HERBERT LOM [11 Sep, 1917-27 Sep, 2012]

HERBERT LOM PASSES INTO HISTORY AT 95

Herbert Lom was a familiar face on the big screen for more than 60 years, playing a variety of exotic characters, most notably Chief Inspector Dreyfus, long-suffering boss of Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films.

He was born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich  ze Schluderpacheru, in Prague in 1917, of aristocratic parents.
He grew up in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and was educated at the city's university.
Lom began acting on stage and screen in what had by now become Czechoslovakia. He left his homeland for England at the start of World War II where he undertook additional training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
His English language debut came in the 1940 feature, film Mein Kampf - My Crimes, with barely a hint of a Czech accent.
He was offered a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox and began securing leading roles including Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr Pitt (1942) and the same character again in War and Peace in 1956.
In a rare starring role he played twin trapeze artists in Dual Alibi (1946).
By the 1950s Lom was considered a British counterpart to the screen idol Charles Boyer, whom he resembled.
He did not get the same number of starring roles as Boyer, though he developed a growing reputation as a character actor.
He played opposite Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers in Ealing comedy The Ladykillers (1955), and opposite Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon and Rita Hayworth in Fire Down Below (1957).
Exotic features Later he became a familiar face on British TV in the 1960s when he starred as Dr Roger Corder in the series The Human Jungle.
More notable cinema roles came as Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island in 1961, a pirate in Spartacus (1960) and Ben Yusuf in El Cid (1961).
In 1962 he was the Phantom in the Hammer Films production of The Phantom of the Opera.

 

 Lom (second from left) first appeared with Peter Sellers (left) in The Ladykillers

 

Lom's exotic features and manic eyes made him ideally suited for horror movies and saw him play doctors, vampire hunters, witchfinders, murderers and all manner of obsessive characters.
One controversial film - Mark of the Devil, in which he starred - was acclaimed both as a work of genius and denounced for its inclusion of a litany of medieval torture techniques.

"It's my job to give my best," he said.
 "I can't give anything else."

Sick bags were given out to members of the audience during the film's opening run.
When asked about his various roles in low-budget movies, he said he felt it was better to be miscast than not be cast at all.
It was Lom's depiction of various madmen that persuaded director Blake Edwards to give him his most famous role, as Inspector Clouseau's boss Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies.
Although he was not in the 1963 original, he appeared in all the subsequent Pink Panther movies up to Son of the Pink Panther in 1993.
Lom's manic depiction of the man frustrated and literally driven mad by Clouseau's incompetence, resulting in the familiar nervous twitch, became one of the highlights of the Panther movies.
"It was a godsend when I was offered the part", he once said. "But it did become a double-edged sword as people started to associate me with Dreyfus and I lost a number of dramatic parts as a result of it."
In 1983 Lom worked with director David Cronenberg in The Dead Zone opposite Christopher Walken in one of the more successful adaptations of a Stephen King novel.
Lom was married to Dina Schea in 1948 and divorced in 1971. In the meantime he had a long relationship with the celebrated potter, Brigitte Appleby, with whom he had a daughter, Josephine.
As well as acting, Lom wrote two novels Enter A Spy (1971) and Dr Guillotine (1993).
The actor once grumbled at directors who asked him to give it his best. "It's my job to give my best," he said. "I can't give anything else."

INDIAN FREEDOM STRUGGLE HEROES

LALA LAJPAT RAI 

 A LEGEND IN THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT 

 

The function of history is not merely to record but to study the course of events and personalities which shape and determine them. It is the duty of each citizen of India not to be ignorant of the suffering and sacrifice of the fighters of freedom for India. Lala Lajpat Rai was one of those fighters who held aloft the banner of freedom at a great personal risk. Thus in the history of the Indian Freedom Movement the name of Lalaji will be written in the words of gold. Lalaji took the laurels for giving the movement a powerful shape in the whole of the country.

Lala Lajpat Rai was affectionately known as the ‘Lion of the Punjab’ and the ‘Punjab Kesri’. He belonged to a galaxy of illustrious patriots who lived and died for the freedom of India. He was born at village Dhudike in Ferozepur district of the Punjab State on the 28th January, 1865. His was a middle class family. His grandfather Lala Rala Ram was a shopkeeper and his father Lala Radha Krishan was a teacher in a government school. Strange it may look, but many writers have written that in his boyhood his father read to him from Quran and recited Namaz. His father also sometimes fasted during Ramzan. Lalaji did his schooling from the Mission School at Ludhiana and from Ludhiana he went to Lahore for further studies.

