About being back!

Looking forward to this weekend as i will be watching my favorite Bollywood star Hritik Roshans most awaited movie, 'Kites'. Yes, now how many people really want to know a nobody's weekend schedule.. Not me, would say some reader of this. Yeah, but i still want to share this. I have something to start this blog about.

Ooh, i just stumbled upon Ash's Cannes photos of this year. Wow, is one word, no words always to explain just how beautiful this lady can look. With age she is just getting better. With all the speculations and hulla- gulla about her outfits at this super event, Ash always makes news with what she is going to wear. At a recent interview i saw of her on NDTV, Ash was at her simplest best talking to Anupama Chopra. Ash is no more the giggly girl that she was yesterday and has matured into a poised woman who has a market value of  300 crores running up her head. To this Ash gave such a lovely answer, that she is humbled by such reviews of her market values and her being better than any of the younger heroines and all that. Truely, what would any great person of any era have said anything other than what she said. Of course, you feel humbled by all the attention and grace that you get as a person, as an artiste and every aspect of your life changing for the better.

With the release of the ads of Ravan on every channel, it is hard not to notice how much this actress has grown, from the daredevil acts of dancing on a rock amidst a river to emerging from deep waters, Ash has done it all now. Now i don't know why i am raving about Ash like her personal PR!!

Where did this all start, oh with my weekend, and then Hritik, popped in and then did Ash. With jumping Contexts in life, do you really think, one can achieve a lot. Yes the mind is always jumping, like, in a converstation- Is baat se mujhe yeh yaad aya, arrey, us baat se mujhe woh yaad aya, and then ussi baat se mujhe aur kuch yaad aya... and so it goes on. Thats what normal conversations are like.

In a party at home, have you noticed the conversations? Conversations are like jumping jacks.. you start off with office politics and then nation politics(indias favourite obsession) and then with movies and then with the stars affairs and then, you have lost it.. suddenly there is an argument about rain water harvesting.. waha.. whats going on.. so that is the beauty of being in a group with people.
But how many of you really sit and listen, actually there is nothing to listen, each one is blah blahing about how knowledgeable they are. But its all nice in the end, all is good.

Now where was I? i was just reading these big writers, Amit Verma, Shobha De or a Sagrika Ghosh. Doesnt this happen to them? how can they be so focussed with what they are writing about, how do they manage to write so deeply about a subject. Thinking about this takes me back to my first job in a newspaper.

Wow, what a thrill it was, with all the horrible bosses and easy going colleagues and the not to forget canteen next door, thoughts would flow. But, we also worked on it, we were focused on coming out with this article by evening. So that made us ponder and explore and research this one topic so hard that we found facts, we found, hard hitting facts to write about.

Not having a particular niche or a beat was n advantage for me i think. I would be versatile, flexible and all excited about any topic. That was the level of enthusiasm just about 6 years back. What made me quit a place which shaped me for life in a jiffy? The place which gave me so much name and an opportunity to write so much in so little time,, didnt i think once before i quit, kicking the job like dirt lying in the middle of my way.

How i regret that time i did that. Again, my thought has gone jumping from Hritik to my first journalism job. Mind is funny a times, it will make you jump more than you aerobic teacher or make you bend more than your Yoga master. From Aerobics to Yoga, from writing to journalism, from being focussed to being lost, why does  the mind play such games on us.

Can i please say HI to consistency, hi to being focussed, hi to depth in life.. Actually Hi to a better life where all the aspects i missed out while i was growing.. To grow is life.. so from a jumping jack if i ever become still water and then flow, wow, it may take me a lifetime.

Why do i learn music? For what purpose?

Someone asked me the other day, "For what purpose do you learn, i mean why do you learn, simply-learning or...." I am like, "or what?..." She is like, okay, so you learn simply.
Waha.. I learn simply???.. (funniest statement ever heard) Cause i never thought of my music like that. And i didn't quite get the "simply-learning" though.

But it left me thinking, really why do i learn, is it a valid question to ask!! Well, i learn because i have passion for singing is what i told this lady. I don't know if she got it but she frantically noded her head. (you know like when someone really gets you OR actually disagrees but wants to conceal the disapproval) So i got a HUGE nod. She got it.

Later that night, when i was doing my before bed Riyaaz, that is practice, i was constantly thinking, really why do i learn. Then just like magic, i began to float in my Raag and got transported to some other world and purely enjoyed what i was singing. I was singing a divine raag called, Ahir Bhairav.

I had gotten my answer, -I sing to connect to the divine, I sing to give solace to my soul, I sing not for anybody else but myself, I sing cause it brings me peace, I learn cause i am an eternal seeker, seeker of truth, knowledge of anything that is near perfect. I love to learn, it actually keeps me going. I am not learning to give music exams or pass some tests and get certificates, nor am I learning to please someone else. Its really a Divine connection, when i sing, I meet the divine.

I don't know if that fits into this purposeful world, but my music is my soul.

mera jahan is indeed my world-or do u feel otherwise!!!

Write to me:

This blog i am writing is really for the first time an inquiry into my writing style and who am I exactly. I have been reading a lot and of course blogging more regularly than before.
                                                  A dear friend the other day mentioned to me, that what i think and what i write are very different. She went on to explain, that who I am as a person and what i write are quite contradictory. I took her note seriously because i have always felt i express my views, my thoughts in Mera Jahan, and it is indeed ME here.
I took her note seriously for one more reason, i may be doing this while communicating to people also, i maybe saying things which i don't really mean.

So i went back and had a closer look at some of the things i have penned here. I couldn't get any single line which i didn't mean. But since my friend knows me pretty well, i decided to further ponder upon this and get views from more friends and people whom i follow too.

So people who know me, if you do happen to be reading this, please feel free to write in. Is there a contradiction, is there something i am missing, what more would you like me to write about..

It could be one line, one word, one para.. anything you feel, and if you dont think anything too, its good to hear from you anytime.

So.. you can tell me...

Nothing will happen, its ok, kuch nai hoga, yenu agalla, bidu..

All is not well...Sid(we) really needs to wake up!!

The Carlton tower episode has once again brought to the front of our callous and non-committal attitude. Safety norms were flouted big time this time and every time. How many more lives? how many more tragedies, how many more attacks? how many more accidents will it take for us to really wake up?

What happened yesterday at Carlton will certainly not shake us up, as i say this in a most pessimistic tone i know this for sure that, life will resume to normalcy very soon, papers and channels will also forget about carrying anything or any story pertaining this mishap or disaster and some overtly optimistic people will rave about the spirit of the city that got back to normal so soon. While i wonder if we should really rave about the spirits of our cities as dead or the great lively city that never sleeps or whatever.

There will be thousands of theories on what went wrong, what could have been done, fire personnels didnt even have the basic equipment and they were literally jumping into fire without specific gears to handle the fire.  There will be politicians visiting the deceased, with their false sympathies, giving them compensations and jhooti dilasa. There will be talks about some brave souls who didnt care for their own lives and jumped into the ill-fated building to save the choking and jumping people.

It is almost so sad and disheartening to see that nothing serious is ever done in our country, no steps are taken, to see to it that there are rules, there are norms, there are regulations and there is enforcement. I see, you see, we all see, various people voicing their concerns over blogs, letters to the editors, and media and wherever possible. After sometime all this dies down and we are left with a few grieving families who sooner or later dry up their tears, accept the happening as fate and say, "Uska utna hi likha tha" "Ashte bardiradu" and move on.

I ask, Really, really kya uska utna hi likha tha?, what nonsense, is all i can say!!

What really can be done and should be done now:

1) Make very strict laws and enforcements on building and constructions.
2)  Make fire drills mandatory for every  organisation. (each individual should know what to do, how to use equipment lying to save themselves)
3) I heard a fire personnel say, People should have crawled, this avoids choking, the wind was blowing towards east/west/north or some direction and that people should have gone to the opposite side and broken windows, - Hello, did you train people in this, did you spread awareness about all this? They should have done this and that and what not, it DOES NOT MATTER NOW, they are dead now. SOme are in ICU some are battling for life and death, a few lucky ones are out to tell first hand experiences. But bottom line is after it happens, they should have done this or that!!????
4) The most important thing, the blue collared laborer also needs to be trained. i have observed over the years that, this work force really needs to be trained in lot of areas other than what they do. We need them to clean and keep our offices sparkling, we need them to get Chai, to maintain the diesel for our gen sets, tons of diesel was stored on the roof of the carlton towers, what were the diesel doing there, it could have blown up the whole place in a more devastating manner, we were lucky again..
We need them, but at what cost? They cannot be there doing just the mundane work without knowing ABC's of safety, or a sound working knowledge of which doors to lock and the common knowlegde which is required in the running of a building. How can emergency exits be locked, bolted and latched?? Who is accountable for this, dont managements have a system in place to check all this?

Many a times, we hear people telling us, "Its ok, nothing will happen, you use this bindaas". How can you be so sure, Like the Kerla boat tragedy where again, many tourists sank along with our Mini-Titanic. Again i am sure, that "nothing will happen" attitude that we show comes into limelight.
How the hell do you know nothing will happen, what if it does, so you bloody well, take all the precautions needed. You better have ten life gaurds, you better have emergency boats, i am sure the owners were thinking, KUCH NAHI HOGA YAAR..which cost these holidayers their lives.

Everybody is screaming out there, in India, lives are cheap, sasta, abroad every life is precious and they will guard it, come what may. Accidents, mishaps happen, but again and again and again.. Uphar tragedy happened 13 years back and the justice still awaits, will it take the burning down of a major political establishment for us to wake up and take steps required?

The time is NOW, take action NOW, everyone is talking about this NOW, but our government seems to be asleep. A recent photo of one of our state's MLA dancing in full "Beedi jalyilee style" along with bar girls to entertain other MLA's made me think, what am i doing, what are we doing, what is Indias educated brigade doing? Apart from actively blogging and commenting on each others blogs with fiery statements? my heart bleeds to see such things, i mean, these are the bloody goons in power, country makers, Visionaries(god knows if he has any other visions than a semi clad or nude woman in his dreams) in power.

Coming back to the tragedy in Namma Bengaluru, wake up sid, wake up every one. We can do a lot in changing our attitudes, taking things seriously first, its really not ok, and all is not well, if we keep going like this, if we dont do anything about our "Sab chalta hai attitude".

pool sham- builders lure wanna be swimmers

So, you look at the brochures online, you go do the personal site visit, you have seen every nook and corner of the property, there is enough sunlight, there is enough air, and to top it all, it has a Swimmmmmmming pool. That is so more than enough for an average wannabe house owner to fall for the trap.

I fell for it. I had just learnt swimming, the beautiful apartment complex we were considering owning a flat in was inviting enough for us to just go for it now. In a months time, we bought the good landscaped, swimming pool with all amenities wala flat.
We had seen many but this one also came with a ready to occupy tag, and that was more than enough to really finalize on it. So there we were in A month doing the necessary and booking it and then registering it, doing the house warming pooja. Along with all this came the next hunt, our hunt for a good sasta and tikaoo interior guy. Found one got the interiors done. Still whenever i would visit my would be flat, i would look at the pool with a huge sigh. I would wonder and imagine myself jumping into the beautiful blue water in the summer and being all toned for the year's parties.

Little did i realise that the pool was actually a far dream and not anywhere close to reality. It was literally for the kids and the elders didnt stand a chance. Either they were too busy or if they werent, they would become the centre of attraction if they did get into the pool.

Our swimming pool actually lies in the centre of all the four building blocks of our complex. Little did i realise that it would take ages for the completion of each flats wood work and that the pool would not be used at all by us.

SO now many of us water lovers stand in our balconies and look at the blue waters with a huge sigh and hope for the workers of all the flats to finish woodwork soon and bugger off so we can use the pool. But that seems to be a distant dream as there are 120 flats in the complex and i wonder when each and every flat will get ready we will have a new set of workers who will be more than willing to ogle and make the women feel uncomfortable.  (not that the men will be spared too)

(this is the sad story of most of our apartment complexes, so next time a builder claims "all amenities with the all ELUSIVE SWIMMING POOL, be cautious, tread very carefully, only if the pool is tucked away behind the complex or is covered in the side fall for it. Otherwise say, I have more choice, there is no dearth of flats. Dont fall for the pool MIRAGE:)

My name is NUTS!

Whats wrong with every channel on indian television. right now i am seeing reporters actually following the story so seriously and saying that serious discussions are happening whether or not the multiplex owners will screen MY name is KHAN'..

Lets accept it, any publicity is good, so be a scandal or rumor or blames.. Ultimately stars and the movie makers and the business thrives.. and the Janta gets a good masala for days on news channels. We actually go about following the story like it is the only real thing happening anywhere and the big story this hour is... blah blah blah.... 

i really dunno if Sharukh should have said what he said, or what the jobless marathi manus propogandists are right in their way, but all said and done, we the people are surely getting a good live reality show, and this time run by none other than TV Channels. 

Aman ki Asha on one side, Pakistani artistes performing in India, our selfish politicians making divisive politics, and ruining the countries peace by dividing it further on the name of states and languages. What kind of hypocracy is this, on one side peace ki asha, or rather Aman and on the other side, attack your own people, on the basis of what someone said or did .. like hanging on to words, like you say something and i am going to ' SULI PE CHADA DOONGA' 

Is this democracy.. sadly .. its a mockery of one.. but what more can an educated person like me sit and do but blog.. will i go join politics tomorrow to fight for a more national cause, will we MNC job crazy people leave our plush jobs at AC offices and struggle for the nation. I guess, no, but i really hope more more of us atleast think of doing such things. 

As ForMy name is Khan, the movie is already a semi hit.. sleep well, SRK, Kjo and others,, keep tweeting.. or blogging.. aam janta cant get enough of house politics or national politics.. BRING IT ON... we are waiting for more reality NATAK..

Kid's dilemma or more so a parents dilemma

What is the fuss about

The fuss todays young parents create about their little ones in amazing to watch. I understand that we as adults must give a choice to our children and all that new age  mumbo jumbo.. but i was just wondering otherwise. Its a simple thing, if we dont give our kid the exposure it needs at a young age, if we start helping them form judgements and opinions in a young age as young as THREE.. god knows how judgmental and closed this person is going to grow up and be. And dont mind me saying this, our society doesnt have any dearth of opinionated and judgmental people that we want another generation to grow up like that.

Why it should bother us:
 Certainly there are going to be lot of arguements on this, and one i did have myself with a friend. This friend belives that a child should not be forced about things like, attending a concert/ weather or not it wants to be a part of a particular party/ weather or not he wants to go to somebodies house or not. Its a three year old child, let him/her expereince things, dont give in to everything every tantrum of his.

Wat am i saying: arent we restricting him from having a wholesome experience of life.. he likes it or not comes at a latter stage.
I am not one for imposing things on anybody, but all i am saying is give him the exposure, so that he is not too quick in making judgements about situations and events.

Remebering how we grew up:
I remember having attended lot of functions, lot of getogethers, family, friends, movies, playing with other kids, being tagged along for surfing expeditions of elder cousins while the kids played in shallow with woofy(pet), we saw it all.. we were every where, doing lot of things, ofcourse we didnt decide weather we liked a place or not, but we just went with the flow.
With the ourburst of new parenting rules and this whole theories of choice and let them be, let them do what they like, i wont force him, is fine,, but somewhere i think it is robing children of that innocence. By not taking him to a concert because he got bored in a previous one is like saying, i wont sing again, because i lost in that particular music concert.

Giving them a choice but with the right exposure:

I believe that children need to experience a lot, our over protecting them and fussing over them only makes them even fussier individuals. Take them along with you, let them enjoy, not like it once/ twice.. explain to them, that give it a shot, see if you like it, dont make your child a restless human, who cant sit in one place for even a minute.

Let him be a wholesome individual who has seen the world and then makes his own choices about what he likes and what he doesnt. As far as adult hood is concerened there is a lot of time for opinions and judgements, let him see, experience, dont force but dont make him a fuss too.. If you can get him along to a friends house even when he doesnt like it that much then i am sure you are keeping him away from concerts other places only because its convenient to you.

Lastly, i do beleive in freedom of choice, and i am  no dictator, but i also firmly think that as a child you ought to experience so much and be a whole rounded personality who is game for everything in life and such kids certainly do grow up to be enthusiastic about life. Others who are left to choice, i feel are big fusses in life.

So take your child out, enjoy with him/her, show them your world, make them a part of your life too, maybe when they grow up they will be more accepting and enthusiastic and not judge situations or people.