Music: Your Favorite Beatles Album

Which is your favorite Beatles album? Everybody in the world has heard of (and heard) the Beatles, whether you like them or not. And they came up with such melodious songs and “hooks”, that almost everybody loved them – from grandparents down to toddlers. That of course, was part of the problem. Rock purists often felt that the Beatles weren’t “rebellious” enough, and that they coasted along (at least initially), content to be popular icons, not taking risks.

Nothing could be further from the truth, which was that the Beatles were ground-breaking pioneering artists in every sense of the term. Even their early “boy band” albums, where four kids are staring out at you from the album sleeve, even those albums – these guys were taking chances to come up with music that was different. They were putting it on the line. There was rebellion aplenty – enough to keep young malcontents such as me interested.

Apart from the melodies and lyrics (which were uniformly great), listen to the sound on these albums. It is enormous. They are a four piece band that sounds like a four hundred piece band. And even back then, in the early 1960s, when they had teenage girls going berserk over them, they sounded different from everybody else. For one thing, they invented a large part of what we call rock ‘n’ roll music today. They did not play the blues or soul or a mixture of the two (like their near-contemporaries the Rolling Stones and the Who were playing at the time). They played rock ‘n’ roll – it was a new art form, because these guys were inventing it. And they were making up the rules of the game as they went along. They sounded fresh and unique, even in the very beginning. Certainly, they had their own set of heroes who influenced them – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Elmore James. But they didn’t make any attempt to sound like these guys. They always sounded just like…well…themselves.

By 1965 of course, they were heavily influenced by another pioneer – Bob Dylan. Their albums started sounding far more mature, dealing with sex, love, drugs and politics in a whole new way. But just as Bob Dylan influenced them, they influenced Bob Dylan, who had initially started as a folk singer. By 1965, Dylan plugged in his electric guitar and a whole new genre of music was born – folk-rock. But I digress.

The Beatles were very different from the Stones and the Who. Initially, the Stones tried very hard to sound like their blues idols - Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, etc., with some degree of success. The early Who tried to sound like the Godfather of Soul himself– James Brown, and failed miserably. Instead, they sounded like what James Brown would have sounded like - if he had been born white, English and hopped up on amphetamines. The Who looked and sounded like a bunch of anarchists – at least initially. A bunch of menacing looking fellows, not guys you would encourage your teenage son or daughter to hang out with. But -it was all fascinating stuff anyway. Of course, both the Stones and the Who found their own distinctive voices by the mid 1960s, and forged what we call “rock” music today. Not heavy metal, but rock (I hate it when people confuse the two).

But the Beatles sounded unique, right from the very beginning. They are not my favorite band– the Who is, and will always remain so. But I still respect and love the Beatles enormously. They never rested on their laurels. They always pushed the boundaries of whatever they were doing. From late 1964 onwards, every album sounded different from its predecessor. No two albums sounded the same. They were taking chances. With every album, they were defining and redefining the boundaries of popular music, pushing the envelope. And every time, they took their audience with them. It was a leap of faith that millions of people around the world were willing to make. They created the notion that popular music could be much more than disposable noise. They proved that popular music could be high art and at the same time, easily accessible and understood.

So which is your favorite Beatles album? I am sure you must have one. For me personally, it is a toss-up between three albums – “Revolver” (released in August 1966), “White Album” (released in November 1968 after their return from Rishikesh , India ) and “ Abbey Road ” (their last album in the studio, released in September 1969).

“Revolver” is something else entirely. It is the first “drug” influenced album. You knew these guys were going where nobody else had gone before with the music. It was that fresh, that exciting, that exhilarating. Even if “Revolver” came out today, it would be an artistic breakthrough. It sounds new and timeless at the same time. Lennon’s songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows” are scary and he is taking you down a road where nobody (not even himself) has been down before. You know the ride is going to be very exciting, but unpredictable. McCartney’s songs exhibit a new level of maturity – songs like “Eleanor Rigby” and “For No One”. And you know that George Harrison is beginning to challenge the Lennon-McCartney songwriting combination. He is beginning to come into his own as a songwriter and a guitar player on songs like “Taxman” and “I Want to Tell You”.

The double LP “White Album” came out in 1968 and was the beginning of the end. It is a Beatles album in name, but in reality, it is three guys making their own solo albums using the rest of the members as their back-up band. They have different, incompatible personalities by this point. McCartney is still consumed by being at the top of the charts, and remains a supremely gifted songwriter and musician with a genius for knowing what will sell - a true music professional. Lennon by this point wants to be an artist – he wants to be avant-garde. Harrison is resentful that his songs are not being allotted space on Beatles albums, because of the domination by the other two. He is also getting impatient and more and more confident in his own solo abilities. And Ringo? Well, Ringo is just happy that the Beatles are still together. In terms of its musical vision and diversity, no album ever made comes close to “White Album”. Every single musical genre of the 20th century (and earlier) is present on that album – rock and its various derivatives – rock ‘n’ roll, folk rock, blues, heavy metal, art rock, psychedelia, ballads – even vaudeville. It is an encyclopedia of modern day music, and is awesome in its scope and ambition.

Pretty much every song on that album sounds like it has been made (and played) by a different band. It is impossible to categorize this album – it is beyond definition. How many albums in the history of music can you say that about? No other band in the history of the world could have made this album. Once again, the Beatles were redefining the very concept of popular music, including what constituted the word “popular”. And once again, the audience took their lead and followed them down that road. The Beatles’ confidence in their own abilities was supreme. Their audience’s faith in them was nothing short of miraculous – and touching.

“ Abbey Road ” was the last album the Beatles made in the studio (though “Let It Be” was the last album they ever released). By this point, it was pretty evident that these guys were not going to last much longer as a band. Both the Stones and the Who had also matured, and were snapping at the Beatles heels – in terms of musical and artistic ability. But “ Abbey Road ” still has its moments where the Beatles leave every single band in the world behind – from the shimmering harmonies of Lennon’s “Because” to the entire suite of McCartney’s songs on Side B of the album, which pretty much invented glam-rock and paved the way for David Bowie, Elton John and Queen later. And George’s guitar playing on Side B of that album - I could write a book on it, and it still would not do justice to his guitar-playing prowess. The man grew in leaps and bounds between 1966 and 1970. By 1970, he (rightly) considered himself the equal of Lennon and McCartney – as a songwriter and a musician.

“ Abbey Road ” was also the first rock album I heard when I was fourteen years old. I remember how intriguing and different it sounded. Unlike much of the disco stuff that was floating around at the time, it sounded like it had real value, real heart. It meant something. It sounded like it was being made by people who cared deeply about what they were doing. It engaged the listener’s heart and mind. It sounded like it could sustain the listener for a long time to come. I still dust that album off now and again and listen to it, more than twenty five years later, to remind me how and when I got introduced to great modern music. It stands up to the test of time.

And that’s all she wrote. August 20th, 1969 was the last time that all four Beatles were in the studio together, for the recording of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. More than anybody else, they changed the world. The whole thing was a grand, audacious experiment that failed. But they changed the world anyway, and it was worth the effort. When John Lennon said in 1962 that the Beatles would be bigger than Elvis, he was right. When he bragged in 1966 that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, he was right. In 1970, when the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards, he said “We came out of the fuckin’ sticks to take over the world”. He was only telling the truth.

Thank you, John, Paul, George and Ringo, for the music that has always sustained us, and that even today, after all these years, still touches and enriches our lives in so many ways.

I will always love the Who, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Clash, Roy Orbison, Chrissie Hynde and many others. But - which is your favorite Beatles album??

History: The Golden Age and What Makes India Special

The golden age was first; when Man yet new,
No rule but uncorrupted reason knew:
And, with a native bent, did good pursue.
Unforc'd by punishment, un-aw'd by fear

- Ovid’s “Metamorphosis” (circa 8 A.D)

The ancient classical world dawned around the 8th Century B.C., when the great Greek, Indian and Persian empires were born. Of course, human civilization as we know it had been around for thousands of years before that. The Egyptian, Mesopotamians, Indians and Chinese had very evolved, sophisticated civilizations by 2000 B.C.

But the ancient classical world as we know it was born somewhere around the 8th Century B.C and lasted more than a thousand years. It was an era of great empires and philosophers, poets and prophets. Three great Indo-European civilizations were born – the Greek, the Persian and the Indian. In Greece, Homer wrote the “Iliad”, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle contemplated the human condition and philosophy was born, and Pythagoras proposed his mathematical theorems.

In Persia, Cyrus the Great created the first world empire – a mosaic of many cultures, religions and races, wrote the first Charter of Human Rights and Universal Law, and Zoroaster founded the world’s first monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism, with its concept of duality – good and evil, heaven and hell. All modern-day Judeo-Christian religions have borrowed heavily from Zoroaster’s writings and teachings.

In India, the Vedas were recorded, the great epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were written, and the Buddha walked through quiet country lanes in Northern India preaching the principles of worldly renunciation and the concept of enlightenment. Ajatashatru and Chandragupta Maurya’s military campaigns created the first pan-Indian kingdoms. Ashoka the Great’s reign circa 220 B.C. ushered in India’s first “golden age”.

The ancient classical world represented one of the high points of human civilization – a time when humankind made great strides in science, philosophy, literature, poetry, music and military technology. It is a fascinating time in our evolution, and the explosion of ideas that took place then was unrivalled until the Renaissance, which came along nearly two thousand years later.

So was there ever a “golden age” of humankind as the Roman poet Ovid so beautifully writes about, or is this just romantic historical nonsense, propagated by those nostalgic for a past that never really existed? Was there ever a time when large numbers of people were at peace, prosperous and happy? Many different civilizations and countries proclaim that their own glorious past represents the “golden age” of humankind. I may be biased, but the Indian Empire of the Guptas was probably the most enlightened empire the world has ever known. Certainly, Indian history repeatedly refers to the Gupta Empire as the “golden age” of Indian civilization.

Why the Gupta Empire, you may ask (and you should). Because the Gupta Empire represented a near-ideal civilization that was strong yet compassionate, humane yet objective, traditional yet intellectually contemplative and curious. Accomplishments in art, philosophy, poetry, science, mathematics and astronomy reached new heights during the reign of the Gupta kings.

A brief run-down of the accomplishments of the Gupta Empire is warranted (to substantiate my claim). The Gupta Empire was established in 320 A.D. and lasted about three hundred years. It covered all of Northern India as well as modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh. The rulers of the Gupta Empire included Chandragupta, Samudragupta and the great Vikramadiyta (who became one of India’s three greatest rulers, along with Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka, both of whom had ruled the Mauryan Empire seven hundred years earlier).

The Gupta Empire excelled in the arts, literature, music, mathematics and most importantly for the welfare of their subjects, administration. They were no slouches when it came to defending their borders either. For three hundred years, they held off and consistently beat the Saka (Scythian Huns from Central Asia), their main enemies. The Gupta Empire’s army was very well organized, and they relied on the two instruments of warfare that stopped Alexander’s Macedonian armies in their tracks six hundred years earlier – the war elephant and the powerful Indian longbow. The Indian longbow, as I have mentioned in my blog on Chandragupta Maurya, was six feet long, and fired arrows that pierced the thickest body armor. The Gupta Empire’s armies also invented the highly tensile steel bow, which was the most powerful weapon of its time. The disciplined infantry bowmen of the Indian Gupta armies beat their marauding Central Asian foes – time after time. Of course, the trained war elephants and armored cavalry also played a part in their victorious campaigns.

In the field of arts, music and mathematics, the court of the Gupta kings had the “navaratna” or nine jewels – individuals whose contributions in their areas were outstanding. In the field of astronomy and mathematics there were Aryabhatta and Varahamihira, who invented the concepts of zero, infinity and the decimal system. The trading Arabs took the decimal system to Europe, where it replaced the existing Roman numerical system. Aryabhatta also calculated Pii to the fourth decimal. In the field of astronomy, he calculated the length of the solar year and the movements of stars and the planets. Nowhere else in the world was the study of mathematics and astronomy as specialized and advanced as at the Gupta Empire’s court.

In the fields of literature and poetry, there were legendary poets such as Kalidasa who wrote the play “Shakuntala” and Dandi. The exquisite rock sculptures and paintings at Ajanta and Ellora were also part of the rich cultural heritage left to us by the Gupta Empire. These are quite simply the most sophisticated, delicate and beautiful rock paintings and carvings in the world. They are now a UNESCO World Heritage site. In my opinion, they should be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – they are that beautiful and exquisite.

The Gupta Empire’s trade with South-east Asia meant the spread of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and culture to Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and beyond. The motifs used in the construction of the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia borrowed heavily from the concepts of the Gupta Empire’s artists and architects. The spread of Buddhism to Japan, China, Thailand and other countries can be directly attributed to the Gupta Empire.

The Gupta Empire kings were also humane and excellent administrators. They set up free hospitals for the poor across the empire. Many advances were made in the field of medicine – with doctors performing bone settings, caesarian sections and bone grafting. Many of these innovations in medicine were carried to the West by the Arabs, who traded extensively with the Gupta Empire. The major universities of the time at Taxila and Nalanda were also given grants and funding.

Last but definitely not the least, the “Kamasutra” or “Art of Love” was written and published during the reign of the Gupta kings. The Empire was known for its tolerance, open-mindedness and enlightened attitude towards sex.

The end of the Gupta Empire was part of the end of an era – the end of the classical world. Around the same time, the power of the Roman Empire was broken, as it finally succumbed to constant warfare on its borders. The Goths on the empire’s northern frontier and the Sassanid Persians on its eastern frontier battered away relentlessly, and the Roman Empire finally crumbled around the 7th century. A thousand years of history were at an end.

By the 5th century A.D., Rome had ceased to be an important city in the empire anyway, as the Goths under Alaric sacked and pillaged the city in 396 A.D. The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist in everything except name by the 5th Century A.D. The Eastern Roman Empire with its capital at Byzantium (also known as Constantinople and now as Istanbul) gained prominence, since it was the gateway to rich and populous Asia.

The Romans and the Sassanid Persians were mortal enemies for four centuries, and fought each other to a standstill. By the 7th Century A.D., the Persians were finished too. There was a new power rising to the South – the Arabs. The Persians were exhausted and fatally weakened by centuries of constant warfare with the Romans, and were in no position to withstand the Arab onslaught. The great Sassanid Empire collapsed suddenly without so much as a whimper, and more than a thousand years of Persian domination of the Near East came to an end. The Persians would never again be a dominant empire-building force.

The explosive growth of two new religions, Christianity and Islam, with their radical new ideas, saw the end of the classical world in the West. The new religions were proselytizing religions – a new phenomenon, since the pagan religions of the classical world were not. The zealotry of the early Christians and Muslims meant that some of their leaders were determined to wipe out all traces of what had existed before. This was a pity. Much that was great in the ancient classical world vanished forever, never to be recovered. However, sometimes great ideas never really die – they only come back in different guises. By the 10th Century A.D., Persia had a new set of poets and writers such as Rumi and Firdausi, who extolled the old Persian ways and heroes in his epic book “Shahnameh” (“The Book of Kings”). He wrote stories of Darius and Cyrus, Shapur and Khusrau – the forgotten heroes of another time – a time when Persia was great. Christianity also incorporated many of the principles of the old “pagan” religions into their own, such as the worship of the Holy Trinity and of saints (this was a substitute for the worship of the pantheon of gods in older pagan religions).

But the “Shahnameh” and other recollections of the classical world were only faint echoes of the true glory of an epic past. The past itself died forever everywhere – except in India. Only India was and continues to remain unique. Only in India does the ancient classical world continue to live, breathe and indeed flourish. While the ruins of Persepolis, Pasargadae and Ctesiphon (in Iran) and the Parthenon and the Coliseum (in Greece and Rome) are mute testimony to the greatness of the ancient classical world, the old ways and old gods are gone forever. The goddesses Anahita and Aphrodite no longer laugh and sport in the rivers and springs of the Persian highlands and Greece. The voices of Zeus and the Greek gods have been silenced forever. Delphi is a ruin and the Eleusian mysteries of Demeter no longer reveal the profound secrets of the after-life to eager seekers. The temples of Hermes and Helios have fallen into ruin and the smoke from a thousand sacrificial fires no longer obscure the azure skies of the Mediterranean. The ancient Zoroastrian fire temples in the snow-striped Zagros Mountains in Iran are in a state of disrepair.

The remaining monuments in these countries are just tourist attractions that draw people from all over the globe, reminding them of how graceful, beautiful and interesting the classical world really was, a time when our species was young, and the world was full of interesting discoveries and inventions, waiting for us to find them.

But in India, the ancient classical world continues to co-exist with the modern. Many of the symbols and monuments of “Golden India” are gone forever, such as the magnificent palace complexes of Pataliputra and Ujjain, Kanauj and Indraprastha. But the spirit of the classical world still survives and flourishes. Take a train ride from Mumbai to Delhi on the Central Railway in winter, and on a fog-bound morning outside the town of Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, you will suddenly see the “chhatra” or roof of the main Sanchi Stupa rising from behind the tree-line by the side of the tracks. The roof of the Stupa appears to float in mid-air, thanks to the heavy early morning fog. The Stupa is a marvelous complex of buildings dating back to the third century B.C. Its construction was started in the reign of Ashoka the Great – India’s greatest king. But this beautiful complex of buildings is more than just a dead monument. It is still home to hundreds of Buddhist monks who wake up with the rising sun and chant ancient Sanskrit “shlokas” (verses) in memory of the Buddha – just like they did more than two thousand years ago. It is a living testament to another time in the world.

The classical world still lives and breathes here and elsewhere in India, a link to a great and ancient past and to India’s first golden age. It is a reminder of the thoughts and ideals that shaped our modern world and thinking. Remember that, because it is what makes India special.

Happy Independence Day!!

Music: Album Review - Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska"

Released in 1982, this is easily Springsteen’s most heartfelt and in some ways, bleakest album. It is also his least known album. Recorded at home with only an acoustic guitar and a harmonica for musical accompaniment, it is an American “dust-bowl” folk album in the tradition of Springsteen’s folk music heroes Woody Guthrie and the young Bob Dylan. The songs themselves are about ordinary working class people in tough situations in Middle America – a man who takes up a contract killing to pay his debts (“Atlantic City”), a policeman in a small town whose brother is a petty criminal (“Highway Patrolman”), a Vietnam War veteran who comes home to a dead-end job and a nervous breakdown (“Johnny 99”), a man remembering his dead father and his old home that no longer belongs to him (“My Father’s House”).

It is Springsteen at his most somber and earnest, and the songs are riveting. There are a few brutally honest albums in rock music. John Lennon’s 1970 “Working Class Hero/Plastic Ono Band” is one, the Who’s 1975 album “The Who By Numbers” is another, as is Bob Dylan’s portrait of a broken marriage – 1974’s “Blood On the Tracks”. This album falls into that category of honest, riveting albums.

There are no fist-pumping arena rock anthems here. Instead, in the tradition of Bob Dylan’s early work, Springsteen builds and breathes life into the gray, sometimes amoral characters in his songs. These are not just songs, they are short stories set to music. And like most well-written short stories, they can be mesmerizing. That is the beauty of folk music – it tells stories of ordinary people, folks like you and me.

The ambience is intimate, since Springsteen recorded all these songs at home without a back-up band. This album was released two years before his blockbuster “Born in the USA” album, which sealed his reputation as a superstar. Listening to this album, you feel that Springsteen is sitting in front of you on your living room couch on a cool fall night, with the fire roaring in the fireplace, singing his heart out – singing about hard times, ordinary people and the strength of the human spirit.

Sometimes, there are no easy answers to the horrors of life. The lyrics on this album are evocative, spare and sometimes chilling. On the title song “Nebraska” a murderer is about to executed, and is asked by the judge why he killed innocent people. He says:

“They declared me unfit to live,
Said into that great void my soul be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did,
Well, sir, I guess it’s just the meanness in this world”.

Springsteen may not be the best lyricist in the world, but he has always had a gift for capturing the spirit of working-class Middle America and its inhabitants. He builds a very convincing portrait of the quiet desperation that is the highlight of so many people’s lives. Most of his albums talk about hard times and redemption at the end of the road. On this album, he sings (quietly) about the hard times, but also about the fact that redemption is sometimes just not forthcoming. That is what makes this album compelling. Life can be hard, and sometimes, it just gets harder.

But human beings will always look for a reason to believe. And on the last song on the album, “Reason to Believe”, Springsteen is just like the rest of us in our vulnerable, weakest moments. He sings about the cycle of birth and death that is life and our never-ending quest to find meaning in our own lives and how we fit into the larger scheme of things:

“Take a baby to the river,
Kyle William they called him,
Wash the baby in the water,
Take away little Kyle’s sin
In a whitewash shotgun shack,
An old man passes away,
Take the body to the graveyard and over him they pray,
Lord, won’t you tell us,
Tell us what does it mean,
At the end of every hard-earned day,
We can still find some reason to believe”

We are all human, we are all flawed, and sometimes, in our darkest moments, when hope seems so hard to hold on to, we all need reason to believe – believe that life will get better, believe that the hard times and heartbreak will come to an end soon, that there is a grand purpose to our lives. Belief that there is a good future in store for us, belief that a kind hand gently guides our individual destinies. This song is a heartfelt yet ambiguous prayer to a deity that may or may not exist.

This is a beautiful, austere album, written and performed from the heart. Great art is always an unflinching reflection of the truth. The beauty of rock (and folk) music is its simplicity – great ideas, thoughts and ideals can be communicated in a simple way that makes it easy for people to understand, to connect. This is not true of many other art forms – even jazz and classical music are harder to understand, to interpret, to connect to. This is why I feel that rock music and its offshoots (folk music, blues music, even rap) tell stories in a way that are heartfelt and easy to understand.

