musingsinmediterranean

A teacher and his student

Leonardo Da Vinci said of his pupils-they are my creations.

Here, in this video-Mumbai art teacher and musician

sings and plays the guitar

Maben Oswald

I first heard of Maben Sir through the letters I used

to get from India.

He has toiled with my son for 3 years.

But on talking to him, I came to know the many facets

of this wonderful human being.

Left a 5 star Manager Job-For his love for music

His father called him 'crazy', relatives and friends

'counselled' him, but he gave up a promising career

in the Hotel industry for his first love-Music

Not many of us have the guts to follow our dreams

in this manner.

Many Salutes

The Digital Revolution

With the digital revolution, the virtual studio came

in and many promising musicians were booted out of the

Bollywood music industry. Maben was one of them.

But he held on

In parties, clubs, church concerts, Teaching school children

his art and passion.

The Song
Rim Jhim Gire Saawan

Movie:Manzil

Year:1979

Lyrics:Yogesh

Singer:Kishore Kumar

Music Director:R.D.Burman

Roughly translated

Rim jhim gire Sawan, sulag sulag jaaye man

Bheege aaj is mausam mein, lagi kaisi ye agan

In this rainy season, my mind burns

How this fire, in this wet season

Jab Ghunghroo Si Bajti hein Boondein

Armaan Humaare Palake na moondein

When the Rain drops sound their music

My visions and aspirations soar.

Creations
Maben has created many musicians

He sings and plays with the heart.

The large park next to the zoo has a charm of it's own.

Seeing the zoo animals from the open side, on a lovely cool

summer morning has a charm of it's own.

We even made some designs with shadows in the park

Sketching makes on see patterns

which the cursory glance does not yield.

So, apart from swimming and floating,

we did some sketch studies of Mattia Preti's works

Truth being intimidated by vested interests.

Flags in the background.

Layers within the composition.

There were flags in the paintings, which we

could see only after some time.

Messages through time.

In the robes, postures, glances..all through sketches

Another lovely sunny summer afternoon by the sea.

Your floater is a trick..I told my friend.

The Egyptian added to the cynic disbelieving sarcasm

of my dear friend Mathew who did not quite believe me.

"Next you will be telling me that you can sketch while swimming"

OK..I went and floated, without the floaters.

They came close to see whether I was doing anything.

Nothing

Not a muscle was moving.

They were a bit unconvinced initially, but had to give in

Oh! I said you can float for some time..Do it for half an hour

and show me. My friend now added a new demand while conceding

that one can easily float without the floaters.

The ability to lie still is the basis of the ability to float

in water.

But few can lie absolutely still...in water or in real life.

Once one is still, many secrets and lessons open up

It all started even before that sunny

day in Tripoli, almost a century ago.

I got a copy of that letter written from

Tripoli, in Italian.

Then the translation.

A geneology. Of a family who has settled in

Tripoli over a century ago.

I returned to the cemetery and had a look

at one of the masouleums again.

This time it was different.

They say-the written word changes many things.

***

Then followed a visit to the church to search

for old records.

One of the priests smiled at me in an ironic way.

But it is alright. I have had these experiences before.

As one of my cousins once wrote to my mother..

"He is a strange boy". The journeys continue

***

There is a large supermarket nearby. (Modern shopping experiences)

Standing in the food corner, I gazed out of the window

And there, watching over all of us, were the Masouleums.

I asked my son, if he recognized the structures.

That is the Fort (this is how a 8 year old remembers them)

***

Discussing with a friend and comparing some notes.

He has pain in the neck, we did a scan, I told him

what to do (not to worry).

They did the Guillotine approach, I hope I do not require that

he said.

Well, I was revising some notes on the 14th of July-Bastille Day

I said, as our discussions tend to become broader than

routine medical consultations.

Do not forget 4th of July -Declaration of Independence. That is

better, he said.

As a representative of one of the regimes of Europe, I had

expected him to say that.

But then..I was left wondering which is better.

Depends on whose angle are you looking from..may be.

Our revisions continue.

Two colleagues ended up in the court room. Both were probably 50% wrong, but each saw only the wrong half of the other party. Then the judge called them to his chamber and asked them to finish off the dispute as otherwise they could spend the next ten years running to the courts.

To the government doctor the judge told: “You have been in this court as a witness in so many cases. Does it suit you to be now standing in front of me as an accused?”

To the private doctor the judge said: “The court is my life. One thing I can say. This is not the place for decent family people to come regularly.”

Conveying this story of “How-I-Fixed-Him” to an Army veteran doctor, a close friend and colleague of his father (now deceased) , the young spirited doctor was told..

“You have shown that you are the true son of your father.” Their stories go back several decades nay centuries. They have visited and prayed at the tombs all over.

But he did not end there.He taught him a lesson of Courage, a more meaningful courage.
He told him a story from the Bible. Two brothers were there, Esau and Jacob. Esau returns home hungry and tells his brother,

“Listen, if you give me your dish of pottage (Jacob had prepared a dish of pottage) I will give over to you my birthright.”

One can understand the story in quite a superficial way. But it has a deeper meaning.

The birthright of being Dignified.

And the man was ready to give up his right in order to eat because he was hungry. And there are times the Ego has it’s hunger too.
When caught in a cycle of anger-resentment just ask..Is that the real me?

Would you have seen the Masai of Kenya if you had

Been sitting in your home state in Southern India?

I asked him as we exchanged notes on his visits.

Through work he has seen some distant corners

Of the world.

Kruger national Park...south Africa

The Canadian Rockies.

Where else?...Told him to get a good camera

To add to these experiences.

As one photographer said..A photographer has the eyes

To see more in one year than most people see in a life time.

Camping has been his passion for many years.

Traveling with the photographic eye will enhance these

experiences..

In the initial part of the discussion he had told of

his varied experiences as an Immigrant worker.

However, as we started talking about the wilderness,

away from where the Humans stay (crowd) he had a different

tone and twinkle in his eyes

Was discussing with a friend regarding "Melting Pot" culture

We then touched upon icons like "American dream" and what

It means for Immigrant communities and also the average

worker in these times of recession.

He told of the "Hungry City" of New York where there are

persons who own yachts worth millions and yet there is hunger.

Recently there has been a spate of attacks on students in Australia.

This worker is a veteran of 35 years, and has seen the tier system

In management, with supervisory roles going to a particular set of people.

He recalled his experiences of having to be interrupted by someone

Who started objecting to his speaking to his wife in his mother tongue.

Thankfully the bus driver stopped the bus and off loaded the nuisance.

There are many shades and situations.

How do you write a diary?

Some alternative methods

Having written a diary regularly for over a quarter of a century (since 1983)
I have followed various formats, which may be more interesting
than the routine…What I did? Whom I met? Why am I alive?

A few days ago, I went to Sabratha, a world Heritage site 80 kilometers to the west of Tripoli.

The city was first settled in 5th century BC by Punic settlers. Then came the Greeks, and a few centuries later the Romans.

And then we wrote a Diary on sand..and I wondered..If one of these
Statues came alive, what would they tell, of the times gone by and the
Lovely times they had.

Saying it with the Guitar

Then there are tunes which merge with the sound of the sea.

When one climbs up the ancient temples, the sound of the breeze
Merges into the sea sound.

A sound diary …of sea, breeze..and guitar

No Head?

My younger son asked (to many smiles) why this lady does not have a head.

Well, she will come alive when she meets her soul-mate, I replied.

A sand diary

Oh! You are always lost in history? Someone commented.

See the history of the rocks..these are on the scale of millions of years
rather than the thousands which form the scale of Human history.

She quickly gave up, lest I start something on the layers of history in the
Rocks, sand and what is there below the sea…

Turtles and fishes…also write diaries…by the sea.