Hillarious!

I had seen Aarti on flash, on my computer. But I had not seen a whole multimedia presentation on Maa Saraswati ever before. It thrilled me, really.

Udayan, Utkarsh and a few more had told me they'd be arranging a Saraswati Pooja on the Basant Panchami, today, 12th Feb, at 5:30 pm in Channa Reddy Auditorium. Yesterday again I got a message from my friend Ankit that he'd be in arrangement of Pooja and I was invited. I told them both I'd try my best to come. I wasn't sure cause of my review scheduled for Thursday, 14th Feb.

At 5 when I was in campus it struck my mind that I could go to the Pooja, and sometime before 6, I was in front of the Auditorium where I saw a notice saying that the venue was changed to Gallery One in the Technology Tower. I reached there and saw that the Auditorium, rather lecture theatre was almost 80% filled. Interesting.

I sat down on a chair (mentioning as some people later didn't get even chairs) near my friend Amit (basketball champ) and waited for the program to start. And when it did, it was a thrilling experience. I was watching a multimedia presentation which told about the Goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom, Maa Saraswati and asked for her blessings.

After that, there were a few Mantras being chanted on the VLC player and the lamps were lit. The entire theater, which was overcrowded by now, stood up. Something I could never think of. I mean the overall experience was something different. It was telling me what the future of our mythology was. It told me that with the change in generation, current technology was merging with everything and our culture and rituals couldn't be kept away from them.

Later students offered flowers to Maa Saraswati's photo (not online this time!! actually i hope this will be online by the next year) and finally, there was a QUIZ!!!

A mythological quiz. Where the questions ranged from the Avatars of God Vishnu to the names of Hindi months.

Phew!!

Is there something that the Hindi Literary Association people have not done? Actually it wasn't officially an event from them but then we all knew who had arranged it all.

Last but not the least there was my junior Suby Anthony who was, for the first time in this college (as far as I can remember, and I think I'm not wrong), was seen in a salwar-kurta. A yellow-white one.

I didn't tell the notice had urged people to come in yellow, the day being Basant Panchmi when people wear yellow, as I was not in yellow (Sorry, I had not read the notice). But at least half of the people were in yellow.

So finally it was a "RANG DE BASANTI".

Any doubts?

Dream Day

It was a day of dreams. A day when things that happened were never expected. Just dreamt of.

It started with a phone call that woke me up, at 9:32 morning. A junior of mine I barely knew, called me up and said his partners in the Antakshari had left for home and asked me if I could join him. Already out in the preliminary rounds of Antakshari by a tie breaker, I should have been excited at the thought of getting a wild card entry to the finals, which I was later when I was completely out of my sleep. For the time being I just told him I had no problems joining him and I would be there at 2, the scheduled time.

I broke the news to my preliminaries' partner motz first. Then to Tyagi, who had been in during the preliminaries' second round. And then to Jayant, who had to play against me once again now.

But probably these many people only knew that I was into the finals until the afternoon, after which people came to know one by one. And finally, I was at the stage of Channa Reddy Auditorium playing finals of the Hindi Antakshari as team E, with Sahil and Rakesh at 3:15 pm.

Our start was good. Not as a contestant actually, but as a singer. The first round was easy and there were number of choices for us to sing. Sahil suggested me 'dard-e-dil' and the song was appreciated as I myself felt I was singing good. Something to be happy about. Second song in the round I sang was 'Pyar deewana hota hai' which was ok.

The second round was a pick-a-slip-and-draw round in which we had to guess the movie by the figure drawn by our teammate, and then sing the title song of the movie. Fortunately it wasn't tough and I knew the title song of 'Kati Patang' too. Smooth going.

Then in the third round we had to guess the song on the basis of an music only audio clip taken from the song. For us the song was Aaj main oopar and we were sharing the top position with 2 more teams.

Then we had to sing 'mukhda' after listening to the 'antara'. This was interesting because I was unable to recall the mukhda of the song till the last line of the antara that was being played, though I was singing along. And then, as the antara was over, there was mukhda again, and I just kept singing. And that was the automatically answered. Unbeaten yet.

