Enter the dragon

In less than 24 hours 2024 will dawn Soon after the turn of the Chinese calendar around February 10mdashthe communityrsquos New Yearmdashwill usher in the dramatic Year of the DragonThe Orient of course has long immortalised this fourlegged winged serpentine character in its storehouse of legend and lore While traditional and popular culture in the West typically portray dragons as evil in China they are viewed as benevolent friendly harbingers of good luck Sage and compassionate with active yang energy they protect in uncommon ways displaying intelligence and loyaltyInterestingly the Chinese identify nine types of dragons Bixi Qiuniu Yazi Chaofeng Pulao Chiwen Birsquoan Suanni and Fuxi Their images found on everyday rooftops and ubiquitous bell handles these ldquonine sonsrdquo in 2012 the Shanghai Mint issued a set of ten silver and copper coins stamped with their impression the tenth being the dragon father are assigned different personalities and featuresmdasheach governing certain fortunesmdashbesides wielding great influence over weather and waterA little slice of China in Mumbai offers fine local glimpses of the dragon Having served in the Indian Navyndashas chief engineer of INS Mumbai and first Captain Superintendent of the ship repair yard at Karwarndashas well as the Mazgaon Dock for 25 years Captain Ramesh Babu documents evolutionary centuries of this harbour in his book My Own Mazagon The history of a little island in the Bombay archipelago He says ldquoOnce a vibrant Chinese settlement the lanes near Mazgaon Dock are now lined with empty apartments bearing Chinese names and a temple where the few Chinese left in Mumbai gather with dragon dances and dragon lanterns to celebrate their New YearrdquoEros at Churchgate where Enter the Dragon released to packed audiences the inimitable Amul ad from 1976 capturing the popularity of the cult film Pic courtesy wwwamulcomUrban historians generally hold that the Chinese first made a presence in Mazgaon as dock workers only in the early part of the 20th century This understanding is based on the date of construction of the Chinese temple 1919 where surviving families continue to worshipldquoBut from old newspaper reports I discovered that the Chinese were here almost 40 years before building ships at the docksrdquo says Ramesh Babu ldquoGrowing in numbers to establish an entire Chinese colony nearby they made a definite contribution to Mazgaonrsquos history Apartments near their temple once the soughtafter place for prayers witnessed a vibrant Chinese colony living in harmony with Kolis East Indians Pathans and Parsis Sadly most have gone leaving a handful of families and idols to revere at the temple Empty homes around stand as silent sentinels of an ethos the precinct seems to have lost forever The notes of Mandarin and Cantonese music may soon die One wonders what will happen to these homes and the Chinese temple as the dwindling community goes extinct with timerdquoAshdeen Lilaowala with a saree woven with an extremely fine khakha or Peking knot border which depicts children playing with a dragon toy Images belong to Ashdeen Lilaowala right A rare dragon motif ldquokorrdquo most likely commissioned specifying this unique colourMade memorable in theatre cinema and fantasy roleplay games like Dungeons and Dragons the figure has extended contextually to runaway hits like Enter the Dragon the definitive martial arts movie whose 50th anniversary has been marked with wellattended global screenings Wowing Bombay audiences with an opening four years after its Hollywood launch on August 17 1973 Enter the Dragon became one of the highest grossers amid stiff competition from American Graffiti The Sting and The Exorcist Bruce Leersquos Chinese stage moniker gave the film its name It translated as Lee the Little Dragon for the fact that he was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon by the Chinese zodiacSpeaking to Esquire magazine for its August 2023 edition Leersquos daughter Shannon shared that she is convinced her fatherrsquos performance is timeless in that decadersquos abundance of funky kitsch ldquoHe still electrifies and jumps off the screen and is just so badassrdquo she said Ironically Lee never had a chance to revel in the impact of Enter the Dragon because he succumbed to a cerebral edema at a tragically young agemdash32 just before its original Hong Kong releaseI got roped into the frenzied adulation for the action flick through my fanboy elder brother who stood for brave hours in unending ticket queues outside Eros On watching the supersuccessful spy drama about the secret agent infiltrating a martial arts contest on an exotic island to confront a criminal mastermind my usually selfcontained sibling became a devoted part of the coterie expressing mass hysteriaThe film stirred him enough to enrol promptly for classes with pioneer karate exponent Sensei Pervez Mistry Returning from Kyoto in 1969 as Indiarsquos first qualified Black Belt instructor Mistry taught and graded Karatedo under the auspices of the Seibukan Academy of JapanSold into Leersquos cult following the brother struck trademark poses attempted nunchuck moves slicing the air against fictitious attackers and initiated animated discussions assessing these at our dining table Hoping to get me to learn karate as selfdefence he even generously bought me a kung fu warrior Tshirt with limited carefully collected pocket money As with anything hidden coming to light gradually it is with some excitement that we greet the occasional inclusion of the dragon motif in Parsi ldquogarardquo handembroidered textiles Any lagan or navjote celebration in the city displays these sarees inspired by centuries of OrientalmeetsPersian craftsmanship And yet one of the gararsquos popular landscapesndashthe ldquocheena cheenirdquo style depicting men and women engaged in daily chores against a backdrop of bridges pagodas and plantationsndashis seldom adorned with dragons Who better to elaborate on this aspect as significantly than Ashdeen Lilaowala widely feted for reviving the beauty of this ancient skillldquoKnown as loong long or lung the dragon in Chinese mythology associates the imaginary creature with the divine powers it possessesrdquo says Lilaowala ldquoLoved and respected as the highest symbol of luck and auspiciousness the dragon appeared on the imperial robes worn by Chinese emperors and the royal familyrdquoThe colour of the robe would signify the rank of its wearer for instance yellow was reserved for the emperor and empress the crown prince wore apricot In textiles the dragon motif often appears surrounded by clouds to suggest perennial youthldquoThe Parsi Gara tradition is an amalgamation of Indian Persian Chinese and other Far Eastern textile traditions The influence of Chinese textiles especially as we know is quite significant in terms of motifs compositions and embroidery techniques My research and collection over the years reveals that the dragon motif occurs very rarely in the Parsi Gara textiles making it highly prized I have seen it used in the form of unique borders or lsquokorsrsquo The motif has carved a special niche for itself in the Parsi Gara lexicon among fantastical creatures like phoenixes and the divine fungusrdquoDragons with a difference continue to entertain and educate children through stories adults too IMHO charmed by plenty of what I used to read aloud to my own kids This feeling is familiar for those of us who chose to read feminist tales which smashed patriarchal tropes of swooning or screaming damsels in distress Both my son and daughter particularly enjoyed Manjula Padmanabhanrsquos selfillustrated Unprincess and Bubla Basursquos spirited schooldays trilogy It Happened that Year Up to the Nines and On Top of the TensThere are several exceptional nonIndo English recommendations worth checking out We like the sound of at least three titles guaranteed to please every generation of dragon fanAvoid being fooled by the deceptively pink cover of Princess Daisy and the Dragon and the Nincompoop Knights by Steven Lenton It actually unpacks a fun narrative of female pluck and a sweet dragon simply wanting a bedtime story Despite knights of the realm proving utterly useless when faced with frightening roars from the dragonrsquos cave an unfazed Daisy feistily rides in to save the kingdomndashastride a cow and armed with a book instead of a swordThe Adventures of Egg Box Dragon by Watership Down author Richard Adams is punctuated by the humorous adventures of a quirky homemade dragon coming to life for his children Mischievous Egg Box Dragon might breathe fiery holes in coats and frighten cats with his roar But his talent for finding missing possessions catapults him to celebrity status and he is hailed a national treasure when the Queen loses a diamond from her crownZog by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler has this eponymous dragon work hard to master vital life lessons his species really must knowing how to fly over enchanted lands emit fearsome roars breathe flames of fire and ultimately capture a princess Try as he might there is no winning a gold star for him Not until the eager student encounters remarkable Princess Pearl who would rather be a doctor than be boringly rescued by a knight The spoton rhyming text renders this accidentprone ldquoherordquo more endearingIt may be worthwhile searching for dragons in the city or allusions to themmdashtraditional or contemporary Those that we think are them are sometimes notmdashexemplified in the VT neighbourhood by the gargoyles overlooking the St Xavierrsquos College quadrangle or the griffins on the BMC building Onward with the dragon hunt thenAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom