Vijay Divas

Photographs by Dishant Bhatia and Sahil Arora. 

It’s been fifteen years. The bloody war that took lives of more than 500 Indian soldiers and left more than a thousand injured - has made its place in the history books and ‘war timeline’ and is being remembered every year as Vijay Divas. I had never realized the importance of this day until June ’13 and then the trip to Kargil War Memorial happened.

Kargil War Memorial

Tololing Hill

Sitting between the deserted peaks likes Tololing and Tiger hill, the memorial/museum is soaked in a very odd stillness. The entrance is marked by the slogan, “INDIAN ARMY – OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE”. The moment you enter the premises you are welcomed by a concrete road heading straight to the memorial beaded with Indian flags flying on both sides. But the only thing which will drag you is the tall post with a fearlessly flying ‘giant’ TIRANGA, placed just behind the memorial and the ‘amar jawan jyoti’. Behind this ‘symbol’ is a wall with AMAR JAWAN written on top and the names of all the brave jawans who fought for the country and lost their lives.

A ‘small’ (as compared to other museums that I have visited) museum marks the tales of the war, bravery of soldiers and throws light on their tough life and hardships they go through in order to make us feel ‘free’ in this free country. There are rare pictures of war and things that defines life of a soldier. There are tales written all over, soldiers present there on duty have witnessed it themselves, they showed the Pakistani bunkers which were captured during the combat, they share experiences which can ‘woo’ any civilian who spends his life online on social networks and abuses the system for not giving him freedom to download songs. While leaving the museum we saw a message register where you could pen down your experience, I had a lot of things in mind but no words to put in.

   

       

'Agni path' by Harivansh Rai Bachchan

After all the ‘heart-in-your-mouth’ experience we asked one of the soldiers about the location of Tiger Hill. He pointed towards a distant snow-capped peak on left and said, “vo chhoti si safed pahadi jo hai… sabse top pe.. vo hai…”, explaining the condition more he added, “jahan aap khade ho wahan tak aagaye the vo… Tiger hill yahan se 150 kilometer hai..”. That conversation left us blank. Suddenly we could feel the emptiness of the air we were breathing in. Standing there in front of hundreds of tombstones laid in the memory of our soldiers, the snow-capped Tiger hill on your left and the giant TIRANGA on your right, you realize the worth of the word ‘FREEDOM’

Tiger hill in the background

Iron Man in Dilli

“SUPERHEROES IN NEW YORK? GIVE ME A BREAK!”, that’s what Stan Lee, the creator of the whole ‘league’, questions and returns to his game of chess. You know what I am talking about. Yes, the famous dialogue from the climax frame of the movie Avengers. Stan Lee, teamed up with various artists and created all these characters (starting in early 1940’s) and brought in the trend of Superheroes! Now we all watch them in Hollywood films but, as with most of the fictional characters, they were first printed as comic books. With advancing technology and increasing media the print media quite lost its pace but in the heart of comic book lovers, they are still the BEST!

Iron Man, one of Stan Lee’s characters, is among the most loved of all – especially due to the very recent Robert Downey’s personal touch to it. And, I am a big fan, I admit. I always wondered why NOT Tony Stark comes to Delhi and why the creators even didn’t attempt something like that. Well, after loads of researches, bhaag duad and effort, finally I found something from the archives of Comic studios!

Yes! It was attempted. An attempt was made to convince the creators to think upon bringing Iron Man to Delhi. Though, sadly the proposal was given by some jackass and thus it was thrown into trash. Still, I managed to grab copy of some parts of the comic book which was sent as the proposal. 

Presenting the NEVER told story of IRON MAN IN DILLI, especially for the readers of Panwadi Tales!!!

And, shhh… my ‘research’ is still on! I will try to bring more ‘abandoned’ comic strips as soon as get hold of them.

Till then a decent tribute to Stan Lee and all his artists.

Cover Page

The author is a big fan of all the characters and really wish we could have them here, custom-made for us only! Fingers crossed! :) 

Dilli se Bambayi

If you are a Delhi-ite and have visited Mumbai, probably you’ll understand this post well. I would not call this a conventional ‘Delhi v/s Mumbai’ dialogue as I have always stated that I love both the cities equally – uncommon to what most of people does – I do not indulge in any such conversation where the focus is on ‘Dilli – Bombay ka comparison’. But as one of my best buddies moved to the ‘commercial capital’ recently I decided to track down the similarities and differences between the cities so as to guide and prepare her for the stay. And, surprisingly, by the time I was done with this article my love for the cities grew even more – EQUALLY!

You Are in ‘Queue’

Mumbai is ahead in line in this. The ‘awesomely’ organized behavior of Mumbaikars bowl me out every time I visit the city. If you look at a bus stand in Delhi and then compare it with one in Mumbai, you’ll know what I am talking about. You’ll find a queue everywhere – bus stands, auto stands, ticket counters, railway stations, and even autos have their own queues. The best part – they don’t break the line.  

Lingo

Just as every city has its own lingo, these two are not different too. The difference is of ‘selection of words’ when in public. Dilliwale toh badnaam hi hain apne gussey ke liye. On the other hand, Mumbaikars have only one answer to that – “Shhhhh….” (or the kissing sound that they make). To get someone aside, to call, to stop – they make this sound everywhere. A girl born and brought up in Delhi might even get offended to this… but remember, if you ever hear a kissing sound in public area in an Indian city – you are in Mumbai. 

Dilli ka khana

Sorry dear Mumbai! But I have to admit that you don’t have a ‘taste’. You can ‘never ever, never ever ever ever, beat the variety and quality of food available in Delhi. Though I love your ‘staple diet food’, but that’s it! Sad! So, if someone is moving to Mumbai after living in Delhi, you gonna miss the food.

The Climate

Dilli ki garmi toh world famous hai, but one should remember it is not easy for someone from Delhi to just move into Mumbai without ‘pasina bahaye’!!! Oh god! The humidity there kills but what is an incentive is the cool breeze, phew! Moreover, its not just the climate, I feel. The city gets its ‘mood’ from what is happening in there – Delhi gets its hotness from all the ‘political’ and ‘central’ issues whereas Mumbai has always been the city where people come to ‘sweat it out’ – just a thought.

Mind your language

There are certain words and phrases that one should be aware of as they don’t work the same way, everywhere. In Delhi, we have a habit of calling ‘bhaiya’ everyone which might not work that well in Mumbai.

Meter Down!

Two things – Fare Meter & Taxi – these are there in Mumbai and working!!! You don’t have to ask any autowale dada “Chalogey?” or find a Taxi with a “Rs. 500 or Rs. 1000” tag. They use their meters very well.

Finally, the lifeline!

Metro is Delhi’s pride, for sure. But one must understand that settlements in Mumbai came up merging with the railway lines, thus the Locals are the cheap and best means of commuting there. One-one for both the cities on this.

Apart from all these things, both the cities have same love and warmth which is showed by the people.

 And not to forget, places like Marine Drive, VT, Town Hall and Colaba will always prove the validity of the statement – ‘Bombay – the city never sleeps’!

Fast Local

Whenever I think of writing anything about Mumbai I feel bounded by the idea of comparing it with Delhi. Usually, that is what people do. But I, somewhat, do not belong the same category. My friends know this well that I like both the cities equally and I hate them too … wait… No, I never hate them, just because they both have flavors of their own. Recently I revisited the “commercial capital” and fell in love with it one more time, possibly much more than ever as the duration of this trip was longer. After 48 days of close observation and grasping the essence of the city I was done with one more memoir of a wonderful stay in the ‘city that never sleeps’.

Talking of Mumbai, many things have been said before, have been written before and even been filmed about the city. I have nothing new to coin. The same early morning rush towards the offices, the same crowded local trains completing their to-and-fro trips mindlessly like a programmed machine, the same staple food – wada pao – being served at every nook and corner, the same helpless buildings which make their presence felt only after they die of their old age, the same city where there is ‘queue’ for everything, be it auto-rickshaws, buses or ticket counters, which actually reminds you that you are not the first one, there are many more like you!

I respect that very feel of this city. In fact, films like Wake Up Sid! And Dhobhi Ghat have already portrayed the city in so many ways that someone who has never been to the city would get the feel of it just by watching these movies. At least, I find them true depictions of the image of Mumbai city.

And on this trip I tried to capture the same feeling through 'videography' – a totally new way of looking at things. I have never done videography before. (am not using the word 'film-making' as I don’t see myself quite ‘there’ as yet) Being my first experience it is quite unplanned and can be termed as a fluke or experimental. This was actually an attempt to create a video diary of the trip and while doing so, I wanted to get familiar with the whole procedure of video-making. More or less, you can call it an experiment. I hope you’ll like it.

The video is named Fast Local. Before you watch it, please make a note that it is a total amateur video, the camera quality was not an option and I need fair and honest comments on the attempt. Thank you.

To watch the video click HERE

Video Credits:
Video by : Dishant Bhatia
Music : Mumbai Spirit

If you think you liked even a single frame of this, feel free to comment/appreciate the author and encourage him to conduct more such experiments by mailing him on panwadi.tales@gmail.com. Any Suggestions, ideas, advises and blessings are welcome. Critique too... :)      

Taste of Freedom

  

It’s been a week since we celebrated India’s 66^th Birthday. Yeay!!! Congrats to all of us! This year I was not occupied with other things and thus decided to dedicate the entire day to television programs which were to be telecasted on the occasion of THEE National Holiday. [Which means this post is been written by an unemployed young boy, who is free-thinking and has a “concerned” attitude towards his nation. And who just confessed that he spent the 15^th of August lying on his bed with a remote in his hand, doing nothing. And believe me, this same person is one among the future of this nation… after all he is one of the ‘young brigade’.]

At midnight I listened to the speech by our first Prime Minister – don’t know why but I do get goosebumps whenever I hear it. Early morning next day, I woke up to see the official ceremony at Red Fort on t.v.. After that, I was in a dilemma as I searched for something ‘soulful’ to do or watch. Some (actually many) channels had become ‘normal’ after a while and had started focusing on the ‘political tamasha’. Yes. I just did that. I called it a tamasha… literally a drama or a play, political from head to toe and I am talking about all the political parties, carefully leaving NO signs whatsoever of supporting any one of them because alongside doing ‘nothing’ and watching TV, I realized that somewhere India was still divided! Thus, I didn't want to be victim of someone’s fury by offending the politician that he/she would ‘follow’. I had two options at that very moment – either I could participate in this political tamasha believing that the ‘future’ of this country depends on it or I could look at the ‘past’ - history.

Well, I chose the latter.

And as I did, I found three ‘soul-touching’ features. Each of them is one of the best creations I have ever seen or heard, riveting and strong enough to leave a invoke anyone's patriotism.

Woh 7 din – While all news anchors, dressed in desi attire (which is probably exclusively made for this day) were busy reciting the same “Breaking News” over and over again, NDTV India showed something different. This program revealed what and how things were happening just a week before the historic day. How all the provinces were made to unite before the big day. This is something which was not known to me and came as a surprise. Indeed, independence wasn't easy. Watch the program series, link below –

Clip from 'Woh 7 Din', Source:NDTV

http://www.ndtv.com/video/list/shows/woh-7-din

Tamas – The most awaited TV series and best-rated by my parents already, I had to watch it. The episode started off with this phrase –

Clip from Tamas Source:YouTube

And I was bowled over. Some info about the serial for those who belong to my generation and the younger ones – the serial is based on the novel Tamas written by Bhishm Sahani, brother of Balraj Sahani (of the “O meri Johra-zabi..” fame) and also, the one who plays the character of Sardar Harnam Singh. This was first launched in 1986. A Youtube video of the serial showcases the author in the starting of the series. The author himself states that the reason behind the creation of the series is, “reminding people of their past, so that we do not repeat our mistakes”. Now that’s Twenty years back and it was the time just after the emergency. Now, twenty years since, reading the phrase for the first time and looking at the present scenario, I still find it unquestionably apt. Its a pity we haven’t changed. People still fight with each other over matters of caste, religion, and the most weird and latest trend – political parties slinging mud at each other! (Sigh!) The series is made remarkably well and is more riveting and convincing than any of today’s soap operas. How could I even be comparing? This one has reality in every frame and allowed you to connect yourself with it somehow. Moreover, the casting was the finest of the lot – Om Puri, Deepa Mehta and even Amrish Puri! Bravo! Hats off to its creators – Bhishm Sahani & Govind Nahlani. I hope people understand what the series is telling them! After all this is something which is not Googled, this is made by someone who has seen it himself! For those who have not seen – Its on air, daily at 9PM on History!

Husna – This one struck me hard last year as well. One of the songs featured in Coke Studio @Mtv Season 2. Composed by Hitesh Sonik, written and sung by my favorite Piyush Mishra. In the introduction, Hitesh said that the song was actually a poem written by Piyush ji around sixteen years back. The plot is set up in the post-partition era where the protagonist is putting up some questions in front of another character – a lady named Husna who now lives in Pakistan after partition – asking about her experiences and the atmosphere of the newly formed Pakistan. The mood, character, music and intense nature of the song give a different kind of high. The description of festivals and the mention of similarities in the cultures portrays the pain of partition very well. Again, this could only have been done by someone who has sported or witnessed the pain very closely. Hats off to Piyush ji for his awesome creation. Listen to the song here (link below) - 

Clip of Husna. Source: CokeStudio India @Mtv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zTFzMPWGLs

[The author thinks he has done his duty by sharing all of this with you, sitting on his bed, laptop in his lap, unlimited internet, proper electricity and freedom to post anything, anytime with as many people as possible reading. Hoping that people who crave for their rights will someday also think about the duties they are supposed to perform. Moreover, he is glad to be born in late 80’s, which kept him away from all the struggle and made him so oblivious and unmoved by the happenings of the ‘real’ world that he finds his freedom in just ‘liking’, ‘posting’, ‘sharing’ or ‘commenting’ on the matters which are too serious to be dealt on Facebook. He is glad to be the part of the generation which is the ‘so-called’ future of the nation, who looks into Google to know their past despite the presence of the real story-tellers.]

Although, it’s been checked twice, still if you find the author supporting any political party or person apart from artistes… please ignore and forgive him as this is his first ever attempt of writing on a not-so-very-political-matter. The sole purpose of this post is to appreciate those who ‘thought’ for us! If you support this cause, mail us at panwadi.tales@gmail.com

Being 'De-activated'...

[Text and Sketches by D.B.]

Que 01: “Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?”

Ans: “Yes.”

Que 02: “These friends will miss you. Would you like to send them a message before you deactivate your account?”

Ans: “Enough!!!! Arghhhh…. I am not dying!!!!”

Well, that was me talking to my FB account a year ago. Yes… you guessed it right… it was the ‘I-deactivated-my-account’ stage of my life. One year… quite wonderful! First of all I would like to declare that I MADE IT!!! Yeay!! This is for those who think that one cannot live without FB – Well, c’mon! I just did! Before you start making any presumptions, let me clear that no one challenged me to do that. And I won’t even say that I did it because of ‘personal reasons’ coz that would be too lame! I’ve got reasons which actually helped me keeping myself ‘free’ for real important things in life, like eating, sleeping.. etc. But eventually I realized that there are drawbacks of it too, for instance, you cannot react to your friend who tells you the latest joke from the “Trolled” series… Well… all the mathematics is been done below!

So, after being in ‘social-networking-solitary-confinement’ for one year, I bring to you the five-points that helped me live my life while ‘Being Deactivated…’

[DISCLAIMER: I do not have any personal grudges with Mark Zuckerberg and his product. Neither do I promote the ‘Deactivate your account’ function of FB.]

[WARNING: Deactivating your FB account can cause serious complications in your personal and professional life. It doesn’t make you ‘Cool’]

You Get Life!

Picture this! You are on for a morning walk (with your DSLR). You saw fresh dew on leaves. You capture that with your ‘instrument’. You come home. ‘Upload done’. By the next morning you’ll be flooded with hundreds of likes and thousands of comments! Many of them don’t even matter to you and most of the people who liked the pic do not even belong to you directly or in worst cases have never met you!

Now, imagine yourself without an FB account and picture the scene again! You go for the walk – WITHOUT the DSLR because you know that your account is not there! You end up gazing the dew and capturing them with your ‘natural’ lenses and return back home! Story ends!

Now only YOU ‘Liked’ it and am sure you’ll love that.

And those who just felt that they used to do this, stop sharing your ‘photography’ talent with amateurs on FB, instead move on to some ‘real’ photography websites looking for good photographers.

You get social – well, with your family!

How many times you missed that call from Dad? Or How many times you just forgot to respond to your Mum when she was calling you for the dinner? And why? Coz you were busy making someone on the ‘chat’ happy…? Right? This IS social networking, I agree but what about the ‘family time’ that you used to have with your family?

Well, if this is sounding a bit ‘lecture’ types then, when was the last time you met your ‘chat-wali’ friend, the same for whom you kept your mom waiting? You might have been chatting daily but then is that doing any good to your relationship rather than making your English worse than ever and letting you use :) instead of getting a smile on your face? Think about it…

Know ‘MY’ location

No. This is not the name of any function on FB (actually, I don’t know, maybe by the time I post this on Blog, its there) But, this is what you offer to your friends for free.. “ABC is at Bus stop feeling waiting”, “XYZ is at Panwala feeling red”, etc. etc. I mean… Why? Why do you want people to know where the hell you are and even if you want to share with someone in particular, god dam it, call him/her! Why to put it on your Wall???

It is addictive... I guess!

Let’s start the cycle. You start your laptop with some purpose, most probably, some important work in mind. You open your browser window and you start doing your work, say, checking your mail. You think again and before entering your email id you ‘feel-like’ signing into your FB account. Now its working on the other Tab. You turn to the first tab and check your mail. Suddenly you realize that when you signed into FB there were 10 notifications. You leave the mail tab.

The FB-Cycle

You open up the notifications, check them one by one. Like the pictures of your friends, comment on the other ones. Then you get like from someone on the comment you just made, and then the person on whose profile you commented replies back. You like his comment and suddenly someone likes your profile pic, you check all the likes you got till date and finds that the person you wanted to like the pic didn’t like it yet. You wait for it for a while and then you “poke” that person and that person knowing that you seek something never replies or sends a message but pokes you back! And finally you start waiting for the pokes also… 

And the cycle moves on! The email Tab… well you forget about that!

Brings back your fundamental Rights and Duties!

I don’t know how many of you would agree with me on this one but being deactivated from FB made me realize and thus follow my fundamental rights and duties. The duties which I was supposed to do myself, in person, but started taking help from this ‘extremely intelligent’ piece of technology. For instance, birthday wishes, attending family functions and ceremonies, extending my regards to someone or even proposing a girl!!! (Well, the last one’s been added to raise the TRP only)

Just ask yourself – how would you like if someone sends you a gift or a greeting and you come to know that its been already shared with thousands of people? I mean, FB does that openly! Your best friend shares a pic telling you that you are his/her best friend and if you see to its bottom right, its written that its already been shared some 2344…. Times! I mean where is the innovation in emotions nowadays? If you really think that person is worth knowing that fact then tell him/her in person! Same happens on Mother’s day, Father’s day, Puppy’s day and on all those days!

DIY dude! Do It Yourself… Bring back the ‘real’ compassion and love…

The story would have ended if it was all about leaving FB… but no! In the course of one year I also realized why you need it.

It keeps you updated about everything! Be it educational, professional, commercial, political, or anything, it keeps you up-to-date! It is to ‘connect’ with people of course and you can just stay connected and get updates of friends you never met in last decade. It helps you promote things; ask me and my fellow authors, we are promoting PT! (Wink) It helps your business progress! In times of adversities, of course, these websites turn out to be a great help! It is a great platform for sharing important stuff, especially when websites around the world are connected to it. At last, it helps you resolve distances, it brings people closer and speaking technically – it IS a very good medium to store your memories as it provides lots of ‘cloud’ space.

Deactivating from FB didn’t take the Author any closer to the ‘Cool’ tag. The fact is even if you deactivate there are very few who would appreciate that and it will not be termed as ‘Cool’ rather they’ll call that strange! Returning to FB proves that it is not ‘leave-able’ but the Author would advise you to use the technology in a way that your Life still remains ‘livable’.

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More than Words : Avaak

"Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another." - Atlas Shrugged

The one true form of art that can lead on to a catastrophe of revelations; the one true gesture that makes one do the most regretful actions they shall ever- is the need to – Express. 

Yes, well… Lady Positive is in the Dark Room my friends! And yes, I shall drown you with me!!! 

Love is truly a game. It is that insufferable need for us humans to fall into the arms of anything and everything that makes us “feel alive”. Yeah well sometimes jumping into a pot full of hot oil can fry the bit-Jesus out of your alive-ass. Just because it looks like love, it may not be so. Like those times when we fake a fever to get out of going to school.

It’s amazing how the overwhelm of winning a game gets to any relationship from the very beginning. Who called first? Was it you texted her? Or she who tried to make the first conversation, who calls and at what time of the day, who has a bigger phone bill? Who sent whom the first friend request? Who has liked whose images? 

Bereft of subtlety and lacking the very privacy of relationships, “this guy I met”, “this girl whom I’m seeing these days” becomes the coffee table discussion among friends. The commoditization of a person begins. We express…prophesize…gossip…and bitch.

But love is not something to be expressed. Not because it can’t be or doesn’t need to be, but because when you truly and completely love someone, the precise moment when you are to express it, all sense in you escapes. The only things that come to your mind are the bare minimum words to sustain a feeling so immense that words run scared. In fact, I learnt from a very dear friend recently… how immense under-expressed love can be.  

Love expressed is so much sweeter to the ears than love unexpressed. However, nothing can substitute the pang of affection you feel for someone who did something for you while you were looking the other way. 

Something that you came across days, maybe months or even years later from a stranger or a distant friend; something you know you will always be indebted to them for but you were far too eager to “hear” it rather than “see” what the person did for you. Love is something that is the hardest to explain. And yet, we long for more and more of the verbal expression, choking the other for words.

I also at this point, with no offense to feminists like me, would like to point out how the two sexes are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to “talking”. To most of my guy friends, merely “talking” or yapping isn’t expression. It runs much deeper. 

Picking you up from your workplace and dropping you home, getting your phone recharged when you’re busy running around in local trains, waiting for your call when you are away travelling, talking to your friends and getting to know them, finding comfort among your people, making you a part of their friends’ circle… 

...making sure they are the last person who’s voice you hear before you fall asleep and the first person who hears your groggy voice in the morning, waiting for you to calm down when you’re unreasonably cranky and touchy, and running to you for solace…these count for more than words. 

I am still astonished how very few of us women enjoy silent conversations. Why so? How can one not notice any of these? And if we do… how the hell can we still demand for words of expression instead of actions. 

“You never tell me enough”?!! Do they need to?  Okay, maybe yes… when it really matters. When nothing can substitute the feeling of hearing those words but excessive expression and repetition is like cheap advertisement that relies only on nagging the audience into memorizing the words.

Love and hate are far too heavy and strong to be expressed fully. This takes me to Gregory David Robert’s ‘Shantaram’, “Fear drives a man’s mouth dry, and hate strangles him. That’s why hate has no real literature: real fear and real hate have no words.” (Ch. 18, Pg. 414). 

I would parallel it to Love. Real love has no real literature too. It’s probably the denial or deprivation of that love that makes for good literature- like real tragedy… not reveling in it. Reveling in it is intrinsic. Like music.