The 7 Song Tag

Well i think tags are a fun thing to do.... specially when u feel like you're suffering from the blogger's block!
I was tagged by The_Ego_Has_Landed for the 7-songs-you've-heard-lately tag, and i'm only too glad to put it up. Some of them are older numbers....and most of them are Dance tracks.....as they lift up my mood whenever i'm feeling down! (You can download the tracks by right clicking links and clicking Save Target As)

7. Pump It - Black Eyed Peas (Download)
After the super success of 'Don't Phunk With My Heart' and 'My Humps' the funky group comes out with their own version of 1 of the best dance themes of all times - Theme of Pulp Fiction.

6. Axel F - Crazy Frog (Download)
Another remake of a superhit theme from the 1984 flick 'Beverly Hills Cop' in which Eddie Murphy played the role of funny cop Axel which shot him into superstardom.
The music is reallly catchy even if there are those annoying 'frog' sounds added to it!


5.Fix You - ColdPlay (Download)

A slow but nice song...typical Coldplay style.
Good lyrics too....
"When you try your best, but you don't succeed When you get what you want, but not what you need When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep Stuck in reverse When the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can't replace When you love someone, but it goes to waste... Could it be worse?"


4. Hung Up - Madonna (Download)

The dance queen is back... and with a bang.... now who can say she's 47 and a mother of 2! A strict practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga .... she has superbly managed to maintain her Hot Bod... which she flaunts in most of her videos for her new album 'Confessions on a Dance Floor'.
Though i'm listing it here for it's shake-your-booty dance beats.... 70's style !


3. PartyStarter - Will Smith
So, tell the DJ to play my song& we could dance all night to the early mornin"


2. Teri Deewani - Kailash Kher "Tune kya kar daala
marr gayi main
mitt gayi main
ho gayi main....
Teri Deewani...Teri Deewani "


1. Get Right - JLo (Download)

JLo got back with a very very contagious number...1 that you just can't resist dancing to. Though the lyrics aren't too great...this is the 1 i find myself listening to most often.


Standin' just a little too close to me
Ya sayin not quite enough to me
Ya sippin' just a little too slow for me
No doubt ya playin' real cool homie
Got me thinkin' what is it you do for me
Trippin' ova it, a little more than I should be
So let ya self go and get right with me"

HUNG UP (Madonna)

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Home Sweet Home

Ok i'm back after a short but much needed break to my hometown.It would be an understatement if i just said that i missed this place and my co-bloggers here...and i'm certainly glad to be back doing what i enjoy doing most these days.
A brief update on the trip - Reached Delhi on 11th(Friday) and spent the next 2 days catching up with my college buddies there, and hanging around in Vasant Vihar,GK(M block) and Noida.
Thereafter reached home in Chandigarh on Sunday and enjoyed the usual royal treatment courtesy my doting mother.
On Monday i met up with 3 schooltime pals and almost immediately a plan was hatched up to do a trek to the closest hillstation to Chandigarh - Kasauli.
Chandigarh is basically a plain but is beautifully located right in the shadows of the Shivalik range of the mighty Himalayas.The hill station of Kasauli is actually visible from my rooftop at home...it's just a 2 hour drive away!
So on last Tuesday morning all friends gathered at my place at 6am (it was after ages that i woke up on tht unearthly hour) and i took dad's car and drove us down to Kalka which is a small town at the bottom of the hills on the Chandigarh-Shimla national highway.We left the car there and asked the locals for the mud track to Kasauli which was used under British rule as the only way to ferry goods.The track of about 20 kms meandered through thick vegetation and a steep gradient, and would've been pretty straightforward had it not been for the rough weather.
Initially no one felt the strain of the climb as we cracked jokes and recollected old memories along the way....the entire forest around us was lined up with himalayan monkeys and langurs...and an amusing incident was when 1 of them ran down and snatched a packet of Chips from my friend and went back up a tree...my friend had done the mistake of offering a few chips earlier. Afterall that's what the Chips' punchline in the ad says..."No one can eat just one." Lol
After about a third of the way, we were almost abruptly surrounded by a thick cloud cover all around us, so much so that the visibility was reduced to less than 10 feet.Though none of us was carrying any warm clothes, we were still enjoying that chilly walk in the clouds....but only until it started raining cats and dogs. We tried to take shelter under a rock on the hillside,but were soon dripping wet. The weather god's fury ended as soon as it had begun,but the damage was done and to make matters worse, icy cold gusts of wind kept blowing the remaining way, and when we finally reached our destination after the 5 hour long ordeal, we were all literally shivering in the freezing cold.
Kasauli being an army cantonement area, it's a small but extremely well maintained and beautiful place,untouched by commercialisation and most of the houses are legacies from the British Raj.Anyways we hurriedly found a decent resteaurant at the mall road and thought of warming up with some vodka. So we literally hogged at the piping hot lunch and washed it down with some Screwdrivers. Then we too tired for anymore sightseeing so simply took a cab down back to Kalka.
Wednesday was Holi...and after a loong rest,i was raring to go to celebrate the fest i was here for.
I got myself some gulal(coloured powder) of red,green and blue colours and after colouring my parents and elusive sister,i went straight to my friend Gaurav's place and we started the usual Holi plan...touring around the city visiting all old friend's homes and colouring everyone.Next Gaurav and i went to Rajneesh's place, then Amit,Shivani,Anshu,Radhika,Nishima and Sweety.
It being a rare cloudy Holi this time most people were not playing with water...but at Anshu's place it got different. We were looking for her when she crept up from behind carrying a bucket full of water to throw...i was quick to notice and caught hold of the bucket and poured it back on her! Lol. Suddenly her brother came out with another bucket and poured it on me...and then all hell broke loose and soon everyone was throwing water on everyone else.In the end we all were drenched and sat together enjoying sweet gujjia's with tea, and recollected which teachers we liked and hated in school...all the pranks we used to play etc.
Then we did some more rounds of the city and it was a joy to see the festive spirit around...guys and gals with unrecognisable multicoloured faces taking rounds and basking in the festive madness...it was like a desi version of Mardi Gras or the Rio carnival.
The remaining days were spent just checking out the old hangouts and meeting up other friends n relatives....most of whom seemed to have just 1 thing to talk about....my marriage plans. Lol, they seemed to be more interested than me!
Anyways i managed to escape unscathed this time too.Hehe...like i joked to them..."Abhi to mere hansne khelne ki umar hai!"
Another thing i noticed for the Nth number of time...why do these air-hostesses have to put up the biggest artificial smiles ever....it's amusing to see them change like a chameleon...grinning at 1 moment....frowning at each other the next!
Whatever said and done....one thing's for certain....there's nothing as sweet as Home.

(Pics - Top: Kasauli as seen from Chandigarh, Bottom: View from Kasauli)

Return To Innocence

There are times in your life when you just want to be like the innocent kid that you once were. When you just want to enjoy the simple joys around you without having to worry about all the politics, jealousies, relationships and insecurities rattling the world around you.
I had a chance to relive that phase of my life this weekend as our entire project team went for a team outing to the new theme park near Bangalore touted as the best in India, called WonderLa.
Even though our complete project team had around 15 people - 9 singles and 6 married, yet when the idea of going to an entertainment park was first suggested most people just laughed it off and the seniors suggested going for a dinner to some 5-star instead. But the young crowd being in the majority, it was our choice that counted in the end, and soon everyone was to realize that far from being kiddish, many of the rides were scary enough to send a chill down the spines of the bravest of the bravehearts around.

So on Sunday morning the whole team got into our company bus and reached the venue which was around 40 kms outside Bangalore. Being a holiday there was a substantial crowd and most of them were IT people.
As soon as we entered the park, most of us were just raring to go. We soon split up into 2 groups – 8 of the ‘chicken hearted’ ones who went for the kiddish rides like bouncing cars etc. and around 6 of the so called ‘lionhearts’ (including yours truly) for the rollercoasters and other gut-wrenchers.

The very 1st ride we ran to instinctively was the 1 we heard most of the screams emerging from, aptly titled ‘Maverick’ which was Tom Cruise’s codename in Top Gun. People were buckled onto their seats on 2 rows on a platform. It first starts rotating in a circular motion up and down, then sideways and then it suddenly goes upside down…and then sideways up, and all this churning continues for at least 5 minutes!
Obviously most of the females were screaming their lungs out and 1 of my colleagues even started crying!

Next we all headed for the rollercoaster called WonderSplash(top and bottom), where everyone’s seated into a carriage resembling a raft, which goes twirling upto an elevated rail and then hurtles down a steep incline at an awesome speed before making a big splash in the water that drenches everyone to the core.
Another interesting ride was called the DropZone where everybody is seated on a platform that is raised to a giddying height of 17 metres and then makes a freefall to the ground! Before anyone got a chance to breath it rises up and falls again and again continuously for at least 5 minutes!
The last ride worth mentioning in the dry rides(and the scariest for me) was called the ‘Twister’. It looked almost like a Giant Wheel, but instead of the basket like cubes it had 2 seats at each point, where we were strapped on our shoulders, with our legs hanging in mid-air. Now as the wheel moved up, the seats swung to and fro like a pendulum, and just as each pair moved to the top, the seats went upsidedown! There we were at the top of the wheel looking down with all the blood rushing to our heads, and desperately clinging on to dear life with the support of only 2 straps on our shoulders! And then the wheel moves down with us in the same position facing the ground, and this goes on for at least 20 rounds. DAMN scary.
After some more of such freaky rides we decided to take a break for lunch before jumping into the water park.
Here most of the rides were water slides at various elevations and inclines. Obviously we went for the highest ones. The 1 that got me real claustrophobic was where we had to climb 4 stories high, and enter the mouth of a black pipe lying down on our stomachs and facing downwards. From here you go twisting and twirling into multiple circles in the pitch darkness around you, and your body catches a breakneck speed before splashing out of the pipe into a pool at the bottom.
This unbridled fun continued till late evening, and everyone was literally exhausted from all the frolicking around. However, everyone was unanimous on one thing….this was certainly the most fun team outing we had in a long time.

(Pics from Top: All raring to go for the rollercoaster....with me grinning from ear to ear as if posing for a toothpaste ad...lol.
2nd the platform in Maverick before turning upside down.
3rd the platform in DropZone while going all the way up.
Last all of us at the end of the coaster ride....i'm like man...wht the hell was that!
)


P.S. – I’ll be leaving for Delhi this Friday, and then move on to Chandigarh to celebrate Holi with my family next week. So might not be able to put up another post till end of next week. Hope you all have a rocking time!

RETURN TO INNOCENCE (Enigma)

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The Promised Land

If there is any other country besides my own that I have gradually grown to respect, then it has to be Israel.
I do not have anything personal against the Palestinian muslims, in fact I support their demand for resettlement in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, but as long as it is done in a civilized manner, and not through Fidayeen suicide bombers.
But the reason why I admire the Israeli’s in particular is to see the resolve of a long suppressed and persecuted race to have a country of their own on the face of this planet.

At the heart of this struggle is the most bitterly fought for piece of land in the history of humanity – the ancient city of Jerusalem, which the Jews call the land of Zion (After Mount Zion) and which is deemed sacred by 3 prominent religions – Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Jews hold it sanctimonious as it contains the only remaining wall of the temple to Yahweh built by King David originally around 1000 BC and then destroyed through the ages by Babylonians, Greeks and lastly by Romans in 70 AD, aptly called the Wailing wall.
Muslims deem it pious as it contains the Dome of the Rock, the site from where Prophet Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven.
Christians consider it holy as it is the place where Jesus Christ spent his last days, and the location of the Church of Holy Sepulchre built around 335 AD by Constantine the great over the site where Christ was crucified and buried.

For over 2000 years, Jews dispersed the world over harboured an innate desire to reassemble all Jews in their ancient homeland, and finally have a country of their own; a desire which came to be known as the Zionist movement.
These were also the millennia of unprecedented persecution for them, starting with their mass and systematic slaughter during the Crusades. They were barred from owning land in most countries. The Roman Catholic Church forbade Christians to live among Jews.
In 1215 a law was passed in Europe forcing all Jews to wear a distinguishing badge. Later French, British and Spanish kings expelled Jews from their countries and seized their properties.
A 100,000 Jews were wiped out within a decade during the Cossack revolt in mid 19th century in Poland. It became worse after the Czars took over, as Jewish women were not allowed to live in city centres without the badge of a prostitute.
After the assassination of a Czar, the mobs butchered all Jewish communities they could find – which later came to be called Pogroms.
Of course the last nail in the coffin would be the slaughter of more than 6 million of their kind in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

So after the 2nd world war the Jews of Palestine had just 1 objective, to demand from U.N. their own separate country and to gather the survivors of the Holocaust there.

The Britishers had ruled Palestine after defeating the Turks in the 1st World War, and just like in India, after the 2nd world war they were only too keen to relinquish the burden of their weakened empire and push off any responsibility as early as possible.
They forwarded the task of dividing Palestine to U.N. which divided it into 2 parts – Israel for Jews and Palestine for Muslims, but as soon as the British left the muslims refused to acknowledge the existence of Israel and together with the support of 7 nations of the Arab league – Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan, waged war on the newly formed Israel.
How the Israeli’s gathered people to fight that war – all able bodied girls, boys, men and women, how they trained them, how they gathered weapons and cash for their newly formed country, and how they eventually won, is a miraculous tale of human courage under fire.

Being a tiny island surrounded on all sides by hostile countries, they have since been attacked again and again, but unfortunately for the Palestinians, it has only resulted in giving Israel the moral right in international opinion to fight back to defend themselves, and in the process capture more land from the Palestinians – 3 times the originally allocated land after the 6 day war in 1967.
The peace process had gained momentum under Aerial Sharon, wherein he had initiated removal of his Jews from West Bank and Gaza strip, even though amidst protests from the hardliner division of his own community.
That process is now under peril like never before, with the terrorist group Hamas having been elected to power in Palestine, a group whose only claim to fame is Fidayeen attacks and bombings in public places, and whose charter itself calls for the complete annihilation of Israel.
Like Kashmir, I hope against hope that a final solution to this terrible conflict is reached, and no more blood is spilled on that ‘holy land’.

( I might write about 2 famous Israeli operations sometime later – the main reason I thought of writing this in the first place)