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...

Ghalib.. Aah ko chahiye

My tryst with Shayari...

I am oblivious of the original meaning the "shayars" try to convey in their "shayaris", but I have a perceptive of my own, which strangely relates in a very "toduu" way... All of my own...

It has been long, since I posted a shayari by my ducky poet "Ghalib"... What a formidable shayar he was.. I bow down to his excellence... It is so true, that the intensity of our feelings is never conveyed "from soup to nuts" to the person we want to convey them to... This atrocious evil still exist around.. This is how it goes:

--> Aah ko chahiye ik umra asar hone tak

-->kaun jeeta hai teri zulf ke sar hone tak..

It takes a lifetime for sigh of pain of love to affect the heart of beloved...

Who lives that long to win your lock of hairs ( which actually means, who lives that long to conquer your love n win it )

--> daam-e-har mauj mein hai halqah-e-sadkaam nihang

--> dekhein kya guzre hai qatre pe guhar hone tak

"daam-e-har mauj" means net of waves... n "halqah-e-sadkaam nihang" means many open jaws of crocodiles... so to sum up the first line, it would mean..

The net of waves got many open jaws of crocodiles

Let us see what the mite brooks till it becomes a pearl.

--> aashiqi sabr talab aur tamannaa betaab

--> dil ka kya rang karun khun-e-jigar hone tak

Love seeks patience, but the desire is restless

What color shall I paint the heart with, until it is murdered ?

It is a line with a very deep meaning that is conveyed half way through... The lover is in such a condition, where he needs to wait to get his love, but he is helpless n doesn't know exactly what to do because of the recklessness of his desire to have his beloved...

--> humne maanaa ke tagaaful na karoge lekin

--> khaak ho jaayenge hum tumko khabar hone tak

I agree that you would not neglect, once my heartfelt emotions reach you... but I fear, I will be no more than dust, till you get to know about them...

--> partav-e-khurr se hai shabnam ko fanaa ki taaleem

--> main bhi hun ek inaayat ki nazar hone tak

The way dew drops disappear, once sun rays hit them... I, too am here, till I am glanced upon by a favour ( ik inaayat ki nazar hone tak )...

--> yak nazar bash nahin fursat-e hasti gaafil

--> garmi-e-bazm hai ik raqs-e-sharar hone tak

Its just a matter of a single favoured glance... All these life routines of joy n sorrows would end at a single spark of light...

--> gam-e hasti ka asad kis se ho juz marg ilaaj

-->shamma har rang mein jalti hai sahar hone tak

Hey "Asad", what else is the way out of all the sufferings of life, but death...

The flame burns in any condition, until the dawn...

This is so true line... Here, the poet wants to convey the only way out of the misery n sufferings that everyone face in their lives... which is nothing, but death, as it is believed that all the sufferings would end after this life... However, in the next line, he says, that people, though the sufferings are there, do live till their lives come to an end... no matter what.. so .. so .. true....

Hyderabad...

Hyderabad: One city I know about more than the others that I have visited... I have never ever been to this place, but I feel a strange connection with this place... I do not know if it is the magic of an article I read, or my friend being in this city, but there is something..

The haaoo for yes and nakko for no spoken in Hyderabad are famous all over India... We have had many artist from there and the most famous haunted place, which is "Ramoji Film City" is also located in the city, that has some pretty interesting names of places, as in:

-->Bibi ka Chashma (wife's spectacles),

--> Ghore ki Qabr (grave of the horse),

--> Mehboob ki Mehendi (beloved's bleach),

--> Sookhe Mir ki Kaman (arch of the lean baron),

--> Koka ki Tatti (a bamboo
house),

--> Purana Kabootar Khana (an old coop for pigeon's),

--> Magar ki Baoli (Crocodile's well),

--> Khuni Darwaza (bloody door),

--> Moti Galli (fat lane or perhaps, pearl lane),

--> Patli Galli (a narrow lane)

--> Domalguda (mosquitoes breeding place)


"Bibi ka Chashma", should not be construed as wife's spectacles. Bibi here refers to "Hayat Bakshi Begum", daughter of the founder of Hyderabad -"Quli Qutub Shah" and "chashma" in Urdu is a perennial water spring.

Professor Dharmendra Prasad was right when he wrote, "Place names are the expressions of human activity, progressive exploration and settlement of people."

Hyderabad is the "manufacturer" of love, as said by Khushwant in one of his articles... The liaison between Sultan Quli Qutab Shah and "Bhagmati" is the creator of the name Hyderabad... He was so much foolishly in love with Bhagmati that he made her his sultana and changed her name from Bhagmati to "Hyder Mahal" and named the city after her "Hyderabad"...

Sultan Qutab prayed to "Allah" that "Millions of all castes, creed and religion make it their abode like fish in the ocean:,,, his prayer was granted...

Earlier the majority was of Jahs, Dowlhs and Jungs... but now is being held strongly by Raos and Reddys...

I read somewhere that you would get to know you are in hyderabad, when:

--> your life's ambition is restricted to 3 words- US, H1 visa and Green Card.

--> When the language you speak is a strange mixture of Hindi, English, Telugu, Marathi and Urdu.

--> When you find that Mehboob ki Mehndi is not the Rajesh Khanna movie, but the city's red light area.

It is stated that this city is famous for its aphrodisiac qualities and health giving climate..

There is a lot more to Hyderabad, than mentioned in this article or others or in Wikipedia... It will be felt only after a visit to this place... which I look forward to... :)

This song will be plyed...

This song has to be played... no matter what the occasion is... marriage.. engagement.. reception.. any party that has to rock cannot escape from the spell bounding lyrics n music of this song: Nachi jo sadhe naal onu dil vi deynge.. by the legend... Hans Raj Hans... Just out of curiosity, I researched the meaning of lyrics.. The lyrics use folk punjabi language:

Nachan ton pehla hoka deyange, Sabna nu ik mauka deyange,

I will make a noise before I dance, will give a chance to all

Ik sone da koka deyange, 121 (ek so ikki) rumaal,

One golden nose ring, 121 lovely hankies

Ohnu dil vi diyange, nachi jo sade naal

I will give my heart too, to the one who will dance with me

Gani onu ban ke gulab jedi nachugi, Saggi ful ban ke nawab jehdi jachugi,

neck chain to one who would dance like flower, head clip to one who would dance like a princess

Gore mukh nu jhumke deyange, par ik gehda ghumke deyange

Ear rings for the fair face, but a move of dance around

Jhanjhar dil nal chumke diyange, taal naal milau jehdi taal

will give "jhanjhar" kissed from my heart, to one who will move with the music

Ohnu dil vi diyange, nachi jo sade naal

I will give my heart too, to the one who will dance with me

Nee tu nach le, tenu nachiya farak nahi paina tu nach ke manaa le yaar nu

Dance gurl dance, It won`t make a difference to you anyway, you will get your love by dancing.

Heereya da haar naale challe diyan jodian, geetan te preetan diyan gau jehdi ghodiyan

diamond necklace with the pairs of rings, for the one who will sing the songs of love and mating

Ambron taare uthaar diyange, tikke vich shingaar diyange

will bring stars from the sky, and will beautify your tresses with them

Nau lakha ik haar deyange, dhamkaan naal pau do dhamaal

A necklace of worth 9 lacs, one who will rock the bass

Ohnu dil vi diyange, nachi jo sade naal

will give my heart too, to the one who will dance with me

Mangne di mundri milugi vich tolian, davinder de naa te jehdi pau khanne boliyan

Engagment ring in the party, to one who will sing a song for Davinder`s name in Khanna

Pakki ik nishani deyange, ohnu eh zindgani deyange

A symbol of love for lifetime, to her I will give my life

Gal chon laah ke gaani diyange, nach nach karu jo kamaal

I will give my chain, to the one who will boom the dance

Ohnu dil vi diyange, nachi jo sade naal

I will give my heart too, to the one who will dance with me

Life n Ecstasy

There comes a lot of thoughts when you sit idle... One such thought came to my mind relating to life and ecstasy.... The relation between the two is very antique n deep, which is difficult to explain,.. just like an elusive pimpernel...

I have known a lot of poeple who drink alcohol and those who don't... The third category is those of hypocrytes, who do drink, but refuse to accept in the public that even they are part of "maikhana"....

Ghazal maestro and messiah for drinkers, Mr Pankaj Udhas has been singing ghazals, that can make even a non-drinker, a drinker... I listen to a lot of them, but have managed to be out of this dark, and at the same point of time a glittery world...( It becomes glittery for the time being you are drunk, the morning followed by this night is full of headaches and hangovers, that makes it dark... )

In one of the ghazals, life-ecstasy relation is show:

"Zindagi ek naske ke siva kuch nahi...

