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You forget what you are supposed to do. No matter what the earthquake safety drill taught you. Basic instincts come first. Look for the kids, and make sure they are safe and run outside.
Yes, it was a big one. At least for me. 5.6 on the Ritcher scale is considered moderately large even in the earthquake prone bay area. In the last 10 years I have lived here, the earth has shaken several times. But never this big.
Last night it was our dinner time. Around 8 pm. My son was as usual, dodging to finish his food, when the rattling sound started. I was about to tell him to stop rattling his chair and go on with his mosaranna. The hardwood floors are new, and I don’t want them to be spoiled so early on 
It was a few seconds before I realised the sound was not his making, and it coincided with my wife shouting “Earthquake, earthquake!!”. I looked up at the walls, and the whole house was violently shaking. The chandelier was swinging like a pendulam.
My wife ran to the garage, to see what my daughter who was playing there was safe. I headed to the front door, calling every one to come outside. It was almost a minute of shaking before everything was back to normal. The lights kept swinging for a while though.
We did not have any broken frames or window shutters. We turned on the TV. No breaking news on any news channels yet. My wife ran to the car to turn on 1590 KLIV. They had already started a call-in program. The earthquake was centered about 5 miles north- north-east of Alum Rock. That puts it about 5-6 miles east of my house. No wonder it felt so strong.
Luckily no harm reported anywhere. Except may be some broken bottles and spilled liquids in supermarket isles. Life is back to normal.
I am reminded of a similar quake I experienced when I lived in Pune. It was the night of Ananta chaturdashi. The last day of Ganeshotsava in Maharashtra. A large quake hit central Maharashtra. The epicenter lay at least 250 miles away near Latur, near Karnataka border. It was so strong to wake us all from our deep sleep, and send us running out of our homes. When I went out that night, I saw almost the every one had stepped out of their homes. Some one had a window glass broken.
Next morning, we found out how deadly it was. Thousands lost their lives, and several thousands lost their homes.
I am so glad the last night’s quake was not damaging. And, it is good to have quakes of this size near a fault line, it seems. It releases the tension building under the earth, the geologists say. So, the fear of a big one striking soon is reduced by some extent.
What can I do now, except reciting this vacana of akkamahAdEvi (11th century AD)?
ಬೆಟ್ಟದ ಮೇಲೊಂದು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಡಿ ಮೃಗಗಳಿಗಂಜಿದೊಡೆಂತಯ್ಯ?
ಸಮುದ್ರದ ತಡಿಯೊಳು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಡಿ ನೊರೆತೆರೆಗಳಿಗಂಜಿದೊಡೆಂತಯ್ಯ?
ಸಂತೆಯೊಳಗೊಂದು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಡಿ ಶಬ್ದಕೆ ನಾಚಿದೊಡೆಂತಯ್ಯ?
ಲೋಕದೊಳಗೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿದ ಬಳಿಕ ಸ್ತುತಿನಿಂದೆಗಳು ಬಂದೊಡೆ
ಮನದಲಿ ಕೋಪವ ತಾಳದೆ ಸಮಾಧಾನಿಯಾಗಿರಬೇಕು
ಚೆನ್ನಮಲ್ಲಿಕಾರ್ಜುನಯ್ಯ, ಕೇಳಯ್ಯ!
Here is my attempt at translating this vacana.
Can you be scared of wild beasts, when you live on a hill top?
How can you panic by the surf and the wind,
When your home is on a beach?
Having built your house at the market square,
Can you shy away from the noise?
You are born in this world; so give up your anxiety!
Take adulations and abuses
Wth a stable mind !!
Oh, listen to me, chennamallikArjuna!*
*Chennamallikarjuna : is the signature of akka mahAdEvi
I think I should add a line to her vachana:
How could you be afraid of earthquakes, when you live in the bay area?
