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It's Just Me: May 2014
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Sunday, May 18, 2014. Handy list: For every woman MP, there's an appropriate portfolio. Pasted here for convenience from this earlier post. Youth Affairs and Sports. Drinking water supply and sanitation. Deol Hema Malini Dharmendra. Poonam Mahajan Alias Poonam Vajendla Rao. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Political or/and Social Service. Political or/and Social Service. Political or/and Social Service. Political or/and Social Service. Social justice and empowerment. Political or/and Social Service.
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It's Just Me: January 2015
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Saturday, January 31, 2015. The theft of Shakti. Yesterday, my friend took me to the " Jogini Peeth. Outside Bhubaneswar. This is the archaeological site labeled "64 Yogini" in Hirapur. I had seen photographs. Of the site online, and as someone whose ishta-devata is Devi, it had drawn my attention and interest. But I did not want to go there alone. We walked on to the 64 Yogini temple site, which is smaller than it looks in photographs. Something about the space reminds me of the Kailashanatha temple...
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It's Just Me: February 2015
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Saturday, February 21, 2015. Because compassion is all that counts. For me the word 'compassion' evokes two images from Buddhist art most of all. But this is about compassion, of which Alice Walker writes, "if compassion be freely/ Given out/ Take only enough." Give compassion freely, without measure, without thought, without expecting a return, but take only enough. "Stop short of urge to plead. Then purge away the need.". What does it mean for society? How do we create a compassionate society? But in S...
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It's Just Me: September 2013
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Sunday, September 22, 2013. We are all works in progress. Published September 12, 2013 here. 8220;Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,. Where wealth accumulates and men decay.”. In the middle of all the expert opinion swirling around me, that is the thought that I learnt most from. From compassion, flow empathy and acceptance without judgment. In an age of physically daring pastimes, we seem to have less courage. That takes clarity and courage. I envy this kind of integrity. I really don’t...
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It's Just Me: Saying goodbye
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Saturday, July 18, 2015. How many of you have difficulty saying goodbye to objects? I do I wear clothes until they really should not be worn at all. I hold on to gadgets long after others would declare them obsolete. I used never to give away books until I saw how much others yearned for them. And I have had cupboards built to house old letter and cards. I guess I am not even on the road to detachment yet! Parting, even with (especially with) objects, is indeed such sweet sorrow. I am a political scienti...
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It's Just Me: July 2015
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Saturday, July 18, 2015. How many of you have difficulty saying goodbye to objects? I do I wear clothes until they really should not be worn at all. I hold on to gadgets long after others would declare them obsolete. I used never to give away books until I saw how much others yearned for them. And I have had cupboards built to house old letter and cards. I guess I am not even on the road to detachment yet! Parting, even with (especially with) objects, is indeed such sweet sorrow. I am a political scienti...
justswarna.blogspot.com
It's Just Me: To remember Hiroshima: Memories of a peace pilgrimage
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Thursday, August 6, 2015. To remember Hiroshima: Memories of a peace pilgrimage. A visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park begins at the Atomic Bomb Dome. This was the building upon which the bomb was dropped. The vertical walls survived. Nothing else within or in the area did. There are photos of us before the dome. We are not smiling. We are not smiling in most of the Peace Park photos. How could we be? Over the crescent moon in the sky. A tangible statue of a mother and her child stands. We were students ou...
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It's Just Me: March 2015
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Monday, March 9, 2015. I grew up surrounded by bougainvillaea bushes that covered every adjacent wall with their magenta blooms in abundance. The bushes flowered so generously that one ceased to notice them at all. They were as nondescript in my view as the grass or the weeds growing in the cracks of those walls. And one could neither wear the flower nor use it in decorations. The orange and off-white or white flower had some value in my eyes but not the unapologetically abundant magenta. I also blog at.
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It's Just Me: June 2015
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Monday, June 15, 2015. Today's musical companion for my evening walk was a lifelong favourite, the Yellow River Concerto. I first heard it in my dorm room in Syracuse, sitting with my room-mate from Macau (via Hong Kong, which still existed back then! Agnes had a large collection of Chinese music, as I did Indian, and it was the music that played as we both fell asleep. There was something about the still dark Syracuse night and the sound of Cantonese opera that seemed made for each other. As I sat down ...
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It's Just Me: Yellow River
http://justswarna.blogspot.com/2015/06/yellow-river.html
Monday, June 15, 2015. Today's musical companion for my evening walk was a lifelong favourite, the Yellow River Concerto. I first heard it in my dorm room in Syracuse, sitting with my room-mate from Macau (via Hong Kong, which still existed back then! Agnes had a large collection of Chinese music, as I did Indian, and it was the music that played as we both fell asleep. There was something about the still dark Syracuse night and the sound of Cantonese opera that seemed made for each other. As I sat down ...
