LOndOn DreAms - Chak de India

Hockey: National sport of India, it’s hard to believe but true. If you ask a child today he will not hesitate saying Cricket is the national sport of India.

More shocking is the pathetic condition of our national sport. The sport in which the Indian team is most successful in Olympic history with 8 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. Dhyan Chand, best known as “Hockey Wizard”; the greatest player of all time and most remembered for his goal-scoring feats and for his three Olympic gold medals (1928, 1932, and 1936), while India was dominant in the sport. He scored more than 400 goals during his international career. You can imagine his greatness from - August 29, Dhyan Chand's birthday, is celebrated as National Sports Day in India; the Indian Postal Service issued a postage stamp in his memory. This Padma Bhushan award winner died of Liver Cancer in a general ward of AIIMS due to ignorance of Indian Government. That’s the history of Indian Hockey.

Indian Hockey team’s condition is also same like Dhyan Chand’s last days. You can judge the deplorable condition of Indian Hockey from this; once an unbeaten team for 6 Olympic Games in a row, now plays qualifying matches for it. But on Feb 26th 2012 the players gave a little tonic to the ailing Hockey, the Indian men's national hockey team has qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London after a gap of 8 years.

In the just concluded qualifiers after a long time Indian Hockey team seems like one unit, it was fast, it was energetic and hungry to win. It seemed like the good old times are back. The players performed so admirably, Michael Nobbs (Indian Coach) has done wonders; the players looked fitter, faster. This is just the beginning of the journey and the destination is still very far and the ride is only going to get tougher from here.

But sadly the officials are still the same, busy in pulling each other down. The fight B/W two sports body (Hockey India & Indian Hockey Federation) is getting nastiest. Just few days are left but still the players are not sure whether they are playing in WHS (World Series Hockey) or the Olympics Camp.

In this kind of administration the road to the Olympics is going to be harsh. Dear officials please resolve your differences and provide better platform to the team and bring back the lost glory of the National game.

Good wishes from a Hockey lover to the coach and the players to fulfill our London Dreams. Here's hoping for some more surprises from you guys……… CHAK DE INDIA

Exploring the D of Delhi - Surajkund Fest

After pushing me for over four years, this year at last she won. Neiha was asking me to visit Surajkund fest since quite long, even I wanted to but because of one or other reasons we missed it every season. But this time she pushed me so hard that we landed straight into the mela and that too planned just a day before.

Around noon we (Me, Neiha, Vicky, Jyoti) were on our way to Surajkund. Gurgaon-Faridabad road was under construction so we got some bumpy ride till we moved to surajkund road; from there the road was a good curvy retreat and what made it more beautiful was the cloudy weather. 

But that beautiful feeling of being a lonely animal in lush green fields soon disappears as we reached close surajkund. It seemed like people from all the nearby cities and villages thronged to the place. Long traffic queues and then fully occupied miles of parking space gave an impression like we are going to witness India Pakistan world cup final. Finally after crossing two parking areas we got space to park our car. I was excited to visit a mela after so long (I remember I went to one when I was in 5^th or 6^th standard). But with every step closer to the fest my excitement was fading down because of the excessive crowd.

Finally after struggling with the long ticketing queues we moved in (sorry crawled in – We didn’t have that much space to move). As always we were hungry before reaching our destination and with no doubts in our mind, Neiha & Vicky were the big bhukhas among us. So we moved directly towards the food court. The best thing about the fest was its location, it’s like deep inside the jungle, greenery all around; but that feeling of isolation in a jungle was badly crushed down by the massive crowd. Anyways, let aside the struggle to get the food, the quality & variety of food was very good and one can have every dish in the Indian food menu from idli sambhars to the pizzas pastas.

I was exhausted even before starting our pedestal walk, thanks to Jyoti for giving me company in the same feeling. As always Neiha was super excited to visit every nook and corner of the place and she was the one who kept us going. There was lot of stuff to shop for from woodcrafts, artifacts, bone-china material, clothes, antique statues, lamp shades. There were many dance performances at different locations but we could not see any, infact it was almost impossible to have a glimpse of those as every venue was over occupied. The most attractive stall for me was that of Tihar Jail Inmates shop, they are selling every stuff from candles to soaps, from greeting cards to diaries, from potato chips to biscuits and all the stuff was handmade by the jail occupants.

After listening to our repetitive cries at last Neiha agreed to leave the place half searched and move out; because it was getting wearisome, bumping to people again and again.

We were on the way back home, so were the birds. And they gave us the best view of their flight I had ever seen in my life. A group of white storks flying too low along the straight road, it seems they will hit my cars wind shield but at the last moment the birds pulled up. Our jaws dropped on this mesmerizing experience, we stopped the car to say thanks & goodbye to the birdies. “See you again on next year’s fest, but definitely not on a weekend”

The INDIAN Dirty Picture

Sorry Vidya, this is not about your movie. Perhaps I didn’t find it that dirty. Everything in the movie was good and true to our Indian culture from the skin show to the dialogues ‘Jab sharafat apne kapare uttarti hai to sabse jyada maza shariffon ko hi aata hai’

The reason why I am writing this is ‘The Indian Hypocrisy’. Few weeks ago there was a porn watching incident in Karnataka assembly. There was a lot of mullah about the incident and the centre point of all the talks was ‘Ministers were watching porn’. My question is ‘Is watching porn a crime?’ NO, not even in Indian law books. Media and we the Indian public should ask those ministers why they were doing anything else rather than participating or listening to the assembly debates. But the narrow minded Indian media just concentrated on the ‘PORN’ stuff. Why because it will increase their TRP. And it’s not their fault we the Indians are always interested in those masala news. In my view those ministers should be punished as much as the others, who sleep during the assembly proceedings.

Today is the Valentine Day and these are the people who will stand against this love day and those Shiv Sena and Ram Sena people will stand guard to protect the so called Indian culture. Ask those guardians of Indian culture to march to these ministers now. Why are they not saying anything now?

Not only these ministers, majority of Indian public is like this. I mean, who had not seen porn in their life? But still it is considered wrong. Ya, only the few are so audacious to watch it in public. And these Karnataka ministers are not alone on that path. There are lot many people who do the same brave stuff in office and the number of aged persons out pace the young population in that regard. Every friend of mine can count number of people in their respective office for the same and I am sure their finger tips would fell short for that.

Then why these double standards? If you enjoy sex that much….. then why to say it bad? Are we defending some culture or hypocrisy? And what culture we are talking about. The culture in which Kamasutra is considered an art, a culture of Khajuraho temples & Ajanta Elora caves, a culture where Draupadi’s polyandry is considered normal or a culture where Lord Krishna’s flirts with his gopi’s is called raslilla.

If we look at the history books, its not the Indian culture we are cribbing about it’s the culture of Mughals that we are defending now. Indian culture was very much open, that we can judge from our epic stories and historic constructions. It’s the Mughals who brought the ‘parda pratha’ in India. And now these so called culture guardians are advising girls not to wear jeans and skimpy dresses. As if the sick minded people will check the dress of the girl before raping her. It’s the mentality of the person which is responsible for his crime not the dress of the victim.

This is only one aspect of Indian hypocrisy. There are lot many issues like this, Drinking, prostitution etc. Alcohol is easily available in Gujarat, the dry state of India. Drinking for girls is considered morally wrong in a country which is among the largest consumers of alcohol in the world. Who don’t know about the GB Road in the heart of capital of great India where prostitution is illegal. Every body loves it, but still pre-marital sex is considered immoral. A boy with so many girlfriends is considered stud and a girl with two boyfriends is labeled as loose character.

So, why are we like this? When do we change or are we happy with our two face society? I am not asking this question to anybody else. We must ask this to ourselves.

Exploring the D of Delhi - Qutub Minar

“Yaar, I want to see this place” Every time I cross Andheria Mor, my vision automatically stuck at the pride of Delhi…….. a soaring 73 feet high tower of victory ‘Qutub Minar’. It’s been more than five years of my presence in NCR and I still have to explore Delhi. And Qutub Minar is the nearest to my place among all the historic monuments of our capital city. Thousands of time I passed by Qutub Minar area and its tremendous height never let me cross over without attracting my eyes.

Finally the day has arrived and we were on our way to see the tallest minaret in India. The journey started on smooth note from Gurgaon on ‘Delhi Metro’. From Qutub Minar Metro Station it’s about 2KM by road. At first we opted for an auto for Rs. 60 but then an unusual vehicle came in front of us and we moved to that. In actual it was an Omni van but it seems like if it was put on fire last night. There was not even a patch of paint left on it; all the four wheels were smooth like Mr. Gandhi’s head. Let aside the stereo system, even the dashboard was broken from at least 15 places, not even a single switch was on its place. I was suspicious wither it will start or we have to push it. But finally it started and with dwindling moves and scary sounds it reached safely to Qutub Minar. We paid 10Rs. each as it was a shared vehicle and thanked the driver for that wonderful ride.

The worst thing about India is whenever you go to visit some place it seems like all the people are already there, before you reach….. Thanks to the Indian population. I asked Neiha to get in the entry queue of main gate and I went to the ticketing queue to save time. It took us around 30 minutes to enter the majestic structure.

I was first surprised by the cleanliness of the place, and then I got to know that Qutub Minar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and they make considerable efforts to protect and preserve heritage sites. On the right side of main entrance gate was a souvenir shop and the tall ever attractive monument is on the left of entrance. It is surrounded by several other ancient and medieval structures and ruins collectively. We first explored other structures before moving to the masterpiece. Every piece of the beautiful structures were so well preserved and maintained that you will feel happy about the authority’s efforts for that.

After spending around one hour in the lawns and clicking small structures we finally reached the minaret. Everyone knows that Qutub Minar is very tall but you get to know its real size when you stand close to it; it was soooooooo tall and attractive. The question that is often being put up and that came to my mind is "Why the monument is that big?"

Then I read the Description of the building on the signboard ‘Built in 1193 by Qutab-ud-din Aibak immediately after the defeat of Delhi's last Hindu kingdom constructed with red sandstone and marble Qutub Minar is the tallest minaret in India, with a height of 72.5 meters (237.8 ft), contains 379 stairs to reach the top, and the diameter of base is 14.3 meters where as the last store is of 2.7 meters.’ But the origins of Qutab Minar are shrouded in controversy. Some believe it was erected as a tower of victory to signify the beginning of the Muslim rule in India. Others say it served as a minaret to the muezzins to call the faithful to prayer. However, no one can, dispute that the tower is not only one of the finest monuments in India, but also in the world.

We missed the chance of climbing up the Minar by few years, as earlier it was open for the tourists but then it was closed for safety reasons and to preserve the splendid structure.

After wandering around for three hours we were feeling tired and hungry and to our surprise there were no eateries or snacks stalls inside the compound; in a way that is good also considering those bad Indian habits of littering around. So hearing our poor stomach’s cries for help, we moved out.

On the way back, I noticed there were audio guides (Electronic gadgets) available on the entry gate at a nominal price of Rs. 100 which will explain everything and anything about all the structures. I will recommend people for that if you are really interested to explore things about the historic building.

There were no good eating joints around but we found some local dhabas there, serving every food available from south Indian to the continental stuff. We acquired a table on the road side and sat sipping the sweet, milky tea as the winter sun slid down towards the horizon.

Ahinsa Sathal - Mid way from Metro Station to Qutub Minar 

Ahinsa Sathal - From here you can have a good view of the city around on a clear day

33 H

23-Dec-2011

From last 2-3 years I was telling Neiha about the beauty of the place. The vast fields, narrow roads through Mustard fields, barren land patches, Narrow gauge rail link running along the road, small villages hinged to the road, sand dooms, blue cows running in fields, soothing sounds of silence……… I told her a couple of times about my only visit to this beautiful place. She insisted to go there and after waiting for so many months we got a chance to visit Jorkiyan – My sister’s (Raj) In-laws village. Jorkiyan - a small village in Ganga Nagar Dist. near Karanpur.

“Bai ji Jorkiyan nu kehra rasta janda?” I slipped my car to the side and asked a fruit hawker. He gave me an amazed look.

I repeated my words again….. This time in hindi “Bhai sahib Jorkiyan ko kounsa rasta jayega?”

I was driving and Neiha was on side seat, and Raj was sleeping on the rear seat. We were crossing Karanpur and I lost my way in confusing narrow roads. I didn’t want to disrupt Raj’s sleep, so I asked a fruit seller for the directions; but got no response from him and even from the other two gentlemen standing there.

In the interim my sister woke up “Uncle 33H jana hai…..” She asked an old gentleman standing there.

“Oh……….. Right from this T point and then 1^st left…… Straight to 33H” He replied promptly.

We thanked him and moved on with the given directions. I was OK as I knew here the villages have numbers but Neiha was completely surprised. “What is this 33H?” She jumped with surprise.

“It’s a numbering system for canals” I replied.

“But he said….. 33H Jorkiyan. He used it for village” She questioned again.

“Here in this part of Rajasthan, ground water is not good for farming. So, Indira Gandhi Canal was laid down many years back for irrigation purpose. And its water is distributed to different villages through small canals. These small canals had been numbered from 1 to 100 and this one small canal is used to irrigate farms of few villages which are designated by alphabets (A to Z)…….. And now the local people generally entitle the villages by the numbers of these canals leading to that particular village…… So 33 is for the leading canal and then H is for our village Jorkiyan – 33H” Raj summarized it all in one go.

We moved through narrow roads of Karanpur and the entire road thereafter was so beautiful. The view of small canal flowing along the road, tall Eucalyptus trees and irregular mud walls protecting orange orchards was just breathtaking. The mustard fields and tall sugarcanes alongside made it more admirable. And yes, Neiha did not miss noticing every milestone of villages (22P, 13O, 09Z).

We reached Jorkiyan oh sorry 33H ;) around 4 in the evening. After a welcome drink (Gur di chaa) and some rest, I moved out with Pinku for a round in farms. A long time dream came true; drove a tractor first time in my life….. yipppiiieeee….. An awesome feeling, it always looked difficult to me but in actual it was quite easy & comfortable. The taste of fresh sugarcanes from our own farms just made the ending of the day so wonderful, enjoyed it till my mouth got tired. Then we went to a Kalahari, Pinku got busy with the Kalahari owner to get a best deal for his sugarcane in the meanwhile I tried to learn the process of making Molasses from sugarcane.

“How much Molasses you process in one day?” I asked a labor there.

“6-7 Ton in 24 hours”

“You are able to sell this much in market? I mean there are so many kalahari’s around, if everyone is shelling out 6 ton everyday, is this market able to consume all of it?” I asked surprisingly.

“Yes” firm reply from him.

“What they do with it…… I don’t think common man eat that much of it”

And then I got the obvious answer, which I must guess before asking such a stupid question. “Daru (Desi whisky), It is used to prepare Desi Daru”.

It was getting dark and we moved back to our home. The whole village was so silent at around 7 O’clock, it seems like past midnight. That night I stared at the dark sky for a long duration, it’s been years I had seen such a wonderful night sky. Trillions of stars were visible, evidence of such a clear air in these villages. We went to sleep listening to the village stories from Pinku, most of them were related to the cross border people; as this village is just 5 KMs from Indo-Pak border. Some of them were so strange and funny which we can’t even imagine, I will definitely share some of them in some other blog.

The next morning was smooth, lazy day at home under winter sun. In the evening I took my Camera along and moved out for some clicks of the beautiful village (mud houses, friendly shepherds, village well, small pond, sun set behind the Gurudwara and the most attractive was a small ring of smog around the village just at a height of few meters; which if looked from some distance seems like a cloud).

The worst thing about time is: it runs at tortoise speed when you are getting bored in office and it exceeds the supersonic speed limit if you are enjoying it. Keeping this phenomenon alive; our two days fun time was over in just a blink and we were back into our car waving our hands from the side windows saying good bye to the wonderful hosts.

PS: Will definitely visit Indo-Pak border on my next visit. Pinku be ready to host us again in next winters.

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