Facts n Fiction

50 days! I have been spinning in hectic schedules of work and a strenuous life of intermediate intensity. I have had hardly anytime to catch up with the news, especially at this time when elections are just around the corner. During all these frenzied days of my work life, I have terribly missed Karan (Thapar), Rajdeep, Arnab, and Udayan & Mitali (Mukherjees), of course. Yes, I did catch up with the Oscar ceremony and the hyped Slumdog jazz though. I am exhausted now. I tried to squeeze in some time yesterday to go through the recent political news (I wasn’t interested in what is happening to Kasab or was eager to know about India’s heroic cricketing triumphs). I pulled out some news archives from various websites, newspapers, and did watch news channels for whole three hours yesterday. I liked the oath taking Lead India 09 campaign, I liked Aamir’s representation to think better for this country in one another Lead India campaign, I loved the awareness and initiatives that Jaago...

A R Rahman ’s win at the Oscar has enthused me till this day (it has nothing to do with Gulzar’s lyrics or Sukhwinder’s vocals or Danny Boyle’s Slumdog) , it is however, the pure respect that I have for that man and his music – soul searching indeed. The aura of that man (and in magic in his compositions) is itself very soothing, it kind of sends out some spiritual energy. I have lost the count of number of times I saw that Oscar winning moment on news/movie channels. However, apart from the event of that man holding the Academy Award, I was enchanted by one of his line in the acceptance speech, “All my life I have had the choice between love and hate, and I have chosen love... And I’m here” (or something like that, I may not be precise here, but the essence is intact). It could be only a person of Rahman’s spiritual vocation to have spontaneously thought of that line. I have been thinking about that line for many days now, the more I think, the more I have liked it, and it pushes me ...

26th January 2009, I was sitting at a coffee bar watching the Republic Day parade on a huge LCD television. A board next to the cash counter read, “A lot can happen over a coffee”. However, I saw nothing happening. There were only a few teenagers occupying the tables, but busy in their mobile mania – “Do you have this ringtone”, “I just bought this N96”, “Hey, see this video, real hot yaar” . I was getting irritated with this young India, they probably wouldn’t even that today is 26th January, our Republic Day, forget asking them the significance of this day. The coffee bar too glittered with its usual RED colour; I was hoping to see the tricolors on this day at least. The only people, who were enthused watching the Republic Day parade, were the waiters and the sweepers, and few street children who stuck their noses and bellies to the glass partitions from outside of the coffee shop. There it was, on one side I had the ‘over-privileged’ young India, and the ‘deprived’ younger India on ...

This time there is more to see, visualise and praise than to read and ponder. I received few images in my email from a close friend of mine. I loved those pictures, and in fact was amazed. As usual, I immediately thought of forwarding that email to all my friends/contacts in my address book. However, then I thought that these pictures need much more appreciation, a deeper look than merely forwarding them. Forwarded emails are seldom looked at carefully, and often deleted after some time to keep the mailbox size in control. These pictures need to be preserved, and I thought let me put these on my blog; they will at least remain archived there. I don’t certainly claim ownership of these images and I am thankful to my friend who forwarded it to me. I truly feel proud after knowing there is so much skill in India, we all had, till this time known and praised Madame Tussauds wax sculptures. If those wax statues in London were the only thing we knew, let us visit Kolhapur once, and take a lo...

He wants an Oscar for the music score of Slumdog Millionaire , not his personal interest but for India, for its one billion people, says the Madras Mozart , A R Rahman. You will get it Sir, I am sure. I am so much happy, thrilled, excited on his feat today, the first Indian to be felicitated with the Golden Globe Award. Allah Rakha Rahman, the only music composer I am an ardent fan of. Not that I don’t like others or their genres, but Rahman is a class apart, ever since the first time I heard, “Dil Hai Chotasa” from Roja. I do respect seniors and elderly people, who go ga-ga about the legendary music directors of their times like Naushad, O. P. Nayyar, C Ramchandra, S.D., and so on. However, I don’t particularly remember of having tuned in to their music or any music of the yesteryears. R.D. has a great fan following and great respect. Sadly, however, I haven’t liked him much either. I listen to their songs, if it is being played alongside, or if I don’t have the choice to change the ...

The weekend was bad, rather not so good; my back ache had buckled me to the bed, not allowing me to stay in one position for more than 4-5 minutes. I was surfing through the television channels lying on bed, and soon I noticed that I was doing nothing but going from 0 to 54 (that is the only number of channels I have on my television) and then again 0 to 54, and then again and again. I was tired watching that Indo-Pak terror debate, reality shows were irritating me, and I couldn’t handle any more breaking news with my broken back, neither was I interested in any kind of saas-bahu or the rona-dhona type of soaps, south Indian films dubbed in hindi were a big NO, I was in no mood for business news either, I had also had enough of Ghajini and Rab Ne trailors, songs, and reviews. I remember, only thing that possibly kept me glued to any particular channel was the advertisements – Limca (I love this ad for its jingle, the zing, and the babe, of course), Raymond, Bingo , few insurance ...