Latest news with #Dunster
BBC News
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC The Repair Shop's experts restore model village's church
A historic model church that had fallen into disrepair has been restored by experts who work on the BBC's Repair Shop model village, at Spears Cross, Somerset, was created by Llewellyn Pluck 50 years ago and was so popular it even appeared on postcards. Several decades after the miniature village was dismantled, Llewellyn's granddaughter, Sarah Gardner, turned to social media to track down some of the original ten months, she found the model of Culbone Church and then contacted The Repair Shop producers who agreed to restore it. She said: "I don't have any idea what happened to the others. I believe this might be the only one left in a state that could be repaired."The BBC series shows a workshop filled with expert craftspeople who bring loved pieces of family history back to life. Ms Gardner said her granddad "needed a bit of a hobby" while running the guest house."He opened the model village to the general public which they loved. It was a real labour of love over years," Ms Gardner eventually discovered the model church had been kept in an allotment."It had been outside for 50 years so it was in a really bad state," she added. Ms Gardner contacted the Repair Shop about two years ago and they approached her in early April."I put it in the back of my shed and it got to the point that my husband said we need to get rid of it," Ms Gardner said."I couldn't put it out in my garden, it was too badly damaged. And then suddenly I got the call."I don't have any idea what happened to the others. I believe this might be the only one left in a state that could be repaired. If there are any out there, please get in contact."The episode featuring the model church will air on BBC One at 20:00 BST.
Indian Express
06-06-2025
- General
- Indian Express
From revolution to wars: The history of Harvard, America's oldest university
It's a challenging time for America's oldest university, as it stands embroiled in a legal battle with President Donald Trump's government. And yet, Harvard has been holding its own; a reflection of the values that have marked its long and prestigious history, one that was marked by resilience and rebellion. 'The debut of Harvard College,' according to Bainbridge Bunting in Harvard: An Architectural History (1985), 'was not auspicious.' Established in October 1636, Harvard had neither the finances nor the faculty needed to operate a university. But what it did have was the vision of a group of cultivators and artisans who fled the tyranny of British occupants in Old England and moved to a region in the northeastern United States called New England. This group, according to Bunting, 'had the advantage of the best education available in England in the seventeenth century.' Comprising the alumni of both Oxford and Cambridge universities, they hoped to give their sons a comparable education. The absence of an institution of repute in New England led to the genesis of Harvard, the oldest of America's Ivy League schools. 'Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Brown are all plugged in the northeast, in New England. Harvard has played a major role in building this geographical cluster,' says Mohit Sinha, an alumnus of Harvard, in an interview with An eight-acre house comprising a one-acre cow yard was quickly purchased to build the College. By 1637, Harvard had its first Master, Cambridge alumnus Nathaniel Eaton. Interestingly, the university was not always called Harvard. 'When it was set up, it was called New College. It was renamed Harvard College after its biggest benefactor, John Harvard,' remarks Sinha. Harvard, on his deathbed, gave to the university his library and estate. Eaton, however, was quickly dismissed on charges of brutality and physical abuse. The arrival of Cambridge graduate Henry Dunster as the president in 1640 offered a glimmer of hope. 'The youngest in the long line of Harvard presidents, he proved to be one of the greatest,' writes alumnus and author Samuel Eliot Morison in Three Centuries of Harvard (1636-1936). His effort was particularly concentrated on completing the college buildings. By the 1650s, Harvard had about 60 students enrolled. Boys had come from Bermuda, Virginia, New Amsterdam, and even England, where Harvard degrees were now accepted by Oxford and Cambridge as equivalent to their own. A dispute with the administration, unfortunately, led Dunster to resign in 1654. 'Harvard University grew out of the Liberal Arts college as Dunster left it,' remarks Morison. Academic and student life in the seventeenth-century Harvard was guided by the Catholic Church. A college pamphlet from 1643 states the vision of the College: 'To advance learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches.' In other words, a learned clergy was what Harvard was expected to supply. An average day for a Harvard student began and ended with prayer, which included the recitation of a chapter of Scripture by the President. Saturdays were dedicated to preparations for the Sabbath, which included worship and meditation. Students, according to Morison, were reminded that the focus of their academic pursuit was the greater knowledge of God. It was thus no surprise that Harvard, at the time, was known as the 'School of Prophets,' and its men as the 'Sons of Prophets.' The 1700s were a period of prosperity for Harvard. The decade began with the Presidency of John Leverett. His first concern was to refurbish the dilapidated college buildings. Tables, chairs, feather beds, and looking glasses were supplied in abundance. While no major changes were made to the curriculum, the number of student enrollments increased. French was also introduced as a subject. Interestingly, the French tutor was the only staff member without a Harvard degree. Expulsion was a particularly dreadful process. After assembling the entire college in the hall, the President would announce the crime and sentence. The butler would then strike off the name of the offenders from the bulletin board, which contained the names of all members of the College. However, the culprit could publicly confess their misdeeds and be forgiven as per the Christian principle. Another notable aspect was that until 1749, classes at Harvard were placed in order of the presumed social rank of parents. However, as classes grew bigger, the process turned complex. In 1769, the decision was made that arrangements would now be alphabetical. Leverett's leadership helped Harvard grow from a weak institution to one of considerable repute. According to Morison, it was Leverett who founded the liberal tradition of Harvard University. Discussion on the Harvard of the eighteenth century cannot be without the university's response to the American Revolution (1775-1783). Experts and accounts claim that Harvard men played a significant part in carrying through the Revolution. Plato's dialogues and Aristotle's virtues guided their actions of the time. Morison mentions several public speaking clubs, including the Speaking Club, the Mercurian Club, and the Clintonian Club, were established as secret societies in the College. Yet, the American Revolutionary War placed the College under difficult circumstances. Students fell in numbers, supplies fell short, and wartime inflation exacerbated the ongoing financial crisis. The dominant feeling at Harvard during the Civil War (1861-1865) was for the Union, which advocated conciliation as well as the abolition of slavery. 'Harvard very clearly fought for the Union. A lot of constitutional lawmaking, post the Civil War, was done by Harvard scholars, both ex-students as well as faculty,' says Sinha. Harvard, thus, has had a central role in establishing the legal framework of the country. 'And there's always been dissent.' However, college went on as usual, and attendance was normal. President Abraham Lincoln kept his son at Harvard at the time, until his graduation in 1864. This was also the century when Harvard expanded significantly. The Medical School, set up in 1782, introduced entrance examinations, and laboratories for Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy were created. The summer of 1900 also witnessed Harvard open its doors for women. Harvard president Charles William Eliot mentioned the move to make the university gender-inclusive. However, he was cautious to say that Harvard would avoid 'the difficulties involved in common residence of hundreds of young men and women of immature character and marriageable age.' 'There was the Radcliffe College, which was a girls' college that was associated with Harvard, but it was a separate identity,' explains Sinha. It was only in the 1970s that the college was drafted into Harvard University. The 389-year-old journey of Harvard has several lessons to offer. 'What Harvard is doing today in terms of pushing back is not its first,' says Sinha. From the American War of Independence through the Civil War, we see Harvard's resilience in the face of conflict. This, the 'Harvard man,' Sinha, asserts, will be another successful litigation case against the Trump administration. Nikita writes for the Research Section of focusing on the intersections between colonial history and contemporary issues, especially in gender, culture, and sport. For suggestions, feedback, or an insider's guide to exploring Calcutta, feel free to reach out to her at ... Read More
Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
How this celebrated musician from Pune came to play at Paul McCartney's wedding 23 years ago
June 12, 2002. Former Beatles member Paul McCartney's wedding day in Ireland. Could there have been a man happier than him that day at Castle Leslie? Well, Chinmaya Dunster from Pune could have been a strong contender. And why not? When you have been handpicked by one of the most famous performers in history to play at his wedding and are living that dream at the event, surely you can be forgiven for beaming just a tad more than the groom. Twenty-three years later that smile was back on Dunster's face as he spoke about that day again to The Indian Express in February this year. This time round, though, he was back in the UK and strapped with tubes, battling an insidious cancer that was steadily progressing in his body. 'But the memories are still indelible,' he said, waving off suggestions to do the call another day when he's feeling better. 'I will answer what I can now,' he insisted, going back to January 2002, when the Osho disciple popped by an internet café in Pune to catch up on his emails. He found 10 emails from his record company New Earth Records in America, with 'Paul McCartney's Office' in the subject. Each one said (sounding progressively more anxious) that Paul's office wanted him to contact them immediately. As Dunster called up the UK office from an STD booth, a polite voice at the other end asked, 'Would you be available to play a private concert for Paul? 'Could you play the songs from your CD Celtic Ragas'? 'Would you be available sometime in June this year?' 'It was of course yes to all three!' said Dunster as he quickly assembled a band that included his partner Naveena Goffer on the tanpura, him on his famed sarod and six other talented musicians from the world over. They still didn't have an idea of what event they were to play at or where, until a news break on television told them that it was for the McCartney wedding and in Ireland. From then it was a whirlwind time of composing and rehearsing till they flew to Belfast and across the Irish border and stood at the marquee decorated with Indian theme at the castle on June 12. 'British Indian caterers feed us snacks while we wait apprehensively on stage. Suddenly there is the man himself, putting his head round the entrance and giving us a quizzical 'thumbs up' sign and asking if everything is OK. Then he is gone…. we resume our nervous wait. We've been told to play for no more than 45 minutes, and as well as material from the Celtic Ragas CD, I've composed a nice uplifting number which we plan to play when the bride and groom enter,' wrote Dunster in his blog later. Talking of the electric atmosphere he told The Indian Express, 'The reception was decorum itself, well-dressed people standing around chatting with a glass of champagne in hand, eating Indian finger food in this gorgeous Indian-themed setting. The famous people I saw there? Not so many actually. Ringo, of course; Sir George Martin; Steffi Graf, the tennis star; Twiggy, the 60s fashion icon; Chrissy Hyde of The Pretenders and Pink Floyd's David Gilmore.' Just when they were about to wrap up their 45 minutes, reconciling to Paul being too distracted to give them an ear, suddenly he was in front of them saying 'Guys, I haven't heard a note! Can you start again from the beginning?' But then he cut short the opening number they restarted with to hum a tune – the first track on Dunstar's Celtic Ragas CD- and request for it. 'As we struck those chords, a delighted Paul started laughing and dancing in front of us asking us to go on, ignoring advisers whispering in his ears that the next act was waiting,' said Dunster. Off stage, Paul told him how Heather and he were at a gift shop in Ireland a year ago where he picked up his CD, which had been playing at their home since. 'Later Heather told Naveena that when Paul wanted her recommendation for the music at the wedding, she chose us,' said Dunster with justifiable pride. The following month Paul said about Celtic Raga, 'I love the unique blend of Irish and Indian music of Celtic Ragas. It has become one of my favourites.' He also included them in his recommendations—Paul McCartney's Gladstonebury Grooves—that summer. Dunster also recollected how he narrowly saved himself from a protocol breach. 'Although we had been told not to bring cameras or mobile phones I, being a naughty fellow, had my mobile! As soon as I'd got off stage and had my few minutes with Paul, I slipped out of the back of the marquee and called my friend Charles, waiting eagerly for news at his job at a leading news agency in the US and told him everything about the event. He planned to broadcast this out to his contacts in America. But as we were boarding the bus to take us away from the venue, we were presented with these non-disclosure forms to sign, strictly forbidding us to repeat anything at all about the event and I had to rush a call to Charles and get him to pull it all back!' said Dunster. Finally, how was the interaction with the former Beatles member? 'It's impossible for me, a child of the '60s, to stand in front of Paul and see him as an ordinary human being. This is the man who wrote Blackbird and Eleanor Rigby, (and so many others) songs that I have cried to, felt chills from, and heard in my head at nights for over half a century. They were the backdrop to my childhood. It's impossible for me as a musician not to want something from him. I can imagine many people standing in front of him and wanting some from his vast but for me, as I hand him a CD copy of my version of Blackbird, I just want to be seen, approved of, validated. He's a nice guy, I could feel that,' rounded off Dunster. Two weeks after this interview with him, Dunster succumbed to cancer on February 28, leaving behind his partner Naveena, daughter Koyal and a chest full of beautiful music and memories, this being one of his most precious ones and perhaps the last one to share. Chinmaya Dunster, 74, was a renowned sarod player whose compositions incorporate elements of Hindustani and Celtic music. Born in the UK, he moved to India in 1982. In 1990 he founded a band with Prem Joshua at the Osho International Meditation Resort.
