Can foreigners perform Indian arts better than Indians? May 30, 2008

 image credit: SY Ukraine

It is really possible? I would say no, because I also never heard anybody singing Russian songs with a greater expression than Russians themselves…

However I am not sure any more when it comes to Indian Arts, because they seem to be of a para-national character (due to their spiritual character? – I guess spirit is an international unity).

Since years I am very much interested in Indian Arts, which are incredibly beautiful and (alas!)still largely unknown in the West. I have seen many performances of Indian masters (vocal, instrumental and dance) live and on videos which gave me quite a feeling for this special art.

The other day I read in the RIAN Russian news about the Indian Dance Festival that has taken place in New Delhi this week: 6 artists from Japan, USA, France, Ukraine, South Corea and Croatia performed before Indian public their art of the Indian Classical Dance (different styles).

An artist who was interview I know personally and therefore my interest was drown to that article even more (an abstract translated by me): “Lena Lakshmi from Ukraine lives in India since 10 years and studies Indian Classical Dance  kuchipudi in Chennai, South India. Lena referrers to the traditional Indian dance as an art, which is full of awareness and spirituality, compared to the Western Classical dance.

PicLens: my best image-search with wow-effect! May 28, 2008

I just discovered PicLens for me and immediately want to share with all of you – wow! It is truly amazing!

Those who love beautiful stuff from the Image and Video world – you will LOVE PicLens!!!

Some technical information:

PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing images on the web. Photos will come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes well beyond the confines of the traditional browser window.

PicLens is a web browser plugin that provides interactive full-screen slideshows of online images.

Just do it! May 27, 2008

 image by axinia

The quotation by Martin Luther King.

War and Peace May 25, 2008

 image by axinia

“War cannot be avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is removed and this, in the last analysis, is the vast extent of the planet on which we live.

Only through annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations.

What we now want is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth, and the elimination of egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife… Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment…”

Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla”, Hart Bros., 1982. Originally appeared in the Electrical experimenter magazine in 1919.

A slavic genius of Leonardo da Vinci caliber is not widely known because of his vision of free power May 24, 2008

How many people who know Einstein and Edison have never heard of Nicola Tesla?  – despite the fact that this Slavic (born Serbian) genius has left 700 (!) patents for inventions worldwide, most of which we use today, he is totaly unknown to the masses. Contemporary biographers of Tesla (1856-1943) have deemed him “The Father of Physics” and “the man who invented the twentieth century” and “the patron saint of modern electricity”. If it weren’t for Tesla’s discoveries and inventions, the typical industrial-era household would scarcely be what it is today.

What happened to this legendary person and his inventions? How come the world largely ignors him?

Tesla was a visionary genius whose sometimes radical ideas established the basis for everything that now powers our world with energy and information. Without his inventions the widespread electrification that touched the majority of people on the planet would not have been possible.

Tesla invented and created the polyphase alternating current energy transmission system of motors and generators that powers the world. He also invented apparatus for radio transmission based on the use of resonance and a kind of spread-technique. Among the more than 700 of Tesla’s other inventions/patents are the rotating magnetic field principle, polyphase alternating-current system, induction motor, wireless communication, fluorescent lights, use of high-frequency (h.f.) currents in medicine and remote control. Tesla was also a visionary thinker, who conceived many ideas, some controversial, which are related to several of today’s mainstream technologies ranging from wireless communication systems, radar, television broadcasting, robotics, computers, faxes, and even the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio.

He also talked about experiments that suggested particles with fractional charges of an electron. In 1977 they were “discovered” as quarks! Tesla discovered X-ray radiation 3 years before Wilhelm Roentgen was credited for the same discovery.

Tesla made the earth into an electric tuning fork by getting a steam-driven oscillator to vibrate at the same frequency as the ground. The result was an earthquake in the surrounding city. He had accurately determined the resonant frequencies of the Earth almost 60 years before science could confirm his results.

I am a blog-mama! May 22, 2008

  image by vova

Once upon a time one lady-researcher introduced blogging to me (thanks God, it was WordPress that I learned). Since then I have been badly into blogging – increasingly.

I started with the idea of emancipating women from emancipation (Shaktipower) and then realised that I can/want actually keep more than one blog – because there is much more I want to share.

Intrestingly, my feeling of a blog in the beginning was like of a home where I invite people to be my guests and to share with me the delight of life… I even wrote a post on that – The sense of Blogging. Some more time passed and I noticed that my attitude to blogging changed – now I feel blogs are like my babies 🙂 I feed them with new content, check their health (stats and comments), take care of their looks and of their friends… A very parential attitude, isn`t it?

It has been 1,5 years since I startet blogging and the number of my babies increased considerably. Today there are 6 of them:

Those who know are still May 21, 2008

 image by axinia

 

Often after a good meditaion I loose the desire for communication, for talking…

Those who know this feeling will understand, why 🙂

LOVE, axinia

New Russian President Medvedev is a yoga man May 20, 2008

Good news for Russia: the new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev seem to be more spiritual than any other leader of Russia since long. Apart from his understanding for Christianity, Medvedev is known for practicing yoga.

Medvedev, 42, whose name can be translated into Sanskrit as “Madhuvedi”, will be Russia’s so far only Indian Yoga practicing head of state.  Indian media has been discussing the fact that Yoga is set to get a huge push in Russia, where the Indian art was banned and lessons were passed on secretly during the Soviet era.

The drop May 19, 2008

 image by axinia

When the drop chooses to remain a drop,

it does nothing, can do nothing,

but gets crushed under its own weight.

When it forgets its very existence

by moving along with the tide,

merging itself with the whole,

it yet does nothing, but yet can do everything!

 

poem by Armaity H. Bhabha

What makes us tick? Desire, thought or action? – understanding cultural differences May 18, 2008

 image by axinia

What makes us tick? What gets us going? Desire matters but desires are the source of suffering, said Prince Siddharta, for most people do not understand their own desires… What we desire makes a difference in life, because more often than we think, we will get there.

In the beginning was Desire, not Action. Buddha, the sage from the East, got it right. Goethe`s Faust, the typical herald of the modern Western seeker, made a German suggestion that in the beginning was Action: “Am Anfang war der Tat”.