This video was made my family friend David Phillips.Its a ride through the busy streets of our city. You will see vehicles of all sorts vying for space together with animals. Modern cars and horse carts nudging each other and an elephant ambling along. In the beginning there is a clip of his wife in a modern confectionery. The chocolate donuts cost Rs 40 a piece ( 80 cents) He takes us to the fruit and fish market also. Pretty graphic. The noise , confusion and colour will grab you.
See various worlds and economies converge, merge together and flash past -
Modern - ancient
Rich - poor
Human - animal
Slow - fast
Like a mighty river full of all forms of life.
In remembrance of what Christ did for us on the cross let us partake of His table today with fellow believers.
Listen to this Indian worship song which calls all creation to worship the Lord.
Sing---sing heaven and earth.
Let every sound praise the Lord
Symphony
Devotional
- Written by Andrea Lucado
Think about all of the sounds. All of the countless sounds our earth makes: twigs cracking beneath your tennis shoes, waves rhythmically hitting the sand and receding again, wind rushing through a corridor, cicadas singing on a summer night. So many sounds that don’t include human voices or movements. Nature itself is enough to create a mighty chorus that reaches heaven.
Psalm 148 calls all of creation to praise God, from the heavens to us on earth. The psalm begins in the broad expanse we know very little about: the universe. “Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above” (Ps. 148:1). Then the angels are called on to worship, then the sun, moon, stars, earth, sea creatures, lightning, wind, mountains, animals and, finally, kings, princes, women, men and children. It takes 11 verses for us to be mentioned. Do you ever think about all of the beings and things besides us that are praising God? Could it be that all of those sounds—waves, whales, cracking twigs—combined create a giant chorus all for God’s glory?
It is all for his glory, after all. As verse 13 of the psalm says, “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted.” And the symphony is much more than our alto, tenor and soprano voices; it is all of creation, even the stars. Scientists have listened to the sounds giant stars make as they spin. Why else would these balls of light that are light years away make a sound if not for God to hear?
Considering our small voices in comparison with the sound of a super nova spinning in space, it makes you wonder why we are included in nature’s symphony at all. Surely God is receiving enough praise and not missing our squeaky songs. However, the Bible is very clear that we are set apart from the rest of creation. Genesis 5:1 explains, “When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.” We, unlike everything else, look like God. We are his children and our bodies are made for worshipping him (Rom. 12:1). That is enough reason to spend the rest of our lives in constant praise and gratitude for being included in the chorus. Yet, many of us turn our worship to other things. We so quickly forget the one who actually deserves it.
The prophet Isaiah warned that God’s people were becoming worshippers of false gods: “Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made” (Is. 2: 8). So if we are not lifting our hands in worship to our Savior, we are lifting them in worship to something else. Imagine a baseball game, a Coldplay concert, good news about a promotion. The natural reaction to these events is to raise your hands in celebration. How much more should we raise our hands to the one that created the entire universe? A universe too vast for comprehension in which stars succumb to his glory.
We raise our hands in celebration and in awe of God, but we also raise them when crying out in pain. Consider what David wrote in Psalm 63: “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”
Our body reaches for him in our pain, when we thirst for his goodness but do not see it in the world around us. Then we lift our hands in desperate hope. We lift them for help to get out of the pit in which we find ourselves.
No matter the motive for lifting our hands toward God, we are worshipping him. We worship through pain as we would through celebration. Psalm 77:6 says, “I remembered my songs in the night.” This is a critical perspective we as Christians are asked to have. Night is dark. You cannot see what’s ahead of you. Another mountain to climb? Deliverance? More stillness and quiet and waiting on the Lord? But think again about all of the sounds. The singing does not stop when the sun sets: crickets are just waking up, mist settles on the grass, rain falls on the pavement. There is just as much praise at night from creation as there is at dawn—it’s just a different type.
As nature does, we also can sing through the night. We can lift our hands through the darkness and above the pain. We join all of creation in singing no matter the hour or circumstance, and we let faith arise in our midst. For as we know from experience and as we’ve been promised in scripture, joy comes with the morning (Ps. 30:5).
Watch this amazing video of the music of the stars
Scientists can record the sound of Stars The technique, called "stellar seismology", is becoming increasingly popular among astronomers because the sounds give an indication of what is going on in the stars' interior.
Amazing isn 't it. We can connect with the universe through these sounds.
And the Bible recorded this centuries before telescopes and radio scopes were invented or even thought of.
