30 August 2007

The fighter dog who was born to love

This incident dates back to the late Forties to early Fifties. I lived with my parents, brothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts and others in our ancestral house in Ranchi. Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand is located at 250 miles from Calcutta and 300 miles from Patna and lies on the Subaranarekha River. Once being the summer capital of Bihar, Ranchi lies in the tribal heartland of India called Chotanagpur. Surrounded by tiny hills, meandering streams & cascading waterfalls, it is the quiet & dreamy town that can be visited at any time of the year. For the adventurous, there are wildlife parks to be explored. At that time Ranchi was in the state of Bihar. It was a home to the tribal people viz. Oraon and Munda. Though in Bihar at that time there were few Biharis living in Ranchi. Many Bengalis like us started to settle in Ranchi. Almost all the employees of the Accountant General’s Office of Bihar and the railways were Bengalis. Ranchi was also famous for a lunatic asylum which was one of the best in eastern India. From the middle of the ninetieth century Bengal began playing dominant roles in social, cultural and political arenas of India. Calcutta was the main city of the British India and was its capital for a long time before finally the British shifted the capital in Delhi. So it was natural that in the early period of the British rule Bengalis were most closed to the English in comparison to other communities of India. As a consequence –most government jobs were held by educated Bengalis. OLD COURT HOUSE ST. IN BRITISH CALCUTTA
My grandfather migrated to Ranchi from the then undivided Bengal and secured a job in the Office of the Accountant General (A.G) of Bihar. Though the offices of all the Accountant Generals were, as per convention, always situated in the capital cities of the respected states, Ranchi was preferred by the English as the seat of office of the AG- Bihar instead of Patna-the capital city of Bihar. This was because the English liked natural surroundings of Ranchi and also for its pleasant climate. My grandfather built two houses-one beside the other in Ranchi. All his Bengali colleagues in AG office bought lands and built their houses in the same locality-which was named as Office-Para (office locality) because of its proximity to the AG office which was situated in Dorunda. So it was totally a Bengali community –where every family lived happily being closely related to one another. A TOWER ON THE TOP OF A HILL
My father, after his marriage, left his earlier employer (AG-Bihar) and joined in a private bank as an accountant of the Ranchi branch of the bank. In 1947 India became independent. The English left the country. But still there were stray Englishmen who still just could not make up their mind about their future residence. They could be seen lingering in and around Ranchi abeautiful place-which they liked very much and to which they were long acclimated. It was like –when the sky is still visible I see a fading light even after the sunset (sundown as they say in America). But
the light had had to go with the setting of the imperial Sun of the British. I mentioned the two adjacent houses we had there. My grandfather rented one house (the bigger and the better) to Mr. Morgan-an Englishman who had some business in Ranchi. He lived with his family comprising his wife, a son-named Clive and daughter Dorothy. I seem to remember that he had another daughter but I am not certain. But the number of his servants including chauffeurs, butlers, and gardeners far outnumbered the number of family members. They lived lavishly –which they could not not have afforded to do had they been in England. Mr. Morgan had horses and a dog that he called Leo. My father was also fond of dogs. We had one-of mixed breed, whose name was Blackie. Leo was ferocious at least whenever Blackie came on his way. After Independence Mr. Morgan decided to move to Sheffield in Britain to settle there. The day before his leaving Ranchi he shot Leo and the horse. Mr. Morgan had two choices to make between-either to leave them to us, the Indians, who could not be their true father- and so might treat the animals as commodities only or to kill them. He chose the latter. I can not say that he was cruel and possessive. He was rather a perfect and kind gentleman. I think we should understand his personal position-a very critical one-where he felt the options for his animals were either a loving home or a loveless existence. No ethical or moral judgment has any place in matters of love. If one asks me what I would have done in that position-I would have never been able to kill them. that's how I would treat my loved ones, if I were compelled to depart for good.But it’s only my way to behave with my loved ones especially when I am compelled to depart for good. But it’s only my way and can not be taken as a criterion for others in similar situation. After they had gone we shifted to the house-they had lived in from the very beginning. Mr. Morgan had many friends in Ranchi and they had on many occasions visited his house. One of them Mr. Hamilton also had a dog whom he called as Dusky. It was a German- Shepherded trained and used as a fighter dog in the War. Dusky had lost one of his eyes during a battle in Europe. Now Mr. Hamilton,inspired by Mr. Morgan's move, also decided to leave for Europe getting an inspiration from Mr. Morgan. But Mr. Hamilton, unlike his friend, left the dog in the wayside near our house and sped away in his car for good. This was his way to ger rid of the dog- which he also seemed to love. So Dusky in his weird loneliness roamed like a vagabond here and there-but never went too far from the place where he had been abandoned by Mr Hamilton, perhaps in the hope of seeing his master to return by the same path. At that time there were few cars seen in the roads of Ranchi. So whenever he found a car –he ran after it barking. He fondly hoped that it was the very car carrying his master. After sometime the car owners began to be afraid of him thinking perhaps he had turned mad him in the tropical climate. Dusky did not have food and shelter. But he did not seek them. He had forgotten or lost the sense of all the biological needs in his deep anguish. My father was much pained to see his plight and especially hearing his long moaning bark at night. My father's earlier efforts to endear himself to the dog failed as Dusky did not allow anyone to go near him. He liked to confine himself under a big tree. He did not even touch any food that my father threw near him. Dusky after a week began to look haggard and emaciated. My father did not lose heart and by this time he had developed an intense love for the suffering dog. After a month, by dint of his perseverance and unflagging efforts there was a thaw-the dog looked up and the dog began