View allAll Photos Tagged polyglot
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
British postcard by Gerimp Corp. Int.-Collection, no. PN 98.
Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) was a two-time Academy Award-winning film actor, director, writer, journalist, and raconteur. He played Batiatus in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) and had also roles in films like Quo vadis? (1951), Topkapi (1964) and Death on the Nile (1978). Ustinov wrote and directed many acclaimed stage plays and staged operas such as 'The Magic Flute' and 'Don Giovanni'. The Brit also became a Swiss citizen in 1961
Peter Ustinov was born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinow in 1921 in Swiss Cottage, Londo. He was the son of Nadezhda Leontievna (née Benois) and Jona Freiherr von Ustinow. His father was of one-quarter Polish Jewish, one-half Russian, one-eighth Ethiopian, and one-eighth German descent, while his mother was of one-half Russian, one-quarter Italian, one-eighth French, and one-eighth German ancestry. Ustinov had ancestral connections to Russian nobility as well as to the Ethiopian Royal Family. His father, also known as "Klop Ustinov", was a pilot in the German Air Force during World War I. In 1919, Jona Freiherr von Ustinow joined his mother and sister in St Petersburg, Russia, where he met his future wife, artist Nadia Benois, who worked for the Imperial Mariinsky Ballet and Opera House in St Petersburg. In 1920, in a modest and discreet ceremony at a Russian-German church in St Petersburg, Ustinov's father married Nadia. In February 1921, when she was seven months pregnant with Peter, the couple emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution. Young Peter was brought up in a multilingual family. He was fluent in Russian, French, Italian and German, as well as English. He attended Westminster College (1934-1937), took the drama and acting class under Michel St Denis at the London Theatre Studio (1937-1939), and made his stage debut in 1938 at the Stage Theatre Club in Surrey. He wrote his first play at the age of 19. In 1939, he made his London stage debut in a revue sketch, then had regular performances with the Aylesbury Repertory Company. The following year, he made his film debut in Hullo, Fame! (Andrew Buchanan, 1940) starring Jean Kent. From 1942- to 1946, Ustinov served with the British Army's Royal Sussex Regiment. As a private, he was 'batman' (a personal servant) for lieutenant-colonel David Niven, and the two became lifelong friends. Ustinov spent most of his service working with the Army Cinema Unit, where he was involved in making recruitment films, wrote plays and appeared in three films as an actor, including a small role as a priest in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1942). He also co-wrote and acted in The Way Ahead / The Immortal Battalion (Carol Reed, 1944), starring David Niven and Stanley Holloway.
From the 1950s on, Peter Ustinov had a stellar film career as an actor, director, and writer. Producer Sam Zimbalist initially thought that the 30-year-old actor was too young to play Roman emperor Nero in the epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann, 1951), based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel. After a whole year of hesitation, Zimbalist received a telegraphic message from Ustinov that he would soon be too old for the role if they waited any longer, as Nero himself had already died at the age of 31. Ustinov was then finally hired. His portrayal of the autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor was honoured with a Golden Globe and nominated for an Oscar. Another screen acting gem is his role as the polyglot stable master in Max Ophüls's masterpiece Lola Montès (1955), starring Martine Carol. His other films include Beau Brummell () and We Are No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955) with Humphrey Bogart. In 1957, he played the leading role of Soviet secret agent Michel Kaminsky in Henri-Georges Clouzot's political thriller Spies at Work. He also wrote and directed theatre plays, in which he also acted. In 1958 he received two Tony Award nominations, for Best Actor (Dramatic) and Best Play Author, for 'Romanoff and Juliet', which parodied the East-West conflict. Ustinov later adapted the play for a 1961 film. In the late 1950s, he also made a comedy record, 'Mock Mozart' and 'Phoney Folk Lor'". He had been performing these as party pieces. Overdubbing allowed Ustinov to sing multiple parts. His producer was George Martin, the future producer of The Beatles. During the 1960s, Ustinov was awarded two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, one for his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) and one for his role as Arthur Simon Simpson in the Heist film Topkapi (Jules Dassin, 1964) opposite Melina Mercouri. He received two more Oscar nominations as an actor and writer. In January 1963, the Mirisch Company sued him for damages after he pulled out at the 11th hour to play Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963), which was in production in Rome with his replacement, Peter Sellers. He acted in such films as The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, based on the novel by Graham Greene, and the comedy Hot Millions (Eric Till, 1968) with Maggie Smith, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which he co-wrote with author Ira Wallach. He also wrote and directed the brilliant Billy Budd (Peter Ustinov, 1962) in which he played the role of the captain himself opposite Terrence Stamp. It was followed by Lady L (Peter Ustinov, 1965) with Sophia Loren and David Niven. During the 1960s, with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi', Ravel's 'L'heure espagnole', Schoenberg's 'Erwartung', and Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'. In the following decade, he acted in films like Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, 1976) starring Michael York. He played an old man surviving a totalitarian future. He was also the voice of Prince John in Disney's animated film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). He appeared in television plays and shows and won three Emmys: in 1958 for Omnibus: The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1967 for Barefoot in Athens and 1970 for A Storm in Summer.
Peter Ustinov's career slowed down a bit in the 1970s, but he made a comeback as Hercule Poirot in the star-studded Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978), based on Agatha Christie's novel. In the 1980s, Ustinov recreated Poirot in several subsequent television movies and theatrical films, including Evil Under the Sun (Guy Hamilton, 1982) and Appointment with Death (Michael Winner, 1988). Ustinov's performance, increasingly based on his own persona, enjoyed great popularity. He also wrote and directed the British-Yugoslav drama Memed My Hawk (Peter Ustinov, 1984) with Herbert Lom. It is an adaptation of the 1955 Turkish novel 'Memed, My Hawk', the debut novel of Yaşar Kemal, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Memed, My Hawk was produced in Yugoslavia following the Turkish government's refusal of permission to film. Ustinov's cinema work in the 1990s includes his superb performance as Professor Gus Nikolais in the film drama Lorenzo's Oil (George Miller, 1992) opposite Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. This character was partially inspired by Hugo Wolfgang Moser, a research scientist who had been director of the Neurogenetics Research Center at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. Ustinov's expertise in dialectic and physical comedy made him a regular guest on talk shows. His witty and multidimensional humour was legendary, and he later published a collection of his jokes and quotations summarizing his wide popularity as a raconteur. He was also an internationally acclaimed TV journalist. In 1984, he unwittingly witnessed the assassination of India's prime minister Indira Gandhi. She was to be interviewed by Ustinov for his three-part BBC series Ustinov's People, but on the way she was murdered by her two bodyguards. Ustinov covered over 100,000 miles and visited more than 30 Russian cities during the making of his well-received BBC television series Russia (1986). In his autobiographies, 'Dear Me' (1977) and 'My Russia' (1996), Ustinov revealed his observations on his life, career, and his multicultural and multi-ethnic background. He wrote and directed numerous stage plays, successfully presenting them in several countries. His drama, 'Photo Finish', was staged in New York, London and St. Petersburg, Russia, where Ustinov also directed the acclaimed production. The cosmopolitan multi-talent was a UNICEF Special Ambassador from 1968, Chairman of the World Federalist Movement from 1990 and founder of the Peter Ustinov Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions for Children and Young People in 1999. Ustinov served as Rector of Dundee University for six years. He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1957 and was knighted in 1990. From 1971 until he died in 2004, Peter Ustinov's permanent residence was a château in Bursins, Vaud, Switzerland. He died of heart failure in 2004, in a clinic in Genolier, also in Vaud. His funeral service was held at Geneva's historic Cathedral of St. Pierre, and he was laid to rest in the village cemetery of Bursins. Ustinov's first wife was Angela Lansbury's half-sister, Isolde Denham. They were married from 1940 to 1950 when the union ended in divorce. Ustinov and Denham had one child together, Tamara Ustinov. Ustinov and his second wife, Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, had three children: two daughters (Andrea and Pavla Ustinov) and a son, Igor Ustinov. His third wife was French journalist Hélène du Lau d'Allemans, to whom he was married from 1972 until his death. Steve Shelokhonov at IMDb: "His epitaph may be gleaned from his comment, 'I am an international citizen conceived in Russia, born in England, working in Hollywood, living in Switzerland, and touring the World'."
Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
It's a swiss roll...with antonio cesaro (aka my favorite wrestler)'s face baked into it. if you've ever wanted to eat a cake with a swiss polyglot's face on it...this is it. this is the cake. (his stubble is made of coffee grinds...because he loves coffee)
The Plantin Polyglot Bible (Vol. 1) / printed under the title Biblia Polyglotta by Christopher Plantin in Antwerp between 1568 and 1573 as an expression of loyalty to King Philip II of Spain / purchased in 1669 by Chetham's Library, Manchester, UK
This multilingual or "polyglot" Bible includes biblical texts in five languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Aramaic.
