Mysorean

31 responses so far ↓

• Veena Shivanna // Aug 4, 2007 at 5:16 am

  Sheetal .? Hearing it for the first time. Airavatha is becoming a too costly affair. Its 190/- one way. I guess I could instead drive down to Mysore by car.

  When is Sheetal coming on live ?

• bachodi // Aug 5, 2007 at 6:03 pm

  Sheetal ? sounds good

• Mysorean // Aug 5, 2007 at 11:06 pm

  Veena:
  Haudu. Even I feel driving down is much better and easier on the pocket. To know when Sheetal is going live, give me some time. I am in touch with the KSRTC authorities and once I know it shall be on my blog too! :)

• Vasanth // Aug 6, 2007 at 12:55 am

  Hi,

  I travelled in Sheetal. It is good and serves the purpose what we want. Mainly people did not wanted to stop at Maddur to save the time. Sheetal doesn’t stop. It has got near Volvo power and an Air Suspension. It covers the distance in 2 hours when there is no traffic and maximum 2 1/2 hours. The seats are like Karnataka Saarige with 2 on one side and 3 on the other side. It is having windows, in worst case we can open the windows. There is no Video like Airavat - Many were saying in the Bus, there should have been. But, I personally don’t like since it is a headache. Noise level is less but not like Volvo - Ok for the price we pay.

  Coming to driving to Mysore, nowadays, there are too many accidents especially on the weekends where people drive with “Full Throttle” just because road is 4 laned.

• Rohith // Aug 6, 2007 at 8:44 pm

  See it from a marketing angle - Sheetal seems to make a lot of sense.. but look at it from a Kannadiga’s perspective (for all interested kannada speaking ppl here) the name “sheetal” just doesnt hold good. You ask why? - Then please read this: http://enguru.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_02.html

• shark // Aug 6, 2007 at 11:05 pm

  That’s a nice initiative.
  Yes BMTC and KSRTC have always come up with new initiatives. It’s the railways that need little boost!

• Mysorean // Aug 6, 2007 at 11:19 pm

  Vasanth:
  Thanks a lot for your comment! It’s nice to know that traveling by Sheetal is a good experience. I am a big fan of the Airavatha too! And I totally agree with your point of ‘full throttle’ driving. Not necessary at all.

  Rohith:
  I don’t find any merit in the arguments being made in that blog. He/she/they think(s) that Sheetal is not a kannada name? Fine. Argue on that. Argue on the various meanings it has in kannada. Saying it is not a kannada word and unnecessarily extending the argument to the patriotism one has about Karnataka and the language of Kannada is totally unwarranted and result of imaginations of an obsessed mind!

  Shark:
  Railways are also going fine allva? enu problem railways nalli?

  The bus services are doing well because private bus services are catching up leaving no market for the Government run transport services. Hence the new initiatives and all. I must mention that BMTC does a good job even though they do not face any direct competition.

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 2:12 am

  Mysorean:
  Firstly you need to get this straight - there is NO meaning for the word “sheetal” in Kannada! It is not a kannada word. What it means in another language is outside the picture for now.

  To find merit in the arguments made on that blog, read your blog again! Why have you mentioned this detail about KSRTC launching a new bus service in your blog? You think thats a “sign” of progress, dont you? Apparently thats where you are erring, buddy!

  Any system can be considered progressive only when its progress is holistic and long-lasting. Having “sheetal” in the fleet of KSRTC, and quite surely saving a few bucks for itself - apparently your short-sighted visualisation of progress - is not holistic progress. It is not a sign of an improving system. It only reflects a self-decaying system unless some repair could happen.

  A people’s strongest representative is but the language common to a majority of them. And for us it is kannada. This representative is the supplier of all necessities of the people. It ought to, unless bodies like KSRTC get out of the way and try and impress alien residents by naming their own transport vehicles with names that only they understand. Remember what had the Brits named Chennai as - Madras; what they named Tiruchirapalli as - Trichy. But why do we want to return to those old names? Because we want a meaning to be clearly conveyed to people whenever they use this name. Trichy means rubbish in Tamil, for tamilians.

  “sheetal” means rubbish in Kannada, for kannadigas.
  Merit enough?

  It was the Brits last time; this time around we are giving alien sounding names for our products ourselves!!! What a nightmare indeed.

