my first ride on the blue line!- the good the bad and the ugly!

jan 03,06.
hey guys!
yesterday, on the 2nd of january, 2006, i finally did what i had always waited for.i got a ride on the new and the longest line of delhi metro ever inaugurated, the blue line, which stretches from barakhamba road in central delhi, till dwarka morh, the outskirts of the subcity of dwarka, near najafgarh, via tilak nagar, the nearest station from my place. and although i would have loved to write all the nicey nicey things about the system, but as the DMRC got many rude shocks by inaugurating the longest stretch in one go, so did i find many odd things en route to CP.
WELL TO BEGIN WITH, me and my sister went to the tilak nagar station on the evening of new year, to celebrate it of course , by taking a joyride on the system. as soon as we reached the ticket counters, we were taken aback by the sheer size of the crowd. the queue was unruly, and way too long, but what surprised us that time was that DMRC's idea of making the stations serve the purpose of subways to cross roads, will backfire . i say so, because for the first time i entered a station, which had no security till the point you reached the ticket counters. there were no metal detectors at the entrance to the station , neither were any gaurds to be seen there, a possible reason for sightings of beggars and aimless wanderers till way inside the station, a sight never seen at the stations of the other two lines. we came back without giving the idea to get our way in, a second thought.families were sitting on the stairs as if they were hanging out there. the station is very beautiful from the outside with the glass facades giving it a rare very classy look , and no matter how sick the crowd inside seemed to be, i surprisingly didn't notice any paan stains ( trademark of delhi's sick appearance) anywhere inside, all along the long underground entry to the ticket counters.after we came out of the station, i just satisfied myself by looking at the beautiful trains pass by on the overhead tracks. and thought whether i would ever be able to get a peaceful ride on it...........
we decide to get up early next day and catch the metro, to enjoy the peaceful ride. but how early could you get? the stations open up in the morning st 6 am, and going by the current winter wave in delhi, there was no way we were going at that time.but guess what, we did! both of us were up at 5:30 am and i was actually shocked to see my sister up sooo early coz she seems to be from the family of kumbhakaran: the only thing she loves most in the world is sleep. shocked but excited i was, kitty soon started throwing tantrums, as we noticed that not only was a very bitterly cold wind blowing outside, but there light showers too. anyways, we reached the station right on time, the sky was pitch black, sunrise was still quarter an hour away....
we entered the station, still without any metal detectors or gaurds at the entry . moreover there were a considerable amount of tubelights which weren't switched on yet, engulfing the staircase opposite the ticket counter in darkness, a very unexpected thing. only 1 ticket counter was open. we took the tokens to go till connaught place (why did they name it rajiv chowk, it lead to an identity crisis for those who call it CP for years.........) the token cost us 13 bucks, in place of 10 on a bus. another odd thing: we entered the paid area leading to the platforms without passing through the metal detectors,and guess what? the policemen on duty didn't ask us to get back and enter through them. more? they didn't even check the polybag we had , which contained just two umbrellas. obviously they had no reason to suspect us for anything and they probably did it as there was barely any soul around at 6 am...still i think they should have at least searched us.........
just as we reached the platform, on our back was the tilak nagar flyover, and ahead of us was the beauty : the train. we got in. there was a considerable anount of crowd inside, though finding a seat was never a problem at a time so early , that too in the winter chill.
the journey started and the first glitch was that the train stopped midway on the tracks , between the TN and subhash nagar stations for a good 20 seconds. after that it was smooth though. most platforms on the stations ahead were being furnished still, but the space serving the commuters were still done up satisfactorily. the view of passing over the raja garden flyover was awesome in the dark as expected. the height factor added to the excitement, rajouri garden being the station with the highest platform, and just ahead , the tracks passing over the raja garden flyover, a technical construction challenge achieved without stopping the traffic on the flyover even for an hour (though many ppl doubt it)... the illuminated malls along the way: city square, tdi fun republic, and the multiplex - satyam, were amazing in view in the dark. most of the city's eyesore wasn't there to be seen in the dark...lol!....kirti nagar station as reported to be only 30% complete, was actually that way, still good enough to serve the purpose.
it was fun all along, and the public address system was working well on the train. soon we were experiencing the next big thing of this line.:. the ramp. the ramp which made the link between the elevated stretch and the underground stretch of this line, and made for an amazing view too. but the best part lay ahead: the CP station. it was so beautiful, that i think i could write another lengthy blog entry on it. the ceiling, the circular paid area, the skylights, the many entrances, made for a thrilling view. and not to mention, the second basement which was the platform of the same station but the second line, the completely underground yellow line. oh by the way, this line is called the blue line, if i forgot to mention. so we were actually in a metro with another metro zooming past beneath us. another exciting technical marvel....i should mention though that no station is as classy and as beautiful as this one.
we exit the station which had many advertisements and good display boards telling us where we were in CP. we went to Bangla Sahib Gurudwara and sunrise had just started. walking barefoot in the Gurudwara complex made my feet numb , as all around it was wet and VERY COLD! we enjoyed every bit of it.
we came back to the CP station , and it was daylight now, so we were ready to experience the eyesore as well as the beautiful points of delhi , as the second part of our journey. we entered the CP station and the cops on duty did search us this time. they were in fact excited to see us back, and one of them asked kitty , " madam, aap abhi yahin se gaye the naa?" i replied that we had gone to the Gurudwara. we forgot to distribute parshad to them,even though it would have been a very good thing to do , and they did search the bag . anyways we went ahead to the sprawling arena-type waiting area , and soon the beauty zoomed in. it was 7:30 now and still there was not much crowd on the train this way, but soon we noticed the "crowd" on the train coming from dwarka and going to barakhamba. a small but considerable part of those commuters seemed to be the peons , sweepers and similar ppl, who had to get soon to the offices to clean 'em. the train soon hit the ramp and in a few secs we were on the elevated stretch, and the eyesore on both our sides made us go "ugh". lol!
soon we passed by the beautiful and huge bhagwan hanuman ji 's murti near jhandewalan station. it wasn't visible in the dark though. and the murals, and madhubani paintings of the stations were looking as beautiful at the station platforms now, as they did before. soon we were back at the raja garden flyover point, and i noticed a blueline (public) bus driver on the flyover kinda slowed down immediately seemingly to enjoy the view of the train pass over them . the train passed very slowly at that point , on the steel bridge over the flyover. we passed the stations soon, and ahead of raja garden flyover we noticed a train on the parallel track zoom past us, which had these ballons and such celebratory stuff painted on it's body: a first such sight. well , we were back at the tilak nagar station, after 25 minutes of the exciting joyride.
well hope all of you get one too, and i'll be back with more. ( i am still in the metro hangover mood).
lol!

