Honesty Test...!

Although Akbar was an emperor ruling his subjects in his own regime, he had this fantastic adviser in form of Birbal who never failed to keep the emperor on track with his wise advice on every matter.

Once Akbar got concerned about Honesty and Integrity of his subjects and was worried to find it out. Birbal, being the learned and wise one, was very sure about that every person in the kingdom was dishonest in some way to somebody at some time and it was as difficult to find a totally honest and completely loyal person as looking for a needle in the heap of hay. 

But he was also wise enough to know that the King will not take his word and will need some experimental hypothesis he can rely on, so Birbal devised an Honesty Test for his people.

 

The test, technically very simple, demanded every citizen of the territory to offer a pot of milk for a public meal and he or she should pour this pot of milk on the midnight of no-moon night in a huge tank placed at center of the town under the banyan tree !

Everybody thought ‘cleverly’ and upon pondering on some facts that could be used to own benefit, decided to put a pot of water instead of milk. 

‘Firstly it is a huge tank, secondly it would be no-moon night and finally, everybody else is going to pour the milk… who could possibly find out that I had poured water…!’ 

Every other person thought of this conspiracy ending up with a huge tank full of water…

In the morning when Akbar turned up to find out the result of the honesty test with Birbal, he was devastated to watch the outcome. Birbal, who already has proved his point as always, wanted to add the morale to the experiment and with a grieving smile on his face, said to the Emperor…

“Maharaj, had even a few people of all this humongous population decided to be completely honest and follow the command religiously, the liquid could have gotten at least the color of the milk, let alone the smell and taste…!’

On the final day of the passing year, can we take some lesson and decide 'otherwise' for a change…!?!

Have an eventful evening, great New Year and Wonderful Life… Stay tuned and Be aware…!

Leader...!

Reform...!

"Everything in this universe is perfect... even your desire to improve it". Being the greatest and die-hard believer of this hypothesis (specially the later part), I have always been a huge proponent for 'Reform'... may it be a place, a system or a constitution for that matter. It excites and interests me more to work on reorganizing, renovating and restructuring virtually any existing thing for betterment with a touch of creativity, by retaining its heart and soul, though. That's the reason I get attracted to projects that would exploit my innovative impetus and make my creative juices flow like a river. This Achilles heel, however discomfort and commercial in-viability it may cause, has developed as protrude to my being that cannot be cut off... who needs to cut it off, anyway...!?!

Owing to this rather uncanny feature of my professional practice, I am inclined to look for Projects that demand ‘out of box thinking’ (in its truest sense) and embrace all such opportunities with the undying vigor of a 12-year old. The recent being quite an enriching and fulfilling undertaking that taught me few lessons and enjoyed an honor to be termed in PMI terminologies as I had this PMP status for the first time throughout this project. Now, does that PMP feather in my intrinsically organized cap, made any difference to progress of the project could be a subject to explore in my next post, may be…!

This project of 'Setting up Census Data Center at GIPE', Pune in a ‘framed’ space that is a peculiar example of composite structure with a stone porch extended to serve as a bridge first and closed to make it a room later. It goes without saying that the challenge started with accommodating all the excessively protracting civil works to rehabilitate the structure to cater to the multifaceted requirements with open-ended specifications and was topped with the time and budget constraints being the inevitable fate of projects like this.

The theme, if I can call it, for this project was ‘Salvation’, not of souls but of the available material and resources! The logic and reasoning behind this act of salvaging was firstly, the usual budget constraints and secondly quality and availability of the long partition made of teak wood with glass panels that needed an intricate effort to dismantle and reassemble as per the new design. The carpenter had to be a craftsman to this otherwise hectic task and I must credit it to my carpenter Santosh whose hard as well as soft skills made it to deliver the visualized result. Right from the start, the idea of minimalistic design with impeccable execution facilitated the progress of the project and the fundamental theme of ‘form follows function’, graced it.

For the aesthetics and to satisfy the conventional Interior design expectation, I played with the colors of the venetian blinds, flooring with ‘L’ border, finish of the workstations and chairs with a touch of tastefully selected picture frames of shades matching the theme that added the element of elegance. As a borne believer of use of eco-friendly material and conservation of resources, I always make it a point to use minimum energy equipments and select those on their energy-saving capacity. To improve the light and ventilation, white paint is used all over with matching light fittings and 2-track sliding windows, when opened, eliminate the need of any artificial wind.

It indeed required the Creative effort as expected in the tender document and by providing ample opportunities to think on my feet, this remarkably successful project with both SPI and CPI ≥ 1, followed all the laws from PMBOK to Murphy’s, en-route! I am more proud of the progress of this project than the project sponsor’s contentment with the outcome of it! Way to go...

Watch the photo gallery of this project here - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.678566175511573.1073741829.100000745915297&type=1&l=ca9447d205#!

Maslow...!?!

'A Picture is worth a thousand words'... they say. So I decided to put a (redefined) theory with a (presumed) graph, together with a (original) concept - all-in-one to say what might have taken thousand pages and more hours than that... I guess! After all it is about Human Psychology you know...!?!

Tribute...!

It will be the real tribute to the Legend if we can learn, digest and practice this advise he spent his entire life for...!

विनोद...!

बातम्या, क्रिकेट आणि इंग्रजी सिनेमे  याशिवाय टीव्ही कडे अभावानेच वळणाऱ्या आमच्या एक्स जनरेशनने मराठी वाहिन्यांची दखल घेणे तसे दुरापास्तच. 'फू बाई फू' या अलीकडे लोकप्रिय(?) आणि हास्यास्पद झालेल्या 'रियालिटी शो' ला आमच्या सारखा प्रेक्षक कधीमधी मिळवून देण्यात सतीश तारे, भाऊ कदम, सुप्रिया पाठारे, संतोष पवार, किशोरी अंबिये अशा स्वाभाविक विनोदी अभिनेत्यांबरोबरच ताज्या दमाच्या प्रियदर्शन जाधव, भारत गणेशपुरे, सागर कारंडे, हेमंत ढोमे आणि माधवी जुवेकर यांचा सिहांचा वाटा. तथापि, वेळेची मुबलक उपलब्धता, कुठल्याही हास्यास्पद गोष्टीवर अखंड आणि निष्कारण हसण्याची उर्जा आणि नाटकी, उथळ समीक्षा, हे अर्चना पुरण सिंग आणि अरबाज / सोहेल खान यांचे 'कौमेडी सर्कस' हे नाव सार्थ करणाऱ्या कार्यक्रमातील परीक्षण(?!?) हुबेहूब वठवण्यासाठी केलेली स्वप्नील जोशी आणि अश्विनी यांची नेमणूक ही या कार्यक्रमाच्या सहा पर्वातील सगळ्यात विनोदी गोष्ट ठरावी!

संदर्भ: कालचा 'फू बाई फू' चा ताजा एपिसोड. प्रियदर्शन जाधव आणि माधवी जुवेकरने संगीताचा जो काही क्लास घेतला त्याने महेमूद आणि मनोरमाची आठवण आली. प्रियदर्शनची प्रत्येक वेळी सतीशशी तुलना करून त्याच्या (प्रियदर्शनच्या, स्वप्नीलच्या नव्हे) स्वत:च्या अंगभूत आणि आत्यंतिक लवचिक विनोद-प्रतिभेचा उपमर्द करण्यात स्वप्नीलचे जे काही 'एक्सपर्टांइज' दिसते (कुणाला?) ते नेहमीच क्लेशदायक असते परंतु काल माधवीने संपूर्ण वेळ आवाजाची जी कसरत केली त्याची प्रशंसा तर दूर साधा उल्लेखही होऊ नये हे फारच खटकले. तीच बाब अंशुमनच्या 'बेवड्या'च्या बेअरिंगची. असले बारकावे हेरून त्यांची यथायोग्य मीमांसा आणि वाहवा करता येत नसेल तर हे परीक्षक काय कलाकारांना स्वत:च्या घरचे पदार्थ खाऊ घालण्यापुरते ठेवलेत काय…? अश्विनीच्या पात्रतेचा तर संबंधच येत नाही कारण तिला मुळात स्वत:ची तरी ओळख कुठेय? हे लिहितांना प्रस्तुत 'समीक्षका'ला (हे दोघे 'परीक्षक' होवू शकतात या न्यायाने) तिचे आडनाव देखील ठाऊक नाही आणि जाणून घेण्याची तसदीही घ्यावीशी वाटली नाही यातच सगळे आले.

मुद्दा एवढाच की मुळातच सुसह्य परंतु अतिशय दुर्मिळ असणाऱ्या, फारसा भेजा फ्राय न करता कधीकधी बेताचे मनोरंजन सुद्धा करू शकण्याची क्षमता बाळगणाऱ्या मराठी कार्यक्रमांची मराठीला गरज असतांना, त्या कार्यक्रमातील कलाकारांचे मनोधैर्य वाढून त्यांना आणखी सकस, सृजनशील आणि बावनकशी कामगिरी करण्याचा हुरूप येण्यासाठी, त्यांच्या प्रतीभेला न्याय देवून ती फुलवू शकणाऱ्या परीक्षकांची वानवा आहे, गरजच वाटत नाही की 'मजबूरी'? अत्यंत अभ्यासू, मार्मिक आणि विचक्षण निरीक्षण-परीक्षण सिद्धी असलेल्या तंबी दुराई, ब्रिटीश नंदी, चहाटळ या नामधारी तथा शिरीष कणेकर, शरद वर्दे, मंगला गोडबोले, शफाहत खान, मंगेश तेंडूलकर अशा नामवंत राजहंसी दिग्गजांचा या सांस्कृतिक योगदानासाठी विचार करण्यास काय प्रत्यवाय असावा…? (प्रस्तुत समीक्षक, या नावांचे नामांकन अथवा शिफारस करीत नसून केवळ विचारांना दिशा देण्यासाठी हे प्रयोजन आहे याची जाणीव असावी. तसा सामिक्षकाकडे पद्म्च काय छद्म देखील पुरस्कार नसल्याने तो परत करण्याचा प्रश्नच उद्भवत नाही ही त्यातल्या त्यात निर्विवाद आणि समाधानाची गोष्ट…!) आणि यातली कुठलीही गोष्ट काही 'तांत्रिक' तथा 'अपरिहार्य' कारणांमुळे शक्य नसल्यास 'केबीसी'चा 'ऑडीयन्स पोल बाय व्होटिंग मीटर'चा पर्याय काय वाईट आहे…?!?

Flight...!

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With head bowed, the farmer said to the king, "It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch of the tree where the bird was sitting..."

 

 

We are all made to fly..., to realize our incredible potential as living beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling. So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and...

Free ourselves to the glory of flight... 

On this concluding day of Festival of Light...!

Stay tuned and make your flight...!

Perfection...!?!

A visitor to a temple under construction saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor,

“Do you need two statues of the same idol?”

“No,” said the sculptor without looking up, 

“We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.”

The visitor examined the idol and found no apparent damage.

“Where is the damage?” he asked.
“There is a scratch on the nose of the idol” said the sculptor, still busy with his work.

“Where are you going to install the idol?”

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high.
“If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?” the visitor exclaimed.
 

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the curious visitor, smiled and said,

“I know it and God knows it!”

The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Excellence is a drive from inside, not outside. Excel at a task today – not necessarily for someone else to notice but for your own good.

Stay tuned and strive for Excellence...!

A Token of Appreciation...!

How you think...!

There is a famous saying that we are the product of our thoughts. Hence this article is written to understand the importance of thoughts, their contributing factors, thought analysis and purification techniques.

During all day we keep thinking about things, events, families, issues, future, money, office and several other stuff. Our thoughts drive us to take some actions and hence we are moving towards our destiny by each and every action. That means our thought is the strongest part of our destiny as it is the root cause of every action. In my opinion, our Thoughts Process primarily consists of following five contributing factors. I will include some of the details of each factor and summarize the Thought Purification tips under each category below:

1. Education:- Education broadens the horizon of our minds. More education means that the mind is exposed to more knowledge and possibilities. Education when combined with experience result in more mental growth as compared to a less educated person. Hence the quality of thoughts are directly linked with the education. So to keep our 'thoughts seeds' healthy we must seek for Good knowledge, the knowledge which freshen up our brain cells, which gives us positive energy and boosts up our mental power. So we must keep learning new things throughout our life in order to synergize.

2. Desires:- This is sometimes a killing factor. For example, If we let our brain running behind our desires blindly, we will end up with considering short-cuts in our life for achievements. These short cuts basically kill the purity of thoughts and consequently bound us doing social evils such as back-biting, lying, deceiving, stealing, fraud, bribery and other forms of corruption. Hence, we have to have sold control on our desires to control this phenomenon. But this does not mean, we should drop our genuine desires. Remember, Positive desires combined with Positive Thoughts and Actions will result in success. However Positive Desires combined with Negative Thoughts and Action will result in crimes which I just mentioned above.
 

3. Brought up:- Each one of us has been brought up in a unique way by our parents. Some of us have been grown in very healthy physical and mental family environment. Some have mixed kind of situations both positive and negative in terms of finance, family bonding and social lives. Our mental growth has been based on all the events which have been taking place in our childhood, teenage and even our current day to day life. We can't go back to past to change our brought-up but what we can do is to drop the negative part of our past and tightly hold on to the positive one. It's pretty much straight forward. If we wish to keep the Negative things in mind, that means we are polluting your brain and your 'Thinking System'. So the choice is ours!

4. Company (family & friends):- This is something we can really work on to make our life happy. A mature 'human environment' is an indication of healthy mental growth. We must always try to surround yourself with positive, fun-loving, friendly, optimistic, constructive, cheerful and bright people so the brain is free from stress consequently brain will automatically start working on positive thoughts. When with family, we should always endeavour for creating a happy environment by meeting the logical desires of family members, cracking jokes, listening emphatically. This helps divert the brain towards positive feelings and hence our upcoming thoughts would be mature, positive and stress-free.

5. Circumstances:- Good and bad things happen to everyone but we must not throw ourselves totally on our circumstances. It is said that life is 20% what happens to us and 80% how we react to it. So consider every challenge as a new adventure and try to adopt a positive approach for a safe exit. Control your circumstance by surrounding yourself with positive people, behaving good with others, taking corrective and preventive measures for any mishaps. There are situations when we don't have control on the events happened to us. In this case, we don't have much choice but to live with the situation. However we shouldn't let such things steal our peace of mind. So we need to seek help from others and try to find solution. It is advised not to get involved too much for any situation. It is wisely said by someone that if you can't laugh on the same joke again and again so why worrying on the same trouble again and again!

 
Conclusion:- You are the product of your thoughts. Quality of your thoughts determines the level of peace of mind. Good thoughts result in good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. So every seed of thought matters. Always remember: Small minds think and discuss about people, average minds think and discuss about events, higher minds think and discuss about ideas and great mind actually execute & innovate in silence. 

Source: email from Geetika Oberoi to Fropki@yahoogroups.com

Belief...!

One day Mara, the Evil One, was travelling through the villages of India with his attendants. he saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up on wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara’s attendant asked what that was and Mara replied, “A piece of truth.”

 

 

“Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of truth, O Evil One?” his attendant asked. “No,” Mara replied. “Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it.”

Room Test...!?!

Q.: What is your favorite room in your home?

A. Bedroom 

B. Living room

C. Dining room

D. Bathroom

E. Kitchen

F. Balcony

G. Study or Den

H. None at all

Your answer will disclose your personality, the creator (of this test, not of the World...!) claims. So choose... no, not wisely but honestly if you want to find out who you really are...!?! And if you don't like the findings, don't blame me or the originator but try either changing the room or... yourself; the choice, as usual, is yours!

A. Bed Room: You are an imaginative and colorful character. You Believe in true love but until you find it, you'll have fun flirting. You attract people just by the way you talk. This can make insecure people feel jealous.

B. Living Room: You are sociable and enjoy talking to people. Whenever you have the opportunity, you'll help people. You don't shirk responsibility, and in fact enjoy taking on leadership roles.

C. Dining Room: You are conservative, cautious and don't panic in emergencies. You are an extrovert, and like sharing ideas with people. However, you also need to spend time alone to organize your thoughts.

D. Bath Room: You take good care of yourself and are concerned about your health. When you hear about any new illnesses, you start watching out for the first symptoms to appear. This can sometimes annoy your friends. However, you look at the world on the bright side, and this makes you quite popular.

E. Kitchen: Easygoing and altruistic, you are most happy when taking care of others. While at times you can be boisterous, you make people feel comfortable around you and they always seek your advice when they have problems.

F. Balcony: You love freedom and hate to be controlled. You want to walk away from all the rules and rely on your imagination to direct your life instead. When you need to reenergize yourself, you head to thebeach or to the forest.

G. Study or den: You take life seriously and like things to be neat and in order. Proud and dignified, you don't like to be mocked. You are a good listener even when you disagree with other people's ideas.

H. None at all: You are interested in the people around you and don't pay much heed to material goods. You are helpful and considerate to your family, and in return they love you dearly.

Dear Bapu...!

Optimization...!?!

With the explosion of another [dot]com boom and outburst of the Social Media tools, it definitely became imperative to think of Internet Marketing of your product/service or skill/talent. The digital and virtual ‘Profile’ is becoming the key to your presence on WEB – the most happening and interactive place of the 21^st century. Moreover, it is not just enough to create or have a profile page on the internet somewhere, it’s crucial for your marketing efforts that more and more visitors take a look at your web-presence in any form. The next step involves pinpointing the ‘Target Audience’ and inviting them to your page and engaging them by stimulating their interest levels and curiosity about what you have to offer. It would be little overambitious at the beginning to expect a response in form of any kind of feedback from all the visitors to your page, but it certainly is the fundamental objective of the entire internet marketing endeavour... isn’t it?

Here comes the gimmick called SEO or SMO into picture. ‘Search Engine Optimization’ or ‘Social Media Optimization’ are claimed to be the specialized services offered by some agencies that promise to empower your marketing strategy and increase visits (not results or business, mind you!) to your page in a period of 60 to 90 days. Alright, that’s quite fair... so, what’s the catch? Nothing! If you have the chunk of funds that you can spare and you have this gambling instinct to call blind shots without being very sure of what and how you are going to hit... absolutely no problem, go ahead with the best deal for a SEO or SMO of your ‘Profile’ with any agency near and dear to you!

Before you start to wonder ‘Does this all has to do with that little crack in my head’, I will try to make it little clearer where I am leading to. Would you mind me asking few questions without any obligation for you to answer...?

• Have you ever hired any professional to swim/surf/sail the sea for you? 
• Have you ever tried to lose/gain weight by watching ‘Slender blunder’ videos? 
• Have you ever tried to score good marks in any exam by copying or substituting? 
• Have you ever been to a psychological counselor to treat your neighbor’s behavior? 
• Do you dream to live a long/healthy/happy life because people claim to ‘Been there, done that?’

It is getting more and more bad and mad... isn’t it? It’s not, believe me! If you have ‘Yes’ for an answer to any, I repeat... ‘ANY’ of the above, you definitely need an agency for SEO and SMO...! You can close this tab and hunt for the best bargain you can get around. Good Bye!

However, by any chance, by any measure and by any standard, if you answered ‘NO’ to all, I repeat... ‘ALL’ of the above, Congratulations! You are qualified to read further...!

So you are the ‘Do it yourself types’, huh...? Good for you! Now, let’s take a closer look at WIIFM. Never heard of this...? Well, take down your first note of the first lesson – learn all the relevant acronyms as fast as you can! This was ‘What’s In It For Me’- The fundamental and eternal curiosity (not a question) that lays the foundation of any Marketing Strategy! Any breathing, thinking and ‘developing’ human being will have this in mind for virtually everything including other humans, trust me! Basic instincts that one can’t get rid of, you know! Let us leave behind the philosophy and get back to business... yes, that’s what it all is about!

In the series of 5 posts, I will try to explain what could be done, how to do it and why in this way, in the most simple language possible. However you will have to bear with little sarcasm, can’t help it!

Now to answer very first of your question – why am I doing this? – remember that little crack in my head? Well, at the outset, let me be very clear that I NEITHER OWN ANY SEO/SMO AGENCY NOR OFFER SERVICES FOR THAT. I am an independent consultant and I counsel people... mostly free! I have few clients who pay me in cash and kind at their free will and I am active on various discussion groups wherein people regard my opinion. You can check out all my links through http://about.me/manishpuranik This is absolutely at your discretion and NO CONDITIONS APPLY.

In recent months, I came across more and more concerned queries about this SEO/SMO thing from my clients, readers (?), followers (??) and counselees (???) who seemed to be eager about understanding this New-Age-P.R.O. (Note down – Public Relation Officer) to go for an informed decision, relying on me, as they prefer to do most of the time. This would have been another friendly gesture in good favour without any money involved (“we will pay to the SEO guy if we need to spend, stupid”), I decided to make it public and allow all the mortal souls to benefit (?) from this GYAN which, as it is, neither sacred nor secret anyway! That's it for today and you can look forward to some interestingly insightful stuff at this place when you visit again, if you do so at all.

Stay tuned and Keep Optimizing...!

BTW, take time to ponder a little on the last question and if you are not sure of your answer, try replacing 'Dream' with 'Plan'...! Now you got it...:)

Resolution…!

Since 'Today' is the First Day of the Rest of My Life, it deserves a little elaboration, I guess. And although it should not be a thanksgiving speech necessarily, I must express my gratitude for the attitude and considerate gesture of all my well-wishers who wished me through Email, SMS, Social Media and Phone Calls. Upon celebrating (?) another Birthday yesterday (What’s there in number, you can always do the math) I took a while to look at my life in retrospection. I won’t say I made some constructive, concrete or profound resolution or anything; but yes, I certainly thought of something that could change the course of my life. Although, according to the ‘progressive elaboration’ principle of PMP that states ‘the visibility of the end is less at the beginning’, I can see a very blurred picture of what I am trying to envisage. Still there are 5 things, for sure, that I would certainly strive to do…

 

1. Make most of my skills, knowledge, abilities and aptitude in the most ‘rewarding’ way.

2. Try to ‘cope with’ the situations for the most positive outcome yet continue being myself.

3. Focus on accepting, celebrating and enjoying 'rather than’ analysing, criticizing and elaborating.

4. Trying to make people ‘comfortable’ and be comfortable myself in the public & social situations.

5. Continue to live life to the fullest but never ‘expect’ it (or anything) to be fair, logical or explicable… always!

 

 

I very well understand and realize that it is extremely difficult for me to act upon all of these, but the dictionary meaning of difficult and impossible is different, I believe! Besides, I never had the inclination to do the mundane, simple, ordinary and commonplace things..! Well, this is it for now and I certainly would make it a point to make more frequent appearance at this place as I definitely am committed to the 'Be Cause'…!

 

Stay tuned and Celebrate the Resolution…!

An Appeal...!

Durga Shakti...!

There would be no Indian who doesn’t know the story of Birth of Lord Krishna. Although, how many who knew it, reflect upon it is a concern we will discuss some other time. Just to remind you the story, here is the most important and relevant part of it…

…Kansa the king of Mathura was an oppressor who had imprisoned his father in order to become the king. Devaki was Kansa’s sister and was married to a noble man Vasudeva. Kansa one day heard a heavenly voice saying, "Kansa, your days of tyranny are numbered and you will be killed by the eighth baby of Devaki." The terrified Kansa immediately imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva. He did not want to take any chance and killed each and every child of Devaki at birth until the time came for the delivery of the eighth child. For the optimum safeguard Kansa increased the number of prison guards, kept strict vigilance and locked Vasudeva in chains. But God planned otherwise…

According to mythology, this was Dwapar Yug when the devils, however powerful they might be, were always outnumbered largely by the angels. And there were such divine beings as ‘Krishna’ upon who people could rest assured. The mythology might be over and the characters could be imaginary but the principles and philosophy of it is more applicable in this Kaliyug where we have Kansa in abundance and not a single Krishna to fight them. At such time if Durga – the Kali – tries to replace the Krishna it is the duty of the society to support her acts and deeds. After all it was the people only who lifted the Gowardhan, Krishna offered his little finger as moral support – ‘Yes, you can…!’
 

Today what brought me to this story is flashing news about Durga Shakti Nagpal, an IAS officer who is being humiliated by the rotten political forces and their lustful objectives. Also the judiciary system is trying to keep out of it with an alibi that it is the matter of State Government Administration. No, it is not. This is the matter of Corrupt Powers thrashing the Honest and Competent authorities those are trying to actually bring the change these hypocrite politicians used for elections for years. This is a National Issue for every Indian who works hard to earn his two meals and tries to live a respectable and honest life. These indecent and autocratic efforts must be condemned and buried before they get succeeded and people as well as media conveniently forget about them, as always…! 

It’s high time… really very high time. Enough whistle blowing, it’s time for action… Sign on the Facebook Campaign I have created for it HERE. 

Stay tuned and Be Aware, Think Change and Take Action…!

'दुनियादारी'...!

 

प्रिय दादा,

 

एसेमेस मध्ये प्रतिक्रिया मावणार नाही म्हणून हा पत्रप्रपंच...!

 

परवा 'दुनियादारी' बघितला. दिवस सुरेख गेला आणि 'सुशी'च्या (अन इतर ससंदर्भ) आठवणींनी भरून आलं. कपाळावर हात मारायची वेळ आली नाही याबद्दल संजय जाधवचे आभार आणि कौतुकही…!

 

सिनेमा म्हणून चांगला आहे. मराठी सिनेमा म्हणून आणखी चांगला होऊ शकला असता. सुशीच्या कथेसाठी अधिक मेहनत अपेक्षित होती, पण प्रयत्न स्तुत्य आहे आणि एकदा तरी बघायलाच हवा.

 

नेहमीप्रमाणे गाणी अनावश्यक, अंगावर येणारे पार्श्वसंगीत अत्यंत भडक, टोटल फिल्मी आणि ब-याच ठिकाणी केवळ अप्रस्तुतच नाही तर रसभंग करणारे. हीच गोष्ट काही पात्रे /संवाद यांनाही लागू.

 

आपल्याला 'दुनियादारी' पाहिल्यांदा वाचून किती वर्ष झाली? त्यातले किती डीटेल्स अजूनही लख्ख आठवतात? 'सुशि'बद्द्लच्या प्रेमात किती फरक पडलाय? आपले वय आपल्याला आड येते का?

 

या सर्व प्रश्नांची उत्तरे काहीही असली तरी 'दुनियादारी' एकदा पहायला काहीही हरकत नाही. मित्रांची कंपनी मिळाल्यास भावनांचे फुटणारे बांध आणि उमाळ्याचे आवेग आटोक्यात राहतील अशी सदिच्छा!

 

शेवटी फक्त एक अट - सिनेमाचा आनंद घेऊन झाल्यावर त्याचा ख-या 'दुनियादारी'शी संबध जोडत बसण्यापेक्षा निवांत सवड काढून पुन्हा एकदा 'दुनियादारी' चे पारायण (शक्यतो एका बैठकीत) करावे. 

 

 हे व्रत केल्याने 'आमके आम गुठलीयोंके दाम' अशा प्रचीतीची संभावना वाढते आणि गतस्मृतींना उजाळा मिळून आपल्या कौलेजच्या दिवसांना आणि तत्कालीन भाव-भावनांना एक झळाळी प्राप्त होते. इत्यलम!

 

ता.क. - स्टोरी पुण्याच्या एस्-पीची असल्याने पुण्यात तुफान चाललाय, अगदी अमिताभच्या काळाची आठवण यावी अशी झुंबड! इतरत्रही अशीच परिस्थिती आहे म्हणतात… सुशीच्या आत्म्याला किती सुख होईल…!

 

मनीष

 

हे पत्र मी माझ्या प्रिय मित्र आणि बंधूला लिहिले असल्याने त्याची जातकुळी तथाकथित समीक्षेसारखी असणे शक्य नाही आणि ती तशी अपेक्षितही नाही. तथापि चित्रपट म्हणून त्यावर मत द्यावयाचे झाल्यास ते पुढीलप्रमाणे -

 

दिग्दर्शन, चित्रीकरण आणि गाणी यावरील थेट शोलेपासून ते अगदी मुन्नाभाई पर्यंतचा प्रभाव लक्षणीय असला तरी थियेटर हाऊसफुल्ल होणे तथा टाळ्या, शिट्ट्या आणि 'एक्स्पर्ट कॉमेंटस'नी दणाणून सोडणे हा अलीकडे अभावानेच येणारा प्रत्यय काहीसा त्रासदायक (वयोमानामुळे) पण खूपसा आनंददायी (तादात्म्यामुळे) ठरला. त्यातून संजयने सुरवातीलाच 'सुशी'ला कथेचे संपूर्ण श्रेय देऊन, चूक-उणीवांबद्दल माफीही मागितली असल्याने तक्रारीला जागाच नाही…!

 

असो. 

Brahma...!

God was sitting in heaven one day when a scientist said to Him,

"God, we don't need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing - in other words, we can now do what you did in the beginning."

"Oh, is that so? Tell Me..." replies God.

"Well," says the scientist, "we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of you and breathe life into it, thus creating man."

"Well, that's very interesting...show Me."

So the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mold the soil into the shape of a man.

"No, no, no..." interrupts God, "Get your own dirt...!"

Stay tuned and keep within HUMAN Limits...!

Chain...!

'You don't owe me anything,

I have been there too…

Somebody once helped me out,

The way I'm helping you…

If you really want to pay me back,

Here is what you do:

DO NOT let this chain of love,

END WITH YOU…'