Happy Father’s Day

With best wishes for father’s day, some inspiration from father of thirteen, Leonhard Euler:

Euler claimed that he made some of his greatest mathematical discoveries while holding a baby in his arms with other children playing round his feet….

Thanks to J J O’Connor and E F Robertson, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Scotland.

Invitation to Anna Prasana

Stories from our mothers’ and grandmothers’ times routinely remind us that daughters faced constant hurdles in the not-so-distant past, even in families that today rejoice in the birth of every child, boy or girl.  It is then refreshing to find this poem written in 1938, by parents in Kolkata who celebrated the birth of their daughter at a time when such hopes and dreams were normally reserved for sons.  The poem appears in A Space of Her Own, a riveting collection of essays by women writing about their lives in the historical context of their mothers and grandmothers in 19th and 20th century India.

Artist: A Manivel

Unspoilt and tender like freshly opened petals,
Our darling baby girl, forever, smiling, forever matchless,
Sparkling with the purity of a morning-showered flower
You’ve stepped into our home and lit it up with joy.

Behold the Kalbelia

Behold the Kalbelia dance performed in honour of the birth of a child.

Featured in the 2014 calendar of the Association for India’s Development

Natya:  Performance :: Expression :: Identity in the month of May.

Kalbelia Dance to Honour Birth of a Child.
Rajasthan.
Photo: Namrata Neog

Sankranti Zindabad!

And perhaps in the celebration of Sankranti itself are ways for us to be the change …

Signals in the Fog

We celebrated Sankranti yesterday.  We drew muggulu (rangolis) and topped them with gobbemmalu (decorated gobar balls).  We danced and sang traditional songs, including “Gobbiyello!” that details, verse by verse, every stage of the growth of a seed from the moment it sprouts, bears fruit to fruit till it ripens and we finish off by eating the fruit –  a జామకాయ (guava), as the song goes.  Each stage of growth is a cause for celebration and comment:

అవునాట అక్కలార?

 “Oh, really?  Is it so, sister?”

View original post 662 more words