Where the Hell is Matt

There was this American young man Matt Harding who thought the only thing to do in life is to make and play video games. He worked somewhere in Australia at his mid-25 and later quitted the job and roamed about some parts of the world with the money he earned. He created a website and used that to update his current location and status so that his friends and families could know his whereabouts.

While he travelled to a place, he used to take some snaps or video of the place and uploaded that in his site. Later one of his friends suggested that he can dance a little with his weird kind of dance to add fun to the video. Soon these videos became popular and were circulated around the web and became some of the most successful viral videos. He became known as 'Dancing Matt'.

When he finished his money, his videos stopped. Then someone (or some organization) offered him to continue dancing around the world at their expense. So he continued moving around and dancing and this gave birth to some more dancing videos - which when amalgamated, created the massively popular video 'Where the Hell is Matt'.

Garry Schyman is an American music composer who composes music for video games and other multimedia industries. He worked to compose a background music for this song.

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet and was a nobel laureate for his 'Gitanjali' book in 1913. Garry Schyman adopted the lyrics of a poem 'Pran' from the book and composed a music 'Pran' or 'Stream of Life' by Garry Schyman.

Palbasha Siddique is a Bangladeshi-born, American grown-up young lady who gave voice to the song 'Pran' by Garry Schyman. The song was selling at top 10 in Amazon for a couple of weeks.

The song is a modern rock n' roll with guitars, piano, violin and other modern instruments and not really a Tagore tone. But I liked it. Hope you might like it, too.

Now, the dancing video depicts Matt dancing in various countries and location in the world with natives. May be the theme is, everybody can dance no matter where s/he is. The videos are freely available. I think many of you might have seen them in youtube or in Matt's own site. Unfortunately Matt travelled so many countries, but despite he is using a Bengali song written by a Bengali nobel laureate and sung by a Bangladeshi singer, Bangladesh is not yet represented in any of his four dancing videos so far. So instead of where the hell he is, I wonder what the hell he was thinking of this. Still I am hopeful, Bangladesh might be present in his upcoming videos, but as a natural consequence of his country visits and not as a complement.

Now as the last line, Matt didn't even know he might be a world-wide celebrity ever in his life. He thought his mission of life to be a video game player only. And now he is famous and renowned as 'Dancing Matt'. I remember I saw an ad in Emirates depicting his dancing. So capturing moments by video or image might bring you luck. His leisurely videos now made him famous without any effort at all. So try to capture moments of life. Who knows what comes in paving your way to happiness...

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Stream of Life - Tagore - Gitanjali

Praan lyrics – Transliteration and a literary translation.

Bhulbona ar shohojete (I shall not forget so easily)

Shei praan e mon uthuk mete (Let the heart and soul rhythm with joy)

Mrittu majhe dhaka ache (In Death lying is your)

je ontohin praan (Evergreen life)

Bojre tomar baje bashi (Thy flute plays like thunder)

She ki shohoj gaan (That's a precious song (not so cheap a song))

Shei shurete jagbo ami (And I shall rise high with the tune)

(Repeat 3X)

Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde (I bear that storm(y tune) with pleasure)

Chittobinar taare (And feel it in my heart as if the strings of a 'bin' inside the heart is playing )

Shopto shindhu dosh digonto ((Everything in) Seven seas and ten directions around)

Nachao je jhonkare! (Are all dancing with the rhythm)

Bojre tomar baje bashi (Your flute plays like thunder)

She ki shohoj gaan (That's a precious song (not so cheap a song))

Shei shurete jagbo ami (And I shall rise high with the tune)

(Repeat 3X)

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Following is an abstract flow of the song (may be from Garry):

"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the lifethrob of ages dancing in my blood this moment."

Dropbox download link of the mp3 (4.11 MB): Gary Schyman - Praan

Clip from YouTube:

 

Engineering Rocks - Kola

In Kola, Russia, a project of deeping down the earth was taken around 1970. As of today, the borehole reaches 12,262 meters (12 Km) down the earth and is apparantly the deepest visible location on earth. Actually the deepest is in Qatar where oil miners drilled deep up to 12,289 meters in a very short period of time. But the Kola borehole keeps its versatility due to its historical start of the first such successful endeavour.

