The day I learned swear-words

Satyadeo,mere ko bhi pass karo na.. I say(trying to conceal the plea intended)
chal James, aaj isko nahin denge ssale ko. yeh le,mere ko pass kar and Satyadeo tosses the football towards James who skilfully grabs the ball, with his left foot, as soon as it lands, not a single bounce, and gives a ground pass back to Satyadeo.
Just three of us, first year (class VII) kids of twelve, playing football on a sunday afternoon on ground number 4. After the typically hectic sunday morning routine of "vishesh safaai" (cleaning of the mess,aangan,four verandahs,all the five rooms with soap and water, with water brought from the handpump sometimes!!!!!!), somehow the seniors had spared us from the "obligatory" fielding at the grounds where they played cricket (I don't remember how did this happen as a hectic day was no reason enough to get too tired to play(in any case,how could 4th yearites do a menial task and get tired and somebody else got tired or not - it was their discretion!!). Maybe there was some more serious business like some 3rd yearite might have annoyed some 4th yearite(ANY 4th yearite was no less than a GOD, except when amongst the other GODs!!!) due to some action of his and he was to be put to task or whate'er..)
So, we three (rest two - Ashutosh and Abhishek - probably preferred a quick nap) decided to make the max out of this exceptional day. Took the football from the store-room and ran, we three, to the farthest ground from the house (else who knows, some senior sends Ashu or Abhi to get us back to the house (please dont ask me "why")). Atleast that would delay our being found out!!!!!!)
Back at ground 4, my requests turn to pleas but with no results.bhag saale, hum na de rahe, muhalla ssala
I said gaali kyon de rahe ho. hum nahin gaali de rahe tab tum kyon de rahe ho
Satyadeo who had all the making of a bully-to-be says to do na gaali, humne kab mana kiya hai saale, bol saale bol. haa haa haa haa
James is in no mood to help me(there is no second thought about whom to support - me or Satyadeo).
My self-respect protests hum gaali nahin de sakte to tum gaali kyon doge. mere ko bhi bolna aa sakta hai
bol na kameene, bol na. bol to paayega nahi, siyaar ki tarah paad raha hai. sala. haa haa.
ssaala, gaali deta hai mere ko. samjhhta kya hai. hum bhi saala bol sakte hain. saala mota. kameena saala...and torrent continues
With nonplussed eyes the two look at me. Of course, never could one use swear-words inside house(No, even a senior dare not do that to a junior as there were "GODs" in each house, to look after these things),but being batchmate they very well knew this meek homesick momma's boy who was too scared to use swear-words. It was like breaking some well-inculcated religious beleif, using expletives. But finally its you who have to face the world and not those who wrote the religion or moral codes for you or who taught you those. That what must have occurred to me then(I can hardly remember now) and impulsive that I am now, I must have been more in childhood, i guess. So I didn't take much time to respond thus. My poor vocab might have played a spoilsport but it was my FIRST time afterall, I didn't miss much :-).

larynx multiplexing: Enjoy 4 songs simultaneously!!!!

neela aasmaan so gaya hai
laraa...lara..laraa..lara..lalalaaa... hoo....
neela aasmaan so gaya hai

Jeeyen to jeeyen kaise bin aapke....
Jeeyen to jeeyen kaise bin aapke

Apun bola tu meri laila
Vo boli fekta hai saala

fourth larynx, as if writhing in pain, huffs out
humein toomse payaar keetnaa ee hum naheee jaanate
magarrr.. jeeee naaheeee sakate toomhaaare beena

oo.. ho..oo.., ons barse raat bheege honth tharraaye
dhadkane kuchh kehna chaahe keh nahin paaye

Lagta nahin dil kahin bin aapke

Apun jab bhi sachi bolta hai
Aye usko jhooth kaiko lagta hai re

huffing larynx keeps on trying hard,it has tried its best to indicate that its protesting.
soona gum joodaaee kaa oothaate hain loag
jaaane jindagi kaise oothaate hain loag...

