Three Films with Low IQ Heroes

"Charly" (1968) film with Cliff Robertson in the titular role, was inspired by a science fiction short story "Flowers for Algernon." Charly had an IQ of 69 & was working as a janitor in a bakery. On undergoing a brain surgery, his IQ triples & his life undergoes a change also. But unfortunately it proves short-lived & after a few months, he regresses to his former self. Music for this film was provided by Ravi Shankar.

"Rainman" (1988) starring Dustin Hoffman tells the story of a man, heir to a fortune, institutionalised with an IQ of 87. After his father's death, his selfish greedy brother kidnaps him & accidentally discovers that he can gamble successfully. Meanwhile the asylum doctor arrives & claims custody. Initially opposing the asylum's claim, the selfish brother has a change of heart & accepts the "Rainman" as only his brother.

"Forrest Gump" (1994) memorably played by Tom Hanks, had an IQ of 75 & was rejected by the Army. But unfazed, he engages  himself in various enterprises, succeeding in all of them. While doing so, he also gets involved in various key events in 20th century American events. The film ends happily with Forrest proudly seeing his son off on his first day at school.

Diabelli Variations & The Orange Plot Mysteries

The Austrian composer & music publisher Anton Diabelli composed a waltz tune & invited 51 contemporary composers to contribute a variation on it. Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart's son & the then 8 year old Liszt were among those who contributed. Diabelli published the whole collection. But Beethoven, on his own, composed 33 variations on the theme, which are now known as the Diabelli Variations, & are more famous than the collection of the variations of the 51 composers.

During the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, the weekly magazine "Sunday Dispatch" commissioned six authors to write a story on the plot "One night a man picked up an orange in the street. This saved his life."

One of the six was Nicholas Blake, the pseudonym under which the Irish poet Cecil Day Lewis wrote detective fiction. The publisher, William Collins also contributed the last of the stories. All the six stories are published in book form for the first time in "Bodies from the library" Volume 3, selected & introduced by Tony Medawar.

Unfinished Masterpieces

Charles Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", where the eponymous protagonist is killed, ends before the culprit is unmasked, because of the author's death. But most of the clues point to Edwin's uncle John Jasper being the murderer, the reason being his attraction to Rosa, the beloved of his nephew. Many lesser authors have tried completing the novel. The 1935 film with Claude Rains playing Jasper also completes the story.

Nikolai Gogol's classic humorous novel of Tsarist Russia, "Dead Souls", also ends literally in the midst of a sentence. But before doing so, it presents a panoramic view of the Russian society of that time. It also presents in Chichikov, the ultimate scamster. who though unmasked, wriggles out of a tight corner & replaces his new suit of "smoke & flame", a literal as well as a  metaphorical symbol of his ill-gotten prosperity, fall from grace & resilient bounce-back. 

In the world of music, the most famous example is Franz Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" in B minor. Though he composed the later "The Great C major", he chose not to add to the two movements of the earlier one. Probably he felt, like the later musicologists, that the two movements themselves constituted an artistic whole.

Pets in Detective Fiction

Agatha Christie's "Dumb Witness" is actually named after Bob, the fox terrier, owned by the murdered woman. He was fond of playing with a ball & once left it at the top of a staircase. His mistress stepped on it & took a tumble down the stairs but fortunately had only minor injuries, & recouped within a week. But later she succumbed to poisoning. Christie humanises the dog & transcribes his thoughts for the readers. At the end of the novel, Bob, playing with his ball again  is presented to Poirot, but his friend Hastings claims him, stating that Poirot cannot look after him.

In Ngaio Marsh's "Final Curtain", Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, dramatically first encounters the cat Carabbas at his burying by a crying little girl Panty, who is singing a funeral dirge. Otherwise a spoiled brat, Panty is really grieving for her only friend & abusing her aunt, who accused Panty of transmitting ringworm to the cat. Actually Panty prophetically says she hates her aunt & wants to kill her, when at the end of the novel, the aunt is unveiled as the murderer.

In another Marsh novel, "Tied up in Tinsel", the reader comes across Slyboots & Smartypants, the two cats (Marsh was a cat-lover!), the pets of the cook. When they are found in the bed of Cressida Tottenham, guest & fiancee of the host, she raises a ruckus, as she hates cats. After the inevitable murder in the novel, Cressida has to dree her weird & is unmasked as the perpetrator.

Scriptural Canines

In Rigveda, Panis (demons) stole the cows belonging to Angirasas, sons of Sage Angiras, & hid them in a cave. The Angirasas approached Indra & other gods to help them. Indra ordered Sarama, a bitch in his court to find out where the cows were. She did & negotiated with the Panis, who initially were stubborn. When she related Indra's might, they tried to bribe her with a share, saying she was like a sister to them. She said that she was nobody's sister & returned to Indra, who raided the cave & recovered the cows.

