What is blacker than black? Vantablack or Black 3.0, depending on whom you are asking. Just when you thought nothing could be darker than black, UK-based Surrey NanoSystems brought out Vantablack in 2014. A paint that absorbs 99.965 per cent of visible light. Vantablack’s rights for artistic use are held by Indian-origin artist Anish Kapoor. And then, in February 2019, British artist Stuart Semple brought out Black 3.0, which is reportedly blacker than Vantablack. He did it to spite Kapoor, they say. “Black hole in a bottle,” Semple calls his colour. I just wandered to the blackest of blacks thinking of 2020. How can one not?
They say that in the life of every painting comes a time when an extra brushstroke or dab of paint will only take away from it and add nothing. The painter knows this moment and stops. With every passing tragedy, I kept thinking that 2020’s bleak canvas was done. But, it kept on piling brushstrokes and here we are! And there are another 15 days left.
As I was writing this, I lost a long-standing colleague in Delhi to post-Covid complications. D. Vijayamohan, 65, was the Malayala Manorama daily’s senior coordinating editor in the capital. A deeply spiritual man, he helmed the Delhi bureau skilfully. Anyone who has handled a bureau knows that a nose for news is just one of the skills that the chief needs. In a tribute to Vijayamohan’s professionalism, my father picked him as the recipient of the daily’s first ever chief editor’s gold medal. He had been with us for 42 years and leaves behind a bond that will not be easily forgotten. My heart goes out to Jayasree and their son, Vishnu, and his wife, Neenu.
This issue is the last one of 2020, a year which was unpredictable to say the least. And so, the double-volume anniversary special is a mix of laughs and thoughts. It is the unpredictability that lends punch to humour and tragedy, is it not? At the end of the day, what is a man if he cannot look at himself and grin, even if ruefully. So one volume is a humorous take on the things this year has brought us. From masks to memes to Covid remedies and the like. I am sure you will enjoy it.
The other volume looks at India’s maritime heritage. It is an issue close to my heart as I prefer the open water over mountains, and I also live across the channel from the Southern Naval Command; only the waters of National Waterway No 3 separate us. This volume looks at the greats, right from the Cholas to the famed Kalinga seamen to Kanhoji Angre to the four Marikars and the sea tigers of Mysore. In addition, both issues carry other stories that are tied, in some way or other, to the tumultuous present. I am sure that the twin issue will provide you, dear reader, with some pleasurable year-end reading.
As we bid farewell to 2020, let us forget the bleak and the black and envision a snowy white canvas with a palette of bright colours. Please keep me in your prayers, as I will you. Here is wishing you and yours a merry
Christmas and a blessed new year.
“Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.”