This post is mostly for myself, a way to quickly listen to any of my favorites at any time instead of searching on Youtube. But you are also welcome to listen...
Mozart: Symphony no. 25 k. 183, Wiener Philharmoniker, Conductor: Karl Bohm
(Remember those old Titan Advertisements?! Listen at 1:40 mins)
Jacques Offenbach: "Orphée aux Enfers" (Can Can)
Khachaturian: Sabre dance, Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
Rossini: William Tell Overture, l'Orchestra della Scala, Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Rimsky-Korsakov: Procession of the Nobles
Rimsky Korsakov: Flight of the bumblebee, Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana, O fortuna.
(Remember the Old Spice advertisement?)
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Beethoven: Ninth Symphony, NBC Orchestra, Conductor: Toscanini
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite
Igor Stravinsky: lullaby and Final Hymn, Firebird
(A rare video of Stravinsky conducting his own Firebird)
Antonin Dvorak: Carnival Overture, Boston Symphony, Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
J S Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 2, Mvmt 3, Conductor: Claudio Abbado
John Philip Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever, Boston Pops
Puccini: Nessun Dorma, Turandot, The three tenors: Domingo, Carreras, Pavarotti, Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Some of the best Piano pieces:
1)Mozart, Rondo Alla Turca KV 331 (Sylvia Cápova.)
2)Beethoven, Fur Elise (Marián Pivka).
3)Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata: Adagio Sostenuto.
4)Beethoven, Pathetique Sonata 3rd Movement.
5)Chopin, Waltz Op.64 No.1, Minute Waltz.
6)Chopin, Grand Valse Brillante, Op. 18.
7)Chopin, Polonaise in C Sharp Minor, Op. 26 (Ida Cernecka).
8)Chopin, Etude op.10 No.1, Allegro (Freddy Kempf).
9)Chopin, Etude op.10 No.3, Tristesse (Freddy Kempf).
10)Chopin, Etude Op. 10, No. 12 Revolutionary Etude (Sylvia Cápova).
11) Liszt, Liebestraume No. 3, Dreams of Love.
12) Liszt, Etude No.3 La Campanella.
13) Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
14) Schumann, Kinderszenen Op.15 Träumerei.
15)Rachmaninov, Prelude in G minor op.23 (Vladimir Ashkenazy).
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Flight of the bumble-bee
Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Composition: Flight of the bumblebee
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Composition: Flight of the bumblebee
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Thursday, June 26, 2008
From Russia with Love
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Venue: Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Wednesday, June 25 at 7:00 pm.
Conductor: Rossen Milanov
Compositions:
Musorgsky: A night on Bald Mountain
Rimsky-Korsakov: Caproccio espagnol
Tchaikovsky: Waltz from 'The sleeping beauty'
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op.34, No.14
Prokofiev: "Montagues and Capulets" from Romeo and Juliet, Op.64
Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47
Strvinsky: Suite form 'The Firebird'
Very impressive performance, it was completely enjoyable even for a person like me without any background in music. Although some patrons chose to sleep through the program, perhaps dragged in after a tiring day at office by their music loving wife, the majority in the hall was wide awake and applauded at the end of each piece enthusiastically. It was a place for snooty, high-class people and so I had to dress up and had to even wear a tie, polish my shoes and comb my hair. Tomorrow I am going back to listen to pieces of American composers like Bernstein and Souse. I hope that it will also be equally enjoyable.
Venue: Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Wednesday, June 25 at 7:00 pm.
Conductor: Rossen Milanov
Compositions:
Musorgsky: A night on Bald Mountain
Rimsky-Korsakov: Caproccio espagnol
Tchaikovsky: Waltz from 'The sleeping beauty'
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op.34, No.14
Prokofiev: "Montagues and Capulets" from Romeo and Juliet, Op.64
Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47
Strvinsky: Suite form 'The Firebird'
Very impressive performance, it was completely enjoyable even for a person like me without any background in music. Although some patrons chose to sleep through the program, perhaps dragged in after a tiring day at office by their music loving wife, the majority in the hall was wide awake and applauded at the end of each piece enthusiastically. It was a place for snooty, high-class people and so I had to dress up and had to even wear a tie, polish my shoes and comb my hair. Tomorrow I am going back to listen to pieces of American composers like Bernstein and Souse. I hope that it will also be equally enjoyable.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Obituary: Sir Andrei Valet
STEVEN CATACOMB
FUNERALSHIRE, 31 Feb- Sir Andrei Valet (Pronunciation: \ˈva-lət, ˈva-(ˌ)lā, va-ˈlā\), CBE, eminent social activist and owner of StolenAuto Corp., has passed away in his sleep last night. He was 99 years, 364 days old. His physician, Dr. Sarcophagus, reported that over-excitement from anticipation of the congratulatory birthday card from the Queen, which he was supposed to receive the next day, led to a massive cardiac arrest. Sir Valet is survived by his wife, 7 children (3 legal, 2 disowned, 2 never-owned) and 25 grandchildren. He is credited with conceiving the idea of 'Valet Parking', a kind of parking service that is now widely offered by posh restaurants and hotels in North America, where a personnel from the establishment will park the customer's car, thereby saving the hassles of 'self-parking' to incompetent drivers.
