In 1981, the televised event was easily the most watched event of recent times. The institution called marriage was still looked upon as a beacon of hope to keep the family unit intact. When they said that it was a public declaration of private intent, they meant it. It still had respect. The one act that solemnised the union of male and female was treated with due respect. Young girls went agape looking at their idol whose hairstyle they would soon be aping. They too wished that their wedding dress would be as glamorous. Forget the fact that groom stuck out like a sore thumb; his royal status would nullify all other deformities. How they adored the horse carriages, the guest list, the guests' wardrobe and the flowers. But see how it all turned out - the two-timing, the depression, the possible contamination of bloodlines, the accident, the conspiracy theory.
Much has happened since then. It is all water under the bridge now. The confluence of hearts is no longer only legitimate between members of different sexes. The bond that holds this threadbare link is no stronger than the paper that it is inked on. The preoccupation with self and hedonism has created a mockery of the man-sanctioned pledge of loyalty and responsibility. Infusion of genetic juices is no longer sacred. Offspring may have two males for parental duties. Divine approved decree is given legal status. Why the mockery if legality is the prime aim?
This time around the royal wedding did not garner that much excitement, at least in Malaysia, the once most of the most profitable colonies in the Commonwealth. Come to think of it, the natives' wealth was pilfered and divided amongst the self-proclaimed superior race of the world. Perhaps it is the heap of scandals upon scandals that the local media is churning by the minute, after the local elections that the function remains a non-event to the ordinary Malaysian.
Values change. If just about half a century ago, a king had to abdicate his throne to marry a woman of similar stature - a divorcee, actress and American; now it is a non-issue. Maybe it is because the groom is quite low down in the pecking order of ascension to the throne.
Over the years, the idea of a monarch who is bestowed by genetic make-up to decide on the direction of the country does not excite people anymore. Starting with the French Revolution, then the Bolshevik uprising and the World Wars, the royalties have fallen down like a house of cards. Now, it seems like they have to sing for their supper. They have to re-invent themselves to stay relevant. The British royal family have to keep quiet while exhibiting the share of their loot, The Kohinoor, shamelessly, without creating any more controversies. The Bulgarian dynasty was revived after winning the Presidential elections as a commoner. The Spanish have to fight out the long arms of the law. It is not easy to be a King anymore!
The American photographer who came to Calcutta during WWII and fell in love with the city Clyde Waddell spent around two years in South Asia, but it was Calcutta that fascinated him.
In December 1940, Clyde Waddell, then a 24-year-old photographer with the Houston Chronicle, a Texan newspaper, travelled with several newspapermen to Brownsville, further south in the state. It was an almost 12-hour bus ride from Houston, Waddell’s hometown, along the Gulf of Mexico that borders Texas. At the time, the airport in Brownsville was the first to offer flights to Mexico. The inaugural flight had the famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, who flew in from Mexico City.
It was a year before the US formally entered World War II but the airport was already important militarily for servicing war planes and training pilots. As was then compulsory, Waddell had already enlisted himself in the army two years ago.
Apart from this one trip to Brownsville, Waddell had never travelled beyond his hometown. He was born on June 1916, part of a big family that included six other siblings. Little is known about his early life, but by his early 20s, Waddell was already a press photographer, living away from his family. As a local pressman, he covered events of note in and around Houston.
Towards the end of 1943 – two years after the US formally entered WWII – Waddell began a totally unexpected journey to the other side of the world. Between November 1943 and February 1945, he was a photographer attached to the public relations unit of the Southeast Asia Command, serving as “personal press photographer” to Lord Mountbatten, commander of the allied forces.
"Aerial view of Calcutta downtown. In the upper left background is Hindusthan building, U.S. Army HQ. The oldest part of the city starts at the Esplanade and extends upwards. The city was founded in the early 1700s." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Waddell accompanied Mountbatten on important missions, such as visiting frontlines and hospital stations. In February 1945, a magazine, Phoenix, was launched as a joint Allied initiative and Waddell joined its staff, basing himself in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He became part of important Allied missions, photographing the war front in Burma (now Myanmar) and travelled to Singapore soon after the Allied victory.
The China-Burma-India war theatre was a vital part of the war. The US, Britain (including British India) and China rallied together – despite ostensible differences in very many areas, ranging from personal to the strategic – to fight the rapidly advancing Japanese. By February 1942, Japan, which had conquered Singapore, began advancing toward British India. The Japanese cut off the Burma Road, which served as an important British supply route from northeast India, and began work on the infamous Burma Railway. In response, Allied forces started building the Ledo Road (also called the Stilwell Road) at the end of December 1942.
"Highlight of the out-of-bounds visit is of course, a look-in on the lassies. These dusky ladies of the night ask from $3.00 to $6.00 for the dubious pleasure they offer..." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
The road supplemented, in large part, the gigantic military apparatus the Allied powers put into operation to hold the Japanese advance. Vast swathes of forestland were struck down to construct nearly 35 airfields, stretching from Agra to eastern India and present-day Bangladesh. Pipelines were extended to supply planes that flew daily sorties over the Himalayas to supply Chinese forces at Yunnan. These airplanes also helped the special demands of aerial photography.
Aerial photography
War photography began with the Crimean War of 1853, but by the Second World War, it had become more complex, specialised and, indeed, a necessity. Aerial photography allowed mapping of enemy territory, especially in this part of the world, which was covered by dense mosquito-infested jungles, where different ethnic groups dominated, rendering conventional reconnaissance methods impossible.us
"This coconut market on Cornwallis street is a sample of the haphazard way in which many bazars are operated...""Indicative of the resumption of an age-old struggle for decent conditions is this post-war picture of tram workers on strike. The strike lasted nine days but employeess won par of their demands." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]"Calcutta boasts the third largest cantilever bridge in the world. Its real importance, however, lies in the fact that it serves as Calcutta's gateway to the west, being the city's only bridge spanning the Hooghly. Taking 7 years to build, it cost $10,000,000. It towers 310 feet as the city's highest structure, is 2,150 feet long with a center span of 1,500 feet. It was completed in 1942, opened in February 1943.""Brahmins worhip in the Kalighat temple... Brahmins are the highest caste of Hindus, their mark of distinction being the piece of string seen in the hand of the gray-haired senior Brahmin.""Indians seem to be great travellers. Wartime transportation priorities have forced many weary travelers to remain in stations, waiting for long periods. Because of no other means, many must set up house-keeping during the long vigil, cooking their food on the spot and sleeping on the bare floor.""This coconut market on Cornwallis street is a sample of the haphazard way in which many bazars are operated...""Indicative of the resumption of an age-old struggle for decent conditions is this post-war picture of tram workers on strike. The strike lasted nine days but employeess won par of their demands." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Waddell, it appears, flew into Colombo in Sri Lanka, which served as Mountbatten’s headquarters in the war’s initial phase. Photographers who saw war action were part of several squadrons operational in this war sphere, some of which disbanded soon after such as the 9th and 40th reconnaissance squadrons.
Waddell spent around two years in the region, but it was Calcutta that fascinated him. His photographs of the city, some of which were printed in Phoenix – often as the cover – became immensely popular among his colleagues. (He was credited as Joe Waddell.) It was at their request that, on his return home to Texas, Wadell self-published several of his photographs in a book titled A Yank’s Memories of Calcutta.
Besides an introduction provided by an old friend, Charles Preston, and an illustration of the photographer himself, the book contained 60 elegant black and white photos (8 x 10 in) in silver gelatin print. The introduction described Calcutta as a “romantic city”, “full of enigmas” and that only Waddell could have successfully captured its mysteries.revious
"A strong contrast to the splendor of the Jain temple is the Kalighat temple, built in the 1600s. It is famous for the practice of sacrificing goats, as many as 1,500 having been slaughtered in one day. On the bank of a canal cut from the original Ganges bed, it is the temple of the Goddess kali.""Believe it or not, this man has just bitten the head of a live Krait snake. He is professor Sher Mohammed and his feats include drinking acid, eating glass, fire-walking..." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]"Indian movie actresses. Dressed in sarees, 19-year old Binota Bose, left, and Mrs. Rekha Mullick, right, are right at home before the camera and lights. Miss Bose earns $360.00 per month and Mrs. Mullick $210.00. Both are well educated and prefer American books, pictures.""'Patty-cake Annie' is the nickname tagged to the makers of India's most plentiful fuel by American Soldiers who must indulge their sense of humor. The sun-baked cow-dung patties are used by the poorer classes who cannot afford scarce wood for fuel to heat their homes and cook their food.""Nimtolla Mosque, the largest Mohammedan mosque in Calcutta. Its prayer hall will accommodate 10,000 worshippers. A modern specimen of Indo-Saracenic architecture, its minarets are 151 feet high.""A strong contrast to the splendor of the Jain temple is the Kalighat temple, built in the 1600s. It is famous for the practice of sacrificing goats, as many as 1,500 having been slaughtered in one day. On the bank of a canal cut from the original Ganges bed, it is the temple of the Goddess kali.""Believe it or not, this man has just bitten the head of a live Krait snake. He is professor Sher Mohammed and his feats include drinking acid, eating glass, fire-walking..." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Detailed in these 60 photos are moments that capture Calcutta in the time between two momentous events – the famine of 1943 and the riots that would precede Partition. It was a city teeming with people – residents, refugees and soldiers – and interesting characters from a juggler and snake charmer to society ladies.
