The Himalayas: A Mystic’s Viewpoint Himalaya literally meaning the abode of snow. Apart from being a geographical entity, it has in various ways shaped the life and culture of South Asian people. Comprising of nine highest peaks in the world, this awe inspiring range has been an object of veneration for people and epitomizes the concept of sublime beauty. The Himalayas are bordered on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain, on the northwest by the…
Days and Nights in Calcutta is a memoir that Bharati Mukherjee and her Canadian husband Clark Blaise collaborated on, giving their day to day account of Calcutta during 1973. Bharati as she visits Calcutta after a gap of fourteen years, having spent a considerable length of time in Canada with her husband Clark Blaise, socialises with her childhood friends, especially women who attended the same school with her, with a hope to revive her relationship with the land of her birth and upbringing.…
4. Representations of Gandhi For nearly six decades, Gandhi has been a recurring figure in diverse mediums all over the world. Whether it’s a new biography or a modern take on Gandhi’s philosophies, the Gandhian tradition has been kept alive in not just literature, but in almost all art forms. However, it creates an interesting but a paradoxical situation; during his lifetime Gandhi was likened to other eminent figures like Lenin, Tolstoy and even Jesus Christ. Soon after his death a discourse…
In the beginning was pain. Or perhaps it was end that was suffused with pain, its distinctive indigo tint. Color of old bruises, color of broken pottery, of crumpled maps in evening light. But, no, not like them, ultimately. For although men have tried for thousands of years to find the right simile- and women too- ultimately pain is only like itself. (VD 3) So begins Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel The Vine of Desire. Divakaruni textures the experiences of Calcutta born and raised sisters,…
Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman language families. India has no national language. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government. English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language"; it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution…