Moditva...

નિખાલસ

પ્રારબ્ધ ને અહીયા ગાઠે કોણ્?
હુ પડ્કાર ઝીલ્નારો માણસ છુ
હુ તેજ ઉછી નુ લઊ નહિ
હુ જાતે બળતુ ફાનસ છુ.


ઝળાહળા નો મોહ્તાજ નથી
મને મારુ અજ્વાળુ પુરતુ છે
અન્ધારા ના વમળ ને કાપે
કમળ તેજ તો સ્ફુરતુ છે


ધુમ્મસ મા મને રસ નથી
હુ ખુલ્લો અને નિખાલસ છુ
પ્રારબ્ધ ને અહીયા ગાઠે કોણ્?
હુ પડ્કાર ઝીલ્નારો માણસ છુ


કુન્ડળીને વળગવુ ગમે નહી
ને ગ્રહો કને શિર નમે નહી
કાયરોની શતરન્જ પર જીવ
સોગઠાબાજી રમે નહી

હુ પોતે જ મારો વન્શજ છુ
હુ પોતે મારો વારસ્ છુ
પ્રારબ્ધ ને અહીયા ગાઠે કોણ્?
હુ પડ્કાર ઝીલ્નારો માણસ છુ


-નરેન્દ્ર મોદી

As I write this, Narendrabhai has won the much hyped Gujarat election in style. So just thought that this poem goes well with the ocassion. For me this is the real "Moditva" which shows up in every line that he writes. Those who are really interested in knowing more about his style of writing, please go through his book of poems called "Aankh Aa Dhanya Chhe" (These eyes are blessed). Some time back the book was released in Mumbai. Here is a link to the video recording of entire book release function. It is quite an experience to be able to listen to some of the poems being sung by greats like Bhupinderji, Rup Kumar Rathore and Parthiv Gohil.

Finally, on his overwhelming victory today (and he fought like a one-man-army against every possible adversary) my heartiest congratulations to the Chief-Minister-To-Be Shri Narendrabhai Modi!!

Tagged!

This is the first time I have been tagged... Kanan you will repent I tell you :-)


1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it.
Infosys ;) stock is trading at 300 rs lower than the price I bought ... big scar ;)

2. What does your phone look like? List your reasons to buy it?








got as a gift... didnt have to buy... ;)






3. What is on the walls of your bedroom?
Asian Paint ;)

4. What is your current desktop picture?
hehe... Windows XP Professional standard wallpaper ...BLISS ...too lazy to change it :)

5. Do you believe in gay marriage?
Law of my land doesnt and I believe in law of my land :)

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
Work... ;)

7 . What time were you born?
02:27 AM (GMT +5:30)

8. Are your parents still together?
haha what a question.

9. Last person who made you cry?
no .... havent cried in long time now... cant remember!

10. What is your favorite perfume / cologne?
Park Avenue

11. What kind of hair/eye color do you like in the opposite sex?
Black

12. What are you listening to? Why?
Yeh Jo desh hai tera from Swades.. excellent music ...meaningful lyrics

13. Do you get scared of the dark?
hmmm let me switch off the lights..... ah... i guess no !!

14. Do you like painkillers?
Yes, laughter is the best painkiller ;)

15. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Was. Not now... if you happen to be a girl.... what are you planning to do this weekend BTW? ;)

16. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Dal Dhokli ;) (Does anyone know how to prepare??)

17. Who was the last person who made you mad?
Haha.. no need of a person ...;)

18. List one habit you have that has the potential to annoy people?
Silence.

19. Who was the last person who made you smile?
A minute ago - a colleague of mine... 2 minutes ago - a friend of mine, 3 minutes ago- another friend of mine ..;) And Shahbudding Rathod since the time I learnt to laugh!!


And I am going to tag Kanan back. But this time you will have to reply in one line only.. That is your punishment for tagging me ;)

I-Don't-Know-Gujarati syndrome

Veteran Gujarati humorist and columnist Shahbudding Rathod states in one of his cassettes that amongst all the ethnic groups in India, Gujaratis have the least respect towards their mother tongue. I have come across numerous such incidents where I have seen this being true time and again. I decided to go into the problem and find out the causes. Here is how I see this problem and my suggestion to improve the situation. Please leave your comments if you happen to agree/disagree :)

Agreed that we live in a free society where everyone has a right to choose - choose what we learn as well. And if someone chose not to learn Gujarati even after it being his mother tongue that decision should be respected. But you just cannot allow people to take pride in saying that they don't know their mother-tongue (read Gujarati); that they are not good in it; that their children cannot speak in it. There must be a sense of missing something precious if you happen to not know your mother tongue. Which sense is totally missing in utterances of such statements. Which is a real pity.

So why we Gujaratis are such careless bunch of people? There is no denying that English is must in today's "Flat World". But can it take the place of mother tongue? Will it help save our priceless heritage? Many Indian languages (including southern languages, Marathi, Bengali) are doing good even in today's heavy English influence. But the abysmal situation that Gujarati is in right now only spells doom's day for our mother tongue.

I want to end this by quoting one of my favourite dialogues from the movie Troy. When Romans attack Troy, The prince of Troy addresses his army in a decisive tone.

"All my life I have lived by a code. And the code is simple. Respect the Gods. Love your woman and protect your motherland. Troy is mother to our soul. Protect her..."

Lets pray that god give us wisdom to protect our mother tongue. In our endevour to serve this beautiful language, we have started an all Gujarati blog. I invite you to visit it here. And if you think you can contribute, leave us a comment there.

The ABC of alphabets!!

This thought had first come in my mind long back when I was in high school. Stayed there with me at the back of my mind and suddenly popped up whilst discussing about different languages in a family get-to-gether. Thought of sharing with you all.

Right. Is there any similarity between English and Gujarati? Apparently not right? But have a look at the following.

ક ખ ગ ઘ ઙ
k kh g gh

ચ છ જ ઝ ઞ
ch chh j jh

ટ ઠ ડ ઢ ણ
T Th D Dh

ત થ દ ધ ન
t th d dh

પ ફ બ ભ મ
p ph b bh

ય ર લ ળ વ

શ ષ સ હ ક્ષ
sh SH s h

Rings the bell? OK. I wouldn't be surprised if my gujarati friends here would have forgotten their mother tongue and its alphabets. ;) So let me tell you what I have written here is the Gujarati alphabets in their correct sequence. Below each alphabet there is a direct transalation in english as per its pronunciation. Look how each second letter is connected with its predecessor with an extra 'h' !! Clearly this arrangment of alphabets is too perfect to be a coincidence. What say? Eureka?? :-)

Alright, and since we are talking about mother tongues, I thought it would be nice to end this post with the following poem. Enjoy!!

મળી હેમ આશિષ, નરસિહ મીરા
થયા પ્રેમ ભક્ત દયારામ ધીરા
સદા સૌમ્ય શી વૈભવે ઉભરાતી
મળી માત્રુભાષા મને ગુજરાતી
મળી માત્રુભાષા મને ગુજરાતી.

(The language which has been blessed by jain saint shri Hemchandracharyaji. Which has been served by great poets like Narsinh Mehta, Meerabai , Premanand, Dayaram. Which always radiates with courteous elegance. I am proud that that Gujarati language is my mother tongue.)

Cheers.

Sorry telling day.

So we have all heard about thanks giving day. But sorry telling day? Now that is something new, isn't it? Okay, I have to admit that there isn't particulary any day dedicated to apologies but come monsoon in India and Jains spread all over the country start preparing for this 8 day long festival- called Paryushan, which culminates in a very meaningful apology session attended collectively by entire jain community at the final day - called Samvtsari!! This year this festival falls between 8-15 september.

For starters, Jainism is said to be the oldest living religion and has its roots in India. It has around 5-6 million followers around the world. (ah, thats quite less comparing with 1+ billion population of india- not even 1%). But this religion has weathered all storms and its core fundamentals still today exist more or less in purest of the form. One of the fundamentals is ofcourse that of forgiving and that is the reason why this day is celebrated with much vigour across all the sects of jainism.

So what is so special about the day? Well its obvious that jains ask for pardon for any of their actions that would have caused agony in other's heart. But that is not it. They ask pardon from all the living beings.. humans, animals, plants and birds alike !! Even the smallest of the creatures like ant are not excluded and if you actually look at the ceremony (called Pratikraman) , you will be immensely surprised by the sheer importance that this religion gives to even the smallest form of life.

I remember from my childhood days, my friends commenting rather provocatively that jains were a clever lot. For the entire year they would do all sorts of wrong deeds and on samvtsari day they would come to you and would ask for pardon :). Hehe.. I wish it were so simple. But try once. Saying sorry from the bottom of your heart is never easy. Not even to those who are so close to you, forget about plants and animals!!

OK. So it is about time I signed off. But before that did I forget saying sorry? Hmmm let me do it in a rather traditional way. The actual lines go something like this...

Khamemi savve jive, (I forgive all the living beings)
Savve jiva khammatu me, ( May all living beings please forgive me)
Metti me savve bhuyeshu, (My friendship is with everyone)
Veram majaham na kenai. (My enmity is totally nonexistent)

Micha-Mi-Dukdam - May my ill deeds turn fruitless.

1 2 3 and still counting.

These are volatile times. Not in my wildest imagination I would have thought while writing this article sometime ago now that the civilian nuclear deal (popularly known as 123 agreement because the deal is being signed under article no 123 of US constitution) between India and the US will run into some rough weather. And boy before the deal could become reality here comes the good old comrades with their faces turned red against the deal and asking for the immediate rollback of the talks on the deal with the USA.

Don't know what even BJP has to oppose here and why are we even thinking of a mid term poll on this issue, which is supposed to be the key to India' s progress. After all 4 years ago it was Jaswant Singh (the then BJP external affairs minister) and Strobe Talbot (The then US deputy foreign Secretary) who had dreamt of the similar deal. Is it just for the sake of opposing, that the opposition parties in India behave so insanely? Will we ever grow up, guys?

On a side note, I thought it is a good time to check out on L&T. The stock which was supposed to go miles high on the back of the deal. And as I had predicted in my earlier article it surely has gone miles from around 1600 to currently around 2400 (after reaching life time high of 2700). Hahaha sometimes your random picks turn out to be gold!! Alas! I exited much much before. Damn it:-)

Anyway, lets hope that we stick to the deal and do not back off. Else only time will tell what price did India have to pay.

Cheers.

Inflation woes: Must hear

Following Indian stock market crash post union budget ’08, CNBC TV18’s Udayan Mukherjee caught up with cabinet minister of commerce Mr. Kamal Nath to specifically talk about govt’s desire to price control cement sector.

Why I say it’s must hear because never before in my life have I listened to such to-the-point and blunt discussion by a media reporter with a senior cabinet minister in India. Udayan literally lashed onto Kamal Nath, who was proposing an export ban on cement companies in order to curtail cement prices. End result? Well, Mr.Nath was trying so very hard to find appropriate words in his defence and Udayan could not stop laughing. Hear it for yourself.

For Udayan, nice job mate. Add one more to your fan list!!

Cheers.

More laugh...

Following are excerpts from HER & HIS diaries

HER DIARY:
I asked him what was wrong - he said, "Nothing."I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.On the way home, I told him that I loved him, but he simply smiled and kept driving.I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, "I love you too."When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.He just sat there and watched TV; he seemed distant and absent. Finally, I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed. I decided that I could not take it anymore, so I decided to confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep. I started crying and cried until I fell asleep.I do not know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someoneelse. My life is a disaster.

HIS DIARY:
Today India lost the cricket match again. DAMN IT.

Easy girls!! No offence meant. Just the way we are :-)

Cheers.