Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Copy-pasted from my Facebook shared post here: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1680139565535947 My share-comment: Wah! Wah! Kya Baat Hain, Sudhir Joshi Sahab! You made my day! While I have seen a lot of Hindi film songs that I love, on youtube, these lists and linked youtube videos makes it so easy to pick up and play the songs (and even refresh one's memory about songs that may have got hidden behind some folds of memory in the brain/mind). Plan to go through it in detail some time. Meanwhile I just checked out the Lata & Kishore lists and played a couple of favourite songs of mine - Kora Kagaz Tha Ye Man Mera, Rajesh Khanna & Sharmila Tagore, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql1-jjEPErw , 5 min, 12 secs and Zindagi Ka Safar Hai Yeh Kaisa Safar, Rajesh Khanna (with Sharmila also in video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI51ESCus1U , 3 min. 30 secs. Bliss, man, bliss! --- end share comment --- Original post contents of Shri Sudhir Joshi: 19000 ...

A recent article in The Hindu gave some history about a famous Marathi Hindustani classical type song that I have heard and enjoyed many times in my youth (listening on the radio then). Interestingly the female singer, Vani Jairam, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vani_Jairam , is a South Indian singer trained in Carnatic music! It seems as if a Mararthi native is singing the female singer part. [I don't think I realized it was a South Indian lady singing the female part the first few times I heard the song in my youth.] Now about the history: A small extract from a recent Hindu article on it, The song that rained many songs, http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/the-song-that-rained-many-songs/article7869292.ece : Vasant Desai was recording a Marathi album with Kumar Gandharva and wanted Vani to sing with him. But Kumar Gandharva, being the maestro he was, had till then refused to sing with any other female musician. That day, after listening to Vani, he said: “Achcha…,...

Last updated on 22nd Nov. 2015 1) USA rural poverty (Kentucky, USA), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3tgL5alIv8 , 8 min. 38 secs, published on Oct. 18th 2014, by PBS Newshour 2) USA suburban poverty (in Long Island, around 65 miles east of New York City), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjsrdcbbPBU , 9 min. 43 secs, published on Jan. 11th 2014, by PBS Newshour 3) USA urban (city) poverty & drugs & violence (Chicago), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dklNDwmWsk , 23 min. 07 secs, Dec. 12th 2013 4) Finally here is a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops video on USA poverty giving some analysis of expenses that families living at poverty levels in USA face, making it challenging to make ends meet, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3iRRsoqoMI , around 4 mins, published Nov. 10th 2015. ================================= Update: From Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau, issued (dated) September 2015, https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Censu...

I read these two news articles today, (Warning: has some graphic pics) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3320224/The-mastermind-terror-Officials-say-Paris-massacres-planned-Belgian-recruited-13-year-old-brother-fight-ISIS-Syria-posed-smiling-decapitated-bodies.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/europe/paris-terror-attack.html . The picture that they paint is that the mastermind-suspect is a 27 year old man born in Brussels, Belgium and that the neighbourhood of Molenbeek in Brussels is suspected to have harboured people who supported/perhaps even participated in the horrendous Paris attack that have killed over a hundred. I have lived in Brussels, Belgium in the mid-80s for a year and a quarter. It was my first trip abroad and my first exposure to the (materially) prosperous Western world. I have very fond memories of Brussels and the people I met and interacted with there. I used to commute by tram/metro and bus, and walk around Brussels freely. I also used t...

Here's the youtube video having the intro, address of PM Modi followed by another speaker (some parts of the last speaker are inaudible),  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRusBmwKl90 , around 35 mins. Ravi: I found this address of PM Shri Narendra Modi to be very statesman-like which sets the tone for India and UK to be partners now & in future, very much like USA and UK are partners (though India is still an emerging economy whereas UK and USA are developed economies). Both USA and India share a former colonial relationship with UK! This was mentioned, if I recall correctly, by USA president Barrack Obama when he visited India last. I have highlighted (by italics & quote-spacing) some passages which I felt captured this statesman like view of PM Modi very well. And BTW it seems to have been the first time that a sitting Indian PM has addressed the UK parliament (though it is not in session now). Note: The following contents have been copy-pasted from  http://p...

