Alert computer professionals

Click once on the picture to read an interesting article published in THE HINDU: http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/back-breaking-job/article4153809.ece 

Monkey meat sold in chinese Hotels

Click the following link to read an interesting article published in THE TIMES OF INDIA:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-shuts-eateries-over-monkey-meat/articleshow/17446598.cms?intenttarget=no 

A metrosexual patient can be defined as one who talks. . . like an American.

Click the following link to read an interesting article published in THE HINDU: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/dealing-with-a-metrosexual-patient/article4154323.ece 

20 years SMS

20 years SMS HB2U love SMS!
"Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas!" was the world's first SMS. It was sent on 3 December 1992. Its receiver was not Santa Claus, but Richard Jarvis. Vodafone's manager was on that day at a company Christmas par

ty in Newbury, England.

"Merry Christmas." On 3rd December 1992 Neil Papworth sent an SMS to a mobile phone and these words rang in a revolution that changed the daily lives of billions. Einestages spoke to the sender of the first SMS - and shows the pioneer messages that were sold by phone, email and more. Katja Iken
When the SMS was invented 20 years ago, it supposed to be only an insignificant additional services - today the world communicates by text message. Last year alone, some eight trillion SMS messages were sent. Blame for everything is a lanky, brown-haired engineer named Neil Papworth. The then 22-year-old Briton was, on the 3rd December 1992 wrote the first SMS.

Papworth is now father of three, lives in Montreal, according to his website and harbors a passion for Formula 1, good beer and curry. That he wrote history by mistake, he enjoys today.
Read more: http://einestages.spiegel.de/s/tb/26085/was-stand-in-der-ersten-sms-der-welt.html  

Gatka - Hot Breath

Heißer Atem 27 Nov 2012 Dienstag
Sri Akal Takhat, Indien. Es ist der 543. Geburtstag von Guru Nanak, dem Begründer der Religion Sikhismus. Ihm zu Ehren veranstalten die Anhänger eine Prozession zum Goldenen Tempel in Amritsar und ein Sikh-Kämpfer zeigt sein Können in der Kampfkunstart Gatka - Feuerspucken gehört auch dazu. Dieses Foto wurde in STERN.DE veröffentlicht.

Hot breath November 27 2012 Tuesday
Sri Akal Takhat, India. It is the 543rd Birthday of Guru Nanak, the founder of the religion Sikhism. In his honor, supporters organized a procession to the Golden Temple in Amritsar and a Sikh fighter shows his skills in the martial arts style Gatka - Fire breathing is one of them. This photo was published in STERN.DE.

Lonely house on highway demolished

Eingeknickt und abgerissen 1. Dez 2012 Samstag
Wenling, China. Diese Geschichte ging vor zwei Wochen um die Welt: Der Hausbesitzer Luo Baogen hatte sich geweigert sein Haus abreißen zu lassen, obwohl sein Heim eine neu gebaute Straße blockierte. Die Abfindung, die ihm von den Behörden geboten wurde, war ihm zu niedrig. Nach vielen Gesprächen mit Verwaltungsangestelten und Verwandten lenkte der Mann aber nun ein - und die Bagger konnten sich das einsame Haus auf der Straße vornehmen.

Caved in and demolished 1st Dec 2012 Saturday

Wenling, China. This story was two weeks ago, around the world: The homeowner Luo Baogen had refused to demolish his house, even though his home blocked a new road under construction. The settlement, which was offered to him by the authorities, was it too low. After many discussions with administrative officials and relatives of the man drew but now - and the excavators were able to demolish the lonely house on the street.

Camels for sale

Camels for sale

Pushkar, India. A guardian drives his flock along a sandy slope to the site of the camel fair. One can meet here thousands of merchants from the region, with their livestock, mainly camels. The fair lasts for five days and it is one of the world 's largest fair of its kind. This photo was published in STERN.DE.

Kamel zu verkaufen

Pushkar, Indien. Ein Hüter treibt seine Herde eine sandige Böschung entlang zum Gelände der Kamel-Messe. Hier treffen tausende Kaufmänner aus der Region aufeinander, um mit ihrem Vieh, vorwiegend Kamelen, zu handeln. Die Messe dauert fünf Tage lang und ist weltweit eine der größten ihrer Art. Dieses Foto wurde in STERN.DE veröffentlicht.

Kumbh Mela

Full power back
Allahabad, India. Here are real men required, in the preparations of the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival - workers pull a pontoon into the Ganges. In the religious festival, million believers come to Allahabad, the confluence of the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, on a pilgrimage. There, they want to take the occasion of the feast bath in the river water, which is considered sacred. The workers who sweat in the preparations may, however, be pleased not only for religious reasons to take a bath. This photo was published in STERN.


Volle Kraft zurück
Allahabad, Indien. Hier sind noch echte Männer gefragt: Bei den Vorbereitungen des hinduistischen Kumbh Mela-Festes ziehen Arbeiter einen Ponton in den Ganges. Bei dem religiösen Fest pilgern Millionen Gläubige nach Allahabad, wo sich die drei Flüsse Ganges, Yamuna und Saraswati vereinen. Dort wollen sie anlässlich des Festes ein Bad im Flusswasser nehmen, das als heilig gilt. Die Arbeiter, die bei den Vorbereitungen schwitzen, dürften sich allerdings nicht nur aus religiösen Gründen auf ein Bad freuen. Dieses Foto wurde in STERN veröffentlicht.

Stubbornness wins - Sturheit siegt

Stubbornness wins: In the middle of a newly built Chinese street is a house whose owner has defended himself against the demolition. This photo was published in FOCUS ON LINE.



Sturheit siegt: In der Mitte einer neu gebauten chinesischen Straße steht ein Haus, dessen Besitzer sich gegen einen Abriss gewehrt hat. Dieses Foto wurde in ON LINE FOCUS veröffentlicht.

Ein Unfall - An Accident

One truck went off the highway 256 and drove into the company building of a car dealer. The driver was trapped and seriously injured. This photo was published in FOCUS ON LINE.


Ein LKW ist von der Bundesstraße 256 abgekommen und in das Firmengebäude eines Autohändlers gefahren. Der Fahrer wurde eingeklemmt und schwer verletzt. Dieses Foto wurde in ON LINE FOCUS veröffentlicht.

Guess who . . . ?

India's Prime Minister Singh has the headphones put over his turban. The religion of the Sikhs commands the men always wear this headgear. This phot was published in ONLINE FOCUS.

Indiens Ministerpräsident Singh muss den Kopfhörer über seinen Turban stülpen. Die Religion der Sikh gebietet es den Männern, stets diese Kopfbedeckung zu tragen. Dieses Foto wurde in ON LINE FOCUS veröffentlicht.

Street Artist - Straßen-Künstler

In the truest sense of the word: The "Street Artist" juggles his torches on the streets of the 17th June in Berlin to entertain the driver. This photo was published in FOCUS ON LINE.



Im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes: Dieser „Straßen-Künstler“ jongliert mit seinen Fackeln auf der Straße des 17. Juni in Berlin zur Unterhaltung der Autofahrer. Dieses Foto wurde in ON LINE FOCUS veröffentlicht.

Oil’s well that ends well

This article was published in The Hindu on 23rd November 2012 Friday



The cooking oil that you opt for can have the greatest impact on your family's health and fitness levels. Some vital information that can help you in making the right choice for you and your loved ones

Day after day, in the process of cooking, we either stir-fry, sauté, deep fry or sprinkle our food with oil. As a result, a great deal of this is consumed; little wonder then that it plays a big role in creating wellness. The right cooking oil can give you the best benefits in terms of taste, texture and nutrition.

"Apart from enhancing the palatability of food, it also plays a vital role in regulating the metabolic functions of the body," says Dr Nupur Krishnan, clinical nutritionist and director of Bio-logics Healthcare in Mumbai. "It supplies us with energy and helps us absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D,E and K, which are important nutrients). It also enables our bodies to metabolize proteins and carbohydrates more effectively, promoting digestion. It gives one a feeling of fullness and acts as an insulator to maintain body temperature." And that's why even dieters shouldn't severely restrict their use of oil.

Going overboard can be bad

Despite the many benefits of oils, too much of this in our diet can cause major health problems, particularly by increasing LDL (bad) cholesterol and paving the way to heart disease. It helps to remember that there are no 'low calorie' oils. "One teaspoon of any oil gives you 45 calories of energy," says Saritha Rajiv, Delhi-based nutrition and diet consultant. The recommended intake of oil is 4-5 teaspoons for a healthy person and 2-3 teaspoons for anyone suffering from a chronic illness, adds Dr Nupur Krishnan.

Choose right

With dozens of options, choosing the right cooking oil can be a confusing task. "Your choice of cooking oil should depend on the type of cooking method you employ," says Saritha Rajiv. "If you're deep frying, use oils that have a high smoking point (oils that tolerate high temperatures and don't get charred easily). Refined vegetable oils such as sunflower and safflower have a high smoking point. For stir frying and sautéing, one should use oils such as olive, peanut and canola. Extra virgin olive oil and flaxseed oils are best used in salad dressings."

Know your MUFA’s and PUFA’s

Some oils are a rich source of essential fatty acids such as MUFA (monounsaturated fats) and PUFA (polyunsaturated fats). Essential fatty acids are 'essential' because our bodies are not able to synthesize these. So we definitely need to consume these fatty acids from the foods/oils we eat. This includes Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids that are responsible for regulating many of our metabolic activities.

"MUFA is found in groundnut oil, olive oil, mustard oil, peanut oil and canola oil," says Dr Nupur Krishnan. "It's important because it helps lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and maintain HDL (good) cholesterol. Hence it improves the LDL/HDL ratio in our bodies, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease. Polyunsaturated fats are found in vegetable oils such as safflower, sesame, corn, cottonseed and soybean oils. This type of fat reduces the levels of LDL cholesterol too, but too much of this can lower the good HDL cholesterol's well, so it is best to use caution while consuming PUFA's." Experts advise the use of both kinds of oil in our daily diet.

"Always keep two different oils (one with MUFA and another with PUFA) in your kitchen and consume these on alternate days or on a weekly rotation. This will help maintain balance and give you all the essential nutrients," says Dr Nupur Krishnan. Don't ever be tempted to mix two different oils, especially at home by yourself. "This can only be done during the manufacturing process," she advises.

Beware of over heating and hydrogenation

It's important to store your oil right. "All oils should be kept in a cool, dry place in an airtight container," says Saritha Rajiv. "Prolonged consumption of burnt oils can lead to several health problems. However, oil can be re-used provided it has not been overheated on first use. Used oil should be strained and cooled well to remove any food particles before storage, otherwise microbes can grow on food particles, leading to rancidity. Rancid oils contain free radicals that increases one's risk of contracting cancer."

To increase the shelf life of the oil and prevent rancidity, sometimes oils are 'hydrogenated' or partially hydrogenated. This is done during the manufacturing process when hydrogen is added. "Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils can be harmful for your health and tend to increase bad cholesterol and heart attack risk, so read food labels carefully and completely avoid these oils," advises Saritha.

Refined and unrefined

When you buy refined oil, what exactly are you getting? Refined and filtered oil denotes an elaborate manufacturing process, meant to produce oils that are completely devoid of taste, smell and colour. Filtration is done to further free it of impurities and when oil is 'double filtered', it has even more clarity. While refined oils are meant to bring out the natural flavours of foods that we eat, they can be too bland. Over the years, nutritionists have pointed out that the process of refining oil can strip it of its minerals, beta carotene and much of its Vitamin E content. So how can you as a consumer identify this? Dieticians recommend that you read the food labels.

As oils with lower levels of betacarotene and Vitamin E spoil easily, manufacturers tend to add synthetic ingredients such as BHA and BHT to extend shelf-life. If you find these on the food label, you'll know that this is a refined oil that should be avoided. However, as a rule of the thumb, refined oils do tend to have a longer shelf-life than the unrefined kind. Unrefined oils are more natural and tend to retain the original flavour of the nut or seed from which these were extracted, but many people find that these completely overpower the natural taste of the cooked food, so do a little introspection before making the right choice for your family.

(The author can be contacted at kamala.metroplus@gmail.com)

Muharram with a difference

This article was published in Times of India on 23rd Noavember 2012 Friday
NELLORE: The 10th of Muharram (first month of the Islamic calendar) is observed worldwide to mourn the martyrdom of Hazrath Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet, in Karbala, Iraq some 1400 years ago. But in this coastal town of Andhra Pradesh the mourning replaces a three-day celebration. The occasion that falls on November 25 is called Rottela Panduga or the Festival of Rotis wherein the devotees seek the blessings of the martyrs of Karbala.

Curiously, people from all religions take part in the festival. The devotees do not mourn. They pay respects to the martyrs and pray for the fulfillment of their wishes. They strongly believe that their wishes are answered once they leave a 'roti' near the tank where the event is held and accept the roti left by other devotees.

The festivities are held at a local tank called Swarnala Cheruvu located close to the dargah of Baara Shaheed (12 martyrs). The festival begins with devotees offering prayers to the 12 martyrs from Arcot who sacrificed their lives in a war against the British in 1751. They say that the beheaded bodies of those warriors were laid to rest at this place which came to known as Bara Shaheed dargah.

Rottela Panduga is unique as people of all religions throng Nellore town to offer rotis at the tank and attend prayers in the dargah. Rottela Panduga is now a world famous event as devotees from several neighbouring countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the UAE come for the celebrations.

The rotis left in the tank water by aged devotees for getting their wishes fulfilled are picked up by the younger ones seeking fulfillment of their desires and eat them.

"It is widely believed that the martyrs grant the wishes of devotees offering prayers at the dargah," said dargah Mujaver Mohammad Rafi. The wish list of devotees is long and varied. Some come to seek 'chadavula rotte (education roti) and others for aarogyam rotte (health). There are also those who seek aishvaryam rotte (wealth), pelli (marriage) and udyogam rotte (job roti). "A lot of people leave rotis in the tank," said joint collector Lakshmikantham who is overseeing the arrangements for the biggest festival in the region.

In a recent trend IT professionals have started visiting the dargah and leaving videshi udyogam rotte (job in a foreign country). Ace musician A R Rahman, a regular visitor here, is believed to have won the Oscar after picking up adrushta rotte (fortune roti) about three years ago.

The district administration is making arrangements for the smooth conduct of the festivities which begin on Sunday and conclude on Tuesday. The officials are expecting about 4 lakh visitors during the entire festival with about half of them coming on the first day.

Finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy has directed the district collector Sridhar to ensure that no stampede takes place near the dargah. The district administration has set up makeshift toilets and installed lighting on the road to the shrine. Arrangements are also being made to provide drinking water to the pilgrims.

