The Two Deaths in Bombay

I may run into the chance of being lynched by a group of hooligans, all swearing by the erstwhile last tiger of the land and supporters of the only tiger's party in our biggest democracy, and of course a bunch of impotent  government officials for writing this blog. But then I somehow couldn't stop from writing this.

Well, the title of this blog may not be fully correct, because though one death happened in Bombay, the other not exactly in Bombay, but in Pune. Nevertheless, since we now have the Bombay-Pune Expressway, which has brought the two cities closer, I may be spared on the grounds of blogging license (something similar to poetic license exercised by the poets).

The first death is of course of the Tiger - the Late Balasaheb Thakre. The tiger population in the world has been declining, and it's a shock to lose him. There's no doubt, when it comes to guts and fierceness, Balasaheb was perhaps the only Tiger in politics. The use of its name and symbol by the legendary Shivaji was worth, given the valor and courage he'd shown and eventually converted into a folklore and myth, and so is the epithet being used for Balasaheb. People fear a tiger as much as they do a Balasaheb, even now, after his death. Irrespective of whether you are a jackal or elephant or rabbit or squirrel, you've to pay obeisance to the tiger. And so did everyone to Balasaheb - a politician jackal, an industrialist elephant, a Bollywood squirrel or a 'mango' rabbit.

From the environmental point of view, we do need a Tiger. Any species dying is an ecological hazard, so we do need to preserve everyone, like we need to make every human being live forever. Any death is sad - because a life is being lost. But wouldn't we be happier, if the Tiger were altogether different animals? Say, strong, fierce, powerful, but also loving and endearing like a rabbit and grand like an elephant? Something that even a small kid would love to play with? That would have been an evolutionary disaster, zoological catastrophe,  but no doubt a wonderful thing.

Whatever, I mourn the death of the Tiger. We need more tigers in our country. The Tiger is dead. Long live the Tiger.

The other death is that of a neighbor who had strayed into our house, killed a good part of our family, but still   stayed with us for quite long, enjoying our hospitality because we treat guests as gods. Finally when we ran out of money, we decided to punish him. We hung him - the Late Mohammad Azmal Amir Kasab - yesterday. Another death. Another loss of life. Sad, no doubt, as some intellectuals are saying.

We've been angry that we've been too soft on Kasab. Yes we were. That's where we needed a Tiger.

At the same time, when two young girls were arrested wrongfully by Maharashtra Police, rendered impotent by the followers of the last Tiger, for expressing a view which is neither wrong nor defamatory to anyone, I really feel the jungle would have been better without the Tiger.

The Idea of Democracy

We're proud to be a democratic republic. Despite all the follies of our country, still somewhere there's always a hope, always something to be proud of.

Let me share an interesting trivia I came across.

There's no unanimously accepted logic why India has been known as the land of the King Bharat (Bharata varsha) since antiquity. What's special about this mythical King Bharata? How did his name stick to the identity of so big a country. There's actually a lesser known fact about this King. He was no doubt a great emperor, but when he didn't find any of his sons to be fit for running the country he adopted a commoner (in fact an illegitimate son shunned by his own parents) on the recommendation of people he trusted and made him his successor, conferring on him the royal lineage. Perhaps this is the earliest instance of democratically electing the head of a country. (And this makes the Pandavas not the biological descendant of Bharata, but that of a commoner with no royal connections)

The Oscars: 2012

While watching the Oscars in the morning and seeing an Iranian movie (Separation) again in the limelight (it got the award for the best film in foreign language category), it amazed me. Despite serious restrictions in making a movie in Iran, extremely constrainted budget, and finally the recent prejudice with which the west has started seeing Iran, it's really a worthy thing to see their films coming to this stage - much ahead of any Indian film in the recent and not so recent past. I believe they have proved that publicity, PR and size don't come in the way when the quality is really high - that's a lesson for all of us.

BTW, a passing comment - Oscars (and any big award in the world) is also a chronicle of patience. This year the award for the best supporting actor in male category went to Christopher Plummer, who is best known for the role of the head of the Von Trapp family in the 60's block buster "Sound of Music" - and this is his first Oscar, after 6 decades of hard work. Another lesson.

Multi ethnicity and excellence

I'd like to talk about our industry, the semiconductor industry in Bangalore, and especially our company, Mirafra Technologies, providing design services to our industry. When it comes to the overall multi-ethnicity and cosmopolitanism nature of the entire IT industry, of which we're a part, there's nothing astounding about our particular industry, nevertheless, it does represent the very essence of what a hi-tech industry should be. I personally feel that one of the reasons why our industry, no doubt one of the most hi-tech ones in the world - we design the electronic chips that go into the latest phones, tablets and other sophisticated electronic gadgets -, has attained its present stature is its perfectly cosmopolitan nature.

Digressing a bit, I'd like to quote historian Ramachandra Guha from his magnum opus 'India after Gandhi'. While talking about the connection between cosmopolitanism and excellence in films, he has given the example of Sholay, perhaps the most successful movie made in India. He writes, 'Its director (Ramesh Sippy) was Sindhi, while its lyricist (Anand Bakshi) and one male lead (Dharmendra) were Punjabi. Other male leads were from Uttar Pradesh (Amitabh Bachchan), Gujarat (Sanjeev Kumar) and North West Frontier Province (Amjad Khan) respectively. Another (Danny) who was dropped at the last moment, was from Sikkim. Of the two female leads, one (Hema Malini) was a Tamil, the other (Jaya Bhaduri) a Bengali domiciled in Madhya Pradesh. The music director (RD Burman) was a Bengali - from Tripura.'

I feel Ramachandra Guha used this as a representation to make a point that excellence is directly linked to multi ethnicity and cosmopolitanism. Bombay became Bombay because people from all over the country settled there. It couldn't have been what it's now had it been just a native hole of Mumbaikars. The same is applicable to our hi-tech industry, which has attained its stature only because people from all over India have come and joined it. No other city attracted so many people from all over India and that's why Bangalore has become the Silicon Valley of India.

To take the example of our company, it was founded by Alok Kuchlous, a Haryanvi, and Shyam Sundar Padala, a Telugu from Andhra Pradesh. I, a Bengali domiciled in Bangalore for the past fifteen years, am a VP Engineering. The other VP, Bimal Bhattacharya, is an Assamese of Bengali origin from Guwahati. The Directors of HR and Sales, Snehdeep Ambarkar and Sandip Kadtane, are Marathi. Pratish Behra, one of our oldest employees, is an Oriya. Among our 200+ people we've representation from almost all the states, except for some of the North Eastern states. We've people from almost all the IITs and NITs across the country - even one from NIT Srinagar.

Our MD and co-founder Shyam is very particular about maintaining the cosmopolitanism and multi-ethnic nature of our company. And the interesting thing is that we don't have to put any extra effort to do it. We just hire the best people from the best of the colleges and we never go by any prejudice.

There's a reason why the IITs are among the best colleges in India. It's perhaps because no other college attracts so many people from across the country. No other college can claim to be so much cosmopolitan. The reason why Stanford or MIT are even better places is perhaps they attract people from round the world, which no Indian college can do. So the bottom line is that if we want to excel in any area we have to look out beyond the local region and attract people from every where. A multi ethnic and cosmopolitan atmosphere opens up the minds of people, broadens the thoughts and intellect and help create a climate conducive of growth and excellence.

The day someone says Bangalore is only for Kannadigas, that would be the beginning of the end of Bangalore.

Now We Should Fight For Accountability

Just consider the following events:

1. Mark Papermaster, a 25 year veteran at IBM who had been the vice president of IBM's microprocessor technology development, was sacked from Apple as the Senior Vice President of Engineering for a design flaw in iPhone, the problem which Apple's CEO Steve Job referred to as Antennagate. He was just out for one design flaw that had some (??) impact on Apple's revenue.
2. Carol Bartz, the gorgeous CEO of Yahoo was sacked over phone because she failed to revive the fallen glory of the company.
3. Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, was sacked from his own company by the investors in 1985, because they didn't share Steve's vision.
4. And then there are the regular Employee Appraisal process, the Corrective Action Programs (CAP) and many other systems and processes at almost every professionally managed companies around the world where any who fails to perform properly is first warned and then kicked out.

The key to good performance of any organization is continuous tracking of the performance of every individual, whoever he or she may be, and get the under performers out of the system. It's survival for the fittest. It's veer bhogya vasundhara, the world is for the powerfuls, the intelligents. But when someone is asked to leave an organization it doesn't mean that he or she is useless. There may be other places where the same person can excel and thrive. But the key is kicking out people who fail to perform. This is applicable from the CEO to the lowest peon in an office. Everyone serves someone, my house maid serves me, I serve my company, my CEO serves the investors and the board of governors. Everyone is a servant, some private some public. And like I have the authority to ask my maid servant to not come from tomorrow if I'm not happy with her performance, I'm also vulnerable to be kicked out if I under perform.

But then why our public servants - the ministers, the corporators, all the government employees, etc are exempted of being kicked. They are our servants, very much like my maid servant. I pay them their salaries. And I should be the one assessing their performance, isn't it? But can I sack the engineer whose lack of planning has led to unprecedented delays in making a bridge. Can I sack the minister who has failed to do what he had promised before the election? At least the ministers have a five year window after which they can be dismissed by the people. But what about the equal thugs, the IPS, the IAS and the so many other servants in various departments? There's no debate on the topic that government employees enjoy some special immunity which make them lethargic and less efficient. They all know that they are not accountable to anyone and that their masters (I, you everyone) are impotent.

I feel the next biggest fight, after fighting against corruption, should be the fight for making the Public Servants accountable and 'kickable'. Their appraisals should be published publicly, because they are public servants, they too should be brought under the ambit of three sixty degree feedback where their masters, we, will be asked to assess their performances, and their hikes and promotions should be based on annual appraisals.

Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaye He

That's what I felt when Anna broke the fast. Yes, this is the victory for the power of the Mind of the people, power of the Jana Gana Mana. And yes, I do accept that the most supreme is the this power, this power of the people. The constitution, the parliament all come later. So when this people's power demand for something then there's no other way than to accept that, implement that. Very aptly Anna said today after breaking the fast that this victory is for the people of India. It's unjust to say that the parliament or anything else is the supreme. Tagore had pointed it out long time back that the victory is always to the Jana Gana Mana. We've been chanting this for so long but how did we forget this? How did our politicians forget this that nothing is above the people of India?

Thanks Anna to remind us all that the supreme power of the country is with the people. If people say something better listen to it.

From Freedom Park

by Tapas Datta

www.owasfilms.com
Founder & Managing Partner,
OneWithoutA Second Films LLP Company,

I just came back from the Freedom Park in Bangalore today after sharing a few hours with the people fasting in support of Anna Hazare. The old patriotic songs were playing - among them the songs of Nazrul, songs of INA (Netaji's) and you would be surprised - of Charan kabi Mukundadas who raised the fire amongst Bengal Independence fighters. Although many people didnt understand the Bengali words - they were shedding tears ! Great things never die, I suppose.

A bunch of Retards

What's the difference between Dhirubhai Ambani's folks and Manmohan Singh's people? Well, the question is blasphemous because it's like asking to compare between the Prophet and Dawood Ibrahim. I'm not saying that Dhirubhai Ambani was a Prophet of any sort. It doesn't matter whether Dhirubhai Ambani or Jamshedji Tata or G D Birla were any incarnation of prophet or not. But I'm indeed equating Manmohan (I decline to put the venerable Dr. in front of him that I used to do way back in the nineties from within my heart) and his gang to the likes of Dawood. I didn't find any other name to equate them to. I'd like to apologize to Mr. Dawood (well, I don't mind putting the respectful Mr. in front of him now) for comparing people, more dangerous and dreadful than him, with him. Well, coming back to my original question - what's the difference between the Ambanis and the Manmohans. First let's point out the similarities:

• Both are Indians (very silly)
• Both are famous (is it a time for joke?)
• Both control business (well, now we're coming to point - The PM does control more business than the Ambanis)
• Both impact the lives of Indians (well, to some extent yes, had there not been the Ambanis there won't have been so many jobs)
• Both have the responsibility to deliver (are you joking? Yes, Ambanis have to deliver to theie shareholders, to their employees, to their vendors, to their partners - and what has the team of Manmohan to do? I disagree....) I think this is the point of divergence between the two. Well, let's proceed.
• Both have to tweak laws to make things happen (Yes, you make sense. You can't tun a business and be a Mahatma. You have to manipulate things at times. That's what any successful businessman would do. But what are you trying to implicate?)

The last point is the final one which really diverges the comparison between the two. Yes, it's true that the Ambanis flout laws. Dhirubhai Ambani couldn't have made Reliance without flouting laws. His floutings have become case studies for business schools and are now considered as legends in corporate world. That's what Chanakya has also said - you need to manipulate things to make things happen. But then there's a degree of flouting. People like Dawood also run their huge companies, but have you ever heard of anyone calling them legal? No. But the same people would give a clean chit to the Ambanis. The reason is very simple. There's a degree of violation that everyone accepts provided the outcome is positive to the country, to the people. A violation by Reliance will be ignored if thousand more people get jobs and four thousand more people can lead respectable lives. But then there's indeed a limit. And the main difference between Manmohan and Ambani is that the former has crossed the limits of violations beyond the most stretched threshold of tolerance and the later is still within the limits. Manmohan's case is like that of Mr Dawood's - both our outlaws, both have violated beyonds any toleration, both have done no good to the country, both are thugs and thieves and both should be prosecuted without any mercy.

I accept that to run a business you can't always hold the high moral ground of a Mahatma. It's not that I'm basically being unethical from the core of my heart. No. That's not the case. I want to be ethical always. But clinging to ethics may create some irreversible damage that will cause more harm to many other people who are connected to my business. Lies for for a greater cause is approved of in the Mahabharata too - Yudhisthira himself spoke one lie in his life to win the battle. But what Manmohan and his team has done can't be put in the same class as Yudhisthira's lie. That's the difference between violating laws by business men and ripping off our country by the government.

