Antarang

The Premier League

2011-06-03T15:14:00.006+05:30

The past few months have been predominantly occupied by cricket. The ICC world cup started on 19th Feb and since then the cricket fever is rising with the rising temperatures of summer. We won the world cup on 2nd April and within a week the IPL season 4 started off. Some said it will lack the fun this year because of the recently concluded world cup and it was not entirely incorrect. The fun seems to be reducing now, since people have realized, though a bit late, that they are the ultimate losers, and the players and organizers are minting money, whether they win or lose.

But the fever has caught up with my company and the eInfochips Premier League (EPL) is in full swing. I am strongly against the IPL matches, but am totally enjoying the EPL ones, since there's not a single paisa involved....PURE SPORT HERE. My team has already lost both matches and we are out of the tournament, but another team from my department is the topmost as of today and have played really well throughout.

This is the first time I am involved in such intra-company matches...well, I did participate once, but it was carrom...so a bit small scale u know. But otherwise, matches in my earlier company used to be played at Dadar and travel itself used to be a big turn-off. But being in the heart of any city has its own advantages and so now I can be on the ground within 15 minutes from home.

I always used to think it would not be that much of an involving experience since it is between colleagues and friends. But when it comes to cricket, some people do get quite serious; whether they are playing or not. I am sure many of you will agree to this, since such people can be found in all companies. And some seriousness is surely needed to perform and stay there on the ground for the entire match, which is not at all easy especially in such a city where temperatures cross 30 deg. cel. at 7 am in the morning. Still, a couple of them have crossed the 100 figure mark already. You might think the bowling was not as good, but still to make so many runs facing overarm bowling is no easy thing. One of my friends made 102 n.o. today and I was truly stunned. He was the opening batsman and stayed till the end of all 14 overs hitting 13 fours and 4 sixes facing 49 balls...looks like the score of Gayle or Yusuf Pathan. The bowlers also did well to restrict the opposition to just 56 runs by bowling them out in 9.5 overs and the run rate has now put the team in the top spot and a secured place in the semis (wow...I can be a cricket reporter).

I admire the players' spirit and enthu because some of them head straight to the office after play and start working. This requires true love for the game and a very strong desire to play and give the fullest. One of our colleagues has played cricket at state level and even being around 40 yrs of age, he is very keen to give his 100% on the field. I have never followed IPL but am very much enjoying EPL and the feeling of being a part of the topmost team is indeed very exciting.

Keep it up boys!!

P.S. - Thanks Jaymin for the inspiration and good captainship...

Mouse Hunted

2011-05-03T10:17:00.005+05:30

"Justice has been delivered"....these are the words spoken by the proud President of United States Barack Obama in his address to the nation, or rather to the entire world on Sunday when the most significant Mouse Hunt in US history was concluded in the mice hole of the world - Pakistan (we Hindustanis call the place something else, but thats besides the point). The most wanted mouse Osama Bin Laden was shot in the head by US Navy Seals which all of us know by now and I share my extreme happiness with all of you.

This mouse had been causing a menace all over the world for a long time now and has been spreading a very dreadful disease called Terrorism. Lot of innocent men, women and children have fallen prey to the disease, irrespective of their religion or nationality. But it is the US determination which did not forget the death of its people and finally succeeded to deliver the justice. I am jealous that they don't have "the spirit of Mumbai" which whole-heartedly accepts whatever anyone comes and does to it. Infact, such people are taken special care of and given our own food and air and water to survive. How shameful, pathetic, loserly and cowardly....

The biggest good news in all this is that he has been killed in Pakistan, right near the capital and ya I know, near a military camp. I read somewhere that he was even called as a visiting faculty to the camp sometimes to deliver some lectures on "Offense against the white arts". Today I feel really proud that Mahatma Gandhi divided the country and saved us from facing this shameful moment which has put more sh*t on their face. I would like to pray to honourable Veer Savarkar to leave his wish to get that piece of land or rather that mice-hole back in our home. The pakistanis should atleast show some wisdom, or borrow it from us if they don't have it, and hand over the where-abouts of other mice they have hidden.

And our corrupt government should now not sit back and fear when will the mice retaliate. Rather, they should hit the iron now when it's red and try to eradicate the other mice who have troubled us. I am sure our black cat commandos are equally capable of the courageous act performed by the US Navy Seals. Else, in light of the ongoing corruption charges the government is facing, people of Hindustan will sense some underworld links of the government.

The media can play a big and matured role in this regard. It was very childish and irresponsible to show some random face as that of osama yesterday, when the US had not even decided whether to publish the photographs or not. When will our media grow up?? I was happily astonished that not a single Navy Seal officer has been named or revealed and the President has himself taken responsibility of the entire operation. People might see it as election campaigning, but I also see it as the correct way to act as the Commander-in-chief. Our media, on the other hand, was showing live coverage of the operation in Mumbai. Grow up kiddos...

But we, the citizens, should be alert and vigilant once again, since we are still the soft targets to fall prey to the disease. Our PM is busy trying to have peace talks and I hope he doesn't get stabbed in the back again. And if he does, this should be the last time ever. It should be our time to deliver justice (nukes). I request you all to keep your eyes, ears and noses open and looking for anything suspicious.

Be safe !!

The greatest sportsman ever...

2010-12-21T18:06:00.006+05:30

To start the blog, I was looking for a lead and found Big B's blog on bigadda.

The exact sentiment which has been coming to me from the day Sachin scored the double ton is shared by Big B. That same day, Sachin has proved that he has attained a place where no one has ever been and probably will never be. What follows now is just raising his own bar higher and higher. I have read a couple of self-motivation books and found mention of players like Tiger Woods being greatest players and how they manage to be great. They all are great including Sir Bradman, but the greatest is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.....the son of the country once ruled by another country which has never won the world cup of the game invented by themselves till now and neither do they have as great players in the history of their game. He has no extra marital affairs nor has he been involved in betting scams or flirted with any woman married or unmarried or such filth. He is the greatest sportsman on earth and an even greater human being.

During the football world cup, I was hearing accolades of how some players were so popular and were highest paid and thought if they had actually achieved anything. Sachin has achieved all these records in such a game which depends mostly on the team performance, generally. Had he been playing in a one person game like tennis, he would have made the world feel that their 10 fingers are less in number to put on their mouths or their two hands are less to bow down to him.

I sincerely feel the time is ripe and has come to award the degree of "Sir" to Sachin. But wait a minute....am I doing exactly what Big B has said we have been doing??? Yes....Sachin doesn't need a "Sir" but rather a "Mahatma" to be added to his name or something of that greater sort. And I have little doubts that if other countries manage to get good batsmen in the future they will be called "Sachin Tendulkar" of their resp. country. And every parent will feel there should be Sachin Tendulkar and in their own home (Marathi people will prolly know what I am talking about) and kids in developed countries will want their parents to call them "Sachin" like we have been calling our Sameers as "Sam". I am proud and obliged to share the same first name as the master and already thank my parents for that.

Salute to you Sachin....asach khelat raha ani jagaala namavat raha....amhi kaayam tujhya paathishi aahot.

Jai Hind....

Finally, an app for Mumbaikars

2010-12-18T11:06:00.009+05:30

During my stay in Reading, UK last year, I came across an interesting iphone app. It could tell the user the exact door to get in a particular London Underground tube rail to get out right in-front of the exit, to avoid tourist rush and exit quickly. I am sure lot of research and programming must have gone into it, considering the number of tube lines running in London. But the programmer earned some 3000 bucks on the first day itself, paying a handsome return for the efforts.

And I immediately thought, how useful it would be to have an app which tells about the local train in Mumbai, the time it would leave from a particular station I am at, if it is fast or slow, and if it would stop at a station I wish to go if it is a fast train. Sorry for the confusing lingo, but Mumbaikars will get all of this, am sure. And to be frank, I myself downloaded a coupla ebooks on flash programming to see if I could be the one. Come on, I too have good programming skills.

Anyways, I did manage to get employed with a IT company, but for my structural stuff. But a few days back, my collegue from Mumbai showed me an app called mIndicator which does exactly the same stuff I just talked about. But that's not all, it also has BEST routes and taxi and rick tariff cards. Ya...it is too good to be true. Best part is, you don't need an iphone to use it, because it is a java app, meaning it can be used on any phone with java. And it doesn't need a GPRS connection either, except to check your PNR status or mega-block details. The time table of trains also shows the trains only from the current time onwards and not from the first train in the morning. This is more than a humble little Mumbaikar can ask for. The app is created by Mobond. More details about the app can be found here.

Mobile age is very much here. Looking forward to mobile season tickets and card tickets now....like mobile boarding passes.

The third dimension...

2010-12-14T18:20:00.008+05:30

Some days back, I was surfing google maps and found a small window on the right saying "Maps" and I hovered my mouse on it and it slid to expand into "Earth" and "Satellite". To see what the new thing was, I clicked "Earth" and it asked me to download a plugin, which I did. After clicking again, it started loading, but thanks to my home internet, I couldn't achieve the end. So some time I checked back and to my amaze, Google Maps can now be seen in 3D. This is different from the street view feature and I saw Ahmedabad, but was not much excited. So I thot I will see Mumbai (thinking it won't be much different either, knowing the innovations to be implemented in the "major cities of developed countries" first) and I was surprised to see the 3D of the icon of Mumbai's spirit, The Taj Hotel. And then I also checked out my favorite structure of my city, the Bandra Worli Sealink and it was a literal virtual drive.

More easy access to the wrong social elements, I know, but its so amazing to see it. Do check out...

Being here, did it...

2010-11-19T17:11:00.009+05:30

Hella fellas...how was your festive season?? I hope you all had lot of fun having sweets and bursting crackers. So did I, though I didn't buy much crackers. But I had lots of fun for sure, starting right after Ganpati festival.

Yes, right after Ganpati, people here in Amdavad were busy with preps for Navratri. Shops and females started getting ready for the long awaited Navratri festival (the festival of 9 nights to put it literally). Traditional gujarati dresses showed up in shops and as per each year, each female had to spend approximately 1000 bucks on clothes and accessories. Ya, accessories are important as much in quantity and price as the actual dresses. And the variety one gets to see here in both is mind boggling (and mind perverting, at times). Party plots all around the city started getting dressed up with stages and food-stalls.

And the festival began and got exciting with each passing day. I went on the first weekend, courtesy our office, but just watched and came back. Basically, I used to go for the disco dandia when in Mumbai during the college days. But here in Amdavad, they only play garba, their traditional dance which is very complicated. Or so I thought at first sight. So we went, saw and came back in an hour. However, on the second (and last) weekend, my colleague offered me passes to a club hosting the garba and they were a group of 10 or so. But I told him I would just watch as I didn't know how to play the garba.

But after going there and seeing the crowd and the atmosphere, I couldn't hold myself. I went into the crowd right away and joined the group. And it was pure fun. I played for an hour or so and could pretty much pick up the steps with the group. Then after a break of about 10-15 mins, a very interesting variety of folk was played. Its called Sanedo. Its a hot favorite among the young crowd and children here and it is sure fun. Have a look...

After this the second round started, but it lasted only for less than an hour. But it was already 1.30 in the night. So then we started leaving for home and to my surprise, my colleague asked me if I wanted to go with them to have fafda and jalebi. Ya, I had the same reaction, but he said that it is a custom here. On the last nite of navratri, people dance till the morning and then go to the sweet shops and eat fafda and jalebi. I, however, didn't feel like eating it at that hour of night, so we left. But while on our way back, the crowd at every road crossing made us change our minds. And we finally bought some of it, went home, ate and slept off.

I had never thought I would be in Gujarat, that too in Amdavad, during navratri, during my college days. But I enjoyed it fully and appreciate the people here for their enthusiasm and appetite. Diwali was more of crackers and rituals comparatively, but still enjoyable. All in all, festival season was great this year and I am waiting for the winter to set in now. And ofcourse, for the Uttarayan in January.

Coooool, isn't it?

