Mirza Yawar Baig

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Accepting Freedom

Many years ago, I wrote a piece which I posted on my blog called, ‘Same Chairs, Different Bottoms’. Here it is for those who may not have read it. It…

Where Are We Headed?

You may have seen the famous documentary, Four Horsemen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU In this film is this quote: When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of people living together…

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