Life is…

Today one of my friend forwarded a mail which i think is worth making into a blog entry. It is a must read if you have been to Chandigarh. Well, even if you haven’t but then you won’t understand everything . So here it goes:

You know you are in Chandigarh when…

1) University elections become more important than MLA, MC elections (SOPU, PUSU bruuahh)

2) Explaining Gehri to outsiders becomes a tough task

3) ‘Uphill’ can only be understood by you

4) You always have a ‘pind’ to goto every month

5) Kaimbwala requires no further defining

6) You always have a separate budget (after buying a car) for bigger tyres, alloy wheels, stereo, woofer

7) Shopping in guys’ vocabulary refers to buying daru from Jugnu Ahata and soda, glasses from any confectionery

8 ) Names like Neelam, Nirman, Kiran, Jagat, Batra, Piccadily aren’t just names but entertainment centers

9) Car-o-bar refers to drinking with glasses on the dickey of the car in sector 8 market late at night

10) Paranthe wale are the chefs who come out late at night at sector 16 to make paranthe and chai for late night partygoers

11) Abbreviations like GCG, MCM mean a lot without knowing their full forms

12) Guys speak in loud Punjabi when a group of girls passes by and girls start speaking in English everytime a group of guys passes by

13) The city seems too slow and dead and everyone heads to Delhi

14) The traffic cops start the challan drive in the last week of March to end the year in good numbers

15) Everyone has a ‘massi’ in Canada, and a ‘bhua’ in UK

16) Once upon a point Valentine’s Day meant tractors on Gehri route and speeds of only 5 km/h

17) A new year’s bash is incomplete without a fight

18) Any party is incomplete without a fight

19) Everyone has some political connection

20) Stu C is more popular with non students

21) You are proud of being from a particular school and a passive member of its alumni group (YPS, Vivek, Sna, GNPS, Carmel, SJOBA etc)

22) Going to the dog show means checking out the girls more than the dogs

23) Owning a Bullet while still in school is an achievement

24) Spending up to Rs 2 lacs on number 1 for a car’s number plate does not raise any eyebrows

25) Kinetic Honda scooter is referred to as Kiney and Bullet bike as Bullt

26) You are proud of being a Punjabi

27) ‘Mallo Malli Khadak Piyan’ sticker is found on many cars

28) Guys are called by their surnames, (Brar, Sidhu bai, Dhillon) and followed by “Kiven aa, Kidaan!!”

29) 22g, 62 is only understood by you

30) You are shocked to find out when someone doesn’t drink and is a vegetarian

31) Many people are ‘vella’ when asked what they do

32) Everyone’s been to the Rock Garden and hate to show it yet again to family friends/relatives from other cities

33) One hand, while driving, is on the ‘muchh’ and the other on the steering wheel

34) Everybody knows everybody

35) Every new party place has the same old faces

36) A new car, bike etc. first comes to the Gehri route n later to the gurudwara or mandir

37) Coke and Pepsi come in small ‘Sheeshee’

39) Anyone and Everyone has had food at “Pal Da Dhaba” and “Giani Da Dhaba (Dharampur)”

40) Desi Ahatas are officially called “TAVERNS”

41) Everyone has heard the song “Chandigarh kare aashiqui” by B21

42) Bikers are challaned even if the pillion rider is not wearing a helmet and girls are allowed to ride without one.

43) While in school everyone waits for tuition time to finally talk to the special person (not in a uniform)

44) Panchkula and Mohali-ites don’t mind being called as Chandigarhians

45) Very few ppl know about the Mosque in sector 20 and the Church in sector 18

46) Most ppl have been challaned more than once (for speeding mostly)

47) … And most ppl have gone to the district courts in sector 17 to get their challans cleared (as it is cheaper than paying the fine at sector 29 police
lines)

48) A good lookin car turns more heads than a pretty girl

49) English speaking girls are usually referred to as “yankan” or “jhankan”

50) The “Gehri-on-foot” (à la sector 35 CCD lane, sector 17) becomes more popular.

Reservations have already screwed up all the admission criterion’s, now comes another blow. They are again lowering the cut offs for SC/ST candidates.

I just don’t understand what is wrong with the decision makers in India ? As this piece of news reads that earlier when the relaxation was at 40% if last general category student was having scored 5 in maths, 0 in physics and 3 in chemistry, an SC/ST student who had scored up to 40% lower- 3 in maths, 0 in physics and 1.8 in chemistry - was given a seat in the IITs. Now they want to make it 40%. That means if we keep the last general candidate’s marks constant then new limits for SC/ST students would be 2.5 in maths, 0 in physics and 1.5 in chemistry.

Shouldn’t we be ashamed of what is happening in our country ? The whole day we keep on uttering that IITs are the best institutes. So this is what kind of students we are sending to IITs to get the best of education ? There are no standards at all. I have nothing new to say than one of my previous posts.

We are getting nowhere !!!

Today morning i opened my laptop and was checking BBC website and the first news was the great poet Ahmed Faraz is no more He died after a protracted illness.

