SAST Wingees

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Anglos in the wind: The dance of a beautiful people

It was a pleasant surprise when my friend from school days Richard invited my family and myself to ‘The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance’ at the St. Bede’s School Grounds on Saturday, the 9th January 2010. This dance was the culmination of a 2-day long hockey tournament of Anglo-Indian teams from all over the country.

I was not surprised that a dance would signal the end of the tournament because in all Anglo-Indian social occasions, dance plays a very crucial role. Whether it is a wedding or a community event or a party, great importance is given to the ball-dance, to the presence of an orchestra and the ambience of the dance floor. This expression of community spirit through dance is but a small fraction of the larger sense of gaiety, camaraderie and joyfulness that the Anglo-Indian community stands for – they are a colorful and proud people who trace their traditions to hundreds of years of the interaction between European and Indian civilizations.

My first interaction with Anglo-Indians was through my primary school teachers most of whom were Anglo-Indian women: the images of Mrs. Grant, Ms. Tina, Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Devotta can never be forgotten for their dedication to the children whom they had under their care. One of the myths that is propagated about Anglo-Indians is that they are more European than Indian. Many have missed out the hyphenated identity “Anglo(-)Indian.” As a result of a lack of acceptance in mainstream Indian society and appropriate employment opportunities, there has been a mass migration of Anglo-Indians to places as far as Australia, Canada, England and the USA.

The history of the Anglo-Indian community is a testimony to the struggle of a sub-minority within India’s evolution as a post-colonial nation-state [Article 366(2) : Constitution of India]. While it is true that the earliest Anglo-Indian families were the by product of relationships between Europeans and Indians, the community has come a long way since. It is characteristically Indian in several ways while retaining some cultural traditions of yore. Most Anglo-Indian communities, it is famously known, lived near railway cantonments where many of them worked as engine drivers.

Again, sports like hockey, football etc had good Anglo-Indian representation. In many ways, Anglo-Indians were the backbone of the Indian educational system in the form of committed and strong educationists and teachers.

The Indian Constitution guarantees their right to retain English as their medium of instruction. Further, both the Lok Sabha and the State assemblies have place for nominated seats for the Anglos [Article 334]. With a dwindling population (almost like the Parsis), the Anglo-Indians struggle to retain their firmament in Indian society and not get completely marginalized or non-existent. A remarkable feature about the Anglo-Indians is their open-mindedness as a people, one dimension being several inter-marriages with other castes and communities in Indian society. Among the most famous Anglo-Indians of post-independent India was Frank Anthony, a Supreme Court lawyer (also a member of the Constituent Assembly) who represented Mrs. Indira Gandhi during most of her trials and tribulations. Other prominent Anglos on the national scene were/are A.E.T. Barrow (educationist and brain behind the ICSE board of education), Lt. Gen Henderson-Brook (who prepared a classified report on the Oct-Nov 1962 debacle), Roger Binny (cricketer), Diana Hayden (former Miss India), Leslie Claudius (hockey legend) and Ruskin Bond(writer).

Anglos in the wind is the name of a magazine edited by Harry MacLure whoalso led the organizational effort of the Hockey event. Being in the midst of the Anglos at The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance was a poignant experience.

Not only were there representatives of the community from places overseas mentioned above, there were Anglo-Indians from all over India at the dance, as it was an extension of the tournament. Many would have heard of the ‘Bow Barracks’ of Kolkata, an Anglo-Indian synonym for a place. Nowhere else have I seen the aged 50/60 and above take to the dance floor with such an enthusiasm and sustain it over long hours. Young and old were at it into the wee hours of the night.

Wishing that the moments with the Anglos on a Chennai Saturday night would last longer, not to miss their love of dance, I was reminded of the album Saturday Night Fever by the Bee Gees (1977). The following lines from that album were evocative:
“Here I am
Prayin’ for this moment to last
Livin’ on the music so fine
Born on the Wind
Making it mine “

What I was grateful to Richard for inviting me to the Grand Dance was that it gave me an opportunity to join one segment of India in its celebration of the nation. This is a beautiful community and that came across at The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance.

Chak De, Anglos !
- – - – -
References:

1. Frank Anthony, Britain’s Betrayal in India: The Story of the Anglo-Indian Community (Paperback, 2007);
2. Hostages to India: or The Life Story of the Anglo Indian Race : by Herbert Alick Stark
3. These are the Anglo-Indians: James Reginald Maher
4. Bow Barracks Forever is a 2004 Indian film directed by Anjan Dutt (the real life story of a tiny but resolute Anglo Indian community right in the heart of bustling north Kolkata)

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No Training Wheels

We’re pleased to introduce another writer, MD Ramesh to this Blog. He’s a former colleague & a good friend of mine for the past 15 years. In his spare time, MD moon-lights as the editor of a local Newsletter in Iowa. Please encourage him with your comments. – Sukumar.

This summer, I was teaching my six-year old son to ride a bike. We usually go to the trail by the freeway near where we live. Last year, he rode with two training wheels and this year, before the school started, he asked me to take out one of them. Hmm! I thought he is becoming brave. Whenever we go biking, I used to walk or jog behind him depending on his speed. I never had any difficulty since he never went fast and he constantly kept falling down and I had to be there to hold him. Then after the school started, may be due to peer pressure at school (!), he asked me to take off both the wheels. I obliged and took him the first day without any training wheels. He could not even move one inch without me holding the bike! I thought, “Ok, he is still young. It is going to take him a while and I had to be with him and be prepared to hold the bike and run with him”.

Teaching him reminded me of the days when I learnt to ride back home. For me, mostly my brothers and my uncle taught me to ride during the hot summer holidays in India. I learnt mostly on the streets. The streets were a lot safer then. Like these instances, lots of fond memories floated by and I failed to notice my son’s improvements. He started gaining balance and all of a sudden, he said, “Papa, please take your hands off! I will do it myself”. I took my hands off, but I still continued to jog behind him. I was afraid, and also concerned that he would lose his balance, fall off the bike and hurt himself. After a couple of sessions, he gained confidence, started pedaling faster and took off. I was no longer able to catch up (age shows when you jog!) with him and I fell behind. There he is, my son, pedaling away, on his own, without training wheels, and me, I am puffing and panting and walking faster to make sure I can see him, to make sure that he does not fall and hurt himself.

Also this summer, some of my friends are in the same shoes as myself. Their sons and daughters have grown up, completed school and are going away from home to pursue their careers, ambitions and dreams. They have taken off their “training wheels” and are pedaling away towards their future, leaving us behind. We, as parents, are concerned that they should not “loose their balance” and get hurt along the way. We want to make sure we can see them, even though they are riding just fine. We also can’t believe that our children don’t need us to baby-sit them anymore. They are excited about their newfound freedom, about the new things they are going to learn and about the new experiences they are going to have. Us, we have the same old routine of mowing, cleaning and of course our jobs.

I tried to remember the time I left home for my higher studies. It was an exciting moment for me since I was going far away and will be studying in one of the best institutions. I was looking forward to the two-day train journey and the hostel life with my own independent hostel room. I will be working on the latest computers and will have access to the latest research in my subject. Among all this excitement, I failed to realize how my parents would have felt when I took off my “training wheels” and pedaled away towards my future.

No Training Wheels was published in a local Indian Association News Letter on September 2003 by M.D. Ramesh

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Paris Travelog #7 – A Melange

Please checkout Sukumar’s most previous serving of Paris here.

Say “Paris” and images of the French Revolution, the excesses of King Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte spring to mind. Visitors to Paris will find “Haussmannian Paris” stickier still. Baron Haussmann was a town planner in Emperor Napoleon III’s reign. He almost single-handedly modernized Paris, changing it from a medieval town with narrow, chaotic streets & unsanitary living conditions – to a triumph of modern urban planning. He gave Paris a major make-over, with wide boulevards, geometrically intersecting streets, parks, bridges, modern sewers, water-works, wide open spaces – and beautiful buildings, with uniform facades, built with locally quarried limestone. Numerous buildings from Haussmann’s period are impeccably maintained.

Arguably, the most touching site we visited was the Shoah (Holocaust) Memorial, located in the Jewish Quarter in Le Marais. During WW II, almost 76,000 French Jews were rounded up & sent to Nazi concentration camps. Even the children & the elderly were not spared. Only 2,600 of them returned. The French police maintained detailed records of Jews – even those of their colleagues in the Police force. The shameful part played by the Vichy regime in the annihilation of its own citizens was not disclosed till 1995.

The most poignant parts of the Shoah Memorial are the Crypt & the “Wall of Names”. The names of people who died – and those presumed dead – in the concentration camps are engraved on the wall, alphabetized. I would strongly advise the sensitive & the weak-hearted to stay away from the wall. It was very painful, like being knifed in the stomach. The grim black crypt in the basement is shaped like the Star of David. It has ashes collected from the Warsaw ghetto. It is a reminder of the devil in all of us & how easy it is to lead us astray. All it takes is a mad-man with a cause.

I feel duty-bound to tell you that the 2 major shopping destinations in Paris – Au Printemps and Galeries Lafayette offer a 10% discount for all foreign tourists. Carry your passport to prove your domicile though. Here is the disclaimer: There are no tales of personal triumph from me, in clinching deals in either of the malls. France is very expensive. An intelligent South Asian would simply go to the Takashimaya store in Singapore for good deals. Or if the said smart South Asian is in North America, s/he is better off looking for steals in Canada or in the US of A. I’m thrifty by nature – I demand value for money. If you insist on splurging in France on over-priced items, go ahead. I won’t stop you.

One of the most enduring symbols of Paris is the Arc de Triomphe, with its “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”. This monument is located at one end of the Champs Elysees, one of the most expensive avenues in the world. The largest Louis Vuitton store is located here, for e.g. Champs Elysees is sort of New York’s 5^th Avenue & Times Square rolled into one. Here is where Parisians get together to welcome the New Year on Dec 31^st.

Some of the snootiest shops in Paris – jewelers such as Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier et al – are in PlaceVendôme. It is in the 1^st arrondisement, the oldest part of Paris. In the center of this square is a monument erected by Napoleon – it stands sad & lonely like a gawky, self-conscious giant, amidst its glitzy & glamorous neighbors. Directly opposite the monument is the Ritz, one of the most luxurious (read: expensive) hotels in the world. I don’t even want to know their tariffs.

The 2^nd most formidable street in Paris is Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this is close to Place Vendôme. All the leading designers such as Hermes, Versace, Gaultier & co have their flagship stores here. The most famous resident of this street is the French President: The Elysee Palace, the official residence of the Premier is located here.

Which brings us to the most interesting President France has had in a long time. Nicholas Sarkozy is the son of Hungarian immigrants. Well, his father was a Hungarian aristocrat who moved to Paris. Did the French have any concern about electing someone of Hungarian descent? And his wife Carla Bruni is an Italian, though she’s a French citizen now. Does the fact that the 1^st lady of France is an Italian bother the French?

Our questions were met with bafflement. How does it matter that Sarkozy is ethnically a Magyar? – They wondered. Or that Bruni was an Italian once. All that matters is that they’re French now, n’est-ce pas? Excellent, we said meekly. We felt like hugging them & giving them an air-kiss, French-style.

An often overlooked site in Paris is the Pantheon. It was built as a church, but it is known more as a crypt & for its starring role in a scientific pursuit: Foucault hung his pendulum from its dome to prove that earth rotated on its axis. A replica of the revered Foucault’s pendulum still oscillates in the Pantheon. The Who’s Who of French elite are buried in the crypt – For e.g., Voltaire, Rousseau, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Pierre & Marie Curie and Joseph-Louis Lagrange. We perked up when we saw Lagrange’s tomb. Amidst a sea of philosophers, writers & politicians, the mathematician-astronomer seemed like a kindred spirit to yours truly, both engineers by profession. We touched his tomb with awe & reverence.

While we loved the French for their open, liberal attitude and for preserving their heritage, they sometimes – many times – drove the author of this post crazy. I must have been a German in my previous life. Punctuality is my affliction. I may need therapy if I’m seriously late for an appointment. I plan & schedule even the minutiae, like Armageddon was tomorrow. And in France, time is elastic, stretchable. They don’t think anything about 30 minute delays. I did not expect this in a 1^st world country. Please hold my paws, I get emotional just thinking about it.

I don’t know how the Germans occupied this country for any stretch of time. Technically speaking, they should have gone mad in a week. Tearing their hair & clothes, they should have run amok on the streets. But it took the Allied Forces landing on Normandy to drive them out. Hmmm – I’ll never understand it.

Sukumar will continue this series with another photo essay on Paris.

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Paris Travelog #6 – Third Photo Essay – Louvre

Please read Priya Raju’s excellent write up on the Louvre to appreciate this photo essay better. I want to start the essay with Vermeer’s lace maker that refuses to leave my head even after a month – some what like the earworms that people talk about in the realm of music.

The glass pyramid at entrance of Louvre is much talked about, but i couldn’t get a decent enough picture of it. Instead i choose to present you the inverted pyramids from inside the Louvre.  This area is always crowded and this is the best i could do. It is spectacular to say the least. The inverted pyramids became very famous after Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. After i saw the glass pyramids in the Louvre, the symbologist in me  couldn’t help guessing that the famous 5th Ave Apple Store in New York is inspired by the glass pyramid in the Louvre. Does anyone else think that?

While we are on the subject of symbols, i think the Winged Victory of Samothrace (below)  inspired the famous scene in the movie Titanic with Kate Winslet standing with her arms outstretched on the hull of the Titanic before Leo De Caprio joins her.  The typical photo of this sculpture leaves out the boat/ship below the sculpture, which is what make me think it inspired the famous Titanic scene. Do you all agree?

As Priya Raju mentioned, this sculpture is one of the top 3 highlights of the Louvre alongside Monalisa and Venus de Milo.

Priya is right. Shouldn’t this magnificent Athena be in the list of top 3 highlights?

Count Baldassare, which in our guide’s opinion, is  better than the Mona Lisa, as Priya mentioned.  This was done by Raphael one of the greatest Renaissance painters.

As Priya mentioned, most people miss the masterful Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese, though it is right opposite the Mona Lisa.

Here is Napoleon’s coronation by David, one of Napoleon’s favorite painters. He created 2 copies of the same painting, one is at the Versailles Palace. There are a couple of  interesting stories about this painting – Napoleon’s mother who is in the painting watching the proceedings, never really attended the coronation  ceremony. Napoleon had David add her into the painting. I guess this is how history gets distorted! It is said that David was in love with one of Napoleon’s sisters present on the left side of the painting and he deliberately made her look better than the others.

Hobbema’s windmill in the Northern Gallery is a thing of  beauty.

As a researcher into the Indus Valley Civilization, the near eastern antiquities section fascinated me the most. Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend too much time. I saw a cylinder seal, used by the Sumerian/Akkadian seals in the trade with the Indus, for the first time. They are so tiny, which make them quite comparable to the Indus seals which are also equally tiny. Here is an example – you can see how tiny it is when you look at the size of the scaled up images to the right of the seal. Wow!

The Louvre left me with a sense of awe that puts almost every other museum, that i have been to, to shame, including the Smithsonian Museums, the British Museum, the Athens Museum, Egyptian Museum at Cairo etc.   The Louvre will play a great part in luring us back to Paris soon

The paris travelog series will continue with a post from Priya Raju titled “Melange“. Stay tuned.

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Celebrating the Indian Constitution in the Comity of Nations

On the occasion of Republic Day this year, it is important to recall that this day in 1950 we gave to ourselves our Constitution.

The Constitution of India is the most sacred and central legal document. It is on the basis of this document that many other laws are derived and that we learn to uphold the ‘rule of law’ in a democracy under all circumstances.

Critics of our Constitution have been silenced as the document has shown its strength and mettle for more than 60 years. This just goes to show that it is critical to salute and reaffirm our faith in the Constitution because around us in South Asia and other parts of the world we see ‘failed’ if not ‘almost-failed’ states where the rule of law has broken down and anarchy prevails. Again, in the media when there are references made to ‘banana republics’ it’s a vicarious reminder to the achievement of our founding fathers in consolidating the ‘rule of law’ and state in India in what they envisioned would befit generations of Indians to come.

The history of the forming of this Constitution goes back to several decades of legal debates under British rule. The defining debate and draft was the Government of India Act of 1935 which functioned as the backbone of the later-to-be Constitution of India. With the Constituent Assembly in place, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was appointed the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution.

In the transition between colonial rule and freedom, our leaders showed a remarkably global outlook in learning from the political and constitutional experiences of other countries and this has stood us in remarkably good stead. Some highlights of the borrowings for our Constitution are as follows:

Chapter on Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution [Part III] which are enforceable if a citizens rights has been infringed by any action of the State : modeled on the American Constitution notably the American Bill of Rights (contained in the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution of USA).

Parliamentary System of Government which is based on that of Britain [Part V]: The system has three main institutions, the Parliament, the Executive and Judiciary each with their roles and responsibilities cut out for them. This was adopted because our leaders had some experience with this system during years of British rule.

Directive Principles of State Policy based on that of Ireland (Eire )[Part IV] : These are broad guidelines of action for the state and society in India but they are not enforceable in a court of law. Despite this, these principles are considered fundamental to the governance of the country and achieving social and economic justice in Indian society.

Emergency Provisions based on that of the German Reich [Part XVIII] : clause 48 of the Weimar Constitution.

It was a continuing testimony to the Indian historical experience, even post-independence, that we have never been an insular people. East or West, what would work is what needed to be retained, borrowed and built upon into the fabric of our national life. The members of the Constituent Assembly showed tremendous acumen and foresight in the melee that was partition and the transfer of power. I suppose this is why in all the countries mentioned above and other like-minded ones continuing generations refer to the ‘wisdom’ and ‘sagacity’ of the ‘founding fathers’. Cheers to them !!!