Sunday Reading task : Bonfire

Hello readers, welcome to my blog....

 I'm living in India. In India there are so many festivals like, Uttrayan, Diwali,  Holi and so on. Here I want to  talk  about festival of colours and new positives vibes. So let's  see  some  story or ritual behind it. Through this  we can discuss our  own culture and try to  know  them  in more  curious way. So here we go.... 

In India  bonfire is known as Holi and Holika Dahan. Now you  got the  idea  that  what is Holi or bonfire. So here in this blog I have to  give answer of some  questions and through them  we can  do  out  further discussion too. 

 1) How many countries celebrate Bonfire? Why? (If you can find reasons . . . are there common reasons?)

Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night) - Englan

On the very night the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, bonfires were lit to celebrate the king’s survival,Every year since, 5 November has been celebrated as Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night.Fireworks are set off to represent the explosives that were never set off, and it’s traditional to burn stuffed effigies of Guy Fawkes on the bonfire.

Daizenji Tamataregu Shrine’s “Oniyo” - Fukuoka, Japan

Considered one of the three major fire festivals in Japan, the Oniyo Fire Festival at the Daizenji Tamataregu Shrine is an important shrine tradition reaching back 1,600 years.

The fire ceremony marks the culmination of the "Oni-kai" festival, which starts on New Year’s Eve. At 9 p.m. on the night of January 7, the "devil fire" which has been guarded at the temple is transferred to six enormous torches measuring up to one meter in diameter and 13 meters in length. These torches are carried around the shrine grounds by groups of men in loincloths from the six neighboring towns. The fire festival is held to exorcise evil spirits from the town, and spectators are said to be blessed with good luck if some of the embers or ash fall on them.

Jeongwol Daeboreum Deulbul Festival - Jeju, S. Korea

Year of 2021, the festival falls on Tuesday, February 19th, and a variety of events, such as ritual ceremonies, Daljip burning  and the performing of folk plays are being planned at a number of locations around Busan.

They are public events with free admission. The main event of the festival, the Daljip burning will take place around moonrise after the opening ritual ceremony. There will be various participation programs for visitors, including New Year’s wish writing, traditional Korean folk games and more.

Quema del Diablo (Burning of the Devil) - Guatemala

Every year of  December 7 at sharp 6 o'clock , Guatemalans burn the devil, building bonfires outside their homes to mark the occasion. 

The tradition has special significance in Guatemala City because of its association with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception which honors the city’s patron saint.

Up Helly Aa, Lerwick - Shetland Islands, Scotlan

Lerwick’s Up Helly Aa festival is technically a Victorian-era event. It is start to  celebrate  from the Victorian time.

 It was first established by the Total Abstinence Society in the 1870s to give young men something fun to do to mark the end of the yule season. However, the festival has a decidedly Viking flair to it and is equally a tribute to the islands’ Viking roots.

The festival in its current form grew from an even older tradition known as tar barreling, which also took place around New York.

 Groups of young men would drag barrels of burning tar through the town, causing mischief along the way. Thankfully, the fire used at the Up Helly Aa festival today is far less destructive!

Sadeh - Iran

Sadeh Festival is an Iranian festival celebrating the discovery of fire by Hushang, the second Shah of the mythological Pishdadian dynasty of Persian Empire. It is celebrated fifty days before the arrival of Nowruz in Iran and parts of Afghanistan and Tajikistan since the Achaemenid Era.

Sadeh means centenary in Persian language. Sadeh is a mid winter festival that was celebrated with grandeur and magnificence in ancient Iran.

Holi and Diwali  - India

       Here  are some  names of Bonfire festival  which are celebrate in different ways. 

2) What are the rituals around such celebrations?

     There  are different  rituals.like on India  we have some  myth  behind Holika  Dahan.  

  

3) Is there any story or myth around those celebrations? Write about various myths around bonfire. watch video linked here under to know about the myths believed in by Vaishnavites and Shaivites in India. In which myth do you believe more than the other one.

One  story  behind it, it is related  with  Prahald and Hiranyakadhipu. He is the father of  Prahalad.  He  was belongs to the detya (evil) and  he didn't like  that anyone of his kingdom  worship  any god or lord  Krishna. But pralad did and that's why  he tried  to kill him so many times, but each and every time  Prahalad  survived. Then sister of Hiranyakashipu, she has  one  Stole,if she  wear it  fire can  OT  harm her. That's why she  sit in fire and also took  Prahalad in her lap. But  suddenly wind comes and the stole come over to  Prahalad and her aunt  got  dead.

Legends have it that Hushang, the 2nd Shah of the mythological Pishdadian dynasty, established the Sadeh tradition. It is said that once Hushang was climbing a mountain when all of a sudden he saw a snake and wanted to hit it with a stone. When he threw the stone, it fell on another stone and since they were both flint stones, fire broke out and the snake escaped. This way he discovered how to light a fire. Hushang cheered up and praised God who revealed to him the secret of lighting a fire. Then he announced;

 “This is a light from God. So we must admire it.”

Conclusion 

All over the  world  there  so many different cultures rituals, and traditions. People  celebrate  same  festival  but with  different reason and tradition. Here above  one of the  example of it. Festival  gives us  new  energy and positive views. We  celebrate all festival  with  family and friends, to be with them it is also  a learning  event too.so festivals are important for enjoyment and l to learning something. 

When God Is a Traveller

 

Hello readers, 

       This blog is a Sunday reading task activity. 

Arundhathi Subramaniam is an Indian poet, writer, critic, curator, translator, Journalist, writing in English

Arundhathi Subramaniam's volume of poetry, When God is a Traveller was the Season Choice of the Poetry Book Society, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. She is the recipient of various awards and fellowships, including the inaugural Khushwant Singh Prize, the Raza Award for Poetry, the Zee Women's Award for Literature, the International Piero Bigongiari Prize in Italy, the Mystic Kalinga award, the Charles Wallace, Visiting Arts and Homi Bhabha Fellowships, among others. Arundhathi has won the Sahitya Akademi Award for When God is a Traveller.

 As prose writer, her books include The Book of Buddha, a bestselling biography of a contemporary mystic, Sadhguru: More Than a Life and most recently, Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga (co-authored with Sadhguru). As editor, her most recent book is the Penguin anthology of sacred poetry, Eating God.

*When God Is a Traveller*

Arundhati Subramaniam

 (wondering about Kartikeya/ Muruga/ Subramania, my namesake)

Trust the god back from his travels, his voice wholegrain (and chamomile), 

his wisdom neem, his peacock, sweaty-plumed, drowsing in the shadows.

 Trust him who sits wordless on park benches listening to the cries of children fading into the dusk, his gaze emptied of vagrancy, his heart of ownership.

Trust him who has seen enough— revolutions, promises, the desperate light of shopping malls, hospital rooms, manifestos, theologies, the iron taste of blood, the great craters in the middle of love. 

Trust him who no longer begrudges his brother his prize, his parents their partisanship. 

Trust him whose race is run, whose journey remains, who stands fluid-stemmed knowing he is the tree that bears fruit, festive with sun.

 

Trust him who recognizes you— auspicious, abundant, battle-scarred, alive— and knows from where you come. 

Trust the god ready to circle the world all over again this time for no reason at all other than to see it through your eyes.

      When we talk about any  god, we have some story or myth  about it. Murgan is god who is son of Shiva and Parvati. He is most worshipping by people of south India. In the myth  we know that  there is race between Muruga (Kartikey) and Ganesh. It is race  of to  travel the world( There are  two to  three different story about this and  there are some  changes in story ). In that  race Ganesh won that  because  he  said that  Parents are  everything,and Shiv and parvati is world for him  so he took around them and that  way  he won. When Muruga return, he saw that  Ganesh is sitting  with  mother and father. So  here in this  poem poet  talk  about  the  travel but  this  travel is different. 

