We Salute You Rahman, The Crown Prince Of Music

A.R. Rahman, the Crown Prince of music, and the King of our (Indians) heart

Your music is as refined as your nature, and precious like a rainfall in a desert.

You had already conquered India, and today you won the world

Trust me, “Oscar” itself is honoured that you have won the award.


French Translation

Nous Vous Saluons Rahman, Le Prince Héritier De Musique

A.R. Rahman, le Prince héritier de musique, et le Roi de notre (Indiens) le coeur

Votre musique est comme a raffiné comme votre nature, et précieux comme une hauteur des précipitations dans un désert.

Vous aviez conquis déjà l'Inde, et aujourd'hui vous avez gagné le monde

Me fier, "Oscar" lui-même est honoré que vous avez gagné la récompense.

My Key To Immortality

All living beings in this world are mortal, and so am I

There is no way to permanently elude death, no matter how desperately I try.

There will come a day, when I will have to say goodbye to all of you

And will be forgotten by most, while being remembered by just a few.

But……

I will ensure that my link with this world remains intact even after my death

Years after my death people will remember me, you bet.

I will remain “alive” through all my creations – like my blogs and poems

Which are so insignificant for the world, but for me they are like precious gems.

Every time one will read my poems I will get “alive” for that moment

This way my entity will remain alive, even after my mortal self meets its end.
(22nd February,2009).

French Translation

Ma Clef A Immortalité

Tous les êtres vivants dans ce monde sont mortels, et donc je suis

Il n'y a pas de façon d'une façon permanente pour échapper à la mort, n'importe comment désespérément j'essaie.

Viendra là un jour, quand je devrai vous tous dis au revoir

Et sera oublié par, pendant qu'est plus rappelé par juste quelques-uns.

Mais……

Je garantirai que mon lien avec ce monde reste intact même après ma mort

Les ans après mes gens de mort me rappèleront, vous pariez.

Je resterai « vivant » par toutes mes créations – comme mes blogs et comme les poèmes

Lequel est s'insignifiant pour le monde, mais pour moi ils sont comme les gemmes précieuses.

Chaque temps l'un lira mes poèmes j'obtiendrai « vivant » pour ce moment

Cette façon mon entité restera vivante, même après mon mortel rencontre automatiquement sa fin.

(22e février, 2009).

The Cost of One Shahtoosh Shawl? At least Three Tibetan Antelopes

You must have heard of Shahtoosh shawls, right? Apart from being a work of art, a Shahtoosh shawl is also a perfect symbol of your status. Quite understandably. After all it is so costly. And you know the cost? At least three Tibetan antelopes.

A unique member of the global wildlife, the Tibetan antelope is native to the Chinese part of the Tibetan Plateau region. Considered to be an endangered species, the estimated population of this strikingly beautiful animal is less than 75,000, and even that number is fast declining.

And why is it so? Well, it is because of the skin of the hapless animal, which the world knows as Shahtoosh, and which is the raw material for the world famous Shahtoosh shawl.

Reportedly around 20,000 Tibetan antelopes (also called Chiru) are killed by poachers every year, to ensure that the worldwide Shahtoosh trade is never short of raw materials.

Since the Tibetan antelope or Chiru never sheds its skin, therefore the only way to obtain Shahtoosh is to kill the animal. Generally three to five Chirus need to be killed to gather enough raw materials for a single Shahtoosh shawl.

After killing, the dead animals are skinned, after which the skin is used to manufacture the world famous Shahtoosh shawls (and other Shahtoosh products). Then these Shahtoosh products are illegally transported to fashion capitals worldwide, where they are sold at astronomical costs.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – which controls the trade in endangered species products – has completely banned international trade in Tibetan antelope products (including Shahtoosh). It is illegal to import Shahtoosh into many countries, including the USA (ironically, Shahtoosh products are so popular in the US fashion industry).

Unfortunately, despite such laws being in place, the Shahtoosh trade is going on in full swing. This is because it is not enough to have laws. There must also be a strong public protest across the board against every person who is by any means related to the Shahtoosh trade. There should be a widespread public sensitization campaign to educate the common people. People must be discouraged from using Shahtoosh products, and the ones who use these products should be publicly taunted and humiliated (so that they are forced to stop using these products). The fashion crazy (read status crazy) morons must realize that the life of a single Tibetan antelope is much more precious than their so called social status.

Also, we must stop purchasing any product from the shops and retailers which sell Shahtoosh products. I mean, we should not only refrain from purchasing Shahtoosh products, but should also refrain from purchasing any products from the shops who sell Shahtoosh products. In a nutshell, they should be boycotted. Only then they will be forced to mend their ways.



Information courtesy: http://www.earthislandprojects.org/tpp

Photo courtesy: www.gov.cn

Congrats to Japan for launching Ibuki

Japan has done a really appreciable job by launching Ibuki – the satellite meant to study greenhouse gases concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Ibuki will take readings at around 56,000 locations, across land and sea, thus facilitating accurate predictions on the future of global warming.

With the global warming being a burning problem for the modern world, such a step was long overdue. Loads of congratulations to Japan for taking a significant step in this regard.

Hopefully countries across the world will now start sharing their technical expertise to counter the global menace that global warming is. And yes, it is not enough to identify the sources of problems. Such initiatives will be meaningful only when, after identification, the reasons for global warming will be properly eradicated. If that somehow hampers the business interest (or other interest) of country, even then the latter should not hesitate to cooperate with the rest of the world.

Arjun Dev Gandhi – Simple Effort, Big Impact

Whenever we think about social initiative/entrepreneurship, we always love to think about it in terms of enormousness and a catchy focus area – that it must be a more or less huge organization with a number of committed people, working on a sensitive issue like street children or environment. While it is heartening to think big, that sometimes makes us overlook the simple ways through which we can provide apparently simple but actually valuable service to the common people.

And one such person who so successfully personifies it is Mr. Arjun Dev Gandhi of New Delhi. It was such a pleasure to read about this man and his initiatives in The Times of India, New Delhi on 25th January.

A former officer with CRRI (Central Road Research Institute), Mr. Gandhi regularly lights up candles at a newly renovated subway three times every single evening. He has been spending money from his own pocket to buy candles to light up a “powerless” subway at Masjid Moth in South Delhi. A sudden spurt of nobility that will soon fade out with time? No dear. He has been doing this for more than a year now.

So how did this idea of lighting up the subway come into his mind? Well, one evening he was walking through this subway. It was as dark as anything, causing huge inconvenience for all the pedestrians including Mr. Gandhi. He thought about the problem for few days, trying to identify a possible solution. Finally he decided to light candles in the subway every evening. Since then he has been regularly lighting candles in the subway three times in the evening at an interval of one hour.

Mr. Gandhi’s initiatives seemed to be successful when lights were installed at the subway. However, the power connection has been disconnected more than three times in the last six months. So, ultimately it is this enterprising old man that the pedestrians find to be their only refuge.

What a nice lesson for all of us. No big plans, no catchy focus area. Just a simple effort powered by civic consciousness. And what a big impact. It is an eye opener for all of us, who only waste our time in complaining without trying to do something ourselves.

We do not need to be larger than life to do something constructive. We can do a lot despite being just common people. Let all of us take a leaf out of Mr. Gandhi’s book.

Bengali TV Serial Actor Kunal Mitra Dead

Though I am not a huge fan of modern Bengali cinema (and I have no disrespect for them, either), I am more or less appreciative of the Bengali TV serials, some of which are genuinely good in terms of over all quality. And there are some actors and actresses in the Bengali serials whom I really love watching.

And I am really sad that two of these actors, both just in their 40s, passed away recently.

Just a couple of months back we lost Shiladitya Patranabis. An MBA from Calcutta University, Shiladitya appeared in the world of Bengali TV serials way back in 1986 (if I remember correctly). That time he was still a student, and virtually a “boy”. And I was certainly a kid. I grew up watching him playing so many characters of so many colours. And he was a smart actor, though a bit confined to a specific type of roles (that of an audacious young man).

Of late he had become very flabby, and I was shocked to learn after his death that he had already been to rehabilitation centre for a couple of times thanks to his heavy drinking habits.

It is seriously heart breaking to find an actor dead whom you have grown up watching, even if you are not a great fan of his acting skills.


And just recently we lost Kunal Mitra. A versatile actor, this handsome man with an elegant personality was equally comfortable in playing diverse characters – ranging from the one of a sober doctor to the comic character of a funny politician. I was just dumbstruck to learn about his death from my mother after I was back from office.

It has become a cliché to use phrases like “His death has caused a huge vacuum…”, etc. However, I am confident that Kunal’s death is a serious damage for the world of Bengali TV serials. I have seen him portraying difficult characters with élan, and despite being a layman I understand the value of such an actor for the world of films and TV serials in any language.


My sincere condolences to the deceased families.

The Mad Maruti Driver of Noida

Date – 13th January, 2009.

Venue – Sector 22, Noida, i.e. the area where I stay.

Time – Around 4:45 pm.

I had just gone down at the 12/22 bus stop of Noida, and was going to my home in the pocket G of Sector 22 of Noida. I was in front of the “Federal” bank branch of Sector 22. I was about to enter the lane that is located just opposite to the lane where the bank stands.

It was precisely at that time that I heard the sound of a car, or better to say the sound that one hears when a car moving in high speed suddenly applies the brake (kiiiiichhh). I turned round to see a white coloured Maruti Suzuki Alto (UP 16 R 7286), that was traveling in a speed extremely high in comparison to that narrow lane, and had to suddenly stop to avoid running over a cycle that came into its way. All the guys present there were as shocked and confused as I was, with the man on the cycle sporting a pale face, reflecting the shock of having a close shave.

However, the driver, a well built man in his 30s, was unapologetic. He was chewing something (probably Pan Parag, or something like that), with a defiant face clearly showing his callousness to other peoples’ convenience. He again started his car, took the lane that I was going to take, and crossed that narrow lane in a speed that I will use while traveling in a highway.

“Has he gone mad?” That was the first question that I asked to the man standing just beside me, after the car was gone. The man gave a smile that contained irritation, shock and displeasure, everything rolled into one. The same mood was being reflected by the body language of all the bystanders.

An uncultured family can overnight become rich through a stroke of luck (or may be by own caliber), and can immediately arrange for all sorts of status symbols – costly clothes, latest gizmos and gadgets, flashy cars, etc. Unfortunately, culture is something that cannot be bought from any shop, no matter how much rich you have become. It is something that a man from an educated family is born with, with the seed of culture and decency running in his blood. This explains why the “neo rich” people from uneducated (or semi educated) families are always so devoid of culture, even though they have all the apparent glossiness in the forms of costly homes, latest cars, glamorous life style, etc.

But do these neo rich elements at all try to develop some culture, in the first place? Do they at all understand the value of culture?