to take biscuits and pieces of breads that my father offered him while sitting nearby. That was the beginning of a relationship. One day Dusky was brought to our house. We had a big and flat canned chair upholstered with padding. It now became Dusky's resting place. Dusky gradually regained his health and looked happy-wagging his tail at the sight of my father. We also fell in love with him and he reciprocated our love. We felt pampered. Dusky –although he was a German by birth but he understood only English because of his grooming under Mr. Hamilton. So we conversed with Dusky in our English and gave some commands in small sentences like “Come here”, “Sit down” or “Bring the paper” etc to manage a working relation. But at the beginning there was a problem. It was because of the accents of our English pronunciation. Dusky had not been accustomed to such English with Mr. Hamilton. But gradually he succeded in making sense of our English. He was very sincere. Whenever he failed or faltered to make out the meaning of our command he raised his head with all seriousness and asked us to repeat in his usual soft and broken barking. But Dusky –whenever he found any white-skinned man (always the Englishmen or Anglo-Indians) he became furious and ran to him with disapproving barking. We had to manage him with much effort and had to beg an apology to the victim on his behalf. Actually he had got a bad impression of white people because of the treacherous behaviour of Mr. Hamilton. It took him a year to get rid of this feeling. Early in the morning he knocked upon my father’s door in his own way. My father came out of his bed room and would open the rear gate of the house-for Dusky to go out in the bush near a pond for his morning releases. Dusky was like a perfect gentleman. He never showed any avarice for any food that others ate near him and did not ask for a bit. He never picked up any piece of food that was on the floor-as he liked to take his due from a plate placed near his chair. Dusky accompanied my father on his morning stroll. He never cared when the street dogs barked at him. And also like a gentleman he never showed any interest in any bitches he happened to meet during the stroll. After a year my father was transferred to the Benaras (now Varanasi) office of the bank. So he took us the brothers and my mother with him to Benaras. After a week we received a letter from my uncle informing my father that Dusky had become much depressed. He sat alone on the door-step of my father’s room-guarding it all the time and allowed none to enter. He only allowed the maid for cleaning the room and he watched her while standing on the door. If she touched anything on the table Dusky started barking loudly. He did not respond to anyone’s call –only took his food when it was placed on his plate. The news disturbed my father who had already been depressed. A year passed on. Dusky remained unchanged maintaining his vigil for the room and never slept on his chair. Only when one of the family discussed about us and uttered the name of my father he raised his ears with all eagerness. My father felt helpless and perhaps more so as dogs can not read a letter which he wished very much to write to his dear Dusky. He enquired every week about Dusky and his health. He applied for his transfer to Ranchi on health ground-as it was the only valid ground for transfer by the authority. But it was not considered. So after sometime he contrived a plan that he thought might work. Then one day he feigned to faint in the office. After four or five such feigned happenings the office found no way other than to transfer him to his home town-Ranchi as a special case. So we all became happy-that we might return to our native place.
A CYCLE RICKSHAW One day we arrived at the Ranchi railway station. We took rickshaws home. At that time only the very rich people had cars of their own and as we were not a wealthy our only option was to hire rickshaws. Taxis or cabs were not available in Ranchi as it was a small town where few could afford them. Thus it was in all of India except the large cities. We Indians had nothing after two hundred years of subjugation under foreign rule.
So we headed off sitting on rickshaws, to our house in Office Para. I sat with my father in one rickshaw. We reached near the Loreto School-from where our house could be seen. It was a straight path from the Loreto School to our house which measured about two hundred metres. All the family members had known the time of our coming and so they all gathered at the gate to welcome us. Dusky sensed something unusual was going to happen. So he was also there with the gathering. Now when we came within their view –all of a sudden Dusky
A TEMPLE ON A HILL
jumped over the gate and started running with a speed enviable to any dog of this world. He was running towards us and when there was a distance of ten feet between us he simply flew into the air –the air of two years’ absence –to embrace my father. The rickshaw driver, seeing a dog running toward him with such a formidable speed, tried to flee by jumping to the ground. He was so much scared with the apparently attacking dog that he fell down badly. In a moment Dusky thudded onto my father’s lap. I was also a bit scared by this sudden outburst of the dog’s emotion. Dusky, with his two front legs on the shoulders of my father smelled and kissed my father’s face and smeared it with his saliva all over. Long after this incident when I was mature enough to think of love and its uncontrolled expression –I came to the conclusion that such expression of wild joy is not possible in human beings with a developed mind even in sensual relations. It was a pure joy-the joy of getting everything anew. The Mother Nature found her way unchecked through this dog. So there were happy days again for every one of us afterwards. Dusky was back to his normal self and relinquished his duty of guarding my father’s room which he had taken up voluntarily two years ago and had followed with fierce discipline. He went to sleep on his chair again from the very first day of our return. After some years it appeared that Dusky had started growing old. He was losing his erstwhile agility that had never allowed a single mouse to escape from his invincible paws. On his last day in this mundane world he made his usual knock at my father’s door in the morning and after the main door was opened he went out. But he did not return. My father found him in a place near the pond. Dusky had not gone there for his usual releasing. He knew that my father was fastidious about cleanliness and there could be no dirt when my father was around. My father uttered in a soliloquy “Dusky did not want me to be disturbed with his corpse”. With Dusky being a companion one need not find a friend elsewhere.
**The above writing was thoroughly revised by Kathleen Sutherland and for that I feel indebted to her

