all the time in the world

one of the best ways by which i like to while away my time is to listen to BBC radio online. today i heard a drama based on a short story by arthur c clark. it was named all the time in the world. it is a short tale about a con and a time traveller, the end was simple yet chilling with a message to the humans to control thier unbridled arrogance and not to test the patience of nature anymore.
although the story was written long ago it holds importance for us in this age of rising global warming.

indian democracy - a tower of babel?

doubts have again resurfaced about the way this country has been headed into the future.
i have always believed in the powers of democracy. though flawed and slower than what we would expect, it has worked relentlessly to express the opinions of the oppressed among this country.
a large number of marginalized sections have moved to the mainstream of politics and have gained from it. our reservation system, though deeply structurally flawed has helped a small number of poor become economically and socially as well as politically dominant. we have abolished untouchability and at least in the cities it has virtually become extinct. old brahminical order has crumbled and replaced by aggressive middle classes. although there have been pangs, the upheavels have been far less painless than what some other countries had to undergo.
then you might ask why do i raise doubts about the democracy?
the reason is that we have stalled ourselves. the middle classes that have gained power after independence have refused to give space to still more poorer sections and infact have taken to inflict more humiliation on such lower sections than brahmins and rajputs would have done in the earlier era. tamil nadu is one such place.
tribes have been completely excluded both from the decision making as well as resource consumption. they have been consistently uprooted from thier natural habitats with meagre 
compensations.
minorities are being appeased by using religious symbols without anything truly being done for them.
a sense of static helpnessness is creeping over the public opinion with people merely hiding thier heads in the sands rather than do anything to change the situation.

बी बी सी

मेरा बी बी सी रेडिओ से बडा गहरा लगाव है. आज लगभग पन्द्रह साल हो गये हैं मुझे रेडिओ पर बी बी सी की वर्लड सर्विस सुनते हुये. फ़र्क सिर्फ़ इतना है कि पहले मैं उसे रेडियो पर सुना करता था और आजकल नेट पर. यह कहना गलत नहीं होगा कि मैने बोलचाल की अंग्रेज़ी उन्ही से सीखी.
इन्टर्नेट पर रेडियो सुनना अपने आप में एक अनूठा अनुभव है. बिना किसी स्टैटिक और रुकावट के सरल और साफ़ अंदाज में रेडियो का आनंद जो इंटर्नेट ने दी है वो भला शौर्ट वेभ कहां से दे पाता.

उद्देश्यहीन

परीक्षाएं नज़दीक आ रहीं हैं. मगर मन है कि मानता ही नही है. चाहता हूं कि जम कर पढाइ करूं पर कर नहीं पाता. भीतर से धिक्कार इतना है कि पढने का ढोंग कर लेता हूं. पर जो जम कर पढाइ होती है वह नही हो पा रही है. उदासीनता का हाल यह है कि अस्पताल जाने का मन भी नही करता. समझ मे नही आता क्या करूं. उम्मीद बस इतनी है कि शायद जैसे जैसे समय बीतेगा वैसे वैसे मेरा मन पढाइ में और लगेगा.

biggest impediment to our growth

it is official now. the commies are the biggest impediment to the countries growth. what amazes me is thier sheer hypocrisy. america is bad but iran is right. RSS kills muslims in gujarat is bad and when they do the same in nandigram , it is justifiable. budhadeb presents the same an eye for an eye scenario in nandigram that RSS propounded in gujarat to justify its actions.
the list is similiar internationally. USSR invades afghanistan, all right. America does it, bad.
these dimwits are holding back the country. while on the moral level they say all the right things at the grassroot level they are very blood thirsty about protecting thier turf. it would be better if they are completely rooted out of thier tiny principalities of bengal, kerala and tripura. if not by vote..then by force.

दर्द का अहसास

दर्द के अहसास को कब से सम्हाले हम
घूमते फ़िरते हैं इस बेदर्द दुनिया में.
तुम कहां हो कब मिलोगे कुछ नहीं मालूम
यूं ही बरबस हम पडे हैं गम फ़रोशी में

विडंबना

लोगों में यह मान्यता है कि आजकल हिन्दी कोइ नहीं पढता.अंग्रेज़ी पत्र पत्रिकाओं ने भी इस भ्रांति को फ़ैलाने में काफ़ी मदद की है. आखिर उनका फ़ायदा भी इसी में है. अगर कोइ हिन्दी नहीं पढता तो इसका अर्थ यही होता है कि सब अंग्रेज़ी पढते हैं. फ़िर तो सारे प्रचार उन्हे ही मिलेन्गे.
सच बात तो यह है कि किसी भी भाषा में सबसे ज़्यादा पाठक पल्प फ़िक्शन के होते हैं. जो भी लोग अंग्रेज़ी पढते हैं सबके सब साहित्य नहीं पढते हैं. अधिकतर लोग सस्ते रोमाँचक उपन्यास पढते हैं.
हिन्दी भाषियों ने तो कभी अपने रोमाँचक साहित्य को साहित्य समझा ही नहीं. जबकी सच ये है कि आज यदि हिन्दी में कुच पढा जा रह है तो वो है वेद प्रकाश शर्मा जैसे लोगों को. समय कि आवश्यकता यही कहती है कि हम इन लोगों को उतना ही आदर दें जितना अंग्रेज़ी पढने वाले जेफ़री आर्चर सरिखे लोगों को देतें हैं

no smoking - a kafkaesque experience

those of us intimate with kafka and his writings will see sense in this film. alas a small minority. remaining will bemoan the fact that they wasted a hundred bucks for this film.
for me at least this film has been very entertaining. anurag kashyap is at its best. background score is awesome. acting...mmmm well john is good, support is excellent and miss takia, well who can begrudge her big......
such a cute kid face and such huge assets. it allways awakens the latent perv in me.
does the film scare you in quitting smoking. well no. and that is the real scary thing about smoking..

disturbing justice

the sentencing of amarmani tripathi and his wife in the madhumani in madhumita mishra murder case has come as a relief. after the sentencings of anand mohan and syed shahbuddin, he is the third major bahubali to be put behind bars. i am hopeful that the indian judicial system is in a long corrective drive and the current sentencing spree can only unsettle other such bahubali's.
however the question that nobody else raises is why madhumita fell for amarmani. let us look at the facts-
1) she carried an affair with amarmani despite knowing that he was married.
2) she willingly accept the perks of bungalows and vehichles that came with being amarmani's pet despite knowing that he was a corrupt and criminal person.
3) being a poet who railed against the injustices of the system her eagerness to bed and bear child for a man who is a symbol of the weaknesses of the system is horrible.
probably her poetry was a mere bluster. and she liked the easy life that amarmani provided. and she paid for it with her life. it is sad but eyeopening.

George of the jungle

for the people of bihar, there is a warning call. a very dangerous half mind power driven desperate buffon is walking its street. his name is george fernandez. this man has one credit to his name...he is where the mess is.
so called socialist turncoat who now masquerades as a nationalist says nitish government should go...guess for what? for letting Anand Mohan be sentenced to be hanged for having ordered the skilling of the Gopalganj DM about a decade ago.
even in this age of cynical and rancid politics, george's comments do leave a horrible stench in the air. for the first time a politician says the govt has to go because it is upholding the rule of law.
all the bihari's who root for thier state must roundly condemn this rootless idiot from mangalore karnataka. he is more poisonous than others of his ilk because being rootless and supportless and having severally tasted power he can stoop to any low, bihar can go to hell.
somehow whenever i think goerge i think of peter pettigrew of the harry potter series.

दूरी

किस तरह मज़बूर हूँ....बेबस
मैं तुमसे दूर
दर्द का अहसास है.....बेहद
मगर मंज़ूर.
देख मैं सकता नहीं....तुमकॊ
पराए प्रीत में
गा नहीं सकता खुशी के....साथ
बरबस गीत मैं.
तुम नहीं समझोगी क्या है
हाल मेरा जी अभी
ज़िन्दगी का स्वप्न.... देखे थे
तेरे संग भी कभी.
आज वह हालात हैं....महसूस
होता है हमें
बीच दरिया में हैं.....कश्ति
हाथ ना पतवार है.

as usual

i think i will never change. it is for the umpteenth time in my life that i am facing an exam.
everytime i have done so, i have a) not studied in time, b) tried to compensate for it on the last day before the exam and c) felt i could not do anything anyway,so why bother.
i have also managed to pass almost all my exams except perhaps the maths exams i had given as second terminal in eight standard at military school. i remember i had got 28 out of 100.
now i wil come to the point of the blog, why bother with having exams when you know that majority of us pass without bothering to study anyway.
i remember coming to the exam hall like a king and smirking at the poor slobs who were trying to take a last second read out of thier notes. we had a friend called vinayak kadlimatti who had a reputation for studying till the last second. he was worse than girls of our batch who were all last second sloggers.
as far as i was concerned i believed in studying once the exams had started. i had always developed an irresistible urge to pee once the question papers were distributed...all of you must have guessed why.