Springsteen has always had a big heart and something interesting to say. He is not high-brow, he doesn’t try and impress you with his lyrical virtuosity, though his lyrics can be very well-written indeed. Over a long thirty year career, he has not just cranked out rock anthems for the sake of being popular. He believes that there is more to life than just being a superstar. He believes that in this day and age of instant (and often unworthy) fame and celebrity, good music can still make a difference and sometimes, save your soul. He is still willing to take chances and risks with his music, still willing to go out on a limb. He is a man with intelligence, character, grit and a conscience, and cares deeply about the world around him.

How many people in the entertainment business can we say that about?

Environment: Saying Goodbye To Us

The latest issue of TIME magazine has an article on the probable extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin, one of the four freshwater river dolphin species in the world. This highly intelligent, human sized mammal was long considered auspicious by Chinese fishermen. Now it is gone, forever. It has the dubious distinction of being the first marine mammal to be driven to extinction solely because of humankind’s destruction of the environment.

Why is this so important? Why is the death of a seemingly unimportant species of river dolphin so important to us? The Yangtze River dolphin was a barometer of the health of China’s Yangtze River, a river that sustains four hundred million people or six percent of the world’s population. The extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin bodes ill for the survival of the river itself as well as the millions of people who live on its banks.

China’s phenomenal economic growth over the past twenty years has gone hand in hand with unparalleled destruction of that country’s environment and natural resources. The Yangtze River is now a river highway that resembles rush hour traffic – parts of the river have a boat density of sixty boats per kilometre. The Yangtze River is also highly polluted because of the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents into the river. Industrial pollution combined with over-fishing has led to huge declines in the numbers and species of fish in the Yangtze – remember that four hundred million people depend on the Yangtze River for drinking water as well as food.

Old established methods of fishing have been replaced by those using sticks of dynamite. This “dynamite” fishing was one of the causes of the demise of the river dolphin. River dolphins are blind and rely on sonar to navigate the waterways. Dynamite fishing interferes with the dolphin’s ability to navigate the river. The confused and blind dolphins tend to panic, and get entangled in the nets of fishermen.

China is not the only villain as far as irreversible environmental degradation is concerned. India is also a culprit. The Ganges River dolphin is also at risk – it is listed as an endangered species and only four thousand are still left in the wild. The risks and dangers it faces are very similar to those faced by its Yangtze cousin – over-fishing, too much human activity, shrinkage of its habitat and pollution. The Ganges River, like the Yangtze, is dying a slow death, and water levels have reduced dramatically in the past few decades. The consequences of the death of the Ganges for India’s vast population are unthinkable – and very real.

The Indian national animal, the great and majestic Royal Bengal Tiger, is on the verge of extinction, with its natural habitat fragmenting and shrinking every year. Tiger bones are also a staple in traditional Chinese medicine, and the illegal market for tiger parts is a huge and lucrative one. Already, the Sariska Tiger Reserve in the Indian state of Rajasthan has fallen silent. The tigers there have been poached and hunted into extinction.

The Siberian Tiger, the most graceful and largest cat of them all, is also on the verge of extinction in Russia. Only three hundred Siberian tigers remain in the wild in a protected biosphere near Vladivostok. The biosphere is under threat, there are talks to construct a road though it to help revive the flagging Russian logging industry. This move would be an environmental disaster, to say the least.

It is not much different in the rest of the world, either. In the African country of the Congo, racked by poverty and civil war, the great African silverback gorilla is being indiscriminately killed and driven into extinction. Eating African bushmeat has become “chic” in the gourmet cafes of New York, London, Hanoi and Beijing. A total of thirteen thousand pounds of bushmeat (from animals illegally hunted and slaughtered) arrive in the US and Europe every year.

The American grizzly bear is hanging on by the skin of its teeth in Alaska and elsewhere. The world’s insatiable demand for petroleum products is putting increasing pressure to open up the Arctic Refuge in Alaska for oil drilling – this would be a death knell for the American grizzly. The world’s wild places are falling silent, in many cases forever.

And we have not even touched upon the effects of global warming yet. That is a whole different disaster waiting to happen.

Humans are the only species that play God with Mother Nature. We believe that humankind as a species is a measure of all things. This is what the ancient Greeks called “titanism” – equating man with God. Remember the old Greek legend of Icarus, the man who wanted to become like a god and fly? Icarus did fly, but he flew too close to the sun. His wings melted and he fell to the ground and died.

In our attempt to become gods, we are flying too close to the sun. Unless we stop now, we will soon be saying goodbye to another species – us.