Water -- A Movie About a Child Widow

I watched a great movie the other night. It was called Water.

The movie took place in India just as Gandhi was starting to gain popularity. It follows an eight year-old child bride whose husband has just died making her a widow.

At the time, widows were rather looked down upon. They were another mouth to feed so many families pushed widows out of their homes. New brides and married women tried to stay clear of widows as they didn't want their bad luck to rub off on them.

This young widowed child bride, then, is forced to move into a house full of widows. Because she is so young, she lacks the social understanding to comprehend what is happening to her.

It was a heart-wrenching tale, but very enlightening. I watched about half of it with the director commentary turned on, so I felt like I learned a lot.

I recommend it for anyone interested in great acting, foreign films, women's rights or India.

Sisters from Kerala, India

I interviewed a nun. Er, a Sister, actually. Until recently, I didn't know the difference between a Sister and a nun. Now I know that a nun is cloistered and doesn't go out in public while a Sister is out and about in the community.

The woman I met is a teacher at a local Catholic school. She is originally from Kerala, India, but has been living in a Minneapolis suburb for the past 37 years.

She had such an aura about her and when I found out that one of her greatest joys is teaching geography, well, I just wanted to plop myself down in her classroom for a bit and soak up whatever knowledge about the world she had to share.

If you'd like to read my story about the Sisters involved in my local area, you can read the article here:

Sisters in Service at St Therese School

Of Ganesh and Sagacity

One of my good friends recently returned from a trip through India and Nepal. We got together for lunch so she could fill me in with all the details. And of course, she brought me some souvenirs.

Among the stack of goodies she had accumulated for me was a postcard of the elephant-headed god, Ganesh.

I knew that Ganesh was "the remover of obstacles," which made him a common symbol of good luck.

Beyond that, however, according to the back of my Ganesh postcard: "His elephant head is believed to be an emblem of wisdom and his mouth am emblem of sagacity."

Sagacity?

This was a word I had never seen or heard before, but I was suddenly very curious as to its meaning. I suspected it was a spin on wisdom, but couldn't be sure.

Upon looking it up in Merriam-Webster online, I found this frustrating definition:

"the quality of being sagacious"

With flashbacks of seventh grade English class in my mind, I searched next for "sagacious" and found my suspicion confirmed with this definition: "of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment: discerning"

I also discovered sagaciously and sagaciousness. What a wonderful grouping of words I must now figure out how to use!

And another thing I must now figure out is what to do with my Ganesh postcard because besides my search for the meaning of sagacity, I also did a Google search of Ganesh.

As it says on Wikipedia (and who knows if this is correct):

"He is honoured at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions."

Hmmmm. If Ganesh is the remover of obstacles and the Patron of Letters, does that mean he can demolish writer's bloc?

And if so, perhaps I should be tacking his photo next to my keyboard.

Novel about the Taj Mahal

Every once in a while I come across an author who captivates my imagination, and I go on a splurge reading everything they've ever written.

This year, my author splurge was John Shors.

In June, I read his novel, Beside a Burning Sea, and interviewed him on my haiku web site.

In August I read his newly released novel, Dragon House, which takes place in Saigon.

Now, I've just finished reading his first novel, Beneath a Marble Sky. It was sooooooo good!

It is a historical novel, a love story, and an adventure tale all rolled up in one. It is the story of the building of the Taj Mahal.

I don't think I can stress how much I loved this book! I've never been to India, and before picking up this book, only knew the barest of bones about the Taj Mahal. And yes, I know that the book is a work of fiction, and that some of the details might not be correct, but I DON'T CARE. It was that good!

It has only fueled my desire to visit the Taj Mahal. Someday....

In the meantime, I'll have to get an India fix by reading my fellow GoNomad blogger, Mridula Dwivedi. She lives in India and posts about her travels in her home land (and sometimes beyond).

Haunting Tunes of Nirmala Rajasekar

A few months back, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nirmala Rajasekar. She's an internationally touring musician, who happens to live in the Twin Cities area.

She plays the veena, which is a classical Indian instrument. In our interview, she told me the veena is as old as India.

My article about her was recently published. You can check it out here:

Venerable Veena

If you've never seen or heard a veena before, take a gander at this YouTube video of Nirmala playing her instrument.

Ah.....Romance

Love is in the air . . .

Today is my 5-year wedding anniversary. Hubby and I will be celebrating with a night on the town. Meanwhile, since love is the theme of the day, I wanted to share this picture.

It was taken by Mridula Dwivedi, one of my fellow GoNomad bloggers, who lives in India.

Last weekend, she took a trip to the Taj Mahal and captured this image. It is posted on her blog, Travel Tales From India. If you head there you can see a larger version of it.

Mridula complains on her blog that there were so many tourists in and around the Taj that she had a hard time getting any pictures of the famous structure without people in them.

This shot, though, is a winner. I find it touching and lovely and sweet, and incredibly appropriate that this couple in love is gazing out at the Taj Mahal.

Photo - (c) Mridula Dwivedi