A video on Kalamkari art.
We have a lot to learn from the people that made us.
The Bombay Mix Literary Fix 012
As younglings struggling to make sense of the world, we are gifted with (and cursed by) an incredible optimism for the future. We spend countless hours sitting with friends, dreaming of the undeniable successes that lie ahead of us.
Each one of us is extra-ordinary. Each one will create an identity. Each one will leave an indelible mark on society.
Each one of us will change the world.
Not once does it cross our minds that if everyone is extra-ordinary, then no one truly is (extraordinary). Our optimism prevents us from understanding the laws of simple probability.
A House For Mr. Biswas traces the dreams, disappointments and ambitions of a certain Mohun Biswas, but really it traces the lives of any one of us. It deals with the realisation that, as Burke succinctly put it in 1756, ‘nine parts in ten of the whole race of Mankind drudge through life.’
Mr. Biswas’ search for his own house serves as a metaphor for his independence, and V. S Naipaul creates a picturesque Indo-Trinidadian world that almosts succeeds in reviving a certain post colonial nostalgia, for the now vanished colonial world.
V S Naipaul is no stranger to controversy, and I suspect he even relishes being drawn into one. But the man’s genius lies not in his socio-political views, or his (very nearly desperate) sexist statements, but in the beauty of his writing.
As a woman, I may not appreciate the man that is Naipaul. But I cannot help but be awed by the writer that is Naipaul.
Geek Speak 1 - A rant of appreciation for 'A Class Divided'
Click on the title to watch ‘A Class Divided’ - An experiment on the genesis of our behaviour towards the Other.
Our syllabus does not need to become simpler. Every child is capable of excelling within the dimensions of his/her education. But we need a different approach to engaging the minds of the future keepers of our civilisation.
Dumbing the syllabus will definitely increase the national averages. But it will result in children constantly basking in the comfort of familiarity, in a false reality of finding all the answers in a book, a generation with the lack of a necessity to delve into the pits of their rationalities to find a solution.
The point of an education is to learn how to think, no matter how far away the topic is from your own spectrum of comfort. It is to feel rage and sorrow and empathy and discomfort and to emerge outside with a firm grasp on the issue at hand, and with a sense of accomplishment and the ability to understand the far-reaching ripples of every concrete thought or action.
Watch this documentary.
PS - Here’s Talvin Singh’s Butterfly. Sorry we took so long for a new post.
So this isn’t Asian Electronic.
But it’ll make your feet move a bit faster.
M.A.K.U SoundSystem makes Afro-Colombian Music with a NYC Soul.
Grab this album, or if you’re in NY, check them out at globalFEST 2012.
