Doordarshan of childhood days

If you spent your childhood days in India then I think most of us would have scolded the National television channel, Doordarshan (DD), some time or the other during our life. Now when I heard and saw a few things online, I felt so nostalgic about Doordarshan. It brought back some sweet memories of my childhood days and gave me immense happiness, which cannot be paralleled even if I win a lottery worth a million dollars.
Now when I think of it, I really miss Doordarshan for a few things. This post is a compilation of artifacts that I could find that are related to Doordarshan and these very artifacts makes me go back in years to my childhood days. I really wish I could go back to those days again.
This is relatively a new video that used to come on DD. The song is catchy and also has a nice message suitable for current age. This video reminds me of my military bag, running races that we used to have during lunch breaks in 4th and 5th standard, craze for Hero pen, class group photo, school bell etc. Hope the new year spreads education to every nook and corner of this World. Let children be given the right to study.

I remember that Sundays used to be a special day for me during my childhood. I used to wait the whole week just for this day of the week. Sunday is the day when we used to have a lot of programs to watch on TV.
The following song reminds me of Pongal and Sambar/Chutney. Well, that used to be our regular Sunday breakfast in our house. I used to watch this program mostly while having my breakfast.

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I used to love the following program. Where ever I was, I used to run to watch this program. Seems like getting hooked to this program is in our family blood, now my nephews are hooked big time to this character.

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Long long ago, sometime when I was very small this program used to come on DD. I was such a big fan of this program. I guess this was the first program that released toys of its characters. I used to yearn for them then. Wonder where this character has gone? I don't get to see it now a days. By the power of Gray skull...

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There were days when I used to sing along with the following song. This song is sung in many Indian languages. Though I knew only one language of all the languages that were used, I used to sing some gibberish just by sound pattern matching, without knowing what I was singing. It felt great to find this video online. Not bad I still remember a decent amount of the song.

The following video is very very special to me. It is surely a kind of video which will take our memory trail back to our childhood days. I guess this video was made sometime around 1974. It was great feeling to watch this video online. Ladies and Gentleman presenting to you the evergreen and irreplaceable 'Ek Chidiya'

We have been thought a wonderful lesson during our childhood through this cartoon. The song states that if we all work together in harmony there is nothing that we can't achieve. Keeping this in mind lets all take a New Year resolution to work together in harmony and make this World a peaceful and better place to live.
Wish, as we pass through each year, we become younger. But in reality it can't happen. So hope this post rekindles the kid within you and makes you feel younger.

Wishing everyone a very Happy & Prosperous New year 2007!!!

Varta...

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas time. The whole World celebrates this festival with lots of zeal. In U.S most of the houses are decorated with some colorful lights and really cool air blown puppets of Santa and rein deers, Mickey mouse, Scooby doo, Simpson etc. All these decorations makes us feel the festive season.
Last year I saw an awesome light show at Saks 5th Ave in NYC near the Rockefeller Center.Following is the video of that light show.

I have seen many houses decorated with lights for Christmas but the following light show in some house is really amazing. Enjoy the video.

Christmas carol is a common activity during Christmas. People go to everyone's house and and sing carol at their house. So to continue the same tradition I thought I will carol in your house virtually.


Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

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Caste abomination

Never in my dreams have I thought that I will be writing a poem. But after I started reading a lot of blog, I noticed that many people write poems very nicely. Inspired by reading poems on many blogs I felt like trying my hand in writing a poem. I just took the theme from one of my earlier post. The following is my first ever poem, Hope you guys like it.Frozen Memories
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One bright day, his heart starts to flutter,
Keeping it with in him created storm and thunder,
With lots of apprehension he asked her,
If she could be his forever.

With no doubts in her mind, Yes she told,
giving her hand, saying her heart is now sold,
In memorable moments together they rolled,
Their lives shaping up in their love's mold.

Big No from parents because of difference in caste,
Didnt bother to look at character or cast,
Wonder why parents are still in the past,
Along society, ranking their child's happiness last.

For many years, to convince they struggled,
Caste blinding their parents, their love was ridiculed,
Such a pair can never be found even when googled,
Having high hopes the young pair was only fooled.

When their dreams and reality did not blend,
On a cold dark night everything reached its fag end,
Hearts shattered to pieces and no way to mend,
With tears in their eyes they departed as friend.

I would like to dedicate my first poem to a very special friend of mine. You know who it is, Its for you.

Varta...

Jaage Hain

Back again with the picturization that I have imagined for another new song. Interestingly this song is also sung by AR Rahman. The song is from the movie "Guru", which is yet to be released. The movie is Directed by Maniratnam, casting Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhavan, Vidya Balan. I could not write it for each line like last time, as it has long music in between. Play the song and read the post and try imagining.

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When the music starts, Its late in the night and we show a small middle class house with one room lit in the first floor. The camera starts from the ground level and goes up slowly to the first floor level.
When the song starts, we show inside the lit room, where Abhishek Bachan (Abhi) is sad with tears in his eyes due to some failure. Abhi lies on Aishwarya Rai's (Ash) lap, while starts singing with tears slowly dripping from her eyes. When she is about to finish her verses, a drop of tears falls on Abhi's face. He looks at her and and gets up from her lap and makes her lie on his shoulder and pats her head slowly like consoling her. Slowly the camera moves away from them.
While the music goes in the background. Next shot, she would have slept leaning on his shoulder, so he slowly makes her lie on the bed and carefully places the blanket on her. He then walks out of a door in his room his room while the music is still playing the background. He comes and stands next to a railing. The camera goes around him and then slowly moves up while he he looks up at the sky. Slowly the camera moves far from him when A R Rahman starts singing and slowly the screen becomes dark.
Suddenly when the song's pitch increases we put on a spot light on Abhi, who is standing in a dark room. The camera starts from the top and slowly moves down and around him while he lip syncs the song.
After he finishes his verses, again the camera moves to top angle. Then there is cycle bell kind of sound that comes so when each time it comes another spot light comes and we show someone working and slowly the number of spot lights increase around him. When the chorus starts we show him surrounded by people working (typical shop floor), with he being in the center and the whole room lit and he starts walking around his shop floor and people wish him as he passes through them, the camera follows him.
Then the camera comes out and shows a huge building and then shows a long queue of workers waiting to enter the factory. The camera moves along the people queued up to enter and slowly the camera enters a room in the top floor and goes up and behind Abhi who stand next to a railing in the 3rd floor and watches his workers working. Then we show the finishing of a meeting with foreign delegates and Abhi gives the foreign a handshake near the same railing, he then turns and watches his workers working with a proud smile. In the end a trumpet music starts thats when the camera moves down and as the camera cross him it faces him and camera moves down making it appear as if he is rising.
When the chorus stops we show him in his posh bedroom contrasting to the one we showed in the starting of the song. Ash is already asleep. He caresses Ash on her head and goes to bed when the music phases out.

Well this is my imagination, Maniratnam always surprises me with a totally different video for songs like this, like for example Hey Ajnabhi from Dil Se. Waiting to see how he takes this song.

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Varta...

Corruption

Well I don't think I need to explain about corruption. I am sure everyone would have experienced corruption is some way or the other.
As per one of the recent news report in IBN-Live it is told that India is ranked 47th in the list of most corrupt countries. So whom do we blame for this the people who take bribe or do we blame the people who give bribe? I think it is due to both of them.
Though there have been many movies which has dealt with corruption as a subject. People enjoy watching how the hero's deal with corruption but how many of us have taken the initiative to not give bribes. Not many I am sure. This actually shows that we are all hoping that someone will do something for this corruption and bring it to a halt. But we do not dare to take the first step from our side. We don't want to take the pains of not giving bribe to get our work done. Are we doing the right thing? No. Corruption has penetrated so much in our society that we need to bribe the officer for him/her to do his work. Its not like he/ she is doing something out of the rule book.
Well I tried to abstain myself from giving bribes about a couple of years back. So once when I broke a rule in Egmore, Chennai, I was caught by a traffic inspector. I told him that I would not pay any bribe, instead I am ready to pay the fine. He did not say anything, he just wrote a charge sheet and gave it to me and I payed him the fine. Though I was sorry about my mistake, I was happy that I did not bribe.
On a contrast there was a incident where I was caught by cops at Mangalore. The cop took my Motorcycle key and asked for my license. Since my license was a photocopy of my Tamilnadu license, he refused to give the key. He was asking for the original, I told him I don't have it with me. So he asked me for a bribe, I refused to pay him a bribe and told him that I am ready to pay the fine. For this he was scaring me by saying the fine will be very high. I told I am ready to pay the fine irrespective of how much it is. But he was so resistant to give me a charge sheet. At last I was left with no other option other than paying the bribe. I felt very sad and angry at the same time.
Another incident which happened before I abstained from bribing, which shows how cheap corruption has gone. Once I took my cousin's bike to the Central Railway station in Chennai. While coming out, I was caught by a traffic policeman. Since my cousins bike didn't have a valid insurance he asked for a bribe. I had only Rs. 50 with me (student days) and I gave him that. So he left me. I took a U turn and I was caught again by another policeman right on the other side of the road. I told him that I have payed another policeman and I don't have any money. So this guy made me stand there and didn't let me at all. After bugging me for sometime he realized that I really didn't have any money so he caught another guy, he took the pen from my pocket and said the pen is nice. I told him to have the pen. Immediately her left me. The pen cost Rs. 5 or something, that was enough for him.
As per Daniel Kaufmann, Director of global governance at the World Bank's research arm.

They are not in the right zone, To sustain their rapid economic growth and graduate to the next level of development, China and India must pay priority to these issues

Can't we eradicate corruption at all? Has it seeped in so much into our system? How can we go about curing this cancer that has gone deep into the system?

(Sources: IBN-Live)

Varta...