A Touch Of Indian

Nothing Planned

It's just how things have panned out.  Firstly, there's Venkat Kapoor, whom is a fictional character from "The Martian", which I hope you recollect me going on about re-reading.  He's the Director of Mars Operations at N.A.S.A. so he carries quite a lot of clout.  He was played by that splendid character actor Chewitel Ejiofor (British, of course) in the film, and they Anglicised his first name.  Art!

     There's a great quote when NASA are planning a desperate, last-ditch attempt to send supplies to Mark Watney (the "The Martian" of the title) on Mars.

     "Do you believe in God, Venkat?" Mitch asked.

     "Sure, lots of 'em," Venkat said.  "I'm Hindu."

     Hindus have a whole pantheon of gods, for the uninformed.  Which is dancing close to the edge of Religion, from which we will carefully dance away again.

     

Mark Watney: King Of Mars!

   Here an aside.  TM is all about clever people, and very clever people, working hard together to manage the near-impossible, and nailing it.  It's nice to see intellect rather than brute force prevail.

     

     ANYWAY I left one of my earlier blogs leaving all of us - me and all three readers out there - somewhat puzzled by the description of Major Neil Fraser-Tytler when he left his artillery battery at the front lines to go teach at an artillery school: "Hun Shikar".

     I should have realised both the literal and metaphorical sense of what he wrote, because NFT always described the opposition as the "Hun", and pre-war had been a keen hunting, shooting and fishing chap.   Plus an Old Etonian, which isn't really relevant here, I just wanted to give you a tad more background.

     "Shikar", you see, is an Indian word meaning "to hunt for sport", as in those chaps who would ride on the back of an elephant in a howdah, bristling with guns, blazing away at the wildlife, in order to have a trophy that they could mount on the wall.

Badly-behaved British bang-bangers

     Emphatically not hunters who go out to slay some meaty beast in order to have something for the pot.

     So - NFT was referring, in his effortlessly bad-taste way, to hunting the Hun in order to slay them with artillery.  His prowess and skills in hunting and stalking and spotting actually served him well in the front lines, so a touch of actuality about his metaphor.

     Incidentally, there is also an Indian film called "Shikar", which I've never seen and know nothing about - hang on -

That man is wearing lipstick!
(Shockingly not done in 1968)

 

     One quick Google later, followed by a walk for Edna whilst the sun remains shining, and brewing another pot of tea, and forty minutes have passed - O the film?  A murder-mystery.  With songs.  Art!

Of course with songs

    One of the stars has the somewhat unlikely name "Johnny Walker".  A tale for another time ...

    Then there is Enter Shikari, the British band.  Art!

Including the title?

     
    Your Humble Scribe probably has one of their albums knocking about somewhere.  Their name comes from a boat that was owned by one of the band's relatives, named "Shikari", which we all know means "Hunter" in Hindu.
    Then there are "Johdpurs".  You'll know what I mean if Art gets off his waffle-patterned posterior -

As worn by Erich Von Stroheim

     My Collins Concise defines these as riding legwear, loose around the thighs whilst being tight against the leg from the knee downwards; presumably because one's thighs flex and move whilst riding a horse, and thus need room to move?  There must be a compelling reason why you'd wear an item of clothing that renders one liable to mockery.

     Well, this week I found out that the name comes from the Indian city of Jodhpur, which I never knew existed <hangs head in shame>, so in penitent mood, allow me to present the city - Art!

     That's not a filter effect, the buildings really are blue. The locals like the colour so much they painted most of their houses blue, which kinda makes it stand out.

Erich Von S.

     Okay, motley, let's have a go at jousting on horseback, except horses are hard to get hold of so we'll use motorbikes instead.  Jodhpurs on!

"We Have Ways ..."

Indeed they do, and frequently winning ones, too.  I am,of course - obviously! - talking about the podcast "We Have Ways Of Making You Talk" featuring comic Al Murray and historian James Holland.  On Thursday they had a guest speaker, author Jonathan Ware.  Art!

Wallet squeaks in anguish ...

     I'm pretty sure this was mentioned in Professor John Buckley's "Monty's Men" because you remember a title that contains the strange word "Sospan".  I wonder what it means?  ANYWAY Jonathan really, really knows his stuff about Normandy and the campaign there, because he went to the bother of going back to actual real archival records and returns and reports made at the time, rather than regurgitating urban legends as if they were facts.  He wasn't shy of criticising the guilty parties, especially Max Hastings, and in fact had given a copy of the latter's "Overlord" to his friends and asked them to read it - and then explain how the British won.  They couldn't.  Jonathan could, and did so on WHW, but he does swear a few times, so - beware parents.  Art!

JW

Ah, I See!

You ought to know Conrad by now, never one to avoid a bit of digging in the interests of defining a word or phrase.  "Sospan" is an alternate way of spelling "Sosban", which comes from a Welsh song "Sosban fach", which is Welsh for "Little Saucepan".  Art!

Finally -

Blimey, it's nearly three in the afternoon and I'm eating jam from a tin with a spoon I've not had my lunch yet.  The grim grey clouds had also come rolling in, making me glad we had walkies earlier, though blue sky is making a comeback as I type.  I need to get up to the Compositional Ton so I can get a ham sandwich (Wonder Wifey cooked an enormous gammon joint overnight on Thursday so our meals feature a lot of ham).

     And thus we are done!