Tabla Exam....

I have been always a voluntary risk taker, first was my fight with french, now it was Tabla. Of course by learning french neighbours were not affected but Tabla has indeed created many Pakistans and Chinas around me. And another irony is that whatever exams i take have miniscule amount of work related to theory and bloody lot of practicals which blatantly reveals my ignorance.


My guruji forced me to take the exams of the Bhartiya Kala Kendra inspite of knowing that i can only make noise using Tabla but not play it. Had to play all the finger/toe practice whatever i had learnt before another Master whose fate was to hear that after travelling 400KM from lucknow. You have to see their awry looks when i was making strange noises with the tabla. They asked me to repeat whenever i went wrong, then they changed their decision that it was of no use. They came to know that i can never get it right.

Lastly they asked me to play the "Teen Taal Kayda" which is the most elementary like Maya maala Gowda ragam of carnatic. Even an alien like Michael Jackson would have heard it, would have committed suicide. Any way gone is gone so practicing to clean the tabla atleast properly much like the role of Vadivelu in the film " Singaravelan"

Kashmir Problem - my doubts..

Lots of appreciation is pouring in for Musharraf as if he had nullified the border between India and Pakistan. According to my perception this issue is in a deadlock situation and cannot be resolved. India claims LOC as border which Pak refuses to accept and there is a seperate hurriyat group which says that we want Independent Kashmir. To whom India is going to talk with to get the issue resolved is my question -
1) whether is it with Mushraff(who exists by killing democracy in his own country)
2) Whether is it with the Terrorists outfits such as Jaish e mohammed, or all those Jehadi groups.
3) or the Hurriyat which says that they need a seperate country status for Kashmir.

one more intriguing question I have in mind, we fought two wars against Pakistan once during Nehru period and another during Indira gandhi period(forgive me if i'm wrong as im reallly poor with history), inspite of winning the two wars how come so much of Kashmir is still lying with Pakistan?? Did we really win the war, if yes what we got out of it?

As such Kashmir is more or less Pakistanised, the real aborigines of the soil were already driven out and those who remain are mostly against India. How come all the parties ruling in India making a political gimmick saying that they are going to resolve the issue at this stage by their so called Confidence Building Measures.

Hunting Ganguly

I dont watch much of cricket but nowadays jokes about Ganguly are outnumbering Sardar Jokes as the ODI's are going on between India and Pak(between two friendly enemies). I always believe that any match played by India is rigged, since politics start right from the Selection committee to the Last Ball of an match series.

Why blame Ganguly is my question? When the entire ten are not serious about the game. Anyone who leads India(even may be it is Manmohan singh) will have to face the stupidity of coalition and succumb to pressure of it. For Ganguly too it is a coalition goverment he is handling since each player in india is a seperate leader-a coterie(Indians cannot work in team is a renowned fact unless they are in US/Europe).

Wait till America outsources its cricket team to India and then see the performance of the Indian players in it. We are always used to get proud only about any Indian who works for a etranger country recognizes it. There is absolutely no patriotism to this team, only money speaks and will be the same in future too. If Bernard shaw had been there he would have commented that "Cricket is a game played by 10 Indians and 10 Billion Indians foolishly watch it thinking it will win".

Few Jokes about ganguly

" A new offer to the Pakistan team
Take the second Indian wicket and get Ganguly's wicket absolutely free "

"Q: Any guess which is Ganguly's favorite movie?
A: Gone in 60 seconds. "

"Indian Railways keen on Ganguly: At least we'll be having someone who comes (back) before time. This will help them improve the image with the Indian public. "

Varnasi-Allahabad-Gaya - A Pilgrimage

How many to celebrate Holi in Bihar? This strange occurence happened to me and my uncle who wanted to explore that part of the India. The number of days I had was reduced from four to three a as my esteemed company cancelled the vacation for Good Friday.

Allahabad

ney started from New Delhi Railway Station and the next morning when i woke up on Holi it was Allahabad Junction. Since my uncle was doing the kriyas which are required to be done in Allahabad Sangam, we got hold of tamil gurukkal who had sent us a Tonga to reach their home. So after finishing the ablutions at the Mutt and a super filter coffee(wherever i went i was eating silly south Indian food), The tonga headed towards to the Triveni Sangam where a boat was ready for us to go to the sangam. We were at the shores of Yamuna, i was astonished to hear from our boatman that Yamuna brings in more water than Ganga in terms of Volume. Also astonishingly Yamuna was so clean on that day(which was confirmed by a flock of Sea Gulls merrily enjoying their lunch there). How would you feel when you are walking in between two Sumo Wrestlers, much similar was the junction of these two big giants. We had a bath in Sangam in the middle of the day and returned back to the mutt to continue the rest of the ritual process.

Varnasi:
The same day afternoon we started towards Varnasi by road and it was a smooth 3 hour journey. There we had to stay in a Mutt in Hanuman Ghat which was much closer to the great Harishcandra ghat(where cremation of bodies take place in large scale). The same day night we visited the Kasi Vishwanath Mandir and list of other temples(quite difficult to follow). The same night we decided to finish of the rituals in GAYA. So that on the third day we are back to Varnasi which is well connected with allahabad(mainly for our return trip).

GAYA

Amazingly there was less crowd in all trains bound to BIHAR because of Holi, so we escaped the agony of travel to that place. But once we landed in Gaya i had use all my pigeon hindi to convince them for a ride in their auto, we also came to know that Bihar celebrates HOLI for 4 days. Tourists were not spared of the colours and cow dung, we got enough of them too, my aunt had got colour in her eyes and many were looking at her as if she had descended from an alien planet, with eyes swollen and fully drenched in colors. So in a Fast forward manner all the rituals and we were able to visit only the Vishnupad temple only. Rest of the places even to go to Bodh Gaya there was not enough transport available. Our only rescuer there was the Northern Railways, which was not hindered much out of the HOLI fete.

Returning back to Banaras by night we did a local tour the last day of our trip, went to Sarnath, Birla Mandir, Banaras Hindu Unviersity, Tulsi Manas mandir etc. Also went in the boat along the various ghats. Since our return train from Allahabad to Delhi was @ 12:00 AM we casually strolled in Varnasi. Then took the same road to allahabad to reach the station by 9:00 PM.

The trip had made my entire body weak(mainly because of the south indian food) and luggage I carried(mostly ganges water to be distributed to all relatives !!).