Sathyakama Sharma

Memories Intact in the Innards of Time When boys pass thoroughfares for playgrounds, balls pass unsuspecting heads for wickets. It was one such ball that hit my head, triggering a volley of vignettes. Vignettes of memories lying intact in the innards of time. Memories of a childhood that ran riot over a vast landscape dotted with areca nut trees, jackfruit trees, few mango trees, guava trees including several nameless ones…names we never bothered to check, that is. For me, that was the place where Pandavas were trained in archery…or Rama and Sita endured their Vanavasa.  I mean that’s how I visualized every scene in Mahabharata, Ramayana, other epics, stories and fairy tales. It was an assortment gifted by Mother Nature, wrapped in greenery that would turn the kids of this concrete jungle green with envy!  We were privileged to live in one of the handful of independent houses ( to draw a parlance from the realty trade in Bengaluru!) in a vast compound in Kasarago...

  ( my poem published in 'The Asian Age', over a decade ago) Facing the Music System I too possess I hate to alas! Those crafted to the last detail Coffins of music Gram phone records, cassettes And now Compact Discs Lies within which nailed The joy of missing those songs Missed, miffed forever and ever At your fingertips Are your favourite numbers Like the love of your beloved wife You get them any time Any number of times Wondering into where, how And why did the joy of Rarity fly? And unwittingly inventing a system To crush them Or facing the music system

Shame on the people who are celebrating the demise of UR Ananthamurthy! This is why I never identify myself with the saffron brigade. Even our PM has condoled his death. Shocked to hear about the sad demise of Dr UR Anantha Murthy. RIP ಅವರು ನಮ್ಮ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಹಾಗೆ, ಕಿಡ್ನಿ, ಶ್ವಾಸಕೋಶ, ಅದು ಇದು ಎಂಬ ಸಣ್ಣ ಸಂಗತಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬದುಕುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು ಎಂದು ನಂಬುವುದು ನನಗೇಕೊ ಕಷ್ಟವಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಅವರೆಂದರೆ ನನ್ನ ಪಾಲಿಗೆ 'ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರ'. ನಾನು ಐದನೆಯ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾಗ, ಓದಿದ ಮೊತ್ತಮೊದಲ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ. ವಿಸ್ಮಯ, ಬೆರಗು ಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ ಅವರು ಅನಾವರಣ ಗೊಳಿಸಿದ ಅಗ್ರಹಾರದ ಪ್ರಪಂಚಕ್ಕೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಂಬೆಗಾಲು. ಇನ್ನೊಮ್ಮೆ, ಪದವಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿದ ಬಳಿಕ ಮತ್ತೊಮ್ಮೆ ಓದಿದ ನೆನಪು. ಓದಿದ ಹಾಗೆ, ಅರಿವಿನಾಳಗಳಿಗೆ ಇಳಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ನನ್ನಲ್ಲೇ ಮರು ಹುಟ್ಟು ಪಡೆದ ಪ್ರಾಣೇಶಾಚಾರ್ಯರ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿತ್ವ, ಪರೋಕ್ಷ ಮನದಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲೋ 'ವಂಶ ವೃಕ್ಷ' ದ ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ ಶ್ರೋತ್ರಿ ಯವರೊಂದಿಗೆ ತುಲನೆ. ಭೈರಪ್ಪ, ಶಿವರಾಮ ಕಾರಂತ, ಚಿತ್ತಾಲ, ಪೂಚಂತೇ ಯವರ ಹಾಗೆ ಮನದೊಳಗಿನ ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಲಿಸಿದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಷ್ಟ್ರು! ಈಗಷ್ಟೇ 'ಸೂರ್ಯ' ಇನ್ನೇನು ಮುಳುಗಿ ಮರೆಯಾದ ಅನ್ನುವಷ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ, ಸಿಡಿಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ ಸುರಿದ ಮಳೆಯ ನು ಹಿಂಬಾಲಿಸಿ ಬಂದೆರಗಿದ್ದು ಅವರು 'ಮೌನಿ' ಆದರು ...

They say pen is mightier than the sword. Today, Indians woke up to a refreshing reality that words delivered extempore from the bottom of the heart of a true statesman, could be the mightier than the one penned by an IAS cadre secretary! Narendra Modi threw all those rhetorics into the recycle bin and made a speech where he did not speak about a foreign hand, communal forces, integrity, unity, bl ah blah! He did not beat about the bush or made the people doze off in the morning! He presented some concrete action plans and put across some genuine observations which struck a chord with the patriots who think of the nation everyday and not only on the independence day! For the first time in my life I was glued to the entire speech delivered by the Pradhan 'Sevak' of our nation- next to Atal Bihari Vajpayee! Oh my countrymen, now the onus is on us! If we belie the hopes he has whipped up, we would be negating our own progress and nothing could be as treacherous as ...

                                         Day in And Day out  (This is actually a tweaked, refined version of an article I wrote way back on 21 st November 2013) Now-a-days not a single day passes without it being a day. The other day I came to know that the previous day had been a World Food Day. That day, thanks to the unpredictability of my stomach’s acidity, I had a bad day and settled for liquid food only. Had it not been for my ignorance about it being World Food Day, I would have binged that day as if there’s no tomorrow! Is there any other way a wise man can live up to whatever world food day stands for? It’s time someone told, whoever is behind these ‘days’ , these days, that there are only 365 days in a year and hence one year can hardly accommodate all the thing...

Who am I?      “Don’t ask me who I am and don’t ask me to remain the same” - Michael Foucault ( mi ʃɛ l fuko) I am a copywriter by design and a writer by default. My poems, short stories, and articles all in Kannada have been published in some leading dailies and magazines. Once ‘The Times of India’ published my contribution in the slot below the editorial (titled Brief-case those days).Again, the website www.afaqs.com carried my article “Chocolate Diaries’ in its “Planning Room” page. Apart from these, there is nothing on record to claim that I am a writer! And the copy I write for a living, does not meet the standards of scholastic or prosaic writing and I am fully aware of that. Before I dissect myself... "One doesn't have to be one thing or the other. One can be many things at the same time."- VS Naipaul    (as stated in Vijay Times-now defunct newspaper- on 09-11-2006) Very true! I am my heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, blood, bones and bone ...

        Food for Teeth                                    If you thought millions of people in Mera Bharat( that’s Mahan) grapple with the issue of not knowing from where their next meal would come, you are all wrong-or else you are not watching much of the idiot box as much as the people calculating the TRP suppose you do! Now what is TRP? It is Television Rating Points. That’s someone somewhere is glad to know how much you weigh as a couch-potato. So when you are watching TV someone is ‘watching’ you like the BB (Big Brother).  A cute device called ‘People’s Meter’ might have been attached to your TV. Or to the one in one of your neighbors’ house. This device keeps track of what you watch and how often, how long etc. And that info is accessed by the geniuses who are ...