Kuch Khamoshiyon me tumhe sunta hun...

Tum yahan nahi ho magar tumhari maujudgi ka mujhe ehsas hai
Nazar nahi aate to kya,mujhe tumhare wajood par vishwas hai.

Ret par letkar aasma se main aaj bhi baatein kiya karta hun
Sitaro ki mehfil me hi kahin tumhari jhalak dekha karta hun

Ugte suraj ki kirano me bhi mujhe tumhari chhavi nazar aati hai
Meri har subah ko wo roshni se sarabor kar jaati hai

Tanhaiyon me rehkar bhi main kabhi tanha nahi hota hun
Kuch kehta hun khud,kuch khamoshiyon me tumhe sunta hun

Yun to muskurane ko maine apni aadat bana liya hai
Tumhari yadon ko astitva ka mere hissa bana liya hai

Phir bhi kabhi achanak hi aankhen paani chalka deti hain
Zindagi ki kadvi sachaion se roobaroo karwa deti hain

Magar mujhe khona nahi hai,bikhar nahi jaana hai
Kisi ko zinda rakhne ki khatir mujhe bhi jeete jaana hai

MY TOP 10 HEROES

A couple of days back I went through AFI’s (American Film Institute) list of 100 heroes, villains, films etc. I agreed with many choices, disagreed with a few and missed a few deserving ones though I had no idea about many choices. Either I haven’t watched those movies or never heard of them. A thought came into my mind to prepare my own list of top heroes, heroines and villains. So, in this post, I’m giving the list of my favorite heroes, and also furnishing brief information about the role and the actors who played them. This list consists of Hollywood heroes. Bollywood’s top heroes would soon follow.

P.S. The heroes appear randomly in the list. I haven't ranked them from 1 to 10.

 Marlon Brando as Veto Corleone in THE GODFATHER

This was an Oscar winning performance. I had heard a lot about Brando’s performance in this movie from my father. He hadn’t exaggerated. When I saw the movie, I was in a complete awe. The ease with which he had played this character was unbelievable. The acting is original and dialogue delivery is superb. The Godfather part 2 might have featured greats like Al Pacino & Robert Di Neero and won more statuettes, it surely missed the original ‘Godfather.’

Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin in THE PATRIOT

The movie has a lot of flaws as per the different reviewers and historians (I don’t care much about it. I love the movie with its flaws too.) But Mel Gibson shone brightly. He played the role of a doting father as well as a ruthless warrior with a lot of energy. It is more of an extension of a role he played in ‘Brave heart’, with a no. of more facets. Worth mentioning is the scene in which his son Heath Ledger dies in his arms. Absolutely riveting.

All the actors who have played James Bond so far

James Bond is going to turn 50 on silver screen in 2012, but the spy isn’t ready to hang his boots yet. In the last 46 years we had seen Bond in different avatars, from a kind gentleman to a ruthless assassin, from a sexy hunk to a flamboyant and flirt person. It is the charisma of this character which has kept it alive and kicking since 1962. Before ‘Casino Royale’ bond’s character had been less human who is almost non-vulnerable and infallible. Post 9/11, Bond too had decided to change, and for the good. Invincible superheroes, Rambo etc. are strict no-no now.

Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in THE BOURNE TRILOGY

Robert Ludlum’s creation is in stark contrast with the Ian Fleming’s spy. Here’s a guy who is being chased by his own agency and who has no weapons and gadgets other than his pistol and mobile. Jason is more human than bond and the role has been portrayed superbly by Matt Damon. It is difficult to imagine anyone else in this role. Damon’s guy next door looks has helped a lot and he has essayed this role of a survivor on run with consummate ease.


Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN TRILOGY


I liked this character moment he appeared in the movie. The attire and the looks of Sparrow had been attributed to Keith Richards, but rest of the character has been developed by Depp himself. Jack sparrow is some what complicated creature. He is downright funny most of the times, but is as clever as fox too. At times he’s coward and treacherous, but is a brave fighter too. Johnny depp has played every aspect of sparrow’s persona superbly. His Jack sparrow was the only savior in otherwise chaotic and confusing third part.

Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector in TROY

I don’t know why this movie underperformed in the US. It is almost considered as classic in my friend circle and I have found its name in many orkut profiles. Achilles wants his name to go down in the history as one of the greatest fighters while for Hector his country and his family held the highest respect. Both Pitt and Bana had rendered their roles marvelously. By the half time you are in love with both the characters so much that you almost regret when they decide to engage in a combat. The fighting sequence too is an absolute delight and when Achilles strikes Hector with a sword, u can feel a pain inside your heart too.

Tobey Maguire as Spiderman aka Peter Parker in SPIDER-MAN 2

For the first time superheroes didn’t seem coming from another planet. The character of Spiderman is essentially human. He is vulnerable, feels pain of being loser and goes through inner conflicts between love and responsibility everyday. Tobey looks totally convincing in his portrayal of Peter Parker. The troubles that Peter often faces are very general and we can connect with them. This role delivers this message that every human in fact is a super hero who battles out with the problems almost everyday and wins them on sheer strength of his determination


Tim Robbins as Andy Dufrease in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Andy is a banker who is falsely accused of his wife’s murder and spends almost 2 decades in a prison where warden is corrupt and guards are ruthless with no compassion. It was a difficult role as this character is more of an introvert. It isn’t aggressive, rarely bellows and doesn’t have a screen presence that fills you with awe. Andy is a simple but intelligent man who never let the conditions dampen his spirits and hopes. This simplicity of the role makes it dear to the audience and complicated to play. Tim has played this role with complete control. Andy’s silence, his rare outbursts and other emotions seem so natural. This performance needed an Oscar nod. Unfortunately, it didn’t even get a nomination.


Russell Crowe as James J Braddock in CINDERELLA MAN


The movie is based on the life of a US boxer who was forced to give up boxing after breaking his hand. He had to work as a labor and even beg once to support his family during ‘The Great Depression’. He rose to stardom after re-entering into the ring and winning heavyweight title again. His rags to riches story and dramatic turnarounds in his life made people call him “Cinderella Man’. The movie didn’t do well and even the performances went unnoticed. That was one of the reason I decided to include it in my list. Russell Crowe has put his heart out in this film. The scene showing him begging for money to bring his children back is absolutely moving. The role was at par with that of Maximus. Only this movie wasn’t a special effects and heavy sets laden extravaganza.

Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett as PHILADELPHIA

This was a difficult role to play. It is about a gay lawyer who is fired by his firm owing to his being diagnosed as HIV positive. The film is based on a true story. For the movie, Tom hanks had gained weight for the first part of the movie and shed a lot for the second part as the character of Andrew weakens due to AIDS in the film. His portrayal of a person suffering from AIDS and the subsequent trauma and pain brings tears to your eyes. I rate Tom hanks’ this performance above that of ‘Forrest Gump’.

Tere Sar Ka Badal Ban Jaane Ki Khwahish Thi..

Hai nahi koi khoobsurat wajah ki apne gunaho ko chhupa sakun
Labon pe muskurahat laun, palkon me aansu chhupa sakun

Main to manzar me hi gum ho gaya yun, kafila chalta raha manzil ki or
Ab to bas tanhai hai safar me, manzil ka na koi or hai no koi chhor

Kisi ka aaina ban jaana manzoor na tha, khud ka aks bhi par talash na paye
Tere sar ka badal ban jane ki khwahish thi, raaste ka darakht tak ban na paye

Ab to khamoshiyan bhi kar gayi kinara, hawa bhi mujhe sehlati nahi hain
Lehron se mera dostana kab tha, wo bhi dil ko magar dehlati nahi hain

Itni si gujarish hai waqt se ab meri, do naye pal zindagi ke paa to sakun
Chahe na de khushiyon ke saaz naye, yadon ke kuch nagme gunguna to sakun

Dhundhla Nahi Hai wajood Mera ki...

Ek anjaan paheli nahi main jise ki tum jaan na sako
Dhundhla nahi hai wajood mera ki tum pehchan na sako

karwatein badalti rehti hain lehren to kya magar
Gum nahi hote saahil yun ki tum unhe talash na sako

In Hawaon me yahan nahi hai asar abhi itna ki
Ret par mere kadamo ke nishan tum paa na sako

zindagi ki daud me kahin aagey nikal gaya hun main
Itna paraya to nahi ki aawaz de mujhe bula na sako

Ek pal ke liye hi, kabhi mera aks jehan me le aana
Ye koi aisa waada to nahi jise ki tum nibha na sako

Kabhi yaad bankar tumhari aankhon me umad bhi aau to
Itna ajeez bhi to nahi ki palkon me mujhe tum chhupa na sako

The Five Menaces for our 61 year old Nation

61 years back our nation was born (rather reborn). The freedom fighters who had toiled so hard for that day had so many dreams for our beloved nation. They knew they won’t be there 50 years later to see how much has India progressed, but they had faith in the coming generations. This feeling is aptly visible in these beautiful lines of poet Pradeep – ‘Hum layen hain tufan se kashti nikal ke, Is desh ko rakhna mere bachho sambhal ke.’

Alas! How wrong were they? Very few of their dreams have been fulfilled and rest have been shattered, few beyond recognition. Just pick up the news paper of yesterday and today. The headlines consist of the following pieces of news:

1. Violence in J & k, few dead and curfew imposed.
2. High alerts in capital along with other metros and big cities following terrorist threats
3. Inflation soars to 12.44%
4. Another disappointing day for India at the Olympics.

What an irony that most of these news pieces don’t surprise or bring a feeling of unrest in us. In other words, we’ve become habitual to these things. In this post I’m discussing about some menaces that have been giving pains to us for so long and slowly are becoming bigger threats for us. I’m not doing a lengthy discussion on these menaces but sharing with you my thoughts – what these 5 words meant to me a decade back or so and what do they mean now? I’m not talking only about myself only but reflecting thoughts of my few peers and friends too. I surely hope many of the readers would find an echo of my thoughts in theirs.

TERRORISM

Like many others of my age, prime source of entertainment for me in my school days were comics and cartoons. My favorite comic characters ranged from Indian superheroes like Nagraj, Dhruva to foreign superheroes including Phantom and Mandrake. These superheroes fascinated me a lot and often I would dream myself becoming one. Though I would do nothing other than teaching a lesson to school bullies or catch the thieves. Terrorism was an alien word for me.

As I matured a bit and began to get acquainted with this menace, my thoughts began to spread. My blood would boil over upon reading about the killings of the innocent people in Kashmir valley. But again my mind would make superficial plans about inventing new weapons (along with costumes la superheroes) and go and eliminate the terrorism from Kashmir.

Cut to 2008. The complete reality has dawned upon me. Post Jaipur blasts a sense of insecurity has crept in. Where are we safe now? As per my job profile, I’ll be in big cities for a long time, can’t say for how long. Now there is no urge to gather weapons and go to Kashmir to fight. Militants are not confined to J & K alone. They can be anywhere. A bomb can be as near as 50 m to me but I wouldn’t know. The times have changed and so has my dreams. Superheroes don’t make a visit anymore to my dreams, motivating me to fight. I guess post 9/11 they have become as vulnerable as rest of us normal humans.

RESERVATIONS

10-12 years back I had a very little idea about reservations. There was no need to know at that time. I was studying in a private school and so reservation word didn’t have any impact there. I had a fair idea about the reservations by the time I had passed my 10th and opted science- maths as my subjects for senior secondary. Even then I didn’t have any idea how much is it going to affect me.

6 years on, now that I have finished my engineering, I know how much this menace can affect me or thousand more and how it has been devouring country for the past many years. Whether I’m going for a govt. job exam or for PG whether MBA or M.Tech, what I do first of all is the permutations and the combinations of the total no. of seats and the number of seats in my category. Many might argue that nothing is impossible if you work hard and you will surely be selected even if seats are few. I don’t deny that but what I’m talking about is the psychological thing that comes in your mind when you know that another person by putting in lesser efforts will achieve the same thing that you may or mayn’t achieve with much harder work.

After my 12th, Ihad just one shot at IITs and then went for a private Engineering college. One of my friend eventually got into IITs after 2 attempts. I could see the happiness on his face when he broke that news to me. 2 years on he is little bit sad. It’s not about his career but he’s worried about the future of his alma mater. When he had joined his IIT, it ranked in the top 10 technical institutes of the world. “I ear will it be even among 50 four years later.” He said pointing to the cut offs being reduced to as low as 104 inthe SC/ST category and the new rubbish of faculty seats too being reseved.

A guy, who has been studying in a Hindi govt. school at the village, whether he belongs to general category or SC/ST, will be lagging behind an English medium student of the city. The need is to strengthen the primary education system and equal opportunities should be given at the higher stages. Political parties have made reservations their tool and that means reservations will be existing even then when our country will turn 100. I had read about braindrain but never witnessed one. I fear that day might not be too far.

INFLATION/INCREASE IN PRICES

This word was introduced to me in class 10th. It didn’t actually mean anything to me (rather all of my classmates) then. We crammed its definition like many economical terms. This word made a comeback in my academic life almost 8 years later, in my final semester of engineering. Suddenly the meaning of this word has become very important for us. Rising prices was something we knew but didn’t concern much. As far as most of the guys are concerned they would only know how much the price of petrol and diesel has increased in last 4 years. They would draw blank if you ask about any other domestic thing.

Then suddenly inflation began to soar with each passing week and most of us began to pay attention to the literal meaning of this word and its eventual impact. That was natural as we were about to leave the sweet, almost carefree college world behind and enter into a nasty real one. Offer letters by the company were began to be scrutinized properly, items other than petrol were being observed properly, guys going into MBA colleges too were giving a substantial amount of, if not equal, thought to the college being decided. Suddenly the package of 2.7 and 3 p.a. began to appear so inadequate. Things have been going out of control for a while and let’s see what new heights do this word scale before it is brought down.

UNEMPLOYBILITY AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Just a couple of day’s back one of my classmates visited me who had gone for job hunt in two different cities after our exams had ended. The first words that came out of his mouth were “Did I make a mistake by becoming an engineer?”

When I was a kid relatives and friends of my parents would often ask me, as elders always do, about what I aspire to become? Like most of the kids I would say Engineer or Doctor or an IAS and everyone would become happy. The boy has big dreams and aspirations, they would say. Entering into the world of these professionals was indeed a dream then and who would understand better than me in whose family only a handful of people went for science subject and none could make it to any of these fields I mentioned above. They worked hard, in fact harder than me, but didn’t have that much of opportunities or the resources.

Today IAS remains the only special and privileged field. The policies of govt. have made it easier to have one engineer or doctor in every home. Soon we’ll become the largest no. of engineer churning country in the world. It sounds good, but then comes a question. How many of them would be actually employable?

I could understand the feeling of my classmate when he said those words. Even after passing out of an engineering college, we lack the basic skills that an engineer requires. No thought is given to it when we enter into engineering, nor when we choose our branch neither during our college. The dilemma of my friend is that he belongs to Electronics and communication engineering but he’s not able to get the job because he doesn’t have those basic skills required. In other words, he’s not industry-ready. To obtain these skills he needs to go through different training institutes (often very expensive) who give special courses making you industry oriented. Software jobs are there but he can’t apply even though he has knowledge of two languages because most of these companies prefer students from computer science or IT engineering whom they don’t have to give that much of training. I can understand my friend’s plight. There is a lot of difference between an unemployed graduate and unemployed engineer

Let’s talk about other graduates other than engineering. My maternal grandfather, who is a retired English teacher, once told me an interesting anecdote. He used to take classes for bank P.O. preparation, with the students mostly from commerce background and few from the arts. My grandfather had asked the students to buy a book consisting of unsolved objective type questions. He was surprised next day when he saw that many of the arts students had ticked the correct answers. He asked them the reason and their answer was nothing but a sheer irony of Indian educational system. They had marked those answers so that they could cram the question for the exam rather than solving them

It was not their fault. They had been doing these things for so long. Unlike their science and commerce counterparts, they had never appeared for any competition exam and just didn’t have any idea how to prepare for it? The study for most of them begins 2 months prior to the exams and ends with the last day of the exams. They hardly have any approach towards the preparation of different high level competitive exams. It’s not surprising that they miss out completely when they face the exams with their science and commerce counterparts. Sometimes back I had read in a survey that more than 80% seats of the top 10 colleges of management in India are captured by the students from the science back ground, majority of them being engineers. This fact tells the story in itself.

DEMOCRACY

Many of you must be surprised that I have included this word in my list of menaces, but your surprise will be subsided when you will read the lines given below.

4-5 years back I was watching ‘Janadesh’, a live program giving the poll results of the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh. Telugudesham had lost to congress and experts were discussing what led to Naidu’s defeat though under his govt. Hyderabad had become one of the top cities of India. Then one of the congress leaders (I think Digvijay Singh), who had lost elections in the MP just a few months back, quipped “ In India we have so much disparities in terms of religion, culture, region that though we might say that we have unity in integrity, but when it comes to elections, things changes. A poor farmer in a distant village wouldn’t pay any heed to how much has the state has developed technologically. He would think about his daughter’s marriage, about the road he takes to sell his vegetables, about his land. If he’s not satisfied with it, he will vote against you without caring about the other achievements of the govt.

That is where our democratic system fails. Most of the successful democracies in the world function on the basis of the clear mandates. It is contrasting in India where often now a days mandate is broken, driven by the factors like caste, region, religion, local issues, language etc. For the past one decade we are being governed by a coalition govt. We all know how the parties in the coalition have been making the govt. dance like a puppet on their own tunes for one issue or the another. Many of these parties are local ones who have base in certain parts only, but are able to show their clout because the mandate given by us had been broken. What these parties do is nothing short then a blackmail and we have provided them with the weapon, and what an irony, we are the eventual and the only victims.

Elections are due next year. Again a game would be played with the people’s emotions and most of us will give in. Again votes will be given on the basis of local issues and the final result would be same, few worthless people becoming kingmaker and we will do nothing other than rue.

Why won’t then someone think of democracy as one of the menaces, especially when its roots lie within us, unlike other menaces.

I don't like things being ended on a pessimistic note. As i was writing this post, these dialogues from the movie 'The Dark Knight' were continuously circlying my mind - "The night is darkest just before the dawn." I dearly hope that it is indeed the darkest hour for us and the dawn is approaching.

"WELL, I'M BACK...": A story

It is very strange that how a person becomes cynic over the time. Winters were always so special for me and trains running late never irritated me. Today, however, it was so difficult killing even a second in this cold night. Train was running exactly two hours late and I could do nothing other than cursing the ministry and its officials.

The night was getting colder and darker with each passing moment. The platform looked deserted. Already very few people were travelling in this train and most of them had moved inside the station to shelter themselves from the cold. Only a handful of people could be seen on the platform other than the vendors.

I was sitting on a solitary bench in a far corner of the platform. I had been sitting there for last 1 hour or so. But now it was getting difficult as wind had gained speed and I could feel its sharpness. Finally I decided to move from there to some other lonely but warmer place. I picked up my luggage and walked towards the plat form.

This is my hometown but I hated returning to it. In the past one year I had made only a couple of visits here. I had barely spent 3 days here and now I was returning to my workplace. I had even forbidden my parents to come to the station. I didn’t want anybody to know that I was here.

My eyes suddenly felt on the cigarette packet on one of the vendor’s trailers. Though I was trying very hard to let go of this habit that I had picked after my college, I couldn’t resist myself then owing to the chilling winter and the frustration inside me. As I bought the packet and lit one cigarette, my eyes fell on a girl sitting alone on a bench just a few meters away. She was sitting underneath a tube light and was engaged in a novel. I felt as if I knew her. Then as she adjusted her glasses a bit, I recognized her.

Priyanka was my classmate in the college. She was a very bold and arrogant girl with a lot of attitude. In the three years of college, she had a numerous altercations with the students as well as the faculty. Very few people liked her. After graduation she had moved to Mumbai for job. She didn’t have glasses then though, nor were her hairs so long. I didn’t expect to see her here in these odd hours waiting for train.

There was still an hour before train would enter the platform. It was really getting tough for me to kill this time. I thought it would be better if I spend this time talking with Priyanka. It won’t do any harm. I threw my half burnt cigarette away and moved towards her bench.

She was startled a bit when I called her name. Even she wouldn’t have expected me there in such odd hours.

“Sid. Wow! What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to see u again after so many years here, at the railway station.”

“Yeah. Even I didn’t. May I sit here?”

“Sure. Please have a seat.” She shifted her luggage a bit and I sat there.

Now I gave a close look to her face. To my amazement she looked pretty, in her glasses and long hair. Her face wasn’t showing that ‘me-I only’ attitude but was flashing a beautiful smile.

“How’s you?” she asked smiling.” What are you doing these days? And how’s Radhika?”

“Well, she’s fine. Very fine indeed.” I replied

“It was always so good to hear about you folks. You two were perfect. Radhika is such a lovely girl. You will always be happy.”

I was surprised. Priyanka and Radhika were always at the opposite ends in the college. I don’t remember how many times they would have argued with each other. There was only one person who would pacify them, my best friend, Rajan.

“When you two are getting married? Any plans soon or already did? Don’t forget to call me. And where is Rajan these days? What is he doing?”

“Yeah I will surely invite you.” I said quickly."Enough about me. Now let’s talk something about you. I thought you had moved to Mumbai…”

And then we kept on chatting for more than 2 hours. I never looked towards my watch during this whole time. I couldn’t just believe that I was talking to same Priyanka whom I resented so much in the college. She had transformed totally. Now here was a new Priyanka who talked sensibly, who actually laughed and who hadn’t uttered a single word against any one person we talked about. Even I felt so much comfortable talking to her, though we had very few chats during college life. It was only when the announcer announced about the arrival of the train did we broke the chain of our talks.

“It was so good talking with you Priyanka. I really had a very good time. I never expected it.”

“Tell me one thing Sid. What has happened to you? Why did you lie to me?”

I was startled. Did she know something, or rather everything?

“I had seen you long before you saw me Sid, when I had entered the platform. I couldn’t understand why did you go and sit in the farthest corner of the station, far from any person. You loved being with the people, making new friends whenever you got a chance. That’s why I sat at this bench because I knew that eventually you would pass from here and after seeing me here would stop. Then I saw you smoking there. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then when you begin to talk, I could clearly see that you were lying. Is everything right between you and Radhika?”

I took a deep breath. “Nothing went right after college. Everything fell apart. I tried a lot but couldn’t do anything.”

“And that’s what you have done to yourself? Do you remember a priyanka who used to get into trouble with every person, who was always so arrogant and selfish, someone whom everyone hated? Look at me now. Is there a even a slightest trace of Priyanka left in me? Who brought this change into me? You did. I always wanted to be like you. A person whom everyone loved and adored. A person full of life rather than hatred and frustration. A person who didn’t find fault in everything but who appreciated even the small things of life. I always tried to be like you, but couldn’t succeed. Then college ended and for the first time I faced the hardships of life away from the home. My nature always produced hurdles in my life and then one day I thought about you and decided to change myself. Look at me now. Whatever I’m today is because of you.”

I didn’t say anything. She paused for a second and then continued.

“I don’t blame you or even Radhika. Sometimes the relations just don’t work out. But it looks like you have blamed yourself for everything. I don’t know but I feel like you have moved away from the social life of yours, your friends and may be your parents. I don’t know this pessimistic, cynic Sid. I always knew one Sid and he was always cheerful, happy and ready to mingle. I don’t want to give any speech. But look at me. If you can bring change in me without even knowing it why can’t you change yourself…?”

She didn’t say anything more but picked up her luggage and soon disappeared in the crowd moving towards the train. I too stood up. Train was about to leave and I couldn’t afford to miss it.

THREE MONTHS LATER
I had returned home after three months. It was February and the morning breeze seemed so nice. My parents didn’t know that I was coming and I wanted to give them a surprise. I had just moved out of station when I found myself face to face with Rajan and his wife.

There was a silence initially as our eyes met. No body moved. Then I smiled and threw myself on to surprised Rajan. We had hugged each other after such a long time that we stood like that for many seconds. When I moved away, I could see a small tear in his eye.

“It has been such a long time.” He said

“Well, I’m back” picking up my luggage I quoted a dialogue from my favorite movie.

“It is so good to see you back, Sid”

I looked at Radhika. Two tears had rolled down her eyes.

“Thank you.” She said

“Don’t thank me.” I answered smiling. “Reserve this thanks for someone else.”

COL FLASHBACK 2 : THE FUN ABODES..

It is often said that college life is another synonym for fun and I do agree with this statement after completing my 4 years degree course. When I was a school student, I had heard a lot about the college life and all the ‘masti and maza’ associated with it from my parents, relatives, my elder cousins etc. The picture of the fun places that formed in my mind after listening to the different college tales didn’t consist of classrooms or labs or libraries but all the one outside the college building like canteen, grounds and often places way outside college premises. It was only when I entered into the engineering did I realize that even lecture theatres can be a place of fun. I spent a major chunk of my college life in LT’s (most of the engineering students have to) and I do miss it. We had our share of fun in the grounds and galleries of the college (excluding canteen. What an irony that the place that rocks in most of the colleges was the most sucking at ours) but I would like to write about the places that are rather unconventional or even weird for many, but were fun abode for us.

LECTURE THEATRES are the most unconventional places to have fun and enjoyment, but believe me some of the finest memories of my college life are associated with the LTs. Almost everyday consisted of some sort of ‘tamasha’. Every class consists of a bunch of funny people who keep you engaged with their witty lines and pranks even when the lectures are downright boring. Ours was no exception. Everyday someone would become a target of their jokes and pranks (actually only a few chosen by them). Sometimes even chits would move from bench to bench consisting of some funny lines about their target without being noticed by the lecturers.

In fact, lecturers too wouldn’t be spared. A new lecture was always tested by these people. A new lecturer was often subjected to tortures like giggling, sharp but funny one liners and a request to ‘explain again’. But these folks were smart enough to sense who the right person to have fun with was and who wasn’t.

Different LABS throughout our degree course were of 2 to 3 hours. The intention of university behind providing so much time is to make sure each student gets ample time to perform his/her experiment in a proper manner. But in most of the cases the experiment is finished within an hour. Very few students cared about the intricate details of the experiments and even lesser were interested in taking multiple readings. For the rest, labe were a perfect place to chat. It wasn’t possible in LTs to roam around, but there were enough excuses to help you in moving within the lab from one person to another. The excuses included taking pens, registers etc. or to understand a certain experiment from a certain student and the weirdest of all, ‘bas yun hi’.

A large table was provided at the centre of each lab so that students could do their file work there. It served one more purpose by allowing having chatting sessions as almost whole group would sit there. Though, when the strength would be less sometimes, the labs would become almost unbearable too.

TUT ROOMS were designed to accommodate 20 students as each group consisted of maximum 20 persons only. These rooms allowed the ‘lesser talented people’ to come up and show their wittiness (I’m not that witty, but when I moved into a new group in my 3rd year, I found the class a bit dull. Then I decided to throw in sharp one liners in between to somewhat create the fun environment I was accustomed to. It was easier to do so in tut room where you had a small group and even if your jokes backfired, there won’t be that much of embarrassment.)

These rooms also allowed to freely interact with the lecturer and to know him/her more. This interaction used to be friendlier and often a lot of information would be exchanged.

CONFERENCE ROOM was the coolest place in summers (there were ACs). We were not frequent to the conference room and would be called only for special lectures or guest lectures. We would go there early and grab the seats where there was maximum coolness and we could listen and see the presentation easily. As per our Indian tradition, there was always a gap between the scheduled time of the lecture and the actual time when it would begin. By that time we would enjoy the ACs and chatter with the fellows or the other guys of different branches with whom we had less frequent interactions. Many times it would become chaotic and a faculty member had to stand up to make the students go quite.

Now I’m writing about a place which many others would found weird but for the students of our branch it is a place worth remembering. The WATERCOOLER at the end of the gallery of the first floor, that also marked the entrance to the electronics section, was the center point of our gossiping and chatting in the last two years of engineering. The last five minutes of previous lecture and first five minutes of the subsequent lecture would be spent there. Drinking water was just an excuse. Most of the times there would be small talks about the previous lecture and if anything funny happened in the class, or pulling each other’s legs. It used to be a sort of refreshment for all of us. During free periods too, we would go there and either listen to the music or do some serious (yes, sometimes) talks about our career, about many other things. Many secrets have been spilled out there, many truths have been spoken. There had been fights and the reconciliation. A place I would love to visit even after 20 years.

That’s enough in today’s college flashback. See you soon. Bye.

BEING SMALL TOWN PARENTS...

Last week I visited one of my friend’s home who has joined an MBA institute in Pune about a fortnight back. I could sense that his parents were missing him badly already. His mother summed up her feelings when she said,”khana banane ki icha hi nahi hoti?” My friend’s sister got married in January and now his parents are alone at home.

One of my other friend could only manage a little smile when his mother posed him a very simple question, “can’t you find a suitable job of your field here itself?’ The very painful thought that their children are going to leave their homes for their career is in the mind of many parents; only few though are able to express their feelings. Which parent would like to become a hindrance in the career of his or her children?

Glamorous jobs with fat packages always belonged to metros and other big cities. Although smaller cities and towns are creating more jobs than before but for the professions like engineering, management and accountancy, metropolitans are the ultimate destinations. A surge in our economy has created a lot more job opportunities in these fields and so the employable work force is being looked for, beyond the cities in the smaller towns and cities. As a result, small town youth is getting more opportunities to go into these fields and they are moving towards big cities like never before.

But is it a new phenomenon? Not really. This has been going on since independence. People used to move out of their towns and villages to bigger cities in hope to make it big there. Many of them aspired to become big business man. Others just wanted to get suitable employment and earn money. But the whole scenario was different then, economically as well as socially. First of all, that period belonged to joint families. Many times the migration to the big cities was more an inner urge to do something beyond convention rather than the need. If they didn’t succeed in their endeavor, they would return to their homes, to their families.

But today, in the present era of nuclear families living on the concept of ‘hum do hamare do’, this migration has a lot more effect on the social life than ever. If a family consists of two children, a boy and a girl then the things become more complicated when the girl is married off and the son goes to big cities for job hunt. It results in a creation of void for the parents. More often the job scenario is such that it takes a person around 4-5 years before he attains some stability. By that time he often has to wander from one city to another city due to the job. After that only he can ask his parents to come and stay with him. In few cases parents too don’t want to leave the place where they have lived for so long, the place they know and where they have relatives and friends.

Let’s talk about girls now. Though parents are more forward now, they still hesitate in sending their daughters alone to big cities far away. A sense of insecurity coupled with a certain reservations in their minds leads to forbidding their girls to pursue their dream jobs. More often than not they end up as lecturers in colleges or are married off. They don’t get much opportunity to plan their careers their way. But are the parents really to be blamed? I don’t think so. It is really very difficult to imagine what is going on in your parents’ mind until you yourself become one.

As I was writing this post, I came to know about the ahemadabad blasts. The first thought that came into my mind was about the increasing woes of the small town parents. As the terrorism is becoming a part of day to day life of the people of metros, the small town parents too would have to learn to live in this manner. As my friend commented after the bangluru blasts, "the most difficult thing for me when I will leave my home will be to make a promise to return soon. "

Is sach ko magar...

Har saher khud se tujhe bhool jaane ka wada kiya karta hun
magar dil hi dil me to tere laut aane ki dua kiya karta hun
Yun to chhod gayi teri kashti mera saahil kab ka
hawao se main phir bhi use mod lane ki umeed kiya karta hun

Tera saaya ban manzil tak saath chalne ki khwahish thi meri
waqt ki lehron  se bas itni si hi gujarish thi meri
aaj magar jab juda ho gaye hain hamare raaste is tarah
tere aks ko dil me basaye main din raat safar kiya karta hun

Wo haseen lamhe aaj bhi meri yaadon me chhaye hain
teri ek jhalak ko ab bhi dhundhti meri ye nigahen hain
Dariya ban tum to kab ki behkar ja chuki ho
Main to talab ka pani ban phir bhi tera intezar kiya karta hun

Aakhir kyun yun basant ke baad patjhar ka aana hota hai
kyun achanak khwabon ka tut kar bikhar jaana hota hai
jaanta hun ye ki har hasrat haqeeqat nahi ban pati
is sach ko magar roz jhuthlane ki koshish kiya karta hun...

Ek Kavita : for my Grandma..

There is a gap of 3-4 days between this post and my last post.Well there were a no. of reasons behind it, one of them being my monitor creating a problem and secondly a bit of laziness on my part. But I'm back now. This particular post is dedicated to my GrandMa whom I lost sometime back. I'm expressing my feelings through a Hindi kavita.

Beetey Lamho ko yaad kar main yun hi muskura deta hun
inhi palon ke sahare to main aapko phir se paa leta hun

Darwazo ke kinare kabhi-2 mujhe aapka aks nazar aa jata hai
ye waham bhi mere dil ko magar kitna sukoon de jaata hai

Aapse kuch sun na tha, kai baatein mujhe kehni thi
kya khabar thi ki zindagi yun hi yahan se chal deni thi

Kaash ye waqt yun is qadar beraham na hota
ek bar peechey mud jaane ka chhota mauka to deta

Zindagi ke safar ka shayad yehi aakhiri fasana hai
insan ko bas ek tasveer me simat ke reh jaana hai

Main magar zinda rakhe hun aapko meri yaadon me
aapke kisse kahaniyo me, aapki bholi baaton me

Magar har saher mujhe jab neend se jagati hai
meri palken aansuo se phir bhi bheeg jaati hain

Hai ehsas ki ab raah me aapka saaya saath na hoga
magar mere dil ka jahan to aapki yaadon se aabad hoga..

Few gems of unconventional nature...

A couple of days back I watched one of the most critically acclaimed bollywood movie of this year ‘Aamir’. The movie was no doubt superb in terms of script, pace, cinematography and acting. But one thing that blew me away was the music which ably supported the movie in every frame. The lyrics of the songs are in perfect synchronization with the situations depicted in the film. I hadn’t heard the songs of this movie before, so when I was listening to them a thought came into my mind which has culminated into this post.

In the modern music world driven by the aggressive marketing strategies, where most of the songs have a very little shelf life, we often miss out small gems. There may be a no. of reasons behind it like the music not being promoted properly (it often happens with small budget films) or a song which has been overshadowed by the other chartbusters of the same film. One of the primary reasons though has been the ‘unconventional nature’ of these songs which limited their reach to a small no. of people. I have compiled a list of 10 such songs since 2005.

1. Aashayein(Iqbal) :- A gem of a song with a composition by Salim-Sulieman and voice of KK. The lyricist is Irfan Siddique. The song is about hope , determination and aspirations. Songs with such positive elements have been penned very few times before and this makes the song more special. KK has sung it marvellously.

2. Apni julfen(Tajmahal:An eternal love story) :-The movie was a crap, but that can’t be said about the music. This was the last film of legendary composer Naushad. The music is no way near to his old classics but it is better than many other films releasing now and then. This particular ghazal is the best composition of the film. I never liked Hariharan’s ghazals from his private albums but this time he has delievered. Naqsh layallpuri has written the lyrics of this ghazal.

3. Naam Ada Likhna( Yahaan) :- Yahaan was a small movie that went away without a whimper. The music had a similar reception. It was composed by shantanu moitra and consisted of some beautiful songs but this was the best. Shreya ghoshal is in full form and is ably supported by Shaan. The lyrics of Gulzar provide the finishing touches, capturing the essence of this movie set in Kashmir.

