India, April 9 -- "Yuga yugaadi kaledaroo yugaadi marali baruthide," wrote the beloved Jnanpith Award-winning Kannada lyrical poet, Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, in the sixties, assuring us of the exuberant, periodic, and inevitable return of springtime, not just in Nature but also in human fortunes. In the 1963 film, Kulavadhu, prolific playback singer S Janaki sang the words straight into Kannadiga hearts, where they have remained as the signature song of the season. Each year around the beginning of April, on the morning that follows the new moon night of Phalguna, when the moon of Chaitra enters its waxing phase against the backdrop of honge and neem blossoms and mangoes heavy on the bough, Yugaadi returns, just as the poet promised,...