I had shared this with friends on August 15th.

On India's independence day, a tribute to a naked gay Jewish Iranian mystic who has a dargah in Delhi. Let us celebrate the independence of thought.

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Two of Maithili Sharan Gupt's popular poems 'साकेत' and 'सखि वे..' retell historical events from the perspective of women who were left behind by their husbands. While 'साकेत' views the Ramayana from Urmila's eyes, 'सखि वे.' speaks of Siddhartha's abandonment of Yashodhara.

A birth anniversary we missed this month was that of Mr. Shiyalli Ramamrita Ranganathan (born August 9, 1892), known as the father of library sciences in India.

Let me weep

My cruel fate,

And that I 

should have freedom.

The duel infringes

within these twisted places,

in my sufferings

I pray for mercy.

Philippe Jarousssky singing Handel's Lascia ch'io pianga from Rinaldo.

11

I was reading the biography of James Herriot this morning. While describing his childhood, author Graham Lord quotes from 'Murder, Murder, Polis', a collection of Glasgow street songs compiled by Maureen Sinclair.

2

‘Instant City, Life and death in Karachi’ is a non-fiction work by Steve Inskeep, the host of NPR’s All Things Considered.

1

I liked 'Fire in Babylon', the documentary on the great West Indian cricket team of the 1980s. It seems to have been made for an audience that comprises of cricket lovers from generations that did not get to see that team first hand.

Sing to the tune of "For he is an Englishman" - Gilbert and Sullivan, HMS Pinafore. The doggerel is based on the current Shashi Tharoor-Twitter brouhaha. For the humour impaired, this is supposed to be sarcastic and is based on this classic quote.

1

Morbid quiz fact of the day: Nike's slogan "Just do it" comes from murderer Gary Gilmore's statement "Let's do it" to the firing squad that executed him. Wow. Here's the creator Dan Wieden talking about it.

8

Fill in the 5 blanks. Film related hint below the poem

Sailing to Byzantium

- William Butler Yeats

THAT is __ _____ ____ _____ ____.

5

Interesting interview with Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire:

AVC: Were there places it was difficult to get permission to film?

DB: There's lots of things that can be solved with cash.

Fill in the Blanks: (cut and pasted from Wikipedia)

Fulano, Zutano y Mengano — in SpanishHinz und Kunz — in GermanJan en Alleman — in DutchTizio, Caio, Sempronio, Mevio, Filano e Calpurnio — in ItalianFulano, Beltrano e Sicrano — in PortugueseIvanov, Petrov, Sidorov — in RussianAre, Oore, Shamsi Ko

5

Happy Friday folks! Here's a nice Nissim Ezekiel poem for your enjoyment:

IRANI RESTAURANT INSTRUCTIONS*

Please

Do not spit

Do not sit more

Pay promptly, time is valuable

Do not write letter

without order refreshment

Do not comb,

hair is spoiling floor

Do not make mischiefs in cabin

our w

9

Raj Kapoor's Awaara in Turkish

The IMDB entry has this interesting information:

Comment 1: "The movie and the song were quite famous in Turkey during 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s and it inspired a whole genre of films produced in Turkey"

Comment 2: "yes, it is.

5

From the Harvard Business Review article (Feb 2007) by Bill George and others. Bill George is a Prof at Harvard, and was the CEO of Medtronics. He has written bestsellers on leadership, including his latest "True North".

3

You may wonder what the two have to do with each other.

Short answer: Dr. Robert Lang.

I wrote this for Amit's Rave Out.

4

It is a town situated in the north-western region of Koderma District in Jharkhand, India. It is one of the only two towns in the Koderma district, the other being Koderma. It is situated in the Damodar River valley. The pin code of this place is 825409.

8

Quote from an article that will be linked after I receive some responses:

"The ______ attained a certain degree of popularity, which, though pleasant in itself, brought in its wake involvements that turned out to be ludicrous and even tragic." It was made into a film which mutilated the original st

4

Project Gutenberg has Songs of Kabir translated by Nobel laurete Rabindranath Tagore.

4

Azam Ali is an interesting person. She was born in Tehran, did her schooling in India and then migrated to the US, where she began a career in World Music. She is part of two groups, Vas and Niyaz. Check out three interesting music videos here, here and here.

She has got a song with Laxmi Shankar.

Apropos to the post by Amit:

An Assurance To Womankind

Rest assured and have no fear.

So long as you do not lift your head,

you will find men all around you,

guarding.

3

Mar 7, 1886 New York Times

Women’s education in India

What has been done by the Brahmin lady now in this country.

1

This is a quote from an article in the New York Times.

"Where Dawn comes up like thunder - Also Talkies in Urdu and Hindustani, Myths, Blurb-writers and a Child star" - New York Times, May 31, 1936.

4

A different perspective from Matt Yglesias:

Mom and pop may be admirable, hard-working, decent people, but their store probably sucks.

Jonathan Yardley writes in the Washington Post:

[..]Rum is essentially an accident. On 17th-century sugar plantations in the Caribbean, "sugar wastes were considerable," chief among them molasses.

2

The webcast can be accessed here. Everyone of them is a hero. But Indian eyes will be on Nattu Natraj.

5

Never mess around with an American, Aussie or German with his back to the wall. Here is today's champion. What an amazing ride today! No superlatives can be adequate . More here & here.

3

This is the image of the so-called directive from the Indian government ordering a ban on some websites (from Sepia Mutiny).

The process by which the blocking and unblocking of sites have occurred in the past two days bears scrutiny. The order on the left seems to have been signed by a Asst.

1

I had a great track workout today. I had not done one since 2004. I did a set of:

1 mile warm-up at 10.10,

800 at 3.46,

1 mile at 7.48,

800 m at 3.56,

followed by a 1 mile cool down run.

The story however, does not relate to my run which, by the way, was terrific.

7

He lives in Huntington beach California with his Chinese-American wife Debbie Chin and their two children. He comes from a family of bakers from a town called Goppingen, and is, in fact, a trained baker himself. His tendency to dive in the penalty box earned him the nickname ''Submarine Commander'.

5

From today's Minstrels post:

"Reflection on the Fallibility of Nemesis"

He who is ridden by a conscience

Worries about a lot of nonscience;

He without benefit of scruples

Has fun and income soon quadruples.

For the first time, an Indian has gained entry into the toughest foot race on earth, the Badwater Ultramarathon. See Wikipedia article here. Congratulations and good luck to Nattu Natraj. It is great to see the Indian flag in the roster.

5

Paul McCartney, born June 18th, 1942, turns 64 on Sunday. Thirty-seven years ago, he wrote this song. Well, we have the answer to the questions he had posed. Heather Mills has declined to send him a valentine. There will be no birthday greetings or bottles of wine from her.

5

Theodore Dalrymple reviews 'Islamic Imperialism - a history' by Efraim Kersh.

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About Me
Bay Area, Strategy Manager, Haas- U. C. Berkeley, Marathons
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