Manakkal Rangarajan - RTP - Demo

Shravanam Continues!

Sri Manakkal Rangarajan - RTP - Demo

Let us enjoy good music!!

Maya Civilisation

మాయా నాగరికత అంటే ఏమిటి?

మనకు సింధు నాగరికత తెలుసు. గ్రీకు, రోము నాగరికతలు తెలుసు. సుమేరులను గురించి కూడా బహుశః కొంత తెలుసు. కానీ, ఈ మాయా అన్నమాట మన పుస్తకాలలోకి చేరలేదు. నిజానికి దీన్ని మయ్యా అని పలకాలి. ఈ మాటకు, మనకు తెలిసిన మాయ (మంత్రాల మాయ) కు సంబంధం లేదు.

దక్షిణ అమెరికాలోకి యూరోపియనులు రాకముందు, మాయా నాగరికత వ్యాప్తిలో ఉంది. అది మనకు తెలిసిన మిగతా నాగరికతలంత పాతది కాదు. అయినా అంతగానూ అభివృద్ధి చెందింది. క్రీస్తు శకం 300 నుంచి 900 మధ్యకాలంలో మాయా నాగరికత పతాక స్థాయిలో ఉంది. వారు గొప్ప పిరమిడులను, గుడులు, శిల్పాలను నిర్మించారు. గణితం, ఖగోళశాస్త్రం రంగాలలో గొప్ప ప్రగతిని సాధించారు. వేల సంవత్సరాల తర్వాత, లేదా ముందు, ఒకతేదీ, ఏ వారం అయ్యిందీ వారు లెక్కించ గలిగారు. వారు సున్నాను వాడుకున్నారు. అయితే, సున్నాను గురించిన ఆలోచన వారికి స్వంతంగా కలిగిందని మాత్రం మనం గుర్తించాలి.

మిగతా అన్ని నాగరికతలోలాగే మాయా వారు కూడా వ్యవసాయంతోనే జీవనం గడిపారు. వ్యవసాయ దేవతలను, వర్షదేవతను పూజించారు. వారికి దేవతలు, వారి శక్తుల మీద గొప్ప నమ్మకం ఉండేది. వారు పంచాంగాలను తయారు చేశారు. ఊరికి మధ్యలో పిరమిడ్ ఆకారంలో నిర్మాణాలు చేసి వాటి మీద ఆలయాలను కట్టుకున్నారు. టికాల్ వంటి ప్రాంతాలలో జరిపిన తవ్వకాలలో మాయా నాగరికత అవశేషాలు ఎన్నో బయట పడ్డాయి.

వారు కనీసం 30 లక్షల మంది, 70 నగరాలలో బతికారని అంచనా. కోపాన్ అన్నది వారి ముఖ్య నగరం. ప్రస్తుతం హొండురాస్ అని పిలువబడే ప్రాతంలో ఉండేదది. కోపాన్ బంగారు నిక్షేపాలు అద్వితీయమయినవని పేరు పొందాయి. తవ్వకాలలో ఒక వింత విషయం తెలిసింది. కోపాన్ అభివృద్ధీ, అక్కడి నిర్మాణ కార్యక్రమాలూ ఒక్క సారిగా ఆగిపోయినయి. అందుకు కారణం మాత్రం ఇంకా పరిశోధకులకు కూడా అంతు పట్టలేదు. జనాభా పెరుగుదల, బహుశః ఈ నాగరికత అంతరించడానికి కారణమయి ఉండవచ్చునని అభిప్రాయం.

మాయా నాగరికతలోనూ రాజులూ, రాజ్యాలూ, వైభవాలూ ఉండేవి. వారు ఎన్నో అసాధ్యాలను సాదించారు. మాడ్రిడ్ కోడెక్స్ లాంటి చిత్రభాషలను తయారు చేసుకున్నారు. మాయాలను గురించి చెప్పుకోవడానికి చాలా విశేషాలున్నాయి. అటువంటి నాగరికత ఒకటి ఉండేదని తెలియని వారు చాలా మంది ఉన్నారు. అది ఆశ్చర్యం.

I don't propose to translate this post!
There is enough about the topic on the net for people who know English!
######

Back to my place

Here is a poem of Rabindranath Tagore!

