A trip down Bharat-Rakshak memory lane.....

Harsh · Post by **Harsh** » 08 May 2002 10:29

Fellow BR old-timers...

-=-=-=-

Or even more amusing:

<img src="http://web.archive.org/web/19980419111703/http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/BR-Forum.gif" alt="" />
Check out the infant BR forum!

Back when flame-wars were chic, cyber-jehads from CMF and soc.culture.pakistan were in vogue, and Syed/Susanji graced the BR-wallahs with her bi-daily darshan.

Interesting to note how many of our distinguished members started posting back then, and sadly, how many distinguished members have since absconded...

God, the nostalga... I'm getting all teary-eyed. *sniff*

Regards,
Harshavardhan
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-DJ Detroit Desi

...a webmaster of:
The 1962 Sino-Indian War Website.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Harsh · Post by **Harsh** » 08 May 2002 10:39

How very odd.

Either web.archive.org has become screwy, or I have.

As soon as I posted, the links don't work, and www.bharat-rakshak.com apparently isn't found in the archive...

Ahh well. Maybe later, when their server is fixed, all-you can join me in my reminisces...

Harsh

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-DJ Detroit Desi

...a webmaster of:
The 1962 Sino-Indian War Website.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 08 May 2002 11:09

Strange... I got the relevant page once, you hit reload and it disappers, and I Get some gibberish from Chicago Tribune!

but it was good though.. especially the forum link!

Raja Ram · Post by **Raja Ram** » 08 May 2002 11:22

Harsh:

I first discovered BR from a website called mahesh.com which I think has metomorphised into Indian Online today. Back then there were three or four sites and the BR main page was only a coordinating point and a certain Harshvardan Vedak was maintaining sites

. Never remembered when I first got to postin BR Forum. But it was way back. In fact I have been around this website I guess from the infant stages. Merely as an observer and not so good participant.

I don't think I have managed 500 posts. Was probably more prolific in the begining when there was lower threshold of tolerance for "aam janta" type posts of questionable quality

.

I have seen this grow and I am proud of what it is today. Learnt a lot fro m several knowledgable people and perhaps contributed a wee bit to the forums myself. One thing I did do was to talk about BR to maybe 3-400 people so far. Many of them did come, had a look and stayed on

. That gives me the best satisfaction.

In these days of thread proliferation controls, I don't know how long this will last. Maybe your equations with the powers that control BR will help it survive. I too would like to see memories of how BR entered and altered our lives.

With regard to the forum, we have had such a varied and colurful bunch. Not that the present lot is not. But it is true that quite a few members have stopped participating but I hope continueto lurk around. Including Syed

.

Jagan · Post by **Jagan** » 08 May 2002 12:50

Harsh,

Boy have you stirred some memories!. I remember the old front page, as well as the forum..it was really fun being free for all.

i also remember gaping at the whole site from the outside, never knowing one day i will be a part of the venture...

three cheers for the original founders of bharat-rakshak. hip hip hurray

-----------
Added later..i am amazed at the archive site..i even found the webpage of my old tripod site http://web.archive.org/web/19981207012642/members.tripod.com/JaganPVS/ kewl!!!!

Harsh · Post by **Harsh** » 08 May 2002 12:55

Hey, the links are working! I'm not going crazy halucinating about the past!

I guess if it doesnt work for you, just wait a while till the server corrects itself.

-=-=-=-

Jagan:

For a minute, I was tempted to enter in the url of the 62 War Site to find an antique version of it, but then I realized that it really wouldn't look all that different...

-=-=-=-

Raja Ram:
I first discovered BR from a website called mahesh.com

Man, you better be joking!!

Oh God Oh God Lordavemercy I do remember Mahesh.com. Damn man, I don't think I'll ever forget Mahesh.com...

You've just uncovered a memory that was long repressed since it was so emotionally scarring. Chekkit. I had emailed the guy telling him about the BR Consortium as a part of my mass unsolicited email campaigns (to websites BR forum members recommended), in which I sent an email informing of this spanking-new BR Consortium (hey BR was new!) (and so was spam!), I had emailed Mahesh.com. He then replied in ALLCAPSANDNOSPACESBETWEENTHEWORDS, in page-long emails, I guess asking me all these questions about BR.

I say I guess, because he used many question marks, but I could never make myself read past line four. But he'd still send me an email, in the same format, for over a week - which I kept ignoring... hoping he would stop... all the while refusing to read the emails and working myself into a fit fearing that I was destroying whatever reputation BR had at that point.

Well I'm glad Mr. Mahesh(?) did eventually link to us (it comes as a bit of a relief, actually), and brought us future BR-wallahs

I totally agree with you man. In some ways, the old forum was more 'fun', if less educational. Back then, the BRMF was more of Wild West Liquor Bar, with its characters and fistfights, as opposed to the Gentlemans club, with its Cheese-eating and Wine-tasting, it is today.

*sigh*
Good times... Good times...
Regards,
Harsh

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-DJ Detroit Desi

...a webmaster of:
The 1962 Sino-Indian War Website.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Harsh · Post by **Harsh** » 08 May 2002 13:09

Hey, anyone still have the url to the old Pakdeaf forum?

That should be a hoot

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-DJ Detroit Desi

...a webmaster of:
The 1962 Sino-Indian War Website.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Sridhar · Post by **Sridhar** » 08 May 2002 13:29

I am a relatively new member, but it was good fun nevertheless to see the old websites.

We guys on the forum are just having fun, but there are people who are working behind the scenes that have made Bharat-Rakshak one of the best India-related websites and also one of the best country specific military websites in the world. Three cheers and thanks to all these people - present and past.

Just a small comment about the first website - all the regular guys of those days must be wearing thick glasses by now

- reading the dark blue font on black background was tough! Or maybe it is the archives website playing its own tricks.

Raja Ram · Post by **Raja Ram** » 08 May 2002 13:42

Harsh:

Mr. B.G. Mahesh had one of the best personal websites on everything Indian. His was teh most user friendly, organised collection of URLs and had excellent articles written by him as well. The by now famous annonymous e-mail "Citical Analysis of Criticis of the Indian Nuclear tests" first appeared on his website and he had posted it prominently. I had then posted it in the BR forum.

I too was in correspondence with him and thankfully not in ALLCAPSWITHNOSPACE

. He then sold it to Indiainfo.com and hopefully became a millionaire. Indiainfo is now part of Satyam if I am not mistaken.

But yes it was way back then when I first stumbled on BR. It has been an enjoyable journey so far. Good to see the links working now.

MN Kumar · Post by **MN Kumar** » 08 May 2002 17:32

Originally posted by Raja Ram:
Harsh:

I first discovered BR from a website called mahesh.com which I think has metomorphised into Indian Online today.

Hi I think mahesh.com today is not Indian Online, its indiainfo.com today. Check out. Mr.Mahesh is one of the directors there.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 08 May 2002 17:38

Hey thanks for reminding me of archive.org - I checked it out a few months ago.

The forum url given above is interesting because it reminds me of how much bandwidth and time was spent on opposing and arguing against RAPE posts.

Now we spend time and bandwidth arguing against each other's posts. So much more fun to keep disagreements within the family

Check out the title change/reply by "Chetan" which was the new avatar of "unknown".

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 08 May 2002 17:54

Shiv, where is that reply by Chetan? Couldn't find it.

Umrao · Post by **Umrao** » 08 May 2002 18:13

oh boy i used post under my name and still was ever friendly with Dr. Tim.

.

I wonder what happened to Brig. Niranjan Singh.!!
Good ol days

Kuttan · Post by **Kuttan** » 08 May 2002 19:21

Excuse me - the middle one looks very much like Dr. Shiv - but who are the ones on the left and right?

I remember Mahesh.com but I thought that was what became BRF...

member_201 · Post by **member_201** » 08 May 2002 19:23

Narayanan, That is you and your dual personality

Harsh, this is excellent man. Really brought back memories. Phew!

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 08 May 2002 20:41

Originally posted by JE Menon:
Shiv, where is that reply by Chetan? Couldn't find it.

Scroll down near the bottom
Main thread "RAW and Ghauri"
Reply title "under PMO"
http://web.archive.org/web/19980419112118/http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/Forum /messages/12360.html

Sanjay Joshi · Post by **Sanjay Joshi** » 08 May 2002 21:09

TO THE ADMINS:

I noticed that we dont have a BR logo in Hindi. I understand that we should have it in English but I think its important that we have it somewhere in Hindi also.

venkat_r · Post by **venkat_r** » 08 May 2002 21:24

Back in those days i remember when i discovered this site on a search engine, How hungry i was to get to it and read every page 5 times.

All my friends were convinced that suddenly I had got access to some site which I am not supposed to(some mil site) and one ex-serviceman even warned me about it.

George J · Post by **George J** » 08 May 2002 22:03

Before there was google there was only Yahoo. And when you yahoo for Mig-29 one of the URLS was BR. Have you folks realized how big the BR site is? I mean it took me nearly a week to go through everything on BR. I remember reading through all the months of all the years of all services news. That was terrific. Off course in those day i still considered myself an indian grad studint. Then i stumbled upon the BR forum and the rest as they say is grease monkey history.

One of the coolest aspects of BR is the "BR Meets", when you put a face to the name and realize there is more to them just the walking-talking encyclopedias of Kanchan armour thickness or seriel numbers of migs, you develop a different perspective to this whole forum thing.

Sanjay Joshi · Post by **Sanjay Joshi** » 08 May 2002 22:33

George J is absolutely right, the meets are one of the best things about BR. Where else can I (and the rest of us) get to meet with a bunch of guys with common interests so much that we begin talking issues with people who are pretty much "strangers" right off the bat?

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 08 May 2002 22:39

Miss the old way the forum was structured though. It was much easier to contribute to a particular topic and even a particular sub-topic. Was more like MS file structure. Could we get that back pleeeease?

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 08 May 2002 23:41

Distinctly remember a lot of low-flying PAF types coming for some action here. There weren't too many of us to scramble, but we didn't do too bad. Sh1t, what I miss is seeing the Guru Dronacharya name... dunno why. Sort of lent anchor weight to the forum. Think lots of guys feel that way, hence virtually no one of the old crowd refers to RS, it's either GD, or Guruji or Guru Dron or whatever. Killer name choice there GD.

member_201 · Post by **member_201** » 09 May 2002 02:36

Menon, don't give our beloved Guruji ideas. He might just go back to his old username and then I will have to delete it again....the cycle continues

Jagan · Post by **Jagan** » 09 May 2002 02:41

[quote]Originally posted by Rakesh Koshy:
Menon, don't give our beloved Guruji ideas. He might just go back to his old username and then I will have to delete it again....the cycle continues surely there must be names like that somewhere

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 May 2002 02:44

I once sent GD an e-mail to change his handle to more realistic one. He assured he would by and by. I noticed that his posts were getting better as time went by and so didnt pursue the matter. No wonder the saying goes "Namo Namah" he couldnt continue to make fatous posts with a handle like that. So the name gives its own powers if one knows its meaning as sages wrote. So I still call him GD.

Anurag · Post by **Anurag** » 09 May 2002 03:06

This is nostalgic!!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 May 2002 03:09

Maybe should post names that we miss...
1) Faheem
2) Salman
3) Chetan/Unknown
4) Ronjon Dasgupta from Germany

Arun A · Post by **Arun A** » 09 May 2002 03:15

I remember the names i used before i was banned

And where is jrjrao anyway?

Rudra · Post by **Rudra** » 09 May 2002 03:23

there was a "Drona" before me. I was looking around
for a handle after being chased out of my nava-avatar. so I hijacked his name - Drona either
left or changed his name quietly.

wasnt there jj varghese who was very prolific
for a while ? faheem and salman are surely missed.
remember daryus aden ?

ofcourse, there's another band led by the vocal
Dsingh, SBSingh and Mitradena....