In Semitic literature also, there is the story of the Seven Sleepers in the Christian tradition (not in the Bible). These were seven Christian men who hid in a cave to avoid persecution by the Roman Emperor, who sealed the entrance. After about 200 years, when Christianity was established, the cave was opened. The seven, who were sleeping, came out & like the later Rip Van Winkle, thought they were asleep for only a short time!

A reference to this is in the Qur'an also, but the duration is about 300 years & the number of sleeping men is not specified. But a dog, probably named Al-Raquim was also stretched out at the mouth of the cave. (Surah 18, Verse 9). All were supposedly alive.

Vedas & Upanishads

Many books are available of these earliest texts of Hinduism. But because of their esoteric nature, they may not be reader friendly at the present time.

One of the books which overcome this limitation is "Vedas & Upanishads for children" by Roopa Pai. Though it may be over the heads of most children, it is certainly accessible to nerdy teens & adults. Emboldened by her success with her earlier book on Gita for the same audience, the computer engineer turned author has done an astonishing feat in producing a page turner in this book.

Though the writing is cool & groovy in its approach to suit the targeted age group, she never dumbs down the content to suit them. For example she uses the "Happy Birthday" tune & Maria teaching the children music in "The Sound of Music", to illustrates the metre (chandas) of the Vedic hymns.

The first 124 pages of this 412 page book is devoted to an overview of the Vedas with all necessary background information. The rest of the book deals with the ten principal Upanishads in some depth. How the Upanishad teaching can be applied at home, school & workplace is also delineated. She exhorts the readers to "Don't settle for being human - discover the God that you really are."

Illustrated by Sayan Mukherjee, it is beautifully printed in dark type (eye-friendly) by Hachette publishers with an eye-catching colour cover. The footnotes, usually in smaller type at the bottom of the page in other books, is printed in normal type after the paragraph in the main text, with an eye-catching special marginal border. As this book, acquired for young readers may be a guide to them life-long, a hard cover edition with colour illustrations would be very welcome.

Possessive Blood Relatives in Literature

It is quite common for a wife to be possessive of her husband & she, it should be remembered is not related by blood.

The most famous example of a possessive mother is Gertrude Morel in D.H.Lawrence's "Sons & Lovers". Disappointed in her husband's & eldest son's love, she hung onto Paul, her artist son as the last hope.

In Thomas Hardy's heartbreaking short story, "The Son's Veto", Sophy Twycott, a servant, marries the vicar & has a son Randolph. After her husband's death, she wants to marry her former beau, Sam, a trader. But Randolph, educated to be a priest, forbids his mother to marry below his rank as a priest. She spends the rest of her life as a lonely abandoned widow.

In Agatha Christie's last novel "Sleeping Murder", Dr.Kennedy was so possessive of his step sister, Helen, that he prevented her social life, going as far as to prolong the infection of her injured foot, by dressing it himself. Finally to stop her from marrying, he kills her & kills others also, who suspect him.

In a reversal of the above story, Somerset Maugham's story "The Book Bag" tells of siblings Olive & Tim being very close with no thoughts of romantic lives. Suddenly Tim meets, falls in love, marries & brings his bride home. Though outwardly Olive takes the news calmly enough, just before the newlyweds arrive, she shoots herself dead.

The Wittiest Couple in Shakespeare

These are Benedick & Beatrice in "Much ado about nothing." Their charming fencing with words is the highlight of the play. Both are against marriage for most of the play. Benedick says;

"That a woman conceived me, I thank her;

That she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks;

But (to think I will go further), all women shall pardon me."

Beatrice: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than hear a man swear he loves me.

Benedick: What my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?

Beatrice: Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signor Benedick?

When Benedick goes to war, Beatrice has such a poor opinion of his prowess that she promises to eat anyone whom he kills!

Finally, their friends set a trap & convince Benedick that Beatrice is dying of love for him. Then Benedick thinks "If I do not take pity on her, I am a villain."

When a similar game is played on Beatrice, she thinks "Farewell, contempt & scorn,& maiden pride, adieu! Benedick, love on; I will requite you, taming my wild heart to your loving hand."

Marriage Sacraments

In Islam, it is mostly a civil contract, where the man has to look after the woman.

In Christianity, the marriage should hold good even in adverse circumstances, "in health & sickness" etc. The man should "love & cherish" the woman & she has to "honour & obey" him.

Only in Hinduism is marriage linked with the "Purusharthas" or goals of human life. The four goals are Dharma (righteousness), Artha (material possessions), Kama (Desire) & Moksha (Liberation). The wife is called "Dharma Patni" & most tellingly "Saha Dharmini." The primacy of Dharma is emphasised in this. She is a partner in the path of righteousness. She is not called "Saha Arthini" or "Saha Kamini". However attainment of Moksha is an individual effort for which no partner is required.

Unfortunately, this teaching has been reversed & wives behaving as they are not called are accepted as normal. Further, in many cases, they are even deflecting the man from the path of Dharma. Even Queen Kaikeyi in "Ramayana" did this though reasonably she was insisting on a promise given to her, she did deflect Dasharatha from the path of Dharma.

This may also be the reason behind the rising cases of divorce, being due to a warped sense of priorities.

Three Texts on Music Appreciation

"Music" by Daniel T. Politoske is divided into nine parts, comprising 30 chapters, being comprehensive in its coverage. The highlight of the book is each period of music is complemented by art essays drawing on the painting & sculpture of the age, presenting a holistic picture of beauty in music & the arts. Profusely illustrated both in photographs & staff notation excerpts, it also contains over 50 Listening Guides to many works which analyse threadbare the structure of the pieces.

"Invitation to Listening" by Richard L.Wink & Lois G.Williams also uses art works to highlight & compare similar abstract ideas present in music. For example Peter Mondrian's "Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue & Black" (which comprises just blocks of these colours put together) is used to illustrate the idea of Music being an abstract art. Divided into 12 chapters, the first 10 provide an introduction to music theory & forms of composition. Musical examples quoted in text are given in staff notation in the last 40 pages of the book.

Probably the most beautifully designed book is "Listen" by Joseph & Vivian Kerman, which won the Merit Award at the New York Book Show. All the people involved in the production of this book are accomplished musicians themselves. This volume, lavishly spread over 21 chapters also integrates the relevant art works of the period to the music being discussed. The second colour works wonders to clarify diagrams, music examples & listening charts. The 22 Listening Charts, an unique feature gives the time indication in minutes & seconds of what is going on in the music, hand-holding the reader/listener throughout the piece.

Two Texts on Film Appreciation

The first is Louis D. Gianetti's "Understanding Movies." Divided into chapters on Picture, Movement, Editing, Sound, Drama, Literature, Theory & profusely illustrated (including colour plates), it presents an excellently organised overview of all noteworthy aspects of films.

For example, to impress the importance of constructive editing, it presents 24 stills of the iconic scene from Hitchcock's "Sabotage", where a wife, realising her husband's role in the death of her younger brother, stabs him at the dinner table.

Antonioni, a master of colour, excelled himself in the symbolic use of colour in his "Red Desert", which is illustrated here in 12 typical stills.

"Film Art, An Introduction" by Bordwell & Thompson, also organises it's material in chapters entitled, Work of Film Production, Significance of Film Form, Narrative & Non-narrative Formal Systems, The Shot: Mise-en-Scene, The Shot: Cinematographic Properties, The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing, Sound in the Cinema, Style as a Formal System, Film Criticism: Sample Analyses & Film Form and Film History. This is also profusely illustrated with 16 colour plates to illustrate the creative use of colour. It also has Hitchcock's masterly use of editing in the petrol bunk scene from "The Birds" along with the shooting script.

Books like these, present film appreciation in an organised way to educate film viewers to maximise their understanding & enjoyment of the films they watch.

Listening to Hindustani Music

Chetan Karnani's "Listening to Hindustani Music" was the first of its type to be keyed to the LP records of the musicians so that the reader can access the music being written about. But he resorts to facile generalisations & is not quite accurate in a few places, besides being opinionated.

Sandeep Bagchee's "Nad" starts from the fundamentals & dives deep into the subject. Meticulously researched, the fundamentals are presented exhaustively, before analysing the unique "Gharana" system of both vocal & instrumental schools. The icing on the cake is however the eight popular Ragas selected for detailed analysis, each being illustrated with a recorded performance on LP, where the writer handholds the reader throughout the performance, as it were.

Rajiv Nair's "A Rasika's Journey through Hindustani Music" succeeds in transmitting his infectious enthusiasm for the genre to the reader. After a general introduction to the various forms within the genre, short bio-data of the leading practitioners are given, highlighting their specialities. But unfortunately, here also the author (like Karnani) allows his prejudices to get the better of him, depriving the reader of an objective value-based analysis.

Even though the following does not bear directly on the subject of this essay, it may help to set the record straight on the Ravi Shankar & Vilayat Khan controversy. (The following info. is from Namita Devidayal's "The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan.") Despite Vilayat Khan immodestly advertising himself as "The World's Greatest Sitar Player" in posters, his concerts in USA were never housefull, unless he was accompanied by Zakir Hussain. The fact is in the Alap & Jod portions of serious ragas, none were in the same class as Ravi Shankar, not even Nikhil Banerjee.

Film Studies: A Select Bibliography

Film appreciation as a course is offered in many western universities. In India also FTII, Pune offers such a course. There are many books specifically designed for such studies. However, there are many seminal books on this subject which are considered below.

The first & most important is the two volume set of "What is Cinema?" by Andre Bazin, published by the University of California Press. As Pauline Kael, another iconic film critic wrote, "What is Cinema" joins that small company of books on movies that do not exploit interest in movies but intensify it."

Rudolf Arnheim's "Film as Art" (from the same publisher as above) puts forward the provocative thesis that the peculiar virtues of film as art, derive from an exploitation of the limitations of the medium.

"Film: A Montage of Theories" edited by Richard Dyer MacCann is a selection of essays by Pudovkin, Hitchcock, Bergman, Zavattini et al on various aspects of film craft arranged theme-wise.

V.F.Perkins, in his "Film as Film", shows how a synthetic theory can shape raw cinematic experience & create a framework for constructive criticism. Also, most importantly, he points out the limits of criticism.

A more comprehensive volume than the above is "The Cinema as Art" by Ralph Stephenson & J. R. Debrix, which applies the philosophical concepts of time-space continuum & the nature of reality in analysing films, with over 300 examples taken from world cinema.

Notable film critics include Pauline Kael & Bosley Crowther (whose magisterial reviews in the New York Times could make or mar a film.)

Children in Upanishads

Even though the Upanishads are the apogee of esoteric wisdom, children do figure prominently in them.

In Katha Upanishad, Vajasrabasa, hoping for divine favour, performed a rite giving away all his posessions. But actually he was giving away only his useless cattle. Nachiketa, his young son, noticed this & asked his father "I also belong to you.  To whom will you give me?" His father, angered, said "I give you to Death." So Nachiketa went to the God of Death & waited for an audience. Death, pleased at his perseverance, granted him boons. Nachiketa asked that when he returned home, his father should recognise & accept him. It was granted & Nachiketa asked for knowledge of Brahman. Though Death was reluctant to impart this supreme knowledge, Nachiketa held fast, obtained it & returned home.

In Chandogya Upanishad, two children feature. Satyakama wanted to get spiritual guidance & asked his mother as to his family name. Jabala, his mother told him that she worked in many places as a servant & did not know who his father was, & could call himself Satyakama Jabala. He went to Sage Gautama & wanted to be his disciple. Gautama asked him his family name & Satyakama repeated his mother's words. Gautama was very pleased & said "Only a true Brahmin will be so truthful" & accepted him.

In the same Upanishad, when Svetaketu was 12 years old, his father Uddalaka asked him to go & acquire learning. So Svetaketu went to a teacher, studied the Vedas for 12 years & returned home a proud man. But when questioned by his father, it was evident that Svetaketu had only acquired conceit & not learning. So his father taught him the supreme knowledge embedded in "tat tvam asi" (Thou art that).

Daily Religious Prayers

These form an important part in all religions. In Hinduism, Sandhyavandanam is enjoined thrice a day at morning, noon & evening. In Islam, Namaz is to be conducted five times a day. But barring a few minor changes regarding the time in which they are conducted, the text remains substantially the same.

In William Law's "A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy life", he suggests that one should rise early in the morning & pray preferably in a place set apart for that purpose. This first prayer of the day should be a thanksgiving to God for giving us a fresh day for offering to Him all that one may have, for his service & glory & then proceed to express various divine attributes of God. Singing Psalms (devotional songs) will be a necessary beginning of devotions, which should be done fasting at this time.

The next hour of praying should be at nine in the morning, the subject being the practice of humility, & guard against the sin of pride. Law also mentions that importantly Christianity requires us to live contrary to the world.

Next devotion at twelve noon should have universal love as the subject. As a corollary of this, one should intercede with God for our fellow creatures.

Next devotion should be at three in the afternoon, the subject being resignation to the Will of God in all our actions & designs.

Evening prayer at six should consist of examining our heart & confessing all our sins.

These prayers can be performed mentally, even if one is at work (except the singing of Psalms on rising in the morning.)

The last prayer of the day just before going to bed should be a thanksgiving for the gift of the day & meditate on death, the inevitable, which sleep resembles.

Law concludes that celibacy & voluntary poverty are not necessary to arrive at perfection. But if practiced, will take one to perfection safely & quickly.

Valets in English Literature

Valets were a unique phenomenon in English Upper Class Society in the early part of the 20th century. They were personal attendants to the male nobility, mostly attending to their clothes.

The most famous of them, Jeeves is a valet to Bertie Wooster, immortalised by P. G. Wodehouse in his numerous novels about the duo. Jeeves is a member of the Junior Ganymede Club. (Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter, the biggest planet. In Greek mythology, Ganymede is the loveliest of mortals & selected as the cup bearer of Zeus.) He proves his indispensability by  extricating his master from various scrapes.

Mervyn Bunter, the valet of Lord Wimsey, a creation of Dorothy Sayers, was Wimsey's Batman during the first world war & saved his life there. After the war, he joined Wimsey's service. Bunter's skills include cooking, photography & impeccable dress sense. He is forever acquiring state-of-art photographic equipment, which he uses in his master's service, whenever called for. He also attends auctions & picks up rare first editions in his master's absence, on his instructions.

The most interesting of these is neither a man nor a valet in the conventional sense, but a "pretty paragon of a parlour-maid", Doris Foljambe, who looks after Georgie Pillson, in the Mapp & Lucia novels of E.F.Benson. She looks after not only Georgie, but also his complete household, including a cook. When Georgie's sisters Hermione & Ursula visit him with their pet terrier Tiptree, he is terrified. But not so Foljambe, who has the dreaded Tiptree eating out of her hand, metaphorically speaking. Even after her marriage to Chapman, Lucia's chauffeur, she continues serving Georgie during daytime.

The quaint Lucy Eyelesbarrow

This most unusual character in all fiction appears in Agatha Christie's "4.50 from Paddington." Here the detective Miss Marple suspects that a body is hidden in an old house in a large grounds occupied by the Rutherford family. As she cannot penetrate into the grounds, she recollects Lucy, who nursed her, when she had influenza.

This Lucy has a First in Mathematics from Oxford, but disdains an academic career, as it is poorly paid. She has observed that there is a great demand for efficient domestic help & the affluent are prepared to pay the earth for competent help. She decides to enter the market but only 2 weeks at a place as she wants to meet a variety of people.

On a request from Miss Marple, who subsidises her normal wages from the Rutherford family to make up her exorbitant wages, Lucy enters the family & promptly wins the hearts of everyone with her hard work & efficiency. In her spare time, she snoops around the ground & eventually discovers the body, leaving it to Miss Marple to stage a final showdown & unmask the culprit.

By the end of the novel, she may even marry one of the characters, about whose identity Miss Marple has no doubts but typically doesn't share it with the reader!

Battles & Books

In a statement attributed to Bernard of Chartres by John of Salisbury in 1159, it was postulated that the modern man was just a "dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants", due to which he could see farther than them. Jonathan Swift took this idea & propounded a satire called "The Battle of the Books." Here the Ancients (giants) were Virgil, Cicero, Homer & Aristotle. Later writers were considered the Moderns. Even in those days, Swift was "politically correct" in concealing the result of the battle, by saying that the last pages of the report were missing!

If the foregoing is the battle 'of' books", the following deals with the battles 'in' books! Interestingly, Napoleon is involved in the wars described in both books.

The first is Tolstoy's "War & Peace" where the battle of Borodino is analysed in excruciating detail. Though Napoleon won it & proceeded to take Moscow, it was a pyrrhic victory as the French were defeated by the "scorched earth" policy of General Kutuzov & the harsh Russian winter. Tolstoy views Napoleon with critical Russian eyes, downplaying his military genius.

Napoleon gets a more favourable treatment in the second book considered, which is the Frenchman Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." A whole chapter is dedicated to Waterloo, because the baddie Thenardier is robbing corpses after the battle. Here also Napoleon was defeated but by a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington, in spite of having more artillery. As the result cannot be whitewashed, the patriotic Hugo presents individual acts of bravery by the French.

Thomas Paine & Swami Vivekananda

Thomas Paine, in his "The Age of Reason" (1794) propounded his scepticism of all Semitic religions because they were based on heresy, which one cannot be compelled to believe. He also questioned the revelations mentioned in the Bible (& Quran) for the same reason. Moses & his Ten Commandments, not to speak of Mohammad receiving the text of the Quran from a Divine source, are open to reasonable doubt.

Swami Vivekananda (being the son of an advocate) was one of the first Hindu religious leaders who counselled that nothing should be accepted without proof or evidence. He was the sceptic par excellence, who relentlessly questioned his own guru about his beliefs & even checked for himself whether his guru was practising what he preached & whether he had seen God as he claimed. In this he was the heir of the Upanishadic seers, for whom reason was paramount. Even later Swamiji reiterated that the same methodology used in proving scientific truths should be used in religion also for it to be valid.

But whereas Thomas Paine did not believe in miracles, Swami Vivekananda, who had studied Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, & also wrote his own Raja Yoga, accepted that under certain conditions, natural laws could be suspended.

