- Lion of the Desert (Anthony Quinn) A very touching movie on the life of Omar al-Mokhtar who led the resistance in Libya against the fascist forces from Italy in the 1920s. Anthony Quinn gives a superb performance in this lavish production. Must see.
- Iraq: The Cradle of Civilization (Documentary) Host Michael Wood takes us to various places in Iraq which is called the cradle of civilization (Kak etc. calls India as the cradle of civilization). Wood takes us to Uruk, the first city of Sumer, the home of Abraham and where writing, wheel and art was invented. We get to see the garden of Eden at the meeting point of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers analyzed life of the people now and in ancient times. Excellent
- God and Buddha: A Dialogue (Documentary) In this documentary Professor Robert Thurman and Deepak Chopra explore the parallels between Buddhist philosophy and Vedanta and they find that there is no difference except for some semantics. If you are not very spiritually inclined, most of the discussion will fly over your head. Excellent watch.
- Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (Tamil) A guy and a girl meet on a train from Mumbai to Chennai and separate without knowing much about each other. Then they try to find each other in Chennai. I saw this movie due to some good A R Rahman songs which I had listened earlier. But the movie turned out to be 3 hrs of advertisment shots in between music video style filmed songs. The sweetness oozing out of the scenes will even creep out Suraj Bharjatya. Avoid it.
Meditation and Brain
During meditation most meditators experience a state of deep relaxation. It slows down metabolism and the breathing becomes slow. Buddha found a way to end suffering in a deep meditative state. Ultimately all this activity in the mind has to translate into some chemical reaction in the brain. So it would be interesting to study if any changes happen in the brain based on mental signals, the kind that happens during meditation.
The result was the scans that Prof. Davidson projected in Dharamsala. They compared brain activity in volunteers who were novice meditators to that of Buddhist monks who had spent more than 10,000 hours in meditation. The task was to practice “compassion” meditation, generating a feeling of loving kindness toward all beings.
In a striking difference between novices and monks, the latter showed a dramatic increase in high-frequency brain activity called gamma waves during compassion meditation. Thought to be the signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung brain circuits, gamma waves underlie higher mental activity such as consciousness. The novice meditators “showed a slight increase in gamma activity, but most monks showed extremely large increases of a sort that has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature,” says Prof. Davidson, suggesting that mental training can bring the brain to a greater level of consciousness.
Using the brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists pinpointed regions that were active during compassion meditation. In almost every case, the enhanced activity was greater in the monks’ brains than the novices’. Activity in the left prefrontal cortex (the seat of positive emotions such as happiness) swamped activity in the right prefrontal (site of negative emotions and anxiety), something never before seen from purely mental activity. A sprawling circuit that switches on at the sight of suffering also showed greater activity in the monks. So did regions responsible for planned movement, as if the monks’ brains were itching to go to the aid of those in distress. [Scans of Monks’ Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning]
History through coins
There is a coin exhibition going on in Trivandrum, which is like a narration of the whole history of Kerala state.
The coins on show include the silver Purana, issued by the Ay-Chera chieftains between 600 and 200 BC and which is believed to be the oldest coin of southernmost India; the silver Makotai, the earliest known portrait coin of South India, which was issued by the Cheras during the Sangam age; Roman dinarii; the minute Quarter Taras of Vijayanagar, which weigh just 0.06 gm; and the Vellichakram, issued by the Travancore king, Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma, in the mid-18th century.
The coins, which were in circulation in Malabar, such as the famed Gold Mohur; the Venetian Ducat; and the coins issued by the East India Company, the French in Mahe, and Hyderali and Tipu, are displayed. There is a collection of the gold coins minted by the Gangas, Hoysalas and Yadavas. [Coining a unique history]
Textile Quotas and United States
In 2005 when the Multi-Fiber Agreement ends and quotas are removed for textile manufacture, many countries will be in trouble. One such country maybe Bangladesh whose business could be undercut by India and China. But it may not be developing countries that get affected, it could be United States too.
Meanwhile, here in the slowly beating heart of the remaining American textile industry, workers and owners of factories still operating along a stretch of Interstate 85 from Charlotte to Greensboro see the dawning of 2005 as a death sentence. More companies, they fear, will go bankrupt. More communities will wither like Kannapolis, and thousands more workers will be desperate for training, employment and health insurance.
