India's Only Top Hollywood Heroine

India's Only Top Hollywood Heroine

A Blog begun years ago as a stroll on the Funny Side of Serious Street, highlighting India's problems. Revived now by adding memories of old Bombay, including excerpts from Dreams of One Country.

Does anyone remember Merle Oberon?

Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson was born in Bombay of Welsh-Indian parentage in 1911. 'Queenie' (her nickname) escaped an aimless life by sailing to London with an English boyfriend at the age of 17. There, while she was trying to enter films, she did odd jobs like entertaining at the Cafe de Paris. She got only bit parts till her looks and talent were noticed by Alexander Korda, Britain's Hungarian emigre movie mogul. She appeared in Men of Tomorrow in 1933. Then came the starring role of Anne Boleyn in the The Private Life of Henry VIII. Successes in London led her on to Hollywood.

Among her big movies were The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Divorce of Lady X , Wuthering Heights (a memorable performance) and Berlin Express. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Dark Angel (1935). She acted with many top stars, including Gary Cooper, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Marlon Brando and David Niven.

Merle Oberon married Alexander Korda. She was with him at the presentation when Korda received a Knighthood at Buckingham Palace in 1942. So she was the first Lady Korda. After divorcing Korda, she went through two more divorces, and then married actor Robert Wolders. She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

She died of a massive stroke in 1979 at Malibu, California.

Throughout her life she was secretive about her parentage, family and early life in Bombay.

A glittery, almost fairy-tale story! A teen girl adrift on the streets of British Bombay, Queenie set out to make something of her life and achieved world stardom.

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Tail-Lights:

New India Theme

A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can easily check it out on Amazon.com. If a transforming India theme appeals to you, venture to download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.

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Busted BusStop's Thieving Secret!!!

Busted Bus-Stop's Thieving Secret!!!

The truth's out! Busting the bus-stop was sheer drama.

The two main rival political parties deserve a Filmfare (or even Oscar) nomination for Acting - their rivalry act that demolished the bus-stop shelter/bench and led to scenes of pretended violence on the street. And the net result? The bus-stop's gone. In the open plot behind the former bus-stop pavement a builder has made iron grille gates right across the plot's frontage and put up his signs saying No Parking In Front Of The Gates. He has sloped the pavement down to the street. And now his cars and construction trucks occupy the public pavement, virtually stealing the pavement . He has started building a multi-storey commercial plus residential complex. Since it's a prime location on a business street, he will earn big money. And, of course, the two political parties will be well rewarded for collaborating in a rivalry act to get rid of the bus-stop from the complex's frontage. It seems everybody gained. Oh, not everybody! The public lost the all-weather facility provided by the bus-stop. And ethical values and probity in public life in the country took another hit!

Where's India headed? 

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Tail-Lights:
 

1. New India Theme
A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can easily check it out on Amazon.com. If a transforming India theme appeals to you, venture to download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.
2. Man's Easiest Job!
 Look at history, past and present. Nothing is easier for man than to delete 'kind' from mankind. (From Tipsy Tweetlines)

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ANewIndia'sModernizers: Children

ANewIndia'sModernizers: Children

Sixty-eight years after winning freedom, in India, a country with an abundance of talent, the same biases and mindsets continue that have hindered her evolution into a modern nation.

Let's be clear on ground realities. A country that is not committed to every citizen's right to 'life and liberty' cannot be a truly modern, developed nation. Nor can a country where fair-play and rule of law are routinely battered, particularly by those with power. Nor can a country where pettiness, selfishness and taking advantage of others (even the weak) for gain are so common that too few realize such behaviour is unworthy of a refined nation. Nor can a country where the people do not share and care for each other, where the better-offs are insensitive to the suffering of the many. 

India has still to grasp that factories, armies, nuclear bombs, space explorations, a small wealthy class or some whose wealth matches the world's richest do not make a truly developed country. Russia has done it all, but remains stuck as a developing country.
 
The HDI or Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program rates Denmark the most developed land in the world, followed by Norway, New Zealand, Singapore and the U.S. India ranks 135th among 185 countries. Between developed and under-developed countries the essential difference is heart: The ability of the people to feel and care for one another. Denmark, for instance, without discriminating on any basis offers all her citizens free education at all levels and free health care.

India has still the same long way to go to develop as she did at Independence. A positive change in attitudes has to happen through education. In children.   

That's the key. It has to begin in childhood.


And it means not math or geography, but the basic civilizing ideas of humanity.

When I was in school one of our subjects was Moral Science. It's not a science at all. I still remember one lesson, with the illustration of a schoolboy volunteering to help a blind man cross a busy street. Moral Science was a subject neither pupils nor teachers bothered about. We were promoted even if we failed in it. Somehow, I took the subject seriously and got a story-book every year for scoring in it. Later, I went on to professional studies. But I still consider Moral Science the most important part of my education. I believe that the subject - on caring for one another in our inter-dependent society - must be taught to children across the world.

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Tail-Lights:

1. Ready for an Amazing novel on Amazon?

An unforgettable love story that inspires the people's March to an Ek Desh India lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit Daniel (and John). Check it out on Amazon.com. If the transforming India Revolutionary Theme appeals to you, download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.
2. Man's Easiest Job!
 Look at history, past and present. Nothing is easier for man than to delete 'kind' from mankind. (From Tipsy Tweetlines)

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