Friday, March 5, 2010

Tamara Drew-refreshing



This is going to be a short blog.
Tamara Drew, by Possy Simonds as any other books i read these days, was a chance encounter at British Library.
This is a graphic novel, and a modern day version of Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, with Tamara Drew, remodelled version of Bathsheba Everdene.
The story ahs funny twists and loved reading it.
Tamara Drew has long appeared as comic strips in Guardian.
This is a full version book.
Read it, if you can.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Menopausal Palestine


Menopausal Palestine
written by Suad Amiry
Reading Menopausal Palestine was a real delight.
Menopausal Palestine is a collection of short coming-of-age narratives from real life — of 10 women, all involved in one way or other with the Palestine liberation movement in its secular, non-Hamas phase from the 1960s to the 1990s, not all of them Palestinian by birth, but all Palestinian by choice, and all close friends of Suad Amiry, the collector and narrator of their stories.

In addition, these women are now all either menopausal or on the brink of that new state, or non-state. They have a supper club called CRIME (Committee of Ramallah Independent Menopausal Enterprise), and celebrate their freedom from youth raucously over a meal at a nice restaurant (with sleek bodyguards outside). The meal is the closing scene, a way for Amiry to show us these tremendous yet quite ordinary women as they are in the present time. In the last dinner three new members, young and pre-menopausal also join. Together they discuss Hammas vs. Fatah, also the pros and cons of botox, age-defying techniques and through all this, futile attempts to deny menopause, which here is a metaphoric term for the Palestine, slowly getting engulfed by the right-winged Hammas, while these PLO members observe the change.

Each of the stories, although told in an extremely light hearted manner, depicts of the social and political of this disputed geographical entity viz. Palestine. And interspersing political history with stories, in an extremely delectable manner, makes the read so challenging. Jamileh's discovery of Palestine, on June 5th, 1967, through her father's cries and sorrows, Reem's slow engulfment by the PLO, Rana's fantasies with Marlon Brando, during her 90 minutes view of last Tango in Paris,or Fadia's personal loss in Jordan's 9/11, Ola's love for Nasser which led her to love Palestine, Ann marking her world map with liberation green pins celebrating victory for the countries coming out of colonial rule, and red ones for still under the rule- her jubilant green marks on Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Chile and her long wait for the past 25 years to remove the red ones from Palestine, all tell poignant tales of these women, "for whom Palestine--or its absence-was the centrifugal force around which their lives revolved".

My recommendation... A MUST READ

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Atlas of Unknowns-Disappointing!!!!



Atlas of Unknowns
Written by Tania James

AFter all the raving reviews and Span coverage, Tania James' debut novel was a big let down. Of course this is my personal feeling. After all the troubles that i undertook to get hold of the book, scouting the book-shops, unable to find it in the Delhi World book fair, and finally ordering it online and waiting for it anxiously, almost like your birthday present, i was utterly disappointed with the novel.

The start was brilliant and certain things like the father's feeling of omen through the stomach cramps, the God-fearing Keralite (Syrian Christian) grandmother and the much vocal silence crackling in the "chemical dynamics" between the two sisters.

However slowly the plot takes shape of a much cliched one.
The cliches and stereotypes could have been avoided. I mean, Abraham Chandy, kicking up his mund to tie it around his waist is no longer a humorous recourse (thanks to all the Lola kutty shows).
Also the major problem which i found was that the characters were left almost half-done. Fischer at Anju's school arrives and by the time you think him to be an important character, he just vanishes. Mrs. Solanki's son, seems to be a mono-maniac with his camera and film-shooting spree.. i mean Rohit's character was intended to represent what??
And of course, the mystery, which is hinted throughout the book as almost an unspeakable, hushed up tragedy, at the end just turns out to be a mole out of a mountain.
The motive behind the action, tragedy, desperation of each character is so half-done.There was really no need to bring out the immigrant issue as the "carrot to dangle". Too many things got mixed up. AT one point the story seemed to be the journey to two sisters towards self-emancipation amidst their humble and prejudiced backgrounds. But no the dream of AMerica, which is almost something they receive in lineage from their deceased mother comes up. 9/11 is hinted for God knows what. The only character who grows and matures is Melvin, the father. In fact at least we get to know his sorrows, his longings and his failures.
Malayala Manorama, becomes more than just a cultural symbol, playing the biggest role in the book.
Even the clash of cultures are dealt in such a hashed up way. I mean, a co-passenger's suggestion of using a deodourant, and waxing bikini lines... are they reminders of a different culture.. in 2001 ....i seriously doubt.
The irritating parts come, when Gwen (why this character was created, i have no clue and may be one of those innumerable half-done sketchy beings in the novel)almost tries to find everything exotic and bespeaking of an ancient culture in Bird's lifestyle-keeping a mug and bucket in the toilet and subletting too many people.

And the main theme of the story,that of betrayal, due to the impending desire of one somehow loses its focus after the first 100 pages.

Atlas of Unknowns is set in the political landscape of post-9/11 immigration policy. And yet we hardly get a feel of this charged environment. There are too many distracting meanders and detours by family mystery (which as mentioned before turns out to be completely insignificant and could have been spared).

The failure of the novel seems to be the author's attempt to magnify the trivialties of moments and experiences, she seems to cherish. Well, she might have lived and witnessed all those moments and hence she got too pre-occupied in creating them earnestly. This is something that many novelists undoubtedly do; here, but in this book it is just too weary and too transparent, it seems obvious that it’s really the author walking through the streets of Kerala observing, not the characters. hence in the effort of creating beautiful images,which she holds close to her heart, the story becomes little too florid at the expense of plot and character development. And the book becomes voluminous with a sluggish pace.

My Recommendation... not to attempt reading it at all.. completely avoidable.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Misadventures in the Middle East-the journey to find art....



Misadventures in the Middle East
by Henry Hemming
I cannot help by write about this book.
One of the most wonderful travelogues I have read in recent times after Alice Albinia's Empires of the Indus.
Soulful, and that's all I can say about this illustrious journey of these two artists in a truck called Yasmine, throughout middle east.
What makes their journey more significant is the timing-post 9/11 and with the Iraq invasion led by U.S lurking at the background.
Through this book, the image of "middle-east" in "totality looked upon as the Islamic heartland" is challenged. In fact it hints at the impossibility of Islam being one strong monolithic rock. Hence in post Ataturk Turkey, the all-mighty army officer is sure to observe fast during Ramadan (though he need not at all), however ready to fight if duty calls. In the army officer's conviction that Turkey is not a Muslim country, lies the pride of turkey being modern and not a God fearing, Islamic republic like Iran. However saying so, at the first lulls of music strains played through the saz, by another army guy, be silently breathes out saying Hamdulillah (meaning parise be to God), making sure no one hears him. And through listing such sequences, the book scores. Such contradictions, juxtaposed against one another suddenly challenge your stereotypical notions.
(How many times, i swear by God, though i am almost a self-acclaimed non-believer..).
The interesting elements of the book comes from may be Henry's resolution not to be Dalrymple (the other travel writer/historian, i love reading so much). And by choosing to select a different route than Dalrymple, he does the smartest thing, eliminating the possibility of comparison and amputing the urge in the reader to connect to any "modern day cultural facet" to its historical artifice. Undoubtedly, Dalrymple has mastered this art and is evident from his In Zanadu to City of Djinns. But again its so Dalrymple, and with two young 22 year old artist guys, travelling through middle east in the wake of 9/11, you expect much more.And Henry hemming does not disappoint you.
Through him you suddenly understand that identities are no longer associated with your nationality or geography. Rather identities are interpreted through symbols, the latter believed to be stronger than your passports or official nationality documents. Hence at the Czech-Slovak border, Henry and Al were refused entry to Turkey. Henry's beard, one leaflet reading "what is Islam?", a penguin translation of Quran, all become symbols for the border security to stamp them as Islamic extremists and refuse them entry.---and so they cannot cross borders because "how they look like"
They dress down their Yasmine and manage to get into Istanbul. Istanbul chapters literally manage to give you a virtual experience of the Sufi trance at the tekke. And its is at Istanbul, through a young Turkish journalist, Henry hears about some art renaissance happening at Iraq, Baghdad (only to discover the truth at the end of his journey, at the war-ravaged Baghdad).
Iran (and this was also the chapter, i was looking most keenly to, due to my recent association with Iran through the movies and books..so many of them really) was a different and their most cherished experience. Once again i found the "Persepolis" re-lived through the secret garden parties and discs. However the most interesting part in Iran was the protest by the students of the Esfahan Art university. And both Henry and I get to know about the style of the silent protest (each protester coloring then with one single color, come white, some red, some blue etc.) has a legacy in Iran's age old Taziyeh, a drama which enacts the incidents leading up to the martyrdom of Imam Hussain. There each actor, represents each character bthrough a single color, like Imam Hussain green, the butcher red and Taziyeh is also one Iranian way to silently portray the theme of repression,injustice, hope and tragic martyrdom. In fact reverting to color seems to be one way of Iran's silent snub against the repressive regime.(Hence, Henry hints at girls wearing headscarves , with smart puffs of hair visible and colored with tinges of red, copper or brown.
His way to Kurdistan and small anecdotes on the peshmeghras, the Kurdish fighters and their courage will make you understand Ghobadi's movies better. In fact that is what it did to me.I can now understand better the incessant attempts of Ghobadi to portray his Kurdish people as men of undaunted courage and spirit to fight the years of injustice and wrath of genocide attempted on them.
From Iran they move to Dubai and to Saudi, where they are forced to conceal their British identity and dress themselves in salwars and even an abaya tailored for Yasmine.
At Amman, the second Gulf war is underway and Henry's take on Alqaeeda is remarkable. How this media channel built with the left-over remnants of the withdrawing BBC, in middle east becomes almost like a "brother" to every man and a fore-teller of truth. Al-Jazeera manages to do which no other news channel could have done in the middle east, through their belief in unifying the Muslims through its propaganda by "portraying culturally united "Islamic world" that was under attack because of its Islamicness"..(page189) and "making every Muslim feel some of the cumulative grief from conflicts as geographically disparate as Indonesia's remote Molucca Islands, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine,Kashmir, Kosovo or even Sudan." (page 189).
The tours and contours of their travel amidst their desperate attempts of making art and earning money through exhibitions are extremely enjoyable.
The in-between intersperses where Yasmine almost escapes being destroyed, for being marked with Islamic "mashallah" and parked in front of American burger king, the exclamation "hals/yani" by receptioniste, finding Saddam's defeat in the hand of U.S, throwing away all their hopes of crushing U.S imperialism, Kinan, the young Arab Christain at Damascus, (who dislikes Muslims being allowed in Britain, and considers Muslims being backward and at the same hand having Muslim friends.), reveals he feigned his disgust at Muslims being backward, to prove that being an Arab, he is not a Muslim (something that he is often mistaken to be) and the only Muslim he dislikes are the religious ones since "everytime you start to tell a story, they go off to pray", Saba the young girl who calls her headscarf as "him"... and many more such interstitial anecdotes move you thoroughly.

And finally when Henry arrives in Baghdad, too keen to discover the truth behind the Renaissance starting from 1990 (as given a cue once at Turkey)is where the travelogue enters its most interesting interlude. Baghdad with the be-headed, unarmed Saddam statues, the ransacked palaces and with Esam Pasha and Jafar, become the leitmotif of a saga, too intense to be captured.

The book is moving.
So are the images which you can catch in the below mentioned url:-
http://www.henryhemming.co.uk/pages/images.htm

But do read the book (not for understanding Islam, or to unfold journey in the islamic heartlands, rather to get moved by the tales of humanity, across different nations and geographies)...

