Antarbhumi Ramrajya
For more about the PHL's teams and a list of Kamala Cup winners, please visit the Patrienish Hockey League page.
The Inner Realm has two major baseball leagues: the Castorian League (no designated hitter) and the Lazurian League (which uses the DH). Castoropolis has one club in both leagues. The capital's CL club is the Senators, while the Capitals represent Castoropolis in the LL. The Senators play at Barker Field, a cozy old Wrigley Field-like ball park on Castoropolis' North Side, but that is about where the similarity between the Senators and the Chicago Cubs ends. The Senators' blue uniforms, tradition, and winning record are more reminiscent of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Capitals, like the Chicago White Sox, make their home on the capital's South Side at Schaefer Stadium - a ballpark whose short porches and 495-foot expanse to dead center remind old-time fans of the Polo Grounds. The Caps were wearing silver and black pinstriped uniforms long before the ChiSox adopted those colours. The CL and LL Pennant winners meet every fall in the Inner Realm Series. A Senators vs. Capitals "Subway Series" is not an uncommon event. By Act of Congress, Astroturf is banned in all CL and LL ballparks, citing Dick Allen's maxim: "If a cow can't eat it I won't play on it!"
Patria's state-owned broadcasting corporation and counterpart to the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada, Australian Broadcasting Corp., or All India Radio, is Ramrajyavani, Sanskrit for "Voice of Ramrajya". The network, popularly known as "R-vani" or "RV", is heavy on Hindu devotional broadcasts (e.g. "Back to the Gita", "Radio Yoga Class"), Sanskrit chanting, on-air hatha yoga classes, etc. The Hindu programming on Ramrajyavani's television network (Doordarshan, to use the Sanskrit term) stops dead in its tracks at 8 p.m. on Saturday nights to make way for "Hockey Night in Patria". Voice of Dharma, the international shortwave service of Ramrajyavani, broadcasts in English, Sanskrit and many other languages and is a welcome relief from HCJB and the many other high-wattage mostly U.S.-based right-wing fundamentalist Christian Bible-thumpers crowding the SW bands. Of course, it's not all dharma and karma on Patria's airwaves. Continue down this page for a glimpse of Patria's thriving private, secular radio broadcast industry.
"Q-96" is POKQ-FM, POKX's FM sister station on 96.1 MHz. Q-96 (bacon will be kosher before you will ever hear a legal call-letter ID!) is Castoropolis' top-rated Contemporary Hit Radio station, popular with teenagers and gen-x'ers, and targeting mainly the 18-to-35 year old demographic who grew up without ever listening to AM rockers like POKX. Here's a Q-96 sticker from the mushy, wimpy, late 1970's, when it was programming what was then known as "Album-Oriented Rock".
PMC is to Castoropolis what KMOX is to St. Louis: the leading full-service/news/talk/sports station, as well as the flagship station of the Centurions and Senators, not to mention the University of Castoropolis Fighting Eagles. Broadcasting on 846 kHz (850 kHz prior to Nov. 23, 1978), PMC is one of Patria's radio pioneers and and is one of the few stations that still retains a classic 3-letter call.PMBC (1152 kHz; 1150 kHz pre-1978) is the all-sports talk station in Castoropolis, the flagship of the Capitals and a Violets' network affiliate. Another of Patria's radio pioneers, it was once the flagship of the Mutual Broadcasting Corporation of Patria (hence the call letters).
Shakti Lager is Patria's most popular brand of beer. It is brewed by Shaktipat Breweries, who also brew Krishna Cream Ale and Lakshmi Light. Guru Super Strong Beer (7.2% alcohol!), an Indian import, is also popular in Patria especially among Spiritual Regeneration Movement Congressmen and their hard-core supporters who are petitioning the Mohan Goldwater Brewery in Lucknow, India to open a branch plant in Patria.
New 47th Congress plates went on sale May 27, 2002. These plates are fully customizable - not only the number but also the image (a choice of several deities or the OM symbol) and even the slogan may be personalized. The slogan on the sample plate illustrated above is "Om Sri Matre Namah", the first name of the Lalita Sahasranama (the 1000 Names of the Divine Mother). Click on plate above to view an enlargement.
Government sponsorship of the arts is all but nonexistent in Patria. Nonetheless, with or without government funding, paintings, sculpture, etc. depicting the Divine Mother, other Hindu deities, or assorted New Age themes are, like the unspeakably schlocky plastic moose and Mountie dolls in Canada, the quintessential Patrienish Pop Culture kitsch. Colourful and sometimes weird drawings of the "Om" (a.k.a. "Aum") symbol can be found just about anywhere, even on walls of inner-city tenements where one might expect to find "tag" graffiti. For a collection of fancy "Om" graphics that you can download, such as the one illustrated here, visit the "Aum Page" of Hinduism Today magazine, published by the Himalayan Academy in Hawaii, USA. This magazine rocks!! If you decide to subscribe, tell 'em Patria's Ministry of Dharma sent you!
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© 1998-2003; Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Patria/Ramrajya
c/o Honorary Canadian Consulate
99 Wychcrest Ave.,
Toronto, ON
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E-mail at: patria1818@yahoo.com
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