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Stories within

What can a single image tell you about a place, its culture or the time? Apparently, a lot. In 2018, a family in London showcased the postcard correspondence between two of its members: Annie Reynolds and her niece May. The postcards, dated between 1912 and 1919, have beautiful artwork that captures the essence of places in India they lived in – Madras, Nilgiris, Mahabalipuram and so on – through local landmarks, monuments and family photographs. The handwritten messages on them are relatively insignificant, but the postcards encapsulate the culture of that time.

The origins

Postcards probably originated in 1777 with the start of the postal services, when French engraver Demaison printed a sheet engraved with multiple cards and greetings. The messages could be cut out and posted to recipients. The idea didn’t really take off: people wanted their messages to be private, not open for everyone to see. Besides, the postage cost, which was quite high, was payable by the receiver. Often, people simply refused to receive postal messages. This changed when British postal reforms brought down the cost of domestic post while ensuring profits for the postal system by making the sender pay the postage in advance. Around 1840, when the Penny Black postage stamp made its debut, writer Theodore Hook mailed the first hand-painted picture postcard to himself as a practical joke. The card sold for 31, 750 pounds at a 2002 auction.

Born again

In February 1861, when the U.S. government allowed privately printed cards to be posted, printer John P. Charlton patented the design of the postal card. He sold the rights to stationer Hymen Lipman who went on to invent lead pencils and erasers and set up the first envelope company in the U.S. The Lipman Cards, however, were forgotten in the wake of the Civil War and remained buried for almost a decade. It was in 1869, in distant Austria, that the postcard was reborn. Emmanuel Hermann, an Economics professor, proposed the postcard as a cheaper and easier alternative to handwritten letters, Austrian Post, in response, designed a light-brown, rectangular card with space for the address on one side and the message on the other. A postage stamp was imprinted on the top right corner, and the postcard’s cost was half that of a normal letter.

By the 1880s, sketched images started appearing on postcards. Called “Vignettes”, these postcards depicted ordinary scenes and had space for a handwritten message. Soon, Germany became the hub of chromolithography – a technique to reproduce multi-colour photographs. Bulk of the postcards during this period was produced in Germany. In 1889, when the Eifel Tower was thrown open to public, French engraver Charles Libonis designed postcards featuring the monument. The novelty postcards, known as Libonis, became popular souvenirs.

Picture postcards

With the growing popularity of photographs on postcards in the 1890s, Kodak, a producer of cameras and related products, launched a negative that was the same size as a postcard, and with that picture postcards became easier to produce. In 1893, they were commercially produced, packed and sold as a set in the U.S. for the first time. The beautifully detailed and coloured pictures became an instant success as souvenirs and gifts.

The 1900s can be considered the ‘golden era’ of postcards. The postcard design underwent change with the front fully dedicated to artwork and the back divided between the address and the message. The Divided Back Postcard – artistic, convenient and inexpensive – could be mailed internationally and became a hugely popular mode of communication. Landscapes, local sights, portraits, humour and even current events made up the artwork. During World War I, soldiers used postcards to exchange poignant messages with friends and family, recording compelling stories of their times, some of which have survived to the present.

And today…

Postcards continued to evolve with technological advances in the printing and publishing industry. Curt Teich, one of the offset printing’s pioneers, added postcards to his existing portfolio of newspaper and magazines. His printing technique gave the postcard a slightly embossed look and showed the artwork in sharper, brighter colours. Became the texture of the finished postcard resembled linen, they came to be known as linen postcards. As time passed, a white border was added to the postcard to make the high-precision task of cropping and trimming the borders easier.

The current postcard era, which began around 1939, is the chrome era. These contemporary postcards have a glossy finish and have more of a souvenir value. Communication has been taken over by text messages, voice messages and email. Photographs are shared over social media. Postcards, while not dead yet, play second fiddle to digital media.

 

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One of the 15 municipalities forming Havana in Club, Old Havana is at the heart of the city. Touted as one of the most impressive historical cities in the Caribbean, Old Havana is known for its narrow streets and architectural structures mainly built by the Spanish.