-neelanjana
To be accurate, the title should have been the ‘Road from Paradise’, for that is the road you will drive if you drove from Paradise, CA to Quincy, CA. Drive, I did, to Quincy. But not from Paradise, but from San Jose, CA area last weekend.
It was a leaf-peeping trip. California is not blessed with the typical fall foliage that the east coast of USA is known for. Not that I worry about it – because the absense of fall color also translates to more tolerable winters, and not having to scrape the snow off the windshield To make the long story short, this day trip to Quincy, CA in Plumas county was to enjoy the sights of the fall.
Most of the fall color wonders in CA occurs on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, bordering the state of Nevada. On the more popular passes on the western side of the mountains (like the highway 50, 80, 120, 140 etc) the vegitation is mostly coniferous, and hence evergreen, which means no fall foliage. Except in couple of passes like the Feather River Pass and the Yuba River Pass.
I knew this was a long road. At least 5 hours of drive – one way. So we made an early start @7 am. 3 + hours of drive brought us to the small town of Olivehurst, CA with a non descript main street. One Pizza Parlor. One gas station. One hardware store. And a break for us to eat our ಉಪ್ಪಿಟ್ಟು. And yes, there was some good fall color on the parking lot, sort or preface for things to come.
Maple leaf turning golden in Olivehurst, CA
California state highway 70 going from Oroville, CA to Quincy, CA is also called the Feather river canyon. The road meanders next to the north fork of Feather river, crossing countless bridges, and a few tunnels. There are several small dams on the river. There is a big dam one at Oroville too. We skipped seeing that, but I belive we crossed it’s backwaters.
A view of North Fork of Feather River.
From Oroville to Quincy, it is about 75 miles. The first 25 miles are uneventful. You go up about 2000 feet, and then come down about the same. The road is one lane each side. But the traffic was very light.
Bald grey hill
Even before we could spot any color, one of the sights seen from miles was a grey bald hill, with trees burnt from a forest fire sometime back. I was rally hoping that our drive would not be fruitless, after watching this hill for a while.
Finally, color starts showing up!
All along the Feather river canyon, you will see a railway track close by. I have no clue where the rails lead to. But we spotted several freight trains on our drive. So they should be leading somewhere
After a while. color started showing up everywhere! Some of these pics were taken from inside the car, and that explains the blurriness. Entire hillsides were drenched in color.
Color, color, and more color!
The road has it’s own quota of curves. But not as bad as some other sierra roads. It is in good state of repair. One thing is it does not snow much in Feather river canyon. Actually it is the lowest pass that crosses the Sierra from west to east. But at some really nice spots, there was no place to pull over the car and take pictures 
More Curves, and More Color!
Finally, we made it to Quincy by 1 pm in the afternoon. Quincy is a sleepy town, (or should I say a village? I don’t know), but is the main town of Plumas county. It has a college and even an airstrip.
We found some nice picnic benches in front of the elementary school. My son later tells me that the building also houses the Plumas county board of education. Very nice place for our ಹುಳಿಯನ್ನ and ಮೊಸರನ್ನ!
Quincy Elementary School. The board says it was built in 1905!
Rainbow tree in front of Quincy School, and (perhaps the only?) grocery store
A street in Quincy, alive with color
Red sandwiched between yellow
A street in Quincy -Trees, and cars, and electric lines!
Good bye Quincy!
The weather was near perfect. Not cold, but with a tinge of cool air. After a good lunch, it is time to head back home. On the way back, I noticed the colors at some places were much brighter due to the changed angle of sunlight.
Orange clad hillside
Another curve on the Feather river
Almost exiting the Feather river valley.
The colors will be here for another week or ten days. After that, all there will be bare trees and bleak landscape. May be something like below.
First trace of winter?
I have read that Feather canyon is beautiful in spring too- thanks to hundreds of waterfalls that line the hillside. I sense it would be great, because I saw remnats of many small falls on the roadside. I hope I will do that drive sometime. No, definitely not next year. After having to go through myriad “are we there yet?”, “why not turn back and head home right now?” from my kids I want to give them a break. April 2009? May be. My kids will be little more grown then. Also I am sure the questions will be different. “Did we come here to see these little waterfalls, where you can’t even swim?”
