If I were a Baby Again
This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 4; the fourth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
If I were a Baby Now
I would be pampered Wow!
No need to worry about anything,
Only a cry was enough to set things rolling.
Everyone would want to hold me or play with me
and I would be the apple of their eye.
If I were a Baby Now,
Everyone would say Wow,
Look he knows this is a TV remote,
and that is a Cell-Phone!
But then I would be very dependent
cause they would be clueless and,
When I cry out of hunger,
would look at my nappy for answer.
Also I would be given only Milk, Dalia & Lactogen
No beer, whiskey or chilly chicken.
If I were a Baby now
to write these lines pen would ask how?
After the awesome poem lets have a mind-blowing 55-Fiction 
“See Maa how he’s behaving, Don’t know who’s the father and who’s the son ” uttered Shonali disgustingly looking at the antics of Varun and Tikloo.
“Don’t worry beta it runs in their blood even I had same complaint with your Sasurji” smiled Uma reminiscing How her husband would become a baby alongwith Varun.
Note: Sasurji= Father-in-law
This 55-Fiction is inspired from the poem of the great Hindi poetess Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s “Mera Naya Bachpan“. The poem is in Hindi(Sorry non-Hindi readers I couldn’t find an English translation) and if you have not read it then take sometime and read it(non-Hindi reader ask for assistance). Its a classic poem where poetess remembers fondly about her own childhood but her daughter makes it up by making her reliving the childhood through her innocent deeds.
We always wish that we could go back to our childhood/babyhood but truth is we cannot as time only goes forward unless ofcourse if you have a time machine. So what we can do is become a baby or a child once again by being with children(our own or anybody else’s) and becoming a part of their innocent universes.
Regarding the poem I have to say is that its one of the worst written pieces of my life and if you actually have read through it then I really appreciate your patience and courage (Yes you need that to read a pathetic poem. I must tell you last blog-a-ton we had so many awesome poems so I thought let me try it this time and result is in front of you). I know I’ll lose all votes because I put it at beginning and people might have abandoned the post itself after first two lines.(Note: I had got only 1vote in one edition… thanks to Sid aka Ravan, So votes do not matter really but reader’s torture does buddy !!!). So Read it, Curse it and Forget it but do let me know how was the 55-Fiction or the post in general?
PS : Interesting stats …. posts were getting longer but this whole baby thing made it shorter so to save yourselves suggest such tricky topics ….
If I were a Baby again – 580 words
The Indian Dream – 978 words
Teachers AajKal – 884 words
Cream & Scum of Blogging – 489 words
The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
Justice Done
“Mrs. Roy look what he’s done” pointed the teacher angrily to the Class Monitor’s swollen forehead.
Jojo was standing in corner with his head down hiding his sling. Mrs. Roy pulled his ears and asked angrily “Now why?”
“He tried to pull my pants down in front of the Class” cried Jojo writhing in pain.
Image Courtsey : http://www.clipartguide.com/_pages/0511-0907-1419-5653.html
Goodbyes,Welcomes, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Diverse Bangalore
If you are perplexed about the strange title and trying to figure out the connections then don’t do it. Read the post till the end and then throw shoes, tomatoes, rotten eggs and whatever you feel like on me. The story goes like this.
This Saturday I had to drop my sister to airport for an early morning flight also one my Old friends from my school who was in town was to leave at almost same time so it was a double see off for me. The flights were scheduled at 8.25 & 9.15 respectively. But as you know the Bangalore International Airport is so far that one has to start very early and we had to start at 5.45 Am. Just guess on a Saturday it felt like midnight when my mom & sister kicked me out of bed at 5.30 AM (I was supposed to be up by ahem …4.30 AM so absurd). So somehow half sleep half awake we reached airport and the cab guy actually made it really fast and we reached by 6.45 well ahead of time but I asked my sister to go in and I waited outside for my friend.
He came almost then and cursed me for giving wrong info about the commute time and he reached more than 2 hrs before time. But I reasoned the lack of traffic in early morning and faster cabs was the reason for miscalculation.
So we caught up on the old times and remembered all misdeeds of those good old days and were laughing our a*** off catching strange looks from onlookers cause we were near departure gates and generally people are serious and anxious for their departures. Actually we have been like this since school days though we are now ‘responsible men’ but we become we when we are together. So after reliving those crazy times my friend left off.
I still had to wait because I had strict instructions from my mom to stay till my sister’s plane takes off. You know how moms are she is perfectly aware of the procedures at airport, that a visitor has got nothing to do once the passenger gets past the main entrance gate but I am mama’s good boy you see.
So with nothing to do but wait I started observing the people around and as usual there were so many travelers and people who have come to see them off. Actually the scenes at an airport/ railway station / bus station amuses me a lot. Always you’ll see people saying goodbyes to their loved ones many times trying to stop their tears. You get to see plethora of human emotions which is somewhat similar always. Like there was one married girl who was traveling alone I guess maybe first time and her mom was busy clicking here parting shots on mobile with requests to smile back not understanding that poor girl had to push the huge luggage trolley and also show her ticket, id card to the security officer. But I guess all moms are alike and probably she’ll not see her child a long time so the frantic photo session. Then there was a group of IT professionals who were leaving abroad probably. How did I guess? You see a crow identifies a crow easier. I mean I have been in this industry for so many years I know better. One guy’s dad was shouting last minute instructions to his dikhra about travel docs,passports and the theplas packed or one sister was hugging tight her little sister and asking sternly not to cry who was trying real hard to stop the tears. Emotions, emotions and emotions.
On the other side at the arrival gates there was welcome hugs, feet touching and smiles. Emotions of another type. There were others who were searching their name placards maybe landing in city first time. The scene in a railway station is mostly same only difference is that you are with the traveler till the train is actually moving and people can hold hands right till the end.
The airports, railway stations excite me a lot for I love traveling and I feel like getting into one of trains or planes and leave. While I was watching the biggest show on earth called ‘life’ unfolding and me framing a ‘winner post’ for the blog (Don’t laugh like Shilpa once said we bloggers always think posts) I saw a familiar looking young Gora(White),thin but very handsome guy getting in and I was trying to figure out how do I know him as he was just few feet away from me on the other side of barricade. Just then I heard an exicted girl telling her boyfriend “look its Neil Nitin Mukesh” then Jhonny Gaddar flashed through my mind and was about to jump the barricade but by then he had reached the security and was gone and I was left trying to figure really I was so close to one of the hottest rising star of Bollywood yet couldn’t recognize him in time. I quickly messaged my sister about the fact that I may have seen NNM to which she replied it was NNM cause he was in city last Friday and probably returning and chidded me for being such a dumb not to get an autograph at least. But Guys nobody actually noticed him because he looked so different from his onscreen look. Anyway my sister informed that she has boarded, seated and flight is about to leave and I updated my mom and walked towards the BIAL volvo buses. One of the Bus that goes nearest to my house was just starting to leave so quickly got into it for home.
So Goodbyes, Welcomes and Neil Nitin Mukesh all connected in a single post but wait what about diverse Bangalore. Well its like this while I was on the Bus which had a few foriegn travellers as well, stopped at a signal on the NH-7 there was a shining BMW, a road roller, a state of art BMTC Volvo A/C bus(our bus), a two wheeler with two sheep, two men and a tractor with grass stack all jostling for the same road space well thats Bangalore for you when you enter this city like my friends say a “Global Village”.
Lights, Sound & Action
Well I am back again after a longgggg gap. I hope each of you had a Sparkling, Safe & Green Diwali. For me this was a little different Diwali this year. Yeah it started with lighting Diyas, Sparklers, Anars, ground Chakars but ended with real Dhamaka courtesy my friends.
Actually since the ban of sound crackers in my home city Kolkata Diwali has been quite affair actually its been “Deepavalli” the festival of light with just lighting the Diya and the like above. Even after coming to Bangalore the tradition has not been altered much (Austerity drive I guess). You must know that Bengalis celebrate Diwali by worshiping Goddess Kali. A very unique puja which is started at midnight and goes on till very late night. So the memories of offering Puja to Maa Kali at night and waiting for the bhog(prasad) next morning are still afresh. Its also said that this is night of MahaKaal that is all the spirits descend to earth and those who follow tantrik rituals its a big night for them.
When I was very young my Grandfathers(I mean Grandfather and his brothers), my uncles, cousins used to make crackers at home. Yes once Durga Puja was over they would get into preparation right from making the Charcoal to buying all the ingredients. The house would resemble mini cracker factory with each and every member contributing in their own possible roles. We kids roles were mostly to keep a watch over things like the Tubri(Anars in earthen shells) were sun dried properly. And on the D-day we all got together and bursted crackers I mean the Anars, Rong Mosals etc which were home made. In Bengal we have tradition of Tubri competition were the competitors compete to showcase their creativity and ingenuity of making the Tubris. You know some of flares or sparkle from the anars would rise to 30 feet or more. So who ever able to make them reach highest would be the winner 
.
