HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUDHA
September 25, 2013
Vasudha Singampalli at her best! :)
I know this video is being posted a month late. My bad. I'm sure everybody is going to enjoy it as much as I did.
I'm not going to talk about what's in the video and spoil it for everyone. Let me just say Durga peddamma and vasudha are on a roll here! :D ENJOY!
Link to the video:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110067517657080850173/albums/5789324116372478337/5927453544870269234?authkey=CIHkno24y8q0YA&pid=5927453544870269234&oid=110067517657080850173
September 18, 2013
NINA DAVULURI
Nina Davuluri
Can Europeans only become Americans?
Asian Americans are always second class?
They are called Qaeda and other names.
The dot busters were too early to be forgotten.
Dreams of Martin Luther King
The “cradle of
democracy”, Great Britain gave voting rights to woman only in 1920s.
Americans gave voting
rights to black Americans only in 1967.
Even now it very difficult and costly to enroll as voter and
so most of them do not register and vote.
Compare this with free India where adult franchise was
adopted from day 1. In spite of cynical comments about their capacity to decide
(mostly by people who do not vote).the people know what is good for them. They
put Indira Gandhi ,NTR On highest pedal and
threw them of the crown, the minute they did not deliver.
Regarding untouchables, we can not say it is completely gone
but no ku klux klan here .Reform is slow
but sure.
September 12, 2013
Are Americans exceptional?
A op-ed by Putin in NY Times has America up in arms, especially the last paragraph. Comments?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?_r=0
September 9, 2013
Vinayaka Chaviti 2013
After many years, it's just the 3 of us, no other friends, family. I was recovering from a slight episode of dehydration yesterday, and Srinivas is really busy with his Oracleworld marathon, so I decided to do a "simple" pooja today. Of course, once I started, it snowballed pretty quickly, ending up pretty close to the usual scale, but since we did not need to wait for any guests, we were able to start early. Of course this also meant I was able to take more time and explain the pooja in detail to Aditya and also make him read the story (english translation of course). Aditya and Srinivas went and gathered the leaves and decorated the mandapam, so full family participation this time.
September 4, 2013
The amazing mind of JKR
On Quora (If you don't know Quora yet, it is a social content website like Twitter or Facebook, but built in the format of a question and multiple answers by anyone who is a member. If the question is interesting, the answers are just great, since they usually come from people who 'know'. It is like wikipedia, in a more interesting format), there was a question "What are some amazing knots/coincidences/events that are untied in the Harry Potter series?"
A couple of interesting answers:
ANSWER 1:
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Harry and Dudley are attacked by Dementors.
After returning to the house:
"How many times do I have to tell you?" said Harry, temper and voice both rising. "It wasn't me! It was a couple of Dementors!"
"A couple of - what's this codswallop?" (Uncle Vernon)
"De - men - tors," said Harry slowly and clearly. "Two of them."
"And what the ruddy hell are Dementors?"
"They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban," said Aunt Petunia.
Two seconds of ringing silence followed these words before Aunt Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth as though she had let slip a disgusting swear word. Uncle Vernon was goggling at her. Harry's brain reeled. Mrs. Figg was one thing - but Aunt Petunia?
"How d'you know that?" he asked her, astonished.
Aunt Petunia looked quite appalled with herself. She glanced at Uncle Vernon in fearful apology, then lowered her hand slightly to reveal her horsy teeth.
"I heard - that awful boy - telling her about them - years ago," she said jerkily.
"If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?" said Harry loudly, but Aunt Petunia ignored him. She seemed horribly flustered.
Harry assumes 'that awful boy' is James Potter, when in fact it is Severus Snape. We learn this in a flashback in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Snape and Lily are talking about the wizarding world:
"Tell me about the Dementors again" (Lily Evans)
"What d’you want to know about them for?" (Severus Snape)
"If I use magic outside of school -"
"They wouldn’t give you the Dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban, you’re too -"
He turned red again and shredded more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind Harry made him turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing.
"Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet...
JK Rowling is truly amazing. I remember reading Deathly Hallows all night when it came out: when I got to this part I was floored, had to go back and check in Order of the Phoenix.
ANSWER 2:
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first thing Snape asks Harry in Potions class is, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
According to the Victorian Language of Flowers [1], asphodel is a type of lily meaning 'my regrets follow you to the grave' and wormwood means 'absence'and symbolizes bitter sorrow. The entire question has a hidden meaning of "I bitterly regret Lily's death".
[1] Victorian Language of Flowers:
http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html
Note: I did not discover this myself. I saw it in a Harry Potter fanfiction forum some years ago, back when I was a rabid HP Fan. Sadly, I do not remember the exact forum/location.
ANSWER 3:
In Chapter 35 of 'The Order of the Phoenix', Lucius Malfoy deflects a stunner sent by Bellatrix and it breaks various prophecies. When they are broken, the people who did the prophecising rose from the broken glass and began to say the words of the prophecy. Only two dialogue lines come from them.
An old, bearded man says: "...at the solstice will come a new..." while a little later a young woman said "...and none will come after...".
I looked up dates of the solstice in the Harry Potter wiki, hoping that something important happened on one of them. The first one I searched as June 21st. As it turns out, that was the day when a chosen one could gain access to the Fountain of Fair Fortune (from "The Tales of Beedle the Bard").
So, I looked at the wiki page for the Fountain of Fair Fortune and could see nothing to link it to the story of the novels, until I read that it bore the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. So, it could be safe to assume that the older man talking about the solstice was Rowling's subtle hint at the Deathly Hallows being involved (though there was no way of knowing at the time). Combining that with "and none will come after" is fairly simple.
Harry is the last owner of all the Deathly Hallows.
That's why those two lines of dialogue were chosen in particular.
J.K. Rowling continues to astound me.
The link to the question here:
http://www.quora.com/Harry-Potter-books-movies-and-creative-franchise/What-are-some-amazing-knots-coincidences-events-that-are-untied-in-the-Harry-Potter-series
What an amazingly convoluted mind she has!
A couple of interesting answers:
ANSWER 1:
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Harry and Dudley are attacked by Dementors.
After returning to the house:
"How many times do I have to tell you?" said Harry, temper and voice both rising. "It wasn't me! It was a couple of Dementors!"
"A couple of - what's this codswallop?" (Uncle Vernon)
"De - men - tors," said Harry slowly and clearly. "Two of them."
"And what the ruddy hell are Dementors?"
"They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban," said Aunt Petunia.
Two seconds of ringing silence followed these words before Aunt Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth as though she had let slip a disgusting swear word. Uncle Vernon was goggling at her. Harry's brain reeled. Mrs. Figg was one thing - but Aunt Petunia?
"How d'you know that?" he asked her, astonished.
Aunt Petunia looked quite appalled with herself. She glanced at Uncle Vernon in fearful apology, then lowered her hand slightly to reveal her horsy teeth.
"I heard - that awful boy - telling her about them - years ago," she said jerkily.
"If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?" said Harry loudly, but Aunt Petunia ignored him. She seemed horribly flustered.
Harry assumes 'that awful boy' is James Potter, when in fact it is Severus Snape. We learn this in a flashback in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Snape and Lily are talking about the wizarding world:
"Tell me about the Dementors again" (Lily Evans)
"What d’you want to know about them for?" (Severus Snape)
"If I use magic outside of school -"
"They wouldn’t give you the Dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban, you’re too -"
He turned red again and shredded more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind Harry made him turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing.
"Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet...
JK Rowling is truly amazing. I remember reading Deathly Hallows all night when it came out: when I got to this part I was floored, had to go back and check in Order of the Phoenix.
ANSWER 2:
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first thing Snape asks Harry in Potions class is, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
According to the Victorian Language of Flowers [1], asphodel is a type of lily meaning 'my regrets follow you to the grave' and wormwood means 'absence'and symbolizes bitter sorrow. The entire question has a hidden meaning of "I bitterly regret Lily's death".
[1] Victorian Language of Flowers:
http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html
Note: I did not discover this myself. I saw it in a Harry Potter fanfiction forum some years ago, back when I was a rabid HP Fan. Sadly, I do not remember the exact forum/location.
ANSWER 3:
In Chapter 35 of 'The Order of the Phoenix', Lucius Malfoy deflects a stunner sent by Bellatrix and it breaks various prophecies. When they are broken, the people who did the prophecising rose from the broken glass and began to say the words of the prophecy. Only two dialogue lines come from them.
An old, bearded man says: "...at the solstice will come a new..." while a little later a young woman said "...and none will come after...".
I looked up dates of the solstice in the Harry Potter wiki, hoping that something important happened on one of them. The first one I searched as June 21st. As it turns out, that was the day when a chosen one could gain access to the Fountain of Fair Fortune (from "The Tales of Beedle the Bard").
So, I looked at the wiki page for the Fountain of Fair Fortune and could see nothing to link it to the story of the novels, until I read that it bore the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. So, it could be safe to assume that the older man talking about the solstice was Rowling's subtle hint at the Deathly Hallows being involved (though there was no way of knowing at the time). Combining that with "and none will come after" is fairly simple.
Harry is the last owner of all the Deathly Hallows.
That's why those two lines of dialogue were chosen in particular.
J.K. Rowling continues to astound me.
The link to the question here:
http://www.quora.com/Harry-Potter-books-movies-and-creative-franchise/What-are-some-amazing-knots-coincidences-events-that-are-untied-in-the-Harry-Potter-series
What an amazingly convoluted mind she has!
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