Rain Songs

Ahhhh!!! Finally rain has arrived in my town. Its such a beautiful evening with wet leaves and the wonderful smell of wet earth. Just felt like sharing my favourite rain songs. [Hope your internet speed lets you watch the videos and lyrics]

#1 Rain by Madonna (I'm a huge fan of the lady!!)





#2 November Rain by Guns n Roses (for rock lovers!!)

#3 I Love a Rainy Night by Eddie Rabitt (wonderful music!!)





#4 It's In The Rain by Enya ( beautiful video!!)





#5 Crying In The Rain by A-ha (nice lyrics and great voice)





and last but not the least the classical I'm Singing in the rain by Gene Kelly (a must-must-must watch for the dance!!)

Save the Environment

Stop thinking like that!! On World Environment Day i.e. today, I want to list few tips and ways to do our part in saving the environment. Though there are many sites which tell about 100 ways or 51 ways to do it, I thought of listing some of them here as well.

In Your Office

# Copy and print on both sides of paper.
# Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips.
# Set up a bulletin board for memos instead of sending a copy to each employee.
# Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence.
# Use recycled paper.
# Use discarded paper for scrap paper.
# Use a ceramic coffee mug instead of a disposable cup.
# Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.

In Your Home

# Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
# Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
# Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .
# Use a microwave whenever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.
# Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.
# Use compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to save money and energy.
# Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
# Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals.
# Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.
# Check and fix any water leaks.
# Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets.
# Don't wash dishes or brush teeth with the water running continuously.
# Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.
# Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones.
# Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and cling wrap.

In General

# Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.
# Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient.
# Buy products that you can reuse.
# Maintain and repair durable products instead of buying new ones.
# Reuse items like bags and containers when possible.
# Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.

So implement some of these atleast if not all before it comes to this:-

Last but not least, let us all strive to save the social environment too by promoting love and peace. As Michael Jackson puts it "Heal The World".

P.S. For lyrics to the lovely song read here. All images credited to Chris Madden.

Social Awareness Ads

I came across these ads for social awareness on YouTube.

Although the uptight sophisticated feel & the price of ticket didn't appeal to me, this is the one thing I liked about Gold Adlabs in Pune that they played the National Anthem of India before the movie started and all stood up in respect. I don't know if all movie theaters of Maharashtra follow that or only Pune. And I've no idea about other states except MP & CG where there is no such practice.

This one is a bit long but a very nice song & theme and one cant guess whats the ad about till the end. I hope posting it here will spread the awareness.

I couldn't believe this one was titled "social awareness". I admit there should be freedom (with responsibility) to choose one's career/job/life partner but creating a ad about Mens' Freedom??? and what was the implication? First guys should get their freedom then girls??? What a sexist ad. Stop cribbing and comparing to women. But its funny. Enjoy!

"Anti-Indian" Indiana Jones

I don't think that every famous and admired story writer or director has only good/brilliant movies to their credit. I'm sure each one of them has one or more movies which they are ashamed of writing or directing. The ones who provoked me to write this post are still living in the illusion that its another wonderful and different creation of their remarkable skills. They advertise the "work of art" using sentences like "The movie which broke all the rules and changed the film industry"!!! Maybe they think that any art they dish up would be lapped up by the public without any criticism and from the hype about the movie I gather they have managed to pull it off. I'm talking about the crap called "Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom". (Maybe I'm not the first one to write such a strong criticism against the movie as I have not yet researched into the reviews that movie had received and also I believe some sane people are still out there in the industry).

I think Mr.George Lucas (yeah the guy behind Star Wars) the story writer and Mr.Steven Spielberg (yeah yeah the Jurassic Park guy) the director, should hide this movie in question in their biographies and their later real works of art are a compensation to the torture they inflicted on the audience with this Indiana Jones sequel. After hearing so many people rave about the famous movie I decided to download and watch all three. I liked the first one "Indiana Jones and Raiders of Lost Ark". Infact I think its the source of inspiration for most of the action sequences and damsel in distress scenes of Bollywood, Tollywood et al. It was an enjoyable movie with every imaginable twist in action sequence and drama. Then I started the 2nd sequel. It turned out the movie's story is set in India and had our own Amrish Puri and Roshan Seth starring in it. (How did Amrish Puri agree to act such a role? Just for Hollywood fame?) I wont describe the plot and lengthen my post. An Indian village was shown where people spoke god knows which language and of course few spoke English!!!!!! The most disgusting scene of the movie and which made me scream out of indignation"Is THIS a Spielberg creation? What was he thinking? Shame Mr.Spielberg" was a dinner scene at the Pankot palace of Bhanpur. In this scene, 1st dish to be served was "snake surprise". A huge boa was served and when its stomach was cut lots of little snakes crawled out and people aka Indians ate that. Then next on menu were beetles whose shells Indians cracked and slurped the insides with the heroine (Kate Capshaw) gaping at them and ready to puke. Are you too feeling gross? Wait, there's more. Then the heroin asked for soup seeing such food and she was served soup with eyeballs in it. The dessert was a monkey's head on a cup with head split and Indians eating its brain with spoon just like icecream. I'm ready to puke now!

Maybe if we really ate that stuff, George Bush wouldn't have blamed us for price rise. Then maybe SPCA and PETA would have targeted us!!

More absurd and demeaning scenes of a cult of "Thugees" (whatever that means!) who were Kali worshipers were shown. (I think its the practice of sacrifice to Ma Kali that fascinates Western people and inspires them to cook up gory stories). People were made to drink human blood and were thus hypnotized to follow the cult leader, Amrish Puri. He was shown to punish by digging his fingers right into the offender's bare chest and grab his heart out!!!! By the love of god, that was the height of preposterousness.

Well maybe I'm being too harsh. The mine chase sequence was definitely nicely wrote and shot. But that doesn't make up for the image portrayed of Indians and their diet. No wonder Western people have strange ideas about India, Indians and their cultural and religious practices, India's mysticism (e.g. snake charmer found in most cartoons where the snake stands up and is used as a rope to climb or an ascetic on bed of nails or flying carpet). A person like Lucas or Spielberg who are making sci-fi movies should have at least done little bit of research into India before showing such ridiculous and offensive stuff. Neither it can be enjoyed for the sake of fun nor can it be included under artistic license or cinematic license. Any true blue Indian will be enraged at such depiction. I was.

Famous Love Songs

After many days I listened to my most favorite love songs and I was tempted to share these famous and timeless love songs with whoever visits my blog. Each of these has been my theme song at some point of my life....

LOVE IS A WONDERFUL THING
Michael Bolton

Here's the video.... He looks simply delicious!!!



UB40 - Can't Help Falling in Love




I'LL REMEMBER
Madonna



TIME, LOVE AND TENDERNESS
MICHAEL BOLTON




THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL

ABBA




SPENDING MY TIME
ROXETTE



IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE
ROXETTE

Confessions of a TV addict - Part 2

My top favorite serials deserve a separate post so I'm writing a Part 2. So now coming to non-Indian serials....the top slot is taken by F.R.I.E.N.D.S...what else!!!! I have watched runs and re-runs and re-re-runs so many times that even my Mom knows which episodes I have already watched and recognizes all the characters. But still they make me laugh as if I'm watching for 1st time. And I miss having such a group of real friends...One video is especially for those who are going to France.




Then I like the serial "Charmed" a lot as I just love fantasy and magic. I watched only few episodes when it was being aired. I never thought I would be able to watch starting from season 1 to final season until now when I discovered all seasons are available on the Internet. And I watched season 8 last episode sneakily on Youtube first to see if it all ends well. It does.

And last but not at all the least....my favorite Chinese/Korean serial which used to aired on the channel HOMETV...back in 1997....I watched the whole series 4 times continuously as Hometv used to re-run a serial just after it used to end. That was the best summer vacation. But sadly it had sad ending, like all Chinese series. The series was called "Blood Stained Intrigue" and I was simply crazy about it.

Confessions of a TV addict - Part 1

I have been addicted to television since I was four years old....actually since the day we bought TV. It is rumored by my elder sister that I used to watch anything Doordarshan ( the national and only channel in India at that time) dished out; like Krishi Darshan, a program for the benefit of farmers where experts solved their problems and suggested better agricultural practices.

As I grew older, my attachment with TV grew. I used to be completely mesmerized with the moving pictures and the characters. It took my family (mostly my sister) a lot of coaxing, cajoling, emotional blackmailing, scolding, and bartering to get me to study and do vacation homework. I would like to point out I was among the toppers of class, and that's why my family was at wit's end as to how to make me study as I got good results with my high level of insincerity.

