Titanic Nostalgia

April 15, 2012 marks 100 years of sinking the world’s famous ship.

The world is gearing up to observe the day with:

1.       memorial cruises

2.       special merchandise

3.       books

4.       meals and music.

Of course all this helps to fuel a globally profitable business.

Delhi has also geared up to pay homage to the crew and passengers  as follows

serving the last 10 course meal that was on the Titanic First Class menu.,at Out of the Box restaurant in Khan Market .

or by paying tribute to luxury that was Titan’s integral part. The interiors of Café Cruise in Rajouri Garden have been made to resemble that of the luxury liner. The waiters stewards will be dressed according to the times.

Pirates of Grill another eatery will pay homage to the selfless members of the Band who chose to play amidst the chaos to calm and soothe the nerves of the terrified hapless humans .They will have a live Band play numbers of the 1900’s played aboard the Ship.  And so on…(I on my part find the very  thought of eating in the back drop of  a Titanic’s menu or Band or interior turns my tummy !The scary images of the helpless hopeless, terrified masses in the movie is vividly etched in my mind   )

It is indeed a story that refuses to sink .The mystery, fascination of the great tragedy hasn’t waned.

James Cameron has resurrected the movie Titanic in 3D.

Canada Post unveiled stamps last month to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

A Titanic  Cruise with the same number of passengers abroad is setting sail to retrace the ship’s voyage including a visit to the location where it sank .The organisers of M.S. Balmoral Titanic Memorial cruise  are trying to recreate the onboard experience (minus the disaster),from the food to a band playing music from that era .

A former U.S. Navy officer Bob Ballard also a professor of oceanography discovered the remains of the iconic ship in 1985.He as a part of tie-up is presenting a documentary called”Save  the Titanic “on the 100th anniversary of it’s disaster. He refers to it as “irony  personified in history” He explains the phrase …’you have this revolutionary ship that is unsinkable carrying a cross section of people  in society .And then it goes and hits an ice berg and sinks on its maiden journey that’s why it is irony personified in history .

Talking about his discovery which came after considerable research he says it was a sombre moment when he and his team first spotted the boiler of the Titanic .Ballard feels that the Titanic is a common heritage of all of us .Steps should be taken to preserve human history in the ocean.

Even while I was writing this from the dailies Hindustan Times ,Times of India …the Discovery channel saw two great documentaries Titan –the Aftermath ,and Titanic-the inside story .