What is in a name?
Posted by: Deepak Venkatesan on: September 3, 2009
- In: Experience | General
- 12 Comments
Image Courtesy: americanbedu.com
It is sometimes funny how the simple name of a person metamorphosizes into a hundred different avatars just based on the person trying to pronounce it. The sounds in the names might get beaten black and blue depending on the nasal capabilities of the pronouncer.
Let us take my name for example. DEEPAK. A simple and harmless name with just two noticeable sounds. But the pity is that one of these sounds should closely rhyme with an extra-vulgar super-insultive English word that is often represented by special characters in its written form. So, some cruel callers of my name might choose to call me DEE-%$^#.
Then comes the infamous Tamil teacher at school who prefers to bite hard on the first syllable in the name till it is on fire. The second syllable is, however, monetarily so much valuable. This makes my name THEE-BUCK.
There are more people belonging to the Tamil diaspora who will not be too keen on passing the BUCK so easily. Definitely this sound has to be localized considerably, as in, THEE-BUCKKU – in a coveted Tamil style, or its shortened form – THEE-BU.
Miles away, the English-speaking phoren people, with little or no knowledge of the minute intricacies of the multitude of Indian languages, render new dimensions to the name, munching and punching it into newer shapes, so that my name becomes D’PACK. A better shape would have been a six-pack.
I consider myself enormously blessed and gifted to not have a name as dangerous and diabolic as my brother’s. He is called KIRAN. This name is tossed and torpedoed much violently than a frog on the frying pan. He starts from KI-RAIN and KI-REEN and gets upgraded to KI-ROON and KI-RAN.
If simple names dance with so much glee on our twisty tongues, you can easily make up your mind about the big list of complicated and outlandish names.
The government decided to include the citizen’s father’s name in the electoral ID card, so that people can be more profusely identified, like, M.Kumaran, son of Mahalakshmanan. An unfortunate citizen’s father’s name happened to be ‘Kadarkarai’ (Seashore in Tamil). The hyper-educated officials of the Election commission decided to print his father’s name in the card, in letter as well as in spirit. The result – his father’s name was printed as “The Beach”. May be they found he was a Son of the Soil.
The ancient Tamil kingdom should have been a land of extraordinary scholars and exemplary tonguesmen. How else can you justify the common man pronouncing extra-terrestrial names like Peruncheralirumborai and Thirikoodarasappakavirayar! I believe special tuitions were given for pronouncing these names right. The current Tamils are no less in giving names as long as the Beach-Tambaram railway line. Balasudenthirarajan and Ramanujarajendran are not historical, but very much contemporary names walking around us.
Image Courtesy: givemeaname.com
A person I remotely remember from my childhood had the name “Soodi Kodutha Sudarkodi” – a name actually given to Aandaal – the Meera Bai of the South. For non-Tamil readers, I would like to point out with a slight smirk that this is similar to naming a child – ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge’.
The home minister of India Mr.Chidambaram bears the name of a town in Tamilnadu. However, he is not alone in this feat. Town names such as Madurai, Palani, Tirupathi, Tirumalai, and Kaasi commonly acquire special status as the first names of people.
The Members of the Mallu-land like to KISS… (Keep it simple, stupid!). Rarely would we have come across Mallus with names exceeding two syllables. Biju, Ciju, Ribu, Tanu, Jiby, Simi, Rinu… the list is endless. Of course, Beenamol and Kunjumon have to be interspersed in between these in order to give us the option of breaking the monotony with a smile. Over the years our minds have been rutted to nail names such as George and Mathew directly into the coconut trees of the Mallu-land.
Even the simple names of the Mallus have beware-of-names type of surnames. There is a rumor that certain Mallu surnames are usually generated by writing a random syllable generator in Perl, with only two constraints. (1) It should be a mix-up of syllables, rendering any kind of attempt to remember by a member of the human race, impossible, and, (2) It should end with ‘-il’. Thazhathidathil, Thevaruparampil, Puthenuvetil are some samples. Let us not get started with Prasadaramanakooti!
Funny customs in some families could lead to non-funny situations. For example, I had a friend in school. His family has a strange custom of rotating only 2 names for all male members of the family. He was named after his grandfather, as, ‘Chinnasami’. His brother was named after his own father, as, ‘Chellasami’. So, his brother becomes Chellasami, son of Chellasami, and brother of Chinnasami, also grandson of Chinnasami. I used to find it embarrassing to call his name standing outside his home.
Much ado has been made about the older names. Tuning our focus to modern names, most parents nowadays like to create names for their kids, with combos which have never been used, ever. May be it is their effort to make their kids outstanding by making their names standing out. A person I know has named his kids Migal, Kayal and Iyal. (It is up to the Tamil scholars among my readers to dig into the etymology of these names).
Sanskrit names uncommon in the South like Dhruvesh, Hritesh and Saharshita are among those being commonly conferred nowadays on kids in Chennai. I am sure, when these kids grow up, they will have much more complaints than I had, to write about the way their names are handled by the name-starved public!
Lalbagh Flower Show 2009
Posted by: Deepak Venkatesan on: August 21, 2009
- In: bangalore | General
- 7 Comments
- The Annual Independence Day Flower Show in Lalbagh, Bangalore was held from August 7, 2009.
- This was the first ever flower show I attended, and it was very interesting.
- I do not have a macro lens, so managed the shots with my 70-300mm VR telephoto zoom. (Emphasizes the need to get one soon).
And this is an image of a frog in my garden… 
Answer the alphabets!
Posted by: Deepak Venkatesan on: August 17, 2009
- In: General | Tagged
- 2 Comments
My Award!
So, this will be my first TAG POST. I have gotten tagged for the first time in the World Wide Web!!! All credits (bricks and bats 
) should go to KARTHICK PRABU
Before anything, the RULES:
- Link the person who tagged you.
- Display award on your blog with these rules.
- Reply to the questions below.
- Tag 7 people deserving the award according to you.
I tag Aparna, Arun Anna, Thyagarajan, UmaMaheswaran, Barani-the Neo, Archana, and Sriram.
And… here we go…
A – Available/Single? Single and Available
B – Best Friend? He will know when he reads this.
C – Cake or Pie? Samosa please…
D – Drink of choice? Vanilla Milk Shake
E – Essential item you use every day? My fingers
F – Favorite colour? Red and Black (No, I am not DMK)
G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? Worms – only if deep fried.
H – Hometown? Chennai
I – Indulgence? Food
J – January or February? January, cos it’s cooler. It has more holidays than the dumb Feb!
K – Kids & their names? Whose?
L – Life is incomplete without? The World Wide Web (2.0 to be specific)
M – Marriage date? Will come when my date becomes marriage
N – Number of siblings? One bro
O – Oranges or Apples? Oranges – fleshy and juicy
P – Phobias/Fears? I fear butterflies… hehe can’t help it
Q – Quote for today? Quote for life time: Celebrating Life…
R – Reason to smile? Brushed my teeth!
S – Season? Rainy season – a rarity in Singaara Chennai
T – Tag 7 People? Done dude
U – Unknown fact about me? Though I am a wildlife enthusiast, I hate pets.
V – Vegetable you don’t like? Carrot – too blunt for me. (Gajar ka Halwa is acceptable though)
W – Worst habit? Biting nails.
X – X-rays you’ve had? Didn’t u get anything better for ‘X’?
Y – Your favorite food? Pongal + Truckloads of Sambar. And, Mughal cuisine is my favorite.
Z – Zodiac sign? Cancer.
Stamp papers in Bangalore
Posted by: Deepak Venkatesan on: August 2, 2009
- In: bangalore | Experience | General
- 35 Comments
Update :: July 2011::
Buying stamp papers in Bangalore has changed ever since this article was written. The procedure now is like this:
1. Go to any sub-registrar’s office in Bangalore.
2. Procure an ordinary stamp paper from one of the shops nearby which sell these (not very hard to find).
3. Get the first page of the agreement typed, which mentions the name & address of parties between whom the agreement is executed.
