Owner: I, Me, Myself URL:http://sidhusaaheb.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:31:36 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Sidhusaaheb's world view. Site statistics:Click here
2137 Dn. Punjab Mail 2007-07-01 08:22:00 My ancestral village is located in Bathinda district, in Punjab. One of the most convenient ways to travel there from Faridabad, near New Delhi, where I presently reside, is to travel on the 2137 down, Punjab Mail, up to Bathinda, from where one can catch a bus to a small town and then another one, on to the village. The train is supposed to depart from the railway station at Faridabad at about 7:40 p.m., however, I have never seen it do that since it is almost invariably late. So, obviously, it almost never reaches Bathinda on time either, which is not all that bad actually, because it allows me a few more hours of sleep. Needless to add, it also helps reduce the chances of my having slept past the station. However, a reserved berth in a second class sleeper compartment does not always ensure uninterrupted sleep. On a recent trip, I must have curled up a bit while asleep, for when I tried to stretch my legs, my feet met with an obstruction. I woke up to find that a middle-aged man had
India's inferiority complex 2007-06-26 02:55:00 I was thinking of writing on the subject, but veteran journalist Tavleen Singh has already written very incisively about this in her weekly column in The Sunday Express. So, there is no reason for me to try and re-invent the wheel! Read more:India
My Mother's Tomato Ketchup Recipe 2007-06-19 12:50:00 The inspiration for this blog post came, when my mother had a good look at a certain recipe blog. It made her decide to share her famed (at least in the family) recipe for preparing tomato ketchup, which is as follows, with all netizens.Ingredients:5 kg tomatoes750 gm sugar250 gm onions100 gm ginger50 gm garlic1 cup malt vinegar1 tea-spoon sodium benzoate25 gm garam masala (cumin, black pepper, cloves, 1/4 inch of a cinnamon stick, all ground together)salt (to taste)red chilly powder (to taste)Directions:Chop the tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger and steam these in a pressure cooker (Turn the heat down as soon as steam builds up and then, turn it off after another five minutes.).Let these cool and then liquefy in a food processor.Pass the mixture through a coarse sieve (with large mesh-size), so that the pulp passes through, leaving only the skins behind.Add the sugar and heat on a fire, so that the sugar dissolves.Put a drop of the liquid on a plate, to check the density. If it runs Read more:Tomato
, Ketchup
An open letter to Lt. Col. (Retd.) K. S. Bainsla 2007-06-08 09:18:00 Sir,I am a great admirer of the Indian Army and, therefore, its officers and men. This is not in the least because various members of my family have served or are serving this great institution in different capacities. It is more so on account of the fact that the Army has remained largely unaffected by the tools of divisive politics like communalism, casteism, etc., which have been used to polarise society by those who seek to create 'vote-banks', in order to serve their own vested interests.It is on account of this that your conduct over the past few days seems, at least to me, to have been unbecoming of a former Army officer and a gentleman, as you have led a series of protests (some of which have been violent and resulted in a number of deaths, besides the damage of national property worth crores of rupees) to demand the Scheduled Tribe status for the Gujjar community, to which you also belong.Reservation, as, I believe, has been amply demonstrated over the past 60 years or so, i Read more:open letter
The Lions of Punjab 2007-05-28 13:03:00 This article appeared in the Time magazine on November 12, 1984. Read more:Lions
Dera Sacha Sauda and I 2007-05-21 21:44:00 As I keep track of the coverage, in newspapers and on television, of the Dera Sacha
Sauda controversy, there are a few things that strike me as strange.Firstly, the Dera has been described as a 'Sikh sect' in certain sections of the news media, whereas it has nothing to do with Sikhism (or any other religious faith, as for that matter).Secondly, something that has been part of conversations in urban drawing-rooms and rural baithhaks in Punjab i.e. the Dera head issued an edict to his followers to vote for Congress (I) in the recent state assembly elections, only because that party offered to help 'dispose off' the criminal cases filed against the Baba and his followers (the charges include murder and sexual abuse), in case it was able to form the government, does not appear to have been mentioned in any newspaper or on any television channel.Thirdly, most media reports seem to imply that the Sikhs have been outraged merely by the fact that the Baba appeared dressed like Guru Gobind
A friend indeed 2007-05-13 12:00:00 I have known him for several years now. He is an old friend
