Remember Shakti

It was quite an idyllic setting for the Remember Shakti concert on Jan 26th - a cool evening breeze at the onset of spring in Bangalore, the backdrop of the magnificient Bangalore Palace looking almost orange in the twilight hours, and a full moon rising behind the Palace also looking orangish in the evening. Unfortunately I didnt take my camera, only my binoculars.

The group was the usual Remember Shakti troupe - John McLaughlin, Mandolin Shrinivas, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh Vinayakram & Zakir Hussain. Thankfully, there was no compere/MC to cause any embarassment to art lovers. The artists introduced themselves - Zakir introducing Shakar, John & John introducing Zakir & Selvaganesh. This was good considering the last time I went to a Zakir Hussain concert (with Ustad Sultan Khan), the compere was SO BAD, I was appalled how someone could do such a bad job (she actually said - "please bear with us & join us for this evening's concert with Zakir Hussain & Ustad Sultan Khan"!). Anyways, it was interesting to hear John speak so much - the last 2-3 Remember Shakti concerts I went to, Zakir did most of the talking. He was reminiscent of the older times of Shakti, when John used to collaborate with the great Vikku Vinayakram, Zakir & L. Shankar, Vikku's son Selvaganesh was barely two years old. John also kept repeating how much he loved Bangalore in comparison to other Indian cities he has performed in.

They played some of my favourite Shakti numbers. They began with a number I didnt recognize, maybe it was new. It was followed by the famous Giriraja Sudha, then by Ma No Pa, a composition by Zakir. Soon to follow (there was no break/intermission) was Lotus Feet. This is one of the most sublime compositions I have heard, very slow & soft and absolutely quietening to the mind. Next were Maya, a composition of U. Shrinivas and brilliantly filled with the mandolin maestro's best pieces and Niyati, a riot of percussion duets between Zakir & Selvagesh that had so many instruments, it was mind boggling to follow them - tabla, drums & banjo by Zakir, mridangm, ghatam & kanjira by Selvagesh. Their hands & fingers were flying creating waves of rhythm faster than the mind could comprehend. Shankar soon came back and the last piece was based on a Hindustani classical music thumri called Sakhi.

Remember Shakti Concert in Bangalore

For those of you interested, Remember Shakti (Zakir Hussain, John McLaughlin, U. Shrinivas, Shankar Mahadevan and Selvaganesh) is performing in Bangalore on Jan 26. More details on their India tour schedule are here. Tickets for the Bangalore show are available at K.C. Das on M.G. Road & Rythms music store on St. Marks Road.

Citizens of the World

Here is a nice article by Rajdeep Sardesai (those who see NDTV need no introduction to Rajdeep; he is one of NDTV's most prolific journalists) on what factors might have led to the enormous generosity shown by the world towards the tsunami relief efforts. Actually, I meant to link this article by Fareed Zakaria earlier where he talks about the phenomenal response the tsunami has seen from Indians, both from those within the country & those outside. Rajdeep comments on Zakaria's article & writes more.

In the two weeks after the tidal wave hit, the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, the main agency to which people make donations, has collected about $80 million. After the Gujarat earthquake of April 2001, it took almost one year to collect the same amount of money. And remember that the 2001 earthquake was massive (7.9 on the Richter scale), killed more Indians (30,000) than the tsunami appears to have, and also got intense media attention (Bill Clinton headed the fund-raising efforts). What has changed in these four years is the most important new reality about India: the growing wealth, strength and confidence of Indian society.

Of course, all the legendary problems of Indian government remain: subsidies, regulation, red tape, bureaucracy and inefficiency are all still large obstacles to growth. More important, however, there is a growing constituency for growth and good government. Businessmen in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai are joining together to demand that government shape up. Some are solving problems themselves. In Chennai, one sees the rise of private street-cleaning that last year had 17,000 chapters, covers 40 percent of the city and 75 percent of the suburbs and serves 1.7 million homes.

Rajdeep agrees in part with Fareed Zakaria, and adds a different point of view - that of the increasingly effective media penetration the last few years have seen in India.

Over the past 15 years, India has been the second fastest growing economy in the world, with an average growth rate of six per cent. Per capita income has almost doubled, and more than 100 million Indians have moved out of poverty. Zakaria’s view may be true, but only up to a point. Yes, at one level, the large amounts of money collected for tsunami relief does reflect a wealthier society, where individual salaried employees do not think twice before donating a day’s salary and where corporates can afford to dip into their profits with greater alacrity than ever before. But to look at the collective response of the Indian nation only in the context of the increased wealth in our society would be to ignore the wider social processes that are transforming India.

To some extent, satellite television has had a very important role to play in this transformation. Now, you have over two-dozen national, regional and foreign channels that have opened India to a universe of opportunities. The relentless transmission of the images of tragedy from across the tsunami-affected areas brought the country, and indeed, the globe closer together.

Several myths have been shattered. For much too long, India’s affluent middle-classes have been chastised as selfish and self-absorbed. Equally, it has been suggested that this large pool of people are living in a consumerist idyll, with their minds in Manhattan and their bodies being transported from one shopping mall to another. The stereotype was of an unconcerned mass that simply did not care about society. The fact is that Indian society is far too varied and mobile to be typecast. And it’s these very Indians who have been among the first to respond to the tsunami tragedy.

The dynamism of the NGO movement, which has once again been highlighted in the relief operations, stems from a growing awakening among Indians about the potential of collective action, and a desire to be involved in public life without having to be part of a political party or the Indian state.

There are more features of interest in Rajdeep's article. Would surely recommend a reading.

Tsunami Relief Operations Update

The NGOs have been doing a great job in different areas; I regret that I have not been able to make it there yet, work has been quite busy and something keeps cropping up by Thu/Fri making it quite impossible to leave for the weekend.

Anyway, here is my friend Vinod Viswanath, from the AID chapter in Austin, talking to Austin KOOP 91.7 FM.

From a AID volunteer who just finished a site visit:

• Most of the debris cleaning has already been done. They are NOT looking for volunteers for this anymore.
• Volunteers are needed for:
  -> Survey work (Tamil speaking)
  -> Teaching school kids (Tamil speaking)
  -> Volunteer coordination at site/Data entry (No restrictions)
  Numbers: Around 20 volunteers are required totally for the above tasks. What can you do? If you are conversant with Tamil and wish to go down over the weekend, please get in touch with Shrinath {shrinath@ti.com}.
  NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT THE REQUIREMENTS ARE ALREADY MET. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE MAIL ME FIRST SO THAT YOU GET THE CURRENT REQUIREMENTS.
  If you do not speak Tamil, but with to help out with the data entry/volunteer co-ordination, please mail me saying so.
• All volunteers going down to the field can get in touch with Murugan (0413-2290733) he will direct you there onwards.

Palestine - what next?

Most accounts I have read of the recent Palestinian elections seem to indicate that this a good chance up to clean up the Paltestinian Authority of long standing corruption, mis-governance and justice.

The death of Yassir Arafat and the election of a new president have created an opportunity for badly needed reform of the Palestinian Authority. The World Bank in its governance indicators ranks the Authority in the bottom 16 per cent of governments around the world in its ability to control corruption and halfway down the scale in terms of effective rule of law. There are roughly nine Palestinian security services in the West Bank and Gaza each. They range from civil police to the General Intelligence service, or Mukhabarat Salamah. Arafat retained power and control over these services with few checks and balances. They were organised under the rule of political leaders rather than the rule of law. The restructuring should include decreasing the number of services, eliminating direct executive control over them and separating law-enforcement functions from intelligence and other security aspects by placing them in different ministries.

The second needed step is to ensure that the Palestinian Authority has a viable, independent administration of justice. The elements that underpin the rule of law — such as prisons, courts, the legal sector and security services — should be regarded as linked and interdependent.

Read on here for the complete article, it is a good read. It will indeed be interesting to see what follows the elections, and if restructuring will really happen. From the little reading I have done of Edward Said, seems like the Palestinian Authority/Organization really needs transparency in its working, and a more practical agenda than was attempted by Yassir Arafat.

Rythms - Zakir Hussain & Ustad Sultan Khan

After a hectic week at work & otherwise, I barely managed to get tickets for the Ustad Zakir Hussain & Ustad Sultan Khan concert on Saturday in the Chowdaiah Memorial Hall. For those of you who dont know, the Chowdaiah Memorial Hall was constructed in the memory of T.N. Chowdaiah, one of Carnatic music's finest violin players. The hall is constructed in the shape of a huge violin, and is usually the venue for a lot of music/arts programs.

This was the fifth Zakir Hussain concert I was attending, and the first time I was seeing Ustad Sultan Khan live - I had only heard his albums before (with Zakir & George Brooks mainly). I can never stop getting amazed with Zakir's performances. As expected, it was a superb performance by both the maestros. Ustad Sultan Khan was amazing on the sarangi - the sarangi is a soulful string instrument, without frets like the violin and is apparently a very difficult instrument. He also surprised the audience with his singing, with a lovely dhun called "Naina more taras gaye rE baalama".

Zakir's tabla was up for aution for a NGO called Concern India Foundation - it got sold for Rs. 7 Lacs. I was might pained with the silliness of the folks conducting the auction, they were shamelessly stupid in their mannerisms & attitude on stage with such renowned artists par exellence.

I guess the new year is here...

It has frankly been hard to feel nice about the new year. I spent 31st night at home, alone & wondering about the thousands who would start the new year in the bleakest possible manner. I was surprised that on 31st night, as I was heading home, the party atmosphere in the downtown roads of Bangalore was as usual - roads were blocked with waves of party hoppers - and I was left wondering.... Constant media updates definitely add to the dampening of the spirit. On the 1st at noon, a bunch of us spent 5 minutes at each of our homes medidating in silence, with prayers for the affected. I also came across this article on Rediff - this describes a particular Auroville Ashram on the eastern coast of Pondicherry that was washed away, miraculously saving the Dutch family that lived and maintained the ashram. Exactly a year ago, I was there for New Year.

On a more positive note, never before have I seen such a huge volunteer effort happen. People from all walks of life - professionals, doctors, software engineers, hundreds are taking time off to go & spend some time in the affected areas. NGO efforts are being publicised more and people seem to trust them more than leave things to the government. This morning, I saw the person managing the Tsunami relief blog featured on NDTV. According to this news item, Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi has decided to adopt an entire fishing hamlet of Devanapatinam in Cuddalore. People are becoming more aware to selfless efforts being put in by hundreds of people. I have been receiving a LOT of queries from people outside India asking - "We would like to do something more than just donate money. Tell us what we can do sitting here outside India". A good thing that happened on Friday, 31st was that we were able to ship about 18 cartons of medicines (mostly chlorine, for water purification) to Chennai & Sri Lanka courtsey Jet Airways, for free.

As usual, please watch the latest updates on AID, Tsunami Relief, Asha for updates on materials, volunteer efforts required, etc.

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