[Plantin polyglot.] Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece & Latin. Antwerp: Christoph. Plantin, 1569-1573.-f-BS 1 1569. Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Brussels (French: Bruxelles, [bʁysɛl] ( listen); Dutch: Brussel, [ˈbrʏsəɫ] ( listen)), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region[5][6] (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest), is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union (EU). It is also the largest urban area in Belgium,[7][8] comprising 19 municipalities, including the municipality of the City of Brussels, which is the de jure capital of Belgium, in addition to the seat of the French Community of Belgium and of the Flemish Community.[9]
Brussels has grown from a 10th-century fortress town founded by a descendant of Charlemagne to a sizeable city.[10] The city has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, both of them the largest in Belgium.[11][12] Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a main centre for international politics. Hosting principal EU institutions[13] and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the city has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.[14]
Historically Dutch-speaking, Brussels has seen a major shift to French since Belgian independence in 1830. Today the city is officially bilingual. All road signs, street names, and many adverts and services are shown in both languages.[15] Linguistic tensions remain and the language laws regarding some municipalities surrounding Brussels are an issue of considerable controversy in Belgium.
youtu.be/dNlxXa1O42wAn easy way to learn the Italian language online for free. Learn vocabulary, grammar, conjugation & phrases. Voice: Italian Basics Essential Elements Survival Questions & Answers PhraseBook Have Local Air Getting Around At the Market Getting Around At the Restaurant Personal Pronouns Expressions in Restaurants Drink Grammar Expression Around a Glass Take a Taxi Cardinal Numbers 0-9 Expressions in a Taxi Have Local Air A few Sentences Names & Adjectives Italian Tenses Eating & Drinking Family & Work Grammar - Part 2 Necessary Shopping Cardinal Numbers 10-19 When Things Go Wrong Housing PhraseBook IV Basics Verbs : First Steps Eat & Drink Eating & Drinking Grammar - Part 3 On Street Here & Everywhere PhraseBook V Thoughts & Feelings Verbs : Next Step To Summarize Days Of Week Cardinal Numbers 20-29 Months of the Year Computer Vehicles Seasons Conjugation - Present - Regular Human Body Animals Grammar - Part 4 How's the weather? Occupations Cardinal Numbers 30-99 Home Shops & Shopping Definite Articles Prepositions Conjugation - Present - Irregular Tools Conversation Ordinal Numbers 0-9 Newbie Things to Know Description Travel Around the House Chronology Nice Restaurant People Around Time I Family Bistro PhraseBook IX Food Place to Go Conjugation - Gerund Place to Avoid Ordinal Numbers 10-19 Out Money Shopping Health PhraseBook X Being Local Complaining Music Nature Animals How to Talk to Someone Cardinal Numbers 100-900 Complement Pronoun Cardinal Numbers 1.000-600.000 Possessive Pronoun Reflexive Pronoun Conjugation - Present Participle Article Grammar Grammar - Part 8 Punctuation Fractions Cardinal Numbers 1.000.000 & over Calculation Verbs Colors Issues Prepositions Adverbs Weekdays Time Ordinal Numbers 20-1.000.000 Months & Seasons Time Time IV Otherwise Shapes Conjugation - Past participle Measuring Containers Material Metals Basics Human Body Head Body Conjugation - Past Simple - Regular Outerwear Clothing Underwear Hats Shoes Fabrics Conjugation - Past Simple - Irregular Accessories Clothing Hygiene Jewelery Conjugation - Imperfect - Regular Clocks Foodstuffs Beverages Vegetables Conjugation - Imperfect - Irregular Fruits Confectioneries Dishes Spices Conjugation - Present Perfect - Regular Meal Dressing Table Restaurant Personal Infos Conjugation - Present Perfect - Irregular Family Acquaintances People Age Conjugation - Future - Regular Children Family Life Feelings Personality Sleep Conjugation - Future - Irregular Joy Talk Communicate Negotiation Conjugation - Imperative - Regular Success & Failure Quarrels Diseases Treatments Conjugation - Imperative - Irregular Physicians Drugs Smoking City (L219) Conjugation - Conditional Present - Regular Transport Tourism Shopping Conjugation - Conditional Present - Irregular Money Post Office House Entry & Elevator Conjugation - Subjunctive Present - Regular Electricity Doors Country House Chic Districts Conjugation - Subjunctive Present - Irregular Luxury hotels Apartment Housework Furniture Conjugation - Subjunctive Imperfect - Regular Bedding Kitchen Bathroom Appliances Conjugation - Subjunctive Imperfect - Irregular Renovations Plumbing Fire Office Conjugation - Conditional Past - Regular Business Factory Contracts Import-Export Conjugation - Conditional Past - Irregular Finance Marketing Advertising Banking On the Phone Mobiles Stationery Documents Places to Work Conferences Mass Media Agriculture Construction Scientific Job Businessmen Business Services Military Officials Agriculture Artistic Professions Different Trades Occupations Sports Aircraft Airport Boat Cars Cinema Circus Driving Education Electricity Fairy Tale Grammar Words Higher Education Hotel Internet IT Learning Languages Train Travels View/Download The Transcripts for this video here:➤➤ ouo.io/UVfVCrT DONATE :➤ goo.gl/FgGq9I SUGGESTIONS? :➤ ouo.io/gac62 WEBSITE: :➤ ouo.io/WhjUh9 STORE:➤ ouo.io/C788cf WORDPRESS :➤ ouo.io/HtvQwA Make Money by Selling Online :➤ ouo.io/9OQtZ1 Link Shorter : ➤ ouo.io/xmWCyV SUBSCRIBE :➤ ouo.io/4V7nbX PLAYLIST :➤ ouo.io/l5Q3JK FACEBOOK :➤https://ouo.io/gh3wYkF TWITTER :➤ ouo.io/ea0RRR INSTAGRAM :➤ ouo.io/tXK6Ucw
Sunset in Chennai - Napier Bridge, with University of Madras in the background.
Built in 1869 by the then Governor Francis Napier, this bridge connects Fort St.George with the Marina beach.
Francis Napier was a polyglot who was previously the British Minister to the United States, Netherlands, Russia and Prussia before becoming the Governor of Madras.
ID:
Pt: Felosa-poliglota
Es: Zarcero común
GB: Melodious Warbler
Plumagem/Plumaje/Plumage: Adulta/Adulta/Adult
Local: Leça da Palmeira-Matosinhos-Portugal
The Plantin-Moretus Museum (Dutch: Plantin-Moretusmuseum) is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th-century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, the Plantin Press, at the Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market) in Antwerp, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.
The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christophe Plantin, who obtained type from the leading typefounders of the day in Paris. Plantin was a major figure in contemporary printing with interests in humanism; his eight-volume, multi-language Plantin Polyglot Bible with Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Syriac texts was one of the most complex productions of the period. Plantin's is now suspected of being at least connected to members of heretical groups known as the Familists, and this may have led him to spend time in exile in his native France.
View of the courtyard of the museum
After Plantin's death it was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus. While most printing concerns disposed of their collections of older type in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in response to changing tastes, the Plantin-Moretus company "piously preserved the collection of its founder."
Four women ran the family-owned Plantin-Moretus printing house (Plantin Press) over the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries: Martina Plantin, Anna Goos, Anna Maria de Neuf and Maria Theresia Borrekens.
In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. One year later the public could visit the living areas and the printing presses. The collection has been used extensively for research, by historians H. D. L. Vervliet, Mike Parker and Harry Carter. Carter's son Matthew would later describe this research as helping to demonstrate "that the finest collection of printing types made in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) [along with] Plantin's accounts and inventories which names the cutters of his types."
In 2002 the museum was nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2005 was inscribed onto the World Heritage list.
The Plantin-Moretus Museum possesses an exceptional collection of typographical material. Not only does it house the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world and complete sets of dies and matrices, it also has an extensive library, a richly decorated interior and the entire archives of the Plantin business, which were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2001 in recognition of their historical significance.
They were standing outside of
an old two-story house on 24th Street
in downtown L.A., not far from USC,
where I was on my way to see Amy O'Neill,
Brian Chic and some other great performers
in Charles Scheider's wonderful
Ghost & Spirit Show at the old Union Theater.
There were blue helium balloons
tied to their gate, and they were dressed up,
so I knew a party was about to ensue,
and I walked past them
eager to get to the theater,
and immediately regretted,
as I often do, that I did not brave
their potential disdain
and request a photo. So I
turned around, and walked back.
They looked at me with
some surprise, wondering if
I was actually going to speak. I
lifted the camera around my neck
to signal my intention, and asked if
I could take their photo. Javier stepped
out of the frame, suggesting I would want
only Gloria's picture, but I gestured for him to
return. He did, and they consented to
allowing me to take this photo.
Afterwards, Javier said, "No pay?"
Gloria laughed, letting me know
he is a joker. Then he asked to
see the photo, and I showed it
to him, and we exhanged some
broken pleasantries in his
broken English and my
Espanol roto,
and I walked on,
and I could sense they
were left with the question of
"What was that all about?" This
is what this was about - a
portrait of two people,
part of the multicultural
polyglot of Angeleno experience
that fuses sorrow and bliss
within this pre-party vibe
delante de una vieja casa
festooned con los globos azules
en una noche de sábado
on 24th Street
en Los Ángeles céntrico.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
The former border between East Berlin and West Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie.
1 November 2018
L'ancienne frontière entre Berlin-Ouest et Berlin-Est au Checkpoint Charlie
1 novembre 2018
The journal Science recently published an article in which scientists described the first meaningful exchange between a ficus tree and a human being that could, in a broader sense, be considered a conversation. The insightfully envisioned experiment required utmost patience and full commitment from both parties: over the course of eighteen years (2025-43), the young ficus tree (Ficus benjamina) and the human had to negotiate a shared code of signs. The linguist and polyglot M.L. began the experiment by establishing a basic set of communication signs. Like all plants, ficus trees maintain rigorous control over the amount of water they absorb through the roots by opening and closing leaf pores. Each ficus leaf has thousands of such tiny openings, called stomata. M.L.’s idea was to read stomata just as people who can read lips.
Photo: Franz Wamhof
Utah National Guard’s 300th Military Intelligence Brigade held its 34th annual Military Intelligence Language Conference on Feb. 11, 2023. As part of the conference more than 140 competitors from 25 different organizations participate in the Polyglot Games. The competition is conducted in seven different languages and follow every step of the intelligence cycle, from the operations order to a final commander's brief as they translate battlefield recordings and news reports, exploit documents to identify and destroy enemy equipment, and assess possible enemy courses of action.
The Plantin-Moretus Museum (Dutch: Plantin-Moretusmuseum) is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th-century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, the Plantin Press, at the Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market) in Antwerp, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.
The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christophe Plantin, who obtained type from the leading typefounders of the day in Paris. Plantin was a major figure in contemporary printing with interests in humanism; his eight-volume, multi-language Plantin Polyglot Bible with Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Syriac texts was one of the most complex productions of the period. Plantin's is now suspected of being at least connected to members of heretical groups known as the Familists, and this may have led him to spend time in exile in his native France.
