Personal blog

With the invention of Television in the past and the internet recently the traditional radio has died a silent death. The shape that it still exists in is FM radio. But unfortunately, the quality of stuff that these FM channels broadcast is mostly trash. If you are a poetry/ghazals lover, these 2 online channels broadcast some brilliant stuff. Check them out. Mirchi Mehfil - https://gaana.com/radio/radio-mehfil Radiocity Ghazal - http://www.radiocity.in/radiocity-ghazal Apart from these two, FM Gold channel of All India Radio broadcasts (in NCR, not sure about other cities) a ghazals programme called “Andaaz-e-bayaan” in the evening from 5:30 to 6. You can listen to it on FM radio (106.4 in NCR. So now they swapped the frequencies. This program is broadcast at 101.1 same time), online at http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Default.aspx or through mobile apps http://allindiaradio.gov.in/mobileapp/Pages/Default.aspx ...

us ka apna hi karishma hai fusun hai yun hai yun to kehne ko sabhi kehte hain yun hain yun hain (fusun - magic) jaise koi dar-e-dil par ho sitaada kab se ek saya na darun hai na barun hai yun hai (dar-e-dil - door of heart, sitaada - standing, darun - inner, barun - outer) tum ne dekhi hi nahi dasht-e-wafa ki tasveer nok-e-har-khar pe ik qatra-e-khoon hai yun hai (dasht - desert, khar - thorn, qatra - drop) ...

I planned to write this post on Independence day but then laziness took over and I dropped the idea. Then in the evening, I went out to get some groceries and this idiot jumping the red light in his big car again inspired me to do it. Anyways let’s get back to the point. Like every year, this independence day also social media was flooded with patriotic messages. It looks like such a good scene but the unfortunate reality is that this whole drama lasts only for a day. Today is 16th Aug and everything is back to normal again. Actually, we are a hypocrite nation. Probably have always been one. Loving the country for a day can solve any problems? No. Remembering the national anthem by heart can solve any problems? or can make someone a better citizen? No. To be honest I don’t remember the national anthem of India but I know for sure that I am a better citizen than many of the people around me. And I also know how many of them pretend to be such patriots but what all they have been up to in their lives. Was just wondering that instead of displaying these one-day emotions how about: ...

If you have ever used Helium app (earlier called Carbon) on android to backup/restore apps/data you would be aware that on non-rooted phones that app needs to be enabled first by connecting your phone via USB cable to your computer running Carbon desktop app. For most of the phones you need to choose the PTP mode after connecting the USB cable and the Helium app gets enabled on your phone. Somehow this doesn’t work for Redmi phones (running MIUI). There you need to choose MIDI mode. I did it last time but had to struggle this time again. I was trying with PTP and it was not working. Thought of documenting it. ...

Few things we learned on our recent trip to Goa: Lets get started with the first one i.e. finding a taxi once you land at Goa airport. The queue at the official counter is too long. You probably will have to wait for 30 mins or more to get a taxi. It would be a better idea to either arrange a taxi before you reach there or go out from the airport and talk to the some drivers roaming around. They have their cars parked on the roadside and you can easily strike a deal with one of them. Will save you a lot of time though you may need a walk few hundred meters. No there is no Ola or Uber in Goa. If you are staying near Calangute the best place to rent a bike, car or a jeep is guy called Dolphin. Very genuine rates and a good number of vehicles he owns. Here is the location of this shop. Titos is a shithole. Avoid it. There must be tens of better pubs out there. But AVOID Titos. They really have nothing to offer. Folks plying taxis in the city hardly bargain. They are going to charge the amount they quote. At times it might be a better idea to rent a bike or car. That is all for now. ...

As it was becoming difficult to maintain 3 different blogs So I merged three blogs of mine into one. Now posts from all three blogs Perosnal, Poetry & Punjabiat are merged into Personal one. The posts specific to Poetry and Punjabiat blogs can be accessed from the tabs on the top. The pages from each of these blogs are also linked under those tabs. For the time being I have also set up temporary redirection from the old URLs to new URLs. There is some cleanup that needs to be done. Hope to complete that soon. ...

A friend sent a link to a video that shows 2 girls smoking smack and cigarettes in what looks like a hostel room. Neither this is something totally new nor as a man, I have any right to say that girls shouldn’t do this. When boys are doing all this why not girls ? But something visual like this does make an impact and makes you think like where we are heading ? ...

I stared my first job in 2004 in Mohali and we used in live in phase 5 and then 3B2. There was a music shop in Phase 5 market (Opposite Khalsa Dhaba. I cant recall the name. Probable Some Audio Hut. It is not there any more. The owner guy closed it down and move abroad I think.). As I was a regular customer there so that guy was well known to me. Well before release of any of the new Gurdas Maan albums people started waiting for the audio CDs. Problem was that on release day companies would release only a limited number of copies and shops would run out of stock on the first day itself. In few hours in fact. Because that guy was known to me so he would keep my copy safe and when we went to him after office in the evening he will call me inside and silently hand over the CD wrapped in a paper. Such was this man’s magic. MP3 days had already started but people would make an exception in Gurdas Maan’s case and buy the original CD. ...

This is a shitty post. I mean literally. I have heard many times that once Jamsetji Tata was denied entry to some luxury hotel by the English. Frustrated at that he promised that he will create similar class of hotels and he did; this Taj Hotels thing. This rant is mostly about 5* hotels in India including Taj. Why they don’t have this jet thing in the toilet ? They do know that Indians use that. Right ? Even the Taj ones don’t have. So what the heck that frustration was for ? To create something the way English use it ? Eh…Cool ! ...

This song used to play a lot on radio during my school days. Yesterday from somewhere this line “aj tain mainu maar pawai nan’de” was running in my mind. Then I searched for this song and stumbled upon this live version by Ranjit Kaur. The YouTube description of the video says that it was in Canada in 1982. That makes this song almost three decades old. I was not able to find the album version. So not sure even the album version exists somewhere or not. Here is the album version finally. ...