Diary of an evening hunting fountain pens with Hari in Hyderabad - Part I

Hi everybody...

There is a lot to tell all of you…let me start from the most recent…that is, day before yesterday (28th April)…I met Hari (Balakrishna)…he had flown down from Bombay on official work to Hyderabad…Hari is one of those fascinating persons who is totally immersed in his hobby…he lives, breathes, sleeps, dreams fountain pens (FPs)…IMHO, Hari is a one-man storehouse of knowledge, information, secrets, and everything else about FPs...I became acquainted with him through posts on FPN…and we subsequently exchanged pen photos, FP info, personal FP experiences, etc., and it was Hari who gave me lots of tips and advice on what FPs to buy and what not to buy and I have benefited a lot from his advice…on the 28th evening, I saw a true FP fan at work…except for a brief period where we drifted into literature, it was FPs all the way…from around 7.15 pm till almost 10.45 pm…

Hari alighted at the bus stop near my house and he told me that he wanted to visit the shop near Paradise to see some Chinese FPs (I had mentioned my purchase of Chinese FPs and described them to him…this incident will appear as a flashback along with Chinese pen photos…in some future post soon)…and he also wanted to visit Deccan Pen Stores (DPS), Abids to collect some Advocate FPs that he had placed orders for…so we set out…before that I gave him a Hero FP, the big nib one, which I had bought for him and he gave me a no-nonsense (his term!) Sheaffer FP, which he had mentioned in one of his recent posts on FPN…and had bought one for me…thus, gifts exchanged… (and I am writing this post with this Sheaffer FP…I started this practice of writing and then typing so that I get a chance to exercise my FPs and also to regain the habit of writing)…we proceeded towards Paradise…we were talking about all along about FPs and he asked me whether I got a chance to visit Gupta Pen Stores (GPS) at R P Road, from where he had picked up one of the last surviving pieces of Misak Ebonite FPs in 2005 and had told me about it and had also given me the address and directions to this shop (he had mentioned that the shop had two Misaks and he had bought one and the other one should still be there and had asked me to check it out)…I told I had looked for this shop, but couldn’t locate it…by that time, we were nearing Chandana Brothers at Patny Junction and Hari and I decided to explore R P Road and got down there…we walked past the R P Road branch of DPS and Hari said GPS was after DPS towards Regimental Bazaar…he also remembered how the shop looked like and said that an old lady used to mind the shop…eventually, the shop that Hari had seen in 2005 came into Hari’s view and the lady was there in the shop too, but the shop was named Doulat Pen Stores…when I saw this shop, I told Hari that I had visited this shop earlier, but was not aware that this was the shop that he had mentioned as GPS…Hari said he must have read the name board in a hurry and somehow the name GPS had stuck in his mind…anyway…we climbed up the steps and asked the old lady for ebonite pens…she didn’t have any, she said regretfully…we made our way back to DPS and Zubair was there…Hari knows almost everybody at DPS…after exchanging pleasantries, Hari took some photos of the shop (I think he is soon going to write a Hyderabad Pen Shops post on FPN!)…Zubair then showed us some extremely tempting Brahmam gold nib ebonite FPs – 4 actually…Hari took photos of these fabulous pens and the nibs in close up…he was salivating at the sight of these pens…I could sense that…and he later said that these pens so captivated him that he wanted to bolt away with them!!! Hari being the meticulous kind, asked Zubair whether he could test write the nibs…Zubair agreed and we tried all the gold nib pens…Hari was bowled over by the extra fine gold nib Brahmam black ebonite…After generally despairing over our financial situations, we came out and headed towards DPS, Abids, giving a skip to the Chinese pens at Paradise…

The FP hunting trip continued...look out for part II and part III...

Jai

My favourite Indian Classical-Jazz Fusion Groups -II Mynta - Nordic Ice, Indian Spice

Hi World...

