News that will surprise you and make you laugh at us.

 

First, the news that will surprise you and make you laugh at us… Lalitha and I saw a movie in a theatre after a gap of over 5 years! And this comes from a couple who for 3 years, 1981-1983 saw a movie every Friday.

In 2017 we saw the popular Telugu movie FIDAA (in a theatre) especially as it was in Telangana dialect and shot mostly in Banswada/Telangana, and we loved the movie.

And after a gap of 5 years, we chose to see a movie at Prasad’s Multiplex yesterday, 29 October, because of the good reviews and as it was entirely filmed at Keradi, a place about 60 Km from Manipal where my brother and I studied for 5 years. It is based on local beliefs and traditions. Keradi village is in a forest area close to Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary. This film was made at a cost of Rs. 16 Crores in Kannada and Telugu (dubbed) and released on 30 September 2022. To date, that is within a month it has earned over Rs. 250 Crores!

The movie is KANTARA/కాంతార (Mystique forest), and we liked it, and hope you too will!

It is going to be a long winter for us in Hyderabad...

 

It is going to be a long winter

For us in Hyderabad

As it has set early this year

Much earlier than November

Which is rather rare.

For a tropical place like ours

With harsh summers

Winter is always welcome

And is our preferred season

Only, if it is not very severe.

It is getting colder and colder

A 54-year-old record of winter

Is already wiped out in October

Indicating that this winter

Is not going to be agreeable.

Unaccustomed to extreme cold

Residents of Hyderabad

Should try to avoid outdoors

And remain safe and comfy indoors

Early mornings and late evenings.

VahRehVah! VahRehVah! Telangana!

 

VahRehVah! VahRehVah! Telangana!

Tera Jaisa Na Koi Sara Jahan!

What an extended festival season!

Bathukamma, Dasara and Deepavali

And in a surprise addition

You have rolled out an election

With a six months celebration

For every voter and politician

It is a windfall of pleasures

In the form of freebies

Amidst heaps of currencies

And liquor flowing in streams.

May there be such elections

Every few months

So people become happy drunkards

Sell votes for hand-outs

Remain, intoxicated citizens

And of course slaves

To the rulers

And later help the State revenues

With liquor tax earnings

And make it Bangaru Telangana

To stand out in God’s creation

As heaven on earth!

VahRehVah! VahRehVah! Telangana!

Tera Jaisa Na Koi Sara Jahan!

Conclusion:

End corruption

Do not yield

To Greed

Vote for the worthy

Party

To make our country

A greater country!

Sri Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s speech on Lord Shiva, Karthika Masam and Karthika Deepalu.

On the occasion of the commencement of the auspicious and sacred month of Karthika Masam today, here is a video recording by me of Sri Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s entire enlightening speech on Lord Shiva, Karthika Masam, Karthika Pournami and on the significance of Lighting Lamps/Karthika Deepalu. As you may have heard Sri Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a world-renowned Indian Yogi, mystic, philanthropist and author of over 100 books. And he is the founder of the Isha Foundation and Isha Yoga Center.

For security reasons I could not carry my Handycam stand to the venue, resulting in a shaky video, for which I am very sorry. However, I captured the audio flawlessly.

THE VIDEO:

"The Pancha Bhuta Aradhana" or offering to the Five Elements, done with the use of Fire Dances by brahmacharis from Isha Foundation of Sri Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a video recorded by me:

The journey of Shrimp from Ashtamudi Lake…

 

Why can’t these Shrimp fly?

From Kerala, Lake Ashtamudi,

To me in Secunderabad,

Instead of travelling by road,

To avert a long wait and anxiety!

The journey of Shrimp from Ashtamudi Lake in Kerala to me in Secunderabad, to satiate my palate is taking too long. The journey of 1200 km commenced in the morning of Monday, 17 October, and they are expected to reach me sometime on Sunday, 23 October. A long wait indeed, for these lovely Shrimp.

You may see these lovely Shrimp below, towards the end of this article.

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Happy International Chef’s Day!

Happy International Chef’s Day!

And thank you Chefs,

For the best ever,

Fish and Chips! 

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 - Read by N. Raghu

 

Sonnet 116 — “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” is one of William Shakespeare's most famous love sonnets, telling us that, “love never changes, and if it does, it was not true or real in the first place”.  

Sonnet 116 was first published in 1609, and is an evergreen masterpiece.

Shakespeare begins by stating he does not object to the "marriage of true minds", but maintains that love is not true if it changes with time; true love should be constant, regardless of difficulties. In the seventh line, the poet makes a nautical reference, alluding to love being much like the North Star is to sailors. True love is, like the polar star, "ever-fixed". Love is "not Time's fool", though physical beauty is altered by it.

The movement of 116, like its tone, is careful, controlled, laborious… it defines and redefines its subject in each quatrain, and this subject becomes increasingly vulnerable.

It starts out as motionless and distant, remote, independent; then it moves to be "less remote, more tangible and earthbound"; the final couplet brings a sense of "coming back down to earth". Ideal love is maintained as unchanging throughout the sonnet, and Shakespeare concludes in the final couplet that he is either correct in his estimation of love, or else that no man has ever truly loved.

THE SONNET:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

THE AUDIO NARRATION:

Passion for K-dramas leads to K-food cravings!

Passion for K-dramas

Leads to K-food cravings!

The large spreads

Colourful presentations

So adoringly savoured

Is so very tempting

And our mouths begin watering.

But very fortunately

Hyderabad comes handy

To satisfy our cravings

With Korean restaurants

Ready to cook Korean meals

And Korean ingredients

To cook for ourselves!