Mahalaya- The Auspicious Day!

Yesterday was Mahalaya. As usual we woke up at 4 am with the great 'Mahisashura Mardini' on All India Radio :). This presentation is a legend in the true sense of the term. All Bengalis feel the emotions, songs, and all the related associations of childhood - while listening to the programme.

A pious day indeed! End of Pitripaksha and the beginning of Devipaksha. The ritual of the 'tarpan' of the ancestors are also done on this day.

After the completion of Mahisashura Mardini on radio, almost all the tv channels presented 'Mahalaya' in some way or the other. On this day, I love to watch all the programmes/ dance/ drama offered by all the channels. I keep on watching all of them by changing the channel frequently :). This day has an unique charm, which conveys itself through all these enactment of the glories of Ma Aadi Shakti.

Here I am giving the list of programmes aired today on various channels-

* Star Jalsha- 'Abhaya Mangal' ( Stories from Chandi Mangal)

* Zee Bangla- 'Maatri Rupena' (covering the stories of- Kali

                                                                            Shatakkhi

                                                                            Chaamunda

                                                                            Durga

                                                                            Parvati

                                                                            Kaushiki

                                                                            Annapurna

                                                                            Chhinnamasta

                                                                            Kaalraatri

                                                                            Mahisashuramardini)

                 - 'Dugga Ma er Chitra Katha' (animated short film for children)

* DD Bangla- 'Mahisashuramardini' (dance)

                - 'Shokal Shokal' (Guest Raja Bhattacharya discussed many stories related to Durga Puja and sang related songs. He also sang famous stotras like - 'Na Taat Na Maat' and 'Nirvaanshatak' by Adi Shankaracharya)

* Aakash Bangla- 'Raat Phalo Shaarod Praate' (very unique attempt by the channel- discussion/ adda throughout the whole previous night to the dawn of Mahalaya, i.e.- 11 pm - 7 am, with many eminent artists :) )

                     - 'Good Morning Aakash' had Sriradha Bandhyopadhyay and Srikumar Chattopadhyay as guests.

* Star Ananda- 'Mahalayae Mahisashuramardini' ( Discussion/ Adda with many famous personalities)

* News Time Bangla- 'Gouri Esho' ( Discussion and Songs by guests)

* Chobbish Ghonta-  Dance on Mahisashuramardini with Chhou and Kathakali artists, Tamnay Bose was also seen in the music team)

* Zee Bangla Cinema- 'Nabarupe Nabadurga' (presentation of the nine forms of Aadi Shakti. Dance - Koel Mullick and anchored by Aditi Munshi. Re telecast of last year's Mahalaya dance programme of Zee Bangla, which was very good in its content.)

* Colors Bangla- 'Gonudada'r Durgapujo' (animated programme for children)

                    

                     - 'Durga Durgotinashini' [this one presented a family reunion story-  where a Saadhika (Rimjhim Mitra) comes to a house and brings joy with her- also, with the main Mahisashuramardini story, through narration and dance]

Also all the news channels were airing Live telecast of the 'tarpan' ceremony or any other religious ceremonies being performed on the banks/ ghats of Ma Ganga. I enjoyed all those images.

Last year Mahalaya was on 12 October. I was remembering that I could not write a post last year on this day, so just mentioning some of those programmes in this year's post :). Last year we watched Mahalaya on Zee Bangla, Colors Bangla, Rupashi Bangla, DD Bangla, CTVN and so on. Also we watched the animated programme – ‘Chhotoder Dugga Thakur’. Programmes were there in almost every channel. All of them were very nice. Only Star Jalsha presented the story of Ramayan - the incident of 'alaakbodhan' by Shri Ram. That was very unique :), as most of the other channels focused their programme on Mahisashura Vadh by Ma Durga.

Truly a blissful day :), which always makes us look forward to Durga Puja :)

Joy Maa Durga!

'Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik'- A Talk Show on Indian Mythology on Epic Channel

This is a talk show on Epic Channel where 'they bring Indian mythology to our home', as the tagline of the show truly says.

The anchor is Himanshi Chaudhury and the expert is Devdutt Pattanaik, who is known to all through his writings in various subjects. In any book shop we find his books now a days. He is writing in this field for many years now.

Each day they take one or more topic from Indian Mythology and discuss about it along with some related topics.

I like the programme because of its content. These days, one or more mythological serials can be found very easily on almost every channel of the television but a discussion on such topics are quite uncommon. This show deals mainly with information, analysis and symbolism of various mythological topics, without going much into the devotional aspect, (which is often the main focus of normal spiritual/ religious channels). In this way, this show is slightly different from them. I feel, The element of spirituality is not the focus of the show. Devdutt Pattanaik talks about real world around us.

Sometime I feel a more detailed explanation was needed and do not agree completely with the views presented in the show but that can happen in the case of any other show also, as many times in our life we all have our own different interpretations of the same event. And sometime I learn something new from the show or get a new angle of a certain incident.

This show deserves praise because of its unique content, that is, discussion on such topics. 


I came to know just recently that this is Season 2 of this programme, they also had it last year. As the vidoes are not available on YouTube, Epic Channel has come up with the published book with the same title of the show, which covers the content of Season 1 of this programme.

Good work by Epic Channel. Looking forward to more such programnes in future.

Cappadocia: Turkey

Recently Travel XP channel aired a programme 'Bliss' on Cappadocia area of Turkey. It is a hilly place, having the colour white in the hills and land, which has made it so unique. 

I was amazed to see the natural beauty of the place! It is so so different from other places! Because of its colour as well as its structure of the city on the hilly area. As if they have converted the caves into rooms and stay there. 


The lifestyle of the people of that area are so basic that we realise that to lead a peaceful life we actually do not need many items. Without all the extra/ artificial objects, the place retains its basic natural flavour. 

                                  

They have this 'Balloon Trip' to see the whole area from the sky, which is so memorable! 


Really a nice place to visit or at least to know about :)

Thanks to Travel XP for letting us know about this unique place.

(Pictures taken from the internet. Credit goes to the original uploaders. Used only for the purpose of appreciation.)

Olympic Games, Rio 2016

Olympic 2016 just completed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Enjoyed all the Live Telecast in the 4 channels of Star Sports. Indeed the coverage was great! And throughout the whole day, they aired repeat/ highlights and many more programmes on Olympic, so that the audience do not miss anything interesting which has happened in all those arenas. Any time of the day we just needed to switch on the TV and surf those 4 channels to know what has happened in the previous day. Also they have this Hindi commentary on channel 2, which is very helpful in understanding any new sports. Some of the commentators were Ravikant Singh and Nirmala Kotnis. The programme 'Rise' was also good, anchored by Kamal Sidhu. The 'Pre Show' programme, everyday before the starting of the day's events as well as all the discussions during breaks or before/ after the match/ any competition (about all types of games- hockey, gymnastics, badminton and so on)- were also very good. These programmes also came in both Hindi and English on channel 3 and 2 respectively. Star sports has done very very good job in covering the Olympics.

I also enjoyed the 'Daily Report' programme on Olympic which was aired on FM Gold at 7 am each day for half an hour. They gave the details of interesting events, analysis about the matches and also many information about the Olympics. Everyday morning I waited for the programme after the completion of RamCharitManas which comes from 6:50 to 7 am. The anchors/ reporters were Shivendra Chaturvedi, Anupam Pathak, B Shiv Kumar and many more.

Kolkata Doordarshan also aired special Programme named- 'Olympic Ek Nojore', everyday at 3 pm, which was also good. I watched the programme daily after taking lunch.

And yes, the name without which this writing will be incomplete is ‘Times of India’. Each day they had these columns named- 'Indians in Fray', where the names of our participants plus their sports along with the timing were there. Also they had this column named -'Worldwatch' where remaining interesting sports and their timing were covered. This list has been very helpful each day in deciding when to watch out for a particular match.

These are the programmes I enjoyed during Olympics or the things which I read. Now coming to the performances, a lot has already been written about it. Enjoyed all the performances and felt motivated too. Need another post for it. So maybe sometime later :)

With best wishes for success in future.

Celebrating Nachiketa Chakraborty's Birthday on 'Good Morning Aakash' on 1.9.16

The era of 90's Bengali music was dominated by three stalwarts mainly- Suman Chattopadhyay, Nachiketa Chakraborty and Anjan Dutta. We grew up listening to their songs around us in functions and in tape recorder/ cassettes. All the three composers were so unique in their approach, style, and  addressed different issues of the society.

On 1st September this year, 'Aakash Bangla' in their daily programme- Good Morning Aakash, celebrated the birthday of one among these three- Nachiketa. Really enjoyed all the songs sung by Prasun Banerjee and his team. I was remembering school and college days while listening to those songs :). Back then, it was mainly a craze to listen to those songs which were popular among our friends, but now as I analysed deeper into the lyrics, I realised how true they are, how only Nachiketa could deliver such powerful message to the society through his song and with his unique attitude :). The same point was discussed in the programme also. 

Had a great time that day morning 7- 9. Cherishing the memory :)

The songs which Prasun Banerjee sang were-

Kuasha jokhon

Ontobiheen pothe chola e jibon

Tumi aashbe bole

Chor

Srabono ghonaaye

Nilanjana- 1

Jokhon shomoy thomke daraye

Briddhasram

It's a game

Some of the relatively new songs were also there, which I have never heard before like-

Daktaar

Pagla jogai

Khepa

It surprised me when I looked at the year Nachiketa released his first album ['cassette' , back then :) ]- 1993- 'Ei Besh Bhalo Aachhi'. 23 years have past! Couldn't believe at first :).  Time flies! Truly.

During the programme, the famous singer Haimanti Shukla called up and talked with the guest Prasun as well as with the anchor Mounita. Loved such a nice gesture by the veteran. It fills our heart with respect for such an affectionate elder :)

Thanks to Aakash Bangla for such an enjoyable programme which made the audience go down memory lane.

Lots of best wishes for future.

Hari Aum.


(Photo taken from internet. Credit goes to the uploader. Used only for the purpose of appreciation.)

'Ek Nayi Subah'- Programme on the Completion of Two Years by the NDA Govt

Dear Friends,

On Saturday, 28th May, 2016, NDA Govt led by Mr Narendra Modi celebrated its two year in power through a programme- 'Ek Nayi Subah'. It was organised beside India Gate. In the programme they talked about various issues, many Govt officials as well as volunteers/ members of NGOs- participated in the programme. I really liked the concept of the programme. It updated us about the various departments of the Govt, how they are performing, what are they aiming to achieve in the next few years and so on. They also took us Live to many parts of the country to show us some special happenings/ discussions. I liked this idea also. Thus they brought the whole nation, which is so varied in culture, on the same platform.

Eminent Doordarshan anchor Neelam Sharma and actor Madhavan were the main hosts in the beginning. Really liked the way Mr Amitabh Bachchan took part in the ‘Beti Bachao' - segment of the programme. Later Raveena Tandon, Uma Bharti and many more shared their opinion about various issues. I missed the later half of the programme and also the speech of the Prime Minister.

Overall it was a good attempt to bring the achievements of the govt in front of the public. If the process of working and the aim of the Govt is clear to the public, they will also feel like participating in the system. When the Govt is doing so much, public also gets motivated to contribute to the society, thus ultimately to the progress of the nation. The power of positivity attracts all, which is very much beneficial for our country.

This was the icon of the programme.

(Got it from the internet. Used for the sole purpose of appreciation. No personal profit intended)

They released a song-‘Mera desh badal raha hai/ Aagey badh raha hai’- 

with many videos on various subjects, on the occasion. 

One more song which I listened on the radio, also on the same theme- ‘Do varsho ka samay keh raha hai...’.

With lots of Best Wishes for the progress of the country.

Musical Programme with Adheer Gun on DD Bangla

DD Bangla has a musical programme named Shokal Shokal, which is aired every morning 7- 8:30 am. Last year, on 6^th Dec ‘15, there was a special guest. An old person, who was 82 years old. His name was Adeer Gun. He had such a nice personality! He seemed to be a very simple human being. In young age he got interested in the songs of S D Burman and started singing them. Throughout his whole life, he has sung only the songs of S D Burman.

In the live programme, he sang many songs, so fluently! He did not even used any notes for the lyrics! He only had a list containing the names of the songs. He has devoted his whole life in the practice of those songs, it was evident in his effortless way of singing. And when we consider his age, we become so astonished as how he had maintained his voice and breathing! We feel spontaneous respect for such a magnificent personality! An inspiration indeed! 

Everyone on the set was enjoying Adheer Gun's singing. Here is the picture of the artist playing the Tabla :)

Thanks to DD Bangla for such a memorable and a very very special programme :) 

Lots of Best Wishes to the noble person.

Jai Shri Krishna.  

Explore Jordon- A Series on Travel XP Channel

Travel XP is an wonderful channel. As evident from its name, it takes us to various places, tells us about the it, its history- culture- cuisine, and many more interesting facets.

Recently they aired a series on Jordan. Jordan is country which is situated in west Asia.

In one episode, they took us to the city - Jerash, which is a place where the Romas ruled for a long time. So we can witness many remains of the Roman civilization in the city.

North and South Theater are such two places of Jerash. 

North was used for discussion and it has the capacity of 1600 seats.

South is the theater having the capacity for 3000 people. Originally the number was 5000. It was built around 90 AD. Programmes are still performed in this theater.

Another famous ruin of Jerash is the Oval Plaza. It was a forum which had 56 columns, and was built around 1st century.

We also went to Madaba, in another episode. This place is situated around 40 km South West of Amman. I was really surprised to know about the famous 'Mosaic Map' at Madaba, which is there in the Church of St George.

It is made of around 2 million pieces of marbles/ tiles! Amazing work indeed! It is the oldest and best preserved map of middle east. It was made around 6th c. AD. It is slightly different from today’s maps as it is east oriented in the place of north, (which we are more accustomed to look at). It is the oldest known geographical floor mosaic in art history. It shows many biblical sites from Lebanon to Nile, from Mediterranean Sea to Eastern Desert.

Mosaic art was very popular in Madaba. Here are some more pictures-

In another programme, they also took us to Aqaba, which is the coastal city of Jordan, having a wide beech. It is situated on the tip of Red Sea. The most astonishing fact is that we can see three countries- Egypt, Saudi Arab and Israel, from Aqaba. Its location is so special that it is also in the middle of three continents - Asia, Europe and Africa.

Jordan is famous for its Sand art! I was surprised to see the sceneries made inside glass bottles.

And here is the process of making the same, from a forwarded video.

I enjoyed this series on Jordan. The whole series contained many more famous places, here I have shared about only a few of them which I could remember.

Excellent work by the channel!

(Photos are taken from internet and the Map from Google. Credit goes to the uploaders, creators. Used only for the appreciation of the beauty of the place)

'Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai' – Episode featuring Saina Nehwal

'Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta hai' is programme on Sony TV, where they take us to the homes of many famous personalities, we listen to their stories from them and also from their near an dear ones. Vinay Pathak is the anchor of the show.

The episode about Saina Nehwal took us to her house. We listened to her parents, their memories about the childhood of Saina. Her father shared his struggles for giving a better future to Saina, for making arrangements about her training, and many such stories. We were also taken to the school of Saina, where all the students were so happy, so proud about the achievement of their former student :) :). They even had a wing of the school named after her J ,Wonderful!

Loved the programme because of its simple content : ). Thanks to Sony tv for such a nice programme.

Here is the YouTube link of the episode. It was aired on 27 September 2015.

All the best to Saina for her future :)

World Book Fair 2016 at Delhi

The World Book Fair is going on from to Jan 9-17 at Pragati Maidan, Delhi. The timing is from 11 am to 8 pm. We visited the fair on Sunday and had a great time J.  We arrived quite early, around 11 and found many people standing in a queue in front of the main gate, which was something new to us, generally we don't find many people in Delhi interested in books.  

There was a fountain in front of the Ticket Counter :)

We visited the ‘National Book Trust’ stall. A significant stall having many types of books. They are working so sincerely in this field!

We also came across the stall of ‘Sanskriti Bharati’, this organisation is doing a great work in making Sanskrit popular in today’s world. Great work indeed!

We also found 4- 5 Bengali Book Stalls who have come from Kolkata. Among them was the stall of the ‘Publishers and Booksellers Guild’ of Kolkata.

The stall of ‘Penguin Random’ was a big big one, both area wise and content wise. They had so many books of various types, attracting much crowd.

We visited the stall of ‘Gita Press’, Gorakhpur. After hearing the recent disheartening news about the closure of the publication house, we were very happy to find the stall in the fair, with many books in many languages. And as always, the stall was crowded :).

Here is a unique decoration by papers, in the stall of ‘Bharati Bhavan’.

There was an exhibition of Manuscripts in one of the halls. They displayed many old manuscripts of various languages, mentioning the writer, the time of composition and the language. It was wonderful to go through them.  It war organised by the ‘National Mission for Manuscripts’. Very sincere work they are doing.  Here in this exhibition, general public could have a look at their endeavors which otherwise we don't have any other way to know.

 

In the same room there were the photos and information about the World Heritage Sites of India. We enjoyed that as well. The whole exhibition was named - Vividh Bharat.

In the afternoon we took lunch at the Food Court. Nice ambiance there.

There is a lake at Pragati Maidan in the middle of the halls. The lake has many fountains in it. Here is the picture of some of them :).

I was very happy to visit the fair. The enthusiasm which was noticed in the visitors about books were so encouraging! It opposed the idea that books have become less popular these days. Being a Sunday, the fair became really crowded in the afternoon, when we were returning home. Book Fair is characterized by this gathering of people, the jostling and pushing in the stalls have a distinctive charm altogether, so familiar in any book fair J.

We visited many many stalls, here mentioned the names of only a few.

I wish the fair to do a good business in the city.

With lots of best wishes.


Hari Aum.

Koshish se Kaamyabi Tak- Episode featuring Dia Mirza

'Koshish se Kaamyaabi Tak' is a series on Doordarshan National, where famous persons are invited to share their life stories. I  have watched only one episode of it, where Dia Mirza was the guest. Kiran Juneja was the anchor of the programme.

Till now I knew Dia Mirza as a beauty queen and as an actress. But in this proramme, I came to know about the real person behind all these professional identities. She told us about her childhood, her memories, her struggle, her experiences and her opinion about life. I was very surprised to now how she got the exposure to many religions during her childhood and growing up days, as her mother was a Hindu and her father was Christian and then her step father was Muslim. Indeed, all these influences has made her what she is today :). Felt really good to know all about it. She also told about her experiences during Miss India Competition, about Film Industry and about meeting her would be husband, whom she is married now.

I also came to know about her charitable work – Truly a wonderful effort by Dia!

Here is the link to her website, which I visited while writing this post.

Lots of love and best wishes for her future :)

Nice programme by DD National.

(Picture taken from internet. Credit goes to the uploader.)

'Aaj Savere'- Featuring Shanno Khurana

'Aaj Savere' is a daily programme which is aired on DD National, from 7:30- 8:30 am,  where they bring eminent personalities  who share about their life, works and about themselves. Recently I watched an episode where the famous classical artist and musicology expert Shanno Khurana was the guest. She narrated her experiences about learning classical music, about maintaining her passion for music throughout the obstacles of life, about her research on Classical music in India. I didn’t know about her before watching the programme. But after watching it, read about her from Wikipedia and came to know many more details.

It was a nice programme, inspiring the audience about the undefeatable spirit of Ms Khurana, who is working untiringly all her life.

Lots of best wishes for her future.


Jai Shri Krishna.

(Photo taken from internet. Credit goes to the uploader.)