Havana was founded in 1519 by the Spanish conqueror Panfilo de Narvaez. A few years later, the city was attacked and burnt down by French pirates. Once they left, the Spanish realised the importance of defending the city and started building fortresses (some of the oldest in the Americas) and walls. By the 17th Century, Havana had become one of Caribbean’s main centres for ship-building.

Old Havana’s original layout is still intact, except the walls that were broken down to expand the city. Divided into five plazas – Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza del Cristo, and Plaza de la Catedral – there are over 900 historical buildings in Old Havana. The city’s neoclassical, baroque and art deco architectural styles stand testimony to Havana’s Caribbean, French, British, and Spanish roots.

Due to conservation efforts in the 19th and 20th Centuries, the architecture of Old Havana has stood the test of time. Today, tourists from all over the world throng to Old Havana to capture a glimpse of the historical city and its many architectural buildings.

 

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The Castle of the Royal Force/Army is a bastion fort located in the Plaza des Armas Square. It was the first big fortification to have been constructed in Havana. The oldest preserved fort in the Americas, it was built in 1577 serve as a replacement for an earlier fort which was badly damaged by French pirates.

The historic monument is most famous for its watchtower (added in 1634 and now a symbol of Havana city), adorned with a bronze statuette in the shape of a woman (replica of La Giraldilla of the Seville Cathedral, Spain) that is used as a weather vane.

The fortress’s exterior consists of a square segregated into nine equal sections with four regular bastions reminiscent of Italian and French Renaissance architecture and a pit with a perimetral wall.

 

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 Located in Plaza de la Catedral, the Havana Cathedral is one of 11 Catholic cathedrals on the island. Designed by Italian architect Francesco Borromini, the cathedral was built between 1748 and 1777. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas. The cathedral was home to the remains of Italian explorer and coloniser Christopher Columbus between 1796 and 1898, after which it was moved to the Seville Cathedral in Spain.

The building is simply stunning in every way possible. The famous façade is simply gorgeous. It has been designed and constructed in the Baroque style of architecture. The most interesting thing about it are the two towers which are of different heights but still seem to fit.

The interiors are equally lovely and the church has inspired many a great artist. The old charm of this building cannot be denied and it is a Havana essential on your trip.

 

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Built on a rock overlooking the sea, the Morro Castle was designed by Italian engineer Juan Baustista Antonelli to guard the entrance to the Havana bay. The fort’s most distinctive feature was a huge chain running from EI Morro to another castle nearby. This chain was raised when hostile ships were spotted. It was so thick that ships could not go past it, in 1762, the British lay siege to the fort. It was later recovered by the Spanish under a treaty.

 Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro is one the symbols of Havana and one of the most visited places by both tourist and locals. It has been photographed and painted by many and has also appeared in several movies. Inside are several exhibitions, but the construction itself is worth a visit.

Along with a deep moat and two batteries, additional defence was originally provided by an ocean-side tower, replaced in 1844 by a lighthouse called the Faro del Morro. Now a symbol of Havana, it offers one of the finest views of the city, especially at sunset. 

 

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Home to the Cuban National Ballet, the Great Theatre of Havana was designed by the Belgian architect Paul Belau. It served as a community-social centre for the Galician immigrants of Havana. Located in Paseo del Prado, a promenade in Havana, the Great Theatre hosts the international Ballet Festival of Havana (Festival de Ballet de La Habana) once every two years.

Years later, in 1914, the theater itself and the buildings around it were purchased to build in that location the Centro Gallego, which took up the entire block.. The construction of this center, one of the most important of its kind in the city, was commissioned to the US Company Purdy & Henderson. Inside, the old Tacón Theater was remodeled, integrating it with the new elements.

The façades of this building can only be described as magnificent. Decorated with sculptures and other stone adornments, as well as marble and bronze works. The frontage features four groups of sculptures in white marble by Giuseppe Moretti representing charity, education, music and theater.

