Obsessed with Death.... In a positive way...

Oxford Book of Death

I wrote an article previously that reminds us of our death... It’s a topic people feel so uncomfortable talking about... All I hear, when I touch this topic is, why the hell to talk about death... We know it will come... I say... BLOODY YOU KNOW… BUT WHO THE HELL BELIEVES IT... May be I am sounding a bit cynical, but that is a fact… I pray for long life for all, but it is important to believe that you are going to die and it is best to do good deeds and not to think evil of others… Because... MEMENTO MORI... Remember... you must die...

Alone of the Gods Death has no love for gifts; Libation helps you not, nor
sacrifice. He has no altar, and hears no hymns; from him alone Persuasion stands apart

Following are the words I found... stated by the famous people on their death beds... To me, some looked helpless... some witty... some intelligent and some…. Well, you yourself figure it out…

ARCHIMEDES (212 BC... He was a mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer… Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed . He said the following words on being ordered by that Roman soldier to follow him):

‘Wait till I have finished my problem.’

BOILEAU (1711):

‘It is a great consolation to a poet on the point of death that he has never written a line injurious to good morals.’

RAMEAU (1764): (to his confessor)

‘What the devil are you trying to sing, monsieur le cure? Your voice is out of tune.’

VOLTAIRE (1778): (as the bedside lamp flared up)

‘What? The flames already?’

But in wiki, it is mentioned that his last words were: "For God's sake, let me die in peace

ADAM SMITH (1790):

‘I believe we must adjourn this meeting to another place.’

BEETHOVEN (1827):

‘I shall hear in Heaven.’

And ‘Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.’

PALMERSTON (1865):

‘Die, my dear Doctor? – That is the last thing I shall do!’

DISRAELI (1881): (Queen Victoria having proposed to visit him)

‘Why should I see her? She will only want me to give a message to Albert.’

GIDE (1951):

‘I am afraid my sentences are becoming grammatically incorrect.’

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (in conversation some two weeks before his death in 1958, recorded by Sylvia Townsend Warner in a letter):

‘If I were reincarnated, I added, I think I would like to be a landscape painter. What about you? Music, he said, music. But in the next world I shan’t be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.’

JAMES THURBER (1961):

‘God bless… God damn.’

GORONWY REES (1979): (to his son, Daniel)

‘What shall I do next?’

Lady Nancy Astor (When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside)

‘Am I dying or is this my birthday?’

Dominique Bouhours (French grammarian)

I am about to -- or I am going to -- die: either expression is correct.

Joan Crawford (To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud):

Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me.

Thomas Alva Edison (inventor):

It is very beautiful over there.

Douglas Fairbanks (Actor):

I've never felt better.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Facing his assassin, Mario Teran, a Bolivian soldier):

I know you have come to kill me. Shoot coward, you are only going to kill a man.

O. Henry (William Sidney Porter, writer):

Turn up the lights; I don't want to go home in the dark.

Louis XIV, (King of France):

Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?

Louise (Queen of Prussia):

I am a Queen, but I have not the power to move my arms.

Eugene O'Neill (writer):

I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room - and God damn it - died in a hotel room.

This one is smart:

Woody Allen

"I'm not afraid of death; I just don*t want to be there when it happens."

THIS ONE IS BY ME………………..

We do not know, when death would knock the doors of our lives, but one day it will… for SURE...

I know its a bit hackneyed, but view is a view you see... :)

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai... or Bombay.. Whatever....

One Upon a time in mumbai..

I may start off with my favorite dialogue in the film that I could remember... "Agar aaj ka kaam kal pe chchodunga to aaj naraaz ho jayega..".. Seems a new way to say kabir's doha.. "kaal kare so aaj kar... Aaj kare so ab..", of course in a very "Don-n-ish" style..

Before the interval, the film was slow.. then after the interval it did not give a chance to "walk along"... It just rushed, missing on a lot of points..I, previously read a lot about Dawood and Haji Mastan ( before OUATIM's release... ) .. and was pretty exited about how their lives would be portrayed in the movie... I entered the hall with the anticipation that the movie would show more of Dawood's life and his deeds, but it was a mixture of Dawood's and Haji Mastan's life.. More of Haji Mastan's than of the former.. In the end you see a phraze, which I feel is the base of the film – ‘behind the myth is the city’s greatest betrayal story’... The betrayal part was very short... The movie could have been more enjoyble, had they shown the betrayal part more than the rest of "zameer" and the palpable drama... Because that is the portion where the spicy part is.. Rest is so much overt... I could relate Emraan in "OUATIM" to the Emraan in "JANNAT".. both the characters running after money... showing daredevilry for love... In Jannat.. Emraan broke the window of the jewelry shop n in this he stole it from a doctors place.. In both the films, wrong ways were adapted to win the most rational thing in the world, love, which according to me is not much dependent on all this stuf.,. If it is dependent, then it is not love.. Apart from that.. if one has a sound knowledge about the life stories of Dawood and Haji Mustan, one could find the movie boring and incomplete, as not much has been shown.. but for general public.. it is an entertaining movie.. The whole set, the big odd ugly sunglasses.. huge sidelocks.. old mercedes, which one could get for some 70k bucks... resembles the era of 70s ... The crucial figures I found missing in the film were.. Basu Dada of Telli Mohalla..Bauji Saheb and Rama Naik, with whom Dawood then formed an alliance to balance the power equation with BAsu Dada as he had musclemen in his akhada.. ...Samad Khan, Syed Batla and Amirzada were nowhere in the movie...

