Amma (my mother) is on a pilgrimage to some of the holiest of the Hindu shrines and cities till October 21st. She will travel from Bangalore to the slopes of the Himalayas to Badarinath, Hardwar, Kedarnath, Brindavan, and Hrishikesh.

It is a journey I'd like to take someday. Not so much for the religious aspect, but for the awe-inspiring historical and traditional reasons. It is the pilgrimages like these that have kept India as a nation together for thousands of years -- how else could a country where cultures, languages and living habits were different, could exist as one nation? Except these holy centers, what else is common between my grandma, a housewife in the town of Honavar, and a housewife in Rajasthan?

During the long pilgrimage, Amma will travel by train, bus, car, horse-carriage, and even palanquin-like bovis, and will cover a thousand miles. Wow!

See Also:
• Map showing important temples of North and Central India
• Hinduism Potpourri

Last week, along with some of my friends, I donated money to Udavum Karangal, a great charitable organization run by selfless volunteers in Tamilnadu. This week I am donating to United Way. Both my donations were encouraged and matched 100% by friends, and I thank them for thier generosity and leadership.

I believe that volunteering and donating money is a civil duty. I think that we all must make some sacrifices so others can have a chance.

Today, Tintin my puppy, went to school. Since she is too young, she was not allowed to sit in a group class, and had to take private tutions. Of course, the school also sells its own academic supplies, and text books for parents. After this elementary class, she will also take intermediate, and advanced lessons. It's hilarious.

It's also very expensive, and troubles me deeply if such extravagance is appropriate.

I felt the same discomfort when I bought a large house, and a large TV.

Then I always find solace in Shivaram Karanth's famous words during the first World Kannada Conference in Mysore (year 1985; I was in college and was in the audience).

1985 was a bad year for the farmers in Karnataka and there was wide-spread drought. A lot of people (including me) at that time felt it was unwise to host a cultural conference or engage in celebration, because the cattle were dying and there was no water.

As Shivaram Karanth inaugurated the conference, a number of people stood up and protested the holding of the cultural conference. Dr. Karanth had said in his characteristic style --"I know there is a drought, a severe drought. And I want to ask how many of you have stopped watching movies because there is a drought. I want to know how many of you have stopped eating spicy pan-cakes (masale dosa) because there is a drought."

Of course, Karanth was a genius. He put it so well. Not having the cultural show did not mean there was going to be rains, or prosperity. Similarly, not sending my puppy to a pricey dog-school does not mean poor children elsewhere would have benefited.

See Also:
• Jyotsna with Karanth at All India Radio
• Work an Hour for India -- my appeal for ASHA

IndoGram: What's so great about Gandhi, anyway? by Niranjan Ramakrishnan

In my village in India, there was this poor artist, who, whenever someone asked him "How's Life?", he'd always say "Oh, what can I tell you? My house is full of kids, and my yard is full of shit!"

As kids, we thought it was funny -- he was a poor man and did have six or seven children, and did not have sewage or a sceptic tank facility.

Now, I remember the artist every morning as I pick up after TinTin.

Dave Winer says he likes making software for librarians (link)

I like making software for users of libraries. I do it for a living.

I work a lot with librarians as well as geeks. Someone(probably a librarian) somewhere thought, since both librarians and programmers work with information, they must be related, and must work together. But as my notes based on working with  either, tell you, they are quite different groups that quite don't get along.

• Librarians are typically female, typically are well read, have good English language skills, and typically underpaid. The programmers are typically male, typically have poor writing skills, spell poorly, and are overpaid.
• There is a tremendous collide of nomenclature. What the humans call a book, the librarians call a monograph. What we call a periodical, they call a serial or a title. A database system for a geek means a relational database management system, for a librarian it means a collection of citations. I am not talking about some individual making a mistake, I am talking about two large white-collar, vertical industries. For a geek, Oracle is a database. For a librarian, ProQuest is a database.
• Librarians are nit-pickers. They get very frustrated (who doesn't?) because the programmers won't listen to them. Unfortunately what librarians don't get is that some of the programmers have sound mathematical foundations in their brain, and can organize the information much better for easy retrieval, than the librarians can. The librarians refuse to accept that programmers get organization of information. Just look at the LCC Classification System, which is like holy grail for librarians. Medicine is not under Science, and Military and Naval Science are in the same hierarchical level as Music. Categories E and F (History of America) are actually same! How can a programmer respect these?
• Librarians feel threatened by systems like Google. Their gut feelings are right. Do you know how many people walk to a library and use Google? And you know what, Google is pretty darn good at finding what a user (patron) want whereas a library is not. Just consider how painful it is for a patron to access the electronic versions of a licensed journals-- first you have to register your IP, then you have to get a login and password -- a different one for each of the e-journals the library has subscriptions, it is a nightmare. No wonder library usage is declining worldwide.

This is not a criticism of librarians as a profession. If you are offended, please read some jokes ridiculing the programmers. IMO a librarian's job is more honorable than a programmer's, and I say that just because of my upbringing as a Hindu which gives a lot of credit to the knowledge professions like teachers, gurus, sages, and librarians .

See Also:
• My Romance with Libraries
• More Blog Entries on Libraries

Mukta Venkatesh, the talented painter of flowers (see: ) passed away yesterday. She was 101.

I've known Mrs. Venkatesh since I was a college student in Mysore, and we were very fond of each other. I have been greatly inspired from her personality, her mastery of English poetry, her affection, and desire to continue her hobbies.

Goodbye Muktamma, and thanks for all those hand-painted floral greetings you sent us.

BAFFLE-Bash Tonight!

The Birmingham Area Fantasy Football League meets for a bash tonight at "On Tap Sports Cafe" to watch Chiefs visit the Raiders. Say Hi if you see me.

BTW, my franchise, The KamatSutra has done very well so far. For the Monday Night game, I am behind by 10 points, but still have Priest Holmes.... Should be a great contest..

Amma (back from her pilgrimage to the Himalayas, via telephone): "I consider fortunate to have met such towering personalities like Mukta Venkatesh, R.K. Narayan, and Chaduranga. They have enriched my life so much!"

While I don't think of it often, I have been truly priviledged to meet many great men and women. The voluntary organization RSS, where I was a cadet during the 70s, was full of men of great personal character and descipline. Being born to academic and intellectual parents meant that I frequently came in contact with writers, poets, scholars, and artists. Most of my father's customers in his Scientific Photo Lab had PhD.s, and were devoted servants of science.

People inspire others not just from their knowledge or attitudes, but also from intrinsic human qualities, like courage. My father, for instance, was greatly inspired by the misery of life. The way poor folks fight through life's harsh realities excited and inspired him, and that inspiration can be seen in much of his works.

Invisible Web (a.k.a. Deep Web) is the galaxy of documents that are not accessible through open search engines like Google. Examples are authenticated content, non-textual content, and custom content. By some estimates the Invisible Web is already fifty times bigger than the World-wide Web.

Just the very nature of the Invisible Web -- need to keep the data private -- makes centralized computing impossible. This means  that there are lots of opportunities for low-cost search engines, and low cost subject directories, and content management systems.

I think that most tech. companies are too much focussed on the visible web, and not so much on the Invisible Web. I am interested in talking () to engineering types who are plumbing the Invisible Web.

Those who grow up on India's west-coast are very familiar with a Konkani speaking community called Kudubis. They are a fun loving tribe, and most popular for their celebrations of "Shigmo" (harvest festival), and "Gumatepak" (celebration of Spring) festivals. In our continued efforts to document the undocumented India, I have rehashed a 2000 article on the community and present a new section on the Kudubi Communtity.

G.B. Joshi Centennial

It is in the same spirit (documenting the undocumented, or singing the unsung) that we remember the contributions of G.B.Joshi during his centennial year, this year.

Of course, Joshi was a family friend, a mentor to my father, and was great man. His acumen to run a prestigious publishing house on a shoe-string budget was amazing (and had earned him the nick-name Fox). IMO it is only due to efforts like Joshi's that Kannada language and literature survived and prospered. What can writers do if they have no market?

Coming Soon: G.B. Joshi Photo Album, and Karnataka SuperSite on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava Day (Nov 1).

Singing the Unsung

After Amma's Kannada book "Nenapinalli Ninthavaru" (Those who persisted in my memory) came out, I requested her to document the lives of some of the great, yet forgotten leaders of Karnataka. As a historian, as a scholar, and as a biographer, I felt that she was in a unique position for the assignment. She obliged, and I am pleased to compile this list of biographies of many of the unsung heroes of Karnataka.

Havyaka Brahmins

A patron, Subrahmanya Bhat notes that thirty-two families mentioned in Amma's article on the Institution of Agraharas are the original Havyaka Brahmins. How fascinating!

He cites oral history and tradition (which is a very imporant source of information for students of Indian history -- see an example of how tradition was used to rebuild history), as well as some well reserached works (see Roots of Havyaka Brahmins by Subraya Hegde and Nagendra Hegde). It all makes so much sense to me.

For many years I have been asked to add more content on Havyak community, and today I have decided to add a new section on Havyaka Brahmin community under our fast growing People of India section.

But first I have a story to tell.

The story requires some background.

In the area of India that I and my father grew up, the Konkani Brahmin community (to which I belong to), and the Havyaka Brahmin community have a fierce social competition -- a very healthy, and natural competition --competing for higher achievements in academics, sports, giving to charity, and in political power. The two castes also have a close symbiotic relationship. Some of my best friends were Havyakas (or Haveeks, as we called them). Privately we made fun of thier language -- a very old and traditional precursor of present day Kannada, and their impracticality (most Havyaks were priests, farmers, and teachers, whereas most Konkanis were bankers and businessmen), and I am sure the Havyaks rediculed us as "fish eating brahmins", and "cunning Konks".

Now the incident.

Many many years ago (1970s), my father wrote an article documenting the Havyaka Brahmin community in a popular periodical, Karmaveera. It was well received, and earned my father many fans and admirers, and as recently as 1999 I have seen requests for its reprint. But some Havyaka leaders thought that Bappa relied too much on hearsay for documenting the traditions, and felt some parts were demeaning to the community. They burnt the copies of the magazine in protest, and called for boycott of Bappa's writings.

Due to the delicate nature of the matter and its potential for communal disharmony, Bappa did not respond to the protests. When the requests for reprints were received, he denied them. It took other Havyaka scholars like V.G. Bhat, to befriend and support Bappa, before he would write about the Havyaks again.

In some ways, I feel honored on being asked to build a website for Havyak community --a community with whom I lived, grew up, competed, and among whom I have so many friends.

I also feel a sense of satisfaction on seeing an old wound heal fully.

See Also:
• Ethnicity and Conflict in India
• Search for pictures of Havyaka Community