-neelanjana
[p.s] I am updating this post regularly – Go to the bottom of the post for current information.
If you are fascinated by the night sky, there is a new guest in town!! Comet Holmes has shot up it’s brightness by a million times yesterday, and is visible to naked eye as per reports today!
If you are interested, take a look at the following links:
http://weblogs.marylandweather.com/2007/10/comet_brightens_astronomers_ab.html
http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html
I can’t wait for sunset this evening!
Update of 26th October:
Last night Comet Holmes was visible as a bright ‘new’ star in Persius. My small binocular showed some fuzziness, but I can’t be sure how much was actually due to the comet and how much was due to the shakyness of the hand
In spite of a full moon, it was very easy to locate. Not sure how it will progress in the coming days. So look up to the northern sky tonight!
Updated on 29th October
Comet Holmes was visible to the naked eye, comparable in brightness to the sorrounding 2nd magnitude stars. But now we can also see little nebulos nature of the comet, and definitely it looks different than the starts. My small binoculars resolved it to a sphericla nebulous object. Looks like it is not going to get a tail, since it is so far from the Sun. I am looking forward to see this comet in a larger telescope in one of the local astronomy clubs.
Updated 2nd November
The comet is looking bigger, and brighter. To the naked eye it is very easily looking as a fuzzy object. Through the binoculars, it is a good sized cotton ball.
-neelanjana
We are almost nearing the end of Navaratri – The festival of Nine Nights.
As a kannadiga, Navaratri is dear to me – Not only because it is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil, but also because it is our naaDa habba – festival of the land.
If you can read Kannada, and are interested in Karnataka’s heritage, Indian classical music, and other trivia, these links on Sampada will interest you. Take a look.
“ನವರಾತ್ರಿಯ ದಿನಗಳು” : http://sampada.net/books/5976
-neelanjana
After I wrote my previous post on samasyA pooraNam, I was talking to one of my friends, and we were discussing samasyA pooraNam in languages other than samskRuta. Even though there are far more such examples in samskRuta, I know a few in kannaDa too, and I thought I should write about those. The riddles of kanti-hampa all belong to this category.
Kanti (ಕಂತಿ) was a poetess, said to have been in the court of HoysaLa king vIra ballALa in dvAra samudra (ದ್ವಾರ ಸಮುದ್ರ, ಹಳೇಬೀಡು) during the 13th century. So I can easily claim I am part of Kanti’s heritage even though displaced in time by about 7+ centuries, since I come from the same region 
The picture at the top of my blog is the navaranga of the Hoysaleshwara temple in haLEbIDu (ಹಳೇಬೀಡು), and in all probability, Kanti has walked in the same passageways you see in the picture! There are some historians who doubt if it was a real person or if the imagination of some other witty kavi. Either way, the kanti-hampa problems are worth taking a look.
Kanti is said to be a contenmporary of Nagachandra, also called Abhinava Pampa, who composed Ramachandra charita purana. If she really existed, she would be one of the earliest women to compose poetry in kannaDa, after mahAdEviyakka (ಅಕ್ಕ ಮಹಾದೇವಿ).
If one believes the stories, Kanti got her extra-ordinary scholarship by drinking in a special formulation called jyOtishmatI taila. The story goes like this: after Kanti drank this potion, she could not tolerate the the burning sensation it produced in her throat and she jumped into a deserted well. Apparently, there wasn’t enough water to drown her in the well, and she started composing poetry right there, till people came to rescue her. This, I call a real cock-and-bull story created by some men who were jealous of a learned woman! In fact, a very similar story is also told about Nacharamma, another extra-ordinary woman who lead a migration of about 1000 families from Tamilnadu in historical times. More about that some other time.