The vocalist continues, trying to subdue ambient noise, with raised voice
Hawa ka geet madhyam hai,....,Hawa ka geet madhyam hai
Samay ki chaal bhi kam hai
Neela aasmaan so gayaa....

protests grows louder
Kaise kahoon bina tere zindagi ye kya hogi
Jaise koi saza koi badd-dua hogi

Ye uska style hoinga
Honthon pe na dil mein haan hoinga

the sick larynx puffs the last time, as it has realised,with so distorted lyrics, it cann't continue long
deen to yahaan pe lage........

The champion, with boosted moral, carries on, the classic song from equally classic movie SILSILA
oo.., meri baahon mein sharmate lajaate aise tum aaye
ki jaise baadlon mein chaand dheere dheere aa jaaye

Second larynx could not continue as the owner, Lokesh, carried it inside his room cursing.
(when song is not as great as the one from Silsila, how can you have the motivation to sing)
samundar kinaare le jaake re
bol de khullam khulla
(the protest seems to die down with one protestor subdued, other backed out)

Yeh tanhaayi yeh main aur tum, Yeh tanhaayi yeh main aur tum
Zameen bhi ho gayi gumsum
(no protest audible now and the beautiful song continues unmolested (unheard also. is it??)..... )

Neela aasmaan so gaya....

Thus ended the major contest of the four larynges and Anand's emerged the winner!!!!!!
He attributed the win to the strong motivation to sing he had ever since he saw the movie few days back. He has become a great silsila and neela-aasmaan-so-.. afficionado since watching the movie. The allegiance was owed to Shiara Bano and the song main-chali-main-chali-.. before Silsila could dislodge it (in the same manner as Shaira Bano dislodged Salma Hayek of Desperado fame)!!
That evening was so satifying one. Both purposes - of singing that particular song aloud and audience-presence - was achieved.

Dumbest/Laziest creature on earth

It is Me.

How much perfect/accurate you can be

"Time bol be" said Abhaya.
My reply "TIME'.
(In case you didn't understand (that makes me laugh. HAA HAA ) Abhaya wanted to know the time of the day)
This is something not unusual at my place. You feel so bad on becoming the target and worse on missing the advantage of something like the question above!!!!
Another instance (yesternight conversation):
Loks says, while drinking milk "doodh se hugga achhe se saaf hota hai"
My reply "to tu paani se saaf nahin karta kya?"
I must appreciate Abhaya for his skill of never missing the target. His instincts here beats even that of a leopard or a hwak or whate'er swiftest thing you can imagine of!!!!!
So, that day was so satisfying for me when I beat him at his game on his asking the time :)
Thanks to Abhaya (yes, his name is Abhaya,not Abhay and you dare not misspell for the reason now pretty obvious :-) ),we people are also getting some of those instincts :-)
One more:
majaa nahin aa raha dost says poor me.
to tum chale jaao uske paas thus saith the king, Abhaya!!!!
God anyway wont take him in heaven and if Evil is also watching him, he is not going to ever die!!!!!!!!!

Most funny Hindi movie???

I am sure you all would come up with names such as Andaaz Apna Apna,Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron,Hera Pheri and many more such names.
But can you conjure up the name "Gajagamini" !!!!!
if not, then either you are amongst the elite community like profs of IISc (whom I watched the movie with, and M F Hussain, in the IISc auditorium) or have-nots who did't watch this movie. I agree Anadaz Apna Apna is a masterpiece, but that was made with that intent. Imagine(plss..., u do that, i cannt dare do that. HAA HAA HEE HEE HOO HOO) what would have happenned had MFH thought of making a comedy movie. Read on to get some idea to be able to imagine :).
With lots of excitement, I went with Lokesh to IISc, to watch the critically acclaimed (my heartfelt (rather belly-felt) thanks to the critics) movie and none else than Mr (somebody, please confer on him honorary doctorate)M F Hussain himself was to grace the occassion with his presence (and he did!!! I must appreciate his dare-devilry. Or maybe the ambience of IISc assured him of protection. He should have come to IITK :))
So, we did reach the newly built auditorium of some particular department (dont ask me which). Beautiful it was. Really the architect deserves some serious praise. It was simply grand.
Khair, we entered the auditorium, with few minutes delay (MaN, i oculd have laughed few more minutes had I reached on time :-( )
The movie had started. When I entered the DARK audi, I thought, nobody was there. But the pin-drop silence was deceptive. The audi was FULL (almost. I relaised at the end of the show. Yes I was there till the end!!!!) with the intelligentsia (the profs) and intelligentsiaayins (hee hee, their wives). When I reached there, the Bollywood king, SRK was on the screen (but he could not set the screen on fire as it was TOO bright with colors (no doubt, it was) all around already) and so was the queen Madhuri Dixit. The blunder I committed was I was expecting a movie with some protagonist or some storyline or some message or SOMEthing. Man, it had NOthing. Thanks to my blunder, it helped me enjoy the movie a hell lot!!!!!
How?
Well, for few minutes, maybe 15-20, I tried my best, initially with my left brain(the logical one) and then the right (artistic one) to be able to follow what was going on - SRK and MD conversing in verses (or was it simple style? I was totally in awe of everything going on there and in awe of the audience enduring it with silence), few (actually LOT) naked children running around, some background music and something something...
I felt bad,feeling similar to reproach for not understanding the creation, the artist was trying to express(remember my posting on booker winner GOST!!!)
But with the entrance of Kavi Kalidas and then Samrat Akbar in the same scene, dawned upon me the realisation of truth.dont apply brains, stupid. this is CRAP. HAVE FUN. All hell broke loose inside my belly and I ran out of the audi, came out and had one of the most hearty laugh in my life. I laughed loudly, clutching my stomach,to the utmost surprise of the security guard standing outside. I had never laughed like that before. It was atleast 5 minutes before I went back to the sanctum sanctorum. Again the same calm, but I was at ease this time, not in awe, coz the truth had dawned upon me. I thoroughtly enjoyed the remaining part of the movie with clutched-mouth laughter.
Finally, to my regret, the movie ends. The host announces - Mr MFH is open to any questions people have. Please feel free to ak.
To top it up, my uncontrolled laughter, a professor stands up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got a jolt, my whole body protested. Somehow Lokesh's hard pinch worked (and obviously my self-control) and I could manage with a whiff.
MaN, if he could realised what he missed (he should have followed my actions) in his endeavour to follow the movie....
But MFH made my day (I am sorry for the audience which couldn't appreciate the movie and tried to understand it!!!!)

Can love be so strong? Is that love??

Excerpts of a chat with a very good friend of mine(She happens to be a distant relative of mine)
I ask: When are you going to Patna?
Reply: Dont know. Mom has asked me not to come.
Me says: Well.Have patience. Its so nice to know that you are willing to patch up and ready to goto your home in Patna.
Reply: Yeah, I am. Lets see. I waited so long but nobody relented. I hoped they would soften as time heals all, but .....

