I Know you!!

Train was running behind schedule. It was already 11.30 at night when I reached New Delhi railway station. As I was coming out of the station, couple of rikshaw walas came rushing. “Kahan Jayoge Bhai Saab”, one said. He looked like a young old man, aged around 25 with unshaved stubble and drooping posture. I asked for the rate. “Jo Banta hai de dena Saab”, he said. There was no way I could have said no.

It was about 45 minutes journey till my place. While on the way, he started murmuring “This city is really bad, Saab. I am working here like a dog but still can’t support my family financially”. There was lot of hopelessness in his voice.

“Really”, i asked, “But in city like Delhi you can easily make a decent living out of driving rikshaw as there are lot of passengers here, including foreigners”. “You are right Saab, but I have to pay Rs 200 per day as a rent to the owner of the auto. After paying that there’s hardly anything left. I don’t have anybody known here. Life is so miserable”. After listening to him, I thought for a moment.

“Which place do you belong to”, I inquired. “Kanpur Saab”. “Hey really, I have stayed there for a long time, which place in Kanpur”; we had something in common now. “Just on the side of the old city road, where did u stay Saab”, suddenly there was a new found enthusiasm in his voice. “I also stayed near that area. People of Kanpur are very nice and helpful”, I replied. For the first time I could see a smile on his face.” Ok, if I advise you something, will you listen to it”, I thought it was the right time. “Sure Saab, tell me”, he was looking interested.

“You should buy an auto, even if it has to be a second hand. It will save you a lot more money in the long run”. He started to think, “You are right, but I don’t have that much of money”. “Don’t worry about that. I have a friend working in an NGO, they provide loans to the needy people like you, I will ask him, but you need to promise that you will work harder” I said.

“Sure Saab, I will do that” he was really excited by now. After reaching my place, he refused to take money from me, for which I had to force him. I gave him my contact number and asked to call me after 3 days. He was looking alive now, “Thank you very much Saab”, he said as he was leaving, “Aakhir Kanpur wala hi Kanpur wale ke kaam aata hai”.

I just stood there for a while with a smile on my face. The first thing I did after entering home was to check through internet, where does the Old City road in Kanpur exist!!

Shameful Story!

(The story is set in 18^th century, when animals were still used for traveling over shorter distances.)

The father, ‘Pa’ and son, ‘Baba’ went to nearby town to buy an animal for commuting. As they were walking back to their town with ‘donkey’, the people passing along started making fun. “Look at these idiots, they have a donkey to ride, but still they are walking”. After hearing the remarks, Pa asked Baba to sit on the donkey. Baba obeyed like a good boy and they started again.

After passing a couple of miles they met with an elderly lady. “It’s really shameful to see the old father walking while his young son is enjoying the ride”, she said. Baba really felt bad and asked his Pa to ride the donkey. Pa reluctantly agreed and they resumed their journey.

They had just crossed the half way, when two gentlemen passing by made remarks, “Well look at the proud father, he has no sympathy for his young son. He just wants his own comfort, it’s disgraceful!” Pa really felt bad and stopped for a while. Then he asked his son to join him on the donkey. Now both Pa and Baba were riding on the donkey and they stared their journey again.

After going for half an hour, the donkey started feeling the extra weight of two people on his back and started puffing. Eventually he (donkey) lost his conscious and collapsed on the ground. Pa and Baba really got worried and called people around for help. After knowing what happened, people started cursing them saying that they had no sympathy for the poor animal and they almost killed it. What a Shame!!

Being Human

Scene one: 3 pm

It is a typical crowded Sunday afternoon at Lagpat nagar Market. Among the usual chaos there comes a scream “aaaaahhh...”. A speeding Mercedes had just hit a young lady. The blood from her head is spreading over her new Sari which along with lot of jewellery confirms that she is a newlywed. She is lying on the ground and crying for help as the blood doesn’t seem to stop. Strangely, people are busy in cursing the car driver and possibility of it being a Police case than coming forward for help. The lady starts to get unconscious because of excessive blood leakage.

Suddenly a young man appears from the crowd. He comes forward, carries the lady on his shoulder and takes her to Moolchand Hospital.

Scene two: 5:15 pm

After couple of hours, lady gets into her conscious and asks for the young man who brought her there. Doctor tells her that he left immediately after admitting her there. People who are standing nearby start praising the efforts of the young man. “We still have Gentlemen left in our selfish society” says an older man overseeing the proceedings. Few kilometres from there, the young man has just come out of a jewellery shop and cannot hide his smile while counting the money in hand!

Name is K..K..K..KHAN

Hello Friends,

Happy Independence day!

Well it wasn’t a "happy" Independence Day for Shahrukh or was it?

Sharukh Khan had gone to US to attend a function on 15^th of August. He was detained by the security staff for verification which reportedly went on for around 2 hrs. That was the breaking news on most news channels and not the Prime Minister’s speech about growth plans for India in coming 5 years!

It has been reported that Shahrukh Khan was “humiliated” because of his surname.... Khan. Well, there have been cases in the past where people like Abdul Kalam and George Fernandes(then defence minister) were made to go through similar procedures. But the humility of Kalam is such that he didn’t even make an issue out of this “humiliation”. Shahrukh is said to be really upset because of this and he feels that it is a clear case of racism. The argument doing the rounds is that we (Indian securities) don’t check the white celebrities when they visit India thereby it is wrong for them to question Sharukh. Well, all I can say is that if our security systems aren’t doing their work properly that doesn’t set an example for the rest of the world!

By the way last week Karan Johar sold his new movie’s rights to Fox Studios for a whopping 98 crores for a worldwide release. The movie is about the issue of racism across the nations and casts. The name of the movie is “My Name is Khan”

Sharukh Khan is known to be one of the best marketing brains in Indian film industry. We all know what he did for “Om Shanti Om”. This time around he is doing it even better. Way to go Sharukh KKHHAN!!

The Great India Place!

Hello friends,

I want to share my visit to Great India Place Noida.

I had heard a lot about it, but never visited the place. Last weekend I made my mind to correct it.

The entrance was quite a grand one with huge hoardings welcoming you. After checking out the Ground floor, I asked for the movie hall. I was told that there is "Big Cinema" at 3rd floor. What was waiting for me was quite a surprise. All shows before 1 pm costs just 50 bucks and guess what, it was 12.10 pm. I checked out the list of movie and there was one, Ice Age-3 at 12.50 pm.Having seen the earlier parts, I knew at Rs 50, it was a steal. So I bought the ticket. But there was still half an hour left for the start, so I decided to check out the 3rd floor. What I found was "Dollar Store". Now it's quite a store. The concept is foreign where you can buy anything at a Dollar, here it's at Rs 99, which is not bad given the variety of products on display.

Its 12.40 pm, so I moved in the Big Cinema. By the way, it was my first visit to Big Cinema too. And it didn't disappoint. The ambience outside the hall was quite glittery with lot of space for sitting. The seats were quite comfortable with enough leg space. The movie was icing on the cake.

After the movie, I went to the explore the eating joints as I was feeling hungry. Bikanerwala is where i stopped and got my favorite Matter Kulche. After the meal, I checked out rest of the places. One place which I truly found unique was "Haunted House".

Now it's a place where you pay to get scared. Interesting, isn't it! Well I wanted to check it out. So I bought ticket for Rs 80 and stood there for my turn. There I saw a declaimer saying "Management is not responsible for any person getting fainted. Children and faint hearted people are advised to avoid it." Believe me you feel the thrill, before entering inside. They usually allow 5-6 people to go at once. Finally, it was my turn to go in "Haunted House". It was all dark inside. It was a narrow lane through which one need to go. On one side there was a skeleton hanging in the dim light. I thought, it's going to be boring, but I was wrong! Few steps ahead, there were ghost like things staring at you. Just when I tried to cross them, they started moving towards me and making lot of noises too! In the end the floor beneath me started shaking like an earthquake with lot of evil noises. I rushed to move out. It was an "Interesting Experience". Anyone visiting GIP should visit this place for it's uniqueness and thrill!

It was around 4 pm and I moved to ground floor where Samsung was running a promotional campaign for it's new touchscreen phones. I checked out few new models and then moved to "Home Town". Now anyone who is interested in making new house or even wants to add some stuff to the existing one, it's the place to be. The best part is that you can actually feel, how the renovation will look as they have created live rooms to demonstrate various combinations for the home decorations. I wasn't a buyer, so I quietly checked it out and came out. Then I picked up a fruit drink before leaving the place.

All in all, it was a nice experience. Just that because of distance, one feels hesitant to go from Delhi. But let me tell you one thing, in case you are going for a movie, reach there before 1 and you will feel that it's worth the effort spending some time and money to reach "The Great India Place"

"Aane de"

The fight between the multiplex owners and Film producers is finally over. So from next week new big budget movies will start pouring in. Well good news for movie lovers. But is it good news for the concerned parties as well...

There has been no big movie released in the last 2 months. Film producers were asking for an equal share of profits from the multiplexes for all types of movies which multiplexes weren’t agreeing to. There viewpoint was that they are in the expansion mode and the multiplex industry hasn’t matured enough to give away their extra profits as their operating costs are high. But the film producers were adamant on their demands and hence the standoff. Finally some sanity has prevailed and they have agreed on a middle path where producers will get slightly better margins, especially for the movies which become big hits.

So who’s got benefitted from this cat fight? I think the answer is NONE. There are good reasons for that..

1.       April-May period is generally been considered good for the movies as exams are over, there are holidays and people are in the mood of splurging. Hence, more scope for new releases.

For this face-off, no new movie has released in these 2 months which means that film industry as a whole has lost out on a good opportunity of good business.

2.       World Cup T20 has just started and with the success of IPL some multiplexes have already got deal with ESPN for live telecast. So it will impact the business of the movies.

3.       Schools and Colleges are also going to open soon with fresh session.

4.       Last but not the least, lot of big budget movies are going to release soon and they will release together thanks to this fight. They will certainly eat into each other’s profit share.

 Which means that Film Industry has lost as a whole. As for the moviegoers, they have discovered their old love in the meanwhile.....yes, I mean cricket. India lost important match to West Indies yesterday but still lot of cricket is left. So, let’s enjoy the double whammy and say “Aane De”

Indian Pathetic League

After much drama, BCCI has decided to shift the IPL to South Africa. They said that it’s the government’s attitude that forced them. There has been a huge debate that which side is at fault. Let’s see the two sides of the coin...
1. Government – has finally denied the security to IPL at many places due to elections. Well, one might argue that elections are more important than sports so govt is right in their decision. But there’s lot more to it than what meets the eyes..
a) Scheduling of IPL was known to govt a long time back, but why did the home minister raised doubt about it’s security only one day after the Lahore attack.
b) Most of the states which have refused to provide security for IPL are congress led states; is it a coincidence?

Well, the real issue is that congress is in the election mode. So after the Lahore terrorist attack they don’t want to risk any mishap at the time of election that too in a tournament that whole India will be watching! So it’s a losing proposition for govt and hence the denial of security. The bigger question here is that what kind of signal it sends to the world. We can’t provide enough security to an Indian Sports event when we are “hoping” to hold Commonwealth games next year??

2. On the other hand, BCCI is hell bent over organising the “Indian” Premier League, even if it has to happen in a non-Indian country!!!
What a shame! IPL is not just another international cricket tournament. It’s meant to be a concept more on the lines of “English Premier League” where Inter-city rivalry brings in the real interest and drama. People join clubs of their favourite team, go to the stadiums wearing shirts of their teams and cheer them up. Now we can have a situation where Delhi Daredevils could be playing in Johannesburg and rather than having enthusiast delhites screaming for them in the crowd, they will have some foreigners mocking at them. The very promise of the tournament that is being Indian is ignored at the outset. Have you ever heard English Premier League being held in India ??? For BCCI it’s huge money at play which it cannot risk, even if they have to hijack the event elsewhere.

I wonder if anybody has spared a thought for the Indian viewer who has made IPL a huge success. Well Mr Lalit Modi claims that they have “taken care” of his needs and kept the dates and timings of matches the same. Of course, how else they would justify the huge sum they are charging to the advertisers for the Primetime.
So no need to take the hassle of going to stadium this time to cheer for your favourite team. Just sit in front of the “idiot Box” and say “Chak De” . Cheers to BCCI for selling the Indian dream outside. Keep it up!!!