Merry Christmas

It was 3:45 pm, I was in my office, as usual scarcely with work.Suddenly the door of my bay (we call here Offshore Development Center-ODC) burst open and a man dressed in the attire of Santa Claus came, saying "Hello everybody, Merry Christmas to all of you !". He was running awkwardly which made me wonder that is he our HR? This guy was followed by our office support staff. This Santa was running from cabin to cabin and workstation to workstation distributing chocolates. We were glad that company "is" giving something apart from salary...

When that guy was gone (He was definitely our HR, and that guy is otherwise very serious), I began to think that in the whole year, lots of festivals and seasons came, but we were never even greeted by anyone so 'formally'. Is this because the company is serving the clients from outside the country and most of the customers are from western countries, that we are supposed to celebrate one particular event so formally?

I come from a city which is not a metro or close to cosmopolitan culture, at least not when I was kid. When I was in school, all I knew was December 25 is a holiday, and Jesus was born on that day and Christmas and Xmas are one and the same thing. I used to wonder what kind of celebration is this? All that I could see was a decorated tree, which we used to refer to as "X for Xmas tree" .There was only one guy in our entire colony outside whose house there used to be a xmas tree decorated on 25th december. It was a nice sight. Though that family was not originally from my home town.

when I came out from my state (Rajasthan) and was introduced to the cosmopolitan India, I saw how much celebration happens on the day of Christmas. It is, but I think, a sign of 'show off'.

I am not against Christmas celebration. Its a festival and we have to celebrate it in the same spirit as we do celebrate other festivals. But India being a conglomeration of several religions and castes, ask yourself, do we celebrate every festival (Lohri/Eid/Baisakhi) with same spirit? 25th December is so extravagantly celebrated because its also a holiday season and close to year end, and can be coupled up with New Year celebration. However, somehow I believe that this behavior is somewhat a hype that we create and that too while not properly respecting a religion. How many of us (non Christians) go to church on Christmas? Do we really try to read and learn about teachings of Jesus on this day?

I remember in good old days, on 25th december Doordarshan used to telecast an English movie (I think used to be dubbed in hindi) on the story of Jesus. We (all kids) used to feel sad watching Jesus being crucified in the end. But what that movies were intended to do was leaving an impact on the kids about teachings of Jesus. That how much pain God takes for mankind, That how much love God has for us. That's the beautiful message of Christmas. And the concept of Santa Claus is an extension to this message. He brings gifts to kids on Christmas. Such a beautiful concept about love and respect towards God.

But while practising our "hype" for such occasions do we really have feeling of spreading this message?

Forget us, our time is gone. And we have already been mould to think in a specific direction. Think about kids. The younger generation, who needs to be taught all good things. Who needs to be believed not in the hype of Santa Claus but the message that Santa Claus' concept brings. I would suggest every kid to watch a movie "Polar Express" on the day of Christmas.

All concepts and rituals related to the Almighty is worth respecting and Christmas is a day to spread love, forgiveness and happiness in the world. If this is the intention of the organizers of events related to Christmas celebration, then hats off to them !

I am eating that chocolate now.... Merry Christmas :)

Change in "State" ?

One of my favorite books in childhood was the Atlas. Yes, I remember whenever I was having any doubt about area or population of any country, I used to sit with my Atlas, which was a very old one. That atlas was published somewhere around 1987. It showed USSR as the largest country of the world. It was only when I read history that I came to know that USSR had long been dissolved in 1990 into 10 independent countries. I used to draw the boundaries of those countries in my age old Atlas. And dissatisfied with that, I created an atlas of my own (yes!) in which political maps of countries were drawn (not on scale, but freehand) and the different flags of countries.


I used to feel very sad while reading about USSR as I thought how bad it was that the largest country of the world was disintegrated. It was later that I realized that USSR was, like our own country, a conglomeration of different ethnic and religious group. It was the demand for "proper recognition" of every group which led to the downfall of the superpower.


In the year 2000, 3 new states were created in India by carving out from some bigger states. The reason was same. "Proper recognition". People supporting Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand believed that they have many cultural differences with Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively. I don't know the real reason but whatever it was, I was happy because creation of these 3 states made Rajasthan the largest state of India, area wise (earlier it was M.P.)


Years passed and after my graduation from Rajasthan, I left Rajasthan and for doing MBA I went to Hyderabad. Hyderabad, so far is the best city I have seen. It is believed that as a student of Management, you are supposed to know a lot.When I started following the local news there I came to know of the demand for "Telangana" region. At that time I was aware that the main reason for this movement is what they called "insufficient/improper representation/recognition of telangana people". Not a big deal, there were such similar demands already popular in various parts of the country, so who cares.


Now let me tell you something I know about this issue, from mythology point of view. In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, there is a separate mention of Telangana and Andhra. The pandava Sahadeva is supposed to have defeated Telinga (Telanagana) and Andhraka (Andhra) tribes during his quest for the Rajasuya Vagya of his elder brother Yudhishthira.But if we consider the epic to be the source of our demands then we would end up with an enormously disintegrated country as we had Jaipur, Alwar and Ajmer(Pushkara) as separate kingdoms that time. In that case We may head for another Kurukshetra war!


But, coming back to Telangana issue.2 years back I came to Karnataka and by now I have a fair idea of the lifestyle of South India and I want to share this with you that I am so proud to be an Indian ! We have so much diversity, so much ethnic varieties. Our diversity is 100 times more complex than that of USSR. Of course disintegration of USSR has no relation to the demands in India. But consequences may be the same.


Recently government approved the creation of Telangana because the leader of Telangana people was on a hunger strike. Student agitation was on run and situation was getting worsen. So our government Okayed Telanga... But that decision received harsh criticism and is followed by similar demands from different states.


The people demanding Telangana or any other state should first look at the outcome of such decision. Bihar was considered backward. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar. Now both Bihar and Jharkhand are considered to be backward states. There is no difference in lifestyles and people living below povery line in Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh. We don't talk about development here. We don't talk about uplifting life standard of people here. What we have done has simply increased the number of states in the country in GK Books and have made more atlas books obsolete. There is a change in state but there is no change in "state" of people. We demand for proper recognition of our ethnic group but we keep forgetting that India is not about separate recognitions, India is about unified representation.

People raising such demands must understand the pain our great leaders like Sardar Patel had gone through to accumulate, unite and strengthen this great country of ours. We already have lots of issues to look at, more important ones, so please don't flood such demands. The mere happiness of a child, after knowing that his state is now area wise the largest, can be sacrificed for greater good.

Power of words (contd.)

I hate, I hate when I dont get time to write for my blog. So many thoughts get pile up in the mind and I dont get sufficient time to jot down. Anyway, I have finally found sometime and here I am writing about some of the songs which I like

(1) Dil dhoondhta hai phir wahi

This song is from the movie Mausam, starring Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore. This is my all time favorite song. Written by Gulzar and sung by Bhupinder Singh and the nightingale Lata Mangeshkar(duet) and Bhupinder Singh(solo), this song is one of the legendary work of Gulzar saab.

Winter/Autumn

Summers

Cold winter

The lyrics of the song

In this song, a man who is so busy that he can hardly find time for himself is feeling nostalgiac and remembering the good old times he used to spend with his beloved. The unique thing is that the song is not about separation caused by cruel world or unsuccesful love story, but the pain of separation is because of the busy-ness of the man. He longes for the days of relaxation. The lyricist try to relate the different scenes showing the mode of relaxation (with his beloved) with beautiful different seasons of the year. This way this song relates with the title of the movie "Mausam" (meaning weather). The man remembers the soothing and beautiful moments with his beloved that he had spent in different seasons, like in summer, autumn, and winter. The lyricist describes the natural beauty and its relaxing effects in a way you would never forget if you listen to this great piece of work.

(2) Putting out fire (Catpeople) David Bowie's famous number "Putting out fire with gasoline" was used in a movie Catpeople long back. Bowie sang a new version of the song for the 1982 remake of the same movie. This recreated song has been used by Quentin Tarantino in his new movie "Inglorious Basterds". Tarantino's movies are known for great music. But in this new flick the only song that caught my attention was this number by David Bowie, may be because I already have this song from the 1982 Catpeople movie. The music and the lyrics both are fascinating and above all the voice of David Bowie. In the movie Catpeople (1982), during the opening credits the theme music from this song is played and that is equally scintillating. I have put both the numbers here. Listen and enjoy.

the opening credits track


the main track

Navadurga: The nine divine forms of Durga

And the Mahishasur mardini form, my favorite, specially the way the Bengalis draw the eyes of Goddess is just awesome.... for me....

In the end a song from an old TV serial of doordarshan directed by Puneet Issar, titled "Jai Mata Di" with Hemaa Malini playing the role of Durga. I have added the names of the 9 forms in this song:

हे माँ तू जग की तारिणी तू सर्वमंगल कारिणी,

तू शुंभ निशुंभ संहारिणी तू सर्व कष्ट निवारिणी

हे महिष दानव मर्दिनी काली है तू ही कपालिनी

हे माँ तू सृष्टि सृजन करे तू ही दानवों का दलन करे

दुर्गा तू ही लक्ष्मी तू ही तू ही सरस्वती का स्वरूप है

कण कण में तू ही समाई है तू ही छाँव है तू ही धूप है

हे शैलपुत्री नमोस्तुते, हे ब्रह्मचरणी नमोस्तुते, हे चन्द्रघण्टा नमोस्तुते

माँ कूष्माण्डा नमोस्तुते, हे स्कन्दमाता नमोस्तुते, कात्यायनी देवी नमोस्तुते

हे कालरात्रि नमोस्तुते, हे महागौरी नमोस्तुते, हे सिद्धिदात्री नमोस्तुते

तू ही आदिशक्ति नमोस्तुते

नमोस्तुते नमोस्तुते नमोस्तुते नमोस्तुते......

