Happy Another Chance
Indeed 2024 has been full of cruelty, injustice and suffering. But it has also been full of courage in the face insurmountable odds, refusal to despair, faith in our Creator…
Mirza Yawar Baig
Confusion About Kindness
What is kindness? Is it accepting substandard work or is it insisting that only the best quality is acceptable? There is often a lot of confusion about this, and people…
What is wrong with the Climate Change message
The reality today is that even the truth must be sold. Especially a truth that will and is affecting everyone and to change it everyone must pull together in the…
Gun Rights – Gun Wrongs
I have been numb and silent. Not like me. But I guess I am also human and sometimes the pain is too much. 19 children dead? Should I be thankful…
They tried to bury seeds
After the darkest night, there is always a dawn We are all absolutely distraught and destroyed (as I am sure you and all people with hearts must be) with what…
The Social Media Dilemma
We used to say, “Seeing is believing.” That is no longer true about videos. Use of AI to create Deep Fakes is so powerful that most people can’t tell the…
WhatsUp with WhatsApp?
We are social beings and need company, affirmation, and friendship. Traditionally we sought that in face-to-face interactions, the most remote form of it was the penfriend. Someone we had never…
Democracy and the Corporation
“The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the…
Wildlife Conservation in India
What is the price of this view? One of our big challenges in wildlife conservation is to stop poaching and habitat degradation which leads to animal human conflict which always…
Zoo in Corbett
Yeah! You!! What are you doing in my home? Let me introduce you to the tiger. He is not an object. He is not a spectacle. He does not exist…
Corbett Park Tourism
The India Tourism byline is – Incredible India. I agree. I encountered it. Here is what happened. In 2015, two dear friends of mine and I decided to go to…
Make a difference to someone
DIFFERENTIATE. Why ‘Differentiate’? Because differentiation creates Brand Brand inspires Loyalty Loyalty enables Influence Success is directly proportionate to influence. Five things to keep in mind: 1. Always be thankful. It is true that we succeed…
Eulogy or Elegy?
First the words; Eulogy: a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, especially a tribute to someone who has just died. Elegy: An elegy is a sad poem, usually…
Tiger by the tail
There is a welcome awareness about the need to protect tigers in the wild and the wild places they live. Welcome even more because it comes now at a time…
BC to AC
We are living in defining times. Never in living memory has the world seen something like the Covid-19 virus and the disruption that it has caused all over the world.…
Become a rock in the foundation
The first thing to understand is that this CAA+NRC is the best thing that could have happened to India at this stage. We had become a rapidly polarized, fascist, extremist…
Attitude
“Can we change their attitude?” “No.” “Can they change their own attitude?” “Yes.” “So, what is our goal? To change their attitude, or to convince them that they need to…
What’s your Worth?
Many years ago, in the 1970’s I remember seeing a Russian tractor. India used to have a bilateral trade agreement with the USSR by which we bought all kinds of…
Try
Judgement by Anonymous Before God’s footstool to confess A poor soul knelt, and bowed his head; “I failed,” he cried. The Master said, “Thou didst thy best—that is success!” It was…
When Donating Blood Broke The Barrier
You all know my butler Bastian who I have written about earlier. Bastian like most of his tribe spoke ‘Butler English’ and was very snobbish. My wife used to speak…
The Great Slide
“So, how did things get so bad?” I am sure you must have heard, asked or thought about this yourself. So have I. Many times, over the years whenever I…
Nations and Forest Fires
It was 1984. The second and last formal employment of my career was in the tea plantations in the Anamallai Hills in Coimbatore District of Tamilnadu. I worked there for…
It’s not about Sri Lanka, It’s about me
My mind is numb, my heart is heavy, the tears have dried, Yet the day dawns and life must be lived, Unanswered, unanswerable questions, Actions, reactions, a vicious cycle that…
Mirza Yawar Baig-Influencing without authority
One of the areas of my responsibility was the Commissary. This was the company owned department store from where you got your weekly supply of food and practically everything else…
Mirza Yawar Baig – Committing matrimony
What are the characteristics of a happy marriage? Truth, Caring, Mutual respect are what I call my three Cardinal Principles of happy marriages. Please notice that I am not using the word ‘love’.…
Guyana, cross cultural boot camp
“So, Comrade Baig, you have been living here for two years. What are your impressions about our country?” The interviewer was from Guyana Chronicle, the main English newspaper. I was…
The Statesman Within
My friend asked me a question; Where are the statesmen? Where have they all gone? For the sake of some clarity, I defined statesmen as people who were highly respected…
Guyana, my first love
Timehri Airport, Georgetown, Guyana, South America; a long way from home in Hyderabad, India. My first independent job, my first foreign country. January, 1979 The plane circled to land at…
Something Is Happening
“Er! Ahem!! Excuse me, you may not have noticed but something is happening. My neighbor has imported a man-eating tiger to eat her mother-in-law. She wants her MIL to become…
Yala 2019
It is 5.30 am. We have just finished Subh (Fajr as it is called in Sri Lanka and most Shafi countries including Kerala). And he walks in. The human conducting…
Person-led to Process-driven, Making the critical transformation
When a caterpillar looks in the mirror it does not see a butterfly. Yet hidden in that form is the potential to take the epitome of sluggishness and transform it…
Success is the biggest danger
Interestingly, success seems to breed fear of failure. This is a paradox, since success should really build confidence. It does that too, but what seems to happen over the years…
Never a dull moment
I was a member of the team that built the Mayura Factory in the Anamallais where I was the Assistant Manager in charge of the building project. So, I was…
Language opens hearts
One of the first things I did when I joined the tea industry was to learn Tamil. I recall Mr. Ahmedullah, the General Manager telling me, ‘You must speak Tamil…
Democracy And The Corporation: Corporatizing The Globe
"The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the…
Be a Shameless Idealist
As I stand here at the tail end of 2018, just a few days before the new year is due to come in, I ask myself how I would like…
Can Muslim women pray in a mosque?
