Carved ceiling, Akshardham
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The life and death of Kevin Carter
Visiting Sudan, a little-known photographer took a picture that made the world weep. What happened afterward is a tragedy of another sort.
BY SCOTT MACLEOD/JOHANNESBURG
(http://www.thisisyesterday.com/ints/KCarter.html)
The image presaged no celebration: a child barely alive, a vulture so eager for carrion. Yet the photograph that epitomized Sudan's famine would win Kevin Carter fame - and hopes for anchoring a career spent hounding the news, free-lancing in war zones, waiting anxiously for assignments amid dire finances, staying in the line of fire for that one great picture. On May 23, 14 months after capturing that memorable scene, Carter walked up to the dais in the classical rotunda of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and received the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. The South African soaked up the attention. "I swear I got the most applause of anybody," Carter wrote back to his parents in Johannesburg. "I can't wait to show you the trophy. It is the most precious thing, and the highest acknowledgment of my work I could receive."
Carter was feted at some of the most fashionable spots in New York City. Restaurant patrons, overhearing his claim to fame, would come up and ask for his autograph. Photo editors at the major magazines wanted to meet the new hotshot, dressed in his black jeans and T shirts, with the tribal bracelets and diamond-stud earring, with the war-weary eyes and tales from the front lines of Nelson Mandela's new South Africa. Carter signed with Sygma, a prestigious picture agency representing 200 of the world's best photojournalists. "It can be a very glamorous business," says Sygma's U.S. director, Eliane Laffont. "It's very hard to make it, but Kevin is one of the few who really broke through. The pretty girls were falling for him, and everybody wanted to hear what he had to say."
There would be little time for that. Two months after receiving his Pulitzer, Carter would be dead of carbon-monoxide poisoning in Johannesburg, a suicide at 33. His red pickup truck was parked near a small river where he used to play as a child; a green garden hose attached to the vehicle's exhaust funneled the fumes inside. "I'm really, really sorry," he explained in a note left on the passenger seat beneath a knapsack. "The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist."
How could a man who had moved so many people with his work end up a suicide so soon after his great triumph? The brief obituaries that appeared around the world suggested a morality tale about a person undone by the curse of fame. The details, however, show how fame was only the final, dramatic sting of a death foretold by Carter's personality, the pressure to be first where the action is, the fear that his pictures were never good enough, the existential lucidity that came to him from surviving violence again and again - and the drugs he used to banish that lucidity. If there is a paramount lesson to be drawn from Carter's meteoric rise and fall, it is that tragedy does not always have heroic dimensions. "I have always had it all at my feet," read the last words of his suicide note, "but being me just fit up anyway."
First, there was history. Kevin Carter was born in 1960, the year Nelson Mandela's African National Congress was outlawed. Descended from English immigrants, Carter was not part of the Afrikaner mainstream that ruled the country. Indeed, its ideology appalled him. Yet he was caught up in its historic misadventure.
His devoutly Roman Catholic parents, Jimmy and Roma, lived in Parkmore, a tree-lined Johannesburg suburb - and they accepted apartheid. Kevin, however, like many of his generation, soon began to question it openly. "The police used to go around arresting black people for not carrying their passes," his mother recalls. "They used to treat them very badly, and we felt unable to do anything about it. But Kevin got very angry about it. He used to have arguments with his father. "Why couldn't we do something about it? Why didn't we go shout at those police?' "
Though Carter insisted he loved his parents, he told his closest friends his childhood was unhappy. As a teenager, he found his thrills riding motorcycles and fantasized about becoming a race-car driver. After graduating from a Catholic boarding school in Pretoria in 1976, Carter studied pharmacy before dropping out with bad grades a year later. Without a student deferment, he was conscripted into the South African Defense Force, where he found upholding the apartheid regime loathsome. Once, after he took the side of a black mess-hall waiter, some Afrikaans-speaking soldiers called him a kaffir-boetie ("nigger lover") and beat him up. In 1980 Carter went absent without leave, rode a motorcycle to Durban and, calling himself David, became a disk jockey. He longed to see his family but felt too ashamed to return. One day after he lost his job, he swallowed scores of sleeping pills, pain-killers and rat poison. He survived. He returned to the S.A.D.F. to finish his service and was injured in 1983 while on guard duty at air force headquarters in Pretoria. A bomb attributed to the A.N.C. had exploded, killing 19 people. After leaving the service, Carter got a job at a camera supply shop and drifted into journalism, first as a weekend sports photographer for the Johannesburg Sunday Express. When riots began sweeping the black townships in 1984, Carter moved to the Johannesburg Star and aligned himself with the crop of young, white photojournalists who wanted to expose the brutality of apartheid - a mission that had once been the almost exclusive calling of South Africa's black photographers. "They put themselves in face of danger, were arrested numerous times, but never quit. They literally were willing to sacrifice themselves for what they believed in," says American photojournalist James Nachtwey, who frequently worked with Carter and his friends. By 1990, civil war was raging between Mandela's A.N.C. and the Zulu-supported Inkatha Freedom Party. For whites, it became potentially fatal to work the townships alone. To diminish the dangers, Carter hooked up with three friends - Ken Oosterbroek of the Star and free-lancers Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva - and they began moving through Soweto and Tokoza at dawn. If a murderous gang was going to shoot up a bus, throw someone off a train or cut up somebody on the street, it was most likely to happen as township dwellers began their journeys to work in the soft, shadowy light of an African morning. The four became so well known for capturing the violence that Living, a Johannesburg magazine, dubbed them "the Bang-Bang Club."
Even with the teamwork, however, cruising the townships was often a perilous affair. Well-armed government security forces used excessive firepower. The chaotic hand-to-hand street fighting between black factions involved AK-47s, spears and axes. "At a funeral some mourners caught one guy, hacked him, shot him, ran over him with a car and set him on fire," says Silva, describing a typical encounter. "My first photo showed this guy on the ground as the crowd told him they were going to kill him. We were lucky to get away."
