Brno, Bolsheviks and Mendelian Miscellany...

Pronounced Bur-noooooo (add a hint of sing-song to it,) this quaint little city in southern Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia) came with a bundle of surprises. For starters, this ex-commie town sports a Mc Donald’s and TESCO supermarket every two kilometres or less! But an interesting fact unknown to a vast majority is that, Brno is the birthplace of modern genetics! It was here, in an Augustinian abbey (St Thomas’ Abbey) that Gregor Johann Mendel, a monk, decided to meddle with the sweet pea plants in his garden and thus were born the fundamental theories of genetic inheritance. (Speaking of the abbey, St Thomas’ is the only ‘Augustinian’ abbey in the world since the head of Augustinian orders is generally a bishop and not an abbot.)

Meet Mendel Mama!

This statue of Mendel has quite a history behind it. When theCzechs came under the reign of the communists, a statue of a Christian monk in the middle of the town square was the last item to figure on their wish list and soldiers stormed the abbey seeking to destroy the statue. However, the locals hid the statue behind the currently invisible foliage in the garden and the issue was forgotten. But a surprising fact is that the commies seemed not to have minded or realised that a main street leading to the abbey was named after the very same Augustinian abbot!

Mendel (staring at a fuchsia), with his pals…and the blinding light in the center is my Brahmatejas aka camera flash

There is no greater curse than to be ahead of one’s times and Mendel was not going to be spared either. Today he may be a genius to us, but this mathematician-meteorologist-monk was thought to be an absolute nutter, totally off his rocker! He published his ground-breaking earth-shattering work in a practically unknown (must check the impact value of that journal!) inconspicuous journal. The results of his research were proclaimed empirically non-reproducible and hence baseless by one Professor Nagaeli. The word of a trained university professor was certainly more convincing than a totally out-of-league friar!

It’s a pity I could get any pictures inside this abbey…simply stunning…I did get photos of the original location of this abbey, which was so pretty that the ruling monarch at that time threw the priests out and took it for himself! I suppose this is what they call relocation of faith. There’s something interesting about this abbey (the original abbey which is not the original abbey of this write up!) but that will come later on.

Don't be fooled by the facade

Next came Mendel Museum, the floor of which has the entire genetic sequence for either the BRCA (breast cancer) gene or the CFTR gene (cystic fibrosis)…as to why either of these genes of all things, I have no idea. The museum also has the original paper that Mendel published in 1866.

And the code begins here…
(and those are Ruth’s feet!)

Sweet peas have now been replaced by the Begonias and the greenhouse is nothing but a silhouette in the grass, but one can still feel Mendel looking upon his precious research subjects from his room.

That’s the window from where Mendel would check if anyone was sabotaging his experiment…

Architectural Quirks...

The city is absolutely chock full of them...from strip teasing angels to crooked steeples...you name it and Brno has it! St Thomas' abbey (ah yes...the same place where Mendel, left to himself, would've banned pea soup!) has an interesting stained glass window...in a botched attempt to bomb a neighbouring brewery (what apalling aim!),during world war II, the Germans ended up destroying one wall of the abbey...now when they rebuilt that wall, which had the window I mentioned, they couldn't recreate it with a religious theme for fear of incurring the wrath of the commies...and voila! we have a stained glass window, in a church, with an abstract modern artsy theme!

St. Thomas Abbey

The abbey also houses Brno's kaaval deivam, the Black Madonna...a gift from the then king, whose name I can't remember for the life of me. This photo of the Madonna is from St Peter's...

Now St Thomas' originally used to be in the city centre, right opposite St Peter's...these were being built by rival architects...and so the guy building St Thomas' who had a weird sense of humour, put this on a window facing his rival monument...

Czechs must really make very temperamental architects...one more such act of a maverick is the entrance to the old town hall...if you choose to ignore the fact that the entire hall is done up in a crocodile theme (a crocodile, they choose to call a dragon!) you will notice that the centre of the seven headed candelabra carved on top of the entrace is conspicuously crooked. Czech beer-induced inebriation was not the reason here. The architect was not paid his promised fare and hell hath no fury like a builder refused his pay!

