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`We're here and now'
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Anglo-Scapes got off to a start with a book reading and an exhibition of images at the British Council
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PHOTO: V. GANESAN
A PEEK AT THE PAST Allan Sealy presents a slice of Anglo-Indian life.
Anglo-Scapes, a multi-pronged art festival celebrating the little known and less remembered culture of the Anglo-Indian community, got off to a start at the British Council with twin events: a reading by novelist Irwin Allan Sealy, who also opened "A Slice of Life", an exhibition of photographs, curated by Dileep Prakash, portraying a sepia lifestyle of Anglo-Indians under the British Raj. Masterminded by Rajiv Krishnan and Harry MacLure, the ambitious festival has poetry readings, music, painting displays, theatre performance, film screenings, live interviews and a food festival in different venues till July 16.
A special place
"A nation is judged by the way it treats its minorities. The Anglo-Indian community has a special place in both India and England," said Martin Dowle, Director, British Council, South India, as he welcomed the gathering to the inauguration of Anglo-Scapes at the British Council. Beatrix D'Souza, ex-MLA and ex-MP, an eloquent representative of the Anglo Indian community, introduced Sealy as an Indo-Anglian and Anglo-Indian writer, and chose to focus on his "Trotternama". This debut novel traces the history of Anglo-Indians through two centuries and several generations. The model is that of the Mughal historians, as with Abul Fazal's "Akbarnama". Sealy uses it to examine the cross cultural encounters of a `hyphenated' community at the end of an empire.
Sealy too chose the same book to read from, and for the same reason. Describing it as a comic epic he began with a long passage that blitzed itself through an excremental vision of voidings, vomit, droppings and spittle, as hard hitting as it was exhaustive.
Perched on a high chair, Sealy read on, his words enlivened by energetic modulations and zestful irony. The author was able to adopt different voices to convey varying moods. His description of Merle Oberon, the lovely Anglo Indian star of the Black and White era (remember her as Lady Blakeney in Scarlet Pimpernel?), entering Pinewood Studios was pure whimsy and a loving but tongue-in-cheek humour. Sealy's reading provided an excellent introduction to his stylistic intent, even for those who had read his books.
Sealy concluded on a note that provoked thought. "I am sorry that the photo exhibition is all about the past. If you regard that as the heyday, what about now," he asked. "We Anglo-Indians are still here in every walk of life, we've not fallen from grace!" He also referred sardonically to the fact that 36, Chowringhee Lane, a film about an Anglo Indian school teacher to be screened later in Anglo-Scapes, emphasises the elegiac quality of the community's existence. "The moment the camera switches to the Anglo-Indian home, the colours drain out and you have sombre grey and black. We are not a pathetic people! We're full of energy, we're HERE!NOW!" He was glad that the festival featured contemporary dance and music.
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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