Scandals, Vandals, and da Vincis: A Gallery of Remarkable Art Tales; by Harvey Rachlin.

I am still in the middle of reading this amongst other books, but it seems promising. A collection of various interesting tidbits, anecdotes and history of various art works including the famous Mona Lisa - did you know it had been stolen once, for quite some time with no clues? I certainly did not.

Then there is the critic who was sued by Whistler and lost, but Whistler was only awarded a farthing and went more into debt while Ruskin's friends took up a collection to pay his costs although he wasn't poor - but we know history turned the verdict around, and Whistler is far more the famous one through his simple and eternal evocative Mother. Does anyone know about the guy who criticised him in abusive terms and drove him into bankruptcy? Of course except for his descendants, only those that go looking for details of Whistler's life and trials and travails, and come across the man who was lacking in vision of art.

There are many, many tales, each a huge piece of history, and very interesting. There is the portrait by Holbein of a possible could have been consort for Henry the eighth, after he lost his third wife to childbirth when he finally had his first legitimate son. Duchess of Milan, Christina of Denmark, was related to the emperor of Spain and so the whole affair was politically suitable as well, but the king was adamant about marrying someone who would please him personally too and hence he sent around not only for portraits (a common tradition of those days) but insisted on meeting various candidates as well, and this is one candidate he was pleased with the portrait of to the extent that he signaled negotiations to begin for a marriage. That however was not to be, since the negotiations were connected to Spain, and Catherine being divorced had not been forgotten. Hence the Anne of Cleves was the next choice.

One of the telling stories - telling about a supposedly liberal artist as well as about this writer - is that about Nelson the hero of England and Lady Hamilton, love of his life. Both the artist who painted the picture the writer is telling the story of Nelson and Lady Hamilton in context of and the writer would like to be considered liberal and compassionate, but they straddle the fence without perhaps being aware that their compassion and sense of justice is faulty. They blame Lady Hamilton for qualities that go unpunished not only in men at all times, irrespective of time and culture and geography, but also in most women of high - read wealthy and socially considered upper class - origins. While superficially they indict Lady Hamilton for having an affair and generally being far from virgin or celibate, the exact same life story in another - any man or a woman born to wealth and position - not only goes unpunished but remains unspoken except in inconsequential whispers that might in fact lend glamour to the persona.

Lady Hamilton is in fact indicted and despised by the society then and the artist Redgrage and this writer now, for being of poor origins and achieving not only a position of wealth and glamour for a while, with social status and political achievements to boot, but also being fortunate in being loved and loving - and that too a hero of the stature of Nelson. He did not give her up in spite of the displeasure of not only society but even the king.


Then again, who ever claimed monarchs were virtuous, unless one is talking of the virgin queen Bess, beloved of England! One has only to read Daphne du Maurier's biographical Mary Anne. Or know about the ancestors of todays royal couple being illicit paramours a few generations ago. Hypocrisy amounts to ascribing one's distaste for someone to questions of virtue and vice - and all the while it is merely a question of if you knew the person socially, if you could have been related, in past or in future.
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One of course has to mention Guernica, however worthy other entries. The whole story of the wwII is something no one ought to be allowed to forget but this part, the beginning and the field where the axis weapons were tested and showcased, with the destruction of Spain in general and Guernica in particular serving as a show and a warning to other nations that might think of opposing the Axis, is often overlooked, and it is the theatre where many Europolitic factors became clear. There were those that helped the fascists, and then those that not only agreed to stay away but threatened to persecute such of their citizens who went individually to help the new nation of Republic of Spain, the democratically elected government being socialist. The net result was the poor populace got massacred, and this time the word is used literally.

Too many people on either side hold up the bombing of Dresden subsequently by allies as a heinous crime - forgetting not only the bombing of London with thousands of civilian casualties including women and children, but also the very purposeful destruction of Guernica and Spain, which was not at war with those that did the bombing, namely the nazis. And while it is not to say one murder is justified by another, it certainly ought to be remembered that you cannot expect to reap strawberries by sowing cactii. Or that while Dresden citizens might have been less innocent of the war and the nazi crimes, the poor of Guernica were entirely innocent by any criteria even if someone (neo nazi, for example) manages to argue that citizens of London deserved the few months long relentless bombings due to their nation not giving up to the nazis.

