A friend was talking about the book Life of Pi. He was surprised to find a few chapters of the book dedicated to the main character's (Pi) encounters with the religion of Islam. He had found it interesting how the man who was introducing the faith to Pi was telling him that God was everywhere and was resembeled in everything. My friend thought I had a similar vision toward things around me to which I made no claim. He also said that one wont find similar sentiment toward God in Christianity.
Since this discussion, I cannot stop but wonder, how is it that this is not the image of the path in the eyes of an ordinary person?
An ordinary person for whom the media is the main source of information wont see anything but savage and opression in Islam. I was thinking how even in the movie Life of Pi, Pi's contemplation in Hinduism and his encounter with Christianity was vividly shown, but the story about his encounter with the muslem old man who eventually allured him to accept Islam was completely cut short to only a few seconds. Perhaps the producer was concerned with the public reaction if he stayed true to the book and showed the beauty Pi had seen in the path.
"We Prayed together and we practiced dhikr, the recitation of the ninety-nine revealed names of God. He was a hafiz, one who knows the Qur'an by heart, and he sang it in a slow, simple chant. My Arabic was never very good, but I loved its sound. The guttural eruptions and long flowing vowels rolled just beneath my comprehension like a beautiful book. I gazed into this brook for long spells of time. It was not wide, just one man's voice, but it was as deep as the universe."
There is beauty in the world.
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
To Manage for the First Time
I had managed technicians before.
I am managing an Associate Product Manager now, whom I really am happy with his performance thus far and think of him as an asset. I actually brought him on board myself after his initiation.
But starting Monday, I will be managing the first person I have hired myself.
I must admit, the hiring process was a humbling experience. Up until then I thought going to an interview was a difficult task, to get a hiring manager be able to see your abilities in 30-60 minutes. However, when I was on the hiring shoes this past time I found that equally or even more so challenging. I needed to figure out the abilities of an interviewee in 30-60 minutes!
I am excited and anxious about it. I ordered two new books from Amazon and just received them:
Managing Right for the First Time by David Baker
Becoming Resonant Leader by McKee, Boyatzis, Johnston
I have two days to study them. Grabbing a Orange Blossom drink, opening the shades, and sitting in the backyard reading the books. That will be my weekend plan.
I am managing an Associate Product Manager now, whom I really am happy with his performance thus far and think of him as an asset. I actually brought him on board myself after his initiation.
But starting Monday, I will be managing the first person I have hired myself.
I must admit, the hiring process was a humbling experience. Up until then I thought going to an interview was a difficult task, to get a hiring manager be able to see your abilities in 30-60 minutes. However, when I was on the hiring shoes this past time I found that equally or even more so challenging. I needed to figure out the abilities of an interviewee in 30-60 minutes!
I am excited and anxious about it. I ordered two new books from Amazon and just received them:
Managing Right for the First Time by David Baker
Becoming Resonant Leader by McKee, Boyatzis, Johnston
I have two days to study them. Grabbing a Orange Blossom drink, opening the shades, and sitting in the backyard reading the books. That will be my weekend plan.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
An Unexpected Trip to Paris
Work summoned me to Paris. It was a couple hectic days with early morning raise, metro rides, hospital visits, and case summaries. All the work part ended up being super good, thank God! Made all the hardships of the recent months feel rewarding.
Paris was cloudy and rainy and colder even perhaps compared to Odense. But it was busy none the less, particularly many pedestrians despite the cold, which is one feature I admire in big cities.
I learned how my life style in US is unhealthy and against the rhythm of my body. I need to feel the air on my skin, cold or hot, and I need to walk. In my life in California, I need to carve out time for such walks while both in Odense and Paris I had to walk, a lot, and it all felt good and natural even more so on my pregnant body.
I got the opportunity to spend the last evening with friends and relax. It was such a great pleasure.
My last transit via Frankfurt was uneventful. Even though the security guy on US flights seems not to have changed, I was familiar with his borderline rude gestures and interrogations.
