SHORT STORY: BIRD AND THE VILLAGER

March 15, 2020Uncategorizedbird, branch, flood, kamlesh tripathi, moral, parable, shravancharitymission, skill, swimming, talent, treeshravancharitymission

In today’s challenging times it is extremely important to be both talented and resourceful. No matter in which situation you are, you continuously need to be upgrading your skills and training, so as to be able to get out of it, to your advantage.

Let me draw out an analogy to explain what I’m intending to say. There was once a villager who didn’t know swimming. In the peak of monsoon when his village got flooded and he was very close to drowning. He somehow managed to climb a tree and sit on one of its branches. And, as he was taking a sigh of relief, a bird came and sat on the neighbouring branch. Now both, the villager and the bird were sitting on the same tree.

But imagine the unfortunate situation, where, if the branch of the tree snaps or breaks for some reason. What will happen then? The answer is very obvious. The villager will fall into the flooding, and will die because he cannot swim whereas, the bird will take to its wings and fly-off.

The bird can save itself because it knows the skill of flying. The villager on the contrary hasn’t learned the skill of swimming so he runs the risk of losing his life. Life is very tricky and full of surprises. There is no end to skill and talent building. The villager and the bird only tell us that.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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Shravan Charity Mission is an NGO that works for poor children suffering from life threatening diseases especially cancer. Our posts are meant for our readers that includes both children and adults and it has a huge variety in terms of content. We also accept donations for our mission. Should you wish to donate for the cause. The bank details are given below:

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

(The book is about a young cancer patient. Now archived in 7 prestigious libraries of the US, including, Harvard University and Library of Congress. It can also be accessed in MIT through Worldcat.org. Besides, it is also available for reading in Libraries and archives of Canada and Cancer Aid and Research Foundation Mumbai)

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

(Is a fiction written around the great city of Nawabs—Lucknow. It describes Lucknow in great detail and also talks about its Hindu-Muslim amity. That happens to be its undying characteristic. The book was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival of 2014)

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

(Co-published by Cankids–Kidscan, a pan India NGO and Shravan Charity Mission, that works for Child cancer in India. The book is endorsed by Ms Preetha Reddy, MD Apollo Hospitals Group. It was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival 2016)

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

(Is a story of an Indian salesman who is, humbly qualified. Yet he fights his ways through unceasing uncertainties to reach the top. A good read not only for salesmen. The book was launched on 10^th February, 2018 in Gorakhpur Lit-Fest. Now available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

SPINDRIFT

March 15, 2020Uncategorizedshravancharitymission

Shravan charity mission

Finding is such pure joy. And how rare, too! It had been several years since I had picked up anything when I found a penknife, a Hindi thriller and a five rupee coin, the last named beaming at me from below the seat of a ramshackle bus plying in our very own metropolis. Recalling that Elvis ditty ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’ I closed my eyes, stiffened my sinews and commended my soul to God before picking up the coin glistening in the errant sunbeam which had chanced through one of the innumerable slits in the roof. Nobody noticed. The conductor did raise a quizzical eye brow but that was about all. The term ‘conductor’ through over use has lost its semantic substance. The fellow is basically a logistics manager and with training can outsmart any sophisticated route operator. Even a funambulist might take a cue from the…

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BOOK REVIEW: SIDDHARTHA–An Indian Tale by Hermann Hesse

March 14, 2020Uncategorizedamazing reads, amazon, brahmin, buddha, ferryman, germany, gertrude, goldmund, govinda, hermann hesse, kamala, kamaswami, kamlesh tripathi, kapilavasthu, lesson, moral, narcissus, nobel laureate, parable, samana, shravancharitymission, siddhartha an indian tale, steppenwolf, vasudevashravancharitymission

Khidki (Window)

–Read India Initiative—

This is only an attempt to create interest in reading. We may not get the time to read all the books in our lifetime. But such reviews, talk and synopsis will at least convey what the book is all about.

Hermann Hesse is a Nobel Laureate. The copy of the book that I read, is published, by Amazing Reads—an Imprint of India Book Distributors Ltd. The discounted price of this book in Amazon is Rs 79. The subject book is a novella of 127pages.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way, we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value. It is always possible—says the author in the book.

Before I move forward let me give you brief about the author. Herman Hesse was born in Calw, Germany on July 2, 1877 to Johannes and Marie Hesse. They came from different European cultures and were involved in missionary work in India. On account of the parental influence Hesse too, was encouraged to follow the same path, but his love for poetry drove him to spend his early years publishing poems and writing prose.

In 1904, Hesse published his first novel Peter Camenzind, which was well received and gave him his first breakthrough. He followed this book by another one titled, ‘Beneath the Wheel. In 1904, along with the release of his first novel, Hermann also found marital bliss with Maria Bernoulli and they went on to have three children. He continued to write novellas and short stories and, in 1910, he published Gertrude, (meaning a female, derived from Germanic roots that meant “spear” and strength). Hermann Hesse, while facing a personal crisis at home, protested German fighting in the First World War that brought him a lot of criticism.

Mirroring his own travels and experiences, Hesse wrote Siddhartha in 1922 and many more books like Steppenwolf in 1927 and Narcissus and Goldmund in 1930. His last novel, The Glass Bead Game, which was published in 1943 took the longest time to complete, following which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1946—a laurel he could not receive personally owing to his deteriorating health condition, which led to his demise on August 9, 1962.

Hermann Hesse was deeply influenced by the boundless nature of Indian philosophy—and that inspired him to write Siddhartha one of the most widely read novels of the twentieth century.

Siddhartha, was born into an affluent and privileged Brahmin family, and was loved by one and all. Finding himself dissatisfied with the life he is expected to lead, he forsakes his place among the Brahmins and sets out on a spiritual journey to discover nirvana—a higher state of being. This pursuit leads him through a journey of suffering, self-denial, allurement of wealth and temptations of sensuality; eventually giving up the material world at the bank of a river, where he meets a ferryman who guides him towards his ultimate destiny and shows him how achieving nirvana cannot be taught but persevered by one’s own will. Here, at the river, he stops searching and submits to the oneness of all.

The story is set up in the ancient Indian kingdom of Kapilavastu. Siddhartha decides to leave behind his home in the hope of gaining spiritual illumination by becoming an ascetic wandering beggar of the Samanas. Joined by his best friend, Govinda, Siddhartha fasts, becomes homeless, renounces all personal possessions, and intensely meditates, eventually seeking, enlightenment.

Later, both Siddhartha and Govinda acknowledge the elegance of the Buddha’s teachings. Govinda, hastily joins the Buddha’s order, but Siddhartha does not follow suit, claiming that the Buddha’s philosophy, though supremely wise, does not account for the necessarily distinct experiences of each person. He argues that every individual seeks an absolutely unique, personal meaning of life that cannot be presented to him by a teacher. He thus resolves to carry on his quest alone.

Siddhartha crosses a river where a generous ferryman, whom Siddhartha is unable to pay, merrily predicts that Siddhartha will return to the river someday to compensate him in some way. Venturing onward toward city life, Siddhartha discovers Kamala, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Kamala, a courtesan, notes Siddhartha’s handsome appearance and fast wit, telling him that he must become wealthy to win her affections so that she may teach him the art of love. Although Siddhartha despises materialistic pursuits as a Samana, he agrees now to Kamala’s suggestions. She directs him to the employment of one Kamaswami, a local businessman, and insists that he have Kamaswami treat him as an equal rather than an underling. Siddhartha, easily succeeds in that, providing a voice of patience and tranquility, which he had learned from his days as an ascetic, against Kamaswami’s fits of passion. Siddhartha gradually becomes a rich man and Kamala’s lover, though in his middle years he realizes that the luxurious lifestyle he has chosen is merely an illusion that lacks spiritual fulfillment. Leaving the fast-paced bustle of the city, Siddhartha returns to the river fed up with life and disillusioned, contemplating suicide before falling into a meditative sleep, and is saved only by an internal experience of the holy word, Om. The very next morning, by sheer coincidence, Siddhartha briefly reconnects with Govinda, who is passing through the area as a wandering Buddhist.

Siddhartha decides to live the rest of his life in the presence of the spiritually inspirational river. He thus reunites with the ferryman, named Vasudeva, with whom he begins a humbler way of life. Although, Vasudeva is a simple man, he understands and relates that the river has many voices and significant messages to convey provided someone wants to listen to it.

Some years later, Kamala, now a Buddhist convert, is traveling to see the Buddha at his deathbed. She is accompanied by her reluctant young son, and is bitten by a venomous snake, near Siddhartha’s river. Siddhartha recognizes her even after years and realizes that the boy is his own child. After Kamala’s death, Siddhartha attempts to console and raise the furiously resistant boy, until one day the child flees altogether. Although Siddhartha is desperate to find his runaway son, Vasudeva urges him to let the boy find his own path, much like Siddhartha did himself in his youth. Listening to the river with Vasudeva, Siddhartha realizes that time is an illusion and that all his feelings and experiences, even those that of suffering, are part of a great and ultimately jubilant fellowship of all things connected in the cyclical unity of nature. After Siddhartha’s moment of illumination, Vasudeva claims that his work is done and he must depart into the woods, leaving Siddhartha peacefully fulfilled and alone once more.

Towards the end of his life, Govinda hears about an enlightened ferryman and travels to Siddhartha, not initially recognizing him as his old childhood friend. Govinda asks the now-elderly Siddhartha to relate his wisdom and Siddhartha replies that for every true statement there is an opposite one that is also true; that language and the confines of time lead people to adhere to one fixed belief that does not account for the fullness of the truth. Because nature works in a self-sustaining cycle, every entity carries in it the potential for its opposite and so the world must always be considered complete. Siddhartha simply urges people to identify and love the world in its completeness. He then requests Govinda to kiss his forehead, and when he does, Govinda experiences the visions of timelessness that Siddhartha himself saw with Vasudeva by the river. Govinda bows to his wise friend and Siddhartha smiles radiantly, having found enlightenment. The book ends there.

This indeed is the true picture of life. We run after innumerous things yet we don’t find peace and enlightenment.

It’s a very fast paced book. I did not like the construct of its sentences nor the punctuation yet the book carries a great message and a great story worth going through for which I would give it seven out of ten.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

BOOK REVIEW: THE EAST INDIA COMPANY: The World’s Most Powerful Corporation by Tirthankar Roy

March 11, 2020Uncategorizedbusiness world, china, east india company, gurcharan das, india, indonesia, kamlesh tripathi, london school of economics, maritime, north america, penguin random house india, persia, pirates, shravancharitymission, tirthankar royshravancharitymission

Khidki (Window)

–Read India Initiative—

This book is part of THE STORY OF INDIAN BUSINESS series. The series editor of which is Gurcharan Das. Before I take you through the summary of the book let me give you a brief introduction of the STORY OF INDIAN BUSINESS which Gurcharan Das has edited and has also provided a comprehensive introduction to it. There are ten books in this series which are as follows:

Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth by Thomas R. Trautmann
The World of the Tamil Merchant: Pioneers of International Trade by Kanakalatha Mukund
The Mouse Merchant: Money in Ancient India by Arshia Sattar
The East India Company: The World’s Most Powerful Corporation by Tirthankar Roy
Caravans: Punjabi Khatri Merchants on the Silk Road by Scott C. Levi
Globalisation before Its Time: The Gujarati Merchants from Kachchh by Chhaya Goswami (edited by Jaithirth Rao).
Three Merchants of Bombay: Business Pioneers of the Nineteenth Century by Lakshmi Subramanian
The Marwaris: From Jagat Seth to the Birlas by Thomas A. Timberg
Goras and Desis: Managing Agencies and the Making of Corporate India by Omkar Goswami
India Railways: Weaving of a National Tapestry by Bibek Debroy, Sanjay Chadha and Vidya Krishnamurthi

Let me also give you a brief introduction of both Tirthankar Roy and Gurcharan Das.

TIRTHANKAR ROY teaches economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His book The Economic History of India 1857-1947, now in its third edition, has changed the way Indian economic history is studied and taught worldwide.

GURCHARAN DAS is a world-renowned author, commentator and public intellectual. His bestselling books include India Unbound, The Difficulty of Being Good, and India Grows at Night. His other literary works consist of a novel A Fine Family, a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm, and an anthology Three Plays. He is a graduate from Harvard University. Das was earlier CEO of Procter & Gamble India, before he took early retirement to become a full-time writer. He lives in Delhi and often comes on talk shows in electronic media.

The subject book THE EAST INDIA COMPANY—The World’s Most Powerful Corporation was first published by Penguin Random House India in India 2012. The price of this book is Rs 299.

Says the Business World—‘The East India Company’ is an interesting inspection of how a colonial company defined the way we do business today.’

It is a first-time account of the East India Company from the perspective of Indian business history. This ground-breaking study examines how the East India Company founded an empire in India at the time it started losing ground in business. For over 200 years, the Company’s vast business network had spanned across Persia, India, China, Indonesia and North America. But in the late 1700s, its career took a dramatic turn, and it ended up being an empire builder.

In this well researched account, Tirthankar Roy reveals how the Company’s trade with India changed its profile—and further how the Company changed Indian business. Fitting together many pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle, the book explores how politics meshed so closely with the conduct of business then, and what that tells us about doing business now. Many of the facts mentioned in the book were hitherto unknown to me till I read the book. He has done some exemplary research but more than that he has put the findings in context, quite well. The book explains how politics meshed so closely with the conduct of business then, and what that tells us about doing business now.

It is a mid-spine book of some 237 pages. It is divided into ten chapters. Where, Tirthankar connects the whole cycle of events all too well. We all know there was an East India Company that ventured into India and many other regions of the world and gradually it captured power through this company and brought it under the British Crown. No one can forget the famous saying—the sun never sets on the British Empire. But then how did all of this happen? Who started it? How did it start? What went into play in the Europe of those times? How did the Dutch, Portuguese, French and the Britishers battle it out amongst themselves? Who were the voyagers who sailed first? How did they fight the pirates? How meekly did the Europeans enter countries like Persia, China, India, Indonesia, Smatra, Jawa, Burma, and many more and acquired a formidable trader’s position in these countries. To know all this read the book.

There is a lavish introduction of the book by Gurcharan Das. The book in all has ten chapters. It essentially narrates the Business History of India, which was largely trading then, or you could say exports and imports. If Masala, tea or silk went out of Asia, Silver came in return as there was no common currency. The book also explains the configurations of the East India Company and the history of certain generic products and trade routes. In those times there was the maritime route and the ground route.

Business may lose its ethics while it’s in red. The point gets proven when the British sovereign building on East India Company even made money by drugging the Chinese youth with opium that was grown in Bihar. This led to a fierce battle when they forced Chinese to surrender Hongkong to the British Crown under a treaty. The book describes the famous ports of India such as madras, Calcutta and Bombay.

It highlights the dictum that business is based on trust far more than contract. It talks of monopoly markets. It gives an excellent Maritime description. It talks about the origin of joint-stalk Company, conflict of interest when some employees of the East India Company start discreetly doing business in India in their own name, and their politicians back in London start supporting them.

It explains the transformation of the Company from a trader to an empire-builder, with reference to its own organisational structure and to the opportunities that came its way. And what effects did the Company, as a trader and as an empire, impart upon the economy and business organisation in India. From 1833 the Company ceased to exist as a trading body. Thereafter it existed as an administrator of India in partnership with the Crown.

It is an interesting book for those readers who are interested in digging into the business history of India. Generally when we think of British Crown and East India Company we think of the various wars that were fought on Indian soil. This is definite variation. The narration is a little monotonous but balances out well with the data and findings it brings with it. And one cannot blame the author as he has converted his research into a book. The language is plain and simple and in no way flowery. Quite a must read for people in business and even MBA students.

I would give it seven out of ten.

***

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

THE FACEBOOK SYNDROME

March 9, 2020Uncategorizedajit Tripathi, arab spring, bajrangi bhaijan, Facebook, lesson, maybach exelero, middle east, north africa, shravancharitymission, syndromeshravancharitymission

Those who do not learn from history often repeat it. Social networking sites are mushrooming like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. However, despite all the negative findings of various studies carried out one cannot invalidate the usefulness of the tools of communication.

An industrialised society needs to be highly connected and these social networks fulfil that role admirably. They have rendered distance and time irrelevant, as so effectively brought out in the movie, Bajrangi Bhaijan. Had it not been for the electrifying networking blitz, the poor girl would have never made it home? This apart, their use in marketing and engendering popular support for a social cause is undeniable. The old fashioned word of mouth publicity can be combined with social networking websites to reach public, in geometric progression. This was amply demonstrated during Arab Spring movement across the middle-east and North Africa.

On the flipside it has privacy issues. We use the websites for promoting ourselves and by extension for outsmarting and outreaching our friends by presenting a profile which is ONE UP ON YOU. Reckon a website post showing a photo of someone against the backdrop of an Audi. That someone is likely to get a counter post of his friend against a backdrop of Maybach Exelero. It does not matter how lordly an image your facebook profile may carry. You’ve got to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was, as the Irish saying goes. Problems don’t end there. In the past they have created relationship problems and a lot of heart burns. Both the sides have their arguments for I strongly believe that no two persons ever read the same book.

The essence of their popularity is in their versatility and inalienable democratic spirit. All said and done, social networking websites are what the users make of them. After all it is the driver behind the wheels who makes the car a pleasure or pain.

By Ajit K Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

SHORT STORY: RETAINING TALENT

March 9, 2020Uncategorizedceo, cfo, corporate, kamlesh tripathi, loyalty, mba, moral, parable, shravancharitymission, talentshravancharitymission

RETAINING TALENT: WHAT MATTERS MORE IN THE CORPORATE WORLD TALENT OR LOYALTY?

During the annual appraisals, Anil was furious. He had received the same bonus as Madhukar. But he had done so much more work than Madhukar. He had turned around a loss-making unit into a profitable one in just a year’s time. He had cut costs and acquired new customers. Thanks to him, the company was now on an accelerated growth curve. In comparison, Madhukar had done nothing but for, sustaining a marginally profitable unit. That unit had so much potential which Madhukar refused to tap. Why couldn’t the owner of the company see all that?

But the owner of the company saw things differently. He told the CFO as they were finalizing the bonus, ‘Anil is an MBA, a professional. Sooner or later, he will leave us and go to another company where he will be paid more. We will never be able to match up the competition. On the other hand Madhukar will never leave us. He may not be a great stallion but he is a dependable donkey. Horses will come and go, adding bursts of success to our balance sheet, but donkeys will always grant us sustainable slow growth. We must therefore reward both equally.’

In the uncertain world of business, loyalty offers comfort to owners. This is an emotional need whose value is not understood by professionals. Madhukar will never be as smart as Anil but he is able to satisfy the emotional need of the owner.

Friends retaining talent is not easy. In Anil’s case, the owner has to make active efforts to retain him. In Madhukar’s case, the owner is passive. He knows that Madhukar’s mediocre talents will ensure he will never look out for another opportunity.

So what matters more in the corporate world? Talent or loyalty? Well you’re are the best judge.

Posted by Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

FACTS FIGURES & QUOTES (FFQ): THE MAKING OF FILM BENHUR

March 8, 2020Uncategorizedandrew marton, benhur, charlton heston, film, footage, italy, jerusleum, kamlesh tripathi, lew wallace, quadriga, sam zimbalist, shravancharitymission, stephen boyd, william wyler, yakima canuttshravancharitymission

The making of a movie is extremely taxing. After watching a movie for three hours in a theatre we do get the flavour of the movie but not the aches and pains suffered by the team that brings the movie to you.

Benhur is a 1959 American epic historical film directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist, starring Charlton Heston as the title character. It was actually a remake of the 1925 silent film with a similar title. It was adapted from Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel Benhur: A Tale of the Christ.

I will not go to the plot of this movie as it a famous one. But yes let me take you through the film production of this great all time movie. Especially, the chariot race. It may not be difficult to film such scenes today because of numerous computer aids available. But way back in 1958 it was one humungous task to accomplish

The budget of Benhur was approximately $132 million. The chariot race in Benhur was directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt, both filmmakers The “pageantry sequence” before the race, is a shot-by-shot remake of the same sequence from the 1925 silent film version.

Marton and Canutt wrote 38 pages of script that outlined every aspect of the race, including action, stunts, and camera shots and angles. Producer Sam Zimbalist was deeply involved in the planning and shooting of the chariot sequence, and the construction of the arena.

The chariot arena was modelled on a historic circus in Jerusalem. Covering 18 acres (7.3 ha), it was the largest film set ever built at that time. Constructed at a cost of $1 million, it took a thousand workmen more than a year to carve the oval out of a rock quarry. The racetrack, featured 1,500-foot (460 m) long straightaways and five-story-high grandstands. Over 250 miles (400 km) of metal tubing were used to erect the grandstands. Matte paintings created the illusion of upper stories of the grandstands, and the background mountains. The production crew researched ancient Roman racetracks, but were unable to determine what a historic track surface was like. The crew decided to create their own racecourse surface, one that would be hard enough to support the steel-rimmed chariot wheels but soft enough, to not harm the horses even after hundreds of laps. The construction crew laid down a bed of crushed rock, topped by a layer of ground lava, and finely grounded yellow rock. More than 40,000 short tons (36,000 t) of sand were brought in from beaches in the Mediterranean to cover the track. Other elements of the circus were also historically accurate. Imperial Roman racecourses featured a raised 10 feet (3.0 m) high spina (the center section), metae (columnar goalposts at each end of the spina), dolphin-shaped lap counters, and carceres (the columned building at the rear that housed the cells where horses waited prior to the race). The four statues atop the spina were 30 feet (9.1 m) high. A chariot track identical in size was constructed next to the set and was used to train the horses and lay out camera shots.

Planning for the chariot race took nearly a year to complete. Seventy-eight horses were bought and imported from Yugoslavia and Sicily, the largest Mediterranean island, near Italy in November 1957 that were exercised into peak physical condition, and trained by Hollywood animal handler Glenn Randall to pull the quadriga (the Roman Empire chariot drawn by four horses abreast).

Andalusian horses (pure Spanish horses) played Benhur’s Arabians, while the others in the chariot race were primarily Lipizzans (originating in Lipica in Slovenia). A veterinarian, a harness maker, and 20 stable boys were employed to care for the horses and ensure they were outfitted for racing each day. When a blacksmith for making horseshoes could not be found, an 18-year-old Italian boy was trained in the art of blacksmithing in order to do so. The firm of Danesi Brothers in Rome built 18 chariots, each weighing 900 pounds (410 kg). Out of that nine were practice chariots. Principal cast members, stand-ins, and stunt people made 100 practice laps of the arena in preparation for shooting. Because the chariot race was considered so dangerous, a 20-bed infirmary, staffed by two doctors and two nurses was also built next to the set to care for anyone injured during shooting.

Actors Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd both had to learn how to drive a chariot. Heston, an experienced horseman, took daily a three-hour lesson in chariot driving after he arrived in Rome and picked up the skill quickly. (He also learned sword fighting, how to throw a javelin, camel riding, and rowing). Heston was outfitted with special contact lenses to prevent the grit kicked up during the race from injuring his eyes. Stephen Boyd, however, needed four weeks of training to feel comfortable (but not an expert) at driving the quadriga. For the other charioteers, six actors with extensive experience with horses were flown in from Hollywood. Local actors also portrayed as charioteers. Among them were Giuseppe Tosi, who had once been the bodyguard for Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

The original shoot production schedule, called for the chariot race to be shot in the spring season, when the weather was cooler for the horses and when Wyler would not be placing heavy demands on Heston and Boyd’s time. But sadly, the arena surface was not ready; the arena set was not finished, and the horses had not finished their training. Shooting of the chariot sequence began on the same day as the principal photography (Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the bulk of the movie is filmed). So, for various reasons once again the filming was delayed. The racecourse surface provided was so soft that it slowed the horses down and a day of shooting was lost as the yellow rock and all but 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) of crushed lava was removed.

Marton and Canutt filmed the entire, chariot sequence, with stunt doubles in long shot, edited the footage together, and showed the footage to Zimbalist, Wyler, and Heston to show them what the race should look like and to indicate where close-up shots with Heston and Boyd should go. Seven thousand extras were hired to cheer in the stands. Economic conditions in Italy were poor at the time, and as shooting for the chariot scene wound down, only 1,500 extras were needed on any given day. On June 6, more than 3,000 people seeking work were turned away. The crowd rioted, throwing stones and assaulting the set’s gates until police arrived and dispersed them. Dynamite charges were used to show the chariot wheels and axles splintering from the effects of Messala’s barbed-wheel attacks. Three lifelike dummies were placed at key points in the race to give the appearance of men being run over by chariots.

The cameras used during the chariot race also presented problems. The 70mm lenses had a minimum focal length of 50 feet (15 m), and the camera was mounted on a small Italian-made car so the camera crew could keep in front of the chariots. The horses, however, accelerated down the 1,500-foot (460 m) straightaway much faster than the car could, and the long focal length left Marton and Canutt with too little time to get their shots. The production company purchased a more powerful American car, but the horses still proved too fast. Even with a head start, the larger American car could give the filmmakers only a few more seconds of shot time. Since the horses had to be running at top speed for the best visual impact, Marton chose to film the chariot race with a smaller lens, with a much shorter, minimum focal length. He also decided that the car should stay only a few feet ahead of the horses. This was highly dangerous, for if the car did not make its turns or slowed down, a deadly crash with the horses could occur. The changes, however, solved the problems the camera crew was encountering. As filming progressed, vast amounts of footage were shot for this sequence. The ratio of footage (raw unedited material) shot to footage used was 263:1, one of the highest ratios ever for a film.

John Dunning and Ralph E. Winters edited the footage of the chariot sequence. The two editors decided that, once the race was under way, one of the charioteers should be killed immediately to demonstrate to the audience that the race was a deadly one. Inserts of the sharp barbs on the hub of Messala’s chariot were inserted repeatedly throughout the sequence to make it obvious that his chariot was highly dangerous. As the footage was shot, it was edited by Ralph Winters. If the footage was poor, the stunts didn’t come off on the camera well, and if the coverage was lacking, then more footage had to be shot. So, with all these uncertainties at the end of three months, Dunning says, ‘Winters had so much footage in hand that he asked Dunning to come to Rome to help him edit together the final sequence.’

One of the most notable moments in the race came from a near-fatal accident. Joe Canutt, Yakima Canutt’s son, did Heston’s most dangerous stunts during the sequence. When Judah Benhur’s chariot jumps over the wreckage of a chariot in its path, Benhur is almost thrown out of his chariot. He hangs on and climbs back aboard to continue the race. While the jump was planned (the horses were trained to leap over the wreckage, and a telephone pole had been half-buried in the earth to force the chariot to jump into the air), stunt man Joe Canutt was tossed into the air by accident; he incurred a minor chin injury. Marton wanted to keep the shot, but Zimbalist felt the footage was unusable. Marton conceived the idea of showing that Benhur was able to land on and cling to the front of his chariot, then scramble back into the quadriga while the horses kept going. The long shot of Canutt’s accident was cut together with a close-up of Heston climbing back aboard constitutes one of the race’s most memorable moments. Stephen Boyd did all but two of his own stunts. For the sequence where Messala is dragged beneath a chariot’s horses and trampled to near death, Boyd wore steel armour under his costume and acted out the close-up shot on his back, attempting to climb up into the horses’ harness to escape injury. A dummy was used to obtain the trampling shot in this sequence.

In all, the chariot scene took five weeks (spread over three months) to film at a total cost of $1 million and required more than 200 miles (320 km) of racing to complete. Two of the $100,000 70mm lenses were destroyed during the filming of the close-up shots. Once the “pageantry” and victory parade sequences of the race were finished, Wyler did not visit the chariot race set, again. Yet according to Zimbalist, Wyler said “it’s one of the greatest cinematic achievements” he had ever seen. Wyler did not see the final cut of the chariot race until the press screening of Ben-Hur.

A total of 1,100,000 feet (340,000 m) was shot for the film. According to editor John D Dunning, the first cut of the film was four and a half hours long. William Wyler stated that his goal was to bring the running time down to three and a half hours. The most difficult editing decisions, according to Dunning, came during scenes which involved Jesus Christ, as these contained almost no dialogue and most of the footage was purely reaction shots by actors. When the film was edited into its final form, it ran 213 minutes and included just 19,000 feet (5,800 m) of film. It was the third-longest motion picture ever made at the time, behind Gone With The Wind and The Ten Commandments.

We often belittle a movie that we don’t like. Henceforth before doing that think of the hard work that has gone to make that film.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

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Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

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CONVERSATION BETWEEN YUDHISHTIR AND YAKSH (Mahabharat)

March 2, 2020Uncategorizedarani, arjun, baka, bheem, brahma, brahmin, kamlesh tripathi, kshatriya, moral, nakul, pandava, sahdev, shravancharitymission, sun, yagya, yaksha prashna, yamraj, Yudhishtirshravancharitymission

At the end of the 12 years of exile in the forests, time had come for the Pandavas to live in Agyat Vasa (living Incognito). As they were discussing their course of action the Pandava Princes came across a Brahmin who complained that a deer had taken, on its antlers (its horns)—his Arani (pair of wooden blocks) that he used to generate fire with by friction – and therefore he was not able to light the fire for his Vedic rituals. So, the valorous Pandavas immediately set out to retrieve the Brahmin’s Arani by following the hoof-marks of the deer.

In the quest for the mysterious deer, Yudhishtir, became exhausted and thirsty. His brother Nakul thus ventured out, to fetch water and found a beautiful lake. The lake was devoid of any living creature except a crane (Baka). When he attempted to take water from the lake, the crane spoke, “O Nakul! The water of this lake will turn into poison if you take it without satisfactorily answering my questions.” But Nakul, in sheer arrogance, did not pay heed and hurriedly took the water from the lake. And upon drinking the crystal clear water, Nakul instantly died of poisoning. Nakul’s twin Sahadev, coming in search of his brother, also found the same lake, but saw Nakul dead, and as in the case of Nakul he too was warned by the crane. But Sahadev too, ignored the crane and died after drinking the water. In the same manner, both valiant Arjun, and powerful Bhim met with the same fate.

Since none of the brothers returned with water, Yudhishtir engaged himself in search of them. Following the same path, Yudhishtir came across the same lake and found his brothers lying dead. Before searching for the killer of his brothers, Yudhishtir decided to drink some water from the lake. But when the crane warned him, Yudhishtir realised that the crane held the answer to the turn of events. So, virtuous Yudhishtir, proceeded to answer the questions put forth by the crane.

Before putting the questions to Yudhishtir, the crane revealed itself as a Yaksha. Yaksha asked certain questions with philosophical ramifications

Question 1. “Who makes the sun rise in the skies? Who moves the Sun around? Who makes the sunset in the horizons? What is the true nature of the Sun and where is the Sun established”?

Yudhishtir answered, “Brahma makes the sun rise and ascend. The Gods perambulate about the Sun. Truth is the actual Sun and the Sun is established in Truth alone.”

Question 2. What instils ‘divinity’ in Brahmins? What is the quality of virtuosity in a Brahmin? What is the humanlike quality of a Brahmin? What is the conduct akin to a non-virtuous person in a Brahmin?

Yudhistir replied: The self-study (Swadhyayana) of the Vedas is divinity in a Brahmin. Penance is the quality of virtuosity in a Brahmin. Death is human-like quality in a Brahmin. Criticising others is a conduct in a Brahmin that resembles a non-virtuous person.

Question 3. “What instils divinity in Kshatriyas? What is the quality of virtuosity in a Kshatriya? What is the humanity of a Kshatriya? What is the conduct akin to a non-virtuous person in a Kshatriya”?

Yudhishtir replied, “The art of archery instils divinity in a Kshatriya. Oblation to God (Yagya) is the quality of virtuosity in a Kshatriya. Fear is his humanity. Abandoning people under his protection is the unbecoming conduct of a Kshatriya”.

Question 4. “What is that thing which is like a Mantra in the performance of oblations (Yagya)? Who is the performer of rites and ceremonies during a Yagya? Who accepts the oblations of a Yagya? What is that which even a Yagya cannot transgress”?

Yudhishtir replied, “Breath is like the Mantra in the performance of rites or Yagya. Mind is the performer of all rites in the course of Yagya. Only Shlokas of the Vedas, termed rucha or the richa accept oblation. The Yagya cannot surpass nor transgress the richas”.

Question 5. “What is heavier than Earth, higher than heavens, faster than the wind and more numerous than straws”?

Yudhishtir replied, “One’s mother is heavier than the Earth, one’s father is higher than the heavens, the mind is faster than the wind and our worries are more numerous than straws “.

Question 6. “Who is the friend of a traveller? Who is the friend of the one who is ill and the one who is dying”?

Yudhishtir’s replied, “The friend of a traveller is his companion. The physician is the friend of one who is sick and a dying man’s friend is charity”.

Question 7. “What is that, which when renounced, makes one lovable? What is that which when renounced makes a person happy and wealthy”?

Yudhishtir said, “Pride, if renounced makes one lovable, by renouncing desire one becomes wealthy and by renouncing extreme greed and avarice one obtains happiness”.

Question 8. “Which enemy is invincible? What constitutes an incurable disease? What sort of man is noble and what sort of a man is not honourable or ignoble”?

Yudhishtir responded, “Anger is the invincible enemy. Covetousness constitutes a disease that is incurable. He is noble who desires the well-being of all creatures, and he is ignoble who is without mercy”.

Question 9. “Who is truly happy? What is the greatest wonder? What is the path? And what is the news”?

Yudhishthira replied, “He who has no debts is truly happy. Day after day countless people die. Yet the living wish to live forever. O Lord, what can be a greater wonder than that? Argument leads to no certain conclusion, the Srutis (the religious texts) are different from one another. There is not even one Rishi whose opinion can be accepted by all. The truth about Dharma and duty is hidden in the cave of our hearts therefore that alone is the path along which the great have trod. This world full of ignorance is like a pan. Where, the sun is fire, the days and nights are fuel. The months and the seasons constitute the wooden ladle. Time is the cook that is cooking all creatures in that pan (with such aids). This in fact is the news”.

Even though Yudhishtir had answered all questions in a satisfactory manner, Yaksh allowed him to choose only one of his brothers to come back to life. Yudhishtir said, “I choose my younger brother, Nakul.” When Yaksh asked him why he chose Nakul when he could choose sharp Arjun or brave Bheem. Yudhishtir replied, “I love Kunti, my mother and Madri, my stepmother equally, If I choose my blood brothers it will be injustice to Madri, hence I chose Nakul who is her biological son.

Yaksh was impressed the manner in which Yudhishtir followed Dharma in every little thing that he did. At the end of the questions, Yaksh revealed himself to be Yamaraj, the God of death. He also admitted to Yudhishtir that it was he who had stolen the arani (the wooden blocks) disguised as a deer. He blessed him saying, since he had adhered to Dharma (righteousness), Dharma would protect them all and no-one would recognise them during the Agyat Vasa. Yudhishtir also got his brothers back from heaven.

No matter which religion you follow the end of all religions is only righteousness.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

FFQ: FACTS, FIGURES & QUOTES: THE NUREMBERG TRIALS

March 1, 2020Uncategorizedadolf hitler, allied forces, berchtesgarden, berlin, chancellery, england, eva braun, germany, gestapo, heinrich himmler, holocaust, Jews, kamlesh tripathi, nazi party, nuremberg trials, reich, rome, shoah, shravancharitymission, ss, tokyo, world war-IIshravancharitymission

The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held after World War II by the Allied Forces (The Allies or the Allied Forces of World War II, were called so, by the United Nations, in their January 1 1942 declaration.) They were the countries that together opposed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis powers during the Second World War (1939-1945). The Allies promoted the alliance as a means to control German, Japanese and the Italian aggression under international law and the laws of the war. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany was the common English name for Germany between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party (NSDAP) ruled the country through dictatorship.

Under Hitler’s rule, Germany became a totalitarian state when nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government who planned, supervised, and horrendously carried out the holocaust. The holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was World War II’s genocide of the European Jews, between 1941 and 1945 across German-occupied Europe when, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population and committed other war crimes.

War Crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torturing, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, performing perfidy, raping, using child soldiers and pillaging. The trials were held in Nuremberg. Nuremberg is the second-largest city of the German federal state of Bavaria after its capital Munich. The trials marked a turning point between classical and contemporary international law.

The first and the best known trials was that of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). It was described as “the greatest trial in history” by Sir Norman Birkett, a British barrister, judge, politician and preacher who served as the alternate British judge during the Nuremberg trials, and one of the British judges present throughout. The trial was held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946.

The Tribunal was given the task of trying 24 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Reich is a German word analogous to the English word meaning ‘realm of a king.’ Some important names that were put to trial were as follows:

Let me begin with Martin Bormann who had died in May 1945 but the fact was not known to the allies and he was tried in absentia. Martin Ludwig Bormann was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler’s private secretary to control the flow of information and access to Hitler. After Hitler’s suicide on 30 April 1945, another defendant, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of his trial’s commencement.

Adolf Hitler killed himself by a gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin. Eva Braun, his wife too committed suicide along with him by taking cyanide. In accordance with Hitler’s prior written and verbal instructions that afternoon, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker’s emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. Records in the Soviet archives show that their burned remains were recovered and interred in successive locations until 1946. They were exhumed again and cremated in 1970, and the ashes were scattered.

Hitler had retreated to his bunker on January 16, after deciding to remain in Berlin for the last great siege of the war. Fifty-five feet under the chancellery (Hitler’s headquarters as chancellor), the shelter contained 18 small rooms and was fully self-sufficient, with its own water and electricity supply. He went out very rarely (once to decorate a squadron of Hitler Youth) and spent most of his time micromanaging what was left of German defenses and entertaining guests such as Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. At his side was Eva Braun, whom he married only two days before their double suicide, and his dog, an Alsatian named Blondi.

Warned by officers that the Russians were only a day or so away from overtaking the chancellery and urged him to escape to Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned a home, but the dictator instead chose suicide. It is believed that both he and his wife swallowed cyanide capsules which had been tested for its efficacy on his “beloved” dog and her pups. And for good measure, he even shot himself with his service pistol.

The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors as per Der Fuhrer’s orders, and reportedly later recovered in parts by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956.

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels a German Nazi politician and a Reich Minister for Propoganda of the Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, had both committed suicide in the spring of 1945 to avoid capture. Heinrich Himmler another leader of the Nazi Party, attempted to commit suicide, but was captured before he could succeed. He committed suicide one day after being arrested by British forces. On the other hand Heinrich Muller better known as Gestapo Muller the SS Gestapo chief of Hitler, who was central in planning the holocaust disappeared the day after Hitler’s suicide. He was the most senior figure of the Nazi regime whose fate remains unknown. He was neither captured nor confirmed to have died.

Further Reinhard Heydrich a high-ranking German SS and police official of the Nazi era and the main architect of the holocaust was assassinated by Czech partisans in 1942. Josef Terboven another Nazi leader killed himself with dynamite in Norway in 1945. Adolf Eichmann fled to Argentina to avoid capture but was apprehended by Israel’s intelligence service (Mossad) and hanged after a trial in Jerusalem in 1962. Hermann Goring was sentenced to death but he committed suicide by swallowing cyanide the night before his execution.

Primarily conducted in Nuremberg were the first initial trials, adjudicated by the International Military Tribunal. Further trials of lesser war criminals were conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT), which included Doctors’ and Judges’ trial who too were part of war crimes.

The categorization of the crimes and the constitution of the court represented a juridical advance that was to be followed afterward by the United Nations for the development of an international jurisprudence in matters of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and wars of aggression, and led to the creation of the International Criminal Court. For the first time in international law, the Nuremberg indictments also mentioned genocide (count three, war crimes: “the extermination of racial and national groups, against the civilian populations of certain occupied territories in order to destroy particular races and classes of people and national, racial, or religious groups, particularly Jews, Poles, Gypsies and others”).