My first passion was animation and it still remains so. I simply love cartoons and animation movies. And my sister loved to keep nicknames based on the cartoon that was being aired.
In this post I want to share some of the happiest moments of my life when I used to get lost in the world or visual media by the courtesy of Youtube and the uploaders.

Starting with famous cartoon Jungle Book.....which prompted Didi to call me "Mowgli" or "Baghira".... Baghira was my favorite character...strong and silent characters always appealed to me...Jungle Book was such a hit among children of my generation. The old cartoon series were much better than those being aired on Jetix or CN... all Japanese and violent.


Oh I almost forgot the first ever super hit animation series ....He-Man!!! Didi liked Orca, I remember. It was awesome...."I have the power"

There was an afternoon show featuring characters which were vegetables. Their king was brinjal called "Baingan Raja". Sadly no video is available of that show. Didi made a parody of the title song which went like Juug juug jiyo mere baingan raja....raj tumhara sabse pyara.....Then there was one called "Molu". As the name suggests the protagonist was a mole. In fact it was the first series which inspired Didi to start nicknaming me. Again no video available.

Then I was totally in love with Genie from the series "Arabian Nights" featuring Aladdin. It was pure humor mixed with adventure. It was an one hour show where half hour was of Aladdin and other half of Little Mermaid.

Then Disney cartoons at 10.30 am on Sundays won hearts of many young and old in India. Talespin was a favourite of my Dad. And everyone liked the pirate character (I don't remember the name) more than Baloo.





How can I forget "daanu"??? I couldn't find the Hindi version of the opening song.


Then my second passion are fairy tales and fables, especially witty ones like Akbar Birbal, Vikram Betaal etc. Further, as I became wiser, I started liking some real human characters too like our King Khan who was a tv soap actor then. I liked his serial Circus very much...more than Fauji.


My Didi's favorite series was Bharat Ek Khoj.....and I never felt any interest in it. Infact it was a very famous show but sadly I didnt like it.


Doordarshan also telecasted short films and videos in public interest and to celebrate culture and heritage of India and to promote unity in diversity. Those videos are evergreen and remembered by all who are of the Doordarshan generation. I liked them a lot and used to sing along with them. From one of those, I learnt visually the dances of India though I'd studied in geography book. Didi had to bear the outcome of this knowledge as I demonstrated her daily the different dances and made her understand the difference between Yakshagana and Kathakali by pulling her cheeks.




Oh yes then there was a series "Malgudi Days" based on the famous novel. It was fine only till Swami was there.




Then all the girls including me had a crush on Byomkesh Bakshi.....and were sad as he grew older. It was the best Indian detective series.

The Puri Trip

Hello folks!! (better than dear diary or dear blog), since my existence on the planet Earth for more than two decades ( come on!! u don't expect me to write in years do u?) I haven't had a chance to see even a wee bit of the thing that covers 71% of Earth's surface i.e. oceans. A friend of mine found this quite shocking and unbelievable. What is there to be so shocked and astounded? As it is I'm not much of the travelling or the touring kind and I have always stayed at land locked places. People just tend to overreact at what one has done and what one hasn't. One day a time will come....with the Earth gaining popularity just like "India Shining" and getting increasing hits from aliens just like Google search hits on Britney Spears...when people will be like :"oh my god! you haven't seen an alien yet?"

Anyway....so I decided to go on a trip to see the ocean in this Diwali vacation with my parents. Destination Puri was selected and a four day trip was chalked out. In the train to Puri, during the whole journey our tickets were not checked by the authorities.....We may have as well travelled ticketless...would have saved some bucks....but being good dutiful citizens we did our part. The scenery was pretty much alike to that en route Kolkatta (my homeland)....All small ponds, coconut trees, ponds full of lotus plants......Unlike the barren and dusty route when one goes towards Pune/Nagpur....
As the train sped towards Cuttack, we crossed the 2,250 m long bridge built on the river Mahanadi. It was awesome.