Sometime back I'd told that our ministers are senile. They are not even physically fit to have sex scandals like their counterparts in Europe and America. They are in fact a bunch of retards. They steal, get caught, try to defend like fools and are so senile that they can't even do something to shut the world off. Actually they can't do anything. They are the worst manipulators in the world. Had they been intelligent they would have performed so well that people would have ignored their wrongs - the same way I always give a clean shit to the Tatas and the Ambanis irrespective of whatever wrongs they do in their business because at the end of the day they do deliver!!

The world of FB

FB has become an inseparable part of every one's life. Even next door neighbors who never meet otherwise meet in FB, siblings who don't get time to call put up messages on each other's wall. That's really nice. Just yesterday someone, who stayed in our para, locality, in Calcutta, with whom I went to the same school for two years in early eighties and whom I don't think I've met ever since 96, found me out from FB and contacted me. I hear people getting back to old crushes after twenty or twenty five years, find long lost neighbours after thirty years, find out a best friend from kindergarten. No doubt all these won't have been possible had there not been this small piece of application that has revolutionized socialization.

But thinking deeper don't you feel that people have stopped talking to near and dear ones because you see bits and pieces of everyone in their walls. Actually you talk less and scrap more. That regular calls to find out how your brother celebrated the durga puja in that isolated place in US where the nearest Indian store is some fifty miles or how much your sister missed you during the bhai phota are no longer needed. Your brother will post hundred snaps of the durga puja that he attended after driving some eighty miles along with status updates like, 'missing Calcutta', or 'I want to go back home'. That charm in asking him about his yearning to be at home is lost in a public post in the wall - after all a wall is a wall, it divides - has any one heard of a wall that unites? There's a fun in knowing something that the whole world doesn't know. There lies the exclusiveness of a relationship. If my sister feels bad during bhai phota it should be only me who should know about it - why the whole world should know that.

Then there are those old friends or relatives whom you used to call to UK or US or Middle east from time to time to get the latest updates of their kids. But now do you really feel like calling someone when you know even this piece of information that the cake she cut in her younger kid's second birthday was a big two kilo one with nuts and chocolates stuffed into it and that thirty kids from the neighborhood blew off hundred balloons and ate home made cookies? What's there left for me to know. I'll surely miss that call when she would have told me over the phone about how much the thirty kids enjoyed running around in her new house and how much pain she'd taken preparing all the cookies. I'll miss the excitement in her voice - the detailed updates in her walls are no doubt informative but the sentiments are buried somewhere deep under.

Funnier are posts like, 'I've prepared a yummy cake today' by a girl or woman and then updates that three people have liked it and ten people, mainly guys, posting on her wall almost similar things like, 'Wow, so when are we getting a slice of it?' The same girl may then acknowledge all the wows by writing, '@ Sumit, Puneet, Navneet, Vineet, Manjeet, Kamaljeet, Premjit: thanks!' Well, I wonder what was that thanks for - for the wow for her yummy cake that she ate alone at her home or for the fact that there are ten guys who still show interest in her! At any point of time these yummy cakes with three pictures taken from three sides posted on the wall may constitute close to a quarter of the posts you get every day!

In Calcutta we have these ever inquisitive parar boudi, the house wives of the young guys of the locality, who, given a chance, won't mind peeping into every one's house to get the harir khabor - well I can't translate the term harir khabor which literally means the news of the pitcher but actually means the inside information. I somehow have a feeling that these Bong parar boudi syndrome is not a localized affair - in general everyone around the world is interested in others' harir khabor and FB has somehow exploited this human behavior in a very sophisticated way. When I post the picture of a cake I actually want to know what my neighbor or friend is doing his or her kid's birthday!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be a very hated person in the FB brotherhood for this blog.

Taj Mahal vs. Tejo Mahalay - My Views

I've heard this quite a few times. But the article that I've posted in my previous blog is by far the most informative and rationally written. In most cases people who try to refute some well accepted theory tends to become little irrational and prejudiced because they often don't have enough facts to back them. They even tend to be vindictive and write as if they are victimized. Yes, I do accept that writing against some well known misconception is like fighting for a cause, fighting for a truth that was wrongly suppressed. But that's doesn't mean that the crusaders fighting for a cause should themselves feel victimized. Crusaders are like emancipators. But such seldom happens. A very good example is the case of the Indian origin of Aryans. Most writers and researchers in this area lack the true spirit of a research - they spend more energy in finding faults in other writers who don't accept the Indian homeland theory instead of putting their own facts and figures correctly.

But contrary to all these, this particular article is quite well written with proper references, which I assume are correct. There are cases where historians fraudulently concoct references to their benefit - this again happens for people who tend to bring out some suppressed truth.

My take of this particular issue is that - it's very likely that the original structure for Taj Mahal might have existed as a Hindu Temple long before the time of Shahjahan and Mumtaj but that doesn't mean that the structure that draws the most visitors in India should be suddenly thrashed. Irrespective of its origin there's no doubt that it stands as a wonderful piece of art that has caught the fancy of so many visitors in India.

At the same time it's indeed important to find the real facts. If it's claimed that some rooms in Taj Mahal have been always locked since the time of Shahjahan then they should be opened - not to disregard the present Taj Mahal, but to find the facts correctly. If there are indeed broken idols of Shiva they should be restored with all respect to new temples. Going back to Bankim Chandra's simple words - if you're worse why can't I be better? There's no doubt that the Mughals broke many temples and reused them as palaces or tombs, but that doesn't man that we again do the same mistakes that they'd committed centuries back.

Also something keeps me wondering. After the Mughals the Marathas setup the biggest Hindu Empire after the Guptas. It was not from the Mughals, but the Marathas, that the British took bulk of India. The Mughals were just titular heads at least for fifty years till the beginning of nineteenth century and this map shows the extent of Maratha Empire in 1760. There's no doubt that the Marathas were one of the most fiercest Hindu people who created one of the greatest Hindu Empires in India. If the Shiva Temple was so important then why didn't the Maratha's restore it at the site of Taj Mahal? I won't have been happy at all if they had done that - because then the Marathas would have been equally criminal like the Mughals. Devastating or breaking something and then establishing something new on top of it is not a good culture.

So my take is that - yes, I'd like to know what it was in the past, but I don't want to politicize this. Taj looks great and earns revenue for us and we should be happy to have the structure in India. Irrespective of the past, it still remains a piece of art.

Welcome to the new Talibanistan - the erstwhile Hindustan!!

Welcome to our rechristened country - Talibanistan. We're carrying the baggage of the oldest religion and culture and hence we better abide by all the norms and regulations laid by our ancestors. Looks like our predecessors even decided whom to have sex with and whom to marry. So oldest form of pleasure known to mankind may not be a free stuff in India. At least there's some consolation that if you're not a Hindu then you have lesser restrictions and can choose from a bigger set of people to have sex with. Hindus have to find out if the girl (or guy - depending on your sex and orientation) is from the same Gotra or village!! Many more things may come up. Couples with many other commonalities (may be same state, or same district) may also be gradually disallowed to have sex legally!! And we've a US returned business grad, a scion of a big business house in India and a young politician justifying the need of a law for disallowing Hindus marrying someone you love even if he/she happens to be a 100th generation descendant of a common ancestor.

The people, in favor of passing a law against Hindus marrying within the same Gotra - the mythical lineage of people supposedly descending from the same ancient Aryan sage - point out vociferously to the genetic disorders resulting from inbreeding and marrying a cousin. My friend Vikas pointed me to the linked documents about inbreeding. That's correct. Inbreeding may lead to several disorders, but the probability of inbreeding reduces exponentially when the relation becomes distant. Even for 2nd cousin it's only 0.7%. So if separated by a few generations, the chance of inbreeding is almost zero. So the scientifically disallowing marriage within the same Gotra and same village stuff don't hold good.

And hey, we're talking about people descending from Kashyap, Bhrigu, Angiras, Kanva, Vashishtha etc, who themselves may not be historical characters or even if they are then they might have been alive at least 4000 years ago - going by the most latest dating of Rig Veda, putting it to 1500BC. People sometimes date Rig Veda to 3000BC or even more - so that makes these people alive some 5000 years back. C'mon, statistically the chance of inbreeding is ZERO among their descendants after so many years!!

Just some 100 years ago my and Trinita's great grand parents used to stay in the same village named Goila in what is now Bangladesh. My marriage would be now in rocks, not because I'm sleeping with some other girl, but because I have been sleeping with my 'sister' !! Shit - I'm incestuous.

Mukesh makes a few great points here:

The point is should people be allowed take law into their hands to punish what they perceive as incorrect ?

You can pass laws to administer it, e.g. in Karnataka cow slaughter is being banned. So now administration can legally enforce it (whether this is good or bad is a different issue. One man's meat is being made all men's poison !)

To prevent genetic defects we now have genetic coding/typing (Hope I got it right ! supposed to become big business in future !). Or will people be against it because it may bring out unpalatable truths ! (discovery that you have genes of some forefather, whose genes you should not be having !) In my community [Mukesh hails from Coorg], when some folks went for this, it created quite a furore. The reason being apprehension that the 'Islamic' part of genes in the community might pop up (Chengis Khan has the highest gene foot print in the world). After all our traditional dress does resemble the Omani traditional dress and Muthanna (My Kodava/Coorgi name) is a very popular name in Iraq ! Though my biggest concern is that the radicals in both the communities (Hindu and Muslim) may get together, arrive at a compromise and ban both beef and pork ! What no pandhi curry ? (The point is but than we eat pork !).

The sad part is that we lose the logic of the ritual and continue with the ritual even though it is no longer valid. E.g., some opinions I had heard was that Islam banned pork because pork is the meat which spoils quickest in desert conditions (The theory about pigs being un clean went out of the window with the mad cow disease and farmers using sewage water to grow "kothamari soppu"). Green is Islam's colour because in the desert there are hardly any plants/trees. So green is to be revered and preserved.

So while first cousin marriages (you can marry father's sisters' kids or mother's brothers' kids) and uncle niece (guys marrying their sister's daughter) are 'kosher' in certain communities in South India (any research here ?), you can get killed for being in the same village and getting married, up North!.

There is a big debate within my community about inter caste marriages (folks are married into all communities). While one opinion is that our population is dwindling because of this the contrary opinion is that the gene pool is getting stronger (unlike the Parsis, apparently). While folks are going ahead and doing what they want to do some of the fiercest opponents of inter caste marriages had to bite the dust and have turned around to become over night supporters of inter caste marriages when their kids married out of the community (including my uncle whose son married a Gujju behn !).

Yes. It is about politics, power and wealth and nothing else.

Actually why blame only the Jat Khaps who want to ban same-Gotra marriage among Hindus? Why not blame the TamBram guys? How many cases have you heard where an Aiyer is marrying an Ayenger? For that matter, have you checked the entries in the Indian matrimony sites? There are more fields for castes, Gotras, clan, lineage etc than education, hobbies etc. How many parents marry without checking horoscope?

I think the problem is there in all places in some form. Unless we put a check, we're no better than the Talibans.

Happy Rabindra Jayanti

I don't know if Rabindra Jayanti, the birth day of Tagore, can be classified into one of those 'Happy' days - like New Year, Diwali, Christmas etc. - when people wish happiness and good luck to each other. In fact not many birthdays are considered 'Happy' days. Jesus is very lucky. His might be the only birthday that gets the maximum 'happy' and 'merry' wishes. Our Lord Krishna comes to a distant second, at least in India, because few people do wish each other on Janmashtami, if not in the same way they do on Christmas. Nevertheless the online greeting cards portals have brought back some heritage and cultural feelings among us and they remind us from time to time to wish each other on many of these 'happy' days. In India most of the 'happy' days are religious or social - Happy Diwali, Happy Dussera, Happy Holi et al. Lately the various relations day, like Happy Mothers' Day, Happy Fathers' Day, Happy Husband Day, Happy Lovers Day etc have become quite popular and I'm sure the portals and the florists make quite a good amount of money in these occasions.

Somehow I find it a bit ironical why the birth days of real people in flesh and blood never attain the status of one of those Happy Days. Have you ever heard of wishing each other a Happy Gandhi Jayanti or for that matter a Happy Rabindra Jayanti? Gandhi and Tagore are perhaps among the most important personalities who have shaped the modern India. Above all both of them taught us to love each other. Without a Gandhi India would have been a Pakistan by now and without a Tagore Bangladesh would have been the same. Pakistan is doubly unlucky that they lack both Tagore and Gandhi and Bangladesh at least has Tagore to keep them away from becoming a Pakistan too soon. It's India alone who has survived in the subcontinent amidst all her folly and feigns, trouble and pains, terror and reigns. We still love to stay together, we still love not to pounce upon others at the first possible opportunity, we still take pride in our culture but welcome people and cultures from round the world. We uphold the tradition of thousands of years but still have a very modern spiritual and cultural outlook. Our post colonial indigenous education system, much of which is inspired by Tagore's ideas and the political backbone, much of which is still based on Gandhi's thoughts are perhaps the two major factors that have kept us distinguished from our neighbors. Religious intolerance and fanaticism is still not that alarming that it can fill venom in the blood of every Indian.

So can't the birth day of Tagore and Gandhi be one of those 'happy' days.

Tagore is one of the persons whom I love and learn to love in a new way each time at all phases of my life - the time I first fell in love, the time when I feel dejected and rejected, the time I see success and also the time I fail miserably - there's something always that soothes me and this grand old bearded man seems to be always with me. I'm never alone even if I'm stuck in the loneliest corner of the world, I'm never extravagant even if I'm wrapped with all the wealth of the world, I'm never sad even if the whole world leaves me, I'm never hopeless even if nothing happens as expected. Rabindranath is there always at my disposal. His songs keep me enriched, his words keep me awake and his thoughts drive me always. For me his 150th birthday today surely one of the 'happiest' days where I'd like to wish happiness to everyone I love.

