kaalu mukkaalu

March 22, 2022

Around 5-45 AM I was cycling up towards Gandhinagar cross roads. From the corner of my eye I saw a white dog pass through a gap in a fence. A morning walker ahead of me gave a long look at the dog. Out of curiosity I checked out the dog. It was a three-legged dog, its right hind leg was missing. The dog was out of sight but it remained in my thoughts... a three legged dog... mooru kaalina naayi... ಮೂರು ಕಾಲಿನ ನಾಯಿ. In Kannada two words can be merged to form one word. In this case ಮೂರು ಕಾಲು becomes ಮುಕ್ಕಾಲು - mukkaalu. Now lets take a look at the word kaalu... ಕಾಲು. It has two meanings- 1. leg and 2. one quarter.  Ondu kaalu was simplified to kaalu.

All these years I've been using these two words but never knew their origin. Possibly these words came into being in the trading circles when cattle was considered as currency.

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Saturday morning solo ride

This particular ride was the first 30+ km ride of the month. I've been riding the MTB for the past month, prior to which I rode the Hybrid for a month or more. After switching from Hybrid to MTB, the first three days it felt like I was riding uphill all the while. Max speed and average speed dropped, it took a week to improve on them. To know the difference between a MTB and Hybrid bike click on the link.

This screenshot is Mar-19th ride, 37 km. Fortunately the air was clear and cool but it was windy. During the first half, wind was blowing from the left hand side and then head on. The last quarter of the ride I didn't feel wind because of urban roads. The average speed would've been 17+ if not for the wind and two short stops, one to buy milk and other to say hello to an acquaintance. Both stops were within the last 10 minutes of the ride.

This screenshot shows the overall stats since the day I installed Zeopoxa.

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dragonfly

Photographing a dragonfly is easy compared to shooting a butterfly. The latter is too shy, flutters away at the sight of humans but the former stays still for seconds or minutes. In those seconds one could frame a few decent pictures.

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Timepass

This phrase "time pass" or the word "timepass" is something I've heard ever since my childhood days. Probably the first time heard it and actually remembered was during a bus journey. During the stops at busstands, vendors would flock the bus yelling "kadlekai, kadlekai, timepass kadlekai." WTH! Why would anyone want to eat just because he or she is bored? I've heard all kinds of people use it... friends, relatives, colleagues, strangers. I didn't use, something about it didn't feel right.

After college I got into father's business, made lot of new acquaintances, met different kinds of people, it was an interesting journey. One of our vendors, a sheet metal fabricator was owned by an elderly person with certain principles. However, few of his employees were young, kind of undisciplined, screwed up work quite often. The owner would lose patience and take them to task for not being diligent. Once, one of them was idling with plenty of work on hand, the owner noticed that, lost his cool and yelled "timepass karneko idar ati kya" meaning "do you come here for timepass." Well, that's the right way to use that phrase! School & college teachers are forced to use the phrase to their pupils & classes... do you come here to learn or to do timepass?

A phrase which is used to scold lazy people was being used so casually by so many people. Does it say something about our culture ...rather erosion of our cultural values? Sadly it doesn't stop at verbal usage. Timepass is a popular brand name as well. There are biscuits, chips, fresheners ...mostly eatables. Some of the products are owned by well known companies as well. There's a movie called Timepass as well! WTH!! For masses to accept products named as 'Timepass' ...is an indication of corruption of our culture.

I Googled the word 'timepass' curious to know if it had a meaning. Below is the screen-shot. The word is a noun specific to India. It has to be an Indian idea because I can't recall hearing it in non-Indian movies or TV shows or ads. Probably it might be used in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh & Pak, quite possible, but that needs to be checked. 

Now lets check out another word with the same letters- pastime. Pastime and timepass are very different. Pastime's meaning in Google is: an activity that someone does regularly for enjoyment rather than work; a hobby. "his favourite pastimes were shooting and golf." Quoting another meaning: something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably. As I understand, pastime is a way to use time, while timepass is wasting time.

Do share your thoughts on this post.

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