Tumko peena na aaye to main kya karun"

Life is nothing, but an ecstasy... What shall I do, if you do not know how to drink it ???

Well, for me, it is a very meaningful line...Life puts up so many challenges infront of us.. are they an lesser than ecstasy... Both the things make the world go round...

Few of the quotes that I came across:

-->Anyone who hasn't experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all.

-->Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have only to be still to experience.

This one is my favorite one:

-->I am in total ecstasy with where my life is now.

I am a fan of Carlos Santana..( His colab with Sean Paul in "Cry baby Cry" was awsumm...."Black magic woman" and "Maria" were pretty good to listen to ).. He once stated the following:

My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly....

Nargis Dutt...

I started googling about nargis dutt and was astonished at the drop down options I got as I wrote her name : Nargis Dutt followed by hot/ cancer foundation/ memorial cancer hospital/ biography/ songs/ awards/ photos.... Would I be googled after I die... I wonder... and I if would be... Would that be suffixed by all these words like...? Mayank kakkar followed by hot/ awards/ photos... etc...

Anyways, I always tend to move to myself... but wait... I am not a narcissist. I am just my favorite... Let’s move to Nargis Dutt. . .

Her actual name was Fatima Rashid... wow... I just got to know that she was a Muslim by birth... “Talash-e-haq” was her first movie, where she was a child artist; as an adult she did her first movie at 14, "Taqdeer"... But her acting career began with "Tamanna"... Her role of "Radha" in "Mother India" was formidable...

Her last appearance was in the movie "Raat aur din" in 1967...

She was the one to form Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe with hubby Sunil Dutt... In the last days of his (Sunil Dutt's) life Kavita Chhibber, whose uncle Tilak Raj Dutt was cousin of Sunil Dutt, interviewed Sunil Dutt... He, till the end referred to Nargis Dutt as Nargis "ji"... (Ref: http://www.kavitachhibber.com/main/main.jsp?id=sunil_dutt)... I really respect this man... It is important to respect woman, which he did...

It is hard to believe that she was born in "Tawaif" tradition of Calcutta; her mother, jaddanbai, did not teach her singing, so she should not enter the tawaif tradition and rather made her talent grow in the movie culture, which at that point was unfolding in India...

It is said that Sunil Dutt had saved her life on the sets of "Mother India" from a fire accident... Now, doesn’t his sound familiar to a scene in "Om Shanti Om".. GOD... copycats directors in India...... Even I will try n make "Kehne mein kya harz hai" :)

It is said that she was so involved in the film, Mother India... that she would be present on the set hours before the schedule, ready with her make up, going through her lines. In fact, the long muddy drenched scene where Nargis searches for food for her children and later surrenders herself in front of the evil Sukhilala, took seven days to complete.

Recalling the scene, actor Sunil Dutt once disclosed in a television interview how she would come to Mehboob Studio and drenched herself in mud. The process would take three to four hours and an equal amount of time was consumed to wash her; yet, she never complained her director to hasten the scene, instead she persisted on more retake to extract the best.

After her death, one of my favorite poet, Allama Iqbal expressed the sorrow of her leaving us:

Hazaaron saal 'Nargis' apni benoori per roti hai... badi mushkil se hota hai chaman mein dedavar paida...

I found an article by Priya Dutt ( http://www.rediff.com/movies/2004/jun/01priya.htm) about how she, Namrata and Sanjay were during the old days and how positive, full of life and down to earth Nargis ji was... There was no difference between a dhaba and a 5-star hotel for her...

A very interesting story, that once again narrated the malicious humour and Nargis Ji’s knack to make people happy, goes like this…Once she called up Khushwant
Singh and asked if she could meet him up… Khushwant said yes and she came.. n said: ” I have come to ask you for a personal favour…. I believe you have a house in Kasauli. My children are at Sanawar and I can’t find anywhere to stay during the school Founder’s week celebration… I was wondering if you could let me stay in your house…”

Khushwant then said, “Of course!!!... But only on one condition… Provided thereafter I have your permission to tell anyone I like that Nargis slept in my bed...”...

Nargis relplied, “Done! I stay in your house; you say I slept in your bed…”

Khushwant states that she was as beautiful as she was unassuming and friendly… and she got a dulcet voice..

A quote goes like this, mentioned in an article:

Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies A lass unparalleled….

Beautiful she was in all senses of the word… with a heart of gold…her smile was bewitching… her laughter contagious… she had the gift of eternal youth…

May GOD bless her soul and she rest in peace … Amen... 

Gyani Zail Singh

Giani Zail Singh… Instead of the banal things often said for him.. Like he was the Indian politician.. a great learned man ( which pre-fixed Gyani in his name ) … member of Congress Party.. the 7th president of India…now…instead of all this known stuff, I would like to talk about something unsaid, unpopular… something which is not much talked about or argued on.. My source of inspiration for writing about him came from one of the articles by Khushwant Singh… where he has raised excellent questions.. and answered them... there itself… This article won’t be for those who know nothing about Zail Singh.. If you are one of them.. it okay to click the “x” on top right corner of the screen, but of you got a fair idea about this man, this article may interest you…

It is clearly known that “He was the President of India during Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.” For this part a very important question was raised by Khushwant.. that did he as President sanction the storming of the Golden temple and did he warn “Madam Dictator” about its consequences and impact on Sikh community… ? ? ?

In this article and most of the articles it is stated that he was not even informed about the attack, the Indian Army was about to attack the Golden Temple… even though Army is under the direct command of President of India… ( Is President a puppet of Prime Minister or what ? ? ?) …It stands to a reason that had Gyani ji been informed about it, he would have at least advised PM to defer the action and avoid the killings of the pilgrims who would be present on the martyrdom anniversary of the builder of the temple.. …After the attack, a lot of Sikh resigned from their government posts, many Sikhs revolted in the army, but Gyani ji was attached to his post as a president and did nothing about the whole thing..

Then when Indira Gandhi was murdered by two Singhs named Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, Giani Zail Singh made Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India. Rajiv Gandhi's party and henchmen killed more then 7000+ Sikhs (Government of India estimates), but nothing much was done for 3 bloody days in the Indian History..

A friend of mine, Marpreet, told me about a book… “When a tree shook Delhi”… that has off-the-record “records” about what all happened on the first 3 days of Nov 1984… A very crucial point was raised that this does not qualify as carnage, but “pogrom” would be the appropriate word as it was all organized. Had it been spontaneous, it would have started on 31st Oct instead Nov 1st……

A very interesting and clever scenario was told to me… My ancestors, 3 decade ago, were at RSD college ( Ferozpur Cantt ), where Zail Singh came to distribute the degrees to them.. During the speech he said: “ Krishna ji ne 14 saal ka banwaas kaata tha…”… one of his “chelas” said that it was not Shri Krishna, but Shri Ram who went for “banwaas”… During rectification, he said that it is the same thing.. as there is one GOD.. “Shri Krishna hi Shri Raam the”…

Apart from all this, the next question which was raised was : “ Did Gyani ji play any role in elevating Bhindrawale from a rustic bhai to a political monster ?”… On this it is said that Gyani ji met Bhindrawale only once, that also during “kirtan” in the Gurudwara,… There is no visible possibility that he had any role in promoting him…

The third important question that is raised: “What did he do to curb the anti-Sikh violence and what help did he render the victims…?

It is said that during the carnage, he stayed in Rashtrapati Bhavan and no visit was paid at the refugee camps to solace the victims…

But, we need to wait till we have the actual proof about what all happened.. Why did he not do anything.. Was this his own choice or a forced decision.. What was it ???

Bunts...

Bunts...

According to wiki, Bunts are a Hindu community of erstwhile nobility, feudals and gentry from the region of Tulu Nadu in the south west of India which comprises the districts of Udupi and Mangalore in the Indian state of Karnataka and Kasaragod taluk of Kerala.

But the way I came to know about this community was through an interview of the late gangster "Sadhu Shetty" ... According to D.P Satish, a Mangalorean editor for CNN-IBN, Shetty told him a few days before his death:

" Look, we the Bunts are the only caste, who are into everything. We are really great. Nobody can match the Shettys and Rai s, Hegdes and Choutas."

Upon research I found this to be the truth... Famous bunts include names such as Manmohan Shetty, the founder of Adlabs, Aishwarya Rai, Suniel Shetty, Shilpa Shetty ( I don't want to mention Shamita.. she carries a lot of fake attitude.. he sis is so grounded... ) , Kalidas Shetty, the food Scientist, Sadhu Shetty himself.. Sharad Shetty and none other than Muthappa Rai ( former underworld don and an Indian entrepreneur and billionaire.. started off as a gangster in Bangaluru ) ...