27 August 2007

All about moustache

I have a thin moustache and I have been keeping it from my late thirties. I am very much in support of sporting moustache as it befits a man. It adds dignity to one’s personality. But my young daughter is very much against moustache. She always insists on my shaving it off. But as a man with a moustache I can not contribute to her opinion about moustache. She like any woman can not offer a valid reason against keeping moustache. I have been telling my daughter- reminding her of the fact that majority of the great men-and men of repute other that of film and TV media had moustache. I can not think of Einstein as a clean shaved man. The votaries against moustache may say that it was an old world of habits. I tell her that the dress code for women getting closer to that of men –the women folks may lose interest toward their boy friends in a future not too distant. We must examine the matter clearly. We can never want to see a lion shaved off his mane. The people of this time are of lighter vein. And I must say that modern man has lesser sense of beauty than the people of yesteryears. Look at the beautiful architectures even of the eighteenth century Europe and compare it with that of the US now. The sense of beauty has no relation with modernity. Modern man must find his own way to create in beauty. But he has no right to define beauty to suit his necessities and lower desires. T.S. Eliot did not need to be a Keats. He had his own way and that is also beautiful. But I am getting too serious (not for my moustache) to tell about moustache. Let us see what AMI (American Moustache Institute) feels in this matter. Tom Shipman’s reports in THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Mark of a man in fight for respect-In America, twin battles over what to wear
“America has not had a moustachioed President since the back-to-back administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, a century ago. Washington, Aug. 26: America’s biggest cultural battles normally rage around the notorious trinity of guns, gays and God. But where pressure groups debating abortion and the right to bear arms have gone before, a new campaign is following — fighting for every American’s right to bear hair on their upper lip. Campaigning against what they say is widespread and unacceptable discrimination in the workplace and society, the American Moustache Institute (AMI) is vowing to restore well-tended facial hair to the noble status it enjoyed in the Seventies. The institute is now dedicated to fighting to create a “climate of acceptance and understanding” for all moustached Americans alike. The evidence that this is one more minority group with reason for a grievance is compelling. A recent poll found more than half of American women would refuse to kiss a man with a moustache. Others have said the look reminds them of Village People, Seventies porn stars and rednecks. Last year the US Supreme Court ruled that it was permissible for a trial lawyer to throw someone off a jury using the pretext that they have a moustache. The AMI stands ready to assist any American who claims they have been discriminated against and wishes to bring court action. Executive director Aaron Perlut, 36, a public relations executive who sports a Fu Manchu-style “horseshoe” moustache, told The Sunday Telegraph: “There’s no question that there exists a measure of discrimination. People feel they have to shave before a job interview. We view ourselves as the American Civil Liberties Union for the moustache. But we know that we can win over young people for whom a moustache is a perfect means of self-expression — and it’s easier than a tattoo.” He dates the death of the moustache to the departure from American television screens in 1984 of news anchorman Walter Cronkite, owner of “the most trusted moustache in the media”, and the end of Tom Selleck’s reign as fictional private eye Magnum in 1988. New York city controller William Thompson, who is expected to run for mayor, has just shaved off his moustache in preparation for the campaign.”[© -The Sunday Telegraph & The Telegraph,Calcutta]

26 August 2007

Saddleworth Moor 8


Saddleworth Moor 8
Originally uploaded by andrewlee1967
It is on my favourite theme-"Bend of the road"

heaven road


heaven road
Originally uploaded by pardeshi
This phto was taken by pardeshi-a Flickr contact.
The photo fits to my favourite theme-"Bend of the road"

25 August 2007

Know Kathleen

This is a letter from Kathleen Sutherland. I think this letter is expressive enough of her concern for anmals. But above all -she wants to see man must rise above his lower impulses which according to her is possible through love. I may be wrong to tell about her. So please read it yourself. Hi Debabrata, I'm from Iowa, and now live in Washington, DC. I've written a lot about how I got involved with caring for these ducklings on the "profile" of my Flickr site. But I've always loved nature and animals. I agree that animals are innocent and are not consciously evil, as man so often is. But in many ways, I think animals are just like people. They have both good and bad impulses. For example, very recently the 9 ducklings have all started picking on one gentle female duckling. They won't let her get in the fountain and swim with them! It's so sad to see her try again and again and be driven out repeatedly. So eventually she just sits on the side and looks sadly at the others playing. It really breaks my heart! And it's for no reason other than cruelty. All the ducklings are well fed and cared for. So maybe animals aren't that much nicer than humans. I suppose they're like children. We all have angels and devils inside, but adult humans have more of a responsibility to control their meaner impulses. I think the real challenge is to love everyone - our fellow human beings and creatures - unconditionally. That is what God does. We must work to help fellow sentient beings and to always do the right thing, even if those around us are not angels. Have a blessed day, and again, thanks for the invitation to your blog. Peace, Kathleen nutmeg20008


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24 August 2007

My preferred photos

My preferred photos

Capital Building - Washington DC


Big babies


Big babies
Originally uploaded by nutmeg20008
Kathleen's (nutmeg20008) ducks.

Mallards at National Zoo Flamingo pond

The name of the photographer is Kathleen. She has grown a shelter for ducks and ducklings. She loves them like a mother.
About the photo she remarks to someone :
"nutmeg20008 says:
Thanks for the comments friends! It's been a fairly cold winter by D.C. standards, but this is probably the last of the snow.

Soon the cherry blossoms will bloom. And Mrs. Ducks will return to the courtyard to nest!

Mr. Moor, I do hope Drakely (Mrs. Ducks son from last season) will stop by for a visit, although I doubt I'll recognize him - he'll now have his adult male plummage - green head and all"
'nutmeg20008' is her Flickr name.

22 August 2007

Folly lane, a lane with no folly

The place is lonely and securely covered by green trees.
Would it have been a folly of my God if he had my house built at the end of this solitary path?
If I come out from my house to go elsewhere or returned to my house through this path -the heaven would smile in happiness.

SEZ, Nandigram and related issues

THE LESSON FROM SINGUR AND NANDIGRAM New Delhi: Ever since humans have existed forced displacement has been a constant feature in world history. Compulsory displacements that occur for development reasons embody a perverse and intrinsic contradiction in the context of development. The concept of SEZ is there for reasons of war, natural disaster, over population, economic hardship, infrastructure construction or for the needs of infrastructure development i.e. to build infrastructure for new highways, power generation, dams, rural and urban water supply a industries, irrigation, transportation, or for urban developments such as hospitals, schools, and airports, population displacement always changes lives and shapes existences. Such projects are, however, indisputably needed. They improve many people's lives, provide employment and supply better services. In the same way, these projects also create major impositions on some population segments due to people's loss of livelihood and their potential impoverishment. When communities are forcibly displaced, the existing production systems are dismantled; much valuable land and buildings, and other income generating assets are lost. Links between producers and their customers are often severed and local labour markets are also disrupted. Symbolic markers, such as places of worship, religious mela grounds and ancestral graves are disturbed too. Links with the past and with people's cultural identity is also affected. However in recent years, one social issue that has caused intense discussion among academics, social activists and planners is the forced displacement of people from their productive assets, particularly land and housing due to infrastructure projects. Though the process of acquisition of land for setting up mining, irrigation, transportation or mega SEZ projects is not new, the magnitude of adverse impacts was never comprehended in the past as it is today. The liberalisation of the economy, growing needs of public infrastructure in the country have threatened traditional sources of sustenance of people. More and more agricultural lands and built up properties are being acquired for the purpose. The situation is aggravated due to the conversion of agricultural lands voluntarily or involuntarily into public infrastructure. All this has unleashed a situation where more and more people are being displaced from their communities and traditional ways of life. How many of them are co-opted into the new economic order and how many remain victims of development is the question. There is a growing awareness of the sweeping powers of government, under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (amended Act of 1984) that empowers to acquire private lands and properties in public interest. Growing social activism against such sovereign domain of government is not only in response to untold hardships and miseries caused to the affected people but also a protest against the very mould of development that alienates people from their traditional sources of sustenance. Therefore, the growing pace of development under liberalisation, the intensity of displacement has also increased. Unaccustomed to new ways of life, the affected people face a hostile situation where they have to compete as individuals, different from their community based settings in this race of development. The past few decades have witnessed rapid economic growth in the country and the process forms a part of planned development. This is manifested in the setting up of large-scale projects in power generation, mining, industry, road infrastructure and irrigation and even in creating new urban settlements. This entails large-scale land acquisition and even demolition of homesteads. The project implementing authorities, which used to be mostly public sector organisations in the past but have recently included the private sector in a big way, opt for compulsory acquisition of land or homestead mainly under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and now, under the Amended Act of 1984. The intensity of such land acquisitions has grown so high that many rural communities are threatened with separation from their traditional sources of livelihood and social networks. Therefore, the growing speed of development has resulted in a situation where more and more families, mainly in rural areas, are getting separated from their productive assets and they hardly get fair treatment from the projects in terms of their resettlement and rehabilitation. They have no say in the legitimacy of setting up such projects as the government is empowered with legal rights in the name of public interest to acquire their property and assets under the Land Acquisition Act The power to acquire private property for public use is an attribute of sovereignty and is essential to the existence of a government. The power of eminent domain is recognised on the principle that the sovereign state can always acquire the property of a citizen for public good, without the owner's consent. The right to acquire an interest in land compulsorily has assumed increasing importance as a result of requirement of such land more and more everyday, for different development projects. The growing social activism against development projects has, however, blurred the distinction between a right project and a wrong one. If one takes the stand that present development essentially promotes consumer culture within a capitalistic framework and is not suitable for a majority of Indian people, most of the development projects can be considered as anti-people. The growing speed of development under liberalisation has increased the intensity of such displacement to the extent that communities living in their traditional settings are getting displaced with the loss of their traditional sources of livelihood. Once displaced, the affected people are pushed into an open-market situation as individuals competing for their survival in a hostile new environment. A majority of them prove to be losers in this new race of development. Therefore, it is a need for objective studies to assess its dimensions, and it invites the attention of policy-makers, NGOs and social scientists for a sustainable Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) policy in the country. In the absence of such a policy, the nexus between affected people, government and politicians is bound to cause immense damage to the country. To sum up, the violence at Nandigram threatened to halt the inexorable march of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). In this perspective, land acquisition is seen as an offshoot of the mould of development and it drew wide attention in which thousands of affected families and like-minded people came forward against this project. The media and NGOs not only focused on the inadequacy of R&R programmes but also questioned the very basis of such projects. The issue is now being debated in a wider socio-political context, in which land acquisition for the development purpose is a sensitive matter and needs to be looked at in a humane way. If there were more transparency and openness in the land acquisition process from all concerned, the suspicions would vanish. Only monetary compensation for the land to be acquired is not a solution; the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) must also be well understood and addressed adequately. ©MSN Document LEGALITY OF GOVERNMENTAL ACTION Now let us examine the legal aspects in the land acquisition by the state government of W. Bengal in Singur. The government acquired 997 acres of land from the farmers in order to give to Tata for their car manufacturing company under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (amended Act of 1984) that empowers to acquire private lands and properties in public interest. So the government has the legal right to acquire land in public interest. But this tag of ‘public interest’ means that a government can acquire land for a public purpose with the objective i.e. expanding a railway system or widening a road or highway or building a bridge or flyovers which could render service to the public in general. But the law does not confer the government to acquire land for the interest of a private person from the farmers. That the industry to be built by the Tata group will ultimately serve public in general-by way of creating employments can in no way be construed as public interest. It is not even a corollary of the legal sense. In this matter- the renowned author, economist and the ex Finance Minister of the state government Ashok Mitra while discussing the legal aspects of the matter states that “Despite the certainty of a most impressive increase in their wealth and welfare, the majority amongst those whose land is involved are refusing to co-operate. Would the State be justified to compel them to give up their property? Compulsion is not exactly the ideal means to persuade dissenters to see reason…. How should the government proceed where both law and the criterion of optimum social welfare appear to be supportive of a decision to implement the project and yet the majority of the people in the area hold other views?” The majority of the legislators must be heard as the have the Constitution in their side. But at same time they must know that they can not violate a law valid by the same Constitution. THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE’S REPORT ON SEZ On July 6-2007 the parliamentary committee headed by Murli Manohar Joshi presented it’s report on SEZ ( Special Economical Zone). The Committee recommended that the government should freeze SEZ clearances and fix a ceiling of 2,000 hectares of multi-product zones coming up on cultivable land. According to the committee if cultivable land is indiscriminately given to SEZs , the country may plunge into a famine like situation. The excerpts of the report is given below: “New SEZs should not be notified till the rules have been amended to meet the public concerns….We need to understand the cause of farmers’ agitation and grievance. SEZs were meant to be engines of growth both for industry and exports. However, it has met with a lot of oppositions during the last one year. The government must take a fresh look at the policy as a whole and reframe it to make it people-friendly….There should preferably be a ban on the use of irrigated double crop land for setting up SEZs and normally waste and barren land should be used. The committee has suggested while taking lands from the farmers it should be on lease to help farmers getting periodic rentals along with a lump-sum payments. The Committee also recommended that “ The National Relief and Rehabilitation Act of 1984 should also be replaced…If the land is on lease, it would revert to the owner in case the SEZ fails or is dissolved for any reason. At least one member of the landowner’s family should be given employment in the SEZ venture.”