View of the courtyard of the museum
After Plantin's death it was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus. While most printing concerns disposed of their collections of older type in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in response to changing tastes, the Plantin-Moretus company "piously preserved the collection of its founder."
Four women ran the family-owned Plantin-Moretus printing house (Plantin Press) over the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries: Martina Plantin, Anna Goos, Anna Maria de Neuf and Maria Theresia Borrekens.
In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. One year later the public could visit the living areas and the printing presses. The collection has been used extensively for research, by historians H. D. L. Vervliet, Mike Parker and Harry Carter. Carter's son Matthew would later describe this research as helping to demonstrate "that the finest collection of printing types made in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) [along with] Plantin's accounts and inventories which names the cutters of his types."
In 2002 the museum was nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2005 was inscribed onto the World Heritage list.
The Plantin-Moretus Museum possesses an exceptional collection of typographical material. Not only does it house the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world and complete sets of dies and matrices, it also has an extensive library, a richly decorated interior and the entire archives of the Plantin business, which were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2001 in recognition of their historical significance.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
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[illustration] | [illustration] | THE GREAT POLYGLOT BIBLES | INCLUDING
A LEAF FROM THE | COMPLUTENSIAN OF ACALÁ,
1514–1517 | BY BASIL HALL, LECTURER IN ECCLESIASTICAL |
HISTORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE | [illustration] |
PUBLISHED FOR | ITS MEMBERS BY | THE BOOK CLUB OF CALIFORNIA
| SAN FRANCISCO, 1966 | [illustration] | [illustration]
15 × 10 ¾. 52 pp.—blank (i–vi), half-title (vii), blank (viii), title (ix), blank (x),
page of limitation (xi), blank (xii), illustration (xiii), blank (xiv), facsimile page
with original leaf tipped on (xv), blank (xvi), divisional title (1), blank (2), text
(3–27), acknowledgments and notes (28), blank (29–36).
Title in red and black, divisional title in violet and black, marginal running
titles in red, initial letters in text in violet. Reproductions of illustrations and
decorations throughout text from the Complutensian Bible and other early 16th
century Spanish books. Type Italian Old Style, monotype. Paper mold made.
Presented in the “continental” manner, according to the printers, with unsewn
folded sheets enclosed in a terra cotta handmade paper cover with publisher and
title in violet and decoration in brown on front cover. The first and last gatherings
are enclosed in brown handmade paper covers. The entire work is further enclosed
in a violet cloth-covered hinged box with terra cotta labels printed in black
and violet on front cover and violet on back. A laid in card explains the correct
perusal of the unsewn sheets. 400 copies printed at the Allen Press (Lewis and
Dorothy Allen). Price $47.50.
One of the most famous books of the sixteenth century and the first of the great
polyglot Bibles, the so-called Complutensian Bible is paid full homage in this
sumptuous leaf book. The paper, a beautiful Rives mold made, was printed damp.
The type, although set by monotype, was respaced and reset by the Allens in an
attempt to realize a more perfect word spacing. In the new errata to the Club’s
reprinting of The Allen Press Bibliography (1986, #180, p. 121) the Allens speculate
that the dropped l in Alcalá on the title page may have been the single loose letter
of one galley referred to in their printing of the Bibliography (p. 62).
Brussels (French: Bruxelles, [bʁysɛl] ( listen); Dutch: Brussel, [ˈbrʏsəl] ( listen)), officially the Brussels-Capital Region[5][6] (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest),[7] is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium,[8] the French Community of Belgium,[9] and the Flemish Community.[10] The region has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, the largest in Belgium.[11][12]
Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a major centre for international politics and has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.[13] Brussels is the de facto capital (or one of three capitals including Luxembourg and Strasbourg) of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions.[14][15][16] The secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are also located in Brussels.
Brussels is just a few kilometres north of the boundary between Belgium's language communities—French in the south, Dutch in the north. Historically a Dutch-speaking city, it has seen a major shift to French since Belgian independence in 1830. Today, although the majority language is French, the city is officially bilingual. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages.[17] Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
Why post an obvious screen grab.. it's Phil Proctor in 1983 / 1984 on Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. He was in great company with Mark Russell, and Pat McCormick. A long time ago, Game Shows were entertaining. Remember Beat the Reaper ? Mr Proctor, Yale, Polyglot, Actor, Blooger, Writer, is a member of The Firesign Theatre, and Proctor & Bergman flic.kr/p/4aPsUj
Sherborne School Archives, Sherborne School, Abbey Road, Sherborne, Dorset, UK, DT9 3AP oldshirburnian.org.uk/school-archives/
Title page of Nouum IESV Christi D.N. Testamentum. Ex Bibliotheca Regia. (New Testament in Greek). Paris: Robert Stephen, 1550.
Inscriptions:
‘The Fonthill copy: on back of title. See R.C. Hoare’s 'Modern Wiltshire', Dunworth, p.27’.
‘De hac edition magnificantisima, vide Marchium in Bibliotheca Longiana, I. 209-214.’
‘Textius Receptus presented by R. Stephens Pari 1550. This copy belonged to William Beckford, Fonthill Abbey.’
‘John Hyde. Fort William in Bengal. Oc. 22nd 1774.’
‘Bought at Mr Hydes auction & given to J. Farquhar by J. Fleming.’
Produced by the famed scholar/printer Robert Stephanus (Estienne). It was the first Greek Testament printed with a critical apparatus providing variant readings along with symbols to indicate the manuscript evidence. The text relied heavily upon the Complutensian Polyglot. This Testament is known as the Editio Regia because the beautiful Greek font, designed by Claude Garamond, was commissioned and paid for by the king of France. The authoritative text that resulted from the manuscript collation laid the foundation for the textus receptus.’
William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844) inherited Fonthill in 1770 on the death of his father. Throughout his later years he ordered numerous books for examination and kept only those few that pleased him. On his death he bequeathed 10,0000 books to his daughter Susan. In 1822 he sold the estate to John Farquhar for £330,000 and eventually settled in Lansdown Crescent in Bath.
John Hyde (c.1737-1796) was a Puisne Judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal (Calcutta) from 1774 until his death in 1796. His youngest daughter Caroline Francis married Robert Walpole. This volume was bought at ‘Mr Hydes auction’, possibly in Bengal/Calcutta following his death in 1796, and given to John Farquhar by J. Fleming.
John Farquhar (1751-1826) was selected by Lord Cornwallis, governor-general of Bengal, to conduct researches into gunpower manufacture and he ultimately became sole contractor to the government. He amassed a fortune and in 1814 returned to England. In 1822 he purchased Fonthill Abbey from William Beckford and he occasionally lived there until the fall of the tower in December 1825, shortly after which he sold the estate. Besides having a special knowledge of chemistry Farquhar was an accomplished classical scholar. His religious beliefs were modified by his strong admiration of the moral system of the Brahmans.
It would therefore appear that this book was in 1774 in the possession of John Hyde in Bengal/Calcutta. At some point it was sold at auction and purchased by J. Fleming who gave it to John Farquhar, possibly while he was owner of Fonthill Abbey (1822-c.1825). It does not appear that this book was ever the property of William Beckford.
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Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
In the animated movie Yellow Submarine (1968) the Beatles, on their way to save Pepperland from the Blue Meanies, encounter Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD, a strange little brown-furred man with a blue face, pink ears and tail, who lives in an empty Nowhere, speaks in rhyme and describes himself as an "eminent physicist, polyglot classicist, prize-winning botanist, hard-biting satirist, talented pianist, good dentist too". The band realizes one of their songs sums Jeremy up well and they sing "Nowhere Man" about him as they cavort with his magic in his nowhere land. However as they prepare to leave, Jeremy realizes how literally empty and lonely his life and becomes inconsolable. Concerned at seeing the friendly person so upset, the compassionate Ringo offers to take him Somewhere and he gratefully accepts. Jeremy eventually helps the Beatles to defeat the Blue Meanies. (Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowhere_Man)
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
We were told by experienced travellers, that the local cuisine would be kind of "cucina povera". Well, it may have its roots there, but we were surprised, how tasteful dishes and interesting recipes we found. The Osteria Scvnazz is a nice place, with polyglot waiters, but no written menu. What is fresh on the (fish) market in the morning will be offered here in the evening. Puglia knows all sorts and forms of pasta from large to tiny. These ones are "capunti".
Capunti pasta with pesto, ham and almonds
O inglês segue como um idioma fundamental para se destacar no mercado de trabalho e viver experiências no exterior. Porém, o espanhol ganha força e surge como uma necessidade e um diferencial.
De acordo com o blog Novos Alunos, do SEB (Sistema Educacional Brasileiro), estudar espanhol pode trazer uma série de vantagens para a carreira e para a vida pessoal.
A língua espanhola é o segundo idioma mais falado no mundo, com cerca de 427 milhões de falantes nativos contabilizados em 2017, perdendo apenas para o mandarim. Já o inglês, à época, ficou como o terceiro da lista, com 339 milhões.
Na América do Sul, por exemplo, o idioma é majoritário.
Ao redor do mundo, incluindo a Espanha, a língua é falada em 20 países, ou seja, o espanhol amplia as possibilidades de conexão com outras nacionalidades, que são riquíssimas em história, costumes e cultura.
É por isso que falar espanhol ajuda na conquista do emprego. Quem estuda se destaca, especialmente porque a língua é cheia de falsos cognatos.
Ou seja, existem muitas palavras nesse idioma que se assemelham às palavras do português, mas que querem dizer algo completamente diferente.
Países vizinhos, como Argentina, Bolívia, Chile, Colômbia, Equador, Paraguai, Peru, Uruguai e Venezuela, passam a ser novas possibilidades para a carreira.
E, dependendo da atuação, para o empreendedorismo. Além disso, por conta do Mercosul, o trânsito entre os países é facilitado.
Venha estudar espanhol grátis e on-line
Ficou com vontade de começar agora mesmo a aprender espanhol? Confira abaixo algumas dicas de cursos gratuitos de espanhol para iniciantes.
A SEDA College, escola localizada em Dublin, na Irlanda, lançou sua plataforma on-line primeiramente com foco no ensino da língua inglesa para estrangeiros. No entanto, a instituição começou a liberar diferentes serviços, como o curso de espanhol para iniciantes.
A Univasf (Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco), no Pernambuco, oferece um curso on-line e totalmente gratuito para os interessados em aprender como falar espanhol. Não há qualquer tipo de restrição para se inscrever. Clique aqui e aproveite.
A plataforma de ensino on-line Alison reúne diversos cursos para quem quer dar os primeiros passos em um novo idioma. Um deles é o de Introdução ao Espanhol, que ajudará o aluno a entender os conceitos básicos da língua.
Descubra alguns canais do YouTube que mostram como falar espanhol
¡Hola! ¿Vamos hablar español?
Segundo o Instituto Cervantes, em 2016 7,8% da população mundial falava espanhol, sendo que 21 milhões de alunos estudavam o idioma como língua estrangeira.
A previsão é que até 2050 cerca de 754 milhões de pessoas falem espanhol.
Para te ajudar a aprender espanhol ou aprimorar seu conhecimento no idioma, os canais do YouTube podem ser de grande ajuda.
Com eles você consegue entender palavras em espanhol e estudar gratuitamente a gramática, vocabulário e pronúncia. Assim você deixa de vez de falar “portunhol” por aí.
Confira essa lista com alguns dos melhores canais:
Tio Spanish: aprender español on-line
Tio Spanish é um personagem interpretado por um dedo indicador e caracterizado como um mariachi.
Através de videoaulas gratuitas no YouTube, ele e seus amigos ensinam espanhol para alunos do nível básico, intermediário e avançado.
O canal conta também com materiais de apoio para professores do idioma.
Gramática, vocabulário, dicas de pronúncia e conversação são alguns dos temas recorrentes nas aulas. Além disso, as aulas trazem um pouco sobre as cidades, festas e cultura da Espanha. Há canções para crianças aprenderem espanhol.
Practiquemos by Catalina Moreno E.
Os vídeos contam com legendas em espanhol ou inglês. A professora Catalina Moreno ministra as aulas de forma bem didática e descontraída, falando devagar, de forma que facilita a compreensão do aluno.
Com mais de 10 anos de experiência como professora, ela ensina gramática para os alunos aperfeiçoarem o idioma.
Bora falar espanhol
O canal do YouTube “Bora falar espanhol”, com quase 100 mil inscritos, disponibiliza as videoaulas de espanhol. O professor, que fala um português com bastante sotaque, ensina vocabulário, gramática e pronúncia em vídeos curtos de 1 a no máximo 10 minutos.
Espanhol para brasileiros
Esse canal do YouTube tem aulas em português de Driéli Mayresse Sonaglio, que morou na Argentina. As videoaulas são divididas por nível: básico, intermediário e avançado. Ela ensina sobre gramática, dicas, curiosidades, espanhol para viajantes e hispanohablantes.
Español Fácil
O curso on-line conta com mais de 62 aulas em português.
Diversos vídeos ensinam sobre a a pronúncia das palavras em espanhol com o intuito de ensinar alunos iniciantes e os que querem aperfeiçoar o idioma. Também faz parte do conteúdo, videoaulas de gramática e vocabulário.
Estude espanhol e treine o idioma com séries do Netflix
Está aprendendo espanhol e quer treinar o idioma? Ou quer já ver como os nativos falam espanhol, porque vai fazer um intercâmbio?
Aproveite as férias e finais de semana para conhecer e assistir séries originalmente produzidas na língua espanhola.
A Netflix, por exemplo, disponibiliza várias opções interessantes (e populares) entre dramas e comédias. Confira:
Club de Cuervos
A primeira produção em espanhol da Netflix conta a história de uma família mexicana ligada ao universo do futebol e narra suas brigas e desavenças.
Narcos
Estrelada por Wagner Moura, a série da Netflix relata a trajetória do traficante colombiano Pablo Escobar (1949-1993), que de um criminoso comum tornou-se um dos homens mais perigosos e procurados do mundo.
Pablo Escobar – El Patrón del Mal
Esta outra série também conta a história de Escobar, porém a produção é colombiana e foi lançada em 2012. Diferente da versão gringa, a trama começa na infância do traficante.
La Reina del Sur
Baseada no romance do espanhol Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a série conta a história da lendária Teresa Mendoza, uma mulher que conquistou o mundo do tráfico de drogas.
Rosario Tijeras
Uma das séries colombianas de maior sucesso, “Rosario Tijeras” é inspirada em um livro de mesmo nome escrito por Jorge Franco.
Tenha videoaulas gratuitas para aprender 150 frases em espanhol
Saber falar outros idiomas pode ser decisivo para se dar bem em entrevistas de emprego. Para quem quer aprender espanhol sem gastar nada pode começar praticando com a ajuda de alguns canais de vídeo.
O Polyglot Pablo tem 10 aulas voltadas para iniciantes no idioma. São 150 frases básicas que ajudam a treinar a pronúncia.
Colocamos os primeiros vídeos abaixo para você começar a aprender. Para ter acesso a todo o conteúdo, clique aqui.
Confira algumas dicas gratuitas e online para aprimorar ou aprender espanhol
Comece a estudar espanhol agora mesmo, de graça e on-line.
Vai dar um pulo ali na Argentina e Uruguai? Ou dará o pontapé em sua viagem pelo Europa começando pela Espanha?
Se você não quer passar vergonha com o idioma dos hermanos, saiba que é possível aprender espanhol de graça, on-line e com facilidade. Confira nossas dicas e hasta la vista, baby.
Duolingo
Pelo computador ou celular, com o Duolingo você aprende por meio de uma série de atividades para treinar as habilidades do idioma: escrever, falar e traduzir áudios.
Universidade Autônoma de Barcelona
O Coursera, plataforma que reúne aulas das mais renomadas instituições do mundo, oferece o curso gratuito “Correções e Estilo da Língua Espanhola”, ministrado pela Universidade Autônoma de Barcelona.
Notícias da BBC
Este site da BBC traz um podcast diário, de aproximadamente 15 minutos, sobre as notícias internacionais totalmente em espanhol.
Wikilivros
A página do Wikilivros de espanhol contém pontos importantes para o início do aprendizado em espanhol. O nível das atividades é o básico.
Conheça o canal ProEnem que traz dicas de espanhol em aulas gratuitas
Se você optou por espanhol na hora da inscrição do Enem (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio) saiba que o canal ProEnem, no YouTube, dá dicas sobre a língua para quem vai fazer a prova.
O canal tem quase 170 mil inscritos no Youtube e aproximadamente 6 milhões visualizações. A plataforma oferece conteúdo gratuito e ao vivo diariamente, não só de espanhol, mas de todas as disciplinas abordadas.
Quem comanda as aulas sobre língua espanhola é o carismático professor Carlos Belém, mais conhecido como Carlão. As dicas ajudam o aluno a compreender as questões e quais suas principais características.
Curtiu as aulas? Confira mais vídeos lá no canal!
O ProEnem também tem um site com exercícios de acompanhamento a cada módulo. Há correções ao vivo, além de dar ao aluno a oportunidade de enviar uma redação por mês, que é corrigida e comentada por sua equipe.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
A 15th-century Gothic house (now a museum) where Copernicus was reputedly born
Nicolaus Copernicus ( born on 19 February 1473 in Toruń (Thorn) Poland– died on 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.
Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, jurist with a doctorate in law, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classics scholar, translator, artist,[3] Catholic cleric, governor, diplomat and economist.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
The journal Science recently published an article in which scientists described the first meaningful exchange between a ficus tree and a human being that could, in a broader sense, be considered a conversation. The insightfully envisioned experiment required utmost patience and full commitment from both parties: over the course of eighteen years (2025-43), the young ficus tree (Ficus benjamina) and the human had to negotiate a shared code of signs. The linguist and polyglot M.L. began the experiment by establishing a basic set of communication signs. Like all plants, ficus trees maintain rigorous control over the amount of water they absorb through the roots by opening and closing leaf pores. Each ficus leaf has thousands of such tiny openings, called stomata. M.L.’s idea was to read stomata just as people who can read lips.
Photo: Franz Wamhof
José Protacio Rizal Mercado Alonzo y Realonda (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896, Bagumbayan), was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by National Heroes Committee. His execution by the Spanish in 1896, a date marked annually as Rizal Day, a Philippine national holiday, was one of the causes of the Philippine Revolution.
Rizal was born to a rich family in Calamba, Laguna and was the seventh of eleven children. He attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts, and enrolled in medicine at the University of Santo Tomas. He continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He also attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg.
Rizal was a polyglot conversant in twenty-two languages. He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El filibusterismo. These social commentaries on Spanish rule formed the nucleus of literature that inspired peaceful reformists and armed revolutionaries alike.
As a political figure, José Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan led by Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of achieving Philippine self-government peacefully through institutional reform rather than through violent revolution, although he would support "violent means" as a last resort. Rizal believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government is the restoration of the dignity of the people, saying "...why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?" The general consensus among Rizal scholars is that his execution by the Spanish helped to bring about the Philippine Revolution (Wikipedia)
The Plantin-Moretus Museum (Dutch: Plantin-Moretusmuseum) is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th-century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, the Plantin Press, at the Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market) in Antwerp, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.
The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christophe Plantin, who obtained type from the leading typefounders of the day in Paris. Plantin was a major figure in contemporary printing with interests in humanism; his eight-volume, multi-language Plantin Polyglot Bible with Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Syriac texts was one of the most complex productions of the period. Plantin's is now suspected of being at least connected to members of heretical groups known as the Familists, and this may have led him to spend time in exile in his native France.
View of the courtyard of the museum
After Plantin's death it was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus. While most printing concerns disposed of their collections of older type in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in response to changing tastes, the Plantin-Moretus company "piously preserved the collection of its founder."
Four women ran the family-owned Plantin-Moretus printing house (Plantin Press) over the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries: Martina Plantin, Anna Goos, Anna Maria de Neuf and Maria Theresia Borrekens.
