The world admires Amitabh Bachchan for many a things apart from his movies; the blend of his diplomacy being one among that virtuous list. He has had a sizable fan-following despite his fallen off box-office value post 1990, and they belong to all faiths, classes, languages, political idioms and nationalities. And while keeping this diverse fan-following content with his diplomatic grandeur, he has also had many face offs with the media about his public conduct. Much has been reported about his thriving relationships with as contrasting public figures as Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh on one hand, and Bal Thackeray on the other.

The pseudo-secularist focus of targeting anyone that may be trying to approve Modi’s governance has started to shift towards Bachchan as well now, after the latter’s open endorsement of his administrative caliber. Some of his own fans have been hurt badly due to his alliance with Modi. Bachchan has taken the usual diplomatic route to counter this situation. But, it gives enough scope for both the anti and pro-Modi posters to start shooting off their mouths and keep his blog moderators overtly busy. I couldn’t stop myself either from posting the following comment, which I shall share with my fellow Modi supporters now.

Haven’t been to your blog for a while, but I knew the Modi affair would not allow you settle down in the near future. And the reasons of it are amply clear. Modi evokes two contrasting emotions in India. Those who wish to see India as a strong and blooming country, to get rid of its “ifs and buts”, to get rid of its inefficiencies, strongly support Modi. While those willing to milk India’s corrupt and sluggish nature and wish the status quo being maintained, would always strongly oppose Modi. Because “Modi means the right change in the right direction” in a simple sentence.

How ironic, that those unwilling to debate communalism in its entirety accuse Modi of the same crime they have committed for generations now! They start debating the 2002 events from Feb 28, the day riots broke out and not from Feb 27, because if started a day earlier, they may have to explain the dynamics of the Muslim communalism that was the cause behind the Godhra train carnage and its political patronage from the so-called mainstream secular outfits.

In my teenage-hood days in the 80s, when the BJP in Ahmedabad used to be confined to a two square kilometer area only, and the Congress used to call shots allover Gujarat, Hindus had no peace in those days either. There was a family of seven Hindus burnt alive in a Muslim strong hold. Agitated Hindus responded by torching up six Muslims in yet another area. Mumbai’s top cop Julio Ribeiro had to be called in, but he couldn’t control the repeated stabbings by Muslim goons for weeks on. He then threatened to bring in tanks if the violence did not subside quickly.

The ruling Congress was known to support the city’s Muslim mafia in those days, who were additionally, part of Dawood’s extended network. A goon named Alamzeb was known to pay 20K rupees to any Muslim stabbing and killing any Hindu. Somebody killed their fellow Muslim and the money had to be paid to the victim’s family, Muslims used to openly brag of such flawed heroics in those days.

On his own part, P Chidambaram, who was part of Rajiv Gandhi’s ministry and once happened to visit Ahmedabad with Gandhi during another similar strife, had openly accused the Muslims of having supported the Muslim underworld and harmed the city’s peace in that course. A bootlegger called Abdul Latif had been elected from five Muslim dominated AMC wards in those days, while carrying out his jail term. He was latter photographed shooting dead a PSI during another riot, but always evaded arrest due to his “secular” contacts in Gujarat Congress.  He was finally gunned down by Shankar Sinh Vaghela’s cops in the 90s in yet another fake encounter, but nobody, not even the media questioned it with the Congress being Vaghela’s alliance partner.

Those residing in Gujarat have known why things finally boiled up after the brazen carnage in Godhra. Both the sides were blood-thirsty demons that targeted only innocents, but they both were and not just the post-Godhra rioters. Let there be no doubt, that the things would not have been any different without Modi. The Gujarat electorate understands this simple truth without any tinge of doubt and hence has voted back Modi as their CM twice. He is widely known to be an incorruptible, workaholic and impartial administrator throughout Gujarat. Those trying to pick up only the negative half of the 2002 story are finally getting exposed with more and more people acknowledging Modi’s true caliber outside Gujarat.

(The author, a North Indian and who as a first time voter had voted for Rajiv Gandhi in the late 80s, was brought up in Ahmedabad since 1972 and knows a great deal of Gujarat’s transformation from a Congress stronghold in the 1980s to a BJP bastion in the new millennium.)

And here is a list of Madan Mohan songs by several singers, including some duets by Lata Tai. Also, click here to go to the official Madan Mohan website to surf more about him.

• Ab Agar Hum Se (Rafi-Lata)
• Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan (Rafi)
• Aye Dil Mujhe Bata De (Geeta Dutt)
• Baad Muddat Ke Ye Ghadi (Rafi)
• Barbad E Mohabbat (Rafi)
• Bhor Aayi Gaya Andhera (Manna Dey and others)
• Chirag Dil Ka Jalao (Rafi)
• Dil Dhoodhta Hai (Bhupinder)
• Ek Haseen Sham Ko (Rafi)
• Han Yeh Mana Meri Jaan (Rafi-Balbir)
• Har Koi Chahta Hai Ek Mutthi Aasman (Kishore)
• Har Taraf Ab Yehi (Manna Dey)
• Hindustan Ki Kasam (Rafi, Manna Dey & Chorus)
• Hoke Majboor Mujhe (Bhupinder, Manna Dey, Mohd Rafi, Talat Mahmood)
• Hoke Mayus Tere Dar Se (Ambar Kumar, Mohd Rafi, Shankar Shambhu)
• Hum Chal Rahe The (Mukesh)
• Hum Se Aaya Na Gaya (Talat)
• Is Reshmi Paazeb (Lata-Rafi)
• Kaun Aaya Mere Man Ke Dware (Manna Dey)
• Likh Kar Tera (Lata-Rafi)
• Mai Ri Main Kase Kahoon (Lata & ??)
• Mera Naam Abdul Rehman (Kishore-Lata)
• Mere Ishq Mein (Asha)
• Phir Wohi Sham Wohi Gham (Talat)
• Pyar Kabhi Kam (Kishore-Lata)
• Saba Se Yeh Kah Do (Asha)
• Seekhlo Seekhlo (Kishore-Asha-Usha Mangeshkar)
• Shokh Nazar Ki Bijiliyan (Asha)
• Tere Dar Pe Aaya Hoon (Rafi)
• Tere Kooche Mein (Rafi)
• Teri Aankh Ke Ansoon (Talat)
• Teri Aankhon Ke Siva (Rafi)
• Teri Nigahon Mein (Talat-Asha)
• Tum Bin Jeevan (Manna Dey)
• Tum Chal Rahe Ho Hum (Lata-Mukesh)
• Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho (Rafi)
• Yeh Deewane Ki Zid Hai (Rafi)
• Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil (Rafi)
• Zameen Se Hamen Aasman Par (Rafi-Asha)
• Zaroorat Hai Zaroorat Hai (Kishore)
• Jhumka Gira Re (Asha)

One of my priorities before I started blogging in Oct 2007 was to list all popular Kishore Kumar songs in my blog. Soon I deviated into Rafi, Lata, Asha and Mukesh genres as well. However, the endless hours spent on researching these song tracks has also made me appreciate composers and lyricists, and inspired to blog about them as well.

While trying to compile Lata Mangeshkar song lists, I came to know about the contribution Madan Mohan played in a large number of them. There is something special about their mutual effort. Madan Mohan, who basically wanted to act in Hindi movies, and who strangely had no Filmfare awards to showcase by the time he bid adieu to this world, enjoyed a great fusion of minds in Lata Tai. Pick any song by the duo, even the least played ones, and you might immediately be swayed by its enchanting romance, moods of dejection and refinement. Both had a great expertise in highlighting the female protagonist of the Hindi movies through Ghazals.

I was looking for Gujarati folk and movie songs and Bhajans on youtube and came up with the following list. This also includes three songs by Kishoreda that I was so keen to have listed in my weblog.

Gujarati Folk And Movie Songs

Ke Odhani Odhu Odhu Ne

Maro Sona No Ghadulo Re

Hoo Amdavad No Rickshaa Walo – Kishore Kumar

Chalto Rehjey – Kishore Kumar

Mumbai nee Kamaani – Kishore Kumar

Kon Halave Limbdi

Pardesi Maniyaro

Gujarati Folk Music And Bhajans

Pankhida O Pankhida

Raakh Na Ramakada

Patay Raja No Garbo

Ek Taro Series

Gujarat has been witnessing a  fair deal of growth in medical tourism in the recent years. Bulk of this clientèle has been received by Ahmedabad, where the quality of healthcare has broken new barriers in the last two decades. The ever expanding demand for advanced treatment from within and outside Gujarat has ensured that many state-of-the-art healthcare facilities were conceived in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the same period. Ahmedabad has had three major state run hospitals until the mid 90s. This included Civil Hospital, Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital and LG Municipal General Hospital. However, several major facilities were launched by private operators in the ensuing years, thus providing a great fillip to healthcare and medical tourism in Ahmedabad and Gujarat as a whole.

Following is an overview of key Ahmedabad hospitals and clinics, sourced mainly from online resources.

Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai General Hospital

Second largest state run hospital in Ahmedabad. “A multi-specialist and multi-activity” facility for healthcare and  ”a teaching Institute,” suggests the hospital’s own website.

Civil Hospital Ahmedabad

This state run facility is not only Ahmedabad’s but also Asia’s largest in nature. The hospital provides specialized diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative patient care at affordable cost. With an infrastructure spread over 110 acres (0.45 km2) of land, Ahmedabad Civil hospital has several affiliate hospitals and medical institutes adding to its impressive profile.

L G Municipal General Hospital

The third largest state run hospital in Ahmedabad. Unfortunately, no information available online.

Situated at Maninagar, Ahmedabad.

Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad

Part of Apollo Hospitals, the largest private healthcare network outside the USA. A 400-bed quaternary care facility at the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

SAL Hospital And Medical Institute

Another multi-specialty hospital in Ahmedabad, being overseen by private sector. The hospital consists of 300 beds and 12 operation theaters, which include 75 beds for ICU care and 4 theaters for cardiac surgery. It offers healthcare for five major chronic diseases, viz. heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, and carries out nearly 1500 open heart surgeries, 7500 Cathlab procedures, 100 renal transplants and 3000 major surgeries in other specialities every year.

KRISHNA Heart & Super Specialty Institute

Started in 2000 as a high-end medical facility for cardiac care, Krishna Heart And Super Specialty Institute today caters to other highly specialized areas of medical care, such as Joint Replacement Surgery for Hip and Knees, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Onco Surgery and Minimally Invasive Surgeries. The institute offers all types of cardiac care, including Angiographies, Angioplasties, Cardiac Arterial By-pass Graft surgeries (“Open-heart” or “By-pass” surgeries).

Sterling Hospital, Ahmedabad

Shalby Hospitals

Provides world class health-care facilities to patients from allover the world. Well known for its joint replacement treatment, 16000 TKR (Total Knee Replacement) conducted from 1995 till date.

Samved Hospital (Urology Division)

Samved Orthopaedic Institute

The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute

Shardaben General Hospital

Bapunagar General Hospital

Rajasthan Hospital

Dr Jivraj Mehta Hospital

Medilink Hospital

Sushrusha Hospital Ahmedabad

Prathama Blood Centre

X-RAY HOUSE

Shreeji Orthopaedic And ENT Hospital

Dental Hospital

Sheth Hospital And Maternity Home

The Heart Care Clinic

Life Care Emergency Hospital

Karnavati Hospital

(List to be updated soon)

When Shashi Tharoor made the “holy cow” tweet last month, thus prompting calls for his resignation from within his own party, the common man, including this author, did not understand the reasoning behind such hoopla. In fact, I’ve long been registered on Twitter.com myself, but never did I see any point in continuing to tweet on for my own communication needs or thought it should be important for others too. The 140 character limit hinders your desire to communicate effectively (that’s why it is called twitter, anyway). So, how did Tharoor’s passing comment make such a major impact, one wondered at that time.

To understand this new phenomenon about Twitter.com, I recently started tweeting regularly myself, and how surprised I have been to find the transformation this service has gone through in the last two years. The transformation that one can see through the skyrocketing user-base, the massive load of traffic twitter receives and the overall content, moods and trends being shared by its users. The first thing I did after rejoining twitter was to look out for Indian journos and cine actors, which brought me back with some interesting observations. This post is an account of the same observations I made about tweeples (twitter members), including celebs and journos, and it also highlights how useful or not tweeting can be for you. Didn’t they have Yahoo or Windows live messenger before starting to tweet? So, what was the point in developing this new platform? Let us find out the reasons of it below.

The most inviting aspect about twitter is, it makes almost all of its published content accessible. A majority of conversations can be read and reacted upon to by anyone. However, this still shall not guarantee your participation into any conversation. You won’t be able to ask  other tweeples for attention at your own will. For example, you can follow, read and respond to any tweeple, say A, B or C with extensive readership (or following), but they wouldn’t respond or accept an invitation by you to follow you, unless they found your tweets worth noticing in that crowd. The rules of engagement shall be more conducive though, for tweeples of similar professional, cultural and social backgrounds, similar followings and similar intellectual leanings.

Points you should know before starting to tweet:

- Search out for some famous names. Look out the tweeples they follow to extend your search.

- Now concentrate on tweeples following these famous names and look out for like-minded friends. Start following and request to reciprocate, if you like.

- Do not expect others to start following you, or feel hesitant about refusing some others.

- The best thing about twitter is nobody can send you direct messages, unless you started following them.

- Nothing much can be done about spamming on twitter though, as usual. Some of these spammers might prove useful, so allow them to co-exist.

Some familiar scribes and tweeples to watch out for:

Tarun Vijay

An author and journalist from Sangh’s background. Currently working as the director of the DSMRF (Dr. Syamaprasad Mookerjee Research Foundation). He tweets rarely and when does so provides mostly links to his own articles in the media.

http://twitter.com/Tarunvijay

Kanchan Gupta

A journalist of right-centrist leanings, now working as the Associate Editor of the Pioneer. Tweets heavily while into his office, and comes out as a rare right-centrist opinion from the mainstream media.

http://twitter.com/KanchanGupta

Offstumped (Nickname)

He ain’t a journo, but could be found putting across the right-centrist vision within his own fold and to the pseudo-secularist media.

http://twitter.com/offstumped

Prabhu Chawla

A senior journalist and the Editor of The India Today right now. Tweets rarely, which is understandable keeping in mind his first preference The India Today to answer his readers.

I followed him solely for his past equations with Kishoreda, but soon became hell bored. He is nothing but the usual pseudo-intellectual voice. The same kind of opinion I had to stop reading the TOI to save myself from. In this case, I “unfollowed” Nandy as well.

http://twitter.com/PritishNandy

N Ram

Tweets occasionally and generally keeps it to his profession and work.

http://twitter.com/nramind

Burkha Dutt

She has a large following and tweets regularly when not programming, like her other counterparts in the media. She talks the usual pro-UPA and the anti-BJP stuff.

http://twitter.com/BDUTT

Rajdeep Sardesai

Owns a large number of readership and tweets regularly and the usual pro-UPA and the anti-BJP stuff.

http://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep

Sagarika Ghose

Even though, she is part of the anti-BJP troika on TV with B Dutt and R Sardesai leading the charge, she is still not as stronger in her arguments as the other two and hence gets bombarded with pro-BJP tweets.

http://twitter.com/sagarikaghose

Mahesh Bhatt

I occasionally read him to laugh out at pseudo-intellectualism. He often keeps on complaining about the state oppression, and questioning the righteousness of those opposing him, which is hilarious, keeping in mind his own arrogance.

http://twitter.com/maheshNBhatt

And a shortened list of the movie-wallahs (the oldies are missing, obviously). You can follow the rest from there on. Unlike the journos, for whom tweeting is part of their jobs often resulting into verbal blows, the celebs mostly tweet in a symbolic manner to keep fan-flocks engaged. Usually, they get a massive amount of uninteresting messages, asking mostly for a hello, and therefore can not be expected to tweet any better either. Many of them (and non-celebs as well) have seemingly started tweeting only recently,  just out of curiosity.

http://twitter.com/kjohar25

http://twitter.com/AnupamPkher

http://twitter.com/Riteishd

http://twitter.com/juniorbachchan

http://twitter.com/priyankachopra

http://twitter.com/realpreityzinta

http://twitter.com/Lisaraniray

Shashi Tharoor

And finally, one of the most popular, most hyped and yet most boring Indians of them all.

http://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor

Ironically, the lesser mortals make better use of twitter as compared to more powerful ones. A row broke out recently, after the British actor and author Stephen Fry was criticized by one tweeple from Birmingham. The latter was flooded with sever criticism and abuses as the news spread out among the Stephen Fry fans. I’d like to add here though, the more knowledgeable ones often fail to impress you on twitter, may be partially due to the 140 character limit and partially because of the high expectations we might have of them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/technology/02twitter.html?_r=2

The festival of light Diwali (or Dipavali/ Deepavali) has been observed across India and elsewhere with the usual gaiety it is known for. Occasionally, astrological stars play gimmicks with the beginning of the new year, and it occurred this time as well.

The new year of Gujarat, that normally gets observed a day after Diwali was held back this time. It finally began with Bhaidooj today.

I’ve so far loved Diwali like everyone else does, but have also since the last decade or so started disliking the amount of noise that the powerful firecrackers generate. This tendency began showing up more so, since I started meditating. I think, Indians have a lack of cohesiveness and indiscipline in their public life, which gets exposed during such public displays. The responsibility of evading firecrackers in Diwali lies solely on your shoulders therefore, and not the other way round. Watch out for, jump or duck due to them, but never do try complaining.

Diwali Candles 1

Often parents can be seen giggling around when their wards will go on rampage. The occasion becomes a license for bursting the loudest of firecrackers next to thy neighbor’s boundary wall, and not to yours own. It becomes the responsibility of those taking care of the elderlies and the critically ill, to be on their toes, or else go to hell!

Sadly enough, the nature within the urban expanse also gets traumatized due to this human misbehavior. The cuckoo living within the tree branches next to my window went silent this morning as firecrackers began going off at a frenetic pace. She normally starts with her morning Jazz just after the first twilight rays had arisen over the eastern horizon. The firecrackers terrorized and delayed her morning Riyaaz by half an hour. One can just imagine what these silent sufferers might be going through!

One can find the same incivility taking place during some other festivals as well. Some joyous folks will always overlook the midnight ban on loud speakers and make the neighboring colonies suffer throughout Navaratri. I’ve always personally found Diwali more charming, when observed as a festival of light, and tried to light a few candles myself to celebrate the occasion. At the same time, kids lighting unharmful fireworks is also a joyous sight to wish for. But, how often do we get to see such harmonious Diwalis? Instead, firecrackers with several times more than the allowed sound limit, and foolhardy ways to handle them becomes the norm of the day.

This display of rudeness in public life is indicative of the suppressed desires most eastern societies have in them. The hidden, stirring lava finds its way out one or the other way round. But, more about this later. Should stop complaining for now, lest people began calling me names. In any case, my opinion should not find many takers in a world that was full of Diwali firecrackers. So, it does not matter whether I find it the right way to celebrate Diwali or not.

Diwali Candles 2

This is first in a series of articles about Sholay, to be published here.

If you have watched Indian movies for long enough, you must have noticed the amount of belief Indian producers do have in fate. They roll out movies without any ground work, yet hope for gala box-office returns at the same time. They believe in targeting the jackpot blindfolded. Their ideas can be described at best as ill-conceived, scripts poorly written and their movie-making shoddy in nature.

What they normally seem to follow is, formula movie-making, where they have the liberty (rather compulsion) of adding as many emotional and dramatic twists in stories as they might wish to (stories that are stale as hell, anyway) and stuff in violent reprisals and half nude song items. There is no reason why such movies should be appreciated at the box-office. An industry that has not been successful in producing anything close to the Sholay cult since 1975, should seriously examine its reasons and try improving its craft.

Sholay Was No Accident

Contrary to what most Indian movie makers might seem to believe, Sholay was no one-time accident. Each scene, each action, each character, each song, the background music score, camera work and the flow and continuity of the whole movie spoke of dedicated efforts. It spoke of the time, energy and planning gone into making that epic. It also brought out some of the best performances seen in Indian movies ever, that of movie production, script writing, movie direction, music composition and the actors, a whole lot of them at their prime and in their best elements.

So, what made RGV (Ram Gopal Verma) think he could produce anything akin to Sholay? He is among the top Bollywood directors today, no doubt, but he also recently admitted how much speedily he makes those movies. How can he then think of producing a masterpiece like Sholay in four months (symbolic expression, am not considering the actual time taken for RGV’s AAG)? How can a movie-wallahs that loves announcing his next two movies beforehand, while still working on his ongoing project could think of reproducing Sholay? I never saw “Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag”, but had known its fate from the day it was announced.

I should stop now, and be back with more on this subject in the near future. Will try making a series of posts about Sholay in the next round.

PS – Btw, examine the interest taken by non-Indians in Sholay here.

I recently noticed my AdSense revenue drop by several notches, without having altered either my blog’s layout or its content, neither was Googlebot prevented by robots.txt from surfing my pages. It would be worth mentioning that even on its best days, the AdSense money I earn is peanuts by usual standards. In fact, the Chitika ad that I run also along with AdSense gives me a much better CTR and eCPM with fewer clicks form its US market.

So, what could have been the reason for this steep decline in my ad money? Well, it sounds a hoard of Indian festivals and the subsequent Chmpion’s League T20 cricket were to be blamed here. The keywords I use are no big earners anyway…kishore kumar songs, rafi songs, rafi vs kishore, lata kishore songs, gujarati songs, praful dave, maniraj barot, sanedo, mihir bose and several variants of osho rajneesh are some of the major keywords used for hitting my pages. I’ve also tried writing about finance and travel, but without much headway, since I do not have the necessary expertise and material to manage it right now.

This sudden fall in ad revenue showed me the significance of right keywords and the trends going on in AdWords. Obviously, advertisers have decided to bet on sports blogs, sports websites and portals with cricket news for a while, and the fall in my CTR justifies their decision as well, since the surfing focus has obviously shifted towards the Champions League for the moment.