4. Yeh haunsla(Dor) :- Another Nagesh kukkunor film, another Salim Suleiman composition , another song with positive vibes and another winner. The lyrics this time though are by Mir ali hussain and the vocals have been provided by Shafaqat amanat ali, this song is in complete contrast to his earlier hit ‘mitwa’ but ali has done full justice with the song. Unfortunately, the song had similar fate as the songs mentioned above.

5. Neele neele( Holiday) :- This movie was one big flop but the music by Ranjit barot was a winner. I loved all the songs of the movie but this is my personal favourite. Shreya ghoshal produces magic yet again. The lyrics by Neelesh mishra are simple and beautiful.

6. Jaane kya chahe ( Pyaar ke side effects) :-This song was a pleasant surprise for me as rest of the songs of this multiplex movie are fast paced hip-hop and bhangra numbers. After a song with high notes‘ya ali’ Zubin makes a transition to semi-classical and comes out with flying colours. Mayur puri has written the lyrics and Pritam is the composer. Alas! The song was overshadowed by other big hits of this film.

7. Halke-halke( Honeymoon travels pvt. limited) :- Neeraj shridhar got a perfect song from Vishal-Shekhar to show his verstality and he doesn’t disappoints. And when you have lyricist like Javed akhtar, the final outcome is bound to be an absolute delight for the listeners.

8. Kasak( Chhodo na yaar) :-Music director Anand raj anand is the single creative force behind this song, penning lyrics as well as providing vocals. The song is a semi-classical and different from the beats-oriented songs for which anand is famous. It is an instant relief to the ears. If only the movie would have been as good.

9. Aaoge jab tum(Jab we met) :- This song was a minor hit but it deserved more. When you have such youth oriented tracks like 'mauja hi mauja' and 'yeh ishq hai', a song with classical touch was bound to be overshadowed. Ustad Rashid khan’s voice is mesmerizing. Irshad kamil’s lyrics provide the necessary feelings of longing for a loved one.

10. Ya rehem( Aamir):-Finally the song which prompted me to write this post. The whole creative bunch behind this qawalli is comparatively new to the film industry but they have done a superb job. Amit trivedi and Amitabh have performed a dual job of singing & composing and singing & writing respectively, but none of them disaapoint. The third singer is Murtja-qadir.

This list is my personal favourite. I might have missed out a few other songs, but would be very happy if the readers are able to mention few more. See u soon with my new post.

The Poems

SAAYE ME DHOOP

kahaan to tay thaa charaagaa har ek ghar ke liye
kahaan charaag mayassar nahii shahar ke liye

yahaan darakhton ke saaye me dhuup lagatii hai
chalo yahaan se chale aur umr bhar ke liye

na ho qamiiz to ghutano se pet Dhak lenge
ye log kitane munaasib hain is safar ke liye

Khudaa nahiin na sahii aadamii kaa Khvaab sahii
koi hasiin nazaaraa to hai nazar ke liye

vo mutama_in hain ki patthar pighal nahiin sakataa
main beqaraar huun aavaaz me asar ke liye

jiyen to apane bagiiche mein gulmohar ke liye
maren to Gair kii galiyon mein gulmohar ke liye

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

ROBERT FROST AND DUSHYANT KUMAR : PART 2

‘Stopping by woods on a snowy evening’ by Robert frost was one of the three English poems in our course book, but only this poem attracted me. Leaving the simplicity of the language apart, the relevance of the poem to my (and many others) life at that particular time drew me towards it. The 12th standard is a crucial juncture in a student’s life. The final step before a person takes a plunge into waters of college life which eventually decide his /her future course. This poem reflects a student’s thoughts at that point where he makes up his mind ‘to walk many a miles before stopping’ I was no exception. The last 4 lines of the poem sum up the motto of life- ‘go on and on’. This poem still encourages me whenever I feel down and out. Many of you would have already observed that I derived my blog’s name from this poem’s last line only.

Now let’s talk about the 2nd guy, Dushyant Kumar. His ‘Saaye Me Dhoop’ is a masterpiece in itself. Apart from one or two typical words, the poem is understandable. It doesn’t match ‘Maithilisharan Gupt‘s typical Hindi poetry or Mirza Ghalib‘s heavy Urdu ‘Shero-Shayari’. But what mesmerizes you is the way simple Hindi and Urdu words have been used to create some very beautiful lines. Consider this

KAHAN TO TAY THA CHARAGAN HAR EK GHAR K LIYE
KAHAN CHIRAG MAYASSAR NAHI SHEHAR K LIYE
YAHAN DARAKHTON K SAAYE ME DHOOP LAGTI HAI
CHALO YAHAN SE CHALE AUR UMRA BHAR K LIYE

MAYASSAR: - AVAILABLE DARAKHT: - TREE

I became obsessive with the word darakht due to this poem. I use this word often in my poems and all posts in this blog are under the name ‘Darakht’.

Whenever I will get opportunity, I would discuss more about Dushyant Kumar and his ‘Ghazals’ as well as one more poem by Robert Frost. So , this tale about two different poems and their effect on my life comes to an end. See you soon with my new post. Till then enjoy both of these poems.

Robert Frost and Dushyant Kumar : Part 1

Though I’m fond of reading, poetry never appealed me. There are a number of reasons behind it. When I was a school student, stories were a big source of entertainment (no PC’s and few homes with cable TV that time) for me as well as many of other children of my age. Our course books featured some of the very fine English as well as Hindi stories. Though, what I observed later, the quality of poems and kavita too was superb. But at that tender age, the poetry served only one purpose: in earning some easy marks in recitation.

As I moved into secondary and senior secondary classes, English poems almost disappeared from the books, while Hindi poetry became almost unbearable. The Hindi ‘Padhya Sangrah ‘consisted of some of the fabulous ‘dohas’, and 'kavita' of poets ranging from pre mughal era to that of post independence era. But again, instead of enjoying them, we got engaged in only doing ‘sarlarth’ and ‘bhavarth’ of the poems without delving into their souls, thanks to our present educational system. ( Sarlarth is somewhat analogous to the decoding process that I encountered in my engineering. The difference lies in the fact that when you decode something, you get the correct information or the wrong one. In case of sarlarth, you are always partially correct and the degree of correctness depends upon how much is your answer in tuning with the person correcting your copies. I guess I was unlucky both times.)

I was in class 12th when 2 different poems, one that from the English text book and the other that from Hindi drew my attention. What was appealing about them was their simple language and the message delivered. It was something that I hadn’t seen before. The Hindi kavita was more special because it consisted of Hindi-Urdu words in a manner we actually speak and can relate to and understand easily. I got interested in that poet and looked for his most acclaimed work. That poem doesn’t carry any specific message and you can make a lot of inferences from it. What struck me though was again the use of simple words by the poet to express himself. His poems aren’t hard core Hindi or Urdu, but a healthy combination of both that a person with a little bit of knowledge about these languages can easily understand. It was his ‘ghazals’ which inspired me to write poetry.

COL FLASHBACK 1 : DIL TOTE TOTE HO GAYA...

I made my decision quickly. Already I was so nervous and had also seen a fellow computer science guy messing up everything. The moment I climbed the stairs I nodded my head. To my surprise, they understood instantly. I was relieved and begin my performance. I was halfway, when suddenly one of the judges (who was a faculty member at the college that time) raised his hand and asked (ordered is a more appropriate word) me to stop. My heart skipped a beat and the first thought that came to my mind was ‘why in the world did I come here?’

I’m not a fantastic singer, neither it’s my hobby. But somehow singing refreshes me. I can make a journey of many hours alone by only humming to myself. Does that mean that I was ready to participate in a singing competition? Nah! But it is so difficult to dissuade your friends who believe that your voice has a quality to face a competition. Finally I gave in.

The toughest part was to choose a song. I kept hopping from one song to another finally settling on ‘Woh pehli bar’ by Shaan barely an hour before the competition. To my relief the auditorium didn’t have that much audience. I took my seat somewhere at the back and kept humming my song in an attempt to make sure that I don't forget it. By the time my name was announced, the audience had enjoyed singing of few and bore most of them. Many of the participants had been not able to synchronize with the musicians properly. So I decided to sing without music and had barely sung a few lines when I was interrupted.

It was my first stage outing as a singer and I didn'tt expect this. I was almost shaking when that faculty member said,” sing with the orchestra.” I didn’t move for a few seconds making sure what I heard was correct. Indeed it was. I had no choice but to sing with the orchestra. But what happened next was a not less than a surprise for me. I was able to synchronize the song perfectly and the high notes helped me keeping the song from drowning into the music. I found myself tapping the stage floor with the beats, along with the audience clapping and both the judges immensely enjoying. I easily made into the second round. When I returned for the second round the auditorium was packed with the students and the faculty members. The competition got tough as we had to sing two songs, one that of audience choice and another that of judges. Audience gave me another Shaan song ‘kuch to hua hai’. Judges handed me two songs, the first one which I couldn’t sing and the second one was ‘Dil tote tote ho gaya’ of which I could sing only two lines. But it didn’t matter much. I was placed 2nd along with a senior who had performed well in both the rounds. Even today I feel that my first song actually made the difference. ‘Woh pehli bar’ made the hearts of the judges go ‘Tote Tote’.

What I loved about 'Jaane Tu...'

 

For the last whole week I have been reading and listening a lot about ‘Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na. the movie has surely set the box office on fire and the fans of the movie are increasing everyday. Various snaps of Imran and Genelia are visible on orkut in different profiles. Seeing all this hype, I decided to watch ‘Jaane tu..’ very next day my exams were over.( Though it was the second movie that I watched after my exams, the first one being ‘Chronicles Of riddick’, a total crap).

So is ‘Jaane Tu…’ a great movie or a path breaking one? The answer is no. But does it matter? Not really because it is a good movie which binds you for more than 2 hours barely giving a chance to drift into the sleep, and that is what matters. This year bollywood has offered a lot of crap to us with just a handful of goodies. ‘Jaane Tu..’ is indeed a refreshing break from the ‘all stars, no story’ big budget films that fizzled out at the box office.

I’m not going to write about the movie with an eye of a reviewer. A lot has already been said about the director, script, leading pair, music etc. What I want to discuss is about the few things that I really liked about the movie. To begin with, the whole bunch of supporting actors (excluding the younger people) was a treat to watch. Most of them are polished actors but don’t make a lot of appearances on the big screen except for Rajat kapoor. Right from Ratna Pathak Shah to Jyanat Kriplani to Kittu Gidwani, all fit into their characters (even if it was small) perfectly. Two of the most accomplished actors have been given cameos, but do we complain? No. When did you watch Paresh Rawal as a crooked cop last time? It was a perfect break from his comic roles we have been watching him in since past 8 years. Also, with just a couple of appearances, Naseer is an absolute delight to watch.

The second thing that I really liked about the movie (in fact it struck an instant chord with me) was the use of word TU by the protagonists to address each other. It might sound weird, but that is the way two young people speak who have been friends for a long time. No TUM or AAP… but TU. So, there is a sense of naturalism in their chats with which young audience can identify with. Indeed a break from the cliché’ dialogues that we have been bearing for so long.

Most of the young actors are new to the movie industry but they have been given ample screen space. So, your memory cells keep an account of characters like Jiggy, Rotlu and Bombs for quite some time after you have left the theatre. This has been one of the important factors in the makeover of bollywood films in the last 2-3 years. Prateik Babbar doesn’t look like a star material but he has carried himself well in the role of Amit. It wasn’t a conventional role, so his performance matters. I’m waiting anxiously for his further roles, more than that of Imran.

I think that is enough for today. I will be back soon with my new post.

THE BEGINNING...

So, I make a foray into the world of blogs. The difficult part of it wasn’t how to write, but what to write? What should I put in? After giving a lot of futile exercise to my brain cells, I finally got the answer through one of my friends.
‘Write whatever u like to talk about in general with your parents, teachers and friends, from very small things to few important topics as well, because blog is after all just another way of expressing yourself.’
Keeping these words of my friend into my mind, I’m initiating my blog with a very simple topic: MOVIES.