He passed his Entrance Examination from the Govt. College, Lahore and qualified for Mukhtarship (Junior Pleader) in 1882. After completing his studies he started his legal practice at Lahore in 1886 and later shifted to Hissar, for practice as a Vakil (Advocate). He got support from Philanthrophists and social workers like Lala Chandu Lal, Lala Lakhpat Rai and Dr. Ramji Lal. At Hissar he was elected as a Member of its Municipal Committee. In fact, he was elected unopposed from a Ward which was predominantly inhabited by the Muslims. He also became successful as an Advocate and because of his popularity as an honest and spirited person he was selected as a delegate from Hissar to attend the Allahabad Session of the Indian National Congress in 1888. His growing interest in political affairs convinced him that Hissar was not the proper place for fulfilling his ambitions and aspirations. Accordingly, he shifted to Lahore in 1894. From 1894 to 1903 he engrossed himself in writing books, articles etc. for preaching social, educational and humanitarian issues. He was never an orthodox Hindu. Rather, he was a nationalist from the core of his heart and a patriot and firm believer in Hindu, Muslim and Sikh unity. He was a man of his convictions. Lalaji had a great attachment for Indian culture and the country from the very childhood. After joining the Congress Party he became so much popular in a very short time that the people called that period as the period of Lal-Bal-Pal namely Lajpat Rai, Bal Ganga Dhar Tilak and Bipan Chandra Pal, all of whom fought against the Britishers. Through the columns of the Tribune (Lahore) and the Punjabi (Lahore) he advocated bold and constructive policies for the Congress and other leaders.

In 1904, at the Bombay Congress Session, he and G.K. Gokhle were selected as congress delegates to visit England for bringing before the British people and political leaders the claims of the people of India. It was a turning point in his political career and also in the history of the nationalist movement. On his return from England, he was a changed man with a firm conviction.

At one stage he was arrested and deported to Mandalay but the British Government seeing his popularity decided to release him just after six months. His brief imprisonment and deportation greatly elevated his stature as a National Hero. However, the events and the developments in the country greatly disturbed him. Divided congress and repression let loose by the Government alarmed him and in his broken state of health he once again went to England in 1908 for a short stay. During this visit he developed friendship with many British politicians including British Members of Parliament like M.R. Hant Davies and Mr. Parker. He also worked for the release of Tilak and many other political leaders while in England. After his return from England in 1910 he, for the first time, condemned the activities of the terrorists declaring them not only against the traditions of India but also a great hindrance in the political progress of the country. In 1914, he was again sent to England by the Congress Party as a Member of the Congress Delegation although the British authorities tried to prevent his departure on the ground that he was involved in the Lahore Conspiracy case and his earlier deportation to Mandalay (in 1907). Having left his country he had to pass a number of years 1914-1919 in exile in England, America and Japan. He attempted to make the Indian issue as an international issue. In Japan, his articles were published in different newspapers. He also delivered lectures in Japanese Universities.

During his stay in America he founded the Indian Home Rule League with its headquarters at New York. A monthly organ of the league entitled “Young India” was started in 1918 under his editorship. He also wrote books depicting a sordid picture of economic exploitation of the country under British Rule. Another Book called “Political Future of India” was written in 1919. His articles in American Newspapers like “The Nations” and “The New Republic” brought to the knowledge of the people of America the glorious past of India and the misrule and exploitation under British Rule. He travelled in America throughout the length and breadth of the country visiting New York, Boston, California, Washington, Atlanta New Orleans, Chicago and San Francisco and made many friends. He created favourable and sympathetic public opinion for American help for India’s freedom. On his return to Bombay he was given a rousing reception by personalities like Bal Gaga Dhar Tilak, Annie Basant, Md. Ali Jinnah and Members of the Bombay Congress Committee. Now he studied the changed situation in India. India of 1920 was radically different from India of 1914 when he had left for abroad. The British Government had adopted a policy of repression and accordingly there was wide spread indignation among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs against the government. The Punjab was seething with violent anti-British sentiments on account of Jallianwala Bagh. Tragedy of April 1919 and the horrors of martial law regime in the state. It was in this tense atmosphere that the special session of the Congress was held in Calcutta on September 4, 1920 and Lala Lajpat Rai was elected by the All India Congress Committee as its President of that extraordinary session. It was attended by over 25,000 delegates and others. Lalaji charged Sir Michael O’Dyer for all the atrocities and brutalities that had been inflicted on the Punjabis. On return to Punjab he toured different places like Rawalpindi, Hoshiarpur, Ambala, Bhiwani, Hissar etc. His forceful speeches at all the places particularly to the student community resulted in strikes in different colleges in the state including DAV College, Forman Christian College, Dayal Singh College and Sanatam Dharam College. In anger, he renounced his flourishing legal practice. He opposed communalism and the communal representation on the basis of separate electorates. He actually fought for joint electorates throughout his life.

In 1927, the British Government appointed an Indian Statutory Commission headed by Sir John Simon to enquire into the question of Indian reforms. However, the Indians were infuriated because there was not a single Indian Member on it. Thus, it was decided by the people to boycott that commission. Lalaji mobilized public opinion in favour of the boycott. For this purpose he went from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari and addressed the people at many places. The Commission was to arrive at Lahore on October 30, 1928 and Lalaji was leading a mass but peaceful procession against it in front of the Lahore Railway Station. The police attacked the peaceful procession, the attack was unprovoked. Lalaji was severely struck with batons. He was grievously injured. Inspite of his being wounded he carried on his work. On November 4, 1928 he went to Delhi to attend a Seminar of the All Parties and spoke there for sometime. However, he had to come back to Lahore before the seminar concluded due to physical strain. At Lahore, his physician examined him. The pains in the right chest and back became severe. He was in a state of constant exhaustion. Early next morning (17.11.1928) all in the family were stunned when the doctor said that Lalaji was lying in the peaceful sleep of death. The news spread like wild fire. His funeral took place in the afternoon and his last rites were performed on the banks of River Ravi. The mourning people were afire with indignation accusing the Simon Commission’s visit as the cause of his death. The speech of Lala Hansraj in the Central Assembly on the incident of attack on Lala Lajpat Rai speaks volumes that the attack was not only unjustified but also unwarranted, willful, deliberate and pre-planned. I could see both the people and the police he told. We were there for quite sometime when Mr. Scott came through the opening and without any warning gave Lalaji some hard blows with his stick. I was standing next to Lalaji. I extended my left hand to ward off the blows aimed at Lalaji and my hand began to bleed. At this juncture, Dr. Gopi Chand Bhargava, while protecting Lalaji, also received blows. I am positive that if all the blows had fallen on Lalaji, he would have died on the spot. Another important factor was that an unknown person was holding an umbrella over Lalaji that was the only umbrella seen in the entire procession. Some people were saying that the umbrella was held by an intelligence official to make Lalaji conspicuous for attack.

With the death of Lalaji there was revival of terrorism in Punjab. On December 17, 1928, S. Bhagat Singh shot dead Saundres, Asstt. Superintendent of Police, Lahore in broad day light, to avenge the death of Lalaji.

Lalaji was a versatile writer and wrote some short biographies and other books like “Young India”, “The Political Future of India”, “England’s Debt to India”, “Evolution of Japan”, “India, will to Freedom”, “Problem of National Education in India and America”, “Unhappy India” etc. His work in the social reforms and education was also very impressive. He contributed to the growth of different educational institutions like DAV College at Lahore, National College and the Tilak School of Politics. He also founded the Dwarka Dass Library at his residence at Lahore contributing his several hundred volumes. He also worked for destitute children. He founded and built up the Servants of the People Society to enable the patriotic people to devote their time for national service. That society was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi on November 9, 1921. The basic aim of that society was to enlist and train national missionaries for the service of the motherland in educational, cultural, social and economic fields. In short, the life of Lala Lajpat Rai was a rare example of selfless and dedicated service and sacrifice.
Courtesy--Shri Balbir Singh Ahluwalia, Retired Deputy Secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh
  From his book As Much As I Know

SCIENTISTS

Emmett Leith:- 

 Pioneer of Modern Holography

As early as 1956, Emmett Leith of the University of Michigan reinvented holography as a spin-off of his research on side-reading radar. Only in the early 1960s, after the invention of the laser, the first off-axis laser transmission holograms were recorded by Leith and his colleague Juris Upatnieks. These novel holograms of diffusely reflecting objects produced stunning three-dimensional and full-parallax reconstructions of the original object. The impact of this invention on the careers of many can hardly be overrated.

