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lostpatrol
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Feb, 20 2008
Name
:
Philip Mudartha
Gender
:
Male
About Me
:
I am an unknown Global Indian. I have lived outside India for three decades. At 56, I am at ease with yuppies and wannabees. I am drawn to any person with zest for life. Life is hectic, but I try to get a life beyond work. Faith, for me, is my spiritual relationship with Supreme Soul. People of any faith feel secure with me. Only pretenders and hypocrites put me off! I love traveling and reading. I visit Pajaka, my native village near Udupi, every year. That is my pilgrimage.
Birth Day
:
April 11
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Splashes of lostpatrol
This is what The Lord gave me for dinner last night
< . As I parked my car in the only available slot, in front of a local primitive bakery, the sight of flat large bread made me hungry. Two burly Afghans manned the 'bread-making process' including retail sales directly in view of the prospective customers and passersby.
A huge Pakistani bought a dozen, after whom my turn came. I asked for one. "sirf eik?" the afghan said in his thick intimidating voice. Conscious of my puny size, I decided not to shrink anymore and retorted: Haan, Eik to bahut ho gaya. He smiled the 'know-all' smile. Kitne h...
More than two third majority of both houses of Indian Parliament is likely to vote in favor of the Women's Reservation Bill. I think they are either too generous or they have no male heirs. I can't accept that they are idiots. For, it means, by this act of theirs, they will banish at least 20% of sitting male members from the future house.
They say it is a historic milestone, like August 15, January 26 and so on. Both our Rashtrapatni, Speakerni, treasury bench leaderni, opposition bench leaderni and the Big Bindi of Left party are maha determined to give a double whammy to women on the 100th...
Udupi may evoke Idli Dosa Sambhar images, but there are gems of our medieval glory hidden in its neighborhoods. Moodbidri is one such place, where I spent an evening. My most memorable stop was at Thousand Pillar Basadi, a 15th Century Jain Temple.
Driving through the narrow alleyways of Moodbidri, we could park almost at the entrance of the complex. My wife insisted on posing for the camera in front of the superb monolithic pillar in the doorway.
"No photographs, please" warned a resident priest.
"Here is my contribution to Lord Chandranatha", I handed over Rs101. The priest bowed deep, to...
Across the street, a sushi sea food restaurant does roaring business. The food lives up to its promo: Japanese innovative cuisine. The staff entirely is of Indochinese origin. They must be either new emigrants or descendants of emigrants during and after the wars in the region, especially Vietnam War.
The diners are, of course, of vintage american stock, both from Anglo Saxon and African descent. They are not in great hurry to enjoy their lunch/dinner outing. They have all the time. I notice that the staff are in a hurry though, looks like everyone has his hands full as they try to do more wor...
Some of my longtime colleagues retired during the recessionary tsunami of last year. they returned to their native villages and picked up their lives. We keep in touch and exchange emails. Invariably the correspondence veers round to their daily routines. How do they fill the hours, after years of putting so many hours at paid work?
It is always helping wife in and around the kitchen, doing chores around the house, and running errands to the grocery and market. Most Christians I know volunteer at church activities and associated school events.
One of my friend from Kerala tells me about the a...
On a hot and humid morning of January this year, I alighted from a rickshaw at Ranganapalke. At this village junction, three roads meet: go 5kms to reach Bailur; 12 to Karkala and 25 to Udupi. You, as my reader, are familiar with Bailur and Udupi; this really is a nothing-happening place.
Really? Nothing, did I say? I will soon find out.
I missed my bus towards the Udupi direction. So, I decided to spend my time talking to the bystanders and hangers-on at the junction. That should kill the hour of wait for the next bus. I sauntered of to the rickshaw stand and asked one of them how much it wi...
A fortnight ago, a personal crisis made me a care giver. Arriving in US, I spent days researching on irritable Bowel Disorders in general and Crohn's Disease and Colitis in particular.
I began to read the Book: 'Maker's Diet'. This book is authored by a young man who nearly died from Crohn's Disease, but survived to tell his story. He went on to found his own chain of health food and other nutrient supplements with his "Garden Of Life" enterprise. I leave readers to read about him, because that is not my story.
What I found interesting is that "Coconut Oil" is included in the 'Maker's Diet" a...
Happy Valentine's Day.
To the Ayatullahs, Sri Sri Sri Sris, Most Very Reverends, and the Guardians of All Things Holy through not-so-holy means.
This picture is dedicated to you. (courtesy: www.bellevision.com)...
Nothing will please our enemies more. They are waiting for a day when communal frenzy is unleashed in our country. Despite provocations by pan-islamists with sporadic acts of terror, our civil society has not turned against each other and by far stayed united. However, many are losing patience and doubting if the approach is sound. One such example is the flood of posts on this blog site on Muslims by non-Muslims. I am a non-Muslim too. But this post is about a day I spent with a Muslim family in Karnataka, on the last day of previous year.
Their eldest son picked three of us, wife, daughter a...
Let me add my 'fuel' to the 'fire' of controversies as young and happy urbanites (and semi-urbanites) are busy blowing virtual and real kisses to their loved ones. What is wrong with loving wishes? They don't blow us lik ebombs do.
SO, go check out Valentine Day Facts,
here as written about on National Geographic
.
The early Christians in Rome fought this pagan tradition for a hundred years, but decided to join in the fun when it was impossible to beat the desires of people, Christian or otherwise.
It is people power that will eventually settle any debate, not idealogues. ...
I am a blacksmith, by profession. For long, I have earned my bread (and butter) making iron. That may be why I was attracted by this cover title on National Geography on Godulia Lohars. If you have the opportunity, grab a copy or
read online
here. It is an interesting account by a western photo-journalist on the ways and lives of these wanderers of Rajasthan.
Here is a brief extract from a book about them: The
Godulia Lohars
live in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Western parts of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Black smithy
is the chief traditional profession of the
Godulia...
On a sunny Sunday, I attended a high mass at Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Kanajar. To know more about Kanajar,
you may click here
. The young and dynamic vicar Fr. Edwin invited his faithful flock to celebrate with a thanksgiving mass and a feast in the community hall.
What happened before the lunch was path-breaking. The most elderly person was felicitated, a woman in her late nineties. She was wheeled in. She came dressed in a grand green sari. She seemed happy and contented. I remembered her youthful image fixed in my mind for more than forty years. She was one helluva kind and pretty...
I went back to my high school. Not as an unsung student, but as a member of its alumni. The correspondent, principal and current students were very generous in according the warmest welcome I could ever imagine.
In a post earlier, I have described the humble origins of my high school:
The silent leaders of small people made us what we became
.
Though the Vicar of the Catholic Church led the project of establishing it, Belleans of all faiths, participated in the construction of the school building as well as preparing the school grounds. The catholics donated cash and volunteered as constru...
The first story has to be of my first stop: Belle. Belle, as the name suggests, is as beautiful as any damsel worthy of a second glance. It is a village transforming into a township, located in Udupi District of Karnataka State. Pajaka, my birthplace, lies within the jurisdiction of Belle Gram Panchayat which is headquartered at Moodu-Belle.
Papanashini, a beautiful river runs through it dividing it into Moodu-Belle (East Belle) and Padu-Belle (West Belle). Whether it washed away any sins or not, its waters irrigated rice fields for centuries, the only means of livelihood even when I was gr...
Twelve hours to go. To my next flight from India. As is my norm, I will fly out after a breif stay in the sin city of Mumbai.
The city is not any different today than what I found four months ago. It is as gay and 'orderless' as in early September. Then it was celebrating a slew of festivals, with abandon, under the cloud of swine flu. This time, at the street corners, the ageing octogenarian 'remote control' of the megapolis is looking down at us, in all his saffron glory. News is that Bhivandi voted for his partyman in the triangular by-election to the assembly seat as a birthday gift. Good ...
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