Rock for a Cause - Blue Light Daze

Blue Light Daze : (from left to right) Vijay, Siddartha, Naren, Siddarth.

Blue Light Daze, a band consisting of 5 members (Siddarth Krishnan – Lead Guitarist, Naren Weiss – Lead Singer, Siddartha Mandaikar – Rhythm Guitar, Kashyap Jaishankar – Bassist, and Vijay Gopalakrishnan – Drummer) played a charity show , last Saturday, for an organization called The Banyan. The Banyan is a shelter and transit home for homeless woman for mental illness, who had wandered from their homes and wandered into the streets. They were asked to play to raise money for The Banyan and they agreed.

They involved themselves with enormous amount of energy to make this show happened. Their bassist unfortunately had previous commitments and couldn’t make it for the show, so the rhythm guitarist, to many peoples surprise, played the bass lines. He also managed to keeps the kids entertained by striking up the Pink Panther theme. They played a mix of originals and covers. Their performance was estimable and entertaining. The audiences were not bored or indifferent but highly involved like clapping with the drum beats or even rhythmic movements.

Blue Light Daze : Siddartha rapping.

Of the songs played “We will rock you “ by The Queens was well received by the older section of the audience, with energetic singing. “Feel Good” by the Gorillaz had the kids present imitating the laughter long after it got over. The Blue Light Daze even switched instruments to make up for the missing member. Naren’s effort on the bass and Siddartha rapping Feel Good were pretty commendable. There cover of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was a high energy number. Their drummer Vijay managed to break both his drum sticks due to his frantic and cadenced drumming which kept the energy boosted.

They played a few own compositions, my favorite ones were Skeleton and Tempress, their sound check was pretty funky. The one detriment was that sometimes the singing was not very audible like the words of “For Whom the Bells Tolls” were lost in many parts and so was the chorus of Tempress.

Overall it was a good show. More important than all this is that they refused to take money for the show and donated it back to The Banyan. Maybe others can take a leaf out of their book and support an organization or the other. They managed to raise Rs. 40,000 for The Banyan. Siddarth at the end of it was heard claiming loudly that he felt “like a socially useful person”. Once again good show!!!

Sangeetha

September trip... learnings....random events etc

I'd say after auroville this is the best trip in my life till now (i started writing this before the december trip.. i still consider the trip to auroville the best.....it's one of those late published blogs...).

i saw and learned a great many things. we visited anandwan, hemalkasa, vidharbha...met Muralidhar Devidas "Baba" Amte, Shadhanai Thai, Vikas amte, Prakash Amte, the locals of vidharbha and people in anandwan. Since the trip is very valuable i thought i'd write an travel log kind of a thing so that i never forget it. i also decided to write because it saves the time i'd have to spend repeating the happenings of the trip to the people who want to know.
well here it goes.....

day 1 28th sept - well nothing much to write about as i pretty much didn't do anything other than eat and sleep. well over night train journeys don't go very well with me as i tend to wake up every half an hour or so. the train made me sick of waving to people. i waved everytime it moved then it stopped again, finally we left the station, the train was 15 minutes late.
after extensive singing of English,Hindi, and Tamil songs we were asked to sleep.

Day 2 29th sept - i woke up at 5.30 in the morning. i just looked outside when i heard something and looked below my berth to find find alex sitting up. then we took a small walk till the end of the coach then came back.. in a few minutes swati woke up ( lol must have heard alex!! :D ) then slowly everyone woke up. At about 7 we had our first trip culture and all i remember is sitting squashed on the upper with sheetal and kartik! i drowsed off and was woke up by someone at about 8.45 with breakfast! (pongal and vada yukk) then got of the train and took the bus to anandwan, warora from chandrapur. the long walk inside anandwan to reach our rooms gave me an picture of it. after freshing up we went down to have lunch and after that we met vikas amte who spoke to us about his dad, himself...anandwan 50 years ago and also about his work in vidharbha now. then we went to visit BABA AMTE himself. we saw him through a glass window. it pained me to see someone who did so little for himself and so much for the other suffer. as i stood there stunned, i let a few silent tears roll down my cheeks without realization. we visited sadhana thai she was about to start speaking to us when interrupted by a group of old ladies. we left heading back to the place where we were lodged....

(after trying to write a day by day entry i gave up because it was getting very long... so this is just bits and pieces that stuck with me... so less nonsense to read!!! )

let's see what do i remember of this trip?

the bug infestation is the first thing that hits my mind every time i think about the trip.... (which in a way is very sad because the trip had much more to it...) one day, if i am not wrong the second or the third night of our stay there, we came back from dinner to find that these weird little black bug had taken over our rooms. They were simply everywhere and there were thousands and thousands of them along with other bugs who were a minority...

It was kind of funny how 'silly little bugs' which are otherwise ignored, make a difference when they come in great numbers... maybe it's a strategy all of us can learn from them ....
it made the guys go haywire in the next room.... they were haphazardly attacking everything in the room... Siddarth was screaming, stomping on the bugs and trying to sweep them out at the same time.... Alex on the other hand took it as a competition and was desperately trying to sweep the bugs out first. it was comical and the hundreds of lives crushed and families ruined went unnoticed because man had succeeded once again in eliminating competition.. something he considered a threat, thus proving himself above these creatures... (more to come...)

Protest against Dow Chemicals- citi center 3rd december

as the tittle suggest there was a protest held against Dow chemicals which currently occupies a office in the 6th floor of Citi Center, Mylapore. This being my first protest and stuff it's a personal statement for myself then comes the other factors. i felt like i actually had some power over what was happening around me.

Below is the petition:

To: The Management of Citi Center

Mylapore, Chennai

3 December, 2007

Sir/Madam:

Today is the 23^rd anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal disaster. People in Bhopal are still suffering from the long-term effects of the disaster. Union Carbide has abandoned several thousand tons of toxic wastes in Bhopal. These wastes have entered the groundwater. People drinking the groundwater are now experiencing a whole range of health effects and children born of parents exposed to the poisonous drinking water are being born with severe disabilities.

In 1992, Union Carbide was declared an absconder for having failed to honour summons to appear in a criminal case relating to the disaster. In 2001, Union Carbide was taken over by Dow despite warnings by Bhopal survivors and their supporters about Carbide’s lingering liabilities in Bhopal. Now, Dow and its subsidiary have refused to take any responsibility for the clean-up of the Bhopal site or for medical assistance for the people affected by the gas or contaminated water. About 80 percent of the people affected belong to minority and marginalized working class communities.

In 2007, Dow Chemical was fined $300,000 by the US agency Securities Exchange Commission for having paid more than Rs 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian officials to register three pesticides, including one that was banned in the US. Dursban, the banned pesticide, affects the brain development in young children.

Besides sheltering the absconder Union Carbide, Dow Chemical is itself a racist company that applies different values to the lives of Americans and Indian children.

We are ashamed of the Government of India’s stance of welcoming Dow to the country, and want to make it clear to the residents of Bhopal that the Government may be wrong, but the people of India believe in their struggle, and the children of Chennai will not sit idle when Dow tries to go about business as usual.

We are also appalled at the insensitivity and greed of the management of the Citi Center who are willing to provide space to criminals and those who poison children. Some of us are regular visitors to Citi Center. But we will boycott Citi Center and will encourage our friends and family to do the same.

We urge you to evict Dow Chemical and issue a press statement to that effect.

Sincerely,

(all of us signed)

and below is the press report :

Evict Dow from Citi Center: Kids tell mall owners

3 December, 2007. CHENNAI -- Marking the 23^rd anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, more than 150 Chennai children aged between 12 and 16 gathered at the central lobby of the Citi Center mall to demand for the eviction of Dow Chemical from the premises. Dow Chemical, the new owner of Union Carbide, has an office in the 6^th Floor of the upmarket mall in Mylapore. Union Carbide, which was declared an absconder by a criminal court in Bhopal in 1991, was taken over by Dow Chemical in 2001. Dow has refused to produce Union Carbide in court, even while providing an avenue for Carbide to continue profiting from sales in the Indian market without threat of arrest. With the help of industry leaders like Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, Dow has managed to win the favour of the Prime Minister’s office which has promised to write off Dow’s liabilities in Bhopal if the company invests heavily in India.

“We are ashamed of the Government of India’s stance of welcoming Dow to the country, and want to make it clear to the residents of Bhopal that the people of India believe in their struggle, and the children of Chennai will not sit idle when Dow tries to go about business as usual,” said a spokesperson for the children who are organized as “Chennai for Bhopal.”

In February 2007, Dow Chemical was fined $300,000 by a US Government agency for having paid Rs. 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian officials to license a pesticide that was banned in the US because of its harmful effects on children’s brains. The company continues to market this pesticide which is called Dursban.

The children, many of whom are regular visitors to the Citi Center mall, said they will boycott the unethical mall and will encourage their other friends to do the same. “If the people in control of Citi Center have children, we believe they will take our actions in the right spirit and evict Dow from their premises,” the children said.

The children also distributed pamphlets that alerted other shops in Citi Center that their neighbour – Dow Chemical/Union Carbide – was a murderer charged with the murder of more than 8000 people in the Bhopal disaster.

On December 3, 1984, a poisonous gas leaked from Union Carbide’s underdesigned pesticide factory in Bhopal. At least 500,000 people were exposed to the poisonous gases that night. Union Carbide ran away to its home country, the United States of America, leaving behind thousands of tons of toxic wastes in and around its factory premises. The wastes have leached poisons into the groundwater. More than 25000 people consume the contaminated groundwater for want of a clean alternative. The incidence of birth defects and congenital deformities in the community is alarmingly high.

(the article is not all that great but it's better than nothing. i don't like them referring to us as children*****)

i guess that's all and i guess there'll be sequels to this article

***** personal opinion... no offense meant!!!

thank you
sangeetha

A few questions....

A couple of things said sparked of this bit of thoughts in me...someone said they felt pity for the homeless and another person happened to agree - this sparked of the whole thing i guess i should be thanking them in someways...

there are a few questions... would you like to be pitied? i know i won't because when someone says the they pity somebody else it's an obvious implication thing that they are greatful not to be in the position of the pitied ; implies that you are in a greater level than the person (many are not aware of this). Most people might not agree to this anyway it's my thought and i am entitled to it. (have a great problem that you can't read on then SCREW OFF!)

This is only part of my problem with pity. the other part is that in this case they both happened to express their pity for the homeless during the rainy season. i must in this point acknowledge the fact from being completely ignorant brats to pitying for the sake of it brats. Now that we are capable of thinking about them what is the next step? we need some action! they can't make a protective shield out of your pity and sleep under it without getting wet!
At this point we come to another related question.. is compassion enough? do we need an action which follows it?

i heard about the club which does 'social service' and this lady the president or whatever you like to call the head of the club comes up and says "...by doing social service and helping other people and meeting them is the beginning of compassion.." Great we feel compassionate about something but can we actually do something?i think it's time some action followed the uncontrollable compassion! well there is one more category to this.. people who do something so that they can feel good about having done something...the satisfaction for the self is higher.. and it's also a 'class' thing to do social service like consuming more shows more 'class'.

i happened to go to a dinner where we ordered drinks (non - alcoholic don't get any ideas) , i finished off my martini leaving no traces of it while my other diners looked at me weirdly..i noticed when they put the glass down.. it was half full! apparently later i learnt that it was showing class... buying something expensive and not finishing is showing that u can afford to buy and waste [these are the so called elite people whom otherwise would have preffered not to eat with! i thank for the opportunity]

on my unknown quest i happened to hit a couple of puzzling questions...
a) Doing the right thing for the wrong reason - like i think the name is Anegon but apparently he chooses the wrong side to support to save his wife..but in the end ends up loosing his wife!
b) Doing the wrong thing for the right reason - an example of this could be the beach cleaning project.. spending soo much money is not necessary and so are the grass with need to be maintained and statues which need to painted and polished to maintain it's unnatural look.

one more thing that struck me was you know making a personal statement before making a public statement. Many people support one cause or another just for publicity sake which is totally defies the point. you need to know both sides of the coin before we create any perspectives about the issue as an whole.

Ah and one last thing for those people with an attitude like "Can't really do anything about it..atleast not right now"....When will it be the right time? i hope the 'right time' comes sooner

thank you for reading what i randomly had to say
sangeetha

P.S any similarity to what anyone said ;did , anything is purely coincidental...
anything else leave a comment i'll look at it when it's the right time! =D

An EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTALIST…!

A TRUE ENVIRONMENTALIST
I pity the poor,
If the rain continues… (Humph)
All shall be lost.

Said the Man,
With the five bedroom mansion.

They’ll loose all their possessions,
Clothes, vessels,
Everything precious.

Said the Man,
Checking, absently his Rs.40, 000 worth watch.

Imagine how cold,
They must feel,
And how stinky their surroundings.

Said the Man,
Wearing expensive perfume,
And sitting in an air conditioned room.

How starved and hungry
They must be,
Having lost a day’s wages.

Said the Man
Stuffing a fried chicken into his mouth.

I pity them, he repeated
With an intense look,
Filled with compassion.

Everyone marveled and praised his social conscious

Is the Man….
A hypocrite…
A dumb fool…
Or just
An EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTALIST…


any similarities to anyone or anything is purely coincidental. =D
thank you
sangeetha

Tall Thin and Slim !

IF SOUTH AFRICA WAS SUPER POWER…..
When ever a child is born in my family my mother would always comment that ‘the child is fair and beautiful’ or when ever she attends a wedding the bride was 'tall fair and beautiful.’ Ever wondered why the adjectives tall, fair, and slim are always linked to beauty?

When ever i tell a adult that racism exists in India, i am often told that these things exist only in the US and other foreign countries. And if you are somebody who thinks along these lines then go buy newspaper and look at the matrimonial section.
What does it say? WANTED tall, thin, fair, traditional bride with a B.E degree. yeah and also these requirements are classified caste wise! Well now try defending yourselves.

My theory, this is because America is the ‘super power’. They are a home to many multinational companies. Therefore constant stereotypical advertisements spoil people’s minds. But try pointing this fact out to anyone and they will deny that they are brainwashed by advertisements. Then again, truth is always bitter.

Ever wondered what our world would be like if history had been different? What will it be like if South Africa was the ‘super power’? People would link being dark to being beautiful. Curly hair would be in. Anything below 6 feet would be considered short and being plump would be considered beautiful. Makeup would be created to make people look dark.

Or what would our world be like if an Asian country, say China was ‘super power’. Being short would be in. Having small feet would be something worth bragging about.
Surgery will be done to have chinky eyes.

Why is it not possible, in today’s world, to imagine a short, dark skinned, bushy haired, buck teethed, pimple faced, fat, girl who wears spectacles winning the Miss Universe title? At least can she have the freedom of just being herself without others adding prefixes about her looks, be it good or bad!

In conclusion is it possible to not term someone as beautiful? The minute a person is termed beautiful, everyone who doesn’t meet the criteria of beauty is termed not beautiful- ugly. Is it possible to accept all morphological appearances with out separating them into pretty and terrible because, let me tell you, constantly comparing yourself to a model on a glossy magazine cover is no fun. One more thing all this starts very young...i'd say television, computers and movies have a great impact on children and adults but i'll save that topic for the next entry.

After all true beauty lies in the heart and not in the body…. What do u think?

By Revathi and Sangeetha

Coming Of The Agricultural Era

The coming of the agricultural era signified a major change in the course of human existence on earth.
yeah wondering how the agricultural era signified a major change in course?
well... with the concept of agriculture came the concept owning nature. owning a piece of land... protecting it from other fellow humans... growing what they wanted. I'd say this is the fundamental idea which has lead to today's calamities.

During the hunter gatherers era they looked at nature as something beyond their control. They saw themselves as part of the environment, as one of the many beings on earth and coexisted. They ,were very sensitive towards nature, never hunted in the during the breeding season.

The first idea of owning something of nature comes from the pastorals. The came the settled agriculture where the blocked of land and claimed to own it. the agrarians looked at nature as something that could be tamed and brought under control.

The best way is to live sustainably....we are right now met with a diverged road are we going to choose the conventional capitalist way and the road back to nature? i'll tell you my choice definitely the road back to nature. where i can be part of the environment again, take as little as possible and give back what i take in someway or the other...

yours naturally,
sangeetha