Dance, Dancing, etc

On 3^rd November I saw a dance programme TV channel. The background was quite good. But at first I was amazed by the anchor, what a change? I was not able to recognise Smt Arshiya initially, I was watching her after a gap of almost 20 years. At home in black and white TV (UPTRON) she used anchor the national programme of dance on Sundays. But I saw her at the triveni in Delhi, when a festival called as VIDESHI Kalakar utsav was organised and also various other programme used to be performed in that MANDI HOUSE campus, housing not only TRIVENI but also the KAMANI, BHARTI, so many others. At one programme a dancer from HUNGARY was performing and I was siting on the stairs of TRIVENI, there I saw her also among the audience. It was way back in 1992 or 1993 around that time. So almost gap of 20 years was there. Then once the camera also paned and guru Munnalal Shukla was visible. I had met him at the Kathak Kendra, when I used to visit kathak Kendra almost everyday, in search of my god Pt BIRJU MAHARAJ. Those days his room was I think on ground floor. The main office used to be on first floor. Just next to the staircase was the gallery that lead to the door of his room. I used to roam around that door, in hope that atleast once I could catch hold of his darshan. Lots of many used to visit him there but mostly the students. Those times once he also served as director of kathak Kendra. I had once an opportunity of watching the HOLI choreographed by him. That was performed in the lawns of kathak Kendra, since national school of drama was also there in same campus, and on the ground floor the CCRRT, was housed. Puppet workshops and similar activities used to go on in this campus. And given my kind of MIND I used be there as a WANDERER. Most innovative dance sequence was there in HOLI, the dancers were throwing the colors from the first floor on persons sitting on groundfloor. Whole concept was very good. The regular item in HOLI the DAPli item was also there. But Shri Munna Shukla ji never tested me nor shown any interest in teaching, He could have asked me to perform something or he could have said you come in my school on such and such day and time I will take an examination and if you pass I will admit you. But alas I could not impress him, My appearance must not have impress him, I come from very poor background I could not afford very good quality of cloths, perfume or car etc so.

The dancer was Smt Nisha Mahajan. I have never had seen earlier nor I knew anything about the dance 20 years back. But the costume told that the dancer was from conservative school, since the mughal court attire was used in performing the kathak bols etc and the dress usually is worn while performing the tarana, however nowdays dancers have started innovating in the costumes also. I was impressed by the persona of Smt veena shroff. Many used to talk about her as the collector of accessories of hair dressing. And the kathak Kendra students have changed the attire fashion also.

Doordarshan should enhance time and quality of dance and music programmes so that new generation gets exposure to our national heritage and that too having a quality.

 

 

Panchayati raj

Anna Hazare ji has raised the voice of panchayati swaraj also from the platform of Ramlila grounds. in midst of lokpal bill movement many issues have been raised, while on one hand people at different forum themselves are linking many issues to this lokpal bil, on the othere hand Anna ji has also linked issues. One most important issue is the Strenghtening of panchayati Raj Institutions. Powers and duties of a gram panchayat. This has been in the core. But Lok pal bill must also contain all aspects of corruption from village level to the national level. Anna ji has made or if I may say so he has nursed a village, and brought that village to this level. It is due to him and his dedication that with the involvement of villagers that village has developed so far. Many people dont know, what he has done. But he has done what nobody could do in these so many years after independence. Since independence no movement has awakened or kindled so much interest and brought people of this country together. They are now united standing agianst this DEVIL of corruption. Those who are afraid of this are trying to divide this mass movement. From J&K to Guwahati, from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu everybody is with Anna Hazare. Who else has done this before??.  He has created a history. At least now everybody is aware of the core issues facing our nation. That is called democracy, each citizen is awakened and trying to do introspection, and trying to see, think, listen, and stand united in anyway they can. Now the DEBATE has begun in the actual form or shape. This is a kind of debate. ALl the issues are now in public domain. This is named a public debate. And if at this point of time govt may decide to have voting on lokpal bill and decide to amend the bill. Some people are saying that 153 amendements were brought to reach this level of RTI, IS this a good achivement that you have brought so MANY amendements. That means the thing which was brought to the parliament was not complete or good enough, so why to waste time and do exercise beforehand and bring a nice draft, what is the need of amendement and SO MANY amendements, they give numbers with wide open EYES and say that look there were 153 amendements. why to waste precious time of our parliament.CANT YOU REDUCE THE NUMBERS OF AMENDMENTS, AND PASS A NICE DRAFTED BILL. Let a nice darft be placed before parliament

Anna Hazare- He has seen the worst and has done the BEST

Anna Hazare is not something to be writenoff so easily. It is a movement which has gained momentum over many years in post independence ERA. lot of debate is going on in media particularly media

houses backed by special & privileged elite. In PRE- RTI ERA they were the watchMAN of wrong doings of governance and everybody. If they get any type of benefit they used to hide the facts and choose not to publish that. If they were unable to get FREE-Priviledges then they used to publish bad news and then only public used to know what has had happend or went wrong. POST RTI era it is not so. POST 1982, media bloom ttook place. And we have seen not only the Anna Hazare but many such things happening in glare of media. Gaziabad was in news, Delhi night scenes were there, acquisition of land and aftermath, struggle led by a new promising leader-IN-MAKING happened in west UP, a group of villagers met the PM in glare of media, National rallies of many parties were given coverage. Encounters we saw at border areas, we saw Terrorist attack in Mumbai, the most famous episode was the PRINCE who was rescued from a borewell, even politician grabbed the opportunity that time and list is endless. 

Famous media characters who have become media barrons now, LOBBYIST-lobby, all of them have grownup in front of us only. We saw all of them growing through the media. They must praise media, but cannot writeoff Anna Hazare movement, as media created. One lady from Mumbai, a writer, whose audience is only METROsexual claims that this is just something which can be and should be ignored. It is perfectly alright for her to say since she is not something which India resembles, India is much bigger than that she and like her do not matter for India. They are "minuscule population" just few, countable and only English knowing population. And we know how many people know English in India. May b 5% or how much?? Few media houses asked "team anna" [as they have been termed as by media?] that who gave you Authority to standup for India?. You are not getting support of 120 crores of people. Before asking such question from Anna Hazare ji they forgot who themselves they are? Who gave authority to these media houses to ask questions? and that too from Anna Hazare? What percentage of population out of 120 crores is with these media houses. MINISCULE is the answer. Where ever you see now in all channels on TV there are so called ELITE who grab the opportunity and utter something or the other.  Why the govt does not have a strong lokpal rule after so many years of independence. Where were all these intellectuals and media then?

Anna Hazare is from village. He has seen the worst and has done the BEST, than anybody else can do.

He is hope for crores of people, the COMMON MAN of India, who lives in Rural India  not just middle class. As many people are trying to paint his movement as such. Before saying they must do introspection. what they have done for country, their community, their society- what is their contribution?

Anna Hazare has said that before anything one must have the pure thoughts, pure "Aachar" आचार विचार  there is no translation in English for this. Action and behavior etc can be replaced and added. One must be NISHKALANK निष्कलंक  means must have a spotless Character/life, then only this movement be true in spirit.  This movement is historical. and has become a world history event. do what may no body can write if off. this is just like second SATYAGHRA  सत्याग्रह  on the lines of beloved BAPPU ji. completely non violent. This will become a role model for all the counrties, they are looking at us. We must grow up and try to resist spontaneous reactions. GRAM SWARAJ ग्राम स्वराज is linked herewith.  He after retiring from Armed Forces settled in his village. First of all he targeted the drinking habit. With his image of Ex-serviceman, he gathered few villagers, who became his close associates. Together they forced to close those illicit/illegal alcohol selling shops in village. With this many homes were saved. Few young or youth also volunteered in his works. What his works are. opening school, making education must for all children girls and boys both. with community work making roads/paths, temple, school yard, Gardening, Ponds. Water body management.  Thus making structures for Rainwater Harvesting. All these efforts were initiated by Anna Hazare himself. In these works he took help of all villagers, All villagers helped him since they knew or had trust in him that whatever he is doing is for betterment of this village and good for villagers. Just like Guru Rabindra Nath Tagore, Anna Hazare established or transformed his village into an Ashram kind of place where all people lived and worked together. That was the original idea behind the Gram Panchayat or Gram Swaraj. From there Panchayat movement gained momentum. Panchayat got powers, many powers are now have been delegated through 73rd or 74th amendments in constitution. Thus he can be considered as a pioneer for Gram Swaraj ग्राम स्वराज. He has now become a towering figure just like nay historic figure of folklores. What for he is fighting? he is doing all things for betterment of his village and its people. Once a time he used to punish villagers, but villagers had faith in him. So he succeeded in changing lives fo villagers. Our villagers are very innocent an simple people. 

Those who say that it is a middle class movement are ignorant about the problem. It is we who face the problem of corruption all our life. Those sitting on news channel don't know and are not aware of the problems we face. it is their culture to be in one lobby or the other and work for corporate, which do not goes with true ethos of Indian thought of swaraj. There was hue and cry recently when tapes were leaked in media about the lobby business. Those who are at that level never face corruption since it is inbuilt with their working. We face the brunt of this corruption,

The widow pension scheme is implemented. Nobody knows how many widows do get their due pension and that too IN-TIME, I know that they spent more than half for just in transportation and rest goes in the pocket of the BABU. same story is with family pension, OLD AGE or senior citizen pension scheme, there is no data, but only we have the personal experience to tell as to how we face the difficulty. My father is an Ex-Serviceman, has to face similar kind of thing when he wanted to get his pension. My grandmother also got family pension after fighting. She almost forgot when for the last time she got any pension. After so much travelling & fighting in Excise department, travelling in Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Kanpur etc offices we got her pension restored. Lots of things more to just get the benefit, that too at the fag end of her life. 

When I went to university employment bureau for registration, the babu straightaway demanded that do something for my tea etc. meas straightaway he demanded money from me for just registering my name in the employment bureau. 

God knows how many students from rural areas suffered at that employment bureau. But thing is we were not aware enough so that we could lodge complain, and I did not Know where to lodge such complain?

yesterday Kiran Bedi ji said that Now at least we can hope we can DIAL 101 for complain against corruption. I faced corruption in revaluation of answer books at BSc. I saw for my self that how few students got good numbers whereas I had to suffer since i did not have backup from family. that also means the MONEY.

Lets hope this movement help us in formulating a good lokpall bill, so that it can be a deterrent for corruption. Long live Anna Hazare ji

Food, culture, Health, Science etcectra

Not many know that our kitchen has been the oldest experimental laboratory of science. Mostly Chemical experiments, lest people start thinking otherwise.
The kitchen at Lord Jagannath temple PURI, ODISSA is one of the oldest known kitchen. I wonder why not geologist or archeologist have ever tried to find out the exact age of that kitchen, where it is believed that for the last 1000 years MahaBhog must have been cooked. I would like to add here that the KALINGA kingdom is said to be remained UNCONQOURED for centuries until the war forced Ashok to denounce the material world. While that may be reason why we have one of oldest and dinstinct style of dance as ODISSI still thriving kudos to the gurus like Kelu Charan Mohapatra, Ganga Dhar Pradhan, Rout, Das, Shri Behera and dancers like Indrani Rehman [who is credited to be the first dancer to stage an item on ODISSI in 60s], Yamini Krishna Murti ji, Smt Sonal Mansingh ji the great exponent of dance of today, Smt Sanjukta Panigrahi [of course with Ragunath Panigranhi], Smt Ranjana Gauhar, And not the least the great MAHARIs of the MAHARI tradition of temples. I would also like to salute the gotipua dancers it is their contribution that this art form remains alive in rural parts. similarly the chau dancers they have kept their tradition alive for centuries.

In our homes we listen that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This remains true to this day.


I feel we eat food first through our eyes. I find the presentation and looks etc of a dish is more important and makes the first impact. I had special interest in decoration part of making dishes.

Nobody can deny the fact that kitchen is the place where highest number of innovations take place everyday world over.

We in India make dishes in our kitchen and those similar kind of dishes are churned out world over in different forms. Simplest is the ROTI or so called chapatti. The same thing may be known as pancake or bread.

One famous cookery show described the way to make PAKAUDI. First they mixed the flour with spices and salt etc then on woke with heated oil hostess dropped the material with the help of a spoon in heated oil. But, We never use spoon to drop the batter for pakaudi in pot with hot oil. What will happen if new generation Indian girls learn to make pakaudi with spoon from these cookery show on TLC.

I used to make salad at home in 1980s. all the things the cabbage, coriander, radish, spinach, lettuce, the salad leaves, tomato, onion, green chillies, ginger, lemon, salt and a spoon of mustard oil. Option is to choose beetroot, turnip, carrot, etc.

Everything has to be washed properly and thoroughly. Each veg is cut finely in thin chips. Then in the plate it is decorated layer by layer and contrasting colors have to be kept in mind. And design decoration will depend on the shape of the plate either it can be rectangular or circular. Often I used to put the lettuce or the salad leaves first on the plate- I don’t know what as the exact name of that plant but we used to call it salad leaves. It has hues of purple, green and yellow colors. On that a layer of grated radish is decorated. Then the circular onions over that the circular tomato is kept. Often the contrast color of beetroot is embossed within, I used to put thin circular slice of beetroot on the round circular slice of boiled potato. Once I made a dragon from beetroot slices on the tray with cream used as the eyes and lining on the body of dragon.

After that green comes lot of coriander is spread over and green chillies sliced in length wise in four or two is placed in few places. And huge quantity of lemon juice is poured. Trick is often use salt and juice when you are about to start the meal.

Another  special salad is made with radish and spinach. Leaves of radish and spinach are cut in pieces, and when you are about to start the meal then Add a spoon of mustard oil and sprinkle some salt and mix the leaves, and as soon as you finish the mixing you will notice the leaves will melt and the quantity will reduce to half within seconds.

healthy tip is that keep some sprouts in your refrigerator, they come in handy while making these salads. Just add few spoons of sprouts to the green salad and it becomes healthy food. The moon dal, gram- chana. But innovation could be if you have leftover the boiled beans. They add to the taste and health factor. The white butter beans, LOBIYA, RAJMA or kidney beans, green peas are my favourite.

I had a friend hailing from Palestine. He made a dish which he called the FANTOOS. The tomato, onion, green chillies, coriander are finely chopped or roughly chopped doesn’t matter. Add all this to water and add the pieces of bread to it. Mix and add salt to taste  and the mysterious dish is ready to eat.