Saturday, September 21, 2013

Great Grand Parents and Gobind

A date with Great Grand Parents - Gobind Kapoor

2013

Monday, September 16, 2013

Looking to a Wall That Limited the Devastation at the World Trade Center

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

A portion of the slurry wall was deliberately left exposed in the Foundation Hall of the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

Published: September 11, 2013

Some of the heroes of Sept. 11, 2001, performed their lifesaving work at the World Trade Center many years before the attack.

Arturo Lamberto Ressi di Cervia supervised the construction of the slurry wall around the World Trade Center foundation in the 1960s. The once-lowly wall became a symbol of resilience in the years after the 2001 attack.

Arturo Lamberto Ressi di Cervia, who died last month at 72, supervised the construction of the slurry wall around the trade center foundation in the 1960s. When the towers collapsed in 2001, and the wall began to strain under almost unthinkable pressures from the surrounding water table, his work paid off.

The wall held.

Because the slurry wall held, the 70-foot-deep foundation did not fill with groundwater. And because of that, the PATH tubes were not submerged. And because of that, the subway tunnels below the PATH tubes were not inundated.

How much worse could Sept. 11 have been? Imagine if Hurricane Sandy had followed the terrorist attack by a few hours.

Mr. Ressi’s supervision of the slurry wall construction “may have helped prevent the Hudson River from flooding parts of Lower Manhattan,” said George J. Tamaro, a former staff engineer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who was closely involved with the construction of the trade center.

The once-lowly wall became a symbol of resilience in the months and years after the attack. Its importance was so widely acknowledged that a portion wasdeliberately left exposed in the colossal Foundation Hall of the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which is to open next year.

Of course, that wasn’t what Mr. Ressi set out to build in 1967, when he arrived in New York at age 27, just three years out of the University of Bologna, Italy, from which he held a doctorate in engineering.

He worked for Icanda, an Italian-Canadian contractor that specialized in slurry walls. First, trenches would be dug down to bedrock; about 70 feet below street level, in the case of the trade center.

Slurry — a muddy soup of water and bentonite clay — would be pumped into the trench to keep the sides from closing up until a giant cage of steel rebar could be lowered into the trench, after which concrete would be pumped in.

The concrete, heavy enough to displace the slurry, would harden into a wall that no one would actually see until it was completed all around, after which excavation could begin within the 11-acre area enclosed by the wall.

Without such a retaining wall, it would have been impossible to excavate the trade center site, much of which was on spongy landfill dating to the 18th century. And conventional foundation wall construction was ruled out because of the many underground obstacles, from ships’ ballast to the PATH tubes.

Before Icanda could begin, the Port Authority and City Hall had to work out differences over the development of the trade center. (Sound familiar?) That was when Mr. Ressi met a singer named Carol Marie Gerdts, and fell in love. “I basically was twiddling my thumbs for months,” he told my colleague James Glanz in a 2003 interview, “and as a result I got married.”

All else was stress. Icanda had no experience dealing with New York’s construction trade unions. It was employing a technique untried at such a scale, using jury-rigged tools, on a site that brimmed with uncharted obstacles and unhappy surprises, like a sudden 50-foot drop in the bedrock level where asmall valley had been carved by retreating glaciers.

Crews worked around the clock. When a crisis developed at 3 a.m., Mr. Ressi thought nothing of telephoning Mr. Tamaro at home. “If I wasn’t sleeping, why should he?” was his philosophy. “We would get a quick decision.”

Mr. Ressi prided himself in saying the main perimeter wall construction was finished in nine months, “pretty much on schedule.”

Thirty-five years later, in 2002, the architect Daniel Libeskind drew the world’s attention to the symbolic significance of the wall, when he proposed its preservation and exposure as part of the redevelopment of the trade center.

“My first experience at ground zero was going down to bedrock and being viscerally transfixed,” he said this week. “I realized this is not only about unimaginable destruction but about the power of resurgence.”

