The Player...........

The magical pair of hands of Vijay Ghate, who accompanied Pandit Jasraj at concert.

Live With Legendary Pandit Jasraj !

Spellbound! Memorable! Time stopper! What else one can call such a performance? Even at the age of 80, Padmavibhushan Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj was in his best moods when he recited different ragas at Tagore Theater in Chandigarh on 14th April.

Pandit ji started with ‘Manglam Bhagwan Vishsu’ and enthralled the audience with Mahakali Stuti, Ganga Lahari and Shankra. I don’t think even a single person in that jam packed theatre would have realised how the time flew and sat hypnotised during the two & half hour long concert of Pandit Ji. People of every age and from every walk of life were present and occupied every seat, stair, passage and corner of the theatre. Jugalbandi of Vijay Ghate at Tabla and Sridhar Parthasarthi on Maridangam won huge applause from the audience.

For me, singing along Pandit Jasraj playing in my car is a routine but singing Ganga Lahiri (Luckly I remember it by heart) live with Pandit ji was too thrilling. This performance was no doubt a cool breather in the hot, humid and tiring summer days. This can be measured by this way that even Vande who usually keeps away from Classical Sangeet, enjoyed this concert and thanked me for bringing her along.

Eagerly waiting for another such breather and this time I would carry a much faster and much bigger zoom lens with me.

Koteshwar Mahadev

The Deity was dancing with the beats of drums and tunes of other musical instruments. On the shoulders on his devotees his colourful palanquin was swinging to & fro, up & down and left & right. These palanquins are not very big or with covering, these are open one just like big stools with four horizontal wooden poles to be carried by devotees. But these are beautifully decorated with mostly blood red coloured clothes. On the top rested main idol of the face of Deity made of eight different metals. This one is profoundly decorated with garlands of scented flowers and of coins, various ornaments, golden crown and with a gold umbrella. Beneath this main idol, lined up are other various idol of same Koteshwar Mahadev. One can easily judge the peace, happiness and eternal satisfaction on the face of Devataa (Deity). It seems that people who are carrying the palanquin are themselves maneuvering it but it is said that it is Devataa himself who drives the palanquin. All the four palanquins were moving all around the fair ground which was already filled more than capacity with humble devotees of Koteshwar Mahadev. People of every caste, age and sex were present and glorifying the fair. Young and old residents of Kumarsain were coming before palanquins to carry them and were feeling lucky to get a chance even for few seconds.

I was watching the entire proceedings with devotion, excitement and curiosity. The festivity was enhanced by grey clouds and then by rain. Air was filled with devotion towards Koteshwar Mahadev who is believed to be scared soul blessed by Lord Shiva himself and one is considered King of the area of Kumarsain, a small town around seventy five kilometers up north from Shimla, capital of Himachal Pradesh. For the devotees, this Deity is not some "God" but just like their beloved family member for whom they have extreme love and respect and the one who have blessings of God to fulfill their big or small requirement or to erase their day to day problems. For them this Deity is in constant touch with its people either by dreams or through his 'Gur" the main priest. The occasion was the local festival which comes after every four years when Koteshwar Mahadev would meet his other loving deities, Marechh and Malendu Devtaa. I spent last two days at that festival and was lucky to witness the farewell of all other deities from Koteshwar. Just like young kids those departing Devtaa were so reluctant to leave that their palanquins would not let its bearers take the exit route even when Koteshwar Mahadev himself was waiting at the end of road to see them off. Only the interruption of oldest 'Gur' made them ready to leave for another four years. The festival ended with the 'Nati' (local dance) by the people of Kumarsain. The charm on the faces of idols of Devtaa seem faded a bit cause of this departing.

More pics are available at:

Happy Ashok Chakra Day !

Unlike every year this day, watching the show of 'Might of India' at Rajpath didn't let me have feel of pride for my country. Instead my heart is thickly covered by clouds of gloom and despair .

What are these Bramhos or Agni or Bhishma missiles are worth of ? What is the use of wasting money on all these weaponry ? What can a gun do if the hands handling it are not capable of pressing a trigger ? Our leaders are weak, sick and compromising. Our media is cynical and is interested only in numbers of circulation and TRP.

An Academy or Oscar award is more than enough for the people of this country to forget every slap & insult on them and dance madly on the eve of "Fight Against Terrorism". Indeed we all are Slumdogs and many of them are millionaires. Insensitive, incapable, without any self respect and ready to be crushed by any Jihadi like a stinking worm. Thanks to our DNA, the momentary anger of Indians after 26/11 is vaporised completely.

I am not a war freak but thinks, a country of 7 millions Israel, is far batter than the country of 2 billions who rocked the whole world on the killings of it's merely 10 citizens. Here leave the physical war away, the country of Chanakya has even lost the diplomatic war against Pakistan. "All options are open" boasting ministers are endlessly waiting other countries to do laundry for India. And with PM going for medical leave for another month have thrown the issue of Mumbai attacks forever into trash bin.

People here are more sensitive to save so called secularism than the safety and honour of India & Indians even if it means the burial of whole country by the hands of Islamic terrorism. Here enough is never enough. We are once again ready for another attack at another place. This is what spineless creatures are worth of. Our defence and home ministries should be re fabricated for writing dialogues in Hindi cinema. DRDO, ISRO and Ordinance factories should stop producing all these missiles or tanks and should start mass production of Ashok Chakra to be presented to Indians posthumously on every republic day. Because there will be no stopping on such award ceremonies ever.

Come on Jihadis come on ! We are again ready to be humiliated and killed by your holy hands.

Happy Diwali

"Wishing all a very Happy Deepawali"

Happy New Year 2065 !

Though a bad news of Vande's dad expiring came on very morning of very first day of this Hindu new year, I still wish for a happy and prosperous year।

Mostly this event goes away silently without much hip-hop unlikely Christian new year celebrations. A lot about this festival is roaming in my mind right now but as being too tired, may be I would try to write it down in coming posts. Till then may Shri Prabhu bless all on this new year.

Shubh Deepawali

Wishing everyone a very joyful, prosperous and fortunate Deepawali.

मंगलमय बैसाखी व नव वर्ष ॥

Though I celebrated new year on 19th March, some part of India (and Juneli) celebrating new year today. So I am just pouring in my wishes. Among the joy, freedom and prosperity of Baisakhi, let's not forget formation of Khalsa panth and massacre of Jallianwala Bagh on this marry making day. Have Fun !!

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.

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 !

'Rag Basant'

Damn I am loosing my nerves.

In the rare and real celebration of Basant, Shubha Mudgal was to perform in the town on the invitation of Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Academy on the eve of Basant Panchmi. The news sparked me up like always and I decided to be there at any cost.

I always take such decisions whenever I came to know about such events. As Chandigarh is getting one of the most happening places both ways. Artists I adore are performing here now and then. But unfortunately most of the time I miss them this or that way. To be a part of mad crowd in free entry is not my piece of cake. Passes are only for VIP’s and they too are making money outta this these days (As happened in Mohali test matches last year) and tickets for the artists I adore are always too expensive. (Is this cause I like rare performers?) So I was telling, like always I made my mind to be there for Shubha Mudgal. But obviously entry was with invitation only and as I was not VIP and had to manage a pass (not two, cause she never likes such classical).

I know how many calls I made for a pass in my circle. Some of my business parties were in advertising field and a wishful thinking was hovering over me that at least one of them would get a pass for me from any sponsor. But ha, no one was sponsoring that event or at least we had no idea. Two days were gone and by the day of concert all the hopes were vanished. As I was trying to make myself understand for the lose, a call in the noon from a friend Naveen helped me to grab a reason and told me to be home early as he would visit with his wife to see Raavi. Fine, now I had a reason to tell why I could not watch Shubha performing.

But that was not my day. And to make my remaining day more spicy, destiny urged Naveen to call again only to inform that he had to visit somewhere else and could not visit me. Fine enough, I paid a visit to another friend Ameesh who was slightly injured in a minor bike accident.

Some how the day was gone. Today morning as usual I went for my routine work out. And on the way back I stopped at another friend’s house for tea and I picked up the paper just to make my heart bounce to my mouth. A fabulous picture of Shubha performing at stage was there on the front page. The picture greeted me a ‘very good morning’ and I was again carrying a long face. The friend saw my expression and asked the reason. When I told him the tragedy I faced earlier day he jerked his head like I was a stupid and said ‘You crazy? Don’t you know ‘he’ had plenty of passes lying with him?” ‘Who he?’ I jumped off the sofa and shouted. “Naveen, who else’ he replied carelessly biting a pinni and sipping tea, ‘being office bearer of Sanskar Bharti he always get passes of such events.”

