VEGAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

 Violin 

Musical instruments still use or once used material sourced from animals. For instance, piano keys were made of ivory or bone and drumheads, from goatskin or cowhide. The wooden components of string instruments are even now joined together with animal glue. Catgut, a tough cord derived from sheep intestines (not cats!), provides the strings. Horsehair is preferred for the bows.

Bucking the trend, an Irish violin maker, Padraig O’Dubhlaoidh, has made the world’s first vegan violin body with components such as steamed pear, berries and spring water! The customised instrument is the first to be registered with The Vegan Society.

O’Dubhlaoidh collected local spring water for the adhesive, which has no animal components. Steamed pear and wild berries were used to dye the inlay around the edge. 

Today, vegan violin strings and bows made from carbon fibre are widely available. The bone, leather and mother-of-pearl parts have been replaced with metal or a composite. However, chemical based glues are not yet popular, as they can damage the wood with too strong a bond, making it hard to repair or replace.

WHISTLING VILLAGE

                                     Kongthong

Kongthong is a remote village in Meghalaya's East Khasi hills. The village attained fame some years ago for its unique tradition of mothers giving newborns names that are composed of whistled tunes. Each villager grows up with three names: a regular name, a long melody and a shorter tune that resembles a nickname. 

Called 'jingrwai iawbei', it is a centuries-old tradition. The regular name is only for official purposes but everyone responds to the two other tunes lifelong! When they die, their tunes die with them, never to be repeated for anyone else. 

The tunes are considered an untaught and spontaneous expression of a mother's joy at the birth of her child. The tune names are usually 14 to 18 seconds long and distinct from each other. 

DO YOU KNOW

 How does the internet connect across continents?

     Through fibre optic cables that lie submerged on the ocean floor across the Earth. These cables allow us to quickly send our emails and videos, and connect our browsers to places in faraway lands.

     To put it simply, when we open an Australian website in Mumbai, our personal computer sends a signal through the submarine cable to the web server that is hosting that website and then receives the data of the website in return over the same cable. 

     Earlier communication satellites were used to transmit data but since optical fibres are capable of transmitting large volumes of data at a much faster speed, submarine cables now account for more than 99% of all international communications. 

     The first submarine communications cables were laid in the 1850s to send telegraphs. Modern cables use optical fibre technology to carry digital data. There is a massive network of submarine fibre optic cables that connect a large portion of the continents except Antarctica. 

FESTIVAL OF THIEVES

 Chorotsav 

     The spring festival is something to be experienced in villages across the length and breadth of Goa. It is the time of year when villagers settled elsewhere return to their roots to participate in the festive season. Many villages are known for some unique feature of their own and are identified by these singular festivals.

     Amongst the many festivals and rituals, Chorotsav, held during Shigmo or Holi in other parts of the country, is one that spreads joy to the villagers of Zarme in Mauxi, about 6 kms from Valpoi. Yet another place known for this festival is Caranzol in Savordem in Sattari taluka.

      The festival forms a chapter in the village’s history. The story revolves around some youths who were killed by the villagers as they were mistaken to be robbers (Chors), though no one knows the exact history of this age-old practice. 

The story goes that in the past, people commuted through the forest for work or to collect produce from nature’s bounty. They travelled from village to village from the foothills, climbing across the Western Ghats. During one such daily routine, youths from a neighbouring village who were suspected to have commited robbery were killed. The distraught families of the youth, in search of their loved ones, learn of the tragic fate that had befallen them. The villagers then understand their folly and in order not invite a curse on themselves, repent over their grave error. The villagers of these two places play out an act as punishment. The participating youths are called Chors. In all, eight youths participate in Zarme while a similar act is played by nine youths in Caranzol.

     It is quite a task before the actual event begins as the preparations take a while and the act folds up within 10 to 20 minutes in front of the Saptamatrika temple. In this risky operation performed on a full moon night and held at a sacred place called Chavatho, four youths are buried in a pit with only their heads above the surface. Four others have their heads buried below the ground with the rest of the body exposed on the surface with swords in their hands. A large audience gathers to witness this event with excitement as the drumbeats fall silent and the Chors are revealed to the enthusiastic crowd.

     These dramatics are best viewed at Caranzol in front of the Kuldevta temple where seven Chors are buried with one raised on a spear and another lying on a platform wearing a garland of leaves. The event begins after an invocation near a place called Wadakade (meaning ‘near a Banyan plant’).

     Chorotsav is a festival during Shigmo that reminds one of the ancestral practice of repentance and one which is never missed by the regulars. It is also a signature event in the historic village of Mauxi, also known for its rock art.

FOURTH LARGEST NATIONAL PARK IN INDIA

Namdapha National Park

The fourth largest national park in India is the Namdapha National Park in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Located in the Changlang district near the international border with Myanmar, the park is a diversity hotspot in the Eastern Himalayas. Spread out over an area of 1985 sq km, it is flanked by the Patkai hills to the south and south-east and the Himalayas to the north, and lies close to the Indo-Myanmar China trijunction.

The core area of the park stretches over 1808 sq km, making it the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalayas. The Noa-Dihing river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, flows westwards through the park. Numerous streams drain into the Noa-Dihing; forest pools and natural salt licks are abundant in the area.

The park, described as a botanist’s dream, is home to more than 150 tropical trees pecies, several of them exclusive to the region. These Natural Wonders of India include the Sumatran pine(Pinus mercusii) and the Delavay’s silver-fir (Abies delavayi), which cannot be found anywhere else in India. Among the rare plants found here is the Blue Vanda orchid (Vanda coerulea), a striking species with large purple-blue flowers that is native to the North-Eastern Himalayan region.

The inaccessibility of the greater part of the park has helped to preserve the forests in their pristine and virgin state. The lush green undergrowths are thick and intertwined cobweb-like with a vast range of vegetation, which changes with altitude. While the lower reaches of the park are sub-tropical, the landscape is replaced by subtropical pine forests, temperate forests, Alpine meadows, and perennial snow on the higher regions.

Namdapha is home to four major big cat species – the tiger, the leopard, the snow leopard, and the clouded leopard. Other carnivores found here include the Asian wild dog or dhole, the Asiatic black bear, the red fox, the spotted linsang, the common palm civet, the Oriental small clawed otter, and the fishing cat. The elephant, wild boar, musk deer, sambar, gaur, hog deer, stump-tailed macaque, slow loris, Hoolock gibbon, and rhesus macaque are some of the herbivores that inhabit the park.

The park has about 425 bird species, including five species of hornbills, numerous species of wren-babblers, the pied falconet, the blue-eared kingfisher, the laughing thrush, the white-winged wood duck, and the Himalayan wood-owl. 

Namdapha was declared a national park in 1983 and designated a tiger reserve the same year. It is also on the Tentative Lists of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India.

ASIA'S NOBEL PRIZE

 Ramon Magsaysay Award

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is a prestigious annual award given to individuals and organisations in Asia who have achieved excellence in their respective fields and contributed to human development in doing so.

Awardees are either people from Asian countries or, occasionally, foreign citizens (people from outside Asia) who have worked, served, or accomplished something extraordinary in an Asian country. Hence it is considered Asia’s Nobel Prize.

The Award is given in six categories: Government Service; Public Service; Community Leadership; Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts; Peace and International Understanding; and Emergent Leadership.

Last year’s awardees (2023) were Korvi Rakshand from Bangladesh, Eugenio Lemos from Timor-Leste, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer from the Philippines, and Dr Ravi Kannan R. from India.

The Award was instituted in 1957 in honour of Ramon Magsaysay(1907 – 1957), a much-loved President of the Philippines, after the latter’s untimely death in a plane crash. It was established by the New York based Rockefeller Brothers’ Fund with the concurrence of the Philippines government to perpetuate Magsaysay’s example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and practical idealism within a democratic society. The Award is managed by the Ramon MagsaysayAward Foundation.

Prominent Indian awardees include Mother Teresa (1962) for Peace and International Understanding; Vinoba Bhave(1958), M S Swaminathan(1971) and Ela Bhatt of SEWA(1977) for Community Leadership; Satyajit Ray (1967), R K Laxman (1984), and Mahasweta Devi (1997) forJournalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts; Jayaprakash Narayan (1965) and M S Subbulakshmi (1971) for Public Service; and former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan (1996) and Kiran Bedi, I.P.S, (1994) for Government Service.

HAPPY NUT

 Pistachio

The pistachio (Pistacia vera) is a flowering nut tree with a long and illustrious history dating back to 7000 B.C. A unique feature of pistachio nut is that as it ripens and outgrows its shell, the shell splits open, giving it the appearance of a smiling face 🌝. For this reason, the Chinese refer to the pistachio as the 'happy nut'.

Originally a native of Asia Minor and Syria, the pistachio travelled from Syria to Italy in the first century A.D. and from there, spread throughout the Mediterranean region. Because the nuts were nutritious and did not spoil easily, they were a favourite with early explorers and traders, and were frequently carried by travellers along the ancient Silk Road connecting China with the West. 

In the mid-19th century, the pistachio reached the United States. Today, Iran is the world’s leading pistachio producer, followed by the USA, Turkey and Syria. 

The pistachio tree is a broad, bushy one that grows to a height of 20-30 feet. The fruits grow in clusters like grapes. The edible portion, which we know as the nut, is the seed. When the fruit ripens, the shell turns from green to yellow or red and splits partly open, with an audible pop. The pistachio's semi-split shell, which at the same time serves as a convenient form of packaging. 

The pistachio is also one of the two nuts specifically mentioned in the Bible. This is in Genesis chapter 43, verse 11, when Jacob instructs his sons to take back some of the best products of Canaan to Egypt. 

Since ancient times, the pistachio has been used by various cultures as a culinary ingredient. Its delicate sweetness makes it ideal for desserts 🍨 and pastries 🍰. 

In the Middle East, it is used to make baklava, a rich, sweet pastry of Turkish origin that is filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with honey 🍯. Further it is a key ingredient of pilafs and other rice dishes. 

In India, the pistachio is an integral part of the diet, especially in the winter months in Northern India. It is used to make numerous popular drinks and desserts such as kesar pista sharbat and pista kulfi. It is grated and used to garnish sweets such as rasmalai and burfi as well as desserts like pista ice-cream.