Shubh Ganesh Chaturthi.

 Trinidad Express Newspapers Photo

For the past eleven days - 9th September to 19th September 2013 - Hindus around the world and in my homeland have been observing the festival of Ganesh Utsav. It culminated today in Anant Chaturdashi. An extract from Wikipedia states:

"Ganesha Chaturthi is the Hindu festival celebrated on the birthday (rebirth) of the god Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati.

It is believed that Lord Ganesh bestows his presence on earth for all his devotees during this festival. It is the day when Ganesha was born. Ganesha is widely worshipped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune and traditionally invoked at the beginning of any new venture or at the start of travel. The festival, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi ("festival of Ganesha") is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the shukla chaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). The date usually falls between 19 August and 20 September. The festival lasts for 10 days, ending on Anant Chaturdashi (fourteenth day of the waxing moon period).

While celebrated all over India, it is most elaborate in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Goa,[1] Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Outside India, it is celebrated widely in Nepal and by Hindus in the United States, Canada, Mauritius,[2] Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana." SOURCE

I am learning among other things that Lord Ganesh is worshipped as the patron of arts and sciences, that he is the deity of intellect, wisdom and auspicious beginnings and so I am glad that his guidance and blessings are being sought. When the murtis are immersed in the river or sea, it is said that the act symbolizes a ritual see-off of the Lord in his journey towards his abode in Kailash while taking away with him the misfortunes of all man.

I feel that we are approaching, if not already crossing, another threshold and I am expecting much better ahead. Shubh Ganesh Chaturthi.

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

I Gotta Be Me [Song]

Uploaded by edward spencer
I GOTTA BE ME
Music and lyrics by Walter Marks
Performed by The Mighty Sparrow
Album: Bang Bang Lulu in New York with Sparrow and the Troubadours.

Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong
Whether I find a place in this world or never belong
I gotta be me, I gotta be me
What else can I be but what I am?

I want to live, not merely survive
And I won't give up this dream of life that keeps me alive
I gotta be me, I gotta be me
The dream that I see makes me what I am.

That far-away prize, a world of success
Is waiting for me if I heed the call
But I won't settle down, won't settle for less
As long as there's half a chance that I just grab it all.

I'll go it alone, that's how it must be
I can't be right for somebody else if I'm not right for me
I gotta be free, I gotta be free
Daring to try, to do it or die, I gotta be me.

I'll go it alone, that's how it must be
I can't be right for somebody else if I'm not right for me
I gotta be free, I gotta be free
Daring to try, to do it or die, I gotta be me.

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! ..............................................................................................................................


A Note From The Gull

The Mighty Sparrow is now conscious and responsive. Bondyé...mèsi, mèsi, mèsi!

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Trinidad and Tobago - Geoffrey Jones [Video]

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO [1964]

Part 1/2
  Part 2/2
By Geoffrey Jones | Uploaded by badmovie

"Since the 1950s, Geoffrey R. Llewellyn Jones has been making multi-award-winning short films that look, sound and feel like nothing else. With his extraordinary marriage of images, music and rhythm, he ranks alongside such luminaries as Norman McLaren and Len Lye, and remains one of Britain's true film artists.

"Born in London in 1931, of Welsh parents, Geoffrey Jones trained at Central School of Art in interior design, graphic design and photography. Mesmerised by cinema since he was a child and later inspired by Dziga Vertov and Luciano Emmer, his first film project, a satire on the commuter society, envisaged images cut to very rhythmic music, a technique that became his hallmark. Although the film was never actually made, the drawings led to work, when he was just 24 as a one man band: 'The Experimental Film and TV Department' of advertising agency Crawford International, where early work included an acclaimed commercial for Martini. He went on to make films for global companies like Shell and BP, and innovative animated shorts.

"Geoffrey Jones is best known as the director of three seminal films for British Transport Films; Snow (1963), which was nominated for an Oscar, Rail (1967) and Locomotion (1975), all shown at festivals around the world. In films such as Snow, where trains and railway workers battle against severe weather conditions, Rail, a commemoration of the steam age and celebration of the electric age, and the travelogue Trinidad & Tobago (1964), images react, combine and dance together to create a living, pulsing journey. In Locomotion, the entire history of the British railways is illustrated through a captivating and accelerating rhythm.

"The Rhythm of Film brings a selection of Geoffrey Jones' films together in one collection for the first time to show what makes his work so special. Most of his work was in the sometimes precarious area of industrial shorts, but his unique vision is also revealed in his more personal works such as the Seasons Project and the two Chair-a-plane films." SOURCE

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare