Kannadda Kannmani Dr. Raj

April 24, 1928 - April 12, 2006

12th April, 2006 3:00 PM, I got a mail, "Annavaru innilla" was the subject and that spoke volume for itself.

I could not believe this news, started searching web for reliable source of the information. Deccan Herald announced "Dr. Raj Kumar Passed away". It was a shock which was not expected.

In next one hour Came the announcement from the CEO, "Employees are advised to leave early..." and 13th April was declared holiday.

The sequence of event resembled something what happened in year 2000, that was when Dr. Raj kumar was kidnapped.

Before this, my memory fails to recall anything like this, it dates back to my school days when the school was let off when our prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi was killed.

Shocked with the news of Dr. Raj's death, I reached home witnessing Deserted roads of Bangalore, some burnt vehicles, tyres on fire, broken glasses of shops..., I reached home. switched on the TV, I saw lakhs of people assembling to pay their respect to the departed soul.

Dr. Raj was not a political leader nor a religious leader, he was a actor and he was the best at it. he would fill life into the characters he played, which no other actor could do.

That night I could not help brooding Hundreds of his movies I had seen from my childhood, Hosa Belaku, Kaviratna Kalidaasa, Chalisida Modagalu, Halu Jenu, Bhakta kumbara, Mayura, Babrubahana....If go on, I will have to list all the 200+ movies acted by him.

I looked back at the range of roles he has played, Starting from Bedara Kannapa

Historic roles like Krishna Deva Raya, immadi Pulakesh, RanaDheera Kanthirava....

As a common man in Bangara Manushya, Kasturi nivasa, kamanabillu..

Kaviratna Kalidasa, Kanak dasa....

Till the his last movie Shabdavedi..

Every movie made a big impact on Kanndigas, every character he played came alive on the silver screen. People of Karnataka will continue to watch and cherish these movies, Raj kumar may not be there, but he shall continue to live in every role he has played.

Annavare we will all miss you, We are grateful for what you have done for Kannada and Karnataka.

Nimma Atmakke Shanti Sigali..

Pondicherry Calls

After the "road trip" to Mangalore it was time for the second preparation trip, preparation ?? well preprations are in full swing to hit the highest motrable roads in ladhak. Second trip took us to Pondicherry, once a French colony and now a union territory.

We started on 31st March, after having a great Ugadi treat the previous day. We all assembled in Mukundu's house at 5:00 AM in order to be out of city limits by the time traffic picks up, as planned we managed to start at 5:30 AM, but how can we forget our friend Mr. Murphy, it was time for him to play his role.

We had just started our bikes when Chandru, who had gone ahead to pick one of our friend called us, "Mayur had fainted....", came the message from him, panic all over, Mukund and Manjunath went for the rescue, as we all decided to wait for them at Shell petrol bunk on Hosur road. The guys dropped Mayur at his room and joined us. So the journey finally took off at 7:00 AM.

Soon we crossed Hosur and our Speedometer was showing this..., you can imagine the condition of the roads...

It was like this...amazing roads bikes were speaking with air as we flying at 100-120 KPH.

We stopped at Krishnagiri for break-fast. Agenda was to eat Idli-sambar in such a way that even Tamilians feel embarrassed, Naga did it :), after breakfast the ride was more of country side with still great roads continuing with tree shade on either side.

As we Approached Tiruvanna malai, we came across a pond full of blooming lotus, pond in the backdrop of mountain was a sight to sit and watch for a while.

Close up of a lotus was worth a click

We reached Thiruvanna Malai at about 2:00 PM, the sun was following us all the while, this called for 25 pineapple juice to beat the heat, Krishana was the only interface with the local people, he negotiated the price and paid up, we went into Ramana Maharshi ashram, it was closed.

But there was a peacock to welcome us at the ashram.

We left Thiruvanna malai and reached Gunji, this place has some nice fortresses and mountains.

I managed to take some technical photos for the mountain and fort :), courtesy Mukund's bike mirror.

We reached pondicherry at 5:00 PM, I was impressed at the entrance of the place.

I was informed that in pondi bike fuel and human fuel were very cheap, boys filled up the bikes and themselves with fuel and we hit the bed that night.

Next morning few lucky once went see the sun rise. ( Well pondi is not a place for sun set :))

The beach road at the end of French quarters give a great view of the sea, it is treat to eyes as the waves come and hit the wall.

As a custom there is a statue of Ghandiji, in spite of the fact that you find maximum number of Bars, pubs here and more importantly human fuel is given away dead cheap.

We went to Arbindo ashram, well at this point I have to admitt that I have not done much reading on Arbindo, may be should take it up sometime.

We went to Mother's museum, this place displays all host of the things used by Mother and Sri. Arbindo. What caught my attention was a tissue paper used by mother which somebody had preserved.

This nice statue welcomes you at the entrance of the museum

By the time some of us finished the trip of French quarter, the other group members had started to proceed towards beach on Kadloor road, it is a private beach owned by tourism department.

With next days sunrise we started back to Bangalore.

All said and done, still the question of what happened Naga's purse, Sri's Mobile and Purse remains biggest mystery of the trip. No matter how long you stare at the horizon, you will never get the answer.