Woh Dagar

My first poem (don't know if it is good enough to be called a poem :))

Jindagi ke har mod pe ruk ke kahin
Jab aankhen meri dhundti hain teri halki si parchayi,
To uzli si ek raah nazar aati hai
Kahin woh mere jahan mein basa tere khayalon ka khali dagar to nahin!!!

Woh dagar jisse hum kabhi chod aaye the
Is jamane mein apni pehchan dhundna tha maqsad apna,
Us dagar ki gilli ret pe padchinhh aaj bhi hain
Par zindagi ki qitab ke panno pe humari saqsiyat ka ek akhar bhi nahin!!!

Kabhi ruswa hoke tum se kaha tha humnein
Ki tere choukhat pe fir naa rakhenge qadam,
Par Aj zamane se hare hue ek musafir ka
Us choukhat ke siwa koi sahara, koi kinara, koi aur manzil bhi nahin !!!

One more milestone

The greatest batsman of our time crossed another milestone today. He became the all time second highest run getter in test cricket. He now has 11,183 runs and is only 770 runs behind another great Lara. Add to that his 37 test centuries, 45 half centuries and you are looking at one of best players of all time. Every match he plays now-a-days, he creates at least 1 new record. Who is he??? if you don't know, then chullu bhar paani mein dub maro.

To me Sachin is much more than just a great cricket player. My first memory of a cricket match is that of a 16 year old Sachin scoring 4 sixes in a well known but overconfident Abdul Qadir's over. Then and there, I fell in love with the game called cricket. My friends will testify that the Love is not only still there, but it is also stronger than ever. He has completed 18 years in Cricket, but still has the enthusiasm of a youngster. Even though the body does not have the same reflexes, but the face has the same innocence of a 16 year old.

I hope he plays for many more years for India and retires on his own term, rather than allowing any joker (read selector) to drop him from the team.

CHAK DE SACHIN:)

Mahabharata or just a katha of a great manipulator

I was watching a movie on the epic 'Mahabharata' a few minutes back. Watching the movie being centrally based on the character of Krishna, my atheist mind started running. I loved the serial on the epic (B R Chopra wala) a lot during my childhood days, but since then many questions have raised in my mind regarding the happenings in the story.

Being an epic, the writer Vedvyas has given equal footage and screen space to both Gods and Men, even to such an extent that the main character is an incarnation of Vishnu and some others are son of Gods (much like the epic Iliad). Many people claim that Mahabharata is not a story after all and happened actually during some 5K BC or something. Then how come the people in Mahabharata were so advanced during that time. The kind of material used in Mahabharata suggests that the people were way ahead of their time and that does not seem to be correct, considering the time period. If the setup was say 1K BC, then why is it considered an epic and why no concrete historical evidence exists. Also if this would have been the case, then we could have seen the God angle in other stories of the same time like that of Asoka.

This makes me question the authenticity of the epic. What if Krishna was actually not some incarnation and was actually a ruthless king and a great manipulator. Its a known fact that history has been manipulated a lot by powerful kings, so that it suits them. What if Krishna was such a character, who hired a guy named Vedvyas to write a grand story about him being some incarnation of God. What if the kurukhestra battle was much lesser in proportion and was actually fought between 2 brother clans over a piece of land, without the Dharm and Satya angle in it. What if Duryondhan was actually a nice guy and Pandavs turned him into a monster after they won the Kurukhestra war.

These are just questions, which no one can answer in this world for sure.

Jab I met the Cadburys bytes

Kareena missed her train twice in 'Jab we met'. I almost missed my train twice on 22nd Nov. kareena missed her train for Shahid. I almost missed my train for Cadburys Bytes.

The idea to restart my blog was suggested by PPP, when this incident happened. So here is the story from the horse's mouth and believe me, it’s a very long story. So bring out the popcorn and Pepsi and enjoy the tale of crazy train journey.

As Mickey says, ' Shuru se Shuru karte hain', so lets begin from the beginning. It all started when I could not have a proper lunch on 21st Nov. Then I missed the dinner too, as I was getting late for the train to Vizag. I was traveling with PPP and by the time we boarded the train, I found that we had forgotten to get the water bottles too. Hence stuck in the train without any food or water, the only option was to wait for the next station. Meanwhile we chatted about each other's crazy train journey experiences and little did I know that I was going to prove my tryst of bad luck with Indian Railways again that night.

So at last when the train stopped at the next station (Katapeddi, if I am not mistaken and I have no idea where it is on the world map) at around 1.30 AM on 22nd Nov, I got down from the train. Our compartment was on one end of the platform and the food stall was on the other end. I am fond of morning walk, but taking a walk at 2 AM with empty stomach is not the right fitness regime. Anyways after buying water, I found that the only food available was 2 packets of Cadburys bytes. I bought them, but lost quite a bit of time, which turned out to be critical in the end. In the mean time, the train had started moving and I had to make a dash.

I had to cover a distance of some 10 compartments (no idea in terms of meters), before I could reach mine. Running in the opposite direction of the train, the laws of physics were coming into my mind. By the time I reached the 6th compartment, it seemed the train had picked up a lot of speed due to the concept of relative velocity. So I decided I had to jump at that time. With 2 bottles & 2 packets in hand, it was impossible to jump. So I threw the bottles into the compartment and jumped. I went till the last sleeper compartment to find that there is a shutter between the AC coach and sleeper coach. I called up PPP and got to know that the next station will come in 10 mins. But it never came. After 15 mins of darkness in S8, a TT came and told me that next station will come in another 2 hrs. Just at that the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and I thought of trying my luck right then.

But still there were 2 obstructions. One was the unevenness of the track which was 5 feet below the train level and full of big stones. & the other was the door on B1. I had kept that open when I came out of the compartment, but some great man had closed it again. So after a torturous walk of 15 meters, finding the door closed was the last thing I wanted to see. At the same time the train again started moving. I again had to run and board it. This time it was even more difficult, as running on a floor full of stones the size of a cricket ball is difficult. Also the stakes were high, as if I had missed the train there, there was no way I could have got any help. Somehow I was successful in covering the distance and getting on the train again.

The TT said that the shutter was closed from the B1 side and it can be opened from that side. I called up PPP and asked her to open it up. The door was some 200 pounds and PPP barely reaching 100. So again we had to wait for some time before she could find someone. Neither the TT on B1 nor the attendant was ready to help and a good fellow came to our help. That guy was holding a pack of Chips and a bottle of water. He handed it over to PPP and opened the shutter. So when I entered into the compartment, I first saw PPP standing there with a water bottle and a pack of chips. Looking at that, my face must have resembled the look Dhoni had, when Sarat Pawar took all the credit for the 20-20 WC win. I mean this is the stuff for which I almost missed the train and here she was enjoying all that. But later it dawned on me that may be it was not hers. PPP had a looked at my face and understood what I was thinking and laughed. We then had a good laugh about the whole incident.

Like most stories this had a happy ending and I thank god for that. It all happened because of the Cadburys bytes packets and we had a great time eating them. I think I shall write about a similar story, which happened during my college days, in future if I find time.

Public apology

As per instruction received from my inspiration (and also under the spoiler threat), this public apology is being given precedence over my next post .

I wholeheartedly regret describing the brief interesting chat I had with her on train regarding her blogging experience as 'dragged on'. From now onwards, this mistake will never be repeated.

Aye Hi Maam.

Comeback Part III !!!

Making a comeback is never easy. Except if it is smoking :-) Ask Uday Chopra, who has been shamelessly launched 6 times by his father in Bollywood, each time unsuccessfully. Poor lad never got the hang of it. I hope my blogging career fares better than that. After all, its my 3rd comeback.

But as a great man once said, to make a comeback, you need a lot of inspiration and determination (i vaguely remember saying this once). Well in my case, the inspiration came from a dear friend, who started narrating her recent blogging experience to me on a recent journey a few days ago. She also picked up blogging few days back after an year of lull, but is now enjoying it so much that she cant not stop talking about it. Since it was along journey, the narration literally dragged on, but kind of awakened a sleeping giant inside me. With so many things happening around me now-a-days, i felt the urge to pick up the writing pad again.

Since the last few months, I have been wasting my time on the Internet (said in the right spirit). Except downloading some of my most favourite and recent movies, the 256 KBPS unlimited download Internet has not been put to good use. Now i feel the time ripe to do that. And BAAM, there i have the determination.

So all set and ready to start with a true story of 'Jab i met Cadburys Bytes' in a few hours. May God bless this venture. AMEN