Sparsh

अभिनेता याद रखे जाते हैं जनमानस में, निर्देशक को इतिहास याद रखता है। लेकिन छोटे कस्बों में सिनेमा केवल अभिनेता या निर्देशक का नाम नहीं होता था—वह पूरा माहौल होता था। पोस्टर, रिक्शे पर अनाउंसमेंट, टिकट की लाइन, फर्स्ट क्लास और बालकनी का फर्क, इंटरवल की बेचैनी, और फिल्म शुरू होने से पहले चलने वाले विज्ञापन - सब मिलकर एक ऐसी दुनिया बनाते थे, जिसे आज भी याद करते ही मन उसी समय में लौट जाता है। ये वो दौर था जब मोहब्बत मोबाइल पर नहीं, मोहल्ले के नुक्कड़ पर आँखों से शुरू होती थी । जब लड़के खुद को ‘बाज़ीगर’ समझते थे, और हर लड़की में उन्हें अपनी ‘सिमरन’ दिखाई देती थी | ये वो ज़माना था जब हीरो बनने के लिए बदन नहीं, बस दिल में दर्द, बालों में माँग और आँखों में इकरार चाहिए होता था… और हर आशिक़ के दिल में बस एक ही आवाज़ गूँजती थी — इलू इलू ! मुझे मेरे स्कूली दिनों वाला सलेमपुर कस्बा, देवरिया याद आ गया—और वहाँ का ‘ मेनका टॉकीज़ ’ भी। मेरा स्कूल, लिटिल फ्लावर स्कूल , मेनका थिएटर से शायद 200-300 मीटर ही दूर रहा होगा। उस छोटी-सी दूरी में ही बचपन, सिनेमा और कस्बाई जीवन की पूरी कहानी समाई हुई थी। Mena...

नब्बे का दशक सिर्फ एक समय नहीं था—वो एक आवाज़ था कभी बड़े रेडियो सेट की भारी-भरकम गूंज में, कभी छोटे ट्रांजिस्टर की खड़खड़ाती धुन में, और कभी दूर कहीं से आती रनिंग कमेंट्री में - “अनिल कुंबले गेंदबाज़ी के लिए तैयार…” आज जब सब कुछ स्क्रीन पर है, तब भी वह दौर याद आता है जब मैच “देखे” नहीं जाते थे, सुने जाते थे। कल्पना ही हमारा स्टेडियम थी, कमेंटेटर की आवाज़ ही हमारी आंखें थीं, और ऑल इंडिया रेडियो- हमारा सबसे भरोसेमंद साथी। सलेमपुर से कानपुर: एक बच्चे की रेडियो वाली दुनिया जून 1994 में जब मैं सलेमपुर से कानपुर आया, मेरी उम्र सिर्फ 9 साल थी। नया शहर था, नई गलियां थीं, नए चेहरे थे—लेकिन एक चीज़ पुरानी थी: रेडियो की आवाज़। घर में रेडियो बजता था तो लगता था जैसे बाहर की दुनिया कमरे में उतर आई हो। विविध भारती का नाम सुनते ही मन में एक अपनापन जागता था। खासकर आकाशवाणी के कानपुर केंद्र—उसकी अपनी स्थानीय महक थी, अपनी बोली, अपना ठहराव। रेडियो पर कार्यक्रमों का प्रसारण उस समय केवल मनोरंजन नहीं था; वह जीवन का हिस्सा था। आज की तरह हर चीज़ ऑन-डिमांड नहीं थी। पसंदीदा कार्यक्रम का इंतज़ार करना पड़ता था। औ...

तीन ताल के सभी साथियों को जय हो, जय हो, जय हो!  छः संख्या भारतीय मिथकों में पूरापन और संतुलन का निशान मानी जाती है। तीन ताल की छटा छः ऋतुओं  से बनती है जिसे ये छह महानुभाव बनाते हैं - कमलेश ताऊ, कुलदीप सरदार, आसिफ़ खान चा, पाणिनि बाबा, जमशेद भाई और संयोजक अतुल जी| इन सभी को मेरा नमन!   तीन ताल क्यों सुने ? नए श्रोता लोगों से बस कहना चाहूंगा कि तीन ताल का भौकाल एकदम टाइट है क्यूंकि जिस ज़माने में जुबान और उसूल की कोई कीमत नहीं रही, वहां तीन ताल उसी ज़माने की छोटी-छोटी परेशानियों, समाज, राजनीति, और निजी अनुभवों पर खुलकर और दिलचस्पी से बातचीत करता है! ये चिठ्ठी पीर बाबा के दमके हुए पानी का लाइट मोड अर्थात बीयर पीकर लिख रहा हूं, जो लिखूंगा वह सच लिखूंगा, सच के सिवा कुछ नहीं  लिखूंगा। खबर ड्रोन की तरह उड़ते उड़ते पता चली की  लखनऊ की धरती  पर  तीन  ताल  के  महारथी  लोगों  का  ज़मावड़ा  होने वाला है ! लखनऊ की  जनता  की  किस्मत  से  रस्क  करते  करते, उनको  बहुत  बधाई. फिर मन...

