Hey I also sketch (really amateurish)

Hey I sketch, paint or whatever you would like to say – and it’s a very amateurish attempt (I am not being humble).

And here I have a few of my sketches. For long I haven’t done any sketching. They date back to many years – the oldest being around 10 years. So without wasting any more time, I put on display some of my sketches here.

I prepared this for my parents wedding anniversary

Amisha Patel

Gracy Singh

A lady playing Sitar

Lady sitting on a couch

A london scene

A lady in pearl

A scene from Ram-Lakshman during vanavasa

Raveena Tandon

Rani Mukherjee

Preity Zinta

King Khan

Tabu

Kareena Kapoor

Tabu

Aishwarya Rai

Hrithik Roshan

Aishwarya Rai

Sushmita Sen

Gracy Singh

Ganesh was required to go around the World. He went around his parents - Lord Shiva and Parvati

Ganesh

A lovely couple

A lovely lady

Kareena Kapoor

Urmila Matondkar

Kajol

Rati Agnihotri

Raveena Tandon

Shiva Parvati

The Indian Muslim is confused, worried and angry

Imran, a ten year old, tells that his grandfather says all hindus are kafirs. But he enjoys watching ramayan and stealthily watches it in his hindu friends’ home.

Latif was in office the day police shot dead terrorists and caught some more in a flat in Jamia Nagar. And he is worried. Not because one of his ‘kaum’ has lost life. He is worried about his khala (aunt) who stays closeby.

Matin is angry. A colleague has just said that he rightfully belongs to Pakistan. Does he? His father, grandfather and many more generations before have stayed in India. Then how come he is from Pakistan or any other muslim country.

The Indian muslim is confused and worried and angry.

As soon as a bombing or a communal riot takes place, he is required to take sides.

As soon as the neighbouring Pakistan prepares for attack on India or attacks India, he is required to take sides.

As soon as someone from the community bombs some city, he is required to take sides.

He is required to take sides for all muslims all over the world.

Why is this standard not applicable to hindus?

Why is a Hindu in India not responsible for a Hindu in Nepal supporting ISI of pakistan?

Even hindus indulge in terrorist activities. But everytime such a thing happens from the majority community, soon a civilised group appears within hindus that condemns the activities.

In recent years, some civilised groups within the Islamic community too have come to condemn the ills, but they are very few or they are considered hoax.

Many say that the muslims mustn’t have been allowed in india at the time of partition.

Can India be freed of muslims. My answer is no. Pakistan, which is a muslim country, still houses hindus and people advocating other religions. Is it then possible for India to oust muslims being a secular country?

It is not the matter of allowing anyone to stay in a country. Isn’t India as much the home of muslims as hindus or sikhs or buddhists? It is. Had religion been as important to the lives of people, wouldn’t the muslims have left india at the time of partition. but they didn’t. they loved the country. they loved their land. they would not gamble all of this for a religion.

and they didn’t accept the bait given by pakistan. but time and forever, they are said to have a soft heart for pakistan. they stayed back in india because they genuinely wanted to stay in india.

islam has come to be associated with terrorism. but have we ever tried to understand why the mohammedans indulge in such activities. they have been traumatised. traumatised by the west. traumatised by people in power (nanavati commission gave a clean chit to the modi government. then who committed the rioting in gujarat?)

i do not think that the few people who say they represent the muslim community and are spreading terror to take revenge are right? some people with vested interests are using the non-representation of muslims to their advantage.

what if there was no islam? would the world have been any peaceful? many of us will believe that the world would be peaceful without islam and muslims. but this is not so? Moin Ansari, a noted scholar, says that the world would have been just as tumultous, muslims or not. read it here.

Delhi Blasts and Mumbai Meri Jaan

On saturday, Indian Mujhahiddin, the notorious SIMI in a new form, once again struck delhi with 4 blasts killing 25 people and injuring hundred others. 4 other bombs were diffused just in time.

Delhi Blast Suspects

we had plans to visit karol bagh that evening – fortunately, we decided to visit bhajanpura instead. a relative informed us of the chain bomb blasts when he saw the news flashing on TV. without wasting time and without panicking, we went to the parking lot, took our bikes, and returned home.

almost every channel was airing the same news. there was a chain blast at 4 different places in delhi. two places in CP, karol bagh, and greater kailash. at india gate a live bomb was detected just in time, averting a bigger casualty, as this was just near the children’s park.

it was heart-rending to see the plight of people who had died or were injurred. there was a girl who couldn’t walk because of injuries in her leg. there was a woman who laid dead just close to the pavement. the dustbin in which the bomb had been placed had completely come apart. there were people running with fear. there was blood all over the place.

i remembered suresh who works close to barakhamba road and often visits the central park that hosts cultural programmes in the evening. but all cell phones were jammed. I could reach him at 8. called another few friends who i suspected could be at the spot.

then once again got back to surfing channels. but i couldn’t move away from ‘mumbai meri jaan’ when i came across it on one of the channels. i had heard a lot about the movie (it has been rated 4 – rare in present times when the critics are too stingy in rating films).

mumbai meri jaan is the story of five personality types that emerge in a scenario as bomb blasts, communal riots etc.

Mumbai Meri Jaan

KK Menon – he heard about the bombings on television and has since come to believe that every muslim supports the terrorists and therefore it is the duty of common men like him to rid the society of muslims. until the time when an enlightened paresh raval enters the life of KK Menon. K K Menon understands that not all muslims are terrorists or supporters of terrorist activities. he makes friends with yusuf, a muslim youth he forever believed was a terrorist.

Madhavan – he has barely escaped death due to bombing of the train. had an insurance agent not insisted him to travel by second class, he would have travelled in the first class and would have lost life or at least a limb (as his colleague). he is so moved by the close shave to death that he forever fears being killed by another such bomb. He takes a taxi instead of commuting by train. He also plans to shift to the US since he believes it is safe. However, in a dialogue with a friend who resides in the US, Madhavan comes to know that no place in the world is safe these days (there was a world trade centre in one of world’s safest places- the US). he shuns plans to leave india. and once again begins commuting by train that he believes is more environment friendly than personal cars.

Soha Ali Khan – she has lost her fiance in the bombings. until this turn of events, she was a successful journalist who would cover similar manmade and natural calamities and yet the pain didn’t touch her a bit. but she is devastated now. for the first time in her life, she understands how difficult it is to deal with journalists trying to poke you for answers. However, time plays a better healer of wounds.

Irfan Khan – an ordinay man who has learnt to misuse the bombings to his advantage. a shopping mall ousted him for window shopping. he has taken a dislike for all shopping malls – and calls the police about bombs here – all hoax calls. he enjoys the pains the mall owners take to empty the premises and the loss of business for those few hours. until the time when Irfan khan’s pranks on shopping malls disturbs an elderly citizen so much that he suffers a stroke. he knows the vileness of his act. he cannot forgive himself until the man safely comes out of the hospital.

Paresh Raval – an average cop who is about to retire and as his last duties has been assigned to work on the mubai bombings case. he would have gone by the custom followed when any such bombings take place in india – book people from the another community and beat them until they reveal the names of others involved – then book the people named – hand them to the law which takes years to judge their acts before which they are again freed by hijackers at the cost of innocent people’s lives.

mumbai shows it is not frayed by the bombings. the mumbaikars come together to pray for the deceased and peace for the city by observing a two minutes silence. the entire city comes to a standstill for those two minutes. local trains, the life line of mumbai stops. so do passengers who stand up to show their support.

just then i remembered that deep lives at borivali and regularly takes a train to travel to and from office. as soon as i take up my cell phone to call him about his safety that i remember that i am watching a film – wake up aditya, this happened in the past – yaar, what am i doing? i didn’t know what happened to me – may be the film was really very touching or the fact that “it (one of those dead) could have been me“.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest BLOG

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest BLOG

Today my blog completes the first successful year of existence.

Wishing it many more years of success in the future.

Tears

I don’t know surekha. now she is beyond all known. and as Dr. Roshan says in his blog, i too am glad that she died. his account of surekha and her last days at the hospital had me crying.

“I woke up to the news that Surekha died in the early hours of the morning. “Good” I said. “I’m glad she’s dead.” I couldn’t stand to see her eyes, to have her smell on my fingers, her voice in my ears”

Roshan says it here

Maa Durga in my life

Its festival time again and i would like to talk about one of my interests here.

Come October and festival spirit ensues all over Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and the other north eastern states. Although not as magnanimously as in Kolkata, durga puja is celebrated with as much gusto in my native place as well. May be because of the Bengali influence here.

Large statues of goddess durga mark the festival. The murtikars start making the clay idols months before the puja starts. The goddess is depicted with ten hands, carrying different weapons in each hand to fight the evil mahishasur. Sometimes she is shown in an angry mood and sometimes her eyes pour out her love and compassion for the devotees.

Durga Statue

As a kid i used to adore the statues. I would go from one puja pandal to another to have a sight of the various forms of Durga. Slowly, the praise for the statues turned into a desire to carve a statue myself. At our place there was abundance of red clay, best for carving clay idols. I picked it from the temple itself or go pick it from the farm land, recently wetted by the monsoon rains.

In those days, the dreams were easily acheivable (by present standards) but the hands to realise those dreams were too small (by past standards). My only desire then was to make a statue of durga with all her hands intact. Many days spent in the backyard trying to carve a statute of durga, with no less than ten hands, but no success found each time i took up the venture.

The ten hands made the statue heavy and every time the statue fell down. In the past years, I had compromised with the situation by having a couple of hands less. Mahishasur, the demon who was killed by Mother Durga, often got a step motherly treatment. By the time it was time to make the idol of mahisasur, i was entirely drenched of energy and my back pained like anything from sitting continuously. Also most of the clay was over. So, the idol of mahishasur was made half-heartedly. But this year i had bigger plans and without compromises.

Maa Durga

Durga Puja mostly fell during the monsoon vacations, after the second term exams at school were over. So there wasn’t pressure of studies. But this particular year, the Durga Puja fell a little earlier and students were not particularly happy since the second term exams were immediately after school resumed.

I wasn’t happy either. The puja celebrations were banned at home. There was a bit of a relaxation – you can return home at 7 instead of 5 in the evening. There were strict instructions from father to concentrate on studies – mother was strictly instructed not to interfere.

For me it was a double whammy – no enjoyment and also no time to devote to my dream – of building a durga idol with all hands intact.

But that didn’t stop me from following my desire. I did build one – after father left for office – and with mummy shouting that father will be very angry. surprisingly, this one stood intact although it had all the ten hands and the mahishasura too was carved with patience.

Once completed, i safely kept in the verandah, away from father’s attention. I would let it to dry tomorrow. Soon my mind veered to how beautiful it would look once it is dry and painted. The image of the painted durga, with big black eyes, a red sari, fake jewellery, and weapons (in those days i used to make weapons with aluminium foils collected from tin cans) started revolving in my mind.

Between studies at evening, i couldn’t stop myself from having a sight of the divine creation. I still couldn’t believe that the statue was standing intact.

However, father was annoyed by my restlessness during study time. Every time, i would go to the verandah giving some or other excuse. He was worried about my preparation, although i had assured him many a times that i was fully ready for the exams.

Papa soon learned what was diverting my attention. He came to the verandah and instantly pounced for the durga statue. Ma tried to stop him. I was all in awe when father grabbed the statue in his hands and threw it in the drain outside.

All my dreams were shattered in a moment. I didn’t know how to react. It looked as if i had been struck by a deep grief. It was food time in half an hour and i refused to eat. Ma scolded me for acting childishly. Father was feeling guilty now for his act. That night i was revengeful for papa.

In the morning, i tried looking for the statue; still some hope of restoring it for the festival. On close observation. I did spot some parts of it. However it didn’t look as appealing now with black drain water flowing over it. That year Maa Durga departed for her heavenly abode much before visharjan.

VISHARJAN

A workoholic genie that hounds empty head: a non-veg joke that turned into a story

since the hindi teacher hadn’t yet arrived, we students had no better thing to do than exchange jokes- and what better way to entertain boys than with non-veg jokes. some of my group members were lucky enough to come across such joke books that featured non-veg jokes and rizwan was one. he secretly read them from his elder brother’s collection and regularly shared it with us.

“so what’s on today’s menu”, ashvyn asked.

“it’s about a man who was forever worried about the excessive work that he has to do”, thus started rizwan.

“ok just like preeti who always worries about the syllabus”, i quipped.

“may be”, says rizwan, “or may be she has other reasons to worry”. instantly comes back to his joke.

in a fit, the man visits his guruji, who is a sanyasi and has many powers. the guruji cum sanyasi is concerned about his student and decides to help.

but the helpful gesture turns out to be a problem.

how? read on to know (even we had to wait then – so why any special favors for you)

the guruji gives his student a genie who can do anything and everything for him.

“that’s great”, the student feels. this way he will not have to do any work. he will spend more time with his wife. also he hasn’t slept well for so long. he will sleep for longer now. the student can’t help imagine the advantages of having a genie at home.

just then the guruji cautions.

“the genie shouldn’t be left unemployed. or else it will grab your throat and kill you”

“unemployed! there is so much work at my home that he will never be unemployed”, feels the student.

so the man happily returns home with the genie following him.

he immediately instructs him all the tasks that has to be done.

the genie agrees happily.

within minutes he has completed all the tasks that took the man several days at a stretch.

strange. but before the genie could have become unemployed and headed for his neck, the man remembers the farmland to be tilled. but that too gives only ten minutes more. the genie is a super-robot at work and a killer when out of work.

soon the man realises that he has brought home a devil.

unable to find a solution, he discusses it with his wife. the wife is wise – immediately picks up the curliest of all pubic hairs and hands it over to her waiting husband.

the husband takes it with disbelieving eyes that are about to ask how come this hair will help.

but the wife is wise. she says – jaise kutte ki pooch sidhi nahi ho sakti, usi tarah mera ye bal bhi sidha nahi ho sakta (just as the dog’s tail can never be straightened, so my hair can never be straightened. ask the genie to straighten it whenever he has no other work. if this one breaks, ask him to take another from me. i have many.

the man understands and lives happily thereafter with his wife while the genie does all his work and tries to straighten the hair when out of work.

the hindi teacher arrived just when the climax was reached. so the laughter was suppressed with the good afternoon address meant for him.

before reaching our classroom, he had already received reports of the misbehaving class from teachers in neighbouring classes.

so he decided to devote the class to a topic that he thought was more important than the syllabus – about a khali dimag (empty head) that can be dangerous.

and what was the story he chose to emphasise the point.

about the same man who was worried about his work and approached his teacher for help.

although we knew that the man from the teacher’s story cannot use a pubic hair to get rid of the genie, we waited with bated breaths.

and we patiently waited until that moment when the hindi teacher disclosed the technique.

it was not even half as stimulating – the genie was directed to go up and down the stairs when he had no work.

our enthusiasm was lost immediately and so was an inclination to hear what the teacher has to say more.

we felt sorry for the man’s wife. she had no role to play in the latter story.

but we had a great laugh thereafter.

Blog Adda

A comment on my blog encouraged me to check blogadda. now i have heard of it quite often on TV but haven’t yet tried it for one important reason – in the blogging space, most highly advertised things have nothing but crap in them. just like the proverb in hindi – uncha dukan fika pakwan

but then i came to blogadda.

it is basically a blog directory – here you can submit your blog and will get traffic in return.

so i registered on blogadda and here i was given this image to post on my blog so that they can ascertain that it’s mine.

i did. but it’s appearing in this manner.

<a href=”http://www.blogadda.com” title=”Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs”> <img src=”http://www.blogadda.com/images/blogadda.png” width=”80″ height=”15″ border=”0″ alt=”Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs” /></a>

didn’t they know that there can be layman like me who don’t understand technicalities but are still blogging.

instead, they shot me a mail that they couldn’t spot any image on my blog. also they have given a mailing address where i can mail back to explain. should i?

would have deleted the post had anwin not commented on it randomly.

Delhi Bloggers’ Meet, September 6, 2008

i can’t believe this. i am supposedly the first one to blog about the aftereffects of the delhi blogger meet.

the delhi bloggers’ meet was organised on september 6th, 2008 at chittranjan memorial hall, CR park.

frankly, i liked the meet. and i have reasons.

first, it was the first such meet that i had attended.

second, it was a completely informal meet. unlike what i had thought. i suspected that with microsoft sponsoring the event, there will be some kind of a formal atmosphere around. but no. no podiums. the stage was used for a mere 5 minutes or so. u could speak your bit from your seat. good for me. i would have forgotten everything had i been asked to come up on the stage.

third, my first encounter with bloggers in real life.

fourth, the indiblogger team personally catered to all the bloggers. anwin, one of the co-ordinators and a guy with a BIG funny bone (i liked his goatee), personally came to welcome me to the meet. i don’t think that’s the practice in other social gatherings.

fifth, although there was a mingling session specially assigned in the itinerary, the bloggers were mingling with each other throughout the session. everyone was free to talk. everyone was free to opine. i didn’t; because i had no note for this – okz i think i have forgotten to mention the note.

i am not a very good orator (for all those present at the meet, i will once again like to emphasise on this). had it not been for the note i would have got stuck up during the ‘one minute to fame’ thing.

but with the note, my intro turned out to be better. i talked about my unexciting life, my job, my boss, about using my real name for the first time, about me loving comments, and many more things.

and people enjoyed. anwin who posted notes below each blogger’s name, highly recommended my blog.

later they requested the note from me and another co-ordinator renie was seen video shooting it. i have asked them to at least hide my name.

okz enough of me. there were many other stars of the meet.

there was ritesh. he was sitting some four to five rows ahead of me. and he had questions ready for every blogger once they completed their ‘one minute to fame’. although i wouldn’t go through his blog in the open (actually he has some bollywwood adult pictures and movies on his blog and earns a lot that way), he had great knowledge about blogging, internet, social networking and more. and he was here not to advertise his blog like me. he didn’t even reveal his blogs name. great.

there was ashish from the IBNMS team. i was impressed with his knowledge. i used the opportunity to clarify one of my doubts – do i actually need permission before syndicating content from newspapers and magazines? his answer was: yes i need permission. attributing the content to the newspaper or magazine with a live link to the article wouldn’t help.

there was abhishek, a first year MBA guy. he was very friendly. as soon as i entered the venue, he came ahead to note my blog address. thanks to anwin who has written the names of every blogger and their blogs and would be uploading it on indiblogger website.

also there was ashutosh. only when he talked of ‘the century times‘ that i recognised him. he had recently left a comment on my post ’single in the city’. we have decided to keep in touch on mail.

there was a cartoonist too. saad akhtar runs a web comic series that is hugely popular. ritesh hinted that i join saad because i have a really funny bone (looks like you are judging me from my one small intro ritesh).

ankit and his friend too were there. they run a blog about what new they have learnt in the field of SEO. i remember my promise, ankit.

then there was a fitness trainer as well by the name of kiran sawhney. mam i will write good for you only if you suggest me some really effective method of gaining weight.

there were many new bloggers as well. some had just started their blog. some were about to start. all the best to them.

it is becoming a really big post. but what to do. you know i have only you who i can talk and talk for so long.

about what i liked more:

1. i liked the intro on blogging in india compiled and edited by vinni. the music was really awesome. co-ordinators, if you can upload the whole thing on the internet, i would be really obliged. it is available here, as pointed by renie
2. i liked the t-shirts and the pen and the pizza – all for free. i borrowed one more t-shirt
3. i can’t think of anymore now – do fill me for more.

but it could have been better:

1. had it been on a sunday, more people would have participated. i talked about this to anwin. let’s see if it is followed in the next meet.
2. there could have been more on the the program list. at times, it looked as if they were stretching time. anyways since there were so many new people to meet, it felt as if we had more time.

the last in the list of programs was a presentation by abhishek from microsoft and IBNMS on livewriter, a new blogging tool by microsoft. anyways he didn’t seem very interested in presenting it. he did talk about it later, but to a small audience.

it was getting late and i left the venue at 9 in the night. rakesh, my colleague seemed to have a lot to tell about what happened at office today. i had taken a leave to attend the blog meet. although, i had my ears to rakesh’s babbling, my mind was still at chittranjan memorial hall thinking about the delhi blogger meet.