Ganpati Bappa Moraya !!

2010-09-23T17:54:00.009+05:30

Ten days of His stay in millions of homes and crores of hearts is sadly over. And so we rightfully say "pudhchya varshi laukar yaa" so that He returns quickly next year. Because these ten days are the most waited for. He brings a lot of joy, mental strength, confidence and hope with Him. And this year he has also brought Goddess Lakshmi with him (Sensex touched 20,000 and Nifty touched 6,000 on Tuesday, His day).

But for me, apart from all this, He Himself came to my home this year. Yess, we had Ganpati in our house starting this year, which used to be at my uncle's house till last year. And my happiness had no bounds. I was not part of the preparations at home since I was in Ahmedabad and so could not join our gang to bring Him home the previous night. But when I reached home on the 11th morning and saw Him virajmaan in the makhar, khushi ke aasu started gathering in my eyes. It was like a reward to my intense devotion towards Lord Ganesh and a strong belief in His powers. I pray that He stays with me all along and bless me with such opportunities to serve Him.

So there was the much awaited modak lunch and again my hunger knew no bounds. The next day we had the avartanas as per every year and then bid Him farewell in the evening. It was a very sad moment, but the 1 1/2 days were like bliss. I hope you all too had a good festive season and may want to share with me here; so do add to the comments.

Ganpati Bappa.....Moraya!!!

Life time experience...

2010-07-17T22:01:00.014+05:30

It is true that Silence speaks more than words, but not in blogs. And my silent blog has been longing for a post for quite some time now. I have been deciding to write since the day I landed here, about the revisit to memory lane, back to good ol' Cincinnati and the US on the whole. But didn't quite get down to actually doing it till now....when I am just 4 days away from going back to mera India. Laziness is the foremost reason for it, but then what can I do if my apartment doesn't have an internet connection. So, that is the main reason for the silence.

Having decided that, I will keep posting about my trip here when I return, the same way I did when I returned from UK (ya, I know I never completed that too...but there are more reasons for that, anyways). The reason I for my post today is the one amazing experience I had yesterday evening, which most of the people I know have'nt had till now in their life. Wait...don't start imagining things....I am talking about flying. Well, wait again...I know most of you have had that experience more than once, and me too. But did you fly sitting in the cockpit...alongside a pilot....and did you actually try your hands on the control stick??

Yessss... I had the privilege to do all this, all thanks to my colleague here in Alexandria, AKH. He has a license to fly and takes flying hours every year at the Alexandria airport. When he mentioned this to me and my colleague, we were both excited and expressed interest in accompanying him during his flying hours. But he was not able to find time till yesterday to do it. The weather too was good and so he planned to fly and I was to accompany him.

We reached the airport at 3.50 pm, but were in queue due to some delayed flying by previous people. So we had to wait for half an hour and we spent it talking about general flying in US. The line-up of aircrafts infront of us was quite varied from a Cessna 172 to a helicopter. There was one with floats too. And then the aircraft and the moment arrived. We headed for it and AKH started doing initial checks of fuel, oil etc. I got my camera out only to find the batteries fully drained out, which I had anticipated. So I put it back and pulled out my LG KU990 viewty to do the work (I mean my cellphone which has a good 5 mp camera). After filling the oil he asked me to "hop in".

That was an ammmazing feeling to sit infront of the huge instrument panel and wear the headphones. I remembered all the movie scenes I had seen till then, and was so glad to enact one of it. AKH then warned me not to panic if the latch of the window opens...gulp. I made sure its firmly in place a couple of times. He then started explaining me all the different instruments, controls and their use...lot of stuff. He then announced his take-off on the radio and we entered on the runway. He pulled the throttle full and we started speeding. What a feeling that was. And then he gently took-off and that was when I notice there was a huge lake at the end of the runway....gulp again. (Here's the video).

We then started gaining altitude and saw all the nearby lakes, went over our workplace and then started heading towards the tornado hit area near our county. He wanted to see the damage it had done. After looking around for a while, we could see the path of the touchdowns. The oak trees were badly hit and could be seen uprooted and twisted in all directions... here's a picture.

We went as far as Wadena county and then turned around. And AKH told me to take the control stick. I was a bit scared initially but then could fly pretty nicely, since there was not much to it, as he had said. That was one experience of a life time. After about 5 mins, he asked if he could do a landing-take off cycle, and I agreed almost instantly. He showed me the location of his new house and then we landed....pretty neat work he did there and immediately took off for another quick round and came back. It was the most happening hour of my stay in US so far and to remember for my life, all thanks to AKH.

He has promised to go again on Monday, if the weather permits...so hope for the best!!!

Gender Equality

2010-04-14T17:02:00.003+05:30

I was catching up on J's blogs and came across this blog about Lords of the ring and thought of bringing up a strong discussion I was having with M on this past hot Sunday morning. It was all about what is expected from a guy and his family after the girl comes to his house. And also that the guy is expected to work whole day and then again help or accompany his wife in the kitchen, even though she is not working full time. If he works whole day and then says "My part is done, I am gonna stretch infront of the TV and relax while the wife will make dinner", its considered the biggest sin done by him. Then I asked M, if the girl is working then can the guy say "You work whole day, I will quit my job and make food for you and enjoy the rest of my time, you be the bread earner of the house?" she said, "no that's not socially correct". Again the same social norms which J talks about.

If gender equality is expected, which btw is only seen prominently in India, then it should really be "Equal"ity. The thing that a girl is allowed to expect whatever she wants and the vice versa is not correct is a wrong thing. But this thing is so much into our minds that when M said that she wished to contribute for the expenses of our first anniversary getaway, I was initially perplexed, since it would not sound "socially" correct. But then she explained that if by her contributing we can enjoy a much better hotel stay and gifts for each other, why not. And after some calm thought, even I felt that was the right way. It was her hard-earned money which she wished to spend for both of us, the same way I wanted to and it was totally correct. And we did have a blast.

So guys, don't give in to each n every demand. Keep in mind, girls want equality and thats what we need to give them ;).

The Interstate travel

2010-04-07T20:19:00.005+05:30

Hello all, long time no see. My bad, been busy with job, studies, family and so on. And now, the change in job is keeping me busy in adjusting to the new workplace, city, people and state. Yes, I have taken my new job in Ahmedabad which is making me travel interstate to go back home every weekend for now. But, I am able to find some time now to catch up with my blog which has been in hibernation for the past 4 months.

About the new place, the heat is tremendous and the whole place feels like a giant oven. And baking in this oven are sweet cookie-like people here. Whoever I have met here has been very sweet in every way to make me feel at home, from my colleague to the lady in the BSNL (government) office. And so is the food here. Lots of variety.

But still, home is home, and you do feel like going back every weekend (ofcourse also coz the gharwaali is there). So I might travel by the long distance railway so much in this one month that will almost be equal to what I have done till now. And it is also giving me a flavor of a long distance relationship which had not yet happened in my case, esp. after marriage. So I am getting to experience it all; inter-continental before marriage and inter-state after marriage. And so I really feel sad for the people who have to do this because they have no choice, I mean its ok for a month or so, but more than that...no scope.

Anyways, I atleast found some time to write this one, and will write as long as I am doing inter-state travel. Keep coming back.

Panchratna Haar

2009-12-24T20:09:00.008+05:30

I wish to write this blog in both English and Marathi...for the English version, please scroll down.

काही दिवसांपूर्वी मी माझ्या सऊला म्हटल की बर्याच दिवसांपासून गाण्याचा कार्यक्रम नाही पाहिला. त्यातून मधले चार महीने तर बाहेरच होतो. ह्या वर्षी दिवाळी पहाटचा कार्यक्रम पण बघायला कुठे गेलो नव्हतो. त्यानंतर १-२ चांगले कार्यक्रम आले होते पण जाणं काही झालं नाही. आणि काही दिवसातच भाऊ म्हणला की डोम्बिवलीला सारेगामापा लिटल चॅम्प्सचा कार्यक्रम होणार आहे. हे ऐकून माला "भगवान जब देता है ..." ह्या म्हणीची आठवण झाली.

अर्थातच मी जायचं ठरवलं, ते ही ५०० चं टिकिट काढून. १९ ता ला कार्यक्रम होता. सऊला माहेरी असल्यामुळे यायला जमणार नव्हतं. मी तिला सहानुभूति दाखवली (आणि मनात टुकटुक केलं) कारण तिला पण कार्यक्रम बघायची खुप इच्छा होती. मी भाऊ आणि वहिनी जाणार असं ठरलं. त्याप्रमाणे मी ६ लाच डोंम्बिवालिच्या घार्डा सर्कल च्या मैदानात पोहोचलो. लोकांची अलोट गर्दी यायला सुरुवात झालीच होती. आणि काही मिनिटातच पंचरत्नं तिथे येउन पोहोचले. इतके महीने ज्या रत्नांना टिव्हीवर पाहून मन भरत नसे ते आज डोळ्यासमोर आल्यावर सहाजिकच डोळ्याची पार्णँ फिटली. सगळेच मागच्या वर्षी पेक्षा उंच झाले होते. त्यांच्या पाठोपाठ ५ मिनिटातच पल्लवी ताई (मुलांची, माझी नाही) तिथे आली. वाद्यवृन्दाचे घटक एक एक करत येतच होते. निलेश परबला इतक्या जवळून पाहून खुप बरं वाटलं. भाऊ आणि वहिनी आले आणि आम्ही आत गेलो.

७.३० च्या सुमारास कार्यक्रम सुरु झाला. आयोजकांनी प्रेक्षकांच स्वागत केलं आणि सूत्र पल्लवीच्या हातात देताच तिने नेहेमी सारखाच कार्यक्रम दिमाखात सुरु केला. झी मराठीच्या नांदीने सर्व चॅम्पसनी सुरुवात कली. त्यानंतर प्रत्येक चॅम्पसनी येउन एक एक भक्ति गीत म्हटले. त्यांचे ते दिव्य आवाज पुन्हा ऐकून कान तृप्त झाले. मग प्रत्येकाने आपापले लोकप्रिय झालेलं गाणं म्हणायला लागले आणि कार्यक्रमाला रंग चढायला लागला. त्यातून एकाचे एक गाने झाले की पल्लवी अजुन एक लोकप्रिय झालेलं गाणं लगेच म्हणायला सांगत होती. त्यामुळे एक पे एक फ्री ऑफर मिळाली. त्यामुळे आर्याचं "माझ्या पायाला बांधलाय भवरा " नंतर लगेच "अहो सजणा " ऐकायला मिळणं म्हणजे एक प्रकारची पर्वणीच. तसच रोहित नी "मोरया मोरया" आणि कार्तिकिनी "कांदा मूळा भाजी" ही गाणी सादर कली. त्यानंतर हिंदी गाण्यांची एक फेरी झाली. आणि कार्तिकी देविन्नी "ओ लाल मेरी" म्हणून जीव खुश करून सोडला. त्यानंतर सत्कार समारंभ झाला आणि शेवटच्या फेरीत सगळी नविन गाणी सादर झाली. ही ५ ही गाणी अफलातून झाली. स्टेज समोरची मोकळी जागा रोहितच्या बोलावण्यावरुन नाचण्यासाठी भरून टाकली. कार्यक्रमाचा शेवट कार्तिकिच्या "कोमडी" गीताने झाला. आम्हा तिघांच्या तोंडातून नुसता "वावाकार" होत होता।

ह्या सगळ्यात सिंहाचा वाटा होता तो वाद्यवृन्दाचा. निलेशनी तर "रेशमाच्या रेघांनी" गाण्याच्या सुरुवातीची ढोलकी वाजवून सगळ्यान्ना मोहित करून ताकलं. ती पूर्ण संध्याकाळच अविस्मरणीय झाली. कार्यक्रम संपूच नये अस वाटत होत. पण तो जरी संपला तरी चॅम्पस ची ही घोडदौड कधीच संपू नये अशी आपल्या सर्वांचीच सदिच्छा आहे, नाही का?