They primarily worship Adi Shakti and can be termed as Shaktas, but Bunts are not exclusive Adi Shakti worshippers, they worship all gods of the Hindu pantheon including Shiva and Vishnu as aspects of the divine mother Adi Shakti. Other favoured deities of the Bunts include Ganesh, Subrahmanya, Krishna and Mariamma. Bunts believe that all gods of the Hindu pantheon are nothing but various aspects of Adi Shakti...

I was astonished to know that as per some Bunt customs, the girl's family gives a huge dowry to the boy's and brings him into their house. Some Bunts continue to live with the girl's family, while the property and family name is passed through the mother's line. Abhishek could have been a ghar jamai then..:) ..

They do not send the girl the same day the marriage happened... After an "8-day" wait , a function called mamisike is held, where the girl's mother gives gold to the son-in-law, he comes with his family to the girl's house and then takes her back to his house.......... Man.. I heard about the Kaal-raatri in "Devdas", but this seems a hell lot more than just a single night,..

Khalil Chishtee...

Khalil Chishtee...

I was sifting through articles in The Hindustan Times in search of something interesting... I then came across this article by Debashree Majumdar under "Soak inculture" titled as "Life of plastic not fantastic"... This mentioned the use of plastic in such a creative way that it could represent emotions... Seems impossible.. but it ain't... His genious.. Khalil Chishtee made few objects out of white plastic trash that actually represented sorrow.. grief.. happniess and lot deeper emotions...

One of his creation named as "Dreaming of Dreaming" dedicated to creative people who have lived very ordinary life through their suffering and became a victim of organized society , so much so that their creative dreams became an impossibility. I read it in one of the articles online and could relate to the "Sajda" song by Lata Mangeshkar :

Dhuan banaake fiza mein udaa diya mujhko

main jal rha tha.. kisi ne bujha diya mujhko ...

khada hoon aaj bhi roti ke chaar harq liye

sawal yeh hai kitaabon ne kya diya mujhko

safed sang ki chaadar lapet kar mujh par

fasil-e-shaher mein kisne saja diya mujhko

main ek zarra bulandi ko chhoone nikla tha

hawa ne thaam se zameen par gira diya mujhko

dhuan banake fiza mein uda diya mujhko

main jal raha tha kisi ne bujha diya mujhko

For Chishtee, plastic is a symbol for communication between heaven and earth and also a tool for pointing to a sad fact of human existence — the tendency to use another human being as a stepping stone.

In the above pic, it seems to me an unfaithful lover holding a pistol, while showing a false love to her lover... On such song potrays very beautifully the truth.. It was sung by Great Gurdas mann. A verse goes like this:

Is nagri de ajab tamashe Hanjua de bhaa vikde haase Dushman ban ke vaar chalonde Sajan banke den dilaase Mehram to mujram di mohar lava layega Bekdre lokan vich kadar gava layenga

If I try to translate, it would roughly mean:

This society got unique shows...
happiness is sold at the price of tears...
They first become our foe and hit us
then the same become our lovers and solace us
You would be blamed by Judge
You would loose your value amid these careless n ruthless people...

Cheers to Khalil Chistee... His fabulous works, which I found on http://www.khalilchishtee.com/ are outstanding.. May be I ll try to make something creative out of the trash I have,,,:)

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Faiz Ahmed Faiz...(one of the most famous poets of the Urdu language)

I am not sure as of how many people know this man... I came to know about him in one of the articles by Khushwant Singh and was fascinated by the living style, daredevilry and larger than life attitude of this ...though being of a short stature with a dark brown complexion which looked as if it had been massaged with oil...

He was a man of few words, soft spoken and impassive... His poetry made him the centre of attraction at every party...He regarded poetry as a vehicle of serious thought, and not a mere pleasurable pastime...

He was 2 years elder than Khushwant Singh and was studying for Masters degree in English n Arabic. He had been composing poetry since he was 16.... His very first public appearance at a “mushaira” in Murray college( Sialkot) included the following couplet:

Lab band hain saaqi, meri ankhon ko pila..

Woh jaam jo minaatkash-e-sebha nahin hota...

which means... My lips are sealed Saaqi... let these eyes of mine take a sip...without drawing to ask for wine...

He was jailed and then, once he said, it was like falling in love again:

Bujha jo rauzan-e-zindaan to dil ye samjha hai ..

ke teri maang sitaaron se bhar gyi hogi ...

Chamak uthe hain silasil, to humne ye jaana hai ...

ke a sahar tere rukh par bikhar gyi hogi..