Then came “nuclear” families and we couldnot takeover the tradition and hardwork of those old timers and moreover where did we have so much space and freedom in our ‘apartment’ houses(flat bari). So I like my friends “graduated” on to bombs specially Burima’s Chocolate bomb(Used to be the best & loudest brand of bombs in Bengal). We used to set off these bomb at weird places like letter boxes or bushes or tins to create maximum noise and destruction(I know its an offense now but what else can you expect from alpha-male teenagers). There was flip side of it as well like bomb exploding ‘too’ close deafening and blinding us for some time but we felt that it was worth the ‘risk’(Did the hot girl next door notice the bravity? Well she never told). Then the ‘Rockets’ would get misdirected and hit windows and verandas of ‘enemies’ (people who objected to our galli cricket .payback time Guys). BTW the Rockets sometime chased daylights out of us as well(Comeon they were not made by ISRO so lacked the precision). But it got all stopped due to West Bengal Pollution Control Board and Kolkata High Court making it illegal for sound crackers and several other ‘popular’ crackers and I too ‘grew up’ or maybe ‘woke up’ (I was a fresh working professional by then and not a college-going kid for God’s Sake).
Then destiny brought me to Bangalore and was surprised to see the vengenance with which people burst bombs here. But now it was not that fun felt rather irritated also needed to duck and jump out when some ‘lousy’ kid set-off a bomb on my way. Like I was saying earlier this year was no different like the ones before remember the ‘Austere Diwali’, So I had settled down to watch ‘Bunty & Babli’ on TV. It was then my friends called me out said me join them for a Diwali Party which I had to join and after a few pegs came out the ‘hydrogen’ bombs, ‘Atom’ bombs and what not (They were enough to blow off your ears off if not the world!). Well it was all so sudden that I took the ’safest’ job of holding the candle so that others can light crackers from it but seeing my comrades hurling bombs with fervor my old self got better of me . But lack of practice for long years made me very shaky no it was not alcohol guys(I have stopped it for quite sometime). So apprehensively I took out a bomb and lighted it from the candle and threw it as far as it could go but it landed near to my friend’s neighbour’s dog but the brave creature just moved a bit after the blast. I think it had already turned deaf but the owner wasn’t amused as the dog was sitting at his masters doorstep so naturally the owner threatened. None my comrades wanted a brawl afterall we are all ‘outsiders’ here. So We moved to more open space and I went back to the role of Candle bearer for my comrades in arm. It was fun to relive those old moments but I must say bombs are really not good for anyone but a small number of them can be bursted just for the fun basically festival is time to celebrate but obviously not at anybody’s cost but still.
Today is Bhai Phonta or Bhai dooj as its called in some parts its similar to Rakhi. In this festival sisters of Bengal put tilak(Phonta) on the forehead of their brothers for their well being and blessings if the brother is older which I am. They say “Bhaiyer kopaley dilam phonta, jomer dwarey porle kanta, jomuna dey jom ke phonta ami di amar bhai ke phonta, Bhai jeno hoy lohar vata.” (tr: I am putting the tilak on my brother’s forehead so its putting thorns in front of pearly gates of Yamraj, Yamuna does the same thing for her brother Yama I do it for my brother, so my brother becomes Iron man ). So we cosmopolitan Bengali Brothers get this honor from our sisters twice that is once in Rakhi and once in Bhai phonta . Oh!!! Did I mention that Bhais(brothers) get some of choicest & best mistis(Sweets) along with Phonta ofcourse if you are in Bengal.
With this the month long festivities that started with Durga Puja ends and people specially school kids in Bengal return to school. Holidays are over and work begins . So as life gets back to its mundane rythm lets keep waiting for another year and Wish you all the year is filled with Joy, Happiness & Prosperity.
PS: Guess what I have got as ‘Bhai Phonta’ gift … Guess Guess !!! Two cute little fishes in a cute little bowl …. Thank you Sis !!! They are really cute 
& hyperactive running swimming busily in their little bowl
Images Coursey : http://www.bhaidooj-gifts.com/legends-of-bhaidooj.html
http://www.cupertino-chamber.org/aboutchamber/diwali2006/diwali.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna
Tag Dasa : Double Dhamaka
Ashwini had tagged on 1st October and here I am with them very late I know but still better late than never.
TAG #01 : Innocent… or Guilty?
RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.
RULE 2- You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks!
RULE 3- Copy and paste this into your notes , delete my answers, type in your answers and tag to your friends to answer this.
