Vikas Kamat is a programmer- entrepreneur
living
in Atlanta. This blog is a complex mix of Indian
culture, life in southern USA, computer sciences, and sports. Opinions are his
own. About - Bio - Contact
I
have modified the SimplyBlog engine so that it can used to start a Blog Network.
The authentication credentials can come from a different system (like LDAP or a forum Database such as phpBB), so you don't have to change the world just to be able to offer blogs to your users.
As a demo, I am starting Kamat Blog Network. I sent some invitations, and it already it has 3 many blogs.
Amateur Webmaster Blog -- My technical experiences of maintaining
Kamat's Potpourri
Malli's Potpourri
-- Birds, Stamps, and Studies of D.G. Mallikarjuna
SimplyBlog Blog
-- A blog about the SimplyBlog software system
Secrets of Raji's Kitchen -- Carefully preserved traditional recipes of
Tamilnadu
One of the features of SimplyBlog always has been to merge
different blogs into one page -- each blog having its own template. This
feature turns out to be an excellent way to start Blog
Network.
I am expanding our coverage of India's sub-cultures. These are subtle topics that require some basic understanding of India.
For instance, people reading Indian news often run into a word often spelled as mutt, mutha, math, mutha -- that has no equivalent in Western culture. While editing Kamat's Potpourri we roughly approximate the term as monastery, but the institution of mutha is quite unique to India, and plays a very important role in social decision making.
I am also starting a new list of Campus Slangs commonly used. While they are cute, if you don't understand them, you might mistake them!
India's Subtle Subcultures -- Discussions on delicate topics deeply embedded in Indian culture, covering topics such as dowry, caste, and mangalya (good luck).
The other day, while talking about women saints of India, Amma
and I spoke about Amritanandamayi, popularly known as "Amma" or
the "Hugging Saint". I had heard of her, but due to my personal
prejudice about godmen (and godwomen) I had not cared to learn more about this
amazing person.
Born into a poor fisherman's family what Mata Amritanandamayi has achieved is
no less than a miracle. I will just point to the websites:
Although Mata Amritanandamayi doesn't claim any religious affilication, I feel she is a great diplomat for India, for Hinduism, and for India's spiritual tradition.
We have to go to history books to read about great saints such as Meerabai, Akkamahadevi, and Andal. But here is a saint who is living right amongst us.
Shivaji's Caste
In our page about Shivaji, there is a line that says "Shivaji crowned himself" -- apparently this sentence is offensive to many. They often request me to change it to "People crowned Shivaji in a grandeur function" or something like that.
I haven't changed it, because Shivaji was a self-made king (he didn't inherit his kingdom from daddy) and I thought he deserved the reverence given to heroes who establish great empires.
What I didn't realize was the caste angle to the request. I had heard about how the Chitpavan Brahmins didn't want Shivaji crowned because of Shivaji's caste. They had argued that only Kshatriyas could be crowned. Shivaji had to take up penance and manipulation, and had to be initiated into the Kshatriya clan by the highest pundit of the period, a man named Gaga Bhatta.
Amma has all the details in today's entry:
Shivaji's Caste. Amazingly, the Brahmins were wrong. Shivaji was indeed a Kshatriya by birth, that too of a royal lineage.
There is another surprise. Shivaji's ancestors probably spoke Kannada!
Hopefully this new found knowledge will bridge the Kannada-Marathi contentions...
Too Many Darn Kamats II
Too Many Darn Kamats II (and Origin and Meaning of Kamat)
Kamat is also the name of a large chain of restaurants and hotels in India. I
get email all the time requesting reservations. Recently on "Friends of Kamat" mailing list, a patron interested in etymology asked me to
elaborate the origin and meaning of Kamat, to find the relationship between
Kamats, Kamaths (notice the additional h), and Camotims.
It is believed that the word Kamat is derived from Kammatha (from Kannada, meaning agriculture). Goa was ruled by many Kannada kings, and there was a lot
of Kannada influence there. Some people argue that Kamat is derived from kaam (=
work) and mathi (= soil), having a similar meaning, one who is involved in
agriculture. While it is no longer true, we can say that all Kamats were at one
time agriculturists or landlords in Goa.
Why Different Spellings?
The way different Kamats spell their last name differently indicates the some
parts of their heritage. After the Portuguese started harassing the Hindus in
Goa, many Konkanis came to Karnataka. These were accomplished tradesmen and set
up businesses in what is today's South Kanara area. They are referred
to as "Sashtikars" or Konkanis who came from the "province of sixty-six
villages". These Kamaths spell the last name with an additional h at the end.
