Sadhu Aur Shaitan (1968)

First Day First Show | Sadhu Aur Shaitan (1968)

Story: Usilai Somnathan

Dialogues and Lyrics: Rajendra Krishan

Music: Laxmikant – Pyarelal

Producers: N. C. Sippy and A. Bhimsingh

Screenplay and Direction: A. Bhimsingh

Date of Release: 31^st December 1968

Length: 156 Minutes

Cast: Mahmood (Bajrang), Bharthi (Vidhya), Om Prakash (Babu Sadhuram), Pran (Dilawarsingh / Sherkhan), Kishore Kumar (Pundit Dinanath Shastri), Nasir Hussain (Bank Agent), Anwar Hussain (Inspector), Master Shahid (Ganesh) and Baby Fauzia (Munni)

Special appearances by: Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mumtaz, Jeevan, Anwar Ali, Shubha Khote and Lalita Pawar

Songs:

“Kabhi Aage Kabhi Peechhe, Kabhi Upar Kabhi Neeche” – Mohammad Rafi

“A for Apple B for Baby C for Camel D for Daddy” – Asha Bhonsle and Manna Dey

“Mehbooba Mehbooba Bana Lyo Mije Dulha” – Mohammad Rafi and Mahmood

“Nandlal Gopala Daya Karke” – Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar

If you want to spend your spare time with loads of laugh by watching lots of great and good actors I would advise you to watch this movie. If I was a ‘laughter doctor’ then I would certainly have prescribed you this movie to forget all the pains of your life. When you have Mahmood, Kishore Kumar, Om Prakash, Pran, Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Dilip Kumar sharing single screen then why to think of others?

Sadhu Aur Shaitan

Synopsis:

Bajrang is a taxi driver, living in Mumbai; he has mixed well with his neighbor Babu Sadhuram and his kids Ganesh and Munni. Sadhuram is a cashier in a bank. Bajrang also likes Ganesh and Munni’s tuition teacher Vidhya. Once a Sardarjee forcefully enters into Bajrang’s taxi and then police starts following Bajrang’s taxi. While leaving the taxi, without paying the fare the Sardar threatens Bajrang to face the consequences if he goes to the police. This Sardar was non other then Daku Dilawarsingh. Again while saving himself from the police, Dilawar finds Sadhuram’s place as his shelter. Sadhuram immediately recognizes Dilawar as his childhood friend. Dilwar tells him that now he has become a Muslim and he spends his day by doing five time namaz only. He starts living with Sadhuram and his kids.

Slowly Dilawar wins Sadhuram’s trust and he has got a plan to rob Sadhuram’s bank. Once by showing fake chest pain to Sadhuram, he takes bank locker’s key impression on a toilet soap. One night when Sadhuram was in sleep Dilwar and his men rob the bank, but somehow Sadhuram wakes up at midnight and starts walking towards the bank. Upon reaching the bank, he sees different Dilawar and gets the shock of his life. He pleads Dilawar to put the money and things back into the bank but Dilawar don’t listen and attacks Sadhuram, in his defense Sadhuram kills Dilawar with his own gun. Actually Sadhuram and Dilawar fought inside a taxi and Dilawar himself had shot from his gun, but Sadhuram feels otherwise and leaves the scene with Bank’s money and other valuable things with him.

To Bajrang’s bad luck that taxi in which Dilawar got killed was his. The dead body of Delaware has been just below the back seat hence Bajarang was not aware of that and he begins his daily life. Every single passenger who hires Bajrang’s taxi that day leaves the journey within a few minutes of its commencement with quite a bit of fear in their faces and voices. Bajrang wonders why? …….

******

If you see the story is one or two liner, but Mahmood’s comedy and the superb supporting cast keep on running the film for more than two and half hours. I have always said and believed that Om Prakash was such an actor who can be molded easily and then you see only the character and not real Om Prakash, this belief of mine gets proved yet again by his performance in this movie. There were plenty of character artists in that era but no one could have done justice to Babu Sadhuram other than Om Prakash sir. The striking thing is that the entire film was a comedy and there are very few comic actors happened in our film industry till date and none better than Om Prakash, yet he got a serious role in this movie. The best part of Om Prakash’s performance in this movie is when he realizes that his friend is cheating him. The expressions on his face are to believe if you watch them and then you will agree with me ‘praises’ about him.

Along with Om Prakash and Ashok Kumar, Pran Saab is another actor who always gives me calming effect. Whenever I see either of these three a smile automatically comes on my face with a guarantee that now the movie is going to be a great watching experience. The only reason is that none of these three have never crossed their limits. I have never seen either of these three doing ‘over acting’… never!! Here Pran Saab is what he was best at, ‘a villain’. A different kind of villain though, but he convinces us with his acting that he is really a wicked guy. In the second part of the movie he has acted very well as a dead body. LOL I am just joking. Actually the dead body scene is repeated time and again so Pran Saab didn’t have to move around like Satish Shah of ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’.

