Top 25 songs of 2007....lets join the countdown

2006 will be over in less than 50 hours from now on. And as the year approches to its end its time to start another countdown is on my blog. :).
For me, the best way to celebrate the year end with my blogging pals has always been related with sharing of my favourite songs of the past 12 months.

In 2005 it was Khul Ke Muskura De Tu from Phir Milenge .
&
In 2006 it was Ratiyaan Andhiyari Ratiyaan from Parineeta which stole my heart.

So what will happen in 2007.....

Its a call to all my music pals to come & join me at Ek Shaam Mere Naam for this year Top 25 countdown.

One Night @ the Call Center

I read this book a few months back. I was not sure whether I should write about the book which has already been read by most of my friends & fellow citizens a long time ago. :)

The story revolves around group of call center workers, The author in this novel has tried to explore delicate interpersonal relationship of call center workers & their harsh working conditions.

It is really difficult to wear an altogether different mask in terms of accent & behaviour while talking to your customers. All this for a job, which is reasonably well paid, but gives no creative satisfaction.

As usual Chetan’s writing style keeps your interest alive. Side by side the main story he has also highlighted how career of a sincere and hardworking employee can go haywire while working under a whimsical & selfish boss.

Unlike Five Point Someone the book has no nostalgic effect on me since I have never come across any call center guy in my life. Only they can tell how truly this story resembles with the real life situation. But as an outsider if some one wants to peep into the lives of this community one should read this book.

Pachmarhi in Pictures !

Pachmarhi Lake is a man made lake but its serene surroundings and vast expanse makes you feel like you are sailing in a natural one.

Watching Sunset at Dhoopgarh is amazing experience . As the orange hue of the sun light fades the sun simply disappears in the clouds. See yourself in the pics ! Incidently Dhoopgarh is highest peak of MP. For further details read here.







The journey to Duchess Fall was the toughest. First we have to go through the dense forest of Satpura and then tackle the steep incline of 800 meters to reache to the fall.





However the cool bath in the waterfall eased the strain in our tiring limbs.


These caves are known as Pandava Caves. as per folk lores Pandavas came to stay here during their exile.


The thin streak of water falling from such a height ! The fall is known as Silver Fall.


The view from the top of the Pandav Caves was just amazing . Just see the greenary all around and breathtaking view of this garden ! Isn't this beautiful.

Courtesy Telegraph We were in the News :)

It is a fact that everyone wants to say something either to self or wants to find people real or virtual who thinks or feel in same way. And that’s what Blogging is all about.
Sadly in our state the concept of Blogging is in nascent stage. There is a total lack of awareness about it.

But thanks to the English daily The Telegraph, which highlighted this medium by publishing two articles on the subject. It also chose to encourage existing bloggers by interviewing them and publishing some of their thoughts.

So when my office colleague phoned me one fine morning that u are in the news, I was thrilled and went straight to buy the copy of the paper.

You can read the news stories from The Telegraph here & here.

Journey to Pachmarhi : Part -I

Last month we went to Pachmarhi a small hill station in MP via Nagpur. General route to Pachmadhi is via Piparia, which is a small station in Jabalpur-Itarsi-Nagpur .rail section. My sister presently resides in Nagpur that’s why we chose Nagpur as our first stoppage.

Our first outing at Nagpur was Deeksha Bhoomi. In 1956 Baba Saheb Ambedkar with his followers embraced Buddhism at this place The Deeksha Bhoomi stoopa is 120 m in dia and looks quite impressive.









In the evening we went to this shop to have a taste of delicious Nagpuri Samosa.











The road route from Nagpur to Pachmarhi via Chindwara was just horrible. As soon one enters Madhya Pradesh the pot holes became a regular feature.
















After three and half hour of Journey we reached Chindwara. We took lunch in a restaurent owned by royal family of Chindwara. From the restaurent the view of the marriage hall (known as Raja ki Bagiya) was just great.


We reached Pachmarhi in the evening. You can read the whole story of our journey from Ranchi to Nagpur & then to Pachmadhi with some more pics here & here.