The business lounge and priority boarding lines can be quite interesting sometimes, as if when some people gain status they lose common sense of society and rights. For example there was a lady ready to board the plane and was insisting that she was the beginning off the line. But she was not even standing behind the gate but rather further away. Plus her seat is predetermined, there wont be any loss or gain whether or not she is the first on board or the 10th. That was enough for me to pray that she was not my companion in the eleven hour ride. Thankfully, she was not. And even better, my companion ended up being a young and polite gentleman who was also a product manager with technical background. We got to chat about work and societies and politics and movies and foods. It was easy to chat with him. His companionship made the trip feel shorter and more pleasant. Plus I could sleep a few hours in the flight which was what my body needed desperately.
I got to watch Hemingway and Gellhorn (TV 2012) which was a nice coincidence to the leisure book I am reading, The Paris Wife. It was enough to know Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen were staring in it and that it was about Ernest Hemingway, my new passion. I really enjoyed watching it. I got to know how writing was a challenge even for greatest writers like Hemingway in the book I was reading. Then, in this movie also, Martha Gellhorn said once "there is a lot happening [in the war] but when I sit down to write, nothing." I liked it, although not even a emote comparison but I had felt the same thing exactly many times. The other coincidental matter about the movie was the depiction of the Franco era in Spain. Funnily, I got to hear about this part of Spanish history through Dr G.G. in Denmark over the 2nd day lunch. Made me wonder at the world connectivity even at such trivial level. Or is such matters like hearing the story of a fascist via person born and raised in a communist country and then watching it in an american movie really that trivial?
Wars. And all the boys and girls who watched their mothers die in front of their eyes living their tiny little hands stained with their innocent bloods. "little by little I am getting really angry" as Gellhorn sited from a young boy in the war.
It should have been really tough and dark living in 1920-1945 era in the world with all the enmities and famines.
Now the reality of this time is the enmity against particular religions. Such a pity!
On the subject of love Gellhorn said "the greatest enemy of love is boredom" and not jealousy. Made me wonder. Hemingway had written to Gellhorn "love is infinitely more durable than hate"; why is that? To me, hate is not the opposite to love, hate is an excess anger, and hence can be coexisting with love. But the opposite of love? I think it is disappointment.
I took the 280 route back home which was indeed a pleasure. Particularly since it was sunny in California after a week of rain, mist, and clouds in Odense and Paris. The good music I was listening to made everything even more likable.
Now out to a carved out time to walk in the fade sub of this Sunday afternoon.
Paris was cloudy and rainy and colder even perhaps compared to Odense. But it was busy none the less, particularly many pedestrians despite the cold, which is one feature I admire in big cities.
I learned how my life style in US is unhealthy and against the rhythm of my body. I need to feel the air on my skin, cold or hot, and I need to walk. In my life in California, I need to carve out time for such walks while both in Odense and Paris I had to walk, a lot, and it all felt good and natural even more so on my pregnant body.
I got the opportunity to spend the last evening with friends and relax. It was such a great pleasure.
My last transit via Frankfurt was uneventful. Even though the security guy on US flights seems not to have changed, I was familiar with his borderline rude gestures and interrogations.
The business lounge and priority boarding lines can be quite interesting sometimes, as if when some people gain status they lose common sense of society and rights. For example there was a lady ready to board the plane and was insisting that she was the beginning off the line. But she was not even standing behind the gate but rather further away. Plus her seat is predetermined, there wont be any loss or gain whether or not she is the first on board or the 10th. That was enough for me to pray that she was not my companion in the eleven hour ride. Thankfully, she was not. And even better, my companion ended up being a young and polite gentleman who was also a product manager with technical background. We got to chat about work and societies and politics and movies and foods. It was easy to chat with him. His companionship made the trip feel shorter and more pleasant. Plus I could sleep a few hours in the flight which was what my body needed desperately.
I got to watch Hemingway and Gellhorn (TV 2012) which was a nice coincidence to the leisure book I am reading, The Paris Wife. It was enough to know Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen were staring in it and that it was about Ernest Hemingway, my new passion. I really enjoyed watching it. I got to know how writing was a challenge even for greatest writers like Hemingway in the book I was reading. Then, in this movie also, Martha Gellhorn said once "there is a lot happening [in the war] but when I sit down to write, nothing." I liked it, although not even a emote comparison but I had felt the same thing exactly many times. The other coincidental matter about the movie was the depiction of the Franco era in Spain. Funnily, I got to hear about this part of Spanish history through Dr G.G. in Denmark over the 2nd day lunch. Made me wonder at the world connectivity even at such trivial level. Or is such matters like hearing the story of a fascist via person born and raised in a communist country and then watching it in an american movie really that trivial?
Wars. And all the boys and girls who watched their mothers die in front of their eyes living their tiny little hands stained with their innocent bloods. "little by little I am getting really angry" as Gellhorn sited from a young boy in the war.
It should have been really tough and dark living in 1920-1945 era in the world with all the enmities and famines.
Now the reality of this time is the enmity against particular religions. Such a pity!
On the subject of love Gellhorn said "the greatest enemy of love is boredom" and not jealousy. Made me wonder. Hemingway had written to Gellhorn "love is infinitely more durable than hate"; why is that? To me, hate is not the opposite to love, hate is an excess anger, and hence can be coexisting with love. But the opposite of love? I think it is disappointment.
I took the 280 route back home which was indeed a pleasure. Particularly since it was sunny in California after a week of rain, mist, and clouds in Odense and Paris. The good music I was listening to made everything even more likable.
Now out to a carved out time to walk in the fade sub of this Sunday afternoon.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
The Story of Two Books
A chilly autumnal afternoon, a sweetened cup of tea, a pair of slippers, a blanket, and two books. And such a contrast!
I am reading Shirin and Khosrow's story from Nezami's book of poems, of course in Farsi. The story goes back centuries and this version is from about 800 years ago. Nezami starts the book with praising God and thanking him for giving him the talent to write. The he talks about love. Oh! Such an amazingly lovely depiction of love. Finally after praising the prophet and the king and all he starts the story of Khosrow. Such mystery! Such beauty! Such elegance in his words! What is the most apparent to me this time (every time I read a book I find a new appearance) is its simple purity and its pure simplicity. How fortunate I feel to be able to read and comprehend Farsi for such treasures in our literature!
I am reading Picture if Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, from 1890. I must say, I am enjoying the writing. And I am most curious to know where it all ends. The emphasis by Lord Henry Wotton on beauty and fulfillment of senses is interesting to me. And the helplessness in Dorian admitting to impermanence of beauty.
In both books there are much depictions of the apparent beauties: faces, hair, bodies.
Both books refer to lust, a lot.
Yet, the former book has a sense of love in it the latter lacks. Hence, it feels more moral, more humane even perhaps.
No conclusion yet though, as I am still in the middle of both books. Perhaps, to be continued.
I am reading Shirin and Khosrow's story from Nezami's book of poems, of course in Farsi. The story goes back centuries and this version is from about 800 years ago. Nezami starts the book with praising God and thanking him for giving him the talent to write. The he talks about love. Oh! Such an amazingly lovely depiction of love. Finally after praising the prophet and the king and all he starts the story of Khosrow. Such mystery! Such beauty! Such elegance in his words! What is the most apparent to me this time (every time I read a book I find a new appearance) is its simple purity and its pure simplicity. How fortunate I feel to be able to read and comprehend Farsi for such treasures in our literature!
I am reading Picture if Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, from 1890. I must say, I am enjoying the writing. And I am most curious to know where it all ends. The emphasis by Lord Henry Wotton on beauty and fulfillment of senses is interesting to me. And the helplessness in Dorian admitting to impermanence of beauty.
In both books there are much depictions of the apparent beauties: faces, hair, bodies.
Both books refer to lust, a lot.
Yet, the former book has a sense of love in it the latter lacks. Hence, it feels more moral, more humane even perhaps.
No conclusion yet though, as I am still in the middle of both books. Perhaps, to be continued.
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About Me
- midnight/...
- An emigrant from an ancient civilization to North America, an engineer in marketing and management, a mom of working kind, who thinks when she talks, and who likes to write. I, L.B., own the copyright to the content.