Tobu Mone Rekho

Scintillation 2011 Winning moment

2011-12-19T20:55:00.004+05:30

Something money cant buy

2011-09-05T13:38:00.000+05:30

Long back, one day dad asked me to help him arranging his files and stuffs. He was cleaning his cabinet. When you dig into old piled up stuffs, sometimes you do find interesting things. Whenever I open my Grandmother’s glass door cabinet, I find something or other very interesting. Dad’s childhood photo, my old school badge, few sea shells we gathered long back in Puri. These things always take me back to that age. But in my dad’s files, I didn’t expect any such interesting things, so the job was pretty boring for me. Suddenly I found a diary. I have never seen my dad writing anything in diary, so I was very happy finding the diary. I took out a pen to write my name on the first page to establish my ownership before my sister even come to know about it. The moment I opened the diary, I found a dirty black colored stuff inside it wrapped with some small piece of very old news paper.
- “Eeik!!!! What’s that dad? It must be some kinda insect, died in the fold of the diary”. I threw the diary on the ground. Some part of the dirty stuff came out of the diary and scattered on the floor.
Dad smiled and took the diary in his hand, carefully kept the shabby thing back into the diary pages; I don’t know what it was but certainly not a fossil of any insect. It was something my dad wants to cherish. I started feeling bad for throwing the diary without knowing what it was. But that didn’t last long smelling a story. I could see the expression on my dad’s face. Certainly he was recollecting something very old, something very special happened in his life. I kept my mouth shut expecting dad to start again.
“You know dear, this apparently dirty stuff means a lot to me”. I dragged my chair near to him.
He continued, I started my career in Block Development Office back in 70s. I was different at that time, a lot more enthusiasm was in me, lot more self believes. I don’t know how the spark faded out from me in these many years. May be in times it happens like this. At that time, every day I wanted to something different but never got a chance to be different than others. One day I noticed a new guy as the sweeper of our mess. Asking others what I came to know is the young guy who used to work here before is ill, so became irregular. That’s why they appointed someone new. I didn’t enquire more on the guy who was ill. Few days after that, I met the guy on the road. I asked him what happened. In reply what he said just stunned me. He was suffering from critical heart disease. I asked him to consult a good doctor and assured him to help if he comes to Kolkata. But he said, he can’t afford the treatment cost. He was the only earning member of the family and that job also he lost because of health condition.
I came back to mess but his words kept me bugging. Once I feel to extend some financial help, but on that time I just started earning, so I couldn’t even have afforded more. I didn’t sleep the entire night. Next day morning I took the writing pad out. I drafted two letters, one to the Prime Minister and another to the Governor of the state. I read in the news paper that both on state and central govt level they have some funding to help poor people. Though I didn’t know how to get that fund, I just gave a shot on that. My expectations were not much from the so called govt processes, but to my surprise I got a reply for both my letters from PM office and Governor Office. In next few days, two inspections took place with the help of local police station regarding the financial condition of that guy. In a month time he got a good treatment in Vellore under Dr. Sunil Sen. He got two cheques, one from central govt of Rs 10,000 and another for Rs 5,000 from state government. Those amounts were not small in those days. Finally in a month time, that guy came back from Vellore. I can’t tell you how great it felt to me seeing him completely cured. And the guy couldn’t say much to thank me, but I read it on his tears. Two months after this I got a job in banking field, so had to leave the place. My farewell was done; all the gifts were packed well in the suitcase. I said good bye to all my friends and neighbors and waiting for the bullock cart to the station. I heard a knock on the door. I turned back and saw the guy, standing just outside of my room. I called him in. we talked for a while and then took out a small thing packed in a piece of news paper from his pocket. He gave that to me and said, “I opened a Pan stall last month. I can’t afford much to give you a good bye gift, so I prepared this special Pan for you. Please have it. I know it’s nothing with compare to the help I got from you. Not only you saved me, you saved my family also. I pray to god everyday to send more people like you”. He was in tears. I took it from him and before I react he ran out of the room. I was running out of time so didn’t get a chance to tell him that he has given me probably the best gift in my entire life. He wanted me to have it, but I thought of keeping this for the last day of my life. It’s not a shabby thing dear, it’s the most precious gift I ever got.
Dad completed his story and took a piece of cloth to clean the diary. I saw a rare drop of tears in my dad’s eyes. At that age, I couldn’t connect myself much to the tears, it was all happy ending, then why tears. But today in a much paced life, I seek that few drops of tears of Happiness.

Can you hear the roar?

2011-08-22T15:23:00.000+05:30

The entire county is roaring. Half of the population is shouting for Anna. Rest of the half who doesn’t agree with Anna, are busy grunting against Indian Cricket team. Anna with his team is grumbling against the corruption and the government. Government is cursing Anna & his followers. The intellectual people are debating on news channels. The news channels are shouting to prove themselves best in the business. And when it comes to me, I am just struggling to find the right direction.
With this back drop a few scenes are being staged everyday around me.
Scene 1: Got a forwarded email from someone saying about a rally to support Anna. I decided to join. After the office I came back home and changed to comfortable attire before going to rickshaw stand. The rickshaw drivers were on top of their voice debating. They were debating in support of Anna Hazare. Everyone was in favor of Anna, but still they were aggressively putting their point. To whom? I don’t know.
“JM Road?” I asked. One guy said, “Sit, but 20 Rs extra, its heavy traffic there”. I looked at his face; he was the one who was shouting most against the corruption and dishonesty just a minute back.
I smiled, “you are charging me unethically and claim that you are a supporter of Anna Hazare?”
He said, “This is not corruption. Its just a matter of 20 Rs. See the leaders who are into scam of crores of it. And anyway this is my Dhanda time, cant compromise with it.
I compromised, as I always do.
Scene 2: I am in the rally, its hell lot of people around and good thing is they are not under any political banner. Later I read in the news paper, it was around 25 thousands of people in the rally. I saw an old man, not shouting at all, just calmly walking in the rally. I liked it. He is truly supporting the cause, without seeking any attention.
But we are also here for the same cause. Aren’t we doing the same thing? Probably yes, but I am not sure whether that is the only reason.
Scene 3: A few girls are in front of me wearing white t-shirt with the sleeves folded in style. It looks like they just came out of a party. They are well organized with all their slogans, they had their homework done. Result? A lot of Digital SLR, point & shoot camera’s and even mobile cameras flashing around them. They are happily posing in front of every camera. Definitely they seem to be the face of the rally. If you don’t agree, ask the overexcited boys surrounding the girls.
I heard one guy saying “Dude, I told you that lot of girls are coming and it would be fun. See how right was I”
Scene 4: I walked passed a lot of people in the rally. Now in front of me I can see some school going kids with some middle aged couples, mostly their parents. Everyone is carrying candles. They are trying hard with their small palms to keep the wind away from the candles.
I am surprised. How could these little kids be allowed with candles.
“They are the future, and if it continues like this the corruption will hurt them most. We are just training them to fight against it” – their parents told me.
“But do you believe this is the proper way to protest?”
“We don’t know if this is the proper way, but if you have any other option tell us that. We will do that also. We are desperate to give them a better India.”
I didn’t have answer, if I don’t have a way out, I shouldn’t stop those who are trying to do at least something.
Scene 5: A guy just barged into the rally from a shop beside the road. From his next conversation what I understood is, he successfully bargained in the shop and purchased two candles for Rs 15 each. I was surprised. The candles he bought should not cost more than 5 Rs. Soon I realized it’s the same old story of Demand vs Supply. We are getting charged extra for everything used in Rally, candle, Indian flag, try colored wrist band everything.
At least someone can see his profit with the rally.
Scene 6: The rally is finished. I walked till Sarasbaugh. Now I am sitting in a restaurant and having my dinner. Dinner, it’s a necessity, right? especially after so much of shouting and so much of walking. While eating I heard some people around us talking about their experience about the rally.
“I am feeling so proud that I took part in the rally. From bottom of my heart I support the fasting Anna is doing”. He finished talking and took a big bite on the Chicken Tikka Wrap.
“I have already updated my FB status that I am in the rally” his friend replied.
I didn’t say all these, but somewhat I am doing the same thing, thinking on the same line they are thinking.
Did I really serve the purpose what I actually wanted to?
These are just glimpse of what exactly is happening throughout the country. I am against the corruption; I want to do something against it. But I don’t know the exact method to do it. So when I see someone raising his voice against corruption I am trying to echo him. I would ask everyone to do the same, but before that just know what you are fighting for. Don’t kill the cause with the excitement and don’t seek attention for what you are doing.
Government is saying that it’s not the democratic way to pass a bill. But following the democratic way only we elected the government, if they don’t justify their roles what is the democratic way to protest?
But this protest, the rally, the fasting will not gonna work unless we try to change ourselves. Let’s stop giving out hard earned money as bribe. We should understand, if only few of us act positively then the fight will turn into their struggle. But if every one of us starts working against corruption in our daily work, then there will be no fight. It will be the India our ancestor had dreamt of few hundred years back.

Missing

2011-07-26T09:39:00.000+05:30

Have you ever felt missing someone when the person is not around you? Stupid question huh!!! It’s a very common feeling for every one of us. But why do we miss someone? Simple answer, because we love that someone, because that someone has a place in our heart. I guess this is the way of defining a relation. A relation is always the base of the society. Now what would happen to you if the word relation goes out of your life forever making you not missing anyone? Simple mathematics says you will not have the bad feeling of missing someone ever. But life doesn’t understand this math. I am sure most of us can’t even imagine the feeling of not missing anyone. Let’s break it up in smaller pieces. How would one feel on Raksha Bandhan day if he doesn’t have a sister? Same goes through a girl‘s mind if she doesn’t have brother. Those not too lucky people must have a feeling of loneliness seeing others celebrating the day. It often appears a long day for them for sure. But this is just a single day every year of missing a single person. Can you now imagine missing everyone for rest of your life? I bet now you can feel that. It’s bad, it’s very bad, its unbearable right? No, it’s more than what it feels. I wouldn’t even have realized this unless I visited Vidyavati Ashram in Kamshet. It’s a home for more or less 50 orphan kids. Some of them are in Vidyavati before they actually realize the meaning of love, the meaning of parents, the meaning of a relation. Some of them lost their parents in this young age so they are here, it’s definitely sad. But the thing hurt me more when I came to know some of them are actually discarded by their parents. This Orphanage started with a 6 months old girl they found in railway station. As per doctors her survival chance was almost nill. But she survived. If god exists then I must say the almighty couldn’t able to give her parental love but she got some very special people around her.

To be Continued……

Ambition

2011-07-25T16:54:00.000+05:30

What do you want to be in your life? Did you ask this question to anyone. You certainly did, don’t you? Do you remember what kind of different answers you got till date? Okay forget it, rethink of your answers if somebody would have asked you this at the age of 5 or may be at the age of 10. Well well well I don’t know about what went through all your childhood thoughts but I certainly remember mine. Let me share those wild and weird ambitions.
Before that let me tell you something we used to do in Bengali culture (not sure about others). In bengal we have a ritual called “Annaprashon”. This is the ritual when the little fellows eat their first rice. It takes place when they are at the age between 5-7 months. During this ritual, elders keep certain stuffs in front of the kid like a book, a pen, a pair of small scissors, coins etc and wait for the kid to pick something up. If the kid picks up pen that means he/she will be interested in literature. Similarly coins indicate businessman, scissors indicate doctor and so on. This is really fun to watch. That’s the baby’s first bite on AMBITION.
As the days go on, the ambition keeps changing with lot of factors. These factors involve some serious bullet points. “Capability”, “Expense of the Course”, “Earning from that profession”, “Prestige” and some more.
Note that I didn’t include “Interest” in this list. Actually that is the prime factor of an ambitions. But with the circumstances, that always takes back seat. These factors always suppress the desire, the craziness, the will. Examples are very obvious, a person with less IQ level cannot manage to get through any ambitions which needs lot of brainwork, for example a scientist. A boy from a poor family has to think 1000 times before opting for an expensive course to fulfill his ambitions and 999 out of1000 times he would change his mind. Just compare yourself as a cricketer and as a kabaddi player, that would justify the affect of earning on ambition. And last but not the least is prestige. Have you ever seen a drama on stage? If yes then close your eyes and compare the stage actor’s acting skill with the silver/golden screen actors acting skill. One who loves acting would definitely go for stage theater but the question of Prestige would always keep them bugging.
Not only these, the pressure of society is also a big factor on the ambition. Successful doctors would always want their successors to be in medical profession coz they have seen how noble the profession is when they do justice to it. A govt officer always dreams about his kids to be an IAS officer because in his mind that’s the highest position he would have ever imagined. A lawyer knows his son is always prospect of good lawyer with all the contacts he made in his life. And in India film industry and politics are two fields where people believe talent is hereditary. But again I would say these are to some extend positive reservation. There are other negative effects as well. Like a conservative family never sees their kids going for a film or fashion industry. A businessman always turns down his son to go for any salaried job. All these are basic instinct I believe, very hard to change.
With all these in mind, the definition of ambition doesn’t stand its ground anymore. The main pillar “Interest” is losing its priority from the Ambition.
Anyway, it’s always a never ending debate. I started this with a lighter mood but eventually went to the serious world. Now I am going to my childhood days when an ambition was completely independent of anything in this world other than what I liked to do.
Have you seen hand cart ever? In Kolkata I have seen plenty of them carrying lot of stuffs. Not sure they are still there or not. So using the cart lots of people used to carry big ice blocks from ice factory to different preservative farms (like fish market etc). On those days, ice factory was beyond my imagination. In my thought the one and only source of that big amount of ice was Kashmir. So I was under impression that these guys go to Kashmir everyday and bring ice from there. I was very curious about Kashmir because on those days also Kashmir was always in headlines because of terrorism and natural beauty. So that became my first ambition.
My second ambition was a taxi driver. The one and only reason behind this was just roaming around in the city in a car without spending a single paisa.
However that ambition didn’t last long as Byomkesh Bokshi and Karamchand entered into the scene. Not only Byomkesh Bokshi, there are several other detective novels I started reading. You might have noticed the dramatic pictures in detective books with dark glasses, black gloves etc. No wonder that attracted me the most. As a result next 2-3 years I was completely equipped with woolen gloves, lots of different kind of toy guns, dad’s black sunglass and grandfather’s pipe (only pipe). Most of the time my face used to be covered with a handkerchief. The makeup accessories were also part of my detective kit. The Ponds powder (for white hair) and sister’s eye pencil (for drawing mustache) might not be the most expensive makeup kit one could have but sufficient for the great detective like me. Due to the lack of interesting cases around me, I couldn’t continue this ambition anymore. And by that time I realized it’s my time to be on the action ground, not to be in a dark room sitting on a easy chair sorting out a complicated murder case. Continuing on that thoughts, Police Officer and then Army Officer was two certain options I could see. So all the small toy guns went inside the packing box and with Grand Ma’s great support soon I created my own inventory with big toy guns. But I needed some bunkers to fight with enemies. With no wonder all the pillows came to my help. I used to pile up all the pillows to make the bunker. That gave me the complete environment.
When I grown up a little more, we started travelling different famous places in India. Most of the time with some travel groups. I saw every time one person used to brief about the place before we start. After a long time I found something to make my ambition. Honestly today also when I have visited many places in India and US, I still find that as ambition. That is one thing I can do at any age of my life. But again that will be a new story altogether.
With these there were some short and simple ambitions popped up throughout my early teenage like playing table, painting etc, but never appeared very interesting. Right now I am not able to recollect any more funny ambitions I had except one. And the final one is Cricket. Well this is one which was always in my mind. In every alternate I used to see myself as a cricket player. Believe me today also when India needs 50 runs from 19 balls, first things comes to my mind is re-considering my ambition of being a cricketer.
To conclude this, what I believe is ambition is what you want to be. It might not be having any relation with how much would you earn, what is your age, how will you achieve this. A 70 year old person can should also have an ambitions. An ambition gives you a meaning to your life if not anything else.

Summer Camp

2011-04-18T20:17:00.006+05:30

There is always a never ending argument on school life and college life, which one is better. Some people say school life, some say college. If you ask me I would always say School life. Like all my friends I also never realized this during school days. In those days we all had a strong feeling to get rid of it as soon as possible. Now when poor fellows like us, sub merged in professional goals and responsibilities, we dream our old days, always. The school, the recess time, the fun between lectures (and during the lecture as well ;) ), the morning prayer and every other small thing. Now all of a sudden why I am saying all these. Actually last Saturday, 16th April I went to a school with my sister and her group to attend a summer camp. The moment I entered the school, I started missing my school. I never got a chance to attend any summer camp in my school days. We used to have one day outing once in a year. With that background its beyond my imagination how much I would have enjoyed if I got a chance to attend any summer camp.
The summer camp I attended this Saturday was organized by a group named SPrayas formed by the Syntel employees. The group was not at all new to me. I attended quite a few activities organized by them. And believe me that they are not doing it for the sake of their CSR activity. They are doing it from bottom of their heart. Else I wouldn’t have seen my sister, Abhishek, Seema and other fellows doing this for more than three long years.
What I understood from the very first day’s introductory session is, the goal is to teach the students something new during this one month of summer vacation without losing their interests. These kids don’t get much chance to learn something above their educational curriculum. May be because of financial condition, may be because lack of opportunities. The entire idea is about giving them what every children deserve equally. It’s about spending some good time with them, it’s about giving them the faith of doing something special, it’s about cascading the knowledge we have to the next generation, the future of our nation.
Saturday morning we reached the school at around 8 in the morning. The kids started coming in groups and by the time we started the introduction it was around 35-40 kids in the class room. The black board, the chalks, the duster, every single stuff was reminding me my class room. We spent there almost two hours with the kids. We got to know each other, we danced together, we sang together. In short we enjoyed together. My sister is lucky that she will get this opportunity for next 30-40 days but definitely if I get time I will come back again to attend my first summer camp.