4. Go to a window in the sub-registrar’s office, where you pay the necessary fees, and get the paper ‘Franked’.
Franking: A stamping machine is used to render a red-colored stamp on the paper, authenticating it, and showing the stamp value (also has sub-registrar’s signature).
5. Voila! You are done. This works for all types of documents, including rental agreements.Note: I have noticed that in some cases, where the first page of the agreement is not typed, the name and address of the parties is written on the stamp paper itself (on the stamp), and the franking is done on that.
Buying stamp papers in Bangalore has been quite an ordeal of late. The serpentine queues in front of the State Bank of Mysore would be a nightmare for anyone who could even think of buying stamp papers. (Read here). Besides, it eats up almost the whole day, and comes as a curse for working professionals who are in need of stamp paper. So, what is the easy way out?
E-Stamping! The Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited is the company which has been authorized to sell e-stamp papers across Karnataka. (Check their e-stamping website).
There are quite a few e-stamping centers in Bangalore, where you could get a stamp paper with the denomination of your choice just within a few minutes. However, instead of the papers printed with the rupee note kind of stamp at the top, here you would get an e-stamp. This is essentially a printed information with the document number, and a couple of other numbers, and it says Government of Karnataka e-stamping with the national emblem of three lions on it.
Stamp papers - Before and After (Courtesy: www.chowchowbath.com)
A couple of days back, I had been to the Domlur BDA complex (Near the Domlur bus-stand, adjacent to Domlur fly-over), which houses the Sub-Registrar’s office. I wanted to get an e-stamp paper. I was given a form to fill, where I had to mention the type of document, the first and the second party details (name and address should be suffcient. PAN number in case of high-value registrations), and sign it. The form should be given at the counter with the amount for which the stamp paper is sought. The amount could be paid in cash, or by way of demand draft. I guess this depends on the total amount being paid. I had to wait for approximately 10 minutes, and then the person at the counter gave me the e-stamped paper. The whole process took me just around 15 minutes. The stamp duty for different types of instruments is displayed on the notice board in the office. It is also available online here.
The e-paper is as authentic as the normal stamp papers. Also, since this has authentic numbers printed on it, anyone can verify the authenticity of the e-paper by logging on to this site (http://www.shcilestamp.com) and entering the appropriate numbers from the e-stamp paper.
The working hours for the e-stamping facility in Domlur BDA complex is from 9:45am to 4:30pm with a lunch break from 1:00pm to 2:30pm. It is open from Monday through Saturday. In addition to Domlur, this service is also available in Jayanagar and Koramangala sub-registrar’s offices (SHCIL branches). The government is also looking at making e-stamping the only way of buying stamp papers in future, as this eliminates all duplicate stamp papers and scams, and also renders authenticity to the papers by way of printing these numbers and making them available online.
Thanks to Kiran for providing useful information in his journal.
Addresses of SHCIL e-stamping centres in Bangalore:
Head office:
SHCIL, Bangalore Stock Exchange Ltd.,
Stock Exchange Towers, 51, 1st Cross,
J.C. Road, Bangalore,
PIN : 560027
Ph: (080) 22995246, 22995236
Jayanagar:
Shop No.7, Ist Floor,
#44, 33rd Cross, Jayanagar, 4th T Block,
Bangalore
PIN : 560011
Ph: (080) 26991062, 26991060
Koramangala:
Shcil, # 103, 1st Floor, Mig
Khb Colony, 17 Th Main, 5th Block
Koramangala, Bangalore
PIN : 560034
Ph: (080) 25529149, 25529150
Malleswaram:
Shcil, No.13 Vasant Milan, 1st Cross,
Malleswaram, Bangalore,
PIN : 560003
Ph: (080) 23318225, 23560525
Domlur:
Shcil, Domlur BDA complex,
Near Domlur Bus Stand, Bangalore
PIN : 560038
Ph: (080) 25352907
The day we were chased by an elephant…
Posted by: Deepak Venkatesan on: July 28, 2009
- In: Experience | Travel
- Leave a Comment
Not everyday does one get a chance of getting chased by a wild elephant. So, when this hair-raising experience happened to us in the Nagarhole forests of Karnataka, we had our hearts in our mouths, and my eyes were glued to the rearview mirror fearing the mighty beast might bang our vehicle from the back!
