Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.....

I wanted to talk about this movie that I saw today - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.
Well I will start like this that I do not like Hindi Movies - I am generally a English movie buff - on the other hand my wify is a Hindi movie fan and it is very rare if at all that together we miss too many movies. As far as going and seeing this movie was concerned - well it did not take any pressure from my better half as I take Amir Khan as one of the producers - directors that spells class and will go for whatever he produces.

The movie is really good - in a sense that we sawa it as a family and spent a part of sunday together and came out smiling out of the cinema hall feeling good. There was a time that no movie was being produced that one could see as a family as there was too much dirt - moral or otherwise to be comfortable with the kids sitting watching the movie.

As far as the movie goes - well there is a girl and there is a boy. Both are extremely different yet are extremely close to each other. Girl is rich, tongue-in-cheek, dominant and aggressive while the boy has had a middle class upbringing and is submissive, soft-spoken and calm. Opposites attract and so do they but not as lovers, as friends! So when do they realize its love?

Worth every penny and time spent along with the family to see this movie - go out and am sure that you will love it -- and ofcourse do not go with your thinking caps on your heads - go with a open mind to enjoy an evening with friends and family and expect only this much.

Three cheers to Amir for giving me a wonderful evening.

A special mention for the music the music is youthful, foot tapping and energetic. Kuddos to AR Rahman yet again.

Do you have to time to Live life?.....

My daughter

(1995)

Brother's daughter, His son, My son and My daughter

Must try this after a drink

Everywhere I see - I see depression, tension and people spiralling down in the lives, not living -- just marking their days -- passing time, wishing that the day goes by - waiting eagerly for the next day and when that arrives not knowing what to do with it. What has gone wrong? I see that the divorce has become everyday affair. Was materially being more comfortable meant to give us more problems? Or was it to solve our everyday problems? The satisfaction is just not there -- in our work, in play, in family, in children, in friends..... where do we head from here? Have we become our own slaves, slaves to a desires, slaves to time, slaves to our work? How do we break the rigmarole of daily routine and live our lives?

Sorry -- that's a sentence with too many question marks. But I do know about to put it across any other way. I was slipping through my album and saw the photographs of my daughter -- just born in my hands -- today I have discussions with her as we are good friends. I realised that time has flown by. I do not regret any moment of my life because I have tried to live it to the maximum - living within the self constraints of morals. And this is what I teach my children also -- I tell them whenever the times are bad to not wish them away -- because the time that goes by never comes back. I tried to explain to them live life whether it is good and bad or ugly to the fullest. Enjoy every moment that you live. In all this I have tried to throw in the salt of their responsibilities to the nature, society and each other. I am sure and pray that they will be good citizens of tomorrow.

I wanted to ask - what does ' living life' mean? Does it have a separate meaning for me and for others? are now trying to press an early retirement from this uniform -- make some neat money and spend the time I like doing the most. Nature, photography, reading, music, movies and of course donating to the poor FIIs.

hell -- too much time daydreaming -- let me get back to work.

And then there were those days.....

Those were the days I would fondly remember throughout my life. Sitting in the nights staring in the freezing skys and wishing sometimes that we remain in those beautiful surroundings through out our lives and at other times wishing that we run back homes from being isolated and sitting there. Now it all seems like our college days. What days were those. We had powerful telescopes to see the activity at the enemy posts and I thought -- why can't I click some photographs of moon through it? It took me so long to finally get the photographs -- first there were problems to align the camera lens and the telescope. Then was the problem to keep the camera steady with so much of zoom. The light was so less that I could not increase the exposure speed beyond a certain setting. After so many trials and misses -- finally got some good shots. Three by night and two by day to be precise. Hope you like the shots.

I love animals.....

Route down from my post

A group of mountain goats on route to my post

A closeup of one mountain goat.

Infact my love for wildlife is so much that when I was a kid I never wanted to join army as a profession as first choice. I wanted to be a naturalist. I wanted to be part of conservation and be near to nature. I was once advised by my father that if you do not settle first and do not earn a living -- it will be very difficult to establish in this field -- till you have an identity of your own. You have to earn, be independent and then take up a social cause once you have established your self in any sphere.

I took heed to his advise and never ever debated this point. To bring it out today is again not with a sense to debate it. I/he may have been wrong or right. the point is that my life took a turn and I went to NDA. After four years of whatever I became an officer.

My mother side of the family were very found of hunting. I used to join them off and on. It was there I learnt how to track animals, recognise birds. They were not the kind of hunters that you find in everyday life now-a-day (like some people walk with a gun in hand and shoot the first thing you come across) -- they were a kind of royals who hunted and were very strict about how and what they hunted. I remember they went on a deer hunt and the first deer they came across I pointed out. I was promptly told that it was a female and that was not to be touched in this season. After some while a big group of wild boars came in our view and when I once again pointed out -- once again I was told politely that -- they were out only for deer. It did confuse me a lot at that age and time -- especially so when we came home without a bag.

Today I look around and realise -- we are not going to loose our wildlife to hunting with such principles -- but to the senless so called hunting where in just the lust to kill womething is so great that we don't give a damn to age, sex, season and whole lot of other things associated.

Anyhow what I have talked about was a very long time back and I was very young. Then I hunted myself - a lot of birds, rabbits, deer, wild boar and so on. Then I started flying -- I have now flown in helicopters over the entire country. You cannot imagine what India I have seen from above. Miles and miles and miles of endless towns, villages with nothing that you can call forests. I have seen logging in so called hearts of national sancturies. I seen people I could not influence gun down the first thing they see on four legs and then throw that carcass -- lest they are caught. It was all senseless.

Then I decided that I will start shooting of a different kind. Unfortunately on my salary I could only dream of the kind of eqpt I dream't about. A Digital canon or nikon SLR with good telephoto lens -- however the fire burns and whenever I can -- I do not permit killing of wild animals any more. I look at a wild snake - a bird - and animal with the same kind of pity -- If someone or all of us do not do something fast we will not have wildlife to show to our next generation.

There was a time just 10 years back that I flew over areas of bathinda and saw herds of deer and bluebull. Today I do not see such concentration in the deepest of rajasthan -- and mind you no one is bothered. We sleep and eat and be merry -- we are too busy to live our lives that we no longer seem to care about anyone or anything for that matter.

I have another outlook that is not shared by many (Meneka Gandhi to start with). Another major cause of this is stray dogs and cats. The amount of wildlife that they have destroyed is phenomenal. They life on the periphery of human population. They grow with the human population and they push out the wild life even further than humans as they roam miles and miles. Maul and kill deer, fox, patridges, and what not. I feel that if we eliminate stray dogs and cats then the wildlife will be closer to us even in cities and towns. If we go a step further and teach our population not to chase - kill wild life just for the heck of it we have a chance to save them for our next generation to live with peacefully.

Please do leave your experiences and share your views with me. Today I post photographs of mountain goat that I clicked in my last posting in the Himalayas.

Some more flowers.......

Thanks for such encouraging words. I am now going to bore you to death with my collection of photographs of flowers. Just by the way -- the photograph of the first flower in the last post is barely a few milimeters across. The flowers bloomed on moss on the stones.

Insignificant life.... or .... is it?

Sorry for such along time since my last update.

Okay today I would like to talk about something that I noticed -- once again when I was on my post in the Northern tip of our country. It was summer time and the entire place was lush green with so many colours floating in the sea of green. One of those days when I had nothing particular to do when I was sitting on the grass after a gruelling patrol that had lasted the entire night -- I noticed a very small fluorescent flower. I noticed that the flower had been tramped upon so many times but it refused to smile. Infact the flower was so small that I really would not have noticed it had I not been sitting down and looking closely.

I wondered -- there in front of me were thousands of colours that were floating in front of my eyes and I never had time in my routine to sit down and admire these small wonders. I was also sure that once my tour of duty that would last for 2years in that place -- I would never on my own climb a mountain for 11 hours to admire flowers. I then stared to photograph the flowers of the valley. In all I counted 100+ varieties and a total of 190+ colours (probably varients of the same types) I tried to photograph and keep a tally/record but unfortunately as was destined probably, one of my memory card (I am talking of a time when I had to save for two months to buy 128mb mem card) gave up. I hunted for some software to retrieve the photographs - but was unfortunate. I am now posting a few of those photographs. Hope you like them.

I agree.....

I make this post to honour your comment Uma. Yes I have led a life that has been adventurous, simulating and wonderful - all at the same time. And No Uma you are wrong on reading me in a way -- I do not have a craving for recognition -- I really would love to recount some achievements in my life but it is not for trying to make me immortal of any sort. I am what I am -- it is just that you feel some times that the world gives two hoots to how you have contributed towards the society and you are shunned everyday because they either feel you were crazy in the first place to opt for such a profession (read army) or it is just too bad for me as they sleep well everyday without any worry at all.

It is these times I think that whether I have led a good, bad or ugly life people must know that Indian Army has done a wonderful job. That job has not been easy -- either physically or morally. It has taken a toll on me and all those who are in such environment.

So I have this blog where I would subtly put across my life so that they understand a "fauji" a little better. I am a misfit in this society I know (and you too know it by now)--- I do not know how to go ahead with my life normally.

I am now posted in a peace station and I thought that before I get another tour of duty where there is nothing but wilderness let me just flow. Why in stocks? I thought that after the life I have led I want to earn but earn where there is no dirty money. So... that is why I am in stocks. It was my passion and now it has eaten so much from me that I deserve it to give me some back (with interest ofcourse). I want to do well and I do not want it all -- if we share our experiences and if we learn from each other I am sure that we can do better than those getting 10 digit salaries doing the same job.

Jaggu: this one is for you -- you are right that it is all white -- I will only recount one instance -- we woke up one morning and wanted to go for our routine we found that our toilets have all been buried in 40 ft plus of snow. Belive you me that we just did not want to go out in the open to be fodder for enemy sniper in the daylight so we just passed the day somehow. the next night we dug and dug and dug and reached the bottom only when it was about to be bright outside. I could not click any snaps as that was notorious place for en sniping so there was to be no movement by day -- so I clicked this snap when the ceasefire was there -- the snow -- mind you is no longer 40 feet but you will get an idea what i am saying.

The photograph that is also as header on this blog is one of my favourite clicked there and I am posting the original (compressed as the blog does not alow more than 8mb attachments) Hope you like this one and it is coloured too!!