Festivity Fever

Its difficult to update this blog regularly because of preoccupation with my other two kids ..errr blogs.So I thought why not to just tell my readers here, what I am upto these days?

In other words what I wrote while this blog was in snooze mode.

Remembered the era when I have to take/give interview for marriage.
Beautiful eyes and shayri
A hindi poem after three long years :)
About lyrics of this era which still enthralls me
and yes abt songs Mitwa...& Dil Doobe naa....though also in my humming list was Tere bin, Nainon ki mat maniyo re .

This time of the year one can't keep away from the festive mood which is omnipresent. Attendence is thin in the office and we are yet to find our grooves back to work.

This year I enjoyed Durgapuja by roaming in the streets of Ranchi visiting different pooja pandals (12 pm to 4 am to be precise). You can see some of the pics taken during the night here. From Durga Puja to Chathth the same festive spirit prevails in this part of India. This time I organised a written quiz and an open one during the puja celebrations. It was really difficult to control the kids who kept charging the stage with their hands raised to answer the questions.

With my favorite festival Deepavali approaching, I will be off to another small vacation to Central India within 10 days. Anyway more about it later.

Shiva ..another disappointment from Ram Gopal Verma

Movie : Shiva
Place : Metro, Cinema, Kolkata
Day : 16 th September
Why we chose to see it ? : There was nothing else to do. And apart from Metro we have no idea about other cinema halls in the vicinity at Esplanade.

Prologue : I can never forget Satya ! In the movie Ram Gopal Vema handled the Mafia theme superbly with innovative charcterisation of Bhikhu Mahatre. Then came three more memorable flicks from the same production house; Company , Bhoot & Sarkaar along with lot of forgettable one’s of Darna series. Off late my rating for Ramu has dropped, the reason being he has confined himself two two themes terror & mafia. So when you see any of the Ramu’s new movie u have déjà vu effect.

Movie : Coming to Shiva, a story of an upright sub inspector who fights against the…..yeah u guessed right ! same old mafia + political leader nexus. Ramu uses the same James combination of Mohit Ahlawat & Nisha Kothari as the leads.
There is nothing new in the treatment of this mighty boring old plot…
About Mohit Ahlawat .. looks OK has nothing much to do apart from using his fists with lot of anger in his eyes
Nisha Kothari….hmmm she is OK too as a crime reporter who has to expose whenever Ramu desires ! it is irrelevant whether story has anything to do with it or not. Remember Rangeela & Daud where Urmila did the same as Nisha is doing now. It is a pattern in the Ramu’s movie which no body can miss.
About the music the less said is the better.
All in all a movie to make a quick buck rather than a tribute to upright police officers as Ramu claims. I will advise him to see Ardha Satya made by Govind Nihlani on the same subject again and his head should hang in shame.

Epilogue : I have heard that Ramu’s finances are in bad shape but that doesn’t mean he should make movies which have nothing new to offer. There was a phase that anything with Ramu’s name was perceived by average moviegoers as something different. But with this sort of stuff even that image has taken a dent.
Why he has to confine himself within his comfort zone of mafia and thrillers? Why his music has nothing soulful off late. I don’t know how Sholay will turn out but omens are not good.

Rating : Don’t waste ur money or time on this one !

Hazardous Materials Data Sheet :)

Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh

History has always fascinated me. I always love to read historical novels and this time during my visit back home I got the chance to read one such book. Stanley Wolpert’s
Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh is an excellent combination of historical facts interwoven with fiction.
The book starts with the early summer of 1919 when entire Punjab was actively protesting against Rowlett Act. In Amritsar too the protest rallies were organized under local leadership of Dr Satywan & Barrister Kitchloo, who were true Gandhian follower to the core. The huge response to the protest march scared the English so much that in panic they called the both leaders and without any prior warning put both of them under house arrest & took them to outside Punjab.

English thought that their arrest will stop any further protest but their decision backfired. Devoid of any able leadership, the peaceful protest transformed into mob fury. The protesters in angry mood marched towards Civil Lines to ask Collector to free their leaders. But before they could do so their march was halted at the bridge leading to Civil lines with bullets showered by English, in which around 30 protesters died. This resulted in complete mayhem and in retaliation 6 British nationals were killed including a lady on other side of the city.

