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  Lass incognito: Photograph taken with consent but the rest of the beauty and the name remains a secret.

Photograph@ Chulie de Silva

All images and text in this site is copyrighted. No material from this blog may be used except as a direct reference to this site.

The web has apparently over 3 trillion photographs so what are the chances of one of yours being picked  – or maybe the correct phrase is ”lifted  without permission” from the few you have on your blog — and then seeing it on the front page of a Sunday paper? 

I would have said pretty slim, till I heard the popular “Mul Pituwa” program Sunday before last (15 March, 2009) host Bandula Padmakumara talking about a front page article on the Sunday Times article “Lost treasures to be brought home” and the photograph of Tara Devi.

Having written the blog post “Goddess Tara time to come home?” my ears naturally picked up. The photo glimpsed on the TV screen looked suspiciously like mine on the blog. Having had one more instance when another Sunday weekly carried a photo of mine without any credit. I did a dash to town to buy the paper and voila! there was my photo from my blog adorning the front page — not so much as a please, not even the much maligned phrase “courtesy of” - that is used blithely by most newspapers here. 

Infuriating was a mild term to describe how I felt, cheated is more like it, considering this photograph was taken by me during a short stop in London in 2008 when this statue was on display at the British Museum.  I had made a special visit to the British Museum for the sole purpose of seeing this statue, take this photograph and write the story.

My first letter to the editor went unanswered and no correction was carried last week.  Are we surprised?  Well, yes , since the other paper was quick to apologize and cartried a correction with a thumbnail photo. Today, after my second letter I got an e-mail response admitting that the Sunday Times obtained the photograph after a Google search but said ” We may have copied the picture from your website, but the website gave no credit line to the picture, and therefore, we could not have known the ownership of the photograph. As a practice we have no qualms in giving credit to an article, graphic or photograph, and would have been happy to give you the credit-line had we known it belonged to you,” and expressed “regret if we have caused you any inconvenience or pain of mind.”  Obviously, sending an e-mail to get copyright clearance didn’t cross their mind. And they missed the © Important: Copyright Notice: All images and text in this site is copyrighted. No material from this blog may be used except as a direct reference to this site

Of course as bloggers all of you know from the blog stats I can say how many people accessed the site prior to 15 March and how many came via a Google search and as for the missing credit line – it is there clearly displaced.  Further, a blog is your own personal diary and from what I learned during my graduate study days is that photographic works are protected by the mere fact of their creation. This is a fundamental basis of respecting works of authors . 

When I talked about the lack of knowledge on copyright issues among the media here with another media colleague and the need to educate the journalists here he had this to say:  “Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is  good journalism.  For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.”

“So there comes a time when intellectual property of journalists, that maybe the work of accredited journalists or a 14 year old kid doing a blog has to be respected.”

On that debatable note let’s open the space for discussion – Are print newspapers as we know them dinosaurs in an age when most of us get our news from the electronic media and if they need to go foraging blog sites for free photos etc  how important are our blog spaces and citizen journalism sites. 

That brings us to the question what are our rights as bloggers and photographers — or do we not have any rights in this age when anyone and everyone copies everything possible.  see an interesting well written piece Copyright is for Losers by Rupert Gray on Shahidul Alam’s blog

Of course print newspapers can argue that they have gate keepers to ensure quality unlike us bloggers who write without editorial supervision but then again dinosaurs were big and powerful too at one time. … As I write my radio is playing quite appropriately the famous Belafonte song  “There’s hole in the bucket, Dear Lisa, Dear Lisa…”

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Life is never a smooth glide as it is for these duckies — well not for long.

Now that it is safe to take the mobile off the silent mode and you are trying to wean yourself away from the leftover stollen and the breuder comes this question from a friend: what are your plans for 2009?  Plans? New Year resolutions? – ouch!  Well, let’s see — I could start by cooking less,  over stocking my fridge, more time at the gym, more blogging — a list can be produced. …

No you idiot, think!! Take a leaf from where you work — have a concept note, get a strategy team to work out the strategy, talk to the experts. …  Ah, but count and see with all that work how many went phut!!! When the only place top keep your money is looking more like under the pillow or in the rice jar – the world has changed buddy.

 So the strategy me thinks for 2009 is not to have a strategy-living on the edge of chaos has its own thrills – maybe just one resolution — look after that bundle of thoughts and maybe who knows I might just catch some moments of that happy, comfortable and yearned for life at ease. …

 

All images and text in this site is copyrighted. No material from this blog may be used except as a direct reference to this site.

Sunset at Galle Face Hotel 31 December 2008.

Growing up in Hikkaduwa we would watch the sun go down and the catamaran boats push out to sea. When you were very young, the sun sinking into the water was fascinating mystery — Where does it go?  How does it come back from the other side in the morning? What does it do — go to sleep? and is the Moon the Sun’s friend/sister?

As the light faded  with sinking sun the kerosene lamps on the fishing boats would dot the horizon  flickering like a band of  fireflies. If we were lucky, we would spot a spouting whale or catch a glimpse of a sea turtle.

Often soothed by the salty breeze this was a time I would talk to the sea, tell my worries,  reflect on the year that was passing and ask the sea will the new year when I would be officially one year older, be a better one.

Today, at the posh Galle Face Hotel, the tables were being set with black table cloths, the coconut trees had bands of small lights, and possibly the band, the singers were already at the tables.  Some tourists were out with the cameras.  There were no boats out at sea, only two ships in the horizon. Colombo is getting ready to party all night.

Looking at the fast disappearing ball of fire, the mind was on reverse gear recollecting many 31 December evenings in Hikkaduwa. I would kneel on the window sill, press my nose to the window and watch the lights form the boats, listen to the sea and wait for the Seth Thomas clock to strike at midnight.

Today,  at Galle Face I asked the same questions and got the same reply from the sea.

Somethings never change.  … some do for eternity. 

And

Tomorrow is another day,

                                                     another year,

                                                                                            and another birthday.

Photographs © Chulie de Silva

 According to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report 2008 we in Sri Lanka have moved a little closer towards equality between women and men. 

 Sri Lanka holds a no.12 ranking for 2008 in this report and has made significant gains, moving up 3 places ahead of UK (13), Switzerland (14), France (15) and is the Only South Asian country in the top 15.

Philippines, is the only other Asian country in the top 15 places and is ranked at no.6. The Index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities.

See Sri Lanka report at http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/ggg08_sri_lanka.pdf

 Photograph © Chulie de Silva:  On a late afternoon drive back to Colombo from Galle after an almsgiving on the death anniversary of my father, I couldn’t resist the shiny fresh bala and alagoduwas at a fish stall in Beruwela.  Chatting to the owner I was pleasantly suprised to learn he had the same name as my father “Benny.”   Chuckling quietly was his pretty wife Onitha who looks like an equal partner in the business.

Security Guard Weerasinghe

He is the first person I see when I get to office as he checks my driving when I reverse into the parking lot, and invariably the first person I greet.  Working long hours he is often there when I leave even late at night.

 

Last week he was in a new uniform. Harindra , my colleague shouted “See his new uniform, Weeray has got a double promotion.”  So with the congratulations out came the camera. …

Photo© Chulie de Silva

Twilight in Colombo

Photo© Chulie de Silva

Heavenly shades of night are falling, it’s twilight time
Out of the mist your voice is calling, ’tis twilight time
When purple-colored curtains mark the end of day
I’ll hear you, my dear, at twilight time

Deepening shadows gather splendor as day is done
Fingers of night will soon surrender the setting sun ….

 

 

( From the Lyrics of Platters – Twilight Time)

Main Pettah Bus Stand in peaceful times

A bomb exploded in central Colombo “Olcott Mawatha” in Pettah near the Bodhirajaramaya around 12:15 p.m. wounding 45 people.  All injured have been admitted to the National hospital and are receiving treatment.  Of the injured 2 are children and 4 are women.  The hospital director speaking on a local news channel said one or two have serious injuries and are undergoing major surgery.  No deaths have been reported so far.

The bomb was an improvised explosive device (IED) with low amounts of explosives said the military.  TV reports said the bomb had exploded in front of a small shop selling watches and clocks, close to the mainbus stand in Pettah.  Agence Fraqnce Press reports that the bomb was in a parcle left near a flower seller.  The main Pettah bus stand is the central starting point for buses to many outstation towns.

Visuals on TV news bulletins show that police have cordoned off the area.   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Government’s news website (www.news.lk) reports that security forces on the 22 August had uncovered accessories of suicide jackets from a Catholic Church premises on the same street where the bomb went off today – the  Olcott Mawatha in Pettah. In addition Detonators, switches and few other items have also been concealed inside the St. Phillip Nerish Church premises, according to defence sources.

Photo©Chulie de Silva

 

 

Somerset Maugham travelled overland via Burma to reach Thailand in 1923. A calling card he received said “Oh, gentleman, sir, Miss Pretty Girl welcome you Sultan Turkish Bath, gentle polite massage, put  you in dreamland with perfume soap.  Latest gramaphone music. Oh, such service.  You come now!  Miss Pretty Girl want you, massage you from tippy-toe to head-top, nice, clean, to enter Gates of Heaven.”

Maugham, a doctor and a British agent in two world wars , before he came a novelist, apparently declined.  A pity in a way, because we don’t have an account of that tippy-toe massage, although Bangkok still abounds with Miss Pretty girls and  the invitations are neon lit now.

