Living Diagonally In My Parallel World!

On the Delhi gangrape case As the victim of the gangrape has now been laid to rest there are many things that come to my mind about how the government bungled. First of all it seems to have absolutely no idea on how to handle flash mobs. This was evident from the Anna Hazare fast. But surprisingly no one in power thought of putting together a team to find a resolution on how to combat flash mobs. In case of the people coming on streets to show solidarity to the gang rape victim as well as express frustration on the government’s ineptness, there was no one in the ruling class willing to come forward to address the crowd. It was surprising to see the ruling class’s complete disengagement with people’s concerns. The government thought it could sabotage these protests the way killed the Anna Hazare agitation. They failed to understand that the common man who was earlier a bystander is now ready to come on the streets and is ready take a beating to effect change in this country. ...

Sudesh It was a very busy day. As I stretched my arms to relax I realized it was 7 in the evening. Tomorrow would be a little easy. I was on a business trip to our Delhi office and I was slated to fly back late in the evening tomorrow. My colleagues had asked me to be ready in the lobby in an hour, but I had different plans! I called an escort agency. The deal was fixed to meet her at 10. This meant I had three hours to finish my meal and be ready. This was the first time that I was on an adventure of this sort and was going to make this a memorable evening. I had a lovely wife and two school going kids at home. The daughter was 14 and son was 12. A perfectly happy family. I had been very lucky in my life…. Got good scores in academics consistently … was one of the brightest at IIT … and joined a start-up .. took it places and now am Vice President. Sometimes I wonder, if I had not been so successful would I Ritu have said yes to my marriage proposal? After all she is so beautiful. ...

Today as I settle myself on this rainy day and think about Pancham on his yet another birth anniversary, I keep on going back in …. flashback mode. As a an normal middle class kid with access to only Vividh Bharti, I heard many  songs in my childhood and never bothered to figure out the composer or the techniques they were employing. RD Burman was the first one to create an impression on me. He “sounded” different. The strange unconventional sounds from the conga drum, his special tabla and the guitar. His Flute sounded divine. It was not the normal shrill sounding flute that music composers of that era used but a sound full of bass, richness and maturity. The older music directors used Dholak for getting bass. RD used the bass guitar to get the fullness to a song. Soon, I could tell a RD song from Laxmi Pyare, Kalyanji and so on. He was accused of being too Western for Indian tastes. That’s the hypocrisy that we are so fond of. His classic composition in his first film Ch...

MADAN MOHAN FOREVER... PART 1: A journey through his memorable music... Features introduction by Madanji himself and tributes by Lataji, Begum Akhtar, Manna Dey and Ustad Zakir Hussian, with song clips from WOH KAUN THI (1964), BHAI BHAI (1956), DEKH KABIRA ROYA (1957) and SANJOG (1961). MADAN MOHAN FOREVER... PART 2: A journey through his memorable music... Features tributes by Lataji, Jagjit Singh and Mala Sinha with song clips from WOH KAUN THI (1964), DULHAN EK RAAT KI (1966), POOJA KE PHOOL (1964) and ANPADH (1962). MADAN MOHAN FOREVER... PART 3: A journey through his memorable music... Features tributes by Jatin-Lalit, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Lataji, Ashaji, R.D. Burman and Gulzar with song clips from HAQEEQAT (1964), DASTAK (1970), MERA SAAYA (1966) and MAUSAM (1975). MADAN MOHAN FOREVER... PART 4: A journey through his memorable music... Features tributes by Uttam Singh, Ashaji, Khaiyyam and Jaidev with song clips from CHIRAG (1969), MERA SAAYA (196...

I would like to start with this beauty from Gulzar - Kaise Dekhu Meri Ankhonke Bahut Paas Ho tum from the film Bharosa. Next is Muhobat Ke Isharon mein from Dushman Dost Listen to this gem Jaanu Na Main from the album Aja Meri Jaan. This song is based on the Bengali song Ki Hobe Aar Purono Diner Katha sung by R D Burman himself. http://youtu.be/SN8zshXdrUc Phoolonke Desh mein sung by Kishore Kumar http://youtu.be/y7ROdEMRtDQ The deleted Quawaali from Sholay - Chaand Sa Koi Chehra - sung by Kishore, Manna De, Bhupinder and Anand Singh Another from the Pancham-Gulzar combination - Kuhu kuhu Koyaliya from the movie Devdas. This movie was planned with Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Sharmila Tagore. This song is incidentally based on a similar one by Sachin Dev Burman. SD Burmans version can be heard here- The next song is not unreleased but an unfilmed one. This is from Shaan starring Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor. Enjoy this one - Le Chal Kahin - from Reshma O Reshma ... Why did he work on such tur...

I had heard and read a lot about Malena on many online discussion forums. Yesterday I got the opportunity to see the Italian version with English subtitles. Malena is a beautiful and deeply touching film. It is a masterful combination of sites, sounds and colors. It is a coming of age story of a young boy, who carries us along on a journey of love, lust and maturity. I love that movie and I love that montage. To be that drunk with infatuation. It's an ache that's hard to describe. The only thing worse is the pain you feel when you know it can never be.   We watch helplessly as his innocent perspectives about life are jarred by the realities of society, while he watches helplessly the misfortunes of the beautiful Malena. The movie attempts to critique the savagery inherent in the 'civilized' society of men. Throughout the story, we experience cruelty that we, as public can inflict upon an individual. It attempts to lay bare the gross hypocrisy and fragile morals that h...

Strange are the ways of this government led by Manmohan Singh. India is the worlds second largest cotton producer. (US is number one). On 5th March the Commerce Ministry declared a ban on cotton exports. Did anyone bother to check with the exporters who had committed delivery’s? Was there a check done to ensure that India’s reliability in the international market does not go down? This decision had international effects. Countries like Pakistan and Australia celebrate the decision. The cotton futures in NYSE went up by 6%. Surprise of surprises – The Agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, expressed ignorance about this decision and also declared that he had not been consulted. This is spectacularly comic that a senior minister is not informed of a decision taken by another ministry and they declare this in public! A week after this decision was declared the Commerce minister issued another release and declared that the decision was revoked! This has been happening far too frequently from ...

Jan 4th, 1994 was a usual day for me.... I met Vaishali in the evening and was about to speak to her when I heard the terrible news on TV. The news sounded strange and imperceptible...almost as if someone was talking in a foreign language. It took me some time to realize that it was REAL. He was no more. Vaishali later told me that I left suddenly without the usual courtesies. I left her house in Tulshibag, but I don’t remember how I reached my home. I probably was oblivious to the usual noise and din of the marketplace. It was a very sad day. Till that day, I hadn’t known what it was to loose a dear one. I had felt the urge to cry out loud but there wasn’t a shoulder anywhere near. And then a few days later, the soundtrack of 1942 A Love Story was released. I headed to purchase my copy of the audio cassette. It was very unusual feeling to hold on to a Pancham audio cassette knowing that he is no more. After the commercial flop of Gurudev and Drohi, I wasn’t really prepared to...