1. Asked someone to marry you? Innocent
2. Ever kissed someone of the same sex? Guilty.
3. Danced on a table in a bar? Innocent.
4. Ever told a lie? Guilty.
5. Had feelings for someone whom you can’t have back? Innocent.
6. Kissed a picture? Innocent.
7. Slept in until 5 PM? Guilty.
8. Fallen asleep at work/school? Guilty.
9. Held a snake? Innocent.
10. Been suspended from school? Innocent.
11. Worked at a fast food restaurant? Innocent.
12. Stolen from a store? Innocent.
13. Been fired from a job? Innocent.
14. Done something you regret? Innocent
15. Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Guilty.
16. Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Innocent.
17. Kissed in the rain? Innocent.
18. Sat on a roof top? Guilty.
19. Kissed someone you shouldn’t? Innocent.
20. Sang in the shower? Guilty.
21. Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? Innocent.
22. Shaved your head? Innocent.
23. Had a boxing membership? Innocent.
24. Made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? Innocent.
25. Been in a band? Innocent.
26. Shot a gun? Guilty.
27. Donated Blood? Guilty.
28. Eaten alligator meat? Innocent.
29. Eaten cheesecake? Guilty.
30. Still love someone you shouldn’t? Innocent.
31. Have/had a tattoo? Innocent.
32. Liked someone, but will never tell who? Innocent.
33. Been too honest? Guilty.
34. Ruined a surprise? Innocent.
35. Ate in a restaurant and got really bloated that you couldn’t walk afterwards? Guilty.
36. Erased someone in your friends list? Innocent.
37. Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? Innocent.
38. Joined a pageant? Innocent.
39. Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? Innocent.
40. Had communication with your ex? Innocent.
41. Got totally drunk on the night before exam? Innocent.
42. Got totally angry that you cried so hard? Guilty.
Guilty for just 13/42 …How boring 
TAG #02 : How DUMB are you?
The more [x]’ s the “dumber” you are.
[x] Gum has fallen out of your mouth when you were talking
[ ] Gum has fallen out of your mouth when you were NOT talking
[ ] You have ran into a glass/screen door
[x] You have jumped out of a moving vehicle
[x] You have thought of something funny while walking by yourself
[ ] Laughed, then watched people give you weird looks
[x] You have run into a tree/bush.(Actually I ran into a lamppost)
[ ] You know that it IS possible to lick your elbow
[ ] You have tried to lick your elbow… a few times
[ ] You never knew that the Alphabet and Twinkle Twinkle Little star have the same rhythm.
[ ] You just tried to sing them.
So far: 4
[x] You have tripped on your shoelace and fallen.
[ ] You have choked on your own spit .
[ ] You have seen the Matrix and still don’t get it.
[ ] You’ve never seen the Matrix.
[x] You type only with two fingers.
[ ] You have accidentally caught something on fire
[ ] You tried to drink out of a straw, but it went into your nose/eyes.
[ ] You have caught yourself drooling.
[ ] You have fallen asleep in class and fell outta your chair
So far: 6
[x] Sometimes you just stop thinking
[x] You are telling a story and forget what you were talking about
[ ] People often shake their heads and walk away from you
[ ] You are often told to use your “inside voice”.
[ ] You use your fingers to do simple math
[ ] You have eaten a bug
[x] You are taking this test when you should be doing something more important
[x] You have put your clothes on backwards or inside out, and didn’t realize it
[x] You’ve looked all over for something and realized it was in your hand
[ ] You have ran around naked in your house.
So far: 11
[ ] You repost bulletins because you are scared that what they say will happen to you if you don’t.
[x] You break a lot of things.
[x] Your friends know not to use big words around you.
[ ] You tilt your head when you’re confused
[ ] You have fallen out of your chair before
[ ] When you’re lying in bed, you try to find pictures in the texture of the ceiling or wall
[x] The word “ummmmm” is used many times a day.
TOTAL: 14
So I am (14/37)*100 = 37.8% DUMB ! Not Bad eh ?
Whoever hasn’t done this one please do this one.
Bijoya Dashami
So the day has again come. A day when bongs tearfully bid goodbye to their beloved mother Godess Ma Durga. Who had come ‘home’ with her children to bless all of us and give us power to fight the ‘evils’ for the whole year. Its Bijoya Dashami today actually its called Vijaya Dashmi in rest of India. Its a day when Indians celebrate victory(Vijay) of Good over Evil.
In Bengal its the end of the festivities of the Durga Puja. The Durga puja is a very unique festival celebrated by people of Bengal. Whole state stops everything to worship the Godess for 5 days. If you have ever been in Bengal during the Durga Pujas you would know what I am talking about. Actually this festival is not confined to the State we Bongs celebrate it in our own way wherever we are that is from Bangalore to Switzerland.
Vijay Dashmi also marks a begining of another unique phenomenon for Bengalis called ‘Bijoya‘. Its a tradition of spreading universal brotherhood. Its a time when Bengalis visit each other with sweets and Wish each other “Shubho Bijoya” and men do ‘Kolakuli’ a tradition where people Hug eachother in a particular way. The ‘Kolakuli’ is ofcourse for same age guys and pronam(touching feet) for the elders. You get a treat of Narkel nadu(coconut laddo), Nimki(a snack ref pic), Ghugni(white peas curry) etc. This visits can go upto diwali so quite a long period to cover as much ground as possible. Nowadays ofcourse most of the Bijoya is done through phone, email, SMS, Chat, Scraps, Facebook, Tweets(latest addition).
So as the women get ready for “Sindur Khela” and men get ready for the immersion procedures, kids get sad for the end of festivities I sit here thousands of miles away from my hometown and look back to those good old days when I would be in Kolkata and do what every Bengali in Kolkata does during the pujas go pandal hopping then all those ‘pujo prems’( Puja Love stories) ya pujo also meant a time for boys n girls find mates sometimes the relationship lasted only the puja days but many times it lasted lifetime. Actually theres a lot to write about Durga Pujo in Kolkata particular but wouldn’t like to burden you with a very long post which will not be relevant to you. I leave you with some recipes and lots and lots Good Wishes for Dussera and for Bong readers “Shubho Bijaya”.
http://www.senskitchen.com/recipes/Mishti/narkel%20naru.htm
http://www.indobase.com/recipes/details/ghugni.php
Images Courtesy : http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo759976.htm, http://www.bongcookbook.com/2007/10/durga-pujo-isspecial-shubho-bijoya.html
Awards Galore cum Taga Dasa
Friends I am back from a ’sabbatical’ of sorts due to work, health, power situation in Bangalore and ‘n’ no. of reasons.
Well this post is about the awards that I received over the month and a Tag
The awards first :
1. Superior Scribbler Award
![clip_image001[3]](http://dmanji.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/clip_image0013.jpg?w=113&h=150 "clip_image001[3]")
I was awarded by Shilpa and IP.
Rules for this award
Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to five most deserving blog friends.
Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog and link to the original post at The Scholastic Scribe which explains The Award.
Each blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit the original post at The Scholastic Scribe and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who wins This Prestigious Honor.
Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules to his/her blog.
2. SWANK Award
This one was by Kaddu.
3. Blog Buddies Award
This one by Vineeta.
An Update: Prahansha has awarded me with “Most Stylish Blogger Award” thats very nice of her and I am really honored.
Also Nishita has awarded me “I Love UR Blog” award special thanks to her as its great to receive the same award from two friends.
Avada in her Centenary post has given me two more awards. One a very lovely and personalized award where she says “Thanks for being my BLOG BUDDY I really love your blog” a thought which I too have for all of you and the other one “Addicting Blog Award”.
I pass these awards on to all on my blogroll and whoever has commented atleast once in this blog. SORRY guys I couldn’t name & link each of you individually this ’sabbatical’thing is still on and I also need to read over 100 of your posts. So you understand my plight.
Now after awards its the Tag. I was tagged by Avada a lonnnnngg time back, sorry girl for the delay. Its called “Fast, furious and danceable songs tag”.
Let me first tell you I am a non-dancer yet the list is very long and I am adding only a few of them.
Lets start with the Southie numbers well South India is my karmabhoomi and I do listen to Southie songs which transcend language barriers.
1. Song Name:Appadi Pode. Movie Name: Gilli (Tamil) – This one is truly fast, furious and danceable.
2. Song Name: ammadi athadi Movie Name: Vallavan (Tamil) – Gosh you should see the energy levels of Simbu, Nayanthara & Reshmi(the actors) in the video. Its another very fast number.
3. Song Name: Dole Dole Movie Name: Pokhiri(Telugu, Tamil) – You should listen to this song with 1000 watts system its not for the weak hearted the beats just overwhelm you. BTW I think they should have retained this song in Hindi version Salman Starrer “Wanted”.
4. Song Name: June Pona Movie Name: Unnale Unnale (Tamil) – Not as fast and furious as the above ones but still makes my foot tap.
5. Song Name: Jinke Marina Movie Name: Nanda Loves Nanditha (Kannada) – Again its the beats thats real winner.
6. Song Name: Chikku Bukku Railu Movie Name: Jogi (Kannada) – This was the first dance number that used to be played everywhere when I first landed in Bangalore 3 yrs back. So it somehow stayed with me.
Well thats not the list there are so many more songs but as I said I am just giving a sample of the songs I like.
Now for some songs in my mother tongue actually there were no great songs which we could call fast, furious & danceable till Jit Ganguly (Hottest Music Director) hit the Bangla Film Industry. Here are some of his numbers which can compete the Southies or Bollywood.
1. Song Name: Pante Tali Movie Name: Chirodini Tumi Amar – I heard this song was among the first ‘Bangla’ song that was requested to be played in Kolkata’s Disc circuit. The song is a mass one for the snobbish bongs but I like it. Guru fatafati !!!
2. Song Name: Challenge Nibi na sala Movie Name: Challenge – This is a first true rock number in Bangla movie. It does make you groove, move or whatever.
3. Song Name: Poran Jay joliya Title Movie Name: Poran Jay Joliya – The latest craze in Bengal I am sure.
Well for Jit Ganguly I must say Jio Mama ! Chaliye jao! (Keep it up bosss)
Theres another class of dance songs the “Bhasan” songs with Durga Pujo just around the corner its a very big thing. “Bhasan” means the procession that takes idols for immersion. Marathis do it for Ganesh immersion. We Bengalis do it for all Pujos . If you are in Bengal you might even see Kakimas(Aunties) dancing(We Bongs are very passionate you see) to the beats of Tasha party I don’t know what to call a “Tasha Party” in English. So Some of my “Tasha” favorites.
1. Ek do Teen (Tezaaab) – Everyone knows this one I guess.
2. Dekha na hai re soch na hai re (Bombay to Goa) – The Amitabh starrer one.
3. Dardi rab rab kardi – Daler Mahendi
4. babuji zara dheere chalo – That famous Yana Gupta song from Dum.
5. Sapne Mein Milte hai – The song from Satya
There are many more. Actually I have seldom danced in a “Bhasan” as my role mostly was to ensure the immersion was done properly and all the frenzied dancers return home safe and in one piece. If you don’t get what I mean ask your Kolkata friends.
Besides the above we have all the popular item/dance numbers from Bollywood movies which I am not mentioning. One more thing to make a non-dancer to ‘dance’ my friends say you need a few glasses of daru. Toh Yeh Ganpat chal daru laaaa….
As for Tagging its open for all
Tag Dasa : The Brands Tag
The Blog-a-tonic for the second edition is already declared and Congrats IP and Govind for wining also BIG THANK YOU to all who have commented on my post (Its the post that received the highest number of comments in history of this blog!). A Very Special Thanks to Sid for voting my post and opening my account with 4 cheers this time.
Now the Tag its called The Brand Tag. This one by Shilpa. She tagged me when she was in Ladakh but kept us entertained with her ‘offline’ posts.
The Rule
Numerous brands move us in our day to day life. I think brands are like relationships. Do you maintain a good friendship brand? Are you loyal and caring in your brand relationship?
Take any day in your life and chart out the brands you have used.
Well I thought I am not a brand conscious person but just see for yourself How ‘Brands’ feature in my everyday life…
I start my day with them.
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They carry me around the city(Not a very loved ‘Brand’ I guess)
They provide some ‘entertainment’ to my life along with keeping food fresh and last but not least ‘light’ up my world after sundown.
They provide most of the apparels I wear (Mother brand of all popular brands in India).
They are my time keepers/trackers et all.
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Its obvious they connect me to people so that I can express myself.(Wondering How was I doing it before them?)
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This blog is brought to you with help of all of them. For non-IT readers HP for the computer(Desktop, Laptop), Reliance the Internet provider, Microsoft provides the Operating Systems that run the computers which has a free browser also they have something called LiveWriter for composing blogs (Whoa! Bill Gates without you where would I have been). Finally that “W”, man my blog host(WordPress) without them where would ‘Chronicles of a Techie” been. If I am confusing you then please don’t stress your brains this is not for you.
To use all the about brands I am assisted by them. They are my Bankers, Insurance provider, Stock broker I mean they are there for most of my finance related matters. Don’t you think its too much dependency in these dicey times.
What do I say about them, partner for Good Times. Just Chill Chill Just Chill…. Cheers !!! These are not present in my life everyday but couldn’t resist to list them.
