Oxford University has appointed a new Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Jeremy Harris. Harris, who will start his new job in late October, worked at the BBC from 1974 until 7 years ago when he took up a public relations job for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Harris will be responsible for the University’s communications, both internally and with outside media. He said that he was “looking forward hugely to helping a great institution develop an even greater future.”
Harris is to take over the role formerly occupied by Helen Carasso, who has now moved to the position of Acting Director of Admissions.
Harris’ role is currently being covered until his arrival by the Head of Press Office and the Head of Publications. The Press and Information Office will be under Harris, as well as the Events Office, the Media Production Unit and the Publications Office, which produces the University prospectus.
One of Harris’s main tasks will be to defend the reputation of University Vice-Chancellor Dr John Hood, who last year came under criticism for his academic reform strategy and the primacy given to “business considerations”. Hood welcomed Harris’s appointment, speaking of his “broad strategic experience” and saying that Harris “has clearly demonstrated his leadership skills in a complex and high-profile organisation.”
Harris himself was criticised in 2003 while working as Deputy Head of Staff and Secretary for Public Affairs at Lambeth Palace. A report he had drafted on the issue of gay clergy was leaked to the press, in which Harris considered strategies for “displacing [the issue] at least partially from public and media attention.”
He proposed diverting interest by “finding attractive alternative stories involving ABC” (shorthand for the Archbishop of Canterbury). Suggestions included “ABC as poet – do a reading, make a high-profile Lords intervention, announce a theology prize.”
Harris studied English at Clare College, Cambridge, and completed a PGCE in English and Drama at the University of Nottingham before joining the BBC in 1974. During his time at the BBC, Harris reported from more than 40 countries including assignments at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the first Iraq War. He later also worked as a presenter and foreign affairs analyst on BBC radio.ARCHIVE: 0th week MT 2005

Plans have been unveiled by Oxford University for a £100 million scheme to create a library system for the 21st century.
The plans include major redevelopment of the New Bodleian and the Radcliffe Science Libraries, a new depository site and the creation of a New Humanities Library on the site of the old Radcliffe Infirmiry. The plans are to be put before the congregation next month.
Fears for the safety of the 8.25 million volumes of books that would be affected in the change stem from warnings of flood risks, leading Professor James Howard-Johnston, a fellow of Corpus Christi College, to describe the plans as “lunacy” in the Oxford Times. In order to protect the books, they will be stored at the Osney Mead depository site, which Roland Milne, Acting Director of the Oxford University Library Service told Cherwell is above the level that floods have reached over the past 100 years.
Milne stated that they would attempt to keep the distribution of books to a minimum, an estimated twelve deliveries per day, in order to prevent an increase of congestion in the city centre. Milne hopes that the new Humanities Library would provide “much improved facilities” and conditions for students. He cited the example of the Theology Library on St Giles, which is “very cramped”, and “not really good enough.” With the new libraries he said there would be “more books on open shelves”, “longer opening hours” and more access to electronic resources.
Milne described the current university system as “the best library system in the country” but that improvements were always necessary. Currently the University rents commercial storage in places as far away as Cheshire, which Mr Milne notes is “not a capital investment.” He said the new site would give the University “growth space” and added that high use stock will remain in central Oxford. He said that the changes should not affect the amount of time the library takes to fetch a book from the stacks.
The plans for the construction of the humanities library will mean the closure of smaller departmental libraries such as the History Faculty and Oriental Institute. Last term, OUSU launched an online survey to get students’ views on the centralisation proposals for libraries outlined in the Establishment review. 1585 students completed the survey. 46.8% of students either opposed or strongly opposed the plans to merge the humanities and arts libraries and 15.7% agreed with the proposals.
When asked about the new Social Science library students felt that opening hours had improved but a majority believed that the availability of books had not changed. A majority of students (78.8%) said that they would prefer to work in historic Oxford libraries than more modern libraries. Commenting on the OUSU Library survey Ronald Milne said “I love historic buildings too” but also stated that the Old and New Bodleian as well as the Radcliffe Camera will remain part of the library system as reading rooms. “We have to provide new facilities, some libraries are not acceptable.”
