Watching You !

I stood here every moment to see you glow !

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.

'The White Tiger' - Aravind Adiga

Just went through the another stinking version of 'Six Suspects". Only difference is that this time name of dirt hole is "The White Tiger" and prize winner is Aravind Adiga.

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:

What A Heart Wants ?

Those thoughts keep coming back every day now and then. Maybe those thoughts have never left me. May be it's deeply rooted in my DNA that keep surfacing with every this n that way.

Years back in around 1990 while I was roaming in Sangla valley of Kinnaur in Himachal along few friends, amid the small village of Sangla I came across a two roomed vocational training centre of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an organization dedicated for upliftment of people of tribal areas in India. That centre was providing vocational training to big girls and basic education to small children of near by villages. Only a duo of husband-wife in their late thirties was running the whole show. They both belonged from Bangalore in Karnataka thousands of miles away from that small village of Kinnaur. They both were well educated and had their respective jobs back there and had decided to give six months for the welfare of their country and were deputed here as part of their non-paying duty. Those two rooms were their part of world for those six months.

Those few hours spent with that couple were engraved on my mind forever. With the divine surroundings of Himalayas, flowing of Baspa river, always smiling innocent people, mystic temples and Deities within, yellow harvest dancing in the fields, small houses made of stone and wood are still afresh in my heart. Sitting alone on the bank of Baspa that time I dreamt of settling there forever. I didn't know even after many years that if it was a serious thought or was a temporary attraction of young immature teen aged mind.

But one thing is for sure true, that all of my life till now, mountains fascinates me. It was not only that couple who showed me the way but as above I wrote it is in my blood which is very easily provoked when ever I see mountains. A small house in the hills is what I dream of for my retirement. The hassle basal of daily life, unnecessary competition in business and social life, rat race of earning more and more only to maintain your metro status, watching other people's possession of 'brands' and watching other people watching your possession of 'brands' sicken me. When will this blind circle end ? When I am gonna to be at my place? The place I have always dream of, the place where only peace of mind prevails.

But there is one hidden fear also. The way I wail about this routine life, who can be sure of that I won't get sick of that life too? May be it's only my mind, a confused mind. They say you can not get the depth of some one's mind but here it seem true with my own mind. Or may be it's just only one colour among the millions others contained in my mind. Who knows? But no doubt this colour is what my heart is made of.

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.

Bye 2008 !

As pages of city edition of my newspaper are filled with the advertisements for the parties on the eve of New Year celebrations, there are also news of people & institutions who are not celebrating this year cause of Mumbai terror attacks.

Attacks, invasions or terrorism are not new for India. Starting 325 BC by Alexander, hundreds of different invaders crossed the borders of India till now. If to talk of Independent India, within 60 days of Independence we were attacked by Pakistan in October 1947. We have fought four wars since then and fighting indirect war of terrorism for more than two decades. But something is different this time. What's is that?

Indians are up against terrorism this time. Unlike their usual behaviour, they are refusing to forget and forgive. Large amount of Indians are still carrying utter taste of attack even after a month. We like it or not but a war like situation is there in the air. For the first time in history, Pakistan is appealing for peace. Amid the various crisis, India seems to be standing with head held high. There are many signs (which we could not see just like Bruce Nolan in Bruce Almighty) pointing towards the rise of Indians and of India.

Celebrations or no celebrations but all I pray for is, no Indian should ever let this wound of attack heel. Cause if we did, we will have to face & bear much more new wounds. Whatever we do, we should never let interests of India off from our view. Every pride or fall of our nation should be our personal pride or fall. This torch of nationalism should never die down and we all will see the predictions of Maharishi Arvind and calculations of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam come true.

I wish the start of India's era by the end of that year and end of our plight by the start of this year. I wish an endless start of wonderful time for all of us and above all for our loving India.

Afterthoughts of Aftermath !

No, I am not scared, I am not afraid of those terrorists or their unexpected bomb blasts. But yes, I am angry, I am very very furious .

Since 26th November midnight I kept glued to my TV, switching to different news channels, watching shamefully that blood boiling act of Jihadis. I saw those young terrorists roaming around in railway station and those who were in police van firing indiscriminately at Indians. I listened to one terrorist who called up a news channel and kept repeating his motives and motivations. I did not want to listen him, but I did, I wanted to snatch his words and gave him fitting reply but I couldn't. I wanted to crush him under my heel but I couldn't. I shamefully saw the fire in Taj, blasts in Trident, cries of various people trapped in the situation for long sixty hours. I am so ashamed that I could do nothing to protect my country, my home. I still feel so helpless that despite watching news I could not do anything.

Despite flooding with anger, frustration, provoked thoughts and counter plans, I could not write a single word since that day till now. I have always argued to people who criticise India or its system. Even agreeing to them in a corner of my heart I always pretended to oppose them as I never can support criticism of my loving country. I always hated people who say they don't like here, they don't like the system of this country or they don't wanna live here. I always tried to shut their mouths and if possible shut my links with such persons. But today, I feel like saying myself, "I am ashamed of being Indian". The reason? I think, had I been the citizen of US, there would have some value of my life. Someone would have taken avenge for my blood. But here in India there is never an "Aar ya Paar" thing but only words, words and mere words. Sometimes I think what in world should our enemies do that our government take some real strong steps? What is this world could be the sheerest slap on our face that we got up with rage and say now its enough? What on this earth can be the deadliest attack on our Nation that our leadership shout back that either we will take revenge or let the Indians be eliminated once for all?

Sadly, our enemies have tried everything, let it be the four invasions, decades long terrorism, lakhs of dead Indians, countless blasts, dozens of assassinations, attack on assemblies or even parliament, hijacking Indians planes, getting their arrested leaders released, freely roaming around and having capabilities of planting bomb anywhere anytime, they could not make blood boil of any of our leaders (irrespective of any political party) in these sixty years. Seems like our leaders never had any blood in there veins.

Now, when smoke is clearing in Mumbai, Indian government has performed its custom of issuing warnings, some resignations have been written and new promises have been made, Mumbai is getting back on its track like they say of its so called 'spirit'. Prevailing of normalcy can be seen by the revolt of Narayan Rane. The stray street dogs who were stunned and hiding with the impact of sudden blasts are now normal and have resumed barking and fighting over a piece of bone in the trash bin on the road.

The images of this terror attacks are now travelling in the world. Each picture shakes me up. Since 26th, my anger is holding back my tears within myself. But I don't wanna cry, I will not cry. I want to keep this salty water save in myself. I don't want to waste it. I am moved with the awakening of common Indian. I am touched and delighted with the movement of every Indian heart this time. I am happy that senses of common Indian people are live and that at least their blood is boiling. I am praying to God that please don't let that awakening die by the passage of time, I wish every Indian will not let these images fade off their hearts ever. Because if we Indians will keep this fire burning in our hearts, no one on this earth can eliminate us. No Jihadi can terrorise us. We will charge back at them with full force no matter how many bullets enter our chests or of our beloved ones. We will torn these rats apart.

After failing of our system, its time now to stand ourselves and protact our beloved India ourselves. I am still optimist, I still listen to my heart who is saying, " I am proud to be an Indian" !

Moveable God !

Sometimes for a change I play pool at yahoo games. At games I hardly involve in chatting but many a times other person seems cordial and we start chatting while playing. Yesterday too, I went to yahoo games after a long period, after couple of games I joined a table for a new game with new person. For some moments game went on silently and then the other person started talking and I responded while playing. Here are the exact words we two shared.

