Very Appalling / Totally Unbelievable Matrimonial Ad

Right now in our family we have half a dozen boys and girls who are eligible matrimony candidates so the activity of finding suitable candidates has become a family affair. So during our usual exchange of information, we came across this online ad. What I found was that this guy opens a new profile on a weekly basis because the matrimonial sites won't allow him to keep his ad on their sites longer than a few days. I just can not digest the fact that this guy is for real? So then I searched on google and here's what I found. Completely unbelievable! I think it's a joke and if not, well, good luck or rather tough luck!

[Begin of Ad]

About me

[Pls. note: We are NOT Gujaratis;
but I speak Hindi along with several
languages - Kannada, Telugu, Tamil;
I like the Gujarati way and have Acquaintances with lot of Gujaratis;
the only criteria is being STRICT GARDEN VEGETARIAN]

Good day! "PLEASE READ THE PROFILE CAREFULLY & COMPLETELY ", for
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS,
under point (1).

* ONLY after you INITIALLY send across ALL the stuff requested in point
2 of the profile, it'll be helpful in analysing your family
circumstances and making decisions.

IF INTERESTED,
Kindly respond with ALL the INFO requested in point (2) after going
through OUR FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES in point (1).

(1) Looking for a BEAUTIFUL girl,possessing excellent family values,
Degree Educated (3 or 4 years or Masters Degree or recent college
passout),

preferably AGE: between 18 and 25 yrs. ("AROUND 25 YEARS" OR "LESS THAN
25 YEARS"; "THE YOUNGER THE AGE, BETTER" "THE YOUNGER THE AGE,
BETTER"),

STRICT GARDEN VEGETARIAN (the entire family should be pure garden
vegetarian), with excellent family background, preferably from a SMALL &
"AFFLUENT" FAMILY.
----

* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:
* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:

My family consists of MY PARENTS AND MYSELF.

There are 2 options considering our situation -
(a) It will be ideal to TAKE MY PARENTS along with me and the girl TO
ABROAD after completing relevant Visa formalities.

(b) Alternatively, the girl's family has to keep Bangalore/nearby
Bangalore as Base, so that my parents are not alone.

(c) If there is a better solution, pls. inform and we'll think about
it.

- We need to practically care/consider about my/girl's elder parents in
future. Isn't it??????

=====

(2) INITIALLY, please send across
COMPLETE INFO - INDEPTH DETAILS preferred(each and every info requested
pls. because we need to consider several factors/circumstances)
(a) such as full family details, i.e, number of family members
(siblings) and profile of each,

(b) parents occupational details, location of parents

PERMANENT and TEMPORARY residence (Country, State, City) of family
members - if applicable and if family members are staying in different
locations,

CITIZENSHIP and VISA STATUS of family members - if applicable and if
family members are staying in different locations

(c) 'Visa Stamping on the Passport of the girl'(if any) OR
'Visa Status of the girl'(if any) OR
'Valid Passport Holder' - in order to apply for Spouse Visa later,

(d) DATE OF BIRTH, PLACE OF BIRTH, TIME OF BIRTH,

(e) a couple of latest full-length PHOTOGRAPHS

=====

(3) From a H-1B Visa holder, 29 years young hahahaha...(and growing
younger!!), 173 cms., 68 Kgs., simple, friendly guy, DOESN'T SMOKE/DRINK,
fitness freak, down-to-earth guy, magnanimous personality, lively &
cheerful, having great sense of humour,

visited 4 COUNTRIES;

B.E. - Computer Science,
M.I.T.(AUSTRALIA),
Consultant (SINGAPORE),
Consulting Analyst (U.S.A.).

CURRENTLY IN BANGALORE

E-mail contact preferred initially WITH ALL THE REQUESTED DETAILS in
point (2).

IF INTERESTED,
Kindly respond with ALL the INFO requested in point (2) after going
through OUR FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES in point (1).

Have a pleasant day!

Take care



About My Partner

* ONLY after you INITIALLY send across ALL the stuff requested in point
2 of the profile, it'll be helpful in analysing your family
circumstances and making decisions.

* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:
* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:

My family consists of MY PARENTS AND MYSELF.

There are 2 options considering our situation -
(a) It will be ideal to TAKE MY PARENTS along with me and the girl TO
ABROAD after completing relevant Visa formalities.

(b) Alternatively, the girl's family has to keep Bangalore/nearby
Bangalore as Base, so that my parents are not alone.

(c) If there is a better solution, pls. inform and we'll think about
it.

- We need to practically care/consider about my/girl's elder parents in
future. Isn't it??????

[End of Ad]

Two Stories

Two very interesting stories I read recently.

The Sacrifice by Ravibala Shenoy
First place, Katha 2007

First Date by Shruti Swamy
Second place, Katha 2007

More Katha stories

Parsi kavita: આઈ મને સુ કરેચ

After reading Ek Surati Ghazal on Nishit's blog, I was reminded of this one as they both fall under same category of funny Surati/Parsi poetry. So it was a Gujarati music program/musical evening years ago in Fremont, CA by Soli Kapadia and Nisha Upadhyay where I first heard this one. Solibhai adds jokes in between his songs and this came up when he was talking about funny songs/ghazals. I laughed for more than a week remembering the song and loved it so much that the lyrics just got stuck in my head. Not sure whether it was whole song or partial that he sang but it was funniest one I ever heard. It is a Surati/Parsi song in written in Gujarati.

And, my first try at writing a Gujarati blog post is successful!!


આઈ મને સુ કરેચ

પ્રેમમા પરવાનુ કીધુ તો ગબરી પર્યો
ને હવે નિકરવા મથેચ
આઈ મને સુ કરેચ

દાર-ભાત ભેગા થાય એમ પ્રેમ કરવો હતો
ને હવે ખિચરો કરેચ
આઈ મને સુ કરેચ

હિર-રાંજા રોમિયો-જુલિયેટ ની જેમ પ્રેમ કરવો હતો
ને હવે પાણિપત લરેચ
આઈ મને સુ કરેચ

Azaadi ki Aor (Towards Freedom)

In the late 1980s, it was a usual Saturday evening. Back then, on DoorDarshan, they used to show a Hindi movie every Saturday at 5:30 in the evening. We had looked in the morning newspaper to see whether the movie that evening would be any interesting. To our disappointment, we saw that instead of a familiar sounding film name or any familiar actors’ names the movie had a strange name with no names of actors. Moreover, it seemed like it was going to be a (boring, I can’t believe at that age a film on freedom fighters sounded boring to me) film on freedom regardless of the fact it was not the time around 15th of August (Indian Independence Day) or 26th January (Republic Day). And when the names of the actors also weren’t listed, the family figured it wouldn’t be worth watching the movie that evening. Our lady maid, who also happened to be a BIG movie buff, usually joined us for movies every week. She also left early that evening thinking it wasn’t worth staying back to watch such boring movie.

Finally, when the movie was starting, we decided to watch the beginning of the movie just to see whether it was going to be related to freedom fighters. To our utter surprise, we saw it started out with the life of a madaari/conjurer, who owned two monkeys named Shankar & Gauri, and made these animals do different kinds of tricks for his living. Most of us were not interested in continuing watching the film but all of a sudden we realized, the animals in this film had human voices. They spoke and shared their feelings with the audience like us humans. Often when the madaari treated the animals very rudely, and in despicable manner, not feeding them when they had worked very hard and practically treating them like vermin, the monkeys talked and shared their dislike towards their owner. The movie was getting more and more interesting now and as the audience we were becoming more curious to find out what the rest of the story was going to be like. Eventually in the film, the pair decides to give up on their master and breaks free from his slavery. That’s when we realized, the main actor and actress of this movie were not humans, but two monkeys, who talked and shared feelings in even better way than what the humans can do.

The entire movie was a journey of their freedom, freedom from human kind and their mean behavior. On their struggle-filled journey, they end up helping out and freeing many other animals who were in same situation as theirs (dependent on and slave to humans) including a snake, an elephant and many others. With snake, it's an amazing incident, because one instance the monkeys help snake become free from his master and later in the forest when one of the monkeys is drowning in puddle of mud, the snake they had saved earlier unites his community members and saves the monkey. At once instance, our main hero and heroine get separated from each other and go through very painful time that even the audience can feel and relate to. And then at another instance, they even stop themselves from being hurtful towards other humans, and help them because they realized it wouldn't be worth seeing anyone suffer or to be revengeful. There were so many instances during the movie where I remember literally bursting into tears just looking at helpless animals were going through just for their survival. At the end of the film, as I vaguely remember now, one monkey, throwing away the clothes their human master had provided to them, says “inn kapdo mein insaan ki boo aa rahi hai”. I admire the dialog writer who wrote the dialogs for this film.

The film showed a sarcastic view of the inconsiderate behavior of human kind for treating animals badly. The film gave me totally different perspective about animals after I watched it. And, I am so happy today to find out that this film had won the National Film Award (Golden Lotus Award) for Best Children's Film award in 1986. I really wish I get to see this marvelous film again one day!


Film Name: Aazadi ki Ore aka Azaadi ki Aor aka Azadi ki Aur
Cast: Shankar (Monkey - male), Gauri (Monkey - female), Gabbar Singh, Sundari (Elephant), Ganesh, Nagaraja
Producer: Sangeethalaya
Director: P. S. Prakash
Music Director: Ramesh Naidu
Release Date: Friday, September 26, 1986

Updated on 2010-06-04:
Mr. Krishnaprasad Ekbote shares with us the posters of Malayalam movie 'Kadinte Makkal' (1986) by P.S. Prakash.

Relationships of Brothers & Sisters

Today, it is shraavaN sud poonam - Rakshabandhan. Yet another festival we Indians have that is based on relationships. This one for the relationship that a brother and a sister share. My mind keeps thinking about different people I know...

The one where the brother and sister are so close, emotionally attached, and keep in touch and care about eachother, regardless of what day of the year it is. It is very sweet.

There are the brother and sister are no longer on speaking terms with eachother. There are egos that do not let them forgive and forget the mistakes of eachother. I feel very sad for them. They are siblings in this life yet their fate does not let them experience and value this beautiful relation that God has created. On this special day, I wish they realized that life is too short to fret over little things. I wish they would let the anger go, swallow the pride and discard the ego from mind and heart and let eachother know how much they love and miss them.

There are sisters who don't have any brothers who wished they had one... they send/tie rakhis to their cousins who are brothers or would consider/adopt someone as their brother, and try to shower their love and blessings to these lucky brothers.

And there are some who have lost their brothers or sisters in this life... and can't do anything about it but relive the precious moments spent with their siblings in past and cherish them forever, till the end of life. Thank God for showing them a day where they were able to share everything they could with their siblings...

May God bless the ones who have brothers and sisters and keep the delicate strings of this relationship unbroken.

Happy Rakshabandhan!

Guess the Festival?

Just see the picture below

Can you guess which festival is this????????

You might have said: Krishna Janmastmi. Wrong! Scroll down for answer...

"RAKSHA BANDHAN  ;-)"

Forbidden Questions

Many times we get urge of asking people all different kinds of questions. The rule I follow is, would I like being asked that question? Or would you share that information about yourself with the others? If the answer is no, then it's not worth asking that question. Also, present company matters. Who is present when you ask the question. Some questions are not to be asked in public and so on. But within last one week, I experienced or observed that there are some people that don't really think before asking questions.

I saw one person asked the other person their salary. This is something that I would never do. If the other person shares their salary, that's fine but why ask such personal questions. Only time it might be okay to ask this is if it is your spouse or your children. And in country like the US, it's not even recommended because people don't always share such information with their spouse or children or parents. Our Indian culture is more close-knit and we don't have those restrictions or we are not that independent yet to not share such information. Bottom line is, one never asks other people's salary.

Same applies to age and weight. Unless you are talking to a potential matrimonial candidate, you shouldn't be asking these questions to other people, regardless of their gender. And even for matrimonial purposes, there are ways to find out this information without actually asking the questions explicitly. If you made a mistake of asking one of these questions, you just might end up getting an answer that is worse than a slap in your face.

At work, we have a handful of ladies who are expecting new family members. Same with some of my close friends. The total count of these ladies has crossed the dozen limit. When it was one of the coworkers in question, a lot of us could guess that the good news might be on the way, but we refrained from asking or discuss the matter among us. And when she asked me if I could guess, I actually ended up telling her I didn't even notice it. But again, this is something you don't ask. Another coworker who had a baby last year shared her embarrassing story about she being asked whether she was pregnant after a few months of delivering her child. That is when I was glad I never did ask any woman that question and told myself to not ask ever again.

You call someone and they say they are busy. Don't ask them busy doing what. You might not want to hear what they say. I have been asked that many times over the phone by friends and relatives and would have to change my answer because I don't feel comfortable sharing certain details with them. It might not very well be any thing embarrassing but at the same time, we all have preferences about what to share with whom at what time. More so because answering that first question truthfully leads to numerous other questions that I prefer not to answer. I have even seen people asking me what I am doing at the same time what other people around me are doing. What kind of conversation is that? I do understand that if you want to talk to someone else and I picked up the phone you ask for that person but why does it matter what they are doing at that moment? I never understood that. I guess curiosity sometimes does kill the cat.

You call someone and they are having their meal. Don't ask them what they are eating. What's in menu today is something you can ask but again... many limitations apply. Better just steer clear of this question. I personally don't like it when people ask me this because it gives me the same feeling like I am being stared at while eating. If everyone is sitting at same table, then may be it is okay to ask this question, but not otherwise.

Ever heard people asking on phone to other people "so what are you wearing today?" I thought this was the limit. I mean if it's your boy/girl friend and you are asking that in private, fine I am not too bothered about it. But how does it matter what the other person is wearing? I do admit, I asked have asked my friend this question. Not because I was curious but it was her engagement day, and I didn't want to end up dressing up more than she did so to be on safer side I asked what kind of costume she planned to wear so I can dress accordingly. Afterwards, thinking about the incident I wished I had asked her what I should wear instead of asking what she planned to wear.

These are just some of those things you don't ask someone on phone or in person or at least that's what I think. Life teaches many valuable lessons every day and this week I know I have learned many more.

Is someone not returning your calls or not calling you at all? So are you one of those people who asks these type of questions? I know where to start the self-analyzing process.

Birthday Wishes

Her presence is God's blessing to me
And she fills my life with happiness
Perhaps because she is the only one I have
Pretty and precious little sister
You'd wish you had one like her too!

Because it is a very special day today
I feel like jumping with joy and celebrate
Reasons, I don't need them
To appreciate what I have when I have her
Happiness, health, love, and joy I wish
Dearest sister of mine would always have
And may God bless you with all wishes and more.
You and I are best friends forever!

May all your dreams come true and in
Everything you do, success comes to you.
Eventually, may you find that ultimate goal - the
Righteous one that you seek with all your heart.
All my love to you, sweetheart, today and forever.

August 21, 2007

MS SQL Server error on changing Date types

Error: The conversion from datetime data type to smalldatetime data type resulted in a smalldatetime overflow error.

This happens because the default value of the date field is set to something like '12/29/1899' or '12/30/1899'. This strange looking date has been included by MSFT in SQL Server as well as in Excel (also 1900 is included as leapyear as I found).

As I found on a website, 29 February 1900 does not exist in most countries. From 1 March 1900 both Excel and the Enterprise Manager are the same.

After changing these dates to valid dates, and running an update query such as

ALTER TABLE dbo.TableName ALTER COLUMN ColumnName smalldatetime
GO

works fine.

Losing my Memory Capturer

So many memories are attached with it
It was always with me wherever I went
For the past one year and eight months
It did what I wanted it to do,
That is to brightly capture my memories
Just the way I wanted
And now it lies beside me on this desk
Lifeless
With salty sea water droplets in it's core
Both of us are uncertain about it's future
As I make frantic calls around to find
If someone... anyone who can mend it
From this helpless state
To make it click and flash again, only for me
As I grieve, unable to let go
Of my precious Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W7.

August 20, 2007

The Best Singer of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007

He has been the best singer so far in the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007. He is the most versatile singer who can sing any kind of song. He is the only singer who has never given a faulty performance. I am happy to say he is one singer who has never disappointed me – every single song he has sung has left a positive image in my mind. I am talking of none other contestant than Amanat Ali from Dubai/Pakistan. Today, hearing rumors of his elimination this Friday sound very unbelievable to my ears. Here are all the songs Amanat has sung. Winner or not of this contest, this is one singer I know will last longest in the industry compared to all other singers. All the very best to you, Amanat! You deserve all the success and may God bless you with that and much more.

5/11/2007 Mere Naina Saawan


6/01/2007 Tera Jaadu Chal Gaya


6/02/2007 Jaane Kahan Gaye


6/02/2007 Ramaiya Wasta Waiya (in title song)


6/23/2007 Yeh Hausla, Dor


6/23/2007 Kadhi Aa Mil


7/06/2007 Fiza


7/06/2007 Jab tak bikna na tha? (in title song)


7/07/2007 Ya Rabba, Salaam-e-ishq


7/13/2007 Hume tumse pyaar, Kudrat


7/14/2007 Mora saiyan


7/20/2007 Dil Lutiya, Jazzy B & Apache Indian


7/21/2007 Chori chori chupke se, Lucky


7/27/2007 Rasm-e-ulfat, Dil ki baatein


7/28/2007 Kuch tere dil ne kaha, Tere Mere Sapne


8/03/2007 Jhokha hawa ka aaj bhi, Hum dil de chuke sanam


8/04/2007 Kabhi to nazar milaao


8/10/2007 Rangeen, Huqa pani


8/11/2007 Aye watan pyaare watan


????? Mitva, KANK

Puraani Yaadein

Today, August 15, 2007 marks the 60th Anniversary of India's Independence from the Britishers. For this special occasion, I got to attend a very melodious musical program "Puraani Yaadein" performed by Swarkinnari group (Mumbai) on the evening of Tuesday, August 14th. Again, the artists of the group included singers Bhanubhai Vora, Triptiben Chhaya and Kamlesh Barot. On tabla was Sujit Vandur, dholak was played by Sundeep Salgaonkar, electronic drums were played by Bindesh Pande and Deepak Bhavsar on electronic keyboard.

There were less people in the audience compared to the audience during the dairo, for Tuesday being a week night, but the audience was very enthusiastic and there were practically no children so very well behaved for the program. The artists truly enjoyed performing and were communicating more comfortably, with ease with the audience members. The main theme of program was not decided as this evening was arranged by the coordinators only on Sunday night. The artists were given freedom to perform what they wished and what the audience wanted, which was mainly golden oldies of Hindi Film Music and desh-bhakti geet for 15th August. All of these made the whole evening more pleasant and enjoyable.

The evening began with Deepakbhai playing instrumentals of a couple of songs raat ke humsafar and kuhu kuhu bole koyaliya and then Vighneshwaraaya Vardaaya Surapriyaaya... was sung by Triptiben to start the songs.

This was followed by the prayer song aye maalik tere bande hum by the entire team. It was a performance that gave me goose pimples.

The theme of very first round of songs was patriotic songs. Kamleshbhai sang hai preet jahaan ki reet sadaa starting with the sheyr jab zero diya mere bhaarat ne.... Such beautiful patriotic song it was! This was followed by aye mere pyaare watan and immortal aye mere watan ke logon by Triptiben. Jahaan daal daal par sone ki chidiya by Kamleshbhai was simply awesome.

The organizers' son is getting married soon so Bhanubhai talked of how the best time that a couple spends together is the time between their engagement and marriage. Along with a lot of funny jokes on this topic and some valuable advices, he talked about the fun times shared between a couple during this courtship period. On this theme, Triptiben sang afsaana likh rahi hoon from film Dard (1947). Kamleshbhai continued to sing on the same theme with Kishore Kumar's phoolon ke rang se dil ki kalam se. It was simply amazing! Near the end of the song with help of fantastic music from Deepakbhai, he switched to yet another Guru gem from Padosan, tum hi to laayi ho jeewan mein mere pyaar pyaar pyaar... kehna hai kehna hai aaj tumse yeh pehli baar. That's when I realized that both the songs are based on the same raag pahadi. Two evergreen duets, again in same raag, sung by Triptiben and Kamleshbhai were sau saal pehle mujhe tumse pyaar tha and jo wada kiya woh nibhaana padega. And I didn't even realize when Triptiben started din saara guzaara tore angna... mere yaar shabba khair right in between the music of jo wada kiya woh. It was fabulous! The audience joined in singing this song with her.

Since pious month of Shravan has started on Monday, everyone was eager to sing some bhakti geet for Shankar bhagwan and other Gods. After Bhanubhai talked of the significance and importance of this holy month and how he was very happy that Indians in America have tried their best in keeping their culture alive so far away from India. Triptiben sang prayer song of Jhulelaal ho laal meri... damadum mast kalandar followed by a devotional qawwali song Shirdi wale Saibaba aaya hai tere dar pe sawaali from Amar Akbar Anthony by Kamleshbhai. Then was a turn for a prayer to Lord Shiva. Triptiben and team sang bam bam Shiv laheri. A prayer to Jalaram bapa jholi meri bhar de beda paar kar de per audience's request was sung by all three singers.

Then started the round of all time favorites. The reality of life was portrayed in the kasme waade pyaar wafa sab waade hai by Kamleshbhai. And the evergreen aaja sanam madhur chandni mein hum was a duet by both singers followed by Noor Jehan's aawaaz de kahaan hai duniya meri jawaan hai by Triptiben. Kamleshbhai then sang chaudhwin ka chaand ho and audience was taken back some 47 years to golden era of romance and black & white films. Then came melancholic song by Kamleshbhai tum na jaane kis jahaan mein kho gaye depicting the lonesomeness felt by a lover.

By this time it was almost 11 PM and the artists were ready to sing their last round of songs based on raag bhairavi but audience won't let them. More and more requests were being made and so finally the artists gave in. I thought it was very nice of them to keep the program going for additional 40+ minutes when they also had to catch an early 6 AM flight to Houston, TX the next morning.

Bhanubhai talked about many philosophical topics including the time when our soul wants to buy new clothes meaning move to a new body and leave the old one behind. Kamleshbhai sang pankhiDa ne aa pinjaru to convey this message in a poetry.

Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hai was sung for all the newly weds and people who are soon going to be married. Kamleshbhai did full justice to the song and audience couldn't stop applauding after listening to him. Then started the last round of new favorite songs including tujhe dekh dekh sona... jiya dhadak dhadak jaaye and lagan lagi tum se man ki lagan and everyone's favorite chand sifarish jo karta hamari... subhan allah. Audience went crazy for the last song there! Triptiben and Kamleshbhai sang jaise Radha ne mala japi Shyam ki and a Gujarati song taara re naam no chhedyo ektaaro... hu taari Meera tu Girdhar maaro. Actually the last Gujarati song was based on raag bhairavi and continued into tu ganga ki mauj main jamuna ka dhara.

The program concluded with patriotic songs of aye watan mehboob mere tujhpe dil qurbaan hai... hum jiyenge aur marenge aye watan tere liye, dil diya hai jaan bhi denge and mile sur mera tumhara. I was really hoping they would sing the national anthem jana gana mana but unfortunately they chose not to sing. I had to feel satisfied with what I had already listened to. :-)

It was a great musical evening full of memorable songs! A good job well done, Swarkinnari group.

Vande Mataram! Jai Hind! Wishing a very Happy Independence Day to all Indians all over the world.

"Puraani Yaadein" Function Photos

Kusumbal Dairo

Being so far away from Gujarat here in the USA, Gujaratis don't get to attend too many programs like a dairo so when artists come for their programs, the junta is very eager and excited to attend their programs. Such a program took place yesterday on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at the Sunnyvale Hindu temple here in the bay area. SwarKinnari group from Mumbai performed a dairo program that included many Gujarati bhakti geet, lok geet, lagna geet, desh-bhakti geet, songs of different relationships that we humans share, and jokes and kahevat and much more. The main singers of the group are Bhanubhai Vora, Triptiben Chhaya and Kamlesh Barot. Deepak Bhavsar was awesome on the keyboard. He has such a great command on the instrument. It was just fabulous to listen to him playing the keyboard. According to Bhanubhai, Sujitbhai Vandur played tabla, electronic drums were played by Bindesh Pandey and on dholak was Sundeep Salgaonkar.

Each song was sung after Bhanubhai talked about the significance of it, and the story and history behind the song.

Some of the songs performed by the group were:

ho raaj re... mane ker kaanto vaagyo (Zaverchand Meghani) by Tripti Chhaya

mor bani thangaaT kare (Zaverchand Meghani) by Kamlesh Barot

hovey hovey... lidho maNiyaara kero vesh by Tripti Chhaya is a song written by govaliya of North Gujarat when they meet Shri Krishna disguised as maNiyaaro. The audience joined the singer as chorus to sing "hovey hovey".

mere desh ki dharti from film Upkar was sung by all three singers: Bhanubhai Vora, Tripti Chhaya and Kamlesh Barot with the 60th anniversary of India's Independence day on August 15, 2007 right around the corner.

maari veNi ma chaar chaar phool (Avinash Vyas) by Tripti Chhaya described the married woman's emotions and how she considers her mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law and her husband four flowers in her veNi.

taari aankh no afiNi (Venibhai Purohit) by Kamlesh Barot

nayan ne bandh raakhi ne (Bakrat Virani 'Befam') by Kamlesh Barot

pahela pahela yug ma raaNi (Zaverchand Meghani) by Kamlesh Barot and Tripti Chhaya was a duet depicting the relationship of Bhartruhari and PingaLa. It was very nice to listen to their story from Bhanubhai before the song.

Next, Bhanubhai spoke of the relationships of children with their parents. He said it so beautifully and also talked about their album/program on parents. He said that their goal for this program was not to earn money but to make people realize the value of parents. He said that the artists would feel greatly valued if after watching their program a member of audience would go get their parents back at home from a senior home/ghardaa-ghar. He also said that there are two times in the life of parents when they cry:

1) dikari ghar chhoDe tyaare (when a daughter leaves their home)
2) dikara tarchhoDe tyaare (when a son disregards/illtreats the parents)

Then, a medley was performed by all three singers that included the songs like taari vaanki re paaghalDi nu, maNiyaaro te haalu haalu, sona vaTakDi re, ame mahiyaara re, oDhaNi oDhu oDhu ne uDi jaay.

The topic of parents lead to songs of parents and children.

dikaro maaro laDakvaayo (Kailash Pandit) by Tripti Chhaya

taari naavDi ne dubva nai daiye by Tripti Chhaya was about the story of Jesal Jadeja and Sati Toral. I forget the first line of this song now.

dikari to paarki thaapaN kehvaay by Tripti Chhaya

rang re kasumbal me to kesuDaa no by Kamlesh Barot was a lagna/sagaai geet.

chhanu re chhapnu (Avinash Vyas) by Tripti Chhaya was a song of newly wed daughter-in-law who scolds her noisy anklets while sneaking away from rest of the family members to meet her beloved husband.

koN halaave limbDi by Tripti Chhaya was an emotional song of love that is shared by brothers and sisters. It is a story of a sister named Sonbai who is so eager to send raakhDi to her brother from her village where her in-laws don't allow her to meet any of her family members. She waits and waits under a tree until the end of the day only to find no one who is going to her village with whom she can send her parcel to her brother. A snake comes and bites her and she leaves her life in hope of meeting her brother just once. Triptiben sung the song so nicely and made many audience members shed tears.

rakt Tapakati sau sau jhoLi of Koyi No LaDakvaayo (Zaverchand Meghani) by Tripti Chhaya was about a young soldier who is lying bleeding, badly injured at the end of the war for independence. When everyone has their relatives coming to take them back home, no one comes for this brave soldier - no mother, no sister, no lover, not a single person comes for him. Everything about this song was perfect.

ho raaj mane laagyo kasumbi no rang (Zaverchand Meghani) by all three singers

The program concluded with a couple of desh-bhakti songs.

dil diya hai jaan bhi denge from film Karma by all three singers

mile sur mera tumhara by all three singers

Jai Jai Garavi Gujarat!
Jai Hind!

Kusumbhal Dairo Photos

Garfield: Imaginations!

This one was awesome! It took me back to early 90s when my best friend Heena and I used to go crazy talking and imagining things. :D I bet Jon would say "mane evu dekhaay", if he were Gujarati. Hahahaha!

Yosemite National Park

Visiting Yosemite National Park in the heart of California has always been fun filled adventure for me. This time it was a short trip but it was as exciting as previous times. This time Northern California has had very little rain so most of the water falls had practically no water. Even Merced river was dry and lakes in the park with no water at all, but the trees were lush and green and mountains standing tall as saints in the Sierra Nevada forest. Here's a glimpse to mother nature's beauty.


Park entrance.


Park entrance from the other side.


Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View. El Capitan on the left side, Half Dome in the center and Cathedral Rocks on the right side where the Bridalveil Falls flow when snow melts from mountain tops.



Road inside the park.


Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Falls (not flowing right now but they flow where the black area on the mountains is seen) from Valley View. Merced river is seen in the front.


More of my photos taken at Yosemite National Park, CA.

Mane Yaad Aave Chhe... Ahmedabad

I don't know the author of this Gujarati poetry, but if you do, please do share and I will update the blog.