But before getting into the finer details of the story, let me take you to South Coorg, or Kodagu as it is known, where it all started, with an adrenaline pumping white water rafting experience in the Barapole river.
The Rafting
The upper Barapole river that drains the Brahmagiri range of hills in the Kerala-Karnataka border, gets its lion’s share of water during the Southwest monsoon. During this season, towns are flooded, bridges are broken and normal life goes to coma. So, when we decided to raft in Barapole in the middle of July, we were highly apprehensive if we would make it, thanks to the incessant rains which had cut of a large chunk of the Kodagu district from the rest of the world [Click]. However we were assured that this was the season, and rafting would happen at any cost.
So, five of us made it to Kutta, a small town in South Coorg, in my friend’s Fiat Palio Stile on a Saturday morning to conquer the sneering river of the south. The route taken was Bangalore – Srirangapatna – Hunsur – Nagarhole – Kutta – Iruppu. (Route Map) The drive through the Nagarhole sanctuary was scenic, where we saw dozens and dozens of grazing spotted deer, till our eyes were tired. We reached Kutta in less than 5 hours, and called up our homestay host, Mr.Timmaiah, who gave us directions to reach the homestay from Iruppu.
Travel Advice: If you head to Coorg for a river rafting experience, the best thing to do would be book a homestay. There are a plenty of homestays aroung the Kutta-Iruppu area, which give stay and food as a package. Call up the homestay, who can fix you a rafting trip in the Barapole, and there would be no hassles. We had a great experience at Irpu Homestay, with a friendly host, lovely mountain views, cozy rooms and home cooked food – all in a budget.
In no time we reached the homestay where we were greeted by our friendly host, Mr.Timmaiah. The homestay was seated amidst the green setting of the Brahmagiri ranges, and we could see white cotton clouds traveling innocently across the green background. We were surrounded by coffee plantations, and the sound of the gushing waters of Iruppu falls could be heard even from a kilometre away.
Soon after a hearty meal comprising of vegetable biriyani, aloo curry and chicken masala, we were on our way to the rafting site. The rafting takes place at a place called T.Shettigeri, which was around 15 kms from where we stayed, and a guide accompanied us all the way to here.
We were greeted by Kamal, who was our raft guide. After paying the organizers, and after signing some documents, we were given life-jackets, helmets and an oar. Kamal briefed us about the commands and safety measures. The whole thing was quite professional and he made sure everyone got it right. After 10 mins, we were in our raft, and out into the roaring river waters.
The gushing sound of the river water made us more excited and we looked forward eagerly what the river had for us in store. The initial few minutes was a practice session. Kamal gave us orders, and we followed it religiously. Forward, Backwards, and a lot more. We got a good hand at the commands soon, and set out on our raft. After a few metres of rowing, we were at our first rapid – the Morning coffee. It was a simple rapid, and the effort was miniscule though it flowed quite ferociously. Soon we were through it. Kamal kept giving us commands so that we cross each rapid at the right place and with the right momentum.
Rafting in Coorg
We came to a part of the river where the water was not too fast. Kamal said, if we wanted we could jump into the water. Oh my god! I was just thinking if I should jump, and the time I could decide, the rest of them were already in water! Now, I had no option. Slowly, I too got into the river. And wow! It was exciting to be for the first time in neck-deep water, with no land under my feet. Of course, I believed in those life-jackets. We stayed afloat for a couple of minutes, when Kamal ordered us back into the raft. All of my friends got in, and pulled me up into the raft. It was an experiene.
The next two rapids were a bit more challenging. We had to meticulously follow Kamal’s commands, and also balance our weight in the raft. The rapids were called The Grasshopper and The Wicked Witch. We were enjoying the ride thoroughly. Those in the front went in and out of water in each rapid. Soon, we were approaching our last and the most challenging of the rapids – The Milk Churner.
