Dedicated to Serve: Dr Ida Scudder and Christian Medical College, Vellore

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A young American girl, born and brought up in a missionary family in a small town in Tamil Nadu was expected to continue the family’s tradition of service to the neediest of the people. Ida Scudder, born in 1870, the only sister to seven boys, was exposed at an early age to the poverty and deprivation of the local population through her parents’ work.  But Ida was repelled by all this. She was young and pretty, and dreamt of enjoying life, and eventually making a comfortable marriage. Her parents, both long-time missionaries in South India returned to the United States for a few years with their large family when Ida was eight years old. The comfortable life in America was a huge change from the challenging missionary work in India. After a few years of school, Ida moved to the Northfield Seminary for Young Women in Massachusetts while her parents returned to Tamil Nadu.

When Ida was 20 years old she came to visit her ailing mother in Tamil Nadu. While she was there, one night three different men came to seek medical help for their wives who were about to deliver, and were in distress. They appealed to Ida to attend to them. Ida had no medical training; her father was the doctor in the family. But the conservative community would not let their women be treated by a male. The next morning Ida heard that all the three young women and their babies had died in the night due to lack of medical attention. This was a life-changing experience for Ida. She found her calling.

But in order to be in a position to really help women medically, Ida herself had first to undergo medical training. She returned to the United States and enrolled in the Philadelphia Women’s Medical College, and studied further at Cornell Medical College where she was among the few female students. After 10 years of rigorous study and training she returned to India where she hoped to work alongside her father. Sadly, her father died not long after her return.

But Ida was here to stay. She determined to carry on his work, now focussing on women’s health. Her vision was that women should have the same access to quality and compassionate healthcare that men did, regardless of religion and ability to pay for it.

She began her practice from her family home in Vellore, 135 km west of Madras, by opening a small clinic for women. Ida was initially unsure how her presence and engagement would be received by the local community; but patients trusted her, and the numbers grew greatly.

A donation from an American who wanted memorialize his late wife, led to the building of the 40-bed Mary Taber Schell Memorial Hospital for women in 1902. Ida also started organizing roadside medical camps in villages around Vellore, travelling across difficult terrain to treat people and give health education.

Given the huge need and demand for medical care for women, Ida realized that as a single person there was only so much that she could achieve. It was critical to train and educate more people in this field. In 1903 she started to train compounders, and in 1909 nurses. Her vision was to set up a world class medical college. Many scoffed at such an ambition, but Ida was tenacious and managed to raise funds to support her cause.

The Union Mission Medical School for Women was set up in Vellore in 1918. Sceptics felt that there would be no takers. But the very first year there were 150 applications, and 18 women were selected for the first batch who went on to secure a Medical Practitioner Diploma.

Dr Ida Scudder’s words to the first batch of graduating students to pass out, reflect her professional dedication, her tenacity, as well as her missionary spirit: “You will not only be curing diseases, but will also be battling with epidemics, plagues and pestilences and preventing them. Face trials with a smile, with head erect and a calm exterior. If you are fighting for the right and for a true principle, be calm and sure and keep on until you win.​”

In 1938 the British Government announced that it would only recognize an MMBS degree, and not a diploma. This necessitated that Ida’s medical school, be upgraded to a medical college. Thus was born the Christian Medical College of Vellore. The original women’s college also became co-educational in 1945. Ida was completely engaged in every aspect of the institution—teaching, medical practice, as well as administrative responsibilities including fund raising.

Even after Independence, Christian Medical College continued to draw dedicated doctors from across the country and abroad. They came not for money or glory, but inspired by the founder Ida Scudder and her single-minded dedication to the cause of service to the sick.

Over a century after Dr Ida Scudder sowed the seeds that gave form to her vision, her legacy has blossomed into a spreading banyan tree. The tiny clinic has grown into CMC Vellore—one of India’s top-ranked educational, healthcare and research institutes.

The 40-bedded hospital has grown into a 3000-bedded multi-specialty health care system spread over six campuses. CMC cares for over twenty lakh patients, and trains one thousand doctors, nurses and other medical professionals each year. People from all walks of life and all parts of the country and beyond come here for the ethical, compassionate, and quality care that it is reputed for. Ida Scudder’s vision and work have outlived her.

This month, we have been celebrating women who have broken barriers, and led the way in many different ways, in widely diverse fields. We have shared stories of women who have truly “made a difference.” Who better epitomizes this than Dr Ida Scudder! 

–Mamata

The Art of Yuck

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There are artists who work with oil, watercolour, or clay—and then there is John Knuth, who collaborates with flies. Yes, flies. The kind most of us spend our lives trying to keep out of our homes are, in Knuth’s studio, co-creators in a process that is as fascinating as it is more than a little yuck.

Knuth’s technique is as unusual as it sounds. He feeds houseflies a mixture of sugar and watercolour pigment, then lets them loose over canvases. What follows is a kind of chaotic choreography: the flies land, wander, and of course regurgitate. These tiny deposits of coloured liquid accumulate into intricate patterns. From a distance, the works can resemble abstract constellations or delicate nebulae. Up close, however, the viewer is reminded of their origin—and that is where the discomfort, and perhaps the brilliance, lies.

At first glance, the idea feels deliberately provocative. Why flies? Why regurgitation? Why something that many would consider “yucky”? But Knuth’s work sits within a much larger artistic tradition—one that embraces the visceral, the biological, and the taboo to challenge our assumptions about art itself.

Consider Damien Hirst, whose work has long grappled with life and death. His installations featuring animals preserved in formaldehyde are iconic, but he has also worked with live flies—allowing them to hatch, feed, and die within gallery spaces. The lifecycle becomes the artwork. Similarly, Anicka Yi works with bacteria and scent, creating installations that grow, evolve, and even smell, drawing attention to the invisible microbial worlds that surround us.

