Ishwar - Allah !!

"Ishwar allah tere jahan mein nafrat kyon hai jung hai kyon "
"Tera dil to itna bada hai insaan ka dil tang hai kyon "
"Ishwar allah tere jahan mein nafrat kyon hai jung hai kyon "
"Tera dil to itna bada hai insaan ka dil tang hai kyon"

"Kadam kadam par sarhad kyon hai saari zameen jo teri hai"
"Sooraj ke pehre dharti hai phir kyon itni andheri hai"
"Is duniya ke daaman par insaan ke lahoo ka rang hai kyon"
"Ishwar allah tere jahan mein nafrat kyon hai jung hai kyon"
"Tera dil to itna bada hai insaan ka dil tang hai kyon"

"Goonj rahi kitni cheekhein pyaar ki baatein kaun sunein"
"Toot rahe hain kitne sapne inke tukde kaun chune"
"Dil ke darwaazon par taaley taalon par ye zang hai kyon"
"Ishwar allah tere jahan mein nafrat kyon hai jung hai kyon"
"Tera dil to itna bada hai insaan ka dil tang hai kyon."

Guide

Recently I happened to watch the movie Guide and truly it left and indelible impression on me. The movie was released way back in 1965 and I remember watching it on TV when I was a child, but I realize now how little I could really understand the real sense of the movie at that time. Just like those hundreds of songs which I used to sing in my school assembly hardly contemplating on what they meant, they all sounded so larger than life so out of the world to me, but may be I never knew the real outside world back then. Its only today that I am just beginning to really absorb what those songs in school really meant in the truest sense and its only today that I am just beginning to understand the movie Guide. So here goes goes my review of this 1965 classic by Vijay Anand (director) and RK Narayan (writer of the novel Guide).

Raju (Dev Anand) is tour guide who takes visitors, Indian and foreign, to historic sites around Udaipur and tells them stories--some true, some embellished. One day a wealthy archaeologist Marco comes to Udaipur, with his wife Rosie (Waheeda Rehman).The couple aren't having a good marital life as the husband is more interested in dead caves more than his wife.Moreover Rosie had an irresistible passion for dancing which was completely unacceptable for Marco.Things get worse in Udaipur as Rosie discovers Marco enjoying the company of a native girl. Raju induces Rosie to retaliate and then induces dreams in her eyes.Rosie leaves Marco.

Later Rosie becomes a phenomenon in the nation and abroad,the two of(Raju and Rosie) them churn a lot of money. However owing to circumstances Raju forges Rosie's sign in a document sent by Marco and ends up in the jail.When he is released from the prison, he decides to forget his past and move on in his life.

Now the story takes a philosophical turn and the happy go lucky guide wanders off after the jail sentence disenchanted with his life. He reaches a desolate village and with his knowledge and wit finds himself as a swami of the ignorant people. They put full faith in him and turn to him in any crisis. Then the village faces a famine and the villagers have such immense faith in him that they ask him to go on a fast to please the Gods. He pleads that he can't do that and also tells the truth about himself but the faith of the villagers forces him to take a fast. He abstains from eating and drinking anything till it rains and sets the stage for his death but he has desires ant he doesn't want to die. He tries to run away from the village but the faith of the people pulls him back. Then comes the struggle between his conscience and his outer self, this is the best part of the film and this is what makes it a classic. It is then when he realizes the real God within himself. Watching this movie was truly spiritual experience even for an agnostic person like me.

Like some of the funky Hollywood movies like Pulp Fiction, Memento, The Usual Suspects and The Zero Effect this movie is not shown in the correct chronological order. We first see Raju as he is getting out of jail and we first see Rosy as she begins her search for him. The story then unfolds in flashbacks from both his and Rosy's perspectives, keeping the audience spellbound throughout, truly the genius of Vijay Anand deserves all the credit for this. No doubts this movie is used as a textbook for directing films in many academies.

The songs of the movie are brilliant and they synergies with its story. Only the genius of S.D. Burman could create "Din Dhal Jaaye", "Tere Mere Sapne", and "Piya Tose Naina Laage Re", "Kya se Kya ho gaya" , "Gata Rahe Mera Dil" - all for the same film! It is rumored that R.D. Burman composed some of the songs (especially "Aaj Phir Jeene Ki") as his father had taken ill at some critical point during the making of the film.

The Guide has most Indian geeky philosophies like 'Atma' (soul), Parmatma (supreme soul of perfect consciousness), Tapasya (austerity), Moksha (liberation). Also RK Narayan looks for answers to nothing less that the deepest and toughest questions of life through Guide. Like what are we really searching for? Just fame, fortune, love? Or is it altruism, God, or something even bigger than that?

The gist of the movie is that true Religion is not talk, or doctrines, or theories, nor is it sectarianism. It is in the relation between Soul and God. Religion does not consist in erecting temples, mosques or building churches, or attending public worship. It is not to be found in books, or in words, or in lectures, or in organizations. True Religion lies in realization. We must realize God, feel God, see God, talk to God. "True Salvation lies within ".

In the end I will sum up with a beautiful piece of lyrics from the song "wahan kaun hai tera ?" penned by the legendary Shailendra.
"Kehte hai Gyani.... Duniyaa Hai Faani (fake)....
Paani pe likhi likhayiii....
Hai Sabki Dekhi Hai Sabki Jaani...
Haath Kisike na aayi....
Kuch tera na mera Musafir..... jayega kahan ?"

The Castists or The Elitists

I still vividly recall the address to the nation by the president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on the eve of the 57th Independence Day.

His words:

"What should we be remembered for?

Let us for a moment pause to reflect what it is that for which we would like to be remembered by the future generations. Will we be remembered for how many churches our generation has added, will we be remembered for how many mosques our generation has added, will we be remembered for how many temples our generation has added or will we be remembered for how many gurudwaras our generation has added? No, not at all. We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with our civilizations heritage."

He further added these beautiful lines to his speech

“Oh Almighty, create thoughts and actions in the minds of the people of my nation, so that they live united.

Light the minds of the religious leaders of my country to evolve a bridge among religions with Compassion and Love.

Embed the thought 'Nation is bigger than the individual or party' in the minds of the leaders.

May God, bless my people to work and transform the country into a prosperous nation in a decade."

Clearly testifying the fact the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is really a visionary in the truest of sense. I can only hope that our politicians assimilate a modicum of “Wisdom” (Buddhi) from this great man.

Looking at the current Quota Quandary one sees The Indian society as clearly bifurcated into two extremely opposite factions, they are The Castists and The Elitists. The Castists backed by the politicians, the pro-reservationists and The Elitists backed by the youth-for-equality, the pro-merit and anti-quota supporters. Both the groups shouting out loud to prove their point and more importantly trying to prove the other wrong. The one thing, which worries me the most at this time, is the Hatred of each group towards the other, which can be easily seen in thousands of blogs, protests and debates taking place all over the country.

It is just a reminder to all of us that the need of the hour are Compassion and Love, the realization that Nation is bigger than the individual or party. I can only hope that both the groups instead of expressing vehement anger, come out with benign solutions which take the nations interests into consideration and not their own. I hope that rather than thinking on the lines of “what’s good for me” we will think on the lines of “what’s good for us”. The idea that “WE” are the center of the universe was found to be flawed many hundreds of years ago!!.

Rain you are such a Pain ...

“some people walk in the rain, others just get wet”
Damn you whosoever wrote this line, you probably don't really understand what exactly does getting WET mean. Coz every single time I happen to walk in the rain I bloody get WET and I would like to make it very very clear that there is nothing to be excited about it. Man I have this desire to drag you in the center of any Indian cross-roads and make you stand there when it rains and I wanna see your face when vehicles from all over the place splash you with the filthiest of possible rain waters. I can already visualize in my head, you are pleading for mercy and let me guarantee you shall receive none.

I can say this right from the bottom of my heart that there is this one thing I hate the most in my life - the rains, the untimely rains, the torrential rains, the incessant rains, the rain that makes driving hell, leave driving even walking on the streets becomes such a pain in the ass, the rains which makes your own filth from the drains come to the roads and hence on to your clothes and if you happen to be unlucky at times like me, even onto your face. I say this because the most dreadful experiences in life have been because of this very monster as I would call it. Let me narrate a few.....

It was supposed to be an overnight journey by bus. When I bought the ticket and was told by the Travels guy that "Sir sirf 8 ghante lagte hai nagpur se hyderabad jane main aur apni Volvo bilkul makkhan ke jaise chalegi to aapko pata bhi nahi chalega ". I couldn't have even imagined in the wildest of my dreams what waited in stores for me. 2 Days before my journey date it started raining and it never stopped. I had to travel, i didn't have many options so I did. Half way through journey I was informed that there were floods in AP. It took me 48 hrs to reach Hyderabad from Nagpur a journey which was suppose to be a 8 hrs and was supposed to be overnight. 48 long hours in a bus which was still most of the times and barely crawling when it moved, each time I think about it, I happen to feel the shivers down my spine. I pledged that very day that never in the rainy season will I prefer a journey by bus and also I would suggest to you to please do take this piece of advice from me.

It also reminds me with one of my worst encounters with rains and this time didn't even had to fall to make my life worse. It happened to be during my class Xth board exam when I had to write an essay of about 250 words on "Paus Padla Nahi Tar ?" (What if it doesn't Rain?) and that too in Marathi, which most of my friends can stand testimony how good i am in. So then I had to write all the benign qualities of the thing that I detest the most, how Cruel can life be at times. I couldn't ooze out my real inner feelings about it or else the examiner would have really flunked me. Leave paragraphs I was struggling to write even sentences and I confess that I had to repeat most of them to satisfy the criterion mentioned above which was of 250 words !!

Let me sum up by quoting some of the famous lines from one of my all time favorite songs by the Indian Rock band Parikrama .

" Well does life get any better
More yesterday than today
How I thought the sun would shine tomorrow
But it rained . . " :((

The Class or The Mass !!

After a grueling week of workless ness I sought some fresh air and grabbed one of my friends to go to the latest Bollywood flick "Bheja Fry". I was totally mesmerized by the comic act by Vinay Pathak who reiterates the fact of being an excellent upcoming comedian. It seems that The Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak Combo is grabbing everyones attention these days. Man!! They gave me a total recall of Khosla ka Ghosla. I had the loudest of possible laughs while i was watching the movie and so did most of the people around me. It was an entertaining 90 min show, and it managed to grip me throughout. The best thing about it being that it was a very vegetarian comic flick unlike many of its bawdy counterparts, the ones like Apna sapna money money , Golmaal , Bhagam Bhag etc etc... Clearly testifying the fact that "There are No Shortcuts to Success". So all you David Dhawans and the Priyadarshans of Bollywood do get some time to watch this movie!!

But as I was leaving the hall it came to my mind that "will this movie be a hit ??", "will it get what it deserves ??" of course not was the instinctive reply. It wasn't the first time that this thought had come to my mind. I now remember plenty of occasions when this has happened, i thought on similar lines for Kabul Express, Khosla ka Ghosla , Swades , Lakshya , Yuva etc etc. I keep wondering why movies like Dhoom2, Krishh , KANK and many others have flourished in terms of their box office collections and they manage to do so without any remarkable performances , stories , screenplay and innovativeness. May be I am being naive when i wonder about it, coz everyone around me seems to know the answer and each one tells me a unique version of his\her theory.

There are times when i think may be what’s "Entertainment" for a well educated IT professional with cosmopolitan tastes and open mindedness of a trendy city dweller like me isn't the same for many others OR may be that I am not looking at these movies as they are ought to be looked at. As often cited "We Don't see things as They are but We see things as We are !!".

Looking at the bigger picture I think that some movies are actually targeted for "The Class" section of the society while others are just meant for "The Masses". (Hey did i just say that i belong to "The Class”, What a bloody braggart i am!! damn me!!) But then is a successful movie the one, which is liked by The Class or The Mass?? The optimal solution sounds much better. But then how many of the successful movies will satisfy the optimum criterion? After giving it a thought i conclude that A successful movie is the one which does what it is meant to do, the one which fulfills the hype which it created, the one which satisfies the expectations either of the Producers or the Consumers. But like most things in life they can't always satisfy us all. Poor filmmakers they will always be criticized no matter what. Its true then that success doesn't come for free you have to pay some or the other price for it.

But then what’s the point of this whole blog ???? The problem i see with many of The Mass appealing movies is that they are released with the sole intent of making profit rather than the "ideal" motive of making movies, which has to be "Entertainment". So the masala makers will get a star-studded cast and a go for a hit formula based strategy to achieve it. After all The Masses definitely belong to the idol-starved section of this nation, and these stars surely dominate the Indian mindscape. Though there isn't a shortage of ideas and scripts here but the masala makers won't risk into these ventures by putting their millions at stake when plagiarism seems to easily yield what they seek.

There is no doubt that at the end of the day when it comes to evaluations (which are a plenty full these days) it will be the masala flicks which will receive all the accolades while "my favorite lot" will have to be satisfied with a trickle of critical acclaims which hardly counts :( .

"The way I see it" there is something definitely wrong with the products of Indian Film industry and most of its Consumers. May be that’s the reason that The Class like to seek solace in Hollywood!!

See the Stats Mr. Ian Chappell !!

Rather than me going gaga about sachin, lets directly look at the stats !!

SRTendulkar

Year	M	Inns	NO	50s	100s	HS	Runs	Avg	Ca	St
1989	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0	0
1990	11	10	0	1	0	53	239	23.90	3	0
1991	14	14	2	4	0	62	417	34.75	4	0
1992	21	20	2	6	0	84	704	39.11	5	0
1993	18	17	4	1	0	*82	319	24.54	4	0
1994	25	25	2	9	3	115	1089	47.35	8	0
1995	12	12	1	1	1	*112	444	40.36	6	0
1996	32	32	2	9	6	137	1611	53.70	13	0
1997	39	36	3	5	2	117	1011	30.64	14	0
1998	34	33	4	7	9	143	1894	65.31	14	0
1999	22	22	2	1	3	*186	843	42.15	4	0
2000	34	34	0	6	3	146	1328	39.06	11	0
2001	17	16	3	3	4	146	904	69.54	3	0
2002	20	19	5	3	2	113	741	52.93	4	0
2003	21	21	1	8	3	152	1141	57.05	4	0
2004	21	21	1	5	1	141	812	40.60	4	0
2005	16	16	1	2	1	123	412	27.47	6	0
2006	16	16	2	3	2	*141	628	44.86	6	0
2007	10	9	2	3	1	*100	310	44.29	2	0
Overall (19)	384	374	37	77	41	*186	14847	44.06	115	0

BC Lara

Year	M	Inns	NO	50s	100s	HS	Runs	Avg	Ca	St
1990	1	1	0	0	0	11	11	11.00	0	0
1991	11	11	0	1	0	54	263	23.91	6	0
1992	21	21	2	9	0	*88	794	41.79	8	0
1993	30	30	3	7	4	153	1349	49.96	21	0
1994	14	14	0	4	0	89	479	34.21	9	0
1995	15	14	2	6	2	169	806	67.17	4	0
1996	15	15	3	2	3	*146	692	57.67	4	0
1997	18	17	2	5	2	*103	755	50.33	8	0
1998	8	8	1	3	1	110	386	55.14	2	0
1999	29	28	2	1	1	117	631	24.27	11	0
2000	11	10	0	4	0	87	359	35.90	2	0
2001	20	20	3	5	1	*116	732	43.06	7	0
2002	10	9	3	1	1	111	292	48.67	1	0
2003	21	21	2	4	3	116	888	46.74	12	0
2004	20	18	3	3	0	*59	484	32.27	7	0
2005	15	15	0	2	1	156	438	29.20	7	0
2006	28	26	5	4	0	87	660	31.43	5	0
2007	9	8	1	2	0	83	314	44.86	5	0
Overall (18)	296	286	32	63	19	169	10333	40.68	119	0

R Ponting

Year	M	Inns	NO	50s	100s	HS	Runs	Avg	Ca	St
1995	9	9	2	2	0	62	196	28.00	1	0
1996	24	24	1	3	2	123	733	31.87	3	0
1997	2	2	1	1	0	*60	75	75.00	0	0
1998	24	24	2	6	3	145	1166	53.00	8	0
1999	32	32	6	5	0	*87	1038	39.92	19	0
2000	14	14	0	3	1	115	510	36.43	1	0
2001	18	18	3	6	2	102	828	55.20	7	0
2002	28	27	4	4	2	129	882	38.35	11	0
2003	34	31	6	4	5	*140	1154	46.16	24	0
2004	24	23	1	7	0	91	840	38.18	9	0
2005	29	28	2	8	3	*141	1191	45.81	15	0
2006	23	23	1	6	2	164	798	36.27	16	0
2007	13	12	2	4	3	113	707	70.70	7	0
Overall (13)	274	267	31	59	23	164	10118	42.87	121	0

2003-07	M	Inns	50s	100s	Runs	Avg
Sachin	84	83	21	8	3303	43.46
Ricky	123	116	29	13	4690	45.01
Lara	93	88	15	4	2784	36.15

2004-07	M	Inns	50s	100s	Runs	Avg
Sachin	63	62	13	5	2162	38.60
Ricky	89	85	25	8	3536	44.75
Lara	72	67	11	1	1896	32.68

Plus sachin can bowl...
So whoever thinks that sachin should retire.... look at the stats before you try to be grandiloquent just as Mr. Chappel Tried to be !!

People have often criticised Sachin for not being a match winner. Here is a compilation of his 41 centuries. Out of the 41 hundreds, 11 hundreds have gone in vain.
lets analyse each of them.

1. 137 off 137 balls Vs SriLanka at Delhi in 1996 World Cup. India scored 271/3 in 50 overs. The only other 50 score was from Azhar. SL made 272 in 48.4 overs. Manoj Prabhakar had 4-0-47-0. He also opened in the innings with Sachin and scored 7 of 36 balls.

2. 100 of 111 Balls Vs Pak in Singapore- Apr 96. India 226 all out in 47.1 overs, When Sachin was out score was 186/4. Pak had a reduced target of 187 from 33 overs.

3. 110 of 138 Balls vs Sri Lanka In Colombo - Aug 96. Again India 226 for 5 in 50 overs, Only other 50 score from Azhar (58 of 99 balls).Sachin has also bowled 6-0-29-1, the second most economical bowler and the only wicket taker (SL were 230/1 in 44.2) of the match next to Srinath. 7 bowlers were used by Azhar.

4. 143 of Balls Vs Aus at Sharjah, Apr 1998. This was chasing under lights. The qualifying match before the final. The whole world knows about this match. Still one interesting point, when Sachin was out India were 242 at 5 at 43 overs. Target was 276 in 46. Still India finished at 250/5 scoring just 8 of the next 3 overs. Great performance indeed.

5. 101 of 140 Balls against SL at Sharjah in Oct 2000. Indian score was 224/8 in 50 overs. (No other 50 score). SL got 225/5 in 43.5, Sachin also bowled 5-0-22-0, better economy rate than everyone except Srinath.

6. 146 of 153 Balls against Zimbabwe at Jodhpur - December 2000 India made 283 / 8 in 50 overs. Sachin was the last man to be dismissed, score was 235/8 at 46.3 overs when he was out. Agarkar and Zaheer Khan propelled India to 283 in the last 3.3 overs. When Sachin has scored 146 of 235 in 46.3 overs, you can guess what the other 8 great batsmen were doing against the World class Zimbabwe attack. Second Highest scorer was Zaheer Khan with 32. Zim got 284/9 in 49.5 overs. Agarkar bowled the last over. Sachin also got 6-0-35-1

7. 101 of 129 Balls Vs SA at Johannesburg - Oct 2001 India got 279/5 in 50, Ganguly made 127 of 126 balls. When Ganguly got out, the score was 193-1 in 35.2 overs. Sachin was the last man to get out at 263. SA got 280 in 48.4 overs. Sachin bowled 9-0-51-0, second best in economy rate next only to Agarkar (10-0-45-1)

8. 141 of 135 balls Vs Pak at Rawalpindi, March 2004. India were chasing 329 and were 317 all out in 48.4 overs, 8 balls to spare. No other batsman made even a 50 (when chasing 300 ) and when Sachin was out, India were 245-4 in 38.4 overs. They needed 85 from 68 balls with 6 wickets in hand.

9. 123 of 130 Balls vs Pak at Ahmedabad, April 2005. India made 315/6 in 48 overs (48 over match), again no other 50 score. Second highest was Dhoni 47 of 64 balls, (third highest was extras - 39). Pak made 319 in 48 overs. The three quicks (Balaji, Nehra and Khan went for 188 runs from 26 overs between them taking only 2 wickets). Sachin bowled 6-0-36-1. No Harbhajan and no Kumble.

10. 100 of 113 Balls Vs Pak at Peshawar, Feb-2006. India were 328 all out in 49.4 overs. Pathan and Dhoni got 60 each. When Sachin was out when India were 305-5 in 45 overs. Managed only 23 in the last 5 overs. Pak scored 311/7 in 47 overs and won by D/L method. Could have been anybody's game. Sachin did not bowl.

11. 141* of 148 balls vs WI at Malaysia. India made 309 /5 in 50 overs. Sachin was not out. Pathan was the only other 50 scorer. WI made 141/2 in 20 overs and won by D/L method. Again could have been anybody's game.

In the other 31 instances India has won 30 times and once there was no result.

Now, think again when you say sachin's 100s were in the losing cause and that he is not a team player. It is a fact that for the entire 90's India played International cricket with only 1 player