University Masarykova

Of Vikings and Tea Parlours

And once again it's that time of the year when I have a strange surge of enthusiasm to post something on my blog......However being as lethargic as I am (oh no! there's no beating me at that!) I'm not writing anything new. Instead, it's gonna be a letter I wrote my friend describing my trip to York (not New York, people! this York's pretty old I must say) for the Jorvik Viking Festival...this also helps me maintain my sentiments as an anti-blogger! SO here goes....

Watch out for terms in the divine language of Tanglish and the even more mystical tongue of Regency cant...

Hey!

I know this is coming a tad late..nevertheless...here goes...

Philippa, Julia and I decided to go for the viking festival at York last Saturday...it marked my post-essay submission celebrations...Philippa dropped out last minute coz she wasnt feeling too well...not a great beginning to a day huh?! Was it an indication of impending doom?! But it wasnt to be! Julia and I got the train at 20 past 10 and reached York in abt an hour. The railway station was this ancient building oozing old world charm...

Delving a bit into the history of York...it's on the Scottish border and it was inhabited by these Vikings who're basically Scandinavian...hence the perpetual strife between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons....its strategic position on the Scottish border didnt just mean it had a significant role in history but also that the place is friggin COLD!!! The temperature that day was about 1 (celcius) and felt like about -1 taking wind chill factor into account. (Now I realised why the Scottish spoke with such a heavy accent...their jaws must be frozen!!!) The whole city is walled and u can walk on the wall all the way around town and kinda get a bird's eye view of the whole thing...very pretty.

Contrary to the usual perception that the Vikings were these meanies who went about pillaging and plundering...they apparently started off as a peaceful group of farmers....but this image of theirs is no fun....The Jorvik Viking festival is organised by the Medieval Re-enactment Society. They had this area where there was an exhibtion of sorts of Viking lifestyle...what they wore, what they ate, the kinda music they played (was a flat flute and a lyre kinda thing and I dunno if the vikings played them so well)...got to make viking coins...helped weave a few strands of a robe etc.

Then the Vikings and Saxons started off on a march from the Museum gardens, on the banks of the river Ouse to the Eye of York which is outside the Castle Museum..a huge arena...this castle museum was the castle of the Duke of York...the notorious Prince Regent...known as Prinny.. as u would know from Georgette Heyer...the chap who had Beau Brummel banished! There was this sea of humanity there...most people were smart enough to go there straight and not follow the procession...here we were atleast 2 heads shorter than most of the gigantic 'mamas' standing in front of us! Couldnt see too much but what we did see was impressive....Then we decided not to stand here too long and waste time and started walking around and exploring York...thank god Julia knew the way about, had a map and had a better sense of topography than i can ever lay claim to!! Oh my my! it really felt like walking back a few hundred years...it was beeeeeeautiful! There's this street called The Shambles which dates back to the 1500s and it's been retained just that way...cobblestones...alleyways...andha kaalathu candystores and above all...VICTORIAN TEA ROOMS!!! these were cute beyond belief...served good old tea and scones for a good price! i was the ony weirdo who had coffee in a tea room and Julia disowned me for that..but hey! the sinus was complaining and i needed a generous dose of caffeine in my bloodstream and it was the best BEST coffee ive ever had in the United Kingdom!! There was this kutti photoshop where u could have photos taken in period costumes and they\'d deveop it for u in sepia or black and white and/or give it an ancient finish! but then came the blow and it came real hard! the god damned thing was exhorbitant...and i left the store with a heavy heart...

We then went to the York Minster...didnt go in coz it was 5 and all kukgramams in the UK go to sleep at 5...as in the shops and office buildings and essential things like that...but the pubs? oh they're open all the damn time! The york mister was this abs stunning building...later in the evening there was to be a viking coronation and wedding here..but we couldnt stay that long coz we'd the miss the last train to sheffield...we then walked back to the museum gardens...practically every building has some historical significance and there are these kutti boards outside talking about them..Between Julia (a historian and archaeologist) and these kutti boards i had a constant flurry of interesting info thrown at me all day!) In the Museum gardens we caught hold of a viking and clicked a snap with him...was pretty late and cold by now...walked back to the station now and caught the next train that would take me on a time travel and come crashing back to 2006!


Good god! thats a long email...There's a lot more, but I can't quite write it all...so google talk ki jai!!!!

Love etc.