For Indian moviegoers, Films Division evokes memories of grainy black-and-white newsreels and documentaries, shown in darkened auditoriums ahead of the main movie.At first glance this looks like an amazing resource.
The organisation that has documented and archived over 50 years of independent India's history on celluloid now wants to take its collection to a wider audience.
Last month, it put 700 of its 8000 films on its Web site, Filmdivision.org. These include documentaries by some of the country's leading filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Gulzar, Girish Karnad and Prakash Jha....
The most heartbreaking blog: Baghdad Burning. Do people in America read things like this at all?
The Hindu is one of India's best newspapers. In spite of its name, it is not a publication about religion. However, once a week it does carry several articles about ancient temples in South India. I found two interesting articles this Friday:
One, about Lord Saranathan's temple at Thirucherai, quotes from several hymns about the place, written by Tamil saints.
There's also a piece about the Velleeshwarar temple, here in Chennai. I like these articles because they tell you about the special features of each temple (the excerpt below describes a shrine to the elephant-headed Ganesh, aka Vinayaka):
...Like all Siva temples, the Vellishwarar temple too has a sanctum for Lord Ganesha, but the one here for Selva Vinayaka is unique in many ways. While in most Ganesha shrines this deity is seen alone, here He is seen with his two consorts Siddhi and Buddhi. Moreover, this image of Ganesha is in a standing posture, while in other temples he is usually seated.I find it endearing that the fact that the shrine faces south, or that the god is standing instead of sitting, are considered important features. There are some photographs of the temples too.
The majestic image in this sanctum is four-armed and holds the pasha and ankusha in his upper hands. In one of his lower hands He holds the modaka, His favourite sweet, while the tip of His curved trunk rests in the palm of the other hand. Another unusual feature is that this Vinayaka shrine faces south and is situated right in front of the main entrance, above which is a five-storeyed gopura...
The Raj and Thyagaraja: British influence on Carnatic classical music:
...Perhaps the earliest innovation was the violin. This very Western instrument became part of the Carnatic music tradition when the family of composer Ramaswami Dikshitar moved from Tiruvarur to Madras in the 1790s. The five-year stay exposed brothers Muthuswami and Baluswami Dikshitars to the ‘airs’ that were being played by the Fort St George orchestra.
Baluswami Dikshitar learnt to play the violin from an Englishman and introduced it to the Carnatic concert platform. Muthuswami Dikshitar composed around fifty verses in Sanskrit, based on the orchestra’s music...
Two good lines from the Sunday afternoon Hindi movie on TV:
[Fight line] You crow! In your laughter I can hear the death rattle!
[Reconciliation, as the villain lies dying -- he has blocked a bullet meant for the hero -- he remorsefully asks the hero to finish him off. The hero replies] Whom should I kill? The one who took my death in his own embrace in order to save me? The one who washed the sin of murdering my sister with his own blood?...
On Sunday morning I had to go out. I drove down a street where a number of vendors were selling clay statues of Ganesh for the festival, along with paper and tinsel umbrellas -- a royal insignia. So I bought Ganesh, about a foot high, gaudily painted in blue and purple, with gold highlights; and a yellow patterned umbrella, shaped like a pillbox hat. I'd been growing fenugreek in a basket in the windowsill, but it has had to move to the atrium to make way for Ganesh and his umbrella. He looks quite nice there. And I haven't done anything to bring divinity into the clay, so I won't have to throw him out when the festival is over.
Some Google referrals:
A 'keep' is a mistress, a 'kept woman.' MGR died in 1987, so this is pretty old news. Food, sex and religion. That about seems to sum it up. (I didn't know about a connection between fenugreek and sex when I planted it in my window basket! It's very easy to grow, and the small leaves can be used as a vegetable; chopped and stirred into chappati; or put into salads.)
pooja essentials for ganapathi pooja
Ayurvedic tanjore recipe
MGR's keeps
can husband and wife enjoy sex in the month of Adi
Andhra food fenugreek sex
midnight telugu masala
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