Back in Pune

2011-04-17T23:28:00.000+05:30

Well well well!!!
First day in Pune office after a long time and I already started finding lot of interesting things about Pune and the office. Let’s talk about the things which didn’t change, The Auto service. They still refuse to go by meter and charge a bulk amount. Girls here still go out like Phulan Devi covering their faces with dupatta. Bus drivers still don’t bother to stop in the bus stop. No one still bother to maintain the traffic rules. Interestingly in front of office on Mumbai Pune highway the traffic appears to be more than last time I saw but people who cross the road still don’t bother about how fast the cars are coming. As usual they don’t look towards the cars coming and surprisingly this is working for years and years. Now come to the office. The elevators are still slow enough to make the employees desperate to take the stairs till 9th floor. Most important unchanged thing in office which affected me is the lunch. Though the vendor is changed and the number of items are increased, I still had to throw half of my food in lunch yesterday and today’s breakfast. People still talk regional language not only for chit chat but also for official work. All my colleagues still don’t wear the tie on Tuesday. The chairs are still in a condition to give you a feel like you are sitting on a half broken brunch of a tree which can collapse at any point of time. Half of the employees are still struggling with the CRT monitors. Most of the folks still don’t bother to smile if you say good morning to people whom you don’t know personally. These are only a very few things I noticed, there must be much much much more stuffs which didn’t change. Now it’s time for the change. I will start from office this time. There are no paper cups available in the break out area, I heard that admin has supplied proper cups to every employee and as I was not there on that particular time I don’t have any cup which led me to spending an entire day without coffee. I got my desktop right after my manager put the request, that was fast and honestly I didn’t expect it. People are not tailgating anymore. The biggest change of all is a change which is quiet obvious over the time period and not at all surprising but still it’s a change. I hardly know 15-20 people in this office. It’s a whole bunch of new faces. If I talk about the change in Pune, roads look in good condition, you don’t often find old buses. What else?? Nothing I could find as of now. Its less than 48 hours I spent here. I know a lot more is still to come.

Who are you?

2011-01-06T07:52:00.001+05:30

Have you ever encountered the question “Who are you?”
I bet most of the people if not 100% don’t like this question. Although this is not a very complicated question to answer, is it? I also had a feeling like that. But after spending some time with this question I realized I am not right from every prospect of the question. Sometimes it’s not that tough to answer but not always.
No matter how complicated you think the answer is, I think the best answer of this question comes out from a person (rather character) who we all know. “My name is Bond, James Bond”. I wish if I could answer someone like this, “My name is Banerjee, Kaustav Banerjee”. Dont laugh, let me clarify myself. I am not going to say this for my entire life, nopes, no way.
I find my best answer to this question when I ask it to the mirror in a place where no one is around. Who am I? You want to know who I am. I am the king of all the kings, Badshao ke Badsha. I am the one who can change the world; I am the most powerful man on planet earth. But the answer changes the moment someone comes around. I get back to the normal me. Wise men will say, why do I think that I am not the best, I can’t change the world. If I can’t feel that way I would have to answer the question to the world for rest of my life. If I can take myself to that level, no one is going to ask me the question again. Actually I would love do something like that, but it’s too complicated to discuss at this point. Let’s get back to the question again.
I remember in my childhood days we used to go for collecting Chanda (donation) for Durga puja, door to door. After knocking on the door, first question would always be “Who are you?” You might think this is an easy to answer question, but no. In reply, I always had to portray myself not as Kaustav but as a young devotee of the goddess Durga who wanted to make sure the Puja committee gets enough funding to overcome all the barriers that comes on their way while arranging a festival which is solely made for the people around. So we had to have mock up session before going for collection regarding how to answer “Who are you?”
I never experienced but heard it from lot of people that door to door salesmen are very cautious about this question. For them, first impression is the last impression. Again their personal details are not important if somebody ask them who are you, it’s their company or product profile which they always wants to emphasize. If they can answer it well then it’s their lucky day.
Yesterday I went for a meeting, where a saw a new face in the room whom I didn’t know. Before I said anything he stood up and said “Hi, myself John and you…”. That three dots are nothing but the same question “who are you”.
“Who are you” appears to be a very blunt and harsh question to ask. Corporate world has changed that question into a statement, Introduction. Starting from job interview to project interview, meetings, sessions everywhere this word comes in our lives. I am tired of giving introduction and saying who am I.
Few days back I got a friend request in facebook from an unknown girl and with that she sent a message “Who are you?”. I was really irritated with the question, wasn’t sure whether I should laugh and ignore her or give her the proper answer asking the same question with additional words, “Who are you to ask me that?”. But finally I came to know why she asked that. My name was coming in her profile as “add friend suggestion” because of number of mutual friends. But she couldn’t recognize me and ended up asking me who am I. Justified, isn’t it?
In short this small question has many different forms beyond my thought. So I will stop here, but as always I will end this with one small incident. I heard this story from a person I met while travelling from Pune to Kolkata in train. I forgot his name, lets assume his name is Sunil. Sunil told me when he came out of his hometown for the first time for job, he was travelling in train. One guy started talking to him as he is a very close friend. Sunil thought better not to entertain that guy as he was a complete stranger. He was scared if that guy’s intention was good at all. Lot of incidents happen in train where a stranger give some food item and consuming that, passenger becomes senseless. By the time they regain the consciousness, they lose all their valuables. Sunil started ignoring that guy, but the stranger was not at all in mood to keep quiet. Finally Sunil told him in loud voice, “Why are you disturbing me? Who are you?”. That guy was shocked with this incident and never said a single word after that. Sunil didn't have a pretty good idea about Pune city. After reaching the station he was confused. He only had a big suitcase, he took an auto rickshaw to his destination towards Swargate. There the biggest tragedy was waiting for him. He was peeping out from the rickshaw to see the place, when an over speeding car hit the rickshaw. He fell out of the rickshaw and after that it was all blank for him. He got his sense back on the hospital bed next day evening. Injury was severe. He was in hospital for 7 days. His parents came and take him back home. While leaving the hospital he asked the attendant about the person who brought him to the hospital. The lady checked the register and said there was a whole group of people who brought you here, but no body was ready to register their names. Sunil asked the nurse also if she had any idea about any one of that group. He just wanted to thank that person. Nurse also couldn't help him, but told him about a guy who stayed in the hospital pretty late. With the description she gave, Sunil easily visualised the person. He was none other than the guy whom he met in train. He was so surprised, couldn't say a single word. Here the story ends of Sunil, but not mine. On that day Sunil told me, “You know buddy, I shouted on that guy in train, I asked him “Who are you” just to keep him away from me. But today I feel, if he could have answered my question on that day, I could have meet my life saver again”.

Lucky you

2010-12-30T10:42:00.001+05:30

December 2005, dont remember the date. It was a very windy Saturday evening. Normally in Kolkata we dont find weather cold enough, but that day it was worst in past 10-15 years. I was really upset on some of my friends in college. Had a fight with mom in the morning which made me feel like I am alone in the world. I started feeling that I am very happy that I am alone. I can spend the entire time with me. I dont need to care about anyone in the world. Took my jacket on top of a full sleeve heavy sweater and muffler to go out. Mom called from behind, I didnt listen to that. Took a bus and got down at Deshapriya Park. People say in the city that is the best place to walk around. I started walking towards southern avenue where the lake subhash sarovar is. A chilling wind was coming from the lake side, but as my blood was boiling from the frustration and anger, I ignored all these and kept walking. Lot of things were going through my mind, how bad people behave with me, how wrongly they treat me, how harsh they are on me. Suddenly the phone started ringing. I saw one of my friend with whom I had a fight a while ago. I picket the call, he said "come on buddy, whatever has happened, its between you and us. Why didnt you listened to your mom and went out in this bad weather. Just take a u turn and go home. I didnt say anything and dropped the call. My anger level went high, my mom started calling my friends just to show how bad son I am. I decided not to leave the war front any more. I will also see the end. It was quiet, almost pin drop silence around the park, except the sound of wind. I saw a small tea stall, but no one was there to have the tea. Its a pretty odd scene in Kolkata at least. That empty tea stall showed how bad the weather situation was. I took a big earthen pot full of hot tea and kept walking. I was walking unmindfully, suddenly I heard a sound. Someone, mostly an old lady chanting something. I listened carefully, it was "bhagawan tumi amare shokti dao, ami ei ogni porikha theke bachte chai, amake lorai korar khomota dao. ami jani sudin asbe, amio bhalo kore bachte parbo abar. tomar ei porikkha te ami pass haboi". If you dont understand bengali, here is the translation. "God please give me strength to fight the battle, I want to overcome this acid test (Donno how to describe agni parikhsha). I know good days are waiting for me, I will again live a good life. I will pass this test". I was kinda surprised. What kinda pray is this? I saw people praying for a good life or else asking to take him/her to the eternal peace, to the heaven. Never in my life I heard someone saying to strengthen her to fight the bad days, without asking a good future days. She was confident that if she can surpass this battle, she will see good days. I went closer, and found someone very skinny, almost invisible, is lying down on the footpath under a bench wrapping only a thin sheet of bed cover. She was shivering, very very badly. I went close to her, sat next to her but didnt know what to do. After a min, I kept a hand on her and asked what happened, why are you lying here in this cold weather. She stopped chanting and brought her head out of the bed sheet, said I dont have any other place to go my son. This is my home for last 25 years. Believe me I saw her smiling, it was very hard to identify the smile in her face, but she was smiling. The words what she said was again hardly audible to me, somehow I managed to understand what she is saying. I was pretty sure, she was not well, how could she be in this weather. I asked her not to say anything and took my jacket off. I put the jacket on her like a quilt, thinking that would make her warm. She was nodding her head, I understood what she was trying to say. She was saying if I give my jacket I will catch cold. She tried to lift her head, but couldnt. I assured her that I am fine without jacket, I have a sweater also. By that time I decided whats next. I knew if I leave that lady like this, she would die. I didnt think anything for the future, but the only thing was running in mind was saving her for this worst night. I ran to the tea stall and took 2 cups of tea with some biscuits. I asked the shop owner if he ever noticed the old lady or not. He replied, that lady is staying here since long, before he opened a tea stall here. I requested him if he had any blanket or anything which can make that lady comfortable and warm. He said "No way, why should I spoil my blanket, that lady is anyway not gonna die. o toh jomer o oruchi". The last statement means even the god of death is not gonna take that lady. I was completly stunned with this. But I was desperate that time. I asked him to take money from me and give me the blanket as I didnt have time to go and purchase a new one. That guy was astonished with this, and finally he gave that to me without taking money. He said sorry, that he behaved rudely. I rushed to the lady with all these things. I wrapped her with the blanket, took her head on my lap. I gave her my muffler also. I took her hand in my hands and started rubbing the palms. After few minutes the lady smiled again, and said thank you. I told her to have the hot tea with biscuit. she agreed, she tried to lift the cup in her hand but she couldnt. Seeing no other option, I dipped the biscuit in tea and held it in front of her mouth. She swallowed it. Like this she took couple of more times. I could see her face in the low street lamp light. I dont know whether I was wrong or not, but she looked happy. There was something in her face which made me feel like cry and sit with her for ever. All of a sudden she started breathing very fast. She was sucking her lips with the tongue, I thought she is thirsty. I rushed to the tea stall and came with a glass of water. Slowly slowly I tried to help her sipping the water. After couple of sips, I saw the water came out of her mouth. She was not breathing anymore. I couldnt cry, couldnt say anything for a while. First time in my life someone died on my lap. I couldnt do anything, Nothing. I dont remember whether I shouted or cried, the tea stall owner came running and saw me sitting there. I dont know what happened then. Only I could remember lot of people was around me...
11:00 PM in the night, Kolkata Municipal Corporation came and took her body inside a van covered in a white sheet. The tea stall owner came to me and gave me my jacket and muffler. I took those and went near to the van and put the muffler and jacket, my favourite jacket on her body. There I couldnt stop my tears. The driver started the engine, slowly the van started moving and in a few moments went out of sight. The tea stall owner came to me and said, "now you go home. Dont worry, she is in better world now. In the world where she will be happy. And you know one thing, she was happy, I saw smile on her face for the first time in last 20 years. You go home"

11:30 PM, I came home in a police van. Everyone was worried there. The moment I entered the room millions of questions were triggered on me. Only mom came to me without saying a single word and gave me a hug. I kept my head on her shoulder and cried like a baby.

That night I couldnt sleep. But I had a dream. That old lady came in my dream and said "I was right. I knew if I can survive the bad days definitely I will see something good. Thats why I always asked god to give power to survive. My son you are the only person in last many a year who fed me with his own hand. May be the biggest thing I got in my life. The best. I didnt have any expectation beyond this. Thanks a lot. Now I am happy."

That was the day when I realized how lucky I am. I have so many people around me to care for me. In this beautiful world there are millions of people who has to wait for thirty years for someone to come and make them feel that they are not alone.

My Place

2010-03-26T18:16:00.000+05:30

I remember my first day in school. When I entered into class room, I saw some low and high benches. Four (or may be five) boys were supposed to sit on each bench. It was just 1.5 ft space on the low bench to sit and similar area on the high bench to keep your bag, books etc. The same low bench-high bench concept continued till my eighth standard. The only change came in, was the amount of space to occupy. From 1.5 ft, it came to 2 ft. In my ninth standard class room I saw individual desks. It was really a very good feeling for me at least thinking on my own desk. Geometrically I got the same space, but the comfort was more. It was designed to keep your bag under the desk-top, separate place to keep the pen/pencil started making me proud of my desk.
In college days the look and feel of the desk got changed. It wasn’t wooden anymore. The structure was framed using rot iron pipes and plywood. I was overwhelmed with the sophistication.
Once I left college and join L&T InfoTech in Mumbai, the definition of “My Place” has got changed again. In training days we used to sit on push back revolving chairs but the concept of cubicle was not there. After training when I joined in Pune office, I got my cubicle, my own cubicle. Wow!!! For me it was like dream came true. My work place, my cubicle, what else do you want in life. The size of the cubicle was almost 7ft by 6 ft which accommodates 4 persons. I got my chair, my desktop, clipboard, one small board, one big and three small table drawers, my name plate and most important my own desk phone set. I was not anyone special there; everybody around me was having the same stuffs but did they feel like me when first time they got their cubicle? May be I was so happy with all these because I never thought of all these. I saw people decorating their cubicle with show pieces. I never decorated my cubicle but still I loved mine more than anyone. It was my heaven and I liked to spend most of the time of the day their only. It was real fun working there. Like everybody I also used to share my cubicle with three other colleagues. Chit chat between works, pulling their chairs, messing up with their show pieces just kept adding more on the fun part.
Once I got moved from Pune to USA, the definition of cubicle got changed. Here I got a complete separate cube of size 8ft by 7ft. having a desktop with larger screen, attached lights for reading, some big drawers, multi functional phone set, hanger rack to keep jackets, big white board to write something. Phone set was allocated to my name so whenever I call someone, they can see my name also. I was having so much of space that I can put all my study books I read in my life. I again thought WOW!!! This is life all about. What better thing could I get? I stood in front of mirror and said to myself “Hey listen, now you got the best work place so don’t think anything better at this age and at least for next ten years”. It was true also, ten years down the line if I can get myself up to some position then only I can think of my own cabin.

I was completely wrong; something more was waiting for me. Once I moved into some other project my cubicle got changed and now I am sitting in a cubicle whose size is 8ft by 12ft. I am having all the stuffs in my cube which I can think of. I also have a separate discussion table in my cubicle. In Pune I never decorated my cubicle but now I already started thinking to decorate this one. The first day I entered in this cubicle, I was just looking at it for several minutes. I was so amazed. In the very next night a little boy came in to my dream and I saw him calling me to sit with him. It was a tiny bench and while sitting there my knees were almost touching my chin. But I started loving it. I was also shouting with them “Jack and Jill went up the hill ..... It took me to my nursery days and I realized that 1.5 ft space is still sufficient to be happy if you want to be happy.

KKR or Sharukh or Sourav?

2010-03-13T09:53:00.002+05:30

- “KKR is back”
- “KKR has shown the critics what they are capable of”
- “The new Jersey brought KKR’s luck back”
- “Wasim Akram still rules the world”
- “We can do it without McCullam and Gayle”
I am sorry, I don’t agree with any of the statements above which are floating around. Kolkata Knight Riders just won the inaugurating match against Deccan Chargers. It’s just a single win nothing more than that. I can understand every small feelings of each KKR fan. I know how the IPL went bad last two years for KKR, especially last year. They might have every reason to jump into joys and conclude KKR is the best after defeating the defending champions. But logically speaking this win doesn’t prove the above statements.
But this win proves some other things. It’s not about KKR, it’s not about Sharukh Khan, neither about John Buchanan. It’s all about Dada, the prince of Kolkata, The Bengal Tiger, SOURAV GANGULY. I believe this win is entirely goes to Sourav Ganguly’s credit. Technically speaking what special thing was he having in his team. Four overseas players, one rejected from South African national team, one rejected from English national team and rejected from Delhi Daredevils, one who never really made it to Australian national team his permanent position and one who is part of Sri Lankan national team, but yet to get some international recognition. If you look at the domestic players also it would be hard to find any renowned national level player other than Chiteshwar Pujara. Still they able pulled off the victory. In T20 cricket, no one is favorite, so when the match started I don’t believe Deccan Chargers was having any edge over KKR. But yes from confidence point of view they were way ahead of KKR. When some controversies follow you, it is very difficult to get rid of it. But it was Sourav Ganguly, the king of comeback; even Wisden stopped calculating how many times actually he made his successful comeback. KKR didn’t play like champions. They lost 4 quick wickets, managed a mediocre score of 161 and conceded 56 runs in first 5 overs. Still they ended in winning side. The difference is made by one man only, the captain. If you remember last year almost all the matches KKR lost very closely. In crunch and crucial stage only you need a person to lead you, a person to take decision and that is why captain should be there. Statistic says Buchanan’s multiple captains never made it through. I remember last year KKR lost to Deccan in one match where in last over 16 runs were required almost similar to today’s match and first ball of the over was called noball because of sufficient fielder was not inside the inner circle. World saw McCullam arguing with umpires on that, for what reason I don’t know. In similar condition today KKR did everything right in last over. That is the essence of Ganguly. He started his international captain’s account in Nairobi mini world cup where he was given a second grade new team. He came back with the cup. He has the dare to win anything by hook or by crook. He has the dare to take out his shirt at lord’s balcony, he has the dare to take the fight to the opponent camp, he has the dare to backing up his boys who lag in performance, he has the dare to fight against selectors for his choice and he has the dare to protest against zonal partiality in selection. What other quality you need in a captain? Definite question will come if at all he is the key to success then why didn’t they perform well in 2007. Well if the entire team cannot perform, captain can’t do anything. They were losing but they were never looked like eleven different entities on the ground like IPL2. And there is one more factor, if you tie up a tiger’s face, cut his nails and ask him to fight, he might lose the battle against any one. Let the Tiger fight the battle in his own way. If still he loses then raise the question. Our Bengal Tiger is 37 already, but never looks like. Does he? He earned respect from the cricket fans that are beyond zonal discrimination. That is why still he gets a roaring welcome even in Chennai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Mohali. He is the man who is the founder of Team India from Indian Cricket team. Team India started dreaming for number one spot under his captaincy only. It was so close yet so far. The more his success gave him pride and pleasure, the more his failures gave him insult and frustration. His captaincy was taken away; he was dropped from the team after performing well. And then KKR captaincy controversy, what more does anyone can digest. Has anyone tried to see what and how that brave man thinks about life? No one even bothered I guess. They are just doing their own business. I don’t blame Sharukh Khan. I don’t think cricket really does matter to him. He is a style icon, nation’s face. He can do publicity stunts, he can lead mass. That is why in 2008 IPL; in spite of finishing at 6th he earned the highest revenue. He took the decision to remove Ganguly as captain along with his team management so he suffered with his team’s performance. But what we, the all KKR fans got out of these? Nothing but pain and agony. I lost my all hopes of seeing this team back on track, but may be one person thought it differently who never lose his hope. My thought process is nothing in front of his. I only can salute that person. The Performers, the fighters, the champions cross pass all the hurdles. People FEEL they can do it, but Champions KNOW they can do it. That is how they are different from others. Had Moti Nandi been alive he might say “fight dada fight”.