Damn you! What was I supposed to say? Immediately I called up Naveen and asked if this was true. “What do you think why I cancelled the visit to your place? It got off my mind while making program to your home and when I recalled I called you up for cancellation. So you mean you were interested? In fact I had duty to perform there and I was just at the gate to attend some people in theater when I called you.” He was more excited than me.

I was not in position to narrate him how I felt and I am not in position to write here either. But as Naveen told me and what paper wrote, it was really a captivating performance. Shubha presented compositions based on Rag Basant and Rag Bahar Bageshwari and appeared to be at her best. The concert was well attended by people who managed to add yellow in their dressings to celebrate the euphoric Basant and dedication to Ma Saraswati. ‘Indeed this was an unforgettable evening for me’ he said.

Never mind Naveen, this was indeed an ‘unforgettable day’ for me too. But the good part is that Naveen promised me to send every pass he would receive for such spirited occasion in future. May be that is going to get real spirit of Basant for me.

Damn I am loosing my nerves again. Just can’t wait for another such evening to be a part of.

Kati Patang !

Basant is here again.

I read that some schools and collages are celebrating this festival by declaring ‘Basant Princess’ and ‘Basant Queen’ among the students. Great! The ‘Bazarisum’ has not spared anyone. This is purely an exercise of doing something different than other competing schools and not a true celebration. I don’t think students even aware that this is day of Ma Saraswati and people are supposed to wear yellow on this auspicious day. Thanks to globalization these festivals sooner or later are going to be member of museums and parts of the books of ancient history and ‘festivals’ like Valentine’s day and Thanksgiving would take place of them.

Thinking of golden past, (past is always golden even if one had less money to spend on very few options in those days) this sounds weird but even after spending seven years of school age at a place where kite flying runs in the blood of people I never got chance to fly a kite. I was always busy in other activities. Basant is synonymous with Kite Flying. This game was a passion in Punjab especially the border town of Batala, the place I am talking about. Boys would spend all the day on the rooftop during this day. And Basant Panchmi was never less than today’s final match of any cricket world cup for those guys.

They would leave their beds at four in chilling morning and run for roof with their kites and spool of string. Not to mention kites were procured weeks before and threads were specially designed and seasoned. I remember my young friends narrating me the contents of the solution for strengthening string which includes gum, glass powder and ‘mythologically’ pigeon dropping.

Kite flying was never an easy sport and the players of this sport considered them as warriors and would proudly show their injured index fingers with multiple cuts caused by sharp thread while contesting their kites with opponents, trying to cut the other kite loose. Kites and thread spools were like armours and weapons for these warriors. Loudspeakers were installed at the rooftops and challenges were thrown to neighboring warriors. The players would include from age six to sixty. I remember the scene of sky filled with thousands of kites looking like those colored patches holding the sky high and if those kites are withdrawn the sky would fell down.

Down in the street groups of small children with hawk eyes would stay alert like rapid action forces to launch attack for grabbing loose kites and thread. The event would go on for all the day till dark. The warriors would have their breakfast and lunch only at the roof with spools in hand and eyes at sky just like famous Rajput yodha Durga Dass Rathore not getting off his horse for many days in the war field.

But those were good old days. Scene is totally changed now. Kite flying is considered very ‘lower middle class’ these days. Kite shops are gone and kite makers have adopted other ways to earn bread. Very few people are familiar with this festival.

The only community which celebrate all the festivals are traders. They will not loose a chance to put on sale and take advantage of such festivals. These days we came to know about festivals only by the sale ads in the papers. Thanks to them all the festivals look like same. The same stuff is being sold in the markets. There is no difference in Diwali and Republic day. While everything seems stereotype you can’t have the true happiness.

As I wrote earlier I never flew a kite but still I wanted this sport to remain live and Basant (and all our festivals) to be celebrated in true spirit. Don’t know why. May be I am orthodox.