Nostalgic, but…

The very mention of names like Boney-M and ABBA evoke a tinge of nostalgia. Both the bands dominated the disco pop arena of the 70’s, enthralling music lovers from across the globe with their foot-tapping melodious numbers.

And for a person like me who has grown up listening to Boney-M from childhood days onwards, the very thought of a Boney-M show was a virtual trip down memory lane. The show was held in Bangalore Palace Ground on March 8, '08.

To my surprise, there was only one member from the original Boney-M, Marica Barret. She managed to bring two young ladies, each from Indonesia and Germany; but never a match for the original ravishing Maizie Williams and Liz Mitchell, whose wonderful voices continue to enchant music lovers.

And in place of Bobby Farrel, Marcia brought an Italian guy, whose acrobatics and clowning acts didn’t give any value to the performance, and never a match for the original Bobby, whose spectacular dance performances on stage gave extra charm to Boney-M shows.

But still, for the thousands of Boney-M fans who gathered at the Palace ground, the mere presence of Marcia Barret was more than enough. She was at her best, oozing oomph and energy in her filly skirt, making the fans jump to those nostalgic oldies.

Frenzied fans danced and waved hands to the accompaniment of such hits like By the Rivers of Babylon, Rasputin, Sunny, No Woman No Cry, etc. Everyone, cutting across age and gender, danced and enjoyed.

It was really heartening to see a lanky teenaged girl and her mother next to me dancing all along the show. And when the frenzy reached that feverish pitch, both of them got on top of the chairs, dancing and waving hands till the end of the show. The mother-daughter duo’s spirit simply amazed me and I realized how the Boney-M spirit still lingers on, transcending generations.

On seeing such an overwhelming reaction from the crowd, Marica said touchingly: “I am happy that you still enjoy these songs even after 30 years. I really feel honoured.”
Of course, she must be. But I felt sad because Boney-M has broken up.

Post-show, I googled and found that each Boney-M member is active with own versions of the band.

Here’s the perennial problem of breaking away. It happens with many of the popular bands. Beatles is a good example. It is indeed a sad affair. Bands reach the zenith of popularity and then the inevitable happens, breaking away for some reason or other. In the case of Boney-M, there are even court cases over the copyrights.

When the band tried to reunite in the late 80's, Frank Farian, the original producer of the band, objected to it and refused them to use the original Boney-M name.

After the show, I wished how wonderful it would have been to see all the members singing together, re-enacting the good old 70’s.

Quell any parochial moves

It is in everyone’s interest to quell any moves powered by parochial and chauvinistic elements to disturb the placid social waters of Karnataka

BANGALORE: The unsavory happenings occurred at Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd in Bangalore after one of its employees working for its outsourcing customer wrote an anti-Kannada poem and the subsequent brouhaha created over this issue throw up some disturbing questions.
No doubt the alleged attempt by this fellow to cast aspersions on Kannada should be condemned in unequivocal terms as it amounted to hurting the sentiments of people of this state.

That this came from an educated person, and not from a popularity-crazy rabble-rouser, is amazing and at the same time regrettable. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) has already taken up the issue and has sent warning signals to anyone out there to "take disparage on Kannada."

Talking to CyberMedia News, Swaminathan Krishnan, senior vice president (Global Business Operations) and chief marketing officer, said that the accused person named 'Lee' was not directly employed by the company, but was working for one of their outsourcing customers.

"We have spoken to our customers and we have taken action accordingly," he said. "We have also set of code of conduct and policies. Still individuals don't take the responsibility and create problems. We won't be aware till it comes to us. We regret it and we do stand by our nation and people," he said.

However, the KRV activists say that this derogatory poem was being distributed for the last three months. So the question is no one has taken a notice of it. Do companies have a foolproof policy to check such kinds of nefarious acts by a few? Mostly techies are young, just out of college, and they often tend to tease others unmindful of the repercussions.

Though companies have lot of trainings and team building workshops etc, there are no mechanisms in place to teach them to respect others' sentiment and imbibe a world view without any parochial vibes.

At the same time one of the issues is the widespread allegation that locals are being denied job opportunities. As rightly pointed out by one of the readers responding to our report on this issue, the locals here have embraced people from other states with open arms, but are denied opportunities.

Recently, a popular blog published the resignation letter of a senior journalist with an English daily in Bangalore. In that blog there are quite a number of postings against 'mallus' (a derogatory term used to refer to Keralites) being favoured in an undue manner at the Bangalore office of the paper.

It may be recalled that KRV had held a demonstration in front of Infosys some time back demanding reservations for the locals. It is a fact that the number of employees hailing from other states is increasing day by day. But at the same time, there is this issue of talent crunch that is often heard in the job market, mostly in the IT sector. Everyone would agree that it is just impossible to run the show using the manpower available locally. So the need for people from `outside', and this tricky issue of talent crunch Vs denial of job opportunities to the locals.

In this particular issue, there haven't been any disturbances or son-of-soil war cries. But an issue like this has the potential to create an obnoxious 'us-and-them' scenario, which will be detrimental to the image of Bangalore in particular and the Indian IT industry at large.Karnataka in general and particularly Bangalore, known as India's IT capital and part of the flat world, has always attracted people from different parts of the globe. And IT has just boosted this influx, which is still continuing.

Bangalore, home to an eclectic blend of different races, languages and origins from across the country, can afford to remain as diverse and vibrant as the rest of the country. But it cannot afford to have divisive forces of any hues out to disturb the spirit called Bangalore.

This diversity is what makes Bangalore special. You have construction workers from Tamil Nadu, carpenters from Rajastan, cleaning workers from Bihar and techies from various parts of the country. So it is in everyone's interest to quell any moves powered by parochial and chauvinistic elements to disturb the placid social waters of this state.

(Originally published in ciol.com. http://www.ciol.com/News/News-Reports/Calm-the-brewing-storm/4308104174/0/)