Edible Oil Prices

 The vegetable oil prices have been going up both locally and internationally. Both our governments at the center and states smartly brought the prices down by cutting down the taxes. A timely step that is bringing down  the retail prices since mid October. 

Picture source: Company website

A 2.5% Basic Duty was charged on crude palm oil, crude soybean oil and crude sunflower oil.  In addition to this a 20% Agricultural Infrastructure cess was also charged on the imported crude oil.  When the price were down at the international market the taxes did not stretch the retail but when the prices went up it choked the local retail. 

The government in order to control the rising retail price swiftly pulled back the basic duty and brought down the Agricultural Infrastructure cess for crude Palm oil from 20% to 7.5% and for Soybean and sunflower oil it was even further reduced to 5%.

Our banana splits and chips are going to remain at the same price level atleast. yes indeed that is a good news for all the Banana fry lovers. 

Picture Source: Company Website

Some of the Indian Companies that deal in edible oil are;

1. Adani Wilmar

2. Ruchi Soya

3. Gemini Edibles & Fats India

4. Modi Naturals

5. Gokul Refoils and Solvent

6. Vijay Solvex

7. Gokul Agro Resources

8. NKP Proteins

www.covid19india.org

 After serving its purpose www.covid19india.org shut down its operation. 

Efforts of 300 volunteers who compiled covid related information on number of deaths, new cases, test conducted, active cases, recovery etc. from various government sources and public platforms was a one stop information point during the unprecedented medical emergency the country has gone through in the last 19 months. 

Thank you, you guys did a wonderful job for the country and agree with you on your final statement, "All powered by the goodwill of a collective that came together and stuck together for the greater good."

It is informed that the work done by this non-governmental and non-funded volunteers would be continued by 3 premier academic institutions of the country (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Indian Institute off Science, Indian Statistical Institute) working in collaboration with a Bengluru based Semantic Web India. 

Their new web link is:

www.incovid19.org

Nobel Prize for Literature 2021

 Abdul Razak Gurnah (72 years) has been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for the year 2021. He has written ten novels and a number of short stories.

The Swedish Academy who announces the Nobel Prize has said, “ Abdul Razak Gurnah has been honoured for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents.”

Anders Olson, the head of the Academy’s Global Committee felt Gurnah has introduced culturally diversified East Africa in his works. 

Abdul Razak Gurnah was born in Tanzania, he left his hometown in the island of Zanzibar in 1960 as a refugee when the regime under President Abeid Karume started persecuting citizens of Arab Origin. After the peaceful liberation from the British Colonial rule the country went through a revolution and he sought refuge in Britain. He was allowed to visit Zanzibar in 1984 to see his father briefly before his death.

Gurnah’s wrote on post colonialism and the trauma of refugee experience in many of his work which include popular novels like;

Admiring silence – 1996

By the Sea – 2001

His novel “Paradise” which was short listed for Booker Prize for fiction was set in Colonial East Africa. He is the fifth African to win the Nobel Prize, the last one was Zimbabwean Doris Lessing in 2007 and the second writer of color from Sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka who won in 1986.

Swahili is Gurnah’s mother tongue but he wrote all his work in English since his first work which he wrote at the age of twenty one. According to the Swedish Academy he was inspired by Persian and Arab poetry as well as Koran but English Language tradition from William Shakespeare to VS Naipaul had its influence on his work too.

Gurnah was so surprised by the honour that he said, “it was such a complete surprise that I really had to wait until I heard it announced before I could believe it.”

Congratulation Abdul Razak Gurnah, thank you for enriching our lives with your thoughts and words.

 21 June 2021

International Yoga Day

May Yoga help us keep our mind eternally clean and our body healthy to enjoy the ultimate gift one can ever receive in this world that of our own being and enjoy it to the core . 

 

"Solaris" The Film

 

Solaris:  A review

Introduction

“Solaris” a 1972 science fiction film directed by the Russian Director Andrei Tarkovsky is based on a Russian novel by the same name written in 1961 by Stanislaw Lem. Both Tarkovsky and Fridrikh Gorenshstein co-wrote the script for the screen adaption which is considered to be the greatest science fiction movie ever made by some critics in spite of the later decades films made with awesome new age technology. Director Tarkovsky had always felt the modern/western science fiction movies are focused on technological invention; in Solaris his attempt was to give an emotional depth to the genre. Eduard Artemyev, the music director had used a mixture of music, electronic for the space and classical for earth theme which adds very well to the story. John Sebastian Bach’s chorale prelude is the central theme while the lead female character (Hari) has her own sub theme based on Bach’s which is played at the death scene of the character and also at the end of the story. Produced by MosFilm the film runs for 2 hours and 46 minutes (166 minutes) and is edited by Lyudmila Feiginova.

The Story

The bare minimum crew on the space station orbiting a ‘fictional’ oceanic planet Solaris is facing a serious emotional crisis which has almost stopped their work. Psychologist Kris Kevin is sent to the station to study the crisis and decide whether the station should be continued. Unfortunately he too had to encounter the same emotional crisis the other three crew members are finding themselves in.

Before Kris was flown out to join the mission he chose to spend his last day with his elderly father. He was joined there by a retired space pilot Berton who had been on Solaris Mission but was sent back when he reported seeing a four meter tall child on the surface of the water. He was thought to be hallucinating. Now the crew at the station is reporting similar strange sightings.

On arrival onboard the station, Kris was surprised to receive a cold welcome besides he was not even talked to properly. Both Dr. Snaut and Dr. Sartorius seemed evasive and preferred to stay in their own rooms. He was told, Dr. Gibarian whom Kris knew personally has committed suicide. He also noticed the presence of other persons in the crew rooms.

Kris gets an idea of what is going on in the unkept station when he finds a warning message left for him by Dr. Gibarian before he died. After a disturbed sleep Kris wakes up to find his dead wife Hari in his room. Loving and caring as she always was she tells him she has no idea how she got there. Terrified but holding on to his presence of mind  Kris cleverly gets her into a rocket and launches her into space.

Later Dr. Snaut who upon realizing what has happened to Kris tells him the visitors started appearing after the scientists started conducting radiation experiment using X-Rays on the surface of the planet.

Hari re-appears again in the same evening and Kris accepts her calmly and they fall asleep in an embrace. In the morning Hari panic when she didn’t see Kris around and injures herself in an attempt to come out of the closed door. Though Kris tried to keep her as a secret from both the scientists they know already and explain to him the ocean water of Solaris has created Hari out of his memory composing her from “Neutrino Systems” which makes her think and behave like humans though she is not one. They are capable of healing and resurrecting themselves. It is possible to destroy them through an explosion of light and energy, a model Dr. Sartorius had developed.

Dr. Snaut proposes to beam Kelvin’s “brain-wave” pattern at Solaris hoping the planet will understand them and stop the disturbing apparitions. Meanwhile, Hari gradually becomes independent. Since the visitors or guests do not need sleep Hari wander around at night and meets both the scientists. Dr. Sartorius tells Hari that original Hari had committed suicide ten years ago. During the birthday celebration of Dr. Snaut during a drunken philosophical argument among the three and trying to break the emotional attachment Kris is having with unreal Hari Dr. Sartorius tells her that she is not ‘REAL’. Distressed with the realization she drinks liquid oxygen and kills herself which eventually gives Kris a chance to witness resurrection of a being made of Neutrino Systems as Hari comes back to life.

The Ocean surface of Solaris turns violent and takes the shape of a funnel. As a result Kris becomes very feverish and falls into a deep sleep. He dreams about his mother which somehow makes Hari uncomfortable and makes her recollect that she never liked her. On waking up Kris finds out from the other scientists that Hari has been destroyed on her request. Dr. Snaut reads her farewell note to Kris. The note says she is leaving him to save him.

Ever since Kris’s brain wave has been beamed on Solaris the ocean becomes calmer and an island starts forming on its surface. The film ends when Kris meets with his elderly father as a return to childhood but as the camera zoom out we are left intrigued as we see the Dacha house is on an island surrounded by the sea.

Conclusion

The film received a grand reception from the public and ran for 15 years without interruption in the USSR. Even though many movies had been made lately in the science fiction genre ‘Solaris’ is considered as one of the greatest ever made in that category. The author Stanislaw Lem was furious and never accepted the alterations made in the screen adaption, the film hold by itself as a parallel creative screen art. Andrei Tarkovsky had used actors from different ethnicity and regions to add to the presentation of the story.

