ಹರೆಯದ ಕವಿತ್ವ

ಯೌವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಕವಿಗಳಾಗುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಏಕೆ ಎಂದು ಯೋಚಿಸುತ್ತ ಕುಳಿತಿದ್ದೆ, ಮೊನ್ನೆ. ಹೀಗೆ ಯೋಚಿಸುತ್ತ ಎಲ್ಲೋ ಯಾವಾಗಲೋ ಓದಿದ್ದ ವಾಕ್ಯ ನೆನಪಾಯಿತು. ಏನಪ್ಪಾ ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಸತ್ಯ ಹೇಳುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತಿಕೆ ಬೇಡ, ಆದರೆ ಸುಳ್ಳು ಹೇಳುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಧೈರ್ಯ, ಮತ್ತು ಆ ಸುಳ್ಳನ್ನು ಸಾಧಿಸಲು ಬೇಕಾಗುವ ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತಿಕೆ ಎರಡೂ ಬೇಕು ಅಂತ.

ಇದನ್ಯಾಕಪ್ಪಾ ಹೇಳ್ದೆ ಅಂದ್ರೆ, ಹರೆಯ ಅಥವಾ ಯೌವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಭಾವನೆಗಳು ಹುಚ್ಚು ಕುದುರೆಗಳ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡುತ್ತಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಲೋಕವೆಲ್ಲ ಶೃಂಗಾರಮಯವಾಗಿ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಮನಸ್ಸು ಮೊದಲ ಪ್ರಾಮುಖ್ಯವನ್ನು ಈ ಭಾವನೆಗಳಿಗೇ ಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಅದನ್ನು ಅಕ್ಷರ ರೂಪಕ್ಕೆ ಇಳಿಸುವುದಷ್ಟೆ ಉಳಿಯುವುದು, ಕವನ ತಯಾರಾಗುವುದಕ್ಕೆ.

ಹಾಗಾದರೆ ಕವಿಗಳು ತುಂಬಾ ವಯಸ್ಸಾದವರು ಇದಾರಲ್ಲಾ? ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾರಣ ಇಷ್ಟೆ. ಹರೆಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಶೃಂಗಾರ ಭಾವದಿಂದ ಹೊಮ್ಮುವ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಮೇಲೆ ಅವರು ಪ್ರೀತಿಯನ್ನು ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದಲೇ ವಯಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಅತೀತರಾಗಿ ಕವಿಗಳೋ ಅಥವಾ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳೋ ಆಗುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಇದನ್ನು ಮುಂದೊಂದು ದಿನ ಮುಂದುವರೆಸುತ್ತೇನೆ.

Sangama, Mekedatu and Chunchifalls

Let me go through our trip to Sangama and Mekedatu.

Sangama is the place where river Arkavathy, a tributary of Cauvery joins the main river. The river then flows towards Tamil Nadu.

We, myself and my friends, started from Bangalore around 7 30 am in a Qualis. We stopped in Kanakapura (around 60 km from Bangalore) for breakfast. I don't remember the name now but I guess it is Ratna or Geetha Upahara or something like that near Mysore road deviation.

After hot idly & vadas we started with new enthusiasm and reached Sangama around 10 am. By that time only one troop apart from us was there playing in the river waters. There we played in waters for an hour and crossed the river which was only upto knee high for 4 km trip to Mekedatu.

The bus journey from Sangama to Mekedatu is one that everybody has to experience. One can't find any place, rod, or whatever part inside the bus which is not rusted! Around 10-12 mins of way goes beside Cauvery river, a good one to watch. Occasionally spotted deers are seen here, which was once a hub of tigers, around 50 years ago.

In Mekedatu monkeys come and pull from your hands if you have any food stuffs or drinks. They don't have any fear of human race. Water dashes in between the rocks on which you can't stand firmly for longer time, for sunrays make it hot enough. We spent around 2 hrs there busily taking photographs in different angles possible.

While we were waiting for the return bus, a monkey was sitting like a yogi - doing meditation. I suppose he can understand English also, for when we scolded him, he backed off! We headed back to Sangama in the same unforgettable journey. It costs Rs 25/- for one sided journey or Rs 40/- if taken for return trip also between Sangama and Mekedatu.

There is nothing in Sangama to have proper food. We can get lussey, banana, and fish, thats it. There are a few hut like shops selling these. We ate grapes, orange, biscuits, drank maaza etc., that we had taken with us.

We started around 3 pm from Sangama to reach Chunchi falls on our way to Kanakapura, which is roughly 10 km from Sangama. I am from Malnad region of Karnataka and to be more specific, World famous Jogfalls is just 10 km for me and I have been there more than 50 times. For me Chunchi falls or the scenary in its vicinity was nothing enthusiastic. There one thatha would be sitting to collect parking fee of Rs 20/- to park under a tree. He takes us towards the bottom of the falls, and one can almost say he is a guide. We thanked him and paid Rs 20/- (he won't ask, we only paid looking at his enthu in 70 years of age).

We repeated our stop at the same hotel in Kanakapura where we had breakfast in the morning, this time to have Masala Dosa, which was good anyway. We reached Bangalore around 6 30, need not to mention that we played Antakshari game, memory game + so many others apart from pulling each other's leg for just any reason!

But A nice trip though.

Innocent Ones Arrested?

I shall ask you one prominent question about American Police. I meant, your idea about Indian rural police and American rural police. Whom do you think better of the two? Ok, you will have a better answer after reading this.

Recently I was reading "The Innocent Man", by John Grisham. It was not as I expected it to be. Though, a thriller, its pace was slow. I skipped half the book and went to the last sections which was, to my surprise, authors note. I followed his note and came to know that the book was a real story. After reading it, my opinion of American Police changed!

On december 1982, there was a rape followed by murder in Ada, a small town in US. The girl was Debbie Carter who happened to had no rivals at all. The police could not find the real killer and arrested and charged a man named Ron Williamson only because a guy named Glen Gore told the police that he was there with her on the night in the club Coachlight, even though there were witnesses who saw Gore dropped by near her apartment late in the evening, on the same date. Dennis Fritz was also charged only because he used to go to bars with Ron. The police had blood and hair as evidence and they didn't match with either Ron or Fritz.

A year and a half later, a woman named Denise Haraway disappeared mysteriously. A boy named Tommy Ward was arrested considering Haraway was murdered and disposed by him only because someone described two boys with a young lady and one of the boys description matched Tommy Ward's. The point was the description which caused to arrest Tommy Ward was matching almost half the boys in the town. And after questioning him continuously for eight and a half hours, that was unrecorded, he was exhausted answering to questions he never knew. Finally he confessed saying he dreamt of something like murder only so that he could tell the truth in the court and to get relaxed for the moment. He could never relax in his life!

Karl Fontenot arrested only since he was Tommy's friend and he too was made to confess. Even though their confessions conflicted on the way Haraway was murdered, the police claim they were the killers and the police don't have any clue or evidence!

Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot are still serving behind the bars. Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were released in 1999 as they were proved to be innocent by DNA test.

Indian police, in my opinion, may not be able to find the killers quickly but they would not file charges on innocent ones. Answer to above question now.

Statement of John Grisham

"It is an intriguing and horrifying story: the story of the dream that got Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot convicted. Karl and Tommy deserve attention and help. I encourage anyone with any information about this case to send it to their attorney. It is important to learn from this nightmare. It is also important that this nightmare somehow be unraveled."

For more details, please read "The innocent man - By John Grisham" and visit http://www.wardandfontenot.com/. Even if you google it, now you will get numerous sites about the tales.