One Hour in Bandhavgadh

In last one year I developed a habit of going for trekking/trailing/hiking almost in every weekend, continuously. Other than these small weekend trips, I have been to many places in India as well. No wonder I love travelling, no matter what kind of place it is. But one place I could never hit is Jungle. It doesn't matter whatever the reason is, but the fact is I have never been to any jungle. So when someone shares his experience of jungle, I don’t miss the chance to jump onto it. This is a story I heard from one of my brother’s friend. I am trying to narrate the story in his language.

It was around mid November. We four friends planned for Bandhavgarh National Park. Our group is full of passionate jungle lovers, so whenever we plan anything, we plan for jungle only. When we reached Bandhavgarh, we didn’t know that this was going to be our most thrilling adventure ever. This time we are carrying SLR cameras also to capture the moments. Normally we do avoid cameras, because what we believe is, a camera spoils the mood of the trip. In our schedule, we planned only three days to stay in the buffer state of the jungle. Very first day we opted for the elephant ride. It was fun. The mahoot took us to a 3 hrs long ride. All eight pairs of eyes were searching for tiger. We were pretty sure that it was an easy job finding something yellow in all different shades of green. But unfortunately we didn’t find any until the mahot pointed out to something. Yes it was a tiger, resting under a tree. But it was far away from us. He didn’t even bother that we were around. That’s the only tiger we saw in the entire 3 hrs journey. Next day we were looking for more. The mahoot said we need to go deep inside the jungle for more fun, we agreed. But end of day, we returned with a hell lot of disappointment. It was not that we didn’t see tiger, but the entire day wasn’t thrilling. In the second day evening after returning back we asked the mahoot to take us to the jungle by walking. We wanted to feel the vibes of the jungle by standing on our own feet. He laughed on our childish approach and denied our proposal straight away. We told him that no need to go deep into jungle, only a km or so walking would be sufficient for us. But he wasn’t ready as he was a government employee and he might lose his job by doing so. But in these two days we heard so many stories from the gatekeeper, the cook, the mahoot, a sense of desperation was boiling inside us. In the night time we gave another try. In the attempt we got hold of the mahoot’s nephew. He agreed to take us to the jungle by walking. Without putting much effort we convinced the teenage boy for this for a nominal amount of money.

Next day morning we woke up very early with all the excitement. As per advice we put two layers of socks just to avoid under bush insect attacks. Odomos and every other precaution were already taken. The deal was, the guy will take us through the lighter part of the jungle for one hour. We will give him some extra money if he can show us some deer or any harmless creature. Definitely we were not expecting more than this in the outer region of the national park. We saw a big bolo knife kind of thing in his hand. It was required. Without chopping down the big grass (till our chest height) we can’t even think walking in the jungle. We took lot of snaps of birds and the jungle; it was really a thrilling experience I must say. Once we were about to start our return journey suddenly we realized a big silence in the jungle. Our guide just turned around and put the index finger on his mouth indicating us not to make noise.

“If you give me 500 Rs right now, I will show you something which you will never forget in your life” – He whispered in front of us.

Within a second our hearts started beating faster than ever. We understood he must be talking about showing tiger, but we were not sure how can we see a tiger standing on the ground. The question was, seeing a tiger here is not possible then what kind of stuff he was going to show us.

We gave him 500 bucks and asked him whether it would be risky or not.

 “Sir you are walking through the jungle of Bandhavgarh and expecting no risk!!! Just have faith on me and don’t make any noise. Follow exactly what I tell you to do. And please no camera at the spot.”

Once we said we are ready, he put his bolo knife inside the scabbard hanging from his belt. Our only weapon to fight with wild animal is also locked down into the scabbard. Till that time he was chopping the grass, now he started walking by dodging the big grass. We were just quietly following him. We walked for another 2-3 mins before we stopped. Again he turned back and indicated us to keep quiet and not to move from where we were. The next thing he did was walked two steps forward and moved the grass aside to give us a clear vision to the other side of that bush.

What we saw just made us speechless. Something got stuck on my throat, my heart stopped beating for a while. I felt someone was holding my hand firmly. My legs were shaking; I didn’t know how I could able to stand there.

