Will they bag Academy Awards-India awaits

Tomorrow,on Feb 22 the Academy Awards (Oscars) would be announced.India awaits with great anticipation to know if the two Indians among the nominees would bag the Academy Award for India.The third in the list (Also for SlumdogMillionaire),though not an Indian, belongs to the Tamil diaspora from Sri Lanka.The three Oscar award nominees from South Asia are A.R.Rehman,Resul Pookutty and Maya Arul Pragasam.ARR has got three nominations.One for the category Music(score)and the other two for the two songs 'Jai HO' and 'O Saya'.Maya is nominated with ARR for the song 'O saya'.Resul is nominated for 'Sound Mixing' of Slumdog Millionaire.ARR has been nominated to Oscar two times before in the years 2001 and 2007.In 2001 for 'Lagaan' and in 2007 for Deepa Mehta's 'Water'.But this time he is sure to bag atleast one Oscar award, in one category or the other.ARR has started the year 2009 with a bang.In the last two months ARR has recieved an host of awards,most of them are international acclaims.He started the year with chicago film critics nomination for best score for the film SM.Following this, New york film critics picked ARR online for Best score,again for SM.Then he went on to win IPA satelite Award and critics choice award.After that he created history by winning Golden Globe.Soon after he got BAFTA (British Academy for Film and Television Arts)nomination for SM.This could be called the British equivalent of the Oscars.In an online poll conducted by Dress circle,UK(leading website covering theatre in the UK)picked the music co-composed by ARR for 'The Lord of the Rings' as one of the 10 greatest musicals of the last 30 years.And finally as an icing, he got three nominations to the Oscar.If he goes on to win the award it will be a proud moment for every Indian. Only two other Indians have won Academy Awards before.Satyajit Ray was given an Honorary Oscar in 1992 for 'Life Time Acievment'.But it was presented to Ray at Kolkatta on the same day by actress Audrey Hepburn as Academy's representative.The other Indian to have won the Academy award was Bhanu Athaiya.She won the Academy Award for Costume Design (Oscar),for her work in 1982 for Richard Attenborough's 'Gandhi'.

Resul Pookutty is nominated for Sound Direction along with co-directors Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for the movie SM.

Maya Arulpragasam is popularly known as M.I.A(her stage name).She is a British songwriter,record producer,vocalist and artist.In her career she has been nominated for two Granny awards and this time for the Academy awards.

International Mother Language day - Feb 21

UNESCO declared february 21 as the International Mother Language Day in 1999.Since 2000, it is observed every year all over the world.This is done to promote cultural diversity and mutilingualism.The tenth International Mother language day falls on Feb 21,2009.This year IML day assumes greater significance on two accounts.The Year long celebrations of the 'International Year of Languages' comes to close on the same day.Secondly,few days ago UNESCO has released its new Atlas of World Languages.The new Atlas says out of the 6900 languages currently spoken in world,roughly2500 are endangered.The UNESCO atlas compiled in 2001 listed 900 languages as endangered.But in a span of 8 years the number of languages that are endangered has risen to 2500 world over.The most disturbing fact is that India tops the list with the maximum number of endangered languages followed by USA and Indonesia.The tally is as follows.India is likely to lose 196 languages,USA 192 and Indonesia 147.According to UNESCO these languages are in the danger of disappearing in due course.One might wonder as to how can a language disappear?But it does happen.There is a gradual decline in the no of persons using the language and finally the language disappears.UNESCO stresses multi lingual approaches in education along with mother tounge.There are five levels before a language becomes finally extinct.They are unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct.This is the classification made by UNESCO.Statistics reveal nearly 200 languages became extinct in the last 3 generations.538 are critically endangered,502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe.There are 199 languages with less than 10 speakers and 178 others with10 to 50.When a language dies,along with ,the cultural heritage and traditions of that language dies.The greatest linguistic diversity can be seen in Papua New Guinea where approximatley 800 languages are spoken.It is astonishing that for such large diversity,the situation of endangered languages is not so alarming in Papua Guinea.Countries like India,USA,Indonesia,Mexico and Brazil have great language diversities.But here the situation is diferent.The number of endangered languages are high in these countries. Certain extinct languages are being reinitiated and revitalised by experts.But how far this will succeed remains to be seen.If one looks at the no of languages and number of speakers,there is a distribution skew.9 % of the world population speak just 4% of the languages.The top 10 languages of the world are Mandarin (chinese),English,Hindi/Urudu,Spanish,Russian,Arabic,Bengali,Portugese,Malay-Indonesian and F rench.Most of the small and endangered languages do not have a script.It is just a spoken language.Until 2 decades ago 'sourashtra' a dialect of Gujarati in southern Tamil nadu did not have any script of their own.It was only a spoken language.Now they have adopted Devnagiri as their script.There is an endangered Language Project which aims at providing documentation for such languages.They work with endangered language communities to record linguistic diversity and encourage cultural human diversity.It is important to preserve every language,for they define the communitie's culture.Endangered languages are more in North East in India.Delhi university offers research facilities for endangered languages of North East and to document them.The number of living speakers of language,the mean age of fluent speakers of the language,percentage of younger generation acquiring knoweldge of the language are the indicators of the decline of a language.Konkani spoken in South India has two dialects.One is used for informal talk and the other variant is used to convey messages secretly to community members.Both of them have survived .As long as number of active speakers of a language does not decline to a dangerous level that language will survive. On February 21st let us all resolve to promote our Mother Language religiously and ensure it does not get into any of the five levels of an endangered language.

Bird Migration

Recently I travelled to Tuticorin in Tamil nadu from Bangalore by bus.Enroute to Tuticorin from Madurai,I think it was somewhere near the Aruppokottai region (I am not sure),I saw lot of white birds perched atop trees found in road side ponds.In each tree top,they were in such large numbers,that even some of the trees looked in spotless white colour from a distance.I presumed thses birds were heading towards the Kunthakulam Bird Sanctuary in Tirunelveli district.Kunthakulam is a small village about 30 kms away from Tirunelveli.It is said many birds from Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, USA, and Australia visit this small scenic village during January to April.The sight of these birds prompted me to wite this post about bird migration.During my college days I have visited the famous Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary during the bird migration season.One can find Herons,siberian cranes,Open billed Stork, Spoonbill, Little Grebe, Black Winged Stilts, and some times Grey Pelicans and cuckoos.I don't remember the names of some other bird species.I still remember watching the migratory birds atop the trees in the huge vedanthangal lake,through the telescope fixed atop a tower. November to February is the ideal season to visit the sanctuary.Right from my student days 'bird migration' is something that fascinated me.It is quite interesting to note that these birds travel thousands of miles during the migration season.It is said that these long distance migration of birds are genetecally programmed as a response to the change in the length of time in a day.This happens due to the seasonal changes.But what used to surprise me is the navigational ability of these birds.It is said the birds can read mental maps and identify hibitats.It is also said birds use electromagnetic tools for navigation and identify their destinations.The timing of bird migration mostly depends on climatic changes.It is estimated that around 4000 species of birds migrate world over.Out of this 4000 species,over hundred species of migratory birds fly to India, during severe winter of their native habitat in search of feeding grounds. The wildlife sanctuaries of the country become their temporary habitat during the migratory season.Once the season is over they fly back to their resident habitat.Statistics suggest majority of the bird return to the same location in successive years.It is also said some bird use certain landmarks to find a destination from the height at which they are flying. This is akin to what the pilots do to manouver aircrafts while flying.Renganthittu near srirengapatnam in Karnataka ,Thettakkad and Kumarakom in Kerala are the other noted bird sanctuaries in South India.Apart from Vedanthangal and kunthakulam ,Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu is another shelter to migratory birds.

Changing face of Bangalore

In Chord Road from Attiguppe to vijayanagar there were lot of trees lined on either side of the road.These trees have been axed to widen the roads and also for the metro rail project.There were trees in the road side parks on either side of the chord road leading to the vijayanagar bus stand.Some of these trees in the road side parks have also been felled.A Big tree near the Vijayanagar bus stand has also been axed recently.A ride in this road was pleasant until recently with good tree shades on either side.Trees have been axed in other parts of Bangalore also for the same reasons.Big trees have been cut in the West of chord road,Residency Road,Race course road,MG road and elsewhere.At this rate,soon Bangalore will lose its sobriquet as the 'Garden city'.Many would say this is all inevitable when the growing needs of the city has to be addressed.But at what cost? Is it not ironical that on one side the government at the centre is very serious about climate change,its effects ,talks about steps to combat greenhouse gas emmissions and on the other side all over the country on the plea of developmental projects trees are cut indiscriminatley and the green cover of the country is continously eroded.All our city's are continously becoming warmer year after year .Authorities forget that tress are Capital Assets for a city.Trees are imperative, on the other hand at roads where the estimated pollutant uptake is high,especially near signals where a host of vehicles wait at the same time and emit greenhouse gases to a greater extent.No wonder at signals,one feels suffocating,especially if you are travelling in a two wheeler.It is said a mature tree absorbs nearly 48 lbs /year of CO2 and releases oxygen sufficient for two human beings in to the atmosphere.I understand permission is granted to fell trees by the government authorities after ensuring planting of two tree saplings for every single tree that is axed.I think this could be the most absurd theory.The experts say it takes years for a tree to start absorbibg CO2 at significant levels.Only a mature tree absorbs more CO2.So the theory of planting two trees for every single tree felled does not in anyway solve the issue.It is high time envoronmentalists and green peace activists of Bangalore come together and chart out plans to save atleast the remaining trees in Bangalore,before it is too late.

Telegrams

Have you tried to sent a telegram recently? I had been to a telegraph office near my house.When I asked for the 'Telegram form',the man at the office looked at me blankly as though I have come from a different planet.I have given below my conversaton with him.

He said "You can't send telegrams from here".

"Is this not a telegraph office?" I asked

"It is, but you can't send telegrams from here"

"Why?"

"That service has been closed.This is now an administrative office"

"But I have sent telegrams from here some time back"

"May be,but that would have been one year back"

"Tell me, how can I send one?"

"Please go to the GPO".
The GPO is some 9 Kms away from my residence.However I could come to terms with the logic that in this age of 'instant messaging' who would bother to send a telegram.Perhaps that could be the reason for the number of telegraph offices being tapered.Quite logical.It raised many question with in me. Does it mean no body is availing this service through out the country?What is the international scenario?Before dwelling on these aspects I have lot of nostalgic memories about telegrams.
Those days telegrams were hand written messages.Telegrams would be delivered at home by a special messenger.The telegrams would have the time it was sent,the time it was recieved and the time it is delivered.Later typed strips containing the message was pasted on the telegram forms.All telegram messages used to be in English.In rural India, people used to translate the telegram contents and inform the recipient.Those days the telegrams bore bad news most of the time and the guy who translates the contents would be very much embarassed to divulge the contents.Hence the very sight of a telegram boy used to make many jittery.Similarly at the post office there were guys making a livelihood by translating the vernacular content of telegrams in English.After Independence English and Hindi were the telegram languages of India.Mr.Kumari Anadan the then congress MP relentlessly fought to introduce Tamil as the telegram language.From 1994 Tamil telegrams came in to vouge, only to be stopped in 2005,on the plea that the response is poor.All said and done Telegram is a documentary proof.When I was born,my maternal uncle had sent a telegram informing my dad about my birth through a telegram.My dad preserved that telegram in a file and that old telegram sheet,is still with me,with the hand written words "Male child born,both fine".That is still a treasured document cherished by me.Telegrams were charged based on the words.So most of the telegrams would be precise and thus came the phrase 'telegraphic' and many words would be left out in a telegram.To avoid confusion at the recipients end, to indicate a full stop the word "STOP" was used in all telegrams after each message.some times the word 'STOP' was also read along with the message and wrong messages were also conveyed.
I understand, now a days telegrams are used only for official purposes by offices as a documentary proof for legal reasons.However it is an undeniable fact that the demand is waning.Politicians ask people to send mass telegrams to the powers that be to emphasise their point of view.Recently Tamilnadu CM asked public to send mass telegrams to PM to find a solution to the Lankan crisis.
However I feel telegrams had an inherent entertainment value because of the wrong English usage and typographical errors.I worked in the shop floor of an industry at that time.A guy who was absent for a couple of days sent a telegram praying for leave.The telegram was addressed to my superior.On reciept of the telegram, he called me and asked "Why this fellow is asking me to go on leave?"The telegram read "Urgently go on leave for two days". What was intended to be conveyed was that has he gone outstation urgently and need two days leave.A friend of mine who is a government employee narrated me another incident. An officer was scheduled to make an official visit to another district, so he wanted his assistant to make a request for a jeep at the visiting officer's disposal,at the tme of his visit. The officer at the district was shocked to recieve a telegram"Officer visting ,arrange for a keep". Nedless to say it was a typographical error.But in some parts of Tamilnadu 'Keep' has a different connotation.'Keep' is the literal translation of the Tamil word 'Vaippu'.But vaippu in Tamil has another meaning (mistress) also.A man from agra visited Ajmer.He informed his assistant to inform his wife at Delhi at that time about his Ajmer visit.When the wife receieved the telegram she fainted.The telegram read "'Sethji aaj mar ! Gaye!" means Sethji has expired.Intended telegram was 'Sethji Ajmer gaye' a space at a wrong place conveyed a wrong message.
Now let us look at the world scenario.Western Union, the pioneer in telgram services has stopped this service from 2006.They are now focusing on their financial services such as wire transfers and bill payment.But the 'American Telegram' continues to send telegrams around the world,but at a special cost which is prohibitive to many.They offer both the conventional hand delivered messages and also the modern instant messaging systems.For contract cancellation telegrams are used,because it is legally tenable and also mentions the time it was recieved.I think very soon, one will find telegrams only in archives.