Happy Birthday Pancham

Pancham undoubtedly one of the greatest Music director Bollywood ever had, but unfortunately his music and his talent was never recognized during his life. Just imagine, he composed music for about 292 Hindi movies, and won just 3 Filmfare awards, the last one was given to him after his Death (for the movie 1942, A Love Story). During his last days Pancham had financial difficulties, his last days were not pleasent, many films flopped at the Box Office, Subhash Ghai promised him Ram Lakhan , but gave it to Laxmikant Pyarelal, this incident had a deep impact on him.

Pancham is remebered for his versatile music, he is the one who composed songs like Dhanno ki aankhon main (Kitab), Mehbooba Mehbooba (Sholay), Piya tu ab to aaja (Caravan) and on the other hand slow numbers like tum aa gaye ho (Aandhi), Chingari Koi Bhadke (Amar Prem), Mera Kuchh Samaan (Ijaazat).

Pancham did some experiments in songs as well, like spoon against a glass (Chura liya hai from Yaadon Ki baraat), desks (Masterji ki aa gayee chitthee from Kitaab) a bamboo whistle with a balloon (Abdullah) and bottles filled with water at different levels (O maajhi re from Khushboo).

However some of his songs are "inspired" from foreign music as well (Mil gaya, humko saathi mil gaya is inspired from Mama Mia by ABBA). But still since I am a RD die hard fan, I would ignore those allegations and keep listening to both the versions seperately ;-P

It is his birthday today, wanted to remember him, his great music so here I give my favorite RD Burman Numbers:

1) Khamosh sa Afsana - Libaas
2) Aaj kal paaon zameen par - Ghar
3) Sagar Jaisi Aankhon waali - Sagar
4) Huzoor is Kadar na - Masoom
5) Tere Liye Palkon ki Jhalar - Harjaee
6) Mera Kuchh Samaan - Ijazat
6) Katra Katra - Ijaazat
7) Dhanno ki aankhon main - Kitaab
8) Sholay Theme
9) O maajhi re - Khusboo
10) Kuchh na Kaho - 1942 a Love Story
11) Pyar ke Mod Par - Parinda
12) Tumse Milke - Parinda
13) Aap ke kamre main koi rehta hai - Yadon ki Baraat
14) Khaali haanth shaam aayi hai - Ijaazat
15) Do Naina aur ek kahani - Masoom
16) Dil Dhoondta hai fir wahi fursat ke raat din - Mausam
17) Jawani Diwani - Jawani Diwani
18) Hoga tumse Pyara kaun - Zamane ko Dikhana hai

A Walk down the Memory Lane....

Today while having lunch with office colleagues, we discussed the old DD Serials, and couldn't help posting about them. I think that the current channels should look at these Serials as an inspiration, of how you could get the entire nation glued to their television screens without spending crores!

Mr Yogi
Mohan Gokhale was amazing in this, in the role of Yogesh Eshwar Lal Patel (Y.I. Patel). A young guy who comes down from the US to get married. An awesome comedy serial with YI Patel meeting a different set of girls (for matrimonial purpose) every week!

Udaan:
This had resemblance to Kiran Bedi's fight as the first women IPS officer. Kavita Chaudhary in the lead role, and Shekhar Kapur as "DM Sitapur" whom she falls in love with finally. I must say that this was one serial which portrayed the real rural India and its problems from an IPS officer's eyes.

Life Line Jeevan Rekha:
A story of doctors and their lives. Every week there used to be a different battle for this group of doctors in a Mumbai hospital. Main cast-Sachin Khedekar,K.K Raina,Tanvi Azmi,Ila Arun,Narendra Gupta.

Byomkesh Bakshi
I am sure that nobody's going to forget this amazing Serial. with Rajat Kapoor in the lead role, I think this is the best detective serial till date. The stories looked so realistic, with no terrorism / anti India factors. Just like something happened in your neighborhood

Muzrim Haajir
Nutan and Virendra Singh were in the lead roles. Navni Parihar's first Serial!

Circus
Who can forget this serial now, the chocolate boy shahrukh khan

Bharat ek khoj
One of my favorite serials, used to come on Sundays, based on Jawahar Lal Nehru's book: discovery of India. I particularly used to like the title song "shristi se pahle kucchh nahi tha....."

Ramayan and Mahabharat
I think everybody knows how life used to come to a standstill when Mahabharat was aired, and for Ramayan everybody started taking Deepika and Arun as the real Ram and Sita!

Sigma
The first science fiction serial on indian television

Chanakya
A masterpiece by Dr Chandraparakash Dwivedi. So sad that it was never aired again. I wanted to see it again, as at that time I was a kid. Would understand a lot more things now.

Rangoli and Chitrahaar
Used to wait for them the entire week, as they were the only ways we could watch the filmi songs. I still remember the Wednesday Chitrahaar used to air new songs and the friday one used to air old Filmi songs! And I am sure everybody remembers that rangoli was followed by Gurbani, when we used to take a bath and get ready for the 9:00 am cartoon shows

Tehkikaat
Starring Vijay Aanand and Saurabh Shukla, this was again a good Mystery serial, but not better than Byomkesh Bakshi

Karamchand
Pankaj Kapoor in the lead role, and the famous "Kitty" as her assistant.

Fauji
The famous Dialogue "I say Chaps" . And Shahrukh Khan

This is just to name a few. The list is endless:
Mongeri Lal Ki Haseen Sapne
Nukkad
Farmaan
Intezaar
Humraahi
Mrignayani
Kille ka rahasya
Honi Anhoni
Surbhi

To name a few more!!!

Fashion at Wimbledon

To start with the stunning Anna Ivanovic's outfit:Ana progressed smoothly into the second round at Wimbledon, thanks to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Paraguayan Rossana De los Rios

Maria Sharapova: unveils her much-talked-about tuxedo outfit which features a pair of shorts rather than a skirtDefeated Foretz (6-1 6-4) to move on to the second round.

Julia Vakulenko: Appears in a Double Breasted tunic
But that didn't prevent a 3-6 4-6 defeat by 22nd seed Flavia Pennetta

Indo US Nuclear Deal is anti Muslim ?????

Now where does that come from ? I have no clue what justifications and logics did the good for nothing leftist give for this. On Monday, the Left said the Indo-US nuclear deal would never be supported by Muslims. By raising the religion card on the nuclear deal issue, Read more here

I guess the left's angle here is pure anti Americanism, Well this point of the Leftist is so confusing that apparently even Muslim leaders cannot get the point "Why" ?

Left: Stop screwing the nation. Get a crash course in economics and world Politics, Bengal and Kerala is not the entire Globe

Huffing in Hampi

Yeah I am back from Hampi, the forgotten Kingdom. Sabine organized a "Cultural Run" in Hampi. Well I didn't have any plans of going to Hampi, and then Prateek called up on Thursday and by afternoon we decided that we will be going to Hampi, obviously my favorite way... driving. I convinced Nitin to Join us, and in turn Prateek convinced his friends Saurabh and Saumya. The idea was to start from Bangalore by 4:30 pm, but as usual we were late and we were able to leave the city by 5:00 pm, only to discover that Tumkur Road is jam packed with traffic. Anyways it took us over 8 hrs to reach the place. We already had a booking in Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari (A KSTDC Hotel).

By the time we reached at the hotel, we didn't have any energy left, we all just dozed off. Next morning got up at 9:00 am, and by that time, Athreya, Leona, Amit, Reena and the rest of the gang also arrived by train, we had a gala time eating the breakfast. This place serves some awesome Poori Sabzi, and we RFLers just forgot the amount of Oil it has and ate to our heart's content. Well I never ordered anything, I kept shuffling between Athreya's & Manoj's plate.

The gang planned to run in the eveing, but we decided to take a guide and go site seeing, and we spent the entire day lost in the Hampi ruins. As soon as I used to step inside a monument, the feeling was amazing, it was actually like reliving the time, the same Temples which were once the centers of religious and social gatherings are so forgotten now, you can spend hours at each monument just looking at the amazing architecture, looking at each small details, the carvings, the amazing paintings, and wondering about the Strength of Raja Krishnadevaraya i. At the end of the day I realized that two days are way too less to see Hampi. Hampi, a world heritage site decalred by UNESCO has 83 big and small monuments, and more are being discovered each year. Aaprt from the architecture, I just loved the terrain, with boulders spread all over the place, the best idea is to rent a cycle in Hampi and go cycling.