21 August 2007

19 August 2007

Lake Superior


Lake Superior
Originally uploaded by tingywende

Fall Wonder

Fall Wonder Originally uploaded by tingywende
Maple trees in fall

MonoHosta


MonoHosta
Originally uploaded by tingywende
A beautiful flower

PaintshopGroup


PaintshopGroup
Originally uploaded by tingywende
This is a good illustration of a beautiful landscape.

13 August 2007

Tintin and his creator

Tintin's creator-“Hergé - the pen name of Georges Rémi from Brussels. His enigmatic alias, pronounced in French as "air-zhay", was in a way his first great fictional character. He began using it in 1924 to sign his artwork, but he had been called this long before, since his first day in school, because it was popular in Belgian schoolyards at the time to give each other nicknames by reversing your initials. His later choice of it as a nom de plume may well have been a nod to the great Russian-born designer of the period, Erté or Romain de Tirtoff (1892-1990) and a stab at suggesting he had some artistic link to his style.” Before Tintin-there was no such comic-book loved so much by the millions of children world over. In Tintin they find their hero-a reporter by profession. Tintin is an enviable role model to any young child-but perhaps not to the real life reporters as Tintin’s activities include taking sides, toppling governments and many other extraordinary ventures that seem to suit a James Bond. But Hergé was basically fond of adventures which abhor violence as these are not characteristic of comic book fiction. The early Tintin adventures appeared in Le petit which were a two- page fascicules. Inside the coloured covers the pages were in black and white. So the drawings required too much shading. After the World war ll colour began to be used and the adventure stories began appearing in a weekly magazine-Tintin. Hergé by this time was more efficiently positioned as a draughtsman and found a collaborator in an artist-Edgar P. Jacobs (Of Blake and Mortimer). But after a time when the parternership broke off Hergé felt for an organization which could work as a back-up team. So he set up a studio in 1950 where an extensive research team worked on the details and the background. By the mid-Fifties Hergé reached his peak and Tintin turned to be the most knows and adored hero in the world of comic book readers. Hergé followed the ligne claire doctrine to make his drawings while telling his stories. The reader finds no complexity in the stories and no psychological analysis. The stories run fast closely chained. The sequences are fast and symmetrical to one another-almost in geometrical clarity. The central character of his story –Tintin represents his style and composition “drawn with a taut minimalism-circle for the face, two dots for eyes, laterally inverted ‘c’ for the nose-or what Scott McCloud calls the ionic style in Understanding Comics. But “Ligne claire fell out of fashion in the Sixties as the comic book received new life in the hands of Will Eisner — widely acknowledged as the father of the graphic novel — and Robert Crumb, whose anarchic and irreverent style mocked and undermined the restrictions imposed by the Comics Code Authority. Much avant-garde work began to come out from small and underground presses on both sides of the Atlantic, which dealt with issues of sexuality and gender and dismantled the protocols of the genre. For those familiar with the changes, Tintin was already an anachronism and Hergé an assembly-line producer of juvenile adventures” Now hopefully the Hollywood is coming to resurge Tintin. Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson(of Lord of the Rings) ‘teaming up to make a series of films on Tintin. One suspects that all the resources of CGI technology will be unleashed to make the film resemble the comic book as closely as possible, and the full resources of Hollywood employed to turn a European icon into an American’. TINTIN ADVENTURE STORIES AND HERGÉ’S PERSONAL LIFE We find that Chang is a good friend of Tintin. So when Tintin came to know that Chang’s plane underwent an accident and there was no information of Chang’s survival. It was most probably that Chang was lost under the snows of the Himalayas in Tibet. But Tintin refused to accept this cruel fate of his friend. So in spite of Captain Haddock’s opposition Tintin took his plan-which was dangerous-to save seek and save Chang. Chang is a reflection of a personal incident of Hergé’s life. ‘Chang, modelled on Hergé’s friend, Zhang Chongren, with whom he had lost touch during the Fifties. The book was thus a personal tribute to a ‘lost’ friend, who became a street-sweeper during the Cultural Revolution, and met Hergé several years after the book was first published in 1960’. And also ‘his marriage with his first wife, Germaine, was breaking up. He dreamt he was surrounded by a white, featureless world, friendless and alone. These haunting visions made their way into Tintin in Tibet, into the stark, snow-bound landscape along the ardous journey that Tintin undertakes to rescue his friend, and in the desolate time that Chang spends in the cave, kept alive by the yeti’s hospitality. There is even an allusion to Germain in the furtive reference to the Nightingale of Milan, Bianca Castafiore. Captain Haddock’s outburst, on hearing the porters play Castafiore’s coloratura on their radio, captures Hergé’s increasing disaffection with his wife’. The most interesting matter about Tintin and the TINTIN IN TIBET is that for ‘ the autobiographical aspect of the book, it was also recognized and appreciated as a major introductory volume on Tibet, in the way it remained attentive towards that country’s culture, life and traditions. Not only was it voted as the greatest French-language graphic novel, Tintin also became the first ever fictional character on whom the Dalai Lama bestowed the Truth of Light award in 2006’ As per Chris Ware “Tintin was fundamentally too sexless to really catch on in America. There are hardly any girls in Hergé's stories, and there's also a peculiar sense of responsibility and respect in Tintin that is antithetical to the American character, or at least that of the budding individualist nine-year-old boy who just wants to set things on fire and has been weaned on much more outrageous stories. I'm not even sure if it's fair to say that there is an analog in American culture to Tintin, actually. I read a few serialised episodes in a magazine my mom subscribed to for me when I was a kid and it made me feel really, really weird; I didn't like it at all. I could tell that it was "approved" and "safe" and it immediately bored me, because it didn't seem to have anything to do with what I thought of as the "real" adult world, which was for me at that time superpowers and crimefighting. (I like Tintin now, of course.) Incidentally I stole the idea of using very carefully composed naturalistic colour under a platonic black line more or less directly from Hergé, as there's a certain lushness and jewel-like quality to his pages that also hints at the way we gift-wrap our experiences as memories”

