1873
Twins were born that year, unlikely twins, the typewriter and the chromosome. The one an invention, the other a discovery. The invention was more evidently beautiful, designed, ornate, a carrier of language on the full moons of its keys. The chromosome was the silent younger sister, who contained a more dangerous, secret language. She was a soothsayer, she was a scroll, much like the one that is inserted into the tabeez and strung around the neck of a child. Only this scroll did not protect, it decreed..the long cell called the DNA, would tell the organism what was ordained for it, what kind of life it must live.
Typewriter. Discovery of chromosomes.
Ravi Varma's work had come to the notice of R Chisholm of the Madras Art School, who urges the Maharaja of Travancore to enter the paintings for the Madras Fine Arts Exhibiton. Ravi Varma gets the Governor's gold medal for his painting Nair Lady at her Toilet, he gets to meet the Governor of Madras in a private appointment. The foundations for the figure of the 'gentleman artist', native, yet friendly with the British.. are being laid, in the person of a young man, who, ironically, never attended any of the newly founded academies of British art. The work is later presented by the King of Travancore to the visiting king, Edward VII
