BlogSphere Mumbai’d

As the casualty count from the 11-July (7/11) terrorist attack of six trains in the financial capital of India Mumbai continued to climb to nearly 200, countless bloggers became victims from the reverberations of the bombings. Indian government officials, initially without any direct evidence pointing to those responsible for the attack, took broad steps, including an order to shut down blogsites in India. Our BeingInBangalore was caught in this dragnet. Our ISP (Internet Service Provider) was required to block access to Blogspot.com in India.

An outcry from BlogSphere ensued. By 21-July, government officials were indicating that only 17 blogsites had been identified for blocking, but “mis-communication” and “technical problems” on the part of the ISPs resulted in several hundred blogsites being disabled. Later eight of the 17 “officially banned” sites were unblocked.

Our local paper, the Deccan Herald, ran a list of some of the unblocked sites that gave us pause regarding the security planning in our current homeland. It was only four days earlier that we had read in the online version of the New York Times a published list from our US Homeland Security of places that were theoretically terrorist targets. The list included a provincial petting zoo, an Amish popcorn factory and such backwater assets as a tackle shop, a check casher, a doughnut maker, a flea market and, in the case of one community, a “Beach at the End of a Street.”

When we visited two of the unblocked sites, we realized that there is clearly a great deal of “intelligence” sharing between our US and Indian security departments. One site, HinduUnity.com, is a Hindu nationalistic site that fits the ban order of websites expressing “extreme religious views.” The site refers to India by its ancient mythical name of Bharat, speaks of the creation of Pakistan on Indian land, supports military campaigns in Afghanistan during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and makes sure all know that “Islam is the mission of spreading Arabic culture by killing original Hindu culture.” Hmmmm. The bomb blasts in the first class coaches of the Mumbai trains were aimed at well-heeled Hindus.

India is no stranger to bombings carried out by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). LeT, meaning Army of the Pure, is a well-trained Islamic terrorist group and the armed wing of the Pakistan-based religious organization Markaz-ud-Dawa-Wal-Irshad. Given that there was no mention of Amish popcorn on HinduUnity website, blocking that site was hard to understand.

We also read that http://www.princesskimberly.blogspot.com/ was swept up in the terrorist dragnet by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. The blogspot, known as Dreamer - Life through the eyes of me, consists of two postings both from March 2004 by what appears to be a young, bored female college student named Kimi from Texas on spring break (We're not making this up!). Ironically the last blog entry on 25-March-2004 opens with “So, yes… My life is extremely boring! Nothing too exciting to post today.” Oh, Kimi the Dreamer, if only you knew the tumultuous waters into which your thoughts have been tossed!

Worlds Largest Sand Scuplture Festival - Brighton

Around 60 artists from all over the world congregated in Brighton the summer of 2006 to create one of the world’s largest sand sculpture festivals.

From 1st June to 10th September, Brighton will be home to the Colosseum, the Pantheon. Double click on any picture to enlarge it.

The sculptures are made purely from sand and water and can easily withstand winds up to Force 7. During the first four days of the festival visitors can watch the artists in action as they put the final touches to their magnificent creations.

To make beautiful, steep sand sculptures, you need a kind of sand that you can pile up. The shape of the grain is important here. Try piling up some marbles

and you will soon see what happens. If you pile blocks or dice, then there is no problem. The same applies to sculpture sand. The pieces of gravel on Brighton beach (there is no sand), for example, is as round as marbles due to the tides and the movement of the waves. This makes it hard to build with. The ideal sculpture sand has an angular grain and is less eroded. The ideal sand for sculpting comes from the River Maas and is carried with the water from the Alps. These mineral sand grains still look like dice of various sizes, which can fit together.

When a sand sculpture is built outdoors, it can stay there for months. So far, the Dutch record is 1 year and 9 months: a sand sculpture in Madurodam, which even survived the winter. The outdoor record in California is 2 years. If a sculpture is built indoors, then it can remain intact for decades, if not touched.

Last Sights of London…on to Brighton

After six days in London, we were ready to move on to another adventure. The beach front town just south of London, Brighton, would be our next stop. Before leaving London, however, we did a quick look at the must-see sites.

St. Paul’s Cathedral. Check. We have toured many grand churches in Italy…even marvelous cathedrals built by the Portuguese in the 1500s in Goa, India. We took a quick look in St. Paul’s, spied the $15 entrance fee and opted to continue our walk.

We went from one house of worship, dedicated to the Lord, to another house of worship dedicated to the stylish - Harrods. Harrods is a London landmark shopping center. Extending for a city block with five floors filled with merchandise, it is an amazing spectacle. Started in the 1850’s, it was more recently purchased by the al-Fayed brothers in 1985. A memorial has been erected in the store dedicated to Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed who were killed in that world-known traffic mishap in 1997.

Whatever one may seek, there is a glamorous department to feed your needs. Bar Formage anyone? We shopped about, bought a bottle of aspirin. Harrods. Check.

Piccadilly Circus. What’s the big deal? Much like Times Square in New York and the Spanish Steps in Rome…been there done that. Check. Same for Trafalgar Square.

Our visit to Buckingham Palace was on a very rainy day. The changing of the guard either took place before our arrival or not at all due to the weather. After a walk about in the rainy weather, we boarded the tube and headed to our B&B to pack.

The next day we took a train to Brighton. Helen had booked us a room at a small B&B called Husdon’s not far from the Brighton Pier.

Originally founded as a Saxon village in the 5^th century AD, Brighton has been pillaged, burned, invaded and re-built over the centuries. In 1815, the Royal Pavilion, modeled on an Indian palace, was constructed as the lavish haunt of George, the Prince of Wales. He became King George IV. The rest of Brighton spruced up as well.

Much of the elegance of that era continues in Brighton. There is also beach front tackiness as well. The Brighton Pier is filled with amusement rides, candy floss (cotton candy) and people milling about. We also arrived in Brighton on the inaugural day of Brigthon’s new Tuc-Tuc fleet. Twelve auto rickshaws that had been imported, spruced up to meet British vehicle/pollution standards, painted in playful, colorful schemes were pressed into service this day. Ah…a bit a home in this “foreign” place.

We visited the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery as well as the World’s Largest Sand Sculpture Festival. Brighton has a stone pebble beach so 400 truck loads of sand were imported from Holland. The theme of the festival was Greek / Roman images. The sand sculptures were expertly constructed. Super life-size images of gods, soldiers, horses and a model of the Roman Colosseum were included in the exhibit. There was even some Egyptian statuary. So how is your Egyptian hieroglyphics? Double click on the picture on the left to enlarge.

The World is a Stage

Months prior to departing for London from Bangalore, Helen purchased tickets to see The Producers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

The Theatre Royal Drury Lane is the oldest English theater still in use. The first theater built under a royal charter from Charles II in 1663 prospered until destroyed by fire. Other theaters were built, demolished and burned down. In the 1790’s a new “fireproof” theatre was built. It burned down in 1809. The theater continued in up and down cycles and even diverted from staging “legit theater” when it screened two D.W. Griffith silent masterpiece films in 1915, Birth of the Nation and Intolerance. By the time we arrived, the theater was in splendid shape…but had no air conditioning.

The Producers by Mel Brooks is the story of a down-on-his-luck theatrical producer named Max Bialystock who develops a get-rich-quick scheme with his accountant Max Bloom. They connived to scam Broadway with a sure-fire flop, Springtime for Hitler: The Musical. A well managed flop would make millions! Add a long-legged, Swedish cheesecake named Ulla and one has a stage masterpiece. “Walk this way.”

London is awash in theater and theater history. England…theater…Shakespeare…Globe Theater. Shakespeare’s company erected the Globe Theater circa 1598. The open-air amphitheater rose three stories with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, seating up to 3,000 spectators. In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned down when a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII ignited the thatched roof of the gallery. The company built a new Globe and continued operating until 1642. Then the Puritans closed it down as well as all the other theatres and other places where people might be entertained. The Globe would remain a ghost for the next 352 years. The latest incarnation of the Globe Theatre was completed in 1996.

On our walk along the Thames waterfront to the Globe, we had a more pressing problem than Puritanical repression of entertainment. We had no tickets. On a whim we decided to wait at the box office among the other hopelessly optimistic for a chance to purchase returned tickets. We were first in the line. Lady Luck smiled upon us. We purchased two tickets in the upper balcony and were regaled with a performance of Antony and Cleopatra.

Sitting in the Globe was a marvelous experience. We could see the groundlings milling about in the circle before the stage. Others sat on open benches or very square backed seats. Regardless of creature comforts, we felt we had been given a chance to partake in a bit of “reconstructed” history. Live actors were speaking words written by Will Shakespeare on a stage he would immediately recognize. “Where art thou, death? Come hither, come! Come, come, and take a queen…!”

Our next theater experience was initially a dilemma of choice in the beach front town of Brighton. Jerry Springer: The Opera or the musical Buddy, based on the short musical career of Buddy Holly. Hint: We toe tapped to rock-n-roll tunes and a re-staging of a musical gig at the Surf Ballroom at Clear Lake, Iowa on the snowy evening of February 2, 1959. Later that evening Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens were all tragically killed in an airplane crash… the day the music died.

More UK Touring

Hoping to see sights outside of London, we booked seats on an all-day bus tour to visit Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. Our Golden Tours bus departed early from a location near the London Underground Victoria station. We arrived early enough to select seats in the front of the bus.

Off to Windsor: Adding upon older Saxon works, William the Conqueror, who reigned from 1066 until his death in 1087, built mostly a military outpost on what would become Windsor Castle. Successive monarchs continued adding. Henry II constructed the Round Tower, an imposing structure that greets visitors upon their arrival. If the Queen is in residence, her standard will fly high above this structure.

We visited Queen Mary's Dolls' House that was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1921. He also designed the city layout of Delhi, the capitol of India. The doll house, built to a 1:12 ratio, has running water, working lifts (elevators) and real electric lights. It took three years to build. Delhi is still a work in progress.

Stonehenge was the next stop. There is no telling how long it took to construct this marvel. Some 5,000 years ago work started on earth works. About 2,000 years ago the 4-ton bluestones, now the inner circle, where quarried 240 miles away. The 50-ton sarsen stones that form the outer circle came later from a closer-by location. Scholars estimate that it would have taken 600 men to navigate the terrain from quarry to their final resting place.

We have seen Stonehenge many times on National Geographic TV and have heard stories of Druid ceremonies conducted at Stonehenge. Fact or fiction is not very important when you actually see the massive stones arranged in a circle that creates a space of beauty and awe. The power of visionary minds and the strong backs of many left us a wonderful gift. As for the Druids, they worshiped in woodland temples and had little need for stone temples.

Our final stop that day was the old Roman bath town of Bath. The Romans had established their bath works in Bath shortly after their occupation in 43 AD. The Romans, it turns out, were Johnny-come-latelies to Bath. The underground hot spring water that feeds the baths was a Celtic shrine dedicated to the goddess Sulis. The Romans, aware of the value of adopting local traditions when ruling in far away places, merged their Roman goddess Minerva with Sulis and dedicated the baths to Sulis Minerva.

Romans visiting the bath would change their clothing in the apodyterium, or locker room, and move on to the tepidarium, caldarium and finally the bath. The process was an all day event and theft of property left in the apodyterium was a common occurrence. Loss of one’s possessions sometimes resulted in a curse tablet being scribed by the victim. The curse tablet typically written on lead or pewter was then tossed in the bath. Many such tablets were on display at Bath.

“I curse him who has stolen, who has robbed Deomiorix from his house. Whoever stole his property, the god is to find him. Let him buy it back with his blood or his own life.”

Beware the curse of the apodyterium.

Keep Your Head About You, Lady

“Don’t lose your head, lady!” was advice Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, wished she had had an opportunity to follow. On 19 May 1536 at 8 o'clock in the morning she entered the eternal and history books, becoming the first publicly executed English queen. Anne, seen as an interloper who replaced Henry’s first and popular wife, Katharine of Aragon, was suitably despised by contemporary accounts. Nor was she much of a “head turner.” Per an account of the Venetian ambassador, he remarked that she is “not one of the handsomest women in the world. She is of middling stature, with a swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised…” Four years later, he could add, headless.

On that fateful May morning, Anne spoke “Good Christian people, I am come hither to die…” She shared a few additional parting thoughts, was then blindfolded, knelt at the block and repeated several times, “To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul” until a swing of the executioner’s blade brought silence to the Tower Green inside the Tower of London.

We stood before the Tower Green as our Yeoman Warden recounted this and other beheadings that took place on the green directly behind him. The Yeoman Wardens live at the Tower and provide the tour as a service to their visitors.

It is impossible not to be struck by the rich and deep history of the grounds of the Tower of London. Traces of the fortress wall built by Claudius, the Roman Emperor, in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries are visible on the Tower grounds.

The building of the Tower moved into the “modern” era when William the Conqueror successfully invaded and conquered England in 1066 at Hastings. He decided he needed a stronghold to keep the unruly citizens of London in line. William added smaller towers, extra buildings, walls and walkways. The original building was gradually transformed into a splendid castle, fortress, prison and eventually a tourist attraction.

The White Tower houses the Crown Jewels, which includes crowns and other regalia worn, now ceremoniously, by royalty. Bloody Tower is where many famous and infamous traitors of the realm were imprisoned, or “conveniently detained” as another way of describing this imprisonment.

Sir Walter Raleigh, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, spent thirteen years with his wife and children in this tower. Furniture is displayed as it might have been in his time. Raleigh organized expeditions to the new world, popularized tobacco, but his scalawag ways with one of the Queen’s hand maidens netted him his new accommodations. Freed by Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh was re-imprisoned and beheaded by Elizabeth’s successor. Some sources say on the day he was beheaded Raleigh was granted a last smoke of tobacco, establishing the tradition of giving a prisoner a last cigarette before execution.

Along with our Yeomen Warders, the Tower is inhabited by seven ravens, their wings clipped, so they can't fly away. A superstition from the time of Charles II claims that when there are no longer ravens in the Tower, both the White Tower and the kingdom will fall.

Snake in a Basket – On Our Way to London

Every trip to London from India should start with a beggar woman outside your apartment offering you a peak at a live snake in a basket in exchange for a few rupee coins. Is this what Queen Victoria envisaged for the later stage of her empire’s maturity? Who knows.

Despite this last bit of Incredible India, we were off to merry ole England for a 10 day vacation. After nine months in Bangalore, this trip was to mark our departure from India. Jay’s work situation, however, resulted in us booking return tickets from London back to Bangalore. For the moment, however, we were forward looking with the expectation of embracing a bastion of western culture, drinking tap water, having a pint at a pub, maybe even eating strawberries and cream.

Helen, as usual, made wonderful travel arrangements. We booked a bed & breakfast in West Hampstead for six days. We left ourselves open to have a one day journey somewhere, which ended up being Brighton, followed by three days in the English countryside with Anna Oldman. Helen had met Anna in Bangalore through the Overseas Women’s Club. Anna had finished her assignment in India and had returned to her home in Stroud just weeks before.

Our first day touring began with learning how to use the London Tube. We purchased a seven day Oyster card that gave us unlimited tube access. The London tube is truly a wonder of the world. Efficient, clean, timely and waiting people let passengers off the train before entering. After a successful ride on the tube, our sightseeing experiences of London began with a trip to the British Museum. After a short walk through Russell Square we arrived at the museum.

The British Museum, like the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC, is free! The museum offered much to explore. The Egyptian exhibit with its extensive display of mummies and the chance to run into a live Egyptian princess provided the most awe of the day. We toured the rich collection of 7^th century burial artifacts of the Sutton Hoo Treasure and the Old Reading Room of the former British Library. We also had a chance to be up close to the real Rosetta Stone.

Afterwards it was lunch at a small restaurant named in honor of James Cagney where the menu items were named after his movie titles. On that day England was playing Portugal in the World Cup and crowds spilled out from pubs and restaurants that offered a glimpse of the game on large screen panel TVs.

We walked on and were able to see Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We crossed the Thames to see the London Eye, marveled at some street performers and then headed back to the B&B, tired but thrilled to be able to enjoy this wonderful, historic city. Not a single beggar or snake in a basket to be seen.