Crossing two rivers on rickety handmade boats with a jumpy 5-km rickshaw ride in between, to reach there. Till about six years ago, there was no running water or even a bulb to read under in this small village in the Sundarbans. In an age when most urban Indians come home to almost 300 channels at their beckoning, the residents here had to do without the luxury of electric power. The area Sundarbans now comprises 4 per cent of the world’s solar-dependant population—quite a large figure. Now, it gets six hours of electricity every evening, thanks to the two solar plants that were installed here in 2001. From being a no-name entity, Moushuni is today one of the 47 villages in and around the Sundarbans area that run only on alternative energy. The best thing about solar energy is that it is maintenance-free. It is heavenly experience for the people who had to live in darkness even 55 years after Independence. Earlier, they had to cross the river and walk a dozen miles just to get a document photocopied. Now the bazaar has a photocopier and a digital studio. The village school is on its way to getting a computer lab. For Rs 75 per three-point and Rs 130 per five-point connection every month, the residents now have the comforts that many people in the rest of the country have long enjoyed— television sets, fans and even refrigerators. A tenth of the total population of the village have subscribed to the solar connections. For the students’, caretakers provides extra hours of electricity during examinations. And they have something in store for a rainy day. When there’s not enough sun, the plants have gasifiers where they burn twigs with the help of diesel and convert the heat into electricity. Though prolonged cloudy periods leave them with no choice. Each plate runs for 40 years, with a change of batteries needed every seven years. Life here is fluctuation-free and as natural as it can possibly get. As the last boat sails away from the island, a tiny bulb lights up near its shore. And as you leave, Moushuni glitters in the distance.
Archive for May 18th, 2008
Posted in 
Begum Akhtar
May 18th, 2008 
krishna If music is a powerful form of communication, Begum Akhtar was the first effective communicator. She was the one who realized the power of music and used this medium to convey a message. She zealously guarded a rare pathos in her notes as a stamp of her irreproducible style and identity. After 34 years since she passed away, today when there are only a few takers of classical music her records are still best-sellers. She added ghazals to the classical stage and approachable to the common man. She knew how to communicate with her audience. She chose the lyrics carefully and furnished them to the audience in her own style, which helped her manage to achieve personal rapport. She was born in 1914 in the Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Under the able guidance of Atta Ahmed Khan of Patiala, she began musical training. There she learnt the classical and semi-classical forms of singing be it ghazals, bhajans, dadra or thumri. She also has trained her students and groomed them for their all round development of her students which is unbelievable. She was a secularist and nationalist. Padam Shri Begam Akhtar was once approached by a few maulvis to get a favour for their masjid in Baranbanki as they claimed that the masjid was taken over by Hindus and they are performing pooja there. She replied, it is a form of IBADAT (prayer) that is being held there. She was a true patriot. She always believed in the empowerment of women. Akhtaribai Faizabadi, popularly known as Begam Akhtar gave her first performance when she was 15 years old. Her first recording was recorded with Megaphone Record Company. She started her acting career with Mumtaz Begum in 1934. She stopped performing for five years after marriage. Once she fell ill and music was prescribed as the only remedy. There was a personal rapport that she managed to achieve with each member of her audience, almost as if she was singing exclusively for an individual listener.
