Death is only half the story

For most of us, death is a solemn experience. Unless we are related to celebrities or other public figures, and perhaps even then, death is seldom greeted with appreciation. I mean, although death is as common as life itself, rarely do we exhibit it publically, preferring to stick to our grief and simple affairs over funerals and obituaries.

Nevertheless, deaths of public and/or historical figures do involve us now and then, and when we find ourselves in such unexpected situations, we are at a loss for information. Newspaper archives, libraries and the internet do help, but what we really look for is a single easy-to-find source for all famous dead people in this universe.

This may have been a tall order earlier but, thanks to Krishna Andavolu (and a few others), now we have Obit Magazine – an online magazine on obituaries, epitaphs, retrospectives and memorabilia of public figures from around the world. In fact, Obit Magazine is much more than that. If one were to go by its masthead, the online magazine is about ‘life death transition’ – a sort of look at life through death.

Here’s what it says in the introduction to the website’s Meet Obit section:

“Death gives life its immediacy. Because we know it will end, we savor and value life all the more. Obit examines life through the lens of death. Whether it’s the loss of a person, a place, an object or an idea, life’s constant change presents an opportunity for examination, discussion and even celebration.

By examining the transformations we face, we can understand how the past influences our time and our future. Obit aims to offer a forum for ideas and opinions about life, death, and transition that you will find nowhere else.”

Although Obit Magazine specialises in obituaries, it offers sections on topics such as just died, editor’s picks, arts & media, books, business & politics, sports, science, died on the same day, retrospectives, and best send-offs. There are blogs and forums too – as well as features such as news feeds, newsletters and a search facility.

You can log on to Obit Magazine here… and celebrate life as well as death.

[Citation: The title of this post is reproduced from Obit Magazine. The complete line, which appears just below the website’s masthead (except on the home page), states “Death is only half the story. Obit is about life…”]

A life without newspapers

With the internet and the electronic media becoming more and more popular, there’s a growing fear that one day newspapers will simply vanish from our lives. Would that really matter to us?

It should, according to Beth Teitell.

In a rather anecdotal tongue-in-cheek view published in the Boston Globe, Beth Teitell gives us hope that there are still a few applications for which newspapers are irreplaceable.

Here’s one:

“You can shed a tear right now for the iconic ransom note, with letters clipped from newspaper headlines. What’s a kidnapper to do? Print out letters at home using different fonts and point sizes?”

You can read Beth Teitell’s complete article here.

You can also read related posts from my blogs here and here.

[Citation: Save the Presses! by Beth Teitell, the Boston Globe dated 17 May 2009.]

A street artist named TKV

She walks the streets at night, hiding from the law and the few antisocial elements who accost her on her journey, to leave her creative mark on the walls of Belgrade in Serbia. But, she’s careful not to touch the heritage buildings (for they have their own value), opting instead to use the walls of buildings in the lanes and side-streets as her canvas.

She’s almost 21 and her name’s Sashka, though she prefers to go by her adopted artist name of TKV, short for The Kraljica Vila, which means The Queen of Fairies. In an interview with the Dutch Submarine Channel, she says “she wants to add something beautiful to the world,” hoping to change the world with artistic magic.

To find out more on TKV as well as watch her video interview, log on to Pretty Cool People Interviews on Submarine Channel. Or, go directly to her MySpace profile to see more of her street art.

[Citation: Image reproduced from TKV’s MySpace pages; video link from Pretty Cool People Interviews on Submarine Channel.]

Youngistaan?

As the 2009 Lok Shabha Elections comes to its fifth and final phase today, I can’t help but wonder about the 100-odd million young Indians in the 18-24 years age group who are eligible to vote and who are expected to have woken up in order to exercise their right to vote this year. Why? Simply because, if one is to believe the Indian media, a great deal of India’s political future now rests on them.

To make this dream come true, this year, leading Indian political parties have risen to the challenge of taking India’s youth to the polls and winning over their franchise. Taking cues from Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign, they have left no stones unturned, wooing India’s youth from every corner, reaching out through available technologies such as the internet and the mobilephone.

Opposition leader L K Advani has been exemplary in this respect, and has set benchmarks for others to follow. Another leading light has been Jaago Re!, a much-applauded media campaign by a non-partisan NGO called Janaagraha and supported whole-heartedly by Indian corporate Tata Tea. According to media reports, Jaago Re! has been successful in registering close to 600,000 new voters on their website (whose content is entirely in English) – although it’s uncertain at the moment if all 600,000 new voters fall in the 18-24 years age group.

The question is, of course, whether these internet-savvy mobilephone-wielding English-speaking mostly-urban youths in the 18-24 years age group – what FMCG giant Pepsico labels as ‘Youngistaan’ in their marketing campaigns in India – will be large enough and strong enough to exercise and exert their power to carve out India’s political future.

In the last Lok Shabha Elections in 2004, only 10 per cent of this group of youths had exercised their right to vote. I wonder what their count will be this year.