Mr. Libeskind recalled a “very emotional” conversation with Mr. Ressi in which he described his plan to expose the slurry wall. “I think he instantly understood why it was important to do that,” Mr. Libeskind said.

Indeed, he did. In their 2003 conversation, Mr. Glanz mentioned to Mr. Ressi that some engineers had expressed reservations about the idea.

“Oh, no,” Mr. Ressi said. “I was instead so pleased that that was the chosen scheme because I think it is — well, not only do I like the architecture of it, but I also like the idea of having that space open again. Although I promise you, I never thought I would have seen that wall again in my life.”

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Exiled Maharaja Duleep Singh

How the British decimated the strongest kingdom of North India and saw to it that none of the offshoots, of last exiled Maharaja Maharaja Duleep Singh of Lahore, were allowed to produce their heirs.

Maharaja Duleep Singh married twice, first to Bamba Muller and then to Ada Douglas Wetherill. He had eight children in total, six from his first marriage to Bamba:

Prince Victor Duleep Singh
Prince Frederick Duleep Singh
Prince Albert Edward Duleep Singh
Princess Bamba Duleep Singh
Princess Catherine Duleep Singh
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh

He also had two children from his second marriage to Ada Douglas Wetherill:

Princess Pauline Alexandra Duleep Singh
Princess Ada Irene Beryl Duleep Singh

All the eight children died without legitimate issue, ending the direct line of the Sikh Royalty.

It is strongly rumored by the family that all were given slow food poisoning so that they remained incapable of producing any kids. Thus a whole powerful Sikh Royalty family was systematically eliminated, so that British could rule ruthlessly and longer.

Duleep Singh was much admired by Queen Victoria (Britain Queen, between (1838-1901), who is reported to have written of the Punjabi Maharajah: "Those eyes and those teeth are too beautiful". The Queen was godmother to several of his children.

Singh is considered as Britain's first Sikh settler, having been exiled to its shores in 1854, after being dethroned and having his country annexed by the East India Company in 1849.

Here is an astonishing but true story retold below:

It is an emotional encounter and marks the reunion of Maharajah Duleep Singh, exiled King of the Punjab and ruler of the Sikhs, with his ailing mother, Maharani Jind Kaur.

With his mom Maharani Jinda

The two had not seen each other for almost 14 years following the seizure of Duleep Singh’s kingdom by the British and his deportation from India.

In the intervening period he had converted to Christianity and become an English aristocrat, the toast of smart society and on the closest of terms with Queen Victoria and her family. Yet he never regained his throne.

Almost a century-and-a-half later Duleep Singh remains a fascinating and complex personality. An exhibition later this year at the Ancient House Museum in Thetford, Norfolk, will bring new attention to his extraordinary life.

Born in Lahore in 1838, Duleep Singh was the heir to Maharajah Ranjit Singh of the Punjab, one of the most powerful and wealthy of all India’s princely states. He acceded to the throne at the age of five but his kingdom posed a real obstacle to the expansion of the British Raj and after two bitter wars the British forced the Sikhs to capitulate. Fear of a further rebellion remained so great that the decision was taken to remove Duleep Singh from India altogether and send him into exile in England.

The young Maharaja Duleep Singh submits to Sir Henry Hardinge at the end of the First Sikh War

In May 1854 he arrived at Southampton before moving into a luxurious suite in a top London hotel. An early audience with Queen Victoria marked the beginning of what was to become a deep friendship with both the queen and her consort, Prince

Despite never setting foot on the Indian sub-continent, Victoria was fascinated by all things Indian and revelled in the company of the Maharajah, describing him as being “extremely handsome, [with] a graceful and dignified manner”. He rapidly became a court favourite, with Victoria commissioning a marble bust of him and Albert designing a special coat of arms.

In receipt of a generous pension from the British government, Duleep Singh established himself as the quintessential English country gentleman. He bought Elveden Hall, a Georgian house on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, and converted it into an Indian-style palace.

Expensive carpets, embroideries, ceramics and glassware filled the Mughal-decorated rooms, and the exotic flavour of the interior was reflected in the grounds, where a huge aviary was built to accommodate the Maharajah’s collection of rare birds of prey. Cheetahs, leopards and monkeys were kept in a menagerie, with parrots in the trees and peacocks and golden pheasants adorning the immaculate lawns.

At Elveden, Duleep Singh hosted extravagant house parties and proved to be a top sportsman. He seemed just at home in a kilt on the grouse moors of Scotland as in his Indian robes. Charming and flirtatious, he indulged in a series of indiscreet romps with some of the great society beauties of the day, apparently also forcing his attentions on a long list of domestic servants. With the Prince of Wales a close friend and frequent guest, Elveden became a symbol of the glittering yet hypocritical excesses of the Victorian aristocracy.

Yet by the 1880s Duleep Singh was tiring of his life as an English country squire. Overweight and depressed, he became less sociable and increasingly bitter about his treatment at the hands of the British. He was also running out of money.

His mind turned towards a permanent return to his homeland, to regain his throne. He became particularly resentful over what he saw as the theft from his kingdom of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, taken by the British in 1849 and presented to Queen Victoria.

Kohlinoor

He closed Elveden down, selling its contents to fund his final journey home. Wary of the political implications, the British initially refused permission for the return, but then relented and he finally set sail for India in March 1886. But at Aden he was told that the British Viceroy had changed his mind and that he must turn back.

Heartbroken and by now in ill-health, he made his way to Paris. There he plotted and schemed, desperately trying to find an alternative route home and even travelling to Russia with his latest amour, a Cockney chambermaid called Ada Wetherill (whom he later married), to try to enlist the support of the Tsar.

Meanwhile the British were watching his every move. The ultimate betrayal for Duleep Singh came via his trusted but duplicitous personal secretary Charles Tevis, an ex-US cavalryman and ruthless double agent. Tevis kept his British masters fully informed on the Maharajah’s thoughts and movements. Copies of virtually every piece of correspondence written by the Maharajah in Paris were later found in British government archives – all had been supplied by Tevis.

Meanwhile, Duleep Singh had re-embraced the Sikh faith and refused his British stipend. As a result he found himself in greatly reduced circumstances and was forced to sell almost all his remaining possessions. In 1891 he was granted a final audience with Queen Victoria at whose side he wept uncontrollably, and two years later he died, impoverished and broken.

Charming and flirtatious

However the British had resolved that only the extinction of the Duleep Singh family line could secure their long-term control over the Punjab. Queen Victoria even instructed the wife of the Maharajah’s eldest son not to have children. Family members were convinced that the cooks at Elveden were British spies and adding poisons to their food to make them infertile. Curiously, none of Duleep Singh’s eight children had any offspring.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh
The Elveden estate was bought by the Iveagh family, who still own it today. Duleep Singh is buried in the grounds of the adjacent Saxon church alongside members of his family.

The occasional golden pheasant is seen stalking around the grounds, a reminder of the exotic Indian king who once lived there. The Koh-i-Noor remains firmly part of the British crown jewels.

(Excerpts from Article published in The Daily Express, By James Parry, 22 Februrary 2010)

While in exile, he sought to learn more about Sikhism and was eager to return to India. Though previous efforts were thwarted by his handlers, he re-established contact with his cousin Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who on 28 September 1884, left Amritsar for England along with his sons Narinder Singh and Gurdit Singh and a Sikh Granthi (priest),Pratap Singh Giani. He also brought a list of properties held by Dalip Singh in India. All this renewed his connection with Sikhism.

The British Government decided in 1886 against his return to India or his re-embracing Sikhism. Despite protests from the India Office, he set sail for 'home' on 30 March 1886. However, he was intercepted and arrested in Aden, where the writ of the Governor General of India began. He could not be stopped from an informal re-conversion ceremony in Aden, far less grand and symbolic than it would have been in India, done by emissaries sent by Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who was earlier planning the Pahaul ceremony at Bombay. Dalip was forced to return to Europe.

Duleep Singh died in Paris in 1893 at the age of 55, having seen India after the age of fifteen only during two brief, tightly-controlled visits in 1860 (to bring his mother to England) and in 1863 (to scatter his mother's ashes).

Statue of Duleep Silgh on Butten Island, Thetford.

Duleep Singh's wish for his body to be returned to India was not honoured, in fear of unrest, given the symbolic value the funeral of the son of the Lion of the Punjab might have caused, given growing resentment of British rule. His body was brought back to be buried according to Christian rites, under the supervision of the India Office in Elveden Church beside the grave of his wife Maharani Bamba, and his son Prince Edward Albert Duleep Singh. The graves are located on the west side of the Church

Saturday, September 14, 2013

New Roommates 2013

Jania and Gobind's get their new roommates, Miss Cutie and Master Kelper.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Manual Scavenging Banned Finally

A Dalit woman doing the dirty job

It has always pained me to see the sight of thousands of people defecating on either side of the railway track if you happen to look outside the running train which passes a big town or city in the morning hours.

The same scene will transform into lush green agricultural field to give you a big relief after you have the city peripheries. But it continues to effect your memory for the dirty scene seen a while ago. I even cannot understand the difficult situation of a woman or a invalid person who has no where to go in the broad day light.

The Lok Sabha passed a long-awaited bill to ban manual scavenging--the clearing of human waste by hand from toilets--on Friday which outlaws employment of scavengers and will provide retraining and help for their families.

With more than 600 million people lacking even basic toilet facilities and being forced to defecate in open,

A 2011 survey by the Central Pollution Control Board showed that just 160 out of nearly 8,000 towns had sewerage systems and sewage treatment plants.

Workers stripped down to their underpants and equipped with just a hoe and a wooden bar can still routinely be seen clambering into the depths of septic tanks and sewers.

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh's comment that "there are more temples in the country than toilets" had led to a controversy last year. He had said, "India has a godliness surplus and cleanliness deficit."

It is shame that even in 21st century, we continue to live in 18th. Why it took more than six decades to pass such a bill and stamp out the shame in an independent sovereign country.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Visit To Innsbruck, Austria in March 2002

Innsbruck is the main city and capital of Tirol, in Austria. It is located in the Inn valley and its name meaning "the bridge over the (river) Inn". It is about half way between Munich (Germany) and Verona (Italy)

With its small-town charm, the cobbled streets and picturesque architecture make it one of the country’s most enchanting places to visit and surrounded bay mountains. A beautiful cityscape photographed from the cable car.

The Olympic town of Innsbruck is the only major city in the Europian Alps and offers visitors a combination of culture, history and history.

The whole of Austria is inexpensive as compared to Germany, France and other Europian Alps countries. This is the main reason that all Bollywood films are shot here quiet often. A small family run restaurant named Shere Punjab - Indian Gourmet Restaurant proudly serves Indian food to the visiting Film Crews from India.

Golden Roof

Among the well laid our fine dining

Outlet Market

In front of Golden roof

Alps visible over the golden roof

Enjoying the ambience of high end shopping

Beautiful view of the town on both sides of River Inn

(Anarkali) Bazar

Coffee Cafe

Want to be happy, let the ladies shop!

This is the Bald Eagle we bought at the Swarovski Oulet in honor of Guru Gobind Singh Ji

Water Lilly Flower which we proudly possess even today

Swarovski Innsbruck is located in one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Innsbruck’s old town, near the “Goldenes Dachl” (Golden Roof). A completely redesigned shopping landscape has blossomed in one of the largest Swarovski boutiques in the world, with plenty of room for contemporary, crystalline design. It is here that a creative connection between history and forward-thinking is established, making Swarovski Innsbruck the new center of crystalline wonder in the Tyrolean capital.