Down the memory lanes..

Kase Saratil Saye..

2012-02-13T09:27:00.002+05:30

This is the first time Im posting a poem by Snadeep Khare. Ive become a fan of his back in my 7th standard, when by chance I listened to his poems in his album "Diwas ase ki". At that time, it was the simple tunes and easy lyrics that caught the imagination. As I grew older, attended college, Ayushyawar Bolu Kahi was released. I was not in Pune at that time, so my friend Kedar, specially sent a CD of the songs from the Album. The feelings this time was sheer awesome. The feelings of falling madly in love with someone, being the "simple guy" etc were easily related to in the poetry, and this time, after listening to Diwas ase ki again, rather than the tunes and catchy lyrics, the meanings of each poem was very well understood. Simple words, simple tunes, to express simple, everyday feelings that each one of us goes through. I came back to Pune after a year or so after I first heard Ayushyawar bolu kahi.. and after that, have gone to about 4-5 live performances of the same programme, and trust me, its the awesomest stage show one can attend.

This time, Im posting a poem called kase saratil saye. When we go away, we usually write to whoever we like how much we miss them etc etc. (Sandeep Khare has a poem "nastes ghari tu" which is the prob the most awesome poem he has written on that subject). However, Kase saratil Saye hands the issue, Im away, and I know you miss me, and these are the emotions going through your mind. If possible, Ill try to translate the same if time permits. till then, enjoy the original Marathi version.

कसे सरतील सये, माझ्यावीन दिस तुझे
सरताना आणि सांग सलतील ना?
गुलाबाची फुले दोन रोज राती डोळ्यावर
मुसुमुसु पाणी सांग भरतील ना? 

पावसाच्या धारा धारा मोजताना दिसे सारा 
रिते रिते मन तुझे उरे
पोटभर हसे हसे उरातून वेडेपिसे 
खोल खोल कोण आत झुरे
आता जरा अळीमिळी तुझीमाझी व्यथा निळी
सोसताना सुखावून हसशील ना?

गुलाबाची फुले दोन रोज राती डोळ्यावर
मुसुमुसु पाणी सांग भरतील ना?

कोण तुझ्या सौदातून उभे असे सामसूम 
चिडीचूप सुनसान दिवा
आता सांज ढळेलच आणि पुन्हा छळेलच
नभातून गोरा चांदवा
चांदण्याचे कोटी कण, आठवांचे ओले सण
रोज रोज नीजभर भरतील ना

गुलाबाची फुले दोन रोज राती डोळ्यावर
मुसुमुसु पाणी सांग भरतील ना?


इथे दूर देशी माझ्या सुन्या खिडकीच्या पाशी
जडेसर काचभर तडा
तुचतुच तुझ्यातुझ्या तुझीतुझी तुझेतुझे 
सारासारा तुझातुझा सडा
पडे माझ्या वाटेतून आणि मग काट्यातून 
जातानाही पायभर मखमल ना?

गुलाबाची फुले दोन रोज राती डोळ्यावर
मुसुमुसु पाणी सांग भरतील ना?

आता नाही बोलायाचे जराजरा जगायचे,
मालुनिया अबोलीची फुले 
देहभर हालू देत विजेवर झुलु देत
तुझ्या माझ्या विरहाचे झुले
जरा घन झुरू दे ना, वारा गुदमरू दे ना
तेव्हा नभ धरा सारी भिजविल ना?

गुलाबाची फुले दोन रोज राती डोळ्यावर
मुसुमुसु पाणी सांग भरतील ना?


कसे सरतील सये, माझ्यावीन दिस तुझे
सरताना आणि सांग सलतील ना?
गुलाबाची फुले दोन रोज राती डोळ्यावर
मुसुमुसु पाणी सांग भरतील ना?

This is Sadashiv Peth!!!

2012-01-30T11:56:00.007+05:30

Ok, I was totally inspired to write this by a photo shared by Adwait Gokhale on facebook. The photo was of King Leonidas from 300, against a backdrop from one of the most famous places in sadashiv Peth- Umbrya Ganapati Chauk, with the quote “This is Sadashiv Peth!” on lines of “This is Sparta!”

There is a hell lot of difference between Sadashiv Peth and Sparta though. Sparta is known throughout for its brave warlords, fighters and indomitable warriors. Sadashiv Peth on the other hand known is for its intellectuals, social reformers. The philosophies are different. While Spartans feel that strength rules them, we Sadashiv Pethis believe that Derision rules them. Infact, we are so good at it, that we can make Sparta crumble before our comments.

A Sadashiv Pethi may not be as strongly built as a Spartan, but through his words alone, he can inflict wounds which are as deep as any gashes delivered by a well-trained Spartan. Hoards of boards saying, “Stay within your limits, otherwise you will be insulted” are seen all over Sadashiv Peth, reserved for unwelcome and arrogant visitors.

The crux here is delivering maximum insult in minimum words. That’s one of the best Sadashiv Pethi traits. We talk less. Our energy is valuable. That’s why we resort to these aggressively written boards. But they have its effect. An “assal” Sadashiv Pethi insult will hurt your ego, but you will take time to realize what has been said to you. Our intellect in that respect is way beyond the reach of the commons. And trust me, once insulted, that wound never heals. So beware before you cross the limit with any Sadashiv Pethi.

Enough introduction of Sadashiv Peth, although realistically, it needs no introduction. I will get back to the point of how can you recognize if a person is from Sadashiv Peth- some basic tips, based on observing myself and a few friends of mine.

Mostly the surname is something like Datar, Gore, Phadke, Bhat, Sahasrabudhe, Sathe, Abhyankar,Deshpande, Phadnis,Phatak etc although that scene is fast changing.
There is proven, built in and evident arrogance written on the face. It’s mixed in the blood.
Never gives a straight answer. A comment has to be passed on each and everything.
Derision need not be thought of as an offence. If anything is below expectation, it is there to be ridiculed.
Naak var asta, kayam. ( Nose is in the air – all the time!)
We do not address “Umbrya Ganpati Chauk” as “Shagun Chauk”. Its Umbrya ganapati Chauk idiots- get your facts straight!
Talks endlessly and fondly of Sujata Mastani, Anarse Samosewale, Wadeshwar, Badshahi boarding etc. as if its his girlfriend!
Favourite places are Bharat Natya mandir, Tilak Smarak mandir etc.
Schooling is from SPM, Ramanbag, NuMaVi, Bhave High School, or similar schools and afterwards, most likely from S.P.College.
Has sometime or other lived in a wadaa, or has a relative who lives in a wadaa
Has the attitude-Manache Ganapati Sodale, tar jagat ekach Ganesh Mandala he – Nimbalkar Talim.
We have special derision reserved for people from Aundh, Baner, Kondhwa, and other “outskirts” areas.
People from Narayan Peth, Shanivar Peth, Some areas around Deccan Gymkhana and Kothrud and pockets in Bibvewadi and Sahakarnagar are treated as brothers, and are never insulted.
Has never ever followed the one way from Lakshmi road to Khajina vihir.
Is a member of BJP, RSS, HinduMahasabha, Maharashtra Navanirman Sena or ShivSena, or has ideas which match these ideologies.
Is extremely sharp in intelligence, excessively blunt while insulting, and extremely provocative in speech.
More often than not, wears or has a thought to wear a Bhikbaali In his ear.
Has had atleast a couple of appearances at bharat Itihas Saushodhak Mandal.
Blocks his parking space with walkers used by old people which are secured with a metal chain to some part of his compound wall.
Knows all local dunderheads - Bhimbai(Bhimu), Police Bai(Police), Olonga, Chinku, Kachra among a few!
If a Sadashiv Pethi is bored, doing nothing, he spends his time in the world famous "Modi Ganpati Mandir" of Narayan Peth. The objective is not to attain peace of mind. It is to look for potential matches and other attractive ladies.
A Sadashiv Pethi used to consider all girls school as "Prekshaniya Sthale", which alas, can no longer be said!

But, the most important one-

Proudly declares that “Darasamor lavlelya gadyanchi hava sodun gadi No-Parking madhe lavnyat yeil”.

Such people are unique. Each area has its own speciality, but Sadashiv Peth goes one step ahead. We do not care what others have to say about us – what matters is what we think of them. This I know is extremely flammable to some people like Mr. Fiddler(A toddler really – who cannot digest such stuff), who, in the truest Sadashiv Pethi spirits is ek number cha “Adaani moorkha” with the swear words removed...

A warning shot to all again, THIS IS SADASHIV PETH, its a Shaabdik Warzone!Fiddler, tu tar yech re patthya, gadhav baghun gheto tuzyakade!

A tribute to the Chandrashekhar/Vijaynagar Colony

2011-12-28T06:52:00.001+05:30

Weird as it may sound, the recent feeling that I get is the longing to go in Mumbai and live in 5/3 Chandrashekhar Society, Andheri. Being a true Punekar, that too from Sadashiv Peth (limit of a punekar - even my email id is me.punekar@gmail) having such cravings can only be considered injurious to your health and as an indication of going lunatic. But I have no regrets in saying that I dont mind living in Chandrashekhar/Vijaynagar society for another few months. It may sound strange, but it is absolutely coming from the bottom of my heart!

I started with my first ever job in Mumbai in late June. Being from Pune, as it is, I was apprehensive of living in Mumbai, and was even willing to up-down every day in order to go to work. But being a Sadashiv Pethi Koknastha comes in way of such ambitious plans - why spend minimum of rs 500 daily to go to work? So all up down plans were scrapped, and plans to go and live in Mumbai were made. While all people from Pune who worked at where I worked usually rented in Hiranandani or Chandivali - either 10 mins walking or by ricksha to the office, I had a place I can call home at Andheri - Vijaynagar Colony.

Vijaynagar-Chandrashekhar Society is an important cultural spot. It is a society built in the '60s primarily for middle class families and hosts Paranjape Vidyalaya, branch of Great PTV association.

-(Wikipedia)

My mother spent all her childhood there, and I had only heard of all the fun things that go on there, and was quite skeptical that they actually happen, owing to the fact that some of them are highly bizarre. Anyway, over the last 6 months, all that has been proved wrong, and the magic of living in a society has finally rubbed in on me.

Work, while initially interesting when we had lectures, soon turned into the biggest irritating factor - excessively unplanned hours, unintelligent work, monotonous nature of it, just the fact that it was IT used to drive me nuts. Yes there was free pizza and donuts all the time - but all they did was increase my waistline, and made me even more irritated. In such situation, the colony was a perfect foil to control my temper. As soon as I entered it on my way home from work, I used to encounter 10 people- all with smiles on their faces, which usually bought a sudden upheaval in the mood. I used to enjoy these interactions so much, that later on, even if I reached the society at 6.30, it used to take me 8.30 to reach home. Endless stories, self-boasting, swearing were just a few things that we did during these two incredible hours every day.

The colony life was a perfect way to relax. I knew many people over there from before, as I used to spend months of my summer vacation over there as a kid. This helped me bed in quickly- but I also made a host of new friends, with no restriction to their ages - right from age 3 to age 53 and older, everyone was a friend. Some of the time spent playing football on the paranjpe highschool ground, the time spent with various people on the katta, the ganpati uttsav, will stay in memory forever. I dont think Id have liked the place as much as I did, if the people were not as nice as they were. Being the son of one of the most "dhatingan mulgi" as an Aaji put it, and looking very similar to my Aai and my Mama-who was everyone's favourite, had an added advantage. Half the people recognized and knew me, even though I had never met them before! "Mama cha chhaap ahes. Kevdha shubhi sarkha distos" were frequent compliments! Dinner invitations were always open. I need not call up to tell anyone that Id be coming! You go to anyone at say 7.30 -8, and you were not allowed to leave till you had dinner. This was awesome! :P

Other than the fact that the people were nice, one thing came across very evidently. The people, though from Mumbai, are inherently very much Sadashiv Pethi. Well, the society is a Brahmin dominated - it would be fair to even call it "exclusive to Brahmins" society. People talk in accented high pitched voices. "Chyayla" and a few more crisp, not to be mentioned here words, are used as alternate words while talking. The infinite maaz of some people, the agaupana done by girls, deriding anything you do not like, are all Pethi traits. Being in Mumbai, I had feared that I wont be getting this kind of attitude, but it was heartening to see it being false! The icing on the cake was one of the "Puneri Paati" being put up on the entrance to the Society mandir, which read "Aapla ahankar va chaplaa boot baher kadhunach aat yaave" ( Please leave your arrogance and footwear outside and then only enter). This very nature of the society made me feel as if I was at home!

And home it was- for 6 wonderful months that I spent over there. I have absolutely no regrets over the fact that I went to live in Mumbai for those 6 months. Chandrashekhar-Vijaynagar made me realize, that you can discover home away from home. I always will, love the society, and just keep praying that in such changing times, it retains its charm for a Punekar of being a "Pune within Mumbai".

The Sawai Experience - Day 4

2011-12-11T12:26:00.000+05:30

OK, Day 3 of Sawai, was lets just say mind boggling. Its one of the best Ive ever seen. A crowd of 18000 in Ramanbaag, Streets connecting to the ground jam packed, wow! And this was when Shankar Mahadevan was singing. Imagine what will happen if Bhimsen Joshi, just for a day descended from heaven and sat to sing on the stage? With these thoughts I left for the 4th day of Sawai. Like usual, I left at around 2.15, to reach the place place 2.30. However, being a saturday, it was already crowded. I had to sit a little further behind than what Id have liked, but ya, with every disadvantage, there is an associated advantage. The netrasukh I got yesterday was awesome. Coming back to point, lets focus on the days proceedings.

The first performance was by Yojana Shivanand. She started singing Madhuvanti, vilambit ektal, tu to nahi ho mere, sautan ke ho. Ive had an overdose of Madhuvanti this time, and even though usually I like this raag, the kind of depressing words of the khyal, tum to nahi ho mere, caused a headache, and I fell asleep for half an hour or so. When I finally got up, Yojana ji was singing a khyal in drut ektal , janam virath gayo(?). This was followed by a tarana, which for some reason I did not enjoy that much. I guess its the overdose of Madhuvanti that led to this effect, I hope no one sings it tomorrow again, or Ill be a goner. She later sang a kanadi bhajan, karuniso ranga set to raag Jogiya, which created a very drastic change in effect, and had me completely awake by the end of it.

Yojana jis performance was followed by that of Shrinivas Joshi. Usually, for many this is break time. However, this year was different. Shrinivasji started singing with a khyal in Puriya Dhanashree, "Sumiro tero naam" set to vilambit ektaal. The raag vistar was fantastic. I really liked it. It was followed by the famous "Payaliya jhankaar mori" in Madhyalay teentaal, and was followed by a tarana - one of the few taranas that were sung by Pt.Bhimsen Joshi.Shrinivas ji then went on to sing the Thumri, Piya Milan ki aas, which I thought was very well executed. He then followed it with the bhajan, kanhoba tujhi ghongadi changali re. Overall, it was a very inspiring performance, and the hardwork and the thought and planning put behind it were clearly evident.

Shrinivas jis performance was follwed by a singer I consider to be a goddess. Malini Rajurkar. Well, she is my favourite singer, and she is the sole reason why I started listening to classical music. She is always an inspiration - no show off, no nakhras, extremely down to earth, non-fussy, straight forward, no-nonsense, no lawa-jama when she sings. Its only herself, her electronic tanpura, Bharat Kamat and Arvind Thatte when she sings. And thats what I like about her. She started with raag Narayani - Ive heard it only once, and that too in her voice, when I was compiling a list of all bandishs/cheej I had recordings of. The raag is similar to Durga, with a nishad added, and exhibits shades of both Durga and Jhinjhoti. Right from start, Malinitai was superb. She sang a composition by Ratanjankar, Bamana re vicharo. The taans were a treat! And what to tell of the accompaniment of Dr Arvind Thatte on harmonium! superb. Thats all that can be said! She follewd up by another composition of Ratanjankar, Sahelia gao ri aaj, set to madhyalay teentaal.Malinitai then continued her performance with a Tappa in Raag Bihag. No one on this planet can sing a tappa like Malinitai. Its extremely difficult, and no one has the audacity to attempt them except for her. She is the ultimate goddess when it comes to tappa gayan. On top of it it was Raag Bihag - which was like sone pe suhaga.She then sang a sargam in drut teental, which although bihag, did not feature rishabh and dhaivat.It was a sublime performance, that the trio of Malintai, Bharat Kamat and Arvind thatte usually never fail to deliver. Dr. Thatte was simply amazing.

Malinitais singing was followed by two dance routines - one Bharatnatyam, one Kathak. I have very little or no knowledge of Bharatnatyam, so was busy clicking pictures and exploring the 60fps and 120fps modes of my camera, or listening to the Abhangs of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi in meteoric voice, that were used as a background score. The Bharat Natyam was follwed by the Kathak, which I find much more elegant and graceful. The group performed on a medley of Raags of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, mixed with Sarod, Sitar, vocal, flute recitals. The background was simply beautiful, and the Yaman and Sur Malhar, provided hair raising moments. The naad produced by the ghungrus of the dancers was a joy to listen to. I loved the elegance of the dance, and definitely, listening to Pt.Jis voice echoing from the stage gave a feeling that his portrait on the top was actually singing.

By the time the dance was over, it was already 9.30, which left very less time for Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Being himself, he said that even if he gets 10 minutes to play in memory of Bhimsen Joshi ji, he would consider himself fortunate. Numerous Sarodists have played at sawai gandharwa in the last few years, but no one comes to Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. I mean, he is one of a kind gem we have in classical music. He started off his performance with raag Ganesh Kalyan, which I thought sounded similar to Shyam Kalyan, and had a Komal ni variation. I dont know the structure of this raag, so I will have to read about it a little. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan then went on to play Zilla Kafi, which was very beautifully rendered. He then went on to play a popular bengali composition by Rabindranath Tagore, which drew a loud applause from the audience at specific moments. By the time he had finished, it was 10.15, but the crowd would not budge, and on a request of one more, he stayed put, and played a beautiful Mishra Bhairavi. There were elements of Raagmala in it, with me and thuse recognizing and deliberating about the presence of Raags such as Todi, Bairagi, Kirwani to name a few. The Bhairavi at the end was simply electrifying. It lifted the whole mood, and I personally wished that Khan saab could play all night.

Alas, we have ridiculous rules in place which allows non-standard people such has Bollywood singers to have concerts late in the night, and rules out what is culturally ours, to have concerts when they are more bahardaar. Ridiculous government, stupid rules. I wish that all the Punekars make an appeal to the Mayor to allow all nighters only twice in a year, for the sake of our culture. This includes the Sawai Gandharwa, and the Dhol-Tasha pathaks during Ganpati. Anyhow, Im looking forward to the 5th day. I cant believe that Sawai is already getting over. 5 days have gone at such a quick rate, that its almost indescribable. Anyway, tomorrow the Sakshat goddess, Dr. Prabha Atre is going to sing, so looking forward more than ever.

P.S- There was a very very beautiful girl sitting in front of me, and I seem to have become a fan of her beauty. She looked even more awesome when she put her specs on. (Assal Koknastha hoti!) If I meet her today, Ill let my feelings be known! :P. Kaustubh Joglekar also had similar thoughts when he saw another girl, and Im sure he will do the same thing as me! As far as Thuse is concerned, he is going to enjoy today. :P will keep everyone posted!

The Sawai Experience - Day 3

2011-12-10T14:01:00.000+05:30

With all the high level of Music that was presented on Day 2 of Sawai, I could not help but control myself from going there today. I had work to do, office work, was working from home, I abandoned the plan to work at 2.30, and promptly set out for Ramanbaag.Let me tell you- as the day unfloded, I have absolutely no regrets that I did not care to complete my work. My work is secondary. My liking for music is always my first priority. It was a day of such high caliber exhibition, that it is almost impossible to be put in words. Im making a bold effort of describing Day 3 of Sawai 2011, one of the days which will stay in mind for a long time, and a day I will cherish forever.

The days concert started off by vocals of Kumar Mardur of Kirana gharana. 4 Pm start gives limited options to start a concert with- and Kumar selected Raag Multani. This is one of my favourite raags, and the effect it produces is simply amazing. I was very eager to listen to Kumar Mardur. Staying true to the Kirana traditions, he started his singing with the bada khyaal in Vilambit Ektaal : gokul gaon ka chhoraa. Some of the taans taken were captivating, and left me spellbound. The vilambit was followed by the madhyalay teentaal composition: kangan muraliya mori - a composition made legendary by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.This was followed by a Drut ektaal bandish - nainan me aan baan. The Multani was presented like a 5 start platter, full of substance and decoration. It was very very very good to listen to such high class singing from a young and talented artist. The Multani was followed by a Kabir bhajan Mann phoola phoola. On a once more request, Kumar Mardur went on to sing a Kanadi bhajan govind nina ananda.

The second performance of the day was a sitar solo by Kartik Sheshadri. Kartikji is a disciple of Pt.Ravishankar, and the style of his play shows the Ravishankar style to the fullest. Kartikji started his performance by selecting a very very rare raag- Raag Haunsakinkini. The alaapi was good, although, after listining to and worshiping the likes of Ustad Shahid Parvez and Vilayat Khan, the Ravishankar style sound kind of disjointed. Nevertheless, the effect of a totally new raag took over on me. My initial analysis was that the raag sounded like a combination of Bhimpalas and Jog. The se of komal ga in the avaroha brought out a surreal feel. Also, the incorporation of a third playing string added extra lower notes to the sitar, creating in very rich tonal range. Kartikji then went on to play another rare raag: Shimhendramadhyam-a raag borrowed from Carnatic Sangeet Paddhati, and played two compositions of his own. The raag structure sounded very interesting and is definitely worth taking a look on it. More food for thought. Some of the zalaa work here was inspirational.

The third performance was probably the most awaited performance of Sawai- Shankar Mahadevan. The crowd had swollen up like crazy by this time, all for Shankar Mahadevan. He was very very well received to a round of applause. Shankar ji was to perform Carnatic music, and he did it with such finesse, that you got see a totally new side of him. He is a genius. There is no other word for him. Im not going to write much. I wont stop otherwise. He started his performance with a composition in raag Natakurunji - which sounded somewhat like Bageshree. I love Shankar Mahadevans voice - and he was in form right from the start. He has a knack of keeping the audience in a trance, and he did it from the word go. He then sang a brief alaap in Raag Haunsadhwani, which was very very well received. The solo played by Padma Shankar on violin was out of this world. Simply mindblowing, and she rightly received applause loads of times.He then continued his performance with Raag Bakulbharinam-which he said was a combination of Charukeshi in the first half and Todi in the latter half. The raag was fabulous. He started off with an alaap, which was followed by an alaap on the violin by Padma Shankar, which was stunning. He the nsang another composition in the same raag. There was a jugalbandi between the mrudungam and ghatam player which again created a unique effect. Shankar ji then concluded his performance with a garland of Abhangas sung in memory of Khale kaka and Bhimsen Joshi. this abhanga-mala was no doubt was the highlight of this years Sawai. He started of only with vocals, ektaari and chiplya, and sang the first few lines of Indrayani kaathi, Namacha gajar Bhima teera, saavale sundar roop manohar, sundar te dhyaan, jethe jato tethe tu maza sangaati, bhagyada lakshmi baramma, hyacha sathi kela hota attahas, maze maher pandhari. The rest of the sathidaars, harmonium, violin gradually joined in, and by the time he was singing Maze Maher Pandhari, the whole stage was vibrating with energy radiating from the instruments of everyone. This was probably the best live thing Ive ever heard. It is a must watch, and someone kind enough has already posted it on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_efbq5lWjXI&feature=share) Hats off to the person who uploaded it. Shankar Mahadevan was rightly given a standing ovation on his debut Sawai Performance. The last 14 minutes brought a tear to my eye. In one of the abhangas, the video person zoomed in on the portrait of Bhimsen looking at the heavens in his transfixed gaze of leenata, and an overwhelming feeling took over. I could not help but shed a tear in his memory. It was a performance that I can never ever forget.

To complete a day of such high quality music, was the person who personifies quality music himself - Pt. Jasraj. While he was settling down, we were having a discussion on what he was going to sing. I heard him tune 1 nishaad on the swarmandal and said, Jaijaiwanti, and to my delight, and everyones surprize, he did declare he would be singing Jaijaiwanti. Wow- I have made tremendous progress on getting my ears tuned I guess! Feels good. Jasraj ji started with a lakshangeet of Jaijaiwant-which I think was Des Ang Jaijaiwanti. Jai jai siddhi was sung in vilambit ektaal and was followed by daras det yunhi in madhyalay teentaal. This featured those three saptak meends, that only Pt Jasraj can sing. It was amazing. Jaijaiwanti is such a sweet raag, brings about a very pleasing effect. He continued his performance with another raag, which I am not sure about. It sounded like a mixture of Sarang, Des and Malhar. It was fabulous though. By the time he finished it was well past 10. But the Pune audience never lets Jasraj ji go early, and urged him to sing one more time! He sang a bhajan Govind Damodar set in Nat Bhairav. This was my personal favourite from his performance. By the time he finished, it was already past 10.30 - So much for the court order! It was a wonderful day, and one I can never forget.

There were somethings that made me a little irritated. We go to Sawai to listen to high quality singing, and not jibberjabber of other people - which people were doing all the time - a thought that Nikhil Sugwekar will definitely share. It shows great disrespect to the artists when you are chatting away when an artist such as Pt Jasraj is singing. Never mind, this will be for some other post. I do not want to spoil the thoughts of an inspirational, and for me highly educational day with petty things. I conclude my days report requesting the Supreme court of India to grant Aarya Prasarak Mandal to keep Sawai Gandharwa as an overnight festival, it would be even more pleasing for rasiks like myself. On that note I take your leave. Looking forward for the 4th Day. Have Amjad Ali Khan and Malini Rajurkar, and frankly , cant wait for it! Photos to be uploaded soon!

The Sawai Experience - Day 2

2011-12-10T12:35:00.001+05:30

After still having to overcome Ashwinijis Marwa, somehow, Day 2 of Sawai arrived rather too soon. Before I realized it was already 2:30 in the afternoon-time to leave to get a good spot. I left in a hurry, drove recklessly, and reached Ramanbaug by 2.45. Anish, was already present, and had got a place in "Special Invitees/Semi VIP only area". However, it is risky to sit there as sometimes the organisers pull you out of there to sit in the areas reserved for normal public. Anyway, I had decided not to act oversmart, and got a place a little further back, but, which was comfortable enough as it had bamboo supports against which I could recline and rest. There was a very sweet ajoba sitting next to me, who warned me jokingly, that the area upto his walking stick was reserved for him! You only get to meet such people at concerts like Sawai. Anyway, after I settled in, I was eagerly awaiting for Mahesh Kale to start singing.

Mahesh Kale, a disciple of Pt. Jitendra Abhisheki and Shounak Abhisheki, is one artist I ever look forward to listen after his mind blowing performance in Katyar Kaljaat Ghusali. Today was no different. I was eagerly looking forward to what he was going to sing- well, we virtually we knew that he was going to sing something from either multani or madhuvanti. Madhuvanti it was. Accompanying him were Bharat Kamat and Sudhir Nayak. A brief alaap was followed by a bada khyal " e ho more sai kavan nagariya vasan tarap rahi dina raina" set in Vilambit Ektaal. The liberty with which Mahesh used komal Nishad was a feature of this. It produced a surreal effect of Madhuvanti, something that I had not experienced in the recordings Ive heard.The bada khyal was followed by a chhota khyal in Madhyalay Jhaptal - Shiv aaj balawant madhuvant. This was followed by a tarana in Drut Teental. Mahesh continued his performance with a raag that sounded like Puriya with a touch of Komal Dha - Kaise nike laage. He concluded his performance with the popular abhang - Abeera Gulaal Udhalit Ranga. Some of the improvisations here were fantastic, and mesmerizing. It was an exceptional performance by an exceptionally gifted artist.

Maheshs performance was followed by a performance by Shaila Datar.(No, she is not related to me directly or indirectly.) She started her performance with Raag Purvi. The only previous recording I had heard of Purvi was by Pt. Jasraj, and so for me, this was something new. I knew that Puriya Dhanashree falls in Purvi thaat, and Purvi sounded similar to Purya Dhanashree, except the r-G-r-S was absent. She sang a bada khyal - diliya Lago, in a taal which i could not identify.This was follwed by a chhota khyaal Dhan Dhan Dulhan in teentaal. It was the first time I had heard Purvi live, and only the second time I ever heard it, so there was something new. She followed up the purvi with a composition in Mishra Dhaani. She told that in this variation of Dhaani, in which dhaivat is vyarja, DevGandharwa Bhaskarbuva Bakhale introduced two dhaivats and taught it to Baalgandharva, as it suited his voice. It was again something that I havent heard before(Mishra Dhaani I mean), nevertheless, the effect of both the dhaivats was evident. She concluded her performance with a popular abhang, Amrutahuni god naav tujhe deva. It was a very well structured an well rehersed performance, and the supporting vocals were very good. We had Samir Puntambekar on the tabla,Rahul Gole on the Harmonium, and Prasad Joshi(Who I think taught tabla in my school) on the Pakhawaj, and all of them provided very able sangat.

Shaila jis performance was followed by what turned out to be th highlight of the day - a jugalbandi between Ronu Mujumdar and Kadri Gopalnath on Flute and Saxophone respectively. The were accompanied by Ramdas Palsule and B. Hariharan on tabla and Mrudungam. I was a little apprehensive about how the saxophone will sound when used to play classical music. For jazz, it sounds awesome, for playing old hindi songs, awesome again, but classical music, I was not so sure. However, all my fears were put to rest by Kadri Gopalnath ji and his awesome handling of the instrument. The duo began with alaapi and alterate sawaal-jawab style in Haunsadhwani. Pt. Ronu mujumdar matched everything that Kadriji had to offer. The alaap consisted of simple patterns of haunsadhwani, but the effect was mesmerizing. The alaap was followed by the famous Huansadhwani composition - vaatapi ganapatim bhajeyam. The haunsadhwani was followed by Raag Chandrakauns- a raag that I was hearing live after a gap of 3 years. The alaap was elaborate, and was followed by two compositions. The feature during this piece was the cross jugalbandi- between Kadriji and Ramdas Palsule, and between Ronu Mujumdar and B.Hariharan. There was also a taalvadya jugalbandi. This was especially captivating, and I managed to capture some awesome shots of the same. The Chandrakauns was followed by the famous abhang - Teerttha Vitthal Kshetra Vitthal, and let me tell you, the saxophone sounded amazing. It was a chilling effect caused by the deep and resonating sound of the saxophone and the sweet sound of the flute. The concluding piece, on a once more demand was a bhajan - Payori mein ram ratan dhan paayo. Indeed, this was a performance that will stay in a memory for a long long time.

The concluding performance of the day was by Dr. M Balamuralikrishnan, a long time friend of Pt Bhimsen Joshi, and an institution of music and a genius himself. I am ignorant about Carnatic Sangeet, and have no idea of the pattern or ragas. I just followed what Balamuralikrishnan was singing. The first piece was a composition of his own in a raag called Mahati.. This was followed by another of his composition in raag Arabhi. He then sang raag Lavangi. (S-r-M-P-d-S, S-d-P-M-r-S) The raag was unique, and unheard. The jugalbandi between himself, the violinist and the Mrudungam player on the bol taans were exquisite. He sang another composition in the same raag, and followed it up by a tillana. He then went on to sing a composition Hanumaan Mama, in which the letter Ma in the lyrics was associated with a Ma on the musical scale- something very interesting. Dr Balamuralikrishnans voice is so smooth that it makes you hard to not like him. and his display of the whole range if voice was remarkable. It was an inspirational performance from a true master.

The day concluded at about 9.50, after a quick grab I left for home, lost in thought, lost in the tranquility that music brings, lost in thought of nothing. It was a unique experience, and Im sure I wont be able to sleep today! Thats all for today, the photos will be up shortly after I edit them.
Eagerly awaiting tomorrows performances. Shankar Mahadevan should be amazing!

(Sorry for posting this late, I had posted it yesterday before I left for Sawai, somehow it did not show up, as MSEB had to switch off their supply when I was about to post it.)

Sawai Experience - Day 1

2011-12-08T10:13:00.000+05:30

Well, I am back to writing posts on music, as usual dedicated to those friends who are abroad for higher studies, and miss out on a treat that is the Sawai Gandharwa Sangeet Mohattsav, or as it has been rechristened from this year- the Sawai Gandharwa Bhimsen Mohattsav. The funny posts and spoofs will be back, but when there is a live concert in town, I prefer writing on them! This year has been tragic for Music. Renowned maestros breathed their last, and have left a void, that may never be filled. Most notable however, are Bharat Ratna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt.Shrikant Deshpande, Pt. Madhav Gudi, Ustad Asad Ali Khan, Bhupen Hazarika, Ustad Sultan Khan, Shreenivas Khale, and many others. The 59th Sawai Gandharwa aptly started by paying a two minute tribute to these stalwarts who gave everything they had for music.

This years Sawai Gandharwa, just like last years, is extremely special to me. I dont know when next, Ill be able to watch a programme of such magnutude, live. Yes, there are hundreds of recordings of live concerts available, but the audio-visual impact of attending a live concert is so great, that it leaves a permanent imprint on your brain. Initially, I had thought that I wont be able to attend this years Sawai. However, God finds a way to overcome everything, and rightly guides you to what you want. Like he did with me. I dont know what he did, but hes led me to Sawai. As usual, I reached Ramanbaug, the venue of the concert at 3:00 PM when the concert was to start at 3:30. Let me tell you, it was packed! I somehow managed to squeeze in and get 3 places- one for myself and 2 more for my friends Anish and Kaustubh, in the Bharatiya Baithak in between the two chair flanks. (This year is going to be tough to find good places-people have been reserving the good ones by sleeping there all night!)

After we had settled in, and had a good look around for anything or anyone interesting, at sharp 3:30, the days proceedings started, with Shehnai, by Pt. Tukaram Daithankar. He was accompanied by Ashok and Ganesh Daithankar on the swarpeti, Nitin Daithankar on shehnai, and Mangesh Karmarkar on Tabla. Tukaramji started this years concert by playing Raag Madhuvanti. He started with a khyal in vilambit ektaal, which I felt was shortrer that what he usually plays. This was followed by a composition in madhyalay teentaal. We got to see some amazing techniques from him, with light, crisp and delicate taans. Although it was a short performance of about half an hour - 45 mins, it left a stamp of its own, and set up the mood for what was to follow. Tukaramji then concluded his performance by playing the famous natyageet - "vad jau kunala sharan"

After the shehnai performance, I gave in to my rumbiling tummy, and quickly grabbed two vada paavs an came back. The next performance was by Sanjay Garud. Sanjay ji was accompanied by Prashant Pandav on the Tabla and Pramod Marathe on the harmonium. Sanjayji started his performance by singing Raag Patadeep, in memory of his late guru, Pt. Shrikant Deshpande. The bada khyal "Dhan dhan bhaag" was set in vilambit ektaal. The taar shadja application was very nicely executed, and it set a smile on mine and Anishes faces everytime the Sam came. The bada khyaal was followed by the chhota khyaal "Piya nahi aaye", which was again very well executed. It looked like a very very well rehearsed performance, and hats off to Sanjay ji for making us listen to a raag, which we do not usually get to hear. He followed Patadeep with a composition "Vitthal Vitthal" set to what seemed to be a mix of Darbari, Adana and Jaunpuri. It was again very nicely sung. It was a very good performance by Sanjayji. Ive only heard of him before, but after listening to him, next time when he is singing, Ill make attendance for myself compulsory.

Sanjay jis performance was followed by, for me, and many more, the most awaited performance of the day- that by Smt. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. Im a big big fan of hers. Ive got some compositions by her titled 80 compositions, and the poetry in them is amazing. To top off everything, she is a PhD in biochemistry. Its but natural for people interested in sciences to put her as a role model. Anyway, enough diversion, getting back to the point, it was for most of us the most awaited performance. Ashiwini ji was accompanied by Tanmay Deochake on harmonium and Bharat Kamat on tabla. She started her performance by singing Raag Marwa. Its a long time after Ive heard Marwa live in concert. She started off with a bada khyal "Piya moraa ananta" set in vilambit teentaal. Ashwinijis voice is amazing. The taans were so awesome, that there are no words for it. She is a doctor, although in microbiology, but she was surgically slicing open our hearts with that komal rishabh of marwa, with all the finesse of a surgeon. Some of the taans, and support by Saili Oak on vocals, and Tanmay on harmonium were "aflatoon". At one point, Tanmay played a solo piece which is still lingering in my mind. Ashwiniji the nsang a chhota khyal "Mayari Saanj bbhayi" set in drut ektal. The poetry is awesome, and the singing confluences the words and the moods. It was an exceptional rendition. Ashwiniji then continued to sing for about 10 minutes of Raag Bihagda. Ive never heard this raag before, and thought it had shades of Bihag in aroha, and a touch of Nand in avaroha. She sang "Kaha se tum mad pi ke aayo sawar" in madhyalay roopak, followed by Raina dina kaise kate in drut. She concluded her performance with an abhang Ata Koth dhaave mana, tujhe charan dekhaliya. Overall, it was a superb performance, and totally lived upto the expectations of the audience.

There was quite a long gap after Ashwini Bhide Deshpandes performance. So I managed to slip out, and have some snacks, meet madB and Vetaal, and come back and sit in my place. When I was back, the next artist, Satish Vyas, was already on stage and was tuning his Santoor. A few strums later, it was evident that he was going to play Rageshree. The G-m-R-'n-S phrase is a give away. Rageshree is a beautiful raag, and I have fallen in love with it after I had heard Shahid Parvezs recording from a concert. There is no other sweeter raag than Rageshree. Satishji, due to time constrains did not follow the usual method of aalaap-jod-jhala, but instead played alaapi-vilambit bandish and drut bandish, and incorporated jod and jhalaa in it. Santoor is a delicate instrument, and delicate ragas like rageshree are made more bahardaar on it. The alaapi was fabulous. At times, the not was struck with such delicacy, that one could barely hear it, if not focused. The crowd was also in the mood, and was so silent, that when such delicate notes were being played, the only things that could be heard were the note, and the noise made by the fans. It was a wonderful performance, and the accompanyment by Mukundraj Dev was exceptional. Another performance to remember this year.

After Satisjis performance, the last performance of the day was delivered, and delivered in some style by Pt. Ajay Pohankar. I am a fan of his singing, and his voice is like butter. It is just very very smooth. He started off by singing a bada khyal in Raag Kausi Kanada, "Rajan ke sirtaj". Panditji was in great form from the start. Amazing voice.It was very very captivating. The bada khyal was followed by a chhota khyal "kahe karat mose barijori" another awesome rendition. By the time he finished, there were 10 minutes left for 10, so he sang a dadra in Pahadi for 5 minutes, and followed it up by the concluding Bhairavi "Bajuband khul khul ja". The harmonium accompanyment by Sudhir Nayak was masterful, and extremely pleasing. Panditjis performance was a cherry on what was no doubt a memorable evening.

I apologise for not clicking any photos yesterday, but for some reason, by camera got discharged, and Im still baffled as to why that happened. Anyway, Ill take pictures today. Mahesh Kale, and M.Balamuralikrishnan are two artists Im really looking forward to hear. Cant wait for 2 PM. I have to go early today to get good place to sit. People have been reserving a place for themselves since yesterday night! (Awra!) Anyway, I conclude my days report. Hope you had a pleasant read. Will update today when I return.

One Notice.. from the bottom of my heart

2011-10-20T17:20:00.000+05:30

I sincerely thank MadB for translating my post into English for the welfare of those poor souls who cannot comprehend the Marathi of Pune. (Suckers indeed.) This will reach a broader audience I am sure.

Thanks MadB!

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Greetings to my dear readers and followers. You have always been my inspiration for writing this blog. I am grateful for your love and hope you shall always support me. However on account of some recent developments, I have been forced to write explosive posts like the one you will read now. My friends and colleagues Nikhil Sugwekar, Ameya Akkalkotkar and Tejas Sant will give me their backing is most certain. Anyway.

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http://www.chinmay-datar.blogspot.com(Down the memory lanes...) is my private intellectual property. And since this blog belongs to me and me only, nobody is permitted to plagiarise/steal/publish any material published on this blog. (And no-one has even been nominated for the same). These days a few of my posts (especially the ‘Puneri Lingo’ post) is being circulated as an email forward. As a writer, I am repulsed by people stealing my ‘Jhampya’ and passing off the cleverly put together examples in their own name. Indeed, I am deeply disgusted.

You may think its easy to nick my posts, but it is not at all easy for me. I have the privilege of being sponsored for some of these posts. I earn some amount of money out of my posts, and the hits they generate. This money is really precious in these difficult times of inflation. When you circulate my post without my explicit permission, I lose out on the number of hits; in turn cutting down my income from the same. It is my heartfelt request to all of you to stop using the content on my blog without permission, otherwise I shall have to resort to harsher measures.

For those who have plagiarized, and the one who have a mind to continue doing so:

1. My posts are an outcome of a lot of time and effort, as also originality. They are not conjured out of thin air by a magic wand.

2. Your patriarch/matriarch doesn’t help me write these articles! The people, who do help me, find their well-deserved acknowledgments at appropriate places.

3. Your family bread-earner will not compensate my financial losses due to your theft, will he? (Approx. $200 monthly)

4. In case it is observed that people from the I.T. sector and the ones with nothing to do but sit in the States and gorge astronomical amounts of food are stealing my intellectual property, rest assured double the usual fine will be taken from them.

5. Plagiarism is a crime. You could be prosecuted if I take the matter to the police.

6. Since you read my blog, it is a given that you are educated and have a basic level of understanding and competency; plagiarism/theft of any kind is simply not expected from people like you. If indeed you have indulged in it, it’s a shame calling yourselves educated.

7. Today you are stealing content off a blog, tomorrow you’ll steal ideas, then maybe money. If this happens then there would be no difference between you and the Congress govt. Please do let the world know that you are only as good as the Congress govt.

8. To avoid plagiarism, please ‘share’ my blog’s link. This way you can forward this stuff, and I get hits too. Also you would avoid the allegations of theft made by my friends (Sugvekar, Akkalkotkar and Sant)

Please do remember one thing: Theft of any kind, be it creative content, speech, or ideas, will not be tolerated

o In case you have a query as to why I have written this, ready yourself for one tight slap.

o Henceforth, whoever tries to steal content off my blog without my acknowledgment and without citing the source; tries to pass of my original content as their own, will suffer monetary losses for sure. Please take due note of this fact.

Chinmay Anil Datar (Owner of the blog)

Sadashiv Peth, Pune 30

एक सूचना. ekdam manapasun.

2011-10-10T09:45:00.006+05:30

माझा माझ्या रसिक वाचकांना नमस्कार. हा blog लिहायला तुम्हीच प्रेरणा ठरता. ही प्रेरणा अशीच देत रहा हीच सदिच्छा आहे. पण सध्या काही घडामोडींमुळे खालील पोस्टसारखे स्फोटक पोस्ट लिहायला लागत आहेत. माझे सहकारी व मित्र श्रीयुत निखील सुग्वेकर, अमेय अक्कलकोटकर व तेजस संत यांचा मला नक्कीच पाठींबा मिळेल यात काही वादच नाही. असो..

_-_o_o_o_-_

http://www.chinmay-datar.blogspot.com(Down the memory lanes...) हा ब्लॉग माझ्या खासगी मलाकिचा आहे. हा blog जरी माझाच असला, तरी ह्यावरील कोणताही मजकूर चोरायची/छापायची इतर कोणालाही परवानगी नाही. (यासाठी कोणाची तशी नेमणूक पण केली नाहीये.) सध्या बरेच ठिकाणी माझे लेख- विशेष करून पुणेरी शुद्ध मराठी बोली वरचे(पुणेरी लिंगो), फॉरवर्डस म्हणून फिरतायत. यातली वाक्यांची उदाहरणे व झंप्या हे दोघेही माझ्या मनातून उत्पन्न झालेले विचार आहेत. लेखक म्हणून मला झंप्या ची चोरी करून स्वतःच्या नावावर उदाहरणे खपवणारे लोक अशक्क्या डोक्यात जात आहेत.

तुम्हाला माझे लेख/मजकूर चोरणे सोपे वाटत असेल, पण माझ्यासाठी ते तितके सोपे नाही. मला काही लोकांनी हे लेख लिहायला स्पोन्सर केले आहे. माझे लेख, व त्यावर मिळणारे "हिट्स" याच्या आधारावर मला महिन्याला काही रक्कम मिळत असते. सध्याच्या वाढत्या महागाई मध्ये हि रक्कम मला खूप उपयोगी पडते. तुम्ही माझ्याकडून परवानगी न घेता लेखामधील मजकूर स्वतःच्या फेसबुक/ ई-पत्रांमधून फिरवला, की मला हिट्स कमी मिळतात, व माझे या मुळे आर्थिक नुकसान होते. तरी माझी तुम्हाला सर्वांना विनंती आहे की ह्या blog वरचा कोणताही मजकूर चोरू नये. अन्यथा कारवाई केली जाईल.

आत्तापर्यंत ज्यांनी मजकूर चोरी केलीये त्यांच्यासाठी (व जे चोरायचा विचार करत आहेत त्यांच्यासाठी देखील):

१) लेख लिहायला मला वेळ आणि डोके दोनीही बरेच वापरावे लागते. उगीचच हवेतून हे लेख तयार होत नाहीत.
२) तुमचे तीर्थरूप मला लेख लिहायला मदत करीत नाहीत- जे लोक मदत करतात, त्यांचा योग्य ठिकाणी उल्लेख असतो.
३) तुमच्या या चोरीमुळे माझे जे आर्थिक नुकसान होते, ते तुमचे तीर्थरूप भरून देणार आहेत का? ( महिन्याचे साधारण २०० डॉलर्स)
४) आय. टी क्षेत्रातील लोक व अमेरिकेत बसून खादाडी करणारे लोक यांनी मजकूर चोरी केल्याचे आढळून आल्यास त्यांच्याकडून दुप्पट दंड आकारण्यात येईल.

५) मजकूर चोरी- "plagiarism" हा एक गुन्हा आहे. मी पोलिसांकडे तक्रार केल्यास तुमच्यावर कायदेशीर कारवाई केली जाऊ शकते.

६) ज्या अर्थी आपण माझे हे ब्लोग्स वाचताय, त्या अर्थी आपण नक्कीच सुजाण व सुशिक्षित आहात, यात काही शंकाच नाही. तुमच्यासारख्या सुशिक्षित लोकांकडून कोणत्याही प्रकारची चोरी/ छपाई अपेक्षित नाही. झाली असल्यास मला तुम्हाला सुशिक्षित म्हणायची लाज वाटते.

७) आज तुम्ही मजकूर चोरी करताय, उद्या लोकांचे विचार, पैसे यांची चोरी कराल. असे झाल्यास तुमच्यात आणि कॉंग्रेस सरकार मध्ये काहीच फरक राहत नाही. आपली लायकी कॉंग्रेस सरकार सारखीच, हे कृपा करुन दाखवून देऊ नये.

८) मजकूर चोरी टाळायला माझ्या blog ची लिंक "share" करावी. यांनी तुम्हाला पण फॉरवर्ड पाठवता येतील, मला पण हिट्स मिळतील, व तुम्हाला पण माझ्या मित्रांनी (सुग्वेकर, अक्कलकोटकर व संत) तुमच्यावर लावलेला चोरीचा आळ टाळता येईल.

एक लक्षात ठेवा, कोणत्याही प्रकारची चोरी, ती मजकुरातील असो शाब्दिक असो वा वैचारिक असो, खपून घेतली जाणार नाही, व योग्य ती कारवाई केली जाईल.

- हे असे का लिहिले आहे असे विचारल्यास सणसणीत कानाखाली बसेल.

- या पुढे जे कोण blog ची चोरी करेल, माझा व माझ्या सहकार्यांचा उल्लेख न करता, आम्हाला न विचारता कोणताही पोस्ट इकडे तिकडे स्वतःच्या नावावर खापवेल, त्याचे आर्थिक नुकसान तर होईल याची नोंद घ्यावी.

हुकुमावरून.

- चिन्मय अनिल दातार. ( blog चे मालक)

सदाशिव पेठ, पुणे ३०.

Puneri Be-Shuddha Hindi.

2011-10-05T11:47:00.002+05:30

We Punekars pride ourselves in having the most fluent Marathi that can be heard. True to the saying- Marathi asavi punekarasarkhi, our Marathi is unique. Grammatically fluent, flawless, and purest form of Marathi can be heard only in Pune. In other places, English words have English meanings. In Pune, English words have Marathi meanings. It’s a foul if you talk more than 5 words in English at a stretch. You talk like that and you are branded as a person from “convents”. Not that Punekars are not fluent in English. If we want, we can speak world class English. But usually we reserve this for showing off our brilliance on the world stage. Punekars are not scared of languages like Marathi, Sanskrit, for these languages are in their blood. Before a Mumbaikar may realize what is being said, a true Punekar has cursed him in fluent Marathi about 10 times. This fluent, purest, stinging, and hurting (kamit kami shabdat jastit jasta apamaan) is a peculiar characteristic of Sadashiv Peth. People from outside have this notion that if you go to Sadashiv Peth, you return insulted in some way, and you don’t even know it. Yes. As Punekars, we are proud that we can do that! And the fact that we do that in Marathi adds more gloss and class to it.

As good as his Marathi may be, the Achilles heel of any Punekar is his Hindi. Every great person has a weakness. A Punekars weakness is his grasp of Hindi. Being advocates and lovers of Marathi, Hindi does not come naturally to Punekars. His Hindi speech is riddled with Marathi words, which brings about a comical effect. As a Punekar, we are aware of this limitation of ours. But we hardly care. It’s our approach that if you are in Pune, you have to speak in Marathi. If anyone asks a question in Hindi or English or French or for that matter any other language, we reply in Marathi. Probably it’s because of our fear of talking in Hindi that we resort to Marathi. But yes, Punekars are scared of conversing in Hindi. Unless that Hindi is used to describe historical developments. History brings about the best in a Punekar, and language does not become a barrier. Ask a Punekar to tell the world the stories of Shivaji, then forget Hindi, he will even tell them in Tamil, Telgu, any other weird language flawlessly.

But Hindi. Puneri Hindi is comical. Rather the way we speak it, we make it comical. (Yes we like a laugh!) I don’t have to go beyond myself to prove how bad our conversational Hindi is. Here are a few samples of me talking Hindi:

“Arre e!! aisa mat karo tum… kidhar bhi rang dalo, mere doke pe mat dalo”

“Tumhe Shaniwar vadaa kaise jate hai pata nahi hai? Idhar se saral jao.. Bajirao road ayega.. udhar davikade valo..phir vapas saral jao”

“Aho, pishwi vala doodh do.. sutta mat do”

“Saral Saral bolo na tumhe ye karna nahi ata”

“Idhar kachra mat dalo. Agar tum idhar hi zopte, to tumhe kaise lagta?”

“Arre aisa situation ana nahi chahiye. Haat var hote hai!”

"Woh ushta kharkata sab ekatra karo aur kachrapeti mein taak ke aao"

“Are Pune mein jaisa rastyachya bajucha khana milta hai, waisa Mumbai mein nahi milta!”

“Pune ke dukaandaar 1-4 baje dukan band karke kulup laga ke ghar jake masta aram se zopte hai.”

“Tum amarathi logon ko Sadashiv Peth mein nahi ana chaahiye. Hum log tum logon ka tomne mar mar kar haal kharab kar denge!”

"Bhaiyya jaldi jaldi samaan bharo, mujhe aaj solid ghai hai"

These are just a few extreme cases of bad Hindi I remember. With me there must be a thousand other instances where people tell me to stop talking in Hindi. Ask Ravi or Divya for these- they may tell you more about my bad Hindi!

Nevertheless, I do not care how my casual spoken Hindi comes out to be. I am a Punekar and am proud that I can speak shuddha form of the language.

सरणार कधी रण?

2011-09-19T16:03:00.000+05:30

Im posting a poem after many many days. Its one of my most favourite poems, and everytime I read it or listen to it, it brings a tear to my eye. We are all familiar with the heroics of and the ultimate sacrifice by Baji Prabhu Deshpande for laying the foundations of Swarajya. Somehow I feel that the spirit in which he gave up his life for the Hindu Rashtra is being forgotten amidst the political turmoil. These political parties, making caste a basis are divisive forces at work which weaken our nation. We just need to look at Shivaji Maharaj and see how effectively he established and defended a kingdom- a kingdom which grew like the waxing moon. He made no descrimination amongst his rayat. Everyone was awarded position according to merit. Todays politicians need to set Shivaji Maharaj as a role model for governance.(More on this later)

Anyway, coming back to the point, the other day, I was travelling from Pune to Mumbai and was listening to Shivakalyanraja- a legendary musical album describing the important events of Shivajis life. One song in the album is especially touching- सरणार कधी रण?.. . The story told in the poem bought a tear to my eye. Such sacrifices for ideals and principles are rare. Relationships such as these are even more rare. I wont say much, im getting overwhelmed by the sacrifice just thinking of the poem. Here is a link to a video I came across on youtube, which I am sure will definitely touch your heart. Also presented is the poem, written by Kusumagraj.

सरणार कधी रण प्रभू तरी

हे कुठवर साहु घाव शिरी?

दिसू लागले अभ्र सभोती

विदीर्ण झाली जरी ही छाती

अजून जळते आंतरज्योती

कसा सावरू देह परी

होय तनुची केवळ चालन

प्राण उडाया बघती त्यातून

मिटल्या झाले अधीर लोचन

खड्ग गाळले भूमिवरी

पावनखिंडीत पावूल रोवून

शरीर पिंजे तो केले रण

शरणागतीचा अखेर ये क्षण

बोलावशील का आता तरी?

सरणार कधी रण?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53BXEER85sI&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Let us rekindle the spirit in which Baji Prabhu gave up his life for the establishment of Swaraj. Let us channelize his spirit as we strive to build a strong India.

On Rajanikants 4th Law of Motion

2011-09-15T13:48:00.003+05:30

Title of the Paper:

On Rajankikants 4^th Law of Motion.

Authors:

Chinmay Datar 1.

Special Thanks:

Taniya Bapat 2.

Abstract:

The paper is written with a view of calculating the Rajani Radius(Rajanitrijjya) based on Rajanikants 4^th Law of Motion. The Law itself deals with the movements of superheroes such as Rajinikanth and Flash amongst others. The Law, and its following derivations should not be attempted by normal mortal human beings such as ourselves, for the force that would be exerted is beyond the biological capacity that the body is designed to handle. Superhumans (Heroes) with modified DNA and Superpowerful(and as of yet undiscovered) subatomic particles are the only things to whom the law may apply . The inspiration for this research was provided by a Taniya Bapat SMS forward, for which the author duly recognizes her inputs.

Index Terms:

Rajinikanth, Rajanitrijjya, Highspeed circular motion, 4^th Law of Motion, Persistence of vision.

Introduction:

Newton is credited to have formulated the first three laws of motion on which the whole universe is based. Well, the whole universe follows these laws except for some nutcases termed as superheroes (Rajani, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, etc). To fit these heroes’ deeds scientifically, Rajani, the great, came up with a new Law- one that shook the earth beneath the feet of Shri Shri Isaac Newton.

Rajani states in his 4^th Law: “If you run at 100 km/sec around a tree, you can see your own back” [1]

While physically, it may seem impossible that this can be true, scientifically and mathematically it is quite possible. 100km/s roughly equals 100000m/sec, which is about 0.0003333 times the speed of light, and hence, speed which can be easily achieved by fast things, such as superheroes. This rules out the problem that heroes would need to travel faster than light. Also as the speed is quite fractional and nominal compared to the speed of light "c", relativistic effects and Lorentzian transformations can be ignored.

On Persistence of Vision and field vision of a human eye:

An important concept in this derivation is that of “Persistence of Vision”. Our eyes, for a short duration, store the image that it catches on its retina. The effect lasts for a very short time, however, if a body moves at that rate, it appears to our eyes that the object is in continuum. An application for the same is the television, where about 25 frames per second and shown so that the picture appears continuous. From here we can calculate that per frame, 1/25 second is needed for it to be stored on the retina. i.e if the eye sees something even for a minuscule period of time, due to persistence of vision our mind “reads it” for 1/25^th of a second.

The second important concept is field of vision. Looking forward, humans usually have a field vision of 95 degrees as shown in the fig below:

Calculation of the Rajanitrijjya.

(Trijjya, Sanskrit for Radius) Rajanitrijjya, literally, the Rajani radius is the maximum radius that can be used by a superhero to run in a circle to see his own back. Certain assumptions about speed and radius were made to achieve the results.

Rajani 4 says that you need to run at 100km/sec which gives a speed of 100000m/s. The velocity will be linear velocity. V=100km/s. ω would be v/r, and will depend on the radius.

Scenario 1:

The superhero only sees forward, and has no field of vision while running:

In this case, the superhero need to be at the same spot that he started from in (1/25) of a second. Only then, will he be able to see his own back.

The distance covered by the superhero would be equal to the circumference of the circle on which he is running.

Thus, we have,

D= s*t;

2*π*r = 100,000 (m/s) *(1/25)(s)

2* π *r= 4000m;

r= 4000m/(2* π);

r= 636.66 m, which is roughly 637 m.

However this will be true only if the Superhuman only looks straight ahead.

Scenario 2:

The superhero possesses a human field of vision

The superhuman, at the end of the day is a human, and thus, possesses a field of vision, which Wikipedia states is 95 degrees.

Using this, the human may be able to see his back at a position which is not at the exact same spot on the circle from where he started running, but rather on a point much earlier to that.

A quick glance at the following circle will help answer our doubts.

Total field vision is 95 degrees. Assuming symmetry, and assuming the superhero is not cross-eyed (rather doubt it) field of vision per side along the line of symmetry will be: 95/2 = 47.5 degrees.

At any point on the circle, the superhero is running tangentially to the radius at that point. He thus makes an angle of 47.5 degrees with the point from where he started (A) from a point say B. this means that the angle between the furthest vision and the radius is 42.5 degrees. Reminding the reader that the circle has a constant radius (Polar r=a), an isosceles triangle will be formed, subtaining an angle of 95 degrees on the center.

Thus, the superhero would need to run a distance equal to the arc length equivalent to 265 degrees.

Thus, distance covered will be:

(265/360)*2* π *r.

This will be equal to s*t

(265/360)*2* π *r = 100000*1/25

(265/360)*2* π *r= 4000;

R= 4000 *360/(265*2* π)

r= 864.8 m.

Thus if the superhero runs at a radius of roughly 865 m from the centre of the tree, he should be able to see his back.

Now, the widest tree has a diameter of 32 m(from wiki). Thus, radius is 16m. For his own safety, let the superhero run around the tree at a distance of 20m.

Thus,

(265/360)*2* π *20 = s* (1/25)

Thus, s= 2312.5 m/s.

This equals 2.3125km/s

This is just the 1/50^th the speed at which Rajani can run. No wonder he easily sees his own back!

Superhumans having such capabilities have been discovered. The wait is for the discovery of the fundamental units that build up these superhumans. These fundamental particles, although as of now only imaginary have been assigned the term Rajanions by VERN (Vadheev Engineers Research Network)- the Research branch of IVEE.

References:

[1] SMS, received on 14^thSept, [Taniya Bapat].

Acknowledgements:

The author would thoroughly like to thank Taniya Bapat- still a student for inducing a thought process to formulate the concept of seeing your own back while running.

All material is copyrighted to the IVEE. Any person imitating any research or stealing it (especially non-members) and using it for ridicule, will be given 50 whiplashes. The author or for that matter anyone at IVEE shall not entertain questions regarding how Rajanikant reaches speeds of 100km/s- Go ask Rajanikant himself.

People wishing to promote fun side of Science and Math can contact IVEE chairmen- Chinmay Datar or Sumedh Dhabu to obtain and a lease to use the vadheev proofs.

Digital Counter Paradox

2011-09-06T17:22:00.004+05:30

Title of paper:

On Chinmay Datars Digital Counter Paradox

Authors: Chinmay Datar 1

Special thanks: Sumedh Dhabu 2 Shreyas Bhaban 3.

Abstact:

A reverse thought experiment generated out of the idea to mathematically model a situation of a couple moving into a locked house and generating an offspring and leaving the house only for another person to enter the house.

Index terms:

Digital Counters, Flummoxations.

Introduction:

Completing work related assignments is kind of boring. Especially if its an assignment that does not make you think out of the box. IT assignments are mostly of such non-creative types. I guess they strive to stifle your imagination and creativity. My new job, though interesting, is making me lose my creativity to a certain extent. To not go completely mad, I try to come up with mathematical formulations and spoofs, to keep thinking and not get engrossed in the world of IT.(I have no idea why its called technology here). Ive come up with some very interesting theories- one about complex numbers has already been shared.. Today, early in the morning, when I have nothing to do, I was thinking of a thought experiment. The experiment is leaving me flummoxed. Why me, it has even left the Grab-all and gobble scientist Shreyas Bhaban (who works not coz he loves his work, math and science, but coz he wants to grab all the money around) dumbstruck.

Assume a room where there is a single door for entry and exit. The room has no other possible entry or exit points.Just the one entrance/exit. Whats inside the room is unknown, so basically its a black box. On outside of the door, there is a digital counter which can count anything real from -infinity to +infinity. Whenever anything enters the room, the counter is automatically incremented by one. When anything leaves the room, the counter is decremented by 1. All elements are counted individually. Elements enter the room when the door is opened at 2n-1 opening and elements exit when door is opened at 2n opeing.( n =1 to infinity)

Although the inside of the room is unknown, what we do know is that the room performs a simple operation of square rooting anything inside at even numbered door opening.

Let us assume that we push the number "1" in the room. The counter will increment to show that there is 1 entity in the room. Now when we open the door again, it will be the 2nd opening, so the square root rule will be applied on "1". This will result in two results: +1 and -1. as it is the 2nd opening, the elements inside will exit. As two elements will come out, the counter will decrement twice, and show -1 as the number of entities inside. Now if we open the door again for a 3rd time, and force "1" inside again, the counter will increment by 1, and show the number of entities inside as "0". Practically this is not possible as we ourselves have pushed "1" inside the door, and definitely know that physically there is an entity that exists inside.

So, now, a paradox has been generated about the number on entities inside the room. Mathematically, the counter reads zero, but practically, we know it should read 1. This paradox has been labeled the Digital Counter Paradox or DC paradox.

The paradox has been generated for exclusive use for IVEE. Any reproduction will be charged with 50 whiplashes and brain-washing. The paradox is created to confuse people. People attempting to solve the same with mass-energy-momentum conservation or any other methods shall be deemed too nerdy to be vadheev and be permanently disqualified to visit IVEE blogs and posts.

Raoenous- The Greed God of Appetite

2011-08-25T14:41:00.003+05:30

Raoenous (Born 14 Feb 1989) (Greek Raoenous, हिंदी- रावणस, pronounced rav-en-ous) is a Greed god well known for his voracious appetite. Raoenous was born in the congested city of Mumbius Strip on the western coast of the country of Greed. The country of Greed came to be called so, as the rulers and their ministers had become exceedingly greedy, and devoured everything that was meant to be for its people. They had ravaged the country so badly that while they were busy relishing the fruits of their mismanagement, the country was crawling to its death severely lacking vitamin M. Raoenous was born specifically to show the world that one can be greedy without disrupting the vital organs of the country. He specializes in the form of greed that no other ruler dare to touch- appetite. Raoenous is well known for decimating anything edible with his bare hands and is known as the most efficient destroyer of the scourge of the middle class- an oversized food platter. Raoenous is known to have slayed many a hard to finish dishes and his battles with such dishes have now become a part of the folklore.

Personal History:

After spending much of his childhood in Mumbius strip, Raoenous shifted to the city of Puneous- known all over for its bizarre eating habits – to test his appetite and gastric strength, and spread the greed of appetite after he realized that he had no hopes of completely cleansing the plates of Mumbius strip. While initially it was hard for Raoenous to settle in Puneous for talking in an alien language that Puneons could not comprehend, thanks to the efforts and tutoring of the puny citizens of Puneous to make him understand their language, did Raoenous finally settle in. The Puneons also made him realize his goals and set him on the right path. [The only time ever that Raoenous felt vulnerable in his place in Corn-o-Coepia Electronica, the center for vadheev knowledge, he made an attempt to give it up for a place in the revered halls of Mechania, which also bespoke of infinite placement opportunities, only to be turned down by the Wise Goddess of Mechania, who later did find satisfaction in befriending Raoenous]

Raoenous gathered a large group of supporters who helped in several of his battles. Some of them worth taking a note are Chimeras, Dhubus, Madbena, Devious, and Virus just to name a few. In his youth, Raoenous had amorous feelings (a thing, colloquially) for the Greed Goddess of Marks- Marksvize, ever since the two had fought a bloody battle for a place in the higher echelons of the Corn-o-Coepia Electronica. However, the attractions faded away after a few years and resulted in a cordial friendship. Ever since Raoenous got rid of this trifling distraction, he concentrated hard and strong on fulfilling his destiny of destroying foodstuffs singlehandedly.

Raoenous achieved fame all over Puneous for eliminating the arrogance of hotel owners by conquering their skullduggery of making profits on unlimited buffets. Such was the fame of Raoenous that even in the city of Food, Puneous, where the greatest warriors of the Bhukkad tribe- that the conquerors of the Sadashiv Peth foodathon and Chimeras-the God of Vadheevness reside now salutes him for his greedy appetite. Such are the incredible feats of Raoenous that rising from his obscure origins; he was deified by the puny citizens of Puneous as "the Being" and the "Greed God of Appetite". Truly, if there was an X-men origins story, then this was it, for Raoenous earned the right to be called one.

After being deified in Puneous, he moved to the pearly gates of the heaven of greed itself- Texasia. Raoenous left after the fall of the Empire when everyone left Puneous except Madbena. Texasia- where big means huge and jumbo means humungous, [including trivial things such as onions.] was an obvious choice for Raoenous to go to. There were no bounds to Raoenous’ happiness. Finally Raoenous will be able to satisfy his ravenous and insatiable appetite.

Raoenous and his battles against Food.

Skirmishes with Mon-Genes:

Mon-Genes was a mongrel. He cheated the corn-o-Coepia by providing less than satisfactory portions of cake as tribute. The Council of the Great Sparks of 09 had specifically assigned Mon-Genes to supply a portion of cake. However, most of the time, this did not materialize. Raoenous, now on the Chair for Revenue generation was outraged at the non-subservient nature on Mon-Genes. He was pissed. One day it happened to be the happy birthday of the Greed Goddess of Marks- Marksvize. Raoenous decided to extract revenge on Mon-Genes on the occasion. He requested Mon-Genes send two of his finest creations- Brave warriors of terrifying size- Choco Kak and Pina Kak. The two warriors arrived and had no idea that they were entering an ambush. No sooner than they arrived at the Gymnasia, they were brutally murdered. This did not satisfy Raoenous though. He wanted to show Mon-Genes just how much he hated him for not giving him the revenue. He cut off Choco Kak and Pina Kak limb by limb and stuffed them into his gargantuan mouth clicking pictures to be sent to Mon-Genes. Mon-Genes got scared, and ever since, Raoenous enjoys a special treatment. He even got his Mastani Kak delivered from there on his happy birthday.

While the battle may not be significant, it sure was the first, where the wrath and appetite of Raoenous was full displayed.

Battle of the Charcoal Pit:

The battle of Charcoal pit was the foundation stone in establishing Raoenous toward deification. It occurred around the time of the great Spark of October 2009, where Raoenous was a part of the elite knights of the Cores. Bothered by the lack of support shown by the Pit-bull for the Great Spark, the major leaders of the Core Council decided to demolish the high and unconquerable halls of the Charcoal Pit- a unique fortified pit situated on a high hill. Rumors were flying high that its food would test the appetites of many proud Carnivori of the Core Council. When the Core Knights reached the base of the impregnable fortress, they realized that the elevator to the pit was not working. The dysfunctional elevator stopped purposely as scorched earth policy to slow the advancing army of the Cores only teased Raoenous’ appetite and awakened the fury inside him that made him vanquish any and all forms of food. The Knights had individually destroyed what they were meant to destroy while Raoenous was his second platoon of chicken. But when Lord Bhatius finally entered, Raoenous got his final chance at the third platoon. Long after the other Council members had had their fill and were at the end of their tether, having finished joking and even dozing, Raoenous had a major part of the third chicken platoon and even Lord Bhatius was surprised. That Raoenous had a huge appetite was generally known, what this Battle signified was his own patience and the others' awe at his prowess. Sadly, the Council split soon and never again was such a spectacle beheld by the entire Council.

Battle of Goodluck: The battle of Goodluck was one of the shining examples of how Raoenous could single handedly defeat food. Raoenous, an Argonaut at the time, preparing hard for the Battle of Regatta, after late night training went to the battle ground of Goodluck with his fellow Argonauts. Raoenous was famished after a rigorous training of heaving heavy wooden oars and lifting boats up and down the incline. Well, his fellow Argonauts were hungry for success too. They could not believe their luck when they encountered an abundance of food, and set about outright devastating everything in the way. A lot of Argonauts including Chimeras and Neelius had had enough of food after a while and gave up. So it was all down to Raoenous and Somaglutton to finish off the ever piling food. After a while, when there was no hope, even Somaglutton-the King of Greed of appetite gave up, leaving the almighty Raoenous to finish off the three platoons of Humongous chicken singlehandedly, which he promptly did. Raoenous became known as a warrior of the greed spirits and was considered as an equal to Somaglutton after this victory at Goodluck. Raoenous' fame spread far and wide over corn-o-Coepia and this became a foundation in his rise to greatness.

Combatting 'The Urge':

It was a day of triumph. Squire Makdus and the Lady Abiera had managed their negotiations with the wise University of Puneous successfully, which guaranteed a huge sum to help make the Great Spark of October 2009 a grand success. There was merriment everywhere. But Raoenous would feel content only after a wholesome meal. So he took his troops to attack the Dining halls of Makk Donaldus, where he was possessed by The Urge. The Urge is now a fable travelling across lands, with its imitations being in demand from greats such as Chimeras and Madbena too. The Urge prompted Raoenous to try sweeping off the foamy tops off the magical drink of Kok Flot with his index finger, much as a knight in shining armor would sweep a damsel in distress away from thugs. Only, Raoenous’ first love has always been all that is edible. Ergo, it was only natural that he would be visited by such an urge sometime in his life. It was almost like Imprinting, from the dark and bloody legends of the Twilight Saga. The Urge became so famous, that the other lords tried it to much satisfaction, and Makk Donaldus is also contemplating a promotion campaign using The Urge and his 'I'm lovin' it' slogan beautifully put together.

Hacking the Carrots.

Once, after working late into the night without having dinner, Raoenous and his fellow associates discovered to their horror that they were constantly being tormented by food. Food seemed to enter the minds of each and all, playing mind games which enraged everyone. Raoenous, having low patience in this respect lost his mind, and taking initiative from him, his team followed suit and began a quest to capture execute cook and eat food. However, it was nowhere to be found. They searched far and wide- including the unlikeliest places such as the Puneous Iron Beast Station. Finally, they brainstormed about possible locations and came to the conclusion that it was hiding at the royal residence of Goddess Marksvize. Raoenous and his band promptly set off for the heavenly abode. On reaching the place, they found food hiding in the kitchen- Rice, Lentils, Maggi, Bhel, Carrots and what not. However, Onions could not be found no matter how hard they searched. Raoenous, livid at the lack of Onions went on to decapitate the poor carrots, draw and quarter it, and chew on it piece by piece till Onions showed itself. A large stew of all the food was made, and obviously, the largest Portion was consumed by Raoenous.

This event provided the greatest platform for Raoenous to portray himself as a ruthless leader and the conqueror of the conquerors. Truly, this even led him past Somaglutton to be crowned as the Greed God of appetite.

Other Battles:

Raoenous went on to single handedly demolish smaller armies of food all on his own. Small kingdoms such as the Nation of Barbeque were easy pickings for him. To protect themselves from this continuous onslaught, they heaved themselves on the back of the fierce Sayaji to good effect. However, the Subway that connected Raoenous’ residence to corn-o-Coepia suffered a continuous brunt of his fury. Convinced that it was the best meal for the value place, Raoenous kept raiding it virtually every day. In between many feats were held to celebrate and honor Raoenous' love of food, a feat rivalled only by the Lord Kumbhakarna's love of sleep in the mystic lands of Ceylon.Such battles only enhanced an already glittering image of Raoenous.

Doing the Dew:

After hacking down a mountain of food all alone, Raoenous stumbled upon this secret weapon. The weapon gives him the superpowers to digest all. It’s a rare liquid- some say its liquid gold, found in the distant mountains, and can only be collected in early mornings when it is in dew forms. We label the mystery liquid as Mountain Dew. Every warrior, every tyrant, every lord, every emperor - has a weapon. The weapon is their strength, the weapon is their inspiration. For Raoenous, it was his trusted flask of Dew. Dew is to Raoenous what Spinach is to Popeye. the elixir of strength and an appetizer for a massive foodfest. Raoenous, much like the wizened old Alastor Moodius, has his trusted bottle of Dew always in his satchel, and rarely shares it with anyone else for it may give them his superpowers. The other lords often wondered what drew Raoenous to the Dew, since they could not fathom its greatness by themselves. But the real secret lies in an inscription accompanied engraved on the Dew Bottle: “Omnes formidamus. Etiam faucibus siccat. Ipsum timor”

But to Raoenous it only meant “डर सबको लगता है , गला सब का सूखता है . डर के आगे जीत है“

All Hail Raoenous:

It was the festival of Dewaali, celebrated with much pomp and splendour in Puneous. Lady Madbena had arranged a feast for the Core Council and squires, also to celebrate the grand success of the Great Spark of October 2009. Many delicacies were prepared, and the exotic flavours only added to the festive atmosphere. While everyone was waiting for Raoenous to declare the feast open, Raoenous seemed to have had a little bout of nerves. The Council thought it was because he must have felt that his powers and talent may have been imposed upon his contemporaries often, but in reality it was his half-empty flask of Dew which had put him in a sombre mood. The Council, feeling pity, decided that they would give up their portions to the Being, and did offer them indeed. But Raoenous was in a different mood, he posed for a portrait that would indeed prove him worthy of his name, but in the end showed real character when he shared the delicacies with everyone at the table.

Although this article is written to commemorate the many exploits of the Greed God, it would be foolish to the point of being criminal not to mention Raoenous' loyalty, his straightforwardness, his patriotism and his integrity. Always one to adhere to his scruples, no matter what the situation, Raoenous would go to any lengths to ensure that his point reached across. He was, and is, always loyal to his friends and keeps in touch through the advanced communication channels now available at everyone's disposal.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Raoenous for his condescension for letting us write this memoir, and also his graciousness for letting us publish it. Finally, we take this opportunity to reiterate, that we do, with all our hearts, always love you, Raoenous. Or as he is lovingly called by his friends, Rao.

Dhabus Complex and Datars iParadox

2011-08-17T16:19:00.002+05:30

Things written in (()) are alternatives

Title of paper:

Datar iParadox extended on pioneering work about Dhabu Complex Theory : the reality about ‘i’, the mathematical paradox

Authors: Chinmay Datar 1 and Sumedh Dhabu 2

Special thanks: Anant Devi 3

Abstact:

This paper presents an interesting and shocking mathematical paradox about ‘i’. For this we need to consider the life of engineer. The two most important parts in the life of engineer are considered here: studies and girlfriend. Then based on Dhabu Complex theory, authors provide intuitive and practical proofs for this paradox.

Index terms:

Datar iParadox, Dhabu Complex theory, Buzz (!!), engineer’s life

Intro:

This theory has been largely developed thanks to a timely and fruitful vadheev commenting on a Sumedh Dhabu Buzz. It is essentially based on the Dhabu Complex Theory, and includes extensions known as the Datar iParadox. Anant Devis axioms provide an insightful perspective regarding Dhabus Theory. I would like to thank both of them for playing a significant part to inspire me to conduct another vadheev formulation.

Let us begin with a basic understanding of Dhabus Complex Theory. Sumedh Dhabu, a great mind recently came to conclusion after a string of mind boggling facts about dreams and realities. Dhabu goes on to imply the complex theorem to life, by stating,
"Life is Complex-One needs to consider the real and imaginary parts separately"
Dhabu has come up with this theorem through sheer perseverance and dedication in the past 4 years. He conducted experiments on himself and his friends to establish this golden rule, prompting me to think further and expand it. Here, I have collaborated with the great man himself and using some theoretical results obtained by Anant Devi, come up with the Datar iParadox An explanation for the same is given below. Mathematical understanding along with a sense of humour is a must for this, and those ill suited or dumb enough not to understand complex numbers and other associated topics need not read further.

Mathematical analysis of Dhabus Theory leads to a quite interesting paradox, known as Datar iParadox. We have tried to analyse and help laymen understand this paradox. here goes:

Consider an ideal life for a student (MALE) entering Engineering. Since he is entering engineering, he has a dream, but then there is also a reality, which are unfortunately, conjugates of each other.

In India, it is everyones dream to one day land up in IT engineering and end up getting bucketloads of marks. Thus, their dreams along with their current dreams which is studies well and a girlfriend(who is ofcourse, imaginary) can be given by the Eulerian identity,

Dreams = e^iT

which will give

Dreams = cosT + i(sinT)

However, reality is different, and most people do not get into IT engineering. Thus, on Similar grounds, reality, which is studies, minuis the imaginary girlfriend can be given by:

Reality = e^-iT

which will give,

Reality = cosT - i(SinT)

Assumption:
during engineering, for a good engineer,
cosT = studies and it is a sin(T) to have a girlfriend.

so substituting these values, we get,

Dreams=Studies + iGF

Reality=Studies -iGF

(GF= girlfriend.)

Now on a complex plane, both dreams and realities will have modulus and arguments.

Now since the modulus of both are the same, but the arguments are out of phase by 90 degrees, it leads to what Anant Devi has described as having internal "arguments". An engineering student has his dreams and relaities out of phase by a 90 degree argument.

These arguments cause a great confusion, called Life, which crosses dreams and realities. Crossing of dreams and realities,i.e Dreams "x" reality will give a product of the two terms.

Thus, life = Dreams x Reality.

Life= (Studies + iGF)(Studies-iGF)

thus, Life = Studies squared + GF squared.

L = St²+GF²

Over time as one runs through his engineering degree, and completes college, Studies tend to Zero.

So, L = GF²

^{Now, in every engineers life, there comes a point when he applies Chinmays K-means algorithm to come to a conclusion that he has found a perfect girl, or atleast has a blind belief that he has a girlfriend. Considering the life of all engineers and taking average, we can conclude that the value for GF overtime tends to 1.}

Thus L=1.

The paradox comes into picture when the Girlfriend leaves you.
Life turns head over heels, i.e, it changes direction.
considering life to be a vector, by change of direction, Life will now be given as
L= -1.
A life turned heads over heels is called a Problem.
Thus, P=-1.
to solve problems, we try to find the roots of the problems,
now sqrt(P) = sqrt(-1) ="i"
So "i" is the root of the problem.

However, it is rather surprising result. Mathematically, we have proven that "i" here is imaginary. however, the "i" exists physically, and is the root of all problems.

A major mathematical paradox is thereby generated, stating, is the imaginary "i" really real?
The above postulate is termed as the Datar iParadox and as discussed earlier, derived solely from Dhabus Complex Theorem with help of Devi Arguments.

We can thus conclude that using mathematics we have generated a paradox questioning the nature of "i".
Since the authors are from Pune, they would like to add that any remarks regarding the authenticity and correctness of the theory shall be considered imaginary, and removed immediately from the complex plane.

Note: CD SD and AD are founders and life fellows of Institution of Vadheev Electronic Engineers. (Authors promise to write a separate document about IVEE and it will be posted in some upcoming blog by CD).

The Awesome feelings..

2011-08-11T14:12:00.001+05:30

There are moments in life when you simply feel AWESOME. This is not Barney-esque awesome, just plain natural, aligned with nature awesome feeling. The awesome feeling of feeling awesome is really awesome! Before I get stuck into this infinite loop of awesomeness, ill drift over to the crux of the post- Some of the awesome-est moments that you may experience. Ill be writing in reverse order starting from number 10 through to number 1.

10) Drinking Punyacha paani. Be out for a week or two, and when you go home, Punyacha pani tastes like nectar. I haven't tasted water which is naturally as sweet as Pune water. Its something that I really miss here in Mumbai.A sip is sufficient to gush down awesomeness down your throat. Ahh.. the sweetness..

9) Visiting green hills of the Sahyadri. The views are awesome. The topography is awesome. The climbs are awesome. The greenery is awesome. Overall an awesome feeling of awesomeness vividly coloured in the cooler shades glitter in you eyes.