CID - turned into a comedy show these days

2010-03-11T06:57:00.000+05:30

Let me tell you one detective story. One widow mother and her son died in an accident. They got burnt in their own house. When detectives came to investigate they found both of them we severely injured and thus were not able to run away when the fire broke up. There they found one more guy laid down outside one of the window unconsciously and semi burnt. After forensic test it was proved that the mother and her son were killed because of the stabbing not because they got burnt. Detectives started thinking that the guy they found unconscious will reveal the secret. He might be the murderer and somehow trapped into the burning house.
They found one Italian passport in the injured person’s pocket and came to know his name is Max. He came here from Rome 9 days back. The guy max wasn’t ready to talk, making excuses of being sick. With having no other option they went to that burnt house to check if they find anything there. They wanted to find the motive behind Max’s visit to India. It was hard to believe that only to kill two persons, he came so far. That means something should be there which he wanted to get from that family. While searching in the house they found one simple finger ring which was hidden inside television set. When they scanned the ring they found one code word, 3 RAT CAT 3. When they said Max that they knew what 3 RAT CAT 3 is, max died immediately by cardiac attack. From his shirt collar they came to know about the club where Max was staying in Mumbai. They went to the club and searched his room. There they found one dead body in the bathroom. Club owner said that guy is Pranav Mehta; he also came from Rome one day prior to Max and was staying in another room. From Max’s coputer they found three photographs. In one of the photograph they found Pranav Mehta, the murdered woman and her son together. While searching Pranav Mehta;s room they found one iron chest with combination lock. In the mean time DNA test proved Pranav Mehta was husband of that lady who was killed with her son in Mud Island area. To break the combination lock they used the code 3 RAT CAT 3 and that worked. There was one cell phone inside the safe. That phone doesn’t contain any dialed number or text message. But on it’s battery something was written like “15 week raam shaym”. After searching on internet they got to know it is basically a cinema hall in mud island area. They rushed to the cinema hall and found under one of the 15 numbered seat one pen drive was secretly kept. They took that and were moving to head quarter. All of a sudden senior inspector got a call from a lady from an unknown number saying in the next signal they should return the pen drive to her else she will blast the bomb kept under their seat. Detectives didn’t take chance and the lady took the pen drive. Afterwards finally they found the lady and while interrogating the whole story came in front. Pranav Mehta was a scientist working on some software against terrorism. Max and the group wanted to have it so everything just happened.
Now what’s the big deal in the story? If you ask me I would say it’s just a crap. There was no link, no base nothing. Just think, a scientist who is working against an international terrorist organization, kept data in pen drive under a seat of a cinema hall, then wrote that cinema hall name in mobile battery, then charged the mobile and kept it in a big safe with a weird combination. After that wrote the combination in a ring and hide the ring inside a television set. Why? Why didn’t he put the pen drive inside the TV? Wouldn’t that be easier?
It was so disgusting. Then why I wrote this here? Well this story was telecasted in Sony Entertainment Television’s one of the most long running, oldest show CID. The weekly, crime based serial CID came into television in 1997. It was one of the best shows. It also holds a guineas world record for 111 min continuous shot. But now the quality of the show, deteriorated so much one can’t imagine. No Story, no logic nothing. I don’t know why they are continuing the show. Do they still find it worth broadcasting!

Bollywood is sick!!!!

2010-03-10T23:25:00.005+05:30

Progeria, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Alzheimer's disease, Anterograde Amnesia, Dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome, schizophrenic, Multiple Personality Disorder
These are not tongue twisters. Then what are these? These are the successful recipes of hit Bollywood movies in last few years. Yes, all of them are names of some unusual diseases. If you notice the trend, every year two or three movies are getting released where the central character is suffering with a rare disease. Most of the cases public liked these and those movies are either super hit or at least got some public hypes. It’s not true that bollywood has never seen this kind of script before. Remember the 70’s old movie “Aanand” where Rajesh Khanna was suffering from Lympho Sarcoma of the intestine. I don’t think before that movie many of the viewers actually knew any detail of the disease Lympho Sarcoma of the intestine. Once the movie got success, everybody came to know more about it.
But these days, script based on a disease, is not coming once in a blue moon. It’s very frequent. In 2003 Salman Khan appeared in the movie Tere Naam in which he became a mental patient after losing his mind. Next, in 2005 the movie Black came into theater, where Rani Mukhrejee was a deaf and dumb girl and his teacher Amitabh was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Viewers appreciated the script very much. 2008 released movie U me and Hum was also having influence of this Alzheimer's disease in the script.
The movie Bhool Bhulaiya, released in 2007, was based on a story where Vidya Balan is a patient of Dissociative Identity Disorder. In subconscious mind she used to do some strange things which made others start feeling paranormal activities around. Similar kind of script was seen in the movie Aparichit, released in 2006. To be precise, in this movie the hero was suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.
When the movie Bhool Bhulaiya released, almost in the similar time Tare Zameen Par released. Here the child actor Darsheel is suffering from Dyslexia. I think this was the finest movie among all these I already talked. At least it could spread across some awareness. Then the well hyped movie Ghajni got released in 2008. In this movie Amir Khan is a patient of Anterograde Amnesia, in every 15 minutes he loses his memory. It sound silly, but the movie didn’t impacted by this. It was also hit, however that was because of Amir Khan and his 8 packs abs, not because of Anterograde Amnesia. I have not seen but heard that the Tamil movie from which Ghajhni is influenced is better to watch. Next year means in 2009, Amitabh Bachchan came with the disease Progeria in the movie Paa, where he was a kid having abnormal growth. I didn’t see the movie, so can’t comment on the movie; however people were really excited about the makeup which Amitabh put on. I hope they were not disappointed. Recently Farhan Akhtar also joins the party with Schizophrenic. He is a patient of this mental disease in his latest movie Karthik Calling where he always portrays virtual character in his life.
In this long list almost every famous actor is there, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan. Then why not Sharukh Khan!! With the successful trend his movie My Name is Khan released where the character he played Rizuan is a patient of Asperger's syndrome. Now the funny part is till date he used to repeat the characters in his dialogue like “ki..ki..ki..ki..kiran”, now in this movie he is repeating the whole sentence. Well this disease made his acting life easy I guess.
Then what’s next? Hritik Roshan. Hope to see some new disease in is upcoming movie Guzarish.

Brave?? or stupid??

2010-03-08T23:48:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I was searching for some videos on youtube, and got one interesting one. It was a clipping from a Pakistani stunt based reality show. In the show one guy claimed that he can grab a burning red hot piece of coal with bare hands. The host was saying the temperature of that coal will be 600 degree Celsius and keeping that in hand 15 seconds may damage is palm permanently. The boy said he was ready for the consequences. After that he made a comment like “My neighboring country hosts some fear factor kind of reality show and I will prove that, they can’t beat me, no one can as fearless as me. The stunt I will perform, no one from that country would have imagined.” I didn’t find anything wrong in this statement. Here neighboring country means obviously India. If that guy wants to prove himself better than the best of India, there is nothing wrong.
Now coming to the stunt, I had no idea how dangerous that stunt can be and what safety measures they took before performing the task. Because I have seen in all the stunt based reality shows, whatever stunt they perform, some safety measures they always take. So even if the contestant fails to perform the task he/she never gets a major heavy injury. But this guy was beyond all these and took the coal in his hand for 15 seconds. As a result his hand was severely burnt and he was hospitalized. In the hospital he made one more statement which made me very irritated. He said “No Indian can perform this task”. I admired his previous comment because it was natural instinct of people to prove himself best, but when he made the second comment, on that time I have seen the stunt. With the context of the stunt I must say it was the most stupid thing I have ever seen. I don’t think based on his this performance he can claim his superiority. That guy thinks stunt means doing something daring and the more you hurt yourself the more the stunt will be successful. But if you hurt yourself what is the significance of technique in doing stunt. If you hurt yourself badly in stunt, that means you failed in it. Somebody may question me on this “what is the daring part of performing any task knowing nothing will happen to you as all safety measures have been taken?” Well, what I feel is, your safety precautions can give you confidence that nothing will happen, but it can’t help you in doing the task properly.
But I can understand why that guy selected this task. They are stupid; their definition of bravery is altogether different. They don’t have right culture to distinguish between good and bad. We Indians are not stupid that we are going to perform some task which might harm us badly. I have seen people in Bengal jumping on sword, knives and many other sharp tools in some occasion. But in spite of doing these, they never hurt themselves badly. They have the right technique to perform it. Don’t you thing they are brave enough. I would say brave and matured.
People of my neighboring country are not matured enough and that is why they can’t choose the good thing always.
The story doesn’t end here. These small things can show how extremist people are there. Destruction, violence, unrest, humiliation, all these are there in their culture. That is how you find so terrorism activities there. If a college going boy can burn his hand to show his bravery certainly some day he might not hesitate to kill himself by becoming a suicide bomber.
I don’t know when they will learn what is the meaning of peace and how to gaining something without harming anyone. They should stop encouraging these activities immediately. I don’t think that day is there in future.

Cricket Commentary

2010-02-17T06:52:00.001+05:30

Yesterday night I was watching India vs. South Africa match. Basically I was waiting for Laxman and Dhoni’s century. The commentators were full on with their analysis. On that time Laxman Shivaramakrishnan and Darrel Cullinun was in commentary box. Suddenly one small conversation caught my ear. It’s not word by word, but I am trying to quote them here.
Shiva: India is having so many support stuffs from South Africa. Gary Kirsten, Paddy Upton, Siemence.
Cullinun: Yeah. These two countries are in good relation for such a long time. Isn’t it? It’s around 150 years.
Shiva: No way, whoever are the support stuffs, its India who is playing good. It’s India who is at rank 1 and south Africa at no 2. Nobody cares support stuffs belong from which country
Cullinun: Hey am not saying that. I am saying relation between India and South Africa. Since Gandhi went there we are in good relation.
Shiva: Look, first test was all about your country. Now we are playing good. These guys are playing like champions.

Then Cullinun stopped talking on this topic. Shivaramakrisnan kept talking on the same line. Now can anybody relate Shiva’s comment regarding the statement Cullinun made? Is he dumb? Does he at all capable to sit in the commentary box?

Commentary in cricket is far far different than other sports. In a slow game like cricket where one can find plenty of time gaps between balls and over. So they need to utilize the time to speak something sensible and entertaining so that television viewers don’t lose interest in the game. Yes I am talking about television commentary only. Again it is different than commentary over radio. In TV everything is in front of you, the score, who is bowling from which end, how the shot is offered, how the players reacted. For radio, listeners look for every minute detail. If you ever listened to radio commentary you will find it is like “Dale Styne starting a new over from the pavilion end, bowling with 3 slips and one deep gulley…..he put the ball short….Dhoni goes for a pull…..but didn’t manage to connect it properly. Ball went to midwicket region, Kallis fielded the ball, and one run scored. India 556/6 after the first ball of 143rd over.”
Now days there are so many sports channels and so much cricket is being played, everybody started their commentary career. I feel in last 6-8 years the quality of commentary has deteriorated a lot. The guys who are good commentators are still doing good. But the new comers didn’t able to make any impact. Being a good player is not the condition to be a commentator. Look at Harsha Bhogle, without playing any sorts of cricket he is now an expert commentator.
Lets look into some great commentators. First name comes into my mind is Richie Benaud. His voice and style of talking is really soothing. There is no doubt about his game reading capability as well. That made him a copybook commentator. However still I think his genre is test match only. For ODI and T20 we need some exciting voice especially in death. Just like Tony Greig. I still remember his shout when Kanitkar hit Saqlin Mustaq for four to win the final against Pakistan in Bangabondhu stadium in Bangladesh chasing 314. Geofrey Boycott is another legend. How can I forget his exciting commentary in Taunton Cricket ground during 1999 world Cup. I like Ravi Shastri, Gavaskar, Holding, Harsha Bhogle and Wasim Akram’s commentary. Ramij Raja’s talking style is good but the problem is whenever Pakistan plays, he becomes partial. Whatever Pakistan does, appears good move for him. Same problem is there with Navojyot Sidhu with India. But When I see commentators like Laxman Shivaramakrishnan, Venkatesh Prasad, Sanjay Manjerekar, Ranjit Fernandez then surely I mute my Television set and enjoy the match. I can’t accept them as cricket commentator.

Phir mile sur mera tumhara

2010-02-07T04:06:00.001+05:30

I remember when I was a kid; we did not have Television set in our house. Every Saturday and Sunday we used to go to my aunt’s house to watch movies in Doordarshan. On that time there wasn’t any cable channel available. After few years DD Metro came into picture, then one by one different cable channels came into market. In those days main attractions in TV were Ramayana, Mahabharata kind of serials. There was no commercial break in between movies. All the advertisements happened to be shown before start of the movies. Still people used to watch those commercials. In those days, each and every advertisement was great and touchy. “Hamara bajaj”, “Shan se bolo chal mere Luna”, “Gold Spot the zing thing!!”, “Mera Hamam” and many more. Along with these some non commercial advertisement were also getting broadcasted from State or Central Govt. The best among them was “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” It was an audio visual which contained with a song in 14 different regional languages. Lyrics were pretty simple, a four liner message in different languages. It says about unity in diversity. The great singers and musicians of that era were involved in this 5:30 min long video. Along with them, famous people from bollywood, Sports, Literature field were also appeared in this. In this less than 6 minutes clip one could see the whole India our country, could feel our culture, and could learn our heritage. Yes the video was that rich. The message of brotherly hoods what they wanted to convey, was successfully conveyed.
This audio visual came in 1988-89. In 90’s many more other cable channels came into picture and we started to forget the old channels and old shows. But thanks to Internet and YouTube, this video again came into lime light along with some other old shows. This time the response was wider, it reached to more people, and it touched more hearts than the first time. With the increasing popularity of this video people started thinking on the line of business and decided to re make “Mile Sur Mile Tumhara”. The same production team started working for it and finally launched the new Video.
I started watching this video with mixed feelings. I was not sure if it’s going to worth or not. After the whole 18 min video I asked myself “What a crap is this?” It is no where near to the old one. In the new one, they are able to gather more famous musicians and film stars but they failed to create the essence. The secret of success in the old was there in its lyrics, but in the new they caped the lyrics their try to change the sur made the song worse.

If you see the casting of this video you can find every success people from bollywood appeared in this. The Khans, the Bacchans, Ranbir Kapoor, Shreya Ghosal, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Shankar Mahadeban, Juhi Chawla, Priyanka Chopra, Shilpa Shetty, oscar winner Rehman, Grammy winner Anushka Shankar …the list is long. But believe me Sharukh Khan with a same old and monotonous pose of stretching hand singing Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, Deepika Padukan’s appearance with short dress, Shankar Ehsan Loy’s performance on dessert, Sonu Nigam playing with the melody of the song, Ameer Khan’s “kya bolti tu” remix, nothing could able to touch my heart. Shivamani playing with weird musical instruments can portrait his personal excellence but that wasn’t required here. Presence of the current bollywood glamour queens Aishwariya, Deepika, Priyanka, Shilpa was just for endorsing the song, nothing more than that. Here the people and performance in the song just had overridden the cause of the song. Everybody is there in the song, but I couldn’t see the Unity in diversity in it.
In the old one Amitabh, Jitendra and Mithun, the hit trio of that time appeared together but their singing with putting hands on each others shoulder was more touchy and meaningful than their stardom.
Still this song will be a hit because it will easily win the heart of fan clubs of each of the celebrity’s. This is nothing but a well planned fully commercial music video which is made to be popular and this doesn’t deal with any message or anything else. However the stage was all set to have something special which can unify us again. In the context of all the separatist issues like Maoism, telangana, Alfa, Ulfa, RSS, MNS, racism, terrorism, this song could represent our values, our ethics. It could show us the path of a better India, but it failed to do so. 10 years down the line this song will not be there as a single entity. Kisi ka sur kise se milte huye nahi dikhega.

Kankana Ganguly - Is she there?

