Thursday, March 29, 2007
In addition.
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??
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Hi There !

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Bhaye Bin Hoye Na Preet !

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.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Accidents like love & marriage !

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’.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
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.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Chirag - E - Sahar


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)
Monday, March 19, 2007
Yeh Zindgi Hai To............

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’.