Interestingly, only when I discussed which songs I had sung on stage did I realize I had sung this song which was from a movie called Ajnabee starring Akshay, Bobby, Kareena and Bipasha. I mean, I don't know how I sang a song that unconscious of everything else other than those few lines, on such a big stage.

Then there was the 5th, final round in which we had to see a mixture of 2 videos and guess the songs. Here our team was 15 points ahead of the two teams just below us, and 25 ahead of the third team.

And this round bore 30 points.

God save me!

It's ok. It's just a game.

Is it possible that we get no prize?

Leave it. Play. Enjoy.

Okay.

Team A did tell both the songs. Doesn't matter. They had gone too down.

Team B told one song out of two. 15 points. 75+15=90.

Team C told both correct. 30 points. 85+30=115.

Team D identified none. 85.

And we could guess just one. 100+15=115.

A tie with Jayant's team. Once again.

Tie breaker again. One audio clip. It was confusing. And my partners got confused. With me getting nothing. So was Jayant, but his partner saved him.

And we lost a tie breaker again.

Now Jayant and team was first and we were second. But the home teams were not to be given the first prize according to the VIT rules. Well, okay. Team C, the highest scorer among outsiders was declared the winner and Jayant+, second, and we, third.

But then I wasn't going to be playing by the morning and at 4:30 I was with the trophy for having the third prize, first time from my college, no regrets, no problems.

And then I got congratulations and appreciations for my songs. To tell the truth, I was in heaven.

After sometime I went to my room and took a sleep. And then I was in the rock show at 8:45, which had to start at 6. The first part was of no use for most of us as we were hardly interested in rock and what the guys were playing we neither knew nor liked.

The second band, Bandish was welcomed as it started with 'O Humdum suniyo re' and kept on singing popular Hindi and English songs one after other. The guy didn't sing songs very good except a few like 'Saiyyaan' and 'Bheegi Bheegi si hain raatein' but was liked as the last one had been a disaster and this one was singing good songs in an 'okay' manner. And that was the reason we did enjoy him pretty much. Much more than my expectations as I never expect a thing from the 'rock night' of Riviera. I just go because I do not want to be sitting in my room.

At the end of the day, I had a trophy, a small amount of cash prize, and a day I could remember for long, all a dream till morning.

The failed 'Halla'

If you go for the movie, do not think you are going for a Rajkumar Santoshi movie, and you may like it.

Well, in the start it seemed that Rajkumar Santoshi is being too influenced by others, by Madhur Bhandarkar and other directors of commercial art movies. But Santoshi is a master of his own brand and should not try hand at such things. Also, the cast he has taken cannot be used to do those experiments.

After sometime, when Pankaj Kapoor enters, movie gets better, but the Santoshi-pace is hardly ever found in the movie. Even the script is not that good. The 'Khakee' touch is all gone. 'Khakee' to me, is a movie which you enjoy even when you do not know the story of the movie. And when you come to know the story in the mid of the movie, there is something you can feel. But 'Halla Bol' hardly has any touch of that greatness.

Though, there are scenes that are pretty good, but most of them are already aired in promos. Pankaj Kapoor is the only image you take home with you. Ajay Devgan is just fine and Vidya Balan has performed well in the few places she could. Darshan Zariwala is good. Anjan Srivastava and Sulabha Arya have played their small roles fine, too.

Music is not very good, except for one song, 'Jab tak hai dum'. The lines of late Dushyant Kumar in the song have been provided with all the zeal they require to reach the hearts of viewers, but the moment is short lived.

Actually the direction and acting are not bad but the slow speed and old-fashioned dialogues at some points make it weak and boring. And again, the fact hits harder when you go to the movie knwing it's a Rajkumar Santoshi film. The end too is not great and the movie almost fails to deliver its message strongly.

In short, do not go to the movie for Rajkumar Santoshi. But if you still need a reason, Pankaj Kapoor is the person to look forward to.

Finally, Out!

It was a bit surprising for people to see me there on that stage. Not because they thought I couldn't do it. But because they had seen me 3 feet below last time. In the Anna Auditorium.

It was Hindi Antakshari's second round in which they had to first select 10 teams out of 25 and then 5 out of the 10. And finally 2, for the inter-college finals in the Riviera, VIT's annual festival.

Last two years I had been in the organisation of the Hindi Antakshari and had prepared questions for it. But this time I decided to participate instead of organising. And finally I was a participant in the pre-final round of the Rs 10,000 contest.

The proceedings were all intersting. 26th Dec, we were given a written paper in which there were certain questions related to songs and movies. 25 teams were selected from almost 80 present, among which I was in the first. Yesterday the game started with those 25 teams and the teams were divided into 5 pools of 5 teams each. Knock-out antakshari was played in 5 corners of the rectangular Anna Auditorium and 3 teams were eliminated from every pool, sending 10 teams for the next, rapid fire questions' round. The rapid fire was easy for me as I've been pretty much okay woth such types of questions. Hence I replied 3 questions out of 4 fast enough. And after the rapid fire round, the results showed that 4 out of 5 teams were final years' and all of them from my friends' circle, the Mohalla.

Here I would like to say thanks to the administraion of the show for keeping everything fair and open because otherwise, 4 teams from the same group can be questionable at times.

Anyways, we were celebrating one another on the stage as we came up and I had to agree with the statement made by Udayan, the main organiser, that 'Experience matters'. So, there we were, Me, with Vishal and Abhishek on my team, the second team comprising of Dhruv, Jayant, and Mohan, the third - our least expected team - of Parry (Pradyut), Jeet, and Tyagi (Amit), the fourth one - a second year team, and the final one, of Ritvik, Apoorv, and Ankita.

The game started and went smoothly for the first two rounds and we were on top with jayant's team. In the third round we couldn't guess the song we were given after listening to the music, and we came equal to other two teams. In the next two rounds, the second year team went ahead of us and we were on second with Jayant and team.

And now, since there could be only two teams in the final according to our college, we had to go through a tie breaker. We did. And both the teams couldn't answer the first question. Tie again. The next question was answered by both the teams this time. Tie again. This time it was a mixture of two videos with some other song in background. We couldn't get both the videos correct. And finally, Out!

Anyways, the game was really enjoyable and it was a great scene when 80% of the stage captured by the 'Mohalla'. At last, the game was a memorable experience which will last long in my memory.

My New Blogs

I have started liking it. Blogging. That's what I think of now, day and night. Though, not having net all the times creates probelms sometimes and some of my ideas do not get converted into blogs, but I try.

I got three blogs going at present. The one you are reading is the one I started as a general blog. My first working blog, which has completed months and has posts in two digits.

The second one I launched was a completely business blog that could be understood by any person who might not even have any knowledge of business. It was called Common man's Economics.

The link to the blog is:

http://cozmoneymatters.blogspot.com/

The blog contains informations on current progress of market that is supposed to affect the common man, as well as possibilities regarding taxes and all.

My next blog is an altogether new step for me. Its an all Hindi blog in which I try to find out good pages in Hindi available on net. In this blog I have put many popular Hindi stories and Poems.

The blog is called Hindi Panne and the link is:

http://hindipanne.blogspot.com/

Please see my new blogs and sned your comments to: hg6789@gmail.com

or put them here:

http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx?uid=720310748634689861

Thanks,

Harshit.

भाषाओं से परे, इंटरनेट

हो सकता है कि आप यहाँ हिन्दी देख कर आश्चर्यचकित हों, परन्तु ये एक नयी शुरुआत है। आज इंटरनेट भाषाओं कि सीमा से ऊपर उठ चुका है। अब से कुछ समय पहले तक जहाँ केवल हिन्दी लेखों को कुछ ही कंप्यूटर दिखा पाते थे, वहीं अब गूगल की सर्च भी इंटरनेट पर हिन्दी में ही की जा सकती है। इंटरनेट पर हिन्दी का स्तर यहाँ तक पहुंच चुका है कि अधिकांश शब्दों को टाइप करते समय यह भी ध्यान रखने की आवश्यकता नहीं होती कि कहीं गलत तो टाइप नहीं हो रहा है। आज इंटरनेट पर ऐसे अनेक पोर्टल उपलब्ध हैं जो हिन्दी में समाचार से लेकर साहित्य तक उपलब्ध कर रहे हैं। गूगल में भाषा को हिन्दी पर सेट करके सर्च करते समय हिन्दी शब्दों के विकल्प लिए जा सकते हैं। उदाहरण के लिए यह चित्र देखिए।

इस प्रकार गूगल सर्च अब आपको सचमुच हिन्दी में अपनी आवश्यकता के अनुसार परिणाम ढूँढने में मदद कर रहा है। इसके अतिरिक्त अब विकिपीडिया जैसे पोर्टल भी हिन्दी में अनेक परिणाम दे रहे हैं। उदाहरण के लिए सत्यजीत रे के लिए दिया गया यह परिणाम गूगल हिन्दी से प्राप्त हुआ है।

भविष्य में कुछ और हिन्दी पोर्टल्स के विषय में लिखने का मेरा विचार है। इसके लिए मेरे बिग बिग वर्ल्ड को देखते रहें...

Languages

How many languages I know??
Well, seriously, some 3. Hindi, English and some HTML.

But if I start counting all I have some acquaintance with, I'll come to know that I know a number of languages. The number goes in 2 digits for sure. Lets start counting.
English, C, C++, Hindi, HTML, Urdu, Java, Sanskrit, Tamil, French, Assembly language, Bengali, Gujarati, C# and used to try some Kannada as well.
Well, the story seems interesting to me. And pretty much unbelievable to people. That I come to know when I see their reactions.

I started learning Hindi at home. From a newspaper called Amar Ujala, I learned the first letter of Hindi 'a'. (It sounds nearly the same as the English 'a') Started English too at home, and of course did them properly when joined school at an age of 3. Then came the third language of my life. Urdu. It was an optional in my school and mostly members of Muslim community used to study Urdu. Thus, I was reading 3 languages at an age of 3, while in Kindergarten.

The 4th one took an entry in std II. With Sanskrit, I started 4 languages at a time. I myself do not know how I used to do that. But I know I never felt it very difficult. Then, after 3 yrs, I left the school, to join a high school (with +2), and left Urdu too.

But in 7 yrs, I had got enough not to be forgotten easily and I still can read Urdu somehow, having completely left it 11 yrs ago. Here came a large gap and I lived with a knowledge of 4 languages which seemed like an achievement at school. After completing my +2 in 2003, I left for coaching so that i could get into some good engineering college. In kota. Kota is a place famous for that. Those who have lived there know about the Kota life of course. Nothing new of course, in terms of languages.

And after the one yr coaching, I went to DA-IICT in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. That was a turning point. Gujarati was a language which looked a lot like Hindi. So I started trying. As a result, during my 2 day trip, I didn't get the college, but got something new. A language. And a confidence. That I could learn a script without any books, even in two days.

After those 2 days I landed in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), Karnataka. The language of the place is Kannada. And nearly everything that is owned by the government displays Kannada. I started trying again and got some letters of Kannada soon. No books again! This time I was delighted with my achievement as it was not that easy. Kannada was a tough language for me compared to Gujarati as didn't look like Hindi from any corner. 15 days later I joined VIT, in vellore, Tamilnadu.

The local language, Tamil, was something I tried and tried and tried. But it seemed nothing went right. I could not get even 3 letters in the first one month. But I wasn't lost. I was pretty much determined that I would get this too. In fact, once a friend of mine, Apoorv, who has been living here since birth, and speaks some Tamil too, challenged me saying that he couldn't learn the language in 17 yrs. I asked for a yr's time. And voila! When I gave my job interview, I knew Tamil, at least enough to convince my interviewer that I knew the script. In fact I had learnt a lot of it in just 7-8 months.

And all this happens without any books. Some of my friends ask, how? Here, I'll answer, after a break. :)