Sidharth Kannan is energetic, vivacious, charismatic, witty, knowledgeable and above all an emcee, host or presenter, whatever you may choose to call him, par excellence. At an official event that I recently attended at Russia, Siddharth was requested to host this important and big programme and after his dramatic entry sharp at the scheduled time, he kept the audiences mesmerised, regaled, entertained and fully involved for next 3 hours. Neither audience, nor he got tired as suddenly the auditorium seemed to have been filled with and unending supply of energy.

Incidentally, this was not the first time that I attended an event hosted by Siddharth. A few years ago also, I got an opportunity and if anything, he seems to be getting younger, bolder and tastier like an ageing wine!

What makes him different from other hosts, who may be equally enigmatic, witty, energetic and knowledgeable, if not more? We have witnessed award ceremonies hosted by the stars such as Shahrukh, Ranveer, Ranbir, Saif etc! I think what raises Siddharth’s stature as an emcee and host one notch above others is his uncanny ability to be tremendously funny, comic and boisterous and yet never trespassing the thin line of becoming satirical or hitting the members of audience or performing artists below the belt causing any embarrassment. If anything, he only makes ordinary folks that include me, feel involved, entertained, confident to do things that they might not have ever done before and yet never crossing the line that would cause hurt, embarrassment or discomfort. In fact, beyond a point, members of audience want him to come to them for a prank or two. Such is Siddharth’s charm.

At this last event at Russia, he made someone with two left feet like me dance, appreciated my ordinary and short speech like a path breaking address and made me feel so important and revered in spite of I being just one amongst several hundred attending the event. And I am sure, each of those hundreds would express a similar feeling, if asked.

He is a celebrity, having interviewed or hosted most of the celebrities, worked with kings of comical timing such as Cyrus Broacha, hosted large number of iconic shows on radio and TV, highly recognised and decorated and yet absolutely down to earth. This speaks highly of his bringing up by his erudite parents in Delhi. His bother Hrishikesh Kannan, popularly known as Hrishi K is extremely popular RJ. It can be safely concluded that talent runs deep in the family.

This is neither a tribute nor a eulogy, because Siddharth has to entertain, regale and host millions and given his energy, I have no doubt that he’s destined for much bigger honours than what he has already achieved. It’s celebration of Siddharth’s great quality of spreading unbridled happiness wherever he goes, a quality many of us need to imbibe, emulate and demonstrate.

Currently I am on a short trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in connection with an official engagement. While my travel blog will follow, this is regarding a totally new experience about the military life.

We have been brought to a place some 100 Kms away from the city, where buses have left us at the end of a motorable road to be taken to a further remote location by military trucks, powerful all terrain monsters. A short drive through muddy, virtually no road brings us to a military camp. Here we are exposed to real arms, guns, grenades, tanks and other small arms. The weather is chilly ( temperature being close to freezing point), damp and very harsh. In such extreme conditions, we are given an opportunity to relive real experience. First, after a demo, we are given a chance to fire that monster of a weapon, the much dreaded AK-47. This is an excitable but eerie experience. Next is a ride in the tank through the unfriendliest of the terrains. Thereafter, we are offered to try our hands at knives, thrown at the targets that’s much different from darts we get throw at certain bars. In the eerie cold, a cup of hot ” Black Army Tea” comes like godsend relief.

The experience evokes a feeling of patriotism in all of us. ” Bharat Mata ki Jai”, “Ganpati Bappa Moriya” and “Har Har Mahadev” chants make the atmosphere very sombre. We are all having just one feeling- in a made up scenario, when we are facing no real enemy. are getting full assistance and safety and are made comfortable to the extent possible, we’re getting this eerie feeling! How about our soldiers? They face a very vicious and treacherous enemy, terrorists, most difficult of terrains (Siachen is the highest battle ground in the world), are at the front for months together away from their families and yet have their morale always high ready to die for the nation at the drop of a hat!

Let’s not underplay their sacrifice by labelling it as their duty. Let’s give our fondest salutation to these men because of whom we feel protected and safe!

Jai Hind.

There was never something like Sholay before it took the nation by storm on its release in 1975. Till date, people remember it’s storyline, characters and more importantly dialogues. “Kitne aadmi thay”, “ arre oh sambha”, “tera kya hoga Kalia”, “Sardar aapka namak khaya hai” and I can recall and mention at least 20 more.

One of the unique things about Sholay is that it’s characters overshadowed its stars. It’s the only film where people remember Thakur Baldev Singh, Veeru, Jai, Basanti, Radha, Gabbar, Sambha, Kalia etc rather than the actors playing them viz. Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh, Hema, Jaya, Amjad, Mac Mohan, Viju Khote in that order. In fact, while if you mention stars names Sholay may not be the first name to come to mind. Amitabh will bring to mind Zanjeer and Deewar, Dharmendra will resonate with Pratiggya or Satyakam, Hema with Seeta aur Geeta, Jaya with Guddi aur Koshish. However, when you mention the names of lesser stars or also rans, the name Sholay immediately comes to mind. In fact, Amjad, a hugely talented actor, who went on to giving some memorable performances before his premature death, made Gabbar immortal and strangely remained a one film wonder. As a matter of fact, several others like Mac Mohan, Viju Khote, Asrani, Jagdeep, Jalal Agha etc as also their character names viz. Sambha, Kalia, Soorma Bhopali etc remain synonymous with Sholay till today.

I bow to the combined talents and efforts of Salim Javed, Ramesh Sippy, R D Burman, Dwarka Divecha, Waman Guru for creating this once in lifetime masterpiece that made each character and especially minor characters or also rans actors superstars.
This blog is dedicated to Viju Khote, who died could of days ago. RIP Viju Khote.

I just learnt from somewhere that today is the International Day of Older persons. On December 14, 1990 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons.The holiday was observed for the first time on October 1, 1991.

The holiday is celebrated by raising awareness about issues affecting the elderly, such as senescence and elder abuse. It is also a day to appreciate the contributions that older people make to society.

This holiday is similar to National Grandparents Day in the United States and Canada as well as Double Ninth Festival in China and Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. The observance is a focus of ageing organizations and the United Nations Programme on Ageing.

India is home to 104 million senior citizens. With the crumbling of the institution of joint families, many of the aforesaid 104 million have neither social nor financial security. Further, thanks to low awareness about medical insurance and high cost of treatment in private hospitals, many senior citizens have no choice but to live in misery caused by Alzheimer’s, arthritis, cataract, dental malaise, injuries etc. With children abroad in connection with their jobs, the senior citizens are physically debilitated and emotionally turmoiled.

Old age pension for all, free medical convenience for all senior citizens, old age homes, friendly infrastructure and an overall security to our senior citizenry should be our resolve on this International Day of Older Persons. They are respected, experienced and valuable assets rather than being a burden on the society.

Our jobs and careers are important,

Where is the time for mother & father?

If there’s no time for our own parents,

How can other older persons be a subject of bother?

We celebrate love on Valentine’s Day,

But are seized of this beautiful feeling throughout;

But older persons are a different lot,

To be celebrated on 1st October and then to be thrown out!

Let’s adopt them,

For they did so when we needed them,

On this International Older Persons day,

Let’s resolve to repay gratitude to them!!!

Happy international day of Older Persons!!!

Imran Khan sounded a war cry while addressing UN General Assembly. He said Pakistan might not be able to face its neighbour 6 times its size in a conventional war, but when driven against the wall, it could be forced to use nukes, which would be disastrous for the world.

In an earlier blog, ” What have we done to Pakistan?”, I had raised this issue. By abrogating Articles 370 and 35 (b) , nothing changed on the ground for Pakistan. It’s not as if this made the plan to secede from India any more difficult for separatists or the task of liberating Kashmir from India any more difficult for Pakistan because the aforesaid two were impossible even before. India all along maintained Kashmir to be its integral part and the abrogation of the aforesaid articles was a mere reinforcement of India’s stated position!

It seems Kashmir is an important issue for a country ravaged by failed economy, unprecedented corruption in upper echelons, weak democracy, unstable internal situation, terrorism ( it’s both – perpetrator as also sufferer) and an over the top military that just cannot wean itself away from interfering in the internal politics and policies of the country. By exploiting passions and emotions on Kashmir, Pakistani policy makers have something to keep their citizens occupied and divert their minds from serious problems affecting that country.

Nukes were easy to develop for them thanks to their subservience to certain superpower(s). However, they are finding it very difficult to resist their use, which justifies the world’s apprehension of their misuse in the hands of weak government and dominant military. Use of Nukes will give Pakistan Kashmir is a childish thought – but devastation it will cause to that country itself and the world in general will be no child’s matter.

I pray to the almighty to bestow a semblance of sanity on the policy makers and military generals of Pakistan whose fingers seem to be itching to press nukes button. As a Sanskrit shlokas goes ‘विनाश काले विपरीत बुद्धि’ meaning when the destruction knocks at the door, sanity is lost. I also hope the world takes notice of Pakistan’s aggressive overtures because their control on their nukes and action may be very fragile and this poses a real threat to the entire humanity.

As my blog gains in popularity, the number of followers following my blog is steadily going up. The followers include people, organisations and entities of various nature and entities.

Today I found a “like” on one of my earlier blogs from an entity called ” Artificial Hymen Pills”. This was something unheard of by me and it naturally made me curious to explore the nature of this newest follower of my blogs. It reveals that this entity markets pills in Pakistan that artificially restore hymen, thereby empowering a girl to feign virginity. Feign because it’s no permanent cure. The website advices a woman to insert two capsules inside vagina 30 minutes prior to probable intercourse. The capsules get inflated and burst due to friction releasing a blood like artificial liquid. The company challenges that even the smartest of the men cannot discover that “his triumph” is not heroic but feigned heroism!

I felt aghast at the masculine mentality that’s still prevalent in male dominated bastions such as Pakistan, where primitive concepts such as virginity of a girl are still given so much importance. As the society opens up and not only the physical geographies shrink but thoughts at large also converge, such archaic thought process is nauseating. No doubt the company marketing the product (purportedly based on Japanese technology though I doubt whether highly advanced Japanese diaspora would require such an archetype quaint mentality ridden product) has noble intentions of coming to the rescue of innocent girls and women of that country through harmless, non-surgical, non- intrusive intervention, but the need for such products is certainly excruciating and disgusting to say the least. Whereas the Western world has evolved to a new level of openness where live-in arrangement, having babies without marital conjugation, multiple partners and use of aphrodisiacs and sex toys (including robots), a third world country refusing to come out of a feudal mindset is a terribly sad reality. A country that has produced a Nobel laureate like Malala, surely needs to change its view point on archaic thought such as virginity. I am ready to endorse the product of this company, if they market it as a fun product or a sex toy to inculcate some interest into drab and monotonous sex lives of couples. But as a dupe for virginity- the word is “Ugh”!

My blogs are all about progressive thoughts and positivity and I welcome more and more followers to take my blogging to new dimensions. But regressive thoughts, products and mentality are strict no-no!

My readers are mostly friends and family, including my sister; but I couldn’t help but pen this blog in spite of it’s obviously sexual thematic undertones.

Apple is no ordinary stuff. If an apple a day can keep doctor away, there must be something very mythical and magical about it.

As the folklore goes, God fashioned Adam from dust and placed him in the Garden of Eden. Adam was told that he could eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Subsequently, Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs to be Adam’s companion. They were innocent and unembarrassed about their nakedness. However, a serpent deceived Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, and she gave some of the fruit to Adam. These acts gave them additional knowledge, but it gave them the ability to conjure negative and destructive concepts such as shame and evil. God later cursed the serpent and the ground. God prophetically told the woman and the man what would be the consequences of their sin of disobeying God. Then he banished them from the Garden of Eden. The temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, supposedly an Apple (Old Testament mentions only a forbidden fruit; Apple became forbidden fruit later), led to the ouster of the humanity from Eden, forcing them into an endless cycle of birth, death, virtues and sins.

An apple (cunningly labeled “to the fairest”) started the Trojan war. The Norse gods owed their immortality to apples. The Arabian Nights features a magic apple from Samarkand capable of curing all human diseases—predating the belief that an apple a day will keep the doctor away, a proverb that first appeared in print in 1866. Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, and Dylan Thomas all wrote poems about apples; and everyone from Caravaggio to Magritte painted them.

Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when he was bonked on the head by a falling piece of fruit, a 17th-century “aha moment” that prompted him to suddenly come up with his law of gravity. The incident helped inspired him to eventually develop his law of universal gravitation. In 1687, Newton first published this principle, which states that every body in the universe is attracted to every other body with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, in his landmark The work the “Principia,” which also features his three laws of motion.

The iPhone is a line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple. All generations of the iPhone use Apple’s iOS mobile operating system software. The first-generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, and multiple new hardware iterations with new iOS releases have been released since.

From the very origination of mankind to history to Newton’s law to the iconic IPhone, the common element is a humble Apple. It’s forbidden, mythical, curative, magnificent and magical but above all its delicious and satisfying. I invite my readers to share whether there are such myths around other fruits?

I eat one Apple everyday,

Won’t go to doc come what may!

Apple fell on Newtons’ Head,

And gave him an idea on gravity;

To some Apple is just a fruit,

To me a complete snack in brevity

Then this wonder called IPhone

For all its features and looks

Is a complete connect to outside

And has in it whole lot of books!!

Daughter’s day, a day exclusively dedicated to the daughters in the family, is celebrated in India and worldwide on the fourth Sunday of September. Therefore, yesterday was this year’s daughter’s day. Just like we have Father’s Day and Mother’s Day to honour and celebrate our parents, Daughter’s Day is the day when we cherish having daughters and the wonderful bond and love that they share with us.

In India, there has always been a certain stigma attached to being a girl child. While we are seeing a change in big cities, in smaller cities and in some states in particular, this is still a problem.

Therefore, initially, Daughter’s day was celebrated to erase this stigma. The major aim was to remove the notion that a girl child is a burden, plus it is also celebrated to remove the cultural practices like dowry. It is not very clear as to when India started celebrating this day, the importance to save girl child cannot be overstated. If till today, our Govt has to run campaigns such as ” Beti padhao, beti bachao” and ” Mulgi shikli, pragati zhali” then it is amply clear that our fascination and obsession with male progeny is far from being over. I am a proud father of a single child, a daughter and have always respected a woman whether in mother’s, sister’s, wife’s or colleague’s role and for me this is not mere sloganeering or lip service, but a reality, I strongly feel that this society needs to collectively work towards abolishing this gender bias by ex-communicating such elements or sections.

Came across these beautiful lines comparing a daughter to an angel:

I have this little angel. For me she left her wings.

She has no idea how much happiness she truly brings.

She brightens up my days with her smiles and her laughs.

She helps me to remember all the blessings that I have.

Her face, it is so perfect, she’s sweet and soft and pure.

Sometimes she can be willful and sometimes she is demure.

She tries her very hardest to please and do what’s right.

She gives the greatest hugs from morning until night.

Every person that has known her sees this light within her soul

I know that in this whole great world, she has a special role.

She’s helpful and considerate to everyone she knows

This light in her shines brighter as my angel grows.

When she sees someone is sad, it opens up her heart.

She wants to do all that she can; she wants to do her part.

She’ll squeeze away the sorrow and make me forget about my pain.

She shows me where the sun is when we’re hiding from the rain.

I know that God must love me, He showed me with His Grace

I knew just how completely when I saw my angel’s face.

And in that very moment when she came into my world,

I knew that she was so much more than just my baby girl.

She would be my sunshine, with a sweetness that won’t end.

And when she grows up one day she would be my closest friend.

She would be the reason I would always try my best.

For my little angel baby girl would be my greatest test.

When God entrusts to you an angel, who has left her wings for you.

Encircle her with love with everything you do.

Let her know God made her, and that He trusts you with her care.

Be sure to make time for special moments with her to share.

And when at night she finally says her prayers and goes to sleep

I Thank Him for my angel, and ask for him to always keep

A watchful eye and hand to protect her from this world.

Protect my little angel; protect my baby girl.

Our daughters of today will be mothers and wives of tomorrow and that’s how human species will have their future progeny so that human race survives. It’s all the more painful because this gender bias happens in a country where –

(1) we treat mother as superior to God

(2) pray goddess in the form of Lakshmi. Durga, Kali

(3) call our nation our motherland and

(4) celebrate festivals like Bhai Duj and Rakshabandhan underlying the importance of equality or rather superiority of feminine gender!

Let’s celebrate birth of a daughter – whether first time or next time or every time! Daughters are God’s beautiful gift to mankind.

Today I received a false trigger in one of the WhatsApp groups that it was 220th birth anniversary of Mirza Ghalib. False because Wikipedia tells me that the great man was born in Agra on 27th December 1797 and obviously it’s an old message forwarded afresh as this 27th December would be his 222nd anniversary. Nevertheless, the very mention of his name changes one’s mood from that of gloom and depression to one of hope and mysticism that his poetry always conveyed. Who else but him could have written:

ख़ुदा की मोहब्बत को फ़ना कौन करेगा?

خُدا کی مہبت کو فنا کون کریگا؟

सभी बन्दे नेक हों तो गुनाह कौन करेगा?

سبھی بندے نئک ہوں تو گناہ کون کریگا؟

ऐ ख़ुदा मेरे दोस्तों को सलामत रखना

اے خُدا میرے دوستوں کو سلامت رکھنا

वरना मेरी सलामती की दुआ कौन करेगा

ور نہ میری سلامتی کی دُعا کون کریگا

और रखना मेरे दुश्मनों को भी महफूज़

اور رکھنا میرے دُشمنوں کو بہی مہفوذ

वरना मेरी तेरे पास आने की दुआ कौन करेगा…!!!

ورنہ میری تیرے پاس آنے کی دُعا کون

🌹 ✍ کریگا۔۔۔۔!!!🌹

He was colourful who hated the duality of civilised society. He took pride in being called a rake or ladies man and lived life on his own terms that’s very evident from what he wrote:

इश्क़ पर जोर नहीं है ये वो आतिश ‘ग़ालिब’,

कि लगाये न लगे और बुझाये न बुझे

रगों में दौड़ते फिरने के हम नहीं क़ायल

जब आँख ही से न टपका तो फिर लहू क्या है

It’s amazing that what he wrote continues to be popular even 150 years after his death.

This is a joke that I read years ago and have told it umpteen number of times in parties and get togethers, but it has never failed. It reads:

Three old men were travelling together in a train coupe. As the journey was long, they decided to break into a conversation. They thought what better than to introduce themselves to each other. The first one said, ” I am a banker, married, have three sons who all are doctors”. The second one said, ” Incidentally, I am a banker too, married, also have 3 sons who all are engineers.” The third one added with an element of surprise, ” This is a sheer coincidence! I am also a banker, married and having 3 sons who all are architects”. The fourth guy kept quiet. On being cajoled by other three, he finally ceded reluctantly and said, ” Unfortunately, I am not a banker. I am neither married, but I too have 3 sons, who are all bankers!”

The humour is subtle yet sharp at the same time. Another beauty of this joke is that it can be customised to suit the audience and hence its connect with them. Here the profession of the travellers, banking, is incidental as the readership of this blog is mainly the members of banking fraternity. The original joke is about the protagonists being Colonels.

Why I decided to blog this old favourite joke of mine? Because I was reminded of it suddenly when somebody forwarded another version of this timeless beauty that reads:

Four men were playing poker and having drinks in a club, when they started to break into a conversation. One of them excused himself for a quick visit to washroom, while other three started the chat. The first one said, ” I am really proud of my son; he passed out from Harvard, got absorbed by Google, has made rapid strides in the organisation. He has created so much fortune that recently he gifted a $ 10000 Rolex to his friend on friend’s birthday.” The second one said, ” Ditto me. My son is also brilliant, working for an MNC with large salary. He recently gave a birthday gift of diamond shirt studs worth $ 20000 to his friend.” The third one said, ” We all are lucky guys to have fathered brilliant sons as my son too is doing exceptionally well and he recently gave birthday gift in the form of a swanky car worth $ 40000 to his friend.” In the meantime, the fourth guy returned to the table, oblivious of what the three others had said. On being requested, he said, ” My son is gay, working part time in a night club.” A dead drop silence fell on the table with other three guys having a look of sympathy on their faces for the poor unfortunate. Taking a cue, he rushed to clarify, ” But I am proud of my son as on his recent birthday, he received a Rolex, diamond shirt studs and a swanky car from his friends.”

Nice subtle naughty humour that tickles the funny bone should provide much needed reprieve from the serious ground realities emanating out of Kashmir issue, economic slow down and worldwide trade issues.