A wonderful prayer in Marathi

Recently I come across this wonderful prayer in Marathi. If you understand Marathi, you will enjoy it, but even if you don't understand by reading below lyrics text and meaning I am sure you will like it.
 


OR click here to listen from Saavn (new window iwill open)

Marathi	English	Meaning
तुझ्या पायरीशी कुणी सान थोर न्हाई साद सुन्या काळजाची तुझ्या कानी जाई	Tujhya paayarishi kuni saan thor nhai Saad sunya kaaljachi tujhya kaani jaai	All are equal at your doorstep... Only you can listen to the elegy of a lonely heart
हे.. तरी देवा सरना ह्यो भोग कशापाई हरवली वाट दिशा अंधरल्या धाई	Hey.. Tari deva sara na yo bhog kasha pai Haravali waat disha andharalya dhaai	Then why doesn't the suffering end, my Lord? The path is lost, darkness engulfs all directions..
ववळुनी उधलतो जीव माया बापा वानवा ह्यो उरी पेटला	Vavaluni udhalato jeev maya baapa Vanava hyo uri petala….	Fear grips and ravages me, O father… There is a forest-fire raging in my heart
खेळ मांडला ..खेळ मांडला .. खेळ मांडला .. देवा .. खेळ मांडला ..	Khel Mandala, Khel Mandala… khel mandala, Deva… Khel Mandala!	The game is set, O Lord, the game is set...
सांडली ग रीत भात घेतला वसा तुझा तूच वाट दाखीव ग खेळ मांडला डाआवी देवा पैईल पार पाठीशी तू रा उभा ह्यो तुझ्याच उंबर्‍यात खेळ मांडला	Sandaliga reetbhat ghetla vasa tujha Tuch vaat dakhiv ga khel mandala Daavi deva pail paar paathishi tu raha ubha Yo tujhyach umbaryat khel mandala	We have forsaken all traditions and took your oath You have to show us the way, for the game is now set.. Stand by us in all circumstances, O God... For we have set the game in your courtyard...
हे उसवाला गाणा गोत सार आधार कोणाचा न्हाई भेगलल्या भुई पर जीना अंगार जीवाला जाळी	Hey… Usavala ganagot saara, Aadhar kunacha nhai Bhegaalalya bhooi pari jeena angaar jeevala jaali	The fabric of my relationships is all unwoven, there is no one I can rely on... Flaming hot coals burn my body, as if the sun scalds the barren cracked earth
बल दे झुंज़ायला कीरपेची ढाल दे विनवती पंचा प्राण जेव्हारात ताल दे	Bala de zhunjaayala kirpechi dhaal de Inaveeti pancha praan, jeevarhat taal de	Give me the strength to fight, and the shield of compassion… I ask for mercy, please give me the rhythm of your soul
करपाल रान देवा जलाल शिवार तरी न्हाई धीर सांडला खेळ मांडला	Karapala raan deva, Jalala shivaar tari nhai dheer sandala...  Khel mandala...	The forest has burnt to ashes, and the farm is ablaze... Even then I haven't lost hope, my Lord, for the game is set...

Credits
Film	Natrang (Marathi, 2010)
Music	Ajay- Atul
Lyrics	Guru Thakur
Singer	Ajay Gogavale
Translation	S Wagh

Coming up in next posts "Rickshaw run" and "Friend - A wonderful gift"

Cheers!

Mohit

Speed-up your computer

(Informative)

I am not a computer technical person, but have computer’s basic function understanding. Following are my tested steps gathered from web world to improve computer performance, you may also try;

1)     Check your hard disk space. As a rule, always keep at least 15% of the hard disk space free to keep the computer running smoothly. Remove unnecessary files from your hard disk.

2)     Install an anti-virus program. The fewer bugs and viruses your computer has to manage, the more time it will have to devote to other processes. Always have a good, licensed, updated anti-virus on your computer. Run full scan once in a week. You can schedule anti-virus for the task.

3)     Run a Disk Cleanup tool. While working, computer saves many temporary files in various folders. Disk Cleanup tool can clean up hundreds of megabytes of temporary files. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you to free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer.

Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, and then click Disc Cleanup (within the General tab).  

Or

Go to Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tool and then click Disc Cleanup

Check all the boxes except for the game files and setup files.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

·         Remove temporary Internet files.

·         Delete downloaded program files, such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets.

·         Empty the Recycle Bin.

·         Remove Windows temporary files, such as error reports.

·         Delete optional Windows components that you don't use

4)     Clear your Prefetch folder. Windows saves a file of the program you are using to make it start up faster. After years of use, this folder gets stuffed with irrelevant programs.

a.       Open Notepad and type:

del C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.* /Q

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

(Copy and paste this text to ensure you don’t make any mistakes.) 

b.      Save as faster.bat (the .bat extension will run it as a batch file).

c.       Run it! Simply double-click the file to initialize. In a few moments, the command prompt will disappear and your programs should run more smoothly.

5)     Check for any disk errors. These will also slow down your computer. You can help solve some computer problems and improve the performance of your computer by making sure that your hard disk has no errors.

Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then go to the Tools tab and click Check Now under the Error-Checking area. When the dialogue box opens, check both boxes (Automatically fix file system errors, Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors).

If you get a window saying that Windows can't check the disk while it's in use, click on Schedule Disk Check and then OK. It will run on your next reboot.

6)     Disk Defragmentation.  Over the period, saving and deletion of files on computer makes hard disk fragmented i.e. files are scattered over the disk. It slows disk access and degrades the overall performance of disk operations

Disk Defragmenter consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk, so that each occupies a single, contiguous space on the volume. As a result, your system can gain access to your files and folders and save new ones more efficiently. By consolidating your files and folders, Disk Defragmenter also consolidates the volume's free space, making it less likely that new files will be fragmented.

Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then go to the Tools tab and click Defragment Now.

Or

Go to Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tool and then click Disk Defragmenter select drive and click Defragment

7)     Adjust visual effects. Windows allocates resources according to its settings and manages devices accordingly. You can adjust the settings for your computer’s visual effects. There is inverse relation between best performance & best appearance on your computer. If you are little concerned about the appearance then you can speed up computer by changing visual settings

Right-click on My Computer and select Properties, then go to the Advanced tab and click Settings under the Performance area. When the Performance Option box opens, check Adjust for best performance under Visual effects Tab then click Ok.

Following additional step may be taken if you have basic computer programs knowledge otherwise skip.

8)     Remove any programs you do not use. Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (or Uninstall a Program, depending on your operating system) to find a master list of programs installed on your computer. Some things will immediately strike you as useless, in which case you can remove them right away.  When in doubt, don't remove anything you don’t recognize; it may be critical to the function of your computer – and if you delete twelve different things only to discover that your computer no longer works properly, it will be very difficult to determine where exactly you went wrong.

Note:

Before doing this, backup all your work.

Ensure there is continuous power supply. If a computer turns off while doing this, it will create more problems than not.

I am sure this will help speed-up your computer. If you have done all the above steps and your computer does not become more responsive, you might consider reinstalling the operating system and programs.

Happy computing

Mohit

My Umbrella

(Happy)

Rain of Mumbai is like a flash light, shower anytime for few minutes. Therefore it is convenient to use umbrella than raincoat. Every season I lose at least one umbrella.

In 2008 my friend Gautham and I brought folding umbrella of “Mother” brand. Though our umbrellas were of same brand but his umbrella was having brand name printed on button while mine was plain. Whenever I get chance I used to tease him that colour of my umbrella is better than his and he used to give it back saying his umbrella is original since it has brand name on button.

We were residing in same area so often we used to go to office together.  One day while going to office my umbrella fell out of rickshaw and its handle crushed. He just got a chance to laugh at me for not having brand name on button.





Of late I stared buying round handle umbrella since it has some advantage over other type of handles. It has very good grip and most obvious you can hanged it anywhere. Most common places to hang it are hook or rods and hand but few creative places I saw are back collar of shirt and pocket of pants.

One day I was returning from office in a very crammed full local train. I could manage just to stand so it was difficult to hold umbrella. Taking advantage of round handle I hanged it up on the handle bar of train.  A person in front of me was having same problem but since his umbrella was not round handled he was helpless. Feeling myself very smart gave me a tickle in my stomach. At time we enjoy our small ideas a lot as if it a great invention.

In 2008 Mother brand was popular now Sun (Son) brand.

Happy monsoon!

Mohit

PS: I will discontinue this blog from December 2013.

White Crayon

In morning hours there is always a long queue for all forms of public transport whether it be bus or auto rickshaw and if you are in urgency then you are in soup. My rickshaw was about to start suddenly a guy Mr. A approached me asking if I’m going to Chakala (A business area in Andheri east). It was very apparent that he got late and he is in absolute rush, I nodded in nope. As I was not going to Chakala Mr. A requested to drop him at one place on my way from where he can go walking to his office.  I accepted the offer and he got into rickshaw.