On the Raft
Kamal stopped before the rapid and instructed us. We were asked to sit tight, and follow his commands. This could be dangerous, unless we did it from the right direction. He told us where to swim to in case we were thrown off the raft. In a moment we were in the Milk Churner. The raft bounced up twice, angled to the right and pushed and pulled us as much as it could. We were all soaked in waves completely, and when we knew what was happening, we were out of the rapid. Phew! We heaved a sigh of relief, and thundered a loud hurray, for having done this adrenaline pumping adventure. We had a hell of a great time, and I was already thinking when I would do it again.
That night, we had a hearty meal, talking over the experiences of the day, and hit the sack soon after.
The Chase
The next day, we made a trip to the Iruppu falls, which was bursting with water. The mild and gentle falls I had seen in my previous visits was gone, and here was a monster. We had a nice fun taking bath in the waterfalls. We were back for lunch by 1 pm. Had a sumptuous meal, and started our return journey. We passed through Kutta, and after entering our vehicle details and signing the register, we entered the dark forests of Nagarhole for the second time in our trip.
The journey was mostly uneventful, with lazy looking spotted deers smiling and waving at us every 100 metres. We noticed that every group had a male and 3-4 females. We also saw a couple of barking deers, a sambar and a jungle fowl marching happily with its chicks. We were soon tired of spotting deers, and were traveling gradually at a slow pace in the Nagarhole forests, when the incident happened.
I was at the wheel, and my friend beside me. I was just looking at the road, as I was fed up of deers. All others in the car were fast asleep. My friend suddenly started repeating frantically, Elephant, elephant!! I just alerted myself, and looked ahead carefully. The road was empty. But, by the side of the road, there was a large clearing, and a huge elephant with large tusks stood there agitated. It’s tail was raised as if it was furious, and was angrily pulling down a branch of the nearby tree. I have never seen an elephant in the wild, and all I have seen are elephants in the temples meekly accepting coins from the devotees, and showering them with blessings
I slowed down the car and moved gradually towards the elephant to get a good glimpse of it. We were almost there, and the elephant was beside us on the road, facing the car on the side. Suddenly, the elephant got highly agitated for some reason. It shook its ears wildly, and gave a deafening trumpet. We were already scared. Someone nudged me to drive ahead fast, and I slowly moved ahead. Now, the elephant was just behind the car. I looked into the rear view mirror, and the elephant was moving towards the car.
A heart-in-the-mouth moment, and I stepped on the accelerator. The car slowly gained momentum. My eyes were fixed on the mirror, and I could see the huge beast running fast towards us with it head bobbing, and dust kicking out in all directions. We were clearly terrified.
I drove away as far as I could. The tusker charged for another 100 metres. Soon I saw a jeep coming in the opposite direction. I just could not think what the jeep guy was going to do. If the elephat had continued the charge, it would come straight and bang on the jeep. I didn’t want to think about anything, and kept driving. The moment the beast saw the jeep, he saw a threat fast approaching, and changed its direction. The elephant moved away from the road, and steered clear into the forest.
We stopped the car a kilometre ahead and thought what an escape it was! Had we been behind the elephant, with the elephant attacking us from the front, we would have had the day of our lives. Just as we had crossed the elephant, we were safe. But, the incident left a huge impact in our hearts. What more could we ask for? A drive through the jungle where we were chased by an enormous tusker. Phew!
We made it to Bangalore in another 4 hours, with loads to tell our family and friends.
More information on Rafting in Kodagu:
- Irpu Homestay – Mr.Timmaiah, Ph: 08274-244233, or +91 94486 47932
- I read about Irpu Homestay in Rohan’s blog.
- The place is 15kms before Wayanad. Good driving directions here.
- Information on Coorg Rafting at Getoffurass.
- Neelesh’s blog on rafting in Barapole.
- A nice writeup on a Coorg rafting trip organized by BMC.
- Photos from this trip on My Flickr
- suchintya: Hi Deepak, In case of estamping, can you tell us where do we type the actual text of the document. For example in a rental agreement, we have all t
- swati: You told your experience honestly that's appreciable . U did the course right .But may i ask you have you ever repeated or volunteered for the course
- sathish: i AGREE WITH YOU MEENA....