Sunday we got up at 5:30 am, to run at 6:00 am and we were bang on time!!! well this is expected, as we all were runners. As soon as we hit the road, the passer bye's started giving us strange looks, but again, I guess all of us are pretty used to that! We ended up running 21 Km passing by all the important temples and monuments, sitting there, chatting about the amazing architecture, and then proceeding towards the next destination. The day ended with a great lunch at Sam's place. With heavenly "Baingan" ki sabzi, Mutton curry and Rice!

Would love to run there again!

Sam & Sabine: Special Thanks for taking such good care of us!!! We just loved it!!!

Song Today: Khamosh sa afsana

Prasoon Joshi: The Specialist in making you cry!

kaise tujhko dikhaoon yahaan hai kya
mere jharne se paani maa
tod ke piya hai
guchha guchha ka ye khwaabon ka
uchal ke chuaa hai
chaya liye faili dhoop yahaan hai
naya naya sa hai roop yahaan
yahaan sab kuchh hai ma fir bhi
lage bin tere mujhko akela

Awesome lyrics, again Prasoon Joshi, the specialist in making you cry with his awesome lyrics on Maa

Source: Luka Chipi (Rang De Basanti)

Hampi...

This weekend I am off to Hampi. Sabine (fellow RFLer) has organized the Hampi Cultural run there. Would be fun... more on Monday!

Movies to Watch out for - II

Dilli - 6

Directed by Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra (of Rang De Basanti fame), is based on the lives of the people living in the Chandni Chowk area of Delhi. This movie, supposedly is based on the director's growing up years in Delhi. So for all Delhi lovers this is one awesome movie to watch out for.

The Cast:
Abhishek Bachhan
Sonam Kapoor
Om Puri
Waheeda Rehman
Supriya Pathak

This is Rakeysh Om Praksh Mehra's third directorial venture. The first two being AKS and Rang De Basanti, which was a big success. It is named Dilli - "6" as the pincode of Chandni Chowk is 110006. Music again by AR Rehman. This movie is a must watch.

Going Green.....

The threats posed by Global warming are alarming, we can save a lot of energy by doing small changes in our lifestyles.

Turning off the Computer Monitors
when you are not using your computer for 15 minutes or longer turn off the monitor Manually

Turn off the computer at night when you are not using it
One computer left on 24 hours a day will cost you $115 - 160 in electricity costs a year and dump 1,500 pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere
A tree absorbs between 3-15 lbs of CO₂ each year. That means that 100-500 trees would be needed to offset the yearly emissions of one computer left on all the time

Give Laptops a serious thought
If you are buying a new computer, buy a laptop. Laptops use only 1/4 the energy

Buy an LCD Monitor
If you are buying a new Desktop, buy an LCD monitor with it, LCD monitors use 1/3 the energy used by the regular CRTs

Customize the power management feature in your Computer

Most Important, do not keep the computer in standby mode, as your machine would still consume power.
A computer machine, or a television, or a Printer is always consuming power when left in standby mode. So for a computer machine shut it down when not required, for a television, printer etc, manually switch it off from the main power supply.

Further please consider using the public transport for your commutation to workplace atleast twice a week, this will save a lot of fuel. I plan to cycle to work atleast twice a week, and if this works on well, then maybe more than that!

As told by Doordarshan, when we were kids, please switch off the engine of your car if you have to wait for more than 2 minutes on a red light.

Do your bit, this is our responsibility!!

*Some of the tips and Data released by Tufts University
**This post is inspired from the fact that atleast 5 monitors on my floor were left switched on last night.

Movies to Watch out for - I

Rock On!!
I went to see Sarkar Raj last week and saw the trailer of this movie Rock On!! The movie seems to be awesome one, similar to Dil Chahta hai. Some trivia about the movie:

1) Farhan Akhtar is making debut as an actor
2) The cutie from the television world, Prachi Desai's first bollywood movie


3) There is a rumour that Farhan Akhtar also sang a song for the movie (Source)
4) Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar
5) Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Lyrics: Javed Akhtar (No prizes for guessing that!)
6) The film revolves around four young boys who put together a rock band. Ten years hence, fate conspires to bring them together again and set them on a journey back to where they left off. A soul searching pilgrimage into their past (Source)

Biking and etc....

Was thinking about it since a long time, finally did it. Yes I bought a cycle (Hero Octane), its a mountain bike. Now I plan to cycle to office regularly. That would be in my interest and the nation's as well. Apart from cycling to office , we (pankaj , me and Prateek) have decided to cycle to cubbon / Bellandur on weekends for running.

More updates in the coming days.
BTW if any of you is planning to buy one and contribute to the environment, then here is a good website which sells bikes in Bangalore.

Bums on Saddle

*******************************************************************************************************************

Ran near a lake on the Kanakpura road, I just loved the run, ended up doing 15K.
Lovely weather, fantastic trail... just added to a good run!


Song Today in Car: Say by John Mayer

Purity...

Source: www.xkcd.com

The Slam book Tag!!!

Its good to be Kid at times, I saw this tag on some blog and wanted to do it, maybe this might sound silly to a lot of you, but I probably wanted to do something that we did in class 9th, its kiddish but exciting, like filling a slam book :-)

This is pretty simple, just write your set of answers for the questions here!

1. What is your middle name?
I don't have one.

2. How big is your bed?
Depends on the where I am

3.What are you listening to right now?
All summer long by Kid Rock

4. What was the last thing you ate?
Fried Eggs and Toast

5. Last person you hugged?
Rathi, when he was leaving for US

6. How is the weather right now?
Lovely, 18 degrees in the morning, cloudy

7. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Nitin

8. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Depends ;-)

9. Favorite type of Food?
Indian, Ghar ka.. Continental, Chinese, ice creams

10. Have you ever cried over a love lost?
Maybe

11. Last Movie you watched?
Sarkar Raj

12. Do you have any piercings?
No

13. Favorite Movie?
Many: Chashme Budoor, Jane bhi do yaaron, Forrest Gump, Noting hill, Reservoir Dogs

14. What were you doing before filling this out?
Getting irritated at the cab drivers (I just came into office!)

15. Have you ever loved someone?
Yes


16. Who would you like to see right now?
Ankita

17. What color are your bedroom walls?
Cream, and that is boring

18. Have you ever fired a gun?
Yes.

19. Do you like to travel by plane?
Theek hai

20. Right-handed or Left-handed?
Right-handed.

21. If you could go to any place right now where would you go?
Andaman / Goa


22. Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings?
Yes

23. What is the wallpaper on your cellphone?
Photograph clicked by me during my last run at Bellandur

24. Favorite hangout:
Airlines, after my weekend runs and Koshy's, anytime

25. 3 things you can't live without?
Food, sleep, run

26. Favorite songs?
Sweet home Alabama, khaali haath shaam aayi hai (Ijaazat), Seene main Jalan (Gaman)

27. What are you afraid of?
Height !

28. What are your nicknames?
"Rah Sahab", Shant, Santana ;-)

29. Stuck on a deserted island, and can only bring one thing?
Boat

30. First thing you'll save in a fire?
Myself, isn't that by default ??? or is it my running shoes ??? confused ;-)

31. What is your favorite color?
Sky Blue

32. What are the things you always bring with you?
iPhone (yeah I own one now!!!), wallet

33. What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Police Officer

34. What do you usually do when the alarm turns on?
snooze and go back to sleep, Except for the weekend run alarm

35. What do you think about before you go to bed?
Ahhhh Finally!!!

I pass on this Tag to:

Pheonix
Yashshri
Meghana
Nitin
Rajaram

Song Today in Car: All summer Long by Kid Rock

Perfect day to start a week.....

Well let me give you an insight why.... The temperature outside: 18 degrees celcius, cloudy and not much traffic. Now thats what I love about this city, Believe me you will fall in love with the morning weather, it is just perfect. And what better way to start a week.

After a long time, today I came with my car windows down, mostly I don't do that as people have this weird habit of honking whenever they get a chance to, it seems most of the people are obsessed with honking here. But I guess today the awesome weather was more important than the irritating noises outside.

The Bangalore Morning reminded me of my Vienna days today, it used to be similar weather in summers.
Yes definitely I am in Love with this City.

Song Today in Car: You are beautiful by James Blunt

Blogging fever grips Bollywood....

This blogging fever is gripping the entire film industry now! Well to name a few: Aamir started it, and I love his blog, Amitabh followed (I don't find him a very good blogger!!) and now the latest in the list is Mr Ram Gopal Verma. I know I am nobody to pass the judgment, but I can express my opinions, my likes and dislikes!

Out of the list specified above RGV's blog is the most offensive I have found (atleast the latest posts), I know it is good to be witty and humorous at times, but see these two posts, arrogance is dripping from it!!! Dude you are the director of the worst film ever made in the history of bollywood (RGV ki Aag), even films like "jaani dushman ek anokhi kahani" were better, and then too you have such attitude ???? I fail to understand it. What is he trying to prove, that it really doesn't matter to him that how successful his movies are at the box office ?? Now if he is trying to show something like that, then this is the most immature act I have ever seen. Accepting your faults and saying sorry is never a bad gesture.

P.S.: BTW I am a big fan of his movies, I liked Rangeela, D and Ab tak Chappan. I loved Sarkar and looking forward for Sarkar Raj, but I guess there is a difference between the director RGV and the blogger RGV!

Now moving on to Amitabh Bachhan, well I am a die hard fan of Big B, must have watched all his movies, know each and every dialogs of Sholay, Deewar and Zanjeer by heart, but I must admit that his blog posts are pretty boring to read. They just go on and on, apart from this his blog posts lacks a title, I know its at his discretion, but come on "Sir" try and be a little innovative, naming the blog posts on the day and date is very easy, infact you don't have to do anything in it, Blogger / Wordpress already labels it, and I am sure that his friend's site (bigadda.com) also gives this feature. The other irritating thing in his blog is the header on his blog, the size of the header is: 947pixel x 964pixel this occupies the whole of the screen and the reader keeps wondering that another page would open. Rajaram has described the same in his blog here

Now coming to Aamir Khan, well this is one of my favorite blogs, he writes well I must admit, and even in his long posts, the reader doesn't lose the interest. Has a nice gesture of accepting his erros and shortcomings. So his blog is definitely in my favorites list in the Google reader.

Song Today in Car: Say by John Mayer

Sachin the Great as told by Aamir

Aamir Khan wrote about the IPL final match and Sachin Tendulkar (to be read as God) on his blog.

Just in case if somebody doesn't want to go and check out the link, I am copying and pasting the paragraph here:

The match last night was certainly exciting but what made it a unique experience for me was that I had Sachin next to me. You will find this hard to believe but Sachin was able to predict every ball before it was bowled. “He is going to bowl a bouncer next”,
“This one is going to be a slower one”, “Full tilt outside the off stump”, “Next one will be a yorker”, “Short of length”. It was uncanny. HE GOT IT RIGHT EACH TIME!!! No wonder its so difficult to bowl to him. He has an amazing instinct. And he told me his logic for each prediction which I wont share with you as I don’t want to reveal how his mind works. But all of us were dumbfounded with his instinct and his acumen. So at the end of it I told him next time we watch a film together I’m going to tell him whats going to happen next!

No doubt Sachin is the greatest batsman ever.

Song Today in Car: Mercy by Duffy

Maria Sharapova out of French Open

Yes Maria Sharapova collapsed to a 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 defeat against No. 13 Dinara Safina.

And she is out of the French Open. :-(

Do minute ka maun rakha jaye.....

India's Hooked.....

This photograph I took in an Airtel outlet, when I went there last week to pay my mobile bill. The Kiosk in the outlet is generally used for accessing your Airtel account information. But here this dude is orkutting!! Wow, now thats what I call obsessed with social networking.

Definitely India's Hooked to Orkut / Facebook!!!

Song Today: New Shoes by Paulo Nutini