I enjoyed reading this article, CAMPAIGNING COMEDIAN PAT PAULSEN DIES AT 69, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/04/26/campaigning-comedian-pat-paulsen-dies-at-69/3a53fe56-e5e4-47be-8bde-0cedcfb96508/ , dated April 26, 1997. A small extract from it: Among his campaign promises: improving the Postal Service ("I can lose your mail for half that much") and gun control ("As a sportsman, I believe everyone should have a gun -- for fishing"). Slogans included "We Cannot Stand Pat," "We Can Be Decisive, Probably" and "United We Sit." At last summer's Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he greeted people with the promise: "If elected, I will win." "I think I'd make a pretty good president, and they have a great pension plan," he joked. --- end extract --- Here's a youtube video having clips of his shows in 1967/68 (nearly half a century back), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4kWLUn...

A small extract (2 sentences) from the New York Times article, Candidates Stick to Script, if Not the Truth, in the 2016 Race, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/us/politics/candidates-stick-to-script-if-not-the-truth-in-2016-race.html , dated Nov. 7th 2015: Deep disregard for the news media has allowed candidates to duck, dodge and ridicule assertions from outlets they dislike and seek the embrace of those that are inclined to protect them. Today, it seems, truth is in the eyes of the beholder — and any assertion can be elevated and amplified if yelled loudly enough. --- end extract --- I felt it appropriate to share edited versions of recent comments of mine on my Facebook post, "What a vetting process the (top) USA presidential candidates go through! Dr. Ben Carson gets a rough time from the media!", https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1676259222590648 : Ravi S. Iyer wrote: In my neutral informal-student-observer role of this US presidential election I h...

[Contents of this post are copy-pasted from my Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1676259222590648 ] In my role as a neutral informal-student-observer of the USA presidential elections, I had not heard anything about the anger flashes and related violent incidents in Dr. Ben Carson's youth (poverty and father not being around being important factors, it seems), which he says he overcame through faith in God. I guess now that he made it to the top (1st or 2nd) in the Republican polls the media (and perhaps his opponents) have dug into his past and even challenged his accounts of these incidents of violence in the past as well as a West Point INFORMAL offer that he claimed to have got ! My God! What a vetting process these USA presidential candidates go through! And that too in the full glare of the TV media. Here are a couple of videos related to it: Fox News which is willing to trust Dr. Carson's words, 3 min. 46 secs., https://www.youtube.com/...

Last updated on 9th Nov. 2015 A view about caste factor in Indian politics today, from Prof. of sociology, Satish Deshpande of the University of Delhi, The ‘OBC’ primer on Indian politics, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-obc-primer-on-indian-politics/article7847129.ece , dated Nov. 6th 2015. Prof. Deshpande, http://sociology.du.ac.in/index.php/people/faculty?id=124 , http://people.du.ac.in/~sdeshpande/HmPg+1_CV.html , has a Ph.D. in sociology (1991) from University of California at Santa Cruz (USA). The article refers to the 'Mandal moment'. This is a reference to the Mandal commission report and efforts to implement it later on. From the associated wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandal_Commission : The Mandal Commission was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward." It was headed by Indian parliamentarian B.P. Mandal to...

Li Yuanchao, vice-president of China, has written an interesting article in The Hindu today (6th Nov. 2015), China, India, and closely connected dreams, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/china-india-and-closely-connected-dreams/article7847105.ece . Some extracts from it: As an ancient civilisation, India has been world-renowned for its profound philosophy and splendid culture, which made great contributions to human development. As an emerging country, India’s widely acclaimed economic growth and social vitality have secured this country an influential position in the world. Past and present glories have come together to lend strength to India’s ambitious march towards national prosperity. On the other side of the Himalayas, the Chinese nation has also written its own chapter in the history of human civilisation and created thriving miracles. Throughout history, the Chinese and Indian civilisations have maintained exchanges and learned from each other. With the East’s unique ...

Here is an interesting article, Chinese Officials Should Stop Trying to Limit Family Size, by New York Times Editoria board, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/opinion/sunday/chinese-officials-should-stop-trying-to-limit-family-size.html , dated Oct. 31st 2015 My share-post on the above article which I had shared on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1674373246112579 , are given below: Sure, China has progressed materially far more than India. But this material progress came at a price of the govt. controlling so many aspects of life, including family size. India today is a flourishing democracy. I think India's freedom of speech and thought (as compared to China and some other Asian countries) as well as freedom to practise one's culture & religion (so long as it does not directly offend others), is well worth the price of slower material progress as compared to China and some other Asian countries with similar govts. which do not allow much fr...