Intezaar

Intezaar kiska kar raha hun main?

Aankhon mein kyun hai yeh beychaini?

Kinarey pey khada dekh raha hun main,

merey khayalon key leheron mein doob raha hun main.

Ruki hui si lag rahi hai yeh duniya, 

thama hua sa lag raha hai yeh aasaman.

Palkey hain basayi mainey kiskey liye?

Jindagi, yeh intezaar hai kiska tumhey?

Yeh Suhana Samaa

Dil ney kaha waqt tham ja jara,

Palkon mein merey basney dey yeh samaa.

Inn vadiyon mein jhul rahein hain jo tehniyan, pattiyan,

Keh rahein hain mujhsey tu bhi jhoom ley jara.

Zharney hain gaa rahein eak geet jana sa,

Mann ko hain dey rahein eak ehsaas anjana sa.

Yeh khamoshiyan jaisey kaano ney samajh hai khoyi,

Par eak hari si thandak aankhon ney hai paayi.

Nas nas mein merey bharney dey yeh nasha,

Waqt tham ja jara.

The Fight!

LIFE!! Who said you are living life?? You are not living it, you are fighting it. This whole setup is a fight with life. You will get punched and kicked, you'll get dragged...you'll even feel suffocated at a point. Its up to you how to fight back.

Sure your family and friends will be there, but they'll just be spectators. They will be happy for you when you punch life straight in the face and are glorious for that moment. They will cheer and give you hope when you are suffocating because of a kick in the ribs and feel you are in the worst of conditions. But that's it!

One thing you have to remember is that you are not going to win this match, NEVER! But you can definitely make it a memorable one. Take time outs like you would in a Boxing match, talk with your family and friends, spend and cherish time with them; kick your opponent hard, become famous and be known for your unique ways to face life; at the same time be ready to take the knockouts life has to offer you... its all about surviving to see and do more. A person exists only for a lifetime, but his actions are remembered for generations.

Don't think you are alone, know that you are alone! Family and friends can only cry for you, pray for you, advise you or be happy for you, but they cannot fight for you. It's you all the way to the end.

Know that you will not win and that's why you have nothing to lose. So live every second, kick life hard, make it remember you! ;)

And then they met...

The winds wont blow, no halo will glow,

the trees wont swing all in a row.

This girl I tell you when walks to me,

my heart will sink with all the glee.

My heart will know and it will bow,

and I will throw my love to grow.

Hug her tight that she never fights ,

and talk to her as if time flies.

Make her laugh for me to smile,

dance as one and swing her nice.

Take her out on a starry night,

gaze at the sky of diamonds bright.

And for every mood that she might flaunt,

give her a kiss she will always want.

Knowing Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.

Born in the house of a teacher, his strong attraction towards music didn't go well with his father. His father wanted Bhimsen to study either medicine or engineering. This conflict of interests persuaded the 11 year old Bhimsen to run away from home in 1933 and travel to Gwalior, a city well known for its musical treasures.

Cash strapped and going without food at times, Pt. Joshi traveled a lot in and around north India to listen to great singers and players like Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, Vazebuva, Kesarbai Kerkar, Ustad Bismilah Khan. Initially Pt. Joshi started learning under the guidance of Janappa Kurtkoti, student of the great Hazrat Inayat Khan. Later, Pt. Joshi continued learning with various singers like Pt. Mangatram of Jalandar, Rajabhaiya Punchvalleh of Gwalior and Mushtaq Hussain of Rampur.

While travelling these cities, he at last met his father who had set out to find his boy. Witnessing Pt. Joshi's love for singing, his father took him to Rambhau Kungolkar of Kundgol village in Karnataka. Rambhau better known as Savai Gandharva, accepted Pt. Joshi as his student.

Rambhau was a vocalist of the Kirana Gharana, whose tradition and foundation can be traced back to Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and his great grandfather Ghulam Ali and Ghulam Maula, the brother of Ghulam Ali. Rambhau made Pt. Joshi practice Todi, Puria and Multani raag for almost 8 hours everyday. After learning as much as he could from 1936 to 1941, Pt. Joshi moved to Pune (in those days learning and practicing continuously for at least 5-8yrs under a guru was a must).

Pt. Joshi used to practice as much as 16-18 hrs everyday. He had one very important principle in life, "If you want to become an outstanding artist, a 'one in a million', then even your health has to be 'one in a million'." Daily exercise was part of his schedule and he also used to spend time playing football and hockey.

One other passion of his life was cars. Riding a cycle, motorbike and then buying his own car, he went on to buy his very own Mercedes-Benz. He has been noted to love driving his cars a lot.

Words I write about Pt. Joshi are nothing but dry drops of ink, which would otherwise flow gracefully if he himself were to talk or sing. So I leave you with these two exquisite interviews of Pt. Joshi (one marathi and one in hindi), very insightful and a lot to take away. And of course my favourite Raag Yaman Kalyan.

Data courtesy Maharashtra Times.

Be your own lifeguard!

All ya land lovers!! Listen up and listen up good. This post is specially for people who either want to learn to swim but "do not have time" to do so, or are dead scared of getting in the water. One way or the other you will sometime in your life find yourself in water that is deeper than you can stand and breath in. And then instead of feeling 'If only I could swim' at that "drowning" moment, its better to know some basics.

Well, if getting rescued is all you care about, technically you don't need to know how to swim, you just need to float and not drink water around you, till someone gets to you and drags you to dry land. So here is the scenario, you just fell in water, what is the first thing you do? You reach out to the water surface and try to get your head out so that you can breath. Head first or feet first doesn't matter, whichever way you fall the general human tendency is to orient themselves so that their head is out. Now, while doing this people generally push the water up and down as if cycling in water and do the same with their hands, which is natural. The position of the body is upright at this point.

The first and most basic thing for "never-swam" people is NEVER try to stay upright. You always want to sleep on the water, like sleeping on a bed, looking up at the sky. That is your best bet at saving your life. Its like a small sheet of metal, if you keep it flat horizontal on the water surface its going to float but the moment you make it vertical... 20,000 fathoms awaits it.

This turning your body from vertical to horizontal is possible only if all your body parts work together. We will go in a body part sequence that is hydro-dynamically effective.

Your legs are a very unique part of your body, which if not used efficiently are going to drag you down. For one, your thighs are heavy and two, they are shaped so that they can easily submerge and go down if vertical. So the first part of your body that has to get up to the surface so that you can get into the sleeping position are your legs. To do this start moving both your legs up and down, like the pair of blades of a scissors. When doing this try and keep both your legs straight from your waist down and point your toes away from your body, so that even they are horizontal. This makes your feet act like flippers, helping you lift your legs up easily. It will be hard to keep your legs straight and at the same time move them up and down. So, bending your legs a bit in the knees is okay, but just a BIT. So how fast or how deep does the leg movement have to be? Well, until your legs are straight, your legs should move with a higher frequency, but a lower amplitude. So move them with an intermediate speed but not deep inside the water, just near the water surface.

As your legs start coming up, you have to push your HIPS and your STOMACH up, up above the water surface. Believe me its not at all hard. Push it up as if someone was poking you from the water below. Its every body-part for itself when you are in water. Just imagine... you are upright in the water, you started moving your legs like a scissor... they are coming up slowly... but they are only going to bring themselves up, the hips and stomach have to push themselves up, so that you attain a horizontal position.

As far as your hands are concerned, just skim them on the water surface, with your palm facing the water. Just like lying flat on snow and making a snow angel.

By now (looking sideways) nearly whole of your body has been rotated from being vertical to a horizontal position, but there is one more thing to remember. ALWAYS look up at the sky. Do not try to look what is in front of you, because that is going to bend your body and make it vertical again, pushing you down into the water.

That was a lot to remember up there, but it seems a lot because of the explanation. Its very simple even for a non-swimmer and anyone can float on their back in less than 15 seconds. Just remember these 3 points:

1. Keep both your legs straight and move them up and down like a pair of scissors.

2. As they start floating up, push your hips and your stomach up towards the sky.

3. Keeps moving your legs and maintain your hip and stomach position. No need to push hard now. Keep looking up.

Now that you are quite stably flat on water you are free to scream the hell out. Hopefully if someone nearby knows how to swim they might come to save you, unless all they too know is just to float!! Practicing this in a shallow 4ft pool won't harm you. Try it!

Well, now that you know a survivor skill do you feel like its okay to NOT know swimming? You will be missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime if you are thinking on that line! Because when you know how to swim, you don't only make sure you are confident in deep waters but also pose as a lifesaver to someone else who might be drowning. So think it out. You won't be much different than a doctor, the only other person who is a lifesaver and consequently at the same stature as god, to people who are in a helpless and agonizing situation, waiting for someone skillful to come and pull them out of deaths very own hands ;)

Keep Swimming!! \m/

Eak kavita Babansathi...

This one's for my Baba's 60th Bday from what I know him for the last 25yrs.

शब्द कित्ती गोळा करू, बोलू तरी केवढे आज,
साठी पूर्ण झाली आहे मित्राची माझ्या खास.

वार्यावरती येतो तो अन वाऱ्यासारखा जातो,
गप्पा अश्या करतो कि आम्ही हलत-डुलत राहतो .

डोकं सारख आपटत राही, नव्या शोधांची त्याला खाज,
इंजीनियारही झक मारेल अश्या आयडिया त्याच्या खास.

रस्ता माझा बनवेन मीच, असो वाळू किंवा बर्फ गार,
पाणी असेल तर झालाच कि, पोहून जाईन नदी पार.

हृदय म्हणतो "थांब जरा!", "घेउडे कि जरा श्वास".
कधीतरी विचार मला, कित्ती देशील असा त्रास!

शब्द कित्ती गोळा करू, बोलू तरी केवढे आज,
साठी पूर्ण झाली आहे मित्राची माझ्या खास.