Sirf Tum - Only You : A Unique Love Story

A friend recently shared a video of the old film song featuring Mala Sinha, dancing with a beautiful waterfall in the background. I advised him to look at a later day version ( a look alike of his old favourite song ) featuring Miss. Universe Shushmita Sen, from the film Sirf Tum.

The film has unique concept of long distance love. The boy worked in Kerala and the girl lived in Nainital - in Uttarakhand. They had never met - had never seen each other - had not even exchanged photos, hence they do not recognise each other when they meet later at New Delhi. .

Please do not loose heart, they will meet eventually before the film ends. Other than long distance love, that starts and grows through exchange of letters, there are few more unique things in the film.

It is perhaps one of the rarest films where 'Hero' is shown as a common male species who has to leave his job in Kerala because he picked up a fight with a goon and is now scared for his life. Later, he is seen plying an auto in Delhi (so does the super hunk and millions' heartthrob Jackie Shroff).

Also, the unmarried girl in the film, is wearing "sari" all the time as against the usual trend of the girls being shown in skimpy attire. It shows the film makers had done their homework and were being sensitive to the sentiments of "pahari" people, as the girl belongs to Nainital, in Uttarakhand.

Other than extensive use of the nature's bounty, both in Kerala and in Nainital, the film actually names the places. In a song, the boy is asking the girl to send some "chill" from Nainital to the warm Kerala. While Nainital is unmistakably recognisable in the film, I think the place in Kerala is Kochi (Cochin), and some place on Periyar River along the highway leading to Munnar.

The other girl, played so beautifully by the superlative Shushmita, is shown as a reasonable and a sensitive person too who has her own tragic story. She does love the boy but does not 'claim' him.

The film has no villain but for a goon in Kerala, who in a way actually helps the boy to meet his girl, by driving him away from Kerala and to shift to Delhi. But for him, the boy would stay in his job.

The other men in the film, as against what usually happens in such situations, do not crave for and do not pounce upon the young beautiful girl roaming around in the big bad city without an escort.

The brother in law of the girl, who is critical of her ways, does it out of affection, and real concern.

The scene where boy arranges a seat for girl in the train is so realistic and reminded me of old days.

The icing on the cake is the other boy, enacted so charmingly by Salman, too is an understanding guy.

Having come this far, I felt a strong urge to check if it is a remake of any Malayalam movie (in view of the Kerala connection) and find that it is indeed a remake but of a critically acclaimed and a much awarded Tamil movie named Kadhal Kottai. It won National Awards in several categories. Here, the girl is from Udhagmandalam (Ooty) and this may be the reason for her being in sari all the time.

Kadhal is boyfriend (thanks to Prabhudeva Nagma starer Kadhalan) and Kottai may mean anything from a nut (as in coconut) to as big and majestic thing as a palace or a castle. (One may go Nuts).

Chennai became Kerala and Ooty turned in to Nainital and the other curious difference is that the spellings of the name of the film's director changes from Agathian to Ahathian. Why ?

The all knowing wiki tells us that later Basu Chatterjee too made it in Bengali as 'Hothat Brishti', meaning "Sudden Downpour" - might be referring to rains during the concluding part of the film.

The difference they say is that in Bengali version the boy is said to be plying taxi and not auto.

One weak point I see is that when the girl goes to the former office of the boy, he could have and should have added two plus two four and could have easily recognised her. Next she goes to the home of the boy's friend (auto has to stop a little away due to traffic) but here too, he does not get any clue.

Later, he buys the rail ticket for her hometown but even then he does not talk about his girlfriend. He could have done so since his girlfriend hails from the same region - the place the girl was going to.

Anyways, coincidences and hits and misses, are essential to and integral parts of stories and films.

I watched the ending parts of both the Tamil and the Bengali films. The yellow sari is common in Hindi and Tamil versions but the girl in Bengali version is seen in blue sari (not in yellow) and also, she is sensible enough to disembark from the train with her bag. Other girls just jump out of train.

Also, while girls from Ooty and Nainital run to their boys, and the boys remain standing, waiting for the girls to jump upon them, to hug, to embrace, but the Bengali boy is seen running up half way.

After Bihar, What Next ?

BJP stands shocked due to the outcome of Bihar elections. Well, actually I also see it not so much as a victory for Laloo and Nitish but more so as a defeat of the strategy employed by BJP leadership.

As I see it, the people of Bihar have done a good job of reminding BJP as a political party in general and in particular to its lead characters like NaMo (Prime Minister), Amit Shah (Party President) and their few favourite chosen men and women that their main task is to carry out the responsibilities at the centre and that if they want the states to come under their control, then they shall have to identify, support, develop, nurture good leaders at the local level and that leadership and  that the winning formulae or guidance can not be imported in to states from outside (centre or other states).

As such, BJP was never a big force in Bihar and should not have made it a prestige issue, especially after the coming together of Laloo and Nitish, coaxed and cajoled by piggy back rider Congress. The symptoms were out when Amit Shah talked of Pakistan being happy at the defeat of BJP in Bihar or when someone else said that it is not a referendum on NDA / BJP govt at New Delhi or PM Modi.

The most astonishing thing about this is that certain Prashanta Kishor, who is said to have been the mastermind of BJP's successful poll campaign in 2014 LS elections, was allowed to cross over to the opposition camp, and that is a bad sign, since it shows that either they could not recognise or did not wish to acknowledge his contribution in LS elections of 2014. Even those who are against discussing politics must read about this Prashant Kishor since his team seems to have derailed the BJP's well oiled poll campaign in Bihar through use of a few simple tactics, and PM Modi fell in their trap.

However, Bihar elections give hope on two counts. One is that now onward no single party should dream of ruling all of India (centre and states) and each one must begin to respect and to learn to share power with other parties. The second and more important aspect is that now BJP, NaMo Govt shall have to perform in order to get over this setback and to consolidate their position. 

This means that the Govt and BJP will have to reach out to opposition and to coordinate more and more with other parties so that the pending legislation is taken up and passed. So, still the hope of Achche Din... remains alive.

AIRPORT SECURITY

Airport Security

One gentleman, identified as jattzp on youtube, was to fly from Amritsar to London via New Delhi. He faced some difficulty at New Delhi Airport regarding the alcohol bottle he says he had purchased at Duty Free Shop at Amritsar Airport. He recorded the happenings at the New Delhi Airport and has uploaded it on youtube. He has added a lengthy narration, a long story of how he felt that the police - CISF officers were trying to steal his bottle of whiskey. He says he had his wife, 2 children (under age of 4 years) and his parents with him and all had to face trouble due to bad treatment by CISF.

There has be some reason for the gentlemen jattzp having done so much and it looks like his hurt and anger is still on the boil. The behaviour of the policemen appearing in the video is strange in the fact that they allowed this gentleman to record it on his phone and they are also looking sheepish in it. 

I happened to see this youtube video and was unhappy to see the abusive comments appearing there. I tried to reason with this gent known as jattzp but he first abused me, then gave some explanation in somewhat decent language but again reverted back to rudeness the next time. Please see it here.

My  Comment : Not to defend rude behaviour but this man travels with 2 young kids (babies), wife and old parents and yet he buys booze and does not keep the receipt handy, which could have avoided some discomfort. Guys, do not abuse. India is beautiful and graceful.

jattzp commented like this :  your Gasti mom put it inside and sealed that's whst they do on Indisn airports...duty free is duty free anyway. fly and buy once before commenting

To this I wrote back : This shows your ugly attitude. You are rude and abusive yourself.

Meanwhile I had made another comment : Guys, please do not abuse. No airport will allow unsealed liquid bottle (that too alcohol) in cabin baggage. It is just not permitted anywhere. There seems to be no basis or any justification for the comment that police tried to steal the bottle. If you are not allowed to take something on board, then it will remain on ground. India is beautiful. Welcome.

After a while, I also added this comment : Please do not abuse India. Kindly see this video on youtube, "Border Security Australia 2011 Oversmart Indian couple". See how the Indian origin doctor and his wife had to pay fine for carrying home cooked food items. India is graceful and beautiful. Welcome.

At this point jattzp writes back : mr ............ bottle is sealed. Duty free is inside the airport and is open only for flights going abroad. Domestic Flight passengers in India are not allowed to buy duty free as they see your boarding cards and take copy of that and your passport to sell it to you. we bought that bottle on 4 passports. if you have been to Delhi airport and bought alcohol then you might know they put receipt in the bag and seal your bag from the top. customs if i have to pay i will pay in UK on arrival but that bottle was in allowed limit anyway. as i said before they stole bottles in front of me and all were duty free bottles. Thanks

Seeing his somewhat sober response, I wrote like this : Now you are being decent. Note that I am as old as your father, and you abuse my mom. She is over 85. Why did you use abusive words ? It can be seen that you faced some trouble but part of it was due to your own mistakes and due to not being well prepared for the journey.The day you can realise this, you will yourself delete this video. Next time, better not to buy booze or at least keep a scan of the receipt on your phone. If you are still angry and hurt, write to CISF HQs, New Delhi. God Bless you.

Meanwhile, someone commented like this : All those brainless bastards commenting on airport security in India. These same guys who quitely abide by security protocol in a foreign country tries to be smart in India. To carry a liquid content it must be in a sealed pack and not as shown here.

At this point, jattzp again went back to his rude manners, and said like this : .....(my name).....easy to preach others on YouTube. have you ever confronted any policeman for your Right in India?

My reply :  Yes my dear, I live in India and face all that comes my way and you know, all is not well all the time, but I will not abuse or ridicule my country on internet. One can see it easily that you are an unhappy soul. It is not preaching. Thank your stars that they did not arrest you for recording it.

He came back with this : if you read description it states i asked for permission and the three star guy said what will you do by putting on youtube. but it did work. lot of guys got confidence to record any kind if corruption happening over there. Now, airport personnel better as well as i visited in May this year. Therefore, i decided to keep it on. cheers!

look at comments how many people faced corruption on airports over there. its over 5 years i m waiting for the reply of my complaint to cisf? anyeays, Sokhs waiting for justice for last 31 years in that great democratic country..so my wait is nothing in comparison to them. do you call ridicule if someone expose corrupt personnel???

It is strange that though the incident relates to 2010 but he is still so unhappy about it, and has not yet been able to get out of it. I feel pity for the guy, but it is also to be seen that did not even have the decency of saying "sorry" for having used abusive words.

My last comment : My dear jattzp, I can see that you will not do all this without having some good reason. It looks like you faced some serious trouble that has made you so angry. I can not say if the police behaved well or not. You would know it better. See, as you first used abusive words and later you did not even show the decency of saying sorry for using abusive words, in the same manner, these policemen are also human beings like you, full of ego and sometimes having petty greed. My concern is that because of few policemen, all and sundry should not get a chance to abuse 'India'.

I have sent the link to this vedio and the entire conversation to CISF HQs, on the mailing ids of their 4 senior officers as seen on their official website, but have not received any response as yet.

The controversy is making businessmen unsecure

The ongoing controversy surrounding the topic of hate, intolerance, and award wapasi, etc., is making the county's businessmen insecure. They are worried about its impact on business environment.

Yesterday, some eminent persons from industry and business said something in this matter and the media published it with grossly misleading headlines.This is the headline in one paper and below is the main para of the article. "Now Kiran Shaw, Lord Desai voice concern over intolerance in India"

 

Sorry folks, the following lines (from that article itself) do not gel with the headlines given by you :

“Let us face it, investors want a sort of harmonious kind of environment to invest in. If they feel there is turmoil, there is unrest, that their investments are not safe, that’s what Moody’s is talking about... Therefore it is important that government actually act fast and corrects this image,” she said.
 

And here is an excerpt from my blog - a piece I had penned / keyed / typed on Oct 31 (early hours) :

"A free for all is not in anybody's favour, and must stop immediately. With the passing day, it is getting internationalised and our enemies are looking at it with glee. Already, the portents are not good since a purely financial body like the global credit rating agency named Moodys has come out with what can be seen as a political statement that looks like a repeat of the common accusations flying around. So guys, bury the hatchet now for the sake of Mother India and its millions of poor children, please."

So, as I have already said, "simple well meaning people are getting sucked in to it." Basically, these high level persons from fields of business are essentially concerned about the impact of this ongoing controversy on business environment. As may be seen above, flight of capital is their main concern.

Unlike, the liberals, business is not accusing the ruling combine of indulging in hate or of intolerance. They want the govt to get this controversial issued closed here and now. Same holds for liberals too.

Now, how do you feel when a person like SRK, darling of the millions across India and of the Indians around the globe, starts saying things that militates against any logic. Fellow was in a happy mood yesterday on his 50th B'day and now I am afraid that the guy who was almost a kind of mascot for secularism till yesterday might now become a hate target like his other counterpart 'Bhaijaan'.

Off course, despite the accusations of this or that kind, Salman Khan has always maintained (and rightfully so) that their family home is the perfect example of secularism and religious harmony.    

Regards

About intolerance of liberals -when will it stop

I am member of a forum comprising of professionals who were earlier working in one institution and were placed in certain geographical peripheries. Though most of us have since moved on but the bonds developed in those days, are still strong and we share our thoughts in a common forum.

As an aberration, I remember with deep regrets that sometime prior to the 2014 lok sabha elections, a topic featuring NaMo / BJP was banned in this forum. However, something cropped up today which appears to be critical of liberals and their award wapasi etc. Though I too feel that the liberals are overdoing it but then I had to ask the forum members of their conduct in the past and to desist from being critical of the said pseudo secular left liberals who are returning their rewards. In my view, most of these left leaning liberals are well meaning persons but misguided.

Well, it is not rocket science to see that some of them (not all, not even the most but only some) have received their awards and also a whole lot of patronage from the previous regimes, for holding and propagating certain kind of ideologies, and some of them (not all / not even so many / but some at least) do not expect to get the same patronage and preferences from the present ruling combine.

Well, like one can not expect Lalu Nitish Azam Owaissi etc to be friends of Modi, like wise any one who thinks on the lines of say Irfan Habib can never be a friend or well wisher of Modi and BJP.

I am at loss to understand and decipher as to why these so called secularists and liberals, mostly well meaning persons, are protesting against so much. Things are not bad at all and if there is still some tension in the air, then they are to blame for it, at least partially, for keeping it alive - in the news.

I wonder and would like to know as to what they are wishing for, and often feel constrained to think that their whole shebang is going to be counterproductive. If they are under some kind of illusion that this will impel people to vote for the so called self proclaimed secular parties (in 2019) then it is a pipe dream. Congress has no future - at least under this leadership, and Communists are now history - everywhere in the world. (China is a military dictatorship - they use the term 'communist' to hide it).

I hold a firm belief that India is secular solely because of its majority community holding true liberal and secular ethos and the world knows it. It is wrong to blame the entire community for few stray incidents. Look at the names of these liberals itself, most of them are from majority community.

Shallow character of so called secularists liberals is visible in their treatment of one lady from B'desh. What is her fault - just that she wrote a small story about the plight of minority community in her country of birth - from which she now stands banished for life - and some wish to see her dead, and yet, there is no protest, not even sympathy, from the self styled "liberal" thinkers of this country.

Besides, I often wonder as to why these people opposing Modi so bitterly and why they can not see that they have made him the PM of India (by carping about him constantly for the last several years).

It is so clearly written on the wall that NaMo became what he is today because the opposition feared him and kept criticising him all the time and that is what some clever people in BJP used (and they were supported by RSS). Otherwise Modi had little chance of even being raised to the top league in the party forums. He was much below in the ladder. The undue criticism made him what he is now.

In all this, I have few concerns. NaMo, despite being the pet hate object for some and an ordinary political leader for many more like me, still remains the only hope for India at this juncture and his failure means economic catastrophe for the nation. At least, he seems to be a good salesman.

Award Wapasi By Left Liberals

Award Wapasi By Left Liberals

The saga of award wapasi continues unabated and it would perhaps end only after the Bihar election results are out. Well, if BJP / NDA wins, then it may halt for a while, to resurface again a little later.

And if BJP does not manage to win in Bihar, then again the matter would go to background while the winners rejoice but then, it will be brought back with more force to destabilise the NaMo led Govt.

BJP/ NDA have to analyse and understand the situation with a lot more care and caution. After all, being in power, it is the responsibility of NaMo led Govt / BJP / NDA to maintain social harmony, and to combine it with political stability and economic growth. They need to see that the powers opposed to the present ruling combine are unfair, unjust, intolerant and arrogant, to say the least. BJP leadership must not fall in their clever trap. To begin with, the bayanbaaji of its few big mouths has to stop completely. Also, ministers must stop reacting to sundry statements made by opposition leaders. 

Besides, BJP / NDA / NaMo / Arun Jaitley / Rajnath Singh and all others in the ruling combine must recognise that the whole shebang is being played out to make them look like a failure. Hence, they have to work doubly hard to ensure that the message reaches the people and that can be done through mass contact on a regular basis. Prime Minister and his senior ministers must hold periodical rallies in various states, and they need to avoid the old practice of visiting people only during the elections.

More so, rather than talking of 'development' as an agenda, Govt needs to tell people point by point (and repeat it) the steps taken for welfare of people, and the steps taken for the said "development" agenda and to harp on 'how the opposition is thwarting the development' by their unreasonable criticism, highlight the non cooperation in the parliament, and tell / explain to the people that much of the accusations of the opposition are actually falsehoods, tell the people that opposition is actually spreading canards in the name of opposing the policy. You got to be vivid and clear and you must ensure that the language used is judicious, and is unambiguous leaving no chance of distortion.

Guys, you need to win in 2019 too and must ensure that 2004 is not repeated again (despite good work done by NDA under the brilliant leadership of Atal ji). India can't afford another UPA so soon.