Philharmonia Orchestra

After sipping a white caffe mocha at Starbucks a pleasant surprise awaited me at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was a gigantic theatre with its colourful arena that bewitched me at the first sight. It was a thrilling experience to barge into this really royal theatre. With less or no experience of concerts made me little bit apprehensive about the whole project of watching Philharmonia Orchestra in a jam packed theatre and a huge stage set for musicians. 

A huge number of musicians took to stage to the brim. Everyone doing their adjustments before the time. A violinist arrived to take the centre stage who greeted the musicians and the audience. He was Andrew Haveron who is the concert master. He looked small in stature but his violin expertise showed his glory and fame. Then there arrived a man in black suit with a little stick in his hand to a huge applause. Apparently it came as huge surprise to me that people knew this famous conductor called Daniele Gatti, an Italian artist. 

The first piece of music was from Wagner, prelude, Act I, "a good friday Music, Parsifal." This piece was taken from the artist Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) of Romantic age. The first piece of music was for about 30 minutes. Absolutely scintillating performance thrilled me and the fellow spectators. Knowledge about this kind of orchestra is very menial, so a special effort helped to grasp and cope with this mind blowing musical piece. 

The second piece of music was from Mahler, Symphony No. 5  for about 70 minutes. This piece was absolutely incredible with its intricate and complex intonations. This was a big challenge to cope with long haul of music which looked the same as the previous. I should caution you that this was because of the lack of musical knowledge particularly orchestra. 

A brief study made me to understand the intricacies this musical piece involved. Wagner's melodic musical arch rises, then slowly falls back to its starting point, intensely focused and glowing inwardly like a candle flame carried silently through the darkness. This is the same experience most of us have at this concert. Its incredibly strong to feel that one has moved miles listening to music.

A little bit about the conductor Daniele Gatti. His vigour and gusto in conducting these two pieces of music mesmerised most the spectators. This world renowned artist made us wonder in awe. His movements and body language was enormously depicted in the music he conducted. Without a piece of script he would conduct the orchestra for about 70 minutes at the stretch. This shows his expertise and his talent to music. It really baffled me that he could do this without any scrip and with enormous gusto and zest. 

In conclusion I would like to express my thanks to Philharmonia Orchestra who put up a splendid performance which made me who is musical cripple to admire this romantic music, I am sure musicians out there will admire much better than I. 

God's Wedding

Arnobius writes at the turn of fourth century about the marriage and gods. Presumably for him life styles of the pagan gods and mortals were no difference. He writes:

Do the gods have wives, and do they enter marriage convents (conuiugalia foedera) on terms previously arranged? Do they swear to each other the oaths (sacramenta) of the marriage couch by cohabitation (usu), by the wedding cake (farreo), or by the purchase price (emptione)? Do they have girl friends whom they hope to marry (speratas), or to whom they are engaged (pactas), or to whom they are espoused (sponsatas). 

Source: Adversus nationes 4, 20 (CSEL 4, 157, 16).

A Song for Friends

All time hit song in Hindi originally sung by Jagjith Singh, a well known Indian singer. I have tried to sing but I am sure you will enjoy the original. So please listen to the original too, to know the real voice of the song. The photos are from my archives and old album of my friends. There are still more good friends who are not on it. May be I shall do one more video for them too. Please do enjoy the song and the photos. Cheers. 

My all time favourite song (Konkani)

This song is one of my all time favourite song and have tried to sing with my hoarse voice. I am sure have done justice to the original artist. He is all the best. Photos in this video are from England just boost the song. Hope you enjoy it. Lol. 

Missionary Motto

This letter was written by Mother Teresa in 1948 when she left Loreto to establish the Missionaries of Charity.

"The heat of India is simply burning. When I walk around, it seems to me that fire is under my feet from which even my whole body is burning. When it is hardest, I console myself with the thought that souls are saved in this way and that dear Jesus has suffered much more for them.... The life of a missionary is not strewn with roses, in fact more with thorns; but with it all, it is a life full of happiness and joy when she thinks that she is doing the same work which Jesus was doing when He was on earth, and that she is fulfilling Jesus' commandments: "Go and teach all nations.!""

Jesus Nut

Jesus nut: The “Jesus nut,” also called the “Jesus pin,” is the nut that holds the main rotor to the mast ofsome helicopters, such as the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. The long and strongmetallic fans of the helicopter are fitted to the main rotor of the mast. The“Jesus nut” is a slang term first coined by American soldiers in Vietnam; the technical term is MRRN or mainrotor retaining nut. The origin of the term comes from the ideathat, if the “Jesus nut” were to fail in flight, the helicopter would detachfrom the rotors and the only thing left for the crew to do would be to pray to Jesus before the helicopter crashed.  This can remind us that Jesus must be the pivotal point in our lives, through the little parable of the vine and the branches. We got to remain in him and always connected with him.