Month of May of India General Elections 2024 and Amy Hwang

General elections are being held in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha.

 

Artist: Amy Hwang
 

Penguin wants Edgar Allen Poe to write about him like the Raven

 Stephen Moss, "Ten Birds That Changed the World" has Raven at number one and Emperor Penguin at number ten.

Moss writes about Raven's relationship with Poe:

“…‘Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore”.’ The line comes from one of the best-known of all narrative poems, ‘The Raven’, written by the nineteenth-century American writer, Edgar Allan Poe.48 Published in January 1845, less than five years before Poe died, it is a masterpiece of Gothic literature, whose popularity, even almost 200 years after it was published, has yet to wane; it features in almost every online list of the top ten poems of all time.

With a curiously jaunty, yet strangely ominous, rhythm, ‘The Raven’ tells the story of a man who awakens ‘upon a midnight dreary’ to hear a tapping on his door. The visitor turns out to be a raven which, once it has been let into the room, will utter but a single word: ‘Nevermore’. The largely one-sided dialogue between man and bird continues, with the man getting increasingly angry and disturbed, as he realises that the raven’s constant repetition of the word reminds him of the loss of his lover, Lenore. Gradually he descends into madness, for which he blames the ‘grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous’ bird…”

 artist: Charlie Hankin, 2023

Importance of Cap in US Politics Too

 

 

artist: Frank Cotham, 2022

कै श्रीधर जोगळेकर सरांची टिकलीची शिस्त...Joglekar Sir and Bindi

मिरजेत असताना मी 1973 (9 वी) ते 1978 (engg चे तिसरे सेमीस्टर) त्यांच्या तुफान लोकप्रिय गणिताच्या क्लास ला जात असे, अतिशय उत्तम शिक्षक, शब्दशः जीव टाकून समाजसेवा करणारा मनुष्य, अनेक मुलामुलींकडून एक पैसा सुद्धा फी न घेणारा, पैसा हे जीवनाचे ध्येय नसणारा असा त्यांचा लौकिक होता...

 

सर appendicitis फुटून अतिशय कमी वयात, 1978 साली, वारले, आपली लहान मुलगी व पत्नी मागे ठेवून, ज्याचे दुःख मी आजही करत असतो, आजही तो दिवस विसरलेलो नाही...

 

तर आमच्या सरांच्या क्लास ला अनेक मुली येत आणि सरांचा एक नियम होता की प्रत्येक हिंदू मुलीच्या कपाळावर कुंकू पाहिजे...

 

एखादीने कुंकू लावले नसेल किंवा ते पुसले गेले असेल तर ती मुलगी लाल पेन्सिल मिळवून आपल्या कपाळावर कुंकू काढून घेत असे, हे एखाद्या वेळी जमले नाही तर सर त्या मुलीला बाहेर काढत असत...

 

कुठल्याही मुलीला, तिच्या पालकांना, किंवा समाजातील इतर कोणाला सरांचा हा नियम जाचक वाटला नाही...

माझ्या बायकोच्या कपाळावर कुंकू नसेल तर मी तसे लगेच बोलून दाखवतो, मी तिला कुंकू लाव असे कधी सांगत नाही, मी तिला लग्नानंतर मंगळसूत्र घालू नकोस म्हणून सुचवले होते, त्याप्रमाणे ती ते अनेक वेळा घालत नसे, आज नेमाने घालत नाही...

 

पण मला हिंदू स्त्रीचे पांढरे कपाळ आवडतं नाही..

 

मी स्वतः लहानपणा पासून कपाळावर गंध, विभूती लावायची सवय लावून घ्यायला पाहिजे होती असे मला वाटते...

ज्यावेळी आयआयटी मद्रास ला गेलो त्यावेळी अनेक स्त्री पुरुषांची भरलेली कपाळे बघून बरे वाटत असे...

The wind: A powerful literary symbol...William H Davies, Arun Kolatkar, Philip Larkin, Joseph Conrad

 The Villain by William H Davies  

“While joy gave clouds the light of stars,

That beamed wher'er they looked;

And calves and lambs had tottering knees,

Excited, while they sucked;

While every bird enjoyed his song,

Without one thought of harm or wrong—

I turned my head and saw the wind,

Not far from where I stood,

Dragging the corn by her golden hair,

Into a dark and lonely wood.”

“काय डेंजर वारा सुटलाय”

           अरुण कोलटकर, "अरुण कोलटकरच्या कविता",  १९७७

 

"अरे तुझी टोपी

तुझी टोपी गेली खड्ड्यात

कपाळ पहिलं सांभाळ

काय डेंजर वारा सुटलाय

डोसक्यात कचरा

धूळ धूळ डोक्यात

 

साहेबाची खिडकी फुटली

गादीवर काचा काचा

आपोआप गुंडाळतोय

पंजाब्याचा गालिचा

पार्शिणीचा फ्लावरपाट

गडाबडा लोळतोय

 

सिंधीणीच्या दांडीवरली

म्हागडी नायलॉन साडी

चालली वार्‍यावर हवाई झाज

नवव्या मजल्यावरल्या

बंगाल्याचा लेंगा लगेच

लागला तिच्या पाठी..."

 Wedding-Wind by Philip Larkin

"The wind blew all my wedding-day,

And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind;

And a stable door was banging, again and again,

That he must go and shut it, leaving me

5Stupid in candlelight, hearing rain,

Seeing my face in the twisted candlestick,

Yet seeing nothing. When he came back

He said the horses were restless, and I was sad

That any man or beast that night should lack

10The happiness I had.

                                     Now in the day

All’s ravelled under the sun by the wind’s blowing.

He has gone to look at the floods, and I

Carry a chipped pail to the chicken-run,

Set it down, and stare. All is the wind

15Hunting through clouds and forests, thrashing

My apron and the hanging cloths on the line.

Can it be borne, this bodying-forth by wind

Of joy my actions turn on, like a thread

Carrying beads? Shall I be let to sleep

20Now this perpetual morning shares my bed?

Can even death dry up

These new delighted lakes, conclude

Our kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters?"

 

Joseph Conrad:

"...A big, foaming sea came out of the mist; it made for the ship, roaring wildly, and in its rush it looked as mischievous and discomposing as a madman with an axe. One or two, shouting, scrambled up the rigging; most, with a convulsive catch of the breath, held on where they stood. Singleton dug his knees under the wheel-box, and carefully eased the helm to the headlong pitch of the ship, but without taking his eyes off the coming wave. It towered close-to and high, like a wall of green glass topped with snow. The ship rose to it as though she had soared on wings, and for a moment rested poised upon the foaming crest as if she had been a great sea-bird. Before we could draw breath a heavy gust struck her, another roller took her unfairly under the weather bow, she gave a toppling lurch, and filled her decks. Captain Allistoun leaped up, and fell; Archie rolled over him, screaming: — ”She will rise!”..."