8)Going to a movie and passing comments. Trust me, this is one of the best ways to de-stress oneself. Watching movies and not commenting on the actresses is a foul. You must say something!You do not have to complement them at all. All you need to do is make snide comments about how weird or dumb or a bimboish they are. Comment on pathetic direction, comment on everything, comment on Himesh. That is what Hindi movies are made for. to comment(A few of my Mumbai friends have recently discovered this habit of mine, when I was picking on Katrina Kaif of all the people!) Its an awesome feeling to pass comments and making actors and directors look needlessly stupid(only those who deserve it though)

7) Dancing in the first rains.India in summers is parched. dry as hell. Hot, sweltering. and then the magic happens. The first rains- heavy rains arrive- in late may- the pre-monsoons. They fall with such ferocity that the whole landscape is changed within hours. The joy is unparalleled. Somehow it brings out the child in you, and even though knowing that such a move will cause sardi, you step out to dance in the showers. Thats one hell of a feeling of awesomeness.. Electricity network breakdowns add spice to it, and the feeling of awesomeness on a chilly rain wrecked evening with darkness around you is just amazing.

6)Eating stuff bursting with cheese: Come to think of it, Cheese is a weak point. We love cheese. having straps/strings or cubes or be it on pizzas, nachos, pastas or anything. cheese is cheese. The awesomeness when you see a melting pot of cheese when you order a Fondue. Oh goshh! cheesy delight indeed! cheese is cheese and it brings with it a highly enriched awesomeness.

5)Sitting in a calm, lonely silent place: I had this wonderful feeling on the beaches of Orissa. It was night-time, I was at some small temple by the beach at some obscure location near Balasore. I had walked for about 5-6 km after dinner, seeking quiet. The feeling I got in that temple was beyond words. Indescribable. I have never quite had such calmness of mind ever. Sitting alone at some obscure location without disturbance, and listening to the sounds of nature is indeed an awesome feeling.

4) Getting a hint that you like someone: Some people when they encounter this feeling go "Shit Happens". but the feeling is truly amazing. Its like.. "arre he kaay suru ahe! hotay kay mala!" and then everything goes boom! you cant keep your head still and calm. Its not love, thats one domain I wont venture into for now. Its just knowing that you like some one. Just LIKE. "Crush" ( I dont know why its called that) as they say. That feeling of restlessness, mental battles with yourself is just awesome!

3)Shadja chhedane- Playing the Sa. I dont know. somehow it feels like music has a base when you play the Sa. The feeling of foundation is laid. The feeling of support is created. Forget as someone who plays an instrument. Even as a Kaansen, when the tanpura is struck, and the first Shadja is heard, an instant calmness spreads throughout. Its a heavenly sound. It has that Awesome factor written all over it.

2) making people smile: Trust me, off all the good things we do, making other people smile, gives a different elevated level of satisfaction. Be it through your stupidity, pretending to be stupid, sending gifts which mean a lot, doing small things which touch others, actions which make other people smile in short, require no effort. Knowing the fact that I made a person smile draws a smile from me as well. Its one of the purest awesome feeling that one can get.

I am going to get kicked for my number one awesome moment. But trust me there are a lot of people who would agree with me. Till now, the feelings of awesomeness were external. The number one awesome feeling, perhaps the funniest is an internal feeling that requires nothing or no one to induce. Only you can do it for yourself. Dont let your thoughts drift to topics off limits to the under aged. Its not what you are thinking dirty minds!.

Its my personal favorite awesome feeling, and its here for a reason..

1) Letting go of bodily liquids stored in your bladder: Imagine this.. Youve drunk loads of water. Your bursting to go to the loo, but theres none nearby. Somehow you have managed to put a lid on your bladder. Urgency at its best. You finally find a loo or a suitable tree, rush to it, and to put it colloquially- pee. Ahhhhhhhh... Nivval sukh! You can literally feel the hotness in you being taken out, replaced by cool, calm extraordinary feelings! Ahhhhhhhhhahahahaha!! there are no words to describe the feeling one gets after peeing. Its probably the awesomest of all awesome feelings, for it cannot be put in words. It just happens!

A moment of "Nivval Sukh"

I dont know what the reaction is going to be. But I wanted to write on this for a long time. It feels awesome! :)

The Raaz of the scarf

2011-07-19T13:27:00.000+05:30

People visiting Pune from outside have a numerous issues which they cannot reslove when they come for the first time, and in case of some mumbaikars, for ever. One of the most frequently asked questions I get asked when I go anywhere, and a serious one it is too, is about the raaz of Puneri Girls.

You see, of the few girls in the world who can do maaz and carry it off, 99% of them are living in Pune. But there is a mystery behind the maaz of puneri girls. Its an eternal enigma. an enigma that covers the very face of this feminine form of maaz.

You must have guessed it by now. I am talking about the reasons why puneri girls cover- literally cover the whole of their faces with scarf when they go out. Its not that they are not good looking! Puneri girls are best in the world(Looks wise). They are very very pretty indeed. But then, why do they hide their beauty?! Passers by like us, when riding on our bikes often wonder what did we do to deserve this sort of punishment! being robbed of watching something beautiful, with no fault of our own.

I have been pondering about the reasons why Puneri girls hide their faces. I got a lot of help from my friend Nikhil Sugwekar- the dream drummer of Pune who goes on a lot of world tours regarding the same. Here are a few theories including those that were dismissed as fictitious for the reasons for hiding behind the cloth masks.

1) They think that they arent good looking. Well, they are. Masta distat khup. no reason to hide behind a scarf.
2) They think that boys stare at them: again a rubbish theory. We have unscarved girls in our lanes, colony, vadaas etc to stare and look at.
3) Girls think that people will complement them on roads: they are obsessed with self-flattery. they think that everyone will praise them for their looks wherever they go, and so to avoid unwanted attention, they hide their faces. On the contrary, while outside, and especially if we are with friends we have no interest of praising or looking at random good looking girls.
4)Girls think scarf gives protection against accidents. Fortunately, most of the girls in pune are educated and so do not suffer from such hoccum syndromes. However, there are some dumb ones who unfortunately believe that to be true. Some have even come up with arguments- A sardarji is protected by his turban, similarly girls are protected by their scarves. Well, i tend to agree with this explanation- it comes from girls living in newly developed areas like baner, aundh, wakad etc. And to be frank, it applies perfectly to them. they are so thick skulled, that a thin scarf is sufficient to prevent any brain damage!
5) Puneri girls are scared pollution and sun will harm their skins: absolutely true. With the kind of roads and zero public transport system, Pune has a lot of pollution. On top of everything, the ill deeds of idiots like suresh kalmadi and all who have bribed the rains and clouds to not arrive have increased suns intensity, and people are going dark. This is an absoutely valid reason for girls to wear masks.
6) It gives them a hidden Identity- when they are roaming around with their boy-friends when they should be at their ajis place, they are relatively safe from their meddlesome relatives who are always ready to catch them red handed.
7)People wont recognize them- likely, but after a while when you get to know their vehicle numbers and posture while driving the vehicles, you can tell who is who.
8) They think they have put on too much fair and lovely. A valid reason. Some girls put so much fairness cream that they become snow-white and attract startes as a lot of fairness change has occured over a short period. Blame fair and lovely and shahrukh khan for his ladkiyon vaali cream for that.
9) Sivya deun palun jayla soiskar padata. Ive seen it happen. I have a few friends who swear like crazy when they drive their bikes. To prevent the return wrath of Punekars, who will remember who swears randomly, they cover their faces.
whatever reason they may come up with, I think the only valid reason is below.
10) Puneri girls, like all punekars are full of maaz. they have so much maaz about their looks, behaviour, all possible aspects that it overflows. And it overflows the most from their faces. It literally spills out from the face. To prevent this maaz from being showcased outside, to supress it within them, they hide behind their scarves.

However, there is a twist when it comes to that point. When legendary punekars like Chinmay Datar(me) and Nikhil Sugwekar(sugya)come across a maaj utu janari mulgi, they come out with terms like "ticha thobadyaavar maaz lihilay". Girls are scared of this sentence. If they get branded by it, especially by an elite set of true Punekar boys like ourselves. Our word is sort of an authority, and spreads far and wide Once scarred by this sentence, their prospects for having a Puneri married life is in tatters. Puneri boys prefer girls who are "sojwal". A maazurdi mulgi is not desirable. "Maaz karnari" is different- everyone should be able to do it. But someone overflowing with maaz, publically is least preferred.

In short, when puneri girls go out wearing those scarves, they are doing so to hide their real selves, for if we brand them with the tag "Hicha thobdyavar maaz lihilay" her dream of living in pune is over, and for sure, the only groom she will find is a Mumbaikar or an Americakar! So finally, after much discussion, me and Sugya have finally come to conclusion about the maaz, the raaz and the khauff behind the scarf!

Shankara and the Bairagi.

2011-07-10T12:45:00.000+05:30

God!Another long spells on the sidelines mainly due to a month filled with frustrations and a complete lack of time. A lot has changed over the last month. and changed drastically. Amidst a flurry of post exam get-together week, and hanging out for days on end, time flew by. While spending time with friends was a good thing, other things, which I have no intentions of disclosing, drew me into constant rage. Lets just say that i was as reactive as fluorine. I dont know why I land up in such circumstances. Do I even deserve to end up being what I was in june is a question I ask myself. Nevertheless, such hard and pressing time shows you who is always there for you. In my case, the number is very very low. But these are the ones that really matter. I realized two of the most fundamental things- Its "I" I got to think about from now, and I dont believe im saying this, but I owe a lot to my sisters, and can count on them anytime!(you will know you are being addressed here if you really are being addressed here!)

While personally, June(as always) was probably the lowest point of the year- I dont remember being this disturbed ever, there was one element in my life(this keeps reapeating no matter what the situation)- which sucked me out of this deathtrap of quicksand. Classical Music. I dont know how I'd deal with the world if there was no music. Its a perfect panacea for not just mine, but anyones problems.
One- it distracts you from stupid things that are bothering you.
Two- it relaxes you so that you can think of solutions to the bigger and more important problems you are facing.
Three- It gives you a feeling- that there is someone larger and better who knows whats happening.

Maybe its just the structuring classical music, but everything seems different each time you listen to it. Maybe as Ive grown more experienced in listening to the details of the music, the details of the raga convey a bit more than what they did last time.I dont know the exact reasons for this, but somehow, I pick up and listen to different things from the same recording whenever I hear one. Everytime it sounds better than last time. I do not have any comparisons for it!

There were two musical moments in that turbulent period that really captivated me. It was probably the combined effect of the surroundings and what I was listening as well as the time when I was listening that has left a lasting impression.

The first- Few things that had really been bothering me had kept me up for 3-4 nights. on one such nights, it must have been about 4 am, just to relax myself, i went in my balcony and started listening to a recording of Bairagi Bhairav by Pt. Ajoy Chakravarty. The wordings were "Mere man me baso shree Ram". As soon as the first couple of minutes went by, I had this strange feeling of someone keeping an eye on me from somewhere, although in vicinity I could see no one. I closed my eyes, and all my troubles disappeared. All I could think of was the beautiful wordings of the bandish that was being unfolded in front of me. I have to say, after that day, I never had the problem of sleeping at night, and If I thought that I might have a restless night, just a quick recollection of that Bairagi Bhairav suppressed the anxiety.

The second moment took place about a fortnight ago, before I left for Mumbai. After enduring a frustrating afternoon of pondering about all possible reasons for why I slipped from my bike and got myself stitched on the chin, I was again out in the balcony getting some fresh air. My music player, which continues to play music irrespective of my presence or absence in my room(when I am home) started playing a version of Raag Shankara by Vilayat Khan. I love raag shankara. It is divine. It has some magical attribute assigned to it. I have already blogged on what it did to me when I heard it for the first time. But the impact of this recording by vilayat khan was extraordinary. A drizzle in the balcony, and free flowing wind combined with those caressing and free spirited swars of Shankara again elevated me mentally, boosting my morale.

These two events made me realize a crucial element. Both are named after forms of Shiva. One is a form of Bhairav, the other Shankara. Both take you down different routes One-a lonely haunting path of mystery, mist, and the chill of a pre dawn-probably one of the most enthralling route one can take and the other- that of a late dusk, rain which in your mind turns to snow and showers you with bliss, and an awe of grandeur. Ultimately, both take you to an altogether different, highly elevated mental state. The fact that both are forms of Shiva has delivered a significant impact. Ultimately, whoever sings or plays anything, they are just conveying the very things that come out of the mouth of Lord Shiva. It was this realization, that whatever we do, whatever we want to do, whatever way we do, you ultimately reach, or atleast try to reach this Shiva that has sparked a real positive light within me.

An image of the great Shankara walking alone on a morning (a bairagi) keeps on popping up in my mind. To this image and to the person in the image I place my utmost trust, to provide the path to enlightenment.

The Dud Social Networking Experiment

2011-05-28T10:33:00.000+05:30

These holidays have been damn frustrating! Considering that they are the last ones ill be having with my college buddies, makes them even worse. Time, especially the afternoon, combined with the heat crawls at a snails pace. Quite astonishingly, there is nothing worthwhile to do! In this emptiness and boredom, a way out is to do stupid experiments. One such bored of the holidays experiment was based on the hypothesis that was drawn from observing social networking sites for long enough.

The hypothesis is that Girls get unnecessary attention on such social networking sites. A girl does anything, and there are hundreds of comments for even the silliest of things. Guys do something awesome, and there is hardly in discussion about that. Not all girls fall in that category, but most do. I wanted to test the hypothesis, already knowing what the results were to be. However, I slightly modified the theme, that me, and a girl would upload the same photo, and see the results depending on the number of comments/likes for the picture.

Fortunately, my trusted accomplice for this act was none other than my extremely nerdy and awesome friend Siddhi Soman. Siddhi, to those who do not know, is an extremely hyper-energetic person who excels at whatever she does- be it academics, badminton, rowing, having a row, brawl- you name it, she is good at it. No wonder she was the Best outgoing person from college. She is also an extremely terrifying person, and many a times has given me nightmares ( by chasing me around the college and slicing my head open by smashing rowing oars on my head in my dreams) . At 5 feet 2, Siddhi, is an awesome model who if in the right mood gives off awesome emotions for the camera. I had clicked a super picture of hers last year after the college dinner when she was doing her normal nautanki. The picture is awesome actually! its one of the better portrait shots that I've clicked. So it was with this picture that I decided to experiment.

The picture is a black and white portrait style photo of Siddhi expressing a typical Filmy dialogue "Nahiiii" ,and its one of my favourite ones. I had uploaded the pic on Facebook for my new album Life in B&W a couple of days ago, and received scant appreciation for an awesome photo. So, I persuaded Siddhi to upload it on her wall. And Lo behold! in a mere 24 hours, the photo on Siddhis wall had more likes and comments than what I had on mine! Its a matter of jealousy when someone gets into the limelight for things you do isn't it! I am not that bothered, as I get enough publicity through other means anyway, but a person of faint heart ought to get jealous. Anyway, I'm putting up the picture here as well. Its right below this text.

Stupid experiments usually have stupid conclusions. In my case, the experiments have vadheev conclusions. Linking any observation to anything is a prime ace I have up my sleeve to create lots and lots of noise. This time, even though the topic of discussion was well proven, just to have a new outlook, I attempted something else, which unfortunately by my standards is rather dull.

Anyway, I came to the following conclusions after carrying out this act of nautanki:

1) Siddhi is an awesome subject for taking not just nautanki photographs, but normal photos too.

2) Girls do not usually like or comment on awesome clicks of other girls if posted on a boys profile.They get super jealous that its not their Photo.

3) Girls go hyper if the same thing is posted by the girl who is in the picture. "Awwww howww cute re!" etc etc

4) Boys go ballistic over the portraits. "You look awesome blah blah blah(General observation, not applicable to Siddhi. :P)

5) Compared to other girls, Siddhi has received less number of hits. This is probably because she is a good girl.(ya right!) I was more inclined on describing her as a hopeless aspiring model, but she is not. If I say so, my head gets sliced in two.

6) Social Networking sites are pro female.(rather grudgingly accepted)

7) Like it or not, girls receive free, fukat, unnecessary, pointless attention on Social Networking sites.

8) Im better off writing posts which spoof engineering and mathematical terms rather than experimenting on stupid social networking.

Now, Ive lost the confidence in social networking experiments. Dont know why I carried this depressing experiment in first place. Maybe, by using Siddhi as a bait, im trying to enhance my publicity on social networking sites. :P (Not that I need it, but its fun, and Id have done it anyway- Im not someone who is shy of carrying out a PS :))

Never mind, if this post becomes a hit, then I give half the plaudits to Siddhi for helping me conduct a stupid experiment. If it bombs, its entirely her fault and I have nothing to do with it. But going forth with my cocky and arrogant self confidence, I have all faith that this will be a hit, and Siddhi will get a shot at fame that, unlike most other girls, is atleast earned!

The Puneri Lingo

2011-05-21T11:25:00.008+05:30

Pune, my hometown, is a city of legends. The stuff that goes on here in unparalleled anywhere in the world. You cannot become a Punekar. You are born one. the "Maaz" is innate. You cannot develop it. Short Temper, Exceedingly obsessive pride about anything Pune, A taste bud to devour all the unusual dishes you get here are few common traits of a true blue punekar. However, since Pune is also a cultural centre- the place where Marathi language is ever evolving, a true Punekar is also a person who comes up with and uses a few peculiar words understood only by the select few in this world who have the honour of being born punekar. What may seem like nonsensical terms make complete sense to us. Some are immortal. Some, became more apparent in the last 4 years I spent doing engineering.

This post is dedicated to all those special Puneri words that we come up with.

1) Awraa... I dont know how to explain this in english. It has no parallel. If anyone says or does anything not ordinary, thats the typical reaction. "Awraa..."

Usage...

1st person "Are Zampya ni pori kade vakdya najarene pahila "...

Punekar "Awraaaaa!!!"

2)Vadheev... A suitable english word would be a whimsical person or an act. Initially it was used to describe a person, by saying stuff suuch as Kay vadheev ahe to. But soon enough its other forms started appearing. Vadheevpana, vadheevgiri etc etc.

Usage..

"Arre Zampya kasla vadheev vagato"

3)Napas/FAIL.. I guess I got hooked to this term through Sushant. VIT word. If anyone does anything stupid, then he is FAIL.

Typical usage:

"Arre Zampya! Sadhi porgi patavta yet nai tula! Kay FAIL/Napaas ahes"

4) Aai chi jay! An exclamation which literally means Hail Oh Mother! An expression to display the emotion of shock or surprize.

Usage:

1st person.. "Arre Zampya la muli avadatat"..

Punekar(who is least expecting this).."Aai chi Jay!"

5)Haramya. An adjective used to describe a devious person. Someone who says something and does the opposite.

Usage:

"Arre Haramya.. asa vagtat ka!"

6) Chhapri.. A mild way to curse a person. It means that a person has no standards. Associated with banter only.

Usage.

"Arre chhapri!! he kaay ahe!"

7) Ghanta.. means bell. But in puneri marathi it is a word to express deep disbelief at someones actions.

Usage:

1st person.."Arre, zampya ni porgi patavli"..

Punekar.. "GHANTA!"

8)Barrr.... a conversation ender. literally means OK. but in the rudest of the rude puneri ethos, this is said when the person opposite is boring you to death. He says anything, just say barr!, and he wont know what to say.

Usage...

1st person.. "Are tula mahitye ka he ha blah blah blah blah... blah balh blah"

Punekar "Barrr!"

1st person. ""

9) Kamaal... Something amazing. If anything or anyone is out of this world, this word is used to describe it.

Usage.

"Edya..Zampya chi navin girlfriend kamaaal ahe rao!"

10)Balach.. Nonsensical. Used to dismiss claims made by the other person.

Usage.

Zampya "arre me vargat pahila alo"

Punekar "Balach!!"

11)Bhurtya.. Used to describe a person who acts like an idiot. a sugar coated swear word for a waif individual.

Usage.

"are e bhurtya salya"

12) Gandlay... Used to describe somethings that gone wrong.

Usage.

eg: when the mobile phone stops working.. "Maza mobile gandlaay re!"

13)Dokyat jau nako! Used to silence the person opposite if he is making outrageous claims.

Usage:

1st person "Arre merreko ye mila, woh mila"

Punekar "Dokyat jau nakos re!! Gappa bass"

14) Edya layee bhaari.. word to word, it means Awesome!

Usage..

Zampya.. "Arre mulgi patavli"

Punekar: "Edya Layeee bhaari!"

15) Full Hawa.. Means show off..

Usage:

"Arre, zampya ni porgi patavli.. ata full hawaa kartoy!"

16) Fukat hawa... unnecessary show off.

Usage

"kaam tar itarankadun karun ghetla ani swataha fukat hawaa karat basla"

17)Ashakkya! means impossible, and is used to describe a variety of things ranging from boredom to enjoyment

Usage:

Ghari basun Ashakkya bor zalay.

Arre trek la ashakkya majaa ali!

18) Ghari Ja! An exclamation to tell the other person to stop meaningless argument. Literally means "Go Home"

Usage:

1st person.. "Arre, tula mahitye ka blah blah blah blah"

Punekar" Ghari jaa re!"

19) Ek Numberr/ Vishesshh!! again means Awesome!

Usage

"Arre amchi exam Vishssesshh hoti!"

20) Kharraaab! means bad...in a bad way. used to describe if a person has had is ga** hammered by banter.

Usage

"Arre zampya chi Kharrraaaab marli geli!"

21) Aai chya gavat! means In mothers village. But in puneri marathi, it is a phrase used to describe surprize.

Usage

1st person. "Arre... aaj aapli pariksha ahe."

Punekar. "Aai chya gavat!"

22) Full Radaaa... means a brawl, or mismanagement or any other activity which leads to chaos.

Usage.

"Arre ganpati baghtana Lakshmi road var fulll radaaaa zala hota"

23) Matter zala.. means someone is in trouble.

Usage

"Arre.. kharaab matter zalay... exam madhe Zampya chi copy pakadli geli"

24) Arre mitra! is a phrase used to address any person you may or may not know.

Usage:

"Arre mitra... shanta ho jaraa"

25) Ghusliye! means screwed!

Usage:

"Arre exam suru ahet re.. kahich abhyas nahi zalay.. full ghusliye!"

26) Dokyala Shot.. irritating person/event.

Usage.

1st person " te bagh... Zampya chi girlfriend yetye"

Punekar.. "Nako re ti!! dokyala shot ahe!"

27) Chalni/Challan... a person who tells thaapaa(mild lies) all the time/ A mild lie. Exaggerated claims.

Usage:

"Arre zampya ek number cha chalni manus ahe! Chhotya chottya goshtinbaddal pan challan sodat asto

28) jeev de re tu! a disdainful remark to someone who is irritating you.

Usage.

1st person. "Arre tula mahitye ka.. blah blah blah blah"

Punekar.. "Jeev de re tu!"

29) Kahi!!! Another word used to express disbelief.. usually used as "Kahihi kay!!"

Usage

Zampya "Arre me lagna tharavla"

Punekar.. "Kahi kay re!!"

30) Kapalat gotya jane/ gaar padne.. getting stunned.. literally...

Usage

"Mitra are.. zampya i vaieet bomb takla aaj.. Lagna tharavala mhane.. kapalat gotya gelya he aikun.. gaaar padlo hoto me pudchi 5 minita"

For some reasons I had missed these. Added after being pointed out by the likes of MadB,Andaksh and others.

1) Haat var zalet.. means hands held high.. situation is out of control.
Usage:
"Aarreee yaar!! parikshemule haat var zalet maze!"

2) Cheap pana: Universally used to describe anything that you dont want!
"Arre kay cheap pana ahe ha!! roj roj kay pariksha"

3)Vayaaaa means waste... used to describe person, behaviour, anything!
Usage
"Arre Zampya vayaa ahe full.. kiti vayaaa vagato!"

4) Phupphha: Its an abbreviation and apabhraunsh of fully faltu. the word was coined by me and Sushya.
Usage:
"Ricky Ponting jagatla saglyat Phupphha manus ahe"

5)Majjor/ Infinite: Exaggerated claims.. Used to increase the strength of your claims.
Usage
"Arre Zampye aaj kal Majjor/Infinite dokyat jaato rao!"

6) Kissa: Kissa is a retrospect of something that a person does not usually do. An act which receives lot of attention, and the person responsible gets lots of flack, then it is a Kiss.
Usage
"Arree.. Zampya ani tyachi girlfriend rastyat bekkar bhandat hote.. Vadheev Kissa hota!"

I dont know how i forgot this. But Piyusha Dani would have killed me if id have not written this! (25-May-2011)

7) Chiwda : Utter Chaos. Similar to raadaa, although less intense.
Usage:
"Arre mitranno! mazya profile picture var jara kami commenting kara! kaay chiwdaa karun thevlay ithe saglyanni!"

These are just a few of the best words that we use. Puneri Lingo is difficult to understand for outsiders.. just a little help for these retarded souls. One thing is sure, when I do go to the US for my masters degree, ill miss the freedom with which i shall get to use these legendary words!"

कोलंबसाचे गर्वगीत

2011-05-15T11:41:00.002+05:30

Another of my favourite poems by Kusumagraj. Seems I havent posted any poems in a long long time! But this one makes up for everything..

कोलंबसाचे गर्वगीत

हजार जिव्हा तुझ्या गर्जु दे प्रतिध्वनीने त्या

समुद्रा, डळमळू दे तारे!
विराट वादळ हेलकावु दे पर्वत पाण्याचे

ढळुदे दिशाकोन सारे!

ताम्रसुरा प्राशून माजुदे दैत्य नभामधले

दडूद्या पाताळी सविता
आणि त्यांची ही अधिराणि दुभंग धरणीला
काराया पाजळुदे पलिता!

की स्वर्गातून कोसळलेला, सूड समाधान
मिळाया प्रमत्त सैतान
जमवुनी मेला वेताळांचा या दर्यावरती

करि हे तांडव थैमान!

पदच्युता, तव भीषण नर्तन असेच चालुदे
फुटुदे नभ माथ्यावरती
आणि तुतुडे अखंड उल्का वर्षावात अग्नी
नाविका ना कुठली भिती!

सहकार्यानो, का ही खंत जन्म खलाशांचा
झुंजण्या अखंड संग्राम
नाक्षत्रापारी असीम नीलामधे संचरावे
दिशांचे आम्हाला धाम!

काय सागरी तारू लोटले आरत्या मागे
असे का हा अमुचा बाणा

त्याहुनी घेऊ जळी समाधी सुखे, कशासाठी
जपावे पराभूत प्राणा

कोट्यावधी जगतात जीवाणू जगति अन मरती
जशी ती गवताची पाती,
नाविक आम्ही परंतु फिरतो सात नभाखाली
निर्मितो नवक्षितिजे पुढती!

मार्ग आमुचा रोधू ना शक्ती ना धन ना दारा
घराची व वितभर कारा
मानवतेचे निशाण मिरवू महासागरात
जिंकुनी खंड खंड सारा!

चला उभारा शुभ्र शिडे ही गर्वाने वरती

कथा ह्या खुळ्या सागराला
"अनंत अमुची ध्येयासक्ती अनंत अन आशा
किनारा तुला पामराला "

K-means Clustering

2011-04-26T18:24:00.002+05:30

One of the biggest advantages of being an engineer is that we can apply concepts that we have learnt in our syllabus to virtually any problem in the world, and try to come up with new and innovative ideas to deal with these problems. We see a number of examples of engineers coming up with bizarre applications. Why refer to other engineers. Me and Anant Devi have already come up with Datar-Devi Approximations for Exams. A cousin of mine, by profession a computer geek, by passion a world class singer came up with another of such fantastic research of the relation between the frequency of your arm swing while walking and your velocity. Amazing stuff. Really, there are no boundaries for us engineers. All we need to do is think a little bit out of the box. Today, I shall be discussing one of the more important algorithms that we have in signal processing (esp speech processing)-the K-means algorithm and its application to one of the major headache for all college guys- the right girl.

Now, engineers, or for that matter most of the guys are hopeless when it comes to selecting the right girl for them. They just fall in love without thinking! (I know Ill be called a hypocrite- I too have been down this path on multiple occasions. MadB will be the one who will accuse me first, but yeah, who takes her seriously when she accuses!) And then they end up fighting with the girl over petty issues, and then act like crybabies. What guys need is patience. This post is dedicated to all guys who are eternally confused as to what they will do with their love life and provide with insight of finding the best possible partners.

Let me introduce you to our quirky and extremely challenging to implement in matlab friend of ours, The K-means algorithm, which I will use to address your woes. To the unwary and uneducated, K-Means is a clustering algorithm that we commonly use for vector quantization. A given n dimensional ( n corresponding to various parameters) vectors when quantized into a data of say n bits is mapped to its nearest encoded bitstream which gives minimum mean squared error ( the message to which it is encoded is called the centroid) . One problem is- how do you assign the centroid. Well, it is simple. Its nothing but a mean of all the vectors in that cluster. So, dynamically, the centroid will keep on changing until all entities converge to a single point.
Mathematically, the K-means algorithm will be given by

Given a set of observations (x₁, x₂, …, x_n), where each observation is a d-dimensional real vector, k-means clustering aims to partition the n observations into k sets (k ≤ n) S = {S₁, S₂, …, S_k} so as to minimize the within-cluster sum of squares (WCSS):

where μ_i is the mean of points in S_i.

[wikipedia.]

Pictorally, this can be represented as:

1) k initial "means" (in this casek=3) are randomly selected from the data set (shown in color).
2) k clusters are created by associating every observation with the nearest mean. The partitions here represent theVoronoi diagram generated by the means.
3) The centroid of each of the kclusters becomes the new means.
4) Steps 2 and 3 are repeated until convergence has been reached.

Now, coming back to the notion of the application of K-means for the problem to be addressed. Here, in k-means we have a n dimensional vector. Let these n dimensions be all the points you will look for in the girl. (My vector, is 20 dimensional.) as shown in the figure above, make three categories- Girls who you like.
Girls who you do not like. and Girls who you think are OK. Each girl will have her own unique n dimensional vector. Assign a self defined centroid for all three of them.

As you grow older through your engineering years you come across a number of girls, not necessarily in your college, who you may have considered as your potential ideal match, or as your worst possible match. This will give you quite a bit of database for statistical analysis. When you see a girl in either category, observe them for a few days, and adjust their vectors, and keep them updating. after a sufficient amount of time, the vectors will have reached a saturation point and will not alter. this is when you apply the k-means.

now, it is highly unlikely that we will get a girl who coincides with our self defined centroids. If that happens to be your case, you are one hell of a lucky ba***d. But for people like me, who have some impossible conditional vector entries, this is almost impossible. Also, it is highly improbable that you will have a girl with some qualities from girl B who has some desirable qualities and girl C who has other desirable qualities. Lets face it- its unlikely. So, the best solution is to find the "vector" which will give you the least mean squared error at the output of the K-means. The girl corresponding to that vector is the one you go for!

Just to conclude:

If you like a girl, you have to wait for some time to be absolutely sure that she is the one that is perfect for you. Observe. Make mental notes of all the small things she does. (ofcourse this advise is only for those who are looking long term.. those interested in short term can jump ships whenever they want!). Make a mental note of what you want your ideal girl to be like beforehand. Ive received a lot of flack for my ideal girl, who can be found here, but nevertheless, do it. Jot down all the points you want in all of them, and get ready to run the K-means algorithm.It works!!

(Personally, I dont recommend this approach- I havent done it for myself, and probably will not do it. Im more of a hopeless old school- fall in love arbitrarily kind of person to try this out. I am not suffering that much, and I am happy with the things as of now. No need for me then! This analogy was made purely to showcase the versatility that an engineer can adopt to make even the simplest of the things mathematical and complex. )

The Fridge Key

2011-04-20T10:32:00.000+05:30

I dont know how much impact this will have on my grades, but i hope it does not, for we did this misdeed last year!

Third year, for many reasons, was one of the most memorable years in college. Especially the 6th semester. Probably, it was the first time we didnt have that much load on our shoulders, or maybe the subjects were easy, or even maybe for the fact the I managed to score an 8 point grade after two wretched semesters made it all the more special. It was the time that the bonding in class was at its best. I had made some incredible like minded friends by that time. So its not surprizing that we ended up doing what I am going to narrate.

It was a typical March afternoon, probably the last week-sometime between 3:30-5:30, EM practical, with Babya conducting the practical session. March in Pune is bad, and in a closed 20x20 room filled with an assortment of CROs and other measuring instruments, with just a single ceiling fan operating, and a ban to switch on the AC, it gets even worse. Heat, sweat and practicals had drawn us to madness. To make the matters worse we had run out of supplies for water, and if we needed to get them, we had to climb down two flights of stairs and back up again. Who has the energy to do all that at the end of a tiring day! Nevertheless we did go down to get two waterbottles filled up, but to our sheer disappointment, the water was as hot as the weather outside. Something Cool was the need of the hour.

Fortune, was on our side. The EM lab has a refrigerator. So, we decided to cool our water bottles and have something cool to drink later. When we opened the fridge door, to our delight, there were 5-6 bottles of cold water, which we immediately set about consuming, and were promptly told off for doing so. Angered at the fact that we were told off for drinking cool water, and were prevented from cooling our own bottles, we plotted a revenge.

As it happened, we conducted an extra practical for ourselves to get the lab assignments out of the way a couple of days later. Now, that day, me and my partner in crime from my lab sessions- Krishna, observed that our friend Babya had left the key on the refrigerator lock. A devilish scheme tool place, and we came up with the conclusion that if we cannot drink cold water, nobody can. So, when nobody was observing, me and Krishna quickly locked the fridge and hid the key, initially in Krishnas pocket. When we did finish performing the practical, we left silently, taking the key with us.

Now, the summer heat got to Babya, and he wanted to have a drink, but could not open the fridge as we had locked it! He was livid. He told off the remaining people from our batch and demanded where was the key. He knew that we had left. So he called us back to the lab, and told that he is checking all bags and pockets for his fridge keys. we needed a place to hide the key somewhere. So Krishna came up with a solution. the key was put on his sandal underneath his foot, and off we went to the lab. We got searched, and still the key could not be found. So we acted to show that we didnt have it by helping search for it. We literally lifted the fridge to check if it was underneath the fridge, checked under all desks, tables, chairs everywhere- but no sign of the key. Babya who was flustered by his thirst by now, told that this was a serious issue and would be reported to the HOD. (who is scared of action taken on a prank!)

We were told off, and then let go. Next day I think it was RDJ who came and told off the entire class for stealing the keys. Here, playing mafia came in rather handy. I was totally able to pull off the fact that it wasnt with me, and I was not associated with this crime! The same applied for Krishna, although he doesnt need mafia practice.

We kept the key with us for atleast 3 days. the 4th day was the April fools day. So, on that day, we decided to return our key anonymously. We put a sign saying april fool on it, and put the key in the lock of the Lab door. Somebody saw us putting the key there, but fortunately, did not report it. The next time we went for the practical, Babya was gleeful that he had found the key. He told that it was just misplaced probably, and he found it(as if..), and no action will be taken. So, the key was back, everyone was happy, me and krishna were let off for what can only be described as the most vadheev prank that Ive pulled off.

It was fun! More fun than hiding Gandhalis Dio. More fun than we have had on the Boat club at times. Probably not that much fun as I had this semester doing vadheev pana with MadB,Ketki,Teja and Alok. Still, it was one of the best pranks that can be played in college. Juniors, it is your time to fill in my shoes now that I am graduating soon!

Krishna- Half the gang.

Chinmay- The other half of the gang.

Key- the one we kidnapped.

Gujari Todi and Shankara- Connecting with God.

2011-03-27T16:29:00.000+05:30

Everyday when I practice playing sitar or harmonium, or sing softly a bandish to understand the structure of a raag, I see myself gaining that 0.00000000001% extra knowledge from the boundless ocean, and even that fractional amount is sufficient to give they joy that no other activity could ever give. Implementing what you have heard, is probably the most satisfying thing that I can experience. For one, it makes the pieces of music created by legends fall on my ears, and make me realise why they are known as quality artists, and helps create a strong driving force inside me, to reach atleast to a fraction of those lofty heights.

Then there is the aspect of emotion that is conjured up by just listening to individual pieces of music. No two raagas will deliver the same emotion. Forget that, not even the same raaga by two different people will convey the same emotion. The emotion may be similar, but is certainly not the same. Being absorbed in these generated emotions is probably the only thing thats keeping me doing stupid things that would otherwise have been spontaneous reactions to mindless activities going on around me.

Mentioning the raagas, two have recently jumped up on the list of my favourites. I talk a lot about Jog, Malkauns, Bhairavi all the time- who doesnt like them! But these two- they forge a direct link with an unknown entity. A source of power which tells me there is more to life than the way in which we live. I well and truly have to thank these two ragas- Gujari Todi and Shankara for taking me into a state of mental calmness that I have never quite experienced. I wont talk much about the ragas or their structure- i am not qualified enough to do it, but ill just state what I feel when I listen to these ragas now a days.

Starting with Gujari Todi- a version of Todi in which the Pancham is omitted. Gujari Todi is a majestic raag. It goes beyond explanations. I am learning the raag in my sitar class, and at the start of the lesson when my sir plays the notes on his taraf, there is an instantaneous transcendence, mentally. The first observation is that even a single line of Gujari Todi makes you forget all thats bothering you. Close your eyes when you are listening to just one line, and a picture of a large void envolopes your vision, and when the raag turns out its effect, the void is filled by the sound of Om, and the picture of god. If I consider myself as an electron and my mental state as an orbital, then Gujari Todi has sufficient energy in it to excite me from ground state to the highest possible orbital. Its just an extremely phenomenal raag. Must listen to pieces include those by Pt. Jasraj, Bismillah Khan, Pts. Rajan and Sajan Mishra and ofcourse Ustad Shahid Parvez.

Shankara is another very very cleansing raga that makes your mind go pure. I was maybe helped to realize the grandeur and subtle elegance of this raga by the explanation provided by some ustad on a programme on DD Bharati. He said, Imagine yourself as a mountaineer climbing a sheer vertical snow covered cliff. All you can see is snow everywhere, and to add to your woes, its snowing, and there is no protection or company. You climb and climb, are extremely fatigued, and suddenly, end up on a landing that has a cave on it. To shelter yourself from the freezing chill outside, you run inside the cave. You walk in a few steps, and in front of you is a man sitting in his meditative pose. He is so massive that even when he is sitting, the dreadlocks of his matted hair appear to be in the heavens with the crescent of the moon firmly attached on them. Your eyes fall on him, terrified at first, but his gently, kind, warm and welcoming gaze falls on you and drives away all your fears. That feeling of warmth- that of the largeness of god, immediately spark in your mind. These very emotions are conveyed when you listen to Shankara. The vision of Shankara- the lord of the gods, and the mood of Shankara-the lord of the ragas is very strikingly similar, and is probably the reason why the latter was named so. Again, Pt. Jasraj Ji, Bhimsen Joshi, Bismillah Khan are must listen.

These two ragas are probably the ones that I will forever cherish for helping overcome and stifle unstablility and related anger problems that go with it, in what really is one of the most testing period of my life as far as patience is concerned.

Tatyarao

2011-03-22T09:37:00.000+05:30

Of all the meaningless commenting, chitchat and time pass that goes on on Facebook, once in a while, something amazing crops up. Recently, a friend of mine posted a clipping from the Marathi talk show "Khupte tithe Gupte". The show is aired on the Z Marathi network, and is conducted by the famous pro-rock Marathi artist Avadhoot Gupte. But, this episode was very endearing, and was one that really made me think, about myself, and my duties to my motherland.

The concept was that in that particular segment, you can call whoever you want to call. People tend to call the person with whom they had a fight to patch up, a long lost friend who they havent met in ages etc. But not this guest. He himself is a very accomplished actor, and someone I have had tremendous respect for, after meeting him and spending time with him at back stage during the Chitpavan Mahasammelan. Yes, I am talking about Sharad Ponkshe- a firebrand of an actor who has portrayed the role unforgettable role of Nathuram Godse in what is a memorable play, but sadly criticized by our ruling party and its ideology less followers, Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy.

The thing is, that instead of calling any of his friends, relatives, mother or any normal person, Sharad Ponkshe called Svatantryaveer Savarkar. The reason for calling was simple. It was a plea- a plea to a real ideologist, a freedom fighter, a selfless patriot who sacrificed everything he could for our motherland, and yet, gets heavily criticized, insulted and overlooked by our current government. It was an earnest request to instill his ideologies of "tyaag karne and ayushyacha hom karne". The video is available on the following
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t6b8jCarkg The acting is so real, so convincing, so moving, that I shed a tear on listening to this.

The video has got me thinking. And think deeply. The state of our nation is really appalling. People are embroiled only in earning shortcut fame and money. Its the unfortunate reality. If there is a sabha going on the life of Savarkar, and next door to it is an audition for roadies, the mindless youth (which i consider unlucky to be a part of) will ignore the path set by an inspirational person and attend the stupid roadies audition.

I wont say anymore-otherwise it will become a post which hammers the youth of today, which has a void when it comes to passion, love and sacrifice for the nation. I was on the verge of becoming one of these idiots for sometime now, but this video has reshaped me. Its reignited that undying love for the motherland, and a thirst to do something good and worthwhile for her, which will make her stand out. One thing I am definitely going to do, is that in future, if ever I go abroad for higher studies, I have every intention to come back, and implement what Ive learnt for the betterment of my country.

I know the path ahead is going to be full of hardships if this is to be done. But I have Savarkar in my heart, and in my mind. His guiding hand and influence can only be a positive. For support I have 4 lines from his own poem titled Maze Mrutyupatra, which is actually a letter written to his vahini, in which he calls her by various names including a goddess, a mother, a brave woman. Its a 25 stanza poem, so I wont post it completely, just the 4 lines from it that give me immense courage to tackle what is otherwise a hard task..

की न घेतले आम्ही हे व्रत अंधतेने

लब्ध-प्रकाश इतिहास निसर्ग माने

जे जे दिव्य-दाहक म्हणोनी असावयाचे

बुद्ध्याची वाण धरिले करि हे सतीचे!

My cup of Tea!

2011-03-17T17:52:00.003+05:30

I am a self confessed big Coffee addict, so this title may seem to be a tad bit confusing. But, recently, along with coffee, I've started drinking a lot- and I mean a LOT of tea, thanks to my mother, who herself is a big tea addict. Now a days mornings start with an early tea followed by 2 cups of coffee before leaving for college or project, an afternoon "cutting" chai, a late afternoon tea when I get back home, another cup of coffee if I go out somewhere, a cup of tea at about 6.30 when my dad comes home, and another cup of coffee after dinner! phew! addicted to beverages is the only correct observation!

Today, a couple of minutes ago, I brewed an awesome cup of tea for myself. The flavour has turned out to be so amazing, that its compelled me to write a post on how I made it! So, here is one for all tea addicts.

The tea in question was Kolukkumalai tea, freshly ground and packed at the Kolukkumalai tea estate in Kerala(which I visited back in december, and from where I got 3 big boxes of chaha patti. Its a really interesting process- the way they make tea powder. worth visiting.). Anyway, the flavour of that tea is just awesome. Must have it everyone.

Ok, so here is the quick guide:

1) Keep 3/4th of a large cup of water for boiling.

2)Add 2 and a half tablespoons of sugar to it

3) 1 teaspoon of Kolukkumalai tea.

4) start boiling.

5) Add half a leaf of gavti chaha freshly plucked from the back garden

5)boil for a minute or so, and afterwards add a small piece of ginger.

6)Add 1/4th cup of milk and keep boiling till tea becomes slightly red(or as people say, "strong")

7)Gaal your tea through a galna, and its ready to drink!

8) Drink with relish- its better than tapri varcha chaha, which is the next best thing!

trust me, the subtle flavours of gavti chaha, Kolukkumalai chaha and ginger are driving me crazy right now! On top of it, the immense satisfaction of brewing a hot steaming awesome cup of tea just for yourself is amazing! One for me then!

Me reading the post leading to Klukkamalai tea estate!(Photo by Sandeep Ranade)

Gandhali chi Gaadi!

2011-03-16T21:25:00.002+05:30

It seems ive become quite a famous disappearing act! haven't written for a long time now. Its surprising that how much less time you seem to have when you are enjoying your life the most! Just when college has started to get fun, there is a dawn of realization that there is only a month and half left of it now. Friends of 4 years will be going all over the world to realize their potentials and become the best at what they want to do. Its been an emotionally charged past few months, recollecting the best of the times spent with friends, and the worst moments fighting and arguing with the bestest of them. Yes we fought, yes we didn't talk, but the friendship stuck through these glitches and prevailed.

Its an overwhelming emotion to realize that an era, a formative period in your life is about to end. A lot of time these days, when I'm not upto my usual pranks and not working, goes in remembering all the good times Ive had in college, along with my friends exclusively from B.Tech. I wont share any moments here Ive had with the closest of them all- theyll take take up gigabytes of memory, but the a few which stand out as classic pranks.

I have to say that the first prank I ever played on anyone in college was on Gandhali. I suffered for it, I incurred the wrath of Gandhali, but since it was the first, I had to mention it! Long back, nearly 3 and a half years ago, when we were in our first year, extremely naive, and carefree, we used to hang out in a large group to have discussion on how our "group" of about 15-20 odd people will enter into various robotics events. We actually made 2-3 manual robots for it as well! on one such evening, a meeting of similar nature was being held in the college itself. Gandhali, one of the brighter students amongst us had parked her Dio in front of the college store. Just to have some fun we decided to hide it somewhere and act as if nothing had happened.

Being the kind of idiots that we are, me and Madhura started dragging the vehicle to a corner only to realize after a few 100 feet, that Gandhali had left her keys on the bike itself!(Which was pointed out by Pranav) Animesh came running to our aid and join the list of eternal pranksters. Tick, the lock unlocked, kheeeeee the button was pressed, dio started, vroom.. off we went! right behind on the other side of the campus to metallurgy department, and hid gandhalis bike behind there. Locked and secured it, and came back.

By the time we were back, Gandhali had not realised what had happened. Only when we decided to leave, and she started searching for her keys, did she realize her bike was missing! Anyway, we did not trouble her much afterwards. She was already so upset and angry that she could have obliterated anyone in her path by just staring at them! (MadB can contribute much to this image of Gandhalis.!) So after about 10-15 minutes, we got her bike back to cool her down and escape a potential punishment with just a few swear words directed at us.

That was probably the 1st and the last time ive seen the rudra roop of Gandhali. Never ever I have seen her getting this angry. She forgave us for ours sins at the end of the day, which is all important, and did not let the incident skewer the friendship we had forged. Today, looking back, it was a stupid thing to do probably. But none the less, it provides us with an unforgettable memory of our exceptional start to a series of pranks in college that have continued till now!

(Gandhali, im sorry ive mentioned you directly in this post, but you know, tula include kelyani vegla bharitla effect yeto! so me adhich sorry mhantoy parat chidlis tar! ;))

me and gandhali last week, although i wanted a pic with her bike as well! ah well, one pic for later!

The January Madness

2011-02-03T15:45:00.003+05:30

Well, the January transfer window was one crazy shopping spree for clubs like liverpoo and chelshits.

Here is what the great winger "Akkal " thought of the whole stuff...

reactions from bloated head mario, ferrrrnando torrres, dogba, red nev, arsene, ancellottery, and other notable and controversial figures. Amazing stuff. had to be shared!

Pune tithe Kharach kay une

2011-02-03T08:32:00.002+05:30

Pune, to me, is the best city to live in this whole world. Its weather is awesome. Its not too big, so you can reach from one corner to other in at the most 45 mins when there is no traffic. The advantages are endless. However, what makes pune special is its people. Punekars have some unique and extremely odd habits that usually people from other places dont have. Say what you want, the Puneri sense of humour is something which is very unexpected.

Some of the peculiar things that have been noted about Punekar(I hate to call puneites- kasla ghaan vatata) is his reluctance to work in the afternoon.1-4 all shops will be closed, and closed with proud boards displaying shop will be closed as its time for lunch and sleep! There is a famous joke about this- once a shop (Specifically Chitales sweet shop(Nothing against you Inder and Nikhil- but thats how the joke goes) ) catches fire in the afternoon. The fire brigade comes to quell the fire, and the shop owner simply tells the fire fighters-" its time for lunch, please come back when the shop opens at 4!"

Then there is another weird habit of removing air from the tyres of vehicles parked in front of a gate. Punekars are extremely rude when it comes to parking issues. Offenders vehicles are often carried out by the Chor-gaadi (thief car - the Police truck). However it can be easily got back without any psychological trauma. at the most it costs 100 rupees. Id got back mine saying I only had 20 rupees with me! Ameya Abhyanar told the police he had parked his bike in the police station so it wont be picked, and got off for nothing! Anyway- police are tolerable. The worst people to handle in parking situations are those whose front gates get blocked. Dozens of old vadaas and buildings in the old part of the city proudly declare that "Air will be removed if vehicle is parked in front of the gate". A bolder person in Sadashiv Peth (my hub and hideout) proudly declared, "This is Sadashiv Peth- Puncturing offending vehicles is a routine job done here".
I was of the opinion that that view is restricted only to Sadashiv Peth. Howver, I saw the same approach taken by a woman whose car was blocked due to parked scooters on,of all the places, TEKDI. She was definitely short tempered. Hurling abuse at stupid morons "moorkha mula" who cannot park properly, she promptly went ahead and released all the air from the tyres of 4 bikes! The poor fellows must have had a hard time going down from the tekdi! nevertheless I could not stop laughing!

Then there is this craze of writing witty, sarcastic, snide and derogatory quotes pointing fingers at others which is the cherry on the cake. I guess no one else writes such one liners and witty insult lines better than Punekars- that too in shuddha marathi. for those who want to see what kind of stuff is written, please click here or here. I wont write more. Im going crazy just reading some of those boards and notices!!

Pune is really a one of its kind city. The attitude people have here are unmatched. The love for the city itself is unparalleled. The love for traffic rules does not exist. Just a few things that makes Pune- Pune!

The Sawai Experience-Day 2

2010-12-13T14:33:00.000+05:30

[I apologize for posting this late but I had some other matters to attend to. Anyway, since I will only be reporting what happened on Friday, I guess a few days delay is not that bad]. So, after a refreshing first day at Sawai, where I had illegally sat in the area reserved for those who were invited, I could hardly contain myself to go and sit there again. yesterday, Anish and his mom had gone early and got the places, today it was my turn. I reached by about 3:30. The show was to start at 4, so it was not that crowded. I got the same place I had yesterday. Today, though, I had my satranji with me, so I could easily reserve our places. When I reached, I met Sahil, who I had come to know at the festival itself. Slowly, the ground started filling up, and I sincerely thanked god that I could get such an awesome place to sit.

Anyway, getting to the point of focus, the first performance of the day was Smt.Uma Garg. She was accompanied by Bharat Kamat on the Tabla and Suyog Kundalkar on the harmonium. Umaji started her gayan with Raag Multani (unfortunately, again). Multani is a nice raag, but you listen too much of it, and it puts you to sleep. Thats what happened over the last 3-4 years. If the program starts at 4, the artist is short of options, and invariably selects Multani. Anyway, Umaji sang a bada khya " Tu Sahib jamaal" in vilambit Ektal. Owing to the Multani Saturation i dozed off. I woke up to a few crisp taans taken later. It was followed by a chhota khyal in Madhyalay Teentaal "Balama more tum sang laagi preet". Although the singing was excellent, as a performance, it was quite dull. There was hardly any interaction or response within the three people on the stage. It was sort of a robotic performance, although it did become more interactive afterwards.
Umaji capped off her performance with a thumri in Mishra Khamaj "Manat nahi shyam" which was a lot better than the previous raag.

I have had enough of Multani by then, and was hoping that any ragas from yesterday would not be repeated again. However, Savani Shende-Sathye who was to perform next, chose Puriya Dhanashree, which was already performed yesterday by Bhuvanesh Komakali. But when Savani started her singing, her voice- which is extremely sweet, set an altogether different mood than yesterday. I had heard a lot of Bela Shende before, but Savani I had not heard that much. But now, I have become a fan of hers. Her voice is just amazing! Savani sang an extremely beautiful bandish she had composed in vilambit ektal "Kesar rang shaam chhayee, lagi saanjh aaj naveli". It was a beautiful, beautiful presentation. I especially liked the raag vistar. It never got dull for one moment! and there was always a force with which the shadja was applied, which really was keeping everything fresh. Savani then went on to sing a chhota khyal, composed by Tansen, set in drut teental- "tore jaya jaya karatar". She then finished Puriya Dhanashree with a tarana set in ada-chautal. It was a power packed tarana, and one of the bests Ive heard recently. Savani then went on to sing a Bandish in Raag Hemant composed by her grandmother, set in Ektal- "Chalo sakhi aao aao". The raag sounded similar to Bhinna Shadja with a pancham added to it. And again, as expected, it was sung very well. Savani then finished her performance with the bhajan "Bolava Vitthal, Pahava Vitthal". Overall, it was an outstanding performance by Savani, and she won over the Punekars at her first Sawai Gandharva itself!(not that she already has, but today, even the hard nosed ones have become her fans) Amazing. Salute to her.

As the evening set in, the chill came with it. But then, such weather is awesome for listening to music. And the next performance was put there just to provide the warmth that is needed in such situations- for it had none other than Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt (who I fondly call as world charmer) and U.Shrinivas. It was evident from the notes that panditji was setting on his taraf what he was going to play. It filled me with enthusiasm, as its one of my favourite ever raag, and i have an amazing record of the same by panditji. I was hoping that since it was a jugalbandi, it would be even better. And they started, with what panditji described as the simplest and the hardest raag- Raag Yaman. it was exactly like as it was in the record. The sound of the Mohan veena is amazing! I mean, indeed a lot of research has gone in developing i. However, i was a little dissapointed with the mandolin- i thought it was loud. Anyway, it was an interesting jugalbandi. Ive not heard a live one for a long time. Vijay Ghate was amazing on the Tabla. However, after a while it got a bit besur, especially in taar saptak. And the end was a bit noisy when both the artists were playing together. However, when both were playing individually, you did not want it to end. After the Yaman, the duo performed the bhajan "vaishnav jan ko", which was again well presented. It was an interesting encounter with a live performance of the two instruments. While most of the time it was sublime, a few things stuck out at odd angles. In short, It was a mixed bag for me.

