This TV program is very interesting but this time (on March 29) it was really amazing. This episode's race was in south africa. Two teams had really hard time but they survived at the end. One was old aged couple, first they forgot their clue inside a very narrow cave and then when they went back in the cave to get the clue, old lady fell down inside the cave and got hurt in head but instead of worrying about her head she was asking her husband whether he got the clue or not. Came last but survived for next round with heavy penalty. Managed to get 5th in next round with the help of other teams and still in race.
In the same round the team running first (brothers) had horrible accident (I think cameraman got hurt badly) almost every team coming behind stopped and/or asked if they are fine (believe me place where accident happened was real lonely planet) except one team (engaged couple Rob & Amber, 3rd team to reach at accident point). According to this team, "they can not afford to stop or ask if other team is doing ok or need any help" I still can't believe if someone can do this just to win a race.
At the same time, team which was 2nd (Lynn & Alex) they stopped and stayed with them for a while. Definetly in such situation I do same what Lynn & Alex did. Still those two brothers managed to come in 6th place and survived for next episode or round.
Isn't it amazing to see different attitude or behaviour or nature of persons with each other when huge money is involved for a winner in a game. In the same race I saw one determine old couple, one self-centred selfish couple and one caring and helpful couple friends who even didn't think by stopping they can lose the race.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Kumaoni Holi: Festival of music and color
Whenever holi comes it take me down to memory lane, way back when I was kid. Most of the best holi I ever had when I was a kid and all those holi I celebrated in my native place (Uttaranchal). It's unique because the Kumaoni Holi lies in being a musical affair, whether it's the Baithki Holi, the Khari Holi or the Mahila Holi. I remember those baloons filled with colored water, hitting those baloons to each other or persons visiting in neighborhood. We also used to have a steel or iron hook tied with a rope or one strong thread and then one kid goes to roof of a house and other kids just hang around in the road. As soon as any person wearing hat or holi cap crosses our kids-zone, one kid hooked that hook in the hat and by the time anybody thinks what happened their hat hanged in the air. Most of our target used to be 'Dotiyal' (Nepali Kooli) and 'huliyar' (holi singers) and they also enjoyed it some time. But those days are gone now. OK, let me tell you something about our Kumaoni holi.
The Baithki Holi and Khari Holi are based on the songs which have touch of melody, fun and spiritualism, these songs are actually based on classical ragas. The Baithki Holi begins from the premises of temples, where Huliyars (the professional singers of Holi songs and they sport traditional Kumaoni Cap, Churidar Paijama and Kurta) and also the people gather to sing holi songs.
Every night for one month before holi, you can hear the villagers, sitting next to the fire and singing special holi songs in the local Kumaoni language. According to the local customs, one week before holi, the famous Kumaoni 'Khari holi' starts with people finally standing up to dance to the mesmerising tunes of the holi singers. Usually it happened at night in and around 'Cheer' (like a x-mas tree but not actually x-mas tree). Finally, the last day of the holi (actually night before this day), burn the 'cheer' (called 'holika dehan') and singing all night. On this night dancing troupes or Holi teams, who have already been going around in groups to various villages or city negiborhood to collect funds (usually every night for one week), visit villagers on request, matching their step on the ‘Jhora’ dance and singing at their doorsteps. On the final day also known as ‘chaleri’ ('duhlendi' called in other parts of India), there is a riot of colours, lots of sweets and of course ‘bhang’, a drink made from cannabis seeds.
In nut shell, The joy and happiness is reflected during Holi which is celebrated with great fun for one week. People singing and dancing all around on the tune of Dholak and Majeera is a common sight seeing in kumaon these days. Holi is an unique musical affair in Kumaon. It seems that every child, young, old, man, woman is a perfect classical singer. Melodious songs are sung at Baithaki (sitting) Holi, Khari (standing) Holi and Mahila (Ladies) Holi. Each song is based upon some Raga with touch of humor and spirituality and these songs should be sung based on the time. For instance, at noon the songs based on Peelu, Bhimpalasi and Sarang ragas are sung while evening is reserved for the songs based on the ragas like Kalyan, Shyamkalyan and Yaman etc. I wish in one holi I will go back and see if same masti (fun) and music still there or lost with the time.
I wish all the visitors of lonely planet a very happy and Colorful Holi !!!!
The Baithki Holi and Khari Holi are based on the songs which have touch of melody, fun and spiritualism, these songs are actually based on classical ragas. The Baithki Holi begins from the premises of temples, where Huliyars (the professional singers of Holi songs and they sport traditional Kumaoni Cap, Churidar Paijama and Kurta) and also the people gather to sing holi songs.
Every night for one month before holi, you can hear the villagers, sitting next to the fire and singing special holi songs in the local Kumaoni language. According to the local customs, one week before holi, the famous Kumaoni 'Khari holi' starts with people finally standing up to dance to the mesmerising tunes of the holi singers. Usually it happened at night in and around 'Cheer' (like a x-mas tree but not actually x-mas tree). Finally, the last day of the holi (actually night before this day), burn the 'cheer' (called 'holika dehan') and singing all night. On this night dancing troupes or Holi teams, who have already been going around in groups to various villages or city negiborhood to collect funds (usually every night for one week), visit villagers on request, matching their step on the ‘Jhora’ dance and singing at their doorsteps. On the final day also known as ‘chaleri’ ('duhlendi' called in other parts of India), there is a riot of colours, lots of sweets and of course ‘bhang’, a drink made from cannabis seeds.
In nut shell, The joy and happiness is reflected during Holi which is celebrated with great fun for one week. People singing and dancing all around on the tune of Dholak and Majeera is a common sight seeing in kumaon these days. Holi is an unique musical affair in Kumaon. It seems that every child, young, old, man, woman is a perfect classical singer. Melodious songs are sung at Baithaki (sitting) Holi, Khari (standing) Holi and Mahila (Ladies) Holi. Each song is based upon some Raga with touch of humor and spirituality and these songs should be sung based on the time. For instance, at noon the songs based on Peelu, Bhimpalasi and Sarang ragas are sung while evening is reserved for the songs based on the ragas like Kalyan, Shyamkalyan and Yaman etc. I wish in one holi I will go back and see if same masti (fun) and music still there or lost with the time.
I wish all the visitors of lonely planet a very happy and Colorful Holi !!!!
Friday, March 18, 2005
One More Tehelka: Shakti Kapoor
This case looks like an inning of our own cricket team. A very good start but at the end lost the match. Or let me put this way, A story, news chanel starts under the name of 'Breaking story' and after few days or months they really break the story in tiny tiny pieces. Journalism is not a page-3 (as said by atul kulkarni's character in movie page-3). But in today's world it looks like it is page-3. Just couple years back we had Tehelka using the same method, But today I don't know about it even most of us don't know about it and our so called journalist don't care about it and punishment for those (politicians), who involved - are you kidding?. How many times any news related to Tehelka printed on newspaper or in news channel after that news first came in limelight. In our country, news channels are like volcano, suddenly erupt, throw hot lava and then thats it, that eruption becomes cold case. Before the release of this hot video interview, there was one hot audio release, some one-two years back...remember. Phone talk taped not by journalist but the persons responsible for law, order and investigation, people involved on it was from same industry. And then there is one music director accused of murder of a person from the same industry and now sitting in london and composing music for the people of same industry. Why go back, recently one of the girl accused one young director for the same 'casting couch' (unforunately or fortunately she was not the reporter), what was the truth behind that who knows.
For any news story (investigative journalism) in my views there is four important words: What, Where, How and Why. What happened, Where happened, How happened and Why happened. Any verdict should be given only after these four words or points are fully explained. In this country, Law order and verdict is only for poor and medium class. I read in internet version of some newspaper that Guild association or something similar to this (association of producers) said that they will ban SK, but in the very next line same association also said if SK apologises then there wouldn't be any such ban. They know better than us that 'In bath tub, all of us are naked.' so if they start banning like this then their business will be in trouble.
Now on the latest case (I have seen that video), recent act by SK made him real life villain from reel life. Whatever he said or asked was totally shameless. He did a shameful act for himself and for his family. I can guess he is not the first who did this kind of 'casting couch' and I can imagine he wouldn't be the last too (don't even try to think that I am a passimist). He is one another scapegoat there is no doubt about it and he should only blame to himself for that. But there are some open questions? Whatever that journalist did, was that legal or appropriate? What's the gaurantee if the person sitting in front of him or her not recording their conversation using hidden camera (every big fish will have this doubt now on). Why SK? Hardly anyone knows if he is making any movie or not. After how many months she got this meeting scheduled and after how many phone calls? If it took 6 months or more as I read somewhere then what's the guarantee it was not a trap but still it doesn't give clean chit to SK for what he said. If SK mentioned some name for whatever reason isn't it the responsiblity of the same journalist or group to investigate further before releasing this news or interview. And if a girl arrange a meeting at night in hotel room and serve you alcohol and ask a role (as it looks like in video) then it's difficult to judge the reaction of other person specially if he is linked with glamor world. And finally, exactly what has this story achieved?
Long time back I have read in one of Osho's book which was something like this, 'everybody steal something big or small in some moment of his or her life but we are not a thief until we get caught'. This is very true in today's scenario and this time SK got caught. Now ball is on India TV's court let's see if this was real story or just saas bahu serial kind a reel story which looses it's viewership as months passed by.
(Read SK as Shakti Kapoor)
For any news story (investigative journalism) in my views there is four important words: What, Where, How and Why. What happened, Where happened, How happened and Why happened. Any verdict should be given only after these four words or points are fully explained. In this country, Law order and verdict is only for poor and medium class. I read in internet version of some newspaper that Guild association or something similar to this (association of producers) said that they will ban SK, but in the very next line same association also said if SK apologises then there wouldn't be any such ban. They know better than us that 'In bath tub, all of us are naked.' so if they start banning like this then their business will be in trouble.
Now on the latest case (I have seen that video), recent act by SK made him real life villain from reel life. Whatever he said or asked was totally shameless. He did a shameful act for himself and for his family. I can guess he is not the first who did this kind of 'casting couch' and I can imagine he wouldn't be the last too (don't even try to think that I am a passimist). He is one another scapegoat there is no doubt about it and he should only blame to himself for that. But there are some open questions? Whatever that journalist did, was that legal or appropriate? What's the gaurantee if the person sitting in front of him or her not recording their conversation using hidden camera (every big fish will have this doubt now on). Why SK? Hardly anyone knows if he is making any movie or not. After how many months she got this meeting scheduled and after how many phone calls? If it took 6 months or more as I read somewhere then what's the guarantee it was not a trap but still it doesn't give clean chit to SK for what he said. If SK mentioned some name for whatever reason isn't it the responsiblity of the same journalist or group to investigate further before releasing this news or interview. And if a girl arrange a meeting at night in hotel room and serve you alcohol and ask a role (as it looks like in video) then it's difficult to judge the reaction of other person specially if he is linked with glamor world. And finally, exactly what has this story achieved?
Long time back I have read in one of Osho's book which was something like this, 'everybody steal something big or small in some moment of his or her life but we are not a thief until we get caught'. This is very true in today's scenario and this time SK got caught. Now ball is on India TV's court let's see if this was real story or just saas bahu serial kind a reel story which looses it's viewership as months passed by.
(Read SK as Shakti Kapoor)
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Old is Gold
Last weekend by chance I did watch a very old song on tv, and that song was "chup chup khare ho jaroor koi baat hai........." and believe it or not that was torture to me (atleast), torture to song too. Confused! because that was the remix version. Now-a-days, these remix version of old songs are coming like "pan shop" in every corner of street. One out of hundred could be watchable or good to listen and all others just crap. You don't need to have good voice for these kind of remix songs, if you sing at bathroom you can sing these songs too.
So what 'old is gold' about it, today someone is getting his or her bread-butter beacause of those old songs that's why I said old is gold (Someone here is not one it could be hundred or thousand). What's in there? Old song, not so good voice, loud music and lots of skin (the most important part). These are the main ingredients of remix songs. I think most of us always lost in the skin part of it and never realize what actually we are watching. Picturization of all so called pop/remix or x-generation... whatever is like that only, all the presentation is limit upto skin. Now-a-days This trend is getting very popular in India.
Poor remix fellow what can they do if there is shortage of lyric writers, they have to take old stuff and refurbish it. Who like stale food (bassi khana) until it's not fried with hot spices. Indian and hot spices made for each other even all world know about it. Confused? if this is written in favor or against, me too. I think I am 'Lost in Translation' to write from what I had in my mind. Period.
So what 'old is gold' about it, today someone is getting his or her bread-butter beacause of those old songs that's why I said old is gold (Someone here is not one it could be hundred or thousand). What's in there? Old song, not so good voice, loud music and lots of skin (the most important part). These are the main ingredients of remix songs. I think most of us always lost in the skin part of it and never realize what actually we are watching. Picturization of all so called pop/remix or x-generation... whatever is like that only, all the presentation is limit upto skin. Now-a-days This trend is getting very popular in India.
Poor remix fellow what can they do if there is shortage of lyric writers, they have to take old stuff and refurbish it. Who like stale food (bassi khana) until it's not fried with hot spices. Indian and hot spices made for each other even all world know about it. Confused? if this is written in favor or against, me too. I think I am 'Lost in Translation' to write from what I had in my mind. Period.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Advertisement
I got this link from Beautiful Life's Blog. This is actually an advertisement of telecom company. Can you guess who could be in lead? Amitabh...no..Shahrukh...no, not he....Aish baby nah....then who? Ok, why don't you check urself.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
WWW: A Long Journey
In today’s world surfing is a very common world, by surfing here I mean net surfing and that we do in Internet, and when we say internet, we actually talk about the World Wide Web from the past eight or nine years. But, if you see back in history then it goes back a lot further; all the way back to the 1950s and 60s.
So, here is brief timeline of www, highlighting some of the major developments over the past 41 years.
1958 President Eisenhower requests funds to create ARPA. Approved as a line item in Air Force appropriations bill.
1961 Len Kleinrock, Professor of Computer Science at UCLA, writes first paper on packet switching, ("Information Flow in Large Communications Nets.")
1962 1. J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark write first paper on Internet Concept, "On-Line Man Computer Communications." 2. Len Kleinrock writes Communication Nets, which describes design for packet switching network; used for ARPAnet
1964 Paul Baran writes, "On Distributed Communications Networks," first paper on using message blocks to send info across a decentralized networktopology(Nodes and Links)
Oct. 1965 First Network Experiment: Directed by Larry Roberts at MIT Lincoln Lab, two computers talked to each other using packet-switching technology.
Dec. 1966 ARPA project begins. Larry Roberts is chief scientist.
Dec. 1968 ARPANet contract given to Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN) in Cambridge, Mass.
Sept. 1, 1969 First ARPANet node installed at UCLA Network Measurement Center. Kleinrock hooked up the Interface Message Processor to a Sigma 7 Computer.
Oct. 1, 1969 Second node installed at Stanford Research Institute; connected to a SDS 940 computer. The first ARPANet message sent: "lo." Trying to spell log-in, but the system crashed!
Nov. 1, 1969 Third node installed at University of California, Santa Barbara. Connected to an IBM 360/75.
Dec. 1, 1969 Fourth node installed at University of Utah. Connected to a DEC PDP-10.
March 1970 Fifth node installed at BBN, across the country in Cambridge, Mass.
July 1970 Alohanet, first packet radio network, operational at University of Hawaii.
March 1972 First basic e-mail programs written by Ray Tomlinson at BBN for ARPANET: SNDMSG and READMAIL. "@" sign chosen for its "at" meaning.
March 1973 First ARPANET international connections to University College of London (England) and NORSAR (Norway).
1974: 1. Intel releases the 8080 processor. 2. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection," which details the design of TCP.
1976: 1. Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 2. Queen Elizabeth II sends out an e-mail. 3. Vint Cerf joins ARPA as program manager.
1978: TCP split into TCP and IP.
1979: Bob Metcalfe and others found 3Com (Computer Communication Compatibility).
1980: Tim Berners-Lee writes program called "Enquire Within," predecessor to the World Wide Web.
1981: IBM announces its first Personal Computer. Microsoft creates DOS.
1983: Cisco Systems founded.
Nov. 1983: Domain Name System (DNS) designed by Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris, and Craig Partridge. .edu, .gov, .com, .mil, .org, .net, and .int created.
1984: 1. William Gibson writes "Neuromancer." Coins the term "cyberspace". 2. Apple Computer introduces the Macintosh on January 24th.
March 15, 1985: Symbolic.com becomes the first registered domain.
1986: 5000 hosts on ARPAnet/Internet.
1987: 1. 10,000 hosts on the Internet. 2. First Cisco routershipped. 3. 25 million PCs sold in US.
1989: 1. 100,000 hosts on Internet. 2. McAfee Associates founded; anti-virus software available for free. Quantum becomes America Online.
1990: ARPAnet ends. Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web.
1992: "Surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly.
1993: 1. Mosaic Web browser developed by Marc Andreesen at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. 2. InterNICcreated. 3. Web grows by 341,000 percent in a year.
April 1994: 1. Netscape Communications founded. 2. Jeff Bezos writes the business plan for Amazon.com. 3. Java's first public demonstration.
Dec. 1994: Microsoft licenses technology from Spyglass to create Web browser for Windows 95.
May 23, 1995: Sun Microsystems releases Java.
August 24, 1995: Windows 95 released.
1996: Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for $15,000. Browser wars begin. Netscape and Microsoft two biggest players.
1997: business.com sold for $150,000.
1998: US Depart of Commerce outlines proposal to privatize DNS. ICANN created by Jon Postel to oversee privatization. Jon Postel dies.
1999: 1. AOL buys Netscape; Andreesen steps down as full-time employee. 2. Browsers wars declared over; Netscape and Microsoft share almost 100% of browser market. 3. Microsoft declared a monopoly by US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. 4. Shawn Fanning creates Napster, opening the possibilities of
peer-to-peer file sharing and igniting a copyright war in the music industry.
January 10, 2000: AOL Merges with Time-Warner. AOL shareholders take 55% stake in newly formed company.
February 2000: A large-scale denial of service attack is launched against some major Web sites like Yahoo! and eBay, alerting Web sites to the need for tighter security measures.
July 2001: A federal judge rules that Napster must remain off-line until it can prevent copyrighted material from being shared by its users.
After this day, it becomes part of our day to day life.
Source: Webopedia
So, here is brief timeline of www, highlighting some of the major developments over the past 41 years.
1958 President Eisenhower requests funds to create ARPA. Approved as a line item in Air Force appropriations bill.
1961 Len Kleinrock, Professor of Computer Science at UCLA, writes first paper on packet switching, ("Information Flow in Large Communications Nets.")
1962 1. J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark write first paper on Internet Concept, "On-Line Man Computer Communications." 2. Len Kleinrock writes Communication Nets, which describes design for packet switching network; used for ARPAnet
1964 Paul Baran writes, "On Distributed Communications Networks," first paper on using message blocks to send info across a decentralized networktopology(Nodes and Links)
Oct. 1965 First Network Experiment: Directed by Larry Roberts at MIT Lincoln Lab, two computers talked to each other using packet-switching technology.
Dec. 1966 ARPA project begins. Larry Roberts is chief scientist.
Dec. 1968 ARPANet contract given to Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN) in Cambridge, Mass.
Sept. 1, 1969 First ARPANet node installed at UCLA Network Measurement Center. Kleinrock hooked up the Interface Message Processor to a Sigma 7 Computer.
Oct. 1, 1969 Second node installed at Stanford Research Institute; connected to a SDS 940 computer. The first ARPANet message sent: "lo." Trying to spell log-in, but the system crashed!
Nov. 1, 1969 Third node installed at University of California, Santa Barbara. Connected to an IBM 360/75.
Dec. 1, 1969 Fourth node installed at University of Utah. Connected to a DEC PDP-10.
March 1970 Fifth node installed at BBN, across the country in Cambridge, Mass.
July 1970 Alohanet, first packet radio network, operational at University of Hawaii.
March 1972 First basic e-mail programs written by Ray Tomlinson at BBN for ARPANET: SNDMSG and READMAIL. "@" sign chosen for its "at" meaning.
March 1973 First ARPANET international connections to University College of London (England) and NORSAR (Norway).
1974: 1. Intel releases the 8080 processor. 2. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection," which details the design of TCP.
1976: 1. Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 2. Queen Elizabeth II sends out an e-mail. 3. Vint Cerf joins ARPA as program manager.
1978: TCP split into TCP and IP.
1979: Bob Metcalfe and others found 3Com (Computer Communication Compatibility).
1980: Tim Berners-Lee writes program called "Enquire Within," predecessor to the World Wide Web.
1981: IBM announces its first Personal Computer. Microsoft creates DOS.
1983: Cisco Systems founded.
Nov. 1983: Domain Name System (DNS) designed by Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris, and Craig Partridge. .edu, .gov, .com, .mil, .org, .net, and .int created.
1984: 1. William Gibson writes "Neuromancer." Coins the term "cyberspace". 2. Apple Computer introduces the Macintosh on January 24th.
March 15, 1985: Symbolic.com becomes the first registered domain.
1986: 5000 hosts on ARPAnet/Internet.
1987: 1. 10,000 hosts on the Internet. 2. First Cisco routershipped. 3. 25 million PCs sold in US.
1989: 1. 100,000 hosts on Internet. 2. McAfee Associates founded; anti-virus software available for free. Quantum becomes America Online.
1990: ARPAnet ends. Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web.
1992: "Surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly.
1993: 1. Mosaic Web browser developed by Marc Andreesen at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. 2. InterNICcreated. 3. Web grows by 341,000 percent in a year.
April 1994: 1. Netscape Communications founded. 2. Jeff Bezos writes the business plan for Amazon.com. 3. Java's first public demonstration.
Dec. 1994: Microsoft licenses technology from Spyglass to create Web browser for Windows 95.
May 23, 1995: Sun Microsystems releases Java.
August 24, 1995: Windows 95 released.
1996: Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for $15,000. Browser wars begin. Netscape and Microsoft two biggest players.
1997: business.com sold for $150,000.
1998: US Depart of Commerce outlines proposal to privatize DNS. ICANN created by Jon Postel to oversee privatization. Jon Postel dies.
1999: 1. AOL buys Netscape; Andreesen steps down as full-time employee. 2. Browsers wars declared over; Netscape and Microsoft share almost 100% of browser market. 3. Microsoft declared a monopoly by US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. 4. Shawn Fanning creates Napster, opening the possibilities of
peer-to-peer file sharing and igniting a copyright war in the music industry.
January 10, 2000: AOL Merges with Time-Warner. AOL shareholders take 55% stake in newly formed company.
February 2000: A large-scale denial of service attack is launched against some major Web sites like Yahoo! and eBay, alerting Web sites to the need for tighter security measures.
July 2001: A federal judge rules that Napster must remain off-line until it can prevent copyrighted material from being shared by its users.
After this day, it becomes part of our day to day life.
Source: Webopedia
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