Lore: Corbett and Heritage – Post 1

It has been close to 7 years now since I put all my eggs in the heritage basket and all too frequently congratulated myself for making that choice. The complexities of identity shaped by people, places and stories is what lies at the core of heritage. What this means is that there are innumerable interesting cross connections and nothing beats getting lost on an unknown road to emerge out into places very familiar.

Jim Corbett with his British-Irish origins, a lifetime of adventure in India, his quiet exit from here as soon as the country’s ownership was restored to the right people and the fervour he continues to inspire among his fans to date, including in yours truly, offers the opportunity to discuss all that heritage can entail.

As I set out to Choti Haldwani, the ‘model’ village he set up near his childhood home of Kaladhungi for his 150^th birth anniversary (27^th July 2025), to see the places that shaped him and share space with innumerable other Corbett-heads on the big occasion, it is fair to say that I am excited. Very excited. Under a series of posts titled “Lore: Corbett and Heritage”, I will look at both well-known and not so well-known legacies of this one-of-a-kind personality who inspires devotion and debate for his undeniable role in Indian conservation’s story arc.

[https://virtual-inksanity.blogspot.com/2025/07/lore-corbett-and-heritage-post-1.html]

Pretty Bad Ugly

Perspective is a powerful thing. It can turn the dire into desire and hopelessness into certainty. When heading out to watch a documentary like the Nilgiris in the company of fellow idealists who curse and dream in the same breath, it is not difficult to spot the dissonance. On one hand will be the spectacular footage of wildlife projected onto the magnificence of a full size movie hall, on the other will be the knowledge that even as we watch in the AC-cooled dark confines of a decidedly environmentally harmful supermall, the actual subjects of the film would be that much further on the path to obsolescence through a combination of greed and antipathy. We want to enjoy the sights and sounds of the wild in the comfort of our urban forts but how many of us would be there on the ground when it is required to take a stand against the JCBs? 

Of course, there is the faint flickering hope that amongst the thousands who pay their way to this recorded spectacle of nature’s bounty, a handful of these observers may be impelled to do more than that. This tiny minority of a minority will always be in short supply as bringing change requires mad devotion to the cause, otherwise often left at the mercy of important sounding words urging actions that never materialize. Changemakers will always account for only a minuscule proportion of the population, but the pretty on-screen story might just inspire them to take on the bad and confront the ugly truth yet.

[https://virtual-inksanity.blogspot.com/2025/07/pretty-bad-ugly.html]

Labubu, Pazuzu and their Ilk

I subscribe to two newspapers just so that I can stay off social media trends and focus on meatier issues but as it happens, those very newspapers often report about aforementioned trends. This time though, those trends have a fascinating intersection with history, so couldn't resist writing about it.

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The reporter tells me of a trend of not-so-cute dolls by a Hong Kong designer which go by the name Labubu whose designs seem to be now inspired by a 1st millennium BCE Mesopotamian demonic figure Pazuzu. Besides the rather memorable names of both those trends, it is a good reflection of the fact that bored humans over the rather brief history of our species have always liked a good scare. Even as social media algorithms press all sorts of buttons on rage, fear, love and lust, it is good to see social media talk about stuff from a few thousand years ago as opposed to, say, only-a-90s-kid-would-know sort of non-historic nonsensical nostalgia.

I, on the other hand, when I read of Pazuzu's historical role - a defender against demons being the mean demon that he is - I am forced to think of all the painted "Buri Nazar Waalein Teraa Muuh Kaalaa" [Sort of translating to - Envious people, may infamy pursue you] demons I have grown seeing on the backs of trucks in India. Not that I grew up on the highways of India, mind you, but the route to my school required us traverse a stretch of the same for a good decade or so. In houses in Uttarakhand, the same envy-busting demon's face now in clay molded form glares off newly built houses in my neighbourhood. Between the Middle Eastern Pazuzu and the far-eastern Labubu, I guess we should be happy to have our own version of what seems to be a trend that will never go out of fashion.

[virtual-inksanity]