Category: Uncategorized

I is for India

Many people falsely believe that Mahatma Gandhi was the first prime minister of India.

I’ve had a long fascination with India. You can read what the CIA World Factbook says about the country.

Maybe I’m drawn in because of the idea of an independence movement that was won, NOT primarily by military means, but rather through a civil disobedience movement practiced by Mohandas K. Gandhi, which he first utilized in South Africa and then in India. I read a Gandhi autobiography in college – I may reread it this year – and I recognize his liberation struggle techniques that were eventually used by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others.

Gandhi was disheartened, though, by the partition of India and Pakistan into two separate countries, upon independence in 1947, especially since the severing was based largely on religious beliefs. I always found it really strange that Pakistan was established in two geographic parts, East and West, divided by 1,600 km (994 mi) of India. In 1971, East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

It’s an odd thing: many people falsely believe that Mahatma Gandhi was the first prime minister of India; even JEOPARDY!! contestants have made this mistake. The Mahatma was NEVER a political leader, in that sense. It was Jawaharlal Nehru who led the nation from 1947 until his death in 1964. Here’s a list of all the prime ministers of India. The country is often cited as the largest democracy in the world.

I am intrigued by the so-called Indian renaming controversy. I still have to think, when I hear Mumbai, that it is the former Bombay. I’ll figure it out eventually; I’ve been saying Beijing instead of Peking, China for a good while now.

It’d be impossible to do justice to India here. My interests include everything from the long-standing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir to the many fascinating structures, to sitar music, undoubtedly a function of George Harrison helping introduce Ravi Shankar to America.

I do wish a friend of mine who visited several places around India at Christmastime 2005 would put out a blog. She sent out e-mails to her friends about her findings at the time, and they are quite entertaining. Only a brief snippet I’ll share here: “Delhi is flat, mostly low scale and teaming with traffic of every vehicle imaginable including those with 4 legs. The road rules make Boston driving look polite.”

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

The teller of secrets

I muse how my life would have been if, instead of being the eldest child, I had had an older brother.

 

Today would have been my parents’ 62nd anniversary. But my dad died a few months after their 50th, in 2000. I always remember the date, though, because my mom always referred to me as an early anniversary present. I was born five days shy of their third wedding anniversary. Coincidentally, my eldest niece was born five days short of HER parents’ anniversary. Also, since my parents were married in 1950, it was always easy to calculate how long they had been hitched.

The odd thing about my parents. My father revealed almost nothing about his past. My mother, though, starting when I was nine or ten, would drop tidbits about her past, my parents’ joint history, and, more peculiarly, events from my father’s past at which she was not present, to my sisters and to me. So she told us stuff about him that he never told us about himself. Some were so spotty that it engendered more questions than answers. A few things fell into the category of “We REALLY did not need to know that.” Other bits were useful; WHY my father didn’t particularly like Christmas made a certain amount of sense.

One item she mentioned was that she had experienced a miscarriage in April 1951, in the second trimester of the pregnancy; it was a male. She was rather matter-of-fact about it in the telling, but she noted that my father was rather devastated by the situation. So when my mother got pregnant again, in 1952, she reported that he was a bit at arm’s length emotionally about it. It wasn’t until the baby arrived safely that he could even think about coming up with names.

This explains the frantic calculation of names he did on scraps of paper at his cousin Ruth’s house before he came up with Roger Owen Green, with the initials ROG. From time to time, I muse how my life would have been if, instead of being the eldest child, I had had an older brother.

Requiem of the week- Duruflé

My current church choir performed the Duruflé Requiem in 2006, but it didn’t entrance me as other requiems have.

From the Wikipedia: “The Requiem, op. 9, by Maurice Duruflé was commissioned in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand and is written in memory of the composer’s father… It exists in three orchestrations: one for organ alone, one for organ with string orchestra and optional trumpets, harp and timpani, and one for organ and full orchestra. At the time of commission, Duruflé was working on an organ suite using themes from Gregorian chants. He incorporated his sketches for that work into the Requiem, which uses numerous themes from the Gregorian ‘Mass for the Dead.’ Nearly all the thematic material in the work comes from chant.

I found the complete work performed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Conducted by Robert Shaw. Music links to all parts, the first two together, with the Kyrie starting at about 3:59.

Introit (Requiem Aeternam)
Kyrie eleison “The plainchant influence is clearly evident, particularly in the bass lead to this section.”
Offertory (Domine Jesu Christe)
Sanctus – Benedictus
Pie Jesu
Agnus Dei
Communion (Lux aeterna)
Libera me
In Paradisum

My current church choir performed this requiem at some point, but it didn’t entrance me as other requiems have. Still, I must note it, in part, because when our church choir director and the director of Albany Pro Musica put together their lists of possible pieces of music for the funeral of Albert Wood on March 2 (which would have been Albert’s 58th birthday), both directors came up with the Kyrie from this piece. My church choir and APM performed it together that morning, and i discovered a new fondness, at least for that section.

I am interviewed in the NYADP Journal, and other things

New York Public Library is making it easier for folks who had relatives in New York City in 1940 to use the 1940 Census information.

In one or more of my blogs at some point, I had written about murderabilia, the collection of items associated with murder. Somehow the folks at New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, of which I am a member, saw the pieces and decided to interview me, much to my surprise. Well, the Winter 2012 NYADP Journal [PDF] is out and I’m in there on page 10 (PDF page 12), where I talk about my anti-death penalty journey. Check out also the journal homepage.

As you may know, records from the 1940 Census are being released on April 2. But accessing them in a useful way may be difficult unless you know the street addresses of the folks you’re looking for; it’ll take private companies such as Ancestry.com to transcribe the records into their database. The New York Public Library is making it easier for folks who had relatives in New York City in 1940; this is quite exciting to me.

On the other hand, I’m totally weirded out. I’m my office’s representative to the New York State Data Center program. I discovered that the head of the program, who I’ve known for over a dozen years, had been arrested this week on child pornography charges. Once someone had sent me the news item, I forwarded it to others on the State Data Center listserv, who were universally stunned; at least one person thought I was perpetrating a bad joke. Of course, one is innocent until proven guilty in American jurisprudence, but the arrest is not only shocking, but a major blow to the program in the near term. I spent the better part of Friday afternoon talking about the ramifications of this.

That’s really all I’ve got today. since I’ve written blog posts for the next four days, more content is guaranteed, or double your money back.

The Lenten devotional post, in five minutes or less

The notion that I could churn something out “in 5 minutes” really ticked me off.

Among others, I was requested to make a submission to the FOCUS churches Lenten devotional calendar/booklet. I received the email because “you have either submitted an entry in the past [I had not] or have demonstrated interest in writing for public consumption [maybe THAT’S it]… There are texts assigned for each day and… parameters…for this project.”

After failing to respond, five days later, On January 31, I was asked if I had received the invitation. Eventually, I acceded to do one entry, about 2 paragraphs, based on 1 Corinthians 2:10-16. “It has Paul talking about spiritual vs those who are unspiritual. Those who are spiritual understand that which is spiritual, but those who are unspiritual see the gifts of God’s spirit as foolishness. Why? Because spirit is required to understand these gifts, and they don’t have them. And we [followers of Christ] have the mind of Christ. Below are instructions… about doing this. Can you have it to me by Feb 10? I’m guessing you could create it right now in 5 minutes. Or you can live with it a few days as [the editor] suggests.”

And somehow, the notion that I could churn something out “in 5 minutes” really ticked me off, so much, in fact, that I mentioned it to my wife when I got home. She said that it was a compliment to my skilled writing or some such. (Yes, I know I’m being petty here; sometimes I’m petty.)

Here’s something that has, for a long time, been true of me. I hate long, or even moderately long deadlines. Invariably, one of two things will happen: I will do the thing right away because I don’t want to forget or become too busy at the point of the deadline. If I have an intro to write for ABC Wednesday, it’s usually done at least the week before. When I’m going to contribute to Flashmob Fridays, all but one of the contributions I’ve sent by Monday.

Or, I’ll forget altogether, or in the alternative, just run out of time. February 10 comes, and in my pique, the booklet had TOTALLY left my consciousness, until I get a reminder.

So, I take more than five minutes – indeed my entire lunch hour (or more) – to write 187 words; the maximum was 250. I needed to find the right tactic. And now that I’ve finished ranting about it, here is what I submitted:

“I’ve been a librarian for nearly two decades. One of the things I have noticed over the last several years is that many people seem to think that virtually all the information they will ever need can be found by going on the Internet and Googling for it. In fact, Google and other search engines do not always retrieve what’s known as ‘gray literature’, which is defined as ‘research that is either unpublished or has been published in non-commercial form.’ Often, it is that particular dissertation, government report or policy statement that provides the best answer to a query.

“Likewise, there is human knowledge. Some folks believe that’s all there is, and are skeptical of any other source of data. But others have been blessed by the Spirit to access the ‘gray literature’ of Christ’s spirituality. Best of all, one doesn’t need a computer or other device to access this database, and one can download it at any time, day or night. And the wisdom to answer life’s pressing questions can be found in unexpected clarity.”

I also had to add a sentence prayer.

“May we be transformed by the greater wisdom offered to us graciously by the Spirit of God.”

I have no idea if it’s any good. It’s not something I’ve done before. But it DID make it into the booklet. If I do it again, I’ll definitely budget at least TEN minutes for the project.

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