School Reunions

This is the season for reunions of various batches of students who have passed out of the hallowed portals of St. Paul's High School, Belgaum. The belgaumite also happens to be part of the alumni of the 1979 batch. We have our own blog : stpaulsclassof79.blogspot.com. Going thru the blog brings back memories and makes you want to re-connect with old friends and classmates with whom you have studied, played and also been punished. One's heart swells with pride on knowing about our batch-mates achievements but at the same time it is saddened to know about those amongst us who have departed for their heavenly abode.

Pandering Popularity

Now that I have my blog, the next task that confronts me is to make it popular. Well I have visited a few bloggers like Steve @ stevepavlina.com and Darren @ Problogger.net. Well I quite have not understood their "monetizing a blog" or "publicizing it". Maybe I will simply ask my friends, relatives and associates to visit my blog and post comments. Well another option would be to make my blog raunchy like the "Compulsive Confessor" or something similar. But would a raunchy blog run by a middle aged guy would be half as popular as a raunchy blog run by a approaching middle class female who recounts her experiences as a fellatrix, her sexual adventures and raves and rants about being celibate for several months now as if she is available for a romp with just anyone who may be kind enough to ask her "May I". No way pal! I better come up with a jolly good idea and soon! I hear that if any blog is not really popular within a certain period Blogger takes them of the Net. So guys if you have any idea please let me know.

Linguistic Lacunae

Today on TV there was such a hue and cry over some English Medium school in Mandya imposing a fine of upto Rs. 100/- on students speaking in Kannada on it's premises. The TV channel showed agitated parents berating the school authorities for resorting to such draconian measures for disciplining their wards. Just you hold on there for a minute! You sent your children to this school so that they would be fluent in the usage of the English Language. Right? Then why get agitated when the school authorities are seemingly using the above tactic as a means to ensure that talking or thinking in English becomes second nature to your child? I for one have had the privilege of studying in schools and colleges with English as the medium of instruction and mostly in institutions run by the Jesuits. The last is significant because these dedicated teachers had no other expectations from the students except that they learn good English and excel in their subjects.

Linguistic Lacunae

Jawahar Lal Nehru might not have thought that dividing the country along linguistic lines might lead to such ramifications. The first to resist were the Tamils who wanted a separate flag et al. Then came Bal Thackeray with his anti- south indian stance. Now we have his nephew who says all North Indians are persona non grata in amchi Mumbai.Now we Belgaumites ( I prefer this term over Belgaumkars or Belgavnavaru ) have always been in the middle of linguistic loggerhead. The most vociferous had been the MES. But now it saddens ones heart that the kannada faction has resorted to the same tactics. Can our politicians find any other platform other than religion or language to propagate their interests? I think nobody has the balls to raise developmental issues. Will Raj Thackeray issue a dictat against some one who defiles the streets on amchi Mumbai by spitting Pan or Pissing on the streets?

Phenomenal Phenomenon

The patrons and promoters of Shri Renuka Sugars are well known ever since they started trading in Parle biscuits and Tata Salt. They allegedly had a reputation for gainful manipulation of their monopolies. Maybe it in keeping with this tradition they decided to allocate preferential shares out of the promoters quota in Shri Renuka Energy Ltd., to the existing shareholders of Shri Renuka Sugars Ltd. They decided to do this by calling all the share holders to their Head Office in Camp and physically collecting the subscription amount/ distributing share certificates. Fine. There is nothing wrong in that. But the majority of the share holders of Shri Renuka Sugars Ltd, happen to be unlettered, ignorant farmers who descended on the Camp Head Office of the Company in wave upon wave of seemingly unending hordes.

Well the Company seemed to have anticipated this. Coz, their neighbours found themselves barricaded in their homes and compounds without even as much as "by your leave"! Imagine being shut up in / or out of your house, and/or the road to your house being blocked by vehicles on one side and bamboo barricades on the other with the Company's security staff behaving like Nazi Storm Troopers. If this was not enough the villagers with no civic sense blocked the only other approach so much so that one neighbour had to call the police. Strange it seems that the police looked the other way when so much was going on! Do you feel Might is Right?

Those that have erected high walls around their property were spared the ignomy of having their property used by the villager shareholders for eating their dinner and sleeping overnight! If you think that is all right, where will these poor people go, you will change your views when you come to know that the very same people used these very grounds to take their morning dump and throw away thier litter and empty booze bottles.

Thank you very much but you'd expect that one of the key promoters who is a Finance Professional and who sits on the board of a leading Private sector bank would have had better ideas on the mode of distribution of preferential shares.

Belgaum

Belgaum is a little town in North West Karnataka famous for a gooey milk based sweet called Kunda, milk co-operatives, sugar co-operatives, foundries & machine shops. The Udyambag Industrial Estate houses several SME's which at present is in the throes of an economic upswing. The town is also well known for Hydraulics. Hey! Why am I giving this information which you could get on Wikipedia which even mentions that eating Biryani at Hotel Niyaz is a treat in itself!
Well I started this blog after much procrastination to put down experiences with human nature, guiles, corruption etc. More will follow on the next post. Gotta run! Bye for now!