2007/04
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,
not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen.
Not any religion, or cultural system.
I am not from the East or the West,
nor out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world
or the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve
or any origin story.
My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.
Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the beloved
have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and know,
First, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human.
Jalaluddin Rumi
Umberto D, produced in Italy in 1952, is often cited as the last film produced in the post-war Italian neo-realist style. Shot on a very small scale, with a tiny rostrum of mostly unnamed characters (man in hospital, landlady, sister, voice of light), it’s the sad but ever-hopeful story of a destitute retiree whose only claim in this world is his dog, Flick.
Director Vittoria de Sica (who directed The Bicycle Thief) has crafted something akin to a “found film” in that the actors are almost exclusively amateurs, the sets whatever was available on the streets of Roma, with large portions of the story dedicated to simply observing the daily routines of the characters who inhabit this film.
This powerful narrative has universal application, regardless of period or cultural setting. The loneliness of the aged and their marginalisation in society is still a problem in affluent industrial countries, regardless of social welfare and political paternalism. Perhaps this is a mechanism of Nature, although the film certainly seems to place the blame for Umberto’s plight on the Italian government.
Umberto is a man who is determined to lead the last few years of his life with dignity, but who is assailed by a society that, if not hostile, is at best, uncaring. While Umberto scrambles to find a way to avoid being evicted from his one-room suite, we observe how difficult it is for a man in such a trying situation to retain dignity and hope.
For long stretches of the film we simply observe people walking down streets, playing in parks, working in the kitchen, and witness how they sometimes can be ground down by life. Umberto is no exception, as everything in his life has been, as we might say in modern parlance, “downsized”. He appears to have neither friends nor family, neither work nor money, and soon he will no longer have a home. Consequently, it makes perverse sense that even his name is downsized; he is no longer Umberto Domenico Ferrari, but simply Umberto D.
There are a number of notable scenes, including the scene at the Animal Pound when Umberto recovers Flick and saves the hapless mongrel from certain death, and the stunning attempted suicide at the climax. In a final attempt at solving his dilemma, Umberto tries to give Flick away to a little girl who is playing in the park but her young, vital parents intervene, refusing the offer. Umberto tries to walk away, crosses a bridge; but Flick follows, finds him by the tracks, jumps into his arms. The train whistle howls, the express blows past as man and dog are bisected in shadow and light, as if framed in transition between this world and the next. It’s a brilliantly conceived and executed piece of film, one of the greatest sequences ever, anywhere.
The dog escapes and Umberto totters back over the footbridge into the park where he finds Flick hiding behind a tree, suspicious of his master’s intentions. But Umberto lures the dog out with a familiar routine and the film ends with the man and his dog gambolling into the distance as if happily reconciled to each other and their very uncertain fate.
Umberto D courageously and magnificently champions the life of an apparently insignificant man in a difficult time.
Source: www.culturecourt.com
Here are some historical facts about India.
India was the richest country on earth till the British invasion in the 17th century.
India has never invaded any country in her last 10,000 year history.
India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
The world’s first university was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,000 students from all over the world studied over 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda, built in the 4th century BC, was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
Sanskrit is the mother of all European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software (report in Forbes magazine, July 1987).
Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to man. Charaka, the father of medicine, consolidated Ayurveda 2,500 years ago.
The art of navigation was born in the River Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word, “navigation,” is derived from the Sanskrit word, “Navgatih”. The word, “navy,” is also derived from the Sanskrit word, “Nou.”
In the 5th century, Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. By Baskaracharya’s calculations, the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun is 365.258756484 days.
The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana. He also explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were developed by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 10 to the power of 6 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 10 to the power of 53 with specific names for these numbers as early as 5000 BC during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera, 10 to the power of 12.
According to the Gemological Institute of America, until 1896 India was the only source of diamonds in the world.
USA-based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion in the world scientific community, that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra, Gujarat in Western India. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150BC, a beautiful lake called “Sudarshana” was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya’s time.
Chess (Shataranj or Ashtapada) was invented in India.
Sushruta, an Indian, is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgical procedures. These included Caesareans, cataract surgery, development of artificial limbs, mending fractures, removing urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical implements were used. A deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, aetiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
When many cultural groups were nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established the Harappan culture in the Sidhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).
The place value system, the decimal system, was developed in India in 100 BC.
Deepak Kumar
The poet, Gyaneshwara, wrote a series of poems in praise of the Divine. In his book, Gyaneshwari, the poet has given precise instructions for the awakening of the Kundalini and the achievement of Self-realisation.
In the Epilogue to the Gyanashwari, known as the Pasadyan, Gyaneshwara expresses a desire for mass realisation for the whole world. He predicts the arrival on Earth of people who will give their blessings to the whole world. These are his words:
May the wicked give up their wickedness
And develop a liking for good deeds.
May all beings feel friendly with one another.
May the darkness of evil vanish.
May the whole universe see the light, the sun of One Universal Religion.
May the desire of all human beings be fulfilled.
May the world be visited ceaselessly by the company of the faithful saints
Who would shower blessings on the earth.
Such men are the moving forests of Kalpaturu trees.
They are mines of wish-granting jewels.
They are vocal oceans of nectar.
They are moons without spots, suns without heat.
Let such saints be friends to all.
How similar are these wishes to those expressed by more recent writers, as in songs popular in the early 1970s. In his song, Don’t you feel a change a coming? Cat Stevens expressed it in this way in 1971:
Don’t you feel a day is coming, and it won’t be too soon
When the people of the world can all live in one room.
When we shake off the ancient, shake off the ancient chains of our tomb
We will all be born again of the eternal womb.
In the same year, John Lennon wrote the following lines in his famous song, Imagine:
Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one.
It is not really a coincidence that Cat Stevens and John Lennon were writing songs like this at this time. It was in 1970 that Shri Mataji developed a unique method of giving en masse self-realisation. Sahaja Yoga, which was founded by Shri Mataji, provides the path to awakening the Kundalini, attaining Self-realisation and living in peace with people from all over the world.