Thursday, July 30, 2009

Magic has to wait a bit

My Monsoon Magic Part 2 is ready but like many other people, I am having a tough time with Blogger and unable to post pictures and videos. Without being able to do this, I don't want to post the article. So, let's wait and see. In the meantime, I have an anecdote that I remember from my time spent with friends from Thiruvananthapuram. They were a hilarious bunch of people who would, especially after a couple of drinks, let loose jokes from Kerala, mainly targeting their politicians. We used to stay in Male', the capital of Maldives then and our drinking sessions were always fun, argumentative, loud sometimes and there were lot's of stories going around.

At one of these gatherings at a friends place, drinks in hand and snacks on the table all set, the guys started their stories, real anecdotes I was told. I believe the topic was about the Monsoon and how the moisture was trapped by the thick forests of the Western Ghats producing copious amounts of rain like it did this time as well. Apparently this came up as a discussion in the State Assembly when on a debate about deforestation, an MLA made a speech about the ill effects of deforestation and how that was preventing moisture from being trapped, resulting in drought like conditions and so on. A ruling part MLA stood up and rubbished these claims saying that there was really no evidence that cutting down trees reduced rainfall. He said that trees had no role to play regarding rainfall. He continued that he'd seen it rain many times over the open seas and that he had not seen any trees there in the middle of the sea. He sat down triumphantly, having scored a point that could not have been rebutted with a short answer from an MLA who probably could not explain further. Although I don't remember the names of the characters in the story, this just proves how this is the quality of people we chose each time in an election to run our States and Country.

While we always expect nature to live up to expectations and while it did for some this year and did not for a majority of the growing areas of India, there's not much that we do to help heal the planet. I do believe that trees are very important for rainfall to occur. I do believe trees are the greatest gift to the planet, they support entire mini ecosystems within their branches, give life, shade, shelter, homes, food and countless other supports to living creatures. This includes humans of course. They are pleasing to the eye and never fails to me rather calm and collected when I see trees. Monsoon provides the magic and turns all of India green, in a good year. This has a been a mixed year so far. I hope my monsoon magic part 2 can be uploaded soon, before the real monsoon completely runs out of steam!

16 comments:

Vishwas Krishna said...

A very good anecdote but at the same time its a shame that we are electing such pathetic politicians as people's representative.

Regarding photos and videos problem with Blogger, I suggest you to try draft.blogger.com an advanced version of blogger.

Bhushavali said...

OMG.... Which ******* politician said that idiotic quote....???!!!!!

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks Vishwas, it is something I remembered from at least six years ago. Your suggestion regarding draft.blogger.com works! Thanks very much for that and I will let some of the other guys who have the same problem in on this information. Much appreciate your help.

Mitr: I just can't remember the name of the guy. I was told he was a regular at making such kind of gaffes in the State Assembly. Wish I can remember more...

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Vishwas, tried the draft and I suppose it's OK with normal images but nothing in there yet for video it seems...

Vishwas Krishna said...

Try doing this.

First upload photos through draft.blogger.com, save it.
Then, open the blog through regular blog and then try uploading the videos. I only observed now that there isn't any option for posting videos in draft.blogger.com.
Still, you can try uploading it to YouTube first and then embed it here, which should work fine.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks Vishwas, for the tip. I am posting your suggestion so that it may benefit others also. I am already on to youtube to upload the video. Cheers.

Vishwas Krishna said...

Nice to know that it is working. I'm a big time Blogger fan. Have been using "Blogger in Draft" from a long time, I like it very much. But I wonder why you are not able to post images or videos through regular Blogger. Try posting the issue in any of their forums, they are usually prompt in responding to problems.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

I had the same problem earlier in July and it just sorted itself out and I was able to post videos and photos through the regular blogger site on 22nd July (Monsoon Part 1). There was no problem till a few days back this week when it happened again. But I am not the only one to experience this. Many bloggers in Singapore are complaining about the same thing. That too only on blogger website. Let's see if this persists. In the meantime, MysoreBlogPark and my site have been flagged as "objectionable". That has happened before too but gets resolved, not that it bothers me at all.

Ava said...

That is funny. But it is so believable. This despite many of our politicians being such 'sons of the soil'

I remember a politician used to visit our house pretty often in Bangalore and most times he would be swigging out of a bottle... tch tch !

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

True Avdi. I personally know two guys who are in politics and elected (MLA) and who are doing a lot of good things. They don't come to light. They are a new breed of educated legislators who have been working in professional jobs before they got elected this time. I have seen them putting in 12-14 hours of work. What we need are this kind, not the kind that merely inherits the "crown" or the so called sons of the soil who only get elected because of money, muscle and not to forget caste politics.

Ava said...

The good ones deserve to be advertised. There have to be some genuine forums that invite people to help. That is the only way things will change. As long as the bad politicians are successful they will multiply.

YOSEE said...

Ah, our dear Netas ! What can you expect from them , other than incompetence and idiocy !

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

'I do believe trees are the greatest gift to the planet, they support entire mini ecosystems within their branches, give life, shade, shelter, homes, food and countless other supports to living creatures.'
I agree wholeheartedly.
Save the trees!

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Avdi: In each political party, the non performing ones outnumber the performing ones it seems. There a lot of rivalry amongst themselves. The performers I know will just work because they want to see change themselves.

Yosee: Very true!

Raji Madam: Thanks. Save the trees! Reforest India.

Kamini said...

Hope your blogger issues get resolved soon.
Agree wholeheartedly with you about the trees.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Kamini: Thanks, actually the issues got sorted with Blogger the day I got back to Mysore last week. I could not blog during this time since I was taking my dad for his hospital visits. We have brought him back home now with no option remaining and hoping for the best. I have free time to blog and posted Part 2 of Monsoon Magic.