1878

synthesis of Indigo, cathode rays

Dada

When you were children, I wanted to make you a stable of five toy horses, Sally Gardner, Occident, and.. . To tell you about a man called Muybridge and his ambition of proving that when a horse runs, at one point all his legs leave the earth, he actually flies. He got twenty four stereoscopic cameras and put them all along 20 feet of the race track that the horse was to run on. Then, he connected strings to the shutters of the camera, and took the strings across the track. The running horse released the strings, the strings released the shutters. The various movements of the horse were imprinted on the photographic plates. What is photography?

Babaraya(struggling to remember)

Saraswati: But the images that were printed were not like photographs, they were more like shadow imprints. Because, there were only wet plates available then (and??)

Dada: The images were then played in the revolving zoetrope

Mandakini: But did his feet leave the ground?

Dada: Yes, of course, of course, that was the point of it all. (pleased at her brightness) Yes, they got a photograph of a udhne vaalaa ghoda. (to Sarasvati) You remember, we had a postcard, with the photo of one of the horses

Sarasvati gets up to go look. She returns with a folder of postcards, letters. Dada looks fondly at old postcards, paintings by Dhurandhar, photographs by..

Dada:

Chiplunkar's parrot

(A green bird stands, outside his cage, ready to fly away.)

Dada:

Lytton, angrezi button, tried to stop Indian papers. The passed a law, saying " White men will decide what you Indians can publish, making cartoons of us, you dare!!"

But he could not stop an intelligent man like Chiplunkar. Look, how he told his people, " we will also learn- to fly away from our cages" The English could not even understand. And if they did, what could they do? Could they say, don't draw a parrot? Had he even drawn an Englishman? That is wisdom, to say what you want, but cleverly

Sarasvatibai is nodding thoughtfully. Dada is thinking, if Kamala was here, she would have only asked:

Does she smoke cigarettes and drink?

Mandakini grins:

Lytton, angrezi button

Dada turns to her, as though he is about to tell a story, especially for her:

There was a woman called Bla vat sky like Bha ta va dekar Bla vat sky She was a the o so phist

Meaning, she believed in magic. She was white as doodhi when its cut, but she did not like England She packed up her bags, her cat, her phonograph and said to her English friends "Goodbye, I am going to see the tiger, and work for the Arya Samaj, you can see me off at the harbour!"

They did not understand what she meant, and why she liked India. " At least there are no Christians there!!" She said " I am tired of Christianity, tired of western ways, tired of these corsets. I want to go Eastern"

And she came and she lived in India for ever after.

( A disbelieving silence has fallen over the audience at this improbable, but engaging story)

Sarasvatibai:

Did she wear a saree then?

Dada shakes his head.:

Well no, though Annie Besant did. She was a bit mad, hunh, Bla- vat- sky (Mandakini mouths the word after him, sitting on his lap, looking up at the exaggerated expressions he is making for her)

And this is important, she became a medium

She wanted to become the mouth for the language of ghosts. Like we all are, somewhat. And this you will take time to understand, I am only beginning to understand it, how sometimes I hear other people, my parents, their parents, even Kamala talking through me.

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[1] Anglo Afghan War, Lytton sends a siege train

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"Lady with Flower is too big for my drawing room. But I would like to have a look at it...not tragic scenes in my house...I have started admiring the pretty faces of your women. So I would like to have paintings of Krishna with Gopis, Coronation of Rama, and Sita Swayamvara... I would like to have a copy of Nair Lady inside the Mosquito Net which you had presented to the Prince of Wales.

Seshayya Sastri,Dewan Regent of Pudukottai, and a well respected native statesman among the British, writes to Ravi Varma.

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Hindi Punch, lived on till 1930. started as the Parsi Punch later re christened.

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Ravi Varma paints an eponymous portrait of the Duke of Buckingham, who is the Governor of Madras.