The Tournament - Movie review

I loved the concept of the movie. 

The movie is about a reality show.
A show with a difference. The participants do not know each other. But they have to kill each other. Just kill. And they are the best at it. They are famous assassins from all over the world. And what's the motivation to kill? The big big money which the last man standing would get. A blood hungry betting mafia run the show. 

A tracking device embedded in the bodies of the participants would help locate the assassins. The tournament is held in open city. On the road, in the pubs, in the shopping centers etc. The betting mafia can see the killings via cctv cameras of the city and can change their bets.

One of the participants takes the tracking device out of his body and the device enters a priest's body. So a non-assassin joins the game and a assassin is un-tracked. A personal story of an assassin plays in the background.

Its blood all over the screen. Characters could have developed in a better way.  The film is all about killing styles. And this is where the film lacks some variety. Majority of the killings are through bullets. Shot in Bulgaria, the bus-truck chase could have been better. The initial few kills are the best. The movie is not for the faint heated. Some scenes could be very disturbing. 

The film draws many parallels to the Bollywood flick "Luck".

Common Names? Hmm...NO!

If you have been working in Germany or working with Germans for sometime, I am pretty sure that you know a person by name - Klaus or a Thomas. Similarly if you are in touch with some muslims, damn sure that you know a Mohammed. You would also know a Micheal or a Henry or a Peter. Similarly, if you have been in north India, you would know a Ashish. South India is no exception. In Tamil Nadu you would get a Karthikeyan in every street. In Andra, you would get a Venka**** everywhere. (**** indicates suffix here, example - Venkatesh, Venkatadri, Venkiah). In Karnataka, there are many Raghavendras and Manjunaths (like me).

So what are these - Common names?...NO...They are not COMMON names. 
They are POPULAR names.

Personality tests should have the following question -

What comes to your mind when you hear the following names?
Salim, Micheal, Manjunath, Venkatesh, Martina

Options

• Common names
• Popular names
• Irritating names
• Interesting names

Special Lunch

The Udupi Krishna Mutt is one of the famous temples of South India. The Lord has supposedly turned himself (180 deg) so that Kanakadasa (his ardent devotee) could see him. So unlike other temples where you enter the premises and you can see the idol, at Udupi you enter the temple and have to take half a round to see the idol.
This is not the only unique feature about this temple (photo of the temple complex on the left).

Saturdays are special in this temple. Though lunch is provided free on all days, there is a special tradition on Saturdays.
There is a big marble floored dining hall (bhojana shala - ಭೋಜನ ಶಾಲೆ ). People sit on the floor (no table meals). Plantain leaf (ಬಾಳೆ ಎಲೆ) or other kind of leaf (muttukada yele - ಮುತ್ತುಕದ ಎಲೆ ) is laid in front of you. Then the dishes (like rice, sambar, rasam ) are served on that. On Saturdays, it can be different. Devotees can opt, not to have any kind of leaf. Food is served directly on the floor. This is supposed to be very holy. People believe that their problems would get solved by doing that. This practice is particularly rampant during some special Hindu months like Shravana.

There is another variation to this in a near-by temple along the coastal region.
When the brahmins are eating their lunch in the temple, some non-brahmins come near the brahmins and take 3 morsel of food. It should be given in the same hand, which is used for eating. This is a kind of vow which they have undertaken to solve their problem.
 

And these are followed by people irrespective of their financial status or social status.

Unique practices flourish in India.

    

How to take dry coconuts out of a well?

Problem statement -
There are 15 dry coconuts (with the covering) in a big well. You have to bring them out. For your information - Dry coconuts directly fell from the tree into the well. And they float in water.

 

Boundary conditions -
The depth of water in the well is unknown.
The diameter of the circular well is around 5 meters.
There are snakes in the well.
You can't get into the water...you do not know swimming.

This was the situation me and my wife faced in my native place. I am blogging about it - means the problem was solved.

I took a long bamboo stick (called as kokke - ಕೊಕ್ಕೆ ). Tied a plastic bucket to one end of the stick. Holding the other end in my hand, I put the bucket into water. Got underneath one of the coconuts and lifted it. Water and coconut in the bucket. Lift the stick. The coconut came up with the bucket. I thought this was it. So simple.

Problem 1 -
Then came the first problem. Next attempt in the same way. Water and coconut in the bucket was lot of weight. The thread i had used to tie the bucket and stick gave way. Bucket fell into the well.
Then my project guide pitched in - My Grandma.

Solution 1 -
She suggested a different technique. She gave a big basket with holes in it (we call it hedge - ಹೆಡ್ಗೆ). She suggested that we tie two long ropes to the opposite ends of the round basket. We threw the basket into the water holding the ropes in our hand. Got underneath one of the coconuts and lifted it. Only coconut in the basket. Water went out of the holes and hence less weight to pull up. Pull up the rope (and so the basket). The coconut came up with the basket. I thought this was it.

Problem 2 -
The coconuts started moving towards the center of the well from the sides.  And the basket can't be thrown to the center, targeting any coconut.

Solution 2 -
was the long bamboo stick. Using the stick we pushed the nuts from the center to the sides, towards the wall of the well.

Problem 3 -
The stick slipped off my hands and went into the well. Luckily bamboo floats.

Solution 3 -
Got another long bamboo stick. Tied a smaller stick to one end of this, making an "X".  We put the "X" end into the water and used top half of "X" as the holder for the floating stick. After multiple tries, the floating stick was lifted by this technique. (Kind of sea-saw, fulcrum technique)

Finally after 30-40 mins of manual labor in the hot weather, the 15 coconuts were on the ground. Mission accomplished.

Story of FAITH - Alcohol and Dharmastala

After my previous strory on FAITH, here comes another one.

Dharmastala is a very sacred place for the people of the coastal region in Karnataka. The deity is supposed be very powerful. Family disputes are resolved in this place by the Dharmadhikari - Dr Veerendra Heggade. Land disputes get solved. People do not lie in front of the Dharmadhikari, fearing the wrath of the diety. It is also belived that stealing in this place would result in something bad for the family. This is the FAITH in the deity.

Few words about Dr Veerendra Heggade
Dr Veerendra Heggade needs no introduction to the people of Karnataka. He is the head of the Dharmastala khsetra. He is a non-polical person with immense intention to serve the society. You can read about how he has served the society by just googling him.

Alcohol is a pain in the development of rural India. Many farmers,factory workers, fishermen of my native village are addicted to drinking. Some quit drinking for some days, but hit the bottle when money comes in their pocket. Ladies and gentlemen together drink the cheap arrack. There was an earlier instance when I had heard that the farm workers quit alcohol. But that was temporary. With increased wages and govt rural employment schemes, money is being flooded into the bars.

My grandma's maid servant's family was adversely affected by alcohol. Maid's son hit the bottle full-time when he started earning. He stopped giving money to the family. His wife started working. He stole from his wife all the jewelery and spent it on the bottle. He started beating his wife and mother for money. A tragic incident occurred with his wife when she was pregnant. Wife was injured in one of the thrashing evenings. They lost the baby (not entirely because of the injury though). He realized the pains of alcohol. He tried to quit. But friends and money dragged him back to the bar.

One fine day he decided to attend one of "Quit alcohol camps" organized by Dr Heggade's trust. He also coaxed some of his drunkard friends to join this camp. Dr Heggade has been organizing such camps all over the Udupi, Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga region since sometime. One such camp was held closer my place, Kundapura. The 11 day camp is free of cost. The mentors explain them the harmful health\social aspects alcohol. They also bring in real life tragedy stories from the participants\ex-participants. Doctors give lectures. Free food is served for the participants during the camp. Basically its targeted at the rural poor.

But you would say all this is common across every "quit alcohol camps" organized by other associations. Yes, you are correct. People may hit the bottle after such camps. Yes, you are also correct of this.

But what if you bring in the FAITH aspect. At the end of the camp, the participants are brought in front of the deity and asked to promise that they would never again drink alcohol. All the friends of this guy and this guy himself have quit drinking. Since 3 yrs.

As long as FAITH is doing no harm, just have FAITH.
 
Some may call it fear...

Story of FAITH - Cobra and Peacock

My native village has some very unique practices. 

Once such practice and its significance is the basis for this story.

People of all castes in Udupi\Kundapur region revere the Cobra as a God snake. If the snake is spotted (which is not rare) nobody would hit it or try to kill it. It is mostly true for the other snakes as well. But Cobra is special. They call it DevaraHavu(ದೇವರ ಹಾವು) or "Naga deva" (ನಾಗದೇವ) (Meaning the God snake).

Yes, the Cobra is God. There are temples with lots of stones on which the cobra head is carved out. Pooja is performed everyday. Special ceremonies are organized to please the God-snake. Thousands are fed as part of these special ceremonies called NagaMandala (ನಾಗ-ಮಂಡಲ). This is an all night ceremony.

It is also believed that the Snake-God enters a human body (virtually) and provides solutions to the problems of individuals. The human is called as "Naga Patri" (ನಾಗದೇವರ ಪಾತ್ರಿ).  Special kind of flowers and music is associated with the God snake.

A piece of land is left vacant in the "Nagana nede" (ನಾಗನ ನಡೆ). It is a significantly large piece of land. (~5ft x ~ 300ft). This land is not dirtied or used for any human purposes, basically because it is the path of the snake. 

Death of a cobra is treated as the death of a human. The same set of ceremonies for 12 days is associated with the snake's death. It is a general practice that such ceremonies are performed by the person who first sees the dead snake. He\She needs to bear the cost.

If the snake is ill-treated in any way, it is believed that the person who ill-treated would incur the wrath of the snake God. So ignoring a dead cobra is believed to be a wrong thing to do.

All in all - the cobra is a feared and respected snake.

Since a couple of years my village has become home to peacocks. Lots of them are seen in the gardens, on top of coconut trees, on compound walls etc etc. They share space with humans. I am not sure what made my village special for the peacocks. I had not seen one during my summer vacations in my childhood. But looking at the number of them, I feel Govt should form some sort of "Peacock reserve" in the area. By law, our national bird is protected. Nobody should kill them. Killing them would result in severe punishment.

It seems that peacock is not just beautiful but also very tasty. The size means there is lot more meat in it than a cock. People would hunt down the bird and feed on them in secret. Law just couldn’t prevent the killing of our national bird.

Peacock feeds on snakes. It happened that one of the hunted peacocks had just fed upon a cobra. When the peacock was cut open, the dead God snake was seen by the family. They feared. They also had to perform the last rites of the snake. They spread the word that peacocks feed on God snakes.

This suddenly created panic wave. Was it fear of eating a God slayer? Was it fear of additional expenditure of last rites? Or...

Whatever be the reason, now nobody kills peacocks to eat there.

What law could not achieve was achieved by FAITH! 

View more peacock photos from village here