OMG never realized so many brands make my day. See thats the advantage of Tags. At times they are a revelation. As far as loyalty is concerned in this era of options and competition I am only loyal to myself.
Now to pass this I would tag anybody who has not done it and has read this post. Please do it and see how brands matter in your everyday life or really do they?
PS: Note to the Brands that didn’t feature above, Kindly extend some ‘exclusive offers’, freebies to me. Who knows you too may be part of my everyday life.
Note: Images are collected from different Internet sources and the owners of the Logos are the Brand owners they are used here for referance purpose.N
Teachers : Aaj Kal
This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 2, the second edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara. Guru Sakshath Parambrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha. (tr: Guru is the creator Brahma, Guru is the preserver Vishnu, Guru is the destroyer Siva. Guru is directly the supreme spirit — I offer my salutations to this Guru.) -Adi Shankara
We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thoughts controlled
There is no sarcasm in the class room
Teachers leave them kids alone
hey teachers leave them kids alone! - Pink Floyd
Though I voted for this topic but when I sat down to write about it I found that I am a not a “student” anymore its been about decade I had anything to do with a “Shikshak” or teacher so How do I write about ‘Teachers Aaj’ part. But since this is a topic at hand I go ahead and write.
Do you think the two quotes above are inappropriate or out of place. I mean first one was written ages ago and the next one not so long ago but it holds true still today. And don’t they provide a very contrasting view.
Ok lets talk of the topic “Teachers – AajKal” or teachers now and then. Lets begin with teachers today.
Today and this today can include a decade or so more in recent past, the teaching is just like any other profession where people go to work do the work(teach) take their dues and theres nothing more to it. Do you this is wrong in this age of extreme professionalism?
I must say that my extended family has or had many teachers. My mom is a trained teacher but dropped the profession to take care of us the kids, My father is currently a visiting faculty so I have a ‘Shikshak’ at home only. And I see him work really hard to prepare notes, presentations(Few moths back my sister & I taught him MS PowerPoint) and books. But what he says is that most of the effort is not worth as noone is interested to ‘learn’.(Don’t worry guys even our teachers alleged that).
Today the teachers in private sector are paid a meager amount. So where do they get the motivation to ‘teach’, quite naturally they resort to other sources of income like tuition, writing suggestion books etc. I can talk about an incident where a college student asked the professor to teach from a particular suggestion book as it was easier for ‘him’ to study and the professor had to comply, as a complaint from the “high fees paying student” could have been detrimental for the professor’s own job itself. Sad right but true, Ok I am not trying defend or offend anyone but facts are facts. (Another allegation, now all the students must be looking for me to break my bones).
The scenario in government institutions is little different as “teachers” are selected through a ’stringent’ selection processes and paid well but there too we have corruption. Which is used by teachers to get into ‘plum’ institutions. Like all other government employees govt. teachers too take their job complacently. Add to that the retirement age is so high. So what we get? Old & grumpy often sleepy teachers. (Now teachers are searching for me I guess).
All in all what I get is the situation is looking grim today. But is it really like that?
Now lets talk of teachers of Kal or yesterday, Now yesterday can be right from the beginning of civilization. Well in India the Guru-Shisiya (teacher-student) relation has been one of most sacred of the relations. So if we see down the lane there have been great gurus (teachers) in our mythology/history like Dronacharya, Chanakya equally great shisyas(students) Eklavya, Chandragupt. Recently I read a newspaper article where a group of high profile, well placed students of a revered teacher gifted him a new house as he could afford it. The students had paid their guru dakshina because he deserved it. I would like to express my gratitude to my English teacher for working on ‘me’ and not only improving my miserable English grades but inspiring me to keep writing in English.
So the point I am trying to make here is we should judge teachers in reflection.That is to see the quality of todays teachers we have to wait for few decades maybe when the students grow up and if they still remember or express their gratitude then we can say that they were great but by then they’ll be “Teachers yesterday” .
In end I would just say that teachers of today or tommorrow like yesterday will be good, bad and ugly the matter is who do you run into.
The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton are Vipul, Rajalakshmi, Ranee[1], [2], [3] , Avada, Indian Pundit, Sojo, Aneet, Pramathesh, Aativas, Sid, Pra, Ajinkya, Lakshmi, Govind, Shilpa, Bharathi, Shankar, Mytuppence, Azad, Pawan, Pankaja, Saimanohar, Guria, Shruti, Vishnu,Nasrajan and Richa. Click on their respective names to read their posts on Teachers : Aaj Kal. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
Blog-A-Ton !!!
