Religion

I am not a superman, but I am the child of a man

Top Eight Bollywood Movies of 2008

Apart from the tortures of a big list of lame movies like Love Story 2050, Drona, Tashan, Singh is Kinng, Jodha-Akbar, Karzzzz to count a few, I believe 2008 have been a super year for bollywood. I sensed an effort towards making serious and sincere movies from film makers. It was a tremendous year for audience like me who watch tons of movies to catch a single moment of transcending pleasure. Though exceptions of regular film-makers will always be there whose instincts are driven more with box-office collections than to present an idea. One example is Shahrukh Khan who again proved his indomitable spirit to make movies which make sense only in dream-lands with movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and another example is Aamir Khan who used to be sage but the race for number one in industry failed him with raw commercialization of Ghajini.

It was unusual year for Bollywood for it scrapped the monotonous old curtains of melodrama and romance. There were movies like Mixed Doubles, Dil Kabaddi, Dostana(lame it maybe) which tried to explore new dimensions into sexuality and there were movies like A Wednesday which gave insight into aspects of terrorism. Some movies like Sorry Bhai emphasised on the opening values of Indian society and others like Fashion tried to show the hidden patterns of a particular sect. And as usual lots of movies with lame comedy like Welcome which come and go but earn good cash on the box-office.
Many of these movies failed in its attempts but a lot of them were successful in delivering a well acted and flamboyant message driven presentation. Message is not important though with good acting, great dialogues and brilliant screenplay if you get a good message then its just a bonus, isn't it? Following is my list of top movies:


Movies which missed the mark: Sorry Bhai, Fashion, Shaurya, Black & White, Sarkar Raj, Tahaan

Note: In the list two movies are included which havn't been made in bollywood but significant in the context of bollywood and India nonetheless. And by coincidence but with ni wonder those two happen to be at the top of the list.


8. A Wednesday
A thrill of cat and mouse game which ends in more than just a game. It is not about picking a gun for a gun, the message is loud and clear. The common man will have to accept the responsibility to clean terrorism because it is common man who is affected most from it. Unless we show what we deserve, we can not demand free candies from politicians and bureaucrats. NaseerUdDin Shah played central role in this movie who is common man but does great deeds of militancy in the form of terrorist. The movie was full of exaggerations on some themes like excessively smooth working of security-forces and politicians and too many deeds from a single common man. But I believe nothing gets hurt if we can live in fantasy for two hours.





. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa
Ah! Finally a good movie about love and romance. What a great relief. This movie has proved that good love stories are not just made with huge cast of stars and big budgets. Beautiful act by all the six leading actors and special credit goes to Genelia Dsouza who played superbly chill teen. Now we can say that Bollywood love stories are not just senseless and predictable, they can be entertaining and funny. And love is not always about crying and being sentimental it can be sophisticated always living in our unconscious selves. And as the tagline suggest 'so when do you know it's love?'








6. Aamir
Another flick on terrorism!! The movie which say we individuals are not Muslims or Hindus and not even Indians, we are human in the first place. That's enough for this movie to count upon. But nonetheless the movie picked the subject with a different approach. An individual who happens to be a Muslim and is well to do is made to do what he never could do. But in the end a man decides himself of his fate. Without any significant budget, without any prominent cast it was a greatly developed movie. Kudos to Raj Kumar Gupta who took such a risk with his first movie and unbelievably caught the moments of secularism, religion and terrorism.







5. Dasvidaniya
Another movie from actor Vinay Pathak and again with central role. Bheja Fry was perhaps a bit superficial in its finish, but not this movie. Before watching this movie I had more expectations from the actor and without no doubt, he has lived up to expectations. The movie is successful in delivering the old flavor of characters, but having seasoned with masala of subtle humor. Loosely based on story of The Bucket List, it has the message of simple man with simple ambitions of his life. It is about those dreams we forget to see, in the rush of life, being mere unimportant to world around us. We must care about people we love, but lets not forget ourselves.






4. Rock On
When I watched Dil Chahta Hai, I liked it. I watched Rock On, I Loved it with a big L!! Movie is similar to many elements of Dil Chahta Hai with similar themes of love and friendships. But more to it was the choices we make, it is about a reson we stand in the whirlpool of fate. Thanks to Farhan Akhtar who succeeded in introducing rock music to Bollywood and that too Indian style. A point here, its a rock music which actually rocks( and not shouts). I guarantee after watching this movie everyone will come with a smile on his face and a spirit to fight for their choices.








3. Mumbai Meri Jaan
This movie is set in the context of aftermaths of Mumbai Train Bombings of 2006. It is story of real Indians depicted through five characters in different professions. Realistic drama has been played by realistic characters with the help of a short stories but all centered around blasts. It is not about academic or political discussions and debates on terrorism, this movie didn't add up to another rhetoric on terrorism; this movie is about a common man in the vicinity of terrorist attacks. Every other day India is bombed at and this movie deals with those emotional trade-offs which come with those attacks. After watching this movie, I understood a(not the) meaning of two-minute-silence, did you?







2. Mithya
It is one of those stories which have umpteen number of layers and you just can not reach the depth. Its characters are such that in every character you will find yourself or a part of yourself. The dark satire about romance, thriller, crime based on the underworld, bollywood, acting makes it all the inclusive. The movie starts with light comedy and turns out to be a thriller as well as a comic tragedy. It is the best Ranvir Shorey had delivered ever. And it is also not a movie like Bheja Fry where whole of movies is centered around one or two characters. Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Naseeerudin Shah, Saurabh Shukla everyone had there contribution in making of this movie what it is. And finally a great appalause for Rajat Kapoor, the director of the movie. I would have chosen this movie for higher ranking, but being slightly slow, it just missed the point.

1. Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Not many will agree, but in my view it is the best comic movie of 2008. It is more subtle in humor even than movies like Dasvidaniya, in a sense, that to find the meaning of humor you need to know and understand the cultures and whims of society we live in. A tremendous effort by Dibankar Banerjee after his previous another good movie Khosla Ka Ghosla. And unlike Khosla Ka Ghosla, I will say it will be an insult to call it comedy film. It is very serious movie about love, hate, family, society and most importantly about self. A very simple movie of a simple person but with a complex life who happens to be a thief and expressed in very simple notions of common man characters whom you can find just around the corner of your street or colony. It earned an extra point for adding a very genuine regional flavor in its presentation of language and behavior. At the end of movie, I am sure audience will be come out laughing and will have a thing to think about in their pockets.

Bonus 2. Khuda Kay Liye

Its a Pakistani movie mostly in Urdu and English. It is the first movie directed by Shoaib Masoor and it was the first movie for many of its leading actors. The movie has raised question marks on the issues which are supposed to be forbidden in Islam but are not. This movie really gives a new competitive perspective to Muslims who are follow the religious preachings blindly. The movie has set a viewpoint that even if a Muslim listens to his heart and do what he wants, still he can be a Muslim. People devoid of happiness, guns in hands, Jihad on lips are not Muslims. Why I added this movie in this list? Because this movie is not about Pakistan or Afghanistan. This movie transcends those lines, it is for us. This movie challenges the exterimism whether it is Islamic fundamentalism, Hindu extremism or American way of war against terror. The great thing about this movie is that beside being totally message-oriented it is still beautifully played with a well act, music and regional flavors.

Bonus 1. Slumdog Millionaire
It is not exactly a movie of 2008, its going to be released in January, 2009 in India. But then it will be difficult to count it as 2009 movie just for the sake of release in India. So I included it in the list of 2008.
What more is left to say about this movie? This movie is set in the backdrop Mumbai slums and is about a low class person living in those slums. The movie is about a person who hails from slums of Mumbai and goes onto become a millionaire and finds his love of life in the end. The important thing is that movie is not about India and slums. It is about the victory of optimism in the face of adversities. It won't be wrong to put it in genres of comic, tragedy and love story; but in the end bottom line is that how a man can live his life in this cynical world with nothing but a bit of hope. The movie is beautifully played with a mixture of strong emotions and a sense to send a message to audience through this medium but without forgetting that entertainment is primary objective of this medium. A point to mention here of a negative point, this movie has slightly over emphasised dark side of Indian life, but above nine movies are also not absolutely devoid of some negative points.

The One about IIIT: The Great Institute

Disclaimer, Fact and Statement: It's not exactly a disclaimer. The fact is I do not intend a disclaimer. And the statement is that my fight has always been with ideas not individuals.
Notes: 1. Post contents are in regular font. 2. Italics are my random thoughts 3. Quoted text is excerpts from other articles. 4. The title is not sarcastic at all. 5. IIIT means International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. 6. I did my graduate degree from IIIT, Hyderabad.

The Great Society: A Libertarian Critique article by Murray N. Rothbard, which I was reading beholding it in context of contemporary governments and exploitation of poor, which actually is intended by the author. But suddenly the idea struck me that this article and given insights directly link to IIIT also.
It is long since I have left(rather rejected) writing posts about/on IIIT. Actually, I am not good at writing general stuff and apart from general stuff, I happen to have only controversial topics on or about institute, for which, having left the institute, I sometimes think I may not be appropriate person. So even if I press a few keys, my fingers don't press 'publish' button. But I guess, a tree can never leave its roots.

In sum, the most important fact about the Great Society under which we live is the enormous disparity between rhetoric and content.[link]

The state of affairs at IIIT is no different. An inarguable rhetoric of IIIT is that IIIT is the place 'where dreams come true'. But to me, reality seems utterly opposite, as I have experienced. At this point let me be clear that I talk of 'IIIT'(and from here on, unless specified) as IIIT administration and decision making authority. And let me be clear that if not all, most of my dreams that had any link with IIIT have come true also and I am not talking about any kind of injustice to me. Those dreams came true, but NOT because of IIIT. Perhaps because of hostels of the institute, wings and rooms of hostels, or perhaps classes of IIIT institute. To me, IIIT has always been an entity which takes pride in endeavors in which dreams of an individual(happen to be students) are suppressed for the sake of greater good of same individual without his conscious or unconscious consent. There are umpteen number of examples, I will explain in due post.

Before going ahead, first let me note the vision of IIIT as an institution
(courtesy: IIIT website )

• To carry out advanced research and technology development in information technologies and their societal, scientific, industrial and financial applications.
• To train and educate, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, engineers of outstanding ability who can become leaders in their profession.
• To work closely with industry leaders and to help them in undertaking programmes needed in their sectors.

Research(Idea championed by IIIT): Research is something that IIIT has valued over and above anything else in any case and it is pretty much clear from its vision. The emphasis on research has been on such a scale that the vision seems to look like that of a research firm rather than an institute where education is imparted to students to make them self-sufficient in carrying out research or development. In no way, I am saying that research is a wrong aspect of an educational institute's priorities; an institute can keep research in high terms but that doesn't mean institute should dilute its immediate priority and devalue its other priorities.
The suppression of freedom starts as early as counseling for admissions, when dual-degree courses are offered from IIIT. There will be few who would like to take decision about the MS, when someone's immediate priority is to think about BTech. Most of them at that time, don't even know exactly what a 'research' is. IIIT institute is the one of the most craved for institution in AIEEE counseling because of the quality of education it offers. But IIIT itself takes advantage of this fact by making a certain number of seats mandatory dual-degree and thus trapping intelligent but not so lucky by rank students to serve its own humanitarian ideology. It is not difficult to argue here that giving the choice(as happens to single-degree students) of MS at the term of third year does make a far more flexible way to proceed. This is not the only problem.
Every possible attempt is made to divert attention of even single-degree students towards research. An environment is created where emphasis on choosing research field as a career path is deliberately given, rather than teaching a student to follow his ambitions and decide along his interests. Rhetoric in the name of research in general speeches of professors, lack of development project in comparison to research project, deliberate impositions on placement processes etc. are some of the things which constitute the parts of this environment. A number of conferences and talks are called upon yearly by IIIT related to technology and research. How many(if any) talks are organised from corporate companies or alumni to talk on corporate life or industry-work related topics, considering that 'service in industry' is the career most of the students will be going for, after completion of degree. I am not taking any negative stance against R&D. I am not saying students' interests(lets say placement process) should be given priority over other things but there should be at least workable freedom to pursue their interests(lets say placement process).
The question of argument against any deliberate attempt to create such environment, here doesn't arise as I myself have experienced such an environment and I am sure most of readers also feel the same way. This applies to any interest student want to pursue unless it harms others or sanctity of institution.
Two questions for introspection:
1. Has any under-graduate student ever heard any positive remark about corporate life or job from any professor or post-graduate?
2. How many times have you heard advantages of research life over(emphasis) corporate life from people who are plainly devoid of any experience in corporate life?

In my view research is the most important factor for human development, because research is basically other name for organised experimentation of ideas. And ultimately ideas are the factor which define the prosperity or development of a society or community. But then one should not demean the value of industry. Industry creates the need for new ideas and research caters that requirement. Then again, new researches and new ideas creates new markets and industry. In this sense, both of areas rides on achievements of each other and that is how a progressive society works. The question of comparing the careers in two fields is as stupid as slamming a revolving door. If you are in one field you cannot remain isolated from the other, but the priority should lie with your interests.


Imparting Human Values: The fresher student has not adjusted the environment of IIIT yet, he is made to follow the courses like Jeevan Vidya etc., another blow of humanitarian ideology on young minds.

Does anywhere in its vision IIIT says that it wants to impart 'human values' and 'education in broad sense' to its students? My point is that the primary goal of IIIT is to educate engineers, to make their careers and AIEEE rankers join IIIT for that same sole goal.
IIIT is not a high school so that it has to give human values to students and make good citizens out of them. The idea of giving broad education should lie with schools and if that doesn't happen then we should understand that problem lies with their primary education or system of primary education. Compelling the students those things at an adulthood stage can make matters worse (if matters are bad for example, a student doesn't have minimal human values to qualify him as IIIT-student). The thing is only aggravated by the fact that all such courses are made compulsory for freshers. Even if a set of courses(human values, industry specific, research specific) are provided in the institute by external parties then flexibilty should be given to students to have his own choice.

Then there are activities like Yoga etc which are totally from a different perspective grounds entirely unlinked to education. If something suits to the king of country why is it necessary for the population also to follow same thing? There are a number of Indian/Japnese/Korean/Chinese techniques like this which maybe good for health of mind and body and which can serve a number of individuals' business interests. But how the inclusion of these practices serve the goal of IIIT is debatable.


Extra curricular Activities: IIIT is always eager to pronounce the above activities(human values etc.) in the name of broad education. But the part, which is extra curricular activities, is always forgotten while pursuing the useless activities. The likes of sports/discussions/debates activities are compulsory for any student to evolve as a student. But the only heed given to those is mere for the necessity of compulsory credits. It's not a problem of students, its problem of institution which is impotent in providing necessary framework where students are ready to give favor to these activities over their project works/online games/blogging. The problem is such activities are thought to be pro-management interests which makes student divert from research-work or regular studies. It is time, in my view that institute should stop quibblling that students don't take part in such activities but instead should put necessary faculty and framework in place to enahnce such things.
Another point here comes to my mind that why was Yoga/Jeevan Vidya cannot be put in extra-curricular activities, afterall those things aptly suit the criteria of extra-curricular activities. The problem here again is again humanitarian ideology. Making these extra-curricular will either mean devaluing human-value courses or appreciate the value of other extra-curricular activities. Then IIIT will have to face the contradiction of seeing all the extra-curricular activities with the same eye as that of human-value stuff which will surely demean the basic goal of these activities of imparting humanitarian values.


Food: It would have been an injustice if I did not mention this. Perhaps some readers know the reason, but I hope not. Anyway, the idea of free market is laid waste when it comes to running messes(providing quality food to students, putting it in another way) in IIIT. Considering there are three messes, neither the students nor the caterer is given any freedom so that they can compete with each other so that competition itself makes sure that students will get good food. That anyway, has become acceptable to students I guess and enough has been said on that. On top of that there are contract-free extra mess(es) where supposedly students do all the work. If in anyway students want to work on their own then why can't they work in other messes? Why IIIT is biased towards a particular mess for which there is no contract, no questions are asked if it can run or not, there are no prohibitions etc. etc.? But every effort is made to squeeze margins of caterer of other messes, the result being bad quality of food. These messes need to be regulated(food quality, prices, timings etc.) not ruled by IIIT.



In the end, I would like to note that IIIT should be dispassionate and unbiased towards education. Like a state has no business being in business, IIIT has no business being biased towards one kind of ideology over another. There should be ample space for freedom for mature students of this institution to pursue their own dreams and take their own decisions. Even having a conflicting vision is not the main point. The point is IIIT should not dilute its core goal of creating engineers. The goal of IIIT is to create highly skilled engineer, whether the student uses the skills for earning money for himself or he uses it for greater good of society(research), should be prerogative of the student. IIIT should in noway try to influence the interests of students.
Ultimately, why a community tends to be biased towards truth of one belief over the other is a complex question.
But I guess in context of IIIT, perhaps I have the answer(perhaps - because I could never dig the hole deep enough). The essence of development in context of any community lies in the fact that new ideas are filtered for their usefulness and new innovations are nurtured. In this process, it is very important to have (a continuous flow of) multiple set of ideas and views such that depending upon time and place, most suitable ideas can be nurtured. When there is only one person at the helm of community to make decisions then the ideas are limited and facts are deviated from truth. As a result, progressive development stops taking place. Democracy is experimentation of majority and thus it is bound to progress unless it is unfair, on the other hand, autocracy is dream of one and living nightmare of many.

The humanitarian wishes to be a prime mover in the lives of others. He cannot admit either the divine or the natural order, by which men have the power to help themselves. The humanitarian puts himself in the place of God.
But he is confronted by two awkward facts; first, that the competent do not need his assistance; and second, that the majority of people … positively do not want to be "done good" by the humanitarian…. Of course, what the humanitarian actually proposes is that he shall do what he thinks is good for everybody. It is at this point that the humanitarian sets up the guillotine.[link]

Epilogue: Some individuals never appreciate anything for what it is or what it has achieved, but are always eager to prick out the drawbacks in possibly most obnoxious manner. I apologise, I never learned the art of appreciation. I am a creature of habit with a rebellious spirit. One has to do what he got to do. I got to do honest criticism.
All said, my fight will always continue with ideas and with myself. But it is sad to see people of IIIT not fighting for what they believed in or what they believe in. It is sad because IIIT was the range where I learned to shoot. Seems like Kurukshetra could not tolerate assaults of the realty market. And now Kauravas and Pandavas are both living together happily(ever after) in their respective apartments at 69th floor in Laakshya Mahal(or was it Palash Nivas or something?).(all puns intended)

26/11 Mumbai Attacks: War with Pakistan

While reading this post from Vinod, I really got confused. I am in dilemma between the question of 'war with Pakistan'.

War with Pak: Yes
There is no way Pakistan govt will help finding perpetrators of any terrorist attacks that have happened in India over the past, forget about current Mumbai attacks. This is shown in their blatant act of ignorance that any terrorist activity even does exist in Pakistan at all. Similarity can defined for Pakistan govt with Taliban which did not take any action against Al Qaeda, and now Pak is reluctant to recognise LeT (and group). Pakistan's behavior in this respect is also criminal, giving refuse to other criminals. It is Pakistan's compulsion or urge, we cannot tell. How to pressurize Pakistan is question which is answered by only taking unilateral military action.
We are left with only military action because over the past, any bilateral or multilateral talks involving India and Pakistan, have been failed utterly in achieving the objective. Though one should not be cynical that if talk has been failed in the past, it is bound to fail again. But going with conditions in Pakistan and attitude of its govt, it is safe to assume.
The other way would have been multilateral pressure on Pakistan with the support of USA(may be Israel also). But here again the glitch is at this point of time, favoring India over Pakistan is not in strategic interests of USA. USA would not want to jeopardize its fight with Taliban on Eastern front of Pakistan, which is its high priority and in which it has already invested.
All India is left with, is unilateral action(not talk) on Pakistan which transforms to war.

War with Pak: No
The solution is not so easy. Lets say we go to war with Pakistan.
First of all that is really not direct solution to India's problem. 'War' means war with Pakistan govt which is in fact supporter of terrorists, not the actual culprit which happens to be LeT and Company Inc.
Secondly there is the mess of Taliban. If there is war between Pakistan and India then Pakistan finds itself in pieces. It will be highly unstable because of war from two fronts - Eastern(India) and Western(Taliban). Now again, unstable Pakistan is highly undesirable for India. India may win one war, but will have to face another war.
There maybe a arguments that Taliban will support Pakistan. Really? The given war will be only platform for Taliban to gain solid stand in Pakistan. After Pakistan goes bust, Taliban will rule the left-overs. Taliban is no mere terrorist group, it has a monumental army gathered(80,000 read somewhere).
On top of that, If India goes to war with Pakistan then it will jeopardize its strategic relations with USA because for USA Pakistan is a crucial ally in fight with terrorism. And in this situation when India is vulnerable from three fronts - Pakistan(west), China(Northern border) and internal threats(like naxalism), it will be a blunder to not have USA as an ally. Because at this point of time, on international front only USA is strong ally for India.

The Question
What should be India's response, as foreign strategy, to Mumbai Terror attacks?
still remain unanswered.

26/11 Mumbai Attacks: In response to NYT

Dear Gosh,
With all due respect, You are so wrong!! Perhaps you need to analyze the Mumbai attacks with more care. These attacks were even more significant than 9/11 not for world or America but for India. Think carefully if the same perpetrators could have kept the whole nation at ransom for three days if the same incident would have happened in USA. No, we are not talking about America, we are talking about India. We are talking about something which is more than number of casualties. It is about national security, it is about corruption of politics, corruption in security forces, it is about ripping of whole nation. 9/11 is significant to world because it was not about world trade center of America but about the price whole Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan had to pay.
And what else do you expect from a city other than returning to normal life, where life is more tough than anywhere else in India.

But yes, I agree with you on:
"Defeat or victory is not determined by the success of the strike itself; it is determined by the response."

Dear Friedman,
Even with more respect, I ask you to read Zardari's response. USA can invade a sovereign nation(Pakistan that is) to find her criminals but India cannot even make a descent request to hand over perpetrators.

And Pakistan's sincerity towards countering terrorism is shown in their ignorance (act of ignorance):
"if any evidence points towards any individual or group in my part of the country..."

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ਜੁਗ੍ਨੀ ਆ ਗਇ, ਬਇ!! (Jugni !!)

'Jugni' has deep penetration into the scales of Punjabi folk songs. Weather it is 'boliyan' or 'tappe' or pop or folk songs, 'Jugni' is always there to greet us. 'Oye Lucky Lucky Oye' had some songs (rather background scores), dedicated to 'Jugni' which when I heard, I realize that I never tried to know what exactly 'Jugni' is. 'Jugni' in today's culture is considered generally 'wandering lady' which can take other forms also. But the story of origin of 'Jugni' is entirely different.

The following is essay taken from some interent-form.


The History of Jugni

By Karamjit Singh Aujla.
Translated by Gurjant Singh.
Originally Published in Punjabi Tribune 24th Sept 2005.

The popularity of Jugni has always touched the hearts of Panjabi mentality. She became a permanent part in the Panjabi folklore right since the ancient times. But who is Jugni? Nobody ever tried to find the veracity and because of it`s simple Jugni-stanzas and simple versification, academic scholars never cared.

Jugni-poetry and Jugni-music took birth a century ago in 1906. Before that time, nowhere do we find any mention of her in history or the folk memory.

Jugni-poetry and Jugni-music was created by two folk singers and most probably its creation was accidental. These folk singers were Bishna and Manda. They were from Majha area and whatever I heard about them is as written below.

According to the late Pandit Diwan Singh, a resident of Khadur Sahib, Manda was a Muslim Mirasi. His village was Hasanpur, Thana Vairowal in Amritsar District. His real name was Mohammad but he was popular with his name Manda. Nobody knows anything about his family.

Bishna was also from Majha and was from a Jatt family. Nobody knew about his background untill 1969 when was asked from a freedom fighter Baba Makhan Singh of village Dhathi Jaimal Singh, he told that their stages were seen a couple of times in Patti and Kasur. Their favourite topics were Mirza and Tappe but they invented Jugni in 1906.

Baba Makhan Singh told that in 1906 when both of them were youths, the Brtish brought Jugni to India. When I asked that how British brought Jugni and what was Jugni, Baba Ji`s answer was that English Queen`s rule was over 50 years at that time. British ruled several parts of the Planet Earth and they thought that they should take a Torche to whole of their Empire. That flame of the Torche was itself Jugni which was taken from city to city in every country under British rule.

