A short update of our Europe Trip

We landed at Frankfurt on the 4th of July, were met at the Airport by my old friend Mrinal - and over the next couple of weeks we have seen a lot of Frankfurt, Been to Paris, Zurich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Rottemburg, and so many other places including a wonderful Medevial Town, The Neuswanstien Castle with the incredible Mrinal - and will write in detail and post photos and descriptions of all the places by and by
We then came by train to Bremmen via Hanover and are now at my great mad friend Kundi's place in Hepstedt, North Germany. Mashinder is in a heaven built by himself here - I think that I will have to post a separate blog about his incredible house itself.
Today we drove with Mashinder and his very very wonderful wife Rumi to Hamburg, We walked around the beautiful city centre area, ate a great lunch at his favourite Chinese restraunt there and then took a City tour on the open top of a bus which showed us all the major attractions of this city of over 2 million people. The architecture is incredible and warrants a very detailed report which shall follow. Mashinder just booked rooms in a hotel and we shall be driving around 450 KM tomorrow to Amsterdam, Holland for a couple of days with him..
We hope all of our family and  friends are well and shining and happy and healthy
Adieu
Deepak and Abha 
 

PARIS - DEEPAK MRINAL ABHA JULY 2011

Details will follow - Mrinal drove us to Paris and we all had the time of our lives - This album is dedicated to Mrinal and Alban

PARIS - DEEPAK MRINAL ABHA JULY 2011

Descriptions will follow -these are some photos of our trip to Paris with our wonderful friend Mrinal

Winsor McCay's Little Nemo: The First True Animation, 1911 | Brain Pickings

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/06/30/winsor-mccay-little-nemo-first-animation-1911/comment-page-1/#comment-132562
This is the comment I just made on this site about Winsor Mckay :-
Quote :I just saw the incredible genius of Winsor Mckay in that great video on the making of “Little Nemo” and I was astounded at the greatness of the man – I am certain that no one in our present generation could possibly have conceived such a concept and even if they could have done it – I doubt that anyone would ever have the patience or the skills of imagination to break open the world of cartoons in this way – this is a Path breaking video and I think I have to salute Mckay as well as your website for this glorious experience!
Bow’s and exeunt
Deepak
Unquote

The Shakechilli in me says ....

There are so many things I want to do and so much has been left undone .. I think I shall be dabbling in many many things and they will include :
1. Completing my Science Fiction Novel - Lying dormant over the years - no time to think and complete it - around 100 Pages written
2. Getting my Children's Books Published - 4 Books completed and Copyrighted so far and lying dormant over the years because I never had the time to contact a publisher ha ha
3. Writing a sequel to "Lost Horizon" - still half done
4. Publishing two completed collections of Poetry
5. Writing another book of Quatrains - this time will get them published by an international publisher and also get my published book of poetry "Tamam Shudh" re-published (Tamam Shudh means 'All Pure' .
6. So far I have painted in water colour - rather difficult - so this time I shall paint one in "Oils" - lets see how it comes. And if I do manage to paint it reasonably well - I shall ask you to teach me how to paint in "Acrylic" too
7. Complete my book which is based on my own experiences when we ran away from home to Mumbai - in fact this one is the top priority because I promised my daughter that I will write it one day ..
8. Try to write articles for News Papers and Magazines - they need a new perspective to stop them from running down people all the time ha ha
And of course - Dance and sing and Make a CD too
They say that if wishes were horses - beggars would ride and of course there is also the story of the good Sheikh Chilli !!
Take care and keep writing - in fact because this is probably the first time I have actually put down on words what I think I will do after I retire .. I'll just post this link on my Face Book too
Take care everyone and keep dreaming ...
Deepak

Virginia Woolf’s late essays by Trev Broughton - TLS

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7176518.ece
And once I retire - I think I will study Virginia Woolf immediately and try to understand what exactly was the "Stream of Consciousness" which was the hallmark of her writing ...

A Blog by Varsh Nagpal on the institution of Marriage and Relationsships

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=795214715895562973&postID=8391155975907476198&page=1&token=1308476423039

And that is a link to my friends blog which is about the institution of marriage. I placed a comment on it and hope I was not being stupid ha ha

Take care and have a great time

Deepak

neil diamond-if you go away

This is one of my all time favourite songs - and I think that

this version sung by Neil Diamond is the very best of the best.

I am posting this to let my dear wife, Abha, and all my friends

here and those from across the world, that without them life

will have lost its splendour for ever .......

Deepaks Site

Sense and Common sense

I read the Reserve Bank of India Bulletin today and was impressed by a speech given by Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty - and decided to blog a little excerpt from that speech. Perhaps this shows that the people who regulate the entire monetary policy and thence the Economy of our country - have a great depth to their knowledge - in fact it is clear that it is a mix of Talent and Common Sense that makes India a great country.

I am pasting that excerpt below for all of you to read and hope you find a lot of meaning in this little fable ..

Deepak

Talent Acquisition and

Management*

Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty

http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Bulletin/PDFs/03SP080611F.pdf

The Scholars and the Lion…

Four men grew up together in a little village in

India. Three of the men were scholars, but the fourth

man never studied anything. In fact, he had never read

a book in his life. He just got along as best as he could

on his own common sense. But the four men had been

friends as children, and they remained friends despite

their differences.

One day, the four friends were sitting under the

tree talking of this and that when one of the scholars

said,

‘Something has been bothering me. I have spent

all my life studying, and I know many things, but I

know them only from books. I don’t know if my

knowledge works, out in the world.’

‘You know,’ said another of the scholars, ‘the same

thing has been bothering me! But somehow, this little

village doesn’t seem to offer the scope for me to try

out my vast knowledge.’

‘Clearly,’ said the third scholar, ‘we must travel

out into the world and try out our knowledge there.’

The other scholars agreed, but then there was their

friend. They had always done everything together,

share and share alike, but suppose...suppose they

found some lost treasure by using their knowledge?

Suppose they solved a problem for a rajah and he

rewarded them with gold and jewels? They had studied

late into the night to prepare themselves for this work,

and their friend had done nothing. He only had

common sense, and which rajah would be impressed

with that? They argued this back and forth, as they so

enjoyed doing, but finally they decided to do as they

had always done, share and share alike.

And so they started on their journey. They walked

along for many days, and one day they saw some bones

scattered by the path. One of the scholars said, ‘I can

tell from my studies that these bones are the bones of

a lion. Now it so happens that I have learnt how to

arrange the bones as they would be in a living lion.’

‘ R e a l l y ? ’ s a i d t h e s e c o n d s c h o l a r , ‘ t h a t i s

interesting – for it so happens that from my studies I

know how to clothe the bones with flesh and blood

and skin and fur.’

‘Indeed?’ said the third scholar. ‘How curious ! It

so happens that I know the next step. Once the animal

is formed, I know how to breathe life into it. Clearly,

this is the place where we should try out our knowledge

to see if it works in the world.’ The others agreed.

The fourth man, the one who wasn’t a scholar,

was simply struck dumb by this display of learning and

didn’t say anything at all.

So the first scholar stepped forward and arranged

the bones as they would be in a living lion. Then he

stepped back, and the second scholar stepped forward

and clothed the bones with flesh, and blood, and skin,

and fur. Then he stepped back, and the third scholar

stepped forward, about to breathe life into the animal,

when the fourth man said “Wait! That’s a lion! That’s

a lion you are about to bring to life. It could eat us up!

Stop! Think what you’re doing!’

‘We know what we’re doing,’ said the scholars.

‘We have studied this all our lives. Don’t worry. Just

leave everything to us.’

‘Well, all right,’ said their friend, ‘but...could you

wait till I climb a tree?’ ‘Certainly,’ said the scholars,

and they waited till the fourth friend had climbed a

convenient tree. Then the third scholar went back to

the procedure of breathing life into the animal. And

sure enough, the lion started breathing, opened its

eyes, looked at the three scholars, sprang upon them,

and ate them up.

After the lion had gone away, the fourth man, the

one who wasn’t a scholar, climbed down from the tree

and made his way back to the village, taking with him

no great treasure of gold and jewels, but only his own

common sense.

Talent, to me, is indeed like common sense –

you have it, or you do not have it.

Those were the days my friend ... Mary Hopkins

I got this from You Tube - the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyaTIXdN5fI&feature=related.

 Thie link to the song is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDVhB0jGP7I&NR=1

"You Look Familiar"
A new CD from Mary Hopkin and Morgan Visconti release date 25/10/2010
http://www.maryhopkin.com


The opening black and white film is from 1968 and the remaining film is from around 1982.

This song sung by Mary Hopkin called "those were the days" is not translated from the song "Дорогой длинною" "Dorogo Dlinnoyu".

The song "Dorogoy Dlinnoyu (Along a long road)" was written in the 1920's by "Boris Fomin" (music) and "Konstantin Podrevsky" (lyrics). An American called Gene Raskin in the early 60's wrote the lyrics "Those were the days" and put them to Fomin's music. The words have no similarity whatsoever with Podrevsky's

For more info on Mary and this song visit my website at http://www.maryhopkin.net

Born in Wales Mary began her musical career as a folk singer with a local group called the Selby Set and Mary. She released an EP of Welsh language songs for a local label called Cambrian before signing to the Beatles Apple Label, model Twiggy saw her winning a TV talent show and recommended her to Paul McCartney. She was one of the first artists to record on the Beatles record label Her debut single" Those Were the Days" got to number 1 in the UK and number 2 in the US. Selling over 8 million copies.

A little something more about Mary!
In September 2005 she released an album on her own label, "Mary Hopkin Music", called "Live at the Royal Festival Hal!" It was followed in December 2006 by a brand-new Christmas recording, "Snowed Under", released as an mp3 download via Disaudio.com
To celebrate her birthday in 2007, she released an album called "Valentine", on her new label uk It includes 12 previously unheard tracks dating from 1972 to 1980, three of which were written by Mary. Then in December 2008 the CD 'Recollections' was released again included songs written by Mary, And now May 2009 yet another new CD is released called 'Now and Then' all these wonderful recordings are available via Mary's own Website at MARY HOPKIN MUSIC http://www.maryhopkin.co.

Category:

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EL PASO

I heard this song just once when I was a young lad - decades ago

And then I looked for it all these years - could never find it because

I never remembered the singer or the Title of the song. And then

my great singer YouTube friend sang it on his YouTube page!!

It filled me with great wonder that today strangers from across

the world can be friends and touch others hearts - thanks to the

Internet. Hear it on full volume and dance to the song!!

Gandu - an article by Serena for the Hindustan Times "Cafe"

An article where sense and sensibilities of people are disturbed - specially the sensibilities of Indians ha ha

What's in a Kiss?

And this article written by Serena, my daughter who writes for the Hindustan Times, came this morning. And the thought came to me - what's in a Kiss? I never ever examined the issue all my life - so I throw it to you all to examine this CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ISSUE!!

EXAMINE THIS STRANGE Piece of NEWS

EXAMINE THIS STRANGE Piece of NEWS  http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Men_go_for_looks_women_profession-nid-84040.html?utm_source=Subscriber  

And what is the much touted "LOOK" ? In my opinion it is the "Look" given by the lady to the man - remember the song by Dean Martin - "The Look". The look could chip a heart of stone. And once the heart is chipped - Love pours out and creates the link which lasts for ever 

SO I AGREE MEN GO FOR LOOKS!!!!

Here is the link to the song "The Look" by Dean Martin - CHECK IT OUT ON YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57PN3CpOSS8 and I hope you all like it.

What do WOMEN go for? I think they go where their heart takes them! No one can ever know why!!

AND THATS THAT!!

FELLOWSHIP FOR SAMMY

This is just to inform everyone that our son Little Sammy has now grown into a Big Fellow. In fact Stanford University was so happy with the Little Fellow that they decided to always call him "Fellow" and so they have even awarded him with a FELLOWSHIP ha ha ha.
We are thrilled that the focus of his research and fellowship is "HEALTH". I think that one day he may own a Drug Store too ha ha
Stanford Univ wrote to him :-  QUOTE:-

Congratulations!  On behalf of the Bio-X Leadership Council, and the Graduate Fellowships Faculty Advisory Committee (GFFAC), we are delighted to inform you that you have been selected to receive a Bio-X Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship (SIGF) in Human Health. This award is one of the greatest honors Stanford gives to a doctoral student pursuing interdisciplinary research.   Your strong interdisciplinary approach is a perfect fit for the innovative work within Bio-X. You are one of seven students selected from a highly competitive pool, and to be chosen for this award shows your great potential for a successful future at the crossroads of biology and other sciences.  We welcome you to the community of Bio-X Fellows, and to the community of SIGFs from across the University.

 As part of the Bio-X community, you will be invited and expected to participate in the events that are sponsored by Bio-X.  Gabriella Martelino, Bio-X Education and Fellowship Coordinator and Heideh Fattaey, Executive Director of Bio-X Operations and Programs, will be in contact with you in regard to upcoming events for Bio-X Fellows.

 The Bio-X SIGF fellowships are co-administered by Bio-X and the Vice Provost for Graduate Education office. As a recipient of the Bio-X SIGF in Human Health, you will be invited to participate in activities with other SIGF fellows.

UNQUOTE

And it is now 00.30 AM here and to bed with me

CHEERS TO EVERYONE FROM ABHA and me

Deepak

David Icke - It`s Like a Canvas of Consciousness . . .

And truely life is a canvass of many hues .. this beautiful clip was posted

and shared by my friend Rose who is an extraordinary artist and delves

into the inner psyche within us all ....

Sonnet No 6 by me

SONNET NO 6

.                      by

.      Deepak Menon
.
The oceans be deep yet the Sea of Sorrow is deeper still

In which the lover from his love estranged, wallows
The mountains be high yet higher is the lonely tower still
From which the lover’s lonely gaze scans the hollows
Enervated by the calamity that knows no earthly parallel
Yet pervades the world of humanity in equal measure
The look or word that transforms heaven into fiery hell
Hurling into depths of sadness what once was pleasure
The sight of a vacuous smile upon the same upturned face
Now meaningless as it follows a vacant and empty look
The frantic nonchalance in the searching for just a trace
Of the raging storms that once his heart by force took
And in that fleeting moment, do stop the sands of time
Life losing its lustre, and the song of life – its rhyme.

Abha's Family Album

Abha's Family Album

Baar Baar Dekho - Shammi Kapoor & Shakila & Keshto Mukherjee - China Town

And this little clip of the great song - is still so enchanting - devoid

of all the embellishments of the modern world of high technology

where the real artistic skills of the actor are lost or overshadowed

by highlights or special effects - this song shows every thing as it

actually was ... and I love the song ...