Solo in Stockholm

                          I clearly remember those dreamy days of my childhood when I first discovered wanderlust. Not the actual experience, I must state, but the mere yearning to be a traveler. Book in hand, a strong notion of the places that I wanted to visit, I was literally transported to those far off places I read about. My family never encouraged me to travel, so I was all the more determined that one day....one day when I'm old enough, rich enough, I would travel. Travel like crazy...

Once in Singapore, I traveled to a lot of S E Asian countries. They were vibrant, exotic and great places of culture. But for some reason, whereas the rest of the world was on my list of travel, chiefly Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Canada, it was Europe that was my dream destination. Somehow, the allure of Europe only grew with age, so much so that when I was finally chosen by the Nobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden,  to attend the  Nobel Conference on Biofilm formation (Aug 2013) for a poster presentation,there was no end to my jubilation.

As the trip was fully funded by my University, I did not really have to worry about not getting a visa. But had it been a normal touristy visit, the regulations were too stringent for the average Indian traveler. I remember the quiet happiness that pervaded me when I finally got back my passport with the Shengen Visa sticker stamped on it. I wanted to celebrate this moment, and I had lunch alone in Thai Express in the mall that housed the Danish Embassy that processed my visa.

The only off side of the trip  was that I was travelling alone all the way. It was a 17h journey, with a stopover at Bangkok for a couple of hours. And I would be staying alone as well, as I was the only one in my lab who was chosen for this conference. In a way, underlying the joy of finally getting to travel to Europe was the nagging feeling that for the very first time in my life, I would be on my own. I was thrilled, terrified and excited, all at the same time!

During the long flight, I watched all the Harry Potter movies, but at the same time, I kept a track of my flight trajectory....and it was a surreal time as my flight flew over India, then Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and finally landed at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport in the wee hours of the morning.

I was overcome by severe exhaustion and jet lag, but since I had only the first day free, I decided to make the best of it. I had already bought tickets for a city tour by bus and by boat, and so I checked into my hotel at Solna Central, and immediately took off for my trip.

Here's a view of the city of Stockholm:

Next, the tour group was shifted to a boat through which we took a ride along  Lake Maralem that eventually meets the Baltic Sea.

It was a fun trip, but as soon as I reached the hotel, I dozed off like a log. The next 3 days were conference days held in the Nobel Forum,Karolinska Institutet.

The last day of the conference ended with a reception at the City Hall (Stadshuset) of Stockholm which is the same place where the Nobel Prize banquet is held. There was good food, good wine and plenty of good company.

On the final day, I decided to take a trip to the old quarter of Stockholm, called "Gamla Stan" or the " Town between the bridges" as it was called until 1980. It's a beautiful corner of the city, complete with cobbled stones and alleyways, and I had the opportunity to click a few very good images.

Two soulful dreamlike songs that could pass off as lullabies

Arijit Singh's " Saawali si raat ho" from the movie " Barfi"

Shalmali Kholgade's "Kap, kap kap" from the movie "Prague"

The same song in Czech sung by Daniella Fotju

Melodious, soothing, ethereal.....

Lessons in Forgetting

       I just began reading " Lessons in Forgetting" by Anita Nair. It has already been adapted into a critically acclaimed movie released in 2011. 

       I was watching bits of the promos and trailers on you tube when I chanced upon the title credits of the movie that is done in sand art. It is in a way, a visual retelling of the actual tale, as it depicts how carefully a single father brings up his daughter, only to let her go when she finds her own wings and her own ways. Sadly, the world is not such a safe place, and soon, the free spirited daughter gets caught in a vicious web, and despite everything, the father is simply unable to extricate her from the quagmire.

The subject himself, or his legacy?......

                    I have been planning to write this post since a long time. Given my fascination with books, it was natural that my thoughts wandered off to the lives of authors/artists who wrote/created such everlasting, eternally inspiring books/art. Maybe the recent death of one of my favorite actors, Robin Williams also made me ponder more about these issues, because the more you probe, the more you discover the truth behind such great artists who exemplified in their respective fields, had larger-than-life personas despite personal lives that simply failed to live up to the grandeur of their work.

                    Which also brings me to the next existential dilemma- are you known for what you did and achieved in your lifetime, or simply how well you led your life? Or, lets put it like this: 

What is more important? The legacy of the subject or the subject himself?

Well, here are some insights into the lives of some of my favorite authors/artists:

D H Lawrence: 

                 " Lady Chatterley's Lover", Lawrence's last great work,  redefined sexuality and ushered a new paradigm in the representation of sexuality in literature forever. The book was written by him in the last three years of his life ( 1927-1930) when he was suffering with acute tuberculosis. The book was banned in the US until 1959 and in England until 1960, when the ban was lifted and Penguin Books was allowed to publish it.

                I've read the book countless times, seen the many movie adaptations that it inspired, and each time, the experience has been very, very satisfying and, ahem, invigorating. Yet, what is unimaginable is envisioning Lawrence awaiting his imminent death, with a wife he seldom spent any time with, capable of generating prose that, almost a century later, can still evoke such intense feelings. It is, nonetheless, a credit to his genius that he turned a death-bed work into a generation defining piece of literature.

Here's one of his quotes:

“When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the
cages of our personality
and get into the forests again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us
so that we don't know ourselves.

Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power,
we shall stamp our feet with new power
and old things will fall down,
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like
burnt paper.”

Vincent van Gogh:

                     No life can be as tragic as the one Van Gogh led. An inimitable artist whose body of work needs no words of introduction, he was, perhaps, the saddest, loneliest artist ever to have lived to create such astoundingly beautiful paintings, yet not living long enough to see the huge impact that his work would cause in the art world. He was, at different stages of his life, a victim of temporal lobe epilepsy, bipolar disorder , hypergraphia and suffered from lead and thujone poisoning. He checked himself into a mental asylum at St Remy after he partially mutilated his own ear. He finally committed suicide by shooting himself. In the ten years that he painted, he produced some 900 paintings that were never really appreciated, but within 20 years of his death, became famous and were sold for millions. 

                   I am an ardent fan, and sometimes, when I see his paintings, the kaleidoscopic visuals that create the illusion of movement and change, I wonder what went on inside the head of this brilliant, gifted man who never found peace, solace or tranquility that so define his works.  

        

Enid Blyton:   

       

                Now, this one is something that's even more bizarre. I mean, the mere mention of Enid Blyton brings to my memory the insane amount of time and love I had for " The Famous Five, " The Secret Seven", "Noddy", " Shadow, the sheepdog" etc. Our school's junior library had a stock of all these and I recall the moment I opened one of her books, it was an instant transportation into a world of adventure, fun, magic, friendship and all things associated with childhood's innocence.

              And that is the reason I call this bizarre, because when I recently happened to see a biopic based on her life, called "Enid", with the acclaimed British actress Helena Bonham Carter playing the titular role, I was struck by how utterly different this writer of children's classics was in real life. She was a far cry from the matronly, bookish, mild and good natured author I had envisioned. She was this prim, stylish, savvy business woman, who had a tight rein on her two daughters who were perpetually afraid to even appear in front of her. And she had a troubled marriage, which made her even more self-centered. At the precise time that she created her most popular character of "Noddy", she was in fact in the throes of a divorce. Now imagine that!!

      Maybe, as the cliche goes, real life tragedy does indeed provide fuel for creativity and spontaneity.

William S Burroughs:

Imagine someone who came up with:

" The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do."

Now that is food for thought! Burroughs, the writer. Burroughs, the man who was a conundrum personified. The man who was the founder of the "Beats", whose work ranged from surreal to nostalgic, autobiographical to anarchic, and who revelled in drugs and bisexuality, and was grimly unapologetic about it all. Now that's a real man for you.

I did know about the "Beatnik" writers, essentially Jack Kerouac's On the Road and stuff, but it was while watching Anthony Bourdain's acclaimed travel series "Parts Unknown" on CNN in an episode on Tangier, Morocco, that I came to know more about this unconventional writer who gave us the Beats. And pioneered the modern graphic novel form.

So imagine this guy, who actually shot his wife during a drunken game, and was a drug addict throughout his life, was a bisexual, and this featured in his literary style of the cut-up technique, wild, surrealistic satire and essentially an inspiration to modern day cyber Punk. A life of complete and absolute abandon with no regrets. And yet, highly respected in select circles and an important counterculture figure of the seventies.

There! I finally wrote about these figures!

There are quite a few other people I think about, but lets call it a day for now. :)

But it does tell mere mortals like us that, despite all these struggles and vicissitudes, pain, loss and failure, we can rise above all these through what we do and create and the legacy that we leave behind for an increasingly chaotic world to come.

Carpe diem: Seize the day; thoughts on Robin Willaims

           I think at a time when the world is simultaneously being plagued by grave problems; a war in Israel, an Ebola viral outbreak in Africa, blowed up passenger flights and airplanes gone missing over regions in strife, and a so called "Islamic State"  that has taken religious fundamentalism to an altogether new realm , I wonder what can save the world?

           Hope. Maybe. But surely humor. And then this news of Robbin Williams, one of the best comedians/actors of our times, reported dead, after committing suicide at his residence. He had apparently been dealing with substance abuse and depression for a long time.But when I remember him, as the funny guy with a big mouth and long nose and an insanely sunny and hopeful disposition, I simply cannot reconcile this fact to his screen persona. People like Williams are supposed be the ones that make countless people laugh and cry at the same time. No wonder, the world is shocked at this news, and millions of fans mourn for a man who embodied fun , humor and joy on the silver screen.

                   He was one of those really nice actors who could come up with just about anything at the spur of the moment and draw you in and make you laugh, and as I said earlier, cry, with the same intensity. Although he has starred in many movies, the closest to my heart are :

The Bicentennial Man:

The movie strikes a chord, especially in the current context as more of us are succumbing to a "robotic" lifestyle, whereas this guy here was built a robot, but gradually imbued human talents and values and was accorded the status of a "human" on his death bed.

Dead Poet's Society:

 

Perhaps my favorite movie of his. Portraying the role of an unconventional English teacher, John Keating, at a boarding school for adolescent boys in this coming-of-age tale, he will best be remembered for his inspiring teachings, and his "Seize the day, Carpe diem " speech. And of course, as he is expelled from school for his radical methods, the scene where his students entreat him, from Walt Whitman's classic poem, "Oh Captain, my Captain!!"

Takes me back to those days when I saw these movies and marveled at the emotions they could make us go through.

Patch Adams:

Another great movie, with Williams winning the hearts of all his patients as much with his optimism, wit and jokes as his medical expertise. A friend from Turkey said that some Med schools there screen this movie for novice doctors before they really begin to treat patients. Also, it is one of those Robin Williams movies that make you cry and cry for the sheer emotions he evokes. 

Good Will Hunting:

Of course, who can forget the role that finally fetched him the Oscar in a Best Supporting role. His role was that of the school psychiatrist who empathizes and inspires the troubled yet gifted mathematician played by the handsome and talented  Matt Damon.

And finally, Mrs Doubtfire:

No one could've better played the role of the broke, desperate father trying to reconnect to his three children after he divorces his wife,by dressing in drag as the capable nanny, "Mrs Doubtfire". Hilarious, sensitive and pure fun to watch, this was one of those movies that one can watch again and again without ever getting bored. 

We will miss you, Robin Williams. You had so much more to offer. Yet, your legacy will stay on forever, bringing smiles and laughter to all your fans.