In hopes of staving off the worst, politicians in the Southeast from both parties are taking advantage of the close outlook for the presidential election to win last-minute concessions from the White House that could slow the flood of imports from China.
Most experts expect that China, left unimpeded, will gain almost half the global apparel market. Its factories now make about 20 percent of the clothing and textiles sold in the United States; China is expected to capture as much as 70 percent of that market, potentially leading to the closing of half the surviving American mills and layoffs for tens of thousands more workers. [
The worries of Times of India
The American elections are a time when Indian Editorials come up with snarky remarks. For example, the editor at Times of India wonders on what will happen if Ohio takes time to come up with the results.
Last time it was Florida, and this time it’s Ohio with its pesky provisional votes that are causing the constitutional logjam which could take 11 days to unclog. Can the world’s most powerful nation $(O n(Bot to mention the rest of us insignificant others $(O a(Bfford such a political impasse? Suppose, God forbid, an international crisis were to erupt, a major terrorist attack, a nuclear confrontation or a global financial convulsion? Without a clear figure of authority in the White House, the resultant panic could well spiral out of control with disastrous international results. [
Election Results
Distraught over the re-election of President George W. Bush, a Georgia man traveled to New York City, went to Ground Zero and killed himself with a shotgun blast, police said yesterday. The suicide victim, Andrew Veal, 25, was discovered just before 8 a.m. yesterday when a worker for the Millennium Hotel looking at Ground Zero from an upper floor saw a man lying atop the concrete structure through which the 1 and 9 subway lines run. The worker, thinking the man was sleeping, alerted colleagues and the Port Authority police were notified. But when they got to Veal’s body, they realized he had killed himself with a shot to the head from a .12-gauge shotgun. [Outside The Beltway : Man Kills Self at Ground Zero]
The number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada’s main immigration Web site has shot up six-fold as Americans flirt with the idea of abandoning their homeland after President George W. Bush’s election win this week. [Hello Canada!]
Is this how Democrats are planning to win in 2008 ?
Vir Sanghvi's Punditry
Elections in US and time for Vir Sangvi to come up with ridiculous claims
And yet, when the results came in and Bush made his triumphant victory speech, I couldn
Jaisalmer
Sean-Paul Kelley of the Agonist has an entry on Jaisalmer, which lies in the middle of Thar Desert in Rajasthan. This was one of the major cities on the camel route to Persia before Mumbai became an important port city.
Built in 1156, the city sits along the old southern trade routes heading west out of India across Persia and into the Levant–finally the goods were shipped to Italy in exchange for European gold during the Italian Renaissance. Like the great merchants of Italy the Jains here in Jaisalmer built magnificent houses called havelis and temples intricately carved temples to rival those at Mt. Abu south of here. The city is a small oasis town amidst desert and adjacent the frontier with Pakistan.
The massive fort that looms above town was built by the Maharaja Jaisala in 1156 to ward off Muslim invaders from the West. It has 99 bastions, still holds 25% of the population and has a most stunning view from the top.
Inside the fort are two Jain temples dedicated to Rikhabdev and Sanbharanath respectively, and were built between 1156 and 1400. The Hindu temple is rather plain. Although the city is 20% Muslim I haven’t yet located the Mosque.
The city certainly isn’t as magnificent as Samarkand or Bukhara but it is a step above Dunhuang and Kashgar. [Jaisalmer]
Blog Mela at Ashish's place
This week’s blog mela is up at Ashish’s Niti. This time there are couple of entries from non-Indians as well. The next one is up at Opti-Mystic
While on the topic of Indian bloggers, Rojo is a new online service for managing your RSS/Atom Feeds, similar to bloglines. When you login to Rojo you get an initial list of blogs in various categories to subscribe to. Now they have new Indian Bloggers bundle for subscribers which includes feeds from AnarCapLib, EMERGIC, Jivha (Who does not blog anymore), The Examined Life etc.
Even though it was me who sent the mail to Chris Alden, this blog is not in the list 🙁Kumaranasan
Wikipedia has an entry on Kumaranasan, a great Malayali poet who lived in the early 20th century. The interesting fact is that it was Sri Narayana Guru who influenced him.
Kumaran was dogged by ill-health right through his early life. When he was eighteen, Sree Narayana Guru visited his house at the request of his father. Kumaran was bedridden at that time. The great saint suggested that Kumaran should stay with him and become his disciple. The little boy found the invitation irresistible. Thus began a new phase of life for the young lad.
Kumaran