Most of the poems of Kanti, are take the form of riddles posed by Nagachandra, and the solved by Kanti. It is said that Kanti always critisized, and found fault with Nagachandra, and his poetry. To really know what she felt about his poetry, Nagachandra once spread a rumour that he was dead. Hearing this, Kanti was grief stuck and came to Nagachandra’s house, and let out her feelings about his poetry, and what a great loss it would be for the world of poetry without him. This is a similar situaltion like the charamashlOka of King Bhoja, and we can’t be certain if it is true.
Some of what I am going to write, is from memory, so there could be lapses in terms of poetic meter, and some of the words may even be incorrect. However, they should be good enough to show the sparkle in Kanti’s poetry.
Once Nagachandra posed this question to Kanti.
ಸತ್ತವಳೆದ್ದು ತವರಿಗೆ ಪೋದಳೇನಿದು ವಿಚಿತ್ರಂ!
(What a surprise! The woman, long dead, got up and ran away!)
Kanti had a quick response.
ಅತ್ತೆಯ ಕಾಟವು ಅಧಿಕಂ ಮತ್ತಿನ ಸವತಿಯರ ಕಾಟ ನಾದಿನಿ ಬೈವಳು
ಪೆತ್ತಮಕ್ಕಳಳಲ್ಕೆ ಸಲೆಗಂಡ ದೂಸರಿಗಾರದೆ ಬೇಸತ್ತವಳೆದ್ದು ತವರಿಗೆ ಪೋದಳೇನಿದು ವಿಚಿತ್ರಂ?
Meaning: Woman who was fed up with wicked mother- in-law, scolding sister-in-law, horrible co-wives, crying kids and an intolerent husband walked away to her mothers house. What is the surprise in it?
Once Nagachandra gave a collection of words which are unrelated and asked Kanti to compose a poem including those words. The words included ಮಸೆಕಲ್ಲು (churning stone), ಕುದುರೆ (horse), ಬಾಚಿ, ಕೊಡಲಿ, ಉಳಿ (different metallic implements used by farmers and carpenters) and ಪೊಸ (new). What an incongruous set of words. Right? Wrong, as Kanti proves:
ಮಸೆಗಲ್ಗಳಿ ಮಾಂಬಳಮಂ
ವಸುಧಾತಳಕುದುರೆ ಬಾಚಿಯೆತ್ತಿದಳೊರ್ವಳ್
ಶಶಿಮುಖಿಗೆ ಕೊಡಲಿಕೆ ಆಕೆ
ಪೊಸವಣ್ಣಂ ಸವಿದು ನೋಡಿ ನಸುವುಳಿಯೆಂದಳ್
Meaning: While the mangoes were dropping down on the ground, when hit with stones, a woman (probably the maid) collected them all. When the fruits were given to the moon-faced woman, she tried them and said they were slightly tart!
There are many such more witty poems of Kanti. In one the line given is ಇಲಿಯಂ ತಿಂಬುದ ಕಂಡೆ ಜೈನರ ಮನೆಯೊಳ್ ( I saw mice being eaten in a jaina household). Anybody who knows jaina tradition knows the kind of vegitarianism they follow. Kanti completes the verse making it “ಸರಸಿಜಾಕ್ಷಿಯರ ಹಸ್ತದೊಳ್ ತಿಲತೈಲದಿ ಮಾಳ್ಪ ಚೆಕ್ಕಿಲಿಯಂ ತಿಂಬುದ ಕಂಡೆ ಜೈನರ ಮನೆಯೊಳ್” – I saw chakkulis, prepared tastily by frying in gingelly oil by lovely women, in a jaina household. Similarly, another line “ದನಮಂ ಕಡಿಕಡಿದು ಬಸದಿಗೆಳೆಯುತಿರ್ದರ್” – Cattle were being slaughtered and stcked in a basadi ( a jaina shrine) becomes “ಸಚ್ಚಂದನಮಂ ಕಡಿಕಡಿದು ಬಸದಿಗೆಳೆಯುತಿರ್ದರ್” – “Fragrant sandle wood, cut into pieces, was stacked in the basadi. ಇಸಮಂ ಸೇವಿಸಿ ಬಾಳ್ದರೇನಚ್ಚರಿಯೋ (What a surprise, they live even after consuming poison!) becomes a descripition of a delicious pAyasa – “ಪಾಯಿಸಮಂ ಸೇವಿಸಿ ಬಾಳ್ದರೇನಚ್ಚರಿಯೋ!, and ಗಜಮಂ ಕಟ್ಟಿ ಪೊತ್ತರು ಪೆಗಲೊಳ್ ( They wrapped an elephant, and carried on the shoulder) becomes a description of a worker in the Palace office, how he tallies the accounts, and carries the papers bundled on his shoulders to ends as “ಕಾಗಜಮಂ ಕಟ್ಟಿ ಪೊತ್ತರು ಪೆಗಲೊಳ್”.
