Merawala Gaana..

Love introduced me to poems and songs. It taught me to delve beyond the beautiful facade of music and listen to the lyrics, to understand the meaning conveyed and to catch the lack of it. Different stages of life and love have given me different theme songs to remember them by. I will go in a chronological order.

1.      Pyaar mujhse jo kiya tumne (Saath Saath)

Second thoughts of an infatuation.. Self doubt.. Trying to glorify one’s shortcomings for more than they were worth.. This is a one of a kind gem by Javed Akhtar..

Ek main kya? abhi ayenge diwane kitne,

Aur gunjengi mohabbat ke taraane kitne,

Zindagi tumko sunaaegi fasane kitne,

Kyon samajhti ho, mujhe bhool nahin paogi?

Pyaar mujhse jo kiya tumne, to kya paogi..

2.       Tumse milke, aisa laga tumse milke (Parinda)

This classic from Parinda was the first song that I ever sang to a girl. She loved me in spite of my singing abilities. Maybe she liked the song so much; maybe she took pity on me. But this song is and will always be close to my heart.

Mere sanam, teri kasam.. chhodenge ab na ye haath..

Yeh zindagi guzregi ab, humdum tumhare hi saath..

Apna yeh vaada raha, tumse na honge judaa..

3.       Kehna hai, Kehna hai (Padosan)

Constant reiteration of a love already solemnized. A very apt song to sing when you have that special someone’s hands in your hand..

Kabse.. dilne mere.. maan liya hai.. tumko apna..

Aankhen meri dekh rahi hain, jaagte sote ye sapna..

Mere gale me daal rahe ho, tum bahon ka haar...

Tum hi to laayi ho jeevan me mere.. pyaar.. pyaar.. pyaar..

4.       Jag jaa ri gudiya (Omkara)

Ah those wonderful idyllic afternoons where the college was bunked and the time whiled away in the close embrace of each other.Nothing to do but close the eyes and hum the words of a forgotten song..

Jo chahe le lo, Dashrath ka vaada

nainon se kholo ji raina

o ri raani, gudiyaa,

jag jaa, ari jag ja, mui jag ja..

5.       Tadap tadapke is dil se.. (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam)

The song conveys everything there is to be conveyed through its anger, frustration and disillusionment.

Tadap tadap ke is dil se aah nikalti rahi

Mujhko sazaa di pyaar ki, aisa kya gunaah kiya?

6.       Seene me jalan (Gaman)

Ramblings of an empty heart..

kyaa koi nayee baat, nazar aati hain hum me?

aaina humei dekh ke hairaan saa kyon hain ?

7.       Tum pukaar lo (Khamoshi)

A constant companion of a sleepless night. A plead for a call that was never answered.

Honth pe liye hue, dil ki baat hum..

Jaagte rahenge aur kitni raat hum...

Mukhtsar si baat hai, tumse pyaar hai..

Tumhaara intezaar hai..

8.       Chalo ik baar phir se (Gumraah)

A song that I had always heard but never listened to, until a very dear friend of mine quoted a line from the song to ease the pain of the writhing heart. Thank you! You know who you are.. I don’t feel the need to quote your name..

Woh afsaana jise anjaam tak laana na ho mumkin,

Use ek khoobsoorat mod dekar chhodna achchha

Chalo ek baar phir se..

So.. There you are! An eight song compilation that is sure to make me nostalgic.. Now and forever..

Addendum: I revisited this blog on 21st June 2019 to see if I can add or remove anything from the list. I could still add and make this list longer... But I would definitely not be able to remove anything from the existing list... That's the thing about songs... You think you've forgotten them because you haven't heard them in a long time... but then, when you do... You still love them the same... they still invoke the same reactions from within... It is like meeting your childhood crush all over again.. Can we really outgrow the songs we love?

Confessions from an indulgent weekend

Aah! Blogging after a long time! Happy to report that I have something to report! This is the story of the weekend of May 28-29, 2011. It goes something like this.

