At The Edge

Sometimes you just want to be a Chicken. Came across this hoarding advertising a Chicken shop somewhere in a place called 'Muvattupuzha' in Kerala. -0- April 1. 2014 Came across this one somewhere near Kakkanad Ernakulam

A month spent staring at other people's tattoos. -0-

"A man in my village got made a talaab that cost him two Crore rupiya. " And a dark man, mid-thirties, with pencil thin mustache, cycled right next to the cycle-rickshaw I was being driven in. "2 Crore!" It was a terribly hot dusty day and the time was well past four. Sometimes people just want to talk. He was talking to me. I thought he said something about taala . A lock that costs two Crore! "Why?" The man put his arm on the iron side-rest of the rickshaw and told me about the rich man of his village who order made a lake completed at the cost of Rs. 2 Crore and *** Lakh. Once complete, the rich man then donated the talaab to the villagers. "You see he was doing it all for his son who had no children. And lo! A year later his son got two boys! Blessing of all the villages worked for him. One must give. It's important. Money it goes around. Even one rupee. May be I have something to do with that one rupee." "Yes, it goes ar...

Some place near Rishikesh. May 2009.

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.” - Mahatma Gandhi [Last Phase, Vol. II (1958), P. 65] . Lines could be found on the first page of every school text book printed by NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training). Hindi text books had a translation of the lines. -0- Photograph: A child on the outskirts of Delhi. 14th May 2009. Unrelated post from my Kashmir blog: Bhookha Nanga Hindustan

Baba Lakha Da Daata would probably translate as Baba Blesser of Millions. Found the image hanging high on a wall near the kitchen of a banquet hall in Jammu. Seemed really interesting. Had to climb up on chairs to photograph it. I didn't know anything about Baba Lakha Da Daata whose followers are spread all over Punjab, Himachal and Jammu region. Looking around the net, I also realized Punjab may be having more than one Lakh Da Daata as people may have given this honorific title has also been appended to some other pir s of undivided Punjab. There is one shrine in Punjab of Pakistan, one in Himachal and one in Tarn Taran district of Indian Punjab. Or maybe these shrines belong to the same person. Here's what I found in a piece by W. Crooke, author of The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (1896). ( Came across it in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Part 21)  By James Hastings(originally published in 1935 )[ Google books , 2003]) Possibly the oldes...

Gemini Ganesan (17.11.120 - 22.03.2005) Times of India dated March 22, 2009

Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, holds his iPhone as he speaks with Associated Press during an interview at his residence in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009.Zaeef spent almost four years in Guantanamo. He wears a black turban and has a thick beard -- and he is a huge fan of Apple's iPhone."It's easy and modern and I love it," Zaeef said Wednesday while he pinched and pulled his fingers across the device's touch screen to show off photos. "I'm using the Internet with it. Sometimes I use it for the GPS to find locations."( AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool ) And The Beatles were singing: Does he have an iphone, and loves his Apple? Does he like his new iphone with touchpad or NOT, The Mullah of Talib? -0- Edward Lear's The Akond of Swat by famous American voiceover and recording artist Ken Nordine video link -0- Dirge of the Moolla of Kotal: Rival of the Akhoond of Swat by George T Lanigan (184...

" Kamal Swaroop...you mean pandit ji ?" The reply I got from my elder cousin when I asked him if he had seen the film Om Dar Badar by Kamal Swaroop . A comment on my previous post about Om Dar Badar led me to an interesting website about the documentary being made by Kamal Swaroop on Dadasaheb Phalke, father of the Indian film industry. "I was born in Kashmir in 1952.My father was an educationist. I was brought up in Ajmer Pushker." Kamal Swaroop's story board on Phalke starts with these lines that trace his own origin. So my cousin did remember. -0- Here's an excellent video (thanks to cdsjaik ) on how the film on Dadasaheb Phalke is coming together. This one traces Dadasaheb Phalke's days in Nasik , his birth place . The episode narrated here, interposed with some archival footage, involves Phalke's daughter Mandakini, who also acted in his films: video link

"R K Nayyar [director of her debut Love In Simla], and later my husband said they loved my nose --- one could land a helicopter on it!"   Via: An article about 1960s famous actress Sadhana at Rediff.com Her husband R K Nayyar was the one who asked her to sport Audrey Hepburn fringe. She styled her hair like Hepburn and India got Sadhana cut . "Sadhana cut" and that nose image: Altered from an image found at Tribute site dedicated to Sadhana . -0- Her one film that I have seen countless time: Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962).

Famous English writer Somerset Maugham 's short spy story Giulia Lazzari was based on a fictionalized account of British Intelligence agency's year 1915 attempt to get rid of Virendranath Chattopadhyay (nickname “ Chatto ”). Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (1880 — September 2, 1937, Moscow), worked subversively from distant European shores like Germany and France for Indian Independence. The report ended as follows: C, has a wife in India and two children. He is not known to have anything to do with women. He neither drinks nor smokes. he is said to be honest. Considerable sums of money have passed through his hands and there has never been any question as to his not having made a proper(!) use of them. He has undoubted courage and is a hard worker. He is said to pride himself on keeping his word. Ashenden returned the document to R. 'Well?' 'A fanatic.' Ashenden thought there was about the man something rather romantic and attractive, but he knew that R. did...

A thread of rhythm runs through man, And blossom and brute and the body of God; But the critic, who oft is a lampless clod, Still comes with his little endless span A hollow phrase and a measuring rod.          - Harindranath Chattopadhyay Video link Clip: Harindranath Chattopadhyay (April, 1898 - June 23, 1990, Mumbai) as the fiercely patriarchal Daduji in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's year 1972 film Bawarchi . Quirky dialogues by Gulzar and a great natural act by Harindranath Chattopadhyay made this character very special and memorable. He also gave vocals to the refreshing classical based song bhor aayi gaya andhiyaara from this film.( video )   The following year, in 1973 Harindranath Chattopadhyay was awarded Padma Bhushan in the field of Literature and Education. Harindranath Chattopadhyay was a poet, a dramatist, a musician and an actor. One of his most famous poems is Noon. The vivid imagery he evokes in his lines is mesmeriz...

Mureez-e-ishq par rehmat khuda ki, Marz badta gaya jun jun dawa ki. ~Momin Khan Momin Hakim Momin Khan Momin [b.1800 (01)- d.1851] was born to a family of tabibs (traditional Islamic doctor) that originally belonged to Kashmir and that had moved to the Mughal capital Dilli. He not only learnt Persian, Urdu and Arabic at an early age but also attained mastery in Hikmat (medicine of the age), hence the title of ‘Hakim’ in the name. Momin’s father, Hakim Ghulam Nabi Khan, was a court doctor and could afford all the comforts for his son. His education had been thorough and systematic, as is proved by the embarrassing profusion of technical terms pertaining to music, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc. in his qasidas. Momin grew up in a luxurious household; later he was to refuse a professorship offer from a Delhi college because he found the salary “peanuts”. The other prominent feature of this household was: Religion. His father was a follower of Shah Abdul Aziz , son of the...

 The book Meena Kumari was written by Vinod Mehta in the year 1972. Vinod Mehta was 31. He went on to be the editor of Debonair Magazine , India first real girlie magazine that also used to have a section about current affairs. Many years later Vinod Mehta became the founding editor-in-chief of the The Outlook Magazine . Vinod Mehta’s previous book, Bombay: A Private View , was a success. But the book Meena Kumari was ill received. However, I don’t think it was ill-conceived. For some one like me, born ten years after the book was written, it means a lot. When I was a little boy, I knew Meena Kumari thanks to the ditty, which had the line, quite memorable actually: Meena Kumari ka laal dupatta, us-se nikala ullu ka paththa... Occasionally, I might have watched some old movie of hers on Doordarshan. Never must have I given much thought to her. But, then a few years later, I saw the book Meena Kumari on the book shelf of an elder cousins of mine whose books I often ...