A precedent for trying those accused, of war crimes, had also been set up, at the end of World War I, in the Leipzig War Crimes Trials. The Leipzig War Crimes Trials were a series of trials held in 1921 to try alleged German war criminals of the First World War before the German Reichsgericht (the Supreme Court) in Leipzig, as part of the penalties imposed on the German government under the Treaty of Versailles. Only twelve individuals were brought to trial with mixed results, and the proceedings were widely regarded at the time as a failure. In the longer term, however, the trials were seen as a significant step towards the introduction of a comprehensive system for the prosecution of violations of international law.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

MIRAGE

(Published in February 2020. The book is a collection of eight short stories. It is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

The Story of Rodriguez and the Learning it has for Everyone’s Life

February 24, 2020Uncategorizedacademy award, anti apartheid, australia, detroit, kamlesh tripathi, malik bendjelloul, mexican, moral, new york, niraj trivedi, parable, searching for sugar man, shravancharitymission, sixto rodriguez, south africa, violashravancharitymission

There have been times in our career when we start questioning the value of the work that we do. It is quite easy for us to fall prey and sometime become doubtful about the meaningfulness of the work that we do. However, such doubts shouldn’t be a deterrent for us to give our best to the work that we do as you never know how this work will manifest in future?

After some contemplation, I felt I should tell you a story. A beautiful story and a real one!!
It is the story of Sixto Rodriguez, a Mexican migrant settled in downtown Detroit in 1970s. Sixto was a small time musician playing gigs in bars of rundown part of Detroit. Sixto caught attention of a producer of a big music label, as a result ‘Viola!’ Sixto’s first music album was out! However, it badly flopped. His second album did even worse. This setback pushed Sixto out of music industry and Sixto returned to a demolition company in Detroit working as a blue collar worker. Where, Sixto Rodriguez was living a simple, low-key life. Unbeknown to him, that a handful of his 1970 debut album, “Cold Fact,” had reached Austrailia months after it failed in America.
Some Austrailian Radio DJs got their hands on the album and began playing “Sugar Man” on the radio. As a result the Australian record stores went crazy about the album. “Cold Fact” became as popular as an album could be in Austrailia. Sixto had no idea about all this.

In Australia and then in South Africa, Rodriguez’s lyrics, about overcoming hardship, made him more popular than even Elvis Presley and also bigger than the Rolling Stones. Part of the reason why his album became so popular in South Africa was that many of his songs served as anti-apartheid anthems and were used in protests. Other than his music, people around the world knew nothing about “Rodriguez.” They had no idea what he looked like, where he lived, or anything about his personal life. He was an international man of mystery! There were also rumours that Sixto committed suicide during one of his live performances. This however didn’t deter some hardcore Australian fans to finally track down Sixto Rodriguez. They got him to Australia for a series of concerts in 1979. He had never played a concert before, just bars and clubs was all that he handled. This time Sixto Rodriguez played to 15,000 people in Sydney and the show was a roaring success with fans signing every word of his decades old songs. After this successful tour of his Sixto once again went back to work as a demolition man!

While all this was happened, South Africa continued simmering under Rodriguez’s craze. A music journalist and Rodriguez”s fan Stephen Segermen launched a website dedicated to him and was able to get in touch with Rodriguez’s daughter in 1997.Rodriguez’s was in awe to learn about his fame in South Africa. Rodriguez then went on tour in South Africa! He performed in 6 concerts, in front of thousands and thousands of fans! Sixto was now living his dream! His rediscovery in South Africa in 1998 allowed him to retire from his job, and tour the country for a couple of years. Afterwards, he began to perform in Europe.

A Swedish filmmaker named Malik Bendjelloul first heard about Sixto Rodriguez while traveling through Africa. He immediately thought his story was incredible and wanted to capture his life into a short film for the Swedish television. Pretty quickly, Malik knew he had a huge story on his hands. But he had one main issue: funding. He decided to approach two of Britain’s top documentary producers for help. But even with the help of the two big-named producers, Malik Benjelloul only secured funding that covered a year of expenses and production costs. The film actually took three years to make! When funding ran out, Benjelloul used the one dollar Super 8 app on his iPhone to finish the documentary.

There was only one other problem in the making of the film: Sixto Rodriguez initially refused to appear in it. “His kids told me I could probably meet him, but I shouldn’t get my hopes up about an interview,” Bendjelloul explained. “I went to Detroit every year for four years. He didn’t agree to be interviewed until my third visit.

After overcoming all obstacles, Malik Benjellou’s film, “Searching For Sugar Man” was nominated for the best documentary feature at the Academy Awards. And it went on to win the award for the best documentary feature at the 85th Academy Awards in 2002. “Searching For Sugar Man” was a roaring success at the box office when it was released in the U.S. Malik Bendjelloul begged Rodriguez to attend the Oscars, but in vain. Sixto thought it would take the attention away from the filmmakers. Rodriguez said, “I was asleep when it won, but my daughter Sandra called to tell me. I don’t have TV service anyway.” So not only did he refuse to attend, he was asleep when the film won the award! Sixto Rodriguez’s life was totally transformed since “Searching for Sugar Man.” The Academy Award victory took his fame to the next level. After the Oscar win, Sixto began to play sold out shows all over New York and in music festivals around the world. Some of his shows even sell out in minutes!

People just love to see him perform live and he loves to do that! Despite all the success and money, Sixto still lives in the same old modest house in downtown Detroit that he has for the last 40 years. Sixto Rodriguez has no computer, car or television. He still lives a very Spartan life. Sixto once told his daughter “there’s three basic needs – food, clothing and shelter. Once you get down to that level, everything else is icing.”
Sixto is still the same person he was before all the fame. He is friendly, down to earth and he is doing what he loves most-“creating music”!!

Posted by Niraj Trivedi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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