TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer, what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil?
What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Technology has been evolving at a rapid pace. Remember the days of yore, when we used to call the telephone exchange to place STD calls. You had to wait for the telephone company to connect your call, you never knew how soon – or even if – your call would go through. Fast forward a few years, and we had the ability to place STD calls ourselves without having to go through the switch-board. A few more years later and mobile phones emerged, allowing us to make STD and ISD calls on the go. Fast forward to the present, and you have multiple ways to stay in touch – phone, email, internet calls through Skype, Facebook and even Twitter.
This ability to constantly be in touch, in real time, is a boon when your family stays far away. You’re now no more than a phone call, e-mail, status update or tweet away. It’s also become possible to stay connected to the office while on the go. Look around, and you’ll see people in the gym handling office-related phone calls, busy executives sitting in the coffee shop with their laptop updating an important presentation or checking and answering work e-mails.
But in this constant race to be up-to-speed with everyone and everything around us, it has become increasingly difficult to find time to connect with ourselves, with our spirituality, with God. It doesn’t have to be this way, though.
The very technology that has connected us to friends and family around the world has also given us myriad tools to connect with ourselves on a deeper level. Here are six ways in which you can tune in to you even when you’re on the go.
YouTube: Most smartphones these days can connect to and play YouTube videos. The next time you’re in the train commuting just log on to YouTube, look for meditation, scroll through the numerous options that come up, plug in your headphones and hit play. You can also visit the Soulful living page here on Modern Gypsy to access a collection of hand-picked meditation music or guided meditation videos and find yourself. Subscribe to the blog and you’ll get a new meditation video every Sunday, along with a lot of other interesting content on a variety of topics ranging from book reviews to travel stories to observations on daily life.
Twitter:There are a lot of spiritual gurus and motivational speakers on Twitter who send out inspiring tweets everyday that can give you a nugget of wisdom in 140 characters or less. They also post links to relevant content on their blogs or other sites that you can visit whenever you have a few extra minutes, or favorite and go back to later.
A few people to follow: @paulocoelho, @DalaiLama, @RockSolidAdvice, @RevRunWisdom. You could also follow my Inspirations list on Twitter.
Mailing lists: There are a lot of websites and blogs that offer spiritual content and insights online. Subscribe to a few of their mailings lists and you’ll have some thought provoking articles to read the next time you’re stuck at the doctor’s office or in a nasty traffic snarl. You can even save them on your smartphone using apps like Instapaper, which allow you to save webpages for offline reading.
Facebook: Have you come across the nifty Facebook app called God Wants you to Know? If you haven’t, I suggest you check it out. It gives you a new message from God everyday – daily bite-sized pieces of inspiration that at times are exactly what you need to hear.
Apps: There are a lot of religion and spirituality apps available that you can download onto your smartphone or tablet. You can download The Bhagwad Gita as a book or in audio; Buddha-in-a-Pocket offers powerful insights from the teachings of the Buddha; The Life Purpose App, which provides full access to Dan Millman’s bestseller The Life You Were Born to Live and calculates and provides details about your life path.
Podcasts: There are a lot of meditation podcasts available on iTunes that you can download the next time you’re updating your iPhone/iPad/iPod apps. Spend 10 minutes before you start your day to meditate, or listen to vedic chants while commuting and see the difference it makes to your day. You’ll operate from a more calm, focused and peaceful state of mind, and if you make it a regular practice, you’ll notice that you aren’t as stressed out as you used to be.
I’m sure I’ve just scratched the surface of the millions of options out there. Are there any tools or apps that you use to connect with yourself?
There are days when I find myself moaning and groaning my way through everything, and then those other truly wonderful days when all’s right with the world. I don’t know about you, but me, I can yo-yo between the highs and the lows and the in-betweens pretty quick. For all those not-so-high days, there are a few things that I need to remember…a few reasons why life is so beautiful.
I’ve been blessed with a good workplace – the timings are great, work-life balance is pretty good, people are OK, work’s not too bad…
…there are days when I wish I had more work and days when I wish I had less, but hey, at least I’m not staggering under the weight of unending work!
I love being able to drive down to work – I’ve been doing that since about 5 years now. Yes, the traffic can suck, and there are days when the insane number of vehicles on the road drives me nuts, but I still enjoy my drive…my music…my thoughts…my pace…my freedom!
Watching the rain through my windscreen
I love my girlfriends! I enjoy our plans to meet up over the weekend, or on Friday night…our spur-of-the-moment plans to meet for lunch and shopping…our gossip sessions and our crazy giggles.
There are so many, many things to love – like my crazy cat Pepo and my darling hubs…my peaceful home and quiet neighborhood…my loving parents and crazy sister…the bright sunshine and God’s beautiful, natural world…it’s a long, long list.
If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!
The hubs is out for the week, which means I have some “me” time. This is also my favorite time to cook, strangely. For one, I can eat the food that I like and the hubs hates. I can also experiment with new recipes and dishes without the hubs turning up his nose at the result and saying it the look of a particular dish doesn’t match his “mental image” of what it would like! I mean, honestly, have you heard of a stranger excuse for not trying new dishes?
