अर्ज है.....

पत्थरसे वफ़ा बूतसे सदा मांग रहा हू
क्या आज मै सहरासे घटा मांग रहा हू
मुद्दतसे कोई दिलको दुखाने नही आया
आ जाओ कोई जख्म नया मांग रहा हू

(From the internet)

Bhutan gets a Queen!

If it were not for a feature done by the Mint, I would never even have known about the Royal wedding in neighboring Bhutan. I don't know about other TV channels but I didn't see any news about it on Times Now, my preferred channel. I can understand why, this wedding might have boosted the Gross National Happiness of Bhutan but it will hardly cause any flutter in the TRPs as far as the channels are concerned.

Well, stepping into a royal household - where the King's father has 4 wives (all sisters!) and the King himself has 9 other siblings - isn't going to be a cakewalk, especially for a Queen who is just 21. For an Indian woman, this might well sound like something straight from a typical saas-bahu drama that is being dished out daily across the country by all TV channels.

My best wishes to the royal couple and especially to the Queen :-) After all, the mothers-in-law do tend to forget that 'साँसभी कभी बहु थी' ;-)

अर्ज है.....

अगर सबको मिल जाता अपना हमदम
तो ये उल्फ़त ना इतने उंचे मकाम होती
ना होता जिक्र आशिकोंका सदियों
मोहबत फ़िर चीझ बडीही आम होती

(From the internet)

Beware of new technique to stop U on the National Highways! - Truth or Hoax?

I recently got an email about this supposedly new technique that thugs are employing on national highways to lure unsuspecting drivers, mostly females, to their deaths. The description made me wonder if the mail has already done rounds of mailboxes in US and Europe. So I checked it on hoax slayer website. Here is the link.

This could well be a hoax but don't forget that in the net-savvy world of today, the thugs will also have mailboxes. One of their friends could have sent them this mail as a possible business idea. So while you treat it as a hoax, don't forget to be careful!

Duryodhana On Board!

So it was Duryodhana's turn to make an appearance in 'Dwarakadheesh' yesterday. I am not impressed. I think the guy who played Kalyawana (someone told me he is actor Pankaj Dheer's son) would have been a better choice for this role. He had looked absolutely menacing!

It will be interesting to see what Krishna will tell about Karna to his wives. Will he mention to them that Karna is Kunti's first-born?

I am hoping against hope that these people have got the right actor to play Karna. He is my #2 favorite character from the epic tale. #1 is, of course Krishna. Oh, and that has got nothing to do with the actor playing Krishna in this serial, and his dimples!

Interestingly, in the good old Mahabharata, hardly anyone had any muscles (nope, what Bheem had cannot be termed as 'muscles' even if you stretch the word's definition for miles around!). Whereas, this version has almost all the younger characters flaunting them, except for maybe Arjuna. How times have changed!

फ़िरसे आईयो बदरा बिदेसी

काल संध्याकाळी ऒफ़िसच्या बाहेर पडले आणि दचकलेच. केबिनमधून बाहेर पडताना मोबाईलच्या घडयाळात ६:१५ झाले होते आणि बाहेर ७ नंतर होतो तसा मिट्ट काळोख. अरेच्चा! कॆबिन ते मुख्य दरवाजा एव्हढं अंतर पार करायला एव्हढा वेळ लागला आपल्याला? तेव्हढ्यात गडगडाट ऐकायला आला आणि चमकून आकाशाकडे पाहिलं. आभाळ चक्क भरून आलं होतं. आज? मला तर वाटलं होतं की मॊन्सून गेला टाटाबायबाय करून. पण एखाद्या चिमुकल्या गोड पोराने लपाछपीच्या खेळात गायब व्हावं आणि आपण ’कुठे गेला, कुठे गेला’ म्हणेतो टाळ्या पिटत हसत समोर यावं तस्साच आला होता. आनंदाला पारावार नसणे म्हणजे काय त्याचा अनुभव घेतला मी काल.