ABCD: Hello!
ME: Hi!
ABCD: asl please
ME: 34 m India, n u?
ABCD: 23 f usa (I am not sure he/she was telling truth or no but I think it was lie)
ABCD: r u Hindu?
ME: yup, u seems to know a lot bout India or u r the one?
ABCD: no, I am half American and half Italian
ME: Nice
ABCD: I attended classes on religion and read about all the main religions of world.
ABCD: pagwan !
ME: That sounds interesting (I was genuinely interested in her/his talks) and I think you meant by ‘Bhagwan’ :) !
ABCD: so you worship statue?
ME: (Feeling her real curious about Hinduism I thought of giving my best try to satisfy her curiosity) "Hinduism is very vast and wide way of living apart from religion, there is no restriction, you can worship any foam of God, be it a statue or as infinite."
ABCD: But one who can’t move itself, how can it help you?
ME: (I was surprised at his/her attitude) Religion and especially Hinduism is too large topic to be discussed here. (And to diversify the topic I said…) lol, is for you God is meant for help only? (I wrote ‘lol’ just to avoid any heated argument)
ABCD: I think statue and shit is same thing, they can’t move.

I was astonished and then pitying on that person, I could have started arguing about his religion but taking other person as a spoiled kid I remained calm. I was thinking may be that kid has seen some ‘God’ moving in his/her life and that able to move ‘God’ may have taught him to insult other religion.

ABCD: Shoooooooot! Shoooooot! Don’t stop playing!

I was tempted of asking him which God he have seen moving or to ask him of his religion or to tell him about the greatness of Hinduism but on the other hand I knew that he/she is a gone case and was a person of sick mind so decided to remain silent. I didn’t even want to leave in between as a quitter, so I kept playing without any more word for that person.

ABCD: So your ‘pagwan’ is shit.
ABCD: Take my shit and put it ‘in’ your god and worship it, you shit worshippers.

Keeping my patience, I pocketed the black ball to win the game and that person took no time to leave the table.

I lost my interest in any more games and left the room. But I was thinking sadly what provoked that guy? The way that person vomited rubbish, how much idea could he had of any religion and he said he attended religious classes?

I never argue religion with anyone on or off net cause I don’t have to prove anything to anybody and more importantly, ‘Hinduism’ have taught me to respect all the religions. I am not attached to any particular way of worship as I strongly feel God within my heart and soul. But very politely I want to tell such kind of creatures that it is only ‘Hinduism’ in the whole world which gracefully gave shelter and passage to all the religions in India (without worrying how they behaved in return) and it is the only Hinduism which was never involved in any kind of Crusade or holy wars or to capture or convert others like all the major religions of rest of the world and cultures. Any person of healthy mind cannot deny that apart being the oldest religion, Hinduism is very polite, tolerant, forbearing, enduring, and full of freedom.

No doubt my endurance with that sick person was cause of Hinduism only. My request for such creatures: "Please wear this batch always!"

Morning Raga

I was simply astonished. For me heaven is here at places like that only. Watching ‘Morning Raga’ in between much tensed one day cricket match between Indian & England yesterday gave me opportunity to inhale the glorious colors of Andhra Pradesh villages.

Though story was interesting either but I could not watch the entire movie and otherwise also I don’t wanna talk about the story here right now but the views that movie has holding within.

In a word it was breath-holding. The perfect mixture of vibrant colors, waters, sky, Saries, red chilies, coconut trees, old styled Indian village houses using exotic colors for decoration, lush green plantation and the rhythm of Karnataka Sangeet took my heart away. Till now I never realized that Andhara have such beautiful locations. Despite some net search about the exact location of the place all I could find was a name of some Kulla estates but nothing more. But it does not matter as I already have decided to be there once at least with my SLR this way or that, today or tomorrow.

Wanna ride ?

इस स्वतंत्रता का "स्व" कहॉ ?

Today is the day of joy and sorrow. Sorrow cause, we not only got independence from the British Raj but also lost a major part of our country in the partition.

Not only this, but once upon a time Bharatvarsh used to be a country with Ghandhar (now Kandhar), Dard & Kamboj (now part of Afghanistan), Bhu Utthan (now Bhutan), Trivishtap (now Tibet), Nepal, Brahamdesh (now Myanmar), Bengal (now Bangladesh), Sind and Punjab (now in Pakistan) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) as integral parts. But by the passage of time and due to tactics of various invaders, these areas and people kept parting from India at different periods. Not going very back in the past, still a large part of Kashmir is under Pakistan and another large area of Aksai Chin is held by China.

