Phantom Country

Phantom Country

Henry Kissinger said that there were only two reasons for traveling at the back of an aircraft-either you have diarrhoea or want to meet someone who does .I  had reason to remember this on a recent flight. My seat was  the first one in the plane. The plane had a single loo in front ; about 18 inches from the tip of my right boot. There was a young officer from the Infantry who was sitting next to me, and a couple of inches nearer the loo than I was. We would be flying for about 3 hours and time would hang heavy on our hands. He was the only available ally and I wasted no time breaking the ice (YO’s in the Infantry usually don’t talk first to silvabacks like me).`So tell me’ I turned to him chattily,`Do you have diarrhoea?’.
            Actually we got along quite well, after clearing up the initial misunderstanding (he’d heard Gonorrhoea).He even laughed and forgave me after I’d explained to him who Henry Kissinger was (a blood-stained mass murderer, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize) and started showing me the photos in his camera.
            “This is Phantom’s peak which is in Walikale”he informed me while showing an aerial photograph,”We’re in Phantom country,the ghost- who- walks comes to Goma whenever he needs to make a phone-call or catch a flight”.We were told to speak softly and not disturb the crew and passengers every few minutes; by the crew and passengers in turn, for the rest of the flight.
         The quiz below is born of their martyrdom and our passion for Phantom Comics. Those who are not into comics (if such there be) are advised to cut their losses and turn the page .The answers to the questions are at the end of the issue, if the editor remembers to print them. So get set-
1. Phantom country is Bengalla all over the world but Denkali in Indrajal comics, in which region of the world did Lee Falk initially place it?
1.Bengalla/Denkali is in Africa only after 1960,before that it was ‘somewhere in India’.. Lee Falk probably accidentally answered the continental whereabouts of Bengali in the 1964 daily story The Reef .In that story, Diana writes to The Phantom and addresses her note: "Mr. Kit Walker, Box 7, Morristown, Bengali, Africa
Lee Falk changed Bengali to Bangalla halfway through the daily story The Witchman from 1972. Maps showing the location of Bengali/Bangalla in Africa have often been very vague and contradictory. Locations near Zanzibar, Ethiopia, Kenya and Cameroon have all been indicated on maps. Incredibly, it is not even certain if Bengali/Bangalla is on the east or west coast of Africa.So we can have it in Walikale ,if we want.
 In a 1980 interview with Vir Sanghvi in Bombay,Lee Falk explains "I wanted it to be at least partly India,like that guy Kipling and The Jungle Book and all that. Basically, I wanted Rajas." But there was another problem. He wanted pygmies as well. "So I thought why not make up an Afro-Indian country with its own name?"
And what name did he choose?
"Well I wanted something really wild-sounding. You know, like the tiger."
So he called it Bengala.
Oops!
. But when King Features picked up the strip for international syndication in the Fifties (yes, people of my generation remember reading it in The Illustrated Weekly), they had a little talk with Falk and told him that there were no lions, Negroes or skull-caves in Bengal. So could he please change the name?
"I thought, it doesn't really matter, does it?" he remembered. "I mean, I made it up in the first place." So he let them call it Denkali. (It is still called Bengala in many versions, though.) But he kept the Indian touches. There are lots of rajas. And the current Phantom's father was killed by the Singh pirates (who, no doubt, sailed the seas of the Punjab).

2.The Skull cave is guarded by which tribe?
2. The pigmy Bandar,Lee Falk was inspired by the Bandar log in Kipling’s Jungle Book.The other tribes are the Llongo who are farmers and the Wambesi who are cattle herders.Oongaan ,the smallest tribe is a community of master sculptors,making fabulous sculptures out of the golden wood from the Phantom’s whispering grove.
3.The present Phantom is –st in the line of Phantoms?
3. He’s 21st in the line of Phantoms.
4. Where did he spend his childhood?
4.America.
5.What is the colour of Phantom’s suit?(Yes, there is a catch)
5.Although printed purple initially for technical and later artistic reasons, the colour as per the text ,both in the comics and the books ,is Grey.
6.What make are the Phantom’s pistols with which he accurately knocks weapons out of other’s hands?
6. The Colt M1911 which was standard issue in the US Army from 1911-1980. The  modified M1911A1 design is still favored by a large number of police SWAT teams throughout the United States. Many military and law enforcement organizations in the United States and many other countries continue to use the (slightly modified) M1911A1 pistols because they favor the greater stopping power of the .45 cartridge and the superior shoot ability of the weapon. Marine Force Recon, Los Angeles Police Department Special Weapons and Tactics, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta (The  Delta Force) are among the other elite forces who still favour this weapon.
7.Diana Walker nee`Palmer is an Olympic sportswoman and a working woman to boot,which is her sport and who are her employers?
7.She’s a diver and works for the UN.
8.The Skull cave contains treasure and priceless artefacts,name the latter?
8.Alexander’s diamond drinking cup,King Arthur’s sword Excalibur and Roland’s Horn. The mummified asp that Cleopatra used to commit suicide The golden laurel wreath (coronet) Mark Antony gave to Julius Caesar, The original script of Shakespeare's Hamlet, The great ring of Nebuchadnezzar ,The necklace of Nefertiti The lyre of blind poet Homer, The wig worn by the 3rd Phantom when he played Juliet in the original presentation of Romeo and Juliet The pen used by Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet. They are in the major treasure room while the minor treasure room merely has gold and gems.
9.Where did the Phantom have his honeymoon?
9.They did it in the Jade hut on the Golden Beach at(the suggestively named) Keela Wee.The hut ,of course is actually made of jade and the sands of the beach are actually rich in gold.
10.The final question which is meant only for those who wear their underpants striped and over their trousers-What are the names of the Phantom’s dog(which is actually a wolf),elephant,horse,lioness, tiger&lion on which he rides,dolphins behind which he water-skis,his falcon,his pet gorilla and his (believe it or not)pet dinosaur?
10. They are in the order asked Devil,Joomba,Hero,Kateena,Stripes and Fuzzy,Solomon and Nefertiti, Fraka,Tiny and Stegy.