In addition.

In addition to post Bhaye Bin.........,

After the two drill machines sent to demolish Ram Setu, broke down, the latest machine sent to drill that bridge is named 'Hanuman'.

Is this a mere coincidence (a rarest coincident really) or a cruel joke??

Hi There !

Hi, I am Tishay Vats ! My name is a Sanskrit word which means auspicious or good fortune (Shubh, Mangalkari). Though some of my family members call me Raavi (one of the five rivers of greater Punjab) and some call me Laddoo, I have heard them talking that Tishay is going to be my good name (Damn I wonder no one ever asked me what I would like to be called).

Anyway, today is my fourth Happy Birthday. These days I am celebrating my birthdays every month till I turn of one year (Sounds good na).

You know I am very busy. I have to do lot of work which includes to sleep for long 10 to 12 hours in a day, then to drink lot and lot of milk (Nanhi se jaan aur itne saare kaam, wish I could sue them). There are some kids in the house who make fun of me with tasty looking eatables in their hands. I wanna eat those things but no one listens to me. They will ask me to sleep when I wanna watch TV and will force me to drink milk when I want to play. Goddamn communication problem. Its not that I can't speak, I do speak a lot but these weird people around me are so dumb to understand me and will simply keep grinning when I utter some word. You know my favourite word is "Agoo".

I love to make others change their clothes but a lady (I love her most) will not let me have that fun either and would wrap me in Huggies (I hate that). Secondly I love to dribble, its so fun that even you should give a try.

I can make different voices and these days I can shift my posture also. Its really amazing to watch their face impression when they found me lying at different place each time. I hate when all of them keep kissing me without my permission (What the hell they think I am).

Anyway you people have no work to do but reading this story but I need to finish my noon shift of sleep. And yeah all of you are invited at my birthday party (and don't forget to bring gift for me). The entry to party will be granted ONLY to those who love to dribble. :P'

Till then, 'che u' !

Bhaye Bin Hoye Na Preet !

I think this is the perfect day for this post (and thanks to Juneli for reminding me by her post). Today is Shri Ram Navami, birth day of Maryada Purshotum Shri Ram, seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. We all have read Ramayana or at least know the contents of Ramayana. We have heard the story of Ram Setu, the bridge made by Shri Ram's vaanar sena from Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka. This is story of Tareta Yug, more than 17,00,000 years back. Now 'they' call this mythology, which may or may not have occurred.

Amazingly NASA released these images taken from satellite, showing a man made bridge in between India and Sri Lanka. NASA named that bridge as Adam's Bridge and declared that bridge is made of chain of limestone shoals, and about 30 km long. The age of this bridge is estimated around 17,25,000 years old.

The bridge’s unique curvature and composition by age suggests that it may be man made. The legends as well as archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago. Now there are many views regarding this bridge being the Ram Setu of Ramayana.

As this was an issue related to poor Hindu mythology the issue went unnoticed from the media (which is always busy in other important news like the marriage of Liz and Nayaar) and the worthy Indian public.

But hold on a second, this is not the real reason of the cry. The great Government of India is very keen for saving the hard earned money of Indians and world population. They have come up with a project named Sethusamudram, in which they have decided to destroy Ram Setu envisages cutting a ship canal across Rameshwaram near Kothandaramaswamy temple to connect the Gulf of Mannar in the Palk Bay because it will help India save about 400 nautical miles of sailing for ships, about 20 tonnes of fuel per transit or Rs 70,000 per vessel, foreign exchange of Rs 21,000 crore per year and voyage time of about 16 hours per transit per vessel. Now people all over India are crying before the Indian government for not to hurt their sentiments and alter this project. Not only that a team of related engineers has suggested an alternate route utilizing the 15 km barren uncultivable land strip that stretches East-West between Pamban and Dhanushkoti which will save the Ram Setu as well as the motive of Sethusamudram project. But till now nothing has happened.

I do agree with the project and the development and the savings (as if the government is very serious for saving money), but here are my questions:

Why was the route of Metro passing 'close' Qutub Minar in New Delhi was abandoned and later reworked fearing prospective damages to this 815 years man made monument?

Why the project of Taj corridor (which would have made lot of dollars to our money minded govt) was put off after the hue and cry of environmentalists as the construction near Taj 'may' cause bad effect on this 359 years old man made monument. Please give attention here that these monuments were not going to be destroyed but were 'feared' to get damaged.

Will any government in China would destroy or even alter The great wall of China(2695 years old) for the sake of any amount of money?

Will any one allow pulling down 4507 years old Pyramids of Egypt in lieu of any uncountable amount of money?

If the answer is NO, then why this 17,25,000 years old man made monument is being destroyed for the sake of some coins? As our 'secular' government see Hindu organizations behind this Ram setu, let's for a moment leave the Ramayan part, then isn't the age of this bridge is sufficient for its protection as world heritage? (And there are thousands of cheaper ways to save crores of Rupees if the Indian Government is really so worried of saving bucks. (We all remember the petty tea bills of Lakhs of Rupees per month per MP, stop such expenses and save Crores PER DAY). I can write another post on various methods for saving money as a free service to our govt.)

Morover, lakhs of Indian people have signed a petition to the President of India for protecting Ram Setu, but not even a single stone has moved so far, in spite I have heard that exercises of destroying the bridge have already started. I am turning to the strong view that our government either listens to Terrorists or to Vote Bank. Sadly Hindus are not either Terrorists nor an organized vote bank.

Ramayan has taught us the great way of leading respectable life and today on the eve of Shri Ram Navami, a chopayee of Ramayan is the need of hour for us people to understand and adopt. This would be our true celebration of this auspicious day.

Accidents like love & marriage !

It’s all about accidents, accidents in our day to day life. Accidents like falling in love or getting married or trying to fix incompatible relationships. And despite people involved in these accidents keep blaming themselves for such occurring, do not understand that no one can avoid accidents.

Jaishree Misra has narrated about such accidents in her funny tale “Accidents like love & marriage”. The Story is of three families in New Delhi, Sachdevs , Singhs and Menons.

Neena, daughter of wealthy Singh family is married to Rohit, elder son of wealthy Sachdevs family. Gayatri, only child of middle class Menon couple, is an intelligent and lovely Keralite who has just returned India after completing her Ph.d from Oxford University and is college time friend of Neena.

Now Neena, innocently and for her own interest sake (before her mom in law gets some other girl as an enemy as her sister in law) wants and plans to get Gayatri married to her brother in law Tarun and thus play fine role of cupid for the duo. But Gayatri has shadows of the love when she ‘accidentally’ fell in for an English guy Michael in London only to broke her heart and realize that he was married, and reluctant to fall in love again but again ‘accidentally’ driven into.

Now the tug of war is on. Swarn Sachdev, mom in law of Neena don’t want a middle class ‘Madrasi’ girl for her sweet lil son, Jagdish, the Senior Sachdev of Sachdev family always breaths business and only concerned about the growth of his textile mills, Neena desperately wants Gayatri to occupy the next bedroom in her home as her sis in law, Tarun, a charming handsome is now badly fallen in love with miss south and would do anything to make her his better half and against the wish of his mother, declares to marry only Gayatri and no one else., Gayatri, still trying to get herself out of the gloom of Michael effect, Keshav father of Gayatri is overjoyed with the idea of marriage of his piece of heart daughter, Rajji, wife of Keshava is too busy in her research books to be very serious of this issue of her daughter. A social meeting among both the parents turns havoc accidentally and simply worsening the situation.

Now as if that was not enough another twist comes in the story. When all the members of Sachdev and Menon families were wrestling with the IF’s and BUT’s of this proposed relation of unlike minds, Rohit the elder son of Sachdev family, husband of Neena and father of two children accidentally fell in love with a ‘firangi’ woman while visiting London for a business meeting and make Neena realise that even her marriage was an accident.

The story is supposed to be a hilarious account but I find it funny only at some stages. The funniest part is at second last page when almost everyone is leaving the home. The most loving character to me in the story is innocent ‘Appa’ of Gayatri who took out his 1963 bought trousers to get ready for the meeting with Tarun’s parents. Jaishree Misra is very good at words and phrases, still it could not make me restless to complete the book at the earliest.

And finally I would like to thank Jaishree for putting a hidden statutory warning at the first page of the novel as she thanked Mr. Khushwant Singh for encouraging her to publish that story. Obviously now you should not wonder at some words and narrations which are very essentials for an 'elite' writer of this 'elite' club for staying very ‘close to reality’.

In Your Grandeur !

If a lazy person is given a tough and unwilling job to perform, he would utter words like above if the tools to perform that job are broken in between.

This is an old Punjabi saying, meaning, "Thank god, my spinning wheel is broken freeing my soul of such a trouble." ( Jind = life/soul -- Ajaabon = problem/trouble).

These are lines of famous Punjabi heartbroken Poet, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, written for a looser lover, meaning, "That's good that now you (beloved) belongs to someone else, at least mine worries of (How to) own you are over."

Now the link.

These lines are here in the grandeur of our "Oh Ah Ayaee Blue (now red, black & blue all over) Cricket Team. The 'Chrkha' is broken so no wait till 28th April and tension to get that cup is over as well.

Chirag - E - Sahar

Bhagat Singh wrote these words in a latter to his younger brother on 3rd March 1931 from Central Jail, Lahore just 20 days before his death punishment.

The death sentence of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev was not at all surprising, but the most shocking was that the so called law abiding British government stuffed the three dead bodies in bags and discreetly burned them with kerosene oil near the Hussainiwala bridge and threw away half burned bodies in Satluj. First time in the Indian history the death penalty was done in the dusk in spite of morning. Their families were not allowed to see them before the hanging and and of course their dead bodies were not handed over to them. And we still find many Indians proudly extolling the virtues of British Raj while sipping tea in their drawing rooms.

These are some another favourite lines of Bhagat Singh!

Tarz -e- Jafa = Style of cruelty/injustice

Dahar = Misfortune

Adu = Enemy/Against

Sahar = Dawn

Musht - e - Khak = Part of soil (here 'Body')

Faani = Mortal

Uluf = Mixture(ing)

(I tried my best with these words, any suggestions/corrections are welcomed)

Yeh Zindgi Hai To............

How would you react if you bump into a soberly dressed person in a multiplex buying popcorn and cola for his accompanying wife and realize, “Aaree! This is the same person who begs at traffic signals behaving like a mentally shaken and I gave him alms generously”?


Despite my strong will to watch asap, I only could manage last Sunday to watch Madhur Bhandarkar's another creation called 'Traffic Signal' painted with the same true and harsh colors of life.


Don't watch the movie if you are for 'entertainment'. Don’t watch if you wanna get amazed by Swiss exotic sceneries. Don’t waste your money if you wanna get ideas of latest fashion trends by hero and heroine’s outfits. Don’t spare your time if you are looking for the actions of muscled hero fighting single handed with evil forces.

Just like Chandani Bar, Page 3 and Corporate, this movie is a sheer hardcore icy image of truth. The naked truth which remains before our eyes all the day long but still we are blind towards this one.

This epic is only about a traffic signal , a signal at Kelkar Marg in Mumbai where two roads cross each other and where almost every passing vehicle carrying all types of persons halts for few seconds. And on these few seconds thousands of lives are nourishing. The beggars, hijras, small article sellers, rangoli maker, mobile snatcher, newspaper boy and various such people those who earn their bread from such traffic lights, are the sole wheel rotators of this story. This movie make you think that there are so many issues in the world we don't even realize that they exist even though we are very part of it.

The business of begging is growing to billions and is catered by gangsters and some corrupted politicians. The network is so sophisticated that a single traffic light manager reports to his local mentor bhai , that bhai to a mafia chief and he to big don in Dubai. Disable people from far away areas are throng is this trade and this trade is so easy, lucrative and flourishing that even healthy people are actually ready to get their limbs cut off. Not only that there are dirty doctors available for this job too. Mostly this place is a shelter of people who came to Mumbai in the hope of money and bread. There is guy from middle class family who act as a crazy dirty beggar and go to watch movie at multiplex. Main character is Silsilla (Kunal Khemu) who is an orphan and found himself on that signal since he got his senses. He is now manager of that signal and collects hafta from all these business persons.

Simply as Madhur’s tech there is not a single track but a blend of stories. Every character have his/her own story buried in its soul. There are some characters who touched me so real, one of them is Dominick (Ranveer Shorey), an educated young drug addict who cheats people for petty fifty or hundred bucks for his daily dose of smack, at a stage he appears so cunning and scoundrel but then when you see the pain in his eyes he will simply melt your anger. He mostly talks with his bare eyes in the whole movie. The second is Chinnaswamy Vedgiri alas Sunami, a young cute boy who survived tsunami and have lost his entire family. He collects rubbish from the roads and keeps spending his hard earned coins to call Tsunami Relief Camp in far south to get clue of the whereabouts of his missing family. He has no idea that all the members of his family are dead and some corrupted officers have grabbed his part of compensation. But his full of confidence eyes will urge you to hug him tightly. There are hijras who are irritated by fake and pretending hijras snatching their part of earning. And there is a pedestrian prostitute (Konkana Sen) who is stunned by the competition from a gay. A gigolo, traffic constable, executives calling people for new loan schemes, corrupt politician, gangsters, a rich socialite having chewing gum type sexy wife, and of course a sincere social worker Khadi, who cares for these assorted people are important part of this story. There is another boy who have passion to get his complexion fair and keep trying new fairness creams in the market.

Every word spoken in the movie has a big meaning hidden behind and there are many moments that can bring moisture in your eyes. The climax comes all of sudden and looks like not fairly done. But I can’t think of another idea for the same. Silsilla did what he could do to his best.

One will feel here that no matter how all these people look so dirty, filthy, ill mannered, uneducated or cheap but are not less humane, sensible and filled with emotions than us, or may be they are more human than us.

Just loved that song by Hariharan ‘Yeh Zindgi Hai to Kya Zindgi Hai’.

My Wish List ! # 1

In the light of:

“The only way to rid the country of corruption is to hang a few of you from the lamppost” said two judges bench of Supreme Court of India while hearing fodder scam on 6th March.

It is indeed a ventilation of anguish and frustration by the honorable justices and also reflects the state of mind of 'Aam Adami' of India in their ink.

I always feel uncomfortable with such incidents and tries to find out some 'Ram Baan' remedy for such cancer like troubles. Many thoughts keep floating my mind now and then, consciously or unconsciously. Sometimes I day dream of heading this country and taking extreme steps to change the face of our India. Sometimes I wish for some supernatural powers to eliminate evil elements of this country or sometimes I want to look out for a time machine and travel back in history to undo & edit wrong decisions of our rulers and politicians. I have countless wishes for betterment of my country, society, culture, religion and myself. Here is one........

Politics:

I want to have a chance to head a government department. I know asking for Prime Ministership is too bad idea. I wonder how people could write those essays of "If I was the Prime Minister", and if they really meant those words. The task of PM is most difficult and thankless. So I would like to start from a small department or ministry. I have many ideas for the development of various areas and I think they would be damn effective.

For an example, No one wanna take a glance on government run schools, they are in worst conditions. The buildings or infrastructure are in bad shape. The status and level of education is very low. No chance of sports or other activities is there. Even drinking water is not safe in those premises. A family with capacity would never admit their kids in those schools but only poor and helpless parents. So what is the solution?

Now if I had to head Education department and I had to uplift all the government schools in competition to so called prestigious public and convent schools, I would simply present a bill, forcing a mandatory law for all the government employees including a peon to IAS officer or MLA's or MP's to educate their kids only in government schools. In no case, education from other than 'sarkari' schools will be allowed. Dramatically, this bill will not enforce the law with immediate effect but will give at least a years time to come into existence. I am sure the faces of schools will be magically change in such period. All the persons attached to these schools will knew that their kids are gonna get education there so would deliver their best.

I am damn confident that in a record time all the sarkari schools would take numero uno position and sifarishs will change desks for these schools. Getting admission in these schools would be considered as a status symbol and long queues will be formed outside these institutions for admissions, in addition, principles and teachers would be given their due respect. Apart from performance, equality will be maintained and the turning of education into business by private players would be leashed. Sounds so simple, no? This formula can be applied in any department.

But the fact is that these 'Afsars' will get me out of my seat before that law comes in force.

to be continue.................

Meghdootem !

Blue Meghdoots took over Chandigarh sky last evening. As the last couple of days were getting too hot, these clouds and later rain in the night really helped dripping the mercury to ease the residents. Here is the view last evening I saw while serving as a driver for her to market :) .

Really a splendid view! Feeling Blue?

Joke of the week

This week's (sick) Joke :

After the murder of MP Sunil Mahto, Indian government has decided to tackle Naxalites 'More Strongly'.

Wow! I am so impressed..................................... Praney Yawns.

Missing You My Room

I got my separate room when I was in 5th standard and that luxury remained till I got married in 99.

Being a younger son of a bank officer, we had to pack our belongings almost every three years (some times even after one year) and head for an unknown city, unknown house, unknown school and unknown friends. Six different schools till tenth standard, what to say? Though initially it sounded fun but as I started growing up I started loosing the so called charm. Now I envy those guys who complete their entire school education in a single institution. Among many other reasons I think bachpan ki dosti remains forever. Anyway not to get away from my today's feelings, last evening while talking to Peggy, I bumped in the old memories of the royal days of my own room.

Obviously six different schools means six different cities and six different private rooms. All those different rooms are still loving, important and memorable to me in different ways and have different kinda memories warped in them. In a room I started writing my first diary (that's another thing that I never could maintain this hobby), In one room I got my first table lamp and I remember my vow of study hard under that table lamp (but I never could be very serious in my studies :) through out my life) I remember in the same room one day dad taught me how to write numbers in a row, I remember I hanged my dad's bullworker in my room though I was never able to press it. There was an air rifle on the other wall which I got from dad on my 10th birthday. I must have blown off thousands of bottles with that gun. In another room of Amritsar I started collecting stamps. This room was very beautiful at first floor with a view of main entrance. A teacher was arranged for my tuition and instead of learning mathematics from him I learnt to drive moped at his Luna. I must have read thousands of comics in that room as dad had arranged rented comics for me on monthly paying basis there. I remember decorating the walls of this rooms with the sketches of Chacha Choudhary, Saboo, Micky Mouse and Pluto drawn by me. And also tearing off some of them in a fight with elder brother. There are countess big and small memories tagged with these rooms.

But I actually realised the value of my room in my last days of high school and by the time I entered college I was almost in love with my room. 10' X 12' in size my room in Shimla had my whole world in it. With a big windows frame on one wall where one could view half of the city, other walls were covered with different posters and pictures of the persons I was inspired of. Arnold Schwarzenegger in standing pose of Commando and another of Predator, Bruce Willi's Die Hard poster, Black and white poster of Titan Fast track gal with curly hairstyle (I shamelessly begged that poster pasted in a shop of Titan dealer at The Mall,) a b/w poster of Madhubala (the only actress on my wall), a BMW Z1 two seater, BMW E32 convertible, a red Ferrari, two BMW motorcycles, a Harley, Dunlop tyre ad poster of knight rider bike, a MRF ad of a bike, Colour pencil sketches of Chattarpatti Shiva ji and Maharana Pratap drawn by me, another my drawing of a boy with an umbrella in rain with wordings "Rainy days doesn't matter as long as you are with me", a collage of family photographs, a kathakali mask I bought from Rameshwaram, a coffee coloured study table with straight back chair, on the wall facing that chair was diamond shaped dangles of Swami Vivekanand, Swami Ramkrishana Paramhans and Ma Sharda, a picture cutting of Indian Army commandos in action taken out of an edition of India Today, a wrapper of Cadbury's chocolate being edited "You are my sweet Fruit & Nuts" by her, books shelves filled with my all the books I could manage to save since my childhood, from 'Russi Lok Kathyen' to Fundamentals of Advance Accounting . A pair of dumbbells in a corner near my bhoomi aasan, a moderately large aquarium filled with pairs of Goldfish, Catfish, Silver Shark, Guppy, Angelfish, Barb and a all time sleeping snail. I think I had wasted too much money maintaining that aquarium. My room also had a cord nunchakus, a sword and a wooden stick for practising silambam. Apart from all above I can't forget my expensive Vega helmet, my Walkman, VHS collection of my favorite action movies, hundreds of my audio cassettes, my posters and sketches which I could not paste on the wall because there was no space left for them, jeans and shoes I loved so much, my lost watches and digital diary all affiliated with my room.

