Marine Biology inspiring Classical Music

The January 1979 issue of the "National Geographic" magazine, contained an unique surprise. The page 24A & 24B bound into the magazine was a flexible plastic (vinyl?) 7 inch  record, 33 rpm Stereo entitled "Songs of the Humpback Whale." It contained live recordings of the sound of the animal. It could be detached from the magazine &  played on an ordinary record player. It had also an explanatory commentary by Roger Payne, Ph.D. Research Biologist, New York Zoological Society.

This recording inspired the American Composer, George Henry Crumb (1929-92) to compose a work called "Vox Balaenae" (Voice of the Whale) for three masked players playing electric flute, electric cello & electric piano. The composer advised that each of the three players wear a black half-mask throughout the performance of the work. The masks, by effacing a sense of human projection, will symbolise the powerful impersonal forces of nature. It is hard to imagine that only flute, piano & cello (all electronically enhanced) are capable of producing the sounds of this piece. (From "Chamber Music - A Listener's Guide" by James M.Keller, Oxford University Press, 2011).

Sri Ramakrishna, Christianity & Islam

Sri Ramakrishna was a 19th century saint who was one of the first to preach the essential validity of all religions. Apart from cleansing Hindu society of his time, especially in Bengal, of many regrettable practices, he was one of the first to practice the spiritual disciplines of Christianity & Islam till he attained their respective goals. These are given in considerable detail in his spiritual biography, "Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master."

The obvious question arises as to why Sri Ramakrishna practiced the spiritual disciplines of those religions. In addition to proving that the highest goals of those religions were similar to those of Hinduism, he might also have provided first hand validity to those practices.  Then one would wonder whether any saints of those religions had also practised the spiritual disciplines of those religions & recorded their mystic experiences. The answer is yes, they did.

One of the first female saints was Hildegard of Bingen (11th Century), who was a mystic & polyglot to boot. Her vision of the "Cosmic Egg" as a symbol of the Cosmos, is strikingly similar to the "Hiranyagarbha" of the Rig Veda. Another was Julian of Norwich (14th century) who famously prayed for & obtained the priceless boon of experiencing the exquisite physical pain of Christ's crucifixion in her own mortal body. The Spanish St.Teresa of Avila (16th century), author of the revelatory "The Interior Castle", with its metaphorical seven mansions of God (similar to the eight chakras of Hinduism) was a visionary mystic, who was exploring her spirituality with her sister nuns, when her male counterparts were persecuting heretics in the notorious Spanish Inquisition.

The 8th century Sufi saint, Rabia of Basra, whose birth & influence was foretold by the Prophet himself (in a dream to her father), famously prayed for the pain of hell & exclusion from paradise in return for the love of Allah.

In conclusion, when we revere Sri Ramakrishna, we can also bow in reverence to the earlier mystics in Christianity & Islam, in addition to countless Hindu saints, who preceded him.

Who directed the Ben Hur Chariot race scene?

No, it was not William Wyler, the credited director of the film. The most famous scene by which the film is remembered was shot by Andrew Marton & Yakima Canutt, the second unit directors.

Any large project, including films, is divided into various UNITS, whose work can go on independently of each other, so as to save TIME. This is known in management parlance as the "Critical Path Method."

The CPM is an algorithm for planning a set of activities, so as to identify the longest stretch of DEPENDENT activities & measuring their duration. It is used in conjunction with PERT, (Programme Evaluation & Review Technique), another management tool.

These are used to get the project done in the shortest time, as time is money. This can be illustrated by another film "Cleopatra", which despite being the highest grossing film of its time, did not recoup its cost for a long time, because too much time was wasted during its making.

To end on a lighter note, when Barbara Streisand was approached for "Funny Girl", she asked who would direct. When told it was Wyler, she reportedly said "Oh, the Chariot guy! What does he know about girls?"