The Party Is Over

A political party has unofficially died today marking the end of the longest surviving non-Congress party. This was no ordinary party. This was a party that shook the political certitudes of Indian politics like no one else had done before. This was a party that captured the public imagination and the ultimate power in fairly rapid and dramatic way. This was a party that gave India one of her best Prime Ministers. This was a party that dominated and dictated the agenda for five successive general elections.

A party that was once so full of ideas got bankrupt and corrupt by the stint in power. Bereft of new ideas, unable to cling on to old ones, the party developed severe identity crisis. The crisis needed application of thoughts by its once much envied leadership. But the leadership was tired and jaded. The leadership was at war with itself. The leadership tried to beat its opponents by becoming exactly like its opponent. The leadership was in denial about the disease that had afflicted the party. The party was at war with itself. It had become a weak, pity, pale shadow of its once glorious self.

Like the drowning man, it hoped someone else from outside would come and help. And this help it expected from its opponents. In the world of competitive politics, that was asking for a death blow. Blow it did receive but survived for a few hours raising hopes of the believers that atleast now an emergency surgery would be undertaken to cure the ill. But the party went back to denial and to old certitudes and to ideas that had gone past their sell by date. It died.

But political parties are in some ways immortal. They can come back from death and lead a rejuvenated life. Can this party do? Do they still have the resolve to do it? Will they carry out the onerous responsibility of ensuring a bipolar polity in India? Let's hope they regain their life for the sake of India.

Another pointless post - 88th post

GuruWrites has come under intense ridicule and criticism by the single digit readership of the blog who say that GuruWrites gets active only for celebratory posts. Some critics also point out that the author of this blog could not could not come up with new posts due to ideological differences though the same critics have not been able to point out with whom these ideological differences have cropped up.

Sources close to GuruWrites have told that the blogger has now become uncomfortable with a Hindu-sounding name. 'The author of this blog has huge political ambitions. He doesn't want that to be harmed by writing in a blog that sounds too Hindu', says noted lawyer turned postman Krantikari. But this has also been denied by the very same sources.

Amidst all these rumour mongering and speculations, mainly by GuruWrites, the author of this esteemed blog has not been available for comment. Sources say the writer at GuruWrites is slightly disappointed that he has still not recieved JnaanaPeeTha or Kendra Sahitya Academy Award despite the prolific literary outpourings in his blog. But the author is planning to celebrate the 100th post soon in a grand way.

Guruwrites celebrates 3 years of relentless, clear, pointed, ahead, truth first, humour next blogging

It's been possible mainly because of you, you and the person to your extreme right.

Guruwrites celebrates 86th post

On this occasion of the 86th post from the Guruwrites Inc., the Gregorian calendar has moved on to 2009. 'It's incredible that the commencement of new year has coincided with the landmark 86th post from Guruwrites', said a beaming author of this blog. '86 is a significant number. Remember the 86th amendment. Remember 1986', said the author while commenting on the significance of 86th post. However, not many, including the author, understood what the previous statement meant.
In the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks, the 86th post celebration has been low key. But that did not deter noted citizen journalist Rishikesh from speaking his mind to the media people. 'This is a historic moment in the history of the Indian Right', said Rishikesh while addressing a press conference. This has triggered a wave of speculation in the national and regional media about the political incilination of this blogger. 'Rishikesh is a respactable citizen journalist. If he thinks this is a historic day for the Indian Right, then this would mean the end of secularism in this country', moaned noted secularist Ms Seetalwad before emitting a shrill tone which shrill tone analysts believe was an unrelated call to defeat Narendra Modi in whichever election possible in whichever country.
When asked to comment on the controversy, the author of Guruwrites had only mathematical chutzpah to offer. '86 is 14 short of hundred. 8+6=14.', said the Guru. Since nothing much could be inferred from that, nothing much was inferred. Wish you all a happy new year.

A pointless post

A few days back, much to my surprise, a couple of readers of this blog(whose readership hasn't made much headway since the days of single digit readership and has stayed in single digits despite such avant-garde, path-breaking, historical, thought provoking, laughter-riot-inducing, heart-wrenching writing), asked me why I am not updating my other blog. The one about music which I started in my typical I-know-about-everything style and stopped after 3 brief posts with one of them being an introduction. (Quite laughable indeed.) Despite being pretentious sometimes, I am also honest. So I said, 'En bareebeku gottaaglilla, adakke barililla' (For the English-knowing-Kannada-gottilla readership of this esteemed blog, here goes the translation. 'I didn't know what to write. So I didn't write').
Truer words have been spoken, but this too was quite true. I assumed myself to be connoisseur of music and started that blog. A connoisseur who took twenty four years of his life to discover Beatles and consequently realize their greatness. This was such a laughable discovery that I almost wanted to write a post, 'A random-passerby Harish declares that Beatles were great - a good 38 years after they shut down as a group'. This being the case, what shall I write in a music blog(although I read almost everything that's there in the wikipedia about Beatles)? Ok, to write about music, knowledge about Beatles isn't mandatory, especially for a person like me who really couldn't differentiate between jazz, rock and pop for a long time. Ok, what do I know about Indian music apart from my failed attempts to learn violin.
I started learning violin when I was a nine year old much like musicians of yore. Instantly made, Chowdiah as my inspiration - a person whose performance I had never heard. Took less than a couple of years to move on to varNaas before I discontinued. This I attributed to creative differences with the teacher. No, I actually I didn't like they way it was taught in Vijaya College Of Music and I didn't know where else to go to learn Violin. Then, 2 or 3 years later, I suddenly remembered my pledge to become Chowdiah whose violin rendition I had still not heard. Consequently I decided to resume learning violin. And where did I go? To the same teacher at the same school. It continued for less than a year or so and again creative differences arose and I left with my pledge not yet redeemed. Status - 2 or 3 varNaas. 2 or 3 years later, I had forgotten my pledge as also the fact that I had still not listened to Chowdiah. Being a man who can be very easily swayed sometimes by propaganda, I went back, at the start of my engineering, to my learn-violin adventure after I heard so many people say that, 'Harisha, jeevandalli hooby anta iTTkobeku. Adralloo sangeeta. Manassige santasa koDutte. Nee kacheri koDbekaagilla. Maneli nuDiskobahudu. Ningidu eega gottaagalla, munde gottaagutte'(Here goes the translation - 'Harisha, in life, you should have a hobby. That too music. It gives you happiness. You need not give concerts. You can play violin at home itself. You won't realise it now, you will realise later'). This time I found a pretty good teacher who taught really well and I made dramatic progress and in 2-3 years completed most of the syllabus for the junior exam. Lost interest suddenly. Left
learning. And became a software engineer.

Despite such a lengthy learning, I really didn't know much about Carnatic music that you could really write about in a serious blog on music which I wanted my other blog to be. And what about Indian film music? Well pretty much the same case when you consider that I came to know of one of India's best composers Ilayaraja only 3 or 4 years back. I should thank Arjun though for introducing me to Ilayaraja's music. (That Ilayaraja worked in G K Venkatesh's music troupe made me proud as a Kannadaiga). Instantly became so impressed by Raja sir's music that I wanted to download all the songs he has composed in all the languages and I did download few songs in Telugu and one in Malayalam apart from many in Kannada and Tamil(this despite me not understanding any of these languages apart from Kananda). What wonderful music!
And I proclaim that I am a big fan of A R Rehman's music, a fan who stumbled upon one of Rehman's best compositions - 1947 Earth - only earlier this year.
Even if we assume there's no need for any knowledge to write about music you should atleast know how to write about music. Whenever you ask me to write about a song I like, it shall usually contain two or three words/phrases like, 'melodious', 'superb orchestration', 'excellent background instruments'. If I am the most creative I might use mellifluous. In that way I might destroy songs by writing about it and making people go away from those songs. So I didn't write. Instead concentrated on writing extremely opinionated posts on significant political events apart from humour. Yes, I wrote this entire post to essentially say what the previous sentence said. Thank You.