2010-01-09T05:34:00.002+05:30

When I started chatting in yahoo, I did not know whom to chat, how to chat. Then I learned about various chat rooms, chat abbreviation, chatting tricks etc and made lot many friends online. I used to change my chat id everytime, so I can say I have a lot of them, but I don’t remember the older ids. But one id I will never forget in my entire life, “Kankana Ganguly”.
I created this female character just to have some fun with some of my friends, just to see how they talk with strangers and especially with girls. First person whom I hit was Anshuman Sarkar. He is my neighbor, however now he is more than my own brother. One night I just send him an instant message from Kankana’s profile. Soon I got the reply, “who are you and where did you get my id?” I was ready for the answer as I knew he was a frequent visitor of some of the chat rooms. I just mentioned one of them. Then we started talking. He never expected me behind all these. I tried to make him talk something silly, something what he does not talk generally in front of friends, so that later I can make some fun out of those. But I failed. The conversation was going on in boring direction. Then I shifted to plan B. I started trying making him feel that I am a person who stays near by him only and one day we could meet. But he was smarter than me. Within five minutes he told me “hey raja (my nick name) don’t try to bluff. I know its you”. When I denied, he called my land line. He knew I used to access internet using my land line phone connection only and at 1 am in the night connection busy means I am using internet. But my original id was not online so rests were very easy that Kankana and I are same entity.
After Anshuman I targeted some of my college friends. There I tried to pretend that I am a girl who knows everything about them and challenged them to find me. Every night I used to tell them what they did in college. Somehow they started feeling that Kankana is not a girl it is some one from our class only. The first accused was me only. But I denied. Saptarshi said he can find out easily if it was me or not when next time Kankana would log in. Picture was clear to me. He will take the same trick by calling my land line. To fool him again I took help of Anshuman. I asked him to be online as Kankana from his home so that my phone line doesn’t come busy. In that evening I got call from Saptarshi that how come my phone line is not busy and I am talking to him where Kankana is online. Their believe that I am Kankana just crashed. But I wasn’t able to continue this bluff for long. Saptarshi and Debargha figured out me as Kankana very soon. It was my fault only. One day in college they asked me to take a girl’s name randomly who is not from our college. I took a name eventually it was the same question what they asked last night Kankana and both the answers were same. I did the blunder and paid for it that day in college. Don’t ask me how I paid.
After this, Kankana went to sleep mode. But she had to make her return very soon then. This time she came for Dhimoy Chakraborty. I met this guy in orkut. Very humorous and decent. Personally I did not know him before but after some scrap exchange in orkut, I found him a good friend of me. I remember me, Dhimoy, my sister, Anshuman and some more orkut friends, we had one get together in botanical garden as well. Now back to Dhimoy. What we (me and Anshuman) found about him is he used to send scrap to all the girls around and whenever we ask why you send scrap to unknown girls, he used to answer us “I know them” and “they are like my sister”. There we felt the need of Kankana to test Dhimoy. But being a good friend, Dhimoy knew about Kankana part. So Kankana opened her account in orkut as Sulagna. We set the trap in different manner. We wanted to test if Dhimoy sends scrap to unknown girl or not. So we made Sulagna as a good friend of mine and Anshuman. We three started exchanging scraps. Those scraps were clearly visible to Dhimoy. After a few days I got one message from Dhimoy in Yahoo asking who was Sulagna and was she someone whom I knew. I said no, she was just an unknown friend of mine. That’s it; it was all set for Dhimoy. The very next night Dhimoy posted a scrap to Sulagna’s scrap book. It was a small piece of Poem. Yes!!!! We trapped him so easily. To make Sulagna a real character we did a lot. We added 50 odd friends first. Then added her name in one school community and one college community. Some more profiles had to be created as good friend of Sulagna. Else her scrap book would be full of scraps saying “who are you” “nice to meet you” “may I know you” etc etc which might lead to think Dhimoy that someone is making prank. We enjoyed our success. I guess Dhimoy still doesn’t know that Sulagna was a fake character.
Soon after Sulagna episode, Kankana reappeared in yahoo. This time the target was Kaushik Sinha. He is also my neighbor and a very good friend of mine. One day he asked me about any unknown girl’s chat id. The moment he asked me, I planned the whole thing and I introduced Kankana to him. For him Kankana is still alive I guess. When I left Kolkata and was sure in next few months I wont be able to come online regularly, I just made sure Kankana got a job is a small village in Rajasthan where Internet connection is not available. The best part of this episode was when Kankana had a good friendship with Kaushik, every body around Kaushik and me knew who is Kankana except Kaushik. So in any occasion whenever me, Suman, Amit, Anshuman and Kaushik we meet together we used to ask Kaushik about Kankana. His expression about the conversation with Kankana was really hilarious. He was ready to go any where to meet Kankana also. All these ended in 2006 when I got my job in Mumbai. After that I never logged in as Kankana for three years.
A month back when I came to US, in one lazy morning I logged in as Kankana and after clearing the entire offline messages I went into one of the Calcutta Global Chat room. I wasn’t chatting with anyone, just watching how weird messages I was getting. All of a sudden one message came from an id (also present in that chat room) which I felt I knew and chatted before as Kaustav. I checked my own address book and found I was right. It was Partha Nandy. I met this guy in a rally (against OBC quota) and he became a good friend. Eventually his cousin brother is also my chat friend. It was grand father of co-incidence that he entered into same room with Kankana and pinged her. For me it was a god gifted opportunity. Without wasting any time I started talking to him. I started giving him all the info which I knew about him. He was totally surprised, and started guessing me randomly. He was so confused, so confused that I can not explain here. For him it was impossible to think that Kankana is not real and it is a prank because he pinged Kankana, not that Kankana sent him im from nowhere. He has literally become mad to know who this Kankana is.
I did not get time after that to talk with Partha or Kaushik as Kankana or as Kaustav. I don’t know what they would feel if they read this blog. I want them to read this article in front of me. I wanna shoot them while reading.

SPrayas, the trend setter and yes they hit it again

2009-12-30T23:31:00.005+05:30

I remember long back I posted one article here about my visit to Disha. Today I got an email from one of my good friend regarding her visit to Disha and some other places on Xmas day along with the same team named SPrayas. I am just copying her email here without any change. One thing I must say, she is damn good in writing.

“Jingle bell Jingle bell, Jingle all the way,
Santa Claus is coming around
riding on his sleigh…….”

In the hustle bustle of life, when we hardly have time to be with ourselves, to be with our family or to be with our near ones, there are some who make sure to spend quality time to bring a smile on the face of children who because of some circumstances do not have a family along.

In the race of life when we are working day-in and day-out to go high in our career, there are some to whom equally important is filling colors in the canvas of life of children who can not afford to go to a school sometimes due to unavailability of a good school nearby; sometimes due to financial constraints.

Abhishek, Kasturi, Ruchi, Seema, Sudha, Kartik, Geeta, Mihir, Ravi, Tanmay, Venkat, and Ayora Berry;
- They are those some people who are making difference in the lives of children.
- They are those some people who love to fill the life of children with the ink of knowledge;
- they are those some people who may not have time for themselves but always make sure to have some time to be with these children.

These some people are no individuals but they all belong to one family:

S’PRAYAS: Enriching life at DEHU, KAMSHET and DISHA!!!!

For children at Dehu, Kamshet and Disha, the wait for Santa this Christmas was not a long one; Not one, not 2, not 3 but 12 Santa Claus came to greet them, be with them and bring smile to them.

The moment the SPrayas team reached each of these 3 places, it was no less than a family reunion. The handshake, the hug, the smile spoke everything. It was the unconditional love from both ends that filled the air on this holy day….

I can recall a question that was asked by a kid at Dehu after hearing the story of Santa Claus and Christmas, “Is there Santa Claus in real????” Answer given was “Santa Claus kalpanik hain…”

I disagree; coz you all are the Santa Claus in disguise. You are giving each of the children the most precious gift: “your time” dipped in love so pure and so true.

If anyone believes “Out of Sight; Out of Mind;”, then one must listen to the questions asked by kids at Kamshet:

“Praveen Sir nahi aaye?????
Shivani mam kahaan hain??? Woh kyon nahi aaye????.....”

(Praveen and Shivani are members of SPrayas team who couldn’t turn up in person due to some unavoidable circumstances for the Christmas Celebration.)

Hidden behind these questions was how you all at SPRAYAS have touched the heart of these children and with all you do for them, you are always there in the core of their heart. These questions reflect the special bond that these children share with one and all at SPrayas.

This Christmas I got the chance to be with this wonderful S’PRAYAS family for complete day and I could not stop myself from pouring my thoughts. I met the kids for the first time but the warmth I received from them, I will cherish for lifetime.

We all live for ourselves but hats off to S’PRAYAS who lives for many. I wish you all the very best for the wonderful work you all are doing.
Looking forward to be a part of the wonderful work you all are doing.

My first visit to USA

2009-11-16T08:47:00.000+05:30

USA….United States of America. Yes I am here. I never had a dream to come out of India. Actually I never thought that long. Being an average student in school and college I never think of a day like this. However the most important thing is I am here.
The journey started from Pune itself. From Pune I went to Mumbai Airport and then I took the Continental Express flight CO49. Once I entered into Mumbai International Airport, I was in a mixed feeling. A bit tensed, a bit scared, a bit happy, a bit sorrow, a bit excited too. Before taking the boarding pass, one guy from CO airlines asked me some general questions like who packed my bags, am I aware of all the things packed in the bag or not etc. After that my luggage got scanned and I was told that my bag is overweighed. I had to come out of the queue and had to shuffle certain things from one bag to another. But that was not sufficient. I had to do it again. Finally my luggage got checked in and I headed towards the emigration area. Emigration…. Huh!! Some more stupid questionnaires. They put stamp on my passport. Once done I went for security check in. Then once I reach the gate from where I boarded the flight, had one more round of security checking. This time they even asked me to put my shoes also in the scanner. Anyways after all these things finally I boarded the flight to Newark. It took off after almost an hour delay due to the maintenance work going on in the Mumbai Airport. Once I get into the flight, I found it’s so different than domestic flights. Here they have three columns of seats of three instead of two. One monitor is also attached at the back of every seat. Once I explored that, I found they have stored movies of different genitures, games, popular tv shows. And if you don’t like either of them then you can see the flight map. Flight map is nothing but a set of information about the flight. The altitude it is flying. Outside temperature, the miles travelled, the miles to travel, time to reach the destination, time in the destination and time in the original departing city, ground speed etc. the most important thing it has shown is the graphical rather satellite view of the entire view of the path the flight is following.
In the flight they served food three times with drinks as well. The food was entirely fitting US food habit, but I managed. Because either I don’t like any rich food.
Before the landing they provided two forms. One for customs and one for emigration. Once the flight landed I headed towards the emigration. They asked me some questions about my profile here, took finger print, took retina image and finally stamped my passport that I am arrived here.
After that I collected my luggage and for that I had to borrow a trolley for $5. This was not checking those out but just the verification of my luggage. After identification I went to customs and don’t know why they asked me to step away and go through one more round of checking of luggage. This time manual checking. After all the processes I re submitted luggage I had to go to Terminal A from Terminal C. Terminal A is domestic one. I had to take the flight to Minneapolis. To go to terminal A I had to take the Air train. Now what is this air train?? This is nothing but a small train made of glass and runs between the terminals. Once the train got out of the terminal I had my first view of USA. It was raining, just a drizzle. Most interestingly it doesn’t appear to be as a foreign land. I don’t know why the looks of the airport and surroundings were very similar to Mumbai and Kolkata.
After reaching terminal A I headed to Gate 20A security check in. the format of the checking is same. One interesting thing happened there is with my t shirt. I didn’t ever notice what exactly was written in it but the security person asked me the same and gave me a strange look. I was bit scared by that time. I thought might be something is written wrong about their country or culture. Then he asked me if I am a musician or not. I said yes I play table and described what the Tabla is. He just smiled.
After all these things it was a long 3 hours of waiting for next flight CO 2370. This flight is a small one. 30 seater only. I never boarded small flight like this. Anyway it took another two and half hour to reach Minneapolis airport. I came downstairs and collected my luggage and started looking for Ashok, my onsite PM who said that he will be coming to receive me from airport. I gave him a call and he said he will be there in next 15 min. I waited for him outside the airport and he took me to the apartment where I am going to stay for next 15-20 days.
Now how is St. Paul city. Well it’s a small town here and not exactly what we think about USA which is shown in movies. It’s calm and quiet. On a first glance I was disappointed but overall it’s a good experience. Let’s see what all are waiting for me.

Bhaifnota

2009-10-27T19:40:00.004+05:30

Bhai er kopal e dilam fnota
Jom duaare porlo knata
Jomuna dai Jom ke fnota
Aami dilam aamar bhai ke fnota

4 lines of blessings come directly from heart of all the lucky sisters for their brothers….Every sister prays to god for her brother’s healthy life. Well, a sister’s good wishes are always there with every brother in the world and a wish never needs a special day but still some days are there completely different from others. Bhaifnota is a day of brothers and sisters. On this very day brothers visit their sister’s place where sisters welcome them with their favourite dishes, sweets and many other things. Sister put Chandan Tilak on to brother’s forehead as a mark of her wishes. The whole ceremony signifies the duty of a brother to protect his sister as well as a sister’s blessings for her brother. This occasion is known as Bhaifnota in Bengal, however in other parts of India it is named in different manner as well. Bhai Dooj, Bhai Bij, Bhau Beej are just only some other names of the same.

This whole occasion has its own Mythological background. It is said that when Lord Krishna visted her sister Shubhadra’s place after slaying Narashur, Shubhadra welcomes Krishna with a Tilak and with some sweets and flowers. Since then the trend is going on.
From my childhood I saw a huge gathering in my house on the occasion of Bhaifnota. Usually we used to celebrate it together. It happened to be started with my Grandmother and her brother and used to end with my sister’s son and his sister. That means we celebrate this with four complete generations. My dad’s cousin brothers and sisters, my cousin brothers and sisters, my mom’s brother used to join us. So for us it happened to be the most memorable day of life.

But in today’s world life is so fast and dynamic you hardly get time for your own. From the day me and my brothers and sisters started their proffessional life, we were not able to gather in that particular day to celebrate. But this year the story was different. Me and my sister planned that at any cost we are gonna celebrate this with everybody there and we did it. After 4-5 years we all gathered on 19th of October 2009 for Bhaifnota and celebrated the occasion together. I was so happy to spend that day with all. So am ending this with a resolution that next year again we will rock the floor on the occasion of Bhaifnota.

Durga Puja Kolkata 2009

2009-10-09T22:51:00.020+05:30

What is sports!!!!

2009-09-12T00:26:00.000+05:30

A fresh controversy has just started over F1 future of India. Our honourable Sports minister Mr. Gill has said that Indian Government is not going to spend anything on Formula1 racing from its sports quota because it’s not a sport. It’s just an expensive entertainment of rich people. The agenda has come in front when Indian Govt was asked to pay the registration fee to host 2011 Grand Prix in Noida. After Force India’s Podium finish in Belgium grand prix people of India has started showing interest in F1 racing. And offcourse Vijay Mallya is there, so for media enough resources are present in this topic. Now the question is not about F1 or sports quota or any thing else. Question is what is the definition of sports? Who is going to decide this?
As per Oxford Dictionary the meaning of sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others”. In this entire sentence I feel the most important word is “competes”, because physical exertion or skill may lead to a different meaning. Think of a bloody street fight or gang war; skills are there, physical exertion is also there but can it be called a sport? No because it is not a competition from any angle (I guess!!). Let’s take one more example. In my childhood I was fan of WWF (World Wrestling Federation). I had a feeling that those guys were fighting in real. It never appeared to be well executed pre planned stunts to me. In the year 2002 WWF becomes WWE as wrestlers admit defeat so it cannot be a sport resulting the replacement of Federation word with Entertainment.
Now let’s talk about the greatest sports event of the Earth, the Olympic. First Olympic game was recorded in 776 BC; that was about 3,000 years ago. At that time this great festival took place to honour the Greek gods. Olympics were held during the great festival. Olympics were held to please one god, in particular, Zeus. That means Entertainment is also a term associated with sports. In the first 13 Olympics there was only one event, Sprint. After that they added Pentathlon, Discus, Javelin, Jumping, Wrestling, Equestrian, Chariot racing. And now there are lot more events. All of these events satisfy the formal definition of sport, though I don’t consider some of them as sport. For me sports are those events in what we love to take part (playing or watching) and that too not being a professional sports person. I don’t think anyone would ever go to his/her backyard and start throwing Javelin to neighbour’s house or stealing dinner plates to practice discuss throwing. Did ever anyone ask you “Hey lets go to the park and play (?) Weight lifting”.
Play, this is the term closely associated with sports and I think the best to describe sports. Cricket, Football, Hockey, Tennis, Badminton, Tables Tennis and a lot more, all of these can be played. However Boxing, Wrestling or Equestrian, they are only some events which can be performed but cannot be played. I am not saying all of them are sports which can be played. In that case playing Cards can also be termed as Sport. No that is not the case; this concept of playing an event should also be considered along with all the other constraints in the definition. Otherwise, by definition by logic if you consider sailing/cycling as sports then F1 racing should also be considered as sports, though it is a combination of high technology, machinery and huge money.

Bhandardara

2009-08-25T00:58:00.003+05:30

Wow, Life is so happening. Yesterday I went to Purandar fort and the details I have already shared. Today, 2nd August I went to Bhandardara, a place on Nasik highway around 160 km from Shivajinagar, Pune. As always my team has got changed again, this time again with a new team. We booked a 16 seater tempo traveler. We knew that a lot to travel so started our journey as early as possible. We had our breakfast in the bus again to save time. In between we stopped only once to get the breakfast packed. In the bus as usual we were shouting, singing, dancing and jumping in joy. Now I had so much of small trips these things are quite regular for me.
Bhandardara is a place where one can have everything, trekking, huge waterfall, dam, boating, fort and temple. We knew that covering all the places will not be possible, so we were selective. First we went to Umbrella Water fall. On the way we saw Wilson Dam also. We did not get down from the bus. The Umbrella waterfalls is nothing but a huge round shaped rock and when water comes down from that rock, it takes the shape of umbrella. Unfortunately the day we went there it was not raining at all and for the last entire week there was no such rain. So not much water was there in the dam, as a result the huge rock disappointed us. That area was restricted also, so we were not able to get inside. The guards were saying we should have issued gate pass from Nasik/ Aurangabad/ Akole/ Rajur. We did not know this fact so without gate pass we were unable to see the Dam from close. It was appearing to be interesting for me. After that we took our lunch break in MTDC restaurant. The cost of food was not too much. In Rs 75 they were serving Veg Thali. From there we had a boat riding in the Arthur Lake. It charged Rs 30 per head. Once we returned from the dam, was bit confused where to go. Near to Bhnadardara there is peak Kalsubai which is the hieghest peak of Sahyadri. We planned to go there, but once we reach at the bottom of it, realized we won’t make it in a small trip like this. So we came back from there. Then we headed towards Randha Waterfalls which is around 11 km from the Bhndardara. This water fall was really gorgeous. It’s big in size and full of water. So we spent a lot of time there. Clicked snaps. This was the last point we visited there. After that we started journey back to Pune. We missed the Ratnagadh fort which is by road 22km away from Bhnadardara. So anybody is willing to go there please plan to have enough time on your hand to cover all the things. And one more suggestion at the end, do not go there if there is not enough rain. Otherwise you are gonna find most of the places so boring. This trip was not at all successful. There are few reasons behind, but let’s not discuss that. I know in coming days some more lively trips are waiting for me.

Purandar Fort Trekking on 1st August

2009-08-25T00:02:00.011+05:30

My venture continued…. I planned not to waste a single weekend in this monsoon and to cop up with that plan 1st of August I went to Purandar fort, this time with a huge team from my office. Actually this trip was planned by the office HR team. I just nominated my name there.
Purandar fort figures repeatedly in the rising of Shivaji against the Bijapur kingdom and the Mughals. Purandhar fort stands 4,472 ft. above the sea in the Western Ghats, 20 miles southeast of Pune. It actually consists of two forts - Purandar and Vajragad (or Rudramal). The latter is the smaller of the two and is on the eastern side of the main fort. The village Purandar takes its name from this fort.
We started our journey from office at around 7:30 after a handsome delay of 1 hr. we were 40 in count, had our breakfast in the bus itself and after a 1.5 hrs journey we reached the bottom of the fort. There was a formal road also to go up, but we planned to trek all the way to the top. So without wasting our time we started the trekking. Now what is trekking? If you say climbing up through the rocky surface of a hill is trekking then yes we were trekking. We had this kinda trek before also, however this one was different from all of them. This is because normally we were following the path which was marked by the footsteps of others who came here before, but some times we were encountering position where nothing can be decided where to go and how will we climb up. So we were making our own path. It was a real fun. Climbing up with the help of thorny bush and the muddy-slippery rocks made our lives tough, though we enjoyed because that is what we wanted to taste. We formed human chain to climb up helping each other. That day it was not heavily raining, so did not get enough natural water falls. The more high altitude we were reaching the more cloud covering we were getting. When we were about to reach Bini Darwaza, got a tiny water fall. Better late than never, we jumped into it and started enjoying the chilled water coming down from the hill top. It was so refreshing; we overcame all the fatigue we had to reach till here.
Our next venture was Bini Darwaza. This is one of the rarest things in Purandar fort which is still in good shape. Near to Bini Darwaza there was one statue of Murarbaji Deshpande, we clicked a lot of photographs there also. After that again we started trekking for the next destination, which was Delhi Darwaja. We climbed up there in very quick time then took a long break. There we sang songs, thanks to Sidhharth, Rahul and DD. Sidhharth was carrying his guitar and DD his bongo.
From Delhi Darwaja we started for our final destination, Kedhareshvar Temple, which is at the top of the fort. This final part of the trekking I found the most interesting. The weather also was awesome. The rain and cloud was playing hide and seek at its leisure. Walking down the jungle roads covered with fog and the only sound that one could hear was our footsteps…. Oh this was the experience of our lives. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like blankets in the wintry afternoon. The temple was not so gorgeous with its architectural prospect but the surroundings made that temple so special. When the cloud was full on, nothing was visible around and it was like we were sitting in the heaven.
We were so amazed with the scenic beauty did not even notice how time went past. No one was bothered about lunch or anything else of the materialistic world. We were hungry and the only thing we had was biscuits. But no one was having any complain on that. Everyone was busy in posing in front of camera with their innovative ideas.
Finally we started our journey back to the bus. This time we decided to take an easier route however ended up following some weirder narrow path. A healthy competition was going on for finding the shortest path to get down. The more we got closer to the bus the more people started feeling hungry and thirsty. Eventually it became the motivation factor to get down quickly. Once we all reach safely, took a long tea break. While returning back we had our lunch in a road side dhaba on Pune-Bangalore Highway. As soon as the break got over, we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.
At the end some important information for all the trek lovers and whoever wants to go there.
The place is very near to Pune, so if you want to go for a trek please start your journey as early as possible. Do not expect much to see in the fort, you won’t find any actually. There is no hotel/restaurant/tea stalls at the top of the fort and anywhere near to that. There is only one tea stall at the bottom of the hill. So be prepared with sufficient water/dry snacks/fast aids. One more important thing is, the rocks there is very loose so be careful while trekking. Do not get over excited. Your safety is in your hand.
What else????? Happy Trekking
P.S. During this trip only we planned tomorrow also. Tomorrow we are going to Bhandardata. So have to take rest. Till then Good Bye.

Michael Schumacher is returning!!!

2009-07-31T09:17:00.001+05:30

Are you interested in Formula 1 Racing? Well if you asked me this question a year back my answer would be no. But I started liking this form of racing as well. For me Formula 1 and Michael Schumacher both were same before I have grown my interest in it. I think most of us know this F1 driver irrespective of their interest on F1 Racing.
Michael Schumacher started his F1 racing career in 1991 and in 2006 he put his racing helmet down. People say he had taken Ferrari team to a different level, way ahead of the others, which includes McLaren also. Nobody ever questioned his driving ability. After his retirement, world has seen many more superstars in the circuit who continued the wining stream of Ferrari and McLaren. Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, and Fernando Alonso they all appeared to be great drivers before the start of 2009 F1 season.
This year one major rule has got changed regarding the standardization of engine of the cars. I am not very familiar with these details but bottom line is, this season onwards all the cars will be equipped equally. So there won’t be much difference between a Ferrari Car and a Brawn-Mercedes car. This brought a lot many things in front of the viewer and race lover. The limitations of those renowned drivers got exposed. We are at the end of race 10 this year. Last year’s champion Hamilton is on 8th position with 19 points where as Massa, Raikonen and Alonso are positioned on 7th, 9th and 11th position respectively. Leading driver is Button with 70 points. Even in constructor table McLaren or Ferrari are nowhere near to Brawn-Mercedes team. Even Toyota team performed better than them. Ferrari and McLaren has sensed the tough time at the start of the season. They had threatened to pull out their names also. With all this data how do I believe that Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso they are the best drivers of the world. They win only because of using better cars. Once that advantage is taken back, their pride has just got ripped off.
Now in these circumstances Michael Schumacher, the 7th time world champion is reentering to the circuit to replace Massa in the Ferrari team, as Massa got injured during Hungarian Grand Prix. All the fans are very excited to see the return of King of F1 Racing. Everyone believes Schumacher is above all the artifacts. He used to win the races not with the help of car; he used to win because he is the best in business. However Critics have different views on it. They don’t think Schumacher can prove himself above all these. With a car similar to other cars, he cannot win a race any more. Even I feel this. If Schumacher can prove us wrong, no one will be happier than me. But if he fails to win, then he might lose all the pride he gained in his 15 years career. Best of Luck Michael.

Bushi Dam, Zenith Waterfalls and Kund Mala trip

2009-07-29T22:51:00.006+05:30

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

We did it. We discovered ocean of merriment, ocean of exuberance when we shown enough courage to lose the chance of taking rest in a lazy Saturday as usual. You got it right; once again I went for a trip this weekend. Monsoon season never let me down at least in this part of India. Every time it appears in front of me with its huge treasure of natural beauty.

This time we went to Bushi Dam, Zenith Water Fall & Kund Mala. Bushi Dam is a very common place in Lonavala, so huge crowd was expected. Just to avoid the crowd our plan was to reach there early. Executing the same plan I got the first pick up sharp at 5 in the morning. Maloy was with me. From my place we went to pick up didi from Bund Garden. After that we took Abhishekh from Aundh and all the others from Nigdi. With everyone’s successful contribution (being on time) finally we departed from Nigdi at around 7:45 am. Let me first tell you about the members of the group. Most of the people are from my Didi’s office. Out of them Abhishekh, Ruchi, Seema, Anmol, Anirban; I met them before also during trip and other activity. This time I got few new friends in form of Karthik, Gaurav, Chiru, Piyusha, Reshmi and Himadri. In the bus I was as usual sitting on the last seat with a complete view of the entire team. I remember the first thing we discussed is the language barrier. We started in Hindi but ended in an embarrassing position realizing that Karthik does not know hindi at all and Even Chiru is also not comfortable. We are five Bengalis in this bus, so some Bengali chit chat was also going on here and there; all of a sudden Maloy shown his skill in Tamil being a Bengali and started talking with Karthik. Everyone was confused which language can bridge us. Ultimately we decided to help Karthik and interpret everything in English. The main reason behind this is we were about to start Antakshari, which cannot continue in English.

We had our breakfast in the bus itself, bread-butter and jam. Then we started singing. The theme was decided “Vehicle”. Everyone contributed with their knowledge and signing skill. Me, Abhishek and Anmol we even danced. Mhmmmmm lets be fair, most of us danced in the bus. Don’t know how time went past and we reached to Bushi Dam. Reaching there it was just matter of time when we all got wet in spite of having umbrella, wind cheater and every pre cautions of not getting wet. I don’t know why we carried so many things when we all knew this trip is all about to enjoy the monsoon, rain, and waterfall. When we reached at the Dam, there were not many people around. We started clicking snaps in wildest of pose. In the Dam there were steps for free flow of excess water; Anmol started climbing the steps fighting against the water stream coming down. Everyone followed the leader. Didi took the safer route to climb up. I wanted to climb up through the water, however for the camera’s safety, had to take the dry steps. Most unfortunate thing is I could not save the camera also after this. Its display got damaged because of water.

After enjoying the Bushi Dam, we started conquering the water fall which is filling the dam. We spent there more than an hour. We climbed up the rocks. It was bit risky, still we did it. I was not in very good mood that time because of my camera. But how could I have my off bit mood with so much fun around. Soon I forgot all about my camera. Once we finished our exploration in that water fall we came back to the tempo traveler.

We had our lunch in Kamat hotel. I don’t want to talk anything about the food. Just one suggestion to everyone, DON’T GO TO THAT HOTEL EVER.
Our next venture was Zenith Water Fall. This is not a very famous place in Lonavala. This is actually in Khopoli Village near a company named Zenith. We had to do a lot of R&D to reach there. Once we reach there, got down from the bus and almost walked 1 km to reach at the bottom of water fall. Ohhhh….. My………. God. What a view it was. I can’t explain how gorgeous the waterfall was. Till date all the water falls I have seen here, in most of them water shutter down on rocks. But here a little pond is created at the bottom with a depth of 3-4 feet. This is what made it different from other waterfalls. Since this place is not so famous, there was not a huge rush, which made the atmosphere more soothing. We have shown all our jumping, diving, swimming skill there. Unfortunately almost everyone was in water so not much snaps we could take with the camera, but permanent snaps have been taken into the memory, no doubt in that.

Our next target was Kund Mala. In between we changed our wet cloths in a road side hotel and a good tea break. When we reached Kund Mala, the sun was ready to end his shift for the day, so we were running out of time. Lot many plans are already made to be executed. Kund Mala is basically a series of pond as I read on the internet. Kund means pond and Mala means chain. I drew a picture of the place based on this information; however in reality I hardly identified any series of Ponds. But the place was cool and that is what it matters most for me. We spent almost an hour on the rocky bank of the so called pond/river. As per plan we prepared bhel and had it. Along with that we had lot more photography also as usual.
As soon as the sun disappeared with its last ray for the day we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.

At the end, a special thanks to didi and Abhishek to arrange the trip and including me. A special thanks to all the other members to make the trip so memorable. We are from different part of India, talk different language but it’s our culture which teaches us to stay together, enjoy together and that is what creates the bond.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

Definitely this is not the end of the season. A long monsoon is waiting for us; I am not going to miss a single weekend. So… next plan is on its way.

P.S.: My camera has started working when it dried up. So next time more photographs I can click.

7th May 1991 - just looking back

2009-06-28T15:34:00.003+05:30

5:00 AM: Wow…. Time to rock. I just woke up so early in this morning still not feeling bad about it. You will be surprised knowing that today I woke up myself, neither my alarm clock screamed nor my mom shouted on me. I am really really excited today. A few days back my summer vacation has started and today we all are going to our native place. It’s a small village in Burdawan district of West Bengal. I never stayed there for long, but I always like to visit the place. It’s full of life, green and fresh air. No one will stop me there. It’s complete freedom. Well I cannot wait anymore. Let me get ready quickly.

6:00 AM: I did not expect streets to be crowded so early in the morning. I hope we will reach to the station in time. Now we are in Taxi and going to Howrah Station to catch the train. I know the name of it, it’s Azimgunge Passneger. We always take this train to go there.

6:45 AM: Train has started his journey right on time. I occupied one window seat and sitting in front of my elder sister. Dad as usual has taken a few news papers and once he will be done with reading it he will start solving the puzzles in it. That is how he spends his time in train. My mom and granny both are busy chatting with each other. I don’t understand how they find so many things to discuss. Anyway I observed that it’s only me and my sister who are enjoying the scenic beauty outside.

8:30 AM: Mom has prepared Luchi and Alurdom in the morning and brought it packed for breakfast. It’s my favorite, but today I am enjoying whatever the railway hawkers are bringing for me. I tasted Chirebhaja, Badam, Rosogolla, Kanchagolla, Khirkadam, Jhuri bhaja, Cucumber and a lot many things. Now I am full. Dad is saying we will be crossing a river very soon, so I am very excited to see that.

12:00 PM: oh god…… I slept. I don’t know how. I just remember a guy dresses in saffron gown was singing a folk. Mom said he is a Baul singer, singing for money. It was really melodious and I fell asleep. Right now we are standing in a junction stations named Katwa. This is the last big station we have in our journey. After this we will cross a river called Ajay and then will reach to Shiblun station. Basically that is a pretty small station with no platform. Train stops there hardly for 10 seconds. So it will be tough to get down with so many luggages. I just had a walk with my dad; we went to see the change in engine. Till now we were pulled by one diesel engine. Now they are changing it to Coal engine. I don’t know why, but that is why it is taking time. Dad said that he has talked with the guard and got an assurance that he will make a long stop in out station just to make sure we all can get down easily. That sounds cool. Meanwhile let me give you a brief of my village. Well there is no electricity, there is no telephone connection. The roads are not metalled. There are only two houses in the entire village made of bricks. There is only one mode of transpiration there, bullock carts. No bus service, no taxi neither Cycle Rickshaw. A month ago dad has sent one letter there by post, saying on which date we are coming and by which train. They will send a bullock cart to the station. If the letter gets misplaced, we have to walk with the entire luggage.

12:30 PM: At last we reached to Shiblun station and safely got down from the train. I could not stop myself and ran to the cart. Yes it has come to receive us. (That means they got the letter in time). It named as Bullock cart however I can find only two buffalo to pull it, doesn’t matter to me.

1:30 PM: We just reached to my uncle’s place here. It was a long 1 hr journey again in the cart. I took one more small nap in between. The boring canch-konch sounds which were coming from its wheels just helped me in that. I just saw two people is doing fishing in the pond in front of the house. That means I can expect a big Muroh (head of the fish) on my lunch plate. Wow….. My one week’s summer vacation is going to start in a good way. I know a lot more is waiting for me.

Pirates of the Somalia - Live experiance

2009-06-11T17:47:00.004+05:30

Today I will be sharing one thrilling story. You must be heard about the Somalian pirates these days. They are all over in the Gulf of Aden area, targeting the cargo ship. They are just coming in speed boats with Bazooka and get into the cargo ship by threatening to blow them up with Bazooka. After that sometimes they are just going away after robbing the ship, sometimes they are taking the sailors as hostage and claiming for Ransom. My next story is related to this only. My brother is a marine engineer and he is now sailing in a cargo ship. He often communicates with me through email. Quite a few times I got email from him stating that they were crossing the dangerous Gulf of Aden area. That’s part of their job so they can’t even oppose. The only good thing is they are getting paid an amount by the company. Anyway, from the day Navy ships from different countries are patrolling the pirate prone zone, the pirates are pushed back. Still the threat is always there. This is what I realized when I got the last email from my brother 3 days back. It was written in Bengali, I am just quoting him here in English.

Dear Raja,
Today’s news update from my ship ------------------------
Today we crossed Gulf of Eden and just entered Red Sea. Since a few days back one attack took place here on a chemical ship, anti-piracy drill is going on here. It was decided that a Japanese Frigette will escort us to the next port. So we reduced our ship’s speed to 12 knot just to maintain the same speed as the convoy. There was two Frigette, one is leading the way then second was just behind us. One helicopter was also in the entire convoy. But after that all of a sudden we got a news that we got cargo in another Italian port (Savona), so to get that cargo we have to reach there early. So we increase speed and left the convoy. Now we are running in full speed (20 Knot). Today morning at 4-00 AM a tanker was attacked which is just ahead of us (15 min from our position), How do I know this? My Captain heard their message when they were trying to contact the coalition force in radio. Still we don’t know the end result. As we have not heard anything else, guess that they are safe. After that at around 8-00 AM an alarm is raised that there are two suspicious boats in the left side of port. But we kept Vigil, and there was no incident. Still we are not completely safe. I think some more anxious moments are still waiting for us. This time we are really really scared. Hope everything will be fine.
Cya

For me it was tough time until unless I got his next email that he is safe.

