So who won?

So who won yesterday? Was it the group in favour of Valentine's day celebrations or the one against it? TOI making everyone believe that this was a game with the two opponents clearly marked out and only one was going to win.

Anyway, now that the dust has settled, I picked up today's newspapers. I subscribe to two newspapers, Vijaya Karnataka in Kannada and Times of India. Incidentally, TOI bought VK a couple of years back, so both are now owned by the same parent company. However, there is a big difference between what these two reported about yesterday.

VK version:
"ಬಿಗಿ ಬಂದೋಬಸ್ತ್ ನಡುವೆಯೂ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಗಳ ದಿನಾಚರಣೆಗೆ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಹಲವೆಡೆ ಅಡ್ಡಿ-ಆತಂಕ ಎದುರಾಯಿತು.
...
ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ ಸೇನೆಯ ಬೆದರಿಕೆಯಿಂದಾಗಿ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಗಳ ದಿನಾಚರಣೆ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ರಂಗೇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಲಾಲ ಬಾಗ್, ಕಬ್ಬನ್ ಪಾರ್ಕ್, ಕಾಲೇಜು ಕಾರ್ನರ್, ರೆಸ್ಟೋರೆಂಟ್, ಪಬ್ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಗಳ ಎಂದಿನ ಕಲರವ ಕಾಣಸಿಗಲಿಲ್ಲ."

which roughly translates to:
"In spite of heavy security, there was disruption to Valentine's day celebrations in many places of the state.
...
Due to the threat by Sri Rama Sene Vantentine's day celebrations in Bangalore was pale. Lal Bagh, Cubbon Park, college corners, restaurants and pubs did not see the usual level of revelry."

TOI version:
"Love and peace thrived in perfect harmony in Bangalore and other parts of Karnataka on one of the most-anticipated Valentine’s Days ever. Bangalore was swathed in red and pink. Thanks to the police which put away potential disrupters, including Hindu Rashtriya Sena chief Pramod Mutalik, behind bars and the civil society which decided to push back hard against moral policing, V-Day came up smelling roses.
...
By evening, the boulevards of MG Road and the sidewalks of Brigade Road, Residency Road and other high streets were chock-ablock with youngsters, out with friends and love interests, in throngs. Pubs began to fill up as the sun came down and restaurants reported brisk footfalls. Star eateries, which had sold out their V-day specials, saw couples — young and old — enjoying their romantic dinners serenaded by romantic music and covered by discreet, high security.
...
The scene was similar in other parts of the state, though the scale and colour of the festivities were a pitch lower than Bangalore."

Wow, isn't that strange? Two newspapers from the same publishing house, reporting on the same incidence, being so different in their reports? One thing that is very clear from all this is that TOI, though it owns VK, doesn't have much control over the contents of it. May be they want to give this kind of independence to VK, but my bets are that with the kind of people who run VK, it won't be possible for TOI to control the contents of VK too much unless they kick out a lot of the editorial folks.

Weather and food habits: epilogue

Recently I had wondered "Why do we like to eat spicy food when it gets cold, but overall spiciest food habits are seen in hottest places on earth". I got two responses from my friends.

Hariprasad said: Its almost as if we are too used to the 'hot' weather and cannot tolerate a deviation from the same. That's our natural state, kind of. So, when the weather gets cold, we are actually 'uncomfortable'. Since we can't do much with the weather, we wear warm clothes and eat hot food trying to 'restore' normalcy, at least in our body."

Ego said: "My Friend wanderlust had the following answer: "it's because in hot climates, food spoils easily unless you preserve it with spices. check it out... the more away from the equator you go, the blander the food.”"

Both explanations sound logical and they are not exclusive of each other. I guess the answer is a combination of these two. Hence I guess I sorta know the answer now. Thanks folks!

Pataguppa bridge

I mentioned a place in the backwaters of Linganamakki dam in my previous post. So where is this place and what is the interesting history behind this place?

The submerged bridge I mentioned is Pataguppa Bridge (ಪಟಗುಪ್ಪ). If you visit the Wikimapia page, zoom out a couple of times so that you get a good idea of how it looks. The place looks like this on Google Earth:


This place is along a road that used to run from Hosanagara to Sagara towns in Shimoga district. Long long back, before our parents were born, this was _the_ road between Hosanagara and Sagara. Later, in 1930s, they built a dam called Madenur (ಮಡೆನೂರು) dam in this area. This dam submerged significant area of land around this place and cut off this road link. Hence they built a bridge at this place to keep the road connectivity on. Remember, this was built during the Raj. It was built completely using stones.

Much later, in 1960s, the Linganamakki dam was built. This was the big daddy of Madenur dam, so it submerged even more land, pretty much half of Hosanagara Taluk, including the Madenur dam. Yes, a whole dam was submerged. In summer when the water level in Linganamakki dam comes down, one can see the Madenur dam even now. It is still intact, even after being submerged in water for so many years! Along with the dam, the bridge too went underwater! Hence the Government increased the height of this bridge, by erecting stone pillars on top of existing bridge and building a road on it supported by iron beams. The bridge was still going underwater for a few months during rainy season, but was usable during other times of the year. This went on till some time in the 1970s, when the top half of the dam, the one built on iron beams, collapsed under the weight of a truck. There were thoughts of repairing the broken bridge, but they really needed a new bridge, one that is remains above the water even when the dam is full. However, the pleas of people who lived in this area fell on deaf ears. The road link was permanently lost. All the buses and trucks that used to ply on this road started taking another, longer route to travel between Sagara and Hosanagara. Population of this area dwindled, only the core residents remained here and rest of the world started forgetting this area.

This is how the bridge looks now. Observe the lower bridge, which is still intact even after more than 70 years.


Now, decades after this bridge collapsed, the Government has finally begun building a new bridge here. It will mean there will be a lot of heavy machinery in what has been a serene place so far. They will huff and puff, pull down a lot of trees, dig out a lot of mud, project will get delayed numerous times and eventually there will be a new bridge. This road will come alive again and the lives of people living here will change forever. Again. All this will probably take 5 more years, but hopefully it will happen.

BTW, I have not visited the Madenur dam so far. I surely want to go there this summer, when the water levels are low enough to explore this place.

Some more photos from this place are here.

The magic of a spectacular sunset

There is nothing like sitting on the ground watching a spectacular sunset slowly taking place. Last week, as I sat near a submerged bridge in the thick of Malnad region, on the shores of backwaters of Linganamakki dam, built across Sharavathi river, mother nature was putting up a great show. Everything was right about that place and time: A huge water body with tree stubs in it, dense forests on both sides of water, a few birds merrily singing along, eager to reach home before it gets dark, a lone boat, doing the last round for the day across the water, a handful of friends sitting along with me, but nobody speaking a word, just soaking in the beauty of the moment. It was magical.

Once the sun sets, the night falls surprisingly fast. Within a few more minutes, it is all over and time to go home with memories. For the sake of memories, I did take a few pictures. I did try all manual settings on my compact camera, leading to some really nice shots. The first one below is in pretty high resolution.