Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is upset these days. His face tells it all. He must be thinking it's easy to come to power but not so easy to rule. He broke down in public within two weeks of taking charge. The death of a farmer in a police firing ended his honeymoon, and the first ever BJP government south of the Vindhyas is terribly nervous. When I met Yeddyurappa in Delhi three days ago, he was surrounded by a dozen grim-faced cabinet ministers. Most are first timers and lack experience. It showed. Yeddyurappa spoke in a whisper. He didn't smile. I felt sad for him. But one man was smiling brightly. He seemed unconcerned about the tragedy back home. It was G Karunakara Reddy, revenue minister and the head of the Rs.30,000 crore worth mining mafia whose money and muscle has brought the BJP to power in Karnataka. He was in constant touch with Bellary and was talking business on his flashy...

The late A K Ramanujan is arguably one of the best internationally known Indian writers. The Mysore born and educated Ramanujan taught at the University of Chicago for decades. He introduced India's oral folktales to the West through his scholarly writings and translations. His writings are so fascinating and you will be hooked to them. Ramanujan died more than a decade ago in the United States. He is now making news in the national capital Delhi. Thanks to our ill informed and self proclaimed custodians of Hinduism and Hindu mythology : Outfits of the RSS like ABVP and VHP. His writing ' Three Hundred Ramayanas ' is embroiled in an ugly controversy created by the members of the saffron brigade. Sadly the lathi weilding gang doesn't even know the basic difference between Hinduism and other religions. Hinduism, which is described as a way of life and not a religion in the strictest sense is highly pluralistic in nature. It allows a greater...

Who is the greatest Mysorean of our times? Difficult question, given that Mysore has produced some of the best minds in India, and the world. Two names that come to everybody's mind are R K Narayan and his younger brother R K Laxman. Rashipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Narayanaswamy, better known as R K Narayan, introduced early 20th century India to the West through his fiction. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Narayan immortalised Mysore by creating an imaginary town called Malgudi. The day he died, The New York Times said, "Mr Narayan was a Tamil Brahmin, a member of arguably India's most intellectually gifted caste and of a community intensely devoted to education and the arts that has produced, in addition to writers, a number of renowned scientists ". Sadly, the NYT gives more credit to his caste than to his genius! People perhaps say the same thing of Laxman. If Narayan is the most famous Mysorean in the...

One of the best informed journalists in India, Krishna Prasad from Mysore, has initiated a raging debate on Bharat Ratna award in his popular website www.churumuri.com. I sent a comment suggesting the name of Sachin Tendulkar, Rajkumar & Rajinikanth for this highest civilian honour. All hell broke lose in a few minutes. A nameless and faceless character that identifies himself / herself / itself as Anamika commented, "Sachin, Rajkumar and Rajnikant for Bharataratna! lol ! Vajapayee deserves it the best. S R Rao is my next option. I know many of you wonder as to who this S R Rao is. Find it for yourselves. @ D P Satish - I never expected you to be a moron, but now you are showing signs of it". I thanked him for his/her ' generous ' comment! One more example of Indian hypocrisy. It is a fact that most Indians like cricket and cinema. We also admire our cricketers and cine stars more than anybody else....