Sabko Saal Mubarak

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Memories Of Midnight

No friends, this one is not as suggestive as it may sound from the heading, but yes it has something to do with the famous Sydney Sheldon novel of the same name.

That day, I went to a book store and saw this book lying unattended there. It reminded me of(besides its characters Catherine Alexander, Constantin Demiris, Napoleon Chotas, Tony Rizzoli etc) a particularly funny incident which happened with me when I came across this book for the first time.

Funny at hindsight , but not so funny at that time. It could have been a disaster.

We had just finished our ICSE(X) exams, and also had our farewell party. Until then, we had read only the goody books present in our school library like The Three Investigators series, The Hardy Boys series, The Adventures Of Sherlock Homes etc, and we had devoured almost all of them. I personally junked The Famous Five pretty early because for half the time in the book, they would keep on picnicking.

Just as we were given farewell party our adorable English teacher decided to present the select few of us some English fiction books which weren't exactly meant for boys. But then we had grown up, so she thought we should grow up on the books we read too. Bless her.

So she bought the books like Memories of Midnight, The Doomsday Conspiracy, The Eagle Has Flown etc and distributed amongst some of us at the party.

The first one I read was Memories Of Midnight. Those were the times when reading English books, and watching English movies automatically brought a stigma along with it. It wasn't exactly a taboo, but certainly a few eyebrows would raise here and there.

As those who know Sheldon, sleaze has always been a definitive part of his literature, and this book was no exception. Contrary to what the name suggests, this is not an out an out porn book. Those memories of midnight are about some nightmares the protagonists goes through, and not sleaze. However, the prologue itself had some adult content.

I had just started to read this book, when one of my maternal uncles came for a visit. He is an English teacher in an intermediate college, and takes his profession a little too seriously. He really couldn't ever come out of the teacher in him even when he was out of classroom. Even today, he talks to everyone as if he is taking a class, even to my mother who is older to him by an year.

He caught hold of the book, and when he saw the heading, he got the same expression which you all must have got seeing the heading of the post. As one would expect, the lecture started.

This book is not for the boys of my age ?
But it has been presented by my school teacher!
I wonder how a school teacher can present this?
But the book's name is misleading.
Still.. ok let me see.

As he started perusing the prologue, I panicked. He finished two pages and until then the book was safe, but the third page had it, and I knew I would be killed. Then suddenly Papa said something to him which distracted his attention, and his grip on the book got slackened. I quickly slipped the book out of his hand, and immediately left the room.

That book was tucked under the Almirah for a good two days. These were my memories from this book. For those who haven't read it, its a good book to read, along with its prequel - The Other Side Of Midnight.

देश में निकला होगा चाँद

The first Gazhal is by Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza - देश में निकला होगा चाँद. I don't remember the whole Gazhal therefore this partial reproduction.

The Nazm it self is heart wrenching stuff, and has used Tatbhav form of Hindi. The theme is my familiar them. I bet, even without melancholy mood, this song will give you the ample reason to cry. Chand, of course, is a metaphor for beloved.

To explain more would be to repeat, because there is nothing to expalin. The song is self expressive, and needless to say - I am missing home.

हम तो हैं परदेस में देस में निकला होगा चाँद
अपनी रात की छत पे कितना तनहा होगा चाँद।

चाँद बिना हर शब यों बीती जैसे युग बीते
मेरे बिना किस हाल में होगा कैसा होगा चाँद।

आ पिया मोरे नैनन में मैं पलक ढाँप तोहे लूँ
ना मैं देखूँ और को, ना तोहे देखन दूँ।

जिन आँखों में काजल बन कर तैरी काली रात
उन आँखों में आँसू का इक कतरा होगा चान्द।

रात ने ऐसा पेंच लगाया टूटी हाथ से डोर
आँगन वाले नीम में जाकर अटका होगा चाँद।

Children Poems

The first one Badhe Chalo is by Dwarika Prasad Maheshwari. This one is from my Class IV Hindi syllabus book called Gyan Bharti. There were five volumes of this book each prescribed from Class I to Class V.

