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)