Call Of The Hill Myna...

When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men  ~ Rumi Padmashri Zafar Rashid Futehally (19 March 1920 – 11 August 2013) (left), the last time I ever met him I first met Zafar Futehally sab at an ornithology meet in Bangalore in November 1993. The first thing that impressed me about him was his keen interest to know the status of birds and their conservation in the hinterlands of Karnataka. Not many people are aware of his affection and concern for the birdlife as well as people of lesser known wilderness areas of our country, which don’t enjoy the same spotlight as the well known national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. During the meet, I subscribed to Newsletter for Birdwatchers (NLBW), of which he was the Editor. In NLBW's issue no: 1 of the year 1995, Zafar sab published my note on the breeding site of longbilled vultures at Devarayanadurga hill near Tumkur town, which was my first ever article. In fact in my eagerness to write for

(PLEASE SHARE THIS) Friends, My e-book on story writing ‘ How To Say Your Story. A manual for South Asia’s NGOs, CSR teams & Government agencies on communicating through written stories ’ has received good response from a worldwide audience. I released this e-book on a few platforms including facebook and Linkedin in late July this year. Almost all the recipients of the e-book have wrote back saying they have benefited from its content. There have been requests for this e-book from NGO communication people from around the world – Botswana, China, Belgium, Indonesia and US to name a few, apart from requests from within India. I am glad; my purpose of spending time on this is being served. I now plan to network with my contacts, individual NGOs, CSR teams of companies as well as civil service officials across the Indian subcontinent – India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, to help it reach bigger and needy audiences. I originally de