A letter to Andy Bichel

2009-05-13T16:59:00.006+05:30

Dear Mr. Andy Bichel,

I don’t know if you really have made any comment on Ajit Agarkar like “you Indian, you do as you are told”. Even if you made such comment, there is nothing to be surprised. The day I started watching cricket I can hardly recall any GENTLEMAN’s name, who has played for Australia. Yes I know Steve Waugh is there, Mark Taylor as well. But the list of unsporting, arrogant, impolite players is so long, those good names are hiding their faces. Whom should I put first? Glen McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Greg Chappel, Allan Border, Dean Jones, Andrew Symonds, Mathew Hayden, Michael Slater, Shane Warne, Shane Watson. It’s a never ending queue. But there is one more similarity between these players apart from their attitude and character. That is they all are undoubtedly among the best in the business. Yes I know, they are good players and that does not mean they can humiliate others, make harsh comments. Still they did so in past, examples are not important here. But If I talk about you then I must confess what did you achieve in your cricket career? You must have forgotten your career details. Let’s have a quick look on that. You started you career in 1996 and played till early 2004. That means eight long years you were in the international circuit. Australia usually plays 10-15 tests in a year. That means in this duration Australia has played at least 80 test matches. Among those 80 matches you played only 19 matches, rather I must say Australia allowed you to represent their cricket team only for those 19 matches. And yes you proved their decision right to keep you out of the team by only taking 58 wickets. You claimed yourself as all rounder in your own website, but you have managed only 355 runs in test cricket with average of 16.9 and highest score as 71. I don’t even think you are a good one day international player as you played only 67 matches taking 78 wickets only. Batting in One day? Even worse. You scored only a single half century there. I should not compare you with anyone, but for your information Ajit Agarkar has played 26 tests and 191 one day international with 58 and 288 wickets consecutively. Once he was scoring consecutive ducks in Australia you guys made a mockery out of him, but he has a test century. He is the quickest 50 and 100 wicket taker in one day international. His one day international highest score is 95 and has 2 more half centuries. He also has more 5 wicket haul than you. He is not among the best bowlers/players India has ever produced, but your performance is not even comparable with him. More illustration about your quality-level is not required here; people around you are not dumb. You claim yourself as a bowling coach, I didn’t find any coaching recognition of you in your website, do you really have any? No need to defend yourself on the ground why you are selected as KKR’s bowling coach. You are from Queensland; the same place where John Buchanan is from, even a little kid can relate these two things. You are making money from India, BCCI, Indian Cricket so at least be loyal with it, with your job. Time will say if you made any racial comment or not, but if not then don’t dare to do that. Once you get time stand in front of a mirror and ask the person in the mirror “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” If you get a quick answer then it will be good for you, else keep asking that. The thing is you will get enough time to do this practice; the day is not far when you and your joker band party will be kicked out of the IPL2 circuit. Start praying……………

A very common Indian Cricket Fan

A trip to Raigarh Fort - Conquering the Unconquered

2009-05-05T17:52:00.004+05:30

1st May was a holiday here and that was a Friday. So we got a long weekend. However we were not able to plan for a trip. We could easily go to any place far from here. But we missed the chance to capitalize on that. On the Friday afternoon we came out of a plan of having a short trip, a short one day trip. In this midsummer one should always be selective about the place, where to go. Last weekend we went to waterpark so this time we kept that idea aside. We planned for going to any fort. There were lot many names came to our thought but finally we decided to go to Raigarh fort. It is around 150 KM from Pune. On a hill top the fort is situated and to reach there we don’t need to trek, a ropeway service is there. There is an alternate route also to reach the hill top. It is by stairs. Just 1475 steps. Isn’t it interesting? Even we felt that. All these information we got before going to that place.
We started our journey at around 5:30 in the morning (actually we planned for 5). We took a white Indica, we means Manish, Maloy, Arindam and Myself. We took sufficient drinking water with us, just to avoid any dependency. The blunder we did is relying on the driver about the route. That guy did not know where exactly Raigarh is. He just drove to another trekking point Rajgarh. This mistake caused us more than an hour. After rectifying our mistake, we went to Bhor, and yes we got ourselves back onto the track. We had a small breakfast at Bhor and took some chips, biscuits from there itself. Then finally we started towards Raigarh. It was 100 KM more to go as per the localities. After two more hours our morale really got down as there was no sign of any fort. For that moment we were really confused, if there is anything waiting for us at all.
Finally we reached there at 10 o clock. We parked the car and rushed to the ropeway ticket counter. I had a small desire to go at the top by stairs, basically for this reason I made the plan to start early, but unfortunately we reached there late and no one of us was ready to take the risk of using the steps in that scorching heat. We bought the ropeway ticket and put ourselves in the queue. The ropeway didn’t look great to me. There were only four cable cars, two joined together. When our turn came we got into one of it and it took hardly 5-6 minutes to take us at the hill top. One thing I must say, from any angle the fort was not at all visible from the foot of the hill. I don’t know if it is intentionally made in this manner for security reason or not. Anyway when we reached at the top, our photo shoot started. Maloy and Manish was giving all sorts of poses, and even Arindam and I started that. We took a small boy with us as a guide, not to know all the historical values of the place, I thought being a local boy he could take us to the good places in the fort.
The Maratha king Shivaji made the fort his capital in 1674 when he was crowned King of a Maratha Kingdom. The total area of the port was big, we did not miss any single place. The “Pillkhana”, “Bazar Area”, “Nagarkhana Darwaja”, “Durbar”, “Palkhi Darwaja”, “Maha Darwaja” etc. At around 1:30 we felt very hungry and started our journey back to the Ropeway area. On the hilltop there are some cotteages also from MTDC where you can stay back. Surely it will be a thrilling experiacne staying there and having a night walk into the fort. Not this time, may be next time we can plan that. There they have one canteen also run by the Ropeway authority. But to have lunch there one must give the order before, and then only they will be able to get food. As we were not knowing that and did not give any order, the canteen boy told us that it will take some time to prepare the food. Then we decided to get down and find some other restaurant. Ticket was already with us, so it was just matter of some 10 minutes to come down.
After coming down we entered into a restaurant and had our lunch. Veg food was served, but it was really tasty and we were hungry too. We wrapped up all the stuffs within 2:45 and started our journey back to Pune at 3:00. This time no wrong route no unplanned move. It took just 3.5 hours to take us back to home sweet home. Though the weather was not best for travelling and we enjoyed the day a lot.

Here are some important information for you all about the Fort:
How to go: It is 160 Km from Pune. Through Bangalore Highway go to Bhor and from there go straight, you will get NH17. Take a right turn go 3 km more. You will reach Mahad. From Mahar you will be able to see on the right side one Big gate welcoming you to Raigarh. Take the right turn. Its 23 Km more to reach at the foot of the Raigarh fort.
Entry fee: If you go by ropeway it will charge you 150 for up-down. And to enter into the fort there is one more entry fee of Rs 5. I don’t think if there is any trekking route or not, but there are 1475 steps using which you can reach to the fort.
Food: On the hilltop there is one hotel run by the Ropeway authority. And there are some more restaurants at the bottom of the hill too. We did not looked for non veg food, so not sure if non veg food is at all available there or not.
Hotel: At the hill top there is MTDC gust house. The charge is 900 per day for a double bed room.

Selfless Love !!!

2009-04-30T19:24:00.002+05:30

Note: I got this story through an email, I liked it and that is why I am sharing it here.

My wife called, 'How long will you be with that newspaper? Will you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food?

I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter, Sindu, looked frightened; tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with curd rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age.

I cleared my throat and picked up the bowl. 'Sindu, darling, why don't you take a few mouthful of this curd rice? Just for Dad's sake, dear'.

Sindu softened a bit and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. 'Ok, Dad. I will eat - not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should...' Sindu hesitated. 'Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?'

'Promise'. I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal. Now I became a bit anxious. 'Sindu, dear, you shouldn't insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. Ok?'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive'. Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity. I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child to eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her. 'Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!' was her demand.

'Atrocious!' shouted my wife, 'A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!'

'Never in our family!' My mother rasped. 'She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!'

'Sindu, darling, why don't you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.'

'Please,Sindu , why don't you try to understand our feelings?' I tried to plead with her.

'Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice'. Sindu was in tears. 'And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for. Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral that we should honor our promises no matter what?'

It was time for me to call the shots. 'Our promise must be kept.'

'Are you out of your mind?' chorused my mother and wife.

'No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honour her own. Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.'

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairlessSindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, 'Sinduja, please wait for me!' What struck me was the hairless head of that boy. 'May be, that is the in-stuff', I thought.

'Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!' Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued, 'that boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish. He is suffering from... leukemia'. She paused to muffle her sobs. 'Harish could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates. Sinduja visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue. But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son!

Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.'

I stood transfixed and then, I wept. 'My little Angel, you are teaching me how selfless real love is!'

The happiest people on this planet are not those who live on their own terms but are those who change their terms for the ones whom they love !!

Krushnai Water World - on a sunday afternoon

2009-04-27T19:13:00.001+05:30

Last Saturday i.e. 25th of April night we decided that next day morning we will go to any water park. In this scorching heat of the summer, that can be the only place for hangout. We had only 2 options in our hand. Krushnai Water World and Diamond water park. Because I have only heard about these two water parks in Pune. We decided to go to the Krushnai Water World. In the Sunday morning I searched the phone number of the water park and called them to know about the tariff and other details. We started our journey at around 11:20 in the morning. Me and Sourav on his bike, Avikda and Arindam on Avikda’s bike, and Manish and Anuj on Manish’s bike. We were told that it is around 18-20 km from Pune station. We knew that it is on the sinhagad road and did not find any difficulties to find it out. It is exactly 21.5 Km from Shivaji Nagar Area. Location wise it is near Donge Village after crossing the kharakvasla dam. When we reached there we saw a pretty big queue in the ticket counter. It was 12:30 already. We took our tickets along with the lunch coupons, rented some costumes and locker. Then it was just a matter of time when we got down into water. First we went to the wave pool. On that time it was not wave pool, because through the day they don’t run the Jacuzzi. They have some fixed time to run it. When they started the Jacuzzi with loud music the wave pool was fully crowded. All of them were enjoying but I did not find it much encouraging. May be I had the previous sea-experience in my mind. One should not expect he/she will have same experience. We enjoyed various ride also. It was real fun. For me it was my first experience of any water park. However I found the water park is not that big and not well maintained. The stuffs there are not so trend and a bit careless. They have rain dance facility also but I did not find it interesting at all. Only thing I must say about the park is the Food. They serve Veg food there, but it was awesome. I really liked the food.
For all who want to go and enjoy Krushnai Water World, here are the details:
Krushnai Water World
Location: Near Donge Villege on sinhagad road
There are two slots. 10 am to 6 pm and 3 pm to 7 pm
Entry fee for slot1: Rs 275 for adults, Rs 200 for kids (height less than 3 feet) on Saturday-Sunday. Rs 200 for adults, Rs 150 for kids (height less than 3 feet) on weekdays.
Entry fee for slot2: Rs 200 for adults, Rs 150 for kids (height less than 3 feet) on Saturday-Sunday. Rs 150 for adults, Rs 100 for kids (height less than 3 feet) on weekdays.
Costume Fee: It’s around Rs 30-50 per item (depending upon what item are you taking). It requires Rs 50 as deposit for each item.
Locker: Rs 50 per locker with Rs 50 Deposit.
Lunch: Rs 75 per meal. Apart from that there are different food stalls inside the park.
Contact Number: 020 2438 8136/8137

MTV Roadies - Is it at all a competition??

2009-04-20T14:28:00.005+05:30

I was not a regular follower of MTV roadies, at least not for the first five editions. I saw only a few of the episodes and yes I liked it. Watching the contestants performing different tasks was a great experience, as all the tasks are used to be weird and which in our daily life we don’t do. So altogether it had a great impact on me and I was really excited about Roadies 6.0.

Once the audition started, I never missed a single episode. Raghu and Rajiv have made the lives of the participants miserable. It’s very surprising that on a national TV channel two hosts were using slangs and which made the participants too answering with bad words. I know that they were there to test the toughness of the contestants but is it the way to test the toughness? The show is to find a person who is a fighter and can survive in any circumstances. But for me it was like, they were looking for guys who can humiliate others. The more they can use slangs and spoil others, the more the TRP will go up. I have seen fear factor and I believe, that is a perfect show to find out a fighter, find out the strong and bold character. I like performing adventurous things in my life. So if I get a chance to enter into any kind of show where I can compete with others, I will be glad. But if the show is MTV Roadies then I must say I will not take part in it. I can’t imagine in my wildest ever dream also that in a TV channel I am shouting on someone using some bad words delicately selected from dictionary and my parents and other family members are sitting in the drawing room and watching that. When I see the behavior of the participants and their way of speaking, their gesture, I really get confused, doubts come on my mind that are they from good families with good culture? Nauman, Palak, Sufi, Sandeep, Pradeep, Bobby, Devarshi, Tamanna, Samrat everybody was on same page. Out of all the participants I found Kiri, Natasha, Roop, Poulami a bit decent. Even Sufi, I only saw him bursting out in the second last episode.

If you talk about the rules of the show then also I have to say that there is no such rules, they dynamically change the rule as per the need of show. They always set a double meaning environment. I remember the episode in which Devarshi got out. Raghu and Rajiv said that out of the two teams they need to decide a member who will be directly eliminated. Now Devarshi thought it was a trick to identify the captain in the team, so he nominated himself. At the end of the event Devarshi was thrown out of the show as he was selected, where as in the other hand Bobby got the immunity as she was not self nominated but selected by the team. If you say this is right and Raghu did exactly what he said before. He sticked to his words then I will ask you to recall the episode where WWE wrestler came into the picture. The immune participants Natasha, Samrat and Nauman were asked to fight with wrestlers to win the Karizma and if they lose the challenge they will lose the immunity also. To stay in the competition Nauman and Natasha decided to stay away from the challenge and secure their immunity. But all of a sudden rules got changed. End of that challenge Raghu said that if they were ready to fight and lost the fight also they won’t be losing the immunity. It was just said to check if they have guts or not. From this point there double meaning situation creation is pretty clear.

Again when they reached Australia, from nowhere some participants came back to the show with no proper reason and got their chance to win it again. Still MTV, Raghu, Ranvijay everybody will keep saying that they don’t do any plotting, it is a fair game. What do you think?

But after all of these, I still watch this show and this is one of my favorite shows. You guys now may think that after having so many disliking why the show is my favorite show. Am I also showing double standards? Actually it is not. I like the show because it is entertaining. I don’t start watching the show keeping in mind that the best performer will win. I watch it as it has drama, it has adventure, it has comedy. It is a complete package of entertainment not a competition.

Holi Celebration

2009-03-18T12:56:00.003+05:30

All the festivals in India are colorful but Holi is really special among them as it is not only a colorful festival, it’s a festival of colors. It has its own Mythological values on India’s rich culture but to be very honest it always surprises me with its spirit. In a Holi day, entire day you will hear “Holi hai bhai holi hai, burra na mano holi hai” and literally speaking no one does mind when you put “Gulal” on them, whether you know or don’t know the person. This really happens. This year I spent my Holi with a group of people whom I hardly knew before, but now when I look back, I must say 11th of March, 2009 I spent my one of the best Holi ever. This is the spirit of Holi. This is the day when people come together; make new friends and old friends refuel their friendship.

The day started very early for me rather for all of us. We planned to go Ananda Valley which is on Nasik Highway. The trip was organized by my elder sister and her office colleagues; I just joined them with two of my close friends. Almost the entire group was unknown to me but we came to know each other very soon. We started our holi in the bus itself. Everybody put Gulal on others and within minutes the bus turned into a color palette. The atmosphere in the bus was magical full of different fragrances of Gulal.

We took our breakfast in the bus and reached Ananda Valley with lot many expectations. On first look I was disappointed with the entire resort as I expected lot more greenery there. But the fact is all these resorts are best place to visit in monsoon time. So now in the spring time we cannot get any such scenic beauty.

In the resort they have lot many team building games. Those games were really good but I was eyeing on the start of playing Holi with water colors. In the games, we enjoyed a lot, we played cricket also. Unfortunately my team lost the match to the other team. After the cricket match I could not resist myself and put some colors on Sourav’s face. Then all of a sudden we all started playing with water and colors. This fun didn’t last long as group leader Abhishekh suggested to have the lunch first, so we stopped rather postponed our plan till lunch.

Lunch served there was really good, though personally I feel there is nothing good in eating veg food, but actually I enjoyed the real north Indian dishes there.

After lunch we went to the rain dance area and started playing with all sorts of colors and water. They switched on the showers and some music also. I thought rain dance would be a great fun, but the fact is the way they planned the whole thing was not at all encouraging. It was really boring. Still we make full use out of it.

After the rain dance we got ourselves freshen and yes we all were really tired. But when the event manager came and ask for trekking then we jumped up again and went for a new sort of adventure. The trekking part was also really good, going on to the hill top and taste the essence of nature in this manner was a fabulous experience. After watching the sunset from hilltop we came down and started our journey back to Pune.

While returning back Abhishekh was asking about the rating of the trip. I gave it 3 out of 5. Actually I wanted to rate it higher but the problem was “Thoda rang bach gaya tha” and you know in a Holi day “rang bachna!!!!!”

Just a good thought

2009-03-17T10:44:00.001+05:30

Let me share my one experience which touched me a lot. It happened long back. As I remember it was Durga Puja time of the year 2003 or 2004 and I was in Kolkata. We all went out together to see the pandals. In the afternoon we were in front of “Bose Pukur Shitala Mandir” puja committee. There was a long queue in front of the gate. Me and my cousin brother decided to stay away from this rush and did not feel any interest to get inside the pandal. We were just standing outside and waiting for the others to come out, suddenly I saw a Tata Sumo came and 8-10 kids came out of the car along with the driver. All of them were in between 8-12 years. They were not wearing gorgeous cloths as we all do during festival time. Their attire was very simple. It was pretty clear that they belong to some poor family and this realization surprised me the most. I was not able to understand how they could manage to hire a Tata Sumo to go for visiting pandals? I must say they were well disciplined, holding one others hands. Me and my brother, we were discussing, rather guessing what exactly is going on. I saw the driver is very careful about the kids, their gesture. He was scolding whenever anyone was going out of the queue but there was something special in that also which didn’t make the kids felt bad about it. When they came out of the pandals they were having sugar cane juice from a road side stall. I followed their expression and believe me I cannot explain that here. They were so happy in having the sugar cane juice. By the mean time I decided to have a talk with the driver about this. I was speechless after talking him. I am just sharing exactly what he said when I asked "Hey what’s going on, you are with so many kids!!! Are you from any NGO or anything like that?"

"No. This is my car and I work for a travel company. Actually I stay alone here and I don’t have any family with whom I can spend my festival days. So I decided to make my own family. All these children are from Jorabagan Slum area. Every year I take them to see Durga Puja. Yes I know I cannot afford much to buy good, branded new cloths for all of them. But I always try to buy some NEW cloths at least for them. You know that really make them feel good. I have my own economical limitations which do not allow me to go beyond this, but the fact is they don’t even expect more than this and they are happy so am I. For me Durga Puja does not mean praying in front of Idol, wearing gorgeous cloths, spending the whole night in a coffee shop. It is an event to make the people happy around you. It’s not only durga puja it’s true about any festival in India."

His thoughts really overwhelmed me and on that moment also I did not realize one more surprise was yet to come. When I asked that person his name he answered "Md Aslam". Hats off to my country and it’s culture.

ICC's "Alltime Test Player Rankings" - greatest joke of the century

2009-01-22T15:44:00.004+05:30

ICC proved its stupidity again by publishing the list of Greatest Player’s of the history of world cricket. Can anyone believe that Sachin Tendulkar comes in that list at 26th place!! It’s not only about Sachin few more Tendulkar there are controversial rankings. Let’s just check the list first.

