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.