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Showing posts from May, 2009

Anuradhapura – an Ancient and Sacred Grandeur of Sri Lanka

There is an element of thrill traversing through the unsecure terrain or brushing past the boundaries of militarily hostile neighbors. I felt this excitement at the India Pakistan Wagha border in Amritsar, traveling past the southern Lebanon townships near Israel border. However, neither of the above would match the excitement of our travel to Anuradhapura along A9 highway that heads straight to Jaffna. Anuradhapura was considered as a last frontier in the battlefield of LTTE and Sri Lanka Govt. It was Nov 2008. Sri Lankan defense forces were nailing down LTTE but LTTE still had the punch. There were reports of LTTE losing hold on the eastern front but Northern machinery was still intact. There was a lurching fear that LTTE might get desperate and bounce back to avenge their loss of eastern front. Exactly a year ago, LTTE had made daring air, ground attack on the Anuradhapura Air Base, and destroyed seven aircrafts. This was the highest casualty suffered by Sri Lanka Air Force in the

Sri Lanka - a paradise regained

My first IMAX movie was about the Nature’s fury seen from the space. As the orange flames of the rockets gave a way to clear skies, the very first view was that of earth through the bottom of the space shuttle. An image of a pendant hung at the end of a dangling chain, kept on foamy blue and white velvet satin sheet emerged. Wow...how beautiful sight that was. As the shuttle raced to a higher altitude, location of the pendant became obvious. It was Sri Lanka and the chain was an Indian shoreline along the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. This image of Sri Lanka is still well carved in my memory. I had seen this movie in early 90's and in 08, I got a chance to be in Sri Lanka. I am happy that this country with wonderful people is now out of clutches of the worst terrorism. It has suffered almost 30 years of violence, mayhem and uncertainty. I am sure the pendant would once again beckon the world travelers for its pristine beaches of Galley, green top mountains of Kandy, Buddhist h

Prakash Mehra - an entertaining filmmaker

Yeh police station hai,tumhare baap ka ghar nahin..isliye jab tak baithne ko na kaha jaye sidhi tarah sharafat se khade raho... ... With this dialogue of Zanjeer, Amitabh truly arrived at Bollywood. I remember reading Prakash Mehra's interview where he mentioned of Raj Kapoor calling upstairs in his room at RK studio ' Are Prakash ko upar bulaoo - Call Prakash upstairs'. It seems Raj Kapoor from his room would often listen and watch the scenes enacted below in his studio. He told Prakash Mehra 'Prakash, I watched this dialogue and this new man , yah ladka boht aage jayega- this man will race ahead '. There was nothing unique about the prophecy of Kapoor, this was felt by every cine viewer who watched Zanjeer. However, what interested me was the manner in which Prakash Mehra narrated this incident. This ability of narrate a story or incident is also been complimented by Amitabh himself. With Prakash Mehra's passing away, two decades of my entertainmen

Blues and Elations post Election result

My heart goes for Mr. Lal Krishna Advani. All his life he remained under the shadow of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and when the time came to bask in the glory, he missed and messed it up. After being with RSS in formative years, it is difficult for me to dilute my attachment from old guards of Jan Sangh. But Mr. Advani and BJP gradually but surely lost the claim of 'Party with Difference' when many moments came to test his mettle as an 'Iron Man'. As a home minister, he allowed to ‘trade in’ terrorists in Kandahar tragedy and later expressed a personal regret yet justified the decision as a collective responsibility of the cabinet. Second instance was when he with other echelons in the BJP wavered to act decisively against Mr. Bangaru Laxman thereby losing the sheen of 'incorruptibility'. The third episode was ' Jinnah'. There was nothing wrong with his statement that Mr. Mohd Ali Jinnah was secular. He was indeed a secular person and his dreams of carving

India Election

Indian general election is over. For the first time in the history of Republic of India, results would be available by the switch of the button than by the opening of the ballot boxes. Manual counting of votes had its own share of fun and suspense. Results would trickle in after every round of counts that would swing the pendulum from one side to another. Some results, often from south be announced by late noon while some from Bihar would still be on the way even though new govt would have announced. This time 100 million out of 700 million electorate are first time voters. That is 7% of the electorate. What an irony! These youngsters have to choose between 80-year-old Mr. Advani of BJP and 77-year-old Mr Manmohan Singh of Congress. Places where these two parties are not strong they have another regional parties headed by 85 year old Mr Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu and 82 year old Mr Badal in Punjab . I am relieved that this election had no bomb blasts, terrorist attacks, kidnapping or bo

On Buddha's B'day at Lantau Island

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Happy Birthday Dear Buddha. Happy Birthday Dear Buddha. A song that is favorite of Akshta and she insists others around her to follow her. At Lantau Island, reaching closer to Buddha statue, flags were fluttering, announcing Buddha's B'day week. That message was enough for Akshta to raise her already high level of adrenaline to climb 260 steps to reach for her b'day boy. The sight of 2 year old kid panting, stopping, moaning yet putting an extra effort of climbing after goading to rhyme the b’day song was great amusement to visitors around. It wasn't an easy for us either. Being weekend, place was crowded. When we reached out of Tung Chung MTR, the board said '2 hour waiting time'. That sign was enough to delay our departure and instead chill us in the company of musical fountain. Akshta met 'mai', a girl from England who was traveling to Australia while being in transit in Hong Kong. A while later, board changed to ' 1 1/2 hour' But that sig

Hong Kong - 4 Night 5 day stay

I was visiting Hong Kong after almost 20 years. During these two decades, Hong Kong underwent a change of ownership. One of the finest hotels that I have stayed so far, Hilton was demolished soon after a year of my last visit. New airport replaced the old one taking away the thrill of watching aircraft navigating through tall buildings - so close that you could almost see people brushing their teeth - or seeing your aircraft almost kiss the sea waves only to land on an air strip. I had lovely memories of Lama Island, Ocean Park, Stanley Market and open bus tour of Kowloon. This time, I was aware that I had lot of new things to see. Frommer book came handy for planning the things. Agoda helped me to book a hotel through internet. With Akshta around, we had to slow the things. Lantau Island Buddha statue, Disney land and Peak tram was automatic choice. I wasn't sure about Macau but left it till we arrived in Hong Kong. Hong Kong must be one of the few countries left in the world to