Bandh- What does it serve?

In this era of development and progress, the factor which puts brakes is the Bandh called by various political parties to air their ire against the ruling government and its policies.  Kerala and W Bengal stand out in this aspect  without realising that the image of the state is going down and beaten in terms of Foreign investments and capital inflows which form the basic foundation for the economy to grow and in- turn create employment.

Kerala and W Bengal wakes up in suspense everyday wondering if there will be milk supply, electricity, bus and train services to keep up the  normal life style!  I was once caught in such a situation in Trivandrm, Kerala.  I had gone there with my wife to attend a wedding.  Everything was quiet the day prior to the wedding and suddenly the wedding day started with a Trade Union Bandh protesting against some fuel hike and the entire system was in a disarray putting every one in serious inconvenience and trouble.  I could not go to the wedding avenue on time since there was no transportation available.  I had to necessarily attend the function as there was no other way we could fill our stomach as all the hotels and restaurants were also closed! With great difficulty, We managed to reach the venue and darted to the hall where food was being served to break our fasting mode!  We were made to wait at the avenue till evening when the transport resumed ending the 12 hour bandh!

It is not understood as to why the political parties resort to such tactics which put great hardship on the common man.  All those visiting the God's own country should make sure that they bring in some kind of "flying chariots" or those "horses with wings" to fend for themselves lest they start cursing both the God and their own country!!

Gambling in Indian Premier League -T20 cricket

The Government of India is quick to say that there exists gambling in cricket and have also made some arrests.Today's Newspapers claim something like Rs  850 crores were at stake on each and every day during the IPL saga. The media hypes of gambling in cricket, only makes more attraction towards betting!  Tell me how it is different than a stock market investment specially for intra-day dealings?  The movement of stock prices and the market fluctuations are totally irrelevant to the health of the company or its financial status.  The fresh IPOs come with an escalated price band.  How the price band is determined is something which no one knows?  Why an increased price band for a company which has not even started the production, leave alone making profits?  This stock market game can be easily compared to that of  Gambling and its always the innocent lower and middle class who get entangled in these positions as they are unable to sustain for a longer duration by staying invested and wait for the opportunity.  It is time that the government makes it legal for betting in cricket and other related games as it would help the government to raise enormous amounts of money through entertainment tax, service tax etc..  Either way, whether its stock market or cricket betting, the person without the inside knowledge of the game will stand to loose!! If you have to make money on these counts, better look for friends in the friends of cricket administrators or the kins of politicians who are at the helm of affairs so that you can have the cake and eat it too!!??

ek aise gagan ke tale jahan gham bhi na ho, aansoo bhi na ho

Welcome China in Cricket League

The only way to counter the current on-going cricket fever in the form of IPL is to lure the Chinese to enter the fray and promote an identical league in a cheaper way for which the Chinese people are famous for!  Imagine, if the Chinese enter this arena, the entire format will become cheaper and competitive enough to drive our IPL masters and politicians out of the field!!  The tickets may cost not more than Rs 300/- in comparison to Rs 3000/- that we are paying now, the accessories such as T-shirts may cost just Rs99/-, the cricket bat-made in China @Rs150/- and so on which will bring smiles on the facees of millions of cricket lovers all over our great country!  The so called Foreign players could be well replaced by some  identical Lee or Chung from China and hired at a much lower remuneration!  There would be thrilling singles taken by the Chinese players as they will be very swift and fast running across the wickets.  The entire format of the game could become more interesting at a lower expense!  I wonder if any sports body or Kapil Dev and company have ever thought of this?  This entry could be called Chinese Premier League and to pacify the opposition parties such as BJP and others, each ticket could entitle the person or the holder for a Visa-free entry to Kailash Mansarovar, the ultimate abode of Lord Shiva!!  The Indians and specially the Hindus will be delighted with this idea?  The popular cheer-leaders will be drawn from young Chinese athletes and Gymnasts who could perform to the pre-set tunes from Chinese MP4 players which will be more attractive and worth watching?  The Chinese team management can also ask the spectators to behave while watching the game or else they will face transportation by road to places beyond Tibet- a point of no return!!!

There will be no Tharoor or Modi or even Pawar to corner all the wealth  and it will be Cricket- la- Chinese style @ rates that will be atleast 1/10th of the present pricing??

I hope some one will take this idea and also give me royalty for this unique suggestion to transform the much popular Cricket in India which is followed more as a Religion??

Naxal attack on CRPF men killing atleast 73 Security Personnel

The attack on CRPF jawans and killing several of them  by the Naxals in Chattisgarh early this morning comes as a rude shock to all  the citiizens.  There were at least 1000 Naxals prepared to launch this offensive against a small contingent of  100 odd CRPF Jawans who were ambushed and killed mercilessly.  These men in uniform were on duty helping the state to eliminate Terrorism caused by the Naxal movement.  It is quite clear and  surprising to note that the Naxals have thrown an open challenge to the Government of India and dared them. 