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The Indian Dream
I am reminded of the famous dailogue from the Hindi film Guru(2007) “Sapne maat dekha karo, Sapne kabhi pure nahi hote mera bapu kehta tha”(tr: Don’t dream because dreams never come true my father used to say)
When I saw the topic for Blog-a-ton3 I was completely at a loss as to what to write about but then on reading through the comments of the voting post I found a comment by Indian Pundit who suggested the topic “Its just the DESI version of American Dream……..hope u get the point.
We Indians too have certain dreams and aspirations about ourselves and about our country”. Oh Ok I got it but wait what is American Dream? Like a true techie ‘Googled’ the words “American Dream” and bang the first on the list was a wiki entry gr8. So I knew the job was easy now and Googled with “The Indian Dream” well there was no wiki entry this time how sad though we have entries for European Dream, Australian Dream, New Zealand dream but no Indian Dream ( I think we can put a wiki entry of ‘Indian dream’ as a summary of the blog-a-ton posts. What say?).
Now what do I do? I looked into some of the search items in Google and found the general usage of the word Indian Dream equates with the ‘Dollar Dream’ that is the software industry which gave way to so many “Indians” from small towns & villages go to West and become a ‘coveted’ NRIs. Let me tell you thats basically a Westerner’s take on Desi version of American Dream. So do I talk of that ‘Indian’ dream or the ‘Indian’ dream of who is born, raised, lives and dies in India.
I think I should talk about the ‘Indian dream’ of one who is born, raised, lives and dies in India. But before I go to the ‘Indian Dream’ lets first define what is ‘India’? “India” that we see today is a country that was shaped by the British who conquered over a bunch of disparate kingdoms and brought them under one administrative system. So now we have a ’sketchy’ idea what ‘India’ is, now the actual ‘Indian Dream’. So initially the Indian Dream was to live in a ‘free’ country that is a country that is ruled by the “Brown” sahibs instead of the ‘Gora’(White) Sahibs. On 15th August 1947 that dream was fulfilled after a lot of sweat, blood & tears.
Then came the Dream of building a country out of what was left by the British. A strong nation which can defend its people, which can provide the basic necessities to its people. Then we had leaders like Indira Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi who dreamt India can be at par with the ‘developed’ nations. Rajiv Gandhi said “Garibi hatao” (tr: remove poverty) but over a century ago Swami Vivekanada had openly declared that the real cause of India’s downfall was the neglect of the masses. The immediate need was to provide food and other bare necessities of life to the hungry millions.
Well they were some of the ‘ancient’ dreams.Lets see what a ‘modern’ dream is. Recently a newspaper cartoon caught my attention in which they showed village women wondering How discovery of water in moon by Chandrayan-I help ease their pain of walking miles for water. I am not going into any debate of what should the dream be but what the cartoon conveyed is an ‘ugly truth’.
The epicentre of “Dollar dreams”, Bangalore which nearly transformed into American nightmare cannot provide its citizens with 24 hrs of power(which is but a basic thing in the countries from where ‘we’ get the outsourcing contracts), the citizens do not have good motorable roads, neither do they have safe drinking water in every part of the city. Yet the city signals display signboards with ‘Texas Instruments’ etched on it.
Then the dream of a ’strong’ nation. Well for that we have to sacrifice more than 500 brave and talented men just to drive out infiltrators from our own land. So what happens if a “regular” army attacks( The thousands of men there will sacrifice everything again and ensure that we are safe).
So when I sit down to write about the “Indian Dream” I see we still have so many ‘basic’ dreams and surprisingly we have resources to fulfill them yet we are not able to fulfill them. So whats stopping us? I think its corruption, nepotism, favoritism which has got into the very roots of our systems. So I dream of a country ‘free’ of these and then rest of the dreams will come true on its own.(Does it sound too Socialistic, see this is the result of growing up in a socialist state[West Bengal]).
It will really be interesting to see what all of you have in store in form of “Indian Dream” and maybe our descendants(don’t know which generation) in Blog-a-ton ‘n’ write whether those dreams were fulfilled. So Do I end in true Guru Bhai ishtyle “Dekhna hai ek aur sapna …. banna hai duniya ki sabse khushal desh”(tr: “Lets see another dream…. to become the most prosperous nation in the world”)
PS: I have not read “The Great Indian Dream” by Arindam Chaudhuri and Malay Chaudhuri but now I feel I should read it cause the book seems to have answers to questions above. (Google search threw up this book reviews etc as well)