Tajamul Hussain While pointing to the basketful of brinjals window-dressed in a vendor's shop Akbar asked Birbal,'Do you see yonder brinjals; are not they a nasty vegetable?' Birbal;ÿ 'zile-illahi! Of course they're nothing but trash; even dogs do not eat them'.
After a month, the emperor, once again accompanied by Birbal looked at the vegetables in the vendor's shop and quizzed, 'the cute looking brinjals make a tasty vegetable'.
Birbal: 'Aalam Panah! It is indeed so.' Akbar:ÿ 'but last time you said, the vegetable was nothing but trash.' Birbal: 'Aalam Panah! But then I'm Zile-illahi's servant and not that of brinjals').
The fear of 'speaking up' or 'disagreeing' is over-determined by both the general nature of humans and the specific realities of the modern economy.
Historically speaking it has been better for survival to 'flee' too often from threats that are not there than to not 'flee' the one time there is a significant risk.
We have in effect inherited emotional and cognitive mechanism that motivates us to avoid perceived risks to our psychological and material well-being.
Turning to the modern economy most of us depend on hierarchical organizations and their agents, i.e.
BOSSES, to meet many of our basic needs for economic support and human relationships- thus the fear of offending those above us.
One way of getting in trouble with those above us is to 'speak up' or 'disagree' as they are always perceived as challenge of authority or critical of cherished programs.
Given the exaggerated and real reasons to fear offending authorities it is not surprising that people calm up when the signals seem unfavourable.
Fear reflexes operate automatically -disagree and you will be hurt in the long run.
Since the costs of disagreement (COD) are high, some people never 'disagree', let alone criticize.
The 'appeasement' being the best solution, these people exhibit a body language that transmits that they are not to be treated some ones who 'speak up' or 'disagree' and are therefore the opponents.ÿ As children, they learnt not to 'disagree' with parents and in effect made all efforts to avert the pain that the 'disagreement' could inflict.
In the school, teacher seldom graded high for one who put up a real argument and disagreed with him.
As adults they knew that, speak your mind and you lose your job; if you do not lose your job you may lose face or a place on the list of fair haired/blue eyed promotables.
You may remain attached 'down in the dumps' with out much hope of getting posted back on a plum position.
Aware of the persecution that Galileo suffered for not showing accommodating spirit, 'sure winners' ensure to swim with the stream.
They learn not to say 'no' even if they know that it will not always be in their best interest to say 'no'.
They follow the principle that their survival depends on their capacity to take on the hue that their masters are likely to assume at any given moment.
Bosses may not morally feel like making cases for spineless conformity or lemmings' obedience as pre-requisite for advancement of people (as for they themselves) to top plum positions.
For their vested interests however they thump the tub to develop 'yes-men' in their subordinate ranks.
Top brass lack awareness of what is really going around them.
Either they are too busy listening to them themselves or listen to anyone else or are too involved in their own corporate/Administrative/political presence to notice what is going around.
They need to have their confidants to do the job.
They usually contrive to have someone else do boasting for them.
As dominants top guys want to have attendant flatterers who sing their praises and help raise their status from low to moderate by judiciously employing this device.
In effect a social niche is provided to the flatters who 'yes' their masters into a false sense of security (and are ready to assert that man and not the Nature should decide how much time take rice to grow and ripen if their masters show signs of annoyance at the time table followed by Nature).
As saying 'Yes' to every thing always is the quality of sweetness and humility, masters like people for their quality of never-saying-no and for hanging around every time for keeping their masters from feeling unduly bothered by conscience or common sense.
As the system itself is the best clue to peer into, the 'sure winners' understand how things really work, who is 'hot' and who is 'not' and where the gang planks and backdoors are.
They make peace with themselves and agree to tackle a position of careful cowardice as members of the system.
Basking in the sunshine of their master's presence assures them of the reflected glory, authority and so on.
Success, status, advancement and money are too valuable to be risked before those who make judgements.
Rather than place all of these symbols in jeopardy these men make compromises which they think are required to hang on.
Perhaps because the servant is commonly regarded as something that can be sold, in the master-servant/superior- subordinate relationship, the self contempt tends to be an essential ingredient to the extent that people don't mind getting treated disrespectfully.
As the virtues of a free person are not to be found in them it is unfair to twit them with the absence of such virtues.
Insults and humiliations meted out mould the characters of the people.
For sheer survival and to be the 'sure winners' in a situation of loot, plunder as also anarchy toads learn to be crafty for making use of lie, selfishness and various forms of deceit/subterfuge.