If the government does not treat this as a War on the State and still invite and expect  these anti-national forces to lay their arms and come to the negotiating table, they are sadly mistaken and will stand a mute witness to this cowardly attack and killings of innocent people.  At the first instance, knowing pretty well that the area of attack was vulnerable, who authorised the dispatch of a small contingent  of jawans to fight a mighty force of Naxals who outnumbered the Jawans many fold?  There is a conspiracy attached to this incident and the strategy of the security force would have leaked and information passed on to the Naxals who were waiting for this contingent of CRPF jawans to walk into their trap like sitting ducks!  There are certain military procedures which are to be adopted while sending forces to counter terrorists which, I think were ignored. There should be intelligence report about the safety of the area etc. Before moving a contingent to a known sensitive area, the way that the convoy would take and follow will have to be sanitised and cleared.  There could have been some aerial survey of the area or satellite imaging done for any doubtful movements.  Apparently, all the pre-requisites were ignored and  a whole contingent of precious and valuable lives have been sacrificed.  The Government should immediately declare an emergency and treat this gruesome  incident as a War on the State and take effective steps including sending Army and Air Force to eliminate these Naxal forces who are a stumbling block for any development.  Any common citizen would dread to go these places or even visit fearing death warrant! The Home Minister and other leaders can only express grief and shock and probably order some  compensation for the families.  The government will find it difficult to recruit persons for serving the Security force in the coming days if this kind of simple sacrifice is made by the government instead of dealing the situation with an iron hand!

Raju
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focus what you like? be the forth Idiot!

My General Manager in the bank called me on a fine morning in 1981  to say "Iyer, We have decided to transfer you to Kaala Paani"! I was stunned and speechless thinking what wrong did I do for the management to initiate such a drastic action? The Punjabis of North India always considered Madras as the last place of preference and often referred Madras as Kaala pani!  The General Manager smiled once again to say " you stand transferred to Madras as the chief Manager of  the branch"!  It was like Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham scenario. I was behaving like the character Kalia in Sholay and his nervous(save my life) smile, when the notorious Gabbar Singh asks "Tera Kya Hoga Kalia"?  My close friends were joyous to tell me that I can make it big as they were aware that I had a passion for singing and since I was trained in classical music, I could probably end up as a play back singer?  My Punjabi friends were happy that they will have a place in Madras to camp if and when they visited?  I did not have even a single friend in the city and I knew it was quite a hard time that i had to face. Heart of Hearts, Delhi remained close to my heart.

19th august, 1981 was the day I landed at the erstwhile Madras along with my wife, son, mother and my mom-in-law!  My wife's relative was magnanimous in fixing a decent house in Mandaveli where I started living expecting countless events that one comes across in Life?

My Bank job was quite challenging and took me to lots of acquaintances in the business community and from there to developing personal relationships with people.  My singing skills became an attraction for many to become friends with me and the lure of being the Chief of a Nationalised Bank who could also grant loans for furthering business attracted quite a lot of persons and it really took some time for me to create a divide between my personal singing personality and that of a bank Manager!  Every day was a celebration and the invitations to attend functions and parties were numerous!  I was thanking my GM who called this great city a "Kaala Paani" which directly had a reference to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands where convicts used to be lodged so that they don't escape anywhere! No North Indian would prefer to work in this state and to support this ideology, this city did not even have a North Indian restaurant serving Tandoori Rotis and other stuff! One had to go miles in search of a Paan-wallah who you can bump into at every nook and corner of Delhi and without whom Life could not go on?  My landlord used to lock the gates at 8pm and many times, I had to jump the boundary walls when I came after attending a get-to-gether or a party!  The streets were deserted after 8pm and e city was more like a glorified village!  My landlord refused to give me a duplicate key for the gates and insisted that I should be back home by 8pm as otherwise, I will be considered a rogue which ignited and invoked the macho-hero  in me to buy an apartment of my own!


One day, a person came to my branch and introduced himself as a leading film producer and insisted that I listen to the audio cassette that he had brought along and went on to say that he has heard from people about my singing capabilities and insisted that I sing all the songs for his forthcoming, under production film in Tamil. I was quite thrilled when i listened to this story and promised him that I will listen to the cassette and give him a date for the recording!  He came the next day and said everything is finalised and that I have to render all the 5 songs in the film to which I readily agreed.  He stood in my room for sometime and I knew he had something to say.  After I finished with my clients, he said that he was in urgent need of Rs1 lac as the shooting was going  on at Ooty and that he would return the money once the film is complete, with interest!  I understood the game plan and expressed my inability to help him in the matter.  The least I could do was not to charge him for the songs that I render!!  He had ready suggestions and ways to  lend him a loan from the Bank.  Luckily, my integrity and commitment to the bank was foremost in my mind and the person was never seen after that?

Some of my journalists friends suggested that I meet the great Mastero  Ilayaraja and arranged for a meeting at the Prasad studios.  I was asked to come on a saturday at 3PM and I was there on dot with enthusiasm and Vigour!  I was off erred a chair at the ground floor and Ilayaraja had his room in the mezzanine floor of the building.  I sat for nearly 3 hours and saw many film personalities like Bharati Raja, Bhagyaraj and many others coming in and going out but my turn never came!  I was asked to come the next Saturday at the same time by one of his assistants known as santhanam.  This procedure was followed and went on for at least 6 months trying to meet him every Saturday and being unsuccessful in my efforts!  At this point of time, I was told by Smt Jaya Chakravarthy (Hema Malini's mother) that I should consider myself  just a plain artiste in search of recognition and shed the image and role of the Bank Manager whenever I met these artistes.  I agreed to her suggestion and went along with her to meet the mastero for a film Pooja at the Prasad Studios.  I saw Ilayaraja and his men surrounding him and training Smt Janaki to sing a song for a film named "Kozhi Koovudhu".  Mrs Chakravarthy told Raja about me and my aspirations to sing for a film under his direction.  He promptly asked me to sing a carnatic song and I sang a Keerthanai which was on Guru and set to Raga Shiva Ranjini.  Everyone around liked my voice and the modulations and Raja cheered me saying that there is something called Karma and if there was a destiny like that I would sing for him!  His expressions in Tamil just went above my head and I just nodded my head in acceptance.  Jaya chakravarthy told me not to give up and pursue with interest and vigour and I rightly did the same thing.  Hema Malini and Kannnan advised me to go to Mumbai and try in Bollywood as my Hindi was chaste and had character as basically I am from Delhi.  One section of my friends introduced me to Director Sakthi who inturn, took me to Shankar-Ganesh, Music Directors who labelled my Tamil as something sounding like Hindi?? Everyone knows and often wonder what these new singers like Udit Narayan, Sonu, KK and Shaaan sound like when they sing Tamil songs, now? Times have changed and the same Music directors who were talking of chaste Tamizh are happy making the Non-Tamil singers sing for their films!

I finally managed to get a break to sing in films in the year 1997 for a Tamil Film called "Seevalaperi Pandi" where I have sung the song Kizhakku cheevakkayile with Sujatha, the noted playback singer.  After nearly 7 constant years of persuasion and belief, I could finally manage  to lend my voice for a film play back. The actor has now become a central Minister in Manmohan singh's cabinet!


I recorded about 20 songs for various music directors including the Oscar winner A R Rehman.  I recorded about 12 Tamizh devotional cassettes for companies like Sangeetha, HMV, Echo and others.  I am happy to have achieved whatever I could with such limited options.  Time was such that it did not give me the options to break away from the Banking career as I was made to carry the responsibility of running the family and performing my sister's marriage which I did with much pride and courage way back in 1973. Somewhere in the corner of my heart there is a a sense of  regret that I did not pursue singing as a career but the educated mind contradicts and says I am much better off in this present position of a businessman earning well unlike a musician whose earning period is restricted and directly proportional  to popularity!

Last week, one lady in her 40s and working for a Foreign Bank came to my house. She has been with the Bank for the past 10 years and earning a decent salary.  Unhappy with whatever she was, she said she is passionate to sing for films and that too for A R Rehman!  Who would not like to sing for him?  I advised her to remove this idea of singing for a film from her memory and explained to her that she would be neither do justice to her Banking profession nor to the playback singing sphere and prompted me to write this blog for the benefit of those who are on the same page as I am?  The moment you say that you are working in a foreign bank, everyone will guess the income that you make and eventually will device methods to milch the hard earned earnings out of your strong room!  You can either be a Banker or a passionate singer! One can not be both!! and I tried to be both?

My advise to the youngsters who aspire to pursue what they like is to believe in themselves and be after  it with passion until you achieve what you wanted to be in your life as Life is only once and live it fully to your happiness and satisfaction!

Har Pal Yahan , jee bhar jiyo,
Jo hai samah, kal ho na ho !

Athithi-Tum kabhi Mat aana!!

The opening of Bandra- worli sea link to 4 lane traffic will be a boon for travellers as it will save time.  At the same time, the ruling party headed by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has created an awkward and embarrassing position by picking an argument as to who invited the Big B for the inaugural function and the high command seeking clarifications from the chief Minister.  Politics have nose dived to a new low in Indian History!  The Chief Minister claiming innocence about not knowing the participation by the legendary Amitabh Bachan does not deserve appreciation at all.  In fact, the congress should know that Amitabh Bachan has been a Mumbaikar and has carved a niche for himself as an Icon of the Film Industry and the Nation for that matter?  Inviting an Athithi(guest) and later creating an unwarranted controversy by the local congressmen does not go well with the party or its political ambitions.  Its time the politicians look at the big B as an Icon of the country and not belonging to any political outfit.  The congress should also know that they derived benefits out of him  a quarter century back when he was elected as a Member of Parliament from Allahabad constituency and represented Congress.  It is idiotic to question his participation specially when he did not come on his own and was invited by a Minister in the Congress!  The function got the star status with the presence of the Big B and the politicians must understand it.  The timing of the newly released film Athithi tum kab Jaoge matches well with the treatment meted to this great man who stands much more taller than any Indian Politician!  Look at the Big B as a human being and a person of respect and regard him for whatever he is worth and feel proud that he is a part of Mumbai?  Jai Hind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!