There is a slight mistake at line 10, but still its a nice memory trip.



The next one Paisa Paas Hota is by Nirankar Deo 'Sewak'. I like it for its sheer naughtiness, especially in the last stanza - Daant Toot Jata To Bada Maza Aata .

Jaan Bachi Lakhon Pai ..

(Click Image To Enlarge)

Aryan loves outdoors. No matter how much time he spends there, it doesn't seem enough for him. The moment we are in our apartment he start fidgeting in protest.

Per Ser Ko Sava Ser Kabhi Na Kabhi To Milta Hi Hai.

A few days back, we decided to go to Shopper's Stop for some shopping. Aryan Ki To Jaise Chaandi Hi Ho Gayi. It was quite far off from our place, so junior quite enjoyed the car ride.

Since we are taking about car, Aryan has some funny habits there. He always looks at the side windows, and never bothers to see in front. The other thing which is peculiar is that he always looks upwards. We often jokingly tell him to look at bottom as well, as the buildings start from there.

So we reached Shopper Stop, and Aryan was in his elements. He would smile at every salesperson, & shopper without fail, and try to pull the clothes hanging there. I didn't mention before but Aryan these days is at smiling and grabbing spree. He continued doing this till we finally moved out.

Our car was park a bit far from the place, and there was hardly any space to walk. The idiots at Pune Municipal Corporation have allowed to open about 5-6 mall at the very close locations, and that was causing huge traffic and parking problems. To add to that, the major arterial road has been blocked for some construction work since an year now.

We some how trudged our way back to our car, and started our trip back to home. Aryan wasn't amused with all this. The pollution, noise, crowd - all were having adverse cumulative effect on him. The smile was gone.

There was no less traffic on the rest of the roads. Finally we reached home after an hour so. His smile had completely vanished by now. Clearly, for Aryan, the trip didn't turn out the way he would have liked.

But here was a surprise lying for us.

I hadn't even completely opened the door of our flat, when we saw Aryan smiling again - ear to ear. As we put him on his bed, smile didn't stop. He continued doing that for quite a while after that, and without bothering to disturb us.

This was in complete contrast to his normal behaviour. Probably this trip had been stretched a bit too far for him, and as we reached home, he immediately recognized the familiar environment. He was like - am I glad back!

At one point he must have given the hope of getting back, and when he finally did, he must have breathed - Jaan Bachi Lakhon Pai, Laut Ker Buddhu Ghar Ko Aai.

Sportsmanship

Scene 1:

Long time ago, during 1987 Reliance World Cup, at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, there was a tough battle going on between West Indies and Pakistan for the place in Semi Finals. It was a nail biter. Whoever wins, goes to semifinal.

On the last ball of the match, Pakistan needed 2 runs to win, with just a wicket to spare. Courtney Walsh was bowling, with four Pakistani wickets in his bag, but batsman at strike Abdul Qadir was playing the match of his life.

Walsh was still on his bowling stride, when non striker - Salim Jaffer - backed up too far. Walsh could have got him out. But he just stared hard, and let him go. Jaffer scampered back. Later, Qadir edged the ball to the slips, where it was misfielded by debutant Phill Simmons. Qadir ran two runs, and became a hero.

However, he didn't forget to thank Walsh, who was later given the fair play award by Zia-Ul-Haq. It wouldn't have been any unfair play, had Walsh took the bails off because forty years ago in New ZeaLand Venu Mankad had proved this was a fair way to dismiss.

But Still it wasn't ethical.

Scene 2:

Last Week, during the Test match between Srilanka and New Zealand, the last batsman Muthhaiya Murlitharan, just after completing one run, ran a bit too early to congratulate Kumar Sangakara on the completion of latter's century. The Kiwi keeper - McCullum - ran Murli out for that, despite knowing the fact that Murli wasn't running for another run.

See the contrast. This shows the way game has moved from ethical to professional level in mere twenty years.

Since New Zealand still lost, Martin Crowe di his bit too - shouting that Murli's Doosra action is suspect. Oh not again! We know that you are bad losers - just don't reaffirm it again and again.

Not that I have any sympathy for Murli or Srilanka as a whole. Only a little while ago, Uppal Chandana took another run despite the ball had deflected after hitting his bat. Similarly, once Mahanama hit an Australian bowler deliberately with his bat, in order to prevent him from running out Murlitharan. That was in infamous chucking controversy series.

It seems that playing nations have collectively lost their sportsmanship.

Srisanth's Sword Dance

On popular demand here is the video - Click Here.

You will need Macromedia Flash Player 7 for this.

Daastan-E-Zist

Thats the story of life expressed so eloquently by Narendra Uncle.

Aahhhhhh

My first Cricket post in EIGHT months, non believers may skip. No I haven't dumped Cricket, not until it becomes another Hockey, and there's a long time to go for that to happen.

But yesterday's incident, which would go down for me as one of the most orgasmique pleasure giving incidents ever taken place in Indian Cricket.

Kiran More giving a mouthful to jumping Javed, Venkatesh Prasad showing the dressing room to Aamir Sohail, Sachin taking winds out of blabbering Shoaib Akhtar, and Agarkar making Justin Langer his own bunny were some of the adrenaline pumping moments, but I always yearned for a Sarwan-McGrath type of incident in Indian Cricket.

And that happened live yesterday.

Andrew Nel is a sort of person who is the product of bad Paidaish, and Parwarish, a la Glen McGrath. And add to top that he has an utterly disgusting face, packed with an even more ugly smile. I feel like smothering his face with my raw hands, when I see him walking to batsmen. In this world, where every big guy tries to bully a weak guy - he is a walking billboard of that saying. And he gets away too. ICC never objected to that.

I am sure Sunil Gavaskar would also share my sentiments.

But the way Srisanth performed that sword dance, after hoisting him for the maximum - that too after coming down the wicket - it was Ne Plus Ultra. I had expected a Dhoni or Pathan to do this, because now it is beyond Sachin Tendulkar to do, but to think of Srisanth doing that, it must have been more humiliating for Nel.

Bravo Srisanth, bravo!

Double Whammy!

Earlier it was Sonia Gandhi who have made them look like a fool, but it seems the damage done is permanent. Either they have completely lost it by now, or they are plain in incompetent.

Recall the instances and observe the pattern. Amitabh Bachhan served notice on the hospital bed, and later as well, for owning an expensive pen and glasses. People sent notices for getting their surgeries done in lavish hospitals. And now sending notice to ADOBE India CEO Naresh Gupta, who paid the ransom of fifty lakhs.

If they have collectively lost their senses, then its fine or otherwise they are inept in their calculations.

A person who received 160 crores for KBC can not afford Sun glasses worth 5 lakhs ? Or a person whose annual salary would nothing be less than 70-80 lakhs, and must be having the shares of the company in several crores can't afford 50 lakhs rupees to save his child's life.

Doesn't these instances show mental inequilibrium and shameless greed to usurp someone's hard earn money? Surely, Mr Gupta must have drawn money from bank, no? Surely, he has a Permanent Account Number, and files regular return ? Where were the officals then?

I think to restore some sense of sanity, and regain the much maligned image of the department, the concerned overzealous officials must be sacked. Enough of lunacy.

Chameleon

Not only they flock together, they also change their colours like a chameleon.

Birds Of Same Feather Flock Together

Here is an example.

These politicians of Uttar Pradesh who act like sworn enemies, and don't see each other eye to eye, and in the past have fought bloody battles with each other in assembly with microphones(which since then have been removed), shoes, and slippers, while hurling at each other choicest abuses, have now closed ranks together like Chaddhi friends against the sincere but tough Vice Chancellor of the Lucknow University(LU).

LU from its glory days has now become a criminal den, promoted by politicians, specifically Mulayam Singh Yadav(MSY). Earlier state government had banned elections on the campus to demotivate goonda elements. But MSY being a goonda himself, lifted that ban.

Now the Chief Election Commissioner Lyngdoh has enforced certain electoral guidelines which bars criminals from fighting elections. Vice Chancellor Ram Prakash Singh , an ex IIT - Kharagpur professor, wants to enforce that. Even the court has ordered the same. But these goondas who have nothing to do with studies backed by senior goondas in assembly doesn't want that.

The students had created so much ruckus at the LU campus that VC was forced closed the LU sine die, and ordered the hostels to be emptied. Now these politicos are trying to frame the VC with false statements attributed to him so that he may be forced to step down.

It proves that be it center - where politicos ego has been bruised irrevocably just because Supreme Court has said that no permission is needed to frame cases against corrupt politicians like Lalu Prasad Yadav - or state, there is no hope for improvement because these crooks will come together against any reforms.

People like Singh who are trying to detoxify the system would be kicked out one way or other.

Tearful Aryan

(Click Image To Enlarge)

Samajwadis

Consider this.

Scene 1:

Anil Ambani's Reliance Energy is setting up Power Plant at Dadri(UP). For this state government has acquired land. Non agricultural land. Farmer's land. Poor farmer's land.

Whom it will benefit the most?
People of UP. People of Delhi. People of MP. Farmers. Reliance Energy. State of UP.

Which are the parties for farmers - rich or poor ?
The Left. Raj Babbar & VP Singh's Jan Morcha. Congress.

Which is the government in UP?
SP.

Who is opposing this plant?
The Left. Raj Babbar & VP Singh's Jan Morcha. Congress.

Scene 2:

Tata Motors is setting a small car plant at Singur in West Bengal. For this, state government is acquiring land. Agricultural land. Farmer's land. Poor farmer's land.

Whom it will benefit the most?
Tata and Sons, WB goverment, those who would buy the cars and those who get the job there. Certainly not the farmers and the people of WB.

Which are the parties for farmers - rich or poor ?
The Left.

Which is the government in WB?
The Left Goverment.

Who is the opposition in WB ?
Er ..... the Congress.

Are they opposing it for the farmers?
No.

Who is opposing this plant then?
Mamta and BJP.

Now where the hell are Raj Babbar and VP Singh. Where is Rashtra Bahu Sonia Mayo ? How are these two cases are different? Former, at least would be of very much help to state's people and farmers. Where is the concern for the farmer. That shows the double standards of Samajwadis like VP Singh and Raj Babbar.

About their Samajwadi status, let me put the facts.

VP Singh is Raja Of Manda (in Fathepur), though not entitely a blue blood - he was adopted. His son is Phoren educated, and lives in US of A. His son also owns a multiplex in Allahabad. VP Singh for past 15 years is receiving treatment for his ailments at the state's exchequre's expense.

For Rajbbar, what more can be said of that he was a bigamist at one point of time. What a samaj sewa!

Basanti Hawa

This is the most famous poem by the noted poet Kedar Nath Agarwal. Hard to find a better description of the season..

The Road Less Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference!

Robert Frost

Jai Bhim!

India has never been short of Gods, the original ones, and now we do not seem to have enough of man made ones too.

The originals used to evoke strong emotion more than a decade back, and in some different quarters, even now, but the manmade ones seem to have surpassed all previous frenzy.

God (the original one) forbid, what would happen when the would-be-Gods of tomorrow, that is Lalu, Mayawati, Thackrey, Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalita et cetera(not to ignore various Babas) would depart, and become immortal.

As if these incumbent Gods are nuisance less enough in their lives, I shudder at the thought of their gaining Godliness. These would simply add to the burgeoning list, and so would be their followers. A so called insult here and there, and they would burn the country. Zinda Hathi Laakh Ka, Aur Mara Sawa Lakh Ka.

I have said this before that if someone is so upset with the things, inflict the damage on your own property, burn yourself. That will show that one is a real follower, and insult is personal.

Common guys, do that! Show this to others. Jump down the nearest bridge, gulp down the cheapest insecticide, my personal recommendation would be Sulphas. Its a killer. Pain will show.