Amen

Messages...the joy of decoding


Messages by Lynn Rees and Sara Salway

Messages is a very different read and the first of its kind that I have read. Well most of the books i read these days are through chance encounters. Strutted away of the new arrival display section of the British Council Library, this book, through its cover almost like the Archies Gift Wrapping paper diverted my attention. I picked it up and was immediately hooked on to it. The plan is unique. Three hundred e-mail messages, each of 300 words were exchanged. And these messages make up the book. The topics range from Love, death, chocolate, sex, life, anything.
When i started reading the book, the sheer brilliance of the project got deciphered. Each of these e-mails can (and i am sure is) be taken as separate, distinguished, disjointed and non-connected pieces of information or write-ups. But linking them one after the other, where the linking point sometimes was the theme, sometimes mere word, characters spiced up the game. Where one e-mail ends with the mention of spoons and forks-kitchen cutlery, in the following messages, these two objects are taken up again, now to become symbols for a couple's decaying relationship.
And you slowly realize the sheer ingenuity of the authors. In fact, as you are reading the book, you take up this project of linking the themes, stitching them together and embark on this journey of weaving a plot working through this meshwork of apparently disjointed messages. This challenge of decoding dissimilarity and encoding them to a narrative form-something we are so familiar with, is what we attempt to do. The of conditioning of reading dished out, plot narratives, almost shook me off when is started reading Messages. I just could not take each message and each page as and how it appears-singular, alone yet ringing in a theme of familiarity. The familiarity with its preceding one, immediately prompts you to link the two and embark on this journey of making sense in totality, in the congruence of all , where surprisingly, there was no congruence to be arrived at by its conscious design.
It was a wonderful experience to read Messages-a unique one though.
My suggestion, when you take up reading Messages.. just sit with a mug of coffee and smoothly read through the pages, not in sequence, but just like sifting through----that will create the fun, since soon you will feel the urge of reading in sequence, the challenge to connect them, the anguish to find discord when you have mentally framed few of the messages into a sequential narrative, sudden take off by one message, the crescendos and the diminuendos of your enthusiasm as you are at times successful in cracking it and at most times when you fail, due to some, naughty, arrogant message, who dares to interfere in your way of forming a story... all these and much more...

Read it to enjoy..

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Betsey Brown- ">--"Speak up Ike an''spress yo'se'f"



Betsey Brown
Written by Ntozake Shange

Betsey Brown described in most reviews and the few blogs that I have come across as a "coming of age" story of a 13 year old teenage African-American girl, growing up in 1957 St. Louise. And this description, almost a ploy to simplify the abject complexity of the novel, reducing it merely to a high-school favorite, is where i subject my angusih and objection to. It seems the year 1957, Southern St. Louise and African-American all are just dusted off with the opening sentence.
Indeed Betsey Brown is a coming of age story, but also much more than that. The year in 1957 and Betsey happens to be the first batch of African-American (colored) kids to study with the whites in public school under legislative "integration." And thus the story no longer remains a mere coming of age saga of a pre-pubescent adolescence.

Before i go into details, i must say that Ntozake Shange is new to me. I had read Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. In fact it was the section of fictionon race and gender, pertaining to America's civil rights movement, where i was browsing in the American Library that i came across this book with a colorful cover. I thought, lets give it a try. I googled a bit about Ntozake and found that Ntozake is her pen name. Born as Paulette Williams she has taken this Zulu name, Ntozake menaing one who comes on her own and Shange meaning she who walks like a lion. I instantly get attracted and start with the book. And it was unputdownable.

Betsey Brown, as already mentioned in a 13 year old girl in a middle-class blqck family. The brown family although black i different from the rest. Betsey's father Greer is a doctor and mother Jane a social worker, working for the colored.The eldest of the four children Betsey is a gifted child, thoughful and at a very critical stage of her life. The adoloscent Betsey seems to be caught in her desires of emancipation,curbing an identity of her own in hoplessly adult world. Greer,Betsey's father is a progressive black, who whole heartedly beleives in the Civil Rights movement, tries to instill a spirit of self pride inspite of being black, amidst his children. The Brown family's prosperous middle class status is mostly due to Greer's position as a doctor in the seggregated hospital. Greer has reformative ideas about racial progress,insiting on the importance of social protests. His standpoint on African-ness is reinforced every morning through singing and dancing and quizes on AFrica to the beats of the congo drum.

Betsey is one of the lucky few to be born in a middle-class well-off family with liberal ideas. Her mother taught her, to get rid of stereotypoes and that all whites are not bad, just like there are evil ones amidst blacks as well. Yet it is difficult to decide for a 13 year old. She is aware of the Mongomerry Boycotts (Rosa Parks'-bus boycott at Mongomerry) and yet loves to play with her white neighbour Charlotte-Anne knowing fully about Charlotte's mopther's hatred towards the colored ones. This ambivalence is what makes Betsey Brown so special. Betsey's middle class affluence does not allow her to get eroded in the hatred, the working class blacks feel towards the whites. Hence most of the times, Betsey, does not approve of Veejay's denial of Charlotte Anne and her likes. Betsey's first confrontation with Veejay makes her conscious and guilty of her class. The innocent prank Betsey plays on Bernice (making her lose her job as a nanny for the children), is instantly condemned by Veejay, who sympathises for Bernice, since her mother faces the same pranks of the white kids toiling as an "ayah".

Betsey Brown re-inforces that race is not a monolithic stratum, bringing the same fate to all inhabiting it. Some simply face the wrath of discrimination more, since "class" plays a bigger role. Hence Betsey's cousin Charlie, in spite of fooling around with his bike in the white girls' convent, is left unscathed by the police, who found the Brown Family different and took them to be foreigners (simply because, they did not fit into their stereotype concepts of working class, drug smacking impoverished blacks, who are doomed to die). The class dilemma and hypocrisy of middle class (so what that they are blacks)is brought into the novel a number of times. Through Regina and her dismissal it becomes clear. Regina, from an impoverished black family, working as a housekeeper is too unsophisticated to bury down her sexuality. Much to the pleasure of the adolescent Betsey and her cousin Charlie, Regina carries on her boisterous affair with Roscoe, much to the chagrin of Vida, Betsey's grand mother. She finds Regina to be a bad influence for the children.

Vida, is one of those already conditioned in terrains of racism. She finds Greer and his "african-ism" too loud and uncultured. Also, she hardly finds any valid reason for her daughter to marry the dark Greer. In fact she is happy that the children did not take on Greer's dark color. This simply shows though indirectly "the passing for white" desire deep down in the minds of the colored. Hence Vida feels that her late husband Frank was much different, sober and unlike the order of the colored men, she would come across in her daughter's life. Years of represion can only find way for such mental subjugation. In fact, amidst seggregation, Vida finds comfort and honor. She feels pride in being better off amidst these illeterate, dark skinned working class. She feels "it best to be best amongst the colored ones". And this is what interested me most in the novel.
It seems, Betsey is aware of this dilemma, this invisible seggregation that her grandmother and even to some extent her mother spreads around through their denial of vulgur and loud "niggah ,music", illiterate, unsophisticated black country folks ans so on.
Greer on the other hand is stoic and clear in his support. He fully beleives in "black is beautiful" and hence convinces his wife to allow the children to study in integrated schools. And this in turn creates a greater burden on Betsey.

If Vida through discarding Greer's ideas, turning away Regina alienates Betsey, If Jane through the dislike of loud Negro music perplexes Betsey, then Greer's idea of putting them into integrated schools, because he feels " they are paving the way for those yet to come,... Thousands of lives depend on our children having the courage to go somewhere they have never been accepted or wanted..." enrages her. She feels lonely in the school, amidst the white crowd. And Betsey feels the impending sorrow and burden, the anguish for having to "take up for the whole damn race," and "to do the battle with the white man".

Betsey vents out her anger through drawing hop-scotch designs on the pavements stating "no whites", "colored only". However the hypocrisy of her "middle class" neighbourhood condemned this entire activity proclaiming such acts in the era of reconciliation and de-seggretaion to be vicious. Betsey was outraged. She understood that none of the blacks actually beleived in this de-seggregation and such practices to be restoring their human rights. Yet no one owned to have any hostile feelings against the whites. Betsey pretended to volunteer to wipe out such traces of "such ill-meaning prejudices"(something she was proud of earlier), hiding her bruised ego.

The 13 year old Betsey is now completely out of place. She is eager to curb out her own identity, to do something, to be an Ikette for Tina Turner, marry a negro, later marry her crusg Eugene Boyd, become famous by dancing at the tables in the restaurants meant only for the white, or merely wiping off hair at mrs. Maureen the hairdresser. Whatever it is, she would have a place of her own and would be satisfied. And Betsey flees to Mrs. Maureen. This of course has been triggered by her desire to escape from both her familial and social boundaries. This venture of hers turns out to be a misadventure, and Betsey comes back home, though a bit wiser and feeling "regal" to have "reigned" the St. Loiuse streets on her own.