Although Valet Parking is nowadays offered as a service, Sir Valet, then known as Andrei Azmakhov Valenolovich, had originally used this idea to fool rich customers into handing over the keys to him for parking, and thus allowing him to steal the expensive cars quite easily. This innovative approach in automobile theft caught attention of the international media in early 1930s when Sir Valet, then a mere auto-thief in a Moscow shanty, boldly used the pretext of 'Valet Parking' to steal Comrade Joseph Stalin's official red limo outside the 'People's and Worker's Restaurant' -a Moscow downtown restaurant which at that time was restricted to only high profile members of the Government. That night Stalin was accompanying famous Englishman, George Bernard Shaw, to dinner. Andrei fled Russia in fear of persecution and traveled to United Kingdom where he sought political asylum. The British tabloids lavishly praised him for his courage to stand up against a tyrant by daring to steal his car. However Bernard Shaw, who was supposed to be a witness to the incident, refused to testify before any Magistrate whether it was indeed Andrei Valet who had stolen the car that night, and instead claimed that Stalin would have never agreed to 'valet park' his favorite red car. Officials however had dismissed Mr. Shaw's statement since he was well-known for his sympathetic views towards Stalin's regime. Whatever the truth might have been, it is often suggested that later in his life Sir Valet had helped the British intelligence to plot similar attempts to steal Herr Hitler's car. Upon personal recommendation from Sir Winston Churchill, Andrei was awarded the Knighthood in 1954, although his critics alleged that Churchill was bestowing this honor on Andrei to prevent him from coveting Churchill's brand new car which he had purchased that year with his Nobel prize money.
Sir Andrei Valet became a successful auto-parts dealer in his own right and even started his own manufacturing company in 1948, the StolenAuto Corp. -a name that suggests Sir Valet's love for good humor. However his company's reputation has suffered greatly in the recent years following several legal battles over complaints of real stolen cars being repainted and resold with new registration numbers. In a note scribbled on tissue-paper that Mr. Thug, the Vice-President of StolenAuto Corp., has sent to our News Bureau, he described that "the Company employees will always remember Sir Valet as a formidable boss" and "although everyone is grief-stricken, tomorrow we will be having a grand party at the HQ as per the last wishes of Sir Valet, which he had mentioned only to the trustees and stockholders in private." Sir Valet leaves behind a legacy of a courageous man, a visionary, a philanthropist and a life-long activist for human rights. A funeral mass will be held in his memory tomorrow afternoon by Rev. Grave at the local Catholic Church, where Lord Banter, Earl of Shortford, will be reading a condolence message from the Queen.
FUNERALSHIRE, 31 Feb- Sir Andrei Valet (Pronunciation: \ˈva-lət, ˈva-(ˌ)lā, va-ˈlā\), CBE, eminent social activist and owner of StolenAuto Corp., has passed away in his sleep last night. He was 99 years, 364 days old. His physician, Dr. Sarcophagus, reported that over-excitement from anticipation of the congratulatory birthday card from the Queen, which he was supposed to receive the next day, led to a massive cardiac arrest. Sir Valet is survived by his wife, 7 children (3 legal, 2 disowned, 2 never-owned) and 25 grandchildren. He is credited with conceiving the idea of 'Valet Parking', a kind of parking service that is now widely offered by posh restaurants and hotels in North America, where a personnel from the establishment will park the customer's car, thereby saving the hassles of 'self-parking' to incompetent drivers.
Although Valet Parking is nowadays offered as a service, Sir Valet, then known as Andrei Azmakhov Valenolovich, had originally used this idea to fool rich customers into handing over the keys to him for parking, and thus allowing him to steal the expensive cars quite easily. This innovative approach in automobile theft caught attention of the international media in early 1930s when Sir Valet, then a mere auto-thief in a Moscow shanty, boldly used the pretext of 'Valet Parking' to steal Comrade Joseph Stalin's official red limo outside the 'People's and Worker's Restaurant' -a Moscow downtown restaurant which at that time was restricted to only high profile members of the Government. That night Stalin was accompanying famous Englishman, George Bernard Shaw, to dinner. Andrei fled Russia in fear of persecution and traveled to United Kingdom where he sought political asylum. The British tabloids lavishly praised him for his courage to stand up against a tyrant by daring to steal his car. However Bernard Shaw, who was supposed to be a witness to the incident, refused to testify before any Magistrate whether it was indeed Andrei Valet who had stolen the car that night, and instead claimed that Stalin would have never agreed to 'valet park' his favorite red car. Officials however had dismissed Mr. Shaw's statement since he was well-known for his sympathetic views towards Stalin's regime. Whatever the truth might have been, it is often suggested that later in his life Sir Valet had helped the British intelligence to plot similar attempts to steal Herr Hitler's car. Upon personal recommendation from Sir Winston Churchill, Andrei was awarded the Knighthood in 1954, although his critics alleged that Churchill was bestowing this honor on Andrei to prevent him from coveting Churchill's brand new car which he had purchased that year with his Nobel prize money.
Sir Andrei Valet became a successful auto-parts dealer in his own right and even started his own manufacturing company in 1948, the StolenAuto Corp. -a name that suggests Sir Valet's love for good humor. However his company's reputation has suffered greatly in the recent years following several legal battles over complaints of real stolen cars being repainted and resold with new registration numbers. In a note scribbled on tissue-paper that Mr. Thug, the Vice-President of StolenAuto Corp., has sent to our News Bureau, he described that "the Company employees will always remember Sir Valet as a formidable boss" and "although everyone is grief-stricken, tomorrow we will be having a grand party at the HQ as per the last wishes of Sir Valet, which he had mentioned only to the trustees and stockholders in private." Sir Valet leaves behind a legacy of a courageous man, a visionary, a philanthropist and a life-long activist for human rights. A funeral mass will be held in his memory tomorrow afternoon by Rev. Grave at the local Catholic Church, where Lord Banter, Earl of Shortford, will be reading a condolence message from the Queen.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Why CPM wins in West Bengal?
Over the last few months the Communist Party of India and its Leftist allies have had a really bad press over issues like Nandigram, Singur and their opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal. Particularly the Left Front Government led by CPI(M), the bracketed Marxist group, has been in the line of fire from the Indian media. Even the Left leaning Bengal elites were vociferous in their criticism. Whenever such troubling events unfold, any Bengali, in my opinion, should avoid any serious political discussion with non-Bengali colleagues, because then you will have to explain to them why Bengalis vote for CPI(M), which, without any shard of doubt, is an onerous task -you will have to walk a very thin line. For example, in the Nandigram incident, if you try to argue that Industrialization is important and the opposition may have played a role in fomenting violence, then the chances are high that you will be branded as a Communist. On the other hand if you criticize the Government unequivocally and convince your colleagues that you are not a Communist goon, then you will have to answer even a more difficult question -"Why Commies win in Bengal?".
This situation is even trickier because now if you support Mamata Banerjee, then you can either blast fellow Bengalis for electing Communists to office or use rigging in polls by CPM cadres as a possible explanation. But if you neither support Mamata nor the CPM and you want to probe deeper to really answer why CPM gets elected, then boy, you are in for some trouble!
Believe me.
I happen to be a registered voter of the South Calcutta constituency where Mamata Banerjee won in the last couple of elections. However I have never voted in any election as I had left Calcutta long before I even got my Voter's ID card. Strangely enough, even then at times I find myself being held responsible and answerable for the three decade long rule of CPM in Bengal. Therefore to settle the deal for once and all, I will now write down my take on this issue. Before doing so I need to state two things: (1) if I were to ever cast a vote, I will not support Mamata Banerjee unless she takes a few English lessons and develops some etiquettes (Yes, I do not want to be embarrassed by my CM, esp not after having seen President Bush and Laloo Yadav). (2) I am not a Communist -democracy and freedom of speech are very dear to me.
There is no doubt that the Communists have done immense harm to West Bengal- by not taking advantage of the Software boom in time, by slow-poisoning most Industries or at least by not doing enough to save them, and by running a corrupt Government. It was the growing frustration with Jyoti Basu's Government that led people to turn to Mamata Banerjee, whose clean image, fierce criticism of Govt policies and repeated antics appealed to many. Even the snobbish liberal Calcuttans, who had always felt that Bengal was in safe hands of CPM, were forced to put down their 'The Telegraph' to consider her seriously for the post of CM. Calcutta gave its verdict in 1998-99 elections when all the five constituencies of the city and two in its suburbs went to Mamata's Trinamool-BJP alliance. The newspapers proclaimed mockingly that CPM Government was ruling over a Bengal without the capital. The situation could have got worse if Jyoti Basu had continued to stay in power. His successor, Budhhadeb Bhattacharya was a man who brought hope, for he put behind the age-old Communist hostility to Industries and became what can be best described as a "Capitalist Communist". He has been a popular CM so far, and once again Calcutta came back as a CPM stronghold.
Having covered the basic history in a nutshell, now is the time to analyze why Bengalis favor CPM. This question has alluded many of my friends, and I am sure there are others too who ask the same question- "How can you guys vote for the same Government for 30 years?" my friends will gasp, and I will respond in a sarcastic tone, "Yeah, you guys are lucky, you get to elect new film stars in every election, especially those who can play Shiva and Parvathi well!" (if he is from the South) or "because Bengalis won't vote for BJP" (if he is from North).
Though these may sound facetious, they do contain many elements of truth. In rural Bengal CPM is probably popular because of the land-reform and redistribution initiatives etc, but I will restrict myself to analyzing the psyche of the people in the city of Calcutta since I can only comment on things that I have seen and experienced.
Calcuttans, by and large, do have a socialist leaning, a left-liberal inclination and an utter disdain for uneducated politicians (especially their next door illiterate goons in Bihar). Moreover they are quite secular in nature, and definitely scared of any remote possibility of a bloodbath -so Modi has no chance in Bengal however hard he may try to motivate Hindutva among Bengalis. The chances of the likes of Shiv Sena are even less because Bengalis care the least whether Valentine's Day cards and gifts are a Western custom or not. Surely our culture is not so weak that it will be ruined if we allow some other traditions to coexist. To add to the anger of Shiv Sena cadets, here is some news: Deepa Mehta's 'Fire' was screened in cinema halls in Calcutta and nobody rolled their eyes at it. In fact Calcutta went to become the first city to support a huge gay rally on the streets, effectively laughing in the face of the antiquated Indian Penal Code that describes same-sex relation as illegal. So BJP and Shiv Sena simply do not have the right cards to play in Bengal. Caste-based politics is also absent in Bengal (thankfully!) and so Mayawati and Karunanidhi also have the wrong cards. And Rajnikanth's on-screen antics can only turn away the voters in Calcutta. Above everything is the fact that Calcuttans are happy with what they have, and this remarkable complacency comes from a deep faith in their culture and heritage. This is indeed a difficult concept to get across. To the rest of India, Calcutta just stands as a forgotten former capital -still lost in a reverie of its former glory, indifferent to the changing world, but to Calcuttans it is an abode of peace, culture and tolerance, untouched by bourgeoisie lust, fundamentalist hatred and ignorant conservatism.
CPM wins simply because there is no viable alternative for Bengalis. Mamata is too frivolous and is even incapable of holding her party together. In short, she has lost her chance. Her frequent antics and state-wide strikes are only coming to bite her back. Congress is too weak as a party to take on CPM. And as for CPM, they have been playing the cards right- they maintain a secular and socialist nature, they keep the prices of essential commodities remarkably low, they have been trying to boost the State's economy and increase jobs, they play in tune with the liberal intelligentsia and they make sure that they have somewhat educated party leaders- that's all it takes to win over the Bengalis.
This situation is even trickier because now if you support Mamata Banerjee, then you can either blast fellow Bengalis for electing Communists to office or use rigging in polls by CPM cadres as a possible explanation. But if you neither support Mamata nor the CPM and you want to probe deeper to really answer why CPM gets elected, then boy, you are in for some trouble!
Believe me.
I happen to be a registered voter of the South Calcutta constituency where Mamata Banerjee won in the last couple of elections. However I have never voted in any election as I had left Calcutta long before I even got my Voter's ID card. Strangely enough, even then at times I find myself being held responsible and answerable for the three decade long rule of CPM in Bengal. Therefore to settle the deal for once and all, I will now write down my take on this issue. Before doing so I need to state two things: (1) if I were to ever cast a vote, I will not support Mamata Banerjee unless she takes a few English lessons and develops some etiquettes (Yes, I do not want to be embarrassed by my CM, esp not after having seen President Bush and Laloo Yadav). (2) I am not a Communist -democracy and freedom of speech are very dear to me.
There is no doubt that the Communists have done immense harm to West Bengal- by not taking advantage of the Software boom in time, by slow-poisoning most Industries or at least by not doing enough to save them, and by running a corrupt Government. It was the growing frustration with Jyoti Basu's Government that led people to turn to Mamata Banerjee, whose clean image, fierce criticism of Govt policies and repeated antics appealed to many. Even the snobbish liberal Calcuttans, who had always felt that Bengal was in safe hands of CPM, were forced to put down their 'The Telegraph' to consider her seriously for the post of CM. Calcutta gave its verdict in 1998-99 elections when all the five constituencies of the city and two in its suburbs went to Mamata's Trinamool-BJP alliance. The newspapers proclaimed mockingly that CPM Government was ruling over a Bengal without the capital. The situation could have got worse if Jyoti Basu had continued to stay in power. His successor, Budhhadeb Bhattacharya was a man who brought hope, for he put behind the age-old Communist hostility to Industries and became what can be best described as a "Capitalist Communist". He has been a popular CM so far, and once again Calcutta came back as a CPM stronghold.
Having covered the basic history in a nutshell, now is the time to analyze why Bengalis favor CPM. This question has alluded many of my friends, and I am sure there are others too who ask the same question- "How can you guys vote for the same Government for 30 years?" my friends will gasp, and I will respond in a sarcastic tone, "Yeah, you guys are lucky, you get to elect new film stars in every election, especially those who can play Shiva and Parvathi well!" (if he is from the South) or "because Bengalis won't vote for BJP" (if he is from North).
Though these may sound facetious, they do contain many elements of truth. In rural Bengal CPM is probably popular because of the land-reform and redistribution initiatives etc, but I will restrict myself to analyzing the psyche of the people in the city of Calcutta since I can only comment on things that I have seen and experienced.
Calcuttans, by and large, do have a socialist leaning, a left-liberal inclination and an utter disdain for uneducated politicians (especially their next door illiterate goons in Bihar). Moreover they are quite secular in nature, and definitely scared of any remote possibility of a bloodbath -so Modi has no chance in Bengal however hard he may try to motivate Hindutva among Bengalis. The chances of the likes of Shiv Sena are even less because Bengalis care the least whether Valentine's Day cards and gifts are a Western custom or not. Surely our culture is not so weak that it will be ruined if we allow some other traditions to coexist. To add to the anger of Shiv Sena cadets, here is some news: Deepa Mehta's 'Fire' was screened in cinema halls in Calcutta and nobody rolled their eyes at it. In fact Calcutta went to become the first city to support a huge gay rally on the streets, effectively laughing in the face of the antiquated Indian Penal Code that describes same-sex relation as illegal. So BJP and Shiv Sena simply do not have the right cards to play in Bengal. Caste-based politics is also absent in Bengal (thankfully!) and so Mayawati and Karunanidhi also have the wrong cards. And Rajnikanth's on-screen antics can only turn away the voters in Calcutta. Above everything is the fact that Calcuttans are happy with what they have, and this remarkable complacency comes from a deep faith in their culture and heritage. This is indeed a difficult concept to get across. To the rest of India, Calcutta just stands as a forgotten former capital -still lost in a reverie of its former glory, indifferent to the changing world, but to Calcuttans it is an abode of peace, culture and tolerance, untouched by bourgeoisie lust, fundamentalist hatred and ignorant conservatism.
CPM wins simply because there is no viable alternative for Bengalis. Mamata is too frivolous and is even incapable of holding her party together. In short, she has lost her chance. Her frequent antics and state-wide strikes are only coming to bite her back. Congress is too weak as a party to take on CPM. And as for CPM, they have been playing the cards right- they maintain a secular and socialist nature, they keep the prices of essential commodities remarkably low, they have been trying to boost the State's economy and increase jobs, they play in tune with the liberal intelligentsia and they make sure that they have somewhat educated party leaders- that's all it takes to win over the Bengalis.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Friends of the Earth
It was only after Al Gore won both the Nobel Prize and an Academy Award for his horror film on Global Warming that the new fad of 'doing something for the environment' really caught onto people. 'Friends of the Earth' and other clubs specializing in environment related issues sprung up overnight across the University campus, making everyones life quite miserable by pestering for signatures and donations to save the environment. However I was quite skeptic about the whole thing in the beginning, as I had assumed that President Bush's plan of including the sun in the axis of evil -according to the ongoing rumors following a White House memo leak- will solve the matter. Or at least the scientists would surely be able to find a way to reduce sun's temperature. But when my physicist friends informed me that it wasn't a feasible solution, I became a bit concerned for the first time. And when I found my money plant shriveled and lying dead in its pot after the four days of scorching heat wave, I finally decided that it was time to take things in my own hand. I quickly grabbed my purse, drove down two blocks to the apartment that housed the 'Friends of the Earth' and paid to register myself as a member. I vowed to work with them till every single human being was terrorized with the fear that the earth was a toast.
I started to enjoy working with this new group, specially because now every evening I could drive for two blocks in my new car. Since most of the shops and the University were very close to my apartment, I never had to go out in my car, but now this two block drive everyday, which although took less than two minutes, was at least giving me an opportunity to drive around. It was all good until the price of gasoline hit $4 per gallon, and I had to sell off my car to break-even with the cost of refilling my lighter.
As an active member of this group, I really worked very hard, often accosting people and pestering them to sign a petition for a new environment friendly legislation or bullying school children to sign petitions under their parent's name. Although I was diligent in my work, I must admit that sometimes this work seemed boring, and standing under the shade of some tree with my petition book in hand, I wondered if it was better to take up some other summer jobs. I toyed with such immoral thoughts before being struck by a sense of duty on catching a glimpse of two slender legs in a miniskirt and speeding up to them in quick steps to start a chat, obviously starting out with global warming before quickly moving onto other more interesting topics.
My diligence earned me the admiration of my peers and before I knew it I was made the President of the club. Only later I realized that the post of the President became available after the last incumbent had found it wiser to take up a summer job than to spend time collecting signatures of people who didn't give a hoot about the environment. As the President I felt the need to restructure the organization and to declare a manifesto. Writing a manifesto proved to be no easy task. I toiled for days, in fact months, before I had finally penned down my thoughts. It was a whooping 800 pages of facts, figures and threats about the impending doom. My colleagues at the club were impressed immensely, and some of them even compared me to Gore himself.
One of the members whose father owned a press felt that this manifesto could be made into a book, and before I knew it the typesetters were at work. I wanted the fonts to be large so as to make it easy for people of every age to read, but when I realized that it would indirectly mean cutting down more trees, I reluctantly agreed to lower the font size. The book became an instant success in the market and climbed to the top of the bestsellers list. My guess would be that people found the cover, that showed a penguin with its wings on fire, more attractive than the contents. The success of this book threw me into the limelight. I was congratulated by the Mayor and was invited for many talk shows, for which I had to fly from East coast to West and back many times a month. Our club was also now a much bigger organization. We got monetary help from many companies, surprisingly from some automobile and oil companies as well, and we accepted their donations gratefully. Soon we left our old apartment and moved into a bigger club house that was made after clearing off a part of the Old City Park and its adjacent pond. 'Friends of the Earth' became a major voice against environmentally destructive Government policies. We protested against almost everything -plastic bags, Chinese toys, SUVs, deforestation and so on.
Just when we were at the height of our success, a major problem broke out among the members. It was about the 'Animal Rights'. A faction wanted to start campaigns under the banner of 'animal rights' and they wanted to make a difference by starting an attack on the poultry farms, slaughterhouses and non-vegetarians. This was a radical idea to begin with, and I vehemently objected, and so did a few of my loyal supporters. But the 'animal rights' group had started off aggressively brainwashing the superdelegates of our association and was gaining support among them. We debated for hours whether animals were a part of the environment or not, and discussed the possible adverse effects should we divert our attention from the major environmental problems to include problems of animals as well in our agenda. Clearly it wasn't a part of the 800 page manifesto I had written. We tried a vote among the members, but the results were inconclusive as most of the superdelegates voted on both sides. It was a real political deadlock that the association was facing since its inception. Things were getting out of hand just when I received an offer letter from ExxonMobil and found it better to accept it. Within days I was impeached and my loyal supporters left the association in rage, blaming the animal rights wing for the breakup. The animal rights wing took over the 'Friends of the Earth' and changed its name to 'Friends of Earth and Animals'. I kept myself busy at my new job and quite forgot about them, until I bumped into one of my old loyalists last night who informed me that the 'Friends of Earth and Animals' had ceased to exist after a scandalous incident involving a photograph taken by Paparazzi that showed the incumbent president and many members of the group devouring platefuls of Kung-Fu Chicken in a cheap Chinatown restaurant .
I started to enjoy working with this new group, specially because now every evening I could drive for two blocks in my new car. Since most of the shops and the University were very close to my apartment, I never had to go out in my car, but now this two block drive everyday, which although took less than two minutes, was at least giving me an opportunity to drive around. It was all good until the price of gasoline hit $4 per gallon, and I had to sell off my car to break-even with the cost of refilling my lighter.
As an active member of this group, I really worked very hard, often accosting people and pestering them to sign a petition for a new environment friendly legislation or bullying school children to sign petitions under their parent's name. Although I was diligent in my work, I must admit that sometimes this work seemed boring, and standing under the shade of some tree with my petition book in hand, I wondered if it was better to take up some other summer jobs. I toyed with such immoral thoughts before being struck by a sense of duty on catching a glimpse of two slender legs in a miniskirt and speeding up to them in quick steps to start a chat, obviously starting out with global warming before quickly moving onto other more interesting topics.
My diligence earned me the admiration of my peers and before I knew it I was made the President of the club. Only later I realized that the post of the President became available after the last incumbent had found it wiser to take up a summer job than to spend time collecting signatures of people who didn't give a hoot about the environment. As the President I felt the need to restructure the organization and to declare a manifesto. Writing a manifesto proved to be no easy task. I toiled for days, in fact months, before I had finally penned down my thoughts. It was a whooping 800 pages of facts, figures and threats about the impending doom. My colleagues at the club were impressed immensely, and some of them even compared me to Gore himself.
One of the members whose father owned a press felt that this manifesto could be made into a book, and before I knew it the typesetters were at work. I wanted the fonts to be large so as to make it easy for people of every age to read, but when I realized that it would indirectly mean cutting down more trees, I reluctantly agreed to lower the font size. The book became an instant success in the market and climbed to the top of the bestsellers list. My guess would be that people found the cover, that showed a penguin with its wings on fire, more attractive than the contents. The success of this book threw me into the limelight. I was congratulated by the Mayor and was invited for many talk shows, for which I had to fly from East coast to West and back many times a month. Our club was also now a much bigger organization. We got monetary help from many companies, surprisingly from some automobile and oil companies as well, and we accepted their donations gratefully. Soon we left our old apartment and moved into a bigger club house that was made after clearing off a part of the Old City Park and its adjacent pond. 'Friends of the Earth' became a major voice against environmentally destructive Government policies. We protested against almost everything -plastic bags, Chinese toys, SUVs, deforestation and so on.
Just when we were at the height of our success, a major problem broke out among the members. It was about the 'Animal Rights'. A faction wanted to start campaigns under the banner of 'animal rights' and they wanted to make a difference by starting an attack on the poultry farms, slaughterhouses and non-vegetarians. This was a radical idea to begin with, and I vehemently objected, and so did a few of my loyal supporters. But the 'animal rights' group had started off aggressively brainwashing the superdelegates of our association and was gaining support among them. We debated for hours whether animals were a part of the environment or not, and discussed the possible adverse effects should we divert our attention from the major environmental problems to include problems of animals as well in our agenda. Clearly it wasn't a part of the 800 page manifesto I had written. We tried a vote among the members, but the results were inconclusive as most of the superdelegates voted on both sides. It was a real political deadlock that the association was facing since its inception. Things were getting out of hand just when I received an offer letter from ExxonMobil and found it better to accept it. Within days I was impeached and my loyal supporters left the association in rage, blaming the animal rights wing for the breakup. The animal rights wing took over the 'Friends of the Earth' and changed its name to 'Friends of Earth and Animals'. I kept myself busy at my new job and quite forgot about them, until I bumped into one of my old loyalists last night who informed me that the 'Friends of Earth and Animals' had ceased to exist after a scandalous incident involving a photograph taken by Paparazzi that showed the incumbent president and many members of the group devouring platefuls of Kung-Fu Chicken in a cheap Chinatown restaurant .
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