Situation could have become normal had the English took the help of moderate leaders to difuse the situation but instead they called the Army. On 12th April local leaders called a meeting in Jallianwala Bagh on 13th to decide about the future course of action. English under the leadership of Brig Gen Dyer put the prohibitory orders against any kind of assembly in the morning. Incidentally that was day of Baisakhi and many farmers from nearby village came to Amritsar to watch the annual cattle fair without knowing the prevailing conditions of the city.

Col dyer came with his Gorkha troops at 5 in the evening and without any prior warning started indiscriminate firing. With only one entrance in the ground people have no way to go. More than 300 innocent persons as per English estimates and around 1000 as per Congress estimates died in the 10 min shootout.

Stanley Wolpert has beautifully captured the mind of Col Dyer who never felt any remorse doing what he thought was an absolute necessity for protection of British Empire even after the tragedy. However the whole incident ridiculed the hollowness of the Britishers claim that they are superior race with more humanly traits than coloured people. Starting from events from 10th April to 13th April & judicial enquiry in November 1919 , Wolpert has given unbiased & gripping account of the sordid saga.

A must read for anyone interested in national freedom movement of subcontinent.

The Month that was :(... the day that is :)

Last one month was not hectic work wise, but still there were things that kept me away from this blog. Firstly it was Mumbai Blasts & then the Ban on some blog sites which resulted in total whitewash of Blogspot & Type Pad. This happened due to poor implementation strategy adapted by our ISP's. Thank god due to combind protests & good networking through the print media we were back to our blogs within few days.

Anyway during the period of this ban i first went to Kolkata & then to Asansol to attend some official work. Due to heavy rains , the only marketing I could do there was to purchase a Tripod for my camera .

However, this month has started with some good news for me. My travelogue on Sikkim has been published in Hindi webzine Abhivyakti in its Ist August issue.

It really made my day... Never thought I could be associated with Abhivyakti in this way :)

Those who can read Hindi can access it from here or here.

World Cup Soccer 2006 : Did it live up to our expectations?

It's Written in the SandIndian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik adds the finishing touches to his sand sculptures of Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro (R) and French captain, Zinedine Zidane at the Golden beach in Puri, east of the Indian city of Orissa, July 8, 2006.

World Cup will finish tonight. There were some spectacular goals scored in the tournament. But all in all this World Cup will have fewer memorable moments than its previous editions. Records were created, though mostly on negative note. Apart from goals scored from maximum no. of passes (Argentina did it first & then it was improved upon by Brazil) the other things which I can remember about this cup are...

• A player hyped as best in the game miserably fails to stamp his authority on the World Cup.
• A team crashed out in last 16 stage without conceding a goal in the tournament.
• A match in which record nos. of red & yellow cards were showered by the referee.
• A team now on verge of winning the World Cup got a controversial penalty in its favour against Aussies in dying seconds of the match.

If that was not enough, Asian teams especially Korea & Japan performed below par. With their elimination in earlier rounds thise time, one can conclude that home advantage in World Cup means assistance from referee. With so many controversies happening in every world cup why can't FIFA use Ultra slow motions to decide off-sides & infringement inside the penalty area to start with?

The only bright side was good showing by African countries such as Ghana & Ivory Coast. Hope with experience they can challenge hegemony of European & Latin American countries in years to come.

As for the question where our own country stands viz to viz qualification for the World Cup, I have this post लो जी मन्ने कर दिया गोल ! to offer which I wrote on my Hindi Blog.

Quotes about Marriage !

