January:
Speaker: Mr. H.R. Satish Kumar
Topic: An Introduction to Kannada Blogs
Date: January 13, 2008
February:
Speaker: Dr.Prabhakara
Topic: Few modern kannada Bhagavad Geete
Date: Februay 10, 2008
Dr.Prabhakara, Structural enginer by profession, core member of Bhoomikaa , is well known for his progressive and thought provoking presentations on this podium. Once again he has choosen an unique and scintillating topic for the discussion. Attached here with is the outline of his presentation. Briefly, while appreciating the importance of Bhagavadgita as the ancient but sacred sanckrit scripture of GIta for people of Hindu origin and others, he explores the native versions of gita in kannada language.
March:
Speaker: Mr. Jaya Krishna Nelmangala
Topic: JnAnada Yavrutti (Knowledge Comprehension)
Date: April 13, 2008
Sri jayakrishna, engineer and IT information technologist , hails from Mysore, residing in Northern virginia has spoken on this forum previously. He has extensive formal training in the veda and Vedanta. initially from his father and later his elder brother, who practce them as family tradition. He extensively speaks on the subject , has spoken at Bhoomikaa in the past. He also teaches vedantha at SSVI temple and at his residence. His scholarly book on 'IshAvAsya upanishat.', is currently being published in Udupi, India.
To day he will be enlighteninng us by his discourse on KNowledge and its comprehension.
April
May:
Speaker: Mr. B.K. Nagendra
Topic: amarasimhana amarakOsha mattu kannaDa avataraNikegaLu (Amarasimha's Amarakosha and its kannada versions)
Date: May 11, 2008
Amarasimha, a budhist scholar was one of the nine gems existed in the courts of Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) who reined around 400 AD. He was a contemporary of kalidasa and panini. While panini wrote the grammer for Sanskrit language, Amarasimha wrote the thesaurus.The book was originally called by Amarasimha as Ithyaamarasimhakruthov Namalinganushasane (Book of instruction concerning the gender of nouns written by Amarasimha), but is generally referred to as amarakosha. It contains three khandas or parts, written in verses making it easy to memorise. Sanskrit being the mother of all the indian languages, its grammer and lexicon are reminescent todate. As in other indian languages, amarakosha has been translated in to kannada by various scholars. Infact, development of moden kannada or hosagannada from the old or haLegannada is indepted to sanskrit. Mr. Nagendra will base his presentation on the kannada version of Amarakosha by shri Ranganatha sharma. He will desribe selected verses fro all the three kandas. In addition, he will also compare and contrast all the known variations by scholars. He will give a comparative account of a similar thesaurus in kannada written by shri chakravarthi rajagopalacharya. further he will touch upon several contemporary books discussing on related topics including naming of the newborn children. nagendra will also provide a list of names, which could be very handy for prospective parents.
June:
Speaker: Dr. L. Ganapathi
Topic: praje mattu prajaa prabhutva (People and the governance)
Date: June 08, 2008
Dr. L. Ganapathi, Research programmer-scientist and active core member of Bhoomikaa, has spoken earlier on several scintillating thought provoking topics on this podium. As a poet written and published navya kavanas on e-portals and a collection of the same is under publication. Yuganthya, a play published in 2006 by Nataka Acadademy, was staged by Nataranga, India, in Bangalore and several parts of Karnataka (6 times). Another play 'Karna prasava' presented on this podium earlier (Oct 2007) is also being published.
A perspective of this month's topic: Where there is citizenry there is an opportunity for a ruler. "Rule or be ruled" may be the shortest version of our known history. While survival becomes easy as a group it needs sacrifices at the individual level. Surprisingly, much of Man's recent struggle for survival has been against his own kind. Despite a slogan of, "living in peace, equity for all" and similar egalitarian themes of every state, there is almost no example of a state that does not have a military and aggressive aims to strengthen it. Even as the messiahs preached peace, progress and challenged the old, their followers have established rigid-shells of social customs as religions in their name. Followers of every religion have fought with vengeance to defend it. They do this despite the fact that each religion eventually becomes old, gets etched in stone and is set in an image of a bygone past that has evolved to a new present. The need for every religion to be sheltered has never allowed a state to be truly separated from religion. Is it an irony that the defender of secularism and a vocal proponent of democracy rules under the slogan, "In god we trust"! It seems surprising that the seeds of democracy are a thousand plus years old. Are we refusing subconsciously to mature as a collective democracy? for we still have presidents funded by lobbyists, voters lured by cheap gifts and rulers not shameful to defend themselves with guns. Globalization without global citizenry may not succeed, though it may provide the maze that is today's economic globalization. "Rest not away from dirty politics, for dirty ones will rule us" - a harsh reality proven world over. "Rule or be ruled" is ingrained even to our work routine with managers everywhere you look. While a materially poor citizenry of India practices democracy at its best, a party like BJP is labeled as communal. The most powerful nation makes it almost impossible for a commoner to rise to the top of the government. Its citizenry seems still scared to vote a non-white male. At the dawn of coming times we have a lot to moot over.
