Anything Goes

Android rocks

2011-02-06T00:16:00.001+05:30

I was pleasantly surprised to see official blogger application for Android. I had almost forgotten that I have a blog, well sort of a blog. Android rocks, and in future may be all mobiles may run on it. I feel happy to be able to send this post from my android mobile, which is a Sony Ericsson Xperia X8.

Chicken Chilli and RD

2010-06-28T22:51:00.004+05:30

I had a great day yesterday. It was a beautiful day, cool wind was breezing the whole day, Sun and rain had taken a day off, as it was a Sunday, and it was Pancham da (R.D. Burman)'s 71st birthday. June 27 is a special day for Pancham fans, like me. I had mentioned this to my children and they promptly said let us celebrate RD's birthday and party on that day. I agreed but on two conditions that we will listen to Pancham songs for the whole day and they have to say Jai Pancham when we party in the evening.

Well, I listened to RD songs for practically whole day and was very very happy. Pancham has left us a treasure trove of songs. One life is too small to listen and enjoy all of them. In the evening my children reminded me about party and we decided to eat at home by bringing takeaway chicken and ice cream so that we can listen to some more RD songs. So I went to a trendy new restaurant in our new neighbourhood and asked for good chicken dishes. The man at the restaurant said their Chicken chili is quite good. On hearing chili I suddenly remembered reading in one of the article that RD was quite fond of chilies and use to grew various varieties in his home garden. I immediately settled for chicken chili, which later turned out to be quite good. Well, my children and wife certainly had a good time eating chicken and listening to RD songs. For starters we had chicken lolly pop and in the background was playing `Yeh din to aata hai ek din jawwani main'. And whene started the main course of chicken chili, children's all time favourite `Ladki ke kathi' was playing. My Children, wife and I really enjoyed the songs and the chicken chili. And when we had Fresh Litchi ice cream for desert, `O mere dil ke chain' was playing in the backgtound. Bliss. Thank you RD for the ageless and timeless songs. You are Great. We will celebrate your birthday every year like this. Jai Pancham!

I was touched by Lataji's this tweet about RD: its pancham's birth anniversary today......i really miss you and your music pancham..., you are matchless........yours didi... And Ashaji's you tube video clip which is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7dAL2z57w. Watch it.

New Ulhasnagar

2010-06-16T20:36:00.009+05:30

Today we completed one month in our new home in Kalyan. Our new home is in a area called Khadak Pada. This area is jokingly called New Ulhasnagar, as many persons, me included, have moved out of Ulhasnagar, to this area. It is basically a residential area, not so far away from Kalyan station and city of Ulhasnagar, and has many upcoming projects, and a 2 screen multiplex.

I was apprehensive that my family may not be able to settled down quickly in our new home. I have been proven wrong. They have settled very nicely and like both the surroundings and our complex. My wife, who always wanted an airy and a bigger home, never lose any opportunity to thank me for new home!

I had always thought of joining a gym, to lose some weight, and some inches around my waist. As our complex's club house has an excellent gym, I am being pestered by my children to visit gym as often as I can. I am beginning to make a visit to gym a habit, but it may take some time.

My wife is very religious and she used to feed meethi boondi (sweet boondi) everyday to crows in our old home in Ulhasnagar. It seems same crows have also migrated with us to Kalyan. Every day at six in the morning my wife is woken up by ka ka ka of crows which does not stop until she feeds them meethi boondi. She believes that it is crows who brought us to our new home. Interestingly the name of our building is `Pashupatinath', named after famous Lord Shiva temple. I am beginning to believe that maybe she is right. Thank you crows and Lord Shiva for our new home!

Beautiful

2010-04-28T16:13:00.005+05:30

Read today, while commuting to work, among the endless chatter of my fellow commuters, a beautiful story `Home' by Anton Chekhov. An advocate comes home in the evening and is informed by the governess of his 7 year old son that she has noticed his son smoking. The rest of the story deals with how a father is unable to convince his son that smoking is bad. Until in the end it is bedtime for his son and as usual he tell him a story, which he usually improvises, like most fathers. In that story the emperor's son, who was just twenty, was a good boy, but had a bad fault of smoking, dies because of smoking. The advocate son shudders on hearing this and vows that he will never smoke again. These lines from the story are really good: Medicine should be sweet, truth beautiful, and man has had this foolish habit since the days of Adam . . . though, indeed, perhaps it is all natural, and ought to be so. . . . There are many deceptions and delusions in nature that serve a purpose." Very true. You can read this story, which is on-line.

Helpless

2010-04-23T21:20:00.005+05:30

I feel helpless every evening. Read on if you are interested to know why.

Every evening, after leaving office, after an honest day's work, my only wish, like any good husband and father, is to reach home as soon as I can, and be with my family. And my immediate aim after alighting from the office bus is to catch my beloved 5:59 p.m. Titwala local train. Well, I am able to catch it on some lucky days and on most of the days I am unable and feel helpless. The reason behind my helplessness are the numerous hawkers who now occupy almost all the available space in the CST subway, which I must pass in order to catch my beloved local train. Take today, it was 5:55 p.m. when the office bus reached, I alighted the steps to the subway and found, as usual, there were just numerous people and some of them were curiously standing in the middle and on the sides of the subway and if you are regular user of the subway, then you know these are the illegal hawkers, occupying precious spaces meant for ordinary walkers like me. These hawkers hamper the smooth movement of commuters. Sigh, as on most of the days, I reached the platform half a minute late and saw my beloved train leaving the platform. Exasperation, wrath and indignation were the emotions which filled my mind, which is subsequently filled in by the feeling of helplessness. And the next train to my destination is in 20 minutes. More feeling of helplessness.

The subway was constructed with a twin aim : to smooth the traffic on the busy CST junction and to enable faster and efficient conveyance of thousands of commuters who must use it to catch train of their destination. While the traffic on the road above subway seems to be smooth, people like me just feel helplessness as it take more and more time every day to cross the subway. Will the higher authorities, Municipal corporation of Mumbai city and the Central Railway take the steps to remove the unauthorized hawkers and enable people like me to catch our favourite trains. Hope they will do. But hope has no relation to reason. Feeling helpless again.

Another good read

2010-04-23T15:41:00.000+05:30

After finishing The Perplexity of Hariya Hercules by Manohar Shyam Joshi, I felt hungry for more books written by Joshiji. I search and found that one of his book T’ta Professor has been published by Pengiun. Feeling little impatient I looked if I could purchased it from an online bookstore. I was pleasantly surprised to come across Flipkart.com, and purchased it immediately. T'Ta Professor made for some good reading over last weekend. It is comic-tragic-erotic-sad in turn and the first few pages are really hilarious. The translation, by Ira Pandey, is excellent. I would recommend this book. You can read the full-fledged review of this book here and here.

I would also recommend Flipkart, which seems to have excellent stock of books, both in English and Hindi. If one buy books worth more than Rs. 100/-, there is no shipping charges, within India. And they give discount on most of the books. It is India's answer to Amazon.com.

Just out of curiosity I searched Flipkart two days ago to see if they have T'Ta Professor as written in Hindi by Joshiji. It was indeed available with them, but was currently out of stock. I clicked on the notify me button. I was pleasantly surprised to receive email from them that this book has become available. Needless to say I ordered it immediately and am waiting eagerly for it arrive. The Hindi version is priced at, believe it or not, just Rs. 30/-, while the English translation version is at Rs. 199/-. Curious.

Good read

2010-04-12T15:35:00.003+05:30

Yesterday I finished reading `The perplexity of Hariya Hercules' by Manohar Shyam Joshi. It has been translated from Hindi. It made for a good reading and since this was slim book I was able to finish it in a few days. Though something is lost in translation (for exmaple `.... something wasn't right, there was something black in the lentils', which would have read in Hindi as `Dal main kuch kaala hai'), the translation was quite fluent.

The book tells about adventures or rather mis-adventures of Hariya, who is a clerk in the home department in Delhi, and Hercules in his name refers to the brand of cycle he used to ride. He selflessly attains to all the needs of his invalid father. After his father dies, he is left with a trunk, the contains of which which leads to perplexity of Hariya and to his misadventures and sudden disappearance. This leads to various tales about his disappearance based on hearsay and half-truths and various accounts are recorded in this book.

I particularly liked this part which appears towards the end of the book `The more we investigated and theorized the more facts and theories piled up, making it all the more difficult to determine what was true and what false. Was something false that seemed true or what it a truth that looked false?' Is'nt this true of people around us or what we read in the newspapers. Truth seldom comes out and we have draw our own theories.

Book is highly recommended.

Reading record

2010-04-07T15:55:00.005+05:30

Yesterday I finished reading `Difficult Daughters'' by Manju Kapur. It is the first novel written by her. I had started reading it on Feb. 26 and it took me some time to read it. The book tells the story of Virmati, who is the eldest of the 11 children, and tells the story her younger days, and of her marriage with a professor, who is already married, and ends during the time of India's independence. Most of the story is set in the pre-partition days and is well written in some parts, but I found the ending of the book quite abrupt. Anyway, I am glad that I was able to finish it.

An uncanny thing happened when I was reading the book. Near the end of the book, an incident is narrated during which the father of the heroine of the book, Virmati, dies after he is pushed around by the crowd. I do not why I felt sad after reading that particular part. Immediately after I got a call from my niece, telling me that her father, who was under treatment in a hospital, has died suddenly and unexpectedly. I was quite shaken to hear that sad news, and it put me off to reading this book for a few days.

The next in line is `The perplexity of Hariya Hercules', by Manohar Shyam Joshi which is translated from Hindi. It is a silm book (only 155 pages).

Email forward

2010-03-25T13:27:00.002+05:30

Got this email forward today. Funny and tragic, if it becomes true.

New Exam pattern in India (Revised)

1. General students - Answer ALL questions.

2. General Students ( girls) - any three out of ten. (33% of total)

3. OBC - WRITE ANY one question.

4. SC - ONLY READ questions.

5. ST - THANKS FOR COMING..

AND.

6. Gujjars/Jats/ Shiv Sainiks - THANKS FOR ALLOWING OTHERS TO ATTEND THE EXAMINATION .. !!

CHEERS TO RESERVATION. .....

Quick reading

2010-03-10T15:44:00.005+05:30

Yesterday I was delighted to come across a slim book (after reading fat books over the years, I have become partial to slim books), Twitterature, at the Strand Book Stall. It is the World's Greatest Books Retold Through Twitter. They are retold by Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin. I was surprised to know that both of them are just 19 years old. When did they got the time to read the world's greatest books. Anyway, it make for some wonderful and delighted reading. Here is a sample of two chapters of Great Expectations by Dickens (twitterature version):

I have to sit in the crazy woman's house. She lives in the basement sits in the same clothes. Her fiance really dodged a bullet there.

Her granddaughter Estella is pretty hot. She's is ten. I'm ten, too. All she does is make fun of me. Maybe it's my name.

Quite funny.

Bade Dil Waala

2010-03-04T12:12:00.006+05:30

Dr. Mukesh Hariawala, who has performed Bypass Surgery on R.D. Burman, has this to say about great RD:

Sharique: Tell us about the humble episode following surgery on Indian music maestro R D Burman? Did it have any impact on you?

Dr Hariawala: Following Bypass Surgery at the Princess Grace Hospital , “Panchamda” as R D Burman is affectionately called invited me over for dinner and gifted a box of his personal collection of music CDs, which was a new technology in the early 1990s . I returned it embarrassingly confessing that I only owned a Cassette player.

Next day, he redelivered the same box of CDs to me accompanied with a new CD player. This gesture has had a significant impact on my fundamental belief in “Generosity“ and what it means to have a "Large Heart for Others" in this material world.

Read full text of the interview of Dr. Dr. Mukesh Hariawala.

Panchamda you were indeed Bade Dil Waala.

Feed the fish

2010-02-24T16:07:00.003+05:30

Just put the fantastic gadget, Feed the Fish, on the sidebar. Just click with mouse inside the blue background and watch the fish. Many such gadgets are available at abowman.com for your Blogger, Facebook and other social sites. Really cool.

Reading webpage made easier

2010-02-24T15:39:00.003+05:30

I assume, that like me, you must be using Firefox to browse the web. Today I came across a fantastic Add-on, Readability for Firefox. Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you are reading. Upon installing, a small icon will appear in the status bar of the Firefox and on hitting it, will make the page reading-friendly. Please do try it, it is very good.

Stumped and Out

2009-09-23T22:02:00.003+05:30

Today was very unusual day in many ways. A very very wet September evening, with rains, winds and lightening. I thought Gods must be angry today. And He seems to be. Anyway, only god knows what He is thinking.

After reaching home, completely drenched, of course, and a hot cup of tea, I settled down and opened my favourite HT newspaper, I was stumped to see the headline on the first page: Have sex, Indian cricket team told . This headline and the the news story completely stumped me, and made me smile.

And, later while having dinner with family, I was allowed to swap news channels in-between the dreadful soaps to catch some news. I was unlucky to hit Times Now button on remote and watched Mr. Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief interviewing Mr. Raj Thackeray. Only the questions of Mr Goswami were in dear old English and answers of Mr. Thackeray were in Marathi. It made for few minutes of fun watching, most for my children who do follow Marathi, but it made me Out. I know some dear soul will make a YouTube video of it and I will certainly post it. Just to share the fun.

Yesterday

2009-08-19T15:10:00.005+05:30

Yesterday I happen to be walking by near the Flora Fountain, Bombay. On an impulse I thought I will check the pavement second-hand booksellers to see if I can get a rare P.D. James book. And I was lucky, I was able to get her first book, Cover Her Face. I had asked a bookseller if he had any P.D. James book, and he replied no, but they had an almost complete set and someone had purchased it just a few days ago. I felt dejected. And the person called me back, as I turned to go back, and handed me over the book Cover Her Face saying that one copy of this book is left and would I be interested? My dejection turned into happiness instantly. I have been on the lookout for this book for many weeks. Barely containing my excitement, I said yes yes, of course, and I purchased it, immediately. Now my P.D. James Library is growing slowly and steadily. The following is the list of books written by P.D. James :

Cover Her Face, 1962 (have, and currently reading :) )
A Mind to Murder, 1963 (did not have, yet)
Unnatural Causes, 1967 (have and read. The first P.D. James read by me)
Shroud for a Nightingale, 1971 (have and read)
Maul and the Pear Tree, (co-author) 1971 (did not have, yet)
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, 1972 (have and read)
The Black Tower, 1975 (have and read)
Death of an Expert Witness, 1977 (have, yet to read)
Innocent Blood, 1980 (did not have, yet)
Skull Beneath the Skin, 1982 (have, yet to read)
Original Sin, 1995 (have, yet to read)
A Certain Justice, 1997 (have and read)
A Time To Be In Earnest, 2000 (did not have, yet)
Death In Holy Orders, 2001 (have and read)
Devices and Desires, 2004 (have and read)
The Murder Room, 2004 (did not have, yet)
A Taste For Death, 2005 (have and read)
The Children of Men, 2006 (did not have, yet)
The Lighthouse, 2006 (did not have, yet)
The Private Patient, 2006 (read, but not have, yet)

Hope my own P.D. James Library will be complete soon. In the meanwhile, I continue to enjoy reading P.D. James on my train commute.

Goodbye, Gulshanji

2009-08-08T13:03:00.005+05:30

Just read the news that Gulshan Bawra is no more. Gulshanji wrote lyrics for many songs composed by R.D. Burman. May his soul rest in peace.

The following lines of Gulshan Bawara, written for song Sanam Teri Kasam, are my all time favourite.

माना के ख़ता मेरी है पर इतनी सज़ा न दे तू
ले पइयाँ पड़ू तेरे सजना अब तो गले लगा ले तू
तेरे दम से है मेरा दम
सनम तेरी क़सम ...

A charming tale

2009-06-17T16:41:00.003+05:30

Finished reading `An Unsuitable Job for a Woman' by my current favourite P.D. James. I must say I found this book, though it is a crime thriller, very charming. It features Cordelia Gray, and it is her first case. My heart went out to Cordelia as she tackles her first case to prove a suicide is a murder. Do read this if you get a chance.

Yesterday I visited my favorite bookshop and asked for P.D. James titles. They had none. I then went for a hunt on the pavement booksellers near Fountain in Bombay. I was very lucky to find five PDJ books in very good condition. Needless to say I grabed them immediately. The tittles are: A Taste for Death, Devices and Desires, Death in Holy Orders, A certain Justice and The Original Sin. On reaching home it was difficult to decide which one to begin first. I settled for Death in Holy Orders, which I am reading currently. The title appealed to me for some reasons, maybe because I am an atheist.

P.D. James has now become a habit with me. With so many titles at hand, this monsoon I will be preoccupied both at home and in the train. Thanks P.D. James for writing so well and telling a good story, every time.

Finsished reading ...

2009-06-02T16:39:00.003+05:30

Last week i finished reading The Private Patient by P.D. James. This was second James book which I had read. I must say I found it quite engrossing and it made for a good read while commuting. I had borrowed this from a kind blogger, who happens to work in the same place where I do, and had mentioned about this book in her blog.

Now I had become a fan of P.D. James. Last Friday, I purchased, from the pavement stalls, near American Express Bank in the Flora Fountain, Bombay, two second-hand books by P.D. James: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and Shroud for a Nightingale (which I am currently reading and is making my train commute a pleasure). These pavement book stalls have many other James books, and I plan to build my complete library soon.

Email Forward

2009-04-09T11:33:00.003+05:30

Got the following email forward today.

HUSBAND SHOPPING

A store that sells husbands has just opened in New York City, where a
woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the
entrance is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the
store ONLY ONCE!

You may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go
up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the Building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.

On the first floor the sign on the door reads: These men have jobs and love the Lord.

The second floor sign reads: These men have jobs, love the Lord, and love kids.

The third floor sign reads: These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, and are extremely good looking.
"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead good looking and help with the housework.
"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads: These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the
sign reads: You are visitor 4,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to
please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!

1349- pages !

2009-04-05T23:43:00.004+05:30

Started reading A Suitable Boy (1349 pages) today. Wish me luck.

The author of the book is Vikram Seth. This book was published in 1993 and I rememberit had good reviews. Naturally, one tends to praise longish book, as one has done superhuman task of going through it. 1349 pages is bit too much for a fiction. It certainly is longest Indian fiction book. I had hesitated to buy this book for long time, I was sure that it will lie in my bookshelf unread. A few days ago, I happened to see this book lying around in an office in our department. On enquiring to whom this belong to, it was revealed to me that the previous owner, who I know was voracious reader, had now left our department, had left this book in case some one is brave enough to pick it up and read it. So far, no one has been brave enough. But I had mustered enough courage to picked it up, and am its temporary owner, until I finish it.

I have braved myself read this book. Maybe I will finish it in two or three months or maybe more. I hope it will be a goodl read. And it will certainly will be a personal achievement, I mean reading it till page 1349.

Too good reads

2009-03-24T21:03:00.006+05:30

I recently had two good reads. Let me tell you about them.

The first book was `Six Suspects', by Vikas Swarup, who has earlier written Q & A, which was adopted for movie Slumdom Millionaire. Six Suspects is his second book. I had happened to see a person, for whom I had great admiration, reading this book, and went out and purchased a copy for myself.Well, the story is about a bartender girl who is shot dead, in presence of several people, by son of a minister. And this man is in turn shot dead at a party he has thrown, to celebrates his acquittal of the murder charge. The plot is reminiscent of Jessica Lal murder case, which was in news some years ago. The book made for very good read. The flow of the narration was very smooth and was on track. I read most of the book while commuting to work and finished it on a Friday night at around 1:30 a.m. Well, I must say I was a little disappointed by the end, I wish it could have been different. Anyway, it kept me engrossed for several days.

The second book is `The Unnatural Causes' by P.D. James. A few months ago, I had mentioned to someone, whom I chat regularly at breakfast table in the office canteen, that Arthur Conan Doyle is the greatest crime writer. And the person had shook his head and advised me to read P.D. James. Frankly I had never heard of this writer. Anyway, I happened to spot a P.D. James book at my favourite bookshop and purchased it immediately. The book, The Unnatural Cases, tells a story of a crime finction writer, who is found dead, in a small boat, with both his hands cut. Police Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh, who happened to be on a holiday at the place of the crime, gets involved in the happenings after the handless body is found. It made for a very very good read. I must say I am hooked and am looking forward to reading more P.D. James books. The narration and the characters were so life-like and believable, and the motive for the murder, which I think is the backbone of any crime thriller, was just too good and believable. This book too was finished on a Friday night at 1:30 a.m. Some coincidence.

Early human gets the tiger

2009-03-03T20:35:00.014+05:30

During my recent trip to Kanha, the main attraction was a trip to jungle for the tiger sighting. It is called locally as Tiger Safari. It was scheduled for morning of Saturday, February 14. I was really looking forward to it. We were told that the reporting time for the Safari is 5:30 a.m. in the morning. I was quite surprised to know about such an early start time. We were told that the core zone of Kanha National Park is about 8 km away from our resort and we have to drive quite deep into jungle to spot a tiger. I thought maybe an Early human gets the tiger. Anyway, almost all the registered persons reported at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. We were at the Park gate at around 6:00 a.m. It was very cold, maybe around 7 or 8 degrees. The gates opened at 6:15 a.m. and our jeep was allotted a guide. BTW, only locally registered open Maruti Gypsy jeeps, which can seat 6 people comfortably, are given entry inside the park. Once inside the park, a persons is not allowed to disembark from the jeep. Inside jungle we have to follow and respect the rules laid down for us humans. It is a National Park after all.

We begun our journey inside the jungle after a guide was allotted to our jeep. It was still dark. After some time I spotted the Sun between the trees and I was sitting next to the driver, and took the picture. It felt sublime. As the sun came out the cold started receding a little. I kept hoping a tiger may cross any time on our path and we early humans can get a gilmpse of the king of the jungle. No such luck for the next few minutes. We sighted animals such as gaur, spotted deer, peackocks, etc. but no tiger so far. Then we were driven to a spot called Kana Camp where one can alight from the jeep and relieve himself or herself. Here the guide informed us that we will get the information about where the tiger is sighted today. We got down and stretched our legs after sitting in the jeep for more than an hour. The guide informed us a tiger has been sighted today at a place called `Raja Pachchad Talab', and we have to register for the sighting. The sighting will be done riding an elephant. I was excited that we also get to ride on the elephant too, besides having a lookg at the tiger. I told the guide let us register for it immediately. Well, he told me we have to drive back to the Park gate to register for it by paying 100 rupees per Indian and 600 rupees for per foreigner. Why such a disparity. The guide told me the rules are made by higher authorities of the Park. So we drove back to the gate from where we have entered the Park and registered for 6 persons (we were all Indians in our jeep). After half an hour drive, we eached the spot where we saw few elephants. The guide gold us that there are two seater and 4 seater elephants, the small elephant will take two persons and a large one will take 4 persons. Mounting an elephant was quite easy, as a staircase was provided for it. I got on the elephant back with Prithvi who was in our jeep. After elephant walked for a few steps inside the jungle, the mahout pointed to a spot and told us see the tiger.

So here was the king of jungle, sitting and enjoying a good sunshine. He looked at us for a moment and then just looked away. It seems so heavenly to see a tiger sitting there just a few meters away. The picture (left) is the best picture I could get. I wished that the tiger may look again in our direction, but no such luck. The tiger just sat there majestically and seemed indifferent to our presence. The mahout then turned back the elephant, despite our pleas to stop for a few moments more. So I just said a quick goodbye to the majestic tiger and we came back to our jeep. Such a short sighting of the tiger left me speechless for some time. It seemed sublime.

As we were driving back, the guide showed us the pugmark of a tiger on the side the path. He said the pugmark are fresh, maybe the tiger has walked this way in the morning. We could not had a more closer look at the tiger, we certainly had a long look at the pugmark. I still wished our mahout had stopped a few more moment so we could have a longer look at the tiger. Anway, so we drove on but could not spotted another tiger. The guide informed us that the Kanha National Park is home to around 89 tigers, and if we are lucky a tiger can cross our path. We had no such luck. We certainly spotted many deers, spotted and without spots. Here is one such picture of a young spotted deer.

We back back to resort at around 12:00 noon. I will always remember my trip. It was an experience. We all in urban jungle, but to see the real jungle so closely is something which I cannot describe in mere words. One has to see it and feel it. Though I was little disappointed that I could not got a good picture of tiger. It seems many persons who were on different jeeps have the same story to tell. But some were quite lucky. One of the participant, Takeshi, was quite lucky to get pictures of a tiger crossing their path and also some pictures of a tiger at Kanha Meadows. Takeshi also got some pictures of Barasingha (Swamp Deer). With his kind permission the beautiful pictures are given below. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Goodbye, Mr Shanbhag

2009-02-28T23:49:00.005+05:30

I just read the sad news in papers today that Mr T. N. Shanbhag, owner of my favourite bookstore The Strand Book Stall is no more. He died after a brief illness. Strand Book Stall is a unique institution in Bombay. My only hobby is buying books and reading them, and Strand never disappoints me in finding the book which I want. Even if I could not find a book I wanted, I invariably spot a book which appeals to me and I end up buying that. In that way I never left without buying a book. Just a few weeks ago, I visited Strand as I wanted to buy The Empires of the Indus. On enquiring, I was told that this book is out of stock and may be available in a few days. I was disappointed, but was happy when I spotted Six Suspects (which I am reading presetnly) by Vikas Swarup. Strand is indded a treasure trove for book lovers like me. No bookshop in Bombay gives 20 per cent discount on books.

Goodbye Mr Shanbhag. May your soul rest in peace.

Jai Ho, A.R. Rahman and Gulzar Saab

2009-02-23T23:08:00.002+05:30

Congratulations to A.R. Rahman and Gulzar Saab for winning Oscar award for their song Jai Ho. We all are very proud for both of you.

A Tiger and A Plane

2009-02-19T17:05:00.006+05:30

During my recent trips to Kanha, I was looking forward to seeing a tiger in a real jungle and to fly in a plane. Well, I will be writing soon in detail about my trip to Kanha and also tigers and planes, but for now I would like to share the following two photographs, the first one shows the tiger in the place which is rightfully his, and the second one shows me in a plane, on my first real flight.

[click to enlarge]

me at Kanha

2009-02-14T17:14:00.005+05:30

I have been at Kanha since Tuesday, Feb. 10. I am here as a Woorkshop secretary for a workshop organized by our Department. The picture above shows, among the fantastic greenery, my resort room. We are staying at The Krishna Jungle Resort , which is a wonderful resort. It is soooo peaceful here. More later ...

A Memorable Evening

2009-01-06T13:52:00.022+05:30

On the evening of 4th January 2009, Forever Pancham, a group of true Pancam lovers from Pune, had organized a function on the occasion unveiling of R.D. Burman Chowk on the 15th death anniversary of R.D. Burman. I have been reading the Pancham Yahoo Group for many years now and one of the organizers of the evening, Saiprasad Raut, who is part of Forever Pancham, had sent a post in the group inviting all Pancham lovers for the evening, mentioning venue and time of the function. Being a RD fan, I just had attend the function.

I reached North Avenue, Santa Cruz at around 4:45 p.m. well ahead of 5:00 p.m., which was the scheduled time of the function. The venue was near Maryland building, where Panchamda used to live, The medley of songs of RD were being played at full blast. What a bliss to hear only RD songs, one after another. I selected a good seat for myself and waited for the programme to begin. I looked around and it seemed the people who live in the locality too were invited, and most of them had come with their children. The ambiance was festive. While waiting and enjoying RD's songs, a local elderly person, sitting next to me, got friendly with me. He was surprised to know that I have come from Ulhasnagar. And asked me are you a relation of R.D. Burman? How I wish I was. I said no, I am no relation of RD, but just one of his numerous fans, I relate to his songs so maybe in a way I am his relative. Then he asked was RD a sindhi, like me, no I said he was a Bengali. May be the local persons did not seem to know that a genius music composers had lived among them for many years. Some people are just lucky, without knowing it.

Well the wait was over. At around 6:05 p.m., I spotted Asha Bhosle walking in, followed by other guests of the evening - Gulzarji, Amit Kumar, Bhupinder Singh, Shailendra Singh and Manohari Singh and many others. Ashaji got a standing ovation from all present. By now quite a lot of people have filled in all the available space. The compere of evening was Harish Bhimani. Harish welcomed us all and thanked profusely Mr Ashish Shelar, the local corporator, who was instrumental in getting the chowk named after RD, and called the Panch Pancam Premees, who are part of Forever Pancham group on the stage. One of them, Sanjeev Langarkande said that today's muic is like medicine which comes with an expiry date, while Pancham's music is for forever, timeless, and has no expiry date, like ayurveda medicine. It made me smile. No truer words were said before.

We were then shown a nine minutes edited version of Pancham Unmixed: Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai , which has been made by Mr Brahmanad Singh. Various contemporaries of Pancham talk about him. A few of them just stuck my mind like Manna Dey just said, I loved him, I just loved him. One can hear Mannada's voice full of emotion, and eyes moist. I also found my eyes moist too. I just could not wait to watch the whole documentary, which is about 2 hours long. Maybe it get released some day in a DVD or CD format.

Next Ashaji was invited to say few words about Pancham. This was the moment we all were waiting for. Ashaji looked frail, and said she has not been well for few days, but wanted to attend this ceremony, come what. She begun by saying that Mumbaikers should feel ashamed, what they could not thought or did, Pancham's fans from Pune had thought and got it done. She said the naming of chowk in his name has come 15 years late. ``... Agar aap sab ne isi tarah se Pancham ka haath 1992-93 main thaama hota, to aaj Pancham humaare saath hee hota'' She said Pancham had two passions in life music and cooking. She also said that she used get upset that Lata got all easy and romantic songs, while Pancham gave her all difficult and unusual songs. Pancham had replied to her that day she refused to sing such songs, he will stop composing them. Thanks Ashaji for not refusing Pancham. She also sang few lines from Mera Kuch Samaan.

Next Gulzarji was requested to say few words about Pancham. Gulzar, in his style and poetic way said that genius like Pancham cannot be described in moments (lamhon), Pancham brought a new era of sound, music and sur and that era ended with him. Pancham can only be compared with only one person and that person is Pancham. Gulzarji eneded with a couplet ``yohon nahin bante yeh sur ke rishte, saat sur lagte hain, us main ek pancham hai''.

Haresh Bhimani then said something very interesting. He said he was fortunate to interview Pancham a couple of times (lucky man) and on being asked what sets him apart from other composers, Pancham had replied simply that his job, like other muic composers is mechanical, but he always tries to do something new. This is why, humble person like me, who would have been tone deaf, had it not been for RD, invariably find something new in his compositions.

Harish then invited the other associates and contemporaries of Panchamda to say something. Lyricist Gulshan Bawara said he could not believe that Pancham is dead, he believes he is among us. He was happy that RD got first Filmfare award for movie for which lyrics were written by him. Music composer Uttam Singh said he was amazed how Pancham used to bring up something new almost every second day. On asking Pancham how he does it, Pancham had replied `bus ho jaata hai yaar'. Uttam Singh said that in his opinion just merely naming a chowk (square) in RD's name is not enough, Khar should be named as R.D. Burman Khar. Amit Kumar recalled how Pancham had told him to sing a song of Kishore Kumar and Amit had sung Main Hoi Jumro Jumoro, but very badly, as he was afraid to sing in front of RD. And next day Panchamda had called him and asked him to sing for his film. The song was Bade Aache Laagte Hain. Pancham had obviously spotted that Amit is a good singer.

Bhupinder Singh said he is still trying to find a wrong note in the compositions of RD, and have not found one in any RD song. How could the evening end without Manohari Singhji saying a few words about Pancham. Manohari Singhji said he has been with Pancham right from Chotte Nawab to his last film, 1942 a Love Story. He wished that in his next birth too he wish to be again with RD.

The unveiling ceremony was then performed by Ashaji. It was really
a memorable moment. Hope the chowk is maintained properly in the coming years. Well the ceremony was over and it was time to go home. But I thought I will have a closer look, and maybe shake hands with friends and associates of Panchamda, and may be, if I am lucky, shake hand or namaste to Ashaji. The fans of Pancham were requested to put their autograph on the billboard put up at the venue. I was among the first to put my name on the billboard. I spotted Ashaji surrounded by security persons walking by. Though I could not take a photograph of her or say namaste to her, I had a good close look at her. I was able to shake hands with Gulzarji, Bhupinderji, Amit Kumar and Shailendra Singh.

I thought now it was time to go home. Still I was clueless about location of Maryland, the home of RD. Suddenly I spotted a huge picture of RD at a building nearby. Yes, this is home of RD. The invited celebrities and media persons were having a get together in the lawn of the building and entry was restricted for ordinary persons like me. Sigh. I took a picture of it from outside and spent many moments nearby. I was feeling sublime. For Pancham fan like me, his home is like a temple. I had read somewhere that Ashaji has preserved it like a museum. Maybe some day it will be open for RD fans like me. But I was happy just to see it from outside.

Then I saw Manohari Singhji walking out. I immediately asked him can I take a picture of yours, he just similed and stopped. I was so glad to take his picture and shook his hand. I should have touched his feet, but don't know why I hesitated. Manoharida is still keeping the spirit of Pancham alive. May he live long.

Before leaving I thanked Saiprasad Raut, whom I had spoken yesterday, for organizing a wonderful evening and for keeping the memories of Pancham alive.

I spotted one fan had written the following on the billboard: Agar Tum Na Hote Pancam, To Yeh Zindagi Itani Musical No Hoti. Agreed. Totally.

Update: The video of the above function is available here.

Pancham, forever

2009-01-04T23:34:00.002+05:30

The name unveiling of the Rahul Dev Burman Chowk, near his home, was done by Ashaji. I was there in the programme and the bove picture was taken by me. I will soon do a detailed a post of the programme. I was very happy to be there. Long Live Pancham.

If you are a Pancham fan ...

2009-01-04T11:15:00.004+05:30

[click to enlarge]

If you are a Pancham fan, like me, then please click on the above and read it. A chowk in Santa Cruz in Mumbai, near the home where R.D. Burman used to live, is being named as `Music Composer Late Rahul Dev Burman Chowk'. The function will be held today (5:00 p.m.). I will be there, certainly. See you there, if you are a Pancham fan.

And yes, Today is the 15th death anniversary of great Panchamda, but he still lives in our hearts.

Apt quote

2008-10-21T17:08:00.008+05:30

Saw the following quote in today's HT, Mumbai edition:

Children use the fist
Until they are of the age to use the brain
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It is quite appropriate for the recent happenings in Mumbai when MNS workers beat innocent and hapless persons, whose only crime (!), was that they were unemployed youths and from U.P. and Bihar. What a shame!

When I saw the news images in a TV news channel last Sunday, my initial reaction was of disbelief and a open mouth. Can this be happening in our age! Then I was siezed by anger and impotent rage. Violence of any kind, and especially to a fellow countryman, is deplorable and should not be happening.

Now Mr Raj Thackeray has been arrested and sent to jail for two weeks. Hope the child in him will stop using his fist and start using his brain. Attention seeking tacits will not work for ever. And justice will prevail. I still have faith.

Update: The following picture appeared in Today (Oct. 22)'s HT:

Link to the news story.

Green and peaceful

2008-10-14T13:24:00.001+05:30

My work place

2008-10-07T13:58:00.002+05:30

Picture of my desk, at my office. Sent from my mobile. Just for testing.

45, not out

2008-10-03T20:34:00.000+05:30

Today I turned 45. For better or worse, only time will tell. Maybe for better, I hope.

I was pleasantly surprised to know that I share my birthday with Sony Ericsson. SE was established on October 3, 2001. Happy birthday Sony Ericsson and happy birthday to me. No wonder I have a soft corner for Sony Ericsson. My present phone is SE 580i and my previous two phone were too SE (K750 and W610). And so will my future phones be. I always recommend SE phones to my friends.

Now about me. It is bit scary that I am just five years away from half century. Am I not too old to be a blogger! I wonder, but who reads my blog, except me. And sometime even I also don't. But seriously, yes I should now start paying more attention to my health, my attitude to life and watch out what I eat.

This year my daughter gifted me a small glass-cased Lord Ganesha. It it sitting on top of our computer desk. I was quite pleasantly surprised to receive this. Maybe she wants me to turn spiritual or maybe she thinks I am turning old and Lord will take care of me, if I do not take care of me !!

It is W580i now

2008-10-01T23:30:00.004+05:30

My new mobile phone is now Sony Ericsson W580i (black boulevard) . I purchased it today. And am quite happy about it. It is a slider phone

My birthday is on October 3, and as always is the practice is with me (gifting myself something), I thought this year I will gift myself W580. Actually I wanted to purchase the big brother of W580, which is W595, but I do not know when it will hit the Indian markets. As is the case with new models, W595 may also be steeply priced for first few months.

I do not had any much problem with my previous SE 610i phone, except that its navigation keys were a bit hard. The keys of W580i, both navigation and numeric, are quite soft. And it has a bigger screen and better resolution of 320 x 240. Also, W50i has built it pedometer, which keeps on counting the steps taken by me. It is quite useful to see much I am walking everyday and how much calories I am burning. So far, I had no problem with my new phone. It is quite good. The only thing I am missing is dedicated media on/off key on the side. Anyway, one does not get everything in a mobile phone.

I purchased it from Alpha Electronics, Irla, Vile Parle, Mumbai. It is supposed to be a landmark for the mobile phone/gadget lovers. My friend Ajay has been to Alpha previous and gone ga ga over it. So I went with Ajay today to Alpha. I was hoping that I may get W595 there. I had read in a SE blog that it is released on Sept. 29. The person at Alpha told me that it has not been received by them as yet. Since I wanted a new phone as a birthday present to myself, I made a quick decision to buy W580. And it seems to have been a wise decision. This phone is too good. I will write my detailed impressions about it later. Let me get used to it and enjoy it now.

Ya Ali

2008-09-23T14:13:00.012+05:30

Last Friday, I visited Minara Lane, Mohammed Ali Road, which is famous for delicious food, in the month of Ramazan, for some yummy food. I have been going there, for some years now, but alone. Every year, some of my friends promise me to come along with me, but drop out at the last moment. So I end up going there alone. I look up to this annual visit as an yearly pilgrimage.

I have a favourite place at Minara Lane, called Marhaba, which I find quite good. It is a small place, but the food here is quite tasty, especially baida roti and mutton rolls. This time, I clicked some pictures, which are below. The prices are also quite unbelievably cheap.

[Click to enlarge]

Since I had gone there quite early (around 6:30 p.m.) and it was not yet Iftar time, I could not eat anything there, and got some items parcelled for my family at home, who also share my likeness for tasty food.

Not to be missed on the Minara Lane is Phirni, which is put in a small earthen pot and Malpua. I clicked this picture of giant malpuas being fried at Suleiman Usman Mithaiwala.

The ambiance and the aroma of yummy food is the reason which takes me to Minara Lane every year. When it comes to yummy and tasty food, everyone stands united, I think so.

My blogging friend, Kusum Rohra, has also visited Mohammed Ali Road last weekend and written a post about it.

A guide to eating places at and around Mohammed Ali Road is here.

A pact

2008-09-19T16:28:00.004+05:30

Last week I made a pact (unsigned one though) with my daughter, aged 11, that I will pay more attention to fitness and will walk more. Daughters have a way to get their dad do the right things in life.

She (my daughter) and I go on most Sundays (when it is not raining) for an evening walk to our nearby park. Last Sunday, she mentioned that I am paying no attention to my health and am expanding in the middle. She said at least I should walk to railway station in the morning and evening instead of taking an auto rickshaw. Well, I tried to explain to her that it is quite difficult to avoid taking an auto in the morning as I do not want to miss my beloved 7:20 a.m. local train and the time seems to be flying the morning. Like a good daughter she understood but said what about evenings? Certainly in the evenings there is no hurry and I can certainly walk home. Well this stumped me. She is right. This set me thinking why I am taking an auto rickshaw in the evening and not walking from railway station. The distance is certainly walkable.

Next she asked me how much I pay per trip to and from railway station. Since I take a shared auto it comes to Rs. 5. She made a quick calculations and said if I walk from station to home every evening I will be saving Rs. 1300/- every year (5 x 5 = 25, 25 X 52 =1300), and every penny saved is a every penny earned. She said, or rather ordered me, that from tomorrow I will be walking from station to home every evening, and as a proof that I had walked I will deposit Rs. 5 with her every day, which she will be saving. Well, this seems to be quite good and practical suggestion. I readily agreed and since last Monday I am walking from station to home in the evenings. Now let us see if I am true to this unsigned pact in the coming days. I hope I will be. And I should be.

A sad story

2008-09-18T10:34:00.007+05:30

[click on the picture to enlarge]

I saw the above news item in today's HT, and it really moved me. Sanath Singh, who used to work in Mumbai as a security guard, had decided to leave his job due to harassment by Raj Thackeray and his men,and moved to his native place in Bihar. The recent Bihar floods swept away all his possessions and he and his family is now living in a relief camp.

As a Maharashtrian by birth, I am sorry Sanath Singh.

Together for 18 years

2008-08-28T21:20:00.003+05:30

This is Ajay

2008-08-22T12:18:00.003+05:30

This is Ajay. He is The system administrator in our Department, and also my good friend. Ajay introduced to me to many useful mobile goodies like Google Map, Gmail for mobile, Google calendar for mobile etc. etc. (all these are available at m.google.com) Thanks Ajay for keeping me up-to-date on the new technologies. Ajay has answer to all my Linux and mobile-related questions. Thanks Ajay for being such a helpful person around.

And this is my second post from my mobile. I am loving to blog from mobile.

Recent Writings on Kashmir

2008-08-22T10:24:00.008+05:30

Recent unfortunate happening in Jammu and Kashmir are in news for many days now.

Here are some notable articles about Kashmir issue by some prominent intellectuals:

Land and freedom by Arundhati Roy
Think the Unthinkable by Vir Sanghvi
Independence Day for Kashmir by Swaminathan A. Aiyer

All these articles are worth reading.

First post from my Mobile

2008-08-21T22:10:00.004+05:30

This is my first post sent from my mobile (SE 610i). Configuring it on my mobile and sending was just so easy. Sony Ericsson Zindabad. BTW, the picture above is of my son, who sportingly agreed to be photographed for this post.

Bioscope man

2008-07-24T16:32:00.002+05:30

By Indrajit Hazra
Publisher: Penguin India
Pages: 308, Price: Rs 299

Finished reading The Bioscope Man by Indrajit Hazra a few days ago. Mr Hazra writes a weekly column in the daily newspaper The Hindustan Times. The book made for some good reading. When I had spotted this book at my favourite Bookstore, the name Indrajit Hazra sounded familiar. Then I realized I read his column in the Sunday edition of HT.

The start, in particular, was quite funny and hilarious. Though some time the book tended to get dense and I lost track of the going ons. I found the chapters entitled `Interval' which occurs between chapters, quite uncomprehensive and off the track.

The book tells the story of Mr Abani Chatterjee. In fact it is written in the first person and Abani is telling us his story. [bioscope, dictionary.com, informs me means an early form of motion-picture projector, used about 1900.] So it is story about early times of movies, and the story is set at early 1900s, when the movies used to be silent. What I found funny about the story is that Abani Chatterjee, like his fater, is shown to be personal disaster prone, and what happens to him, off the screen, could well have happened in a movie. This particular sequence of Abani meeting his personal and absurd disaster is quite well written and is very funny. Here is an extract `I panicked. Instead of turning the tap off and proceeding to explain matters, I tried to move away from and towards her at the same time. In the process, one of my legs caught the other and fall on her like a lizard that had just lost its grip on the ceiling.'

What I also like about the book, besides its beautiful cover, is the font used in the book. The chapters entitled Interval, had different font, which is also very good. Also the books is typeset in one and half space, which made for easier reading, especially in the train, while commuting, where I read most of this book. I wish all the books had beautiful font and one and half spacing to add to the reading pleasure.

A detailed review of the book, which appeared in the Hindustan Times, is here.

My new mobile?

2008-07-23T16:58:00.001+05:30

Sony Ericsson has unveiled three new walkman phones yesterday -- W902, W595 and W302. W595 looks to be good. I will certainly buy it when it becomes available in India.

I am quite happy with current Walkman Phone, W610i, but its screen is quite small, and W595 has 2.2 inch screen with resolution of 320 x 240. Hope it will not be priced high. I expect it to be priced in the region of 12 K in India. Or Maybe higher. Let us see.

The other two Walkman phones, W902 and W302, seems to be higher and lower end phones, respectively.

The full product detail about W595 is given here . This phone is successor to W580 phone, which I had almost bought, then I saw W610i and had fallen in love with its good looks.

Samosa power

2008-07-22T10:36:00.006+05:30

Hindustan Times reports

Some of the toughest troops in the world have fallen in love with Indian culinary delights. In an outstanding endorsement of Indian menu, chicken tikka and samosa have become the staple diet for the Israeli Defence Forces.

I am amused. Yummy food zindabad.

Adventures of a bunch of keys

2008-07-19T08:36:00.016+05:30

This happened to me yesterday. I was late, as usual, leaving home for office. I catch 7:20 a.m. train everyday and leave, please believe me, at 7:12. Catch an Auto rickshaw 7:15 and am at station at 7:18.

Yesterday was no different, except that it was a Friday and I do not bring lunch from home on a Friday, hence no need to take shoulder bag. I transfer all my usual stuff, keys bunch, headphone for mobile etc. to my trouser pockets. I did the same thing yesterday, but was late by a minute and was already in panic that I will miss my beloved 7:20 train. It had happened on many Fridays that I had left my keys bunch at home. So when I felt hot (oh God, when will it start raining again), I took out my handkerchief to wipe my sweating brow and then, I realized that my trouser pocket was feeling light which means I had left my keys bunch, once again at home. Okay, I said to myself, I will call home and get this confirmed and feel stupid on one more Friday. I called home from the train and and my wife informed me coolly that no, the keys bunch is not there at its usual place, I must have taken it and that I should not leave home in such a tearing hurry. Okay Okay, I said I will not do so in future. But where are the keys bunch. It contained my office key, my desk drawer key and also our home key. I began to panic. And started to sweat. I called home again and requested my wife to look carefully at home, I may have dropped it somewhere near the usual place. No, she informed me, the keys are not be found near its usual place.

My only hope was that I must have dropped it from my trouser pocket, while taking out the hanky. If it has dropped out of auto, then it is lost, and if it is dropped inside the auto, then I may get it back. I tried to recall how the driver of auto looked and draw up a mental picture of him. I had travelled in his auto for the first time.

Needless to say I spent the whole day, that is yesterday, at office, in sort of panic and at self-blame game. And left the office early, at the earliest opportunity. I scanned all the autos at station, where I get down usually, for the auto driver of the morning. No luck. All the drivers were fat, while the Man I was looking for was quite slim.

There was only one way, by which I could get back my bunch of keys. The only way.

Today being a Saturday, was an off day for me. But I acted if it was a Friday and left the home at usual time of 7:12 a.m. Reached the main road and, please believe me, after few minutes yesterday's auto rickshaw driver passed by, I could not believed it and the driver also recognized me and stopped. I went across to him said I travelled in your auto yesterday and before I could finish he took out my keys bunch and handed it over to me. He explained that the next customer, after I had left, had spotted the keys bunch and had handed it over to him. I was, of course, overjoyed. I took out some money from my wallet and handed it over to him, as a reward for him. And thanked him many many times.

So miracles do happen. Personally, I do not believe in miracles, I depend on them!