Sugar-free sweets

Click the following to read about the bitter reality of sugar-free sweets:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/bitter-reality-of-sugarfree-sweets/article4085803.ece

Strong women for a strong goddess - Starke Frauen für eine starke Göttin

Starke Frauen für eine starke Göttin
Chandigarh, Indien. Am letzten Tag des Durga Puja-Festivals schmieren sich Hindu-Frauen gegenseitig mit "Sindoor", einem rötlichen Puder ein, das traditionell von verheirateten Frauen getragen wird. In d

er hinduistischen Mythologie steht die Göttin Durga für Kraft und den Triumph von Gut über Böse. Dieses Foto wurde in DER STERN veröffentlicht.
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Strong women for a strong goddess
Chandigarh, India. On the last day of the Durga Puja festival, Hindu women smear each one with "Sindoor", a reddish powder, which is traditionally worn by married women. In Hindu mythology, the goddess Durga symbolizes strength and the triumph of good over evil. Photo published in DER STERN.

Blessings of the phones

Die Segnung der Telefone
Hyderabad, Indien. Gleich zwei Handys stecken in der Tunika des Hindu-Priesters - er feiert "Ayudha Puja". An diesem Tag wurden traditionell Waffen angebetet. Heute gilt die Verehrung den Utensilien, die man Tag für

 Tag benutzt - sie sollen für das kommende Jahr gesegnet werden. Dieses Foto wurde in DER STERN veröffentlicht.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The blessing of the phones
Hyderabad, India. Two cell phones stuck in the tunic of the Hindu priest - he celebrates "Ayudha Puja". On this day, traditional weapons were worshiped. Today, it is the worship of the utensils you use every day - they will be blessed in the coming year. Photo published in DER STERN.

Den Affen machen

Den Affen machen
Amritsar, Indien. Zum Abschluss des Dashahara-Festes haben sich gläubige Hindus Affenmasken aufgesetzt. Sie huldigen mit ihrem kostbaren Kopfschmuck und Gewändern der Göttergestalt Hanuman, dem Sohn der Apsara Anjana und de

s Windgottes Vayu.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Making the monkeys
Amritsar, India. At the conclusion of the feast itself Dashara Hindus have woen monkey masks. They pay homage to their precious headdress and robes of divine figure Hanuman, the son of Anjana, Apsara and Vayu the Wind God.

Ein Nasenbär

Ein Nasenbär macht seinem Namen alle Ehre und rümpft seine Nase ob der nächtlichen Kälte. Dieses Bild wurde in FOCUS veröffentlicht.
A coati turns up his nose at the cold in the night. This picture was published in FOCUS.

Panther - Sein Blick ist. . .

„Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe – so müd geworden, dass er nichts mehr hält,“ dichtete Rainer Maria Rilke eins über den Panther – er hätte aber auch diesen Gepard im Kronberger Opelzoo meinen können. 
Dieses Bild wurde in FOCUS veröffentlicht.

"His vision is going past the bars - it has grown so weary that he has nothing more," wrote Rainer Maria Rilke, on the Panther - he could also mean this Cheetah in Kronberger Opelzoo.
This picture was published in FOCUS.

Tips to set strong passwords

Click the following link to read an interesting article published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on Mon 29^th Oct,2012.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/Top-tips-to-set-strong-passwords/articleshow/16983332.cms?intenttarget=no 

Ein Wal, der singt wie ein Mensch - A whale that sings like a man

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen:

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/sozialverhalten-ein-wal-der-singt-wie-ein-mensch-1.1503107

Flugangst - Fear of flying

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen: 

http://jetzt.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/556058 

Most dangerous animal of Australia

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einige interessante Fotos zu sehen: 
http://m.focus.de/reisen/reisefuehrer/australien/australien-die-giftigsten-tiere-in-down-under_did_25615.html 

Zuckerkrankheit vom Typ 1 Diabetics Typ 1

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen:

http://www.spiegel.de/gesundheit/diagnose/typ-1-diabetes-gentest-soll-risiko-fuer-zuckerkrankheit-a-863347.html 

Plötzlich ist wieder Sommer!

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen: 

http://www.bild.de/news/inland/oktober/goldener-oktober-26799718.bild.html 

Indian Summer in den Alpen

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um interessante Fotos zu sehen: 

http://www.bild.de/reise/europa/suedtirol/wo-der-herbst-sich-am-wohlsten-fuehlt-26789980.bild.html 

Top Airports Photos

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen:

 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/reise/flughafen-rangliste-uebernachten-im-terminal-1.1496422-7

Mumbai Taxifahrer

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einige interessanten Fotos zu sehen:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/premier-padmini-taxis-fotostrecke-88596.html 

24-Jähriger wird Deutschlands jüngster Professor

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen:
http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/24-jaehriges-mathe-genie-wird-deutschlands-juengster-professor-a-861373.html

Toyota ruft weltweit sieben Millionen Autos zurück.

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen
http://mobil.fr-online.de/cms/wirtschaft/toyota-teure--rueckrufe,4233346,20567246,view,asFitMl.html

Hightech im Klassenzimmer

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessanten Artikel zu lesen
http://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/wissen/hightech-im-klassenzimmer-jede-stunde-so-furchtbar-a-860594.html

Wedding food goes waste

Click the following link to read an interesting article published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on Fri 12^th Oct,2012.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Wedding-food-worth-Rs-339-crore-goes-waste/articleshow/16774949.cms?intenttarget=no

Inspiration in Indian trains

Klicken Sie auf dem Link, um einen interessante Artikel zu lesen

Weltreisen per Bahn: Erleuchtung im Indien-Express

:
http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/buchauszug-aus-sorry-wir-haben-uns-verfahren-weltreisen-per-bahn-a-855768.html

Tipps für Flugreisende

Dieser Artikel erschien in Frankfurter Rundschau am 26sten September Mittwoch

Flugreisende sollten immer einen kleinen Zeitpuffer bei der Anreise einplanen.

Wer zahlt dafür, wenn ich zu spät zum Flughafen komme? Was passiert, wenn ich meinen Flug verpasse? Bei der Anreise zum Flughafen und beim Einchecken gibt es einiges zu beachten. Wir geben Antworten auf die wichtigsten Fragen.

Stehen Urlauber im Stau oder der Zug verspätet sich, kann es am Flughafen ganz schön eng werden. Viele fragen sich dann: Wie kurz vor Abflug darf ich noch einchecken? Was mache ich, wenn am Schalter eine riesige Schlange vor mir steht? Und schaffe ich es dann noch mal kurz in den Duty-Free-Shop? Die wichtigsten Fragen und Antworten:

Wo erfahre ich, wann mein Flug genau startet?

„Entscheidend ist die Information von der Fluggesellschaft“, sagt Lufthansa-Sprecher Jan Bärwalde. Die Abflugzeit steht zum Beispiel auf der Buchungsbestätigung oder auf der Bordkarte. Bärwalde rät, einen Tag vor Abflug die Uhrzeit noch einmal bei der Fluggesellschaft zu überprüfen. Nach dieser Angabe sollten sich Fluggäste richten - auch wenn etwa auf der Webseite des Flughafens etwas anderes steht. Flughäfen liefern zwar meist auch Informationen über die Flugzeiten, sind aber laut dem Reiserechtler Paul Degott immer nur Zweitquelle.

Wie lange vor dem Abflug muss ich am Flughafen sein?

Auch das legt die Fluggesellschaft fest. Die Zeiten schwanken dabei - je nachdem, ob es ein Langstreckenflug oder ein Inlandsflug ist, welche Klasse gebucht wurde und ob Gepäck aufgegeben werden muss. Meist schließen die Check-In-Schalter zwischen 30 und 60 Minuten vor Abflug. Bärwalde rät: „Man sollte bei der Anreise immer einen Puffer einbauen.“ Das empfiehlt auch Dieter Hulick, Sprecher des Frankfurter Flughafens Fraport: Für einen Interkontinentalflug sollten Fluggäste wegen der Sicherheitskontrollen zwei bis zweieinhalb Stunden vorher da sein. Auch zu Ferienbeginn sollten Flugreisende etwas mehr Zeit einplanen, weil es zu Staus und längeren Wartezeiten kommen kann.