This is my 25th post and I wanted it to be on music…my favourite kind of music…that is Indian Classical-Jazz fusion music…I had already written about my most favourite band, Shakti…

Mynta is another of my favourite Indian Classical-Jazz fusion groups. Mynta’s music is aptly described in their website as ‘a fusion of Nordic Ice and Indian Spice.’ The description is apt because Mynta is a blend of Swedish and Indian musicians.

Mynta was founded in 1979 in Sweden of only Swedish musicians – Santiago Jiminez (Violin), Max Ahman (Guitar), Ola Bothzen (Percussion), and Christian Paulin (Bass). Mynta toured India in 1987 and jammed with Fazal Qureshi (Tabla) [son of the legendary Ustad Alla Rakha & brother of Ustad Zakir Hussain] and Shankar Mahadevan (Carnatic Classical Vocal). Fazal Qureshi was heading an Indian fusion band called ‘Surya’ at that time and this Indo-Swedish combination performed around the world as ‘Mynta-Surya.’ They also brought out an album under this group’s name called ‘First Summer’. This combination subsequently came together as a group and called itself ‘Mynta.’

The Swedish musicians largely play Cool Jazz, and Mynta as a group also focuses on Indian classical, African and Latin American rhythms, Arabic sounds, and Swedish folk music. Shankar Mahadevan’s vocals play the important Indian Classical part in Mynta’s jamming with his soaring alaap-s and singing in both Carnatic and Hindustani traditions. In each piece that Mynta plays, one particular kind of music played by a group member or members is in the foreground, while the other members provide harmonic and rhythmic support.

Anders Hagberg (Flutes, Sax, Keyboard, Vocals), Mikael Nilsson (Percussion, Talking Drum, Udu), and Jan Radesjo (Keyboards) among the Swedish musicians, and Nandkishor Muley (Santoor) and Taufiq Qureshi (Percussion) are also part of Mynta’s musical melange. Mynta has been prolific and has brought out 8 albums, so far apart from performing live in major music festivals all over the world. And all their albums have very nice titles – First Summer, Indian Time, Hot Madras, Nandu’s Dance, Cool Nights, Tea Break, Hot Days, etc. You can sample some of their musical pieces on their website http://www.mynta.net/ … listen to the cool flute on ‘Playing’… and how the bored sounding conversation between the musicians leads to the most unusual vocal-percussion (konakol) with real percussion along with backing jazz in the aptly titled ‘Rapatal’… and the one and only, the most wonderful Shankar Mahadevan, who John McLaughlin calls ‘the voice’, singing Raga Hamsadhwani in Mynta Live… and the very European folkish rhythms with Shankar’s vocals in Ganglat fran Laggars…listen how Shankar’s carnatic aalap slowly fades away and the saxophone which was lingering in the background slowly and unobtrusively comes forward and takes over in Yellow Fellow….I can go on and on…but the taste of the music is in its listening…so, over to you…and tell me how you liked them…

Jai

Finding Keys to the Music Room

Hi all...

I happily discovered that the City Centre had a Landmark too…I didn’t wait for long and headed straight to Landmark…I hung around for a while and found out the bargain counter, which was actually an ‘EMI discount stall’… I found two more Womad Realworld albums – Shu-De: Voices from the Distant Steppe (Womad Realworld – Virgin Records) – [from deep in the centre of Asia – a unique recording of traditional Tuvan ‘throat singing’, poignant and intimate folk-songsm and ritual chants of shamen] and Shringar - K Sridhar & K Shivakumar (Womad Realworld – Virgin Records) [jugalbandi between sarod and violin]…I went through the entire stall for more, but had to be satisfied with these two albums…then suddenly I remembered that I didn’t have a mobile phone and didn’t know where the others were…and they wouldn’t be able to contact me…I was stuck in Landmark…I decided to let them find me and wandered around…saw some fountain pens…as I had already bought a Parker Rialto (for myself on behalf of Shruti!! Thanks, dear!) at Spencer Plaza’s Landmark, I just window-shopped and went back to the music section…and decided to check out the Hindustani classical section…I flipped the CDs in their racks desultorily trying to locate something interesting…this went on for around 10 mins or so…and suddenly my ‘nazar’ fell on this CD…call it coincidence or my ignorance about these things that I didn’t know about this CD earlier…it was a CD of Hindustani renderings by Vidushi Dhondutai Kulkarni…I was delighted, thrilled, surprised…it was only a couple of weeks ago that I had read this wonderful book by Namita Devidayal (The Music Room)…a touching account of the life and musical career of Vidushi Dhondutai Kulkarni (if interested, see my earlier post, “Reading Namita Devidayal's 'The Music Room'” Monday, March 17, 2008)…and Namita Devidayal had written that there are hardly any commercial recordings of Vidushi Dhondutai Kulkarni and some private recordings are all that are there for posterity to remember this remarkable singer of the Jaipur Atrauli Gharama…so, finding this CD was a moving moment for me…now I have the songs and voice to give to the face and the life of the singer…the CD is called Raag Ras and is produced by T-Series (No. SVCCD 07; pub. in 1990 by Super Cassettes Industries Ltd., and © 1990 Super Cassettes Industries Ltd.)…the album has four tracks – 1. Ari Eri Main Apno Shiva Payo (Raag Kabiree Bhairav – Vilambit Ada Chautaal); 2. Tum Ghan Se (Raag Meera Malhar – Jhaptaal); 3. Sakhi Mohan Mohni Daari (Raag Des – Madhya Laya Teen Taal); 4. Panan Biri Main Ko Kabhun Na Dini (Raag Suha – Rupak Taal)…I have listened to the album twice… and my attention was diverted both times…and I was unhappy…tomorrow is Sunday and I hope to get some time to listen attentively to Vidushi Dhondutai Kulkarni’s singing and see if I can gain admittance into her Music Room…

Jayasrinivasa Rao

Beaching in Madras

Hi World…
So…as planned we went to the Marina beach the next day…this was the first time I was exercising my photographic skills with our new camera (this photo of the beach with ships sailing is good, no?) (Sony Cybershot DSC W55), which Shruti had bought in Dubai on her way back from Harrogate…Shuba had this big thing for the sundal on the Marina and could not wait to taste this humble Marina beach snack…she monopolised the whole paper cone of sundal and gave us only small morsels…Shruti decided to reduce her mental age and except maybe for their heights, both Teju and Shruti were like 5 year olds…good for them… Shruti is going to contradict this vehemently, that’s why I shot videos of their beach fun… whenever Teju got slightly carried away Mahesh made his presence (very very) felt to make sure that the receding waves didn’t carry away Teju…Shruti didn’t have any such problems…the waves could not have carried her away as she carried herself very well…I was busy with my camera…pretending that I am shooting some grand spectacle…Mani Ratnam’s beach shot scenes (Kannathil Muthamittal; Aayitha Ezhuthu, among others) came to mind repeatedly…I tried to avoid wading into the waves…but was pulled in…and had no choice…I hate this sticky salt water and sand on the skin feeling…after more than an hour of this, we decided to trudge back to terra firma from aqua infirma (!?)…and all those snack bandis were waiting for us…and we ate some south Indian style north Indian chaat…Teju wanted some yo-yo type of thing which lights up when yo-yo-ed…he also wanted a balloon toy, and then decided that he actually wanted an unblown balloon, which the balloon seller was reluctant to sell…and there started this hungama madras ishtyle which made everyone totally hung-up about the whole Teju tantrum…anyway…all of us walked down to Chennai City Centre…Shubha had some Lifestyle redeemable coupons and wanted to find something to buy...and we entered this grand edifice...

Jai

Madras…oh…Madras…

Hi World...

Madras was sultry and how…you don’t have to toil to sweat…they also sweat who only stand and wait (wet?)…thus it came to pass and Madras beckoned me…leaving the unexpectedly cool climes of Hyderabad…I embarked on this voyage to hot Madras to meet my brother, Mahesh, and his family…especially his pocket dynamo…Teju… popularly known as Tarle Subba…Madras and Teju…both lived up to their reputations…of making you hot under the collar…that was expected though…and we did the usual beach trip…and I took videos and photos of Shruti and Teju frolicking in the sand and sea…and there was shopping and I netted quite a few…

On the first day it was at Landmark at Spencer Plaza on Mount Road…I did not have anything specific in mind to look for…I didn’t want to go into the books section…so I was sauntering along in the music section…many CDs caught my attention, but I was not impressed…then I stumbled onto this ‘bargain section’…it was not labelled that…but when I picked up a couple of CDs and looked at the prices, I was delighted to see that they were priced at Rs.100/- each…suddenly my mood changed…I wanted all of them…for starters, I just scanned and then started picking up whatever I liked…the collection in my arms swelled to 20 CDs…I knew I possibly couldn’t get all of them…now the elimination process begins…Shubha, my sister-in-law, very kindly offered to sponsor some CDs…and like this…slowly and slowly…I managed to finally select 8 CDs…I have been eyeing some of these CDs in their websites and lamenting about their cost and my weak wallet and here they are for almost 20% of their original cost…these are World Music CDs from Real World Records…I bought three of these at Landmark – Tabu Ley Seigneur Rocherau and Afrisa International Orchestra – Babeti Soukos (Womad Realworld – Virgin Records) [Zairean pop]; Remmy Ongala and Orchestre Super Matimila – Songs for the Poor Man (Womad Realworld – Virgin Records) [Tanzania – soukos-based music]; Yungchen Lhamo – Tibet, Tibet (Womad Realworld – Virgin Records) [a rare insight into the heart of Tibetan spirituality through the devotional songs of Tibet’s most inspiring female singer]. I also bought four Hindustani classical CDs – Rashid Khan – Ragas Bageshri and Desh (EMI); Prabhakar Karekar – Ragas Bhimpalasi (EMI); Pt Jitendra Abhiskehi – Ragas Lalit, Bhairav Bhatiyar, & Nayaki Kanada (Swar Siddhi series – Virgin Records); Sulochana Brahaspati – Live in Ayodhya 2002 – Ragas Purvi and Surdasi Malhar (Swar Shodh series – Virgin Records)…and I found something that I have been looking around for quite some time…I have a cassette, but was delighted to find the ACD of the soundtrack of Let’s Talk (Thumris in an Urban Landscape – soundtrack and other songs inspired by the film – Music: Ram Sampath – Virgin Records)…but somewhere I felt that I had left behind quite a few albums...and was not feeling happy about it...will let you all know what happened after...

Jai

Recent Books...and waiting for more...

Hi all…

After I exchanged pleasantries with my former student of years ago, I went to Al Classic as planned…this time I was determined to pick up some books, because, for one, I had run out of books to read while travelling to my college, and two, I wanted to try reading some books picked out randomly, written by first timers, unknown, obscure (to me at least) writers…but what to do, the mind does not allow you to take too many risks…I bought 4 books, and out of them only one was by somebody whose name I had never heard of…this novel is called The Music of the Spheres (Jove Books, New York) by Elizabeth Redfern…this book attracted me for 3 reasons…its title (music), its cover (its got 2 sheets that form its cover, an oval cut on the top sheet frames the picture of the back of a top hatted man with a long black coat), and some excerpts of reviews on the front cover, outside back cover and inside sheets…I liked the ‘lead up’ on the cover (In the aftermath of the French Revolution, a war is brewing…In the shadowed streets of London, a killer is waiting…In the stars in the skies, a secret is hiding…)… this was a big risk, but I am immensely satisfied with the book so far…I have another 100 pages to go…I hope the end is good enough for me to take further risks…

But, the ‘canon’ sometimes becomes a big impediment, especially if you are a student of literature, in taking risks of the literary kind…and the other 3 books that I bought reflect this…Hocus Pocus (Berkeley Books, New York) by Kurt Vonnegut, Ragtime (Bantam Books)by E. L. Doctorow and Red Dragon (Dell, New York) by Thomas Harris…and there is a reason behind each purchase…my friend Anupam Deep Bindra worked on Kurt Vonnegut’s novels for her Ph. D. and Hocus Pocus was one of the novels… and we would never hear the end of her praises…I was not too enthused at that time, but I saw a pretty good looking copy, looked inside, and liked what I saw and read and thought ‘why not’… I heard about Ragtime for the first time sometime in 1992…my friend Satish’s initial Ph. D. proposal was on ‘historiographic metafiction’…and he was working with a set of English novels for this…Ragtime was one of the novels, along with (if I am not wrong) Gravity’s Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon) and Midnight’s Children … he used to speak a lot about this topic and the novels and I was intrigued, but I could not read those novels then…I later inherited a copy of Ragtime from my father-in-law, and had read that too, but the book is at least 20 years old now and is coming apart and I saw a really good clean copy and decided to buy it…Red Dragon, was... well…an impulse buy…mainly because I had read Hannibal earlier and thought I might as well read this too…but the book I have been waiting to buy from a used book store…The Silence of the Lambs…still eludes me...and I am reading this ‘Hannibal Lecter’ series in a totally convoluted manner…

So…these are the latest books…but I am really waiting for the big releases this summer…The Hindu carried an exciting preview of the 3 blockbusters of this summer… I have some inkling of Salman Rushdie’s new novel, excerpts of which were carried by India Today and a write up in Tehelka…Jhumpa Lahiri’s new collection of short stories Unaccustomed Earth is also out…Tabish Khair’s review in Outlook was perceptive and good…Outlook also carried Lahiri’s interview…but for me, the biggest bonanza is going to be Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, the first book in his Ibis Trilogy…I am an unabashed admirer and untiring reader of Amitav Ghosh’s novels…and have read his books many times over…and will not tire of reading them many times more…he is a master of style and is a master story builder…the voice is soft and penetrating…my brightest day was when I saw and heard Amitav Ghosh speak in Hyderabad when he had come to launch The Hungry Tide…I am going to get a copy on the first day of its launch in Hyderabad… first day first show…

Happy summer reading…

Jai

Sunday Lunch with Vinod

Hello All…

This Sunday was eventful and the first part will remain long in memory. After a long delay, I finally found some time on Sunday to invite Vinod Ekbote to my home for lunch. Vinod had expressed his desire to see my fountain pen collection long back and I was looking for a convenient day and time. Vinod was slightly uneasy about the ‘lunch’ thing and he tried to persuade me to convert it to a ‘tea’ thing and brought in his ‘not to be missed Sunday Abids trip’ to convince me, but I insisted and he finally agreed and from the mail I received from him after his visit, I firmly feel that he didn’t mind the time he spent with us…

In all senses, Vinod is really the softest spoken person I’ve met so far… I showed him my basic library and the fountain pens…he had brought his Mont Blanc Meisterstuck 149 with him and I got another chance to admire a Mont Blanc in close range…we spent around 3 hrs talking and exchanging notes on mutual interests – fountain pens, books, education, writing…Shruti joined in too and Vinod was fascinated by the work/research Shruti was doing in the field of acquisition studies…Vinod had a lot of questions to ask about dyslexia, cognition, language acquisition, etc., and the discussion went on for almost one hour…Vinod is intrigued by the writing process and though he writes frequently and has just finished writing his book (a novel), he wants to fine tune his writing skills and he has written about this in his posts in his blog…also wants to attend a course in creative writing…he said he is a part of a group of likeminded people who are interested in writing and meet regularly and invited me join this group…I will do so and look forward to interacting with them…

I had a gift for Vinod, an Advocate FP…I had told him about this earlier…but I was surprised and happy to receive a stunning Mont Blanc catalogue commemorating 100 years of the brand and Dave Barry’s book – Dave Barry is NOT making this up – a collection of this Pulitzer Winning humourist’s columns…Shruti received a beautiful notebook…I’ve already started reading Dave Barry’s book and it really provides you bellyfuls of laughter…I wondered how I missed Dave Barry’s books all these years…Thanks, Vinod… for visiting us and for all those thoughtful gifts…and hope we meet again soon for an extended discussion session…

Jayasrinivasa Rao

A happy blast from the past...

Hello World…

This was three days ago…on April 2nd … around 4 PM, Shruti called up and told me that she’s busy with some meeting at EFLU (she teaches there) and that she’d reach home late…my regular auto person, Mr Ramulu (who ferries me in the morning from home to Secunderabad and from Secunderabad to home in the evenings) had informed me in the morning that he’d not be coming in that day…so, he wouldn't be waiting for me…the college bus dropped me off at Sangeet junction at 4.45 PM and I thought I’d see if any fresh stock of books had been unpacked at Al Classic, my regular second hand books stall near Sangeet movie theatre…as I was moving towards Al Classic, a young man, who was waiting near the theatre gate near Al Classic, came towards me stood before me and said, ‘Hello sir, how are you?’ My initial reaction was of slight panic, as it always happens when things like this happen suddenly…then I thought this was one more salesperson attack of some kind and was about to rebuff him…I didn’t see any bag of any kind or any folder or books in his hand…then I thought he must be someone belonging to some kind of religious order who stop people in the roads and greet them as if they are long lost friends and ply their trade once the ice is broken …but again, I didn’t see any religious paraphernalia with him or on him…moreover he was dressed casually in a full sleeved T-shirt and trousers…and with his hands across his chest…all this happened in a couple of seconds…I looked at him blank…I said, ‘sorry…?’ He then asked, ‘Srinivas Sir, no Sir?’…I said, ‘yes…’ He said, ‘…Sir, I was your student at Amaravathi Grammar School, Sir…’

I was stunned, surprised, happy, and god knows what else…I just looked at him goggle eyed open mouthed…I had taught in that school way back during 1993-95…that too as a part timer, when I was doing my M. Phil…this school was near CIEFL and a group of us research scholars used to teach spoken English and grammar to the high school students there in the mornings…we were known as spoken English teachers…it is 13 years since those days and this young man was my student then…I told him, ‘…Oh my god…it is really wonderful maan, meeting your student after so many years…and that too the student recognises his teacher after all these years…’ I asked him what he was doing these days and he said that he was working in a software firm…as I was speaking, I began to notice that his face indeed looked familiar, minus the moustache and fuzz on his cheeks and chin, he had grown taller…obviously…and like a prize idiot, I forgot to ask his name…I searched around in my head for a name to put to his face…I settled for ‘Praveen’…I am sure this is his name…after I left him and proceeded towards Al Classic…I thought about this brief encounter with my student of days long gone by and realised what my teachers used to say about the teaching profession…no other profession can give you this satisfaction of meeting somebody whom you taught years ago unexpectedly…and this heady feeling of being recognised amidst all the stress, joy, confusion, chaos, tension, etc., that life throws at you alternately with unfailing regularity…Thank you ‘Praveen’ for making my day…I hope I was a good teacher to all of you…may your tribe increase…

Jayasrinivasa Rao

Daffodils in York...River Nidd...

Daffodils in York...lovely, no? [photo taken by Shruti Sircar]

River Nidd...beautiful photo...isnt it? [photo taken by Shruti Sircar]

Hello All…

Shruti returned from Harrogate on April 1. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post…she went to Harrogate to present a paper at the Conference of the British Dyslexia Association. She said on her return that, academically, intellectually and sightseeing-wise, this trip was stimulating. Her paper went on well and she is awaiting comments from experts who attended her presentation. The BDA Conference was held at the Harrogate International Centre, which is a huge convention complex. In fact, Harrogate is known mainly as a convention/conference centre because of the Harrogate International Centre.