The characters of the story are brought to life on screen by;

Donatas Banionis (Lithuanian) as Kris Kelvin

Natalya Bondarchuk (Russian) as Hari

Juri Jarvet (Estonian) as Dr. Snaut

Vladislav Dvorzhetsky as Space Pilot Henri Berton

Nikolai Grinko (Ukranian) as Kevin’s father

Anatoly Solonitsyn (Russian) as Dr. Sartorius

Olga Barnet as Kevin’s Mother

It was Natalya Bondarchuk who had introduced Tarkovsky to the novel while they were still students at the State Institute of Cinematography. While Tarkovsky was considering filming the novel Natalya did not come as a first choice, later as it turned out Tarkovsky was so impressed by her performance he had written in his diary, “Natalya B has outshone everybody.

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Available on YouTube in two parts:

Part 1  (Click Here)

Part 2  (Click Here)

Jean-Luc Godard's Film "Masculine-Feminine"

 For international film enthusiasts who have read about and dreamed of Paris  inspired by the novels and films on the city and France, watching Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 film "Masculine-Feminine" during the pandemic lock down is like flipping fondly through an audio-visual scrap book of the 60's.

An international co-production between France and sweden, the romantic drama film is hailed as one of the best among the New Wave cinema trend of the time. It is divided into 15 segments and each segment is seperated with a gunfire sound effect.

Many of the young people of the 60's Paris believed that communism was a viable alternative to capitalism and film's hero the young Paul who had just finished his compulsory military service was also taken up by the idea as he keep searching for a job to support himself in the civilian life. 

As young Paul charms with his evolving intellectual mind and the purity of his poverty making girl friends who frequent the cafes and Bristos of the streets of Paris as a part of their daily life routine we get to know the life of the young people in their early twenties of Paris who are as one charachter in the film rightly tells  "We are the children of Marx and Coca-cola." The generation which was considered then as "this new breed between teenagers and people." 

Jean-Luc Godard's experimental style of film making leaves a lasting impression on our minds as the charachters live out their lives in its full sequences in natural sound and light which the camera patiently copies to its faintest of emotions. They tend to remain in our hearts long after the film is over.  

The film is available on YouTube

  

Orthodox Easter: the miracle of light

The Eastern Orthodox Christian Easter falls on a different date than the Western Christian world. The difference in date is the difference between the calendars each church follows. The Eastern Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar while the Western church follows the Gregorian calendar and the difference in dates could vary from 1 to 4 weeks.

This year the Orthodox Easter Sunday falls on the 2^nd of May and traditionally on the day before Easter, the Saturday, a miraculous fire appear at the tomb of Jesus, the Holy Sepulchre church at Jerusalem which is believed and revered by Christians as the location of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

The miracle of the fire has been going on for over 1600 years. It is not a destructive fire as it does not burn. The ray of the sun light that rocket in through a hole on the church dome is believed to light a fire deep inside the crypt on the slab where Jesus was laid. The Orthodox patriarch lights a candle from the fire and the same fire is shared with all the worshippers and sent ceremoniously to different churches across the world. The Holy Light is transported by aircraft to all countries where Orthodoxy is the predominant faith — namely Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

Other denominations of Christians and scientists have disputed the credibility of the fire pointing out the candle that is lit is coated with Naphtha or white phosphorus which get lighted automatically when the sun light warms it. Whatever be the reasons the ‘Miracle of the Fire’ is an established tradition of the Orthodox Church where Easter is the biggest festival of the year symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Last year due to Pandemic restrictions imposed all over the world the ceremony was conducted with almost no one at Holy Sepulchre. This year the effort of systematic vaccination of the population has improved the lock down situation and worshippers who are already tested and pre-quarantined visited the shrine in large numbers. The death of 45 worshippers in a Jewish Orthodox festival the day before the Miracle of the Fire in the old city of Jerusalem where the Holy Sepulchre church is had added a melancholic air the to the normally festive occasion.

Reference:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/crowds-gather-holy-fire-ceremony-jerusalems-holy-sepulchre-2021-05-01/

https://greekreporter.com/2021/05/01/holy-light-arrives-from-jerusalem-to-athens-to-mark-easter/

The Chinese Jews and the Kaifeng Torah

They are the Jewish community settled the farthest from Jerusalem. They maintained their community for over thousand years on the banks of the Yellow River. Eventually they integrated themselves into the Local Chinese Community. 

Jewish arrival to China

Kaifeng was known as Bianliang in the early centuries and was one of the seven ancient capitals of China situated deep in the middle of country on the banks of Yellow River. It is not certain when the Jewish Community arrived in Bianliang. The oral history recommends they were Persian Traders who arrived in the first century and their synagogue is believed to have existed up to 1850. A business letter of 718 written using Hebrew charachter but in Persian language is the evidence that supports their origin. 

A Jesuit missionary in his letters to Vatican from Kaifeng had mentioned about the Jews living there. It is said there are about 6 casual reference to the Jews of Kaifeng by travellers till 1605 but no specific study was made untill 1800 by which time the Jewish community of Kaifeng had disappeared. 

Just like the Jewish Community of Cochin, the Kaifeng community was also prosperous and did not face any persecution or harassment. Much loved by the locals they also proudly displayed many gifts they received from the Emperor in their synagogue. 

The end of the community

The Jewish customs obviously were different from the Chinese way of life and the Confucian way of thinking. Not eating pork, Observing Sabbath and Torah reading at Synagogue, circumcising their children etc.. They did not take second wives nor bound their feet like the Chinese. They also had their own Rabbis as preist, the last one is said to have died in 1810. 

By the middle of 1800 the Jewish community had integrated into the local community so much so that they had nobody among them who could read or write Hebrew halting the Torah reading and subsequently their Synagogue fell without proper repair. Today there is a new Synagogue in its place and there are people who says they are Jews even though they have the physical features same like the other Chinese folks around them.

Kaifeng community is considered as a long lost Jews and some Chinese scholars like Zhou Un of the school of Oriental and African Studies, London, say the Jewishness of the Kaifeng Community is a Western Cultural Invention. 

The importance of the Kaifeng Torah

The Jesuit missionaries when they came across the Kaifeng community was hoping they would get from them owing to their long isolation from the mainstream 'un-corrupted Torahs' which they believed could help in their Biblical interpretations. As we know by the middle of 1800s there were hardly anyone in the Kaifeng community who could read Hebrew and they started selling old copies of their Torah to the inquisitive colonial visitors. The contents of the Kaifeng Torah was similar to the conventional scriptures. They did not have any Chinese Translations to help the later generation to read and understand the content of the scriptures. 

The Making of the Kaifeng Torah Scroll 

It is believed to have been made between 1643 and 1663. At any rate it was acquired by the Kaifeng Jesuit Missionaries in 1851 and was presented to the British Museum in 1852. The scroll is made from the thick sheep skin tied together with silk thread (not animal sinew which is customary). It has 239 columns of text written in Hebrew Square Script similar  to the ones used by the Jews of Persia without any signs to show the vowel sounds. Unfortunately only 7 of the 15 Kaifeng Synagogue Torahs have survived. 

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Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

 A Review

A hard-working, working class Scottish Catholic Father brings up his daughter like a princess giving her his best in everything he could afford. The girl grows up well and gets married and has two kids, a son and a daughter. Her husband is almost like her father, hardworking and committed to the family, bringing home his wages unlike the other Glasgow men who spend most of their weekly wages on wee drinks.   

The young wife soon loses the charm in her settled life and is longing for some action and change. When her second baby is still in her nappies she (at twenty six) runs away from her husband with a taxi driver taking both her kids against the good advice of her parents.

Life looks exciting for a while but soon, though she has got the change she was longing for, she finds out it is nothing like she expected. The protestant man she gets married to and whose name she adopts for her children is unfortunately, in her own words, “..horing bastard”. This reality and the disappointment that come with it destroy her and lead her to alcoholism and later the addiction completely wrecks her family. As soon as the “..horing Casanova” realizes she has gone beyond repair after her suicide attempt he tempts her to leave her parents’ house where they have been living ever since she broke her first marriage and takes her to an abandoned mining quarters far away from Glasgow city and leaves her.

Shuggie Bain is the story of her children over a period of 16 years, two - born from her first husband and one - from the second, how they struggled while growing up, to protect themselves from a self-destructing mother and their love for their mother to protect her from her own harmful self. Douglas Stuart has very successfully portrayed the love, the drama, the anxiety, the poverty and grief from the perspective of the third child whose name is Shuggie Bain.

“…it doesn’t cost anything extra to look your best” is Shuggie Bain’s mother’s favourite quote and Douglas wrote a heart breaking novel drawing a lot from his own life experience which won him the Booker Prize for 2020. The book gives an international reader a realistic view of the working class life in Glasgow, Scotland of the 80’s. 

Biriyani Offering at a Temple

Muniyandi Kovil, Tamil Nadu

Temples have a very important place in the Hindu tradition of worship. Everyday, offering are made to the consecrated Deity of each temple in the form of light, flowers, food etc.. The offerings are later distributed among the devotees. Usually they are of the vegetarian kind.

Interestingly, Muniyandi Kovil (Kovil means small temple in Tamil language) in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India offers Mutton Biriyani¹ (a non-vegetarian food) as offerings to devotees.

There is a very sentimental story behind this offer of Mutton Biriyani Prasadam at Muniyandi Kovil.

The history behind the Mutton Biriyani Prasadam

In 1937 a man by the name Guru Swamy started a small hotel in the village of Vadakam Petty, 45 kilometers away from the famous temple city of Madurai. The hotel became a run away success even to the surprise of enterprising Guru Swamy who believed it to be the blessing of the Deity Muniyandy of the nearby Kovil. An inspired Guruswamy along with another fellow worshipper of Muniyandi, Sundaram Reddy, started two more hotels in the neighbouring towns of Kalligudy and Virudh Nagar naming them ‘Muniyandi Hotels’. Needless to say those two hotels also became very successful and Guruswamy to show his gratitude offered his most popular food in the hotel – Mutton Biryani – as an offering to Deity Muniyandi on the day of temple festival serving everyone who visited the temple with  Mutton Biriyani.

Over the years, many have started following the business model of Guruswamy and have started ‘Muniyanid Hotels’ all over south India. Most of these hotels have become so successful and popular that they keep a side a certain amount of tiths which they offer to the Muniyandi Kovil. There are around 1500 ‘Muniyandi Hotels’ in South India, their success stories have taken the name to states like Andhra, Karnataka, Puducherry etc. 

Growing Popularity

As the news of the Mutton Biriyani spread, the festival is attracting vistors from all over India, nearly 8000 devotees visited the Kovil last year during the festival day. 1800 Kilos of Biryani Rice and 200 goats worth of Biriyani was served during the festival days of last year.

The festival falls on the last Thursday of January and runs for the next three days. The festival is also a beautiful example of the inclusive tradition of the Hindu culture, assimilating and evolving giving everything a place than to discard and destroy.

Potato Wedges

Potato wedges, Baker's fry, Jojo, Tatar fry these irresistible wedges are known by many names around the world. The process of making them is simple, cut, boil, pepper salt, fridge, fry. Some folks soak them in milk, dip them in flour and then fry them.

Either way it will break your heart. ❤️

Christmas and New Year in Russia

 Let us have a quick read about how Christmas and New year are celebrated in a different way in Russia and why they are so:

1. Christmas was banned by the Soviet government for nearly 7 decades as a religious festival, gradually New year Celebration took its place. After the Perestroika and Glasnost of the 90's Christmas has come back though it is still celebrated on a low key. 

2. Russian Orthodox Church uses a Julian calendar while the rest of the world follows the Gregorian Calendar. The Julian Calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian and the Russian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7th. 

3. Children in Russia wait for Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) to bring them new year gifts than the Sanata Clauz we are familiar with. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Christmas and the use of Christmas tree are banned since 1929. The tree appears on New year eve and day celebrations.  

4.The New year Celebration is mostly a food party. A lot of food is cooked on the day like the famous Russian Salad, appetizers with red caviar and meat, enough to be served over the new year week. 

5.The new year celebration is a family  affair, on New Year's eve, everyone gets together by 10 pm for dinner, then they talk catching up with each others life, then watch an old soviet era movie. On the New year day, the president comes on TV and address the nation with a new year message at noon followed by the chiming of Kremlin bells for 12 times upon which everyone make a wish and raise a glass of champagne and make a toast.