tusitala's New Writeups

I'm a pig, not a god! (idea)

2004-01-30T16:36:44Z

Once upon a time, mighty Indra, lord of the heavens, king of the dawn, paused by the shores of the sea of milk and listened to the song it sang. "Just for a moment", he thought to himself. "That can't do any harm." But before he knew it, the song drew him headlong into the sea and he vanished, to be reborn in the world as a mortal. The startled gods waited for a while for him to return, but weeks passed and then months. Finally, after a hurried conference, they decided to begin searching for him.

They searched for many months. Agni visited the fires burning fiercely in the temples and hearths of the world, and glared into the faces of the great sages as they conducted their sacrifices.

But Indra was not there.

Vayu roamed with his winds in the desolate reaches of the high mountains and…

Hillel (person)

2003-10-20T20:17:17Z

Hillel haZaken
Hillel the Elder

It is said that one day, Hillel and the other sages were assembled at Jericho. Suddenly, a voice spoke from heaven: "Among those present here is one upon whom the Holy Spirit would have rested, if this time were worthy of it." All eyes were fixed on Hillel.

Orthodox Jewish tradition does not say things like this lightly. So who exactly was this man who was praised in such high terms?

"In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man."

We can build up some sort of a picture of the life of Hillel the Elder from the many stories and sayings that are scattered through the Talmudic literature and later traditions. He was born around 70 B.C.E. in Babylonia, to a reasonably wealthy Jewish family (his brother Shebna was a successful merchant). In his thirties, he travelled to Israel during the reign of Herod the Great to study the Law under the…

Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate (thing)

2003-09-08T12:38:34Z

Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate;
Va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli,
Ove olezzano tepide e molli
Lâaure dolci del suolo natal!
Del Giordano le rive saluta,
Di Sïone le torri atterrateâ¦
Oh mia patria sì bella e perduta!
Oh membranza sì cara e fatal!

Go, my thought, on wings of gold, go, alight on the cliffs, and on the hills,
Where, warm and gentle, the sweet breezes of our native land blow.
Greet the banks of the Jordan, the fallen towers of Zionâ¦
Oh, my country, so lovely and lost! Oh, remembrance, so dear and despairing!

Arpa dâôr dei fatidici vati
Perchè muta dal salice pendi?
Le memorie nel petto raccendi,
Ci favella del tempo che fu!
O simile di Solima ai fati
Traggi un suono di crudo lamento,
O tâispiri il Signore un…

The Great Indian National Anthem Controversy (idea)

2003-08-19T20:32:51Z

We Indians like taking everything to extremes.

Take our national anthem, for instance. Or rather, national anthems. Emphasis on the plural. Most countries are content with one. They may give their king (or queen) his (or her) own song, but that's not really the same thing. But we, of course, have to be different. We have two, and singing the wrong one can get you arrested in the right (or rather, wrong) parts of the country.

It all started quite innocently. The Indian National Congress was looking for a song to set the tone at their twelfth annual meeting (which was important for a whole lot of other reasons as well, but never mind those). Into the breach stepped Rabindranath Tagore, with a poem from a novel by Bankim Chandra. That poem was called vande mataram, or "Hail, my motherland". The poem was mostly written in Bengali and Bankim Chandra himself was probably thinking about Bengal when he wrote it, but the first verse happened to be in Sanskrit…

National Anthem of Pakistan (thing)

2003-08-15T21:37:32Z

Qaum-i-tarana
The song of the nation

Pâk sarzamîn shâd bâd
Kishwar-e-hasîn shâd bâd
Tû nishân-e-azm-e-âli shân arz-e-Pakistân
Markaz-e-yaqîn shâd bâd

Hail, the pure, holy land
Hail, the realm of beauty
The symbol of our high resolve is the glory of the land of Pakistan
Hail, fortress of faith

Pâk sarzamîn ka nizâm
Qûwat-e-akhûwat-e-awâm
Qaum mulk saltânat pâinda tabinda bâd
Shâd bâd manzil-e-murâd

The law of the pure, holy land
is the might of the brotherhood of all
May the people, the land, and the country shine in undimmed glory
Hail, the goal of our dreams

Parcham-e-sitâra-o…

Red Earth and Pouring Rain (idea)

2003-07-28T16:06:46Z

yâyum ñâyum yârâ kiyarô
enthaiyum nunthaiyum emmurai kêLîr
yânûm nîyum evvali yarithum
cempulappeyanîr pôl
anputai neñcam thânkalan thanavê

Your mother had no bonds with mine
your father and mine were not kin
yet, though we knew nothing of each other,
like red earth and pouring rain
our hearts have mingled, in love.

The poem is from the Kuruntokai, a collection of Tamil poetry from the classical period (c. 2nd century B.C. - 3rd century A.D.). Although Vikram Chandra has not credited it as such, I suspect it was the source of the title of his book "Red Earth and Pouring Rain" (which, I assume from the original softlinks, was the reason this nodeshell existed, but I digress).

C…