DD or Satellite Channels

(The below article is inspired by Anand Ramchandrans blog in Son of Bosey. If you want to read good satirical blogs do visit his blog)

Fed up with the choice of programs offered these days on television a group called Cut Off Crappy K Serials decided to send a request to Information & Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni, to present a bill in parliament banning all the satellite channels and make sure that only Door Darshan in various languages is broadcast all across India as it used to be in good old days.

Upon hearing this the Director of DD Hyderabad became very happy and immediately ordered his staff to clean the room in studio where all the one room plays & serials were shot in old days to shoot more plays and also asked his staff to find the videos of programs like Kantipatham and Pandula pempakam to entertain people. When pointed out by one of his staff that since times changed people may not like these programs, he said that if film industry is confident that people are going to watch a film directed by Dasari Narayana Rao starring Balakrishna then there is nothing wrong in thinking that people will watch programs in DD. He then pointed out the fact that more people watched Bhatti Vikramarka directed by Manishankar than the combined audience of all the films directed by him suggesting that a rerun of Bhatti Vikramarka or Vichitra Kasi Majili Kathalu is better than watching 16^th December or Rudraksh on TV.

Upon hearing this the head of Department Involved in Counting K Serials, Mr. Jigatesh said that he and the staff of his department along with their supporters will oppose this request. In support of his argument he pointed out that not only crappy serials and reality shows are providing employment to out of work film people there by reducing the unemployment levels in India but they are also providing hope of a successful career to people who previously would have been considered hopeless. As example he pointed out Rakhi Sawant and Rahul Mahajan. He also pointed that because of reality shows Anumalik is not doing Music Direction or singing these days reducing the noise pollution which is contributing to a healthier nation.

Meanwhile EktaKapoor has decided to launch a reality show. Tentatively named as Kaun Dekhega RGV ki AAG the show is said to be hosted by Tushar Kapoor whose name will appear as Kapoor Tushar and involves competition among contestants in watching RGV ki AAG continuously and the winner will be the one who doesn’t giggle or scowl or puke even once during the movie. The winner is going to receive DVD’s of RGV ki AAG, Gayab, Krishna Cottage and the all the episodes of Kahani Mahabharat ki. Upon hearing this Mr.Jigatesh got very much excited and started searching for his cell phone to send a sms to participate in the show.

Unconfirmed reports came in that Upon hearing about petition for making DD as the only channel on air, Arun Govil started carrying people in Fireman's lift hoping for new episodes of Vikram betal and Shikha Swaroop started applying makeup hoping for continuation of Chandrakanta on DD.

(All the facts & events mentioned above are not very accurate)

Rakhadi Baba

I recently read a book about a great saint known as Rakhadi baba. I saw his picture number of times in our temple (at safilguda) and know that he is a disciple of Sri Nityananda Bhagawan of Ganeshpuri but till recently that was the only thing I knew about him. Then my cousin gave a book about Rakhadi baba to me and the book is fascinating to say the least.

Rakhadi baba was born in a poor family and left his home in his childhood searching for a living. He worked in a hotel for some time and after the pull to search for a guru became strong he went to Sri Nityananda Bhagawan Ashram. When Nityananda asked him what he can do he says “I can fight and I can eat and I can eat to fight and I can fight to eat”. Nityananda gave him the monastic name Omkarananda but he became famous as rakhadi baba because of his habit of smearing ash from the homagundam all over his body. Ash in Hindi is rakh and he became famous as rakhadi baba.

I was fascinated by his single minded devotion to his guru and of course by his appearance. Rakhadi baba stayed till around mid 1970’s at Nimboli near Ganeshpuri and after that he left his ashram and now a days he is considered to be living in somewhere in Himalayas around Himachal Pradesh. There are some people who are blessed with his darshan. (His appearance is remarkable and when I saw the photograph on the book I was completely floored).

When I told my cousin that how great it will be to find a guru like him he said one thing. “It will be easier for You being an Indian to become President of USA than to find a guru like Rakhadi Baba”. Well hoping that I will be able to meet him one day to take his blessings.

I attached some photos of Rakhadi Baba to this blog so people can see how wonderful his appearance is.

Feminist bashing

Just read a old review of mahabharata by some feminist at http://www.unmana.com/2008/07/some-thoughts-on-ekta-kapoors.html.
Although its an old post i still found the thoughts of the person who wrote as very funny. I felt that the blogger didn't realize what she read in mahabharata is probably a 1000th person account or even worse and there is bound to be a lot of information omitted and a lot extra added in it. One more thing which the blogger probably didn't understood is the futility and foolishness of looking things happened several thousand years ago from a 21st century point of view and trying to be judgemental about it just for the sake of trying to prove herself to be a feminist. Bashing of religious scriptures may appear fashionable but i prefer people who comment on them after thinking about the circumstances,customs of the period involved before trying to make comments.

Zulqanrain hyder

For those of you who are wondering about the title its the name of the new wicket keeper for pakistan who debuted in the ongoing 2nd test between england and pakistan. the reason why i am writing a blog with this guys name is because of the spirit shown by this guy. Most of the new breed of cricketers from the sub continent are having a lot of passion and comitted lot of sacrifices to reach the position in which they are in. But fate was even more harsh to Zulqanrain. He lost his mother at 13 to cancer and his father who supported his dream of becoming a cricketer is in a coma when hyder made his debut against england and hyder is fulfilling the dream of his mother whose wish was that at least one of her children travel abroad. So with lot of emotions hyder made his debut and although he was out first ball in his first test innings and was not spectacular behind the stumps he more tha made up for those disappointments when he got a chance to bat in 2nd innings. Having survived a king pair with the help of URDS he went to establish partnership of 52 with mohammad amer and 115 with saeed ajmal which helped pakistan avoid innings defeat and take a lead of 112. Tomorrow pakistan may lose but their supporters can take heart from the spirit shown by zulqanrain and the bowlers and if the whole team gets inspired by them it will be beneficial to Pakistan. What zulqanrain has shown is it is possible to live ones dream if one believes in it and is willing to fight for it. For his bravery and fighting spirit i wish Pakistan is going to win this test and he becomes the man of the match. I hope that the guy will have a long and successful career (except against India) with Pakistan cricket team.

Why Madurai?

Two weeks before i went to Madurai.Its my 6th trip in 3 years to the holy city and 4th in the last 16 months. People ask me why i go to Madurai and what is special about the place. If i say i like the Madurai Meenakshi Temple then i don't think that gives the complete explanation about my fascination with Madurai. Whwen i went there in 2007 for first time i was so mesmerized by the beauty of the place that i forgot to take any photographs although i paid for the camera ticket. Then i wnet there in 2008 again and was disappointed to see the towers covered in scaffolding because of renovation works. For my next two visits also they were covered only and finally in last December when i went there i saw the Madurai temple Towers in all their glory shining with new paint and needless to say i was mesmerized and transfixed. During that visit i sat on the footpath next to the west tower in the night and life never looked more beautiful. The glory of the Madurai towers in the night is something that cannot be described and i decided then itself that i going to be back soon and last month when i went there i sat on the pavement again for one hour admiring the beauty. For people who never been to Madurai I can only say that if you are not going to visit it you are definitely missing something very important.

I am attaching some photographs of Madurai and although the quality may not be very good i feel its good enough to appreciate the beauty of the place.

A Memorable journey

In 2008 me and my friend kishore went to Vedadri Narasimha swamy temple. Its a beautiful place and there is a small temple for jwaala narasimha on a small hill. When we reached there a woman told us that there is another narasimha temple on a small hill nearby and the jwaala narasimha temple on vedadri and the other temple are connected by a tunnel. I tried to enter the tunnel but it was very narrow and i got claustrophobic. So we went there by road only. The temple is called Veera Narasimha swamy temple and its at a place called garudadri. When we went there the road and steps to the temple are not yet constructed and we had to walk on a 30 degree slope to reach the temple. Before we started walking an old woman was coming down the slope with some buckets to carry water and we found that she lives at the top in the temple and takes care of the temple. We told her that we will bring water and although it proved a tougher task than imagined (its a slope with very less foothold) we did it. Then we had a chat with the old woman and it was amazing. To start with she was living there for the past 5 years alone taking care of the temple and she must be at least 70 years old. That in itself would not have been amazing except for the fact that she is not an Indian. She told us that she is from Azerbaijan (ever heard of it?) joined a Harekrishna movement there and from there she came to India and then somebody told her that there is a Narasimha temple here and she came to take care of Swamy and stayed there. We were amazed because that place was lonely and on top of a small hill and at her age its a risk to stay at a place like that in one's own country and more so in a foreign country. She told that food and other things are brought to her once in a week by the sarpanch of the nearby village and apart from that she has few needs and spends her time in the temple with Narasimha swamy. All this conversation happened through signs, a bit of broken Hindi, English and a generous mix of Russian and we tried our best in English and Hindi and Hand signs to tell her about ourselves. We stayed there for about an hour and after giving away all we got in our pockets (ok we kept something for cab fare) we still felt that its grossly inadequate for her service and devotion. Honestly i don't think i will go to Bethlehem and stay there alone even if Jesus Christ calls me so its amazing what she was doing and we got nothing but huge respect for that woman.

Unfortunately i don't know whether she is still there or not but i still remember her and meeting her is one of the memorable moments in my journeys. Hoping that the brave woman stays healthy and happy where ever she is.

Sporting Disasters of the year (for me)

The year started promisingly enough with roger Federer winning the Australian Open and with Sachin in terrific form and from Jan - march i never imagined what sort of a horror show this year will turnout to be as far as my sporting heroes are concerned and there were no warning signs.
I was pretty happy that Schumacher returned to F1 although i didn't expect him to challenge for the title straight away. But when the F1 season started in March not only Schumi's Mercedes was off the pace but Schumi was regularly beaten by his team mate Nico Rosberg and i was shocked. Ultimately Schumacher wrote off the year and said that he is expecting that team and he will be competitive in 2011. That was the first shock.
Then Valentino Rossi who i backed to win this years title in Moto GP broke his leg and was sidelined effectively ending his campaign this year.
In May & June Roger Federer lost in French open QF to soderling ending his run of 23 consecutive Grand slam Semi Finals & again in Wimbledon to Beydrich there by ending his run of 7 consecutive finals in Wimbledon. As far as sporting disasters go Federer losing at Wimbledon to an unknown player is like a earthquake of magnitude 9 on Richter scale and needless to say it shook me completely.
But while Wimbledon was running as a sideshow because of football world cup i was pinning my hopes on Brazil to win the cup and they lost spectacularly to Holland in the QF thereby completing a disastrous year for my sporting heroes in this year till now.
There are some silver linings though in the return of Nadal and Sachin's awesome form but i am hoping that the second half of this year will turn out to be better than first half with Schumi winning some races and Fedex winning the US open.
(P.S. After Brazil lost i was rooting that Paraguay hoping that if they won Larissa Riquelme will keep her promise but they lost to Spain after a hard fought encounter. I guess by picking players and teams i am probably jinxing them. Hoping for a better second half)

What for?

Hi

This blog is to express my ideas and thoughts. I am a simple Indian who experiences a lot of elation and some frustration every day. I just wanted to share some of them with my friends and found a blog as useful. For the title of blog i choose "Pasyanti Jnyana chakshuha" simply because i wanted to keep a title from Bhagavad Gita and that sloka came to my mind (Utkraamantam Sthitam vapi bhugnyanam va gunanvitam Vimoodha nanu pasyanti pasyanti Jnyana chakshuha) which says that flight of soul from body is something which is observed by the wise men only and not by the foolish. I am not saying that i am wise but i am hoping that at least some of the people who are going to read this are and hopefully they will help me to acquire some of that wisdom. As i already mentioned this blog is to express my ideas and there may be some historical inaccuracies or factual errors in this. If you find any or many please forgive me. Thank you