more on varun raj's exit from nach baliye....

hey guystoday, by chance i came across this report in a leading daily that was about nach baliye. since that report was about the finals, it did have a few commenets by varun and rageshwari too, and something got me thinking , something fishy appears to have happened, that none of us probably knew nothing about..........i'll just tell you about the part of the report that got me thinking:during thier performance last week, varun had a blackout on stage. rageshwari said: " the judges were very fair and asked us to perform again,. we said we would perform only if both the other couples agreed. the rest is blank....." yes , you read it right, raj not only said that it would be unfair to the other couples, when asked to perform again, but she had said this thing too. now obviously, we can't say which couple declined them the chance to perform again, but i m sure that poonam is most likely to be blamed for it. i am not taking any stand here, just that not even a single member has written in support of manish and poonam, though some might have ridiculed s'n's an v'n'r too. did you see her yesterday , shouting from the audience area, to encourage poonam and manish, she was sooooooooo fake. she might be giving very good expressions on stage, which appear fake too, but why the hell did she pretend that she actually wanted varun to keep up? wasn't it soooooo evident on her face in the end, that she was happy with the eliminination? another part of the report had manish saying" i hope we win, because the competition has become maharashtara v/s new delhi.the other team is from maharashtra and we need all the votes from delhi."till i read this , i thought that at least he had his brains in place, but , i was wrong>why did he give such a biased comment? think of all his stories of struggle in mumbai, and he still thinks that he is from delhi? it's another thing that they want all the votes from delhi, and in literal sense , they will lose it all, coz even if delhi's ppl vote for them, the far larger population of maharashtra will handle it out to make sachin-supriya win. manish still doesn't think that he is a part of maharashtra? what the hell, he is concerned about the backgrounds of ppl????????i live in delhi, and i don't think that delhi ppl will ever vote for them, because, every1 here thinks that they suck , and they suck pretty baaaaaaaaaaaaddd!moreover ,i t would make me feel ashamed that both of them are from the same place as me, if they win. what was this surprise packet label all about? i think they have surprised us only because the fact that despite poonam's XXXL(extra large) frame, she was still dancing with her husband and not chacha chaudhary's sabu. anyways this is a request to delhi ppl, not to vote for manish and poonam, even if they don't wanna vote for sachin a nd supriya, which is unlikely.

and a good news for delhi ppl only, the blue line of delhi metro, opens on december 30. the dwarka - barakhamba line is a new year gift to all of us delhiites.

FUkc! its all over.............

this thursday night on india's most loved channel , star one, and its most applauded show till date, nach baliye, there was A BIG SHOCK waiting for every one out there. the show kicked off with sachin & supriya ' s performance on 'gori gori' from "main hoon na", followed by their choreographers , al and melody. then came manish and poonam,who performed on 'tera rang balle balle' from "soldier". and then , it was time for what was supposed to be the flavour of the year, the icing on the cake, the ultimate: it was time for the varun- rageshwari team to provide the eyes glued to the tv, their most awaited for - delightful moment.of course, it started with their choraographer rajeev surti , kicking off with a performance , which had every1's jaws dropping way below the floor. his ass kicking moves had every1 not just glued to him, but also instigated the audience's hunger pangs who were already dying to see what variety, as always , were they to bring in now.but luck had something else in mind, even then the couple started better than both their competitors, on the song 'bindaas' from "krishna cottage". but somewhere down the line, varun just blanked out, on stage , while rageshwari tried hard, to bring him back in full vigour.but luck had something else in mind, even when the judges asked them if they wud like another chance, raaj declined , she saying that she didn't think that would be fair for the other 2 couples. but in the end, they did give a flawless performance, after saroj khan said to varun, that she wudn't let go of him unless he performed.
and they did. and every1's heart sank as they saw this couple go, this couple: who had always come with something that the other participants weren't able of at any point of time, who had always put up such a variety in their performances, that ultimately, they were kept as the last couple to perform, like a dessert after dinner....
everyone expected them to be the winners, coz there was no doubt that manish- poonam were , in fact are, no match for the grace and oomph which rageshwari and varun had put into each of their performances, so flawlessly. they were the only competition to sachin and supriya, in fact it wudn't be wrong if said in the way back, that sachin and supriya were the only competition to varun rageshwari.
although , there wasn't a bit of uneasiness amongst the couple. the soooooo gracefull raaj, put it down so well before going, that you could do nothing but just sit ther, and watch the only reason you watched the show, go away.
of course, poonam, who has time and again cried over things on the show, did show a relieved self, after it was clear that they weren't the ones going out. it was sooooooooooo there on her face, that she was happy, that she wasn't eliminated. manish isn't that bad at least, he did cry in the end.
seems like all the fun of watching "nach baliye" has gone down the drain.BUT RAAJ-VARUN WILL ALWAYS BE THERE IN EVERYONE'S HEART. KUDOS TO YOU TWO................ .........MWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
INDIA WILL MISS YOU BOTH.

bollywood babes turn sexy

dia mirza is the latest bollywood babe to have shed her ice maiden image and sexen up her screen presence, the gal features in a music video with sonu nigam, the remix song by sonu and alisha - 2 of my my fav singers. dia , follows in the footsteps of her idol and best friend, the sensual sushmita sen, to live up to the title of "miss sexy in a sari". the sari has become even hotter after sushmita donned the almost national apparel , in farah khan's directorial debut "main hoon na".dia babes shows a lot of oomph, not to mention loads of skin too. even the choreography of the song is done, keeping in mind that the gal was here to shed her cutie pie image. not long back we saw aishwarya rai do the same in her sexiest performance till date in "kajra re" , from bunty aur babli. her asthmatic breathing actions (lol) in the song sent her male fans to new high. ash no longer is completely cold now, as she had been labelled by many, after her cold appearances in american talk shows like the oprah winfrey show and CBS's 60 minutes. well , she did knock the wind out of david letterman, the tharki buddha who went on asking her questions as if she was an alien. miss ash has been voted the sexiest indian this year, even though it hasn't even been an year that esha deol called her a cold beauty on "koffee with karan".giving her company in the males section is john abraham, the sexiest male in the industry. i think the gals are far sexier than the dwelling-on-sleaze-flicks-bollywood-babes like mallika sherawat, neha dhupia, meghna naidu ...........the list goes on. thanx to bipasha and the bhatt camp, for it was jism in which, the portrayal of the indian woman, changed it all, although it was jism too which started the trend of making sleaze flicks, even as jism was all sexy and sensual, not a least bit vulgar.