घरी पोचेतो मस्त पाऊस सुरु झाला होता. सगळ्या एफ़एम चॆनेल्सवर आरजेंना नुस्ता कंठ फ़ुटला होता. जिकडेतिकडे ’क्या मौसम है यार’ अश्या सुरुवातीने एकसे एक बढके गाणी वाजत होती. मी आपली संगीताच्या तालावर नेहमीचा व्यायाम करू का चकाकणाया विजांच्या पार्श्वभूमीवर डोलणार्य़ा झाडांकडे पाहू ह्या द्विधा मन:स्थितीत. शेवटी अगदी न रहावून चांगला मिनिटभराचा व्हिडिओ रेकॊर्ड करून घेतला. मोबाईलची व्हिडिओ फ़ॆसिलिटी यथातथाच आहे. त्यामुळे आधी नुस्ताच काळोख दिसतोय पण मधेच वीज चमकली की टॊर्च मारल्यासारख्या लख्ख प्रकाशात डोलणारी झाडं दिसताहेत आणि विजेचा, पावसाचा मस्त आवाज येतोय त्यात. एका ठिकाणी तर लकाकणारी वीज पण मस्त कॆप्चर झाली आहे. वा! आता पुढल्या वर्षी पाऊस येईतो ही क्लिप पुन्हा पुन्हा पहाणार.

एव्हढं लिहितेय तोवर पुन्हा आत्ता पावसाचा ताशा वाजतोय. जाणारा पाऊस म्हणून त्याचं जास्तच कौतुक करावंसं वाटतंय. शक्य झालं असतं तर त्याचा गालगुच्चा घेऊन कानावर बोटं मोडून त्याची अलाबला सुध्दा घेतली असती मी. कसं रे रहायचं तुझ्याशिवाय पुढच्या जूनपर्यंत?

आज एक व्हिडियो पुन्हा रेकॊर्ड करून घेतेच. ’तुम्हारे वापस आने तक मेरे जीनेका सहारा तो होगा’ :-)

अर्ज है.....

जानकरभी तुम मुझे जान ना पाये
आजतक तुम मुझे पहचान ना पाये
खुदही की है बेवफ़ाई हमने
ताकी तुझपे कोई इल्जाम ना आये

(From the internet)

Baalika Badhu (Colors)

I was clearly wrong when in one of my earlier posts I had wondered if the serial Balika Badhu (Colors Channel) is dragging us all back to the Dark Ages. It is dragging us to something even darker, something that is totally incomprehensible, annoying and plain stupid.

Anandi's good-for-nothing husband Jagat hadn't been able to make both ends meet while pursuing his MS studies along with his second (and therefore, illegitimate!) wife, Gauri. So he requested his first wife, Anandi, to help him out. When Jagat's dad refused to help him, it was Anandi who started paying him from her account. I don't know where she is getting the money from in her account. But that's not the point.

Which woman with even an ounce of self-respect will help such a husband, even on humanitarian grounds? On top of it, this Jagat is happy that Gauri is pregnant. He doesn't wonder even for a second as to who will pay for Gauri's treatment and care of the child. We do because since there were no stupid serials when God created humans, He didn't give us the ability to switch off our brains.

And the messages that they keep on showing at the end of every episode drive me up the wall, almost every time I read them. They don't have any relation with whatever happened in that episode and are totally banal.

Just what in the name of God is going on here?

Dwarakadheesh (NDTV Imagine)

Finally, the long awaited characters from Hastinapur have begun to make their entrance.

First, it was Kunti who wrote to her nephew Krishna about her sons' returning from the Gurukul. I personally feel that the Kunti in Chopra's Mahabharat was a much better actress - she looked pretty formidable. The Kunti in 'Dwarakadhish' looks as if she has watched too many movies in which Nirupa Roy played mother. :-)

Then, Shakuni and Dhrutarashtra came on board. This Shakuni really took me back a few years to B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat - because he is the same actor, Gufi Paintal. :-) The only difference is that in Chopra's Mahabharat, there used to be a sinister background music playing every time Shakuni made an entrance :-)

The Dhrutarashtra in 'Dwarakadhish' seems to have watched the old Mahabharat as well because he acts just like the old Dhrutarashtra (Girija Shankar).

I was eagerly waiting to see who is cast as the Pandavas - especially Yudhishthir, Bheem and Arjun. Hmmm..... Yudhishthir and Bheem are cast fine but Arjun's casting is very disappointing. He looks as if he will lay down his arrows and bow at the drop of a hat :-) It will be interesting to see if they will announce the rest of the 2 Pandavas - Nakul and Sahadev - with the same fanfare that they accorded to the first 3. As far as I know, Nakul and Sahadev didn't have much to do in the epic tale.

It remains to be seen as to who is cast as Bhishma, Gandhari, Duryodhana and of course, Karna.

BTW, I find it very odd that Krishna keeps on showing the events from past and present to his 2 queens. I can understand that he had DivyaDrushti but how can he show the events to others?

Oh, and where exactly in Dwaraka is Rukmini? Haven't seen her since Satyabhama and Jambawanti joined the royal family.

