Tere haathon ke likhe khat...

This one takes me back to 1986 when I was about 22 years old and had the pleasure of spending a lovely evening and breathing the same air as the great Kaifi Azmi. The one and only time that I had the pleasure of doing so.

Call it youthful exuberance, cockiness, excitement or simply my eagerness to impress the great poet with my 'knowledge' of urdu shayari, I managed to strike a conversation with him and proceeded to tell him how wonderful I found his poetry and how I appreciated his lyrics in the film, Arth. When asked by him which one I liked the most, I promptly responded by half singing (I used to imagine/consider myself to be Jagjit Singh's younger brother those days...ha ha) half reciting the first few lines of a nazm which was unfortunately not a part of the film but seemed like an extension of the famous "Koi yeh kaise bataye...", the famous nazm penned by Kaifi sahab.

I sang, "Teri khushboo mein base khat mein jalata kaise
Pyar mien doobe hue khat mein jalata kaise
Tere haaton ke likhe khat mein jalata kaise
Tere khat aaj mein Ganga mein baha aya hoon
Aag behete hue paani mein laga aya hoon"

After patiently hearing me out, Kaifi sahab commented, "Bahut khoob! Bahut achha likha hai par afsos yeh maine nahin likha hai"

I was dumbstruck, nonplussed and thought that Kaifi Azmi was probably joking with me as I was quite sure that what I had just recited/sung had been written by him like all the other lyrics in the film, but his comment shut me up for good that evening.

It was only more than two decades later and thanks to Google baba and YouTube that I realised that indeed that piece was not penned by Kaifi sahab but by a gentleman called Rajindar Nath 'Rehbar'.

While it was a big oops and a faux-pas moment for me, the fact remains that it is a most beautiful and tender nazm, rendered ever so beautifully by the man who brought the ghazal to me, the one and only Jagjit Singh.

Incidentally, last night I met an ex-IAS officer, who was also a former MD of HMV, and was responsible for giving Jagjit Singh his first big break in 1976 by recognising his talent and offering to cut the iconic LP, 'Unforgettables', with him. Heard some most interesting anecdotes from him, but that will be another post, another day.

For now, listen to this beautiful but relatively less heard number......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rwc4oh5Znw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The IPL and what gets Virat's goat.

April 28, 2013

I have always maintained that the IPL is detrimental to the game of cricket in more ways than one.

Besides making instant heroes out of very ordinary players who would find it very hard to be picked to even play the Ranji trophy, it is also ruining the technique of capable cricketers.

The most damaging thing that it is doing is that it is promoting unnecessary rivalries, aggression on the field and regionalism which will prove to be destructive for national integration. We already have regional political parties playing havoc and the last think we need is cricket, hitherto the only complete unifier in India, to play havoc with the concept of Indianness.

Say, how many times have you seen Captain Cool lose his cool while playing for India and the Little Master screaming, shouting and punching the air in his twenty year long international career or the sight of national players being booed by the crowds in their own country? Well, it's all happening at the IPL.

Virat Kohli is right when he says that the IPL is not the end of the world. I completely agree with him. Not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination!!!

Fans should take a reality check and should try and not lose it over a game that's not even real cricket!!!

Read the link to find out what gets Virat Kohli's goat.

http://m.sify.com/s/31415/498?viewOnOne=true&itemUriVal=1398196727%2F5112322913313255803021113&languageSupport

Hopes die first?

January 30, 2013


I had huge hopes from Justice Verma.

When the govt appointed him to recommend changes in the existing archaic legal system in India, I was hopeful that now finally we would see some path breaking stuff.

Justice Verma's reputation of being a wise, learned and incorruptible judge and his brilliant team of Justice Seth and Gopal Subramanium were the reasons for this hope and optimism in me. We were truly on to a good thing, I believed.

But, what ultimately resulted was a big disappointment to say the least. Justice Verma and his esteemed team seemed more concerned about meeting the one month deadline rather than brain storming and deliberating on changing the ineffective laws that govern us. The commission's report turned out to be rather insipid, meek, wishy-washy, uninspiring and status quo-ish considering they had the benefit/advantage of perusing over 80 thousand suggestions from people in India and from across the world and incorporating the best ideas in their report. The recommendations could have been more dynamic, out-of-the-box and path breaking. Alas!

The feeling that I now get is that Justice Verma has acted less as a legal visionary and more as a human rights sympathiser/activist while compiling this report. The recommendations pertaining to the AFSPA, the reduction of age for juveniles and harsher penalties for heinous crimes all point to that. His intent seems to be more in protecting the legal rights of the accused rather the victims and that is a real pity because it is a golden opportunity lost to bring in some great, kick-ass reforms.

I still, however, respect the man but have a few suggestions of my own for the learned judge.........

Sir, now that you have gone and done what you had to and in the process disappointed quite a few of us, please stop appearing on the news channels on the one hour long 'exclusives' that you have been giving to them in the last few days and explaining your compulsions/reasons because it serves no purpose now. It just shows you up as a slightly fuddled, inarticulate old man and destroys the aura that had surrounded you till now.

Also, kindly keep quiet about what the executive should do with your report. Get out of the Anna Hazare mould quickly and do not insist that the govt should pass ordinances on your recommendations asap or within as much time as it took you to recommend them. You should be the last person to suggest such a thing as you would know that laws must never be passed in a hurry or under pressure.

Kindly resist the temptation to become a messiah. One is still around somewhere.

One is all that we can take at the moment.

Umbraged India!

January 29, 2013

Be it films, books, comments, dress, ideas, philosophy, art, anything.....Indians are forever ready to find anything and everything objectionable these days. Is it a sudden, new found and uncharacteristic lack of tolerance or simply attempts at seeking 15 minutes of fame (even infamy seems welcome) on the rabble rousing Indian news channels who tend to make every mole-hill into a mountain to grab fickle eye balls?

Incredible India is fast turning into Umbraged India.

Incredible!!!

Lighting Candles

5 January, 2013

"Cars would slow down and then speed away!!"
"At least twenty people gathered but no one helped!!"
"We lay naked on the road but no one covered us!!"
Words of an honourable, brave man which make a chilling indictment of our social apathy.
We all know that our police is insensitive, our administration is sluggish, our politicians are opportunistic and our judicial system is archaic but, what about us??
Instead of lighting candles shouldn't we be first making sure that darkness never falls?

Indian Penile Code.

2 January, 2013

Quite depressing to pick up the newspapers every morning and read about rapes and molestations taking place all over the country. It seems that the Indian male has no other occupation and is forever preoccupied with outraging the modesty of women.
What makes it more depressing is that it is happening at a time when there are protests taking place everywhere against it and there is a chorus and clamour for tougher laws to be enacted to curb this menace in society.
People used to laugh and comment that most Indian males have sex only in their heads and not in their loins but this proves that the observation was unfounded. Indian males are sex and power crazed imbeciles!!
Rather than rewriting the rape laws in the Indian Penal Code, I feel that the law makers should introduce a new sub section of the IPC called the INDIAN PENILE CODE!!!

Stop cribbing, yaar....

27 December, 2012


It speaks volumes on the cynicism of Indians and takes govt bashing to new heights when everything that the government does is viewed with suspicion and malafide intent.
Now people are saying that the rape victim has been transferred to Singapore because the govt wants to remove the symbol of their angst and protest. Why, would they rather have the girl die here in order to strengthen their protest?? Also, people are ready to believe the account of two young 'eye witnesses' rather than the professional assessment of qualified and experienced pathologists on the post-mortem report of the dead Delhi police constable. Ridiculous!!
The govt seems to be truly in a do-be-damned, don't-do-be-damned situation where even their honourable intentions are being looked at with distrust and as a conspiracy.
Is it a genuine trust deficit or just belligerent stupidity influenced/fuelled by the irresponsible media and foolish social activists/political parties??
Come on, India, give it a break and stop being cribbers. You want change then be the change and stop passing the buck for everything to someone else.