photo by axinia
Why mysterious? – Because almost nobody (except neighbours and experts) are aware of it. The language of a heart-shaped country… The place I was born and spent my childhood. Lithuania…
What is so special about it?
Alamkara – let’s be each other’s decoration! August 29, 2007
photo by axinia
Alamkara is a Sanskrit word meaning ornamentation, decoration, and figure of speech, describes an enduring characteristic of Indian artistic production, whether in the visual, performing or literary arts.
The verb alam-kara – ”to adorn, to decorate,”- means literally “to make enough”: for the simple appearance without ornament is ”not enough”; it is poor, disgraceful, shocking, except in the case of an ascetic.
Obiously the Western philosphy and lifestyle give us the opposite idea: “less is more” is the magic formular to be best dressed! The decoration – as adoration – is missing…
Sometimes I feel that in fact, people are each other`s decoration: wife is a decoration of a husband, children are decoration of a couple – but not only in their looks! It is more about a person being a decoration of another person, with his/her own being…
I love this word “ alamkara” and its deep meaning. I love thinking that I am “not enough” without my dear friends, family, just all people around. (more…)
Why most of us just love the seaside? August 27, 2007
photo by shashchatter
Most people I know are just crazy about the sea. The best holiday they can dream of is to go to a seaside and swim, swim, swim – to bathe in the water and in the sun… I am a bit of exception here as I am fully in love with the sky (airplanes, parachutes, paraplans, any kind of flying is what attracts me the most).
Anyway, this mass phenomenon – love for a seaside has been always puzzling me. There must be something very special about it. Why swimming in the river/lake is not that popular? Why is this salty, vast water?..
The answer came from an unexpected side: foot soaking! To soak the feet in salty water has been known since centuries (I believe, in the Arab tradition – please correct me somebody if not). Apparently it is meant to bring some relief, especially after work). Today foot soaking is offered as one of the most natural and effective relaxation methods of wellness.
Today is my birthday! August 26, 2007
photo by vova
Today is my birthday and I want to give you something.
It took me years to learn how to accept presents, because I could not see the point of that – for me giving is much more pleasant that receiving! Since that difficulty I started a tradition of making presents for others on my birthday. That is fun!
My dearest blog-readers, friends, commentors and ramble visitors, we are in a virtual reality here and what I can give is a virtual present – a poem. A poem for all of you. (more…)
Web 2.0 as the Last Point of Trust August 22, 2007
photo by axinia
The new Study of GDI (Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut), Switzerland – to be published in autemn 2007 – was aired on a subject “Trust 2.0 Who customers trust in the future”. The study Trust 2.0 is based on a representative survey and shows how consumers find their bearings in the new niche markets and who stands to gain or lose their trust.
Regarding the “official” authorities people tend to trust more doctors followed by experts.
· How do consumers find their bearings when they want to buy a car, enjoy a break, change their telecommunications provider or upgrade their homestyle? – Tipps form friends and family are the most welcomed (by emotionally affected decisions), followed by online opinion forums and other Web 2.0 sources (by tourism, going out, telekom, auto).
· Whom do they distrust the most? – Manufacturer and producer, advertisement, guidebooks and mass media.
By networking, consumers are increasingly by-passing manufacturers and retailers to procure information. Their trust in manufacturers, retailers and experts is declining, and they are relying more and more on “dropping knowledge” (wikis, for instance).
It is fascinating to see networked consumers acting as a body, forming a kind of “higher intelligence” and, hence, becoming the most important source of orientation, preferable to any expert, no matter how brilliant. (more…)
Can comments on your blog reflect the state of your being? August 20, 2007
photo by axinia
The nature of comments – that probably most precious part of blogging! – has been fascinating me since the beginning of my blogging experiences. For some reasons (and I always thought the reason was my so called femininity, may be cute picture, smart texts, naive beliefs) I used to get 90% of male comments, on all my blogs. That was somewhat strange but for the reason given above quite understandable.
Until the last week. Last week I suddenly found out that all (!) comments on my blogs have been done by ladies. Hmm… What was the cause?
Beauty is the essence of love. And love is the essence of beauty. August 17, 2007
photo by axinia
My post “Why do we long for beauty” was commented by “C”, a sweet young girl looking for support in her beauty pursuit. I promised to write a post on that topic and here I am – writing for Shaktipower after such a long time!..
“Beauty is the essence of love. And love is the essence of beauty.” – I don’t know if anybody has said that already, but these words just came from the bottom of my heart. Sometimes I think I am somehow obsessed with the idea of beauty, of looking for beauty everywhere, finding it everywhere, especially in people and just loving it… How can I describe it? (more…)
I do not understand Copy-Right August 16, 2007
photo by axinia
Living over 10 years in Europe, that Motherland of Capitalisms and having experienced working in sales… I have to admit being a Communist at heart. Has it something to do with my Russian background? – I am not sure. I know only since I was a child I could not understand money and all that money-making.
Even being a big girl now I still can not understand the ways all that works and why somebody should always make money out of everything possible under this sun.
One of the things I deeply disagree with is the copy-right. Whatever I can contribute to this world, especially if it is done from the heart – why should I “protect” that? It is like a bird I let free from a cage of my talents – I let it fly free and happily, and find its own ways…
Whatever I create belongs to the whole world, why should I charge for that?
I know, the fear is that some indecent people can misuse it and (again!) make money out of under their own name.
I know that this idea of everyone sharing/contribution the talents to the society for free sounds extremely utopian and silly.
But I also know that one day it will happen, and the Capitalism will collapse, because it is not based on the natural human behaviour (no matter what they say).The only condition that the humanity should come to it on its own, in an EVOLUTIONARY and not revolutionary process.
And it will. One day.
LOVE, axinia
How to take the right decision August 14, 2007
photo by axinia
Making the right choice, taking the right decision – this is something that marks our personal growth every next moment. Wise people say that in fact every decision IS the right one – and I absolutely agree with that.
However there are some identification marks that show kind of “the best” decision for me, and this is something I want to share with you. Usually I take decisions on regular life matters (shopping, choice of location, of holiday destination, of people to meet or places to attend, to handle a daily situation etc.) quite easy, spontaneous. It just happens naturally and I mostly do not need even to think it over.
In some cases, however – like job or marriage J – this is something that mostly takes time to decide… Then how do I decide? (more…)
A book: to read or not to read? August 12, 2007
photo by axinia
Since I learned to read I was reading books passionately: in a classroom, in a bus, in a toilet, under the bed sheet, while eating – simply everywhere and at any time. Once I tried to count the numbers and came to the 3.000 books that I swallowed in my childhood and youth. Till I got 21.
And then I stopped. Suddenly I realised that I am so fed up with that kind of dead knowledge and someone else’s experiences, someone else’s theories and ideas… I just could not read any more. After graduating from my University where I ought to read all the so called “golden World literature” (which I enjoyed a lot), I probably reached the limit of my braid-load. I had no desire whatsoever to read a book – and that for many years to come.
Recently I started reading one or two books a year, but this is really nothing. And even if I know that there are plenty of good books out there, I just can not force myself to spend my precious time on reading them. Why? Through some introspection I came to a clear conclusion: (more…)
axinia
1000 petals by axinia 
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