c qoi o jus' ? ki sa sa ki sa yé ?

ASSEMBLED VEHICLES

You know about assembled computers. Now have a look at these
assembled vehicles, found in hundreds in UP/Haryana by our friend
Shrinidri Hande : HERE

LES INDIENNES, interprétations françaises

Indiennes are French interpretations of Indian hand-painted cottons.

Originally introduced into Europe by the East India trading companies in the seventeenth century, the foreign cottons grew to be in such demand they threatened local weaving industries and were banned. In France from 1686 to 1759 and in England from 1700 until about 1764, they could be neither imported nor worn.

Accordingly they became immensely popular, even though in France the punishment for breaking the laws included the death penalty. In the French free port of Marseilles, which was protected from the import laws, Indian cottons were both traded and copied, and then smuggled throughout the country.

Since they could not be worn publicly, they were worn in private, lending domesticity the pleasure of the illicit.

Even after they were legalised they remained in great demand. Indiennes became the specialty of the Christophe-Phillippe Oberkampf mill in Jouy and survived the French Revolution to endear themselves to Napoleon and Josephine - and to the public ever since.

Extract from:
Textile Designs: 200 Years of Patterns for Printed Fabrics Arranged by Motif, Colour, Period and Design by Susan Meller, Joost Elffers, and Ted Croner. Published by Thames & Hudson Ltd.

SOURCE

• http://www.lesindiennesdeprovence.com.au/

IMAGE

• Pièce d'indiennes d'un cahier de 14 feuillets papier contenant 40 échantillons, 1776. Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône, C 3374

• Les Indiennes de Nîmes perpétuent la tradition des premières toiles importées par la Compagnie des Indes.

  Durant  l’interdiction de la production locale de ces étoffes promulguée par  Louvois en 1686, les fabricants prospèrent dans le Comtat Venaissin en Avignon, territoire qui échappe à l’autorité Royale. ces toiles indiennes deviennent alors les tissus provençaux.
   
  Les Indiennes de Nîmes, au travers d’archives de tissus, font revivre les étoffes qui ont ravi la cour de France et que l’on retrouve dans nos pourpoints, hauts Goya ou jupe Bodega pour aller à la féria et perpétuent la tradition de la maîtresse de maison en Camargue qui coupait au gré des besoins, nappes, rideaux ou chemises dans les toiles imprimées.

  

• http://www.indiennesdenimes.fr/

• Souvenirs brodés du Tâj Mahal

• Atelier de broderie indienne avec Shikha

MUSIC VIDEOS TO EASE YOUR PRESSURE

Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with
controlling pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure.

So, just click and listen!

■ HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA

• Bansuri flute
• Raga Bhopali with Pdt Shiv Kumar
• Raga jog with Ustad Sabir Khan on tabla
• Live with Subhash Dhunoohchand

■ PRASAD BHANDARKAR : BAMBOO FLUTE SITE

• Raga Shivranjani on Bansuri

■ PANDIT BHIMSEN JOSHI

• Raag Darbari Kanada - Drut teental
• Yaman Kalyan with Dr Balamurali Krishna
  

■ RAVI SHANKAR, SITAR

• On the Dick Cavett Show
• Raga Rangeela Piloo
• Rag Charukeshi with Alla Rakha

■ ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

• Concert for George

■  ASHWIN BATISH : SITAR MANIA

■ JIT SAMAROO :  PAN IN A MINOR

■ RAVI AND ANOUSHKA SHANKAR : RAGA RANJEELA PILOO

■ ZUBIN METHA TRIBUTE

■ J.S. BACH

• Toccata and Fugue in D minor
• On steel-pan

■ BEETHOVEN

• Symphony No. 9 : Part 1
• Part 2
• Symphony No. 5 - Part 1
• Part 2
• Piano concerto no 4, 3rd movement
• Moonlight Sonata
• Moonlight Sonata on Pan !
• Fur Elise

■ MOZART

• Piano Concerto No. 21 K.467 - 2nd Mvt
• Allegro of Symphony 41 in C Major
• Piano Sonata C Major K.330 3rd Movement
• Symphony No.40 1st Movement

■ RAVEL

• Bolero

■ MASTER CONDUCTOR JEFFREY TATE (INF0)

■ WRITES OUR GOOD FRIEND DEOSARAN FROM TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    When I arrived in New Jersey, I took a liking to the Classical music played in our offices. It has been established that soothing melodious music helps in concentration, health, productivity, and lifestyle.

    In fact, the mantra for Classical music promoters was "Classical music makes you smarter". That's stretching it, but I can tell you from personal experience that life is much more enjoyable, soothing, calmer, serene, and you can be extremely productive, and you work much harder, and for longer hours, with classical music in the background. I have it on all the time, 24/7.

    The downside - if you can call it that- is that you have almost zero tolerance for loud, jarring music.

    Fortunately, you don't need to buy music - it's FREE !

    YouTube has thousands of classical pieces - of the East like Shankar, Sharma, Joshi, Chaurasia et al, and West like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach et al. 

    Enjoy. Share.

    In Trinidad, there was a time when many steel orchestras (or Steelbands, although Orchestra seems more apt) played classical music - I remember Catelli All Stars etc.

    From what I observe today, pan music, and what's left of calypso, survive only because the State, and some business entities,  pay the artistes to perform; it is State-subsidised in the Land of Steelband and Calypso.

    But, we will not leave out steel pan - included in the playlist are pieces on pan, too.

   Deosaran Bisnath

 
■ RESEARCH HAS IT...

    Houston (PTI) : According to researchers at the American Society of Hypertension's 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008), patients with mild hypertension who listened to just half an hour of classical, Celtic or Indian raga music a day for four weeks experienced significant reductions in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP).

    "Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure," said study investigator, Prof Pietro A Modesti, Professor of Internal Medicine in the University of Florence in Italy...

    But for the first time, today's results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ABP. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option, or a complement to therapy."

    At first, the patients wore a device that tracked their blood pressure for 24 hours.
   
    Next, they were given a CD of classical, Celtic, or Indian music.

    Top Photo : J.S. Sahai ©2008.

 

MANGO ! MANGO ! MANJÉ SÉ MANGO-LA !

• How to eat your mango.
• The history of Mango

    Akbar, the Moghal emperor, planted over 100,000 mango trees in Darbhanga, known as Lakhi Bagh(India).

    Mangoes have been cultivated in India since time immemorial. The famous Indian poet Kalidasa  sang its praises.

    The fruit Mango, of the tree Mangifera indica, is one of the most widely cultivated fruits of the tropical world.

    This juicy, delicious fruit is a rich source of Vitamins A, C and D.

    In India there are hundreds of varieties of mangoes, in different sizes, shapes and colours etc.

    King Alexander relished its taste, as did the Chinese traveller Hieun Tsang.      

    FROM PANAMA :

    We're getting an early mango season and I have been harvesting and processing a lot of fruit from my mother's trees. As a matter of fact, at my side as I type these words I have a mango milkshake in my mug. (Chunks of mangoes, crushed ice, milk and sugar, liquefied in the blender).

    Last night I did a panagringo variation on a Cuban recipe. I thawed a couple of frozen turkey legs in the microwave, then stripped the meat away from the bones and tendons and cut it up into bite-sized chunks. Meanwhile in a saucepan I simmered about two cups of diced mango (not including peels or seeds, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept), a small onion (sliced), a couple of cloves of garlic (minced), dashes of powdered ginger and Chinese mustard powder and a few drops of aji chombo sauce.

    After heating and stirring, when the mango chunks have dissolved into goo and the onions are transparent, the sauce is ready. The chunks of turkey go into a casserole dish and the mango sauce goes on top of it and it all goes in the oven.

    When the meat is thoroughly cooked, then the night's main dish, turkey in mango sauce, is ready.

    Put mango slices away in the freezer now and you'll be able to have mango sauce and milkshakes when the season's over. Dry bits of mango in a food dehydrator and those can be the basis of another set of recipes, if you don't eat them as sweets first.

SOURCE

   

LAPWENT ! L'INVENTAIRE DE BRUNO KISSOUN

POINTE-A-PITRE, URBANISME et architecture religieuse, publique et militaire XVIIIème-XIXème siècles.

■ En 2001, la ville de Pointe-à-Pitre lançait une opération d'inventaire de son patrimoine urbain, suite à une convention avec le Service régional de l'inventaire (DRAC Guadeloupe). L'étude visait à accroître, tant sur le plan régional que national, les connaissances sur la ville et reposait sur une analyse morphologique, sur son développement historique et économique et sur tous les phénomènes proprement urbains qui ont accompagné ou contraint son essor.

L'étude portait sur 3 axes : l'évolution du tissu urbain, l'architecture civile domestique, les grands ensembles patrimoniaux.

Les recherches ont été menées dans plusieurs centres d'archives distincts, tant en Guadeloupe qu'en France, principalement aux Archives Nationales d'Outre-mer à Aix-en-Provence.

 ■ L'ouvrage de Bruno KISSOUN, Saint-Claudien aujourd'hui attaché au service du Patrimoine de la ville de Pointe-à-Pitre, restitue une partie de cet inventaire, car il porte la ville des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles.

Cependant tous les aspects de la recherche seront abordés dans deux publications à paraître.

Ainsi, l'habitat qui forme l'ossature première du tissu urbain et l'identité même de la ville.

De même, le XXe siècle est pour Pointe-à-Pitre une période d'importants bouleversements, tant historiques que stylistiques, en particulier après le cyclone de 1928 et la reconstruction qui a suivi et dont le prolongement est la grande opération de rénovation urbaine, envisagée dès l'entre-deux-guerres mais mise en œuvre à partir des années 1960.

Ces deux aspects du patrimoine pointois, encore peu connus, méritent l'étude actuellement en cours.

    ■ Pointe-à-Pitre - Urbanisme et architecture religieuse, publique et militaire, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles

par Bruno KISSOUN
Avec la participation de Christian Stouvenot (archéologie), Hubert Maheux (mobilier religieux)
Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel
Etudes du patrimoine de Pointe-à-Pitre, tome 1.
Pointe-à-Pitre : Éditions Jasor, 2007
263 p. ; 35 EUR
ISBN 978-2-912594-70-9

L'ouvrage retrace l'évolution urbaine et architecturale de Pointe-à-Pitre, des origines au XIXe siècle, avant les événements contemporains qui ont marqué sont histoire récente - cyclone de 1928, rénovation urbaine.

Le développement et l'essor de la ville de Pointe-à-Pitre, à partir du XVIIIe siècle, sont liés à une situation géographique des plus favorables, nichée dans une anse abritée de la baie du Petit Cul-de-Sac marin.

C'est autour de ce plan d'eau qu'elle s'est développée grâce au double rôle de son port, commercial et industriel.

L'ouvrage porte également sur les édifices religieux, publics et militaires qui ont structuré la centre ancien et qui permettent de découvrir un patrimoine monumental caractéristique des villes coloniales, ouvertes sur les influences extérieures, mais que les catastrophes qui ont rythmé l'histoire de la ville ont permis de faire évoluer.

     ■ VOIR : Autre travail intéressant de Bruno Kissoun :
        La Cathédrale St Pierre & St Paul de Pointe-à-Pitre ICI

Photos de Pointe-à-Pitre ©Jean S Sahaï, 2007, 2008.

SAHAI : SOCIAL HELP FOR THE HANDICAPPED AND INFIRM

A SYSTEM SPECIFIC TO INDIA TO MEET THE CHALLENGES FACED BY THE PARAPLEGICS

SAHAI is committed to prevent young adults from succumbing to spinal injuries and saving their families from any economic deprivation. In the process we hope to contribute towards an equitable society where the physically challenged can really lead a dignified and independent life.