July:
Speaker: Dr. Ravi Harapanhalli
Topic: kannaDa, oMdu shAstrIya bhAShe (Kannada, a classical language )
Date: July 13, 2008
Ravi Harapanhalli, a chemist by profession, is well known in the DC metro area for his involvement in various cultural activities spanning from literature and theater to various social programs. He has spoken on this forum previously on subjects like: sarvajna, karNana jananam and da. ra. bEndre.
This time he will initiate and lead the discussion on the widely discussed topic in Karnataka, about the status of Kannada as a classical language. Although Kannada was officially declared as a classical language by Government of India in 2004, debate still exists. Ravi will start his presentation with definition of classical language and its characteristics He will depict how Kannada literature with a documented history of more than 1500 years surpasses all the required features to be a classical language. He will invite and discuss how all of us can participate in finally resolving the current confusion or controversy.
August:
Speaker: Srivathsa Joshi
Topic: ankaNagaLu mattu ankaNakaararu (Columns and Columnists)
Date: August 10, 2008
Srivathsa Joshi, presently working as a Software professional is a graduate of Mysore University, India. With passion for Journalism and Media/publishing, he has written a weekly column titled 'vichitraanna' for ThatsKannada.com (a Kannada news portal) for five years from 2002 to 2007. Now he writes a weekly column titled 'paraaga sparsha' which appears every Sunday in Karnataka's No.1 Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka.
A column in journalistic writing perspective is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Columns are written by columnists. What differentiates a column from other forms of journalism is that it meets each of the following criteria: 1) It is a regular feature in a publication 2) It is personality-driven by the author 3) It explicitly contains an opinion or point of view. Some types of columns are: Advice column, Critic reviews, Editorial opinion, Field-specific write-ups (Sports/ Film/Cuisine etc), Gossip/Humor or general stuff and so on. In this talk, Srivathsa Joshi will brief us about evolution of Column as a form of writing, some famous columns and columnists, and then he will focus on Columns/Columnists that have left a footprint in Kannada journalism. Being an amateur columnist himself, Srivathsa Joshi will also share his experiences of writing a column first for a Kannada news portal and now for a Kannada newspaper.
September:
Presenter: Srinivas G.Kappanna, chairman, Karnataka Nataka Academy, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore, India
Mr. Kappanna, started his stage work when he was a student at National College, Bangalore, India in 1967. Since then he has worked to perfection in all aspects of stage craft/theater of both Folk and Classical. He has been the main sculptor of Nataranga (Kannada), Bangalore, Little Theater (English), and recently Kuvempu Kalakshethra and the producer of more than 1000 shows. At the film front he is the first one to produce kaakana kOte, a play by Masthi in to a film by a theater organisation Nataranga. Kappanna's talents and work scope spans into wide the areas of theater, dance, film and television. As a chairman of Karnataka Nataka Academy, he has immensely worked in support of Kannada culture, both in development and dissemination in Karnataka, India and abroad. His achievements and contributions are too many to list.
His latest production 'Jaanapada Jathre' showcasing the folk lore of Karnataka, a massive show spanning 2 years and 5800 artists, 250 teams and 83 distinct forms. Today he will be presenting a bird's eye view of this program. Followed by the questions-answers session, he would like to converse about the theater activities in general with the theater enthusiasts present in the audience.
October:
Presenter: Dr.S.Shantharam
Topic: jaivika tantra JnAna mattu hasiru krAnti ( Biotechnology and green revolution)
Date: October 12, 2008
Dr. Shantharam, botanist by training, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also an international consultant in agricultural biotechnology. He was responsible for the testing and commercialization of biotech crops and foods in the United States, and has been involved in the implementation of agricultural biotechnology in Asia and Africa for over two decades. He runs a Bangalore based NGO called Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education. Dr.Shantharam, will initially define and describe the green revolution, its origin, development, incorporation of genetically modified plants in agriculture in US other countries. He will extend his discussion on the role of modern agricultural technology including the biotechnology in the green revolution under went in Karnataka. He will describe both the positive and negative effects of the agricultural modernization, political intervention, resultant misconception and misunderstandings etc.
This topic is being presented in support of the recently started series on ' kanndadalli vaijnAnika hAgu tantrika barahagaLu' (scientific and technological literature in Kannada)
November:
Presenter: Dr. H. Sidhdhalingaiah
Topic: Bhagavatgeeteya saara saurabha (The essence of Bhagavatgeeta)
Date: November 09, 2008
Dr. Sidhdhalingaiah a mathematician, professor at Mysore, Ottawa, and Pittsburgh Universities, scientist at NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center and entrepreneur- chairman of Tanir Bavi Power Plant, Karnataka. He is been a long standing member of Bhoomikaa.
Dr.Sidhadhalingaiah is ardent lover of literature and philosophy, has well read in these areas. His personal library with the collection of more than 10,000 books has been a resource for members of Bhoomikaa and other Kannada organizations in the USA. Dr. Sidhdhalingaiah has presented several informative and thought provoking topics on this forum in the past. Today he will be enlightening us about the Bhagavadgeetha (the devine song), one of one of the scriptural trinities of Hinduism.
December: