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The Second Chapter of My Life
Tehran, Iran
In my life, “education” was always the major reason behind me uprooting myself from one place and moving to another. It was the main motive behind me shifting to the capital city of Iran – Tehran ,for further studies. After getting admission in Tehran , all I had to do was just pack my bags and get going as we already had a house back there. That was the first time I stood in my room, looked around at everything and asked myself, “Maral, what is the most important thing here without which you won’t leave this house?!!!” Suddenly everything looked extremely vital to me! Everything from the things I did not even know I owned, to the things I used on a daily basis…! Funny, but true, that was the time I realized I have a fear of losing … losing my things, my loved ones and lot of other things!
Well, no problem! It’s all about self-analyzing yourself… So, what I ended up doing was taking everything that belonged to me, along with me to Tehran. I even took the sea shells and sand from the beach adjoining my house and ended up making myself a small home in the new city!
That is how I realized that “Happiness is a choice”. So I always manage to find a way to make myself happy!
As my tale continues, I settled in Tehran, was admitted to a nice college, met a bunch of fun-loving people and ultimately made them my ‘friends’. Everything was a little different here… It was a crowded city. Everything from the people to their habits, from the traffic to the tall buildings, it all spelled a distinctive lifestyle! Even the birds were different here!! My newly found companions helped make Tehran a second home for me, a home away from home! On the exterior my outlook towards life had changed, but on the interior, deep inside my heart I was adapting myself to the new environment. Those four years of my college life passed in the blink of an eye, as if my life were on a fast-forward mode! I was evolving as a human being, I was growing up now!
As time passed by, days into months, months into years, I understood that I wanted to see the world; I knew I was going to travel sometime soon, but never knew “India” was calling!
After that, I got busy in preparing and applying for admissions at universities in the UK… I was reading about everything, researching, asking friends, and taking plenty of opinions and advices! I needed a direction; I needed an answer to the eagerness building up inside me! It was one those days of my life, when my entire life changed without me even knowing it.
I was sitting in the library and reading a fat book on Rules and Regulations of students and visas for the UK, that’s when I clearly remember one of my faculty members walked in, looked at me with a faint smile playing on his lips, and then he asked me “What is the next plan? I said “Mmmmm….. The United Kingdom!” He looked at me and said “I do have an office in Belarus, I need to hire a new set of employees, you can move there, work and study (I wondered, God was playing a joke with me?!) Definitely NOT…” Then he suddenly said “Why not INDIA?!!!” Something started tickling me… All the way back home I was thinking about “INDIA”
I felt an affinity towards India. As though destiny knew I would like it there, and had already made fine plans for me to settle in India! I had a strong spiritual side, an inclination towards meditation and art of living concepts; adding to it all, my mind kept crawling back to the photos which were hanging in different parts of my house when I was a child. The photos were memories that my mother had captured when she visited India a decade ago (she had set out on a backpack journey to different parts of the Indian peninsula).
So I took the big step, called mom and told her that I think India is the place I want to go to for my further studies…! She said, “Maral, that’s a different world, go, give yourself time to think about it before your take the final decision. India is crowded; it’s different and not very easy compared the lifestyle here in Iran or in the UK!
After that conversation, I went to my room, thought about it in peace and got all my answers. I found my direction! Then nothing took time, something inside of me shouted out loud and clear – “INDIA is the place, INDIA is the place for me… I am going to INDIA!!!!!”
The following days passed by in getting everything sorted… Now that’s something you guys don’t know about me…if I want something to happen, I make sure it will happen…
My loving mother bought me a backpack, a sleeping bag and she told me “That you must have done very good things in your previous life and that you must be God’s special child as you have got the opportunity to go and live in India! India is our “Mother Land”; your life will take a different turn henceforth…”
Yes, I guess I was very special indeed 😉
And then she said ….
“Travel,
Observe,
Live your Life”
Dorothy : Ohh My dear, your dress is beautiful, I didn’t wore that kind of dress back when I married Eduardo, It was a lot more covering.
Ashley : Really.. Times have change.
Dorothy : Tell me about it, But don’t you thinks your wedding vows were a little bit… incomplete.
Ashley : I don’t know what you mean.
Dorothy : Air guitar really ?.. It was interesting of course but an old fashion traditional wedding at the church would have been so elegant.
Ashley : We both wanted it to be simple just like us.
Dorothy : Yeah of course the stable was “pitoresque” but my dear, what about the tradition ?
**** I could have argue for hour with her. Dorothy is a little.. Control freak. I’m sure every inch of the Ventury Mansion must have been review a thousand time, but she’s Ford mother and the wedding is done like we wanted. I just do what I would have to do often in the future : Lying****
Ashley : We wanted your help but you were so busy with the country club autumn festival. We didn’t want to bother you with our little problems.
Dorothy : Oh my dear ! It wouldn’t had bother me at all ! Of course the festival is my favorite autumn event. You could come with Ford.
Ashley : It would be a lot of fun.. Hopefully
Dorothy : And you know you are young, you can do some weirdoes things at your wedding you know. It’s so hipster and fresh.
**** And this is how I learned how to defeat my mother in law : Making sure she become the hero of every situation and make her feel superiors to others****
Lincoln Cathedral has a strong claim to being England's finest medieval building, being one of the most ambitious and beautifully designed and adorned cathedrals in Europe, a real masterpiece of Gothic architecture.
Sited dramatically on a hilltop overlooking the city below, it's three tapering towers are a landmark visible from miles away over the otherwise flat Lincolnshire countryside. Originally however the effect was even more magnificent, as the towers were formerly crowned by lead-covered wooden spires, the tallest of which gave the cathedral the title of the World's tallest building for some two and a half centuries until the spire was blown down by a gale in 1549. The smaller spires on the west towers survived until they too were dismantled in c1810.
The earliest part is the core of the west front and the lower part of the west towers, part of the original Romanesque cathedral begun in 1088 by Bishop Remigius and ornamented with a fine carved frieze, of which significant sections remain (some recently replaced by copies, others still currently boxed in for protection from the elements). The remainder of this building suffered damage in an earthquake in 1185 and was replaced by the present cathedral in the following century.
The first phase of reconstruction between 1192 & 1210 was directed by Bishop Hugh of Avalon, later known as St Hugh of Lincoln, whose shrine was later venerated in the completed building. The bulk of the building is 13th century Early English Gothic, with lancet windows, coloured marbles and stunning rose windows in the main transepts (like several of England's larger cathedral's Lincoln was given a secondary pair of transepts flanking the choir).
The final part was the extension east of St Hugh's choir which is one of the richest, most celebrated expressions of English Gothic dating from the early 14th century, known as the Angel choir after the carvings that decorate it's higher parts (other sculptural details here include the famous Lincoln Imp). The cathedral's main tower was also raised at this time, followed by the heightening of the western towers, adding great height to the main facades extraordinary width. The former spires must have finished the effect in spectacular fashion.
The cathedral contains some superb stained glass, including a substantial amount of it's original 13th century glazing in the choir aisle east windows and the main transepts, particularly the two rose windows (the Dean's Eye to the north, with much of it's original Lastr Judgement narrative, and the later Bishop's Eye to the south, mostly composed of fragments in set in gorgeous tracery). Most however is Victorian, bbut very effective nonetheless, with a particularly rich sequence in the nave aisles. There are also some more contemporary pieces in certain chapels.
The cathedral also boasts some of the finest medieval woodwork in the country in it's superb choir stalls, extensively carved with canopies with misericords (though sadly the latter are rarely on show). There are surprisingly few major monuments for so grand a cathedral, compared to so many others; the best known being the heart tomb of Queen Eleanor (a Victorian reconstruction after the original was destroyed by Cromwell's mob).
