Do you still remember Bahadur? The first ever Indian comic hero, her girlfriend Bela, Sukhia, Mukhia and others?
Bahadur and Bela are first ever popular Indian comic heroes published by Indrajal comics, TOI group. Bahadur used to fight against injustice specifically in Chambal area terrorized by dacoits. He himself was a son of a dacoit but grew himself as a defender of justice.
I still remember him and wonder how these characters along with others used to fire my imagination in my childhood. I physically belong to a small town in U.P but mentally , I was lost in the world of comics. Those colors in the panels of a comic book were my solace in a world where hope , freedom and peace were some distant dreams.
Govind Brahmania and Jagjit Uppal created a magic together
I know that Phantom and Mandrake were created by Lee Falk (and Sy Barry) and read long articles after his sad demise. Recently, we read a lot about Mr. Joseph Barbera, the creator of Tom and Jerry who passed away one year ago.
I got a shock when I casually checked profile of my Facebook friend Mr. Nishant Tomar today and got to know that Mr. Govind Brahmania is no more among us. He left his body on 9th December, 2009.
Shri Govind Brahmania, creator of Bahadur and Bela
It is more sad because not even a single newspaper published a single news about this great creator. Not even TOI , the publication group for whom he worked for years.
Media is mad about kinds of Rakhi Sawants. Who cares if Govind Brahmania was the creator of first Indian comic hero.
As always, he was full of energy , enthusiasm and life. He told the viewers about the philosophy of perfection and selfless work. He also told about his book ” Romancing with life”. I immediately went to Crossword, Malad and bought his autobiography. I find it excellent.
Dev Saab has written this book with utmost honesty and once you go through it, its impossible to keep it down. He has written about his struggle, his romance, his first moments of the intimacy with women. Like his classic movies, his book stands out and you fell in love with this great living legend.
CENSOR
Dav Saab ’s book reminded me all of my six years of struggle which I did to find a foothold in film industry. I worked in many serials and finally got my great chance to work with Dev Saab in his movie ” Censor”.
Rahul Katyayan with Johny Lever in movie "Censor"
I was enjoying to be a part of something related with Dev Saab but unfortunately, I was constantly pressurized by my family to leave my struggle in film industry.
Finally, my father threatened me to commit suicide and emotionally blackmailed me to take a decision which changed the course of my life for the worst. I called Dev Saab last time and told him that I am joining computers. I joined IBM and later HDFC IT department but I always knew that I am not made for a technical job and finally I left it and became completely jobless. This is when I faced the cruel realities of world, lost my child because of poor medical facilities and became completely unimportant for everybody. My wife also faced all this trauma with me.
Later, I decided to start something of my own and with the help of my wife, I started this venture called www.gesturegraphics.com, an animation and web development company. We started making animated movies for overseas clients. Also made some movies for social networking websites like Facebook and Youtube.
By God’s grace, we are doing fine but am I satisfied? No. Dev Saab’s interview and his book are inspiring me to take a plunge and my wife forcing me to resume my career all over again as an actor. She believes that I just pretended to live but life had been too far from my reach in all these years. She even made an online order yesterday on Shemaroo.com and bought this CD of movie ” Censor”. When I saw myself again on screen after so many years , I felt a new inspiration in me. I have forgotten all those years when I lived (?) without any passion and motivation and was almost dead.
As Dev Saab told in his interview that we must grab the wave of inspiration when it comes. I also want to do it and promise that I will not let it go this time for any reason.
I was moved when I saw my name in cast of movie . Thanks, Dev Saab! For keeping me in your mind even when I left the journey midway. Please forgive your this forgetful child.
Here, I would like to quote these encouraging lines from one of Dev Anand’s immortal song from his movie “Lootmaar”.
Teri himmat hi kismet, jo bigdi baat banayegi
Shaan se tu ye kadam utha, manzil khud mil jaayegi
If you dare to be somebody, your destiny bow at you and help you to complete the unfinished task.
Be proud of yourself and move forward, you will reach your destination.
Last week I saw this movie called Gulaal directed by Anurag Kashyap. Most of the actors in the movie are not a very recognizable face but when it comes to performance, they can beat any mainstream hero. “Wow!”
I generally do not like dark and very very realistic movies as they generally leave their viewers frustrated and most of them are made to prove the caliber of a prize winning director. A simplicity of story –telling is generally missing in so called great movies but Gulaal is an exception. It’s out an out an entertaining movie without any compromise in it’s realistic approach. This is what called the great talent and Anurag Kashyap definitely deserves a lot of accolades for his work.
I hope that time has come when Yash Chopras, Subhash Ghais and Karan Johars will take a note of this change in Indian cinema and stop making mess in the name of movies which are generally very high in budget and very low when it comes to contents. We are really tired of these so called superstars with mediocre acting abilities. It’s really a relief to watch great performances of almost unknown actors in Gulaal.
Anybody who has ever been a part of north Indian states knows that characters like “Ransa” and “Bhati” in the movie are as real as they could be. And what a remarkable performance from Kay kay Menon! I remember him working in a small role in a Ravi Rai’s serial “Teacher”. Those were his struggling days and now he is getting his due for his hard work and patience.
Not to forget the performance from Mahi Gill. In my personal opinion, her “ Chak- Mak” song is far better than Aishwarya’s “Kajra re”. Mahi successfully portrayed the pain and glamour in his performance while Kajra –re was all about the plastic smiles. And where was Piyush Mishra till now? He is the most talented and original music composer and I am listening his songs again and again. God bless him!!!
Well done, Anurag Kashyap. My best wishes for you and your team of performers in Gulaal.
I am proud to be an Indian. I am proud because I know the fact that India is a land of sacred saints and have a great cultural and spiritual heritage. India is a country who discovered some of the basic mathematical, scientific and medical facts thousand years ago and told the world the meaning of society and culture. This land is birthplace of many philosophies and spiritual teachings.
But yes, I also understand that being proud on something which happened thousand years back and facing the fact of today is two distinctly different issues. Blind faith and empty proud lead one to destruction and India need to see the reality of today. We can not hide behind our faith and run away from truth. Truth is God, even greater than God and truth must prevail on cost of anything.
Chhindwara shuts down over deaths in Asaram’s school
Here I want to tell you a story of an ex- disciple of Asaram. It has nothing to do with mysterious deaths of children in his Ashram but still an eye- opener. Let’s hear it in his own words……
I can say that I was always spiritually curious and I do not give Asaram credit to awaken this spirituality in me. Before meeting him, I had thoroughly read about the lives and teachings of great saints like Neeb Karori Baba, Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekanda, Swami Sivananda , Sai Baba and Swami Samarth.
My spritual urge was looking for someone whom I can see, meet or listen on physical level and Asaram was a complete package for people like me.
In fact, I was a quite ripe fruit who fell in the lap of Asaram after listening to his spiritual discourse which I found was a good combination of teachings of all the saints whom I already read. I thought that I also found my Guru in Asaram at physical level. This decision changed the course of my life and I wasted some important years of my life. I feel that I am lucky one who lost trust in his teaching in few years and re-structured my life once again but I wonder for his followers who never want to see beyond his teachings.
I am great fan of books written by Swami Vivekanad and Paramhansa Yoganand and feel fortunate to get a chance to go through the books of these great teachers. Though Asaram always seems to speak about God and his existence but he manipulates these teachings to propagate his own persona and make people to believe only in his Guru which he is himself.
Asaram says that this whole world and all relations are nothing but illusion. So what a disciple should do? He should join his Guru’s ashram and start doing services for his Guru.
True, this is something from Vedas. But the fact is that this truth which is called knowledge of ”Vedanta” is not for everyone. The great saint ” Ramkrishna Paramhansa” selected only 16 disciples to give them the knowledge of Vedanta. These disciples renounced the world and accepted the path of God and we can see how these disciples spread his teaching all over the world. Asaram go to every city and speak about the “Vedanta knowledge” to lacks of his followers. But none of them has become a ”Swami Vivekanada”.
But yes, his own son has been graduated to call himself God. Is one not enough ???
I would also like to tell you what Paramhansa Yoganand ji said in this regard, ” The world and spiritualism both are important. This is duty of every human being to strike a balance between his/her worldly duties and quest of God. If you ignore one for another Mahahmaya ( the great Goddess who run this world) will punish you.
Paramhansa Yogananda Ji
Asaram’s other teaching is that Guru is greater than God so it’s ok if you worship the Guru and forget the rest. Never have a doubt on your Guru and just do not argue if he says something.
On the contrary, Ramkrishna Parmhans never tried to curb the analyzing power of their disciples and he always encouraged them to develop their own personality. He always told his disciples to keep an eye on the activities of your Guru. You must know that if his a true Guru or fake one. When Vivekanada asked Ramkrishna the question if he had ever seen the God. He replied ,” Yes and I can also show the God to you.” and He did.
How many Asaram’s disciples has seen the God ??? I didn’t. I am not sure about Asaram and others.
Asaram does not give importance to formal education and says that everybody should learn about the God.
True, but again this is not a fact for worldly people. The most of the today’s world facilities we are enjoying are result of this formal medical, technical and other worldly education. Sant Asaram and others Guru in the same league didn’t waste their time in formal education but they extensively use today’s technology for weaving their web.
Asaram says that sexual desires are door of hell. Even husband and wife should stay away from each other so they can save their magnetism and aura.
Our Vedas says that dharam, arth, kaam, moksha ( spiritualism, money, sex and salvation) are four important duties of every man in this world. I accept that a saint should stay away from money and women but worldly people make their world around them. These are the inspiration and reason for progress of world.
This world is also made by God. The fact is that all great saints leave a wave of great selfless work behind them to make this world a better place. Running away from this wold is no solution to anybody.
I learned the truth hard way. Life is gift from God , we must respect it.
Neeb Karori Baba
Please visit the link below to see concluding part of this post…
Last week I saw some images of Bajrang Dal activists who blackened the face of a couple on Valentine day. The couple in love were looking very distressed and our moral police activists were standing there proudly as they have saved the India from some nuclear attack. It’s really very disappointing to see such images in India who is looking forward to a prosperous future. I don’t know why our administration falls every time to save the basic human rights of freedom of ours citizens. The bajrang dal activists were disturbed as Valentine day is copy of western culture and they think that western culture is something very dangerous like an epidemic.My question here is if our Indian culture is so week that it could be threatened by an expression of love ( or whatever it is ) of a couple.
My second question if we really know what is the Indian culture. Does it stop us to be a liberal society? According to the Vedas kaam (sex) is one of the most important purusharth ( Spritual duty of a man) which comes only after Dharma (religion) in order. If we go by history, we will find that Indian culture is something which always advocate the basic right of freedom of an individual.
Our history tells that not long but just before thousand years back, we were a very liberal society. Even sex was not a taboo subject like these days for us and we were a very happy and prosperous society. According to the historians, Mughal and British invasion changed our view toward the sex completely and we turned into a most hypocrite society.
Come on , Let’s admit it that we are not honest to ourselves. When we spit our venom against western culture on Valentine day, we forget that our technology, movies, TV entertainment , dressing , Internet all are gifts to us from this culture. Tell me why we should be so proud to be an Indian. Please don’t go to the Vaidic period and start telling me what our great forefathers had done. They were really great and they didn’t had time for petty politics and other time wasting exercise. women were free to dress whatever they want and we definitely were not a sex starved society in the Vaidik period like today. Molestation of a decent woman in Mumbai by dozens of goons on New Year eve is an example of our dual faced society. In fact, in some parts western culture is following the rules which we actully discovered in Vaidik period and see their progress. See the health, welath and lifestyle of people of west. These countries are among the most prosperops countries in the world while we have even forget that we are humans.
Are we able to provide to all our citizens clean water, non polluted air and hygenic food? No.
Are we able to provide every children of India that high standard of education and an environment to grow their personality? No.
Does our society treat our women with respect and diginity and protect their rights ? No. In fact, we need to take some lessons from west when it comes to improve our lifestyle as an educated society.
My point here is why we are wasting our time in these useless activities like Valentine protest and some political rally which is being organized to fulfill the political ambition of a corrupt leader. Instead, we can devote this time to improve ourselves as an individual and as a society. I am sure that this will make Lord Bajrangbali more happy.
As a matter of fact, lord Hanuman ( Bajrang bali) carried the message of love of Lord Ram to Mother Sita and helped her to destroy her sorrow. I think Bajrandal “Anti Valentine” activists can take a lesson from this episode. Obviously they will say that couples celebrating valentine day are not Sita and Ram but Doesn’t Hanuman ji see only Sita and Ram in this whole universe?
If you do not know I would like to tell you that Baba Neeb Karori Maharaj was a great saint of Northern India. Here I would like to end this feature with one of his story from book “ Miracle of Love”, authored by Ramdas.
“A devotte was embarrased when Maharajji came to his room at university and discovered a pinup calender on the wall. Mahrajji asked who she was, and the devotee said no one, going to turn the picture on wall. But Maharajji stopped him, saying, “She’s is Ma. Don’t dihonor her.”
Kanika tells her experience about working for Mallika
When I made my account @KANIKACART on Twitter.com one month ago, I did it just to see if it is something worth.
There are many social networking websites and Twitter was one more addition so I did it just to paste the link of my company http://www.gesturegraphics.com at one more place.
But after this happening one month, I am overwhelmed and surprised with the power of Twiiter which connects people from all countries, classe and status.
On 14 th July, our own Bollywood superstar Mallika visited Twitter headquarter. This is really, really a big event for me personally. Reason? Because, Mallika launched her new Twitter background design on this event. And I can proudly say that I designed this art for queen of Bollywood.
Mallika Sherawat Twitter background developed by Kanika
She not only put it on her Twitter page but also signed her autographs on it. It was a big day for me when she visited the Twitter HQ in San Francisco while I was sitting back at my home in Mumbai. I thank Mallika from depths of my heart for giving me this opportunity.
And if you are surprised how I get this chance to meet Mallika and asked her to design her page, Twitter comes again into the picture. It all started with exchange of some sweet tweets.
Mallika tweeting at Twitter HQ
I must tell you that Mallika is great human being and a real star. Her humility and originality can take anybody by surprise.
We don’t talk anymore, We twitter! Twitter has changed our style of communication. This micro social networking website has surpassed all the giants in the internet market and growing like an unstoppable epidemic.
We, at the Twitterarts.com are committed to add more joy and excitement in your Twitter life. We are the same team who made Gesturegraphics.com a most successful venture in the field of animation and graphics.
We can develop great backgrounds, Avatars, logos for your Twitter page on most reasonable cost. Please visit TwitterArts.com to know more about the service.
Thx, V:) actually, thank @kanikacart who made it @channelvindia what can we say… your HISSS avatar on your twitter background is stunning!
Rahul Katyayan