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The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

3 Oct

It was around 1888. A schooner called Brundle approached the French Pass, a dangerous channel located between D'Urville Island & South Island in New Zealand. Just as the ship was to enter the channel, a creature bobbed up ahead of it (1/n)

The crew soon realised it was a Risso's Dolphin. They wanted to kill it but were persuaded against the idea by the captain's wife. They would shortly be left surprised when they realised the dolphin was acting like their guide through the pass (2/n)

For the next 24 years, this animal appeared often to guide ships through the treacherous waters of the French Pass. In time, he came to be called "Pelorus Jack." He would dutifully appear from nowhere and swim just ahead of the vessel like a pilot (3/n)

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The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

2 Oct

In January 1966, Indian PM Lal Bahadur Shastri arrived at Tashkent for peace talks with Pakistan mediated by the USSR. Tashkent in January was brutally cold. Shastri ji only had his khadi woolen coat with him as a warm garment (1/n)

Soviet premier Alexei Kosigyn observed this and felt that the Indian PM must be uncomfortable in the extreme cold. He ordered a Russian overcoat to be gifted to Shastri ji. At a formal function, he presented the coat to Shastri ji as a mark of respect (2/n)

Next day, Kosigyn noted Shastri ji was still wearing his khadi coat. A bit perplexed, he asked the prime minister what happened during a break in official events. Kosigyn was worried that Shastri ji hadn't liked the present (3/n)

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The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

1 Oct

It was 1949. At a protest by mill workers in Bombay, a young member of the Progressive Writers' Movement, Asrar ul Hassan Khan, recited a fiery poem. It was a scathing criticism of the central government. His lines went thus: (1/n)

मन में जहर डॉलर के बसा के
फिरती है भारत की अहिंसा
खादी के केंचुल को पहनकर
ये केंचुल लहराने न पाए
अमन का झंडा इस धरती पर
किसने कहा लहराने न पाए
ये भी कोई हिटलर का है चेला
मार लो साथ जाने न पाए
कॉमनवेल्थ का दास है नेहरू
मार ले साथी जाने न पाए (2/n)

He branded Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as "Hitler's acolyte" & "slave of the Commonwealth." The news spread like wildfire. Morarji Desai, then governor of Bombay state, gave the order for Asrar ul Hassan Khan to be immediately arrested (3/n)

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The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

30 Sep

Paperclip's Believe or Not: It was a September morning 107 years ago. 3 British armored cruisers were patrolling in the southern North Sea off the Dutch coast. 15-year old Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave was a midshipman on board the HMS Aboukir (1/n)

At 6:20, his ship was hit by a torpedo from the German U-boat U9 and sank. Wykeham-Musgrave jumped into the sea and narrowly escaped the suctions of the doomed vessel. He was rescued by one of the other ships: HMS Hogue. (2/n)

He was barely on board when Hogue was also struck by 2 torpedoes at 6:55 am. 20 minutes later, she sank. Wykeham-Musgrave again jumped into the waters and swam to the only remaining ship, the HMS Cressy. At 7:20, Cressy was also torpedoed. (3/n)

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The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

22 Sep

Imagine a war-ravaged country, food crisis looming large, its desolate children, and a Messiah in the skies. This all came together once in post-WWII Germany when conflict among the Allied nations reached its peak and spawned Cold War's 1st crisis (1/n)

Soviet Union cut-off road, rail & canal links to Western bloc-held Berlin in the summer of 1948. Thus began Operation Berlin Airlift with US & UK air dropping supplies into the starving city. It is estimated that more than 250,000 sorties were flown (2/n)

One of the many pilots engaged in the airdrops was Lt. Gail Halvorsen from Utah. In his spare time, he often flew into Berlin to do some photography. During one of those visits, he came across a bunch of kids in ragged condition across a barbed wire (3/n)

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The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

14 Aug

It’s amazing how little things often hide the greatest stories & it cannot get better than the story of humble Paperclip.This simple device that has been binding papers & manuscripts for ages was once used as a symbol of resistance against the Nazi Govt. by Norwegian students.

Back in 1940 when Hitler’s army occupied Norway first thing they did was to destroy the local culture. School teachers were bullied into joining the Nazi Party and asked to push the Nazi agenda in their classrooms.

In an unexpected chain of events,when the images of the Royal family was banned by the Nazi State,the students of Oslo University stood up with a surprising method of resistance.They wore a simple Paperclip on their collar as a symbol of resistance against the mighty Adolf Hitler

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