Thank you Shri Honest Autowalla and thank you unknown, alert. he or she, who spotted my keys bunch.

Firefox 3

2008-06-12T11:30:00.003+05:30

Firefox is the best web browser. period.

Firefox 3 will be released on June 17, 2008. Please pledge to download it on that day and help create a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. I have already pledged to download it, and so have 18,858 people from India (at the time of writing this post). So come on, pledge to download Firefox on June 17.

You can pledge by clicking here.

Walking with the Walkman

2008-04-10T17:00:00.003+05:30

I have been using till today, Sony Ericsson K750i mobile. Today I traded it for a new mobile which is Sonry Ericsson W610i. I was quite happy with K750i, but wanted a new phone. I was quite sure that my new phone will be a Sony Ericsson and a walkman series. Though Sony has quite a number of phones in walkman series, but some of them are either slider or fold phones, but I wanted a candy phone. And my search ended with W610i. It is quite a beautiful silm phone. It has great sound quality, both in built in speaker and in stereo headphones. So I look forward to walking with the walkman and listening to great music by RD.

Pancham UnMixed

2008-04-02T10:35:00.004+05:30

Pancham UnMixed: An Unending Journey, is a film-documentary on Rahul Dev Burman, by Brahmanand Singh,. The world premier of this documentary will be at ArcLight Hollywood, Los Angeles on the 26th April, 6.30 pm.

Oh can't wait to see this documentary when it is released in India.

A trailer of the documentary is below.

14 years, without

2008-01-04T11:38:00.000+05:30

Today is 14th death anniversary of Rahul Dev Burman. Today is the day of mourning for Panchamda's fans, like me. His songs are still with me, and will always be with me. I have been listening to song `Haye Re Haye Tera Ghungta' from movie Dhongee, today morning. What a song! The video of the song is below. Note how Asha says the word Ghungta in the song.

Computer @ Home

2007-12-10T15:46:00.000+05:30

We have now computer (Intel PC) at home. We purchased it in the last week of November, after lot of deliberations, discussionss, at home. Will it come in between children's studies, will it often crash, will it increase the electric bill etc. etc. Anyway, now that it has been installed and working all right, here are my off hand impressions of computer at home.

At office, a PC seems okay, but at home it does seems little out of place. Since I am scared of forgetting passwords, I have kept the same password, which I have for my office account. So sometime I do forget if I am at home or at office. Since we have opted for a LCD screen, and a wide one at that, movies on a DVD Disk look great, and with Creative 1.2 speakers, they sound too great. And my music collection of RD and SD sound fantastic.

I had installed Ubuntu Linux also on it, besides Windows XP and Windows Vista. I thought I will get my children get used to Linux, but so far they have not taken to it. My daughter has taken to computer, say like fish takes to water. She thinks she is a good painter, and the `Paint' programme on Vista helps her keeping that illusion. We soon plan to have internet connection too for the computer, so I may blog more, than I do now.

Sad news

2007-10-15T16:52:00.001+05:30

Just heard the sad news that Meera Dev Burman, wife of Sachinda, and mother of Rahul Dev, passed away. May her soul rest in peace.

Greedy?

2007-10-04T16:24:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 44, and I turned greedy too.

Every year, on this day, I gift myself a book, since no one bothers to do so. So this year too I went to my favourite bookshop, The Strand Bookstall, to gift a book to myself. I wanted a slim and handsome book.

I spotted Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. I had heard about this book but never owned or read it. So I picked it up. It was quite slim volume. I was happy. But soon I spotted also To Sir, with Love by E. R. Braithwaite, another slim volume and Thank you Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse, yes it too was slim book, and picked these two too for myself.

I am getting greedy and getting old. But I am enjoying it. I mean, well, both getting old and getting greedy :).

Talent lost; regionalism won

2007-09-24T15:45:00.000+05:30

So Amit Paul did not win Indian Idol 3, and Prashant who got more votes, won.

Talent lost and regionalism won. Better singer lost; good singer won. Such is life.

I felt very very sad when the results of Indian Idol were announced in yesterday's Grand Finale telecast. I was somehow sure that Amit will win, as he seemed to be such versatile singer, but it was not to be. Sky is not going to fall if Prashant had won and Amit had lost out.

Well, Amit is, in my opinion, a damn good singer. I am sure he will make it big as a singer in Bollywood. I will be watching his career with a considerable interest. Here is wishing you Amit all the best.

Thank you Amit, for giving so much joy with you singing, which was always in सुर; for your wonderul selection of songs, and last, but not the least, for singing O Laal Meri Pat Rakhiyo Bala Jhoole Laalan . Amit, you are the the Indian Idol for me.

Video of best performance, in my opinion, of Amit Paul singing Bulla ki Jaana Main Kaun:

Commuter classics

2007-09-21T13:54:00.000+05:30

The title of this post, and the picture on left is borrowed from an excellent blog post which I read a couple of months ago.

The post talked about reading while commuting from home to place of work. Well, I have been commuting everyday for about 4 hours for many years. I generally read newspapers or sleep off, if I am lucky to get a place to sit in the train. But reading classics while travelling seemed an excellent option. So inspired by this post, I completed reading two classic books, back to back, recently.

The books were The Woken in White (published in 1860) and The Moonstone (published in 1868), both by Wilkie Collins. And believe me I had such a great time in reading them while commuting that I actually looked forward to commuting. Travelling became a pleasure rather than a pain. I drew quite a lookss from my fellow sufferers, opps commuters, who seemed to be surprised with my nose in a fat book. Is'nt it almost old-fashioned to travel with a book, when almost everyone in the train or in the bus, has a mobile phone or digital music player to flaunt and play with.

Both the books were very very good read. But I liked The Moonstone better. It is considered to be the first detective novel in English, and even seems to have inspired Arthur Conan Doyle.

The following lines, which appear in Second Period, Chapter 3, describes my own feeling while reading both these books:

Do you feel an uncomfortable heat at the pit of your stomach, sir? and a nasty thumping at the top of your head? Ah! not yet? It will lay hold of at Cobb's Hole, Mr. Franklin. I call it the detective fever; and I first caught it in the company of Sergeant Cuff.'

I too had caught detective fever. I was so engrossed reading these two books, while travelling or at home, that I was most of the time unaware of happenings around me, and got strange looks from my wife and children at home. Both these books were page-turner, one just wanted to know what happened next. My only complaint about both the books is they are bit too long. But it could be understood that both of them had appeared first in serial form first, and maybe the author was paid per word. Hence this accounts for them being long.

I have many classics in my book collection, so I will be commuter with classics henceforth, and rest of the things be damned. Here is looking forward to next classic in my book collection and to commuting ...

Addendum: Could not help saying this --- Chekhovian irony something humdrum and dreary as commuting combined with something uplifting and, shall I say, character building, as reading classic books.

The next classic I am reading while commuting is Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.

Email forward ...

2007-09-19T14:19:00.000+05:30

Got the following by email forward. Good One ...

Ant And Grasshopper

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Version

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNNshow up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkargoes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) ...

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal
and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath' ...

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the 'Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA

and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US
and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley ...

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in
India .....

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers,
India is still a developing country!!!

Go for it, Amit

2007-09-18T16:22:00.000+05:30

The picture on the left is of Amit Paul, who is finalist for the Indian Idol 3. Generally I avoid all music based shows on TV, but for some reasons, unknown even to me, I like Indian Idol 3. I, and my family too, have been watching it regularly every week and we all quite enjoy.

I like Amit's voice. His selection of songs is good. And he sung, in one of earlier rounds, a song which is sung by Panchamda, and he sung it very very well.

Well Amit, go for it. You deserve to win Indian Idol 3. All the best.

Hear and watch how wonderfully Amit had sung koraa kaagaz thaa ye man meraa, from movie Aradhana in the episode which was telecast on Sept. 7, in the video below.

Lost it, found it

2007-09-06T15:30:00.000+05:30

It has been many many days since I written a post for my blog. The reason was simple ... I had forgotten my password to my blooger account. Just as I have forgotten it, I remembered it. So here I go again. Or maybe I had lost my will to blog. Anyway.

Not much exciting things have happen. The life in general has been humdrum.

Reading record: finished reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. It was quite a sad book and was set in mid 1980s. It won the Booker Prize last year, and Kiran Desai become only the second Indian to win that prize. Maybe this fact had attracted me buy and read this book. The book had three main characters: Sai, Judge and Cook. Somewhere in the middle of the book the reader were told the name of the judge, but the cook remain nameless, and the reader is told about his name on the last but one page of the book. The review of the book, as it appeared in the New York Times is here

The book I am reading presently is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. It is very very good read. Though this book was published in 1860, but is timeless in telling a gripping story, and keeping the reader's attention.

The only movie I had sent recently is Chak De India . Well, the movie was good, and though I do no like Mr Shah Rukh Khan in general, I liked him in this movie. But at the end, if the Hockey, which is national sport of India, needs a movie for its promotion or to be in forefront, then it is indeed a very sad state of affairs. In India, sports means cricket, cricket and just cricket.

Disgrace

2007-07-12T14:58:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I finished reading Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. It is a sad and beautiful book. I found I had a lump in my throat and a wet eye, as I put it down. It is really a sad book, but it is very very well written.

Mr Coetzee conveys a lot with a minimum of words, he writes almost to the point. The first lines of the book are:

For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well. On Thursday afternoons he drives to Green Point. Punctually at two p.m. he presses the buzzer at the entrance to Windsor Mansions, speaks his name, and enters.

The book has only 220 pages. Other author may have stretched it to more and more pages.

The book is set in the post-apartheid South Africa. It tells the story of a fifty-two year old professor, who teaches romantic poetry at a university of Cape Town, South Africa. But I should not tell you more. Please do read this book. You will feel enriched by reading it. BTW, Disgrace was awarded Booker Prize in 1999.

The first chapter of the book is here.

And the review of the book is here.

Favourte Bookmark

2007-07-09T15:36:00.000+05:30

The image on the left is that of my favourite bookmark. And lucky bookmark too, for me. Whenever I had used this bookmark, while reading a book, I have been able to finish it and appreciate it too. I have gone through such fat books, Brothers Karamazov, for example, using this bookmark.

I had lost this bookmark somehow, and I had lost hope of finding it again. I thought maybe I must have given it in a book which was borrowed by one of my friend. I was very happy to find it again among one of the book, a few days ago. I am now using it for Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, book which I am reading presently.

The charm of this bookmark is quote by Desiderius Erasmus . Wikepedia tells me that he was a Dutch humanist and theologian.

More quotes by Desiderius Erasmus are here

Tashakor, Khaled Hosseini

2007-07-06T14:06:00.000+05:30

Recently I finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
I had seen this book a few months ago on someone desk, and liked the story line, as was described on the back page of the book. Oh this book is about redemption, I had said to myself and I must read it. Since I purchased the book to which I take fancy to, instead of borrowing it from someone, I purchased it during my next visit to my favourite bookshop. I finished reading it recently. I really liked it. It made for very good reading. I would recommend it strongly. The plot summary of the book is here.

Tashakor (which means thank you in Persian) Khaled Hosseini for writing it.

वाह वाह Mika

2007-06-29T12:46:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-27T11:19:00.001+05:30

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

2007-06-22T15:49:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-13T14:00:00.000+05:30

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.

Blogging Break

2007-04-27T16:47:00.000+05:30

I will be away for 32 days from my office, from where I blog, from Monday, April 30 to Thursday, May 31.

32 days is a long time in a person's life. Part of my vacation will be for our visit to Kashmir (see post below), and for the rest of days I want to be away from emails, spam emails, blogs, comments, computers and the virtual world. I want to take a break from the virtual world. I promise to myself that I will not walk into a local cyber cafe to check emails, blogs, etc. etc. (I do not have a computer at home). I want to see the REAL world. I want all days to be like Sunday, I want to be happy, for those 32 days.

So, there will be no updates on this blog, till I came back on Friday, June 1, 2007.

Mission Kashmir

2007-04-26T15:04:00.000+05:30

Last year, we (that is me, wife and my children) had gone to Mahabaleshwar, via Pune. Now train journey from Kalyan to Pune is just two and a half hours. After reaching Pune, my daughter was disappointed with such short train journey, and had said `what, we are already there'. After another one and a half hour journey from Pune to Mahabaleshwar by road, she was doubly disappointed. Well, children, unlike us adults, are passionate about journey, especially train journey, rather than arriving at a destination. For them Life is a Journey.

I had promised my children at Mahabaleshwar that next year we will go to a far far away place, with lots of train journey. So, this year we are going to visit Kashmir. And that too by Rajdhani Express, via New Delhi. Insha Allah, if everything goes as per plan, we will board the train on Thursday, May 3 and will be at Sringar on May 5. Of course, I will record all the interesting details about the trip and the people whom we will meet, and will, of course, blog about them.

One keep reading about Kashmir, but all for the wrong reasons, in the newspapers. I also read it in books, as child, that if there is a paradise on Earth, it is Kashmir. I want to see the paradise.

And yes, I purchased yesterday Canon PowerShot A550 digital camera with 7.1 megapixels, 4x optical zoom lens, especially for the Kashmir trip. This is my first digital camera. Hope I will be able to click some good photographs. It will be a crime to go to Kashmir without a good camera and come back without good photographs.

Good-bye Lara

2007-04-23T11:40:00.000+05:30

Brian Lara announced retirement from international cricket last week. What a player, and what a way to go. He could easily have been around for few more years. It is little sad that his team lost out narrowly the last match played by Lara. After the match, which was against England in the on going Cricket World Cup 2007, Lara told the crowd: "I've had a tremendous time playing for the West Indies. All I ask is, did I entertain? If I entertained you, I'm happy. The unanimous response from the crowd at the stadium was YES. Yes, Lara, you did entertain us. Whenever Lara was batting in a match, which was shown on TV, I made it a point to watch, even for few minutes. I was sure that I will get to see at least one exquisite stroke. And I was never disappointed. Thank you Brian Lara for the wonderful cricket, and those exquisite and elegant strokes. None could bat like you.

It will be fun to watch who will break Lara's World records of 400 and 501 runs in an innings in Test and First Class matches, respectively. I personally believe they will remain in Lara's name for the long long time. Maybe for ever.

आओ kiss करें

2007-04-17T13:38:00.000+05:30

BBC reports:

Actor Richard Gere has sparked protests in India after kissing Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty at an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi.

The video is below, watch it if you are inclined to see it. It does not seem a kiss, but just a peck on the cheeks. Yes, Richard Gere almost falling on Shilpa and she bending backwards, makes for good viewing। Both are obviously good actors। The matter should have been left to that. But trust our media to blow the matter out of proportion and various organizations to be unhappy about it. A kiss is just a kiss. Better to kiss kiss than war war. But happenings like this are ready-made or heaven-sent for our media and also our so-called (protesting) organizations. यह तो उनिकी रोजी रोटी है।

Below is video of Shilpa Shetty expressing her anger over media coverage। शिल्पा को ग़ुस्सा कियूं आता है। देखियी ईस विडिओ में।

मेरा भारत महान

2007-04-13T15:03:00.000+05:30

यह मेरा प्हेला पोस्ट हिंदी में है।

मुझे बहौत ख़ुशी हुई जब मैंने देखा आज ब्लॉगर के dashboard मैं के ब्लोग्गिंग हिंदी में भी की जा साक्ती हैं।

मैं ब्लॉगर और गूगल को धन्यवाद देना चाहता हूँ। मेरा भारत महान। और गूगल भी महान।

और आब गूगल समाचार हिंदी ैं भी है।

तो भारतवासियों हिंदी मैं ब्लोग्गिंग केजिया और दुनिया को देखा लिए जिया का हम भी कीसही से कम नहीं.

News News

2007-04-13T13:31:00.000+05:30

I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,
And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.
-- Ogden Nash

True very true, Mr O. Nash. I personally find that watching news on telly is becomign rather a bore nowadays. Thankfully, at home, I am allowed just few minutes to watch the news, before the remote is snatched away from me. My children just love to watch Mr Shah Rukh Khan on the KBC, which has become under SRK a children's programme. I wonder why does not he, SRK, says Bacche aur Bacheuon, along with Ladies and Gentelmen, Boys and Girls, after he returns from breaks during the programme. Maybe he will say it soon. Another suggestion: maybe KBC should be renamed as ABCD (Aao Bano Crorepati Dude) to make it more popular among children!

The Telegraph, Kolkata, reports :

Tulsi Virani will soon be back in Pakistani drawing rooms. So would the new Kaun Banega Crorepati.

The ban is obviously lifted to keep the masses in Pakistan think of other things rather than when will Gen. Musharraf go or rather steps down. Will SRK keep people of Pakistan happy or distracted? I wonder.

45 Minutes

2007-04-09T14:40:00.000+05:30

It is a Saturday afternoon. Due to load-shedding*, there is no electric power in your home in Ulhasnagar. It is early April, and it is getting hotter and hotter. You sweat and sweat, and look often and again at the electric fan above you, just hoping it will start whrilling again. It is five minutes past two o'clock in the afternoon. You were woken up from your slumber as the fan stopped whrilling at exactly thirty minutes past six in the morning. And it suddenly become hot, and you woke up. Since then you are in state of discomfort, but you manage to survive, all thanks to wonderful hand fan which does not need electricity to operate, and keeps you cool and composed. In frustration you call the local MSEB Office, to find out when power will return, as it should have by 2:00 p.m. The phone is picked up, and instead of `Hello', the man says `Bola'. You inform ask, or rather plead with him that it is few minutes 2:00 p.m. and why there is no sign of power. You are informed `Ho Sahib, we got a new order today. Extra 45 minutes of load shedding from today, power will go half an hour early and will return 15 minutes late'. You just sigh and hang up. No point in shooting the messenger. So instead of 7 hours load-shedding, it will now be 7 hours and 45 minutes.

[The above is a true story. Whoever has said that fact is stranger than fiction, owes me a cup of coffee. He was dead right]

A suggestion for MSEB: Kindly distribute hand-fans [see the one pictured above], along with our monthly electric bills. Since you cannot generate enough electricity to meet the demand, the hand-fans will keep the people cool, and maybe smiling. MSEB can, of course, generate extra income by putting on advertisement on the hand-fans.

And yes, all efforts will be made by our Government to keep the Mumbai city free from power cuts.

* = the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.

Looking for a New Home

2007-04-03T15:17:00.000+05:30

We are looking for a new home. We live in 1BHK flat and with children growing, one feels need for extra space, that is an extra room. We, that is me and my wife, thought we could look for a new home in a new city. Some of my friends have shifted some time ago to Thane and whenever I run into them in Ulhasnagar, they say Ho you still live in Ulhasnagar, you should shift to Thane like us and then see how happy you feel. Now that my son Sachin's board exams are over, we thought we could now begin looking for a new Home seriously. Well, so last weekend we went to our friendly neighobourhood real estate agent. We told him our thoughts on purchasing a new home in a new city. The person curiously said that we seem to be nice persons so he will give us a nice proposal. The nice proposal was we should consider buying a home at Hiranandani Estate, Thane. We told him our budget and our requirement of 2BKH flat. He said with our budget we cannot get a 2BKH flat at HE, Thane, but we could get a 1BHK flat. He said the life at HE is heaven blah blah blah, as he himself had shifted there about a month ago and praised to sky his new home (it turned out that he lives on the 10th floor, so it seems obvious).

So encouraged by his smooth talk, my wife and I made a journey to Hiranandani Estate, Thane, last Sunday, which was April 1. It was quite far away from Thane railway station (about 7.5 kms), but once we reached there, we were quite impressed by the imposing buildings and the location. The agent showed his home, and also showed around the housing complex. He then showed our could-have-been new home. Well it was on the first floor of a 12 floor building. The house was quite good, though it was 1BHK, it had two bathrooms. The flat curiously had a canopy which seems little out of place, as only the first floor flats had it. Well, we then went to the Sales Office to find out the total cost of the flat. The total cost of the flat turned out to be quite high than our expectations --- around rupees thirty lakhs!! I asked the Executive is it real quotation or April fool joke. No, no, he said, it is real quotation and not a joke. The icing on the cake was Rs. 2.30 lakhs for the canopy, as additional cost.

Rs. thirty lakhs for a 1BHK flat is certainly a clear case of over-pricing, taking into consideration its location and the long distance from the railway station. Home are slowly becoming luxuries rather than a necessity. The interest rates on home loans too are rising day by day, to keep pace with real estate prices. So where that leave common man like me. Nowhere, I presume.

Meanwhile, our search continues ...

Happiness is a blog post

2007-03-30T13:55:00.000+05:30

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. -- The Dalai Lama

It is very easy to be unhappy --- just watch a cricket match involving India, or pick up a newspaper and both or either of them may make you unhappy.

So here are some of the my actions which makes me happy.

Let us begin in the very beginning of the day. If I get up instantly on hearing the alarm set on my mobile (which is, btw, set for 5:45 a.m.), I feel happy. But this is quite rare, maybe just once or twice in a week. I mostly hit the snooze button.
Over the past many years, I have been taking 7:20 a.m. train (now you know why the alarm is set at 5:45 a.m.) to commute to work. The train is unbelievably crowded even at such an early hour, and it is such a struggle to board the train. But I don't know why I like this train and try not to miss it. I feel happy if I managed to travel by this particular train.
After reaching my office, the first thing I do is to dash off to our excellent canteen. There is a particular seat in the canteen, which is my favourite, from where one gets an excellent view of Arabian Sea. If I happen to occupy it, I feel happy. Coffee, Toast with Butter and a beautiful view can make anyone happy in the mornings.
A hard day's work at office, with minimum goofing or wasting of time on non-consequential things makes me happy. Honestly.
I feel happy when I listen to any RD or SD Burman song, at work or at home. As I am composing this post, I am listening to a fabulous RD song `Panna ki tamana hai ke heera mujhe mil jaye .... and I feel happy.
I feel happy when I do not overstay at office in the evening and reach home on time, that is 7:35 p.m. Oh how happy I feel to see my wife and childrens. I hope they too feel happy to see me. If I reach on time, I get a royal reception from them, if I am late even by half an hour, I have lot of explanation to do.
After dinner, we, that is I, my wife and children go to our building's terrace for a stroll. Nowadays it is sooo hot during the day, the cold breeze in late evening just makes me happy and makes me smile.
And yes, I do feel happy composing a blog post like this, which I am sure no one will read, but since it is written, let it be there ...

BTW, this is my 300th post.

What a Song

2007-03-21T14:39:00.000+05:30

he maine kasam lee, he toone kasam lee
nahee honge judaa, hum

What a romantic song from the movie Tere Mere Sapne, which starred Dev Anand and Mumtaz. Only great S.D. Burman could have composed this song, and Neeraj could have written such a simple lyrics. The picturisation of the song, which is mostly on a cycle, is wonderful. The video of the song is below. Hear the song, and remember some one you love, and had loved once.

Cross-posted from my other blog Raju's World

Long Weekend Diary

2007-03-21T13:29:00.000+05:30

This is my diary for the (long) weekend of March 17, 18 and 19.

This week it was a holiday on Monday, March 19 on account of Gudi Padwa, which is Maharashtraian New Year. Normally on the same day, it is Cheti Chand, but this year it was on Tuesday, that is one day after. So belated Happy New Year to all the Maharashtraian and the Sindhi readers of this Blog.

As my son, Sachin's Board exam for Standard X are going on, there is virtual ban on putting on TV at our home. We have to maintain utmost silence, least Sachin is disturbed with his last minute revision of his studies. I managed to catch same action of the World Cup Cricket 2007 match of India-Bangladesh match on Saturday, which India eventually lost. The media coverage of reaction of fans after the match made for sad reading. At many places the posters of Indian cricketers were burn and at Ranchi the under construction home of Indian wicketkeeper, M.S. Dhoni, was damaged. Well, these people are not fans of Indian cricket team, but just fanatics, and they just did what any fanatic would do in any part of the world. But really cricket is just a game in which the team which plays better wins. On that day, Bangladesh simply played well, bowled well and even fielded well, and the Indian team just played badly, and thus lost. Indian team redeemed itself somewhat, in their next match with Bermuda. Let us see how India plays with Sri Lanka, and if it can qualify for the next stage of the World Cup. My hunch is it will be South Africa, which may walk away with the World Cup this time.