Another forward which i thought will be interesting to share.. (I know ise post karne ke baad gaali bhi milegi kuch logon se :))

I recently read that love is entirely a matter of
chemistry.That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
David Bissonette

When a man steals your wife, there is no better
revenge than to let him keep her.
Sacha Guitry

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a
coin; they just can't face each other, but still they
stay together.
Hemant Joshi

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be
happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us
from achieving them.
Dumas

The great question... which I have not been able to
answer... is, "What does a woman want?
Sigmund Freud

I had some words with my wife, and she had some
paragraphs with me.
Anonymous

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We
take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A
little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing.
She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
Henry Youngman

"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two
years."
Sam Kinison

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even
faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage."
James Holt McGavran

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one
left me and the second one didn't."
Patrick Murray

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
Nash
The most effective way to remember your wife's
birthday is to forget it once...
Anonymous

You know what I did before I married? Anything I
wanted to.
Henny Youngman

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we
met.
Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she's
wrong.
Milton Berle

Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the
enemy.
Anonymous

A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: "Wife
wanted". Next day he received a hundred letters. They
all said the same thing: "You can have mine."
Anonymous

First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!" Second Guy
"You're lucky, mine's still alive."

Snapshots from Sikkim : V

There are many waterfalls on the road side as one ventures into North Sikkim. We encountered this one just after Lachung on our way to Chungthang.
But can u tell me What the girls are looking at?
The Waterfall or......:p












It was fine sunny morning as we started for Changu lake & Nathu La about 40 km from Gangtok. There was greenary all around as we moved out of Gangtok.
But then soon these green & blue colors were replaced by white and blue skyline.
You can read the travelogue of Changu Lake, Nathu La here or here.





No, no this is not Changu Lake. We saw this small water body betwen Nathu-La & Baba Mandir.











Do u remember the Maruti Ad which claimed that they have their service centre in every nook & corner of the country ! But then SBI (state Bank of India should claim this too :)

Sikkim is a delight for nature lover. It boasts of more than 500 varieties of orchids, some of which are very rare. Our visit to the flower show was an amazing experience. It seemed God has run riot of colors !

One thing u can never forget after visiting a hill station is these cute looking children. With their red round cheeks & small inquisitive eyes they r the ideal portrait for any photographer/tourist.
That's all I have to share with u on Sikkim. thx for joining in this memorable journey.

Snapshots from Sikkim : Part IV

After enjoying Gurudongmar we have to go back to Lachen. The journey was not that comfortable.The dizziness encountered earlier was still playing on my mind. Just before Thangu we diverted for some time to Chopta Valley. You can see the path of meandering river in the valley in the pic.

After the most hectic journey in which we have to face high speed chilling wind in the morning & heavy downpour in the evening from 5.30 AM to 7PM covering 190km (see the map on other blog) we jumped into our bed straightway after reaching Lachung. Next morning was the best I have ever had in my life . Its other matter that I rarely open my eyes before 7 AM whenever I am at home :). Anyway I have described my experience of that morning here.Even if u can't understand the details of the post, those pics will convey the feelings.

Next day we were at Yumthang also known as Valley of Flowers. Though we could not see the flowers in their full bloom as we landed there in April. The best season to see the riot of colours displayed by 24 species of Rhododendrons is May.

Yumthang Valley is surrounded by green forests & high mountains on both sides. The river Lachung Chu with its wide span flows in between.

U can see the other pics and details of the journey at the links below
Yumthang Valley
Lachung
GurudongMar to Lachung via Chopta Valley

Snapshots from Sikkim : Part III

A small sleepy village Lachen which we left early in the morning for our onward journey to Thangu & Lake GuruDongmar

Weather was cloudy in lachen & it remained so until we crossed Thangu. our hearts erupted with joy when we saw clear blue sky for the first time since morning.

We were now at a height of 16000 feet with no vegetation to speak of. Snow capped peaks, gushing winds, wandering clouds and flat terrain was what we were subjected to in those unforgettable 4 hours of journey.

Hurrah! we have reached our first destination at a height of 17300 ft at this beautiful lake called Gurudongmaar. It was really unbelievable to be at such height.

Only a part of the lake was frozen & we went there to just have a feel for the ice. U can see pics of frozen lake on my other blog.

I got the feel of the song while climbing to that spot
Is jameen se aasman tak............
Main hi Main hoon
Doosra Koyi Nahin Hai :)To see the other pics click on the link below

Lachen to Thangu & beyond

Gurudongmar Lake

Snapshots from Sikkim - Part II

The journey from Gangtok ,Tashi View Point & then to Lachen was memorable for various reasons some funny and some not so funny! U can find it out along with pics at the links given below
Safar Sikkim Ka :Part III Roman Hindi हिन्दी
Safar Sikkim Ka Part II Roman Hindi, हिन्दी


The road from tashi view point to Phensang was quite terrible because of rains and landslides.

However remote the area may be u can be rest assured that one companion will always be with u that is Indian Army.

After 100 km of journey we reached Chungthang the origin of river Teesta.
And this was an effort to give some relaxation to the whole body :)

Snapshots from Sikkim : Part-I

With summer in its full bloom, travel is the theme of all my blogs this month.:)
Traveling is one thing which I love to do. And when we got a bunch of holidays in 2nd week of April it was time to set off for a holiday. I will not give any journey details here as I am already covering them at my other blogs . U can read them and see some more pics here

From Siliguri to Gangtok or

सफर सिक्किम का ....

But then I have lot of pics to share something new in all my blogs :). Both these pics were taken when we were in route to Gangtok from Sikkim.
Look how lush green is the forest a view which continued for some time as we moved out of Siliguri. Siliguri is infact gateway to several tourist destinations in North Bengal, Sikkim & Bhutan!

A view of River Teesta what river Ganges is to UP...the same importance has River Teesta to people of Sikkim.We got first glimpse of teesta 35 km away from siliguri and then went all along it towards its origin!
All these pics are taken from moving vehicle so focus is not as sharp.

A Year Passed...

One year has passed since I first started this blog. Last month it was celebrations time for my other blog Ek Sham Mere Naam where I dedicated a series of seven posts to my frens. But then it will be a quieter affair here.
Its a kind of sleepy blog which goes on its own pace. As a result I have only 40+ posts here compared to 90+ at other one.

The most happening moment of this blog was the fun Quiz Posts when I tried to share few titbits of my life in an interactive manner with all of u. It was neck to neck race between Puneet , Don & Divya and finally Puneet scrapped thru .

Like to thank u all who frequented this blog some time or the other especially KL, DON, Urvi, Keshi, ZA, Jawaher, Puneet, Pari, Divya, Avik, Megha, Nagu, MS...
I don't know how many of u will still remain active till next year , as one can see that nothing is permanent in this blogging world. But still I hope that u all will be there next time around.

With love to M S Dhoni !

Its a day of pride for every Ranchite.:) more so for people of Shyamli where he grew up. Today my blog salutes Mahendra Singh Dhoni not only because the way he has played for his country in past few months but for fighting the odds heavily loaded against him.
Imagine a guy coming from a lower middle class family...
residing in a state which even finds difficult to beat cricket minnows like Assam...
becomes the top player in the world international cricket ranking by playing just 50 odd one day matches a feat even not acheived by the great Sachin Tendulkar !

Some info about MS Dhoni

Starting his sports career as a goalkeeper in school, the Ranchi lad's keeping skills between the posts had prompted the coach to ask him to don the keeping gloves of cricket and the rest is history. What was soccer's loss turned out to be cricket's gain?
"He was a good football goalkeeper during school days. In one of the cricket matches he was asked to keep the wickets. He allowed only four byes," cricket coach Chanchal Bhattacharya said.
Agreeing with Bhattacharya, Dhoni's father Pan Singh said: "My son used to play as a goalkeeper in colony football matches. He switched over to cricket after he was asked by the coach."
The 23-year-old Dhoni's exulting stroke play reminds the old-timers of another wicketkeeper-opener of Bihar Daljit Singh, who had displayed free stroke making in 1960-70.
Dhoni, the first international cricketer from Jharkhand is also the latest from the undivided Bihar which has produced players like Saba Karim, another wicketkeeper, Subroto Banerjee, Ramesh Sexana and Randhir Singh.
A student of DAV School and now in the Gosnar College, Dhoni, who had set ablaze the Visakhapatnam stadium with a scintillating 123-ball 148, is a good student too. RE Singh, the former principal of DAV Shyamali where Dhoni was a student, said right from the school days, he was sincere and hard working. Dhoni's father said he has always encouraged his son and never interfered in his goals.
Bhattacharya said Dhoni's fireworks had started in the first class cricket a couple of years ago, mesmerising the likes of pacemen Venkatesh Prasad, Doda Ganesh and spinner Sunil Joshi of Karnataka who were in Ranchi to play Ranji Trophy match.

##########################################

Wish u all the best Dhoni. I hope u will remain the humble person and play sensible cricket unfazed by the hype that is going to surround u in a cricket crazy nation like India.

Journey to Touch the Skies....

Last two weeks were not that pleasent ! First it was sore throat & then problem of BP. So every morning started with some tests ... and evening with some reports. Anyway everything is fine with the tests but I have to take medicine regularly from now on.
Back to the topic which prompted me to make an update here.
Hmmmmm I will be away for one week..for the reason mentioned in the title.
Yes I will try to touch the sky:) hee hee
At least I will go near it from 2000 ft presently to 17000 ft above MSL to be with nature for a while. And I am using word try because it all depends on weather.
Your next question will be....Where I am going? To that my answer will be
In the land of Kanchanjangha...
In the valley of Yumthang ...
In the vicinity of Sino-Indian Border ...

Wish me all the luck so that I am able to see and share the experiences of the journey when i come back on 14th.

Language Blues...

After Holi's masti & ho -halla it was time to take the break. No not for me frens but for my voice. For few days it completely backed out. Anyway back to the business of blogging & today I will tell u a small funny incident at my workplace!
And its related with the funny side of the language.
Ranchi has a sizable Bengali population and so has our office.
It so happened that a technical discussion was going on between two gentleman one being Bengali (say Mr B) and other South Indian (say Mr S). The language of discussion was offcourse English.
Somehow Mr B was not able to convince Mr S and the discussion ended in stalemate.
Mr B went back to his table thinking how on earth I am not able to covince him. A peculier thing abt him was that whenever he is agitated he uses Hindi to stress his point .
Now in the vocabulary of Mr B there was a word जानना (i.e to know ) but he further improvised it and went to discuss again the matter with Mr S. Mr S told him why he is explaining the same thing again and again.
Mr B in his agitated voice told him मैं आपका जनाना चाहता हूँ !:)
What he actually meant that he want to make him understand
But in english it translated like I want your wife as जनाना means wife !
There was a tremendous laughter in the whole section. :)
Sabne hanste huye kaha Sir aap yahan aisa bole koi baat nahin par kabhi kisi rikshewale ya sabziwale ko samjhate samjhate ye mat keh deejiyega nahin to badi mushkil ho jayegi.
(Sir its OK that u have spoken like this in the office & that too with a south indian but if u tell the same thing while trying to convince a vegetable vendor or rikshawallah it will land u in great trouble)
Anyway Mr B still cherishes his Hindi and is not afraid to use it now and then. Meanwhile we r eagerly awaiting another funny twist which is bound to come sooner or later.

Holi

Holi is not my favourite festival. Somehow my energy level never increases in same proportion as it does as Deepawali starts approching. The reason being my childhood memories associated with Holi are not so pleasant. I have lost count of years I have evaded geeli holi . But no body can deny that if played in right spirits it is the most powerful festival to bring love, joy,harmony & togetherness in every strata and crosssection of the society.
In our part of world the Holi Day is divided in two parts. In the first half people play with colors. Please note that the use of word color should not be taken literally:). It includes wide amt of material starting with dye,potein,cow dung,mud….and the rest I leave to ur imagination. From my childhood I used to evade this first half. In all those years my holi started from second half in which people visit each other place and smear the faces with abeer or gulaal.
But this year I was mentally prepared not to use any tricks to get away from the colours . So when first group came to my home I readily opened the door …
& then what happened
see the results for urself:)

This pic was taken just before I was going outside to play colors. And the next one was taken when I came back.
























This one is pic of my friend & he is in real life fairest among all our officemates:)
Colors used : Green color+Black Dye :)