In this list there are 15 players whom I did not see playing, so can’t comment only based on available statistics. But I can comment on Lara, Tendulkar at least. I don’t know from which angle Sangakkara and Mohammed Yusuf’s name come before Tendulkar and Lara. If ICC talks about Greatness then they should look into all the aspects, they cannot restirict themselves by saying “All the measurements have been done when players were at their peak form”. Shahid Afridi scored a century in 37 deliveries. Sachin, Lara, Jayasuriya no players could do that in peak of their form. Does that mean Afridi is greatest player in ODI? Actually there is no point in talking all these points. I just want to share an example just to prove how great Sachin really is. From that day I am watching cricket, I heard a lot many names who were compared with Sachin Tendulkar. Each time media doubted Tendulkar’s greatness by comparing his performance with the others. But they just came played some good cricket and retired. Tendulkar is still there and that is not for proving himself in front of the world but because of his capability. The list is a long one. Mark Waugh, Inzamam Ul Haq, Brian Lara, Saeed Anwar, Ricky Ponting, Jack Kallis, Mike Hussey. Isn’t it pretty clear that if one person’s performance is compared with so many big names then that is enough to prove his greatness? I think there is no doubt.

My Roof-Top Garden

2009-01-20T17:41:00.019+05:30

Giant Water Lilly

2009-01-19T17:58:00.004+05:30

The Great Banyan Tree

2009-01-17T17:28:00.015+05:30

Do you know Botanical Garden of Kolkata. If you ever visit this place don’t miss the The Great Banyan Tree. It draws more visitors to the garden than its collection of exotic plants from five continents. This tree is over 250 years old and in spread it is the largest known in India perhaps in Asia. There is no clear history of the tree as travel books of the nineteenth century. It was damaged by two great cyclones of 1864 and 1867. When some of its main branches were broken, exposing it to the attack of a hard fungus. With its large number of aerial roots which grow from the branches and run vertically to the ground and look like a forest than an individual tree. Interestingly enough, the tree now lives in perfect vigor without its main trunk, which decayed and had to be removed in 1925. The circumference of the original trunk at 1.7meter from the ground was 15.7 meter. The area occupied by the tree is about 14428.44 sq meters. The present crown of the tree has a circumference of 450 meter and the highest branch rises to 24.5 meter. It has at present 2880 aerial roots reaching down to the ground.
Note: All the data are last revised on 21st May 2005

Durga Puja Kolkata

2009-01-17T16:30:00.041+05:30

Dapoli Trip

2009-01-15T19:20:00.008+05:30

Wow!!!!! One more trip. This time I went to Dapoli with some of my team members. We were 10 altogether including me. Booked a 17 seater bus for the trip. First let me tell you where exactly Dapoli is. It is again in the Konakan Line. The Harne beach is really famous one. In Dapoli there in not only sea shore to enjoy, there are hills; there are jungles, temple, cave, and castle. You can have Para-sailing, dolphin show also. In a single word it’s a complete package.We started on 9th of Jan,2009 evening around 8PM. There are two routs, one is through

Mahabaleswar and the other one is through Tamini Ghat. We took the longer route, the first one, just for security reason. In the bus we sang together even we danced also. Siddharth was having his guitar with him, so it just added more flavor in it.We thought it might take 5 hrs to reach there but when we reached Mahabaleswar we were pretty sure we still need 3 more hours to reach there. That’s why we changed the plan and had our dinner in Mahabaleswar. We reached Dapoli at 4 am. Then we had an awesome Camp Fire. It was a good experience.We went to beach in the morning, and before lunch we covered some more places which were nearby. We clicked a hell lot of snaps also. In the hotel where we stayed, “Surali Sagar”, had our lunch. Chicken thali with Surmai fry. Food quality was not great but it was not too bad also. After lunch we went to seashore again and directly went into water. It was real fun. But actually we all were waiting for para-sailing. I did not do it before to be very honest and I was really very excited about it. The Para-Sailing team came with all the accessories at around 4:30 in the evening. Oh man!! What an experience I had. Literally I can’t explain it here. If you want to know how it feels just try it once. The only bad thing about this was the duration, which was really very short. I have some more fun while shooting other’s with my camera. The jeep they were using for para-sailing, I was just standing at the back seat and shooting. That ride was not bad eiher with compare to para-sailing.Anyway after all these stuffs we got freshed and started our journey back to pune at around 6:30 in the evening. Again in between we had our dinner in Mahabaleshwar. We reached Pune at 2’o clock in the night. It was an awesome trip altogether. There is one more plan to go to Dapoli again with my full project team again. Let’s see what next. I am really keen to go there again.
Here are some important information about hotels:
Hotel Surali Sagar:
Ph no:

Diveagar Trip....... Once again

2008-11-25T19:18:00.015+05:30

“Memory is a child walking along seashore. You never can tell what small pebble
it will pick up and store away among its treasured things.” ~Pierce Harriss

“The Pillar of memories is never eroded by the sands of time”. On an early Saturday morning, like a rainbow on the darkest night we planned for an untimely and surprised day out. Ideas flew from all of us; Names of places were flowing like monsoon rains and finally we unanimously decided on visiting Diveagar. It was a long awaited trip for us and we had been planning this trip for a long time now. Everything happened so fast that day, we are still wondering if we are the same bunch of guys who used to plan, plan and plan but ultimately used to scrap everything. We called up the travel agent for a car to start our adventurous trip to Diveagar. It normally takes around 4 hours to reach this beautiful place but we resorted to the longer route. We compromised on a long tiresome car ride but could not miss out on an opportunity to embrace the wondrous sight of sun rays playing in the laps of the Western Ghats. Nature on that day was at its best. Trees swayed in the cool air as if they were dancing and the greenery all along the road seemed to welcome us. After a long drive we decided to make our first stop at a hotel which at first sight did not look too encouraging but we had our options cut out. But to our surprise the food served there was beyond our wildest expectations. We pounced on the food and in no time we started back on our journey to Diveagar.
Diveagar seemed a lifetime away and after a long tiresome journey we finally reached the scenic pageant on the brink of nightfall. We decided to spend the night at Nazir’s Guest house and the location of this guest house added to our excitement as the beach was so near that we just needed to blink a couple of times and you would feel the cool sea waters kissing your feet. After such a long journey we could not resist the temptation of taking some cool beverages and rest, but leisure was not written in our destiny that day. We could not wait any longer and after securing our luggage in the room just rushed towards the beach. It was already getting dark and we were walking through the forest to reach the beach before nightfall. The experience was so thrilling that even as I write I can feel goose pimples on my body. The feeble evening light was hardly making its way through the thick forest canopy, we did not have any torches with us, the only hope that we had, was the roaring sound of the sea which sounded nearer and nearer. Finally the moment was here and we could see the curling waves in the dwindling light but our minds sailed long into the sea where our eyes could not set its sight upon. We did not want the day to end but we do not have the right to flirt with the laws of nature.
We returned back to the guest house and decided to have a musical evening. I think the sound of our voices and our thrills had faded the roaring sound of the sea. Before coming here to Diveagar we had heard a lot about the Konkan Delicacies. We just could not wait to taste them. We were served Surmai (A Sea Fish) Fry and Bhangra (A Sea Fish) Curry. It had been a longtime since we had tasted such delicious food. My words will never do justice to the taste of the dishes. So after stuffing ourselves with the cuisines we decided to sign off for the day.
Sunday, the day we had planned so many adventures for had finally arrived. We got up early in the morning to see the early sun rays riding the waves. We were spell bound to see the early sea waves washing the shore as if to wipe off the sea shore to make way for a new story to be written on a new day.
We captured some of these moments in camera. Arka and Sourav couldn’t trouble themselves to miss the sweet morning sleep as we tucked ourselves inside our blanket to shy away from the fresh sun rays. But ultimately we got up from our sleep, got freshened up and after having our breakfast set out to capture the sea.
As we reached the sea we did not waste any time and rushed to the cool waters. Splashing and dashing are the words that came to our minds at that time. We just drifted ourselves on the mercy of the calm waters as if we were pleading the sea to take us away to a place where we would be cut off from all tensions of life that cripple us every day. We captured all the moments we possibly could so that we can relish the time we spent, playing in the lap of nature. As each wave hurled in new hope and as they rolled back to eternity, they took away all the curses that spell doom to humanity. Each soul present there were crying out to the waves to wash their minds with joy and happiness not knowing if they would be provided with a chance to unite with nature in such a liaison. My words are less to express the bliss that we felt during those golden moments. But good things don’t last for a lifetime and we had to return back to our room.
After such a dazzling experience we had our typical Konkani cuisines for lunch and with a heavy heart we bid adieu to Diveagar and headed towards Harihareshwar. About 35 kilometers from Diveagar we reached Harihareshwar at around 2 PM on Sunday. The scenery there was breath taking, the sea was surrounded by hills on three sides but the sea extended its freedom to eternity on the other. We decided to explore the coastline on a boat. We were wrapped with Life Jackets and it seemed we were going on a long sailing adventure. The cool sea breeze kissed our face and the green waters tumbling up and down as if to have a glimpse of the visitors.

With a heavy heart we started our journey back to Pune. The people we met there, the sounds of the waves splashing on the seashore, the delicious food and the addictive beauty of Mother Nature left a deep impact on our minds. We will never forget this trip which was not planned at all to go so smooth. On a gloomy Sunday evening we returned to Pune and to our lives, with each one of us left with his saga to narrate.

A few important contact details
Nazir Guest House: 02147-224316
Poonam Tours and Travels: 9970803928

Biswakarma, The God of Architecture

2008-09-17T13:53:00.001+05:30

The festival of the God of Architecture and engineering, Biswakarma, is celebrated in September by industrial houses, artists, craftsmen, and weavers. According to mythology it is he who created the entire universe as well as the heaven and the earth. Bishwakarma is also credited for creating the missiles used in the mythological era, including the Vajra the sacred weapon of Lord Indra, from the bones of sage Dadhichi. He is regarded as the supreme worker, the very essence of excellence and quality in craftsmanship.
Normally 17th day of the month of Septemeber it is celebrated. The workers worship all their machineries as symbol of the God Biswakarma. Throughout the day colourful kites are flown. The sky fills up with all shades and colors. Chadials, Mombattis, Chowrangees, Petkattas, Mayurpankhis, Baggas fly high to establish the skills of the fliers. The sky becomes a war zone with the discarded kites dropping every now and then with the cry of "Bho-Kattaaa" from the distant roofs or parks.

Futchka in Pune

2008-09-16T09:56:00.001+05:30

Do you know FUTCHKA? Apart from the guys from Kolkata, people may not be aware of futhcka. You must know Panipuri at least. Here in the western part of India, it is really popular. But I don’t like panipuri. I think people who tasted futchka they will never ever like panipuri. Futchka is a special preparation in Bengal, which is also known as Golgappa in northern side. From the time I am here in Pune, never had futchka. But a week ago my sister told me that she found a futchka stall in Pune!!! I rushed to that place with my sister and found the stall with the same old funnel shaped basket full of futchkassssss……. When I had the first bite on that, really did not able to distinguish that with Kolkata’s futhcka. Now that became our favorite weekend (even weekdays) spot.
Wanna have some futchka??? Looking for the location????
Just go to Kalyani Nagar Gold Adlabs and there you will find the stall just opposite of Lifestyle showroom. Have a blast with futchka….

An evening in Disha

2008-09-15T11:00:00.004+05:30

This Saturday I experienced a different angle of life which was out of my daily schedule and I will remember this for my entire life. My elder sister is also in Pune working for Syntel. On Friday night she told me that next day evening she will be going to attend an activity called Disha formed by her colleagues for teaching some children and this is a part of their organizational level event SPrayas. They teach those children who can not afford to go to school for their financial condition as well as availability of a proper school. The nearest municipality school is three km away.
On that day I went there with my sister. The exact location was a slum near Bhelchowk in Nigdi. There they already had a group who are working for this, Abhishekh, Sania, Praveen, Mallikarjun, Niraj, Ruchi, Prem and some more. I just joined them. When we were entering into the slum the children welcome us with shake hand. When I realized that they were doing this not just for a manner or a good gesture which they learned, they were doing this from bottom of their heart, I was really overwhelmed. Children are always copycat, what they asked to follow they do that. But here I could read the emotion on their little faces, they were really happy to have us within them.
There were children of age group 4-10. When the teaching session started the entire room went alive with roaring sounds of A for Apple.. Apple mane sheb………. B for ………. This magical sound took me to my childhood, to my KG class room. I remember we all used to shout more loudly than all others to prove ourselves better than the others to the teacher. On those early days our respected teachers were God, sometimes more than God for us. Getting a little pat on the back from the teachers used to make us feel proud and there I realized the emotions behind those shake hands which we received in the slum.
We were there almost for two hours. It was really a great experience to teach them. I was not ready, so there was no format of teaching at least from my side. I just shared my General Knowledge with them which might help them. One thing really embarrassed me when they asked me that whether I am coming on to next session or not, because they saw a lot many sir/madam who just came once and never came back again. The day ended again with hand shakes. Each and everyone said bye to us. I came back to my home with a desire to go there again and again. Hats off to those guys, who are organizing these kind of activities.

Hirak Rajar Deshe - Film Review

2008-09-11T19:26:00.002+05:30

In the continuation of my last post I could not resist myself to publish this one. This is a critic’s review for the film "Hirak Rajar Deshe" and published in Anandabazar Patrika just after the film is released. The review was published in a poem format. But it is written in Bengali so sorry for the guys who do not understand Bengali.

Hirak Rajar Deshe filim dekhe adyopanto,
satti katha khulei boli legechhe durdanto.
mil miliye kathabarta, chhorar chhorachhori,
gan er opor gaan jomechhe, ushul gant er kori.
jemni sur temni katha, raag er ki bahar,
Robi babur porei Manik sreshtho surokar.
Upen babur nati tini, tata babur chhele,
Hirar sange Manik jole, koti te ak mele.
Gugababar porer ongsho, sei Bagha sei Gupi,
Satyajit er mathay uthlo ar akkhana tupi.
Shundi rajar double jamai, ghumay o khay day,
haram bole araam chhere baire jete chay.
bhut babajir bor e baray jakhon jethay mon,
kakhono sagar, kakhono pahar, kakhono gobhir bon.
dhol bajiye, gan shuniye nana rakom beshe,
hatath ese hajir holo Hirak rajar desh e.
Hirak raja jabor raja, Karen magoj dholai,
beyadop er jonno ache dholai ghor ta kholai.
mukh e rajar madhu jhore, kaj e dakhan kola,
majur more, chashi more, more gaan er gola.
mantrira sab kol er putul, ghar ta nerei khushi,
rajar jonno korma-polao, projar jonno ghushi.
boi puriye school guriye metan moner sadhm,
Udayan naam gurumoshai janan protibad.
bari chhere palan tini pahare jungle e,
majur-chashi khepiye baran, khepan chhatro dole.
Udayan er sange takhon dakha gugababar,
tin jonete shola kore rajay kore kabar.
harek rakom fondi fikir sesh e oder jit,
nijer murti nije bhangen, rajamoshai chit.
rajji jure baddi baje, aar thakena bhoy,
raja-proja sab akakar, gugababar joy.
Tapen-Rabi darun juti, gaan e Anup babu,
golay-dhol e maat korechhe, amra sabai kabu.
ekti gaan e Amar Pal er gola proshongshar,
sei gaan e besh thot melalen Robin Majumder.
jano koshai raja moshai, Duttaja Utpal,
abhinoyer tulona nei, bakko onorgol.
santri-montri bidushak aar kobi ganotkar,
saaj-poshak e cholay feray baroi chamotkar.
set er bahaduri ache, darun rong er sense,
swapnopuri hajir kare Soumendu er lense.
raja badsha nimontriter make-up dakhar moto,
jamon nagra tamon pagri, gof er kayda kato.
sampadona fastokelas, nodir moto goti,
shabdo grohon nichuman er hoini ko ak roti.
toshakhanar chabi anar drisshhe bajimaat,
bagh er sange chokher lorai, bhoy e atkay baat.
khub shabhabik ese gache hindu musalman,
bangali j kebol hindu sei tatto khan khan.
Fantasy aar reality milechhe ak thai,
taye taye millo kina setao dacha chai.
gurumoshai gurutaro ramgarur er chhana,
Soumitra ke dekhte pelei fantasy hoi kana.
biggani ar shundi raja aki bekti kano ?
Feludar sei jatayu ke dacha galo jano !!
ato baro raja kano matir murti gore?
tan marle paye fatol, gulti te nak pore !!
Gugababa dorbar jei dhuklo kopal thuke,
takhon kano thamlo chhora, Hirak rajar mukhe?
khujle pore aro du-char dhorte pari khut,
eito jamon kobir bachon hoini tamon jut.
tobe esab chhotto ekti, tucchho sunischoy,
bhalor sankha akanobboi, mondo dosh ki noy.
magoj dholai, bosti safai, rajar bherar pal,
khujte gele icchhe moton paben parallel.
keu bolben emergency kimba communisty,
Stalin, Amin noi Hitler – naam er lamba listi.
kintu osab gouno bapar, mouno thakai shreyo,
hajar hajar khabar ache, chorbo chosshho peyo.
osab holo taderi kaaj, chhidro khojen jara,
sthhan o kaal atke rekhe, ros k tipe mara.
borong ami thik korechhi kat te jabo fite,
shat hopta purno hole HIRAK JAYANTI te.

Satyajit Ray's short stories

2008-09-11T18:13:00.004+05:30

Born: May 2, 1921
Died: April 23, 1992

Satyajit Ray was India's first internationally recognized film-maker and, several years after his death, still remains the most well-known Indian director on the world stage. As a filmmaker he made a mark all over the world and Honored with Lifetime Achievement Oscar Award & Bharat Ratna. Here is the list of his directed film:Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) Aparajito (The Unvanquished) Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone) Jalsaghar (The Music Room) Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) Devi (The Goddess) Teen Kanya (Three Daughters) Rabindranath Tagore, Documentary Kanchenjungha Abhijan (The Expedition) Mahanagar (The Big City) Charulata (The Lonely Wife) Two, Short Kapurush - O – Mahapurush (The Coward and the Holy Man) Nayak (The Hero) Chiriyakhana (The Zoo) Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (Adventures of Goopy and Bagha) Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) Pratidwandi (The Adversary) Seemabaddha (Company Limited) Sikkim, Documentary The Inner Eye, Documentary Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder) Sonar Kella (The Fortress) Jana Aranya (The Middleman) Bala, Documentary Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players) Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds) Pikoo (Pikoo's Day), Short Sadgati (The Deliverance) Ghare-Baire (Home and the World) Sukumar Ray, Documentary Ganashatru (Enemy of the People) Shakha Prashakha (Branches of the Tree) Agantuk (The Stranger)

As a film maker we all know him very well. Apart from film making he was a great author, painter, poet and sculpturist also. He wrote quite a few limerics. He was born in an intellectual and affluent family in Calcutta. His father Sukumar Ray was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwrighter. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll. His grandfather Upendrakishore Ray was a distinguished writer, painter, a violin player and a composer. He was also a pioneer in half-tone block making and founded one of the finest presses in the country - U. Ray & Sons. in 1880s. When Satyajit was only 2-years-old his father died and he had to move out of their spacious house with his mother. He joined Ballygaunge Govt High School at the age of eight. This is where I feel really proud of my school. I did my schooling also from that school. In many articles I found him talking about his school experience and most of the experience was on some small thinks like the Banyan tree, the big school gate, the ground which eventually may not connect others. But as I am from the same school, believe me those feelings always touch me whenever I read them. It seems I am reading my own memories.