Sometimes it took more than a camera and camaraderie to get through the work. Marijuana, known locally as dagga, is widely available in South Africa. Carter and many other photojournalists smoked it habitually in the townships, partly to relieve tension and partly to bond with gun-toting street warriors. Although he denied it, Carter, like many hard-core dagga users, moved on to something more dangerous: smoking the "white pipe," a mixture of dagga and Mandrax, a banned tranquilizer containing methaqualone. It provides an intense, immediate kick and then allows the user to mellow out for an hour or two.
By 1991, working on the dawn patrol had paid off for one of the Bang-Bang Club. Marinovich won a Pulitzer for his September 1990 photographs of a Zulu being stabbed to death by A.N.C. supporters. That prize raised the stakes for the rest of the club - especially Carter. And for Carter other comparisons cropped up. Though Oosterbroek was his best friend, they were, according to Nachtwey, "like the polarities of personality types. Ken was the successful photographer with the loving wife. His life was in order." Carter had bounced from romance to romance, fathering a daughter out of wedlock. In 1993 Carter headed north of the border with Silva to photograph the rebel movement in famine-stricken Sudan. To make the trip, Carter had taken a leave from the Weekly Mail and borrowed money for the air fare. Immediately after their plane touched down in the village of Ayod, Carter began snapping photos of famine victims. Seeking relief from the sight of masses of people starving to death, he wandered into the open bush. He heard a soft, high-pitched whimpering and saw a tiny girl trying to make her way to the feeding center. As he crouched to photograph her, a vulture landed in view. Careful not to disturb the bird, he positioned himself for the best possible image. He would later say he waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. It did not, and after he took his photographs, he chased the bird away and watched as the little girl resumed her struggle. Afterward he sat under a tree, lit a cigarette, talked to God and cried. "He was depressed afterward," Silva recalls. "He kept saying he wanted to hug his daughter."
After another day in Sudan, Carter returned to Johannesburg. Coincidentally, the New York Times, which was looking for pictures of Sudan, bought his photograph and ran it on March 26, 1993. The picture immediately became an icon of Africa's anguish. Hundreds of people wrote and called the Times asking what had happened to the child (the paper reported that it was not known whether she reached the feeding center); and papers around the world reproduced the photo. Friends and colleagues complimented Carter on his feat. His self-confidence climbed.
Carter quit the Weekly Mail and became a free-lance photojournalist - an alluring but financially risky way of making a living, providing no job security, no health insurance and no death benefits. He eventually signed up with the Reuter news agency for a guarantee of roughly $2,000 a month and began to lay plans for covering his country's first multiracial elections in April. The next few weeks, however, would bring depression and self-doubt, only momentarily interrupted by triumph.
The troubles started on March 11. Carter was covering the unsuccessful invasion of Bophuthatswana by white right-wing vigilantes intent on propping up a black homeland, a showcase of apartheid. Carter found himself just feet away from the summary execution of right-wingers by a black "Bop" policeman. "Lying in the middle of the gunfight," he said, "I was wondering about which millisecond next I was going to die, about putting something on film they could use as my last picture."
His pictures would eventually be splashed across front pages around the world, but he came away from the scene in a funk. First, there was the horror of having witnessed murder. Perhaps as importantly, while a few colleagues had framed the scene perfectly, Carter was reloading his camera with film just as the executions took place. "I knew I had missed this f--- shot," he said subsequently. "I drank a bottle of bourbon that night."
At the same time, he seemed to be stepping up his drug habit, including smoking the white pipe. A week after the Bop executions, he was seen staggering around while on assignment at a Mandela rally in Johannesburg. Later he crashed his car into a suburban house and was thrown in jail for 10 hours on suspicion of drunken driving. His superior at Reuter was furious at having to go to the police station to recover Carter's film of the Mandela event. Carter's girlfriend, Kathy Davidson, a schoolteacher, was even more upset. Drugs had become a growing issue in their one-year relationship. Over Easter, she asked Carter to move out until he cleaned up his life.
With only weeks to go before the elections, Carter's job at Reuter was shaky, his love life was in jeopardy and he was scrambling to find a new place to live. And then, on April 12, 1994, the New York Times phoned to tell him he had won the Pulitzer. As jubilant Times foreign picture editor Nancy Buirski gave him the news, Carter found himself rambling on about his personal problems. "Kevin!" she interrupted, "You've just won a Pulitzer! These things aren't going to be that important now."
Early on Monday, April 18, the Bang-Bang Club headed out to Tokoza township, 10 miles from downtown Johannesburg, to cover an outbreak of violence. Shortly before noon, with the sun too bright for taking good pictures, Carter returned to the city. Then on the radio he heard that his best friend, Oosterbroek, had been killed in Tokoza. Marinovich had been gravely wounded. Oosterbroek's death devastated Carter, and he returned to work in Tokoza the next day, even though the violence had escalated. He later told friends that he and not Ken "should have taken the bullet."
New York was a respite. By all accounts, Carter made the most of his first visit to Manhattan. The Times flew him in and put him up at the Marriott Marquis just off Times Square. His spirits soaring, he took to calling New York "my town."
With the Pulitzer, however, he had to deal not only with acclaim but also with the critical focus that comes with fame. Some journalists in South Africa called his prize a "fluke," alleging that he had somehow set up the tableau. Others questioned his ethics. "The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering," said the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, "might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene." Even some of Carter's friends wondered aloud why he had not helped the girl.
Carter was painfully aware of the photojournalist's dilemma. "I had to think visually," he said once, describing a shoot-out. "I am zooming in on a tight shot of the dead guy and a splash of red. Going into his khaki uniform in a pool of blood in the sand. The dead man's face is slightly gray. You are making a visual here. But inside something is screaming, "My God.' But it is time to work. Deal with the rest later. If you can't do it, get out of the game." Says Nachtwey, "Every photographer who has been involved in these stories has been affected. You become changed forever. Nobody does this kind of work to make themselves feel good. It is very hard to continue."
