Shakespeare's Spirit

Etched into memory, from my childhood, is an illustration from my neighbour’s English text book.

Logo from ASJPI - Asociación
San Juan Profesores de Inglés

It’s a strange image. A fascinating drawing, of three persons. A man with a donkey’s head, a fairy holding onto that man, and beside them, a young man, with long pointed ears.

I got to know only after I reached middle school, thanks to a wonderful, story-telling, older cousin of mine, that that image was of Nick Bottom, Titania and Puck, three of the many characters from “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare.

This week, while watching the news of the world’s commemoration of Shakespeare’s 400th death anniversary, methinks I have experienced a certain personal enlightenment.

Thou art my reader. And Oh, I beseech thee thus. Hark! Whether thou believest me, or not, I too am in one of those seven ages of man, playing my part. Of an age, alas, that doth confound me much.

Take it “as you like it”. But we men and women, being merely players on this world, called stage, must make our own entrances and exits. Like how the Bard of Avon himself did.

He made his entrance on 26 April 1564, but his exit was on 23 April 1616, exactly four centuries ago.

This week, therefore, the world over and especially in his birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon, there is much tribute-giving for the words he invented for the English lexicon, and a great commemoration of his contribution to the English language.

But if you ask the students of English language and literature, they might confess that it is in fact “the tempest” he caused which is keeping them up and awake, for late nights, before exams.

They can schedule fifteen days to understand the jealous triangle with the vertices of Iago, Othello and Cassio. And to know how it caused Desdemona’s demise. Yet, on the “twelfth night”, they would still be exactly where they started.

Even after 400 years, this bard’s spirit might still be haunting them in the university examination halls, like that eerie ghost of “Hamlet” he once talked about.

Like it recently haunted UK’s Prince Charles, on 23 April 2016, when he suddenly jumped on stage to become “Hamlet” the Prince of Denmark, saying a few lines, for a while! (watch it here)

His brief performance, a BBC sketch, was a part of the tribute by Royal Shakespeare Theatre along with stalwarts such as Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Dame Judi Dench.

But let me come back to the point, of seven ages. Oh, how I wish I can remain in the age of a soldier, or a lover. However, I know I can see for myself, it is time for the age of ‘justice’ now. Perhaps.

With fair round belly, with eyes severe, with beard of formal cut, and full of seemingly wise saws, whom can I fool?! It’s surely the age of pantaloons soon.

When I was a school boy, two of my friends’ elder sisters played the roles of Portia and Nerissa, the heroine and her assistant, in their high school performance of “Merchant of Venice”. And I will never forget their beautiful bearded faces, as a sinister looking Shylock gravely mocked, “A Daniel come to judgement. Yeah.. A Daniel”!

During my university days, I had the pleasure of watching two plays in the best auditorium of our city, by a touring Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company, one of which was “Julius Caesar”.  Acting in that play was Tamsin Olivier, the daughter of the great actor late Laurence Olivier.

And now, more recently, in January 2016, Shakespeare’s Globe performed “Hamlet” and we felt Shakespeare’s spirit move at Bahrain’s Cultural Hall, too.

But isn’t it a good thing? To let his spirit haunt us a bit, before we go into that seventh age of oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything?

The Queen and My Hometown

As I watched the flurry of excitement in the media on the 90th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II, my mind went back in time, some 30 years.

On her Birthday, at Windsor. 21 April 2016
Photo Credits: BBC News

To a time in 1983 when the media frenzy, during her visit to India, and particularly to my city Hyderabad, was so high that it is not easy to forget.

The local newspapers, magazines, and radio had had her visit covered for days on end.

Royalty was missed for so long,  in India’s erstwhile princely state, that she was welcomed with the pomp and pageantry that is fit for a...  well, who else but a....  queen.

Actually, the queen had visited India earlier. In 1961. But I was not born then.

She also visited India later. In 1997. But I did not care then.

I only remember her 1983 India visit. For obvious reasons.  She was in my city then.

In fact, Her Majesty the Queen should also remember Hyderabad. For some other special reasons.

Years ago, in 1947, it was the last Nizam of Hyderabad, the world’s richest man at that time, who had given her a very special wedding gift.

He asked her to choose any jewellery she liked from Cartier. And the bride, Princess Elizabeth herself, had selected two pieces - a matching diamond necklace and a tiara.

It was the same necklace, with which, recently in February 2014, Prince William's wife Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, dazzled onlookers at a dinner for London's National Portrait Gallery.

The necklace of the duchess was, evidently, borrowed from the queen. But, let us not forget that it was originally a gift, from the former ruler of Hyderabad.

Here’s another Hyderabad connection.  The Holy Trinity Church of Bolarum in the city was constructed with the personal funds of her great great grandmother Queen Victoria who, in 1847, had had it built for the then British soldiers stationed in Hyderabad.

Which is why, Queen Elizabeth II visited the church in 1983. And I still remember the excitement with which many people wanted to be at this renovated and repainted church (now a part of the CSI (Church of South India) denomination, but earlier Anglican) just to catch a glimpse of the queen.

Queen Elizabeth II visits
Holy Trinity Church in Hyderabad
on November 20, 1983.
Photo: The Hindu Archives

Interestingly, the queen not only visited the church, but also celebrated her 36th wedding anniversary here, on 20 November, in a service led by the then Bishop Victor Premasagar, and his ministerial colleagues Rev. B.P. Sugandhar and Rev. G.J. Hamilton.

Just out of high school then, I had become a member of the city’s British Library, run by the British Council. And I remember how we were told, that our library was also on her itinerary, and that it would be locked-up for a couple of days, in preparation for the royal visit.

Well, it is 33 years since. But I still vividly remember how our city was completely enamoured by her visit.

It is 64 years since she began to reign, and it is 90 years since her birth, and the world is still enamoured by her.  Her spirit and Her determination.

Her reign, so far, saw 12 US Presidents and 12 UK Prime Ministers.

She saw the rise of communism, start of the second world war, end of Hitler's Third Reich, independence of India, space race of USA and USSR, Falklands War, collapse of communism, end of apartheid, fall of the Berlin wall, Independence of Hong Kong and the decline of the British empire. Not to mention, the upheavals in my historic city. 

News. Strange and Sensational

Vietnamese customs officials arrested a man yesterday (April 14), for trying to smuggle 18 live birds in his trousers.

And, in other news, also yesterday, Kate Middleton and Prince William watched from cockpit, as their plane made a dramatic landing at the 'world's most dangerous airport'.

Apparently, only eight pilots in the world are qualified to land here, in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Well, most of us, you will admit, pay more attention to strange news items like these, from around the world, than to normal news.

And, by normal,  I mean those news items about corrupt politicians, terrorist attacks, high-rise fires, celebrity scandals, train accidents, and, well, even missing aeroplanes.

But before I am lambasted as being insensitive, let me say that our continuous exposure to regulat news is somehow numbing our senses. Making us think of it as commonplace and trite.

So, shouldn’t we be happy that today’s media sometimes gives us relief? From the mundane and morose, with what is shocking and sensational?

Sometimes with news headlines. And sometimes with news itself.

Tucked into small print in some columns of newspapers, or scrolling as news-tickers across our TV screens, you will find some juicy tidbits of news which cannot be simply termed normal.

Newspapers and news channels know they must pander to us. And, as purveyors of sensationalism, they try to satisfy the voyeurs of the abnormal.

Uh ho. I just hope the editor of this newspaper won’t scarp my column, for the above sentence!

But there is no denying the truth that truth is often stranger than fiction. And, therefore, it is that proverbial ‘man biting a dog’ which is sensational news! And not ‘a dog biting a man’!

Journalists have been told this so many times that many have, for long, been on a search for that elusive man. The one who would bravely sink his teeth, into a dog’s leg.

But, mind you, that is not the real reason why, when asked how their jobs are, many of them say, “It’s a dog’s life”!

Sometimes the subeditors cannot do anything about the news, or the news-headlines, they are supposed to publish.

After all, truth has to be told. Funny or not.

Just look at these news headlines: “Police Station Robbed”,  “Truck Carrying Fruit Crashes On Highway. Creates Jam”,  “One-armed Man Applauds the Kindness of Strangers”,  “Safety Meeting ends in Accident”, “Marijuana Issue sent to Joint Committee”, “Study Shows Frequent Sex Enhances Pregnancy Chances”,  or “Homeless man under House Arrest”.

Even in the last month, March, and in this first half of April, I found some not-so-normal news-nuggets.

For instance, researchers, who analysed Shakespeare’s grave with radar imaging technology have concluded that his skull may have been stolen from his grave 200 years ago!

Interestingly, next week, on 23 April, the world’s literary enthusiasts will commemorate his 400th death anniversary.  By placing flowers on his grave, but probably with doubts in their hearts.

Last month, women in UK protested against taxes on sanitary items, dubbed ‘tampon taxes’, and were able to convince EU leaders, of 28 states, to remove the taxes.  One of the placards at the protest simply read: “This Tax Ends Now. Period.”

And did you read the news about a California man who got arrested for an overdue video cassette tape, which he had borrowed from a video library, in 2002, and failed to return?

Well, you know, now!

Like you know, now, many other useful news. Perhaps.

Olympics: Ancient Message for Modern Times

The exciting thing about Google-doodles is the way they  revive our  interest in historical events, persons and places.

On Wednesday, when Google marked the 120th anniversary of the first modern Olympic games with a doodle, it showed us that these games definitely need to be commemorated.

It also reminded us, in a somewhat roundabout way, that this is the year of Olympic Games. And that the games will begin soon, in August, in that amazing city of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.

I am a bit upset that Google, somehow, has changed the meaning of ‘doodle’.  But, all the same, I am happy about the oodles of information,  these doodles are giving us, with all those noodles of links, in hypertext.

‘Doodle’, we know, was once a word used for any simple absent-minded scribble on paper.

But today, Google seems to have hijacked the word to mean, very often, a simple-looking, but an elaborate digital animation, on your search-engine web-page, which is programmed to link to copious amounts of data, with the primary objective  of either telling you things you have completely forgotten, or of stimulating your grey cells, into wondering how you missed learning about these things, in spite of your years and years, of intense schooling, and open-eyed existence .

Okay. That was a very long sentence. A paragraph, actually. And I had digressed.

My apologies.

I had, actually, meant to write a bit about the Olympic Games.  About both, the ancient ones, and the modern ones which were resurrected in 1896 in Athens of Greece; and which were exactly what this particular doodle had honoured with four drawings.

In 1896, 241 athletes from 14 nations competed in 43 events, when the modern Olympics began at Athens.  But, all athletes were male!

In 2016, I understand, some 10,500 athletes, male and female, from 206 countries will be competing in 306 medal events, at Rio de Janeiro, this August. Or that’s what TIME magazine tells me.

But we must go back into the past, much further, say 2800 years,  to know when this sporting spectacle officially began.

 “According to existing historic manuscripts, the first ancient Olympic Games were celebrated in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece ” says the fact sheet on the website of olympic.org (pdf file).

“They (Games) were dedicated to the Greek god Zeus and took place in the same place every four years.”

Even after the conquest of Greece by Rome, in 146 BC, the Romans  continued the tradition of the organizing of these games.

It was not until 393 AD, that the Roman Emperor Theodosius I – who had converted to Christianity and abolished many pagan cults and their practices – also abolished the Olympic Games. But what is astonishing is that they were, run for an astounding 1000 years!

Today, thanks to the efforts of the French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the Games have been revived for the modern era.

He had said once: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well".

And that spirit, in the modern Olympics, of over 120 years, is still going strong.

But I only wish that the spirit of ancient Olympics, of 9th century BC -- where an “Olympic Truce”, signed originally by three kings, of Elis, of Pisa and of Sparta, to ensure that no wars were waged during the games --  was observed today.

With less fighting spirit and with more sporting spirit.