London, Aug. 12: Sikh taxi driver Davinder Singh, who complained to police after allegedly suffering a torrent of racial abuse from an aristocratic customer — the Marquess of Blandford — would have understood all, forgiven all and perhaps even sympathised with his tormentor if only he had been familiar with Satyajit Ray’s depiction of the crumbling of a once great zamindari family in Jalshaghar.

Although he belongs to one of the noblest families in the land, the 51-year-old Marquess of Blandford could have inspired an evocative film on the last days of an old aristocratic English line had a person such as Ray existed in Britain.

To the tabloids, Charles James Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, born November 24, 1955, and heir, as his eldest son, to John George Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, has long been a ridiculous figure.

Marquess he might be and a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill, but “Jamie Blandford” is now considered the upper class equivalent of Jade Goody, the reality television character with whom Shilpa Shetty clashed on Celebrity Big Brother. However, Jamie appears to have few of Jade’s redeeming qualities.

All of Britain, with the exception of Davinder obviously, also knows that Jamie’s main claim to fame is that he is the UK’s best-known upper class drug addict.

In fact, Jamie’s father is so fed up with his son that he has announced that his inheritance will pass not to son but his son’s son, George Spencer-Churchill.

The boy was born in 1992 to Jamie and his first wife, Rebecca Mary Few Brown, (Rebecca, Marchioness of Blandford), whom he married in 1990 and divorced in 1998. George, incidentally, is called the Earl of Sunderland.

But there is nothing that the 11th Duke can do to stop Jamie becoming the 12th Duke of Marlborough when he dies.

To complicate matters and make all this sound though it was all taken from the pages of a P.G. Wodehouse novel, Jamie’s second marriage to one Edla Griffiths (Marchioness of Blandford), took place on March 1, 2002, at Woodstock Register Office. Although Jamie and his second wife have been living apart since 2004, their daughter, Araminta Clementine Megan Spencer-Churchill (Lady Araminta Spencer-Churchill) was born on April 8 this year.

The latest drama in the life of Jamie took place when one morning recently he summoned a cab from his ancestral home in the Blenheim Palace estate, Oxfordshire, to go to Coventry Crown Court where the heir to the Dukedom of Marlborough was facing a charge of dangerous driving and cutting up, of all people, a policeman on the M42. full Story...........................

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070813/asp/nation/story_8186676.asp

Energy ConsumptionSikhs in India have taken the first steps in reducing the use of fossil fuels in their 28,000 gurdwaras, or temples.

Each gurdwara runs a free kitchen where anyone can be fed, regardless of creed, race or need.

The Sikh community gives food to about 30 million people a day, with the five great gurdwaras of Delhi feeding more than 10,000 people daily.

The new initiative will see solar power installed at Delhi's eight biggest gurdwaras to reduce the amount of fossil fuel used for heating, lighting and cooking. Fuel-efficient cooking stoves will then be installed in rural gurdwaras to reduce energy consumption by 15 per cent.

ECO COFFINS

A unique eco-coffin project in South Africa aims to help rid the country of invasive tree species while also lending a hand to poor people faced with high burial costs.

South Africa has a big problem with invasive trees such as pines and wattles which are draining the land of scarce water resources.

At the same time South Africa's high level of HIV is causing real financial hardship to families, who have to deal with unprecedented numbers of funerals.

The plan is to make coffins out of the timber of these species, selling some at cost to poor people through churches and Hindu temples, and the rest at a higher prices to wealthier families to help support the initiative.

YELLOW-EARED PARROT

Five years ago, two Colombian species - the yellow-eared parrot and the Quindio wax palm - were on the verge of extinction.

But, thanks to a partnership between the Roman Catholic church and environmentalists, both have been saved in one of Latin America's most successful biodiversity conservation campaigns.

Millions of wax palm fronds had been used in Colombia and the United States for Palm Sunday processions, and the practice was killing the trees and destroying the parrots' habitat.

Now, people carry ordinary palms and the parrot population stands at 660 - a remarkable increase from the previously recorded 81. The campaign has gained extraordinary support in Colombia where even rebel guerrilla groups ban the sale of palms and parrots.

For more of Arc's projects, visit www.arcworld.org .

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The Irish Independent reports today that a Sikh member of the Garda Reserve will be prohibited from wearing his ceremonial headdress (turban) while on duty. Minister for Integration, Conor Lenihan, has backed the ruling.

The decision is in contrast to the positions of other forces, such as the London Metropolitan Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who allow Sikh members to wear their turbans, a vital part of the rules of their religion. Sikh men are prohibited from cutting their hair or appearing in public without the turban.

It is not clear whether the Garda Reserve member in question will continue with the force or resign his post.

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