As the year reaches its last few minutes
right now
Friday, December 31, 2010
DYING MOMENTS
Posted by scorpio at 11:57 PM 3 comments
Labels: FRANK KRISHNER, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thinking of You Tonight!
It's Christmas Eve, and I'm not exactly rocking around the Christmas Tree yet.
Christmas time chores a plenty, and if you're wondering what on earth am I so busy about, I'm not gonna tell you.
Don't have the time. Santa's putting the last touches to his sleigh, and the reindeer are having their coats brushed and antlers braided.
In Patna, one doesn't have the Holly Jolly Christmas on the same scale as Shillong, Goa, or Calcutta, but one does one's best to raise that cup of good cheer.
As Elvis sings, 'The Christmas Tree is ready, the candles are aglow, but with my Baby far away, what good is Mistletoe?" Christmas is a time when friends and family are important.
My thoughts are with my Uncle Henry who is spending Christmas in hospital in Brisbane this year, after heart surgery, and my Aunt Edna and cousins. Even though we're an ocean apart, the wonder of emails have kept us in touch.
My Christmas wishes also go out to someone who is having a cold Christmas in the Netherlands this year, instead of us spending a cold Christmas together in Gangtok as planned last year.
To you, gentle reader, visiting these pages, may the Hope, Peace and Joy that Christmas brings visit your home and staywith you and yours in the coming year.
Have a Peaceful Christmas.
Posted by scorpio at 11:35 AM 1 comments
Labels: CHRISTMAS, FRANK KRISHNER, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Christmas n Food
Christmas and Culture-3
When Christmas was cancelled!
Now many good people have to make everything very symbolic. In some unconfirmed accounts, they say that one candy maker made this candy with symbols in mind.
So here goes:
There are some other foods that may have the flavour of Christmas spirit every time you see them. They should remind us of the season and also of the meaning of it.
In Calcutta, it's common to buy a lot of 'barley sugar' which is another name for hard-boiled stick candy, and put them in kids' chrstmas stockings.
Posted by scorpio at 10:11 AM 2 comments
Labels: CHRISTMAS, GOOD stuff, KALIMPONG, MY ADVENT JOURNAL, Sikkim
Basic Information
Testicular cancer is an issue that will probably scare the s*** out of a lot of men, and NOBODY wants to even THINK about it. A friend sent me the rushes of a new HOT campaign that's hitting shivering Britain this Christmas.
The campaign, sponsored by Macmillan Cancer Support, is now getting dished beyond the UK and is fast becoming an international media sensation. Male celebrities all across Europe in sports, television, film, theater, ballet and entertainment have volunteered to participate. Participation only requires being snapped completely nude by famed photographer Ian Thraves.
However, the full-monty package is covered in the completed posters, in most cases by the text wording “Embarrassed?”.
Checkum’s slogan reads: ‘Embarrassed? The only person embarrassed by this is you. 2000 men in the UK are diagnosed with testicular cancer every year. Don’t be one of them - Checkum.’
Posted by scorpio at 9:37 AM 0 comments
Labels: culture vultures, FRANK KRISHNER, MEDIA, WORKING MEN
Monday, December 20, 2010
Christmas Movies
If you haven't seen how the Grinch stole Christmas, it's the season to get an education, man.
And then they are the many 'Santa Claus films', some of them get really weird, but all in all they are good fun to watch. Last year I bought 'Fred Claus', and though the theme of Santa's workshop being taken over wasn't new, there's an older film which has a similar theme. The difference is that while Fred is the disenchanted younger brother of Santa, the older version has a resentful son who turns from naughty to nice.
Posted by scorpio at 6:58 AM 0 comments
Labels: CHRISTMAS, GOOD stuff, MEDIA, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Songs of Joy 2010
In 2007, we launched the very first 'Songs of Joy' event in the tiny RAVI Bharati campus. The main objective was to have another event on Patna's very slim Christmas calendar, but an event with a difference.
Songs of Joy would be an evening of Christmas songs and carols, away from the glare of big sponsors and commercialism. It would be basically about carolling under an open sky on a chilly December night.
Today, the 18th December, 2010, marked the fourth year, with 17 carol choirs registering for the contest, and some 250 singers turning up.
'Why on earth did I ever get myself into this mess?' I wailed.This morning, I realised that not a single person had received a formal invite for the show! Four years ago, it was I who thought up the event in the first place!
