This one has forced me to blog! Not by paying me loads of money or strong requests but due to my association with AAA (ASSOCIATED AMATEUR ARTISTES) and the personal touch which I have with the organisers, whom I admire a lot. A few months back I had joined this play and took part in many practice sessions. I was under the impression that the play would be released by December 2007 after which I had my German Classes to be attended. Due to this I could not be a part of the play which is releasing now. I still have my German classes going on the A2 level, after which I will head straight for the play on the 14th of this month. The play is a fantastic story of God who comes down to earth to get first hand feel of his creation. What happens during his visit is what you have to see!

I got to learn one thing thing from my short practice stint with AAA. A lot of guys like me are spending a ‘Digital life’ - everything timed, precision oriented, planned time-bound activities, action-reaction defined and a lot of monotonous stuff to add. Whereas, Art is like Nature, very ‘Analogue’ by definition - not time bound, slow but perfect, smooth, unpredictable and something which demands a lot of patience. I have seen Hiriannaiah uncle making us repeat a scene to perfection so many times without loosing 1% of his temper. I go bonkers if my staff does a silly mistake! He enacts anybodys role with such zeal and feel that one can’t help but admire his love for drama. Long Live AAA!

The details of the play are as below:

Play: BIDEE NAANU DEVARAGIRABALLEY
Date: 14T & 15TH OF JUNE at 6.45 PM
Venue: H N Kalakshetra (National College, Jayanagar)
Play write: Mr. N C Mahesh (lecturer, National college Basavanagudi)
This play won the first prize in Prof B C Memorial play write competition organised by Suchitra Kalalendra
Language: Kannada
Director: Sri. Hiriannaiah Haranahalli (Well known artiste in Kannada industry)
Music: Mr. SHASHIDHAR KOTE (Well known musician)
Dance Choreographed by: Mrs Deepa Narayan (well known TV Artiste)
Tickets: Rs 50.00

Next Production Late TP Kailasam’s ‘Soolay’.

AAA is also looking for theater enthusiasts. If you are interested in Acting, Direction, Backstage, Lighting Makeup or Anything to do with theater please contact:

Ms. Akhila H : 9880277470
Mr. Arun Rao: 9900107090

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One fine day, I thought of improving my profile by doing a foreign language course. Out of the many options that I had - French, German, Japanese etc I settled for German Language. After a few visits to some language training institutes, I ventured into Max Muller Bhavan, Bangalore. Even before I had spoken to the person in charge, Ms. Jayanthi, I had decided to join there! Just by looking at the place you could swear about their professionalism. It has a well stocked library of books, German magazines, newspapers and not to forget, movies and videos in VCDs and DVDs. Neat classrooms with well furnished equipments, well trained teaching staff, a German cafe (Café Max) and loads of recommendations left me with little choice! The course fees for the weekend batch that I have joined is Rs. 8500/- (About 145 Euro) for the A1 level.

Good and positive vibes, from people and places draws you towards them. Germany, as I know is very open to Ayurveda and Indian culture. It respects both modern technology and the ancient knowledge of civilizations. We have reasonably good business and some very loyal and fantastic customers from Germany. I hope this course helps me to interact with them better and maybe lead me to do business there.

More on Max Muller Bhavan after I have attended a few classes! Wish me luck - its been a long time since I studied!

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I got a lot of requests from a lot of readers to put up my pictures. Finally, last week I decided to put up a video of AyurShop and me on Youtube and link it here. This video says a lot about my company and what we do.

Hope you like it!

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Here it is again!  On 17th and 18th of November at IIM, Bangalore. Apart from bumping into techies and a lot of tech talk, I intent to work around and trying to understand if blogging could have a visible social impact. Could we blog collectively about issues and make a difference? Could we have an off-line team to work on field if required? And yes, the most interesting one - could donating a blog post create a charity organization!?

It’s a bit hazy in my mind too, but I hope to give it a shape in the open forum discussion at the barcamp. I have booked a slot at 12 noon on 18th Sunday. Hope to meet a lot of you guys and like minded people to start off!