SCIENTISTS

Gabriel Lippmann : 

Pioneer in photography 

Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921) developed a method of capturing coloured images in black-and-white photographic emulsions. His stunning invention, now called Lippmann colour photography, was based on the phenomenon of light interference in thin films. In hindsight, it is straightout unbelievable that this advanced photographic process was developed as early as 1891, after years of patient experiments.
His invention gained Lippmann the Nobel prize for Physics in 1908.
Lippmann's invention was the precursor of Yuri Denisyuk's volume reflection holography. See chapter 7 of Optical Document Security, 3rd edition.

Download: Lippmann.pps

PUNJABI FOLK SINGERS-1

ALAM LOHAR

Allam Lohar was born in the small village of Aach Goach outside Gujrat, Punjab, into a family of blacksmiths. He was gifted with a melodious voice and began singing as a child. Strongly attracted to music, he took little interest in his studies and dropped out of school to pursue a singing career, much to the dismay of his father, until Malik Shah, his spiritual guide, intervened on his behalf. Once he achieved the freedom to sing, Alam Lohar developed a new style of singing the Punjabi warm, an epic or folk tale. He is famous for his rendition of Waris Shah’s Heer, which he has memorized in 36 styles and forms. He recorded his first album at the age of 13 and has outsold all other singers in Pakistan, with 5,000 albums to his credit.

Allam Lohar organized a full-fledged theatre with a complete orchestra. His troupe toured all of Punjab for religious and seasonal festivals. He also travelled several times to the United Kingdom at his own expense to perform for Pakistanis living overseas, who were delighted by his colourful clothes and thrilling voice, traditional chimta in hand.

SIKH BUSINESSMEN-1

Dr. Kartar Singh Lalvani

Dr. Kartar Singh Lalvani
A Better Pill to Swallow by Jamie Oliver

After years of slow and steady growth, Dr Kartar Lalvani has turned Vitabiotics into a market leader. He tells us how...

When Dr Kartar Lalvani founded Vitabiotics in London in 1971, it was the UK’s only specialist vitamin supplement company. Today, the company produces a range of well-known brands, including Wellwoman and Omega-H3, which treat everything from mouth ulcers to menopause. The global Vitabiotics Group turns over about US$371m a year and is driven by Lalvani and his son, Tej. But it wasn’t always plain sailing for the enthusiastic and modest Sikh businessman. Indeed, the company’s roots were in adversity.

Early life

Lalvani was born in Karachi in 1931. His father was a successful pharmacist and the family lived comfortably. But in 1947, the partition of India forced them to flee to Bombay, where they had to start their lives over from nothing. Lalvani recalls it as a devastating period in his life. Aged just 16, he had to leave his secure, contented life and move to an unknown city more than 500 miles away.

In retrospect, he says that this period of turmoil was the making of him. “Without partition, perhaps my brothers and I would not have been so entrepreneurial,” he says. “But because we witnessed my father losing everything, it made us determined that such a thing would not happen to us.” This fear of failure is what drove him on in the early days and it still does, despite Vitabiotics’ current success and his own personal wealth.
Moves to London in 1956

In the end, Lalvani followed in his father’s footsteps and studied pharmaceutical science in London, Germany and India. But it took more than a good knowledge of the subject to succeed in the pharmaceutical sector. It was the way he applied himself to his studies, to research and then to setting up and growing the business that really made the difference.

Lalvani arrived in London in April 1956 at the end of one of the coldest winters on record. He threw himself into his studies and completed a postgraduate degree in pharmacy at King’s College London. Then came a doctorate in medical chemistry at Bonn University in West Germany.
Business came due to personal issue

No pain, no gain But it was a personal issue that led Lalvani into business. At that time, he suffered from mouth ulcers and had failed to find a treatment on the market that worked for him. They might alleviate the immediate pain, but they didn’t cure the problem.

So, using a combination of vitamin C and powder taken from a diarrhea tablet, Lalvani managed to treat his condition successfully. The product, called Oralcer, would be the first in his new business’s pipeline. By then, it was 1971 — and it was also where the hard work started.
Hard times at the beginning

There were not many young Sikh entrepreneurs in London in the 1970s, and Lalvani found it difficult to get his ulcer treatment on the shelves of the larger high-street chemists, such as Boots. He then approached the UK’s larger pharmaceutical companies, hoping to license his formula, but they too chose not to work with him.

So convinced was he that his product worked that he set up his own company, Vitabiotics. Having spent all his savings on patenting the product, however, there wasn’t enough money to launch it with much fanfare. So he began to visit individual pharmacies personally. While this approach also proved fruitless — he only managed to sell £5 worth of Oralcer — Lalvani learned a valuable lesson about getting knocked back and having answers for any questions or concerns that were thrown at him.

Perhaps just as important as Lalvani’s persistence and determination was the degree to which he was prepared to make sacrifices. He worked harder and offered a better level of service than anyone else — and learned to live on a meager budget. “I was always overworked,” he says, “but happily overworked. I’d work 17 hours a day but be happy doing it.”

This was just as well as, in addition to trying to get Oralcer to market, Lalvani was working on his next product, a multivitamin called Omega H-3. He had also taken on his first employee and was taking his first steps into marketing and PR activity. It was with Omega H-3 that Lalvani got his first big break — but it didn’t come through UK sales.

Family fortunes

With Vitabiotics turning over hundreds of million dollars a year and Kartar Lalvani himself said to be worth £100m, you might think that would be enough success for one family. But business obviously runs in its blood. Lalvani's brothers, Gulu and Partap, founded Binatone, which imports and distributes consumer electronics. In the 1980s, they opened offices in Spain, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria and Taiwan. In 1989 the company was divided, with Gulu (now Chairman of Binatone Electronics International) retaining the European and Hong Kong businesses and Partap (now Chairman of Binatone Industries) retaining the group's businesses in Eastern Europe, Africa and South Asia. Their sister, Bina, after whom Binatone was named, is a successful fashion designer in India. Kartar's daughter is studying for a law degree and his niece, Divia Lalvani, co-owns the successful London restaurant Zuma. Kartar's other son, Ajit, is a professor at Imperial College, London, and a leading tuberculosis specialist. In October, the Royal College of Physicians honored his research into the development of new tools for treatment and control of TB with the prestigious Weber- Parkes Trust Medal. He has developed a new test that is, according to the judges, "the first significant advance on the century-old tuberculin skin-prick test and is significantly faster and more accurate".

Lalvani’s brothers, Gulu and Partap (see box), were also forging entrepreneurial careers. Partap was working in Nigeria, so Lalvani tried Omega H-3 there and it was a success. It was the impetus Vitabiotics needed.
No support from the Banks

But just when the time seemed right to expand, Lalvani hit a stumbling block common to all entrepreneurs: access to finance. Developing pharmaceutical products and setting up a new business isn’t cheap, but the banks wouldn’t lend to him. In fact, despite having had an account with the same bank since 1957, it wouldn’t give him a loan. While this frustrated the rate at which Vitabiotics could grow, Lalvani says the experience forced him to focus, concentrate on value for money and approach expansion and investment with caution.

Today, Vitabiotics exports to more than 100 countries and has 20 UK brands, eight of which are number one in their markets. It employs 2,200 people and has factories and offices in six countries Lalvani may have struggled to find funding at first, but turnover is now about US$371m a year, with UK sales making up about 25% of that total.

These days, Lalvani works in partnership with his son Tej. The pair, along with Vitabiotics’ Vice President and Marketing Director Robert Taylor, plan the future growth strategy of the company.

While Tej accepts that it is very much his father’s company, both father and son see the relationship as positive and say they have no difficulties separating business and family life. And both hasten to add that it wasn’t a case of Tej being given a senior position at Vitabiotics just because his father was the founder.

“I started out driving forklift trucks in a warehouse,” says Tej. “But I wanted to do it that way — it is important to understand how all the different parts of the business operate and to see how important each part is.”

Without borders

As Lalvani prefers to be based in the UK, it’s down to Tej to lead the global business development of Vitabiotics. It’s a busy period in the firm’s history: it is building a new factory in Egypt, acquiring a manufacturing plant in Indonesia and looking to significantly expand its US presence. “We look at the demographics of a country, the economic fundamentals, and generally start in a new territory by working with a distributor and going from there,” says Tej. “If sales are strong.