 

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Colloquially called La Cabana, the Fort of Saint Charles was built in the 18th Century on the eastern side of Havana Bay, following the attack on the Morro Castle by the British. Like the Morro Castle, La Cabana also stands on a large rock overlooking the sea. By the time it was completed, it was the second largest colonial military installation in the New World.

Over the next couple of centuries, the fort served as a base for Spain and later Cuba. Today, it houses several museums and is a popular tourist spot.

It cost so much that King Carlos III requested a spyglass to see it, claiming that such an expensive project–approximately 14 million gold pesos–could surely be seen from Madrid.

During the wars of independence, this fortress was used as a prison and prisoners faced firing squads in its pits. In the 20th century, it was used as a prison and storage facility, and shortly after the triumph of the 1959 Revolution, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara established his command headquarters here.

 

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Origin

One of the earliest versions of the French toast can be traced back to 5th Century A.D. Roman Empire. The first-known mention of a French toast-like dish was mentioned in “Apicius”, a 1st century AD collection of Roman recopies. The Romans dipped bread pieces in a milk-based mixture, before frying it in oil and butter.

Similar toasts were prepared in Europe and known by different names during the medieval period. For instance, suppe dorate in England, arme ritter in Germany and fattiga riddance in Sweden. Most of these toasts used a batter comprising milk and eggs, to make stale loaves of bread more palatable. In France, a toast made with bread, milk and eggs, known as tostees dorees, was mentioned in “Le Viandier de Taillevent”, a French recipe collection originally written around the year 1300.

In the 15th Century, a toast known as pain perdu rose n popularity in France. Pain perdu is seen as the modern variant of French toast prepared today. In fact, pain perdu is how French toast is referred to in France. By the 16th and 17th centuries, pain perdu began to be prepared in Britain and a few other European cities. As the dish spread to regions outside France, it came to be popularly called French toast. According to reports, 1660 is the year the word “French toast” first made an appearance in the Oxford dictionary. Within the next few years, the toast’s recipe spread across the British colonies.

Evolution

As the toast began to be prepared in several regions across the globe, they also came to be known by different names such as Spanish toast, German toast, nun’s toast, eggy bread, torriga and poor knights of Windsor, among others.

As the French toast became a global hit, most places adapted the pain perdu recipe according to their taste preferences. For instance, Bombay toast has a sweet and savoury variants, where the sweet is prepared using bread slices, eggs, milk and sugar or honey and the savoury consists of bread, milk, eggs, ginger, garlic, onion, salt and coriander leaves.

Unlike the Europeans toasts that are served with cream and chopped fruits, in the U.S., the toast is topped with powdered sugar, maple syrup and butter.

In Scotland, the toasts are eaten as a sandwich with a filling made of sausages. In Italy, they are served with cheese and ketchup. In Hong Kong, the batter includes peanut butter or fruit jam along with eggs and milk. Australians eat the toasts with fried bacon.

Wide varieties

There are several unique varieties such as waffle, peanut butter and jelly-stuffed, smores, cereal-coated, red velvet, cheesecake, cinnamon roll, hot chocolate, corn flakes, basil and cherry tomato, muffin, rosemary and cheese casserole French toast prepared today.

French toast has become such a popular breakfast within the U.S. that each year on November 28 is celebrated as National French Toast Day.

 

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The Peacock Throne was a famous jewelled throne that was the seat of the Mughal emperors of India. It was commissioned in the early 17th century by emperor Shah Jahan and was located in the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audiences, or Ministers' Room) in the Red Fort of Delhi.

Built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1592–1666), the Peacock Throne was said to have cost him twice as much as the Taj Mahal. According to historical accounts, the throne is believed to have been wrought out of 1150 kg of gold and 230 kg of precious stones, with two open peacock tails made of gold at the back, and was modelled on the Throne of Solomon.[i] The famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was one of the many historical stones to adorn it, along with the world’s second largest spinel ruby (the Timur ruby). A poem by the Mughal poet-laureate Qudsi, in praise of the emperor, was embedded in it in emerald letters.

 

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Pietra dura in the Indian Subcontinent, is a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted, highly polished colored stones to create images. It is considered a decorative art. The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and cut in different shape sections; and then assembled together so precisely that the contact between each section was practically invisible".

Pietre dure is an Italian plural meaning "hard rocks" or hardstones; the singular pietra dura is also encountered in Italian. In Italian, but not in English, the term embraces all gem engraving and hardstone carving, which is the artistic carving of three-dimensional objects in semi-precious stone, normally from a single piece, for example in Chinese jade. The traditional convention in English has been to use the singular pietra dura just to denote multi-colored inlay work. However, in recent years there has been a trend to use pietre dure as a term for the same thing, but not for all of the techniques it covers, in Italian.

By the early part of the 17th century, smaller objects produced by the Opificio were widely diffused throughout Europe, and as far East to the court of the Mughals in India, where the form was imitated and reinterpreted in a native style; its most sumptuous expression is found in the Taj Mahal. In Mughal India, pietra dura was known as Parchin kari, literally 'inlay' or 'driven-in' work.

Due to the Taj Mahal being one of the major tourist attractions, there is a flourishing industry of Pietra Dura artifacts in Agra ranging from tabletops, medallions, elephants and other animal forms, jewellery boxes and other decorative items. This art form is fully alive and thriving in Agra, India though the patterns in the designs are more Persian than Roman or Medician.

 

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Red Fort or Lal Quila is one of the most-famous monuments in Delhi. It is situated in the Old Delhi which was called as Shahjahanabad during the reign of Mughal Empire. Red Fort is one of the architectures built by Shah Jahan. It served as a royal residence of Mughal Emperors for many years. Today, Red Fort is one of the top tourist places to visit in Delhi.

Shah Jahan was widely considered the most competent of Emperor Jahangir's four sons and after Jahangir's death in late 1627, when a war of succession ensued, Shah Jahan emerged victorious. He put to death all of his rivals for the throne and crowned himself emperor in January 1628 in Agra under the regnal title "Shah Jahan" (which was originally given to him as a princely title). Although an able military commander, Shah Jahan is perhaps best remembered for his architectural achievements. The period of his reign is widely considered the golden age of Mughal architecture. Shah Jahan commissioned many monuments, the best known of which is the Taj Mahal in Agra, which entombs his wife Mumtaz Mahal.



 

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The beginning

Archaeological evidence shows that the Japanese archipelago was inhabited at the end of the last glacial period. Composed of five major islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Okinawa) and roughly 7,000 smaller ones, the country is about 1,45,000 square miles of land, with 75% comprising steep slopes that rest on four tectonic plates. The shifting plates have resulted in volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, creating Japan’s lush forests, valleys and mountains.

Historians divide Japan’s early history into three eras: The Jomon era, which lasted until 400 B.C., had a hunter-gatherer culture. The Yayoi era (300 B.C to 300 A.D.) saw the beginning of settlements. The Kofun era (300 A.D. to 710 A.D.) saw territorial expansion and dominance of the Yamato clan, followed by the emergence of new political and administrative patterns, with Nara becoming the first permanent capital of Japan. After 1185, the shoguns, or military leaders, who are technically appointed by the Emperor, started gaining power. In 1192, shogun Minamoto Yorimoto established the military government, with its capital in Kyoto. The shogun rule lasted an uninterrupted 700 years. Its final era was led by the Tokugawa dynasty, founded by Tokugawa leyasu, who moved the capital from Kyoto to Edo, originally a fishing village. Soon, Edo became the centre of economic, political and cultural power. In the 1720s, with a population of over a million people, Edo was one of the largest cities in the world.

Gets its name

In 1868, with the shogunate period ending, Emperor Mutsuhito officially renamed Edo Tokyo, meaning ‘Eastern Capital’. The Emperor’s Meiji, or “enlightened rule”, era spanned the years 1868 to 1912 – a period of rapid modernization that commenced with the first telecommunications line established between Tokyo and Yokohama in 1869. The construction of roads, modern buildings and the introduction of steam locomotives followed, accelerating Japan’s (and Tokyo’s) progress, until the Great Kanto earthquake stuck Tokyo in 1923. Measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, it demolished nearly half of the city, killing almost 1,40,000 citizens. The quake not only sparked off a fire but also caused a tsunami. Forty-ft high waves destroyed hundreds of houses and killed several hundred people.

It was a mammoth undertaking to pull Tokyo back on its feet. But amidst the rubble and ruin, some people saw the opportunity to build a city of the future. Within six years, Tokyo was rebuilt. A subway like was inaugurated in 1927. Tokyo Airport opened its gates in 1931, and Tokyo Port, in 1941. By 1935, with a population of six million, Tokyo had entered the league of London and New York.

Within a decade, the city was back to rubble. On 10 March 1945, 15 square miles of Tokyo was demolished and half the population killed in the World War II bombing raid by the U.S. On that single night, the population went down by half. The heat generated by the explosives melted buildings, metal and caused canals to boil over. The devastation caused by the raid far exceeded any other during the War.

Falling and getting up. Again

During the 1950s, rose again from the ashes: television broadcasting began in 1953, and in 1956, Japan joined the United Nations. The 1960s saw rapid economic growth, technological innovation and manufacturing industry expansion, with Tokyo producing everything from household appliances to transport equipment, automobiles, cameras, furniture, textiles, publishing and printing equipment. By 1962, Tokyo was a megacity, with a population over 10 million. By 1964, the bullet train was operational.

Through the 1970s and 80s, Tokyo was unstoppable. It became a global presence and one of the world’s most attractive cities with common citizens’ lives enhanced by cutting-edge, innovative technology. Despite its vast population, Tokyo has the best infrastructure and is one of the safest cities in the world. School children with backpacks larger than themselves take public transport – buses, monorail, railroad – by themselves and 10 million people go to work and back using the subway ferries every day.

One of the best, today!

For nearly, 50 years now, Tokyo has been the top economic city (New York is second). In 2018, it ranked third in the Global Power City Index, a measure of its attractiveness as the preferred location for businesses. While environmental pollution is a problem that Tokyo shares with other megacities, its citizens do their bit to keep it in check – preferring bicycles for transport, guarding their packs and nature spots and ensuring that corporate pay heavy penalties for pollution. With regular earthquake drills, Tokyo is ready to respond to and overcome natural disasters while constantly reinventing itself to improve its place in the world. No wonder this global city has come so far from its origins as a fishing village!

 

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A lot of people think that the British pound is the oldest living currency in the world. There is enough proof they say. The Britishers took their currency across the world when they went looking for new places to trade in and colonise. Strangely, the pound originated in continental Europe. The word “pound” derives from the Latin word Libra for weight or balance. An ancient Roman unit of measure, Libra Pondo together stands for “a pound weight.” The word “Libra” no longer stands for the “pound”, but it has left its indelible mark in the symbol for the pound. You have the  (pound) symbol, an ornate L, and the abbreviation for the unit of mass, lb.

Along with the Roman name, the Anglo-Saxons borrowed the sign, an ornate letter ‘L’. The crossbar came along later, indicating that it is an abbreviation, and a cheque in London’s Bank of England Museum shows that the pound sign had assumed its current form by 1661, even if it took a little longer for it to become universally adopted.

What about the word “sterling” for the pound? The coin was called the joachimsthaler, which was then shortened to thaler, the word then proceeded to spread around the world. Use of the word “sterling” came about after the Norman Conquest, and it originally referred to pennies not pounds. It perhaps came from esterlin, a Norman word for little star, or lesterling, an Arab word for money.

