MUSINGS FROM DOHA
FROM CAPTAIN OF FEW TO CEO OF A CORPORATE OF REPUTE , MY JOURNEY OVER THREE DECADES WORKING ABROAD IN QATAR, NOT ONLY GAVE ME COMMERCIAL DIVIDENDS , PROFESSIONAL INPUTS BUT AN IMPETUS TO MY THINKING AND APPROACH TO THE WORLD. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO RESIDENTS OF DOHA, RESIDENTS OF KOCHI, MY HOME TOWN IN INDIA AND THE BEST PERSON I KNOW- GEETHA, MY WIFE. THIS IS MY RIDE THROUGH TAPESTRY OF TIME! THANKFULLY VISITED BY OVER 425,000 READERS FROM 110 COUNTRIES SO FAR AND COUNTING!!
Monday 1 April 2024
THE TRAFFIC JAM AT BRANDENBURG GATE!
Thursday 21 March 2024
GOODBYES ARE NOT FOREVER, KUTY SAAB!!
When I woke up from deep sedation, I knew I was in a post operative ICU. I might have been under sedation for quite a few hours, after I had to go through a bowel obstruction operation . It was wee hours of the morning for sure but of which date and day, I didn't know.The stomach pain which was troubling me for few days had gone but instead a few new minor pains elsewhere had surfaced.All this will vanish as days and weeks go by, the nurse assured me.
Without long Vinay , our eldest son came to my bed with a how- are- you-smile, handing out the newspaper which I had missed for two days. He just took out and read a report card or something the nurse produced to him. You are okay Appa, he told me.Vinay was not my doctor but a Consultant Ortho surgeon in the same hospital.Soon your consultant doctors will meet you and appraise you when you can expect a shift back to room etc.Vinay told me that Amma(my wife, Geetha) is still in the room waiting for you, Vishal (my younger son) too is around.I enquired about Anu, Mia and Serah( his family) .He left the ICU.
I was happy that once again I was back to life and hopes. But my hopes were short lived.What I did not know was what was happening in my own city outside the hospital.My best friend in life Govindankutty had passed away in between. I was told of this again by Vinay after I got back to my room! His demise on 15 August 2022 was not unexpected for me, at least for the last 3-4 months following the ailments he had undergone.But still I sobbed softly on my bed which I came to realise only when Geetha tried to pacify me! Last and first time as an adult I cried was about 11 years back, when my own brother died!
Last photo together, snapped few weeks prior to his demise during our last meeting at Grand Hyatt,Kochi along with our three generations of family members.Friday 1 March 2024
"TENNO HEIKA BANZAI"!
On October 25, 1944 the Japanese military employed the Kamikaze bombers for the first time in WW2. Who's a Kamikaze bomber? He is the specially trained pilot who would crash his specially made plane directly into Allied ships. Simply to put it, Kamikaze attack is suicidal bombing tactic to destroy the enemy ships.
Mohotoru Okamura who commanded a Kamikaze Squadron sincerely believed that these dare devil acts would make the tide of war in favour of Japan as he ordered the first Kamikaze pilot to be at the battle of Leyte Gulf, in the Pacific Ocean near Philippines!
In various attacks thereafter more than 3000 Japanese Kamikaze pilots perished while causalities among the US, Australian and British forces might have touched 7000.Nevertheless this did not change the tide of war. Japan had to surrender unconditionally on 16 August 1945!
"Tenno Heika Banzai" literally means " Ten Thousand Years" in Japanese. This they used to express joy or long life. It was also used by the Japanese military personnel while storming in the battle meaning "Long Live The Emperor". The Kamikaze pilot used to shout exactly these words before he hits the ship of Allied Forces killing himself!
KAMIKAZE STRIKES...JAPAN'S LAST BID FOR VICTORY!
Year 1944...Birth year of Kamikaze.
Thursday 1 February 2024
MASTER SHIPBUILDERS OF INDIA:CRAFTED WORLD CLASS WARSHIPS FOR ROYAL BRITISH NAVY!
WHAT IS THE HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIP OF NATIONAL ANTHEM OF AMERICA AND INDIA? WHICH IS THE OLDEST SHIP STILL AFLOAT IN THE WORLD?AND WHO BUILT IT?
We all know that as the greatest colonial power on earth, the British once emerged as the 'Empire on which the sun never set' due to their supremacy over the high seas- with their fantastic ships, admirals and sailors. Being an Indian, this I had learnt repeatedly right from the the days I started reading as a toddler to this very day.But what I didn't know or learn was that one of the biggest contributions for the British to attain this status rivaling Spain,Portugal or France was colonial India itself!
More than India's rich resources being stolen by them- traders turned as masters- systematically, an Indian shipbuilder at Bombay, exclusively built indigenously using Indian craftsmen, skilled workers and raw materials including Malabar Teak , world class ships on orders of British Navy! Not just one or two but 363 of them- enabling the British merchant and naval gunships and others trotting the whole globe covering and mastering all the seven continents in the 17th,18th and 19th centuries!! Such a fleet which were products of exclusive Indian brains, skills and technology contains HMS Minden,HMS Trincomalee and HMS Cornwallis ! The name of the great shipbuilder was Jamsetjee Bomanjee and family of Wadia Shipbuilders !!
More than what you have already read above, it is believed to have been on board this Indian made Royal Naval ship HMS Minden, that the great American lawyer poet wrote the US National Anthem 'Star- Spangled Banner ' while on the coast of US near Baltimore in 1814! The poet Francis Scott Key was a prisoner in the ship held by British Navy who also coined and gave America its motto:In God we trust! Again it was on board HMS Cornwallis built by Indians in 1842 that the Treaty of Nanking was signed that ceded Hong Kong to the British! Then the record of the oldest ship afloat goes to HMS Trincomalee, another one!!
Hard to believe? Incredible? But be rest assured that this is absolutely true.It is high time that we learn from our own history - our strengths and weaknesses- more than who invaded or colonised and looted us.....It is high time that we tell about ourselves to the world than waiting for others to do that which they limit to 'extreme poverty or casteism' only for their interests!
How I ran to this....
Two months back I could see a magnificent telefilm video produced by the Indian Navy on themselves. Impressive it was but I wished that they could add our ancient past too as ancient Indian port at Lothal was one of the oldest dry docks in the world, if not the oldest. Subsequently, my interest in digging the past on the subject hit a gold mine of historical information on our own naval history - of reasonably recent past than ancient ones.That's how I could write this article which I am sure will make many eyebrows raise like I did.
The background
The Mughals who were ruling India were a bit relieved to see the British East India Company(EIC) in the early 16th century defeating the Portuguese, predominantly because while the later were Christian fanatics against Islamic fanaticism, British were not , which went on tune with Mughal's interests in India initially. The Mughals eagerly made concessions to EIC to accommodate them as emperor Jahangir gave them permission to trade within their territory followed by commencement of the first British factory at Surat in 1613. Bombay was just a sleepy fishing village then.That status continued till 1662, when Catherine of Braganza of Portugal was given Bombay village as a dowry to wed Charles II of Britain!
At the end of the Napoleonic war against France, after Battle of Trafalgar in 1815,British Royal Navy felt the need to replenish lost or ageing fleet of theirs.At that time there was a shortage of availability of quality Oak wood for the purpose of ship building.But soon the British knew about the availability of quality Malabar Teak wood of India which was even better than Oak as being more denser for building ships. Than bringing the bulky cargo of teak wood to Britain taking time, they focused on the fame of a master shipbuilder at Surat in India-Jamet Bomanjee of Wadia Shipbuilders! The British decided to 'outsource' the engineering skill of shipbuilding to an Indian which was just a tip of an iceberg of events of naval history of the world to follow.
Portrait of Jamsetjee Bomanjee in British naval archives.A divider in one hand while the drawings of HMS Minden on the other. One can also see the progress of construction of the very ship with 74 guns which was launched in 1810- also through the window!Interestingly this portrait is available in US historical archives also for reason as explained in the article
Wadia family ...the illustrious shipbuilding family of the world..
The Wadia Parsi family hails from Surat in Gujarat.The very name 'Wadia' means carpenter/shipbuilder in Gujarati language. Jamset Bomanjee's firm which was named Surti Ship Builders(later known as Wadia Shipbuilders) secured initial contracts for building ships with EIC from 1736. He himself was the master shipbuilder.
Bombay Dry Docks was built by his brother Lovji Nusserwanjee in 1750 on the British request as EIC headquartered to Bombay from Surat. Incredibly between 1735 and 1899, seven generations of Wadias built 363 ships of world class quality for the British and others ,which sailed all over the seven high seas ! The Indian Parsi shipwrights exclusively produced 39 vessels on orders of British Royal Navy- 16 ships of the line, 13 frigates, 9 sloops and 1 schooner! Some of them remained the finest creations of it's class for decades which followed! The British, the US and the west have officially chronicled this info but we, Indians are yet to add in our curriculum for our children, it seems!
Bombay Dock , the oldest in Asia is functioning even today as the Naval Dockyard.The northern part of the erstwhile dockyard is today's Mazagon Dock, India's premier Ship Building Centre.
HMS Minden and birth of US national anthem 'Star-Spangled Banner'
This 74 gun frigate had set off for the maiden sail on 8 Feb 1811 from Bombay Dockyard after the customary 'breaking the bottle' ceremony performed by the then British Governor Jonathan Duncan.HMS Minden was the handiwork of Jamshedji for which the order was received from Royal Navy ten years earlier. This was the first British Royal Navy ship of the line built out of 'Great' Britain.
Indian made teak 74 gun ship HMS Minden and actual remains of the US flag preserved at National Museum of American History,Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History.
On 3rd Sept 1814 many Royal Navy ships including INS Minden were about to attack US Fort McHenry near Chesapeake Bay , outside Baltimore as they were enemies then. On the advise of the US President James Madison , two of his representatives Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skimmer had set sail on a US boat flying a flag of truce and reached INS Minden. Their aim was peaceful negotiations for surrender with the British. What the British did was not only agreeing to the discussions but kept the two American reps as captives! In the night the royal Naval ships bombarded the fort the whole night to the astonishment of the American captives. In the early morning, expecting a complete devastation of the US fort, as they looked out they could see almost a miracle -the fort was standing loud and clear with a fluttering US flag atop!!They believed that God had intervened!
Key was a poet too. As he saw the US flag with 15 stars and 18 stripes on the fort , he scribbled down a poem while still as a captive in the ship...the fragile faded flag remains the holiest icon of American life.
HMS Trincomalee and HMS Cornwallis
HMS Trincomalee was launched on 12th October 1987 at Bombay. A 46 gun frigate it served many occasions for Royal Navy including Crimean war in 1897 and even WWII (1939-1945). It also served as a training ship under the name Foudroyant.To this day it floats at a British Museum and attracts around 60000 visitors a day!
Signing the treaty of Nanking in HMS Cornwallis
14 gun ship HMS Cornwallis was built in 1813 for Royal British Navy and served till 1957! The treaty of Nanking by which Hong Kong was ceded to Britain was signed in this Indian made ship.
The technical prowess and skills of Indians in shipbuilding for the last three centuries is recognized in maritime world history very much. I am neither a professional historian nor a naval architect or expert but anyone can find out these facts from historical chronicles. Am I wrong in suggesting that the subject is to be inducted immediately in Indian school curriculum as I find this a 'must' ,the whole of India and world should know?
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Monday 1 January 2024
HEAVENLY FRAGRANCE OF GODS WAS FROM INDIA!!
Happy new year to all my readers .... worldwide! Let me kick off the new edition of the new year with a hardly known historical fact about India.
It is a fact that in spite of our resources and local demand, India doesn't make a lot of consumer goods of Indian origin.Most of the FMCG items we manufacture and use are international brands though made in India. But steadily the scenario is getting changed I notice, but next ten years India could change the current speed of it,I am sure.
In the field of cosmetics and perfumes now we are nowhere though the consumption rate has gone high.Parisian brands are the most sought after here too for those who can afford it.I have read somewhere that the famous Indian brand in that field 'Lakme' was started by Tata's Unilever at the request of our first Prime Minister Nehru to JRD Tata to go for an Indian brand which our women could afford.JRD earnestly took the request, ending up in the creation of the brand 'Lakme'.But many of us may not be aware that 'Lakme' is a French rendition of the Sanskrit word 'Lakshmi' who is the Goddess of wealth and beauty in Hinduism. Though Lakme created in 1952 has become a premier brand in India and even exported to 70 countries or so, now House of Tatas represent and just distribute a lot of imported international brands in India through their enterprise Tata Luxury even online! May be good for the organization for profits but definitely not for the country. Just an observation and nothing more since, I am not an expert in the field. It is comparable to our computer hardware field where our own brands are much less, though we claim ourselves to be software giants!
But here I am to share a hardly known information among us that India has one of the richest history in own fragrances and perfumes which is yet to be commercially tapped.Here I am writing about Agarwood or Aloes or Oud, a fragrance of Indian origin that mastered the fragrance world since 1400 BC about which shamefully I came to know first from Arabs only, while in Qatar.
Friday 1 December 2023
GUILLOTINE -HOW A KILLING MACHINE BECAME A SYMBOL OF EQUALITY!
While the French revolution gave the world 'Liberty , Equality and Fraternity' which reverberated throughout the world , though necessarily immediately like in India, it also gave a killing tool some sort of a status in the French society! Guillotine which was promoted by a surgeon became respectable at that time since it symbolized equality in death also! When it was introduced in 1789 by Dr.Joseph Ignace Guillotin as a lawmaker this was the logic behind and the name of the equipment got stuck to the family name.Till capital punishment was stopped recently in France in 1981, Guillotine was continued to be used.
As the Guillotine way of execution which was quick and considered to be more humane compared to the various ways of execution existed till those days, the King Louis XVI was slaughtered in 1793 in public, declaring the country to be republic followed by queen Marie Antoinette in the same year!
During the days of 'Reign of Terror' (1793-94) fight among revolutionaries themselves following execution of the King took place while Jacobin's eventually took control, 40000 such executions took place using Guillotin.Such executions were popular among the masses as an entertainment and staged in public.
How Guillotin came into France...
The story of beheading was different in the world.At least 500 years before Guillotine was put into practice in France, similar but more crude and other ways of executions were there in Ireland ,Italy and England. "Planke" of Germany, Scottish "Maiden" and "Mannaia' of Italy are some of them. "Halifax Gibbet" was used in England in the 12th century.
In 1790 Dr Joseph Ignace Guillotin did not invent the machine but as a lawmaker promoted it that death penalty shall be equal to all regardless of crimes committed or social ranking of the person who did it!In fact this machine was invented by another surgeon Antonie Louis.Initially the machine was called as Louisette.
Dr. Guillotin presented his six articles as follows and became law in France.Quote:
1. Offences of the same kind will be punished by the same kind of penalty.
2. In all cases where the law imposes the death penalty on an accused person, the punishment shall be the same, whatever the nature of the offence of which he is guilty; the criminal shall be decapitated; this will be done solely by means of a simple mechanism.
3. In view of the personal character of crime, no punishment of a guilty person shall involve and discredit to his family. The honour of those belonging to him shall be in no way be soiled, and they shall continue to be no less admissible to any kind of profession, employment and public function.
4. No one shall reproach a citizen with any punishment imposed on one of his relatives. Whosoever ventures to do so shall be publicly reprimanded by the judge. The sentence imposed on him shall be written up on the offender's door. Moreover, it shall be written up on the pillory and remain there for a period of three months.
5. Confiscation of the condemned person's property shall in no case be imposed.
The machine...
By the time joseph Guillotin died at his age of 75, the machine had become synonymous with terror with his family name stuck to it. After his death , his relatives approached the Government to change the name of the machine which was rejected.It could be a paradox in history that instead the family changed the name!
Earrings and Tricoteuses of the revolution period
Ironically Hitler made the Guillotine the state method of execution in the 1930s and 40s with 20 such machines placed across the German cities killing thousands!
Tailpiece....The Cross
Having written about Guillotine and how it was regarded as a symbol of equality on death in a modern society in France and elsewhere, if I skip about a killing device which has become arguably the most popular in the history of the world, I would be unfair.The Cross, the most important symbol of Christianity not only remains a symbol of hope and peace... but also revered among Christians for last 2000 years!
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THE TRAFFIC JAM AT BRANDENBURG GATE!
T he worst traffic jam that ever happened in the world was in China in August 2010 in the Beijing-Tibet Expressway. It lasted for an incred...