Carter did not look forward to going home. Summer was just beginning in New York, but late June was still winter in South Africa, and Carter became depressed almost as soon as he got off the plane. "Joburg is dry and brown and cold and dead, and so damn full of bad memories and absent friends," he wrote in a letter never mailed to a friend, Esquire picture editor Marianne Butler in New York.
Nevertheless, Carter carefully listed story ideas and faxed some of them off to Sygma. Work did not proceed smoothly. Though it was not his fault, Carter felt guilty when a bureaucratic foul-up caused the cancellation of an interview by a writer from Parade magazine, a Sygma client, with Mandela in Cape Town. Then came an even more unpleasant experience. Sygma told Carter to stay in Cape Town and cover French President Francois Mitterrand's state visit to South Africa. The story was spot news, but according to editors at Sygma's Paris office, Carter shipped his film too late to be of use. In any case, they complained, the quality of the photos was too poor to offer to Sygma's clients.
According to friends, Carter began talking openly about suicide. Part of his anxiety was over the Mitterrand assignment. But mostly he seemed worried about money and making ends meet. When an assignment in Mozambique for TIME came his way, he eagerly accepted. Despite setting three alarm clocks to make his early-morning flight on July 20, he missed the plane. Furthermore, after six days in Mozambique, he walked off his return flight to Johannesburg, leaving a package of undeveloped film on his seat. He realized his mistake when he arrived at a friend's house. He raced back to the airport but failed to turn up anything. Carter was distraught and returned to the friend's house in the morning, threatening to smoke a white pipe and gas himself to death.
Carter and a friend, Judith Matloff, 36, an American correspondent for Reuter, dined on Mozambican prawns he had brought back. He was apparently too ashamed to tell her about the lost film. Instead they discussed their futures. Carter proposed forming a writer-photographer free-lance team and traveling Africa together.
On the morning of Wednesday, July 27, the last day of his life, Carter appeared cheerful. He remained in bed until nearly noon and then went to drop off a picture that had been requested by the Weekly Mail. In the paper's newsroom, he poured out his anguish to former colleagues, one of whom gave him the number of a therapist and urged him to phone her.
The last person to see Carter alive, it seems, was Oosterbroek's widow, Monica. As night fell, Carter turned up unannounced at her home to vent his troubles. Still recovering from her husband's death three months earlier, she was in little condition to offer counsel. They parted at about 5:30 p.m.
The Braamfonteinspruit is a small river that cuts southward through Johannesburg's northern suburbs - and through Parkmore, where the Carters once lived. At around 9 p.m., Kevin Carter backed his red Nissan pickup truck against a blue gum tree at the Field and Study Center. He had played there often as a little boy. The Sandton Bird Club was having its monthly meeting there, but nobody saw Carter as he used silver gaffer tape to attach a garden hose to the exhaust pipe and run it to the passenger-side window. Wearing unwashed Lee jeans and an Esquire T shirt, he got in and switched on the engine. Then he put music on his Walkman and lay over on his side, using the knapsack as a pillow.
The suicide note he left behind is a litany of nightmares and dark visions, a clutching attempt at autobiography, self-analysis, explanation, excuse. After coming home from New York, he wrote, he was "depressed . . . without phone . . . money for rent . . . money for child support . . . money for debts . . . money!!! . . . I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain . . . of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners . . . " And then this: "I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Delete all emails from IRS: It is a phishing scam!!!
Beware of tax refund 'phishing' scams
It's just the news that hardworking taxpayers want to see in their inbox: an update on their refund from the Internal Revenue Service. But instead of clicking on that e-mail's links, federal officials advise you to hit the delete key.
That's because dozens of scams, known as "phishing" schemes, are making the rounds, poised to steal your personal information.
"This phishing scheme is exploding," said IRS Commissioner Mark Everson.
"Last year we got wind of seven different kinds of schemes. That was in all of 2005. This year we've already seen 65."
Even the commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance got one of the phishing e-mails -- on his government computer.
"It's a reflection of how brazen these crooks have become," Commissioner Andrew Eristoff said.
"Here they are targeting a tax administrator with a tax refund scam. Unbelievable," he said.
Phishing is an e-mail trick that "lures" users with a promise of money or an urgent security warning that asks users to update their information. But instead of going to a financial institution or the government, the precious personal data goes to identity thieves.
IRS doesn't e-mail taxpayers
At least during this tax season, Internet users don't even have to try and distinguish real from fake information from the IRS. Anything you get in your inbox with an IRS address is a fraud.
"We do not communicate with taxpayers by e-mail so no one should respond to an e-mail purporting to be from the IRS," Everson said.
Bogus offers on the Internet are nothing new. But sneakiness and sophistication have reached a level that can fool just about any user at one time or another.
Computer researchers are studying what makes fake sites so believable, with a goal of helping Web designers beef up security.
Rachna Dhamija, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Computation and Society at Harvard University, said anyone can be duped.
"In our study, users proved vulnerable across the board to phishing attacks," Dhamija said. "Neither their age nor their previous experience with the Web site nor their level of education had any impact on their ability to distinguish a phishing Web site from a legitimate Web site."
Researchers at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, showed a series of real and fake Web sites to 22 people, all staff or students at UC Berkeley. Their ages ranged from 18 to the mid-60s.
"Some of our most educated users and most cautious users were also very surprised at their inability to detect the legitimate versus phishing Web sites," Dhamija said.
The "best" of the "worst"?
The site that fooled 90 percent of study participants was an exact replica of the legitimate Web site of the Bank of the West. But in the address bar, instead of the word west being spelled with a w, it was spelled with two v's. That was tough for users to spot, Dhamija said.
Many phishing Web sites prey on the fears users have of making their personal information vulnerable. E-mails will arrive from banks, credit card companies or Internet Service Providers with urgent warnings to "update your account now!"
One way users can protect themselves is to lessen the chance of landing on a phishing site in the first place.
"One way to do that is to never click on a link from an e-mail. Users should always type in the URL directly into the address bar," Dhamija said. "For example, if they want to go to the IRS Web site, they need to type www.irs.gov."
And Internet users should always check to make sure they don't have a typo in the address. That's a common tactic of criminals, to create a bogus site that is a letter or two off from a legitimate one.
"If users visit Web sites frequently, a financial Web site for example, they should bookmark that site or save it in their "Favorites" in the Internet Explorer browser," Dhamija said.
Will e-mail be a part of IRS communication in the future?
"Over 50 percent of returns are now filed electronically," Everson said. "That is safe, that is secure. We look at the further use of technology, but right now, all I can say is we do not reach out and communicate with taxpayers by e-mail."
Friday, April 14, 2006
What a shameful act: Maple Grove's new Hindu temple vandalized
Police say the act appears to be random but aren't ruling out the possibility of a hate crime. The temple might not open on schedule.
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (AP) - Authorities were trying to determine Friday who caused several thousand dollars in damage to a $9 million Hindu temple under construction in this Minneapolis suburb.
Police said they had no suspects, but that the vandalism didn't appear to be a hate crime, although they didn't rule it out, either.
Umesh Singh of the Hindu Society of Minnesota said he agrees with police that the act appeared to be random.
The vandal or vandals caused extensive damage to some of the temple's religious statues, which were carved by artisans in India.
Singh said some of the deities were decapitated and dismembered and thus cannot be used for worship, according to Hindu tradition.
"We cannot use most of them," he said, referring to Hindu tradition that does not allow damaged deities to be used for worship.
The walls of the auditorium and ceiling of a dining hall were punctured about 125 times, apparently by blows from a baseball bat, and a window was broken in one of the classrooms, according to temple officials and police.
Temple officials said it would take up to 12 weeks and four sculptors to re-carve each of the seven or eight 4-to-6-foot-figures that were damaged.
Five deities were not vandalized.
Police Capt. Tracy Stille said the damage didn't appear to fit with distinct characteristics characteristic of hate crimes.
"This was extensive," he said. "We're certainly looking at any possibility, bias-motivated or not."
There are more than 20,000 Hindus in Minnesota and between 1 million and 1.6 million in the United States. While there are Hindu houses of worship in Brooklyn Park and northeast Minneapolis, the nearest traditional-style temple similar to the one being built in Maple Grove is in Chicago.
Officials of the 42,000-square-foot temple, which is on a 40-acre site, were assessing whether it could open as scheduled in June.
"We have had dreams to have this place for the last 30 years. We worked so hard," society member Kumud Sane said.
Sridhar Ranganatha, a volunteer priest at the temple, disagreed with those who doubt the vandalism was a hate crime. He said it looks like the work of someone who had a grudge against the Hindu community.
"We're a peace-loving community," he said. "Someone has done it out of hatred."
Maple Grove Temple Vandalized
After years of planning, the new Hindu Temple in Maple Grove, Minn. was on track to open in June. But after Wednesday night, the building is a mess and leaders are asking why someone wanted to damage their future place of worship.
Someone broke into the building on Wednesday and started bashing in the walls, smashing windows, and destroying hand-crafted statues from India that had taken two years to receive.
Dr. Shashikant Sane of the Hindu Society of Minnesota wondered who would do such an act.
"We are very sad," Sane said. "The whole community is very, very sorry about it."
The precious statues can't be salvaged ... and so much care and detail went into the religious symbols.
Kumud Sane, Hindu Society of Minnesota trustee, called it a "terrible act."
“We have had dreams to have this place for the past 30 years, we have worked so hard. Why would someone come here and do this type of action," he said.
Inside the building, it looks like someone broke in through a downstairs window, and took a swing every few feet. Temple leaders said it does not look like a hate crime and they have always felt welcomed by the community.
"We don't want to call it a hate crime. If something comes up later, that's a different story," Dr. Shashikant Sane said.
"It hurts a lot and I'm not a very emotional person ... but inside it hurts," said Umesh Singh, another society member.
More than 125 holes have been smashed into the walls in the building, as if someone used a baseball bat. Now the process to clean up begins, but still temple leaders want to open the $9 million building as planned the first week of June.
As of Friday, police have not made any arrests in the case
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (AP) - Authorities were trying to determine Friday who caused several thousand dollars in damage to a $9 million Hindu temple under construction in this Minneapolis suburb.
Police said they had no suspects, but that the vandalism didn't appear to be a hate crime, although they didn't rule it out, either.
Umesh Singh of the Hindu Society of Minnesota said he agrees with police that the act appeared to be random.
The vandal or vandals caused extensive damage to some of the temple's religious statues, which were carved by artisans in India.
Singh said some of the deities were decapitated and dismembered and thus cannot be used for worship, according to Hindu tradition.
"We cannot use most of them," he said, referring to Hindu tradition that does not allow damaged deities to be used for worship.
The walls of the auditorium and ceiling of a dining hall were punctured about 125 times, apparently by blows from a baseball bat, and a window was broken in one of the classrooms, according to temple officials and police.
Temple officials said it would take up to 12 weeks and four sculptors to re-carve each of the seven or eight 4-to-6-foot-figures that were damaged.
Five deities were not vandalized.
Police Capt. Tracy Stille said the damage didn't appear to fit with distinct characteristics characteristic of hate crimes.
"This was extensive," he said. "We're certainly looking at any possibility, bias-motivated or not."
There are more than 20,000 Hindus in Minnesota and between 1 million and 1.6 million in the United States. While there are Hindu houses of worship in Brooklyn Park and northeast Minneapolis, the nearest traditional-style temple similar to the one being built in Maple Grove is in Chicago.
Officials of the 42,000-square-foot temple, which is on a 40-acre site, were assessing whether it could open as scheduled in June.
"We have had dreams to have this place for the last 30 years. We worked so hard," society member Kumud Sane said.
Sridhar Ranganatha, a volunteer priest at the temple, disagreed with those who doubt the vandalism was a hate crime. He said it looks like the work of someone who had a grudge against the Hindu community.
"We're a peace-loving community," he said. "Someone has done it out of hatred."
Maple Grove Temple Vandalized
After years of planning, the new Hindu Temple in Maple Grove, Minn. was on track to open in June. But after Wednesday night, the building is a mess and leaders are asking why someone wanted to damage their future place of worship.
Someone broke into the building on Wednesday and started bashing in the walls, smashing windows, and destroying hand-crafted statues from India that had taken two years to receive.
Dr. Shashikant Sane of the Hindu Society of Minnesota wondered who would do such an act.
"We are very sad," Sane said. "The whole community is very, very sorry about it."
The precious statues can't be salvaged ... and so much care and detail went into the religious symbols.
Kumud Sane, Hindu Society of Minnesota trustee, called it a "terrible act."
“We have had dreams to have this place for the past 30 years, we have worked so hard. Why would someone come here and do this type of action," he said.
Inside the building, it looks like someone broke in through a downstairs window, and took a swing every few feet. Temple leaders said it does not look like a hate crime and they have always felt welcomed by the community.
"We don't want to call it a hate crime. If something comes up later, that's a different story," Dr. Shashikant Sane said.
"It hurts a lot and I'm not a very emotional person ... but inside it hurts," said Umesh Singh, another society member.
More than 125 holes have been smashed into the walls in the building, as if someone used a baseball bat. Now the process to clean up begins, but still temple leaders want to open the $9 million building as planned the first week of June.
As of Friday, police have not made any arrests in the case
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Who reads the papers....
A little British humour...
Sir Humphrey Appleby: The only way to understand the press is to remember that they pander to their reader's prejudices.
Prime Minister James Hacker: Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The Times is read by people who actually do run the country. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who own the country. The Morning Star is read by people who think that the country ought to be run by another country. The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
Sir Humphrey Appleby (smiling): Then Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?
Bernard Woolley: The Sun readers dont care who runs the country as long as she's got big tits.
~ Yes, Prime Minister, BBC
Sir Humphrey Appleby: The only way to understand the press is to remember that they pander to their reader's prejudices.
Prime Minister James Hacker: Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The Times is read by people who actually do run the country. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who own the country. The Morning Star is read by people who think that the country ought to be run by another country. The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
Sir Humphrey Appleby (smiling): Then Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?
Bernard Woolley: The Sun readers dont care who runs the country as long as she's got big tits.
~ Yes, Prime Minister, BBC
Finding life’s purpose
Many spiritual traditions revolve around one central question: “Who am I ?” Even the business world ponders this crucial matter. According to business gurus, the first step on the road to success is asking yourself this very question: “What’s my mission? What on Earth am I doing? Am I in the right place?”
If you can’t answer these questions, then you are wasting 90% of your time and energy doing things that are neither your mission nor your business! You will feel an inner anxiety, urging you to search for the deeper meaning of your life. If you consider living to be painful, if you feel dissatisfied, then you have not yet found the purpose of your life.
If you are questioning the meaning of life, if you can’t find inner peace, if you are not satisfied with choices you’ve made in life, if you don’t know which way to turn, if you feel your life is stuffed with things that aren’t of your choosing and that don’t satisfy you, if you often feel burdened and bad-tempered, if you “have everything to feel happy” but don’t, then it is time for you to discover your true self !
Human beings want to feel useful. We long to give our lives some deeper meaning. As long as you have not discovered this deeper meaning, you feel frustrated and on the wrong track. We want our lives to be worthwhile. This does not mean we need to achieve ‘great feats’ to become world famous. We just need to feel in place and do the right thing surrounded by the right people. It’s about finding out our mission. It’s about finding ‘inner peace’.
Our mission on Earth is twofold. The general aspect is that we are here to learn to bring more love into the world. The personal aspect is that everyone has its own peculiar, unique way of doing this. Your mission represents the central piece of your life. The surrounding pieces represent your family, your relationship, your kids, your job, your home, your health, your friend, and so on. The centerpiece holds all of this together. That centerpiece, that’s you. You are the most important person in your life, and you came to this world to do something important. Otherwise you simply would not be here!
As long as you haven’t identified the centrepiece, you’ll be wrestling with dissatisfaction, powerlessness, frustrations and fatigue. Some people solve jigsaw puzzles by first fitting all the pieces on the borders, and then squeeze in the piece in the middle. That’s putting the cart before the horse.
These people reason: “When I find the right partner, find the right job, get paid a good salary, have some kids, have my own house, meet some friends, stay healthy, then I will be happy!” But that’s not the way things work. As long as the centrepiece is missing from the puzzle, you too will feel empty inside. It is your responsibility to discover your mission and get things under way.
Even the cells of your body react to this lack of purpose, this feeling of emptiness. They suffer from spiritual malnutrition, feel useless and bored, resulting in a physical state of sluggishness and lethargy. This physical state will eventually cause several physical discomforts and complaints.
Occupying yourself with “your disease” and “feeding” yourself with medication or other such products is just another attempt at filling the void inside. This is because the status of “being ill” allows you to identify: “I am allergic to this or that, I am a cancer patient, I am an Alzheimer, I am…” Once you have started identifying yourself by your disease, it will certainly be on your mind day and night.
If you are not in touch with your own desires, you will easily fall prey to expectations projected upon you by your environment. If you are not following your own path, then you must be following someone else’s! If you are not clear on your own life mission, you will find it hard to say “no” to what other people want you to do. This undecidedness makes you available for all who cross your path and want a piece of you, draining your energy.
As long as you are not clear on the shape of that centerpiece, you are submitted to others who may not care about what’s best for you. Just like disease, these kinds of negative relationships are a manifestation of low-level energy, showing that you have lost focus and have strayed from your own golden brick road. Your self-esteem is probably pretty low and you suffer from serious doubts and fears. The longer you put of the search, the more the feeling that something is missing will devour you. Your self-esteem will only decrease.
The best way to rebuild your fragile self is to make the search for your life mission your number one priority and dedicate yourself to it. Why is this so important? Because you can only find real joy in life by discovering and living according to the unique way of your personal evolution. But, maybe you think, can’t I just continue living life the way I have been all along? Can’t I just try to hang in there and keep the status quo?
The answer is “yes”. You can keep living your life in a monotonic, sad, senseless way. But don’t expect any real satisfaction. The need to feel useful is so fundamental that you cannot feel happy as long as you have no clue what you are here for. Your mission gives meaning to your life. Your mission is your very reason for existence. You are not alone in this search. This mission is also looking for you. It wants to be fulfilled by you and by nobody else. It is your personal mission. Nobody else is equipped to do it for you. Your mission will keep haunting you until you take it seriously and start implementing it.
Going against your mission is going against yourself. This is the same as ignoring the call of your soul, as ignoring your strongest desires, as signing a contract for eternal discontent…You can’t escape your mission. One day you will have to start dedicating yourself to it. Has this day come for you now? After all, you are reading these lines which shows your honest desire to start looking for the deeper meaning of your being.
If you can’t answer these questions, then you are wasting 90% of your time and energy doing things that are neither your mission nor your business! You will feel an inner anxiety, urging you to search for the deeper meaning of your life. If you consider living to be painful, if you feel dissatisfied, then you have not yet found the purpose of your life.
If you are questioning the meaning of life, if you can’t find inner peace, if you are not satisfied with choices you’ve made in life, if you don’t know which way to turn, if you feel your life is stuffed with things that aren’t of your choosing and that don’t satisfy you, if you often feel burdened and bad-tempered, if you “have everything to feel happy” but don’t, then it is time for you to discover your true self !
Human beings want to feel useful. We long to give our lives some deeper meaning. As long as you have not discovered this deeper meaning, you feel frustrated and on the wrong track. We want our lives to be worthwhile. This does not mean we need to achieve ‘great feats’ to become world famous. We just need to feel in place and do the right thing surrounded by the right people. It’s about finding out our mission. It’s about finding ‘inner peace’.
Our mission on Earth is twofold. The general aspect is that we are here to learn to bring more love into the world. The personal aspect is that everyone has its own peculiar, unique way of doing this. Your mission represents the central piece of your life. The surrounding pieces represent your family, your relationship, your kids, your job, your home, your health, your friend, and so on. The centerpiece holds all of this together. That centerpiece, that’s you. You are the most important person in your life, and you came to this world to do something important. Otherwise you simply would not be here!
As long as you haven’t identified the centrepiece, you’ll be wrestling with dissatisfaction, powerlessness, frustrations and fatigue. Some people solve jigsaw puzzles by first fitting all the pieces on the borders, and then squeeze in the piece in the middle. That’s putting the cart before the horse.
These people reason: “When I find the right partner, find the right job, get paid a good salary, have some kids, have my own house, meet some friends, stay healthy, then I will be happy!” But that’s not the way things work. As long as the centrepiece is missing from the puzzle, you too will feel empty inside. It is your responsibility to discover your mission and get things under way.
Even the cells of your body react to this lack of purpose, this feeling of emptiness. They suffer from spiritual malnutrition, feel useless and bored, resulting in a physical state of sluggishness and lethargy. This physical state will eventually cause several physical discomforts and complaints.
Occupying yourself with “your disease” and “feeding” yourself with medication or other such products is just another attempt at filling the void inside. This is because the status of “being ill” allows you to identify: “I am allergic to this or that, I am a cancer patient, I am an Alzheimer, I am…” Once you have started identifying yourself by your disease, it will certainly be on your mind day and night.
If you are not in touch with your own desires, you will easily fall prey to expectations projected upon you by your environment. If you are not following your own path, then you must be following someone else’s! If you are not clear on your own life mission, you will find it hard to say “no” to what other people want you to do. This undecidedness makes you available for all who cross your path and want a piece of you, draining your energy.
As long as you are not clear on the shape of that centerpiece, you are submitted to others who may not care about what’s best for you. Just like disease, these kinds of negative relationships are a manifestation of low-level energy, showing that you have lost focus and have strayed from your own golden brick road. Your self-esteem is probably pretty low and you suffer from serious doubts and fears. The longer you put of the search, the more the feeling that something is missing will devour you. Your self-esteem will only decrease.
The best way to rebuild your fragile self is to make the search for your life mission your number one priority and dedicate yourself to it. Why is this so important? Because you can only find real joy in life by discovering and living according to the unique way of your personal evolution. But, maybe you think, can’t I just continue living life the way I have been all along? Can’t I just try to hang in there and keep the status quo?
The answer is “yes”. You can keep living your life in a monotonic, sad, senseless way. But don’t expect any real satisfaction. The need to feel useful is so fundamental that you cannot feel happy as long as you have no clue what you are here for. Your mission gives meaning to your life. Your mission is your very reason for existence. You are not alone in this search. This mission is also looking for you. It wants to be fulfilled by you and by nobody else. It is your personal mission. Nobody else is equipped to do it for you. Your mission will keep haunting you until you take it seriously and start implementing it.
Going against your mission is going against yourself. This is the same as ignoring the call of your soul, as ignoring your strongest desires, as signing a contract for eternal discontent…You can’t escape your mission. One day you will have to start dedicating yourself to it. Has this day come for you now? After all, you are reading these lines which shows your honest desire to start looking for the deeper meaning of your being.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
All you wanted to know about Tsunami's
What is a tsunami?
A tsunami (pronounced su-nah-me) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life.
What does "tsunami" mean?
Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." Represented by two characters, the top character, "tsu," means harbor, while the bottom character, "nami," means "wave." In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as "tidal waves" by the general public, and as "seismic sea waves" by the scientific community. The term "tidal wave" is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term "seismic sea wave" is also misleading. "Seismic" implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a non-seismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact.
How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?
Tsunamis are unlike wind-generated waves, which many of us may have observed on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterised as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wavelength in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour.
As a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s) and the water depth. Let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses. The earthquake-generated 1960 Chilean tsunami, for instance, travelled across over 17,000 km across the Pacific to hit Japan. The wave crests bend as the tsunami travels —- this is called refraction. Wave refraction is caused by segments of the wave moving at different speeds as the water depth along the crest varies.
How do earthquakes generate tsunamis?
Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the earth's crustal deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position. Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. When large areas of the sea floor elevate or subside, a tsunami can be created. Large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries. Plates interact along these boundaries called faults. Around the margins of the Pacific Ocean, for example, denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunamis.
How do landslides, volcanic eruptions, and cosmic collisions generate tsunamis?
A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium position. In the case of earthquake-generated tsunamis, the water column is disturbed by the uplift or subsidence of the sea floor. Submarine landslides, which often accompany large earthquakes, as well as collapses of volcanic edifices, can also disturb the overlying water column as sediment and rock slump downslope and are redistributed across the sea floor. Similarly, a violent submarine volcanic eruption can create an impulsive force that uplifts the water column and generates a tsunami. Conversely, supermarine landslides and cosmic-body impacts disturb the water from above, as momentum from falling debris is transferred to the water into which the debris falls. Generally speaking, tsuna-mis generated from these mechanisms, unlike the Pacific-wide tsunamis caused by some earthquakes, dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source area. What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?
As a tsunami leaves the deep water of the open ocean and travels into the shallower water near the coast, it transforms. If you read the "How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?" section, you discovered that a tsunami travels at a speed that is related to the water depth — hence, as the water depth decreases, the tsunami slows.
The tsunami's energy flux, which is dependent on both its wave speed and wave height, remains nearly constant. Consequently, as the tsunami's speed diminishes as it travels into shallower water, its height grows. Because of this shoaling effect, a tsunami, imperceptible at sea, may grow to be several meters or more in height near the coast. When it finally reaches the coast, a tsunami may appear as a rapidly rising or falling tide, a series of breaking waves, or even a bore.
What happens when a tsunami encounters land?
As a tsunami approaches shore, we've learned in the "What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?" section that it begins to slow and grow in height. Just like other water waves, tsunamis begin to lose energy as they rush onshore — part of the wave energy is reflected offshore, while the shoreward-propagating wave energy is dissipated through bottom friction and turbulence. Despite these losses, tsunamis still reach the coast with tremendous amounts of energy. Tsunamis have great erosional potential, stripping beaches of sand that may have taken years to accumulate and undermining trees and other coastal vegetation. Capable of inundating, or flooding, hundreds of meters inland past the typical high-water level, the fast-moving water associated with the inundating tsunami can crush homes and other coastal structures. Tsuna-mis may reach a maximum vertical height onshore above sea level, often called a run-up height, of 10, 20, and even 30 meters.
A tsunami (pronounced su-nah-me) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life.
What does "tsunami" mean?
Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." Represented by two characters, the top character, "tsu," means harbor, while the bottom character, "nami," means "wave." In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as "tidal waves" by the general public, and as "seismic sea waves" by the scientific community. The term "tidal wave" is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term "seismic sea wave" is also misleading. "Seismic" implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a non-seismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact.
How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?
Tsunamis are unlike wind-generated waves, which many of us may have observed on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterised as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wavelength in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour.
As a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s) and the water depth. Let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses. The earthquake-generated 1960 Chilean tsunami, for instance, travelled across over 17,000 km across the Pacific to hit Japan. The wave crests bend as the tsunami travels —- this is called refraction. Wave refraction is caused by segments of the wave moving at different speeds as the water depth along the crest varies.
How do earthquakes generate tsunamis?
Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the earth's crustal deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position. Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. When large areas of the sea floor elevate or subside, a tsunami can be created. Large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries. Plates interact along these boundaries called faults. Around the margins of the Pacific Ocean, for example, denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunamis.
How do landslides, volcanic eruptions, and cosmic collisions generate tsunamis?
A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium position. In the case of earthquake-generated tsunamis, the water column is disturbed by the uplift or subsidence of the sea floor. Submarine landslides, which often accompany large earthquakes, as well as collapses of volcanic edifices, can also disturb the overlying water column as sediment and rock slump downslope and are redistributed across the sea floor. Similarly, a violent submarine volcanic eruption can create an impulsive force that uplifts the water column and generates a tsunami. Conversely, supermarine landslides and cosmic-body impacts disturb the water from above, as momentum from falling debris is transferred to the water into which the debris falls. Generally speaking, tsuna-mis generated from these mechanisms, unlike the Pacific-wide tsunamis caused by some earthquakes, dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source area. What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?
As a tsunami leaves the deep water of the open ocean and travels into the shallower water near the coast, it transforms. If you read the "How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?" section, you discovered that a tsunami travels at a speed that is related to the water depth — hence, as the water depth decreases, the tsunami slows.
The tsunami's energy flux, which is dependent on both its wave speed and wave height, remains nearly constant. Consequently, as the tsunami's speed diminishes as it travels into shallower water, its height grows. Because of this shoaling effect, a tsunami, imperceptible at sea, may grow to be several meters or more in height near the coast. When it finally reaches the coast, a tsunami may appear as a rapidly rising or falling tide, a series of breaking waves, or even a bore.
What happens when a tsunami encounters land?
As a tsunami approaches shore, we've learned in the "What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?" section that it begins to slow and grow in height. Just like other water waves, tsunamis begin to lose energy as they rush onshore — part of the wave energy is reflected offshore, while the shoreward-propagating wave energy is dissipated through bottom friction and turbulence. Despite these losses, tsunamis still reach the coast with tremendous amounts of energy. Tsunamis have great erosional potential, stripping beaches of sand that may have taken years to accumulate and undermining trees and other coastal vegetation. Capable of inundating, or flooding, hundreds of meters inland past the typical high-water level, the fast-moving water associated with the inundating tsunami can crush homes and other coastal structures. Tsuna-mis may reach a maximum vertical height onshore above sea level, often called a run-up height, of 10, 20, and even 30 meters.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Lyrics to Chaiyya Chaiyya, (Dil Se / Inside Man)
The Inside Man starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster has "Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya" song in the starting credits. The song is from the Hindi movie, "Dil Se". "Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya" is sung by Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Aswathi; composed by A.R. Rahman and lyrics are by Sampooran Singh Gulzar
The lyrics are in Urdu and here is the meaning:
"Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya"
Chorus:
jinke sar ho ishq ki chhaanh He whose head is in the shadow of love
pao.n ke neeche jannat hogi will have heaven beneath his feet.
jinke sar ho ishq ki chhaanh Whose head is in the shadow of love...
chal chhaiyya Walk in the shadow.
Paon jannat chale chal chhaiyyan Walk in heaven, walk in the shadow.
vo yaar hai jo khushboo ki tarah There's a friend who is like a sweet fragrance,
jiski zubaan urdu ki tarah whose words are like Urdy poetry
meri shaam raat meri qayaamat who is my evening, my night, my resurrection.
vo yaar mera saiyya saiyya That friend is my beloved!
Chorus
gulposh kabhi itaraye kahi Sometimes (my beloved) flirts like a flower,
maheke to nazar aa jaaye kahi so fragrantly that you may see her scent.
taaweez banake pahanu use Having made it into an charm, I will wear it.
aayat ki tarah mil jaaye kahin She shall be obtained as a miracle is obtained.
mera nagama vahi mera qalama vahi She is my song, my declaration of faith
vo yaar hai jo imaam ki tarah My friend is like a priest to me.
mera nagama nagama mera qalama qalama My song... my declaration of faith...
yaar misale os chale She moves like the dew.
paon ke tale firdaus chale She walks with the garden of heaven beneath her feet,
kabhi Daal Daal kabhii paat paat sometimes through branches, sometimes amidst leaves.
mai.n hawa pe DhunDhuu us ke nishaan I shall search the wind for her trail!
Chorus
mein uske roop ka shehdaai I trade in her beauty.
vo dhoop chhanhon sa harjaai Fickle, she flits shamelessly from sun to shade.
vo shokh rang badalta hai She changes her bright colors;
mein rang roop ka saudaee I negotiate that as well.
Chorus
The lyrics are in Urdu and here is the meaning:
"Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya"
Chorus:
jinke sar ho ishq ki chhaanh He whose head is in the shadow of love
pao.n ke neeche jannat hogi will have heaven beneath his feet.
jinke sar ho ishq ki chhaanh Whose head is in the shadow of love...
chal chhaiyya Walk in the shadow.
Paon jannat chale chal chhaiyyan Walk in heaven, walk in the shadow.
vo yaar hai jo khushboo ki tarah There's a friend who is like a sweet fragrance,
jiski zubaan urdu ki tarah whose words are like Urdy poetry
meri shaam raat meri qayaamat who is my evening, my night, my resurrection.
vo yaar mera saiyya saiyya That friend is my beloved!
Chorus
gulposh kabhi itaraye kahi Sometimes (my beloved) flirts like a flower,
maheke to nazar aa jaaye kahi so fragrantly that you may see her scent.
taaweez banake pahanu use Having made it into an charm, I will wear it.
aayat ki tarah mil jaaye kahin She shall be obtained as a miracle is obtained.
mera nagama vahi mera qalama vahi She is my song, my declaration of faith
vo yaar hai jo imaam ki tarah My friend is like a priest to me.
mera nagama nagama mera qalama qalama My song... my declaration of faith...
yaar misale os chale She moves like the dew.
paon ke tale firdaus chale She walks with the garden of heaven beneath her feet,
kabhi Daal Daal kabhii paat paat sometimes through branches, sometimes amidst leaves.
mai.n hawa pe DhunDhuu us ke nishaan I shall search the wind for her trail!
Chorus
mein uske roop ka shehdaai I trade in her beauty.
vo dhoop chhanhon sa harjaai Fickle, she flits shamelessly from sun to shade.
vo shokh rang badalta hai She changes her bright colors;
mein rang roop ka saudaee I negotiate that as well.
Chorus
A Reason to stay awake ???
A remarkable magic of numbers that happened 100 years ago will take place early Wednesday - when time and date will read 01:02:03 04/05/06 exactly at two minutes and three seconds after 1 a.m.
This interesting phenomenon last happened in 1906 - on April 5 at two minutes and three seconds after 1 a.m. The clock then showed exactly what one would get to see early Wednesday just after 1 a.m.
This unusual number game will again happen after 100 years - in 2106
So keep awake and see the time at 1 a.m. Wednesday. You might never get to see it again.
This interesting phenomenon last happened in 1906 - on April 5 at two minutes and three seconds after 1 a.m. The clock then showed exactly what one would get to see early Wednesday just after 1 a.m.
This unusual number game will again happen after 100 years - in 2106
So keep awake and see the time at 1 a.m. Wednesday. You might never get to see it again.
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