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 9:30 am: Since school, my weekends have always started on Saturday mornings.. Sometimes they even started on Friday nights.. But nowadays, things are a little different.. Its a beautiful Saturday morning, and I’m in office. I changed jobs about 10 months back.. So you can say that I have a solid experience of wasting away close 40 of my Saturdays in office.. but I’ve still not gotten used to the idea..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 11:30 am: My first yawn of the day! 5 hrs ahead of the usual schedule! Its going to be a long day..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 1:30 pm: Fuel for the stomach is fuel for more sleep.. Made the huge mistake of going a Gujarati thali for lunch... Hotel Jay Gurudev... Mere sukh, dukh aur bhook ka saathi since 2005... 60 bucks, unlimited food, bliss.. came back... slept..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 3:30 pm: woke up from a peaceful open-eyed nap... realised that I’ll have to finish off this copy work that I’d been working on since 2 days... Got to work... six hrs after reaching office... Dont smirk! This was one of those better days!

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 6:45 pm: 15 minutes to go..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 6:56 am: four minutes to go.. started my everyday post-office psyche up session with “Dhinkachika” song... Salman bhai rock..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 7:01 am: got late by a minute.. email servers have this irritating habit of clogging up just when you have to send an important mail and get out... 2 MB ke forwards bhejo... instantly chale jayenge... 156kb ka word file bhejo... send/receive... send/receive..send/receive..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 7:30 pm: Reached Barista.. Familiar faces.. second home.. felt like the first.. and the ‘Ek Ratriya Yojana’ planning starts..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 7:32 pm: The quickest ‘Ek Ratriya Yojana’ ever! Couple of cans of ‘juice’ and 2 bottles of ‘water’.. Life set hai!... Jugaad kaam chalu..

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 8:30 pm: Slight change of plans.. Need to incorporate Hangover part 2 before the real Hangover.. *Please ticket na mile*.. *Please ticket na mile*..... Ticket mil gaya... Damn!!

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 10:30 pm: “oye! 9 o’clock!!  Check out that white skirt!!”... “oye! 3 o’clock!! Kya smile hai yaar!!”... “oye!! Jaldi chalo Vicco Vajradanti ka ad miss ho jaega!!”

May 28, 2011, Saturday, 10:46 pm: “Vicco turmeric, nahin cosmetic.. Vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream”..  

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 12:30 am: Hangover 1 was much better than Hangover 2... Part of the reason for the disappointment was also that each additional minute I spent in the theatre.. was one minute less with my ‘juice’ and ‘water’... “Oye! 6 o’clock!! That white skirt is getting into that car! Woh ladke ko dekha?? Languur huur le gaya!  Shit!”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 1:30 am: Water! Wonderful water.. served best with a couple of cubes of ice and cold drink.... waah waah!!

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 3:30 am: “Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai... kahaan ho tum ke ye dil, bekarar aaj bhi hai”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 4:00 am: Incessant ramblings on inconsequential topics like meaning of love, life and love-life... followed by inconsolable pangs of guilt conscience and self-pity..

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 4:30 am: “Main bhatakta hi raha, dard ke viraane me.. waqt likhta raha chehre pe har pal ka hisaab.. meri shoharat mere diwangi ni nazar hui.. pii gayi mai ki botal mere geeton ki kitaab.. aaj lauta hoon to hasne ki adaa bhool gaya.. yeh sheher bhula mujhe, main bhi ise bhool gaya.. Mere apne mere hone ki nishaani maange... aaina mujhse meri pehle si surat maange..”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 5:10 am: “Ab so ke kya karna hai yaar?! Apne 5:30 ke aas paas chai peene jaate hain..”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 5:30 am: “abbey hath na yaar!! Sone de”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 10:30 am: “Murthi! Uthh!! Chal chaai peeke aate hain!!”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 11:30 am: “Main sach bol raha hoon yaar! ‘juice’ me kuch to locha tha!! Bahut sir dard kar.. Augggghhhhh!!!!”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 1:00 pm: “Augggghhhhh!!! Damn!”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 4:30 pm: Must.. wake.. up... cant.. waste.. the.. whole.. Sunday.. like.. this.. Haven’t eaten all day... kahaan jaun?... Barista... but first let me do some shopping... why?.. Why not??!!

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 7:30 pm: Aaah! Nothing like coming to Barista after a round of unnecessary shopping of clothes.. koi jaana pehchana dikh raha hai?... “Oh!! Hi!! *iska naam kya hai* Bas yaar chal raha hai.. *array iska naam kya hai*... oh!! Pukka milte hain.. i’ll give you a call when during the week *Ghanta!! Naam to yaad hai nahin, call kya karega?*... Bye!!”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 9:30 pm: “Chal Tandoor jaate hain... bahot time hua... long drive bhi ho jaaega”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 9:45 pm: Bullet Classic 500 is a huge distraction on the road! Kya pick up hai yaar! *note to self: apni 350 ko mechanic ke paas leke jaa!”

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 10:30 pm: Sab saale ‘juice’ peeke aaye hain yahaan pe! But khaana sasta hai..

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 11:15 pm: Chal yaar.. nikalte hain... abhi niklenge to 12 baje tak ghar pahuchenge..

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 11:20 pm: “Array Murthi, peeche ke tyre me hava kam hai kya?”... “Shit”..

May 29, 2011, Sunday, 1:30 am: Home sweet Home! Murthism to self: “sometimes the only things that make an event worth remembering, are the things that go wrong.. terribly wrong!”

Rage against Corruption

The voice of the conscience is something that is supposed to govern an individual’s actions. But groups, or crowds, do not work in the way individuals do. This is precisely where legislation comes into the picture. A legislation is basically a voice of conscience enforced upon the entire population of a nation by a government.

Legislation is regarded as one of the three main functions of government. The Legislators (Parliament) create legislations through the powers formally bestowed to them. The judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court, interprets the legislation and enforces it and the executive branch of government, the cabinet secretariat, acts within the powers and limits set by the law.

Nonetheless, every once in a while it is seen that the elected group of individuals who have the mandate to create legislations, lose track of the pulse of the populace. The electorate that elects the legislators become disgruntled and disillusioned by the acts of the legislators.

The workings of the Indian government has long been shrouded from the public eye by archaic laws like The Official Secrets Act (1889) that secures information related to security of the State, sovereignty of the country and friendly relations with foreign states, and contains provisions which prohibit disclosure of non-classified information.

The State skirted away the various calls for transparency using such acts and oblivious of the fact that Article 19(1) of the Constitution provides for Fundamental Right of speech & expression. Further, Supreme Court, in one of its ruling, said that a person cannot express himself unless he “knows”. Hence, Right to Information was always a part of the Fundamental Right of speech & expression.

Since its enforcement on the midnight on October 12, 2005, The Right to Information (RTI) Act has made its presence felt in the everyday lives of Indians. From villages in Rajasthan using RTI to verify just how many check dams had been shown on paper and how many were actually built, to hapless citizens using the act to get an answer on why it took so long for their pensions, sewer lines or telephone connections to start. RTI, for the first time, made the government answerable for its actions and inactions. But RTI opened a Pandora’s Box as well; it unearthed such sickening levels of corruption in the system that it nauseated even the most disinterested of the citizens amongst us.

Although not a new phenomenon, this ‘disease’ of corruption has now become an epidemic of sorts. It has been widely researched and reported that corruption is one of the biggest remaining impediments in India’s growth story. Yet, the Indian governmental machinery, which is one of the biggest proliferators of the corruption virus, remains passive in its decadence.

Now, after 62 years of independence, the time has come for the “iron walls” to fall! It is about time the citizens of this country see exactly how their elected government works and more importantly, how it doesn’t. It is time for the Jan Lokpal Bill to be enacted and enforced!

