To learn, one has to listen.

Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

(Based on Heinrich Harrer's book with the same name)

Similar to the internment camps established in the USA for German and Japanese migrants during the First and Second World Wars, India had comparable camps. Numerous German workers and even alpine climbers from Austria were detained in various camps around Ahmedabad and Dehradun. One notable individual was Gustav Hermann Krimbiegel, an extraordinary gardener credited with creating royal gardens across India. Krimbiegel was a German botanist who migrated to Britain in 1888. He began his apprenticeship at Kew Gardens and was subsequently recommended to work in the garden of the Maharaja of Baroda. After witnessing his remarkable gardening skills, he was commissioned by other princely states. He is recognised for his development of Lalbagh in Bangalore, Brindavan in Mysore, and many others. In addition to his horticultural achievements, he is also known for introducing new seeds from abroad to India, along with innovative architectural designs, creating a distinctive Indian aesthetic for gardens.

When World War II broke out, Krimbiegel, due to his German origins, was confined to an internment camp as an enemy of the British Empire. With the assistance of King Baroda, who was at the time the wealthiest man in the world, special arrangements were made with the Empire for his release. Krimbiegel is credited with introducing innovative agricultural practices that enhanced irrigation, supported local economies, conducted tree censuses, and infused European techniques into traditional Indian gardening. 

Gustav Hermann Krimbiegel (1865-1956)
https://medium.com/@andrewabranches/
gustav-hermann-krumbiegel-b6bdb9ad28c0

'Seven Years in Tibet' is based on the life and times of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber who spent seven years in Tibet between 1944 and 1951. Starting as a haughty and rash young man with an attitude leaves his fully pregnant wife to go hiking in the Himalayas in 1939. When WW2 started, Herrer and his friends were imprisoned as POWs. In 1944, he escaped from prison and ran to Tibet, hoping to eventually go back home.

What happened afterwards was a life-changing experience for Harrer and his fellow climber, Peter Aufschnaiter. After receiving divorce papers from his wife and a cold letter from a son he had never met, Harrer chose to stay in Tibet to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Coincidentally, he had a chance encounter with the young Dalai Lama in Lhasa, becoming the Dalai Lama's teacher and close confidante. 

The invaluable lesson that is taught to us from Harrer's life experience is this. Isolation opens our inner eye. Stranded in the middle of the gargantuan forces of Nature, one is humbled to come to terms with his vulnerability. Ego is crushed, and all he sees in front of him is his mortality and the life that passed him by. It is at this opportune time that one can make amends. By being respectful and curious, one can be a good student. Watching this film and viewing Zakir Naik's vile video, one can understand how wrong and close-minded Naik is in spreading his deluded 'wisdom'.

https://mindiafilms.com/the-maharajas-german-gardener-g-h-krumbiegel/

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"Tonight we dine in Hell!"?

300 (2007)
Director, Screenplay: Zack Snyder
(Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller)

I was drawn to this movie after listening to Empire Podcast, hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. It is a riveting podcast that takes its nerdy listeners on a long journey through history. What started with the East India Company and the British Empire in India, they have covered the Ottoman Empire, the history of slavery, the Russian Empire, and now they are discussing the Persian Empire. They were discussing the Battle of Marathon and The Battle at Thermopylae, and the film '300' emerged.

King Darius I's Army was defeated at Marathon in 490 BCE. Then, the messenger ran 26 miles to bring the news to Athenians. He died doing that, but that was the birth of the marathon run.

In 480 BCE, King Xerxes I sent an entourage to the Spartan King Leonidas demanding 'earth and water' as a token of submission to the Persian King. Of course, Leonidas, in his most Spartan way, retaliates. He pushes the messengers into a bottomless pit and takes the challenge to war. Leonidas battles the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Historians may disagree with what is depicted in the film as history. At the outset, the director has cleared the air that it is just a retelling of what was presented in Miller's graphic novel. It is a documentary or suggested viewing for history students.

King Xerxes

A true blue Spartan warrior would not be parading in spandex and capes but with full regalia of full body armour. I just realised that the Persians were the first to introduce trousers. They thought they were cultured as it prevented their inner thigh from chaffing as they spent long hours on horseback. For the record, the Tartars placed raw meat as saddles on their horses. By the end of the day, after a long ride, the meat is tender enough to be eaten raw. Of course, it is an urban legend made by people who have not seen a Tartar in their life. 

Besides the attire, the weapons choices were also different between the factions. The Persians used a lot of bows and arrows with long swords and rode on horseback, whilst Greeks liked to see their foes in their eyes and stab them with their short blades.

When the movie was released, the Iranians stated their objection to the depiction of their ancestors as hedonistic, grandiose, slave-owning tyrants. In their defence, King Xerxes was depicted as effeminate and promiscuous. History also tells us that Cyrus the Great freed Jewish slaves in his time. And the Spartans were high on slave ownership. The leaders asserted that the movie was just part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at denigrating Iranian culture.

Another thing about Persian history is that what the present world knows about Persia is biased as they were written by Herodotus, who was at the receiving end of the assault. Figures could have hiked up, and the invaders could be painted as more evil than they really were. On top of that, Herodotus is said to have had many variable accounts of what transpired during the clash. Plutarch had refuted many of his writings. 

The Greco-Persian Wars have been labelled as the clash between the East and West, the good versus evil battle. In reality, nobody is good or bad. It is just geopolitics. Both sides had their superiority and defects. The Persian Empire was the earliest and most prominent Empire. The Spartans who led the land offensive at Thermopylae were stellar combatants. Hitler was so impressed by the Spartan fighting spirit that he built his military school based on the Spartan model. That must have helped the Nazis in their blitzkrieg as they marched through Poland and Belgium. Methamphetamine also must have contributed too. The war was led by Sparta, but other states would contribute manpower, too. 

This battle had a sea warfare component, too, led by Athenians. Their heavy ships caused much damage to the Persian fleet during the Battle of Salamis that followed afterwards. Intertwined in the saga are stories of betrayal by a Greek and the convoluted prophesy of the Oracle. Ephialtes, a Spartan rejected from the Army, decided to sell information on easy passageways to the Persians in exchange for a Persian uniform, wealth and pleasures of the flesh. The Oracles are apparently bribed by Greek turncoats. A kingdom will fall, they say, but which one?

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Civilisation does not assure civility!

Civilisation does not assure civility!

So, what is it that makes someone great? Is he the one who has conquered all his animalistic desires and knows that his real needs are beyond the realm of physicality and materialism? This man seeks knowledge and is satisfied when the lock of the meaning of life and the hidden secret of the Universe is unlocked. Such a man is fiction. Nietsche described him as Ubermensch; Hindus referred to him as Rama or Krishna, as the revised 2.0 version of a complex man.

Another version of understanding how life works is to look at Hinduism's representation of the Universe - Trimurthi, the Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and their consorts. Brahma, the creator, has to work in tandem with his consort, Saraswathi. Saraswathi is the Goddess of education and creativity. The take-home message is that one must have enough knowledge and creativity to create anything.

Once the creation is done, life does not just go on unabashed. It has to be preserved and preserved well. For this comes Vishnu, the divinity assigned for this purpose, operates with his consort, Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The point here is that to conserve any creation, we need affluence. Wealth is required to ensure the continuity of anything that we create. Maintenance takes money.

At the same time, to guard any property, one should have the power to destroy evil and negative forces. The guardian of this is Shiva, the destroyer. To assist him in his task is Goddess Sakthi or her manifestations Parvathi or Kaali, the most ferocious form of divinity. To maintain the status quo and to keep one's possessions intact, He needs to have the power to destroy. Power is necessary to stay in charge.

One cannot go on destroying everything in sight forever like what the jihadists are doing. Nothing would left to protect or protect for. Hence, the creation, preservation and destruction cycle needs to be repeated.

Military Museum Vienna

The Austrio-Hungarian Empire has the
dubious reputation of sending Napoleon
packing (to St.Elba)

Belvedere Palace, Vienna

Military Museum Vienna

Natural History Museum, Vienna.

Russian Orthodox Church in Vienna, built by prisoners. Gifted to the Coptic Christians.

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Rome was not built (or destroyed) in a day!

The Darkening Age (2017)

(The Christian Destruction of the Classical World)

Author: Catherine Nixey

My cycling buddy, JT, is fondly referred to as JC (Jesus Christ). Like JC, like a magnet, JT has been drawing in cyclists and potential cyclists in droves into his fold. After viewing his pictures and accolades on social media, his friends and relatives had all converted from couch potatoes to cycling-jersey-donning cleated cyclists. And these converts look at JT as JC. His every breath is sacred, and his every word is gospel truth. 

In another situation, I was invited to celebrate the passing of a relative. I also had the pleasure of listening to a sermon before the merriment. The pastor asserted that we are all weak by nature, prone to make mistakes and fall prey to temptation. He proposed his 8-step programme to his flock to emulate religiously and reinforce it weekly at their Sunday service. In not so many words, he told his congregation to go out to the world and spread the good Word.

In both cases, it appears that if the audiences are dogmatic to follow what they hear without using their faculties to sieve the chaff from the wheat, they will not be able to explore their true potential. They simply cannot be all blinkered and refuse to see beyond the rhetorics. 

I think early practitioners of Abrahamic faiths are guilty of this. Some went one step further. As stated by St Augustine, "… all superstition of pagans and heathens should be annihilated is what God wants, God commands, God proclaims!" 

Come to think of it, this is how jihadis think. They interpret the scriptures as they deem fit and impose their understanding of God's desire upon all. 

The ruins of Palmyra 

  

This book covers a time in human history in Europe, roughly between 385CE and 532CE, when Christian thinking slowly came to replace ancient 'pagan' philosophy. From an era when life and its purpose were questioned and re-questioned with philosophers putting in their two cents worth and scribbling on parchment, it morphed into a time when the Church determined what life is and how life should be lived. They impose their will on others, and in modern slang, "it is our way or the highway!" forcing many to immerse into the new teachings or leave for new lands. In the process, almost 99% of the knowledge is either lost or burnt. Outstanding human achievements in architecture and art were demolished, vandalised or defaced.  The human anatomy became vulgar, and there was a pressing need to amputate limbs, breasts, phalli and even Hellenistic noses.

It probably started in Palmyra's Temple of Athena in Syria, circa 385 CE. The idea of a goddess symbolising wisdom and war was too much for newly converted Christians to stomach. They only saw the exaggerated display of wealth and the glorification of a pagan deity. The accentuated silhouette of their body embarrassed Christians. Years of growing conversion climaxed with the imposition of their will on the rest. It immensely helped when the Roman monarch embraced Christianity and agreed to enforce God's law on Earth.

Hypatia of Alexandria

Ancient Alexandria saw the monumental work of Euclid and Ptolemy. To the new converts, their jobs were blasphemous. If the good said that God created heaven and Earth and everything on it in six days, so be it. Who are we, the product of the Original Sin, to question? The idea of a female mathematician-philosopher, Hypatia, running around telling people about the stars and the skies was repulsive. The sight of men learning the art of calculation was not in. In the name of religion, they killed and mutilated her body in the most inhumane way. All her work and wisdom from Alexandria's Great Library, one of the cradles of the Classical World, went up in flames.

History, as the Christian victors wrote it, made us believe that the pagan world became progressively disillusioned with the traditional Gods and rituals. They started disbelieving their myths and twisted tales and willingly embraced Christianity to seek the truth. The reality is not that.

Roman public bath

Early Christians were disillusioned with the world they lived in. They were fearful of a strange hostile world possessed by demons and made it their God-given duty to destroy these demonic representations. And they viewed these temples and deities as such.

Damascius, one of Hypatia's students, saw the actions of the zealots. He returned to see 532 CE Athens, a slowly evolving city. The Romans were interested in maintaining good governance providing public amenities, and religious tolerance. The new converts had different ideas. When more people saw Christianity as their newfound belief, they increasingly saw public baths and temples as demonic playhouses. Their orgy of destruction forced conversion, destroyed public property, deprived heathens of their livelihood, and chased philosophers away. There were even snooping squads, and people were rewarded for snitching on their pagan fellow citizens. The Academy, the birthplace of classical culture, was no more. Just one per cent of Latin literature would survive the purge; countless antiquities, artworks, and ancient traditions were lost forever. 

Come to think of it, what the Christian zealots did in Pre-Christian Rome was no different from the present-day ISIS or Taliban.

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The Queen is dead, long live the King!

©Elanour Tomlinson

We are often advised to say only the nice things about the recently departed. Somehow, all the ill feelings and the wrong paths crossed are temporarily swept under the proverbial carpet. Everyone, including the ones who tend to benefit from the deceased's passing, is expected to carry a sombre outward appearance - wear a sad face, dress down and avoid merriment. 

After the so-called mourning period, it will be pretty much no-holds-barred, I guess. 

But now, even before the dead are laid to rest, the wokies are already at it. I am referring to the recent demise of one of the longest reigning monarchs of the once most enormous Empire of the world, where the sun never set. True, she inherited a bounty of loot from the world over. At one time, pirates scaling the Atlantic high seas were free to pilfer gold from Spanish vessels legitimately under the auspices of the British Crown as long as they paid their dues to the monarch.

True, they went out with their imperial stance with a chip on their shoulders and a stiff upper lip to match. And plunder wealth from civilisations that had found peace with their place in the sun, create mayhem to liberate the oppressed and destroy other cultures with their new economic model.

This turn of events is inevitable. Every nation wants to improve life for itself. The designated / king does that for his subject at the expense of a gamut of benefits for himself and those under his umbrage who held his torch. This way of conquest was thought to trickle down the food chain and continues to date.

There were plundering imperialists, and there were cruel plundering imperialists. Some maimed their subjects without caring about their future. In a way, the British made some humane decisions to ease their administration but ended up causing their Empire's own destruction along with other compelling factors. They laid down plans for proper administrative machinery, invested in education for natives to help (and look down on their own cultures) and created an extensive web of transportation networks. 

If not for the English, this blog would not be in English or an incomprehensible language that could hardly pass for English. We were lucky that English became the lingua franca of the world, the modern language of communication. Left to our politicians to steer us to the future, we would still be a fumbling fishing village ruled by despots, not that they are not preventing this from happening. An unthinking obedient herd of the population led by their leash to the slaughter is their idea of utopia. If we had been savaged by colonists, we would have been brutalised by our own kind. As the Tamil saying goes, "Whether Rama or Raavan rule, it doesn't matter to me, I don't give a damn!"

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Civilisation does not equate to civility!

Civilisation does not assure civility!

So, what is it that makes someone great? Is he the one who has conquered all his animalistic desires and knows that his real needs are beyond the realm of physicality and materialism? This man seeks knowledge and is satisfied when the lock of the meaning of life and the hidden secret of the Universe is unlocked. Such a man is fiction. Nietzsche described him as Übermensch. Hindus referred to him as Rama or Krishna, the revised 2.0 version of a complex man. 

Javanese Trishul

Another version of understanding how life works is to look at Hinduism's representation of the Universe - Trimurti, the Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and their consorts. Brahma, the creator, has to work in tandem with his consort, Saraswati. Saraswati is the Goddess of education and creativity. The take-home message here is that to create anything; one needs to have enough knowledge and creativity.

Once the creation is done, life does not just go on unabashed. It has to be preserved and preserved well. To maintain this creation and look after it, one needs the brains, plus the resources for that. For this comes Vishnu, the divinity assigned for this purpose, who operates with his consort, Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The point here is that to conserve any creation; we need affluence. Wealth is required to ensure the continuity of anything that we create. Maintenance takes money. And money begets money.

At the same time, to guard any property, one should have to power to destroy evil and negative forces. Human instinct is to usurp and squander. He will sleep until his material possession is more than his neighbour's. The guardian for this is Shiva, the dissolver (destroyer). Goddess Sakti or her manifestations Parvati or Kaali, the most ferocious form of divinity, is there to assist him in his task. To maintain the status quo and to keep one's possessions intact, he needs to have the power to destroy. Power is mandatory to stay in charge. Unstoppable rage is pointless. Shiva, by being the brake to unbridled violence, acts against the killing machine of Sakti.

One cannot go on destroying everything in sight forever like what the jihadists are doing. Nothing would be left to protect or protect for. Hence, the creation, preservation and destruction cycle needs to be repeated.

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Wealth does not last more than 3 generations?

House of Gucci (2021)

Director: Ridley Scott

They say wealth within a family only lasts only for three generations. This adage is applicable for immigrant populations and also for family businesses. The maverick from the first generation with fire in his belly, zest in his heart and vision in his mind, would venture out to dream the impossible. He would not sleep till his vision of the future materialised. With his affluence, he would not want his offspring to be deprived of what he did not have.  

Opportunities would just roll in like a fountain for the offspring, i.e. the second generation. They do not have to struggle to get their chances. To them, it is all a given thing, a no-brainer. "These things are human rights, no big deal!' They start to explore the finer things in life and the ember in the belly is slowly fizzling out. 

The generation next would have easier growing up. Shielded from cruelties of life, street smartness would be something quite alien, unlike the first generation where being witty would decide between sleeping empty and hunger pangs. Slowly, time would consume the establishment. The legacy of the pioneers would only remain as spiced up biopics for general entertainment. 

The House of Gucci was started by Guccio Gucci, who had started as a bellboy in Savoy Hotel in London, around the early 20th century in Florence, Italy. Gucci initially specialised in leather goods with their own workshop but had to diversify after 1935 when it could not source leather. The League of Nations had imposed a trade embargo after Mussolini had invaded Ethiopia. They ventured into other fabrics and by 1953, Gucci had become an international brand. The House of Gucci opened its New York branch.

By then, the House was run by the second generation. It was owned by two brothers, Aldo and Rodolfo, 50% each. Trouble brewed in the 1980s after Rodolfo died.

The movie portrays the stormy days as Rodolfo's son, Maurizio, reluctantly gets into the driver's seat when he inherits his father's share in Gucci. With the prodding by his wife, Patrizia Reggiani, they plot a devious plan to take over the whole of the House of Gucci. Patrizia's domineering attitude did not go well with their marriage. The flamboyant Maurizio started an affair that angered Patrizio. She, with her clairvoyant friend, hire a hitman to gun down Maurizio in broad daylight. Even before Maurizio's death, Gucci had lost its family-owned business status as Maurizio's spendthrift ways forced him to seek assistance from an investment group. As fate would have it, this group ousted Maurizio from Gucci.

So Gucci's is Gucci family's ownership no more; talk about wealth not lasting in a family for more than three generations. 

The movie is a trip down memory lane as songs of the yesteryears kept unexpectedly rolling as the background soundtrack. Lady Gaga gave a sterling performance of conniving missis and scorned wife who would stop at nothing to get her way.

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The sun did set!

Dunkirk (2017)
Written and Directed: Christopher Nolan

Credit: Cinemusefilms

It is a grim reminder that not everything done by the great War Prime Minister and the British Empire's leaders was right. History has shown many of Churchill's faux pas. Besides Gallipoli Campaign where only 10% percent of soldiers of the four corners of the British Empire managed to go back home, the events at Dunkirk must also be one page in his annals of annus horribilis. The thought of 300, 000 soldiers of the Allied Forces trapped in the Dunkirk by the advancing German forces and non-arrival of evacuation naval ships due to low tides must not have been a pretty sight.

Hollywood and the silver screen, being the maker of dreams, managed to change the whole situation into an event of hope conveyed in the 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech that Churchill read.

The story of 'Dunkirk' is told from the respective of at least three people. It comes from the narration of a foot soldier seeking solace from the tyranny of war; a yacht owner, his teenage son and his 17-year old friend who tread the seas to do their national service by salvaging as many struggling souls as possible, continuing the work of his other son who perished in the war; and the view of a British fighter pilot who fight not only against a competent German Force but failing engines.

The offering must surely be a mood-lifting attempt to lift the spirits of the British who clamour looking at the turn of events in their own backyard. With the possible gloom and doom of Brexit and loss of British supremacy, they surely must look at the glorious nostalgic days of the Empire when the sun never set.