This is a day to ruminate, that do we have right to sing our national anthem which includes, Punjab, Sind, Bengal as parts of India? And is everything alright across our beloved country? We are celebrating this day under the thick sheet of terror and threats.

Though there are lot of reasons and fields to celebrate about this day but this handicapped and mutilated body of our Bharatmata is demanding us something. Something like if we could not keep our country integrated in the past, at least now we should take care. At least this time we should say India will be divided over my dead body and really mean it unlike 1947 when great leader used to say these words in crowded rallies but never meant those words.

Vande Mataram!

(A very old poem from an unknown poet)

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.

Ups & Downs

After Hrishikesh Da, Naushad and Anil Biswas, another great face of Indian film industry faded away. Musical genius OP Nayyer composed songs which helped Indians to relax and took worries off their heads when ever they were lonely and in down spirits. Who’s gonna follow their footsteps?

Whatever it was behind the scene I feel happy for Shilpa’s to take ride on Big Brother.

Men in Blue clinched the series beating West Indies, Tendulkar came back convincingly, so did Ganguly.

Tata bags Anglo Dutch steel giant Corus for 12.1 Billion dollars. Keep its up guys.

No more Sidney Sheldon’s, the magician of words is gone for magician of worlds.

Shabash ISRO !

Another reason of celebration. Another giant leap in space technology. On 10th of January, after successfully launching PSLV C7 carrying four satellites in 635 km high orbit, India became the elite fourth nation to perform such super tech launches.

For the first time the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is carrying out a new experiment in which a 550 kg capsule (SRE-I) will return to the Earth after 15 days and can be reused.

After the failure of GSLV in July last year, it is indeed a double jubilation.

India has faced many obstacles to achieve such heights. But these obstacles always gave inspiration to India to create its own way. I remember in early 90's when Uncle Sam (USA) refused to give super computer to India, our scientists developed their own super computer named 'Param' which was 3 to 4 times better and faster than to America's. Not only that later our boys created Param I, II, and III also. (We have stopped counting now).

Likewise, almost same time Russia in American pressure refused to sell Cryogenic engines to India for ISRO. Amid the Indians worries, in an interview at Doordarshan the host asked then ISRO chief that why don't you produce such engine yourself? I still remember the shine of confidence on the face of ISRO chief who replied, "A corner restaurant is selling tasty and cheap dosa. What is the need for us of doing so much of effort and time waste to prepare at home?? But if the restaurant guys raising conditions or selling too costly, we are always free to cook our own. Who can stop us?" Bravo ISRO , no one can stop you!

Here are two lines from Jagjit's ghazal for ISRO and all of its team.

Hum to dariya hain, hamain apna hunar maloom hai,
jis taraf bhi chal padainge, rasta ho jayega !!

Niyudh or Martial Art

A gift to modern world, Martial Art, art of self defense without weapons or bare hands was truly from Ancient India. Call it Niyudh or martial art, it was necessary part of the training of Kshatriya soldiers. This art includes from hand to hand combat to defense yourself empty handed against any kind of weapon or with weapons like lathi, sword, spear or uruumi.

Kalaripayattu, 3000 years old and world’s oldest martial art technique is still a popular and respected art in Kerala in south India. A Brahman named Bodhidharma from Kacheepuram, Tamilnadu in 522 AD founded Zen Buddhism in China and taught Kalaripayattu to Chinese and Japanese Buddhist monks. The famous Chinese martial art is believed to be originated from Kalaripayattu itself. The renowned Shaolin Temple in Henan, China has wall painting showing an Indian monk teaching martial art to Chinese monks. The clear description has also written in Chinese under it.

Kalaripayattu has various branches mainly Meithari, Kolthari, Ankathari, Verumkai, Vadivu and Chuvatu. Different kinds of weapons are used by Kalari practitioner.