After a very long time I was watching the movie Kabuliwala in one of the Bengali channels. I'd forgotten many of the scenes and sequences. That's why I enjoyed again watching it so much. No doubt that's one of the finest movies made in any Indian language. At the end of the movie one thought just dawned in me - whatever may the rest of the world think about Afghanistan, but the Bengalis will always have a totally different picture of the fierceful by still not dreaded, very rough and tough but still so loving Afghans - all thanks to Tagore's depiction of a country and its people in such a poignant way. It's irony that in the course of just 100 years have become the most dreaded nation in the world.

Rabindranath's elder brother Satyendranath Tagore was perhaps the first Indian to pass the ICS exam. He was posted in what's now Dakshin Kannada district or Karnataka, the area around Karwar which includes the beautiful Kali river. It was during his official tenure that his youngest brother Rabindranath used to visit him during the 1870s. Rabindranath was in his teens then. Looks like he was awed by the serene and virgin beauty of the Western Ghats and specially the shores of the rivulet Kali. People who have visited those areas would understand how serene those places might have been some 150 years ago. There's no doubt that a poet and a nature lover would fall in love with this place. KSTDC still acknowledges Tagore's love for these places and they have a resort run by Jungle Lodges on Kali river at a place called Dandeli. In fact I came to know of these trivia only from a KSTDC pamphlet where they very proudly advertised how much Tagore loved these places. They also claimed that Tagore wrote his first drama (perhaps Rajarshi) on the banks of Kali/Dandeli rivers. Next if you go to Karwar, you can see that there are multiple places named after Tagore. That's also because Tagore used to frequent Karwar a lot and considered the beaches on Karwar best in India. No wonder, Jungle Lodges have one of their best resorts on an island on Kali river near the mouth in Karwar. Also if you've seen the Karwar beach, just south of Goa, it's indeed one of the finest beaches in India.

Perhaps the most interesting connection with Bangalore is that Tagore started one of his best, and my favorite, novels Shesher Kabita, here. The story goes like this - he was visiting Bangalore along with P C Mahalanabis and the later's wife Rani Mahalanabis, both very close to Tagore. PC Mahalanabis founded ISI in Calcutta much later. Rani and few of her friends were quite young in 1930s, perhaps in their twenties, and all of them requested the old septuagenarian Tagore to write something interesting for the youngsters like them. Tagore took the challenge and started telling them a story about two very romantic people Amit and Labanya, who met literally accidentally on the hills of Shillong. After a short while the story became quite interesting and that's when they requested Tagore to make a novel out of it!!

Well, I think Bangalore still keeps up to the reputation of being a city of youngsters!!

How much do you care for your child

Recently, during an informal chat session among a few of my friends, we're discussing about the greatest assets that India has. One of my friends pointed out that the family value system is perhaps one of the greatest assets of our country. By family value system he meant a simple thing like the sacrifice that we, as parents, still make for our children. Somehow I felt that he indeed spoke something very fundamental. When I came back home and thought over it I really found out, yes, that's indeed one of the rarest and biggest assets, which we ourselves tend to overlook. It's this care and affection that we show to our children, it's this responsibility that we take for our children, it's the sacrifice that we make throughout our lives for our children, that make our children grow with the thousands-years-old cultural heritage of India. Perhaps this upbringing is something that's passing the Indian culture through the generations.

I remembered a small incident that happened some 25 years back. My parents wanted me to study at the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith in Purulia, a very backward district in West Bengal, adjoining Jharkhand. Purulia used to be a torturous one night journey from Calcutta by train and then on cycle rickshaw pushed by rickety people along hilly tracks of narrow roads. Coming from Calcutta the abundance of poverty everywhere struck me shockingly. I don't remember if I'd seen such scenes before in my life. Every where the people seemed to be so poor. I was barely 11-12 years old. But still I was filled with melancholy at the first site.

My father took me to the school so that I could like or dislike the place before getting admitted there. It was a residential school and hence it was important that I liked the place.

We stayed in the guest house. After lunch to returned to the guest house for a nap. That's when we noticed an old man, sitting alone at a corner of the room where we're supposed to stay. The guest house was like dormitory with 5-6 beds placed haphazardly in each room. We'd occupied two beds in one of the rooms. The old person was sitting in another bed, at the corner of the room. At the first sight I thought him to be a servant or a worker at the Mission and hence felt irritated about his presence. The person would have sensed what was going on inside my mind and hence he also seemed to feel a little uneasy. My father came from a very humble background and hence he was better off in not being so judgmental like me. He went ahead and sat on the same bed as the person. That's when I gave a close glance on him. He didn't appear to be that old as I'd thought initially. But it didn't need much brain or vision to understand that he was indeed poor, rather very poor. He was wearing a torn and very dirty dhoti, which was not much more than an ugly loin cloth. His pair of shoes didn't have any further space to put the next patch for repair, if needed ever in future. The color of the shoes could have been black in some remote past, but the layers of dust and dirt made it a tough proposition to decipher that. His dhoti ended little above his knees making portions of his long underwear visible. His shirt didn't have any button anywhere - just a few safety pins at the erstwhile holes meant for the buttons. The over bulging small pocket was packed with a world of stuff like a small note book, some small papers - might be some old bills or bus or tickets, a leaking fountain pen that had made its presence felt in the multiple blue stains on the pocket, some lose currencies of one rupee notes and many other things. The person was sitting like an arch, with a curved back - I figured out later that he couldn't even stand erect. His face had unshaven beards. His eyes had a pair of typical black specs with high power.

When my father went and sat besides him, he stood up, as if he was not entitled to sit alongside my father. My father requested him to sit down. He sat with a bewildered look mixed with respect and gratitude, as if allowing him to sit itself was a great favor shown. My father asked him whether he had come to meet someone at the school. That's when he told that his elder son was appearing for the Madhyamik (secondary) exams the next year (1985) and he had come to see him. So it was clear that he was not a servant. I could see regards in my fathers eyes. He started talking to him. My father, himself a victim of the partition of India, having lived a life like refugees on aids and public and private benevolence and finally being able to get a foot after completing his engineering, has very high regards for people who struggle and put everything at stake just for the sake of acquiring a good education. Unlike me or my brother, the only asset that my father had was his education without which he would have been a non entity in this world. I could understand very well that he was seeing in that person a shade of my uncle, with whom my father stayed after fleeing from Bangladesh and who had struggled so much just to give a basic education to him. My father asked the person about his job. He told that he was a primary school teacher. He also told my father that he wanted his son to study medicine in Calcutta. That's when my father couldn't resist to ask if he could bear all the expenses of his son's studies. He stared at my father for some time and then spoke gently, "Won't the 500 rupees a month I get as salary be sufficient?". My father kept silent for sometime and then asked hesitantly if he gave his entire salary for his son's education then what they would eat at home. The person replied very casually that they would somehow manage with the little vegetables that grow in their small plot of land.

