Puneet's Page

Today, is Asha Bhonsle's 73rd birthday. I wish her a long life. Her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar is- well -even older. I wish her a long life too. The contribution of the two sisters, to Indian cinema, and to music in India, cannot be praised enough. For over 60 years, both Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle sang virtually every song as playback singers, that was recorded for a Hindi movie. They sang for regional language movies too - Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and Marathi, and sometimes even in South Indian languages. They won numerous awards, and generally enthralled audiences wherever they sang. Lata Mangeshkar's and Asha Bhonsle's contribution to Indian music has been immense. However, its high time both sisters called it a day. And I say this, not out of spite or jealousy or any other bad intention. Over a period of six decades, their voices and singing capability has undergone a change, and not for the better. And this can easily be gauged, by simply comparing songs sun...

So Sachin is an honorary Group Captain in the Indian Air Force now. In a much publicised ceremony - attended by none other than the Marshal of the Air - Arjan Singh, and a large number of Air Force Officers, other Government dignitaries and the media, Sachin was conferred this honor, by the Chief of Air Staff - Air Chief Marshal Naik. Many thoughts related to this event crossed my mind then, and I continue to think about it even now. I admire Sachin Tendulkar -for his achievements as a cricketer, and for his huge contribution to Indian cricket. I saw photos of the function in which Sachin was honored. I saw him, wearing an IAF uniform. At the same time I couldn't help notice his long hair, side burns, and an unshaven face. For a moment that image reminded me of the 'rogue' policemen that one comes across is so many of Bollywood movies. Those cops, who are dishonest, corrupt, and those that generally bring a bad name to the service. Now I don't have anything personal ...

The year was 1989. I was a rather ‘junior’ Sales Manager – recently ‘covenanted’ which meant having joined the ranks of the management cadre after successful completion of the training program. One day, news came around that two truck loads of biscuit, manufactured in our sister Branch – Calcutta, and being transferred to our Branch – Delhi, were held up at a Sales Tax check post on the Bihar UP border, at Balia. The officials suspected something was wrong with the documentation accompanying the stock on the trucks, and this practically amounted to violation of sales tax rules. The official threatened to formally seize the stock, and this would mean a complete loss because biscuits being food products, were perishable. My Boss – a seasoned sales professional of twenty years, and normally a very confident and dynamic decision maker, faced a predicament this time – a rare occasion. And my counterpart - the Sales Manager for UP, who should have, in the normal course of things taken the re...

During the good years spent selling biscuits, cake, hair oil and what have you, I was lucky to have toured a better part of the Country. From the beautiful hills of Himachal, to the small villages of Gonda, Basti and Sultanpur district in UP, and the desert land of Rajasthan – I got to see it pretty much all. The journey was adventurous by any stretch of imagination, with never a dull moment or a new experience each time I packed up my bag and set off… One such adventure that remains etched in my mind, dates back to 1993. As Area Sales Manager, I used to travel to Rajasthan frequently. On one such trip, we decided to travel to the very interiors of Jodhpur – the most beautiful and enchanting part of Rajasthan – once part of the Marwar region. We set off in a van laden with Britannia biscuits – the distributor, his team of two, and one Company colleague. The Van was well designed, with three sections – the front part for the driver and his aide, a middle section for the salesman complet...

Once there was a young teenager who was training to part of his Country's diving team for the Olympics. He was an atheist but his loyal friend was a true believer in Christ. The athlete would on occasion listen to his friend's sermons. That was the only religious influence in the athlete's life. One evening the athlete decided to go to the swimming pool to practice diving.. The lights in the indoor pool were off. But with the big skylights on the roof and a bright moon, there seemed to be enough light.. The athlete climbed up to the diving board and moved slowly to the edge of the board with his back towards the pool and his arms stretched, in a.typical diving stance. Then he saw his shadow on the wall. The shadow appeared to be a 'cross' ! So moved was he at this realization that he knelt down to pray to God. As he rose up to take up the diving stance once again, he heard the door of the pool open and the saw the maintenance man walk in. The maintenance man switche...

On Saturday - I celebrated my 49th birthday. That the small celebration would happen in the company of siblings (my own brother and wife's brother) and their families, nephews and nieces, was a given. The issue this year was that my 82 year old mother who is bed ridden after an injury in the back, would not be able to attend. So we decided to do the next best thing. Assemble at her home, and celebrate there ! Not to be outdone, my mother made the effort to sit up, get up, use a walker and walk into her drawing room to sit with all of us. At the end of it, she was happy that her house had got filled up with the noise, the hustle and bustle, and above all some happy moments that were able to share with her. We decided to get dinner from KFC, and so I went to get the food. Here another surprise awaited me. While I was in the queue waiting for my turn, I could make out that the salesman attending to the lady in ahead of me was not normal in some sense. When my turn came, I realised th...

There are many people in this World who come into public focus for a brief period of time, and then fade away - only to be remembered when they pass on... Ravi Baswani, Bollywood comedy actor, was one such personality. He died of a massive heart attack in Haldwani. Most people survive a heart attack, but Ravi was unlucky. His attack was massive, and he died before a Doctor could get to him The first realization that surprised me about Ravi's life, was that he was 64 years old ! Had I not read the news report about his death, I couldn't have imagined he was so old. Ravi Baswani belonged to that generation of actors, who were tremendously talented. He belonged to the same pedigree as Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri and many others who honed their acting skills through formal training at reputed institutions like the National School of Drama (NSD) or the Film and Television Institute of India. They then set foot in Bollywood, with a dream - to become film stars one day. Ma...

A common like amongst the four of us in the family - is 'Chinese' food. Well - the 'Indian Chinese' or the usual ' hakka noodles' 'fried rice' stuff and nothing more authentic. But for the discerning consumer, a place where even this usual stuff is found to be good, is difficult in Delhi in today's times. All restaurants seem to go through a cycle. The 'Fuyiya'and 'Chopsticks' - once the most happening place for this type of cuisine, now serve food which can be rated at best as 'ordinary'. Once upon a time, I could swear by them. But today I wouldn't waste my time and money there. There was however one restaurant nicely 'tucked' away in a 5 star hotel, which not many people seemed to know of. This was the 'Jewel of the East' in the ' Ashoka ' in Delhi. We discovered this and instantly got hooked on to it. For many reasons. One, they had the luxury of a huge amount of space. And finding a real s...

I didn't know Manohari Singh till a few days back. But when I did get to know who he was, the feeling in my heart was of intense respect and admiration. Now Manohari Singh is no more. He passed away on 13th July 2010, due to a cardiac arrest. He was 79. This blog post is a humble tribute to a man who most of us didn't know on the one hand, but actually knew him on the other. Three weeks ago, while flicking channels on TV, I 'ran' into a music reality show called Indian Idol. And since music is so ingrained into me, I couldn't help stopping right there, and listening to the rather melodious voice of the aspirant. The theme of that episode was 'RD Burman' or Pancham Da, as he was popularly known. It was in keeping with things that Asha Bhonsle was the chief guest and the honorary judge. I knew I was in for a treat -listening to old songs that were Pancham's compositions. What surprised me completely was that the orchestra accompanying the vocalists, was a...

We all know that. However, one day, I did put this 'saying' to test. The very thought of that incident 26 years ago, sends 'goose pimples' all over....! The year was 1984. the movie 'Coolie' had just been released. I was living in the St. Stephen's College hostel that year. A group of us were having dinner in the mess at about 8 pm. Suddenly an idea struck one of us - why not hit the night show of Coolie which was running at 'Batra' a cinema hall not very far from College. Normally most programs especially the 'after dinner' ones were made in the same manner - 'on the spot' - without much advance planning. So it was decided that those that had finished dinner would move as an 'advance party' and arrange for tickets, and the rest who were still having dinner would follow. Availability of tickets was going to be an issue, since the movie had been released less than a week ago, and was running full houses. I was to be a part of t...

Today I received a mail from a friend that talked about the good old days, when our generation was much younger. The mail showed all the TV serials we saw as teenagers, on Doordarshan. It talked about how life and times then were much simpler.... I read the mail and it suddenly struck my mind, that ours must be a unique generation. Unique in the sense that it is this generation that would have seen the biggest change in the World, in one lifetime. And by change in the World I mean change in the way the World around us was, as early as, say, when we were born, and the way life and the World is for us, today, when we are somewhere near middle age. Our elders could contest that. The logic being, that every generation sees a huge amount of change in a span of 60-70 years. Be that as it may. Without comparing, I would still consider my generation to be lucky to have seen such a transformation in the way we live our lives. One of the aspects of life that immediately impacts us is technolog...

As soon as I reached home from Office yesterday, Manoj Lal, a friend since School called up. Always the one to take the initiative to get old school buddies reunited, he once again had a surprise in store. He had invited Rajesh Chopra and Vivek Sanyal , both School mates, and wanted to know if I could join... My mind went back into the past, 32 years ago. The year was 1978. Rajesh and I were the only two students of the class who appeared for the NDA examination to join the 60th course starting July 1978. I was medically rejected, and Rajesh made it. He left School and that was the last time I saw him. We met up about an hour later, at the restaurant owned by Manoj. We talked about old times, enquired about other friends especially those in the 'fauj'. We also talked about the present and future. About families, children careers - almost everything. There was so much to catch up on in such a short time. Rajesh now - Colonel Rajesh Chopra - and soon to be called Brigadier Rajesh...

I have often wondered how easy - or hard it is to 'compress' an entire life of this soldier and General, into a few hundred words. This is a humble attempt - to pay tribute to one of India's finest soldiers - a distinguished General, leader and trainer, about whom very few outside the Army circles know.. Inderjit Singh Gill was born to a Sikh father and and English mother in 1919, in Chennai. His father was a Royal Medical Corps Doctor and Inder was one of four sons. After finishing School in Chennai, Inder went to England to complete his studies. It was because of the fact that he was half English biologically, and spent a good part of his life in England, that Inder was more of an Englishman, and less of a 'Sardar' That explained his clipped English accent, and absence of a turban and beard. Inder was a 'gora sa'ab' in more ways than one. Inder finished School in 1939 and had good enough grades to pursue Engineering at Edinburgh University. He howev...

1971.... It was yet another cold depressing evening in early December that year. She stood by the kitchen fire in her small two room home, reluctantly cooking some food which was to be her dinner. Reluctantly because she wasn't really interested in eating. For she was all alone - in the house that was small, and empty. She was all alone and lonely and that made her sad... This winter the whole day was depressing , the evenings even more so. Like during every winter this year too, she sat each day on the cot laid out in the front veranda of her house, right under the bright warm afternoon sun. She sat and did what she had been doing for years. She sat and knitted. She knitted sweaters and dabbled off and on with crochet. Her fingers were old and wrinkled but they moved the needles with such speed that they seemed but a blur... But there was something missing this winter. Her two sons, both officers in the Army, had not returned home for their regular two month annual leave. When her...