It was a tiger, just 100 ft away, sitting on a dead dear facing us. His mouth was red with the blood of the deer. The stunning thing was, the tiger was staring at us. He was very much aware of our presence. Later I thought why I didn’t try to find some big tree to climb up (Though I never tried that). But the fact was, we lost controls on our actions. I was just waiting for the time when the tiger will jump on us. Suddenly I heard the guide whispering again.

“Just walk backwards without losing the eye contact with the tiger”

We did exactly what he said just like a robot. After taking 10-15 steps backward, he asked us to run, the sweetest command in that situation. We all had five minutes of directionless running before the guide stopped us. The moment we stopped, we all pounced on him, scolding him for his irresponsible behavior. But he didn’t move at all with all the comments.

 ”You all were safe there”, calmly he said.

“I was pretty sure the tiger won’t leave his prey, as he doesn’t get that majestic lunch very often. Moreover if you keep the eye contact maintained, it will never pounce on us. That’s the basic rule of jungle; no one attacks till the eye contact is maintained.”

I don’t remember how we managed to drag ourselves back to the cottage. But honestly this is the most thrilling experience I ever had in my life.

Cafe De Cocca

Its Professor Chatterjee again, he told us such wonderful stories throughout our two years of interaction. I really feel pity that we could only manage two years under his teaching. But again it was not in our hand. We had mathematics as a main subject only for first two years.

Let’s come back to the story. On that day we were very few in the class room. It was drizzling outside. When Professor entered the class room, he found only 10-15 of us in the room. It was post lunch session, so he thought other guys might not be back from their lunch. So he decided to wait for few minutes before starting the lecture.

But we knew, those missing guys wouldn’t be coming back to class room. They were busy in the Cafeteria. Now on that time, our college were under construction, so the canteen was outside of our campus and easily visible from the window.

I pointed out to the cafeteria and said “Sir, you may start. Those guys are enjoying their lives in that cafeteria. They won’t come back now for the lecture. “

“Can someone go and call them for the lecture” – Mr. Chatterjee replied.

A very studious girl among us said “Don’t worry sir; they won’t mind it at all. Those mass bunkers can’t do justice to your lecture ever”

Dr Chatterjee looked outside for a while and then said “Are you sure that is not Café De Cocca?”

We couldn’t relate his statement with anything, but knowing Mr. Chatterjee we understood that it’s a story time. We all filled the empty spaces in the front row and started waiting for the story.

Mr. Chatterjee sat on the table and started the story.

Have you ever heard of University of Gottingen?  It is a historic and one of the highest ranked universities Germany. In the campus there was a cafeteria named Café De Cocca. It was just like any other cafeteria in any college campus. One day, a professor was having a cup of tea and solving a mathematical problem. After putting lot of efforts also he couldn’t solve that problem. Finally before leaving the café he wrote the same problem on the register book and below that a note saying whoever can solve this will be awarded a bottle of wine. After a few days, when the professor checked the register, he found someone has solved the problem in the register itself with his name. The professor found that guy; he was a student of the university itself. He gifted him a bottle of wine. This incident got very popular in the campus and soon after this; it became a trend to write down problems in that register with a token prize to be given. Eventually the Café manager put a notice for all asking not to disturb anyone in the café, not to rub any calculation or writing from the wall and the table without permission. A fresh register book was also put there.

The trend continued till the Second World War. During the world war it was decided that no bombardment would be done on renowned universities like Oxford, Gottingen etc. But unfortunately Café de Cocca got demolished completely in bombing. With that incident, the register got lost forever. Researchers think that register would have been a tremendous treasure to all fields of science.

Some people say, the manager of the café was able to take that register out from there and kept it with him. He wasn’t a very literate person, but seeing the evil side of technology and invention during the World War II, he gave that to his grandson to destroy it before some Satan’s followers find it. But again no supported facts are present to prove this.

So that’s why my dear students I told you not to ignore the cafeteria. That can be the next Café De Cocca.

Disclaimer: I am not very sure about the name of the café. The name of the café is just faded out from my memory. It was something like this if not exactly the same.

Four Color Problem

I heard this story from one of our professors in college, Mr Deepak Chatterjee. Besides being a very good mathematics teacher, he was a great story teller as well and that was part of his teaching method to hold our interests (we realized it later). He did his PhD from ISI (Indian Statistical Institute) and on that time he was heading the mathematics department of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.

That day in the class he was about to start a new chapter on probability. Before starts he told us a story. He told that in Bengali though, I am just trying to translate the same in English. Please bear my English for rest of the write up.

Now enjoy the story in his words.

It was around 1850, a kid Francis Guthrie was coloring a map of England and asked his brother Fredrick that how many different colors he needs to paint the regions of the map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. Fredrick couldn’t answer this. Next day he went to University College where he was a student. He asked the same question to his math professor Mr. Augustus De Morgan. Morgan thought for a while and replied that “I am pretty sure that five colors should be sufficient but I won’t be surprised if four colors do the trick as well.”

A simple question asked by a kid eventually lead the mathematicians to one of the most complicated mathematical problem. It took around 125 years to get the answer whether five colors or four are sufficient to color the map.

In 1976, when I was a student of ISI, we received an envelope from XYZ (I forgot the name of the organization). It was a small note inside stating “Four color problem is resolved by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken. They have proved that it is possible to color a map using four colors only, so that no two adjacent regions are of same color.”

It wasn’t just news to us. It was a moment of celebrations for all the students and teachers there. We could see the festival environment in the campus with the news. Eventually one day off was announced in the campus to celebrate this.

Mr Chatterjee ended the story with a small note, “Don’t hesitate to ask questions, your small stupid question might lead to a big invention”.

Are you Galois!!!

It was our mathematics period. Somehow the professor was late, so as usual we were having fun inside the class room. It was a chaos altogether. Suddenly Dr Chatterjee entered the class room and to his surprise a piece of small chalk missed his nose by an inch and hit the wall. Sumit was the culprit. He targeted someone else, but the miss hit almost knocked down Professor Chatterjee.

Professor Chatterjee, the ever smiling teacher of us, turned his head with an angry face and asked “Are you Galois?”

Pin drop silence was all around. Seconds later, Dr Chatterjee burst out laughing.

- “Don’t be scared students; I know that the chalk was not meant for me. Students always enjoy the delay of their professors in the class. And it’s completely my fault that I entered the war front without any notice”.

Our looks were still confused. He read our face quickly and said “Don’t you know Galois?”

By that time we sensed an interesting story is about to set sail. We all shouted together “No, who was he?”

Dr Chatterjee started the story.

In the year 1828, Ecole Normale Superieure was the most prestigious institution for mathematics in France at the time. They had a unique entrance exam named Baccalaureate for those who wanted to pursue Polytechnique. The exam paper always used to have 14 questions where the complexity level increases from question number 1 to 14. Means, question number 1 is the easiest among all and question number 14 is the toughest. They had a cut off marks also which I don’t remember.

Our Mr. Galois appeared for this exam and he answered only question number 12, 13 and 14. At the end he wrote “Rests are trivial”. Though he answered three of the toughest questions, but overall his score was below the cut off, so he didn’t qualify.

Next year, he again appeared in the exam, again he answered last three questions only and wrote “Rests are trivial”. This time professors did notice him. They wondered who that crazy guy was. They called Galois for a personal interview. When they saw a teenage boy entered the class room, they were shocked. They couldn’t digest the fact that this teenage lad had solved those complex stuffs. For further examination, they gave the boy another complex theorem to prove on the black board. Galois started explaining the theorem, but after 10 minutes of explanation he realized that none of the professor was able to understand what exactly he was explaining.

Galois got irritated and threw the chalk and left the class room.

Dr Chatterjee completed the story and sat on the chair.

- “That’s why I asked you my dear student whether you are Galois or not?”

None of us were able to suppress the curiosity to know who this Galois is.

Dr Chatterjee continued, “Galois was one of the most talented young mathematicians the world has ever seen. His work laid the foundations for Galois Theory, a major branch of abstract algebra, and the subfield of Galois connections. He was the first to use the word ‘group’ as a technical term in mathematics to represent a group of permutations. But this young mathematician died only at the age of 21. Definitely the world had lost a potential talent. “

Disclaimer: I heard this story long back from Dr Chatterjee. Honestly I didn't remember each of the facts (those names are damn tough to remember), so I have taken help of wiki and other internet documentation to reconstruct the story. Please correct me if anything is misleading.

Something money cant buy

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

- “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

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!!!!

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??

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.