The Lokpal Bill has been languishing in labyrinths of the Parliament for the last 42 years. The first Lokpal Bill was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969 but could not get through in Rajya Sabha. Subsequently, Lokpal bills were introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008, yet they were never passed. Now, comes the latest farcical twist to this drama; as per the draft Lokpal Bill tabled in 2010,

“Lokpal will have no power to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. It can only probe complaints forwarded by LS Speaker or RS Chairman.”

“Lokpal will only be an Advisory Body. Its part is only limited to forwarding its report to the "Competent Authority"”

“Lokpal will not have any police powers. It cannot register FIRs or proceed with criminal investigations.”

In short, to fight off a demon, the government proposes to introduce a toothless tiger to the jungle!

One man has stood up to ensure that this drama, 42 years in the making, doesn’t end up becoming a tragedy. He is Mr. Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare, known to millions around India and the world, as simply, Anna Hazare. He relentlessly pursued and ensured that the Right to Information Act became a reality, and he is showing the same conviction and passion for the efficacy of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Let us show our solidarity towards the cause being spearheaded by this 72 year old Gandhian.

We have the powerful medium of internet to our disposal. There is no information about the Lokpal Bill or Anna Hazare’s campaign, that cannot be found with a simple search on Google. The awareness and the sensitivity can easily be spread using the social networking sites. The only thing that is stopping us now is our indifference. Let us be different!

Really?

We live in an age where technology has not made life simpler; it has complicated and obfuscated the simpler things to such an extent that they don’t even come into our purview of cognition anymore. 

Have you noticed that the frustratingly curious uncles and aunties don’t ask kids “How many friends do you have in school?” these days? There was a time when kids used to innocently count out friends on their finger tips. Now they refer to their FB profile for the updated figure (sometimes even including the pending friend requests). Also, have you noticed how difficult it has become to answer seemingly innocuous questions like “Are you still in touch with him/her?”. That person is on your friend list; comments on ALL your updates (even the Farmville and mafia wars ones); seems to like ALL your pictures (even those crazy drunken party pics); seems to know about all your parties, vacations, relationship status updates and even mood swings; someone who sent you his/her marriage invitation (as an event on FB, of course). But someone whom you’ve not met in half a decade. Are you really in touch with this person?

I assume that blogs were introduced in order to facilitate the process of venting out. It gave a medium of expression to people who had none; a veil which a common man could use to express his views without worrying about any repercussions. There was a time not long ago when blogs were flourishing. Then came twitter.  All of a sudden it became ‘cool’ to express oneself in 140 characters. Laws of grammar and sentence construction be damned. Inanity became the ‘in’ thing. The originality of our thoughts dying out due to the endless onslaught of tweets and re-tweets. A span of attention as long as the next breaking news or gossip.

It would be very myopic of me to squarely blame these so-called social networks, for the doldrums in which our social life lies today. A gun is only as lethal or protective as the hand using it. We have to draw a line between our virtual and real world. There has to be a perceptible difference between the two; always. How unfortunate is the person who has a thousand friends on FB, but not a single shoulder to cry on?

Where's the wonderful world?

I see trees of green, in the pictures of yore;
I imagine the shade, the fruits and so much more.
And I ask to myself, where’s the wonderful world?

The skies used to be so blue and clouds so white
the birds would chirp all day, frogs croaked all night
but now the skies and clouds are in shades of grey
and as my heart yearns for a bright sunny day
I ask to myself, where’s the wonderful world?

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
have faded into the darkness, of the smoke going by
I see people go through life, missing what has been lost;
The beauty they pawned off, but at what cost?

If only I could go back, I’d make everything right;
I’d profess my love to her, under the starry night
The days would brighten up and the rains would fall
And it would wash away, the writing on the wall.

But now I ask to myself, where’s the wonderful world?
Oh! I ask to myself, where’s the wonderful world?

                                                            -Man, February 14, 2051 


Inspired from Louis Armstrong’s “what a wonderful world”