|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beware Falling
Coconuts
Beware Falling Coconuts is an interesting title. Apparently, based on a sign in a hotel in Sri Lanka. Obviously, the author was amused enough to reflect on it and wonder "How on earth are you supposed to take precautions? There is no warning. There is no time`85" And he kept the titillating and amusing title for his book, which is a series of articles and observations on his life in India and in Sri Lanka of the time which was politically disturbing and full of upheaval`85the 1970s and the ’80s, when India saw the Emergency, free Press was banned, and foreign Press was expatriated and also the time of ‘Operation Bluestar’. The book, however, is certainly not a compilation of political articles, as we see the author in different moods and moments. Sometimes cuttingly analytical, relaxed and whimsical at others, and amused often. It’s a book, thus, that doesn’t allow you to fall into a languor, since it keeps taking you from one mood to another. When he talks about Mr and Mrs Dog, (Coffee Dogs), who lived in his home in Mangalore, for example, its with amused kindness, in a frothy sort of manner. However, when he switches to discussing the relationship between the Indian Government and the BBC at the aforementioned period, (BBC Spells Trouble) it’s in the manner of clinical reporting. He specially reflects on how sensitive the Indian government had become on foreign filmmakers showing India in a "poor" light, since it deflected from the "development" that the country was trying to project. These are actually interesting observations and do remind us of the times in the recent history of the country that we too have lived through, that we tend to forget our tribulations so easily. In the first chapter, Clapham describes how he found his dwelling in a small fishing seaside village in Mangalore. It’s a description of the small town soul of India, very charming. An interesting piece (License to Drive) describes his travails in getting a driving license in a country full of red tape. Most of us can identify with that completely. Another charming piece is called Bus Stop. He discovers that in Sri Lanka (then Cyclone), the bus stops were knows as Motor Bus Halting Place. He is completely charmed and wants to have a sign manufactured and take it back with him to England. There are some traces of the Raj effect, of course. In the chapter Staying on, he talks of the how hard it was for his countrymen, "Many of them past their prime—to survive in any place but India. Who would shop for them, cook, wash up, wait at table, iron, wash, look after the children, the horses, the cats, the dogs, the car and the garden?" It’s a sad, nostalgic piece. Clapham’s best piece, I would say, is where he writes on Sir Mark Tully. It’s simply titled Tully Sahib and is a wonderful dedication to a man who became legend in India, "venerated along with the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa in the trinity of India’s most famous resident foreigners". It’s a kaleidoscope of experience, this book, disturbing in parts as we revisit recent history, sometimes amusing, sometimes nostalgic. The foreword of Beware Falling Coconuts is written by Sir Mark Tully, and there is a delightful spattering of cartoons by India’s well-loved cartoonist, Mario Miranda.
|
||
|
|
||
A
documentary-maker can never be off-duty in India because there are too
many stories waiting to be told." Adam Clapham made documentaries
for the BBC at a time when the BBC was the voice of truth and
veracity. When Indian people would listen to the BBC, rather than the
local stations, to get the true and unbiased picture of things that
were happening in India. As Sir Mark Tully says in his foreword to the
book, it was a time when, "a foreign broadcaster became more
important than a domestic broadcaster with far more powerful signals
and more extensive coverage". Clapham is the producer of classics
like, Human Bomb (1998), Good King Wenceslas (1994) and Doomsday
Gun (1994). He was also the first foreign journalist to have
interviewed Rajiv Gandhi after he became Prime Minister.