Though the cathedral never served as a monastic foundation, it was nonetheless provided with cloisters and an impressive chapter house at the north east corner. The cloisters are relatively small and lost their northern side in the 17th century, afterwards replaced by a lighter arcade with a new cathedral library above it designed by Sir Christopher Wren.in 1674. One of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta was held here for centuries, though more recently it was put on display at the nearby Lincoln Castle.
For more see below:-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Cathedral
Or the cathedral's own website here:-
The Flash Gordon serials are remembered for being the science fiction predecessors to everything the fifties and beyond would bring. They are believed to be the influence behind the "Star Wars" series and the "Indiana Jones" trilogy. This chapter, which features Flash with his ever ready raygun, and Ming, the Merciless with his army.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ2HUfD0QSw&feature=share&...
Universal, 15 Chapters, 1938. Starring Larry “Buster” Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton, Frank Shannon, Beatrice Roberts, Richard Alexander, Donald Kerr, C. Montague Shaw, Wheeler Oakman.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars picks up almost exactly where Flash Gordon left off, with our courageous trio of interplanetary adventurers–Flash Gordon (Larry “Buster” Crabbe), Dale Arden (Jean Rogers), and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon)–returning to Earth from the planet Mongo. They are greeted to a royal welcome, since their voyage has saved the Earth from being destroyed by the late Emperor Ming of Mongo. Zarkov, however, attempts to curb the Earthlings’ ebullience by cautioning them that the defeat and death of Ming does not mean that their planet is free from other threats of extraterrestrial invasion. As usual, Zarkov is correct; shortly after his warning speech, the Martian Queen Azura (Beatrice Roberts) begins an operation designed to siphon off the “nitron” (aka nitrogen) in the Earth’s atmosphere. Azura’s primary goal is to create nitron-powered weapons with which to wage a war against her mortal foes, the Clay People of Mars. She’s indifferent to the devastating effect that it will have on the Earth, while her chief adviser and military consultant regards the destruction of Earth as the main attraction of the plan. That adviser is none other than Ming (Charles Middleton), still very much alive and longing for revenge on Flash and Zarkov for toppling him from his throne and driving him into exile on Mars.
As the Earth begins to experience catastrophic floods and storms, due to the effects of Azura’s “Nitron Lamp,” Zarkov, Flash, and Dale launch another interplanetary trip to discover the cause of the catastrophes, which Zarkov has determined are due to a beam that emanates from outer space. They discover an unexpected stowaway aboard after takeoff–reporter “Happy” Hapgood (Donald Kerr), who had set out to track down Zarkov and get his opinion of the world-wide disasters. Not long after arriving on Mars, our quartet of Earth adventurers find themselves embroiled in the war between Azura and the Clay People. The latter are one-time rivals of the Queen, who have been transformed into living clay by Azura’s magical powers and banished to underground caverns from whence they carry on a guerilla war against Azura’s forces. The Clay People’s king enlists the aid of Flash and his party, as both of them want to stop Azura’s nitron-collecting plans, and, with additional aid from Prince Barin (Richard Alexander)–who arrives on Mars to try to convince the Martians to expel Ming–Flash and his party pit themselves against Azura’s magic, Ming’s machinations, Ming’s savage allies the Forest People, and many other hazards, in their quest to save the Earth.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars is fully as good as the first Flash Gordon serial, although its strengths are in slightly different areas. While Trip to Mars doesn’t measure up to Flash Gordon when it comes to colorful characters and fantastic monsters, its focused plotline surpasses the episodic story of the earlier serial. In Flash Gordon, the protagonists merely responded to the perpetual perils that were hurled at them by Ming, King Vultan, and King Kala, while Ming’s own plans for destroying the Earth were largely abandoned after the first chapter in favor of his attempts to marry Dale and destroy Flash. In Trip to Mars, Flash, Dale, and Zarkov initiate events instead of just coping with them, and Ming’s new grand design drives the plot far more strongly than his earlier one, giving the good guys a clear-cut objective (the destruction of the Nitron Lamp) beyond simple escape from Mongo.
While Trip to Mars has no characters to rival Flash Gordon’s King Vultan and no bizarre beasts like the Orangopoid or the Fire Dragon, it still has excellent other-worldly atmosphere. The sets are not as varied and intricate as in the first serial, but still surpass the backdrops of almost any other chapterplay. Especially striking are Ming’s “powerhouse,” with its laboratory equipment and its disintegration room, Azura’s massive palace with its unique architectural design (particularly the futuristic pocket doors), the Clay People’s eerie caves, and the wonderfully-designed realm of the Forest People, with its twisted trees, climbing vines, hidden tunnels amid tree roots, and treehouse-like observation platforms.
In addition to the big sets, there are dozens of other major and minor props and special effects that make Trips to Mars memorably atmospheric; there’s the the Martians’ flying capes, the Martian televiewer screens (which are cleverly incorporated into the recap sequences at the beginning of each chapter), the Clay People’s vapor-healing chamber, and the bridge of light that connects Azura’s rocket tower to the rest of her palace and is powered by a simple switch like any Earthling lamp (the scene where Flash and Zarkov are first forced to cross the unsafe-looking thing is quite funny), to name but a few. I also appreciate the fact that Azura’s spaceship squadrons–her “stratosleds”–are designed differently than any of the ships in the first Flash Gordon serial; one would expect the aerial fleets of differing planets to differ in appearance. Another neat touch of internal consistency is the use of three completely different forms of salute by the three principal Martian races–Queen Azura’s subjects, the Clay People, and the Forest People.
The serial’s screenplay maintains good continuity with the previous Flash outing, despite being the work of a completely different team of writers–Ray Trampe, Norman S. Hall, Wyndham Gittens, and Herbert Dalmas. The new writing team avoids any of the clunky lines that occasionally crept into Flash Gordon’s dialogue exchanges; they also, despite having to resort to a few flashbacks to the first serial for padding purposes, manage to make their plot fit its fifteen-chapter length quite nicely. The major plot thread of the heroes’ attempts to destroy Ming and Azura’s Nitron Lamp is skillfully interwoven with several subplots–the Clay People’s efforts to regain their natural shape, the attempts by both Flash and Ming to get hold of the Black Sapphire of Kalu (a talisman that can neutralize Azura’s magic), and Ming’s plot to undermine Azura and seize the Martian throne.
Trip to Mars’ script wisely spreads its plot developments over the course of the serial, instead of introducing all its ideas in the first chapter and letting them tread water until the final one: the Clay People aren’t introduced till the second chapter or the Forest People until the sixth, while Prince Barin first arrives in Chapter Seven. The Nitron Lamp is destroyed in Chapter Nine and rebuilt over the course of the following chapters until it must be destroyed again at the climax, and one of the principal villains is killed off in Chapter Thirteen.
The cliffhangers aren’t quite as varied as in the first Flash serial, due to the lack of the various monsters that frequently attacked Flash for chapter-ending purposes in the earlier outing. However, writers still manage to avoid excessive repetition; for instance, while there are three chapter endings involving stratosled crashes, each one is set up differently–the first has Flash crashing a stratosled into another stratosled to stop it from bombing Dale and Happy, the second has a stratosled crashing on top of Flash and Zarkov, and the third has Flash and the pilots of a ’sled grapping for the controls as it soars towards yet another crash. There’s also an excellent cliffhanger in which Flash, Dale, Happy, and Zarkov are surrounded by an ever-narrowing ring of fire in the Forest People’s kingdom, and a memorably unusual one that has a hypnotized Dale stabbing an unsuspecting Flash in the back.
