Reflections

Nelson Mandela In Calcutta Nelson Mandela is dead. The man who was without doubt the greatest human being of the second half of the twentieth century is no more. It is difficult to write about him at least today as he was one of my greatest heroes: the man who fearlessly fought the Apartheid regime and brought it to its knees. I am feeling a sense of loss such that I have never felt before. May he continue to inspire all of us lesser men to fight against evil and for the betterment of the world. May we all continue to participate in the long walk to freedom.

When we visited Eastern Europe this year, we had a three day stay at Prague. There is little to write about Prague that has not been written a thousand times already, so I shall not waste my time. Suffice it to say that it is without doubt one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I loved it. This area in which the capital of the Czech Republic is situated is of course Bohemia, the legendary place for musicians, artists and writers whose alleged lifestyle has gifted the word bohemian to the English language. Originally a kingdom in the heart of Europe, these lands have seen many vicissitudes over the centuries, being ruled over by the adjacent German states, the Hapsburgs, and most recently splitting from the Slovak republic to become a member of the European union, albeit with its own currency still intact. About 60 kilometres from Prague is the town of Kutna Hora. Now it is a sleepy town, mainly dependent on tourists, but in the 14th and 15th centuries, it was a royal town a...

This account is from Wisden. England, in their first representative match in this country with India, gained a fine victory shortly after four o'clock on the third afternoon by 158 runs. Before that result had been achieved, however, the home side, particularly on the first day, experienced some anxious moments. Actually, on the Saturday, they cut a very poor figure. Indeed, the manner in which they began called to mind the all too frequent failures in recent years of England at the beginning of a match against Australia. On paper, England looked to be particularly strong in batting. The dropping-out from international cricket of Hobbs had placed the selectors in something of a quandary as to whom to pick as opening batsman with Sutcliffe. Recourse was therefore had to Percy Holmes, Sutcliffe's regular partner for Yorkshire. This on the face of it seemed something of a retrograde movement seeing that it was 11 years since Holmes had been called upon for England. As it turne...

The Indian cricket team played its first test match in 1932 during the tour of England. The tour was of great political and social significance as well because as the Evening Standard pointed out “ No politics, no caste, just cricket. This is the unofficial slogan of the Indian cricket team that has come from India… The 18 players speak eight or ten languages among them; they belong to four or five different castes: some may eat this, some may not eat that; a few are denied smoking by their religious laws; some have similarly drink proscribed; they are captained by a Maharajah rich beyond the dreams of county cricket treasurers and have tradesmen who earn their living with their hands; some come from the plains where cold is almost unknown,others come from hills where the climate has insured them even to an English summer. “ I am uploading two contemporary reports of that historic match: the first is from Wisden and the second from the Cricketer. England v India, Lord's, Ju...

Today is the fifth death anniversary of singer activist Miriam Makeba. In our school days her songs were immensely popular; especially Malaika and Pata Pata which used to be bring to our staid Calcutta school the romance of Africa. She was one of the singers who made the sixties one of the most significant decades of revolt in the twentieth century when challenges to authority seemed to be a way of life. Miriam "Zenzi" Makeba was born in a suburb of Johannesburg in one of the crowded and deprived black townships of the apartheid era. Her father, Caswell, was Xhosa: her mother, Christina, was Swazi. Her given name Zenzi was derived from the Xhosa word Uzenzile, meaning "you have no one to blame but yourself". This was a traditional name intended to provide support through life's difficulties. When she was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested for selling umqombothi, an African homemade beer distilled from malt and cornmeal. Her mother was sentenced to a ...

The final installment of Dr Madhumita Sen's travelogue. I hope there will be more from her in the future. DAY 4: Today we are going to the Zoo! It has been another dream of ours to see the Pandas. We arrive at the Zoo at 9.30am, but already the crowds are thick. Before we enter, Alice takes us aside and warns us to be careful with our valuables; pickpockets are common here, apparently. This is news, we have always read and heard that crime is really rare in Beijing (which is true, we’ve been here 3 days, in really crowded areas, and would have been definitely pick-pocketed by now in Kolkata!). Anyway, we shift our wallets and passports to secure pockets and dive into the surging crowds. There are two Panda enclosures, called the ‘Asiad’ enclosure and the ‘Olympic’ enclosure. The pandas are behind glass windows, but we are the ones enclosed, they are in the open. We really need to push through to catch a glimpse of the reclusive animals. We split up, jostled by the crowds (it is...

The penultimate installment of Dr Madhumita Sen's travel diary. DAY 3: We start early again. After a hurried breakfast, we head for the Antique Merchant street, on the other side of the forbidden city. This is also an old part of town, but has been rebuilt to impress the tourist. It is fully pedestrianised and lined on both sides by small shops selling both real and fake antiques, jade, pearls, silk and tea. Many roadside statues have been made to give a historical feel. There are statues showing tea making, a statue of Cixi, the Dragon Queen, and cobblers with giant shoes. We then walk to the Zengiangmen watch tower, which was once part of the city gates, past the railway museum (built by the French, this was the old Beijing railway station), and come upon the picturesque Schichahai Lake. This is a beautiful lake in the middle of the old city, now surrounded by bars and restaurants. It is lined by weeping willows and birches, and there are many boats in the water. It is a re...

The fourth installment of Dr Madhumita Sen's account of a visit to Beijing. Next stop, lunch. We climb the grand curving marble staircase, decorated at each landing with magnificent lacquer-work, and come up to the first floor, which is a large open dining area, already busy with diners. Large round tables are filled with delectable food, and suddenly we are really hungry. We are led to a separate enclosure and sit around a round table big enough to seat 10 people. We unload our gear and relax. Plates of food start to arrive, and Alice comes with a small bottle of rice wine and tiny china wine glasses. This is a traditional wine, reserved for special occasions, and is the strongest wine in China. At 56% alcohol, it is probably the strongest in the world! We pour the wine and click ‘cheers.’ After all, we have climbed the Great Wall, a childhood dream fulfilled! The wine burns down my throat like very strong whiskey ... got to sip it slo-o-owly. A word about the food in China....

Manna Dey and his wife,Sulochona The last of the Mohicans has departed. Manna Dey, the only surviving member of the incomparable male quartet of Mukesh, Rafi , Kishore and Manna died last week at Bangalore. We were fortunate that we grew up in an era when these stalwarts were competing to sing better and better songs. Accompanied by the legendary music directors of those days, S D Burman, his son RD, Shankar and Jaikishen, Laxmikant Pyarelal and so many others, the sixties and the seventies seemed to be a golden time when superb compositions and songs poured out in an seemingly never ending stream. Of the four singers mentioned, Manna Dey was perhaps the least flamboyant. He was known for his correct classical background, and had honed his skills while training under his legendary uncle K C Dey, the famous blind singer known by the now politically incorrect name of Kana Kesto. He started his career in the forties and sang with the same superb skill right up to the nineties. He has p...

Continuing the account by Dr Madhumita Sen. The road is crowded with cars, all foreign, mostly European. We see a lot of Volkswagens, BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Buicks, Toyotas, Hondas, Hyundai’s and others I don’t recognise. I ask Alice if China produces any cars of its own. I learn something very interesting from her reply. While the whole world markets are being flooded by ‘made in China’ goods, the Chinese prefer goods from Europe or the US!!! Petrol is really expensive in China, but you wouldn’t think so looking at the number of cars on the road! Chinese food (tinned or preserved), cosmetics, toys and clothes are also looked down upon (Chinese cosmetics are really bad, says Alice. “We try to save up and buy only French!!!” L’Oreal is her favourite). The journey to the Great Wall takes us an hour, but all through, the roads are wide, clean and with beautiful green verges. As we drive out of Beijing, the scenery changes. We are surrounded by misty hills and the road becomes winding. ...

( Continuing Dr Madhumita Sen's account of a trip to the Middle Kingdom) It is 8pm before we feel strong enough to go out again. We explore around the hotel. Everything is well lighted, the roads are wide, there are really beautifully wide footpaths with maple trees growing in a neat row right through the middle. Right next to the hotel, on one side, is a spa. We find a Tesco supermarket right down the road near the hotel, then a KFC. We are excited to see the bright neon signs claiming “Tesco” and “KFC” in Chinese! Then, a Pizza Hut, with the Chinese lettering made like the pizza hut logo. We take a lot of snaps. Next to the Pizza Hut is an open – air ‘Greek’ style auditorium of sorts, where a karaoke session is going on. Huge crowds! Nice music too, Chinese of course. We watch for a while, then climb the steps to the top of the well like auditorium, to find an open air food court. There is a row of food – stalls, and nice picnic type seating areas with thatched roofing on one...

Madhumita Sen has been a friend of ours for many years now.At present she lives and works in Malacca. She has written a detailed acount of a recent trip to Beijing which I think is very interesting.I requested her to let me reproduce it in my blog. She has graciously agreed. So here it is. You might want to also read my impressions of China here . Beijing Trip 5th to 9th August 2013 We arrive in Beijing early morning on 5.8.2013, 2am. Beijing airport is huge and quite well managed. Much like so many other international airports, we note, blearily. That’s nice though - pictures of the great wall as we clear immigration. Took some snaps immediately! No one there to meet us at arrivals, had to hang around till 2.35, then this young Chinese girl rushes up. It’s Alice, our tour guide. A short, spritely young lady, in shirt and trousers, smilingly anxious face, no make-up, blond bleached hair. She is very pleasant, English is a bit of a struggle, but we get by fine. She leads us ...

Today is the 55th anniversary of one of the most important advances in medical science. It was on this day, in 1958, that Ake Senning, also known as an innovator who devised several operations for congenital heart disease implanted a pacemaker for Arne Larsson. This device was engineered by Rune Elmqvist and Dr Senning was the surgeon. This device failed.... after three hours. A second device was then inserted, this too failed after a couple of days. Larsson finally had 26 different pacemakers inserted at various times and died on December 8,2001 at the ripe old age of 86 from a melanoma of the skin, having outlived both Sennning and Elmqvist. Ake Senning Rune Elmqvist Arne Larsson The device was, however, based on the concepts pioneered by Canadian electrical engineer Dr John A Hops who, at the Banting and Best Institute at Toronto University, experimented with this device . Dr W G Bigelow,who was a pioneer in the field of Hypothermic cardiac surgery, collabor...