The value

The value of the pound originally was equated to the price of a pound of silver. A pound was divided into 20 shillings and 240 silver pennies. The Anglo-Saxon King Offa is credited with introducing the system of money to central and southern England in the latter half of the 8th Century. He minted the earliest English silver pennies that had his name embossed on them. These 240 pennies varied in weight together. So pounds and shillings were used as units for accounting.

The first pound coin appeared in 1489, under Henry VII. It was called a sovereign. The shilling was first minted in 1540. Banknotes began to circulate in England soon after the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694. They were initially hand-written. Gold coins were minted in 1560, and by 1672 some were made of copper.

The system of dividing the pound into shillings and pence was complex. So the government decimalized it in 1971.

Pound’s value through the ages

One pound could buy 15 head of cattle in the year 980 during the reign of King Aethelraed the Unready. From the 15th century to the year 2000, the pound’s value declined. Its purchasing power fell four-hundred-fold. In 1999, the House of Commons library concluded that between 1750 and 1998, prices had risen by about 118 times. In other words, you could buy more with a penny (decimal) in 1750 than what you could buy with a pound in 1998. The value of the pound came down after 1945.

In modern times, many attempts have been made to manage the pound, including the Gold Standard, the Bretton Woods system and the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Now the value is determined by supply and demand.

The quality of the coins

King Henry I punished currency officials who did not make good-looking coins. Half minters in England got punishment for producing sub-standard or counterfeit coins in 1124. Henry II improved the quality of coins and in 1282, under Edward I, testing the purity of coinage was formalized in the “Trial of the Pyx”, an annual ceremony which contributes to this day.

The coins’ silver content had been reduced to 92.5% to improve durability. “Sterling silver” tells you how pure the silver is in the coin. Henry VIII drastically reduced the silver content of coins minted in his reign in what became known as the Great Debasement. But Elizabeth I restored its value in 1560. It remained so till the 19th Century.

For centuries, thieves clipped off the edges of the silver coins to make money. “Penny pinchers” really lived! They would pass off the rest of the coins for its original value. In the 1660s, minting of coins was mechanized, and features like edge lettering were introduced to stop the clipping. Today “penny pinching” is an idiom referring to those who cut down essential expenses to save money.

The pound has continued as independent currency, though Europe adopted a single currency, the euro.

 

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Located on the slopes of Mount Esphino, in Braga, Portugal, the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte was developed over a period of 600 years. Combining different architectural styles, this property has inspired the architecture of several churches around the world. Some of the outstanding features of the Sanctuary are a stairway, several fountains, statues and paintings.

The Bom Jesus ensemble is centred on a Via Crucis that leads up the western slope of the mount. It includes a series of chapels that house sculptures evoking the Passion of Christ, as well as fountains, allegorical sculptures and formal gardens. The Via Crucis culminates at the church, which was built between 1784 and 1811.

The granite buildings have whitewashed plaster façades, framed by exposed stonework. The celebrated Stairway of the Five Senses, with its walls, steps, fountains, statues and other ornamental elements, is the most emblematic Baroque work within the property.

 

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The French Austral Lands and Seas is a group of isolated volcanic islands in the sub-Antarctic region. Comprising the Crozet Archipelago, Kerguelen Islands and Amsterdam and St Paul Islands, the property is known for its rich diversity of marine birds, especially the world’s largest colony of King Penguins and yellow-nosed albatrosses. The islands are also home to mammals such as seals and dolphins.

Because of its huge size – more than 672 000 km2 –, this site contains a high representation of the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean and protects the ecological processes that are essential for these species to thrive. For this reason, the territory plays a key role in the health of oceans worldwide, particularly in the regulation of the carbon cycle.

As a result of their great distance from centres of human activities, the French Austral Lands and Seas are very well preserved showcases of biological evolution and therefore unique areas for scientific research, particularly for long-term monitoring of populations of marine birds and mammals and for the study of the effects of global change. Aware of this exceptional heritage, the authority of the French Austral Lands and Seas, through the nature reserve and with the commitment of the scientific community, has adopted a proven and recognized management system to ensure its preservation for future generations.

 

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