World At War

Today I saw the first two episodes of the definitive WWII series - the World At War. Directed by Jeremy Isaacs and narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, the series set a trend for well researched documentaries. I had never before seen a video clip of Paul von Hindenburg going to the hustings, or those of people like Lord Halifax or the MPs in the House of Commons during the start of the WWII. The episodes talked about the causes that led to the war. Since the scope of the series was much larger, and included both the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters, the focus of the series was not as much about Hitler and the persecution of the Jews but the political situation in Europe, and mostly from the British perspective. The best part about old documentaries is that , while they are not as objective and clinical as the current lot, they could interview people who survived the war, or were key players during the war. That is not possible now. The series was produced during 1969-1974 : Churchill was dead already. But people like Sir John Colville (interviewed in episode 2: The Distant War) were still alive and discussed the political situation at the time Chamberlain stepped down (or rather, got unceremoniously booted out) and Churchill, the adventurer, stepped in. It discussed how Lord Halifax couldn't make it since no one from the House of the Lords had made it as a PM in 40 years! Anyways, the need of the hour then, in 1940, was to get an old military hand, not an ex Chancellor of the Exchequer. I really wonder what it would have been had the king okayed Halifax's nomination and rejected Churchill....the following year, Britain was to face the brunt of Luftwaffe's raids. Under Churchill's leadership, the Royal Navy and RAF could contain some damage.
The episodes also have clips from the private collections of people like Eva Braun (though this particular film that I am referring to, a short intimate color film short circa 1939, can be found on YouTube)..it looks quite strange to see a young, attractive girl trying to flirt with a man her father's age. And Hitler acts his Fuehrer image. His lackeys - Himmler and Heydrich are shown posing in front of some document - perhaps their "Die Endloesung der Judenfrage". I also read somewhere about the children of the Nazi leaders. While some were very repentent and disgusted and chose not to get married, like Niklas Frank, some like Himmler's daughter became the driving forces behind post war Nazi organizations such as Stille Hilfe, ODESSA, etc..
YouTube has its share of some real good videoclips - color and otherwise - of Nazi leaders including Heydrich, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels and others...Anyways, thats a digression. I would strongly recommend the World At War series to anyone interested in WWII history. I am adding other videos to my collection too - have Leni Raufenstahl's Triumph des Willens and Der Sieg des Glaubens..

The most outrageous cigarette

Here in Indore, there is a cigarette shop (and I can bet there are others too) that "makes" some unique kinds of cigarette "garnishings"! Well, until now, I had only heard of people going to a cigarette shop and asking for their favorite brands, but here, according to a colleague of mine, you could also ask " Ek Classic bana do" (i.e., make me a Classic). The shopkeeper would promptly fish out a Classic cigarette stick and put it on his counter. Next, he would fish out some pastes, garnishings, spices, etc - roll the cigarette over the paste, sprinkle the garnishings all over it, insert a clove through the open end of the cigarette stick. The final output looks like a colorful cigar like contraption. I bet it must be interesting to smoke that, though it might be quite heavity nicotine laden. As such, Classic is a premium brand here, and the final output must be making the stick twice as expensive...:-) guess the people of Indore are not just crazy about food. Who thought of cigarette toppings and garnishings!!

Die Hochzeit -2

Come 24th (and 25th), we were scouting for guesthouses, making trips to the jewellers (Lalchand Jewellers - a major jewellery house on the Janpath, right infront of the Ram Mandir), fixing the menu and hotel banquet halls for the groom's as well as for the bride's guests...what a pain, managing a marriage event is!!! I guess that made me stick to my resolution to not have kids . Also visited were places like Wood Art (written as "Ood Art" in Oriya). The stinkiest part of the day was getting grocery . There is a market managed by the Municipality corporation there that one needs to wade through to get to shops. I was reminded of my days as a kid going to Bhawanipatna and shop around - kids like Pablu were small and it usually was me, Reeti and Bonnie trudging to the shops...Reeti and Bonnie used to invariably get stuck at some trinket corner..gosh, some comparison. Anyhow, this was a trip made by dear old Bapa and me - and all through the way, Bapa was talking about how bad the idea was to go for our own pad instead of booking rooms at some guesthouse...
There were other problems around the house - the backyard had poor drainage and a lot of waterlogging...the shed had water logged in it, and no light or fan, and the cook and his apperentice were waiting at the verandah, grumbling away to glory. We had to fix Hotel New Marrion to provide us with some janitors and cleaners, and the day (or the next) was spent cleaning the place...Someone sent over a deep freezer to stock fish and meat for the meals planned for the next few days...the kitchen was eventually stocked...and various battles were being fought on various fronts...to think of it all now, the logistics involved was mindboggling...to ferry guests and relatives without getting them irate, providing a streaming supply of hot tea, jaljeera, snacks, etc or providing provisions for people to sleep...

The first among our relatives to come was Narayan mamu and maeen, early morning on the 25th..along with a girl who was his "jhiyaari" (niece). Looking at her, anyone could have written her off as a 7th or an 8th grad student - and she turned out to be a BA final year student!!! I guess Neutrogena and Oil of Olay should come and study our young town girls and try to learn the secrets behind their youthful looks...in our house, the ground-floor constitutes two rooms, a hall, a kitchen, the backyard, a loo, a living room and a stairway to the first floor. The guesthouse that has taken our place on rent had provided ACs in each room, and a TV with Tata Sky dish connection in the living room. That room, and the TV, were to become a centerpoint for the whole clan for the duration of stay....its amazing how people could watch TV during a marriage program but...guess anything can happen..
Nilu landed in the afternoon of the 25th and it was great to see him. Kumarmamu , maeen, Bonnie and Pablu also came that day, and we were also expecting Sangeeta "Baby" maeen , Pupul and Appu to come that day - the Howrah Puri express was 20 hours late due to flash floods and re-routing of trains..it was quite apparent that Kumarmamu and maeen had to parallely plan for Reeti's marriage - I guess all the girls are going to get married off between 2008 and 2010 - well, not all but the oldest 3. Pupul would be the endangered category person remaining in the clan.


Ahh..its 3 AM and I am still awake!!!...good nite, mates!!

Die Hochzeit von meiner schwester..

Just returned from Bhubaneswar - its been a week already since we returned and what a whirlwind of a time it was. Things are still etched in my mind..It all started for us on the 20th - Shveta and I left via Bhopal to Delhi, where dad and my sis were waiting. Ma had already been in Bhubaneswar for a week or more, shuttling between Cuttack and the Palashpalli house. We were to fly over the weekend to the City of Temples and a lot had to be done. The issue was not just packing - it was a last moment change of decision from travelling by train to flying - and lugging in some 200 kgs of luggage. The idea seemed daunting, and yet - by the grace of Amma, we could manage to carry everything and reach BBSR. There were a few people waiting for us at the airport - to take us straight to the CRPF guest-house. (And at this time, we were to discover the depths of dumbness in the drivers of our cars, but thats wholly besides the point..)...it was quite ironical, and comical, that we, the outsiders, navigated our car drivers to some of the most well-known landmarks of their city, and landed up at the CRPF guesthouse. The guesthouse, located at the CRP Chhak near Nayapalli, is in the midst of a vast, highly secure campus. There were hardly any local personnel there. We were to unload, carry a box of mangos that we were carrying with ourselves (incidentally, the mangoes were from our trees at the Delhi home) to Cuttack..cutting to the chase, we soon left for Buli mamu's place in Cuttack...a sumptuous lunch awaited us - couldn't thank Mili maeen enough for the highly unusual and delectable tandoori chicken (marinated in coconut), sausages, fish, etc that constituted the spread...however, I have been watching over my weight - which is a legacy of my wanton days in the US, so I ate moderately less than what my belly permits. A lot of things were getting discussed - politics, jobs, Shveta's under-lip piercing, Putun's marriage, Reeti's impending marriage next year - before we headed back, alongwith ma, to the guesthouse...ah well, before we had even gone to the CRPF guesthouse after our landing, we had gone to pay a small visit to the Palashpalli house. Its truly amazing how fast things got done in those few days before our relatives started coming - there were tiles getting fixed and in many places there was hardly any flooring...ACs got mounted, etc!!...It seemed almost like building a house in 2 days!!.This was the 23rd, and the mamus and Nilu were expected on the 25th. We were also supposed to scour the town for good accos for a lot of our relatives coming from all parts of the state - all kinds of guesthouses. Got to see some really seedy and unmanaged places owned by some of the richest govt. departments..i guess I'd be lynched if I disclose about them here...also, we were to distribute some cards too..so, a lot of stuff was there in our plates already when we came into the town..I guess I would post some videos and pics in my subsequent posts...its 2.30AM and I am going off to sleep - very bored, sleepy, depressed and lonely right now...hope to complete the posts in the next day or two....keep watching this space (if you have any interest in knowing about the "monsoon wedding")