I could see tears in my father's eyes. He rose, held the person's hands and told, "I'm saying you today, I don't know what's there for my son in future, but there's no doubt that your son would become an established doctor for sure. That's my conviction. We all try to give our children the best possible education, but I can't ever think of spending my entire salary for it".

That was the time my father didn't have a job. He had a sun stroke sometime in 1982 and lost his job. After recovering, he couldn't take the strain of working in factories and hence had to sit at home for a few years. Our household used to run on my mother's job. Though I was quite young still I knew that my parents did face financial problems during those few years, specially with the loan on our newly build house. I somehow still recall how much calculations my parents would do to make sure that I and my brother never felt any pinch. When my father was speaking those words to the person I could feel the pain in his voice. I knew that he was going out of his way to make sure that I got into a good school and had all the luxuries in life at home. But all his sacrifices seemed so silly in front of this person who was ready to sacrifice everything for this son's education. It's his vision and faith that education and education alone would change their fortune is something has stayed in my mind for ever.

Coming back to where I started, I think there's no doubt that such instances of extreme sacrifices that Indian parents do for their children is really one of our greatest assets.

By the way, the person's son did become a doctor finally. His name is most probably Aurobindo Hembram!! He studied in Calcutta Medical College, off course with scholarships. My father's conviction did come true!!

MF Hussain and Artistic Freedom

This is a Letter to the Editor of The Hindu, from a practising Christian lady who was Professor in Stella Maris College, Chennai till recently; now settled at Baroda, regarding an Edit in The Hindu in favour of bringing back MF Hussain to India.


Dear Ram,

I have taken time to write this to you Ram-for the simple reason that we have known you for so many years- you and The Hindu bring back happy memories Please take what I am putting down as those that come from an agonized soul. You know that I do not mince words and what I have to say I will-I call a spade a spade-now it is too late for me to learn the tricks of being called a ‘secularist’ if that means a bias for, one, and a bias against, another.

Hussain is now a citizen of Qatar-this has generated enough of heat and less of light. Qatar you know better than me is not a country which respects democracy or freedom of expression. Hussain says he has complete freedom-I challenge him to paint a picture of Mohammed fully clad.

There is no second opinion that artists have the Right of Freedom of expression. Is such a right restricted only to Hussain? Will that right not flow to Dan Brown-why was his film-Da Vinci Code not screened? Why was Satanic Verses banned-does Salman Rushdie not have that freedom of expression? Similarly why is Taslima hunted and hounded and why fatwas have been issued on both these writers? Why has Qatar not offered citizenship to Taslima? In the present rioting in Shimoga in Karnataka against the article Taslima wrote against the tradition of burqua which appeared in the Out Look in Jan 2007.No body protested then either in Delhi or in any other part of the country; now when it reappears in a Karnataka paper there is rioting. Is there a political agenda to create a problem in Karnataka by the intolerant goons? Why has the media not condemned this insensitivity and intolerance of the Muslims against Taslima’s views? When it comes to the Sangh Parivar it is quick to call them goons and intolerant etc. Now who are the goons and where is this tolerance and sensitivity?

Regarding Hussain’s artistic freedom it seems to run unfettered in an expression of sexual perversion only when he envisages the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. There is no quarrel had he painted a nude woman sitting on the tail of a monkey. The point is he captioned it as Sita. Nobody would have protested against the sexual perversion and his orientatation to sexual signs and symbols. But would he dare to caption it as ‘Fatima enjoying in Jannat with animals’?

Next example-is the painting of Saraswati copulating with a lion. Here again his perversion is evident and so is his intent. Even that lets concede cannot be faulted-each one’s sexual orientation is each one’s business I suppose. But he captioned it as Saraswati. This is the problem. It is Hussain’s business to enjoy in painting his sexual perversion. But why use Saraswati and Sita for his perverted expressions? Use Fatima and watch the consequence. Let the media people come to his rescue then. Now that he is in a country that gives him complete freedom let him go ahead and paint Fatima copulating with a lion or any other animal of his choice. And then turn around and prove to India-the Freedom of expression he enjoys in Qatar.

Talking about Freedom of Expression-this is the Hussain who supported Emergency-painted Indira Gandhi as Durga slaying Jayaprakas Narayan. He supported the jailing of artists and writers. Where did this Freedom of Expression go? And you call him secularist? Would you support the jailing of artists and writers Ram –would you support the abeyance of the Constitution and all that we held sacred in democracy and the excessiveness of Indira Gandhi to gag the media-writers- political opponents? Tell me honesty why does Hussain expect this Freedom when he himself did not support others with the same freedom he wants? And the media has rushed to his rescue. Had it been a Ram who painted such obnoxious, .degrading painting-the reactions of the media and the elite ‘secularists’ would have been different; because there is a different perception/and index of secularism when it comes to Ram-and a different perception/and index of secularism when it comes to Rahim/Hussain.

It brings back to my mind an episode that happened to The Hindu some years ago.[1991]. You had a separate weekly page for children with cartoons, quizzes, and with poems and articles of school children. In one such weekly page The Hindu printed a venerable bearded man-fully robed with head dress, mouthing some passages of the Koran-trying to teach children .It was done not only in good faith but as a part of inculcating values to children from the Koran. All hell broke loose. Your office witnessed goons who rushed in-demanded an apology-held out threats. In Ambur, Vaniambadi and Vellore the papers stands were burned-the copies of The Hindu were consigned to the fire. A threat to raise the issue in Parliament through a Private Members Bill was held out-Hectic activities went on-I am not sure of the nature and the machinations behind the scene. But The Hindu next day brought out a public apology in its front page. Where were you Ram? How secular and tolerant were the Muslims?

Well this is of the past-today it is worse because the communal temperature in this country is at a all high-even a small friction can ignite and demolition the country’s peace and harmony. It is against this background that one should view Hussain who is bent on abusing and insulting the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Respect for religious sentiments, need to maintain peace and harmony should also be part of the agenda of an artist-if he is great. If it is absent then he cannot say that he respects India and express his longing for India.

Let’s face it-he is a fugitive of law. Age and religion are immaterial. What does the media want-that he be absolved by the courts? Even for that he has to appear in the courts-he cannot run away-After all this is the country where he lived and gave expression to his pervert sadist, erotic artistic mind under Freedom of Expression. I simply cannot jump into the bandwagon of the elite ‘secularist’ and uphold what he had done. With his brush he had committed jihad-bloodletting.

The issue is just not nudity-Yes the temples-the frescos in Konarak and Kajhuraho have nude figures-But does it say that they are Sita, Sarswati or any goddesses? We have the Yoni and the Phallus as sacred signs of Life-of Siva and Shakthi-take these icons to the streets, paint them -give it a caption it become vulgar. Times have changed. Even granted that our ancients sculptured and painted naked forms and figures, with a pervert mind to demean religion is no license to repeat that in today’s changed political and social scenario and is not a sign of secularism and tolerance. I repeat there is no quarrel with nudity-painters has time and again found in it the perfection of God’s hand craft.

