When The Building Came Alive

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Kasturi Dhama Apartments — the play area where many evenings came alive. The lights would go out without warning. For a brief second, the entire building would fall silent. Then, from somewhere in Kasturi Dhama Apartments, a chorus would erupt. “Yayyy!” It is difficult to imagine children celebrating a power failure today. But in the Bangalore of the nineties and early 2000s, a power cut did not always feel like an inconvenience. Especially in the late evenings, it felt like permission. Permission to stop whatever we were doing, leave the darkness inside our homes, and step into the building outside. Before Kasturi Dhama became home, we had moved through a few different parts of Bangalore. My family had begun in Srirampuram and Vyalikaval before gradually cementing ourselves in Malleswaram for the next few decades. My earliest memory is of living in a vatara —a Kannada word loosely used for a building or a cluster of homes—on 15th Cross, near Karur Vy...
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Swades...Vibrant India

On the eve of the 59th Indian Independence, what better movie to showcase than Swades, and that's exactly what the Indian Association at Rolla decided. I was seeing the movie for the second time. Once before leaving for Germany and then now of course. I would rate this as one of the brilliantly shot movies in a long time. The kind of emotions that runs through Shahrukh Khan could be felt by every one of us at the theater. A classy movie and at what a time to see it!!!

Its always great to have your community following you outside your motherland. It feels all the more nostalgic when you can associate with something deeply patriotic. We have had 58 long years after our independence and the famous Tryst with Destiny speech by Jawaharlal Nehru can be read another million times. The message conveyed in that brief span of 15 minutes transports the reader to a patriotic frenzy. We have had a sea change in the last decade due to a number of economic reforms, started by the then Finance Minister and today's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Indians are a part of the society in almost every part of the world. A lot of emotions run through you when you sit to ponder about India. India, with its strong backbone, and cultural diversity, has a community abroad that is equally diverse. People from all corners of the country get together to sail in the boat of togetherness. There is a freshness and eagerness that keeps the boat from sinking. What we do not see much in India is a clarity etched here! In the long run, all of us would want to contribute our mite to India. What we have got from our country is huge and what we can give back is only a handful and if we succeed in doing that, it would be one of the greatest moments of pride for every one of us!

With this and many more ideas, I sleep to awaken for the 59th Independence day celebrations and hope to see a hugely vibrant India that can carry along the wishes of billions of people at home and abroad!!

Let's celebrate our 59th Independence day with resolutions that can make a difference!

Happy Independence day

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