Renukaji Lake !

After a long domestic parliament debate, finally it was decided to visit Renukaji Lake for last weekend.

Nearly 100 km from Chandigarh, Renukaji Lake is the largest natural lake of Himachal Pradesh. Fed by various underground springs in the Shivalik hill of Sirmour, Renukaji lake is shaped in a profile of a reclining woman considering a personification of goddess Renukaji, wife of sage Jamadagini and mother of Lord Parshuram one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

As per legend, Sahasarjuna, an evil spirit, killed sage Jamadagini and tried to abduct his wife Renuka. With no escape in sight she flung into the waters of lake. The gods resorted her to life and lake began to be regarded as the embodiment of Renukaji.

The lake in the valley is surrounded by dense forest and a mini wild life sanctuary including a lion safari. The tourism and forest department has maintained the place well and has given a motorable road to encircle lake for spiritual purpose or for close glimpse of wild life and thick forest. The tourism hotel just at the bank of lake is a fantastic place to admire the view and relax from daily jhick chick.

The lake is deep, large and filled with uncountable fishes and tortoises. One end of the lake is covered with thousands of Lotus flowers giving impression of heavenly place. I really missed my long pending desire of owning a Sony H5 SLR and had to satisfy with my four years old poor 2.1 MP digi cam. Here are few shots.

View of Lake from left bank.

View from right bank.

The Valley.

Thousands of Pink Lotus flowers resting on the water.

Lord Parshuram Temple.

Traditional 'Nagara' at temple.

Having lunch without any fear.

A fruit called 'Khajoor' on the tree.

The banana tree on the way to lake.

Renukaji Hotel.

The Pursuit of Happyness !

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, third president of USA in the 'Declaration of Independence', "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", the last words amused Chris Gardner very strongly. Why did he mention 'Pursuit of Happiness’ instead of 'Happiness'? How Jefferson knew?

Based on a true story, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) was a distressed salesman struggling hard to sell medical equipment to doctors who consider that machine useless, too costly and not worthy. Unpaid house rent, various bills, taxes, tickets and his only six years old son Christopher's (Jaden Christopher Smith) day care center fees were few of many monsters eating out happiness of Gardner family. One day some one at the street suggested him to work as stock broker if he was good with people and numbers but that too required six weeks internship without any pay or any assured job at the end of successful internship. As if this was not enough his wife left him cause of this struggled life. Now Gardner was alone with his dear son and his machines and a dream to pursue for a better life for two of them.

The internship passes through the worst conditions including being thrown out of his apartment then from motel or freezing his bank accounts by tax departments or spending night on the floor of a rest room of a metro station. There were no ups and downs in the life of Chris Gardner but only downs. Good news even turns out to be bad ones and there was no hope left. But Chris was determined as was his love for his son. He never stopped trying.

Real life father son duo showed best of their continuity on reel too. Their emotions and affection for each other shakes you strongly. And a dedicated pursuit by Gardner’s surely motivates.

A must watch movie. And if you are member of my club, watch the movie alone and keep a hankie within the reach.

She is ................ !

My Apologies !

Whew !

I never meant that ! I never realised this would divert like that. I am being 'misunderstood'. But even if I am taken wrongly by my all dearest friends, I accept that it is solely my mistake. I could not choose right words for my expressions.

As I wrote in Yeh Jeevan, I feel, feeling low is an obvious human nature. Sometimes all of us want to be alone and in Do-not-disturb mode. And we all surrounded by negative thoughts. The poem came exclusively out of those feelings. The other thoughts I wrote only next morning describing the reason why I wrote this poem. But again I accept that may be , no no, not may be but surely I was driven away unknowingly into so negative tell tale. I think the Doordarshan story sparked all my dear friends, especially Nony. I don't really know who wrote what as everybody has written anonymously, but I have got the message from you guys.

I mentioned occasionally that I am not a quitter or I can fight very well or 'Na Danyam Na Palayanam' is my mantra. So there can not even a slightest thought of running away. But as above said, I could not express myself well so it was my fault. After all I am not very good at words and have no idea which of my word would make what effect on the people who care for me.

But one good thing which came out of this post is, I have now clear idea how much love my friends here have for me. Thank you all my dear friends for your sweet scoldings and I assure you this will not happen again from my side.

Yeh Jeevan !

This happens very commonly to me. I don't know the same thing occurs to others or not. But I am very familiar to these feelings. These feelings are 'Low Spirits'. It may happen to me at any time in the day or night. Some times I woke up with very heavy heart, sometimes my happiness sunk with the sun in the evenings. Everything appears like useless and worthless. I don't wanna talk to anybody or let's say there is no one around whom I would like to talk with.

The reason of these feelings is always untraceable. I tried many times to work out the exact reason causing such what-the-hell feelings but always ends up empty handed. What could it be? How many factors are influencing my life ? Or others life? Business/Job or family/ to be family? I don't see any other reason. But ups and downs do keep on coming and going. It is obvious. Why such damping mood? It grips me without my knowledge and turns me into a alone, starving, thirsty, lost & home sick voyager in the desert storm. Home sick? But I am at home already then why home sick? What do heart wants? Where do mind wanna go? What is my soul crying for? These are irritating, always challenging & unanswered questions blocking my way in front of me. Some times I wish there should be a machine with all the meters and displays which could detect the reason of my restlessness. Sometimes I think of finding a true Guru who could lead me the way, though I am not a very spiritual person. But I also know there is no such device invented so far and even finding true Guru is not less than any rigorous woes.

But sometimes I feel these 'Low Spirits' are my true friend, never leaving me alone. But this friend is a mean friend which made me a lonely, reserved, do-not-disturb and highly inflammable person. The thought of running away from this world to some snow clad cave engulf me. But I don't even wanna wear a stamp of quitter on my back. A poem of Atal ji, "Na Danyam Na Palayanam" is my mantra too. I can fight very well, physically or mentally but still I don't want to.

These are strange feelings just like one feels at the time of Deja Vu. Last night again I was going through such spirits and these thoughts came in this shape of this poem.

Read My Eyes !

This is what she told me last night when she came to my dream.

The Music Tag !

The reason for not writing this post so long…………………First time in the ten years of using computers, last Monday the hard disk of my three years old dear laptop crashed down. Apart from my valuable data of accounts, mails, contacts, documents, files, precious photographs and my effortful collections of around 10GB music data was vanished without any traces of smoke. And there was not at all back up by yours truly. So you can imagine, even the idea of music was sending shivering waves inside me.

The reason of writing this post now………………. One of not at all old friend Rajinder voluntarily offered a helping hand to make try retrieving data from the damaged disk and kept trying for so many days, keeping me dangling in between hope and disappointment. On the other hand, the entirely empty and formatted new hard disk in my laptop was giving feelings like mocking me until yesterday when Rajinder called and informed me cheerfully that he has not only retrieved the whole data but made the disk working like new again. So now when I have found my precious belongings back and a sharp lesson to keep back up of valuable data, after creating a back up, writing this post was my immediate second action.

Juneli rightly wrote while tagging me that I love ‘senti’ songs. Simply cause I am senti person. I love music, good music I mean. My philosophy of music is that the sound should reach your heart and not feet. Though different moods would differentiate my favorite list but in general I like classical, Sufi, slow and easy listening. Surly I love to sing loudly some fast numbers too when in juvenile mood.

Being Gemini, a sign of versatility, I wanted to have mastery in endless fields, (but always end up with the apt proverb ‘jack of all, master of none’) music is one of them. My liking or disliking of songs came from mind and heart mostly. It could be good wording, good music by any known or unknown singing artist. That’s why sometimes I love to mumble even TV commercials, no matter even if they are single lined. The one these days I like very much is ad of Reliance mobile phone’s "Baatton baatton main rang aa gaye hain, jab se baatton main rang chaa gaye hain." There are many other ads I love to sing along since my childhood.

