Opinions - UdaipurTimes

Garba is on Sale!

October 13, 2010 By Vaidehi Kachhawa 11 Comments

Navratri in previous years meant absolute devotion and traditional Garba dance in front of the idols of Goddess Durga. The traditional and melodious music and songs of Garba left every individual swinging and dancing.

However on this money-oriented earth of ours which has not even spared our idols and religious celebrations, there has been a complete face lifts of this sacred festival. While earlier the whole festival revolved around Goddess Durga and celebrations were held surrounding her but now slowly and steadily Maa-Durga is being completely sidelined.

Adulteration of this pure festival is at an all time high. Earlier Navratri was a means for the common men to get close and offer their loyalties to their beloved Goddess Durga. But now it is all commercialized. [Read more...]

Category: Blog | Opinions

Winter is on The Way…

October 13, 2010 By Krati Bansal 8 Comments

Mornings have started giving shudders with the temperature of around 18.2deg.With the end of monsoon, winter will set in with its own charm and beauties. It is so ecstatic viewing mother nature spraying its charm which personifies through every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, clad with radiance.

It is the time when pleasure to bask in the warm sunshine is felt. It is difficult to get out of cozy blankets and quilts. Sips of searing tea produce sensation in whole body. Our style statement changes from bold to mellow and bright to pastel outfits.

Winters remind me of my school days when with filled pockets of dry fruits, it was fun to share them with friends in assembly time and munching them escaping everyone’s eyes. Staring in mirror with pride after wearing school blazer was an innocent act. Avoiding wearing scarf, as it may look odd and then sneezing later are few golden memories of winters. [Read more...]

Category: Blog | Lifestyle | Opinions

Commonwealth Games- Eyes Wide Shut

October 4, 2010 By Guest Author 19 Comments

Guest Article by Parth Singh Saini

Before starting my article, I would like to ask you one Question. What does strike in your mind first when you hear the words “Commonwealth Games” Well, the most common answers would be: corruption, unprepared buildings, and filthy apartments etc. But I want to know that why can’t we think of the things like Delhi Metro, Airport Terminal 3, World Class stadiums and so on…

After 28 years, we are going to get an opportunity to host a multi-sports event. All the stadiums are of International Quality, Delhi Metro has been made a reality, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was conferred the fourth best airport award in the world, Apartments and Transportation are rich and superior in quality, all the participating players are adoring our food which is healthy and nutritious as well, in a nutshell we can say our guests are happy and delighted by our preparations. So instead of standing proud on our CWG preparations, why are we so much discouraged, misguided and adulterated about the Commonwealth Games. Is the media actually pouring anti-CWG toxic into our blood, or there is something really wrong in our perception for our country. [Read more...]

Category: Blog | Opinions | Sports

Love Redefined, Flexed and Crunched

September 25, 2010 By Angadjeet Singh 19 Comments

Love, the word itself strikes a million chords in our hearts. For each one of us it rings a different bell, for some their crushes, for others their boyfriends or girlfriends, and for some — their parents.

Everything changes with time; this is something we have been listening from our parents or other elderly persons in the family and society. How, this time will change a relationship between a girl and a boy, they would have never thought of that.

Modern relationships are very different from those in older times. A man need only to see a woman in a mode of undress accidentally and he would be obligated to marry her. Attributes such as purity, virginity, and celibacy were requirements for an unmarried woman. According to some newly wedded couples; it would be quite difficult to find an adult female today who possesses these traits.

However, an advantage to these modern relationships ensures that a man and woman today need not enter into marriage just for sex. It seems to also hold true, that a relationship which suffers through unsatisfying sex, doesn’t last.

The divorce in older times has become breakup in today’s relationships. Even though breakup can be heart wrenching at times.

These days’ relationships have an all-new meaning. They are short-lived, meaningless, at times only physical, and lately use and throw relationships seem to be the raging trend. Short-term relationships such as flings, one-night stands have become so common that the true essence of love seems to be lost somewhere. There is nothing wrong with having a no strings attached relation, but the emotional consequences (how much ever one may deny) are not justified.

For today’s youth love is blended with lust and in this process they give up their morals, ethics and culture. Without realizing this, individuals today are gallivanting around without giving their actions today a single thought. Love, soul mates, all these things seem to be of the past. And the worst bit remains that the realization quotient in people has become zero.

Depression rates are higher than ever. Ridiculously high expectations often render the relationship baseless.

We don’t work on relationships any more. If someone leaves us, we deem them not right for us, and move on. Insecurities in modern relationships create fertile ground for infidelity and results in relationship “jumping”. With the equality of the sexes, Men can now look at women as capable and strong entities, capable of providing for themselves and others, women can do it all, with the male feeling of no sense of guilt, because, hey, “She can take care of herself”.

Our relationships today are headed for a doomsday scenario if the present status continues. We have stopped valuing them and caring about them, forgetting in the process that relations are very delicate. They need to be handled with love and care and be nurtured with affection combined with warmth and fondness.

We have to understand that love abides in everybody and we have to learn to respect and value people. As individuals we need to understand other beings around us to live a peaceful and better life. Love teaches us to value, to care, to forgive. And it is this beautiful feeling, which connects everybody. In this fast paced world that we are living today where love has lost its meaning, we need to rekindle it and its passion. And endure in making the world believe and feel that there is nothing more beautiful in this world than to love and be loved.

Category: Opinions

Can Udaipur’s Tourism Boom This Way ?

September 25, 2010 By Guest Author 7 Comments

This is a Guest Post by Vajrasar

Yesterday, I woke up and had my tea, and as it was a holiday for me, I searched for the newspaper to get some updates, moreover nice updates. As I read the page 2, my eyes stopped on a headline, at first, I was happy to read that, but the next moment I became sad, the line was “Overflow Lakes, Set The Tourism BOOM In Udaipur“.

Now you might be thinking, what’s so sad about this, is the fellow stupid to write it as “sad”? But, let me tell you, it is sad, and if not “sad” then at least it is an “alarming” news, let me put some light on it.

Just do one practical thing, when in some nice evening or morning you go to Fatehsagar, what do you see? Apart from that beautiful water filled massive FS, you will notice all the dump that we people have created there, and then when you will walk on the “Paal”, unintentionally you will protect your footsteps, from footing onto some plastic bag, or corn leftovers, or chip-wrappers, or may be “jalkumbhi”. Moreover, if you will notice it, then it will be like “gross” to you. You know, those people who are coming to visit our city are from countries, where they keep their lakes more clean then there own assets, because they know its value. If you think they won’t feel pity on us, for keeping our resources in such a shameful manner, then you are wrong. They surely will!!

Secondly, I believe, traffic police of our city want to prove themselves most vigil in the world. They knew that eventually FS will be over flown and there would be a chaotic traffic scenario on “Paal”. However, they didn’t wake up from their sleep till the situation was bloody idiotic. And really, when I went to FS on the third day of it being over-filled, police there was still in miserable and helpless condition, and were yelling at people and cussing. WOW!! I felt like I am in the World’s Most Beautiful City..!!

Later this season, TOM CRUISE and his crew will visit Udaipur and outskirts for shooting, and we are so excited and thrilled by the news, I want to wish my sincere congratulation and luck to the authorities as now they will come to know their lacking till “HOLLYWOOD” advent.

We always hail on the loud-mouth facts like, we are rated as the most beautiful city, we are the Asia’s densest in traffic numbers, we have Jaisamand – the largest man made lake, we have FS, Pichola, this is all a myth, and this is all lame. The reality is, we are stupid, we do not know how to act, and we do not know how to give respect to our resources. We get ruled by such a lame system, which gets crores of rupees from Government for monsoon budget but didn’t even make anything out of it , and above all, we all let that happen.

“Padharo Mahre Des” is not just a phrase that our ancestors left for us to treat and call guests with, it is something that shows our confidence that – “Yes, I am confident that you will like my land and would appreciate it in terms of what you see and how warmly you are welcomed here.” And for God’s sake don’t just blame anyone else, value comes with great responsibilities and we should learn to maintain those responsibilities, as I know, no one of us would want to leave such a dump-full and ruined scenario for our kids to see when they’ll grow up.

This implies to me as well, we are all the SYSTEM and we have to learn, what we want. Do we want that those tourists should return to their lands and say, “Those people from India, don’t even know how to take care of their own valuable assets, if we would have it here, we would keep them safe.” If your answer is NO, then we should better do something. Else, this beautiful Udaipur will loose all its charisma.

About The Author:

Vajrsar is a 23 year old student of MCA from Udaipur. He is a Tech Enthusiast, Writer and a Gaming Freak.

Category: Opinions

Udaipur’s Fashion Story

September 22, 2010 By Vaidehi Kachhawa 9 Comments

Since ages there has been an unavoidable and irresistible war between the sexes. Our great ancestors have been making an unstoppable attempt to attract their female counterparts and vice a versa. There have not been many changes since then, and it is obviously not our fault. Mother Nature made us like this. Whatever you are, whatever you want to be, wherever you may live, whichever culture or society you may belong to, the human race cannot move ahead without this game of attraction.

