Respect to Artistes at the end of a concert/ play

Mysore is the cultural capital of the State and we are lucky so many performers of repute come to perform in the city. Thanks to Cultural organisations, Dasara festival, Rangayana etc.. we get to hear carnatic & Hindusthani music , and also see classical dance as well as well directed plays all through the year.It is also a tribute to the various organisations who encourage and nurture local talent. That's the way it should be. Then, what's my gripe and what am I cribbing about.....?

It's just this. As soon as the performer starts singing , say, for example, the last song' Pavamana' at a carnatic concert, the audience, you and me included, rush out to start our scooters, vehicles or whatever. The audience which has enjoyed the programme and interacted well with the performers thus far, suddenly runs away even without so much as a' Thank you'.True, the organisers would have felicitated the artistes and we would have all clapped as a token of our appreciation. But still something is missing... in our appreciation of the artistes who made us forget our problems even if only for a while , and uplifted our hearts.We need to show our appreciation better , say,by staying in our seats and cheering the artistes by simple act of clapping.

It's a similar situation at the end of a fantastic play. I have seen and have been guilty of running off before the artistes who made the play possible - the actors, music and lighting chaps, director etc are introduced to the public. Rushing out and starting our scooters becomes the prime activity at that moment.

It's a phenomenon peculiar to us in India. In western countries the clapping goes on sometimes more than 5 minutues.Artsistes, performers thrive on public adualtion and support more so when it happens immediately after a gruelling performance when they have put their talent,heart and soul for our sake....

Mysore is known for many wonderful qualities. We have some very good critcis too. Should we start to' correct' this aspect in our cultural scenario. Our scooters, getting seat in a bus ,rushing for dinner could wait a wee bit longer....

Pot holes as Roads and wasted efforts of traffic police

Mysore traffic Police under the guidance of Mr. Praveen Sood is doing very good work in traffic monitoring and control for the last 6 months. Signals at important junctions,speed sign boards,reflectors, creating awareness among the public are some of the steps that have been taken for the improvement of traffic control.

However ,all the above steps will work only if the roads are in a condition suitable for riding a scooter/ motorcycle/ moped or a car. As an example, one has to see the road which our DC uses everyday from his residence to the office and back.It is the worst stretch in Mysore with some of the potholes resembling moon's craters.Two wheeler riders find this stretch a death-trap and some have actually succumbed to accidents in this stretch....Yet nothing seems to be happening...It is laughable if the rains are blamed for this as no water gets collected in this stretch due to the slope. It is shoddy work at its best, supervised by greedy officials and condoned by top bosses. Does the MCC care? Can't they be taken to task for its callousness when there is death dancing in streets of Mysore?

What's the use of having fantastic sign boards,creation of awareness, yellow and white lines drawn from a hightech machine when the MCC doesn't bother to keep the roads even to a level of a mud track seen in any village. If this is the state of the road used by the DC, one can imagine other roads in the city...It is only 6 months back our previous Mayor visited Australia to see their roads and infrastructure......

If our DC does not bother about the horrible condition of roads which he uses day in and day out, why is traffic police wasting its money and effort?Finally, the repair that is being done now is an apology for the maintanance of a road..

Cricket Stadium In Mysore

A New Cricket Season has started with quite a big bang coinciding with Deepawali. After all the drama of Chappel- Ganguly and Dalmia- Pawar -Courts tussles, It's nice to see Mr. Wall, Rahul Dravid leading the team with panache, dedication and commitment only he can bring to the job of Indian Captaincy.

The objective of this topic is - When there are cricket stadia in nook and corner of our country, why, why Mysore doesn't have one and doesn't come anywhere in the radar screen of test or even oneday venues. Maharashtra has Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Aurangabad. Even Goa has in Panaji and Margaon..Kerala, a predominantly Football Crazy state has venues in Trivandurm, Cochin and Trissore... They play one day Internationals even in Gauwahati, Silguri.... timbaktoo..

Karnataka is happy with one which is in Bangalore. It looks like KSCA does not even want in other places or is not interested as long as Cricket Academy etc all comes to Bangalore!I don't think they are interested in scouting for talent in other districts of Karnataka. When Andhra Pradesh can field two Ranji Trophy teams - Hyderabad and Andhra- Maharashtra Cricket Association sends two teams Mumbai and Maharashtra and even Gujarat Cricket Association fields two teams in the name of Saurashtra and Gujarat!

Mysore was represented by Sunnyside and Mysore Gymkhan even in Sixties in Nassur and Mirza Ismail leagues. A.S . Krishna Swamy , a dynamic batsman from Mysore almost played for India. Javagal Srinath was the fastest Bowler India has ever produced. Yet , Mysore gets neglected by the mandarins of KSCA who only think of promoting cricket in the 22 yards in Chinnaswamy! Even Chinnaswamy, who did so much for promting cricket in Karntaka would not have approved of the way thinga are conducted in KSCA! No wonder, standards are reching new low.

The Umpires from Mysore who had a meeting recently in Mysore should work for the cause of a stadium in Mysore. Even if not a stadium -Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi never had a stadium in Delhi till recently, but matches, test matches were held there all these years.

It's time to stake a claim to get Mysore one day matches for a start. For this, citizens, Umpires, Cricket clubs, Associations and Javagal Srinath should come together to get matches for Mysore. Side by side efforts for stadium should also be started.

I would like to receive comments, even if they are brickbats . For heaven's sake, let's get moving. If we can organise a 10-day Dasara festival year after year, that too with private companies' participation, one day match shouldn't be much of a sweat. Will Javagal take the lead.Please!