Preying on the past?

Descendants (Documentary; 2022)

Written and directed by: Margaret Brown

We often tell us to put the past behind us and use the past as lessons to propel us forward. Refrain from brooding over the past, but look at the future, which is within our means to write. The past is a done thing which cannot be rewritten. 

Is there any merit in prodding the past and trying to write the wrong that our ancestors did by omission or commission?

This documentary makes one thing of this very point. Can we blame all our misgivings on how our ancestors were treated? Is transgenerational PSTD justified enough to be the reason for the current generation to be dysfunctional, economically backward and in a quandary? Is validation of the deeds of our forefathers needed for us to prosper in life? Or is the mere lack of their recognition just an excuse to remain as sluggards?

It is good to put the facts straight. As history is written as dictated by the victors, their version is just one aspect of what really happened. A big chunk of what the losers experienced will inevitably be lost in the annals of times. It is good to know the other version, but are we duty-bound to correct the past, to right the wrong? 

Then there is the question of the descendants of the historical aggressors being penalised for the misdeeds of their ancestors. Are they culpable of their sins? Then, there is a question of reparation. Is a simple apology sufficient? Whenever there is money involved, the intention is always suspect. 

A poor part of the area around Mobile, Alabama, called Plateau, had a local tale. Local folks have been saying that they were descendants of more than 100 captive Africans who landed at the shores of the town on a particular slave ship, Clotilda, way back in 1860. The legend goes that, even though slavery was outlawed in the US in 1808, the clandestine international slave trade was very much alive. Slave ships would arrive on the shores of Mobile in the cover of darkness. Slaves would disembark off the shores and make a beeline to the overgrowth, leading to the slave traders' den. The ships would be burnt off so as not to leave any evidence. 

This trade ended after the Civil War ended, and the Emancipation Declaration was passed by Congress in 1865. 

The descendants of slaves and slaveowners carried on with their lives. Many of the affluent people of the area may have benefitted from the slave trade, whilst many of the slaves' downlines remain downtrodden and poor. Some would have left the nest as well. The family of Timothy Meaher, the owner of Clotilda, still possess their old estate and many parts of the town. They remain secretive about their ancestors and their activities. 

Word has it that some slaves who were freed from slavery lived in an area called Africatown and had plans to return to Africa but never really made it back. The present generation still lives in their memory and yearns to connect with them, perhaps via their belongings. As the African tradition dictates, people communicate through their personal belongings. 

Tracing the remains of Clotilda was a challenge as the site of their last whereabouts proved elusive for lack of documentation. They had some film footage and written interviews of the last living slave on the Clotilda, Cudjoe Lewis, by America's first Black female filmmaker, Zora Neale Hurston. Her book about Lewis, Barracoon, was published in 2018. It was used as a reference in this documentary.

Clotilda

A group of divers found a piece of Clotilda's wreckage and positively identified it as the 1860 ship. 

The excitement then began. The question of Africatown/ Plateau and Mobile being a tourist destination and how the vicinity would prosper came to the fore. In a town hall discussion, the question of reparation sneaked in, too. 

The point to remember is that whatever stimulus package or economic opportunities are handed out, the occupants of the lower rungs of the food chain rarely grab their chance. The high-heeled would grasp no matter how difficult the odds are stacked against them. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Nowhere people

Karma and other stories (Rishi Reddi 2007)

Picked up this book the other day, another writer with Indian roots. The author is not an Indian living in India writing about Indian stuff but rather she is an American with Indian roots who spent most of living times in the confused land of opportunity.
I guess from the contents of the books that many Indians who migrated to the land of plenty ended up being confused. Confused, that they are viewed upon as outsiders in the land that their intellectual eyes opened and also as outsiders in the land that their parents speak so highly of. Confused too, as they wonder what drove droves of its citizens from a country which had all, the civilization, the bond with nature, have analysed and have stories of good virtues, conduct, culture and governance. How come a culture so highly developed failed their subjects?
This book does not give all answers to the above. It only stimulates your mind and thinks. The answers for these lie in twilight zone that borders the intricate shades of  grey.
This book is written by a lawyer with inner burning desire to write a book since the age of 9. I guess she must have immersed herself in books and fantasy land after being a single child and the odd one out in the mid west of USA where she grew, among other places.
The collection of stories tells stories without being judgmental, neither hailing nor downplaying either cultures. It picks a time in the life of someone who had landed in US by choice or otherwise.
Justice Shiva Ram Murthy
A retired judge stays with his son in America. His usual hangout is with another middle aged Indian in a particular Indian restaurant. On the blessed day of Christmas, as their usual hangout was closed, they land up  in a Mexican restaurant. After being entertained by a rude young punk and served beef when they were vegetarian, our learned retired judge was contemplating taking the establishment to courts. The whole fiasco was settled amicably with a simple apology from the restaurant.
Lakshmi and the librarian
A mid 40s homemaker befriends a mysterious librarian who finds passion in his books. Lakshmi, the protagonist, fearing the roving eyes of fellow Indians, finally picks up courage to coax the librarian who was dealing with a personal dilemma.
The valididity of love
Two strong minded desi girls, 20 something, whose priorities are different from people of one generation before their time, have to deal with the question of marriage, morality and chastity.
Bangles
A widow comes to America to stay with her son. She cannot fit into the family dynamics. She try to inculcate her kind of upbringing of her grandchildren with disastrous outcomes.
Karma
Two brothers who use to live together part ways. One is a successful physician while the other move from job to job as he cannot fit into the system. Back in India, he is a professor but managed to obtain a Green Card with disastrous outcome.
His wife starts job as a packing lady in a grocer. On his way to the employment office, he is side tacked to help an injured migratory bird. He goes out to help more injured birds as he thinks it is his karma to help them after injuring a bird in his childhood.
Devadasi
A 16 year old Desi girl, American in her thinking, and an American boy as boyfriend to complement has only the ability to dance the Bharatnatyam as her link to her Indianess, cuts a deal with her parents to learn the dance from a Master in Hyderabad if she were to follow her parents for a wedding in India. It was a time of religious unrest and she is humbled by the kind gesture of a Moslem boy when she is caught in a crossfire. An interesting discovery for me... while mostly told that the temple dancers were labelled as being married to temple deities and had to quench the desires of the priests, here we are told that it is untrue. The dancers, actually were quite powerful, having direct communications with royalties and people of power. The disgruntled individuals, unable to achieve their agenda spread lies.
Lord Krishna
A familiar story of coming of age and grappling with your beliefs and being ridiculed by the ignorant majority. Here, a teenage Hindu boy, becomes the butt of joke in a predominantly ignorant Christian Bible belt society. He is ashamed of his heritage and is thinking changing his name to suit to the society.

A good light read to illustrate that it is not necessarily 'no place like home' but rather 'any place can be home' if you make it!

Everything has its time...

The Descendants 2011
"Ah," I thought, "it is going to be another one of those George Clooney movies where he goes on exhibiting his flashy smile breaking young girls' heart and laughing all the way to the bank!" Luckily, I was wrong. It was not too bad, actually.
The starting line caught my attention. Something to the effect of people go under the impression that everyone in Hawaii is happy living in paradise but people there too have fatal cancers, have heartaches.....
It is an emotionally charged movie of the story of Matt King, a successful real estate attorney who has an adrenaline junkie brain dead wife in hospital after a water sport accident. He soon discovers that she had been cheating on him. Then there are his two daughters who are giving him hell - a pre-teen who is having problems with friends in school and is using 4-lettered word like punctuation marks and a wild young adult in university. To top it up, there is a question of his ancestral land (in Hawaii) of which he is the trustee and shares with his cousins, which the rest of the clan wants to dispose off. The massive piece of land was owned by his great ancestor, an ancient queen who married a white man and the land had stayed in the family since. The family still practises traditional Hawaiian rituals like leaving shoes outside the home, cremation and strong familial bonds. Because of their wealth, they went to private schools and could not speak the local lingo.
This weary King has to deal with the ambivalence of an infidel wife who is in her last few days of her life, the question of turning off her life support, informing the relatives and the same time hunting down the wife's fling, a real estate agent.
Along the way is Matt's daughter, Alex's boyfriend who appeared apparently retarded but has his own sad tale to tell about his lonely receptionist mother and his dead drunk father.
Matt is confused on how to steer his daughters back to correct path but realises that the turn of events surrounding his life actually makes them closer to each other as they unplug the ventilator off their mother. Everything is forgiven as they bade farewell. As for the ancestral land, much to disappointment of the cousins, Matt decides to defer the selling until a time in the future as he believed that they actually do not own anything, the land was entrusted upon them. He felt guilty on making a fast buck on the ancestral land.
A good watch with picturesque scenery of the Hawaiian coastline and landscape- see a down to earth mature furrowed and wrinkled George Clooney doing a good job! Many awards were awarded for this film and cast....
Memorable quote....

I don't want my daughters growing up entitled and spoiled. And I agree with my father - you give your children enough money to do something but not enough to do nothing.