THROW shAron STONE

Recently when interviewed by a Headlines Today news reporter Sharon Stone expressed how much she loves Bollywood and how much she is waiting for the right call from Bollywood. The reporter too naive or probably too much impressed by her answer asked Sharon if she recalls any recent movies from Bollywood and here comes the best part. Sharon Stone's reply was "Hmmmmmm Ymmmmmm yeah I loved this movie.....Hmmmmmm Ymmmmm Goshhh...it has been like six years....it was this beautiful love story ....such a nice love story....it had this female director....yeah I loved that movie"

music meri jaan

Revisited the music of Chameli a few minutes ago, sounded as refreshing as it used to. A very good album indeed.

Another short story, Ishmeet and I were listening to the music of Aashiqui and she so religiously pointed out that how much she loved the tabla in the song "Mera Dil tere liye dhadakta hain". Reminded me of a an old friend very kameena I must say who used to play tabla on the trunk of politician Shukla.

my roommates

My roommates/ apartment mates were in the following order. I would write more about each one of them soon

Rishabh Mehreja 1997-1998 Room #55
Ajit Ashwalayan Shukla 1998-1999 Room #101

Vishvesh Shriram Sathe and Manavendra Nath Mahato 2001-2003 Apt #2014

Ajay Mulki Rao (2004-mid 2006) Apt #1110

On Sanjay Dutt getting bail

"Yeh public badi jaldi bhool jaati hain. Aap buss judge saahib ko ek baar saza sunaane do, sab ka judiciary par vishwash rahega. Baad mein ek-aad maheene mein bail karwa denge. Kyon theek hain na?"

sab theek hain...sab saaf saaf theek hain

holiday season spending

I find it hard to understand why everything is taken to the level of fakeness(not sure if that is a word) in US. The Black Friday sale is another perfect example of this. Items are sold with an additional 5-10% discount on their usual price but the whole gimmick is to market it was over 50% discount. Patrons unaware of the usual pricing of the items tend to think they are getting an awesome deal and therefore end up spending on stuff they never really wanted. Americans on an average spend $570 on holiday gifts alone during the months of November-December. This gift spending combined with spending on the family makes this entire holiday season a huge factor in setting the pace for the American economy in 2008.

National Anthem Of India - Jana Gana Mana (By A.R.Rahman)

A.R. Rehman is a good man.

soon

Yes it is going to happen, finally I feel the urge to do it.

Another one from Sidhu bhaji

Sidhu's take on different forms of cricket (source: rediff.com)
Comparing the various forms of cricket with music, Sidhu said, "Test cricket is like classical music which has survived since ancient ages. One-dayers are like film music that leaves people enthralled and T20 cricket is like disco and rap which provides occasional pleasure in short bursts."

gut feeling

I have a gut feeling that a lot of you would know about my daily life after watching "Jab We Met"....amen!

History repeats itself

Shailendra Singh, a struggling singer was given the break of his life to sing for the Rishi Kapoor in his debut movie Bobby. History has repeated itself after almost 25 years as another Shailendra is giving vocals for Rishi Kapoor's son Ranbir Kapoor in his debut movie Saanwariya.

I happen to know Shailendra Hada because he was my brother's classmate. I also remember him singing in every single event at School, be it bhajans or awesome ghazals. As a matter of fact, our respective Father's were also classmates. I feel happy for him, check his vocals on this youtube link

Khalish

I just love this word...

Tum kaho to mein rok lo,
Jo tum kaho to nahi
Seene mein hain kaise Khalish
Teri kashish to nahin...

Enjoy this song "Tere Sawalon ke woh jawab" from the movie Manorama six feet under. It has the same effect as "Khamosh Raat, Sahmi Hawa" from the movie Takshak.

Rang De Basanti Chola

Just felt like posting this video on my blog. Ishmeet will be singing this song tomorrow for her play on Gaddar movement.

uk asian women

I have always love the way UK Punjabi women speak. The way they mix their sweet English accents with some words of Punjabi..adds an extra oomph factor. But unfortunately a recent study shows that they have the highest rate of suicide rate. Almost 80% of suicides are committed by Punjabi women in the UK.

I find this is very unfortunate and an huge shame for Punjabi's/Sikhs men. It is a shame that our women who have for centuries given birth to martyrs have to resort to such extreme measures. I just pray things get better.

I yearn to be with you

I do not know what got into me but recently I have this strong desire to meet the river Ganga. I feel like spending some time at the ghats and maybe even take a doobki in the waters probably somewhere more towards the northern end of Ganga.

I have this feeling that I will learn something when I will be there. Maybe about my ancestors or maybe myself.

my experiences in America

America is all about freedom of expression, religious tolerance and living the American dream. God only knows what this bloody living the American dream is all about. I will tell you something about my experiences searching for an apartment in this amazing country called America. It would not be a long story with lots of plots but a rather short one where I will tell you how an Indian can still feel completely alienated in this country.
I have always been living in apartment complexes so far in the last 6 years I have spent here. But this time around when my lease ended and my rent was increased yet again, bloody $1570 per month. Ishmeet and I decided that we should move out and look for an apartment outside the apartment communities. Thus began our journey to look for a home sweet home, close to my workplace, close to freeways, close to desi store and the usual stuff. Our first pick was a townhouse where the Caucasian manager was probably the finest actress I have seen. Ishmeet and I were too naive and felt that this would be it and how lucky we were to find this apartment. However, we never heard back from our actress manager. We learned our lesson or should I say were beginning to learn.
The second one was even better than the first one with a beautiful backyard. The apartment was shown to us by a gora son of a rich father. He too was a fine actor, showed us the house with lots of interest. However, he made one big mistake, he had told me earlier that he was going to fax the application to his father but he folded my application right in front of me. Two days later, we came to know that the unit was rented to someone else. The third and fourth ones were non-goras and promptly offered me their apartments but we did not take those places for our personal reasons. The fifth one was again a gora and man this guy topped it all, I could literally see on this goras face that he did not like my face. But I stayed there and irritated him even more. You can tell that by this time I had learned all my lessons. We finally took the sixth one, luckily this time the gora liked us and we liked the apartment.
This entire experience was an eye opener and showed me that as long as desis live in protected environments or rather try to keep their eyes closed they can continue to live this unknown American dream.

two controversies

Recently on SAREGAMAPA the three pakistani contestants got the lowest number of votes based on the Independence Day Episode. I should point that they stood in bottom three based on voting from all over the world, as Zee TV claims. To my utter surprise they introduced this random controversy that they got the lowest number of votes just because they sang Pakistani patriotic songs therefore, there should be no elimination in that particular episode. I do not like this at all...bloody bringing politics, controversies and all this country based tatti in a simple song competition.

The second controversy I cannot think right now because my mother-in-law made some yummy chicken soup for me and after drinking my soup I cannot focus on this blog.

Alvi and Madhur were here for the weekend and we had a very nice time. It is always good to be around good friends. I was meeting Madhur after a gap of two years and he was a changed person. Much more opinionated and strong person. I liked it a lot.

Mussarat - Sanwre

One of the best performances at SaReGaMaPa this year. Nusrat-saab sang the song originally for the movie Bandit Queen

speakers

facebook....

Whats up with facebook? Did they not think that hiring all of the best marketing folks in the world will be an over kill? I finally succumbed and joined facebook four days ago, I honestly felt that the site is nothing great. The only good thing about facebook is the small font size and that it is not blocked at my place of work.

One recommendation: Agnee, buy this CD. Its worth it.

And yes speakers was all about buying good quality speakers. Yesterday I burned a CD after a long time and noticed that listening pleasure of any song to a large extent depends on the quality of speakers you have. I guess a good speaker subsitutes for a Parle, a Topi, a Gandhi or a Shukla.