Harsh · Post by **Harsh** » 09 May 2002 05:44

Pity... the Chinese Military Forum archives there go back only to 2001. I was hoping to chance upon any of my old posts. Chairman/Webmaster/Maharaj "PLA"/"YDX" has deleted any mention of my name (used to go by "Jai Hind") in their archives.

I still remember with a yearning the massive India/China flamewars... Chairman/Webmaster/Maharaj "PLA"/"YDX"'s banning of the word "India" (we had to revert to "Bharat")... His subsequent banning of Indian posters (unless we read and sent an email quoting a page off of Maxwell's joke of a book)... Myself being banned having my posts deleted, etc over 30 times (no exaggeration)

Now that was fun...

*sigh*
Good times...

-=-=-=-

GDji,
remember daryus aden ?

Daryus still lurks occasionally.
I'll see if I can smoke him out.

-Harsh

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-DJ Detroit Desi

...a webmaster of:
The 1962 Sino-Indian War Website.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Div · Post by **Div** » 09 May 2002 06:05

It was fun checking the site circa 1999....Kargil was busy time here at BR.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 09 May 2002 08:28

Does anyone remeber the entertainment provided by mr Syed and the one eyed Bihari Azeemabadi? i have a feeling that kana Bihari is still lurking with some psuedo name. His writing style mathces .. of the current particpant/s

Any how i found BR Looking for 1971 war site. i was lucky to see the dog fight with my own eyes,iN Punjab, there were hundreds of people on the roof tops to watch the flight and no one was scared.
BR has bright future ahead!!

jai hind!!
prem

member_4055 · Post by **member_4055** » 09 May 2002 09:52

I found this sit while searching for some 65 and 71 war site and then I just got addicted to this
site. registered recently but I have been visiting this site for a long time.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 09 May 2002 09:54

Originally posted by narayanan:
Excuse me - the middle one looks very much like Dr. Shiv - but who are the ones on the left and right?

Do you mean the picture with the 3 lions or the other one below that? Second from left looks like Susan.

Nandan D · Post by **Nandan D** » 09 May 2002 11:13

harsh,
maann..you bring up some memories...I remember sitting at texas A&M university and making my navy and air force pages stealing pictures from wherever i could..I found all of one picture of an aircraft in IAF colors..can you believe that!!!!ONE...
some of my friends thought that i was being silly and I remember one of them said that no one would EVER see my web page...

))
(No SanjayJ that wasn't you

) )
One call from rupak changed all that....
Unfortunately working on "India's Defenders" web pages didn't do squat for my grades....I have my school transcript to show for that..but the enthusiasm of Rakesh and Rupak ( the only other persons i was in contact with) along with all the others has really done wonders..
Heck my 70 year old dad will browse thru BR...good job guys....
and keep up the good work....

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 09 May 2002 11:59

Originally posted by nandan:
I found all of one picture of an aircraft in IAF colors..can you believe that!!!!ONE...

In those days a Yahoo search for "Indian Air Force" would give your 275 billion links to Indiana Air Force base

CPrakash · Post by **CPrakash** » 09 May 2002 19:04

nandan

so you are the Nandan Dharwarkar mentioned in the origins page? Cool, this thread has turned out to be a reunion meet!

Kapil · Post by **Kapil** » 09 May 2002 19:50

Hi ,this is an interesting BR Thread!
Names that I miss are 'mm',schwarzkopf,Deepan Gill(Ouch..don't kick Rakesh)

,etc.

Good Show!

Kapil

Rudra · Post by **Rudra** » 09 May 2002 20:19

yes whatever happened to our panzer leader ? also
was venkat_t the next incarnation ?

two of my favourites- shamyl effendi and his
beautiful pix of PAF cockpits with lotsa MFDs.

and sardarji420.

also where is aahluwalia? is he the gentleman
doctor I remember from an old br-meet pix.

Umrao · Post by **Umrao** » 09 May 2002 20:21

what about Ravi Patil??