A friend sent me a video about an all-women mosque (actually it turned out to be women praying in an all-faith center) in California with the caption, ‘This is Haraam…
The Reality
Over the past more than ten years I have wandered around almost every tiger sanctuary in India from Kaziranga and Manas in Assam to Idukki in Kerala. I lived…
The Twins
They are perhaps eighteen months old, bigger than the biggest leopard, yet vulnerable and in danger, when apart from their mother. Their mother, Ranthambore’s T-19 Krishna, like all tiger mothers,…
Kumbha
He had killed a sambhar stag the previous night. Sambar are plagued by horseflies and their defence against them is to roll in the mud which when it dries off,…
Literacy is to language what driving is to cars
In my view the single most significant event in human development is the evolution of languages. It was this process that enabled human beings to preserve their thoughts, teach others,…
Change the language
The one who controls the language, controls the debate. Today Indian Muslims are in a peculiar situation where they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. and…
Caring Means To Work
He came with a lizard in his beak. A choice tidbit, most appreciated. But only if you're a Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros gingalensis). The female lays up to four…
What Did You See? Nothing!
Kabini River Resort on the bank of the Kabini Reservior, bordering Nagarhole Tiger Reserve. I am in the Gol Ghar (which is actually rectangular) at tea and snack time after…
Silence Is Culpable
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ~ George Orwell India has changed. I hate to say…
My Extended Family
The tea plantations of the Sub-continent are a unique environment, be that in South India, Assam or Sri Lanka because they represent a completely artificial man-made community. The areas where…
Tea Factory, Black magic and Demons
One of the first things that strikes you as you enter any ‘Tea District’ is the tea factory. These in many if not most cases are over a century old,…
Theory Of Security
Why do you have a burglar alarm on your car or home? Not because you believe that no burglar in the world can get past it. But because you know…
Who Are The Friends Of Fake News
I expect most of you, if not all, saw this post on WhatsApp about how and why fake news spreads faster than real news. For those who didn’t here it…
Understanding And Dealing With Hatred
Co-Written By Mirza Yawar Baig, Steven Earl Salmony and Sally Dugman According to Yawar: Change the Script We have reached a stage in our development (if I dare to call…
Zoo in Corbett – Really?
Let me introduce you to the tiger. He is not an animal. He is not a spectacle. He does not exist for your pleasure or like all politicians, for photo…
Urdu, What Did I Do?
A language, any language, is not simply sounds and script characters which represent thoughts. A language is the soul of the people. It is the vehicle which connects their past…
What’s My Crime?
The killing shot is just behind the shoulder. Aim for the spot behind the elbow and your bullet will tear through skin and muscle, enter the rib cage and pulverize…
Jhalana, Jaipur’s Secret Paradise
The Blue Bull had been killed by hyenas. The Striped Hyena pack, led by the matriarch had lived in this forest for generations beyond number. Their ancestors lived off the…
Life Lessons From Tea
I started working in India in the Anamallai Hills, part of the Western Ghats as they tapered down all the way into the tip of the subcontinent. Before that I…
Future Of Wildlife Conservation In India
One of our big challenges in wildlife conservation is to stop poaching and habitat degradation which leads to animal human conflict which always has only one ending, destruction of the…
Yala, Leopard Paradise
He had killed the buffalo late the previous night. The dark was his friend. Thanks to the reflectors in his eyes, he could see as clearly in starlight as we…
Triple Talaq…Crime?
Criminal law deals with behavior that is or can be construed as an offense against the public, society, or the state—even if the immediate victim is an individual. Examples are murder,…
My India Today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97P1-Ayqnkw&feature=youtu.be This lecture by Mirza Yawar Baig is take on India as it is today and the challenges that face us in the immediate future. He says "It is my…
Education! Give Them Memories
Who is your Role Model? Think of someone you know or knew personally, not a public figure. For how many of you is that a parent or a teacher? If…
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