We really have to regret that no other work of kanti has survived – except for these small snippets of her poetry. Whether she was a real woman, or concocted by someone later, these Kanti-Hampa riddles continue to entertain us even today.
Samasya Pooranam is a good pastime for saMskRuta lovers. By the way, that’s how I transliterate the name of the language more well known as Sanskrit (among the people who do not know that language very well! ) . However I prefer to use the transliteration scheme I am more used to ; replace it with your favourite transliteration scheme, if you prefer, whenever you see this word.
samasyA pUraNam literally means completing a riddle. You are given a sentence that does not make sense. Or one that seems very odd. Now you have to add a few lines to make it meaningful. Of course, I am not competent enough in saMskRuta , to do this. But I can at least appreciate the beauty of it!
There are a number of such samasyA pUraNa shlOkas. They go back t0 at least 10-15 centuries. The most famous might be “kamalE kamalOtpattiH” – Lotus born out of a lotus – (कमले कमलोत्पत्तिः) attributed to the famed poet kAlidAsa. Anyone who knows the name of kAlidAsa, probably knows this. And of course, whoever has seen our dear “annAvru” – Dr Rajkumar in the kannaDa movie ‘kaviratna kALidAsa’ can definitely recall this.
Here is the solution for this – said to have been given by kALidAsa.
kamalE kamalOtpattiH shrUyatE na cha dRushyatE
bAlE tava mukhAMbhOjE dRushyamindIvara dvayam!
कमले कमलोत्पत्तिः श्रूयते न च दृश्यते
बाले तव मुखाम्बोजे दृश्यमिंदीवर द्वयम्!
In simple English, this would be:
Who ever said you can’t see a lotus born of a lotus?
Oh girl, when there are two lotus eyes in your lotus face!
Actually there are several such samasyA pooraNa shlOkas supposed to have been solved by kALidAsa. But I suspect, most of them are the works of some other witty poets – not necessarily of kALidAsa. Another couple attributed to kALidAsa end with almost meaningless lines.
The first one reads : ”ka kha ga gha” – क ख ग घ. While it seems too be devoid of any information to get a solution, here is one.
kA tvam bAlA?
kAMchanamAlA.
kasyA putrI?
kanakalatAyAH.
kA tvA hastE
pATI patram
kA vA lEkhA?
ka kha ga gha.
का त्वम् बाला?
काञ्चनमाला.
कस्याः पुत्री?
कनकलतायाः.
का त्वाम् हस्ते?
पाटी पत्रम्.
का वा लेखा?
क ख ग घ.
This is a conversation between an adult, and a school going child.
Who are you, Oh child?
My name is Kanchana mala.
Who is your mother?
Kanakalata is her name.
What is in your hand?
A slate to write.
What did you write in there?
ka kha ga gha.
The other is one that ends with even more meaningless “ThA Tham Tha Tham Tham Tha Tha Tham Tha Tam ThaH ” ( ठा ठं ठ ठं ठं ठ ठ ठं ठ ठं ठः) . The solution is of course, very ingenious.
raamaabhishEke jalamaaharanthyaH
hasthaachchyutho hEmaghaTo yuvathyaaH
sOpaanamAsAdya karOthi Sabdam
ThA Tham Tha Tham Tham Tha Tha Tham Tha Tam ThaH
रामाभिषेके जलमाहरान्त्याः
हस्ताच्य्तो हेमघटो युवत्याः
सोपानमासाद्य करोति शब्दम्
ठा ठं ठ ठं ठं ठ ठ ठं ठ ठं ठः
While bringing water for the coronation of Sri Rama,
The golden pot falling from the hands of those girls,
On the steps on the riverbank, made this sound:
ThA Tham Tha Tham Tham Tha Tha Tham Tha Tam ThaH!
See how cleverly the meaningless line has been used to create a very nice sounding solution!
Many of these riddles have multiple, equally nice solutions. Let me move on from centuries old stuff to a more contemporary one, with multiple solutions. Dr Ganesh is a well known shatavadhAni. Samasya pooraNa is a part of shatAvadhAna. In one of the avadhAna sessions, he was given this one to solve.
gaurI pacati gOmAMsam
गौरी पचति गोमांसम्
gouri cooks beef.
Ridiculous? Sacrilageous? Not after you see the solution I bet !
Here is the solution given by Dr Ganesh
pancamO jArajO yatra pauSAsak tatra sarvadA
gaurI pacati gOmAMsam gaurO bhunktE bhubhukShitaH
पञ्चमो जारजो यत्र पौशासक् तत्र सर्वदा
गौरी पचति गोमांसम् गौरो भुङ्क्ते भुभुक्षितः
When King George the 5th ruled
The white lady (the queen) cooks beef.
The white man (husband) eats what she cooks!
If you know saMskRuta, you can not but miss the pun on the words panchama and jAraja
In avadhAna, the person asking the question has to have an answer too. This was the answer proposed by the questioner (पृछ्चक) Sudheer.
gouDI tu pacati mInam drAviDI pacati shAkam
gourI pacati gOmAmsam nUnam lOkO bhinnaruciH
गौडी तु पचति मीनम् द्राविडी पचति शाकम्
गौरी पचति गोमांसम् नूनं लोको भिन्नरुचिः
The woman from gouDa (present bengal) cooks fish;
The woman from south cooks vegetables.
The white woman cooks beef.
It is true that tastes differ.
See how both the answers wittily use the literal meaning of the word गौरी (gourI), to mean the white woman, rather than the commonly understood meaning as Parvati, the wife of Shiva.
When I was discussing this with a few of my friends, they came up with some more impressive solutions:
trilOkajananI kA bhO? sUpakRt kim karOti bhO?
kim khAdanti turuShkAH bhO? gaurI pacati gOmAmsam
त्रिलोकजननी का भो? सूपक्ऱ्त् किम् करोति भो?
किम् खादन्ति तुरुष्काः भो? गौरी पचति गोमाम्सम्.
Who is the mother of three worlds?
What does a cook do ?
What to muslims eat?
gourI; Cooks; Beef.
This solution takes the form of 3 questions, followed by the answers to the questions in the last line, a commonly used technique in samasyA pooraNa. Also, this takes the common meaning of the word gourI.
Here is another very contemporary solution, proposed by another friend if mine!
mama gEhasamIpasthE mekDonAlD bhOjanAlayE|
gaurI pachati gOmAMsaM kRuShNastaM bhakShayiShyati||
मम गेहसमीपस्थे मॆक्डॊनाल्ड् भोजनालये|
गौरी पचति गोमांसं कृष्णस्तं भक्षयिष्यति||
At the McDonad’s, near my house,
a white woman cooks beef, and a black man eats it!
Note the clever use of words गौरी to mean white woman and कृष्ण as black man.
I can go on and on, but let me stop before you yawn
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