One of the dishes I made was a dish I love – and the hubs, of course, doesn’t – an express prawn paella.
This recipe uses a non-traditional method – the pressure cooker – to come up with a meal in a jiffy. It may not be as elaborate as other, more traditional paella recipes, but the result is yummy! So, without further ado, here’s how you make…
Express Prawn Paella Serves: 2 Prep time: 15 mins Cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 large tomato, skinned and diced
1 cup rice
250 gm shrimp, peeled and devenined – I use the frozen variety
3 cups chicken broth
¼ tsp saffron
¼ tsp ground cumin
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Salt
1-2 lemons
Method:
1) Thaw prawns; squeeze some lime juice on them, mix, set aside
2) In a pressure cooker, sauté the onion and bell pepper until the onion is tender.
3) Add the tomato and cook for 5 mins.
4) Add the rice and sauté until translucent.
5) Pour in the broth, shrimp, saffron, cumin, pepper and salt. Squeeze juice of half a lemon. Stir.
6) Close the pressure cooker, bring to high pressure on medium heat, and cook for another 3 mins.
7) Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with lemon wedges and serve!
Tip: Make sure you actually squeeze some lemon over the rice – it really brings out the flavor and tastes.
Located on the Coromandel Coast, Mahabalipuram is a 7th century port city that served as the capital of the Pallavas.
The beach at Mahabalipuram
When we were planning our vacation, I had initially thought of spending a couple of days at Mahabalipuram, but things didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped. Still, since it was just a 2–2.5 hour drive from Pondicherry, and could easily be covered as a day trip, I was determined to visit the city.
Mahabalipuram, referred to as an “open-air museum,” (similar to Nawalgarh in Rajasthan) is home to a wide variety of architectural styles, from rock-cut caves to temples hewn out of a single rock to gorgeous bas-reliefs. Some believe that the area was a school for sculptors, and this does seem plausible as the many different sculptures and types of architecture found here could easily have been demonstrated by instructors and practiced on by students.
Panch Rathas, Mahabalipuram
Nowhere is this more evident than at the Pancha Rathas (five chariots), where each Ratha – carved from a single piece of granite – depicts a different style of sculpting. In addition to the chariots are a few animal sculptures, notably a lion and an elephant, which were also carved from a single rock.
Opposite the Pancha Rathas complex is a huge, open air complex where stone workers have their workshops. This is a great place to see artists at work and pick up souvenirs to take back home.
The Varaha Cave temple is located in a park (entrance free), which is also dotted with a lot of other stone temples and sculptures. The entrance to the temple is guarded by lions, carved into the base of the pillars, while Pallava doorkeepers guard the main mandapa. The four walls of the mandapa have large sculptured panels – the Northern panel depicts Vishnu as Varaha (the boar) holding up Bhumi (the earth goddess).
A carving at the Varaha Temple, Mahabalipuram
Once you see the temple, take a walk through the park, which is home to a ton of monkeys! The husband and me walked about a bit, until the sheer number of monkeys spooked us and we decided to turn back. I was keen to explore a bit more, but the hubs was tired, so he sat it out while I went on to explore some of the other old temple structures perched high up on rolling hills. Some of these places were rather simple, but the views were breathtaking.
One of the monkey's wheedled an ice cream from a tourist and was sitting on a trunk enjoying the treat!
All this walking about in the heat was getting us rather irritable, so we decided to get some lunch before continuing further. I wanted to have some seafood, so the driver took us to a place called Luna Magica, which I had heard about and wanted to try. The hubs took one look at all the fresh fish there and decided he couldn’t eat anything there! A brief argument conversation later, we decided to move out and find another place to eat. We ended up at a beach café, I don’t remember the name, where I did get some coastal food, but it was nowhere close to what I expected! Has anyone been to Luna Magica? Is the food as good as the reviews say it is?
Arjuna's penance
Oh well! The food debacle behind us, our next stop was Arjuna’s Penance. Measuring 27 meters by 9 meters and carved on two gigantic stones, the bas-relief is among the largest in the world. The carving breathes life into the Panchatantra story of Ganges’ descent from the Himalayan mountains. Legend has it that King Bhagirath brought Ganges down from heaven to purify the souls of his ancestors, but when he realized that doing so would flood the earth, he prayed to Lord Shiva to intervene. Shiva allowed Ganga to descend on his head, allowing the flood to trickle through his hair, dispersing the waters safely in innumerable streams worldwide. The most famous part of the mural is the cleft between the rocks, which depicts Shiva’s descent from Heaven through the colossal waterfall.
Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram
The highlight of Mahabalipuram, though, is the 60 ft high, 5-story high Shore Temple, built on a 50 ft square platform overlooking the Bay of Bengal. In contrast to the rest of the rock cut temples in this city, the Shore Temple is built from dressed stone, and is one the important structural temples in South India.
The temple is a combination of three shrines. The main shrine is dedicated to Shiva as is the smaller second shrine. A small third shrine, between the two, is dedicated to a reclining Vishnu. The outer wall of the shrine to Vishnu and the inner side of the boundary wall are extensively sculptured and topped by large sculptures of Nandi. The whole temple has this wind swept look though, as the stone has slowly eroded away. The carvings still retain their beauty, but you can clearly see the damage that is being caused by wind erosion.
The temple is separated from the rest of the beach, which reminded me a bit of the beaches of Goa…next time we plan a trip down South, I’ll definitely block a couple of days for a stay at Mahabalipuram!
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Mornings in Jenin tells the story of the Abulheja family. The patriarchs of the family, Haj Yehya and Basima, live in the small village of Ein Hod. The novel opens in 1941, during the olive harvest season as Yehya and his family and neighbours gather to pick the fruit. The first few pages (and years) set the stage for the family, introducing us to Yehya’s sons Hassan and Darweesh, Hassan’s Jewish friend Ari Perlstein, and Dalia, the Bedouin girl who steals their heart.
“In a distant time, before history marched over the hills and shattered present and future, before wind grabbed the land at one corner and shook it of its name and character, before Amal was born, a small village east of Haifa lived quietly on figs and olives, open frontiers and sunshine.”
Their idyllic life is shattered by the “nakba” (cataclysm) in 1948, when the Israelis forced the villagers of Ein Hod off their land and sent them to the refugee camp in Jenin. Narrated by Amal, Hassan and Dalia’s daughter who is born in the refugee camp, Mornings in Jenin traces the story of her brothers – Yousef, whose love for his wife Fatima and for Palestine will set him on a collision course with his brother David (Ishmael), who was lost during the nakba and brought up as a Jew. It also interweaves Amal’s tale of love and loss, of her enduring friendship with Huda and mornings spent with her father, of living through the loss of her parents – her father as a casualty of the Six Day War, her mother as she lost her mind after that war – of moving to a Jerusalem orphanage to study, settling in the US, falling in love, and returning to Jenin with her daughter.
Kids at the Jenin camp (Image via Flickr)
This is by no means an easy book to read – it’s filled with pathos and loss, sorrow and separation, death and loss – but the prose is lyrical and the writing fluid. I came to love some of the characters and found myself wishing and hoping they’d pull through, but unfortunately, not all of them will.
This is the first book I have come across that presents the Palestinian point of view. It isn’t unbiased – there is the matter of Hassan’s Jewish friend Ari Perlstein who disappears after the first few pages and only puts in an appearance at the end of the narrative and of Israeli attacks on Jenin apparently without any provocation from Palestinians – but it is an important book.
“The story of one family in an obscure village, visited one day by a history that was not its own, and forever trapped by longing between roots and soil. It was a tale of war, its chilling, burning, and chilling-again fire. Of furious love and a suicide bomber. Of a girl who escaped her destiny to become a word, drained of its meaning. Of grown children sifting through the madness to find their relevance. Of a truth that pushed its way through lies, emerging fro a crack, a scar, in a man’s face.”
The Jewish suffering is well-known thanks to the many excellent books available on the holocaust and the creation of Israel – Leon Uris’ Exodus, Schindler’s List, Anne Frank’s Diary and Man’s Search for Meaning are just a few examples. With Mornings in Jenin, readers will finally get to hear the Palestinian voice, to know of the many atrocities committed in refugee camps in that area, and maybe, to gain a better understanding of the “Palestinian situation”.
In closing, I’d say that this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in the Israel-Palestine issue, and even for those who are not.
I’ve been checking out the Google Art Project, and it’s been fun! As I was browsing around the website though, I got to thinking about how much technology has evolved.
Remember My Space? It started as a place to hang out and make friends, for artists to get noticed, to upload their music. Then came Facebook, and now My Space is history.
In this constantly evolving technology scene, there’s a lot that’s being done to foster and promote creativity. There are places like Flick and Piccasa where you can share your photography and art work and connect with millions of artists from around the world. Your Flickr stream can work like a catalog for your photography, or you could start up a photo blog to showcase your pictures.
If you’re a musician, there are sites like soundcloud.com where you can upload your music for everyone to hear. If you’d like, you can even allow listeners to download your tracks.
Not to be left behind, even smartphones have some cool apps that allow you to create and share. There’s LaDiDa, a reverse karaoke app for people like me with limited musical abilities. Instead of forcing you to sing a song in a specific key, the app will automatically choose the key and change the chords for you so that all you have to do is sing. Here’s a demo:
Then there are apps like the Pudding Camera, that gives you a combination of different kinds of camera and film and allows you to click some really creative pictures. This picture was clicking using the Fantasy camera and a Noir film. Pretty cool, eh? That’s straight from the camera, absolutely no post processing involved!
If you’re an artist, there are a ton of applications for you, like Anatomy for Artists: Proportions, which that offers a high-quality reference guide for artist.
There are so many cool innovations and applications that are making it easier and simpler for people to create and share online.
What are some of your favorite places to share your creations, and which are your favorite apps?
If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!