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Getting into long hours of work, I did not blog for over a month! I have over 10 pictures for which I thought of blogging but just could not squeeze the time for it. Today is a lucky day for blogging as we have a string of holidays due to the festival season and I am down with Conjunctivitis or ‘Madras eye’ (Donno why they call it so!). A friend of mine from Kolkatta adds that it is call as ‘Jai Bangla’ there! If only they know about the pain in the eye!

Links to my eye condition!

• More on Conjunctivitis or ‘Madras eye’
• Madras eye in Bangalore News

Hope it does not spread by blog reading! I have been successful in passing out this condition to my Dad though! Anyhow, this helps me in closing my blogging gap and reinforces my commitment to what I love doing - blogging!

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Here’s wishing all the visitors to my blog a very happy and prosperous Diwali. May the festival of lights bring joy, happiness and success to each and every one of you.

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Of a lot of experiences in my Ayurveda business, this one is definitely worth a blog entry! We do face stiff customs issues in a few countries and paperwork for some that takes us to the limits of our patience.  Norway, however seems to be different! Not much paperwork, but they just don’t allow Ayurveda or herbal medicine in the country.

This would have been OK with me too; but for the fact that a Norwegian can import small quantities of illegal drugs for personal use, but not Ayurveda! This was informed to me by one of our customers who finally could not get her products! Frustrating as it is, AyurShop has quiet a few orders and customers registered from Norway - none of whom can actually get their products! I am still surprised as to why cant the government of Norway and other nations allow herbal products, which are branded, sealed, properly labeled and made by respectable companies.

If anybody has even a vague idea of getting products to Norway or convincing the customs do let me know. If there is anything wrong in what is mentioned here, please feel free to rectify. I have not yet done any major research on this as of now but will follow it up strongly sometime. I do need supporters for this! May all be healthy and fine!

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In the hi-tech city of Bangalore, there still exists the old fashioned & crude way of using animals for jobs beyond their capacities. In the pictures above, the poor animal fell many times over as it could not carry the load. The load was ultimately pushed up the slope by about 15 people!

Personally, I feel using animals for reasonable farm duties is fine, but loading them with heavy industrial goods such as welding electrodes, iron and steel is severe injustice to the mute animals. I hope animal activists and concerned agencies move towards a ban on using animals for such purpose, especially in the city of Bangalore, known for its technological leadership and industrial development.

BTW, this happens to be my first photo-blog! Like it?

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I was pretty happy with my Yashica ‘analog’ camera. Using rolls and getting them developed; not knowing which pictures will be proper and which will not, has always been a fascinating experience. But, I had to admit that limitations had to be put somewhere to the number of snaps taken. Not any more..Two days back, I finally took the step to cross the digital divide! My friend took me to a shop called “Foto Circle” in Chickpet area in Banhalore. He and the shop owner, Jayesh Mehta, a dexterous businessman got me to buy a SONY Cybershot over other brands. I’d prefer SONY myself anyway.

Now, I am not limited by the number of shots but with the capacity of my memory card and ya, battery! This step I particularly took for guess what - blogging! And of course, I have a hidden passion for photography, which I will make public soon! My friends advised me to go in for a Cannon SLR camera, but I thought I’d rather start with a click and shoot digicam and them promote myself to an SLR. Moreover, the SLR requires a lot more time, than I can give to this hobby as of now!

I got myself a Sony Cybershot S700 Digital Camera with 1 GB memory stick duo. I shall review the product here soon. And ya, will start photo blogging from tomorrow!

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Phew! Its been very hectic, the last 15 days or so. I had a news portal to be launched - AyurvedNews.com and the Indian version of my Ayurveda Store - AyurShop.in. Work took 25 hours a day and I still managed to squeeze a few hours for food, sleep and my Sunday morning games! All that I could not do was to update my blog! Here I am now, free to write what strikes me most.

What strikes me the most at the moment is that after a forth night of activity, wheres the result? Another few projects launched, but where’s the result?! Day and night worked for what? Thought about it for some time and got the answer:

It’s not what you start that gives you the results; its the sustained, sincere efforts and interest in what you do that drives results! What say?

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