Wer zahlt, wenn ich zu spät zum Flughafen komme?

Für die Anreise zum Flughafen ist jeder selbst verantwortlich. Dabei müssen Reisende auch Staus und Zugverspätungen einplanen, sagt Reiserechtler Degott. Anders ist das bei Kombiangeboten wie Rail&Fly: Dann muss der Reiseveranstalter dafür geradestehen, wenn der Zug nicht pünktlich ist. Ähnlich ist das bei Anschlussflügen. Haben Passagiere alle Teilstrecken bei einer Fluggesellschaft gebucht, muss sich die Airline um einen Ersatz kümmern. „Dann übernehmen wir natürlich die Verantwortung“, sagt Bärwalde. Pech haben jedoch Passagiere, wenn sie die Teilstrecken bei verschiedenen Gesellschaften gebucht haben. Dann gibt es lediglich bei Verspätungen von mehr als drei Stunden eine Ausgleichszahlung nach der EU-Fluggastrechteverordnung.

Was passiert, wenn ich lange am Schalter oder an der Sicherheitskontrolle warten muss?

Wer am Check-In-Schalter steht und merkt, dass ihm die Zeit davonläuft, muss irgendwann ein Signal geben: „Achtung, bei mir wird's langsam eng“, rät Degott. Doch auch die Fluggesellschaften seien verpflichtet, die Schlangen abzugehen und zu fragen, ob jemand schnell einchecken müsse. „Wenn es knapp wird, dann versuchen wir, die Passagiere an der Schlange vorbeizuschleusen“, bestätigt Bärwalde von der Lufthansa. Bei den Sicherheitskontrollen ist das ähnlich: In Frankfurt etwa gibt es „Fast Lanes“ für Reisende, die schnell zum Gate müssen.

Wie lange darf ich im Duty-Free-Laden shoppen?

„Wenn es knapp wird, müssen Sie gucken, dass Sie unverzüglich zum Gate kommen“, sagt Degott. Trotzdem kaufen viele Leute noch ein - und verpassen dann den Flieger. „Das passiert häufiger, als man denkt“, warnt Bärwalde. Viele Fluggesellschaften rufen die säumigen Passagiere aus. In Frankfurt zeigen die Anzeigetafeln hinter der Passkontrolle an, wie lange der Weg zum Flugsteig noch ist.

Was ist mit Passagieren, die nur langsam gehen können?

Passagiere mit Einschränkungen sollten möglichst schon beim Buchen einen Hilfsdienst anfordern, rät der Flughafen München. Spätestens beim Einchecken müssten Passagiere sagen, dass sie Hilfe brauchen, meint Degott. „Wer Hilfe benötigt, muss schon mitdenken und kooperativ sein.“ In der Europäischen Union sind alle Flughäfen verpflichtet, Betreuungsleistungen anzubieten - also zum Beispiel elektronische Wagen, die Passagiere zum Gate oder bis zum Flugzeug fahren. (dpa)

Ram Gopal Varma questions the existence of ghosts in our movies

Click once on the picture to read an interesting article published in THE DECCAN CHRONICLE on Sun 23^rd Sep, 2012.

The composer of Pledge

This interesting article was published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on 14^th September 2012 Friday.

SON SEEKS RECOGNITION FOR COMPOSER

Visakhapatnam remembers ‘pledge’ composer

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Visakhapatnam: “India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters...” This famous national pledge recited by schoolchildren was composed in Visakhapatnam by then district treasury officer, Pydimarri Venkata Subba Rao, a native of Anneparthy village in Nalgonda, 50 years ago in 1962. 

    The original pledge composed in Telugu, first heard in a school in Visakhapatnam in 1963, was later translated into English, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and various other vernacular languages and incorporated as the national pledge to be recited on the Republic Day in 1965. The author was a multi-faceted personality and a polyglot having achieved mastery in Sanskrit, Telugu, English and Arabic. He wrote on various subjects, including naturopathy besides authoring many books in Telugu, including a popular novel, ‘Kalabhairavudu’. 
  

It must be noted that his efforts to popularise the pledge were encouraged by then education minister Raja Saheb of Vizianagaram, P V G Raju and nationalist Tenneti Viswanatham. Sources at the Tenneti Foundation say that Venkata Subba Rao was a frequent visitor at the residence of the late Tenneti. The duo diligently worked to ensure that the pledge was accorded constitutional recognition. 

    Surprised by the fact that people had remembered his father, Venkata Subba Rao’s son P V Subramanyam, observed that even he did not know that his father had authored the pledge till his 20s. “I was not aware of the fact that my father authored the pledge till a year before he passed away. It is nice to know that my father is getting due recognition,” Subramanyam said and requested the government to give credit to his father for the pledge.

Hors d'oeuvre etiquette

Click once on the picture to read an interesting article published in THE DECCAN CHRONICLE on Sun 24^th Jun, 2012.

To realise the soul we need to purify ourselves

Click the following link to read the interesting article published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on Sat 23^rd Jun,2012.
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Spell check

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Visit Nepal

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Eating Soup

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Is the symbol killing the Rupee???

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Style of cooking gives ‘Hyderabadi biryani' its rich flavour

Click the following link to read  an interesting article published in THE HINDU on Mon 04^th Jun,2012.

The Hindu : Cities / Hyderabad : Style of cooking gives ‘Hyderabadi biryani' its rich flavour

Lessons on Tea

Click once on the picture to read  an interesting article published in THE DECCAN CHRONICLE on Sun 3^rd Jun, 2012.

Cool foods for summer

Click the link to read  an interesting article published in THE HINDU on Wed 23^rd May, 2012.
The Hindu : Health / Diet & Nutrition : Cool foods for summer

Diamonds first found in HYDERABAD!!!!

Click the following link to read an article published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on Thu 17^th May, 2012.
http://dc-epaper.com/PUBLICATIONS/DC/DCH/2012/05/17/ArticleHtmls/GLITTERING-AUCTION-At-Sothebys-Golconda-diamond-fetches-97m-17052012006028.shtml?Mode=1

How to write a Resumè

This article was published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on Wed 16^th May, 2012.

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Bread & Butter

This article was published in DECCAN CHRONICLE on Sun 13rd May 2012.

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Isn't it astonishing?!!

Concentration is the essence of Success

This article was published in THE TIMES OF INDIA on Wed 16^th May, 2012.

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The unforgettable 3-D spell

This article was published in THE HINDU on Sat 12^th May 2012. 

The Hindu : Arts / Cinema : He cast a 3-D spell

I remembered viewing the movie "Chota Chetan(Hindi)". I think I watched it a number of times. 

  

Grave problem in graveyards

This article was published in THE HINDU on Wed 09^th May 2012. 

The Hindu : Cities / Hyderabad : Little room for the dead in graveyards

Monda Market: no more a shopper's paradise

This article was published in THE HINDU on Wed 09^th May 2012.

The Hindu : Cities / Hyderabad : Monda Market: no more a shopper's paradise

Agni-V - The successful Missile

India heralded a new era in its “credible” strategic deterrence capability by testing its most ambitious nuclear missile — the over 5,000-km range Agni-V — that brings all of China and much more within its strike envelope. 

Well done scientists!!!

Interesting Facts about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The following are some interesting facts about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe collected from the Net for students of Diploma GERMAN.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist, Natural Scientist. His own enthusiasm for Shakuntala was no less exuberant than Herder's.