His ghazal ranjish hi sahi… rendered by Mehdi Hasan became a masterpiece. Faraz once said that Mehdi has sung it so beautifully that now it belongs to him. He will always be remembered for his great poetry.

May his soul rest in piece. Here are few links to his poetry on one of my blog and urdupoetry.com

http://www.urdupoetry.com/faraz.html

http://amardeepsidhu.com/poetry/tag/ahmed-faraz/

This whole week was pretty frustrating, irritating and boring. Didn’t do much work and neither felt like doing. Thank God its Friday. Hoping to have some rest on Sat & Sun and then be ready to happily face the next week

It has been raining in Delhi and around since morning. There is water everywhere on the roads and traffic is in worst condition. There are hell lot of traffic jams. Everybody is getting late. Its taking 3-4 hours in reaching Delhi from Gurgaon and 2 hours if you have to go within Gurgaon.

With pretty nice taste of rain i just came back from office. Now have to pack my bags and leave for home by night train. Thinking about leaving bit early as there are traffic jams and moreover a bit tight security due to 15th August.

A day of continuous rain exposes everything of our drainage system. Its so badly built that it rains for an hour and roads are full of water and traffic jams.

Something needs to be done !

Yesterday was the longest day (14 hours ) i spent in this company since i joined it about 2 years ago. Today is kind of D-day for the project i am working for so there were some preparations to be done before that. Not much workload but “presence is important” kind of stuff. I have a record of staying in office for more than 24 hours in the last company and hoping not to break that record

Another useless thing of yesterday was the India-band called by BJP & VHP. I just can’t understand when people of this country would throw away the stupidities. There are agitations in western countries also but everything is peaceful and general public is not disturbed. Here they blocked roads, stopped traffic and so many other things.

There was news from Ambala that a heart patient died on his way to hospital as the protesters didn’t allow the three-wheeler to move. Shit man, they don’t understand the value of a single life and they say that they are doing this for crores of Hindus, and many times for this country. Please…country doesn’t need you. Go back and sit in your homes. You can serve better by doing that.

I don’t know where this country is heading

See what Supreme Court has to say about the people overstaying in Govt accommodations.

In India, even God is helpless

The reservation issue was again in news in past few months as Gujjars were asking for reservation in Rajasthan. I won’t write whether gujjars were right or wrong in asking for reservation but lets talk about the reservation itself first.

I find this very idea of ‘cast based reservation’ stupid. It was a stupidity in the very first place. First thing you say people from some castes should be given some relaxation in the exams, admissions…whatsoever as they are financially weak and haven’t got access to all the facilities. Now are all the people from those castes same ? NO !

Second thing the people whom you leave in general section ? Are all of them able to provide their children with good education and facilities ? again NO !

So we talk about financial conditions of people but on the basis of their caste. How that is useful ?

Just an example. By now ( as it has been so many years since reservation system was put in place) how much percentage of people on administrative posts (IAS, IPS, PCS etc) has come through reservation system ? (no offenses intended here). May be 20-30% or more or less. Fine ! Now they can give all the facilities to their children but their children will again get admissions using their quota certificates. So what is the use ?

Once i heard that president K R Narayanan’s daughter got admission to IAS in some reserved quota (I have no proof, but there might be hundreds of such cases, if not this one). Now tell me was she really deprived of all the facilities ?

Another point is while admitting people to professional colleges for engineering, medical and other studies is it okay to relax in terms of score they get ? Recently someone on TV gave an example that lets say someone in your family was seriously ill, you took him to hospital. What would you think that a fully qualified doctor should take his case or the one who was not that intelligent but came through reservation ? Obvious answer is the qualified one. Then why reservation at every place ?

Helping poor people reach a standard in their life is not a problem. But it should have been implemented in some other manner like providing financial assistance to the people who were not able to bear the expenses of education. Giving them free books, education and other facilities. That too without saying what caste or class did they belong to.

The saddest part is that now this evil has been installed and its here to stay for always. No government is going to amend these laws as that would mean toppling of the government the very next day.

I have no hopes

Someone has rightly said “Money can’t buy happiness”. One may not believe this but watching 2 videos made my day and gave me a ton of happiness.

I stumbled upon one video of Musarat Nazir on youtube and then i saw mera long gwacha’s video, done by her on PTV in 1985-86. My lifetime favourite song which i have grown up listening to. The voice, tone ,music reminds of those beautiful old days. It used to play mostly on radio channels like Jalandhar, All India Radio and Lahore. When i got computer at home, i recorded this song by placing microphone near radio speaker and today i got to watch that video. Plain awesome…real singing with soul and emotions.

Then watched video of another favourite of mine chale to kat hi jeyga safar. Simply made my day !!!

Enjoy these videos:

It has been more than 50 years since we got freedom and we all are aware that politics and corruption have screwed up the whole system of India. I was watching a video by Shiv Khera where he calls to build a corruption free nation. A must watch for every Indian:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Also, there are 2 videos in Hindi:

Part 1:

Part 2: