Phir Dil do Hockey ko

“Phir Dil do Hockey Ko” ad has been going on full swing these days. Sometimes Virendra Sehwag wields his bat and beseeches audience to watch hockey, sometime Priyanka Chopra goes on making the statement addressing hockey players as “Mere Apne” and sometime Rathore shoots out and in a lighter mood threatens you with the similar statement.

It sounds good that celebrities from different walks of life provide much needed support to the national game of India.  The game with such a glory is now a days not even in radar of the Indians. Last week when I was discussing about the television channel which would telecast hockey world cup, one of my colleagues smiling asked “Kyun Sehwag ne kaha hai isliye?”. Well, the ads are having its effect for sure but would it result in bigger audience for the game of stick and ball?

However I like watching the game, i cannot find fault with people not watching this game and in this game getting a distant second (?) position vis-a-vis Cricket. When people watch any game, they are investing their times and they want some take-away. any game has two take-aways for the audiences:  a sense of pride in his team winning the match and/or fighting spirit shown by the men in action.  Our hockey team shows both but as flash in the pan and not on regular basis. A team on a winning streak goes bust as if all the gas has been taken out all of a sudden. In one tournament, it beats whoever comes in its way like a juggernaut and in another it struggles to qualify.

Agreed that the association has played a big role in jeopardising the future of the game. But even the players have certain responsibility to show. hey need to maintain their rhythm and after all these years of (Mis)management of the association, they need to rise up to the occasion and must understand that it is their credentials at stake.

Recent development involving pay-off to the players have turned in favour of the players and it would be expected of them to give it to their best and come out with flying covers and end up on podium. And what a better way it would be to start their campaign than to beat Pakistan!

State formation

We often hear that the history repeats itself. Nothing could be more blatant than the history of Andhra Pradesh.

Way back when Nehru’s congress govt was at helm in New Delhi and a congress government in Madras, Mr. Sriramalu went on fast unto death for formation of a separate state of telugu speaking people. Prior to that, Madras used to be abuzz with Telugu and Tamil equally. That movement finally resulted in the demise of a leader who was hard core Gandhian. The unrest triggered by his death made Mr. Nehru bow down to ‘Public Sentiments’ and thus formed the first language-based state of India.

Now, more than 50 years after that episode, another ‘people movement’ started. T his time again Congress govt was ruling the centre and the state alike. The person to go on fast unto death – KCR – is a former Congress ally. However this time, wary of the impact that death of a fasting govt may have on a weaker centre government, the decision makers of New Delhi bowed down in favor of breakup of the state formed on 1st Nov 1956.

Earlier declaration of statehood to Andhra Pradesh started a chain reaction and there were demands of separate statehood for Maharashtra, Punjab etc. This time however Telangana is not a path breaking decision as we have seen formation fo Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh. However could formation of Telangana give strength to the Vidarbha or some other states?

I do not mind formation of smaller states on the ground that governance would be easier. But all this movement of creation of separate states and drama behind that takes the focus away from the real issues like state of health, agriculture, economy and similar necessary issues in the states. Why does not the central government takes everyone in confidence, including opposition parties, various states representatives and form all new possible states and make a constitutional amendment that the number of states would not be changed  and no new states would further be formed. This would benefit everyone – almost everyone – from the students who would not have to reread the civics books to the people of the state – except the politicians who would have one lesser means to divert the attention of people from the real issues.

Finding Iskcon in Rio

It all started at Ipenema beach. We were just strolling around on the beach and all of a sudden could hear some familiar sound from far away. Ignored it – it became louder. became aware of its presence and started looking around, discussed among ourselves – is it really what we are hearing or…..

Then we confirmed with each other and when we were  in unison, we started looking around – from where is the chants of “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama” was coming.  Very soon it was clear and large in front of us.  A procession of ISKCON was on its way next to the beach. A “Rath” carrying the statue of lord Krishna and his siblings along with Prabhupad was preceded by people singing and dancing to the tunes of “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama”.

Some of the participants were wearing Indian dresses. Ladies were wearing saris in the way that suited them and kids adorning Ghaghra-choli. Even those wearing T-shirts had pics of Lord Krishna and Shiva on them and people in the middle of all of these were lost in themselves, dancing fluently to the tunes. The best was a group of people dressed up as Krishna and Gopikas, dancing their hearts out, oblivious to the crowd

 

Having seen all these, we were smiling and then the idea stuck.  ISKCON may have a restaurant serving Indian food. Having not had Indian food for last one month except once (and that was pathetic), our taste buds were producing loads of saliva with just the idea of finding Indian food.

Having searched the web for address of ISKCON temple, we could find two. one of them was near by and we decided to go there.  We are currently staying in neighborhood called Barra and the one temple, we decided to go to, just for the proximity of it was on our way to “alto da boa vista” (the hill of good view). Google maps gave the directions but the problem was to explain it to the cab driver (language does play its role after all). After a bit of navigation, we were not sure how to explain to him, as we did not have the printout with us, just the points noted down. And  lo! when we were on our way and trying our best to explain to him, he asked us “Temple?”. “Yes” was the answer in unison and he showed a gesture as he knows the place quite well.

Reaching there was just the beginning. People were pleased for find someone from India and we were informed that aarti was going on. Aarti was followed up with Pravachan where some shlokas from chapter 5 of Geeta were narrated and explained. It was quite heart warming to hear all that and  Prasad after that was delicious.

However the restaurant could not offer us the inian food as it was over by then.

So I decided to go to the place once again and savor the delicacy. Yesterday, I walked my way back from alto da boa vista to ISKCON and finally could get some poori and chhole. After a gap of more than a month, I was having food with my fingers!!!

A walk to explore the beauty of the city

So the first weekend – the eagerly awaited one came andafter spending my ealier evening on th ebeach, I decided to go inside the city and explore. Ana, my friend, was ready to be my guide. what else would I want?

Early in the morning (well if you call 9 am so), she reached my hotel to pick me up and Krishn, she and I were on our way to see the city, I had heard so much about.

The first stop being Tijuca, one of the national forests of the country, lying dot in the middle of the city. A well built raod took us uphill to the forest, among the flora of the ecosystem. 

 There, in between the beautiful trees and leaves and flowers lie the waterfall. the scene was amazing. The water flowing down the hill was to go to the water treatment plant from where it would be circulated throughout the city for drinking.  The water was so clean, even in the channel between waterfall and the plant, that you could see the ground below it. Then we were told that people are not allowed inside or even nearer to the water so that the water remains potable.

After having stroll within the ambrace of the nature, we decided to enter the city. Ana took us to Flamengo, hopping through bus and subway. The place looked majestic. Why not? it had the old theatre standing in full glory. Once the eyes were sated with tehe view, she guided us to a near by park and here was the surprise for us. The name of the park was Praca Mahatma Gandhi and the statue of our ‘Father of the Nation’ was erected to add to the glory of the place. Immediately I rushed and cleaned off small garbage spread around the statue as if the place really belonged to me.

How true was a Shloka I read in my childhood, which means – The kings are praised only in their own country but the people with wisdom are praised world over. Nothing cduld emphasize it more than the respect bestowed on the person who owned not even a roof over his head and whom a ‘head of a nation’ described as ‘The Half-Naked Fakir’.

Having had an eyeful of the Mahatma, we strolled towards other places to visit. Passing the memorial and beach, we walked towards the bus stand to goto corcovado (popularly known as christ the Redeemer) but more about it in another post…

Sea, Sand and Sunshine

Brazil – land of natural beauty – has some of the beautiful beaches. Rio is known for its beaches. So being in such a city, a good experience of the sea and sand is inevitable. Add to that the summer season and it gives you a good exposure to sun too.

Any fine day, you can find the beaches to be full with men, women and children roaning around on beaches in various stages of (un)dress. Beautiful women in beautoful clothes enjoying the blessing of the rays of sun adorn the beaches – some playing, some strolling, some bathing in the sea waves, some swimming and some just lazing around.

But what I liked the most was the sunset. It was engrossing and for some moment could make you forget breathing. Here are some of the photographs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photos are of Barra (pronounced Bahha) beach at outskirts of Rio. Hope you like it!

The chaos reigns during a long travel

Well, not long, but the longest air journey of my life. Though I have travelled in train for 48 hours in one go, air travel had never been so long.

This time the total journey for me was almost 36 hours or probably more. I was at Bangalore airport at 11 PM for a flight scheduled at 4 AM. Emirates provided a good choice of entertainment and I did avail it to the fullest during Dubai-Sao Paulo leg of the journey. The flight duration was more than 15 hours and a tire body fell deep into sleep the moment it was airborne. The problem of middle seats is that you never feel comfortable; you cannot spread your legs and are always conscious that any movement of yours would disturb both your neighbors. You also feel guilty if you have to make a visit to the rest room as it would mean an unwarranted exercise for the person on aisle seat.

A journey as long as 15 hours is quite difficult to be completed while sitting in one seat and squirming there only uncomfortably. So all I did during that time was to watch movies, eat whatever they had in offing for a vegetarian and to go off to sleep as soon as possible.

With some palatable food in offer, I hooked on to the movies available and surprised myself with my stamina of watching movies non-stop. ‘Luck by chance’ was the first to go followed by ‘Lamhe’ and ‘Aloo Chat’. Enough of Hindi movies – now let me watch some English one and I switched to ‘Duplicity’ and ‘The Proposal’ – the movies of two of the actresses I like.  Now don’t ask me anything about any movie, not even the stories – I got all messed up and cannot differentiate between any of those, except that I made a note of buying the audio CD of Lamhe the moment I am back in India.

Finally the journey came to a halt after the flight landed in Sao Paulo. Rushing to pick our baggage and then to the TAM airlines counter for checking in again, we started experiencing chaos. I always thought that the counters of Deccan airlines in India are a house of chaos but this one seemed to be a castle of chaos.

For a flight at 9:50 Pm, we were still in queue for security check at 9:30 when all of a sudden security check stopped for whatever reason and no one seemed to be bothered about the situation. The officials had something else to discuss probably or may be shifts were to change or maybe there was some emergency – all these guesses we made did not seem to be falling in place as no one was moving from his/her seat, the calm and casual look of officers defied any presumption of emergency, they jabbering and joking attitude ruled out any serious discussion and then finally for no apparent reason, they decided to work.

We had to fly domestic but were made to go to the emigration counter – God knows why! The linguistic barrier ensured that we cannot ask any question and just follow whatever we could understand. And lo! it was 9 45 by the time our security check was over and we were running to the embarking point lest we are left behind and forced to spend the night in Sao Paulo. But the moment we got into the plane – surprise! we were among the first one to enter. Cool, now the time to relax and watch some other movie – don’t know what as I fell asleep the moment movie started. Woke up after 45 minutes and found that the flight was all set to take off, if everyone is in. Finally it started crawling towards the runway and we could be in Rio in another one hour – but hold….. For some reason beyond our comprehension, we were informed that the flight would not take off and would be taxied back to the bay. The flights were to be changed, by which I could only guess of some technical snag in the flight.

Another flight and another period of wait and another round of sleep. Woke up after some time expecting to be on my way but the bird was yet to move from its nest. Go back to sleep buddy! Finally it took off and I was once again sleeping mid-air and then woke up by landing jerk.

Running out of patience, out of energy and out of any hope, walked into Rio airport and walked towards the conveyer belt. Picked up the luggage and realized that I was only 4.5 hours late. Thanks God finally I had reached at least. But..but..but..why to hurry. There is a cab to be caught and getting a pre-paid cab ticket does not guarantee availability of a cab. Another round of wait before the cab is made available.

Finally I was left with energy enough to drag myself to my hotel room and take bath before hitting the bed.  Thanks God the journey got over.

Walking into a beautiful morning

My journey to the country of Amazon strated quite early in the morning, before sun could cross the horizon and spread his beams on the sky of my country. Half in sleep, I seated myself on the seat of plane and could not decide whether to sleep or to watch in-flight entertaiment. The flight till Dubai was short in comparison to what was in offing post the desert nation.  A good breakfast and some boring programs helped me take the forty winks.

But when the plane landed and taxied towards its bay, I was up with half closed eyes and was just able to drag myself towards the gate of the plane where the ladders and subsequently a bus was waiting to take us to the terminal.

Saying thanks to the hostesses and throwing a half smile towards them, the moment I reached the gate, I found myself at the threshold of a good surprise. The sun has just risen and the skyline was still golden. the melliflous rays hit the face and took away all the sleep and tiredness and filled my face with a smile. I was standing there mesmerised by the mother nature. I dont know when my hands slipped into my pocket and the phone came in my palms. The next moment, I was taking photos of the rising sun, one of the most beautiful views I had seen in recent past.

Sunrise at Dubai

The Romance with the nature was broekn with some harse sound. A Security guy did not like my photographic adventure and asked me to stop immediately. In a foriegn land, that too an Arabic Country, I dare not disobey the cops and had to contain myself with just one snap.

 

Bureaucracy in IGNOU

I decided to become student once more and pursue a course in Hindi literature. I opted for a more convenient IGNOU course of Masters in Hindi (MHD).

After a wait of 4 months since I submitted the form, I got a letter that my course material has arrived and I can collect it from the centre.

I thought of making a study group and went ahead to ask for email ids of the students in same course. Knowing quite well that the number of students would be in single digit, I did not see any issue in creating a study group. But what I experienced was way beyond my imagination.

In a proper bureaucratic set-up, I was asked to get permission from the regional director to fetch the email ids of students in that course. The office of the Regional director was on first floor and was guarded by his secretary. I was informed by the lady that ’sir’ was out for lunch and I can meet asstt director instead. One of the Astt directors found my idea interesting and asked me to go ahead. Alas! His intercom was not working and he could not call up the clerk so I was asked to ask the clerk to call him up.

But as usual, clerks found themselves above AD and could follow instruction only if it comes through the pens of the supreme Regional director.  He did not delay in informing me that the director is back from lunch and I can go and meet him. 

Once again I was face to face with the lady secretary. This time she had other argument – ‘Sir’ got into a meeting immediately after his lunch and the smile on her face went beyond control as if by stopping me from meeting the director was the best job she has done in the day.  Probably she is being paid to make the life difficult for anyone who tries to meet the director or she wanted some other deal to be stuck for the meeting to take place – I do not know.

Back to the clerk and in spite of telling him that I have approval of the AD, it yielded nothing for me.

I just picked up my material and walked out, fumbling and trying to give him a piece of my mind – but he was his usual self – finally he achieved what he wanted – a bureaucratic set up where clerks reign.

KB974455

Last couple of days my Internet explorer (v8) stopped working properly. Any site would return in  “Internet explorer cannot open the site”.

Diagnostics could return nothing. Among the reasons listed on the page for such behavior was the possibility of my computer not connected to the internet. However on checking the connection, it used to say that the computer is connected to the internet.

I even tried downloading google chrome but initially it did not get downloaded and then I had to opt for different version of chrome to be downloaded.  Even then chrome was unable to connect to the internet singing the same tune as IE.

The strange thing was I was able to open any site using firefox or could connect through gtalk/yahoo/skype. All attempts to rectify the issue resulted in frustration.

Finally i checked for recent MS updates and found one update installed on my PC two days ago for IE8. The update was numbered KB974455. I unistalled the update and restared my PC and lo! the IE was back to normal.

To remove update in Vista:

Go to  “Start >> Control Panel >> under the heading Security, click on Check for updates >> on the left panel, click on ‘View update history’>> on the top click on Ínstalled updates >> find out update numbered kb 974455 and double click on it.

पुत्र के जन्मदिन पर

 

वर्ष बीतते क्षण ना लगता, पर

इस बीते बरस में मानों

हर क्षण में वर्ष बीता है

जिसके सानिध्य को तरसे मन, बस

उसके चित्र में चित्त अब रीता है

 

कोमल कुसुम-किसलय-सा था

पिछली बार जब मिले थे हम

आलिंगन में दबाव ना ज्यादा हो

सोच यही रुकते थे दम

 

भिज्ञ बस क्रंदन-ध्वनि से

स्मित रेखाओं से थी पहचान

आज साल का हुआ जाता है

पिता की वो नन्हीं सी जान

 

नन्हें कदम ठुमुक जाते पथ को

नन्हीं आँखें तकती हर शाम

नन्हीं बाँहें फैली-सी होंगी

नन्हीं जीभ लेती पिता का नाम

 

मचलते हैं हाध, मान पुत्र,

करने तेरा बस एक स्पर्श

याद तुझे कर जानें कैसे,

क्या पता बीता ये बर्ष

 

तेरी मुस्कान कई बार मुझे

स्वप्न से जगा-सी जाती हैं

तेरी मीठी यादें अक्सर

आँखें नम कर जाती हैं