 

 

 

 

Watching the passing boats on the riverside at Shangri-la Hotel and reading the Thailand  traveller’s companion, I was pleasantly discovering his impressions of Bangkok’s famous temples were any like our first glimpses of these stunning wats.

Maugham wrote in the “Gentleman in the parlour” :  “They [temples] are unlike anything in the world, so that you are taken aback, and you cannot fit them into the scheme of the things you know,  It makes you laugh with delight to think anything so fantastic could exist on this sombre earth. They are gorgeous they glitter with gold and whitewash, yet are not garish; against the vivid sky, in the dazzling sunlight, they hold their own, defying the brilliance of nature  ... “   In the same breath Maugham goes on to say “I do not know that in fact they achieved art; I do not know these Siamese wats have beauty, which they say is reserved aloof and very refined; all I know is that they are strange and gay and odd, their lines are infinitely distinguished, like the lines  of a proposition in a schoolboy’s Euclid, their colours are flaunting and crude, like the colours of vegetables in the greengrocer’s stall at an open air-market, and like a place where seven ways meet, they open roads down which the imagination can make many a careless and unexpected journey.”

 

As unexpected journeys go we by passed the Gates of Heaven and  set off to a another one of Bangkok’s famous places the “Cabbages and Condoms” restaurant.  Vinta, from India said I’ve heard of “Cabbages and Kings,” so what’s  cabbages got to do with condoms?  Apparently, the idea was to make condoms as common as cabbages in the Northest of Thailand.

Or if you thought babies are born in the cabbage patch then you need condoms says some dedicated websites adding ” Our restaurant was conceptualized in part to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA)”

 

Condoms are of course  the outstanding theme, they are everywhere — on lanterns, and in all decorative bits and pieces – you name it they are all there in all colours and shapes. Then there is the gift shop that sells condoms , mugs, t-shirts etc, etc.  – your only problem is to identify your friends that you can gift them to. 

If you haven’t been there, go, they are known not only for the condoms but for great food — there are supposed to be 5 cabbages and Condoms restaurants in Thailand.  We  ( actually a bus load) went to the one in Sukhumwit  – the words for the taxi guy  is “Sukhumwit soi sip sawng.”

By the way, sorry,  there are no after dinner mints,  you can take a condom though.

All photos©Chulie de Silva

 

Tara is  the Goddess of compassion, the powerful feminine counterpart of the bodhisattva  ( the next Buddha to be) Avalokiteshvara.  She occupies a central display position at the British Museum now. The image a stunning full statue is gilded and is watched over by another gilded bronze — a slightly smaller statue of a 16^th century Avalokiteshvara from Nepal.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tara is supposed to be one of the finest examples of figural bronze and is supposed to be 8^th century AD.

 

This particular statue discovered somewhere between Batticaloa and Trincomalee in the East coast of Sri Lanka and lifted from the island was ” gifted” by Sir Robert Brownrigg  to the British Museum (BM) .  

 Tara means star and she appears in Mahayana Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and particularly, Tibetan Lamaism, as a complex array of manifestations: goddess of ascetism and mysticism, mother creator, protectress of all humans as they journey across the sea of life.

The BM says that “the eyes and the elaborately arranged hair were doubtless inlaid with precious stones and a small niche in the headdress would have contained a seated image of  Buddha.  Tara’s right hand is shown in the varamudra – the gesture of giving and although the left hand is empty it may have held a lotus.”

Tara’s creation as myths go is a an interesting fantasy. According to popular belief  she came into existence from a tear of  Avalokiteshvara, which fell to the ground and formed a lake. Out of its waters rose up a lotus which opened to reveal the goddess – a truly painless birth.

She is the ” heavenly deity who hears cries of beings, experiencing misery in samsara; a world of continuous rebirth, death and suffering. As the female aspect of the universe, she gives birth to warmth compassion and relief from bad karma as experienced by ordinary beings in cyclic existence. She engenders, nourishes, smiles at the vitality of creation and has sympathy for all beings as a mother does for her children. “(an extract from http://www.kaalita.com/Asian_art.html)”

‘Tis a time in  Sri Lanka we could do with her compassion,  a powerful feminine force– so isn’t it  a good time to ask the BM to return it to us in Sri Lanka? 

Of course we must be prepared to guard,  protect and preserve it as much she is supposed to protect us.  I suppose she was too compassionate to put a hex on the ones who lifted her from here.

See also

1. British Museum : Gilded Bronze figure of Tara: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/g/gilded_bronze_figure_of_tara.aspx

2. The Goddess Tara: http://lakdiva.org/tara/

3. For more on various Tara manifestations see: http://www.crystalinks.com/tara.html

 

Photographs © Chulie de Silva