Abki baar Modi Sarkar

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India, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi

The vote counting in the largest democracy in the world is finally over. A main feature of this year’s election was the participation of youth & their enthusiasm about the whole process from start to finish. The country asked the youth to participate & vote. It has participated, voted & has chosen Narendra Modi (NaMo) as its new Prime Minister. He won with a thumping majority & after nearly three decades a party has managed to earn a complete majority. The BJP secured 281 seats with NDA securing 333 seats while Congress managed to get 46 seats. The UPA ended up with 62 seats only.

Heartiest Congratulations to NaMo the 18th Prime Minister of India! 🙂

 

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Columbus Day

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Bartolome de la Casas, Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day

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Artefacts dating to Harappan era unearthed in north Rajasthan

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Archaeological Survey of India, Harappa, India, Indus Valley Civilization

Artefacts dating to the Harappan era have been excavated in Karanpura of Hanumangarh district in Rajasthan, the first time remains of the Indus Valley Civilization have been found in this part.

“The excavation has brought to light house complexes built of mud bricks of both Early (3300-2600 Before Common Era) and Mature (2600-1900 BCE) Harappan periods. Even though scattered remains and fragments of baked bricks are available, it was not found in any building,” said Archaeological Survey of India superintending archaeologist V.S. Prabhakar in a lecture at the India International Centre here Monday.

“The presence of bichrome ware consisting of red ware, decorated with black and white-coloured painted motifs, is also noticed from the Early Harappan period, a few of which continues during the Mature Harappan period,” he added.

“Presence of rhinoceros bones point to the marshy environment the Harappans were accustomed to,” said Prabhakar.

Harappan pottery along with terracotta bangles, grinding stone fragments, beads of agate and an animal terracotta figurine were excavated.

Numerous copper artefacts reveal trade ties people here had with other civilizations.

Apart from motifs like circles, pipal leaves on various items, graffiti on pottery and artefacts like the spindle whorls are distinguished features.

The Indus Valley civilization is one of the earliest urban civilizations and also known as the Harappan civilisation.

Karanpura is located on the right bank of Drishadvati river, now Chautang, in the upper reaches and is located between Siswal, Haryana (upstream) and Sothi, Rajasthan (downstream). The river is dried up now.

The archaeological remains at Karanpura were first discovered in 2010 and the excavation branch started work in December 2012. The work will end soon.

 

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Artefacts-dating-to-Harappan-era-unearthed-in-north-Rajasthan/articleshow/21651978.cms

The Jane Austen Stamp Collection

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Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, stamps, UK

Stamps released on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice

6 Surprising Facts About St. Valentine

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Catholic Church, Claudius, Geoffrey Chaucer, History, history channel, Pope Valentine, Rome, St. Valentine, valentines day

A man named Valentinus was martyred on February 14 late in the third century A.D.—this much we know. But when it comes to details about the life of St. Valentine, legend often supersedes fact. As you celebrate this Valentine’s Day, find out the truth about the man for whom the day is named, as well as some other intriguing facts about history’s most romantic holiday.

St. Valentine

1. The St. Valentine who inspired the holiday may have been two different men.
Officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, St. Valentine is known to be a real person who died around A.D. 270. However, his true identity was questioned as early as A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who referred to the martyr and his acts as “being known only to God.” One account from the 1400s describes Valentine as a temple priest who was beheaded near Rome by the emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed. A different account claims Valentine was the Bishop of Terni, also martyred by Claudius II on the outskirts of Rome. Because of the similarities of these accounts, it’s thought they may refer to the same person. Enough confusion surrounds the true identity of St. Valentine that the Catholic Church discontinued liturgical veneration of him in 1969, though his name remains on its list of officially recognized saints.

2. In all, there are about a dozen St. Valentines, plus a pope.
The saint we celebrate on Valentine’s Day is known officially as St. Valentine of Rome in order to differentiate him from the dozen or so other Valentines on the list. Because “Valentinus”—from the Latin word for worthy, strong or powerful—was a popular moniker between the second and eighth centuries A.D., several martyrs over the centuries have carried this name. The official Roman Catholic roster of saints shows about a dozen who were named Valentine or some variation thereof. The most recently beatified Valentine is St. Valentine Berrio-Ochoa, a Spaniard of the Dominican order who traveled to Vietnam, where he served as bishop until his beheading in 1861. Pope John Paul II canonized Berrio-Ochoa in 1988. There was even a Pope Valentine, though little is known about him except that he served a mere 40 days around A.D. 827.

3. Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy, among many other things.
Saints are certainly expected to keep busy in the afterlife. Their holy duties include interceding in earthly affairs and entertaining petitions from living souls. In this respect, St. Valentine has wide-ranging spiritual responsibilities. People call on him to watch over the lives of lovers, of course, but also for interventions regarding beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting and traveling. As you might expect, he’s also the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages.

4. You can find Valentine’s skull in Rome.
The flower-adorned skull of St. Valentine is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. In the early 1800s, the excavation of a catacomb near Rome yielded skeletal remains and other relics now associated with St. Valentine. As is customary, these bits and pieces of the late saint’s body have subsequently been distributed to reliquaries around the world. You’ll find other bits of St. Valentine’s skeleton on display in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, England and France.

5. Chaucer may have invented Valentine’s Day.
The medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts that he represented as real. No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375. In his work “Parliament of Foules,” he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day–an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. When Chaucer wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,” he may have invented the holiday we know today.

6. You can celebrate Valentine’s Day several times a year.
Because of the abundance of St. Valentines on the Roman Catholic roster, you can choose to celebrate the saint multiple times each year. Besides February 14, you might decide to celebrate St. Valentine of Viterbo on November 3. Or maybe you want to get a jump on the traditional Valentine celebration by feting St. Valentine of Raetia on January 7. Women might choose to honor the only female St. Valentine (Valentina), a virgin martyred in Palestine on July 25, A.D. 308. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially celebrates St. Valentine twice, once as an elder of the church on July 6 and once as a martyr on July 30.

 

Source: http://www.history.com/news/6-surprising-facts-about-st-valentine?cmpid=Social_Facebook_Hith_02142013_1

Doing our share for our country

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capt. vinayak gore, duty, India, indian army, jai hind, republic day, republic of india, responsbility

I have always found greeting someone a “Happy Republic/ Independence Day” a little strange. Hence instead of just greeting my fellow countrymen happiness on this day when India celebrates its Republic Day I will share this little message from the mother of a martyr.

Captain Vinayak Gore’s mother gave this beautiful message on a TV show once. She had said that not everyone of us can go to the borders to fight for our nation. But when each one of us resolve to do our job, our duty with perfection we are doing a great service to our nation. We need not go on a war, we can serve our nation by being aware of our responsibilities & fulfilling them all right from our office desk.

This message from a soldiers mother has never failed to inspire me!

Kumbh Mela

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2013, allahbad, hindu rituals, hindus, kumbh mela, rituals

 

The story from the Bhagavada Purana, of the tussle between the gods and asuras for the Amrit Kalash, the pot of nectar of immortality that emerged from the churning of the milky ocean, is seminal to the Kumbh festivities, writes PRANAV KHULLAR…

In the tussle, the nectar spilled in four places — Haridwar, Allahabad, Nasik and Ujjain — the venues of the triennial Kumbh and the once-in-12-years Purna Kumbh.

The story is a metaphor for the inner struggle between our nobler and baser instincts. The nobler, higher mind when invoked will bestow the nectar of wisdom and immortality, the ability to discriminate between the real and the transient. When the baser, lower mind is engaged with, it will only generate the ‘poison’ of illusion and desire, creating its own web of perceived ‘immortality’ where the temporary is taken to be the permanent.

Which option we choose is a matter of free will, but the great Kumbh tradition seeks to continually remind us of the call of the higher mind, of how the human body itself is the kumbh, the pot, and how the churning of desires within is required for the nectar of knowledge to be generated.

The ancients set down an elaborate 12-year cycle for a meeting ground of saints and the vast lay majority, sannyasis and seekers, as an attempt to refocus and reorient the mind towards nobler instincts. This 12-year cycle was set according to planetary configurations, felt by the ancients to be spiritually beneficial, and supposed to create a highly charged matrix of energy to propel the mind to search for deeper meaning.

The Kumbh became an opportunity to pause and reflect, to reassess life’s priorities. Bathing in the Ganga is symbolic of washing away the ‘old’ mind and its way of thinking, and beginning afresh with a ‘new’ mind and attitude. The Kumbh helps the aam aadmi to transform by mingling with renunciates and monks in an ambience of devotion and vairagya.

The 12-year cycles of the Kumbh spread over four different pilgrim centres, ensuring a huge religio-spiritual Kumbh congregation every three years — is a great opportunity to seek deeper insight through pilgrimage and satsang. Since every Kumbh congregation seeks to replicate the triumph of the gods or the higher mind over asuras or lower mind in the quest for the nectar of immortality, a dip mirrors this yearning for the inner Self.

Pilgrims dive deep into themselves through this bath, to come up with a moment that takes them beyond themselves, something that will see them through the trials of life. It is the transition moment from the individual i-centric point to a collective whole, where distinctions between you-and-I blur to finally become one whole.

The Purna Kumbh at Allahabad started on January 14, on Makara Sankranti.

 

Source: http://timesofindia.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/faith-and-rituals/time-for-kumbh

12-12-12

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12-12-12, 2012, dates, months, repetitive dates, years

What women want…

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Gavin, King Arthur, Knights of the round table, men, women

Finally the perfect answer to the question which has puzzled many men for centuries! 🙂 What do women want?

King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him, but was moved by Arthur’s youth and ideals. So the monarch offered him freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and if, after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death.

The question: What do women really want?

 

Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and

to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was

better than death, he accepted the monarch’s proposition to have an answer by year’s end.

 

He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everybody: the princess,>the prostitutes, the priests, the wise men, and the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer.

 

Many people advised him to consult the old witch — only she would know the answer. The price would be high; the witch was famous throughout the kingdom for the exorbitant prices she charged.

 

Finally, the last day of the year arrived and Arthur had no

alternative but to talk to the witch. She agreed to answer the

question, but he had to accept her price first. The old witch wanted

to marry Gawain, the most notable of the Knights of the Round Table

and Arthur’s closest friend.Young Arthur was horrified: she was hunchbacked and hideous, had only one tooth, smelled like sewage, made obscene noises… etc. He had never encountered such a repugnant creature.He refused to force his friend to marry her and have to endure such a burden.

 

Gawain, upon learning of the proposal, spoke with Arthur. He told

him that nothing was too big a sacrifice compared to Arthur’s life

and the preservation of the Round Table.Hence, their wedding was proclaimed, and the witch answered Arthur thus: What a woman really wants is to be in charge of her own life.

Everyone instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth and

that Arthur’s life would be spared. And so it was. The neighboring

monarch granted Arthur total freedom.

 

 

What a wedding Gawain and the witch had! Arthur was torn between

relief and anguish. Gawain was proper as always, gentle and courteous.

The old witch put her worst manners on display, and generally made

everyone very uncomfortable.

 

The hour approached, Gawain, steeling himself for a horrific experience, entered the bedroom. But what a sight awaited him! The most beautiful woman he had ever seen lay before him.

The astounded Gawain asked what had happened. The beauty replied that

since he had been so kind to her when she’d appeared as a witch, she

would henceforth be her horrible, deformed self half the time, and

the other half, she would be her beautiful maiden self.

 

Which would he want her to be during the day, and during the night?

What a cruel question! Gawain pondered his predicament. During the

day, a beautiful woman to show off to his friends, but at night, in

the privacy of his home, an old witch? Or would he prefer having by day a hideous witch, but by night a beautiful woman with whom to enjoy many intimate moments?

 

Noble Gawain replied that he would let her choose for herself.

 

Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the time, because he had respected her enough to let her be in charge

of her own life.

 

MORAL: IF A WOMAN DOESN’T GET HER WAY, THINGS GET UGLY.

 

Balasaheb Thackrey R.I.P.

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Balasaheb Thackrey, death, hindu hriday samrat, mumbai, Satish Rajwade, Shiv sena

Hindu – hriday Samrat (The king of the Hindu heart) Shri Balasaheb Thackrey died yesterday on 17 – Nov – 2012 at 15:33 at his residence Matoshree in Bandra.

The streets wear a deserted look. The windows which had glittering rows of lights for Diwali just two days back are now black. There is a pin drop silence everywhere.  A city is in mourning. While many will cry out saying it has been forced into mourning, I beg to disagree. You can close shops, but you cannot make homes take down their Diwali decorations early. You cannot make people turn up in huge numbers from all over the state to say a final good bye to their leader.

Anybody who wants to know what does a politician who is popular with the masses look like should have been at Dadar today. Approximately 5 – 7 lacs people from all over Maharashtra had gathered to pay their respects to Mr. Thackrey whom they lovingly called Saheb (Sir), a number far more greater than the police’s estimations.

The city witnessed many firsts in these past two days. For the first time did we get to see a city shut down completely. On Uddhav Thackreys appeal (his son), the essential services resumed their work soon. However not a single rickshaw or taxi was seen on the road. The city which was celebrating Diwali with fire crackers & lanterns & fairy lights just two days back went into complete mourning with a one of its sort mutual consent. Women crying their hearts out is completely normal. But for the first time men, grown ups & youths alike, could not hold back their tears when Mr. Thackreys doctor announced his death. They cried as if they had lost a member of their own family, they had lost their patriarch! For the first time since attaining Independence in 1947 did a public funeral take place. The funeral took place in Shivaji Park, the same place where Mr. Thackrey had laid the foundation of his political party, Shiv Sena. Its rare to see such a huge crowd behave with so much of discipline but its no surprise as those were the instructions from Matoshree & not a single Shiv sainik will ever violate those instructions. Bal Thackrey was also the first & till date only person who was cremated with National Honour in spite of not having been a part of any government ever. He was also the only leader who wasn’t ever interested in any political gains. The one of a kind leader who was never involved in any scams! He was the only leader in the whole of India (maybe even the World) who did not go for vote bank politics. What he said, he meant it. His words always matched his actions. Another rarity in a politician. This funeral procession was one of a kind. It was history in progress. Never before & never again will we get to experience such a scene where the common man comes out of his house in order to bid farewell to his leader. Never again will we have such a leader!

Satish Rajwade, a Marathi film director wrote the following

Satish Rajwade:

First things first…i do not belong to any political outfit nor do i want to but today my heart my mind my conscience tells me that we are at a huge loss. Respected Balasaheb Thackeray passed away today. The entire state went on a shut down mode on auto basis…fear is something that makes one do things out of no choice but today all went shutter down by choice…that is respect. Mumbai wears a deserted look and rightly so the king of the jungle is no more the king who made his own rules his own horizons and his own boundaries…the king who gave respectful living to people who thought they were done to death a king who roared and ruled on the minds and hearts of people. I admired him for the stand he took and the way he stood by it…being a marathi manoos i may sound bias but no its not being biased its respect great respect for a man who is not made often…a super cartoonist a profound orator a charismatic persona an influential personality and a fighter to the end. Nations mourn when a leader goes down… truly a great Hindu leader has gone behind the wings today and i salute the man…the great leader Balasaheb RIP!

Rest in Peace Balasaheb Thackrey. May God bless your soul & help your family cope with this loss!

Image Credit: NDTV