Jodhpur Trip

I visited my brother Prahlad and friend in Jodhpur on 29th October. Though I am late in writing about this trip, here is a short description about the trip. I reached Jodhpur by Mandor Express, which reached Jodhpur almost 2 hours late. I was not aware that Sandeep, my friend and ex-room partner in college time, was coming to receive me. He was at Jodhpur railway station to receive me. I was very happy after seeing Sandeep, he hasn’t changed at all except that he is no longer a bachelor. 🙂 My brother was having his class at that time. But everything was already planned between Prahlad and Sandeep, so he took me to my brothers room. I refreshed myself after reaching there. My brother arrived with breakfast, we all had breakfast. Now it was time to move to Sandy’s house. Sandy, me and my bro reached to Sandy’s house. We had delicious lunch made by our bhabhiji. Thanks to bhabhi for such an authentic marwari food. The lunch menu brings water in my mouth till today – it was having rasgullas, bhindi, dal, raita, chaptis and Jodhpuri Pulao. Sandy offered rasgullas to me and my bro before we start batting for lunch. It was the moment which was clear symbol of Sandy is having cultural habits in his blood.

01) Me and Sandy                                                   02) Sandy and Brother Prahlad

Then we all started for Mehranghar fort, symbol of bravery and great indian architecture. Its really a beautiful spot to visit. Old weapons, architecture, halls and costumes, it was very fascinating. This is the place from where if you see the city, you come to know why few people say it "Blue City". But Jodhpur is not blue city, its "Sun City". Then we went to "Mandor Garden", it is also a nice place to visit. I have attached few snaps here taken from my mobile N91.

Then we returned to Sandy’s home for dinner. After dinner, he dropped us at bus stand and me and my bro went to our native for 2 days stay. This visit of mine helped me in meeting my brother and Sandy. Sandy was very angry with me, as I couldn’t attend his wedding in January. I believe this he should be happy now. So this trip of mine is dedicated to friendship….long live friendship.

Happy Navaratri

Hi friends! I wish all of you a very Happy Navaratri – 9 days festival of Shakti and Bhakti. All India will be celebrating this festival with full zeal – somewhere in the form of Mahalaya and somewhere in the form of Garba. "Bongalis Maa Durga ki puja korbe" and "Gujarati log garba ramey chey". The whole environment will be rocking for next nine days.

Navaratri is a word with two words "Nav" [Nine] and "Ratri" [Nights] that means festival of Goddess Durga ,who is symbol of Power in Hindu mythology, is celebrated for whole nine days. Every single day of these nine days has a significance, but to understand in a very simple manner, we can understand them as follows:

• First Three Days are devoted to Maa Durga, the goddess of Power – Hindu people believe that Maata will provide us more and more power in terms of living the life successful – that power doesn’t mean as physical power only. It means to mental power also so that we may lead a successful life.
• Next Three Days are devoted to Maa Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth – Belief for these days is to pray for wealth and wealth again doesn’t mean to INR only, but with family members, assets and happiness.
• Last Three Days are devoted to Maa Saraswati, the goddess of Knowledge – We wish that we all get knowledge about how to live the life, how to help others in living life and how we may help humanity.

Bengal and Gujarat, the two states of India, are mostly known for this 9 days festival. Bengali Doorga Puja is itself an identity for Bengal. People singing Aartis with Shankh-naads and Ghanta-vaadan, red sindoor in the surroundings. I wish that sometime in my life I get a chance to see this whole environment. For those who still couldn’t imagine the environment from my words, remember the scene of Doorga Puja from movie "Devdaas".

Gujarat is also set to play Garba and neighboring states are also following the same. Dandiya-raas is the art generated from this state and now very much popular in the entire world as well as in our bollywood too. Though the form of Garba presented through movies is not exactly what it is meant for. Garba is the art to pray Maa Bhawani, where people form a circle and dance on the devotional songs. I need to mention here that this circle has idol of maata in the center and every step of dance is like pray offerings.

But I always wish that we should try to figure out where we can improve so that our festivals don’t loose their importance. I’d like to list down only two points here and wish that whosoever read this post makes sure that these points are not repeated.

1. Garba is becoming more and more a commercial event and in fact, few places it has become hangout place for new budding lovers. If you can’t do something for the culture or religions, at least make sure that you don’t hurt them. Please make Garba events successful in terms of prayer offerings.
2. On the name of Puja or Garba, people fields tambus on the main roads. Please assure that religion is ours and country is also ours only. Try to choose places like fields, parks where these events can be organized. And in worst case, if you have used/or have permission to use the roads, make sure that those are repaired after nine days.

Festivals are to maintain the faith, happiness and beliefs. Festivals are to bring people closer. Festivals are to be celebrated. Celebrate this festival with lots of faith, happiness and see how different you feel your surroundings. Lots of wishes for this nine days festival…May Maa blesses all of us with faith and happiness. Jai Maata Di.

Here are few links for net-savvy to celebrate this festival:

Maata Ke Bhajans

Maata Ki Aarti

Garba and Dandiyaa-Raas

My HeadPhone – WR621

From last one month, I am using new cordless headphone. This headphone is cordless headphone WR621 from i-ball which I bought from Music World. This cordless headphone is really cool and I like it a lot. I found following advantages of having cordless headphone:

01) No tension of wire, just roam around and listen the music.

02) You may use it for Radio too and then no tension of transmitter also.

So now I am in cordless era completely. 🙂 If you are also planning to buy headphone, you may also try the same. Just to give you an idea, how does it look like, I have attached an image of it. For getting the details and specification of this headphone, visit http://iball.in/inner/featured.asp?catid=14&pid=138.

My favorite female singers

Long time again…so lets again start with Music…..the most precious finding of nature. India has great music in its existence. We are having fabulous singers in the country and all those are very good. There are millions of songs to cherish the prosperity of Indian music. So here is the list of my favorite female singers and best wishes for them:

Lata Mangeshkar: Undoubtedly, the goddess of Indian Music with lots and lots of blessings of Maa Sharada and well wishes of all the fans, she has a great past and legacy of beautiful songs. Thanks to Lata ji for giving us so many beautiful songs which include “Aey mere vatan ke logon”, “Vandey Mataram”, “Sun Sahiba Sun”. She is my the most favorite singer. I can just say for this great personality that I am lacking of words in praising her…..She herself is Saraswati. Live long Lata ji.

Shreya Ghoshal: We have had so many female singers like Asha ji, Alka ji, Sadhana Sargam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kavita Krishnamurti and so many, but I like Shreya the most after Lata ji. She has such a beautiful voice that anyone can just flow with that. Shreya, you sing so fine that I like each and every word that comes from your mouth. In a very less time, you are favorite of millions of hearts of Indian music fans. Shreya is the name of voice that is second most favorite in my list with songs “Silsila ye chahat ka”, “Jaan-e-man”, “Pal Pal Har Pal”, “Barso Re Megha” and of-course with my favorite song “Doob jaana re”.

Nihira Joshi: Now I am going to list down very new female singers who have come from musical competitions like Shreya and doing perfectly fine in the industry. Nihira Joshi is the name, who is favorite of mine from SaReGaMaPa 2005 series. Though this girl from Yalgaar Gharana couldn’t make out in the final, but she is enjoying the music in the Indian film industry and singing songs beautifully. Nihira has a very beautiful voice with innocence and perfection. Her voice touches your heart. You are third top in my list with your song “Babuji and Salaam-e-ishq” from movie “Salaam-e-ishq” and “Bunty aur Babli song from SaReGaMaPa“.

Himani Kapoor: Another girl from SaReGaMaPa 2005, Harayana Hurricane Himani Kapoor. Your songs “Der na ho jaaye”, “Chitthiye”,”Nim me yaar manana ni” and “Aitraaj” from this competition still rocks me. You are truly a rocking voice. It is necessary to mention here that I watch latest musical competition and whenever a participant sings any of these song, I compare them with you, and find that none is closer to you or might be my ears like these songs only with voice of Himani. Himani! You rocks….Keep rocking.

Abhilasha: “Tu Chanda me Chandani” – this song makes me fall in your fan-following. Abhilasha is the contestant of Amul Star Voice Of India and I wish she wins this competition. Her bidaai song in the same competition “Mahlon ka raja mila” was really superb. You are my most favorite in the latest rising singers list of “Mauli”,”Sumitra”,”Sumedha”,”Poonam”,”Raja”,”Amanat”,”Taushi”,”Irfaan” and “Abhaas”.
My best wishes for you.

I like so may male singers but I couldn’t prioritize them in this order. But Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Nitin Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Udit Narayan, Abhijit, Sonu Nigam, Shaan are my favorite. Its really hard to list them in a particular order, when I have another list of male Ghazal singers as Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh. But I’ll try if I may come up with such an ordered list for my favorite mail singers…till then bye…but before I end this post of mine ….please don’t forget to vote for Abhilasha, so that we don’t miss this opportunity to make a really beautiful voice – “Voice of India“.