World Book Fair 2012- Pargati Maidan

I have considered myself avid reader always quite true also, Kabari Bazar in Dehardun mute spectator to my plunderings..repeatedly like Nadir shah each time I went to back home after an outing I was full of booty, it was this place which introduced me to most unlikely books( in normal times never would have spent money on) ..it was true bargain to buy ‘Lolita’ or ‘The Good Earth’ or’Catcher in the rye’ all classics.
Now I buy books from shelf and still make it a point to spend atleast one Saturday in a month browsing through rows of books in upmarket ‘Om Book shop, Gurgaon’ or book container importers-marketers on Mehrauli Gurgaon road or roadside market in Sector-14, 31 of Gurgaon.
In NCR since 2005 its been first time I ventured out for this pilgrimage, alongwith Seema and Bijal(Joshita is still two months away from summer vacations)..i drove down to Pargati Maidan, parking near Old fort..i entered with set agenda
- No Fiction of English Indian or Foreign authors( This is my stock reading but is easy to browse on portals like Flipkart.com with heavy discounts, this was deliberate on my part or else I would have spent everything on Amitav Ghosh)
- Maximum buys for almost teen and kids with Bijal and Joshita in mind.
- Best buys on Hindi literature, never owned but always cherished literary gems by top authors.
- Visit specialized stalls on Spiritual & religious books( It ultimately turned out to be heaviest investment for me)

When I got out after 5 hrs of soul satisfying, knee crushing stall hopping I had just about covered 25% of the space earmarked for books but contented to the heart my shoulders ached from all the baggage I carried, the teasure trove contained
- Ramayana(Hindi) by Amritlal Nagar for children, Mahabharata(English) a special Rupa edition got with 20% discount.
- Special Sketch book –Harper Collins edition with a pretty friendship band thrown in for Bijal.
- A super Vedic Mathematics book by a old Delhi Publisher only into publishing of Indian culture and Philosphy.
- Two Philosphy books by Ace Philospher and Guru J Krishnamurthi on meaning of life and parents interaction with kids( English + Hindi)
- Set of three small books for teenagers again by J Krishnamurthi (English)
- ‘Raag Darbari’ the hindi classical by Srilal Shukl( Rajkamal publishers are like Rupa and Harper Collins of English) and my heart really gladdened by seeing so much crowd thronging to read in mother tongue.
- Selected works of Mohan Rakesh(Ace Hindi writer- author of classic like ‘Aashad ka ek din’)
- ‘Sathyrath Prakash’ the Arya Samaj Philosphy by Swami Dayannad Saraswati(Glossy thick edition was given for INR 10/-)
- Five glossy multicoloured religious comics(English) for reading to Bijal(She is still iiliterate) by Geeta press, these people are doing faboulous job of spreading Hindu Dharma.
- Sansrit(Valmiki) version of Sunder kaand…I carry tulsi version already.
- A small version of Geeta, I have elaborate thick volume already at home(Yet to go through same)

Seems like a days work done honestly…isn’t it!

Mumbai washed up

Awesome pics of Mumbai. Couldn't resist posting them here -

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-must-see-uddhav-thackerays-pixss-of-maximum-city/20120224.htm

RayBan classics

RayBan aviators (sun glasses) have been a choice of classes (like yours truly) for decades. I first eyed them in 1986 blockbuster Top gun.

Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun

Bollywood machos like Vinod Khanna, Suniel Shetty and Salman Khan popularized them in India.

Sallu dazzles in Aviators

While Tom Cruise's character Maverick wore Ray-Ban's classic aviators in the movie, his low-key sidekick Goose, played by Anthony Edwards, opted for Caravans, a similar style but with squared-off lenses [couldn't find a picture]. This has been the star of my eyes.

Julia Roberts wearing RayBan Caravan

Here is a slightly modified version of the caravan -

Ray-Ban Caravan 3415q Silver

Last but not least, author, himself, shines in the caravan like Raybans:



Planning to own Caravans soon. Will keep you posted.

Highway on my plate AKA Vaathu Kari AKA Duck curry

(Bill board announcing the duck curry on this roadside eatery on NH 47 and where have had the duck)

This thursday as we raced down the NH47(Highway connecting Salem to Kanyakumari) i was bit sleepy in southern indian late afternoon heat although AC of car was on ;when we had started around dawn from my historically famous temporary abode of CCC(Coimbatore cosmoplitan club founded in 1891....it was my 3rd stay at this place and i find it better than much rated city hotels) it was still pretty cool and after an early morning meeting with big poultry group at Erode we rode towards Nammakal(Largest belt of egg laying poultry in India) in between we have had those tasty clean south indian breakfasts served at homely tiffin centres tucking in 2 idlis and 2 plane dosas served on banana leaf washed down with piping hot kapi in steel glass. refreshed we reached Nammakal by noon and finished off the meeting than we paid a visit to famous Hanuman temple, finally making a move for our next stop of Mulnoor we were again hurtling down the NH 47 , of sudden our driver Shanmugam(This guy is from influential community of Thevars and almost behaves like Rajnikanth in his best elements more so when driving the car) started slowing and than i saw pictures of duck on a board from a distance but when we reached live flock was roaming around and by the threshold of this eatery perfect aroma of well cooked meat was coming in, ordering Vaathu Kari on side we ordered dry livers as well, generally localites eat it with Idlis( i could never get the logic of all they way making the pasteries and than again dissolving them in sambhar or curry for consuimng it why not eat rice better), dosas or parottas, i have had mine with Kerla Parotta... a highly tasty bread made with totally unhealthy Maida and mind you this Duck is also nutritious in a way because the fat of a duck is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids called "good cholesterol".

Contented to our heart we made our way to Mulnoor and back to Coimbatore via textile hub of Tiruupur.

Faith over the years

Sankrit sholka goes :

OM shanno mitraH sha.n varuNaH sha.n bhavatyaryamaa sha.nna indro bRRihaspatiH viShNururukramaH nomo brahmaNe namaste vaayo tvameva pratyaksha.n brahmaasi tvaameva pratyaksha.n brahmavadiShyaami RRita.n vadiShyaami satya.nvadiShyaami tanmaamavatu tadvaktaaramavatu avatumaam avatuvaktaara.n
OM shaantiH shaantiH shaantiH
The meaning :
May Sun be blissful to us, may Varuna be blissful to us, may Aryaman be blissful to us. May Indra and Bruhaspati be blissful to us, may Vishnu be blissful to us. Salutation to Brahman, salutation to O Vayu. You only are the direct Brahman, I shall call you rightousness, I shall call you the truth. May he protect me, may he protect the teacher. Protect me, protect the teacher. OM !! Peace Peace Peace

Tomars of Belonwala(My maternal sir name) have been god fearing lot always and regular pujas to Kuldevta, gram devta and other deities were regular culminating in builiding up of family temple.Built by my nana in 1991 it stood grand(Picture as above with both my nana nani sitting proudly)

Labour of love gone to seed by 2000, puja was regular but structure was dangerously ruined, it cut a sorry picture truly:




Rebuilt by my mom and my Mausi(Alok's mom) in 2012, its a spanking new avatar last week my ma had 'Chandi path' there and you can see pandits all huddled together in doon chill :




Futuristic image of this temple in 2032 when god if orders me and Alok singh(My Cousin) for jirnodwar:


Amen!!!!!

It was there.....Than gone !!!

Alok may be you should have planned your new trip to India a bit earlier or for that matter maybe i should have gone to doon few days earlier maybe i could have still savored the Faluda Kulfi or Rasmalai of Kumar sweet shop, it was there and than was gone.As i entered the Chakrata road in evening driving down from Gurgaon( It was trip i was making last week to drop Joshita at Welhams after winter vacation and also to attend the reconstruction and aftermath Puja of our family temple in Belonwala) i thought for a moment maybe i had taking a wrong turn and reached Iraq and than i realised the bottleneck or chicken neck as Mayank is fond of saying the ever bane of doon traffic, the narrow lane near Kumar sweet shop and entire Chakrata road is wide again.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111219/dplus.htm#1

Although this sweet shop is shifted still old nostalgia will hit doonies for time to come ,still its good for doon traffic henceforth.

Remembering 'Silk'- Rehashed version of earlier entry

I am re-releasing one of my earlier entry which came as ‘Sheela ki Jawani’, with ‘Dirty picture’ hitting the silver screen today and memories of ‘Silk Smitha’ ( I knew you all thurkis read as mammaries) revisited,I have made minor changes from earlier one trying to add few more details of the era :-

Rejogging the memory after seeing buxom Vidya Balan on posters of ‘Dirty Picture’ it went back to timeframe of 1988-1995 and this was the time when out of teens, unshackled by parents we were absorbing all things new like a curious child, together we friends tried the goodies which were on offer in our small town of Dehradun.
Alok,me and other pals although were inhibited by our middle class taboos but still had unrestricted hormones which were overflowing like a dam bursting at seams with overflowing ooze ready to submerge anything under its way,lack of outlets and strong morality usually meant for us ‘God helps those who help themselves’ or a putting in chaste hindi ‘Apna haath Jagan Nath’ but then born creatives as we were, without props it all seemed quite dull, having exhausted IIIrd grade hindi pulps, we moved to ‘anonymous’ authors in English(Mendi had full mine of it) simultaneously rare dekko @ ‘Hustler’ or rather spuriously printed rehashed versions generally found on pavements outside bus stands and railway stations prolonged the ecstatic creativity for weeks. Lack of much needed solitude and fiscal support meant VCPs and much used video cassettes was option exercised only at max annually but then it had its own issues which I plan to recap later on…………And than we stumbled upon art house Cinema morning shows of French, english movies which were devoured to derive the much needed roughage, our creativity peaked with ‘Sirroco’ an all time favorite of all the ‘frustates’ I have been tracking career of ‘ Mr Roman Polanski ’ since then.Again something was missing as desi appetite can only be whetted with Roti, dal, sambhar, rice, pickle similarly creativity needed much sought after Indianness to it and than we discovered ‘ Digvijay’ and ‘New Empire’ two cinema halls in our beloved Doon, Different permutation and combinations of words like ladki, Jawani,Kam,Pyaas,Junglee,Aag,Badan,jism,padosan,darinda did all the magic, December winters made for pitch dark entry on a 1800 hrs show for us in the cinema hall and here we also noticed aged males coming helmeted in the cinema hall and we understood meaning of repressions and frustrations of provincial India.2-3 minutes of add on reels were the highlight for which IVth grade 2.5 hrs Malyalam/Tamil movie had to be endured, stock characters of impotant householder, young mistress, buxom servant lady and lecherous politician speaking in offnote sound track made miserable with Vth grade dubbing,it was almost addictive as a gambling forcing us to waste on a meaningless venture repeatedly without anyone of us getting any better creative inputs.
Now years hence suddenly song ‘Chutki jo tune maari’ of ‘Dirty picture’ made me situp and recap the misadventures, I have noticed atleast one of the above mentioned cinema hall in Dehradun on my recent visit still exhibiting similar fare I am not sure in today’s age who could be the audience ….but for sure Silk Smitha will remain immortal in reams of reels in these kind of movies.