Date:31/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/31/stories/2008073159720300.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Banker’s poem for UNEP

K. Srinivas Reddy

Ashok Chakravarthy’s song ‘Plant More Trees’ features on UNEP’s website, CD

Ashok Chakravarthy

HYDERABAD: Banking and creativity may sound oxymoronic. But Ashok Chakravarthy has managed to pursue a creative career as well as achieve adeptness in the banking sector. This manager in the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Bank at Hyderabad succeeded in getting recognition from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Ashok’s song ‘Plant More Trees’ was selected by the UNEP and was uploaded in the audio visual section of the UNEP website too. The UNEP had recently taken up a massive ‘Billion Tree Campaign’ for which it brought out a CD of songs written and sung by artistes from across the world.

The Hyderabadi’s song is now one of the nine songs in a French CD titled ‘Un abre Pour la Paix – Un abre Pour la Teree’ (Trees for Peace – Trees for the Earth). The CD was distributed free of cost to hundreds of schoolchildren as part of a 4,000-tree reforestation in a burnt out area in France recently, by the UNEP.

Ashok’s song was selected by the UNEP for inclusion on its website as also in the CD after a US-based singer Mohammed Iqbal Behleem composed the musical score. Getting international recognition is not new for Ashok, who resides in Saidabad in old city. His poems were broadcast for over an hour by a radio station in Canada and he had also received many awards.