Personal blog

Satinder Sartaaj recently performed in Delhi and the show was a big hit. It was also advertised on Facebook and Insta like crazy, so anyone having anything to do with music, even remotely, knew about it. Folks in my wifey’s office were talking about the concert and they asked her if we went to see it. She said no, and then added that this guy was a little too self-obsessed and it’s gotten kinda annoying lately. They were surprised to hear that. What was she even saying? How could we miss that concert…that “legend of a thing”? ...

Amrita Pritam’s poem from her book navi’n rutt ਰਾਂਝਣ ਵੇ ਤੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ਪਹਿਲੇ ਲੀਤਾ ਮੌਲਵੀ, ਜਿਸ ਰੱਖਿਆ ਤੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ਫੇਰ ਰਾਂਝਣ ਰਾਂਝਣ ਕਰਦੀ ਰਹੀ, ਤੇਰੀ ਕਰਮਾਂ ਵਾਲੀ ਮਾਂ ਰਾਂਝਣ ਵੇ ਤੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ਅੰਮੜੀ ਨੇ ਲੀਤਾ, ਬਾਬੁਲ ਲੀਤਾ, ਲੀਤਾ ਫੇਰ ਭਰਾਂ ਭੈਣਾਂ ਲੀਤਾ, ਭਾਬੀਆਂ ਲੀਤਾ, ਲੀਤਾ ਸਾਰੇ ਗਰਾਂ ਰਾਂਝਣ ਵੇ ਤੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਨੂੰ ਦੋਸ਼ ਕੋਈ ਨਾ ਦੇਵੇ, ਕਰੇ ਨਾ ਕੋਈ ਮਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਪਰ ਤਦ ਕਿਓਂ ਬਣੇ, ਗੁਨਾਹ ਵੇ ਰਾਂਝਿਆ, ਜਦ ਮੈਂ ਹੀਰ ਤੱਤੀ ਮੂੰਹੋਂ ਲਾਂ ਰਾਂਝਣ ਵੇ ਤੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ...

In recent times as people have become more health-conscious, diagnostic centers have been popping up like mushrooms. With corporations partnering with companies providing such services, this sector has become a money making one. All you need is some capital investment, a few tie-ups and you are ready to go. I needed to get a test done and it became bit of a deal. First the appointment wasn’t confirmed timely, then the diagnostic center messed it up. ...

These are just some random rants about what I have been thinking about. Watching this podcast episode by Sangtar kind of pushed me to scribble it down here. So should the culture not change ? How do we decide that what all bits should stay as they are and what all bits should change ? Also, who decides that ? We have seen that black and white photograph showing a traditional Punjabi kitchen. Such kitchens had arrangement for letting the smoke out but of course wood and all the stuff that was used wasn’t a clean fuel like modern day things including gas and electric stoves. Since mostly women worked in the kitchen, they were the ones most impacted by this. That photograph looks nice and nostalgic but should it not have gone anyway ensuring better health for all who work in the kitchen ? ...

It is a difficult topic to write about so I am just going to jot down some thoughts that come to mind when I think about this whole movement. Our generation hasn’t really seen anything like this in their lives. The scale, the way it was organised and sustained is an example in itself. Now when their demands have been met and they are going back, it is also a lesson on how to organise a protest and put your point of view across without resorting to any unconstitutional ways or means. Lakhs of people came together to protest with a single agenda; asking for rollback of laws and a law on MSP. It went on for an year and it is not easy to sustain a protest for that long. Imagine lakhs of people living on the roads and to arrange for all their daily needs. It takes some spirit to be able to sustain it. Few things that i think have been unique with this protest: ...

Folk songs can be centuries old. They are passed from one generation to another. Many times, the areas of origin are known but who wrote it remains unknown. Yesterday I was in a ClubHouse room and someone sang mitti da bawa (Originally sung by Jagjit Singh & Chitra Singh). She also mentioned that it is written by Shiv. I had my doubts as Shiv was a recent poet and such a thing would of course be documented somewhere. I checked his complete poetry collection and as expected it was not there. That led me to turn to Google and all over the internet it was the same information that it has been written by Shiv. ...

If you are familiar with Heer Waris Shah you would know that in an attempt to make it the “biggest” Heer, many publishers got new verses written in the name of Waris Shah and completely spoiled the original text. This continued for decades till the research work dedicated to cleaning the text of this garbage was undertaken in both Punjabs and an authentic version was published. To give you an example, a very famous band, sung by many singers ਡੋਲੀ ਚੜ੍ਹਦਿਆਂ ਮਾਰੀਆਂ ਹੀਰ ਚੀਕਾਂ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਲੈ ਚਲੇ ਬਾਬਲਾ ਲੈ ਚਲੇ ਵੇ isn’t written by Waris Shah. Even Gulzar fell for it when he included it in the album called " Heer by Abida" he did with Abida Parveen ...

This is from the Facebook memories of 2014. 2-3 days ago I was listening to AIR FM Gold channel and there was a letter from someone from some remote place in Kashmir. The gentleman insisted in the letter that DO read the name of the place from where I am writing. I couldn’t stop myself from noticing the difference. On one side we in the metros are living this always-on-run life and on the other side there was someone who wanted his place’s name to be read loudly so that people know about it ! How simple life must be at that place ! ...

Read day 20 So the lockdown has been extended till 3rd May. There are going to be some relaxations area wise, starting from 20th Apr depending upon if there have been no new cases in the area and many other conditions. But still we need to be careful. Countries all over the world are struggling with it. Once it gets out of hands, it will become impossible to control the spread. ...

Read day 19 So there is still no clarity about the lockdown extension at this moment. The number of cases is touching 10000. Hope it gets extended in some shape as still we haven’t able to flatten the curve. There are new hotspots being found every few days. It needs to be extended in some shape as otherwise the situation may get out of control. Let’s see what decision the government takes. ...