This is a case of love-affair not acceptable to the bride's(or girl) family. She waits and waits and waits, hoping that her family would relent and then she would marry the guy in a traditional way its done in any typical indian family and at the end, everybody would be happy. But that had not to be. The reason, as I know - different castes.
I can fully understand any family's initial reservations against marriages amongst different castes/community/../..
The simple logic being its easier to adjust if the pair are from as similar background as possible. Obviously you would agree that if you have spouse 20 years your junior/senior, there would stark differenc in the way of thinkings of both, priorities,reaction etc. etc. Now since you cann't have it all similar(please, keep queit, those who are thinking in a skewed manner), soceity put criterions like religion. Maybe people found even in religion, different sects/community have different way of life, therefrom came caste as a criterion, i guess, for marriages. This is totally understandable.
(The way Ayn Rand didn't compromise when it came to expressing her philosophy through John Galt's speech in Atlas Shrugged, this is going to be loo..ng baby!!!! but then, the speech WAS loo..ng, wasn't it.)
Similarly when parents looks for a match for their son/daughter, they look at the age,studies etc. etc. other than religion/caste etc. (In fact, caste (i wont say religion) atleast has got a backseat in priorties, with time) (there are things like gotras blah blah which i m not too much aware of. Mom are u??? ). But all said and done, what do they do when suddenly their baby(!!!) of 20 odd years has decided to marry somebody who they would have never ever included in list of probable matches for him!!!
To any conflict, the simplest (I would say ONLY also) approach is dialogue.
In ANY family, its done when such situation arises.
The why does situation as above arise???
I am not at all in a position to answer. Neither my experience nor my studies make me capable of that.
I have seen another case, similar, quite closely.
My second jijaji is a punjabbi munda. Obviously(isn't it?) my parents didnt go all the way to Patiala and found a match for my dear sis. They decided after a few years of friendship in college, that they will marry each other. I remember, when I and my mom went to meet my to-be-jija. I was in 2nd year of undergrad then. I think my mom did talk to my didi suggesting dropping such plans many times and so did I. Whatfor?? I dont know. I guess, just b'coz that was my first natural reaction to her deciding such thing on her own, without consulting mom and dad. My mom had reasons - Punjab would be too.. far ,we dont know about those people, the culture would be so different, the language,..,.. . But maybe 2-3 years of friendship was enough for them to decide on taking this plunge and overcoming such trifles. Fine, mian biwi raaji, to kya karega kaazi. We all (not that my jijaji's side were very welcoming to the idea of having a bihari bahu from so different background) agreed to the pair's decision finally and now its as good as any marriage.
But not that I advocate this thing that parents should relent. I have a subtle point to make.
Couldn't my didi or the girl-in-chat agree to their parents wishes? Was it that difficult for them to understand that their parents would definitely find a more suited match for them than they themselves can. In my didi's case, fine, nothing was being compromised. My parents never put a clause - either we or he.But when it comes to compromising one to get other, what does one do? Do you break relation of 20 years to go for some relation 4-5 years old. Or do you do vice versa.
I put the above two examples to raise the issue/question. They dont indicate the type of cases I am to discuss or my recommendations.This is to open-ended thing to pass any verdict on. But lets carry on.
I never fell in love , but based on examples I see in daily life, I have observed (not the right word as who the hell has time/inclination to observe such a thing!!! rather i feel) that based on few days of acquaintance/friendship, you decide he/she is your love. Is that enough. Cann't it be phoney? Again mind u, me dont have experience. Are you as smart/dumb/dirty/../../ as in your daily life, when you are with a person of opposite sex whom you got infatuated-with/attracted-to based on the looks/smartness/../..(similar initial traits) or do you pretend. If you dont pretend, nothing beats that. perfect. but if you do, i guess, you are inviting trouble.
(I dont think Freud saw all the dreams to write interpretations of dreams, nor would have Maslow reached the last level of need and then gave his theory of five levles of need. So lemme write .....)
So, you got attracted (based on baseless things (with respect to commitment such as love/marriage) and then you try your best by looking good, nice talks, nice gifts etc. etc.to keep the affairs continuing. Generally as far as meeting few hours a day (who the hell are the lovers in this world having so much time.I am sure, none) it works. So, you become lovebirds and definitely few yearsof romance is enough to decide the compatibility. Looks and dress-sense wont last long and you get to know each other well enough. Then why the hell very few affairs break. The simple reason is that the way any husband wife apply effort to let the marriage life sail smoothly, so do the lovebirds (in fact they need to do less as its not marriage afterall).So, if you are doing that, isnt it as good as early marriage without parents' feedback/counsel. I would rather have people trying so many love-affairs before settling for a marriage.
(I dont need to mention that aspect of sex is totally kept out of this logical discourse, which is not fully justified, but, as i said, lemme write.... )
So, if what I said is correct, then wat follows is that after 3-4 years of love affairs, you ask your parents permission for marriage with him/her and then when they say its infatuation/not-so-thought-up decision, you feel they are being unfair. How can they say its not wise/thought-up etc. when it has continued for so long. But what you miss out is that they have their own experience (of their own marriage as well others' relatives/friends etc. etc. as to what it needs to build a successfull marriage and they want you to gain from that as they would want the best for you.
But that doesn't mean arranged marriage beats love marriage anytime. Love marriage is the best if its the one I am suggesting , tried and tested :).
The advantage love-marriage has over the arranged one is that you know the person much better and dont have to base the impression on one meeting (which can be phoney also!!) as in arranged one but then in arranged one, you give proper thought if the other person is going to be compatible with me for whole life or not, while in love, you dont think of compatibility-for-life for sure when you fall in love initially and generally the love culminates in marriage, so you know where the flaw is.
Actually my simple question, I meant to ask was, is love so sacred as we watch in movies generally or it can be one which is matter of not simply heart, but of brain as well. Think-and-then-fall-in-love types!!!!! And be open to suggestions and when thing as marriage is concerned, don't look at your love as only option, talk to him/her about the future compatibility, adjustments and all the things you might never have discussed earlier, before jumping for thing as great as marriage and then decide. If things look fine, no need, as the other side you have uncharted waters while here you have something you know much better. If not, dont stick to love just for reason as commitment(keep that for marraige :) ).There are many more things which you realise if you are open to listen. Dont blindfold yourself. I somehow feel, love is not so sacred, but one doesn't try at all.
What do you say about "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam"???
(Of course you have to stop somewhere!!!! Let it be once you get married :-) )
The way you love your parents the max, just for the sheer coincidence that you were born to them, but both u and your parents know/feel/../.. mutual love has to be there, so it grows to such a great extent. Similarly, thats what happens in any successfull marriage, you know love has to be there and both grow it and it works. Love is developed and you have to work on it which one can do easily if he/she wishes.

