Clipmarks | arifsali's 'india' clips

2 - Been there photo competition October 2008

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:11:27 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

The very edge of the Victoria Falls in Zambia. Our guide, Felix, jumped into a rock pool to show us that it was quite safe for us to follow him. We did, and had the swim of our lives

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Photo taken during the festival of Eid at the Dargah Mosque, India

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Close-up of a lion in Zimbabwe

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Children in the desert at the ancient ruins of Dura Europos in south-east Syria

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Children jumping from a longtail boat on the Mekong river

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

"A row of rice cookers simmering outside a small restaurant in a back alley, Insadong, Seoul"

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Sea kayaking in the western fjords, Norway

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Xiahe Buddhist monastery in China

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Lake Bled, Slovenia at dawn, as the sun lit up the mist clouds

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The winning photo, by Dieter Turk: "Reflection in the water, Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria"

Guardian deputy picture editor Caroline Hunter: This one really stood out for me. I loved the bright, dreamlike, almost hyper-real colours of this image and its ambiguity - it could be a photograph or a painting.

Tags: photography, world

Indian Muslims condemn terrorism

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:03:19 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A conference attended by thousands of Muslim clerics, scholars and community leaders in India has endorsed a religious ruling against terrorism.

The ruling or fatwa was issued earlier this year by an Islamic seminary.

It said that Islam rejected all kinds of bloodshed and the killing of innocents for selfish and politically motivated gains.

This is the first time the Islamic scholars have come together to give their backing to the measure.

Tags: india, religion, muslims, terrorism

Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:35:01 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.time.com

A pan-Indian holiday marks the victory of good over evil and the lifting of spiritual darkness

Clip Source: www.time.com

The Goddess Kali

Clip Source: www.time.com

Lamps

Clip Source: www.time.com

Fireworks

Clip Source: www.time.com

Pitch Man

Clip Source: www.time.com

Light in the Night

Clip Source: www.time.com

High Tech Offering

Clip Source: www.time.com

Red Dog

Clip Source: www.time.com

Celebration

Tags: diwali, lights, hinduism, india

Convert or we will kill you, Hindu lynch mobs tell fleeing Christians

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:03:34 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Next they will come after you!

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

As a fresh wave of sectarian violence is unleashed across the Indian state of Orissa, Gethin Chamberlain talks to homeless survivors in Kandhamal district who were forced to abandon their religion

Kumari Naik with her son Santosh amid the ashes of their home. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain

Hundreds of Christians in the Indian state of Orissa have been forced to renounce their religion and become Hindus after lynch mobs issued them with a stark ultimatum: convert or die.

The wave of forced conversions marks a dramatic escalation in a two-month orgy of sectarian violence which has left at least 59 people dead, 50,000 homeless and thousands of houses and churches burnt to the ground. As neighbour has turned on neighbour, thousands more Christians have sought sanctuary in refugee camps, unable to return to the wreckage of their homes unless they, too, agree to abandon their faith.

Tags: religion, christianity, hinduism, india

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dies

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:35:19 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said Tuesday. He was thought to be 91 years old.

"He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due to "natural causes, his age."

Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control that Maharishi taught, called transcendental meditation, gradually gained medical respectability.

He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968, although he had a famous falling out with the rock stars when he discovered them using drugs at his Himalayan retreat.

Tags: meditation

Sacred Sex Frozen In Stone

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:49:00 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: The best pictures I've ever seen of these sacred temples.

Clip Source: you.presscue.com

Located in the fertile Gangetic plains of Madhya Pradesh, the sprawling Khajuraho temple complex is a fascinating monument to the sanctity of human sexuality. The central theme of the temples is the celebration of womankind, her form, for her beauty and her temperament.

The complex, built by the Chandela rulers between 950 and 1050, is a one of the finest example of Indo-Aryan architecture. It was built during a period of peace and prosperity, where creativity flourished under royal patronage. The Chandelas commissioned 85 temples, but only 22 are remaining today.

