Reflections

The heart of peninsular Malaysia is formed by the tri junction of several states, mainly the giants Perak and Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu. The tri junction of the last three is occupied by the Taman Negara which has been the subject of one of my posts earlier. Outside this giant national park, much of the land has now been given over to plantations: palm oil and rubber trees stretch over hundreds of square kilometers, bringing wealth to the country and perhaps environmental doom too, if some environmentalists are to be believed. But even here there are two lake systems that dominate, covering huge areas and giving a flavor of what Malaysia was before the coming of the British with their plantations. One of them is Tasik Bera (Lake Bera), which is Peninsular Malaysia’s largest freshwater lake system. I have visited Lake Bera earlier, as an excursion to complement our trip to the Temerloh Sunday market , but this time we plan to spend the night at the hotel there. We start afte...

This article is reproduced with permission from the media watchdog " The HOOT ". This website, is in my opinion required reading for all those interested in the working of the Indian media. The original artilce can be found here . Politics and media control BY ADITI ROY GHATAK and PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA A cartoon in The Hindu (that predates the current Ambedkar cartoon controversy) depicts the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, trying to calm down a bunch of jubilant students, saying “I banned Marx, not marks”. Trinamool Congress chief Banerjee’s ire is primarily directed towards her arch political rival, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), whose mouthpiece, Ganashakti, which she does not want the State-funded libraries to subscribe to. There are many others on her list, especially after cartoongate. The point here is not about cartoons but that West Bengal has a pronounced culture of political parties (in the Opposition, from distant yesteryears to ver...

Last month we visited Malacca (again!) This time we visited the maritime museum and here I was intrigued to find mention of Enrique de Malaca also known as “Black Henry”. I had never heard this name before and when I realized that there is reason to believe that he was perhaps the first man to circumnavigate the world, I was hooked on his story. This is what I discovered. The Portuguese came to Malacca, then an international port that served the China India trade as well as the trade from what is now Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It was fabled for its wealth and was the an international city where traders from Arabia rubbed shoulders with sophisticated merchants from Gujarat and the Malabar coast of India and the Chinese captains who came across the South China Sea. The Portuguese captured the port after heavy fighting in 1511. Later, of course, it fell to the Dutch and finally to the English which held it till Merdeka (Independence). There were many peoples here and the slave tra...

This is another contribution from Mr Swapan Sen who has sent me several wonderful articles which have enriched this blog. You can read them here , here , here and here . My car had stopped at a traffic signal at Park Street, Kolkata. A light tap on the window-glass on my side drew my attention. It was a small girl’s hand making the noise. Her outstretched hand, her emaciated little body, her face and unkempt hair smeared with dirt and dust – gave away her identity unmistakably. She was one the countless beggars seen at most of the traffic signals of Kolkata. These street-smart kids know that tapping on the car’s windows will, in most cases, cause enough annoyance to the occupants who will, just to get rid of their irritation, shell out a buck or two to them. Some of those passengers, who are more merciful, may also hand over some more money on their own. But as soon as this is done, many more similar children will flock around the window with outstretched hands, expecting simila...