What Will Change in 2015?

Charles Lamb on December 31 1821:

“...The last day of 1821. I don’t know how it is, but I grow less reflective as I get older. I seem to take things as they come without much care. In early life, everything being new excites thought. As nothing is new when a man is 35, one thinks less...”

John Gray:

"...Bio-engineering and artificial intelligence are certain to be developed and used for military purposes, and any post-humans that emerge will probably be locked in combat with one another. Chronically divided, the new species will no more be masters of the earth or themselves than we are today..."


One of my favorite cartoonists Zachary Kanin drew this in 2012

 
This year he drew this in August 2014 for The New Yorker

पिवळीच मी पाकोळी की...Poetry of Flowers is often Patchy and Ill-informed

Writing of his experiences in World War I, Edmund Blunden in ‘Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau’:

“…Bold great daisies' golden lights,

Bubbling roses' pinks and whites—

Such a gay carpet! poppies by the million;

Such damask! such vermilion!

But if you ask me, mate, the choice of colour

Is scarcely right; this red should have been duller.”

On September 18 2007, I wrote on "self-absorption" of writers. Read it here.

As mentioned there, apparently, writers from Kalidasa to Dnyaneshwar (ज्ञानेश्वर) and beyond never mention a butterfly/ moth  in their writings!

I claim this based on a book 'Nisrgotsav' by the late Durga Bhagwat. (“पिवळीच मी पाकोळी की”/ निसर्गोत्सव, 1996 लेखक: दुर्गा भागवत)

Now, I have learnt a little more on the subject.

In the issue dated September 25 2014 of the The New York Review of Books, Robin Lane Fox says:

"...Surprisingly, the poetry of flowers is often patchy and ill-informed. None of the ancient Greek poets mentions the brilliant wild tulips that run like red rivers through parts of the Greek landscape. Chinese poets focus on a narrow canon of flowers, soaked in symbolism and hidden meanings. They say nothing about the heavenly wild flora, the superb shrubs and mountain flowers that have transformed Western gardens since their collection and introduction by Europeans. John Milton’s poetry describes bunches of flowers that would never flower during one and the same season. No gardener, especially in Britain this year, would agree that April is “the cruellest month” and in no gardens or landscapes known to me does April breed “lilacs out of the dead land,” least of all on the American East Coast within range of the young T.S. Eliot..."

Very big names, very big civilizations were mentioned there...

Chinese poets focus on a narrow canon of flowers, soaked in symbolism and hidden meanings. They say nothing about the heavenly wild flora, the superb shrubs and mountain flower...

And so is true of  Indians.

For Indian writers, lotus and rose- followed by Parijat (Night-flowering Jasmine), Champak (Magnolia champaca), Gulmohar (Delonix regia), Bakul (Mimusops elengi) etc- are  'soaked in symbolism and hidden meanings'. Not much place for 'wild flora, the superb shrubs and mountain flower'.

Chinese Chrysanthemum cultivar

Courtesy: 'The Golden Age of Botanical Art' by Martyn Rix

पिपांत बनले 'जागते रहो'...How a Humble Barrel Helped Make The Greatest Hindi Movie

Amit Maitra's and Sombhu Maitra's 'Jagte Raho' (जागते रहो) 1956,  for me, is the greatest Hindi movie ever made. I can watch it every day and never get tired of it.

I have written about it a couple of times earlier. I feel every frame from the feature is golden. Music by Salil Chowdhury is not just one of the best in the history of Hindi films but sets up the film beautifully. Every performance by a human  in the movie is either good (for instance Iftikhar, Pradeep Kumar...), very good (Raj Kapoor, Nargis...) or great (Motilal). But one of the best performances is by an abandoned empty barrel.

Interplay between Motilal, Raj Kapoor and the humble barrel matches the comedic excellence of the likes of the Marx brothers,  Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.

One of the best scenes in the film is the fight among neighbors to claim the ownership of the humble barrel.

 courtesy: Shemaroo and copy right owner of the feature

I feel that barrel stands for many things - drunkenness of Motilal, spiritual emptiness and greed of  India's middle class, the terror of living (not getting even a drink of water) जगायची पण सक्ती आहे ,  facelessness of vast majority of India's poor and downtrodden, black humor that is integral to every life....

Some of these thoughts came to my mind as I read Andrew McKie'sreview of Henry H. Work's book 'Wood, Whiskey and Wine: A History of Barrels', Spectator UK, December 6 2014.

"...The barrel, of course, was in many respects the precursor of this development, and Henry Work sets out to demonstrate the technological, cultural and economic importance of barrels from their development, probably before 500 BC, to their ubiquity for storage and transport from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century..."

Bacchus. Statue of the god, whole-length seated on a wine barrel, wearing grapes in his hair and holding a stylized thyrsos, his left hand resting on his hip; unsigned; first state before planet-sign added on socle; after Jacques Jonghelinck. 1586 Engraving

© The Trustees of the British Museum  . 

का आतां ही एसी विलेक्ट्रिकीची...the Battle of the Currents and the Terror of Technology

बा सी मर्ढेकर:

"…फलाटदादा, इंजनवाली 
पसंद पहिली भपकेदार?
का आतां ही विलेक्ट्रिकीची 
नक् टी नागिण तल्लख-तार?…"

लोकसत्ता:
"मध्य रेल्वेच्या १६० वर्षांच्या इतिहासातील एक महत्त्वाचा टप्पा येत्या शनिवारी रात्री मध्य रेल्वे ओलांडणार आहे. आतापर्यंत डीसी विद्युतप्रवाहावर (डायरेक्ट करंट) चालणारी मध्य रेल्वे या रविवारी पहिल्यांदाच सीएसटी ते कल्याण यादरम्यान एसी विद्युतप्रवाहावर (अल्टरनेट करंट) धावणार आहे..."

I read in Marathi daily Loksatta on Friday December 19 2014 that Mumbai suburban trains will now run on AC instead of DC.

Human history is replete with not just battles of humans against humans. And even those other battles have been bloody.

This brought to my mind a wonderful book: "Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death" by Mark Essig,  2005:

Its description is self explanatory and knocks great T A Edison off his pedestal:

"Thomas Edison stunned America in 1879 by unveiling a world-changing invention—the light bulb—and then launching the electrification of America's cities. A decade later, despite having been an avowed opponent of the death penalty, Edison threw his laboratory resources and reputation behind the creation of a very different sort of device—the electric chair. Deftly exploring this startling chapter in American history, Edison & the Electric Chair delivers both a vivid portrait of a nation on the cusp of modernity and a provocative new examination of Edison himself. Edison championed the electric chair for reasons that remain controversial to this day. Was Edison genuinely concerned about the suffering of the condemned? Was he waging a campaign to smear his rival George Westinghouse's alternating current and boost his own system?.."

Mark Essig:

"Alternating current triumphed in the battle of the currents for the same reasons that attracted George Westinghouse to it in the first place. It could be produced at relatively low voltages, stepped up to higher voltages with transformers for economical transmission over long distances, and then stepped down to any voltage required. As electricity expanded into every aspect of life, alternating current offered a flexibility that direct current could not hope to match. By 1917 more than 95 percent of the electricity generated in the United States would be alternating current."

illustration which appeared in Judge magazine shortly after telegraph lineman John Feeks's death on October 11 1889

courtesy: Mark Essig's book

The picture caught my attention because Mumbai suburban trains have become so unsafe for commuters  in recent years, for various reasons,  that some of them sure feel like running away from the 'demon' the way the gentleman in the picture above is running away from the demon of  electricity.