On Monday I heard the sad news about death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer. There are media reports about suspicious nature of his death. Rest in peace Bob.

Pakistan is now out of the World Cup after their defeat by Ireland. Ireland is not even a Test playing nation, and they managed to defeat Pakistan. Maybe Pakistan just defeated itself. Their exit means that there will be no India-Pakistan match in the World Cup.

I seems to be reading too many newspapers on the weekend -- Hindustan Times, DNA, Times of India along with which comes horrible Mumbai Mirror. I must restrict my reading to just one or two newspaper on the weekend. Anyway, barring for few articles, the rest of the Sundays papers are just not worth reading. After reading these newspapers, you are none the wiser at the end of the day.

About food --- last Monday we had Sai Bhaji with Koki. I cajoled my wife to make Thaynri, which taste great with Sai Bhaji, and should be eaten on Cheti Chand, but in vain. She does not want to prepare anything sweet, to safeguard Sachin's health during his exam.

Cricket ke liye kuch bhi karega

2007-03-14T16:51:00.000+05:30

The Telegraph, Kolkata reports:

The Meghalaya power department has decided to reschedule its loadshedding timings to enable people to enjoy the biggest event of the sport, the World Cup.

Power supply, which has been disrupted in the city for five hours from midnight for the past month, will now be cut off for three hours from 3 am, at least till the mega event is over.

Cricket ke liye kuch bhi karega. To have power cut from midnight is crazy, in the first place, Even crazier is to have it from 3 a.m. for cricket. But, then, cricket is not a sport in India, it is almost a religion.

2007-03-12T17:05:00.000+05:30

This is my diary for the weekend of March 10 - 11, 2007.

I read somewhere that mention of word Blog means people think the person will write about what he eat for breakfast. So let me tell you what I had for breakfast last Saturday: it was jawar-ke-roti, which in Sindhi we call `Dhodha'. It is really very tasty. It is made as a normal roti, but, of course, wheat flour is substituted by jawar flour, with extra oil or ghee, and green corian·der and fresh garlic added. And we had the famous Sindhi `Sai Bhaji' with sindhi rice Bhugal Chanvaar or Brown rice for the lunch. Oh bliss. If you had a Sindhi friend, do insist to him or her to treat you to Sai Bhaji and Bhugal Chanvaar. After that I had good two hours siesta. On Saturday I heard the good news that the concerned authorities have very kindly reduced the load-shedding by half an hour. So instead of seven and half hours, it will now be seven hours, every day. Oh thanks for the small mercies.

More on food: on Sunday I had purchased thick carrots for Gaajar ka Halwa. But since Sachin, my son, is appearing for his Std. X exam, which will begin on this Tuesday, March 13, my wife was reluctant to make it, as it is quite time consuming. She wanted to sit with Sachin and supervise his revision of his studies. After much cajoling, she agreed, but on condition that I will mesh them and also oversee the cooking of the halwa. So, dear reader, I took up the meshing of the carrots and it took up about 45 minutes to mesh one and half kilos of carrots, and maybe one hour for cooking. So this is the end-of-season Gaajar Ka Halwaa for us. We will enjoy it for few days.

Cross-posted from my other Blog Raju's World

Bleak Tuesdays & Thursdays

2007-03-09T14:42:00.000+05:30

Life, interrrupted
7:59 p.m.,
any Tuesday or Thursday

Ulhasnagar, where I live, has load-shedding every day of the week for seven and half hours. Tuesdays and Thursdays are special for us, as electric power goes at 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon, sharp, and returns at 9:00 p.m. in the evening, sharp. There is complete darkness all around, as even the street lights too are put out during the time of load-shedding*. The same pattern is repeated on Thursdays. This has been so since the third week of December last year. God knows, how long this will be like. Maybe for eternity. It is really a sad state of affairs. While Bombay city has uninterrrupted power supply, places like Thane and New Mumbai goes without power for four and half hours, but mostly during day time. It is places like Kalyan, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar and Ambernath, which goes without power for longer duration, mostly in the evenings.

For the record the following are the timings of load-shedding in the area where I live.

Every Monday: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Every Tuesday: 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Wednesday: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Every Thursday: 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Friday: 6:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. AND 5:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Saturday: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Every Sunday: 9:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

I have put the above table for my own record and to just check if the situation improves next month or it worsens. More likely it will be latter. With approaching hot months of April and May, I wonder what will happen. The demand for power will rise and so will be the hours of load-shedding. Situation is already bleak in rural areas, with load-shedding of 12 hours every day.

The root cause of this is that during the past seven years there is almost no change in the additional power generation sources, while the demand for the power is increasing every year. Obviously, the present Maharashtra Government is to be blamed for the sorry state-of-affairs.

Life, resumes
9:15 pm.
any Tuesday or Thursday

*load-shedding = the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system. (source: dictionary.reference.com)

Happy Women's Day

2007-03-08T13:28:00.000+05:30

Today is International Women's Day. Wish all the women readers of this blog, a happy Women's Day. I wonder if there are any readers of this Blog. There is one confirmed reader, that is me, of this Blog. Sigh. Anyway, if you happen to bump into this Blog, by mistake or by design, and if you happen to be a woman, do today what your heart tells you, and be happy. But that you should do every day, not just on Women's Day.

Agar Tum Na Hote ...

2007-03-07T13:58:00.000+05:30

Hamein aur jeene ki chaahat na hoti
Agar tum na hote, agar tum na hote

What a great song, composed, by who else, than Panchamda, from the movie Agar Tum Na Hote. It happens to be my favourite song, but it is the most favourite song of my wife. Whenever she hears this, she just stop and looks and looks at me. Well, thank you Panchamda for creating such a beautiful composition and to Gulshan Bawraji for writing wonderful lyrics of the song. And last, but not the least, thanks Kishore Kumarji for your unusually good playback singing of this song.

The video of the song is below. Note the funny facial expression of Rajesh Kahnna, which somehow kills the song, but the song is saved by ever graceful Rekha.

Powerl-less

2007-02-20T16:53:00.000+05:30

Yesterday we, that is me, and my family, felt like Mumbaikars. The reason was we had electric power for the whole day. It seemed so good, and unbelievable too.

I live in Ulhasnagar and for the past few years we had load shedding, i.e. sate-of-being powerless. Every single day of the week. Earlier it used to be for five hours every day and since last few days it is now 7 and 1/2 hours every day. Today is Tuesday, so it must be from 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and if it is Wednesday, it will be from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Such is life.

The picture above was taken at around 8:00 p.m. on a Sunday and is of my daughter. Though we have a power inverter installed at our home, without which life would be un-livable, it runs for few hours, and when the power cut is for more than 7 hours, the inverter just gives up and the battery drains out. Then out come the candle the the wait till the electricity and sanity returns. Thank you MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Bandh, oops Board).

Link to a news report about electricity crisis.

Good Read

2007-02-20T10:52:00.000+05:30

After a long time, I read something quite funny and amusing in my favourite newspaper, which happens to be The Hindusstan Times. Actually the article was reproduced from The Guardian newspaper. It is a letter which a husband has written to her wife, whose lover he long to be. This could be a letter from any husband to any wife. To quote from the article:

It is Saturday night. We are in bed, the kids finally asleep. You are watching the film. Will you ever understand how it feels to pale into insignificance beside a mediocre film? "But," you say, "I'll never get round to it otherwise."

The full letter is available at this link.

Quote for the Weekend

2007-02-09T16:39:00.000+05:30

Sometimes I wonder if I'm in my right mind. Then it passes off and I'm as intelligent as ever. -- Samuel Beckett, "Endgame"

Tere Bina Pancham

2007-01-04T15:01:00.000+05:30

Today (January 4) is the 13th death anniversary of great Rahul Dev Burman . It was on January 4, 1994, that Panchamda left us. But he still lives in the hearts of Pancham fans, like me. Thank you Panchamda for the timless tunes.

Video of one of the greatest song of Panchamda is below. Tera Bina Zindagi Se Koi Shikwa Tu Nahin .... Great song.

Thank you for Tom and Jerry

2006-12-20T10:56:00.000+05:30

I read the sad news today that Joseph Barbera, who was co-creater of famous cartoon series of Tom and Jerry, has died. Thank you Mr Barbera for giving me and my children many moments of unbridled joy. May your soul rest in peace.

Mr Barbera also created Yogi Bear, The Flintstone, Top Cat and Scooby Doo comic characters.

It is a wonderful pleasure to watch Tom and Jerry anytime, any day. I particularly like the expressions of Tom.

When I had recently purchased Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone, I had mentioned to my childrens that it can also play video clips. The first ever demand from my daughter, who is 10, was that she want to watch Tom and Jerry on my mobile. Luckily I got few clips of Tom and Jerry and with the help of one of my dear friend, converted the clips so that they can be played on my mobile. Now she watches at least one clip every day and keep pestering me for new video clips.

I was overjoyed to see that YouTube has many video clips of Tom and Jerry. One such clip, Tom in Love, is given below.

Remains of the Year

2006-12-19T16:10:00.000+05:30

Dear Reader: the blog you are reading completes one year of its existence today. Thank you, thank you for your best wishes. Do partake of a slice of cake.

It was on December 19 last year, that this blog came into existence as Here, There and Everywhere. Obviously I am a The Beatles fan, and the name was inspired by a famous song of The Beatles. Later on, I renamed it as Anything Goes, which is a name of P.G. Wodehouse play. I liked the name, and it is stuck since then.

This blog owes its existence to a post about demolitions of allegedly illegal buildings in Ulhasnagar, the city where I was born and still live. It was written by Kusum Rohra. And inspired by her posts and her Blog, I thought I will have a blog of my own. Thank you Kusum, for writing the inspirational post, and for maintaining a wonderful blog.

Well, I had written over 250 posts in the past year. I consider this and this as my best posts. I wish I had written more such posts.

When I began blogging a year ago, I thought I would put my thoughts, for whatever they are worth, on my blog. But due to time constraint, as I blog from office, I am getting less time nowadays for blogging. Many good thoughts about post come when I am commuting to and from office and by the time I reach office, these supposedly bright ideas vanish into thin air. Many interesting things keep happening around the world and also to me, but some time they do not make it to this blog.

I do hope ... now wait a minute, I read very recently that `hope has little to do with reason', but I hope anyway that my second year of blogging will be better, than my first. And I do hope to file an equally boring post, same day, next year!

Burning train and crazy mob

2006-12-01T10:27:00.000+05:30

The Hindustan Times reports: Protests by various Dalit organisations to condemn the Kanpur statue desecration took an ugly turn in Ulhasnagar on Thursday with agitators in Ulhasnagar setting ablaze the Mumbai-bound Deccan Queen and two compartments of a Karjat local, despite the presence of the local police and the Government Railway Police (GRP).

The picture above is of Decccan Queen which was brunt.

It is really crazy. The protests after a shocking and condemnable happening are sometime more shocking and shameful. Yesterday it was one of such day. I was at office and was unaware of happenings at street just near my home. I came to know about events of stone-pelting, auto-rickshaw burning and shouting mobs from my neighbourers after I reached home. The watchman of the apartment building which I live, was beaten up by a mob of 15-20 persons. Poor man. He got beaten up for no fault of his. I find following quotes about mob apt about people's mentality in a mob:

Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that society is rotten to the core. --- Timothy Thomas Fortune

There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions to an individual, but permitted to a mob. --- Ayn Rand

Talk is cheap

2006-11-27T13:41:00.000+05:30

A bestselling book claims that women say an average of 20,000 words a day and men only 7,000.

It could be true. I am a good listener, like most men.

Read the full article ...