Khajuraho, or Khajur-vahika, derives its name from the golden date palms (khajur) that ones adorned the gate of the great city. The engravings were not built merely for aesthetic value, as they also served to teach young virgins all they needed to know about sexuality.

listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, and the The Archeological Survey of India is entrusted with preserving these temples

Buddhist Cave Art

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:49:58 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.paulstravelblog.com

The Ajanta caves, set in a bend in the Waghur River, a day's travel east of Bombay

The Ajanta caves are cut out of the cliff itself, with rock chiseled away to form spectacular interiors of monasteries and shrines

High relief composition at Ajanta

Paintings at Ajanta

Ellora Caves

Statuary, Ellora

Tags: art, buddhism, india

The Waste-Pickers of Delhi

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:53:39 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: The original Delhi recyclers have turned garbage into cash for decades. Now, a carbon-credit-generating incinerator may put them out of business.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

India's waste-pickers—often women and children—join free-ranging cows and other less sacred animals in a daily forage through the garbage of the streets. They've been recycling trash for decades, since long before recycling became fashionable in the West, and in Delhi, a 13-million-person metropolis, the waste-pickers number in the tens of thousands. For slum-dwellers, such recycling of plastic, paper, and metals—anything that can be turned into cash—is often the only source of income.

Bharati Chaturvedi, the director and cofounder of Chintan, a small Indian NGO that provides education to waste-pickers, claims that more than 1 percent of Delhi's population sifts through garbage, recycling as much as 59 percent of the city's waste. "These waste-pickers are providing a public service—for free," she says.

Tags: india, recycle, environment

Women of Cover

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:22:15 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Interesting blog post

Clip Source: www.paulstravelblog.com

In our travels thus far through the Middle East, we've seen a variety of different styles of cover for women, and I thought that it would be interesting to compare them. Please note that this is intended to be something of a fashion post, rather than a post debating the hejab (Islamic dress code) itself. [Note: None of the individuals pictured was a source of any information for this or any post.]

Young women in Syria. In Syria, the scarf is very much a fashion accessory in addition to a religious and customary expectation. In the big cities, many women choose to go without.

Ladies' police uniforms, Bahrain

Television personality, Bahrain

Trendy mother and daughter, Iran

We never confirmed this, but this style of headscarf must be required in schools and certain jobs, as they are quite common in Iran.

Getting away with showing a lot of hair, Iran

Kuwait. Kuwaiti women all seem to wear their hair in huge buns.

Bahrain

A bedouin woman, looking quite stylish in Aleppo, Syria

India

Tags: women

Ditching laissez-faire, India plans a city

Fri, 11 May 2007 04:24:17 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: iht.com

But in a social experiment highly unusual for this most unplanned of countries, the Indian government has handpicked Nagpur to be fattened and primped into an international metropolis.

Lush parks and smooth roads have been lain, and malls and multiplex cinemas have sprouted. A drastically renovated airport is to become the cargo hub of India, with a terminal that is 100 times larger than the existing one and is to handle at least 100 jets at a time instead of the current five. An ecofriendly mass-transit system is being planned to absorb an expected surge in road traffic, years before the average Nagpurian owns a car. The government is building a special economic zone with tax breaks and ready-to-use water, electricity and fiber optic cable, in the hope of attracting 100,000 technology jobs to a city long dominated by coal mining.

Tags: india, city, economy, technology

"Untouchable" boy caned to death by teacher for writing a love poem

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:56:46 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

UNA: A 16-year-old Dalit boy died after he was thrashed in front of other students by an upper caste teacher in a rural higher secondary school of this Himachal district for writing a verse in appreciation of an upper caste girl.

Surjit Singh was beaten up on Tuesday by a teacher in the Nangal Kalan Government High school in public, said the Dalit sarpanch of the village Gyan Kaur. His two classmates said, "When the teacher came to know about the Surjit's love poem, he caned him till he almost dropped dead."

That was not the end of his ordeal; he was again beaten up by the family members of the girl the next day, Wednesday. Surjit was later found semi-conscious and taken to the hospital but succumbed to injuries.

Local leaders have sought an inquiry into the incident as the police appear to be siding with the upper caste girl's family and the teacher.

Tags: india, discrimination

Treasures From the Mughal Empire

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:17:35 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

An Emperors’ Art: Small, Refined, Jewel Toned

WASHINGTON — Muraqqa is the Persian term for a patched garment traditionally worn by Sufi mystics as a sign of poverty and humility. Yet it is also the word for a gilded and lavishly calligraphed album. This type of muraqqa, a luxury object from the Mughal empire in India, is a patchwork of imagery: portraits of emperors and courtiers, Eastern mystics and Western religious figures; examples of plant and animal life.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"Akbar Fights with Raja Man Singh," from a copy of the Akbarnama. (circa 1600-03)

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"Mu'in al-Din Chishti Holding a Globe"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"The Women at the Well of Kanchinpur,"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"Raja Udai Singh (Mota Raja) in a Gold, Flowered Jama"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"Majnun in the Wilderness"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The young Jahangir also commissioned an album called the “Shikarnama,” or “Hunting Book.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"A Garden Gathering with a Prince in a Green Jama"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

"Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan with their Ministers,"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Tags: india, mughal

Taboos About Sex Hinder Efforts to Fight AIDS in Pakistan, Study Says

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:48:33 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In Pakistan, seven times as many men as women are reported to be infected with the AIDS virus, but the country’s taboos about sex make it very difficult to even address the epidemic, researchers are reporting this week.

The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, are by researchers at two Pakistani universities, who said India and Bangladesh, with similarly conservative Muslim cultures, had addressed the issues more openly.

Pakistan has at least 85,000 citizens infected with the virus, according to Unaids, the United Nations AIDS agency.

Islamic law forbids sex outside marriage, and many Pakistanis believe the disease is not a threat in Muslim countries, the authors said. As a result, safe-sex education is rare.

In Pakistan as in many other countries, gay relationships and networks of male sex workers exist.

Tags: aids, sex, pakistan

Islam and Hinduism's blurred lines

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:16:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Mr Singh is a member of the Kathat community in Rajasthan and follows what his community believes is a pledge undertaken by their forefathers.

Legend has it that the Mehrat, Kathat and Cheeta communities - with a combined total of one million people in four districts of central Rajasthan - are the descendants of the Hindu ruler of the warrior caste, Prithviraj Chauhan.

The three communities also have strong Islamic connections, because many centuries ago, their forefathers undertook a pledge to follow three Muslim practices.

These include the circumcision for the newborn male children in the community, eating halal meat and burying their dead.

That is the tradition many have followed, keeping the word of their ancestors. But it has also led to them facing something of a faith-based identity crisis.

A majority of them are poor and illiterate. They are people with a mixed Hindu-Muslim identity.

"We don't care about being Hindu or Muslim. It is sheer politics," he says.

Tags: islam, hinduism, india, culture, religion

Now, an Indian film on Apostle Thomas

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:22:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: in.news.yahoo.com

The Rs.500-million ($12 million) project is being supported by the St. Thomas Apostle of India Trust, set up by the Catholic Archdiocese of Mylapore.

Biblical stories identify Thomas as the disciple who doubted the resurrection of Christ. According to several edicts, Kushan king Vasudeva sent Thomas' remains to Syria in 232 AD.

The Roman Catholic and Anglican calendars honour Thomas July 3, the day on which his relics are believed taken from Mylapore, on India's east coast, to Edessa, Syria, where his remains are worshipped as that of the Apostle of India. Then it was taken to the Greek island of Chios in 1258 AD and then to Ortona, Italy, where it rests now.

In the 'Acts of Thomas', written in 200 AD, the original key text to identify St. Thomas with India, historians agree that two people, followers of Jesus Christ, arrived first in Sandaruk (one of the ancient Alexandrias) in Balochistan.

Tags: india, christianity