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 ..........

two blogposts..

Here are two blogposts, related to Kerala, which I enjoyed reading

1) http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2007/05/me-in-pioneer-on-demolition-man.html

I used to not like Achuthanandan for in addition to being a commie, his speeches seemed way too artificial and political for me, but that perhaps was just his style. If not anything else, the 80 some CM has surely proved to be an action man. I shall wait and watch

2) http://stochastic-blah-blah.blogspot.com/2007/05/temple-entry-to-everyone.html

Ranjith has looked at the issue from various angles.. It also has a mention of yours truly and the good old Meera Jasmine petition. One thing I ardently hope is that the commies do not get credit for what is an internal evolution within Kerala-Hinduism...

अवशेषजीवनस्य प्रथमदिनम्

ह्यः वस्तुअतया मम एकम् दायित्वं समाप्तम् ! DC प्रदेशस्य संस्कृतकार्यकर्ता रूपेण ! अतः अहं चिन्तितवान् किन्चित् स्मृतिमार्गॆ सन्चरामि इति !


यद्यपि अस्माकं सम्स्कृत कार्यम् पूरवमपि आसीत् तदापि मम तावदधिकम् दायित्वम् तु 2007 दिसम्बर् मासे एव आरब्दम् ! तस्मिन् मासस्य 17 तमदिनान्के अहम् सम्स्कृतकार्य “पुनरुधारणर्थम्” आदि शन्कराचार्य नाम्न चलनचित्रस्य प्रदर्शनं कर्तुं निस्चयं कृतवान् ! Dec 24 वयं मॆलितवन्तः ! केवलं 5 एव आसन् ! राजॆष् महॊदयः (अत्रस्य सम्स्कृत भारती चालकः) अहम् एकः नूतनः कार्यकर्ता (अविनाशः) अनन्तरम् अन्य द्वौ !!


सार्धवर्षानन्तरम् हयः - May 19 – यद्दा वय़्म् मॆलितवन्तः दशाधिक जनाः आसन् – कार्यकर्तारूपॆण ऎव ! सार्धवर्षे वयम् बहवः कार्यक्रमाः कृतवन्तः ! अत्र पश्यतु – http://www.sitekreator.com/speaksanskrit ! मम मनसी सन्तॊषमपि अस्ति दुखमपि अस्ति ! सम्स्कृतसॆवनार्थम् यः अवसरः मया प्राप्तः तदर्थम् अहं कृतार्थः ! अपि च मम परमॊपाहारः अस्ति मम “नूतन” सम्कृतमित्राणि !


इत्तोपि अधिकं कार्यं करणियम् मया ! इदानीम् मम स्वप्नः अस्ति May 19 2008 (बुध पौर्णमि) आरभ्य् June 3 2008 (गनॆशचतुर्थी) परयन्तम् 108-दिनस्य सम्स्कृत यत्रायाः आयॊजनम् करणियम् इति ! एकः वर्षः अवशिष्टः अद्य आरभ्य ! आश्चर्यकार्यम् अस्ति अद्य प्रातकाले उत्थया अहम् एवमॆव अनतर्जालम् द्ष्तवान् मया सम्पूर्ण आदि शन्कराचार्यः चलनचित्रम् प्राप्तम् http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1047087149251803384 !!


पश्यामः किं भविष्यति इति !! स्वप्नदर्शनार्थ्ं कमपि धनं दातव्यं खलु ? अपि च यथा अब्दुल् कलां महॊदयः वदति “स्वप्नात् भवति चिन्ता ! चिन्तायाः भवति क्रिया”

suppressio veri suggestio falsi

Dear Shri Raman

I appreciate you coming up with a quick article on the mosque blasts... And the appeal to muslims not to get intimidated ..

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/18raman.htm

In the above article you have quoted samjhauta blasts as a "targeted attack" on Muslims ..

However in a previous article you had mentioned that

It seems that while the majority of the 68 passengers killed in the explosions-cum-fire in two coaches of the Samjhauta Express at Deewana, near Panipat, on February 18 were Pakistani nationals, more Hindus than Muslims were killed.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/21raman.htm

What is the truth ? Why are the Nationalities and the religious affiliations of the victims of Samjhauta blasts not made public ? Were most of them who got killed Pakistani Hindus ? out of the very few who are left out ......

thanks and regards

.... an old love... after 5 years :)

Alternate link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5400627457371871580

May 11 thoughts

( Note: see my last years May 11 post at
http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.com/2006/05/as-another-may-11-approaches.html )

So..... the nuke deal discussions still continues.... personally, like last year, i face mix of uncertainties and hopes ahead eventhough of a different nature... and above all, elections are in the news

The UP elections, not only proved the exit polls wrong for the nth time in a row (in fact i can't really recall a major election in the recent past where they were any close.... gone are the days of the prannoy roy accuracy of predictions) , but also, i feel vindicated my belief of a "hindu vote bank" ... to take a term from the british-imposed vocabulary - "upper caste hindu vote bank" to be more specific ..

See my previous post at http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.com/2006/11/fc-votebank.html

Mayawati rightly tapped into it - into the FC vote bank , while still keeping her harijan vote bank intact ( because mulayam and congress were too busy wooing muslims, and the bjp never really made much inroads.... ) . I think congratulations are dew to her .. and she will be one of the most watched political figures atleast for some time to come... hope she does not mess with a birthday bash and a tajmahal sale ... and needless to say, any kind of divide and rule

Like many others, I too wish that the caste politics is eliminated at some point, but then, as long as it is there to stay (and that may be a loooooong period), its perhaps better off top to see results like this where Hindus of various castes come under one banner, one party, than seeing them fight with each other... after all, one is told that indeed thats the ultimate aim of hindutva - to unite hindus above caste barriers.. and its perhaps good that such a goal is not just promoted by one "parivar"....

lets wait and watch - whether its up or down in UP....

May be the month of hopes...

April ended hectic - between thursday and sunday I had driven about 1000 miles, criss crossed the NJ Turnpike some 6-7 times and had an average of 4 hrs sleep for 4 days continuous, and all of this while continuing to have a bad allergy induced cold, and body pain... but it was fun, lots of it ... and hopes for future....... and shall I say I ended April or start May - with a new addition to my life - a SONY VAIO notebook... thanks to Kalyan for guiding me thro' a good deal - a notebook + printer/scanner + 3 yrs service contract - altogether for effectively 800$ ! ....

Some how, I have always liked the moth of May.. May be (!!) its the transition to summer , may be its the beginnings of new phases, may be its the "May 11" of the Pokhran and the Somnath fame,.... may be may be...

Yup, lifes changing fast for me, and will soon know if the Verazzano bridge will indeed isolate me atleast partially in a looooong island ...................................