bakwaas bakwaas PJs PJs

This is what happens. Quality goes down if you dont constantly innovate but stick to some bakwaas commitment of delivering.
Want to see an example of the consequences. Here it is:

When I C the moon I C U
When I C the stars I C U
When I C the Sea I C U
Get out of the way you are blocking my view

Tumko dekha to ek khyal aaya
Tumko dekha to ek khyal aaya
Tumhari saheli ko dekha to doosra khyal aaya!!

He is so short, when it rains he is always the last one to know.

THE FIVE SECRETS OF A PERFECT RELATIONSHIP:

1. It's important to have a woman, who helps at home, cooks good, cleans up and has a job.

2 It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh & she is cute.

3. It's important to have a woman whom you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.

4. It's important to have a woman who is good in romance and who likes to be with you.

5. It's very, very important that these four women don't know each other.

Most people are only alive
because it is illegal to shoot them.

My apologies to all

I have got @IDs

I have made it a point to post something on my blog daily (and I'll honour this commitment with all sincerity till it breaks!!!! :-) )
So, here it is, an impromptu one.
What did u guess? Its not going to be revelation like that of Arthur Ashe or Magic Johnson.
Its just that I was wondering if generaly junta have as many email ids or a few poor souls like me only have. I started with mailcity (other than the email address we were provided with in college). Got the id I asked for (y not, afterall I am talking of the time way back in august,1998)agaurav. Then few months later,I came to know something about yahoo chat. Let there be agaurav@yahoo.com. But if I beat that "agaurav" in catching hold of the same id in mailcity, he beat me here in yahoo. I didnt know at that time that the general protocol , jo "badde" log follow karte hain, is name.surname for ids. So, what does poor me do. Appends 009 (My school roll number) to agaurav and I got it. Thankfully there was not much rush for james bond style ids. Then followed hotmail, again for chat reasons. again agaurav009 worked. Then there appears indiatimes.com, a website as steamy (rather much more) as its parent newspaper's page3. To browse thorugh its picture gallery , one needed indiatimes id. Thanks to IITK cybercafe (err... sorry, I mean Computer Centre), again same id was created for indiatimes. It was put to maximum use!!!!
After so many ids, managing them bacame a task. Finally I decided on ignoring all other and remaining loyal to mailcity which had id representing my identity and no crossbreed of Anand Gaurav(agaurav) and James Bond(009(forget 007)). Things went on fine till mailcity sold itself to lycos ( differently said, lycos bought mailcity). I had to fan out mails to everybody that my id has changed to agaurav@lycos.com.
So far so good. Some years later, comes the announcement from yahoo about it increasing the space for each user from 10MB to 100MB. Out poor old lycos stuck (still stuck!!!!!) to 5MB. My loyalty got a shake (20X improvement!!) and with no remorse, me moved to yahoo and again fanned out mail about the switch. Barely few months and comes gmail with a novel idea and 1GB space!!!!! The novel-idea about the way of its expansion and craze for it was more of a reason than the space and I somehow got an invitation from a friend of mine and thence yours truly has his 100% loyalty to gmail as agaurav009@gmail.com
Lets seee who beats gmail and pulls me to its side.
So, now you know I have got @IDs

antyaakshhari of hindi poems!!!!!

ragini hoon main tumhaare kanth ki
goonjati jhhankaar ban jo vishwa mein
kalpana hoon main tumhaare swapna ki
ho rahi saakaar saari srishti mein

tum bano rituraj to main kokila
tum kokila to main tumhaari kook hoon
tum hriday to main tumhaari vedna
tum vedna to main tumhaari hook hoon

kaun tum mere tumhaari kaun main
yah adhoora swapna hi rah jaayega
tum vahi jo main kahoon to haani kya
prashna hi uttar swayam ban jaayega

Promptly another guy form the opposite team stands up and recites another poem in hindi starting from the hindi alphabet "ga".
He is over and without a seocond's delay (bare minimum delay required for decency/discipline) the first team again recited with the last alphabet this guy ended his poem with i.e. "ja"

jeth ho ki ho poos, humaare krishakon ko aaraam nahin
chhothe kabhi sung bailon ka, aisa koi yaam nahin

mukh mein jeebh, shakti bhuj mein jeevan mein sukh ka naam nahin
vasan kahaan? sookhi roti bhi milti donon shaam nahin

bailon ke yeh bandhu varsha bhar kya jaane kaise jeete hain
bandhi jeebh, aankhe vishann gum khaa shayad aanso peete hain

par shishu ka kya, seekh na paaya abhi jo aansoo peena
choos choos sukha stan maa ka, so jaata ro vilay nagina

vivash dekhti ma, anchal se nanhi jaan tarap ur jaati
apna rakt pila deti yadi phatati aaj vajra ki chhati

kabra kabra mein abudh baalakon ki bhookhi haddi roti hai
"doodh doodh" ki kadam kadam par saari raat sada hoti hai

"doodh doodh" o vats! mandiron mein bahre paashaan yahaan hain
"doodh doodh" taare bolo in bachhon ke bhagwaan kahaan hain

"doodh doodh" duniya soti hai, laaoon doodh kahaan kis ghar se
"doodh doodh" he dev gagan ke, kuchh boond tapka ambar se

One doesn't realise the value of something unless and until he/she misses it.
One of the BIGGEST laments in my life is we dont have ANY recording of the annual antyaakshhari competition we used to have in our school. What a class it was!!!!
Each and every guy was so much passionate about it. Every guy had many more poems by heart than movie songs.You need to witness it to realise what elated experience it is.
(If junta is willing I can work hard enough to put some in my blog)
I could never be a part of this revered team. Not even at section level could I get in, what to say of class level teams :-(. Despite the fact that there were only 25 ppl in each secion(four sections in each class of 100) and each team had around 10 ppl, still I managed to slip into the majority of 15. This is something I still feel bad/sorry/apologetic about.
Once section level competition, in each class,got over, there used to be inter-class competition. Once it comes to class level, you have everything at stake. Afterall its prestige issue of the whole batch!!!
I remember my two most momentous years as far as antyakshhari is concerned. 1994 and 1995.
1994,when my batch(3rd year) defeated the immediate senior batch in a CHARGED assembly hall (only to be thrashed by the mighty 5th yearites,who had defeated thier seniors last year, in finals). But man! what a feeling it was,to humiliate the immediate seniors.!!!! (Nothing gave more satisfaction than that, in school!!!!)
1995. Everybody expected the 4th year (my batch) to win the final as they had defeated the same team last year. But the judges had some different plans. Some new rules suddenly made at 11th (rather say 12th) hour and we lost. I still remember Chandu completing it with

haar jaana meri aadat mein na tha na rahega
har gum ko sehne ki bhi had hoti hai .....

I still miss those golden days!!!!!

Aa bail mujhe kulhaari maar

Sounds similar but yet unheard?
Well, yours truly devised this idiom while unsuccessfully trying to recall another popular idiom. So now you know, if you know hindi, its a crossbreed of aa bail mujhhe maar and apne paanv par kulhaari maarna!!!!!
So, u relaise the force is also doubled. It conveys the samething with much more impact than the original two similar idioms. Look at the power of permutation/combination. U can also make apne bail par kulhaari maarna. If you dont find the fun, try visualising and still if you dont laugh, use Nitrous Oxide, as nothing else can help!!!!!
Now, since I beleive in free sharing, you can use it wihout violating any copyright acts. Feel free to use it :)
It reminds me of a similar incident. In my batch in school (class VII to X), we had a GENIUS in hindi, Chandrashekar (he won state level open-for-all hindi competition when he was in school!!!! Mind u, bihar is hindi speaking state with, i guess, many MAs,PhDs in hindi) , whom I could confuse with this skill of mine and that too in hindi!!! I have always had trouble learning by heart ANYthing and hindi was hell of a torture when you lack this skill. I was trying to recall a "doha" from Kabirdas. All I could recollect was this
karat karat abhyaas karat, pundit bhaya na koi
dhai aakhar prem ka, parhe so pundit hoye
I found something fishy (yes, I could find something, thought not wat, was wrong) in this recollection of mine and the time to get into the exam hall was getting quite close. Obviously, who better but Chandu.
The guy also gets perplexed!!!!! Yes, I still feel proud of me over this incident. HAA HAA.
AFter a few minutes of head-scratching, in his distinct style he said
SSAALE,*#@$ *%$#,....,.....,KUTTE exam ke time confuse karta hai
(Ours was a residential school and so *#@$ *%$# were a norm)
For the uninitiated, the original "dohas" whose crossbreeding I orchestrated were
karat karat abhyaas karat, jarmati hota sujaan
rasri aawat jaat te, sil par parat nisaan
and
pothi parhi parhi jag mua, pundit bhaya na koye
dhaai aakhar prem ka parhe so pundit hoye

I passed the X exams and the biggest motivation was thence I wont have to study Hindi and English (I never said my command in english was ANYbit better than that in hindi!!!!!!).
But I do miss those gr8 moments of school when there were much bigger issues like ........ than trifles like poor marks etc.
well, wait for next post......

PS: My another school mate corrected me on reading the blog and he said it was
((15:31:07)dream_***:hum log sab the wahan ...ab kisko click kiya tha yaad nahin ...but perplexed to sab ho gaye the tere genius pane se

mala ferat yug bhaya,pandit bhaya na koy
dhaai aakhar prem ka, parhe so pundit hoye
which was hybrid of the second one (pundit waala) written above and
maala ferat yug bhaya,mita na man ka feer
kar ka manka daari de,man ka manka feer

DIDNT I TELL YOU, I am quite FORGETGUL!!!!

World history/politics: Some nice books

The book Exodus by Leon Uris gave a very much Schwarzenegger ( FYI, i googled to get the spelling!!) movie kind of impresssion about the Israeli heroes who fought for asserting their independence (not for winning it!!!). I thought it must be exaggerated as Leon Uris is no Collins and Lapierrie. He writes fictions. What the book did it that it made me buy the only documentary left by my favourite pair of authors, Dominique Lapierrie and Larry Collins and that was O Jerusalem .
Is Paris Burning is a marvel.
Thats what I thought, but till then I had not read ANY of the other books authored by these two. With so lucid description of WW2 history, and in particular, France's occupation by Nazis for 4 years, it immensely helped my knowledge of WW2 and history in general and most importantly introduced me to two brilliant authors.
City of Joy is a joy to read. Again the beautiful description. The BEST thing I like about them is they give you just facts but how to make that interesting is something our journalists should learn (definitely Durga Das was there).
Similarly Freedom at Midnight for those who want to know some detailed story behind Indian Independence struggle and who missed that b'coz he/she didn't like the boring history classes( I liked them though. not the class, but the books).
But NOTHING beats O Jerusalem and I bet my blog on it. Do read it. Authors have done marvellous job and so have the characters in the book. One cann't help wondering if whats all written is true. Read it to feel it. Us has definitely helped Israel a lot but it wont hv done what David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan and the innumerable others who went into oblivion of history did for their own country. I hope we indians could learn from them.
On the indian politics side, i might have not read many, but the best has been India from Curzon to Nehru by Durga Das. The ex-editor of Hindustan Times has written a gem of a book in the form of this piece. Its not the general newspaper stuff but from the journalist who witnessed many things form quite close range. The epilogue covers some period of Indira Gandhi also. People of our generation should read it. If we want India to shine, we need to know our own history (not the medieval or ancient, but the modern politics and all that which has shaped the things of present) to have a better future.
Comments eagerly awaited to improve my blog and my choice of articles. Being an engineer, I know the importance of feedback very well.