Picasso could paint, and he portrayed the massacre, the butchering of Guernica. The painting went home when fascism gave way and Spain became a democracy, according to his will.
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All in all, very interesting and thought provoking a read.

Indian Controversies; by Arun Shourie.

Arun Shourie as ever steps into regions of situations in India that most people in public life steer clear of for fear of being object of mudslinging or worse, and treats the subjects he looks into with the same clear incisive light of reason that he used to for his journalistic career, giving facts about the issues from history and present, and analysis without partisan considerations. Shourie brings his usual journalistic integrity to the whole topic, with facts found and laid before the reader, with clear light of reason and analysis of the whole issue - or rather the whole basket of issues that he deals with in this book.

From Sikh extremists turmoil and their harping on various quotes brought to table with the various vitupertions of some of the Sikh revered Gurus against mainstream and very popular deities of India (which explains the surprising change of name of one extremely popular deity in north - much visited by both Hindu and Sikh people - a name change that goes against ancient tradition in a strange way) and sects, and reasoned analysis of today's - or rather yesteryear's perhaps, since the Sikh extremism fomented by exterior (to India) interests is now seemingly over - propaganda; to the history of various Islamic invaders and destruction of temples by them, and the issues about whole temples destruction by various invaders and reconstruction thereof matter; to the historical proofs thereof being removed from libraries and later editions of English language books (but not the original versions), to the court cases that have been going on for over two hundred years and have been delayed in the political interest first by the British rulers and subsequently by the Indian ones, especially those that ruled most of the time since independence; to the question of a common civil code for India and history of the question thereof, to other various issues, Shourie deals with various controversies that have plagued the nation increasingly more in recent years. Which is why this book is a good place to get to know about the various stormy controversies that India has been plagued with often quite unnecessarily and for such ignominious reasons as a dirty political game overriding the interests of the nation.

None of these things, or at least very very few, are actually secrets - they are no secret to anyone with even a little acquaintance with history, and this book contains few surprises except that of finding someone willing to speak out the truth and lay facts before public so clearly. In a country like India where one cannot do much without everyone around being aware with gossip and comments without reserve, there can be few secrets really - but while most people do know all this and might admit it the truth of it all in privacy, most people steer clear of such issues, especially in public life where the overwhelming considerations are security for oneself and family on one hand and to some extent (especially for those in power most of the time) pandering to the dominating interests; and those that don't do so are in danger of being at the bull's eye of everyone's free range for shooting slime and being treated like criminals, merely for telling it like it is rather than pretending for sake of pleasing partisan interests of mostly powers from outside the nation.

Most people therefore do know about all of this in broad terms and perhaps well over half the details he brings to light, but most also refrain from speaking out or admitting any of it for fear of being a target of mud slinging and being forever at the receiving end of slimeball politics.

And yet the book is worthy of much credit for documenting once for all various details and evidences and proofs and reasonings involved in the various issues, - and the author is deserving of credit for the qualities that go into his persona and work.

So one has to thank this ever fearless journalist from the pre emergency era who has not given up telling the truth as it is. If anyone doubts about the risk he is incurring - one site has just gone blank on me for posting this review, so I had to write this one all over fresh. Perhaps the review benefited from a rewriting, but one can only know for certain if the other version is recovered.

From the very public - and yet shrouded in secrecy - murder of John F. Kennedy, to Diana's death to the grail question, various attempts have been going on to pooh pooh what they usually term conspiracy theories. One can add a grand one to them all now, about that against India and her ancient civilisation and roots. The conspiracy deniers and pooh poohers might one day deny there was a nation so wonderful as India with her unbelievably rich heritage. Hope this never shall come to pass.

The picture that comes to mind with an uncanny similarity - not for the book but more for the situation, generally - is that of the ancient epic Mahaabhaarata where the sons of Gods lose and go on losing time after time, almost until the end when Divine finally has to step in and help the fight on the side of right, and meanwhile the ignoble, the greedy, the manipulating and the evil go on scoring and exiling the good, the reasonable, even the loved ones. Not that Raamaayana was or is different in this by much - but it had fewer villains and less complications, being earlier in history, and the villains were strangers to the good ones, to say the least.

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The Name of the Rose; by Umberto Eco.

Medieval times era of Inquisition when people were burnt alive at stake, quite regularly, for being disobedient in the slightest measure to the authority of church in any matter whatsoever, and consequent social and psychological upheavals and insecurities.

Monasteries attempting to preserve knowledge and travelling monks in search of the knowledge. Various sects attempting to search for a spiritual path proliferate. People have ideas and visions, and wish to reform the established decrepit decay.

Ordinary people serve landowners including monasteries and suffer horrendous punishments for ordinary normal human behaviour.

People who would rather hide knowledge and let darkness prevail - for sake of survival really, but ostensibly in name of faith, and obedience to authorities in all matters - manage to finally survive through it all. Others often don't, however innocent of any guilt.

From murders in an abbey to looking for clues in dark towers to finding a monk bent on hiding an ancient Greek manuscript and stopping at nothing in the attempt only because the said manuscript by a much revered ancient Greek philosopher not only allows but justifies and exalts laughter and joy, which the monk cannot allow for sake of faith holding fear of church supreme and hence must wipe out any trace of any idea to the contrary, it is a bewildering journey the reader is taken through by the writer.

Strangely enough the protagonist justifies it all, holding fear and obedience to church as the only virtue, and equating thought with arrogance and denouncing it all, and justifying burning down libraries for the effort to keep authorities supreme. One wonders if Eco is keeping his own defence just in case, in name of protagonist and his declarations at the end, or is it all a dark portrayal of the times and that is all.

A portrayal of those dark times that are past, thankfully.

Falling over backwards: an essay against reservations and against judicial populism; by Arun Shourie

Most people, whether individually or as social groups, communities, have two very distinct, very separate needs, often but not always necessarily, conflicting.

One is for more of wealth, more of power, stability of well being, security, and so forth. This is of course well understood and often used for a hold over the person or group as a leverage to use them.

Another is of the sort that might begin to border on higher ideal - of a rise in terms of things other than those considered worldly needs.

However, when the two conflict, often people free to choose will go for the worldly needs rather than higher ideals. And then resent those that do not, or cannot, for whatever reason.

Hence the effort to portray one's community as higher if that gives a rise in status and all out efforts to prove it so, and on the other hand the opposite if that pays in terms of economic security.

Given a chance - that is, if the two do not conflict - most people would prefer the higher ideal and rise in terms of other than worldly criteria.

It is a pity that such chances are withdrawn and instead there is an incentive to downgrade one's roots in order to secure a better economic status.

But it is a far more bitter shame to a nation to encourage this, or to perpetrate fraud of the sort that Shourie describes, for reasons of clamouring to be seen as "more secular than thou" while downgrading quality of personnel of nation by requiring very little except a certificate to the effect of a low caste birth, an no merit if such a certificate is indeed possible.

Affirmative action in US is based on all other criteria being equal, in which case offering a position to the person of an under priviledged group indeed has some justice. But this practice in name of reservations in India aided and abetted by the judges of not only giving low level entry positions but all possible promotions and advantages to people of low or no merit, indeed not even taking into account a proportion of merit scaled to the background but a blank cheque so to speak, cna only go towards downgrading the nation's affairs.

If this is hard to believe, just imagine you have a near and dear in dire need of surgery and the person to perform it not only was given an entry but every possible promotion and position on basis of birth and no merit shown at any stage. I doubt the most secular or pseudo secular of people would view such a moment without flinching.

Harvesting Our Souls: Missionaries, Their Design, Their Claims; by Arun Shourie.

While the facade is that of innocuous and benevolent faith, in fact there is much deliberate planning and extensive funding efforts to increase numbers and little effort to keep any promises made to converts either explicitly or implicitly, even in matters of the basic creed of equality. Church is very aware of the caste equations and discourages a low caste face with separation of high caste converts from the low in the church, and when protests grow then the storm is waylaid into demanding special reservations for converted low castes from the Government of India. This is but one facet of the various devious policies and practices of the missionaries in India.

There is more, often either deliberately not taken into account politically by the so called secular politicians or denied falsely, to the effect that missionaries are deliberately breaking laws in India. If missionaries travel to India is not allowed for purposes of mass conversions they travel pretending to be tourists and if mass conversions and lies for the purpose are illegal they do "forest camps" where the activity can take place in seclusion away from the eyes of law or people. There are lies about attacks on the missionary activity and maligning of any protest against their activities as communal, while their attacking Indian culture is taken as normal activity.

The activities and policies and subversive nature thereof is there to see in plain sight, even publicised in pamphlets and other literature in various countries where funding drives go on. The self styled secular politicians of India deny it of course since their political aims are served by such denial of attcks on India and Indian culture.

Missionaries in India ; Continuities, Changes, Dilemmas; by Arun Shourie.

Shourie is looking at missionary activity in India, which is a long history although not as long as that of the faith originally - what with Thomas arriving on the south west coast and hence the christianity in India being of older times than that in Europe, with that particular branch being named Syrian but in fact deserving a better epithet since it was brought by one of the supposedly original apostles, perhaps a twin of Jesus according to some of the recent or not so recent (depending on your age you tend to look at three decades ago as prehistory or yesterday) research. But then even Jesus according to some recent (or not so recent ....) research learned yoga in India during the years never mentioned in his story, and in fact not only returned after the crucifixion but has a grave in a village in Himaalayan region that the people of that village and surrounding have known is his.

Missionaries came later of course, with Europeans, and this book depicts their stance in India vis a vis the nation and the changes in the stance.

Does this book describe the travails of Vivekananda and the malicious attacks by missionaries on him, or is that in another book about the missionaries activity in India, I am unsure, but it certainly gives the position of Gandhi against conversion activities and his debates with various missionaries, and their stance about neither Buddha nor Gandhi being deserving of staying out of hell for variuos reasons.

A Secular Agenda; by Arun Shourie.

Shourie was the reason Indian Express was read avidly by the intelligentsia, the youth and anyone who cared, until he left - which is when the Express dwindled. There is a new version and some attractive writers which might mean it is worth looking at again. Meanwhile Shourie continued his fearless reporting and incisive analysis of facts, prima facie and those behind, and this has been in form of books he published from time to time.

From the time British almost lost an independence war in India in 1857, they woke up to the necessity of breaking of the spirit of the nation by any and every means possible, and the surest way of doing it is they realised was to discredit anything good while harping on all that was or could be called bad, and the war of propaganda was on thenceforth. All ancient traditions, all ancient knowledge and those that protected it and kept it alive were to be discredited as bad, or worse. From discrediting Vedas and interpreting them in the stupidest, falsest way possible, to inventing the Aryan invasion myth and Aryan versus original Dravidians myth, to heaping all sorts of discredit on Brahmans, to spreading lies about Vivekananda and other great personalities of India - of which there has never been any shortage - to finally separating the nation by actively encouraging and in fact fabricating separate identities not only where the separations had ceased to exist but even where they did not even exist as separate, ever, they did their best - or worst, in this case - possible.

To some extent, it worked, especially with the population that had only India as the identity. Embarrassment, if not outright shame, about a purely Indian identity, were the gifts of the colonial rulers' manufacture that stayed deep in psyche with those that had lost any real acquaintance with their roots, and they have been forever apologetic and hungry for approval of anything, anyone "foreign". All this is perpetrated and encouraged forever in perpetuity by the schools opened by missionaries that were forever publicised as the best possible education, however deficient they have proved in producing pupils of intellectual superiority of either scientific or most other necessary sorts for any nation, except that of being excellent colonial subjects. This estranged embarrassment about roots of India is what passes for secular in the nation that inherited and kept the name of India, while other pieces that separated went the way of fundamentalist or military rule and worse. And thus the perpetually losing status of India in the hidden war being propagated against her by either physical weapons of terrorists that can come and go freely from either side of the border or simply in the propaganda war that is hidden in plain sight for all to see.

If any other nation would do this sort of conjuring trickery to aid and abate those bent on destroying it for reasons of fear of what the world might say - or even worse, for personal or political gains for a small clicque, as often has been going on, the nation doing this would be a laughing stock of the world. That India does not see herself as such is perhaps a stubborn blindness to facts or a convenient closing of eyes for small, temporary, immediate goals of winning an election or so by the few that have ruled it for long. Laughingstock it is, and that is why major achievements of the nation even in areas of major importance only invoke further ire or ridicule in various parts of the world, mainly Europe and US, whose approval India craves while a second focus of this craving is towards nations that would never give it anyway, on grounds of "faith".

Hence the ridicule reminding India of "starving poor" when India launches a completely indigenous missile or manages to acquire nuclear capability totally on its own in spite of disapproval of world powers, and hence the much punishing of sanctions against India even as nations that cheat on aid and abet terrorists are given further aid on escalating scales.


Hence the abuse heaped on poor hapless call centre workers who painstakingly learn accents and idioms to get along with the customers and stay up nights to help out clients clear around the world, for a pittance compared to what their counterparts would be paid locally to another worker in the client's neighbourhood and have the prices of services go up there to levels they would rather not pay.

Of course, it is easy to abuse someone on phone while it is impossible to do so when one sees clothes or cheap gadgets or other products in shops across US made in some east Asian nation - usually China - but it is also the perception of China as a formidable nation with a nuclear arsenal and unambiguous intentions of domination of territory in and around its borders, while India is seen as poor, starving, and pretentious.

The starving was way back in the soon after independence era, when the nation had accepted responsibility for all the debts of India after partition, while Gandhi had forced the governrment to part with the unfairly demanded share to the part that separated (and accepted no part of debts). It has been more than a few decades that India achieved self sufficiency in terms of food - and indeed has many other achievements to her credit.


What India does not have is a habit of - or even one instance of - retaliatory strikes, US fashion (or even the overtaking of another nation or two or more, China fashion) when terrorism is perpetrated on the innocent citizens, year after year, in the name of some facade of a reason or other that provides a convenient excuse for those that would whip the indigenous of India into submission or oblivion, but are in fact nothing but this effort to wipe out the very nation and its essence and turn it into another robot land of human weapons.

On the contrary, Indian politicians often have pretended infiltrators were not from another country at all, to create vote banks in regions where a local awakening of population might just not go with the one party rule that has been norm for most of the time, no matter if the infiltration is pointed to wresting the land away from the very nation by changing its demographics and more, and the fact that this is not a fear or guess but an openly declared, indeed printed (and circulated for purposes of funds too) policy in some nations near and far is conveniently ignored.

After all it is cheaper to browbeat someone Indian with a name-calling - one can accuse anyone pointing out these and other disturbing facts as non secular, communal, right wing (no matter if the person is ascetic and poor in lifestyle compared to Gandhi) and a new one, sword wielding. One wonders when a young idiot who makes such accusations is unaware of any facts about his or her own nation if this idiot would respect weapons more modern than swords, and that is the reason that the bombing perpetrators who manage to kill hundreds of people in India every now and then (- every couple of months, on ignored levels since they are poor or middle class, and sometime even the spectacular levels such as the Taj attack to attract attention by targeting US, UK and Israel citizens apart from Indians) are not indicted even in supposedly innocent conversation this way, because by definition communal can be an accusation only made against someone who cannot have loyalties anywhere else other than India. No wonder India is seen as ridiculous, the nuclear and other intellectual achievements as pretension of an ex-slave nation with not even an ability to defend its citizens on its own streets.

Shourie gives a great deal of facts and discusses the various actions and various facets of various issues involved around the issue of secularism, whether the Kashmir issue and who is responsible for what, or the Assam bomb that is ticking, and more.

Foucault's Pendulum; by Umberto Eco

Perhaps it was deliberately written this way with a purpose or more than one, but no book has ever been this hard to read, not a book with a story anyway, due not to anything other than being highly distasteful - so much so it would not be too far off to say if you hate someone and wish to convey it without a word, give this as a gift; if the person likes it you may have a private laugh or a smile, if not the message might get conveyed.

Was it the defense of establishment and their tales, or a deliberate thumbing of nose at the relatively recent - then - research and questions about past published in early eighties, or did this writer actually have some information to give but chose for his idea of fun to hide it in a whole jumble of details thrown about in profusion like a tangled forest and then cover it with some slime here, some sewage there, who knows! It does remind one of the 3D pictures in vogue during the early nineties which then were all rage, and this one gives a headache in trying to see if there is such a picture hidden, or is it just a joke to make a viewer go cross eyed and looking all the while at exactly the tangles forest with slime and sewage the writer has portrayed quite deliberately - one finally just gives up, since he has not really said anything till the end that is either worth note or apart from the story establishment enforces as a creed - true or otherwise, history or fabrication, fact or benevolently intended but otherwise turned out fiction.

To add to the general idea he also adds literal portrayals of sewage with history, and believe it or not manages to also give some other stuff far more disgusting.

If you have fun with this, there isn't much you will recoil from.