In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. One year later the public could visit the living areas and the printing presses. The collection has been used extensively for research, by historians H. D. L. Vervliet, Mike Parker and Harry Carter. Carter's son Matthew would later describe this research as helping to demonstrate "that the finest collection of printing types made in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) [along with] Plantin's accounts and inventories which names the cutters of his types."
In 2002 the museum was nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2005 was inscribed onto the World Heritage list.
The Plantin-Moretus Museum possesses an exceptional collection of typographical material. Not only does it house the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world and complete sets of dies and matrices, it also has an extensive library, a richly decorated interior and the entire archives of the Plantin business, which were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2001 in recognition of their historical significance.
Coburg Carnivale event at Victoria St Mall on Saturday 4 October 2014. Featured Polyglot Theatre giant ants, a triplet of musical cows, Westside circus, two dancing zebras, the Positive Charge polar bear, balloon sculptor, and various acrobats and entertainers.
9.4.09
The flight arrived on time; and the twelve hours while on board passed quickly and without incident. To be sure, the quality of the Cathay Pacific service was exemplary once again.
Heathrow reminds me of Newark International. The décor comes straight out of the sterile 80's and is less an eyesore than an insipid background to the rhythm of human activity, such hustle and bustle, at the fore. There certainly are faces from all races present, creating a rich mosaic of humanity which is refreshing if not completely revitalizing after swimming for so long in a sea of Chinese faces in Hong Kong.
Internet access is sealed in England, it seems. Nothing is free; everything is egregiously monetized from the wireless hotspots down to the desktop terminals. I guess Hong Kong has spoiled me with its abundant, free access to the information superhighway.
11.4.09
Despite staying in a room with five other backpackers, I have been sleeping well. The mattress and pillow are firm; my earplugs keep the noise out; and the sleeping quarters are as dark as a cave when the lights are out, and only as bright as, perhaps, a dreary rainy day when on. All in all, St. Paul's is a excellent place to stay for the gregarious, adventurous, and penurious city explorer - couchsurfing may be a tenable alternative; I'll test for next time.
Yesterday Connie and I gorged ourselves at the borough market where there were all sorts of delectable, savory victuals. There was definitely a European flavor to the food fair: simmering sausages were to be found everywhere; and much as the meat was plentiful, and genuine, so were the dairy delicacies, in the form of myriad rounds of cheese, stacked high behind checkered tabletops. Of course, we washed these tasty morsels down with copious amounts of alcohol that flowed from cups as though amber waterfalls. For the first time I tried mulled wine, which tasted like warm, rancid fruit punch - the ideal tonic for a drizzling London day, I suppose. We later killed the afternoon at the pub, shooting the breeze while imbibing several diminutive half-pints in the process. Getting smashed at four in the afternoon doesn't seem like such a bad thing anymore, especially when you are having fun in the company of friends; I can more appreciate why the English do it so much!
Earlier in the day, we visited the Tate Modern. Its turbine room lived up to its prominent billing what with a giant spider, complete with bulbous egg sac, anchoring the retrospective exhibit. The permanent galleries, too, were a delight upon which to feast one's eyes. Picasso, Warhol and Pollock ruled the chambers of the upper floors with the products of their lithe wrists; and I ended up becoming a huge fan of cubism, while developing a disdain for abstract art and its vacuous images, which, I feel, are devoid of both motivation and emotion.
My first trip yesterday morning was to Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal Gunners. It towers imperiously over the surrounding neighborhood; yet for all its majesty, the place sure was quiet! Business did pick up later, however, once the armory shop opened, and dozens of fans descended on it like bees to a hive. I, too, swooped in on a gift-buying mission, and wound up purchasing a book for Godfrey, a scarf for a student, and a jersey - on sale, of course - for good measure.
I'm sitting in the Westminster Abbey Museum now, resting my weary legs and burdened back. So far, I've been verily impressed with what I've seen, such a confluence of splendor and history before me that it would require days to absorb it all, when regretfully I can spare only a few hours. My favorite part of the abbey is the poets corner where no less a literary luminary than Samuel Johnson rests in peace - his bust confirms his homely presence, which was so vividly captured in his biography.
For lunch I had a steak and ale pie, served with mash, taken alongside a Guinness, extra cold - 2 degrees centigrade colder, the bartender explained. It went down well, like all the other delicious meals I've had in England; and no doubt by now I have grown accustomed to inebriation at half past two. Besides, Liverpool were playing inspired football against Blackburn; and my lunch was complete.
Having had my fill of football, I decided to skip my ticket scalping endeavor at Stamford Bridge and instead wandered over to the British Museum to inspect their extensive collections. Along the way, my eye caught a theater, its doors wide open and admitting customers. With much rapidity, I subsequently checked the show times, saw that a performance was set to begin, and at last rushed to the box office to purchase a discounted ticket - if you call a 40 pound ticket a deal, that is. That's how I grabbed a seat to watch Hairspray in the West End.
The show was worth forty pounds. The music was addictive; and the stage design and effects were not so much kitschy as delightfully stimulating - the pulsating background lights were at once scintillating and penetrating. The actors as well were vivacious, oozing charisma while they danced and delivered lines dripping in humor. Hairspray is a quality production and most definitely recommended.
12.4.09
At breakfast I sat across from a man who asked me to which country Hong Kong had been returned - China or Japan. That was pretty funny. Then he started spitting on my food as he spoke, completely oblivious to my breakfast becoming the receptacle in which the fruit of his inner churl was being placed. I guess I understand the convention nowadays of covering one's mouth whilst speaking and masticating at the same time!
We actually conversed on London life in general, and I praised London for its racial integration, the act of which is a prodigious leap of faith for any society, trying to be inclusive, accepting all sorts of people. It wasn't as though the Brits were trying in vain to be all things to all men, using Spanish with the visitors from Spain, German with the Germans and, even, Hindi with the Indians, regardless of whether or not Hindi was their native language; not even considering the absurd idea of encouraging the international adoption of their language; thereby completely keeping English in English hands and allowing its proud polyglots to "practice" their languages. Indeed, the attempt of the Londoners to avail themselves of the rich mosaic of ethnic knowledge, and to seek a common understanding with a ubiquitous English accent is an exemplar, and the bedrock for any world city.
I celebrated Jesus' resurrection at the St. Andrew's Street Church in Cambridge. The parishioners of this Baptist church were warm and affable, and I met several of them, including one visiting (Halliday) linguistics scholar from Zhongshan university in Guangzhou, who in fact had visited my tiny City University of Hong Kong in 2003. The service itself was more traditional and the believers fewer in number than the "progressive" services at any of the charismatic, evangelical churches in HK; yet that's what makes this part of the body of Christ unique; besides, the message was as brief as a powerpoint slide, and informative no less; the power word which spoke into my life being a question from John 21:22 - what is that to you?
Big trees; exquisite lawns; and old, pointy colleges; that's Cambridge in a nutshell. Sitting here, sipping on a half-pint of Woodforde's Wherry, I've had a leisurely, if not languorous, day so far; my sole duty consisting of walking around while absorbing the verdant environment as though a sponge, camera in tow.
I am back at the sublime beer, savoring a pint of Sharp's DoomBar before my fish and chips arrive; the drinking age is 18, but anyone whose visage even hints of youthful brilliance is likely to get carded these days, the bartender told me. The youth drinking culture here is almost as twisted as the university drinking culture in America.
My stay in Cambridge, relaxing and desultory as it may be, is about to end after this late lunch. I an not sure if there is anything left to see, save for the American graveyard which rests an impossible two miles away. I have had a wonderful time in this town; and am thankful for the access into its living history - the residents here must demonstrate remarkable patience and tolerance what with so many tourists ambling on the streets, peering - and photographing - into every nook and cranny.
13.4.09
There are no rubbish bins, yet I've seen on the streets many mixed race couples in which the men tend to be white - the women also belonging to a light colored ethnicity, usually some sort of Asian; as well saw some black dudes and Indian dudes with white chicks.
People here hold doors, even at the entrance to the toilet. Sometimes it appears as though they are going out on a limb, just waiting for the one who will take the responsibility for the door from them, at which point I rush out to relieve them of such a fortuitous burden.
I visited the British Museum this morning. The two hours I spent there did neither myself nor the exhibits any justice because there really is too much to survey, enough captivating stuff to last an entire day, I think. The bottomless well of artifacts from antiquity, drawing from sources as diverse as Korea, and Mesopotamia, is a credit to the British empire, without whose looting most of this amazing booty would be unavailable for our purview; better, I think, for these priceless treasures to be open to all in the grandest supermarket of history than away from human eyes, and worst yet, in the hands of unscrupulous collectors or in the rubbish bin, possibly.
Irene and I took in the ballet Giselle at The Royal Opera House in the afternoon. The building is a plush marvel, and a testament to this city's love for the arts. The ballet itself was satisfying, the first half being superior to the second, in which the nimble dancers demonstrated their phenomenal dexterity in, of all places, a graveyard covered in a cloak of smoke and darkness. I admit, their dance of the dead, in such a gloomy necropolis, did strike me as, strange.
Two amicable ladies from Kent convinced me to visit their hometown tomorrow, where, they told me, the authentic, "working" Leeds Castle and the mighty interesting home of Charles Darwin await.
I'm nursing a pint of Green King Ruddles and wondering about the profusion of British ales and lagers; the British have done a great deed for the world by creating an interminable line of low-alcohol session beers that can be enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner; and their disservice is this: besides this inexhaustible supply of cheap beer ensnaring my inner alcoholic, I feel myself putting on my freshman fifteen, almost ten years after the fact; I am going to have to run a bit harder back in Hong Kong if I want to burn all this malty fuel off.
Irene suggested I stop by the National Art Gallery since we were in the area; and it was an hour well spent. The gallery currently presents a special exhibit on Picasso, the non-ticketed section of which features several seductive renderings, including David spying on Bathsheba - repeated in clever variants - and parodies of other masters' works. Furthermore, the main gallery houses two fabulous portraits by Joshua Reynolds, who happens to be favorite of mine, he in life being a close friend of Samuel Johnson - I passed by Boswells, where its namesake first met Johnson, on my way to the opera house.
14.4.09
I prayed last night, and went through my list, lifting everyone on it up to the Lord. That felt good; that God is alive now, and ever present in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters.
Doubtless, then, I have felt quite wistful, as though a specter in the land of the living, being in a place where religious fervor, it seems, is a thing of the past, a trifling for many, to be hidden away in the opaque corners of centuries-old cathedrals that are more expensive tourist destinations than liberating homes of worship these days. Indeed, I have yet to see anyone pray, outside of the Easter service which I attended in Cambridge - for such an ecstatic moment in verily a grand church, would you believe that it was only attended by at most three dozen spirited ones. The people of England, and Europe in general, have, it is my hope, only locked away the Word, relegating it to the quiet vault of their hearts. May it be taken out in the sudden pause before mealtimes and in the still crisp mornings and cool, silent nights. There is still hope for a revival in this place, for faith to rise like that splendid sun every morning. God would love to rescue them, to deliver them in this day, it is certain.
I wonder what Londoners think, if anything at all, about their police state which, like a vine in the shadows, has taken root in all corners of daily life, from the terrorist notifications in the underground, which implore Londoners to report all things suspicious, to the pair of dogs which eagerly stroll through Euston. What makes this all the more incredible is the fact that even the United States, the indomitable nemesis of the fledgling, rebel order, doesn't dare bombard its citizens with such fear mongering these days, especially with Obama in office; maybe we've grown wise in these past few years to the dubious returns of surrendering civil liberties to the state, of having our bags checked everywhere - London Eye; Hairspray; and The Royal Opera House check bags in London while the museums do not; somehow, that doesn't add up for me.
I'm in a majestic bookshop on New Street in Birmingham, and certainly to confirm my suspicions, there are just as many books on the death of Christianity in Britain as there are books which attempt to murder Christianity everywhere. I did find, however, a nice biography on John Wesley by Roy Hattersley and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I may pick up the former.
Lunch with Sally was pleasant and mirthful. We dined at a French restaurant nearby New Street - yes, Birmingham is a cultural capitol! Sally and I both tried their omelette, while her boyfriend had the fish, without chips. Conversation was light, the levity was there and so was our reminiscing about those fleeting moments during our first year in Hong Kong; it is amazing how friendships can resume so suddenly with a smile. On their recommendation, I am on my way to Warwick Castle - they also suggested that I visit Cadbury World, but they cannot take on additional visitors at the moment, the tourist office staff informed me, much to my disappointment!
Visiting Warwick Castle really made for a great day out. The castle, parts of which were established by William the Conquerer in 1068, is as much a kitschy tourist trap as a meticulous preservation of history, at times a sillier version of Ocean Park while at others a dignified dedication to a most glorious, inexorably English past. The castle caters to all visitors; and not surprisingly, that which delighted all audiences was a giant trebuchet siege engine, which for the five p.m. performance hurled a fireball high and far into the air - fantastic! Taliban beware!
15.4.09
I'm leaving on a jet plane this evening; don't know when I'll be back in England again. I'll miss this quirky, yet endearing place; and that I shall miss Irene and Tom who so generously welcomed me into their home, fed me, and suffered my use of their toilet and shower goes without saying. I'm grateful for God's many blessings on this trip.
On the itinerary today is a trip to John Wesley's home, followed by a visit to the Imperial War Museum. Already this morning I picked up a tube of Oilatum, a week late perhaps, which Teri recommended I use to treat this obstinate, dermal weakness of mine - I'm happy to report that my skin has stopped crying.
John Wesley's home is alive and well. Services are still held in the chapel everyday; and its crypt, so far from being a cellar for the dead, is a bright, spacious museum in which all things Wesley are on display - I never realized how much of an iconic figure he became in England; at the height of this idol frenzy, ironic in itself, he must have been as popular as the Beatles were at their apex. The house itself is a multi-story edifice with narrow, precipitous staircases and spacious rooms decorated in an 18th century fashion.
I found Samuel Johnson's house within a maze of red brick hidden alongside Fleet Street. To be in the home of the man who wrote the English dictionary, and whose indefatigable love for obscure words became the inspiration for my own lexical obsession, this, by far, is the climax of my visit to England! The best certainly has been saved for last.
There are a multitude of portraits hanging around the house like ornaments on a tree. Every likeness has its own story, meticulously retold on the crib sheets in each room. Celebrities abound, including David Garrick and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted several of the finer images in the house. I have developed a particular affinity for Oliver Goldsmith, of whom Boswell writes, "His person was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar awkwardly affecting the easy gentleman. It appears as though I, too, could use a more flattering description of myself!
I regretfully couldn't stop to try the curry in England; I guess the CityU canteen's take on the dish will have to do. I did, however, have the opportune task of flirting with the cute Cathay Pacific counter staff who checked me in. She was gorgeous in red, light powder on her cheeks, with real diamond earrings, she said; and her small, delicate face, commanded by a posh British accent rendered her positively irresistible, electrifying. Not only did she grant me an aisle seat but she had the gumption to return my fawning with zest; she must be a pro at this by now.
I saw her again as she was pulling double-duty, collecting tickets prior to boarding. She remembered my quest for curry; and in the fog of infatuation, where nary a man has been made, I fumbled my words like the sloppy kid who has had too much punch. I am just an amateur, alas, an "Oliver Goldsmith" with the ladies - I got no game - booyah!
Some final, consequential bits: because of the chavs, Burberry no longer sells those fashionable baseball caps; because of the IRA, rubbish bins are no longer a commodity on the streets of London, and as a result, the streets and the Underground of the city are a soiled mess; and because of other terrorists from distant, more arid lands, going through a Western airport has taken on the tedium of perfunctory procedure that doesn't make me feel any safer from my invisible enemies.
At last, I saw so many Indians working at Heathrow that I could have easily mistaken the place for Mumbai. Their presence surprised me because their portion of the general population surely must be less than their portion of Heathrow staff, indicating some mysterious hiring bias. Regardless, they do a superb job with cursory airport checks, and in general are absurdly funny and witty when not tactless.
That's all for England!
Mumbai (/mʊmˈbaɪ/; also known as Bombay, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India and the ninth most populous agglomeration in the world, with an estimated city population of 18.4 million. Along with the neighbouring regions of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, it is one of the most populous urban regions in the world and the seсond most populous metropolitan area in India, with a population of 20.7 million as of 2011. Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2009, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. It is also the wealthiest city in India, and has the highest GDP of any city in South, West, or Central Asia. Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires and millionaires among all cities in India.The seven islands that came to constitute Mumbai were home to communities of fishing colonies. For centuries, the islands were under the control of successive indigenous empires before being ceded to the Portuguese and subsequently to the British East India Company when in 1661 King Charles II married the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza, and as part of her dowry Charles received the ports of Tangier and seven islands of Bombay. During the mid-18th century, Bombay was reshaped by the Hornby Vellard project, which undertook reclamation of the area between the seven islands from the sea. Along with construction of major roads and railways, the reclamation project, completed in 1845, transformed Bombay into a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. Bombay in the 19th century was characterized by economic and educational development. During the early 20th century it became a strong base for the Indian independence movement. Upon India's independence in 1947 the city was incorporated into Bombay State. In 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Bombay as the capital.Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India. It is also one of the world's top ten centres of commerce in terms of global financial flow, generating 6.16% of India's GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 70% of maritime trade in India (Mumbai Port Trust and JNPT), and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy. The city houses important financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India, the SEBI and the corporate headquarters of numerous Indian companies and multinational corporations. It is also home to some of India's premier scientific and nuclear institutes like BARC, NPCL, IREL, TIFR, AERB, AECI, and the Department of Atomic Energy. The city also houses India's Hindi (Bollywood) and Marathi film and television industry. Mumbai's business opportunities, as well as its potential to offer a higher standard of living, attract migrants from all over India, making the city a melting pot of many communities and cultures.
ETYMOLOGY
The name Mumbai is derived from Mumbā or Mahā-Ambā—the name of the patron goddess (Kuladevi) Mumbadevi of the native Agri, Koli and Somvanshi Kshatriya communities - and ā'ī meaning "mother" in the Marathi language, which is the mother tongue of the kolis and the official language of Maharashtra.
The oldest known names for the city are Kakamuchee and Galajunkja; these are sometimes still used. Ali Muhammad Khan, in the Mirat-i-Ahmedi (1507) referred to the city as Manbai. In 1508, Portuguese writer Gaspar Correia used the name Bombaim, in his Lendas da Índia ("Legends of India"). This name possibly originated as the Old Portuguese phrase bom baim, meaning "good little bay", and Bombaim is still commonly used in Portuguese. In 1516, Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa used the name Tana-Maiambu: Tana appears to refer to the adjoining town of Thane and Maiambu to Mumbadevi.
Other variations recorded in the 16th and the 17th centuries include: Mombayn (1525), Bombay (1538), Bombain (1552), Bombaym (1552), Monbaym (1554), Mombaim (1563), Mombaym (1644), Bambaye (1666), Bombaiim (1666), Bombeye (1676), Boon Bay (1690), and Bon Bahia. After the British gained possession of the city in the 17th century, the Portuguese name was officially anglicised as Bombay.
By the late 20th century, the city was referred to as Mumbai or Mambai in the Indian statewise official languages of Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Kannada and Sindhi, and as Bambai in Hindi. The English name was officially changed to Mumbai in November 1995. This came at the insistence of the Marathi nationalist Shiv Sena party that had just won the Maharashtra state elections and mirrored similar name changes across the country and particularly in Maharashtra. According to Slate, "they argued that 'Bombay' was a corrupted English version of 'Mumbai' and an unwanted legacy of British colonial rule." Slate also said "The push to rename Bombay was part of a larger movement to strengthen Marathi identity in the Maharashtra region." While the city is still referred to as Bombay by some of its residents and Indians from other regions, mention of the city by a name other than Mumbai has been controversial, resulting in emotional outbursts sometimes of a violently political nature.
A resident of Mumbai is called mumbaikar; in Marathi language the suffix kar has a meaning resident of. The term has been in use for quite some time but it gained popularity after the official name change to Mumbai.
EARLY HISTORY
Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands: Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's Island (also known as Little Colaba). It is not exactly known when these islands were first inhabited. Pleistocene sediments found along the coastal areas around Kandivali in northern Mumbai suggest that the islands were inhabited since the Stone Age. Perhaps at the beginning of the Common era (2,000 years ago), or possibly earlier, they came to be occupied by the Koli fishing community.
In the third century BCE, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, during its expansion in the south, ruled by the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka of Magadha. The Kanheri Caves in Borivali were excavated in the mid-third century BCE, and served as an important centre of Buddhism in Western India during ancient Times. The city then was known as Heptanesia (Ancient Greek: A Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy in 150 CE. The Mahakali Caves in Andheri were built between the 1st century BCE and the 6th century CE.
Between the second century BCE and ninth century CE, the islands came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahanas, Western Kshatrapas, Abhiras, Vakatakas, Kalachuris, Konkan Mauryas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas, before being ruled by the Silhara dynasty from 810 to 1260. Some of the oldest edifices in the city built during this period are, Jogeshwari Caves (between 520 and 525), Elephanta Caves (between the sixth to seventh century), Walkeshwar Temple (10th century), and Banganga Tank (12th century).
King Bhimdev founded his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century and established his capital in Mahikawati (present day Mahim). The Pathare Prabhus, among the earliest known settlers of the city, were brought to Mahikawati from Saurashtra in Gujarat around 1298 by Bhimdev. The Delhi Sultanate annexed the islands in 1347–48 and controlled it until 1407. During this time, the islands were administered by the Muslim Governors of Gujarat, who were appointed by the Delhi Sultanate.
The islands were later governed by the independent Gujarat Sultanate, which was established in 1407. The Sultanate's patronage led to the construction of many mosques, prominent being the Haji Ali Dargah in Worli, built in honour of the Muslim saint Haji Ali in 1431. From 1429 to 1431, the islands were a source of contention between the Gujarat Sultanate and the Bahamani Sultanate of Deccan. In 1493, Bahadur Khan Gilani of the Bahamani Sultanate attempted to conquer the islands but was defeated.
PORTUGUESE AND BRITISH RULE
The Mughal Empire, founded in 1526, was the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent during the mid-16th century. Growing apprehensive of the power of the Mughal emperor Humayun, Sultan Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein with the Portuguese Empire on 23 December 1534. According to the treaty, the seven islands of Bombay, the nearby strategic town of Bassein and its dependencies were offered to the Portuguese. The territories were later surrendered on 25 October 1535.
The Portuguese were actively involved in the foundation and growth of their Roman Catholic religious orders in Bombay. They called the islands by various names, which finally took the written form Bombaim. The islands were leased to several Portuguese officers during their regime. The Portuguese Franciscans and Jesuits built several churches in the city, prominent being the St. Michael's Church at Mahim (1534), St. John the Baptist Church at Andheri (1579), St. Andrew's Church at Bandra (1580), and Gloria Church at Byculla (1632). The Portuguese also built several fortifications around the city like the Bombay Castle, Castella de Aguada (Castelo da Aguada or Bandra Fort), and Madh Fort. The English were in constant struggle with the Portuguese vying for hegemony over Bombay, as they recognized its strategic natural harbour and its natural isolation from land-attacks. By the middle of the 17th century the growing power of the Dutch Empire forced the English to acquire a station in western India. On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed the islands in possession of the English Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles. However, Salsette, Bassein, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala still remained under Portuguese possession. From 1665 to 1666, the English managed to acquire Mahim, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala.
In accordance with the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668, England leased these islands to the English East India Company in 1668 for a sum of £10 per annum. The population quickly rose from 10,000 in 1661, to 60,000 in 1675. The islands were subsequently attacked by Yakut Khan, the Siddi admiral of the Mughal Empire, in October 1672, Rickloffe van Goen, the Governor-General of Dutch India on 20 February 1673, and Siddi admiral Sambal on 10 October 1673.In 1687, the English East India Company transferred its headquarters from Surat to Bombay. The city eventually became the headquarters of the Bombay Presidency. Following the transfer, Bombay was placed at the head of all the Company's establishments in India. Towards the end of the 17th century, the islands again suffered incursions from Yakut Khan in 1689–90. The Portuguese presence ended in Bombay when the Marathas under Peshwa Baji Rao I captured Salsette in 1737, and Bassein in 1739. By the middle of the 18th century, Bombay began to grow into a major trading town, and received a huge influx of migrants from across India. Later, the British occupied Salsette on 28 December 1774. With the Treaty of Surat (1775), the British formally gained control of Salsette and Bassein, resulting in the First Anglo-Maratha War. The British were able to secure Salsette from the Marathas without violence through the Treaty of Purandar (1776), and later through the Treaty of Salbai (1782), signed to settle the outcome of the First Anglo-Maratha War.
From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the seven islands into a single amalgamated mass. This project, known as Hornby Vellard, was completed by 1784. In 1817, the British East India Company under Mountstuart Elphinstone defeated Baji Rao II, the last of the Maratha Peshwa in the Battle of Khadki. Following his defeat, almost the whole of the Deccan came under British suzerainty, and was incorporated into the Bombay Presidency. The success of the British campaign in the Deccan marked the liberation of Bombay from all attacks by native powers.
By 1845, the seven islands coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard project via large scale land reclamation. On 16 April 1853, India's first passenger railway line was established, connecting Bombay to the neighbouring town of Thana (now Thane). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city became the world's chief cotton-trading market, resulting in a boom in the economy that subsequently enhanced the city's stature.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Bombay into one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea. In September 1896, Bombay was hit by a bubonic plague epidemic where the death toll was estimated at 1,900 people per week. About 850,000 people fled Bombay and the textile industry was adversely affected. As the capital of the Bombay Presidency, the city witnessed the Indian independence movement, with the Quit India Movement in 1942 and The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny in 1946 being its most notable events.
INDEPENDENT INDIA
After India's independence in 1947, the territory of the Bombay Presidency retained by India was restructured into Bombay State. The area of Bombay State increased, after several erstwhile princely states that joined the Indian union were integrated into the state. Subsequently, the city became the capital of Bombay State. On April 1950, Municipal limits of Bombay were expanded by merging the Bombay Suburban District and Bombay City to form the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation.
The Samyukta Maharashtra movement to create a separate Maharashtra state including Bombay was at its height in the 1950s. In the Lok Sabha discussions in 1955, the Congress party demanded that the city be constituted as an autonomous city-state. The States Reorganisation Committee recommended a bilingual state for Maharashtra–Gujarat with Bombay as its capital in its 1955 report. Bombay Citizens' Committee, an advocacy group of leading Gujarati industrialists lobbied for Bombay's independent status.
Following protests during the movement in which 105 people lost their lives in clashes with the police, Bombay State was reorganised on linguistic lines on 1 May 1960. Gujarati-speaking areas of Bombay State were partitioned into the state of Gujarat. Maharashtra State with Bombay as its capital was formed with the merger of Marathi-speaking areas of Bombay State, eight districts from Central Provinces and Berar, five districts from Hyderabad State, and numerous princely states enclosed between them. As a memorial to the martyrs of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, Flora Fountain was renamed as Hutatma Chowk (Martyr's Square), and a memorial was erected.
The following decades saw massive expansion of the city and its suburbs. In the late 1960s, Nariman Point and Cuffe Parade were reclaimed and developed. The Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) was established on 26 January 1975 by the Government of Maharashtra as an apex body for planning and co-ordination of development activities in the Bombay metropolitan region. In August 1979, a sister township of New Bombay was founded by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) across the Thane and Raigad districts to help the dispersal and control of Bombay's population. The textile industry in Bombay largely disappeared after the widespread 1982 Great Bombay Textile Strike, in which nearly 250,000 workers in more than 50 textile mills went on strike. Mumbai's defunct cotton mills have since become the focus of intense redevelopment.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port, which currently handles 55–60% of India's containerised cargo, was commissioned on 26 May 1989 across the creek at Nhava Sheva with a view to de-congest Bombay Harbour and to serve as a hub port for the city. The geographical limits of Greater Bombay were coextensive with municipal limits of Greater Bombay. On 1 October 1990, the Greater Bombay district was bifurcated to form two revenue districts namely, Bombay City and Bombay Suburban, though they continued to be administered by same Municipal Administration.
From 1990 to 2010, there has been an increase in violence in the hitherto largely peaceful city. Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the city was rocked by the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992–93 in which more than 1,000 people were killed. On 12 March 1993, a series of 13 co-ordinated bombings at several city landmarks by Islamic extremists and the Bombay underworld resulted in 257 deaths and over 700 injuries. In 2006, 209 people were killed and over 700 injured when seven bombs exploded on the city's commuter trains. In 2008, a series of ten coordinated attacks by armed terrorists for three days resulted in 173 deaths, 308 injuries, and severe damage to several heritage landmarks and prestigious hotels. The blasts that occurred at the Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar, and Dadar on 13 July 2011 were the latest in the series of terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Mumbai is the commercial capital of India and has evolved into a global financial hub. For several decades it has been the home of India's main financial services, and a focus for both infrastructure development and private investment. From being an ancient fishing community and a colonial centre of trade, Mumbai has become South Asia's largest city and home of the world's most prolific film industry.
GEOGRAPHY
Mumbai consists of two distinct regions: Mumbai City district and Mumbai Suburban district, which form two separate revenue districts of Maharashtra. The city district region is also commonly referred to as the Island City or South Mumbai. The total area of Mumbai is 603.4 km2. Of this, the island city spans 67.79 km2, while the suburban district spans 370 km2, together accounting for 437.71 km2 under the administration of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). The remaining areas belong to various Defence establishments, the Mumbai Port Trust, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Borivali National Park, which are out of the jurisdiction of the MCGM.
Mumbai lies at the mouth of the Ulhas River on the western coast of India, in the coastal region known as the Konkan. It sits on Salsette Island (Sashti Island), which it partially shares with the Thane district. Mumbai is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west. Many parts of the city lie just above sea level, with elevations ranging from 10 m to 15 m; the city has an average elevation of 14 m. Northern Mumbai (Salsette) is hilly, and the highest point in the city is 450 m at Salsette in the Powai–Kanheri ranges. The Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Borivali National Park) is located partly in the Mumbai suburban district, and partly in the Thane district, and it extends over an area of 103.09 km2.
Apart from the Bhatsa Dam, there are six major lakes that supply water to the city: Vihar, Lower Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tulsi, Tansa and Powai. Tulsi Lake and Vihar Lake are located in Borivili National Park, within the city's limits. The supply from Powai lake, also within the city limits, is used only for agricultural and industrial purposes. Three small rivers, the Dahisar River, Poinsar (or Poisar) and Ohiwara (or Oshiwara) originate within the park, while the polluted Mithi River originates from Tulsi Lake and gathers water overflowing from Vihar and Powai Lakes. The coastline of the city is indented with numerous creeks and bays, stretching from the Thane creek on the eastern to Madh Marve on the western front. The eastern coast of Salsette Island is covered with large mangrove swamps, rich in biodiversity, while the western coast is mostly sandy and rocky.
Soil cover in the city region is predominantly sandy due to its proximity to the sea. In the suburbs, the soil cover is largely alluvial and loamy. The underlying rock of the region is composed of black Deccan basalt flows, and their acidic and basic variants dating back to the late Cretaceous and early Eocene eras. Mumbai sits on a seismically active zone owing to the presence of 23 fault lines in the vicinity. The area is classified as a Seismic Zone III region, which means an earthquake of up to magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale may be expected.
ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of the city is a blend of Gothic Revival, Indo-Saracenic, Art Deco, and other contemporary styles. Most of the buildings during the British period, such as the Victoria Terminus and Bombay University, were built in Gothic Revival style. Their architectural features include a variety of European influences such as German gables, Dutch roofs, Swiss timbering, Romance arches, Tudor casements, and traditional Indian features. There are also a few Indo-Saracenic styled buildings such as the Gateway of India. Art Deco styled landmarks can be found along the Marine Drive and west of the Oval Maidan. Mumbai has the second largest number of Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami. In the newer suburbs, modern buildings dominate the landscape. Mumbai has by far the largest number of skyscrapers in India, with 956 existing buildings and 272 under construction as of 2009.
The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC), established in 1995, formulates special regulations and by-laws to assist in the conservation of the city's heritage structures. Mumbai has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Elephanta Caves. In the south of Mumbai, there are colonial-era buildings and Soviet-style offices. In the east are factories and some slums. On the West coast are former-textile mills being demolished and skyscrapers built on top. There are 31 buildings taller than 100m, compared with 200 in Shanghai, 500 in Hong Kong and 500 in New York.
DEMOGRAPHICS
According to the 2011 census, the population of Mumbai was 12,479,608. The population density is estimated to be about 20,482 persons per square kilometre. The living space is 4.5sq metre per person. As Per 2011 census, Greater Mumbai, the area under the administration of the MCGM, has a literacy rate of 94.7%, higher than the national average of 86.7%. The number of slum-dwellers is estimated to be 9 million, up from 6 million in 2001, that is, 62% of all Mumbaikars live in informal slums.
The sex ratio was 838 (females per 1,000 males) in the island city, 857 in the suburbs, and 848 as a whole in Greater Mumbai, all numbers lower than the national average of 914 females per 1,000 males. The low sex ratio is partly because of the large number of male migrants who come to the city to work.
Residents of Mumbai call themselves Mumbaikar, Mumbaiite, Bombayite or Bombaiite. Mumbai has a large polyglot population like any other metropolitan city of India. Sixteen major languages of India are also spoken in Mumbai, most common being Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and English. English is extensively spoken and is the principal language of the city's white collar workforce. A colloquial form of Hindi, known as Bambaiya – a blend of Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Konkani, Urdu, Indian English and some invented words – is spoken on the streets.
Mumbai suffers from the same major urbanisation problems seen in many fast growing cities in developing countries: widespread poverty and unemployment, poor public health and poor civic and educational standards for a large section of the population. With available land at a premium, Mumbai residents often reside in cramped, relatively expensive housing, usually far from workplaces, and therefore requiring long commutes on crowded mass transit, or clogged roadways. Many of them live in close proximity to bus or train stations although suburban residents spend significant time travelling southward to the main commercial district. Dharavi, Asia's second largest slum (if Karachi's Orangi Town is counted as a single slum) is located in central Mumbai and houses between 800,000 and one million people in 2.39 square kilometres, making it one of the most densely populated areas on Earth with a population density of at least 334,728 persons per square kilometre. With a literacy rate of 69%, the slums in Mumbai are the most literate in India.
The number of migrants to Mumbai from outside Maharashtra during the 1991–2001 decade was 1.12 million, which amounted to 54.8% of the net addition to the population of Mumbai.
The number of households in Mumbai is forecast to rise from 4.2 million in 2008 to 6.6 million in 2020. The number of households with annual incomes of 2 million rupees will increase from 4% to 10% by 2020, amounting to 660,000 families. The number of households with incomes from 1–2 million rupees is also estimated to increase from 4% to 15% by 2020. According to Report of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) 2016 Mumbai is the noisiest city in India before Lucknow , Hyderabad and Delhi.
ETHNIC GROUPS AND RELIGION
The religious groups represented in Mumbai include Hindus (67.39%), Muslims (18.56%), Buddhists (5.22%), Jains (3.99%), Christians (4.2%), Sikhs (0.58%), with Parsis and Jews making up the rest of the population. The linguistic/ethnic demographics are: Maharashtrians (42%), Gujaratis (19%), with the rest hailing from other parts of India.
Native Christians include East Indian Catholics, who were converted by the Portuguese during the 16th century, while Goan and Mangalorean Catholics also constitute a significant portion of the Christian community of the city. Jews settled in Bombay during the 18th century. The Bene Israeli Jewish community of Bombay, who migrated from the Konkan villages, south of Bombay, are believed to be the descendants of the Jews of Israel who were shipwrecked off the Konkan coast, probably in the year 175 BCE, during the reign of the Greek ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Mumbai is also home to the largest population of Parsi Zoroastrians in the world, numbering about 80,000. Parsis migrated to India from Pars (Persia/Iran) following the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century. The oldest Muslim communities in Mumbai include the Dawoodi Bohras, Ismaili Khojas, and Konkani Muslims.
CULTURE
Mumbai's culture is a blend of traditional festivals, food, music, and theatres. The city offers a cosmopolitan and diverse lifestyle with a variety of food, entertainment, and night life, available in a form and abundance comparable to that in other world capitals. Mumbai's history as a major trading centre has led to a diverse range of cultures, religions, and cuisines coexisting in the city. This unique blend of cultures is due to the migration of people from all over India since the British period.
Mumbai is the birthplace of Indian cinema - Dadasaheb Phalke laid the foundations with silent movies followed by Marathi talkies - and the oldest film broadcast took place in the early 20th century. Mumbai also has a large number of cinema halls that feature Bollywood, Marathi and Hollywood movies. The Mumbai International Film Festival and the award ceremony of the Filmfare Awards, the oldest and prominent film awards given for Hindi film industry in India, are held in Mumbai. Despite most of the professional theatre groups that formed during the British Raj having disbanded by the 1950s, Mumbai has developed a thriving "theatre movement" tradition in Marathi, Hindi, English, and other regional languages.
Contemporary art is featured in both government-funded art spaces and private commercial galleries. The government-funded institutions include the Jehangir Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Modern Art. Built in 1833, the Asiatic Society of Bombay is one of the oldest public libraries in the city. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly The Prince of Wales Museum) is a renowned museum in South Mumbai which houses rare ancient exhibits of Indian history.
Mumbai has a zoo named Jijamata Udyaan (formerly Victoria Gardens), which also harbours a garden. The rich literary traditions of the city have been highlighted internationally by Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie, Aravind Adiga. Marathi literature has been modernised in the works of Mumbai-based authors such as Mohan Apte, Anant Kanekar, and Gangadhar Gadgil, and is promoted through an annual Sahitya Akademi Award, a literary honour bestowed by India's National Academy of Letters.
Mumbai residents celebrate both Western and Indian festivals. Diwali, Holi, Eid, Christmas, Navratri, Good Friday, Dussera, Moharram, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja and Maha Shivratri are some of the popular festivals in the city. The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is an exhibition of a world of arts that encapsulates works of artists in the fields of music, dance, theatre, and films. A week-long annual fair known as Bandra Fair, starting on the following Sunday after 8 September, is celebrated by people of all faiths, to commemorate the Nativity of Mary, mother of Jesus, on 8 September.
The Banganga Festival is a two-day music festival, held annually in the month of January, which is organised by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) at the historic Banganga Tank in Mumbai. The Elephanta Festival - celebrated every February on the Elephanta Islands - is dedicated to classical Indian dance and music and attracts performers from across the country. Public holidays specific to the city and the state include Maharashtra Day on 1 May, to celebrate the formation of Maharashtra state on 1 May 1960, and Gudi Padwa which is the New Year's Day for Marathi people.
Beaches are a major tourist attraction in the city. The major beaches in Mumbai are Girgaum Chowpatty, Juhu Beach, Dadar Chowpatty, Gorai Beach, Marve Beach, Versova Beach, Madh Beach, Aksa Beach, and Manori Beach. Most of the beaches are unfit for swimming, except Girgaum Chowpatty and Juhu Beach. Essel World is a theme park and amusement centre situated close to Gorai Beach, and includes Asia's largest theme water park, Water Kingdom. Adlabs Imagica opened in April 2013 is located near the city of Khopoli off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
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