~ The Temple of Our Purest Thoughts is Silence ~

Ek aur saal jee liya humne,
Ek aur gham seh liya humne
Khuda tu aata to nahi kabhi mere rooh-ba-rooh
Ek khamosh fariyaad tere dar pe kar liya humne
©Shreelesh Kumar - All Rights Reserved.

©Shreelesh Kumar - All Rights Reserved. This image and/or words should not be reproduced, published, transmitted via e-mails or otherwise, printed or shared in any physical or electronic form either in part or in whole without the explicit written consent of the Copyright owner. Legal Action will be initiated against any individual, organisation, institution, agency, publishing house, etc. who violate the Copyright laws including but not limited to those mentioned here and use the image and/or words for any commercial/non-commercial purposes.

Turned 28 today.

सौ दर्द हैं | Sau Dard Hain

सौ दर्द हैं, सौ राहातें
सब मिला दिलनशीं, एक तू ही नहीं।

रूखी रूखी सी ये हवा
और सूखे पत्ते की तरहा
शहर की सड़कों पे मैं
लावारिस उड़ता हुआ
सौ रास्ते, पर तेरी राह नही।

बहता है पानी बहने दे,
वक़्त को यूँही रहने दे।
दरिया ने कर्वट ली है तो
सहिलों को सहने दे।।
सौ हसरतें
पर तेरा ग़म नहीं

----------------------------------------

Sau dard hai, sau rahatein
Sab mila dilnasheen, ek tu hi naheen.

Rookhi rookhi si ye hawa
Aur sookhe pattay ki tarha
Shaher ki sadkon pe main
Lawaris udta hua
Sau raastey, par teri raah nahi

Behta hai paani behne de
Waqt ko yunhi rehne de
Dariya ne karwat li hai to
Sahilon ko sehne de
Sau hasratein
Par tera gham nahi

Jaan-E-Man.
A movie with nothing much to remember about except Akshay's goofy laugh, Preity Zinta (as always), few melodious numbers, and some lovely song picturisations and lightings, not necessarily in that order. Oh and did I mention they were slightly 'inspired' by Meg Ryan and Mathew Broderick starrer Addicted to Love?

Started Writing Again

Of late getting back to writing crappy 4-liners that I once started during school days. For nearly the initial 3-4 years, even my best friend didn't know about this. I'd decided I'd never share them with anyone, much less publishing them on net, thats pretty much what I just ended up doing just a while back. I dont know whether I am going to continue this online foray or not but lets see.

Mere Lafz - 1

गर तू बेवफा होती तो भुलाना आसान होता
वक़्त का ये जाम-ए-ज़हर हलक पर आसान होता
कुछ तो रह-रहकर चुभता है पलकों पे
कहता तुझसे मैं गर वो दर्द, मुम्किन हाल-ए-बयान होता

----------------

Gar tu bewafa hoti to bhulana asaan hota
Waqt ka ye jaam-e-zahar halak par asaan hota
Kuch to reh-rehkar chubhta hai palko pe
Kehta tujhse main gar vo dard, mumkin haal-e-bayaan hota

A BRIDGE TOO FAR ........

A BRIDGE TOO FAR ........

The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars."

Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCON or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."

Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money on construction. "

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present our case" Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullock carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suit and
announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say."

"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."

"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted without documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated."

"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government records straight once for all."

Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth as long as Salman Khan is around."


This is another forwarded e-mail that I felt I must share..

Ban The Bulb - 1

I switched to CFL long back.. The only bulb in my house is the spare one which I bought long back and is still surviving due to non-use.

So don't be a "tubelight." Ban the damn bulb. One of the least things you can do your bit to Change Climate Change.

Andaman Trunk Road & Jarawas

Date:10/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2007/06/10/stories/2007061050090100.htm

---

Magazine

Trouble down this road Trouble down this road

MEENA GUPTA

The Andaman Trunk Road, a boon for settlers on the island, could be the death-knell for the Jarawas. But little is being done to protect the Stone Age tribe from contact with the 21st century.

THE deprivation of a name, the loss of a homeland, the extinction of a tribe — this seems to be the ominous progression of one of the oldest extant hunter-gatherer tribes in India, indeed, possibly, in the whole world. ‘Ang’ is what they call themselves, but the world knows them as the Jarawa, the Palaeolithic tribe that lives deep in the jungles of the Andaman Islands.

The word ‘Jarawa’, in the language of the Great Andamanese (another Stone Age tribe of the Andamans) means ‘the stranger’ or ‘the outsider’. To the Andamanese, the Jarawa were outsiders; a different people, albeit of the same Negrito stock and inhabiting the same islands. It is unfortunate that this name — rather than Ang meaning ‘humans’, which the Jarawa use for themselves — should become the name by which we know them.

Total isolation

The Jarawa are one of the five Stone Age tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have lived in almost total isolation in the dense tropical forests of the islands, and have survived virtually unchanged up to modern times. They are hunter-gatherers, who do not practise even rudimentary agriculture, wear no clothes, shun contact with outsiders, and are fiercely independent. Their physical appearance — dark, almost ebony skin, closely curled woolly hair, and negrito features — are quite distinct from the population that originates from the Indian mainland and mark them as a race apart.

Because of their small numbers (240 persons as per the 2001 census, 317 persons as reported by the Andaman administration in 2007) and their being nomadic deep forest dwellers, they are virtually unknown as a community to the rest of India and are only a name even to the inhabitants of the islands.

The plight of the Jarawa has, in recent years, generated a lot of interest because of an almost sudden change in their behaviour in the late 1990s — from avoiding all contact with the outsider to actively seeking such contact. This change, which began in 1997, has heightened their vulnerability and threatened their way of life.

The single activity that has had the most significant, and adverse, impact on the lives of the Jarawa is the construction of the Andaman Trunk Road. Running in a south-north direction from Port Blair, the administrative headquarters in South Andaman to Maya Bunder in the north, the ATR was started in 1958 with the very laudable intention of linking Port Blair with the several settlements scattered in the middle and north of the Andaman Islands.

These settlements, which consisted entirely of people who migrated from the mainland (refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan, other people who had migrated in search of better opportunities, descendants of convicts and jailors brought by the British) were either consciously established by the administration or, more rarely, had sprung up on their own.

Established at great human and financial cost, they are now flourishing habitations, with the people conscious and vociferous about their rights. Before the construction of the Andaman Trunk Road, these habitations were connected to Port Blair (and to the mainland) only by sea routes. With the completion of the ATR (an endeavour that took approximately 40 years), a direct and unimaginably convenient land link was established between the settlements and Port Blair.

The trouble was that the ATR sliced right through territory that was, until then, the exclusive and undisturbed preserve of the Stone Age, hunter-gatherer Jarawa tribe. In fact it was because this territory was, by and large, undisturbed that the Jarawa had been able to survive with their way of life almost unchanged over centuries. The incursion into their territory, through the means of the ATR, exposed them to modern civilisation and its baneful influences like tobacco, alcohol, unfamiliar foods and diseases against which they had no immunity, which could together take them to the brink of extinction. What was a boon for the settlers, therefore, could very easily sound the death knell for the Jarawa.

Alarm bells about the impact of the ATR on the Jarawa should have started ringing long ago. When the road first started, sensibilities about the environment and human rights and the different rights of tribals were low. Therefore creating a road through someone else’s homeland, destroying virgin forests was not a matter of great concern.

Opposition

But over the 40 years or so it took to construct the ATR, consciousness of environmental issues and human rights has grown by leaps and bounds. However when the rights of a tiny group of people clashes with those of a much larger one, it is usually the more clamorous and stronger voice that is heard. And that is what has happened in the case of the ATR.

There was certainly no dearth of opposition from the Jarawa. Starting with the killing of the labourers building the road, to shooting with bow and arrows at buses and other vehicles when they started to ply on the road, the Jarawa made their objection to the violation of their homeland and space quite clear. That the administration continued with their efforts could be seen as an act of valour and determination in the face of odds or callousness and insensitivity towards the rights of weaker people depending on the point of view.

The Jarawa became the subject of a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Calcutta High Court in the 1990s with the High Court issuing an order to frame a policy for the Jarawa. The Jarawa Policy was prepared as a consequence, in consultation with a number of experts, and was adopted on December 21, 2004.

The Jarawa Policy dwells not inconsiderably on the ATR and its impact on the Jarawa. It recommends, among other things, that the traffic on the road be restricted to essential purposes (which have been specified) and allowed to move only during restricted hours and in convoys. It repeatedly stresses that all manner of interaction between the Jarawa and the travellers, particularly tourists, be prevented. Very importantly, the policy talks of encouraging and strengthening facilities for travel by boat and ship. The policy also talks of removing encroachments in the Jarawa territory on priority basis, and ensuring that no such encroachment of non-tribals take place.

No implementation

In the two and a half years since the Jarawa policy has come into being, little has been done to implement its recommendations, particularly the more difficult ones. In defence of the administration, it must be pointed out that the inaction was not, perhaps, deliberate. The Jarawa policy was adopted on December 21, 2004. Just five days later, on December 26, the devastating tsunami struck the islands. The Jarawa were not affected by the tsunami, so the administration, whose entire attention got diverted to the affected areas, had little time to think of the Jarawa, apart from verifying that they had not suffered any loss.

The Jarawa policy has thus remained, by and large unimplemented. No attempt has been made to explore alternate sea routes to link the places that the ATR goes to. Little effort has been made to curtail the number of vehicles plying on the road. The average number of vehicles plying on the ATR annually shows a steep increase from 17,179 in 2001 to 35,798 in 2006. The number is poised to exceed 40,000 in 2007.

Convoys of vehicles leave eight times a day from Jirkatang and Middle Strait — the two opposite ends of the portion of the ATR that runs through the Jarawa reserve — with an average of 120 vehicles per day. And despite explicit stipulations of no contact with the Jarawa, vehicles conveniently break down or stop on one pretext or the other on the portion of the road inside the Jarawa reserve to allow tourists to see and sometimes interact with the Jarawa.

The subject of the Jarawa was again studied by a sub-group of experts and officials, set up in January, 2006 by the National Advisory Council, to examine inter alia institutional arrangements for protecting the Jarawa and to suggest various measures to ensure greater protection. By January 2006, the Jarawa policy adopted in December 2004 had not had a fair chance at implementation. Just a year had passed, and the tsunami and its aftermath had grabbed all attention and resources. The sub-group studied various aspects including the notified Jarawa policy and its implementation and made several recommendations.

Regarding the ATR, it has suggested that the portion that runs through the Jarawa reserve eventually be closed, after alternate arrangements for transportation by sea or air were put in place. This means a further delay since very little action has been taken to explore other arrangements. Unless a firm decision to close the ATR (i.e. the portion inside the Jarawa reserve) is taken, the administration will continue to drag its feet on alternate routes.

Other alternatives

Despite the Supreme Court having taken such a decision in 2002, the administration has filed a review petition, which is yet to be finalised. It is easily forgotten that before the completion of the ATR (which is fairly recent), sea routes were the only alternative.

Even today, for all other islands, e.g. Car Nicobar, Havelock, Great Nicobar, other islands of the Nicobar group, Little Andaman and many others, transportation is only by boat or ship and, very occasionally, by helicopter. Therefore the people living in North and Middle Andaman can hardly claim that they will be specially inconvenienced.

Almost all the officials who work or have worked closely with the Jarawa, whether of the Andaman administration or the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti, a registered society set up to look after matters relating to primitive tribes, privately aver that closure of the ATR is essential to reduce contact with the Jarawa and protect them from abrupt induction into the 21st century.

However, other officials strongly claim that closure of the ATR, even a portion of it, is impossible since it is a lifeline for the northern settlements. The attitude of these latter officials is understandable, but unsupportable, if one keeps the future of the Jarawa in mind.

It is apparent they are thinking not of the Jarawa but of the other inhabitants. For these inhabitants, other alternatives are, or can be, made available. For the Jarawa, who virtually have their backs against the wall, there is no alternative, and time is fast running out.

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

है लौ जिन्दगी - गुल्ज़ार | Hai Lau Zindagi - Gulzar

है लौ जिन्दगी

है लौ जिन्दगी, जिन्दगी नूर है
मगर इसमें जलने का दस्तूर है।

रवायत ये है के जिन्दगी गहना है,
ये हीरा है और इसे चाटते रहना है।
के लम्हों में मरने का दस्तूर है॥

अधूरे से रिश्तों में पलते रहो,
अधूरी सी साँसों से चलते रहो।
यूँही जीने जाने का दस्तूर है॥

है लौ ज़िन्दगी, ज़िन्दगी नूर है..

ये ग़ज़ल नलिनी सिंह की "हैल्लो ज़िन्दगी" नामक सीरियल का शीर्षक गीत था जो आज से शायद १०-११ साल पहले दूरदर्शन पर प्रसारित हुआ करता था।

कल की बात है जब मैंने जग्जीत सिंह/गुल्ज़ार साहब की नयी पेशकश "कोई बात चले" खरीदी। इस ऐल्बम में इसी नाम कि ग़ज़ल है मगर उसके बोल काफी अलघ है। पुरानी यादें लॉट आयी तो मैंने पुरानी वाली ग़ज़ल और उसके बोल ढूढंने की सोची। किसी तरह से बोल मिले हैं। हो सकता है के अधूरे हो। अभी भी याद है, मेरे प्रिय मित्र शुभान्कर सिन्हा को ये ग़ज़ल बहुत पसंद था, खास करके ये पंक्तियाँ "रवायत ये है के जिन्दगी गहना है, ये हीरा है और इसे चाटते रहना है. के लम्हों में मरने का दस्तूर है"

-----------------------------------------

Hai Lau Zindagi

Hai lau zindagi, zindagi noor hai
Magar ismein jalne ka dastur hai

Ravayat ye hai ke zindagi gehna hai
Ye heera hai aur, ise chaat-te rehna hai
Ke lamhon mein marne ka dastur hai

Adhoore se rishton mein palte raho
Adhoore se saanson se chalte raho
Yuhin jeenay jaaney ka dastur hai

Hai lau zindagi, zindagi noor hai

This ghazal was the soundtrack for an old serial "Hello Zindagi" by Nalini Singh which used to air on Doordarshan about 10-11 years back.

I just bought Jagjit Singh/Gulzar latest album "Koi Baat Chale" which had a ghazal with the same title different lyrics, and I set out to find the old version as well as the complete lyrics. I still remember, my best friend's Subhankar Sinha used to love this song, especially the lines "Ravayat ye hai ke zindagi gehna hai। Ye heera hai aur, ise chaat-te rehna hai."

Love

Moral of the story: Don't fall in love

"Hey wait.. Now where's the story?" you'll ask. Everyone has a story of their own. That's the right of passage into adulthood. You never really grow up until you've had one of your own..



Shaam Se Aankh Mein Nami Si Hai

Shaam se aankh mein nami si hai
Aaj phir aap ki kami si hai

Dafn kar do humein ke saans miley
Navz kuch der se thami si hai
Aaj phir aap ki kami si hai

Waqt rehta nahin kahi tik karr
Iski aadat bhi aadami si hai
Aaj phir aap ki kammi si hai

Koi rishta nahin raha phir bhi, ek tasleem lazmi si hai
Shaam se aankh mein nammi si hai
Aaj phir aap ki kammi si hai

Lyrics: Gulzar
Singer: Jagjit Singh
Album: Marasim

The Last Will and Testament of the Tiger - Amit Dahiyabadshah

The Poet Laureate and the resident poet for ICONGO, Amit
Dahiyabadshah stirs some emotions in the hearts of the Human beings
that have been so callous towards this beautiful wild cat with his poem- The
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of the TIGER while he pays a tribute to this royal
cat.

The Last Will and Testament of the Tiger


When you have stolen my skin from my entity
and removed the roar from my life
O hunter wield that thunder stick
with some grace some skill
I too have hunted and killed many many times

but every kill
was a prayer in praise of the Creator
My movements were always clear clean and merciful
Such is the way of true believers

Do you now slice slash and pare clean O Skinner
I pray only that you leave no part of me behind
to be eaten by the Jackal and the Hyena
I have ruled this forest on behalf of the creator himself
and there is no honour in a king becoming carrion

So send the sacred colour from my coat
back to the maker of sunsets
Return the darkness of my stripe
back to the shadows and the undergrowth
Send the white from my fur back to the frost of a new ice age
that it return to avenge me
Send my roar back to my maker
that he fill the universe with my rage
at this shabby end for a true king

Send my claws to the young of the high born
to save them from their own nightmares

Send my teeth to Tibet that their aspirations find new Teeth

Send my bones to China that they find a cure
for the fear that builds such great walls

Send my fat to Singapore so they learn to make a balm for pain
that is mine not only in name

Send my Shit to the Alchemists
for that is the only substance they have not yet tried

Give my entrails to whoever shall take them
But hang on to my eyes you puny murderer
That your tribe might know that you did not kill a creature beneath you
that I looked you in the eye and did not flinch when you shot me

Instead I have turned away
Released
from the cancer of your footprint

--Amit Dahiyabadshah

वक़्त नहीं Waqt Nahin

हर ख़ुशी है लोगों के दामन में,
पर एक हंसी के लिए वक़्त नहीं।
दिन रात दौड़ती दुनिया में,
जिन्दगी के लिए ही वक़्त नहीं।।

माँ कि लोरी का एहसास तो है ,
पर माँ को माँ कहने का वक़्त नहीं।
सारे रिश्तों को तो हम मार चुके
अब उन्हें दफनाने का भी वक़्त नहीं ।।

सारे नाम मोबाइल में हैं,
पर दोस्ती के लिए वक़्त नहीं।
गैरों कि क्या बात करें ,
जब अपनों के लिए ही वक़्त नही ।।

आंखों में है नींद बड़ी ,
पर सोने का वक़्त नही ।
दिल है ग़मों से भरा हुआ ,
पर रोने का भी वक़्त नहीं ।।

पैसों कि दौड़ में ऐसे दौडे,
कि थकने का भी वक़्त नहीं ।
पराये एहसासों की क्या कद्र करें ,
जब अपने सपनो के लिए ही वक़्त नहीं ।।

तू ही बता ऐ जिन्दगी ,
इस जिन्दगी का क्या होगा ,
कि हर पल मरने वालों को ,
जीने के लिए भी वक़्त नहीं ।।
---------------------------------------------------
Har khushi hai logoon ke daaman mein
Par ek hansi ke liye waqt nahin
Din-raat daudthi duniya mein
Zindagi ke liye waqt nahi

Maa ki lori ka ehsaas to hai
Par maa ko maa kehne ka waqt nahin
Saare rishton ko to hum maar chuke
Ab unhe dafnane ka bhi waqt nahin

Saare naam mobile mein hai
Par dosti ke liye waqt nahin
Gairon ki kya baat karein
Jab apnon ke liye bhi waqt nahin

Ankhon mein hai neend badi
Par sone ka waqt nahin
Dil hai gamon se bhara hua
Par rone ka bhi waqt nahin

Paise ki daud mein aise dauday
Ki thakne ka bhi waqt nahin
Paraye ehsason ki kya kadr karein
Jab apne sapnon ke liye bhi waqt nahin.

Tu hi bata aye zindagi
Is zindagi ka kya hoga
Ki har pal marne valoon ko
Jeenay ke liye bhi waqt nahin

India Cricket Montage

My disappointment with the Wimps in Blue notwithstanding, my patriotism and optimism don't let me give up on the wimps so easily. I love this video - for the song and some of the aggressive play on display by the wimps. I wonder if they can play so well as to have a World Record of 17 consecutive ODI wins [while batting second], why do they fail miserably so many times? Why as a team are they so inconsistent? Why the oh-so-very-predictable middle order collapse? Actually, I should say top, middle, and tail order collapse and the whole enchilada. They don't stick to just the middle order.

My Calcutta - Circa 1945

These pics came to me in a forwarded mail. I couldn't help but share them. Its remarkable how the city has changed over the years, and yet, not changed at all over all these years. I can still recognise the buildings at first glance. They are still there! Wherever, I could reconise them, I have added my notes in brackets.

Calcutta traffic officer at major city intersection. His "sandwich board" carried the order to "STOP" or to "GO" depending on which way he faced. He also used hand and arm signals to enforce the sign. His cap was brilliant red and his jacket and pants were white. Leggings were tan. He stood on the cut-down steel drum, a real figure of authority, 1945.
[The backdrop is what I believe is Raj Bhavan, the residence of the Governor of West Bengal. The uniform has undergone minor changes but the white uniform and the black shoulder harness is still very much in existence minus the leggings. They are black and half the length they used to be.]



Traffic on Hooghly River bridge from Calcutta to Howrah Station, 1945.
[Now you wont get to see such traffic, or the lack of it, on Hooghly Bridge unless on a Bandh day.]



Streetside stall on Bentinck Street, downtown area of Calcutta, 1945



Heart of Calcutta's business district, 1945. This was the home of Whiteaway and Laidlaw, an excellent department store. It carried well-made British clothing and accessories along with the best of available Indian merchandise. It was the Times Square of Calcutta on Chowringee Road.
[The huge white building you see is now what houses the HQ of Life Insurance Corporation of India. The building was in a severely dilapidated state when I left Calcutta in 2001 and almost ready to fall down when the Government started renovation work. You could see trees and shrubs growing out if its old crumbling walls]



Busy Calcutta Street scene, 1945.
[The Esplanade or Dharamtala as its called in Calcutta. The building on the left is called The Statesman House, office of a major newspaper of Calcutta. I have been inside it a few times as part of the school team for their weekly publication called Voices. It is fairly well maintained inside and outside, unlike the LIC building. The one on the right is the Mosque.]



Tram terminal at the Esplanade, Chowringhee Road, downtown Calcutta, 1944.



Calcutta street scene, 1944.



Nimatalla gufat entrance. Hooghly River, Calcutta, 1944.




American combat veterans boarding troopship in Calcutta harbor for trip home after end of WWII, fall 1945. Trip required almost three months, including stop at Ceylon. Route was up through Suez Canal, the Med. Sea and across Atlantic. These images made with cheap camera, so not as sharp as could be desired, but they are authentic.


[News of Mahatma Gandhi's death hits the news and people throng the streets of Calcutta, 1948. The newspaper held by the man is The Statesman.]

Bring the Bloody Wimps in Blue Home

Three matches and 1 solitary win, if you can call that one, against the weakest of teams - Bermuda. India should be ashamed of the record win they scored against Bermuda. Its like playing with kids and harping about winning against them. Whats there to be so much proud about it?

If you're really that well, then you would have chased a target of 255 at a good pitch and won it without breaking out much into a sweat - not lose it by 69 runs by getting bundled out at 185.
And to top it all you lose to Bangladesh. It shows what you are made of.

I think its high time the BCCI bans any cricket player from doing ads or endorsing any product. When your only source of income is by playing and playing it well, you'll die to win a match; not throw it away as if its the first time you came down to play an international match. Just think for yourself, when your getting paid so much already outside your work, how much motivated will you be to put your 100% into what you should primarily be doing? I know I wouldn't. I would just go to office, sit in A/C floor, somehow while away 8 hours, perform the barest minimum possible, and come home. Its the same rut thats got into the Indian cricket team - nothing else.

Before the whining drowns it out, listen to the new India

This is an article by Arun Shourie that I had read a couple of years back. I chanced to browse a site which contained a link to this article, and I felt like I should have it on my blog. This makes for very interesting reading if you take pride in India and has some lesser known facts about our economy.

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Twenty to twenty-five years ago, even 10 years ago, few of us had heard of Information Technology. Today, exports from this industry are worth $10 billion — that is, over Rs 45,000 crore a year. That figure is 20 per cent of our total exports.

In spite of the fact that each of the markets to which we supply IT software and solutions has been in the trough of recession for years, IT exports have grown by 26 per cent this year.

Infosys had not even been born 25 years ago. Wipro was a company selling vegetable oil. Indeed, other than the ‘‘Tata’’ in Tata Consultancy Services, there is scarcely a name in the IT industry that was known then.

And guess what the average age is in the industry? Just 26 and a half! These 26/ 27-year-olds have changed the world’s perception of India. It’s not just a country of snake-charmers, it’s a country against which protectionist walls have to be erected. Of course, we can also charm snakes.

And not just, to pluck a phrase of Malcolm Muggeridge, snakes in snakes’ clothing!

And these 26-year-olds are changing India’s perception also of itself: that India can; that, therefore, we should face the world with confidence.

That is the situation in activity after activity. We lament the fact that, while we are ahead in software, we have lost out to China in IT hardware. That is true — as of the moment. We shooed away firms like Motorola when they approached us in the early 1990s for facilities to set up manufacturing operations in India. China welcomed them, it wooed them, it created every conceivable facility for hardware firms from Japan, of course, but also from Taiwan, a country at which 400 of its missiles are aimed. It has thereby leapt ahead.

But the game is hardly over. That world-class hardware can be produced in India is evident. How many of us would have heard of Moser-Baer? Located in unprepossessing Noida, it is the world’s third largest optical media manufacturer, and the lowest-cost producer of CD-Recorders. Its exports are close to Rs 1,000 crore.

The firm sells data-storage products to seven of the world’s top 10 CD-R producers. And it produces them so efficiently that, to shield themselves, European competitors had to file an anti-dumping case to stop and penalise its exports to Europe. Moser-Baer fought on its own. And won.

A firm most of us have not heard of. A firm that is manufacturing products at the cutting edge of technology. A firm exporting Rs 1,000 crore of products that require the utmost precision and technological sophistication. A firm that European firms fear.

And equally important — the very international fora that our ideologues shout are instruments of exploitation hold against European firms, and in favour of this Indian firm.

There is more. Moser-Baer has acquired Capco Luxembourg, a firm that owns 49 per cent of a Netherlands-based CD-R distributor. And it has set up Glyphics Media Inc. in the United States—for markets in North and South America. And here we are being made to shiver at the thought that foreign firms are about to swallow us!

Heard of Tandon Electronics? Its exports of electronic hardware are close to Rs 4,000 crore!

At a moment’s notice, my friends Amit Mitra of FICCI and Tarun Das of CII send me particulars of firm after firm, in sector after sector, that has broken new ground. A sample:

* Fifteen of the world’s major automobile manufacturers are now obtaining components from Indian firms.

* Just last year, exports of auto-components were $375 million. This year they are close to $1.5 billion. Estimates indicate they will reach $15 billion within six to seven years.

* Hero Honda is now the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world—with an output of 17 lakh motorcycles a year.

* One lakh Indica cars of the Tatas are to be marketed in Europe by Rover, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious auto-manufacturers under its — that is, Rover’s — brand name.

* Bharat Forge has the world’s largest single-location forging facility — of 1.2 lakh tonnes per annum. Its client list includes Toyota, Honda, Volvo, Cummins, Daimler Chrysler. It has been chosen as a supplier of small forging parts for Toyota’s global transmission parts’ sourcing hub in Bangalore.

* Asian Paints has production facilities in 22 countries spread across five continents. It has recently acquired Berger International, which gives it access to 11 countries, and SCIB Chemical SAE in Egypt. Asian Paints is the market leader in 11 of the 22 countries in which it is present, including India.

* Hindustan Inks has the world’s largest single stream, fully integrated ink plant, of 1 lakh tonnes per annum capacity, at Vapi, Gujarat. It has a manufacturing plant and a 100 per cent subsidiary in the US. It has another 100 per cent subsidiary in Austria.

* For two years running, General Motors has awarded Sundaram Clayton its ‘Best Supplier Award’; the volumes it sources out of India are growing every year.

* Ford has presented the ‘Gold World Excellence Award’ to Cooper Tyres.

* Essel Propack is the world’s largest laminated tube manufacturer. It has a manufacturing presence in 11 countries including China, a global manufacturing share of 25 per cent, and caters to all of P&G’s laminated tube requirements in the US, and 40 per cent of Unilever’s.

* Aston Martin, one of the world’s most expensive car brands, has contracted prototyping its latest luxury sports car to an India-based designer. This would be the cheapest car to roll out of Aston Martin’s stable.

* Maruti has been the preferred supplier of small cars under the Suzuki brand for Europe. Suzuki has now decided to make India its manufacturing, export and research hub outside Japan.

* Hyundai Motors India is about to become the parent Hyundai Motors Corporation’s global small car hub. In 2003, HMC will source 25,000 Santros from HMI’s plant in India. By 2010 HMI is targeted to supply half a million cars to HMC.

It was only in 1999 that HMI got its first outsourcing contract and already, in 2003, 20 per cent of its sales will be what it supplies as an outsourcing hub. It is exporting cars to Indonesia, Algeria, Morocco, Columbia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

* Ford India got its first outsourcing contract in 2000. Within 3 years outsourcing accounts for 35 per cent of its sales. Ford India supplies to Mexico, Brazil and China. The parent Ford is sourcing close to $40 million worth of components from India, and plans to increase these in the coming years.

Ford India is already the sole manufacturing and supply base for Ikon cars and components. These are being exported to Mexico, China and Africa.

* Toyota Kirloskar Motors chose India over competitive destinations like Philippines and China for setting up a new project to source transmissions as this option proved more economical.

* Europe’s leading tractor maker, Renault, has chosen International Tractors (ITL) as its sole global sourcing hub for 40 to 85 horsepower tractors.

* Tyco Electronics India bagged its first outsourcing contract in 1998-99. So successful has it been that components and products others have contracted from it already account for 50 per cent of its total sales. It supplies to the parent, Tyco Europe.

* TISCO is today the lowest cost producer of hot-rolled steel in the world.

* TVS Motor Company has been awarded the coveted Deming Prize for Total Quality Management. Many of the largest of organisations, even American ones—like GE—have not managed that recognition yet!

India’s pharmaceutical industry has come to be feared as much as its infotech industry. It is already worth $ 6.5 billion and it has been growing at 8-10 per cent a year. It’s the fourth largest pharmaceutical industry in terms of volumes and 13th in value. Its exports have crossed $2 billion, and have increased by 30 per cent in the past five years. India is among the top five manufacturers of bulk drugs.

Even more telling is another figure. We are always being frightened, ‘‘Multinational drug companies are about to takeover.’’ In 1971 the share of these MNCs in the Indian market was 75 per cent. Today it’s 35 per cent!

There’s another feature we should bear in mind: India’s strengths are becoming evident across the technology spectrum:

* We are among the three countries in the world that have built supercomputers on their own, the US and Japan being the other two: two months ago, the fourth generation PARAM super-computer was inaugurated in Bangalore.

* We are among six countries in the world that launch satellites. We launch some of our own satellites of course; we have launched satellites for others too, among them such countries as Germany and Belgium. We have the largest set of remote sensing satellites. Our INSAT system is also among the world’s largest domestic satellite communication systems.

At the other end:

* India is one of the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centres. CLSA estimates nine of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India.

* Trade of Indian medicinal plants has crossed Rs 4,000 crore.

Here is proof positive that liberalisation has indeed worked. ‘‘By opening the economy before giving it a chance to become competitive, we have thrown our industry to the wolves,’’ it used to be said. Quite the contrary. The success in exports, in fields such as IT in which competition is fierce, in which technological change is fast as lightning, success in auto-components, in pharmaceuticals shows that our industry has fought back, it has become competitive.

Remember all that shouting about Chinese batteries a year ago? ‘‘Markets are closing down, thousands are being thrown out of their meagre businesses, factory after factory has shut down.’’ That was the shouting just a few months ago.

Where are those batteries from China? Yes, trade with China has grown—by 104% in the past year. But according to figures of the Chinese Government, in the first five months of 2003, India has amassed a surplus in its trade with China, a surplus of close to half a billion dollars.

And China is just an instance. Exports as a whole, and in the face of an unrelenting recession in the West, have grown by 19 per cent in the year. In a word, what committees upon committees with their piles of recommendations would not have achieved, being actually exposed to actual competition has.

Our foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high—$82 billion. We have announced that we will not be taking aid from a string of countries.

* We are giving aid to 10 or 11 countries.
* We are pre-paying our debt.
*We have just ‘‘loaned’’ $300 million to the IMF!

How distant the days when we used to wait anxiously for the announcement about what the Aid India Club meeting in Paris had decided to give us.

But there is the other side—equally telling. Why is it that so few among us know even the elementary facts about these successes? Why is it that so much of public, specifically political, discourse, when it is not whining is just wailing?

Happy Feet

Dont ask me what the movie is about.. I'm a little confused here.. Is it about someone being differently abled and proving oneself? Is it about the environment being destroyed by the humans and the consequences being faced by other creatures who cant voice their protest? Is it a validation of the theory of alien abductions? Or is it a love story? Mumble, Happy Feet, suffers a trauma as an egg when his Dad drops it sorta. Supposedly as a result of that, Mumble is unable to sing unlike other penguins but only tap dances all the time. His being differently abled makes him an outcast among his fellow penguins and except his Mom he has no support, except that his love interest, Gloria, has a soft corner for him too.



An eagle introduces the concept of Alien abduction which is nothing but humans catching him and tagging him.

From the POV of penguins and other creatures of Antarctica, humans are the aliens. They are the ones responsible for destroying the pristine environment of the Antarctic with their "research" activities and uninhibited trawling and all the garbage left behind. Fish populations are going down and the penguins are finding it hard to survive. So Mumble sets off to try to convince the aliens to stop fishing and lands up in a zoo where a kid watches him tap dance and he becomes a sensation. Next thing you know, Mumble is back to the Antarctic with a GPS device attached to his back! Sorry... but I think if an animal tap dances, he lands up on TV shows and ocean parks. When was the last time somebody let a performing animal free like that? If they wanted to track a penguin, they might have as well done that with any other one. Quite stupid to let a performer like that go $$$. Anyway, they follow Mumble to his home and see this huge population of penguins all convinced by Mumble to tap dance to seek the help of aliens and convince them to stop fishing in their waters. The aliens get the message loud and clear! What follows is a really brief international debate on deep sea fishing etc etc and the environmentalists win the battle at the (Dis)United Nations. (Sigh! I wish things were that easy for Greenpeace). So finally, everything falls into place. The penguins have the fish. Mumble is accepted back into the penguin society and gets his love Gloria. Actually, Gloria is nothing but the usual Hindi Movie heroine who doesn't much role in the movie but is there coz every movie has a heroine for the hero.

At the end of it, I got up a bit confused what the movie actually was about. Whatever, but being a kids movie, I reaaallly wouldn't expect songs and lyrics like "Lets talk about X baby, lets talk about you and me", "Move your body close to mine", "Love me all night long".. And.. you NEVER EVER EVER EVER say something like "Go forth and multiply" (F*** off in layman's terms) in a kids movie. Oh puhhhllleaasee... What the HELL were they thinking while writing the script?

How it got a PG rating from MPAA or past the Indian Censors baffles me quite a lot. Perhaps, Indian Censorboard things it is very gentlemanish to speak Fs in English, but don't even dream of translating that to any Cs in Hindi or any Indian languages for that matter.

Animation was really good though.

I liked the 5 Amigos characters the best who, despite being from another penguin family, take Mumble as their friend and stand with him through thick and thin. It is a fun-filled film but didn't find anything that great about it, say like Finding Nemo or Ice Age - doesn't even come as close as Siberia is to Sahara.