Sathyakama Sharma

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...