Here I wanna frankly accept that mostly I can’t keep exact and accurate track of songs by their lyrists or composers but by their singers. I adore classical or Sufi singers and always try to sing along those songs. As I wrote in my profile, it is very very difficult for my to list down a few numbers or singers I like most or I could classify. The list keeps on shuffling and adding. But still I am trying my best to complete this post.

Your favorite lyricist and lyrics you remember the most.


Again a difficult question, there are endless those people who have written marvelous poems. To name a few:

Gulzar,
Pardeep
Shailander
Sahir Ludhianvi
Indeevar
Neeraj
Majrooh Sultanpuri
Kamal Amrohi
Kafi Azami

Shakeel Badayuni
And many many more

Your favorite song on friendship

Diye Jalte Hain..... by Kishore Kumar in NamakHaraam

Best song(s) portraying life’s emotions:

O Manjhi Re.......Kishore in Khooshbau
Tujh Se Naraz Nahin Zindgi.......Lata in Masoom

Which song you are humming today:

Not only today but since past some days.

In Dino.......from Movie ‘Life in a metro’ sung by Soham and music by Pritam.

Also playing at my page.

One song which bring tears to your eyes:

There are many.

Wahan Kon Hai Tera Musafir.......SD Burman in Guide
Jane Woh Kaise Log The Jin Ke.......Manna Dey in Pyassa
Main Shayar Badnaam.......by Kishore Kumar in Namak Haraam
Jab Dard Nahin Tha Seene Main.......Kishore Kumar in Anurodh
Koi Hota Jis Ko Apna.......Kishore , Gulzar and Salil Da in Mere Apne
Kasme Wade Pyar Wafa Sab........Manna De In Upkar
Chamkte Chand ko.......Ghulam Ali in Aawargi

A song which gives you hope, a reason to try again and again, a reason to say that life is beautiful:

Chala Jata Hoon........by Kisore Kumar
Khoya Khoya Chand......by Mohd Rafi

When you want to be with yourself, silent and content with music, which song would that be ?

Jalte Hain Jis Ke Liye......by Talat Mahmood in Sujata
Chord Aaye Hum Woh Galiyaan......from Maachis by Gulzar
Na Hum Tumhe Jaane........Hemant Kumar by SD Burman in Baat Ek Raat Ki
Hum Bekudi Main Tum.........Mohd Rafi , SD Burman in Kaala Pani
Badi Suni Suni Hai.........by Kishore Da in Mili


If you have to express love to someone with a song, which would that be?

Palken Jhokao Na........by Adnan Sami in Sehar
Jiya Dhadak Dhadak Jaye.........by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan from Kalyug
Tu Aashqui Hai............ from Jhankar Beats

Five songs you listen to most:

Koi Sagar Dil Ko..........Mohd Rafi in Dil Diya Dard Liya
Ya Rabba.........Kailash Khair
Rafta Rafta Woh Meri........Gulam Ali
Chandan Sa Badan........Mukesh from Saraswati Chandra
Hazur Is Kadar Bhi Na........Bhupinder Singh / Suresh Wadekar in Masoom


A song for the person who tagged you… Juneli

Aao Twist Karen Ga Utha Mausam.......By Manna Dey in Bhoot Bangla


Still there could be many more numbers I think but it is really tough.

I hope you kidding !

Thanks Ram for this beautiful pic !

जाने कब वो आयेंगे !

In continuity with 'Just Another Feelings".

Tishay Raag !

These days Tishay concentrating on daily 'Riyaz' of classical raags. Whenever possible he would start alaap in 'pancham saver'. Today he was caught in action while performing in the arms of his daddi. Enjoy free of cost before he start demanding money for his performances. होनहार बिरवान के ................. !

(Put speakers on and pause the "Enjoy what I play for you" for better results :)