Genesis

Among the many dimensions, many flavors, and many gharanas of Indian music, the famous Mangeshkar family secures one of the top spots because of the quality and purity of music. Pt. Deenanath Mangeshkar who was an acclaimed classical singer and actor during his time taught the basics of music to her first daughter Lata. Little did he know that long after his death, his son and daughters will be the torchbearer of his legacy. The basic stepping stone provided by Pt. Deenanath Mangeshkar will provide a long and illustrious career of seven decades for her daughters and her daughters will be in the heart of billions of Indians and others who follow Hindi Bollywood music all over the world. Many generations of actresses starting from Madhubala in the 1950's to Priety Zinta in 2004 will feel blessed that the legendary Lata Mangeshkar has provided the background song for them in their film. Many co-singers feel blessed to be singing alongside the legend Lata Mangeshkar. Approximately 2500...

According to Wikipedia definition, "Last Stand" is a military terminology where there is a situation in the battlefield in which a relatively small number of defending troops hold a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds (like shortage of ration, ammunition, large number of enemy forces and a formidable opposition with the capability to have multiple waves of attack). In all likelihood the defending army face a complete destruction of their battalion such as death of all the personnel or very heavy casualty figures or being taken prisoner of war. The defending army takes the last stand (while they are well aware that the odds are against them) due to their dedication towards their duty, honor and over and above for their country and fellow countryman. The heroic acts of the soldiers earn them the highest military awards for their gallantry and their names are etched in the history with memorials being erected in their names. But in some cases, history forgets th...

When I first heard the song "Maine dil se kaha dhund lana khusi" from the hindi movie "rog" I first saw an actor who was an absolute fit for the expression required in the lyrics. The second instant I remember of reading the novel "namesake" Of jhumpa lihari while waiting in railway station and later watching the soulful acting of the same actor as an Indian academician in USA and tabbu (another classic actress) in a perfect recreation of the novel. Pan Singh tomar was another master piece where the protagonist played by the same actor picks up gun for justice in the infamous chambal area of Madhya Pradesh. It was another bibliographic movie which the actor gave the full justice. My mother's favorite Shakespeare novel (Macbeth) aptly recreated in silver screen by the same actor. In the movie "mighty heart" which is a recreation of novel of same name, the actor plays a honest, no-nonsense Pakistani police officer in charge of investigation of ...

As the first teacher to me and teacher to thousands of other intermediate as well as undergraduate girls who had the opportunity to learn from your technical skills and follow your grace as well as dignity, it has been a remarkable journey. The girls whom you have taught must be indebted to you because of your contribution towards their overall development and metamorphism. Maa, Your journey as a teacher, started on a very early age with lot of hopes and aspiration and as the  journey progressed, many challenges in form of government red tape, lack of a suitable working environment, health issues, family issues and more recently issues such as changing of teaching standards, environment and over reliance on technology over classical teaching came in to existence. Overcoming all the hurdles while maintaining the same composure, grace, dignity and modesty has been one of the greatest achievement in your life. Despite the overwhelming workload on a very limited workforce in the profes...

In a routine and mundane life on earth, a particular date doesn't have a significant importance until and unless it has some events or incidents associated with it. In one date different incidents occur in different part of the world. Some incident are routine life incidents such as birth, death, graduation or marriage which involves a particular person or a group of person's memory. But some incidents can change the course of history and can affect millions of people. There are many such dates where over the years the world witnessed many remarkable events. Such a date is 16th December. 16th December 1773: Boston Tea Party Boston Tea party was a protest against the Tea act of the British government. The British colonies demanded "No taxation without representation" and threw boxes of tea in to the Boston harbour. Boston tea party was one of the epic defiance of the British rule and over the years the Boston Tea Party has been one of the most signifi...

On 17th July 2018, one of the last frontiers of internet boom bites the dust. Yahoo Messenger has been permanently shut down. 20 years is a very young age to die but in internet market it's considered as a substantial period. Yahoo messenger can be considered as a first generation dating software where people from different countries and continents can chat with each other using different chat rooms. There were similar software such as MSN messenger and AOL instant messenger but none had been as popular as Yahoo messenger. Yahoo messenger was a tool many urban kids of India loved to use. They thought they can talk to people and improve their English. So many Indian kids sat in dingy internet cafe equipped with dial-up connection and chatted with yahoo messenger for long time. But there was a serious flaw in the whole concept. The flaw was identifying who is on the other side. But internet boom is all about anonymity. So yahoo quite well played with it. As the user base and popul...

Five years back on one of the infamous Friday the 13th I had penned down some of the interesting events of that day. Least I knew that five years down the line, those events will significantly change the world. The first incident I said was about the decision of fast track court in Nirbhaya rape case. All the four accused were sentenced to death by fast track court. In five years’ time, the Honbl'e Supreme court of India have confirmed the death sentence and declined a review petition by the accused. The wheel of justice runs really slow and hopefully someday in near future, Nirbhaya gets justice. On 13-09-2013, Narendra Modi was elected the prime ministerial candidate of BJP and under his able leadership the party has won the landmark 2014 general elections and forming the BJP government in center. Subsequently the party won many state elections with comfortable majority. In some states, the party couldn't win the desired number of seats; therefore it took the help of al...

28th September 1907: Bhagat Singh's Birthday Happy Birthday Saheed Bhagat Singh. In a short span of 23 years you have created a name for yourself which people requires a minimum half a century to build. You stood against the might of British Empire and the British Empire at some point of time was sweating due to your charismatic nature and fan following. You were hanged to death on 23rd March 1931 in Lahore Conspiracy case. Though your teaching and sacrifice has largely been forgotten by the younger generation, your contribution towards the Indian independence is commendable. Hope you show a brighter path of wisdom to the current generation.  28th September 1929 (Lata Mangeskar Birthday) Happy Birthday to Bharat Ratna Lataji. Today is your 88th Birthday. The number 88 is just a number as your melodious voice does the entire talking. Your first recorded song was way back in 1942 and the last recorded song was in 2015, so its 73 years of playback singing. It is estimated that you ...

September 11 1893: The first world's parliament of religion started in Art Institute of Chicago, USA. Swami Vivekananda from India delivered his first lecture on the first day itself and got a standing ovation from the crowd of nearly 7000 people for 2 minutes when he said "Sisters and brothers of America!". His explanation of Hinduism and other aspects of religion while giving small examples like a frog in a well literally shook the collective consciousn ess of the world. The world saw India in a different perspective from that point. September 11 2001: The 9/11 attack on USA as it is called changed the world politics forever. On this day USA was attacked by terrorist of Al-Qaeda as they hijacked 4 civilian air planes (2 of them Boeing 767 and other 2 of them Boeing 757). Two air crafts hit the iconic twin towers (world trade centre), the other one hit the nerve centre of American defence pentagon and fourth plane was crashed in Pennsylvania. Around 3000 American ci...

Republic of Sudan witnessed the first civil war from 1955 to 1972 and second civil war from 1983 to 2005. As a result of the civil wars more than 2 million people died due to famine, disease and human rights violation. 4 million people were displaced due to the civil war. This picture was taken by Late Kevin Carter in Sudan in 1993. Kevin was from South Africa and he was in Sudan for an assignment. During those time Sudan was facing acute famine and the little girl in the picture is trying to get to the UN feeding center and all of a sudden a vulture came and landed just behind the starving girl as if it is waiting for its prey. Kevin took the photograph and waited if the vulture would spread its wing. After a wait of 20 minutes he chased away the vulture. He sold the picture to The New York Times and it was published on 26th March 1993. This picture had a massive outcry and many people called the office of The New York Times to know about the well being of the girl in the sub...

On this day I remember three of the legends in their respective fields.  Hindi literature is incomplete without the occurrence of the name of "Upanyas Samrat" Munsi Premchand. Munsi Premchand was born on 31st July 1880 and his real name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastav. Till date in the Hindi heartland of India, the school going children studies his classic writings and tries to understand the reality of socio economic life of India under the British rule. His novels and short stories such as "Godaan", "Namak ka daroga", "Nirmala" and "Seva Sadan" reflect the stark realities of those times.   Ask any one in India to name his/her favourite playback singer in Hindi films and in the most probability you will hear this gentleman’s name i.e Mohammed Rafi.  Mohammed Rafi passed away on 31 st  July 1980 in Mumbai.  His association with legendary music directors like Naushad, S D Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, O.P. Nayyar, Ravi, Laxmikant-Pyarel...

As soon as I entered the room I could hear the sound of loud sobbing and crying of a woman. The room was not a big one, but it was large enough to accommodate a double bed, a sofa, a TV and an almirah. All the furniture’s were stuffed in that room, inside that room a group of women were sitting (some on floor, resting their back on the sofa and some on the bed). The center of attention was a woman sobbing uncontrollably. She just lost her husband, who died due to a sudden heart attack. She is the daughter of one of the brother of my father. She said, “There are a lot of doctors in our family, but none could save my husband”. Her father was a doctor himself. My father a prominent medicine specialist was sitting nearby on a chair; I looked at him to know his reaction, but couldn’t guess what was running in his mind. May be he knew he is helpless; he tried to cover his helplessness through a grim facial expression. At that moment I thought how difficult it is for a doctor to realize that...

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman better known as R K Laxman, passed away peacefully on 26th Jan 2015. He was 94 year old. R K Laxman was a cartoonist for the Times of India (TOI) for many decades. He had no formal training but his work speaks for itself. He groomed a "common man" (a character from his cartoon strip, "You Said It"). His brother was legendary writer R K Narayan. R K Laxman drew cartoon for Malgudi Days (written by his brother). R K Laxman worked with TOI till 2010 (He was 89 years then). When he suffered yet another stroke, which left him paralysed, he stopped cartooning. This was the only way he could have been stopped from his passion of cartooning. I have a special link with the legend. As early as I remember, TOI comes to our house and I always look for the comic strip in the right hand side of the front page. In my early days though I couldn't understand the deep political satire (Laxman sir was master in it), the cartoon would make my day. My...

September 2005 : Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes cartoons which depicted Islamic prophet Muhammad. These cartoons created a lot of controversies. On Oct 2005, Muslim organization complained about the cartoons and the police investigated on their complain. In Jan 2006 the case was dropped as the police  couldn't  find any violation of  Danish  laws. September 2012 : Indian national Assem Trivedi (cartoon against corruption) was arrested on sedition charges. Earlier in Dec 2011 his website was suspended by Crime Branch, Mumbai. The reason for this arrest is that the government thought he discredited the national emblem of union of India in his cartoon. He was later released on bail. January 2015 : The office of French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo came under attack from armed gunmen which resulted in death of 12 persons (including editor and cartoonist). The armed gunmen claimed that they attacked the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo because they didn...

               Friday 13th is considered unlucky according to Western superstition. Something special happens in Friday the 13th. There are many instances in the past that 13th of any month which falls on Friday became uglier. On 13th June 1997 (on a Friday), fire broke out in Upahar cinema, New Delhi when the cinema hall was packed with audience watching a Hindi film "Border". The fire took 59 innocent lives and 103 people were injured in the resulting stampede. 13th Sep 2013... Friday.. Indian electronic and print media had a busy day in office. The 4 rapist found guilty of Delhi rape case were sentenced to death by hanging by a fast track court in Delhi, pending approval from the honbl'e high court and honbl'e supreme court. The main opposition party of India, BJP declared Narendra Modi as the Prime Minstrel candidate for 2014 Indian general election. This decision was not welcomed by some of the senior party official and some of the allie...

            It has been ages, since I have written something from my heart. Life has changed considerably and I am sailing with the changes, but my love for music and knowledge has been growing at a steady pace. I don't actually remember when the changes started to appear in my life. After I completed my M.E, life has been changing at a rapid pace and I have to adjust with the pace. I did adhoc job in Thapar University for 1 year duration. Those 1 year were very hectic, very eventful and I fought with my teachers and administrators and myself like never before. I wanted to achieve everything in short period, but it was my sheer madness. I was unofficially spoon feeding 10-15 M.Tech students in their research work, was taking classes of image processing which I never studied. Going to Ranchi, Faridabad for project evaluation, preparing a manuscript of a book and doing PTU's M.Tech thesis all in the period of 1 year. As usual after Thapar I had no plans. On...

"kabhi kabhi mere dil main khayal ata hai, ke zindegi tere julfon ke narm chaon main guzarne pati to shadab ho bhi sakti thi, ye ranzo gham ki shyahi jo dil pe chai hai, teri nazar ke suahon main kho bi sakti thi, magar ye ho na saka, magar ye ho na saka........ aur ab ye alam hai ki tu nahi, tera gham teri jhustuju bhi nahi, guzar rahi hai kuch iss tarah zindegi jaise, isse kisiki sahare ki arzoo bhi nahi, na koi raah, na manjil na roshni ki surakh bhatak rahi hai andheron main jindegi meri, innhi andhero main rahjaunga kabhi kho kar, main janta hun meri hum nafaz.. magar yunhi kabhi kabhi mere dil main khayal ata hai" "Kabhi raste main miljao to katra kar guzar jana, hume iss tarah takna jaise pechana nahi tumne, humara jikr jab aya, to yun anjan banjana, ki jaise naam sun kar bhi humne jana nahi tumne.." Kabhi Kabhi (1976), Sahir Ludhianvi

        Again comes the month of February and the love is in the air. Again I am on my annual ritual to pen down something for the Valentines Day. Hope some of you have gone through my previous post on Valentines Day. This year is also not different. I am still single and I don't believe in miracles nor have I witnessed a miracle in my life time. In this post I am expressing my feelings through some of my favorite stanzas of some songs by gazal mestro jagjit singh. As the love takes its first tiny step, the love letter also comes in to existance. Go through the below lines and these are self explanatory. "Pyar ka pehla khat likhne main waqt to lagta hai Naye parindo ko udne main waqt to lagta hai Jism ki baat nahi thi, unke dil tak jana tha, lambi doorie tae karne main waqt to lagta hai" After a courtship period with many ups and down when the love affair is in its death bed, the singer sings the following lines, and as usual it is self explanatory. "Tere kh...

           Today the lust green nature of the Kashmir valley has been converted to a battlefield. The extremist of Islam has declared Jihad against the Indians and in the name of Jihad they are massacring thousands of innocent people. The main target of these people is the Sikh and Kashmir pundit community. To save their life and for the betterment of the young generation they are forced to leave all the belongings and flee to the makeshift refugee camps. But fleeing the valley doesn’t really help. They are like refugees in their own country. Sick older generation and a virtually bleak future for younger generation is a main reason of worry. Beside this there is no source of income, not a roof to support from heat, rain and cold.             There is a little known grocery shop in a market place of a town. It is a bright sunny day and Abdul the owner of the shop is busy checking the ...

18th august 2003: GIET, Gunupur, Rayagada, Orissa          This is the 1st day of a new session in a private engineering college in south Orissa. Young boys and girls from near and far who have sought admission in B.Tech course in different disipline gathered in the small auditorium to attend the orientation program and to listen the long, boring speeches of the chairman and teachers of the college. Many of them are accompanied by their parents. Most of them looked frightened and for the rest of the boys and girls the facial expression was a mixture of joy and sorrow. A young boy of 18 year is standing all alone in the end of the auditorium and listening to the speeches mindlessly. His parent couldn't attend the orientation program because they had to rush back home. After sometime both the audience and the speakers got bored of their respective jobs and finally the orientation program ended and a packet containing some snacks were distribute...