Though Trip to Mars has no swordfights or wrestling matches corresponding to those in Flash Gordon, it still features a nice variety of action scenes–including stratosled dogfights, fights among the vines and treetops of the Forest Kingdom, and chases through Azura’s big palace; the palace sequence in Chapter Five, which has the nimble Flash vaulting through windows to avoid the guards, is a particular standout. Directors Ford Beebe (a Universal serial veteran) and Robert Hill (a talented director who rarely escaped from low-budget independent serials and B-films) do a fine job of orchestrating these action scenes, assisted by stuntmen Eddie Parker (doubling Buster Crabbe), George DeNormand, Tom Steele, Bud Wolfe, and Jerry Frank. All of the aforementioned stuntmen, except Parker, also pop up in minor acting roles.
The performances in Trip to Mars are all first-rate; the returning actors from the first serial are all just as good as they were in Flash Gordon, while the new major players fit in smoothly. Buster Crabbe’s Flash is just as tough, chipper, athletic, and likable as in the first serial–and a good deal more wise and resourceful than before, improvising strategy and coming up with plans in tough situations instead of just trying to batter his way out. Frank Shannon’s Zarkov, as consequence of Flash’s new-found intelligence, has a reduced part, not guiding the good guys’ actions as he did in the first serial; he still functions as the scientific brains of the group, though, and is still as intense, serious, and sincere as before.
Jean Rogers, with her long blonde hair bobbed and dyed brown to better match the comic-strip version of Dale Arden (she’s also dressed in less arresting fashion), isn’t as stunning as in Flash Gordon, but is still a warm, welcome, and lovely presence. Her part here is smaller than in the first serial, though, since Ming is not romantically interested in her this time out (Ming, though no gentleman, evidently prefers blondes). Richard Alexander’s Prince Barin is a lot more self-assured when it comes to delivering dialogue this time around (helped, no doubt, by the absence of any overly high-flown lines), while his convincingly royal bearing and his commanding size are as effective as before.
Charles Middleton’s Ming is even more entertainingly sinister here than he was in Flash Gordon, getting a good deal more screen time and given a more devilish appearance by a notably forked beard. Though still given opportunities to break into tyrannical and bloodthirsty rages (particularly in his insane rant in the final chapter), Middleton spends much of the serial displaying duplicity and sly subtlety instead, since his Ming must pretend to friendship with Azura even while plotting against her. Middleton carries off this slightly more multi-faceted version of Ming masterfully, winning a few laughs with his crafty cynicism while remaining thoroughly sinister and hateful.
Beatrice Roberts does a fine job as Queen Azura, eschewing the sneering, aggressive demeanor of other serial villainesses for a regal, dignified manner (with a wryly humorous undercurrent) that contrasts interestingly with her often cruel behavior. Her Azura comes off as selfish and ruthless, but not an abusive tyrant like Ming. Donald Kerr as reporter Happy Hapgood, the other principal new character, is as controversial among fans as most other serial comedy-relief characters are. Speaking for myself, though, I found him quite likable and entertaining; he provides an amusingly commonplace point-of-view towards the fantastic world of Mars and is never obtrusive, gratingly stupid, or obnoxious. Additionally, his character is allowed to be quite heroic and helpful when the chips are down, a far cry from one-dimensional cowardly “comic” pests like Sonny Ray in Perils of Pauline or Lee Ford in SOS Coast Guard.
Wheeler Oakman is very good as Tarnak, Ming’s wily lab assistant and co-conspirator against Azura. C. Montague Shaw, concealed under heavy makeup for most of the serial, conveys an impressive air of ruined dignity as the King of the Clay People and manages to seem both sinister and sympathetic at different times. Usual hero Kane Richmond brings appropriate depth of characterization to his key role as a Martian pilot, who proves instrumental in helping Flash overthrow Ming in the later chapters. Anthony Warde has a small part as Toran, king of the Forest People, but extracts as much snarling nastiness as possible from the role. Future director Thomas Carr is his second-in-command, Kenne Duncan is the officer in charge of Azura’s airdrome, Lane Chandler and Jack Mulhall both appear as pilots of her Death Squadron, and Warner Richmond has a small role as one of Ming’s palace cohorts.
Hooper Atchley and James Blaine pop up as self-important Earth scientists, propounding ingenious and inaccurate theories as to the causes of the damage brought about by the Nitron Lamp, while Edwin Stanley is the general presiding over a council comprised of these two and additional savants. Louis Merrill (a radio actor who played character roles in several feature films) has a brief but memorable turn as the blunt and slightly uncouth Dr. Metz, who alone among the scientists has the humility to admit that Zarkov is the only one capable of unravelling the riddle of the disasters. Merrill’s characterization is so vivid that one wishes the actor had taken a larger part in this chapterplay or in other serials.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars is a nearly ideal sequel, in that it manages to preserve the basic strengths of its predecessor while deviating from it in some areas and improving on it in others. It’s also a nearly ideal serial, independent of its relation to the earlier Flash Gordon; it balances good acting, atmosphere, action, and plotting in such fine style that it would still be a notable achievement if it were the sole entry in the Flash Gordon series.
Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov return from their former space adventures only to find that their enemy, Ming the Merciless of planet Mongo, has a new weapon: a deadly ray that crosses space to wreak havoc on earth. Earth's only hope is for our heroes to take off again and stop the ray at its source on Mars, where they (and a stowaway) familiar to sci-fi serial fans as Happy Hapgood the space traveling reporter). Must battle Ming's ally, Queen Azura, who turns her enemies into lumpish clay people.With the aid of the Clay People and Prince Barin, Flash and his friends are triumphant in destroying the ray and putting an end to the scheme of Ming the Merciless. Can they survive 15 chapters of deadly perils? Find out next week...
The Deadly Ray From Mars was an edited version of the 1938 Universal serial "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" that was released to TV in a syndication package in 1966.
Mars Attacks the World was the feature version of the 1938 serial titled Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars. aka "Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars" - USA (TV title)
Mars Attacks the World is the feature compilation version of the serial Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, while Rocket Ship is the the feature compilation of the serial Flash Gordon.
Jean Rogers as Dale Arden
Charles Middelton as Emperor Ming
Frank Shannon as Dr. Zarkov
Beatrice Roberts as Queen Azura
Richard Alexander as Prince Barin
Montague Shaw as The Clay King
Donald Kerr as Happy Hapgood the space traveling reporter.
The title of this serial was originally going to be "Flash Gordon and the Witch Queen of Mongo." It was changed so that Universal could save money by shooting the outdoor scenes on the back lot and not have to build costly sets, and by reusing the set for Emperor Ming's palace.
In the stock footage from Flash Gordon, shown in this film, as Flash is telling The Clay People about his previous encounter with Emperor Ming, Ming is bald and Dale Arden has blond hair. In this sequel, Ming has "pasted on" hair and Dale is a brunette. It has been reported that Jean Rogers (Dale Arden) had many other film roles pending at that time (1938) which had called for her to portray a brunette.
King Features Syndicate released the 3 Flash Gordon serials as well as "Buck Rogers," Red Barry", "Ace Drummond" and other comic strip cliffhangers to US TV in 1951. Because the television show Flash Gordon, starring Steve Holland as Flash, was in syndication in late 1953, the three Universal Pictures Flash Gordon theatrical serials were retitled for TV broadcast. Flash Gordon became "Space Soldiers", Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars became "Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars", and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe became "Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe". To this day both the 3 original "Flash Gordon" serial titles and the 3 "Space Soldiers" titles are used.
Chapter Titles:
1. New Worlds To Conquer
2. The Living Dead
3. Queen of Magic
4. Ancient Enemies
5. The Boomerang
6. Treemen of Mars
7. Prisoner of Monga
8. Black Sapphire of Kalu
9. Symbol of Death
10. Incense of Forgetfulness
11. Human Bait
12. Ming the Merciless
13. Miracle of Magic
14. Beasts at Bay
15. An Eyes For An Eye