Category: history

You’ve Got Mail!

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

On October 9th, the world marked World Post Day, to commemorate the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in Bern, Switzerland on this day in 1874. Designated by the UN , ‘the purpose of World Post Day is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in people’s and businesses’ everyday lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries.’ Emphasizing the importance of postal services, the UN says, ‘Post offices play a crucial role in fostering cohesive, inclusive, connected communities. Presently, over five million postal employees are entrusted with a variety of essential and personal items, from messages, gifts and goods, to money and medicines.’

India’s history of postal services long precedes 1874, with the East India Company opening its first post office in 1727. This was essentially used for the company’s own posts. The postal services were later taken over by the British Government and the services opened to the public. Many of the princely states as well as the Portuguese, Dutch and other colonial powers also ran their own postal services.

Taj Westend Postbox
India’s oldest functional post box at Taj Westend, Bangalore. Still cleared everyday except Sundays and holidays!

For many people today, posts and post offices don’t seem very relevant. I visit the post office more for investing money in some of schemes offered by them—they are safe and offer a decent interest rate. I haven’t posted a letter in decades, and in fact am suspicious of the few post boxes I see—are they ever cleared, I wonder. I do receive magazines and bulk posts, which are obviously not posted but given in at the post office. The one service I do occasionally use is the Speed Post service—takes about as long as non-premium couriers, and costs a lot less (to the extent that some courier companies use speed-post services to get their packages over the long distance, while they just do the collection and final delivery!).

But the postal service is obviously still very important in our country, going by the numbers. Even today, we have over 1, 55,000 post offices, and Inda’s Dept. of Posts has the most widely distributed postal network in the world. Close to 13.5 crore registered posts and over 30 crore speed posts have traversed the country during the year.

But the non-postal services of the post offices seems even more significant. They act as Aadhar updation centres, as Passport Seva kendras, as a means of paying utility bills and for distribution of direct benefit transfers. Apart of course from the various savings schemes and banking activities.

Yeoman service indeed.

But that is not to say that there is not tremendous scope for improvement, which is obvious even to the layest of lay-people. For instance, I subscribe for a weekly magazine, but I am lucky if I get 3 of 4 issues in any given month. And even then, the deliveries are bunched up—the postman may deliver 2 or 3 together because he can’t be bothered to come every week. So obviously some lacuna in monitoring systems.

And often I end up opting for couriers rather than speed-post for various reasons. The courier will come to my doorstep to pick up the package. And then there are the other flexibilities—speed posts will be accepted and delivered during working hours, on working days. But my packages get ready at the 12th hour, and the post offices shut by then. And so couriers are the only way to go.

And a visit to the post office is an activity for which you need to set aside at least a couple of hours.  Forms for any of the schemes are to be filled manually, and take 10-15 minutes to fill. Nor are they very clear, which means they often have to be re-done. The IPPB app is confusing and takes getting used to. The password expires ever so often and constantly needs to be reset. (That being said, I sincerely appreciate the patience of the postal staff in dealing with the dozens of people and scores of questions. )

India’s postal services definitely need to be re-imagined for tomorrow. We are the technology capital of the world, but it does not seem that adequate thought has gone into using technology in this sector.

But the amazing network created into the remotest parts of the country has the potential for providing the backbone for citizen services that can touch everyone, especially those in under-served areas.

So with three cheers for India Post!

–Meena

Lighthouses: Beacons of the Coastline

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

As the country gears up for Diwali, the Festival of Lights, India recently celebrated its first Lighthouse Festival. This is the first time that the spotlight is on lighthouses in India. The festival which was flagged off at Goa’s historic Fort Aguada, is aimed at rejuvenating the rich maritime history of 75 iconic lighthouses of the country, and promoting lighthouses as tourism destinations.

In a country which is so rich in the wide range of world-renowned monuments, spanning different eras and styles of architecture, there has not been much attention on lighthouses as heritage structures. Although there are nearly 200 lighthouses dotting the coast of India, not much is known about them, nor are they high on tourists’ itineraries. However the history of lighthouses in India is long and interesting.

The building of lighthouses in India is generally attributed to the colonial rule. The British, as well as the Portuguese and Dutch who ruled some of the coastal parts of the empire developed and constructed lighthouses at strategic points along the coastline. But India’s maritime history goes back much further, and where ships sailed, there must have been systems to guide them. There are sources that indicate that lighthouses also existed long before.

It is believed that lighthouses were built in India in the 3rd century BC by Emperor Asoka who was a contemporary of Ptolamy II, the Egyptian king who built the famous lighthouse—the Pharos of Alexandria which is the first known lighthouse, constructed between 300 and 280 BC. This was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The first known lighthouse in India was at Puhar Port in Kaveripatnam, an ancient South Indian port city. The famous Tamil writer Illango Adigal of 5-6 century AD in his book Silappadhikaram (one of Tamil literature’s Five Great Epics) had explained in detail about the beautiful lighthouse on the Bay of Bengal coast, and the numerous ships anchored at Puhar port, which was doing brisk business those days.

After the invasion of the Indian subcontinent by the Portuguese, Dutch and the English, trade and commerce through sea increased several folds, and over a period of time, lighthouses were built all along the coastline of the Indian subcontinent to guide the seagoing vessels as they approached the coast. These lights were maintained by the local rulers and port authorities.

As ports became busier, the need was felt for more navigation lights. At Colaba, the entrance to Bombay, the chief seaport of the time, the light was provided by a moored light vessel off the coast in 1842. In 1847, first lighthouse was constructed on Colaba point with a revolving light that gave a bright flash every two minutes. The next lighthouse to be constructed was at Karachi port in 1851. This was followed by a lighthouse on Piram Island in the Cambay Gulf, and then on the north mouth of the river Tapti, which was called the Hazira lighthouse. In 1856 a number of other lighthouses were constructed at important points along the western coastline of India. Among these was the lighthouse at Fort Aguada in Goa, which was the venue of the recent Lighthouse Festival.

The construction of lighthouses continued further south along the Malabar Coast through the nineteenth century. A similar exercise was also under way along the eastern coastline from Calcutta down to Madras. As the number of lighthouses increased, it became essential to establish an authority to control and maintain these lights. After detailed discussions and consultations, it was decided to constitute a Lighthouse Department in British India (with jurisdiction extending from Aden to Rangoon). The Governor General of British India gave approval to the Lighthouse Bill on September 21, 1927, and the Lighthouse Department was constituted. To commemorate this, every year 21 September is celebrated as Lighthouse Day in India.

Initially the department had control of 32 lighthouses. Today India has nearly 200 lighthouses, some of which are centuries old, which continue to be regulated by the Lighthouse Act of 1927. These range from the ancient now crumbling edifices; those painted with traditional red and white stripes, to imposing modern steel structures. Only a few of the original structures remain, some have been repaired as heritage structures, while several new automated towers have come up. Many are equipped with modern radar infrastructure, and equipment to collect weather data. The lighthouses are administered by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways of the Government of India.

For many of us lighthouses are something that we associate with stories of smugglers, shipwrecks and rescues, or one of the many sights that we may take in as part of a seaside holiday. My own association with lighthouses stems back to the adventures of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five; and the rotating light that arched through the night sky on our summer holidays in Diu. But there is a serious global community of lighthouse lovers who study lighthouses. The scientific study of lighthouses and signal lights, their construction and illumination is called Pharology or pharonology. The term has its roots in the ancient Greek pharos (meaning lighthouse) and logos (discourse). Pharos was also the name of the famed lighthouse of Alexandria. These lighthouse enthusiasts or pharologists, not only study and document lighthouses around the world, they also work to promote the cause of lighthouses and light vessels. They are members of the World Lighthouse Association, and share their passion through the Lighthouse Digest.

D Hemachandra Rao, a retired engineer of Chennai turned his hobby into an ‘epic lighthouse yatra’ by journeying across India to visit and document every functional and non-functional lighthouse on the Indian coastline. Starting when he was in his mid-seventies, Rao travelled extensively along India’s coastline, sharing his descriptions and pictures of his findings through his Facebook Timeline. Known as the Lighthouse Man, Hemachandra Rao passed away in June 2022 at the age of 82, leaving behind a rich legacy in the form of a Maritime Heritage Museum that he set up in his house in Chennai. The museum includes hundreds of photographs of the lighthouses that he had visited.

Mr Rao believed that lighthouses had relevance even in the age of satellite technology. He said “the small light, coming from distance, still navigates the humble fishermen… even today we hear stories of fishermen coming to the shores safe led by the small light”.

There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, ‘This way to safety; this way to home’. Thomas S Monson

–Mamata

More Than Just a Library

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 2 Comments

Recently there was an article about heritage libraries in India and how some of these are in the process of being restored, renovated, and upgraded so that the rich history and legacy could be shared with a new generation of bibliophiles. Among these is Mumbai’s David Sassoon Library established in 1870 and the National Library in Kolkata the roots of which can be traced back to 1836.

Coincidentally, around the same time I was reading a novel called The Paris Library. While the story and the two main protagonists are fictional, the library around which it revolves, and most of the other characters that are part of the story are based on real people and places. This was the American Library in Paris or ALP as it was called.

As a curious bookworm I was intrigued by this and decided to investigate further into the ALP. I discovered a fascinating history.  

The seeds were sown during World War I. This was when thousands of young Americans were fighting with the Allies on the battlefronts in Europe. At this time when the main supply to the front was in the form of arms or medical equipment, the American Library Association felt that the troops needed something to engage them mentally in the midst of their grueling physical existence. So it collected books and periodicals donated by American Libraries and personal collections and shipped these to France to the Library War Service from where they were sent to military bases, training camps and hospitals where American soldiers were fighting. It is estimated that around 2 million books and five millions periodicals were shared in this way with American soldiers fighting the war far from home. One of the centres which housed part of the collection was also in Paris.

When the war ended, there was a discussion about what to do with the books that that been an important support all through the war, not just for American servicemen. During this period the citizens of Paris had also become fond of browsing through the collection of English language books in open stacks (an uncommon feature of European libraries at the time), and international newspapers and periodicals in the Paris centre. Thus although there was no plan to establish a permanent library in Paris this idea seemed to evolve and slowly take root. The thinking was that the library could also serve as a functional model to demonstrate American library methods, especially the use of the Dewey decimal system and open stacks.

Thus the decision was taken not to ship the books back but to establish a permanent library in Paris in the spirit of Atrum post bellum, ex libris lux: After the darkness of war, the light of books. This also became its motto. There was however the question of funds needed to establish and run the library, but the idea had many advocates, and contributors from all walks of life, in America and in Paris united to pledge every kind of support. This was probably an early example of crowd funding.

As a result the American Library in Paris was founded in 1920 by the American Library Association and the Library of Congress with a core collection of those wartime books. Its charter promised to bring the best of American literature, culture, and library science, to readers in France.

Having been established, there was a continuous struggle to keep it not only running but also to enhance its collections and also serve as a cultural hub. The library constantly innovated to keep itself up and running. The Library worked with sixty-five leading publishers in the United States, who sent free copies of newly published works which the Library displayed in a dedicated exhibition space. Over a thousand new books per year were acquired through this channel. Meanwhile, the Library staff, wrote widely published literary reviews of the new titles, and in 1924, they launched their own literary journal called Ex Libris, to which Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein contributed. The library also formed relationships with other libraries through inter-library loans and other social organisations. The American Library in Paris quickly became a vital hub of reference services and educational outreach. Within just three years of existence, the library’s reference room was visited by 35,000 users. It founded its own children’s section in 1928 and had Story Hours for children. The library had highly qualified and dedicated staff as it invited librarians from some of the best libraries in the USA to come on sabbaticals. Some of these stayed on.

The library which grew out of World War I played a critical role during World War II. Once again it sent thousands of books to the troops fighting at the front in Europe. The library became a refuge for its habitués (regular subscribers) not just providing the comfort of books, but companionship, solidarity and solace. As one of the characters in the book puts it: Libraries are lungs, books the fresh air breathed in to keep the heart beating, to keep the brain imagining, to keep hope alive.

The library remained open even during the dark days of the Nazi occupation of Paris. Many of the American staff including its doughty librarian Dorothy Reeder stood firm, until they were forced to evacuate the country, but a handful of local staff bravely continued to run it. They themselves faced great personal risks in delivering books to the homes of some of the regular Jewish subscribers who were no longer permitted in public spaces. The library was also subject to “inspections” to check if they were harbouring any forbidden literature.

The book The Paris Library tells the story of the library and its habitués during the period of World War II. It is a heart-warming tale of the manifold power of books and the unique bonds that books create between people. As the library director Dorothy Reeder says in the book: Because I believe in the power of books—we do important work, by making sure knowledge is available and by creating community.

The story reflects that the original motto of the library: After the darkness of (another) war, the light of books.

The American Library in Paris celebrated 100 years of its founding in 2020. Even in an age where there is a deluge of information at the fingertips this library serves over five thousand members from sixty countries. It holds the largest collection of English language materials on the European continent, and is wholly community supported. It is now as much a community and cultural centre as it is a library, and its users are as diverse as its collections.

–Mamata

Sisters-in-Arms: Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutta

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

This Independence Day week there have been many pieces celebrating the numerous freedom fighters who were part of the nationwide movement for independence. The movement was unique in that it took the path of non-violence to achieve this goal.

Source: https://indiacurrents.com/

Whilst many of the names are part of history textbooks, there were thousands of people who played their part in the fight for freedom. Not all of these are as well remembered. Among these, there were also some who were driven by the same aims but who chose to take another path of showing resistance to the colonial rule.

This is a story of two feisty young women who chose the path of direct resistance, and who dedicated their life to the cause. They are Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutta.

Pritilata Waddedar

Pritilata Waddedar was born on 5 May 1911 into a middle-class family in a village of Chittagong, now in Bangladesh. She did her schooling in her hometown and then moved to Dhaka for high school studies at Eden College. It is here that the young Pritilata came in contact with other women who were strong anti-colonialists and who were inspired by revolutionary ideas. The spark was ignited. Pritilata then moved to Bethune College in Calcutta to pursue a higher degree in Philosophy. On completion of her course, Pritilata’s degree was held back by the British authorities at Calcutta University because of her anti-British activities. The seeds of rebellion were firmly sown. Pritilata returned to Chittagong in 1932 where she joined as a teacher in a school and went on to become the headmistress.

It was during this period that Pritilata was introduced to Surya Sen who led an underground revolutionary group. Pritilata approached Master Da as Sen was called by his followers with a request to join his group. Initially Sen as well as his comrades were hesitant to include a women in the group, but Pritilata’s revolutionary passion and steely resolve to overthrow the British, as well as her abilities to carry out risky assignments gave her entry into the group.

Comrade Pritilata was a key member of the group that planned and strategized armed attacks on railway lines, telegraph office, the armoury, as well as the famous Chittagong Uprising—the raid on the armoury of police and auxiliary forces that cut Chittagong off from the rest of the country. Pritilata played an important role in supplying explosives to the revolutionaries. The raiders managed to escape but the British authorities tracked them down in the Jalalabad hills near Chittagong. Several thousand troops ambushed the rebels and many of them (some merely teenagers) were killed in the encounter. Sen’s depleted band had to reorganize and re-strategize.

They decided to avenge the Jalalabad massacre by burning down the Pahartali European Club. This club was targeted because, among other white supremacy symbols, it also had a sign at the entrance which declared that ‘Dogs and Indians are not allowed.’ Pritilata was the leader of the eight-member team. The team prepared by intensive training in the use of firearms. As in any military formation the leader was to be the first to attack and the last to return after the rest of the team had moved to safety.

On the night of 23 November 1932 Pritilata and her team, dressed as Sikh men laid siege to the club and set fire to it. British troops were quick to retaliate. Pritilata and her team were chased and ambushed with little hope of escaping alive. Nevertheless Pritilata tried to divert the gunfire to give her comrades a chance to escape. In the process she was shot in the leg. Rather than die under British arrest, the wounded Pritilata swallowed cyanide and ended her life. She was 21 years old. The police found her body early next morning and were surprised to discover that the leader of the attack was a young woman.

Kalpana Dutta

A lot of what we know about Pritilata is thanks to the memoirs of Kalpana Dutta which describe in detail the Chittagong Uprising. Inspired by Pritilata, Kalpana became a fellow comrade, and was also one of the few women members of Surya Sen’s underground group of revolutionaries. Kalpana often travelled disguised as a man, to transport explosives and other supplies to the group. She also became an expert in preparing gun cotton, an explosive agent.

Born on July 27, 1913 in Sreepur village in Chittagong, (now Bangladesh), Kalpana Dutta was fond of listening to adventurous stories since childhood. While studying in high school, she read many biographies and stories of freedom fighters, which inspired her with the passion to join the struggle for freedom. She joined a semi-revolutionary student organisation called the Chhatri Sangha and became one of its most active members. It was here that she met Pritilata, and the two became close friends. It was Pritilata who introduced her to Surya Sen.

Following the Jalalabad massacre, both Pritilata and Kalpana were designated as the key executors of the arson attack on Pahartali Club. Just a week before the attack, while she was on a reconnaissance trip of the area, Kalpana was detained by the British. She was released on bail, she immediately went underground to ensure that the plan would continue without any obstacles. Pritilata became the sole leader of the team. As we know, the team was ambushed and the wounded Pritilata took her own life rather than die in the hands of the enemy. 

Kalpana remained underground, even when the British finally managed to locate and capture Surya Sen in 1933. Three months later, she was eventually arrested and sentenced to life in the second supplementary trial case of the Chittagong Armoury Raid incident. She was released after six years of imprisonment. After her release from prison, she completed her studies and graduated from Calcutta University in 1940. Following independence, she led a relatively quiet life until her death in February1995. She wrote her autobiography in Bengali which was translated into English as Chittagong Armory Raiders: Reminiscence.

The note left by 21-year-old Pritilata when she died sums up the spirit of these two fearless young women who broke many stereotypes of the time.

There may yet be many among my dear countrymen who would question [women being fighters]. Nursed in the high ideal of Indian womanhood they may ask, how can a woman engage in such ferocious task of murdering and killing people?

I am pained at the distinction being made between a man and woman in the struggle for freedom of the country. Today if our brothers can enlist in the war of independence, we too the women should be allowed to do the same and why not?

–Mamata

Tomato Puree

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

There is an unusual addition to the front page news these days. It is the tomato! As prices of tomatoes soar, there is panic. From housewives to gourmet chefs there is a scramble to devise meals where the familiar flavor and texture of tomatoes can be recreated without the star ingredient. Recipes are shared, and suitable substitutes recommended, such as tamarind, raw mango, kokum and curd. Ironically these tartness-adding agents have been used in Indian cooking well before the tomato gravy became ubiquitous element in everything from paneer to pizza!

Interestingly, the tomato is a relatively recent arrival in India. It is believed to have been introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and was probably grown in the parts of India where the Portuguese influence was strong. It was not easily adopted by the local people as it was looked upon with suspicion, often referred to as vilayati baingan (imported brinjal), and unclear whether it was meant to be eaten raw or cooked. It is only in the 19th century, with the British influence that tomatoes became a part of Indian cuisine.

As we are missing the tomato in our daily meals, it is a good time to take a look at its chequered history.

The global history of the tomato also is a long and convoluted one. The plant is believed to have originated in South and Central America, and can be traced back to early 700 AD to the early Aztecs who named it tomatl or xitomatl (plump thing with navel). It was an integral part of their native diet in the sixteenth century. The Spanish conquerors of the region called it tomate, from which the English word tomato is derived.

Europeans first came in contact with the domesticated tomato when they captured one of the cities of the region. The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes is thought to have brought back the seeds to southern Europe where they were planted for ornamental purposes. The tomato was not eaten till the late 1800s. This was in part due to their reputation as being deadly plants. Some of this was because the tomato was classified by Italian herbalist Pietro Andrae Matthioli as being part of the deadly nightshade family (Solanaceae plants that contain toxic tropane alkaloids) and a mandrake (a group of foods thought to be aphrodisiacs). The fruit was also nicknamed as “poison apple” because it was believed that eating this could be fatal.

Another thing that compounded this belief was that rich people in the 1500s used plates made of pewter which had high lead content. Foods high in acid, like tomatoes, would cause the lead to leach out into the food, resulting in lead poisoning and death. Thus the cause of death was not tomatoes but lead poisoning. However this connection was not made then, and the tomato was labelled as the culprit. The less affluent who ate off plates made of wood, did not have that problem, and hence did not have an aversion to tomatoes. This is essentially the reason why tomatoes were only eaten by poor people until the 1800’s, especially in southern Italy. People may have started eating tomatoes when not much else was available because not only did they add flavour to the otherwise bland meat dishes, but they could also be preserved and stored. The earliest recipe for tomato sauce was published in 1694, by Neapolitan chef Antonio Latini in his book Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward).

Even within the rest of Europe, tomato as an edible component was looked upon with suspicion. Tomato was perceived as a cold fruit, and coldness was considered a bad quality for a food according to the Galenic school of medicine. It was associated with eggplant which was also an unknown; it was cultivated close to the dirt, another factor that didn’t make it palatable. While the tomato was gradually making its way into cuisine in southern Europe, it still had to find its way to other parts of the world.

How did the tomato synonymous with pizza? Thereby hangs a tale! In 1889 the Queen Margherita of Italy was to visit Naples, and one restaurateur wanted to create a special dish to honour Her Majesty. He made a pizza topping from three ingredients that represented the colours of the new Italian flag: red, white, and green. The red was the tomato sauce, the white was the mozzarella cheese, and the green was the basil topping. Hence, Pizza Margarite was born, which still remains the most standard pizza.

The mass migration from Europe to America in the 1800s meant that the new arrivals also brought with them their own culinary ingredients and traditions. The Italians took with them the tomato and its basic partner the pizza. The rest is history! From the mid-1880s tomatoes became a staple in American kitchens. As the demand for tomatoes increased they began to be imported in large quantities.

One of the big importers of tomatoes was John Nix, wholesale merchant in New York. When a shipment of tomatoes arrived at the port a 10 per cent import tariff was levied. At the time imported vegetables were subject to this tax, while fruits were exempt. Nix protested, arguing that tomatoes were not technically vegetables. He was not wrong. Tomatoes were, and are, botanically classified as a fruit. A fruit contains the seeds of the plant while any other edible part of the plant that we eat, which doesn’t come from the fruit of the plant is considered a vegetable.