Karunanidhi - a disgusting oaf

of all the politicians in the country there is none other i find more disgusting and foul than karunanidhi. one of the happiest day of my life was when i saw the policemen dragging him away under jayalalithaa's rule. this man is singlehandedly so
obnoxious so as to pale every other politician in the country.
his very politics has been divisive. he has played south indians against north indians. Dravidians against aryas, hindus against christians and what not.
he crossed his final limit when he slandered lord rama.
i challenge this dimwit to make a similiar statement against the father figure of any other religion.
let him ask how christ could heal? which medical college did he come out of? but then all the parties would maintain silence on the issue.
this sonia married a hindu yet both her children are catholics. priyanka deliberately married a convert christian and rahul is dating a colombian.
and then they have the temerity to ask why we are increasingly becoming conservative in our outlook. we are not blind, we can see.
time will come when all these people will be dragged on to streets and dealt justice gangaajal style.
just wait and watch....

Sarabhai Vs. Sarabhai

at a time when watching a hindi general entertainment channnel is nothing short of pure torture, there are a few programmes that are like a whiff of fresh air. one of them is the comedy on the star one channel named Sarabhai Vs. Sarabhai. it is surprisingly witty without any hint of crudity in it.
story is good, plot is well executed coupled with great acting by satish shah and ratna pathak that manages to get the laughs out of us.
the plot line is basically influenced from a comedy called Dharma and Greg that played on star world a few years back though the operationalization is purely indian. it is about a gujarati family of husband and wife played by satish shah and ratna pathak, they have two sons one of them is a doctor and the younger one is a spoilt mommas boy, a lovable oaf that takes a great delight in torturing his family with silly poems except his doting mother of course.
the mother is a snobbish upper middle class women and the trouble starts when her elder son falls in love with a lower middle class punjaabi girl and brings her home. it is really a laugh riot.
star one incidently when it started came up with really good youth oriented programmes. remix, nach baliye, laughter challenge and sarabhais were good programmes. now it is falling into a rut too..

guilty as charged

one of the readers of my blogs said after a perusal of my comments on the hyderabad blasts that i was afraid of naming the muslims as the people responsible for the blasts. here is my rebuttal.
i did not specifically name the muslim community as i am aware that there is no homogenous society by the name of muslims in india or in the world. in fact contrary to what many of our hindu brothers think, muslims are the most heterogenous group seen in the country.
apart from the broad differentiation among shias and sunnis, muslims in india are heavily divided into castes although officially islam does not permit caste systems. so deep is the division of the castes that intermarriages between a dalit muslim and a shiekh or sayyid is almost unthinkable.
muslims of gujarat are mostly buisenessmen not unlike thier state hindu bretherens and muslims at other places also follow the occupation suited to thier place and situation.
what i had accused in the other piece and i reiterate in this piece is that it is the upper caste educated muslims that are responsible for the ideology of hate and separation. they mostly have either themselves or have thier relatives in a gulf country and have brought back the ultra-orthodox wahabi islam to the country.
not only do they fund but also passively and actively encourage the fundamentalists to carry on thier hate filled agendas, and when the things tip over and riots and such things occur it is the muslims at the lowermost rungs of the socioeconomic ladders suffer the most.
the guilt is both of omission as well as commission.
it is all right for them to say that they have been marginalized and discriminated against in the independent india but this claim can be made by almost all significant groupings in this country.
when sachar committee came out with the reports it should also have presented a breakup according to the muslim castes and then and only then the reality would have come out in the open.
i am in favour of the reservation for muslims. let OBC and Dalit Muslims be given quota provisions in the existing framework. you will find an immediate cry against it by upper caste muslims. remember they were the ones totally responsible for the creation of pakistan and even after fifty years of independence pakistan continues to be ruled by fuedalistic lords without even a shred of social reforms. at least in india we had some social changes however dubious they might be.
again i reiterate GIVE THE LEADERSHIP OF MUSLIMS IN THE HANDS OF LOWERCASTE MUSLIMS AND SEE THE CHANGE.

विनय पत्रिका

मुझे नही पता कि आप मे से कितने लोंगों ने विनय पत्रिका के बारे मे सुना है. मेरा विनय पत्रिका से वास्ता तब पहली बार पडा ज़ब मैने नवमी कक्षा में पहली बार तुलसी का पद पढा. वह पद मैं नीचे लिखता हूँ.

जाके प्रिय न राम-बैदेही
तजिये ताहि कोटी बैरी सम जद्यपि परम सनेही.
तज्यो पिता प्रह्लाद , विभीषण बन्धु, भरत महतारी
बलि गुरु तज्यो कन्त व्रज विनितन्ही, भये मुद मंगल कारी.
नाते नेह राम के मनियत सुह्रिद सुसेव्य जहां लौ
अंजन कहा आँख जेहि फुटै, बहुतक कहौं कहाँ लौं.
तुलसी सो सब भाँति परम हित पुज्य प्रानते प्यारो
जासॊ होय सनेह राम पद, एतो मतो हमारो.

विनय पत्रिका एक भक्त एवं प्रभु के बीच दिल खोलकर सीधा संवाद है. इसकी खासियत यह है कि, प्रभु भक्ति के मार्ग पर होने वाले संशय का भी पता चलता है.

अंतर्ताना पर हिन्दी

मेरे मित्र श्री सचिन समैया जी ने मुझसे कहा कि मुझे हिन्दी में ब्लोगिंग करना चाहिये. उनका मान रखते हुये मैं आज अपने पहले हिन्दी ब्लोग की शुरुआत मैं दिनकर जी की इन पंक्तियों को उद्ध्रित करते हुये करूँगा - शायद हमारे वामपंथी नेता इन्हे पढकर कुछ सीख ले सकेंगे,
क्षमा दया तप त्याग मनोरथ सबका लिया सहारा
पर नर व्याघ्र सुयोधन तुमसे कहो कहां कब हारा‍
क्षमाशील हो रिपु समझ तुम विनित हुए जितना ही
दुष्ट कौरवों ने तुमको कायर समझा उतना ही
क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को जिसके पास गरल हो
उसको क्या जो दंत हीन विषहीन विनित सरल हो
तीन दिवस तक पंथ मांगते रघुपती सिन्धु किनारे
बैठे पढते रहे छंद अनुनय के प्यारे प्यारे
उत्तर मे जब एक नाद भी उठा नही सागर से
उठी धधक पौरुष की आग राम के शर से
सिन्धु देह धर त्राही त्राही करता आ गिरा शरण मे
चरण पूज दासता ग्रहण की बंधा मूढ बंधन मे
सच पूछो तो शर मे ही बसती है दीप्ती विनय की
धर्म वचन पुरुषार्थ उसी का जिसमे शक्ती विजय की

look what has happened

when i started writing this blog, i thought i would write on the big china question facing us at the moment. i was in the right frame of mind as indians were losing thier great chase against england despite a stunning start given by the openers.
just then i thought i would take a sneek at the scores. thank god i did. we had just won the match thanks to uthappa.
it is surprising how everything goes wrong while i watch the match and the moment i turn off the TV, things go rapidly in india's favor. i think the best thing for india would be that i stop watching cricket alltogether.
so what about the china question? who cares i am busy celebrating right now...

RGV meets Ekta kapur

i never thought i would ever say this. but i believe my decision to watch "buddha mar gaya" was a wiser one than to watch "ram gopal varma's aag".
now i would ask each one of you a question, when was the last time Mr Varma actually entertained you? For me the answer would be "Satya" and that is over ten years ago.
when you consider mr varma writes RGV factory at the credits for each of his films. perhaps he has indeed become a factory. kind of like ekta kapur, using the same tired cliches, imageries, mindless violence, supposedly sexy girls. for gods sake kothari does not have a butt, so why focus so relentlessly on it? perhaps mr varma considers it a good joke to impart his perversions on us.
his secret little fetishes.
only saving grace of the film....Mohan lal and AB in that order.
well you can add sush to the list but only grudgingly so...

chak de india ka review

ladies and gentlemen, let me begin this review of chak de india by declaring that the film is simply superb. no complaints, no complaints at all... two and half hour of pure entertainment, and i say this despite not liking the actor shahrukh at all.

the script is the real hero in this film. and i personally would place this film above both lagaan and dil chahta hai, the other two films that i enjoyed thoroughly.

and when i say that this film is a powderkeg of entertainment i do not mean it in the way of manmohandesai style of please all crap. this film has a good script, a very good editing and a superb understated way of telling the story.

shahrukh is good,yes. but so are all the players and the callous administrators shown in the film. every bit and piece is in its place.

finally a thumbs up for aditya chopra i think he had wasted himself on MOHABBATEIN

nuclear deal

Our opposition party is not behaving like a responsible national player. I am especially sorry as I have always felt admiration for BJP but I do not know how far it will go. Its stand on the issue of nuclear cooperation with USA is absolutely nuts.
Congress has done nothing that BJP would not have done itself had it been in the position of power and its contention that the deal is a sellout reminds me of the adage that “खिसियानी बिल्ली खम्भा नोचे”.
I have a sneeking suspicion that the BJP people are really jealous that the congress has been able to manage a deal that they would themselves like to do but were unable to.
Remember I am no apologist for congress and would definitely not vote for it. But opposing congress just for the sake of opposition is going to be a loss of credibility for it and will strengthen the hands pf the commies.

Mr Vohra and the kings men

Today I am going to write about how the political commentators with hidden loyalties to a party or person are subverting the impartiality of the commentaries published in our newspapers. A case in the point is Mr. Pankaj Vohra, writing a piece called “commission Vs commissioner” in his weekly column “between us” published on 13th august 2007 in “The Hindustan times”. Now Mr. Vohra tries very hard to present a balanced point of view but is clever with manipulation of facts, twisting of statements and generous doses of hearsay to further the agenda of the congress party.
In the piece I mentioned above. Mr Vohra refers to the current controversy regarding Mr. N. Gopalaswamy’s assertion that he has the power to remove an election commissioner and does not need a presidential reference.
In the very first paragraph he asserts that Mr N. Gopalaswamy has taken a 180 degree turn, however a correct assertion would have been that the office of CEC has taken a 180 degree turn. As Mr gopalaswamy has differed from his predecessor Mr Tandon and it was the first time he had put forward his point of view that too when he was asked to do so by the SC.
Then he claims that Mr. Tandon’s view that he has no power in this regard vested under article 324(5) of constitution was taken “apparently after he sought best legal advice”. Mr. Vohra cleverly tries to portray Mr. gopalaswamy as a whimsical and autocratic person. How can mr Vohra assume that mr. Gopalaswamy did not take the best legal advice? We all know even the best legal minds have radically different opinions about the same point.
Then at one place Mr. Vohra says that any body else in seshan’s place would have resigned after severe strictures passed against him by supreme court. That same can be said about Mr. Navin chawla, he accepted money from a congress Mp for his wife’s NGO is a public fact, and if he had even some shred of morality he should have resigned.
Another clever tool that Mr. Vohra employs is hearsay. He says “ gopalaswamy’s detractors claim that he was acting in this manner because of pressure from the BJP, in whose government he was the home secretary under L.K.advani. There are also allegations that gopalaswamy’s proximity to Advani goes back to when the latter was I & B minister in JP government.”
Now this is being too clever by the half as, we had not heard of any newspaper or column before Mr. Vohra put forward the detractor’s theory. Let us see what could be the motivation for Mr. Gopalaswamy, he is already the CEC. He can not go beyond that and BJP is in power. Either the BJP is blackmailing him or what Mr. Vohra says is hogwash.
Finally Mr. Vohra lets out a trial balloon perhaps on the bidding of the people in power he is trying to please. He says that the current crisis could lead to impeachment by parliament against CEC. Now I wonder who would have the power to run impeachment proceedings against Mr. Gopalaswamy, arguably one of the best CEC we had. Remember he gave us the lections in UP which were a masterpiece. We will see Mr Vohra. Between us.

songs of despair

i have been listening to mukesh since i was about ten. there was a magical quality in his voice that seemed to transport me beyond the dusty lanes of jehanabad where i was brought up, to a world full of love and sorrow, to a world where to sacrifice and pine was agreater virtue than to love and achieve...
it has always struck me as wonderful, how mukesh's songs did not need active intervention of the music to make them appealing. music was always secondary to his voice. at no instance did it drown out the voice. it was as if the pure melody of the songs and the sweetness of the voice were by themselves capable of imbuing the songs with magic.
even today mukesh's songs can be sung and hummed by everyone and do not need any accompaniment.

side effects of democracy

those of us who dabble in so called allopathy or the western school of medicine have to be especially careful about the side effects of the medicine we prescribe. even an ubiquitous preparation aspirin may cause severe ulceration.
we in india seem to suffer from the classic side effects of the democracy. we have given away the right to tule in hands of illiterates and imbeciles. even those who have some education seem to leave it at home when it comes to governance.
recent bomb explosions in hyderabad have reinforced my feelings.
we do not act against terrorist groups despite evidence against them because we are afraid that we will lose the votes of the community to which they belong. this gives further impetus to these groups. they think that they can do any thing and get away with it by hiding in the arms of thier community.
the thing that i get angry with is that we are foolish enough to think that our minority community will condone the acts of these lumpen criminals and condemn the political party that takes action against them.
this formulation is furthered by the radical elements in the community who have thier own agendas to push. many of them subversive to be branded as anti national.
what shocks me is the silence of the intellectuals and the liberals of these communities. barring a few voices they keep quite and strengthen the hands of the radicals thus damning thier whole community in the eyes of the country.
it is about time we take strong action against these elements and make sure that the indian lives are not considered cheap.