Yet in the evening, as dusk gathered and a three-quarter winter moon rose in the sky, when the first strains of music wafted over the cold air... 'Silent Night... Holy Night', the warmth that enveloped me , and the peace I felt made it all worthwhilee.
Posted by scorpio at 8:54 PM 1 comments
Labels: BIHAR, CHRISTMAS, CHURCH, FRANK KRISHNER, MEMORIES, Patna
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Bihar Days is Number One!
Posted by scorpio at 7:06 AM 5 comments
Monday, December 13, 2010
Socking it on Christmas Day
Chrstmas and Culture -2
Christmas stockings are part and parcel of Christmas, and it was always fun to wake up on Christmas Day at my grandparents home in Calcutta to find Christmas stockings filled with fruits, nuts and lots of small inexpensive stuff that seven year olds love.
The tradition comes from the legend of Saint Nicholas, who once slipped some gold coins into the socks of some poor maidens who had left them near the fireside to dry. These girls were too poor to have a dowry, and so Good Saint Nick helped them out. Saint Nicholas was a good Bishop who lived in the 4th Century.
In about 1823, somebody wrote 'The Night before Christmas', and there you have it - The people of America picked up this old British Tradition of Father Christmas filling up kids' stockings by the fireside, and now we even have speciallly designed stockings by Coca Cola, pre-filled, so that Santa Caus can drop them off at your apartment.
Posted by scorpio at 7:43 PM 3 comments
Labels: BIHAR, CHRISTMAS, FRANK KRISHNER, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Friday, December 10, 2010
The Tree
Posted by scorpio at 6:33 AM 1 comments
Labels: CHRISTMAS, Ecology, FRANK KRISHNER, Jharkhand, KALIMPONG, MY ADVENT JOURNAL, Sikkim
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Ad Mad at Ravi Bharati
It's amazing how they use their talent and ingenuity to create pretty decent stuff out of meagre resources.
Posted by scorpio at 6:58 AM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, MEDIA, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Christmas Card Memories
Posted by scorpio at 6:44 PM 5 comments
Labels: CHRISTMAS, culture vultures, FRANK KRISHNER, FRANK KRISHNER; NEW YEAR, INCREDIBLE INDIA, MEMORIES
Countdown to Christmas
Time to start looking for Christmas Cards.
Now that the Sisters of Notre Dame have shut down NDCC, there's no recycled and handmade Christmas card exhibition where you could get interesting cards, do your bit saving the earth, and do a spot of charity all at the same time. NDCC stands for Note Dame Communication Cetre... now its NO Deals in Christmas Cards!
Posted by scorpio at 7:12 AM 3 comments
Labels: BIHAR, FRANK KRISHNER, MEDIA, Music, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Monday, December 06, 2010
Site Story
Posted by scorpio at 7:11 AM 7 comments
Labels: BIHAR, FRANK KRISHNER, Jharkhand, MEDIA, MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Sunday, December 05, 2010
20 days to Christmas
Posted by scorpio at 10:05 PM 2 comments
Labels: MY ADVENT JOURNAL
Expession, Sedition, Repression?
SAR GEELANI: now I request Arundhati Roy to come and speak.
Arundhati Roy : If anybody has any shoes to throw, please throw them now ..
Some PPl in the audience: we’re cultured…etc..etc
AR: Good, I’m glad. I’m glad to hear that. Though being cultured is not necessarily a good thing. But anyway..
[interruption from some ppl in the audience (inaudible in the video)]
SAR GEELANI: please will you talk afterwards. Now prove that you are cultured.
Posted by scorpio at 11:30 AM 2 comments
Labels: Arundhati Roy, crime, culture vultures, Democracy, Gandhi, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Islam, MEDIA, NAGA, NORTH EAST, SHOUT BOX
Friday, December 03, 2010
Festival of Lights
Yesterday, December 2, was tha Jewish Festival of Lights: Hannkkah or Chanukah. There is a small Jewsih Community in Calcutta, Bombay, and Mizoaram who celebrate this festival.
History Of Jewish Hanukkah Holiday
Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights, which is celebrated for eight days, by lighting a special candelabrum called menorah. The festival commemorates the victory of Maccabees, over the Hellenistic Syrians. As per the Jewish tradition, the number of candles to be lit depends on the day of the festival, proceeding to eight lights on the last i.e. eighth night. People also light an extra light throughout the festival, called the shamash.
The eight days recall the eight day miracle of the original temple lamp.
Posted by scorpio at 9:58 PM 1 comments
Labels: Calcutta;, Hanukkah, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Jews, NORTH EAST, TRIBES