And now in English -

Lately I felt that i hadn't attended a good musical program since a long time this year. The 4 months in summer were in UK and after that not very interesting programs came up (good excuse na...). Even the early morning Diwali programs were not as good as last year. Last year we had attended the b'day program of Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar and Asha tais surprise arrival was like a double Diwali bonus.

But then a few days back my cousin told me that the lil' champs are performing live at Dombivali on the 19th Dec. Of course I went; all loaded with my Canon S2 IS. I reached quite early but people had already started pouring in. And within half an hour the champs arrived. The jewels who were seen only on TV till then were right infront of my eyes and I was thrilled. These five have become the beloved Panchratna set of all the people of Maharashtra. And they were followed by the one and only, Pallavi Joshi. She does have glamour in her and is a crowd puller. People started clapping seeing her and as if following her famous "एकदा जोरदार टाळ्या झाल्या पाहिजेत" line. The orchestra was coming in pieces and by 7.30 the show began.

The organisers introduced the cause of the show and handed over to Pallavi and off she was with her regular sweetness. The five started the show with the Zee Marathi song. Listening to those divine voices again, that too live, was bliss. Then followed a round of religious songs and then each of them sang their popular tracks. And was asked to sing another one immediately by Pallavi. So Arya sang "Maazya paayala" and "Aho sajana" back to back. It was like a buy one get one free offer. After this there was a round of Hindi songs which were equally popular, esp. Kartiki's "O laal meri" thrilled the audience. The last round after a small felicitation was that of new marathi songs like "Ye go ye" by Rohit, "Navri natali" by Kartiki and "Chham chham karta" by Arya. The show concluded with Kartiki's "Kombdi", the most popular marathi song today.

A huge round of applause was also regularly given to the musicians who were ammazing. Nilesh was the favorite with his mindblowing dholki rendition for various songs, esp. "Reshmachya reghanni" for Kartiki. It was a unforgetful evening and will be like a benchmark for many to come. The champs schedule was the longest one on Zee Marathi and I am sure the career path of each of these champs will be equally long. Bless all the Panchratnas. May you continue to entertain us for ages to come..

Windsor Castle!!

2009-09-23T22:32:00.005+05:30

So the English summer had just begun and the air was still cold for us. We planned our first weekend outing to the Royal Weekend Home - The Windsor Castle. Its about half an hour of train journey from Reading, via Slough. It was our first British Train experience and also my first international train experience. The diesel trains reminded me of the long distance trains here in India, though these were much shorter. They have two classes, the first and standard, but you can hardly tell the difference, except more spacious seats. We changed the train at Slough and boarded a 3 coach train to Windsor.

The castle is a 5 min. walk from the train station. The day was bright and sunny. As we approached the castle, we could hear a band play inside, which we figured out later was the famous "Change of Guards" ceremony going on. We had missed it. After taking the tickets, and the audio tour handset, we started off. The first view of the castle is very overwhelming. A big green lawn welcomes you and the castle is situated at the backdrop. As we approached the outer walls, we could see small slits in the walls, which were provided to put the gun barrels out for firing at the enemy.

Inside the wall are 3 main structures, the castle and state apartments, the chapel and staff apartments. The chapel is St. George's Chapel, a huge and ancient structure built by King Edward IV. The architecture of the chapel is beautiful. Read all about the chapel here. The ceiling of the chapel is marked with plaques of various royal army guards. The altar is magnificent and hosts the plaques of all the knights till date. It feels very nice and quiet while sitting here.

After the chapel, we headed for the round tower and the state apartments. It had a long queue for entry, so we decided to have our lunch and then stand in the queue. While in the Q, we got our first sight of the bobbies and their marching, which I must say is very admirable. The first room inside is a museum of various paintings owned by the royal family and prepared by world famous artists, including Da Vinci. It was a very exciting feeling to see a painting done by such a master with my own eyes. Then we entered the doll house, which was gifted to Queen Mary. It is a small scale model of the castle's state apartments and is very cute.

The last were the State apartments which were huge rooms used by the royal family for various purposes, like dining, meeting guests, bedrooms, baths and so on. All the rooms have lots of paintings and rich upholstery.

With that, we had come to the end of our tour and were very pleased to see a nice castle as our first attraction. We bought a shot glass in one of the stores, where M picked up 2 postcards, thinking they were free to take and left for Reading.

Moblogging!!

2009-09-22T20:25:00.001+05:30

i have been blogging for quite some time now. its a good hobby i have

developed over the years and would thank blogger for that. but

lately i am finding it difficult to write due to travelling and then

settling down at home, though i have loads of stuff to blog. but now

thanks to my viewty, i am able to take the next step in blogging-

mobile blogging or moblogging as it is called . i will write

a detailed blog on the phone later, but for now, i can say that now

i dont necessarily need a comp for blogging. go MOBLOGGING!

The English Summer

2009-08-01T18:30:00.009+05:30

The Badshah of Bollywood, Big B, had once said "London ki shaam bahot haseen hoti hai". And it truly is. I got to experience it this summer on my secondment to Reading, UK courtesy JIS. I was told by all my collegues that I am getting the best season to visit UK, since it was just the beginning of summer here. One would think being in Hindustan, why would summer be best. But those staying in US and UK will know why summer is always wanted. And you will know too, after you read through.

I reached UK at the start of May, the start of peak summer and mango season in India. And it was a "cool" welcome change for me and my wife. It was cooler than the winters in Mumbai. And brighter too. The sun shows up here since 5 in the morning and doesn't go till 10 at night. I used to get up at 5.30 am for the first couple of weeks, many times feeling that I am late for work, due to the early mornings. But it helped me track the stock market back there.

But then gradually we adapted; to the long days and cold temperatures. And even the temperature began to warm up. There's a ground near my house, where students started to play....cricket. And that is where you realize you are in England. Green fields are dotted with white players and a pitch in the middle.

In US, it's mainly football. Yes, comparison does come in every part of life. The roads are quite narrow here. And houses are quite small. Cars are right had driven. Public transport is quite ammmazing and you can comfortably stay even if you don't own a car. This is a very positive thing in today's world of climate change. "Bike to work" is a very popular corporate initiative and a lot of people can be seen using bikes. And like the countries, people are also quite different. They have a more formal and disciplined, but fashionable lifestyle. Walk down Oxford street in London and you feel you are walking on a ramp full of thousands of fashion models. Every human being dresses up nicely. Every woman wears make up and touches it up wherever she feels right, as J said in her blog, may it be train, bus, road, anywhere. And any type of attire is style.

But London was not the first place I visited, though it's my most visited place in UK until now. And comparing it with the other major cities of the world (read US) I visited, it's the most visited one here too, after Mumbai, ofcourse. So I feel one blog would not be sufficient for it and I will continue the visits further. This one is just to restart my dried blogpen. So do visit again for the english updates. Cheers mates...

Put an end!!

2009-04-30T13:59:00.007+05:30

Its the end of the month and also the end of the week, in Maharashtra atleast, since its holiday tomorrow on ocassion of Maharashtra Day. So Happy Maharashtra Day in advance to all of you. Its also the last phase of elections today and an end of the voting process. So this marks the end of the current government. And to do that I went out early in the morning and cast my vote. I exercised my right after almost 10 years.

I am satisfied that I have put in my effort to be the change I want to see, and thats what I request you to do, no actually I urge you all sincerely to do. Its a very easy and hassle-free process. Take the info chit you have received giving your ward number, take a photo identity such as a drivers license, a pan card or passport and go to your respective ward. There are volunteers out there and people too, to help you find your ward and guide you through the process. I voted using the EVM. You will hardly have to wait in queue for half an hour at the maximum, but isn't it worth the wait? Its better than having to wait atleast 2 hours daily for the electric supply to get back. I am sure atleast one of your acquaintances has got an election duty today and they are putting all their efforts to make your voting process hassle-free. So please go out there and cast your vote as soon as you finish reading this post, if you haven't done it already.

Voting is our right, responsibility and privilege and we should exercise it at all costs. We are fortunate to be able to do that, unlike our neighboring country where an unwanted force of maniacs is ruling and the people and government can do nothing about it. Make sure you vote so that we all won't have to face such a situation where an unwanted group of uneducated criminal corrupts are ruling our precious Hindustan out. I don't wish to hand over my motherland to such undeserving mortals, do you? So go out and cast your vote to put an end to all the foul play. Let us be the change we want to see.

Jai Hind!!

हर हर महादेव !!

2009-04-12T17:52:00.010+05:30

Hello again. Long time no c...well, I am back with a new template. Please let me know if this one looks good. And with a movie review. But this blog has to be in my Marathi....so kindly excuse me.

मराठी बद्दल सध्या भरपूर भाषणं होत आहेत. मराठी माणसाचा स्वाभिमान जागवायाचे भरपूर प्रयत्न सुरु आहेत. पण हे सगळे रास्त आहेत असं नाही . अमराठी लोकांची मारहाण करणं हे तर अगदी मराठ्यांच्या सुस्वभावा विरुद्ध .

पण जनजागृति तर झालीच पाहिजे . आणि संतोष मांजरेकर ह्यांचा नवीन चित्रपट "मी शिवाजीराजे भोसले बोलतोय" हा एक खुपच चांगला मार्ग आहे . मुन्नाभाईच्या थीम वर असलेला हा पिक्चर सुरु होतो डोम्बिवली फास्ट सारखाच . एका सामान्य मराठी बँक कर्मचार्यापासून ही कथा सुरु होते . सगळीकडे होणारा आपला अपमान सहन करून मराठी असल्याची लाज वाटायला लागलेल्या भोसल्यान्ना वेड लागायची पाळी येते . हे सर्व पाहून हिंदू नृसिंह प्रभु शिवाजीराजे खुप बेचैन होतात . ते तड़क रायगडावरुन निघतात आणि भोसल्यान्ना गडावर आणून चांगली कान उघडणी करतात . भोसले जागे होतात आणि मग सुरु होते त्यांची पराक्रमी घोडदौड .

भोसल्यांची भूमिका सचिन खेडेकरनी फार छान बजावली आहे . फारश्या विनोदी भूमिका न करणारा सचिन ह्या भूमिकेत सर्व पैलू दाखवतो. त्याच्या बर्याच विनोदांना हास्य व टाळ्या तर प्रत्येक आश्रुला प्रेक्षकांकडून आश्रू.सुचित्रा बन्देकरचं काम पण मिसेस भोसले म्हणुन चांगल झाल आहे . प्रिया बापटनी भोसल्यांच्या मोठ्या मुलीचा रोल सुंदर केला आहे आणि अभिजित केळकरनी धाकट्या मुलाचा . सिद्धार्थ जाधवनी गुंडाच काम पहिल्यांदाच सीरियसपणे केलय . पण सगळ्यात महत्वाची महाराजांची भूमिका बजावताना संजय मांजरेकर मात्र खुप कमी पडतात . त्यांच्यापेक्षा सचिनच्या आवाजात जास्त जोर वाटतो .त्यापेक्षा अजिंक्य देव खुप शोभला असता असा वाटत. मकरंद अनासपुरेच काम नेहेमिप्रमाणे टाळ्या घेउन जात .

चित्रपटाचं संगीत ठीक-ठाक आहे पण "हे राजे" गाणं मनात घर करतं . बाकी सर्व तंत्रज्ञान नविन आहे पण मुन्नाभाई ची वास्तवता ह्या चित्रपटात कमी पड़ते . पण त्याचे विशेष नाही ; एकुण हा चित्रपट कमीतकमी एकदा पहाण्यासारखा आहे . मी ४ तारे देतो .

हर हर महादेव !!!!