Example: M.V. Kamath, Suryanath Kamath etc.,
The Konkanis of the time (circa 16th century) who could not leave Goa, perhaps because they owned lands and hence could not relocate easily, eventually had to move due to continued oppression in Goa. A number of them came from what is
known today as "Bardez" in Goa (or the province of twelve villages), and
are commonly referred to as "Bardeskars". It is believed that the
Bardezkar Kamats were much more poorer. They were farmers and were looked down
upon by the sophisticated Sashtikars, to the extent that the families didn't
inter-marry. My grandma has said that the Bardeskars were separately fed (aadpankti)
during religious sacraments. These Kamats do not use the additional h at the end. Example: Krishnanand Kamat, Rangappa Kamat etc.,
The Kamats who stayed put in Goa came under the Portuguese influence. They spell the last name as Camotim.
Recently, Franz Lehar's "The Merry Widow" was performed at the Palace Thatre, Manchester in New Hampshire to great reviews. I felt honored that my painting (titled The Girl at the Opera, but I am going to rename it as The Merry Widow!) was used in the brochures, art work and the poster.
"Your artwork really captured the spirit of The Merry Widow", Alice Sansone, the Executive Director has written.
BTW, I think the poster has come out better than my painting!
When I was in Goa earlier this year, they kept telling me "take right on 18th June". It was only February, and I didn't know that "18th June" was the name of the road, so I thought it was amusing.
On the subsequent day however, I learnt the importance of 18th June to Goa and her people. That was the day in 1946 Ram Manohar Lohia inspired Goans to join India, and dared the Portuguese to take on Gandhi's formula for non-violent change that was so successful in rest of India.
But the resistance of the Portuguese rule was not new, and quite didn't end with India's liberation. The Portuguese didn't leave India till they were unceremoniously driven away in 1961.
I am surprised that such a eventful freedom struggle is not well documented on the Web, so I have created a new section Goa's Freedom Struggle that chronicles the various movements and leaders.
Link Suggestions
I am delighted to present two offerings from young, talented friends I inherited from my father (Both Srikanta Dani and Mallikarjuna D.G. were fans of my father, but they never met him; each has written a personal essay about how Bappa inspired them, which were published in Kammatiga memorial volume).
Kannada Music Potpourri
SomePoorna Art Factory --"Poorna Dhani", in full resonance
Kannada music blended in genres ranging from soft rock to carnatic classical
An album of five original compositions, portraying youth, freshness and love
Releasing in December 2006... I listened to some snippets, and they are very good.
If you have a collage, sketch, poem, or a painting inspired by Kamat's Potpourri, please send it to me. I will publish them.
Kamat.com Goes Back to India
Kamat Goes to Srirangapatna
I am pleased to announce expansion of team Kamat by a strategic
partnership/investment in Sriranga Digital
Technologies.
For more than ten years
now, Kamat's Potpourri has been laboriously produced by my dad, mom, and my
wife, and now we have reached a stage where the three of us are not able to
handle the fan mail, requests for help, feature requests, copyright clearing, and expectations of
four million readers a month.
So we are seeking the help of a small and talented team of engineers in
India, located in the historical town of Srirangapatna.
This means that all the
technologies that we have developed over the years are now available in
Indian entrepreneurs against Rupee payment. It also means that now we can accommodate
Indian advertisers.
This initiative suddenly makes our services and rates extremely competitive!
What to Expect on Kamat's Potpourri in Future
More Indian Language Content -- The Sriranga folks have technology to use
LaTeX to produce Indian language contents for the web.
More interactivity: comments, games, puzzles
More content: News, Bollywood, tools for Genealogical Research, lots of
cool stuff...
More Advertisements (sorry about that, but I'm no longer able to pay for
this hobby from my pocket)
It's kind of a sad/joyous occasion for me (like your daughter getting
married) because Kamat.com will no longer be the innocent, non-commercial
venture.
It is rather amusing that a website focused on India is actually going back
to India, although it is natural and bound to happen...
Please contact me if
you think you can benefit from this development.
Powered NOT by Blogger or MovabaleType or
WordPress, but by SimplyBlog, a software I wrote to
create blogs.
See details
of implementation or download SimplyBlog.
This is how I surf the web. Turns out
creating your own start page beats all portals, back-flipping,
personalized corporate pages, and book-marking tools.
I
have modified the SimplyBlog engine so that it can used to start a Blog Network. 
An 
