Wish you a very happy Krishna Janmashami…

Happy Krishna Janmaashtami
Lord Krishna's Birthday

Today is the birthday of Lord Krishna. His colorful birthday is celebrated with all the fanfare, music dance and chanting songs in His honor. 

Lord Krishna is believed to have been born in 3112 BCE; therefore today, it is the 5125th birthday of Lord Krishna.  Lord Krishna has the rare distinction of being India’s most beloved divinity and at the same time a historical figure, who existed physically on this planet about 5000 years ago.

ऐसा विश्वास किया जाता है कि श्री कृष्ण का जन्म 3112 BCE में हुआ था; इस प्रकार आज  कृष्ण भगवान का 5125 वां जन्मदिन है. श्री कृष्ण को भारत भूमि पर एक दुर्लभ गौरव प्राप्त है. वह यह कि वे एक सर्वाधिक लोकप्रिय दिव्यपुरुष होने के साथ-साथ एक ऐतिहासिक विख्यात  ्यक्तित्व भी थे जो 5000 वर्ष पूर्व शारीरिक रूप से इस पृथ्वी पर मौजूद थे. 

Lord Krishna was a philosopher, warrior, and ruler and was eventually elevated to the highest level of sacred divinity- a God. 

I on behalf of ‘Discover Life’ and on my own behalf, wish all the devotees of Lord Krishna a very happy Krishna Janmashami… 

Jai Shri Krishna….

- Harish Jharia

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Film Riew Chennai Express - Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone starrer comedy thriller

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‘Channai Express’ film has broken all the records of Bollywood box-office? To know why, read this film review wherein an analytic study of this film has been presented.

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- Harish Jharia 

Rating:  8/10

Chennai express is a comedy action thriller, starring Shahrukh Khan SRK and Deepika Padukone. It is produced by Gauri Khan, Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur. The credit for the success of this excellent creation goes to its director Rohit Shetty and the editor Steven H Bernard who eventually made a nonstop bonanza of multiple movie frames, filled with high voltage absolute entertainment. The next credit goes to its cinematographer Dudley who recreated the vibrant colors of nature, unbelievable bird’s-eye-views and breathtaking action shots on the silver screen. In all, it is a ‘complete in all respect’ film that is going to be written in the Indian film history with golden letters. 

Storyline: 

Rahul (Sahrukh Khan) is the grandson of a millionaire confectioner (Lekh Tandon). Rahul is a vagabond and remained a bachelor until 40 years of age because of consistent interruption in his affairs by his grandfather. The real film takes off with the death of his grandfather. He was assigned with the task to immerse his grandfather’s mortal remains in the waters of Indian Ocean at the southern tip of Indian peninsula at Rameshwaram. 

Rahul, along with his rogue friends planned to immerse the mortal remains at the shores of Arabian Sea at Goa, rather than going all the way to Rameshwaram. Nevertheless, Rahul had to change the rout to Goa because his grandmother decides to see him off at the railway station.  He buys a ticket and boards a train to Chennai after taking leave of his grandmother. He alighted from the train at the next station where his friends were waiting for him for onward pleasure drive to Goa. 

At the time of leaving the train, Rahul forgot to pick up the urn containing mortal remains of his grandfather and reached to his friends. On noticing his mistake he rushed back to his couch, picked up the urn and tried to leave the compartment. By that time the train started moving and he saw that a girl Meena was running on the platform to catch-up with the train and climb to board it. Rahul helped her in boarding the train followed by helping a gang of her kidnappers. 

Rahul and Meena along with her kidnappers went ahead on the train Chennai Express’. The film moves on with fast and multiple twists and turns in the story, keeping the viewers glued to the screen. I would like to leave the story here for the readers to watch the film and enjoy the humor and thrill.  

Review:

My first comment about this movie is that it is a neat and clean Bollywood film. There were many shots portraying hi-voltage interactions between the gangsters and the lead characters, where the common Hindi Bollywood abuses like ‘kutte’, ‘kamine’ were in fact expected to be spoken. But, to the surprise of everyone, no abuses or vulgar talks were found anywhere in the movie. 

The visual parts of the film are also kept neat and clean with no vulgar shots or scenes shown on the screen that would have embarrassed parent viewers to watch it along with their toddlers. Rohit Shetty has even changed the definition of ‘item number’ by presenting a graceful item by Priyamani as dancer. 

By watching this movie, it is proved that another blockbuster Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Bhag Milka Bhag’ could also have been made without the prolonged kissing scene between Farhan Akhtar and Rebecca Breeds. That would have saved the parent viewers from an abrupt embarrassment they were slapped with, while watching the movie with their kids. 

Shahrukh Khan was superb in this movie unlike his performance in ‘My name is Khan’; wherein he looked uncomfortable with the character he was playing. Nevertheless, in Chennai Express SRK has completely merged with his character and his own persona hardly overshadowed the character of Rahul. Yet, at a couple of shots he looked overacting when he displayed his trademark posture of bending back with outstretched hands. He should definitely have averted to do so; because, that act did not match with Rahul’s character in he film at all. 

Deepika Padukone has portrayed the character of Meena, the daughter of a local Don (Sathyaraj). Her performance is excellent who dominated the movie along with Shahrukh Khan whom she marries at the climax of the film. All other characters have been overshadowed by Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone. 

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Cast: 
Deepika Padukone - Meena
Shahrukh Khan - Rahul
Sathyaraj - Meena's Father
Nikitin Dheer - Proposed groom for Meena
Kamini Kaushal - Rahul's Grandmother
Lekh Tandon - Rahul's Grandfather
Priyamani - item number 
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Crew: 
Directed by: Rohit Shetty
Produced by: Gauri Khan, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur
Screenplay by: Yunus Sajawal
Story by: K. Subaash
Music by: Vishal–Shekhar
Cinematography: Dudley
Editing by: Steven H. Bernard
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What is BMI Body Mass Index - a Barometer for monitoring figure and health of men and women

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Have you ever wondered what Body Mass Index, popularly known as BMI is? There are many others who also did not understand what BMI is, for many years. Here are the answers for all your questions about BMI in this article. 

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- Harish Jharia

Body Mass Index popularly known as BMI, is a measure for human body’s shape based on mass** / weight and height. That means your BMI is calculated out of your height and weight. Mass** and weight of the body are considered the same while discussing about and calculating BMI. 

In general we were told that the ideal weight of a person in Kg should be equal to the number of inches of his / her height. For example if you have height of 5 ft (60 inch), than your weight should be 6o kg. If you are heavier than 60 kg you are considered overweight and if you are lighter than 60 kg then you are underweight. This was a sort of a wild approximation emerged out of experience of health observers.

However, when I calculated BMI of a person with 5 ft height and 60 kg weight the calculator computed BMI as 25.8. According to the guiding table BMI of 25.8 is considered as the highest BMI for normal weight and of course borderline lowest for overweight category.

The Belgian scientist Adolphe Quetelet discovered BMI somewhere between 1830 and 1850 while working on social physics. BMI is defined as the individual's body mass** divided by the square of his / her height. This value is expressed in units of kg/m2. 

Metric system:         BMI = Weight in kg / (height in meter) ²

British system:        BMI = {Weight in lb / (height in inch) ² } x 703***

There are various ready reckoners, tables and electronic / digital calculators available for calculating your BMI. A link to one such calculator is right here:

Link to BMI Calculator: 
URL: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm

The following is a guiding table that tells you about the severity of your BMI and corresponding condition of your body:

BMI                       Health Indicator

Up to 18.5         Underweight 
18.5 to 24.99     Normal weight
25 to 29.99        Overweight
30 to 39.99        Obese
40 and above    Excessive obese   

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** Mass and weight of the body are considered the same while discussing about BMI.  It is so, in spite of the fact that in Physics, mass and weight are regarded as different entities. Mass is considered as the amount of matter or material of any object, whereas, the weight is referred as the force experienced by the object due to gravity. If you weigh a particular piece of object at different gravitational fields, the scale will show different weights for the same object. For example a loaf of bread will have different weight if weighed on Earth, Moon, and Mars and in space.
*** The exact conversion factor for British units is 703.06957964. Nevertheless, this level of precision is not required for BMI calculations.
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Disclaimer: This article is written based on my personal observations and on the information collected from the media. My intention for publishing the same is to provide healthy reading and intellectual entertainment and not for educating the visitors. No literature or authentic books have been referred for writing the contents of this article. The visitors are advised not to refer the contents of this article for any research or testimony on professional or legal purposes. The visitors are further advised to consult relevant experts before adapting any information from this article. The author or the website are not responsible for any errors, mistakes, or omissions there in… Harish Jharia
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Film Review: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

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People wonder why ‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’ film has won the hearts of Bollywood filmgoers? If yes, read this film review wherein an analytic study of this film has been presented.

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                     Milkha Singh

Rating: 90% 

- Harish Jharia

‘Bhag milkha bhag’ is a film based on the life and athletic career of the most famous Indian Olympian Milkha Singh, popularly known as ‘The Flying Sikh’. It is relevant to mention here that the title ‘The Flying Sikh’ was awarded by the then president of Pakistan Gen Ayub Khan when Milkha singh beat the Pakistani runner Abdul Khaliq on the Pakistan soil in 1960. 

He married Nirmal Kaur, an Indian Volleyball team captain in 1966. He has three daughters and a son Jeev Milkha Singh the professional international Golfer. Milkha Singh won the following big medals in addition to the dozens of other medals to his iconic sports career:

• Commonwealth Games: Gold in 1958, Cardiff UK - 440 yards - Gold
• Asian Games: Gold in 1958 Tokyo, Japan - 200 m
• Asian Games: Gold in 1958 Tokyo, Japan - 400 m  
• Asian Games: Gold in  1962 Jakarta, Indonesia - 400 m
• Asian Games: Gold in 1962 Jakarta, Indonesia - 4 x 400 m relay 

                 Farhan Akhtar as Milkha Singh

Film Storyline:

Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) was born in 1935 at Govindpura village, 10 km from Muzaffargarh city of Punjab Province in British India, now in Pakistan. In 1947, at the age of 11 he was left all alone when his sister (Divya Dutta) along with her arrogant husband migrated to India and her parents and rest of the family were killed during partition of British India. His father (Art Malik) was killed in front of his eyes and the last words uttered by his father were… “Bhag Milkha bhag”… “Run Milkha run” that have been adapted as the title of the film by Producer / Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.

Young boy Milkha Singh’s (Jabtej Singh) childhood has been portrayed beautifully in the film showing the peace and harmony prevailing in British India before partition. The film then shows the utter contrast in subsequent shots of human massacre and soil converting into red mud, mixed with human blood flowing in the streets.  

On receiving the call “Bhag Milkha bhag”… from his dying father (Art Malik), Milkha Singh ran away from there and joined the Hindu crowd departing for India. His dreadful journey along with the frightened Hindu crowd from Pakistan to India has been effectively picturized by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. 

When the migrating Hindu crowd reached Delhi they were attended to by the Indian Army. An orphan Milkha (Jabtej Singh) found himself lost in the berserk crowd at an absolutely new place. He was all alone and starving for a couple of days. He somehow managed to grab a food packet and started gulping it, when he heard the shrieks of his sister (Divya Dutta). He forgot his hunger and ran towards her, leaving behind his food. 

Milkha’s new life started at a new place Delhi and he found himself in the form of a vagabond, managing his bread out of burglary. He grew up into a young Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) and fell in love with a young girl Biro (Sonam Kapoor), who hated his fugitive lifestyle. Milkha Singh, feeling embarrassed with Biro’s complaints, finally decided to find a better job and eventually, his fate took him to a recruitment center of Indian Army.  He was recruited as a soldier in the Indian Army and posted at EME Center Secunderabad. 

Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) was a born runner and he discovered this inherent talent when he was asked by the seniors to run a 10 mile race for selecting athletes. The EME Centre declared that all the top 10 athletes selected in that race would be entitled for getting mugful of milk and two eggs daily. Milkha Singh put-up all his strength for winning that race for the daily diet of milk and eggs and was eventually selected as one of the athletes for the EME Centre.

After this selection, Milkha Singh did not look back and started winning one race after the other. He ran in Armed Forces athletics, national sports and international sports competitions and toured from one place to the other across the globe. His participation in the Melbourne 1956 Olympics has been portrayed in this film when he fell in an affair with the granddaughter (Rebecca Breeds) of his Australian technical coach. 

As a result of this affaire Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) lost his race on the following day. The defeat in the race was the worst nightmare of his life and he repented for his blunders by slapping himself dozens of times, across his face. This scene of self-beating has been picturized quite intensely by the director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. 

On the same night in Melbourne, Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar) goes to his coach and asks “What is the world record for 400m race”, who in turn writes ‘45.90’ seconds on a tissue paper and gives it to him.  

Milkha Singh attaches that world record figure ‘45.90’ at his place of worship and starts a new way of life with one single aim of life ie breaking the 400m world record of ‘45.90’ that eventually he broke by clocking 45.80 in France. 

