Dil dhoondta hai...

I have been fortunate enough to meet and observe at close quarters, the legendary lyricist and poet, Gulzar (real name Sampooarn Singh Kalra) on a few occasions, thanks to my wife’s Ph.d on his poetry. The first time was at his residence on Pali Hill, Bombay in January 2009 when we had to record an interview. We reached at the appointed time and were informed by his secretary that he was in a music session with Vishal Bharadwaj and we would have to wait for some time As we sat in the waiting room we were totally taken aback when Gulzar himself appeared a few minutes later and apologised for the delay due to the extended session. Once Vishal left, we were led into his drawing room which also includes his study (consisting of his library and his study table –with which he has been often photographed) and the interview went off well over a few rounds of chai. When it was time to leave he presented a big box of chocolates for my daughter and came till the entrance of the house to see us off. Obviously we were greatly touched by his humility and simplicity. Since then we have met him at different places Delhi, Jaipur) and at different locations (Diggi palace at Jaipur, India International Centre and the India Habitat Centre at Delhi) and I have come to know different facets of his personality. To start with, he is incredibly sharp and agile for someone who is 79 years old. This is partly because he follows a strict schedule of sports (playing tennis) and writing every day. He is no ivory tower poet who writes as per their whims and fancies. For him writing is a 9 to 5 job (similar to our regular office job) which he carries out with full dedication. After that it is time for his tennis. Secondly, he keeps himself occupied with some sort of literary activity or other. Be it  writing lyrics, poems, releasing books (in Hindi and Urdu),participating in literary festivals, attending plays based on his works Salim Arif, receiving awards or just playing with his two year old grandson who stays close by.

Obviously the general  public is more aware about his film lyrics but apart from the same he a formidable collection of poems and short stories to his credit including a unique  genre of three line poems called Triveni**. Some of these are really outstanding. Sample these

‘Bheega bheega sa kyon hain yeh akhbar

apney hawker ko kal sey change karo

“paanch sau gaon bah gaye is saal”’

And,

‘Kya pataa kab kahan sey mareygee?

Bas ki mein zindagi sey darta hoon

Maut ka kya hai, ek baar mareygee’

As far as the films are concerned, he has given us some outstanding lyrics starting from ‘Bandini’ in 1963 (Mora gora ang lai le) and has been  at his best while dealing with relationships. He was at the top of his prowess in the 70s and 80s. My personal favourites include songs from ‘Khamoshi’ (1970), ‘Anand’ (1970), ‘Aandhi’(1975),  ‘Mausam’(1976), ‘Gharonda’ (1977) and ‘Masoom’(1982) some of which he also directed. He had the capability to beautifully express emotions with unmatched brevity and simplicity

‘Tum aa gaye ho noor aa gaya hai

Nahin to chiragon sey lau jaa rahee thi

Jeeney ki tumsey wajeh mil gayee hai

Badi bewajah zindagi jaa rahi thi’

-Tum aagaye ho, ‘Aandhi’

‘In umr se lambi sadkon ko

Manzil pe pahunchte dekha nahin

Bas daudti phirti rehti hain

Hamney toh theharte dekha nahin’

-Ek akela is sheher mein, ‘Gharonda’

Post ‘Maachis’ (1996) however some critics feel that Gulzar has not written anything significant and there has been a steady decline in his writing. The imagery which was so effortless earlier on seems forced and convoluted and the writing laboured, as in Kajra re from ‘Bunty aur Babli’(2005). To some extent this is true but even now the earlier spark shines through some of his work whenever he keeps the lyrics simple like in ‘Dil to bacha hai jee’ from ‘Ishqiya’(2010) . However, the credit should be given to him for remaining relevant even after spending over 50 years in the industry which has seen so many changes. From Chaiya Chaiya, ‘Dil Se’ (1998) to Beedi, ‘Omkara’ (2006) to Challa from ‘Jab Tak Hain Jaan’ (2012) he has been consistently giving us chart busters.

** A Rupa Publication, 2003

The Google Story

Over the past few years, Google has become such an integral part of our lives that it is now

difficult to imagine browsing the internet without visiting the Google site at least once .It has

become our default one stop shop whenever we are searching for  information in any field—be it

sports, cinema, current affairs, technology etc.(When a friend recently asked his daughter to find out

the number of keys on their laptop she was using, she promptly logged on to Google to find the

answer!).However, like many others I often used to wonder to how do these guys make any money? What is the story behind the unusual name and the minimalist home page design which has remained almost unchanged since the company was incorporated in 1998 by two Stanford Phd students Sergey Brin and Larry Page? What is the secret of their famed work culture which combines fun and work in just the right proportion?  Answers to these questions and many other insights about the incorporation and the spectacular growth of the company can be found in David Vise’s excellent bestseller –The Google Story, published by Pan Macmillan. It also give us a look into the way renowned US universities like Stanford, Harvard and MIT encourage their students to incubate innovations (Jerry Young, the founder of Yahoo was their senior at Stanford) and guided them to convert their ideas into a tangible product which can then be monetized with the help of venture capitalists who are always eager to put their money on the next big idea.

 Larry and Sergey came from very diverse but strong academic backgrounds and hit off instantly when they met at Stanford in 1995. By 1997 they had a working model of a search engine ready and they called it ‘Pagerank’. Initially they wanted to sell it to the other existing search engines including Yahoo. Unable to find a suitable buyer, they decided to take a leave of absence from the Phd programme at Stanford and start their own business. Rest, as they say, is history.

 Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Novell) who joined the company in 2000 to handles the day-to-day running of the business completes the triumvirate which runs Google today. The way he ended up joining Google makes for interesting reading as Larry and Sergey were reluctant to hire someone to look over their shoulders but the venture capitalists wanted to strengthen the management as they planned to scale the business. Along with the growth including a path breaking IPO in 2004 came various lawsuits and intense competition from the grand daddy of Silicon valley-Microsoft which had (and still does) lagged behind Google and Yahoo in the search space on the internet. Infact, the only discordant note in the book is the continuous attempt to show how the ‘good’ guys at Google have always managed to keep ahead of the ‘bad’ guys at Microsoft and how Google is now the attracting better talent than Microsoft. Some of the quoted instances maybe true but as the recent launch of me too products by Google  like Google + (to take on Facebook)and the Nexus tablet (to take on I-pads) have shown , in the cut throat competition of high technology one needs to constantly adjust one’s moral compass as per the changing scenarios.