The Indian Elephant

I am always in awe of the elephants and for the giant that they are, their movements are very slow and  gentle.

It is said that an elephant consumes about 150 kg of plant matter per day. This is no mean feat and to keep up with this input they have to constantly munch.

Assam, a state in North India is rich in lush tea gardens and paddy fields. Assam is also home to wild life specially elephants. It is rare that the elephants encroach into the areas that are inhabited by humans.  But of late this has been the cause of worry for many especially the local cultivators. They find that the elephants wander into the tea gardens and paddy fields,  damaging the crops and robing the livelihood of the farmers.

The forest officials and the wild life fund (wwf) are worried about the conflict between the humans and the elephants.

When they investigated, they found out  some startling facts like  the forests in the north has lost about 65 % of its greenery.   

The shrinkage in the habitat has made the elephants more visible and as there is not enough food in the forest they tend to raid the crops in the vicinity there by creating a conflict with the local inhabitants.

The  farmers tried using fire crackers to scare away the elephants. This worked only for some time as they got used to the sound of the crackers

Villagers tried new strategies like using domesticated elephants to drive away the wild ones but this was proving costly.

To minimise the human elephant conflict, the Indian government along with the help of WWF has built Elephant corridors. This helps the elephants to move from one territory to the next through a system of fencing and overpasses, keeping wild life away from the crop fields.

To continue reading, click here.

Saint Thomas Mount

I would have liked to meet Mr Habban as he could have updated me about Jesus Christ. But that was many years ago and I would have to be in a time machine.

After the death of Christ, Thomas got acquainted with Habban, a merchant of King Gondophare of India.

It was with Habban that he (St Thomas) travelled to India in 52 AD and landed at the south coast of Craganore (present day Kannur) in the State of Kerala.

After building seven churches along this coast, he travelled to the eastern  side and took shelter at Parangimalai which is now known as the St Thomas mount.

Had been to Chennai last week and made it a point to visit this mount and the surroundings. It was tough locating the place and I found that the railway station itself had two names, Parangimalai in Tamil and St Thomas mount in English, a first of its kind as the names of the stations are usually the same in any language.

There is a flight of 134 steps from the back side and I took that path instead of the road that is available now. Though the climb is steep, it is worth the effort.  

From the mount one can see the planes landing and taking off from the Meenambakam  or the Chennai International airport.

Interestingly this Mount comes under the Cantonment area Pallavaram which is also the second oldest cantonment in India.

I spent some time inside the church (or rather the old chapel which was the original one)

It houses 100 relics of the 12 apostles including the toe bone of St Thomas.

Noticed a family moving about very reverently and they spoke in  Marathi the way the Kolis (fisher-folk) of Mumbai speak..

 I spoke to one of them and he said that they came all the way from Vasai - Mumbai for this pilgrimage.

In the church compound I saw a banyan tree which is 175 years old.

One has to obtain permission to click pictures, but it is not an issue as they give permission to anyone on payment of Rs ten for which you get a receipt.

There were certain signs and guidelines put up at places, like this one for example which is self-explanatory (or is it?)

Enoch Daniels

There was a time when you wanted to enjoy music, the options were limited. The only audio source was the radio. Most of the time it was  AIR (All India Radio), or if one had a good band spread (like a five band radio) then one was lucky to get Radio Ceylon or VOA (Voice of America) or the BBC.

Coming back to the AIR, I enjoyed listening to some selected programs and one of them was a fifteen minute slot for instrumentals. Somehow I always preferred instrumental to the actual singing. Some of the famous instrumental players of those times were Enoch Daniels on the accordion and Van Shipley on the guitar. It was a pleasure to listen to them, even during the time when there were no stereo recordings.

As for the accordion I always wondered how they coordinated the movements of pressing the keys with the right hand and the bass buttons with the left hand. And that puts a thought in my mind, how does a left handed guy play an accordion?

Recently I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Enoch Daniels by a mutual friend. When I told him about being his fan, he narrated his story about how he almost joined the Indian Army, till one of his close friends pointed out about the choice of career and his God given gift of creating music.

That made him think twice about joining the Army and from there on it was smooth sailing for him. He was one of the first to introduce the accordion in India.

Here he is with Van Shipley and Talat Mehmood during one of their trips to Europe.

I think he is the only artist who was selected by Columbia to cut 40 records (all solo) This was after he was ‘noticed’ during his performance at the Royal Albert Hall London. 

 With Mohammed Rafi, one of the best singers India had.

I must say he looks good and moves around very briskly for a person who is almost eighty. He was ready to change location for a better background when our mutual friend tried to click us. 

I wanted the pictures to be sort of ‘candid’ but it turned out that I was the only one looking candid while Enoch did not play his part of being ‘candid’ :-)

The background here is the 145 year old  St Paul’s church in Pune,  one of the well maintained churches that I have seen.

More on the church and the 100 year old pipe organ in my next post.

Ageing the right way.

For the first time in human history, the world will soon have more older people than children.

By mid-century,  2 billion men and women will be over 60 years old.  Sounds scary? Not really.

You might think,

Older people can’t take care of themselves.

Older people can’t do new things at work (or play)

Older people are no longer attractive

Older people should accept illness as part of ageing

The world is changing.

Stereotypes hold us back.

So what can we do about this?

a)   Start early with healthy habits

Whenever I see kids playing basketball, my fingers itch to grab the ball and join them in the game. But the fact is that I know I won’t be able to keep up for more than 2 minutes on the court. 

The reason? Somewhere along the way I gave up playing basketball and as a result my stamina is not the same. But I know of a senior in our organisation who retired last year at the age of sixty. He played five days a week after office hours and was still coaching the youngsters when he retired. I would call that as developing a healthy habit and sticking to it.

b)  Value their contribution to the society.

Their contribution may be a small one but value and appreciate it. There is nothing better to boost their morale.

c)   Keep older people at the heart of the family and community. . . to continue reading click here.

Music for Gaza

Anything that happens at the Gaza strip is always under scrutiny for various reasons. 

So when the renowned Jewish conductor Daniel Barenboim decided to perform an orchestra of European musicians in the Gaza strip eyebrows were raised. Many  doubted whether that would ever  happen. But Daniel pulled it off by secretly coordinating with the United Nations and the announcement was made only when the invitations were distributed.

Barenboim, an Argentine-born Jew who was raised in Israel, and has Israel citizenship, took Palestinian citizenship in 2008.He believed his rare new status could serve a model for peace between the two peoples, who have  for years lived under the shadow of  war and mistrust.

In Daniel’s words "We are very happy to come to Gaza. We are playing this concert as a sign of our solidarity and friendship with the civil society of Gaza"

A part of his speech can be heard at the end of this article where you can see a 2.5 minute short film. You can see him praising the children of Gaza, “What I do is make music, but I am also very happy to see these wonderful children play”

He knew that his visit to the Gaza Strip would violate an Israeli law which bans its citizens from entering the coastal enclave.

For the occasion Egypt agreed to open not just the Rafah border to let the orchestra into Gaza but also the airport in El Arish,  long shut to commercial traffic. Under a bright, cloudless blue sky, a convoy of white United Nations vehicles, some armoured, their blue flags flapping, picked up the players at the crossing and drove them past waving teenagers on rubble-strewn sidewalks and old men riding donkey carts over shattered streets.

Older Gazans, several fighting back tears, said they could not remember anything like this: a group of world-famous musicians coming to give a concert. Just getting by was a daily struggle for the people of Gaza.

Daniel had enlisted about two dozen elite . . .  . .  to continue reading click here

A tribute to mother

It is very rare that one can tell a story in two minutes. Especially when the story is touching and close to the heart.

But that is exactly what Jonathan has done with his short film “Sherry- like the drink”.

It is about a lady who was a teacher by profession but more than that she was a friend for many. In the small town she lived, people always flocked to her for advice and help and she was more than willing to oblige.

The title of the film is an ode to how she lived her life. And through out the film, the focus on her character as she was in real life is highlighted, as bubbly, fun loving, helpful, inspiring, and always with a zest for life.

The whole picture tells  the story of  her attachment towards the kids and  the people around her. The music by Chris Revgel is just wonderful and in perfect tune with the cartoon characters. I like the way the children are shown playing in the park and how a child uses the slide to join his group.  

The animation was done on paper and inked with ink liners, scanned and coloured digitally.

It is only at the end of the movie we realize that . . .  . read on

4 employees to 220 employees

I read a review of a hotel and it went like this:

We all need a reason to wake up in the morning and Financier-patisserie is mine.

I was surprised to find that the Yelp site had 173 reviews on the Financier-patisserie eating place.

We are talking about Mr Bedoucha who made this happen.

It takes a lot of courage to resettle in a different country especially when one takes up a new job, with no idea about who or how the clientele is going to be. But that is exactly what Mr  Eric Bedoucha did. A pastry chef, he shifted from France to New York and created Financier Patisserie, a famous and successful French pastry company in New York city.

Now for the last 30 years he is in the United States. In his own words “but during the first twenty years I did not feel like I had truly settled here. It took me a good 20 years to understand Americans and to make them trust me, because they are very open and very friendly, but to gain their confidence, it takes time. However once you have gained it, then it’s good for life”

 His greatest challenge was to guess what the . . . . .  read on