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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Urus Mela at Chancawalli

Urus (Urs) fesitval is presently going on at the Chand Shah Wali Baba Dargah at Chancawalli, Mumbai. Yes, it is the same Mela that can be seen just behind our hostel. The sounds of bollywood songs, dholaks and motorcycle stunts echo in the corridors each night. Two days ago we decided to visit there.

Although the Mela is within 500m Euclidean distance from our hostel, that direction is blocked by a pretty high barbed wire fence. Hence, we had to take the only route through the Main Gate and then surrounding the Powai lake. It took us 45 mins in Mumbai Jam and 50 rupees auto fare to reach the site.

And then we saw it. An extravaganza of life. Extraordinarily vivid and living gathering of thousands of people. Yes, the mela was big enough. With balloons to Motorcycle Stunts to roller-coasters and foods. The rates were cheap and fun was affordable. It took me back 10 years when small things in life gave me tremendous happiness. We shot at little balloons, rode a roller-coaster, tested our gambling fate with ring throwing (and we won Rs. 100 cash!). The mela looked a lot like the mela's I used to see in my childhood days.

Except of course, the food. Most of the food items I didn't even saw previously. We tested halwa-paratha where the parathas are 2 feet in diameter. We had greasy-spicy chicken roll dipped in pudina chutney.

Near the end of the Mela there was Chand Shah Wali Baba Dargah. In the adjoining ground Qawali performance was going on. This is the first time I saw any live Qawali performance.

People say pictures are worth thousands of words. Hence I will talk no more. Instead, let me present some of the moments of the gathering. Pictures are taken by my friends (Abhirup, Victor and me)

People and life -->



We rode this one -->



Roller-coasters -->



Little Balloons for shooting practice -->



One of the numerous food stalls -->



Colors and more colors -->



Chicken roll dipped in pudina chutney -->



The roll and moghlai shop -->



Halwa-parathas.. note the size of the parathas -->



And the decoration and colors of the halwa -->



The Qawali singers at the Dargah ground



These are we -->

Sunday, January 16, 2011

DSpace at West Bengal State Central Library -- Digital Library for Bengali Books

I recently came across:
http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in/

This website contains catalog of numerous books in the public libraries in West Bengal. Many books that are obsolete now, or hard to get hands on, are there. But the most interesting part is: this website stores the SCANNED E-Book versions of the books that are freely downloadable. The website is also easily navigable.

I browsed the History section. This section contains more than 450 books on History specially History of Bengal. The other sections are also pretty rich.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

আমি মারের সাগর পাড়ী দেব

This song is the most motivating song that I heard recently, thanks to the serial Ganer Opare. I cannot suppress the urge of making another post on this song.

This songs talk about how the limited I will try and to reach the perfect I through the sea of hardship. The limited I have no fear now. The perfect I is separated from the limited I by a sea of hardship. The limited is determined to cross the sea with his limited resources because at the other side of the sea there is peace, there is solace. That is, when the limited I will cross the sea of hardship and reach the other end, he will be united with the perfect I. He will be perfect and will have peace. In the journey, the limited I is sure God will help him. All he needs to do is keep the journey on; fearlessly. When the day will end, the limited I knows, he will reach the shore. The days of hardship will be the offerings at the kind feet of the Godhead.

Bengali:
---------

আমি মারের সাগর পাড়ি দেব বিষম ঝড়ের বায়ে
আমার ভয়ভাঙা এই নায়ে ॥
মাভৈঃ বাণীর ভরসা নিয়ে ছেঁড়া পালে বুক ফুলিয়ে
তোমার ওই পারেতেই যাবে তরী ছায়াবটের ছায়ে ॥
পথ আমারে সেই দেখাবে যে আমারে চায়--
আমি অভয় মনে ছাড়ব তরী, এই শুধু মোর দায়।
দিন ফুরালে, জানি জানি, পৌঁছে ঘাটে দেব আনি
আমার দুঃখদিনের রক্তকমল তোমার করুণ পায়ে ॥

- রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর

পূজা, ১৯৯

Ganer Opare version from youtube:



Movie Review: V for Vendetta


When the end credit was rolling, I was wondering who might be behind this amazing motion picture. And then the names came. This kind of awesome screenplay can only be expected from Wachowsky Bros.

Behind every good movie there must be a great storyline. I have to say the story is powerful here. The movie is set in a future UK. America has fallen and UK is under the dictatorship of Sutler (John Hurt). A masked man suddenly appears and blasts off Old Bailey and threatens to demolish the parliament in exactly one year’s time. The government calls the masked man terrorist and tries to nab him but their attempts fail. In the process the masked man abducts a BTN television worker. I would not like to reveal anymore. Be sure, once started you would not be able to stop the movie.

This movie also has a clear message. In the fight of terrorism, how much are we ready to give up? We have already given up much of our privacy and freedom. We do not complain when we are checked again and again under metal detectors. We do not complain when random security guards check our body before entering any damn shopping mall. We do not complain when we are always being watched under n number of surveillance cameras. We do not complain when we are not allowed to even read certain types of literatures. Even in order to criticize Extreme Red don’t you need to first read it? What would we do, if in the name of national security the government wants to install cameras in the bedrooms also? What if the government wants total compliance in return of complete security? What is better? Anarchy or dictatorship and tyranny?

The end scroll of credits too has the impression of Wachowsky Bros. The music track is a nicely mixed composition of Dholaks, Pardesi-Pardesi and Churake dil mera; truly Wachowsky signature.





Image copied from MediaWiki foundation and is as per the Non-free media use rationale of Wikipedia.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

হে ভৈরব শক্তি দাও

This RNT song is one of the most motivational songs for me. In this song, the poet prays God to remove everything small in him. Every small, unworthy stuffs must be removed to make space for the grand.

A few months ago I heard the instrumental version of this song. Then I searched a lot in the web but could not get it. Then suddenly I got it one day from my DVD collection. The song starts with "সর্ব খর্বতারে দহে তব ক্রোধদাহ"

Lyrics:
--------
সর্ব খর্বতারে দহে তব ক্রোধদাহ-
হে ভৈরব, শক্তি দাও, ভক্ত-পানে চাহো ।।
দূর কর মহারুদ্র যাহা মুগ্ধ, যাহা ক্ষুদ্র-
মৃত্যুরে করিবে তুচ্ছ প্রাণের উত্সাহ ।।
দুঃখের মন্থনবেগে উঠিবে অমৃত,
শঙ্কা হতে রক্ষা পাবে যারা মৃত্যুভীত ।
তব দীপ্ত রৌদ্র তেজে নির্ঝরিয়া গলিবে যে
প্রস্তর শৃঙ্খলোমুক্ত ত্যাগের প্রবাহ ।।