He wrote in 1792:

"Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits
of its decline
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured.
feasted, fed,
Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name
combine?
I name thee, O Sakuntala! and all at once is said. "

Goethe expressed this admiration for Kalidasa's Shakuntala more than once. nearly 40 years later, in 1830 when de Chenzy sent him his edition of the original with his French translation, he wrote to the Frenchman expressing his gratitude:

"The first time I came across this inexhaustible work it aroused such enthusiasm in me and so held me that I could not stop studying it. I even felt impelled to make the impossible attempt to bring it in some form to the German stage. These efforts were fruitless but they made me so thoroughly acquainted with this most valuable work, it represented such an epoch in my life, I so absorbed it, that for thirty years I did not look at either the English or the German version....It is only now that I understand the enormous impression that work made on me at an earlier age."

(source: Letters from Goethe - By Marianne Von Herzfeld and c. Melvil Sym. (trans). p. 514).

No wonder he modeled the prologue of his Faust (1797) on the prologue to Sakuntala. The jester in the prologue of Faust is reminiscent of one of the vidusaka in the Indian drama, a parallel first noticed by Heinrich Heine. Goethe friend Schiller, was moved to enthusiastic praise of Sakuntala, he wrote, "in the whole world of Greek antiquity there is no poetical representation of beautiful love which approaches even afar."

= = =

(Third)worlding the House of Literature: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Weltliteratur---An Early 21st Century Indian Response

Introduction: Goethe’s India

The starting point for this paper was my recollection the memory of the thrill that I had experienced on first reading The Sorrows of Young Werther almost twenty years ago as a graduate student, far away from home. Werther, to me, was the window to the whole predicament of the Romantic self: alienated, self-absorbed, and fatally attracted to the sensuous, yet seeking some sort of transcendental permanence.1 Of course, I was not the first young man to be so possessed by Werther. About 200 years ago, the whole of Europe had fallen prey to what has been called "Werther-sickness." In fact, Napoleon is known to have read the book seven times—even at Waterloo! More than any other single text, it was Werther that was responsible for the creation of European romanticism (Strich 159-173). I was, of course, full of trepidation in approaching Goethe considering how great a figure he was and how little I knew of him. I remembered what none other than T. S. Eliot had said of Goethe: "Whenever a Virgil, a Dante, a Shakespeare, a Goethe is born, the whole future of European poetry is altered" (Dasgupta 8). In addition, there was the daunting volume and vastness of the Goethe archive. As his English biographer, Nicholas Boyle, said in the very first line of his Preface: “More must be known, or at any rate there must be more to know, about Goethe than about almost any other human being." But, despite my reservations, I soldiered on, thinking there was no harm in approaching Goethe in the attitude of a student, not an expert. Hadn’t Albert Schweitzer famously remarked: "No one who comes to Goethe will go away with empty hands, but will always take with him something that is good for his own life" (quoted in Dasgupta title pg).2

There was, let me confess, an additional reason for again picking up the slender thread of my acquaintance with Goethe. The fact is that to my knowledge there are very few notable Indian scholars of Goethe and a significant tradition of Goethe scholarship in India is yet to emerge. This is a fact that Sisir Kumar Das, in his essay “Goethe and India: Towards a World Literature” notices right in the beginning: “few indeed have intimate acquaintance with this many-splendoured genius who has often been described as Europe’s last universal man” (120). And yet the need for such an Indian response to one of the great figures of European literature is more than obvious. Because, as we all know, Goethe had a special link with India. I remember how as a very young child I had heard the story of Goethe's ecstatic response to Kalidasa's Shakuntala. "He put the book on his head and danced," I was told very confidently by my now forgotten interlocutor, no doubt as proof of the undying greatness, even superiority, of the classical Indian poet-playwright. Even if the gesture and the theatrics attributed to Goethe are apocryphal, who can forget the rich and fulsome praise of his encomium to Kalidasa? It was in 1791, just two years after William Jones' English translation, that Georg Forster published the first German version of Shakuntala. Goethe wrote his famous quatrain on Shakuntala in a letter to F. H. Jacob dated 1st June 1781:

Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline,

And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed?

Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?

I name thee, O Sakoontala! And all at once is said.

E. B. Eastwick's translation

It is believed that it was from Shakuntala that Goethe borrowed the idea of the Sutradhar for his own masterpiece, Faust, where in the Prologue he uses the theatre director to introduce the play.

Though Goethe's enthusiasm for things Indian waned with the years 3, that there was a distinctive Indian moment in German Romanticism of the eighteenth century cannot be denied. As is well known, some of the leading literary and cultural figures of that time, such as Herder, Heine, August and Friedrich Schlegel, Habbel, were deeply influenced by India. This German response, along with that of countless others from William Jones to Kathleen Raine, might be characterized as the Other mind of Europe, to use a phrase by J.P.S. Uberoi. It is the Other mind because it was different from the dominant Europe that we have encountered from the beginnings of the modern colonial era. The dominant Europe has been, I need not spell out, imperialistic, hegemonic, oppressive, exploitative, violent, predatory, and destructive. Of course, there are links between the two faces of Europe as they are presented to us; some have even argued that the softer visage was merely a mask that hid the true face of the conqueror. I need not add that even if there was this Other side of Europe, it was not monolithic or homogenous but diverse and, often, contradictory.

Indeed, a little reflection will show us how our view of Europe will depend, to a large extent, on our view of ourselves. There is, as I have said, a "hard" Orientalist position that would paint all of Europe with one imperialistic brush. From this standpoint Europe's contacts with the rest of the world were motivated only by greed and lust for power. This position would deny any redeeming or positive values to the contact of India with Europe. On the other hand, there are those whom we might call the "hard" Anglicists who might claim that all of Europe's impact on us was eminently salutary and worthy of imitation. As the late Nirad Chaudhury claimed, "all that was good and living within us was made, shaped, and quickened" by British rule (Dedication to The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian). This hard Anglicist position would, it goes without saying, reject Indian civilization and would seek to reconstruct a brave new modern India along western lines.

I myself would tend to assume a softer, more varied stance that allows for differentiation and variety. I would argue that the European impact on India was neither wholly beneficial nor wholly harmful and that even its beneficial effects were not free of the arrogance and taint of imperialism. But this is inevitable of all encounters between unequals. Whenever power enters into a relationship, it produces a distortion. So whenever we read Europe, we have to take this distortion into account. I have spent sometime in elaborating, if not reiterating, the above framework because I intend to use it as the groundwork for my reading of Goethe. Without such a framework I believe that most Indian responses to Europe flounder and falter, ending up as little more than weak echoes of Europe's own self-understanding.

A little while back, I made a plea for an Indian tradition of reading Goethe, or indeed, of German or European literature. This is needed not only because of Goethe (or German or European literature) are great, but because we in India need very badly to break free from the stranglehold of Anglo-American scholarship. Europe is much more than just England and America. Without opening our eyes to other European literatures, our understanding is bound to be incomplete and inadequate. And of all other nations of Europe, it is Germany that has had the longest and most sustained interest in Indic studies. It is even more useful to study Goethe and the German Romantics because most of their views on India were untainted by the kind of imperialistic blindness that infected a majority of the British Indophiles. As Pramod Talgeri says "It is a peculiar phenomenon that the relationship between the two countries in this context was free from political or economic motives" (14). Whereas most of the British Orientalists, let us not forget, were also administrators and rulers of India. In Goethe and some of his contemporaries, then, we get a rather fresh, natural, and uncontaminated response to Indian culture. Though mediated through colonialist translations, the Indian texts that reached them made a genuine impact on them and elicited a strong, creative, and fruitful response.

Goethe’s Modernity

Goethe is important to us for another reason. His outlook on life, his worldview was holistic and, to that extent, opposed to the emerging currents of modernity in Europe. It is in this sense, too, that he represents the Other mind of Europe. Goetheian science, for example, is totally different from the mainstream of modern science as we have come to know it. It is well known that Goethe was the founder of comparative anatomy, that his work helped considerably in the construction of the theory of evolution, that he founded important museums collections in botany, geology, and zoology, that he make significant investigations in plant growth processes, and that he propounded a profoundly original theory of colour. Goethe's scientific work was not just overshadowed by his eminence as a poet, but also rejected by most of his contemporaries. Despite this rejection, he laboured with an inner faith in the value of his work. In fact, Goethe scientific studies continued right to the year of his death in 1832. Despite what he himself called the prevalence of "esoteric confessions" in his scientific work, Goethe never advocated a lax or mystical approach to the observation of phenomenal reality. The only difference was that for him empirical observation had to progress to intuitive perception. As Douglas Miller says, "Despite the need to categorize, Goethe remained convinced that nature was a whole, and that it simply manifested itself through individual phenomena" (xvii). Goethe, like Vivekananda and Tagore after, sought to reconcile science and poetry: he looked forward to a time when "the two can meet again on a higher level as friends" (quoted in Miller xviii). As Rudolf Steiner points out in Goethe, the Scientist, Goethe was against the mechanistic worldview. Similarly, Dennis L. Seppar in Goethe Contra Newton argues that Goethe's science was not only anti-reductionist, but it also had an ethical dimension (187-190). The most extraordinary dimension of Goethe's science was his insistence on the self-development of the scientist: "Goethe realized that proper scientific work should bring a change in the scientist himself, especially in his mode of perception, and that this change then affected the practice of science" (Miller xix).

It is a matter of special pride that one of the most eloquent and forceful interpretations of Goethe the scientist has come from an Indian sociologist, J.P.S. Uberoi. In Science and Culture(1978), Uberoi outlines two approaches to the development of science in Europe, semiology versus positivism. Semiology was pushed into the background by an ascendant positivism. "For the semiologist, the whole is always in some sense superior and even prior to its parts," says Uberoi, while the positivist system is based upon two dualisms, between fact and value on the one hand, and theory and practice on the other. Uberoi locates Goethe firmly in the tradition of semiology. In The Other Mind of Europe: Goethe as a Scientist (1984), Uberoi pushed these ideas farther. He argued that Goethe was operating in a different scientific paradigm that gave importance to the archetype and symbol, as against the science of system and method. Tracing this tradition back to Paracelsus and the hermeticists, Uberoi offered a new defence of Goethe's theory of colours and his work in plant metamorphosis. Uberoi regarded Goethe's science as basically nondualist, while the whole edifice of modernity is built on duality.

Thus we see that not only do Goethe's ideas go against the separation of the subject and the object, of value and fact, of morality and science, upon which the whole edifice of modern civilization is built, but they also refuse to accede to the emerging dominance of the positivistic, the empiricist, and the instrumental attitude to nature. It is therefore stunning to read the following description of his own perceptive processes that Goethe wrote in his review of Purkinje's Sight from a Subjective Standpoint (1824):

When I closed my eyes and lowered my head, I could imagine a flower in the center of my visual sense. Its original form never stayed for a moment: it unfolded, and from within it new flowers continuously developed with colored petals or green leaves. These were not natural flowers; they were fantasy flowers, but as regular as rosettes carved by a sculptor....

(Quoted in Miller xix)

To me, at least, this description resembles that of a mystical vision or the unfolding of the Kundilini, in which an illumination, not the regular thought processes, reveals the nature of truth.

In a similar vein, Fritz Strich observes: "Goethe's devotion to the East is itself a kind of devout longing to be transformed through self-sacrifice, to be purified and born again out of the East to rise anew as a European" (149). Of course, it would be too tempting and facile to slide into any simple assertion of affinity or resemblance between Goethe and Eastern mysticism. Quoting Erich Truntz's remark that "The oriental world was not strange to Goethe," Talgeri warns against precisely such an assumption:

In the secondary research literature Goethe's interest in the oriental culture and philosophy has normally been attributed to the resemblance of his views with the oriental way of life and thinking" ("Goethe's perception of oriental culture" 171).

Talgeri says instead that "in fact not the familiarity but the strangeness" of Oriental culture appealed to Goethe, that it was this Otherness that he sought to incorporate into his own world view in works such as The Divan: West and East in order to arrive at his own "life coherence" (ibid).

We shall have occasion to return to this idea of absorbing diverse influences so as to form a sort of composite coherence later--indeed, perhaps, this might be what Goethe meant when he spoke of world literature--a new literature which would emerge from a new mind. But, right now, let us return to a remark that Goethe made after he had written his Divan in 1818. He wished to create a conceptual framework for an even more ambitious work in the future which would contain a kind of "observation which oscillates between the sensuous and the super-sensuous, without however clinging to only one of them" (ibid 173).

In the foregoing discussion I have tried to show how Goethe is a figure of special importance to us in India because he represents one of the most coherent and successful attempts within European tradition to attain the kind of integral approach to reality which we have always valued in Indic civilizations. What Goethe achieved is really a fine balancing act, to invoke an Upanashidic phrase, like walking the razor's edge, because he could be progressive and evolutionary without denying the beauty and perfection of the past; he could be scientific and empirical without giving up the subjective, the poetic, the ethical; he could be moved, inspired, and enriched by the treasures of other cultures without giving up his own; in other words, he could be German, European, and yet universal in a uniquely rich and fulfilling way. In turning to Goethe's thoughts on world literature, it would be particularly useful to bear this negative capability, this ability to reconcile opposites in mind. I propose that it is out of such a quest for a larger "life-coherence" that Goethe's idea of world literature emerges.

Goethe’s Weltliteratur

Goethe's ideas on weltliteratur (world literature) were scattered, not systematic. As Fritz Strich in the only book which bears the exact title of our seminar, Goethe and World Literature says, "at no point did Goethe himself unequivocally state what he wished to be understood by world literature" (5). It is, nevertheless, what Strich calls a "magical term" which at once "brings to mind a feeling of liberation, of such gain in space and scope" (Strich 3). That is all the more reason that we bear in mind that Goethe's thoughts on the subject belong to a specific time and place--the term itself was coined in 1827 (Strich 160), though Goethe had been thinking along these lines earlier and continued to do so later. It is therefore imperative that we do not wrench these ideas out of their context and attempt to derive from them some contemporary, even postcolonial idea of a global literature. But before proceeding, let us briefly recount some of Goethe's observations.

1. "National literature is no longer of importance; it is the time for world literature, and all must aid in bringing it about." (Gearey 224).

Lest we jump to the conclusion that Goethe was suggesting a postmodern withering away of the nation-state, we must remember that he was capable of saying what seems like exactly the opposite thing: "Poetry is cosmopolitan, and the more interesting the more it shows its nationality" (Gearey 228). Elsewhere, Goethe says, "only from a real nation can a national writer of the highest order be expected" (Spingrarn 84). From this one example, we can see that like all great men, Goethe was wont to contradict himself now and again.

2. "...I am convinced that a world literature is beginning to develop, in which an honourable role is reserved for us Germans." (Gearey 225)

3. "The world at large, no matter how vast it may be, is only an expanded homeland and will actually yield in interest no more than our native land. ... The serious-minded must therefore form a silent, almost secret congregation, since it would be futile to oppose the powerful currents of the day." (Gearey 227)

4. "The phenomenon which I call world literature will come about mainly when the disputes within one nation are settled by the opinions and judgements of others." (Gearey 228)

5."For it is evident that all nations, thrown together at random by terrible wars, then reverting to their status as individual nations, could not help realizing that they had been subject to foreign influences.... Instead of isolating themselves as before, their state of mind has gradually developed a desire to be included in the free exchange of ideas." (Gearey 228).

The fullest discussion of these ideas is found, as I mentioned earlier, in Strich's book, which was published in 1945, but based on lectures that he gave as early as 1929. For Strich, world literature essentially meant "the choice literature which has gained for itself a significance transcending nationality and time" (4). He also identifies various other senses of the term such as: a link literature; the literature of/in translation; letters between authors of different nations; a branch of scholarship, especially comparative literature; and world poetry as the essence of world literature (Strich 5-16). This shows us the multiple, overlapping, and at times contrary meanings inherent in the term world literature.

There are only two Indian scholars I know who have written in some detail about this idea is R. K. Dasgupta. He begins his brief essay "Goethe on World Literature" by quoting from a letter that Carlyle wrote to Goethe on 22 January 1831: "What I have named world literature after you ... [is] to become more and more one universal Commonwealth" (Dasgupta 21). Dasgupta uses this letter to argue that by world literature, Goethe did not mean "airy cosmopolitanism" or an "intellectual internationalism" that was a cover for "intellectual rootlessness" (21). Nor, according to Dasgupta, is Goethe's notion of world literature to be confused with comparative literature, the study of "resemblances and differences between national literatures" (ibid). Dasgupta also clarified that "Nothing could be further from his [Goethe's] mind than to suppose that World-literature was the total amount of literature produced in the world" (ibid). Later, Dasgupta went on to say that "Goethe's World-literature does not really mean the production of a new literature which would be the literature of the new universal man" (22). Instead, for Dasgupta, it was the discovery of "those elements in a national literature which are universal and are, therefore, capable of being appreciated by other nations" which makes for world literature: "The discovery of this element of universality makes possible the emergence of a World-literature" (ibid). Dasgupta adds, "to appreciate the universal element in a literature you must first understand its national peculiarity" (22). And finally that "World-literature involves the idea of a world mind" (21).

The other scholar, whose work I’ve already cited, is Sisir Kumar Das. He notes that Goethe’s idea of a world literature was really an extension of his notion of European literature as the a collection of, in Goethe’s own words, “the universally valid human elements that are distributed over the entire earth in most varied forms” (124). But this notion was predicated on the possibility of the emergence of a new epoch in human consciousness, something that Rabindranath Tagore also reiterated, without referring to Goethe, in his 1907 lecture at the National Council of Education (125). Das’s essay is, despite its title, not a detailed exposition of Goethe’s idea of world literature. Instead, he notes that the idea no longer has the kind of vital energy that it once enjoyed. According to Das, world literature must include the “study and understanding of texts which have been admired and preserved by different literary communities through a considerable length of time” (126). World literature, in other words, is tantamount to “a study of classics” though necessarily free from “any hegemonic poetics” (ibid).

Frankly, I find both these views not entirely satisfactory. Das, by turning Goethe’s idea to the study of world classics, reduces, to my mind, its possible implications. Dasgupta's positions, on the other hand, appear to me to be somewhat contradictory and, in any case, not properly elucidated. Yet, it is useful to examine his comments because they help identify the key features of the debate on world literature. I tend to agree with Dasgupta that Goethe's idea of world literature is, first of all, not a sum total of various national literatures. It is not, in other words, what Sisir Kumar Das in his Introduction to A History of Indian Literature calls "an arithmetical approach" (vol 8: 8). Nor does Goethe suggest that world literature is, by definition, opposed to national literature. This relationship between the local and the global, between the national and the international is quite a tricky issue. Indeed, Bhalchandra Nemade in his famous essay "Nativism in Literature" (Sahityateel Deshiyata") argues that what goes by the name of internationalism is only a European colonialism in disguise. For Nemade, the classics of world literature are nothing but classics of specific native literary traditions which, because of certain historical and cultural forces, become reference points for the world community: "Certain historical circumstances create situations in which literary works produced by a particular civilization act as a central reference code for the emotional problems of the world community" (Paranjape 245). In other words, these works are not inherently international, but that "In such historical moments, such an atmosphere is created that the sensibilities of a regional group represent the sensibilities of the whole humanity" (ibid). Unlike Das who argues, for instance, that Goethe’s Faust has some inherently “international” themes, for Nemade the concept of a transcendental world literature, above and beyond space and time, is a myth. All world literature is also at once regional or native literature of a peculiar place and time: "An 'international' literature without native reference does not exist" (ibid 246). The real question, to me, is precisely this: if world literature does not, by definition, oppose national or regional literature, then how is it to be distinguished from the latter? Is world literature that which is not national/regional or is it a special type of national/regional literature?

Perhaps, this may be the appropriate place to bring in another nativist critic, G. N. Devy. In a chapter called "Nation in Narration" towards the end of his new book, Of Many Heroes, Devy says that a literary history cannot be written without "the institutionalized teaching of history, and the emergence of a culture's self-recognition" (161). To illustrate his point, Devy says:

For example, millions of people all over the world travel every day for various reasons; and often they travel through towns, territories, nations which are not their own. No one has thought of writing a history of literature by and for travellers in the world. But as soon as these people acquire a sense of sharing a common fate, the sense of being a community, there will emerge a need for the history of expatriate literature. (Ibid)

Obviously, this process of the self-recognition, empowerment, and institutionalization of migrants, exiles, diasporics, and other displaced people is precisely what the emergence of postcolonial studies all over the world is all about. This is what Bhabha means when he says that world literature is "an emergent, prefigurative category that is concerned with a form of cultural dissensus and alterity, where non-consensual terms of affiliation may be established on the grounds of historical traumas" (see "Introduction," The Location of Culture 1-18). But this is going to the other extreme, of hegemonising alterity and difference, of privileging dissent and dislocation, of rewarding displacement with an ontological status. If this is the shape of world literature, it is as much based on exclusion as are the older, more consensual and stable forms of self-formation and identity seeking. The point is that the world is still an idea, while the idea of the nation is a reality. Everyone who lives in a nation also lives in the world, but it is not possible at present to live in the world without living in a nation. That is why the idea of world literature is still emergent, not actualized.

Yet, Goethe's idea has a definite resonance for us today, partly because we are living at a time when national barriers are breaking down, largely by the forces of technology and trade if not by wars and disasters. We may recall that the time Goethe lived in was also one of shrinking boundaries and unprecedented crossings. As Dasgupta puts it:

When Sir William Jones's English translation of Shakuntala appeared in 1879 Goethe was forty years of age. Forster's German translation of Shakuntala appeared in 1791. Six years earlier, that is, in 1785, had appeared Charles Wilkins's English translation of the Bhagavadgita. Frederick Schlegel's The Language and Wisdom of India was published in 1808. Ten years after this, in 1818, Frederick Schlegel's brother A. W. Schlegel was appointed Professor of German at Bonn. Bopp's Analytical Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Teutonic Languages appeared in 1816. Jayadeva's Gitagovinda was translated into English prose by Sir William Jones in 1789. (23-24)

The idea that Dasgupta tries to convey, I think, is that Europe and India, not to speak of the rest of the world, were closer than ever before. You could read a text from a distant land and period in the most fresh and contemporary manner. Literally, a new world of creative possibilities, a new cultural commonwealth was emerging. It was out of such ferment the notion of world literature was born.4

Today, however, we see that the vision of a global world order clearly implies the continued domination of the Western powers, militarily, economically, and culturally. That is why some critics wish to salvage the universal, that older enlightenment notion, while still opposing the global. Of these, Aijaz Ahmad is perhaps the most sensible and eloquent. In an interview with the New York based Monthly Review, he says:

world literature remains the horizon of universalist desire. But the ground reality is that there really is no alternative to picking up small chunks and doing them well, whatever those chunks get called.

Ahmad arrives at this conclusion after warning us that "world literature will always reflect the inequalities of the imperialist system so long as this system lasts."5 Despite this drawback, Ahmad is unwilling to give up the idea of universality. Of course, there is an even more serious warning that Ahmad sounds:

One problem is how this world literature is to be actually taught and read. The idea of world literature in the traditional sense, a la Goethe, remains deeply canonical, even Arnoldian: all the best that has been thought and written is now to be culled not from this or that nation but from the world. If you think about it, this way of reading "great books" produced in the various continents in the world, assembled in a canonizing way, is perfectly reconcilable with the intensified integration of the upper classes of the world into something resembling a world bourgeoisie. It is very easy for world literature to represent this global integration and arrive at an easy, even very glossy capitalist universalization. In this area, we have to question the very idea of literature and we have to be very suspicious of all texts, certainly including the ones that arrive from the Third World, insofar as they display the slightest potential for canonicity. We have to begin, in fact, with a great suspicion of the very fact that the category of world literature as a pedagogical object is arising in the core capitalist countries, whereas the poorer countries have no means of their own to constitute such objects.

I agree with Ahmad that like the idea of the nation or of national literature, we shall have to question what kind of world literature we are talking about before supporting or opposing it. If world literature is just another name for imperialism, obviously we don't want it just as we don't nationalism if it is nothing more than fascism. But if world literature points to the idea of a universal culture or civilization that is egalitarian, pluralistic, multicultural, then this idea, however utopian, is worth striving for. I suspect that is what Goethe really had in mind. In fact, it is an ideal that might inspire spiritual people as it does genuine Marxists. There are doctrinal and theoretical questions at stake in Ahmad's position which, of course, I need not venture into just now.6

What we have seen is that world literature is not a realized entity, but as yet an ideal, a distant dream. It is the sort of dream of a world culture or civilization that inspired several Indian change-agents including Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. As Strich puts it, world literature is "Nor merely that which at any given moment actually exists, but also that which is striving to be born" (3). It is, moreover, an idea predicated upon the emergence of a world community, a world civilization that is universal without being homogenous. Those who believe in the New Age hope and pray for precisely such a perfected world, a new Satya Yuga, which includes and exceeds all the four previous yugas. Perhaps the most detailed and persuasive formulation of this golden tomorrow is available in the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Like Goethe, Sri Aurobindo was had an evolutionary outlook. He believed that the future of humanity is luminous because encased in the human is the Divine struggling to manifest itself in all its splendour. In the idea of the Supermind, Sri Aurobindo saw the highest rung of the evolution of the cosmos before its merger into the Absolute, Satchitananda, that is beyond name and form. But in the Supermind, both the Ananda of creation and the Perfection of the Absolute are present. The Mother declared that the Supermind had actually descended into the earth atmosphere on 29 February 1956.7 Whether or not we believe in such millennial prophecies that is the direction to which, I believe, our study of Goethe's idea of world literature will actually take us. That, after all, is also the direction in which alchemical thought from the earliest times, has ventured. That Goethe was a part of this ancient wisdom tradition should be obvious to anyone who reads his work carefully. Both as a poet and as a scientist, Goethe was passionately concerned with the perfectibility of nature, of the wedding, so to speak, of nature and supernature, the union of heaven and earth Blake envisioned too. I trust that by such a reading, though I might have brought Goethe closer to us in India, I have not done the injustice of misunderstanding him or of wrenching him out of his European, German context. Because, ultimately, is not merely as an Indian that I should like to encounter Goethe, but as one world citizen in dialogue with another on the stage that he himself so aptly named as world literature.

Colophon: This is a modified version of the Keynote address that I delivered at the International Seminar on “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Dwelling in the House of World Literature,” jointly sponsored by the Department of English, University of Mumbai and the Max Mueller Bhavan from 30th September to 1st October 1999. Homi Bhabha had been slated as the Keynote speaker, but could not make it. Naturally, I had my own hesitations in the invitation to deliver the Keynote address in his stead. I explained my reservations in the opening remarks of the Keynote address, some of which I reproduce below.

My acceptance of Professor Nilufer Bharucha's invitation to deliver a Keynote address in this seminar may, I am afraid, prove the age-old adage that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Although the angel in this case might have been of a somewhat deconstructive disposition, nevertheless, filling in for him would be virtually impossible--after all, who could be as erudite--or incomprehensible--as Homi Bhabha? But in matters of accepting such invitations, ultimately, what prevails is the kindness and insistence of friends if not one's foolish bravado; these two, at any rate, make the heady cognitive cocktail, fortified with which I stand before you today.

Endnotes

1. Clark S. Muenzer, commenting on Goethe's characters in Figures of Identity: Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self, observes: "The aspiring individual in his orientation toward substantive centres, first establishes himself in relation to infinite hopes. But he must also recognize these centres as possibilities of the imagination" (145). Incidentally, Sisir Kumar Das, in his essay “Goethe and India: Towards a World Literature” notes the “frigid Indian response” to this “novel of astonishing emotional power” (127). Indian lyricism, according to Das, drew its inspiration from English literature rather than from a text like Werther which “made Goethe renowned all over Europe” (ibid).

2. This is a modified version of the keynote address delivered at an international seminar on “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Dwelling in the House of World Literature,” jointly sponsored by the Department of English, University of Mumbai and the Max Mueller Bhavan from 30th September to 1st October 1999. Homi Bhabha had been slated as the keynote speaker, but could not make it. I explained my reservations assuming his place in the opening remarks: my acceptance of Professor Nilufer Bharucha's invitation to deliver a Keynote address in this seminar may, I am afraid, prove the age-old adage that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Although the angel in this case might have been of a somewhat deconstructive disposition, nevertheless, filling in for him would be virtually impossible--after all, who could be as erudite--or incomprehensible--as Homi Bhabha?

3. In a letter dated 22nd October 1826 he wrote: "I have by no means an aversion to things Indian, but I am afraid of them, for they draw my imagination into the formless and the diffuse, against which I have to guard myself more than ever before...." (quoted in Dasgupta 28).

4. Stritch makes a detailed survey of the European origins of Goethe's idea of world literature; see the chapters, "Sources," 31-51, and "History" 52-80.

5. Edward Said makes similar observations in Culture and Imperialism 52. Such remarks reflect a larger mistrust with homogenizing and universalizing projects. Consider, for instance, Bhabha’s diatribe against Commonwealth literature: “[Commonwealth literature’s] versions of traditional academicist wisdom moralize the conflictual moment of colonialist intervention into that constitutive chain of exemplum and imitation, what Friedrich Nietzche describes as the monumental history beloved of ‘gifted egoists and visionary scoundrels’ ” (“Signs Taken for Wonders” 147).

6. For instance, what would be the role of an international bourgeoisie in the formation of the new world order. Are they to be treated as the enemy of the emerging global proletariat or the agents of history who have a valuable role to play? Besides, one may clearly discern the emergence of a global bourgeoisie, but hardly a global working class. Perhaps, one would have to rethink the idea of class struggle itself.

7. For an introduction to Sri Aurobindo's thought see, The Penguin Sri Aurobindo Reader, which I have edited.

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