Waddell’s book and body of work are now rare collector’s items and some of his pictures were auctioned by Christie's in 2011. Kolkata’s Akriti Gallery had an exhibition of Waddell’s work in 2015 and Robert James Kadel’s book Where I Came In... – In China Burma India, published in 1997 contained parts of Waddell’s book.
"A little snooping in Chinatown will turn up the little opium dens stuck down an alley (not recommended without police escort). Actually, the smokers shown in this picture do it legally. Each den is licensed for so many pipes. Each pipe costs a rupee, a phial of opium five rupees. Average smoker consumes a phial a day and there are about 186 pipes licensed in Calcutta." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Memorialising war
There were other photographers whose documentation of the war in its many facets remain vital today. Frank Bond, for instance, whose work is digitized in the South Asian library of the University of Chicago, was an aerial photographer who set up the first photo lab at Akyab Island off Burma’s coast to process his photos. There was also George Rodger who covered the retreat of the British forces and wrote a story on the Burma Road as he travelled with the retreating forces toward China.
The filmmaker David Quaid also saw war action when he flew with Merrill’s Marauders as they were airdropped into Japanese-held Burma. Artist photographers like the California-based James Milford Zornesmemorialised life along the Salween river in southwest China.
"The indifference of the passerby on this downtown Calcutta street to the plight of the dying woman in the foreground is considered commonplace. During the famine of 1943, cases like this were to be seen in most every block, and though less frequent now, the hardened public reaction seems to have endured." Photo credit: Clyde Waddell/University of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
The US Air Transport Command had been set up in 1941 with just three people but by 1944, it had over a hundred thousand personnel. Its planes travelled the globe in secret operations to service US and allied forces. Photographer Tom McAvoy, one of Life magazine’s founders in 1936, flew to India in just ten days and back on the Fireball Express, which travelled from Florida, down the coast of South America, to Natal in South Africa before heading eastward across the Indian Ocean to eastern India, spending only a few hours at each base before moving on.
After Waddell returned to Houston by the end of the war, he never left his hometown to undertake a similar journey again. He spent his time taking pictures and worked, later, in the insurance business. He died in 1997, aged 81. Records show he never married and was happy to remain in his large family of cousins and siblings, all of whom lived close to one other in Texas.
Lady Bird (2017) This coming of age movie is made by a debutante director. Bringing up children may not be so gratifying after all. After the initial awe of the wonder of the Universe to create a body within a body, reality soon hits you. You do not mind all the sleepless nights and backbreaking chores to keep the little one breathing. All the lethargy somehow vanishes at the sight of the little one carving a slight smile at us. Devious devils soon reveal their dormant selves quick enough. As they hit puberty, they metamorphose. Blame it on growing pains, changing hormones, undeveloped pre-frontal cortex or dopamine cravings, they view the hands that feed them as aggressors. They feel that the parents suffer from a siege mentality. Their obsessions with thrift and stickling to time are utterly too stifling. Growing up sheltered, the chicklings perceived the whole wide world as gentle as their domestic guardians. The peer pressure to conform to the herd further accentuates the tensions in the household. The parents, on the other hand, only want to pave a smooth passage for their offspring. Not wanting to repeat the silly mistakes they had done, so as not to miss the similar opportunities that had come their way, they try their level best to impart the wisdom that they acquired along the pebble-filled path of life. Sadly, all these would fall on deaf ears as it had happened during the elders' generation and the one before them. Is it not the spring of youth, the new found freedom and immaturity that blinds us from all from the potentially blistering fire in front of us? Maybe experience would teach us. We have to have our fingers burnt to feel the pain. This simple real-to-life depiction of a mother and her teenage daughter during the tumultuous years of high school to college period. The mother is a psychiatric nurse who has to work double shifts and count every penny to make ends meet. The father had been recently retrenched. The daughter seems oblivious to all these but is content to keep up with the Joneses. She yearns to get the best memories of her youthful years and wants to do something with her life. She does not want the melancholy of the household to bog down her ambitions. Through all that, they seek a middle ground.
Yet another perspective of trying to understand the secrets of life. Perhaps there might be another way to tap wisdom from the Intellect around us.
www.scienceandnonduality.com
The vessel to concentrate energies.
The location, on a particular grid,
in relation to the Earth's magnetic powers
coupled with the specific placing of
deities on certain metals to act as
conductors and linked to the chanting
of 'mantras' attempt to open the gateway
for a seamless flow of knowledge of the
Agent Intellect.
Imagine a shortwave radio or a ham radio. In order to receive transmissions, it needs to be set at a specific frequency for unhampered communications. Their whole function is determined by the ability to pick up signals by setting the dial at a particular station and for the antenna to absorb the waves. The devices in the radio turn them into audible sounds.
Many times, we run out of ideas. We seem to have hit a brick wall; thought blocks, muddled brains, whatever you call it. Suddenly, the Muse showers Her Grace and ideas just keep on flowing. How often a good nights' sleep clears the mind and makes you see everything in a different light. In the same vein how Ramanujam plucked formulas out of thin air as and when Goddess Namagiri whispered them to him.
This is yet another explanation for the existence of many deities amongst us. One divinity for one specific reason. It controls one particular trait of living. For someone whose immediate priority is to gain knowledge in academia and the arts may need to attune his thought frequencies to that of Sarasvati. To acquire wealth and prosperity, Lakshmi is invoked. For bravery and physical strength, Durga or Shakthi is summoned. The hymns and mantras recited are probably towards this end - to create an unimpeded channel for our brainwaves to be set at the required wavelength. That must be the reason for all the rituals and meditative practices. The unearthly early morning rituals with the repeated chanting of verses in monotonous and hypnotic tones must all be towards this end - to set the internal antenna to the frequency we want to receive. Some receive it with ease, others struggle and yet some who miss the elephant in the room (pun unintended).
This YouTube snippet (see below) has been making its round amongst the Tamil speaking and Tamil song loving WhatsApp groups in Malaysia, after the recently concluded 14th General Elections. Netizens, after mumbling their grunt of discontent under their breaths all this while, suddenly have a breath of fresh air. With their newfound cyber freedom, they let their hair down; ridiculing the doyens who held the realm for more than half a century and making tongue-in-cheek one-liners at their expense. After suffering in silence the antics of tyrannic leaders and sycophants, people have come out in droves to voice their discontent.
This song is a constant reminder that even the thickest of the hide of a mighty elephant would feel the pain of a whip. Mortal Man cannot be so haughty to think that he is unsinkable.
This song, like the many, which were penned by Tamil movie song composers of the 1950s through to 1970s carry many philosophical messages and thought-provoking questions that would be relevant at any time of Man's civilisation.
It highlights the foolhardy of Man chasing things that are all but temporary. Lest he forgets that all the worldly possessions and relationship only last within our short lifespan. What the composer, Kannadasan, apparently wanted to convey was that we, at the end of our sojourn on Earth, carry with us the deeds or karma to be assessed in our next birth. He, according to his fellow music composer, took the liberty of not mentioning it. Kannadasan felt that he, not the most virtuous of Man who indulged in many addictive habits, should not preach. In the scene where this song appeared, the character, a reformed son, realises that he had been the cause of his father's demise and most of the familial maladies. This heartbroken man is heading to a cliff to submit himself back to his Nature. As seen, his younger brother is racing against time to avert another tragedy in the family. The translation of the philosophy filled song is as follows...
Intro... What 'dance performance' was that? What great dialogue you gave? The wealth that you squandered? The relatives that surrounded you? When the soul leaves the shell, What comes with you?
Chorus... Till your home, the relatives, Till the street, your wife, Till the cemetery, your child, Who comes to the end?
Play till it's game over, You gaze in thousand things, The crowd that gathers, Will they come to the grave? Ch...
Mother is to cradle [maternal love], Maiden is to bed [lustful desire], Food to hunger, Wisdom to the crestfallen. Ch...
Ask the departed, He will ask you to come. Ask the newcomer, He will ask you to go back. Ch... [In the cycle of re-births, death is liberation from the tortures of living]
The soul will leave your body,
The body will be inflicted, The heat of fire, Left with nothingness... Ch...
Mom (Hindi; 2017) Legend has it that a swan gives a melodious song before its demise. Even though this fact has been disproved scientifically, somehow the romantic imagery of a female swan, a pen, rendering her last vocalisation before her final breath sounds poetic enough.
Sridevi, in her swansong, gives a sterling performance here in the role of a scorned mother. She yearns for the approval of her late teenage stepdaughter to accept her as 'Mom' whilst struggling to find justice to punish her daughter's rapists. Even though the storyline is riddled with holes and is relatively predictable, it is compensated by the excellent acting shown by Sridevi. There are many non-verbal cues that are pivotal in any good filmmaking; here it is in abundance. The director manages to keep the audience glued to the edge of their seats with suspense.
DK, the interesting private investigator who provides some light comic relief.
Another character, DK (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who assumes the role of a private eye, is an interesting one. Appearing weird in his 'soda glass' oversized spectacles, prominent frontal balding and a thick occipital lock of scalp hair, he gave the persona of a shady character. It turns out that he himself carries a heavy burden and genuinely wanted to help. Is it not funny? Over the years, I have viewed many of Sridevi's movies. In most of them, save some of the Tamil ones, I thought of her as a glamour actor who cashed in on her youth, external attraction and dancing prowess to bowl audience over. Only after her demise, in this film, do I see her in an entirely different light. Her depiction of a grieving mother is so surreal. I have seen enough in my lifetime to appreciate one.