Following the jugalbandi, was the most awaited performance of the day. Pandit Jasraj. Pandit ji arrived to a roaring ovation from the crowd, with a lot of his disciples. After settling down, and getting rid of the issues with mic and monitor, Panditji started singing Darbari Kanada. He started off with his usual "Mangalam bhagawan vishnu in Darbari" This was followed by a bada khyal "jai jai shree durge". In the raag development Panditji made full use of the range of his voice. his kharja to tar shadja transition is just awesome! I still fail to understand that a person of his age is still able to sustain such high class singing for such a long time. In between Mukund Petkar took an amazing jagaa on the harmonium, which panditji described as "appa ale tujhya hatamadhe!" However Although panditji was singing brilliantly, I was a bit disappointed with the supporting vocals. It could have been much much better. The bada khyal was follwed by a chhota khyal "Ajab teri Duniya Malik" Panditjis voice had warmed up nicely by now, and everything was a treat to the ears! There was an interesting jugalbandi between the Tabla and Mrindingam (which tired out the poor girl accompanying panditji as she had to sing the same line for almost 5 minutes!). Panditji was on fire. There was a special moment for me too. There was this very pretty girl who was sitting next to me( she is a friend of a friend of friend of mine- whatever, she was pretty), she took one jagaa exactly like panditji, and it was not a normal one, I was amazed. I need to find who she was, and congratulate her! But Panditjis performance was simply amazing. He continued with a bandish in Raag Bahar, again very well sung, and capped off his performance with the bhajan " Om namo bhagawate vasudevay"

Overall, today was just too good for me. Its unfortunate that I wont be able to attend tomorrow. Im missing Malini Rajurkar, and only have myself to blame for that. Let it be, Pandit Jasraj and Savani Shende have made my day worthwhile today, and I hope to keep on enjoying Sawai as ever, day after.

(Recordings will follow later)

The Sawai Experience-Day1

2010-12-10T11:26:00.006+05:30

OK, I know that I have written posts with similar names in January, but I guess this is the best title that I could give, and every time I attend Sawai, the same will be used to convey the happening of the day. Yesterday, the 58th Sawai Gandharwa started off. It was my 3rd Sawai Gandharwa festival, and 2nd of the year. Over the last 2-3 years, as I have time and again stated, my interest in Indian music has grown exponentially. Yesterday, was an indication of the slow but steady progress that i have been making as a "shrota". This time around, since a lot of my friends who are interested in music are out of India, I intend to share at least 2 minutes of each Raag that was played or sung on this post. I wont post the entire recording as it takes too much space. Also, Cd's will be available after a few days. OK, enough about everything else, lets get straight to the happenings.

As the custom is, the festival started with shehnai. However,(since it was the first day, and me being me) got late. The artist performing was 15 year old Bhaskar Nath, who is appearing for his 10th standard. Although I missed about 93 percent of the playing, the remaining 7 percent- which was Mishra Piloo was exceptional, especially for a fifteen year old. I have no clue what I was doing at that age. Wasting my time probably. but Bhaskar Nath is on a different level than I am. He is someone we definitely will get to listen in the future.

As I was late for the first performance, whatever I heard of it, was from a faraway place in the balcony baithak. Not ideal. However, a friend of mine could find enough space 20 feet away from the stage so I could sit over there. Amazing! Listening to music from such close distance is an altogether different experience. Anyway, moving on, the second performance was by Sudhakar Chavan of Kirana Gharana. He is a disciple of Shri. Shrikant Deshpande, and founder of Kalashree Academy. Shri Chavan started his performance in Raag Madhuvanti with bada khyal "madhuban me shyam ne murali bajayi" set to vilambit teentaal. Maybe I was still getting used to the new enhanced sound system, but thought that the voice was a bit shaky. Anyway, it smoothed out afterwards in the chhota khyal "Mein aaou tore mandirva" set in madhyalay teentaal. The khyal has an interesting story associated with it, but that will be for later. Shri Chavan finished off his performance with the Bhajan Avgha Rang ek zala.(Mauli was in great form!)

The third performer of the day was Bhuvanesh Komakali, Grandson of the legendary Pt. Kumar Gandharwa, and son of Mukul Shivputra. As soon as he started singing, there was kind of singing that has made his family so famous. His voice sounded very similar to that of Pt. Kumar Gandharwa. He started off his performance by singing Raag Puriya Dhanashree, one of my most favourite raags. The badaa khyal was "bala gayi jyot" in vilambit ektal followed by "ajaraa din dooba" in madhyalay teentaal. This was totally awesome! It sounded extremely similar to the recording of Kumar Gandharva that is available. It was so good, that i dont remember what he sang after that. there was a bandish in maybe Shyam Kalyan. I dont remember though, I was still absorbed in the Puriya Dhanashree. When I finally got out of trance, he was singing another composition of Kumar Gandharva set in Shyam Kalyan- "sawan ki sanj". The icing on the cake was though no doubt, the bhajan that Bhuvanesh Komakali sang at the end. I have the original bhajan, "Sunta hai guru gyani" but hearing it live was totally different. More focus was given to the words of the bhajan, which created an effect that gave me goosebumps. I guess I was lucky to listen to him from such a close distance!

There was a break of about 10 minutes or so after this, for the release of a 14 set record of Shrinivas Joshi, dedicated to his father and guru, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. The honourable guest for the release was Pt. Shivkumar Sharma.

The next performance, the first one to draw a jam packed crowd at Sawai, was by Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya. Hariji gave everyone fits of laughter before he started playing, by comparing the sound from the security check machine to that of a wake up call.( I could hardly hear it!) He sounds like a very comical person- providing wisecracks every now and then. Rejecting the use of chair to sit in and play, he sat down on the stage, despite his old age. He started off the performance with a raag that is still unknown to me. And deliberately he said, that after he finishes playing, he will ask the audience to recognize which one had been played. I have never heard such a thing. It had all shuddha notes, except for ma, which was teevra. and there was a strong use of komal dhaivat(more than shuddha) and also a use of komal re. The avaroha definitely has a touch of puriya dhanashree to it. I am still baffled by the raag, but Hariji later told that it is an ancient raag called as Raag Lataangi- more to research.(some one asked him whether it is raag haripriya- which he promptly dismissed by saying"Haripriya toh kab ki chal basi"). He then played a few minutes of Des. And no Hariprasad Chaurasiya concert is complete without atleast 2.5-3 minutes of Pahadi.

There was a lot of excitement after this, as Begum Parveen Sultana was to perform after many years i guess. Unfortunately, she had very very very limited time(about an hour), and rightly made comments indirectly directed to the lawmakers by saying "yeh kya time hai gana khatam karne ka? abhi to hamara sangeet shuru hota hai!" After the publich urged her to sing till late, she joked that the police will put her behind bars with her tanpura, to which the public responded by saying, "tithe yeto aikayla amhi!"Great artists such as her should be given time. I dont know why the 10 pm rule is there for such concerts! its broken for all other stupid reasons! anyway, I guess the limited time available had spurred her to provide one of the best musical feast an audience can ever ask for. The Jog Raag that she performed was something to behold. Every single note was crisp and sharp. and every single use of komal ga was piercing the soul and injecting spirit into it. Ive never quite heard Jog raag in this fashion. and probably if i want to hear jog again, then this is the only one I will hear. her voice- its beyond description. For the 2 minutes that I had closed my eyes, it felt as though a sarangi was singing. Im running out of superlatives, but I will upload the 15 minute clip i manged to record before my phone gave in to the dying battery. She sang a bada khyal in vilambit ektaal "parama sukha payo" followed by chhota khayal in madhyaly teentaal " sukha dukh dono aaj viraje" She then sang a short vilambit and a tarana in Raag Maluha Maand. This was follwed by the marathi song "Rasika tuzyach saathi". the towering performance was concluded with her famous bhairavi "Bhavani Dayani". its been over 10 hours since I heard that Jog, but I am unable to get it out of my system. It was something else. Its worth mentioning that the harmonium by Dr.Arvind Thatte was magnificent as ever!

I dont wish to talk or write anymore. I was delighted to attend yesterday, and hope that today will be as memorable as yesterday!

Raags Performed today:

Raag Multani- Bhaskar Nath
Raag Mishra Pilu- Bhaskar Nath
Raag Madhuvanti-Sudhakar Chavan
Raag Puriya Dhanashree- Bhuvanesh Komakali
Raag Shyam Kalyan- Bhuvanesh Komakali
Raag Lataangi- Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya
Raag Des- Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya
Raag Pahadi- Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya
Raag Jog- Begum Parveen Sultana
Raag Maluha Maand- Begum Parveen Sultana
Raag Bhairavi- Begum Parveen Sultana

The Damned!

2010-11-29T09:11:00.001+05:30

(Part1)

(Part2)

Mathematics of an Exam

2010-11-23T11:40:00.009+05:30

Guess what. I am nearly done with another set of exams. No matter how much you try to shoulder arms at them, they make you go on the back foot and defend. Now that Im done with the theory exams, I am freely able to punch my practicals through the covers! No worries. My timing in the practical viva is as immaculate and as elegant as those of Sachin Tendulkar on the field. (Forgive me for a cricket like opening, but im watching India thrash NZ by Innings and some runs, so the effect rubs off..)

Now then, coming back to the point, as this was my 7th semester in the college, I have given a total of 14 exams plus a number of 10 mark tests. A large enough sample size has been generated through the experience of me and my friends to draw out the following conclusions about the time near to exam. These will be known as the Datar-Devi Approximations, after its researchers, Datar and Devi.

To start of with. Let 'T' be the time left for an exam. This is usually about 2-3 days for a typical COEP paper, for which one can actually study. For simplicity we shall assume that T is a rectangular distribution. from -T to 0.
However, we never start studying at the start of the rectangular function. Studying is a statistically boring process. We usually start our studies at an arbitrary time instant H, after -T. Again, this will be a rectangular distribution over T.

Now, as it is statistically observed, attention span is dependent on H. let Asp be the attention span.

This will give you the attention span that you will get, depending on when you start studying. This is a critical factor for getting good marks. ideally, toppers have H close to T.

The second important point that is under consideration is Number of calls you make asking your friends "How much timepass you have done?" this can be denoted by N(h). Number of calls before exam are way more that those on ordinary days.
N(h)=e^2kh.. k= Phony constant. the derivations for above terms are extremely complex and is beyond the scope of timepass. So, it has been left to the Chinese to come up with the proofs for the same.

The third important factor is time you end up swearing at and cursing your Professors. Now, as the trend is, we curse our profs as being useless and incompetent much more during exam period than normal.This analysis is extremely interesting, and thus, has been discussed below. Now, not all professors are bad. some are actually superb. so lets have a sample size of N professors.
Let us consider r activities- such as teaching, setting papers, fluency in speech etc.
let 'p' be the probability that the teacher is good.
so, (1-p) is the probability that the teacher is rubbish.
then, assuming a binomial model and taking average over given number considered, we can say that the swearing coefficient is

The fourth point considered in this treatise is based on pure statistics. The point is know as Chinmays attraction law. "As exam time nears, in D Days, your feelings towards an arbitrary girl goes on increasing to the exponent".Here, γ(gamma) is the attraction probability. γ is dependent on several factors such as the nature of the person, the college where he is studying etc. If γ is the attraction probability, then, the attraction coefficient can be given by

However, in colleges like COEP, as there are very few good looking girls, and the fact that the college is filled with nerds, γ is negligible. So taking a Taylor series expansion, and ignoring higher order terms of γ ,
we can say,

The next important point is concentration span. You tend to concentrate very little while studying. breaks are frequent. Let B be the number of drinks/snacks break you take in between a span of 3 hours- a statistically important variable as all papers are 3 hours long. Then, concentration span, CSmax will be:
CSmax= 3hours/B.
Usually this value is quite low, owing to the statistically high value of B (12-15 in normal cases).
The analysis of B is also again very complex, and has been left to the Chinese.
One thing we know for certain is that CSmax is inversely proportional to t, the time before exam.

The next factor is the ratio of useful study to time spent on Facebook. This is called as the phace inverse ratio.

Now, PIR= (T.i.m.e.o.n.a.b.o.o.k/T.i.m.e.o.n.f.a.c.e.b.o.o.k.).
cancel the common terms in the equation, we get,
PIR=(1/face)

It has been statistically proven by the likes of our peers Shriram Kardile and Sahil Patwardhan, that time spent on Facebook is roughly 5 times the time spent on reading a book.
so, it can be concluded that PIR=(1/5)
(from their publications Facebook is more fun that studies. Kardile,Patwardhan and Datar.)

Ok, so I guess these many factors are enough to formulate the time remaining for the exam T.
We can conclude, that T, the time to exam is directly proportional to:
1)Attention span
2)Swearing time
3)number of calls
4)coefficient of attraction
and is inversely proportional to
1) Concentration span.

Thus, we can mathematically conclude:

Introducing the constant of proportionality, the PIR to the equation to get rid of the proportionality sign and substituting the values for respective coefficients, we get

Thus, finally we have arrived at the examination formula.

Original research carried out by:
Chinmay A Datar
Anant M Devi.
Helping Hands:
Sumedh Dhabu
Virendra Kakade
Abhishek Ambede.

References:
Probability and Random Processes
-Stark and Wood. (3rd years, see, its not that bad a book. has many useful applications afterall)
Why facebook is better than book
-Sahil Patwardhan, Ajinkya Rao
Facebook to book ratios
-Shriram Kardile.

We thank all our friends for supporting us throughout the research, and are hopeful that our efforts will be awarded at the IEEE conference of vadheevpana.
-P.S- mathematical errors have been deliberately introduced to hide original equations and research.
-Authors.

Welcome Back Chinya!

2010-10-21T19:36:00.000+05:30

Phew!! Finally had some time to write! A long long break. And, don't get me wrong, it feels extremely good to start writing again. Well, for starts its been an extremely hectic, packed semester. juggling between academic subjects, labs, project, GRE, TOEFL, applications, continuous evaluation surprise tests, labs, vivas, labs, submissions, and finally labs again, there is hardly time to do anything worthwhile. Most often than not, I come home extremely knackered, and spend my evening trying to write a program for PB. And my god its so time consuming! By dinner time I hardly have any energy left to do anything.

Weekends are a bit of a respite, but then, most of the time is again dedicated for project, which is proceeding at a slow, but steady pace. Saturday evenings are reserved for a new found hobby- learning Sitar. Its rather weird, that after a session of 3 hours(Saturday evening 7.30 to 10-30 usually) of me playing extremely bad sitar, Ranade Sir playing out of this world, and others more often than not playing very well, the parts that ache the most are the legs! The 1st two fingers of the left hand get severe burn marks and cuts due to pulling the strings. But as I always wanted to pull strings in at least some activity, those are forgotten.(sorry for the most pathetic joke I've ever come up with). Learning the Sitar has opened up a whole new world for me. I had no idea that the instrument would be SO complicated to play! it sounds straightforward when you hear it!

There is so much more to do, and I virtually dont have any time at all! I had certain things that I really wanted to do before I completed my engineering, and one of them is pestering me a lot these days. This is my plan of making a photographic tour of the city of Pune. Next year, maybe for job, or may be for MS, I will most likely be out of the city. And considering the fact that I love it to the core(yes, my email id has a mention of me being a punekar in it) I will sorely miss it. So wherever I go, if I make a great photographic collection of my hometown, the impact of separation would be a little less severe.

I have blabbered so much!! god! but it felt really good to write after a long long time! Before I finish today, I wanted to share a few pictures of a particular "Shindi" tree outside my house. for some odd reason, I really like that tree. Maybe, its because it stands way way higher than the trees near my house, or maybe because it houses atleast a dozen pair of weaver birds. I dont know why. but somehow, I have started liking the tree. A usual relaxation in the evening usually involves staring at the tree, listening to one of the many Yamans/Yaman Kalyans I have. And each and every time, I get a totally different feeling under similar surroundings.
So, here are the pictures, (and after that, I shall end this post.)

Yaman by Mukul Shivputra when this pic was taken.

Sandeeps Yaman when this was taken.

Appa Jalgaonkars Yaman Kalyan when the pic was taken

Ustad Shahid Parvezs Yaman when the pic was taken.

(P.S. my next post will be interesting- this is to those who think I should write funny stuff. It will contain two extremely weird and comical dreams than I have had)

Time to wake up our King.

2010-09-19T14:55:00.000+05:30

The views expressed in this post are all personal opinions, and are bound to be explosive in nature to pro congress, anti-Hindu, anti-cultural people of India. If you consider yourself one of these, you can quit reading the post here itself, and go back and dwell on your western philosophies. Those who are having similar thoughts- like mine, will definitely go on reading.

Today, we see, that Hindu Dharma is widely being criticised everywhere. A Hindu does something, the whole Hindu society is seen as a culprit. Its a fancy that the current government along with full media backing are trying to create- delineating Hindu culture, corrupting Hindu traditions, with full effect. A sadhu gets arrested for making nationalist remarks, mahagurus like Swami Ramdev are accused of mixing human remains in their medication, Sex scandals are forcefully placed on Sadhus, tapaswis and yogis. A mullah or a missionary will actually do it, and there will be no news on such events! why! the indian mainstream media, backed by the mafia and missionaries, is hell bent on destriying the hindu image.

A Ajmal Kasab is reported to have Motives behind his actions. The government gives him a fair trial! whats the point of doing this? He is just the pawn. extract information from him, and execute him in full view of the public! The current government lacks guts to take any action. Its highly ineffective, and its main motive is to make secure its black money hidden in swiss banks rather than addressing problems faced by 84 percent of the population- Hindus.

Hindus are becoming second grade citizens in their own motherland. How different is this as compared to the situation under the sultanates? Any thing happens, a hindu is always blamed. Always. some of these accusations are extremely frivolous, absurd and vile.

Then there is the issue of bollywood. It is in fact so crap, that I dont watch any movies- they are either anti Hindu, pro-islamic, or pro-western. For some god damn reason, even these scum believe that terrorists have emotional motives behind their bombings(ref kurrbaan etc.) I havent watched a bollywood movie which promotes indian nationalism in ages. maybe the 70s or 80s. I hate the whole industry anyway. its full of so called westernized body showing whores and good for nothing gangsters.

Coming back to the main point- be it through mass media, movies, government inefficiency, or whatever reason, Hindus are being subjected to abject treatment. They are being brainwashed against their own culture. they are being ridiculed, they are being mocked, and they are being taken for granted.

Well, they themselves are to blame for going into a submissive position. They never vote for parties that will actually work for them- parties like RSS, HMS. Any good work these organisations do, the current government is anyway there to point out that it is infact anti-national. Infact, the government is more timid than anything in the world- why not oppose china(A ba****d, senseless, power hungry, bitter country in my opinion) aggressive advancements?

Im not talking on this anymore. My blood boils. And it hurts me ever more. Id just like to ask the great Shivaji Maharaj, the last true saviour of Hindus to provide us strength, courage, cunning and confidence to take on these Anti-Hindu people, show them that their place is even below the sewers. Savarkar has rightly put these sentiments in the wordings below:

हे हिंदुशक्ति-संभूत-दिप्ततम-तेजा
हे हिंदुतपस्या-पूत ईश्वरी ओजा
हे हिंदुश्री-सौभाग्य भूतीच्या साजा
हे हिंदू-नृसिंहा प्रभो शिवाजीराजा
करी हिंदुराष्ट्र हे तूते | वंदना
करि अंतःकरण तुज अभि | नंदना
तव चरणि भक्तीच्या चर्ची| चंदना
गूढाशा पुरवी त्या न काठू शकतो ज्या
हे हिंदू-नृसिंहा प्रभो शिवाजीराजा ! ||१||
हा भग्न तड असे गडगडाचा आजी
हा मग्न आज जयदुर्ग आंसवांमाजी
ही भवानीची ह्या ओउन्हा गंजली धारा
टी म्हणुनि भवानी दे न कुणा आधारा
गड कोट जंजिरे सारे | भंगले
जाहली राजधान्यांची | जंगले
परदास्य-पराभवी सारी| मंगले
या जगति जगू ही आज गमतसे लज्जा
हे हिंदू-नृसिंहा प्रभो शिवाजीराजा! ||२||
जी शुद्धी हृदाची रामदासशिर डुलवी
जी बुद्धी पांच शाहींस शत्रूच्या झुलवी
जी युक्ती कूटनीतित खलांसी बुडवी
जी शक्ती बालोमात्तास पदातली तुडवी
ती शुद्धी हेतूची कर्मी | राहु दे
ती बुद्धी भाबड्या जीवा | लाहु दे
ती शक्ती शोणितामाजी | वाहु दे
दे मंत्र पुन्हा तो, दिले समर्थे तुज ज्या
हे हिंदू-नृसिंहा प्रभो शिवाजीराजा ! ||३||

Cleared Hai?!!

2010-09-01T19:05:00.008+05:30

As many of you have already read, we have a school teacher teaching us one of the subjects this semester. God knows how he got assigned to teach final year people! He is a big pain in the butt! I'm not going to take any names here, but people from my class will definitely know who I am talking about. His lectures are damn dull and boring. We don't understand any thing he teaches us. forget teach, we don't understand anything he says!
His speech is so riddled with inconsistencies and grammatical errors, that instead on concentrating on the content of the subject, we resort to a captious behaviour.

Here are a few examples of stupid, grammatically incorrect sentences a Professor uttered in a single lecture
(bracketed comments are my instantaneous thoughts)

1)"We are making a controversy between SECAM and NTSC"... should have been comparison.

2)"One movement we are giving for Dr, and second movement we are giving for Db." (what movement!)

3) "Two different types of signals are playing with each other in switching." (really?! what are they playing??)

4) "Switches must be sharpen one." (Give me a sharpner to sharpen them)

5) "Blocks mein kya hota hai,voh observe karna hai. clear hai?" (blocks are on paper. ghanta kahi observe karta yenare!)

6) "Concepting is very much clear." (Dude! what kind of participle is that!)

7)" Now a days no such a cable is available on mobile phones"( he means antenna)

8)" yeh carefully listen karo. yeh clear ho jayega to baki sab very much simple hai. "(are yaar... kay badbad kartoy ha!!)

9) "Our concept is very much clear" (ek tasat kiti de tech tech tech tech tecchhh vakya bolnares!)

10) "We are calling this as a dipole one" ( are jeev de!!)

11) "Whatever diameters of antenna, it is multiples of wavelength of frequency" (ha 12vi physics kiti markanni pass zala hota!)

12)" a. There should be ADRUPT change in dimension of antenna.
b. there should be ADRUPT cut-off in material!" (ABRUPT he means to say! are deva!! ha prof kasa kaay zala! Lagech SMS to Rohini... Siranna Tare Zameen par madhla syndrome zalay... d cha b and bcha d.. which she gets at 6pm! stupid network)

13) "Law of EMI says to us that... " (Sumya, mukya... ha sandy kakade cha bhau ahe bahutek.)

14)"We are saying raadiations are created" (Well, we know that it cannot be created nor be destroyed!)

15)"The two ends are open and has no path for current." ( no idea what this means)

16) "A balloons of electromagnetic waves start forming. So basically we are creating a balloons of waves" (Aai shappat mala ved lagnare ata! Dhad hasta pan yet nahiye!)

17) "Voltage and current are in perfect controversy in exact radiation" (judging by the picture, he means out of phase by 90 degrees)

18) (While explaining mutual coupling) "When I am placing one conductor in destiny of other conductor, the get mutually coupling"( hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha!!! DESTINY!!! VICINITY mhanaychay ka hyala!! are kharach awarnyachi garaj ahe(to mukesh))

No wonder, I am attending very less lectures this year, and no wonder I cant concentrate on studies this year! It all turns into a joke at the end of it all..

The missing pieces of the College jigsaw

2010-08-30T09:24:00.004+05:30

Our time as students of engineering is fast drawing to close, and it seems that in a blink of the eye, we have reached our final year in COEP. The past 3 and quarter year have been extremely fun. And my god, i know I am going to miss everything once I leave the college! However, there are a few things that I have already started missing. One may wonder why- one of the main reasons for that, is that our batches have been changed, which has made significant changes to daily interactions.One can hardly say that my college life was extravagant. I hardly used to go out anywhere, but still, I miss the days when our group did used to go out.Ahh... finally, some of my closest friends in college have already either moved out of India, or are now on the verge of leaving. Will miss them as well...Let me keep that to myself.

Here are the few things I will really miss this year, or already missed last year.

1) Joking around with Sanjeev- these used to be the best times I ever had! Sanjeev can seriously talk all sorts of rubbish which will always turn out to be humorous.

2)Night outs at Somans: As soon as he left, I knew I had to watch Champions League alone. I remember two specific incidents. Champions league final.. Man Utd vs Chelsea.. Neelya was sleeping for the whole match and got up only for the presentation ceremony. the second one was a Euro 2008 match at my place, when both, me and soman dozed off whereas Neelya watched the entire match! man!! i really miss those match days!

3) Sunday morning walk on tekdi followed by coffee at durga- After Neelya went to mumbai, this activity completely stopped. Only when he comes to Pune, and has the patience to contact everyone, do we go to tekdi. I guess in the last 2 years, we went there only thrice!

4) Troubling Siddhi, Prachi and Shraddha by removing their hair clips- I got into this habit, courtesy to soman. but it was indeed fun! kiti bekaar chidaychya! especially siddhi. And i remember that legendary fight after regatta when we hid prachis clip! haha!! best!

5) Giving missed calls to people at night- I dont know, but this suddenly stopped! got bored i guess. I remember once when I woke up Sumedh at 3 am, only to tell him to go back to sleep! kharraaab chidla hoti!

6) Boat club has never been the same without Soman, Neelya, Bidya, Sanjeev, Shraddha, Siddhi and Prachi. Kay bor hota ata! no wonder I hardly go there now!

7) Doing practicals with rao and rohini. Man, they used to be so much fun! the two couldnt have a life without arguing on minor issues! such squabbles were our source for much needed entertainment for the last three years. If there is one thing that I really miss doing this year, then this has to be there right at the top.

8) Me and Krishna playing pranks on people. We couldnt believe our nerve when we played a prank on our professor Babya and his key. our main targets used to be people like rohini and rao only, and sometimes maybe external examiners, who more than once have been amused by our combined behavior.

9) Saying "foosa" with Anant, Sumedh, Viru and Abhishek. Dont know how we gor the craze for that, but we always used to say the phrase foosa! inspired obviously from madagascar. But i miss not saying it now.

10) To add to the woes, ill definitely miss hanging out in company of amazing people like Siddhi, Soman, Sanjeev and Bidya. ( Prachi, Shraddha are still in Pune, and Neelya is visits on sundays but the rest are far far away!)

These are the most striking things I miss now a days. I guess, the more you miss something, the more you realise how small things can really make you happy. Ill end this post here. Fukat senti vagere vhaycho nahitar.

Music Makes!

2010-08-26T18:02:00.000+05:30

The past few days have been extremely hectic. First, all the preparation for GRE was taking a serious toll on my ability to stay awake. I managed a decent score of 1320, disappointing by the standards I had set myself before the test. But anyway, all said and done, that cannot be rectified and I am sure I will be able to work out something with this score. Then there is this extremely strenuous college schedule! We seriously need a break now! God! its so saturating. We have continuous lecture-practicals for 4 days! not 1 hour break! some times the day begins at 8:30 and sometimes ends at 5:30! On top of that, the professors have gone all doolally. They actually expect us to complete last weeks practical write ups, and are scrupulously up to the task of spoiling our last year in college, i don't know the reasons behind this vendetta! How do they expect people who have done things on deadlines to complete journals weekly? Its not an overnight change! The worse of all this is our Audio Video professor. He is not a professor. He is a school teacher! Which nutcase signs reading in notebooks of each and ever student during practicals? plus he has 1 mark reserved for behaviour during pracs! Every one is getting zeros in that. (Barry is giving BIG zeros for all pracs as it is!)

