Musings from Antique Origins

Storming of the Bastille courtesy: www.powellhistory.com/art/Painting/French_Rev It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven ------- ( Charles Dickens in the beginning of The Tale of Two Cities ) These prophetic words of Dickens apply to our times as much as it described the times of the French revolution of the closing years of 18th century. A misty morning , 8 am on the 1st January 2009, Deira, Dubai The dawn of the New Year 2009 was quite cloudy and gloomy in Dubai both physically and metaphorically. I walked out for breakfast and even at 8 am the sun had not started shining. All these thoughts about gloom come to me because I am very anxious about th...

Lord Robert Baden Powell (1857-1941) D uring the recent siege of Mumbai, which had live telecast for three days, I saw the snippets of some boys offering water to our tired soldiers and was instantly reminded of the Boer war and the Scout movement. I had my school days, in the late sixties, in the Alleppey district of Kerala in a remote village school-where the medium of instruction of course was the vernacular language Malayalam -and got introduced into the Scout movement and became a boy scout. At that time, little did I know about Lord Robert Baden Powell, the founder of the Scout movement but for unknown reasons he always came to my mind during my visits to South Africa. Baden Powell served the British Army during the Boer War in 1899 defending the South African town of Mafeking from over 9000 Boers. There was a nine month siege and children helped the British soldiers numbering only one thousand by running errands and being helpful to them by bringing water and food. This sow the...

I drop two tears in memory of the brave soldiers and the policemen who laid down their lives fighting valiantly during the eventful Mumbai days of November 2008 igniting the waves of patriotism, unity and of the supreme sacrifice. May their breed prosper and live long till the earth lasts! Let’s also salute all the soldiers who took part in “Operation Cyclone” and saved many lives and brought back cheers to our kids! Rudyard Kipling, the much controversial poet had brilliantly written the following epitaph for a dead soldier, “If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied” These bitter word written after WW I, were written in agony because, the poet thought that if they had lived, they would have corrected the errors of the generation that preceded them. I think that it wont be improper if we replaced the word “’fathers”’ with “politicians” to make the statement more explicit. Had Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, Sandeep Unnikrishnan or any of the others ...

Bhurtpore fort in the 1860s L ast week, I read some interesting news about Bharatpur. Vishvendra Singh, scion of the erstwhile royal family of Bharatpur and a BJP leader resigned from the parliament as well as the party. Reportedly, he is joining the Congress party. Singh, a Jat royal, was political adviser to the Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje and the revolt apparently was provoked by the BJP’s decision to field Industries minister Digamber Singh from Dieg-Kumbher, one of the royal family’s strongholds. His wife, Ms. Divya Singh belongs to the Gujjar community, which had gone on violent agitations in the region during the year. Recently, the Chief Minister had appointed Divya Singh Chairperson of the Rajasthan Subordinate Services Board obviously to appease her husband as he has considerable clout in the area. Also, to counter the ill effects, BJP has roped in Jagat Singh, the controversial son of Natwar Singh, the former union minister and erstwhile Bharatpur Member of Par...

Lt.Wifred Owen (1893-1918) T hirty seven years have passed since I read Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Strange Meeting’ for the first time. While studying for my pre-degree days at a college in the remote village of Pallipuram in the Alleppey district of Kerala, this poem had been taught through the baritone voice of Mr.P.S.Nair, our English lecturer. The landscape of the village where the college was located, with its pristine white sand hues and white hillocks bore no resemblance to the smoke filled killing fields of Europe of the 1 WW years. But, the poem indeed caught my attention and years later, though the teenager has entered the twilight years of his career, many stanzas from the poem still reverberate in my mind and some of the lines do haunt me whenever I read about wars and battles. November is the month in which the First World War ended in 1918. The world, now flush with more threats and challenges is celebrating its 90th anniversary. Let’s pray for a war free world, especially ...

The Queens' Guard Room of Windsor castle showing the ivory state chair gifted to Queen Victoria by Uthram Tirunal Marthanda Varma , the Maharajah of Travancore on the occasion of the Great Exhibition, London 1851. O ne of the thrills of writing in a blog is felt when a mail is received from quite an unexpected quarter, appreciating the post and telling of a connection to some personnel mentioned in the blog. I was pleasantly surprised and was happy to receive a mail from Mr. Nick Balmer, the 14th descendant of Sir William Hawkins and his wife about whom I had written under the title, The first Englishwoman in India . Mr.Balmer is a wonderfully well informed gentleman and does some great blogging for those interested about Kerala and its British raj days. Please visit http://malabardays.blogspot.com/ for some great reading. I must be thankful to Maddy, for referring me to Nick. By the way, Maddy belongs to the unique genre of academic intelligentsia capable of lively debates and m...

Base piece of the flag mast W hile on a flying visit to Palakkad, South India last week, I met Ratna Sabhapathy and his sons at their modest shop in the heritage village of Kalpathy. He is a Sthapathy (one specialized in the design and construction of Hindu temples and the related ornamental works) par excellence with a great tradition of serving various temples in Kerala. The metal works of idols, kotimarams , (flag masts) roofing and the ornamental designs of the sanctum are done by them with exquisite mastery in the most traditional way. I could find at the shop the base piece of a flag mast from the renowned Thiruvalathur temple of Palakkad, famous for its grand architectural beauty and for its sculptural designs. This metal piece was given to the Sthapathy for cleaning and polishing works by the temple authorities. What attracted me to this piece were the presence of the beautiful ancient bronze idols of Aṣṭa-Dikpālakas , the eight guardians who rule the eight cardinal direct...