From-here-there-everywhere

The year was 1967! I was studying in the 4th Year of Engineering ( It used to be a 5 year integrated course at that time) at Jodhpur. It was a requirement of the course that we were to spend our summer vacation time as a trainee  in any reputed engineering firm. I applied to ITI Bangalore as I had my uncle's place to stay. Duration of the training was about three months. At the ITI factory , during the lunch period of 30 minutes, instrumental version of popular film songs  were played on their PA system in the canteen as well as in the work spots. These tunes used to be  from Tamil, Kannada and many other languages.  I used to find one of the tunes quite catchy and appealing which I still remember. It was from a Tamil Movie , that much I knew. It had a notable feature that in the midway there was a change of pitch, which was a bit unusual in the Indian context.  About a fortnight back I remembered that tune again and got an urge to identify and listen to it. But...

                                              ( Pencil sketch by Anil Jagalur )  Those were the days in Sept 1965 when we were at Jodhpur....... Indo Pak war was in full swing. Jodhpur, being near to the western border and also being an Air Force base was a target for many air raids. We used to hear, while sitting in trenches dug out by us in front of our house, sounds of Anti Aircraft Guns and also number of bombs, which used to be dropped in Jodhpur (in total 192 bombs were dropped during the seventeen days' war). My father Dr D Ranga Rao, whom we siblings used to address  as Bapa, was a medical officer posted in Railway Hospital at Jodhpur in Mid 60's.We stayed in a railway quarter, which was just diagonally opposite the hospital.His posting was in outpatient and later in Mobile Dispensary ( A full bogie -hospital-on-wheels) which used to get attache...

 As far I can remember, it was in the middle school,that  I developed my interest in reading in Hindi. Till that time,my interest in reading in had remained confined to the textbooks. But all of a sudden I took off to general reading in Hindi. One person who created this in interest in me was Shri Omprakash ( we used to refer to him as Omi massab), who was a railway employee, was commissioned by my parents to be our  home tutor basically to teach  Hindi and arithmetic to  me and my sister  .We were a non Hindi speaking family thrown into Hindi speaking town Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. My mother,who had only a sprinkling knowledge of Hindi, took to studying Hindi in right earnest to be able to teach me. In the course of it she became well versed in it herself.    Shri Omprakash made us read Children’s section of the Hindi Newspaper “Navabharat Times”. He even made us send small entries for publication. We were thrilled the day we found ...

One of the highlights of 2018 was certainly my college reunion (Golden Jubilee of 1968 batch) at my Alma Mater( MBM Engineering College Jodhpur,Rajasthan) . A bit of sight seeing, a lot of Bonhomie with many of my classmates whom I met after 50 years, memento presentation and plenty of Gaana Bajaana and dancing! Here is a full report .....

1. वातानुकूल उपकरणों ऊर्जा दक्षता (Edit) https://researchmatters.in/hi/news/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95-%E2%80%8B%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%82-%E2%80%8B%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%82-%E0%A4%8A%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%BE-%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE-%E0%A4%8F%E0%A4%95-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BF%E2%80%8B-%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%95 २ कोहरे की चादर पर शहरों से बने सुराख़ ( Translation) https://researchmatters.in/hi/news/%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%80-%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%B0-%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B0-%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%82-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A5%99 3 वांछित झुर्रियाँ (Translation) https://researchmatters.in/hi/news/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%9B%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4-%E...

THEN........... It was in 60's ( between 1963 to 1968 to be precise) that I was studying In MBM Engineering College in Jodhpur. Other than academics (well, at my age I seem to remember non-academic things more !) I fondly remember my musical activities. I was a Harmonica/Mouthorgan player and was accepted in the orchestra team of my college. From 1965 to 1968 I was part of this. Our orchestra's performance was keenly awaited in our annual cultural events. and NOW ... after 5 DECADES! Last week of September 2018. Golden Jubilee of our batch who graduated in 1968. We all met in the premises of my Alma Mater. About 90 of us with our spouses numbering 60.Three  of the other original members of orchestra team Dharam Narayan Joshi , Prakash Ravel and Jaisingh Parihar were also present.I teamed up with Joshi and we played a few film tunes of our college days to re-live those nostalgic moments not only for us but also for all our batchmates.

Clik this link to see my translations on line.... https://storyweaver.org.in/users/13802-nagraj-rao ...and a few in Print..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1cFiJQ5r_4  (video link Ek Kitaab Puchku ke liye) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNbt6mmx2lE  (Anna Daitya)