Amidst all these confusion, it seems Betsey finds her solace and her wisdom for one the most unassuming sources-the black, illiterate, unsophisticated house-keeper Carrie. Carrie in the novel is almost a strong audible voice agaimst the white code of adoption of manners, speaking a different "earthy" language, something completely disapproved of by Vida and Jane.
It is through Carrie that Betsey finally is capable of self-assertion.Carrie the black illiterate prompts Betsey to use the power of literacy in order to demonstrate the danger of adopting a white literary canon. In school, Betsey refuses to accept Paul Lawrence Dunbar as merely "an American." Undoubtedly Dunbar is an American, but hushing up his colored identity seemed to Betsey, denying the fact that colored are capable of writing poetry or books. This had upset her too much to come crying home from school. Carrie instilled in her the courage to fight back, to stand back for herself, using the very word meant to diminish her. years ago, Carrie dropped out of school, hitting a classmate for humiliating her. In the same way, in which Carrie physically fought another woman, so that Betsey can "mentally figt" the white teacher who is ignorant enough to know about the legacy of the blacks. Betsey's weapon will be "words".

And it is through this, Betsey finds the culmination of her favorite Dunbar rendition--"Speak up Ike an''spress yo'se'f"

That is exactly what Shange and her likes always meant- the soul of the civil rights movement-through bold self expresspression, standing up for one's own right.

I enjoyed Shange.. and have vowed to read For colored girls.. and liliane (her other works..

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Kabul Disco-truly enjoyable




Kabul Disco
by Nicholas Wild

Recently read Kabul Disco by Nicholas Wild. Kabul Disco is a truly enjoyable graphic novel. It is written in a diary style describing the experiences of a French illustrator in Kabul. Nicholas goes to Kabul for an assignment to work with Zendagui media, the company he joins. His assignment was to design and illustrate educational books for the Afghan children to recah them about constitutional rights. 85% Afghans are illeterate and hence Zendagui media, funded by U.N and U.S has come up with an ingenious idea of making the books in form of illustrative comics, where the knowledge imparted would be through graphics.
Very recently in my other blog (www.musingsofacine-buff.blogspot.com), i had mentioned about Iranian movies on Afghanistan. Two of the most remarkable ones were Kandahar(showing Afghanistan during Taliban reign) and At five in the afternoon (by Samira Makhmalbaf, post Taliban, war-torn Afghanistan). The latter one comes to your mind while reading this book. The ransacked buildings, children begging or employed under the most harsh conditions and completely robbed off their innocence while foreigners plan for their future. Of course, Kabul Disco is written in a much light-hearted manner and is completely deprived of the pathos of a war-worn nation. However, Nicholas in his sardonic tone manages to bring Afghanistan and its dilemma alive. In fact there is hardly any pretence when Nicholas' colleague, the conscientious Tristan refuses to visit the French restaurant (La joie de Vivre) or expresses discontent at the lifestyles of the bourgeois French expats staying in Kabul and enjoying their lives with theme parties and discos, while, the Afghans tormented by inflation, poverty, wars, disenfranchised Taliban wrath are struggling to survive. His reflections on U.S )"Its a game they like to play...cretaing new enemies and spending money and efforts in destroying them")just shows how well he understands the politics being played with the Afghan geography. At one point he refuses to be a part of the war-propaganda being designed-recruting Afghan boys for ANA, but finally acquiesces to. And it is this honesty that makes this graphic novel so enjoyable. We can relate to Nocholas easily. He like us is aware of the bourgeoise exploitation and snobbery, by creating their own circuit where the Afghans are either servants or guards, or mere rub-offs as working class and yet earning their living working in "Reconstructing Afghanistan"(while being completely insensitive to the nation's culture). However he himself prefers Joie de Vivre to a hot and spicy Kabul diner and feels funny to ever have tried to wear a "pakol."
Thus through simple, enjoyable black and white illustrations, we almost get a taste of "realpolitiks".
The most enjoyable part was his "quixotic representation" of Afghan Elections. The sheer absurdity of it where a war monger, an ex-taliban as well as a woman all contest with symbols just randomly selected for them while the media agency struggles hard preparing them for "democracy" will just knock you off.
Kabul Disco is an enjoyable read.
In fact, the last pages showing pages of his original project for Afghan children(educating them about their constitutional rights) through Yassin and Kakarouf instill enough interest in you to get hold of those books as well.
Waiting for his sequel to Kabul Disco.
 
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