jaggu is back

Do not know what has happened to me but I am listening to Jaggu again. Something changed inside me and because of that I had lost my connection with him. But I am so glad to have him back with me.

Tere saath gayi woh raunak...
Ab is shehar mein rakhan kya hain...

Sab ganda hain par Dhanda hain

Recently we applied for a credit card for Ishmeet, so that she can start building her own credit history. And to my utter surprize citibank approved her a card for $25,000 credit limit (please take note this is based on spousal income). That is more than three of my personal credit cards combined. So now hopefully you get the title....

Topi recently reviewed the music of Gajini and he rightfully got the best song of the movie "Kaise Mujhe" sung by Benny Dayal. This song for me is probably one of the better ones after a long time. The best part is that there is a instrumental piece of this song in the album. Listen to the instrumental and give me two duaas...I am begining to like the whole idea of good instrumentals. Primarily because this is only place you get to hear quality flute and violin pieces. Otherwise the beauty of flute is simply lost in the drums and synth. Another thing worth mentioning about Gajini is the solo song sung by Shreya Goshal. A pretty crappy song lyrics wise but just enjoy her range.

what should I do....???

Note: If you have already submitted your biography to Marquis Who's Who, please disregard this email.

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Kirpan

For the simple mind, the significance of sikhs carrying the kirpan (sword) is linked to our martial history which I believe happened by chance because someone had to take up the ownership to defend India and ofcourse Northern frontier provinces. But Prof. Puran Singh description is just so beautiful...here is goes.

"Every Sikh is to wear "His" Sword. Not his own. Kirpan is a gift from the Guru. It is not an instrument of offence or defense. It is a mind made intense by the love of the Guru. The Sikh is to have a sword-like mind. It is the visible sign of an intensely sensitive soul.'

The Sword Cuts rapidly and so does the mind

Taj Palace

"I have held my ground as human history has unfolded in its timeless procession of laughter and tears. Courage and cowardice, good and evil. I will prevail"

An adv. run by Taj Group in WSJ last friday.

flying back from NY

Flying back from NY was a cool experience. I saw three airplanes flying parallel or at an angle to my plane, different altitute ofcourse. This is just an amazing sight as you get an idea on how fast these planes are flying.

Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is a cool movie.

cell phones

sometimes I wish, we had cell phone culture when we were in college...so many amazing moments could have been captured.

constructive ego

While reading a friends blog recently, I encountered this term constructive ego (CE). I must admit, I have been fascinated by this term since. My friend recommended that you should have a healthy dose of it. I used to refer to this friend as a "snob" quite often back in the days and so followed a chain of thoughts and I ended up thinking that what is ghamandi (snob) for me is maybe constructive ego (CE) for him. But the more I pondered, and did introspection to find out where my constructive ego is, the more it got clear that snob is completely different from CE and I probably suffer from a deficiency of CE.

The second reason chain of thought is, if I am right about this concept, why do I lack it? I seem to lack it more in my personal life rather than professional life. I could identify scenarios form my professional life where this constructive ego helped me withstand pressures and present my ideas effectively. But in personal life, I could not think of any scenarios where I could identify me using this CE to put forward my ideas or points. The lack of it always makes me go through pain and suffering. Some of my close friends all seem to have it including my wife. From all this introspection, I think constructive ego is a good thing to possess and in the times we live it helps us all to deal with life.

James Bond

So i went to see James Bond and sadly they spoke very fast english. I did not follow half of what everyone was saying..

that will be all

I salute

Every single paraolympian ever to take part in the Olympics against all odds. There is nothing I can write in this blog that can reflect what I just saw and felt. All I have is mad respect for these brave atheletes.

Dasvidaniya and Oye Lucky Oye

Both albums are very nice and capture their markets.

Dasvidaniya: is all about heart felt songs and my personal favorite is "Mumma", a sweet song about ma. I would rate this album a **** and recommend a buy rating. The music is by Kailash Kher (not 100% sure).

Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye: is all about Harpreet Singh :) The songs have the same masti that I would associate with Harpreet of good old IIT days. The lyrics are sharp and funny at many places. There is a Rajasthani number which is something I have never heard in a bollywood movie and for sure punjabi "folk" is making its way into mainstream bollywood. Songs like Jugni will rock the clubs for months to come. I would rate this album **** and recommend a buy rating.

Adsense does not makes much sense

I added adsense after both Topi and Parle added it to their respective blogs but somehow this whole adsense thingi does not makes much sense. It is perhaps the only google application I have come across as not so user friendly.

I still get the message my account needs verification when I have a account verfied confirmation email in my inbox...well...I got to love the tags for this blog.

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to one and all.....

what is love?

It takes a moment to fall in love but it takes a life to understand what love is....


I can hear Sathe saying... "Dude that is so gay, I can't believe you actually wrote that on your blog" and Abhi and Manav laughing.

Manav soon turns back and says...."*&626&%^od sab &^%$^&yaap hain"

Images from Gaffar Market

I clicked these while visiting Gaffar market during my recent trip to India in March 2008. I had visited Gaffar Market at least four to five times during my trip. My sympathies with all those who lost dear ones.

stay away from

Drona and Kidnap
Both are totaaal... tatti and very very bad movies

kabhi khud pe hasa mein aur kabhi khud pe roya

true....eh?

bata by choice

The company whose manufactured shoes were worn by yours truly from class H.K.G to class XII lost its founder recently. We lost Mr. Thomas Bata, the czech born founder of Bata Shoe Company. It is funny that all this while I thought Bata is an Indian compamy. Another benefit of reading newspaper.

Sri Guru Gobind Singhji was absolutely right about the uniqueness in Sikh identity

 

Our Canada Trip Summary...

 

Story of my life at Niagara Falls, Canada

 

Glimpse of Sheesh Mahal, Amer Fort, Jaipur

 

what i miss the most

What I miss the most
1) Go to sabji mundi on my Hero Ranger with a 20Rs note and get onions, tomatoes, dhania, mirchi, bread and eggs for Mummy.
2) Play in my gali with all my friends shunty, antriksh, sonal and raja. Maybe even badminton under street light on warm summer nights.
3) Cricket bet match with Amjad and his team. I still remember the key players in my team Nangia, Varun, Sonal, Shunty, Lokwani, Raja and Sambhav.
4) Stay up late with all my cousins (vicky, mini-di, gagan, deepa) making rooh-afza golas and sleeping on the chatt gazing at the stars.
5) Take a walk with Harpal Chacha to the paan shop at night and maybe have a softy at Jai Shiv Bakery.
6) Celebrate Diwali... bursting crackers and playing with the snake boxes :)
7) Enjoy the monsoon of all the things....get wet in the rain...kill the tiddies which come after the rains.
8) Eat kachoris at Sidharth Misthaan Bhandaar.
9) Sit behind Anant on his Hero Puch and check out Kota.

life

Life is full of strange surprises. I am waiting for my share.

Sikh image in Bollywood

The Happy-go-Lucky or maybe Always Happy - Always Lucky and loads of Dhucky sikh image might be getting a facelift in bollywood with Singh is King. It is strangely cute to see a guy in Pug and beard (semi-automatic) romancing with Katrina (feels good :p)

see this video and take a look..."teri ore"

PS: I lot of purists will not like this post and I know it.

Car maintenance

I have always felt there should be a resource to tell me how much any maintenance job on my car should cost. Moreover, the feeling that someone is trying to rip me off is so obnoxious that it stresses me out tremendously. Recently, when trying to get my rear brake pads and rotors replaced, I went through this traumatizing experience. I was quoted prices from $350 to $1100 for pretty much the same job (and more) so you can imagine the "someone trying to rip me off feeling" I was talking about.
I googled, yelped and forumed pretty much did everything to feel confident with my approach but in the end gave up and left the car at the Nissan Stealership. Recently I found a new pretty cool website that gives people like me the much needed information and honest price estimates. The website is called RepairPal and I would like to thank the creators. It provides you information on the statistics of how much any service job on your vehicle should cost you. For example, for the brake job I had paid $450 and I was not disappointed to see it as the average amount for that job. Interestingly, the lowest price that I was quoted for the job is also the lowest price according to the website. It is funny how I covered +/- 3 sigma by just making a 10-15 calls, scary isn't it.

khuda jaane

Khuda Jaane Ki Mein fida hoon,
Kudha Jaane Mein Mitt Gaya,
Khuda Jaane ki yeh kyun hua hain...

KK and Shilpa Rao have sung something not very unusual yet something very amazing. I guess I missed KK's voice

Avengi Ja Nahin - Rabbi Shergill

Comrades and Fellow Countrymen,
It is time for all of you to stand in respect for one musician, his name is Rabbi Shergill.

Listen to "Avengi Ja Nahin" and you will thank me. Maybe I am over reacting but if you listen to this album closely you will agree with me.

Lara Fabian - Ave Maria (De Schubert)

Enjoy

Atif Aslam, Kailasa and Richa Sharma Concert

So I went too this concert last Saturday, the band Kailasa featuring vocals by Kailash Kher was awesome and Richa Sharmaa was phenomenal. Not so suprisingly, Atif Aslam was the main act of the night and he did not disappoint mast tha patha....sometimes I think if Atif was a stock, I would have been a millionaire at least since I would have had probably the largest number of pre-IPO stocks.

I will end this post with a few lines from an upcoming song I am listening these days.
दिल की येही खाता हैं,
के दिल को नही पता हैं,
की दिल चाहता हैं क्या???

PS1: Naresh Paresh from the band Kailasa were great on stage.
PS2: Amaanat Ali should stop singing and join a dance troupe. He does not like singing and prefers to just jump on stage.

Reality TV as real as it can get

Amidst a lot of confusion over the contract and my resentment, Ishmeet had decided to participate in the saregamapa zee tv usa 2008 contest. She was enthusiastic on the amount of learning one gets in these contests and an international exposure. Last Saturday, her dreams were shattered because during the last few days when the audience applauded and the host Aishwarya praised her singing, the judges could not go beyond the fact that she is a Sikh girl singing a song with Punjabi influence. Instead of appreciating her singing, Suresh Wadekar gave her a condescending comment in the very first episode itself. Suresh now a veteran in judging these reality singing talent shows should know for sure that these songs are preselected and given to contestants one month in advance to practice.

The second episode was shot and Ishmeet rocked the stage again, this time with a sufiana song (predecided by Zee TV). But the judges were not impressed again because they could not bear to see Ishmeet performing at a level beyond her female peers. I do not want to divulge details about other contestants but there was this guy Jeoffery Iqbal and I can assure you he was goooood. Coming back to judges, other contestants and crew members told me that they felt a huge personality conflict between Suresh Wadekar and Ishmeet. I think he was taken aback by her confidence and voice throw, something he never had and had to stick to Bhajans and romantic songs his entire career. The other guy Aadesh Srivastav is not really judging but putting oil into the fire as needed. We all know how openly he dissed Ishmeet Singh during Star Voice of India contest.

After the third episode, these guys could not take it anymore and did what they do best. They broke Ishmeet’s confidence by giving her bad comments and forced Zee TV to change her song at the last moment for the next episode. She was given a “Lata-amma” song practically 4 hours before her performance (if you remove 8 hours of sleep time). She was competing with other contestants who had practiced their songs for over a month and a week of practice with live music. My darling angel went on stage like a brave soldier knowing her time had come because the judges did not liked her style of singing and confidence. She went on stage with just one practice with live music and did her best amongst all the pressure and tension. But it was her time to depart. Rest of it was all a formality.

In her exit speech, Ishmeet very politely reminded the judges that she does understand that her voice is different and she will make the best use of it. But I think even hundreds of Ishmeet cannot make people like Aadesh Srivastav and Suresh Wadekar understand that if Lata-amma sings an Abida Parveen song it is not going to match the class and level of Abida Parveen (vice-versa also holds true). No wonder these two guys have no actual work other than judging in their hands. Ishmeet performed her last act on the song “Yeh Ishq Hai” from the movie Jab We Met. As always she smiled in front of the camera and brought down the house. But she and everyone else in the crew knew she was targeted. She was targeted for being different, being a Sikh and being confident. I am sure if she had more time to practice the last song, she would have nailed that one too. But these heartless judges could not care for less, when Ishmeet walked to Suresh Wadekar after the show; he had an “I do not care” expression. I guess these guys work only when the cameras are rolling since they no longer care for music but something else. I am hoping Ishmeet got some learning from this experience, if not necessarily the one she desired.


PS: Suresh Wadekar stop wearing netted black shirts, your man boobs show off.

where were you

Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
Where were you when I was hurt and helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun
Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life
I took a heavenly ride through our silenceI knew the waiting had begun
And headed straight..into the shining sun

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

I have a gut feeling the music will be very fresh and popular for this movie.

That will be all

PS1: Amitabh Bachan should stop writing his blog. Most of its is bull anyways.
PS2: Join http://www.lifeinlines.com/ by Maninder Gulati. I am still upset he let go of his kesh to get girls.
Ps3: The Bommarillu actress has finally arrived.
Ps34: I am running 5k after 3 years tomorrow, wish me luck

मेरा हिन्दी में पहला post

भगवान् गूगल वालों को लम्बी उमर दे और उनका स्टॉक $१००० तक पंहुचा दे।
दिल गद गद हो गया

surge ahead

Life has strange ways of challenging us. A person looking from outside will always get an incomplete view of whats happening in your life. Moreover, if you choose not to look at your life correctly you may also fool yourself.

The bottom line in life is that if you do not surge ahead you will always go down. Not because others will go ahead of you. Simply because you will slip down. It is only "you" (and no body else) who decides which way you want to go.

.

Jaane Kya

I guess Zubin is gifted...his voice gets into my head. Dayammmm......

Ishmeet Made it to SAREGAMAPA USA 2008 Finals

Bhailog,
Ishmeet will be travelling to Dallas for SAREGAMAPA 2008 USA Finals. She will be enjoying this experience with 20 other participants. I hope ZeeTV USA gets more sponsorship so that we do not have to shell out the expenses :)

http://www.saregamapa.us/new/contestants.asp

Jagjit Aur Chitra Singh - Sunte Hain Ke Mil Jaati

A rare classic...

Few pictures from Kota Trip

March India Trip Month of the Year + Tashan

My last three trips to India happened in this month of the year, which explains the title. I came back from India last Friday and this time even more desperate to go back again. Maybe it is the fact that I went back after two years but even 24 days felt less on this trip. I am sure, I will be writing a lot more about this trip in days to come. I travelled SFO-->Delhi-->Kota-->Jaipur-->Kota-->Delhi-->Kota-->Delhi-->Amritsar-->Delhi-->Kota-->Delhi-->SFO, in that order last month.

In the mean time going back to my first love, music....the music of Tashan is nice!!! I think it is going to play all over and turn out to be a huge success. Vishal Shekar are definitely maestros at churning music which is for those young at heart.

Very funny Indian ad for Godrej DVD Player

Another proof of the quality of Indian ads.

Classically Milds

Amazing new album my Sonu Nigam...soulful is the word.

It has been a long time since I have blogged. A lot is happening on the personal front. Plan to watch Mithya, funny how I do not feel the same for Jodha Akbar. We celebrated our second anniversary yesterday...time flies....

I pity Raj Thackarey

I think leaders (or not) like Raj Thackarey should be publicly punished and sent to jail.

Papa Cj - World Stands Up

Pretty decent....