Shivpuri Rishikesh Slideshow

Goa - January 2007

Mcleodgunj trip with satish

Vagabond Wanderer

Today I have started a new blog, Vagabond Wanderer
, which is my travelogue written in videos and images.

Har Ki Paudi ( Haridwar)

Ganga Aarti - Har Ki Paudi - Haridwar - Part I


Ganga Aarti - Har Ki Paudi - Haridwar - Part II

Shivpuri (Near Rishikesh)

Camping experience at Shivpuri near Rishikesh - Part I


Camping experience at Shivpuri near Rishikesh - Part II

Sattal

Entry:



Paragliding(starting):


Paragliding - view from the top :


Paragliding - crash landing

Chandigarh

Chandigarh Roads


Sukhna Lake


Rock Garden


Rose Garden

अब के बरस

अब के बरस भेज भैया को बाबुल
सावन में लीजो बुलाय रे
लौटेंगी जब मेरे बचपन की सखियाँ
देजो संदेसा भिजाय रे
अब के बरस भेज भैया को बाबुल...

अम्बुआ तले फिर से झूले पड़ेंगे
रिमझिम पडेंगी फुहारें
लौटेंगी फिर तेरे आंगन में बाबुल
सावन की ठण्डी बहारें
छलके नयन मोरा कसके रे जियरा
बचपन की जब याद आये रे
अब के बरस भेज भैया को बाबुल...

बैरन जवानी ने छीने खिलौने
और मेरी गुड़िया चुराई
बाबुल थी मैं तेरे नाजों की पाली
फिर क्यों हुई मैं पराई
बीते रे जग कोई चिठिया ना पाती
ना कोई नैहर से आये रे
अब के बरस भेज भैया को बाबुल...

Terror attacks in Rajasthan

Rajasthan must be one of the few states in India oblivious so far to the terror attacks.
But not any more.

Here is my guess to what could have helped Ajmer blasts.

In February last year, India and Pakistan decided to reopen the Munabao Khokhrapar
rail link, after more than 40 years. Munabao lies in Rajasthan. It seems the rail link
has opened the terror links as well.

Videos

Talking of videos, here are my two most popular videos till date.
One features Sudeep Goyal, another Chandigarh Roads :

Sattal - Paragliding - Crash Landing

Just came back from Sattal, it was a group outing by and for Mentor Graphics Noida team.
Here are two videos which I shot while doing paragliding.
I ended up doing a crash landing in the end ;-)
Don't miss that prolonged "Oye" sound just before the end.

Only the last minute :



Complete version :

Arun's wedding video

Recently I attended Arun's wedding in Agra. Here's the video :

Ramazan bodes well for Pak

In the ongoing Twenty20 cricket world cup Pakistan have now beaten
both the world cup finalists(SL and Aus) in a row. These wins coincide
with the festivities of Ramadan. Pak seems to be benefiting from the early adoption
of Twenty20 at the domestic level. They have held 3 contests thus
far, less than only England(5) and SAF(4).

Pakistan's wins come as a much needed freshener for the cricket world,
bored and numbed with the monotony of Oz supremacy. Let's ravel
in as long as it lasts. Hope Bob is enjoying it too...

20% discount on books and NCERT online

Having moved to Noida, one thing I miss about Bangalore is the flat 20% discount on books.
Premier book shop and Blossoms on Church Street used to offer it without asking.
Same was true for Tata Book House in IISc.
But here in Noida, I don't yet know of any such shop. Do you?

On a different note, some time ago I came to know about NCERT's course material
online. It's a commendable feature with one problem though. One can't download
a book in one shot. One has to download every chapter separately.

If one wants to download it slightly faster, here are some file lists which one can
use with wget(wget -i fileList).

SRK in Chak De

Much has been said about Shahrukh Khan's performance
in Chak De India. I have to agree it is a fine one
but only as compared to Shahrukh's previous
appearances.

It is hard not to imagine how Aamir Khan would have
done it. And he would have done it much better.
No second thoughts on that one.

SRK didn't go over the top in this movie but he
didn't have the required intensity for an emotionally
battered coach.

In my opinion he was outshone by many actors
in the movie itself. Chitrashi Rawat(Komal Chautala),
Shilpa Shukla(Bindia Naik),Javed Khan(Sukhlal) and
Anjan Srivastav(Tripathi Ji) did far better. As far
as emotions are concerned the Dahi-Chawal dialogue
between Bindia and Sukhlal was the highlight
of the movie.

From the fun point of view players' registration
scene and antics of Chautala were the core of the
movie.

Anyway, nitty-gritties apart, it is a must watch.

Hats off to Bishnois !!

It is common in India for celebrities to commit a crime and
to get away with it by buying the witnesses. But not so for
Salman Khan, poor chap. He was caught hunting in a Bishnoi
territory. Bishnois are a community who religiously guard
trees and wild animals and have laid down their lives in
past doing the same.

Salman Khan was in trouble in another case of rash driving
in Mumbai, in which case the witness has gone missing(no surprises here).

But in Jodhpur he is up against Bishnois, who have the
political backing and near zero possibility of being
sold out to money.

Salman, you are in trouble.

Posing for the cameras

This is a picture(courtesy : AFP and The Hindu)
of Lin Dan expressing himself after winning a badminton match. Isn't it unusual? Don't those sports guys react to the crowd rather than so clearly looking into the eye of the camera?
Well, in this case there was another lensman watching :-)

Lok Sabha and Marhi Da Deeva

Yesterday surfing through various TV channels, on one of the channels "Lok Sabha",
I saw Deepti Naval wooing Raj Babbar in Punjabi. I found it interesting. It was a movie
"Marhi Da Deeva" that was being shown. It has a tragic ending. It also is one of
the best cinematic works around.

It has been directed by Surinder Singh and based on a novel by the same name
authored by Gyanpeeth award winner Prof. Gurdiyal Singh. Here is a
synoposis from IMDB :

"The film is a social tragedy born out of the gradual transformation of feudalism into capitalism.
It concerns the predicament of the protagonist Jasgir who becomes the victim of the exploiters
tendencies of the Young landlord. His father was treated kindly by the elder landlord but the son
Bhanta tries to retrieve all what his father had given to Jagsir. Against the background of this
external oppression Jagsir is also deprived of normal life because he belongs to low caste and
cannot marry from among his own people as his parents marriage itself was not acceptable to his
maternal grandparents, who discarded his mother. Jagsir is thus condemned to live and dies
without a child who will light a lamp at his tomb. Jagsir however falls in love with his friend's
wife Bhani. Does love hold any promise for the future or is Jagsir to drag his life to death and
become extinct without anybody to light his tomb?"

Movie boasts of an impressive cast line, most of them of Punjabi origin,including Pankaj
Kapoor, Deepti Naval, Raj Babbar, Parikshit Sahani, Asha Sharma and Kanwaljeet singh.

A must watch.

Although I had a tough time finding out the name of the movie. I looked it up in Times of India,
but it doesn't carry program schedule for "Lok Sahba", I looked it up in zipzap.com, but to
no avail, since "Lok Sabha" is not so popular a channel. Eventually I found it at two places.
Firstly in "The Hindu", the newspaper and secondly here. It was heartening to know that
"Lok Sahba" has its schedule online.

North East takes Centerstage

In December,1995 as a 13-year old I had attended a "National Integration Camp"
in Itarana,Alwar as an NCC cadet. It witnessed cadets from almost 20 states,
IIRC. There the best of the singers belonged to Darjeeling.

And now they have come to the fore.

Never before in the history of Indian media has North-East been so mainstream.
In the currently ongoing Indian Idol 3, 3 out of final 6 contestants are from the
North-East. Amit Paul from Shillong, Prashant Tamang from Kolkata and of
Nepalese origin and to top the list Meiyang Chang from Dhanbad but more
importantly of Chinese origin.

While Chang is being described as the "cutest" contestant, it is Tamang who
has generated the maximum buzz, being the only one to have a Wikipedia
entry dedicated to him.

Personally I think Tamang/Amit are the best singers of the lot,
but Indian Idol is not simply a singing competition anyway. It's
more of a performance event.

On a different note I think this edition of Indian Idol is a big leap forward
in truly mingling North East with rest of the India.