My First Publishings....

972 – Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.
1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães:Portuguese forces led by Alfonso I defeat his mother D. Teresa and D. Fernão Peres de Trava. After this battle, the future king calls himself "Prince of Portugal", the first step towards "official independence" in 1139, after the Battle of Ourique.
1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory of the Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce. Scotland regains its independence in the aftermath of this battle.
1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.
1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1441 – King Henry VI founds Eton College.
1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland; the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
1497 – Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London.
1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
1571 – Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines.
1597 – The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
1662 – The Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macau.
1664 – The colony of New Jersey is founded.
1692 – Kingston, Jamaica is founded.
1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
1748 – John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley open the Kingswood School in Bristol. The school later moves to Bath.
1793 – The first republican constitution in France is adopted.
1794 – Bowdoin College is founded.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman River beginning his invasion of Russia.
1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams : A British and Indian combined force defeat the U.S Army.
1821 – The Battle of Carabobo takes place. It is the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.
1859 – Battle of Solferino: (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.
1866 – Battle of Custoza: an Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.
1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
1894 – Marie Francois Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
1901 – First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens.
1902 – King Edward VII develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract.
1916 – World War I: The Battle of the Somme begins with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
1928 – With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada.
1932 – A bloodless Revolution instigated by the People's Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (Thailand).
1938 – PIeces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
1945 – The Moscow Victory Parade takes place.
1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
1948 – Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
1949 – The first Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, is aired on NBC starring William Boyd.
1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment .
1963 – The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.
1975 – An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people die.
1981 – The Humber Bridge is opened to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years.
1982 – British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as "the Jakarta incident", flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
1985 – STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completes its mission, best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist.
1993 – Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.
1994 – A United States Air Force B-52 aircraft crashes at Fairchild Air Force Base, killing all four members of its crew.
1995 – South Africa defeats New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The 1995 World cup is the first major sporting event in South Africa after the end of Apartheid.
2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
2004 – In New York state, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
2007 – The Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours.
2009 – Returning from a five day disappearance, Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina resigns as chairman of the Republican Governors Association after admitting an affair with a woman in Argentina.

[edit]Births

1244 – Henry I of Hesse (d. 1308)
1343 – Jeanne de Valois, Queen of Navarre (d. 1373)
1386 – Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (d. 1456)
1485 – Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (d. 1558)
1519 – Theodore Beza, French theologian (d. 1605)
1533 – Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (d. 1588)
1535 – Joan of Spain, queen consort of Portugal (d. 1573)
1542 – St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite mystic and poet (d. 1591)
1546 – Robert Parsons, English Jesuit priest (d. 1610)
1587 – William Arnold, English, pioneer settler of Providence Plantation (d. 1675)
1663 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French churchman (d. 1742)
1687 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German scholar (d. 1757)
1694 – Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss political theorist (d. 1748)
1704 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French writer (d. 1771)
1774 – François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo, French general (d. 1838)
1777 – John Ross, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1856)
1795 – Ernst Heinrich Weber, German anatomist and physiologist (d. 1878)
1803 – George James Webb, English-born composer (d. 1887)
1804 – Willard Richards, American religious leader (d. 1854)
1811 – John Archibald Campbell, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1889)
1813 – Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (d. 1887)
1825 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1844)
1826 – George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (d. 1898)
1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American author (disappeared ca. 1914)
1850 – Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, British field marshal (d. 1916)
1860 – Mercedes of Orleans, queen of Spain (d. 1878)
1882 – Carl Diem, German Olympic official (d. 1962)
1882 – Athanase David, Canadian politician and businessman (d. 1953)
1883 – Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
1886 – George Shiels, Northern Irish dramatist (d. 1949)
1888 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (d. 1964)
1893 – Roy O. Disney, a founder of the Walt Disney Company (d. 1971)
1895 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer (d. 1983)
1897 – Daniel K. Ludwig, American shipping magnate (d. 1992)
1900 – Wilhelm Cauer, German mathematician (d. 1945)
1901 – Harry Partch, American composer (d. 1974)
1904 – Phil Harris, American singer, songwriter and comedian (d. 1995)
1906 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
1906 – Willard Maas, American educator and experimental filmmaker (d. 1971)
1907 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (d. 1989)
1908 – Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
1908 – Guru Gopinath, Indian classical dancer (d. 1987)
1908 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian military officer (d. 1976)
1911 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine Formula One driver and five-time World Driving Champion (d. 1995)
1911 – Ernesto Sábato, Argentinian writer
1912 – Brian Johnston, British cricket commentator (d. 1994)
1914 – Pearl Witherington CBE, British WW II secret agent (d. 2008)
1915 – Fred Hoyle, British astronomer (d. 2001)
1919 – Al Molinaro, American Actor
1922 – Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer (Quartetto Cetra) (d. 1988)
1924 – Kurt Furgler, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 2008)
1924 – Brian Bevan, Australian rugby league footballer (d. 1991)
1927 – Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1930 – Claude Chabrol, French film director
1930 – William B. Ziff, Jr., American publishing executive (d. 2006)
1931 – Billy Casper, American golfer
1933 – Sam Jones, American basketball player
1934 – Jean-Pierre Ferland, Québec singer
1935 – Terry Riley, American composer
1938 – Lawrence Block, American writer
1939 – Michael Gothard, English actor (d. 1992)
1941 – Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian-French philosopher, psychoanalyst, and novelist
1942 – Michele Lee, American actress
1944 – Jeff Beck, English musician (The Yardbirds)
1944 – Arthur Brown, English musician
1944 – John "Charlie" Whitney, English guitarist (Family, Streetwalkers, Axis Point)
1944 – Chris Wood, English musician (d. 1983)
1945 – Colin Blunstone, English musician (The Zombies)
1945 – George Pataki, American politician
1945 – Wayne Cashman, Canadian ice hockey player
1946 – Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut (d. 1986)
1946 – Robert Reich, American politician and political commentator
1946 – David Collenette, Canadian politician
1947 – Peter Weller, American actor
1947 – Mick Fleetwood, English musician (Fleetwood Mac)
1948 – Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player (Yes)
1949 – John Illsley, English bassist (Dire Straits)
1950 – Mercedes Lackey, American author
1950 – Nancy Allen, American actress
1951 – David Rodigan, radio DJ/actor
1952 – Stephen Pusey, British-born artist
1953 – Ivo Lill, Estonian artist
1955 – Betsy Randle, American actress
1956 – Joe Penny, English actor
1958 – Tom Lister, Jr., American actor and former professional wrestler
1958 – Jean Charest, Premier of Québec
1958 – John Tortorella, American ice hockey coach
1960 – Trisha Meili, the "Central Park Jogger"
1960 – Karin Pilsäter, Swedish politician
1960 – Erik Poppe, Norwegian film director
1961 – Dennis Danell, American musician (Social Distortion) (d. 2000)
1961 – Iain Glen, Scottish actor
1961 – Bernie Nicholls, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 – Curt Smith, English musician and songwriter (Tears for Fears)
1963 – Anatoly Borisovich Jurkin, Russian writer
1963 – Preki, Serbian-born American soccer player
1963 – Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (d. 2007)
1964 – Gary Suter, American ice hockey player
1965 – Uwe Krupp, German ice hockey player
1966 – Hope Sandoval, American singer-songwriter
1966 – Adrienne Shelly, American actress, director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1967 – Bill Huard, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, German musician (Rammstein)
1967 – Janez Lapajne, Slovenian film director
1967 – Scott Oden, American writer
1967 – Sherry Stringfield, American actress
1969 – Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
1970 – Glenn Medeiros, American singer
1971 – Christopher Showerman, American actor
1971 – Ji Jin Hee, South Korean actor
1972 – Robbie McEwen, Australian cyclist
1972 – Denis Zvegelj, Slovenian rower
1973 – Alexander Beyer, German actor
1975 – Carla Gallo, American actress
1975 – Marek Malik, Czech ice hockey player
1976 – Louisa Leaman, English author
1976 – Brock Olivo, American football player
1977 – Dimosthenis Dikoudis, Greek basketball player
1977 – Cas Jansen, Dutch actor
1977 – Jeff Farmer, Australian footballer
1978 – Luis García, Spanish footballer
1978 – Pantelis Kafes, Greek footballer
1978 – Shunsuke Nakamura, Japanese footballer
1978 – Ariel Pink, American musician
1978 – Juan Román Riquelme, Argentine footballer
1978 – Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen, Finnish guitarist (Nightwish)
1979 – Petra Němcová, Czechoslovakian-born model
1979 – Craig Shergold, British internet folklore subject
1979 – Mindy Kaling, American actress and TV producer
1980 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
1980 – Liane Balaban, Canadian actress
1980 – Andrew Jones, Australian racing driver
1980 – Minka Kelly, American actress
1982 – Brian Fitzgerald, American writer
1982 – Kevin Nolan, English footballer
1982 – Mark Penney, Canadian film director
1982 – Jarret Stoll, Canadian ice hockey player
1982 – Clint Bajada, Maltese television and radio presenter
1983 – John Lloyd Cruz, Filipino Actor
1984 – J. J. Redick, American basketball player
1985 – Kyle Searles, American actor
1985 – Yukina Shirakawa, Japanese gravure idol
1986 – Stuart Broad, English cricketer
1986 – Phil Hughes, American baseball player
1986 – Solange Knowles, American singer
1987 – Arturo Lupoli, Italian footballer
1987 – Lionel Messi, Argentine footballer
1990 – Michael Del Zotto, Canadian ice hockey player

[edit]Deaths

803 – Higbald of Lindisfarne
1398 – Hongwu Emperor of China (b. 1328)
1439 – Duke Frederick IV of Austria (b. 1382)
1519 – Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara (b. 1480)
1520 – Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1489)
1604 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England (b. 1550)
1637 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (b. 1580)
1643 – John Hampden, English politician (b. 1595)
1766 – Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (b. 1678)
1778 – Pieter Burmann the Younger, Dutch philologist (b. 1714)
1803 – Matthew Thornton, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1714)
1817 – Thomas McKean, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734)
1835 – Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (b. 1769)
1894 – Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (b. 1837)
1908 – Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (b. 1837)
1909 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (b. 1849)
1922 – Walther Rathenau, German Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1867)
1931 – Xiang Zhongfa, Head of Chinese Communist Party (b. 1880)
1935 – Carlos Gardel, Argentine singer (b. 1890)
1946 – Louise Whitfield Carnegie, American philanthropist (b. 1857)
1947 – Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (b. 1864)
1968 – Tony Hancock, British comedian (b. 1924)
1977 – André-Gilles Fortin, Canadian politician (b. 1943)
1978 – Robert Charroux, French writer (b. 1909)
1984 – Clarence Campbell, Canadian National Hockey League president (b. 1905)
1987 – Jackie Gleason, American actor and musician (b. 1916)
1991 – Sumner Locke Elliott, Australian-born novelist (b. 1917)
1991 – Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter (b. 1899)
1997 – Don Hutson, American athlete (b. 1913)
1997 – Brian Keith, American actor (b. 1921)
2000 – Vera Atkins, Romanian-born intelligence officer (b. 1908)
2000 – David Tomlinson, English actor (b. 1917)
2002 – Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1913)
2003 – Vladimir Garin, Russian actor (b. 1987)
2004 – Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter (b. 1957)
2005 – Hakham Yedidia Shofet, Former chief rabbi of Iran (b. 1908)
2005 – Paul Winchell, American voice actor and ventriloquist (b. 1922)
2006 – Patsy Ramsey, mother of JonBenét Ramsey (b. 1956)
2007 – Byron Baer, American politician (b. 1929)
2007 – Chris Benoit, Canadian wrestler (b. 1967)
2007 – Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1938)
2007 – Natasja Saad, Danish reggae and dancehall artist (b. 1974)
2008 – Gerhard Ringel, Austrian mathematician (b. 1919)
2009 – Ed Thomas, well-known high school football coach from Iowa (b. 1951)

[edit]Holidays and observances

Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Labrador (celebrating the 1497 discovery by John Cabot)
Inti Raymi in Cusco
Jāņi – Latvia
Joninės – Lithuania
Battle of Carabobo Day in Venezuela (1821)
Bahá'í Faith – Feast of Rahmat (Mercy) – First day of the sixth month of the Bahá'í calendar
Midsummer Day in England
- One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish Calendar.

Roman Catholic Church

Nativity of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Québec, Newfoundland, Porto, and Torino (Turin), brush makers and knife sharpeners;
- Festival of San Juan observed in Bolivia and Peru
- National Holiday of Quebec, still called St-Jean-Baptiste Day by some people, as the two events coincide and the National Holiday stems from the St-Jean-Baptiste Day
- Saint Jonas Day – especially celebrated in Lithuania
- St John's Day (Estonia)

success

2008-12-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

If you can beat the clock,
you can beat the world.
If you have a team that pulls together,
you can stand apart.
Every minute matters,
Every second counts.

Tanha

2007-10-09T19:43:00.001-07:00

The lyrics were written by Javed Akhtar.

...dekhiye to lagta hai,
zindagi ki raahon mein,
ek bheed chalti hai.
sochiye to lagta hai,
bheed mein hain sab tanha.

jitne bhi yeh rishte hain,
kaanch ke khilone hain,
pal mein toot sakte hain..
ek pal mein ho jaaye,
koi jaane kab tanha.

dekhiye to lagta hai,
jaise yeh jo duniya hai,
kitni rangeen mehfil hai,
sochiye to lagta hai,
kitna gam hai duniya mein,
kitna zakhmi har dil hai..

woh jo muskuraate the,
jo kisi ko khwaabon mein,
apne pass paate the..
unki neend tooti hai..
aur hain woh ab tanha.

dekhiye toh lagta hai
zindagi ki raahon mein
ek bheed chalti hai
sochiye toh lagta hai
bheed mein hain sab tanha

Saraswati Vandana

2007-04-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

NAMASTE SHARADE DEVI

SARASWATI MATI PRADE

VASATVA MAMA JIHVAGRE

SARVA VIDYA PRADA BHAVA

My First Paper in SPIE.

2007-03-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Room temperature multi-wavelength operation in Er:YAlO3

Finally, my "First Paper" got published....my first thanks to my advisors, Prof. Stafsudd and Dr. Shori.....and my friend, Chris Vergien.

It can be read at...

http://spiedl.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=PSISDG00645100000164510Q000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes

This happenes to be my MS thesis work at UCLA also...!

old dd serials: part 3

2007-01-16T03:01:00.000-08:00

i copied this for my reference: all credits to orignal writers etc.

Old DD serials - A trip down memory lane
-by Anusha Sarathy Saturday, December 30, 2006

The other day a friend of mine and I were talking about the Mega Serials which are churned out tirelessly every now and then and telecasted on the leading television channels in India which leaves the audiences tired and frustrated.These days serials are about women weeping, conspiring, marrying and re-marrying, in short about them turning from angels to witches or vice versa... There were a couple of hindi serials telecasted on Doordarshan in the 80's and early 90's which educated and entertained the audience. They were really good unlike these days 'K' serials.What made them so good was the storyline, dialogues, screenplay, and identifiable characters! Who can forget the Devki in Humraahi( it was played with charisma by Himani Shivpuri)? Devki played the vamp character with splendour and we could not help liking her inspite of all her plots and gossips... Then there was Pavan Malhotra who played "Junior Station Master" in Intezaar.I even remember the name of the character he was in love with in that serial...Nia! The senior station master was played by Rajendra Gupta, another good performer. The DD guys then also ventured into making historical classics...Mrignayani with National Award actress Pallavi Joshi doing the title role with Mohan Bhandari playing the Rajput king who falls in love with Mrignayani...The two set the screen on fire with their on-screen chemistry! I remember the BGM of the serial whenever someone was carried in a palanquin "Gun gunaa...gun gunaa...gun gunaare gun gunaa". Then there were Buniyaad, Mr Yogi, Circus, Udaan, Mongeri Lal Ki Haseen Sapne...Nukkad and Naya Nukkad were wholesome entertainers... Then there was a mischievous romantical serial called Farmaan with Kanwaljit Singh playing a naughty and haughty nawaab... Doordarshan left no territory unexplored. Rajit Kapur played the lead role of a detective to perfection in "Byomkesh Bakshi" which made every viewer grip with curiosity. The lead character was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. There was another serial called "Tehkikaat" featuring Vijay Anand (He is actor Dev Anand's bro and an accomplished director himself. I remember him well for his Kora Kaagaz movie) and Saurab Shukla unravelling mystery after mystery...Vijay Anand played the lovable Sam D'souza with Saurab Shukla as his assistant...If I am not wrong, Shekar Kapur directed this serial! 'Pachpan Kambe Laal Deewarein' was a good one too with Aman Verma and Meeta Vashisth. It tackled the story of a young man falling in love with a woman who was older than him and was a professor cum hostel warden... Who can forget "I say chaps" mouthed by Abhimanyu Rai in Fauji? Every school gal then fell in love with SRK then...Shah Rukh Khan won the heart of millions of young girls by playing the role to perfection. I even remember a scene where he frantically searches for the sandals of his lady love (Fauji Doctor) just to dance with her... Then there were classic epics namely Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana and B R Chopra's Mahabharata...They rocked! Infact the gulutis are known to prostrate whenever they see NTR potraying Lord Krishna on screen...The northie audience were not any lesser than that. Everytime Nitish Bharadwaj (Lord Krishna) came on screen, they knelt on their knees and almost worshipped him... In short, the serials of those days had good story line, catchy and well meant dialogues, stellar performances from every actor, fewer commercials and more important a reasonable duration unlike the ones telecasted these days. In a concluding note, how I wish the entertainment industry starts giving serious thoughts about providing whole and clean entertainment to the common man! How I wish Ekta Kapoor and Sun TV serials stop portraying Women as Vamp in their serials!

more on this....

Who can forget the Devki in Humraahi( it was played with charisma by Himani Shivpuri)? Devki played the vamp character with splendour and we could not help liking her inspite of all her plots and gossips...Then there was Pavan Malhotra who played "Junior Station Master" in Intezaar...I even remember the name of the character he was in love with in that serial...Nia! The senior station master was played by Rajendra Gupta, another good performer.The DD guys then also ventured into making historical classics...Mrignayani with National Award actress Pallavi Joshi doing the title role with Mohan Bhandari playing the Rajput king who falls in love with Mrignayani...The two set the screen on fire with their on-screen chemistry! I remember the BGM of the serial whenever someone was carried in a palanquin "Gun gunaa...gun gunaa...gun gunaare gun gunaa".Then there were Buniyaad, Mr Yogi, Circus, Udaan, Mongeri Lal Ki Haseen Sapne...Nukkad and Naya Nukkad were wholesome entertainers...Then there was a mischievous romantical serial called Farmaan with Kanwaljit Singh playing a naughty and haughty nawaab...Doordarshan left no territory unexplored. Rajit Kapur played the lead role of a detective to perfection in "Byomkesh Bakshi" which made every viewer grip with curiosity. The lead character was inspired by Sherlock Holmes.There was another serial called "Tehkikaat" featuring Vijay Anand (He is actor Dev Anand's bro and an accomplished director himself. I remember him well for his Kora Kaagaz movie) and Saurab Shukla unravelling mystery after mystery...Vijay Anand played the lovable Sam D'souza with Saurab Shukla as his assistant...If I am not wrong, Shekar Kapur directed this serial!'Pachpan Kambe Laal Deewarein' was a good one too with Aman Verma and Meeta Vashisth. It tackled the story of a young man falling in love with a woman who was older than him and was a professor cum hostel warden...Who can forget "I say chaps" mouthed by Abhimanyu Rai in Fauji? Every school gal then fell in love with SRK then...Shah Rukh Khan won the heart of millions of young girls by playing the role to perfection. I even remember a scene where he frantically searches for the sandals of his lady love (Fauji Doctor) just to dance with her...Then there were classic epics namely Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana and B R Chopra's Mahabharata...They rocked! Infact the gulutis are known to prostrate whenever they see NTR potraying Lord Krishna on screen...The northie audience were not any lesser than that. Everytime Nitish Bharadwaj (Lord Krishna) came on screen, they knelt on their knees and almost worshipped him...In short, the serials of those days had good story line, catchy and well meant dialogues, stellar performances from every actor, fewer commercials and more important a reasonable duration!
In a concluding note, Madame Radhika said in the Selvi Kondaattam show that these days serials are about Women Empowerment...Are wheeping, cursing, conspiring route(s) to empowerment?Raam Jaane!!!

2006-12-20T17:28:00.000-08:00

Spectra Physics....the solid state laser company, base in

Mountain view, CA. The last 6 months from June to Dec. '06, I have been here as an intern working at the Advanced R&D.

" It has been a blast working here"...that is the American way of saying things....but truly it has been educating...a real learning of the things that are happening at the frontier of science...without saying much....seeing a pulse of light that exists for a femtosecond (....for most of us a femto second is 10 ^ -15 sec or in math 0.000000000000001 sec) and then controlling it .... it was amazing....i will miss this place...but i hope to come back here soon......!

people here very very nice and every week ended with a Friday seminar and a lunch...really loved that part.....I hope to be as knowledgeable as the these guys...Jim, Alan, Dave, Ching-Yuan....all the others....thank you all.

now back to UCLA....!

wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year '07

:-)

Simulation Is Not The Answer

2006-07-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Simulation Is Not The Answer: "...The answer lies in two areas. First, we must admit that we simply don't understand. And, second, we must pursue understanding; Not answers but understanding."

A quote...

2006-05-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

I think that no one has said this before....

So I guess this is my statement....

"Cheer up: Success is always over-night, it just takes some time to reach the night before..."

saurabh
:)

...says Naseeruddin Shah.

2006-05-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

very well said....

If 'Man proposes, God disposes', was not such a common cliché, I would have named my film, that. There is another line from John Lennon's song which says 'Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.' We actually have no control over our lives. We attach too much importance to our own existence and dreams. There is always a higher plan. Many years ago, I was driving down Worli Seaface and I saw a double decker overturn over a Maruti 800. The car had three children in it. Try asking God what is the meaning of something like this? There is no meaning. Life is a series of accidents. Whether you have a successful life or not depends on how well you can cope with these accidents.

from an interview with Naseeruddin Shah...
http://sify.com/movies/bollywood/fullstory.php?id=14203153

Mothers day is May 14

2006-05-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

Mother's day is coming up and I heard this song from the film "daadi ma"....

I still have to find the song as of now....

Hindi Song Title: Usko Nahi Dekha Hamne KabhiHindi Movie/Album Name: DAADI MAA Singer(s): MANNA DE, MAHENDRA KAPOOR
Hindi Lyrics:

us ko nahi dekha hamane kabhi
par isaki zaroorat kya hogi

ai maan, ai maan teri soorat se alag
bhagavaan ki soorat kya hogee, kya hogi
us ko nahi dekha hamane kabhi...

inasaan to kya devata bhi
aanchal mein pale tere
hai svarg isi duniya mein
kadamon ke tale tere
mamata hi lutaaye jisake nayan, hot...

mamata hi lutaaye jisake nayan
aisi koi moorat kya hogi
ai maan, ai maan tere...

kyon dhoop jalaaye dukhon ki
kyon gam ki ghata barase
ye haath duaaon vaale
rahate hain sada sar pe
tu hai to andhere path mein hamen, ho...

tu hai to andhere path mein hamein
sooraj ki zaroorat kya hogi
ai maan, ai maan tere..

kahate hain teri shaan mein jo
koi oonche bol nahi
bhagavaan ke paas bhi maata
tere pyaar ka mol nahi
ham to yahi jaane tujhase badee, ho...
ham to yahi jaane tujhase badi
sansaar ki daulat kya hogi
ai maan, ai maan tere...

about mothers day (adapted from: http://www.holidays.net/mother/story.htm)

The Story of Mother's Day
The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.

In the United States Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Mass ever year.

While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.

The important thing none the less is the feelings and bond that we celebrate with this very precious gift that god has given to us all....

Dearest Mom, I love you... :-)

2006-05-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, continuing furter...from my last post....i will today add the links to all (well most of them) my friends what i have here in UCLA....

here we go...

Krishna (NVK)....http://compilers.cs.ucla.edu/nvk/

Manoj MP....http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~mp/index.shtml

Mohit Lad....???...not there...!!!

Gautam Agarwal....http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~gautam/index.html

Amarjeet singh....http://know-amarjeet.blogspot.com/

others will be added soon....

Refections the past...!

2006-04-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

This was funny day today....I got a email from my friend, back home in India, Priyank (http://sharmapriyank.googlepages.com/home) and to my surprise, he had mentioned me in his website.....I felt very guilty that I didn't do the same, and so I embarked on this, hopefully not so extensive project, of revamping my website...http://www.geocities.com/supersaurabh/

Coincidentally, I also played pool with my friend Ravi, who is doing a PhD in Anderson business school, and that brought back memories of me, Harsh and Neeraj going to play pool during our internship at C-DOT in Pusa Road, New Delhi.....

...this was 2002...

...the funny thing is that we use to come to C-DOT early in the morning from very different corners of Delhi (the city which I call my home, is VERY big); then we used to spend some 2-3 hours going through the books and writing something for our report, that we had to submit as our summer internship.

...and then after lunch, which was around 11:30 we used to go across the city(from the north end to the south end: took us 2 hours of driving in heavy traffic) and play pool near Neeraj's home. Then we would go back to our respective homes after 4 pm. Those were the days...I have not talked to Neeraj for 8-9 months since I came back from India in September of 2005...I will try to contact him.

it is not that I don't talk to my friends....I have contact with many of them....but I agree it is no more the same....change is life....but I don't want that part which has so many fond memories of my college days...and more to get lost...

I will try to write more on this...as and when I find time and energy...(Yeah,...right)

I really hope that all the friendships that I have made in all the years of my life are not lost.....and I hope to stay in touch with all my friends.....no matter where they are...and here is where I really do appreciate the value of the internet.....sitting at the birthplace of the internet....UCLA....

The good old days...

2006-04-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

The good old days.....from an email I edited...the entire credit goes to the original auther...who at this time is anonymous...I am still searching his/her name...

"Old Days Of Our Life"

the era of 1985 - 1994....and I lived in delhi...

When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket ... kites also...

When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy), chhupan-chhupai and pitthoo with marble peices taken from some place where a house was being built.....anytime

... When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi' ...When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so fulfilling ...

When there was just one tv in every five houses and

When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down at stations to fill up the water bottle ...

When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai jindagi' day ...

When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and moms seeking our help while preparing them ...

When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while slapping/beating us ...

When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudhris and billus were our heroes ... others also....tinkle diamond comics and all the variour series

When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechis ...

When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajni' inspired us ...

When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees ...

When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough work or even fair work ...

When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against 'reynolds and family' ...

When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kashtis' ...

When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their homes at six in the evening, but they knew that we will be there ...

When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'antardesis' and 5 paise machli wale stamps at home ... the post cards were all that was sent...ltter was a special thing...and telegram ment almost everytime unfortunate news.

When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream and papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing ...

When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on Holis as air and noise polluting or allergic agents ...

I still remember those days.....and now I do remember them....I wish we all could relive them again....

but alas, that is still and will remain a wish...

Economics made easy for dummies.

2006-04-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

What will you do if you had two cows....?

TRADITIONAL ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You sell one & buy a bull. Your herd multiplies. You retire on the income..

INFOSYS ECONOMICS
You have 2 cows. You put both of them on the bench & hire another two to do the job.

TCS ECONOMICS
You have 2 cows. You tell them that only one will go to onsite. You ask both of them to fight for the only H1B VisaBoth of them die after fighting.

HCL ECONOMICS
You have 2 cows. You milk them only for 24 hours on just 7 days a week. They run away.

WIPRO ECONOMICS
You have 2 cows. You train them for 2 months on how to milk themselves. Then u ask them to pull bullock carts.

AMERICAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You sell one & force the other to produce the milk of 4 cows. You profess surprise when the cow drops dead.

FRENCH ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

GERMAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You re-engineer them so that they live for 100
years, eat once a month & milk themselves.

BRITISH ECONOMICS
You have two cows. They are both mad cows.

ITALIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

SWISS ECONOMICS
You have 5,000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

JAPANESE ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You redesign them to 1/10th the size of a normal cow & make 20-times the milkYou then create cartoon cows called Cowkimon & market them.

RUSSIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You count & learn you have 5 cows. Second count: you have 42 cows. Third count: you have 17 cows. You give up & open another bottle of vodka!

CHINESE ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking themYou claim full employment, high bovine productivity & arrest anyone reporting the actual numbers.

PAKISTAN ECONOMICS
You don't have any cows. You claim that the Indian cows belong to you. You ask the US for financial aid, China for military aid, British for Warplanes, Italy for machines, Germany for technology, French for submarines, Switzerland for loans, Russia for drugs & Japan for equipment. You buy the cows with all this & claim of exploitation by the world.

INDIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.......You worship them...!

Oshin: does anyone even remember this beauty...?

2006-01-09T00:18:00.000-08:00

the story of Oshin, a poor little girl who would someday become the owner of a big supermarket chain in Japan.1983...!

Nobuko Otowa...Oshin as grown-up
Yûko Tanaka.... Oshin as young woman
Ayako Kobayashi.... Oshin as child

from....http://full2faltu.blogspot.com/2005/11/woh-bhuli-dastaan-1.html

2006-01-08T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hum LogIndia’s first big serial and strangely not about a big industrialist family (like serials today) but a very lower middle class family. The serial was shot on sets with the house of the family being only 2-3 rooms. The serial glued the whole of India. Most of the serial that time had 13 episodes. Which means that the story has to wrap in 13 episodes. “Hum log” went beyond 13 episodes. I don’t know how many but it did went for a long time and still it did not loose the grip on the story and was entertaining till the very last episode. Each episode ended with Ashok Kumar coming and explaining the episode and actually trying to find a moral in the episode. His explanation was acted by many mimicry artists. I still remember characters like Basesar Ram, lallu, Chutki, Nanhe, Dadi maa(Sushma Shresta in a over protective mother’s role). AmazingBuniyaadThe next big thing after “Hum Log”. A mega serial which almost ran for 2 years. Nothing compared to the serials which run for 3-4 years but a big achievement in those day. A story of a family which is caught in the partition and migrates to start from scratch. A classic story of lost and found. I still remember my mother and all the neighboring women sitting and discussing the story. I don’t remember much of the serial. But some of the characters like Alok nath and Anita Kanwar, Mazaar Khan, Kanwaljeet Singh. Alok Nath used to call his wife lajjoji.SubahSubah was a prime time hindi serial based on college life and drugs. R. D Burman composed the title song. It had everything from students, college life, drugs college rivalry. I think it showed the hero joining college, getting into drugs and then helped by his friends getting out. The title song was something like “Subah ko………. kar salaam”Wah JanaabI think it had Shekar Suman and Zarina Wahab. Can’t remember the story line but I remember it was a comedy.Yeh jo Hai ZindagiRemember the theme song “Yeh jo hai, yeh jo hai Zindagi”. Shafi Inamdaar. Rakesh Bedi, Swaroop Sampat, Tiku Talsania, Rakesh Bedi, Sulbha Arya and of course Satish Shah. Kundan Shah directed it. The serial was so famous that we use to wait for it every Friday. A fantastic way to end the week and welcome the weekend. Dialogues like “30 years ka experience” and “Yeh kya ho raha hai?” were on everybody lips. Satish Shah used to do different roles in each episode. Even today it’s a classic.ChunautiAgain a serial based on drugs. Nice one became hugely popular. Title song went something like “Man ek seepi hai, asha moti hai har pal jeevan ka ek chunauti hai”KhandaanThe first serial which dealt with big industrialist families. Shreeram lagoo played a industrialist and the story revolves what happens in the family for money. Something like the Ambanis today. You could find the same theme today in most of the serials but then it was different. It had TV stars of yesteryears, Jayant Kriplani, Mohan Bhandari, Neena Gupta. It had lot of bitching and back stabbing and all this was quite entertaining and interesting. Chitrahaar/ChayyageetBoth program showed Hindi movie songs. Chayyageet was Mumbai Doordarshan program and Chitrahaar came from national Television. Chitrahaar was more popular as it showed songs from upcoming movies. There were no movie trailers then. I used to go to my friends house because he had colour television then. Chitrahaar used to come on Wednesday and Chayyageet used to come on Friday.Indradhanush.A science fiction serial starring Akshay Anand. Somewhere it’s written the small boy in the serial was Karan Johar. It was something to do with time travel. They travel to the time of independence struggle and then travel forward to 2035 (I think again). A nice serialSpace City SigmaFeaturing Milind Soman or was he in Captain Vyom? The serial was inspired by Star Trek. The hindi made it confusing. I think it was directed by Ketan Mehta. A poor copy of Star TrekParam Vir ChakraSunday morning drama about all those soldiers who got Param Vir Chakra. Nice patriotic stuff.Hello Zindagi.Current affair program hosted by journalist Nalini Singh. The title was surprisingly a song by Jagjit Singh called “Hello Zindagi, Zindagi noor hai, Magar isme jeene ka dastoor hai”. When the program started I expected some story in it. But strangely Nalini Singh is seen speaking very fast. Never saw much of it.Tenali RamaThe serial was hindi, the setting was south Indian and the theme song North Indian “Baale bale bale tenali rama”. Although very much popular, it ended very soon.NeevI liked the serial very much. It was based in a hostel and they had all these different houses and the rivalry between houses. I think the serial use to come on Sunday afternoon. Amit Kumar sang the title song, “Dharti par Suraj ki kirne….. then something something and then Neev rakhe vidyalay ki”Byomkesh BakshiOne detective serial that almost reached the quality of Karamchand. Based on some Bengali character, it had Rajit kapoor playing the lead. The characters were lot similar to Sherlock Holmes with also a Dr. Watson.Gul Gulshan GulfamPariksheet Sahani was acting in this serial. I think this serial was shot in Kashmir on the house boat. Kind of Soap Opera. Didn’t watch it much.Aakhri DaavI remember the theme song. It had Farook Sheikh and Dipti Naval. I don’t remember the story.What’s the good word?A quiz show. Do not remember the concept. The show was hosted by someone famous. Anybody has answers. Your chance Team A?Quiz timeSiddhartha Basu hosted this show. I guess his first quiz show.Kakaji KahiOm Puri in the title role of Kakaji. Had a very odd laugh. Kind like ha ha ha. Never followed it much.Karwa SachI think the serial had a different story in each episode and showed a social cause in each. I think it was made by the same person who made “Bahaar Aane Tak” (Remember Sumit Saigal)PrahariSunday mornings. Based on the Indian armed forcesYaatraOm Puri traveling on the Indian railway from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. The first travel show of India.Turning PointA Science magazine. Girish Karnad use to host the show. They tried to explain science in a lay man’s language. Much much better than the boring UGC program every weekdays.
KaramchandYes the classic. No other detective serial came as close as best to this one. Pankaj parasher directs this one. Pankaj Parasher (Thanks Oz) showed promise when he directed that one. He made Jalwa after that. He also made Chaalbaaz. But then it was down and down. But the main hero and of course heroine were Pankaj Kapoor as detective karamchand and Sushmita Mukerjee (I think) as Kitty, his secretary. The show was classic. I somehow was very afraid while watching the show. It used to come late night and the different camera angles would make it even scarier. Most of the dialogues became quite famous. “Shaque karna mera pesha hai.” “Kitty” “Yes Sir” “Shut Up” “Yes Sir” Funny, intelligent and well made.Chappte ChappteAnother detective serial but this one based on Journalist. Kanwaaljeet Singh and Kitu Gidwaani. The treatment was different and the theme was investigative journalist. It didn’t last beyond the usual 13 episodes.FaujiThe Serial was the most popular serial on Doordarshan. The main reason was Shahrukh Khan. He was the most loved character on the serial. The serial showed Shahrukh as Abhimanyu Rai, an irresponsible youngster who trains to become a commando and finally matures up. He train under his own brother who is shown to be a strict disciplinarian. This show used to come at 9:00 PM on Wednesday. My tuition used to end at that time. But on this day it always use to stretch some time and we use to run to watch the serial on the first floor of some neighbor. I use to hate my Tuition teacher for this. Most of the characters were adorable and the serial was very patriotic and fun to watch. Remember Shahrukh friend who always says, “I say chap”. The line was so cool and within weeks was on everybody’s lips in my school and building.Rajni“Ladki hai who naam rajni hai”. Priya tendulkar as the angry young woman, who took social causes in each episode. Karan Razdan plays her husband. I think, it was directed by Basu Chatterjee. Came on Sunday morning. Rajni and Priya Tendulkar were always looked as one and the same. She couldn’t shake the image of Rajni till her death.Qile Ka RahasyaA Scary serial with a stupid end. It was frightening and the haunting music was too good. Whenever we use to watch the serial (again I think it was late Friday night), we use to cling to our mother while sleeping. My brother who was very small then used to be so afraid that he would sit under this big stool we had and peep through it. I guess the stool gave him a sense of security. We use to sleep after the serial and would cling to my mother so much that she would get angry with us and warned us if we watched the serial again. But the next week it was back in front of the TV. The scariest part is when a girl goes into the fort (Qila) and comes back after some time she has the stamp of blood hand on the back of her shirt. The woman in white used a number of times was scarier more here.Choti Badi baateinA serial on superstitions. It had Sulabha Deshpande, Arvind Deshpande, Babloo Mukerjee and Ashok Saraf. Sulabha Deshpande is shown as superstitious and the whole family tries to prove her wrong. The way they try to prove it was hilarious. The last episode I remember had all the character playing themselves and Ashok saraf is shown as the superstitious person.CircusShahrukh Khan again. Son of a circus owner who comes back from USA and is forced to take control of a failing circus. It had Renuka Sahane playing Shahrukh’s love interest. She was very young then. Her smile was beautiful then too.NukkadThe best and most loved serial of all times. A set of characters on a Nukkad (street) and their everyday life and experiences provided laughs and sometimes even made us cry. I think the stories were directed by Aziz Mirza and Kundan Shah. Character includes Guru, Kader Bhai, Tambi, Ganpat Hawaldar, Ghanshu Bhikari, Hari, Teacherji, and many more. The attempt to use the same character again in Naya Nukkad did not have the old magic again. The characters were lovable. The story was about ordinary people and everybody could identify with it. The problems they faced was of every day that you and me could face and the humor was the best part. The theme song was great too “Bade Sehar ke ek gali mein basa hua hai Nukkad”CharitraheenA serial based on a bengali novel. A story about a college student who is of high class and a widow, also of high class working in the hostel. A kind of Devdas theme.Aaisa bhi hota haiA serial telling stories of ghost and strange occurrences. Something like that. Really don’t remember much.Honee AnhoneeBelongs to the “Qile ka rahasya” category. Dealt with Reincarnation and strange phenomenon. Supposedly based on true stories.Katha Saagar, Ek Kahani and DarpanThe concept was simple. Dramatize a short story of a famous author. That’s all. But the story they picked and the way it was presented was too good. One of the serial had a short introduction to the author too. I don’t remember which one.ShowThemeThe hindi film industry was not called bollywood then. The host used to select a theme and then show all scenes related to the theme.Singhasaan BateeshiThe story of the throne of Raja Vikramaditya which has 32 statues in the throne. Each statue tells a story. I think it had to do something with another king who wants to sit on the throne but the throne prevent him saying that he is not as worthy as Raja Vikramaditya. Total timepass and lot of moralistic storyVikram aur betaalArun Govil playing Vikram long before he played Ram in Ramayan. Story of Raja Vikramaditya (I think) who has promised to bring a corpse from the jungle. The corpse tells a story and at the end asks a question. The king answers and then the corpse runs away, actually flys away. The start and end scene shown were same for all stories. We actually memorized the whole scene. “Tu bola, mein chala” “Jawaab de nahi toh mein tere sar ke hazaar tukde kar dunga” The theme song was nothing but Vikram and betaal said a number of times like “Vikram vikram vikram betaal betaal betaal”Dada Dadi ki kahaniyanAshok Kumar and Dina pathak (I think) play dada and dadi respectively. A story with a moral. Featured story of ghost and had liliput in most of the episode. Total Children timepass.Doosra KewalShahrukh Khan yet again. The serial had shahrukh playing Kewal, a village lad who goes to town and never returns. The story is told as memories of his mother and daughter and the village people. Shahrukh dies trying to prevent his friend becoming a terrorist. The last episode showed his friend coming to Shahrukh’s home and his family accepting him as the second Kewal. Sort of reincarnation of Shahrukh. Hence the name Doosra Kewal or The Second Kewal.Muzrim Haazir ho.I had completely forgotten about this. Nutan plays a Bengali bahu. It had the title song “Hun huna hun huna” I think the song music was composed by Bhupen Hazarika (thanks IronMaiden)Dil daaryaAnother one of Shahrukh Khan’s serial. The fact is that Shahrukh acted in many serials before he became a star in movies. Something about two families separated during partition and then getting back. A child from one family is taken care by the other family. A good serial set in Punjab. I think the serial was from Lekh TandonPhool Khile hai Gulshan GulshanTabassum! Great. This was when film stars had only the film magazine to talk. TV offered them an opportunity to market themselves. Tabassum used to interview the stars. Hardly half hour. Remember all those shayaris from TabassumKahan gaye Woh LogLate Sunday Morning drama about heroes of freedom struggle.Aa Bail Mujhe maar.A comedy featuring Amol Palekar and Bharti Achrekar (I think). Saturday afternoon flavor. Story of a man who deliberately does things which create problem for himself.UddaanLoosely based on Kiran Bedi, the jailor of Tihar Jailor (I think she was the jailor). Kavita Chaudhury plays a simple girl who struggles and fight to become an IPS officer. It shows the problem she faces in the police force and the society because of being a woman. A very good inspiring serial.Aamne SaamneA talk show by Vipin Handa. It featured a celebrity guest who talked for hardly 15 minutes. This was way way before Simi Garewal and Karan Johar.Mr. YogiMohan Gokhale plays Mr. Yogi who comes to India in search of a bride. Om Puri plays Sutradhar who directs the story of Yogi. The story revolves around Yogi and his search for a perfect bride. The ending episode had Yogi marrying Om Puri’s daughter. 13 episodes and 13 girls. Hilarious.TrishnaThe serial based on Pride and Prejudice. This was long before Aiswarya Rai did “Bride and Prejudice” The story was about 4 daughters and their mother who is worried how to get them married or something like that.Mungerlilal Ke haseen SapneyHilarious. Raghuveer Yadav as Mungerilal who day dreams. The common thing in all his dreams was this heroine. He always dreams about her. His dream always starts with twitching of his eye. Don’t remember who the heroine was? I could not see many episodes because of the tuition again. I hate my tuition teacher.Wagle Ki DuniyaThis one was one of the best serial on DD. Anjan Shrivastava and Bharti Achrekar played Mr and Mrs Wagle. It involved the problems and everyday life of middle class man called Wagle. I think it was designed on R K Laxman’s “Common Man”Ramayan and Uttar RamayanRamanand Sagar’s historic epic. Arun Govil and Deepika were synonymous with Ram and Seeta. A very popular serial at that time. The road were deserted during that time. Had a lot of songs during each episode. Stretched and stretched the serial. High point was Dara Singh playing hanuman in the serial. After so many years, it does appear funny. Imagine two arrows coming toward each other, staying in the air for some time and then the special effect changing for one arrow and then one arrow disappearing. They actually stretched the serial because of these unwanted special effects. Uttar Ramayan didn’t become as popular as Ramayan.MahabharatAfter Ramayan, it was turn of mahabharat. From the B. R Chopra stable, this ended in 100 episodes. Better in directions, special effects and execution than Ramayan. It was very much popular. After Mahabharat all religious serials started loosing stream. Hardly any mythological serial could repeat the success of Ramayan and Mahabharat. The best part was the voice of "time" as the sutradhar of the story. It was Harish Bhimani’s voice. “Mein Samay hoon” Never has "time" been so popular.Ek Do Teen Char“Ek Do Teen Char. Charo milkar saath chale toh karde chamatkar”. A whodunit with children. I think they modeled it on Enid Bylton’s “Famous Five” (Enid Bylton, good stories Need to revisit that too.). Saturday afternoon stuff or somewhere in the weekend. Good stories. Actually it was some kind of national integration too as each boy came from different religion. Oz, you are right, one of the boy was in "Stop"Khel Khel meinAnother serial with the children as heroes. A similar storyline like “Ek Do Teen Char”. Sunday morning flavour.Malgudi Days/SwamyThe serial based on stories of R K Narayan. The stories were really good. I think it had a south Indian director. The serial became interesting after Swamy joined it. The theme music changed from the slow “Ta na na tana na na na” to a fast paced track with “Swamyyyyyyyyyyy” being yelled in between. Swamy was the best and I think the first serial that dealt in growing up of a child and the story was told from the child’s perspective. Girish Karnad plays Swamy’s father. . I don’t remember how the story ends. I still remembered Swamy acting as if he was sitting on a horse and then the horse taking off. Incredible. The name of the boy was Manjunath, right?RangoliSunday early morning. I used to get up early for that. I think it used to come at 7:30 AM. The Sunday newspaper (Loksatta, The Sunday Observer and Sunday Mid-day) and Rangoli. I used to schedule my bath before or after the show.The Sword of Tipu SultanThe same in which Sanjay khan almost died in the fire on the set. A grand serial where Tipu Sultan comes very late. The title music was the grandest of allChandrakantaA real fantasy serial. Started very well and then got totally lost. The main character remained absent from the serial for many parts. Durga Jasraj played the wife of the main villain, Pankaj Dheer who has poison in his blood. Chandrakanta was played by Shika Swaroop. Title song by Vinod Rathod. Chandrakanta is the princess of one of the two kingdom, vijaygarh or naugarh. I don’t remember. The story stretched so much that we lost track of what was happening.Also...."Stone Boy"- a story based in Mauritious.A boy who turned stone in the night.

add : remember them...!!!

2006-01-08T23:55:00.002-08:00

from....http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~sundar/tp/jinglebell.html

Some 80s ads & jingles!
In no particular order, here are some very memorable (at least to me) jingles from 80s ads (INDIAN, "of case"!)Note: Thanks to many of you who wrote back with ads you remembered, sorry for not having updated this page since then. Thanks to Ruchi and Ritwick for bringing this page back into the front of my mind so I could update it!
Frooti: (Thanks MSS) Did Frooti always come in a mango flavour? Or was it preceded by Orange Frooti? I'm so confused. Anyway, Mango Frooti had an original ad with a jingle that ended, "Mango Frooti, fresh and juicy" Later in the early 90s, this ad was set to the tune of the then-famous Ice Ice Baby,
"Fresh fresh Frooti, Frooti!(tin din din din din din)Fresh fresh Frooti, Frooti!(tin din din din din din)Mango Frooti, fresh and juicy!(YEAH!)"
To this day, you can hear it on board any train: "Ey, thanda Frooti, cold draaaaaannnnk". Frooti is still being sold at exorbitant prices on railway trains by douchebags who take advantage of anyone suffering from thirst. So much that they will drink even tepid Frooti if it is available, which is mostly the case. It is never ice cold. Fuck them all. I seem to have digressed, but seriously, FUCK all you cold drink vendors. I hate you, Kenny.
Glucon-C(D): "Glucon-C(D), yeh jaan mein jaan daal de - peete hi!" variations include: "iske saath ek foot-patti, muft muft muft!" "Mmm! Santre jaisa mazedaar!", says the kid who turns into a superhero. One of the ads features this superhero stuck in a BEST bus in traffic. The driver is really pissed of and tired and they are moving real slow and in jerks. Suddenly, our hero clicks his fingers - Ah, I have an idea! He exits the bus running, and changes into Super Glucon-D boy or something and gives the driver some Glucon-D. For some reason, this not only refreshes the driver, it also eases traffic flow! Was that a metaphor to say that this drink also has a lot of fiber in it???? I used to love Glucon-D. The orange taste was great. Almost as good as Orange Rasna.
Tata Namak: Whaaa? You have to advertize for table salt? "Namak ho Tata ka, Tata namak!" went the jingle.
Captain Cook: Hmm, don't really remember anything about this ad. There was something funny about it, but what?
[April 07, 2005] I'm going through a vegetable oil/ghee phase here:
Gagan: I don't remember very much except for the phrase, "Khao Gagan, raho magan!" Was this just Gagan Ghee or was it vegetable oil too? I think Tiku Talsaniya was in the ad, although I could be wrong. Help?
Postman: Postman brand vegetable oil. Why name an oil after your friendly neighbourhood mail delivery person? I don't know. These things used to come in huge blur-coloured plastic cans, I remember. Do they still make them? The earliest ads didn't have the kid dreaming about gigantic puris falling onto him from on the table. It didn't even have the jingle, "Postman... naturally!" But other than these negative results, I've got jack.
Saffola: One (early) version of this ad features some middle-aged dad at his daughter's birthday party, he collapses just as they start to sing Happy Birthday (maybe he just received the bill?) I do remember his daughter (like any other daughter in ads during the time) was in a pink dress. Anyway, sounds of an ambulance. Wife with dried tears in her eyes looking at the camera and saying something about how she takes her hubby's health seriously now and has switched to Saffola. It was made from safflower oil, and had the heart logo on the yellow-coloured plastic can.
Sapan:Ad 1: Sapan Ghee - No human faces involved. Just a tin of ghee, maybe a bottle, and the sound of cows mooing. All of a sudden, an Amitabh-like voice says, "Dadima, aapke haath ka khaana to bas..." and Dadima's voice says - "Lo, ghee ka kaam, aur dadima ka naam!"
Ad 2: Sapan Rasgulla - A family sings this jingle:
[All of 'em] Shudh Sapan rasgulla, shudh sapan rasgulla![Just son] Mmmmm![Just mom] Shudhta mein hardam aage[Just daughter] la la la, la la la la[All of 'em] Shudh Sapan rasgulla, shudh sapan rasgulla!
Woodwards Gripe Water: [Thanks, Meers!] I hazily remember the mid- or early-80s version of this ad, it just had a bawling kid in it and a mom who uses gripe water to stop the kid from... well, griping. The version that is more famous is definitely the late-80s one: kid crying. Mom taking care of kid. Grandma walks in. "Kya hua?" "Bachchi ro rahi thi" "Woodwards Gripe Water dede. Tu jab choti thi, tab tujhe yehi diya tha maine". Gramma's Mama walks in. "Kya hua?"... and like those Russian stories where the elephant, the chicken, the donkey, the walrus, the hare, the bear, the cossack, the chipmunk and the squirrel slowly add onto the rest of the story just to make it longer, this ad goes from mother to great-great-grandmother. All this to show that WGW has been around since 1919 or something.
Colgate Tooth Powder: [Thanks to Manish Acharya for a reminder!] Two versions of the tooth powder ad, both with the same target audience in mind - country bumpkins who are jocks, apparently. Because, as we all know, everyone in the cities uses tooth PASTE, not powder! [Note: even the Dabur Lal Dant-Manjan ad featured a village school - Lekin masterji, aapke daant?!]
Version one: muscular country bumpkin is out in the yard, with his weights, in front of a couple of buffalo. [Oh yeah, this ad could also have been aimed at the Bhaiiya paap-ulasan in Bombay. Same difference!] As if we aren't already tired of the stereotyping in this ad, a sati-savitri maa-ke-samaan bhabhi is in the background, either praying to the Tulsi tree in the aangan or cooking on the choolha or some other shit that women in villages apparently do.Bumpkin: Arrey Bhabhi, zara mera doodh-badaam aur koyla dena to!Bhabhi: Arrey wah, devarji, badan ke doodh-badaam, aur daaton ke liye koyla?![Scene change, shows graphic of gums and teeth up close]Voice-over: Khurdare padaarth daaton ki parakh kharaab kar sakte hain.... [Use Colgate Tooth Powder, blah blah blah]
Version two is basically the same as above except the bumpkin apparently also has a college-going sister. YEAH, RIGHT! As if they let girls in such a family ever leave the kitchen!Behna: Bhaiyya, main college jaa rahi hoonBhaiyya: Arrey pehle mera doodh-badaam aur koyla to zara dena!Behna: Wah bhaiyya, badan ke liye doodh-badaam, aur daaton ke liye koyla!?[Same voice-over and stuff]Bhaiyya: Wah, college jaa ke bahut hoshiar ho gayee hain meri behana!
Hawkins Pressure Cooker: [Thanks to Sumit Bakshi for a reminder!] A minimal ad from the early/mid 80s, it starts with a loud pressure cooker whistle, and then, Preeti Sagar (At least I think it was her, but that could just be me talking out of my ass) starts to sing:
Hawkins ki seeti baji, khushboo hi khushboo udiMazedaar, lazzedaar khaana hai tayyar, aji khaana hai tayyar!Murg Musallam, Tomayyto Soup, Matar Pulao, Maaki Daal,Kheer aur Dum AlooooooHar vyanjan swadisht banaaye, minton mein jhatpat pakaayeHawkins! Hawkins! Hawkins Pressure Cooker!
Voice over guy: Vishwasneeya, HAWKINS! Avval quality ka praasure [said with a Delhiite accent] cooker! Bachat kare, barson chale!
Prestige Cooker: [Another Sumit Bakshi reminder] The original ad features a wife slaving away in the kitchen while her mother-in-law relaxes in the living room and the hubby is at work (I think). The wife is reaaaaallllyyy overworked and understandably loses it, and starts throwing kitchenware into the living room, and the other people in the house watch each utensil go over their heads like a tennis game.
Voice over: Phenk do yeh kadhaai, bekchi, yeh frying panInse nata todo.(The last sentence is accompanied by a huge wok landing in the postman's hands)(Heaven, or the exhaust fan, slowly lowers a Prestige Pressure Cooker into the wife's hands)Prestige Pressure Cooker. Fry kare, deep fry kare, chun chun sikaai kare.Jhat ubaale, pat pressure de [Cue to loud whistle]Prestige Pressure Cooker. Jo biwi se karein pyaar, woh Prestige se kaise karein inkaar!
A second, very similar (albeit shortened) version of this ad plugged Prestige Pressure Pans instead of Cookers. Replace the word Cooker in the above with Pan, and that's what it was.
There were a handful of girls who played the "wife" role in these ads - cookers, Maggi noodles, etc. They were really cute.
Godrej Shaving Cream: Having recently been informed [Thanks Ashu!] that this page contains not even ONE ad about shaving cream, I have been forced to update it! An early-mid 80s ad for Godrej Shaving Cream features Vivek Vaswani as some sort of nervous reporter who is interviewing random men. The scene begins with VV approaching some clean-shaven CONFIDENT guy in a neat suit.
VV: Uh.. S-S-Sir, which shaving cream do you use?Guy1, confidently smiling: Godrej!VV: WHY?Guy1: Great shave, cologne fragrance! Wife loves it!The guy is talking fast because he is in an elevator and has already reached his floor and is getting off. VV has to now pursue other guys, and he sees another guy enter the elevator - VV: Sir, which shaving cream do you -Guy2 turns around and displays his beard, smiles and says, in a deep voice: ME?
Vimal Washing Powder: This ad featured a very young Dileep Tahil (he was pretty famous in Hindi movies at that point, so I don't know why he did this ad, but people do strange things for money and otherwise). Scene: DT is walking down the street, happy in a sort-of-white kurta and pyjama. The VWP girl on a huge banner comes alive, and here's the conversation (please SING it to the tune of the jingle, imagine the music being played in the extract below):
girl: Suno suno, ay babuji (tanv danv tanv danv tanv danv tanv danv) kahan chale? (tanv danv danv danv) kapde kyon hain mailey dhule? DT: MAILEY? Lekin maine to laundry se dhulvaayi thi girl: To kya, zara thehro (winks, accompanied by synth sound of wink, and his clothes become ultra-white) farak dekhlo! chorus: Vimal Washing Powder, kapde dhoye jagmag jagmag Ujwal, ujwal, kapde dikhte nikhaar, rangon ke bahaar laaye jhilmil jhilmil! Vimal Washing Powder!
Dabur Chyawanprash (a very famous ad): Featuring great Marathi character actor (who was pretty old by then), Shriram Lagoo. He also has lent his histrionic might (he was another shaking A. K. Hangal but also a villain more often than AKH himself) to Hindi movies. But in this ad (which was released pretty much around the time that the serial Khandaan, which featured both Lagoos, was playing on national television), he is just a regular rich-grandpa (dadaji) and has a social message (sort of) for you.
kid: Dadaji! Badminton! SL: uh-huh, pehle Dabur Chyawanprash (voice over): Anwla aur chalees se bhi adhik gunon se bharpoor, Dabur Chyawanprash!
Pan Parag: (another very very famous ad): Featuring the suppressed histrionic mights of a fat Shammi Kapoor and Ashok Kumar and their wives (one of them was Asha Lata, maybe? They were the typical maa-wife roleplayer women of the early- and mid-80s... If someone knows their names, please send them to me. Thanks!) Scene: Shehnai playing in the background, it is the house where the wedding is supposed to take place, which is the bride's house, and it happens to be Ashok Kumar's house. His wife:
AKW: Suniye, ladki ke maa-baap aaye hain AK: Arrey, aaiye, aaiye (ha ha ha ha ha, mandatory laughter from all four members) SK: Baarat... thik 8 baje pahunch jaayegi. Par hum aapse ek baat to kehne bhool hi gaye! (Shehnai stops, and sudden jarring music is played on keyboard while AK and his wife share a worried look... thinking... DOWRY!) SK: Ghabraiye nahin, hume kuch nahin chahiye! Hum to sirf itna chahte hain ki aap baraatiyon ka swagat... Pan Parag se kijiye! AK (relieved): Oh-ho, Pan Parag! Humein kya maloom tha aap bhi Pan Parag ke shaukeen hain... (he pulls out a tin can from under his shawl) Yeh lijiye Pan Parag (closeup of SK's face which brightens up): PAN PARAG! (singer, probably Priti Sagar): Pan Parag, pan masala Pan Parag Khatir-daari mein zaroori, iske bina mehfil adhoori Pan parag, pan masala, Pan Parag!
Pan Parag: (another famous version of this ad): Features Jalal Agha (I always get confused about who the dad was, and who the son was. This was the son, and I think his name was Jalal Agha) Scene: JA enters a party, and guests notice him and start talking to him. Guest1 (played by middle aged Delhiite-looking lady): Arrey lo, aagaye? Aaj kal to bade chaaye hue ho TV par, Pan Parag aur kya kya! JA (smiles humbly): Shukriya Guest2 (played by Vipin Handa, who went on to have a short-lived talk show called Aamne-Saamne): TV mein to hamesha tayaar rehte ho, aaj kahan hai tumhara dibba? JA (smartly pulls out a pillow pouch!): To YEH kya hai?! Guest3: Ek se... mera kya hoga!!! (laughs) JA: To aap DO lijiye! Guest4's voice: Aur mere liye? (JA turns towards the voice, sees its a really tall dude, and pulls out the whole strip and smiles at camera, while Priti Sagar - I think - sings the jingle above)...
Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Cream: (a very early, famous version featuring a very young and cute Sangeeta Bijlani. This version is historic because it was always featured before one of the very first sitcoms that I ever saw on Doordarshan, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. starring Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat, Rakesh Bedi and Satish Shah in different roles - who doesn't remember that one episode where he keeps saying, What a relieeeeef!. This was a long time before Sampat decided to do All The Best, with the shitty fake laughter in the background)
Scene: A wedding, the bride's house, the females who are dressing up and decorating the bride (Sangeeta Bijlani) are supposed to be singing, while the parents - Sudhir Dalvi, Shirdi Ke Sai Baba as the dad, with a typical mom/wife roleplayer from Marathi movies: I can remember her face, but not her name - looking at each other sad yet happy... the chorus sings:
Bade naazon se paali hamaari banno, tujhe dulhan banaaye ree pyaari banno (shehnai) (lead female voice) tujhko haldi ka ubhtan lagaayein sakhiyaan (at this point there is cackling laughter from all the girls, as they apply turmeric paste to her legs and her cheeks) teri kaaya ko kanchan banaayein sakhiyaan (chorus) roop kundan sa chamke hamaari banno, tujhe dulhan banaaye ree pyaari banno... (at this point, she is going around the holy fire seven times with her hubby, and the wedding is done. The music changes, and they show the couple on their honeymoon, in what is probably Observation Post, but is supposed to be Kashmir, then her hubby jumps into a swimming pool, comes out, and drips all the water in his hair onto Sangeeta, at which point, I was thinking, even that long ago, what are you doing with that useless idiot, How Could You Want Him When You Know You Could Have Me?) (voiceover says something about Vicco Vajradanti Ayurvedic Cream, which you probably don't notice because they are showing a young Sangeeta on the screen, smiling) (chorus) Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Cream! (female) Tvacha ki raksha karey, antiseptic cream Roop ko sanvarey, nikharey har dam! Haldi aur chandan ka anokha sangam! (chorus) Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Cream, Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Cream!
(at this point all the music stops, and in my mind I always hear the theme song of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi start up!)
Dabur ka Lal Dantmanjan: (another famous ad) Scene: A classroom in some Hindi medium school in a village. There's a diagram of the front view of human teeth. Teacher has really really bad teeth. The teacher is played by T. P. Jain (thanks, Ruchi)...
Teacher: Bacchon, yeh hai hamaare daaton ki banavat! (looks around) Raju! Tumharei daat to motiyon jaise chamak rahey hain! Raju: (played by Master Bittu, I think): Kyon na ho, masterji, main Dabur ka Lal Dantmanjan jo istimaal karta hoon! (a few more dialogues by the teacher, extolling Raju's good habits, which unfortunately I don't remember because the short version of this ad received more airtime) Another student: Lekin masterji, AAPKE DAANT?!
this ad is connected with the following jingle, though I don't remember at what point in the ad this really starts to play: (male) Daaton ki karey hifazat, moti sa chamkaaye! (female) Dabur Lal Dantmanjam se mukhda khil khil jaaye! (male voice-over) Kifaayti, aur asardaar!
Even though people might not remember this ad, I have heard the last line used occasionally when people want to say "Before removing the mote from thy neighbour's eye, attend the beam in thine own".... in other words, LEKIN MASTERJI, AAPKE DAANT?????
OK Soap: jingle: Jo OK sabun se nahaaye, kanval sa khil jaaye! OK nahane ka bada sabun! (character, played by Raja Bundela (thanks to a bunch of people for sending me emails about this!): Sachmuch, KAAFI BADA HAI! (voice-over): Jo OK se nahaaye, kamal sa khil jaaye. TATA utpaadan.
Once again, occasionally heard people using "SACHMUCH, KAAFI BADA HAI!" in fact, I think it was the Zee TV show with Satish Shah, when he's on the run from someone, and he finds this well-endowed chick inside a car, and begs her to hide him in her car. She smiles and says, "OK!" and he says, "Sachmuch, kaafi bada hai!"
Maggi 2-Minute Noodles (Thanks Vishal): Two kids, a brother and a sister, get down from their school bus and open the house gates and enter the kitchen immediately. And they scream in unison, "Mummy bhookh lagi hai!" The mom smiles and says, "Do minute!" The jingle: unfortunately only the first and last line remain fresh in memory, the rest of it disappeared because they played the short version of this ad for a lot longer than the original version. "School se aate dhoom machaate (second line) (third line) Ek hi baat pe (something) manaate, Maggi Maggi Maggi!"
Mom: Pal bhar mein tayyar.... kids in chorus: Khaane mein mazedaar!
Dettol Soap: Not a jingle, really. Just a short ad showing this woman in the marketplace, at work, in the bus on the way back home, and dust settling on her all through. She comes back home and voila! There's a bar of Dettol Soap in the bathroom. Harish Bhimani provides the voice-over for this ad: "Dettol Saabun. Mail mein chupe keetaanuon ko dho daalta hai." Simple and short.
Tango: Jingle with people looking bored, including some statue that is really depressed... I don't really remember very much about this ad, except parts of the song.
(spoken:) It's the same old (something) The same (something) And the same old news! (shows news anchors sitting bored, and suddenly someone throws in the soft-drink bottle filled with Tango!) (spoken, chorus) Add something special! To an ordinary day! (singing, chorus) A Tango in your hand, a smile on your face And suddenly, the world is a much better place! It's Tango! Tango! Tango! Add something special... to an ordinary day!
(voice-over) Tango! Making the most of an orange!I think I used to like Tango.
Limca: Weeelll.. now that we are talking about soft-drinks. There was a series of ads for Limca that had the following format:
Girl: Limca! Did you know Limca had... Guy (choruses): Isotonic salts to quench your thirst?! Asel, mala kai maahit?! I drink Limca, I love Limca!
(there was another one of these with a Surd guy saying something typical like "Oye ki farak painda, I drink Limca....")
Isotonic salts... that was the first time I heard that term, and I had to wait till 9th standard to find out what that meant. Isotonic salts, my ass!
Sylvania Laxman: The early ad didn't have the singing bit. It was just Asrani who was a servant. And the lamps in the house all go phut at the same time, so his mistress sends him over to the store to buy Sylvania Laxman bulbs. He tries to remember, but by the time he reaches the store (owned by Viju Khote), he has forgotten what it was called...
Asrani: Ey bhai, Raam Laxman bulb dena! Viju Khote: AISA KOI BULB NAHIN AATA! Asrani: Aji kaise dukaandaar hain aap! Duniya bhar mein mashoor (and even at this point, VK starts to understand what A wants and starts to pick it out), uttam quality ka bana.... VK: To Sylvania Laxman bulb chahiye tumhein Asrani: Haan haan wohi, lekin ek nahin chhai. VK: Chhai? Asrani: POORE GHAR KE BADAL DALOONGA!
The reason I capitalized those lines was to show how they came into regular use later on. For example, Srinivas went to The KLS Gogte Institute of Technology (GIT) in Belgaum, and he was telling me that at one of the Cultural fests, at a Sales Appeal contest, one of the teams had to bring out an ad for underwear, and this guy goes...
Arrey haan wohi, lekin ek nahin, do hazaar! Do hazaar?!? (looks at the audience) Poore GIT ke badal daaloonga!!!!
Me and Raju started using the "Aisa koi bulb nahin aata" line for anything that people would cook up that didn't exist. Try it the next time someone says Limca has isotonic salts!
ECE Bulbs: This ad starred the Artist Better Known As Ghanshu Bhikari (from Nukkad). On the way out of the house, Ravi Baswani's wife says:
(singing) Bhool na jaana! ECE bulb laana!
and then there's a whole lot of people talking in different languages asking him not to forget...
Parsi: Dikra, bhool to nai, ECE bulb lavjo! Bangaali aurat: Bhoolbe naa nee sho bulb ECE bulb
(I forget the other people)...
and the Bangaali aurat is the last one to tell him about the bulb, when he reaches the bulb shop owned by Ghanshu and says: Bulbbulbbulbbulbbulb.... Ghanshu sings: Jyaada de ujaala (and the bulb/tube lights up in his hand) din-o-din chalne waala ECE bulb aur ECE tube!
Casper Mosquito Repellent: This was more of a Video-ad than a TV ad, but it DID feature on TV. Scene shows a family of mom-dad-bro and sis.
Male voice: Maccharon ko jisse lagta hai dar kids chorus: Woh hai Casper! Male voice: Woh chemical jismein dugna asar! kids chorus: Woh hai Casper! Male voice: Shaam se lekar subah tak jale! kids chorus: Woh hai Casper! Male voice: Jismein ek nahin, DO conductor! kids chorus: Woh hai Casper!
(voice over): Bhaarat mein pehli baar! Electronic mosquito repellent, Casper! (Only, he sounded like he said Kesper)
Although, this ad DID lie. The very FIRST electronic mosquito repellent on the market was:
Good Knight: I only remember the last line in this jingle: Sweet dreams, and Good Knight folks!
NECC (National Egg Coordination Committee): A very famous ad, because the jingle was catchy.
Calendar (Again, I am using the famous character played by said person from Mr. India, his real name being Satish Kaushik): Meri jaan, meri jaan, murgi ke ande! Dilip Dhawan: Khaana meri jaan, meri jaan, murgi ke ande! Female: Omlet khilaoon, fried khilaoon, boiled khilaoon! Priti Sagar's voice: Khilaoon murgi ke, murgi ke, ande hi ande! (voice over, probably Harish Bhimani): Sunday ho ya Monday, roj khaayein ande Calendar (with an egg held between thumb and first two fingers): Fantash-tick!
National Integration Ad: There were about three of these ads... they were long and I used to remember each and every line. Let me see if I can still remember what the order was.
The first ad was the one with everyone carrying the torch through different regions of India. No music here, so I will skip this one.
Mile Sur Mera Tumhara - I think that was the first one. Ahem... here goes my try! Please excuse me if the language is fucked up. If you want, I can correct it... just email me...
(Bhimsen Joshi): Mile sur mera tumhara tooooo soooor bane hamaara... sur ki dariya har disha se behke saagar mein mile... baadalon ka roop-a lekar... barse halke halke.... oooooh mile sur mera tumhara tooo soor bane hamara....
(Rajasthan, featuring then-famous bowler Narendra Hirwani sitting on aqueduct) (your) tarang (and) (my) tarang... ek vat baniye (our) tarang!
(?) Tena sur mele mera sur dena milke bane ek nava sur da
(Shabana Azmi right outside the Taj Mahal): Mile sur mera tumhara to sur bane hamaara
(cast of Tamas, supposed to be the Punjab element) Female chorus: Sur ka dariya behke saagar mein miley Male chorus: Baadlaan-da roop lehke Deepa Sahi: Barsanei hole hole....
(we move deep south, and that chakka Balamurli krishna is on the beach with some other idiots... including the magaaaan yinsaan Kemal Saar who doesn't sing shit, but just gives a Digjam pose)
Isayindaal... nam iruvarin... suramum namadaahum (veena, while Kemal saar shows off his Digjam pose) isaimel raagaahum aadise aarugal mugilai mazhaiaai pozhivadum pol isai! nam isaaaaaaaaiiii!
(woman singing dhik tak dhik ta jhoom... etc etc)
(man) nenna dhwaniye enna dhwaniya (woman) seindhi nante namma dhwaniya
(man and woman together) naa swaramoo nee swaramoo sangamam-ani mama swaranga aavatarinche
(mallu dude on elephant) ende swaramum ningalude swaramum ottuchennu namm-ode swaramai!
(cut from one Commie state to another: Bong boatman slowly rowing boat on the Hooghly).... Tomar shoor modir shoor... sristi hoouu... hoiko shoor... (repeat thrice)
fourth time: sristi hoouu hoi ko taal (change music to manipuri/nagalandi type with people walking past with their arms interlocked around their hips)
(male) Tomar moro shoorono milano (female joins in) shrishti hoo chalo chapano
(music while Goa is shown and they show Mario Mairanidi's - I'm sorry... Mario Miranda's paintings...)
(Mallika Sarabhai in Gujju) Maley soor jo taro maro, bane aapdo soor niralo..
(Tanuja representing Aamche Maharashtra): Majhya tumchya jultya taara madhur suranchya barasti dhaara
(Shrillest voice of ALL, Lata, first singing for Waheeda Rehman) Sur ki nadiya har disha se behke saagar mein mile
(now for Hema Malini) Baadalon ka rooooop leke barse halke halke
(who else?) hooo mile sur mera tumhara
(now they make no pretense and show Lata) Mile sur mera tumhara... toooooo soor bane.... hamaara....
(music increases in volume and speed again and they show the TRIO - Ganga Jamuna and Saraswati, Amitabh, Jeetendra and Mithun, with their arms around each other) Mile sur mera tumhara, to sur bane hamara
(everyone singing together) to sur bane hamara! to sur bane hamara!
(song turns into end of national anthem, Jaya he, jaya he... just the music, while each beat forms the Indian flag and the silhouette of Gandhi)
end title: Har Dil Mein Jagaayein Rashtrajyoti...
Wow! I think I got quite a few there. The next one was on the same lines, and was different people singing "Baje sargam, har taraf se goonje bankar Deshraag".... not as great as this one...
Brittania Coconut Crunchies: Features Agha (not the son, the father)... on a tropical location...
Singer: Ek naariyal ped se toota! (falls with sound effects on Agha's head) (he takes it and starts to roast it) Singer: senk-taap kar use pakaaya... khoob kurmura use banaaya... Britannia Coconut Crunchies!
(and a long time later, they added the later-produced Brittania signature tune at the end... the ting-ting-ti-ding, something like the Intel tan-tan-tan-tan!)
Go Kool Ice Cream: Anything karega for Go Kool! Deewana banega for Go Kool! Mooh mein paani laane wala Ice Cream... ga-ga-ga-ga-Go Kool Ice Cream!
Milkfood 100% Ice Cream: There were a few ads for this Ice Cream, and I have very little recollection of these ads (I think most of my memories of these ads are mixed up with the Go Kool Ice Cream ads)
Milkfood Desi Ghee (thanks, Ruchi): I vaguely remember this one, but one faithful reader says this was screened after every over during the 1983 Prudential Cup. Dara Singh saying, "Milkfood Desi Ghee ka kamaal hai... Bhai wah!"
Bizzare Mazhar: Here's a crazy ad I found online for some Ghee starring Mazhar Khan. I remember having seen this ad on some video casette we were watching, but didn't really pay very much attention to it. But the website has really done this ad a lot of justice.
Gold Spot: The tennis court version... (Guy): She's crazy about (something) (Girl):As crazy as he's about (something else) and hits the tennis ball into the guy's mouth, who manages to remove it just before they sing: (together): As crazy as crazy as we're about... Gold Spot! The Zing Thing! Gold Spot (two bolts of thunder courtesy synthesizer) Gold Spot!
Amul Chocolate (voice over at the end by Harish Bhimani)
(Girl): I am too old for dolls, too young for the Disco (Hahahaha! She said disco!!!) (Guy, I think this was a very young Aftab Shivdasani): But I think you're just right for Amul Chocolate! (Voice over): Amul chocolate! A gift for someone you love!
(many ads like this one... one that went too young to be a grandma.... one that was a little girl, etc)
B-Tex Cream & Lotion:
Male: Daad, khaaj khujli ka dushman?! Chorus: B-Tex Malam, B-Tex Lotion Male: Eczema ka jaani dushman! Chorus: B-Tex Malam B-Tex Lotion, B-Tex!
Another, more recent B-Tex ad (thanks, Ruchi):
Ravi Baswani is scratching his shoulder and back, when Archana Joglekar steps up and sings a parody of Tirchi Topiwale:
RB (irritated with the itch): Oye Oye!AJ:Khujli karne waale! B-Tex lagaa le!B-Tex lagaake tu apni (aa aa aa)Daad, khaaj khujli mitaleRB (happily displaying a tube of B-Tex): Oye Oye!
Kinetic Honda (scooter, featured a very young Javed Jaffrey out of a job and suddenly getting a scooter:)
song: Honda! Kinetic Honda! It gets to you, you'll never be the same again! Honda! Kinetic Honda!
voice over: Kinetic Honda! What a scooter OUGHT to be!
Cinkara: Did I just say Jaaved Jaffrey? This is vintage JJ. I very recently (1999) saw the complete theater version of this ad. The secretary in this ad with the wide 80s glasses is soooooooooo cute!!!!
Anyways: JJ is overloaded with work. And just as he is about to think the pile on his desk can't get any bigger, the secretary hands him some more papers...
voice over: Yeh bechaara, kaam ke bojh ka maara!! (he faints) voice over: Inhein chaahiye Hamdard Ka Cinkara (JJ drinks it, and in the next scene, breaks through glass and hands in his reports with a flourish) voice over: Hamdard ka tonic, Cinkara!
Another JJ ad series (thanks, Ritwick): Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce ("It's Different") had a bunch of ads starring Karamchand Pankaj Kapoor and Javed Jaffrey. One of them features them as spectators on a tennis court... and at the end, JJ screams, "Koi mujhe bataayega, ki Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce mein aisi kya baat hai!" and Pankaj Kapoor nonchalantly motions to the crowd without taking his eyes away from his sandwich, and the crowd yells, "IT'S DIFFERENT!", and the tennis ball lands in his lap.
The other, more famous ad, also brought back the imitations of Ajit, the awesomest gangster of 70s films. JJ is dressed as Ajit, and is talking to his henchmen while Pankaj Kapoor is busy opening up a bottle of Maggi Hot and Sweet, and Lily the mistress is at JJ's side...
JJ: Thodi hi der mein hamaara helikaapter Hindustaan se door Birmingham pahunch jaayega. Michael, tum cycle par jaao... (at this point, Pankaj Kapoor takes out a Maggi bottle and thumps it on the table, and everyone fears gunshots and hides)JJ: Saara shehar mujhe LOIN ke naam se jaanta hai, aur tum yeh kambakhat tamatar ka saaas!...PK (interrupting): BOSS! Yeh tamatar ka saas nahin, Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato CHILLI sauce hai, It's Different!JJ: Saaf saaf kaho tum kehna kya chahte ho!PK (imitating JJ): This saas, is different, Baas!(Lily giggles)JJ: Lily, don't be silly!
Volfarm Tomato Ketchup (thanks again Ritwick): At a party, someone's eating pakoras without any tomato sauce. The host goes upto him, and says, "Thoda ketchup try karo!" and the guest says, "Ketchup hota kaddo bhara!" the host says "Ismein kaddoo nahin zara!" guest tries it, and says, "Wah!" and the jingle begins:[Male Chorus] Volfarm!Laal rasile tamataron se hota yeh tayyar, [Male Chorus] Volfarm!Nahin koi milaavat ismein, na banaavati rang!Jo bhi khayein ek baar woh khaatein baar baar, [Male Chorus] Volfarm!
Pudeen Haara: Hamdard has a lot of ads. One of them features this guy I refer to as Bhanu Pratap because there was some typical 80s revenge movie we saw that had this guy as the villain Bhanu Pratap. Anyway, this ad features Bhanu Pratap as a madaari... and Master Bittu is watching him juggle apples or something. Suddenly the music stops and the apples fall and BP is crouched... "Madaari ji kya hua?" "Kuch nahin beta, p-p-pet mein dard hai!"
Master Bittu rushes to his grandma: "Dadi ma, dadi ma, woh pudine waali dawa do, na, madaari ke pet mein bahut dard hai!"
voice over: Pudeen Haara!
(BP is juggling again) While we're on the subject of Pet-dards, here's a gem of an ad, recalled to my memory thanks to Ritwick and Ruchi:Kaayam Churn: Rakesh Bedi is dressed in the half-chaddi shikari costume complete with hat and rifle, and he is faced by three rakshasas with stuff written on their bellies (or maybe it was their belts?): Gas, Acidity and Pet-Dard (everything is written in Hindi)... RB is trying his best to get rid of these guffawing buffoon rakshasas (or were they rakshas buffoons? Hmm.) by shooting at them, but to no avail. He remarks, "Hm! Goliyon ka bhi koi asar nahin!" and suddenly a Rishi-muni appears in front of a yagna-kund seated right next to where RB was standing... and he says, "Inka ilaaj goliyaan nahin, aayurved hai" (and Ritwick assures me that he has used this line in daily life, and I think I should also get people to start using this in daily life) and the rishi gives RB a small bottle of Kaayam Churn. RB says, "Kaayam Churn?" and in the full version of this ad, the monsters vanish in a poof... but in the chopped up version of this ad, as soon as RB says Kaayam Churn, they cut the scene and then show RB smiling at the camera with a small bottle of the Churn in his hand, while the voice-over says: "Bhavnagar wale Sheth brothers ka Kaayam Churn!"
Coldarin: One of the earliest advertizements I remember watching. Very famous line. Man at work screws something up (maybe breaks some glass or drops a sheaf of papers) because he has cold and related headache, and senior goes:
Senior: Yeh kya haal bana rakhkha hai? Kuch lete kyon nahin? Man: Bahut si dawaiyan lee, sir, but kuch farq hi nahin pada. Senior: Coldarin lee? Man: uh-huh Senior: Tumhein maloom nahin? Coldarin sardi ki khaas dawa hai. Voice over: Sardi se aaram, chusti se chale kaam! Coldarin!
Vicks Action 500: This has to be among TWO OF THE EARLIEST advertizements I remember watching in a movie theater. It features none other than DHEERAJ KUMAR as a fighter pilot with headache and cold. And of course, as soon as he pops a Vicks Action 500, he gives his "sexy" smile and is back in the cockpit!
Strepsils: The other ad which I hold in the category of TWO EARLIEST ADS I HAVE SEEN in theaters. This one also features none other than VIJAYENDRA GHATGE! He is enacting a scene in a movie where he plays the lead role!!!!! And the last dialogue is something like... "Good BYE, MADAM!" and then he starts to cough... so someone pops him a Strepsils... and then he starts charming whatever female is around him. As I said, since these are the most ancient ads I remember, I don't remember very much about them. I wish they would still play these ads once in a while. When will India have something like TVLAND for Indian programmes?!
Strepsils: Another ad featured a cartoon where a lion walks onto stage and decides to roar into the microphone, but only manages to meow. There is general laughter from the audience. Then, of course, it pops a Stepsils and ROAARRRRSSSSS and there is microphone feedback. Another successful short ad for Strepsils! But STILL SHADOWED BY GHATGE!!!!!
Brooke Bond Red Label Chai: The typical young mom (also featured in the Maggi noodles ad) is at the market, and she asks the shopkeeper (who in reality provided the voice for many ads and voice-overs):
Woman: Aji Brooke Bond Red Label Chai to deejiye Shopkeeper: Aji chai to chai hi hai, paani ubalo, patti daalo, doodh shakkar milao, aur pee jaao. Ismein kya khaas hai??! Woman: Peeyo, to jaano! (song, probably Preeti Sagar again):
Baagon ki taazgi laaye, packet bhar shuddhta aayeBrooke Bond Red Label Chai! Har baar tasalli dilaaye!Brooke Bond Red Label Chai! sachmuch hai bejod chai
(music stops, and woman continues): Aur daam bhi kifaayti!
Was there a version of this ad with Deepika Chikhliya in it? Or am I confusing it with some other ad? Help!
Nirma: A YELLOW-COLOURED WASHING POWDER/SOAP BAR?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!? Who would have thought that would sell? Well, apparently the people at Nirma. Unfortunately, it still sells big, I think.
An often remixed ad, but this was the original shown in movie theaters as well... it featured some good looking young girls including Sangeeta Bijlani... female lead and chorus singing the song, while the four chicks wash their clothes and carry on with their daily housewife life, which includes travelling in autos and buying lightweight vegetables and dealing with goody-goody kids, maybe. There are clips of other members of the family (decided younger members) pirouetting in bright clothes supposedly washed by Nirma)....
Washing powder Nirma! Washing powder Nirma! Dhoodh si safedi, Nirma se aayi,Rangeen Kapda bhi dhul dhul jaye, [Thanks, Rajan](OKAY, big deal, so this line refers to the detergent cake and not the washing powder!) Paani mein rehke bhi yeh kam gale (at which point, my mom would always say, saala jhooth bolta hai!) Dheron kapde dhoye aur jyaada chale Washing powder Nirma! Washing powder Nirma!
Thoda sa powder, aur jhaag dher saara! (music) Rangeele kapdon ko pal mein ujaala! Rekha... Geeta.... Jaya aur Sushma (they show the four different girls, including Sangeeta Bijlani getting into an auto. It might sound like I am obsessed with her, but that's not true. I used to think she looked like someone else, as is the case with most female celebrities I know) sabki pasand Nirma! Washing powder Nirma! Washing powder Nirma! (with harmony): NIRMA! (at this point in the ad, a girl wearing a polka-dot skirt is spinning around, and she turns into the Nirma girl on the packet)
(future modification of the jingle had the line "Nirma detergent tikiya iske jhaag ne jadoo kar diya"...)
Rasna: This ad became huuuuuuge when it was played right before and during the fifteen-minute cartoon, shown on Sunday evenings, Spider-Man. It just consists of a lot of kids drinking Rasna, and it includes the fat Gujju uncle who drinks a huuuuuge jug of Rasna (fat people are always funny, I know, I have been entertaining my class since I was in First standard).... jingle:
Ras ki rachna Rasna (chorus: RASNA!) Tarah tarah ke swaad ki rachna rasna (chorus: RASNA!) (music) verse: Ek packet se ban jaaye batteess gilaas (music) Rasna ka har zaayeka sabke man ki bujhaaye pyaas! Ras ki rachna Rasna (chorus: RASNA!)
At some point during this ad's release, I think the long version had even the names of all the 10 flavours (the 11th flavour introduced, Mango Ripe, was one of my favourites, was added later on and got its own jingle which I quote below. The 12th flavour was Kala Khatta, I think, and then there was Masala Soda (Jaljeera) which was always misspelt as Masala Sooda.)in the verses of the song.
Once Rasna became part of the Sunday morning line-up of ads, they added this cute female (think Anjali irritating) to the ad, and I believe that girl's parents wanted more money or something, eventually she grew up a little bit, and they made her endorse another cold drink - Sudha. The ad for this drink went thus: It shows the girl, you can see she is grown up, and she says: Pehchana? Badi ho gayi hoon, na? Aur (my taste has become refined, too)... Sudha... etc etc.... In the meantime, Rasna found another cute kid who was younger for their ads. They got their buck-toothed girl, and everyone was happy.
Anyway, my point was, Rasna added the cute kid to the ad and added the punch-line: I Love You, Rasna!
Mango Ripe jingle:
Mango ripe! Mango ripe! Naya hai Rasna Mango Ripe... Koi samay ho koi bhi din Rasna Mango Ripe ka din (mmm yummy) (different ways of drinking Mango Ripe: either with water, or as milk shake - at one point they had the shake bottle free with some offer) Mango ripe! Mango ripe, mazey ka Rasna Mango Ripe! ( I LOVE YOU RASNA!)
At some point in time, Harish Bhimani started doing voice-overs for Rasna ads and started to mention that it was a product of Pioma Industries. And ever since, programs were not sponsored by Rasna, but by Pioma Industries.
Why and how do I remember all this shit? I don't know.
Street Cat: This ad featured one of the first "rap" songs ever on Indian television. Here's the jingle, as far as I can remember it. People with fake tattoos of cartoon characters, maybe. A couple of kids with sunglasses. Two guys with jeans, maybe? I sort of remember some polka-dot ensemble but I could just be "trippin', yo!"
(chorus:) Boom boom shaka laka boom boom shak! Street Cat's gonna knock you back!
Say man, check (sic) the mean machine. It's got what it takes, it's just the scene, It's called the Street Cat! Moves like a rocket. (something) Whole world in your pocket. Straight handlebars and wide wide wheels, Now go show the world you got a clean pair of heels!
(chorus:) Boom boom shaka laka boom boom shak! Street Cat's gonna knock you back!
Street Cat!
Straight handle bars, alright. This bicycle was the first of its kind in India, with the straight handle bars. Every kid who wanted to show off went nuts. Another really irritating thing about this bike: The loud squeals each time you applied the brakes. Fucking irritating! They didn't even come in attractive (or even cool!) colours!!!! In this one case, I have to say, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! I mean, my classmates!!!! I thought of this even then, of course. Owning a simple BSA SLR for a while (until, that is, my brother forgot to take it into my cousin's house one night while he was sleeping over, and someone decided it was light enough and nice enough to carry over their backyard wall) was good enough for me. I decided a long time ago that looks weren't gonna be my plus points, haha. But come on, that blue-coloured BSA SLR was great. The Street Cat was the SUV of cycles - no one really needs that shit in the cities, and it causes more noise than it can actually help you negotiate the rough terrain of the tarmacadam city roads... and hey, SUV ads PISS ME OFF... moving on...
Bajaj Bulbs (thanks again Ritwick): A very memorable ad, this features a Parsi guy singing his life story...
Jab main chota ladka tha, badi sharaarat karta tha (shown reading a book under his blanket with his torch powered, no doubt, by Bajaj) meri chori pakdi jaati....jab roshan hota BajajKya Rangeen jawani thi, ek raja aur ek rani thi, raja-rani sharma jaate (the parents turn the light on in the room while raja-rani are making out) jab roshni deta Bajaj(When he is trying to sneak into the fridge and eat some leftovers late at night, when his wife turns on the lights. I have two things to say about this part:a) The Rangeen Jawaani lines were cut from the latter years that this ad was screenedb) This guy's wife was CUUUUTE. She had those huge-framed glasses popular in the 80s - think Cinkara girl - and was thin and was probably Parsi herself. When she pointed an admonishing finger at her husband, even at the age of 10, I thought she was the cutest )Ab main bilkul boodha hoon, goli khaakar jeeta hoon (they show him dry-swallowing some pills) lekin aaj bhi ghar ke andar roshni deta Bajaj!
Voice over: Roshni ki duniya ka sartaaj, BAJAJ!
Bajaj Tubes (HBT) : Yes, they invented something they called "Hydro-Based Technology". Whatever the fuck that means, what, they used WATER? Oh really? Get out!Anyway, this ad had to show water being used to be converted into fluorescent tubes, so they used the animation effects ripped off from the then-recent movie, The Abyss... then, a Darth Vader-esque guy is armed with a tubelight, and they show him chopping an electricity bill in half:Bijli ke bill mein (SWISH!) katautiRoshi mein badhauti, Bajaj tube se!

dd: heres the full list so far

2006-01-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

: 1. Malgudi days 2. Wagle ki duniya 3. Mr. Yogi 4. Stone Boy 5. The World This Week 6. Giant Robot 7. SpiderMan 8. Didi's Comedy Show 9. Flop Show by Jaspal Bhatti 10. Fauji 11. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne 12. Nukkad 13. Manoranjan 14. ShowTime 15. Rendezevous 16. Siddharth basu's QUiz Shows 17. Buniyaad 18. Circus 19. Yeh Jo hai Zindagi 20. Indradhanush 21. Mahabharat 22. Discovery of India 23. Gul Gulshan Gulfam 24. Chunauti 25. Udaan 26. Rajani 27. Karamchand 28. Janki Jasoos 29. Byomkesh Bakshi 30. Tehkikaat 31. Reporter 32. Dekh bhai dekh 33. Surabhi 34. Chanakya 35. Khandan 36. Sword of Tipu Sultan 37. Chandrakanta 38. Mrignayani 39. Mickey and donald 40. Jungle Book 41. Jamie and the Magic Torch 42. Whats the good word 43. Kile ka rahasya 44. World of Sport 45. Sports Mag 46. Mujrim Haazir ho 47. Farmaan 48. aa Bail Mujhe maar 49. Ulta Pulta 50. Ados Pados 51. Vikram aur betaal 52. Rangoli 53. Chitrahaar 54. He Man 55. Sunday noon - Pradeshik feature film 56. Ramayan 57. tehkikaat was also nice with Sam D'silva and Gopi.

jingle.....who wrote this???

mmmm mmmm
hind desh...
mmm huhu...
hum sabhee....
ek hain...
tara ra ra raaa
bhashaa anek hainmmmm mmmm
bhasha anek hain....
mmmm mmmmm

yeh anek kya hain didi ?

anek yani bahut saare....

bahut saare, kya bahut saare?

acha, batatee hoon...
suraj ek...
chanda ek.....
taare anek....

Six Degree of Separation

2006-01-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

It’s a theory and they have tried to prove the theory. But the experiment still goes on. The theory is very simple and its called “Six Degree of Separation” and it saysSix degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.It simply means that, you and any person in the world can be connected to each other through just 6 or less people.

It’s a wonderful concept and too complex to be true and yet it has almost been proved. So you and someone living as far away as in the Artic circle or someone who lives in the Thar dessert or someone living in a village in japan could know each other through 6 people. That person may be a good or a bad person. It really does not matter. But you know each other through just 6 or less people.

Everybody is connected. The world is getting smaller. The technology factor is there but still we do need people to connect. Its amazing the way things are working. You help your friend who is helping another friend who infact is helping another friend. Seems confusing but sometimes we are doing things for people you don’t even know and even though you don’t know them, you connect.

It gives a total new meaning to the word “Strangers”. Are people strangers because we don’t know their names, where they live or profession etc because if you look at it closely, everybody on the planet is separated by only six other people. Six degree of separation between us and everyone else on the planet. The next time you see a stranger, chances are he/she just might know you.

DD nostalgia

2006-01-08T23:28:00.000-08:00

ok....there was a discussion today at the coop dinner table at 6pm....this is at ucla....jan 8th 2006. we ended on the topic of old tv serials that were aired on the good ol' DD...this was in the late 80's to early to mid 90's.....i went on the net to search the serials....and lo....there were the memories thqat came back so i thought i better put them down...found a lot of info from...http://sakshijuneja.com/blog/?p=192....

just for my convenience....i will replicate the whole thing(page) without her concent...hope shew will not sue....this is for makeing sure that this info is not lost....all this in the end.

here is the partial list....hope someone has dvds of all of them....

kiley ka rahasya,
Kakka Ji Kahin by Om puri,
giant robot,
vikram aur betal,
Ramayan
Mahabarta
Chankaya,
wagle ki duniya,
hone anhonee,
karamchand,
malgudi days(1987),http://www.malgudidays.com/ now available at http://www.indiaplaza.com/dvd/pd.aspx?sku=314044&c=0.
stone boy,
space station Sigma,
Nukkad,
Byomkesh Bakshi,
Wagle Ki Duniya (1988),
Karamchand (1985),
Udaan (1990),
Hum Log,
Rajni,
Buniyaad,
Nukkad,
Fauji (this serial made Sharukh Khan and the word “champ” really famous),
Dhek bhai dhek,
Zaban Sambhal Ke,
Lifeline,
Knight Rider,
Pranoy Roy’s “The World this Week” on friday,
reporter (shekher suman),
Yes Minister,
Hercule poirot,
Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne,
Surabhi with the cheerful Renuka Sahane and the “big” man Siddharth Kak,
Didi’s comedy Show,
‘Indradhanush’ - The first desi series based on time-travel,
Cosmos (with Carl Seagan),
the Jacques Cousteau series on his famous boat — Calypso, UFO,
Chunauti,
Subah,
Sanjha Chula (Rama Vij, Shah Rukh, etc),
He-Man & The Masters of the Universe,
Circus,
Ghalib,
---------------------------------

Most TV programmes are nothing more than “bad-parodies” today, not dramas. They often display a high level of tension, frustration, and conflict within the family. Somehow. The norm is middle to upper middle, or high, class families that often live in plush homes in virtually interchangeable suburbs. On the other hand, it seems that the Indian Television is getting over obsessed with the “Reality” show concept. Every damn T.V channel has some talent hunt show going on, be it singing, acting, dancing, fashion….practically everything one can do under the sun. In short, it’s a monumental cultural wasteland on TV — a travesty of game shows, violence, sadism, murder, bad men, good men, private detectives, cartoons etc., and endless commercials — of screaming presenters, tacky shows, cajoling and offensive.
All the above, somehow forces me to miss the “idiot” box that existed before the arrival of “cable” network. Our national channel aka “Doordarshan”, was surprisingly not so ‘doooor’ from it’s viewers needs and sentiments in those days.
Some of the best T.V shows were aired on ‘DD1′ and ‘DD metro’ in the 80s till early 90s. Here is a look at some of them….
Tamas (1986) -
Director : Govind Nihalani
Main Leads : Om Puri, Deepa Sahi, Amrish Puri, Bhisham Sahni, A.K. Hangal, Manohar SinghDina Pathak and Saeed Jaffrey.
The serial is a story of partition in India, in the year 1947, which interweaves the lives of the young innocent people caught in the Hindu- Muslim and Sikh - Muslim tensions during partition. Based on the book written by Bhishma Sahani, it looks at how extremist elements of both communities infuse hatred in the communities, and finally how realisation dawns as to the futility of violence. It consisted of out-standing performance by all the actors and especially Om-Puri as ‘Nathu’ and Bhisham Sahni as ‘Karmo’.
A writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court, asking that Doordarshan be restrained from airing the show. The grounds for challenging the airing of the serial was that the serial was likely to promote disharmony and hatred on grounds of enmity, ill feeling among different religions and it was likely to train people to use criminal force or participate in criminal acts.
Wagle Ki Duniya (1988)
Director : Ravi Oja
Main Leads : Bharati Achrekar and Anjaan Srivastav.
‘Wagle Ki Duniya’ was based on charachters created by famous cartoonist R. K. Laxman. It was a marvelous entertainer, which, in some ways, embodied TV’s ubiquitous appeal over the language barrier. The concept was simple and clean, which only focused on the world of the quitessential common man ‘Wagle’. Each episode is a separate story about this middle class family and their day to day, almost mundane, yet exciting life. Anxieties, anticipation, apprehensions, appreciations, appalling incidents, … all form a part of their small and simple world. The serial was as much loved in North India as it was in the South.
There was this one episode from the serial, which I somehow always remember during the Diwali Festival. In that, Wagle goes shopping for new fabric that was to used for the new curtains for their small house for Diwali. He forgets how much meter he was required to purchase, by his wife. And he lands up buying much much more then needed. Now to use the extra fabric, the family decides to use it by making shirts and other household items, out of it. So on Diwali eve, we see the whole family in same clothes, with same curtains, dinning mats and bed sheets….it was simply hilarious.
Karamchand (1985) -
Director : Pankaj Parashar
Main Leads : Pankaj Kapur and Susmita Mukherjee
Pankaj Kapoor made a debut as an unforgettable carrot-chewing detective in this serial. It was a perfect blend of ‘mystery’ and ‘comedy’. Susmita Mukherjee was equally unforgettable as Karamchand’s assistant ‘Kitty’. It was probably the first detective show on Doordarshan. Whenever Susmita Mukherjee tried to help by adding her bit, she was given a instant reply “Shut up, Kitty” by her boss, the ‘gajar’ eating private detective Karamchand.
The chemistry between the two was amazing and show not only brought instant popularity to the leading actors but also gave the vegetable ‘gajar’ a whole new identity make-over.
Malgudi Days (1987) -
Director : Shankar Nag
Main Leads : Master Manjunath
Every one of us would have grown watching ‘’Malgudi Days'’ which was the top serial in the Doordarshan. Malgudi Days was basically a collection of short stories based on the people of a fictitious place, Malgudi. Malgudi is a small village situated on the banks of river Saryu and the whole story revolves around the people living there.
Apart from that, it is one of the greatest works by a great writer R.K. Narayan and who can forget the lyrics of the title song…“Tana na aa tana naanaa aa tana naanaa naaa”…still feel like singing it…..
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984) -
Director : Kundan Shah and Manjul Sinha
Main Leads : Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat, Rakesh Bedi and Statish Shah.
‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ was the official first ever ‘ sitcom’ of the Indian Television. It was about a couple, a brother-in-law, and the trouble they get into. Usually staid and boring sarkari broadcaster developed a sense of humour on Friday nights. Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, the tale of fun couple Raja and Renu forever quarreling in sweet banter became an instant laugh riot across the nation. The roads would usually be empty in most towns come 8.30 pm. London video stores would await periodically for the copy of the serial’s tape. The box-office openings in cinemas were affected, as actor Jeetendra once complained.
And Shafi Inamdar and Swaroop Sampat became your next-door neighbors, whatever your neighborhood.
Fun facts…..‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ trivia
* Kishore Kumar sang the incredibly famous title track ‘Yeh Jo Hai, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’.
* Farida Jalal made her comeback in television with the serial.
* The entire serial was shot on a single camera set up.
* The line ‘30 years ka experience hai’ was actually written by Satish Shah himself.
* The first episode that was shot of the serial was actually the first episode on air as well. The serial had no pilot episodes.
Udaan (1990) -
Director : Kavita Choudhary
Main Lead : Kavita Choudhary and Shekhar Kapoor
Udaan, a television serial based on the struggle of a woman aspiring to be an IPS officer. It was a story of a girl named “Kalyani Singh” who joined the police force and with her hard work and sheer determination went on to become an ‘ASP’. The story was written by also written by Kavita Choudhary was inspired by her older sister Kanchan Choudhary who went on to be appointed as Director General of Police of Uttaranchal, becoming the first Indian woman to head a state police force.
It was one the first serial to showcase “women empowerment”.
Many other serials such as Hum Log, Rajni, Buniyaad, Nukkad, Fauji (this serial made Sharukh Khan and the word “champ” really famous), Zaban Sambhal Ke, Lifeline, etc…were known for their good and quality storylines, performances of actors and the messages they forwarded. However today, poor “Doordarshan” has been crushed by the cable generation. Gone are the days when we could actually sit with the entire family and watch television, without having the hassle of switching TV channels and ‘remote control’ fights.
For now one could only wish that some of the olden goldies of the “idiot box” would make a comeback. However till then, we the viewers will continue to watch the ’saas-bahu’ sagas and over-hyped “quiz” shows, while our fingers on the remote control flip channels and our head wanting to scream out loud, hoping that so-called “TV gurus” would hear our plead one day.
This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2005 at 9:02 am and is filed under Lists, Humor, India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
46 Responses to “The old “idiot” box…”
sowmya Says: October 28th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
First time here. Your post took me through a nostalgic journey down DD lane. Indeed the serials of those days were more entertaining than today’s mega sagas. Hope the oldies make a come back.
Melody Says: October 28th, 2005 at 5:08 pm
Wow Sakshi! Those indeed were the days…
Here’s some of the English ones I remember from DD days: Fireball XL5, Knight Rider, Famous Five (used to love these so much that I used to video tape ‘em!), Sherlock Holmes, Different Strokes….
Even used to wait for Pranoy Roy’s “The World this Week” just because only once a week we’d get good coverage of international news!!! Certain things def. have improved at least!!
DesiPundit » The Old “Idiot” Box Says: October 28th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
[…] Sakshi visits the "good’ol days" of Doordarshan. Now that I read her post, I admit that they had some good stuff. Flukes? […]
Abhishek Says: October 28th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
wow…. that’s quite something. though i haven’t actually seen any of them, its easy to draw the contrast of them and today’s serials. a lot has changed, i must say.
btw, cool blog .
Joy. D Says: October 28th, 2005 at 5:56 pm
I do remember those old days of Doordarshan with unparalled fondness. Those serials were real entertainers unlike today’s which revolves around conspiracies and conspiracies within conspiracies without any meaningful story. I thought that through years you become better but not in the case of DD (for that matter many things in India) they went from best to mediocre to worst. May be tt only happens in India.
Rohit Says: October 28th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
Brilliant stuff. One conveniently forgets everything apart from Krishi darshan.
Re wagle family on diwali
I had the same experience when I wore a new Fab India kurta to an aunt’s house and discovered that I matched her tablecloth and bedcover
Vinay Says: October 28th, 2005 at 6:51 pm
aah.. the good ol’ days. I actually started a Yahoogroups to discuss that era a few years back and we managed to compile a good list of what was showing during then. Do visit http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/hinditv and add to the list if you can.
Someone Says: October 28th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
Good ol’days. I love Wagle ki duniya and yeh jo hai zindagi. Couple of other good ones - Mohandas BA. LLB, Dekh Bhai Dekh, hum panchi ke chaal ke.
Now a days I end up watching only Just for a laugh aired late night….I believe its a canadian show.
anon Says: October 29th, 2005 at 12:23 am
You make me nostalgic about “Yeh jo hai zindagi” - I was a total sucker for the show. Come to think it, DD should release these on DVD. I for one would buy it.
krishn Says: October 29th, 2005 at 3:42 am
yeah .. those were the days…creativity was not reigned in by TRP…it pains you to see the same taleneted bunch of satish shah and all being wasted on some really botched up sit coms.
in fact eve in the later half of DD days…. saans was a very good serial.i remember watching one serial in the mornings on sundays which made neelima azeem quite famous. it had long and beautiful name. pity i forgot the name.
there were some nice school based serials and telefilms in those days and once in a while one could catch a nice hollywood flick as well, i remember catching kramer vs. kramer and tootsie in one series of good movies.
i think we should try and compile the list of these gems as i feel that it would be a long long time before we can see something like those
Hiren shah Says: October 29th, 2005 at 8:01 am
You revive some old memories with “Wagle ki Duniya” . It really made me nostalgic and made me remember the old comedy serial “Yeh jo hai Zindagi” which I think came before it. The fare dished out these days is too steroetyped and it is one heck of a task keeping children away from the idiot box.
Kapil Says: October 29th, 2005 at 11:11 am
Sakshi, great post. Re-collecting the past is always fund especially when they are such lovely thoughts in them.But hey, let’s not forget that the same cable network today also gives us access to some other wonderful channels like Discovery, Nat Geo and Travel & Living. Yes, the Saas-bahus should make an EXIT after so many years of sobbing.
Kuttan Says: October 29th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
Nice trip down memory lane. They never let the quality of their programs mire in the bureaucratic red tapism. Some other honrable mentions are Gul Gulshan Gulfam, Circus .
Vishal Says: October 29th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Anyone remember Neev ? it was a sit-com about a boarding school…don’t remember much else but it was fun show.
madhu Says: October 30th, 2005 at 7:09 am
hmm u forgot junoon… how can u forget KK and thata nagarkar..and ya rangoli..?
Piyush Garyali Says: October 30th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
Well why don’t we see it from another prespective. Those were the days of DD and when I say that I mean it becuase well, there was no competition. So, all the good producers and directors had no choice but to make serial for DD alone and no wonder, they were good.
Another thing which kept the directors busy with making good dramas was the simple policy of 13 episodes per serial that DD followed strictly for many years. I remember “Khithij ke us paar” which, well, was very well made and had a logical ending after the 13th week.
These days there are so many channels that every Tom Dick and HariPrasad is a producer or a director and every soap-opera (as they call it) seem to have a bunch of ladies all glossed up being shot at exterme closeup, and they call it drama!!
I still miss that 20 minute run of commericals (from 9 in the morning till 9:20) before the start of Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Those were the days when the number of commericals would mean that the serial is really doing good bussiness. I still remember counting the ads and it were some 145 for Mahabaratha
Those were the days!!
K Says: October 30th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Sigh! DD could really make great serials then, instead of badly done sci-fi things nowadays. Tamas was what HBO would call a ‘Mini-series’ and even though I was too young to understand Hum Log or Buniyaad (I watched StarTrek, Robot, Chitrahaar and Babu Basu’s Quiz Time, I was barely ten) everybody says that they were great. I wonder if someone knows that there are immense commercial prospects for such serials? I would buy a Tamas or Malgudi Days DVD, and so would many others…
One More Reason Says: October 30th, 2005 at 6:08 pm
Ah ! The memory lane. Yeh jo hai zindagi and Udaan were my favorites. If I remember correctly YJHZ was on Friday nights. Once our TV broke down and the repair guy was supposed to get it repaired and drop it back by 5 pm on a Friday. 5pm became 6 and then 7. I still remember how hard I prayed to get the TV back in time
Debashish Says: November 2nd, 2005 at 8:56 am
Good post Apart from those mentioned I recall fondly the Sunday morning show “Aap ke liye” which was hosted occassionaly by Vinod Dua, the comedys shows like “Idhar Udhar” and other shows like the Lucy Show, Star Trek, Johny sokko and his flying Robo, David Attenboruogh’s “The Living Planet”, Vinod Dua’s Parakh, Narottam Puri’s “The Sports Quiz” and the immensely popular “Rajani”. I also liked the Germal TV shows that were telecast at that time like the “Music Laden”, wheer I heard the BoneyM for the first time, and “Telematch”. Then there was the dubbed Japanese serial “Oshin” and the most friendly news readers like JVRaman, Neethi Ravindran, Tejeshwar Singh, Rini Simon, Salma Sultan. Hmmmm…good old days…reminds me of the childhood and the innocent entertainment we had.
Kalyan Says: November 3rd, 2005 at 4:53 am
That was one awesome post. I was on google searching for something and I came across this. It really made me recall a few old nice things that I had not remembered for a long time. “Giant Robot” was one serial that was good too. My favorite serial was always Malgudi days though.
Just wanted to say GOOD WORK! Thats all!
Bye all,Kalyan
Umair Ahmed Muhajir Says: November 6th, 2005 at 5:46 am
Great post (I just discovered your blog)!
madan Says: November 6th, 2005 at 9:04 am
Indeed, things have changed. though we have more coverage, at least of international events and detailed analysis of national events, no one can argue that DD of old times did have quality shows. I’d like to add “Byomkesh Bakshi”, “Reporter”,”dekh bhai dekh” and “Mahabharat” to the hindi list and “Yes Minister”, “Are you being served” and “Hercule poirot” to the English one. Nostalgic and memorable indeed.
Lalit Says: November 8th, 2005 at 7:58 pm
Sakshiloved reading your post and the trip down the memory lane…infact there is a community dedicated to Old DD serials on Orkut (which is a online network kinda thing)
m.n.arvind Says: November 14th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
Sakshi,Gr8 one! was just watching Malgudi Days on POGO along with my friends. So all you Malgudi Fans start watching POGO! That set us talking about the good ol’ days of yore! I would like to add Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne, Vikram aur Betal (which had our “Lord Rama” as Vikram!) and even before that Didi’s comedy Show, Spiderman and later the Science Quiz Programs along with Science Quest.Those were really good ones. Of course Fauji, which launched King Shah Rukh!Remember those days when DD would telecast regional language films and we could get to see all those “Award?” winning films?DD also used to telecast really good movies late in the night whenever there was a film festival happenning anywhere!How about Surabhi with the cheerful Renuka Sahane and the “big” man Siddharth Kak? This show also set a world record or something by receiving over 10 lakh answers for an episode I believe!Thanks a lot for stirring up good cheerful nostalgia!I miss those days!Adios!
Anurag Says: November 15th, 2005 at 6:14 am
Nice post. Just the other day I was lamenting the sorry state of our TV industry now and couldn’t help bringing up the good-old DD of our times.
In addition to the ones listed here, some other awesome serials used to do rounds back then.
‘Stone Boy’ - I haven’t come across many ppl who remember this one. Sigh. It was the perfect childhood fantasy.
‘Indradhanush’ - The first desi series based on time-travel. Marvellous.
‘Faster Fene’ - About a teen-age detective. Was funky stuff.
‘Honi-Anhoni’ - Amongst the first horror/supernatural series on TV. Gave me my first nightmares
‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ - What can I say.
Ashok Says: November 15th, 2005 at 6:54 pm
Interestingly I found this site while googling for Malgudi days DVD. It is great see the nostalgia of 1980’s DD programs. I would like to add YATRA by Syam Benegal as one of my favorite serial. The other day I was watching National Geographic’s “The Great Indian Railways” and it took memories back to YATRA serial.
sriraj Says: November 17th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
Guys,
How about Cosmos (with Carl Seagan), the Jacques Cousteau series on his famous boat — Calypso, UFO, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Chunauti, Subah, Sanjha Chula (Rama Vij, Shah Rukh, etc), all those crappy Bengali serials based on every quintessential Bong author, Ek Kahani, Bangalore DD had “The Odd Couple” & “Around the world in 80 days”, Star Trek, Johnny Soko & the Flying Robot, The Old Fox (I know Mumbai DD had this too — my roomie used to watch it), Telematch, Yes Minister, Hasya Kavi Sammelans during Holi (KP Saxena, Dubey saab from Gwalior, etc), Idhar Udhar, Spiderman, He-Man & The Masters of the Universe, Circus, Fauji, Khandaan (what a cast — Shreeram Lagoo, Vivek Vaswani, Girish Karnad, Neena Gupta, Mohan Bhandari, etc), Ghalib (I did not like it, too tragic and sad but my roomie, who digs Ghalib swears by it and the ghazals of Gulzar saab and sung by Jagjit saab), Jeevan Rekha/ Life line — probably the best medical drama I’ve seen — it beats St Elsewhere, it beats ER, you name them….Jeevan Rekha was uber (what a cast — KK Raina, Shabana’s sis-in-law and Baba Azmi’s wife — can’t recollect her name — the lady with beautiful eyes, the Marathi actor who plays the chaste Mahrashtrian — his name begins with “A”, can’t recollect his name either, Pankaj Kapoor, AK Hangal saab, etc) — that series had the BEST soundtrack for TV that I have heard in a long time (was it Usha Khanna or Vanraj Bhatia who gave the music for that?) — Vijaya Mehta did a splendid job on that series — superb cameos by accomplished actors like Shafi Inamdar and oters whom we saw a lot on TV but really do not know their names. we had World of Sport on Sat/Sun? afternoons with people like Dr Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati, Kenny Lal, etc. Dr Puri used to have a live sports quiz program too on nights (monthly program?), do people recollect Sabeera Merchant’s What’s the Good Word — I belive that was a production of Mumbai DD, on Mumbai DD they used to show Chiman Rao with Dilip Prabhavalkar — believe it or not we saw that program in Blore in the early 80’s before Blore DD started making its own programs (since ‘82?), Marathi news ancohrs like Pradeep Bhidye and that lady (can’t recollect her name — very famous lady), Mumbai DD had Aamchi Maati Aamchi Mansa (Our Soil, our People) — Marathi version of Krishi Darshan, late 80’s had Ulta Pulta, Flop Show, that irritating Deepak Malhotra (some Deepak, forget his name) on DD’s breakfast shows.
Sakshi, I just wanted to reitrate that I’d love to be younger in today’s generation rather than we grew up. Why? Simply, because of the innumerable choices kids today have. It is simply astounding. Some of the programs mentioned on your blog are par excellence. However they were few and far between and it is important for usto acknowledge that. We waited ofr Hum Log, we waited for Buniyaad on Tues and Thurs, we waited for Nukkad on Mnday, we waited for Chunauti on Sat(?) — my point is it was frustrating then, although looking back, nostalgia is so sweet to taste. I think today with the internet and cable it is so much more fun. However, those times were definitely more innocent — no doubt about it. Were they as innocent as when our parents grew up?? Definitely not.
Thank you for this blog. I am missing so many other nuggets and memories. My roomie, who is now in his early 30’s, recollects much more than me. I was quite young, relatively speaking.
All the best,
Sriraj
M. K. Girish Says: November 18th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
Hi Sakshi
It was memorable to go through your nostalgic Tv serials of yesteryears.One more really good serial comes to my mind that I would , anyday, love to watch. It was called “Kahaan gaye woh log?” - a serial that dealt with inspiring stories of yesterday’s superheroes, in the background of India’s freedom struggle. Many of them brought tears to my eyes. It was a serial, produced by Actor Manoj Kumar. Why can’t these serials be made available on DVD?
M. K. Girish.
Sriraj Says: November 18th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
Guys,
Some more inputs…do you remember Phatichar (Pankaj Kapoor), Shyam Benegal’s Discovery of India, what about Yatra (also a Benegal creation) with Om Puri — superb cinematography, captured the whole panorama of our nation, I remember a serial with Sudesh Berry and Mita Vashist on Mon evenings (this was more of early 90’s), do you recollect on Wed evnings there used to be a program on B’wood personalities — it had a catchy tune — and I’m not referring to a song-dance thing like Chayageet or Chitrahar (this was again, early 90’s), and of course, do you remember Tabassum’s program via Mumbai DD (man, I’m forgetting it’s name), also Vinod Dua used to interview celebs on Delhi DD. Also, what about those boring UGC programs. A lot of the geeky kids in my school loved those programs, Paintal had acted in a series called Sarfarnama (?). Do you guys recollect they had shown The Godfather in 1992 in 13 episodes — with Tom Alter as the moderator/emcee/host? Do you recollect an obscure German program for kids called Peter’s Toy Box (I guess they showed it on Sat/Sun)? Does anyone remember them showing The Famous Five — I guess they had made those in the 70’s in Britain but they showed it on DD in the late 80’s/ early 90’s.
Sakshi, I think you ought to start a blog for TV ads of the 80’s too. Some gems : Gimme gimme gimme Vijaya Butter, Khao Gagan Raho Magan, Jo biwi se kare pyaar woh kaise kare Prestige se inkaar, Aramusk ad with Deepak Malhotra, Dinesh suitings with Sunny Gavaskar, Thums Up with Shastri(?), Sunny & Patil, Dinesh ads with Shastri, Richards, Border (during ‘87 Reliance Cup), of course the ad that revolutionized India as we see her today — Pepsi ad in ‘90(?) with Remo and Juhi…the list goes on..I think janta should be able to contribute much more.
Sriraj
sadanand joshi Says: November 18th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
Did any of you manage to loctae DVDs/VCDs for Malgudi Days, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, & Tamas? In case you do, please drop me a line. And yes, the Ramayan episodes of Bharat- Ek Khoj. Thanx in advance.
BHAVANA Says: November 29th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
hELLO Sakshi ,i would like to have CD or DVD of the serial yeh jo hai zindagi??Wher can i get it give me full Address for it please
gr8buddy Says: December 2nd, 2005 at 8:36 am
News to all you malgudi fans, here is a link to the site which hosts the mp3 of the lovely sound track enjoyhttp://www.arjunprabhu.com/blog/archives/2005/11/15/malgudi-days-title-song/
Aparna Says: December 7th, 2005 at 7:57 am
My family had actually recorded about 6 episodes of “Wagke ki Duniya” on VHS. I even had the one with Shahrukh Khan…remember he stars as a brat who accidentally runs into Mr. Wagle and both of them spend a harrowing two days waiting to lodge a complaint at the cops. I remember thinking then …this guy is so cute…he shhould act in movies…well…he did. Those shows were so much better than the “saas bahu” nonsense thats dished out.
Akash Says: December 8th, 2005 at 6:54 pm
Hey…nicely written.Finally someone has discussed about the good old serials.The main thing that stood about those serials were humility and simplicity,they did not preach unlike the ones running now.It didnt seem fake then.Talking about comedy you forgot jaspal bhattis’ “the flop show”…i feel that was the best indigineous comedy and satire series..not just a copy of foreign shows.
shivani Says: December 9th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
Hi, even i want to buy yeh jo hai zindagi dvds,please let me knwo if anyone is selling on my email. thanks a lot
Abhishek Pandey Says: December 11th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Thanks for starting this great post Sakshi.In my opinion “Chanakya” was the best serial of all times, though it was not an entertainer, but the research, direcion and acting (all primarily by Dr. Chandra Prakash) was awesome. Anyone has any clues if its CD/DVD is available.Among others I liked, Indradhanush (time machine funda), Buniyaad, Tamas, “Fir wahi talaash” (whose shooting was done in JNU), Mahabharat, Chunauti etc. were good ones.
Abhishek
Ameya Narvekar Says: December 11th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
One of my friend had called up the production office in Bangalore which have the rights to “Malgudi days” , they said it is going to be released on DVD in NY and NJ somewhere around middle of December 2005 and in India it will be released in Jan 2006. Lets see.
http://www.malgudidays.com/
PADAMRAG TV INTERNATIONALNo: 4/54, 1st Main, Tata Silk Farm,Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560 004, INDIA
Ph: 26760705/26769704Fax: 26763860E Mail: padamrag@vsnl.net
I emailed them but did not get any response. Its better calling them as my friend did.
Ameya
Vishal Says: December 12th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
Growing up i watched Byomkesh Bakshi and malgudi days, Now i am in US and i miss those shows, can anyone tell me where can i get VHS or DVD for those shows?
Sri Says: December 23rd, 2005 at 4:35 am
Malgudi Days, DVD is available now, just google for it, several site hits
brought back, Nostalgic memories of childhood, hmm good ol’ 80s
Vikrant Says: December 29th, 2005 at 7:34 pm
Hello Friends,Do you all remember the TV serial “GIANT ROBOT”, it was the best serial in those days, Can anyone give me a link to that series.
KM Says: January 2nd, 2006 at 12:41 pm
An excellent post. Good Old days of DD. Anyone remembers Yugantar, Mr. Yogi & Kakka Ji Kahin by Om puri & Shail Chaturvedi. Apart from these Fursat Mein that was on Sunday Mornings. Then the suspense Serial Kile Ka Rahasya with its typical Title song.And the nation binding songs like Mile Sur, Baje Sargam etc. Not to forget Ek Chiriya
Arun Says: January 3rd, 2006 at 12:01 am
NUKKAD : One most entertaing serials with an awesome cast.GIANT ROBOT: My schools use to show this serial during breaks .. TV was not common in those. Myself and a friend ended making a cartoon series based on Gaint Robot.
Sunil Says: January 4th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Hi Guys,
Malgudi Days is now available on DVD ….. check http://www.agumbe.com/ for details.
Sunil
SPK Says: January 7th, 2006 at 4:57 am
Chankya serial is now available on DVD (8 volume set). It is a great serial. Except that thelast 3 episodes (Vishnugupt tries to bring Rakshas back to Patliputra) is a little lightweight.
richa Says: January 7th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
hellocould you please send me the email address or permanent add of KAVITA CHAUDHARI the director of UDAAN serialthanks
varadh shetty Says: January 8th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
actually todays serials have become bakwass. The bakwass serials credit should go to Ekta kapoor who is making the serials. I thank a lot to the doordarshan, still now i think sony/star/zee cant beat doordarshan that serails. in which no peoples were left outside the streets when the serials were started in doordarshan after 8p.m. i was running from tution to see the giant robot serials and if i miss even one part i felt so much bad. My favorate were i think everyhting whether marathi/hindi serial all were good. Marathi serials like ek shunya shunya, gotya, hello inspector, avhan, chimanrao, jopi gelela jaga jhala, ase pahune yetil, etc and in hindi it was kiley ka rahasya, giant robot, vikram aur betal ramayan and mahabarta of course, chankaya, wagle ki duniya, hone anhonee, show theme, phool kile hain gulshan gulshan, karamchand, malgudi days, stone boy, ascharya deepak, ek do teen char which was coming on sunday and dada dadi ki kahaniyan, and baingan raja, and of course the movie name which they tells in saphtaki at last. and chitrahaar and chayageet. chitrahaar had new songs and chayageet some old songs. the spiderman, He-man, singhasan batisi, We were lucky enough to see these serials. but todays generation they r not that much lucky to see these serials even though there r 1000 channels but still nothing can beat the DD serials. i luved it and still i remember the moments of those days. if possible pls show these serials again or make such serials which has a sense, a reality, not like saas bahu serials kachra i dont know what is the end of these serials. i think any child can write these today serials stories. because there is no need of sense and mind. and ekta kapoor on what basis she is getting awards god only knows. boycott these ekta kapoor serials/ ekta kapoor she is full pagal and the characters are all pagals.

Unknown History of Words

2005-05-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'.

POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.

BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.

FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).

DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after
Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped.

NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S.

AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'.

JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during each Day's
business.

QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people as
waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest.

TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get Prompt
service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box
on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the
custom of Tips.

JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World
War II (1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose Vehicle
(GP)'.GP was changed into JEEP later.

the first of the rhymes...

2005-03-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

I forgot this one compleatly...:
"The Star or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: by Jane Taylor, 1806

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder ? what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the trav'ller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often thro' my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

'Tis your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the trav'ller in the dark:
Tho' I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star. "

God & Science : all on faith...

2005-02-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Prof: So you believe in God?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof: Is God good?

Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student: Yes.

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he
prayed to Krishna(indian God) to heal him. Most of us
would attempt to help others who are ill. But
Krishna didn't. How is this Krishna good then? Hmm?

(The student is silent.)

Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again,
young fella. Is God good?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student: No.

Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Student: From...God...

Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in
this world?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make
everything.
Correct?

Student: Yes.

Prof: So who created evil?

(The student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred?
Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the
world, don't they?

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?

(The student has no answer.)

Prof: Tell me, son. Do you believe in Krishna?

Student: Yes, professor, I do.

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to
identify and observe the world around you. Have you
ever seen Krishna?

Student No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your Krishna?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your Krishna, tasted your
Krishna, smelt your Krishna? Have you ever had any
sensory perception of Krishna or God for that matter?

Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable
protocol, science says your Krishna doesn't exist.
What do you say to that, son?

Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science
has.

Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't.

(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this
turn of events.)

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more
heat, superheat,mega heat, white heat, a little heat
or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We
can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but
we can't go any further after that. There is no such
thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe
the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is
energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir,just the
absence of it.

(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there
such a thing as darkness?

Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the
absence of something.
You can have low light, normal light, bright light,
flashing light.....But if you have no light
constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness,
isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you
would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?

Prof: So what is the point you are making, young
man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise
is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of
duality. You argue there is life and then there is
death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the
concept of God as something finite, something we can
measure.
Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses
electricity and magnetism,but has never seen, much
less fully understood either one. To view death as the
opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that
death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is
not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now
tell me, Professor. Do you teach tour students that
they evolved from a monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural
evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your
own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shakes his head with a smile,
beginning to realize where the argument is going.)

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process
of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this
process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching
your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a
preacher?

(The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever
seen the Professor's brain?

(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the
Professor's brain,felt it, touched or smelt it?.....No
one appears to have done so. So, according to the
established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable
protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir.
With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your
lectures, sir?

(The room is silent. The professor stares at the
student, his face unfathomable.)

Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith,
son.

Student : That is it sir.. The link between man &
god is FAITH.

That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

SantaBanta Jokes -- Cricket: As explained to a foreigner...

2005-02-07T01:02:00.000-08:00

SantaBanta Jokes -- Cricket: As explained to a foreigner...: "Cricket: As explained to a foreigner...
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that`s in the side that`s in goes out, and when he`s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he`s out. When they are all out, the side that`s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!"

Starry Starry Night...Don McLean..

2005-01-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

Starry, starry night
Paint your pallet blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land
And now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
Starry, starry night
Flaming flow'rs that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds of violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of China blue
And now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
Perhaps they'll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant
For one as beautiful as you
Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the stranger that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
And now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They're not listening still
Perhaps they never will.

Progress...

2004-12-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt
the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Lata Mangeshkar : a brief profile

2004-12-13T01:45:00.000-08:00

Lata Mangeshkar was born in the city of Indore in 1929 to a Gujarati mother and noted actor-singer of the Marathi stage, Dinanath Mangeshkar. Her father was also her musical 'guru'. After his sudden demise in 1942, Lata had to set off in search of work at the tender age of 13, in order to support her family. Initially, she performed bit roles in a few Marathi and Hindi films. She made her playback singing debut with Vasant Joglekar's Marathi film Kiti Hasaal (1942), but the song was dropped from the film. Finally, she got her first break with the same director's Aap Ki Sewa Mein, five years later. However, it was Ghulam Haider's Majboor (1948) that actually pushed Lata into prominence. By the time she sang �Uthaye jaa unke sitam� for Naushad in Andaz (1949) and �Aayega aanewala� for Khemchand Prakash in Mahal (1949), she had already obliterated prominent singers of the day like Shamshad Begum and Amirbai Karnataki. And once Noorjehan migrated to Pakistan post-Partition, there was no one left to challenge Lata Mangeshkar's supremacy over the realm of playback singing. A position she has maintained to this day!

The Nightingale : Lata Mangeshkar

2004-12-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

Lata Mangeshkar

by,Manek promising

Published on Thursday, September 30, 2004

Accessed 1984 Times.

When Marathi stage actor and singer Master Dinanath Mangeshkar died in April 1942, little could he have known that in the years to come his five children -- Lata, Meena, Asha, Usha, and Hridaynath would make him proud and famous; little could he have known that Lata would become his most illustrious child and would sing her way into a hundred million hearts. He could not have imagined that this child of his would collect so many awards for her songs that his entire home would be too small to accommodate them.
Even if this daughter was to 'frame' not the negative but only the positive comments made about her these frames could spill over from a large living room. Here are some of the comments that come to mind:
'Aasmaan-e-mausiki ka sabse bulandtar sitara' (The highest star in our musical skies) -- Dilip Kumar.
'The voice was God's gift to her; what she made of it is Lata's gift to God' -- Punita Bhatt, Lata's friend and organiser of music shows in USA.
'Kambakht kabhi besuri nahin hoti...kya Allah ki dein hai' -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.
'Lata is Saraswati' -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 'To hear didi sing is to know God exists' -- Ustad Zakir Hussain. 'Her voice is a divine gift she has ably utilised to soothe a tension-filled society' -- Violin virtuoso Lalgudi Jayaraman.
'The nightingale...has done for India what 500 good politicians have never done' -- Sunil Dutt.
'We are there because she is there' -- Madhuri Dixit. 'Noor Jahan would have found the going extremely tough. It was Lata who posed a threat to Noor Jahan and not vice versa -- Talat Mehmood.
'She is the symbol of national integration' -- educationist CD Deshmukh.
Several more of such quotes can be found in many places, including in the two English biographies written on the singer by Raju Bharatan and Harish Bhimani. On the biographical front here are a few basic facts.
Lata was born to a Gujarati mother, Shevanti, and a Maharashtrian father, Dinanath at Indore on 28th September 1929. Her sisters Meena, Asha, Usha, and her brother Hridaynath were all born after her.
When she was an infant, her father observed that she had a musical tone and that she could recall and hum what he sang to her.
At the age of five, she had a severe attack of small pox, which left permanent marks on her face.
She went to school for just one day. The next day she was found singing to the other kids in class. The teacher scolded her. Lata responded by lashing out: How dare anyone insult the daughter of Dinanath Mangeshkar? She wanted no more of that school. This is the first record of her many flashes of anger. This temper and unforgiving nature have been adequately covered by the press and conceded even by her friend Punita Bhatt in her article in the cover story of Filmfare of June 1-15, 1987.
At the age of seven, she played Naarad in a stage play, 'Subhadra', when the actor selected for the role fell sick. She knew both the songs and the dialogues, and implored her father who was playing Arjuna's role in the play, to permit her. He relented because the only other option he had was to call off the performance. She performed brilliantly to her father's delight.
Around this time, she used to be fond of listening to music in her home, especially from her maternal grandmother: songs to the rhythm of grinding wheat, the garba dance, etc. She would sing along too, and so when she heard the voices of Noor Jahan and Saigal, she easily sang their numbers as well.
When she was twelve, there was a nationwide Khazanchi competition sponsored by producer Dalsukh Pancholi, to celebrate the runaway success of his musical hit film, Khazanchi, as well as to look for new talent. Lata was elated to win the first prize, which included a dilruba (a popular bowed instrument at the time). Her father was out of town, but she was lucky to be heard by the successful composer of Khazanchi, Master Ghulam Haider, who made a mental note of this girl's talent and potential.
In March 1942 she recorded her first song for the Marathi film, Kiti Hasaal? (How much can you laugh?). Her father, who had dreamt of his daughter being a classical singer and not a film singer, was forced to permit her to sing for a film, since he was quite ill. The recorded song, Naachu ya gade, khelu saari (Come friends, let's dance and play), was sadly dropped from the released film.
A few years earlier, Dinanath had started to drink. Complications arising from this habit took his life in April 1942, at the early age of forty-four. Suddenly, everything changed for the Mangeshkars. Who would earn for the family? This responsibility fell on Lata, at 13 years of age, the eldest of five children. All she knew was to sing and act. But just singing in films was not an option for her yet, because her voice was too thin for the heavy-type heroines of the time. Also, playback singing had started in 1935, but the techniques and reproduction were still very crude. So if one wanted to sing, one had to do it for oneself in the film. Left with no choice, Lata put on greasepaint within a fortnight of her father's death, when she got a job as a full-time child artist in Master Vinayak's maiden production, Pahli Mangalagaur. This Marathi film was released in 1942, the same year that her father died. The song was certainly in the picture. The Marathi number was, Natali chaitrachi navalayi'.
Her first recorded Hindi song was also in a Marathi film called Gajabhau. 'Maata ek sapoot ki duniya badal de tu' was picturised on her. Then came her first Hindi song in a Hindi film, 'Badi Maa'; she was a child artiste here, with Noor Jahan as the heroine and K. Datta as the composer. Here she sang the chorus-backed 'Maata tere charnon mein', and 'Tum Maa ho badi maa'.
In 1947, there was a photographer called Papa Bulbule who took Lata to a composer called Bali. She got an advance to sing in this composer's upcoming film called 'Love Is Blind' (or words to that effect, Lata doesn't recall the exact name). The film was shelved.
Her first recorded Hindi solo playback number then came in 1947 for filmmaker Vasant Joglekar, composer Datta Davjekar, and songwriter Mahipal. The film 'Aap Ki Sewa Mein' had this thumri sung by Lata: 'Paa lagoon kar jori re' (I touch your feet with folded hands). (Rafi also sang a song in this movie: 'Meri ankhon ke taare'. These two went on to become the top singers for Hindi films in the '50s and '60s).
During the early and late '40s, Lata acted and sang in eight Hindi and Marathi films, till playback singing found its feet. It is from here, from this point forward that she began to show the world the magic she could create through her singing.
Meanwhile 'Paa lagoon' created no great impact, and worse still, now her benefactor Master Vinayak died. At this time Master Ghulam Haider took her to Filmistan studios where he recorded a trial duet with her and Madan Mohan. The head of Filmistan, S.Mukherjee was unimpressed: Her voice is too thin, he said. Undeterred, Ghulam Haider took her in his next venture, Majboor (1948). Lata's song from this film, 'Dil mera toda, mujhe kahin ka na chhoda', was received well. In the same year Khemchand Prakash's Ziddi was released. Here he introduced Kishore Kumar but also made Lata sing the melodious 'Chanda re, ja re, ja re'. A minor bomb was about to explode. Then when Ghulam Haider took her to Naushad, it was her lucky day. The composer was starting work on Mehboob's Andaz, a multi-star cast venture. Mehboob's last two films had flopped, and he wanted to bring in new talents for this film. Naushad auditioned Lata and gave her a break in it.
In Andaz she sang what became her first super hit number, 'Uthaye ja unke sitam aur jiye ja'. The lyrics of this soulfully rendered song were written by Majrooh, not new otherwise, but new to Mehboob. He penned many other good songs for her in the film. Anil Biswas, too, started considering her at this time. He gave her many songs in Anokha Pyaar, including 'Yaad rakhna chand taro is suhani raat ko', and 'Jeevan sapna toot gaya'.
Simultaneously, Shanker and Jaikishen also 'discovered' her and brought her centre-stage in Barsaat. 'Hawa mein udta jaye', and 'Ab mera kaun sahara', as well as many other songs were rendered by Lata in the film. And now came Badi Behen, with music by Husnlal Bhagatram, where she sang 'Chale jaana nahin naen milake'. She did many more films at this stage including Kamaal Amrohi's Mahal, with music by Khemchand Prakash ('Ayega aanewala', and 'Mushkil hai'). The film Lahore happened too, with maestro Sham Sunder's melodies, and in this Lata sang 'Baharen phir bhi ayengi'. Vinod used her voice in Ek Thi Ladki, where she sang the superhit 'Laara lappa' with Durrani and Rafi. By this time it was clear Lata had range and depth, with clarity and breath-control. What's most important, her voice had a soul. After the public heard these songs it was accepted that there was no vocal mountain she could not climb.
Delighted composers and lyricists were now able to create the very best work for her. In fact they did not want to be the weak link in the chain. Excellent singers who were at the top in those days, Suraiyya, Shamshad, Zohrabai, Amirbai and others had heavier voices than Lata's. Meanwhile both Noor Jahan and Khursheed had migrated to Pakistan. Lata was here with a thinner voice that was more high-pitched and technically perfect. Without a microphone, Lata's voice was deficient, too soft. But with a mike, it was magic, something else entirely. But Lata did not stumble from one song to another; she put in tremendous hard work as she progressed.
Her voice had had some flaws when she was brought in by Ghulam Haider; so polished by new musical jewellers this diamond shone brilliantly. Her first guru, her father, had taught her the importance of open-throated singing. Then from Ustad Aman Ali Khan Bhendibazarwale, Ustad Amanat Khan Dewaswale, and also from Pandit Tulsidas Sharma, she learnt about classical raags, about rhythm and about melody. From Master Ghulam Haider she learnt the importance of the clarity of words as well as how to stress on the beat. Anil Biswas taught her the techniques of breath-control, and also how to fade in and out a line before a mike. A stray remark from Dilip Kumar about her faulty Urdu diction got her to study and practice Urdu from the very next day.
All this in just a year and a half, and that's it. She had arrived. She gave up her acting totally now and began concentrating on singing, singing, and more singing. The only exceptions were two movies she wanted to make but were shelved. One was called Bhairavi, with music by Roshan (he was a good dilruba player), and the other one, Jhuki Jhuki Akhiyan, with music by herself; also overlooking the music she composed for five Marathi films under a pseudonym. Barring these exceptions, Lata embarked upon singing. And what did she do with her singing? Why, she brought about a paradigm shift in our concept of the ideal female voice. Her voice slowly but surely -- and subconsciously changed what we expected from the perfect female voice in Hindi films; the new generations of singers are still attempting to grapple with this reality.
The '50s and '60s were really the musical decades and they 'belonged' to Lata. For two decades she sat center-stage as the top female playback singer. The planets had conspired to help her there: three essential factors played their role in her success: her coming of age in the late 1940's (just when the creative scene was sizzling up), the development of playback and recording techniques around the same time, and the departure of reigning queen Noor Jahan for Pakistan. No one knows what would have happened to Lata had there been no partition, or had Noor Jahan decided to stay in India like Rafi, Shamshad and others.
In the '70s and later, music trends changed with the arrival of the angry young man, with film stories getting more violent and less romantic. Then, in the early and late 80's when melody noticeably reappeared in films like Maine Pyaar Kiya, Lata was singing away again, leading from the front. She went on to sing in the 90's and sings even now, well past the age of 70, even in the 21st century! But although she continues to do so, her best was over long ago. Then, she wasn't going flat or off-key, as she sometimes does now. The soulful numbers, too, are missing. The whole literary and composing scene has changed now with much more emphasis being laid on the visual appeal of songs, since television channels view songs for a television audience and not only for the cinema-goers.
Lata Mangeshkar has received many, many awards and honorary citizenships, etc., too numerous to mention here. But the big ones are the Bharat Ratna, in 2001, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1989, Padma Bhushan in 1969, and four Filmfare awards for four songs, after which she withdrew from the Filmfare awards scene. Later, in 1994 she accepted a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
But perhaps her first award, the dilruba she got after the Khazanchi contest was her most thrilling award. She was young, the recognition was big, and Master Ghulam Haider, the composer of the songs of Khazanchi, in the audience!
There is an annual Rs 1 Lakh Lata Mangeshkar award set up by the Madhya Pradesh Government since 1984. Khayyam, Naushad, Anil Biswas, Asha Bhosle and others have received this award instituted to honour the legend who was born at Indore in the state.
General facts about Lata
Lata's story is fascinating. People on the street think quite highly of her. Barring her unpopular and peculiar opposition to a fly-over bridge near her home, she is a celebrity who prefers to keep a low profile. She prefers simple living and her life is quite bereft of scandals on the personal front. She is a Member of the Rajya Sabha but she hardly attends the sessions of Parliament. The average listener's mind carries an image of a lady who is respected and worthy of national honour. Indeed in a 1986 survey conducted by India Today on who most deserved to get the Padma Vibhushan for Art and Culture, Lata won hands down over all the other contenders including M.F. Hussain, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Bhimsen Joshi, Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, R.K. Narayan, and Pupul Jayakar. And she was the winner across all age groups of the survey, all economic backgrounds, all zones of India. She was Number One! She has the award now, but even today, if the parameters are altered to ask about whom people respect most in art and culture, she will surely be at, or near the top of the list.
But that's one side of the story. When you get up close to the industry, though, it's not so hunky-dory. The people who have worked with her mention her quality singing of yesteryears, but the same people refrain from talking about her as a person. Whatever they do say is carefully off the record, so much is the fear of upsetting somebody so powerful. One suspects that this is the reason why one doesn't see, at her live music shows, many of the major music composers, songwriters or co-singers, in the audience.
Of course she has had her long list of admirers in the film industry. She has, or had a long brigade of rakhi brothers too: Mukesh, Madan Mohan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Dilip Kumar, Shivaji Ganeshan, C.H. Atma, Mohan Deora of Detroit, and more. But there is also a list of people Lata has had serious differences with, even if with just a few people these differences were mended later. These people include Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Naushad, Shanker-Jaikishen, Anil Biswas, S.D. Burman, Talat Mehmood, Rafi, C. Ramchandra, Ravinder Jain, Husnlal Bhagatram, Sham Sunder, Khemchand Prakash, Khursheed Anwar, G.M. Durrani, songwriter Naqshab, sound recordist Kaushik, the Filmistan studio group, etc. Big differences with them, all documented.
Over the decades there have been strong rumours of Lata using subtle but powerful methods to scuttle the careers of many singers like Suman Kalyanpur, Vani Jairam and others. Also after a few years of success Lata became the only singer to always come last for recordings. Only when everyone else was already present could she be called over the phone for the recording. Of course, she was known to cancel recordings at the very last minute, much more than other singers, entailing losses for producers.
She is an intensely private person. For example whenever she travels for concert tours, although she travels on the same flight as her musicians, she travels first class while they sit in economy. On the flight she keeps to herself. All this can be misunderstood, and it prevents her from gaining the love and respect she deserves and instead she succeeds in creating fear. So how and why did people allow her to get away with it? It's simple, it's because she sang high quality every time. Films sold because of her voice. Producers laughed all the way to the bank. Composers and writers of songs valued this perfect link -- her vocals -- in their creative chain. Actresses became successful because of her voice; musicians got work. And the public got to hear a divine voice often singing beautiful melodies, many of them unforgettable in our lifetimes. In short, everyone was happy. Because at the end of the day it all went well.
But now one thing happened. There were two Latas now, Lata the singer, and Lata the person. In the minds of many people who worked close with her, Lata, the singer, raised their spirits, while Lata the person depressed them. When you are a public figure you deserve privacy but you are also judged eternally. Newspapers want juicy stories for the public. It isn't enough for a person to be a good actor; he must still never be seen kicking an old man or a dog.
Excellence requires this of public personalities who are always under observation. They pay this price because the rewards are great, excessive adulation being one as well. The knife cuts both ways. This dichotomy of personalities, at the end of the day, is one key reason there isn't a picture of Lata Mangeshkar in many a home. It could have happened. If only...
Also there are rumours of the well-known professional jealousy between the two sisters, Asha and Lata; they don't show up at each other's programmes while the other sisters and brother do. Bhimani's biography of Lata, the official, endorsed version, mostly bypasses Asha, while it does talk a little about the other siblings.
Then there are stories of how Lata would make conditions to producers: that she would sing provided Hridaynath made the music. Of course Lata must have heard all these accusations over the decades, many, many times. If all this is not true, why can't she, for once, set all the rumors to rest by speaking out truthfully about these issues? A high-profile press conference might help clear any doubts people might have about these subjects. If, on the other hand, some of this is true, even then, she wins, because she at least proves that she is human, after all.
Lata once fought with Rafi when he did not support her in her fight with Raj Kapoor. She wanted 5% of royalties for singing in an RK film (finally she managed 2.5% for Bobby). Rafi, backed by the entire industry (including other singers) thought the singer's job was over once he or she sang the song and got a one-time lump-sum payment.
Some people also feel that she should not have done the Shraddhanjali recordings in the '90s, her 'tribute' to departed singers. All the melodies were created by composers, and the songs that were sung in Shraddhanjali were originally hits rendered by other singers who are no more. Lata actually only picked up the singing charges (and the royalties) for singing other people's melodies! When one uses the word, 'tribute' it is understood that the person is doing it gratis or will donate the proceeds to a good cause. This was a strange tribute where the proceeds went back to her.
This is also why people don't discuss her on record, because she is seen to be so commercial. But they do mention, for example Rafi's utter humility and music-above-all qualities. Industry people speak with passion when they recall O.P. Nayyar fighting with producers and winning for musicians -- violin players, harmoniumwallas, the lot -- their right to get paid, and not tomorrow, but today. K.L. Saigal, too, did many things that might make one cry on hearing them. All these people including Lata are or were institutions in their own right.
Let's take one look at the sorry business about the Guinness book entries, so delightfully penned by Raju Bharatan in his unendorsed biography of Lata (the two are not on speaking terms). Through unfounded calculations, Bharatan had estimated, in those days before documentation happened, that Lata had sung some 16,000 songs in films. This was a piece he wrote in The Illustrated Weekly of India of March 12, 1971. The Guinness Book editors then extrapolated this information years later and somehow 'adjusted' this to a figure of 25,000 songs recorded by her. This featured under 'Most Recordings Made', and the number was updated by them over the years to make it 30,000 recordings. They never checked the facts, which was irresponsible. But Lata was her usual silent self. Perhaps she should have asked them how they got these figures. The fact is that it took a Pakistani musicologist to prove to the Guinness editors that those numbers were wildly outlandish. That by 1989, barring a few hundred regional and non-film songs, Lata's total number of recordings was less than 5100. Not just that, it was her own sister Asha Bhosle who had the highest recordings till then, at 7500! The incorrect entry was removed, from the 1991 and subsequent editions of the Guinness Book.
Meanwhile in August '90, Bombay-based music lover Vishwas Nerurkar brought out a book called Gandhaar, containing the full list of the first lines of all of Lata's recorded Hindi film songs between 1945 and 1989. The exact number is 5066. The book is well cross-indexed. Nerurkar was on speaking terms with Lata earlier. Towards the end... it was over. The book was released at a high-profile function at Birla Auditorium, Bombay, but the crooner did not go, nor did any of her sisters or brother. It was composer Khayyam who did go as the Chief Guest.
Many wonder too, of course as to why she sings nowadays at all. There was a beautiful piece written on Lata by S Suchitra Lata in the Deccan Herald of November 15, 1998. Some of it makes for compulsive reading: ...there are none (Lata's close friends) today who will talk warmly about the legend, and, At least Lata must now talk about her eventful career. And if she still wants to sing, she must choose songs which do not rob her age of its dignity. Further, Lata has never treated criticism as an artiste's inevitable reward. She has either been cold and grim, or dismissive, but I wonder if deep within her she has asked herself when she should retire, though it might be too late to do so gracefully.
And now before we look at some of the finest songs delivered by this amazing singer, let's just see her hobbies and habits. In western music she is very interested in classical symphonies, but doesn't care too much for operas. She loves the voice of Barbara Streisand, and thinks the Beatles and Nat King Cole were very good. She loves to travel, first class of course, and specially to London and USA. She is very good at photography, and loves to cook and eat, especially Kolhapuri mutton. She loves diamonds and wearing white sarees (with a border on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays). She loves fragrances and even has one named after her. She likes to watch cricket (her father had his own cricket team, in his better days). She prays everyday, and when her father expired they said his soul was in a coconut. That coconut is sacred even today. She sometimes goes to the Mahalaxmi temple, just a little away from her Peddar Road, Bombay home. She always appears barefoot on the stage or in the recording room. She is fabulously wealthy, but apart from her diamonds, lives unpretentiously.
Lata Mangeshkar never married, even though she could easily have done so. She is not a devadaasi, as some believe (her sisters are married), but in her own words: The fact is... when I was young I had to shoulder many responsibilities and later... well, it (the marriage) just did not happen, that's all. She is a firm believer in destiny and astrology, and is a very private person, almost never letting her hair down. Very rarely, when she does let her hair down, she says she would not like to be born as Lata Mangeshkar. She believes in an afterlife.
A good song can transport us to heaven, after-life or not. And what can be better than the heaven-on-earth feeling you get when you hear Lata Mangeshkar reaching for your soul from hers to bring you close to heaven? Lata has not only changed the Hindi film industry after her arrival, she is inclined to leave it like that for a long time to come.

Policy - 2

2004-09-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

A 'Policy' is 'definite course or method of action selected from among
alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine
present and future decisions'. Within the realm of information security,
a policy sets the course: defining how confidentiality, integrity,
and availability of information and technology assets can be
achieved and maintained (example, Acceptable Use Policy).

"Again, according to Webster's, a 'Standard' is something set up
and established by authority as a rule for the measure of
quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality. Within the realm of
Information Security, a standard is typically collections of
system-specific or procedural-specific requirements that must be
met by everyone (example: Windows 2000 Hardening Requirements).

"A 'guideline' is typically a collection of system specific or
procedural specific 'suggestions' for best practice. They are
not requirements to be met, but are strongly recommended
(a.k.a., an optional standard).

"Generally, security policies refer to standards and guidelines
existing within an organization. Of course, the ISO17799
Standard requires implementation of a policy - but who wants to
split hairs?"

Furthermore, "Rules" enforcing the policies are fairly easy to modify to meet the needs
of an organization's various sub-entities (divisions, departments,
groups, etc.).

Defining "Policy"

2004-09-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

One suggestion that came up repeatedly, resolves itself to: don't change anything. The argument is that there are so many different people with an ax to grind that consensus is
impossible. If we in identity management & IT business development side, try to seek a consensus definition, we won't succeed because no one else will accept our consensus. Thus we lose precision with no gain in understanding.

What we risk, of course, is that others will misunderstand what we mean, to our detriment. To avoid that we would need to define the term almost every time we use it, especially to those outside the identity management discipline - those who more and more are making the identity management decisions.

While the premise, getting everyone to agree on a definition, is most likely true, that is not surely the conclusion, concluding to that we stick to our own definitions, is the best answer. The IETF's RFC 3198, "Terminology for Policy-Based Management": This RFC was co-authored by John Strassner, formerly of Cisco, who almost single-handedly created what became known as Directory-Enabled Networking (DEN). More than a chapter was devoted to DEN's policy model. This all led to the need for a vocabulary, a terminology, a taxonomy for discussing policy. The RFC was the natural outcome of this need. One of the terms the RFC defines is, of course, "policy." This is what it says:

"Policy" can be defined from two perspectives:

- A definite goal, course or method of action to guide and
determine present and future decisions. 'Policies' are
implemented or executed within a particular context (such as
policies defined within a business unit).

- Policies as a set of rules to administer, manage, and control access to network resources [RFC3060].

Note that these two views are not contradictory since individual rules may be defined in support of business goals." The reference to "RFC3060" is to a document (also co-authored by Strassner) describing an object-oriented information model for representing policy information. John spent a long time at Cisco, and we can see that his thinking in terms of "policy" was heavily influenced by the security usage of that word he encountered at the network hardware company. Still, the second definition, "Policies as a set of rules," ties in neatly with another very good response.

Dan Beckett is a senior consultant with the Burton Group. He was previously the director of Dewpoint's Security and Access Management Practice, and currently serves as adjunct professor at Michigan State University, where he authored the curriculum for and teaches a senior-level security architecture course for the university's department of telecommunications.In Dan's words:

" The problem of clearly defining what we (IT pros)
mean when we speak is largely a taxonomic issue, which has been
exacerbated by the desire of software vendors to be
buzzword-compliant. Let's explore the taxonomy of 'policy' a
little further, particularly as it applies to information
security. "

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (AHD4th) defines policy as 'A course of action, guiding principle, or procedure considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous.' Roget's New Millennium Thesaurus, First Edition
lists the following words as synonyms of policy (interestingly, there are no antonyms listed) : action, administration, approach, arrangement, behavior, channels, code, course, custom, design, guideline, line, management, method, order, organization, plan, polity, practice, procedure, program, protocol, red tape, rule, scheme, stratagem, strategy, tenet, the book, the numbers, theory.

So, taxonomically speaking, 'policy management protocol' is actually thrice redundant. But for now, let's bookmark these definitions and synonyms, and we'll come back to them in a
moment. As I started thinking about the questions posed in your column, I immediately went back to the curriculum for a security architecture course I teach at Michigan State University. In the class, I postulate that the Security Lifecycle consists of seven critical steps that must be executed in a continuously iterating cycle:

Plan, Policy, Procedure, Enforce, Manage, Detect, Assess.

Based on this commonly accepted definition of the Security Lifecycle, I think it is instructive to note that 'Plan - Policy - Procedure - Enforce' denotes a cascading relationship from least specific (Plan) to most specific (Enforce). Hence, I believe that 'Policy' is far too general of a term, and has historically (and erroneously) been used to denote the concept of 'enforcement' by software vendors. This probably all began when firewall vendors began describing 'rules' as 'policies,' and using those terms interchangeably, which brings me to my next point.

I don't believe it is possible (nor is it desirable) to codify policies into executable code; accordingly, your proposed Protocol (in the technological sense of the word), should not
reference 'policy' at all, because 'policy' is the wrong word for what we need; 'enforce' is what we're really after. The taxonomic problem for defining a slick acronym is that 'enforce' is a verb, and what we need in our acronym is a noun. AHD4th defines enforce as 'To compel observance of or obedience to' - as in, enforce a law or rule. I think the proper word to use,
then, is 'rule,' and more specifically for our context, 'business rule.'

AHD4th defines rule as 'An authoritative, prescribed direction for conduct, especially one of the regulations governing procedure in a legislative body or a regulation observed by the players in a game, sport, or contest.' Note that this definition reinforces the idea that a rule is more specific than a procedure. The use of 'prescribed' in the definition of 'rule' is instructive as well. 'Prescription' is defined as 'A formula directing the preparation of something.' Prescriptions, formulas, or rules, are necessarily very specific, whereas policies are more general in nature (as in your example of the dress code policy). In our context, the 'game' or 'contest' is business. Therefore, 'business rules' are what we are really talking about.

Unfortunately, many identity management purists have the attitude that somehow identity management is different from the rest of the application development world, that it serves some higher purpose because of its security ramifications and universality. These purists tend to reject common application development taxonomy, such as 'business rules,' as if we need to
develop an entirely new taxonomy to describe the uniqueness of identity management concepts. This attitude is misguided.

Identity management is really just an overall part of an enterprise's application fabric; in fact, I've often argued that without applications, it's like electricity without the light bulb. Identity management should be subject to the same taxonomies and practices that have been long established in application development communities. The enforcement of what we have traditionally called a 'security policy' within a security appliance, identity management application, or other related IT security infrastructure, is really nothing more than a 'business
rule' that can be easily described, understood, and codified; up to this point, we simply haven't had a standardized way of describing or codifying them.

So I suggest that we establish the 'Business Rule Protocol' (pronounced 'BRP'), and the 'Extensible Business Rule Markup Language' (pronounced 'ex-b{r-m{l'). BRP would be used to describe interactions (both human and programmatic), and should sit on top of today's communication protocols (HTTP/S, SOAP, etc.). XBRML would be used by developers to define the business rules, and to share those business rules across a loosely coupled, services-oriented architecture. "

***************************************************************
sourced & adapted from the NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER
(IdentityManagement@nwfnews.com).

A few time paradoxes...

2004-09-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

One stubborn problem with time travel is that it is riddled with several types of paradoxes.Can you understand the following...

There is the paradox of the man with no parents: What happens when you go back in time and kill your parents before you are born? If your parents died before you were born, then how could you have been born to kill them in the first place?

There is this another paradox of the man with no past. For example, let's say that a young inventor is trying futilely to build a time machine in his garage. Suddenly, an elderly man appears from nowhere and gives the youth the secret of building a time machine. The young man then becomes enormously rich playing the stock market, race tracks, and sporting events because he knows the future. Then, as an old man, he decides to make his final trip back to the past and give the secret of time travel to his youthful self. Where did the idea of the time machine come from?

There is also the paradox of the man who is his own mother. “Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”. Then, “Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” way back into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, then accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. So, who is “Jane’s” mother, father, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, and grandchild?

copied from... http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/mysteries/html/kaku1-1.html

NDTV - Columns : North Block Spring

2004-09-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

NDTV - Columns: "a fundamental fact of democracy. Public policy and economic decisions in any democracy are taken to drive home a political aim."

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