Mysore bloggers milan

It takes all sorts to make a world, the blog-world. The blogger Milan on Friday was modest enough to be a drawing-room affair; but it brought together a mixed bunch – a Singapore-based aviator, a builder, cardiologist, a techie company CEO, a biz journalist, Lions Club activist, a bureaucrat and a ‘was-man’ (has-been newsman). The binding factor is they all blog or read blogs.

We had no set agenda, and, like most of our blog posts, we hopped from one topic to another, in a swift and summary manner. None of us was in a mood to talk through any issue to its resolution. The discussion may not have been meaningful, but it was engaging, and even educative, in snatches. As is customary in all such meet-ups, we parted with an expression of intent to meet again.

As host for the evening, I was allowed to hog the chat by my accommodative guests, but, somewhere along the line, I lost the initiative to more persuasive talkers who evidently had far more interesting things to share with us. The cardiologist who also writes a weekly column in Star of Mysore spoke of his recent meeting with a kin of the late Mysore Dewan Mirza Ismail (his brother’s grandson). The journalist who, if I may divulge it, has plans to write mainly on Mysore’s heritage for Deccan Herald,  weighed in with his take on the late dewan and an Ismail-related Dasara story he had heard from his grandmother.

Someone mentioned the discovery of a tunnel that runs under the Mysore government house; which had us excited about knowing the why, when and what-for of the tunnel that, presumably, pointed towards the Mysore Palace at one end, Srirangapatna at the other. The foresighted royalty had also dug an underground water channel connecting the karanji lake with Kukkerahalli , with the idea of maintaining the water level at the lakes and the water table around them. Someone mentioned an upcoming book that talks about a network of tunnels and other such mysteries of this heritage city.

Of his medical college days at Gulbarga our cardiologist friend spoke of how his friends enjoyed their munch of peanut and churumuri sitting in the cockpit of an aircraft of Hitler’s vintage that had crashed in the college vicinity during war-time. This set the aviator talking; he spoke about aircraft of war-time vintage, about the auxiliary airstrip that came up in Mysore during the war.  The techie in the group, born, bred and locally entrepreneurial, recalled the days when The Hindu airplane carrying newspaper bundles used the Mysore airstrip.

When the bureaucrat, concerned with city governance, showed up, the chatter drifted to weighty issues such as e-governance, citizen committees, tax-payment hassles and the like. These are issues that could use up an entire evening; and, probably, merit discussion at a town-hall public hearing, rather than in a companionable drawing-room setting. Besides, the bureaucrat was in our midst as an intending blogger, keen on a pow wow with others with flair for blogs. He let it be known that he has, in fact, created a blog, though he has yet to post something in it.

I, for one, would like to see him blog on his life outside his office, his Sunday outings with his four-year-old , to the zoo, the rail museum or wherever; blog about fun in being a government servant (A Karnataka police officer, Dr. D V.Guruprasad, has done an entire book – The Funny Side of Police Life). And then our bureaucrat friend has interest in star-gazing; he is  fascinated  with anything he could learn about the working of human brain, and human psychology. And then this bureaucrat takes interest in teaching kids. His off-official interests  are eminently bloggable. And such a blog, I reckon, would bring out the human face of a government official. Most of us visualise an official as a face of authority, stern and stony, seated behind a green-topped desk, and poring over files. 

An aspect of the Mysore blogger Milan was inclusion of wives, who, I guess, had an agenda that wasn’t blogging. Speaking of my wife, the last thing she seems interested in are blogs and blogging. It is my belief that every housewife has a blog in her, if only she introspects, observes and and takes time to articulate her experiences. Housewives, who have life of their own (I don’t mean kitty-parties), could blog about bringing up a four-year old, coping with adolescent sons and daughters. At our get-together was this highly qualified woman (IIT, IIM) who has put on hold a  high-paying career in order to bring up her kid.

My wife has loads of stuff in her head about living away from our only son, since his college days in Pilani. He is now married, with a kid of his own; and we still live away from him. The weekly phone calls, the Skyping to watch our two-year-old grandson growing up by the week, and our annual trips to be with them are all bloggable material, if only my wife would apply her mind to it. 

Running a household has a sunny side that a blogger housewife could share with others. Being married to a pilot, builder, company CEO, government official or a journalist ought to make the life of each one interesting in its own light. I recall reading a book by Shiela Hailey, called, I Married a Bestseller; and also a book by the wife of late Art Buchwald.