Phir Mile Sur.....a Review

It's that time of the year that we wake up to salute our country & tell her that we are proud of being part of this wonderful nation. It's REPUBLIC DAY.... all the channels on the (no more) idiot box are weaving their own set of programs to create enough patriotic feelings amongst the viewers. While some of them did their bit with one or two patriotic movies and some songs, may be some discussions, what stood out was ZOOM tv's efforts to recreate one of the most cherished memories of our association with television industry. The Times of India group & Zoom brought to us a very beautifully recreated " Mile Sur mera tumhara" which was almost considered an anthem in those days(nearly 23 years).

The first one definitely had a much younger Amitabh & the recent one includes many more stalwarts, celebrities of today's India. Should we say, we see a much stronger India, a much bigger India, a much more stylish India. Well, we also miss some legendary faces like Bhimsen Joshi, Balamurali Krishna, Pt. Ravishanker & others but, we have the next genre artistes who are taking the legacy forward like Anoushka Shankar, Rahul Sharma, Aman- Ayaan, Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy & Louiz Banks holding up the pride of India in the video.

The video wins where it lives up to capture the strength of India in all spheres. Music, choreography, styling, conceptualisation is amazing. Hats off, to Salman who includes the hearing impaired & Shilpa Shetty who brings in the cause of Women upliftment. Unfortunately , it left me a little disappointed to see that the video doesn't capture the true essence of a kannadiga like it does with all other Indian Languages. While actors Vikram & Surya represent Tamil, Mahesh Babu represents Telugu, Mammootty, KJ Yesudas & his son Vijay represents Malayalam, Atul Kulkarni & Sonali Kulkarni represent Maharashtra. Its a treat to watch them all in their true essence of their regional flavours, Some shine in their ethnic costumes like Prasenjit- Rituparna ( Bengali), Atul- Sonali(Maharashtra), some just celebrate the sweetness of their language mouthing Mile sur in their own Language( like Vikram , Surya & Mahesh Babu). That's exactly what we miss in the kannada bit of Phir Mile Sur. I am sure the previous one where we just had a one liner with Prakash Padukone singing " Nanna danige ninna daniya.." was so much more effective than the current one. With all due respect to Dr. L. Subramniam & family who represent the Kannadigas in the video, My question to the makers is that "Didn't you find a Kannadiga amongst 5 million kannadigas who could do our bit for this National Video?"," What is so kannada about this bit?". Coming from a Cosmopolitan like Bangalore, I could relate & understand every other line in Tamil, Telugu & even Marathi, but I couldn't follow my own language in this video. The lines were "not so Kannada" coming from a set of Non Kannadiga family. Kavitha Krishnamurthy & family- we respect you yes, but , I dont think we can stand or appreciate mispronunciation of words in the little slot we have here & Sound so "not-kannada" on national TV. However, I would have appreciated if the makers would have done a little more research & checked out the talent here in Karnataka who could do justice & much better represent the Identity of Karnataka. I may be sounding very chauvinistic or very strong, but dear makers I don't think Karnataka requires borrowed talent to hold our pride. All that I want to say is , if you could have been so choosy about getting the best Gujarathi singer to feature the Gujarathi bit where he sounds Gujarathi, the audience could see Gujarat there, & likewise Kerala & culture of Kerala was so evident in its bit, but we didnt see Karnataka in the Video.

In our very own way , Karnataka's cultural space is booming with Talent which can uphold true spirits of being a kannadiga. I am sure, we would have loved to see a Rajesh Krishnan or a Hemant, Archana Udupa or MD Pallavi, Upendra, Puneet Rajkumar or even Ganesh standing in for us. Finally its not about other languages being represented well and our's not. We are aware that its about national integrity & each region getting its own chance to salute the nation in its own way, but dear makers both, Aarti Gupta & Kailash Surendranath, nothing about the Kannada piece in the video is Kannada except for the location which is Big Banyan tree.

& here's Karnataka for you - namma Naadu - My country ! I have put this together & just wanted to give you a dekko into the talent pool of our land. Needless to say, everyone who features in this video belongs to Karnataka, & the list is not exhaustive.

Happy Republic Day !!

God ! Do you hear us?!

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This is really sweet........

When a boy is quiet ... millions of things are running in his mind.
When a boy is not arguing ... he is thinking deeply.
When a boy looks at u with eyes full of questions ... he is wondering how long you will be around.
When a boy answers ' I'm fine ' after a few seconds ... he is not at all fine.
When a boy stares at you .... he is wondering why you are lying.
When a boy let you lays on his chest ... he is wishing for you to be his forever.
When a boy wants to see you everyday... he wants to be yours 4eva.
When a boy says ' I love you ' ... he means it.
When a boy says ' I miss you ' ... no one in this world can miss you morethan that.
Life only comes around once make sure u spend it with the right person....
Find a Guy .. who calls you beautiful instead of hot...
who calls you back when you hang up on him...
Who will stay awake just to watch you sleep...
Wait for the guy who ...kisses your forehead...
Who wants to show you off to the world when you are in your sweats...
Who holds your hand in front of his friends...
Who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares about you and how lucky he is to have you...
Who turns to his friends and says, ' That's her!! '

.....................

..........

Yes, its a forward, but touched me deep enough to think that if there is one thing that is missing in the men of today's genre, it is clarity on what they want out of life. I am sorry it may not be right on my part to generalise, but to a certain extent it is true. One can still wonder how men are ok with spending another day in their life without having any meaning to it, how they can sleep, eat, drink & party without a reason. How they can doze off in a busy bus, when their wife is still struggling to meet ends. How they can give up to adultery. How they live up to the minute & live only for the minute. May be this "living up to the minute" attitude, is what leads to many complications in our lives.

Thank God ! the world is not only full of these men, to the goodness of God , he also gave us some who are sensible enough, not to "live for the moment".

God, can you send more of these, we are short in supply !

Dil ki awaaz bhi sun.....

Gham ne hasne na diya, Zamane ne rone na diya,
Is uljhan ne chain se jine na diya,
Thak ke jab sitaron mai panah li,
Neend ayi to teri yaad ne sone na diya…


Zindagi Jaise ek saza si ho gayi hain, Gham ke sagar mai is kadar kho gayi hain, Tum aajao wapis yeh guzarish hain meri, Shayad mujhe tumahari aadat si ho gayi hain…..




ik nazar dekh le , Jeene ki ijaazat de de.. rooth ne wale woh pehli si muhabbat de de


Ishq maasoom hai , Ilzaam lagaane pe na ja.


Waqt insaan pe aisa bhi kabhi aata hai, raah mein chod ke saaya bhi chala jaata hai.

Din bhi niklega kabhi , raat ke aane pe na ja...

Meri nazron ki taraf dekh , Zamaane pe na ja.

Grapes of Wrath

A calm & relaxed weekend, I was happy to receive my dad who just returned from his yearly visit to Shirdi. When we sat down for a cup of tea together what we spoke was not of the darshan or the journey. My dad was not his usual self when he spoke of the Money Market, the downsizing in the Out sourcing industry , about the tight fisted banks etc, etc. "Etc, etc" !!! - I must be sorry , I took it so light. I visited my Car dealer today, he also seemed to have understood why his sales numbers are looking not so good.

I felt it was quite strange , everyone seemed to be talking about it and everyone are talking quite seriously about it. Everyday News paper is awaited to see what other turn has the market taken this time. This actually put my little brain into act, wondering what could have happened, what could be the intensity & impact of this entire phenomena? What ? what? what ? Why? why ? why?



Interestingly , I got quite a few answers from one of the discussions with a VSL (Very Senior Leader*) during a Brown Bag*. He started with a beautiful Example, " Have you seen an Hour Glass? " he asked. " The contents of the hour glass when inverted pulls down everything that is there with it to the bottom..... and that is exactly what is happening to the market". Quite simple isnt it? . Talk about House of cards, or a building relying on several pillars , one of them cracks down , the structure is bound to fall. In reality, The Banks fell and are pulling down the entire economic structure with them. Dating back to couple of decades, when the market was good some of the Financial institutions made a mistake of over rating the market growth and took up the risk of lending and lending and lending with very little/without security. The so called "Assets" of the bank also could not bail the banks out of this situation, hence, the Banks had to close down. Now, this calls for a chain reaction where Banks are the " Hearts" of any Economy coz they pump in money in to the market by providing Finance to manufacture , sell & grow. Having left with very few options of raising funds , the Industry avoids taking risk and avoids new venture/ projects, etc. While this is happening in the "Seller Market", lets look at the Buyer Market, his purchasing power comes down ( No finance available), he gets stringent with his choices, demand goes down, prices go up. Uff , now this is getting into too much of Economics ( I wish I took my Economics paper more seriously while in college, huh! ). So, we definitely understand it is a chain reaction that is going to affect every segment of the Economy. But , is there something that we can learn out of it? May be, yes.

Lets turn to History for some time, this down turn is not the first of its kind in the human history. Who can forget having read about the 1929 , Great Depression in the United States. I have been referred a book to understand the same from a different perspective, its called the Grapes of Wrath, while this gives us a Social perspective of the Great Depression , the Phenomena can be better understood on the Wikipedia . Should we now say History repeats itself. May be / May be not , its too early to come to conclusions. But, America some day had to pay this price. I am sure you would agree if I said , somewhere, America's callous lifestyle is one of the reasons for this entire phenomena. I still remember, having heard that Half ( or was it 75%) of America lives in credit. I may sound too nasty singling out America for this. Well, this applies to all those who believed in a life style of buy now , pay later. India according to me was just getting there and facing a boom that was too superficial. For ex: Bangalore's real estate.

We talked about learning lessons, May be this is one of the biggest lessons, we can learn today. Sometimes it is good to have a conservative approach or shall I make it sensible approach ( I was really sounding conservative when I said that). A sensible approach towards everything including our spending habits, our work, our life, our people, our learning. Simply , can we keep our feet on the ground and not in the air. It calls for some discipline in every one's life to condition ourselves, professionally, personally, mentally, physically , spiritually. What do I mean ? picture this, Professionally - bring in more dedication in to work - more selfless work. Personally - know what exactly you want & bring in more focus to achieve the kind of life you want. uff , not again, you know me , me me , the preacher. But honestly guys, we need to give it a thought. Don't you think we need to change & for the Better? Remember , its all Micro before it turns Macro. so, lets start at a micro level and be the change we want to see.

Leave in your comments to let me know if you agree / disagree / hate / love my thoughts. whatever you do , my thoughts are still mine and mine only.

Gubbachchi reviews Vamshi ......

What am I talking about ?

Kannada Movie - "VAMSHI"

Starring : Puneeth Rajkumar aka Appu / Lakshmi / Nikitha / Ravi Kale / Avinash

Director : Prakash of " Milana" and "Khushi" fame.

Rating : **** 1/2 stars

Having got the privilege of watching Vamshi on the first day of release, my expectations from the movie were not too high. having been tagged as the " Mother - Son" sentiment movie, I was worried it would try to imitate the erstwhile hit movie Jogi.

Here's my Verdict : Watch it once , twice , thrice !

For the stupendous performance of Lakshmi as the mother of a Police trainee turned Rowdy.

Watch it once , twice , thrice !

For Puneeth Rajkumar who delivers powerhouse performance from the word Go. He's not called " Power Star" for the sake of it for sure.

Watch it once , twice , thrice !

For the tight grip on the narration of director Prakash who keeps the audience glued to the seat till the end. What a shift from " Milana" to " Vamshi ", Hats Off ! Prakash .

The story originates from an age old saying," Criminals are not born but situation makes them". But if you think that this is just another one in the stream, then you are wrong. A string of the same has been woven into a completely unimaginable storyline that keeps one wondering what next?. Here's a bundle of surprises, twists & turns.

Puneeth gives a wonderful performance as an aggressive Police trainee who aims to clean the society as a good police officer. Cliche ? ! nah! Twist comes when the topper is rejected of a posting due to his background, his father being a Rowdy. His dreams shattered, his efforts to come out of the dark world- lost, he gets unnecessary media attention which raises him to the position of successor of the deceased Don( Kotnal Rama) . I guess the tagline of the movie " Vamshi - Destiny's child" gets justified here. How does he handle this ? Does Vamshi become a police officer or gets dragged into the underworld? Watch the movie to find out !

Bonus Points :

• Charming Nikita - ever smiling , very bubbly & energetic finally matches the steps with Puneeth.
• Music - R P Patnaik , couple of melodious & peppy numbers like " Bhuvanam" , " Jothe - Jotehyali", "Amalu", etc.
• Puneeth for a toned Physique and dedicated performance. For once , our actors have understood that it is not just enough to act , but you have to live the character you play.
  
• Rajkumar banner for living upto our expectations after OM.
  

will leave you with this peppy number from Vamshi.....

Gubbachchi Took off to Mysore

Hey all, It was pretty unplanned that gubbachchi took off to Mysore this weekend over some pretty urgent issues that needed immediate attention. After completing the needful being done, it definitely found some good time to spend trying to revisit Mysore.

It was just the right time as it was the Pre Dasara season and Mysore was waking up from slumber for the festivities.

Wow! what a welcome break. Sometimes it is nice to go to a different place just to see how Life is out there and that's exactly what gubbachchi did, rather than visiting some historical monuments. Well, I won't say that about Mysore's Palaces, coz I still see a lot of Life in them. The main Palace situated in the heart of the city was getting ready for a coat of polish & refinery awaiting the Dasara. Workers working round the clock setting the stage to bring the Royal Grandeur alive was something that gave a glimpse of how the people in Mysore put in their collective efforts to keep the tradition alive. Going round the palace one could get a close feeling of how the Raja's & Maharaja's led their life being in the Royal Family. You would love to see their Asana's , Diwan's the Throne preserved so very well. Still glittering & telling the stories of the Royal Mysore family. Steps further introduce you to the interest that the family took in patronising art & Music. Adorning the walls are the beautiful Mysore style paintings so delicately done to every detail.

The Pillars & the walls apart you would also get to see an up close view of the life led by the Royal Family if you happen to visit the in-house Museum situated in the same premise. A series of Framed photographs of the Royal Family members welcome you once you step into the museum. The museum doesn't disappoint one who expects more than photographs and paintings to know about the Wodeyars. You would get to almost touch see the chariots, Carts ridden by Goats ( mEke - Gaadi), Utensils, Furniture , their wardrobe consisting of the wodeyar's lovely Royal Gowns , their Shoes , even Goggles, & glasses preserved in its case, One can't miss their Perfume bottles, their Hair brushes and even the swords guns , weapons used by them. Hey , You will also love their collection of silver & glass artefact's, Crockery, Cradles used by their kids, Musical instruments like Veenas & tamburi (taanpura) all touched by them , I was so thrilled. Now , this is what I call grandeur & living life King size. Simply amazing , I must say !

When I came out of the Palace , I managed to pick up a wall hanging as a memoir of my visit to take back home & get some Royal Mysore touch to my little home.

The Mysore Palace visit, though this was the third or the fourth time for me filled in me a sense of pride that I belong to this place and that I can boast something so good within our culture. A discipline that has come down the lineage and still has found its place so close to our hearts that every year we look forward to the famous Jamboo Savari ( the Elephant Procession) that is part of the Dasara celebrations.

When I stepped out of the palace, There was another interesting feature of Mysore that was awaiting my amused eyes, the Tonga's , there you go , I got the Tonga rider to agree to take me for a ride around the K R Circle for a mere 35 bucks. Tuk tuk , tuk , tuk , the horse ride was fun sitting in a decorated cart , I felt like a mini - princess. Hahaha! However the Tonga took me around the K R Circle , aah ! there is a Statue of of the Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar standing in a majestic Pose and commanding everyone's attention. Mysore , in the real Sense is a city of Royal Majesty. The circle gives shoppers an opportunity to shop for the most famous Srigandha , Mysore Silk and other artifacts that visitors would love to carry back home. Well, I did manage to blow quite an amount trying to resist my temptation for the beautiful pure silks in various colours and combinations. But , No regrets.

When I stepped out of the Mysore Silk Emporium , the sun on the west was reminding me that I should now start heading towards the Suburb Bust Station. It was time for me to bid Bye to the Royal City. I thanked my Tongawala, who did not charge me a rupee extra for having kept him waiting while I shopped & shopped. I could sense that there, Work=Money , while here ( Bangalore) , Time = Money. While I was heading to the Station , I also got to meet the Super Stars of Dasara without make up ( can you believe ) , I mean , the whole herd of Elephants including Balarama and other who are going to be part of Dasara celebrations to be held in a week now. They were all taking their evening walk while I bid Bye to the Royal City.

However, When I came to the Bus Station. My heart was filled with a sense of satisfaction , I was not a wee bit tired despite having roamed the entire day in a new city. A couple of that I cannot miss , this one goes to the people of Mysore who are so service minded, so helpful and also for having maintained the city so beautiful & clean barring some places. Another Thanks to " Cafe Aramane" for a Lovely meal & evening tiffin and their lovely hospitality. Thank You Mysore , Thank you Your Highness !!

Gubbachchi's flight to South Bangalore...

Gubbachchi has found a new found hobby these days,.... visiting new temples. Far from the busy traffic & usual weekend visits to malls, its found a new meaning in just finding bliss by taking off to South of Bangalore , where old Bangalore is still alive.


South Bangalore, is home of Jayanagar, Banashankari , Basavanagudi and other neighbouring places. This part of Bangalore is still special because it has been somehow able to safeguard its virgin beauty (Pardon me for my extreme poetic (?) expressions). The ever so busy Jayanagar Shopping complex, the ever so quite & clean residential areas, the ever so sophisticated book stores, the ever so authentic simple south Indian dishes from those darshini's , hmm.. not to forget the MTR , the Maharaja of Karanataka's delicacies, the ever so green parks, the ever so huge trees, can anybody beat the place which knows to take care of Lalbagh, uff! not to forget the ever so religious temples. Oh! every corner of Jayanagar has a landmark.


Gubbachchi's flight every week to Jayanagar is something that can never be missed for many reasons. Though the most important reason is to go to the Banashankari temple, which has been part of my routine every Sunday. That's the way I connect to my God. Right now the Govt. of Karnataka has taken up the task of reconstructing the temple, so I will definitely keep you all posted about it.



But I definitely want to introduce you to another set of beautiful twin temples in the area of Banashankari. Devagiri & Dharmagiri. Oh , what a bliss. I guess these twin temples have re- written the manner in which temples are supposed to be. Far from commercialisation , these two temples help their visitors attain instant Nirvana ;)

or at least take them to a new world that they were not aware of.

Take a look ;

Call it the right timing when the picture was taken, it makes you feel that the door is definitely the dwaara (door) of Vaikunta. By the way , this is Devagiri, one of the two that I just mentioned. It is the abode of lord Venkateshwara. The temple is situated in an elevated area, the stairs lead you to a platform where on a typical Sunday evening you will find a bunch of cute oldies uttering series of shlokas, you go further and take another set of stairs to get a view of the lord, let me tell you never have I seen another such beautiful idol of Lord Venkateshwara other than in Tirupathi. The temple is so clean & beautiful, surrounded by equally clean residential area, well swept roads, in fact, the area is so quite as if the residents were told not to disturb the lord. To add to that the well maintained park with flowering plants. There's something in the air, that tells you that this is divine and that you are very close to God.


For those of you who want to experience this feeling, I strongly suggest you pay a visit to see the other side of Life in Bangalore. This temple is located in Banashankari, I promise to give you more details about the location & directions in my next post when I take you to the next of the two temples, Dharmagiri.