Bharatanatyam

Every Sunday I take my daughter to learn dance: Bharatanatyam. Many people have no clue what this dance is. So I have started with a small intro of the same.

Bharatanatyam is a classical south Indian dance. As my daughter’s teacher says : Bha for Bhava or abhinaya and expression, Ra for raga or melody, and Ta for tala or rhythm.

This is a very popular dance form in South India. It is oldest of all classical dance forms in India. The music is based on Carnatic classical music. The instruments used are the Veena, Flute, Mridangam and Violin.

It is practiced by male and female dancers all over India.

I have given you a small introduction to this form of Dance which is now widely performed and being learnt all over the world.

If you would like to read more about the same style, here are some additional links:

1. From Wikipedia

What is Karma?

We hear this word from most people here. I have wondered many times, having no idea of Hinduism, do these people actually know what Karma means?

In Hinduism, karma simply means “cause and effect.” God does not give us karma. We create our own. Simply stated, karma is the law of action and reaction which governs consciousness. I saw this quote in one of the sites I was looking for, it is so true.

Bad karma is because we have done something bad in the past to someone, and now someone is doing something bad to us. Good karma means that we have done something good in the past and now others are doing something good to us now. Because we Hindus understand karma, we do not hate or resent the people who do us harm. We understand they are giving back the effects of the causes we set in motion at an earlier time. At least we try not to hate them or hold hard feelings, by reminding ourselves of the law of karma.

If you want to know more about Karma, and Hinduism take a look at the following sites.

1. Wikipedia

Vishnu Sahasranama

Today being Friday I work from home. I was listening to Vishnu Sahasranama, and I got a phone call from Rick from Javalobby. He asked me what I was listening to and I told him about the same.

If you’re not sure what it is here are some details about the same.

The Vishnu sahasranāma means thousand names of Vishnu. It is also one of the most sacred and commonly chanted stotras in Hinduism. It is widely accepted that the chanting of this Stotra gives relief from all sorrows and leads to happiness and peace of mind. Vishnu sahasranama is in conformity with the teachings of the BhagavadGita.

If you like to listen to the stotra, here is the link, click on Vishnu sahasranama at the right hand corner :

http://www.devotionalsongs.com/

If you would like to learn the same, here is a link for the stotra in English:

http://www.srdm.org/ska/vs.htm

If you would like to know even more about it, here is a link on wikipedia.

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

Mehendi

While cleaning the refrigerator today, I found a mehendi cone which I had brought from India all the way in 2004. I did draw some nice design on my daughter as well as my nieces hands.

In India, Mehendi is used at celebrations like weddings and other special happy occasions.Whether you are from North, South, East or West of India, no wedding is complete if the brides hands are not adorned with the lovely red hue of the mehendi.

Here are some of the links I had gathered while doing the designs on the kids.

1. Design book 1

2. Design book 2

3. Design book 3

4. Design book 4

5. Amazing designs

Music sites I visit regularly

1. Hindi songs from Raaga.com

2. Kannada songs 

Book Review – Ant in Action

Currently, reading the book “Filthy Rich Clients”. It is an interesting book.

Last week, I did yet another review on the book “Ant in Action”. The review was published on Javalobby. Here is a link for the same:

17.Ant in Action book Review.

Links to various cooking sites

I love cooking and it’s one of my favorite hobbies. I try cooking various cuisines. Of course, it has to be vegetarian. 🙂

Here is the link for one of the sites which I visit almost once or twice a week.

Bawarchi – Your Indian Cook.

Technical Book Reviews

Here are all the earlier reviews I did.
16. Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality

15. Pro NetBeans IDE 5.5 Enterprise Edition

14. No Fluff Just Stuff Anthology

13. Wicked Cool Java

12. Java/J2EE Job Interview Companion

11. Checking Java Programs

10. EJB 3 in Action

9. Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML-Theory and Practice

8. Java Phrasebook

7. Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0, Fifth Edition

6. Java Persistence with Hibernate

5. Beginning EJB™ 3 Application Development: From Novice to Professional

4. PMD Applied

Reviews published in 2006.

3. Hibernate in Action

2. Thinking In Java, 4th Edition

1. Ajax in Action