In this  poem poet use the word  Trust  many time, so some  time we feel that poet  wants that  we have to  trust that  God who  come back from the  travel. This  word  shown the prasoic in poem. Because  During the travel  God seen  many  things. This travel  is, he done without  reason. 

In the  Indian  poetic  which is written by  Bharatmuni. He mostly  talk about the  Rasa. For him Rasa is everything in natya. He wrote  Natyashstra. In that  he talked about nine  different  Rasa. 

 

Thinking Activity: Da Vinci code

 

Hello readers welcome to my blog.... 

Here is my task upon Do Vinci code  novel  by Dan Brown. It is very  interesting. Here  some  answers of questions which  are  part of the  task. So let's discuss about this.

#  Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, though he is on a 'constant spiritual journey' himself, and says that his book The Da Vinci Code is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."

In this novel  Da Vinci code,one of the major character is  Anti -religion. At the very beginning of the novel it questions about the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. 

The character of Sophie Neveu is portrayed as anti Christian. In the novel she consider as a life line of Jesus though she don't believe in this. She not believe in Christian religion. After knowing the truth still she make fun of the thing that she belongs to Jesus life line. The main antagonist of novel Leigh Teabing believes that there is not like any divine force. He believes that on the name of religious and God people are fooling by priest. Mankind should be free from this all things. The way church and priest are portrayed as corrupt and wealthy people who can do anything for the money. So the larger part of narrative is anti Christian that questions upon the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and process and importance of Christianity in life. The novel highly based on the Anti Christian idea.

# “Although it is obvious that much of what Brown presented in his novel as absolutely true and accurate is neither of those, some of that material is of course essential to the intrigue, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has retained the novel's core, the Grail-related material: the sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene's marriage, the Priory of Sion, certain aspects of Leonardo's art, and so on[1].” How far do you agree with this observation of Norris J. Lacy?

Lucy is right on her place that in the film Akiva Goldsman has retained the novel's core, sacred feminine and Mary Magdalene's Marriage and her relationship with Jesus, Priory of Sion and use of Da Vinci 's art . In the film  and novel all this things used for make this story more interesting and convincing. Through this all things it successfully  grabbing the attention of audience throughout the film. It also helping in build the thriller.  Though Everything is not true and not interconnected with each other in reality but it has deeper historical sense. These all things are connected historically not reality. It used to only make story interesting.

# If You have studied ‘Genesis’ (The Bible), ‘The Paradise Lost’ (John Milton) and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (Dan Brown). Which of the narrative/s seem/s to be truthful? Whose narrative is convincing to the contemporary young mind?

When we want to convince young  mind, they will  apply the  logic, so according to  me Na Vinci code is more  convenient. Because  The Bible is ancient one  and Paradise lost is also  the great  work by Milton. Young  mind  will  think  on the God, Adam, Eve or we can  say all  ritual and tradition of religion. Do Vinci  code and  yes  Paradise lost both raise the  question  on the realty and the  freedom of the women. 

In the Genesis the voice of human is marginalised by God and religion. In this narrative Adam and Eve shows as inferior and God as superior place. In the Da Vinci  code the narrative highly question the relationship of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. But the way narrative moves with the clues of Da Vinci 's painting  is highly problematic. 

When we compare the narrative structure of these three in compare to Da Vinci and Genesis, the paradise lost is better. The way Eve  portreyed as rational thinker and questioning against God is more convincing as true to human nature.

 In this narrative Human's nature  and thoughts given priority over God. The Human emotions has given priority like temptation , resistance, love , beauty. The whole narrative is human centric and because of it this narrative is more convincing to young mind.

# Do novel / film lead us into critical (deconstructive) thinking about your religion? Can we think of such conspiracy theory about Hindu religious symbols / myths? 

                 And 

# Have you come across any similar book/movie, which tries to deconstruct accepted notions about Hindu religion or culture and by dismantling it, attempts to reconstruct another possible interpretation of truth?                I                                       

Yes ,  the novel teaches us to doubt on the things which is highly acceptable by people in the name of religion. In the Hindu religion there is many myths. The myths it self questionable because it interpretated by people time and again. The novel The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi is based on deconstructive idea of God shiva. It is in sequence  work, Meluha,  Nagvansh and Vayuputra's shapath. 

 In the book Meluha   the protegonist shiv is normal human being. He becomes the God by his karma. It told that  every human being have capacity to go beyond things. There is no any kind of spirituality outside in the world but it is within.

We can take the  example of  Movies  like  PK,  Oh My God. In the film  PK we can  see  that  it is some way anti Religion, because  no  one  can prove that God  is Exist. So the  phony people  disguised their self  into  the  messenger and that  way  they  creat illusion. 

In the movie  On My God, God is in from of Modern man with the  suit and all. Through  the  character of Kanjilal, We can  see that what  happened if you  are an atheist. There  is no  God  but  our  own  deeds and human  psyche that  crest an ora for something  what  we think. 

# When we do traditional reading of the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology, Harvard University emerges protagonist and Sir Leigh Teabing, a British Historian as antagonist. Who will claim the position of protagonist if we do atheist reading of the novel?

Leigh Teabing consider as protagonist if we do the atheist reading of the novel. He  is the true protagonist of Novel. Because he thinks about Humanity not Religion. For him Humanity  is more important rather than freedom. He wants to free the humanity from the Christian  religion. Because he believes that religion not make people free. The true freedom emerging when people will free from religion. He thinks for humanity not for God. For him human freedom is more important. He is the protagonist in  true sense because for him Humanity is more important rather than religion.

"The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven. The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book."

9. Explain Ann Gray’s three propositions on ‘knowability’ with illustrations from the novel 'The Da Vinci Code’.

a.       1) Identifying what is knowable 

b.      2) identifying and acknowledging the relationship of the knower and the known

c.  3) What is the procedure for ‘knowing’?

 1) The novel Based on the solving the code and painting of Da Vinci Code. Through this the Protagonist reached the real Holy Grail. In the novel this all code and painting solved by the Protagonist. It is the way they can reach to the truth.

2) In this identifying and acknowledging the relationship of the knower and the known. The true knowledge of self. Sophie doesn't belive in the Jesus through out the novel she thinks that Jacques Sauniera is his grand father but later on she came to know that he is only protecting her. She came to know that she belongs to the lifeline of Jesus.

3) In this understand the process of knowing. Robert is the professor of symbolism and he wrote Many books. He  writes things but the knowledge is remain only in the books and mind. He know many things but he don't know how to connect the thing and understand the true knowledge. He understand the process of knowing at the end when suddenly thought sticking in his mind and he found the Holy Grail.  In the novel each code has double meaning. Through the process of decoding the code  they came to know about the real meaning of the code. This process of knowing helping Robert and Sophie to solve the real puzzle of Holy Grail.

બનારસ ડાયરી -હરીશ મીનાશ્રુ

 #DS_discussion

#કળશ_દિવ્ય_ભાસ્કર

      In our department we don't study just  the  syllabus text but  we also discuss other text, movie and Gujarati, Hindi literature as well. One  or two  days before Dilip Barad  sir took  one  booked  name  Banaras Dairy which is  written by  Harish Minashru. 

   In  Today's  news paper I read news about  it. Because  it's won  The  Sahitya academy award. Here  you  can  read one of poem  from this book.

આ તરફ કાશીવિશ્વનાથ

 ઓ તરફ સારનાથ 

ચારે તરફ ફેલાયેલા નાથસંપ્રદાયના પરિઘની બહાર ઊભો છું 

હું અનાથ 

અચાનક આવીને મને નાથી લે છે કબીર...

પુસ્તકમાં કબીર સતત આવ - જા કરતા રહે છે . એક કવિતામાં કવિને જન્મદિવસની શુભેચ્છા આપવા કબીર છસો પ્રકાશવર્ષનું અંતર કાપીને પધારે છે . પછી ? 