Next time,, I think a movie could be released that could show much more than shown in D-company, Satya n OUATIM....... may be with the name... "Mumbai ka don kaun ? ? ?"..... :)

It's a crazze

As I googled about "woofer craze”, I came across various links which made no sense to my search... One link said... "Pappu ki ghari tez hai.. pappu kudiyon mein "craze" hai...” with the word craze highlighted... or the song..” "Woofer" tu meri... meri.. Main tera amplifier...” I never got into the crux of woofer or sub-woofer technology, but there is something about it that fascinates me to a point that I could spend hours listening to that vibration produced by those cute round shaped daemons...

You can select from a huge range available in the market... Sony Xplod XS-GTX120LW 12" Car Subwoofer...Polypropylene construction provides a rigid cap less cone for better response and power handling. It can handle 350 watts of RMS power or 1200 watts of peak power. (A peak is an instant reading - RMS is an "average" reading.)...and a hell lot of others.. Alpine, BLAUPUNKT, JBL, JVC, Kenwood, Kicker, Pioneer, Rockford Fosgate..... I often end up searching for "bass" videos n crazy shaking bass acts over the internet and I found I am not the only one in this arena... Man! There are a hell lot of bass crazy people out there in this world... Indians... Americans... British... all kind of people... There I found a man named "Steave Meade”, He shows off his system in his own way... Bloody four 18" Fi BTL Subwoofers...20,000+ Rockford Fosgate Watts... 4 Iraggi High output Alternators... 7 PowerMaster batteries... 15.3v MLA module... He sometimes does the hair trick over the ladies... It goes somewhat like this, Open the door... sit in the car... Steve would play the music... As soon as the power woofer comes to action, the subtle hairs start flowing in the air like waves in the ocean... The sound is all distorted that we could hear... But I wonder what power it must be carrying to shake things that way... Just out of curiosity, I foraged the bucks required to get that “thing” in your car....Here it goes…

Fi BTL Sub: Each costs around $500... 23000 INR each... for 8 it would be around INR 2 lacs…

2 Rockford Fosgate 15k amps… each costs $25000… so for 2 it is $50,000… INR 23 lacs

Iraggi alternators… $500 each... four would cost $2000... INR 1 lac…

Powermaster D3100 batteries… $500 each… for seven it would be $3500... Around 1.6 lacs…

The above is an average configuration…… Steve goes much higher… The above config could produce 20,000+ watts… but Steve also went for 30,000+ watts.. Amazing...

So... in total... around 27 lacs…. is the amount you need to get the lady’s hair wave... It is preferable to buy her a hair drier... J … But all joking aside… it’s a passion to crave for...

Men are four...

A very simple.. yet Lavishly elegant and refined philosophical lines I read goes like this:

Those who know and know that they know. Those possess wisdom, so follow them,

Those who know but don't know that they know. Those are wanderers, so guide them.

Those who don't know and know that they don't know. Those are knowledge seekers, so teach them.

And those who don't know and don't know that they don't know. Those are ignorants, so avoid them.

M.A.F.I.A

Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, Karim Lala, Sadhu Shetty, Sharad Shetty, VardaBhai, Haji Mastan... First name was the only one I knew, before I wiki search it out of curiosity... rest of them were linked in some or the other way, to Dawood...

The stories behind all these names are as fascinating as their names... The more I read about them, more inquisitive I became... and more interesting facts started coming out of the closet, through various articles ...

Fiction cannot offer the sense of authority, the real life stories behind these names offer... They were all regular "aam" people who rose to power because of the circumstances they faced... Bootlegging and " matka " business were the initial steps towards the rise of their kingdom... They were honest in their business.. Strict rule of "tit for tat" followed.. exceptionally loyal towards their mentors..

Chhota Rajan.. Why the name, Chhota Rajan??? His mentor was Bada Rajan ( Rajan Mahadeo Nair ) ... Chhota Rajan's real name was Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje... They both started selling black market movie tickets at the Sahkar Cinema. Black marketing of cinema tickets was one of the main sources of income for Mumbai gangs between the years 1970 and 1985. It was also during this time that Bada Rajan formed his own gang with Chhota Rajan as his chief lieutenant. Bada Rajan served as a great mentor to Chhota Rajan and the two would remain close friends until his death... Abdul Kunju planned the assasination and got Bada Rajan killed.. Chhota Rajan took the pledge and killed Abdul..

Abdul Kunju was a cricket enthusiast and often managed a good-sized crowd to come and watch him play. ( I am thinking about going to watch local matches n make friends there ... :) ...) This gave Chhota Rajan the opportunity to use Kunju's own passion against him. During one such match in 1985, as Kunju hit a boundary, three young gangsters dressed in T-shirts and sneakers, including Sanjay Raggad, Sadhu Shetty and Chhota Rajan himself, entered the arena on the pretext of retrieving the ball. After doing so, they walked right up to Kunju, pulled out their guns and shot him dead at point blank range...

What a daring revenge they took ... I do not know what society thinks about them, but one thing I admire and have noticed in all the stories, is their daredevilry...Their stories are as fascinating as of any other celebrity...