We were 5 friends in Kanpur, 'paanch', and the core of 'triad' co-exists inside it. Sanjay Bose, Vivek Vikram Singh, Gaurav Diwedi, Himanshu Chaudhary, and me. All of us stood together in 10+2 and coaching years. We form the quintet at the front benches in the 1st year and the last benches in the 2nd year. We roam mainly in Coaching mandi, but our favorite market is Rahmani market in Kanpur till today. Internet : I went to the Internet to surf for web counseling of AIEEE with Sanjay for the first time. The most surprising thing was the emails and pop-ups about a million-dollar lottery prize. I knew that it was a hoax. But the surprise does not end here. The faces of white Caucasian females on the screen amazed me. The underline heading was 'Make friends with beautiful girls in Kanpur'. I was completely taken aback by the question, "Where the hell are these girls, even if they exist in my city? " Till today, I have no clue about them. Crush Story : Th...

This is an aspirational information-gathering article. Don't consider it an inspirational or nostalgic write-up for the land of the leather industry, Kanpur. Kanpur is a big city rich in history. The summarized details are available on Wikipedia and the unofficial Kanpur  website. For highly irrational opinions, take a joy ride with me . Tourism: Places of Interest in Kanpur. For more queries, contact: Official blog page of the District Magistrate, Kanpur Nagar . Hotels and Food: A lot of hotels are established to cater to thousands of guests yearly. The Landmark Hotel, Kanpur with Mehak Restaurant serves authentic Chinese and traditional Indian dishes. The names are like this--Angithi Restaurant, Little Chet Restaurant, Chung Fa Restaurant. One person has taken a taste & reviewed nearly all of them. FYI, it's not me. Reviews are at --- My experience with Restaurants in Kanpur. Cuisine: Dish name: Kanpur Chapathi. The processing Technique is explained with photos here . S...

Every city has a character, a pulse of its own. Kanpur as a city is infamous for its uneven roads, irregular traffic and heaps of garbage. But its people love the city. They add color and spice to this city. They love to live here, no matter how bizarre their ways! This post is all about searching colors of life in this city in the images through the images taken by a foreign tourist. Business: Elgin Mill, Kanpur’s oldest textile mill, J K Cotton Mill, Pulse mills, J K Jute Mills, Kanpur Unnao Leather Development Company (KLC), Ghari detergent & Duncan Fertilizers were all part of the industrial culture of Kanpur. The city may have been robbed of its historic smoking chimneys and requisite infrastructure, threatening the expansion of existing industries, but Kanpur still remains a commercial hub for traders. For more, Why Kanpur is still UNDEVELOPED? Pollution & Traffic: There is nothing more for me to say about the Pollution of Kanpur. Kanpur has topped the list as the most po...

Music: Indians are exposed to a lot of rural folk, bollywood music, pop albums and bhakti songs. Few of us also ventures into Indian classical and Carnatic music also. The unique amalgam of traditional music and popular cinema sounds, being performed by musicians on stages and arenas, depicting the cultural lifestyle of Indian. I am here giving you links of street music of Indian. You may have heard thousand of western classical, rock, jazz and blues but I insist for giving attention to our own musical heritage: Street Music of India. Samosa: Kanpurites has good sense of business sense and one of the example is here.Its a story of branding and marketing Samosa in recent times of Lokshabha election. " The sweet shop in focus is Satya Sweet House's one-rupee 'samosa' and rightly naming it as 'Nano Samosa'. It is the current hot favourite with the political workers of the various political parties. To ensure the smooth sale of samosas to field workers of political...

Once upon a time, Kanpur was called the land of swine and auto-rickshaws, speaking in English: pigs and Vikram auto only. It was a popular idiom among citizens that beware while driving Vikram and the pigs. They can stop, run and take unpredictable turns on the road. And in fighting, you can't win from their masters. Kanpur is without a doubt one of the most polluted and chaotic cities. Today the world is hit by swine flu, I recall the old days when private pig farms proliferated in the city without any monitoring. Kanpur was the center of bristle trade for the whole of India under colonialism mainly done by Khatiks. After the decline of the bristle trade, the Khatik switched over to public pig rearing which became a menace to the whole of Kanpur. The brief rides on the “Vikrams” for roaming in the city can invariably be left an outsider tired, irritable, and generally sick. Still, People prefer Vikrams to crammed buses for their mobility and fast service inside the jammed road of ...

10 years of living in Kanpur has make me adaptable to long power cuts. I had also felt the summers heat without electricity for 3 continuous days with the grace of KESCO 's lethargy for repairing a transformer. Forgetting to mention the regular load off for 4 to 6 hours per day in Kanpur will be sin of hiding the truth. BUT, I give thanks to God due to hyper optimistic nature, that I don't live in Chamanganj or Bekanganj where electricity may not come for 1 week. Also I will not tell faltu story of people replacing transformer oil with water !!! Power Theft: Do anyone know about the term Katiya (read: illegal power connection).Check image below for clear depiction and all electrical engineers can apply Kirchoff's law in practical condition. Situation had come to such a pass that whenever attempts have been made by the powermen to detect ‘katiya’ connections they have been confronted by a hostile reception by the locals. FORGET the line losses through Katiya, Defaulters hav...

For previous article on Kanpur coaching mandi, go through this label of Kanpur Series . Hot News:  IIT Entrance Examination (JEE) of the seven teachers together to prepare a joint platform sigma - IIT JEE is made. Students will get a place to preparing for the three subjects without straying around and meet all the facilities. In addition, due to the joint will reduce the fees too. Sigma of the joint forum of the physics teacher Anish Srivastava and Raj Kushwaha, Ashish Bishnoi and Anurag Bishnoi of mathematics and chemistry of Pankaj Agarwal, Nirmal Singh and Sanjay Chauhan's. Small - small batch (one hundred to two hundred) in the three subjects under the same roof will get a chance to prepare for. Three different subjects to students before a total of 51,300 rupees to pay the fees now total 45,000 fees will be charged. Sigma's head office 117 / N / 581 Raniganj (Kakadev) will be. Old Time:  Even after paying Rs 8,000 for each of the three different JEE subjects, most of the...

Memories of coaching days at Kanpur are inseparable from me. I have done a separate post on Kanpur coaching mandi only. The most remembered image of my coaching days was the advertisement of Ankush Bhatia by Pran classes, and it was pasted on each wall of Kanpur. His photo was spread at distant corners of the city, showing All India Rank 51. Never seen any local marketing campaign like this. Sometimes, I recall the rush of students from one coaching center to another for seat capture, xerox copying of assignments, and 'out-of-course' study material. The JEE course was never completed on time in the Kanpur coaching mandi. At the end of March, the mad rush to complete the course began with various test series taking place simultaneously. I could not forget that pressure till now. I will never forgive Anish, Pankaj, and Vishnoi sir for combining their individual treats into 1 party for JEE-qualified students. For information on the pre-2000 AD days of coaching mandi, check this l...

Within a radius of one kilometer, Kakadeo is the hub of the coaching mandi for JEE, MBA, Medical, etc having at least 20-30 coaching institutes. The classes are run by individuals teaching a single subject with a completely one-man show. Few people object to the name ' mandi ' but it's like a fish market only. Coaching Mandi is the perfect name for it because the teachers are earning the butter, not bread for them. When you go for admissions, people try to admit you to their institute with false advertisements and lucrative trial offers. It's altogether a mandi in which every teacher just wants students' admission, not in JEE, but in their institute. It was an urban legend that girls were used to seduce boys for admission in a few coaching centers. I and my friends tried in vain to find such lethal hunting beauties. My encounter with coaching mandi begins with JEE preparation. Nalanda Hotel, Pamela Restaurant, Agra sweet house were my favorite places there. For othe...

The search about city of Kanpur has taken me to unexplored portion of Internet. It is really hard to find these web pages in google search. Yet somehow, I managed to bring brilliant post written in Hindi about this city. You only require knowledge of Hindi and Hindi [Devnagari] font for reading it. If you do not have fonts, download it from above website . 1 - कानपुर तेरे कितने नाम… 2- झाड़े रहो कलट्टरगंज, मण्डी खुली बजाजा बंद 3- १८५७ के पन्ने: मदाम एन्जेलो की डायरी Enjoy the Kanpur series on this blog and if you do not know Hindi,then read loosely translated version of articles 1 , 2 & 3 .