Soma Purana

Since the time I was four or five years old, I played alone for many years (even when I was in college) building dams across a little stream that flowed over a small stony hill into our reservoir in our farm. I was crazy about this. I spent several hours during weekends and summer days when I was in my village with this activity. I was amazed at the force and nature of water flow. I would use little stones and mud I could gather and build a dam. It is not easy to build a dam across flowing water. As you build, some of it gets washed up. The size of stones and the way they are placed while building the dam is also important. Otherwise, the water forces out the mud and sand leaving huge holes through the stony dam making it useless. No matter how big the dam that you build is, eventually, the water from the stream fills up and overflows. So, you have to make arrangements for overflow without damaging the dam. It is such a thrilling experience to build a dam that is virtually impenetrabl...

My father had a small farm. It was about 5 acres, about 2 acres were wetland and the rest dry land. The wetland was irrigated by water from a small dam my father had built. The dam trapped sizable amount of water due to the nature of the terrain. The rocky bottom held water for months. The wetland were fine, but there was something terribly wrong with our dry lands where we primarily grew peanuts. We grew rice in the wetland. One activity I remember we always did unceasingly was picking up stones in our dry land and throwing them outside the cultivated part. My oldest brother whenever he came to the village was doing just this - picking up stones. And, we joined him. For several hours a day we did this. The dry land seemed to have infinite collection of stones coming in the way of peanut growth. But, we were unstoppable. It was like a fight with nature. We must have literally picked tons of stones over the years. If we had stayed back in the village and never left the village, I am sur...

I was born in my village Munganahalli at home and stayed there until I finished 3rd grade. Then I went to live with my uncle until I was finished my 6th grade. Then I was in my village with my parents again 7th through 10th grades. My 1st through 3rd grade school was in my village. 7th through 10th grade was in a neighboring village Batlahalli. During these Munganahalli and Batlahalli school days, I had one classmate who was also from Munganahalli. His name is Narayana. He was my friend and enemy. I hung around with him and fought with him constantly. He would initiate the fights. He was much bigger than me (that is what I remember) and stronger than me. He would beat me to pulp unless my other friends came to my rescue. Then, I went off to 11th grade in Bangalore and off to various colleges until I got my Ph.D in engineering. In the meantime, Narayana never left the village, stopped education after high school and took up farming in the village. He does not do farming now - he ha...