1889

Madhavrao Patwardhan procures an old magic lantern to realise his dreams. Eastman introduces a thin, flexible, transparetn, cellluloid roll film for the Kodak camera. Dada buys still camera from scholarship. At Nasik, when the boatmen strike, wrestlers agree to play the ferry. Taking their shoes off and crossing the bridge over the sacred river.

Pink nailpolish chemical

That afternoon, Phulla saw the divine Urvashi climb up the temple stairs.

Phulla's veranda, where she sat stringing flowers to make little ornaments for the hair, was situated one third up the length of the stairs, which flowed up like a broad river that thinned in its upper reaches. That morning,the most beautiful fish was making her way up them, gracefully swinging her fin. She was young, probably 12 or so. Dark kohl lined her jewel like eyes and shone on a skin whose radiance would pull any onlooker towards it, and then intimidate him that it pulled. Her long lashes swept the stairs as she walked. Soft pebbles of mogra caressed the back of her neck. Her forhead was dusted by a lightly blown patch of vermillion.

When those langorous eyes swept over Phulla and past her, in an instant forgetting what they'd seen, Phulla was stung to the quick, she turned her head away from the apparition and looked at the fish-mother instead. The mother's face was craggy, as though the daughter's skin had absorbed all its moisture. If 'Urvashi's' hands were soft and limp, her mothers' had the restlessness of a craftsperson. In colouring this perfect picture that stood next to her, the mother had faded to a dull outline. Her presence was shadowed by a lack, and her face showed a fear of want. But her hand was clasped in 'Urvashis. She wanted the gift of flight from her.

As Phulla's eyes swam, over the mother's hands, along the daughter's, to that beautiful face, again..a sky rose over the earth inside her, like a minaret over a tower. A thorny green bush caught fire, and Phulla was singed. Her plump fingers continued to pick white flowers and nothing stirred in her eyes. The girl walked right past her. Still dazed in the trap of fragrance of her flowers and her hair oil, Phulla turned to her own courtyard. Her mother was stoking a fire, very slowly, as if she wanted to be sure that she did not break the sleep that she had gathered to her like a blanket the very day that Phulla took over her work at the stall. This is how it's always been with flower girl mothers at this temple.

The wave having passed, the stairs were stone again. A cat with an absolutely upright tale was slowly taking measure of the courtyard. It felt like the evening had emptied the yard of any signs of life. A hollowed cat, a hollowed mother, a hollow yard, over all of which, the evening had settled in a shroud of small particles. The hollowed out legs of Phulla hurt as she carried utensils to the river for a wash.

The mats were empty. But the katha vachak had started his story in the light of the lamp. Phulla sat on the empty mat with the hope that maybe, by some chance, the story that was told today, would somehow belong to her. Her palm was clutching the packet of vermillion she had bought from Azgar's shop.

But the old man told the story of the big devout bird whose wing got cut off by Ravana impatiently carrying Ram's wife away. Ram was tender with the bird with the broken wing. Phulla breathed impatiently. A virtuous life rewarded with a stray kindness at its very end, no, this is not what she wanted to hear.She looked away, this way and that, and then, gritting her teeth against the story that had softened the old storyteller's face, she began to draw a large red eye in the vermillion she was carrying.

Dhrinder was resting on his arms on one of the empty mats and looking up at the sky, where dull clouds were walking over a stunted moon. Dhurinder shut his eyes and found images falling behind them like coins into a money box. Like broken paintings they fell- the horse at Baroda.. Sir Griffith standing in a corridor.. Just today, in their courtyard, his mother had extended a baby towards him, as though she was saying "Yours". Kamala was standing in the depths behind Ma's large shoulder. Dhurinder's fingers went over the edge of the durrie and sank in the sand, stroking it like it was Kamala..His eyes opened. Baba's face was so white in the light of the lamp.

The boatmen of Nasik were on strike again. So Dhurinder had also sat on a pahalwan's shoulder to cross the river. It irritated him. Had he not been carrying all that luggage, he would have swum across. Mid river, Chandu Kaka passed by, letting out sharp giggles from where he sat on the shoulders of one of the pahalwans of the Udaseen Akhara. Ahead of him a woman passenger had completey covered her face with her saree, so that no one recognised her in this shameful posture. Dhurinder kept staring her way- who was she? He had an urge to kick at the sides of his mount, like he would at the horse in Baroda, and yell 'giddy up'!

Was that Kaki after all? Even after getting off, Dhurinder waited a full 20 mintues at the ghat, in the hope that if he figured who the woman was travelling with, he would be able to identify her, and he could narrate this story to Kamala at night. Would Kamala laugh?

The fat girl in front of him was going on shaking something in a small pouch. She looked working class, like she'd taken advantage of the situation and made herself comfortable on the empty mats. All her attention was directed at the pouch in her lap. Truth be told, even Dhurinder was impatient with Baba's telling. His voice was not able to travel the distance of the mats. Had Baba's voice been diminished by this open shore? Dhurinder felt like putting up a Ravi Verma painting on the ghat instead- and how the crowds would clamour then. He kept staring at his father.

After washing the dishes, Phulla had broken the water into pieces as she swam to the temple in the middle. She had stayed there, silently, like a fat fish in the water, mourning as she looked at the moon. She had realised that she was trapped in her mother's very ordinary dream. She could never become Urvashi.

When Dhurinder hid his face in the black cloth and tried to find his Baba in the mirrors of his camera, he found an empty chair- Baba had left its imprisonment. It was the next morning. Dhurinder was trying to forget what he had thought of the Katha the previous night. He had put the camera between his father and himself. He wanted to capture an image of his father that he could then love in a simple way. But Baba refused this imprisonment. As did Kamala. His hand lightly holding the leg of the camera stand, Dhurinder realised that this was not the place to keep it, he would have to go elsewhere to work with his machine.

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File:2 December 1889.pdf

This page is about the year 1889. For the board game, see 1889.

Template:Yearbox Template:C19YearInTopic Template:Year in other calendars

1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Every human recorded to have been born in this year has since passed on except for the current (as of April 15 2006) oldest woman in the world, Maria Capovilla, born on September 14, 1889.

Events

January-April

File:Tour eiffel at sunrise from the trocadero.jpg

The Eiffel Tower in Paris.

January 8 - Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine
January 22 - Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, DC.
January 30 - Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera commit a double suicide (or a murder suicide) in Mayerling hunting lodge
February 11 - Meiji Constitution of Japan adopted; 1st Diet convenes in 1890
February 22 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
March 4 - Grover Cleveland, 24th President of the United States (1885 - 1889) is succeeded by Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893).
March 9 - Yohannes IV is killed in the Battle of Metemma; Sudanese forces, who had been almost defeated, rally and destroy the Ethiopian army.
March 31 - The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated (opens May 6). Contemporary critics regard it aesthetically displeasing
April 20 - Adolf Hitler is born.
April 22 - At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.

May-October

May 2 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, giving Italy control over what will become Eritrea.
May 15 - In Samoa, three US and three German ships sink in a typhoon because the captains refuse to leave before the others - almost 200 drown. British steamer Calliope saves itself by pushing into the wind with full speed
May 31 - South Fork Dam collapses in western Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,200 people in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania; the Johnstown Flood.
June 3 - The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
June 6 - The Great Seattle Fire ravages through the downtown area without any fatalities.
June 12 - 88 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in Northern Ireland.
July 8 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published on July 8th.
August 14 - The Great London Dock Strike breaks out in England.
September 10 - Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi becomes Reigning Prince Albert I of Monaco
October 2 - In Washington, DC, the first international Conference of American States begins.
October 3 - Sister Carries goes to Chicago
October 24 - Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, delivers the Tenterfield Oration calling for the Federation of Australia.

November

November 2 - North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
November 6 - Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.
November 8 - Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
November 11 - Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.
November 14 - Inspired by Jules Verne pioneer woman Journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to beat travel around the world in less than 80 days (Bly finished the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes).
November 15 - Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup (he was the second and last emperor of Brazil).

Unknown dates

Riverside Elementary School is opened in Wichita, Kansas
Adelaide Medical Students' Society is founded in Adelaide, Australia
Wisden Cricketer's Almanac publishes its first Wisden Cricketers of the Year (actually titled Six Great Bowlers Of The Year). The cricketers chosen are George Lohmann, Bobby Peel, Johnny Briggs, Charles Turner, John Ferris and Sammy Woods.
Frederick Abel invents cordite
Diet of Japan founded
French defense minister Georges Boulanger attempts a coup but is forced to flee the country
First free elections in Costa Rica
Glele, king of Dahomey, commits suicide
Yellow fever interrupts the building of Panama Canal
Huge locust swarm crosses the Red Sea and destroys crops in the Nile Valley
Ghost Dance movement
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.
Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by George Bernard Shaw, is published.
Capilano Suspension Bridge was founded. This is the longest suspension bridge in the world, and the park is now a favourite attraction to tourists from all over the world. It is located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
North Carolina Legislature issues a charter for the creation of Elon College.
In March of 1889, a German naval force shelled a village in Samoa, and by doing so destroyed some American property. Three American warships then entered the Samoan harbor and were prepared to fire on the three German warships found there. Before guns were fired, a hurricane blew up and sank all the ships, American and German. A compulsory armistice was called because of the lack of warships.
Sylvie and Bruno published.