મેં કેક પર મીણબત્તી મૂકી , સળગાવીને ફૂંક મારીને હોલવી નાખી .

ચાકુથી કેક કાપી , તાળીઓ પણ મેં જ પાડી 

હરખના માર્યામેં કબીરની સામે જોયું 

તો એમના ચહેરા પર 

આનંદની વ્યંજનામાં પરિપક્વ વિષાદ હતોઃ 

તું તોતિમિરની ભલામણ કરે છે , 

ક્ષુધા અને આયુધનો સરવાળો કરે છે ને

કાપાકાપી અને ઓગાળવાનો અર્થ રચે છે , 

હજુ મરઘી ને ઇડાની પ્રહેલિકાતો પૂરેપૂરી ઊકલતી નથી ને 

આમે મોટે ઉપાડે ઉજવણી કરવા મંડી પડયો , જનમદિનની ? 

હોલવાનું કપાવું ને ખાવું - એ બધું તારી જાતને લાગુ પાડ તો ખરો

હું ભોંઠો પડી ગયોઃ તો આટલું અંતર કાપીને

શા માટે આવેલા , સાહેબ , ખાસ મારા જનમદિને ... ?તારી દૂંટીની નાળ કાપવાઃ કબીરે કહ્યુઃ ગળથૂથી ચટાડવા ને સત્વરે શ્રીફળ બાંધવા , બાલાવરની પાલખીએ.

જો આ દોણી , આજે તારાથી કરવાની છે બોણી . 

એ ક્ષણે મેં જોયું તો છસો પ્રકાશવર્ષો 

મારા પગના અંગૂઠેથી ઉપર ચઢી રહ્યાં હતાં 

ને પગનાં હાડકામાં કબરની સનાતન ગંધ બેસી ગઈ'તી ને હું બની ગયો હતો 

યાયાવરીની વ્યંજનામાં પરિવપક્વ

વિષાદ અને આનંદની આંખોવાળો એકાકી માણસ 

ને સ્થળમાત્ર હવે બનારસ .

મને બે મેટાફર સમજતાં નથીઃ 

શરીરની ભાષા અને ભાષાનું શરીર 

એટલે ૨ઝળતો રહું છું...

Thank you... 

Give your suggestions and comment...

Celebration committee -Report

Celebration committee report 

Every day is a good day. There is something to learn, care and celebrate.

Celebration committee leaders are Mehal Pandya and Kinnari Halvadiya.

Members are;

Tamsa

Sima 

Hina 

Payal

Bharti

Hitixa

Ruchi 

Kishan

Sneha

Daya

Aditi

Nirali

Riddhi

Nishtha

In the department of English Bhavngar University. In our department we celebrate many festivals and some special days too. Celebration is part of our life. It's gives us new Energy, enthusiasm and new ideas to do something new. Life is all about learning and got some experiences to cultivate our one self. So here some glimpse of our celebration in our English Department.

Teacher's Day.

Hindi day

Poetry day

31st day

Birthday celebration

26th January

Women's day

Teacher's Day

As we know that the 2020 yea we faced some problems because of Covid -19. So Students of English department celebrated Teacher's Day virtually. Here some glimpse of that. All participants took part with very excitedly and gave their best to teach and to learn. They also awarded certificate to those who watched the video and apper in the test. So it was a new learning experience.

Hindi day

Hindi day was also celebrated virtually. On this day students of English department they selected any Hindi literature, like short story, poems and also presented their opinion about the Hindi language, conflict of Hindi and English language. So it was a very worthy event and we got many lessons from this session.

Poetry Day

31st ( New year 2021)

As we know every year, everyone are very excited for new year. This time too. Whole world was curiously waiting for the 2021. Because all want that corona time should be ended.

We celebrated this new year with a positive and motivated thought. So here you can watch the video of our 2021st celebratation.

Birthday celebration

Woman's day

Book review :Hayavadan

 Hello readers welcome to my blog... 

Here is my  blog  about  the  book which  very famous one and written by  Girish karnad named  Hayavadana. 

  

His other works are: 

Yayati 

Nagmandla

Wedding alumb 

Crossing to  Talikota

Tughlaq

Hayavadana 

The  plot of this  play is comes from Kathasaritsagar. Karnad has borrowed it through Thomas Mann's retelling of the story in The Transposed Heads. This novella. It was written in 1940. Mann's was a German novelist, short story writer, Essayist and the 1929 Nobel Prize literature laureate. 

It was  frist presented in English by the Madras players at the museum theatre. Madras on 7 December, 1972.

Mostly  we can see that if story  is derived  from myth we can find some  elements of rituals and culture of that  time. 

This play  is also  began with  Ganesh pooja. It is tradition that on any Good ocation people do. Ganesh vandna and then start the  function. 

   Now  why  this  Ganesh  is coming  here  because  as we know  that lord  Ganesh has head of an elephant. Now the  story  is also  like  this. The  human with  the  head of hours. So let's see  some  glimpse of the  story of Hayavadan. 

Characters.

Bhagwata - the main narrator of the play

Devdutta - One of the two friends, A man of knowledge

Kapila - Devdutta's Friend, A man with great physical strength

Padmini - A beautiful woman, love interest of the two friends

Hayavadana - A strange creature with the Head of a Horse and body of a man

Actor-1 - An assistant to Bhagwata

Goddess Kali - the Goddess who brings Devdutta and Kapila back to life.

The Boy - Son of Devdutta and Padmini

Vidyasagar (only referenced) - Devdutta's father

Story of the play 

“Hayavadana” features a story within a story. When the curtains open, the narrator (Bhagvata) introduces us to the set of activities to be witnessed shortly, when there is an intrusion on stage by an actor (Nata) bringing news about a “talking horse”.

 Soon enough, Hayavadana emerges on stage – a character with the body of a man and the head of a horse. Hayavadana wishes to be complete, and Bhagvata provides the much needed advice and sends him off, so that the audience isn’t kept waiting anymore for the actual play to begin.

We are then introduced to Devadatta and Kapila – the closest of friends who describe their friendship as “one mind, one heart”. 

Devadatta is a man of intellect – he loves to read, write poetry, study the scriptures, and has various literary pursuits. Kapila is a man of the body – he prefers to spend his time swimming, wrestling, and playing various sports that challenge him physically.

 The story takes us through how both men fall in love with the same woman, Padmini. Not wanting to tarnish their friendship over a woman, they sacrifice their heads to the goddess Kali.

 When Padmini finds out that the men gave priority to their own friendship over their love for her, she implores the goddess for help. Kali asks her to place the severed heads back on the bodies of the men. In her haste and fear of the goddess, Padmini jumbles up the task, with the heads getting interchanged – Devadatta’s head goes on to Kapil’s body, and vice versa. The rest of the narrative takes us through the confusion of who is who.

What makes a person? His body that forms a large part of him, or his head which contains the face that identifies him? 

  The body is responsible for our physical experiences, but memories are stored in the head that houses the mind. Which one is superior, and can the two exist separately? “The memories that cannot be recognized, named or understood are ghosts of the body, if the head wasn’t there when they happened“, laments Kapila. 

  We also delve into the dilemma faced by the two men who despise their bodies – Kapila finds his head too heavy for Devadatta’s lean frame, and Devadatta has no intention of preserving the muscular body his head is on, preferring to focus his energy and attention on his reading and writing.

According to the Shastras, the head is the sign of a man. “What is written on our foreheads cannot be altered“, Bhagvata informs us. The two men’s search for completeness is reminiscent of the similar quest of Hayavadana – the horse-man we met at the start of the play. Does completeness of a horse-man signify a complete man or a complete horse? Why do Devadatta and Kapila feel incomplete without their bodies, if the mind is in control of the being? 

This philosophy of what makes a person whole, forms the crux of “Hayavadana” (the book). Karnad has incorporated many conventions of folk tales and folk theater in his writing – masks, curtains, talking dolls, a world of incomplete and indifferent individuals. 

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