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Yes, there are no doubts that this is about the first of August, and that question mark in the title was not a typographical error. Will tell you more as we proceed. In my not so humble opinion, the first of August does not receive the importance it deserves, and here are some reasons to view this date with reverence.
It begins with this day marking one of humanity’s noblest achievements. On 1 August 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect across much of the British empire, freeing more than 8 lakh enslaved people. After profiting from slavery for centuries, the Empire finally admitted that owning a human being was reprehensible. Cynics might question whether we are truly free today, but that’s a philosophical debate for another day.
Fast forward 147 years. On 1 August 1981, a small American cable channel called MTV began broadcasting at 12.01 am. The first words spoken were, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” Then came the first music video ever aired, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles, which in a dramatic way announced the death of an older icon through launch of a new one. MTV changed popular culture forever. Some of you might have skipped that song, but you would most likely recognise its adaptation by Bappi Lahiri in Disco Dancer, where he and Usha Uthup belted out Koi Yahan Aaha Nache Nache. That album raced to the top of the charts then dominated by Qurbani, with Nazia Hassan’s Aap Jasa Koi ruling the airwaves. Tragically, Nazia Hassan died at 35, succumbing to lung cancer.
World Lung Cancer Day is observed every 1 August to raise awareness of the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths. According to the WHO, lung cancer claims more lives each year than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. For decades, cigarette advertisements portrayed smokers as adventurous cowboys, sophisticated executives and glamorous stars. I wish hospitals had advertised instead, with images of people outside the oncology department. Generations grew up imitating how a particular southern movie star flicked a cigarette into his mouth. But those were pre social media times, when communication was mostly one sided.
August 1 is also World Wide Web Day. Purists will point out that the web did not technically arrive on this date. Tim Berners Lee proposed it in 1989 at CERN and built the first website in August 1991. The transformation that followed places www among the greatest inventions of the last hundred years. Conceived as a solution for storing and sharing documents, it’s now so all-encompassing it could serve as your virtual guide to the galaxy. Douglas Adams once remarked that the web is the only thing whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it stands for.
Since 1891, the first of August has been Swiss National Day. Men from the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swore eternal allegiance to one another at the start of August 1291 in an alliance around which modern Switzerland was built. Celebrations remain exclusively communal, barring a broadcast by the President of the Swiss Confederation. They feature solemn words from public figures, concerts, gymnastic displays, community singing of the anthem, flags, paper lantern parades and fireworks. Surprisingly, no reports mention cheese or chocolates stereotypically associated with the Swiss.
August 1 is also National Girlfriends Day, celebrated since 2006, marking the bond between girls. The word, girlfriend, first appeared in 1859, according to Merriam-Webster, originally meaning a female friend. In the 1920s, as dating became popular, the word took on a romantic meaning. If you’re wondering why we don’t get a holiday for this day, my answer is I don’t know but, it’s a good question. Which brings me back to that question mark.
In July 1988, a Malayalam film was released, loosely based on Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal. Starring Mammootty, Sukumaran, Capt. Raju and others, scripted by S N Swamy and directed by Sibi Malayil, it follows the plotting of a Chief Minister’s assassination and the officer who thwarts it. The film was reportedly first submitted for CBFC certification as August 15, since the assassination attempt in the climax was structured around Independence Day celebrations. Minutes of that meeting aren’t on record, but interviews and speculation from film journalists suggest that the censors objected. With barely a month to Independence Day, the production house understood the stakes but couldn’t agree on an alternative. That brainstorming session would have been fascinating to witness. What we do know is how it ended. The film was resubmitted as August1? and released to rave reviews, critical and commercial. While researching this, I found the release posters carried August1? but the CBFC certificate on streaming platforms shows only August1.
Now, where did that question mark go?
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.