12 August 2007

Where lies my world?

It is interesting to have friends everywhere in the world. But at the
same time I feel that the world is becoming smaller every hour.So the
friends are not coming from far -he or she is just my neighbour. So I
can not touch a far. I can not as a matter of fact now reach the
unreachable world -the only place my friend lives.

If there is any one who lives in a world other than this?

You may find me there in your own place then.

A FRIEND FROM FAR

I love my thoughts

I love my thoughts I love to think. It is not that spontaneous, vegetative and uninhibitable thoughts I mean. Our mind is a bazaar- a market place where one does not need permission to visit to sell and buy. Mind is never vacant and there is hardly any person who can claim that he can stop thinking. I am no to this process. But along with many of this world sometime I catch an idea and bring it down to the mind as a subject of interest-which I love to develop with thoughts. Only for this I have told that I love to think. Generally many a time when I wake up in the morning-something comes to my mind as an idea. These ideas relate to many fields –history, science, spirituality and many other matters of human interest. When it comes-it brings along with it a conviction of a truth. I continue to think over it and desperately seek to relate it to the facts of life and world to justify it as true to my mind. But I fail miserably as my learning and knowledge in the concerned field is shamefully poor. Being an ordinary educated person I can’t have the experts’ education to express my idea in the intricate and complex fields of Astrophysics, Philosophy, Genetics etc. Sometimes I feel sad that in spite of my conviction I can not establish my idea as a truth. I am just giving you an example. A few days ago a thought came to me about the Internet and the universe. I am just giving you the hints of that idea. What is a computer at all? It’s nothing but a device which is capable of computing and making logical or reasonable decisions at an enormous speed-billion times faster than human brain. In the late Sixties academic research was about to take a giant leap forward. The Advance Research Project Agency (ARPA) of MIT went on to implement what quickly became called the ARPAnet-the grandparent of today’s Internet. The researchers were enabled to share each others’ computers. Its chief benefit was the capability of quick and easy communication through electronic mail (e-mail). Initially the researchers’ computers were connected with communication lines operating at the stunning speed of 56 KB through telephone lines. The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) now enables people to write computer applications to communicate among the world’s hundreds of millions of computers. I write this simple and basic information to make my point which has no connection with computers and the Internet. But the Internet system is definitely a pointer for another fact or truth and its activities. In the Internet all people and all their creations are not separated by space and time at any point of their existence as conceive in material world. All exist-if they want to-simultaneously in a single point of time and without space. In the Internet we are all in a networking system only. The system itself does not require a physical world to stand on. We are transferred and moulded in the system. In the same way all the celestial bodies-as we conceive them are systematized data to form our mind or in our mind. We read them in time and space while there is nothing about Time and Space-they are non-existent. The question of finite and infinite do not stand at all then. But to a simple and logical mind there may appear justifiably many lapses and lacunas in my proposition. How and wherefrom the data come? But to understand this we require a two-way approach to this reality. For this I like to make a model of this system first. There must be an impulse (mechanical or otherwise as the reader likes to think of) that is transformed in millions of codes like the data of computers. Suppose all the computers of the world are open with all their data and applications and connected to all the computers of the world and they are given a command to act in a wild freedom –they will make millions of decisive conclusions and solutions of their own systems (this is hypothesis only-not analogy). As we have admitted the factor of a single impulse-the conclusive decisions of the computers as a whole can never contradict it. I have told you earlier that given the data a computer is a device “capable of computing and making logical decisions”. The word ‘logical’ is a very significant term in my idea. Firstly-as it follows a logic-there must be laws and rules in the created world-and nothing is contradictory to the other. But the most culminating significance of the term ‘logical’ lies in another way. Where is the role of Man in this system? We know that the task of computer is to conclude reasonably or logically. So in its very function a computer, if it had a mind, is satisfied-as it finds no barrier of illogicality. The absolute logicality is absolute freedom. Now the logicality of the whole system(or the impulse-in my proposition) is satisfied or reaches its logical destination-the Man. Man exists on the right side of the equation symbol. All the universe in the system of an impulse is nothing but innumerable data seeking Man for their approval. Do not bring in Einstein or Lord Buddha while reading it. It’s nothing but fantasy of my thought. But the corollary of my thought suggests creation belongs to Mind. The change in the nature of Mind may create another world for the comong Man

11 August 2007

What Narayana Murthy thinks

Narayana Murthy's views on staying late in the office To: Dear All, It's half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on... PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing... and who's at work? Most of them??? Take a closer look... All or most specimens are ??-something male species of the human race... Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors... and why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!! Any guesses??? Let's ask one of them... Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home... here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee.. that is why I am working late... importantly no bossssssss!! !!!!!!!!! This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and other off-shore offices. Bachelors "time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do... Now what r the consequences. .. read on... "Working"(for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture. With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback,(oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!). They aren't helping things too... To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!! Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours. So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is... and that's when the problem starts... becoz u start having commitments at home too. For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regulartime. .. after doing the same amount of work. People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers. .. Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labeled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they r spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they wuld have to regret at one point of time. * So what's the moral of the story?? * * Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!! * Never put in extra time " *unless really needed *" * Don't stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues. There are hundred other things to do in the evening.. Learn music... Learn a foreign language... try a sport... TT, cricket..... .... importantly Get a girl friend or gal friend, take him/her around town... * And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change. Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"* Plebefore leaving time, don't stay back till midnight to forward this!!! ITS A TYPICAL INDIAN MENTALITY THAT WORKING FOR LONG HOURS MEANS VERY HARD WORKING & 100% COMMITMENT ETC. PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SIT LATE IN THE OFFICE DON'T KNOW TO MANAGE THEIR TIME

A joke after nine months

Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. So they loaded up Jack'sminivan and headed north. After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard. So they pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the night. "I realize it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed," she explained. "I'm afraid the neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my house." "Don't worry," Jack said. "We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light." The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing. But about nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend. He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed at on our ski holiday up north about 9 months ago?" "Yes, I do." said Bob. "Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?" "Well, um, yes," Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out, "I have to admit that I did." "And did you happen to give her my name instead of telling her your name?" Bob's face turned beet red and he said, "Yeah, look, I'm sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did." "Why do you ask?" "She just died and left me everything."

9 August 2007

Some interesting finding

See what a cell (mobile) can do 1 Egg 2 Mobiles 65 minutes of connection between mobiles. We assembled something as per image: Initiated the call between the two mobiles and allowed 65 minutes approximately… During the first 15 minutes nothing happened; 25 minutes later the egg started getting hot; 45 minutes later the egg is hot; 65 minutes later the egg is cooked. Conclusion: The immediate radiation of the mobiles has the potential to modify the proteins of the egg. Imagine what it can do with the proteins of your brains when you do long calls. Let it be a lesson for the Mobilemaniacs

8 August 2007

Beethoven-Symphony No. 9 by Karajan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2AEaQJuKDY

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