February 14, 1999, Sunday, sunny,
9-26C
[14:59 @ Pradeep’s office]
Just
participated in accomplishing a small but glorious deed – the Love-the-Tiger
Walk, Delhi, of course – on a windy day where the air was extra clear (or
should I say, unusually unsmoggy).
Pradeep expected about 200 people to show up, and he was accurate. But small as the troop was, the event was
certainly photogenic. They printed four
versions of full-colour bumper stickers with tiger graphic backgrounds and the
words of Tim’s Tiger Song. They made
tiger-striped headbands, which most people wore around they necks. They purchased about ten kid-sized tiger
suits, and there were no shortage of wearers.
They created half a dozen huge golden banners featuring the winning
slogans in the school slogan-contest.
Speakers included S.C. Sharma (Inspector of Forest and Wildlife, Indian
Central Government ), P.K. Sen (head of Project Tiger), Pradeep and myself,
with Sucheta serving as a very presentable MC.
Four TV cameras showed up, plus several top Indian newspapers including
the Times of India. One of the TV
networks is said to range as far west as London, as far east as Hong Kong, and
everywhere in between. We marched from
the Delhi Zoo to the office of Project Tiger about 2 km distant, with police
escort which stopped traffic whenever necessary. We marched along major thoroughfares, through the expansive India
Gate lawns and the magnificent India Gate itself. The march started from a line of ancient ruins adjacent to the
zoo and passed several others enroute.
Marching at the head of the troop with my hair loose, dressed in my
black Save the Tiger T shirt, black Canadian army boots laced over my
pant-legs, with a tiger-face T shirt tied behind me around my waist and a tiger
head band around my neck, hefting my still camera and the WCWC Hi 8 Sony video
cam, I must have made an extraordinary sight in the eyes of the average Indian
in the street. On top of leading the
parade, I also led in singing the Save-the-Tiger Song. The children, and adults, too, turned heads
with their enthusiastic singing.
lead
(me) chorus (marchers, esp. children) melody
SAVE THE TIGER Save the tiger (doe-ray-mee-doe)
THEY’RE OUR FRIENDS They’re
our friends (mee-fa-so)
THE TIGERS ARE IN TROUBLE The tigers are in trouble (so-la-so-fa-mee-doe)
LET’S HELP THEM Let’s help
them (doe-so-doe)
SAVE THE TIGER Save the tiger (doe-ray-mee-doe)
THEY’RE OUR FRIENDS They’re
our friends (mee-fa-so)
THE TIGERS ARE IN TROUBLE The tigers are in trouble (so-la-so-fa-mee-doe)
LET’S HELP THEM Let’s help
them (doe-so-doe)
And
so on, and so on. There was a bunch of
children right behind me who belted out the chorus with all their might. The expressions on their faces – those who
weren’t wearing tiger masks – were priceless.
After I‘ve sung my throat hoarse, I appointed the most enthusiastic of
them – a girl of about 12 - to sing the lead.
She took her task so seriously that the song seemed cranked out from a
perpetual motion machine. I videotaped
the entire proceedings.
Credit
is largely due to Pradeep and Sucheta, who did work hard to put on a quality
show.
One
slightly down note, or should I say, down-to-earth note. Both Sharma and Sen are Central Government
bureaucrats. Their speeches sound pro-conservation,
lofty and enlightened, but given what I observed yesterday of Central
Government bureaucracy, and recalling what was written about the
ineffectiveness of the Central Government in Arjan Singh’s book, I don’t know
how much good their good will can do.
[19:03] Pradeep just phoned
me, telling me that we were on prime time TV.
He said they zoomed in on my butt (where the tiger-face on my second T
shirt tied around my waist was located).
This could potentially be the most photogenic footage of the Tiger’s
Forever campaign ever, my butt not withstanding. Unfortunately, I missed it, and they didn’t tape it. Still, the important thing is that millions
of people saw it, and that objective has been accomplished.