While on one hand, it is sad that the amusing, innocent tales from Krishna's childhood and pre-Hastinapur life have come to an end, it will be interesting to see how the drama unfolds before the final battle.

अर्ज है.....

मत करो प्यार किसीसे फ़ूलोकी तरह
फ़ूल तो पलमे मुरझा जाते है
प्यार करो तो करो काटॊंकी तरह
जो चुभनेके बादभी याद आते है

(From the internet)

Dhunki laage re....

"Just what on earth is this Dhudki" - I must have wondered for the nth time as I listened to the song from 'Mere Brother Ki Dulhan'. Yet, I always forgot to look it up on the net. Finally, I remembered to do so while I was online (no, I don't connect to the net from my cell phone!). Turns out that the word is 'Dhunki', and not 'Dhudki' as I keep hearing every time I listen to this song, which by the way has become my absolute favorite.

If you too are puzzled over the meaning of this word, check out http://www.bollymeaning.com/2011/07/dhunki-meaning.html. Yes, there is a site devoted to meanings of the words in Hindi movie songs! I guess one of these days, we will search for God on Google and find Him, finally :-)

Still, is it really 'Dhunki'? Why do I keep hearing it as "Dhudki" then? Will Google have answer for that as well? :-)

Kanoon - 1960

Chances are that when you hear the word Kanoon (which literally means 'Law' but can also mean 'Law & Order' or 'Justice' depending on the context), cliched dialogues like 'कानूनके हाथ बहोत लंबे होते है’ or 'कानून अंधा होता है’ come to your mind. :-) Same is the case with me except that I had heard a lot about this first Hindi movie without songs. The fact that it is a suspense thriller didn't hurt, of course.

When I sat down to watch it recently on one Sunday afternoon on TV, I didn't know that it was directed by B.R. Chopra. But as soon as I heard the words 'कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फ़लेषु कदाचन’, I remembered them from the yesteryear's popular TV serial Mahabharata and even before I saw the banner, I knew that this film is by the Chopras. :-)

So the story goes something like this. Advocate Kailash (Rajendra Kumar is totally unconvincing as an advocate but what to do?) is the protege of Judge Badri Prasad (Ashok Kumar). When he is not in the court, Kailash spends his free time romancing the judge's daughter Meena (Nanda). The movie begins when a murderer Kalidas (Jeevan) is brought before the court for a murder that he was supposed to have committed about ten years back and sentenced to a jail term for. He points out that he cannot be tried for the same crime twice. It is also evident that he had been wrongfully sentenced 10 years back. He laments that the judicial system doesn't have any right to take from him what it cannot return. Kalidas has a massive heart attack in the court and dies on the spot.

This, naturally raises a lot of questions - the chief one being, should a person be deemed guilty based solely on the testimony of the witnesses? Afterall, such testimonies can be fabricated. Also, there is a chance that honest people might make a genuine mistake while testifying and that can cost the accused his/her life. The judge has a discussion on the same with his colleagues after the court is adjourned. And in the end, he ends up betting that it is possible to get away with a murder.

Meanwhile, the judge's son Vijay (Mahmood) has taken money from a moneylender (Om Prakash) but failed to pay it up. The moneylender threatens that if he is not paid, he will make use of the blank paper that Vijay has signed to get hold of his father's estate (I am not sure how Vijay can sign away his dad's estate but we will let that pass). Vijay tells this to Meena who goes to Kailash for advice. Kailash agrees to talk to the moneylender. He goes to the moneylender's place at night. While they are talking, someone rings the doorbell. Kailash, not wishing to be seen there, hides in an inner room. But he catches glimpse of the Judge talking to the moneylender. When he comes out of the room, however, he finds that the moneylender is dead. He gets the shock of his life but manages to slip out quietly.

The next day, the newspapers report the murder along with the fact that the police have managed to nab the murderer - a thief. Now Vijay is in a fix. Should he speak out the truth or keep mum to see an innocent person being sent to the gallows for the crime he didn't commit?

I loved the movie - notwithstanding Rajendra Kumar's wooden expressions, his compensatory overacting (watch his face when he is confronted with the truth at the end of the movie) and Nanda's horrible hair-styles. Ashok Kumar has played his part to perfection. We get to see the Jury System in this movie - which is very rare as it was banned in India in 1960 following the Kawas Nanavati case (the movie 'ये रास्ते है प्यारके’ was based on it). Plus, you get a breather from the usual garden frolicking by the leading pair :-)

I found this trivia on IMDB:

This film was made after director B.R. Chopra attended a German film festival, where he was told that all Indian movies contained "nothing but songs." He took that as a challenge. This film contains no songs.