Marc Quinn went inward, creating a self-portrait sculpture from his own frozen blood, while Chris Ofili incorporated elephant dung into his richly layered paintings.

Performance artists have pushed the boundaries of the body itself. Marina Abramović has repeatedly tested endurance and vulnerability, placing her body at the mercy of audience interaction. Stelarc has taken a more techno-biological route, suspending himself with hooks and even growing an ear on his arm through tissue engineering. Meanwhile, ORLAN has used surgical procedures as a medium, turning her own body into a site of artistic transformation.

Other artists have embraced decay and impermanence. Dieter Roth used perishable materials like cheese and chocolate, allowing them to rot and transform over time. Sam Taylor-Johnson captured the slow decomposition of a bowl of fruit in a time-lapse video, turning decay into a strangely mesmerizing visual experience.

Even animals—living or dead—have been incorporated in ways that unsettle viewers. Hermann Nitsch, associated with the Vienna Actionists, used animal blood and carcasses in ritualistic performances, while Eduardo Kac explored bio-art by creating genetically modified organisms, including a fluorescent rabbit.

Seen in this broader context, Knuth’s fly paintings feel like part of an ongoing conversation. What ties these diverse practices together is not merely their ability to shock, but their trying to expand the vocabulary of art. They challenge placing ink and paint above organic matter, permanence above decay, and control above chance.

Admirers say there is something quietly philosophical in Knuth’s process. By relinquishing control to flies—creatures we associate with randomness and disorder—he disrupts the notion of the artist as a creator who works with intent. The flies do not “intend” to make art; they simply follow instinct. And yet, the outcome is aesthetic. So is art defined by intention, or by perception? If something moves us visually, does it matter how it was made?

At the same time, Knuth’s work carries an undercurrent of commentary on consumption and excess. The flies, drawn repeatedly to sugar, mirror human appetites, of craving and consumption, overconsumption and waste.

Of course, not everyone is convinced. Critics often argue that such works lean too heavily on shock value, that the concept overshadows the craft. And it is a fair question: would these works hold the same appeal if we did not know how they were made? Perhaps not. But then again, conceptual art has always relied as much on context as on craft.

For viewers, encountering these practices can be an exercise in expanding one’s comfort zone. They ask us to look beyond initial reactions—whether fascination or revulsion—and to consider deeper questions about beauty, authorship, and the natural world. They remind us that art does not always have to be clean, controlled, or even pleasant.

Yucky? Perhaps. But also, undeniably, thought-provoking. And maybe that is precisely the point.

–Meena

Pic: Redhook Blackout by John Knuth. https://www.hollistaggart.com/


Rebel Nomad: Isabelle Eberhardt

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Continuing our celebration of path-breaking women this month. Through history, women have often been denied rightful recognition for their contribution in different fields. In STEM, their significant work has been eclipsed by the attention and glory garnered by men. While many of these female scientists and researchers are equally present in labs, they tend to lose visibility as their achievements advance. These achievements have been ignored, minimized, or credited to men. 

There is another band of women, who have had to make efforts to disguise their real persona in order to pursue their passions. This has been the story of several women who have stepped into what is traditionally considered a ‘male domain’. Among these are women explorers who have boldly ventured into dangerous terrains on perilous missions; women who broke conventional barriers in more ways than one.

One such story is that of Isabelle Eberhardt—journalist, writer, explorer-adventurer, and rebel. Today she would also be identified as ‘feminist’.

Isabelle was born in February 1877 in Geneva, Switzerland. Her mother Nathalie was the daughter of a German and a Russian Jew. There is some uncertainty about Isabelle’s real father, but she always considered her mother’s husband Alexandre Trophimowsky as her father. Isabelle was taught by Alexandre, who was a tutor. She studied philosophy history and geography, and also learned many languages including French, Russian, German, Italian, Latin, Greek, and classical Arabic. She loved literature and read a great deal. Alexandre had liberal views and gave her a lot of freedom to explore, and develop, her own personality.

When she was 17 Isabelle started correspondence with a French officer in the Sahara desert wanting to know, in detail, all about life there. This triggered in her the yen to explore for herself. In the meanwhile, based on her correspondence, she began to write short stories about the region under a male pseudonym Nicolas Podolinsky. These were published in a magazine. By now Isabelle was eager to see and experience for herself.

She met a photographer from Algiers who offered to help her move to Algiers. In May 1897 Isabelle and her mother moved to Bone in Algeria. Isabelle was 20 years old. Both mother and daughter were distressed by how the colonial Europeans treated the local Arab population. They rented a house in the non-European part of town. This was an area where women were not expected to go out alone or without a veil. So Isabelle started wearing a burnous and a turban (the dress worn by the local men). She quickly became fluent in Arabic. She and her mother also converted to Islam. Isabelle found it easy to accept Islam because she believed in fate, and Islam gave meaning to this belief. Isabelle’s unusual lifestyle caused the French colonial settlers and officials to suspect her of being a spy.

Isabel converted her observations and experiences into fictional stories, some of which were published. Her mother’s death in the same year that they had moved to Algiers, was a great blow. She returned for a while to Geneva to look after her sick father. After he died, she mortgaged the family property and returned to Africa in 1900, and began to lead a nomadic life. She wandered restlessly in North Africa, usually alone, writing her diaries, stories and travelogues. To freely experience everything as a native would, she wore only male clothing, joined a local Sufi group, and even changed her name to Si Mahmoud Saadi. During her travels she met and fell in love with an Algerian soldier Slimane Ehnni. This heightened the suspicion of the French authorities. Isabelle continued to court danger; she was attacked and severely wounded by a man with a sword. She was ordered by the French to leave North Africa, and went back to France where she could barely make ends meet by working as a dock worker, disguised as a man. Meanwhile she continued with her writing.

A friend introduced her to Eugene Brieux, a writer who supported Arab freedom. He tried to publish her stories, but there was no market nor support for pro-Arab stories. The only ray of light was when Slimane Ehnni was transferred to a military unit near Marseilles. They did not need permission to marry in France, and the two married in 1901. The next year, her husband left the army and the couple returned to Algeria.

Back in Algeria she started working for the Al-Akhbar newspaper. Her novel Trimardeur also began to appear in parts in the paper. She worked hard, but only when she felt like it; and spent all her money on tobacco, books, and gifts for friends. She travelled for long periods on assignments.

Isabelle continued to lead an erratic life, travelling in perilous conditions; she indulged excessively in drink and drugs. But amid all this, her writing still occupied a central part of her life. Her articles and short stories appeared in the local press, and for a while she also wrote a regular column on the customs of Bedouin tribes. In 1903 when reporting on a battle she met the French general Hubert Lyautey, and helped him communicate with the local Arabs because of her fluency in Arabic.

Isabelle’s nomadic and often promiscuous lifestyle took a severe toll on her mental and physical health. By 1904 she was so spent and weak that she was admitted to a military hospital in Ain Sefra. Some weeks later she discharged herself, against medical advice, to meet with her husband who she hadn’t seen for almost a year. The very next day the town where they had rented a mud house was struck by a flash flood. Isabelle was missing. General Lyautey ordered a search; Isabelle’s body was found later, pinned under a beam of the house, and surrounded by the soggy pages of her latest manuscript. Isabelle was buried in Aïn Sefra with a marble tombstone with her adopted Arabic name and her birth name in French. Isabelle was only 27 years old; an untimely end to a short and tumultuous life.

The General tried to collect as many of Isabelle’s unpublished writings as he could manage to find. These were later published. Her first published story after her death, Dans l’Ombre Chaude de l’Islam (In the Warm Shadow of Islam), was highly praised in 1906. This book made Isabelle famous as one of the best writers about Africa. Streets were named after her in Béchar and Algiers.

Today Isabelle is perceived as an early feminist and anti-colonialist. In her own time, she was simply a woman ahead of her times—adventurer, chronicler, gender bender, and one who lived on her own terms.

–Mamata

The Matilda Effect: When Women-Scientists are Written Out

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As appropriate to the month when we mark International Women’s Day, our pieces have revolved around women, their achievements and barriers to their growth. This week, we look at an uncomfortable historical pattern: how many of the contributions made by women have been ignored, minimized, or credited to men. This phenomenon has a name — the Matilda Effect.

The term was coined in 1993 by historian of science Margaret W. Rossiter, who used it to describe the systematic denial of recognition to women-scientists whose work was often attributed to male colleagues. Rossiter named it after the 19th-century American activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who had earlier observed how women’s intellectual achievements were routinely erased from public record.

In simple terms, the Matilda Effect refers to the tendency for women’s scientific or scholarly contributions to be overlooked while men receive the credit.

Why the Matilda Effect Matters

Recognition is not just about credit; it shapes opportunity.

Academic promotions, research funding, leadership roles, and history are all tied to who gets acknowledged. When women’s contributions are under-recognized, it creates a cycle in which fewer women are visible as role models for the next generation.

Young girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics often search for people who look like them in positions of intellectual authority. When those figures are missing from textbooks and public discourse, aspirations can quietly narrow.

The Matilda Effect therefore operates not only as a historical injustice but also as a structural barrier to gender equity in knowledge systems.

History’s Striking Examples

Consider Rosalind Franklin’s whose X-ray crystallography images were critical to understanding the structure of DNA and enabled the breakthrough model proposed by James Watson and Francis Crick. Yet when the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1962, Franklin — who had already passed away — received little recognition for her role.

Another well-known case is of Lise Meitner, the Austrian physicist who played a key role in explaining nuclear fission. The Nobel Prize for the discovery went solely to her collaborator Otto Hahn.

India’s own intellectual history reflects similar patterns.

Take Janaki Ammal, the pioneering botanist and cytogeneticist whose work significantly advanced plant breeding and biodiversity studies in India. Despite her groundbreaking research, she remained far less publicly known than many of her male contemporaries.

Or Anna Mani, the pioneering physicist and meteorologist whose work laid the foundation for modern meteorological instrumentation in India. She played a crucial role in standardizing weather measurement systems and advancing research in solar radiation and wind energy, contributing significantly to India’s renewable energy potential. Despite the far-reaching impact of her work, she remained relatively under-recognized outside scientific and policy circles.

(MM blogs on these two amazing ladies are linked below)

Similarly, Asima Chatterjee, one of India’s foremost organic chemists, made pioneering contributions to the chemistry of natural products and anti-malarial drugs. Although widely respected within scientific circles, her name rarely appears in popular narratives of Indian science.

Signs of Change

Things are hopefully changing. An example is Tessy Thomas, often called India’s “Missile Woman.” As a senior scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation, she played a key role in the development of the long-range ballistic missile Agni‑V. Her journey from a small town in Kerala to leading strategic defence projects has made her an inspiration for many young women considering careers in engineering and defence research.

Another widely admired figure is Gagandeep Kang, a leading medical scientist known for her work on infectious diseases and vaccines. As the first Indian woman elected Fellow of the Royal Society in the field of biomedical science, she has become a powerful role model for girls interested in medical research and public health.

In the world of space science, Ritu Karidhal and Muthayya Vanitha gained national recognition for their leadership roles in India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan‑2 at the Indian Space Research Organisation. Their visibility during the mission helped reshape public perceptions about who leads complex scientific and technological projects.

Similarly, Nandini Harinath, another senior scientist at ISRO, became widely known after the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, where she was part of the core navigation and mission design team.

Dr. Gagandeep Kang

What distinguishes these scientists is not only their technical expertise but also their public presence. Through lectures, interviews, and outreach programs, they actively encourage young girls to consider careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Recognition is the first step. Structural barriers — from access to research funding to representation in leadership — still need attention.

Here is to women-scientists having their day and say in scientific research!

–Meena

Picture: Indian Academy of Sciences

​See Magnoila Lady Janaki Ammal https://millennialmatriarch464992105.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2994&action=edit

and Weather Woman Anna Mani at https://millennialmatriarch464992105.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3235&action=edit

The March to Freedom: Women and the Salt Satyagraha

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March is a significant month in the history of India’s freedom movement. On 12 March 1930 Mahatma Gandhi set out from the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on a journey that was to cover many milestones, in more than one way.

On 2 March 1930 Gandhiji had written a letter to the Viceroy giving notice of his intention to launch a civil disobedience movement by symbolically breaking the Salt Law which in his opinion was “the most iniquitous of all from the poor man’s standpoint.” He was snubbed in return; which strengthened his resolve. He selected Dandi, a seaside village in Gujarat as the site for his symbolic gesture, and planned to walk the distance of 241 miles from his Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, along with a select band of co-workers. The date for setting off on the march was fixed for 12 March, and 6 April was the date set for the ‘breaking of the salt law” at Dandi. Gandhiji also vowed not to return to the ashram until the Salt Act was repealed, and Swaraj was won.

On March 12, 1930 at 6.30 a.m. Gandhiji, left the Ashram accompanied by 78 satyagrahis. These represented a cross-section of the people from all over the country: Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Kutchh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajputana, Sind, Tamil Nadu, U.P. Utkal, and even Nepal. The group included members of all communities. They fell in a wide age spectrum from 16-year-old Vitthal Liladhar Thakkar to 61-year-old Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi! The main criteria for the selection, that he personally made, was that the marchers were disciplined, and strictly adhered to the principles of ahimsa and satyagraha.

Despite so much diversity, there was one lacuna in the composition of the marchers.  The group did not include any women. One of the later historians attributed this to Gandhi’s concern that the British would taunt the marchers for being cowardly and “hiding behind the women” in the battlefield. But many women were eager to join the battle. Gandhiji was inundated with letters, telegrams and personal appeals from women to permit them to take active part in the struggle. Gandhiji had other plans for their engagement. In a piece published in Young India, titled To the Women of India Gandhiji wrote: “I feel that I have now found that work. …Let the women of India take up these two activities, specialize in them; they would contribute more than man to national freedom. They would have an access of power and self-confidence to which they have hitherto been strangers.”

Women in Bombay with sea water to make salt https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/a-fistful-of-salt.php

At each of the 24 villages that Gandhiji and his yatris halted for the night enroute to Dandi, Gandhiji urged women to step out of their homes and make salt locally. He also encouraged women to participate and contribute to the struggle by taking up picketing of liquor shops and foreign cloth, and taking up spinning. Hundreds of women from the neighbouring villages came to see and hear Bapu. Many of these women were unlettered, and followed strictly subscribed traditional roles. But Salt struck a common chord in every one of them. It was the ingredient that linked the domestic with the national.  

Women from all walks of life took up Bapu’s clarion call with great energy and commitment. They related closely to the symbolic power of salt. As Kamaladevi Chattopdadhyay, who was on the forefront of the movement wrote: “The salt satyagraha must stand out as not only unique but as an incredible form of revolution in human history. The very simplicity of this weapon was as appealing as intriguing. So far as women were concerned it was ideally tailor-made for them. As women naturally preside over culinary operations, salt is for them the most intimate and indispensable ingredient”.

Kamlaladevi organized volunteers for a variety of programmes including prabhat pheris (dawn processions), gathering salt and brine on the beaches of Bombay, and moving across the city distributing small packages of illicitly made salt. Women in the hundreds came out onto the streets to take part in these activities. Once in the fray, women were not to be daunted nor afraid of police batons.

In the following months the movement spread across the country, as more and more women poured out of their homes to join the activities. Women started organizing prabhat pheris on the streets of Bombay and Ahmedabad, where they sang songs about the bounty of the motherland. They helped put together vanar senas, or monkey brigades, consisting of children who supported the activists in offering resistance to the British. As their presence grew, and activities expanded the police became less restrained. The women faced brutal lathi charges, and a record number ended up in prison for the first time in the history of the subcontinent.

Chroniclers of that period have noted that while the original Dandi March began with a troop of males, the subsequent events inspired an unprecedented movement of women from every walk of life to move out of the private spaces of their homes, and traditionally designated roles, and enter public spaces to join a national movement.

Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in The Discovery of India, “Here were these women, women of the upper or middle classes leading sheltered lives in their homes, peasant women, working-class women, rich women, poor women, pouring out in their tens of thousands in defiance of government order and police lathi.”

The Dandi March was a turning point not only in the history of India’s freedom  movement, but also in the participation of Indian women in a political cause. It was a catalyst for women to claim public spaces in large numbers, united by a common cause.

March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day. In the United States the month of March is marked as Women’s History Month to honour women’s contributions in  American history. In India too we must celebrate the month of March as significant, the month in which, several historic events brought the women of India into the public space, and a movement that saw the emergence of women as warriors in a non-violent war.

–Mamata

WOW, AN AMBIGRAM!

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Once in a while, you come across something that makes you pause and look twice. Not because it is complicated — but because it bends the rules you thought were fixed. Ambigrams fall in that category.

An ambigram is a word or phrase designed so that it can be read in more than one way (like ‘WOW’ in the title, and the word ‘ambigram’ itself above). Sometimes you can rotate a word upside down and it still reads the same word. Sometimes a mirror reveals a hidden twin. Sometimes the letters rearrange themselves into an entirely different word depending on how you look at them. For example, bud turns into dub, while Malayalam reads the same both ways. And when turned upside down, swims reads the same, while wow turns into mom. Some ambigrams are natural (such as dollop), while others can be designed or created with calligraphy. Calligraphic ambigrams are quite popular and are often used as logos or tattoo designs.

It is typography performing a magic trick.And once you notice ambigrams, you start seeing them everywhere.

The graphic artist John Langdon’s mind-bending designs brought the form into the public eye. His work gained global attention when Dan Brown used ambigrams as visual motifs in the thriller Angels & Demons. Words like Earth, Air, Fire, and Water appeared as rotational ambigrams through artistic interpretations in the novel, sparking a wave of fascination with this unusual art form.

But ambigrams are older than that sudden burst of fame.

Some of the earliest playful experiments with reversible words appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when typographers and puzzle-makers began exploring the idea that letters could be visually flexible rather than fixed. The concept was formally named “ambigram” by cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, author of the well-known book Gödel, Escher, Bach. Hofstadter loved patterns that blurred the line between art, mathematics, and perception — and ambigrams fit that fascination perfectly.

Unlike normal typography, where letters follow strict shapes, ambigram artists must negotiate between readability and symmetry. A single letter might need to transform into another when flipped. Curves may double as stems. Serifs may become loops.

There are several kinds of ambigrams, and each works its magic differently.

Rotational ambigrams are perhaps the most famous. Rotate the word 180 degrees and it still reads correctly. Sometimes it turns into a different word. One classic example transforms “sun” into “sun” again after rotation, while more complex designs might flip “love” into “hate.”

Mirror ambigrams reveal their secret when placed beside a mirror, completing the word through reflection.

Perceptual shift ambigrams are subtler. They rely on the brain’s tendency to interpret shapes differently depending on context. A letter that looks like an “M” in one moment might suddenly become a “W” the next.

The joy of ambigrams lies in the way they invite interaction. Unlike ordinary text, which we simply read, ambigrams ask us to play. We rotate the page. Tilt our heads. Squint slightly. The moment when the hidden reading suddenly appears produces a spark of delight — a reminder that perception is not always as fixed as we think.

Creating an ambigram requires patience and experimentation. Designers sketch dozens of variations before discovering the balance where form and meaning finally align.

Interestingly, ambigrams often appear in unexpected places. Tattoo artists love them because they can encode dual meanings into a single design. Logos sometimes use them to create visual symmetry. Puzzle books and optical illusion collections frequently feature them as playful brain-teasers.

We live in a time when language moves quickly — texts, tweets, captions, headlines. Words flash past our eyes faster than we can savour them. Ambigrams slow things down. They ask us to look at words, not just read them.

They remind us that letters are shapes. That meaning can shift with perspective. That the same word can contain more than one story.

In that sense, ambigrams are more than clever design.

They are small lessons in perception.

Turn the page around, and the world might look different!

–Meena

Image source: Wiktionary

Superslueths: Lady Detectives

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Continuing Meena’s celebration of women in unconventional professions. While forensic scientists do a lot of their work in labs, there is a band of sleuths that follow clues on the ground. These are the women detectives. Crime fiction through the ages has had its share of popular female detectives. From Jane Marple, the gentle (but canny) epitome of an old English aunt, to Mma Ramotswe, the generously proportioned Botswana detective, these fictional detectives have a dedicated band of followers. Not many readers may even stop to wonder if such sleuths exist in real life. Indeed, they do! And the real lady detectives probably date back as far back as the fictional ones.

In Victorian England several stories of female detectives appeared in newspapers in the 1850s and 1860s. These ladies donned disguises to pursue thieves, and spy on adulterous husbands. Most of these ladies were initially part of male-led detective agencies, but by the 1880s women were beginning to set up their own agencies. Maud West was one of the most popular and well-known private detectives of her time in England. She was famous for her disguises. In 1905 she set up her own private detective agency. Over the next century such lady detectives were in demand especially as they were discreet, ingenious, and smart at surveillance.

But it took until the early twentieth century for a woman to join Scotland Yard as a detective. On December 27, 1922, Lilian Wyles became the first woman in the history of the Metropolitan Police to join the Criminal Investigation Department (C.I.D.) as an inspector. She was promoted to Woman Detective Inspector First Class on February 18, 1935.

Alice Clement: Queen of Dramatic Arrest

Meanwhile across the Atlantic, women were also entering what was considered to be a male domain. In 1856 a self-possessed young woman walked into the Chicago office of Pinkerton Detective Agency looking for a job, but not a job as a secretary. Kate Warne was hired, becoming the first female detective in the United States of America. She proved herself to be fearless, and adept at digging out valuable information. In one investigation she posed as a fortune teller to entice secrets from a suspect; in another she made friends with the murderer’s wife. The most defining case of her career was to foil an attempt to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln while on a train trip. She infiltrated the plotters by cultivating their wives and daughters. Her exploits encouraged other women to explore this field. Kate Warne rose to become the superintendent of the female bureau of the Chicago office of Pinkerton Detective Agency.  

While Kate was into private investigation, the official law and order agencies still had to engage women. In 1913, Alice Clement was the only woman in the class of almost 100 new police officers in Chicago’s police force. And Alice made no attempt to colorlessly blend in with the uniforms. She flaunted fashionable dresses, ropes of pearls, and a sophisticated haircut, even as she brandished a submachine gun, and practiced martial arts. She was passionate about her chosen profession, famous for her undercover work, and solving difficult murder cases. The Queen of Dramatic Arrest as she was called, was feared by even the most hardened criminals of the day. Alice Clement was a major advocate for women’s rights including the right to vote. She also travelled across the United States making a case for police departments to include policewomen, leading to several cities opening up this career for women. The substantial presence of women officers in the police dramas that we see on TV today, are not just reel characters but reflections of the real women who are integral to investigation of crime.