OUSU President Emma Norris said the plans “seem like a very good idea because the current site is at breaking point”. She added that the off-site depository system has “worked fine.”
A committee will meet with the Curators of the Universities Libraries in 6th week to discuss the findings of the survey, Charlynne Pullen, VP Access and Academic Affairs, told Cherwell her main aim was to ensure that “students can get access to the books they need and that the University can make them accessible for longer.”
Professor James Howard-Johnston, a fellow of Corpus Christi College who had spoken against the original plans, has since described the new published plans as “a very great improvement.” Professor Howard-Johnston also stated that there should be “maximum consultation” about the amalgamation of smaller libraries as the closure of the Commonwealth Studies Library was “viewed as damaging academically.”
Professor Howard-Johnson concluded by saying that “I haven’t completely made up my mind” about the proposals, expressing concerns about the expense and logistical problems of transferral to the Osney Mead site. “If the cost is reasonable it should get the go-ahead” he added.ARCHIVE: 0th week MT 2005

Serenity
dir Joss Whedon
out 7 OctoberIt depends on whom you ask: Serenity is either the highly-anticipated result of an unprecedented fan-led revolution, or the doomed offspring of a failed TV show. The film is a continuation of Firefly, Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s sci-fiwestern. When Firefly was cancelled after only eleven episodes, overwhelming fan support (and, more cynically, DVD sales) led to a surprising film offer.Set some time after an unspecified disaster has forced mankind to leave Earth, Serenity follows the crew of a small cargo ship whose regular diet of small-time piracy is disturbed by the results of government experimentation on one of their number. On the run from the authorities, they are forced from planet to planet, until the eventual discovery of the sinister reason behind their persecution.Much of this is a direct translation of the TV show’s formula, which, along with the return of all nine original cast members, ensures that the (slightly rabid) fanbase will be in heaven. Entirely separate from this is the question of whether it is actually any good.The shocking answer is: Yes. Very. The cast (largely unknown in film roles) are universally impressive, managing, despite the swift pace of the plot, to maintain both plausibility and emotional weight. Combine this with a witty script and superb, often artistic, cinematography, and the film avoids the danger, familiar from Stars Wars and Trek, of imploding under the self-indulgent weight of its own mythology.In fact, the future world presented in Serenity is one of its most intriguing aspects. Mankind’s exodus from Earth gives opportunity and wealth to the rich, and strands the poor on barely fertile moons. The result is a surprisingly believable dystopia. Other details, such as the ubiquity of both (American) English and Chinese as de facto linguae francae, add the impression that, while PPEists may be unconvinced, there is more going on under the surface than we are privy to.The plot, while entertaining, is the film’s weakest element. Although the grisly experiments performed on River (the young sister of the ship’s doctor) by the authoritarian Alliance government are intriguing, the revelation which forms the film’s major twist is involving rather than shocking, and does not feel weighty enough to provoke the reaction which comprises the end of the movie.Regardless, Serenity is worth watching – even for those who have never heard of Firefly, or wouldn’t normally enjoy science fiction. Quality acting, spectacular special effects and an unusual backdrop make for a captivating two hours. And, as an added bonus, the film comes with optional DVD extras in the form of the original eleven-hour long series box set.ARCHIVE: 0th week, MT 2005

Oxford 12.5Cambridge 8.5The Oxford Men’s Blues Tennis Team finished off a successful year in style as they won a closely fought Varsity Match on the famous grass courts of The Queen’s Club in London.After victories over Nottingham University, The Queen’s Club and the prestigious All England Lawn Tennis Club, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the BUSA knockout tournament, expectations were high ahead of the yearly clash with the light blue enemy. And despite succumbing to defeat just once all season Oxford had to work hard to claim their first taste of Varsity glory for 3 years.Mark Carpenter set the theme of the two-day event with a closely fought 7-6, 7-6 victory over Cambridge’s leading singles player Paddy May. May was unbeaten in five matches in last year’s Varsity contest and Carpenter had to produce some of his best matchplay tennis to unsettle his opponent and edge out two tie-breaks. Carpenter looked to have let a major chance slip when he was broken when serving for the match at 5-4 but he held out magnificently for victory.With the Tabs’ trump card defeated Oxford must have thought their 21st victory out of 22 was going to be easier than expected. At the end of the first day, however, Cambridge, aided by the sort of weather so associated with British tennis, and courtesy of some gutsy tennis, were level at 5-5.Oxford’s no.4, William Partlett, this year making his 4th appearance in the Varsity Match, lost out to Cambridge’s no.3 in three sets, though James Spooner, Oxford’s no.6, continued Carpenter’s early good work and dispatched Cambridge’s no.5 in straight sets to put Oxford up 2-1 after the first round of singles. Despite a further singles victory the postponement of two of the day’s doubles matches meant Cambridge were able to level the match at 5-5 with it all to play for on day two.The postponed doubles matches came first and brought a restoration of Oxford’s two leg lead, as well the knowledge they were now just four games away from victory. Particularly impressive was the Oxford no.1 pairing of Raddant/Spooner who beat the useful Cambridge no.2 pair in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.Carpenter continued Oxford’s dominance with yet another tie-break win over Cambridge’s powerful no.2. Spooner then out-classed his Cambridge counterpart at no. 6 singles. William Partlett, however, could not get the better of Cambridge’s Captain Paul Riley in a tense match which ended in Riley’s favour 7-5, 6-4. With the second round of singles it seemed Oxford’s slender lead was under threat. The Oxford no. 1 singles player Phil Raddant was making hard work out of his encounter with Paddy May and dropped the first set 6-4. But Raddant fought back to take the second set comfortably. Raddant’s class now began to tell and by taking the third set 6-2, he had put Oxford within one match of the winning post. With the tension mounting, Oxford’s players surrounded Dorr’s matchcourt sensing a victory would make Oxford’s tally unassailable and the victory complete. Two tie-breaks later and Dorr was submerged beneath a jubilant dark-blue horde. Nearly 124 years after their first victory in varsity tennis they had tasted success again. Captain Paul Gulliver was understandably jubilant, stating “Every one of these guys have played their hearts out this week. I am so proud of the way the guys have performed I’m so glad we’ve come out on top. We now have a great platform to work from to go and do it again next year!” Certainly after a lengthy wait without a win against Cambridge the tables have turned and it is now the light blues who are facing the prolonged domination of their improving opponents.Unfortunately, Oxford’s women tennis players were less successful, losing out 17-4 to Cambridge.ARCHIVE: Oth week MT 2005

Balliol (98-0) beat Pembroke (97 all out) by 10 wicketsBalliol regained their league title with a humiliating 10-wicket defeat of Pembroke, the newly crowned Cuppers Champions. Winning the toss and putting Pembroke into bat, Balliol started irresistibly. In tandem with captain Pete Dunbar (2-25), Australian opening bowler Phil Clark (4-20) extracted good movement off the pitch, tearing through the Pembroke top and middle order in a devastating spell of fast bowling. The removal of Pembroke’s star university batsman, Sudhir Krishnaswarmy, signalled a dramatic collapse that at one stage left Pembroke 4-18. With no batsman making it beyond 30, Pembroke struggled to a paltry total of 97 on a dry and playable pitch.Chasing the total, Balliol openers Peter and Tom Dunbar cruised past the target in a mere 75 balls. Punctuated by a series of cracking pull shots, Peter Dunbar smashed 66 with brother Tom, also enjoying a superb year with the bat, finished with 26.While Balliol celebrated another year of dominance, Queen’s, Hertford and St Hugh’s were relegated from the top flight. Meanwhile, in Division 2, Somerville clinched a nail-biting title race over St Anne’s.ARCHIVE: 0th week MT 2005

Oxford’s rugby Blues had a tough start to their season with a tour to South Africa. Coming away with a win and two losses, the Blues showed considerable potential but will also have learnt some harsh lessons ahead of December’s Varsity match. A squad of twenty six flew off to Cape Town eager to make up for an early setback against Henley Hawks, losing 30-19. The Blues kicked off with a fixture against a Villagers development team, coming out with a 62-5 win. The next fixture was against Stellenbosch University, a much tougher propostion. Up against a heavier pack and under considerable pressure out wide, a brilliant individual try from Anthony Knox was able to carve out a form sent the Blues into the break 12-3 up. The Blues were once again under pressure after the break, their line finally breached by a kick behind from Stellenbosch. When a Stellenbosch penalty gave them the lead and Blues scrum half Kevin Brennan went off with a broken arm, the match looked lost and disappointingly the final score was 21-19. Beset by injuries, Oxford went into their final game against University of Cape Town unable to field a full match squad. Their backs were once more creative, scoring three tries; however, the powerful UCT side ran out 26-17 winners.Without doubt, the Blues’ early results have been a little disappointing. However, it should not be forgotten that as university sides go, their South African opponents were as strong as they come; when Cambridge toured South Africa last year, they went home winless, including a 60 point drubbing. The Blues have showed very considerable potential, with skillful and genuinely dangerous backs. Commenting on their tough tour Steve Hill, the Blues’ Director of Rugby, said that “sets us up very well” for taking on the Tabs at Twickenham.ARCHIVE: 0th week MT 2005

Oxford’s oarsmen completed one of their most successful season ever with three gold medals at World Championships in Gifu, Japan. Great Britain’s Andy Hodge and Pete Reed crushed their opposition in the coxless fours final, while their 2005 Blue Boat teammate Mike Blomquist helped power the United States Eight to a thrilling victory. Hodge and Reed’s four won with a dominance no British boat has achieved since the Pinsent and Redgrave era. Arriving in Japan on the back of a twelve race unbeaten streak, they won both their heat and semi final with ease. In the final, the Great Britain crew were even more convincing, leading from start to finish despite tricky conditions and quality opposition. After building up a half length lead to the halfway mark, a devastating third 500m put Great Britain almost a length up and the race beyond doubt. The Dutch showed their class with a determined charge through the last 500, but never looked under pressure and crossed the line two thirds of a length in front. Hodge and Reed have been the star performers of British rowing all year. Reed, in his first year as an international, delighted national coaches by winning the Great Britain pairs trials with Hodge and seamlessly slotting into the top boat alongside more experienced oarsmen. Hodge, meanwhile, has achieved what many thought impossible by filling the giant shoes of four times Olympic champion Matthew Pinsent. After stroking the national top boat to a victory Pinsent would have been proud of and even knocking off one of Pinsent’s British records on the rowing machines, Hodge has truly taken Pinsent’s mantle as the world’s top oarsman. Blomquist enjoyed a harder fought but no less impressive win. As defending Olympic Champions, the US were the crew to beat. However, they had suffered from retirements since the Athens Games, and while they rebuilt their crew the Germans and Italians dominated the international regatta season. Nonetheless, the Americans provided a statement of intent by winning their semi final, and, though chased hard all the way in the final, never relinquished their initial lead to win Gold.Elsewhere, Blue Boat cox Acer Nethercott steered Great Britain to an unexpected fourth place, OUBC President Barney Williams’ Canadian Eight won the B-final and 2004 Blue Colin Smith finished twelfth in the single scull. Coming at the end of a season which saw Oxford’s oarsmen defeat Cambridge’s self-declared “best ever crew” by clear water, smash Leander, Britain’s top club, by nine lengths in a private race, and claim the five of the top six spots at the BUSA indoor rowing championships, the golden haul brings to a close a season of prodigious success. The arrival in Oxford of world class performers such as Olympic champion Setfan Moelvig and former world ergo record holder Jamie Schroder suggests the Blues could continue this success for another season.
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If you are taking even a cursory interest in British politics over the next few weeks, there are a few phrases which you should be familiar with. ‘We must claim the centre ground’; ‘Modernisation’; ‘Opportunity for the many and not the few’; ‘Radical reform’; ‘Equality’; ‘Change’; ‘Renewal’; ‘Compassion’; to name but a few. I quote directly from Tony Blair’s speech to the Labour Party Conference at the end of September, in which he attempted to illustrate his core beliefs and plans for the next few years. However, the reason for giving these phrases was not to talk about Tony Blair; it was to talk about the impending Tory leadership contest. It may interest you to know that every single one of these very phrases, or very close derivations of these, was used in David Davis’ recent speech on his vision of ‘Modern Conservatism in the 21st century’. Most of them could be found in David Cameron’s speech at his campaign launch only last week. They all can be found many times over in Ken Clarke’s statements, interviews, and speeches in recent months. These men are, at the point of writing, the three main contenders for the Conservative Party leadership.What has become plainly obvious is that they are trying to attract support by using the same language and sentiments as the dominant and centrist Tony Blair. I am not trying to suggest that past leadership candidates, of any party, have not claimed to want to move the party into the centre ground of politics – most do – but the centre ground of politics was there long before Blair. What I mean is that there has been a quite deliberate shift to using ‘Blairite’ rhetoric in an attempt by the candidates to show that they are true centrist politicians, ie not prisoners of the Tories’ strong right wing. This illustrates the level to which New Labour has changed political discourse in Britain. Blair, for all his foibles, has skilfully managed to articulate the hopes, opinions, and aspirations of the majority of people in this country. That is why a majority of the middle class who used to call themselves Conservatives has voted for him over the past 8 years. Previously, Tory leadership candidates earned their spurs by saying how much they hated New Labour and its ideas. Now, they have finally realised what it will take to win: accept that there is a new political landscape, set by New Labour, and shape their message accordingly.Tory leaders understand that they need to do what Labour did in the early 1990’s after Thatcher: a painful modernising process, ignoring the extreme section in the party, adapting the Party’s policies and beliefs to the current political climate – the temperature of which had been changed by Blair while as PM. Therefore, we are beginning to see the seeds of recovery for the party that used to be called ‘the natural party of government’.Now the difficult part: who should the party choose for leader and trust to carry through the difficult renewal of the party? David Davis is the front runner, and undoubtedly a man of the right from the IDS and William Hague camp, despite now trying to convince us that he has been a centrist all along. He definitely has advantages: in particular, his working class background of having grown up on a council estate gives him credentials that Ken Clarke and David Cameron do not have. His right wing background doesn’t mean that he isn’t sincere about trying to change the party’s message, but it does mean that his reform will be slow, cautious, and could possibly run into trouble if his main backers, the party’s right wing, decide that he is no longer ‘one of them’. David Cameron is the newcomer. At only 38 years old, and having sat in the Commons for only 4 years, he is appealing, photogenic and certainly very able. He is certainly a true moderniser, and would also be more genuinely committed and able to change the party’s appeal than Davis, and I believe he has the potential to be a great Prime Minister in the future. However, he is very short on political experience, and it must be remembered that since the party started electing their leader in 1965, they have always chosen a candidate from a lower middle class or working class background: Heath, Thatcher, Major, Hague, IDS, Howard. The party’s sensitivity to choosing a ‘toff ’ as leader may make things even more difficult for him, the urbane Old Etonian. Now that Portillo has dropped out of a political career, Ken Clarke is the last remaining ‘big beast’ of the party. An earthy and charismatic heavyweight, fond of his pints and cigars, he has long been a proponent of centrist ‘One Nation’ Conservatism, and is the only candidate who has long said that the party should learn lessons from New Labour’s success. He is the figure most popular with the public, especially with the middle class swing voters who deserted the party for Tony Blair; one might think that the party would be mad not to choose such a man. His main problem among party members, who, despite Michael Howard’s best efforts, have the final say after MPs have whittled the choice down to two candidates, remains his enthusiasm for Europe: he would be leading a wildly Eurosceptic party, and the shadow of the disastrous in-fighting of the Major years looms over this scenario.Whether the party can get over this single aspect of Kenneth Clarke’s politics and pick the one man who might actually stand a chance of beating Labour at the next election, only time will tell us.
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Fifty years after Satyajit Ray’s monumental debut ‘Pather Panchali’ stunned critics and enthralled audiences at home and abroad, Somak Ghoshal examines the legacy of a man who first showed the world the face of modern India.
The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race, which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly. I feel that he is a ‘giant’ of the movie industry.” That is how Kurosawa, never a man fond of unnecessary flattery, described Satyajit Ray, a man who emerged from post-colonial Bengal to impress and inspire audiences and critics across the globe. Though all his films are in Bengali or Hindi, their subtly observed study of multitudinous shades of the human condition ranks them as universal in their appeal and acclaim. But Satyajit Ray also left a cinematic heritage that belongs as much to India, the country whose post-war legacy his work did much to reflect, evoke and define.
The reason for much of this can be seen in the socio-cultural milieu from which the director emerged. His grandfather was a distinguished writer, painter, and composer, while his father was an eminent poet and illustrator of nonsense literature in the tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. The family he grew up in, urban and middle-class, had embraced the Brahmo religion at a comparatively early stage, and the liberal, progressive outlook of Brahmo Samaj strongly influenced Ray’s mindset and work. Many of his films would reflect the reformist agendas of the Brahmo Samaj and a strong aversion to religious fanaticism, Ghare Baire (The Home and the World), and Ganashatru (The Enemy of the People), to name a few. The liberal-humanist leanings of his family must have had a strong effect on Ray, who grew up within a well-wrought tradition of humanist education, interested in art, literature, music, and most importantly, film, both oriental and occidental.
Pather Panchali (The Song of the Little Road), Ray’s first film, is a testament to his importance, both as a director and an Indian cultural commentator. Beset by the bleakest financial difficulties and utilising a cast with little or no stage experience, it transformed the face of post-colonial Indian cinema, winning dozens of awards at global film festivals. Ray was criticised by his detractors for depicting the face of a povertystricken, newly independent nation; but he went on to make two sequels to this film, both superior human documents in themselves, to complete what is now known as the ‘Apu Trilogy’ after the eponymous hero, whose personal development forms the thread between the narratives. The films chart the maturation of Apu, the son of a priest and member of a poor family living in a rural India, into a man aware of the wider urban and technological world. Ironically, the transition for Ray was very much in the opposite direction. As he said, “While making Pather Panchali, I discovered rural life. I’d been city-born, city-bred, so I didn’t know the Bengali village firsthand. Talking to people, reacting to moods, to the landscape, to the sights and sounds – all this helped. But it’s not just people who have been brought up in villages who can make films about village life. An outside view is also able to penetrate.”
Shortly after the Pather Panchali Ray made Parash Pathar (The Philosopher’s Stone) which he described to Marie Seton as “a sort of combination of comedy, fantasy, satire, farce and a touch of pathos”. It is the last of these epithets, pathos, that would come to haunt most of Ray’s later and best-known works.
Ray was making his films through the 60s, 70s and 80s when European cinema was at the height of its modernist phase. But while his admiring European contemporaries – Fellini, Hitchcock, Bergman, Pasolini – were shaping the rules of post-modern aesthetics, Ray worked in no fixed genre. He made a song and dance children’s fantasy film, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969), a detective crime fiction, Sonar Kella (The Fortress 1974), and historicals such as Shatranj ke Khiladi (The Chess Players 1977), also his first film in Hindi.
The ability to work in such a wide array of genres was evidence of Ray’s myriad-mindedness and rejection of fixed principles of filmmaking. His work was distinguished from the regular features of avant-garde cinema, in that it disliked the idea of a film that drew attention to its style rather than the content. This is why his work touches one as a subtle revelation of artistry in which he uncovered his attitude and sympathies in a manner that was, and will always be, accessible to the masses. It is worth mentioning that Ray is perhaps one of the very few filmmakers whose works appeal to the widest range of audiences, from the subalterns to the elites, in modern Bengal. Most of his films were commercial successes unlike the usual neglect that ‘intellectual’ cinema meets with at the box office. His films are devoid of sentimental messages or didacticism; instead there is always an attempt at re-evaluating the commonplace and quotidian by transforming the utterly mundane into the excitement of an adventure. Ray had the power and expertise to recognise and express the mythic in the ordinary.
In what has now become a legendary sequence in Pather Panchali, Apu, the child hero, is taken by his elder sister Durga to see a train for the first time. While they wait for the strange and sublime novelty railgari (Bengali for the train) they are mesmerised by the humming of the telegraph poles, and the wind sweeping over the fields, heralding the approach of the wonder. This wait, made poignant by the lingering presence of a childish wonder of the unknown, makes even a modern Indian or Western audience living in a technologically advanced society pause breathlessly.
Ray captures his audience by provoking feeling and response through his sensitivity as an artisan of film. Outlining and exploring the universal human constants such as death, love, separation and responding to changes within and without, Ray bridges the gulf of time and distance between his subject and his audiences through the intense detailing of personal moments of excited happiness and joy. Moreover, he has the extraordinary capacity of evoking the unsaid through gestures, powerful background music and long close-shots.
This ability to create a sense of intimate connection between people of vastly different cultures is Ray’s greatest achievement. Like most of his great contemporaries in world cinema he can create an awareness of the ordinary man, which isn’t achieved in the abstract but by using the simplest, most common and concrete details such as a gesture or a glance. There is a contemplative quality in the magnificent flow of images and sounds, an attitude of acceptance and detachment, which is the hallmark of his inner as well as outer vision. His compassionate work arises from the noblest of philosophical traditions, the true spirit of which is distinctly Indian and invokes a detached intrepidity, celebrates joy in birth and life and accepts death with grace. Ray succeeded in making Indian cinema something to be taken seriously, and in so doing, created a body of work of distinct range and richness.
The cinema of Satyajit Ray is that rarest blend of intellect and emotion. Though his approach is controlled and precise, his real skill is at evoking deep and sublime responses from his audience. His films display a finetuned sensitivity without descending into melodrama or excess; they invoke the universal and immutable language of all the great filmmakers. Three weeks before his death in April 1992 he recieved an Honorary Oscar “in recognition of his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures… which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world”, and the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India), India’s highest civilian honour – fitting for a director whose meditations on the nature of the human condition displayed to the world the creative fertility of a newly formed nation forging its path.
ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

Binyamin Even talks to OUBC President Robin Bourne-Taylor in about life as a Blues rower in Oxford Robin Bourne-Taylor represents you. As President of Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC), far more people see him as an image of an Oxford student than any current member of the student body. Literally millions watched him lead Oxford to victory in the Boat Race; millions more saw him in national newspapers, on the radio, on billboards or in ITV adverts, and he therefore inadvertently symbolises the life of an Oxford student.
This appears fairly bizarre. Bourne-Taylor is a quadruple Blue and an Olympian. There is not an area of his life that isn’t affected by the sport and yet the majority of students have little to do with rowing. I decided to travel back to Oxford during the Easter vac to find out: does Robin Bourne- Taylor have anything in common with the students he so publicly represents?
[quoteimg]“We don’t train that much; maximum actual training is four hours a day. But if we have to travel there’s plenty of days of nine hours.”[/quoteimg] I start by asking Bourne-Taylor just how much of his life rowing really takes up. “Training starts on 1 September, but a lot of the guys will be training permanently. I came straight back from the Olympics, and a lot of people were rowing internationally in the summer. It’s a long commitment to the Boat Race, but it means we hit the ground running.” In terms of dayto- day workload, “We don’t train that much: maximum is four hours actual training a day, but we can waste a lot of time if we have to travel to London or something like that. There’s plenty of days where we spend seven, eight, nine hours.” So far, then, no luck – discovering ITV’s claim that rowers train six months for the Boat Race was actually an underestimate only made Bourne-Taylor seem even more irreconcilable with the “normal” students I’ve met.
As we move to the topic of motivation, however, he becomes more human. For Bourne-Taylor is the ultimate team player, playing for the jersey: “Obviously the Boat Race is an amazing event, with so much history – there’s nothing else like it in the rowing world. But for someone like me, who’s been here a long time, it becomes more than that. You want to do it for your club, and for the passion you have for your club.” It’s not as catchy as “Up the Nose!” or “For the Pelican!” but the message is the same. He speaks with passion about his team mates, saying, “This year at Oxford there was a really great bunch of guys. The personalities were fantastic, and that’s one of the most important things I’d take out of it.” And he leaves no doubt about the importance of those closest to him. “A big part of my success, and of the success of guys on the team, is that support from your friends. It’s those little things that help out – if it’s people getting lecture notes, or helping you catch up if you missed something, or girlfriends cooking you dinner.”
Picking up on Bourne-Taylor’s mention of lecture notes, I find it is no token academic reference. “People come to Oxford because it’s one of the finest academic institutions in the world. You can’t get in because of rowing – there’s no one here who’s in this university because of their talent at rowing. They’re here because they’re of a sufficiently high academic standard. If they set their ambitions on something like the Boat Race, I think that’s great. It’s good for the University, and it’s good for them.” He applauds his team mates for completing Blue Boat training on top of their academic workload, “It’s a real credit to the guys who do it, because it’s so much of a commitment of effort and time.” He mentions Jason Flickinger, 7 man in the Blue Boat. “He’s doing the MBA programme, one of the most intensive courses in Oxford, and he’s going on barely any sleep.” Despite this, the giant American “won the [BUSA] ergo champs, on about three hours sleep”.
So, Blues rowers do study. But doesn’t the combination of an Oxford academic workload and a Blue Boat training regime leave him socially detached from anyone outside the tiny rowing bubble? Bourne-Taylor recognises this as a downside. “It’s difficult, because you do get isolated from college life. You don’t know as many people, because you don’t have the time.” Nevertheless, “Even though we have to spend so much time training, we still feel part of the student body of the university.”
Rowing also presents its own social opportunities: “What you do gain is a really tight group of about twenty friends who are likeminded, all on the same goals, and you go through the same things together. You build some really strong friendships.”
When he can, Bourne-Taylor gets involved in college and university life. He’s a member of his College’s drinking society, The Cardinals, and as a student who will join Sandhurst after graduation, he has a long commitment to the Oxford University Officer Training Corps: “I go down there whenever I can,” he says. He speaks particularly warmly of the OTC Colonel who helped set up a team building day for the Blues at the local barracks.
Bourne-Taylor has also rowed for his College in Summer Eights on a number of occasions. He dismissed any doubts that such a successful oarsman would not commit himself to the less glamorous world of college rowing when he stroked Christ Church to First Division Blades in his first year. In fact, he has warm praise for college rowing. “College rowing is really good in Oxford. It’s a haven for really keen rowers, and there are not many places you get that enthusiasm so focused on one thing. College rowing’s brilliant for the sport, and events like Summer Eights and Torpids are really good spectacles and a good thing for people to get involved in.” This year, Summer Eights clashes with a Rowing World Cup event, but he’s sure “any members of the team who can will do it, because it’s a great way to take part in your college and show support for them”. He particularly encourages talented college rowers to think about joining the Blue Squad. “College rowers out there with aspirations should really put themselves forward and not be afraid to have a go. If you get in early, you may not be very experienced, but if you do a year’s worth of training you’ll improve phenomenally, and next year you might make the spot in Isis and if you keep going you might get a spot in the Blue Boat. It’s about how much you’re willing to give and how much you’re willing to learn.”
As my meeting with Bourne-Taylor drew to a close, it remained clear that he was a very unusual student. The sacrifices he makes for rowing, particularly with respect to his social life, demonstrate he prioritises his sport in a way very few others do. But I felt much more comfortable with the fact that, for millions of people, he portrayed a group of which I was part. Fundamentally, Bourne-Taylor is no different to many Oxford students who devote time and energy to an activity outside of their degree. In this respect he represents Oxford students who strive for excellence in all that they do and perhaps he is not as far removed from the reality of student life as some would believe.
ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005