Limca पियोगे?

हमारे जीवन में Limca - the cold drink का बड़ा महत्व रहा है. बचपन से ही हमें काफी कम पानी पीने की आदत थी. पिताजी को हमारी कई और आदतों के साथ ये भी कुछ विशेष प्रिय नहीं थी. घर में तो वो इस पर कुछ विशेष ध्यान नहीं दे पाते थे, पर जब भी हम कहीं travel कर रहे होते थे, invariably सफ़र में औसतन ५-६ बार वे अवश्य पूछते थे, "बेटे, गर्मी है, तुम्हे प्यास लग रही होगी...Limca पियोगे" ....अब मुझे आज तक, ये समझ नहीं आया, की why only Limca??...:D. मुझे बचपन से लेकर आज तक पिताजी के साथ लिया हुआ कोई भी सफ़र याद नहीं है, जिसमे उन्होंने Limca के अलावा किसी और ठन्डे पेय का नाम लिया हो...:). मुझे याद नहीं पड़ता की कभी मैंने Limca के प्रति अपना कोई विशेष प्रेम या liking दिखाई हो, या कभी जिद करके ही Limca पीनी चाही हो.
वैसे और अवसरों पे ( घर पे मेहमान आने पर... इत्यादि) पापा हमेशा कहते थे/ हैं की भाई ठंडा ले आओ कुछ....पर, सफ़र में सिर्फ Limca...:)
ख़ैर, फिर जब हम बड़े होने लगे तो हमने अपनी पसंद बतानी शुरू कर दी, कि पापा coke पीयेंगे...:D, to which of course he agreed instantly, but the preference for Limca especially while travelling is still a mystery to me...:)
PS: This is one of the many interesting... incidents/facts I can recount about dad....:)....

A friend sent this song yesterday, and I can't stop listening to it since then...:)

Justice calling!!

Ruchika Girhotra case is off media these days.

A 14 year old girl gets molested and commits suicide after 3 years. Reason being, her family is tortured by the molestor to such an extent that the father and brother have to sell all their property, leave job and migrate to the outskirts of a nearby hill station and make living by filling earth...

Yeah, it sounds like a hindi film story, but this is what happened to Ruchika Girhotra some 19 years ago, and the culprit is not only moving free shamelessly; but despite of the case being escalated to the Home Ministry, no firm action has been taken as yet.

This case has left me pondering over many things...

We all know that we are not living in a corruption free country. There is red tapism, bureucracy, bribery all around us. People commit gruesome crimes and roam freely all their lives.

And this is also a similar story, nothing new. But i don't know, for some reason this particular case has left me astounded and scared and worried.

A 14 years old girl goes to tennis court everyday after school to practice. An Inspector General of Police who also happens to be the head of Haryana Lawn Tennis association, calls the girl to his office on one such practice day and molests her. The girl and her friend save themselves that day and run back home. They do not tell their parents out of sheer fear. The next day the IG calls them again. This time they refuse, and tell their parents, and a police compalint is lodged against the IG.

Thats the crime i guess the minor girl committed.

This incident changed the life of Girhotra family. What happened to the family and Ruchika after that can be read through the link above.

Today after 19 years since the incident happened, the case has been transferred to CBI once again...The CBI inquiry is on, and hopefully the family will get "justice".

I don't know what kind of justice would it be. For a family who has lost their daughter, spent a good 19 years of their lives in harrassment, uprooted from their own city, their job, struggling all these years to fight the Indian Judicial system...what justice can they be promised now??

This case has scared me, has made me feel even more insecure in these surroundings. A common man's life in this nation of ours is so very insignificant. The dirty nexus of powerful men at the top can screw whosoever they want to. Its like total gundaraj. It seems money and powerful is the mightiest of all. Common man can only fight and fight for justice...which if comes, would be after a lifetime of struggle and not sure if its severity would match that of the crime the victim has been subjected to!!

This particular incident happened to the educated middle class family, who are aware of their rights, of the law proceedings and can afford to fight a case for so long. The plight of other such incidents which happen to the poor in the remote areas of the country, can be well imagined.

Given the fact that the case has recieved immense limelight, and has reached the highs of Home Minister as well; one can expect positive result in the near future. But my question is: Would any kind of punishment, less than a death sentence, be close to enough to give some relief to the traumatised Girhotra family? Justice has already been denied to them for so long. Anything less than that, would be an insult to the whole case. In the name of justice, it would be nothing but justice denied in the true sense of the word.

Thanks to the media power and Aradhana Prakash, the other young girl who was with Ruchika on that dreadful day of Aug 11, 1990 who is fighting the battle for the past 19 years now. Hats off to a true friend and a responsible citizen.

This case reached the home ministry and now CBI is looking at it again. It would be major dissapointment if Rathore- the main culprit is given any punishment less than a death sentence for the gruesome series of crimes he has commited in this case.

[Abha Rathore - SPS Rathore's wife, who is a lawyer, is supporting her husband and is defending him in the court. Some day I want to do a research on the physcology of such "females" who defend their spouses in cases of molestation and rape]

दिन भर...

आज बड़े दिनों बाद पटूरी (चीला) बनायीं. दही, ketchup और मिर्च के अचार के साथ खाया....:) और बड़े दिनों बाद ketchup और दही १ साथ खाए....bliss!! is the word....:) fotu खींची जो की काफी थकी हुई सी आई, but चिपका देते हैं...:)

बाकी ketchup से मुझे kissan tomato ketchup का ad याद आया...:D. मुझे ये ad बड़ा पसंद है...:) I simply love the presentation of this ad..:)

A primetime serial ended on star plus today, ended as in the story was taken to a logical..hmm..dunno..but ye to a conclusion....-A miracle indeed!! ..:D
21 days to go now for the d-day....:) आज १ मित्र ने पूछा...."गुड गुड होने लग गयी है??"....मैंने कहा जी अभी तो नहीं, but knowing myself soon ही होने लगेगी...:))

I saw the Mumbai Marathon ad recently. The background music of " हम होंगे कामयाब" sounds so awsum ....took me back to the school days, we use to have this as a special song as part of the morning prayer, like twice every month ...just before the national anthem...:)

Life etcetra....

आज बड़े दिन बाद, ऐसे ही बातों बातों में....अपने इंजीनियरिंग preperation के दिन याद आ गए.....चेहरे पे मुस्कराहट आ गयी १ बड़ी से और मन एकाएक ताज़ा सा हो गया...:)... और उस समय की मनःस्थिति भी याद आ गयी....आज जब पीछे मुडके उस समय के जीवन पे नज़र डालती हूँ...तो i feel that there was something about that time that made life appear quite simple and good ...and i wonder why??...there was so much of anxiety, uncertainity.....tension... कि पता नहीं exams clear कर भी पाएंगे या नहीं..... but still....there was something about that period that makes it so memorable....i guess that is because...
ज़िन्दगी में इतना focus किसी उद्देश्य को पूरा करने का उसके बाद शायद कभी नहीं आया...... tension थी, load था, और थोडा डर भी था but साथ ही साथ काफी peace भी था. ये पता था की क्या चाहिए, और ये भी की अगर दिल से मेहनत की और अपना काम पूरा कर लिया, तो फिर चाहे सफलता मिले न मिले, मन को शान्ति रहेगी की इससे अच्छा नहीं कर सकते थे. पढाई की तरफ १ अलग ही रुझान था. 1 disciplined सा नियमित जीवन था, जो more or less entrance exam clear करने के ओर ही घूमता है. (ये बात और है की तब ये discipline/ dedication इतना appreciate नहीं किया जाता था, because it was overridden by the anxiety to pass in it.). A little more drilled attempt at thinking and i feel the main reason was that, during that phase 80% control over the things was in our own hands. Result use to be directly proportional to the amount of hardwork/ commitment you put in. Since this equation was fairly applicable to most of the situations then, so somewhere we had this hope that correct amount of hardwork and dedication would certainly lead to good results. In other words, situation ke variables are in your hands, you have to play with them to maximize the results....:)

And then when I compare life after all these entrance exams and college to my life now; i realise why it is called "real" world..:)
Everything else is same, the hard work, sincerity, commitment, will to succeed....the only thing which has changed is...the equation...which has now become an in-equation...:)....the control of all the variables in this real world is no more in our hands solely. There are external factors which are totally outside our control, which determine the result of our actions- more or less depending on the situation....
And this situation might be anything.....your promotion in this current job, your fight to get a new one, a hearbtreak...anything for that matter...:)
Thats why, life in those student days seems so simple and joyful now...:))
An arguement against this can be, that as we grow, as our horizons expand, everytime we might not be the best judge of what is right for us, hence eventually, all the internal/ external variables work together, to result in what is best "for us" in that situation.
But then, when a part of such situations in life, its not very easy to understand the above theory...:)...

Anyways, hope the best happens to each one of us...and we all soon learn to live with these in-equations...:)
And my engg prep days remind me of my organic chem teacher, sardaarji we use to call him; a super gentle person, who had the habit of using plural for everything. १ बार उन्होंने १ student को बोला....."आप कल अपने "fathers" को बुला के लाइये".... होनहार बालक बोला...." sir कौनसे ??..सिविल lines वाले या neeti nagar वाले" ...:D

ये post लिखते हुए कोई गाना नहीं सुना...फिर भी ये गीत चिपकाने का मन है यहाँ....:)

The Surf "Excel" Kid...

