The Year of Sharks: 1975

1975-2025…Fifty years… an extended eternity but in retrospect “just around the corner” of three personal momentous events that changed perspectives.

1975 was the year when fresh out of college ( Masters in English Literature), and in this case Allahabad University¹ once considered the ‘Oxford of the East’, I enrolled for the summer Journalism program offered by Stanford University’s Department of Communication. I had dreams of becoming a top notch investigative journalist and when brother, doing PhD at Stanford offered to foot the bill for a certificate course, I readily accepted. A full degree program was a thought for the future.

The main financial hurdle over, now came the tough part – a never to be forgotten experience of attending a top Ivy League University straight from small town, Allahabad. In my naive assumption, “so what,” I was oblivious to what I was getting into, the quantum jump in attitude and outlook. There was no social media to hold my hand and computers and laptops were machines of the future in India.

To further compound the “fresh off the boat” situation was that everything felt new and humongous. Reading about a place or country is a 360 degree twist from actual experience and I still remember the awe on the “bigness’ of cities, of vegetation, the strip malls and stores. To further compound matters my Indian English felt inept in deciphering and speaking in the American accent, clipped vowels. On my first day on Campus there were amused smiles when I asked the way to Es-Con-Dido village ( where my brother was staying) and the reply would be “Oh, you mean Es-Cen-Dido” with an amused smile. There were other bloopers. It was a slow learning process.

The main challenge was the teaching process – from rote learning and staying mum during lectures, to being an equal participant in class discussions. It was a quantum jump and it took me sometime to get over my hesitation in asking or contributing in class.

There were other firsts such as a television set. My hometown, Allahabad, still had to be television-connected so the “Idiot Box” was something new for me. We were being shown a movie about Rosa Parks, a Black activist remembered for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama and in the process becoming an icon of resistance and courage. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913, during the time of racial segregation and experienced first hand the injustices of Jim Crow laws. I was more enamored by the “box” than the film even though it was an interesting subject.

I experimented with my subject choices – Broadcast News, Film Criticism and Aesthetics with the third being Journalism. I had thought that the last was going to be a breeze but was sadly mistaken as my small town English newspaper skills fell short. I re-learnt whatever I knew. An example: we were given printed news about a town hall meeting where the speaker had been heckled and session ending in fisticuffs. Used to Indian politics, this was nothing new for me and I put scuffle and heckling at the end of the coverage. When asked to rewrite I once again made the same mistake of relegating this important information to the last paragraph. Marion Lewenstein, (Professor), an award winning journalist with a list of achievements, wondered at my dumbness till I explained that skirmishes and fisticuffs was normal in Indian political rallies. But, I had to rectify my mistake. Another blooper was the use of too many “the’s” before, after and in every line and every sentence. My first assignment had too many yellow circles and it was only after three four circled papers that I got out of “the” syndrome. Lesson learnt but back home the “the” re-asserted itself in the written page.

“Broadcast News” was all about American media laws and regulations and a mind twister for me. The Professor in all sincerity advised me to take a pass grade in this paper, an open book test and another first for me. I was confident that I will get through but on the test day the right page and right answers eluded me. I passed and that was important.

The third choice, Film Aesthetics & Criticism, with introduction to film aesthetics, history, theory, and criticism was the favourite. David Denby, the now famous film critic for The Atlantic, The New Yorker etc, and at that time a graduate student or just graduated, was teaching the subject. We watched movies in theatres or on television, learning the nuances of film criticism and works of popular critics such as Pauline Kael.

It was during this period the movie JAWS hit the screens. I remember seeing it in the open air drive in theatre (another first) huddling in the car seat whenever the shark came stalking the unsuspecting swimmer to the famous “two-note shark theme” representing approaching danger. The score went onto win an academy award for the music composer John Williams. My friends “ooh-aah-ed,” screamed but I remained unaffected by the enormity of the scenes as my water world were the rivers of Allahabad and sharks and whales, inhabitants of picture books. My pedantic review of the movie was verbally shredded by David Denby who was unimpressed by my reaction, “why so much fuss about a shark and that too a mechanical one?” How was I supposed to know that JAWS would turn out to be Stephen Spielberg’s epic directorial presentation and a 1975 milestone. And that Stephen Spielberg and the actors Roy Schneider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw including the great white shark would become instant heroes.

The water heroics based on screen presentation of a summer novel by Peter Benchley, changed the way people viewed the ocean and the beach. Now on its 50th anniversary ( June 20, 2025) I can say I was “there” when JAWS debuted as a mind changer. It was to be years later, when I stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean and was   spooked out remembering the famous “two notes” of the ‘mechanical’ shark.

Another first was watching a “blue film”(After all it was learning how to criticise), Orson Welles CITIZEN KANE and other famous movies. Citizen Kane was based on life of William Randolph Hearst the newspaper magnate and owner of Hearst Castle in California, USA. The movie was a powerful cinematic wonder and with JAWS left a powerful impact on me. 

The summer Course over I headed back to India as enrolling for a degree program meant several challenges. I was excited about putting my newly gained knowledge into works.

At the same time, the third major happening of 1975 was unfolding in India. It did not impact me directly though I named it ‘The JAWS of India.” This was the horrendous constitutional aberration, the Emergency of 1975, when  Prime Minister Indira Gandhi set into motion draconian laws curtailing political and social liberties. There was mayhem in North India, with Opposition leaders and detractors imprisoned or going underground to avoid prison. There was frenzy on the streets, corridors abuzz with conspiracy theories,  divisive Sanjay Gandhi’s rallies,²,  rumours and “underground” network of “Tin Gods,” wannabe political leaders who were earning name and fame through exploits real or projected. 1975 was a dramatically agitating period in history of India as the Emergency turned a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 into an aberration .

The India events were not affecting me directly but on campus and in social groups I would be asked for my response. My reply was that my letters were censored. I was too far away to pass any judgement and contributed an article “Indira Gandhi and India” in the student run Stanford Daily. It was more of a laudatory write-up as to most of us Indira Gandhi was an icon we all aspired to be. To further justify my response in her favour was that she too was from Allahabad, so there was an affinity with her.

On return I would face reality on listening to personal accounts of the few rebels, meeting with fellow journalists. At the same time there were personal issues to look into and the Emergency was a blip in my scheme of things. Politically the atmosphere was vitiated and it was never the same India again.

It was the year of sharks, in water (USA) and on land (India), invading human spaces that would resonate for years turning 1975 into an epochal year.

 

1. The University of Allahabad was set up in 1887. Allahabad is 202 km south east of Lucknow, the capital Uttar Pradesh
2. Sanjay Gandhi was Indira Gandhi’s younger son