And this is how we came to fashion .Every civilization that came into existence, by some means or other used various fashion trends to attract the opposite sex. Some accepted it openly and some resisted it, those resisted and refused to accept it came to be called as conservative societies.

Fortunately, India has been quite a liberal society. We accepted what came to us just by a little modification. And in today’s time we have our own temple of fashion that is Bollywood. And our film stars as fashion Gods. We worship them and follow them. We are not only inspired by them but nowadays television has a huge impact on our lifestyle and fashion, especially women adoring the types of saree’s and bindi’s their favorite star wear. This trend can also be witnessed in Udaipur , many shops in the city sell dresses in the name of television stars like Tapasya part 2 and Kumkum Style, unbelievable but true.

Fashion in India has evolved from bell-bottoms to skin fit denims, from sarees to short dresses, from voluptuous to zero figure, but thankfully bikinis have always remained unchanged.

Few years back fashion only meant for women and was not much discussed and talked about by men. But today’s men are not only very conscious about their looks and fashion but also feel quite free to talk about it. They now go to gym, beauty parlors and buy branded clothes. These surely happened earlier also but now the percentage of men doing it has increased marginally. Branded clothes have become a new wave in Udaipur, boys as small as 12 to 13 years now prefer to buy and wear branded clothes.

Similarly things have also changed for women. Women earlier wore huge hair buns and flowers but now they prefer their hair’s let loose. There was a time when women liked macho men with mustache but now they prefer clean shaved metro-sexual chocolate boys. Individual choices may vary.

All these changes can be attributed mainly to Bollywood. Whatever our film stars do we have a tendency to follow them. Once Sadhna’s hairstyle became a revolution among girls and ladies of 70’s, then Salman Khan’s hair style in Tere Nam became a craze among young boys , and now Shahrukh Khan’s six pack abs have become a style statement for many.

Fashion has been and will always be a hot topic of discussion.

Fashion story in Udaipur has also been quite eventful. Now Udaipur has a long list of branded showrooms. Puma and Vanhusen have also recently joined our city with Levis, Color Plus, Killer, Pepe, Flying Machine, Spykar and Lee etc. People in the city have become quite conscious about their looks and fashion trends. Many beauty parlors and fashion boutiques have found place in the city. Habib’s Beauty Parlor has been shifted to Hiran Magri Sec.4 from Hotel Trident. People of Udaipur like and love fashion in there own little way.

I am not a fashion genius, but still I would love to get dressed up like my favorite actress especially during Navratri season. What’s your style statement?

photo credits: pictosh via flickr

Category: Opinions | Shopping

Go! Go! You’r Not a Small Town Girl

September 18, 2010 By Vaidehi Kachhawa 35 Comments

I do not wear a mini skirt or a halter shirt, nor do I fag or booze, neither do I go out late at nights to discos and clubs, I believe in simplicity and I am straightforward. Who am I? I am a small town girl. Moreover, I am not even shy of saying it. I could never understand that from where this concept of small town girl came up. I am from a small town, Udaipur, but I never ever in anyway felt less than my counterparts at Mumbai or Delhi or other metropolitan cities.

It is a saying that true India lives in its villages and small town, then where does a true Indian resides? Small towns? No. Oh! in metro yes at least that’s what half of the young generation feels. Whenever a small towner moves to a big city, he or she is always look down upon and if it is a girl then the situation gets worse.

People not only tag her small town girl but also keep reminding her the same. They may go to a metro for varied reasons from studies to jobs etc. wherever they go, whom so ever they meet and work with, at one time or other they are bound to think that they are different; they are not one of them. They often become subject of mockery for their dressing style, their walking and talking style or their thinking and mentality.

I do not believe in all this at all. Girls from either of the places i.e. small town or big city can be efficient homemakers, corporate leaders, capable entrepreneurs; they can be equally good orators and writers they can be whatever you want them to be. This kind of differentiation not only leads to mental depression but also leads to a moral break down. This leads to developing hard feelings, distrust for localities, and encourages groupism. Therefore, I think this differentiation is irrelevant and illogical and should not be encouraged.

This concept of small towns and small towner is actually not correct. With increasing modernization and internet, connectivity to almost every nook and corner of the country the thin line between the metros and small town is disappearing. Like we sitting at Udaipur can run and operate a blog on Udaipur we can cover events and post them instantly on the net, I being the so-called small town girl can write and work for a Udaipur times then where are we actually lacking? Nowhere I suppose.

We are not less than any one neither we consider our self has to be. Therefore, this is high time that the people at metros realize that what we are worth of and what we can do. We are not taking things lying down anymore. We have proved our metal many times in the past and are continuously doing so. With examples like Dr.Kiran Bedi first women IPS officer born and brought up in Amritsar, Dr.Partibha Devisingh Patil first women president of India was born in Nadgaon village of Jalgaon district, Maharastra, our very own Priyanka Chopra famous Bollywood actress and former Miss world was born in Jamsedpur,Jaharkahand .

There is not much need to say anything after these glorifying examples. Moreover, yes we actually believe in doing and not saying. It does not matter who you are but what you are, what counts is what you actually do with your life and not where do you come from.

photo credits: s-a-h-a-l via flickr

Category: Opinions

[Review] Which movie in “ASHOKA” ? Its DABANGG !!

September 15, 2010 By Angadjeet Singh 41 Comments

Its been a lot of times we come across situations like planning for a day out and one of the friends or family member jumps in saying.. Hey, which movie in “ASHOKA” ?

Same happened with me even. Me with my friends were planning something to do for the weekend and ended up for watching a movie but bad luck goes hand in hand with the future managers as while doing MBA we don’t get movie tickets because of HOUSE FULL n after MBA good companies as for IIM’s made them full.

So finally we got tickets for Monday. As we have booked them on Saturday itself. Headed towards Ashoka cinema for which I never thought I would be visiting it in my life for it’s a way far related to newly released flicks.

Though Ashoka was the only one cinema hall Udaipur had in mid twenties. It was built in 1958-59 by the Popular Sanghi Group who have been Pioneers and Sole Exhibitors of Cinema Trade in 1941 in the State of Mewar.

After 50 years, Ashoka has been renovated and made into a “First Single Screen Cineplex in UDAIPUR”. The last viewed flick was Vivah before the modernisation and Tashan as it got renovated in 2008. Till today Ashoka is the one and only Cineplex to be a centre for entertainment in eyes of people of Udaipur.

As with the renovation of infrastructure, many things also got renovated. The parking rates from Rs. 5 and 20 got raised to Rs. 20 and 50 for two wheelers and four wheelers respectively. A premium parking is also available at Rs. 100 for four wheeler owners.

The ticket rates have raised like one would be thinking that,

“Would i be getting any return gifts for watching a movie at Ashoka.”

Their present slab is : Rs.60, Rs. 90, Rs. 120, Rs. 150, Rs. 300.

These may vary time to time and day to day.

Compared to the old Ashoka, where a person with 100 bucks with his wife would have viewed the movie and saved Rs. 10 to his pocket including the parking charges. But now the time has changed and so have the spending habits and living standards of Udaipurites, which was very well researched and analysed by the Sanghi group as today they are the only Cineplex in town for more than couple of years by now .

Nevertheless, i parked my car and my friend got the tickets. He didn’t wait in the queue for long as we had already booked through www.bookmyshow.com as telephone lines were continuously busy. We stepped in for the hall and the aunty on the glass door checked our tickets but there was no one to check us. Well least bothered with that we had something which was bigger than that, 2 guys sitting on our reserved seats and they were not ready to leave as according to them they have already been troubled from Ashoka’s staff and been shifted twice earlier.

Now, talking about Dabangg

Genre: Action
Starring: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonu Sood, Mahie Gill, Vinod Khanna,Dimple Kapadia, Om Puri,Anupam Kher, Mahesh Manjrekar
Director: Abhinav Kashyap
Producer: Arbaaz Khan
Writer: Dilip Shukla, Abhinav Kashyap
Music Director: Sajid-Wajid
Distributor: Arbaaz Khan Productions, Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision
Release Date: September 10, 2010

We sat to our comfortable seats and eagerly waited for Robinhood Chulbul Pandey (Salman khan). All thanks to crowd of Udaipur, because wherever we go we would be the same always. i.e as sallu was on screen..nobody remembered his dialogues at that time because audience was busy shouting, whistling, clapping for his welcome.

A guy in last 2^nd row on my extreme left shouted tera hi jalwa so loud that whole audience was attracted to him. I just gave a thought that what would happen to them if sallu baba comes out of screen standing LIVE before them.

But an awesome flick by Abhinav Kashyap that i merely heard a complete silence in the hall as every time i saw the gentry rolling on floor laughing.

I won’t be spoiling the curry by writting the whole story but the movie is very well directed, set in Uttar Pradesh (Lal ganj) with a story of corrupt police Dabang, played by Salman Khan and overcomes the shortcomings and highlights the flaws and loopholes in the system with a wonderful family drama in the end.

Comedy is very much kind of Salman’s copyrights and Action had its origin from South Indian films.

Dialogues I liked the most were:

“Thapad se darr nai lagta sahab, pyaar se lagta hai.”

“Humara naam humaari personality ko suit karta hai, “Chulbul Pandey””

The music already made a good way of promotion as it was seen when the song munni badnam hui started and the mob in front seats was dancing as attending a baraat.

A pure fundu, time pass and paisa wasool movie according to many people I heard talking after the movie.

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s Tere mast mast do nain created a very lively ambience in the hall. Not to leave behind the total tapori dance of sallu in title track of Dabang was making me to stand n copy him.

The movie is a hit on Udaipur’s box office as per the previous house full shows and reviews. However, I wanted to have some more views so i jumped to some Udaipurites.

Sonal [Pursuing MBA from FMS Udaipur] says : a very good movie.. Salman danced really good.. sonakshi is so so sweeeet.

Divyani: [Pursuing B.Com. from B.N Girls College] says : the dialogues were very good and way Salman used them made them better..

Amrit: [10^th std. student from St. Gregorios Sr. Sec. School] says : I enjoyed like hell today and i want to watch it again.. Salman khan rocks.. !!

Photograph Courtsey: http://ashokacinema.com

Category: Entertainment | Opinions

Thanks Maharana For The Beautiful Lakes

September 14, 2010 By Harshit Agrawal 7 Comments

The City of Lakes has regained its beauty in this monsoon. All the lakes are full to the brim, people are overjoyed, lush green Aravalis standing tall seems to be proud again. Undoubtedly, water in the lakes has brought in a lot of happiness along with.

We are so much overjoyed that visiting Lakes is become part of our daily routine. No one wants to miss a single moment to witness the overflowing lakes. Not only this, people are sharing videos and photographs with their loved ones who are away from Udaipur. Social Networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Orkut have played a major role in spreading this news all over the world.

Alas! We have forgotten something…!! Our happiness, joy and excitement have reached to a level such that we forgot something really very important. And that’s what UT is here to remind you all.

We have forgotten the Maharanas (Rulers and Kings) of Mewar. They were the real gems who gifted us with the beauty of Lakes. Their efforts and farsightedness made city of Udaipur, the City of Lakes, Worlds’ Most Beautiful City, Venice of the East and much more.

The lakes were built by Maharana Jai Singh, Maharana Fateh Singh, Maharana Udai Singh and other kings.

Lake Pichola:

A tribesman named Pichu Banjara who used to transport grains from Picholi village. He found that the bullocks could not ford the stream at the southern end. So, he built a small dam during the reign of Maharana Lakha [early 15^th century]. Later in 1560, while Maharana Udai Singh II started building the new capital, strengthened the dam and extended it to Lake Pichola.

………

Lake Udai Sagar:

13 KM from Udaipur, Udaisagar was built in 1565 by Maharaj Udai Singh. Foundation stone of the dam was led in February 1559 and the lake was completed in year 1565. The 4km long, 2.5km wide and 9m deep lake is a picturesque lake, which is channeled into Berach River.

………

Lake Fateh Sagar:

Originally built by Maharana Jai Singh in 1678, this lake was later named after Maharana Fateh Singh. Maharana Fateh Singh built the new embankment in year 1889 as the two-century-old embankment collapsed due to heavy rainfall and storm. This pear-shaped lake is encircled by hills. You can enjoy a drive on its entire circumference while driving through Moti Magri Road, Fateh Sagar Paal and Rani Road.

………

Lake Swaroop Sagar:

Maharana Swaroop Singh built this lake for the benefits of people. It is located behind Jagdish Temple and is near Chand Pol. The lake also connects Lake Pichola and Lake Fateh Sagar.

………

Badi Lake:

This lake is named after the Badi Village, located at a distance of 10kms. from Udaipur. It was built by Maharana Raj Singh in the year 1684. The lake is also known as Jeevan Sagar after the name of Maharana Raj Singh’s mother Jana Devi.

Lake Jai Samand:

Amongst all the lakes Jaisamand is the largest manmade lake of Asia. Located 48 KMS from Udaipur it was built in 1685 by Maharana Jai Singh and hence named so. The summer palaces of the Queens of Udaipur surround Jaisamand Lake on all sides.

………

The excellence of the architecture lies in the fact that all the lakes of the city are well connected. This enables water flow from one lake to the other and finally it can be drained to the sea via different connecting rivers and dams.

Category: Opinions

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