To put the record straight, there are three species of parakeets native to Kashmir. The most common species is the Rose-ringed parakeet that breeds in Kashmir and is a year-round resident. Rose-ringed parakeets often nest in hollows in chinar trees. The Alexandrine and Slaty-headed parakeets are relatively less common. Alexandrine parakeets [Hindi: Heeraman] are quite popular in Indian folk tales, and can be observed in Kashmir in the Zabarvan foothills. The Mughal gardens especially Nishat and Shalimar are good places to observe these birds even in winter. Alexandrine parakeets can be distinguished from their rose-ringed cousins by their striking red shoulder patches [which the former lack]. Flocks of slaty-headed parakeets can be observed in summer in the Royal Springs Golf Course.
I am quite amazed by the refusal of one of the participants to believe that the Tota exists in Kashmir - disregarding both its presence in folk tales [that he himself quotes !] and scientific proof [including my photographs] presented by his co-arguer. The gentleman in question propounds the classic ostrich-defence: "I have never seen it myself, so it cannot exist". Not surprisingly the argument escalated to the usual levels [Azadi, Hindu-Muslim, Al Qaeda] and beyond [Nietzsche!]
All is forgiven, however, because the original post included this following gem:
Athe travtohan janavar
Athe travtohan janavar
Pheri bagas te kari guftar
Athe travtohan janavar
Chavi yavun te vure shehjar
Athe travtohan janavar
Ye chu nagman hund tandar
Athe travtohan janavar
Janavar chu vanan zaar
Athe travtohan janavar
Mate haitav ami sund baar
Athe travtohan janavar
Release the bird from your hands
Release the bird from your hands,
It wants to fly around the garden and speak out its heart.
Release the bird from your hands
It wants to celebrate youth under shady trees.
Release the bird from your hands
It is a compendium of songs,
Release the bird from your hands.
This bird is singing a sad song,
Release the bird from your hands.
Don't bear the onus of his captivity,
Release the bird from your hands.
Bonus:
Hariya thavak na kaan te lo lo
Zaar mein totas van te lo lo
Here's a video of a Tota pillaging a walnut tree in my garden.
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( 2.7 / 6 )It's almost official now. The world has been cocacolized.
John Dvorak , writing on technology in the USA, commented that " It's almost as if the collective brain of the American public has been put into neutral ." That is just the tip of the iceberg. Hype-mania is an international pandemic. Just look at the headlines. Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time. Crippled-spec Netbooks are outselling laptops. AR Rehman has a couple of Grammy Awards to match his double Oscars. What are we to make of headlines exclaiming that Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further?
Avatar was a huge disappointment. The cutting-edge special effects experience quickly wore off, leaving the feeling of watching an interminable Discovery Channel documentary. The plot was ridden with every moth-eaten cliche in the book. A far better movie experience, IMHO, was the reboot of the Star Trek film series. In the seventies The TV series was broadcast by PTV and Jammu was near enough the LOC to receive a faint signal. An ingenious combination of an antenna with a bicycle rim enabled grainy though quite watchable B&W reception and we became avid Trekkies. I will be surprised if Avatar achieves that kind of longevity.
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Is this our future?
Netbooks are low- powered devices with ridiculously small squint-inducing screens, cramped keyboards and missing CD/DVD drives. Tablet laptops that beat the pants off netbooks are available for similar amounts of money but everyone and their uncle are buying netbooks. Lower standards and expectations are not only acceptable but fashionable too.
The enormously talented A R Rahman is accepting multiple Oscar and Grammy awards for the music of Jai Ho . I am sure that it takes quite an effort on his part to keep a straight face. Jai Ho is not his best work - not by a long shot.
The starkest example is that of Facebook. The social networking site has taken over the world with millions of users all over the globe. Here is the result:
Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login
Just go through the comments. Hundreds of people were trying to login to Facebook from a totally unrelated site called ReadWriteWeb and getting frustrated at their inability to do so despite the following message printed in bold letters:
Dear visitors from Google. This site is not Facebook. This is a website called ReadWriteWeb that reports on news about Facebook and other Internet services.
One commenter joked about removing these people from the gene pool. What about Twitter - and the millions of people who are tweeting inanities this very moment?
To their credit, till the sun set on their missionary/capitalist empire, the British insisted on excellence. The modern neo-colonist unipower strategy is quite the reverse - the imposition of dumbocracy in every nation on earth. The world could not be converted but it sure as hell has been cocacolized.
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( 3 / 5 )Last week I picked up a copy of Basharat Peer's Curfewed Night. Truth be told, I wasn't really excited about the book. The buzz seemed a tad bit too orchestrated - the impression I got was that the media was giving a fellow scribe a thumbs up - with a nudge and a wink.
The approaching boredom of a hartalled and curfewed day [26th January in Kashmir] prompted me to pick up Curfewed Night for a quick post-dinner scan. I could not put the book down in a marathon cover-to-cover reading session that lasted till dawn. Curfewed Night is absolutely unputdownable - and I refer to both the meanings of the term. Though the shock value of the narrative could be expected to be more effective on the sensibilities of non-kashmiri readers, I found myself close to tears at certain points in the book.
In an earlier post I had commented on a bygone writer who had described Kashmir's beauty with far more eloquence than I could ever hope to muster. But that was an Englishman writing in his mother tongue.
Basharat belongs to my people, and the words he uses could have been my own. Consider the passage where he talks about the pain of leaving Kashmir, even for a short time - I marvel at how close his thoughts are to mine and how simply he puts them to paper.
Unlike non-kashmiri authors, who can at best empathise, Basharat has lived the book - he could have been the protagonist in any of the stories. This is why every kashmiri and every indian should read this book.
More power to your pen, brother.
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