[ When the light in my prison window fades and comes the night,

I think of your dark tresses, with stars shining down on the parting

When chains that bind me sparkle in the light,

I see your visage lit up with the morning glow ]

There was an event mentioned in the article, where Faiz and Khushwant took rooms opposite to each others, so they could have their meals together...

When Khushwant went to his room in the morning, he was drinking... after Khushwant's appointment, when he returned at noon, he was drinking... In the evening Khushwant finally joined him for evening drinks and had his dinner... Faiz was still drinking... His "mehfil" went on till the early hours of the morning... A rude piece of doggerel went as follows ( It is a bit non-veg kind of couplet.. but it shows the zest of living in this man ):

Faiz Ahmed Faiz se barh kar koi shayar nhi..

Jo chaman mein reh kar roz maare veeraane ki gaand...

This means... There is no better poet than Faiz Ahmed Faiz today, who lives in a garden, but buggers wilderness day after day...

Just before his death, he wrote the following lines, which makes me shiver to the core:

Ajal key haath koi aa rahaa hai parwaana

Na jaane aaj ki fehrist mein raqam kya hai

This means... Death has some ordinance in its hand,

I know not whose names are in its list today

One of the most influential pieces written by him goes as follows... I simply love this:

bol ki lab aazaad hain tere

bol zabaan ab tak teri hai

tera sutawaan jism hai tera

bol ki jaan ab tak teri hai

[ Speak, your lips are free.
Speak, it is your own tongue.
Speak, it is your own body.
Speak, your life is still yours. ]


dekh ke aahangar ki dukaan mein

tund hain shole surKh hai aahan

khulane lage quffalon ke dahaane

phailaa har ek zanjiir kaa daaman

[ See how in the blacksmith's shop,
The flame is burning wild, the iron is glowing red;
Jaws of the locks have started to open,
Every chain is begining to break. ]


bol ye thodaa waqt bahot hai

jism-o-zabaan ki maut se pehle

bol ki sach zindaa hai ab tak

bol jo kuchh kehena hai kehle

[ Speak, this brief hour is long enough
Before the death of body and tongue
Speak, 'cause the truth is not dead yet,
Speak, speak, whatever you must speak ]

In the wiki article they say: In the 1930s Faiz Ahmed Faiz had sex with a Britsh Gipsy and after some while they decided to marry. He named her Alys Faiz, a British Gipsy… However, the internal story.. as mentioned by Khushwant says that Alys came to India to marry Harkirat Singh to whom she had been engaged while he was a cadet at Sandhurst… By then Harkirat had been married off to a sikh girl..Alys was heart broken… On rebound she married Faiz and bore him two daughters: Saleema and Muneeza…

Marriage ? ? ?

Just to give a thought... though it is not my age to think about marriage as I am a very young boy... but I read somewhere:

Love is a madness that ends with marriage or love is a madness that only begins after marriage...

This confusion about marriage is something that can be seen in today's world... I personally have seen problems in each varied kinds of marriage.. marriage of duffers, marriage of doctors.. marriage of one duffer and other smart.. marriage of all kinds.. one young, the other old.. etc.. etc.. All of them have some or the other problem…

I read somewhere, which seems so true (though sad in a way)…

Genuine love between persons is probably more rare than one thinks… although most people believe that they have some share in it, and perhaps they do attain it for brief moments. …

Poet Coventry Patmore puts it in a very true way:

Love wakes men, once a lifetime each;
They lift their heavy lids and look;
And, lo, what one sweet page can teach
They read with joy, then shut the book:
And some give thanks, and some blaspheme,
And most forget; but, either way,
That and the child’s unheeded dream
Is all the light of all their day.

Cyril Conolly says:

First love is the one most worth having, yet the best marriage is often the second... for we should marry only when the desire for freedom is spent...

He also says:

Every love affair must reach a point where it will attain marriage, and be changed, or decline, or wither...

He advises that marriage is an experience everyone should go through and then live his own life…

One thing which I read and that actually explains the reason behind two people marrying:

The dread of loneliness being keener than the fear of bondage, we get married...

We are scared to live alone, and the fear of bondage that is inevitable after marriage also scares us, but the former is something that actually sucks more.. So, people go the latter that sucks less and if you are fortunate enough, it will turn out to be good.. or great.. depends on your luck…..


Before I finish, I read one more thing that touched my heart:

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

PS: Love (n): A temporary insanity curable by marriage…