What do I do ?

Whatever I may try, my hair wont listen to me today ... I just cant get them to look proper ... Its so frustrating !! I spent about 25 minutes on setting them right this morning .. combing them left and right but in vain ! .. I finally gave up ... useless ! This is one of those times when I really appreciate bald guys ... its so easy for them !

I feel like such a loser man ... :(

Sonu Nigam - Best of the Best

I was just listening to this 'Mere Haath Mein Tera Haath Ho" from Fanaa ... and I have kept it on repeat mode for last I dont know how many times ... Of course the lyrics are great and also the music ... But what makes it best is Sonu Nigam's voice ... I am a huge huge huge fan of Sonu Nigam ... all of my close friends know how much I love his voice ... This post is dedicated to him ... He deserves many more like these ... :) .. here is a look at his journey ...

What can I say ? The only son of "Agam Kumar Nigam" (BTW he is a very famous singer in north) .. born on July 30 (Leo) ... With music running in his blood, this kid made his first stage appearance at the age of 3 and kept winning all competitions till the age of 18 when he moved to Mumbai for a serious career in Singing .. But things were not so easy for him ... He had to struggle a lot before Gulshan Kumar heard him and gave him his first super hit 'Accha Sila Diya Tune Mere Pyar Ka' from 'Bewafa Sanam' ... People started noticing him a little ... He was only 18 !

But even after that he didnt get the kind of break he wanted ... he kept singing (or imitating to the finest) Mohd. Rafi's old songs ... He had a moderate success ... Then came "Sa Re Ga Ma" .. The Zee TV show which gave him the opportunity to go to each and every house in India .. Sonu grabbed this opportunity and made full use of it ! His anchoring, style of singing, his lovely voice .. everything was so captivating ! Everyone starting from grandparents to kids started noticing Sonu ... since then his career has been flourishing ..

He started getting more offers for movie songs .. and he lived upto the expectations ..rather very well exceeded them ... Border (what a song Sandese Aate Hai !), Taal, Sangharsh (Lovely songs esp. Mujhe Raat Din Bas Mujhe !!), Saathiya (melodious !), Pukar, Refugee(Panchee Nadiya .. ), Dil Se (Satrangee re .. such a difficult song to sing !!), Dil Chahta Hai(Tanhayee ..), K3G(Surja Hua Maddham) .. Kal Ho Na Ho .. and the list goes on ... But not only did he capture the movie music world, he also entered into the pop world ... His album "Deewana" sold millions and millions of copies ... and he continued giving his best with Mausam, Jaan, Yaad Chanda Ki Doli and many others ... Every song he sang was with his complete heart ... every song deserved an award ..and he did win several of them ... But I think awards was just another stamp that he'z the best ...

Be it a happy song, party song, pop song, sad song or bhajan or classical ... be it any song ! Sonu can sing it ... and sing it better than others ... his happy songs will make u happy and sad songs will bring tears in ur eyes ... Another great virtue of this singer is his ability to change voice as per the actor ... he has sung for Shahrukh, Salman, Aaamir, Govinda, Sanjay, Bobby, Akshay Khanna, Akshay Kumar and every other hero ... and it never feels like a mismatch of voice ... and thats coz of his efforts to change his voice ...

Its tough to say which is his best song ... esp because he has sung so many and with such variety ... I think his best sad song would be "Tanhayee" from DCH ... high pitch song would be Satrangee re or "Rabba Mere Rabba ... Is Pyaar Ko Main Kya naam doo "... both these songs are very very high pitched ... Happy song ... well thats a tough one .. there are so many ! romantic song according to me would be a tie between 'Yuhi Ham Tumse Pyaar' from Khakee & 'Haan Mujhe Bas Mujhe' from Sangharsh ... well even the 'Dil hi dil mein humko maare' from Dum is also great ... truly, I dont know ... his every song is so good ... You listen to 'Kal Ho Na Ho" and the moment he starts singing 'Har Ghadi Badal Rahi Hai Roop Jindagi" and you are already bewitched ! bewitched with his charm ... It has never happened to me that I hear any of his song and I dont like it because he has done a bad job at it ! name one !! Music may not be good but just his voice takes the song up the charts !!

Shaan, Udit, Abhijeet, Kumar Sanu, (I hate him.. dil se ... I think he has done justice to only a few songs .. like Ek Ladki Ko dekha, Meri Mehbooba, Ai Kaash Ke Hum & maybe a few others ... but I am sure anyone would have sung them better than him ... anyway thats not the topic of this post is it ?) A R Rehman & others are good but I dont think anyone is even close to Sonu's talent, his voice, his modularity, his charm, his charisma, his style .... and I have not even spoken a word about his amazing looks & how handsome he is ...

Sonu, u r the BEST ! Keep singing such lovely songs .... hats off to you !

C (See) for Color ...

A question for all you guys & gals ... How would you describe different colors to a blind man ? big deal ??? Its not something that you can smell, not something you can hear or touch or feel ... Its just something you can see ... only with your eyes ... I mean .. whats red, whats blue ? ... all you ppl (including me), who can see - heres the question - define : any color ! choose red as a representative .. define : red ... or just imagine a kid asking you this question .. what would you say to him ?

Remember :

1. Dont use any other color to define a color (e.g. You cant say green is something you get when you mix blue with yellow (I hope the combi is right) - thats deadlock)

2. Dont use any object to describe a color (e.g. You cant say red is the color of blood .. come on)

3. Dont use any color palette / rgb mechanism (e.g. red = (255,0,0) is not allowed .. This one is esp for my fellow software engineers ...)

Yeah .. try googling that !! 'define : red' ( oops .. please read that as msn searching ... I keep forgetting I am in MS now ;) ..)

I know some of you might say this is ridiculous ... its like asking define "1" or define "2" without using any number/ object ... but then thats what came to my mind and ultimately found its way to this page ...

Anyway, there are so many shades, feelings associated with color ! I mean red is associated with blood,violence,tomatoes,loss, blush, passion and many more ... Makes me think what all is a blind man missing ? Its not only vision - its something much much more grave than that ! Its the identity of everything that he is missing ! What comes to your mind when we say "blood" .. its red ! .. what comes to a blind man's mind when he hears "blood" ? I wonder !!

Why is Apple making each and everything in White ? B'coz they want to be known by that color !! There are so many more examples like that ... Colors play such a big role in our life ... imagine a life without any colors .. and by that I mean NO colors ..( not black and white - thats 2 colors right there !) ... Just one color .. pick one .. say everything would be black around you !! How depressing would that life be !! Can you imagine that ? And we have millions and millions of colors all around us ... each separating itself uniquely from others ... I wonder ...

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Broadly thinking and taking the liberty to divert from the topic ... well .. colors is not the only thing that a blind person misses ... besides not able to see his loved ones, him/herself, not knowing what beauty is ! ... not even a hint of it ... whats light and whats darkness ? whats a tree and whats a sea .... It all feels so meaningless without seeing it ...

We all saw the movie 'Black' ... It touched me ... especially to see that little girl fight ... how not having the ability to see takes her into a cave of her own ... in a shell ... We all have heard stories of Helen Keller ... Donating eyes is no lesser than giving someone a whole new life, a new identity, a new purpose for life, a new direction, a new beginning ... Eye donation is one of the greatest achievements of modern science ! I have decided that I will donate my eyes on my death ... I encourage you to make that decision as well ..

A few useful links :

Eye Bank Association of America
Eye Bank
Shankara Nethralaya


"The eye is the window to the world, at the same time, it is the window of the soul." - Shakespeare.

Rain Rain Go Away ...

Just today I read 'How do Rains make you feel' by Evenstar and there was a sudden gush of feelings inside me and I knew I was gonna write this one even though I am in office right now ... ;) well, words are anyway going to flow out of me right now and so hoping that this post wont take too much of my lunch time :)

So... most of you might have got startled at the post title... 'Rain rain go away ?' .. does that mean I dont like rains ? ... where does this guy come from ? :)

Well, let me tell you thats not true ... I love rain !! I love that heavenly smell of water when it kisses earth ! I really do ... It gives me a totally cannot-be-expressed-in-words sensation when it starts raining ... When I was in India, back then in every june, I always remember myself as that guy whos looking at weather reports to find out whens it going to rain !! If the Sky gets cloudy ... cold winds start flowing ... the pond nearby starts getting those ripples ... you would always find me smiling and getting that yet-unknown-to-me eternal happiness as if someone somewhere wanted to make me truly smile ...I would just stand there and get drenched completely and keep looking at the sky all the while ... looking for a rainbow .. feeling water with my heart and not just skin ! Lightening in the sky ... thunder ... oh man ... or even sitting at home in the balcony with a cup of coffee (or chai) and a romantic novel with soft music playing 'tip-tip baarish shuru ho gayee ... ' while its raining out the window ... ooohhh .. it was all just great !!

Well, then why the name Rain Rain go away ? ... normally when asked about rain, everyone explains what they feel when it rains the first time or first few times ...noone goes beyond that and talks about the case if it rains everyday !!!

Well all that I said above was true only for first two or three rains ... I like it in moderate quantities .. I am an outdoor person and if it rains everyday then it ruins my day & my options ... not to mention the potholes on the road, mud everywhere and dirty clothes ... no cricket ... Thats why I loved Austin... It would rain but only for a few days ... But I am in Seattle now and it rains here everyday and by that I mean EVERYDAY !!! When I was about to come here, everyone told me, you are going to the 'most-depressing' city in US ... why ? because it rains everyday there ... and I could not believe it ... why would rain depress so many people ? ... but after spending about a couple of months here, I kinda know what they talked about ...

Nowadays everyday I get up just praying to God, please please, no rain today... I want to walk to work and enjoy the sun for once ... more than that, I dont want to sit inside office looking out of the window and wishing that I should have been out there ... standing in rain !! thats the worst thing ... after that I cant even concentrate on work ... cant go out and stand in rain ... cant play cricket in the evening bcoz it is cancelled ... pretty much cant do anything !! Its pretty much a waste of a day ... and this happens everyday ! think about it ...Washington is such a beautiful state to visit .. Its in fact called the 'evergreen' state ... but you have to look at the weather reports to find out that 'dry' day to visit all that greenery ... how sad !!

Thats why I say Rain rain go away and come again another day ! Let that another day - be the day when I am in India and just relaxing at home ... anyway doing nothing .. and I will have plenty of time to enjoy this rain I love so much to its fullest ! I know it sounds selfish and I also know that you can not choose your happy / sad times but still you can at least pray and hope for them right ?

*looking out the window and its raining :( .. sigh *