Ah..:)....was generally surfing thorugh youtube and found an uncut version of one of my favourite ads on air these days....:)

I simply adore this ad, i love the idea, the execution, the super cute kid, the setting, Rosy Miss..:)...everything about this one and a half minute video...:).

But what I like the most is the naughty kid...:) I love the way the kid has been shown as a super naughty, mischiveous, fun loving, carefree child when with friends, in class in a happy atmosphere. He is part of all the hubaloo....shouts in the class, immitates others ..basically is the carefree kinds, whos parents are the most worried ones in the parents' teachers' meeting....:)

In the very next setting, in a situation which demands seriousness, the kid has been shown as the more sensitive kinds, one who feels for others, who would not say it in so many words but would make it up by his actions...:) would act like a pet to make his teacher smile....:)

The kid has acted the whole situation out so well....i love the tone he shouts in..."Aaj Rosy Miss kyun naai aayi?"....and his jumping around while walking on the road...and then the cute, worried expression on reaching Rosy Miss' house...:)....
Would love to have a kid like that....;-)

Sachchi..:)

I saw this tag on someone's blog. It can be good filler post ..:D..(among the other filler posts that is...:D)...
I am suppose to write 10 honest things about myself. Ok, not very sure if I would be able to reach the # 10 but let me still give it a try..:)

1. Lets start with music itself...:).
- I have a varied taste in music and that includes all the pan ki dukaan types gaane fom the 80s and 90s...:).
- I have acted crazy enough to miss my stop, just to listen to the amazing song playing in the bus (ofcourse in the times when accessibility to net was zero.)
- While coming back from office, if i have to take a taxi, i make it a point to ask the driver "bhaiyya gaane chalenge"...a no means, next taxi...:) [I can't do it in the morning becuz of time constraint.:( ]
- I can listen to the same song back to back for days. My philosopy is if you like a song, get enough of it...so that after some time you get bored and move on to the next song...:)
(there are many others, but lets move to the next honest (weird) thing now..:D)

2. Till a couple of years back, i use to suffer from this compulsive disorder of straightning out inverted footwear whenever/ wherever i saw them. And that includes hostel corridor (imagine me standing outside ppl's rooms to straighten out a bundle of inverted chappals and joote...:D, home, outside temples, even roads...:)

3. I love shopping alone. I enjoy it like anything...:)

4.I hate "post" things...like postpaid mobile, postpaid data card..even credit card. I make minimal use of credit card. (the simple reason behind all this, i HATE paying bills)

5. I love talking and i do not remember even a single incident in my life when i had ended a conversation. (other than the ones ofcourse where the other party was either boring beyond tolerance or had very low hearing/ listning thresholds..:D)

6. I have an awful choice in shoes/ footwear for myself. 9 out of 10 times i am out of appropriate footwear for my dresses.

7. I cook decently fast (taste ki koi gaurantee nahi..:D). And i suck at making tea. Most of the times i find it taste like "Kilchoni" (a word for a random mix of many liquids in garhwali...:D)

8. I can sleep for real long hours. The maximum i have slept at one stretch is 18 hours in 1994..:). My father had to wake me up by saying that 18 hrs se zyada sone se heart collapse kar jaata hai...:D

9. I love summers and everything about the season. I HATE winters and more than that i hate wearing sweaters or for that matter any woollens.

10. Hmm..what else...i am listning to this song right now..:)

Baaki, i love the picture on my blog's homepage...:). Blog kholte hi bada achcha sa feel hota hai...:)

Kanfuzan!

A thought has been doing rounds of mind since yesterday. How helpful/ good is this blog marathon for me??
The idea behind participating was that it would improve my writing, bring discipline in to my blog and get me into this habit of writing regulary.
I don't know, but 10 days into it and i am a bit confused!!. As in, i am writing everyday, but many a times i write just to maintain the continuity. I am not too sure if this kind of participation will actually help "improve" my writing. Yes, habit and regularity will come in for sure; but I also feel, that one should write a piece/ post or for that matter anything when one actually feels like doing it; then only would the best comes out of the pen...:). Honestly, I do not feel like writing everyday...:)

Anyways, since i am in a dilemma, and i am still not even half way through, i feel that i should keep this going. At the end of the day, भई discipline तो आ ही रहा है....कोई विशेष नुक्सान नहीं है हर रोज़ लिखते रहने में...बाकी कुछ seasoned bloggers ke विचार जान लेने से शायद कुछ और clarity मिले...

Patjhad...

This is my current state...:(
Any remedies, suggestions, tips to control the fall of my beloved hair is most welcome!
Picture Courtesy Google.