Visiting Rampur - a changed town

August 27, 2008 in musing | 3 comments

I love to drone our pahari traditional dress, kurta-sutan and saluka, (kurta-a long shirt, sutan-pyjama, saluka-sleevless jacket) for either local/family functions at Kotgarh or for a visit to Rampur for shopping trips. Rampur has one of the best markets in Shimla hills with almost everything under the sun available at very reasonable prices. A trip to Rampur is inevitable after every quarter as things need to be replinshed at home.

The traditional kurta-sutan is ideal for the hot weather at Rampur where the temprature hoovers above 30 degrees. The dress makes going around the shops and bargaining a lot comfortable in the heat. This time I visited Rampur after almost a year. Dressed in my best pahari attire, I was into some shock. I was among the very few dressed in the traditionals. Almost everyone was in the shirt trouser mode. I earlier felt comfortable mingling in the crowds wearing the traditionals. By way of dressing, it is difficult to guess from which area the person belongs to. But a simple hello can tell easily by the dialect whether one is from Seraj or from Rampur tehsil or from Kotgarh. It was as if I had landed at some alien place. The regular shopkeepers did greet me with warmth and enquired about my long absence. Mercifully, it was a hot cup of tea which was offered as I was dreading that the hospitality norms would have also changed and I may be offered Coke or Pepsi. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple Story

August 21, 2008 in musing | 1 comment

Life is a tangent to the curve of our expectations. Curves are what I like, but that’s beside the point. Anyways, in this world of curves and dead-ends, the only way to stay on the right tract is to distract. Well, truly speaking, the philosophy of distraction is profound, but will talk about it later. For now I must talk about the apple. The story of the apple is as old as baba Adam. The apple was the first fruit that the human being tasted. That’s why they say in English ‘A for Apple’. Well, intelligent readers know that after ‘A for Apple’ comes ‘B for Boy’, and that was what baba Adam realized he could produce only after eating the apple. So, the apple is central to human existence. Had there been no apple, we would not have existed, and this groundbreaking research on the importance of the apple would have never taken place. Read the rest of this entry »

Independence Day

August 14, 2008 in musing | No comments

I would stay away from the routine glitch of Happy Independence Day. Received lots of a mails today greeting me happy Independence day. Instead I would greet you with Cherish Independence day. Our Independence is something to be cherished. Looking around at our neighbours namely China and Paksitan, I thank my stars I was born in this country. Both these countries have made a mess of ‘individual freedom’. We Indians have become arrogant though with our independence and take things for granted. But I tend to ignore this as we are a young 61 years old country and with time and age maturity will come and we will cherish our freedom in the true sense. Read the rest of this entry »

Monday Melody - Video shot in Kotgarh

August 11, 2008 in musing | No comments

Here is a beautiful video shot in Kotgarh - Piya Basanti Re - by Chitra and Ustad Sultan Khan. The video has been shot at Kotgarh and Melan village. The old lady in the video is Dr. Uma Singha a local doc.

Beautiful song. Enjoy!

Piya Basanti re

Trip back home to Kotgarh

August 5, 2008 in kotgarh | 8 comments

This Saturday traveled back home to Kotgarh as plucking season has started. This year the rains have been pretty good and the apple season started 10 days earlier. Found lush green scenery around. Here a few pics I clicked.

Road to my house

The road leading to my house among apple orchards 

Home Sweet Home!

 Home.. sweet home!! Reached on sunset  Read the rest of this entry »

The Hindi medium types!

July 31, 2008 in musing | 8 comments

Traveling in a local bus the other day I could not stop overhearing a conversation between two pretty young things sitting behind my seat. They were exchanging notes on guys who had been interested in them. Suddenly one of them said, “Don’t tell, you interested in that Hindi medium types!” This is something which caught my attention. Hindi medium types! Sorry.. come again… what did you say?

Being myself a Hindi medium type, from DAV Lakkar Bazaar, I wonder what is wrong with us, the Hindi medium types (HMTs). We had the best of education, a whaling time on playgrounds, can read and speak fluent Hindi unless like our more unfortunate ‘country’ cousins from the public schools. When it comes to speaking English, we become the ‘country’ cousins though. But hey.. girley… you only wanna see how good the guy is speaking English in front of your friends. That’s it!

Of missing out from blog

July 31, 2008 in musing | No comments

Finding 24 hours a little less in my schedule these days. Seems everyone in Delhi is planning to come to Shimla during the August 15 weekend. The calls have been coming throught the day and at nights. Am looking forward to take a day off from work and my idea of relaxation would be roaming around Shimla with a camera and see what good I am with it. Will do this shortly.

Here is some thing hilarious I found on the web. Some ‘parrage’ and ’sand which’ and how about ‘corn flacks’

Getting room at Himachal Bhawan Chandigarh

July 20, 2008 in musing | 4 comments

For scores of Himachalis getting accommodation at Himachal Bhawan, Chandigarh is a big headache. First of all the General Administration Department (GAD) of the Himachal Govt. do not issue permits to ordinary people as they cater to the Ministers, MLAs and the IAS class. These fortunate people get to stay at very low rates, around 80/ for a night. There families can be seen staying at the Bhawan for months! Nothing wrong with that… since they happens to be our mai-baap. The problem is we junta class types have nowhere to go in Chandigarh. HPTDC,  which is responsible for running the Himachal Bhawan, charges Rs. 1500 to 2000 for a night. Now, this is unfair as the politicians and bada babu log do not even pay 1/10th of what is charged from the junta class. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally a domain of my own

July 17, 2008 in musing | No comments

It was inevitable. After tasting blood by blogging on wordpress, getting a domain was a next step. Blogging is quite addictive I have found. For once you can express your opinions. If we had no opinions we would stay home doing the same old thing forever. Its fun to throw an opinion out there and see what happens and get the ‘other side of the coin’ view, sometimes opinions can be changed - often for the better.

Why be boring and have no opinion or the guts to voice it…thats just my opinion!

Many thanks to Varun, Surinder and the Himvani team for making this possible. This blog is hosted on Himvani server. Thanks again Varun… I been pestering you with so many stupid questions..

With this accomplished I am back at blogging.

Tribune finds 18th century piano and a Nazi in Karnataka forests

July 4, 2008 in musing | 3 comments

Here is an example of The Tribune, Chandigarh making an ass of itself. Shows how little journalistic investigation is in place now. The Tribune carried this story on July 1 with an impressive heading 88 year old Nazi war criminal held. The report quotes SM Bidari, ADGP, Intelligence, Karnataka mentioning to the TNS that the accused has been flown to Berlin. The story starts with an impressive name throwing - The RAW (Research and Analyses Wing) and IB (Intelligence Bureau) have helped the sleuths of the German Chancellor’s corps to nab an 88-year-old Nazi war criminal from the forests on the border of Karnataka and Goa.”

So far so good Read the rest of this entry »