news 27.09.10 Hindu, Manorama 002:

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.R. Krishna Iyer: A challenge before the nation

The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : A challenge before the nation

A challenge before the nation

V.R. Krishna Iyer

Have some Chief Justices of the Supreme Court indeed been delinquent, or is Shanti Bhushan resorting to bravado? The truth should come out.

Shanti Bhushan is a distinguished Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court. The former Union Law Minister has been a public-spirited counsel of corrective strategy. Now he has, in a stroke of seemingly egregious expression of national conscience, raised a historic, heuristic challenge. He has questioned the integrity of the top brethren of the highest judiciary of the Republic, hurling charges of corruption against eight of 16 Chief Justices of the past. He has defiantly desiderated them in a militant manner. Take action for contempt of court against me, if you dare, he seems to say. And the media have publicised Mr. Bhushan's action, which sounds much like bravado.

Orhan Pamuk: ‘Writing and writing is my happiness’

The Hindu : ‘Writing and writing is my happiness’

Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, is a writer with a formidable international reputation. Deeply rooted in a liberal tradition that values tolerance, freedom, and a respect for the other, this Turkish writer passionately embraces his identity while echoing universal human values. A reluctant interpreter of East-West relations, he prefers to see himself as a bridge between the two worlds. A novelist whose aesthetic sensibility is rooted in his beloved Istanbul but draws from the tradition of great Western novelists, he delights in history, memory, and the exploration of the human condition. An outspoken critic of those who try to abridge free speech, he faced imprisonment in 2005 in his own country on this account. His eight novels, which include several international best sellers such as My Name is Red, Snow, and now The Museum of Innocence, are a testament to his profound ingenuity as a writer as well as to his humanity. Nirmala Lakshman recently interviewed Pamuk in Mumbai on his life and work.

