What does one do when one does not understand? Keep staring at it so that it is in the front of your mind most of the time. In due course, after few days or months or years, one gets some feeling of familiarity and understanding. “His peculiar gift was the power of holding continuously in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen straight through it. “ That was Keynes on Newton. Well, one may not be able to see through it like Newton, but it seems to help. I was reminded of this when a collaborator used some material of whose basics I did not well and stared it for about six days before convincing myself. There were times when it took months or years. Here is a link to the Keynes article Newton, the Man.
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Sunday, May 05, 2019
Oil again
“The US’s inherited mastery of the Gulf has given it a degree of leverage over both rivals and allies probably unparalleled in the history of empire. Washington has established a highly conservative regional order through alliances with successive military dictatorships in Egypt and an ethno-nationalist Israel. Its overwhelming military control of the region ensures that Japan, South Korea, India and even China must deal with the US in the knowledge that it could, if it wished, cut them off from their main source of energy. It is difficult to overstate the role of the Gulf in the way the world is currently run. In recent years, under both Obama and Trump, there has been talk of plans for a US withdrawal from the Middle East and a ‘pivot’ to Asia. If there are indeed such plans, it would suggest that recent US administrations are ignorant of the way the system over which they preside works.” from What are we there for?, a review of AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain by David Wearing by Tom Stevenson.
Check also Venezuela and binary choice by Craig Murray.
Check also Venezuela and binary choice by Craig Murray.
Thursday, May 02, 2019
Sri Sri again
There seem to be quite few posts reminding us of Sr Sri and a video which I have not seen before is making rounds. A classmate says that he has never seen or heard Sri Sri and was touched by that video (See the previous post).
Thinking about the persisting appeal of Sri Sri, I am reminded of these words “We don’t need an answer to the question of life’s meaning, just as we don’t need a theory of everything. What we need are multifarious descriptions of many things, further descriptions of phenomena that change the aspect under which they are seen, that light them up and let us see them anew. “ of Simon Critchley writing about his philosophy teacher Frank Cioffi. And “They allow us to momentarily clarify and focus the bewilderment that is often what passes for our “inner life” and give us an overview on things. We might feel refreshed and illuminated, even slightly transformed, but it doesn’t mean we are going to stop scratching that itch. “ More literary people may look for nuanced thinking and find some cliches in his writings. But for me who finds many ‘faults in the texture of our existence’ Sri Sri has lighted up many corners more often than many other writers.
Thinking about the persisting appeal of Sri Sri, I am reminded of these words “We don’t need an answer to the question of life’s meaning, just as we don’t need a theory of everything. What we need are multifarious descriptions of many things, further descriptions of phenomena that change the aspect under which they are seen, that light them up and let us see them anew. “ of Simon Critchley writing about his philosophy teacher Frank Cioffi. And “They allow us to momentarily clarify and focus the bewilderment that is often what passes for our “inner life” and give us an overview on things. We might feel refreshed and illuminated, even slightly transformed, but it doesn’t mean we are going to stop scratching that itch. “ More literary people may look for nuanced thinking and find some cliches in his writings. But for me who finds many ‘faults in the texture of our existence’ Sri Sri has lighted up many corners more often than many other writers.
Wednesday, May 01, 2019
Manna Dey
Would have been hundred today. An earlier portrait from Upperstall. Some favourite songs
From Parineeta 1953. The next from Boot Polish 1954
And the next from Devdas 1955,a duet with Greta Roy Dutt:
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Richard Singer on ‘Find Metiabruz’
Some Nice Film and Dance References to the last Nawab of Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah (plus some other things) “The last dance in the lineup on Friday also contained references to Wajid Ali Shah. This dance was performed by the Courtyard Dancers, a dance group out of the Philadelphia area (which now has branches in Pittsburgh and Kolkata too). The title of the dance is “Find Metiabruz,” a reference to the neighborhood in Kolkata where Wajid Ali Shah was exiled by the British. Quoting from the description in the program guide (which also appears on YouTube under the video that I’ve linked to below), “In this dance theater piece, Metiabruz, a forgotten corner of a forgetful city, is a metaphor for the habitations of poetry.””
Soft enforcements of culture
in a comment on women’ headwear of a particular sect, Ramarao Kanneganti says:
”We may think that women have choice; or underprivileged have choice. But, that choice is illusory. With one choice comes advantages: respect, community, safety, support, and cultural advantages. With other choice, they are left to create their own cultural, social universes.
We are conditioned to think force means physical or mental. There are soft enforcements of culture. Lot of times they are for good; lot of times they are not. They are the ways societies perpetuate themselves in unwritten ways.
How societies deal with breaking of these unwritten rules is an interesting study. Usually breaking them is not against the fundmental rules of the society. Progressive societies define a gradual way of making these changes (see: gay marriage etc). The conservative societies started making these unwritten rules as written rules.
Probably too obvious, but I find it fascinating how societies choose to govern themselves.”
Ahmadiyas in Sri Lanka
Muslims in hiding in Sri Lanka as tensions rise after bombings ““The people in Pakistan attacked us and say we’re not Muslims,” Tariq Ahmed, a 58-year-old Ahmadi who fled his home, told the Associated Press. “Then in Sri Lanka, people attack us because they say we are Muslims.””
Pakistan Beats India In Happiness
Pakistan Beats India In Happiness “Pakistan in the 67th position, and India in the 140thposition—near the bottom of the list of the 156 countries ranked.....
“It must be other metrics, like income inequality and poverty,” says Udayan Roy, Professor of Economics at LIU POST. “That’s matters more than per capita GDP when it comes to well-being of the masses.”
Indeed, the rich are getting richer in India while the poor are getting poorer.“
Luz Long letter to Jesse Owens
From the series ‘Letters of Note’
“My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth. ”
The story at Olympics Great Olympic Friendships: Jesse Owens, Luz Long and a beacon of brotherly love at the Nazi games
“My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth. ”
The story at Olympics Great Olympic Friendships: Jesse Owens, Luz Long and a beacon of brotherly love at the Nazi games
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Review of new biography of Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
An old book and a review. Will Power : Why Shakespeare remains the necessary poet. BY Adam Gopnik. The book at Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Will-World-How-Shakespeare-Became/dp/0393050572
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Working with in the system
Harvard Grad Quits World Bank Job, Uses Data to bring Govt Help to 50 Lakh Indians! it seems that this is the kind of work that many groups of retired educated Indians and NRIs can do.
Some help for rural farmers
In Telengana, depressed farmers can phone a friend
An earlier link about Ramanjaneyulu and the organisation CSA This Man Gave up an IRS Job to Sow The Seeds of Change in 7000 Villages, 30 Lakh Acres!
An earlier link about Ramanjaneyulu and the organisation CSA This Man Gave up an IRS Job to Sow The Seeds of Change in 7000 Villages, 30 Lakh Acres!
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Roland Barthes article
on the death of the author. Here is the Wikipedia article which has a link to the actual article. A short write up from 2008 from The Guardian Signs of the times by Ben Myers who has several more articles on Barthes in The Guardian.
John Pilger on Assange arrest
John Pilger: The Assange Arrest Is a Warning From History
“In the 1970s, I met Leni Reifenstahl, close friend of Adolf Hitler, whose films helped cast the Nazi spell over Germany.
“In the 1970s, I met Leni Reifenstahl, close friend of Adolf Hitler, whose films helped cast the Nazi spell over Germany.
She told me that the message in her films, the propaganda, was dependent not on “orders from above” but on what she called the “submissive void” of the public.
“Did this submissive void include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie?” I asked her.
“Of course,” she said, “especially the intelligentsia …. When people no longer ask serious questions, they are submissive and malleable. Anything can happen.”
And did.
The rest, she might have added, is history.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)