Shoah

A movie which was directed by a French director Claude Lanzmann. He interviews the Holocaust survivors as well as the Nazi Germans. Its about 9 and half hours long and took 5 years to edit the movie.

Polar Lights

Just discovered this:

Auroras, sometimes called the northern and southern (polar) lights or aurorae (singular: aurora), are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar regions. They typically occur in the ionosphere. They are also referred to as polar auroras. 

Flashing Lights ... Lights ....

Beautiful planet is what we live in! 

Maus

I am taking a class this winter called Graphic Novel. The books that I have read so far for this class appear to be very interesting and artful. And YES they are funny (comic strips) but some of them are very serious and tend to have dark humour (graphic novel). 

I have read Maus I  by Art Speigelman and I was amazed by the striking sketches he has done for this book. It is a story about his father who has survived the Holocaust as well Art's troubled relationship with his father. It is definitely a must read. This book makes me want to read more graphic novels, which was never the case for me until I took this class. 

Arthashastra | Word from India

The Arthashastra (IAST: Arthaśāstra) is a treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy which identifies its author by the names Kautilya^[1] and Viṣṇugupta,^[2] who are traditionally identified with Chāṇakya (c. 350–-283 BCE),^[3] who was a professor at Taxila University and later the prime minister of the Maurya Empire.

Translation of the title

Different scholars have translated the word "arthaśāstra" in different ways.

• R.P. Kangle – "science of politics," a treatise to help a king in "the acquisition and protection of the earth."^[9]
• A.L. Basham – a "treatise on polity"^[10]
• D.D. Kosambi – "science of material gain"^[11]
• G.P. Singh – "science of polity"^[12]
• Roger Boesche – "science of political economy"^[13]

Roger Boesche describes the Arthaśāstra as "a book of political realism, a book analysing how the political world does work and not very often stating how it ought to work, a book that frequently discloses to a king what calculating and sometimes brutal measures he must carry out to preserve the state and the common good."^[14]

Centrally, Arthaśāstra argues for an autocracy managing an efficient and solid economy. It discusses the ethics of economics and the duties and obligations of a king.^[15] The scope of Arthaśāstra is, however, far wider than statecraft, and it offers an outline of the entire legal andbureaucratic framework for administering a kingdom, with a wealth of descriptive cultural detail on topics such as mineralogy, mining and metals, agriculture, animal husbandry, medicine and the use of wildlife.^[16] The Arthaśāstra also focuses on issues of welfare (for instance, redistribution of wealth during a famine) and the collective ethics that hold a society together.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthashastra

Air India 182

One of my aunts who lives in Canada told me about this blast which occurred in 1985 and how it changed the lives of many Canadian-Indians forever. I researched about it over the internet and found that there has been a movie produced based on this true story of Air India flight 182.

Movie Synopsis

"On June 22, 1985, Air India 182 left Montreal, bound for Delhi via London Heathrow. It never made it. Four hours after takeoff, 200 miles off the Irish coast, a bomb ripped through the baggage compartment and the plane disintegrated at 30,000 feet, killing all 329 people on board.

It was the most deadly act of air terrorism in history before 9/11. The bombing was the result of a Vancouver-based conspiracy whose members were under investigation by Canadian Intelligence in the months leading up to the explosion.

Air India 182 is a first-person account of that conspiracy and the lives that were altered by it, as told by those who were directly involved. Intimate, direct-to-camera testimony is interwoven with reconstructions of key moments in the conspiracy, based entirely on court documents, de-classified intelligence reports and wiretaps. The film counts down the final weeks and hours before Air India 182 disappeared off Irish radar screens and we sleepwalked into the era of international terrorism."

See the trailer here:

Omkara - Best music, movie & direction