Star Cast

1. Farhan Akhtar - Milkha Singh
2. Sonam Kapoor - Nirmal Kaur
3. Rebecca Breeds - Stella
4. Dalip Tahil - Jawahar Lal Nehru
5. Prakash Raj - Milkha Singh's coach
6. Pawan Malhotra - Milkha Singh's Senior
7. Divya Dutta - Milkha Singh's Sister
8. Nawab Shah - Coach Javed
9. Meesha Shafi - Perizaad
10. Dev Gill - Abdul Khaliq
11. Shanta Kumar - Gen. Ayub Khan
12. Art Malik - Milkha Singh's Father
13. K K Raina - Mr. Wadhwa
14. Jabtej Singh - Young Milkha
15. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra 
16. Loy Mendonsa 

Review:
Whenever we speak about the movie ‘Sholay’, we think about Ramesh Sippy and Amjad Khan. Similarly, after watching ‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’ I kept thinking about Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Farhan Akhtar. The direction is excellent and Milkha Singh played by Farhan is unbelievably outstanding. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has not left any stone unturned in portraying the dramatic life of Milkha Singh. Farhan Akhtar has converted himself into the avatar of Milkha singh so much accurately so that it is hard to distinguish between Milkha Singh and Farhan Akhtar. 
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Illegal sand mining - UP sand-mining mafia forces government to suspend IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal

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Have you ever wondered what all problems are faced by bureaucrats like IAS and IPS officers when they are posted in the states of India? How they have to face the local mafias head-on, while enforcing law? Here are the answers in this article, for few of your questions about the nexus between mafias and politicians and the consequences faced by the bureaucrats.  

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- Harish Jharia

It looks as if democracy in India has completely faded out and the politicians, occupying powerful government posts, keep sticking to their chairs by ‘hook and crook’.  They capture power, at the time of elections, with the help of business houses, and various extra constitutional powerful entities like builders,  sand-miners, automobile parking companies, bus / truck transporters and many other rural goons who impose and collect ‘rangdaari’ (ransom) against letting the individuals survive and operate business in their areas.  These politicians who get elected by such means are naturally indebted to these financiers and associates and are obliged to them to accomplish tasks assigned by them  to the politicians in power. 

India cannot be proudly called the largest democracy on planet earth, if the suspension of the IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal is any indication. I have concluded the following story out of the telecasts I watched on TV news channels and reading newspaper reports. 

One fine morning on July 27 we came to know that a SDM Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended by the UP government. Nagpal was served the suspension order apparently for demolishing the wall of a proposed mosque on a public land. The UP Chief Minister subsequently, defended Nagpal's suspension, claiming that her action to demolish the wall of a religious place had vitiated communal harmony in that area.

While no details of the suspension order were available to the media, Durga Nagpal, 28, has recently stated that she had never issued any orders to demolish the wall which could have fueled communal tensions. The IAS officer further explained that on July 27, villagers had themselves, razed the wall after she told them that as per Supreme Court rules, religious structures can't be built on government land and also require special clearances.

Meanwhile, a ruling party politician, believed to be connected to sand mining, publically announced in a gathering of some villagers that he got the officer suspended within 41 minutes (not 41 hours).  It appears to be true, because Durga was suspended abruptly without following any official protocols like issuing warning letter, calling for explanation and asking for comments and recommendations from her senior IAS officer- Collector / DM. The Collector / DM subsequently stated that Durga did not demolish the wall. Moreover, the daily diary of the local police station did not have any entries of suspected communal tension in their jurisdiction.

The media has claimed that some ruling party politicians were running sand mining business and owing hundreds of dumpers and excavation heavy machinery. It is reported in the media that Durga Nagpal stopped illegal mining activities in that area and confiscated hundreds of dumpers and other heavy machinery  Experts have estimated losses of hundreds of crores of Rupees because of Durga’s crackdown on the illegal sand mining activities in that area. The media claims that Durga Nagpal has been punished for disrupting the send mining business rather than for any suspected communal disturbance.  

Indian TV news channels have aired views of Indian experts, statesmen, senior politicians and ex bureaucrats who have condemned the UP government’s action of punishing an IAS officer for no fault of her.  They have called for revocation of the suspension order and reinstatement of the officer on her existing post. 

Meanwhile, the ruling party spokespersons and UP ministers are sticking to their controversial action against the dutiful, honest and sincere IAS officers. They have even gone to the extent of asking the Central Government to call back Durga Nagpal from her job in UP. They have also demanded punishment for Durga Nagpal’s senior Collector / DM, because, he made positive comments and recommendations in support of his subordinate IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal. 

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