It took almost a hundred years after these pioneering PIs, for India’s first female detective to make her presence felt. Rajani Pandit the daughter of a CID officer, did some instinctive sleuthing while in college.  She tried to find out why one of her classmates was behaving out of character, unraveled the mystery; and informed the parents who were grateful. Rajani was now bitten by the bug, and began to pursue investigative work, more as a passion than profession. Her father was not too happy with his daughter’s choice of work. But news of Rajani’s successful investigations spread through word of mouth, followed by some media publicity. Cases started pouring in, and in 1986 she set up her own detective agency–Rajani Investigative Bureau. From a time when the idea of a female detective was met with disdain, Rajani and her bureau have solved 75000 cases. These cover a range, from extramarital affairs to corporate espionage, missing persons to murder.

Today more women are making a foray in this field. Perhaps the youngest female detective to set up her own agency is Tanya Puri. Still in her 20s she runs Lady Detectives India. The agency has half-a-dozen female investigators. They call themselves the Girl Squad, and usually work in pairs when out late on Delhi’s streets.

Female detectives nowadays carry out undercover operations, conduct surveillance, take charge of high-stakes investigations, cases of corporate espionage, and sensitive matrimonial investigations. Women in India can legally lead investigations.  

What makes women excellent investigators? As a veteran male detective observed: They are highly perceptive, they know how to get access locations and discussions that men can’t, and they’re very organized. Women communicate empathy which engenders trust.  

Mma Ramotswe summed this up neatly: Women are the ones who know what’s going on. They are the ones with eyes.   

On this Women’s Day celebrating the spunk in every woman—past, present and future!

–Mamata

In Pursuit of Criminals: A Women’s Day Special

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Not chocolates and roses. Here is a Women’s Day post that is about gore and crime.

Though not often associated with forensic science, women down the ages and across the world have played a huge role in defining it. We celebrate a few of them.

The Dollhouse Decorator

At a time when women were expected to add beautiful touches to drawing rooms, Frances Glessner Lee was building miniature crime scenes.

Often called the ‘Mother of Forensic Science’, she started recreating dollhouse-scale reconstructions of unexplained deaths in exquisite detail. This stemmed from her inherent interest in solving crimes, and inputs from a close friend who was a medical examiner, who believed that investigators often disturbed crime scenes, missed small but critical evidence and jumped to conclusions too quickly.

These “Nutshell Studies” became training tools for investigators at Harvard University. Every curtain hem, every blood spatter, every overturned chair was re-created down to the smallest detail. Trainees had to study the model for a fixed amount of time, take notes, propose the cause and manner of death, and defend their reasoning. Thousands of police personnel were trained using these tools which contributed greatly to the professionalization of forensic science

Born in 1878 to a wealthy family, she was denied a formal education in medicine simply because she was a woman. Later in life, after inheriting a substantial fortune, she used her resources to support the emerging field of forensic science at Harvard University.

The Woman in the Mass Graves

Fast forward to the 1990s.

In post-genocide landscapes in Rwanda and the Balkans, a young forensic anthropologist named Clea Koff was working with teams assisting the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 

She is best known for her work investigating mass graves and gathering forensic evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity for United Nations tribunals in the 1990s and early 2000s. In Rwandashe worked in exhuming mass graves of victims from the 1994 genocide, documenting and recovering remains used as evidence in genocide prosecutions; in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and Kosovoshe participated in multiple missions documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Her efforts in unearthing skeletal remains, establishing identity, and collecting evidence to support criminal prosecutions helped in proving many crimes against humanity.

She is also known for her widely read memoir The Bone Woman.

The Woman Who Said, “Check Again.”

Then there is contemporary Britain.

Angela Gallop, born 1950, joined the Forensic Science Service in 1974 as a senior biologist — one of the few women in the laboratory at the time. She visited her first crime scene in 1978, investigating the murder of Helen Rytka by the Yorkshire Ripper.

She contributed decisively to many cases: in the case of Roberto Calvi, she could prove murder rather than suicide; her meticulous re-examination of microscopic blood evidence helped to identify the real criminal in the Lynette White murder; she found evidence to tie the murderer to the crimes in the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path Murders. Her work helped to re-open several cases like the Rachel Nickell murder

She was also involved in the review of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, finding no scientific support for conspiracy theories.

After her contributions to the government, she founded Forensic Alliance, an independent consultancy known for revisiting controversial cases.

She was one of the first people to warn about confirmation bias–the human tendency to decide first and prove later. Her stance was always that evidence must lead.

Thanks to her, criminals were brought to book, and maybe even more importantly, innocents were released.

And Closer Home…

Dr. Rukmani Krishnamurthy is widely recognised as India’s first woman forensic scientist.

She entered forensic science in 1974 (the same year that Angela Gallop began her career!), joining the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories (DFSL) in Mumbai at a time when the field was overwhelmingly male-dominated and went on to become Director of DFSL Maharashtra and later took up many senior forensic leadership roles.

Dr. Rukami Krishnamurthy

She led major forensic examinations in high-profile cases such as the 1993 Mumbai blasts, the Matunga train fire, Joshi-Abhyankar serial killings, dowry deaths, and others.

Under her leadership, forensic labs adopted advanced methods including DNA profiling, cyber forensics, and lie detection techniques.  She helped transform Indian forensic practice from a peripheral support function to a central scientific pillar in criminal investigations.

Another star is Sherly Vasu, a trailblazing forensic pathologist and surgeon, known for her deep impact in medico-legal work in Kerala. She completed her MD in Forensic Medicine and became the first woman forensic surgeon in the state.  She headed departments of forensic medicine at prestigious medical colleges and later served as Principal of a medical college. She has not only trained generations of forensic scientists, but has conducted around 15,000 autopsies and contributed to evidence in many criminal cases.

So this Women’s Day, let us pay homage to these women who made their mark in a very offbeat career path—bringing criminals to book. It is women like them, who quietly established that expertise is all that counts, who have paved the way for all women in all careers.

Happy Women’s Day!

–Meena

Boi Mela: A Book Fair With History

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Just as the winter season of book fairs and literature festivals around the country was coming to a close, the temperature heated up with an article in a British newspaper that alleged that the hundred or more literature festivals that covered all parts of the country were more about “being seen” rather than a serious love for books and reading. The article unleashed a flurry of responses, rejoinders and rebuttals. And the debate may continue until the next literature festival.

While the somewhat glitzy avatar of literature festivals might be relatively recent, it may be a surprise to discover that book fairs have a long history in India, and have always had a substantial attendance. In fact, the first book fair in India was held in 1918 in Calcutta. The Boi Mela as it was called, was held at College Street, the hub of Bengal’s learning and publishing industry. This was not a society event, although it was certainly helmed by some of the most prominent intellectuals of the day in Bengal including Rabindranath Tagore, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gurudas Banerjee, Bepinchandra Pal, and Aurobindo Ghosh, among others.

The Book Exhibition, as it was called, was one of the activities that were being planned and carried out as part of the nationwide wave of Swadeshi. The Swadeshi Movement is largely associated with Gandhiji who gave the call for boycott of British goods and adoption of hand-spun khadi as part of the Non-Cooperation Movement launched in 1920-21. However, the swadeshi movement had its roots much before that, in response to the British plan to bifurcate Bengal in 1905. In August 1905, a massive meeting was held at Calcutta Town hall where the formal declaration of the Swadeshi Movement was made. There was a call to boycott Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt. The formal partition of Bengal in 1905 strengthened the call, and the involvement of people from all walks of life in boycotting all British goods and services. The people were fired by the patriotic songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore. 

Another aspect of this movement was to counter the education policies of the British Government by evolving a nationalist education system. This triggered a demand for a national university. By November 1905 the climate was charged with multi-pronged efforts towards this. Speeches, meetings, articles in newspapers and magazines endorsed the idea of a national university.  Prominent citizens gave generous donations for its establishment. At a conference held on 16 November 1905, a resolution was passed to “establish a National Council of Education… to organize a system of education — Literary, Scientific and Technical on National Lines and under National Control”. The process to work out the details took four months. A resolution formalizing this was passed on 11 March 1906.The Council’s prime objective was to “quicken the national life of the people.”

The National Council of Education (NCE) started the movement to spread science and technical education on national lines and under national control, to counter education and trade policies of the British government. On 14 August 1906, the Council’s first academic institute was inaugurated. This was the Bengal National College and School. Subsequently it also established the Bengal Technical Institute; both of which would later merge to form Jadavpur University.

This was several years before Gandhiji launched his nationwide stir for Swadeshi and set up the first Rashtriya Shala in 1920 to promote national education, manual labour, and handmade products. 

Aurobindo Ghosh was the first Principal of Bengal National College. In an article published in 1908 he wrote: ‘The Council is not merely an educational body nor is the College merely an educational institution; they are trustees to the people of a great instrument of National regeneration and should always work in that spirit.’ The founding members also felt that there was a need for widening education and people’s access to books.

It was in this spirit that NCE organized what is considered to be India’s first book fair in 1918. This event symbolized self-reliance and intellectual independence which was one aspect of the Swadeshi Movement. All the leading publishers of that time took part. The Book Exhibition, as it was then called, generated a lot of interest among citizens. It continued to be held annually for the next few years till the nationalist movement shifted its focus to a greater struggle against the British rule.

Over time memories of the first book fair slipped into oblivion until the 1970s when a group of young book lovers and publishers of Kolkata who met regularly at the College Street Coffee House started discussing how the publishing trade could be boosted. Someone gave the example of the Frankfurt Book Fair a commercial trade fair of books. The young publishers envisaged that a similar event could be held in Kolkata, but the older publishers were wary and skeptical about such an event. They felt that books were not commodities that could be sold in fairs. The younger group persisted and their efforts bore fruit when the first Kolkata Book Fair was organized on 5 March 1976. 34 publishers participated and 56 stalls were set up near Victoria Memorial. The entry fee was a nominal 50 paise. Book lovers flocked in. 

By 1983, the Fair achieved international accreditation and attracted larger and larger crowds. It moved to the larger Maidan grounds to accommodate growing participation of publishers as well as visitors. Despite challenges like the devastating fire of 1997, which destroyed 100,000 books, and rain damage the following year, the Fair’s resilience became its hallmark.

From 1991, the Fair introduced a focal theme every year, on the lines of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Each year one Indian state was selected to be the theme state for that year’s Fair, highlighting the literature and culture of the state. The first theme state was Assam. Subsequently foreign countries were also accorded theme status for each year.  From 1997, the focal theme has been a foreign country, starting with France.

In 2018 the centenary of the first Book Fair was celebrated with a modest book exhibition organized by the Jadavpur campus of National Council of Education.

Starting as a 10-day event, the Kolkata Book Fair gradually became a 12-day affair, usually starting in last week of January. Today the Boi Mela as it is locally called occupies as important a space in the calendar of Bengalis as does Durga Puja. It epitomizes the vibrant intellectual culture, and celebrates Kolkata’s history of reading, learning and sharing knowledge. It is also a reminder of the legacy of the Book Fair, a common meeting place for bibliophiles from every walk of life.

