Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Shia Blogger at Worli Seaface

77000 Photo Blogs at Flickr in 24 Months

77,004 items / 397,753 views 20 May 20009

Today I complete 77000 photo blogs in 24 months at Flickr.

I thank all of you for making it possible..with your advice suggestions and comments.

I dedicate this post to my mentor Dr Glenn Losack MD..and am happy that he has a Pro Flickr account to showcase the brilliance of his work..We both shoot Pain..as it pierces the human soul, relentlessly in one form or the other.

At Blogspot I would have been sodomized by Word Verification for being a positive Spam..

The Human Flesh

the human flesh
can take so much
much more still
remain fresh
spirituality
beneath
a bleeding mesh
through rituals
divination
the soul refresh

"The seeking after knowledge of future or hidden things by inadequate means. " catholic encyclopedia..

I Dont Shoot Flowers !

This is a personal poem of pain, and has nothing to do with photographers my friends or otherwise who shoot flowers , its my general angst against the back drop of the little kids I shoot at traffic signals , so dont read it as a personal attack into your genre of photography..nor do I belittle what you shoot , its your prerogative as shooting pain is my prerogative I thought this disclaimer essential to the inner dark depths of my poem..

The only person who thinks like me on this is Dr Glenn Losack MD ..we arent slinging mud either ..

I dont shoot flowers
in dream like gardens
with expensive cameras
expensive macro lenses
No I dont shoot flowers at all
but I shoot pain
of deflowered hope
of little children
begging at traffic signals
near expensive shopping malls
on the waist of a little girl
another snotty child
very small
their miserable lives
hit by a karmic tsunami of a squall
dwarfs midgets
who will never ever grow tall
used by playful
vicious society as a punching ball
their little miserable lives
up against a barbed wire wall
I shoot these trampled flowers
if you can call them flowers
after all
their dark faces their barefeet
their fucked fate all in all
little girls who will
become child mothers
gang raped by a sucked system
that says bugger all
unshowered flesh
filthy dirty
covered in a deathly pall
you who wont see what I see
watching your game of baseball
towards the finishing line
at a traffic signal of life
as they run as they fall
those without legs
on hands as they crawl
bleeding words encrypted
as poetic scrawl
silence screamlessly
pleading against
a wailing wall

Goddess Maryamma at Worli Sea Face

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariamman

Goddess Māri (Tamil: மாரி) is known as Mariamman, "Mother Mari" (Tamil: மாரியம்மன்), spelt also Maariamma (Tamil: மாரியம்மா), or simply Amman (Tamil: அம்மன்), meaning "mother". She is the main South Indian mother goddess, predominant in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Goddess Māri is also closely associated with the Hindu goddesses Parvati and Durga.

Origin

Māri originated as an ancient village goddess related to fertility and rain. In Tamil, māri means rain. This goddess was a local deity, connected to a specific location, close to a specific tree, a rock or a special spot, mostly in rural areas. Another theory regarding origin of the name arises from the fact that mari in Tamil also means change. Thus, the name Mari Amman would mean goddess who has changed. According to some sources, Mariamman is the same as Renuka or Yellamma[1].

[edit] Iconography

Māri is usually portrayed as a beautiful young woman with a red-hued face, wearing a red dress. Sometimes she is portrayed with many arms, representing her many powers, but in most representations she has only two or four. Her hands may display some mudra and her usual attributes are the trident or spear and the bowl, which are derived from stories told about her.

[edit] Goddess of Disease

Mariamman was the smallpox goddess before this disease was eradicated. Now she cures all so-called heat-based diseases like pox and rashes. During the summer months in South India (March to June), people walk miles carrying pots of water mixed with turmeric and neem leaves to ward off illnesses like the measles and chicken pox. In this form, goddess Māri is very similar to Sitala Devi[2], her counterpart in North India and the orisha Babalu Aye of the Yoruba tradition.

[edit] Fertility goddess

People also pray to Mariamman for progeny, a good spouse, etc. The most favoured offering is "pongal", a mix of rice and green gram, cooked mostly in the temple complex, or shrine itself, in terracotta pots using firewood.

Some festivals in honor of goddess Māri involve processions carrying lights. In the night, the devotees carry oil lamps in procession, which is a beautiful sight.
Main shrine to Mariamman in the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[edit] Amman Temples

Most Mariamman temples are humble shrines in villages, where non-Brahmins act as priest using non-agamic rituals. In many rural shrines, the goddess has no form and is represented by a granite stone with a sharp tip, like a spear head. This stone is often adorned with garlands made of limes and with red flowers. These shrines often have an anthill that could be the resting place of a cobra. Milk and eggs are offered to propitiate the snake.

Some temples have also attained enough popularity that Brahmins do officiate at them. For example, at the Samayapuram temple near the shore of river Cauvery, rich agamic traditions are followed and all rituals are performed by Gurukkal of Brahmins.

At Punainallur, near Thanjavur (Tanjore), there is another famous Māri temple. The history says that once Goddess Mariamman appeared to the King Venkoji Maharaja Chatrapati (1676 - 1688) of Tanjore, in his dream and told him that she was in a forest of Punna trees at a distance of about 3 miles from Tanjore. The King rushed to the spot and recovered an idol from the jungle. Under the king's orders a temple was constructed, the idol installed and the place was called Punnainallur. Hence the deity of this temple is known as Punnainallur Mariamman. Mud replicas of different parts of the human body are placed in the temple as offerings by devotees pleading for cure. It is said that the daughter of Tulaja Raja (1729-35) of Tanjore, who lost her eyesight due to illness, regained it after worshiping at this temple.

Other important temples of Mariamman in Tamil Nadu are in the towns of Anbil, Narthamalai,Thiruverkadu, Salem, Virudhunagar and Sivakasi.

Another famous Mariamman temple is situated in the state of Karnataka, in the town of Kaup, 7 km from the famous temple town of Udipi.

[edit] Vedic Worship

Mariamman is the sister of Lord Vishnu (Sriranganathar) and called Mahamaya.

The Samayapuram Mariamman is also worshipped on the first day of the Tamil month of Vaikasi by the Iyengar/Srivaishna Brahmins of Srirangam. They claim that she is the sister of Lord Renganath (a form of Vishnu) of Srirangam. This is the second temple in Tamil Nadu, following Palani, regarding income.

Another version suggests that she is the mother of Parasurama, Renukadevi who is appeased for rains.

[edit] Outside India

There are many Mariamman Temples in locations outside of India, such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Fiji, Vietnam and South Africa, resulting from the Tamil diaspora. Some of the notable temples include the Sri Mariamman temple in Singapore, a Mariamman temple in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as one in Medan, Indonesia.

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