to download aishwarya videos visit:
http://www.aishwarya-forever.com/multi.html

jassi takes a back seat

SONY entertainment television's baby for two years, the tv show "jassi jaisi koi nahin", has got it's telecast time shifted to 10:30 from 9:30 in the night. the only possible reason being star one's new competitor chandni, the protagonist of "india calling", the channel's new show , obviously very fresh and different, which shows how chandni kapoor, a jalandhar girl, joins a big call-centre in mumbai and the events that follow! sony's jassi.... was supposed to end earlier this year, but it was the channel's first succesful show in the 9:30 pm slot, after debacles like kutumb, kuch jhuki si palkein and like wise serials, which failed to prove gold for sony, till jassi , based on the western show "here comes the ugly one", came along to rescue. but the show was dragged on this year with twists and turns that never lived upto the success of the serial in the last two years. apparently the viewers got pulled into a different kind of sob story, and it was too late by now, when star one had already established itself as the most watched tv channel in india, what with every show being totally different than the saas bahu sagas of the rest of the channels. not just chandni, the spooky ghosts of star one's another new show "darna mana hai", which started the same day oct 14th, as india calling, were out there to haunt sony's jassi too, so the 10:30 slot. now that the TRPs of jassi are down, the story is again being drawn back to office , which was the main factor in the serial's success. but will the missing characters of maria, ruby mom, bindiya, raj and others let jassi sail on her own? and to top it all, the recent influx of sick gay fashion designers' in the serial looks so odd! seems like sony ppl have never seen a straight designer.

meanwhile , nach baliye continues rocking, and shocking too. in the previous show, delnaaz and rajiv were saved by luck only, as apoorva and shilpa got chucked out, while every1 knew that it was time for the former couple to move out considering their performance being far bad than others!

while supriya-sachin rocked as always, and parmeet and archana puran singh brought those smiles on every1's face, the stars of the show were varun and rageshwari sachdev badola, who were labeled as the variety couple of the contest! they simply outperformed any1 and every1!
both are my fave jodis!

http://starone.indya.com/

ash is "provoked"!

just saw a few pics of world beauty queen aishwarya , from her forthcoming project "provoked". she doesn't just look stunning, but has provoked the viewers to actually become a part of the pain her character in the movie goes through. those who have seen the pics have given encouraging comments such as " i can't see so much pain in those eyes", to "she makes me feel sad , i'm gonna cry now", because in the pics ash's eyes have talked so perfectly. be it the wedding pic in which her eyes portray the feelings of an indian bride so perfectly, or be it a battered ash lying (probably) in a hospital bed, her face brings forth the pain of kiranjit ahluwalia, (hope i got the name right). the woman on whose life the story of the movie is based. she was tortured by her husband so much, that it provoked her to kill him, and later it lead to quite a few big changes in the british laws too. attagal kiran! the movie will be ready by 2006.

delhi metro does it again!

DMRC MD Mr. E Sreedharan , has been awarded the highest decoration, Knight of the Legion of Honour, BY THE FRENCH GOVT for his contribution to the cause of streamlining the traffic messes of india, so graciously

just a few weeks back, his work was recognized by IIT, DELHI.Sir sreedharan's ambitions are to match at least half of what china's doing right now, adding 40 kms of metro rail lines every year! he has time and again pooh-pooed the delhi govt's proposal to build an elevated ring road. he is sooooooo right. biulding an elevated ring road will not just lead to lakhs of trees being uprooted and the roads beauty being ruined, but also the time and operational coss are gonna be FAR than building a metro, which will require at least 5 times leser space, and of course, on time, if not before time as always, completion

delhi metro is headed towards haryana commercial hub, gurgaon! after 2 years of speculations and rifts b/w delhi and haryana govt. over who will bear how much cost, the things have been sorted out! most of the line is supposed to be elevated, and will be ready by 2010, when commonwealth games come to india! on the other hand, noida too has finally got its timing right with DMRC, as work starts on the link to noida within 4 months! of course, the real estate prices, which are already sky high in gurgaon, are gonna go much higher,now, and later when the line becomes operational within 4 years.

the raja garden viaduct is rocking in it's view, and the tilak nagar station is turning beautiful with each new day, what with its tinted glass facades and being the only station on the line(probably), with a "FACE". the line starts operations by december end

http://delhimetrorail.com/

hi folks!

hi all!
earlier, i had all my blogging thing going on on my msn space. i'll post all the 5 entries in there , over here., just so you can read them. new ones will start appearing shortly!
enjoy!