India's Got Talent

I am following a new reality show - India's Got Talent on colors since last few days. And I am bound to say that this is a show, which actually provides a platform to everyone to show his/her/their talent to the world. Some of you may argue that this is nothing but a copy of Got Talent series, but this doesn't lower the praise, it deserves.

Today, I was watching a repeat telecast of the show, in which a band came on stage for performance. Here 'Band' means no rock band or something but one of the bands, which are their in Indian Baaraats. And that band truly rocked the stage. Some of the best words came out of Kiran Kher's mouth: "Shaadiyon me, everybody concentrates on bride-groom and ignores the talent of these guys", she broke out when the band was performing. I don't think that any other show can give this kind of freedom to everyone.

This was just one example; I have seen multiple extra-ordinary and unusual performance on this stage. And most of those talents were almost obsolete or under-status arts. This is the show, watching which you will not only get entertained but also come to know about various arts hidden in different parts of India.

I have just few words to say: "INDIA HAS REALLY GOT TALENT."

PS: Watch here, here and here to get a feel, what kind of talents this show is nurturing. There are many other interesting videos with these links.

An initiative towards social welfare

Hello Readers,

I have created a survey, please spend 1 minute of your time to fill this survey. Don't worry, you need not to give any information of yours. Please be honest while taking this survey.

Once you are done with the survey, please read the following intent behind it.

Click here to take the survey now

I am thinking about an initiative to create some new jobs for unemployed and under privileged people.

Objective:

• A new business with minimal investment
• Creating new jobs w/o eating up some other jobs
• With these people's skill set, very hard to find a socially high status job w/o much investment.

Idea:

• 3 steps:
1. Collect shoes from houses
2. Wash/Polish those
3. Return back to houses (collect payment)
• Since minimal initial investment, so no worries if idea fails.

Another concern is that people should not feel that they are donating their money to someone and intended employees should not look for free lunches. I am looking for this survey's result to make a call for starting this kind of service.

If you convince with the idea and want to help these guys, who generally starve 20 days a month. Please propagate this survey to your friends. It will be very helpful to get as many responses as possible.

If you think that there are better ways to fulfill the objective, please share.

Jiska bhi chehra cheela, andar se aur nikla...

Did you guys checked the title song of Kaminey?

I am listening to it since morning in loop and still liking it. Some of the amazing lyrics this song has. Salute to Gulzar for writing such beautiful lines and to Vishal Bhardwaj to do full justice with some great lyrics.

Earlier, I used to listen "DHAN TE NAN" from the same album and liked that a lot. But on recommendation of one of my friends, I listened to this song... And I could not help myself admiring this one.

Here are the lyrics of this song:

[Kya kare zindagi isko hum jo mile,
Iski jaan kha gaye, raat din ke gile]- 2 times
Raat din gile…
Meri aarzoo kamini,
Mere khwab bhi kaminey,
Ek dil se dosti thi, yeh huzoor bhi kaminey,
Kya kare zindagi isko hum jo mile,
Iski jaan kha gaye, raat din ke gile…

[Kabhi zindagi se maanga, pinjre mein chaand la do,
Kabhi laanten deke, kaha aasmaa pe taango] – 2 times
Jeene ke sab kareene the hamesha se kaminey,
Kaminey kaminey kaminey kaminey,
Meri daastaan kamini, mere raasten kaminey,
Ek dil se dosti thi, yeh huzoor bhi kaminey…

Jiska bhi chehra cheela, andar se aur nikla,
Masoom sa kabootar naacha to more nikla,
Kabhi hum kaminey nikle, kabhi doosre kaminey,
Kaminey kaminey kaminey kaminey,
Meri dosti kamini, mere yaar bhi kaminey,
Ek dil se dosti thi, yeh huzoor bhi kaminey…

Though complete lyrics are amazing, I particularly like these lines:

"Jiska bhi chehra cheela, andar se aur nikla,
Masoom sa kabootar naacha to more nikla"

Going to Mars...

I am going to Mars :)

hehe, don't worry, not me but my name is going to Mars... And you can also send yours. Visit here to send your name to mars on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011!

Jigsaw Event

Time: 3rd - 8th July 2009
Location: Select CityWalk Mall, Saket, New Delhi
Celebrities watchout: Royce B. Mcllure, Konkana Sen Sharma, Cyrus
Our Role: Guest of Honor (as they said it)

Don't have time and mood to write a complete post on it. But I will share more pics of the event as soon as I get them.

The sharp Guy

The team

Start

Trying to straighten the sharp guy

Following Gandhi

Guess the size of Jigsaw

The sharpest :)

Change

Basa le apni aakhon me, chaman ke saare phoolon ko,
mumkin hai kal yahin par, koi imarat khadi mile.

Agli chutti me bachchon ko, parvat par le jaana,
mumkin hai kal, Himalaya ki jagah Aravali mile.

Vida hai aaj beti ki, jee bhar kar nihaar le,
mumkin hai kal aspatal* me, beti jali mile.

aaj gangajal hain, tu taharat* abhi kar le,
mumkin hai kal yahi par tujhe, sookha pada mile.

-Akash

*taharat: purification
*aspatal: Hospital

Long Holiday...

10 things, I love to do...

1. Driving with my car's windows rolled down & my elbow on the door.

2. Eating something and not to brush my teeth before going to sleep so that I can enjoy the taste if sleep denies to come.

3. Walking in the rain.

4. All types of Hindi movies and most of the Hindi songs. Also love Animations, romantic and action movies. Don't like period dramas.

5. Anytime, I can have "Mexican Green Wave" with cheese crust and "Gralic Breads" with "Cheese Dip" from Dominos.

6. I never used to like "Arhar ki Dal" and "Gobhi ki Sabzi" and "momos", but now these are among my favorites.

7. Solving puzzle, YES: mind blenders and not-to-mention Jigsaws.

8. I love drying my hairs and body under the fan after having a bath(this caused me fever on several occasions).

9. Watching Cricket and Tennis, if nothing interesting is there on TV, I usually start watching old matches.

10. Hanging out with my friends

10 worst possible things...

Hmm, I prepared a list of 10 worst things that can happen to anyone and are not in your control. Most of these are derived from personal experience and some from other’s experiences too :) I didn’t include the work related stuff in that and too personal stuff coz I wanted to keep it as light as possible. Also there is no ranking so every point carries an equal weightage.

1. It’s the first rain of the season; you go out to enjoy the rain. It stops raining in 2 minutes leaving you half drenched.

2. Your best friend’s marriage, wanna capture some moments. You click only to find discharged batteries.

3. Missing a train/movie coz of traffic jam.

4. It’s Sunday... Ind-Pak final in some multi-nation cricket series and cable-waala-bhaia is all set to ruin your sunday.

5. Crossing a red light, wanna give thulla a tough look but your bike runs out of fuel at the same time.

6. A tough day in office, waana have a shower... find hot water coming out in month of June.

7. You wake up at 6:00 AM hearing ring of your cell only a find a cust-care executive at other end.

8. You are looking for your cell everywhere... not able to find it :( finally you find out that you are talking on your cell.

9. It’s 3:00 AM, you are in deep sleep...suddenly you feel thirsty, walk to the refrigerator, pour in some water... only to find that it was squash bottle.

10. Having a bath...applied soap all over your face and body... shower denies to continue.

Giving life to LIFE...

Yeah, I’m eagerly waiting for next 3 days to finish ASAP and the live event of assembling world’s largest jigsaw to start. Yes, I will be there and that too not as a participant but as an honoured guest :) The marketing agency Ogilvy, creator of stay-sharp campaign, invited our group to help the participants of the winners of online competition. Also we will meet Royce, the creator of that master piece LIFE. For the uninitiated, we (a group of 18 members) carry a world record of being the first group to assemble world’s largest jigsaw puzzle without break. This achievement is recognized by ‘Limca Book of Records’ and will be publish in this year’s record book. We were also the first group to solve that puzzle in India and first group to complete all the five related puzzles. For a detailed story, pleases refer here and here.

So when Ogilvy thought of this campaign, it contacted us and asked us if we are available to help the contestants. The puzzle hungry people of this group are always ready so they accepted the offer unanimously. Now the online stuff is finished, 10 jigsaw masters have been recognised, and the only thing left is to wait for 3rd july to kick-start the event. Though this puzzle is not as difficult as we did earlier for the world record but still it’s a great challenge to solve that in a public area under a lot of chaos.

I am very excited to meet Royce and the 10 puzzle masters at the moment. Hope the wait to be over soon.

Come on LIFE, we are coming again to live a LIFE by giving you a LIFE :)