ins(e)pi/aration

Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again after moments or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends.

~Richard Bach (Illusions)

കാവ്യയുടെ കവിതകള് - 1

keeping an old promise :)

read http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.com/2007/01/blog-post.html for background info

കാവ്യയുടെ കവിതകള് - 2

click to enlarge

why don't they just gettit ?

pic: http://www.hinduwisdom.info/images/couple_hindu.jpg




every year as the world celebrates the valentines day in its own way, the sena in maharashtra "celebrates it their way by breaking up a few shops and burning a few effigies" as one of my friends put ( not quoting, but the idea....)

arguably, the v-day has quite a christian/western influence on it, ...
http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays/valentines_day.htm

in fact, i should rather rephrase it as , its another of the lovely native traditions, taken over and christianised by the church .. even the commie run "The Hindu" admits that
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/yw/2003/02/08/stories/2003020800020200.htm

The association of St. Valentine's Day with love and courtship rose from coincidence of the date with the Roman festival of Lupercalia. The festival is believed to have been in honour of Faunus, the Roman god of flocks and fertility. Also known as Lupercus, he was worshipped in a temple on the Palatine Hill, and the festival was celebrated on February 14. The festival survived until the 5th Century A.D. The Christian church ended the feast of Lupercalia, transforming it into the feast of St. Valentine

That doesn't surprise me, for the church is known for such take overs..... some people believe that even Dec 25 was some kind of local festival, which was taken over by the church...

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anyways, the point is, for the sena, how good (or rather bad) is it to oppose a festival celebrating love ? amongst youngsters... even from a cultural perspective is it not better to indianize the day .. start organizing something special for couples in nice, safe and culturally acceptable community places.. never mind how many come in the first few yrs... if you make it attractive enough people will eventually shun bars and dance clubs .. those who still go to the latter places, well you can't change them anyways...

or may be pick another day - hindus have so many festivals anyways, and many celebrating love- and make it popular as an occasion for couples and young lovers...........

to put it in short, i never got the logic behind senas breaking up shops ....

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and now, even more enigmatic is the demand to ban orkut..... !!

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/08spec.htm

lol, what kind of logic is that ?! ... in one go, you are going to create thousands of young enemies... minus may be some who spend way too much on orkut to the level of addiction, and will be thankful to u for saving their lives :-)

how do these people manage to completely miss the pulse of the youth every time ? why don't they gettit ?

I wonder, how the party continues to get support, even from among the youth ? may be they do lot of good work otherwise, especially in cleaning up the filth of mumbai .. or may be the threat given by the islamists in trying to turn mumbai (and parts of mumbai i hear has already been) into numerous mini-pakistans, is so grave and poeple there see the sena as the only force which can stand up against it....

or is their some other reason ? that indeed people are seeing through the commercialism and the westenrisation motives behind the v-day ? am i the one not getting it ??

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talking about orkut, its interesting to see some people (and this includes my friends and relatives) put "spiritual but not religous" .... "religious humanism" and so on in the religion column ! interestingly some of these "spiritual but not religiuous" people are hardcore temple goers !! and i bet those who put "religious humanism" have know clue what it means(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_humanism ) ... its just a fashion at best !!

but then, i would not fully blame them either, for over the years the media and the intelligentsia and our dear p-sec politicians have managed to create a psyche that calling oneself a hindu is a matter of shame..... alas they forgot to teach us that hinduism is indeed the basis for all spirituality, that it encompaasses all humanism and that it indeed is "right-liberalism" , an option that orkut fails to give !! much as it fails to recognise sanskrit as a spoken language !!!

happy weekend

150th post

I got the following paper clipping as an email attachment, with a note

Please see the attached article by Shri Gurumurthyji on M F Husain's paintings. The Indian media has carefully shielded these provocative paintings from the public eye, while espousing the noble cause of 'artistic freedom'. Gurumurthyji has done us a great service by getting them published. Now, the public can see for themselves and decide whether this is artistic freedom or sexual perversion.

Please see also a related link: http://www.sanatan.org/hussaincampaign/painting.php

and recently i got another email from yaajushi ( her pen-name, i guess)

http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/article/mf-husain-campaign/m-f-hussain-selected-for-raja-ravi-varma-award.html

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for now leave it to others to handle mfhussain (issue), and i for once drift into memory lanes... how i used to take time off during my final semester at iitm (which was relatively free with only two courses and final year btech project) to transcribe some very informative talks..couple of them Gurumurthyji's and some of which are available now at http://pramodkumar.voiceofdharma.com/index.htm ..

i must have done close to 10 of them.... from cassettes to a piece of paper... and most of them, i used to take to the li'l shop outside the velachery gate to be typed up into a word document... it was just 10 rupees or so for typing up a page... and another 5 rupee for a print out (something like that)

the only catch was that my poor handwriting added to to the villagers english necessitated, a thorough word by word correction later on... to the extend that after a while i prefered typing them up myself in the vels shop (they were also happy about it as they can do some other work, while i paid the same or close to the same fee)

anyways, here is one particularly favorite one of mine .. and i am inlcuding the google link to show how popular it has become http://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+Intellectual+Scene+in+Post-Independence+India%22&hl=en&start=0&sa=N

And this particular comment, pays off for all the hard work i did in my IITM 8th semester :-)

http://www.aspirationsindia.org/dec06/article6.htm

This is one of the most thought provoking speeches about India in recent times. Delivered by Mr. S.Gurumurthy, who has been a lateral thinker and an intellect, has put together thoughts about our very own country, about which, many of us have very wrong impression...Some facts stated here are really stunning. This is truly an intellectual piece, which coincidentally has been on the most popular e-mail forwards. Read it with patience and see how it changes your mind....

How i wish i had that kinna energy and time these days !!

"will Sanskrit go from America to India?"

pic(k) of the day

Found this pic in the Keralakaumudi online edition !! Minister for "education" in the Communist govt of Kerala, M.A Baby , unvealing a statue of Saddam Hussain to be erected in Kanyakumari !! Looking at the similar poses , yours truly has one doubt - which one is real, which one is the statue ? Or are they interchangeable ? like in terror and ruthlessness ..........