snow-driving

here, may I present before you mezbaan n meherbaan,
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.

Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.

let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.

If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.

to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.

here, may I present before you mezbaan n meherbaan,
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.

Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.

let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.

If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.

to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.

A fantastic article on bloggers n blogging. exposing the inner psych.

talks mostly abt teenage turmoils altho quite universal in its concerns. walking the thin line between privacy n exposure. exposes plenty of thoughts which we adults wud not like to confess with a straight face. hoho.
sparkling snippets:

In such an unstable environment, it's no wonder that distinctions between healthy candor and ''too much information'' are in flux and that so many find themselves helplessly confessing, as if a generation were given a massive technological truth serum.

its refreshing to read stuff from those who haven't learnt the art of hiding it even from themselves.

--slow motion--
kal unse pehli mulaaqaat hui.
unhone pehle meri ungliyon ko pyaar se chuaa.
fir madhosh aankhon mein aankhen daal kar,
dekhaaa.
pyaaar se gaaalon ko,
chuaa.
fir dheere dheere, hole hole, baalon mein
haath daaala.
--slow motion end--
aur fir achaanak, haathon ko pochte hue,
restaurant se baahar chale gaye.

background voice:
jo aapko chaahte hon,
zaroori nahi ki wo aapke chipchipe baalon ko bhi chaahen.

ok ppl..i'm swept all over again. When I first heard it, I was extremely disappointed. No way was this music goin to win over my senses. and again, I am proved wrong. Lakeer has a couple of lovely compositions to boast of. paighaam is sweet - a south-indian classical ghazal, hoho, no wonder it sounds slightly strange, but indeed very soothing. mistakes from tehzeeb repeated. ARR is yet to learn ghazal-formation. Sadiyaan has a gungunaata flavor with sufi stuff freely thrown in. But, clearly the winner is nachle, na na nachle. wild, balle-balle dance number embellished with deep bass n percussion. a go-wild song really. ARR brings it out so well in Daler Mehndi. His mind-blowing voice oozes with folksy mithaas n a distinct classical touch. i guess he even leaves sukhwindara singh behind when he renders those high-pitches harmonies. royally maddening. engulfing. captivating. Royally! God, its just crazy how ARR arranges this one, unifying the essence of the song with Daler's magical vocal touch. and i've still got to figure out the lyrics. khaas lafz chune hue, u've to see how all that alliteration n onomatopoeism blends with musical transitions.
and esp the thing daler mehndi does once or twice at high pitch in the song. sodiye ee eee ee . a jittery giggle like taan at a pitch beyond reach. mind-blowingly captivating. i've to practice that. he did that in the kajraare kajraare nainawalen too from chupke.

picking it up from an inner verse:


ye hai kamaal-e-ulfat
naazaan hai dil se kudrat
zanjeer na deewaren
na raoke koi taakat

milan ki dhun jo lage
to fir duniya na dikhe
jale ho shole raahon mein,
lage hon kaante paaon mein,

sochna kya,
fir se chalen,
wahaan jahaan le chala humdum.
(wot a superb reprise here!)

o nachlen, na na nachlen,
o chal taal taal nachlen,
sondiyen, o heere-motiyen,
chal haath thaam chag len.

darna kya,
hum tere,
hain rabbaaaaaaa sang tereeee.

i relish loud wild wailings. hoho. of course, with some sur pls.

a Hot story of a surrogate mother. Anybody reminded of Filhaal? Even chori chori chupke chupke. Filhaal was terrific. a genuine characterization of the turmoil. so-sensitive n full of pathos. real life is not that apart from wot shows on the reel. yo bollywood!!

i just remembered, one of the days last week, i managed to catch an hour of the angrezi version of mr. n mrs. iyer. ( lost in translation. ppl, dont kill me for it) quite moving as usual. hollywood romance is far more individualistic than bollywood. as the desi young ppl seek more n more of their individual indentities, bollywood wud turn individualistic. characters with own personalities (n of course more genuine), seemingly different, varied ppl under one umbrella. again, DCH comes to mind. mr. n mrs. iyer definitely was. btw, the rahul bose doode is terrific. he's churning out classic inde-bollywood movies, one after another. seems like he had a stroke of enlightment one night n then he's been on to it. hoho. a marvellous actor. and always picking up characters centered arnd the common man. as the indian society veers towards individualism, he might just become the godfather of such roles. hoho. cheers to him!

kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahaan nahi milta,
kahin zameen ko aasmaan nahi milta.

jise bhi dekhiye, wo apne aap mein gum hai.
zubaan mili hain, magar hum-zubaan nahi milta.

bujha sakaa hai bhala kaun waqt ke shole,
ye aisii aag hai jis mein dhuwaan nahin miltaa.

tere jahaan mein aisa nahi ke pyaar na ho,
jahaan ummeed ho us ki, wahaan nahi milta.


I thought this one was by gaalib. hoho. its actually by nida fazli.
simple precise caricature of facts.
movie: aahista aahista
sung by: both asha bhosle, bhupinder.

achanak yaad aayi puraane logon ki. jinke hum deewaane the. abhi bhi hain. lekin wo gum ho gaye. somehow i rem of benjamin gilani. pretty surprised to find him in a cameo in main madhuri dixit banna chahti hoon. (shudnt renuka shahane have done that role? hoho). a related google search revealed that its actually the ram gopal varma doode again. he managed to cast gilani in Kaun too. i rem him as a wonderful actor from Udaan days. oo it wasnt gilani prolly, it was vikram gokhale, hoho. and there were days when he was everywhere. wonder where the Udaan girl went. She was a terrific actress, beauty. anyway, i found gilani too classy. Going ahead, there was the comedy genre. Om puri was classic in kakkaji kahin, pankaj kapoor in Phatichar, n few others.

indeed classy actors: Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter, Mita Vashisht, Shriram Lagoo, Malavika Tiwari, Neelima Azim ( she used to be my fav, u rem Zameen? Mahesh Bhatt directed this silly serial on DD.), kulbushan kharbanda, lalit tiwari, arun bali, ravi baswani, rakesh bedi, anant mahadevan . I've mentioned pankaj kapoor, farida jalaal, naseer shah, om puri earlier too. I wish the bollywood scene was swept by these actors. yes, u'd need intelligent scripts to bring them together, but i guess they'd give hollywood a run for their money if that was possible.
used to dote on them. Swabhimaan, Itihaas,(pratima kazmi shot into fame here) and there was a serial that replaced the bakwaas Shanti - some politician doode, terrific actors including lalit tiwari. damn! i wish i cud get ahold on them again. and damn again, it was scrapped in middle.

the only historical saga i liked was chanakya - awesome chandraprakash dwivedi doode..a complete prati-roop of the historical character that he portrayed. so meticulous, perfect in every sense.

here's a nice article abt comedy on indian television. why cant they make a desi-Seinfield? i managed to catch Hum Log on its repeat-show. The ones I still feel bad abt missing: Mulzim Haazir, Yeh Jo hai zindagi, Nukkad. Hope I'll find the archives somewhere. I hate to sound like a budhau, lekin they Were the real gems.

I just finished watching ishq hai tumse. a terrible remake of hum aapke hain kaun. watch it for the incredulous twist at the end. hoho. bollywood has definitely moved ahead with the zamaana. hoho. ppl who think bipasha basu has lots of oomph n is sexy are definitely justified. deep, nice voice too. wud suit a mc job more hoho( at least a couple of scenes). her eyes are indeed beautiful. bas, thats it. those eyes were not made for that face. an evolutionary mistake, i guess. its all just wrong. cant say more, and esp when she underplays herself. and i tell u, eyes of both the bhabhis are wrongly superimposed too. i think its the director. lovely songs tho. must watch for the songs n the incredddible twist at the end.

I sometimes write replies to mail n stuff, which only I end up adoring. hoho. Here's one of them: ( I guess the context is quite apparent).

to kuch baat aisi hai,
kuch kambakht logon ki naajayaz harkaton ke vaaste, hum ravivaar afty bhookhe nahi reh sakte.
isliye ek kraanti ki leher hum uthaayenge, indian garden ki or.
about 1 hr mein wahaan, main, k and r prakat honge.
jo sazzan humaare maafik pet ki jwaala se peedit hon, kripaya wahaan nazar aayen.

aapka shubhchintak,
ekshaks

online journalism

online journalism is definitely undergoing a change. well, apart from being more tabloidish, the writing style has definitely changed. I've grown a liking to a style with paras with no more than 1 or 2 sentences, separated out by line-breaks. indeed i learnt it from from few bloggers here. To say the least, this style taxes ur attention span at a bare minimum, with the reader getting rewards every now n then out of finishing up a paragraph. eg., see the rediff articles, or the TOI ones. I guess NYT is still growing up. hoho.

and surprisingly, it appears that the information content is just the same as it used to be in those long-paragraphed paper-newspaper articles. either they've managed to split stuff down into precise coherent sections, or well the information presentation has been improved to be just more compact.