The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America – Russell Shorto
When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of early America.
The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture.
Most of our trips to Mumbai have been evening flights and so there was nothing to see outside. We’ve done day flights regionally, but I can only remember two other daytime flights to Mumbai in the last 20 odd years. Both times, we flew Singapore Airlines and both flights were in wide-bodied planes, perhaps an Airbus. Earlier this year, when I flew to India, I flew Vistara, the airline that was created due to a partnership between Singapore Airlines and the Indian conglomerate, the Tata Group. Vistara uses a smaller aircraft which is single aisle and so probably flies much lower in the air compared to Singapore Airlines flights. So this time around, I enjoyed the flight because I could see the ground while flying. Up until we entered the Bay of Bengal, I enjoyed the scenery below and took many photographs of the journey. This photographic essay is the result of that trip. My apologies if I shared some photos previously.
This scene greeted me almost as soon as the plane took off from Singapore’s Changi airport. You can see the buildings of Changi in the left and the National Service Resort & Country Club in the front and centre.
A minute later, this is one of Singapore’s offshore islands, maybe Pulau Ubin or Pulau Tekong.
About 30 minutes into the flight, we were flying over the Malaysian peninsula, probably flying over the North South expressway, on the way to the country’s capital of Kuala Lumpur.
About 45 into the flight, you can clearly see the island of Penang and the famous Penag bridge.
The next island is the island of Langkawi, which lies almost on the border between Malaysia and Thailand. We visited the island more than a decade back and have very fond memories of the place and hope to visit it again soon.
About an hour and 40 minutes into the flight, we flew over the Thai island of Krabi.
After Thailand, we veered course to fly over the Bay of Bengal and try as I much wanted to, I could not see much out of the window and the next time I saw something interesting, we were flying over Ahmednagar in my home state of Maharashtra, about 20-25 minutes before we landed in Mumbai.
This photo was taken as we approach Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus for landing into Mumbai. This is the Vashi Bridge which seperates Mumbai from Navi Mumbai or New Bombay, the planned city and part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Seeing the bridge brought back so many Mumbai memories of school trips and seeing the bridge I know we are on the verge of landing into Mumbai.
We were on our descent for landing and this is taken just a couple of minutes before touchdown. This is most likely the Eastern Express Highway in Vikhroli East, a few seconds before landing in Mumbai.
And finally touchdown after flying about 5.5 hours. I was back in the city of my birth after more than two years. But now I doubt I will fly into Bombay anytime soon, but never say never!
I hope you enjoyed this photographic journey as much as I liked searching through the photos I took during the flight and remembered my journey.
Corrupt Bodies: Death and Dirty Dealing in a London Morgue – Peter Everett, Kris Hollington
In 1985, Peter Everett landed the job as Superintendent of Southwark Mortuary. In just six years he’d gone from lowly assistant to running the UK’s busiest murder morgue. He couldn’t believe his luck.
What he didn’t know was that Southwark, operating in near-Victorian conditions, was a hotbed of corruption. Attendants stole from the dead, funeral homes paid bribes, and there was a lively trade in stolen body parts and recycled coffins.
Set in the fascinating pre-DNA and psychological profiling years of 1985-87, this memoir tells a gripping and gruesome tale, with a unique insight into a world of death most of us don’t ever see. Peter managed pathologists, oversaw post-mortems and worked alongside Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad – including the case of the serial killer, the Stockwell Strangler.
This is a thrilling tale of murder and corruption in the mid-1980s, told with insight and compassion.
In today’s quote, Oprah tells us that challenges are those gifts that force us to search for a new centre of gravity. We should not fight them, instead, find a different way to stand without losing our balance.
The past few months have been extremely hot in Singapore. The daily temperatures are in the range of 34 and 35 degrees Celsius, and some days reach a high of around 36 degrees Celsius. The humidity levels are around 83% which means as soon as we take a bath, it’s as if we have not taken one! Most of India is also under the grip of a heatwave with cities in northern India like New Delhi average temperatures of above 40 degrees Celcius. On the other hand, Bengaluru where my parents are currently is experiencing temperatures as low as 19 degrees Celcius! When they told us this, I was so jealous and wanted to go there pronto. But because they are not used to such low temperatures, they find it cold and not very comfortable. And this extreme weather changes are due to climate change, which will change our worlds if not for us, then definitely for our children and their children.
Now that we are finally learning to live with COVID-19, we learn of a monkeypox infection wave in Europe. The WHO yesterday had an emergency meeting to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox, a viral infection more common in West and Central Africa, after over 100 cases were confirmed or suspected in Europe with cases reported in at least nine countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – as well as the United States, Canada and Australia. First identified in monkeys, the disease typically spreads through close contact and has rarely spread outside Africa, so this series of cases has triggered concern. Monkeypox is usually a mild viral illness, characterised by symptoms of fever as well as a distinctive bumpy rash. However, scientists do not expect the outbreak to evolve into a pandemic like COVID-19, given the virus does not spread as easily as the SARS-COV-2.
In light of all this, let’s be more careful. And with this, stay safe, and be careful people! I’ll catch up with you all next week.
Memories and Such 