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January 12th, 2011 by bkbirla

शीला की जवानी से मुन्नी बदनाम क्यूँ हुई

हमारा देश एक बहुत ही कठिन दौर से गुज़र रहा है. पता नहीं क्या होगा हमारे देश के भविष्य का. एक ज़िम्मेदार नागरिक होने के कारन आप को आगाह करना मेरा कर्तव्य है. एक तो मुन्नी के बदनाम होने से पहले ही आधा देश परेशान था और अब शीला भी जवान हो गयी. बहुत ही असमंजस का समय है. मुन्नी के बदनाम होने का दोष तो हम सलमान की माथे पे भी मढ़ सकते हैं पर इस बेचारी शीला का क्या करें. उस का तो बस इतना ही दोष है की वो खुद से ही प्यार कर बैठी और बचपन मैं किसी के हाथ मैं नहीं आने के कारण उसे हमेशा फेविकोल वाले डब्बे पर बिठाया जाता था.

ये बहुत ही जटिल विषय है और मैं जो खुलासा करने जा रहा हूँ वो देश की सुरक्षा की द्रष्टि से बहुत ही गोपनीय बातें उजागर करेगा इस लिए जो अठारह वर्ष से कम के बच्चे ( शाहिद अफरीदी के अलावा ) हैं, वो कृपया कर के अपने अपने माँ बाप की गोदी मैं बैठ जायें. जो अठारह वर्ष से ज्यादा हैं वो इस विषय वस्तु पे पूरी तरह से ध्यान दें. सब से पहले शीला के जवान होने की बात करते हैं. शीला बचपन से ही अपने नाम को बिलकुल पसंद नहीं करती थी. उस को तो सविता ( भाभी नहीं ) भी इतना बुरा नाम नहीं लगता था पर भारतीय संसकारों मैं नाम रखने का हक़ या तो माँ बाप का है या उस मैं नयी पूंछ लगाने का हक़ पति को. कई लोग कहते हैं की उस को शीला नाम से इस लिए नफरत थी क्यूंकि वो किसी राजनीतिज्ञ का नाम था जो एक बहुत बड़े घोटाले मैं पैसा बनाने मैं असफल रही. जो भी कारण रहा हो परंतु इस नाम के लिए नफरत ने शीला को बहुत ही विचलित कर दिया था. वो अपने नाम से ये बद्नुमा दाग हटा देना चाहती थी. उन्होंने एक दिन दृढ निश्चय कर लिया की वो अपना जीवन देश की सेवा मैं लगा देंगी. भारतीय सेना मैं उन दिनों बहुत जोर शोर से भर्ती चल रही थी और शीला ने भी अपना आवेदन पत्र भर दिया. बहुत ही कठिन दौर से गुजर कर उन्हें भर्ती कर लिया गया और वो जवान हो गयी.

अब आते हैं मुन्नी की बदनामी पर. अब देखिये मुन्नी के साथ बहुत सारी समस्याएं थी. एक तो उन का फिगर शिल्पा ( बिफोर राज कुंदरा ) वाला था और उन की अदा बेबो ( आफ्टर शाहिद कपूर ) वाली थी और उन के पीछे लम्बू और सैफू भी थे. उन के जीवन मैं इन चार स्टार्स के अलावा एक और स्टार था उन का नकली डॉक्टर भाई मुन्ना जिसने पटना से नकली ऍम बी बी एस की डिग्री बनवाई थी. जब डिग्री बनवाने गए थे मुन्ना भाई तो एक हज़ार रुपये कम पद गए थे और एजेंट ने उन को जानवर के डॉक्टर वाली ही डिग्री दी. इसी लिए उन्होंने छोटा शहर छोड़ के मुंबई मैं अपनी प्रक्टिस शुरू की. तो कुल मिला के मुन्नी के ज़िन्दगी मैं ये पांच स्टार्स थे. इस चक्कर मैं उन को दो बुरी आदतों ने घेर लिया. एक तो बहुत फाइव स्टार चोकलेट खाने लगी और दुसरे फाइव स्टार होटल मैं खाना खाने की आदत पड़ गयी. बहुत उधर बढ़ गया था उन का होटल मैं भी और बनिए की दूकान पे भी. एक दिन इस आदत के चलते उन की पैसे की तंगी इतनी बढ़ गयी की उन को चोरी का सहारा लेना पड़ा. उन की एक दोस्त थी मोनिका जिस को सब लोग डार्लिंग कह के बुलाते थे. मुन्नी ने एक दिन हिम्मत कर के मोनिका की फाइव स्टार दुकान से एक चोकलेट चुरा ही ली. पर उन की बदनसीबी तो देखिये, चुरा के भागते वक़्त उन का पैर फिसल गया और उन के पिछवाड़े मैं चोट लग गयी. अब दर्द के मारे उन को झंडू बाम भी चुराना पड़ा. दूसरी चोरी करते वक़्त वो पकड़ी गयी और वो बदनाम हो गयी.

अब आप सोचेंगे की इन दोनों कहानियों मैं कनेक्शन कहाँ है. अरे भाई कनेक्शन है, बिलकुल है. हमारे पडोसी देश को ये पता था कि शीला के जवान होने से भारतीय सेना मैं एक नया जोश आ जायेगा और इस लिए वो ये बिलकुल भी नहीं चाहते थे कि ऐसा हो. इस के लिए उन्होंने भारत के बड़ी बॉस मारने वाले मशहूर कलाकार सलमान खान से संपर्क किया. पहले उन्होंने अपनी महिला मित्र शीला ( कटरीना कैफ ) से बहुत गुज़ारिश की वो जवान होने का अपना कार्यक्रम स्थगित कर दें पर शीला के दृढ निश्चय के आगे उन की एक न चली. मोनिका डार्लिंग ( हेलेन ) सलमान खान की सौतेली माँ लगती है और सलमान के कहने पर उन्होंने अपनी दुकान पर फाइव स्टार के बड़े पेकेट आगे रखे जिस से मुन्नी के दिल में छुपा हुआ चोकलेट प्रेम जाग जाये. इस प्रकार से हमारे पडोसी देश के घिनोने इरादे असफल हो गए और हमारा देश भारत फिर से महान हो गया.

जय हिंद

उपलेख : लेखक अपना आभार प्रकट करना चाहता है सब से पहले श्रीमान राहुल बंसल जी को जिन्होंने इस विषय वस्तु पर लेखक की जिज्ञासा जाग्रत करने का कार्य किया और सुश्री मीनू देवी का जिन्होंने इस कहानी को एक सूत्र मैं पिरोने मैं मदद की.

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January 2nd, 2011 by bkbirla

PJ Hall of Fame 2010

I have been PJing for some time now ( PJ Hall of Fame 2009 )  and here is the collection of some of the best I have managed this year. I would love to know the ones you like.

  1. If vegie folks of Delhi ever decide to form a seperate country, it will be called Paneeristan. #PJ
  2. The world is flat because #Rajnikanth stepped on it. #legendofrajni #PJ
  3. Q. What did CSS tell HTML? A. Form is temporary class is permanent. #tech #pj
  4. Blue Denim Jeans has saved more water compared to all the environmental agencies put together. #PJ
  5. Q. What is common between proposing a girl and catching an auto? A. The fear of NO. #PJ
  6. Give me some sunshine, give me some rain, I want to wash and dry, my dirty clothes again #3idiots #song #pj
  7. Srisanth is the Zandu Balm for India. Removes Paine. #PJ #cricket
  8. Ponting says Oz attack is best in the world. I am sure lot of Indians living down under will agree.
  9. I don’t care about the Ram Mandir but I want a Laxman temple in Australia. #VVSRocks #cricket
  10. What did MF Hussain hear when he called to cancel his Indian credit cards? Kripya prateeksha kijiye. Aap Qatar main hain. #pj
  11. Where ordinary man see 1 lane, delhi wala can see 3-at gurgaon toll booth
  12. Ash has a face which can launch 1000 ships but nowdays Ash is stopping 1000 planes in Europe #PJ
  13. Never play Raavan movie on ur comp as it will have a conflict with RAM. #PJ
  14. Doctor: What is your blood group? Twitter Freak: twO+ #twitter #pj
  15. If you can’t figure out what you are bad at, try marriage. #PJ
  16. Q. What is the name of Kannada version of Godfather? A. Eshwarappa #PJ #Bangalore
  17. WTF moment of the year. No queues in polling station and parking full in ISKCON temple. #Bangalore #BBMP#election
  18. The worst subject for email – PLAGUE is now following you on Twitter!
  19. Q. Who walked ahead of umpire Aleem Dar in T20 match? A. Jeet. Kyunki Dar ke aage Jeet hai. #pj
  20. The best and worst thing in life is that good, bad, ugly do not exist in black and white. #Quote
  21. Status of my 8 year old daughter on her school social network site – stay cool from worldly problems
  22. Botox takes a RajniKanth injection to look younger. #LegendofRajni
  23. The song that inspired facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg #pjhttp://ping.fm/O6KR5
  24. The song that inspired Twitter founders @ev and @biz #pjhttp://ping.fm/btJQu
  25. PM Manmohan Singh has asked Dhoni to quickly lose the match so that the country can focus on Obama visit #PJ
  26. Mr/Ms Universe – Thanks for organizing solar eclipse. #solareclipse #pj
  27. Pakistan cricket team is receiving ICC award for being the most predictable team. #PJ #cricket
  28. The parallel lines in the new rupee symbol indicate than ends are not going to meet
  29. A real friend is somebody who knows enough about you to blackmail you but he/she doesn’t.
  30. I am a Banglorean and good Bisi Bele Bhath is my fundamental right. #bangalore
  31. #MyNameIsKhan – 1 movie 3 hours & no justice to 3 things: Entertainment, Terrorism & Autism
  32. Pyaz hamein kis mod pe le aaya. #PJ
  33. Indian government has decided to give tax incentives to people who convert to Jainism to curb onion prices #PJ
  34. What is the similarity between Gabbar Singh and Cardiologist? Both of them say ki bahut namak khaya hai, ab goli kha. #PJ
  35. Isn’t it so obvious that #Christmas is so popular with masses #PJ
  36. Bharat Bandh does not mean that Manoj Kumar has been arrested #PJ
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December 25th, 2010 by bkbirla

Remembering Rafi on his birthday

I was so surprised to get an invitation from Bar Bar Rafi via Shiva Priya who is a follower of Bhoole Bisre Geet. The location for the event was Indian Institute Of World Culture which is in Basvangudi where you get the best quality of South Indian food in the entire city. It was a long drive for me from Indiranagar though the busiest part of the city. I gathered all the courage I had and decided to take the plunge.

I never expected that a place like Bangalore will have so many fans of Rafi fans. As soon as I entered the room I saw atleast 50 people singing together some of the greatest songs of the immortal Rafi. I did manage to find a chair and all of us played a lovely game of identifying a song and then all of us were singing together. After that we cut a big cake and sang a Rafi song together – Bar Bay Ye Din Aaye. Everybody pitched in after that and sang few lines from Rafi songs. The last thing on our agenda was a wonderful karaoke session where everybody participated. Overall a lovely evening which was nicely organized by Rafi fans in Bangalore.

Here are some pictures and videos from the event.

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September 9th, 2010 by bkbirla

Bhoole Bisre Geet at 5K

It has been a fabulous journey. When I started this forum Bhoole Bisre Geet, the idea was more or less to help myself reconnect with old hindi film music. Something I loved a lot but fell victim to day to day challenges of life. The forum found a quick connect with so many people in such a short period which is amazing. The best part for me is to see the amazing discussions and comments which are posted around these songs. These songs have been part of our life in so many ways and it is really touching to see people sharing their memories about them.

Here are few things to do to make sure that we can continue this fun without interruption.

- Please press the like button if you like something. This ensures that we get feedback as well as it ensures that these songs continue to appear on your FB wall.
- If you have memories or anecdotes associated with any of the song, please feel free to share.
- Please share this page with your friends and family. More the merrier.

Our admin community is now 5 person strong and we have people with varying music tastes contributing to the continuous stream of great songs. We have Darshan from US, Meenu from Delhi and Varuna, Neena and myself from Bangalore.

Stay tuned…..

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August 7th, 2010 by bkbirla

What to do with left over Dal in your kitchen?

Fundamentally there are three type of people in this world as far as left over management is concerned.

1. People who throw/give the leftovers immediately.

2.People who throw/give leftovers after keeping it in fridge for few days

3. People who become creative with leftovers and really eat them.

 

So here is a small effort to put you in type 3.

You can make some really delicious stuff with leftover Dal. Don’t blame me if you start enjoying the leftover dishes more than the regular dal.

The first easy thing to make is Dal Paranthas. Just knead them into the aata and make some yummy paranthas in your regular way. You might want to dry the dal a little bit. It usually becomes dry if you keep it open in fridge or you can just heat it a little to do that. This is a great way for making sure your kids eat dal. It is easier to convince your kids to eat stuffed paranthas ( don’t call them dal paranthas ) than healthy dal.

Now coming to the 2nd dish which will require a little bit more effort but you will feel happy with what you get back. Take a little bit of besan and put it in a kadhai. Roast it for 5 minutes. Besan will turn brown in color and you will also get a strong smell of roasted besan. Add all the leftover dal you have to the besan after you remove it from the gas. Now you can add some chopped onions and ginger to it. One or two wet bread pieces ( brown corners removed ) will also be an interesting addition. Make the resultant mixture into a aata like consistency. Taste the salt to ensure that it is fine. You can also add chopped green chillies if you want it spicy. Roll them to small balls and shallow fry them on a tava. The trick is to fry for some time, flatten it a little bit on tava and fry it again. You are going to enjoy this for sure in your breakfast or evening snacks along with some tomato sauce or green chutney.

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July 17th, 2010 by bkbirla

Crime and Punishment

What is the point in doing a crime if there is no fear involved. Crimes are certainly not worth doing without the element of fear. Anyway I am not talking about any significant crime here. I used to study in St Thomas Convent School in Lucknow. A perfect place to for a shy boy like me ( yes I was shy as a kid if you find it tough to beleive) to come out of my shell and try something different. After all at 14-15 years of age you are trying lot of things which are new in your life.

The temptation to commit the crime was really big. We were senior most class in our small school and we thought of ourselves as kings and the idea was simple, to assert our authority and probably impress few girls also in the process. The plan was perfect – a small semi broken chair in the classroom pleading to our violent instincts to take it all the way. The idea was to simply break it into small enough pieces and throw it out of the window in our classroom. So the escape plan was also perfect as there was no signs of humanity beyond the lonely window in our 2nd floor classroom.

So what could go wrong here. But then you know, Mr Murphy did not become my friend recently. I have had a childhood relationship with Mr Murphy. We broke the chair into tiny pieces and threw each small piece out one by one. What a pleasure it was to break it and throw it. This was our way to declare freedom against the teachers we were so scared off. But to our misfortune somebody who had a small home probably half a kilometre away from our school saw some UFOs coming out of a small window. He did something which I have no idea why any sane human being who has a job will do. He collected all the wooden pieces and brought it to the principal of our school. He also figured out the class from where these UFOs originated. We were caught red handed.

The punishment was swift and embarrassing. We were made to stand in the sun and since the principal could not figure out who did the crime, he punished the entire class. We representing the senior most class standing in the sun and all the small kids around asking us why we were standing like that. Only if earth could break up, I would have gone underground and hid my face.

But then after some time fairer sex was getting too concerned about loosing fairness in the bright and hard hitting sun. So they stuck a deal. The girls in our class told the principal all the people who were involved in the act and they escaped the punishment. Four of us were named by them and I was also part of the list. Others who were also listed were Samrendra, Dalbir and Vikas( I am not sure of all the names although). Our punishment continued and we spent the entire day enjoying the sun.

So girls of my school, if you happen to read this now, I just wanted to let you know that I have forgiven you for this. I can understand the fascination for fair skin. Fair and Lovely was not so popular during 1980s. Anyways if we end up meeting, I am sure you can at least buy lunch for a non-alcoholic and vegetarian me to make up for the calories lost.

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June 18th, 2010 by bkbirla

Bhoole Bisre Geet on Facebook

I had started sharing great old songs ( Bhoole Bisre Geet ) via twitter and FB and received lot of great feedback from friends. Now I am moving this to a FB page so that lot more friends outside my friends circle can also enjoy the great music. Besides that I can also have multiple people contributing to this.

Just go and press the like button on our new FB page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bhoole-Bisre-Geet/111281795585260?ref=ts

Great music will get delivered to your FB wall on a regular basis and do not forget to like the songs which you enjoy so that it continues to appear on your wall.

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April 11th, 2010 by bkbirla

Cooking classes in pictures

This camp was organized by Noah’s Show. They organize innovative events/summer camps for kids in 6-12 years age bracket.

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April 11th, 2010 by bkbirla

Day 5 – That sweet thing called chocolate

Lot of researches across the world have pointed out again and again that women will prioritize chocolates over anything and everything in life. I can certainly vouch for that with my little experiment done in most unscientific ways with few lovely young ladies. The fifth day agenda was chocolates. Lots of them, of all colors and tastes – dark, milk and white, apple, corn flakes and cashews.

The session started with usual fight about what to make first. Everybody had a different starting point. We adopted a democratic approach to break the deadlock. The dark chocolate won the battle to my surprise. I never thought that kids will be fond of slightly bitter tasting chocolate. We decided to mix some apples to the chocolates. Small diced pieces. We melted the chocolate in microwave and mixed the apples once it was molten. Then we just put them on a steel plate which was greased a little bit with ghee to ensure that that chocos don’t stick. And here they go to deep freezer or at least that is what I thought. Everybody was so keen on opening it after every few seconds that it tested the Samsung quick freeze technology to it’s limits. As soon as I took the chocos, I was just ambushed by all the kids. An empty plate is all I was left with within a span of 30 seconds. The scene repeated multiple times when we made white chcolate with corn flakes, milk chocolate with cashews and coffee.

Besides the chocos we managed to make some cheesy potatoes on our grill. Thinly sliced potatoes grilled to make them crispy and the a little bit of cheese over them before serving.

This was the last day of the session and my initial nervousness had transformed to sheer joy. It was fun to work with so many enthusiastic kids and get them interested in creative art of cooking.

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April 9th, 2010 by bkbirla

Day 4 – Chaats and Juices and a big mess

Obviously. What else did you expect? Throw some kids around chaats and juices and a big mess is bound to follow. The first item on our list was Bhel Puri. Everybody had a great time cutting the boiled potatoes and tomatoes but when it came to onions, most of them gave up.One of the bigger kid did the job. Before we could finish the Bhel Puri, ice cream arrived and all hell break loose. The idea was to make some icecream soda by popping some vanila ice cream into soft drinks, but tough to control kids when you have two of their favorite things in front of them.

Lot of pushing and pulling. Somebody wanted a combo of Mirinda and Thums Up while some other kid wanted just ice cream. When there is so much of ice cream and soft drink around, some of it got to go to the floor also. Anyway we came back to Bhel Puri after that. We moved on to doing some yummy Papdi Chaat after that. The next thing was Aloo Chaat made using green chutney. The chutney was a little bit spicy and all the kids found an excuse to have more soft drinks. Chaat Masala and Kala Namak added amazing twist to all the chaats.

The next thing on the agenda was Mint Julep. Let me accept it that it was my first time making it. I was pretty nervous on how it will taste. But it came out really well and the best part was kids also loved it and multiple refills. The only problem with all these juices was that enough got spilled on the floor. I also loved the taste and planning to add this to my restaurant menu.

The end of the day discussions included revision of all the items and also a little bit of home work. I asked all the kids to ask their parents their favorite dish so that I can teach them how to make it.

PS:

1. These cooking lessons were part of the summer camp organized by Noah’s Show.

2. The cleaning lady needs my apologies again.

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