(Shriram dozing off in practicals- but it affects us all! Practicals are just so soporific!)

Leaving the college things behind, there is again this headache of placements. Nearly all core companies have come and gone, and only 11 people from our class of 80 have got placed! the handling is horrible! seems no one wants to recruit E&Tc people! Companies like NVIDIA, which takes hoards of Electronics people from other colleges, forbid us to sit for the aptitude test! Other thing is that Mr. K**de, a complete asshole, seems bent on inviting core companies that will recruit only Mechanical/ Production people! So much so that I am saving all the swearing to be vented on him for another post.

So, you can see all the stresses that I had been put under. I could have easily crumbled under so much pressure. But then, I had music on my side. Music, has a golden touch of clearing your mind. More so, Hindustani classical music does so effortlessly. So, to overcome all the stresses, anguishes, and piques, I used to practice playing harmonium for at least a couple of hours a day. One-early in the morning at about 5:30 am to 6:30 am, and then at about 6:30 to 7:30 in the evening.I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play in front of Shekhar Ranade, who gave me some amazing tips, which overnight helped me develop my skills. He has also given me an open invitation to visit his place on Saturdays to learn, which I am going to do, and am looking forward to!

I also happened to increase my ever growing musical collection with a few gems that I really wanted to share. Firstly, Ustad Bismillah Khans Shivranjani, Pilu and Malkauns were added. Amazing amazing amazing! I have no words! Now that I fully understand the impact made by Ustad Bismillah Khans Shehnai, I am in awe of it! Then, I also happened to get Bageshree and Yaman by Mukul Shivputra- superlative! But probably, the best acquisition I have made over the period of studies was Bhimpalas by Bhimsen Joshi. Whenever I am a bit off colour, 1 hour of Bhimseni flair gets me back to my feet, all reinvigorated.

(Bhimsen Joshis Bhimpalas has been a panacea for me!- A life saver indeed.)

Seriously, now that I look back at the last two months, I feel it has significantly changed my life. For one, I am absolutely clear about the path to be taken to register for an MS course. But, most significantly, it has given a crystal clear indication of how much music has become a support for me- rather how much I depend on music to help me combat everyday difficulties. Although dependencies are usually harmful, this one is anything but.With music, I am everyday, reborn. Without music, I now cannot imagine a life.

Polly-nomial.

2010-08-02T07:31:00.001+05:30

Many of you must have got this as a forward ages ago! but somehow i managed to forget posting this up! damn funny thing...

In George H. Scherr, ed. The Best of The Journal of Irreproducible Results, p.147. Workman Publishing, 1983

"Once upon a time (1/t), pretty little Polly Nomial was strolling across a field of vectors, when she came to the edge of a singularly large matrix. Now Polly was convergent, and her mother had made it an absolute condition that she must never enter such an array without her brackets on. Polly, however, had changed her variables that morning, and, feeling particularly badly behaved, she ignored this condition on the grounds that it was insufficient, and made her way in amongst the complex elements.

Rows and columns enveloped her on all sides. Tangents approached her surface. She became tensor and tensor. Quite suddenly, three branches of a hyperbola touched her at a single point. She oscillated violently, lost all sense of directrix, and went completely divergent. As she reached a turning point, she tripped over a square root which was protruding from the erf, and plunged headlong down a steep gradient. When she was differentiated once more, she found herself, apparently alone, in a non-euclidean space.

She was being watched however. That smooth operator, Curly Pi, was lurking inner product. As his eyes devoured her curvilinear coordinates, a singular expression crossed his face. Was she still convergent, he wondered. He decided to integrate improperly at once.

Hearing a vulgar function behind her, Polly turned round, and saw Curly Pi approaching with his power series extrapolated. She could see at once, by his degenerate conic and his dissipative terms, that he was bent on no good.

"Eureka" she gasped.

"Ho, ho!" he said. "What a symmetric little polynomial you are. I can see that you are absolutely bubbling over with secs".

"Sir", she said, "keep away from me. I haven't got my brackets on.

"Calm yourself my dear" said our suave operator, "your fears are purely imaginary".

"i, i" she thought. "Perhaps he's homogeneous then?".

"What order are you?" the brute demanded.

"Seventeen", replied Polly.

Curly leered. "I suppose you've never been operated on yet?" he said.

"Of course not" Polly cried indignantly. "I'm absolutely convergent".

"Come, cone," said Curly. "Lets off to a decimal place I know, and I'll take you to the limit".

"Never" gasped Polly.

His patience was gone. Coshing her over the coefficient with a log until she was powerless, Curly removed her discontinuities. He stared at her significant places and began to smooth her points of inflexion. Poor Polly. All was lost. She felt his hand bonding to her asymptotic limit. Her convergence would be gone for ever.

There was no mercy, for Curly was a heavyside operator. He integrated by parts. He integrated by partial fractions. The complex beast even went all the way round, and did a contour integration. What an indignity! Curly went on operating until he was completely and absolutely orthogonal.

When Polly got hone that evening, her mother noticed that she had been truncated in several places. But it was too late to differentiate now --- the seeds having been sown. As the months went by, Polly increased monotonically. Finally, she generated a small, but pathological, function, which left surds all over the place, until she was driven to distraction."

The moral of this sad story is this: It you want to keep your expressions convergent, never allow them a single degree of freedom.

निर्धार

2010-07-21T19:39:00.000+05:30

This is probably going to be my last post for some time now, as my GRE date is just over a month away! So wanted to bid a temorary farewell on a high.
Inspiration is what is the need of the hour now- especially for me, considering the monumental task that lies ahead . I am viewing it as yet another unconquered fort, ready to be annexed to the domain of forts already scaled. Such comparisons, for me, are a tremendous boost, as to conquer the fort, the inspiration provided by shivaji maharaj is always present. A difficult situation seems to be managible. Thats always the case.

And who else but Kusumagraj can incite you to draw inspiration from Shivaji Maharaj! The following poem, though not about Shivaji Maharaj, is about in essence the spirit of a Marathi Manus. I wont wast anymore time, and will directly post the poem. Forgive me if I have made any grammatical errors in typing, I am still not used to type Marathi on Gmail.

The Poem is named Nirdhaar, and is written by Kusumagraj.

निर्धार

समर भूमीचे सनदी मालक शत युद्धाचे मानकरी
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

घोरपडीला दोर लावूनी पहाड-दुर्गट चढलेले
तुटून पडता मस्तक खाली धुंद धाडणे लढलेले
खंदकातल्या अंगावर हासत खेळत पडलेले
बाप असे कलिकाळ आमुचा कीर्त गाजली दिगंतरी!
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

या मातीने दिला वारसा कठोर छाती दगडाची
दिली नद्यांनी ध्येयासाठी समर्थता बलिदानाची
पहाड डोंगर इथे संगती अजिंक्यता अभिमानाची
जगदंबेचा पालव येथे लढ्वैय्यांच्या सदा शिरी
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

करवत का नस कोणी चालावो, पिकावो कोणी शेत मळा
कलम कागदावरी राबवो धरो कोणी हातात तुळा
करत कंकण असो कोणाच्या व भाळावर गंध टिळा
शिंग-मनोर्यावारी वाजता उभी छावणी घरोघरी!
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

पोलादी निर्धार अमुचा असुरबळाची खंत नसे
स्वतंत्रतेच्या संग्रामाला विजयावाचून अंत नसे
श्रद्धा हृदयातील आमुची वाज्राहुनी बळवंत असे
मरण मारुनी पुढे निघाले गर्व तयांचा कोण हरी!
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

भारत भूमीचा वत्सल पालक देव मुनिनंचा पर्वत तो
रक्त दाबुनी उरत आम्हा आर्त स्वराने पुकारतो
"हे सह्याचाल, हे सातपुडा!" शब्द अंतर विदारतो
त्या रक्ताची, त्या शब्दाची शपथ अमुच्या जाले उरी!
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

जंगल जाळा परी मराठा पर्वतश्रेष्ठा उठला रे!
वणव्याच्या आडदांड गतीला अडसर आता कुठला रे!
तळातळातुनी ठेचून काढू हा गनिमांचा घाला रे!
स्वतंत्रतेचे निशाण आमुचे अजिंक्य राखू धरेवरी!
रणफंदीची जात अमुची कोण आम्हा भयभीत करी!

The Six Rupee Treasure Chest.

2010-07-16T14:45:00.002+05:30

Oh the holidays! One of the most long and overstretched time of the year! And the ones I like the least- because, sitting at home, I end up not doing anything, other than playing mindless games, or sleeping. Utter shambolic use of time. As otherwise, I fully accept that I do not make a prudent use of my holidays. But this holidays, it was a bit different. I was devoted- initially to my love for music. I played my harmonium for hours on end, every day. I was devoted- secondly, to learn all the words for GRE, which I must admit, I am miserably poor at. I sat for hours on end, reading those cards-to little effect. Unfortunately, there are always distractions in form of the world cup, computer games and other worldly things. But suggesting that I only made myself available to these things would be totally wrong.

Most Importantly, It was my great yearning to understand Hinduttva better that kept me motivated throughout the summer- as can be viewved from a few of my earlier posts. But then, life, as unpredictable as it is, posed me with a few delicate questions, which undoubtedly needed some much needed introspection. The world paints a better picture after such activities- and mostly, it is not at all rosy. I was afraid to take this thorny path. Too frightened.

Too far, have baseless ideas, sentiments, manipulated my mind-sometimes, using it for their advantage. And I was foolhardy and gulliable enough to let them manipulate. Not any more. These events, accumulating and saturating me over the past many years, had become unbearable. My emotional state was bordering that of cynisism- to such a great extent, that sometimes, I did not even answer the phone calls of three of my best friends who have been pillars of strength. I was indeed a pessimistic wreak.

I tried a whole load of things- play computer games for hours and hours. It made me feel temporarily good, but then, a few hours later, it felt that there is nothing more to do. Music and Savarkar kept me from doing silly things. Meanwhile, I also tried to find out other means- but to no avail.

And today, when the new academic year is about to start- I discovered the remedy for my deranged mind. A remedy, of which only one tenth dose is sufficient to bring about changes as experienced today . A remedy that is sure to erase all evil that dwells in me and around me. A remedy I sincerely hope will catch this ever wavering mind, anchor it firmly, and make it transcend to heights which are otherwise unfathomable. I am confident that unlocking my mind to this remedy, and swaying in the beauty of its healing touch ,will surely be one of the most significant things that I ever did. One thing is certain that it will be the guideline for the rest of my life. I have indeed unearthed a six rupee treasure chest, which, in its gist explains

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते ।
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

An honest Confession

2010-07-10T18:10:00.000+05:30

Just a couple of days ago, I was watching a speech delivered by Shri Swami Ramdev in a convention in the United States. I dont think that any single person has single-handedly done 1% of what Swami Ramdev has achieved over the past 8-10 years. I have a great reverence for this holy man. He has the vision to and the capacity to take India to the Glorious hights achieved before the intolerant regimes hailing from Central Asia, attacked, and ruled us.

In his speech, he was giving examples of how in the recent past, people of India have deteriorated culturally, mentally, and overall as the nation. It was a harsh, but true analysis of whats going on. 60 years after independence, are we really independent? The Brits have gone, but they have been replaced by an aristocratic party, and other political heads who care for how fat a paycheck they get, legally or illegaly without bothering about the citizens! its like going from bad to worse.

People, from a young age, should be inculcated with values which are pro-indian. you know, making us feel proud that we are Indians. That never happens. Instead, our upbringing is in a society, where, "I & Money" come before us and national pride. This is directly through watching, the TV soap operas on television. Most of them are utter nonsense. For one, a majority of them show the middle class indian girl either as an extremely fliratious, family-destroying vamps. 99 percent of our women are percieved in that way today. Its a shame, when they are essentially extremely pure at heart!Then there is a isuue of taking the mickey out of everything that supports national integration- starting from pro-terrorist movies made by scum like Koran Josher, to completely destroying what was Mile Sur Mera Tumhara(A unique symbol of national integration).

My dad had once told me that he had a friend who was from Bangladesh, when he was studying abroad. When everyone used to start criticiszing Bangladesh, this fellow used to visciously defend his country, and always, always used to highlight its positives- saying its largest producer of jute, etc etc. Ask any Indian, even living in India about his country, and all he says is that its rubbish. This attitude has to change. It is imperative that we put our respect for our MaatruBhumi in our foundations. You should, no doubt, have affection for your Karmabhoomi, but it is essential that Maatrubhoomi be awarded a place in our hearts and minds that it deserves.

Today, we see that people from my generation, are going for higher studies abroad. They complete their higher studies, and stay abroad. This approach totally vexes me. You grow up on the resources provided here in India. You complete your graduation from here, you extract all information you can from here, run away from the country, and use the knowledge you have gained here for the betterment of those people! Its a pathetic approach. Why should such a person not be called a traitor? Next year,even I will be going abroad for higher studies. But I will leave now, to one day come back and serve and work fo my country. You have to give something back.

Most people are blinded by the flash and false world of bollywood and its relatives. You will see hundreds and thousands of kids saying, I want to be SRK, I want to be Ranbir, I want to be like X from film Y etc etc, while some even say they want to be like the gangsters from some movies! Not one, not a single one says, I want to try and walk the path shown by the Mahatma(even though I do not agree with him politically and may even think he was a bit whimsical, I admit he was a great man, who had the capacity to marshall people and fight for a genuinly good cause). No soul says he wants to mould his beliefs to those of Savarkar, Tilak, Chhatrapati Shivaji and other Indian power houses who have done us a lot of good.

Today, we celebrate various days such as Gandhi jayanti, Tilak Punyatithi, Shivjayanti, Savarkar Smarani, etc. Whats the use? Are we honouring them that way? These great thinkers, freedom fighters, hundreds of other people including scientists, physicists, industrialised, and many others who revolutionalised our country are confined to our text books, and in some cases, photo frames. Is this an honour. No. the real honour will be offered, when people start thinking on their ideologies, try to understand their vision, their sacrifices, learn what they did for the country, and accordingly mould their views in such a way, that Bharat is alaways a matter of pride.

Swami Ramdev has nailed the point in me. The process had started by reading the likes of Shivaji Maharaj, Savarkar, Tilak, and Vivekanand. I am greatful that these people have fuelled a sense of national pride in me, and I will strive to keep this flame kindling, and if its in my capacity, help spread it for the cause of Indian nationalism.

The Quintessential Punekar.

2010-06-28T21:15:00.000+05:30

I just couldnt resist putting this up. Listening to it, i realised, how similar our behaviour is to this observation! whats fascinating is that this was written by pu.la ages ago! anyway, have a go through it- the quintessential punekar.

आता तुम्हाला पुणेकर व्हायचं का? जरूर व्हा. आमचे काही म्हणणे नाही. पण मुख्य सल्ला असा, की पुन्हा विचार करा.आगदी आग्रहाच असेल, तर मात्र कंबर कसून तयारी केली पाहिजे, आणि एकदा तयारी झाली, की त्या सारखी मजा नाही ,तुम्हाला सांगतो.

पहिली गोष्ट म्हणजे- कसलाही न्यूनगंड बाळगू नका. आणि प्रत्येक बाबतीमध्ये मतभेद व्यक्त करायला शिका. म्हणजे आपण कोण आहोत, आपला शैक्षणिक दर्जा काय, एकूण कर्तृत्त्व काय, याचा अजिबात विचार ना करता मत ठोकून द्यायचा. विषय कुठलाही असो. म्हणजे आता "अमेरिकेची आर्थिक घडी नीट बसवण्याचा खरा मार्ग कोणता?" या विषयावरती, आपण स्वतः पुणे महानगरपालिकेत, उंदीर मारायच्या विभागात आहोत नोकरीला, हे विसरून मत ठणकावत आले पाहिजे.अमेरिकेची आर्थिक आघाडी- ठोका.

दिवसातून एकदा तरी "चक चक पूर्वीचे पुणं राहिलं नाही, पूर्वीचे पुणं राहिलं नाही" हे म्हणायलाच पाहिजे. हे वाक्य म्हणायला वयाची अट नाही. इथे म्हणजे दहा वर्षाचा मुलगा सुद्धा चाळीशीच्या अनुभवाचे गाठोडं असल्यासारखं ते चारचौघांपुढे उघडत असतो. त्यामुळे "च्यायला, आमच्या वेळी हे असलं नव्हतं" हे वाक्य कॉलेज, कचेरी, ओमकारेश्वर, पेनशनर मारुतीची टेकडी, मंडई आणि शिशुविहार, कुठेही ऐकायला मिळेल, "आमच्या वेळी ते तसा नव्हतं!"

मराठी भाषेच्या अनेक बोली आहेत. त्यात शुद्ध मराठी या नावाची एक पुणेरी बोली आहे. आता ह्या बोली मध्ये व्यासपीठावरची पुणेरी, घरातली पुणेरी, दुकानदाराची पुणेरी, ह्यातला फरक नीट समजावून घेतला पाहिजे. आता खासगी पुणेरी बोली भाषा आणि जाहीर बोली भाषा ह्यातल्या फरकाचा एक उदाहरण पहा. अशी कल्पना करा, की कोणीतरी एक प्राध्यापक भांबुर्डेकर हे प्राध्यापक येरकुंडकराबद्दल स्वतःच्या घरी बोलतायत:
"बोंबला! या यारकुंडवारशास्त्र्याचा सत्कार! च्यायला, येरकुंडकारचा सत्कार म्हणजे कमाल झाली. वास्तविक जोड्याने मारायला हवा याला. ऋग्वेदाचे भाषांतर म्हणे! कमाल आहे! अहो ऋग्वेदाचा बट्ट्याबोळ! आणि ह्यांना च्यायला सरकारी अनुदानं, पन्नास-पन्नास हजार रुपये!"
पुणेरी मराठीतून संताप व्यक्त करायला दुसर्याला मिळालेले पैसे, हा एक भाषिक वैशिष्ठ्याचा नमुना मानावा लागेल.
"ओढा! ओढा लेको पैसे! करा चैन! खा! रोज शिकरण खा! मटार उसळ खा!". अगदी चैनीची परमावादी पुणेरी मराठीत इकडेच संपते- शिकरण, मटार उसळ वगेरे. "आहो! आहो चक्क वीस-वीस रुपये मिळवले" हे वाक्य वीस वीस लाख मिळवले ह्या ऐटीत उच्चारावे.
"आणि ह्यांचा म्हणे सत्कार करा! ह्यांना श्रीफळे द्या!" पुणेरी मराठीत नारळाला 'श्रीफळ' म्हणतात, आणि चादरीला 'महावस्त्र'

आता ह्याच खासगी पुणेरी बोलीचे जाहीर बोली भाषेतील रुपांतर पहा. हाच प्राध्यापक, ह्याच गुरुवर्य यार्कुंडकरांचा सत्कार.
"गुरुवर्य यार्कुंडकरांचा सत्कार, म्हणजे साक्षात विद्द्वात्तेच्या सूर्याचा सत्कार! मित्रहो, आजचा दिवस, पुणे महानगराच्या सौन्स्कृतिक इतिहासात सुवर्णाक्षराने लिहून ठेवण्यासारखा आहे. हे माझे गुरु...म्हणजे मी त्यांना गुरूच मनात आलो आहे, ते मला शिष्य मानतात का नाही, हे मला ठाऊक नाही." इथे हशा. सार्वजनिक पुणेरी मराठी मध्ये, व्यासपीठावरच्या वक्त्यांनी तिसर्या वाक्यात जर हशा मिळवला नाही, तर तो फाउल धरतात. तेव्हा होद्करू पुणेकरांनी जाहीर पुणेरी बोलीचा अभ्यास करताना हे नीट लक्षात ठेवायला पाहिजे.
"आता, एका परीने तसा मी त्यांच्या शिष्यच आहे- कारण, ते मुन्सिपलाटी च्या शाळेत शिक्षक असताना, मी पहिल्या इयत्तेत त्यांचा विद्यार्थी होतो." म्हणजे, येरकुंडकर प्रोफेसर, हा एकेकाळी मुन्सिपालटी शाळामास्तर होता, हे जाता जाता ध्वनित करून जायचं.
"त्यांचे तीर्थरूप, सरदार पंचापात्रीकारांच्या वाड्यातील आहार विभागात सेवक होते." म्हणजे तिकडे वाड्यावर स्वयंपाकी होते, हे सांगून मोकळे व्हयाचे.
"असो! अत्यंत दारिद्र्यात बालपण घालवल्यानंतर आता अरण्येश्वर कॉलनीतल्या आपल्या प्रशस्त बंगल्यात राहताना प्राध्यापक येरकुंडकरांना किती धन्यता वाटत असेल!" म्हणजे विद्द्वात्तेच्या नावावर पैसा कसा ओढला बघा! हे आलं त्याच्यामध्ये.
"प्राध्यापक येरकुंडकर, आणि आपले शिक्षण मंत्री, एकाच शाळेत शिकत असल्यापासूनचे स्नेही आहेत."- म्हणजे वशिला कसा लागला!
सार्वजनिक पुणेकर व्हायचे असेल, तर जाहीर पुणेरी मराठीचा खूप बारकाईने अभ्यास करावा लागेल.

आता दैनंदिन व्यावहारिक पुणेरी शुद्ध मराठी बोलीला मात्र अनेक पैलू आहेत. त्यामुळे रोजच्या व्यवहारात देखील ही बोली वापरताना, वाक्यरचनेकडे नीट लक्ष द्यायला हवे. आता हेच बघा ना, टेलीफोने रीसिवर उचलल्यानंतर, "हेलो, हेलो", असे म्हणावे, हा जगाने मान्य केलेला शिष्टाचार आहे ना? पण पुणेरी शुद्ध मराठीत, "हेलो" याच्या ऐवजी, दुपारच्या झोपेतून जागे केल्यावर आवाजाला जो एक नैसर्गिक तुसडेपणा येत असतो, तो आणून, "हेलो" म्हणण्याच्या ऐवजी "कोणे?" असे वसकन ओरडायचे. म्हणजे टेलीफोने करण्याप्रमाणे ऐकण्यालादेखील पैसे पडले असते, तर माणूस जसा वैतागला असता, तसे वैतागायचे. मग तिकडून विचारतो कोणीतरी, " आहो, जरा प्लीज गोखल्यांना बोलावता का?" असं विचारलं रे विचारलं की पुण्याबाहेरचे तुम्ही आहात, हे पुणेरी पोर देखील ओळखेल. त्याच्या ऐवजी, "गोखल्यांना बोलवा" असा इथून हुकुम सोडायचा. मग पलीकडून आवाज येतो, "आहे इथे दहा गोखले आहेत! त्यातला कुठला हवाय?"
"तो कितवा तो मला काय ठाऊक! LIC मध्ये झोप काढायला जातो त्याला बोलवा!!"
मग इकडून आवाज ऐकू येतो, " अरे गणू! इथे तुझ्यासाठी फोनवर कोणीतरी पेटलाय रे!" "च्यायला, ह्या गाण्याचे दिवसाला शंभर फोन." हे सुद्धा आपल्याला ऐकू येते.

पुणेकर व्हायला कसल्यातरी गोष्टीचा जाज्ज्वल्य अभिमान हवा- नुसता नाही, जाज्ज्वल्य अभिमान. तो शिव्छात्रपती किंवा लोकमान्य टिळकांचाच असला पाहिजे, असं मुळीच नाहीये. म्हणजे आपल्या अलीच्या गणपती, विसर्जनाच्या दिवशी रांकेत कितवा जावा, इत्पासून पुणेरी गावरान शेंग ह्या पर्यंत कुठल्याही गोशिटचा असला तरी चालेल. पण जाज्ज्वाल्ल्य अभिमान हवा. मतभेद व्यक्त करायला या जाज्ज्वल्य अभिमानाची फार मदत होते. म्हणजे टिळक पुण्यातीठीच्या दिवशी अगर्कारांविषयी चा जाज्ज्वल्य अभिमान, क्रिकेट च्या टेस्ट च्या वेळी देशी खेळांविषयीचा जाज्ज्वल्य अभिमान- अशी त्या त्या अभिमानाची नीट वाटणी करता येते आपल्याला. आपला मतभेद केवळ खासगी मध्ये व्यक्त करून पुण्याचे संपूर्ण नागरिकत्त्व मिळत नाही. अधून मधून वाचकांच्या पत्रव्यवहारामध्ये एक पत्र पाठवावे लागते. त्यासाठी पत्रलेखनाची स्वातंत्र्य शैली कमवायची, हे अत्त्यांता आवश्यक आहे.

पुणेकर होण्यासाठी सायकल चालवणं, ही क्रिया एक खास कला म्हणूनच शिकायला हवी. सायकलवर बसता येणं, म्हणजे पुण्यात सायकल चालवता येणं, हे नाही. "चालवणे" इथे हत्त्यार चालवणे, किंवा चाळवल चालवणे, अशा अर्थाने वापरलं पाहिजे. सायकलचा मुख्य उपयोग, वाहन म्हणून न करता वाहत्या रस्त्यात मध्यभागी कोंडाळे करून गप्पा मारताना "टेकायची सोय" म्हणून करायला हवी. यातूनच पोलिसांना वाहतूक नियंत्रणाचे शिक्षण मिळते! त्याचप्रमाणे, पाहुणे नामक गनीम येतात, त्यांना वाड्यामध्ये सहजासहजी एकदम प्रवेश मिळू नये, यासाठी मुख्य प्रवेशद्वारात सायकलींची बेरेकॅडे रचता यायला हवी. त्या ढिगार्यातून नेमकी आपलीच सायकल बाहेर काढता येयला हवी. सायकल, हे एकट्याने बसून जायचे वाहन आहे, हे विसरायला हवे. किमान तिघांच्या संख्येनी, रस्त्याच्या मधून गप्पा मारत मारत जाता आले पाहिजे. नजर समोर न ठेवता, फुटपथावरील चालत्या-बोलत्या आणि इतर प्रेक्षणीय स्थळांच्या तिथे येणे जाणे चालू असतं तिथे ( --> ) असं पाहिजे. सायकल ला घंटी,दिवा, ब्रेक हे वगैरे असणं, हे म्हणजे भ्याडपणाचे लक्षण आहे.

अशा रीतीने पुणेकर होण्यातल्या प्रथम, द्वितीय, वगैरे परीक्षा उत्तीर्ण होत होत सार्वजनिक पुणेकर होण्याची पहिली परीक्षा म्हणजे कुठल्यातरी सौन्स्थेच्या कार्यकारी मंडळामध्ये तिथे शिरायची धडपड सुरु ठेवायची. उगीचच काहीतरी, "श्रीमंत दुसरे बाजीराव साहेब ह्यांचे शुद्धलेखन" किंवा "बाजरीवरील कीड" असल्या फालतू व्याख्यानांना जाऊन सुद्धा हजेरी लावायची,आणि व्याख्यानानंतर, त्या व्याख्यात्याला भेटून "... या विषयावर एकदा आपल्याशी चर्चा करायचीये" , असे चारचौघात म्हणून टाकावे . हा हा म्हणता आपण खासगी पुणेकरातून सार्वजनिक पुणेकर होऊन जाल!

आता पुण्यात राहून दुकान वगैरे चालवायची इच्छा असेल, तर पुणेरी मराठी बोलीचा फारच अभ्यास वाढवायला लागेल. तरच किमान शब्दात गीराहीकाचा कमाल अपमान करता येईल. ती भाषा आली पाहिजे. कारण पुण्यात दुकान चालवणे, हे सायकल चालवणे, ह्या अर्थी चालवणे आहे. दुकानदारांनी गीराहीकावर सत्ता चालवायची असते. दुकानात सगळ्यात दुर्लक्ष करण्यासारखी वस्तू, म्हणजे गिराहिक- हे सूत्र आहे इथलं! त्यामुळे खास त्या ढंगाचे दुकान हे सात-आठ वर्ष chalte. पुढे ते सिंध्या-बिन्ध्याला विकावे. जागेच्या पगडीत उरलेल्या आयुष्याची सोय होते, आणि आपण , "महाराष्ट्र व्यापारात मागे का?" या विषयावर भाषण द्यायला मोकळे!

थोडक्यात म्हणजे पुणेकर व्हायचा असेल, तर म्हातारपणाच्या सत्त्काराच्या दिशेने वाटचाल करायचा धोरण सांभाळावे लागते.

-पु. ल. देशपांडे.

for bozos who do not understand marathi, an excellent english version(translation) is available at: http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2006/10/mumbaikar-and-punekar.html

The Other Chinmay.

2010-06-18T12:17:00.000+05:30

Its morning 6 am. My phone, which I regularly forget to put on the silent mode at night, starts singing in its highest pitch. Its 10 feet away from me, and its not the alarm thats ringing. Its a call. Damn! Who calls at this hour! Sleepily, I pick up the phone..

me "Kone?"
tithun.. " are xyz...zopla hotas ka?"
me "Chayla, sade6 la uthato mahitye na! ardha tas dheer dharta yet nahi ka? xxxxx kay zala."
tithun.. "Are kahi nahi! congrats mhanayla phone kela hota! salya sangat pan nahis ki TT kheltos!"
me "Tuzya timba timba timba xxx, kasla alay TT!"
tithun. "ARE TT chi tournament jinklas na tu? paper madhe alay! Chinmay Datar winner mhanun. Gandavu Nakos, Party taltoys sang saral!"
me"Ghanta winner. tu swapnamadhe paper vachla asashil. are me tt khelat pan nahi!"
tithun.. "are ho! pan paper vaach aajcha! tyat alay!"
me. "Chayla, ek tar sakali sakali uthavtos, tyatun mhantoys paper vach lagech! haramya! vel jaat nahi ka tuza! kaa chhaltoys mala asa prathakali?(jorat jambhayee/loud yawn)"
tithun. "tu vach."
me. "barr vachto.. pan nantar.. atta pressure chadhatay jara.. thevto me.."

I rush downstairs to open the back pages of the newspaper, which promptly declare Chinmay Datar is the winner of a certain TT tournament! Surely, something is wrong. Thats when I realize that there is another Chinmay Datar. And he seems to be as famous as I am!

Throughout the day, I get hundreds of calls from my relatives, friends and fans congratulating me. "Thank you! I say for the wishes, pan tumchya durdayvane, "'TO' 'ME' nhavech!". Irritated that they have wasted their 2-3 rupees for a false piece of information, and believing that it is yet another of my quite public Publicity Stunts, i get a tirade of swear words.

I have to bear with it, as there is no other way of defending myself! This other Chinmay sometimes put me in a rather tight spot! I may not know him, but I sure do know a few things about him- for one, he is a complete winner- He wins so many times! and grudgingly, I accept that unlike me, he is quite famous among girls, by the sheer number of messages I get on facebook from random girls asking me "tuch ka re to TT vala?" It feels disappointing to say "No", but I have to! I really wish I did something so that got that kind of attention![:P](Not that I dont get much, myself, but still, I want more!)

Anyway, I would really like to meet this Other Chinmay once. I mean, I am sure people must have called him up and asked, "Tuch ka re to majurde posts lihinara?" Ah well, lets see what happens. And again to those people who still think I am the TT champ, "To me Nhavech!!"

Khadad Sadashiv Pethi.

2010-06-07T23:25:00.004+05:30

More often than not, I get caught in a limbo-Eat or Spend? Whilst I strive to live the life of a quintessential person from Sadashiv Peth, my desire to indulge in all sorts of foodstuffs (provided they are vegetarian), forces me to loosen up my strings. And now a days, with the over hyped prices in hotels, and me being an extremely frugal person, I tend not to go out for what they term as "Hotelling".

However, this "not eating junk food" again contradicts the idea of being a Sadashiv Pethi. We people just love our Maharashtrian Snacks. I mean Sadashiv Peth and its adjacent areas are full of famous eating places. The only plus point is that the price is not too exorbitant. Secondly, you get to meet a LOT of people at these places. This list includes people you met at the Jagatik Chitpavan Sammelan, other social events such as Sawai Gandharwa, Class friends, School friends, people from your Singing/Harmonium/Drawing classes, and although a majority of them have moved out, Sadashiv Peth still has plenty of them good looking girls which you get to see! These are, really, wonderful places to socialize.

Today I was thinking of all these places which have been real favourites of mine, located not more than 7 minutes of a bike-ride/walk from my house (Datar wada, Opposite Godbole Hospital). I have made a list of the following places as a guided tour, with a map. The list does not include expensive places like CCD, Vaishali, where every wannabe wants to hang out. It includes places which totally convey the Puneri Flavour to the fullest. Be it with their witty, sarcastic and sometimes insulting notices, or the tastes that they leave lingering in your mouths. Anyway, here is my all time favourite list:

We start our journey from 1342 Sadashiv Peth- My house, and end it at the same place. The journey, as just as a walk without the food will last for about 30 minutes max, while it’s a 10 minute ride on the bike. We would approximately take a triangular route as described below.

We step out from 1342 Sadashiv Peth. This place has over the years been a fortress standing a test of time. Built in 1920's, it’s one of the oldest structures in the lane that is still standing (the other of course includes Sahasrabuddhe Datta Mandir). So, out we go and start moving towards Bharat Natya Mandir. Bharat is well known for the drama staging of Purshottam and Firodiya Karandaks and is one the favourite places for culturally inclined youth. In the adjacent area, you find two very good places-

Jabreshwar Bhuvan- One of the favourite 5 am tapri. Located opposite Bharat Natya Mandir. The tea and Pohe are real good. I used to go there very frequently in the first year after JVK class. Really crowded in the morning hours with Students/Paying guests etc all lining up for breakfast.

Murlidhar Bhuvan- Located next to Bharat Natya Mandir. Awesome Breakfast- Onion Uttappa, Upma etc. Always full. You can get a parcel from here. There is also a Chat counter which is good. A good place for travellers, as there is place to sit and relax. Rates slightly on the higher side to go every week.

Now, we take a short detour from the planned path. Turn right from Jabreshwar, heading towards PeruGate. On your left, you will see a shop called Sai Ba. It serves a variety of Bhel, and trust me, it never disappoints. One of the few good places in Peth, where you can indulge in Choupaty Bhel, Oli Bhel, Suki Bhel, Sheng Dane, Tikhat Dane, Farsan etc.

After filling ourselves up at Sai Ba, we turn back, and head towards Tilak Road. At traffic light, cross Tilak road and enter Badshahi cha Bol(Also known as Bharat Gayan Samaj Path). Park your vehicle, and enter the hotel on the corner- Badshahi Boarding.

Badshahi Boarding- While you get dosas and uttapas, some unconventional dishes include Deep Fried Potato Toast, Danyachya Kutacha Ladoo, Upvasachi Misal and believe it or not- Kharvas and Piyush.. The Upvasachi Misal is one of its kind, and is simply fabulous, though it is available only on Saturdays, and a few selected days. Only those willing to experiment and those who have a liking for unconventional dishes should go here.

We come out of Badshahi Boarding, and start moving on Tilak Road, in the Direction of SP college. At the traffic light at SP college, we have two options- either turn right and head towards neelayam, or turn left and head towards Khajina Vihir. We take the former, and head towards Neelayam. A short dash along the road leads us to a wonderful little canteen, fondly called as SS(not the Nazi crazy brigade) by us SPMites, which is our next destination.

SS Canteen- I dont know the name of this shop (Phadkyanchya Canteen), but it is located behind SP college. It is called SS which stands for Self Service, as here you bring your own food to the table. I have been going to this place for ages (Ever since school) and their vadaa pav, kokam sarbat and sadha dosa are just too good.

We take another U turn, turn right at the traffic light, and immediately turn left to go towards Khajina Vihir(After Grahak Peth). At the Chauk, is arguably one of the finest Sugarcane juice centre in Pune- Shailesh Raswanti Gruha. Shailesh Rasvanti Gruha- A sugarcane juice shop, which you cannot say no to. 2 Jumbo glasses are always on the menu, every time you visit. And a 5rs per Jumbo glass always makes it worthwile!

We quench our thirst at Shailesh, head back out to Tilak Road again, and procees forward. Our next stop is also on Tilak Road, and is arguably one of the better places to have Pav Bhaji at. Yes, at the corner before Kaka Halwai, we have Girija Pav Bhaji. Girija serves incredible Paav Bhaji, and the place is more often than not, always packed. The taste it leaves behind is just wonderful. Infact it is so good, that it is considered a crime if you go to Girija and NOT eat Paav Bhaaji. It is The place to have PB near the Sadashiv Peth area( the best in Pune ,I would say, is Relax.)

We fill ourselves up at Girija, head out back on the Main Road. We reach Abhinav Kala Mandir, and take a left turn to proceed on our food journey. We storm past Ganaraj Hotel, which although otherwise good, is as of now, no use to us! We reach the famed Chitale Bandhu Sweet Shop near Shanipaar. We buy ourselves half a kilo of Bakarwadi and Amba Barfi for later. But now, we have important work to do. We cross Bajirao Road, and enter Tulshi Baag. Here, the famous SriKrishna Misal, which serves Punes finest misal can be found. I was introduced to this place by Kedar and Anupam. THE best misal in Pune(according to me). Spicy levels vary. But again, its a must have.

We rejoin Bajirao Road, and turn left at the next set of traffic light, onto the shopping District of Pune- Lakshmi Road. Travel down Lakshmi road till you Reach the Chauk near Rajaram Mandal, and then take a right turn(i.e At Vijay Talkies) go straight, from behind Modi ganpati, come out near Kabir Baag on Kelkar road, turn right, and head towards Kesari Vadaa. Opposite to Kesri Vadaa, we find Prabha Vishranti Gruha, which serves one of the spiciest Batata Vadas and Chutney in Pune. Ignore the spice, because the taste lasts for a long time, and you really want to eat here time and again!

Come out of Prabha Vishranti Gruha and follow the main road towards Ramanbaag. At Ramanbaag Chauk, take a right turn to again head towards Lakshmi Road.A short distance ahead, you come to a narrow lane on the right, called as Munjaba cha Bol. Here, on the corner, is another popular Misal Store- the Bedekar Misal store. A good place for a newbie. Non spicy, Koknasthi Misal. Altough now a days, we hardly go over there, its a good place to bring Misal home from, especially for the family.(It tends to be non spicy).

Park you vehicles at Bedekar Misal itself, and take a short walk on to Lakshmi Road to Shagun Chauk, and on the right, is another really cool sugarcane serving place called the Cool Cane. It serves 10 varieties of Sugarcane juice (adulterated with herbs and spices- varying from tulsi to Adulsa). For 10 rupees though, its worth the money spent.

We speed down Lakshmi Road once again, fill petrol at Kulkarni Petrol Pump, and come out on Kumthekar road. Take the immediate right and head towards jnana prabodhini. Immediately take a left turn. Here on the corner, you find two of the best hang out places in the City:

Anarse Samose. Opposite Jnana Prabodhini, the 8 Rs(last time I had it) Samosa is totally worth it. Arguably its the chutney which gives the real taste, as the saran inside is plain potato and a little bit of Mirchi. A must go for any one!

Rohit Milks- Can be dubbed as the Durga of Sadashiv Peth. Awesome Cold Coffee and chocolate milk. Most positively, located exactly opposite Anarse Samosewala. So the two are always to be visited in tandem!

Now we head straigh down the road, till we encounter a T junction. we turn right at the T, and go to another fampus place- Shree Upahar Gruha- Take a right turn at Ramesh Dying. First building. Amazing Vadaa Pav, and other fried stuff. The adjacent Bhel shops are also very good!

After a gobsmacking tour around the Peth, its time that we draw curtain to it by having a Puneri Speciality. We come out from Shree Upahar Gruha, turn right, and ignoring all traffic rules, break the one way, and end up at Nimbalkar Talim Chauk. Those who do not know there roads, are releaved that our meanderings through the narrow and crowded lanes of Sadashiv Peth and nearby areas, are over, as we enter a familiar lane. Its the Ultimate place in the locality. This place serves what we can say the real speciality of Pune. Yes- We are now standing outside Sujata Mastani. It serves what we Punekars fondly call "Mastani" and make over the top claims that we can easily finish two of them. The mastani, to the cultural illiterates, is a thickshake(traditionally Mango Flavoured) with a scoop of Mango ice cream in it. (Although flavours have now expanded to Sitafal, and Chocolate, Mango is still the King) This stuff really fills you up. I mean I am almost packed in 1 normal sized mastani. But anyway, we have it.

So after all this fooding, and our stomachs packed, preparing ourselves mentally for the explosions for tomorrow, we head back, take a right turn, go ahead, park the bikes underneath 1342 Sadashiv Peth, a place that I always call home, rush to the 1st floor, and under the full force of the fan, lay down to have a well deserved Siesta!

Since moving to Pashan, I have hardly gone to these awesome places as frequently as I would like to go. Just mentionaing them while writing made my mouth water. Wait one day, I will actually do this Tour!

Sangeet Katyar Kaljaat Ghusli

2010-05-29T09:15:00.002+05:30

Yesterday was one of the most enriching evening of my holidays as of yet. So far i have been stuck up at home- either preparing words for GRE or wasting my time playing mindless games. But then the other day I saw an advert in the newspaper that a show of the legendary marathi drama "Sangeet Katyar Kaljat Ghusli" was on. Attendance, for me, was compulsory. I have as of yot never seen Katyar.. Ive just heard a lot on it. About how amazing Vasantrao was in the original, how good the songs were- Ive just heard. I had never experienced the joy of attending a sangeet-natak before. So, not attending was out of question. I purchased a 200 rs ticket, but i never mind spending on such legendary shows- they are a bargain price I would say, I would pay 500 rupees to watch it live!

The show was scheduled at 9.30, and so after a collation, I hastened towards Balgandharwa Rangmandir for the show. An elaborate coincidence was to occur- I met Sanjeev, and he had a seat right next to mine! What was significant that even after so many years the play has been performed,(the actors have changed ofcourse) the theater was jam packed. A housefull show for the 25th screening of this particular version, directed by subodh bhave. What more can anyone ask for! It was also graced by none other that Nana Patekar himself! Anyway, the show started, and for a change I was glued to one place till it ended. from 9.30 to 1.30. 4 hours without getting up from my seat!! It was mesmerizing, it was captivating, and the most brilliantly directed play I have seen.

Most of you will not know the story of this Natak- and I do not expect you to know it. But I will not disclose it- for it is to be watched in a natyagruha, and not heard from people. All I can say is that the performances were majestic. Rahul Deshpande was just awesome playing KhanSahab. His singing was something else! The character Baanke Bihari, portrayed by Subodh Bhave, was certainly a catching performance. He may not have had anything to sing, but his performance was right up there. The actors who lplayed the roles of Uma and Zarina were also amazing. The first song-"Lagi Kalejwa Katyar " was excellent! and so was the slower version of Gheyi Chhanda Makaranda performed by them.And Mahesh Kale who performed the role of Sadashiv- was out of the world! Especially for that tarana and ofcourse Muralidhar Shyam!

I was overwhelmed by the play. The story is just brilliant. The characters are all exceptional. Its a wonderful amalgamation of music and human emotions. It has few of the most beautiful songs ever composed for a Marathi natak- Lagi Kalejwa Katyar. Gheyi Chhanda both the slow and the fast versions, Muralidhar Shyam, Tejo nidhi Loha Gol, Ya Bhavanateel Geet and ofcourse, Surat Piya Ki. It was purely Magical. I have no words. I have no comparisons. It certainly is the most spectacular things I have seen in recent momory, and I sure do not want to wipe it out ever! It is a must watch for all- regardless of your age, your language, your likes and dislikes. I dont want to say much, just that the next time its on, I am going again...Its a million times better than the crap you get in the same amount from bollywood...

सर्वात मधुर स्वर

2010-05-15T00:11:00.001+05:30

बंधनमुक्त होण्याचा जो आनंद असतो, तो निराळाच असतो. कुसुमाग्रजांनी खालील कवितेत त्याचा उत्तम उल्लेख केला आहे.

स्वातंत्र्यासाठी हजारांच्या आकड्यातील क्रांतिकारकांच्या हाता-पायातील साखळदंड तुटल्यावर कुसुमाग्रंजांना हे असेच वाटले असेल का?

सर्वात मधुर स्वर
ना मैफिलीतील गाण्याचा, ना पहाडातून झरणाऱ्या पाण्याचा
ना सागराचा, ना कूजनाचा, ना आमंत्रित ओठातील हसण्याचा

सर्वात मधुर स्वर,
कुठेतरी, कोणाच्यातरी मनगटातील शृंखला खळखळा तुटण्याचा.

-कुसुमाग्रज.

Q & A with myself!

2010-05-08T21:05:00.003+05:30

Well, it’s been nearly one whole year since Chinmay the Blogger started putting up his ideas on BlogSpot. Today, Chinmay the Interviewer asks Chinmay the Blogger about his experiences, ups and downs, his thoughts on his own blogs, on the occasion of completing one blogday.

(CI=Chinmay the Interviewer; CB=Chinmay the Blogger)

CI: “Hello CB. We shall start with the questions straight away... It’s been a year since you started writing posts. Any inspirations for starting this activity?”

CB: “Actually, I was planning to write for quite some time before I actually started writing. So yeah, you can say the inspiration was from within me, more so to make people read my work.”

CI:”Doesn’t that sound as if you are writing for gaining publicity?”

CB: “Nah, not really. See, my mother thinks I write really well. Plus it’s a good medium to write whatever you want. Publicity comes naturally to me, whatever I do. Blogging boosts it only by a millimeter.”

CI: “A year has passed since you first posted. How different you find your posts now, as compared to what you first wrote?”

CB: “Not that much actually. I try to follow a pattern. 1-2 funny posts, 1 Marathi poem, 1 serious post, plus special events in that month if any. But my language- both Marathi and English have improved significantly you can say.”

CI: “Yeah we observed that... you have written on a variety of things. What motivated you to do so?”

CB: “To write something substantial, you need to read, hear or see it somewhere, and think over it. Your horizons broaden as a result. You gain a non monotonous outlook on things going on around you. Plus, all the things I write on really draws my interests- you can say they are hobbies since childhood.”

CI: “And who motivated to you to write what you have written so far?”

CB: “The sources vary. Mostly it’s the indiosycracies of my friends, or professors or just the things that go on around us. My good friends Sumedh and Anant contribute a lot of ideas. I do try to mention the inspiration in each and every post though!”

CI: “What about all those Marathi poems you post? What draws you to post them? A lot of people wanted to know why you write them in the first place!”

CB: “I personally think that the youth of today are deviating culturally. Westernization is being accounted for at a terrible cost of belittling our own culture. The Marathi poetry is just an attempt to stamp the beauty of what’s our own on these deviant minds. I really hope that they get inspired by what I write and start appreciating and rediscovering their own culture- it really is beautiful.”

CI: “What about this recent trend of writing about Kavi Bhushan and Shivaji Maharaj?”

CB: “Again, simple- motivate people to come under the banner of nationalism. Today we can see how ruined and corrupt our democracy is. People like Shivaji Maharaj are idols for one and all. He inspires awe. There is an aura of invincibility, and an almost god like image about him. And nobody describes him better that Bhushan. So…”

CI: “Wow! Listening to that coming from you is quite surprising. A few years ago, no one would have imagined you would consider writing anything other than sarcastic posts!”

CB: “Pu.La Deshpande was known for his humour, but some of his works are genuinely serious and prompt us to think. I look up to him as an idol. Its necessary one writes on serious topics from time to time.You tend to think in doing so. Otherwise it feels like telling the same joke again and again. ”

CI: “If you were a critic, which post of yours would you choose as your best?”

CB: “That’s difficult. I love most of them. But I would have to say the 'Rains, Sur Malhar and Me wins. A close second is Kedar'”

CI: “And the worst?”

CB: “Ah. Simple- ‘On the Dirtier Side.’. No idea why I even took efforts to type it!”

CI: “And the one you like to read the most?”

CB: “Ahh... The one on the Ideal girl. Goodness, it still gives my laughs to read some of the stuff I’ve written in that!”

CI: “The one you had most fun writing?”

CB: “Say ‘NO’. It was an adventure in itself to come up with witty new ways of putting someone off! I and my friend who helped me get inspired for that were coming up with reasons for two whole days!”

CI: “Good you mentioned those two- I was dying to ask you- what do you base your funny posts on.”

CB: “It’s the normal everyday things we do- stupid things like done in class. Inconceivable things we come up with. Minor things like chalk fights. Spoofs of the existing things. Again, Pu La is my inspiration for these posts.”

CI: “Do you have a set frame of how you are going to write before you actually start writing?”

CB: “Actually, all of it is spontaneous. Although I do make a point that I edit afterwards to make the read enjoyable. I completely changed parts of the T-20 post twice to make changes suggested by a few people!”

CI: “What was the happiest moment in your blogging life?”

CB: “It's tough to choose between getting 341 hits in a day to getting the first cluster map dot from South America (the last continent to have access to my posts).”

CI: “Other than your own, which blogs you like to read?”

CB: “Actually, I tend to read all those that I follow. I like Sanjeevs work a lot. Neha K must also be appreciated for her amazing write ups and pics more often than not. Pundlik is good too. MadB blogs are moody- cribbing you can say, but once in a while a decent one is posted. Rao writes pretty well too.”

CI: “And those you do want to read but not get a chance to read?”

CB: “Ill really like to read what Viru has to say. He has that mantle of producing extraordinary stuff. Anant will be jokes too- intellectually damning one can say. Sumedh has deep knowledge of Marathi. Id definitely like to read something in Marathi from him too! I hope they start writing soon.”

CI: “Well CB we have to start winding down as we are approaching the threshold of boredom. Anything you learnt about what not to do?”

CB: “Hell Yeah! I hurt the feelings of one of my best friends ever in my very first month. It was a disgraceful thing to do, that. Never ever I am going to post posts which toy with others emotions. On this note, I again apologize to my friend for writing it in the first place. It’s destroyed now though.”

CI: “And anything you regret posting?”

CB: “Apart from that 1 post, nothing. I don’t care that much actually. People do talk about my ideologies and right-wing ness, explosiveness of posts etc, but then, I am proud of having them. It’s not wrong to express your opinions, no matter how explosive they are!”

CI: “A year ago, did you think that you could make it to your first blogday?”

CB: “I have always believed in myself and God. So with his blessings, as and when I get a good topic, I write. Always knew I would make it.”

CI: “And do you hope to carry on writing in future?”

CB: “Well, the last answer was self stating. Why do you keep asking the same thing again and again? Don’t worry; it’s been a while since I flipped!”

CI: “Thank you Chinmay the blogger for taking your time off for giving us this interview. It was a great pleasure chatting with you. And we do hope that you keep on producing good write ups, and inspire one and all. ”

The Magic of Malkauns

2010-05-04T21:39:00.002+05:30

It is rather strange to know how over the years your taste in music changes, reaches extreme ends and finally stabilizes into one thing. That was the case with me. Back in my teens, i used to get engrossed in Hindi film music. But then, its level started detiriorating so much, that nowadays, I hardly listen to Hindi songs. Then, when I was in the UK, the marathi bug bit me, and marathi abhang, bhajan, sudhir Phadke, really made me comfortable. Then once I returned to India, sheerly under peer pressure, I started listening to english songs- the likes of Metallica, Linkin Park, Eminem and what not. And then, suddenly, out of nowhere, I really started appreciating Hindusthani Classical Music.

I guess that the kind of music I listened to, generally referred to my attitude to life at those particular stages of my life. School was carefree. It became more balanced and level headed in 11th and 12th, plus a clear indication that I was indeed missing my country. Back in india, definitely rebellious. and now, since last 1- 1and half years definitely stabilized.

If anything has taught me more that Hindustani Classical music, I would be rather surprized. I mean, I have realised that it has definitely helped me improve my concentrtion for one. Its helped me gain a discerning ear to recognize quality music. Its opened an unbounded universe of joy that one can get just listening to greats like Pandit Jasraj, Bhimsen Joshi, Vasantrao Deshpande and other divine people who represent this ageless form of art.

I dont remember when exactly this transformation took place. Sometime Last year. But what I do know, is how it took place. After being urged by Sampada Atya, I listened to Raag Malkauns sung by Malini Rajurkar. The bug bit me. I attended my first ever Sawai Gadharwa that year, and the interest grew exponentially. I started digging into the the depths of raag structures, and started pondering over what makes them all so wonderful when heard at the right time. more fodder for thought soon followed: why does raags like Marwa have such a profound effect on your thought? why listening to Malhar while its raining brings out so much freshness and clarity in your mind. I am yet to find the answers for that, which will satisfy me.

But then, coming to the crux of the post- it was indeed Malkauns that opened these doors for me. I still get smitten by those 5 notes present in the raag. Yesterday evening, as a habit that I have now got into, I started playing Malkauns on the harmonium. I dont know, something really struck me from inside. I totally lost track of time. I played the swars in a way that I had not done previously- took a S-g-(S)-'n-'d-('d)-'n-S string or something on that line.. (dont remember exactly what it was!) but the effect was life imorented on my heart.
My mind embroiled in the boring day today life- fights, exams, studies suddenly started to become clear like never before. There was an air of belief rising inside me.

There is a legend and myth about the origins of Malkauns. It goes that there was a massive war between the devas and the asuras. Though the devas were victorious in the war, they were all badly injured and as a result, were suffering because of the pain from the wounds. In that state, they went to Lord Shiva to find a solution to ebb their pain. Shiva sang a celestial song to soothe their injuries, and the song that came out of his mouth was none other than the amrut roopi makauns. Traditionally, malkauns is thought to be a veer-ras oriented raag. It, ideally should raise the "romanch" in you. Rid you of all your fears.

I had never got an opportunity to view Malkauns in that perspective- Till yesterday. I dont know why, but then, it seemed that for once- for that one nimish, I got a real glimpse of Malkauns.. And really it is one moment of my otherwise uneventful life, that I will always remain as a treasured one.

A quick list of ragas that won me over to the realms of classical music:(I started off with these, encouraged by Sampada Atya)
1)Malkauns- Malini Rajurkar
2)Yaman-Pt. Vishwamohan Bhat(Out of this world!)
3)Darbari-Bhimsen Joshi
4)Basant-Jasraj ji
5)Nat Bhairav- Vasantrao Deshpande.
6)Marwa- Vasantrao Deshpande.