Archive for May 2009

पॉलिटिक्स मिक्स – 2

Friday, May 15, 2009
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Part 2 of the Politics Mix series. Part 1 was published on 10 April 2009.

( “याव याव खमौ ब्येब्स
डू द बीट्स नाउ
पंप अप द बेस डॉग!” )

सकाळ झाली सूर्य डोंबल्यावर आला,
म्या बी उठलो न आलो की ओसरीवर.
पाहतो तर काय,
आमचा आजा, होता फेरी घालीत.
दर दोन मिनिटांनी हात जोडीत,
न हात उंचावून शांत करण्याची नक्कल करीत.

मला वाटल म्हातारा वेडा झाला,
वयाच्या ऐंशीज मध्ये काय खूळ घेऊन बसला!

म्या म्हनला आज्याला,
“काय र आज्या, हे काय करून राहिला रे तू?”
“अस खादी घालून, ध्वॉतर नेसून,
एकटाच नमस्कार करीत काय फिरतोस?”

आजा नमस्कार करीत म्हनला (चिरक्या आवाजात),
“देखिये….हम इस बार गावाच्या सरपंच पद के लिये निवडणूक लढ रहे है”
अगदी श्वाकच बसला मला!
“आर आजा, तुझा वय आता ऐंशी, तू कशी काय लढणार विलेक्शन?”
“ह्या वयात हे जमणार कस तुला?”
(मनातल्या मनात म्हन्लो, ” म्हातारा बहुतेक झालाय खुळा!”)

आज्याने आपला थरथरणारा हात हळू हळू उचलला
न माज्या गालावर मायेने ठेवला.
म्या म्हन्लो, ” आर, लाड कशापाई करतोस?”
“बोल, माज्या प्रश्नाच उत्तर कधी देतोस?”

तर वैतागून आजा म्हन्तो कसा,
“ए, भुस्नळ्या, म्या लाड न्हाई क्येले,
म्या तर तुझे मुस्काट फोडले!
माझे हात थरथरले म्हनून
तुला नाय कळले!”

“म्या असेन ऐंशी
पण अजुन पन जवान हाय,
परवाच उंदीर मारला,
म्या निडर हाये!
ट्वायिलेटला कदी जायाच
हेची तुझा बा न्हाय आठव करून देत,
म्याच ठरीव्तो!
म्या निर्णायक हाये!.”

” म्हातारा झालो म्हुन काय झाल?
मला बी सत्ता ट्येस्ट करायची हे!”
म्या चक्रावलो, म्हन्लो,
” आर पण, गावातल्या यंग उमेदवारांच काय?”
आजा आन्खी वैतागला, ” ए शान्या, गप र्‍हा की!
म्या विलेक्शन लढणार म्हंजे लढणार!
जास्त बोललास,
तर माझ्या ‘लाल’ छ्डीने ‘आडवा आणी’ उभा फोडून काढीन!”

म्या म्हटला ” स्वाँरी आजा, माफी असावी!”
तर आजाचा थरथरणारा हात परत गालावर फिरला!
म्या वैतागलो, ” आता कशापाई मारतो?
आजा आपले खोटे दात दाखवत म्हनला,
” म्या तुझा आजा, माज्या राजा!
म्या लाड केले नाही मारली मुस्काटात!
चल आता रुसु नकोस,
गाडी काढ आपली,
रथ यात्रा काढली पायजे,
ह्या यंग गावाला
म्या ऐंशी वर्षाचा तरुणच
नीडर नि निर्णायक बनवू शकतो,
हा नि चा पाढा पढवला पायजे!”

-प्रांजल वाघ

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This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License

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Posted in Humor, Marathi Poems, Poetry, Politics | 10 Comments »

Our Benevolent Netas

Friday, May 8, 2009
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Imagine a day when you turn up the page 3 for the latest gup-shup of your favourite star and to the surprise you end up reading the content of our politicos, you are just shell-shocked and might turn to the last page and few may even give up reading, well that’s the content many keep track off. All and all you see a hot blonde shedding off clothes and keep up cool in the summer; yeah photographers do click the very moment. But instead you end up seeing our sexagenarian or hepta or even octogenarian neta taking up his dhoti and hat and those glares, ohh la la, with a tag ‘this is how they keep themselves cool in summer.’ Oh Shit, just can’t imagine, eh?


Yup the heat is on, everyone in India or rather the world is looking up the IPL, sorry not the Indian Premier League but the Indian Political League. Jagore.com is on march waking up each and every youth, asking them to vote. The Times of India is giving daily updates under pages ‘Dance of Democracy’. Every form of public, private medium is used to put forth the election campaign of respective parties. ‘Jai ho’ the Oscar winning hit by A.R has been taken up officially by Congress to strategize its win. In the meanwhile the counter competing party, BJP has put it down, that if this continues, the song has to be changed to ‘Bhay ho’. Well one thing is there, people are best and experts in how to pull others down.

Elections, Elections, Elections…..whole day the same thing, new stories, war of words and in a way fun. Take up this: exactly what must be the case for those who lead the parties, definitely a big task at hand. Keeping up with the party members, meetings, rallies and whole lot of business, yes they got to win; a do or die situation indeed. Just imagine what all would be there in the secret diaries of our Leaders…

Sonia Gandhi:

With everything up close and even the third phase of polls out, indeed I liked to contest 2009 elections and yes it’s been different from 2004. So much so that I changed the ringtone of my cell phone to ‘Jai ho’, even the alarm in the morning rings up ‘Jai ho’. In addition I kept A.R photo as a deity and I pray Him, just not taking any chances. Surely each day is different. Sharadji has been giving a distant nudge and my eyes are wide open to see which signal blows up every day. I heard that Sharadji’s alarm rings PM, PM in the morning and because of that I wake up early just to check if Jai ho is well set or not, God when all this will end! Scratching my head even hints me that possibly Sharadji might have gone to Greg Chappell for advice and the least I expect is, as always Greg must have shown his ‘proper’ finger. That chills me again. Being a cricket head he’s learnt how to spell a googly at least. Laloo on the other hand is thinking his buffalo would be parked at 7 Race Course, hell with that for now as Nitish is doing his homework well, my lessons after all. Really Mulayamji is heading for stardom, thanks to SC that Sanju is out or else Munna would have created trouble with his Jhappi-pappi. This says things are quiet in my purse. Oh well, I can’t forget the bravo, 82 yr old hero Advaniji. Who can forget him, I heard he’s got an orkut account & is adding friends to vote him. I think I should get one on Orkut and one on Facebook too, that will help. Modi has always been an irksome guy, but my daughter is trained to treat him well. When will this Southies learn? I made them eat Idli, dosa & even took a bath in Sambar but seem everything is hitting me badly. For that matter I even told that Uthappam was a precursor to Pizza, yet the issue still remains Italy first then India. You see so many things in 10mins, wish me luck, vote me, Jai ho.



Manmohan Singh:

‘Wahe guru de Khalsa, Wahe Guru de Fateh’

I checked with myself the other day when Advani pointed out the ‘Weak’ aspect. To fight back I think I should wear a Turban with a three colours, saffron (not for BJP ofcourse), white and green, hmm yes this will make it cool? Or may be a pair of Jeans and say it this way, hey whats up Sonia? No No that was hilarious. Pranab soothed me and reminded me of my birth date and told me you are a PM, ah ‘I said yes I know’. But following day I said I can juggle 5 balls at one time. Economy, US-N Deal, Af-Pak (Fak-Ap), election-09 & will make one ball to fall down, Advani.
Lately my family, are keeping their shoes well away from the door, maybe an indication that these days ‘shoes’ are the best gifts. To this I reviewed my Eco books, may be a nano level study is to be made on ‘Shoeconomics’. The other day I checked how the leather industry is doing and it was bad(not actually) to see that recession has affected them too, hope May 16 + 100 helps them out with more shoes in production. I could go on indeed, but I need to put on the gloves to fight in the ring, EC has blown the whistle. If not now the boot will be under Advani’s foot.

Lal Krishna Advani:
On joining Orkut I found out that I have grown quite old, well indeed yes? So what if youth needs a youth leader. BJP is ‘Bulaya, Jamaya, Pa-diya’ what say? To say the least this year’s inspiration to fight elections was a ‘spider-man’ at my home. Yes he has made webs all around the walls, my very own spiders. Tried, tried & succeeded. Recently I learnt some new ways to high-five people. The other day I met Rajnath, he was flabbergasted to see this and asked me, planning to join congress?? There I recalled it was the symbol of Congress, nothing much to this but I put this again and again on myself ‘???????’ My PR has got a big job to make me young, every day I get tips that make me younger. The day is not far when you will see my photo with a guitar in hand, & yes it would be of Saffron color with a lotus-shaped plectrum.
‘Oh Man’, this Modi is doing his home work. ‘Oh Man’ Varun has slipped of a steep slope. The other day I was hit back when the same ‘style’ I mentioned to Shushmaji, to this my PR hit himself on his forehead, well did I do something wrong? I even sought that calling by nicknames would add more spice and make it even more cooler, Sush and Mods, oh wow that sounds great. Recently my vested interests have changed a lot, these days I read India: Crime Report 2004-2009 instead of reading India 2020, changed my homepage from BJP.com to Swissbank.com.


You see I have changed a lot; this is the least to mention. My diary would be updated. Do Vote me.


‘The above mentioned are just mere secrets and result of multiple jumping thoughts. Hope you have voted for the LS ’09 election.’

Regards

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सर्जेकोटाचा राजा!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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Sarjekot सर्जेकोट

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सर्जेकोट हा अलिबागच्या कुलाबा किल्ल्याचा शेजारी. खरे तर हा कोट नव्हे एक मोठा बुरूजच आहे. कित्येकदा सर्जेकोटाला कुलाब्याचा अठरावा बुरूज म्हटले जाते!
हा सर्जेकोट बांधला गेला तो संभाजी महाराजांच्या कारकिर्दीत. त्याला कुलाब्यचा अंगरक्षक म्हटल तरी चालेल. तर असा हा सर्जेकोट, ह्याच्या भक्कम भिंती आजही शाबूत आहेत. दरवाजा तेवढा नाही आहे.
*****

महाराष्ट्र दिना निमित्त मी एकटाच निघालो फिरायला. मी ट्रेकिंग करतो ते मज्जा मारण्यासाठी नव्हे. मी गड पाहायला जातो. त्यामुळेच मला लोकांना सांभाळत बसायला आवडत नाही. मी काहीसा एकटा असण्यात आणि ह्या किल्ल्यांच्या सहवासात हरवून जाण्यात आनंद मानतो. मला इथला इतिहास मग जाणून घेता येतो आणि मुख्य म्हणजे प्रत्येक गड बारकाईने पाहता येतो. त्याचा अभ्यास करता येतो!

Kulaba from Alibag

कुलाबा किल्ला, अलीबाग वरून.

जेव्हा मे अलिबागच्या किनार्‍याला पोहोचलो तेव्हा ओहोटी लागलेली होती. त्यामुळे कुलाबा हा भुईकोट झाला होता. कुलाब्यचा अगदी बाजूलाच उभा आहे तो सर्जेकोट. आपल्या मोठ्या भावाला सार श्रेय देऊन निवांत उभा.

लोकांचा ओघ होता तो कुलाब्याच्या दिशेने. सर्जेकोटाकडे कुणी ढुन्कून देखील पाहत नव्हत! आणि ही मंडळी कुलाब्यावर करत काय होती? एकमेकांचे फोटो काढणे, गप्पा मारणे ह्यात रममाण. करा ना गंमत, काढा ना फोटो, मी कुठे नाही म्हणतोय? पण इतिहासाची काही जाण? का सत्य माहीत नसेल तर खुशाल काहीच्या काही फेकायच? आणि सगळ्या थापा मारुन पुढे एक शिवाजीच नाव लावला की ते सत्य होत?

असो.

मे जेव्हा तिथल्या एका माणसाला विचारल, की बाबा, सर्जेकोटवर जाता येत का? तिकडे कुणी जात की नाही? तर तो म्हणाला की तिथे जाता येत पण तिथे फक्त एक विहीर असल्यामुळे तिथे कोणीच जात नाहीत! ही तर माझ्या साठी एक मेजवानीच होती जणू! संपूर्ण सर्जेकोट माझीच जणू वाट पाहत उभा होता!

Sarjekot from Kulaba

सर्जेकोट, कुलब्याहून!

माझा कुलाबा पाहून झाल्यावर जणू कुणी हाक मारुन बोलवल्यासारखी पावल आपोआप सर्जेकोटाच्या वाटेवर पडली. कुलाबा आणि सर्जेकोट, ह्या मध्ये एक दगडी सेतू आहे. तो सेतू ओलांडून मे सर्जेकोटाच्या द्वाराकडे निघालो.

Doorway of Sarjekot

सरेजोकोटाच पडलेल दार.

सर्जेकोटाच द्वार कधीच पडून गेल आहे. त्याचे भक्कम बुरूज मात्र तसेच उभे आहेत. असंख्य लाटांचा मारा थोप्वित! सर्जेकोटमध्ये प्रवेश केल्यावर सर्वात प्रथम नजरेस पाडते ती एक विहीर आणि त्यावर उगवलेल एक सुंदर फुलांनी सजेलल चाफ्याच झाड.

Wild Chaafa Dried up well

झाडावर सुंदर चाफा आणि विहिरीत गाळ!

झाडाला फुला खूप आहेत न सुंदर आहेत पण विहिरीत पाणी कमी आणि गाळ जास्त आहे. शेजारीच तटावर जाण्यासाठी पायर्‍या आहेत. पायर्‍या मात्र अगदी सुस्थितीत! Steps in excellent condition

अत्यन्त सुंदर आशा पाय्र्या!

मी तटावर चढलो आणि सार पाहून घेतल. उत्तरेस खान्देरि-उन्देरी ही जोडी पहिली.सार झाल्यावर मी आलो आणि तटावर बसलो. त्या उष्ण वातावरणात देखील एक थंड हवेची झुळुक आली आणि मन सुखावून गेली.

The round fortifications of Sarjekot

सर्जेकोटाचा तट

लहानपणी एक गोष्ट वाचलेली, ती आठवली. गोष्ट अशी होती की एका रिकाम्या गढीचा ताबा घ्यायला एका शिपायाला पाठवल जात. त्याला एकट्याला पाठवतात कारण शत्रू त्या गढीवर चालून येईल अशी मुळीच अपेक्षा नसते, तो शिपाई तेथे पोहोचतो खरा पण शत्रू चालून येत असल्याचे त्याला कळते.

जराही विलंब न करता तो लगेच गढीचा दरवाजा लावून घेतो आणि शत्रू जवळ येताच त्यावर बंदुकींचा मारा करतो. एका बंदुकीचा बार उडवून लगेच धावत जौन दुसरी बंदुक उडवण अस तो करतो आणि शत्रूला अस भासवतो गढीवर भरपूर सैनिक आहेत. शेवटी तो थकतो आणि गढी शत्रूच्या स्वाधीन करतो तेव्हा कुठे शत्रूच्या ध्यानात खरी गोष्ट येते.

माझ अगदी तसच झाल! गडावर मी एकटाच. बसल्या बसल्या मनाला एक विचार चाटून गेला. कधी ना कधी कान्होजी आंग्रे स्वतः ह्या तटावर आले असतील.ह्याच मातीमध्ये त्यांची पावले पडली असतील! इथली धूळ पवित्र झाली असेल! तटावरून आपली जाणती नजर त्यांनी फेकली असेल. सभोवतलीचा परिसर न्याहळला असेल. गडातील अधिकार्‍यांना सूचना केल्या असतील….अंगावर कसा रोमांच उभा राहिला!

आज इथे फक्त मीच होतो. कुलाब्याला येणार्‍या एकाही व्यक्तीला इथे यावेसे वाटत नव्हते. इथे गडकरी मी, शिपाई मी, गोलंदाज मी, सार सार काही मीच! जणू काही सर्जेकोटाचा राजाच झालो मी! आज जर सर्जेकोटावर कोण चाल करून आल तर तो दरवाजा लढवण्याची शर्थ मीच छातीचा कोट करून केली असती! आणखी कोण होत तिकडे?

म्हटल, “अरे सर्जा, तू एकटा. तुला सार जग विसरून गेल, कोणाच्या ध्यानात देखील तू नाहीस. मी देखील एकटाच आलो आहे तुला भेटायला. तू एकटा आणि मी देखील एकटाच! सार जग आपल्याला विसरून गेलय. तुझ्या ह्या दगडी अस्तित्वात काय रहस्य दड्ली आहेत कुणास ठाऊक? कधी ते कुणाला कळणार देखील नाही! माझ्यासारखा एखादाच वेडा असेल जो तुला भेट देईल! आजतू माझा गड न मे तुझा गडकरी! राजाच जणू एका दिवसाचा!”

-प्रांजल वाघ

Creative Commons License
This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License

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Posted in Marathi articles, Shivaji Maharaj, The Wanderer | 4 Comments »

Marathi Saunskruti Sangraha is online!!

Saturday, May 2, 2009
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Marathi Saunskruti Sangraha or MSS, a venture of which I am proud of being a part launched its website on 1st May 2009 that is on the auspicious ocassion of Maharashtra Day. The sentiments and the reason behind the foundation of MSS and the website is what Ojus Narawane attempts to tell you through this article!

Visit the website and do give us the feedback!!
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मराठी संस्कृती संग्रह
लाभले आम्हास भाग्य बोलतो आम्ही मराठी!

Namaskar Mandali :) ,

We are extremely delighted to announce the release of our website, MarathiSS.com; that’s right, we have our own home on the web now. It also gives us great pleasure to tell you that we are particularly lucky to have Maharashtra Day as the auspicious day of our site release :) .

After going through the Vision and Mission, you must have recognized the reason we are pushing for more and more text being written in English script, but of course in Marathi Language. This site chiefly aims to promote other Marathi Sites, which beautifully capture the essence of the rich and varied Marathi culture.

I felt there was a need to have something that provides a snapshot, as well as a doorway to the Marathi Culture online, especially for people like me … an average Marathi youth disconnected in many ways from Marathi Culture, yet proud of being Marathi, based on whatever knowledge I have about Marathi culture :) . I felt that a website, especially something like File hippo, a directory that would point to all interesting sites grouped into various categories would serve the purpose.

So, thus began my discussion regarding the site, with Harshad, who is an expert when it comes to knowledge about Marathi culture. Having grown up in the Culture capital of Maharashtra, Harshad is, especially very well acquainted with anything that is related to Marathi Food, Theatre and Music ;) . Ok, after brainstorming for a few weeks we had a few plans in mind now, but then who was going to put them up online in a proficient way, so that people actually felt like visiting the site again and again ;) . The answer obviously was, Amey. Amey is an expert when it comes to web designing and related technologies. The entire site’s beauty is attributed to none other than him.

So thus began the journey of MSS…

After facing few restrictions in terms of creativity at the wiki dot site, we decided to buy our very own domain, and marathiss.com sounded so perfect and beautiful ;) . And thus began the process of collecting interesting Marathi sites and grouping them in their relevant categories. We also have a forum which serves as a platform for members to discuss anything regarding Marathi culture. Just recently, Pranjal has joined the MSS team. We now have a professional blogger and experienced trekker with us to give a boost to MSS .

You can consider this site as hobby work done by four youngsters who are passionate about Marathi culture. We feel there needs to be greater representation of budding Marathi Culture talent and entrepreneurship on the World Wide Web as well as the real world. This idea was basically born after facing certain situations in the very capital of Maharashtra. To be precise, we usually have had situations where we have gone to the extent of organising weekend food trips to cities like Pune, cause there is a severe non availability of Marathi Food when it comes to places like Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. This is perhaps because Maharashtrians are not that enterprising or business minded as compared to other communities of India :) . Which is why it’s sometimes sad to see an extremely rich and varied culture not receiving the appreciation and visibility it deserves. Through this site, we wish to promote Marathi Culture in our very own small way and also appeal to people to be a little more enterprising when it comes to publicising and promoting a product, an item ,a foodstuff or a bit of Marathi culture, however small or tiny it maybe. Just like Vada pav, Pav Bhaji, Misal Pav, Veg Kolhapuri are popular, wouldn’t it be nice to see Sabudanyachi Khichadi, Thalipeeth, PuranPoli, Varan Bhat, Piyush or Basundi or even Faral items listed in a regular restaurant menu along with the regular North Indian and South Indian cuisine? There are many small specialities which are linked to specific regions of Maharashtra like Konkan, Varad, Marathwada and their availability is limited to that region only. Kai Majja yete when naatevaikankade gelyavar kadhi Kokanatali fish curry khayala milate, kiva Varadaat ani Kolhapurat jaun masta tikhat jevan and thecha milato. It would be even nicer to see ashya chotya mothya goshti commercialised and documented on the World Wide Web before the knowledge base is lost in the coming years. The best way to start this is, I feel, through the medium of the internet, which is the first choice of seeking information for the present generation … I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to see a greater representation of Marathi Culture in a Bollywood Film, when it’s possible to have every alternative song in Bollywood, in Punjabi :) ; or isn’t it high time we have a entry about Music Directors like Ajay Atul featured in Wikipedia? By stating this example in a blog entry, we are basically trying to explain our feelings behind having such a site online. In fact there are many aspects to this, which can be discussed here, not restricted to Food, Movies and Music alone. We don’t mean to show disrespect for any culture or demean anyone; we have tremendous respect for cultures of all other states and regions and also for their peopleJ. It’s only that, we are simply fans of Maharashtra, its Culture and its simple and loving people, just the way you are, and are very happy to be involved with a project that will promote ‘Aapala Marathmola Culture’ in our own special way :) .

We encourage well wishers to support the site if they like what we are doing. Our aim is not content creation, but to simply promote the already existing or newer content on the web and put it forward to the world, in the form of a Sangraha. Great efforts have been taken by the members of The MSS Team to gather information about sites which can be listed, but I am sure you too have a lot more suggestions regarding interesting sites which can be added in the Sangraha. So, do get your sites, personal WebPages, Picasa albums and blogs and help us promote you in our own small way. We have even made a forum for you to have discussions with likeminded individuals in your area of interestJ. Your comments and suggestions and praises and even curses are most valuable and will only help us improve. Do report dead links, incorrect classifications or any other mistakes from our side. We will try to rectify the errors as soon as possible. Finally, we would like the Sangraha to grow and take the shape of something like a Google or Yahoo online web directory…

Hope you have a wonderful experience throughout your time spent at MarathiSS.com :) .

Regards,
Ojus Narawane
Team MSS

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