–Mamata

When Letters Took Flight: The First Air Mail

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As a member of the generation before email and ‘texting,’ and one who has always been an avid letter writer, there are many memories of trips to the local Post Office to buy stamps and personally drop the letter in the friendly red post box. The process was more complicated when mailing a letter to someone who was not in India. This meant taking a decision on whether the post should be sent by surface mail or air mail. Air mail was more expensive, albeit faster. There were two options for the air mail—the standard pre-stamped aerogramme, and the challenge to squeeze in as much text as possible in the available space, and an envelope which could accommodate more sheets and hence more matter. But then there was the issue of weight. The envelope would be weighed and the postage decided depending on the weight! Hence an earlier exercise involved acquiring the lightest, thinnest writing paper. (There was an ‘onion skin’ paper as I recall which was in itself more expensive!) Ah, the sweet travails of written communication then!

One always associated the entire concept of ‘air mail’ as having its origin in the West. Many decades later, I discovered that the very first air mail delivery happened in India!

The story goes back over a century ago. India was still under British rule but Indian festivals and fairs went on. One of the biggest of these was the Kumbh Mela held at Allahabad. It was to coincide with the Kumbh Mela of 1910-1911 that the then Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces Sir John Prescott Hewett organized a national exhibition in Allahabad. It was a huge show housed in buildings with elaborate architecture. The twelve sections included exhibits for engineering as well as agricultural sciences, textiles, forestry, and display of handicrafts from around the world. There were cultural programmes featuring prominent singers and dancers of the day. The exhibition ran from December 1910 to February 1911.

As part of the many attractions, Captain Walter George Windham, one of the influential pioneers of aviation was invited to bring some flying machines from England to Allahabad and organize demonstration flights. These would be the first planes to fly in India. Captain Windham brought two aircraft to Allahabad and organized aerial demonstrations by the two pilots that accompanied the aircraft. One of these was a 23- year-old French pilot Henri Pequet.

When Captain Windham was in Allahabad, the Rev. Holland, warden of a hostel for Indian students in Allahabad asked him if he could help raise some funds for repair of the hostel and construction of a new one. Windham had the idea that sending post by air would attract a lot of attention, and hopefully raise funds. He obtained permission from the India Post Office. To send through this, at the time novel means, people were asked to send mail to Rev. Holland, addressed and stamped, at the regular rate, but requested to donate a nominal sum of 6 annas for every letter or card which would be sent on the flight, as a donation for the new buildings. This mail would be part of the airborne postal service. A special postmark was authorised for this batch; it was designed by Captain Windham and the die for this was cast at the postal workshop in Allahabad. It was four cm in diameter and magenta in colour. All postal arrangements were handled by the Exhibition Camp Post Office.

On 18 February 1911, a Humber-Sommers bi-plane, piloted by Henri Pequet was loaded with 6,500 postal articles with the special postmark. The flight took off from the Allahabad polo field, witnessed by thousands of spectators. It landed near Naini railway station where there were no crowds, but a lone postal official who took the mail bags. From there, the post would continue to its destinations by the regular route, and with the regular charges.  The distance covered was approximately 11 km and the flight time was 13 minutes! Having delivered the first officially sanctioned airborne postal consignment in the world, Peqeut got back into the plane and returned to Allahabad. 

The use of a plane for delivering letters received world-wide attention once the letters with the special post mark reached England. 

Before this, some transport of post by ‘air’ was not entirely unknown. During the 1800s balloons and gliders carried some mail. The first sustained powered flight by the Wright brothers on 17 December 1903 did not carry any mail, but in the decade that followed, pioneering pilots would carry ‘unofficial’ mail on their short flights. This did not have official postal authorization. The Allahabad to Naini flight carried the first ‘official’ air mail. Following this, the world’s first scheduled airmail post service took place in the UK between the London suburb of Hendon and the Postmaster General’s office in Berkshire on 9 September 1911, as part of celebrations for King George V’s coronation.  

Subsequently, while the rest of the world saw rapid developments in postal air services, there was not so much happening in India. The first regular air service between India and UK was opened in 1929. Soon after that the first domestic route was opened between Karachi and Delhi. The Indian State Air Service as it was designated, ran for just two years during which it completed 197 scheduled flights, and carried 6,300 kg of mails. After its closure, the Delhi Flying Club was given permission to operate an exclusive mail service between Delhi and Karachi. Its one light aircraft carried over 7000 kg of mail during its operational period of 18 months. The big leap came in October 1932 when JRD Tata flew a Puss Moth airplane from Karachi to Bombay. The inaugural flight of India’s first air service was to become Tata Sons Ltd, and later grow into Air India, carried a load of mail. Karachi was chosen as the starting point because Imperial Airways terminated there with the mail from England, and the mail route chosen by Tatas was Karachi-Bombay-Madras (via Ahmedabad and Bellary). At the beginning the airplanes used were so small that the service was restricted to mail, but a single passenger was occasionally allowed to sit on top of the mail bags — usually with his heels higher than his head! Meanwhile the mail load had increased from about 10,500 kg in 1933 to about 30,000 kg in 1935. Larger aircraft were introduced only in 1936. While the government refused to subsidize the service, it could be sustained by a ten-year mail contact with the Government for transport of mails.

After Independence there was need for delivery of mail that was faster than through road and rail services. Daytime flights could carry only passengers. In 1949, Night Air Mail was introduced in which mail from Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras was collected at designated points in each city, delivered straight to the airport and flown to Nagpur, where it was sorted and flown back to the respective cities the same night, and delivered the next day. In the sixties there were as many as ten flights carrying mail to Nagpur in a single night. The service was discontinued in 1973. Subsequently the Indian Postal Service introduced many services including Speed Post. Today couriers and electronic exchange of information have overshadowed the work of the postal service. The postman, once eagerly awaited, and letters, eagerly opened and read and reread, have almost faded from memory. But it is important not to forget the pioneering efforts that brought us here. 

–Mamata