Museum Treasure: The minbar of Sultan Qa’itbay

Posted on by sudhagee

I love museums. I love museums that are interactive even more. And if a museum allows me to photograph their exhibits, particularly their more unusual ones, then they become my best friends. The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London, is one such museum, with a lot of beautiful and rare exhibits, including many from India.

But what caught my eye on my visit there, was an exhibit I had never seen before, and for that matter never even heard of before—a minbar.

The Minbar for Sultan Qa’itbay of Egypt at V&A Museum, London

A minbar is a prayer pulpit used for the midday service on Fridays. This magnificent minbar is made of panels of cedar wood with delicate inlay of ivory and wood, enhancing its intricate geometrical patterns. The minbar also has traces paint and gliding work. According to the information plaque, the minbar was made for Sultan Qa’itbay, who ruled Egypt from 1468-1496.

Another view of the minbar of Sultan Qa’itbay of Egypt at the V&A Museum

The holy month of Ramadan is underway, a month of fasting, prayer and piety. I could think of no better way to wish everyone Ramadan Kareem than by sharing this museum treasure with you.

The Museum Treasure Series is all about artifacts found in museums with an interesting history and story attached to them. You can read more from this series here.

The exploitative Indian

Posted on by sudhagee

“Shyam Singh”, yells Mrs. A. “Shyam Singh, where are you?”.

Mrs. A is one of the residents of our building/housing society. She has run out of fresh coriander leaves and needs Shyam Singh to go to the nearby vegetable market and get some for her. But Shyam Singh is not there; he has been sent by Mr. B, another building resident, to get a pack of cigarettes. By the time Shyam Singh gets back, Mrs. M (yet another building resident) is calling also out for him; she needs him to go and get her a dozen eggs. He takes both the “orders” and proceeds to the nearby shops once again.

Let me introduce Shyam Singh here. He is the 48-year old watchman of our society and who has been working for the society and its residents from August 2001. I must also add here that he is our only watchman with duty hours from 9 am to 7 pm every day, with no weekly holidays (if he needs a day off, it is his responsibility to arrange for a replacement). During his working hours, Shyam Singh is at the gate, watching over the building and its residents, manning the gate for the residents’ vehicles, keeping out salespersons, allowing the courier and other delivery guys into the building, etc. As watchman of our housing society, it is also Shyam Singh’s responsibility to carry out any bank-related work of the society, as well pay the society’s electricity or water bills at the concerned offices.

At least this is what he is supposed to do. Unfortunately, Shyam Singh is unable to carry out these duties as he is also the unpaid 24X7 errand boy man-cum-help-cum-aid for the residents of our building. He is forever going to the market to buy something or the other for them or helping them lug huge shopping bags to their flats or supervising the children of our building at play, or match-making domestic helps to the residents.

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Harry Potter for the tourist

Posted on by sudhagee

Harry Potter may have started off as a creation of literary imagination, but over the years has become very real to many people. Thanks to the success of the books and the films (not to mention the excellent marketing), Harry Potter has entered into our collective imagination and achieved cult status. And in a few years time, the books will probably be hailed as a classic. Already, there are talks of including the books as part of the syllabus and I saw quite a few blog posts recently on “management lessons learnt from Harry Potter”.

So it is no surprise that Harry Potter is also an attraction for tourists to the UK who try to visit places from the books as well as places where they were filmed. There are guided tours which undertake Harry Potter tours for the besotted tourist/fan. For example, London Walks (which conducts guided walks in and around London), has three different Harry Potter walking tours (you can read more about them here).

Now, while I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books, I am not a great fan of the Harry Potter films. So while I did not join any of the guided Harry Potter tours, it didn’t stop me getting all excited whenever I chanced upon a location during the course of my travels.

This is Australia House in London and apparently the setting or inspiration (I'm not sure which one) for Gringotts Banks

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Travel Shot: St. Mary’s Island

Posted on by sudhagee

Once upon a time, ok in November 1998, a friend and I decided to travel down the West coast of India. We started in Honnavar in Karnataka and travelled all the way down to Thiruvananthapuram, hopping in and out of trains and buses. It is a trip that makes me nostalgic even thinking about it. One the places we “discovered” was St. Mary’s Island, off Malpe Beach near Udipi.

St. Mary’s Island, also called Coconut Island by the locals, is an uninhabited island with a shelly beach and clear, cool waters. This is how the local operator who ran motor boat services to the island sold the beach to us. What he did not mention was that the island was made up of columnar basalts, and that it was a geological monument.

7 November 1998: St. Mary’s Island

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A weekend with a purpose

Posted on by sudhagee

This weekend was a weekend with a purpose. A single-minded purpose to do some much-needed pruning. No, not pruning of trees or bushes or shrubs, but of my book collection, which had grown, multiplied and reached unmanageable levels at home.

Yes, I am talking about space constraints which was threatening domestic peace. A week ago, my mother nearly had a fit when she found 3 of my books inside the pressure cooker she uses when we have more than 10 people over for a meal. When I told her that she had not used that cooker for more than 6 months and would probably not use them for another 6, she was not amused. When I persisted by saying that I was only making good use of available space like a true Mumbaikar, she mumbled something about encroachment and territorial rights. Mothers !

But I knew that she was right. A pressure cooker is nearly always meant for cooking (though I do remember the pressure cooker in question being used for storing water, when we faced severe water shortage a few years back) and is certainly not the place for keeping books. And my books were all over the place at home (in addition to being in book shelves meant for them)—they shared space with sheets and the pillow covers, my dupattas and shalwars, my CDs and my tanpura, and of course my mother’s pots and pans.

Image Source: MS Office Cliparts 

The easiest thing for me would have been to get additional shelves made, but I knew that this was not the solution. The solution lay in pruning my book collection—not an easy decision at all as I am attached to all my books and it would be difficult to decide which books to keep and which ones to discard/give away/sell.

After thinking about it for some time, I came up with a 5 point criteria that I hoped would help me separate the books I wanted to keep and the books I could to say goodbye to.

The perils of punctuality

Posted on by sudhagee

Punctuality is often considered to be a virtue. But in my experience, punctuality has been a curse and a bane, as I belong to that category of people who are punctual by nature. Though I am pretty easy-going about many things, punctuality is not one of them. Add to this the general Indian concept of Indian Stretchable Standard Time and I have a ready-made recipe for palpitations.

Image Source: http://www.blog.offshoring.se

It begins simply enough. Let’s say, I am meeting a friend at a pre-decided venue at 5.30 pm. I am at the venue by 5.15 pm. By 5.20 pm, I start looking out for my friend, even though there is still 10 minutes to rendezvous time. By 5.35 pm, I have worked myself into a frenzy of self-doubt—is this the correct place and time? By 5.45, I have doubts about the date and by 6.00 pm, I start having palpitations and wonder if there was even a meeting in the first place ! This is usually when the friend I am waiting arrives and says, ”Oh! Were you waiting for long? You poor thing. Come, let’s go and have something to eat. I’m starving.” There are a few variations to this theme, but this is how it happens most of the time. Without fail.

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