Our rickshaw heading to its path, we started introductory chatting. He was educated and polished person working for an Investment company. We were waiting for green signal at crossing of western express highway & J B Nagar road. Soon we got signal, Mr. A instructed rickshaw to take left. Rickshawala resisted saying it will be a jam-packed route, to which Mr. A rudely scratched saying “do as instructed”.

I was stumped with such bossy, uncouth and consent-less behavior. It was like you offer a fruit to someone and he takes away the whole tree. I felt cheated, as someone has taken advantage of me being supportive. Why everyone takes advantage of me, why I don’t resist such behaviors, why I’m always so polite to accept such action against self. The thoughts were running through my mind, our rickshaw was moving in other direction, a direction of traffic jam.

Finally I decide I will not take this crap. I will not put myself in a situation of self-pity for being used by others. Just to look good I will not be people pleasing. As we reached another signal, in hard tone I asked rickshawala to take U turn and to return to our original route. Mr. A got the pace, thanking me he simply got down from rickshaw.

We were back on our route and I was happy like wining a battle. Ooh! What a lesson I taught to Mr. A, now he will never take advantage of anyone, I speaking to me. While soaked in elation suddenly a voice broke inside. Why I am enjoying this, why I am blissful this way.  It was not for taking any revenge, but for shielding self of miserable feeling. It was for me, that I can take firm stand, defy people doing wrong to me, not for paying him back. I wanted to help him but don’t want him to use me for his advantage like a white crayon, can be helpful in mess but cannot be used.

Cheers!

Mohit

Dekho Amdavad (Ahmedabad)

Information (travel experience)

Travel date (28th Feb, 1 & 2nd March 2013)

I was planning a 3 days holiday with my family to a place nearby Mumbai. Being a nature lover and because of toy train Matheran pop up as first option.  But then I establish that three days at Matheran would be too long especially for kids. After evaluating all the available options I picked Ahmedabad as my vacation destination. My friends (some of them are Gujarati) were bit mystified with the selection. They opined at Ahmedabad we wouldn’t have enough things to do for three days.

I am a heritage lover (or say freak). Information on internet, memories from my childhood and Gujarat Tourism slogan “Kuch din to gujaro Gujarat me” tempted me to accept the invitation of the State. Ease of travelling from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was also one of the reasons for selection. Finally I booked my ticket to Amdavad; city of Sabarmati’s Sant, a city of hidden heritage, a city developing fast over other cities of India. Unlike other heritage places where assets are usually abandoned, Amdavad’s assets are still in use by its citizens. Temples, mosque, havelis are still living, for a moment makes tourist shy to visit. 

Journey begins

We started from Borivali on 27th Feb night at 11pm by Gujarat mail and reached Ahmedabad next morning at 6.30am. We were welcomed by pre-booked taxi not showing up, the only wrinkle of the tour.

After getting ready for the day, I saw an auto rickshaw outside on road. I approached him (the rickshaw driver) and inquired his charges for full day local sight scene. After bargaining for three days I decided to have him as my tour steer. He was supportive, reliable and has given us very good service.

First Day:

We started our first day with Gujarati snacks from local sweet mart. We had Jalebi, Fafada and Khamani. My elder daughter had Chinese Samosa. I find Jalebi and Fafada of my area (Borivali) more tasty, but the Kadi (liquid chutney) was amazing.



Akshardham



Akshardham (10 am): Our first destination was Akshardham a temple of Lord Swaminarayan, museum and exhibition located at Gandhinagar about 20 kms away from Ahmedabad. It is a complete mythological place with rich and wonderful architecture. Very well formatted exhibition and well maintained museum gives complete details of Lord Swaminarayan. Exhibition is divided in five different halls. Museum displays holy relics of Lord Swaminarayan.

Time require: 4-5 hours

Memories : Courtyard garden, Hall number 5 with wonderful audio-animatronics (moving statues) show, Swaminarayan Khichadi, Gujarati Thali, adorable visitors from rural areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan & Punjab. 

Missed: Children park and water show was closed for maintenance.



Adalaj Step Well



Adalaj ne Vav (Step well of Adalaj) (3.30 pm): After Akshardham we went to Adalaj ne Vav at around 3.30pm.  The Adalaj step-well is situated 18 kilometers away from Ahmedabad and  5 kilometers from Gandhinagar. It is octagonal (8-sided polygon) and five stories deep. There is an opening in the ceilings above the landing which allows the light and air to enter the octagonal well. It has three entrance stairs. All three stairs meet at the first storey, underground in a huge square platform, which has an octagonal opening on top.