रेटिंग - * * * *

The art of troubleshooting

2009-03-17T16:32:00.007+05:30

Troubleshooting(TS) is a term used for problem solving, especially of technical nature, that too more in relation to computers. And there are people assigned to do the job. But I call it an art because I feel it does have a personal touch to it. The type I am referring to here is the one in which TS is done over the phone. I learned TS in the US when I started working on-campus. There, it was preferable to solve problems over the phone if possible, so that the commuting time to and from classrooms is reduced. Initially, it was difficult and after struggling for a few minutes, I had to say "I will be there in a minute". But as I started getting to know the system better, I was able to TS the problems more n more on the phone. And I tell you, there's a great satisfaction when it is done on the phone. The persons on the other side are happy that they could do it themselves, only they needed instructions for it. I get the satisfaction that I saved time and efforts.

But the greatest of satisfaction was when I used to TS back at home. My mom picked up voice chatting quite fast and I do appreciate her zeal and willingness to learn new things. But sometimes there were issues such as internet didn't work, or some error messages, or installing new softwares for VC etc. My brother was not always at home to help her during daytime (night time in US) and the only way to TS was me calling home and TS on the phone. And due to my on-campus job, I had developed the art of TS and was easily able to get things going. My mom was happy that she could solve the problem and I was happy that she was happy.

The reason for writing this blog now is that the same thing I did today. We had disconnected the internet cables last night and my bro mis-connected them in the morning hurry. My mom called me to say that the net is not working, and I was able to get her to do the right connections within minutes and the happy "Haaaa....zaala" was my certificate of a good job. I knwo my mama complains that my cousin doesn't teach him voice chat and so he asked me and my bro to do it. So you can see, its surely an art.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T16:06:00.007+05:30

Firstly, I admit I got inspired by J's blog. And, I don't belong to any political party yet. But, I too believe that the whole Valentine's day issue is a blown up thing. It's more of a business than anything else. I don't need to have a specific day to do something for my loved one to tell her I love. Infact, I feel everything you do should make your loved one feel that you love him/her. Be it small things or big, you can do it anytime of the year, any moment of the day. More so, on their birthdays or your anniversaries. I did use to feel lonely on these days earlier when I was single, but now I feel this day isn't that great, after I am married. And mother's day and father's day are all the more ridiculous. I am sure, most of the time I am at my home, I think how can I make life easier for my mother, father, brother and wife and think how can I make them happy. I don't need a special day for that. And giving gifts is not at all a way to do that. There are many better ways to do that.

And if people believe that Valentine's day is a special day, I wish to ask, how many are aware of Guru Pournima. Its the day when we worship our Guru, our teacher. How many of us do that? Do we even know on that day that it is Guru Pournima? This day has been designated by Hindus since epic ages. Business people making big of Valentine's day should take special note of this and think what have they done on this day this year. I am sure no DJ or restaurant had thrown a party or no shop had special gift offers for your gurus, be it your school teacher, music teacher, management guru, whoever.

I feel its more of human behavior. Its the joy of celebration, an ocassion to do something special. Thats why we all like festivals so much. I am sure if all the people who wish to celebrate V-day are asked to moan or observe a sad moment for some tragedy, half of them will back off. And thats human nature. The only thing I want to stress is if we do something, we should have some solid reason behind it, not blindly follow what the (western) world is doing. We have a much better and richer culture which this world looks up to and we all should make sure we protect it, strengthen it and pass it to our juniors. I know there are grey areas, like J has said in her blog, but I think we are wise enough to sort out the two colours and make it clear.

Have a nice weekend ahead.

धन्य ही देवांहून जनता !!

2009-02-04T12:26:00.009+05:30

Yesterday, a very melodious period came to an end. After six months of week after week of musical Monday and Tuesday nights, the final five champs are ready for the mega-final. And I have already started to worry about what to do on the Monday and Tuesday nights henceforth. Every week, Zee Marathi provided all of us blessed people with a musical extravaganza, which we rarely get to witness, even after paying for tickets. The quality of songs, knowledge of the kids and their talent overall has ever increased during this period and has made them ready to keep giving good performances for the years to come. I take this opportunity to sincerely thank Zee Marathi for giving us this very valuable five-star gift. The show just portrays pure love for music, unlike other similar shows where faltu bakwaas between arrogant and incompetent judges just makes it irritating to watch. Here, I would like to applaud Vaishali, Avadhoot and Pallavi for taking everything in the kids’ stride and making the show a real pleasure. Cheers to all three of you and keep it up.

Yesterday was yet another excellent performance by all the five and was a fitting finish to this grand schedule. All of them sang very well and exhibited their singing skills. Prathamesh has proved that he is a very talented singer who can go on to pursue a great career in classical singing and be a very good successor to Suresh Wadkar. Rohit has already proved his talent as a classic combo music director and he has it in him what is displayed by today’s leading marathi music directors like Ajay-Atul, Avadhoot and the likes who can sing as well as churn out some excellent pieces of marathi music. Mugdha is a girl who can sing any song and make it sound extremely sweet. Her innocence renders a pure feel to every song she sings and its just amrit to the ears. Kartiki, with her rustic voice and tremendous devotional music background and home-location, is very well-poised to be an upcoming successor to Bharat-ratna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, that too in a female voice. But her rendering of other Anand Shinde songs also turns the crowds crazy. And finally, my favorite, Arya, is truly an amazingly versatile singer. Her progress throughout the schedule of six months has been remarkable and has transformed her into a great all-round singer to be. She is the future Asha Bhosale and I wish to request Ashaji to start a one student gurukul just for Arya to hone her skills more and make herself immortal for another 100 years. Be it any song, and Arya makes it adoringly beautiful as herself. She is my winner-elect.

But the competition really has no significance now, since all the show-followers will agree that all five are equally talented and none is even a thread lesser than the others. As Vaishali and Avadhoot pointed out yesterday, Zee Marathi should declare all the five as winners and win over the hearts of all the followers (I am not saying maharashtrians here since I know a lot of non-mahas. are also following this show). They should consider the basic purpose of the show which is to provide complete entertainment to the audience and so they should consider the demands of the audience too. I wish to watch the mega-final live. So see you there, Champs and all the very best. And thanks to all of you for bringing us such a memorable six months. Looking back at my first line now, I feel it’s not the end, but a beginning to an era of the Champs rule in the Marathi music industry, and probably Hindustani music industry as well. And I already can’t wait for this Champ-rajya. Way to go, Champs!!

तुमच्या गाण्यांनी ही सगळी जनता धन्य झाली आहे.

Star studded new moon day

2009-01-27T16:29:00.007+05:30

We all know that the sky looks most star-studded on a new moon day. But what I am talking here is a little different. It was a new moon alright, but with char-chand shining. Hold on, I will explain. What will you say when the King of Indian percussion, Tabla and the Maharaj of Kathak are performing together? Yes, you guessed it, I am talking about the live concert performed by Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pt. Birju Maharaj which was held in Dombivali's Savitribai Phule auditorium on the 25th nite. And I was one of the blessed few who attended it, very much by strong luck. I got 2 tickets for the concert only by luck, as the one who had bought it was not able to attend (I know...how unlucky).

So we reached the audi and the show started after a boring initial felicitation by the organisers, of the organisers, for the organisers, which seemed never ending. The audience finally was so irritated that the speakers were greeted with claps as soon as they stood for saying a few words, hinting them clearly to shut it up. And then Ustad started off with his magic. I was hearing him live for the first time and was mesmerized right from the start. His fingers on the Tabla were ruling the auditorium. And soon after, Pt. Birju Maharaj entered to a huge round of applause. And the show finally started. His feet moved so swiftly, that were the ghungroo alive, they would have asked for rest. All this at the age of 71. He presented a big variety of kathak sequences with detailed explanation, which helped even an illiterate like me understand the dances. Ustad Zakir Hussain was competing very efficiently to the steps. Pt. Birju Maharaj showed the varied rendition of the nos. from 1 to 8, 1 to 5, some short story sequences among many other sequences. The best were the elephant walking and the peacock, which is very famous, and which took the crowd to amazement.

During the break, the organisers again came on stage for felicitation of the maestros, and then before we knew that we were there for a surprise, they announced that the Queen of Indian Hearts, and an expert kathak dancer had come to attend the function. Who you are wondering? Well take a look for yourself...

Yesssss, Madhuri Dixit had come with her two kids, and family to attend the extravaganza and we were all blessed by her presence. The fourth chaand of the nite was Faisal Qureshi, brother of Ustad Zakir Hussain and an ace percussionist himself. They all were given bouquets and then Madhuri spoke a few words about her experience with Pt. Birju Maharaj during Devdas shooting, in Marathi. Ahahaha....it was pleasure to the ears.

The show soon resumed with Pt. Birju Maharaj's student Saswati Sen's performance, and she too danced elegantly, with no. sequences and narrations. The last dance on the poem composed by Panditji himself was exquisite. Yes, he is a very versatile artist, who knows dance, tabla, poems, singing, and maybe a lot of other arts. Then Maharaj again stepped on the dance floor and performed a few more grand sequences. I missed a part of it, since I went backstage to take a glance of Madhuri, when she left.

The jugalbandi between the two maestros was definately out of the world and I am proud to be a Hindustani which is home to such great artists. I salute Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pt. Birju Maharaj and thank the almighty for giving me the chance to witness the grand concert. This was the second surprise in a concert, the first being Asha tai's presence at the 72nd birthday of Pt. Hridaynath Mageshkar, on the eve of Diwali, last year. More about it in later posts. I wish I get more such concerts and surprises too!!

PPI making news

2009-01-22T16:20:00.004+05:30

I came across this article which has an interview with R V Krishnan, president of the PPI (Professionals Party of India). He has talked about the views and aims of the party. Here is the link -

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=157085

I wish him and the party all the very best!!

5-Star Grand Finale!!

2009-01-13T14:13:00.004+05:30

Since the past few months, every week begins with a musical extravaganza. Monday and Tuesday nights are booked for marathi orchestra and its an amazing musical treat for the eyes and ears. I am talking about the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Little Champs on Zee Marathi. Week after week, the champs (or giants rather) present excellent songs one after the other and we still feel it's not enough. The apetite is ever growing. The skill, ease, expressions, technique and confidence with which they sing is really unimaginable. You just keep wondering how they do that. I am sure not a single orchestra in India currently is as talented as this group of kids. Unfortunately, till yesterday, one little champ kept going out of the competition every week, as per the rule of the competition.

It used to be a very sad thing to bid one shining star good bye. So finally there were 5 of them left, the best ones obviously. I personally felt that some champs didnot deserve the dropping out. And so did a lot of fellow fans. And so, Zee Marathi decided to conduct a call-back episode for the 7 champs who were dropped out. But 4 of them wisely opted out of the episode. I say wisely because the call-back didn't change the results much. It was just a TRP-raiser for Zee Marathi. In the call-back, all the 3 who participated were selected back into the group. In the following week, Radhika, who was dropped out first of the 8 initially, got dropped out first again. Avanti was next to follow and lastly, Shalmali. In the initial drop-out, it was Kartiki in place of Avanti. But I am very disappointed with Avanti's drop out. She was an equally good singer and so was Shalmali. It was very unfair to play with the emotions of the kids just to raise TRPs of your show. The earlier 3 drop out episodes became useless, since the results didn't change much. They should instead have directly included all of them in the Megafinals.

So, yesterday again was the day of dropping out one champ. And, evidently, none of them was even a micro less than the others. All are equally good which even the judges and public knew. Everyone felt that all of them should go to the megafinals. So, after a lot of drama and timepass, Pallavi announced that all the 5 stars have made it to the megafinals. It is indeed a late decision, since I personally feel that atleast Avanti and Shalmali also deserve to be in the final. But, at least the decision has been made. So, we are going to have a 5-star Grand finale, literally with a 7-member jury panel (what a force to evaluate 5 little champs). This itself is a proof of their extreme capacity and huge talent. I wish all of them the best of luck and may all of them win and make all of us maharashtrians proud. Way to go Champs!!!

Bye Bye 2008

2008-12-31T15:59:00.004+05:30

The last few hours are left for this year to end and I can't wait for it. Not because I am so much excited that the new year is at the doorstep, but because 2008 has been such a bad year for a general human being and for a Hindustani in particular. The first couple of weeks of 2008 pushed the stock markets down the longest snake of a Snakes & Ladders board which is yet to end. People lost lot of money, fuel prices rose to 2-3 times the present value and the global economy went for a huge huge toss. Banking Giants in the United States which had sustained major recessions could not do it this year and had to file for bankruptcy. This marked the beginning of a recession this year and banks and companies followed the lead. This has brought us to a challenging 2009 which is already expected to be an even worse year. The recession might grow and more jobs could be lost.

Hindustan, however, is still looking fundamentally strong as far as its economy is concerned, but has failed big time to give security to its own people who are the lone contributors to this strong economic condition of the country. Their tax money has been hugely wasted and this can mean lesser people wishing to pay taxes in 2009, if at all they still have that much income during this financial year. Maximum cowardly attacks have happened in Hindustan in 2008, though all of them have been huuugely unsuccessful. They have only helped us to unite as a democracy and fight back every reason which has caused this condition. I hope 2009 brings in a new, fresh and young political leadership in the parliament which can better represent the Humble Intelligent New-found Dynamic United Strong Talented Armed Nuclear HINDUSTAN.

So, as my effort for this to happen, as I said in my previous post, First Step, I am gonna vote for sure and select a non-typical political party which is more concentrated to develop the country rather than on their personal interests. For me, otherwise this year was a good one, since I got to work on bridge design, something which I had always wanted to pursue as my career. And also was made PM on 3 projects. My new house will be ready early next year so I am quite excited about that too.

So I hope the new year will be better than this one, for me and for all of you. Lets not forget those who lost their lives this year and pledge to revenge their loss in whatever way we can. Lets all unite to make the world a better place to live.

First step

2008-12-05T19:29:00.003+05:30

The whole of Hindustan is totally disgusted with the gross mishandling of the Mumbai attacks before and after it happened and no one wants to take any note of the political drama going on in the country. And all of us are looking at options to change the scenario, for the better ofcourse as it can't be worse than this. First I thought not exercising my vote would be the best option. But then, if educated Hindustanis like me will start thinking this, then election results would depend on purely bought out votes.

One solution to this problem is to form a new party on our own, with organizations like "I love Mumbai" participating actively and leading us all like-minded Hindustanis. But that will take some while and it won't be possible before the upcoming elections. The other solution is to explore some new parties which are already functional and nationally registered, formed by professionals, no not professional politicians, but real professional people. Professionals Party of India is a party based in Pune and is formed by professionals like lawyers, engineers, MBAs and doctors. The website of the party is www.ppi.net.in.

Now is the time to act and take revenge and this is the first step towards it. Lets unite and fight for a better Hindustan.

Deadly date

2008-12-02T21:18:00.005+05:30

The 26th is proving to be a deadly date India, especially for Maharashtra. From since I can recollect, the first disaster came in the form of the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat on 26th January, 2001. The disaster killed more then 20k people (wiki) and injured around 167k of Hindustanis. Then came the Tsunami, another natural calamity, on 26th December, 2004. It was a phenomenon I heard for the first time and is described as an earthquake inside the ocean. It washed away thousands of people killing 16k in Hindustan alone. Shortly after this calamity, another followed on 26th July, 2005 in the form of fatal floods, which washed off almost the entire state, and Mumbai and its suburbs, in particular. It killed almost a 1000 unfortunate people and an equal amount of animals, mostly cattle.

Then it started again this year with cowardly bomb blasts in the city of Ahmedabad on 26th July, 2008. These had come after several blasts in various other cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Hyderabad on different dates earlier. The Ahmedabad blasts killed 56 innocent people and injured over 200. And finally Mumbai was attacked last week on the 26th November, 2008 by chuhas who showed such a lack of guts by firing randomly at unarmed innocent Hindustanis. All my countrymen who got killed can be compared only to the great warrior Abhimanyu, who is a legendary hero from Mahabharat.

And now, the 26th of January stands infront of us with a lot of questions. Its the Republic day of Hindustan and its time to take over this deadly date in our own hands. On this day today, a week after the attacks, let us all decide unitedly to take some form of stern action towards revenging each nano-second of these 60 hours. Let us achieve a definite goal by this Republic day and prove Hindustan to be a true republic.

Final Assault - Salute to the Heroes!!!

2008-11-30T01:06:00.008+05:30

And its finally over. The terrorists got what they had come here for. The brave, gallant, outstanding, efficient NSG commandos fought like real heroes for the motherland, for my Hindustan. The cowards have met their fate, and so will their masters, soon. The war has been declared. And no enemy should be spared. Hindustan again wants its Kshatriya sons to go on a vijaya yatra and regain whatever is lost.

The first success actually came at the Trident and Oberoi hotels in the afternoon on 28th Nov, when the commandos killed the terrorists there and took charge of both the hotels. The second success came at the Nariman house in the evening at around 6.30 pm on 28th Nov. when the brave commandos put up a fierce battle with the cowards. The commandos were air-dropped on the terrace of the building in the morning of that day in extremely difficult situations because of a crowded locality. Since then they exchanged fire and at around 4 pm, made a big hole in the wall of the building which led to the last assault. But the battle at the lovely Taj was still on. Three bh*(%&^_ds were troubling the heroes from a very long time (I wonder what kept the ma*^$#*ds going so long, it must not be dry fruits as they give good mental health as well. I think they eat cow-dung). But finally Dharm was able to win over adharm, as has always been the case, and the Taj operation made the final assault.

The NSG commandos, army, navy, police force and the fire fighters have all fought bravely and intensely and I shall salute to all them, for all my life. I pray to the God of Hindustan to give them all the best things in the world, as He has given them this best motherland. They are the real heroes of today, and I appeal to the powerful Bollywood to remunerate these real heroes, the way they do for the reel heroes. The martyrs like Gajendra Singh and Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan have become my new Gods. They fought and sacrificed their life in Mumbai for Hindustan, without thinking which state they belong to or which language they speak. The first thing, therefore, to do for us Hindustanis, is to unite under one name and keeping each and every micro-second of this attack in mind and remembering all the martyrs and heroes who have fought for us and not let history repeat and let some third person take advantage of our differences.

I once again salute my heroes, my Gods for all their sacrifice.

जय हिंद!!!

First success

2008-11-27T23:09:00.004+05:30

Well, actually that was the news which came out back then that night when I wrote this blog and slept happily. But, apparently, the battle of Taj (wow that is a phrase, no one would have thought would be framed) actually ended last. It only ended 59 hours, 3 terrorists and 2 commandos later. This happened only on the morning of the 29th of Nov. The long lasting battle ended finally.

Yessssssss, the operation at the Taj has ended. All the terrorists have been killed, so the reports say at this moment, 11:10 pm, Mumbai time. I am watching NDTV live and Barkha Dutt interviewing the freed people. This is the first success the force has got after more than 24 hrs. after the War on Mumbai started. I congratulate the soldiers of Hindustan for their success and wish them faster success in the remaining 2 spots at Hotel Trident and Nariman House.

Way to go my dear soldiers!!!!!

Salute to the Martyrs

2008-11-27T09:47:00.002+05:30

Its a word which actually belongs to history, maybe, but today the brave officers of Mumbai ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) including the ATS chief, Officer Hemant Karkare, have been shot dead in Mumbai by terrorists. Other officers are Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. This is a huge blow to the Mumbai police, Mumbai city, the state and the country as a whole. Officer Karkare was leading the investigations in the Malegaon blasts and had received phone calls threatening him for life only a couple of days back. And he wouldn't have even known this would happen so soon.

As I am seeing it live on TV news channels, the terrorist attack done on Mumbai since yesterday night has reached a new level. Safety is a word irrelevant to Mumbaikars now, infact to every Hindustani and everyday is just a bonus. Officers are being killed in encounters and the nation is bearing huge losses. The bravery of these officers is beyond words and thoughts of an average person. I hereby salute all the officers, heroes of this war against terrorism, and thank them sincerely with all my heart for all the efforts they have taken to secure the life of us Mumbaikars. May God bestow the best things to their families and peace to these angel souls.

Brain investment, not brain drain

2008-11-25T09:09:00.002+05:30

I found an interesting article about people who are now returning back to India. This is written by an ABCD and I feel is a must read for all NRIs.

Link - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/weekinreview/23anand.html?pagewanted=1&em

But, I still keep wondering whether this return thing is really true and satisfying, or it is just a compromise. I would like to know your valuable views on this in the comments section below.

Music Review - Rab ne ..

2008-11-24T17:22:00.004+05:30

Music Director - Salim-Sulaiman

This is the first music review I am writing and so I request all who read to leave a comment in the comments section if the review meets your views or not. This will give me a wider perspective of public liking, which will in turn help me write better reviews. So here it goes.

I totally liked Fashion's music score, also by the same director duo, especially the theme of the movie, as I have already said in my review blog of the movie. I have been listening to the clippings of Rab ne... on TV, and it being a King Khan movie with Adi directing, there's always a special place for the combo (though Jatin-Lalit would have been the best bet). So I listened to the songs today after Rahul's recco. I found the songs quite good, though not as good as Fashion.

Tujh mein rab is a slow paced song with a slight sad melody. The song is sung by Roopkumar Rathod and the music is quite simple with dafli as the percussion. It somewhat reminds of Dil de diya hai.

Haule haule, which is making clippings on TV channels, is a good catchy number with the harmonium playing to give it an orthodox feel. But Sukhwinder's voice keeps the song fresh. The pace of the song is a little more than slow. Lyrics also not too great or sort.

The third number is the upbeat techno Dance pe chance. This is a fast paced dance song, as the title suggests and has all the modern instruments with a bhangra feel. What I liked more are the lyrics which explain various dance steps to a learner - simple but nice. This will surely keep doing the rounds on dance floors and weddings for some time. Sunidhi does a good job, as always.

The fourth song, Phir milenge, is a medley of old song titles and musics put into a mix. Sonu has sung this one and the lyrics have been woven into each other very nicely - a song very similar to Mere Jeevan Saathi. I am sure this song will be more exciting to watch than listen and will be sort of similar to Dhoom tana from Om Shanti Om.

The fifth track is a Shreya Ghoshal version of Tujh mein and is no different.

The final sixth song is Dancing Jodi which is also a techno mix making it a dance score. It has instrumentals from other songs of the album like Dance pe chance, Haule haule etc. It gives a feel of remixes from Fashion.

Summing up, the music is good and may sound even better in the movie. The dance numbers will be on the charts for some time and the director duo has a good year to look back.

Giant little champs

2008-11-23T00:06:00.005+05:30

Yes, I am on a blogging spree today, and it may be due to the reason Jaya has given in her blog No Spice. But I could not not write a blog on the little champs reigning over marathi minds these days. Yes, I am talking about the little champs of Zee Marathi's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. They have come a long way learning music, but what they perform now is truly ammazing. Actually, at this point, or rather before Shalmali was voted out, there was no one who could be voted out. Each of them are equally good and the best.

I, like most of the junta, was surprised to see that Shalmali was voted out. And her performance was surely missing on tuesday when topmost singer-music director Shankar Mahadevan was the guest. He had some positive energy with him, as rightly said by Pallavi, which boosted each performance, start to finish. None of the previous performances had this kind of grace and it could be seen in hindi as well as marathi songs. The pronunciations, pitch, tempo everything was up to the mark and Shankar was equally rewarding each one with a standing ovation. He was simply enjoying the show and was not at all making any comments, which lifted the morale of the champs to a whole new level. And they all delivered one after the other and took away full points. Even Shamika was later on given Ni, from an earlier Dha. Arya's दिल चीज़ क्या है was totally mesmerizing.

I am sure these champs can take many of the running orchestras head-on and also thought I should have recorded the show. But if any of you have done so already, please let me know if I can get a copy of it. I sincerely wish all the best to all of these little champs and that may all of them be top class singers in the years to come and glorify the my Maharashtra.`

New look

2008-11-22T20:05:00.002+05:30

Being bored of the older template and layout, I was tempted to change the look of my blog and find a suitable image to my title description. So I first tried changing the image of the header. But that was not fitting the earlier template properly. Then after some useless searches on the net for any help, I thot of changing the template itself and see if that helps. And yes, it did. So here is the new look to my blog. This is not the finalized version, so comments, suggestions and betterment ideas are most welcome in the comments section.

FDLS - Fashion

2008-11-22T12:17:00.006+05:30

I know its too late, but better late than never. I did watch the movie FDLS (first day last show) but didn't find time to write the review. Its not coz I am that busy, but still I can't see any reason for not finding time. As it is said in marathi, didn't find time due to idleness. But, back to the topic, being a Madhur Bhandarkar film, it was a must watch movie. Also, the topic was quite interesting, since Fashion means sexy models everywhere. What other reason do I need? (Well, unfortunately, the movie had equal no. of gays, but thats another part of the story)

I was aware that the movie was about the rise, fall and re-rise of a super-model and so the story starts off in Meerut, a second tier city in India, with a city model, Meghna Mathur (Priyanka), dreaming to make it big in the fashion world. So she reaches the Fashion capital of India, Mumbai and starts her struggle towards her dreams. She meets Rohit (Ashwin Mushran), a gay aspiring designer, who introduces her to some contacts in the industry. She gets small assignments like a lingerie ad and ramp walks through these contacts. But because of the supermodel spark and attitude in her she develops key contacts in the fashion industry. Idolising Shonali (Kangna Ranawat), the show-stopper, she starts climbing the steps to success. And at one point she displaces Kangna and takes over the position of the face for Panache, a top brand in the city, owned by Abhijeet Sareen (Arbaaz Khan). And then she has no turning back, or so she thinks. Her late night parties and outings become a concern for her roomie turned boyfriend Maanav (Arjan). He tries to question her but spoils the relation and Priyanka quits him. From here the fall starts.

I felt the initial rise has eaten up a large part of the movie because of which, it has become longer. In the end, the re-rise is slower than the initial movie which makes the audience feel, come-on, finish it now. Priyanka has done well in her role showing different stages of stardom. Her awkwardness in the lingerie ad and distress after realizing that she slept with an african under the influence of drugs, is very good (though I feel Aish would have also brought shine to the role). I could here various "Oh shit" from female audience in the theatre at this scene. Madhur Bhandarkar has used all aspects of the industry like gay designers, drug intake of models, accidental strip-off on the ramp etc. without showing any unnecessary female exposure.

Kangna has also acted well to depict the Delhi based model, Geeta, who was on streets some days back, but is making a come-back. Model Mugdha Godse has also performed well in her debut movie. Other supporting cast like Arbaaz, Kitu Gidwani, Sameer Soni have also done good justice to their resp. roles.

The music feels fresh and techno with the remix numbers being used for the ramp shows. My personal favorite is the theme of the movie. All in all, another good movie from the Madhur Bhandarkar banner and a must watch in theatres.

Rating - ****1/2

Sky is the limit

2008-10-22T14:56:00.010+05:30

Source: ISRO
Well, in this case, this saying holds true even literally. Because, India is only the fifth country to launch its own spacecraft to the moon, the Chandrayaan-1. It is indeed a grand achievement on part of all the scientists of India and the entire country thereby. They have definitely made us all proud, once again. This will be an inspiration to a lot of young aspiring scientists to enter the field. This will also bring a lot of research activities to the limelight in India and in turn bring prosperity. More details can be found in this press release.

I salute all the people associated with the launch of Chandrayaan-1. Watching an Indian rocket getting launched in space on TV was indeed a very exciting moment this morning. And it was perfectly cruising the expected trajectory. This mission will now lead a lot of other missions to come, including the one to Mars.

And I am sure, the moon will soon be the hottest tourist destination even in India, and songs like "चलो दिलदार चलो, चाँद के पार चलो, हम है तैयार, चलो..." will turn into reality. More so, it will attract international tourists too, owing to the obvious cheaper rates in India.

And then, literally, Sky is the limit for India Inc. (I already see Kingfisher Spacelines in the making). Way to go, Vaidnyaniks.

Happy WORLD NON-VIOLENCE DAY

2008-10-02T14:43:00.004+05:30

First and foremost, I wish all of you a Happy Non-Violence Day and a very Happy Ramzan Eid. So, its actually a dual festive occasion for my country, Bapuji's Jayanti and Ramzan Eid. But the most significant occasion is today being World Non-Violence Day. In the event of the recent multi-serial blasts in the country, this day holds a very special place.
Non-violence has been preached in India from its very existence. Lord Krishna, the hero of Mahabharat, Himself has preached non-violence throughout. He never advocated the war, as it only ends in the destruction of innocent mankind. Islam also preaches peace and non-violence through the Holy Qur'an. "Islam is a religion which teaches non-violence. According to the Qur’an, God does not love fasad, violence. What is meant here by fasad is clearly expressed in verse 205 of the second Surah. Basically, fasad is that action which results in disruption of the social system, causing huge losses in terms of lives and property." (http://www.alrisala.org/Articles/papers/nonviolence.htm)
The same thing was preached by Bapuji and that has led us to an independant India. I would like to say about what has happened and not about what would have happened otherwise. But, for sure, more people would have been killed. And loss of life is the biggest loss. It can't be measured in any way.
And the same preachings are required today. In our day-to-day life, how does our religion matter to us. We all get up, get fresh, pray our God for a good and successful day ahead and leave for our work. We come home after a hectic day, pray to our God again, have dinner and sleep. On festive occasions, we celebrate our festivals with each other. In Mumbai, Ganpati and Diwali is celebrated by every one, and so is Ramzan Eid and Christmas.
Today's occasion should inspire us all to collectively pledge to end the violence going on in and out of our minds.

Go(ld)-getter: Abhinav Bindra

2008-08-12T09:39:00.005+05:30

I don't remember the last time I read the sports page of my daily, TOI. Firstly, in India, sports has generally been equal to cricket. And I follow only Indian cricket. But that I watch personally, so I don't feel like reading it again in the news. I was totally against the concept of IPL, so I didn't bother to watch or read about it. But today's frontpage headline in TOI said "India's goldfinger" and I didn't bother to read any other news.
The news deserved it. Abhinav Bindra has given India the first ever individual gold medal in Olympics in the 10m rifle shooting. It is definitely a golden moment in Indian sport history and a huge inspiration, motivation and booster to sports other than cricket, which has become more of a business than sport. And when I went through the sports page (which I read from start to finish, btw) I came across a golden history of Abhinav's achievements. But since, I never read the sports page, I ought to miss out on all those news. But, even the media didn't glorify the events enough. I never saw him in any TV ad or elsewhere. But I know Sania Mirza and even spent a few dollars to watch her live at the Cincinnati open, even though she has a lousy sport history. Thats coz she was upheld quite nicely by media.
The final was quite cut-throat. After qualifying, Finland's Hakkinen was leading with 608.1 and Bindra at 606.7. After the ninth round, both were tied at 689.7. But the "Monk", as he's called, kept his cool and finished the final round with a 10.8er shot, a near-bullseye and finished at 700.5, whereas Hakkinen buckled under pressure to hit 9.7. The feat was remarkable beyond doubt as such a performance under pressure is like hitting a six off Brett lee's last ball of the match with 6 runs to win. Yes, I compared it with a cricket example, because thats how impossible it is. The 20-20 win was also not as great as this achievement coz it was also due to Pakistan's *&%$^#giri at the last minute that we made it. But the precision and accuracy which Bindra achieved in his last shot must have come out of a combination of tremendous will-power, skill, confidence, killer instinct, aggression among other things. We lack a lot of these qualities when we are in any type of a final, esp. killer instinct.
So I salute this champion and wish all the Indians to excel and start a gold rush. It surely must have been a proud moment to listen our national anthem play when the awards were given. Way to go guys...

FDLS - Sarkar (Na)Raj

2008-06-09T15:39:00.005+05:30

Well, the Sarkar I am talking about here is actually the Junta who has watched this movie, and yes it is नाराज for sure. Ram Gopal Verma has once again proved that he has lost it after a disgusting remake of the all-time masterpiece, the evergreen "Sholay". And with him even Big B is getting dragged into losing his own. The chain reaction has started with the younger B and now the newer B getting involved in it too. The Queen B has smartly kept herself away with all this, as always.

The movie continues where its prequel ended showing Sarkar handing over the strings to छोटे sarkar on the former's b'day blast. Abhi is successful in handling of the party and so he is declared the heir to sarkar Big B. His enemies then rope in a power plant co. from UK for a project to be built in Maharashtra, in the childhood village of Big B. Sarkar curses his CM for even thinking of such a project which would dislocate 40k villagers, but Abhi convinces the father about how the project would be a success in the long run, even if it seems a problem at present. So the permissions are given, and the co. rep. Aish comes to visit the site. Both Abhi and Aish convince the villagers about the project and no sooner do they start dreaming about it, a local favorite (Raj Thackeray lookalike) plays spoil sport and turns the villagers against the project. Things go from bad to worst and a major tragedy is brought about in the house of the Nagle's by their enemies at intermission. The first half of the movie is fast and fascinating, but....

After the intermission, the movie starts to derail and goes haywire. There is no definite direction and just shows one murder after the other, like an ordinary bollywood action movie. At one point, it is so ridiculous that I almost burst into a giggle, when Aish puts her hand on Abhi's and withdraws but Abhi reciprocates. I mean, come on guys, u don't expect a Karan Johar stunt in a Ram Gopal Verma movie, do you? The movie gets more and more boring eventually. One man in the theatre yawned a bit loudly, and the entire theatre burst out laughing. It was pathetic.

I don't even feel like commenting anything else about the movie. Its a total flop and I am sure I am not watching any more Verma henceforth. Actually, Abhi and Aish both look good, but it all is lost with the director's. I suggest a strict no-no.

Rating - *

Monsoon morning

2008-06-06T09:05:00.006+05:30

There's a saying in hindi which says इंतेजार का फल मीठा होता है . And yess, after a long, hot, humid, sweating wait comes the sweetest fruit in the form of monsoon. And it did come nicely and heavily here in Mumbai yesterday. The dark clouds had been showing up here and there over a couple of days and did also shed a few drops but yesterday was showering.

The day was quite hot and humid, but at around 6 in the evening a dark cloud gathering started to show up on the west horizon. And within 30 mins, it covered up the entire sky. There was a frenzied feeling of excitement in me, as it was after 5 years that I was to experience the sweet fruit again. And within another 30 mins the monsoon rains made a grand arrival in Mumbai. The mets have said it to be pre-monsoon, but....who cares!!! It started pouring heavily and people coming home from work were caught quite unawares, but I m sure each one must have welcomed the sweet surprise. Me and M were already out, and we had a nice hot plate of pav-bhaji to enjoy the rain.

I thought it would disappear for a day or two after yesterday, but I was wrong. It rained a few in the night and even in the morning today. And what more to ask for than a half-fry sandwich made by my dear wife, mango juice and that too on a friday morning. I am in no mood of working today, for obvious reasons, but.....just 8 more hrs to go b4 a nice weekend. Happy monsoon season to ya all.

Classmates to officemates

2008-05-20T15:31:00.004+05:30

In college days, working together is an everyday activity, be it doing experiments, solving assignments, preparing for annual festival or planning a monsoon trip. And at the end of college, we wish the same group of friends should continue, wherever we go for work. However, this doesn't happen most of the times. I don't want to say that it's bad, coz we find more friends that way. But still we feel that our college friends should also be at our workplace.
My case was no different. I didn't have any of my college friends at my earlier workplace. Even after my MS, the same thing happened. Then shortly after I started working in Mumbai, one of my bachelor's degree friend, R moved back to India for good from the US and joined my office. R was in a different department than mine, but atleast we were in the same office, so we could meet everyday and had lunch together. College memories became fresh once again, since R was from my college friends group. Slowly, things developed and I got to shift departments for my area of interest, bridge design which is done by the Infrastructure group in my office. And R was also working with the same group, heading the geotechnical dept.
Shortly, I was assisting R to prepare a presentation he was to make for our group of engineers. And I remembered my college days again when we used to do assignments together, all papers lying around, study together for semesters, we had even stayed at his place once since it was raining very heavily that day, and I couldn't go home after the exam. All this became green again and I wondered how things develop and unexpected things suddenly become true. I hope this stays and more of our friends join us here, to create the friends group once again and have a blast. Think about it "pearls".

Time over for overtime

2008-04-23T09:08:00.008+05:30

All of us are aware of what overtime is - working beyond regular work hours. But its not always that you get paid for that extra work. I didn't get paid for at my earlier workplace, but currently I am. Ya I know, you might be thinking 'lucky chap' and I wont deny. And why should I. I believe that every minute of work is accountable. I donno how you take it, but would love to know.

But, the other side of this coin is that I work 10 hrs everyday. So, once in a while, its alright to work overtime. But I was doing it for the past three weeks and was quite tired of it. There were deadlines to be met, so I had no other option. But Monday was the deadline day and (hopefully) I am out of it now. So, I can blog again and pen down my thoughts which are queuing up for some time now.

Photu phreak Pattu

2008-03-10T16:09:00.006+05:30

In my cinti blog, I had referred to Pattu, our dear friend, who is as great from inside as thin he looks from outside. He's doing his PhD at UC and am sure he will achive marvels in the time to come. Recently, I happened to visit his blog (www.idridden.com), and was almost instantly fascinated by it. At first I thought the snaps in his blog have been taken from the net or something, but while simult. chatting to J, I found out that he himself was the snapper. His experiments with his new Canon rebel EOS have been fantastic and will make me visit his blog frequently henceforth. I have added his blog to my frequent list too. My favorite work of his is the multiple self one (above). As he says in his blog, I m surely trying that very soon. Keep up the good work "doctor".

FDLS - Jodha Akbar - Love story-e-hindustan!!!!

2008-02-18T20:33:00.008+05:30

History is a suject which I didn't like during school days. But with each year added to my age, I think I am getting more and more interested in history. India has a vast and rich culture, being one of the oldest civilizations in the world. And hence, Indian history is marked with constant events of attacks, since the land always flourished with all sorts of wealth the earth has given to mankind. And this is what Big B tells us in the introduction to "Jodha Akbar", Ashutosh Gowariker's latest release.

The movie is about relationship of Princess Jodhabai of Amer and the mogul emperor Akbar. Emperor Akbar was put to rule at a very early age in his life. The mogul way of rule was very cruel and ambitious, but Akbar (whose actual name was Jalaluddin Mohammed or Jalal) was not very comfortable with it. He was a king with emotion and consideration for mankind, unlike his predecessors. However, he becomes more successful and powerful with this strategy and acquires new kingdoms. In this forward stride, he comes across kingdom of Amer, which proposes to accept his rule on the condition that he marries princess Jodha. Both Jodha and Akbar get married as a compromise and have terms of agreement. However, marriage is not just about living together, and what happens later is very nicely and softly put down in the movie.

The movie is long but you don't really feel the length, since it is intermittently lined with strategies and plots such that you never lose interest. And if there's nothing, there are the grand sets designed beautifully by Nitin Desai, the same person behind the grand sets of Hum dil de chuke... and Devdas. And the credit for the sets goes to Ashutosh, who has made them look just apt for the scenes and no more gaudy or showy, unlike S. L. Bhansali. The sets involve you right at the start where you get a slight recall of LOTR. And thats not the only place where the shot
is brilliant, Hrithik's shot of taming the wild elephant is also majestic. And Hrithik has performed well too. He has fully delivered to the needs of his character and shown all facets of the emperor perfectly, be it calmness or vengeance, love or hatred. Aish also looks very good in tradiitonal wear and I liked her for the first time in ethnic outfit. Rahman's music is good as always.

All in all, the beginning of '08 has been grand for bollywood, and I sincerely feel that the movie should be nominated in the best film category for the Oscars. It has got everything it needs to reach that stage. Ashutosh has done well and maitained his level of direction and I wish him all the best for his future projects (e.g. I heard he's making a movie on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj next...;)).

Rating - * * * * *

First Day Last Show - TZP

2007-12-24T11:54:00.001+05:30

This is the second FDLS, the first being BB (sorry for the shortforms, but they make life easier :D). I watched the trailer of Taare Zameen Par (TZP) during BB for the first time, and was quite excited to watch the movie. So me and M went on friday to see Aamir's maiden creation. The first day is the best one to watch a movie since u have no personal reviews from anyone, so u r the first ones to make an opinion about the movie. We discovered this during BB, since Chak De turned out to be an average flick for me and M after all the hype about it.

It starts off with a beautiful animation for the titles, similar to the cartoon animation titles in older comedy movies. The technologically advanced version is amazing to watch. It sets off a theme of being a movie which children would love for the next 3 hours. The hero, Darsheel, is introduced in the first scene itself, and the movie begins with his daily routine and his total ignorance towards studies. The kid has done an extra-ordinary work in creating the sympathetic environment for himself in a very short time. I had a chance to see the reactions a kid who was sitting besides me and Darsheel was already his hero, in the first 20 mins of the movie, though he's shown to be a loser. The setup is in an ordinary Indian family in Mumbai with 2 sons and parents. The elder son is an ace in whatever he does and the younger is the exact opposite. The parents think that the child is not interested in studying and is a useless fellow. They beat him and scold him for his misbehavior (and here Darsheel has successfully received the ohhhhhs and aahhhhhs of the female audience), threatening him to put him in boarding school if he continued with his rebellious nature. And finally the same thing happens.

But since the kid has been highly misjudged, he continues to be the same at boarding school too. All the more, now he prefers solitude and has no mood to do even his favorite, painting. He feels left out of the family and doesn't correspond with the parents or brother as before. Here, I would like to say that Darsheel has hardly any line s to speak, but he has acted so well that u can feel the pain he is in. And then suddenly one day, comes a magician, a new drawing teacher (Aamir) who sees the kid about to be devastated. And he strives and succeeds in bringing the kid back on track. No spoilers here, u will have to watch the movie to see how he does it.

All in all, an excellent work by Aamir as a debutant director, who is very well aware of the expectations of the Indian audience, especially from him, and has fully delivered. The movie, is no doubt, a serious one which makes every parent cry, but its surely an eye-opener for very many parents, who fail to understand child psychology. Performances from all the actors are very good, including Tisca, and the best actor of the year is definitely Darsheel. Aamir also looks good, though with wrinkles on his face. But not at all as bad as SRK. Watch it people.

Rating - * * * * */2

Reunion

2007-12-18T14:30:00.000+05:30

The word reunion itself comes with a hidden meaning of reunion of friends, who had left each other, after a considerable amount of time. And I also met my best friends on this weekend after being away for almost 6 months. It was one of our friend’s wedding in Ahmadabad where we were to meet. So it was a weekend of double happiness for all of us, wedding plus reunion. P’s wedding was planned for almost a year now and as days progressed, it was sure that I could attend it. J also finalized her future plans and according to that, she could also attend it. This simultaneously turned into a blueprint of my reunion with J and P. And the countdown started. And after almost 3 months of eager wait, the day of P’s wedding finally arrived. I met P in the morning and was very happy to see her again, in the same perfect health as she was when she had left after their graduation day. Then me and M went to pick J up at the airport and as we waited for her to come out of the Arrivals gate, a tiny shiver ran through my body in that 1 minute. I had missed all my friends in my wedding and was very eager to meet all of them with M and introduce her to them. And she came out as hussly-bussly as ever and the final reunion occurred.

It was very similar to meeting my family after 2 years; truly enough, since they were my family back in the US. And from that point on, ‘fun unlimited’ started. We chatted and laughed and gossiped and teased all through the time we were together. Sadly, P was not with us, since it was her wedding :D. But, me M and J had a धम्माल time together. Though keeping in touch in today’s world is a very easy thing with chats and skypes all over the place, the pleasure of meeting a friend in person has its own charm. And the same thing happened. I meet J online almost everyday. But still, now I am eagerly waiting for her wedding for the second quick reunion ;).

Review time

2007-12-09T20:05:00.000+05:30

1. Wings of fire -
This is the biography of ex-president of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam written for him by one of his colleagues. The book has been divided into sections of his life. The first section is very nicely described glorifying his birthplace of रामेश्वरम and his near and dear people. I am really very excited to see रामेस्वरम now. He talks about the simple ways of life of people in that period who had great minds, thoughts, instinct togrow and make progress and help India develop into a great nation.

The book then steps into his life as an engineering student. He tells us how he wanted to pursue a career as a pilot, but couldn't make it there. However, with the help of his mentors and teachers, he gained extensive knowledge in aerospace engineering. He tells us how his teachers and two of his closest friends inspired him to attain new heights.

As a bachelor of engineering, he had excellent opportunities at hand. His association with Prof. Vikram Sarabhai has been put down very nicely and you immediately start admiring Prof. Sarabhai, if not till then. The book then gets you involved into the Indian space research program with details of development of the concept, resources, skills, people and finally, the satellites, SLVs and world class missiles. The passion in the minds of those great scientists is undoubtedly commendable and respectable which has made us possible to see India as world's 2nd best military power.

Finally, he describes his role as the head of the defense research organization of India. The book can be considered as an excellent guide or handbook for want-to-be managers. It is a very good read for young engineers and scientists of India, and also for people who love this nation from the bottom of their hearts. The book stands on this one big foundation of patriotism. Dr. Kalam has sown a very powerful seed, it is upto us now to water the seed and fertilize it and make our country the most powerful nation in all respects.
Rating: * * * *

2. Bhool Bhulaiyya -
I would call this as a very nice come back by Priyadarshan. The talented director had largely lost his way after Hera Pheri and it seemed that he would never return. The major success of Hera Pheri lured him into making similar movies with Paresh Rawal as one of the lead actors in each of them. But none turned up to be even close. All movies were full of बक्वास.

But the promos of Bhool Bhulaiyya itself were very catchy and me and my wife at once decided to take a big risk and watch another of Priyadarshan's creations. And the movie starts off, like all of his earlier ones, in a village somewhere near U.P./Bihar. However, the storyline also starts right there. The suspense about a lady haunting a very old हवेली in the village catches you immediately. The supporting starcast is almost the same which Priyadarshan has used in his earlier movies but they have been properly confined to their respective roles throughout the movie, including Paresh Rawal. Shiney Ahuja and Vidya Balan, who are supposed to stay in the haveli have acted nicely as a wouldbe couple who has come back from US to get married in India. Shiney is the prince of the village and the heir to the हवेली. He is a non-believer in ghosts and laughs the haunting story out. Amisha is shown as the adopted daughter of Shiney's uncle, Manoj Joshi, and is supposed to be in love with Shiney. The family also knows about this and thinks Shiney would agree. But, with Vidya marrying him, Amisha gets upset. The haunting starts to increase by the day and strange and weird things start happening in the हवेली. Shiney and Vidya, being educated people, decide to take up the matter and dig it out.

It then that they come to know about a story of a king of the हवेली who is the fore-father of Shiney. He used to like a female bengali dancer in his दरबार who in turn used to like the poet of the दरबार. When the king came to know about it, he slayed the poet which led to the suicide of the dancer. But the dancer wows to revenge her love's death and supposedly haunts the हवेली. Being unable to believe in this story and looking at the happening incidents, they find out that Amisha is mentally upset.

And then enters the Hero, Akshay. His entry was hugely applauded in the theatre and I was amazed by the magic Akshay has on people. He's a psychiatrist and starts his investigations which give him a very different viewpoint. The story has been very beautifully taken from a comedy note to a serious and suspense story. Priyadarshan is successful in keeping the public glued to their seats till the end. The performances are very good, especially Vidya Balan. In all, the movie is a must watch - good job Priyadarshan.
Rating: * * * *

3. Om Shanti Om -
This is Farah Khan's second movie as a director and also her second movie with KK. It is about a junior artists love for a herione which makes him take birth again - yes, its about rebirth. It starts in the 70s era with KK as a junior artist who likes Deepika. One movie shot finds her surrounded by burning huts (similar to Mother India) and KK jumps in like a real hero and saves her life. She also likes the person in him but is secretly married to a bigtime producer, Arjun Rampal, and is unhappy. Their marriage is a secret to the public. But now she is fed up with it and is also expecting. Arjun is freaked out with this news as it is not what he wants now. He is looking forward to a big project "Om Shanti Om", which now wont be completed since its star, Deepika is pregnant. So he kills her and flees, but our real hero, KK, sees this and tries to save her, but in vain. He also dies in the fire. But he takes birth again to revenge Deepika's death.

And from this point, the story kind of loses track. Farah could have shown it in a much better way. But she has given undue importance to minor details to maintain the comedy in the movie, but it ends up making the movie just a normal flick. The lack of experience can be seen here, though I think Subhash Ghai had equal experience when he made Karz. But that one is one of the major milestones of Indian cinema. KK is shown to be the son of a leading actor in his second birth with an unnecessary foreign accent and style. Instead, she should have shown him to be what he really is at this point of time, or at least as Abhishek, a starlet who has juust started acting. The reappearance of Deepika is random and the climax is all the more random. As for the performances, Deepika looks verry cute and lovely with her innocent looks and should continue to do so. KK seems to have acted in this one just for the sake of it. His Chak de was better. Rest all are average. In all, Farah Khan should not remain as a director of Main hoon na type movies, but should make progress.
Rating: * *

Star Blog

2007-11-27T15:21:00.000+05:30

The Mumbai Mirror on this Sunday had an article which was basically, an interview with Aamir Khan. There, I found mention of the star's website and blog. As is known, Aamir is not a very outgoing person when it comes to media, so we get to read very little of him. So I checked out the website which hosts the blog now, and was very happy to read his blogs. He also has a chat on the website, which I haven't checked yet, but the blogs are good tp. He is very informal and friendly in his blogs, and I personally felt nice to read it. He has definitely used it for publicity of his upcoming films (TZP at present), but its very obvious. I just felt like sharing it with u guys.

Orkut Marriage

2007-11-26T11:03:00.000+05:30

Note: This blog was waiting for some time now, due to technical problems in my site.

Marriage, as we Indians see it, is of two types conventionally - arranged and love. Arranged marriage is supposedly prevalent only in India, though I have strong arguments about it. It is the type in which the entire family is involved in finding a partner for the person getting married. So, it is basically done on the basis of education, salary, horoscope matching, family background (and assets) and other qualities of both, bride and groom. Love marriage is the type where the two fall in love and decide to get married. No clarifications are needed here.

Now with the widespread of the internet in our everyday lives, arranged marriages are also done with the help of internet. I mean, there are matrimonial sites which post profiles of candidates. But about a few years back, a site was born with the name orkut.com. Here you can create your profile and get in touch with other orkut users and make new friends. There are communities which have people with some common interest. However, naturally, the site is also used to look for partners. And this has given rise to the third type of marriage which we term as Orkut marriage. Myself and 2 of my closest friends have found our life partners in this way.

The best part in this type is that the relationship develops on the basis of the inner soul of a person, and not the outer physical looks. Likes and dislikes match and there's no stopping. This way, there are no boundaries which would stop the two. You can be anywhere on the globe, the only need is internet access. We three also found our partners in our same caste, which made it easier for our parents to accept it. There was little sweet curiosity at the time when I personally met my wife, but it lasted only for a couple of minutes. After that, we both were talking the regular stuff we used to chat or talk on phone.

I have also heard cases of people getting mislead/deceived, but then you need to do some preliminary checks. But as for my view, it has given a whole new dimension to the way marriages happen in India, and guys and girls, I would advise you to go slow and steady to win this race.

Microsoft officedead

2007-11-24T03:40:00.000+05:30

Many of my friends know I had created a personal website and was hosting my blog there. It was a MS officelive basics subscription which is offered free by MS. I was one of the ones who got the beta version and were initially allowed to use MS FP for site design. Later, they changed the privileges and just allowed templates. In the mean time, the upgraded my account to premium, which I didn't notice and had to pay $35 p.m. for 2 months. When I asked them to downgrade the account, they did, but I still cud use FP, due to some flaw in the switching on MS's side. I was happy, till I started getting errors while saving files to my site, soon after coming to Swades. I informed them about it and they said they will have to escalate it to the programming department (which, I have a serious doubt, whether it exists or not). After no response for about 15 days, I filled out the online form again and then I used to do it almost twice every week. MS, the owner of Windows and IE, couldn't find a solution for the problem, and I had to delete my site.

When I tried to create a new site, firstly, the basics subscription is not available in the country which is a software industry giant in the world, India. When I asked Jolly to register for it from the land of opportunities, US, it didn't work either.

So, now I opened my blog with my favorite website, Google. The following 3 blogs are reposted here from my earlier blog. Hope to post my latest very soon.

Bye bye Cinti....

2007-07-11T05:50:00.000+05:30

Approximately four years back, I landed with my friend, Pushkar in Cincinnati with a dream to continue my education and get a master's degree in structural engineering. It was a totally new world, new people all around, new place, new food, new lifestyles, and the list can go on. We had already decided on who will we be roomates with, and accordingly, me, Pushkar, Omkar and Yogesh got along, found an apartment very close to the campus and started our new "graduate life". However, we never actually stayed as roomates...no no, we didn't fight, but it felt like family right from the beginning. We had a lot in common, the most important of all - we all were from mumbai. All four of us had worked before we came here, infact me, Pushkar and Omkar even shared the same course. All of us were marathi, which was the next big thing and so we had a blast from the word go. The first year was all about new friends, Reena, Rima, Abhilasha, Reynold, Dhashu and a big marathi junta, about courses and more courses, finalizing advisors and thesis topics, cooking turns, enjoying the ISA functions, potlucks and oncampus job. We also went to St. Louis, Dayton, NYC, Niagara and Chicago. It was fun.

Then we moved to the oncampus apartment and to the second year of our program. This year brought in new friends, Jaya, Vidhya, Priyanka who went on to become some of the closest friends in my life. Courses reduced and thesis work increased in this year. The fun was all the same with ISA functions and our individual get togethers. I sang for the first time on stage during the ISA Deepotsav, and I was enjoyed it to the fullest (ya ya, i know i bored a lot of people, but I am talking about me here). Friendships grew stronger and the family became bigger. I also made my India trip this time.

Then in the third year, there were no courses. It was time to leave one by one, and so Omkar was the first one to do so. He got a job and the family had started to reduce now. Rima left next. Next was Pushkar and then Yogesh. Me, Reena, Jaya, Vidhya and Priyanka were the only ones left in cinti by the end of the third year. I too started working in Cinti itself.

And the job also brought in a very welcoming change. I bought a car and though I used it for work everyday, it was also kind of a family member for us. We used to hang out almost every weekend and try out new cuisines and new restaurants, watch movies, celebrate festivals and birthdays; basically we used to have a lot of fun. But then at the end of the fourth year, rest of the members started going one by one as each of them either got a job or graduated. The last ones left in cinti was me and Reena. I didn't get visa for this year, so I got my job transferred to the office in mumbai. It was a very nice thing, but that means that I am leaving cinti now. The place has given me a whole lot of memories, both good and bad, but the most important things I gained were friends for life, and a job. So here I am at the CVG airport saying goodbye to cinti and US and to all my friends, actually my family members here. I hope to see you all next year, till then you all take care and have a nice time.

अरे हुजूर, वाह ताज बोलीये!!

2007-07-07T19:07:00.000+05:30

It's official now...the new 7 wonders of the world have been declared. And after a huge global online and telephonic voting, the taj of India, TAJ MAHAL got selected as one of the seven new wonders of the world. So what more better occasion to start my blog again, which was stagnant for quite some time now. The selection is the reward of all the efforts all the Indians all round the world have taken to vote for our beloved Taj. The other six wonders can be found here. The announcement was made at a grand show in Lisbon today, on the 07/07/07. And our dear Bips was one of the 3 hosts of the show, dressed in a sexy Indian outfit. Among the performers were J Lo.

It was about a week back that news got distributed in emails that the Taj has just 0.07% votes and we need to make a lot of efforts by voting for the Taj. I am sure many of us must have voted more than once, like I did, thanks to the online voting system. And the result is good. I really hope that this brings a huge amount of tourism to India, which is the second fastest growing economy in the world today. The weekend has turned to be really good for India, first the sensex crossing the huuuge 15000 mark and now the Taj getting voted as one of the 7 wonders of the world. I hope we are able to keep the Taj as beautiful as ever, the WONDERful symbol of love.

But wait, thats not all. The new 7 wonders committee has now decided to announce natural 7 wonders of the world. Nominations have begun for the candidates here. The nominations will go on till 08/08/08. The committee will then shortlist 21 candidates and voting will be done for these 21 wonders. So, lets get going guys. We can make a collective effort to nominate some of the best natural wonders in India, like the desert of Rajasthan, valleys of Kashmir, the Himalayas, the Shivling at Amarnath, to name a few.

DON....The chase finally ends

2006-11-11T01:00:00.000+05:30

After remixes, it is remakes which is becoming the IN thing in bollywood. First it was Mughal-e-azam and now the movie whose original or prequel brought the two sides of the Big-B coin in one movie, I mean the angry young man and the comedy man. That movie was one of the initial flicks which gave Big-B his current fame.

The remake, on the other hand, is being made in a later stage in King-K's life, when he is sitting on the throne of bollywood at present. The story basically starts off with the same theme but a new dressing. The shooting abroad gives a different touch to the movie, though Farhan could have done it even in India, as he had done in DCH, a fresh new look to the Indian youth. He has done one chasing scene in India, which has been shot really nicely. Even the dialogues having been taken from the older version, leave alone the songs. Kareena is too fat in the song, and is totally untalented. I am sure Helen would have felt like murdering her. I need to say this that one of my friends performed better and more gracefully in UC-ISA’s annual show “Deepotsav” than her. Priyanka is good but has a loooot to improve. Boman is a very apt person for the role, as is Om Puri.

King-K is getting slimmer by the day and he surely looked much much better in Swades (I didn’t mention KANK, coz, hulllooo, it’s a movie not even worth spending a few bytes). His hair is very bad in Don which makes him look bad. Acting is his usual self, however I feel that his comic role was not upto Chamatkar’s Sunderlal Shrivastav mark, though the character was almost similar. This is his comeback in a villainous role, as I had expected years back, that he would do it, and he still has some of that acting left in him, though not as terrifying as in Darr and Anjaam.

The main part is the story which actually unfolds a little later after which you come to know the difference in the two movies, and then the comparison stops. You start to think “What will happen next” which takes you to the end. The team has done a good work in that aspect. Music is fresh for the 3 new songs, my favorite being “Aaj ki raat”, since the rest are ‘DJ Luv exclusive’ remixes. Its good to hear Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy back with some good numbers after boring KANK. Udit Narayan doesn’t match Kishorda, ofcourse, but doesn't have even his own touch to “khaike pan banaraswala”.

All in all, the movie is a good remake, though it actually isn’t one. The slick touch to the movie makes you feel it’s a movie of this era. At the same time, I felt like saluting the team of the original Don, for the amazing story they could think of and Kalyanji-Anandji for the excellent music scores, which make you tap your feet even now. Still, I feel Lage raho was made better than this one and deserves the best film and best director filmfare award for this year, considering the movies made uptil now in this year. But there’s no harm in watching a good movie like this and enjoy the fresh performances and scenes and remembering the Lord of Bollywood, Big-B and rest of the team of the original one, esp. Pran and Zeenat.