Merawala Mobile

2006-11-14T10:39:00.000+05:30

Last Sunday, I purchased Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone for myself. Over the past 13 months, I have been using Nokia 6030 mobile, and I thought it is time to upgrade to a phone which has everything. Nokia 6030 has just FM Radio.

For months I have been looking for a phone which has everything (decent camera, FM radio, media player, Bluetooth, etc.). I had shortlisted 3 models which were within my buying budget: Sony Ericsson K750i, Nokia 6131, and Nokia 6233. I dropped Nokia 6131, as it is a fold phone. In the end, I had to settle for K750i, as Nokia 6233 at 13.5K seemed overpriced, and little outside my budget.

Well, K750i has almost everything. It has 2.0 megapixel camera (with 4x digital zoom and auto focus), MP3 and video player, FM radio, 38 MB inbuilt memory and 64 MB memory stick with an option to upgrade memory upto 2.0 GB, bluetooth, USB connectivity etc. etc. In short it has everything which, as of today, one looks for in a mobile phone. And the price of around 10K indian ruppees also seems quite reasonable.

K750i is a great phone. I am quite happy with it. I clicked some snaps at home and the results were quite good. And the transfer of jpeg files to my office computer through USB cable was amazily simple. I thought I will need to boot my PC in the windows mode to transfer the pictures, but I was able to use USB connectivity in my Ubuntu Linux (using KDE).

I have a small grouse with K750i. Unlike my last phone (Nokia 6030), I am not able to switch the FM station using joystick or the button (which is used to answer calls) on the headphone. One has switch off the keypad lock, and keep the phone in the FM Radio mode, then station can be switched using joystick. As all the FM station here in Mumbai (which are 7 in all, a new station 92.7, Big FM, got operational today), play a song of two minutes, after Radio Jockey has jabbered away as if there is no tomorrow, followed by commercials for 3 minutes, it is sometime irritating to listen to a FM station. I constantly switch station to avoid horrid commercials, and to listen to any song, even a Himesh Reshammiya song!

I have wonderful R D Burman song `kuchha to log kahe.nge, log.n kaa kaama hai kahanaa' as mp3 ringone of my new mobile. I think it is apt song for a ringtone.

I would give K750i 10 out of 10.

The full length review of K750i is here.

A Blog exclusively about K750i is here.

Bad Behaviour

2006-11-09T16:53:00.000+05:30

Like most of you, I too was shocked when I saw the following images (see the YouTube video below) on the television screen, last Sunday. The behaviour of the Australian team was really really bad and uncivilised. And they were given ICC Champions trophy. Champions do no behave like this. Ricky Ponting and the Australian cricket team must apologies to Sharad Pawar for their bad beavhiour. Though I have read in the newspapers that Ricky Ponting is ready to apologise, but it seems Pawar is yet to get any apology from him and the Australian team.

Well, for the next World Cup, which is scheduled to be played in the West Indies in March/April next year, the World Cup, which Australia may win it yet again, though I hope they do not, should be kept on a dias and Ricky Ponting be told to get it from their to avoid nudging and pushing of any human.

Update : Ricky Ponting has apologised.

Firefox 2

2006-10-31T16:04:00.000+05:30

Firefox 2 is released. I downloaded it yesterday and it is working fine. I am amazed to read this post that Firefox2 was downloaded over 2 million times in the first 24 hours of launch or 30 downloads per second. Wow. IE can you beat it?

Justice delayed, but done

2006-10-18T13:41:00.000+05:30

The Telegraph, Kolkata, reports:

A decade after the Delhi University student was raped and murdered at her home, and seven years after the accused had walked free from the trial court, Delhi High Court found Santosh Kumar Singh guilty of both crimes.

Priyadarshini Mattoo, a law student, was raped and murdered by Santhosh Singh, son on a Police Officer, on 23 January 1996. The lower court had given Singh benefit of doubt and acquitted him, due to lack of evidence . The additional sessions judge G.P. Thareja had observed in his judgeement, “At last it is felt that approach and working of subordinate staff of the Delhi police suggests that the rule of law is not meant for those who enforce the law nor for their near relatives.’’ What could be more shameful.

The Delhi High Court has overruled lower cour's order and convicted Singh. Santhosh Singh must be given death penalty. It is indeed sad that what seems to be an open and shut case, had dragged for 10 long years. Had it not been the relenless preservance of Shri Chaman Lal Mattoo, Priyadharshini's father, the case may not have come to its logical conclusion. Well, justice is delayed, but seems to have been done. The verdict of penality, either life imprisonment or death, will be pronounced on October 30.

Update (Oct. 31) The Delhi High Court has given Santosh Kumar Singh the death sentence for raping and murdering Priyadarshini Mattoo. Read more ...

Away and back

2006-10-17T12:12:00.000+05:30

Due to some personal reasons, which are to personal to disclose here, I have been away from blogs and all that, for about two weeks. Now it seem the reason for which I was away is half-solved. It may soon be solved fully soon.

Here is my what interesting and uninteresting happened to me during these days.

I purchased my favourite sportsman Steve Waugh's autobiography, Out of my comfort zone, as a present from myself to myself on my birthday. For quite some years now, I have been presented books to myself on my birthday, since no one else seems to be doing it :(. Anyway, the book seem quite long, about 800 pages, and it has quite interesting pictures of Steve Waugh and of the matches he has played. It would be good reading. I intend to start reading it soon.

Two more books were purchased along with the above book: Remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. Both are Booker prize winners. I hope they will be good read.

During the past two weeks two excellent movies Khosla ka Ghosla and Dor were released. But as I live a small city of Ulhasnagar, these movies were not released there in the first week and were released later. I could not get to see Khosla ka Ghosla, but did saw Dor last Saturday. I just loved the movie Dor. It was excellent. I will write a separate post about it. I thought Omkara will be movie of the year for me, but it seems to be it will be Dor.

Nothing much interesting happened at the home or office front. Life goes on. As a poet, I could not recall his name, has said `Din hota hai, shaam hoti hai, zindagi yuhun taamaam hoti hai' or something like that. Loose translation would be: days come and goes as does evenings, and life seems to be coming to an end. May be I am having some mid-life crises or whatever.

Turned 43

2006-10-03T10:21:00.000+05:30

I turned 43 today, for better or for worse. Let us hope for the better :).

Sachinda, 100

2006-10-01T00:02:00.000+05:30

Sachin Dev Burman [1 October 1906 -- 31 October 1975]

Today is the 100th birth anniversary of Sachin Dev Burman. If Sachinda were alive today, he would have turned a grand old man of 100.

A few days ago I was listening to one of Sachinda's composed song, from movie Bandini, which he himself has sung, and in that song there is a line in the first mukda

ho man kii kitaab se tuu, meraa naam hii miTaa denaa
gun to na thaa koii bhii, avagun mere bhulaa denaa

I realise while I was listening to this song on my iPod, I had tears in my eyes. Such is the power of lyrics and of course Sachinda's singing.

And the next song of Sachinda's in my iPod's SD playlist hai apanaa dil to aavaaraa, na jaane kis pe aayegaa made me smile.

Thank you thank you Sachinda for the wonderful and beautiful compositions.

Come together

2006-09-27T14:19:00.000+05:30

 
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

3 Books

2006-09-19T15:03:00.000+05:30

After many days I went to my favourite bookshop Strand Book Stall, last Friday, and purchased 3 books:

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Saturday by Ian McEwan

All the books are in paperback edition. I have heard a lot about Maximum City, and has been highly recommended to me by my dear friend. The hardback edition was quite costly, but now it has come in paperback edition, but still at Rs. 395/- it is quite costly. Hope it will be good read.

The book which I am reading at present is White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I quite like this book. On Beauty is her third book and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

I also wanted to purchase The Outsider by Albert Camus, but its price was more than Rs. 500/-. Maybe I should have purchased it, instead of On Beauty and Saturday. I have heard so much about Camus, but have never read him.

The book which I wanted to purchase The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (3 Volumes in a Slipcase) which was at Rs. Rs.4850 is way beyond my modest means. As I was paying for the above three books, a lucky lady had purchased Complete Calvin and Hobbes and I overheard salesman informing her that it is the last copy of the set. What a pleasant surprise that Mumbai city has Calvin and Hobbes fans. Well, it is very very difficult not to fall in love with the Calvin and the Hobbes. For the time being I will have to be content with my two collections of C&H, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes and The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes.

And the book which I will be gifting to myself on my birthday, which is in the first week of October, is Out of My Comfort Zone: The Autobiography, by Steve Waugh. This is now available in paperback and the price of the book at Rs. 565 is quite affordable for me. Steve Waugh has always been my favourite cricket player. After his retirement from international cricket, I have stopped following cricket matches. In my opinion, there was no one like Steve Waugh.

Cross-posted from my other blog, Raju's world

Hang a Quote

2006-09-19T13:49:00.000+05:30

I have been tagged, yet again, by my blogging dost Kusum Rohra. So here are five random quotes. May be you will like them.

I, Me and Myself

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." -- Oscar Wilde (1854 –1900)

Oscar and also said "The final mystery is oneself" and "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance". Enough said.

Happiness

"If you want to be happy, be." -- Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

People have different interpretation of happiness. Read this:

An American, a Frenchman, and a Vietnamese refugee had a discussion about the happiness of life. "To me, happiness is returning home on a Monday evening, having a wonderful dinner prepared by my wife, then slouching on the sofa watching Monday Night Football," the American said.

"You Americans are not romantic at all", the French injected, "Sharing a beautiful evening with my lover, walking along the Seine river, and having a romantic dinner on top of the Eiffel tower. That is happiness of life."

"You call those things happiness", the Vietnamese laughed, "then you two still don't understand life at all. Imagine this. You are sleeping soundly at night in Saigon. Then suddenly you hear loud knocks on your front door. You hear loud voices, 'Mr. Nguyen Van Binh, open the door!'. Quaking with fear, you rush out and open the door. Right there, you see two secret policemen ready to handcuff you. One of them says to you, 'Mr. Nguyen Van Binh, you are under arrest for your anti-revolutionary activities. You are being sent to the re-educational camp tonight!' Sweating profusely and shaking uncontrollably, you reply to them, 'Comrades, Mr. Nguyen Van Binh lives next door.' That moment is happiness in life, my friends.

Free Lunch

"In the future, you're going to get computers as prizes in breakfast cereals. You'll throw them out because your house will be littered with them." -- Robert Lucky (1936 -- )

People of Tamil Nadu are getting Freebie television. Maybe in the next election Ms Jayalalithaa will promise and give Freebie computers. Nothing is impossible for the Indian politicians.

Life

"Reality continues to ruin my life." -- Calvin and Hobbes

Sigh.

Razors pain you; Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give;
Gas smells awful; You might as well live.
-- Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

Love

"Love is the delusion that one woman is different from another". -- Oscar Wilde (1854 –1900).

Maybe it is true from a man's perspective.

A woman's perspective about Love might be:

My own dear love, he is strong and bold
And he cares not what comes after.
His words ring sweet as a chime of gold,
And his eyes are lit with laughter.
He is jubilant as a flag unfurled --
Oh, a girl, she'd not forget him.
My own dear love, he is all my world --
And I wish I'd never met him.
-- Dorothy Parker (1893 -- 1967)

Let him stay, please

2006-09-15T10:46:00.000+05:30

CNN-IBN reports:

A 100-year-old man from Pakistan is begging to be allowed to spend his last few days with his family in Kashmir. But rules require him to return to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Please do not send back Nadeem Din (pictured left), who had crossed over to the Pakistan occupied Kashmir in 1965, and returned to India recently. A grand old man of 100 years should be allowed to spent the evening of his life with his family members.

Back

2006-09-14T14:41:00.000+05:30

I am back at the blogosphere. It is good to be back.

The blogging break was owing to an important activity at my place of work. It is over now and I am back to my normal being, after being on my toes, literally.

During the important event, 9 o'clock played a significant role. I used to come at 9 oclock bus (in the morning) and used to go back home at 9 o'clock bus (in the evening).

I am happy to be back. I will start reading my favourite blogs, soon.

BTW, today is Hindi Diwas . Happy Hindi Diwas to all.