Nix filed a case against Edward Hedden, the Collector of the Port of New York. The case made its way to the Supreme Court in 1893. The case was argued using definitions of fruits and vegetables from different dictionaries and their usage. It became a hotly debated issue: Tomato: Fruit or Vegetable? Eventually the court unanimously agreed that the tomato should be classified as a vegetable because of how it was used in everyday life, not how it was used in commerce or in purely botanical terms.

A plump thing with navel, a poisonous ornamental plant, a poor man’s multi-use ingredient, a tax-exempt fruit to a taxable vegetable. Tomato puree indeed!

–Mamata

Celebrating the Sun

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

We have just crossed the Summer Solstice on 21 June. This is a major celestial event which results in the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere. The word solstice is a combination of the Latin words ‘sol’ meaning sun and ‘stice’ meaning standstill. As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher, till the movement of the Sun’s path north or south appears to stop in the sky before changing direction.

The summer solstice occurs when the tilt of Earth’s axis is most inclined towards the sun and is directly above the Tropic of Cancer. It officially marks the beginning of astronomical summer, which lasts until the autumn equinox falls on 23 September, when day and night will be of almost equal length.

In most parts of the Northern hemisphere winter is long, dark, cold, and harsh. Nature seems to slow down; the ground id frozen and often snow-covered for months, and many plants and animals go into hibernation mode. The spring season marks a slow awakening, with life starting to stir again. It is only around the middle of June that “summer” really sets in. In the days of yore, when people’s lives, especially agriculture, were closely linked with the cycles of nature, this ‘return of the sun’ was a time to celebrate the passing of the months of suffering and hardship, and the appreciation for the sun that would bring harvests.

Summer Solstice is one of the most ancient of human festivals. For the early societies the longest day had both practical and religious significance. It was a fixed point around which the planting and harvesting of crops could be planned, but also marked the spiritual side of the shifting of the seasons.

Many traditions are linked to this celebration, especially in different parts of Europe. In Ireland celebrations date back over 5000 years. In ancient times, people all over the northern hemisphere would celebrate this time with games, stories and feasting, and lighting of bonfires. Since time began, fire has been regarded as a symbol of the sun and so large fires were lit on this occasion

In ancient Greece, the summer solstice festival of Kronia to honour the god Cronius, the patron of agriculture. It was a day when class distinctions were abandoned and masters and slaves celebrated side-by-side. A tradition still followed by some is to trek up to the peak of Mt Olympus on this day.

In ancient Rome, the festival of Vestalia celebrated Vesta the goddess of hearth and home and family on this day. During the week of Vestalia, only women were permitted to enter the Vestal temple, and a cake was baked using consecrated waters from a spring considered sacred. Even today Italians celebrate the solstice as a time of new beginnings. La Festa di San Giovanni is a festival observed with similar rites of water and fire as the ones performed in ancient times.

Many Native American tribes celebrated the longest day of the year with a Sun Dance, while the Mayas and Aztecs used the day as a marker by which to build many of their central structures, so that the buildings would align perfectly with the shadows of the two solstices, summer and winter.

In Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the main pyramid at Chichén Itzá, known as the Temple of Kukulcan, is constructed in such a way that during the Summer Solstice the sun casts perfect shadows on the south and west sides so that it looks to be split in two.

Better known are the Neolithic structures at Stonehenge in England. There is still a mystery about who constructed these and for what purpose. One theory is that it was built to worship deities of the Earth and the sun. Stonehenge was ingeniously designed built to align with the sun on the solstices. On the summer solstice, as the sun rises behind the heel stone, the ancient entrance to the stone circle, the ascending rays of sunlight align perfectly with a circle carved in stone in the centre of the monument. Even today thousands throng Stonehenge on summer solstice to witness this breath-taking sight and join in the celebrations that include dance and music.

While June signals the start of summer in many parts of the Northern hemisphere, in a country like India, this is the peak of summer. In a large part of the subcontinent, the sun blazes and the earth is parched; in some parts it heralds the onset of the monsoon rains that will gradually move northwards, quenching the thirst of the soil and its inhabitants. While we celebrate the change of seasons with many different festivals, we do not traditionally celebrate summer solstice as a festival

However, in the last few years India had taken the lead in adding a new day of celebration on 21 June. This is International Day of Yoga Day to coincide with the summer solstice. The day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, in recognition of the universal appeal of Yoga, owing to its demonstrated benefits towards immunity building and stress relief.

While yoga is a philosophy and science in itself, one aspect that struck me in the context of the summer solstice and the celebration of the sun, is the importance of Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation in yoga. This is a set of a sequence of 12 yoga poses which provide a complete workout which has a positive impact on the body and the mind.

There are 12 mantras that accompany the surya namaskar postures, which praise the different qualities of the Sun God or Surya. These are:

Praise to the One:

Who is the friend of all

Who shines brightly and is filled with radiance

Who eliminated darkness and brings in light

Who is filled with brilliance and lustre

Who traverses the entire sky and is all-pervasive

Who provides nourishment and fulfils desires

The one with a golden-hued lustre

The one who shines with the light of innumerable rays

The one who is the son of the divine cosmic mother Aditi

The one who gives life

The one who is worthy of all glory

The one who is wise and illuminates the heavenly world.

While it is marked in different ways, and has different cultural contexts, Summer solstice is a reminder of the how vital the sun is for all life.

–Mamata

Cycle Away!

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

It has been a long ride for the bicycle. The simple two-wheeled means of transportation that does not burn fossil fuels, causes no pollution, is easy to maneuver and nifty to park, with the added nobility of having numerous health benefits has been around for almost two centuries.

The earliest avatar was in the form of a contraption called the ‘draisine’ invented by a German baron Karl von Draisin 1817. It was a “running machine” which had two wheels but no pedals, and no steering mechanism, and needed to be propelled by the rider pushing his feet against the ground.

But the bicycle as we know it began to evolve several years later. In 1861 French inventors Pierre Lallement, Pierre Michaux, and Ernest Michaux worked on creating a bicycle with pedals, but still no brakes. This was called a velocipede.

1870 saw the invention of the Penny Farthing bicycle. The name came from the design in which the wheels resembled two coins–the penny and the farthing, with the front “penny” being significantly larger than the rear “farthing”. The pedals were on the front wheel and the saddle was four feet high, making for a rather risky ride.

It was in 1885 that John Kemp Starley, an Englishman, perfected the design for a “safety bicycle” with equal-sized wheels and a chain drive. New developments in brakes and tires followed shortly, establishing a basic template for what would become the modern bicycle.

The bicycle became a symbol of affluence, especially in America. Bicycles were expensive, and cycling became a leisure activity for the rich. In fact it was the cyclists who initiated the Good Roads movement in America, especially in the countryside where roads used for horse carriages were rutted and not conducive to a smooth bike ride.

Interestingly, there was not a big time gap between the introduction of the “safety bicycle” and the development of the first automobiles. And the early German inventors like Gottlieb and Daimler used not only cycle technology, but also several components of the bicycle in the manufacture of the automobile. Soon cycle manufacturers became automobile manufacturers in France, Germany, and the U.K. They drew upon and further developed, products, production techniques, materials, innovations, and tooling originally developed specifically for cycles.

Today bicycles are seen as relics of a less-technologically advanced era, but in fact they were at the cutting edge of industrial design in the last quarter of the nineteenth-century. But while innovations continued in the field of motor cars, the bicycle receded in the background. Cars became the new status symbol and cycling came to be seen as a proletariat activity, something you did if you couldn’t afford a car.

The bicycle also played a significant part in the early days of the Women’s Movement. In the late 1880s women took to cycling, an activity that gave them freedom of mobility, independence and self-reliance in a period when they were largely housebound.

Nothing personifies this sense of liberation better than the story of Annie Londonderry.

Source: annielondonderry.com

Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a Latvian immigrant who had married and settled in Boston, announced on June 25 1894, that she was going to ride around the world on a bicycle. She was 23 years old, and the mother of three small children. Her husband was a devout Orthodox Jew. Annie had ridden a bicycle for the first time just a few days before her announcement.

Furthermore she informed that she was doing this to win a bet for $10,000. The bet was between two Boston merchants that no woman could circumnavigate the globe on a bicycle.  Annie said that she would cycle around the world in 15 months, starting with no money in her pockets. She would not only earn her way, but also return with $5000 in her pocket.

Annie turned every Victorian notion of women’s roles on its head. Not only did she abandon, temporarily, her role of wife and mother, but for most of the journey she rode a man’s bicycle attired in a man’s riding suit, and carrying a small revolver.

Annie was a complete antithesis of the coy domesticated female. She was a shrewd self-promoter, and master of public relations. She even adopted the name Annie Londonderry when The Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company of Nashua, New Hampshire became the first sponsor, by giving $100 for her journey. Annie continued to cash in on the glamour and novelty of her journey by renting space on her body and bicycle to advertisers, selling photographs of herself, and making guest appearances in stores along the way signing souvenirs, delivering lectures and giving newspaper interviews which she embellished with colourful tales of her adventures.

Annie’s trip had its share of detractors and disbelievers. There was speculation about how much truth there was to all her colourful tales. Annie returned to Chicago on 12 September 1895, 15 months after she had set off. She came back with $3000 dollars that she made on her travels. The newspapers described her global adventure as “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman.”

For Annie the journey was more than a test of a woman’s ability to fend for herself. The bicycle was literally her vehicle to the fame, freedom and material wealth that she that craved. For the emerging women’s movement, Annie as well as the bicycle became a symbol of emancipation.

Today the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries, is being celebrated once again. In recent times, when the world is literally choking from exhausts from fossil fuel and traffic congestion from motorised transport, the bicycle is being promoted as a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation, fostering environmental stewardship and health.

The return to the bicycle movement was started by Leszek Sibilski in 2018 by a sociology professor and cycling and physical education activist who lobbied to bring the importance of the bicycle to the international stage and pushed for a day that could highlight this. Sibilski also advocated for integrating cycling into public transportation for sustainable development resolutions.

In response to the growing momentum of the movement in 2018, the United Nations General Assembly, declared 3 June to be celebrated as World Bicycle Day.

The day encourages stakeholders to emphasize and advance the use of the bicycle as a means of fostering sustainable development, strengthening education, including physical education, for children and young people, promoting health, preventing disease, promoting tolerance, mutual understanding and respect and facilitating social inclusion and a culture of peace.

In an age of the power of social media to promote such days, this is a good time to remember how, in a much earlier time, Annie Londonderry single-handedly “promoted” the bicycle. She would have been a perfect “Influencer” for World Bicycle Day!

–Mamata

The Ship has Sailed

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

Last week I was reminiscing on my parents’ sojourn in London, and the similarities it held with the sojourn of an ex-PM (Dr. Manmohan Singh) and his family in the UK, around the same time.

Surprisingly, the similarities did not end there. Both families made their way back by sea, on the SS Chusan, a ship of the P&O Company (but at different times).

These days, one thinks of sea-travel in terms of expensive luxurious cruises. But I suspect that in the early ‘60s, it may have been comparative in price to the cost of air-tickets, with the added advantage that it was a great 2-week holiday, with the novelty of the shipboard experience and the possibility of seeing a few new countries on the way.

And indeed the shipboard experience was something that was special. As the book ‘Strictly Personal’ by Damam Singh, a memoir of the lives of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Gurcharan Singh says, ‘The SS Chusan offered virtually all the comforts of the cruise. The ship had 464 first-class and 541 tourist class cabins that had only recently been fitted with air-conditioning.’