Kishore Kumar in Sadhu Aur Shaitan

Kishore Kumar…aahaaaa!! When you see him you enjoy, when you hear him you enjoy!! Sometimes it is hard to decide whether he was a better actor or a better singer? One more unusual thing about this movie is that, in this movie Kishore’da is doing a role of a classical singer, yet he has not sung a single song, yes I repeat he has not sung a single song in this movie!! Booooo Laxmikant – Pyarelal ..lollzz kidding. Though in one scene of this movie he has made a real fun of Classical Singer by his acting. Kishore’da himself was not a ‘trained singer’ and because of that many ‘trained singers’ of that time used to feel jealous of him and I am sure he has made fun of those people by his acting in this movie. The fantabulous humorous reactions he gives when he first sees the dead body of Pran Saab is either he can give or his co-actor in this film Mahmood.

Yes, even Mahmood’s acting after seeing the dead body is simply out of this world. Though the official hero of the movie is Mahmood but for me the real hero of this movie is Kishore’da, despite being a hardcore fan of Mahmood. There is one forcefully inserted song in this movie in tune with Gumnaam’s “Hum kale hain toh kya hooa dilwaale hain”. There was no need of having a 15-20 minutes long scene of a ‘Charity show for the Taxi driver association’. Mehbooba Mehbooba bana lyo mije Dulha” is just a waste of a song. There was no need for Mahmood Saab to copy his own song but anyway lets leave that issue here and move on.

Despite having so many great names public gets surprise treatment by having a special appearance by Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mumtaz, Anwar Ali and Shubha Khote. Ashok Kumar is a film make-up man; Sunil Dutt is a priest, Dilip Kumar and Mumtaz are in their ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ get ups where as Mahmood’s brother Anwar Ali is with his once upon a time girl friend Shubha Khote. Everyone else but Dilip Kumar and Mumtaz have to run after they see the dead body, but Dilip Kumar must have told Mahmood that “I can give only a half day to you”, hence there are no dialogues for him and he and Mumtaz has appeared for just two minutes.

I have always felt in each film where Mahmood is in a lead role, that he must have done ‘ghost direction’ for that movie. It can be ‘Padosan’ (Jyoti Swaroop), ‘Bombay To Goa (S. Ramnath) you can easily find out the imprints of Mahmood Saab in it. Even in this film I feel that Mahmood Saab have given ‘ghost direction’ and A Bhimsingh is just there to sign the muster roll. I was never a big fan of L.P, not because I am a big fan of ‘Pancham’ because I am a big fan of O. P. Nayyar, Khayyam and Rajesh Khanna too. I love their music just like I love RD’s music. I have always found LP very loud even when there is no need to be one. Sorry LP fans, no offense meant. There is not much to say about songs of this movie, but yeah there is a particular tune when a new passenger enters the taxi and the taxi starts to move, I really liked that tune.

I would request reader buddies of this generation to try and watch this movie whenever they get the chance. I feel you may not know much about this movie, because not many T.V. Channels have shown this movie often. You will thank me once you will see this movie, of course for good reasons!!

EXIT

Bajrang: “Masterjee ye kaunsa raag hai?”

Pandit Dinanath Shastri: (Looking at the dead body) “Bajrangu isey ‘raag bhagrat’ kahete hain”

24.01.2013, Thursday

Ahmedabad

Tera Emosanal Atyachar

Rahul Gandhi

Newly crowned Congress Vice President, Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s first speech as a Vice President was really emotional for Congressmen and ‘Atyachar’ for most of the non-congressmen i.e. Indians in general. If his mother cried befor him because he now have to sip ‘the poison of power’ then most of our countrymen are sipping the ‘the poison of living a miserable life’, ‘the poison of not being listened’ ‘the poison of scary life’ every day and every night. If his mother cried for one night then our moms cry every night for not getting things to cook at reasonable rates, forget things, even the cooking gas on which she is supposed to cook those ‘valuables’ is getting dearer by every month passes by. Such emotional speech may attract, in fact has already attracted, congressmen but I am afraid not people in general have got attracted with it. Smiling faces of congress leaders like Jeetan Prasad and Mani Shankar Iyar will not synonym with Ram Prasad of UP or Krishnan Iyar of Chennai, whose life is getting worse in matching the two sides of income and expenditure. To be very honest, before yesterday, I was ignoring the comments on Rahul Gandhi of only being ‘Rajkumar’ and not attached to public in general, but since yesterday I am now contemplating, joining that bandwagon.

See, the reason is simple his speech may have helped to raise the spirits within the congress party but it has little or nothing to offer for people of India. There were days when people used to vote for Congress by their emotional speeches but not now. Indira Gandhi used to say “I am the daughter in law of Gujarat” whenever she used to visit here. The number of visits was less because Gujarat’s votes were taken for granted but still people of Gujarat used to feel very happy for Mrs. Gandhi being the one which she used to claim and used to vote for Congress. But now the ground has changed, Gujarat is just an example I am sure it is more or less the same in most part of our country. Voters of the states like Maharashtra, MP, Bihar, HP, Chhattisgarh and all four states of Southern India plus my state Gujarat are now looking at development as their priority and not at “whose uncle has done what and whose aunty remained at home.” If your life got disturbed because you came to know that the same policemen with whom you played badminton have killed your grandma more than two decades back, then it is your problem sir. Such statements might have appealed your cadre but not us the public who has suffered tremendously since last decade. If Mr. Gandhi himself is thinking of becoming next PM, first of all he must have to copy + paste the current seat standing in Loksabha for his party, which is right now looking a distant possibility. To make it possible he has to rise above the emotions and needs to throw a blueprint of his future plans in black and white before the people of India ASAP.

Everyone knows that Congress is heavily dependent on Gandhi Family and the family’s word is more or less final. But during yesterday’s speech Mr. Gandhi used the words “from now onwards...”, Many times. He used these words for two or three important issues out of which one was on spending 99 paisa out of 100 rolled out from the center. The question is what was stopping him doing so till now? When his party is ready to die for him and his family, only the position of not being VP was stopping to direct his marshals to spend more paisa on work and do less corruption? This statement of his only vindicates Mr. Narendra Modi’s allegation he made in every election meeting during just concluded Gujarat Elections. Thank god that our main stream media is heavily biased against the main opposition party and giving Mr. Modi a damn, else Mr. Gandhi had to answer so many tricky questions on this ‘99 paisa’ statement of his.

I got only one advice for Mr. Rahul Gandhi. There are many like me who may be, are sitting on the fringe and can still vote for his party, if he comes out clearly on frequent price hikes and well thought out solutions to bring prices down, his clear cut views on Pakistan and ‘bold India’ which has a clear policy on that rogue state and his views on both kinds of terrorism existing in Kashmir and in Naxal affected areas. He is young and that’s why many like me will still vote for him if he is thinking differently then his current party leaders and he has a crystal clear road map for future of India, but if he still wants to continue ‘Grand Old Party’s’ grand old tactics to win my heart by remembering his grandma, his father’s and his mother’s offerings then I am sorry he is on the wrong side of the picture. Indian youth has changed; he wants results, because that is what he asked when he goes on the field every morning. With the emergence of social media and the way it has spread, Indian youth is ready to discuss on everything available on national stage. Social media may not be shadow or real India but it has discussed Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s speech yesterday and has already rejected it with big numbers. I believe too much dependence on the main stream media to help changing Indian youth’s mentality will be the final nail in the coffin for Mr. Gandhi’s party. Still a year before the general elections to happen and Mr. Gandhi, you may get a chance to rule the nation again because no party will get the full mandate and you may ‘manage’ the numbers, but then your current mandate will also be reduced for sure if you do not blow fresh air in your party.

21/01/2013, Monday

Ahmedabad

Mahaan (1983)

First Day First Show | 22 | Mahaan (1983)



Story and Screenplay: Prayagraaj

Dialogues: Kadar Khan

Songs: Anjaan

Music: Rahul Dev Burman

Producers: Satyanarayan – Suryanarayan

Director: S. Ramnathan



Released on: 29^th April, 1983

Length: 172 minutes





Cast: Amitabh Bachchan (Shankar/Rana Ranveersingh, Shankar and Guru), Waheeda Rehman (Janki), Zeenat Aman (Reeta), Parveen Babi (Manju), Amjad Khan (Vikram Singh), Kadar Khan (Simon), Shakti Kapoor (Prem), Sujit Kumar (Rajan), Mukri (Guru’s foster father) and Ashok Kumar (Rai Sahab)



Songs:



“Jidhar dekhoon teri tasveer nazar aati hai” (Kishore Kumar)

“Har chhori raani hiyan har chhora raja” (Kishore Kumar)

“Aadhi baat ho chuki aadhi baat karle” (Kishore Kumar)

“Ye din toh aata hai ek din jawani main” (Asha Bhonsle and R.D.Burman)

“Pyar mein dil pe maar de goli le le meri jaan” (Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle)

“Jidhar dekhoon teri tasveer narzar aati hai” (Amitabh Bachchan)

“Asli kya hai naqli kya hai” (Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar)





[caption id="attachment_105" align="aligncenter" width="498"] Mahaan Poster[/caption]

Can you imagine ‘an Amitabh Bachchan movie’ getting flopped at the box office during his golden years? Can you even imagine that a film which has not one, not two but three Amitabhs and still it doesn’t get the expected response from the public? Despite having two strong reasons, ‘Mahaan’ was a flop at the box office. This shows that public opinion is so strong when it comes to Bollywood movies, if public likes a bore movie, it can be a huge hit and if it doesn’t like an entertaining movie like this, it can go into trash. But for me, as once told by my friend Mr. Adhir Amdavadi, Amitabh Movie is Amitabh Movie; it doesn’t have to fit in ‘Hit’ or ‘Flop’ kind of parameters. Ain’t I a ‘Mahaan Fan’ of Amitabh Bachchan??





Synopsis:



Vikram and Amit are very close friends. Amit, who is an advocate doesn’t know that Vikram is a drug smuggler. When police grabs Vikram by the help given by Rajan, Vikram gives his case to Amit. But Amit openly declares Vikram as a drug smuggler in the court. Vikram gets jail sentence for few years. When he returns from the jail he fixes Amit into a murder case. Janki, Amit’s wife who was pregnant at that time, sees the danger and escapes from the grasps of Vikram and his gang. Later she gives birth to twin boys. One of those was taken by a couple which leaves only one kid with Janki. Janki names him Shankar and he becomes a police inspector when he gets older. Apart from Shankar, Janki also takes care of an orphan girl named Manju. Manju loves Shankar!!



The other kid, who was taken away by that couple, names him Guru. Guru doesn’t have any interest in his foster father’s job of an advocate, he likes to sing, dance and drama all day. A girl named Reeta, comes to Guru to help her. Reeta wants to have a fake marriage with Guru so that she can satisfy her grandfather Rai Sahab’s obduracy. But later she starts loving Guru. In Nepal, Amit is hiding as Rana Ranveersingh and has gained plenty of respect for him. He knows Manju, who lives with Janaki but is not aware of the fact. Suddenly time forces Shankar, Guru, Janki, Rita, Manju, Vikram and Amit to be at the same place. What happens next? Well for that you need to watch Mahaan !!

===== *** =====

These days whenever I watch this movie, if I get time, I always think that how different it is from other Amitabh Movies of those days and yet it was flopped? The story is based on ‘Lost and Found’ formula. He is an angry young man in Shankar and comic in Guru. Great songs. Glamour of Zeenat and Parvin Babi and as I have mentioned above, not one, not two but three Amitabhs !! It is not that three Amitabhs are not tolerable. Three different roles are enacted by him with complete competence, but yet…. Anyways, lets forgive people of that era, what else we can do now right? The story may not be new, but it is full of entertainment for sure. For Bachchan fans like me, its a treat to have three Amitabhs in one film !! Correct me if wrong, Amitabh has never done triple roles before and after this movie.



The director of the movie S.Ramnathan has done three movies with Amitabh Bachchan, but between all these three movies he has kept a loooooong gap. When no one was aware about Amitabh Bachchan, he made one of the classic comedies of all time, ‘Bombay to Goa’ with him. Though I have a huge doubt that Mehmood bhai actually was a director of the movie. Anyways, after eleven long years came this Mahan and then after 26 years he made ‘Zamanat’ with AB, which came and gone and we never know about that. Because of good screenplay for this movie, Ramnathan sir had to work little hard to handle three Amitabhs. The film is fast and entertaining. There are plenty of chances that the film could have more emotional moments, but they were not preferred hence the movie is not boring at all.



When only one Amitabh is too hot to handle, how can other actors stay in front of three Amitabhs? Amitabh’s first crush Waheeda Rehman has given ample respect by him in this movie, I mean very less touching, you know ;)? Though Zeenat and Parveen Babi are limited to being glamour dolls yet they have a few moments of their own. Amjad Khan was perfect opposition to Amitabh in those days and he is the same here too. Ashok Kumar is one of my all time favorite actors and in one of the comic scenes with Amitabh Bachchan; he makes us laugh with the typical acting style of his.



Music and songs?? Well a ‘common devotee’ of Kishore’da and Pancham’da like me the music of this movie is like travel to the heavens. Five out of seven songs of this movie are just mind blowing. If you are ‘blind fan’ of Pancham’da and Kishore’da, you must be fan of “Har chhori rani hiyan” and if you still have not heard the song, I pity you. “Yeh din toh aata hai ek din jawani mein” is sung by ‘the boss’ himself with Ashaji and it is a typical ‘Pancham song’ to say the least. Ditto for “Pyar mein dil pe maar de goli” too. Putting a sound of ‘bullet fire’ in the song in those days, can only be thought by none other then Mr. R. D. Burman. No further discussion on this please !!





So much of masala, so much of fun, yet Mahaan was flopped!! Why? Some one please clear this because I was just nine at that time.





‘EXIT’



Triple roles in Bollywood were first done by Dilip Kumar in ‘Bairaag’ and in ‘Naya din nayee rat’ Sanjiv Kumar played no less than nine roles.





27.12.2012, Thursday

Ahmedabad

Gujarat has the last laugh

It is not 117; it is 115, two less than what Narendra Modi went into the much awaited ‘Gujarat Assembly Elections’ of this year. His ‘critics’ already have declared that his ‘popularity’ is on the decline since there is a ‘sizable’ decrease not only in number of seats but a ‘huge decline’ of 1% in the popular vote share as well. This is not new to the Gujaratis nor to the people like me who were not giving more than 115 even in the month of July by taking the anti-incumbency of not only a decade of ‘Modi Raj’ but also 17 years of BJP ruling the state, plus the factor delimitation of constituencies and of course the GPP factor as well. What we the fans of Mr. Modi are looking at this is the ‘hat trick’!! Not many could do this only few names come to the mind when we talk about the hat trick in power. Jyoti Basu, Sheila Dixit and Tarun Gogoi are the first few names come into the mind straightaway. But as a Gujarati, this is the first time in my state; hence it is a big reason to celebrate. We the Gujaratis have been ignorant to what mainstream media is throwing at Mr. Modi for more than a decade now and we will continue to be ignorant to the same along with the biased and zero logic postmortem of these elections. Today, we want to celebrate and feel happy that we have not lost, despite of plenty of obstacles thrown at our beloved CM. Let me today give some insights into why we Gujaratis adore Mr. Narendra Modi so much?





Why ‘we’ love ‘him’ so much?



This is the question must be in the minds of many who are not from Gujarat and never had first hand experience of being in Gujarat or never had an interaction with a Gujarati directly or via any social networking site. There is a simple answer to this question, which many media persons across the print and electronic media had never tried to find and that is that he gave us the identity and the self respect. Only the veteran Gujarati political analyst and writer Mr. Vishnu Pandya, inknowingly  approved this point of mine this time in all the news channels he featured in during pre and post election programs. The opposition and the media were continuously thrusting on one thing that, Gujarat is a progressive state since its incarnation and what new Modi had done in his decade old regime? Here comes the answer, which I had put in one of my pre election blogs and unknowingly endorsed by Mr. Vishnu Pandya in one or two programs he did for few news channels. Yes there was a progress, as a matter of fact during the regime of Mr. Amarsingh Chaudhari and Mr. Chimanbhai Patel, Gujarat progressed few percent more than what it has under Mr. Modi, but the difference is that since last decade Gujarat has progressed with ‘respect’. Mr. Modi has given us the ‘pride of being a Gujarati’. I have witnessed Congress regime as a kid and as a growing up young man, the only difference which I found and probably all those who are from my age group or older than us will agree that previously all the decisions had to be endorsed or rejected by ‘Delhi’ and now they are done at Gandhinagar only.





The ratio of rejection was probably more than endorsing. Those days Congress was everywhere; hence Maharashtra was probably preferred more than Gujarat. Though the CM who used to be from Gujarat but he had less say in decisions which could make life different in Gujarat. Whereas now Mr. Modi is boss of himself and he has a government at the center which is not going to favor him at all. But still this man makes decisions, which are in his hand and sees that he gets the job done, if not from the center than whatever he can do locally. In simple words he is ready to do whatever possible for him. By doing this he has inserted self respect in Gujaratis. For people like me this is a huge change in us. Just a decade ago, we used to be part of some poor fun targeted to us from the people of other states. We often used to be called “ Daal-Bhaat Khane Waale” (those who eat only daal and rice). Yes we were progressive before Modi came, yes we were minding our business well before Modi came, but somehow the inferiority complex was there and was refusing to go. Just when during the 2002 election campaign, Mr. Modi for the first time mentioned “My 5 crore Gujaratis”, suddenly people like me felt the pride of being Gujarati, which is still there with many increments. ‘The Gujarati Pride’ doesn’t mean to disrespect other races, but to allow them to mix with us. This is where Mr. Modi differs with other regional leaders in the country. He teaches us to welcome everyone from other parts of the country and work to gather.





The victory wasn’t easy this time



Despite indications that Mr. Modi will win around 110-115 seats I and a few of my friends had six months before the elections, we still were a bit skeptical about this figure. To be very honest this time, Congress came with better strategy of giving populist promises like ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ (Own your home), ‘Free Laptops for college going students’ and ‘Free land plots’ to females living in villages. The confusion was that these may hurt BJP’s chances badly. These promises were tempting to a large chunk of society. The rush to get and to fill ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ forms was unprecedented to say the least. But then just week or ten days before elections Mr. Modi released his party’s manifesto and promised 50 lakh homes in next five years. We know that this is highly impossible task to achieve, but what people who had already filled ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ forms would have thought, that, “this man who is promising us 50 lakh homes is in power and he is most likely guy to comeback in power, whereas others are out of it and who knows that their promise is just to give us a lollypop?” I believe this decisive thinking  has turned the table. ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ after getting a huge response, somehow it went into the cold storage. What Congress forgot was to keep on mentioning it in their meetings, but what they did was that they only kept on saying that, “This will hamper BJP to win”, that’s all!!





The GPP factor



The most worrisome thing was how the GPP will flair in these elections since they were an unknown quantity. The nearer the date of elections came greater the fear became. Just a couple of days before first phase of voting, the Leuva Patel leader Mr. Naresh Patel openly said in a meeting that, “Where Leuavas find GPP candidates weaker, they must vote for Congress”. Suddenly the fear of Gujartis again getting into the trap of castism was looming large. Many people who have tasted food of constant progress have also found that castism in Gujarat was there but it had lost the prime effect on voting patterns, they feared that if Leuvas get to gather, we may lose the current leader and by this the speed of the progress will be reduced. But thankfully Leuvas have voted for GPP but it was not one sided, plus those who feared of losing Mr. Modi as CM, got polarized and voted for BJP and the end results speak for themselves, GPP got only two seats and one of them is won by Shri. Keshubhai Patel.





Currently many Gujaratis feel that Mr. Modi can become the PM of India in 2014, if BJP gets the numbers, but right now they are relieved that he is back at the helm. The next five years will be more testing than the entire last decade. 2017 will not be a cakewalk for sure, are The Gujarat Congress leaders listening?



There are many other points as well to share, but if I keep on writing them, then I will end with writing a small book of hundred odd pages. Hence I am stopping here and will keep on updating on what is happening on and around Gujarat in days to come.





25.12.2012 (Christmas), Tuesday

Ahmedabad

RIP Chat Rooms

 

One fine winter evening of 1998, I went to a cyber café nearby. I had created an email account only few days back on a US based website. Those days email was not that spread as it is today, only my brother in law who lives in the US used to communicate via email, hence there used to be only one mail in my ‘Inbox’ and I used to reply it quickly and then try to surf different websites for next 50 odd minutes, since there was nothing else to do. The cyber café used to charge me on an hourly basis, so I had to use the remaining time to compensate my 35 rupees. On my second visit to that café, I saw a boy sitting next to me typing in a small window and after writing few words closing it down, then that window closed on his taskbar started changing colors and he then clicked on that window and I saw someone replied him and he replied him/her back. I got curious and I asked him, “what is this?” He said “this is called ‘chatting’ where you can meet people across the planet and can be their friend.” So my next question to him was, “Does this facility available in my email?” He promptly replied, “No, this is available only on Yahoo!”

 

He was certainly very busy with that person who was replying him, so I called on the owner of that cyber café who was in his late teens. I got all the information about this extraordinary thing, he not only taught me every single thing, but also helped me creating my Yahoo! ID which is still in existence after good long fourteen years. Though no mail is coming in or going out from there, but it has emotional attachment to me, as this ID has given me plentiful of great buddies across the planet as that unknown guy first elaborated me when I queried about this. Slowly that one hour stay at that cyber café started to stretch for two hours and sometimes even four to six hours per day. By now, the 35 rupees per day decreased to 20 rupees per day but the number of ‘priceless friends’ has already increased in my ‘friends’ list’. Not only friends but I also got a girl from same messenger, whom I once proposed my love for the first and last time!! Well, she denied my proposal and we still remained good friends for a decade after that.

 

There is a proverb in Gujarati, “If you are good, the world will remain good to you”. That's exactly what had happened with me, all the while when I was on Yahoo! Messenger. I never tried to take any disadvantage of those who became my friends, most of them were girls. That time I was also single hence ‘The law of attraction’ was more in effect than it is now. (Though it's still very much there but the velocity has decreased ;) ) In the end I didn’t get any girlfriend out of it but got basketful of girls who became damn good friends, with whom I could share anything happening in my life and they too used to share the anything happening in their lives. There was one girl who then was in deep love with a guy and then she got married to him only and today she is the mother of two lovely kids, but she is still a very good friend of mine after Fourteen years in reality and we are in regular touch with each other via Facebook. Then there was a married lady, who gave me plenty of tips when my wife was pregnant, which helped me a lot. Then there was a doctor girl who too helped me by consoling me on the phone when my wife had to go for immediate cesarean seven years back.

 

But only females became my friends to be very frank. Some of them because of social commitments after their marriage, stopped their friendship with me, but few, as I have mentioned above, are still going strong. But now Facebook has taken the place of Yahoo! Messenger. Just two days back, when I read about Yahoo! Shutting down its chat rooms, I remembered all those glory days, when I had the dare  to ask any an unknown ID, thinking that it is of a female, “Hi !! Can we chat? Your ASL please?” And then used to wait for few minutes for the answer, if the reply used to come, one could not imagine the happiness I used to get and if someone had replied with “Male here”, I used to curse him too :P. The reasons Yahoo! gave to close those chat rooms are more genuine. Even when I was in full swing, there used to be few rooms, which were not required. There were many idiots who used to have fake IDs and what not? Everything has its negative side too and Yahoo! Chat rooms were no different.

 

Every good thing has to come to an end, and so Yahoo! Chat rooms too will get closed on the 14th of this month. I believe even Yahoo messenger has less relevance in the world of Facebook and Twitter now; hence that service may also come to an end soon. By increasing numbers in mobile phone every day, a newspaper of USA as already predicted that even Facebook will be closed down by 2020. Well I won’t be surprised if that will happen in next seven years. But right now I am still basking in my memories of the sweet days of Yahoo! Messenger.

 

 

08.12.2012, Saturday

Ahmedabad.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

 

Ahmedabad Special

 

With nomination scrutiny for second phase of Gujarat Elections 2012 is over, the picture is clear. Though the homes of political parties are not that clear, especially of Congress! Yes there is descent in both the parties but it seems that Congress’ descent is more vocal and my own city and district Ahmedabad is not untouched either. In fact Ahmedabad has now become the epicenter of dissent within the Congress party. This certainly is creating a bad image of Congress. Let’s concentrate on four prominent seats of Ahmedabad.

 

Maninagar:

 

Will he be third time lucky also? Yes in all probability he is going to have a cakewalk this time around too. Yes, we are talking about the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi. He filed his nomination for prestigious Maninagar for third consecutive time. This seat has been BJP’s forte for so many years now. If we talk about Mr. Modi, he had relatively two tough candidates for his previous two encounters, but this time it seems Congress has given him the seat on a platter. In 2002 Mr. Modi beat his current lieutenant and prominent advocate from Gujarat High Court Mr. Yatin Oza and then in 2007, he doubled his margin while beating veteran Congress leader and current cabinet minister Mr. Dinsha Patel. If my memory is serving me right, Mr. Yatin Oza asked for his regular seat, Sabarmati in 2002 but was denied and hence he crossed over to the Congress and fought from Maninagar against the man himself but lost convincingly.

 

And last time Mr. Dinsha Patel was brought from the neighboring district of Kheda to give tough fight to Mr. Modi. If Mr. Modi’s chances were vulnerable ever, for me it was last time. Mr. Dinsha Patel has an image of a very clean politician, hence chances of getting the ‘sympathy votes’ were brighter than it is now. If you ask me as a common man of Gujarat that “is there any sympathy for Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt or his wife?” my straight forward answer will be “No”. Especially when Mr. Bhatt’s wife is standing for a political party, whatever sympathy was left in common Gujarati’s heart for Mr. Bhatt must be wiped off. By choosing to contest from a ticket of a rival political party, Mr. Bhatt has exposed his link with them. Yes, if Mr. Bhatt and the Congress could have remained ‘politically correct’, Mrs. Shweta Bhatt could have stood independent and then Congress could have fielded no candidate of its own. But now the arrow is already shot from the bow. I am sure Mr. Modi will increase his lead this time from this seat if not doubling it.

 

Ellisbridge:

 

The place from where I am going to vote. Mr. Rakesh Shah the sitting MLA is running for this again. Mr. Shah is up against Mr. Kamlesh Shah of Congress and Mrs. Jagruti Pandya of GPP. My area is a mix of posh, middle class and slums. It is slowly converting into a business area then residential area. We got the majority of Jains which is represented by both the Shahs in the fray. The people of Ellisbridge have a good percentage of literacy level and you will be surprised to know that it has never been won by the Congress in the last many years. There was one, Mr. Babubhai Vasanvala, another Jain who represented our area when I was a kid in 80s. He once elected as an independent candidate too. Before BJP, The Janata Party had a strong hold on this seat. So the trend is going to remain the same this time too. Mr. Modi’s ‘pet project’ BRTS is going through right in the middle of this seat, people are taking benefit of this well maintained service for commuting across the city. Plus Sabarmati river front is also a part of this area and Metro Rail will also go through the length and width of this area as and when it will commence.

 

Sanitation and other issues are taken care of by good coroprators like Mr. Amit Shah, who also happened to be Mayor of Ahmedabad few years back. Hence the problems are there but relatively less. Mrs. Pandya's candidature has provided primary excitement, but I believe her candidature will hardly affect chances of Mr. Shah’s re-election. The logic is simple; she is a hurt wife of a slain leader Late Mr. Haren Pandya, but she was not in the political picture of Gujarat till Friday. Whereas, Mr. Rakesh Shah is in public life of Ellisbridge for last five years. There can be no second thought about Mr. Haren Pandya’s dedication towards the people of Ellisbridge, I have seen him grabbing pillion seat of any scooter rider goes pass him once he has received a call from the people of his constituency, and he used to visit my society very regularly. Mr. Rakesh Shah is no match with Mr. Pandya, but then Mrs. Pandya is no match with Mr. Rakesh Shah either.

 

 

Dariyapur:

 

One of the few sets of Ahmedabad where Minority is in Majority. Mr. Bharat Barot of BJP is taking on Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh. The picture is not that clear as it seems. Because the leader of opposition in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Mr. Farookh Sheikh has revolted against his party mate. Actually this seat is carved out of Shahpur and Kalupur seat. Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh is sitting MLA of Shahpur, whereas Mr. Farookh Sheikh is sitting MLA of Kalupur. Both of them wanted to have this seat and Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh benefited. Mr. Farookh Sheikh was also seen with Mr. Narhari Amin yesterday and it seems he will work, as decided, against Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh. Mr. Bharat Barot lost this seat last time when he was a sitting MLA and a minister at that time, looking at religious dynamics of this seat, I believe he has slender chances of winning this time too.

 

 

Jamalpur – Khadiya:

 

Congress is facing same thing here too. This seat has been carved out from Jamalpur and Khadiya area. One is prominent Muslim area and other is prominent Hindu one. Mr. Bhushan Bhatt , son of ex-speaker of Gujarat Assembly and very popular leader, Late. Shri Ashok Bhatt is contesting here. The problem with the Congress here is that they gave ticket to ‘Non-Chhipa’ community leader Mr. Samir Pathan (Sipai) because after the restructuring of the seat, number of Chhipa voters have gone down, hence the Chhipa leader Mr. Sabir Kabliwala lost the value and the ticket too. He is contesting as an Independent. Though as per today’s newspaper report, even Mr. Samir Pathan’s ticket is not sure. Because of Mr. Kabliwala’s presence Congress may convince Mr. Pathan to withdraw his candidature on final day today in favor of his father Mr. Vazirkhan Pathan, since he is more experienced. In this three way fight, if Mr. Bhatt takes care of his Khadiya votes, then chances of him is brighter. Let’s see…

 

 

Seat Projection Update:

 

After looking at response to Mr. Modi’s 3D meetings and physical gatherings for last two days, plus looking at manifesto just released I am changing my projection for the first time in last six months.

 

My latest projection is now BJP will get between 112 to 117 seats. Two seats more than previous projection.

 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

 

Ahmedabad Special

 

With nomination scrutiny for second phase of Gujarat Elections 2012 is over, the picture is clear. Though the homes of political parties are not that clear, especially of Congress! Yes there is descent in both the parties but it seems that Congress’ descent is more vocal and my own city and district Ahmedabad is not untouched either. In fact Ahmedabad has now become the epicenter of dissent within the Congress party. This certainly is creating a bad image of Congress. Let’s concentrate on four prominent seats of Ahmedabad.

 

Maninagar:

 

Will he be third time lucky also? Yes in all probability he is going to have a cakewalk this time around too. Yes, we are talking about the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi. He filed his nomination for prestigious Maninagar for third consecutive time. This seat has been BJP’s forte for so many years now. If we talk about Mr. Modi, he had relatively two tough candidates for his previous two encounters, but this time it seems Congress has given him the seat on a platter. In 2002 Mr. Modi beat his current lieutenant and prominent advocate from Gujarat High Court Mr. Yatin Oza and then in 2007, he doubled his margin while beating veteran Congress leader and current cabinet minister Mr. Dinsha Patel. If my memory is serving me right, Mr. Yatin Oza asked for his regular seat, Sabarmati in 2002 but was denied and hence he crossed over to the Congress and fought from Maninagar against the man himself but lost convincingly.

 

And last time Mr. Dinsha Patel was brought from the neighboring district of Kheda to give tough fight to Mr. Modi. If Mr. Modi’s chances were vulnerable ever, for me it was last time. Mr. Dinsha Patel has an image of a very clean politician, hence chances of getting the ‘sympathy votes’ were brighter than it is now. If you ask me as a common man of Gujarat that “is there any sympathy for Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt or his wife?” my straight forward answer will be “No”. Especially when Mr. Bhatt’s wife is standing for a political party, whatever sympathy was left in common Gujarati’s heart for Mr. Bhatt must be wiped off. By choosing to contest from a ticket of a rival political party, Mr. Bhatt has exposed his link with them. Yes, if Mr. Bhatt and the Congress could have remained ‘politically correct’, Mrs. Shweta Bhatt could have stood independent and then Congress could have fielded no candidate of its own. But now the arrow is already shot from the bow. I am sure Mr. Modi will increase his lead this time from this seat if not doubling it.

 

Ellisbridge:

 

The place from where I am going to vote. Mr. Rakesh Shah the sitting MLA is running for this again. Mr. Shah is up against Mr. Kamlesh Shah of Congress and Mrs. Jagruti Pandya of GPP. My area is a mix of posh, middle class and slums. It is slowly converting into a business area then residential area. We got the majority of Jains which is represented by both the Shahs in the fray. The people of Ellisbridge have a good percentage of literacy level and you will be surprised to know that it has never been won by the Congress in the last many years. There was one, Mr. Babubhai Vasanvala, another Jain who represented our area when I was a kid in 80s. He once elected as an independent candidate too. Before BJP, The Janata Party had a strong hold on this seat. So the trend is going to remain the same this time too. Mr. Modi’s ‘pet project’ BRTS is going through right in the middle of this seat, people are taking benefit of this well maintained service for commuting across the city. Plus Sabarmati river front is also a part of this area and Metro Rail will also go through the length and width of this area as and when it will commence.

 

Sanitation and other issues are taken care of by good coroprators like Mr. Amit Shah, who also happened to be Mayor of Ahmedabad few years back. Hence the problems are there but relatively less. Mrs. Pandya's candidature has provided primary excitement, but I believe her candidature will hardly affect chances of Mr. Shah’s re-election. The logic is simple; she is a hurt wife of a slain leader Late Mr. Haren Pandya, but she was not in the political picture of Gujarat till Friday. Whereas, Mr. Rakesh Shah is in public life of Ellisbridge for last five years. There can be no second thought about Mr. Haren Pandya’s dedication towards the people of Ellisbridge, I have seen him grabbing pillion seat of any scooter rider goes pass him once he has received a call from the people of his constituency, and he used to visit my society very regularly. Mr. Rakesh Shah is no match with Mr. Pandya, but then Mrs. Pandya is no match with Mr. Rakesh Shah either.

 

 

Dariyapur:

 

One of the few sets of Ahmedabad where Minority is in Majority. Mr. Bharat Barot of BJP is taking on Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh. The picture is not that clear as it seems. Because the leader of opposition in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Mr. Farookh Sheikh has revolted against his party mate. Actually this seat is carved out of Shahpur and Kalupur seat. Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh is sitting MLA of Shahpur, whereas Mr. Farookh Sheikh is sitting MLA of Kalupur. Both of them wanted to have this seat and Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh benefited. Mr. Farookh Sheikh was also seen with Mr. Narhari Amin yesterday and it seems he will work, as decided, against Mr. Gyasuddin Sheikh. Mr. Bharat Barot lost this seat last time when he was a sitting MLA and a minister at that time, looking at religious dynamics of this seat, I believe he has slender chances of winning this time too.

 

 

Jamalpur – Khadiya:

 

Congress is facing same thing here too. This seat has been carved out from Jamalpur and Khadiya area. One is prominent Muslim area and other is prominent Hindu one. Mr. Bhushan Bhatt , son of ex-speaker of Gujarat Assembly and very popular leader, Late. Shri Ashok Bhatt is contesting here. The problem with the Congress here is that they gave ticket to ‘Non-Chhipa’ community leader Mr. Samir Pathan (Sipai) because after the restructuring of the seat, number of Chhipa voters have gone down, hence the Chhipa leader Mr. Sabir Kabliwala lost the value and the ticket too. He is contesting as an Independent. Though as per today’s newspaper report, even Mr. Samir Pathan’s ticket is not sure. Because of Mr. Kabliwala’s presence Congress may convince Mr. Pathan to withdraw his candidature on final day today in favor of his father Mr. Vazirkhan Pathan, since he is more experienced. In this three way fight, if Mr. Bhatt takes care of his Khadiya votes, then chances of him is brighter. Let’s see…

 

 

Seat Projection Update:

 

After looking at response to Mr. Modi’s 3D meetings and physical gatherings for last two days, plus looking at manifesto just released I am changing my projection for the first time in last six months.

 

My latest projection is now BJP will get between 112 to 117 seats. Two seats more than previous projection.