Baba Makhan Singh told that that flame was put in a big gold utensil and was taken to the every headquater of the districts. Wherever Jugni was taken big celebration were observed by the Govt. In all those shows Bands, Police department, army, Zaildars,high officials and high society people visited. In these shows Manda and Bishna also held their stage.

When Baba Makhan Singh was all explaining this, then a nearby person who looked a bit more educated, interupped that English didn`t bring Jugni-flame. In fact it was Jubilee which illiterate Bishna and Manda pronounced as `Jugni`.
From that gentleman`s interruption suddenly the mystery of the word `Jugni` was found that the word `Jugni` took birth from the english word Jubilee. It is clear that in 1906 the Jubilee flame was taken everywhere under the rule of Queen Victoria at her 50th anniversary on the throne.

This Jubilee flame was taken to every main city and at the district headquaters celebrations and festivities took place under the charges of DC. On these festivals, Bishna Jatt and Manda Mirasi held their stage where they sang their own composed stanzas of Jugni with the instuments of Dhad and King. Because of the simplicity and easy versification, these verses of Jugni became so popular very soon that many other people started versification of Jugni Verses.

Wherever we find a `Jugni-Verse` there we must find some city`s, village`s, and palce`s name. Wherever Jubilee-flame of the English rulers went Bishna and Manda also went to those places and put their small stage somewhere near the big festivals to perform. Their one original `Jugni-verse` is like this:

Jugni jaa varhi Majithe
koi Rann na Chakki peethe
Putt Gabhru mulak vich maare
rovan Akhiyan par Bulh si seete
Piir mereya oye Jugni ayi aa
ehnan kehrhi jot jagaee aa

This `Jugni`s poetic style and versification later became a traditional method and started taking much more in it`s clasp but the beginning of `Jugni` always remained in some city or place:

Jugni jaa varhi Ludhiane
Uhnun pai ge Anne Kaane
Maarn mukkian mangan Daane
Piir Mereya Oye! Jugni kehndi aa
Jehrhi naam Ali da laindi aa

Manda and Bishna were already used to take part in fesivals of Patti, Kasur, Ajnala and other towns of Majha region. Their Akhara or stage performance was famous. Manda used to play the instrument of Dhad and Bishna played the King. Singing performance was always together. They sometimes had composed stanzas at right while performing. If someone gave them a Rupee, they had composed a stanza linking the donor and his village`s name.

`Jugni` Jubilee flame went from city to city and Bishna and Manda followed. Their popularity also rose to the great level by time. In those days while the movement for freedom didn`t rose but in the mind of the masses anger was there. On many places faminines spead and droughts came. Public was illiterate and the rulers were cruel. So it was sure that the agony and sufferings the public suffered came in their stanzas.

The stanzas of English rule`s criticism and their tyranny were also composed. These new stanzas became so popular in public that now the rulers could not tolerate. Government started banning Bishna and Manda`s shows. Then Bishna and Manda started performing at some distance from the Jubilee fesivals but they gathered hugh crowds there too and many time police lathi-charged those gatherings. In those of their shows, people started talking frankly agaist the English rule on India and their atrocities, had been coming back while singing `Jugni` in revolutionary manner.

Sorrowful End

From city to city `Jugni` alais Jubilee went, Bishna and Manda followed, hugh crowed gathered. Anger against the English rule`s opression rose, public got more restless. In the same manner when Jubilee functions in the city of Gujaranwala became insipid against the Bishna and Manda`s stage, irritated police arrested and tortured them both to death. It is said that police buried them both in the middle of night in some unknown cemetry.

Canes of police had make them mum but their `Jugni` is still there in every city and will remain in the hearts of the people of this sub-continent forever. It comes in mind that something should be done in the memory of these two ignored and forgotten martyrs, some monument should be made.`Jugni` itself is a great memorial of these two worthy artists in the hearts of million but the monuments in the honour of Victorian jubilee are there in V.J. Hospital ( Victoria Jubilee ) in Amritsar and Victoria Terminal in Bombay which remind us the cruelity which faced generations and wiped the creaters of Jugni.

We don`t find any information about the family or siblings of this pair of singers. Neither of them got married in their life time. In 1906 both of them were around the age of 50. Punjab and Punjabis have yet to thank these two greats, next year at the time of century we have a chance to do something important in their memory.