What were those days! I was very particular for my room and its cleanliness, I never had to buy that famous poster saying "cleanliness is next to impossible'. Every thing was at its perfect position. I even used to clean the posters on the walls and not even a single unwanted object was there in my room. But those are good old days. And now none of above thing exists in my today's room. Did I say 'My room'? Do I have my room any more? NO !

I miss you my room, really miss you so much!

Happy Holi

This finest Brij Kavit of Kavi Padmakar, where he narrates the playing of Holi (also known as Fag) of Gopies with Shri Krishna, surprisingly the main character here is not Prabhu but Gori (Radha), who took the hand of Krishna and take him in for Holi. Krishna who used to tease gopies is now being teased and his pitamber is being pulled by Gori. His is covered with abeer all over and his cheeks are red with gulal. Filled with at most love and affection he is seen off with urge of coming back again for next holi.

Wishing all there a happy and healthy Holi !

Apni Jholi Nahin Tatoli !

That’s what happening in our lives. We keep running and ruining our lives for the things we think are worlds greatest possessions and could not recognize the true valuables gifted to us by God.

Just like Dharitrashtra (and like today's political leaders who don’t wanna quit even at 80’s & 90’s of their age) we keep embracing Maya without considering right and wrong. I remember an example given by Great Swami Chinmayananda in one of his lecture on Ved. He said, “While working in office a desire of coffee arouse inside a person very commonly. But as he is too busy to fetch a cup, he ignores the first call. Again after sometime mind will ask “coffee” and again the person would ignore the will and continue his work. But after some more time the mind will start shouting, “Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee”. The person surrendering to his will would dial pantry for coffee. The Mind will remain restless and will not cool down until a cup of coffee reach the table. Person after taking a sip and realizing that it’s too hot to drink, will again indulge in his work. Now the satisfied Mind will not bother him to warn, ‘Ke coffee padi hai bhaiya, pe loo’ (Otherwise also the drinking of coffee will not make any kind of effect on the mind but only on body). Later after several minutes that person will suddenly realize of coffee lying at his table and will start drinking only to find it too cold to drink but thinking of unnecessary wastage he/she would drink it in a gulp.

So who enjoyed this cup of coffee, the Mind, who didn’t let the person work or the body, who didn’t even asked for it and then had to digest a cold bad tasted liquid? In other words the Body has to suffer for unworthy call of Mind. This is lust, lust of ? Nothing! How true!

Through out all the years of life, it does not matter how wise, ruminative or shrewd one is, at the evening of his life he realizes that he has earned nothing. He kept collecting and respecting the garbage of this world and do not possess even a single gem of the real treasures. But it’s too late to undo. We ourselves ruin our lives and look around to blame someone else.

I found this beautiful poem while turning pages of a magazine, written by Balveer Singh ‘Karun’, narrating the same universal bitter truth. I think this poem inspires us to sit down a while and think over the great valuables we already have with us and replenish our worthy life once again.

Shambuk = Snail

Paathey = Food for journey

Bhavitavyon = Destined

Niravaran = Without cover, nudity

Sursari = Ganga

Woh Apne Chehre Main

A beautiful Ghazal written by Hasrat Jaipuri. Ghulam Ali has given his melodious voice to this golden craft. One of the many famous from both of masters.


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Another Hit

One of the most enjoyed tune of Hindi Film Industry. Manohari Singh, a long lasting associate of Pancham Da performing famous Sholay title tune. Enjoy! (I bet Manish gonna enjoy this most)

Jab Dard Nahin Tha Seene Main

One of the greatest song of legendary Kishore Kumar and one of my favourite. Rajesh Khanna too did his best in this song. In 'Anurodh' his dear friend (Vinod Mehra) who used to write songs for Rajesh (a singer in the movie) was fighting with death at hospital and Rajesh had to perform for money to save his life. Irony is how you feel when you are in deepest grief and people applause on your performance. Great Job there by everyone.