Puneet's Page

Feroz Khan passed away early this morning. The long battle with the dreaded disease, fought valiantly, is now over. Feroz Khan joined the film industry in the early sixties, and set out to establish himself, amidst stiff competition from others like Dharmendra, Dilip Kumar, Jeetendra, and the like. In the next two decades he acted in some of the most popular 'hits' of the times - Arzoo, Oonche Log, Safar and Aadmi Aur Insaan. And while he mostly played second lead, he managed to carve out a niche for himself. with his rich baritone voice, the sofisticated style of dialogue delivery which will always be remembered is distinctly different and 'classy' Feroz Khan found reasonable success with his production ventures too. 'Qurbani' produced by him in 1980 turned out to be a huge block buster. Other films followed at regular intervals. Everytime, Feroz Khan came back from behind, refusing to be forgotten in the annals of Bollywood history. The last time we saw him ...

from: The News, Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Dear Gen Kayani, Sir, let me begin by recounting that old army quip that did the rounds in the immediate aftermath of World war II: To guarantee victory, an army should ideally have German generals, British officers, Indian soldiers, American equipment and Italian enemies. A Pakistani soldier that I met in Iraq in 2004 lamented the fact that the Pakistani soldier in Kargil had been badly let down firstly by Nawaz Sharif and then by the Pakistani officers' cadre. Pakistani soldiers led by Indian officers, , he believed, would be the most fearsome combination possible. Pakistani officers, he went on to say, were more into real estate, defence housing colonies and the like. As I look at two photographs of surrender that lie before me, I can't help recalling his words. The first is the celebrated event at Dhaka on Dec 16, 1971, which now adorns most Army messes in Delhi and Calcutta. The second, sir, is the video of a teenage girl bein...

My heart goes out to the parents, relatives and freinds of Akriti Bhatia of Modern School, who passed away the other day, after an asthma attack while still in School.  Expectedly, the parents and friends of Akriti have put the blame squarely on the School for negligence which caused the death. While investigations will take their own course, let us pause and reflect on what happened, before we jump to conclusions on who was responsible. At about 10 am in the morning, Akriti complained of an asthma attack, and rang up her mother to send the car to School so she could come home. The mother advised Akriti to go to her Aunt's place instead of coming back home. At about the same time, she informed the Class teacher about her state, and requsted to be excused and let off early. While everyone waited for the car, Akriti was escorted to the 'sick room' where the nurse administered Oxygen to her. After a while Akriti herself informed the nurse that she was feeling better. The nurse...

So, Mr. Khan's team won a match yesterday. Big deal? Seems so, for him. In the interview with Madira Bedi yesterday, he made it more than obvious. So what's the problem in the team owner being happy if his team won a match? No problem - in being happy per se, and expressing it. But I definitely have a problem with the attitude with which you let your feeling be known to all cricket fans, and your fans across India and the world. Your attitude suggests that you have a problem with all your critics and you cannot digest any criticism. So you tell the World what you will say to each critic when your team wins the Trophy and when you go back to Kolkata with the IPL trophy, riding a 'barge' .. And while you should be thankful that your team won courtesy the Duckworth-Lewis method, your comments about M/S Duckworth-Lewis suggests utter contempt for the method as well as its authors. Being a team owner, have you by now, studied the method comprehensively? You haven't beca...

Just across the road from where I work, there is a huge wall that has recently been constructed, of red 'Kota Stone' running all along the length of the main road for few kilometers. Obviously, there is more behind the wall, but the common passerby cannot make out what. But now the cat has been let out of the bag. A brand new 'Dr. Ambedhkar Udayaan' is being constructed - thanks to the sole initiative of the current chief minister of the State of Uttar Pradesh - Madam Mayawati. This park is estimated to cost the ex-chequer a whopping Rs. 300 crore. Actually the tax payers' money. It is supposed to have statue of not only Dr Ambhedkar, but of Mayawati herself. And apart from these, there are expected to be seven elephants made of granite, that will add to the glamour of the brand new park ! Why is it being built? Does the common citizen of UP want it? The answer as expected is a 'no'.. A most 'warped' sense of expression of respect to a great man? Or ...

It's election time in India! And the common man is once again witness to what can best be described as a political circus that has come to town. One cannot probably even count the number of parties and 'leaders' striving to come to power. But the common trait amongst all is that they do not have any election agenda or manifesto. So the best that they can do is to downgrade the opponents. For one National party, the only salient point in their election manifesto is that the present Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is 'weak'. And they go around the Country trying to convince people not about how they will form a better, more effective and result achieving Government, but simply that the current Government should be voted out. Then there is another party who take great pride in announcing that if elected they would ban English language and computers in the State of UP. Thankfully on this one, the people of the State have reacted and termed this agenda as outrageous, ...

Recently we heard about Shah Rukh Khan slamming Sunil Gavaskar, over the latter's comments on Kolkata Knight Riders' Coach John Buchanan's multiple captain theory. India is a Country where Cricket is a passion and a favorite pastime for a majority of its citizens. But amongst all such self proclaimed experts, there are also Cricket's all time greats, one of whom is Sunil Gavaskar. In an outstanding career spanning 17 years (1970 to 1987), Sunil Gavaskar's contribution to the game helped the Indian cricket team become an World Class team to reckon with. But more than that, this man mesmerized cricket loving fans across the World with his classy stroke play and fielding, which resulted in a long list of 'all time high' achievements, most of which remain unbroken records to the day. It was Sunil Gavaskar who broke Donald Bradman's long standing record of the maximum number of centuries in test cricket. Sunil remains the only batsman to have scored a century...

India was witness in the recent past, to murky politics. Not surprising though, as politics is a dirty game, more so in India. But what is unbelievable, is the extent to which our so called leaders of the Nation have stooped, to further personal gains and those of their Parties. We saw for instance, a young 29 year old political 'nobody' trying to launch himself into what probably is the only profession he knows he will succeed in - politics. And what does he do to make a 'grand entry' into the arena? He, in the most blatant and daring manner, publicly spits communal venom, instigating illiterate and innocent rural folk of different religious communities to start hating each other. Why? So that the population is polarized and he gains votes. What an idea to launch his political career ! Then we saw a major political party with some of the supposedly respected senior politicians, all staking claim to be the ideal set of leaders to form the next Government - actually sup...