Let me wish Hussain peace in Qatar-the totalitarian regime with zero tolerance May be he will convince the regime there to permit freedom of expression in word, writing and painting. For this he could start experimenting painting forms and figure of Mohamed the Prophet-and his family And may I fervently wish that the media-especially The Hindu does not discriminate goons-let it not substitute tolerance for intolerance when it comes to Rahim and Antony and another index for Ram.

I hope you will read this in the same spirit that I have written. All the best to you Ram.

Dr Mrs Hilda Raja, Vadodara

A Very Shameful Day in India: M F Hussain surrenders Indian citizenship

It never made to headlines and today the news was also hidden among the euphoria in the aftermath of one of those rare budgets after which the Sensex didn't dip. Amidst the 'India Shining' rave party it seemed so insignificant that one of India greatest artistes and painters had to surrender his citizenship at an age of 95 because he never felt secured in his motherland.

Yes, I'm speaking about M F Hussain, undoubtedly the most illustrious of the modern day painters who have retained India's position in the international art scene. What is his crime? He has painted Saraswati in nude and hence has a number of cases slapped against him by a bunch of idiots. And not only that, our system has accepted all such baseless cases and wants to try a 95 year old person for being creative. It's well accepted that Indians are an argumentative lot, but that doesn't mean that Indian judiciary will entertain each and every such frivolous case when there's already a huge backlog of rape and murder cases. As long as any act doesn't cause any security threat to the nation or any loss of material and/or respect to the nation or any particular individual, how can such cases be entertained? (By the way the cyber law on pornography and obscenity has been recently changed and Savita Bhabhi is back. So I believe Indian judiciary is going in the right track). More to it, Husaain also has threat on his life, properties and creations and our government doesn't find enough reason to ensure the security of one of her most prodigal sons.

Wow, what a hypocrisy when I've been chanting "Kucha yuga shobhita muktaa haare" towards the end of the Anjali (prayer offerings) on the day of Saraswati Puja since ever. My seven year kid has been also chanting the words, may be, for the past two three years, off course without knowing the meaning. I never felt it necessary for him to know each and every word of the Saraswati Vandana (Sorry guys, the link is in Bengali).

Neither has anyone in Bengal (or elsewhere where this particular Saraswati Vandana is chanted on a Saraswati Puja day) thought it necessary for kids to know the exact meaning. For the matter of fact no one ever bothers what mantras are being read out by the priest during the marriage or the naming ceremony or any where else. Sanskrit has ceased to be the spoken language of people in India more than 2000 years back and very few people have known Sanskrit since very long. But when these mantras were first composed much more people knew Sanskrit and I'm sure they would have objected to any obscene or perverse or derogatory word used for any Indian or Hindu deity. But I'm not aware of any such objection to "Kucha yuga shobhita muktaa haare" which precisely means "boobs adorned with a garland of pearl". When worn in the neck such a garland is known as necklace - I don't know if this would be called a booblace!! Whatever be it, some one in the antiquity did find it very aesthetic and perfectly normal to worship not only the divinity, but also the extra ordinary physical beauty of the Deity of art and culture and education. I'm not sure, but I don't think the physical beauty of any other Hindu deity is adored or worshipped in this way. Perhaps the composer of the hymn or the Mantra felt it necessary to refer to the naked beauty of a woman body because we're here worshipping the Goddess of art. One of the most wonderful creations of the nature is no doubt the body of a woman with all her artistic curves cleavages. All along the ages people were always fascinated with this wonderful creation. Hence why shouldn't we worship the supreme from of art that the nature has created for us? So when we can worship the naked beauty of Saraswati then why can't it be depicted by an artiste? Where is the freedom of speech and expression? It's a matter of great pride that an Indian, Muslim by birth, has taken so much interest in a Goddess of a different religion and has depicted Her exactly in the way she used to be in the ancient times when India had made perhaps the greatest advancements in art and literature and other areas of creative sciences.

I find it so ridiculous that many people claim to dictate the guidelines of Indian culture. It's shocking that people belittle our culture which is by far the most pragmatic and the most liberal one to be found anywhere in the world. We not only worship the breasts and put pictures of woman anatomy on the walls of temples, but we also worship the very moment of joy and ecstasy when a new life is created, the moment when a man and woman has orgasm - that's exactly what the Shiva Linga symbolizes. So when women rub the linga with milk (symbolizing the semen that overflows after orgasm) there's no problem, but if anyone paints a picture of Shiva having sex with Parvati that becomes a big issue? That's really ridiculous!!

I hope these silly people better read more about India and about Indian culture before commenting on it.

First when I felt sad

Do you remember when you first felt sad? For that matter of fact do you know what's the earliest thing in your life that you still remember? How old were you then? Well, these are really debatable things and I'm sure psychologists would have done enough researches on this.

Theoretically I don't know what a human being has the earliest memories of. It never came to my mind what that memory could be. But I often have this weird thought of finding out when I first felt sad, or when I first missed something or someone in life. I still faintly remember the initial days at the primary school, called 'Children's Home' in Calcutta - I used to cry a lot everyday. I can retrieve some really grainy snaps from my memory about one or more such days. Yes, I was surely feeling bad or even sad, but that's not the sadness I'm talking about. I remember so well the last day in the boarding school after the secondary exams. We all stayed for 5-6 years together in hostel and that was the time when we're leaving each other. We knew it well that, that day could be the last time some of us saw each other in our lives. And it did happen like that. I never saw many of my friends with whom I stayed for so many days, with whom I shared such a big part of my formative years. That's the feeling which I'd say 'feeling sad'. A similar day came again when we're leaving IIT. Some six years had already passed by then. Somehow I knew that the prospect of being in touch was much better now. It's true that I was not that sad as I was when I left my school. Might be this time duration of the say in hostel was little lesser, or perhaps I knew that I'd be anyway in touch with most of the people I'd like to be in touch with. But back in school even if I wanted to be in touch I knew it won't be that easy. That feeling of sadness in the last day at school perhaps never came back in my life. That's what I'm talking about. Do you remember when you first felt that type of sadness?

I've been thinking about this for quite sometime. Finally I came to the conclusion that perhaps I felt a similar sadness for the first time in my life when we're leaving Kashmir after a trip in 1980. I was just seven years old then. Had my mother not taken the pains of taking those valuable twelve snaps in her Agfa camera, I might not have remembered anything of that trip later. The photos have also faded a lot. I can't recall much about that trip other than the fact that our Jammu Tawai Express was late by some 10-12 hours due to some accident in the train line ahead of us and we missed our connecting flight to Srinagar from Jammu. But I don't remember the hotel that we stayed, I don't remember any of the places that we visited. But I somehow still remember that when I was leaving Srinagar I was feeling sad that I won't be seeing a particular waiter in the hotel, with whom I'd become so close. Perhaps that was the first time I got attached to someone outside my family. Perhaps that was the beginning of the life long saga of getting close to someone and then leaving him/her. Perhaps that was the beginning of getting old, getting to know the realities of life, getting to know the sweet-sad, 'meetha dard' part of life. Perhaps I started growing up since then!!

Music of all Moods

Technology is a great catalyst in art and culture. It's not that I realized this only now. I knew it and have been a great proponent of this since long. I enter into long debates with people of the previous generation that science and technology indeed have helped to propagate and enhance music. I rediscovered the same just yesterday.

I never knew that MS Windows Media Player meticulously kept a track of the all the songs that I download and play in it. Accidentally I bumped on the history of the songs that I have heard in the past one year. I generally download or make a copy of only those songs which I like very much and want to play a number of times in my laptop. So the history of all such songs should simple mean a collection of all songs that I loved and listened innumerable times in the last one year. When I browsed through the list I was stunned to find the diversity of the styles, genres, age and languages of the songs or the music. I couldn't recall when and where I'd heard many of the English songs. But when I again heard all those today I did find out that they are indeed very unique songs and I'd like them anyway wherever I'd hear. Another important thing that showed up through this collection is the various moods that I'd have had while I listened them. I rarely listen to rock or hip-hop but still the list contains quite a few good rock numbers. Off course I've my diet of Hindi classics, Western Classical pieces, Hemanta, Salil Chowdhury, Lata, Gulzar, R D Burman, Khaiyyam, Shreya Ghoshal & Sunidhi Chauhan. I thought it's worth listing some of the songs from the collection (Most of the international albums are available in youtube and you can find about the artistes and the albums in wiki):

• Jazz Piano number "OAM Blues" by Aaron Goldber from the 2006 album "Worlds"
• Jazz numbers Despertar & Amanda from the album "Quiet Songs" by the Aisha Duo - some awesome percussions & cello
• The winner of Grammy in Contemporary World Music category, the 2001 album "Djin Djin" (refers to the sound of a bell in Africa that greets each new day) by Angélique Kidjo, a Grammy Award-winning Beninoise singer-songwriter, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos
• The number "Connections are more dangerous than lies" from the 2007 album "Welcome the Night" by the pop punk band "The Ataris"
• "Get your head straight" from the 2007 album "Boys not Out" by the rock band of the same name
• "Lemonade" from the 2007 album "What a Heart is beating for" by the contemporary Christian and folk musician Chris Rice
• Beethoven's Symphony No 7, all 4 movements
• Beethoven's Symphony no 3, all 4 movements
• Bach's Masses in B minor
• Mozart's Symphony No 9, all 4 movements
• Mozart's 1st composition (K1) at the age of 4
• Dvorak's Symphony No 9, all 4 movements
• Few Western Classical instrumental in guitar and piano
• "Sam's Song" from 2006 album "Talk is Cheap" by the 22 year old Dave Melillo - a mellow blend of acoustic guitar driven acoustic rock and piano accented power pop
• Tagore's poem "Pran", adapted from the poem "Stream of Life" from Gitanjali, set to tune by American composer Garry Schyman for Matt Harding's Dancing 2008 video
• 2 songs from the 1995 album "Muso Ko" by West African singer and musician Habib Koite & Bamada
• "Don't Give up on me" from the 2006 chartbuster album Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! by the power pop band Hellogoodbye
• "Ava Adele" from 2007 album "This is it" by country singer Jack Ingram
• "We Are One" from 22 year old Kelly Sweet's debut album of the same name in 2007 - classical and jazz music style
• 2005 album "Duos II" by Brazilian jazz singer and composer Luciana Souza
• 2007 album "Nu Monda" by the Capeverdan singer Tcheka
• August from "Water's Edge" by the contemporary American composer Tim Janis
• "I'm gonna change everything that holds memory of you" by Jim Reeves - my favourite English singer
• Harry Belafonte's Jamaica Farewell - any introduction needed for this song?
• Rehman's "Sun Ri Sakhi", "Dil Hai Chotasa" (Roja, original and my performance on violin), "Aye Hairat-eAshiqie" (Guru), "Tu Hi Re" (Bombay), "Barso Re" (Guru)
• Hemanta's "Ferano Jabe Aar", "Poth Harabo Bolei Ebar", "Jhorer Kache Rekhe Gelam", "Shono Kono Ek Din", "Dhitang Dhitang Bole"
• Few of Khaiyyam's all time memorable ghazals from Umrao Jaan, Baazar, Akhri Khat, Kabhi Kabhi and others
• Few of Gulzar-RD Burman's compositions like "Aanewala Pal", "O Majhi Re", "Is Mod Se Jatein Hain", "Musafir Hoon Yaroon" and others
• Few of Geeta Dutt's last songs ("Mera Dil Jo Mera Hota", "Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho Meri Jaan", "Koi Chupke Se Aake) - all written by Gulzar way back in early seventies, some of Gulzar's earliest lyrics - wonderful pathos in the voice that ceased to emanate music soon after the songs were made
• Some of Shreya Ghoshal's best: Antaheen (2010 National Award winning "Pherari Mon"), Piu Bole (Parinita), Bairi Piya (Devdas), Urzu Dur Kut (Yahaan), Pal Pal (Lage Raho Munnabhai) etc
• Some of Sunidhi Chauhan's unusual songs like "Mere Zindagi Mein Aaye Ho", "Mere Sang", "Yeh Aaj Kya Ho Gaya", "Ye Lamha" etc
• Ajeeb Dastan: Lata's original & my performance in 2009
• Few of my other performances like "Na Jaane Kyun", a few Rabindra Sangeet like "Fule Fule", "Sokhi Bhabona Kahare Kohe", "Amar Nishitho Rater Badol Dhara" and others
• Few of Lopamudra and Antara Chowdhury's live recordings from their last year's performances at the Durga Puja organized by Sarathi in Bangalore
• Few of Suman's new age Bengali songs like "Tomake Chai" & "Sohosa Ele KI", both from our (Kohal) last year's (2009) performance in Koramangala, Bangalore during Durga Puja

There were a total of around 200 songs out of which I could fit around 150 into one CD. When I was listening to the CD I was really amazed to find that though the songs were chosen at random across a year still they do reflect my choice, my moods, my emotions and many things about me. The thread that might be connecting each of these discreet pieces of music is a theme of underlying love - love for human, love for the nature, love for culture and tradition, love for everything. Most of the Hindi songs are actually some of the best love songs ever made in recent times in India. The Tagore songs are also songs of love or life - anyway both are same, isn't it? The Western Classical pieces can't evoke anything other than love and peace and tranquility and serenity. The other contemporary western music are from various parts of the world - from the Africas to Brazil to Native Americans (Dvorak's symphony is said to be inspired by the music of the native Americans). I don't see anything else than love in all these various forms of world music. If I've to present anything to anyone on the Valentine's Day I can choose most of these songs. Perhaps that's the essence of the songs that I've randomly listened to over the last one year and would listen to years to come.