Celebrating the birth anniversary of Sergei Bondarchuk

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch Sergei Bondarchuk's 1959 directorial debut "Destiny of a Man," a movie about World War II based on a short story by Mikhail Sholokhov. Special thanks to the Russian Centre for Science and Culture for screening the film.

For more on Bondarchuk's life and legacy, see my article for the Russia India Report. http://indrus.in/articles/2011/09/29/remembering_a_legendary_russian_actor_and_director_sergei_bondarchuk_13055.html

Historic Delhi

Here is a collection of images from some of Delhi's historic sites

Humayun's Tomb
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/sets/72157627660611925/


Lodhi Gardens
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/sets/72157627662485487/


Safdarjung's Tomb
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/sets/72157627663546969/

Coronation Park
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/sets/72157627786099764/

A case of too many historical treasures?

Even the most ardent Delhi-hater would have to admit that the city has a large collection of monuments and historic sites that can't even be matched by Rome, Istanbul or Cairo. In several corners of the city, you see some building that has some historical value. Many cities around the world would love to have something as beautiful as the Safdarjung's tomb, but in Delhi, even the authorities belittle the beautiful mausoleum by comparing it to Humayun's Tomb.

Many people ignore the beautiful violet-tiled domed monument that forms a round-about outside Humayun's Tomb. Ask a passer-by what the beautiful monument is and you will either get a blank stare or some response like "it's as old as the Qutub Minar."

Writers like William Dalrymple have said that many historic gems have been demolished in parts of the city with no one batting an eyelid. I guess Delhi is a city that just has way too many treasures for its own good. One can't pluck out a historical monument and plant it a place that has nothing though. Sure, Nagpur could use the Safdarjung's Tomb, but that wouldn't be right would it?

There is a growing pride about the city among Delhites. It's time more Delhites adopted the historic monuments in their own areas and took some initiative in their restoration.

Big City Metro

Since I have taken many an occassion to complain about how crowded the Delhi Metro is, this time I need to commend the Delhi Metro authorities for adding 2 more compartments to the trains. This has made travelling on the very efficient system much easier. I don't fancy being sandwiched between people who bathe once a decade, so I commend this upgrade. There's even talk of the introduction of 8-compartment trains. Now that would make the metro even more comfortable.

There is an exception to my above statements. The yellow line that connects Gurgaon to North Delhi continues to be a sardine tin, with the most packed stretch being between Rajiv Place and Kashmere Gate. I guess road travel on the same route is more time consuming. Besides this line, I would recommend using the metro to get around, especially in the non-peak hours.

A friend, however, told me that the trains are less crowded because it's Navratri and business activity generally slows down around this time. I hope her take is not too accurate.

Graveyard of the British Empire

Certain places reinforce in me the Buddhist belief in impermanence. The Coronation Park in the northern fringes of Delhi is one such place. A hundred years ago King George V, Emperor of India, invited the royalty from Indian princely states to this ground in Delhi to celebrate his coronation to the English throne. It must have been a grandiose ceremony, which also led to Delhi once again becoming the capital of India.

In 1911, England was a superpower and the British Empire ruled a big chunk of the world. A century later, Britain is a has-been and the coronation ground, which was neglected for 6 decades, is virtually unnoticed in the former Crown Colony. When I asked a policeman, where the entry to the ground is, he was shocked that someone would actually want to go there.

Large swathes of forest grew over some statues, but the Delhi Government woke up a few months ago and decided to revive this park. There's a lot of activity in the ground and labourers are busy landscaping the park, cutting off wild bushes and cleaning the statues, of which there are quite a few. None of the statues have any "name plaques" so only a historian or a fan of the British Empire would know who these people are.

King George V is the only statue that would be instantly recognisable. The gigantic statue, which reminded me of many a Lenin Statue in Russia, was moved to the ground from its original location, opposite the India Gate. Now the emperor faces a pretty impressive obelisk marking the Delhi Durbar of 1911.

Delhi will celebrate 100 years of being India's capital (well it was the capital several times over several centuries, but that's not the point) and a grand party will be staged at the ground in December to mark the anniversary. Since projects actually do get done in Delhi, I am sure the ground will be in good shape and British tourists will be able to walk with pride in this bizarre park.

Notes from Delhi

Just about every bush in Lutyens' Delhi is trimmed to perfection, all the lawns are well looked-after and there doesn't seem to be even a hint of uneveness in the grass. The trees shade many of the grand avenues of the city that bear names as diverse as Aurangzeb Road,  Africa Avenue and Simon Bolivar Road. There is such a regal splendour and elegance in so many parts of the city that one tends to overlook what's not right with the national capital as a whole.

One area that I particularly like is the Khan Market. It has a nice collection of cafes, boutiques and nice shops that seem to have just about anything one could possibly want. I enjoyed a wonderful cup of Kashmiri Kawa tea at the Market Cafe, a new favourite of mine in this city. Another feature of the Khan Market seems to be the presence of mod Delhi Aunties, who I would guess constitute the real elite of the national capital.

Oh, how I wish, Bombay had an Italian Cultural Centre like the wonderful institute that is near the Rail Museum. The cafe at the centre has the finest Italian food east of Naples.

Welcome to Delhi

For those of you that want to see the sunrise at Humayun’s tomb, I have some news. The wonderful authorities at the beautiful mausoleum want you to get lost. I reached the mausoleum just at sunrise but the ticket counter was closed, but the place was full of walkers and stray dogs. When I entered the premises, I was told by a petty official that I can’t enter without a ticket. The man asked me to come back 1 and a half hours later, despite my pleas to be allowed to take photos in such good light.


He asked me what I would do in his position. I told him I would allow the tourist from Bombay to take wonderful pictures. The man claimed that it was a dereliction of his duty to let me in, without a ticket. I was as stubborn as a mule and forced him to open the ticket counter so that I could pay the Rs 10 ticket and get in.

It’s amazing how these petty officials “exercise their power.” I will definitely file a complaint with the Ministry of Tourism as well as the Archaeological Survey of India. The Indonesian Government charges 20 US dollars to tourists who want to take pictures of Borobudur at sunrise. But the officials and bureaucrats in the Indian Government take great pride in being useless.

Finally I did manage to take fabulous pictures in excellent light. My persistence was strong enough to make the petty official relent.

Khabarovsk : un rêve méditerranéen

Imaginez une pleine lune au-dessus du majestueux fleuve Amour qui se reflète dans les dômes dorés d’une cathédrale. Khabarovsk, alliant romance, histoire et forêts fabuleuses, est une ville européenne en Russie qui attire les touristes.


http://larussiedaujourdhui.fr/articles/2011/09/23/khabarovsk_un_reve_mediterraneen_12748.html

Khabarovsk, sogno mediterraneo in Russia

Immaginate una luna piena d’autunno lungo il maestoso fiume Amur, in cui si riflettono le cupole dorate di una cattedrale poco distante. Khabarovsk mescola romanticismo, storia e boschi favolosi, che rendono questa città europea in Russia una calamita per i turisti.

http://russiaoggi.it/articles/2011/09/21/khabarovsk_sogno_mediterraneo_in_russia_12649.html

More from the Secret Scrolls

"Never let a day pass without looking for the good, feeling the good within you, praising, appreciating, blessing, and being grateful.

Make it your life commitment, and you will stand in utter awe of what happens in your life."

-Rhonda Byrne

My article on Khabarovsk for the Russia India Report

Sparkling new cathedrals that blend in with fine 19th century architecture, a thriving cultural scene, and the proximity of the Taiga make this city on the great Amur River one of the most diverse in Russia.


http://indrus.in/articles/2011/09/14/khabarovsk_a_mediterranean_dream_in_russia_12995.html

An Asia without borders?

Yesterday, a friend of mine showed me some stunning pictures he took in East Turkestan or Xinjiang as the Chinese call it. The pics were taken in 2006 and in Kashgar, I saw traces of Old Delhi, traces of Lahore and Kabul. This town would be around 1 and a half hours by flight from Srinagar.

There is a cultural continuity that transcends man-made and disputed borders. Yet, for an Indian to go to Kashgar, he would have to travel all the way from eastern China. Who benefits from hostility between India and China? The corrupt defence ministry officials and army officers, who make a killing off arms deals. They justify spending billions on the basis of having a hostile Pakistan and China.

While I write this, Europeans can move around freely across their continent and they probably laugh at us, Asians, for being so hostile to each other. Sure, the Europeans needed several bloody wars and destruction to get to where they are now. But we can learn from their mistakes and leap-frog this, can't we?

Who has the time for law and order?

Sourced from rediff.com: "9 people died and around 20 to 25 people were injured in a blast on Wednesday morning outside one of the entry gates to the Delhi high court complex crowded with visitors seeking entry into the premises.

The explosion occurred outside gate No 5 where 100 to 200 people were waiting in queue to get passes for entry into the court complex."

No one seems have a clue about the motive and why the high court was the target this time. Is someone looking at intimidating the judiciary like the Red Brigade did in Italy in the 1970s and 80s? Some "sources" seem to think so in assorted media reports.

All I can say is the police are too busy to prevent bomb blasts in this country. Give them a break! They have no time, when they are engaged in providing security to VIPs, they are occupied in the task of rounding up couples who are kissing in public areas, they are frantically extorting money from shops and restaurants, they don't have a spare second as they are making sure that night-clubs and restaurants don't stay open beyond a particular time. Where will they get time to work with informers and the (lack of) intelligence agencies in India? They are way tooo busy.

Then of course, politicians get the busy police to protect thugs that get drunk on festivals and molest women. The police do need to protect the citizenry! They need to be present when authoritarian "social activists" round up middle-class dimwits in campaigns that are supposedly meant to tackle corruption.

Who has the time and energy and inclination to make sure that bombs don't go off in random places in Indian cities? The police? The politicians? The common man? Nobody does. We're all too busy living in futility.

Jamshed Tata would never have approved of this advertisement

Call it a colonial hangover, call it a mass inferiority complex among a large section of Indians, call it whatever you want. The advertising industry is capitalising on the need of an Indian to not just blindly copy the West but to be as much of  a "sahib" as he can be. Last summer, a Swedish friend of mine asked me why an ad on a bus panel for a housing project showed a White family, instead of an Indian one and when I told him that it was because this would entice more Indians to buy a home there, he was appalled and condemned what he justifiably called racism. You expect this kind of behaviour in India, no doubt, but when a Tata company indulges in it, you can't help but note the irony!

At the turn of the 19th to 20th century, Jamshed Tata, was denied entry into the Watson's Hotel in Bombay, because he wasn't a European. So, the Father of Indian Industry decided to build the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay, which is now one of the most prestigious hotels in the world and an icon of the Indian hospitality industry. The Tatas fought racism from the Anglo-Scottish business lobby in India and rose to become the pride of the nation.

So, why on earth do we have this new Tata SUV ad, where some loser in England is driving the vehicle and claiming to be a secret agent? Do the Tatas need to do this? With their legacy? Please see the ad below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnsvL8xBybE

A special word of thanks to my lily plant

Thank you for flowering for the 4th month in a row.

An encounter with a street urchin on a train

You get so hardened by the images of rampant poverty in this city that it's difficult to be moved by anything. But once in a while you see something that is too much to handle. A few nights ago, I was heading to Mahalaxmi on a train from the suburbs. It seemed like a normal train ride on an empty first class wagon on the eve of a holiday. Then an innocent 4 or 5 year girl entered the train. The cute angel had a sparkling nose-ring but no foot wear. I assumed she was a beggar but she didn't beg. Instead she went and lay down on a seat.

The poor girl was alone and probably hungry. When I see such sites, I wonder if "God" is a sadist. In this very city, you have thousands of well-to-do childless couples who would do anything to have a child and then you have a poor innocent girl, who should be showered with love and affection, but is sleeping on a train. What was I supposed to do at that time? Just take her home and adopt her as my daughter? That would amount to kidnapping!!

The little girl also got off at Mahalaxmi. I stopped her and asked her where her mother was. No response. I then bought her a chocolate and left the station. It pains me immensely that, this was as far as I could go. We really need to something about this f****d-up country!

Eyes off the moon on Ganesh Chathurthi

This is something my mother told me when I really young. Here's how the story goes. Ganesha, our beloved elephant-god, was hungry one night and saw what he thought was a coconut. The coconut was the reflection of the moon in the water and when Ganesha couldn't pick up the "coconut", the moon laughed at him.

Ganesha cursed the moon and so, if someone looks at the moon on Ganesha's birthday, that is Ganesh Chaturthi, he will be falsely accused of wrong doing. According to legends, even Krishna wasn't immune and was falsely accused of stealing a gem, after he saw the moon on Ganesh Chathurthi.

Now, I've been told that you can look at the moon, once a lamp has been lit at home.