(PS:my recommendations are highlighted)

Am I mistaken or booker winners are generally CRAP???

First booker prize winner I read was God of Small Things. I read it till end just because it was a booker prize winner.
I got bored.
Fine. Maybe thats the way intellectuals think. I still remember how bored I got reading Fountainhead when I was around 12, but read it though, as it was kept there at home and I was available with not much to do during the summer vacations. Later when I read it, when I was in XI, I realised what a classic it is. Similarly, I assumed I have yet to get matured enough to understand this book GOST(!!!sounds scary? well it IS.). My dad(i think i should write papa. ok frm next posts. FYI, he likes communist ideology) made me all the more think so as he had liked the book a lot and I, then(wat bout now!!!!!!), used to feel he is much more matured than I.
Khair, before jumping to any strong conclusion such as the title above, I thought lemme give try to the Booker of Bookers winner,The Midnight Children. MAN!!! whata a book it was. Each and every page till the 100th one was read by me just for the reason that it was supposedly GR8 work of literature. Then comes The Moor's Last Sigh by the same author. Again left incomplete. It would have been so good on author's part had he left it incomplete instead of readers like me ditching the book without finishing them. Then comes the strong verdict in sucha gross form of generalisation as the title!!! What the heck, if people whose work the whole world waits eagerly to read can write such craps, cannt i write crappier and that too on MY own blog . Haa haa.
Suitable Boy was good and as you all know it didn't even get nominated for Booker Prize!!!!
So, now you know if you wanna win Booker, make sure you get it reviewed by me. If I liked it, drop the idea!!!!!!
Enough of criticism. Lemme now give some tips.
You wanna enjoy reading, that too classics, read ANY Nobel Prize winner. I can generalise on basis of two novels ( Sholokov's And Queit Flows the Don and Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward ). I would recommend authors like Tolstoy,Dostoyevsky,Gorky to everybody. They are too good. Beware of Dostoyevsky though!!!
Will come up with some more recommendations though not literature this time, in my next posting. Happy Waiting

A beautiful Translation

I am quite free today (my first post gives enough hint why so). So, I am letting my (is it so, or just plagiarism?) creative juices flow. I rmember the wonderful translation of very famous lines from Rober Frost, I learned in my school (watta place it was, Netarhat)

gehan saghan manmohak vantaru
mujhhko aaj bulaate hain
kintu kiye jo waade maine
yaad mujhe aa jaate hain
abhi kahaan araam badaan
yah mook nimantran chhalna hai
abhi to mujhko milon
milon mujhko chalna hai

Great Generals

"You don't win a battle by dying for your country.
You win a battle by making the other son of a bitch, die for his country."

What a statement. It definitely bowled me over.
An intelligent statement from the great General Patton (of the Patton Tank fame).
Sometimes I wonder who the gretaest of all was. Rommel,Patton,McArthur,Eisenhower,Montgomery!!!!!!
So many greats were there. But is it the generals or soldiers like Vasilli who make them great?

Finally moving to Delhi

Finally, after trying my best for 3 years to adapt to life in bangalore with no social activity and only football that too on saturday mornings, I decided to call it a day. I am moving to Freescale,Noida from TI,Bangalore in a month's time.
Being an analog IC Design Engineer has its own constraints of not finding too many options in India. Khair, thankfully this situation cann't go worse from present and I am sure its going to improve.
First thing I need to do is get a footer team formed close to my place so that regular saturday play can go uninterrupted :-). Anybody interested do let me know.