Ganpati Bappa Moraya !!

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...

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

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

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

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!!

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!!

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

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!!

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 !!

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 !!!!

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