of my brother's and that is how we got introduced, when I returned to live with my family, after completing my post-graduate degree. We seemed to hit it off rather well from the first meeting onwards and have been good friends ever since.My mother has named him Zakhmi (the injured one) and the name has stuck, because he tends to get into fights every now and then and, in which, often, he is out-numbered many to one. The injuries sustained are serious at times and he has almost moved on to the 'happy hunting grounds' on more than one occasion. It took a really long time for a particularly deep wound on his neck, which was the result of a rather nasty confrontation, I suppose, to heal. My brother and I washed it with anti-septic solution every day and a kind gentleman down the street fed him anti-biotics.Coming from a clan of warrriors, myself, I can perfectly understand his compulsion to stand up for what he believes is righ
Saanjha Virsa PunjabiaaN Da (The Shared Heritage of Punjabis) 2007-05-04 08:42:00 A magazine is to be published in the Punjabi language, every quarter, simultaneously from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan and Ludhiana, Punjab, India. The Lahore edition is to be printed in the Shahmukhi script and the Ludhiana edition in Gurmukhi. The content of both editions, obviously, is to be exactly the same.This is the first such experiment that I am aware of and I sincerely hope that it would not only be successful in terms of the magazine becoming immensely popular, but also achieve its larger goal of bringing Punjabis, wherever in the world they might reside, closer to each other.I came to know about it when the Academy of the Punjab in North America asked permission to include, in the first issue, my blog-posts about my Pakistan trip, granting which, was, of course, a great honour for me. They even had it all translated into Punjabi, on their own.The magazine is to be called Sanjh, which is very appropriate as it seeks to preserve and promote the glorious language, culture and heri Read more:Heritage
I am a Himesh Reshammiya fan! 2007-04-12 02:55:00 Before any one jumps to any conclusions, let me clarify that I do not care much for Himesh
's nasal twang. I think he does a fine job as a composer though, especially when the vocals are being rendered by others.Here is one recent such example, which I like quite a bit:The singers are Raahat Fateh Ali Khan and Krishna. Read more:Himesh Reshammiya
A Reason to Smile 2007-04-05 13:31:00 The following 'middle' appeared on the editorial page of The Tribune, yesterday:From Zaidi, with loveby K.M. Sahni We went to Lahore recently for an ILO sponsored five-nation meet on child labour. My wife came along. She is Lahore born, 7 Club Road to be precise, which turned out to be a rather prestigious address, being the official residence of the Punjab Chief Minister.Suddenly, I had an idea. Why not drop in at 7, Club Road, to see what it was like? Without a warning to anybody, we took off in the car provided to me by the State Government, our police escort dutifully behind. When we drew up at the bungalow around 11.00 p.m. its gates were closed. The police van sounded its hooter, and the guards opened up. We parked inside, stood on the lawns, silently took in the scene before us, and left.On day 2, my wife and I went over to Zaidi’s, a famous photographer located at 23, Mall Road. My parents’ post-wedding photograph was taken by the late Syed Mohd. Ali there. The establishm Read more:Reason
, Smile
Violation of Sikhism's Basic Tenets 2007-03-31 04:44:00 The following is the text of the letter that I sent through email to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a few months ago, and to which neither has a reply been sent, nor has the practice that I wrote to protest against been stopped:"Sat Sri Akal,I would very humbly like to bring to your attention something, which I have noticed and found very perturbing.The daily Ardas at the Harmandir Sahib, in the evenings, after the recitation of the Rehraas Sahib, in its last stanza, addresses 'Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Ram Das Sahib ji' and 'Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji' but makes no mention of 'Sachche Pita Waheguru'.I am no learned scholar and am just an ordinary Sikh, but to my mind this does not appear to be in line with the teachings of the ten Gurus as well as the Guru Granth Sahib.From what I understand, we remember all the ten Gurus as well as the Guru Granth Sahib in the very first stanza of the Ardas, and the final stanza is addressed to 'Sachche Pita Waheguru', t Read more:Basic
Google's Gaffe 2007-03-22 07:41:00 Over the past seven years, since I stepped out of college, I have realised that here in India, at least, the most important requirement for being selected for any job is 'good communication skills'. It does not really matter if the position in question is Rocket Scientist or Software Developer or Business Manager or Salesperson. The chief criterion remains the same.It does not really matter if a candidate for the position of Rocket Scientist knows little about Rocket Science or if the one who wishes to be selected as a Software Developer is not too well versed with the tools of his or her trade or if the aspiring Business Manager does not know too much about Business Management or if the one who wishes to become a Salesperson for a B2B (business-to-business) IT (information technology) solution has sold only carpets in the past, as long as they all have 'good communication skills'.The question now arises as to how do companies identify those with 'good communication skills'. It i Read more:Google
Patrol sans Petrol 2007-03-17 03:58:00 On a recent visit to the City Beautiful, I saw that the Chandigarh police has acquired this new patrol car. I do not know if it can help them catch many crooks, as this battery-powered vehicle, called the Reva, can not go very far on a single recharge or go very fast (range: 80 kilometres, top speed: 70 kilometres per hour, approximately). To me, it appears to be more of a toy-car than anything else. Read more:Patrol
, Petrol
Canine Comfort 2007-03-11 21:07:00 These stray dogs seem to have enjoyed a good night's sleep on some old, discarded cushions, near where I live. The photograph was taken early in the morning. Read more:Canine
The Fact of the Matter 2007-03-06 05:03:00 I have been inspired to write this by the column that Shobha De (then Kilachand) used to write for a film rag, more than a few years ago.I recall that the column used to be accompanied by a sketch of a cat holding a cigarette, placed in a holder, in one of its paws. This piece has nothing to do with smoking, which I am strongly against, in any case, and I am more inclined towards dogs than cats, though it is not that I dislike cats.It just so happened that Bollywood actresses and sisters, Karishma (or Karisma, as numerologists have advised her to call herself) Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor were on a chat show hosted by Karan Johar on television, on sunday evening. Shahid Kapoor was there too. Shahid, incidentally, is not a brother or cousin to Karishma and Kareena and is, in fact, Kareena's boy-friend.The chat in the show mostly revolved around Shahid and Kareena's relationship. The three guests talked about how it has stood the test of time over the past three years or so, how Shahid an
A turning point 2007-03-02 14:45:00 My brother is on a train. It shall arrive at Bangalore some time before noon, on March 3. He boarded it late in the evening on March 1, at New Delhi railway station. My parents and I dropped him off there.He is to join at his new place of work on the fifth of this month.It is for the first time that he is going to be living away from home, in a city he has never been to before. In fact, it is also the first time that he is travelling so far on his own.I am reminded of the time when I went to live at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, for a couple of years. It was different in the sense that I had gone there to study and my father had gone along with me all the way, to escort me to the hostel. Also, he has friends at Bangalore, with whom he expects to share a flat, while I knew no one at Indore.Strangely enough, I remembered yesterday, on account of nothing in particular, the day he was born. I was in standard IV at that time and found the way he cried to be quite in tune with Indian classical mus Read more:turning
, point
, turning point
Train to Pakistan 2007-02-21 04:30:00 There was a couple of blasts aboard the Samjhauta Express that left nearly 70 people dead, the day before. The train had left the Old Delhi railway station, for Lahore in Pakistan
. Most of the dead were Pakistanis, who belonged to families separated during the partition of India in 1947, returning home after visiting their relatives in present-day India.As the great Sufi poet, Waris Shah, once said:ChhaaN badlaaN di, umar bandyaaN di(The lives of human beings are as transitory as the shadows that clouds cast upon land.)Philosophy apart, the death and destruction that has been caused by the act of terrorism appears to have been highly avoidable. The television news channels have been presenting details of all the security lapses that made it easier for the terrorists to succeed in their nefarious designs. Apparently, there were only about half a dozen policemen guarding the 14 bogies and the luggage of the passengers was not checked before they boarded the train.I can not help comparing Read more:Train
The most intensely romantic Bollywood scene in recent history 2007-02-13 17:01:00 I thought I should do a piece on the occasion of St. Valentine's day. So, I am going to describe in this blog entry, the most romanticscene
in a Bollywood movie, according to me, in recent history. It is not that romance and I have had much to do with each other at any point of time, but I decided to go ahead and write about this anyway.The scene is from a movie called Lakshya. It stars Hrithik Roshan in the lead role and Preity Zinta plays his love-interest. The protagonist is an aimless young student at the beginning of the movie and goes on to join the military as an officer and take part, successfully, in the Indian army's Kargil operations. His on-and-off lady-love, in the movie, is a fellow student who becomes a television journalist, as the movie progresses, and covers the war.In this particular scene, Hrithik's character (Karan) comes across the character played by Preity (Romi), while being driven, along with his unit, to a location on the frontier, from where they are to
A Lost Art and a Tag 2007-02-02 04:50:00 The tag, this time, is about hand-writing. Most of the writing I do these days (and it has been that way for several years now) is, in fact, typing that I do on a computer. The only times I put pen to paper are when I have to sign my name somewhere or to note down an address or telephone number and, in rare instances, to scribble down something of importance. The keyword here is 'scribble', as against 'write'.It was not always like that, of course, and has been the case for the past 6-7 years only.When I started going to school, at the age of four, I learnt to write the English and Hindi alphabet. This was because we lived, at that time, at Hardwar in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Punjabi, which I spoke at home with my family, was not taught at school. A few years later, my father bought me a Punjabi qaida i.e. a book containing the Gurmukhi alphabet along with pictures of objects that I could associate with the various letters. Thus, I learnt to read most of and to write a little bi
Asha & Friends 2007-01-28 02:50:00 Besides recently releasing an album with a title that is the same as that of this blog entry and which includes duets that Asha Bhonsle has sung with the likes of Indian movie-star Sanjay Dutt and Australian cricketer Brett Lee, it seems that she is now preparing to record a song with British singing-star Robbie Williams (if a recent blog-post at World of Bhangra is to be believed).After dominating the Bollywood playback scene, along with her siblings, for more than half a century, the lady's singing career is still going places and, at 73 years of age, she seems to have no retirement plans as of now.To say the least, I am impressed! Read more:Friends
Pidgin Poetry 2007-01-24 01:39:00 This piece was written while Ra was working as an Assistant Manager at a tea-estate at Idukki, Permid, Kerala (not necessarily in that order!).Actually, I wrote this late one night when high fever would not let me sleep.I happened to lay my hands on a printout of a mail from Rahul that mentioned his experiences with snakes and leeches at the estate and I guess it kinda' went to my head, cranked it up and this is what came out!Here goes:Snakes n' leeches though not on verdant beaches;n' when they snipe at him, 'Rahul_does' screeches!Try as he mightto tell us it's delightI'm sure it's fright...that beats out the daylightoutta' our chappie so bright(An' u always thought he was a tubelight... !!!!)Well siree! he may resemble a squidbut our man's still the 'Braveheart of Permid'With umbrella as lancewhen he breaks into war-danceAmong all Idukki folk spreads the buzz"Hail Rahul_does!!!!" Read more:Poetry
The Hidden Face of Evil 2007-01-17 06:20:00 The cover story of the latest issue of a leading news magazine is titled 'Portrait of Evil'. It is about a businessman and his man-servant, accused of raping and killing many young children in a house owned by the former in Sector 31 (Nithari), NOIDA (a Delhi suburb, which otherwise lies in the state of Uttar Pradesh). It provides all the grisly details of the manner in which the two men are suspected to have gone about their dark deeds over the past two years or so, along with the details of the investigation carried out by the police.Apparently, the servant lured the victims into the house and handed them over to his master, who sexually abused them and then handed them over back to the servant, who, in turn, meted out the same treatment to them, after killing them. Later, the servant dismembered the bodies and disposed them off by throwing them into a municipal drain.All of this has been covered extensively by the print as well as the electronic media since December 29, 2006, when Read more:Hidden
Good bye Tinkoo! 2007-01-08 13:13:00 Tinkoo died on the evening of January 8, 2007. He was about one and a half months old.Wherever he is now, I just want to thank him for loving me so much and so unconditionally and for bringing so much joy to my life, for the short period that he was with me! I also want to say sorry for not being with him when he needed me the most, for I just might have been able to do something to save him! I had gone out of town on a silly errand and he died while I was away. I wish I had not gone at all!He had not been well for many days and was not responding well to the treatment by a veterinarian that I had been taking him to, for the past few days. I had decided to take him to another doctor and meant to do that on the very day that he died, but I had to go out of town. So, I asked my brother and mother to take him to the same veterinarian, as before, on monday and thought that I would take him to another doctor on tuesday. I had expected him to survive on that doctor's treatment for another d
Preserving Punjabiyat 2006-12-31 11:29:00 The other day I was watching the ETC Punjabi channel on television and the Miss World-Punjaban contest, held recently in the city of Ludhiana, was on air. This was not the usual 'beauty' contest and had more to do with testing the contestants' awareness of Punjabi language and culture as well as their skills at practising folk art forms like Giddha and BoliyaaN. The dress code was also traditional throughout the various stages of the contest.As far as I can remember, the various rounds included one based on solo-dance (traditional), a Giddha round, along with a round where each participant had to wear a bridal dress and one where each contestant had to pick a slip of paper out of each of two bowls, on one of which would be a question related to Punjabi heritage and culture for the young lady to answer and on the other would be a subject, a Boli related to which the girl would then have to recite.By the time I turned on the television set, the Bridal-wear stage was already over and t
Jee aayaaN nu (Welcome), Atif Aslam! 2006-12-23 05:19:00 Atif Aslam
is in town at the moment. He is to perform live at the Centre-Stage Mall in Noida tonight. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the concert this time. Well, may be next time!In fact, he has been in India for a few days now. Earlier, while he was at Bombay, he appeared on a couple of shows on MTV India. I was able to catch a little bit of the conversations he had with VJ Rannvijay and VJ Anusha on MTV Super Select and MTV Chillout, respectively.Apart from the fact that he is immensely talented musically, he seems to be quite a regular guy and a full-blooded Punjabi to boot. He also likes to ride his motorbike around and bought it with his own money, just like me. The only difference is that he owns a Honda VLX (which costs upwards of Rs.20,00,000), while I have a Yamaha RX135 (which I bought for about Rs.46,000!).When asked about his favourite song among all that he has sung so far, he said it is 'Gal Sun Ja' from the album titled Jalpari. He also sang it live on the Read more:Welcome
, Atif Aslam
Human Resources (Mis)Management 2007-07-10 08:17:00 The advertisement appeared in the jobs supplement, Power Jobs, of the Hindustan Times. An N.G.O. (non-governmental organisation), which runs an institute for providing vocational training to the youth among the economically weaker sections of society, had advertised a number of job vacancies. Among the positions advertised, was one titled 'Executive - Human Resources
'. So, I went along to attend the 'walk-in' interview.The N.G.O. is backed by and, I believe, receives substantial financial support from a leading India-based pharmaceuticals company that has a presence in over 100 countries and is a front-runner, globally, in the generic pharmaceuticals business, in terms of revenues. The N.G.O. even shares a part of its name with the pharmaceuticals company.Much of what transpired during the interview was quite interesting. It provided an insight into how the organisation, otherwise involved in philanthropic work, treats its own employees and how much it trusts them.The following is Read more:Management
, Human Resources
Farewell, People's President! 2007-07-28 06:51:00 Eminent jurist Fali S. Nariman pays glowing tributes to Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the president of India from July 25, 2002, to July 25, 2007, in an article in The Indian Express.I have always known that Dr. Kalam's personal integrity is beyond reproach, but this has been quite a revelation.He has, arguably, been the best president India has had since Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.I do wish that he had been elected for a second term in office. Read more:Farewell
, President
India's first woman president 2007-08-06 10:02:00 Columnist Shobhaa De has written in The Week, about the significance, or, rather, the lack of it, for issues related to women, of Pratibha Patil-Shekhawat taking over as president. Read more:India
, woman
Southwards bound: Delhi to Goa 2007-08-13 09:00:00 It was the afternoon of the 13th of July and we had to catch a train in a few hours. So, we called for a taxi to drop us at the railway station.As on most such trips, the luggage appeared to be more than absolutely necessary and my brother and I resigned ourselves to the fact that we would have to, well, lug it around throughout the trip. We loaded as much of it as possible into the rear of the hatch-back that was sent for us. I put one of the couple of bags that were left on to my lap and my brother placed the other at his feet, as we set off.It was a hot and humid day and it did not help at all that the taxi-driver turned out to be friendlier and more talkative than I would have liked him to be. My mother did not seem to mind though and she and my brother chatted with the driver, even as my father and I mostly kept to ourselves throughout the drive that lasted almost an hour.The 2780 down Goa Express departed on schedule at 1500 hours, from the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station and a
An Acceptance Speech 2007-08-23 14:02:00 My blog has received an award and, obviously, I am greatly pleased to accept it.If there was a real awards-function and I were to make an acceptance speech, I suppose it would have gone somewhat like this:"Well...er...ahem...First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty...Then, I would like to thank my parents and teachers, who helped me learn to read and write the English language...I would like to thank the so-called leaders of the Hindu and Muslim communities of pre-partition India, who, for the sake of building their personal fiefdoms, helped drive a wedge between the people of these two communities that ultimately led to partition of the country into two inpependent states i.e. India and Pakistan...I would, obviously, also have to thank the gullible people who followed these leaders and hated each other not only as much as their leaders wanted them to, but far beyond that...If they had not killed each other in such large numbers at the time of partition, it would have been so d Read more:Acceptance
, Speech
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