Job 38:6-8
New King James Version (NKJV)
6 To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
The stars do indeed sing and the Sun being a star, is one of them
Peepli Live is a much talked movie about to be released in India on August 13 . It is very different from the usual glamorized Bollywood love stories. It displays the heat an d dust of an ordinary Indian village and the struggles of the farming community.The video of the movie trailer is in Hindi, but here you can catch a glimpse of the heat dust and tears of rural India. I am sure it is available with English sub titles or voice over.
Here is a review published in The Times of India
Story:
Enter Peepli, a small village in the hinterland where a farmer duo, Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) and Budhia (Raghuvir Yadav) are struggling to hold on to their land. Threatened by extreme poverty, they fall upon a novel plan. Natha decides to commit suicide to avail of the Rs one lakh compensation package doled out by the government. But before he can do that, the news spreads like wildfire.
The unknown hamlet soon becomes the favourite hunting ground for the voyeuristic news channels, hungry for TRPs, unscrupulous politicians, eyeing their vote banks, fumbling bureaucrats, foxed and clueless about the strange turn of events...Can the farmer's family hope for succour? Is India equipped to handle its swelling population of forgotten and marginalised citizenry? Does Natha survive? Good questions....
Movie Review:
And that's the bottomline of Peepli Live, a small little film, that showcases the real India without glossing over the contradictions of our fumbling-bumbling democracy or getting overtly sentimental about garibi (poverty) and the attendant grime that goes with it. Refreshingly, the film unfolds like a hard-hitting satire that turns its tongue-in-cheek gaze over almost all that's incongruous in contemporary Indian society: the rural rot, the yawning rural-urban divide, the vote-bank politics, the out-of-sync bureaucracy, the we-give-a-damn political class, the TRP-lusting media and the total insensitivity towards real people, real problems, real solutions for a real India.
So, we get to savour this delightful scene where the caretakers of the Indian state try to prevent Natha's suicide by gifting him a `Lal Bahadur' (read hand pump water pump) without providing for the requisite funds for its fitting. Needless to say, the hand pump lies unused in the destitute farmer's courtyard and doubles up mostly as a plaything for the village urchins. Then again, there's a local politician who tries to gain mileage by gifting him a colour TV, quite like Marie Antoinette's famous blooper: 'If they don't have food, give them cakes!' And finally, there are the state officials who go through their entire gamut of garibi-hatao (end poverty) schemes, only to realise there is nothing tailor-made to prevent a farmer from committing suicide.
All this while hordes of television news channels have descended onto the non-descript village and transformed it into a comedy circus, complete with cameras that intrude right into Natha's house and try to do an expose on his poop as well. It isn't really difficult to recognise the various real-life TV journalists who are good-humouredly spoofed at in Peepli Live. And nobody should actually take offence, because it's all such fun, despite being a serious indictment of India's skewed development schemes.
The high point of the film indeed is its smart and sassy script. But more than all this, it's the life-like portrayals that add a refreshing authenticity to the film. Handpicking the actors mostly from Habib Tanvir's famed Naya Theatre troupe was indeed a coup for debutant director Anusha Rizvi. The show stealers here are Raghuvir Yadav, Omkar Das Manikpuri and Farrukh Jaffer. Jaffer's old and acrimonious mom act is absolutely brilliant, even as Natha's face mirrors the pain, anguish and confusion of a simpleton trapped between the contradictory pulls of a hungry family on the one side and an uncaring state -- and polity -- on the other. The music of the film deserves a special mention, with folksy lyrics and tunes by Indian Ocean, Nageen Tanvir, Brij Mandal and the rest. Just a word of caution: The film does tend to get repetitive midway and the story goes a bit low on the emotional conflict of Natha and his family, leaving them mostly as bystanders in the circus that revolves around them.
But by and large, Peepli Live is a lively and living document on the `other' India, that lives beyond the neon lights and the cruising metros. Another ace up Aamir Khan's sleeve! This time as producer of a film that has loads to say, without being boring and didactic.
Earlier it was Nano the world 's cheapest car, now its the world 's cheapest laptop
Looking as stylish as a large i-phone, this $35 “low-cost computing-cum-access device” is a 5/7/9 inch touchscreen gadget.Nokia 5800
Finally realising his dream project, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday launched a $35 computing device that will be made available to ‘learners’ right from primary schools to universities. Aiming at bringing down the price to $10, the Ministry has also begun discussions with global manufacturers to start mass production of arguably the world’s cheapest laptop.
“This is part of the national initiative to take forward inclusive education. The solutions for tomorrow will emerge from India,” said Sibal.
Looking as stylish as a large i-phone, this $35 “low-cost computing-cum-access device” is a 5/7/9 inch touchscreen gadget packed with Internet browsers, PDF reader, video conferencing facilities, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and multiple content viewer.
The Linux based device will also have provisions for running on solar power besides the usual battery- operated systems. The Indian Express had first reported that the ministry was set to launch the product.
While the device developed by the HRD Ministry’s teams will come with a smaller memory and no hard disk, the ministry said it would be sufficient for a student’s needs. The Rs 1,500/$35 computing device is expected to first hit higher education institutions — colleges and varsities starting 2011 — but the government could subsidise 50 per cent of this cost, bringing down the price.
( Story taken from Indian Express)
Sure sounds very affordable and accessible to all. But certain questions as raised by my computer expert friend, should be asked about this device.
He shared this comment on my FaceBook link How big is the hard drive? What type of screen ? What type of Processor? What type of graphics card? and the Type of RAM, including the type of operating system will determine its value. For example; Adobe Premiere Pro (movie editing software) requires 4 GB RAM & Core DUO processor with lots of hard drive space to load up movies to edit.If it were possible to give a laptop same as Dell Inspiron (or something like that) with the configurations that it is now in the market for $20, then Dell will be out of business in a month.The value of a laptop or desk top is determined by what it can do for you.But still very interesting news; and it may bring some prices down...hopefully!"
This is very exciting news. Looks like every child in India will own a computer, it will definitely make a difference. Lets see what its performance is like.
When I was 8 or 9 years old I went with my parents and elder sister on a holiday to Kashmir. I remember some of it, specially sliding down the glaciers, living in a tent on a riverbank, riding on a boat called shikara (above) and visiting cherry and apple orchards.
Here under the watchful eye of the lofty snow covered mountains you can stay in a houseboat. We couldn' t do that, but its worth an experience.
You can choose a houseboat suited to the amount you can spend.
They have plush interiors, with all the luxury and comfort you desire.
They make lovely honeymoon getaways.
The Indian state of Kashmir is a paradise on Earth and has two of the most important mountain ranges – the Himalayas and the Pir Pangal. These mountain ranges are the source of the major rivers that flow down into the valleys. Srinagar is one of the most enchanting places in the state which is famous the Dal Lake which is famous for the houseboats. Along the shores of the Dal Lake lie the lies the parks and gardens of the Mughal Era, now collectively known as the “Mughal Gardens”. Srinagar is also the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir and gives a wonderful holiday experience especially during the summers.
The appeal of the houseboats in Kashmir attracts tourists from all over the world to Srinagar. These houseboats provide a unique and matchless experience of staying amidst the cold waters of the Lakes in Kashmir in a cedar paneled elegant bedrooms with all modern facilities and services. These houseboats anchor along parts of the Dal and the Nagin Lakes and River Jhelum. Like hotels, these houseboats vary in luxury depending upon the extent of luxury they provide. The Department of tourism of Kashmir have graded these houseboats into five categories which include Deluxe, A, B, C, and D.
In Kashmir, there are around 1087 house boats which include 349 deluxe, 129 A-Class, 124 B-Class, 134 C-Class and 351 D-Class boats. Like a luxury hotel, a luxury houseboat has good furnishing, carpets, and attached bathrooms with modern bath fittings while a D-Class boat are like budget and economy hotels and provide basic furnishing. The houseboats vary widely in their location with some facing the main road and others facing the gardens and local markets and villages. These houseboats provide personalized service and have “houseboy” to look after the guests. Every standard houseboat has a lounge, dining room, balcony and bedrooms with attached bath and is provided with municipal water connectivity. The costs of hiring a houseboat for a day are inclusive of all meals and free rides from the house boat to the nearest jetty and back. These houseboats are not anchored along any banks of the river and so there are Shikaras available to provide free transportation services to the guests or tourists from the nearest jetty to the houseboat. Touristplacesinindia.com is an international travel site and a repository of useful information about Houseboats Kashmir in India.
The children are concerned about the skyrocket ting prices of essential commodities. Food prices are spiralling nearly everyday. The vegetables cost almost double in the past few days and today I heard that the price of atta or whole wheat flour ( basic staple) has gone up by Rs 5. The poor and middle class is reeling under this burden.
The Prime Minister is also questioned about the plight of street children and the changes in education.
This is a video from a Hindi movie called Jodha Akbar
Jodhaa Akbar is a sixteenth century love story about a political marriage of convenience that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, (Muslim) and a Rajput (Hindu) princess, Jodhaa.
The song sequence takes one into the charming world of a Mughal Palace
I am a single , evangelical, born-again Christian woman, I was my mother 's care giver till she died on Jan 29,2012.I am serving the Lord in my church and community.The purpose of my blog is to share the trials and triumphs of life in India and encourage friends to pray for us.You can call it a cross cultural blog
