Rodevra Republic

Please, sir, I want some more Enactment of the line, "Please sir, I want some more." from the Broadway musical  "Oliver!" Think some of of you may have found this solitary line quite unusual. I had been working on the "Saturday Art" post, where I was this time giving how a piece of celebrated literature is the result of an author's artistry with words. The particular reference is to Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.  Oliver Twist's famous request for more food, “Please, sir, I want some more." , is one of the most iconic moments in Charles Dickens' novel. This scene occurs early in the book when Oliver, an orphan in a workhouse, dares to ask for an extra portion of porridge, shocking the authorities. From a literary perspective, Dickens uses this moment to highlight the cruelty and neglect of the Victorian-era workhouse system, which was meant to provide for the poor but instead subjected them to near-starvation. Oliver's simple reque...

Frank Hurley's actual photograph capturing the defining moment of the expedition Today's story is about Ernest Shackleton, being one of the most famous survival and leadership tales in history and the advertisement he placed for his mission. Shackleton was a British explorer who led the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914, aiming to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. However, his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in the ice and was eventually crushed, forcing Shackleton and his crew into a desperate struggle for survival. The story is often quoted in corporate and leadership programmes as it provides excellent examples of crisis management, resilience, and people-first leadership. In fact in our company, one of our top group managers had told his story and ever since it has remained in memory.  Most of you may be knowing about Shackleton’s survival story, as a lot has been said and written about it. What I give here as part of my Sunday Story, is one other aspect re...

“Spring" by John Lavery (1856 – 1941) Looking at the title of the painting, ‘Spring’, one would have expected the warm and vibrant colours associated with spring such as yellow, green or pink, however the painting here is predominant white. Even the walls and floor are almost colourless in grey. The only and perhaps the strongest association with spring is the bouquet of “baby’s breath” flowers held by the girl. These tiny white flowers on thin, wispy stems are typically spring time flowers, flowering from early spring to summer on the European continent. The question remains on why Lavery, who was known for rural naturalism and his sophisticated landscape paintings, painted this supposedly ‘Spring’ picture that has almost a monochrome tone to it.  The answer could be the period in which he painted it.  The year was 1904 and it was the gradual decline of Realism and emergence of Impressionism/ Post Impressionism. A group of artists led by Claude Monet, Renoir, Edgar Degas revo...

  🌸 Shadows of Love 🌸 There is a subtle expression, behind a curly fern. Calm in her eyes and poise in her looks... ...she swirls like the opening of a fern, to spread her locks and bring some shade. She is rich in her warmth, with a hug ... ... like the fern, tender and soothing in form. Little murmurs spread, like the freshness of her breath and tempt me like the fragrance, of a beautiful bud, spreading its scent. She strides away in the mist, of a newly lit dawn. Away but leaving behind a dream, that gives me life to sketch... ... her image with my pen! – SM ✍🏻📚 – Writers desk Sunil (SM), a dear friend send the above poem on our school Whatsapp group and in fact sends thought provoking and inspirational daily posts. I don't usually comment on them, but this one was striking and prompted me to review as below: Don't know how many of you have noticed what a wonderful poem Sunil has written this morning. Most of us are silent admirers of hi...

The immense transformative power of good company is often undervalued, but for one who desires to raise himself to his potential, one automatically gravitates to the right people in whose company one can further his progress. The important thing is intention and if it is there, the forces within and around us, will place us in the right company. After all, we are naturally disposed towards reaching out to our higher Self, but our predispositions and forgetfulness divert us.  In this context there is a remarkable and true story which was picturised in the movie, 'Do Ankhen Barah Haath'.  Six hard-core convicts were brought together in a farm in an 'open prison' experiment where the jailor wishes to transform them. He trusted them, treating them as humans capable of rising beyond their base nature to their higher self. He knew with the right environment and by instilling humane values, people can be transformed. The six convicts were eventually transformed to become produ...

Today's edition of 'Saturday Art' features a poem. You may question how it qualifies as art, but poetry as an art form allows one, through words in verse, to express ideas, emotions, or experiences directly — pretty much what art does. It is artistic because of the delicate juggling act of rhythms, sound devices, and subject matter. The sounds of the words in a line of poetry make a rhythm similar to the rhythm in music. This rhythm is established by meter, which is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. These sound devices are used as a strategy to create an emotional response in the listener. They are also used to create certain effects in the poem to convey and reinforce meaning through sound. To illustrate this, what comes to mind is this beautiful poem, The Bangle Sellers , written by Sarojini Naidu. There is another reason for selecting this poem. Just a couple of days ago, on 13th February, it was her 146th birth anniversary. You may know she was an ac...

When you are walking on the road, commuting, at a restaurant or in a public place, you hear random words and statements and while sometimes one gets useful snippets of information, the more entertaining part is getting to hear a rich mix of local speak. I was walking near Gowalia Tank yesterday when I heard two girls talking, where one of them put an unusual emphasis on the word 'and'. It was quite striking and made me think how loosely we use this simple little word, often taking it for granted. As it is, it is so overworked and we burden it more with our lazy approach in not finding the right alternative word. Its primary function is to act as a coordinating conjunction, meaning it joins two grammatically equal elements in a sentence, such as words, phrases, or clauses, to indicate that they are connected or should be considered together. However, do you know that one can actually do without it and in doing so improve the quality of communication? In fact, in some langu...

I was sent this intriguing and fascinating picture with a request to throw some light on it. Here is my assesement of it: .  The dark and foreboding, even macabre picture instantly reminded me of Plato's Allegory of the Cave,  where prisoners are trapped and they know no life beyond the cave. A bright fire is burning in front which engages them in a way that they have no inclination to escape. They cast shadows and that becomes their reality because they have never seen anything else. As in the Plato's cave, there is the dog as well, as seen above.  To put it simply, it is an allegory of the world of illusion and perception, which does not always reflect the reality of truth.  If we relate it to our lives, we may be trapped in a world of narratives, which may be a false reality. Reality is but a construction and the world is only as big as we can imagine. Plato's Cave at its heart shows us this internal conflict. If we open our minds to new ideas and belief systems, ...

Akbar and Tansen visit Swami Haridas We have seen so many cases where the disciples or students have been no less illustrious than their Gurus or teachers. To give a few examples, Nivruttinath and Dnyanraj Mauli, Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekanand,  Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller, Guru Ravidas and Meera, Swami Haridas and Tansen.  To emphasize the point, here is a story of Swami Haridas and his student, Tansen.  Swami Haridas believed to be an incarnation of Lalita Sakhi, used to please Krishna, who he lovingly called, 'Shri Bihariji', by singing sweet devotional songs he composed as he played the vina. While singing, he would become so completely absorbed in it that he would  forget everything in and about him. Tansen was his disciple. Upon hearing about Swami Haridasa’s glories from Tansen, Akbar desired to relish his blissful music. But Swami Haridas had firmly resolved not to entertain anyone but his deity, Shri Bihariji.   Therefore one day Emperor ...

It is a long way from the time the dove represented the Holy Spirit, as it descended on Jesus. It has now acquired the quality of peace and tranquility that naturally tends to spread to others. Once an individual discovers peace within, it is accessing the source of peace which is boundless and all enveloping. So the person experiences peace inside out and exudes it in a manner others feel it too.  Peace finds expression in various ways. We find it in the arts, music, dance and even expressed in literature. One of the most recognizable symbols of peace in art has been the "Dove of Peace",  a lithograph on paper created by Pablo Picasso in 1949. It is the most widely recognised modern symbol of peace.  Picasso’s rendition of the dove is striking in its simplicity. He employs minimal lines and shapes to capture the essence of the bird. The angular, abstract approach adds a contemporary relevance to the piece. Shades of Cubism, his trademark style, are also seen. The white o...

Indeed a missed opportunity! Blame it on the unimaginative Romans, and later the English, who followed the rule book for coining words. So they took dent  or dens  for for teeth and urus  for a set. So we had dent-ures,   for a set of teeth. How simplistic and unoriginal!  But these staid and plain dentures have had a say in US history...right from George Washington to Donald Trump.  Washington experienced dental problems throughout his adult life. His dental dilemma caused by  aching teeth, lost teeth, inflamed gums, ill-fitting dentures, and a host of other dental miseries caused him great discomfort. His jaw line was faulted, as seen in the picture, because of ill-fitted dentures or a loose denture plate. His full dentures were a mix of human teeth (from slaves), animal teeth, carved ivory (elephant and hippopotamus). He was sensitive of his dental issues and it was a closely guarded secret. He rarely smiled because of this and one can imagine, what...

There has been an old story doing the rounds on WhatsApp about Alfred Dunhill on how he came to be a leading tobacconist, with a moral in the end that states that whatever happens is for our good. My story is not to retell the story, as the story is itself apocryphal, but to give a literary perspective, and in the process derive a broader meaning than originally claimed. However, I need to first recount the original story that has been circulating: "A church in London had rules that it would not employ anyone, without formal high school education. The old pastor was benign and not a stickler of rules. He allowed Alfred Dunhill (who lacked formal education) as the caretaker to clean the pews, sweep the floor and keep the podium spick and span. Dunhill had put off taking his high school examination till it became too late. Once the old pastor retired, he was replaced by a younger person who followed the rule book. As he came to know about the caretaker’s education, he issued a notic...

The Abduction of Proserpina -  Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598-1680).  Carrara marble 225 cm (89 in) Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy. This is a representation of the myth of Pluto, God of the Underworld, kidnapping Proserpina and dragging her to his world. Bernini, with marble, catches the actual moment of the abduction, the movement and struggle. She is twisting, writhing and screaming. There are tears on her face. You can see his fingers pressing into her flesh. Its an unpleasant story but a brilliant rendition. Bernini was only 23 years old when he completed this work. One is used to seeing display of intense emotion in paintings, but this must be the first time it is seen in a sculpture. Bernini's style is dynamic and flamboyant and is emotionally charged. The display of passion and emotion in a sculpture was groundbreaking and required technical brilliance of a high order. There is a sense of drama which was hitherto not seen earlier. For example Michelangelo's David ...