In the wonderland of 'sure winners' the obsession for a 'walk over' is there to be had.
For being 'beaters' people combine capabilities and skills with other things-savvy people sense, an understanding how the game is played and do things they plan on doing them and for no longer than they plan on doing them.
As 'faster nicks' they learn that it is not what they do and say, but how they look along the way that is going to get them to the top.
While pursuing goals set for themselves, their cost calculations/perceived values of tangibles and intangibles and their performance on job and the achievements entitle them to rewards and gratitude and to be the 'hip shooters' and the 'success stories'.
For they're the gladhanders, often the-old-school-I-am-glad- you-asked-me-that types, the quality of deserving well, excellence and worth is what they call 'merit'.
In our world of paradoxes, where the law of jungle prevails, they're the 'star performers'.
Nothing is impossible for them.
They do not require academic qualifications/brilliance to reach top.
For them sky is the limit.ÿ ÿ They sacrifice and bear humiliation of sinking through the floors, and licking and throwing themselves at the feet of their masters like 'doormat'(placed near doors for wiping dirt from shoes).
They do not mindÿ helping them in household chores, arranging plumbers, gas cylinders, paying children's school fees (and carrying them to school) and at times watering flower pots, serving tea and eatables to the guests and carrying their master's brief cases, luggage and even opening their office/car doors if that means business.
Woodstock, 40 Years On Shreya Ray And it's one, two, three, What are we fighting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam; And it's five, six, seven, Open up the pearly gates, Well there ain't no time to wonder why, Whoopee! we're all gonna die.
-I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag by Country Joe and the Fish With an anthem like this, the three-day peace and music festival called Woodstock 1969 was truly what anti-war American sentiment stood for.
The sixties was a turbulent decade for America and the Vietnam War was perceived as the biggest enemy of the flower-power generation.
Ironically the concert was pretty much rescued by the same establishment that it was opposing-the US Army.
On the first evening of the festival a miscommunication about the timing saw just one singer, Richie Havens, arriving at the scheduled hour.
The festival organisers sent an SOS to the American army which swung into action.
An army helicopter airlifted the other bands and saved the evening.
It is paradoxes like this that made Woodstock '69, the legend that it is.
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair drew more than 4,50,000 people to a pasture in Sullivan County in America and not in the town of Woodstock, as originally planned.
For four days, the site became a counter-cultural mini-nation where songs of freedom, protest and non-conformism were sung.
Ironically Richie Haven's hugely-popular 20-minute song titled Freedom was composed on-the-spot because the other bands hadn't arrived.
Music & A Lot More The festival has inspired generations.
For three days-starting August 15, 1969 people made music.and love.
Minds (and drugs) were free.
Rock 'n' roll and music history was in the making.
All of this, came with its own story.
Advertisements for Woodstock read--Come to Woodstock and do whatever you want to do because nobody will bother you.
And in order for that to be allowed Woodstock Ventures had to cough up $10,000 to grease the wheels of power and make sure they got the necessary approvals.
And it's not just the fixer who sold out to capitalism - but even the artists themselves.
Jimi Hendrix - whose chaotic strumming was supposed to symbolise the destruction in Vietnam-was also the one who demanded $ 32,000 for his act-a whopping sum at that time for one performance.
"We told everyone the high sum was because Hendriks was playing two sets at $16,000 each.
We had to do that, or other music groups would want the same," says an organiser Groups like The Who and The Grateful Dead and singers like Janis Joplin refused to play on Saturday night because they wanted cash in advance.
Woodstock Ventures feared that the fans would cause a riot on stage if it was empty, so they had to make hectic last-minute arrangements and ask a town banker to fetch the money.
After the concert of course, the high-water mark of the counterculture had cost at least 2.4 million hard, capitalist dollars (leaving aside those from the fines, fees, claims and lawsuits).
Organisers Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld had made personal guarantees to pay the bills.
But only Roberts' family - and his own trust fund - had enough assets to pay off Woodstock's huge debt which it eventually did.
Six weeks after the festival, Rosenman and Roberts bought out Lang and Kornfeld for $31,240 each.
And the four young men who had produced and promoted Woodstock were separated for more than 20 years by Woodstock's fallout.
But in the words of Kornfeld himself, "Look, no one person produced Woodstock; the generation produced Woodstock." Which is why, it has-and can-never be recreated.
-(Newsmen Features) Tree House Tourist Resorts Of Kerala Antony Kuriakose Living in a Tree houses was always a part of our childhood dreams, and now if you want it, your can realise it in the tree house resorts of Kerala..
Ten years ago, the Kerala Tourism department found that the hill tribes of Kerala had very good tree houses, to protect them from wild animals especially elephants, had made an art out of building these exotic tree houses and the Kerala Tourism department decided to cash in on this novel way of holiday living, Today the tree houses of the Kerala backwaters are a truly amazing place to stay.
You can stay in wooden lodges high up on trees in the forests, to wake up to the sound of birds, look out of your window and see the spreading branches, ride up and down in a cane lift, balance on rope bridges, and have a memorable holiday.
Tree houses are a place where you will have very close encounters with the various moods of nature, be it the sweet, silent whispers of pristine rainforests or the awe-inspiring allure of misty mountains, the music of gurgling streams or listen to the sound of sparkling waters, the thrill of thundering showers or a day of bright sunshine.
The Kerala treehouse is - not a log cabin built on stilts.
They are the beautifully designed wooden cottages built on top of the trees at an elevation of 20-90 ft above the ground.
Built of eco-friendly raw materials like bamboo poles, coir mats, hay straws, and live trees used as pillar, the tree houses in Kerala are the modified versions of Erumadam, usually built by the forest tribes for their residence, and are maintained with the help of the tribals.
It has one / two floors, all made of boards and bamboo, without driving any nails at all into the tree.
It's all tied together, and holds very well too.
To enhance the pleasure of your stay, all the tree houses are provided with modern amenities.
Each floor has a bedroom, cozy beds, telephone, washbasins, flushable toilets (at 90 feet!) and attached bathrooms with running water, shower facilities and a terrace or a carpeted balcony where you can sit to enjoy the mesmerizing beauty of the nature.
But there is no provision for TV's /laptops/computers as these tree houses are far away from conventional electrical sources.
Solar Energy, gobar gas (from cow dung) and hurricane lamps compensate the absence of conventional electricity here.
Some tree houses can go upto heights of 100 feet from ground level.
This prevents air pollution and noise pollution, thus keeping the environment clean and noise free.
To get up to your rooms in the treehouse, there is a unique elevator working, using a sack of water as a counterweight.
It takes around 15 minutes for the water to fill up, and then you are escorted to a basket that will be your elevator, quite like in the old Phantom comics! The staff pull you up, and you gingerly step out of the lift on to your floor when you reach the top.
When you need to come down from the top, you holler.
The staff responds, starts the water-filling process and gets the elevator-basket ready, and you are hauled down in some 15 minutes.
All the tree houses also have a hanging ladder to reach the ground, in case of an emergency.
Fresh water is obtained from a nearby mountain lake.
You will be served authentic Kerala cuisine in the traditional style.
Instead of plates, you shall have banana leaves and you will have to eat with your hands for a truly finger licking experience.
The pleasure of eating with your fingers is no comparison to forks! Located deep into thickly growing jungle, you are picked up by Jeep and taken up a twisting road.
There, totally secluded from any visible population, an elephant and the manager of the treehouse welcomes you.
There are cottages below, where you can dump your luggage and have a bath, if you want.
The people who manage these tree houses take extra care of those who have come to take a break from the busy and stressful city life.
There is enough to enjoy a few days trekking around if you want, and the resort's own elephant will be happy to give you a ride in exchange for bananas.
While the rates for accommodation vary depending on the location of the tree house the general tariff is Rs 9150 / 2 persons / per day with all meals including taxes.
If yours is a better type of treehouse known as Tree Villa (two double rooms) the rates would be : Rs 18300 / 4 persons /ÿ per day with all meals including taxes.
Extra bed: Rs 1765 with all meals.
Do's and Don't's for tree house guests.
Exercise caution while climbing up the ladders, it the 'water' lift is not working.
Do not lean over balconies or walkways.
Do not venture on to any of the branches.
Do not touch the wires running around the trees.
They are solar-energized check Lines, provided for your security from tree climbing animals.
Ensure that candles or mosquito coils are firmly secured before lighting them.
Foodstuff is banned in the tree houses.
as ants, rats, and monkeys will un-necessarily be attracted.
Do not leave eatables on the verandah, as you would be inviting monkeys into your room.
Avoid smoking.
Ask for a moist ashtray, if you must.
Use the Solar Lanterns with discretion.
The charge lasts for only 4 hours.
Always keep a bucket full of water in the toilet, incase water does not temporarily flow in the pipes.
-(Maharaja Features)