Swaraj: a Look at Indian Revolutionaries

Indian Independence Movement witnessed contribution from a number of young revolutionaries. Here I am presenting information about some of them with my hand drawn sketches.(The information is mainly taken from sources like Wikipedia)

1. RAM PRASAD BISMIL:

Pandit Ramprasad was born in the year 1897 at Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His ancestors

hailed from the state of Gwalior. Ram Prasad Bismil joined the revolutionary organization Hindustan Republican Association in his youth.

On August 9, 1925, Bismil, along with nine revolutionary colleagues, executed a meticulousplan for the looting of the government treasury carried in a train at Kakori. He was the mastermind of this famous Kakori Train Robbery. The incident created great upheavel in British India. The retribution was severe when the revolutionaries were caught.

In a long drawn case, Ram prasad, with three of his associates, was sentenced to death.

He was hanged by the British authorities on December 18, 1927 in Gorakhpur.

He also was known for his inspiring poems that acted as motivation for his fellow revolutionaries.

Among them, “Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna” is the most well-known.

2. ROSHAN SINGH:

Thakur Roshan Singh was a great Indian revolutionary.He hailed from Shahjahanpur,

Uttar Pradesh.He belonged to Hindustan Republican Association (HRA ) that was created to carry out revolutionary activities against the British Empire in India.

He participated in Kakori train robbery and was tried and sentenced to death for the same.

He was hanged on 20 Dec 1927 in Allahbad.

3. ASHFAQULLA KHAN:

Ashfaqulla Khan was born in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He was in school when Mahatma Gandhi called the Non-Cooperation Movement.

He was a devout Muslim who befriended Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil and On 9 August 1925 Ashfaqulla, Bismil and 8 others looted the train carrying British government money in Kakori near Lucknow.

All of them were caught but Ashfaq was the only one untraced by the police. He took the help of one of his Pathan friend who in turn betrayed him by informing the police about his whereabouts.

Tasadruk Khan,the then superintendent of police, tried to play the caste politics with Ashfaq and tried to win him over by provoking him against Hinduism but Ashfaq was a strong willed Indian who surprised Tasadruk Khan by saying:

"Khan Sahib, I am quite sure that Hindu India will be much better than British India."

Ashfaqullah Khan was detained in the Faizabad jail.

On Monday, 19th December, 1927, Ashfaqullah Khan is known to have taken two steps at a time, as he walked upto the post. When his chains were released, he reached for the rope and kissed it.

"My hands are not soiled with the murder of man. The charge against me is false. God will give me justice. la ilahi il allah, mohammed ur rasool allah."

The noose came around his neck and the movement lost one of its shining stars.

4. RAJENDRA LAHIRI

Rajendra Lahiri (1892 - December 17, 1927) (also known as Rajendra Nath Lahiri, was a Bengali revolutionary who participated in various revolutionary activities of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association aimed at ousting the British from India.

He was born in village Mohanpur in District Pabna in erstwhile Bengal (now in Bangladesh). His father was Kshitish Mohan Lahiri.

Rajendra Lahiri owned a big estate in Varanasi, but was very active in revolutionary and nationalist activities against the British rule.

He participated in the Dakshineshwar bomb case and was sentenced to jail. He took part in the famous Kakori train robbery on August 9, 1925. He was arrested and tried, along with several other revolutionaries, in the year-long case. He was found guilty and hanged in the Gonda jail on December 17, 1927.

5. DURGA BHABHI

Durga Devi, popularly known as Durga Bhabhi, was wife of professor Bhagvati Charan Vohra. She was a

teacher by profession but actuallly was an active revolutionary.

In a gathering of “Naujawan Bharat Sabha” when Bhagat Singh declared an armed struggle against the British, Durga Bhabhi got up and put a talik of her blood on his forehead and wished him success.

She used to provide the revolutionaries with ammunition and used to hide weapons at her home and would transport them as and when needed.

When Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Chandra Shekhar Azad killed officer Saunders to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai’s death, Durga Bhabhi took the responsibility to take the revolutionaries safely to Calcutta to her husband. She even put the life of her 3 year old son Sachi at stake. All of them were disguised and went to railway station. Bhagat Singh was pretending to be her husband.

She along with Sukhdev shot two english policemen once.

After Bhagat Singh’s arrest she was a member of defense committee for him.

Her husband died while testing for a bomb to help Bhagat escape the prison.

She was later arrested and sentenced for 3 years imprisonment.

After independence, she opened Lucknow Montessory School for poor children in Purana Qila area.

She died at the age of 92 in 1999, and was survived by her son

6. ALLIES OF BHAGAT SINGH (SUKHDEV, RAJAGURU , BATUKESHWAR DUTT)

Sukhdev Thapar born on 15 May 1907 was an active member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association(HRA), being one of its most senior leaders. He was an accomplice of Bhagat Singh and Rajguru in the killing of a British police officer J.P. Saunders in 1928 in order to take revenge for the death of veteran leader Lala Lajpat Rai due to excessive police beating.

All the three were hanged in Lahore Central Jail on March 23,1931.

Shivaram Hari Rajguru was born on August 24, 1908 in Maharashtra and belonged to the Deshastha Brahmin community. He was an aide of Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev in the killing of a British police officer J.P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928 in order to take revenge for the death of veteran leader Lala Lajpat Rai due to excessive police beating. All three were convicted of the crime and hanged on March 23, 1931.

Batukeshwar Dutt was also known as BK Dutta, alias Battu, alias Mohan, was a member of HRA. He met Bhagat Singh in 1924. Working in Kanpur for the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, he knew how to make bombs.

On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Dutt threw a bomb onto the corridors of the assembly and shouted "Inquilab Zindabad!"

This was followed by a shower of leaflets stating that it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.The bomb neither killed nor injured anyone; this was deliberate on their part.

Batukeshwar Dutt was tried in Central Assembly bomb case, he was sentenced in 1929 to life imprisonment. He was deported to the Cellular Jail. He participated in two hunger strikes in Cellular Jail during May 1933 and July 1937. He was repatriated in 1937.

He was released from Bankipur Jail in the year 1938.

He outlived all his comrades and died in July 1965 in Delhi. After his release from prison, he participated in the Quit India movement. But in Independent India he did not receive any recognition. He was cremated near Firozpur in Punjab where the bodies of his comrades Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukh Dev were cremated many years ago.

7. BHAGAT SINGH:

Bhagat Singh was born on 28th September 1907. At age 13, he followed Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement but after Gandhi's withdrawal of the movement, he joined the Young Revolutionary Movement and began advocating a violent movement against the British. He joined the Naujawan Bharat Sabha and later Hindustan Republican Association (HRA). He quickly rose through the ranks of the HRA and became one of its leaders, converting it to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).

When Lala Lajpat Rai led the protest against the Simon Commission in a silent non-violent march in 1928 the police chief Scott ordered a lathi charge and Lalaji was badly injured which resulted in his death. Bhagat Singh vowed to take revenge. He along with Chandarshekhar Azad, Rajguru, Jai Gopal and Sukhdev, tried to kill Scott.But due to mistaken identity, the dept. sup. of police J.P. Sauders was killed. Bhagat Singh quickly left Lahore to escape the police. To avoid recognition, he shaved his beard and cut his hair, a violation of the sacred tenets of Sikhism.

Because of the revolutionaries, the British government enacted the Defence of India Act to give more power to the police. HSRA planned to explode a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly where the ordinance was going to be passed. Though Chandrashekhar Azad did not want Bhagat Singh to carry out the bombing, Bhagat Singh wished to throw the bomb and get arrested to spread his message among masses.

On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb onto the corridors of the assembly and shouted "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution!").This was followed by a shower of leaflets stating that it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.

The bomb did not kill or injure anyone.Singh and Dutt gave themselves up for arrest after the bomb.and both were sentenced to 'Transportation for Life' for the bombing.

Then British came to know of Bhagat's involvement in Saunder's murder. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were charged with the murder. Bhagat Singh decided to use the court as a tool to publicize his cause for the independence of India. While in jail, Bhagat Singh and other prisoners launched a hunger strike advocating for the rights of prisoners and those facing trial which lasted 63 days and ended with the British succumbing to his wishes, he gained much popularity among the common Indians.

On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore with his Rajguru and Sukhdev. Bhagat Singh's death had the effect that he desired and he inspired thousands of youths to assist the remainder of the Indian independence movement. Honored as "Shaheed Bhagat Singh", he is considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement

8. CHANDRASHEKHAR AZAD:

Chandrashekhar Sitaram Tiwari was born on July 23, 1906 in Madhya Pradesh. Also known as Panditji, he was the founder of Garam Dal. He was first among many Indian revolutionaries to use arms in their fight for independence against the British rulers. A devout Brahmin, he believed that it was his "dharma" to fight for others. He also believed that a soldier never relinquishes his weapon.

He was deeply shocked by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919. In 1921, he actively participated in Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation movement. He was arrested and received his first punishment at the age of fifteen for this act of civil disobedience. When the magistrate asked him his name, he said "Azad". For this, he was sentenced to fifteen lashes. With each stroke of the whip, young Chandrasekhar shouted "Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. From that point onwards, he assumed the title of “Azad”.

Azad was attracted by more aggressive and violent revolutionary ideals. He formed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) and was mentor for many revolutionaries including Bhagat Singh. Azad also planned and executed several acts of violence against the Britishers. He was involved in numerous such activities like the Kakori Train Robbery (1926), the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train (1926), the shooting of J. P. Saunders (1928) to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai and the bombing in Central Assembly.

Azad was a master of disguise. He was a brilliant shooter and he used to train other members of his group. He was a terror for the British police. He was on their hit list and the British police badly wanted to capture him dead or alive.

For his part, Azad had also vowed that he would never be arrested by the British police and that he would die a free man.

On February 27, 1931 he was betrayed by an informer and the police surrounded him in Alfred Park, Allahbad and ordered him to surrender. Azad fought alone and was hit on the thigh, but he made the chance of Sukhdev to survive by covering him and killed three policemen. After nearly exhausting his ammunition and foreseeing no means of escape, he shot himself in the head with his last bullet.

Such was the terror and respect of Azad that Indian soldiers who saw him die did not approach his dead body for 20 minutes because of guilt. In his very brief life of less than 25 years, Chandrashekhar Azad became a legend and is still remembered as a revolutionary hero

9. UDHAM SINGH:

Udham Singh aka Sher Singh was born on December 26, 1899 in Punjab.

On April 13, 1919, over twenty thousand unarmed Indians, peacefully assembled in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, to listen to several prominent local leaders speak out against British colonial rule in India. Udham Singh and his mates from the orphanage were serving water to the crowd on a warm summer afternoon. Brigadier-General Dwyer with no warning ordered his troops to open fire, concentrating especially on the areas where the crowd was thickest. More than 1000 innocent men women and children were killed brutally.

The incident had greatly shaken young Udham Singh and proved a turning point in his life. After bathing in the holy sarovar (pool of nectar), Udham Singh took a silent vow and solemn pledge in front of the Golden Temple to wreak a vengeance on the perpetrators of the crime. He plunged into active politics and became a dedicated revolutionary.

He moved from one country to another to achieve his secret objective, aiming ultimately to reach his prey, General Dyer, in London. At various stages in his life, Singh went by many names: Sher Singh, Udham Singh, Udhan Singh, Ude Singh, Uday Singh, Frank Brazil, and Ram Mohammed Singh Azad. He reached Africa in 1920, moving to Nairobi in 1921 and to US in 1924. There he became actively involved with freedom fighters of the Ghadar Party. Singh spent three years in revolutionary activities in the U.S. and organised Overseas Indians for the freedom struggle. He returned to India in July 1927 on orders from Bhagat Singh. He was accompanied by 25 associates from the U.S. and brought a consignment of revolvers.

On 30 August 1927 he was arrested at Amritsar for possession of unlicensed arms and was prosecuted under section 20 of the Arms Act. In the court, Udham Singh stated that he fully intended to send British Imperialists in India to their violent deaths. He was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment. Udham Singh was released from jail on 23 October 1931. He returned to Amritsar. He assumed the name of Mohammed Singh Azad.

He escaped to London in 1934.

On 13 March 1940 a joint meeting of the East India Association and the Royal Central Asian Society was scheduled at Caxton Hall and Dwyer was among the speakers. At the end of the meeting Singh pulled his revolver and fired. Dwyer was hit twice and killed. He also injured Lord Zetland, the Secretary of State for India, Sir Luis Dane and Lord Lamington.

He did not intend to escape. He was arrested on the spot.

While in Police custody, Singh remarked: "Is Zetland dead? He ought to be. I put two into him right there" Then he said: "Only one dead eh'. I thought I could get more. I must have been too slow. There were a lot of women about, you know".

On 31 July 1940, Udham Singh was hanged at Pentonville Prison.

There were lot lot more. Its both fun and exciting to know about such great heroes of our country who thought above caste and religion and fought for one nation. We, youths must take inspiration from these legendary figures. Long Live their glory!!

Fear of the Unknown

In a prgram at a club, seven people are selected in a lucky draw as winners of some special package offer to spend a week holiday in abroad. All of them aboard a private aircraft but in the way, the aircraft encounters some problem and they have to land on a desolated island. When all of them get down from the plane, the pilot leaves them there on the island and flies away. Its then that they realise that they have been tricked. On that island there is a bunglow, in which there is a butler who has been instructed by 'someone' to take care of the guests. These seven unfortunate souls along with one flight attendant (the uninvited guest), end up in that bunglow and they get really scared when they come to know that they have been trapped by 'someone' on that island and that 'someone' wants to kill them one by one.That someone is reffered to as Gumnaam (one without any name) when they start hearing voices of a girl in the woods who sings a song "Gumnaam hai koi" (Someone is there, Unknown...)
This was the plot of 1965 hindi movie "Gumnaam". This movie became a legend and most importantly its title song, which is still one of the most famous songs of Hindi cinema. The genre of GUmnaam was thriller, however, the title song puts it into the genre of horror films as well.
It was I guess the first time when the Indian film makers realized that fear factor can be created by introducing an unknown entity in the story line. This practise is not so strictly followed in Hollywood as well. But as and when this formula was used it has proved successful.

If that is the case then why Ram Gopal Verma's Agyaat failed? This movie deals with a horrifying unknown entity right from the start of horror element in the movie. Why Agyaat failed to leave any impact on the viewers? Ofcourse you cant blame acting as acting is the least important thing in such movies.

Kaun By Ram Gopal Verma

Bhoot By Ram Gopal Verma

Ram Gopal Verma as popularly known as RGV is not an ordinary film maker. He has given lot many exceptionally well made movies like Company, Sarkar, Satya, Shiva, Rangeela, Raat, Kaun, Jungle, etc. and lot many from his production house, RGV Factory, viz. Darna Mana Hai, Road, Vasstu Shastra, etc. He has a grip over crime genre and he has proved his calibre in horror movies as well by films like Raat and Bhoot. Then why his recent experiment in Agyaat failed badly? is it because he has lost it?
His last film "RGV ki Aag" was a pathetic disaster and he himself accepted that it was an over experimentation.

But Agyaat's failure has got nothing to do with RGV ki Aag. His film Agyaat can be more closely associated with his previous film Jungle. The plot of Jungle was also based on "terror in woods" theme but Jungle was a well directed movie packed with some powerful performances.

Lets come to Agyaat. This film tells the story of a film crew which comes for shooting in a desolated woods far away from the city. There, because of some camera failure, the crew is left to spend some time in the jungle, and they decide to go deep into the jungle. That night they see a strange star falling from the sky (its not shown to the viewers) and after that they find themselves lost in the jungle and in continuous threat from an unknown entity who comes from nowhere and drags them one by one into the jaws of death. Nobody could see this killer nor understand its motive. They just know that there is some unknown entity, definitely not human, which is killing them all one by one. In the end only the hero heroine of the movie survive (typical hindi movie formula) and they somehow escape far away from that jungle.

Now there were lots of 'jhols' (loop holes) in the movie which could have been looked into. Okay, you are fascinated by the idea of some unknown 'thing' killing the characters of your story one by one; it seems a great idea. But you have created such an image of the unknown killer that you are not able to show in the end exactly what was that 'thing'? The film ends with the dialogues: "Sab marr gaye" (Everybody is dead)

"Kisne maara?" (Who killed?)

They look back at the jungle and say

"pata nahi" (we dont know)...

and the movie ends...

Thats really irritating. For 1.5 hrs you torture the viewers that something is killing the characters of the story and in the end you dont even show what that thing was?
Anyway, that might also be a kind of experimentation that RGV desired to do. This could also have been a success. In the film they show that the lone survivors, i.e. the lead couple use their "brain" to find out that the "Agyaat" fears water. This idea could have been explored and they could have shown that these people by applying their ideas somehow defeat that "thing" without seeing it. Then it would have been a good movie.Or else atleast they should have shown the reason as to why this thing is killing them all.

I am not aware of any thriller movie which doesnot disclose its suspense in the end. And even if its 'Agyaat', its identity should have been revealed in the end. Here are some really good examples of the movies based on this 'unknown identity' thing:

1. Gumnaam, in the end they found out that killer was one of those 8 people.

2. Stephen King's "IT"; in which a bunch of kids destroy an evil entity which does not have any name. They call it "IT". IT appears before them in the guise of an evil clown which became popular as "Pennywise". These kids destroy this IT not once but twice. This famous novel of Stephen King has been adapted into a successful movie and a very famous Hindi TV Serial "Woh".
3. "The Friday the 13th" series. Its one of the most famous film series based on "terror in the woods" theme. A killer named Jason comes back from the dead and kills some unfortunate youths who come for a vacation in the famous "Camp Crystal Lake".
4. "The Blair Witch Project" In my opinion this is the best movie based on the theme which RGV thought Agyaat is based on. Three students go on an expedition to find out the truth about a mountain known to be haunted by witches. In this film also they never show what was the thing which is terryfying them throughout the movie and in the end everybody die. This is a legendary horror film of Hollywood.

Agyaat seem to be inspired by lots of movies like the above mentioned ones. But even then it fails because RGV forgot the basic rule of horror movies "If something scares you, its not necessary that it'll scare someone else too"

Zodiac Signs

Have you ever thought about the symbol of your sun sign? Each of the twelve zodiac signs has a unique symbol which is used to represent the zodiac। Only Greek mythology has a story associated with every symbol and its stellar constellation. Here I am representing the twelve zodiac constellations along with the stories of their symbols (with my hand made sketches of each) which have origins in Greek Mythology. The sketches I made are not representing any authentication related to the mythological stories, they are solely based on my imagination.

1. ARIES: Phrixos and his sister Helle were twins. They were children of Zeus, the king of Gods. Their step mother Ino hated them. She roasted the seeds of local farmers so th ecrops would not grow. She also bribed the man who was sent to an Oracle by the farmers. The man declared that if Phrixos and Helle are kiled, crops can be saved. Both twins were thrown in the river. But they were rescued by a golden Ram sent by their natural mother Nephele. The golden ram was then made a constellation known as “Aries”.



2. TAURUAS: Europa was a magnificient Phoenician princess. Zeus was enamored of Europa and decided to seduce or ravish her. He transformed himself into a tame white bull and mixed in with her father’s herds. While Europa and her female attendants were gathering flower, she saw the bull, caressed his flanks, and eventually got onto his back. Zeus took that opportunity and rail to the sea and swam, with her on his back, to the island of Crete. He then revealed his true identity, and Europa became the first queen of Crete. The bull form of Zeus was raised to become a constellation known as “Taurus”.




GEMINI: Castor and Pollux were twin sons of Tyndareus and Zeus respectively. The name of their mother was Leda. Pollux was immortal while Castor was mortal. They defeated a famous king Theseus. They were also arch enemies of their cousins Idas and Lynecus (twins). Idas and Lynecus cheated them once by not giving them their share of cattle which they all raided at Areadin. Castor and Pollux took revenge by abducting the cattle of Idas and Lynecus. In the meantime, Paris, prince of Troy kidnapped their sister Helen and this event finally led to the famous Trojan war of Troy. And the two sets of twins fought with each other and Castor was mortally wounded. POllus kiled Lynecus and Zeus killed Idas. Pollux, when given choice by his father Zeus, gev half of his immortality to his dying brother Castor. The brothers became part of the stellar constellation called “Gemini”




CANCER: Hercules was a greek hero, who was given twelve difficult tasks to finish. One of them was to fight with a monstrous Hydra. While Hercules was busy fighting the multi headed Hydra, the goddess Hera, who did not like Hercules sent a crab called “cancer” to distract him. Cancer grabbed onto the hero’s toe with its claws, but barely breaking the rhythm of his great battle with the Hydra. Hercules crushed the crab under his foot. Hera, grateful for the little crustacean’s heroic but pitiful effort, gave it a place in the sky and the crab became a constellation known as “Cancer”




LEO: Out of the twelve difficult tasks assigned to the greek hero Hercules, one was to slay the Nemean Lion and to bring back its skin. Hercules wandered the areas until he came upon the town of Cleonae. While he was looking for the lion, he made arrowsto use against it, not knowing that it was impervious. When he found the lion, he started shooting arrows but the lion would not die. After sometime Hercules made the lion return to his cave. The cave had two entrance one of which Hercules blocked; he then entered the other. Becuase of the fact that the lion’s skin was impenetrable, Hercules was forced to stun the lion with his club, before proceeding to strangle it. He then used lion’s own claws to cut off its pelt. When he returned, the King was shocked. He gave Hercules the lion’s invincible pelt to wear as a cloak. The Nemean Lion was raised to the sky to become a constellation called “Leo”




VIRGO: Astrea was a daughter of Zeus and Themis. She and her mother were both personifications of justice. Astrea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Iron Age, the final stage in the world’s disintegration from the utopion Golden Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation “Virgo”



LIBRA: Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Iron Age, the final stage in the world’s disintegration from the utopian Golden Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven and the scales of justice she carried became the constellation “Libra”, reflected in her symbolic association with Justitia




SCORPIO: Orion was a powerful greek hunter. Goddess Eos invited him to spend the night with her and he happily accepted but later bragged of the conquest and also boasted that he was such a magnificent hunter, that he would exterminate all of the wild beasts of the Earth. Apollo (God of the Sun, who was responsible for guarding herds) persuaded goddess Gaia, to send a giant scorpion with impenetrable armor to sting Orion until the hunter was dead. The scorpion succeeded and was raised to sky to become a constellation “Scorpio”.




SAGITTARIUS: Chiron was a centuar and a skilled bowman। He was intelligent, civilized and kind. He was immortal and known for his knowledge and skill with medicine. He was said to be the last centaur and highly revered as a teacher and tutor. When Hercules went to his friend Pholus’s cave and both of them drank the divine wine, many centuars including Chiron, intoxicated by the smell of the wine, attacked the cave. Hercules shot poisonous arrows at them. Chiron was wounded. Chiron, the master of the healing arts, could not heal himself, so he willingly gave up his immortality. He was honoured with a place in the sky as constellation “Sagittarius”




CAPRICORN: Amalthea was a goat that suckled the infant Zeus after his mother Rhea saved him from being devoured by his father Cronos। The goat's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty. Amalthea was given place in sky as the constellation “Capricorn”




AQUARIUS: Ganymede was a divine hero whose homeland was Troy। He was a Trojan prince। Ganymede was the most handsome among mortals, by reason of which he was abducted by Zeus in the form of an eagle to serve as cupbearer to the gods and as Zeus' beloved. Being associated with the Eagle (Aquila), Ganymede was raised in the sky as constellation “Aquarius”



PISCES: Aphrodite was the greek goddess of love and beauty. Her son Eros is popularly known as the “cupid”. Both mother and son, transformed into fishes, in order to escape the monstrous Typhon when he attacked to destroy Zeus. They tied together with a cord on their tails, to make sure they do not lose one another. This form of the mother and son was raised to sky to become a constellation known as “Pisces”.

Adobe Illustrator: Working with Live Trace and Layers (for novices)

Many people ask me how I draw on Adobe Illustrator? Well I am still very novice in the usage of the softwares, so I usually follow a tedious process, I know there are ways to do things more easily. But now I have got my hands apt at doing it this way. Thought of sharing it with you.
Here I am presenting the procedure I followed to digitize and color a simple sketch originally drawn by blue ball pen, in Adobe Illustrator. This is the original pen sketch, I sketched in my free time in my office.

To tell you the story behind the sketch: There was a prince in Mahabharata named Vasudeva who was married to a royal maiden Devaki. The uncle of Vasudeva, Sini, pleased with the decision of Devaki to marry Vasudeva, placed both of them in his chariot. There was another warrior Somdatta who was competing for the hand of Devaki. He challenged Sini for a fight. Both of them fought and ultimately Somdatta was defeated, and Sini placed foot on his chest and thus disgraced him in public.
So I have drawn these four characters whom I'll color in Illsutrator such that the beauty of original sketch is not gone.

1. Import the original Sketch:Original sketch can be imported by scanning. I have simply clicked a pic of my sketch with digital camera and have copied it to my laptop. Now open Illustrator and import the sketch by going to File> Open. It looks like this.

2.Click on the pic using the cursor tool. You'll be able to see four tabs at the top. Out Of this you can click on two. They are Live Trace and Mask. There are lots of options in Live Trace. You can choose any of the presets. Each preset have a different setting for tracing. I have defined a new presets called Tracing Preset 2. I click on that.

3. These are the options of Tracing Preset 2. You can view this by clicking Tracing Options instead of selecting any presets.This is an important step. Look at the settings in this preset. The mode is black and white that means even if I have made my original sketch by blue ball pen, it will be visible with black outlies.By changing the threshold value you can change the areas of your original sketch to be ncluded in the tracing result. If you want more detailing then choose high threshold value. However, increrasing the threshold value also results in thick black lines in the tracing result. The most important setting is the Trace Setting, where I have chosen Fill and not Stroke. And I have chosen Ignore white option to let the white spaces as it is, so that i can color using brushes.

4. This is the tracing result. Ofcourse I am not happy with this as it have missed many details.

5. Now I have increased threshold value from 91 to 118. Now the sketch is almost fully visible though lines have become thick.

6.I have now made the Layer, Brushes and Color windows visible by going to Windows> Layer,Windows>Brushes.. You can see that the tracing result is on Layer 1.

7.For coloring I'll create another layer called Layer2 beneath Layer1. Here I'll do all the coloring.

8. By clicking on the folder like icon on the bottom left side of the Brushes window, I have imported Artistic > Artistic Calligraphic Brushes.

9. These are different types of Artistic Calligraphic Brushes. The number refers to the roundness of the brushes. The higher the number, the thicker would be the lines.By single clicking on desired brush sizes, I'll import them in the Brushes winow.

10.Clicking on the Strokes window gives the color Picker. It shows different shades. I have chosen one color which I'll use as skin color for Sini.

11. If you see I have chosen a brush with small roundness as I have to color in the face which require leaving out the portion of eyes, beard and mouth, so for careful coloring, I have zoomed the pic (Ctrl++). See the effect of Vectorized image that even when zoomed to 200 %, image doesnt look blurred.

12. Now I'll color using the graphic tablet and pen. you can see that since I am coloring on Layer2, it is not overwriting the traced lines.
This is the way I use graphic tablet

13. Now color in Sini is almost over, and I have changed the brush sizes frequently while coloring. By using thin brushes and choosing dark colors, I have given shading as well

14. Similarly I will color in Somdatta's figure.

15. Now I have to color rest of the people in the sketch and I also want that the colors I have just done shud not be affected. For this, I will create another layer Layer3 beneath Layer2.

16. Here I will color the chariot and the figures of Devaki and Vasudeva.

17. Now to color rest of the sketch, the people in background and sky and ground, I will create yet another layer below Layer3. Its Layer4.

18.Now, oops I have forgetten that the fight between Sini and Somdatta is over so both of them should be bleeding. Now I cannot add the wound colors on them while I am working on Layer4. So I will go back to Layer2 and with a very narrow brush I will create blood marks on the bodies of Sini and Somdatta.

19. Now I have to add text to the image. For this I have to go to Layer1. And By clicking on "T" icon, I can enter the text. Here I have used "Baraha Direct" software to type in Hindi.

20. Now the pic is ready. I can now exprt it using File>Export and choosing the output format as JPEG. It will then ask for what quality image you want? Low, Medium, High ? All this has to do with the resolution. I choose medium quality as High quality JPEG takes a lot of time to export and lot of space in memory also.
The output pic looks like this.

Another way is not to use Tracing option at all. Use instead the original sketch as a template layer and manually trace the outlines using a brush. This is more common and popular method. An exmple of the same: