Email OF The Day

Friday, 21 August 2015

[www.keralites.net] Hope you enjoy the history of these carvings.

AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL!!!

Can you imagine the skill and patience needed to create something like this?

In addition to tiny, beautiful prayer books and rosary beads, people of the past liked to express their love of religion and beauty with objects known as prayer nuts. These artifacts were not actually carved from nuts--rather, they were carved from wood, but tiny enough to look like walnuts.

Prayer nuts were mainly produced in northern Europe during the 16th century. Due to the incredible skill required to make these items, only the wealthy could afford them. In addition to being a symbol of a person's faith, they were also a status symbol.

The outsides alone were marvelously carved with intricate designs, including text. Everything was held in place with wooden hinges carved right into the piece. These prayer nuts would usually be attached to a belt or a rosary.

When the nut opens, the first things you see are panels carved with various religious scenes. These vary based on the prayer nut, and might be dedicated to a certain saint, religious event, or type of prayer. The one above shows the Annunciation scene on the bottom, and around the images, you can see the prayer passages carved in.

But there's more! The inside panels could also open, by way of more tiny wooden hinges, and revealed even more miniature carvings. Because of the round shape of the prayer nuts, these scenes would be spectacularly detailed, with rows of lifelike little figures. Imagine the patience and the skill one would need to create something like this!

In addition, the prayer nuts were often scented with a variety of perfumes, so that the scenes would be an even greater sensory experience for their owners.

The prayer nuts you see here are all from the 1500s, with most coming from Dutch regions. Today , they're prized as incredible works of art, and can be found in many museums.

www.keralites.net

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Posted by: Pramod Agrawal <pka_ur@yahoo.com>

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[www.keralites.net] JARDINS (IMAGENS)

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Posted by: =?UTF-8?B?4pmj4pmA4pa44pa34pmC0LzOu9GP4oK40qLhu4vVpNKi4bqhIOKZgOKWuOKWt+KZgg==?= <martinha222013@gmail.com>

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[www.keralites.net] Brijesh Kumar Saroj, the son of a poor weaver, who overcame every hardship to make it to IIT-Bombay. [3 Attachments]

Brijesh Kumar Saroj, the son of a poor weaver, who overcame every hardship to make it to IIT-Bombay. When he cleared the IIT entrance exam, villagers threw stones at his home because he is Dalit. This has only hardened his resolve to 'make it in life.'

In Class 5, our teacher in the village school told my father, 'Eat just one meal a day, wear one pair of clothes, but educate your children.' That's the funda my father held out to.

My father works as a weaver in a Surat mill and earns between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 a month which is not enough for us six children, my parents and my grandparents.

I took up a job in a garage in the village as a helper to a mechanic, 'get the wrench, get the spanner. Yeh karo woh karo (Do this, do that).' I learned nothing there, but earned Rs 3,000 in two months.

Yet, the villagers threw stones at our house when the results were announced because we are Dalits. They have threatened to throw acid on our family, they said we won't allow your children to get jobs in this village. And it's only because our father tried to push us towards the promise of a better life.

I get upset when people use the word 'higher' caste to describe these narrow-minded, uneducated, uncivilised people.

Whatever little I have achieved today is because of my opponents. What they said dil pe lagti thi aur jab dil pe lagti thi toh baat ban jati thi (It hurt me and it pushed me to realise my goals). They always told me you won't be able to do it because you are Dalit.

But money is not such a problem now. We used to have two bank accounts -- my brother's had Rs 504 and my mother's account had Rs 2,000. I don't know about my father's account since he lives in Surat.

After we got into IIT, the HRD ministry waived off our tuition fees, mess fees, hostel fees. We got funding of Rs 8 lakh (Rs 800,000) from private donors as well as the state government and politicians.

I heard about IIT (the Indian Institute of Technology) in Class 8. The boys in Class 10 would talk about IIT all the time.

So I asked a senior, 'Bhaiyya, yeh IIT kis bala ka naam hai? (What is this thing called IIT?)'

He said after you finish IIT you can earn a salary of Rs 25 lakh per annum.

I thought kya baat hai! Pachhees lakh ka package! Phir to hum zaroor karenge. (Wow! A salary of Rs 25 lakh! I will definitely do it).

Please read the full inspiring story in the link below

http://www.rediff.com/news/special/he-could-be-working-at-a-dhaba-but-is-now-at-iit/20150819.htm

Please share this

Ravi

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Posted by: Ravi Narasimhan <ravi.narasimhan.in@gmail.com>