I remember I translated one of his poems and sent it to a magazine when I was a child!

It was never published!

Who am I to translate Tagore?

It is not about my transaltion!

It is about the way the poem touched me!

Madhyahna

(Only The ending Lines)

In the midst of all these

I am a stranger

Yet I do not feel estranged

I feel I am one of them

It also seems

After a long time

I have returned

To my own native place

I have gone back in time

To my former life

To that fresh morning

When like an infant

Clinging on to its mother's breast

I was inseparably mixed

With land, air, water and the sky

And along with all living beings

That thrive on this earth

I was joyously sucking

The elixir of my first existence.’

మధ్యాహ్నం

(చివరి పంక్తులు మాత్రమే)

ఇన్నిటి మధ్యనా

నేనొక పరదేశిని

అయినా నాకు కొత్తనిపించదు

అందరిలో నేనూ ఒకడిననుకుంటాను

నాకనిపిస్తుంది

చాలా కాలం తర్వాత

నా స్వంతచోటికి నేను

తిరిగి వచ్చానని

కాలంలో వెనక్కి నడిచి

నా గతజీవితంలోకి

ఆ నవోదయంలోకి చేరానని,

నేను పసివానిలా

అమ్మ ఎదకు అతికి ఉన్నాను

భూమీ, గాలీ, నీరూ, ఆకాశాలతో

విడదీయ రానంతగా మమేకమై ఉన్నానప్పుడు

ఈ నేల మీది మనగలుగుతున్న

సమస్త జీవరాశితో

కలగలిసి సంతోషంగా

నా తొలి అస్తిత్వపు అమృతాన్ని

తనివిదీరా తాగుతున్న క్షణాలవి.

Let us enjoy noble thoughts!!
%%%%%

Cartoon on Photoshop!

If you don't understand the cartoon, You are not at fault!

You are not much of a computer person perhaps!!

Let us have fun!!

%%%%

Tanguturi Surya Kumari - Songs

I heard these songs in my childhood.
We as a generation were so enamoured by these songs and themes.
Patriotism is a much forgotten theme now!
The song "Ettavoyi nee Jayajenda" evokes some rare feeling in me even today!
You are free to think I am old fashioned!
But listen to the song and the mood!
It is better than a Marching Song!

I bring her some songs of Smt Tanguturi Surya Kumari, a legendary singer of yester years!



Download a bunch of songs including "Maa Telugu Talliki Mallepoodanda" from here!

Let us enjoy some great songs!
@@@@@

Page from the Diary

Here is another page from my diary.

I made it a point to write on the thoughts occured on that day and not exactly the happenings!

The thoughts might have occured because of some happenings!

You will not even find names in my diary usually!

The physical power surrenders before the might of mental power. In the mental power there is a stunning character. One fellow brought down a palm tree with a hit of his sword. Another one brought this man down without as much lifting his hand. In such a situation, the later is supposed to be more sronger!


Jared Diamond of the "Guns, Germs nad Steel" fame, tells a different story! Intelligent people in the forests remained in the forests. The less intelligent civilised folks could rule over them. How was it possible? One is training and the other the milieu in which people live. The theory and the causes are fit to be discussed at a very high level.


One who studies the life is superior to the one who studies only books. There was a story in which a philosopher becomes a fool before an oil monger. I am reminded of it!


May be I tell the story here for the benefit of those who do not know it!


This philosopher went to the oil monger to buy some oil. there was an ox working the oil mill. the master was nowhere around. But, the ox was very sincerely going round and round. The philosopher was curious. He asked the man how he knows whether the ox was going round or not. The man said that there is a bell in its neck and he listens to its sound. Philosopher asked what would he do if the ox stands in a place and shakes the bell and produces noise. The oil monger coolly said, "It is not educated like you!!"


The oil monger is not an intelligent being after all. But, interestingly is ox is also not intelligent. Thoughts and discussions may raise a humna to heights. They can also throw him into an abyss.


Unnecessary doubts are the hallmarks of thinking people!!

Kanyasulkam of Gurajada

Kanyasulkam is a wonderful drama penned by Sri Gurajada Appa Rao Pantulu garu.
Though it is based on the Sanskrit play Mrichakatikam, you do not even think of it as a clone.
There is so much of originality in it that you forget the similarities!
I read this play whenever I am in blues!!
There is so much slap stick humour in it that you cannot help laughing.
Though the play portraits the Brahmins in poor light, Pantulu Garu is fully justified.

You can download the book for reading pleasure from here

My contribution here is a radio version of this famous paly!

Download the play from here

A write up on the drama for those who do not know about it!

Gurazada wrote this play to raise awareness about what he felt was a scandalous state of affairs in society. His English preface to the first edition states: "Such a scandalous state of things is a disgrace to society, and literature can not have a higher function than to show up such practices and give currency to a high standard of moral ideas. Until reading habits prevail among masses, one must look only to the stage to exert such healthy influence." Traditionally, Telugu literary works were written in a highly stylistic language with complicated words and meter; these works could only be understood by the educated elite. Gurazada's mission was to reach out to the masses, so he broke with tradition (he called the literary dialect "doubly dead" in his preface) and wrote in the vibrant and colorful spoken language of the day.

Madhuravani, the muse of Girisam during the beginning of the play, and that of Ramappa Panthulu in the rest of the play, is portrayed as a very righteous, wise, magnanimous and able woman who is willing to even bend over backwards to help someone in need. This way the play sought to take on the prejudices and practices of contemporary Indian society head-on. The play includes a few gut-wrenching scenes such as one where Agnihothravadhanulu, an egoistic, male-chauvinistic Brahmin and a key player in the play, barbarically slams his food plate onto the face of his young, widowed daughter, when she requests that he reconsider his decision to marry his pre-pubescent daughter to an old man. The practice of parents arranging the marriages of their pre-pubescent daughters to old men for cash was very prevalent during those days, and was referred to popularly as Kanyasulkam, literally meaning "money in lieu for a girl", which also forms the title of the play.


The play also depicts, amusingly, the practices of orthodox Brahmins, such as Madi, with a particular character in the play even shrivelling away from everyone and everything like a touch-me-not, lest he might lose his sanctity. (He even has to perform some "religious cleansing" for the things someone touched before he can touch them.)

The play also has numerous lighter moments, notably regarding the marriage of the stingy old man, Lubdhavadhanulu. Much of that comedy occurs as dialogue between Girisam and his various love interests, and also during the marriage of Lubdhavadhanulu to a boy disguised as a girl. Contemporary Indian society is depicted in a very real fashion, without glorifying it so that it has the effect of being 'in-your-face'. Numerous interesting characters spring up during various points of the play, such as the widowed owner of a local food court, referred to as Pootakoolla 'Munda' (the word in quotes being an offensive word for a widow, originating from 'Mundan', meaning shaving, in Sanskrit and Telugu, because during that period, a woman had to shave her hair off after her husband's death), the debauched and widowed daughter of Lubdhavadhanulu, Meenakshi, and the son of Lubdhavadhanulu. They are very much similar in their notions and prejudices to the people one may see in any Indian village even today.

In Girisam, we can see that kind of a young man who is opportunistic, yearns for momentary pleasures, desires easy money and is unwilling to work, for the simple reason that he is too fickle-minded to hold any particular job for a considerable amount of time. He is so unwilling, in fact, that he wouldn't think twice about taking the easiest path to fulfilling his desires, even if he is trampling upon someone else's life while he is on his way. He claims to be a progressionist, but claiming is all he does. In Meenakshi, we may see a woman who might have been widowed even before she hit puberty. She was therefore paying for a mistake that was anyone's but hers and was being accused of being unfaithful to a husband she did not have. Ramappa Panthulu is a middle man and very incompetent one at that. He tries to twist and turn every situation in his favor, but ends up being entangled in the very much he himself created in the first place. He is a victim of his own making. Probably, Madhuravani and PootaKoolla 'Munda' are the only characters who have strong moral footing and maintain their stand throughout the play. There are no surprises, shocks, or suspense regarding the characters of the persons and flaws in their characters, if any, are laid out clearly by the playwright.

This play was also produced as a film in Telugu.
Great NTR is in lead.
I am sure some bits are available on You tube!!
 
Let us enjoy great works of creativity!
#########