Of course the first days were horrific with sea sickness for some of the passengers, but the organized fun and frolic was something my parents had probably never experienced before. (I too was there, as evidenced by photographs, but can remember nothing!).  My brother however remembered a penny being pulled out his ear by a magician who was part of the shows put up for kids. There were a variety of shows, music, dancing and games for all age groups. For all of us, as for Mrs. Gurcharan Singh ‘it was like a fifteen-day carnival.’

Many aspects of shipboard life were very formal. For instance, children were not allowed into the dining rooms.  Dr. Manmohan Singh recalls: ’At mealtimes, we could not take Kiki into the dining room. We had to leave her in the nursery, and she used to cry and cry.’ I was quite a happy child, so my parents did not have this problem.

SS Chusan
Being coached by my brother on the deck to run a race!

The SS Chusan was rather a special ship. It was the last and largest ship built for the P&O Company’s Far Eastern Service. It was eqipped with the latest (for the time!) marine technology, and was the first ocean-going passenger ship to be fitted with anti-roll stabilizers (imagine how many more people would have been sea-sick without that!). She was launched in 1949, and was decommissioned in 1973.

Incidentally, P&O stands for ‘The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company’, which originally started in 1840. It is, even today, Britain’s biggest cruise line. But today, it declares that ‘We are a holiday company’—as different as can be from the services of yore used by middle-class professionals to commute from UK to India!

And if you have wondered why the names of ships are prefixed with some cryptic letters, well, these indicate the purpose or distinguishing characteristic of the boat. ‘SS’ stands for Steam Ship, or in more recent times, for ‘Single-screw ship’ which refers to the method of propulsion of the ship. Other prefixes include: FB for Fishing Boat; TS for Training Ship; RMS for Royal Mail Ship; MV for Merchant Ship; RV for Research Vehicle, etc.

I still wonder at the shared experiences of Indian families who went to the UK in the early ‘60s. Alas, there was no social media which could have helped them connect and share their experiences, learn from each other and make life a bit easier.

If that had been, who knows, we might have been old family friends of the ex-PM!

–Meena

Carl Linnaeus: Giver of Names

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

May 22 marked the celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity. What exactly does this term, or word Biodiversity mean? At the broadest level it refers to the variety among life forms. It describes not only the number but also the types and variety of living things. While there is a huge variety of sizes, structures and functions among living things, there are also sufficient similarities to permit their grouping together into orderly patterns.

This grouping is called classification. The science of classifying organisms is called taxonomy. When talking about taxonomy, the name that immediately comes to mind is that of Carl Linnaeus, who is most famous for creating a system of naming plants and animals—a system we still use today. But Carl Linnaeus was much more than just the ‘father of modern taxonomy’. He was a renowned botanist, physician and zoologist; a pioneer in the study of ecology, and one of the most influential scientists in history.

Carl Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707, the eldest of five children, in a town called Råshult, in Sweden. His father Nils, was a minister and keen gardener. From the time Carl was very young, his father used to take him to the garden and teach him about plants. Carl observed his father in the garden, and was soon as excited and interested in plants. He began growing plants and by the age of five had his own little patch in the family’s large garden.

His father believed that the best thing he could offer his children was a solid education and, in addition to botany, he taught Carl Latin, as well as about religion at an early age. Nils also realized that his son was exceptionally bright, and engaged a private tutor for him; but the boy found the tutor very dull as compared to his own explorations in the garden and countryside. This aversion to formal education continued when he joined school at the age of ten, and Carl was an indifferent student. The teachers ignored his immense knowledge and interest in Botany because it was not considered a ‘proper’ subject, and as he was not interested in subjects like Hebrew, mathematics and theology, they advised that he was not bright enough to go to University. Only one of his teachers saw his potential and advised his father that the boy should apply for admission to medical school. He also coached him in anatomy and physiology.    

At the age of 21 Carl enrolled in Lund University under the Latin form of his name Carolus Linnaeus. This was a common practice for students in Europe at that time. After a year he switched to Uppsala University as he was told that the medical and botany courses there were better. While he was there Carl wrote up some of his observations on reproduction in plants which were of such a high standard that he was offered a post of Botany lecturer at the University. In 1731 Carl began teaching botany, at the age of 23. He was a good teacher and his lectures were popular with students. As he continued his own botanical studies, Carl found that the way in which plants were classified was not satisfactory. He started jotting down ideas about how this could be improved. Linnaeus realized that he needed a cataloguing system that was easily expandable and easy to reorganize; for this he started using cards, thereby inventing index cards!

In 1732 Carl got funding for a botanical expedition to Lapland, in the far north of Sweden. For 6 months he travelled 2000 km across Lapland making notes on the native plants and birds. At this time it occurred to him that there could be another way of naming plants. He replaced some very lengthy plant names with logical, much shorter, two-part names which consisted of a genus and a species name. The genus describes a larger grouping of organisms with certain common characteristics, while the species name describes only one, unique particular organism grouped within that genus, or larger classification. The names were in Latin because at that time, Latin was the language of science. Highly educated people of the period could all read and write in Latin which enabled them to share scientific information, regardless of their native tongue.  

Carl Linnaeus described his observations of plants along with the newly-coined names in a book called Flora Lapponica, including his new discoveries. He also realized that he could use his new system to name animals as well as plants.

In 1735, at the age of 28 Linnaeus was awarded a doctoral degree in medicine for his thesis on malaria and its causes from a University in the Netherlands. While he was there he showed his continuing work on the classification and renaming of plants to a Dutch botanist who was very excited by its potential to transform botany. He supported the publication of Carl’s work which was published in 1737 under the title Systema Naturae (System of Nature). The first edition had 12 outsize pages.

Over the years, Linnaeus continued to develop his ideas and add new species. In the tenth edition of Systema Naturae published in 1758, Linnaeus classified all the animal kingdom into genera and gave all the species two-part names. The twelfth edition had 2400 pages. During his career, Linnaeus named about 13,000 life forms and classified them into suitable categories such as mammals, birds, fish, primates, canines, etc.

Linnaeus returned to Sweden in 1738, becoming a physician in the nation’s capital city, Stockholm. He helped found the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and became its first president. In 1741, aged 34, Linnaeus returned to Uppsala University and became a full professor of medicine, taking control of botany, natural history and the university’s botanical garden. He also revived his childhood passion by taking his students on walking trips in the countryside searching for plants. In 1750, at the age of 43, Linnaeus was appointed as Uppsala University’s rector. Carolus Linnaeus was knighted by the King of Sweden in 1761 and took the nobleman’s name of Carl von Linné. He died at the age of 70, on 10 January 1778, after suffering a stroke.

Linnaeus was the first person to place humans in the primate family and to describe bats as mammals rather than birds. He did this with the same reasoning he used to categorize all life, which was based on similarities he identified between species. Human beings are also among the thousands of species that were given a name by Carl Linnaeus—Homo sapiens meaning ‘thinking man or wise man’!

Today as the world sees a steady decline in the numbers of species and a severe threat to global Biodiversity due to anthropogenic factors, one wonders if Carl Linnaeus would regret giving humans the title of ‘wise’!

–Mamata

A ‘Strictly Personal’ Common Experience

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

Recently I was reading ‘Strictly Personal’ an account of the lives of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Gurcharan Singh, by their daughter Daman Singh.

The-then Mr. Manmohan Singh went to Oxford in the early ‘60s. He was joined in a few months by his wife and daughter. He was there for about 2 years. He was there to do his Ph.D

My father went to London in the early ‘60s, He was joined in a few months by his wife and children. He was there for about 2 years. He was deputed there by the Defence Research and Development Organization to train at the Royal Marsden Hospital, towards helping in the operationalization of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), which was to be involved in nuclear medicine research, and response to nuclear accidents and explosions.

What amazed me was the commonality between the experience that the book talks about, and the stories which are a part of my family history.

First and foremost, the travails of living on a very limited budget. It was literally hand-to-mouth! My mother recalls that at times, there were not enough pennies to put into the home-heater, and we all spent the day huddled in our woollies. The free milk that my brother and I were eligible for as children was a major saviour. It was not that the pay and allowances were so bad (they were not generous, but adequate). It was that they simply did not come for the first 3 months, till the bureaucratic wheels started moving. And even after, the money came in by fits and starts. One incident which was etched deep into my parents’ memories was a visit to Veerasway, UK’s oldest Indian restaurant. Yearning for other-than-home Indian food, they, with the two of us in tow, ventured in one day. Only to beat a hasty retreat on learning that the cover charge was £ 1 per head!

The book quotes Mrs, Singh as saying ‘We were quite hard up. I don’t know how many pounds a week we got. We had to survive within that. It was not a great, handsome scholarship.’

To the question ‘did you wear Western clothes?’ Mrs. Singh responds ‘No, no, no, never.’ But at least she may have worn salwar kameez. My poor mother stuck to saries through the freezing windy days, walking through hail and snow to the shops or to drop or pick up my brother from the school bus. I fully attribute her getting arthritis by the age of 35 to this exposure to the terrible cold and wet.

Food may have been a bigger problem for my strictly vegetarian family. My mother, on one of her initial trips to the super market, brought home margarine, which an English friend had suggested as a cheaper substitute for butter. It was only after her return home that she read the packaging and realized it was made from pork fat. The trauma stayed with her for life!

The Singhs lived in Oxford. Apart from one trip to London and one to Stratford-upon-Avon, they saw nothing of England. Maybe to that extent we were luckier. Living in London, we at least got to see the sights there—the few family pics taken with my father’s precious camera bought there show us at Trafalgar Square, outside the Buckingham Palace, the Tower, Westminster Abbey etc. The penguin show and the Chimpanzees’ Tea Party (discontinued in the ‘70s) were the highlights of the zoo visit.

The SInghs did not have a TV, and went to a neighbour’s to watch. We did have a television and the show that my parents talked about, which still sticks in my memory is ‘Saturday Night at the London Palladium’, a long-running variety show.

Peter Rabbit Milk Mug
My Peter Rabbit Milk Mug: A Precious Relic

Equally, the things they chose to buy and bring back. Both Mrs. Singh and my mother brought back Baby Belling ovens—a part of British history. The Belling company was established in 1912 and manufactured electric heaters. The first complete domestic electric cooker was made in 1919 and the first Baby Belling oven was manufactured in 1929. The company still exists but is not the gold standard for ovens that it obviously was in mid twentieth century. The other significant item to accompany the Singhs back were three saucepans. In my parents’ case, it was a mixie—a Braun Liquidizer, if I recall. This was my mother’s most precious possession. In fact, when a mischievous visiting child was on the verge of pushing it over, she caught the machine, and her hand was badly slashed, requiring stiches! Mrs. Singh’s oven served her for 3 decades, as did my mother’s mixie!

I think this would be the story of all professionals who went to the UK in those days. But interesting to see that a PM’s family and mine were in the same straits! (We were in other similar ‘straits’, more about which next week.)

In today’s world, all this sounds so strange! Life is so international today, our exposure is great, that nothing really comes as a surprise even when we go to the farthest part of the world. Purchasing power is not a problem, except maybe when there are threats of taxing international credit card payments. Not only are we more international in our eating, Indian food of every variety is available everywhere.

But how did they handle it back then—landing in a country familiar only through books, with few support systems or networks, with little money, inadequate warm clothes, unfamiliar food. They were certainly adventurous, maybe much more than we are today!

–Meena