I am glad he decided to take this as a challenge. Had he not done so, we wouldn't have been able to watch this very good whodunit that leaves you with some unanswered questions about the judicial system!

अर्ज है.....

इस कदर ना हर बात यारोंसे पुछो
जो बात राझकी हो इशारोंसे पुछो
लहरोंसे खेलना तो समंदरका शौक है
लगती है चोट कैसे ये किनारोंसे पुछो

(From the internet)

चिठ्ठी ना कोई संदेस......

माझी गझलची पहिली ओळख झाली ती घरी असलेल्या स्टिरिओ सिस्टीमसाठी असलेल्या मोठाल्या तबकडीतल्या जगजीत-चित्राच्या गाण्यांनी. रात्रीची जेवणं झाली की ह्या तबकडीवर शोलेचे सगळे संवाद ऐकणं हा एक कार्यक्रम असायचा तसाच जगजीत-चित्राच्या गझला ऐकायचाही. खरं तर मला स्वत:ला चित्रा सिंगचा आवाज कधीच आवडला नाही. पण केवळ जगजीतला (का कोणास ठाऊक पण त्याचा एकेरीतच उल्लेख करावासा वाटतोय. त्याचा आवाज खूप जवळचा वाटतो म्हणून असेल कदाचित) ऐकायला मिळावं म्हणून मी तिचा आवाज सहन करायची, आजही करतेय. त्या लहान वयात गझलांचे अर्थ कळणं अशक्यच होतं. तरी त्या आवडायच्या. मोठी झाले आणि त्यातला अर्थ उमगायला लागला - शब्दांतून आणि जगजीतच्या आवाजातून. मग तर ह्या गझला जीव की प्राण झाल्या. २-३ महिन्यांपूर्वी वॊकमनवर ठेवण्यासाठी गाणी डाऊनलोड केली तेव्हासुध्दा paapuyaar वर गझल्सचा फ़ोल्डर बघून जगजीतच्या गझल्स हावरटासारख्या डाऊनलोड करून घेतल्या होत्या - ये दौलत भी ले लो, पहले तो अपने दिलकी रझा जान जाईये, पत्थरके खुदा, मुझको यकी है सच कहती थी, कैसे कैसे हादसे सहते रहे, अगर हम कहे और वो मुस्कुरा दे, तुम इतना जो मुस्कुरा रहे हो, होठोंसे छू लो तुम.........

काही दिवसांपूर्वी षण्मुखानंदमध्ये जगजित आणि गुलाम अलींच्या एकत्र कार्यक्रमाची जाहिरात पाहिली तेव्हा जायचा विचार केला होता पण म्हटलं पुढे जाऊ कधीतरी. तेव्हा थोडंच माहित होतं की आता संधी मिळणारच नाहिये. :-(

जगजीत, तू आता सगळ्याच्या पलिकडे गेला आहेस. कदाचित मी लिहिलेलं तुझ्यापर्यंत पोचणारही नाही. पण तरी मी लिहितेय. तुझ्या आवाजाने मला खूप काही दिलंय - सुखाच्या प्रसंगात आणि दु:खाच्या प्रसंगात सुध्दा. गझल कितीही दर्दभरी असली तरी तुझा आवाज ऐकला की मनाला शांतच वाटलंय आणि ह्यापुढेही वाटत राहील. आज संध्याकाळी तुझाच आवाज ऐकणार आहे. आजकी शाम तेरे नाम. तुझे आभार मला फ़क्त असेच मानता येतील.

तरी पण तुझं जाणं अवेळीच होतं. एव्हढी घाई करायला नको होतीस.

चिठ्ठी ना कोई संदेस, जाने वो कौनसा देस
जहा तुम चले गये
इस दिलपे लगाकर ठेस, जाने वो कौनसा देस
जहा तुम चले गये

Did someone put a spell on the Mumbai Indians last week? The team that played against Somerset in the semis and then against RCB in the final was miles ahead of the one that played the rest of the CLT20 matches. Sure, the batting seemed patchy as usual but the bowling and fielding had improved by leaps and bounds (!). I could not believe it when they lifted the cup last night.

Maybe, miracles do happen more often than we think!

Amul’s tribute to Steve Jobs

Over the years I have always made it a point to take a look at the Amul hoardings displayed all over the city - even if it meant risking permanent neck damage. :-) Hats off to the guys who come up with their funny take on the latest happenings!

This weekend, the posting paid a tribute to Steve Jobs. Do take a look at it - Amul’s tribute to Steve Jobs.

No one could have said it better Amul!