Notable British Composers

In Vikram Seth's "An Equal Music" about an English String Quartet, the second violinist, Michael Holme recalls his German teacher deriding British Composers: "Oh you English! Finzi! Delius! It would be better to remain in a land without music than to have music like that." It was rather unfair of him not to mention better known British Composers who produced noteworthy music.

Edward Elgar was a distinctive voice with his two symphonies, violin concerto, cello concerto & the ever popular "Enigma Variations." The Roman Catholic Elgar had, as Ernest Newman said "a personal element that derives its brilliant & eloquent energy from a constantly renewed inner struggle."

Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Pastoral Symphony" was quite unlike any other symphony that had appeared before. The composer himself described it as "almost entirely quiet & contemplative." His earlier "London" Symphony however was self impressive with Westminster chimes, a 'Lavender' cry & jingle of hansom bells.

Arnold Bax was a self proclaimed "brazen romantic." For him, like Mendelssohn, everything came too easily. His seven symphonies contain music of haunting beauty, expressing his pantheism & mysticism. His music was inspired by Gaelic legends & Celtic renaissance.

Though Benjamin Britten composed no symphonies, his love of children manifested itself in the ever popular "A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra." "Four Sea interludes from 'Peter Grimes' also proved attractive.

Intolerance in history

D. W. Griffith's trendsetting film "Intolerance" deals with its subject in Babylonian, Judean, French & American Societies.

However, in history it has reared its ugly head right from the time of Socrates who was poisoned for teaching logical thinking.

A sidelight is that his wife, Xanthippe, has acquired a reputation as a shrew. But Christine De Pizan, the first female French professional writer, notes in her "The Book of the City of Ladies" that Xanthippe was much younger than Socrates & loved him very much. When he was about to drink the poison, she, writes Christine, rushed in & dashed the cup from his hands. Then she was removed & he drank another cup. But she, according to Christine, grieved for him all her life.

Even Aspasia, who was his contemporary, & a thinker in her own right, had no option but to be a courtesan to mingle with men intellectually on equal terms. The first person in Western society who envisaged  God as an emblem of Love, Jesus Christ, was also crucified between two common thieves, as per democratic wish as the judge, Pontius Pilate, washed his hands of the decision.

It is ironic that the religious organisation set up to preach Christ's doctrines, threatened Galileo with torture & made him retract his perfectly sound scientific theory, not to speak of the Spanish Inquisition. The divinely inspired Joan of Arc, who saved a corrupt France from the English invaders, was disowned by the King whose country  she saved & was burnt at the stake by the Church for daring to bypass it's authority in dealing with the Divine. Similarly, Saint Bernadette was persecuted for most of her life for daring to access the Divine directly.

The third & final part of "The Book of the City of Ladies" mentioned above gives a list of saintly ladies who became victims of intolerance & were martyred.

Fortunately, the Eastern religions, Hinduism, Buddhism & Jainism were relatively free of intolerance like those mentioned above. Probably because the beliefs like "The Chosen People"(of the Jews), "Jesus is the only way"(Christians), & "There is no God but Allah" (Muslims) of the Semitic religions are replaced by "Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavantu" of Hinduism. The later Indian reformist Saints like Shirdi Sai Baba, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda  & Sri Satya Sai Baba reiterated that all religions are true.

Unfortunately, vestiges of religious  intolerance are still present in the west as evinced by "The Grand Inquisitor" chapter of Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" where Christ is told to go away by The Grand Inquisitor. Worse, in Richard Bach's "Illusions", Donald Shimoda, a Messiah, is shot dead in modern USA, for preaching a form of Advaita.

Idolatry, Snobbery & Religion

When human beings first evolved, they were ignorant of the laws of nature & imagined an omnipotent being controlling their lives. They made anthropomorphic idols of this being & began to worship, triggering the start of primitive religions. Later as their understanding of nature increased, this type of belief began to erode.

But simultaneously, for a harmonious society, the need of a hierarchy among the members arose, leading to a concept of a ruler. Some of the attributes of the earlier  idol were transferred to the ruler & his descendants, with the beginning of Snobbery. This may be observed in the non-human creation also as "the pecking order."

Though in modern times, most states adopt democracy, doing away with monarchy, the early habit of primitive man of creating idols to worship continues in the sycophantic glorification of political leaders & idolisation of film stars & sportspersons much beyond their values as essentially entertainers.

Even though most states institute honours to reward achievers, this also contributes to Snobbery by consigning others to a lower social position.

The antidote to these was stated by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who was also a stoic philosopher as "Both Fame & Famous (persons) are ephemeral."

However, the futilities of idolising & snobbishness are laid bare in the Upanishads themselves. Eliminating selfishness & egoism was the first attribute of a human being, putting paid to artificial hierarchies. In the early days of Christianity also humbleness was extolled & singularity frowned upon. But as the organisation of the Church developed, these noble concepts were pushed back.

To sound the final note, Swami Vivekananda said "Religion does not consist in building temples or churches or attending public worship, but in self-realisation."

Cosette, Oshin & Roton: Persecuted Sisterhood

In Victor Hugo's classic "Les Miserables", Cosette appears as the daughter of Fantine, who is forced to leave her with the "Thenardier couple, to whom Cosette was useful in two ways; as a way of extorting money from her mother & as a household drudge in her own person." When the protagonist, Jean Valjean comes across her, horrified by the way she was worked, he buys her off & looks after her as his own daughter.

In "Oshin", a very popular Japanese TV serial & film (2013), Oshin is a seven year old girl in a very poor family, who cannot even feed her & send her out to work in return for a little rice. She undergoes unbelievable hardships which she bears stoically, but runs away when unjustly accused of theft. Kokone Hamada, who plays the title role is in the same class as the immortal Shirley Temple as a child actress.

Rabindranath Tagore's short story "The Postmaster" (filmed by Satyajit Ray), deals with a post office in a remote village, where no postmaster can bring his family. So there is a little orphan girl Roton (Bengali pronounciation) who cooks & washes for him. When the present postmaster arrives, he learns that his predecessor would even beat this little girl. He however treats her kindly, asks her to be clean & neat & even teaches her to read & write. But he falls ill & is nursed by Roton. But he leaves feeling the weather doesn't suit him. Roton is devastated to lose the only person who was kind to her & refuses his tip.

So whether it is France, Japan or India, the earlier prevalence of child labour was traumatic to the poor children.

Same Title, two different films

Claude Lelouch's famous French film "Un homme et une femme" (A Man & A Woman") (1966) deals with the love of a widower & a widow, who meet accidentally at their children's boarding school. With typical Gallic flair, romantic love develops between the two. Though initially, the woman is inhibited by the lingering memories of her departed husband, later she overcomes it. The film, photographed by the director himself in a melange of colour, black/white & sepia toned shots was also enhanced by the lush musical score of Francis Lai.

Tapan Sinha's "Admi aur Aurat" (1982), (Man & Woman) commissioned by Indian TV was as different from Lelouch's film as chalk is from cheese. The man is a happy-go-lucky type, not caring much for anybody. When travelling by foot, accidentally, he comes across a lone, pregnant woman. He is compelled by circumstances to take care of her & escort her to a maternity hospital with great effort.  After the birth of the baby, the man, a Hindu, realises that the woman is a Muslim.  The film highlights the point that a community did not think it necessary to proclaim their religion by their clothes in those halcyon days, when humanity took precedence over religion. As it was sponsored by Doordarshan & the director was given a free hand, the film was liked by everyone from Satyajit Ray to the common man.

Complex ways of Indian Classical musicians

In Karnatic music there is a strange practice. S. Y. Krishnaswamy writing in "The Hindu" states that the male accompanists, whether on the mridnagam or violin, measure their status by refusing to accompany lady vocalists. Even those who accompanied the lady during their earlier years, graduate into "refusal" status in course of time!

In Hindustani music, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan narrates an incident where he wanted to record with both Pandit Samta Prasad & Pandit Kishan Maharaj. Before the recording, Kishan Maharaj asked Amjad Ali as to who will sit on the right & who will sit on the left? According to tradition, if there are two tablists, the senior one sits on the right. Here Samta Prasad was older than Kishan Maharaj, who even used to call the former "Uncle." In spite of knowing this, Kishan Maharaj asked this question. Amjad Ali writes that as he felt that this was not a pleasant start, he called off the recording.

Ustad Vilayat Khan states that Dover Lane (famous music festival) organisers asked him once to play a duet with Nikhil Banerjee. Here it must be noted that Vilayat Khan states that once Nikhil Banerjee offered him "Guru Dakshina", an offering to a teacher. So instead of saying no, he asked the organisers to bring a written statement from Nikhil that he was prepared. When they brought it, he was very angry & told them not to break the relation between Nikhil & himself & sent them away!

As a glorious exception to the above mentality, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan had no  qualms about playing duets with his erstwhile disciple Nikhil Banerjee. Ali Akbar has also the distinction of playing duets with all the three greatest sitarists of his times, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan & Pandit Nikhil Banerjee.

India's indirect contribution to Western Science

In England the law of primogeniture (all property to the eldest heir) prevailed, so the younger sons were left to fend for themselves. England being a small island, colonialism became inevitable to extradite  the surplus population. Also as Stendhal's classic novel's title "The Red & the Black", itself says, the choice of professions for the middle class was restricted to the army (& navy) & the Church. But the silver lining was that the affluent educated remaining at home had enough leisure to think constructively & a lucky few came up with epoch-making inventions like James Watt's steam engine, William Harvey's circulation of blood, Joseph Lister's sterilisation (antiseptic) to reduce deaths during surgery & many others.

Added to this wealth being concentrated in few hands, wealth also poured in from the colonies, sent by the extradited surplus population of younger sons. Adam Smith, the Scottish economist writes in his seminal work "The Wealth of Nations" that the conduct of the servants of the erstwhile East India Company in India became a subject of parliamentary enquiry. So as a result, in 1773 new regulations were formed, not withstanding which their depredations over a vast accession of the most fertile & richest areas of India continued.

So this pre-eminence in path-breaking scientific inventions, occurring during the period of colonisation, gave a flying start to the British prosperity, mainly fuelled by the wealth transported from India, which replaced North America (which declared itself as independent in 1783) as the "Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire. So India may be viewed as the (unwilling?) venture capitalist to British enterprise.

Kew Gardens & Lal Bagh: an Umbilical Link

The Kew Gardens in London is the best known botanical garden in the world. It is also a research centre & produces world class books. One such publication is "Botanicum" which gives a bird's eye view of the complete world of plants. Text written by Prof. Kathy Willis, of Kew Gardens, illustrated by Katie Scott by pen & ink & coloured digitally, & edited by yet another Katie Haworth, the unbelievably large volume is a veritable feast for the eyes.

Lal Bagh of Bengaluru, the founding of which is ascribed to Tipu Sultan, a passionate lover of gardens. Such was his passion that he sent his ambassadors to France, (a friendly country to him to oppose the British) to bring back rare plants. Though they did, he was not satisfied with the results & had the unfortunate ambassadors executed.

Lal Bagh was modernised during the British rule, all the earliest directors being trained at Kew Gardens. The comprehensive history & evolution of Lalbagh is presented for the first time in the book "Bangalore's Lal Bagh" by Suresh Jayaram, who underlines the contribution of the Kew trained horticulturists in the evolution of the present day Lalbagh. The book, replete with rare maps & diagrams, also gives the history of the various landmarks in Lal Bagh. This volume, though scholarly in content, contains many evocative photos & Rumale's celebrated paintings, to make it reader-friendly. Mention must be made of the layout of the pages & overall design of the book, which are of international standard.

Christine de Pizan & Sanchi Honnamma

Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) was the first French female writer who earned her living by her pen. The earlier writers like Hildegard of Bingen were nuns who had no need to earn their living. Deeply pained by the misogyny of her times, she wrote "The Book of the City of Ladies" where she refuted the allegations of the misogynists point by point & listed the woman achievers both past & present.

Sanchi Honnamma, who lived in a King's court in the seventeenth century in Karnataka, was one of the first poetesses in Kannada, the earlier one like Akka Mahadevi in twelfth century being basically a renunciate like Hildegard above. Honnamma was also hurt by the misogynists of her time & composed a famous poem which roughly translates as below:

"Was it not a woman who bore you?

Was it not a woman who brought you up?

Then why do you denigrate women

You blind men?"

It has to be noted that Christine, "far from inciting her contemporaries to resist the limitations placed on them by society, recommends traditional virtues to them: tolerance & humility to wives, modesty & obedience to virgins, & courage & dignity to widows." (Rosalind Brown Grant).

Similarly in "Hadibadeya Dharma", Honnamma preaches exactly the same virtues as mentioned above by Christine. So both Christine & Honnamma can be viewed as spiritual sisters seperated by space & time.

All things Quixotic

Cervantes' "Don Quixote" has been very popular since centuries, despite its gargantuan proportions. It deals with the eponymous idealistic knight, his brains addled with reading the chivalrous literature popular in his time, setting out to replicate the adventures in them. His illiterate squire, Sancho Panza, provides an apt foil with his homegrown wisdom.

It is not widely known that Orson Welles set out to film a contemporary version of the novel, the film sadly remaining unfinished.

The son of the legendary director Bunuel, worked as assistant director in this film. The musical starring Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren & James Coco, though taking enormous liberties with the text, remained faithful to the spirit of the novel.

The Spanish philosopher Unamuno, claiming to be more Quixotist than Cervantist, wrote "My Lord Don Quixote" a metaphysical analysis of the character.

Graham Greene turned the title character into a Catholic priest in his "Monsignor Quixote." He, like his mythical ancestor, remained an idealist in a cynical, materialist world. His Sancho was the communist ex-mayor of their hometown El Toboso, the native place of the "peerless" Dulcinea, the idol of the fictional Don. This was also made into a film starring Alec Guiness as the Monsignor.

Rushdie's metafiction "Quichotte" rounds up this "Quixotic" essay.