It is estimated that in India there are about 2 million paraplegics. Of these, 40,000 are in states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Most of these paraplegics do not have any chance of survival as they invariably succumb to complications such as bed sores, infection and ultimately a slow miserable death.

Over 90% of paraplegics in India come from the low income or lower middle class income group. Since there is no social security system in India and the Government Medical institutions cannot keep patients with spinal injuries in the hospital for any length of time, they are sent home after the initial treatment.

In the last 9 years SAHAI has treated and rehabilitated 262 paraplegics. SAHAI has had the good fortune of excellent doctors in the field of Neurosurgery, Plastic surgery, Orthopedics, Urology, General surgery and general medicine giving their valued time and effort for treating these patients.

The results, especially in paraplegia of the lower thoracic or lumbar spines, has been phenomenal with the patients becoming mobile and totally independent with calipers.

See CASE STUDIES

Project I: SAHAI Spinal Injuries Hospital, Rehabilitation and Training Centre
Project II: SAHAI Prosthetics and Orthotic Research and Training Institute (SPORTS)
Project III: SAHAI Rehabilitation Work Centre

The annual budget of SAHAI is approximately $27,000 now, excluding surgeries performed free of cost by surgeons associated with SAHAI. See more info HERE

 

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HABITAT TRADITIONNEL : CASE EN GAULETTES

Monsieur Samson Café vit dans sa maison en palissade de bois  ti-baume construite en 1955 au Cap Beauchaine, au Marin en Martinique. Ce type de construction se retrouvait dans les campagnes antillaises jusqu’à la fin des années 1950. Lire l'article de Léandre Litampha et voir ses autres photos ICI

SAINT LUCIA : ENJOYABLE

Morning Scenery, Le Sport Resort Beach.
©JS Sahai, 2007. Click to enlarge

V.P. VASUHAN EXPOSE A LA COURNEUVE ET A PARIS, NOV 07 - JANV. 08

Quittant les bouffes de Paris, c’est dans le cadre plus social de La Courneuve que nous nous sommes rendus au soir du vendredi 2 novembre 2007 pour assister au vernissage de l’exposition de peinture d’un sympathique artiste trentenaire, V.P. Vasuhan.

Originaire d’Alaveddy dans la région tourmentée de Jaffna au nord de Sri Lanka, V.P. Vasuhan n’a pas perdu ses années passées comme réfugié.

Avant d’arriver en France, il a séjourné à Chypre où il a étudié la peinture, et visité Israël, l’Egypte, l’Italie, l’Allemagne, l’Autriche.

Son attachement pour la France, il dit le devoir à la richesse de la production artistique du pays.

Même après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, nous a-t-il expliqué, la France a connu une impressionnante profusion d’art et de grands artistes.

BHOJPURI CULTURE IN CHUTNEY MUSIC

Music of Indo-Caribbean Culture : Influences of Bhojpuri Culture in Chutney Music
It seems not much has changed since the time our Ancestors left ! (info courtesy Jon Budram).
Many Chutney Songs are traditional Bhojpuri Folk Songs or are influenced by them. Check this interesting Song : see if you can identify the Song or a few Chutney tracks of this Music Video and if they share the same musical composition.   Songs more than 100-150 years old are still in popular use within the Indo-Caribbean Music field and they all trace their roots back to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India.

Have a look at the instruments as well which are used in India and the Caribbean.
The Harmonium oddly enough is actually of European origin and was imported to India whereas nowadays it is more associated with Indian music. 

SITTING MUSIC
Known in Trinidad and Guyana as "tãn-singing" or "local-classical music" and in Suriname as "baithak gãna" ("sitting music"), tãn-singing has evolved into a unique idiom, embodying the rich poetic and musical heritage brought from India as modified by a diaspora group largely cut off from its ancestral homeland...

Book : East Indian Music in the West Indies : Tân-Singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture by Peter Manuel. Includes a CD - see info HERE.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO : MUNGAL PATASAR


TABLER MASTER PANDIT SHARDA SAHAI  SITE
Guruji is one of the undisputed legendary pillars of modern tabla.