Mile Sur Mera Tumhara and Jana Gana Mana

26th Jan 1930 was the day nehru declared "Complete Independance Day" on the rooftops of a Lahore building. The images are still vivid in my memory... Nehru apparently climbed out of the balcony and walked close to the parapet to talk to the hundreds of supporters standing below...

This aint a showoff of my History knowledge, only a brief reference to wikipedia and Freedom at Midnight.

Happy Republic day to all...

This republic day, if nothing else, has fostered the spirit of oneness and secularism...No, I am not talking about our dear President's live address on DD-1. That show received a TRP of only 0.001. Its the remake or rather remix of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara that has been the talk of the day.

There was a buzz all over Zoom/BombayTimes and a lot of other places of the release of Phir Mile...and clearly I was eager to see the new atttude song of 2010. But clearly...midway I lost interest and waited for the climax of the song. And while I was watching the new one, the old Mile Sur mera was lingering in the background.

From Bhimsen Joshi (background Himalayas) to Narendra Hirwani (Rajasthan) to the Tamas TV Series team, to Shabana Azmi (Agra) to the metro of Calcutta, the rustic South India, the sport icons of those days, to the graceful Waheedas, Hemas, Sharmilas of the past and finally zeroing on the heartthrobs Amitabh, Jeetu and Mithun...that song was a 5 min. toast for the entire DD watching population which was denied of 30 mins of decent entertainment on TV.
Mile Sur Video

I still remember how me and my bro, wud wait for the piano cresendo before the Bollywood trio would emerge and sing alongside them. Unfortunately, this new-age Mile Sur had no such moments of national pride, oneness. Its a crowded collage of almost everyone who probably know Kailash and Aarti Surendranath (better known in Pg3 circles for their parties).

Phir Mile Sur Mera Video

Neways, more on that later...But it reminds me about one thing which I have not written although its always been there on my mind...

How many of you have seen the Jana Gana Mana of ARRehman which is played in Fame Adlabs before the movie starts. I am a big fan of that video. Rehman has not only changed the tempo of the song ( its much slower) but he has altered the range. Check out how Hariharan moves to a high pitch (punjab sindh gujaraat...) and the rajashtani guy sings (tav subh ashish maange). Frankly, I never knew it was maange before this.

And the best part of the song for me is when Lata and Asha both naturally look at each other while singing their part...Its sheer magic on the screen... 
Jana Gana Mana-All Vocals Video

Will try to attach the videos of these soon...

Social Networking to the Vijaynagar days

Social Networking has become a part of my spare time these days...Every day after work I spend close to 2 hours on the net, switching between gmail, facebook, twitter ( thats the latest sensation for me), the long forgotten orkut, cricinfo (my daily dose of crickentertainment) and sometimes wiki...

Athough I still enjoy fervently the time I spend on playing cricket outdoors. Waking up at 6 am on a cold winter morning, wearing my cricket gear and winding my way to Maidan in Kolkata for a 2 hour "nets" gives such immense pleasure that it can withstand a boring week at work.

It reminds me of my childhood days where cricket was a daily ritual. Me, Arvind, Roshith, Anil, Hemanth, Ravi...our team of six alongwith some more guys, would assemble almost in congruence at 430 pm post school, Swabhimaan and snacks...Hemanth would start ringing the bell. "Chal aaja." " haan 2 minute".

By 445pm, we would reach the colony ground and ready to play our 7 match series with the Marol Academy team.

It used to be what 6 overs a side match... Hemanth our strike bowler, I used to be his bowling partner, while Roshith was our version of Sehwag. Anil the Lara of the side, Arvind was the Phil Defrators while Ravi...I wud say, he was the burly mercurial Afridi...

Arvind ke bowling action se hi batsman out hote...while Roshith would usually forget about the game and start looking for deposits on the ground for his gunpowder experiment. Hemanth was the most serious about the game...

But what was really funny was the most match conferences that the "think tank" wud have on the water tanky. Passionate, heated and verbal abuses would be the order of the 15-20 min sessions with strategies for the next game lined up.

Our rivals would usually be the guys from LT2/3/4. We had a 1:1 record with them, so it was fun playing. Although we never played for money. That was our policy :D

Ball Selection: I remember how we used to pick tennis balls from the kirana shop. We would keenly check the hardness of the ball, try bouncing it once or twice, eventually deciding on the right one...The new ball taken for the match...And 3 balls later...the ball was cut into two!

I still play the game I am so passionate about. Its a terrific feeling...And with Roshith, Anil, Arvind and myself in Mumbai for the next 2 weeks, Im sure we will find time to relive those memorable days.