, roads are retro.

Where are the pavements?

All dug up and stocked!

What are you doing here, pedestrian?

Go away, you're an alien.

Where are the playgrounds?

All filled up and sold!

Kids, you have your gadgets, gizmos and all,

Play indoors, or not at all!

Where is my city?

All built up and blocked!

Bean-town, boom town, concrete and dust;

Live here, only if you must.

Pause, muse, ponder, think,

Serve, conserve, reserve, preserve;

Bring back my green town, old familiar,

Buried beneath this urban veneer.

© Shiva Kumar 2013

Pehle AAP

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Sketching with a mouse

Sketching with a mouse

How difficult is it to sketch with a mouse?

Not so easy, especially for a person who does not know how to sketch, in the first place!

There I was, sitting in front of my computer, experiencing a writer’s block in full swing. I sat there twiddling my thumbs for some time, the writer in me waiting for the block to go away.

Nothing happened for a few minutes. No unblocking took place. No inspiration came my way.

I put my hand over the mouse, opened the drawing tool “paint” and doodled for a bit. I erased the doodle and drew a face. Interesting. Then I drew another face. And another. And another. Till the page was filled with some half a dozen faces.

Here they are!

Legends don't fade away, they are eternal!

So the Great Man has finally hung up his boots, packed his bat and kit and has walked off the field with his head held high. For an entire nation, this was a poignant moment; it was inevitable but nobody wanted it to happen.

Just a few years ago, his magical powers seemed to be waning and questions were being asked whether it was time for him to go. But these voices were in a miniscule minority and were soon quelled. He went back to the practice nets and honed his skills once again to iron out the tiny flaws which only he could discern and to compensate for the slowing down of his reflexes. And he came back to let his batting answer the critics.

His tally of hundreds in international cricket is a round hundred – a century of centuries. This includes a magical ODI double century which no one else has been able to achieve. His exploits have become the stuff of legend. Kids dream of becoming like him. When the lucky ones get to meet him off the field, they look at him in awe and wonder how a normal-looking, normal-talking and normal-behaving person like him could be such a superhuman!

He might have been batting for records in the latter part of his glittering career but who could fault him for that? He was, after all, a human being and there surely would have been that little wish in his heart to achieve those couple or three landmarks which still eluded him.

His legion of fans did not want him to retire ever. Whether he was in form or out of it, just his presence in the playing eleven was enough to work wonders for his team mates to pull up their socks and pitch in when he did not. In this respect, he seldom failed his team and country, coming up with wondrous knocks when all seemed lost.

He has been compared to every great batsman who ever played cricket and has been endorsed as the greatest by those same greats!

He showed the world how gentlemen cricketers comported themselves on and off the field. In this he was admirably matched by his illustrious compatriots Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman who all retired just a few seasons before him. Together, they set a sterling example to youngsters grooming themselves to take their places in the national side. Not for them the sledging on the field or showing dissent when given out to doubtful decisions of the umpires or strutting around arrogantly on and off the field. It is because of special men like these that cricket is still called a gentleman’s game!

In his two dozen years in international cricket, this legend has thrilled millions with his wizardry, brought light into the humdrum lives of the common Indian and has made the country proud.

A grateful nation has honoured him with the Bharat Ratna.

Good bye, Sachin, and God bless you!

Mangalyaan ki Mangal yatra mangalmay ho!

Magnificent Achievement, Really Superb!

ISRO has done India proud by launching the 1340 kg Mars Orbiter Mangalyaan into space on an interplanetary mission to MARS. The Mars Orbiter is scheduled to enter Mars’ orbit in September 2014.

Mangalyaan ki  Mangal yatra mangalmay ho !