Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

Spoiler

Doubting Thomas buried under San Thome Basilica, Mylapore

 

sounds like found the missing perso

 

He matches mostly, only he was killed with a "Lance" instead. Also, (my) #1 guy is a Roman, who died in Rome, and by arrows.

 

Will post the answer soon (tomorrow/Monday), had been a bit busy weekend.

 

Oh I took your answer for #1 and the rest of ur post as ur link to the news headlines.

 

I will explain the clues, will post the detailed solution later, haven't finished drafting it.

Story #1.

Img1: Roman emperor tearing the Italy map, a reference to Diocletian who split the Roman empire into two for administrative purposes.

Keyword(s): Diocletian. Optional: Rome / Roman.

Img2: Bhishmar with arrow wounds. Keyword: Arrow. Optional: Wounded.

Img3: Santa Claus but in a Yogi mode, as a reference to 'Saint' Nicholas. Keyword: Saint.

Search combo: Diocletian+Arrow+Saint.

Story #2.

Img1: TN (Seshan).
Img2: Pandit.
Img3: (Natalie) Portman.

Keyword 4: Because I mentioned the stories are based on a recent news headline, I thought you will have figured 'Andaman' already.

Search combo(s): TN+Pandit+Andaman or Portman+Andaman.

Had you skipped 'Andaman' and searched TN+Pandit+Portman, the wiki page about their contact with N Sentinels would have come up instantly or so I thought!

 

Cont'd. Solution:

Story #1: About Saint Sebastian - Martyrdom.



Diocletian was busy persecuting the followers of the Catholic faith. He didn't like the Romans converting to Christianity.

Being in the army, Sebastian had managed to conceal his faith and secretly convert his fellow soldiers but not for too long. He was detected and Diocletian sentenced him to death by arrows for his "betrayal" but the arrows had not killed him. According to the legend, he was rescued by a widow, the Irene of Rome.

After healing, he went back to Diocletian and warned him about his sins against Christians. The emperor was indeed more annoyed and angered for a reason. He ordered Sebastian's death again and this time made sure he was dead for real!

Story #2: About trying to contact the North Sentinel tribe. Sentinelese - Contact.

Maurice Vidal Portman, colonial Brits' naval officer posted at the A&N islands to oversee their operations, is infamous for his documentation works on the Andamanese tribes.



He, with his armed team, did "successfully" land on the North Sentinel islands once. The aboriginals by then had fled into the interiors, to hide from the foreigners, but for an elderly couple and four children whom Portman "kidnapped" back to the mainland for observation and study.

The sentinels weren't exposed to our world, had fallen sick rapidly and seemed to have died within a week. Portman sent back the children to their home with gifts and hoped the adults would accept him as their friend. The attempt was unsuccessful, the tribes did not accept the friendship offer, given two from their tribe had just died because of him. Eventually, Portman called his "experiment" a failure and dropped pursuing them.

Book: A History Of Our Relations With The Andamanese Vol.2, Portman M.V.

T.N. Pandit, an Indian anthropologist, visited the North Sentinel years after Portland, as part of Independent India's census expedition and documented the Jarawa and Sentinelese tribes, both famously known for their rudeness towards outsiders.

Pandit had tried to establish contact with the Sentinels several times since 1967, and finally in 1991 the Islanders "allowed" him to visit (about 1km inland), closely observe their life and even to be filmed on a camera!



The full documentary titled "Man in search of Man" from the Indian govt is the only information source available so far about the sentinels. Interesting watch, if you haven't seen.

This video was viral in the media last week, thanks to Chau or I wouldn't have known about the sentinels.

From DNA analysis of the other Andaman tribes, the sentinels are said to have existed since 70000 years and, even to this day, they seem to live a very 'Palaeolithic' way of life. Impressive!

Their lack of immunity to modern diseases, the abductions, and aggression by the colonial British could have made them hostile towards outsiders. Pandit and his team weren't welcomed either after that one visit. The team had stopped over the years.



"They are not wanting anything from you. We are coming to them,” he said. “They suspect that we have no good intentions. That’s why they are resisting.”

In an interview, Pandit points out how the once hostile and now friendly Jarawa tribe have become after their contact with outsiders.

“The Jarawas began drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and caught diseases that they wouldn’t have had they not been exposed to our culture."

Also, it is noted that poachers regularly fish around the island illegally for turtles and lobsters. Makes sense why the sentinels wouldn't think twice to pick up their bows and shoot arrows at anyone. Yet they let Chau go free twice, didn't they? Stupid of him to stay and try.

Book: "Meeting the Sentinel Islanders: the Least Known of the Andaman Hunter-gatherers", 1993.

Pandit's team had a woman anthropologist and the only woman too, Madhumala Chattopadhyay.

5yrs old but an interesting and funny discussion on Reddit.

Well, Sebastian was converting people to Christianity. He had faced arrows, wasn't killed the first time but wouldn't go away either and eventually had to die.

Portman and Pandit had tried contacting the sentinels, had "successfully" landed too at least once on the island.

Similar to what John Chau tried to do (contact and convert) and whatever happened to him (being shot with arrows). That's the connection I saw and thought to combine the stories to make a puzzle.

See you with another soon, ain't going away easy. We don't understand hints!

Lol. Thank you for playing.

 

@kaniths

Finally, I could manage only St. Sebastian and T.N.Pandit but never found Maurice. Even these two I found only after you gave substantial clues.
Anyhow, I enjoyed solving your puzzle and it gave a lot of work for my rusted brain. Excellent write up on solution.

 

He he. Hmm, in the comeback coffee puzzles series, first (Tea and Bucks) and second (Penguins on flights) had multiple keywords for each img clue. So I changed the design this time, kept it simple as much with one keyword per img. The name clues didn't work but everyone was able to solve the Sebastian puzzle easy. Something in the design did work! Noted, will keep this in the mind for the next. I want to figure out a design that is micro, solvable in seconds and fun as a coffee break puzzle.

Think its the #musings musing habit influence! Thank you.