How mythical creatures caught the world's imagination

Agencies
May 14, 2019

New Delhi, May 14: Propelled by fascination for the unknown, a variety of creatures, from the abominable Himalayan snowman to its North American cousin Bigfoot, often cross over from myth into reality even though there is little evidence to back their existence.

As it was last fortnight when the Indian Army rekindled the Yeti mystery with its tweet showing pictures of large footprints in the snow in the higher Himalayas and claimed they belonged to the abominable snowman.

Experts believe the possible reasons behind the enduring obsession with the beings that inhabit the nebulous worlds of legend and folklore and ever so frequently enter the realm of everyday life are many -- from human curiosity and the need to connect with the past to identifying threats to the survival of humankind.

Loch Ness, Unicorn and Almas... the list of such creatures is long, cutting across regions and cultures.

The correlation between imagination and imagined reality is once again under the scanner with the Indian Army releasing pictures and videos of footprints captured close to the Makalu Base Camp in Nepal in March.

In Nepali folklore, Yeti is a mythical bipedal ape-like creature taller than an average human and is said to inhabit the Himalayas, Siberia, Central and East Asia.

Nepali officials later clarified the footprints belong to the Himalayan Black Bear active in the area.

“As we get farther from the real wild, we seek talismans to connect us to the wild. A half-man, half-ape creature is such a symbol. It gives humanity an identity as an animal in a world where we are otherwise making everything ‘of human manufacture’,” said American conservationist Daniel C Taylor who has spent 35 years in Nepal's Barun Valley dispelling the Yeti myth.

“I researched from 1956, when at age 11 I saw my first photograph of the footprint so I knew there was a real animal, to 1983 when I explained scientifically that it was the Himalayan Black Bear,” Taylor, who is also the author of the 2017 book, "Yeti: The Ecology of a Mystery", told news agency.

Given the lack of evidence of its existence, the scientific community has generally regarded the Yeti as a legend.

Such creatures have also been found to exist in other regions of the world.

“Fantasies are something which always give immense pleasure to the human mind and that is the main reason why people enjoy the stories around such mythological characters,” said Shweta Sharma, consultant clinical psychologist at Columbia Asia Hospital.

“One reason may be that people are afraid and want to watch out for the unknown, since they are wired to keep themselves safe and identify threats for survival,” Sharma, who is also a counsellor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Health Center, told news agency.

The second reason could be the basic human nature of curiosity which needs immediate gratification from a psychological point of view, she explained, adding that this also reflects in movies that are made.

Stories of the Yeti first emerged as a facet of Western popular culture in the 19th century.

Legends of hairy, oversize hominids lurking around the outer reaches of civilisation have been around for centuries and are part of the folklore of several cultures.

In North American folklore, Bigfoot or Sasquatch are said to be hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness and leave footprints like Yeti.

Depictions often portray them as a missing link between humans and human ancestors or other great apes.

“Living in cities and meeting the wild on TV screens, it is interesting that a Google search will reveal more Yeti (especially Bigfoot in US) sightings now than 20 years ago,” said Taylor, who is also president of the Future Generations University in the US.

The Almas or Alma, Mongolian for "wild man", is a purported hominid cryptozoological species reputed to inhabit the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia.

Similarly, in Scottish folklore, the Loch Ness monster or Nessie is a creature said to inhabit the Scottish Highlands.

It is often described as large in size with a long neck and one or more humps protruding from the water.

Popular interest and belief in the creature has varied since it came to the attention of the world in 1933.

Evidence of its existence remains anecdotal, with a few disputed photographs and sonar readings.

“I think something like this has little to do with science and more to do with the human imagination and psyche,” noted T N C Vidya, associate professor of Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit at Bangalore's Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).

“Perhaps when we are not satisfied with reality, we tend to come up with alternative realities to believe in,” Vidya said.

Closer home, the unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiralling horn projecting from its forehead.

The creature was depicted in ancient seals of the Indus Valley Civilization, covering parts of India and Pakistan, and was also mentioned by the ancient Greeks.

The unicorn is the most common motif on Indus seals.

Even in the 21st century, the unicorn holds a place in popular culture. It is often used as a symbol of fantasy or rarity.

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Agencies
March 24,2020

Los Angeles, Mar 24: In a bizarre video shot from her rose petal filled bathtub, pop star Madonna has called the coronavirus pandemic "a great equaliser".

The music icon said the virus doesn't discriminate between rich and poor.

That's the thing about COVID-1. It doesn't care about how rich you are, how famous you are, how funny you are, how smart you are, where you live, how old you are, what amazing stories you can tell.

It's the great equaliser and what's terrible about it is what's great about it. What's terrible about it is that it's made us all equal in many ways, and what's wonderful about is, is that it's made us all equal in many ways, Madonna said in the video while having a milky bath in tub full of roses.

The 61-year-old singer, who had to cancel two of her concerts in Paris due to coronavirus outbreak, also referenced her 1995 song Human Nature in the video saying we are all going down together .

According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the death toll from the virus globally has risen to 14,641 with 336,000 cases reported in 173 countries and territories.

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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News Network
July 12,2020

Mumbai, Jul 12: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed actor Rekha’s bungalow in suburban Bandra after a security guard there tested positive for coronavirus, a civic official said on Sunday.

The guard at the 65-year-old actor’s bungalow ‘Sea Springs’ tested positive on Tuesday, the official said.

The BMC has put a board outside the premises declaring the are as a containment zone. The security guard has been hospitalised at the BMC’s COVID-19 care facility in Bandra Kurla Complex, he said.

As the bungalow is a standalone one, only a portion of it has been sealed, he said.

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