'Muktha Samvada' with a difference

Right: CSP's USP is his middle class-ness Below: A rare shot: (from left) Adarsh, Srikanth, Sanjay, Shruthi, Chaitanya, Bellur Ramakrishna, Girish Hampali, Usha and Mrs.Lalitha (Sanjay's mother) with TNS and Dev Anand. On June 3 (1880), Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first wireless telephone message on his newly-invented 'photophone'. It was on June 3 (1966) that one of the finest fast bowlers of our generation, Wasim Akram, was born. A famous writer and politician, K.Karunanidhi, was also born on this day. Why I am giving you so many details about the date is because another fine human being, Sanjay, someone whom I have known personally for just over a month but through his blog for a longer period, was also born on this date. And it was his birthday that made June 3 a very memorable one for me and others who met at 'Bugle Rock' this Saturday afternoon. And we had a Yorkshire-like weather to revel in. The get-together was being planned for a long time. Finally, we were all ready to meet at Bugle Rock in Basavanagudi at 1.00 pm. On our way, we got messages from a few saying they will not be able to make it. And a few asked for the directions. Sanjay 'The Common man' was skeptical about the number that would make it. As we parked our car in front of the Bull Temple, I recognised Girish Hampali (having seen his picture on his daughter's website). When we went to the 'Rock', no one had turned up yet. Sanjay, his mother, Girish and myself kept chatting surrounded by huge trees. There was no sounds from vehicles and no polluted air. The atmosphere was literally COOL. Chaithanya joined us a little later. It was past 2 and all of us marched towards 'Kamath Bugle Rock'. We had good South Indian meals. Srikanth joined us and gifted a peacock feather to the birthday boy. Shruthi, who had earlier messaged that she would not be able to make it, finally showed up. Most of us wondered whether we were having any 'Hallucinations'! All of us went to the 'Rock' again and got to know each other better. Usha came in after a while. She and Girish seemed to know the place(Bugle Rock) like the back of their palm. Girish suggested that we could invite TNS as we had a decent crowd. He called the ace director and told about the Common Man's Blog. TNS agreed for the EXCLUSIVE SAMVADA. And this one's rights was not with E-TV. Before the Mukhamuki began, we had a good view of the park from atop the watch tower. It was greenery all around. And looked great. It was fun watching a few kids sliding down a few rocks. In the next few minutes, we were seated in front of Muktha's CSP. He was accompanied by a couple of his assistants, one of whom was Devanand (the cop who arrests Rane and Chabria). Seetharam was very happy to know about the Muktha page on Sanjay's blog. He said that he had not yet seen the blog as he was not a computer literate. When I told he had to just Google for 'Muktha', he told he could not even Start a computer, let alone finding Google page. Had a good laugh at that. All of us had a wholesome chat with TNS. We spoke about Muktha, MNCs, CET, Politics, Mrs. Mukhyamantri, Muktha-The magazine run by TNS. All through, it was raining like mad. And we were lucky that the 'Samvada' was happening at an odd place and an odd hour. Five in the evening in a pretty new restaurant when it is pouring outside is an unlikely place when you can find a celebrity, let alone chat. We took pictures with TNS and got his autograph. We wished him luck for his future projects. All of us were beaming with joy at the end of the chat session. People in the hotel, customers as well as staff were staring at us as we came down with TNS till the entrance. I saw one guy agape with a piece of Dosa in his hand. It was still raining and TNS hopped in to his car while we waited for the rain to stop. All the while when we were chatting with TNS, there was another celeb quietly having coffee at the other end of the room. By the beard and the attire, no one could miss him. It was Pavagada Prakash Rao (Philosopher and Commentator) whose 'Satya Darshana' on DD has been immensely popular. As the rain stopped, we thanked each other for making the day a memorable one. And as we bid adieu, we had a lot of pleasant memories of June 3. Picture Courtesy: Sanjay Mysoremutt Design: RK