• Mysorean // Aug 7, 2007 at 2:19 am

  Rohith:
  I am not going to let my post get hijacked by kannada-obsessed people like you.

  You can keep your ideas about ‘progress’ and ‘kannada’ to yourself and not impose them on others buddy!

  Happy naming-all-products-sold-in-karnataka-in-kannada!

  I thought Vatal Nagraj didn’t have educated followers. Apparently he has!

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:08 am

  @Mysorean about Vatal Nagaraj:

  Very clearly, you’re mis-educated yourself - in these matters i.e.

  The other problem is you feel writing a comment is like imposing one’s idea on someone else! Conveying is one thing, and imposing is another.

  You should be open to comments and views about the content of your blog, else dont comment on matters that you dont expect remarks on!

• Mysorean // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:13 am

  Rohith:
  So you conveyed whatever you wanted?
  Unfortunately you had to to do it in English and not in Kannada! LOL! So much to Kannada and Karnataka. I am sure this is again a symbol of a self-decaying system that is not a view of the holistic progress!

• Sam // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:49 am

  Rohith,

  Seriously, I admire your love for Kannada. Nanoo obba kannDiga ne.. but I think you are becoming obsessive and not open minded at all..

  I feel that Kannada over the years has not evolved as the world around us has changed. English, Japanese (I will speak abt these two as I have knowledge about these two languages) have eveolved over the years. If there are some things which does not have a definition/word explaining that, the language will “add” a new word to its vocabulary borrowing from other languages. Why has Kannada not done that? Do you think its worng to expand a language’s vocabulary?

  Even till now we do not have a specific word for either a Car or a Bus and here we are discussing about some name given to ‘bus’ service. Japanese have a name for a Car, it has a different word for bus and train too..

  Why not borrow Sheetal from Sanskrit for Kannada vocabulary? After all it is the language from which Kannada was born.. dont you think?

  Think with an open mind..

• Mysorean // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:54 am

  Sam:
  Well said. I hope people understand what you are trying to say!

• shark // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:56 am

  no problems with the railways. Just that “new-initiatives” are missing ashte.

  I am sure they can also think on the lines of introducing super fast trains and stuff.
  I used to face hell when I used to travel every weekend to Mysore in those over crowded trains.

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:58 am

  Mr. Open Mind! (Sam)
  FYI:
  1. Kannada was NOT bron out of Sanskrit. If you have material evidence that it did, please present them here.
  (For that matter none of the dravidian languages was born out of Sanskrit.)

  2. Kannada has a very nice ans sweet word - “tangaaLi” for the same meaning that sheetal was intended to convey. If your coverage of kannada words is not wide enough, it doesnt mean you can immediately resort to alien words. Look at this as your best chance to improve your hold on your own language - the one you love, as you claim.

  So clearly, as illustrated in this case, sheetal is by no means the appropriate word - keeping in mind your correct phrasing of the situation - ‘If there are some things which does not have a definition/word explaining that, the language will “add” a new word to its vocabulary borrowing from other languages’

  And as always, using and upholding one’s own language doesnt mean opposing or criticising another language. Please understand this difference and re-comment.

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 4:04 am

  Sam,
  In the interest of further knowledge in this matter: please visit these links in your leisure:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_languages
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_history_of_India

  Expectation from these is that you’ll realise where kannada/tamil originated from. And where Sanskrit originated from, and what languages it gave (did not give) birth to..

• Sam // Aug 7, 2007 at 9:16 pm

  Rohith,

  Thanks for the info. I agree that I am not a linguist. (I don’t want to get into ‘that’ debate)
  But my point was not that, my point was Kannada has not grown and for that I dont see any explanation from your side. My point was that people fuss about some marketing gimmick and not concentrate on the development of Kannada language as a whole. I hope you get my point.

  I never said Kannada does not have an equivalent word for ’sheetal’. I feel that Sheetal represents lot more than ‘tangaaLi”.

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 10:34 pm

  Sam,
  The problem lay in the inclination in many kannadiga minds that “sheetal” represents a lot more than “tangaaLi.” It lay in the strongly impressed feeling of inferiority - that some alien language is always “more” than mine!

  In this instance, I’d certainly be happy to learn what extra representation(s) would those be then?

  Sorry, in your comment I did not see anything talk about the “Kannada has not grown” phenomenon. But exactly what do you mean - Kannada has not grown? If you mean kannada has not been borrowing enough words then you’re wrong in one sense. Languages become richer on borrowing words/ideas from others, true, but that is not true if you are going to do that at the cost of words/ideas you already have in your language! Like for instance many kannada TV channels shout loud in their news channels - “ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ವೀಕ್ಷಿಸಿ ಇಂತಹ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ..”, instead of simply saying “ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ ಇಂತಹ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ..”; or another instance of using the word “ರಸ್ತೆ” instead of the simpler/sweeter word “ಬೀದಿ”. In the long run with such alien words usage happening, Sanskrit/Hindi will just sit on top of Kannada in terms of its vocabulary even when the latter is self-sufficient to a good extent.

  But there are cases where one has to agree; to date I havent found a word in Kannada vocabulary which conveys the meaning of the word “risk.” Incidentally there is a word in Hindi (heard even Konkani/Marathi has) for risk. So in such cases it makes perfect sense in borrowing. Not in the case of simple words like sheetal!

  The thing to notice here is that a language flourishes as long as you’re using words available within itself as far as possible and switching to another language’s words only as a last resort. Otherwise it becomes what is often termed hinglish types - a shabby jugal-bandi of english and hindi!

  Btw Sam, thanks for the follow-up and your interest in this..

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 10:45 pm

  Also would like to add here,
  (attn Sam)
  You may find similar occurances in Japanese as well; phrases like eau-de-toilette in french - the hep-sounding name for our after-shave simply means “water of the toilet” in english. Just because this phrase is in French, and not English, it doesnt represent “something more.”

  Just another instance I thought would help in this matter..

• Anonymous // Aug 7, 2007 at 10:50 pm

  Rohith,

  Though you seem to have some ideas your ways of putting them across can be more polished and polite. You seem to have built a world around you that is populated only with anti-kannada people. Even worse is that you feel that most people who are trying to discuss with you have some inferior feeling towards their own language kannada. Get out of it. The World is full of positive people. Your way of looking at them is having a tinge that you don’t want to have in a person.

  For what were languages invented? For communication. People like you have wrongly made it a symbol of a state. Now do not go back to ‘division of states’. Having seen your comments I can clearly see the way you confuse people with your own half-baked and perfectly confused ideas. People like you have taken a means of communication and contorted the concept beyond recognition today. Made it an issue that makes people feel uncomfortable being around you.

  Language is a means of communication and that is because man is a social animal. I am just laughing out loud at the response that you might give for this comment. For a post from Adi that was so simple and straight-forward you have just fucked it up totally. I know why Adi says he doesn’t want to get into such discussions! Because ppl like you don’t end it. You don’t want it to end. Because if it ends you will have no other equally wasteful thing to spend your brains and time on.

• Mysorean // Aug 7, 2007 at 11:22 pm

  Sam:
  Waiting for your response

  Rohith:
  As far as I know, Sheetal is an adjective. Sheetal hava (Pardon me for using Hindi which is not our National Language as is the popular myth!) means taNgALi. And if I understand Sam correctly he means that an adjective can have varied uses and more wider meanings based on the usage and hence he probably felt that it was a word that conveyed more. I don’t see anything that needs to be described as “strongly impressed feeling of inferiority - that some alien language is always “more” than mine!”. If you are putting up an argument for argument’s sake then go ahead. Because you seem to be missing the main points that people are trying to make out here.

  Anonymous:
  I am glad that finally someone has spoken my mind! Apart from me that is! ;)

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 11:36 pm

  Mr. Anonymous (or Adi),
  I am at least arguing, for whatever reason, which might lie beyond your loci of comprehension. You two (or one) are just trying to push it away. If you have a point, argue it in. Why does it have to be “exactly” the same point as what your blog started off with? Discussions happen only when points are tailored in a relative fashion, and this one started by me is one such.
  If you are saying no because you dont have enough interest as it takes, that is not fair at all.

  Anonymous/new-comer, you got the idea, forget the polishing and politeness and such stuff, dude! You have used sufficient vulgarity (in your comment) yourself which calls for such politeness/polishing!!

• Rohith // Aug 7, 2007 at 11:51 pm

  Adi,
  Well adjectives, huh! Thats the floor where I have been spilling my words - sheetal hava - you think is hindi (?) - no it aint! sheetal, as Sam has rightly pointed out is a Sanskrit word, and not hindi! Again the word for that in hindi is TaMDa (becoming TaMDi hava), I am sure you had forgotten that. Nothing to worry there. Sanskrit and Hindi but belong to the same family of languages..

  Coming back to adjectives - if adjective purpose is what you meant sheetal was serving - then kannada doesnt fall behind here either - tampu is the adjective form of tangaaLi.

  Like I said, it all lies in the interest and the wish to make an attempt. Its our own language, and we only need to use it, instead of debating the availability of a word in the language! We need to start by thinking “YES, there is a word in Kannada for this,” and not start with a pessimistic note instead!

• Anonymous // Aug 7, 2007 at 11:57 pm

  @Rohith,
  “loci of comprehension”… hmmm..coordinate geometry is where I had heard that term. That’s a beautiful subject. One of my all-time favourites. In fact locus (the singular of loci, just in case because it ain’t kannada) is the most important aspect of Coordinate geometry and your usage of it with respect to “comprehension” which happens to be related more to a subject called “English” as in reading and comprehension I relate this to a strongly embedded feeling of inferiority of using direct words in English language and resorting to such mathematical terms just to signify the superiority that you are an engineer by qualification (maybe, I don’t know!). I am a nobody here in this discussion. But I sure didn’t come here with fixed ideas!

• Mysorean // Aug 8, 2007 at 12:00 am

  Anonymous:
  ROTFL! Great one! Very witty..
  Wish you could reveal your true self!

• Mysorean // Aug 8, 2007 at 12:03 am

  Rohith:

  I can’t believe you said this:
  “Like I said, it all lies in the interest and the wish to make an attempt. Its our own language, and we only need to use it, instead of debating the availability of a word in the language! We need to start by thinking “YES, there is a word in Kannada for this,” and not start with a pessimistic note instead!”

  If only you realise the meaning of what you type!

• Rohith // Aug 8, 2007 at 12:30 am

  Anonymous,
  If you think you are a nobody, you simply remain one!

  But its a pity to see the way you (try to) understand newly framed words.. thought your skills to understand ’sheetal’ would help you there! ಮಹಾ ಬಂದ್‍ಬುಟ್ಟ ಏನೊ ಶೀತಲ್ ಗೀತಲ್ ಅನ್ಕೊಂಡು :))

  And its unfortunate that you feel being an engineer (which I feel you are) is “superior.”

  Adi,
  I was talking about the virtual debate you and this Mr. Anon were framing up in this comment-train.. But at least I am open to reading comments from you (both) in this matter.

  I wish to re-iterate that you can stop if you are raising a comment saying the word sheetal is something “more” than its kannada “equivalent!!”

• Sam // Aug 8, 2007 at 2:52 am

  Will you stop it? Both of you.. Anon and Rohith.

  Anon,
  I dont know you so I wont say anything about you

  Rohith,
  I have absolutely no words to describe you kaNo.. you are a character.. I dont know you persoanlly but I have interacted with you few times, but I never knew you are such an argument loving freak!

  It seems you argue just for the sake of arguing.. with that you have this uncanny knack rubbing people off on the wrong side, always! I had heard stories about you from your friends (Yes! I do know most of your friends) and today I have come to understand that you are exactly how your friends have described you.

  I love arguing.. arguments which do not get personal, where people dont flame each other just to prove a point. This is definitely not one of those arguments..

  Adi,
  I should have signed off long time back (as most of regular readers have done, I think they knew what was going to happen if you argue with these kind of people, I have learnt my lesson now) so better late than never.. signing off! DONE.

• Mysorean // Aug 8, 2007 at 3:01 am

  Sam:
  I am glad you realised early. I made the mistake of chatting with and trying to help him realise what we are trying to say. In the end I only lost all my respect for him. And I told him that too.

  I guess I will disable further comments on this post. Bye Sam!

• krishna // Aug 8, 2007 at 4:00 am

  Rohit, Sanskrit is a class language, so why not use it??

• RamNarayan // Aug 8, 2007 at 4:06 am

  Rohit,,neenu yaaru yendu gottaaytu..neenoo saha aa jaativaadi gumpige serida manushya allave??