Below are some of the most funny shayaris I have received in fwd-emails.

Irshaad. Irshaad.

Woh jab chalti hai to raahon main 100-100 ke note bichhaa deta hoon
Woh jab chalti hai to raahon main 100-100 ke note bichhaa deta hoon
Uske jaane ke baad woh sab note utha leta hoon..

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Jab tumne thaam lee hai mere jeevan ki dor,
Jab tumne thaam lee hai mere jeevan ki dor,
Yeh dil maange more.. Yeh dil maange more..

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Pyar mein kitne ghar doob gaye yaaron..
Pyar mein kitne ghar doob gaye yaaron..
Pyar mein pandrah-bees ghar dooba gaye yaaron..

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Tumko dekha to yeh khayaal aaya
Tumko dekha to yeh khayaal aaya
Ke kal raat maine itna kyon khaya?

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Woh sadak ke is paar thi,
Hum sadak ke us paar the;

Kuch hum aage badhe,
Kuch woh aage badhi;

Hum kuch aur aage badhe,
Woh bhi Kuch aur aage badhi;

Hum kuch aur aage badhe,
Woh bhi Kuch aur aage badhi;

Ab hum sadak ke us par the,
Aur woh sadak ke is par thi;

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Aapne mere man se khela,
Aapne mere tan se khela,
Aapne mere dhan se khela
Aapne mere tan, man, dhan se khela...
well played! well played! well played!!

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Pyar ke sitaare jab gardish mein hote hai,
Laila ghar mein aur majnoo jail mein hote hai.

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Mein tere pyar mein kitna pita chhaliye,
Mein tere pyar mein kitna pita chhaliye,
Iodex maliye kaam pe chaliye,

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Tum har raat mere khwabon mein aao,
Tum har raat mujhe yuunhi satao,
Melody khao khud jaan jao........

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Door se dekha to kuchh dikha nahi,
Door se dekha to kuchh dikha nahi,
Paas jake dekha to kuchh tha hi nahi.

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Main hu yahan, tu hai wahan
Main hu yahan, tu hai wahan
Lifebouy hai jahan, tandurusti hai wahan

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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before marrige
takdir hai magar kismat nahi khulti,
tajmahal banana chahata hoon,
lekin mumtaz nahi milti.

after marriage
takdir hai magar kismat nahi khulti,
tajmahal banana chahata hoon,
lekin mumtaz nahi marti.

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Aaj aasmaan mein taare aise chamak rahe hain,
Aaj aasmaan mein taare aise chamak rahe hain;
Jaise kal chamak rahe the !!!

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai,
kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai,
KE KYON kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai??

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Jise dil diya woh dilli chali gayi,
jise pyar kiya woh italy chali gayi;
dil ne kaha khud-kushi(suicide) kar le jalim,
bijali ko haath lagaya to bijali chali gayi.

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Humne bhi pyar kiya tha jindgi main,
badi joshh ke sath;
Humne bhi pyar kiya tha jindgi main,
badi shhor ke sath;
Aab hum pyar karenge badi soch ke sath,
Kyon ki usey kal shamko dekha kisi aur ke sath.

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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kaaash ke tere chehre par Chickenpox ke daag hote.
kaaash ke tere chehre par chickenpox ke daag hote.
chand to tu hai hi, sitaare bhee saaath hote...

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Ladka bola:
kash ein hasinao ke baap mar jate,
bahana gam ka hota, hum inke ghar to jaate.
Ladki boli:
Bewkoof, Yeh sochana bhi paap hoga,
kisi din tu bhi kisi hasina ka baap hoga.

Irshaad. Irshaad.

Ladki boli:
Chandni chaand se hoti hai, sitaron se nahi,
Mohabbat ek se hoti hai, hazaaron se nahi.
Ladka bola:
Chandni agar chaand se hogi to sitaron ka kya.hoga,
Mohabbat agar ek se hogi to hazaron ka kya hoga.

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Bewafa sanam se to cigrattee achi hai,
Bewafa sanam se to cigrattee achi hai,
Dil jalati hai, par hoto se to lagti hai

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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Dharti so rahi hai, Aasman so raha hai;
Dharti so rahi hai, Aasman so raha hai;
Nonsense! yeh sab kya ho raha hai?

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wah,wah,wah, wah....... taaliyon ki gad-gadahat
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abey taali bajayi ki nahin tune.

This post is dedicated to my Pakistani friend Shafiq. Who is a brilliant student (GPA 3.99/4) and his shayaris/jokes were the heart of every gathering/party we had at WUT. We missed you a lot Shafiq (specially Rashed Bhai.) But then he also found someone else. Ha ha.

Here is my tribute to Shafiq:

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Shafiq's obsession
Don't ask me whats going on in the photo.

Band AIDS (a musical concert for AIDS awareness) was the biggest event I organized till date. During a WTSC officers meeting in June 2005, Khun Rin asked us whether the WTSC would like to organize an AIDS awareness event funded by the Ministry of University Affairs (MUA)? I came up with the idea of organizing this musical concert for AIDS awareness. Then one thing led to another and after uncountable brainstorming session and meetings with WTSC members and volunteers, Band AIDS finally took place on 24 September, 2005.

The Vice Mayor of Hua Hin Municipality discussed the importance of AIDS awareness in the community and commenced the show. Eleven professional music bands along with a couple of local university bands performed at the events for several hours. An AIDS Poster Design and Poem Writing Contest were organized for local school children for creating awareness among the youngsters.

I was involved in each and every aspect of this show from inviting music bands to checking the finer details of the posters and flyers of the event. It was a painstaking job. I learned a lot from organizing this event and the help received from WTSC members and volunteers was exceptional.

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Approximately eight hundred people came to the event and enjoyed the music and learned about AIDS. Event merchandise (T-shirt and Postcards), booths sales, and donations raised 34,000 Baht, which was donated to the Thai Red Cross Society’s AIDS Project on the eve of World AIDS day, 1 December, 2005.

Merchandise designed for the event

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T-shirt

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Postcard (Front)

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Postcard (Back)

Posters and banner for the event

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Poster and Flyer

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Banner

Here is the speech I gave during the show.

I hope you have been enjoying the music. This four hour event is the result of four months of hard work. As hard as it might have been, it was also a lot of fun and a wonderful learning experience.

It was in June that we first conceived the idea of BandAids and then it was meetings, after meetings, after meetings, the last of which, believe it or not, ended at midnight yesterday. With every meeting, we came a step closer to the actualization of BandAids.

Right from the time work began, from deciding when BandAids was going to be held, what the posters would look like, what the actual event would consist of, to getting the people in Hua Hin involved, has been a truly enriching experience for everyone of us involved.

It has given us a great opportunity to get closer to the people here, through our various interactions with them. Being foreigners and getting to interact so closely with locals, has helped us understand Thai culture better. And most of all, this event has allowed us to give something in return to the community which has given us so much.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Webster University Thailand for the continuous support they have provided. All members in the student council deserve much appreciation for surviving all those meetings and for all the hard work they have put in. Dennes, president of the Student Council, Kishor, Vice president, Sajal, Secretary of the Student Council, Victor, our PR coordinator, Khun Rin, the student activities coordinator, and Frankie, our graphic designer, all deserve special thanks. I would also like to thank our beautiful MCs, Ren and Gift, for hosting this event.

And I dare not leave out all the people you see in white here, who have been actively involved in putting this event together.

And most of all, we would like to thank you, for making this event a success and helping us and the Thai Red Cross Society make a difference.

Thank You. Enjoy more music.

Deep and Richa helped me write the above speech.

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Me while giving speech during the event

For more information and photos, visit Band AIDS web site.

Malaysia is ‘Truly Asia’, Singapore wants you to ‘Live it up’, Indonesia is ‘Your genuine experience’, Thailand is ‘Amazing’ and New Zealand is ‘100% Pure.’ A couple of years ago India was ‘Shining’ - after the failure of the campaign - now the new campaign is ‘Incredible India’ - hope this one lasts long. ‘Incredible India’ is the campaign for promoting India as a tourist destination.

I read somewhere about the great advertiser David Ogilvy, he said that, "You have to decide what 'image' you want for your brand. Image means personality". ‘Incredible India’ is the personality the Ministry of Tourism wants the world to see India as. IncredibleIndia.org is the official website of this campaign.

Individual State Tourism Departments / Corporation and Boards in India are also promoting India as a tourist destination in their own way. A complete list of websites of the above can be found here.

Few of them are:

The Ministry of Tourism has also started a campaign within India – ‘Athiti Devo Bhav’ (Treat Guest as God) so that the tourist who come to India be treated well and come back to visit India again. This will also help to change the image of India among foreign tourists. I hope this campaign works, because the way the foreign tourists are treated – actually looted – in India is unbelievable.

Here are a few print ads from the ‘Incredible India’ campaign. A couple of them also won at the PATA Awards.

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These beautiful ads gave me inspiration to write this post. The image quality of the ads are not good. You wont be able to read the body copy.

After the success of the Marathon in Mumbai, it was time for Kolkatan to run. On Sunday, February 19, 2006 Marathon was organized for Kolkata citizens. The newspaper partner for the event was The Telegraph.

The reason I am writing this post is that, to my astonishment the newspaper I subscribe (The Times of India) printed no news about the Marathon. I understand that The Telegraph is the official newspaper for the event but that should not stop the TOI to write about a major event happening in the city. I mean what could be bigger than this in the city – but still there was no news about it in the TOI. Is this what we call freedom-of-press?

I am not only blaming The TOI for this, but the same is true with other publications when the situation is vice-versa. Most probably there is some agreement or rivalry between these newspapers. Why should we be the victims of this rivalry among the newspapers?

Mid-day Meal Scheme is the world’s largest school nutrition program. Free mid-day meals are provided to 12 crore (120 million) children of class 1 to 5 in Government and Government aided schools in India. This free-service is provided by the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

The Government of India has asked mothers to volunteer to take turns to supervise the feeding of the children. You or your friends can also add value to this meal. For more information or any suggestion, contact Sarpanch or District Collector. Under the Right to Information Act, you are entitled to all information.

Information derived from self-promo ad: Page 14, Business Section, The Telegraph Calcutta, Sunday, 19 February 2006.

The following photos were taken for/from the UNEP International Photographic Competition on the Environment. UNEP stands for United Nations Environment Program. Several professional, amateur and novice photographers submitted their photos at this competition. I wish to join this photography contest sometime in future. Here are some of the entries which I liked the most.

















































To find out about the photographer and to see more photos
go to
http://www.unep-photo.com.

While looking for some files on my PC, I found these photos which I clicked for the WTSC (Webster Thailand Student Council) to be posted inside the WTSC office. I do not know whether these photos made their way to the WTSC’s office walls, but I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to share these photos with you.

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Sajal and Jin Xin
Sajal aka Mother India (Shouvik) aka Bolpani (Kuldip) aka Maate (Sher). WTSC Secretary. No more comments, else she will beat me up.
Jin Xin, I guess he was the only Chinese guy at WUT that I know. He used to give to some weird, but good ideas in Ad classes.

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Aaron and Alexander
Aaron is a native of “India” oh sorry “North East India.” Aaron was appointed to my post of WTSC Treasurer after I graduated. I heard he quit after a month. Alexander Ruijs, comes from The Netherlands.

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Norma and ______
Norma Alejandra Gutierrez Areyzaga (got it), another very good friend of mine, hails from Mexico (Meh-khi-kho) Norma can speak 7 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Thai. She wants to learn Arabic. Salam-e-walekum Norma. She is the one who translated the name of my/this photoblog to Italian. Thanks once again. Glad to have you as a friend.
Huh.. forgot the name. Was this girl even in the WTSC? I remember seeing her, but can’t remember who she is. What is she posing as anyways?

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Susan and Khun Rin
Susan Landfield, Faculty Advisor, WTSC. Susan teaches International Relation courses at WUT. Very dedicated.
Khun Rin, Staff Advisor, WTSC. Rin is the Student Activities Coordinator at WUT. She is the one who helps in organizing all the events. Very lively. “Khun Rin, can you help me with…?” Ha ha.

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Dennes and Kishor
Mr. President (Dennes Bergado Jr.) He is full of enthusiasm and fun. Native of The Philippines. Great working with you Mr. President.
Kishor Lama, Vice President, WTSC, comes from Nepal. Very quite chap. His favorite t-shirt line: “QUIT talking to me, if you don’t like my ATTITUDE.”

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Timothy and Brandon
Timothy Brandon Blank
is originally from Sri Lanka but is a US citizen.
Brandon Audia, very energetic guy. Party maniac.

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Sher
Sher Ahmed Mubejo aka SAM, is a Pakistani… okay Sindhi (happy now Sher.) He is my one of best friends I made at WUT. Sher, call me to Pakistan when you get married.

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WTSC meeting/conference room


While I was typing this post in MS Word, at first I typed “WTSC mugshots” as the title. MS Word underlined the word “mugshots” with a red line, which means incorrect spelling. So I looked up the dictionary (WordWeb) for the correct spelling ‘cos I thought mugshots is the correct spelling. This is what I found: Mug shot means “A photograph of someone's face (especially one made for police records.)” Ha Ha. No hard feeling. FYI, the correct spelling is mug shots.