when I was a young man, (younger than today) ,I read a book that changed my perception (more than others) . It was a brilliant piece of fantasy by Salman Rushdie called ´Haroun and the sea of stories´.
The book is about a second moon of our planet, a place called Kahani, where all the stories originate. There is a huge ocean full of stories and every wave in the ocean changes the story as it mixes with another one, creating an everlasting flux of stories
10 years later, I found myself on kahani. For this is what I think of our dear rainbow warrior. Every inch of it is crawling with untold stories (and other strange bugs, but lets not go there now)
Every place we go, we create new stories, retell old ones and let them swim into the cosmos, clashing with the waves of corporate crime, of profits before lives of all the bad things that are tearing our planet into pieces. I wonder who will win, which story will fade and which one will change the world. I dont know ,nobody knows.
But we try. Captain Mike Fincken is an extrodinary storyteller. the walrus , the king of gup. I hope he leads this boat full of love ,hapiness and crazy stories into a new world. A slightly better one.
Captain Daniel Rizotti (the captain before Mike) used to say that this boat is nothing but steel, a cold lifeless material, but it is us who make this boat the Rainbow Warrior. We are the rainbow warrior , not this boat, not the one that was bombed and sunk by the french in 1985, not the one that is going to follow . But We. and our stories are going to change the world.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
aromatic alarms and other la-la maladies
In spanish la-la means hippie. On this legendary boat with an extra high la la quota, we have some strange instances . One of them today was the classic , straight from the book incident. Someone left a incense stick , in the the wrong place for the wrong amount of time and the fire alarm unfortunately doesnt come with nasal buds and a good taste.
Thus, the crew had to jump at 8'o clock in the evening to the high pitched (and very irritating)sound of the fire alarm .
It took 2 firemen , 5 minutes and a lot of common sense to extinguish this particular fire. This was a funny one, however to all those who read this piece.Please pray that we dont get a real fire alarm, for there is no worse sound to jolt a sailor out of his sleep.
cheers from the la-la warrior
Thus, the crew had to jump at 8'o clock in the evening to the high pitched (and very irritating)sound of the fire alarm .
It took 2 firemen , 5 minutes and a lot of common sense to extinguish this particular fire. This was a funny one, however to all those who read this piece.Please pray that we dont get a real fire alarm, for there is no worse sound to jolt a sailor out of his sleep.
cheers from the la-la warrior
hello mr.warrior sir
One of the lovely dolphins who came visiting the warrior a few days ago.
It seems our presence excited her to jump upside down (with a grin that spread from one fin to the other)
The video shall also be added as soon as broadband internet can be found.
Photo courtesy the talented miss kajsa sjolander
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
the most dangerous bay in the world
The bay of Biscay, is a name that used to appear in the last page of the log book in the olden days, the last entry before the ship sank without a trace(and not because the books were printed here)
The weather forcast looked dim as we approached the notorious bay , we were expecting 40-60 knots of wind (around 80-100 kmph).
However the planet is not without a sense of irony (how else could it have survived us for so long) , thus we ,who have been fighting against climate change for so long faced sunny weather and blue skies in a part of the world where they are completely unheard of.
To add to the general signs of happiness from our beloved planet, we were also greeted by at least a hundred dolphins over the last few days , who performed various gymnastic acts as they surfed on the bow wave(some of which I have on video) , not to mention the dozens of whales that we have seen in this beautiful bay. One of them today was extremely close to the ship, so close in fact , that she had to dive under the ship to pass us by .
Sometimes the universe throws strange surprises at you, the bay of briscay was certainly one of them.
The weather forcast looked dim as we approached the notorious bay , we were expecting 40-60 knots of wind (around 80-100 kmph).
However the planet is not without a sense of irony (how else could it have survived us for so long) , thus we ,who have been fighting against climate change for so long faced sunny weather and blue skies in a part of the world where they are completely unheard of.
To add to the general signs of happiness from our beloved planet, we were also greeted by at least a hundred dolphins over the last few days , who performed various gymnastic acts as they surfed on the bow wave(some of which I have on video) , not to mention the dozens of whales that we have seen in this beautiful bay. One of them today was extremely close to the ship, so close in fact , that she had to dive under the ship to pass us by .
Sometimes the universe throws strange surprises at you, the bay of briscay was certainly one of them.
Monday, October 6, 2008
my path to the warrior
September 2007:
I always wanted to become a film maker. In 2007, when I finished college, I desperately wanted to study Filmmaking in FTII, Pune. I wrote the test for Film Direction (which is written by a few thousand students every year) and got through to the interview (along with a lucky 29 others).
However I did not pass the interview. And that turned into one of the best adventures of my life…
I returned home and was promptly offered a role as an Actions coordinator with Greenpeace (One of the most exciting jobs that this exciting organization has to offer) .A good friend (and also Greenpeace India’s Communications director) told me ,” Their loss is our gain,” and I had an inkling that somehow the universe had made the right choices for me, for such is the way of the cosmos.
So there I was.
I took the job 6 days before my 21st birthday, on the 12th of September 2007. I enjoyed a delicious cake in my own name on the 18th September and just like that, I was in.
Greenpeace: a home to idealistic Environmentalists across the Universe
July 2007:
I was completely and utterly frustrated with not being able to accomplish enough ( a disease all idealists tend to suffer from…)
I was offered a position on board the Rainbow Warrior , the flagship of Greenpeace.
I couldn’t resist.
So…. After careful considerations, lasting for about 3 seconds,
I resigned.
Leaving behind good memories, a small set of shoes to fill in,
Leaving behind a laptop and a small part of the table,
Leaving behind friends and very close mates,
I moved onto another piece of Greenpeace.
September 2008,
I walked a fair distance to get here. But here I am, A journey of 22 years concludes with another journey. On the 18th of this month I turned 22 , onboard the Rainbow warrior. And I am glad I’m here, not anywhere else in the universe. I feel like I’m home, a bit strange when your home takes you in all corners of this beautiful planet.
But if you think about it, it’s the perfect home to have.
It was a rather funny occasion, We had Indian food ( in the honor of yours truly ) and some funny elements on board (also known by the name of annkatrin) decided to hide all the cutlery and make everyone eat with their hands.
The pandemonium that resulted, was completely “not my fault” ( even though I enjoyed it immensely).
There were about 10 different nationalities on board , and none of then had ever eaten food with their hands. I leave the rest to your imagination. However, everyone did have a lot of fun (and a lot of gulab jamuns) to the music of Nusrat fateh ali khan in the background. It was over all a rather lovely evening.(all except for the speech I had to make in the end, disastrous is the word for that one) .
The following day we watched Om Shanti Om , in the hold. In hammocks , with fresh lassi (Yes I mean fresh lassi, and pretty good one, thanks to Joanna and dafna) . I never thought that thew firings would be able to sit through all of it , I mean 3 hours straight is not a child play, but they managed really well. In fact by then end of it, some of them were dancing to dard-e-disco (while the others were nursing minor headaches due to the whole reincarnating return of shahrukh khan).
But stangely enough, they were all very happy .
Un-fucking-believable.
Welcome to the rainbow warrior
I always wanted to become a film maker. In 2007, when I finished college, I desperately wanted to study Filmmaking in FTII, Pune. I wrote the test for Film Direction (which is written by a few thousand students every year) and got through to the interview (along with a lucky 29 others).
However I did not pass the interview. And that turned into one of the best adventures of my life…
I returned home and was promptly offered a role as an Actions coordinator with Greenpeace (One of the most exciting jobs that this exciting organization has to offer) .A good friend (and also Greenpeace India’s Communications director) told me ,” Their loss is our gain,” and I had an inkling that somehow the universe had made the right choices for me, for such is the way of the cosmos.
So there I was.
I took the job 6 days before my 21st birthday, on the 12th of September 2007. I enjoyed a delicious cake in my own name on the 18th September and just like that, I was in.
Greenpeace: a home to idealistic Environmentalists across the Universe
July 2007:
I was completely and utterly frustrated with not being able to accomplish enough ( a disease all idealists tend to suffer from…)
I was offered a position on board the Rainbow Warrior , the flagship of Greenpeace.
I couldn’t resist.
So…. After careful considerations, lasting for about 3 seconds,
I resigned.
Leaving behind good memories, a small set of shoes to fill in,
Leaving behind a laptop and a small part of the table,
Leaving behind friends and very close mates,
I moved onto another piece of Greenpeace.
September 2008,
I walked a fair distance to get here. But here I am, A journey of 22 years concludes with another journey. On the 18th of this month I turned 22 , onboard the Rainbow warrior. And I am glad I’m here, not anywhere else in the universe. I feel like I’m home, a bit strange when your home takes you in all corners of this beautiful planet.
But if you think about it, it’s the perfect home to have.
It was a rather funny occasion, We had Indian food ( in the honor of yours truly ) and some funny elements on board (also known by the name of annkatrin) decided to hide all the cutlery and make everyone eat with their hands.
The pandemonium that resulted, was completely “not my fault” ( even though I enjoyed it immensely).
There were about 10 different nationalities on board , and none of then had ever eaten food with their hands. I leave the rest to your imagination. However, everyone did have a lot of fun (and a lot of gulab jamuns) to the music of Nusrat fateh ali khan in the background. It was over all a rather lovely evening.(all except for the speech I had to make in the end, disastrous is the word for that one) .
The following day we watched Om Shanti Om , in the hold. In hammocks , with fresh lassi (Yes I mean fresh lassi, and pretty good one, thanks to Joanna and dafna) . I never thought that thew firings would be able to sit through all of it , I mean 3 hours straight is not a child play, but they managed really well. In fact by then end of it, some of them were dancing to dard-e-disco (while the others were nursing minor headaches due to the whole reincarnating return of shahrukh khan).
But stangely enough, they were all very happy .
Un-fucking-believable.
Welcome to the rainbow warrior
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