While talking about his short stories I must start with two remarkable characters created by him, Feluda and Professor Shanku. Feluda is a character of young detective whose original name is Pradosh Mitra. The full Feluda series consists of hundreds short stories. There are one more bold character in this series is Jatayu, who is an author. The whole series was written targeting the young people only; however it is similarly popular in kids and adults also. Satyajit Ray himself made two films out of this Feluda series, Sonar Kella and Jay baba felunath. His son Sandip Ray recently filmed two other stories "Bombaier Bombete" and "Koilash e Kelenkari". The essence of these thrillers is the way of solving the mysteries. Feluda never use any technology to solve his case. Its only his "Magojastro" (Brain Power). The other renowned character is Professor Shanku. This series is of science fictions. Shanku is a great scientist who invented some outstanding products like "Botica Indica" (homoeopathy globule sized tablets to fill stomach), "Annihilin pistol" (A pistol that annihilates), "Omniscope" (an instrument which is a microscope, telescope and x-ray machine in one) etc. The stories are about his adventures with these incredible inventions. There is one story I remember named "Nakul babu o El-Dorado". In that story first I came to know about the giant African snake anaconda. One good thing about his stories is the content. In the prologue of each story he put historical, geographical, scientific facts and figures. In my childhood I learned a lot many things from his stories. These two series are the most popular. There are some more stories which I like most. I have his full short story collection, and most surprisingly each story out them is different from the others.

Barin Bhowmiker Baram (Barin Bhowmik’s Disease) is about a profound singer’s story, who had Kleptomania in his early days.

Khagom is a story about a snake. Then name has come from Mahabharata. In the story a man unnecessary killed the snake named Khagom but the priest who used to take care of that old snake eventually gets his friend (Khagom) back. The way transformation is described in the story, is really going to thrill anyone.

In a story called Bhuto Satyajit Ray highlighted on Ventriloquism which is an art of making one’s dummy talk when his master is the actual talker.

Bipin babur smritibhrom (Memory loss of Bipin babu) elaborates a healthy revenge by a old friend by creating an environment as Bipin babu lost his memory.

Brihochonchu is about a big bird which had created problem by his diet.

Patalbabu is a character in the story Patalbabu Film Star where he is a good stage actor and offered for a role in a film. In the story we get to know with how much dedication he portrayed the small role.The list is long, in one line it’s impossible to describe. Being a good painter he used to design all his story book’s cover pages and inside the books one can find his excellent touch on the sketches. The only thing is all the stories are written only in Bengali and till date no one took initiative to translate those in any other language. So I believe a great collection of short stories is still out of reach for many of us.

Ganesh Utsav in Office Premises

2008-09-10T18:16:00.003+05:30

Almost two weeks before the Ganesh Utsav, we received a mail from the HR department that this time we are going to have some competitions on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi in the office premises. That includes one sweet making competition and one idol making competition. We were asked to have a discussion with the respective planet managers. In our office there is a concept of Planet. Each floor is having two wings and every wing is named on the name of different planets. Our planet name is Mars. We have lots of Planet wise competitions. After receiving the mail we rushed to our planet manager and called a meeting for the plan and preparation of the competition. Volunteers gave their names in the sweet making competition. I planned to make some delicious Bengali sweets, but could not capitalize on my plans (which were quite obvious). Actually I was excited on the idol making competition rather sweet making. Competition was held on Friday 5th of September. On that day some of us came to office in marathi dress as it was declared traditional day. The theme of the competition was eco friendly Ganesha Idol. Every planet has successfully kept there concept secret. Our planet made Ganesha idol of flour. He was sitting on a cart made of packing cartons. Five rats made up of flour were pulling the cart. Taking all the decoration in consideration it was good all together. In the evening I went with Shubhankar and Suchita to the other planets to see what kind of creative idols they made. We got to see wide range concepts in making the idols and decoration and each one was better than the others. I was really grateful to the god that I was not the judge. Planet Earth emphasizes on Deforestation by a eye catching decoration. Jupiter was good at the perfection of their model. Saturn imported a new concept, as per their explanation presence of God is just a feeling, you can not touch it. So they keot their idol hanging at the lower part of a desk and the image of the idol was visible through the water kept in a pot. So it was a mixed experience and we were really keen to know the winner. Finally we got the result on Tuesday 8th September. We came second in the idol making competition. Planet Charon was the winner.

Ganesh Chaturthi

2008-09-10T17:23:00.001+05:30

Vakratunda Mahaakaayah
Suryakoti Samaprabha
Nirvighnam Kurume Deva
Sarvakaaryeshu Sarvadaa

This is my second time in Pune during Ganesh Chaturthi. India is a country where one can find hundreds of festivals of all the religions and we all celebrate these together. I believe festivals are made to celebrate with your family, friends, neighbors, with all whom you know. This is the time to make new friends. Some people try to segregate us by talking the difference in the religion, but being a responsible citizen of India, the world’s largest secular country, one should not think on that line. The fact is those people who want to differentiate is very less in numbers and never get success over it.
Festival in India always comes with colors, gorgeousness dresses, delicious foods, eye catching firecrackers etc etc etc and if it is Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharastra then you will feel the heat for ten days that is guaranteed.
Last year I was not aware what exactly happens here during Ganesh Utsava. So on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi I just went to JM Road and FC Road area, and saw couple of huge processions with drummers and dancers. The rhythm of the drums was really good. Now those who don’t know about Ganesh Chaturthi, I can elaborate. On Ganesh Chaturthi people usually takes Lord Ganesha (Idol) to their homes or respective puja committees. After that they keep the idol for ten days and follow the rituals as a part of the worship for the lord Ganesha. On Anant Chaturdashi idols are immersed in the nearest river or pond. During these ten days puja committees perform cultural programs like dance, recitation, singing, drama etc. As I don’t understand Marathi language, I didn’t get anything out of those drama and cultural programs, which quite obviously performed with great dedication and sometime for noble cause also. For me the main attraction is the procession on Ganesh Chaturthi and Anant Chaturdoshi.
Like last year this year also I went to JM Road expecting lot many fun. There I saw one big procession is going slowly towards Deccan. The most gorgeous part of the procession was the drummers. The dancing group was performing with the magical beat of the drums. Dancing steps were very simple, probably anyone can do that but it was the synchronization which made the performance really attractive. They were using some props while dancing and reciting some lines on lord Ganesha with the beat of the drums.
There were Camels, Horses and guess who all the riders were… it was a tiny little brigade of children dressed with typical marathi attire. The most amazing thing about all the processions was the discipline. Without stopping the traffic and creating any chaos they were on their way. Really hats off to those guys who were managing.
After this we headed towards Daghru Sheth. I have Arkadeep and Arindam with me and on the way to Daghru Sheth saw more processions. Surprisingly we found some procession with lady drummers also. The streets were overcrowded and it went to an extreme point when we reached Daghru Sheth. Thousands of people were in a queue to enter in the main temple with the Puja Dali. The temple were decorated with lights and flowers, was looking really awesome. We didn’t dare to enter in the temple, since it required a lot of energy to stand in the queue. We said hello to lord Ganesha just from outside the temple only and came back to home with the memory of an eventful evening. Now I am looking for the Anant Chaturdashi Ceremony.

Malshej Ghat & Bhimashankar Trip

2008-09-02T14:33:00.017+05:30

It has been quite a long time since my last post. Last time it was on Bengali New Year. This time I am going to share my experience about a short trip to Malshej Ghat and Bhimashankar which was scheduled on 15th of August, 2008.On this day, we planned for a memorable trip to taste

our freedom in our own terms, close to nature, away from the routine life we are more familiar with and not spending it like a normal weekend. The day was a Friday. So I and my roommates planned for a long weekend, full of fun and unforgettable enjoyment.Monsoon is the perfect time to go to Ghats, to see nature bathing in the showers of rain like Goddess Diana in her alluring lure. The question was where we should go. The options that we had were Lonavala, too close to Pune and 3/4th of Pune habitat spend their weekend there. The other was Malshej Ghat, which is around130 KM from Pune and it’s on the Pune-Nasik Highway. It all started with conveyance, then accommodation. We all were very much keen to make a night halt. So, we booked a 14 seated bus for our trip. But, to our surprise we found that there is hardly any hotel in Malshej Ghat. There is the MTDC (Flamingo) resort in the Malshej Ghat, but it was already overbooked. This, I will say was growing like a big impediment in our trip. But we were inexorable. We kept our composure and altered our plan and included Bhimashankar in our trip, hoping to get a hotel, and craft the plans for a night halt there.Then came our much awaited morning, even the Sun felt new as if it was greeting us on this wonderful day. We were all set to go. We started our journey by 6:30 AM, full of energy and enthusiasm, and exhilarated and expecting to meet up with lots of fun and activities awaiting us there. We were a group of nine musketeers. Sourav, Arindam, Somenath, Maloy and me from Pune. Subhamoy, Devjyoti, Mainak and Raju joined us from Mumbai. This was our second trip. We took a short break for breakfast on the Nasik Highway. Then we started off for Malshej. Our first concern was to get a suitable accommodation for our trip. Luckily we got one (the Monika Lodge) in Junnar which is around 30 Km from Malshej Ghat. We took three double bed rooms, kept our luggage and started for our final destination for the day. Our first spot of interest was a dam. The dam was on the lake Kukdi. The Bus waded through the clouds over the dam for about 1 KM and halted for us to unboard it from its confinements to the vast expanse of nature.. It looked as if we were flying through the clouds. The clouds covered us like blankets in the wintry morning. Driver said that this dam is 4 KM long and on the other side there is village called Harishchandragad.It seemed that the route would be really perfect for trekking. But we were not ready for trekking. We stopped our bus on the dam and went down to the water and had lots of fun. It was continuously raining and the whole area was under cloud cover. Then we came back from the dam and on the highway we found one waterfall. There was a huge crowd enjoying the beauty of the waterfall. We joined them and spent quite some time in the water. We had our windcheaters on but Maloy could not resist the temptation of taking a dip in the freezing waters, he went directly under the falling water and had a wonderful icy experience. Even for a second I thought to join him but….. any way still we were 20 KM away from our final destination, Malshej Ghat. When we reached Malshej Ghat the scene was fantastic and none of us had any words to describe it. What I thought about Malshej Ghat is that it might be a hill point where we can park our bus and then we may have to climb up/down to reach the water falls, something like that. But the fact was that Malshej Ghat is not at all like that. It is just a chain of water falls finding its way through the roads.

There was no place for parking even. There were a chain of eight to ten waterfalls one after another. Each one had its one beauty. The most amazing one was the last one. Eventually for an awkward bent of the mountain the water was coming down at the middle of the road. Cars were passing through the water. This experience was really cool. When our bus was moving underneath the waterfall we were all spell bound. The weather also was awesome. The rain was playing hide and seek at its leisure. We got down from the bus wrapped with our windcheaters except Maloy. But this time I also joined Maloy and went under the falling water. It was a marvelous experience al together. No one from our group was ready to get wet. They chose to be within their windcheaters’ safe custody. The people there were laughing, jumping, and singing in joy. One point I would like to mention is that, the place is not a good one day trip spot for the families, especially for the ladies. Even we felt little odd among the drunk crowd. I am not saying they where doing something harsh to anyone, but apart from the scenic beauty, crowd was not good, at least for me. From Malshej Ghat we took a u turn and came back to the hotel for our lunch. We did literally nothing in the evening. As Olympic was going on, saw some events in the TV. We got to know that three boxers of India had qualified for the quarter finals. Next day morning we started our journey to Bhimashankar. We had our breakfast in a roadside hotel. By road Bhimashankar has the same distance from Pune as Malshej Ghat. But this road is not that good, so it took quite a long time to reach there. Bhimashankar is famous for a Jotirlinga of Lord Shiva out of the twelve. Apart from the Temple, the scenic beauty and the jungle experience is a special tourist attraction. While we were heading to Malshej through the national highway 222, the road was wide enough and did not have many deadly turns. But the road to Bhimashankar is quite narrow with plenty of sharp turns. When we started our ascent, the weather started changing. We took a break in between, a photo break. We clicked lot of photographs there. After reaching Bhimashankar, we parked the bus 2 km from the temple and started walking. Walking down the jungle roads covered with fog and the only sound that one could hear was our footsteps…. Oh this was the experience of our lives. I have never been to any jungle before, so this was a first experience for me at least. When we reached the temple we saw a huge queue of people waiting to worship the Lord. We preferred to pray from outside as we were running out of time. After visiting the temple we came back to the bus and started our journey back to Pune.

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.

I enjoyed the trip so much that my words may not suffice my thoughts and experience.Here is the contact no for the hotel (The Monica Lodge) if anyone needs it.New Monika Lodge Ph: 02132-264343 Cell Number: 9730367445.

Bengali New Year

2008-03-25T20:04:00.002+05:30

Boishakh is the first month according to Bengali calender. First day of this month, we bengalis celebrate New Year. The day is called as "Poila Boishakh". Poila Boisakh is not only a beginning of New Year. It is not only worship of 'Lord Ganesha', 'Halkhata' and sweets. It is a day which gives us the true spirit to look forward with new motivations. We welcome the new year with all friends and family members. Normally people try to have typical Bengali food in this day. All these are just to make the day a bit special, memorable to our life.
A large part of this new year party is cultural program. From my childhood I used to see that the day starts with "Nabobarsher Boithak" on television. Famous singers, dancers, poets, writers they all take part in the program, perform and share their precious thoughts on this particular day. Since this is the beginning of a new year, it has a huge impact on Bengali Film Industry also. Lots of films get started their journey hoping for success. In Kolkata Nandan is the cultural hub of the city. You will surely find on road drama, dancing and singing activity, where famous personalities perform with other people.
If I talk about Poila Boishakh the first thing should be HaalKhata. This is puja of Lord Ganesha. The businessmen start their income for the new year with a copy(named haal khata) blessed by Lord Ganesha. In every shops, the owner distributes sweets and namkins between the customers. There is also a trend to buy jewelry on this day.
This will be the second year when I will be away from my family and hometown in this day. I will be celebrating the day with my Bengali friends in Mumbai in an evening with a small cultural program. There we all will perform and welcome the New Year. Now we all are busy with practicing dram, songs and dance. You can visit http://eso-he-boishakh.blogspot.com for more details of the program. But that blog is written in Bengali, so I think those who can understand Bengali can only understand the posts. I will update the program details

Yashotsav

2008-03-14T18:06:00.007+05:30

Let me share my another experience of cultural event in my organization, where I am working now. This is basically the annual day of my office. But before the D day we have different competition between different group of people. We have drama competition, dance competition etc. I remember we performed in a 15 min skit (script was written on run time) in the semifinal, and for that round we were the champions. I will upload the video of the same. In the skit we had a very nominal make up. However it was all fun.
Other than this skit we had a movie competition. We prepared a movie based on the theme "Inspiring Performance". Some shots of this movie we did outside. For me this was just the first outdoor shooting. Everywhere stopped in their way and asked us..... "What movie you are shooting?" .... "Who is the Hero?"............ "Where is the Heroine"............ "By what time will it be released?" . etc etc etc................. And you don't believe that they were so co-operative. We stopped one auto rickshaw and asked the driver if he can consider for 5-10 min for the shooting. He readily accepted that, and started to make himself prepare for the shooting. It was really hard to say him that he will not going to be the part of the shooting. So we had a fare bit of fun out of this. Do not ask me for the feedback of the movie, I can't explain how we failed in this project, though we learnt from this.

We had lots of fun in the face paining competition also. The team had maximum no of face painted, won the challenge. Though we painted some jem, but there were no points on quality. We lost :D. But it was a great fun to paint some one's face. Actually competition was so tough we were not at all waiting for the permission of the person if he/she wanted to painted his/her face or not. Whenever we saw a face without color, we just painted, just like Holi.

Get Set Go

2008-03-12T18:16:00.001+05:30

At last I have convinced myself to write something on my first BLOG. Since I created this blog, I was confused what should be the proper lines to start with. Now I realized that giving own introduction is the best thing, where I don't have to be innovative. I can share something about myself which will boost my confidence also.
Hi, I am Kaustav Banerjee, a 24 year old guy from West Bengal. I am now staying in Pune for my job. Really missing my hometown. Other than my job profile I like to engage myself with cultural and social programs.
Aahhhhhhh!! yes I got a real good topic to talk about. I spent all my initial days in Kidderpore, Kolkata. In 2003 we changed our residence to Botanical Garden, Howrah. I thought I would face a lot of problem in finding new friends, and yes that was true. In my new area I hardly found people of my age. Those starting days were depressing. But now I have lot of friends in my new area. Do you know how was it happen. This is all because of one cultural program. :))
Believe me. Actually what happened me and my elder sister thought to organize one cultural program on the day of "Rabindra Jayanti" (Tagore's Birthday). But the main problem was finding kid performers (mature persons are really tough to handle). Eventually we visited every single house of the area and asked if there was any kid who wanted to join our program. We got a huge response. We thought to arrange the program in our terrace, but with these number of participants we had to arrange for a stage. Thanks to Harun Kaku(uncle) who made the stage for us absolutely free. We got lot of support and the program was a hit, rather super hit. Then I found the people in the area are really good and supportive and now I am sure I have a good rapo with them also. We gave our Organization's name "Prayas" . Last year we completed four successful years of Prayas.
oh!!!!! this is too much for today. Sure I will let you know more about our Prayas.
Keep in touch.