As like all cautious Bongs, my parents had got their home made packed dinner while I'd decided to try the cuisine offered by Indian Railways....and I'm glad to report that I.R. has improved a lot....food was edible and in fact somewhat delicious....So much that my unexperimental and "no risks" father decided to leave the Bong tradition and eat in train hereon....But old habits die hard...in return journey he still got dinner packed from our cottage restaurant and again we had delicious food served by I.R. ...better than before as this time we were in air conditioned coach and again Father's vow was renewed.

After dealing with agents and browsing through pamphlets we decided on a cottage type hotel which had "international" in its name.....People put such titles so casually in India...A roadside stall or a more posh stall i.e. dhaba selling biryani or punjabi non veg cuisine also writes "international".....Indians having been an colonised nation in past,have always been fascinated by foreigners on some subconscious level....from the time of Huen Tsang to Edwina Mountbatten..... So in spite of slow service, first floor being under construction (quite hazardous..mind it...even some bricks fell down one afternoon from a just built wall!!!!) and the cottage being international in the sense that except us, all other occupants were girls from England, Israel etc; it was a good bargain and right on the beach with the ocean 30 metres away...Would have been a better bargain if I'd a brother and would have gone along with us...u can guess why......Would have been a worse bargain if I'd been with husband....As Ganeshaspeaks.com puts it "You would want your man to have eyes only for you and no one else in life. " Heh Heh....The British girl was our neighbour and quite courteous in the way that she used to do "namaskar" to my mom. My father and me didn't have the privilege of her greetings.

In the late afternoon of the day we arrived, my parents went to see the ocean while i kept sleeping....And afternoon nap for me more often than not ends in me getting grumpy and irritable. It's definitely not a power nap for me. So I was grumbling all evening for being left alone. Then we again went for a stroll after dark and the beach light being out of order, it was quite scary to walk across beach in darkness..And then I got the night view of Bay of Bengal.....Looking so omnious in night..A dark unknown water world...So wild and powerful...I wondered how do people go on journeys across seas and oceans.....I have always been a staunch follower of terra firma and will continue to be so....u know both feet planted on ground type.. Heh Heh!! I love water, I surely do, from the shore.Then later we went for a quick ride around the city.

1st day.....My parents went on an early morning romantic walk to see the sun rise over the ocean.....As for me the desire to see such a view gets curbed by the desire to have morning sleep....This "morning sleep" is so better than the "night sleep".... My parents being larks and catching worm type of early birds are unable to understand this pleasure and thus have not yet given up their persuasion to make their two daughters early risers....Hope floats I guess....

The plan for the day was to visit Lord Jagannath Temple. Our "international" hotel didn't have any facility of providing hot water. So after having bathed in luke warm water (entirely credit of the climate..Thank you Lord!!) and having arranged a "paanda" (aka agent of God...the god depending on the place..in this case Lord Jagannath) to escort and guide us in the temple, we set off.

Oh my God!!! no...no....Oh Lord Jagannath!!!!! Trust Ministry of Tourism to be so callous and indifferent so as not to develop such tourist places for earning money. I mean India has so many places having lots of tourism potential but our government is just not tapping such resources. The "Incredible India!" tag line is restricted to a few places like the Taj, Goa etc. The street leading to the Jagannath temple is host to a large vegetable market, three wheelers, rickshaws, dirty water in sewers and cows. We were amazed at the indifference of the government to develop such a prospect of tourism knowingly. Well....I guess they dont bother because only Hindus are allowed inside the temple and we Indians comprising mostly of Hindus have become inured to such sights, roads and places...There is nothing shocking in spitting while driving or cows sitting on the busiest roads or markets and stalls at most inappropriate places, encroaching into walking /driving space.

So after submitting our mobiles and camera, we washed our feet and entered the 8000 yrs old temple consisting of many temples inside, carved out of hillocks. Here and there various types of prasads were available and once you take it innocently, the pandas ask for money....It is a whole business going on there...Godliness on sale....There were a line of old men (brahmins i suppose) sitting on a place slightly out of reach and women worshipers were walking below trying to touch their feet by standing on their toes...one old man even extended his feet so that the lady can touch those..god knows what was this custom...The place was so crowded that our hired paanda held our wrists and literally dragged and pushed us inside the main temple to see the Lord. Since when did God become so inaccessible?? We not being among the good god-fearing Hindus who know all the customs; didn't quite fit in. The paanda had to keep asking my mom to cover her head with sari pallu.. and our attitude "lets get over with it as soon as possible" was pretty clear. The only thing that appealed to me was a kitten i met at the place where they cook food for all devotees i.e. bhog . Huge oven by god! After exchanging some miaows with cat we left for our hotel.

Then we came back to our hotel and had breakfast. A rented car came to take us to Konark to see the famous Sun temple. The 13th-century Sun Temple (also known as the Black Pagoda), built in Orissa red sandstone and black granite by King Narasimhadeva I (AD 1236-1264) of the Ganga dynasty. The temple is one of the most well renowned temples in India and is a World Heritage Site. [This information has been provided by the courtesy of wikipedia]. While driving to Konark, we crossed a place called Chandrabagha. The view of the sea from there was awesome , but due to afternoon time we couldn't enjoy much. The snaps didn't come well too due to so much of sunlight. We also crossed some forest area but didn't get to see even one deer.

The Sun temple was really grand...such a huge structure made of stone...so much creativity and hard work. Its surrounding gardens were extremely beautiful. Huge elephants and other creatures made of stone were there. There were many "guides" who pestered to hire them to show around and tell story. Some foreigners had hired them. We, Indians, knew better. I took many snaps and bought a lot of souvenirs from outside stalls.



The food shops outside the site don't serve tasty food. But we drank very tasty coconut juice and ate pulp. Then we returned to our hotel and had our lunch. Our "international" hotel served very tasty food and a lot of it in cheap prices so I was happy. After our afternoon nap, we went to the main beach of Puri; "Sworgodwar" meaning gateway to heaven. Here the beach was very crowded and all the prominent hotels were on the road adjacent to the beach. It was already sunset when we went, so couldn't enjoy much. There was a large market too but as we were tired from our day trip, we just did window shopping. We planned to come back the next day in early evening. From there we went around a trip around the town. Visited a Buddha temple where stone sculptures were kept for sale. Exquisite work but very costly.

The next day the same rented car came to take us to Chilka Lake. Chilka Lake is a brackish water coastal lake . It is the largest coastal lake in India. The driver told us Chilka is famous for its crabs. We were tempted to eat crabs and had decided to buy from there. The fun part of Chilka visit consisted of boating ; the activity of which both my Dad and I were afraid. So we just roamed a little , took snaps and sat in the adjoining park while eating chips and feeding crumbs to crows.


While coming back, I'd to undergo the torture of listening to Himesh's songs which our driver had put on. Also Dad bought 3 crabs weighing one kilo and gave them to the hotel chef to prepare for us. I was looking forward to my dinner that night more than i usually did. When the crab dish came I could find only two crab bodies. Supposedly our hotel chef couldn't resist and kept one for himself. I admit I was grumpy as I am not at all generous in matter of food.

In evening we went to Sworgodwar and enjoyed a lot. Even Dad went to wet his feet in the waves crashing on the shore. There was a foreigner couple bathing intimately and thus were the centre of attraction. At the beach there were local people selling "pearls" and "stones" collected from sea at prices of Rs 5-25!!!! There were camels for giving ride and chairs were available on rent at the rate of Rs 10 per hour to sit and enjoy. We "rented" chairs as the beach was quite dirty and because Mom saw a camel doing shit and the owner covering it up with sand.

Then we bought some snacks from the Mongini's outlet and sat by the "Marine drive" to enjoy. After that we went shopping and I bought knick knacks, dress material and gift items for colleagues back home. Beautiful idols made of stone and coral were available. Came back to hotel. After dinner we went for a night walk on the beach. Unlike my parents, I didn't dare to sit on the sand as all crabs , big and small were climbing out in night.

Next day was our last day in Puri. All of us went for early morning walk on beach. The ocean at each time of day has different sights and different effects. The morning chill, the fog, the boats going out to earn livelihood.....whereas in night the darkness, the sound of waves crashing in the silence of night, boats returning home, a feeling as if we're standing at the edge of the world. Dad and Mom went for some last minute shopping. In late afternoon, Dad and I went for our last view of the Bay of Bengal, to take in the vastness of the elements of earth before we left for station.

After giving suitable tips to the boys who worked as waiters, we left for station. Next day we reached our home with the memories of a wonderful trip.