won't stop fighting

one of the most beautiful songs depicting the fight of the tribals and adivasis against the tsunami of 'development'.
गाँव छोड़ब नहीं (gaon chodab nahin).
watch and enjoy.

DK Pattamal - RIP

one of god's angels - DK Pattamal - passed away on 16th July.
her wikipedia page.

as always - her music will continue to enthrall and inspire generations to come.

sufi-ism and religious pluralism*

the famed ajmer dargah of khwaja moinuddin chishti is recently in the news for the wrong reasons.
what is a dargah? (from wikipedia). it is the abode of the saints (usually sufi).
staying in bombay, one cannot miss the geographically outstanding haji ali dargah.

my interest in sufism arose with the album by rabbi shergill which featured the moving 'bulla ki jaana main kaun' (watch on youtube). a seering philosophical kafi - a verse form written by baba bulleh shah.
here are more examples of bulleh shah's kaafiyaan.

the feature of all of the above is the pluralism - in thought, philosophy, acceptance and practice.

and it seems like the radical muslims are not very supportive of sufi-isms and the extensive popularity of the sufi saints. praveen swami writes in the hindu on this phenomenon.

in my younger days, though living in a typical religiously insular setting, studying in a christian missionary school (i guess) gave some of us a slightly 'outsular' perspective. i recall going to the school chapel with pals before exams for prayers.
small acts but great meaning.

* - never expected to use such words

where the streets have no name

this song is a classic from the U2 stable. from the album joshua tree.

just figured out today that they were actually singing about japan.
see para 4 under the address elements heading.

black + google = blackle

search now has a super cool page from, who else...google.
go to blackle for a new search experience (visually only).

and the logic is here.
this is one thing which is brilliant and not at the same time.

in sivaji-the boss, rajini becomes fair when the heroine says his black colour is a mismatch. and he goes "oru koodai sunlight, oru koodai moonlight, idhudhane yen white" (one basket of sunlight and one basket of moonlight equals my white).
while the mathematics is suspect, the concept is colour transformation and the song is one rocking hip hop number.

and google goes the other way from white to black. just as rocking :-)

summa athirathu illa.
more later on this !!