वाह वाह Mika

The Guardian reports:

Did the release of Paris Hilton from a Los Angeles jail merit the media attention it received? That question reached a critical point for one US cable news presenter when she refused to read out the lead item on a popular morning breakfast show.

"I have an apology," presenter Mika Brzezinski told the host of MSNBC's Morning Joe programme, "and that is for the lead story. I hate this story. I don't think it should be the lead."

Wah Wah Mika Brzezinski. I salute you. You did the right thing, which is very rare in today's world. How I wish Indian newsreader do the the same, at least once, when cricket appears as a lead story. Or the so-called celebrities gets married or does something, in which we may not be interested in, and it appears as a lead story.

The video of Mika doing what she thought was right is below.

Happy Birthday Panchamda

Rahul Dev Burman (June 27, 1939 -- January 4, 1994)

Wish you a very very happy birthday, Panchamda. Today, June 27, 2007, is the 68th birthday of Rahul Dev Burman. Wish he has alive today.

I was overjoyed to discover on You Tube a most wonderful song composed by Panchamda: `Mera Kuch Saman' from the movie Ijaazat, which was released in 1988. For this song, the singer Asha Bhosle won the National Award for best playback singer, Gulzar, who wrote this song, got the National Award for best lyricist, but Panchamda, who composed this beautiful song, did not got National Award for best music director. In fact, he never got a National Award for his composition, which is a shame.

The video of the song is below. Note how Panchamda has turned bland verse into a melodious, hummable song. Panchamda you were truly great.



CNN-IBN pays a musical tribute to R.D. Burman:




Amitabh Bachchan pays tribute to R.D. Burman


Rishi Kapoor pays tribute to R.D. Burman


A tribute article

ये कश्मीर है

I am still too busy with my office work to blog about my last month's trip to Kashmir. In the meantime here are some more pictures taken at Kashmir. Click on the picture to enlarge. I promise to start writing my posts about my trip to Kashmir, from next week.

House boats at Dal Lake, Srinagar

Bird's Eye view o Dal Lake, Srinagar

Shikaras at Dal Lake, Sringar

Snow at Gulmarg

One more picture of Gulmarg, Kashmir

Pehelgam, Kashmir

River Lidder, Pehelgam, Kashmir

Breaking the Break

I came back to office, as scheduled on Friday, June 1. As expected, lot of work had piled up for me, hence I could not post a post, and break the blogging break. I found some time today to write something.

I will, of course, write detailed posts about my trip to Kashmir, soon. Kashmir was better than what I had expected. We had great fun there. Children loved Rajdhani Express and loved the snow at Kashmir.

Here are three of the photograph, among many which I clicked with my Canon digital camera. I took more than 450 pictures, some good and some pretty ordinary.