Wadali Brothers

Magicians, Musicians, Maestros

Try the following songs:

1) Tere Ishq Nachaaya
2) Ghungat Chuk Sajna
3) Dil Dena Te Dil Lena Sauda (*****)
4) Tu Maane Ya Na Maane (*****)

Read about these gifted musicians

Main Bauri Maira Ram Bhattar

A shabad from Ishmeet's latest kirtan CD

a trip to LA

 
That's my father-in-law at the Santa Monica 3rd street. As you can see we had a blast :)

The Gandhi Protests

Denied the permanent U.S. residency they'd been promised, high-skilled workers are taking to the streets in nonviolent protest. Thousands of bouquets were sent to the USCIS (US Immigration Services) and streets of San Jose saw engineers/doctors/other skilled workers on the streets.

Finally on July 17th, USCIS yielded and accepted all demands. I do not know how much role the flowers or the peaceful march played in all this but it was good to see everyone unite and stand together for a cause for once.

some of my favorite songs

A list of my favorite songs can be found at the following links

http://prats7uf.blogspot.com/2007/06/happy-birthday.html
http://prats7uf.blogspot.com/2007/06/addendem-happy-birthday.html

I would like to add two more though:

1) Jalpari theme from Saagar..listen to RD doing "Ta Ra...Tara ReeRaaRaa"..pure bliss.....trust me.

2) Mera Kuch Samaan from Izzazat.

SaReGaMaPa

I have always been a sucker of quality music and one of the best shows India ever produced well before American Idol was "SaReGaMa". I think even SaReGaMa was inspired by Meri Awaaz Suno but somehow SaReGaMaPa was our family show. I remember Papa and I would leave everything to watch this show and even Mummy used to finish her chores well in time to watch this show.

These days Ishmeet and I watch SaReGaMaPa and also Amul Star Voice of India. What amazes me is how much one show has impacted our country. Not so long ago when all we had were two or three main lead voices, these shows provided hope. Music which was traditionally nurtured in selected Punjabi, Bengali, Tam-Brahm and Marathi houses all of a sudden became an option for kids all of over India. I am sure so many parents would have felt that they should teach their kids music seriously just after getting inspired by SaReGaMa.

The end result is quite evident, we have so many quality voices in the industry (no no not Himesh) that every song gets a different voice. It has made life difficult for people who take Antakshri very seriously because remembering so many different lyricist, singers and music directors in a tough job now.

khilone ka dabba

Sometimes things around me our like a khilone ka dabba. Its colorful and full of so many desirable toys (read things). Without a doubt, I want all of them but they are so entangled and randomly placed that I just have no clue which one to pick.

I got my first issue of "The Economist" yesterday and as I expected I ended up reading most of it. I was shocked that one magazine had so much information and articles that were interesting.

I watched the IIFA awards too last night and I must say that I was happy to see Lara Dutta anchoring the show alongwith Boman Irani. Certain coffee drinking elements were not there and it felt good.

My in-laws are coming to visit us in a three days and I am mentally preparing myself for it. Hopefully it would be all perfect.

Mrs. Sonia Di Patil looks like a character from the south park. I honestly do not want her as the President of India. I think even her entire CV is build up on the issue that she is a female aur "Madam ka naam bhejto vote mil jaayega" attitude has brought her where she is.

Now you know what I meant by Khilone Ka Dabba.

one of those days

When you wake up and discover that you slept in an incorrect posture as a result you have a pain in your neck. I think neck pain is second only to toothaches. Somehow you manage to get out of bed and as you are brushing your teeth in a still sleepy mode. God only knows why, all of a sudden you picture an entire family standing with candles in their hands outside a cinema hall. You try to shrug this dream and try to think about Lara Dutta's awesome legs (am I allowed to say that now?). But something still bothers, as you cannot get over the thought, that why this dream occured at the first place. You finish brushing and go to the living room to catch the latest headlines on Aajtak and bang...the news reader says...10 years ago on this very day hundreds lost their lives in Uphar Cinema Fire. Not to my surprise the families are still waiting for justice which we all know will come in another 10 years.

I just pray to God to give strength to all the families who lost someone dear.

miss you always

It has been six years since we parted. You were there with me for four wonderful years and not a single day in the last six years has passed when I have not missed you or thought about you.