Some interesting discoveries and anomalies resulted in the deep excavation. One was boiling hydrogen - actually the mud underneath boils due to evaporation of hydrogen. Temperature was discovered to be about 190 degrees celcius. Such high temeperature prohibited further drilling, so we may think it might go deeper.

The first such project started in the USA in around 1960, but it stopped due to lack of funding. That sounds strange to me as the USA does not lack funding on anything. So the fact might be that, pre-researches or feasibility studies might show worthless discoveries and instead investment of funding to some other discoveries might have been more worthy of.


Alongside the drilling, another putative hocus pocus was going on that some other scientists in Russia drilled about 15 Kilometers below the earth where temperature reaches about 1100 degrees celcius. They said the deeped down a heat resistant microphone and recorded strange sounds underneath that sounded like something supernatural - as if screams of punished people as in hellfire as described in some religions. It may be noted that, the location of hell is described as to be in the core of earth in some religions. I think there is a movie "Nine Miles Down" that explores this phenomenon where deeping down so deep reveals a demon underneath - or something like this. This hoax is called putative as it was even supported by broad media coverage, and it is named 'Well to Hell'.


It may be noted that in their song "Cluster One", British band Pink Floyd used some sound effects that is said to be sonographically recorded sound of the clinking materials floating at the core of the earth. You might know, the core of the earth has zero gravity and it is extremely hot there and only some heat-resistant materials float there in a melted environment. But this should not be confused with the 'Well to Hell' hoax sound.

Anyway, this clearly shows the power of engineering. Digging deep enough for 12 kilometers ain't a cakewalk at all. Try to visualize a road up to 12 kilometers, and then move that road vertically into the ground - then only you will understand what it means drilling 12 kilometers into the ground. Obviously that's a nice piece of engineering.

Synopsis - Juffureh, James Island, Kunta Kinte, Alex Haley, "Roots"

Long time ago, a black African was trapped and captured by the slave traders here in this place. This place was not yet known as Gambia at that time, but the village might have the same name 'Juffureh', and the name is still valid and the place is still persisting, not perished with elapse of time. The man was captured and taken to the USA. Later he lived the miserable life like slaves and eventually died at old age. Long time after his death, his 7th generation decendant Alex Haley wrote a famous novel "Roots - The Saga of an American Family" - featuring this very old ancestor of him. The ancestor's name was 'Kunta Kinte' - I think many of you would recognize him and the novel as well. The novel was later made to a TV serial which was being broadcast in the televisions worldwide.

As a disclaimer, this whole description is based on the elaboration of the tour guide moulded with my own knowledge and view. So it might be a little biased towards their own race. But again if you take this description to an American or European or whoever other kind of a race whose ancestors were slave traders, they would deny many aspects of the description. The thing is, we cannot go past and cannot see what was really happening Everybody thinks s/he is right, others are wrong. So it is only your conscience and rational logic that might make a thereafter little lucid scenario for this. Now the journey begins.

We had this opportunity to visit this historical place where Kunta Kinte was born and later captured as slave and sent to the USA. The name of the village is Juffureh with a neighboring village Albreda. The village is located in The Gambia. We had to cross the Gambia River by ferry. We went by the MRC land rover which took us to the place through jungles and bushes and extremely bad dusty roads. I never knew roads could be this horrible and I admire the strength of the land rover that has an innate capability to go through such difficult places. The communication from the village to the city is not so easy. Some bus service runs everyday at one or two times. These buses are called 'Geley Geley' locally and are actually covered vans imported from Europe as used vehicles and later refurbished and redesigned as 'Geley Geley'. You might remember these kind of buses in some movies plotted in Africa like 'The gods must be crazy'.


The slave history is very old. The Arabs first came to this part of Africa near about 12th century. The indigenous people would hand over them their youths to educate them. But the youths that travelled would never return. They were educated but kept as slaves in the Arab houses. But this history was not as severe as the later when Europeans and Americans arrived for slaves.


The slaves were being sold and captured with the help of some local tradespersons who were black. So they possess an equally or more heinous personality in utilizing their own race to earn money and leading them to a ruined life.


The slaves were captured and in between the process of being captured and reaching the home of a purchaser would leave enough time for enough slaves to die. This is because of the turmoil caused by the journey, and the treat they received from the traders. The sickle that used to be wrapped around their neck, leg, hand and waist would leave enough scar and bleeding occurred. Also they were squeezed in a very small place for a long time for weakening them as the slaves were strong; this eventually caused dehydration in the slaves and a thousands of them died of this inhuman treat. Many were squeezed in small sailing boats and taken like this to Europe and America. Lack of sanitation, movement would leave enough opportunity for heat and epidemics of small pox and other diseases to rise.


When the western civilization started to bloom, they felt the need of labors. The Americans tried  the native Red Indians as the labors, but they were not so strong and were vulnerable to diseases. Later a portuguese bishop advised the traders about the African blacks to try as slaves. After that they came here and the slave history for Europe and America started. Later when gradually machines were being invented and they realized that a machine can do more than a human being, they slowly started to give up this trade as bringing slaves from Africa was not so cost effective in comparison with investing money on machines and using machines. So it is the machines that initiated the giving up of slavery - it is not like that they realized their violation against humanity and gave up slave trade. So don't be fooled once again by the Western propaganda that some good-hearted people and leaders initiated the termination of bondage. It is the advent of machines that initiated the termination and augmented whatever lowest humanity was remaining in minds of those people.


The traders used to burn the house of indigenous Africans. When the people came out of the burning houses they were captured. Here in Juffureh, they were captured and put to San Domingo Complex for days without or little food. Many were kept in a small stone room in a very unhygienic environment. They had to urinate and shit in the same place where they were kept. Two minuscule holes were left where scanty amount of food was provided. Many slaves had to gather around the hole for the food and became even weaker with the fight for food. Many would become so weak that they even had not enough strength to fight for food and rather preferred to die. The alive slaves had to live with the corpse and the stinky environment with the corpse would make them even weaker. It is said that Kunta Kinte was kept here for two days.


After making weak, the slaves were brought to the bank of Juffereh through a narrow road through the bushes. From there, they were taken to the James Island and were gathered around the slave yard. Thereafter, the healthy slaves were considered eligible for trading and they were put a mark on their body with heated iron. The unhealthy slaves were thrown to the water and apparently it seemed that they are free. But unfortunately they were made so weak in the San Domingo Complex that they could not succeed in reaching the bank by swimming which is about three miles from the island and drowned and died eventually.


There was a dark cave like the one I described previously in our Senegal visit. Stubborn slaves were kept here until tamed. Some even died and the alive slaves had to live with the corpse. The corpse eventually made the environment even more putrid and made the condition of the alive slaves even bitter. Also they had to urinate and shit at the same place. So obviously the whole situation was a nightmare for the slaves. It is said that Kunta Kinte was kept here for 15 days.


It is said that the female slaves were raped until they concieved. This is because in this way the profit would have been doubled as selling a pregnant slave woman would mean selling two slaves where the other one is yet to be born. And also the healthy child slaves were the most costly slaves. But obviously the offspring of a white and black would not be a pure black. So it was one more deception of the traders. Or I don't know if they forced the black male slaves to mate with the female slaves.


From here the slaves were taken to the Goree Island, Senegal. The traders took many slaves in a boat which was comparably uncomfortable for the slaves to sail the long way on sea. Some died on way. Sometimes they were forced to dance on the deck as an entertainment for the traders and also as an exercise to keep them fit. Sometimes the traders cut off the legs or arms of some slaves to frighten the others to keep away from mutiny. If a mutiny was about to occur, the slaves were brutally treated as you can see in one of the pictures. But there was a successful mutiny led by Sengbeh Pieh - a slave from Sierra Leone. This man eventually became a legend and his picture is stamped on 5000 Leone note. But obviously if a rebel was not successful, the mutineers would have gone through horrible treatment of blood and gore that is beyond description.


The law against slavery was passed in around 1807. The slaves who were still in the James Island were asked to swim to the bank and if they reach the freedom flag, then they would be free. But really they were so weak that possibly none could succeed in swimming the three miles distance from the island to the freedom flag.


Anyway, this is a short history of the slaves. I do not like the term 'slave' - but anyway I had to use the term to embroider a less ambiguous elaboration. I am glad to have this opportunity to visit this place. When I used to watch 'Roots' I never thought I could see the place of Kunta Kinte in my own eyes - it was beyond any of my maginations. Special thanks to doctor Debasish Saha for arranging the trip.


Soon I will upload the pictures and share the link. Please follow up the blog if you are interested in the snaps.