Shruti came back with loads of photographs (and thanks a lot Madhav for lending me your precious camera...not many people are so generous...) and she surely must have delighted in being there. The photos look happy. The rain swept streets almost empty of people and vehicles; the city centre; Harrogate bus stand; York railway station; York Minster Cathedral; York castle; River Nidd; the lawns outside the hotel; the bare trees awaiting spring and sunshine; those tall brown/gray buildings; those cobbled streets…she came back with lasting memories of the visit…and most of all photos of daffodils…not ‘ten thousand’…as good old William Wordsworth ‘saw’… ‘at a glance’…but enough spread across a garden to get a sense of how unending rows of daffodils might have looked…

Daffodils have always intrigued us English literature students in India…we read the poem…fairly representative of Wordsworth’s romantic poetic inclinations…this one is light too…all ‘sprightly dance,’ ‘sparkling waves,’ ‘jocund,’ ‘bliss of solitude,’ etc….and we wondered what this flower looked like…my English teacher in Shimoga told me that one of his English teachers, who had visited England on some scholarship, did not forget to bring back photographs of daffodils and incredibly enough, even a sample daffodil, to show his students…such is the power of ‘Daffodils’ on Indian students of English literature…surprisingly enough, till I saw these photographs of daffodils taken by Shruti, I didn’t know how these legendary flowers looked like… this was the first time that I was looking at photographs of daffodils…when, all the time, images of daffodils were only a click away on the www… maybe because I was waiting for Shruti to visit England and come back with photos of daffodils…thanks Shruti… for all the lovely photographs...

Jayasrinivasa Rao

A Conference and some self promotion

Hi everybody…
I attended a three-day conference on World Literature and Challenges to Comparative Literature last week (26, 27, 28 March 2008) at EFLU (I prefer its former name – CIEFL; but the institution’s status has changed from a deemed university to a full fledged central university and so has its name…sigh…those CIEFL days…). This was one of the most eclectic conferences that I ever attended…I think the term ‘comparative literature’ can absorb quite a lot…apart from papers relating to Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Urdu, English, Japanese, Russian, and Eritrean literature among others…there was a full session on comparative Hindi literature with papers being read in Hindi…I could meet many scholars…some old friends…and attending seminars and conferences, especially in EFLU (my CIEFL), means I meet my teachers and exchange pleasantries and notes on works in progress or on general well being…but the most important relief is that it helps me break away from the monotony of teaching from a text book and for a change, sit back and listen to others…I met Tharakeshwar during the course of these three days…I have known him since 1996 or so, when we were conducting our respective researches, he at HCU, I at CIEFL…he now teaches at Kannada University, Hampi…a good scholar and a forceful speaker…it was nice meeting him and he gave me some morale boosting news…one of his M.Phil. students is doing a course on Kannada Translation Studies (or something related to translation and Kannada literature…) … and Tharakeshwar told me that he has prescribed one of my published articles (“Translation and Kannada Literature: Appropriating New Genres” published in CIEFL Bulletin) as essential reading for the course… nothing makes a researcher more happy than to hear that his/her work is being consulted/read/quoted… I felt so happy and I told him that this was encouraging…A week earlier, an ex-CIEFL-ite called me up (actually she called Shruti, how she got her number I don’t know) and told me she was working on U R Anantha Murthy’s Samskara for her Ph.D. and that she had found my published paper on the early Kannada novel quite useful…she wanted to know where she could get substantial information on the modern Kannada novel…she is a Telugu and can’t read/understand Kannada and there is very little written in English about Kannada literature…I gave her whatever references I had…I hope she finds them…so much for some mood elevation and self promotion…

During the course of the previous week (Mar 29), as I was browsing the net, I thought I’d take a quick look at what Vinod Ekbote’s up to and visited his blogsite…and there it was…such a piece of exhilarating news…Vinod had succeeded in completing his novel…hats off to Vinod for accomplishing a most demanding and most creative job…I appreciate his determination and single minded devotion…only the first draft is complete…and it will be some time before we can see it in print…he has promised me a copy…I will buy a copy anyway…I have promised him something… he knows that…good going Vinod…

Shruti has come back from her trip to Harrogate…with loads of photos and lots of experiences…till next time then…

Jayasrinivasa Rao