Happened to see Patna Junction railway station from a closer distance and was highly impressed by its makeover. I don't know when this change happened, and I don't remember when and if I boarded any trains from here. And I wonder if it is as beautiful also from the inside. The big displayed national flag is certainly the initiative of current govt led by Narendra Modi after coming to power [news].
The makeover is a proof of how small changes can make our world more beautiful and interesting place to live in.
Hats off to government of India and ministry of Railways.
Mahavir Mandir, Patna is one of the most famous Hanuman temples in Bihar. Not sure about other places, but in Bihar Hanuman Ji is also known as Mahavir, meaning great warrior, or the bravest.
Mahavir Temple is situated near to Patna Junction railway station, and it is a beautiful, well managed temple. Besides Hanuman ji, we have idols of Shri Ram, Sita Mata being worshipped, and Shivling of Bhagwan Shiv is also housed in the temple for worship.
I could also see a model of proposed Viraat Ramayan Mandir on display inside the temple. Situated in East Champaran district of Bihar, Viraat Ramayan Mandir will be world's biggest temple once it is built.
Mahavir Mandir, Patna is a must visit for all devotees and I am sure visitors will feel better and happy with the visit.
During my stay at our native village, once I attended cremation of one of my relatives. Cremation happened in the evening and next morning we needed to visit the site again for some ritual. The place is near a beautiful temple and a pond which is made over land donated by our ancestors. There was plenty of time to spend and someone was telling stories about a guy who was living near the temple and being a matter of great controversy.
The guy was actually the "son-in-law" of someone who lived near the place. He lost his mind, and not sure if after or before he lost his mind, his family threw him out of their house. He was poor, perhaps uneducated and had nowhere to go. So, he selected a small area near the temple and started living there permanently. Someone pointed out to us where he lived, and I could see a small enclosure made by a saree or dhoti supported by four wooden sticks at corners, with no roof on its top. He ate by begging whenever he felt hungry. We were informed that the mad man was dangerous and many times he had suddenly "slapped" men and boys and fled by swimming after jumping in the pond.
While we were being told about this interesting story, we saw the very same guy coming the same way. We got careful while he was coming towards us. Out of curiosity, I tried to look at his face while he came towards us. He had put a towel around his face, and he must have some black beard on his face because his face was not being visible at all. He kept coming nearer and I kept looking into his face to get a glimpse. But I was shocked that he came and went past us, but his face did not become visible at all! How was that possible? I ran the images several times in my mind, trying to remember if I had noticed anything in his face, but I could not. He had towel around his face and there was just darkness instead of a face. I could not see his eyes or teeth or beard or moustache or forehead - nothing.
It was a really strange experience, and I did not see him anytime afterwards. But I could not understand how his face was "invisible". The man telling us stories about him had never mentioned about his face being invisible to anyone, so I understood that it had not happened before. Although I can't understand why even his eyes were not visible, the only logical explanation I can think of is that he was a dark-skinned man and due to his face being surrounded by a towel, his face became invisible for me. Maybe he was closing or lowering his eyes while he walked. Otherwise, what else could be an explanation for the "magic"?
TRAI messed up telecom industry leading to duopoly; regulators were not even able to regulate OTT yet; and now Artificial Intelligence has come and needs regulation! Certainly, challenging time to be regulators in India. And price will be paid by customers/society.
One reason why telecom operators failed and shut shops in India was TRAI/govt allowing mobile Messenger Apps like WhatsApp to allow customers to make "free calls" to anyone, even overseas, at zero fee to telecoms. It was highly unfair to telecoms and resulted in "data" driven business model which only new operators like Jio were designed for. Old operators failed miserably and closed shop. It resulted in duopoly and bad deal for customers can be easily seen in telecoms cancelling billing model and forcing customers to buy "unlimited plans" which not everyone needs. An entire industry ecosystem was disrupted, and this is not even discussed in a free economy.
Telecom regulator TRAI should make policies 'inclusive' which promotes multiple operators since competition is good for consumers; make policies which also allows telecoms to be able to charge customers enough to be able to make profits; and during auctions, do not just focus on raising as much money as possible since once of the reasons telecoms went bankrupt was higher spectrum prices they had to pay during auction.
More than telecom regulation, it is OTT regulation which is critical. Absolutely bad language is being used and indecency is shown in OTT content just because there is no censor board reviewing the shows. Last OTT show I watched is Shahid Kapoor starrer 'Bloody Daddy' and it had absurd level of foul language used.
It is high time Indian regulators should fix the telecom industry policies immediately, bring OTT under regulation urgently and then explore ways to regulate/restrict AI.
I watched the recently released film 'Adipurush' and loved it. This is an animation-based action film based on the Hindu epic Ramayan. It belongs to a genre which is also called "Superhero movies".
I think there was a huge misunderstanding about this movie on social media and it has resulted in the movie not getting good viewership. First of all, it is important to know that this is not a "remake" of Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana. This is not even a traditional mythological or religious film. This is essentially for target audiences like younger generation and children who love or are used to watching Western animation and superhero films like Marvel's 'The Avengers'. One can find the animation and graphics of this movie in the league of movies like '300', 'Planet of Apes', or many Hollywood war movies. Now, the question is: is it ok to make a "Superhero movie" based on Ramayana? Why not? We have had Ramayana picture cartoons, stage performances and drama, comics, animation films, Japanese anime and what not. If Youtubers say that we can have any other type of movie based on Ramayana but just not "Superhero movie", how absurd is the idea? The beauty of Hinduism is that it allows you freedom, creativity and literary freedom. We should be proud of it.
The makers of this movie need huge applause for raising the bar of Indian movies and making such a world-class film.
The movie starts with a wonderful introduction and a wonderful song. Manoj Muntashir Shukla has written wonderful lyrics for this movie and great dialogues too. Few controversial dialogues quoted on social media have already been removed from the movie.
The movie starts with Sita's abduction and ends with Ram and Sita getting united. This is not the full Ramayana story but it focuses on Sri Ram's conquest of Lanka.
The visual effects and animation in this film are worldclass. The monkeys, apes and other things looks like straight from the Hollywood movies. Everything is very realistic.
I am not a fan of Saif Ali Khan in general, but I find that he has done a really powerful role of Ravana. In fact, based on his powerful acting skills, this can be counted as one of his best performances. With animation and computer graphics, he has been given a larger-than-life character and he has lived up to it. Hats off to Saif.
Prabhas as Shri Ram has also done a great job. I am again not a fan of Prabhas in general, and based on the defamation this movie was subjected to on social media, even I had started feeling that he was not the right fit for the role. But, after watching the movie, all my doubts have vanished. Prabhas has done a great role in this movie and needs huge applause.
Kriti Sanon as Sita has played it very nicely. We get the feelings of purity, piousness and faith from her performance. Sunny Singh as Lakshman has again done a great job.
Another important character was of Hanuman which has been played by Devdatta Nage. Again, pictures of his face and expressions were widely circulated on social media to defame the movie. But after watching the movie, I will give him 10/10. One of his first scenes in this movie is of his meeting with Shri Ram and tears flowed from my eyes during the emotional meeting scene when Shri Ram hugs Hanuman.
Given the time-limit in a movie format, the movie could not possibly show all major events and hence they have focused on a few events to elaborate. For example, there is a touching event of Shabri offering 'ber' fruits to Shri Ram. Hanuman's meeting with Ma Sita and "Lanka dahan" have also been covered well.
Another important aspect which shows wisdom of the movie makers is that they have portrayed Ram as Raghav (his other name), Lakshman as Shesha and Hanuman as Bajrang. Sita is called Janaki here. On the other hand, the Rakshasa characters like Ravana, Indrajit or Ravana got their real name. Why did they do that? I don't know, but perhaps they did it to avoid collecting any sins if they portrayed anything negatively.
I liked the film very much and I would recommend everyone to watch it. Ignore the social media defamation of this movie. Old people, sadhus and saints should give this movie a skip, because this is not a traditional film. But younger people, just ignore the social media trolls and go watch this movie.
While browsing through today's Times of India newspaper (New Delhi edition), I came across the obituaries / Tributes section on page-6 and below post caught my attention.
First, the box was in yellow and going by the looks, the man in this B&W picture looked like some industrialist, movie actor or a celebrity. There was something written above the picture in beautiful cursive writing (who sees it in print these days?). I looked at the name - Deepak Varma and could not recall anyone. The date of his demise was in 2014. And then, there was a touching poem written below it:
It was clear that his wife wrote this poem and published this Ad in his loving memory. That was so touching.
I searched on the internet to find any news or article about him, but I could not. And then I came across another similar Ad with another poem published by his wife (widow) here on TOI in 2016.
It should not be, but somehow it came as a surprise that the woman would remember her husband like this and write poems about him. From the years mentioned, it was clear that 9 years have passed since his demise, and he died in an old age of 72. His wife must also be very old now.
It is also interesting to see that she chose this picture of his for the Tributes Ad where he looked at the prime of his health and wellbeing. Even I have kept a younger-days photograph of my grandfather at my home instead of his older days photograph. Though I did not see my grandfather in his younger days (since I was not born then) and I have his older images in my memories, but I thought it won't be fair to him to keep only his old-age image alive in this manner.
Anyways, in this world where we come across cruel and ungrateful people so often, it was wonderful to come across this couple. Let them unit in next life and beyond if those wish to. May God bless them both.
The Shatrughaneshwar group of temples are a trio of 6th century A.D. temples built during the Sailodbhava rule, consisting of Shatrughaneshwar temple, Bharateshwar temple, and Lakshmaneshwar temple. They are located immediately opposite the Rameshwar temple in Bhubaneswar.
