London Diary: An ode to bonds of love

There are far too many commercial pressures on us to celebrate our relationships on certain days. Possibly because on other days we tend to forget how important these bonds can be. Well. This last Sunday was Mother’s Day in the UK, and it’s always confusing because it precedes the Mother’s Day that is celebrated in the US. The difference is that in the US, it was a campaign by Anne Jarvis in the early 20th century, in memory of her own mother that led to this commemorative day which falls in early May. But another campaign by Constance Smith, a vicar’s daughter, who was inspired by Jarvis, made this celebration of mothers popular in the UK, too, starting from the early 20th century.

In the UK, it has a Christian touch, and falls always on the fourth Sunday of Lent. But like everything else, now it has been adapted by all communities with a huge outflow of flowers and chocolates... and instead of a simple cake, the more “happening” mums receive gifts of cruises, facials and spas.

Other countries have chosen different days, but it’s surprising that India with our fixation with mothers (Mere paas Maa hai!) hasn’t got its own day. So is it time to jump onto change.org? Meanwhile, to start the campaign, why not enjoy a poetical ode to her mother by the 19th century English poet, Christina Rossetti, instead of the sentimental tosh usually dealt out:

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love
sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honoured name:
In you not fourscore years
can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and
mortal life and death.
(This is the dedicatory sonnet that prefaces Rossetti’s fourth collection, A Pageant and Other Poems.)
There are some movements where India seems to have a head start, though, and one could be the government-led cleanliness drive. Believe it or not, many streets and alleys in the UK could do with a good sweep! And so while in India we have the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, there is a movement here to at least make communities aware of their own responsibility towards sweeping away the dirt.

And so, “Clean for the Queen” campaign was launched this weekend to coincide with the Queen’s 90th birthday coming up in April. A bunch of celebrities have been chosen to lead this drive and more than 200,000 volunteers are said to have been galvanised. And while there is some criticism that people are being asked to do “unpaid” work for the Queen, there are others who quite happily are stepping forward saying that the £1 billion of government money which is utilised for picking litter could be better spent. Celebrities have been roped into the campaign as well. (Does that sound familiar?) And, why not? It seems the Queen is also quite pleased with the fact that she might get a cleaner UK as a birthday present. Certainly not a bad idea!

I only remember meeting Jerry Hall once at the home of the late (and very charismatic) filmmaker, Ismail Merchant, many years ago and I had been struck by how down to earth she seemed. She wore her celebrity status lightly, and even though she literally towered over the rest of us, there was nothing which proclaimed that she had once been a supermodel or married to the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger.

So it is interesting to see that she has now walked down the aisle with the media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, in a simple ceremony, even though the days preceding had been full of the “$3.4 million, 20 carat diamond” engagement ring that she had flashed in photo shoots.

This can only be called a whirlwind romance as the couple had dated for five months before tying the nuptial knot. But as they say, experience maketh perfect.
Befittingly, the wedding has made headlines all over the world and apart from a civil ceremony, there was a more traditional one, specially at a church on Fleet Street... all in keeping with the fact that Murdoch runs one of the world’s biggest media empires.

Conspicuously missing from the attendees was Prime Minister David Cameron. After the brouhaha over his apparently close ties to some of the editors at News Corp, it could have been expected.

Then on Women’s Day this week, we must ask ourselves how many statues or memorials are there to women heroes and icons? In the UK, the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst will finally get a statue (through public donations, largely) at Islington, a long overdue honour.... hmm. Time for another campaign?