Looking forward to meeting you again soon.

The Bhullars ...

Okay there is no pro-sikh agenda here :) but I find it rather strange that I made the Saragrahi post and a few days later I read this story about the bravery of Bhullar family. A short one but still worth a few minutes.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=15&contentid=20070516021924531215e4be2

300 Spartans and 21 sikhs

While talking with Pathak the other day about this new movie called 300, I said that there are many instances of such bravery in sikh history too. To my surprise he immediately said and in his words .."abe sachi chadha, mere mann mein pahli baat yehi aayi thi, ki agar meine yeh movie banaayi hoti to shaayad sikhs warriors par hi banaayi hoti". Today I bumped into this interesting poster on the Battle of Saragarhi where 21 sikhs laid down their life's fighting against a huge army of afghans. Hopefully the creaters of this poster will not mind this.

1971

I want to write just one thing about this movie '1971'. It is one of the finest war movies that Bollywood has ever produced. The movie is very close to Lakshya to the levels of impact it leaves on you but with much much more heart.

The story is based on true facts and had to be told. Director Mira Nair once said, we indians should learn to tell our stories. Director Amrit Sagar has done full justice in telling this story that every Indian should know about. I would recommend all my friends to watch this movie on a warm sunny afternoon when they have all the time to think.

its all about you

Yes this post is all about her...the girl in my life...my wife Ishmeet. What makes her so different is her immense love for food. Matlab hum dono bhaithe hain and all of a sudden she remembers something about that nukkad wala omelette guy, they way he used to put full green mirchi's in the omelette, the amount of butter he used to put in the omelletes. Uff...and the way she describes it makes me wonder..yeh kya ladki hain yaar yeh. Yeh to buss ek kissa hain....I do not feel writing more on this topic all of a sudden but she mentions the paranthe wali gali and so many of her favorite restuarants.

So many things have happened recently....Spiderman-3 sucked all of a sudden. TaRaRumPum was strictly okayish. Parle is writing really great blogs and Topi is writing nothing. I met Mallad at Denny's after a desi party that he attended and was surprised to see some old H10 dwellers, also coming from the same desi party.

I am finally coming to the point in my job where I do not feel like working. I am surprised that it happened to me so early on..in just 3 years. I guess yeh dil maange more, maybe another omelette :)

I have fever

Yes friends, I am down with fever on a Thursday night so everyone in my office will think that I am taking Friday off not due to fever but to sleep. It sucks specially because there was an important meeting on Friday that I wanted to attend.

Maybe I have fever because I am sick of Ash-Abhi marriage news on Aajtak. Thanks to Jhanvi for coming into the picture and saving all of us.

TATA

Abhay Deol and Ali Zafar

I think both of them are the underdogs who would finish off big.

Abhay Deol to me is one of the best actors among the younger lot. I especially like the way he is comfortable in front of the camera. The ease and smoothness though not evident when he is dancing shows when he acts.

Ali Zafar, kya awaaz hain bhai. Even though I have supported Atif Aslam from the days when he just started and much much before anything big in bollywood happened. Ali Zafar has the voice and talent.

Moi Chacha-Jaan Ban Gaya

Comrades it gives me extreme pleasure to share with you all that I have become chacha-jaan last week :) Bonnie and Bhabhi had a baby boy....hee haw!!

canoeing

 

I finally got my canoeing pictures from the recent Hawaii trip. There is a small story behind these pictures. The people who owned the canoe were also taking pictures of us and were charging $20 for one picture and $40 for the entire CD. Bloody expensive I must say!

So Ron sitting up front was purchasing one picture for his kid and I know you all know what I did next. I offered him $20 on face value and gave him my business card and asked him to get the entire CD. Ron finally mailed me the CD this week. I like my look in this picture :)

Hawaii ho aaye bhai log

Bhai log, so I surprized Ishmeet with a trip to Hawaii for our first anniversary. The place is simply awesome, you got to go there. Overall, an expensive but worth it trip.

I am watching Filmfare Awards as I am making this post. Being a kid we used to love watching these awards and no matter what I say, I still do enjoy watching Filmfare Awards. The award made me remember Sanjeev Kumar for his performance in Aandhi. Interestingly Sanjeev Kumar Aandhi's performance had edged out Amitabh's Deewar peformance for a best actor award.

Delhi Heights

The music of "Delhi Heights" is catching up on me....especially the songs "Kitne Der", "Aaja Nachle" and "Ey Gori". Rabbi Shergill has impressed me though the songs took a while to get in my head.

Another cool thing I noticed that finally there is a romantic song for sikh guys...hehe. I am not talking about the Bhangra ones or the Mika one, in which he answers Rakhi Sawant on why he took her puppy.

I am talking about a song from the album "Ustad and Divas". The song has been sung beautifully by Sunidhi Chauhan and goes like "Moore piyaa ke lambe lambe kes, bhaiyye jiya ko, bhola bhala bhes". I am sure a lot of my friends will like it.

Bay Area Spinning Wheel Festival

I attended the Bay Area Spinning Wheel Festival today. Like the previous one it was an amazing experience as the festival showcased some of the best movies related to sikh issues. I would like to showcase two of them here.

First one: Amu
This film starring Konkona Sensharma and Ankur Khanna (from Yun Hota to Kya Hota) raises a lot of questions which are still unanswered after the 1984 massacre. A must watch, very well directed and truly amazing.

Second one: The Gold Bracelet
Written, Directed and Produced by Kavi Raz is another very well made movie on how the lives of thousands of sikhs changed in the USA post 9/11. I later had a chance to meet Kavi Razji and it was a pleasure talking to him.

denial

I am sure about only one thing right now. That one thing is that I am leading a life of denial. I miss India too much but still do not put in a effort to go back, how weak is that. India is where my heart is, I miss the rickshaw's, the smoke and talking to every damn stranger on the street. I miss sitting with parents and having a cup of tea. I miss talking to my brother and fighting with him. I want to take Ishmeet to powai and show her all the places. I pray to God to help me here.

Lately, a lot of things have been going in my head. I want to do so many things and yet I cannot do anything. All I am doing right now is finishing every damn project that comes my way, be it work or personal life. I want to be a better sikh, I want to be a better Indian, I want to be a better human being, I want to be a better engineer, I want to be a better husband, I want to be a better son, I want to be a better brother, I want to be a better friend. There are so many "I want" in my head. I guess I should stop thinking about myself and look at the bigger picture, sort of like Gandhiji's Talisman which used to be there on the first left hand paper of every NCERT textbook. It read something like this:

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

Alright mates.....lets wake up tomorrow and try to do something good for someone else with no expecations. This word "sewa" as I am writing it, is soothing me so much I cannot express it in words. It feels like I got all my answers.

My absolute favorite hindi movies

DDLJ
DCH
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro
Andaz Apna Apna
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander
Angoor
Chashme Baddoor
Ghayal
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na
Golmaal

so I watched Guru

Overall 3.5 stars for the movie. It is a good movie but I felt Mani Ratnam had to put 2-3 songs at places where they could have been avoided. Aishwarya like always is out of place and looks better only when she gets old. Abhishek fubext hain and Gulzar should stop challenging Rehman by giving him ultra-strange lyrics. Nonetheless, Rehman is awesome.

Ishmeet and I had randomly decided to go for the movie today since we have something planned for tomorrow night. So we reach the theatre and within the next 5 minutes I see three familiar faces Mulki, Sumo and Anu. There were other junta affiliated to these guys and the crowd today was in a freakoo mood. Overall, mazaa aaya.

Before this, earlier today in the evening I cooked Biryani start to finish in a record time of 1 hour. Anyways, Guru is a good weekend watch, enjoy it.

So I read a book after a long time

Yaar ekdum hi senti kar diya...I will just put my version of the last lines in this wonderful book.

"You know it is strange, I might have passed out of IIT, but in some ways, my soul is still there. Maybe in hostel 2 corridors, TV room, MB, meta department or at chinko's.