Fern Hill - letters of Nithya Chaitanya Yathi

മനുഷ്യനായി ജനിക്കുക, മോക്ഷേച്്ഛുവായി ജീവിക്കുക, ഒരു മഹാപുരുഷന്റെ-ഗുരുവിന്റെ സംശ്രയത്വം ലഭിക്കുക ഇവ മൂന്നും സംഭവിക്കുന്നതിന് ദൈവാശ്രയത്വം ആവശ്യമാണ്. ഇങ്ങനെ ദൈവാനുഗ്രഹം ലഭിച്ച രണ്ടു സന്ന്യാസിനികള്‍ നിത്യചൈതന്യയതി എന്ന മഹായോഗിയുടെ ആശ്രമത്തില്‍ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. ഭഗവദ്ഗീതയും, ഉപനിഷത്തും മറ്റും പഠിപ്പിക്കാനായി ഗുരു വിദേശത്തായിരുന്നപ്പോള്‍ സന്ന്യാസിനികളായ ഇന്ദിരക്കും, രാധക്കും അയച്ച കത്തുകളാണ് ഫേണ്‍ഹില്‍ എന്ന പുസ്തകത്തിന്‍റെ ഉള്ളടക്കം.1976 മുതല്‍ 1999 വരെ യതി നടത്തിയ വിദേശയാത്രകളിലുണ്ടായ അനുഭവങ്ങളും പ്രണവമന്ത്രത്തെക്കുറിച്ചും, വേദാന്തത്തെക്കുറിച്ചും ഗുരുവിന് ശിഷ്യകളോട് പറയാനുണ്ടായിരുന്നതും ഈ പുസ്തകത്തില്‍ വായിക്കാം. പത്മന സ്വദേശിയായ സുള്‍ഫിക്കള്‍ ആണ് ഈ കത്തുകള്‍ സമാഹരിച്ച് പുസ്തക രൂപത്തിലാക്കിയത്. നിത്യചൈതന്യയതിയെ വാക്കുകള്‍ കൊണ്ട് നിര്‍വ്വചിക്കുക പ്രയാസമാണ്. സ്നേഹാലുവായ ആ ഗുരു ശിഷ്യകള്‍ക്ക് നല്‍കിയ ഉപദേശങ്ങളില്‍ അവാച്യമായ കരുതലും, വാത്സല്യവും നിറഞ്ഞിട്ടുണ്ട്. തന്‍റെ ഗുരു എന്ന ബോധത്തില്‍‍ നിന്നാണ് ഈ ശിഷ്യകള്‍ ഗുരു എന്ന തത്വത്തിലേക്ക് കടന്നതെന്ന് പുസ്തകം വായിച്ചാല്‍ മനസ്സിലാകും. ഓര്‍ക്കുമ്പോള്‍ മൂകയാക്കി കളയുന്ന ആശ്ചര്യമായിരുന്നു ഇരുവര്‍ക്കും ഗുരു. സഹൃദയനായ യതിയാണ് ഈ പുസ്തകത്തില്‍ ഉടനീളമുള്ളത്. ശിഷ്യകള്‍ക്ക് കത്തെഴുതുമ്പോള്‍ വരികള്‍ക്കിടയില്‍ അരിച്ചു നടക്കുന്ന കുഞ്ഞുറുമ്പിനെ കണ്ട് വാക്കുകളില്‍ തേന്‍ കിനിയുന്നതു കൊണ്ടായിരിക്കുമെന്ന് പറയാനുള്ള നര്‍മ്മബോധം ഗുരുവിനുണ്ട്. സ്‌നേഹത്തിന്റെ പൂര്‍ണകുംഭമായ യതി ഇന്ദിരക്കയച്ച കത്തില്‍ പറയുന്നു-'മനുഷ്യര്‍ ഏത് പരിതസ്ഥിതിയില്‍ ആയാലും പരസ്‌പരം സ്‌നേഹിക്കുന്നത് ഞാന്‍ തടസ്സപ്പെടുത്തുകയോ, കുറ്റപ്പെടുത്തുകയോ ഇല്ല.' സ്ത്രീയുടെ സ്വത്വത്തെ മാനിച്ചു കൊണ്ട് 'ആശേഌഷ ചുംബനാദികളില്‍ കുളിര്‍ത്ത രതിരസാര്‍ത്തിയൊഴുകുന്ന പ്രാകൃതികതയെ മറികടന്നു നിരാലംബമായി പ്രശോഭിക്കുന്ന ഏകാന്തസുന്ദരമായ ജ്ഞാനത്തെ മുഴുമുതലായി കാണാനുള്ള കഴിവിനെ വളര്‍ത്തിയെടുത്താല്‍ മാത്രമേ സ്ത്രീകള്‍ക്ക് സാമൂഹികമായ വിലക്കുകള്‍ക്കപ്പുറത്തു പോയി അവളുടെ അസ്‌സിത്വം കണ്ടെത്താന്‍ കഴിയൂ 'എന്ന് ഗുരു പറയുന്നു. സത്യത്തെ കേവല ആശയമായി കാണാന്‍ കഴിയില്ലെന്നു പ്രഖ്യാക്കുകയും അതിനെ ശക്തിയുറ്റ പ്രതിഭാസമായി വ്യാഖ്യാനിക്കാന്‍ ശ്രമിക്കുകയുമാണ് ഗുരു. ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്കിലെയും, ബോസ്റ്റണ്‍, ഇംഗഌണ്ട് തുടങ്ങിയ സ്ഥലങ്ങളിലേയും ആളുകളുടെ ചെറുചലനങ്ങള്‍, സാമൂഹിക കാഴ്ചപ്പാട്, സംസ്‌കാരം, രാഷ്ട്രീയ ബോധം, തുടങ്ങി എല്ലാം ഗുരു കത്തുകളില്‍ വരച്ചിടുന്നുണ്ട്. ഇംഗ്ലണ്ട്, അവിടുത്തെ പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി താച്ചറെപ്പോലെ എപ്പോഴും ഇരുണ്ടും, മൂടിക്കെട്ടിയും, നനഞ്ഞും ഇരിക്കുന്നുവെന്നു പറയാന്‍ യതിക്കു മാത്രമേ കഴിയൂ. ചെറുഭിന്നതകള്‍ പെരുപ്പിച്ച് വലുതാക്കി പരസ്‌പരം വെടിവെച്ചു കൊല്ലുന്ന അമേരിക്കന്‍ കുടുംബങ്ങളെപ്പറ്റി അദ്ദേഹം അത്ഭുതം കൂറുന്നുണ്ട്. അവയുമായി താരതമ്യപ്പെടുത്തുമ്പോള്‍ നമ്മുടേത് പുണ്യഭൂമിയാണെന്നാണ് യതിയുടെ പക്ഷം.


കത്തുകളിലൂടെ സൗന്ദര്യലഹരിയുടെ 7ാം ശേഌകം പഠിപ്പിക്കുകയും, അത് മണ്ഡലമായി വരച്ചു ചേര്‍ക്കുയും െചയ്തിട്ടുണ്ട്. 'വീണ്ടും ഞാന്‍ ആത്മാവില്‍ മടങ്ങി തുടങ്ങിയിരിക്കുന്നു' എന്ന് ഇടക്കിടെ യതി ആവര്‍ത്തിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്. ഗീതയും, വേദവും പഠിപ്പിക്കുന്നതിനൊപ്പം ഉരുളക്കിഴങ്ങ്, കാബേജ്, കോളിഫ്ലവര്‍ എന്നിവ കൃഷി ചെയ്യാനും ഉത്‌സാഹിക്കുന്ന ഗുരു യഥാര്‍ത്ഥത്തില്‍ കാഴ്ചയില്‍ ഉരുകുന്ന, മണ്ണിനൊപ്പം ജീവിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കലാകാരന്‍ തന്നെയാണെന്നതില്‍ തര്‍ക്കമില്ല. വായനക്കാര്‍ക്ക് ഫേണ്‍ഹില്‍ മികച്ച അനുഭവം സമ്മാനിക്കുമെന്ന കാര്യത്തില്‍ സംശയമില്ല. പ്രസാധകര്‍: കറന്റ് ബുക്‌സ്


Madhyamam 20.09.2010

Deepak Chopra: I say God gave humans the truth, and the Devil came and said, “Let’s organize it, we’ll call it religion.”

Deepak Chopra  writes a new book about Muhammad


The musician Salman Ahmed (from the Pakistani Sufi rock group Junoon; previously discussed on PP here and here) and Deepak Chopra, who has previously written the bestselling books Buddha and Jesus, will be discussing his latest book Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet, where he shares the life and insights of Muhammad.
Dr Chopra was recently interviewed by the New York Times about the book’s contents and his motivations for writing it. It’s a very interesting article, and indicates that as a “semi-fictionalised biography”, the nature of the book may not necessarily be quite what many people may expect. The article also includes some comments about Sufism and current issues such as the ongoing controversy surrounding the Sufi Imam Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative’s Park51 (the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”). Three quotes in particular stand out:

Colonial Education and Class Formation in Early Judaism A Postcolonial Reading

Author: Dr. Royce M. Victor
Title: Colonial Education and Class Formation in Early Judaism A

Postcolonial Reading

Publisher: T&T Clark International, London and New York,2010.



Brief summary: History reveals that colonizers effectively made use of

education as a device to propagate their cultural values, ethos and

lifestyle among the colonized. The primary aim of the colonial

education program was to create a separate class of people who were

not only meek and suppliant in their attitudes towards the colonizers,

but also felt a degree of loathing for their fellow citizens. This

class was formed mainly to establish an effective imperial

administration and channel of communication between the colonizers and

the millions they governed. Taking the colonial education system as

one of the major analytical categories, this study makes an inquiry

into how colonialism functioned and continues to function in both the

ancient and the modern world. Based on the Books of Maccabees, Ben

Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, and early rabbinic

literature, The author seeks to determine how the institution of the

gymnasium was used to educate the elites and enable Greek citizens,

Hellenes, and Hellenistic Jews to function politically, ethnically,

and economically within the larger Greek empire, and particularly in

Judea, by creating a separate class of the “Hellenized Jews” among the

Jewish population. It further reveals the continuity of the role of

the colonial education system in forming a class structure among the

colonized by exploring a similar historical incident in the British

colonial era in India, and demonstrates how the British education

introduced into colonial India in the early nineteenth century played

a similar role in creating a distinct class of the “Brown Englishmen”

among the Indians.




--

Royce M. Victor, Ph.D.

K.U.T. Seminary, Kannammoola

Trivandrum 695 011

Kerala, INDIA

Somnath Chatterjee: 'Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Karat wanted to teach Manmohan and Sonia a lesson Somnath: "'Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian'"

Editorial Reviews of Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Editorial Reviews of Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama: "Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has died in a car accident. The news triggers a chain of memories as Barack retraces his family’s unusual history: the migration of his mother’s family from small-town Kansas to the Hawaiian islands; the love that develops between his mother and a promising young Kenyan student, a love nurtured by youthful innocence and the integrationist spirit of the early sixties; his father’s departure from Hawaii when Barack was two, as the realities of race and power reassert themselves; and Barack’s own awakening to the fears and doubts that exist not just between the larger black and white worlds but within himself."

Editorial Reviews of Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Editorial Reviews of Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama: "Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has died in a car accident. The news triggers a chain of memories as Barack retraces his family’s unusual history: the migration of his mother’s family from small-town Kansas to the Hawaiian islands; the love that develops between his mother and a promising young Kenyan student, a love nurtured by youthful innocence and the integrationist spirit of the early sixties; his father’s departure from Hawaii when Barack was two, as the realities of race and power reassert themselves; and Barack’s own awakening to the fears and doubts that exist not just between the larger black and white worlds but within himself."

Wings of Fire by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Wings of Fire by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

The Works of Flavius Josephus

The Works of Flavius Josephus

Classical Authors Directory, Forums and Search Engine - pictures biography portrait lesson plans online books

Classical Authors Directory, Forums and Search Engine - pictures biography portrait lesson plans online books

The Hindu : Literary Review / Tribute : Fabulist among the communists

The Hindu : Literary Review / Tribute : Fabulist among the communists: "Blurring boundaries:Jose Saramago.
The death of José Saramago (1922-2010) doesn't escape its sombre irony. It is a final punctuation mark inthe life of a writer who wrote in unpunctuated, seamless sentences. The man who designated the writer as an apprentice and his characters as masters, was ultimately forced to quit his training at the ripe age of eighty seven. Nevertheless, in tune with his working-class roots, Saramago kept his tryst with productivity as diligently as his respiratory illness worked against him." Full Text

The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Reviving the true Hindu ethos

The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Reviving the true Hindu ethos: "I want to redefine the concept of what it is to be Hindu. Earlier the various groups of people were arranged horizontally but after Buddha in the Brahminical period it became a hierarchy, a rigid system. Once, Hindus meant all the people living on this side of the Sindhu/Indus river. But now ‘Hindu' has become a word in the hands of Hindu fundamentalists, it has become a matter of shame to call yourself a Hindu, this is something quite oppressive for me, I should be proud to call myself a Hindu. I know Hinduism has been non exploitative, has absorbed everything and everyone. If you confine the concept of a Hindu to a vegetarian, Brahminical, sacred thread wearing person that is not proper. Hating other communities, especially Muslims, is not a part of Hinduism. Hindus are intimate with Muslims and we have developed a unique culture with that, all over the world. I want to bring the pendulum back to the old non-exclusive and inclusive type of Hinduism" Full Text

The Hindu : Literary Review : Religion and the imagination

The Hindu : Literary Review : Religion and the imagination: "Religion has nothing to say on the question of origins. And on the question of ethics, whenever religion has got into the driving seat on that question, what happens is inquisition and oppression. So it seems to me not just uninteresting, but not valuable to turn to religion. I don't want the answers to come from some priest. I would prefer them to come from the process of argument and debate. And the first thing you accept in that situation is that there are no answers, only the debate. The debate itself is the thing from which flows the ethical life" Full text

Religion and Theology in Updike's (1932-2009) novels

At a talk on religion in his work Thursday evening (Nov. 18) at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, Updike told the audience of 300 that his Christian faith had “solidified in ways less important to me than when I was 30, when the existential predicament was realer to me than now. … I worked a lot of it through and arrived at a sort of safe harbor in my life.”

While much of his earlier work contains traces of Updike’s furious immersion in Christian theology, he said he looked more to the congregation of his hometown Massachusetts church as the rock of his faith today.

“When I haven’t been to church in a couple of Sundays I begin to hunger for it and need to be there,” he said, standing at a podium in front of the altar, against a backdrop of Byzantine-style mosaics and dressed in a gray suit befitting one of America’s elder statesmen of letters. “It’s not just the words, the sacraments. It’s the company of other people, who show up and pledge themselves to an invisible entity.”

As a young man studying at Oxford in the mid-1950s, Updike said he devoured new translations of Soren Kierkegaard at Blackwell’s bookstore, discovering him “so positive and fierce and strikingly intelligent, like finding an older brother I didn’t know I had.” He pointed to his classic character Harry Angstrom, of the Rabbit tetralogy, as an example of the Danish philosopher’s influence. The Swiss neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth informed another character in the first book of the series, the Lutheran minister Fritz Kruppenbach, who faces off with an Episcopal priest in a scene Updike chose to read. Upon going to Kruppenbach’s house to discuss Rabbit’s desertion of his family, Rev. Eccles is treated to a diatribe against meddling in others’ affairs. Kruppenbach sounds like a stand-in for Barth himself.  Read it all 

Shashi Deshpande's new book: In the Country of Deceit

My new book is about adult love: Shashi Deshpande
New Delhi, IANS:
''All my books are about relationships - particularly the new one, which is about love between an adult man and an adult woman. Most of my novels emphasise love because I am fascinated by the idea of love...''

Love and relationships stir the storyteller in her, says award winning 70-year-old author Shashi Deshpande while revealing that she still writes with a thick-nibbed fountain pen on smooth paper.

"All my books are about relationships - particularly this one which is about love between an adult man and an adult woman," Deshpande, whose new book, "In the Country of Deceit", has just hit the stands, said in an interview here.

The Bangalore-based author, who is the daughter of celebrated Kannada dramatist Shriranga, has six novels and four children's books to her credit. The Sahitya Akademi Award was conferred on her for her book, "The Long Silence", in 1988.


Excerpts from the interview: read

Vikas Swarup author of Slumdog Millionaire: 'I'm the Luckiest Novelist in the World'

Author and how the book started taking shape in, well, Golders Green
When they made a film of Vikas Swarup's bestseller, they gave it an extreme makeover. But can I get the author to say anything critical about Danny Boyle's hit adaptation of his debut novel, about a penniless orphan who wins India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Not a chance. Swarup, you see, is a diplomat. And not just any diplomat: his sumptuous business card, embossed with three golden lions, tells me he is minister and deputy high commissioner of India, based in Pretoria.

They changed the title from Q&A to Slumdog Millionaire. ("That made a lot of sense," says Swarup.) They changed the ending. ("Danny thought the hero should be arrested on suspicion of cheating on the penultimate question, not after he wins as I had it. That was a successful idea.") They made friends into brothers, axed Bollywood stars and Mumbai hoodlums and left thrilling subplots on the cutting-room floor. Crucially, they changed the lead character's name from Ram Mohammad Thomas to Jamal Malik, thereby losing Swarup's notion that his hero would be an Indian everyman, one who sounded as though he was Hindu, Muslim and Christian. Instead, they made Jamal a Muslim whose mother is killed by a Hindu mob. ("It's more dramatically focused as a result, perhaps more politically correct.")

"I was forewarned of the changes by Simon Beaufoy, the screenwriter," Swarup says. And he's still happy. "The film is beautiful. The plot is riveting. The child actors are breathtaking."

Swarup has one niggle. He worries how that scene of Hindu mobs murdering Muslims will play when the film opens in India next week. "People in India are sensitive about how they're portrayed, so there will be criticisms. But a Bollywood director recently told me Slumdog Millionaire's failing was that it wasn't extreme enough to be truly Indian. India has a genius for recycling its contradictions." Swarup rewards my skeptical frown with an endearing smile.

But why would Swarup complain? From the window table of our restaurant in London's Victoria, bus after bus rolls by advertising Slumdog Millionaire. He points them out. His debut novel, already translated into 37 languages and garnering awards around the world, is back in the bestseller lists. And Swarup is basking in the glow of the four Golden Globes that the film won this week. Not to mention the 11 Bafta nominations. Paulina, our waitress, notices his novel on the table and tells me she loved the film. "It was about real struggles against adversity," she says. "It really spoke to me."

Fair enough, Paulina, but what you don't know is that the Slumdog Millionaire from Mumbai's meanest streets was born in London's rather more genteel Golders Green. He came to life on Swarup's laptop while the diplomat was finishing his British tour of duty at the Indian high commission in 2003. read more

Winnie the Pooh sequel to be published more than 80 years after the original

An authorised sequel to AA Milne's children's classic The House at Pooh Corner is to be published later this year, more than 80 years after the original.

By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
10 Jan 2009

'We hope that the many millions of Pooh enthusiasts and readers around the world will embrace and cherish these new stories'
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood will reflect Milne's idea that "whatever happens, a little boy and his bear will always be playing", author David Benedictus said.
Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh have been fixed firmly in the imagination of British children since Milne and illustrator EH Shephard created the characters in the 1920s.
But up until now they have been left in the "enchanted place", as Milne called the wood.
He dropped hints in the 1928 book, which followed Winnie the Pooh (1924), that Christopher Robin was growing up.
Enthusiasts will be intrigued to discover how Benedictus copes with creating an older Christopher, but the author said the contents of the book were a closely guarded secret.
He worked on audio CD adaptations of Winnie the Pooh stories, before turning his hand to the sequel.
The new book will follow a similar format to Milne's Winnie the Pooh books, according to Egmont Publishing, which struck a deal with the A A Milne and E H Shepard Estates.

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