Adalaj Step Well



All the walls carved by ornamentation, mythological scenes, dancers accompanied by musicians. A must visit place for a heritage lover.

Time require: 1 hour

Memories : Papaya we brought on our way to Vav.

Vaishnodevi Temple (5.30 pm): Though this was not on our list but our tour coach (Rickshawala) insisted to visit the temple. A peaceful place and replica of famous Vaishnodevi temple located at Sola Gandhinagar Highway. We were glad that we obeyed our coach.

Time required: Depend on crowd, but we spent an hour. 

ISKCON Temple (7 pm): We reached ISKCON temple at around 7pm.  If you have not visited Mumbai’s ISKCON then you might like the place.

Time require: ½ hour

Memories : Khicu (steamed rice dough), Kadam bhat prasad.

Second Day:

Our itinerary list for second day was Hathisingh Jain Temple, Jhulta Minara, Kakanria lake and Patang restaurant. After tiring first day, we started our second day at around 9.00 am. We decided to do one place and then have breakfast.



Hathisingh Jain Temple

 Hathisingh Jain Temple (9 am): Built using beautiful white marbles lavishly carved one of the most splendid Jain temples of India. There is a yellow stone tower temple in the patio of main temple. The temple courtyard is enclosed by a row of cloisters. Hathisingh Jain temple is certainly worth a visit.

Time require: 3/4 hour

Underground water storage tank

Memories: Marvelous carving, underground water storage tank to harvest rainwater.

It was breakfast time, so we looked for a sweet mart. I wanted to eat patra or khandvi but there was only Dhokala, Kachori and samosa.



Raj Bibi Mosque (Jhulata Minara / Shaking Minaret)



Carved Window

Jhulta Minara (10 am): Beautifully carved Jhulta Minara is a mosque which has two minarets. A gentle shaking of one minaret results in the other minaret vibrating after a few seconds, though the connecting passage between them remains free of vibration. The actual cause of this is not yet known.

There are two Jhulta Minara in Ahmedabad. One Sidi Bashir Mosque opposite the Sarangpur Darwaja  and another one is Raj Bibi mosque opposite to Ahmedabad Railway Station. The British engineer disintegrated some parts of the Minaret of Raj Bibi mosque close to the Station but was unable to assemble back to its previous state. These Minarets are now not allowed for climbing for the visitors.

We were bit hesitant to enter the place. One friendly localite took us through entire premises and showed us every minute detail, depositing minara as wonderful memory of the trip.

Time require: ½ hour

Kankaria Lake (11 am): Kankaria Lake is one of the biggest lakes in Ahmedabad with an approximate circumference of 2.3 km. Lakefront public attractions like zoo, toy train, kids city, tethered balloon ride, water rides and water park and food stalls.

Kankaria Zoo- Spread over 21 acres Kamla Nehru Zoological Park having wide range of animals and birds is the best maintained zoo in India.  (Time require: 2½ to 3 hours)





Water Bubble Ride 



 Water Bubble Ride: one of our best memories from Amdavad trip was water bubble ride. The inflatable transparent ball, about 6-feet in diameter, is inflated and zippered shut with a rider inside and typically placed in lake water, allowing rider to walk, run, jump, roll, flip and spin on top of water without getting wet.

Toy Train: Imported from London, the train circles the lake on a track at a speed of 10 km/h the best toy train I have ever seen. There are two sets of toy train one named Atal express and another one Swarnim Jayanti Express



Fire Station Activty at Kids City



Kids City: A miniature world designed for kids has 18 model (called as activity) of banks, fire station, science lab, radio station, police station, court room and prison, dental as well as medical hospital, theatre, BRTS, heritage gallery, town governance, IT centre, News room, ice-cream factory, etc.

Kids’ City is an amazing world of fun and learning for children between the ages of 4 to 14 (my recommendation is 6-14). Unlike theoretical knowledge, Kids get highly practical experience with best of education as well as entertainment at the same time.

It is a replica of our civil society having roads, vehicles and places banks, fire station, police station, court room, hospital, ice-cream factory, etc. kids get uniforms and equipments to play the role of various occupations that adults have like doctors, RJs, firefighters and manufacturers, just as in real life.

Time Require: 8-9 hours

Missed: Hot air balloon and tree hill garden.

Memories: Everything at Kankaria lake front.

After Kankaria Lake, my wife wanted to buy some sarees, so we went to ratan pol. It is a narrow but long lane having lots of sarees, ghagara, dress material etc available at very reasonable price.

At last after, long, exciting, and tiring day it was time for dinner. Our plan was for Patang restaurant, but we couldn’t make it as the restaurant was packed and we hadn’t reserved a table. So booked our table for next day lunch and our coach took us to another famous restaurant “Toran” at Navarangpura on Ashram road.  A simple elegant gujarati thali restaurant server very scrumptious food.

 

Beautiful Paintings on Road Side Walls



 

Beautiful Paintings on Road Side Walls

Memories: The side walls on Ashram road are painted. The compound walls of buildings are usually used to spread political messages. But in Amdavad they treat our eyes with paintings of traditional designs representing the cultural heritage.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) roped in 300 professional and amateur painters in a bid to adorning the compound walls with traditional paintings. It has decided to take help from these artists for the beautification of compound walls of various public institution buildings. The civic body paints the walls with traditional paintings using weather-proof paint. The civic body has short-listed five compound walls to be a painted.

During Kankaria Carnival, the canvas painting competition has been replaced by wall painting. The total length of the compound wall to be painted for the competition will be 1,250 metres with a height of 2.5 metres at the Kankaria Lakefront.

 

Third and last day;

Heritage walk (7.45 am)



Bird Feeder



Our first thing for third day was Heritage walk. The Heritage Walk of Ahmedabad is a guided walk of two and a half hours conducted by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation with NGO, CRUTA Foundation. This daily affair by the AMC is extremely well designed in guidance and co-operation with CRUTA and Swaminarayan Trust, being operationalised by a group of young volunteers.

Heritage Houses

The tour begins at sharp 8am at the picturesque Swaminarayan Mandir in Kalupur and ends at the soulful Jama Masjid at the center of the city at 10:30am. You have to be there on time as they are very strict about the timing.

Birds House

It cost Rs.30 per head and was led by a volunteer, a young girl named Urvashi. The proceeds from the ticket sales go towards the restoration and maintenance work of Ahmedabad’s heritage sites. At beginning we were all presented with a slide-show about the walk and the sights it would cover. 15 minutes later Urvashi led us out into the narrow lanes of the old city. The entire experience of walking through lanes, bylanes and in narrow alleys in 100-year-old pol inhabited by different communities still living there is thrilling. The walk took us through various ‘Pols’ or neighborhoods that each has a gated entrance with a Chaboothara (tall bird feeder) old Hindu and Jain temples, and mosques and tombs. There were secret passageways that connect the Pols to each other as well. Some neighborhoods had homes from varied eras but there was one cul-de-sac where a British-built structure stood next to a Persian structure, a Maratha house and a Mughal home is just wonderful.

Be prepared to meet stray dogs, cows and lanes could be littered with animal poop.

We are so happy we decided to go for this walk. Unveil hidden heritage inside the walls of the city and see how they live and these wonderful private temples otherwise nameless.

 The House of MG offers another type of guided heritage walk, an 80 minute ‘sonic’ walk, with a guided tour recorded that you can rent. It starts at the House of MG and ends at the Jama Masjid.

Patang (The Revolving Restaurant)

Patang (12.15 pm):

Landmark of Ahmedabad a revolving restaurant in the sky, first and to my knowledge the only kind of restaurant in India. It is amazing. The stem of funnel shaped building on the bank of Sabarmati, elevates to about 150 ft high in the sky and opens into a round shape well decorated restaurant with marvelous view. Food is ok, but the view, setting and music is very pleasing.

Ghandhi Ashram

Spinning Charakha

Sabarmati Ashram (1.30 pm)  :

Without visiting Sabarmati trip to Amdavad would be incomplete. Noting more required describing the beauty of this place, I was cherished to see the liveliness of the place. It was not a dead museum but a place where kids were playing & learning, kitchen in use in its natural simple way. A volunteer lady explaining kids about Ghandhiji and another one was spinning Charakha, simple and pure.

Science City (2.30: pm) We had kept our day reserved for it but were disappointed after visiting the place. It is  part of a government initiative to draw more students towards education in science. Evidently Gujarat government has put all its effort in creating this science centre using very advance technology, but the excitement of visitors from rural places in exploring the technology rather than its content made most the equipments non workable. Nonetheless  a section named Earth Planet - an earth-shaped dome is worth a visit.

Host of Gujarat

Tired with heat and disappointed with malfunctioning of science models we were sitting in one corner. Three girls from a small place of Gujarat noticed us. Treating us as their own guest they restock our energy and excitement making “Atithi Devo Bhav” as true statement for the state.   

We returned back to Mumbai with 9.00 pm Lokshakti express carrying bundles of sweet memories and would certainly suggest “Kuch din to gujaro Gujarat me”