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Category: Film
Mr. Bond and His Ladies: Tales of Seduction and Espionage
January 9, 2018 Posted in Academy Awards, Adele, Adolescence, America, Art, Article, Bibliophile, Blog Post, Bond Girls, British Intelligence, Cadillac, Casino Royale, Childhood, Christoph Waltz, Cinephile, Coming of Age, Criticism, Critique, Daniel Craig, Deconstruction, Director's Cut, Dr. No, Empowerment, Eva Green, Existential Crisis, Famke Janssen, Film, Film Industry, Film Review, Films, For Your Eyes Only, GoldenEye, Goldfinger, Halle Berry, Hollywood, Ian Flemming, Identity Crisis, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, M, Mads Mikkelson, Memories, MI6, Moonraker, Octopussy, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, Sam Mendes, Sean Connery, Secret Service, Singularity, Skyfall, Spectre, Stockholm Syndrome, The Indian Bibliophile, The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough, Thunderball, Uncategorized, Woman, Womanhood, Women, WritingTagged A View to a Kill, Academy Awards, Adele, Article, Blog Post, Bond Films, Bond Franchise, Bond Girls, Britain, British Intelligence, Casino Royale, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Lee, Christopher Walken, Criticism, Critique, Daniel Craig, Deconstruction, Die Another Day, Dr. No, Essay, Eva Green, Famke Janssen, Feminism, For Your Eyes Only, GoldenEye, Goldfinger, Hollywood, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Lea Seydoux, Mads Mikkelson, Maud Adams, MI6, Moonraker, Music, Octopussy, Opinion, Oscars, Pierce Brosnan, Quantum of Solace, Roger Moore, Rosamund Pike, Sam Mendes, Sam Smith, Sean Connery, Skyfall, Spectre, Study, The Indian Bibliophile, The Man With the Golden Gun, The World Is Not Enough, Thunderball, Tomorrow Never Dies, WomenLeave a comment
It is nigh impossible to save the world from megalomaniac villains and romance seductive sirens on the same beat, but let's face it, Mr. Bond succeeds in accomplishing the impossible with panache. During my childhood, I remember my father being extremely confused as to whether I should or should not see a Bond film. You see, Star Movies used to be an "adult" channel back then. But he also wanted me to know about the heroes from his youth, likes of which included Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck and later, Sir Sean Connery. Yet, at the same time, he was worried that the sexual scenes would demolish the last remaining shreds of innocence in my childhood. So, like every other child who does exactly what he/she is told not to do, I endeavored to watch every single Bond film by the age of thirteen. Pierce Brosnan was the reigning box-office money-churner back in those days, the beach shots of a near-naked Brosnan and Halle Berry in an orange bikini advertised in almost every single trailer for Die Another Day (2002). Suffice to say, I had developed quite the infatuation for the casanova spy, only my affection leaned more toward Connery than Brosnan.
The British spy over the ages; from Left to Right: Sir Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Sir Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig. Absent: David Niven (Casino Royale, 1967).
It was after almost a decade, in the beginning of 2016, that I once again went back to watching all the Bond films, all thanks to a certain Austrian by the name of Christoph Waltz, who portrayed Blofeld in the latest Bond venture, Spectre (2015). And it goes without saying that disappointment was the word of the day. Gone were the days of idolizing seductive femme fatales who set the screen on fire with their backless dresses and beach frolicking in bikinis; or for that matter, staring at the screen, dazed by the superhuman ability of the spy surviving almost anything, be it a bullet to the heart or radioactive rays. The woman I turned out to be in my adulthood could not help but be appalled at the disuse of every single one of Bond's love interests in the 60s, 70s and mid-80s as nothing but an object. Their plotlines were sadly more predictable than the daily soaps, and after their initial dilemma about helping the spy, they effortlessly slipped into the roles of the damsels in distress, until of course everything ended with one big fat happily-ever-after of snogging and making love in exotic locations, until the next installment, of course.
From Left to Right: Holly Goodhead (Mookraker), Jill St. John (Diamonds Are Forever), Mary Goodnight (The Man With the Golden Gun), Pussy Galore (Goldfinger), Dominique "Domino" Derval (Thunderball).
Be it the breathtaking Ursula Andress as Honey Driver (Dr. No, 1962), Barbara Bach as the dangerous KGB agent Anya Amasova (The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977), Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore (Goldfinger, 1964) to Lois Chiles as Holly Goodhead (Moonraker, 1979), all these women have become half-remembered faces lost in the cold heart of time. With blithe honesty, I confess, I had to spend hours myself, gathering information to find the names of these ladies. Because, let's face the bitter truth here, we all know Mr. Bond will save his ladylove at the end of the day and kill the vicious villain, not to mention deliver that punchline that makes the whole film a visual display of a double entendre. And they, may I remind you, were the leading ladies of the films. Even, Maud Adams as Octopussy (Octopussy, 1983), who became a sensation in a single night, was in the end turned into nothing more than a damsel who needed a gentleman to rescue her, when in the beginning she started off as a mysterious, but deadly, businesswoman-cum-leader of a tribe of battle-hardy women. And whatever happened to the supporting cast, namely, the ever-present Miss Moneypenny, who seemed to spend all her time daydreaming about Mr. Bond, helping him skip the routine health checkup exams for the organizations, and being a generally unprofessional employee of MI6?
Jill Masterson's (Shirley Eaton) iconic gold-paint suffocation death scene from Goldfinger (1964). The scene was given homage to in Quantum of Solace (2008), where MI6 agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arteton) was murdered in a similar fashion, only this time by the use of crude oil instead.
An image here: If one has been a follower of the Bond films, the image of a certain gorgeous woman smothered in gold paint and suffocated to death is still etched in the back of one's mind. And yet, her name has long since escaped our minds, even if she used to be the partner of Mr. Bond himself in Goldfinger. But, let me not rant about the discrepancies; instead, the observations made from this phenomenon has baffled me much more. Back in those days, when femme fatales who either wanted to kiss or kill Mr. Bond, the British spy had been nothing short of a superman without a cape. He had defeated giants such as Christopher Lee (the eponymous man with the golden gun), and escaped radioactive explosions with a still-unbesmirched tuxedo.
But then, times changed, as time always does. When the screens bid adieu to the golden era of Bonds, including Connery and Moore, and the forgettable stint of Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, Brosnan became the face of the lethal spy. And with that, a new era of femme fatales came in. This time, however, the story was a little different.
From Left to Right: Xenia Onatopp (GoldenEye), Miranda Frost (Die Another Day), Elektra King (The World Is Not Enough), Paris Carver (Tomorrow Never Dies).
You see, Brosnan's Bond was not impervious, even if he had his fair share of super-heroic victories and nick-of-time escapes. Sure, he did succeed in peppering his ladies with kisses after saving the world, but he never did end up as unscathed as his predecessors. Brosnan's Bond showed his humanity; he was vulnerable with his trust, going so much as to trust the wrong people in more than one situation. And for that, he had paid the bitter price of loss. The thing is, Brosnan's Bond was not left unbroken, and perhaps that set the stage for Sam Mendes to explore his indecision, his personality's depth, and his relationship with the first female M in the series (the irreplaceable Dame Judi Dench) in the later installments. In GoldenEye (1995), Brosnan's first endeavor to be the British spy, he is shocked to see the betrayal of his presumably dead former partner, Alec Trevelyan or 006 (played by a stoic Sean Bean), and even after he wins the day and waltzes away with Scorupco's Natalya Simonova, he does mourn the loss of his former friend in his silences. Another interesting development in this movie was the introduction of a dangerous and ruthless lust murderer as the female antagonist Xenia Onatopp, played stupendously by Famke Janssen. In what might be considered a curve ball in the history of Bond film directions, Brosnan's expressions are not held back like his predecessors. In spite of all his punchlines, he openly shows expressions of pain (and later a subtle brand of existential crisis in Die Another Day) when he is tortured by Janssen's Xenia. And you are suddenly thwarted by the realization that this British spy is only human. Taking a page out of this motif, the following films with Brosnan delved deeper into the depths of his character sketch. An iconic example of that is Sophie Marceau's brilliantly portrayed Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough (1999). In this film, Bond goes on to almost admit to M that he had developed feelings for King, in spite of her revealing herself to be the manipulative mastermind in the end, having played both the hero and the villain. Perhaps this same motif was a tad bit stretched in Brosnan's last, Die Another Day, through Rosamund Pike's Miranda Frost, but the split second loss-stricken expression of Bond as he looks at Frost's corpse is enough to establish the gradual yet much needed evolution of the spy's almost two-dimensional character sketch.
From Left to Right: Vesper Lynd (Casino Royale), Camille Montes (Quantum of Solace), Eve Moneypenny (Skyfall), Sévérine (Skyfall), Dr. Madeleine Swann (Spectre).
And this prelude itself set the ball rolling for our most recent Bond. In what can only be considered as a distinct aberration to the previous Bond films, one that created quite the controversy, Martin Campbell went on to cast and work with Daniel Craig as the British spy. Not stereo-typically handsome, yet uncannily fascinating, Craig's Bond was a far cry from his predecessors. In spite of the burgeoning legacy on his shoulders, Craig broke form to portray a never-befoe-seen Bond. He was vulnerable, passionate, and even broken by his actions. In spite of his superficial cockiness, he didn't shy away from dreaming a life with Eva Green's Vesper Lynd, going so far as to severe his connections with M and the MI6 in Casino Royale (2007). And going hand in hand with this sudden sprout of character growth, there were even added multitudinous layers to his counterpart antagonists. From Mikkelson's Le Chiffre (Casino Royale) to Christensen's Mr. White (Quantum of Solace, 2008), and later, Bardem's iconic Raoul Silva in Skyfall (2012), the interlinked plots were added with newer and more profound dimensions, each leading to the steady development of Bond's character. With the rising complications in each of the Bond ladies to the constant juxtaposition of Bond's human vulnerabilities over his familiar brash overconfidence, newer textures were given to the franchise. The two most memorable proofs of such observations are Bond's plotline in Quantum of Solace as he leaves no stones unturned in his brutal quest for vengeance over Lynd's death, and his choice of a reclusive life when he survives, albeit narrowly, from a fatal gunshot in Skyfall. This reinvention of Bond, a departure from the usual overuse of unrealistic plot tropes in preceding Bond films, was a refreshing take from the overtly familiar entertainment quotient of the franchise—something which inevitably led to the fervent establishment of Bond's relationship with M.
A dying M (Dame Judi Dench) in Bond's (Daniel Craig) arms in Skyfall (2012).
What can only be described as the most emotional, if not the most heartbreaking, sequence of the Bond franchise, as M lies dying in Bond's arms in Skyfall, makes the very essence of Bond' restructuring of character. Although M can never be considered as a "Bond Girl" so to speak, she has been the driving force behind Bond's professional and personal ethics since GoldenEye. She was a mentor, a friend, a superior, and most importantly, as much as it makes me cringe to write this sentence, was one of the few women who earned the unequivocal respect of Bond. Time and again, Craig's Bond has fallen off the wagon, but Dench's M had been the force on the other end of the string to bring him back into symmetry. And although such a heartfelt relationship dynamism was not researched at all in the previous films, since Dench's introduction as M in 1995, this subplot has been subtly and steadily developed over the series of films. Perhaps that itself is the greatest proof of Bond's reinvention, ergo evolution, of character through the presence of all the Bond girls.
And the most fascinating truth is James Bond is a timeliness character whose very existence in the 26-film franchise is a singular graph of evolution through the woes of time. The process itself is a gradual rise-and-ebb tidal undertaking, spanning over decades at hand, mirroring the consumer-driven aesthetics of entertainment in each era. And being a peddler of art, and a follower of the British spy's many adventures, it has also been my unique journey of viewing his astute metamorphosis from the hay days of my childhood to my adulthood.
Oh, Aronofsky! The Art of Perfection
December 28, 2017 December 28, 2017 Posted in Adolescence, Advertisement, Albert Camus, America, Art, Article, Bibliophile, Black Swan, Blog Post, Blood, Bold, Brave, Broken, Burn, Celebrate, Child Abuse, Childhood, Children, Cinephile, Cogito Ergo Sum, Confession, Criticism, Critique, Cult Following, Darren Aronofsky, Daughters, Death, Depression, Destiny, Director's Cut, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Dreamers, Emotions, Empowerment, Energy, Essay, Fall, Family, Fantasy, Fate, Favorite, Film, Film Industry, Film Review, Films, Fire, Forgiveness, Happiness, Happy Ending, Hollywood, Humanity, Infinity, Infinity Loop, Inspiration, Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Life, Light, Loneliness, Love Story, Melancholia, Melancholy, Mental Health, Mother, Murder, Narrative, Natalie Portman, Nihilism, Pain, Personality Disorder, Postmodernism, Psychological Thriller, Rape, Schizophrenia, Singularity, Split, Split Personality Disorder, Swan Lake, The Myth of Sisyphus, Universe, Woman, Womanhood, Women, Words, WritingTagged Albert Camus, Art, Article, Bible, Bibliophile, Black Swan, Christanity, Cinema, Cinephile, Cogito Ergo Sum, Critique, Darren Aronofsky, Deconstruction, Derrida, Director, Essay, Film Critique, Films, Infinity Loop, Inspiration, Javier Barden, Jennifer Lawrence, Literature, Mental Disorder, Mental Health, Mother, Music, Natalie Portman, Norse Mythology, Ouroboros, Paganism, Perfection, Philosophy, Postmodernism, Religion, Schizophrenia, Singularity, Sociopath, Split Personality Disorder, Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky, The Indian BibliophileLeave a comment
As an adolescent, I had nurtured myself with the idea of being an over-achiever. And whenever my dissatisfaction wedged gaps between my desires and my dreams, my father had always calmed with honey-sweetened words, such as, "Perfection is an unreachable concept. It is a state of imprisonment that you are constantly searching."
At the age of fourteen, such words didn't hold much worth to me, laden with insecurities as I used to be, and I do not proclaim that I understand the magnanimity of them a decade later. All I do understand is the innate need of the human species to achieve something more than their present state, call it perfection, call it a mere rise from the summation of mundane moments. Whatever be the case, we are constantly in an act of motion, in an act akin to thriving. Perhaps that was what attracted me the most about Aronofsky when I had watched Black Swan for the first time.
The one sequence and quote that propounds the psyche of Black Swan
Aronofsky's capability to create a monument of over an existing art form has always attracted the audience. In Black Swan, he enlivened Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, only to modulate it with realism and a touch of obsessive surrealism. Lacing what might superficially appear as nuances of the psychological thriller genre, he constructed Nina (Natalie Portman) as a character suffering from schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. In my very first watch of Black Swan, I was too lost in the artistic visuals, frames and the lithe grace of Portman to actually comprehend the audacity of Aronofsky's ambitions. Afterward, I was flabbergasted by the conceptualization of Nina's character sketch, of course. Aronofsky creates a schizophrenic protagonist to deconstruct Nina into two separate mirror halves, just as Tchaikovsky's Odette (White Swan) and Odile (Black Swan) were. But instead of two separate entities, he merges the two into a climactic conjugation of ballet and sequestered cinematography, thus giving a resolution to the eternal trope of postmodernism, that of the unreliable narrator.
Aronofsky repeatedly plays with the motifs of doppelgangers in Black Swan, and even though the presence of an unreliable protagonist is constantly upheld through Nina's interactions with her mother and her ballet academy director, he still toys with the audience as to whether the mirror halves are created in lieu of the original Swan Lake or for the psychological thriller genre of the film. But where does the presence of a mentally disturbed protagonist collage into the bedrock of perfection? Perfection, after all, is supposedly an unreachable linear concept, right? Sadly, wrong. And that is what Aronofsky sews in through the leitmotifs of not one, but two of his films. Perfection, to him, is an act of completing a full circle. Nina starts as a partially formed canvas, but when she performs her dramatic fall in the end, the myriad spectrum of colors and feathers now completed, she still etches herself on that canvas, only this time, the canvas holds itself grounded into realism. Does this break the fragmented narrative, so very salient in postmodernism? Yes, it does. And hence, conflict arises. From flaying herself to actually stabbing a version of the Black Swan (Mila Kunis), Nina breaks ground that is structured enough to uphold her perfection, the open ending only propounding the act further. The sheer genius of Aronofsky, however, does not lie on the fact that he could present a psychological thriller inspired from Swan Lake, but the fact that he could present the original in a postmodernist narrative and still break each of its tropes in the end. Perhaps the same concept applies to his newest and most ambitious project till date: Mother!
The convergence of a thousand emotions through the eyes of "her" (Jennifer Lawrence) along the film's narrative, accompanied with the haunting silences, create a sequence of ongoing circular patterns throughout the plot.
Aronofsky sped eons into the past with Mother! He unraveled biblical allegories, studied them intently and then presented the same through the simplistic narrative of his newest film. The question, however, was the passage of time. Unlike Black Swan, which can easily be characterized through its modern-day setting, Mother! dwindles between the the past and future, taking bits and pieces throughout the ages. The fact that "Him" (Javier Bardem), the only character with a capitalized pronoun for reference, is a writer, suffering from writer's block, that he is being celebrated by his mob of followers and publisher (Kristen Wigg), entail that the setting is contemporary. Yet, the structure of the house Him and her live in, its surroundings, the absolute silences succumbing around them, also alienates the setting from the passage of time, as if the place of narration is a sentient being in itself, freed from the constraints of time. Now, what does that remind you of? Well, with all his biblical allegories, simply put, the house is a representation of Eden.
The plot of Mother! is an act of decay. The story begins in silence and ends with rage and fire. In other words, Mother! is a deconstruction of chaos. But, where does, once again, Aronofsky's perception of perfection fit into the narrative? Mother! is a story of Mother Earth's (referred to as her. Notice, without any capitals) death. But if it is a case of death, why is it an act of perfection? In old-school pagan philosophy, perhaps death is considered the beginning, and that itself denounces the concept of perfection. But Aronofsky fiddles with the idea further, through Bardem's Him (in capitals, because he is represented as a version of God, the creator), and makes endless cycles out of a single narrative. Does this, on a higher dimension, construct a singularity? Perhaps, because what is super-intelligence, if not sentient human thought? In the house of Eden, Him and her exist in marital bliss, until uninvited guests come and crowd their home. Adam, referred to as man, (Ed Harris) ushers in Eve, referred to as woman (Michelle Pfeiffer), and they usher in Cain, referred to as the oldest son (Domhnall Gleeson), and Abel, referred to as the younger brother (Brian Gleeson). The rise of human thoughts, ranging from lust to greed to wrath, each encompassing the concepts of sin, thus find themselves existent in Eden sequentially. Satan, if exists, dwells, therefore, in the lingering essences of each emotion felt. The stage is thus viscerally set. So, when the guests start increasing, and the house descends into chaos, mother cannot take it anymore. She is suffocated, broken and an alien in her own skin. And when their child, the fruit of the mother, is murdered, his flesh eaten by the intruders, the climatic collapse is thus reached. She brings down the house in flames, something akin to the natural disasters that the planet's species has often faced. And perhaps that should have been the message, that we, as a species, are murdering the mother, something that any other director would have blindly followed, in order to ingrate into the audience's minds about a social message. However, Aronofsky, being the mad genius that he is, would have none of that plaintive one-dimensional storytelling.
The last smile: A laughing Him recreates the world again.
So, he once again inoculates his concept of perfection, wherein after the mass burning, only an unscathed Him and a now broken, burned and near-death her survive. And once Him obtains the crystal inside her's ripped-out heart, he creates Eden once again, with a new mother. But the question is, what does Aronofsky propound through this act of repetition? Is God inherently merciless? Is God a sociopath who refuses to mourn the death of the mother? Or is God only an idea, who himself is chained to the act of an infinity loop? Whatever it is, he imbibes the deconstruction of Him's character sketch into the very perception of perfection, once again piecing together the concept of visualizing perfection as a closed circle, an ouroboros, if you will.
Perhaps perfection, thus, is a singularity of a milieu of philosophies in itself. It rises from cogito ergo sum and thwarts upon the boulder of Sisyphus's curse. Whatever it is, Aronofsky paints upon Black Swan and Mother! his endless shades of fragmented thoughts, and creates something akin to infinity, a place where I believe perfection happily dwells.
A Forest of Crimson Gleam
December 2, 2017 December 1, 2017 Posted in Adolescence, Animated, Animated Movie, Art, Article, Beautiful Broken Things, Bibliophile, Big Bad Wolf, Blog Post, Blood, Bold, Brothers Grimm, Child Abuse, Childhood, Childhood Trauma, Children, Confession, Confidence, Crossroads, Cult Following, Dawn, Daylight, Death, Depression, Destiny, Disney, Disney Movie, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Dreamers, Dreams, Emotions, Fairy Tale, Fall, Fantasy, Fate, Fear, Film, Films, Folktale, Forest, Germany, Gothic, Hatred, Hell, Idea, Innocence, Life, Light, Literature, Little Red Riding Hood, Lust, Melancholia, Melancholy, Memories, Memory, Mental Health, Molestation, Mythology, Night, Passion, Past, Poem, Poetry, Protest, Ramblings, Rape, Reality, Red, Red Riding Hood, Scars, Sexual Abuse, Split, Split Personality Disorder, Story, Strangers, Surrealism, Thoughts, Time, Violence, WordsTagged Beautiful Broken Things, Big Bad Wolf, Brothers Grimm, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Darkness, Delirium, Disney, Disney Princess, Fairy Tale, Family, Film Adaptation, Forest, Help, Hollywood, Hope, Inspiration, Little Red Riding Hood, Me Too, Mental Disorders, Mental Health, Molestation, Night, Poem, Poetry Series, Rape, Red Riding Hood, Sexual Abuse, Split Personality Disorder, Terror, The Indian Bibliophile, Wolves, Word PornLeave a comment
Images and montages,
Somewhere, the 'I' is lost in a star that still rages,
Glimmers here,
A touch of crimson there.
There she is, the blasted red.
There he is, sitting tall on a wrecked bed.
Was there once a a child?
Lost as she was in a forest of dread.
She went in search of adventures,
Blaming it all on her dear grandmother.
Mama once said,
Or was it just another voice in my head?
It is hard to tell,
The masks I wear always spin a different tale.
So there I go,
Stifled and sore,
I walk in a forest of crimson gleam,
Burdened with a thousand splendid dreams.
There she is, the blasted red
I search for family,
I search for home,
I find a little hut,
And you see, you see, I am stifled and sore.
And there she is, my sweet grandmother,
The lame old dame,
The one who forever forgets my name,
Oh, what a shame, what a shame!
So I walk up to that beloved old hag,
But her teeth are sharp tonight,
And her beady black eyes glow with hunger when she catches my sight.
And her skin is warm and covered in wet fur,
Her familiar frail batty skin now marred with scars.
And with her gravel voice that rises from her frothing mouth,
She beckons me, the hag with a wolfish snout.
So I sit by her bedside, those frail hands suddenly too big to fit in my palm,
And for a moment, I lose my little voice in alarm.
There he lingers, with his claws and his misty breath,
As he whispers to me, "Come closer, Little Red."
And the darkness looms after,
There is pain, a few broken screams and the cackle of vicious laughter.
And when dawn breaks once again,
In a forest of crimson gleam,
There stands a being,
With blood in its hands,
And the taste of flesh in its mouth,
As it rubs off the last drop of red from its dainty supple skin.
And so you believed as Mama always said,
That once there were the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red,
And one night in a forest of crimson gleam,
The Wolf had feasted upon the corpses of her thousand dreams.
But did she ever tell you,
The story that only I knew,
Of an audacious little girl, so very blithe,
Of an audacious little girl, with a monster underneath,
Who feasted on a beloved old hag until she was nothing but blood and bones in a pile of heath?
So sleep now, little one,
Dream of wolves and little girls in coats of bleeding red,
For deep inside a forest of crimson gleam,
There still sits Red on a wrecked bed, still tearing into the sinews of a thousand lost dreams.
Padmavati: Death of a Childhood
November 21, 2017 November 21, 2017 Posted in Aishwarya Rai, Art, Article, Battles, Blog Post, Bollywood, Book, Censor Board, Childhood, Chittor, Confession, Criticism, Cult Following, Deepika Padukone, Delhi Sultanate, Emotions, Essay, Extremist Group, Favorite, Feminism, Feminist, Film, Film Review, Films, Finding Yourself, Folktale, Happiness, History, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, India, Jaipur, Karni Sena, Life, Literature in Translation, Love Story, Memories, Memory, Old Love, Padmavat, Padmavati, Politics, Protest, Rajasthan, Rani Padmavati, Rant, Rantings, Ranveer Singh, Reality, Rebellion, Salman Khan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sexual Abuse, Shahid Kapoor, Story, Udaipur, Womanhood, Women, Words, Writing, YouthTagged Aishwarya Rai, Alauddin Khilji, Anurag Kashyap, Art, Ban, Bollywood, Books, Childhood, Criticism, Death of Art, Deepika Padukone, Delhi Sultanate, Essay, Extremist Group, Film, Film Ban, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Indian Cinema, Indian History, Inspiration, Karni Sena, Life, Memory, Padmavat, Padmavati, Poem, Protest, Rajasthan, Rajput, Rani Padmavati, Rant, Ranveer Singh, Religion, Right Wing, Salman Khan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shahid Kapoor, The Indian Bibliophile, Udta Punjab, Womanhood, Words, WritingLeave a comment
I was seven years old when my father had brought us the DVD of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Films, a privilege in my childhood, were something left to be seen in an unforeseen future, thanks to the strict instructions of my mother. So when the family would find a temporary haven in the various towns my father would be posted in due to his profession, the textbooks were imprisoned in the cupboards, and the fascinating "color" television, with its cable connection, would be the showstopper every evening.
In such an evening, I watched my second Bollywood film (the first being Taal) with my sister. Truth is, I didn't much care about the story then, perhaps because at seven I was ill-equipped to understand it, or perhaps I was too intrigued to swallow in the visual art of every frame in a Bhansali movie. But even at seven, I knew that Aishwarya singing with a sitar on a palatial marble terrace in 'Albela Sajan', or a lovesick Salman chasing a lehenga-clad Aishwarya across the amber courtyard in 'Aankhon ki Gustakhiyan' were frames to remember.
Days later, I would find myself in silent afternoons, dancing to 'Nimbooda Nimbooda' and 'Dholi Taro Dhol Baje', my mangy bob-cut hair never stopping me from reveling the essence of my then-untouchable womanhood. That was the power of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's films, it could even bring a wild child to desire of waist-length hair, doe eyes and blooming crimson lips, all wrapped in the silk of monochrome sarees.
Of course, I grew up after. I realized that a woman can be just as much a feminine goddess in a bob cut as she was in her flourishing raven mane, her unending braid twirling with every bounce of her hips. Of course, I grew up to know that every single one of these images in my head are just constraints that social standards set women to fit into, to box into, in order to comply individuals into set identities.
But then again, how can you ever outrun childhood?
How can you outrun the stories you read as a child?
In our little ways, we always find our way back into the altar of our childhood. A certain song, the lines of a poem we had read oh so long ago, perhaps even a quote from our favorite childhood novel, and suddenly the world around us deconstructs itself to reveal the pictures of our days of yore. After all, we are just children hiding under the masks of adulthood.
So when I saw the trailer of Padmavati, Bhansali took me down memory lane. Perhaps it was the hauntingly beautiful background score, perhaps it was Deepika Padukone gracefully walking in those decadent Rajasthani sarees as the jewelry weighed her down, perhaps it was Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji, roaring and laughing menacingly, and sending the subtlest shivers down my spine; whatever it was, the stories that my mother would read me by my bedside enlivened before my eyes once again.
I remembered the nights when Mother would read about Rani Padmavati, a fearless Rajasthani queen who burned herself alive with her hundred handmaidens, in order to escape a brutal fate in the hands of the Sultanate emperor Alauddin Khilji. Mother had described to me jauhar, the custom of immolating oneself alive in the name of honor, she had told me about sepaku, the custom of the Japanese samurai, and I remember how petrified I had been that night. I remembered my dreams of faceless women jumping into pyres, of men stabbing themselves with their swords before surrendering to their enemies. And I had held onto my mother's arms in my dreams, and she has protected me ever since.
I do not know if Rani Padmavati truly existed in reality. In my adolescence, my cynical self had gone on to read a translated version of Malik Muhammad Jayasi's epic poem Padmavat and almost laughed at the descriptions of magical talking parrots and women so courageous that their ideals seemed borderline delusional. And in my adulthood, I had realized that Padmavat, if not anything, was a brilliant piece of Sufi literature, and a pioneer in the genre of magic realism (and here you were thinking that only Marquez in the West and Murakami in the East were scribbling about talking cats and worlds with two paper moons).
But the past month, I had waited eagerly for December 1, when Padmavati would grace the theaters in my city. I was already assured about the the thousand criticisms it would receive, how every one of the magazine critics would fall upon the film's cadaver like ravenous hyenas and cut it open with a milieu of complicated phrases. Yet, the child in me could not wait to see her most memorable folktale come live on screen.
And then the media hit with the news of the film's ban, all at the behest of a religious extremist right-wing group called Karni Sena, who seem to be under the belief that by banning this film, they would be protecting the respect and honor of women. Suddenly, the newspapers, the news channels, even my Facebook news feed, are littered by the updates about an extremist group wanting the heads of Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Films, at the end of the day, are the expressions of art, and my country, as much as I love her, has imprisoned art. Suddenly, the censor board is no longer the only patriarch in judging the quality of films. Suddenly, sentiments of every extremist group need to be satiated for the release of a film. Suddenly, art is an adulterous woman being stoned to death in a field of sand and blood.
An anecdote here, India has no dearth of raunchy, borderline sexist, slapstick sex comedies that are home to a hundred double entendres. Most of them do not even include a single 'A' certificate. Yet, the minute when a film is aligned by any form of political agenda, it bites the dust, a recent example of that being 2016's Udta Punjab.
And this petrifies me. For I am a peddler of art, I live in words, I find stories in between the lingering silences of conversations and I dwell between the precipice of dying utopias and merging realities. So today, something has died inside of me. Maybe it is the memory of the lilt in my mother's voice as she described Rani Padmavati's beauty, maybe it is the image of a seven-year-old me dancing to 'Nimbooda Nimbooda' in one maudlin summer afternoon; whatever it is, I know a fragment of my childhood was still here until this moment. And now, it is gone.
The Half-Eaten Sugary Treat: A Review of Projapoti Biskut
September 23, 2017 September 23, 2017 Posted in Aditya Sengupta, Adoption, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Anupam Roy, Bourgeois, Calcutta, Child conception, Childhood, Cinephile, Esha Saha, Film, Film Review, Ganga, Hindu Mythology, Home, Homecoming, Hope, Kolkata, Marriage, Melancholia, Melancholy, Middle Class, Mythology, Online Review, Projapoti Biskut, Rabindranath Tagore, Spouses, Thoughts, Tollywood, Tomake Bujhina Priyo, UncategorizedTagged Aditya Sengupta, Adoption, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Anupam Roy, Bangla, Bengali Cinema, Bengali Culture, Bourgeois, Calcutta, Child conception, Communism, Esha Saha, Film Review, Hindu Mythology, Home, Hope, Kolkata, Marriage, Middle Class, Movie, Movie Review, Projapoti Biskut, Rabindranath Tagore, Review of the Week, TollywoodLeave a comment
Two half-broken people. Spouses, then lovers. A dying sun. The Ganges flowing with her majestic waves in front of them. And a projapoti biskut, the epynomous sugar-encrusted butterfly-shaped biscuit that is a faithful companion to a cup of piping hot milk tea for every Bangali in Calcutta. Somewhere in the ending sequences of Projapoti Biskut, you stumble across such a scene, and you cannot help but feel an inadequate happiness towards it.
Projapoti Biskut tells a simple story of an ordinary middle-class couple in Calcutta, who have lost their words along the flow of their marriage, their mundane life suddenly bombarded by the appearance of a Karthik idol at their gates.
Now what does the appearance of a Karthik idol mean? According to our colorful, and borderline lovably ridiculous, Bangali culture, Karthik is the son of Shiva and Parvati. His idols are left at the doorsteps of childless couples at times, and a ritual for his Pujo is often promised to give a boon that they shall soon conceive a child of their own. However, the appearance of the idol is a conflagration to a chain of irreversible changes that make the aforementioned couple question their identity in each others' lives, in their own perspectives, and their relationship as well.
Projapoti Biskut is a modern man's perspective of the extraordinary art of living an ordinary life, as seen from the eyes of director Anindya Chattopadhyay. Shot in interloping montages that overlap the sequential events of the film, Chattopadhyay spins an overtly simple story in the layers of his artful perception. From the imagery of the eponymous butterfly biscuit to the shots of North Calcutta, from train lines to the rusted gates of a house, the cinematography of the film boasts of creating the aura needed for this story, before it drives you into its intricacies.
However, that just where it begins, and sadly ends. Projapoti Biskut succeeds in being a beautiful film, as if watching a life in a series of forgotten photo albums, but somewhere, it lacks the heart to drive its point home. From poignant opinions about child adoption to women empowerment, the director tries to sew in every modernist thought into his story, unfortunately creating an utter hotchpotch of mixed messages.
Bangalis create a grand vegetable preparation with coconut, milk and vegetables, something called a Shuktoh. But the reason why Shuktoh is such a delight is because it enchants you with its perfect admixture of flavors that intermix and inject its tastes into the bland participating vegetables, the milk boiling to a beautiful dense broth in between.
Unfortunately, Projapoti Biskut is no Shuktoh. It is blessed with a plethora of subjects, but neither of them mix or intermix to create a savory homogeneous solution. Instead, every subject, every thought, stands out as a separate sentient concept that holds ground, at the cost of the characters that think of it.
Antar, the male protagonist, played by Aditya Sengupta, is an indecisive man beside his wife and the female lead, the headstrong Saon, played by Esha Saha. Their conflicting personalities were supposed to create a magical concoction of grandiose chemistry of epic proportions, however, reality was not that kind. Although an adorable factor in the storytelling, the monotony of their conflicts is predictable at best and monotonous at its most vulnerable. The use of a deux-ex-machina-like twist in the end does not help the plot in any way, and somewhere, even the characterization of the brave Saon falls short as the director forces her to fit into the box of Bangla film making aesthetics, in order to metamorphose the tepid housewife into the bold young woman she is portrayed to be in the last leg of the film. Singularly, however, both the actors try their best to sail true to themselves in the rather undulating plot sequencing, and that is something worthy of admiration, especially when both are making their debut with Projapoti Biskut.
In the end, Projapoti Biskut is a film worth watching, if not for anything, but to view the evolving perspectives in Bangla film direction, cinematography, music composing and storytelling in reference to all-encompassing subjects, from marriage to the conception of a child. After all, once the curtain falls, even the inadequacy of happiness is not enough to stop you from humming "Tomake Bujhina Priyo" to yourself, the magic of insufficient melancholia tuning the melodious rendition.


We're currently using BrightTalk but we were having some issues with it so we're thinking of leaving it and trying out a new webinar platform.
Does anyone have any experience with AdobeConnect?
Gartner gave them a high ranking so I'm curious of they're worth pursing since the community seems to prefer either GTW or On24.
Anu - I cannot recommend Adobe Connect - it was extremely buggy and lacked many basic features. We have Webex but are looking to find a new vendor as we've been experiencing lots of connection issues. We are testing Go to Webinar and will look at On24 potentially as well.
We recently made the switch from AdobeConnect to GoToWebinar and are very happy with the results. Adobe had some increased functionality for us, particularly in terms of in-webinar polling, but we find that GoTo has been extremely reliable and serves the majority of our needs. Most importantly for us is that GoTo seamlessly integrates with Marketo and both tools work well together.
I would check ratings on G2Crowd or such.
GTW is my preferred provider. On24 is ok. I don't know much about the others. Depends on what you want it do!
I spoke to GTW and they do not support on demand webinars i.e webinar recordings.
How do you deal with your webinar recordings? Do you host them on YouTube or vimeo?
I host our webinars on YouTube and find it beneficial for two reasons.
Thanks for your feedback. Can you track via YouTube track how long someone has watched a webinar?
YouTube provides (or at least used to, haven't checked recently) a graph for each video uploaded as to viewing interest.
It shows peaks and valleys of where the most activity occurred in the videos.
I think also that there may be average view length stats on each video.
You can track youtube views and how long someone has watched and have that info placed back in marketo. You can do the same for vimeo as well.
As far as webinar providers, I have used GTW and ReadyTalk. Both have very good integrations with Marketo. I had less technical issues with ReadyTalk and found them to be incredibly robust.
We have used ReadyTalk, InXpo, and am now on ON24.
I like the ON24 integration, but know that GTW has a nice one as well.
We are just moving over to ReadyTalk which out of all testing and requirements meets our needs.
I have used and Adobe Connect in the past and could never get the connector to work properly. Adobe Connect overall is not a great experience. Currently we use WebEx, which is one of the most expensive and useless Webinar platforms out there, it has an ok connector but has a very bad user experience and needs the user to download an app to view, which in B2B world can be near impossible to install due to companies security restrictions.
I 2nd Josh's GTW suggestion, it has a great experience, a good connector and easy to use.
I think the best starting point is to put together a features and flaws comparison document for each provider so that you can see the benefits of moving from one to another.
Thank you everyone! I really appreciate your feedback.


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Africa's Nuclear Energy Ambitions: Leapfrogging into the U...
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Africa's Nuclear Energy Ambitions: Leapfrogging into the Unknown
May 4 , 2019 . By Desta Mebratu (Prof.)
Ethiopia recently joined a group of African countries in signing cooperation agreements for the development of a nuclear industry sector. Most of these agreements consist of the two distinct but inter-related components that require qualitatively different attention.
The first component focuses on building national capacities for the application and use of nuclear science and technology. This is a very positive development that needs to be pursued by any country, as there are multiple benefits that could be gained from the application of nuclear science and technology in health, agriculture and industry sectors. However, the construction of a nuclear power plant for energy generation is also included in these agreements under the disguise of civilian or developmental application of nuclear science and technology.
Experience from other countries has shown that, under all conditions fulfilled, development of a sound nuclear power sector requires a minimum of 10 to 15 years. This could take much longer for most African countries as they lack some of the basic economic, institutional and technological prerequisites. However, the aggressive campaign that is being pursued by the countries that own these technologies and the increasing tendency of some African countries to jump on the bandwagon seems to compromise the acceptable norms and procedures for nuclear safety.
This will lead to major national, regional and global threats and needs to be debated openly. There are several key issues African countries need to be cautious about when signing up for such package deals in the area of nuclear power generation.
One of the false arguments used for the promotion of nuclear energy is based on the claim that it is the cleanest form of energy and contributes to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere from power generation.
It is true that nuclear energy has one of the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy generated. However, the threat from its radioactive waste is of an existential proportion, which will automatically disqualify it from being the cleanest form of energy. For those who claim it to be the safest technology, they only need to reflect on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 to understand the dangerous possibilities.
Even if the technological advances made in recent years have made it much safer technically, the trigger factors from natural and human-made disasters are still high. For several reasons, these triggering factors are more pronounced in regions like the Horn of Africa, where human-made and natural disasters such as earth quakes are still high.
The other misleading justification that is being told by promoters of nuclear energy is that country's like Ethiopia cannot rely on their huge hydropower generation potential because of the change in rainfall patterns that will be caused by climate change. It is true that climate variation has already become part of our reality and will continue to be a major threat in the coming decades unless appropriate measures are taken by the international community.
However, there is so much that could be done in the area of ecosystem adaptation and catchment rehabilitation to contain and possibly reverse the impact of climate change. Such measures will create multiple economic and social benefits by way of job creation and livelihood provision to local communities besides ensuring the sustainability of hydropower generation.
Development in African countries has been influenced for decades by trends of incidental leapfrogging that is supply-driven by external factors. Most of these developments, which were more of transplanting rather than transforming, resulted in isolated pockets of change that benefited the few at the expense of broad societal benefits.
Ethiopia and other African countries who recently decided to build nuclear power plants need to avoid making such major mistakes, which will result in stranded assets that will incur huge costs for generations to come.
PUBLISHED ON May 04,2019 [ VOL 20 , NO 992]
Desta Mebratu (Prof.) (desta@africaleapfrog.org), CEO of African Transformative Leapfrogging Advisory Service.
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What is a QR Code? - What is a QR Code?
You might have heard that Quick Response Codes or simply QR Codes are set to become the latest trend in technology but you don't actually know what a QR Code is!? Quick Response Codes (QR codes) are simply a type of two-dimensional barcode that can only be read using smartphones or other devices that are dedicated to QR reading. The devices that can read a QR code connect directly to texts, emails, websites, phone numbers and many more! You might have accessed this website by scanning a QR code!
Although QR codes are very popular in Japan and across the East, they are slowly becoming popular in the West. Before long you will start to see the codes on shop displays, product packaging, printed and billboard advertisements, in emails as well as on websites. The possibility of QR codes being used for both marketing and promotion of products, brands, services as well as any other thing is very high.
Why do you have to care about QR Codes?
Many people now own smartphones and the number keeps on rising on a daily basis. Consequently, QR Codes can have a huge impact on the society, particularly in the advertising, marketing and customer service with plenty of product info just one scan away.
We normally think that a barcode is an assortment of vertical lines. However, 2D Barcodes or QR Codes are a bit different given that the data is stored vertically as well as horizontally. Moreover, the data can be scanned in both directions.
Despite the fact that a standard 1D Barcode (UPC/EAN) has the capability to store up to thirty numbers, a QR Barcode has the ability to store up to 7,089 numbers! This huge amount of information is what enables links to Facebook or Twitter pages, videos as well as many other website pages.
If you own an iPhone, Android or Blackberry smartphone then there various dissimilar barcode scanner applications that have the ability to read and translate data from a QR code. The applications include: Red Laser, Barcode Scanner and QR Scanner. Most of these applications are completely FREE, and you only need to install one and use your smartphone's camera to scan the barcode. The application will then load for you the encoded data automatically.
Basically, a QR Code is an 'image-based hypertext link' that can be used offline. This implies that any URL can be easily encrypted into a QR Code and any webpage can be automatically opened as a result of scanning the barcode. Therefore, if you want to encourage somebody to like your Facebook page, you must have your Facebook profile page as the URL–. Moreover, if you want your video to go viral, you need to encode the URL in your QR Code. The choices are unlimited.
Besides website URLs, a QR Code can also have a phone number so that when it's scanned it encourages the user to call that specific number. Equally, you can also encode an SMS text message, V-card data or even plain alphanumeric text. Once the content is embedded within the QR Code, the QR Code reading device will automatically know the best application to open the content.
QR Code printing can be easily done in magazines, newspapers, brochures, leaflets as well as on business cards. Besides, they can also be placed on product packaging or labels, on billboards as well as on walls. Furthermore, a QR Code can also be tattooed on your body.
Although QR Codes can be used on a website, they should not be used as an alternative for an outdated hyperlink because the user is already online and does not require to fiddle around with their phone just to find a site that could have accessed in a very short time.
You can easily make your QR Codes by using selected 2D barcode generators. However, you must first consider why you need a QR Code as well as how you'll use it. For more info on this, please look at the QR Codes for Marketing' section below.
Although it is easier for large QR Codes to be scanned, most QR reading devices are capable of scanning images that are as small as a business card. This obviously assumes that the image is of top quality.
PNG files work very well since they can be easily resized. This implies that you can scale the QR Code very easily depending on where you want it to be.
If need QR Codes for either business or marketing purposes then you should know that most people have greater expectations from scanning a QR Code. Therefore, you ought to offer something that is a bit unique to the people who have taken their time as well as their effort to scan the barcode. For ideas or additional information about QR Code Marketing, take a look at the Piranha Internet who have effectively integrated the use of QR Codes in their various marketing strategies.
Furthermore remember that most people will not have an idea of what a QR Code is or even how to use it. You will have to provide detailed instructions on how to use a QR Code until they become more widespread.
Denso-Wave –who are a subsidiary of the Toyota Group – are credited with the invention of the QR Code as early as 1994. Although QR code was initially intended to be used to track parts in the automobile industry, its use has greatly grown ever since.
this 2D barcode format is also called High Capacity Colour Barcode, or simply Tag'. As the name suggests, the format is from Microsoft. The best thing about this barcode format is that it enables you to customize your tag by simply adding colour and making to match your brand. Moreover, it also allows you to "dynamically change your datasource", this means that you can easily modify the URL that the tag leads to. However, Microsoft Tag can only be read by Microsoft's own tag reader.
This is maybe the most identical format to the QR Code and it is widely used on small electrical components since it can be easily read regardless of the size.
This type is a bit different since data is not stored within the barcode itself, but on the Scanbuy server. A code catalogue is sent from a mobile device to the server, which then enquires from a database and returns the info. The main drawback with this system is that it's completely dependent on the Scanbuy servers.


Preparing for our international mission trips takes a lot of time and planning. If you are going to either Panama or Montreal this summer, make plans to attend this meeting. We will go over all of the things you need to get done before you go.
We build circles of moms who love each other like family. Women around the world are starting MOPS groups in churches, hospitals, YMCAs, homes, coffee shops, correctional facilities and on military bases around the world, and profound things are taking place.
If you are new, have questions, interested in joining or just want more info, then this class is for you. Simply let us know you are coming by Communication Card, email or phone and we will save a seat for you.
If you are planning on going to either of our 2 mission trips this summer (Panama or Montreal) you will need to sign up by February 25.
"D-Now" stands for Disciple Now. So, a D-Now Weekend is a Disciple Now Weekend. In its simplest form, a Disciple Now Weekend is a weekend retreat for a youth group.
Grab your sleeping bag and comfy jammies and join us for a fun girls' night together!
Hear about what's happening in our Student Ministry in the next year and how you can get involved.
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Its A Knockout
its a knockout Team Building
Min. of 20
The granddaddy of team events
Action packed games
Hilarious costumes
Competitive fun
What You'll Be Doing...
Arrive and marvel at our giant inflatable course
Suit up, get limber and prepare to get messy!
Tackle each challenge from the original show
Work in teams to crush your opponents
Expect crazy physical activities
Collect points and become a Knockout champion
More About its a knockout...
It's a Knockout is the granddaddy of all team events, first airing as a hilarious game show that kept us laughing until the penguin suits were locked away for good.
With costumes, props and inflatables from the original hit show, It's A Knockout team building is BACK with a vengeance as a hilarious and unique company away…starring you and your team.
You'll be welcomed by our show's host who'll split you into teams ready to take each other down in new, energic challenges with maybe a few retro games making an appearance or two.
Some of the challenges you'll be facing may include:
Fe Fi Fo Fall
Inside a 10ft Giant costume, make it across the crazy moving carpets operated by your sabotaging opponents.
Penguin Pursuit
Chase and tackle your fellow penguins before entering the 'ring of ice' for a super sumo showdown.
Slippery Summit
Ramble up this inflatable mountain covered in soap and water and try not to slip!
Bring out your staff's hilarious competitive side, working together quickly and crazily to win the prize as Knockout champions to boast about all the way back to the office. Our full-on day of fun will have you in bits and your company's working relationships will be that much stronger.
What They Said...
"We had a great time and will definitely use you again" - Ella Brazil, Wiggin LLP | 06/02/19
"Everything was perfect. We'll definitely use your services again in the future..." - Stiliyan Cikalov, Telelink UK | 05/08/18
Team building on a KNOCKOUT scale!
Where can you do this?
Bath, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brecon, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Chester, Edinburgh, Essex, Exeter, Glasgow, Harrogate, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Newquay, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Stratford upon Avon, Swansea, York
Send Your Enquiry Today!Our team will be happy to help!
Choose Your Location Locations... Bath Birmingham Bournemouth Brecon Brighton Bristol Cambridge Cardiff Cheltenham Chester Edinburgh Essex Exeter Glasgow Harrogate Leeds Liverpool London Manchester Newcastle Newquay Norwich Nottingham Oxford Portsmouth Reading Sheffield Southampton Stratford upon Avon Swansea York
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Vivek Wadhwa, Contributor
Academic, Researcher, Writer, Entrepreneur
Michael Fertik, Contributor
Online reputation and privacy expert, author, Reputation.com founder, CEO
What We'll Encounter on the Path to the Jobless Future
09/22/2015 12:20 pm ET Updated Sep 22, 2016
In just two short decades or so, we'll enter a jobless future.
Thanks to highly disruptive advanced technologies, jobs -- even industries -- will soon vanish, becoming remnants of a distantly remembered past. Other positions will be more efficiently done by machines, eliminating the need for human employees. This has happened before -- indeed, since the dawn of the Industrial Age -- but never in history at the same speed and scale. It's the advent of the "labor-light economy," as defined by noted MIT researchers Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, who have explored the benefits and downsides of rapid technological advancement.
At the same time as machines displace most of us, our fundamental needs -- think of Maslow's basic hierarchy -- will be met through the application of technologies. Food, energy, shelter, and health care will be free or so low cost that they're virtually free. Even education will be eventually be free.
[We need a new vision for capitalism in the jobless future]
But the path to that the jobless future won't be easy or simple; here's what will happen over the next 15 to 20 years.
We're already entering the first stage: a trough phase where a massive repricing of labor will take place. This is inevitable as the number of jobs and available industries shrinks. The relative purchasing power of labor will become more even across domestic and international markets -- which means, as a plus, the cost of American labor will become more competitive. Companies won't necessarily have to locate manufacturing plants overseas; the financial considerations will no longer be as compelling. As a result, we'll see medium-skilled manufacturing jobs come back to our shores. Service jobs will replace low-skilled manufacturing as options for some, not all.
But there will also be greater division through the rise of a powerful class. Those with specialized skills and abilities, who cannot be conveniently replaced by machines, will enjoy better employment and the resulting capital spoils. Think of this much smaller subset of people as the new 1 percent. Those who can't compete in this rising paradigm will struggle, because technologies haven't yet made food, shelter and healthcare free or nearly free, although that day is clearly coming.
At the same time we enter this trough, politicians will attempt to derail the inexorable onset of the jobless future. Those on the left will want to slow-roll its arrival, to preserve what they see as a heyday of economic opportunity: the chance to broadly compete for jobs across a variety of sectors and companies.
Those on the right will see this as the natural outgrowth of capitalism but constituent pressure -- especially in states where certain industries dominate but are likely to disappear -- will win out. Both sides will struggle to adapt their thinking and reconcile themselves to a model that's truly unlike anything we've seen before. And both will be keenly aware that the trough phase is the most dangerous for the nation -- for as industries blink out like so many dying stars and the jobs with them, people will be unsettled, angry and even panicked.
[We're headed for a jobless future no matter what the government does]
This phase will inspire us all to ask the question, how do we address a society that's moving toward such dramatic unevenness?
Policy changes are essential. We will have to soften capitalism as we know it in order to save it.
First, there will need to be a massively structural retraining effort to help prepare more people for the jobs that remain -- and new industries that may surface which require skills and knowledge we can't yet fully anticipate. Practically this might look like learning accounts -- say, several thousand dollars for approved educational courses or training programs. Increasing competitiveness is ultimately the cost-effective option: you'll move people off the rolls, enable them to get jobs that then enhance their ability to reinvest in the economy through spending, etc.
Second, wage insurance -- a supplement that lessens the gap between what a person was earning and currently earns -- will be fundamental during what will be a volatile period of adjustment as people, governments, and institutions come to grips with a sea change in the way we work.
As this new paradigm gradually becomes the dominant model, not all workers will be shut out of opportunity. Some displaced workers will be able to find new employment, but at a lower wage in a new or existing industry. This will still present a hardship for most families, though obviously not as dramatic or wrenching as the total loss of employment. Wage insurance will help people preserve the lives they'd previously built and -- as a huge benefit to society and governments writ large -- be a stabilizing influence.
Change is nearly always difficult. The advent of the jobless future has the potential to strain and stress us at scale, before it arrives in force. Yet its coming is assured. Devising and socializing smart policies now will make the transition as smooth as possible, protecting us both as individuals and as the collective.
Fertik is the founder and executive chairman of Reputation.com.
Technology Looking For A Job


'When I was a child, I didn't have too many expectations or dreams about myself, because I knew it would be above what I could do.', speaking is Wisenut who sits cross-legged next to me. He adds that there is one thing he wanted to do as a young boy and that was to be able to help the people in his village. He is a young and shy man, who often just looks at the ground, instead to me. His words are softly spoken, but when he speaks, he shows how his circumstances have changed him and he is proud about what he has achieved.
As a young boy of 15 he decided to try his luck in the city of Chiang Mai, because 'there was no work in the mountains, so you have to go and find work somewhere else.' He worked for seven years in construction and transportation. Labor migration is one of the issues small villages like his have to face. Young adults often try their luck somewhere else, this then leaves the village without a labor force work on the fields. However, this village is quite remarkable in that most of them seem to return after a few years, forming a strong bond as a village and as a group of friends.
Wisenut does the same thing, he returns with his wife to his old village and starts farming coffee, red beans and rice. Next to being a farmer, he takes place in the committee for development in his village (they use government funds to increase the living standards in the village). One of the things they accomplish is the construction of a concrete road between the village and the main road.
Completing this part of the road means the village can be reached, even during the rainy season when the sand turns into mud and the hillside into a slide. It has made it easier for children to go and study in other places, for people to work in the nearby city and for worried mothers to travel to the nearest clinic. When I ask him if he is proud to have fulfilled his childhood dream, he smiles, looks at me and I see a proud man and says 'Yes, of course, I'm glad I did that.' Even though he did not dare to dream for himself, the dream he had, he fulfilled, leaving him a proud and content man.


text:
Man's Can Of Guinness Pin Hack Goes Viral On TikTok
Published 21:17, 05 May 2021 BST
A man's can of Guinness hack has gone viral. Watch it here:
Now, we all know the ideal way to have a pint of the black stuff is in the pub, but if you're at home with a tinny, you want to make sure it's as close to the real thing as possible.
The hardest part about simulating the pub pint is recreating that creamy head, but look no further - if you've got a Guinness Surger, but no Surger can.
In a video shared by TikTok user @nobbyoncars, a can can (who's thinking of the dance?) be seen being transformed from a flat mess into a foamy delight.
In the clip, he explains: "If you don't have Guinness Surger cans, here's the Guinness hack. Put a pin in it and leave it until the air comes out for about five minutes."
He continues: "Then pull it out slowly... very slowly. Pour the Guinness into your glass. It will look flat, and then surge it."
If you don't have the Surger unit, you can still make the most of your tinny by pouring it correctly.
Don't rush it if you don't want to ruin it. Credit: PA
Daragh Curran - who goes by the name The Guinness Guru - shared his method on his TikTok channel.
In the video, he explains: "Ideally you've had the can in the fridge for around 24 hours, and standing up - I find if you put it down sideways it tends to kind of spill over when you open it.
"The glass - believe it or not, I put the glass in the freezer for 15/20 minutes.
"I'm gonna open the can and go straight in with it. So straight in, glass at a 45 degree angle... I'm gonna pour about 80 percent of it in."
After leaving it to settle for about a minute, Daragh adds the remaining black stuff.
He says: "You're not gonna lift up the glass, just hold the hand firm on it and plop that straight in, you should get a nice creamy head.
"All the way to the top, don't pull out, it won't overflow... Perfection."
Then, simply repeat this entire process until your heart is content.
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@nobbyoncars
Topics: Viral, Hack, Food, Booze, Alcohol, Community
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Moment Man Realises He's Won £1 Million On The Lottery Goes Viral


DC Comics is a division of Warner Brothers Entertainment and an American comic book. The initials "DC" stood originally for the company's title Detective Comics, and later became the official name.
The first DC Comics logo was introduced in 1940. The small logo read simply, "A DC Publication". The November 1941 DC titles brought out a new version, which was the first DC logo to have a white background. By November 1949, the circular logo was updated to comprise the company's formal name – National Comics Publications. DC Comics decided to retire the circular emblem in October 1970 in favor of a simple "DC" in a rectangle with the star of the book or the name of the title.


Many jobs in Athens and around Georgia offer fringe benefits as a way to attract top talent to their company. This can include discounted health insurance plans, retirement investment accounts, and life insurance policies. These perks will often influence an employee's choice of jobs and may even make the difference in decisions concerning continued employment.
With such an emphasis on these plans as a central part of choosing where to work, it is only fair that the employees be able to rely on those plans when needed. Sadly, disputes over whether a plan applies to a worker's specific situation are common. When these disputes concern a work-provided benefit plan, any disagreement is controlled by ERISA.
An Athens ERISA lawyer could help employees and their families who are having difficulties obtaining benefits under plans that are controlled by ERISA. A detail-oriented lawyer could work to help you understand the applicable laws and pursue appeals needed to obtain the benefits you deserve.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act or ERISA, is a federal law that was first enacted in 1974. This law was intended to create a baseline of regulations for all employer-provided benefit packages. While this may seem like it is a good thing for workers, in reality, this framework only serves to delay the receipt of many benefits.
This is because ERISA controls when a courthouse can hear a case concerning disputes between insurers and their policyholders. Typically, a disagreement between an insurance company and a policyholder is a matter concerning the enforcement of a contract. Civil courts in Athens and throughout the state have the authority to hear and rule on these matters.
However, an ERISA controlled policy requires the policyholder to exhaust all internal appeals processes established by the insurance company. This can cause weeks or even months of delay while a policyholder may be desperately waiting for resolution. An Athens ERISA lawyer could help navigate these appeals processes quickly to allow the case to get to court as soon as possible.
All the same issues of contention in insurance cases between independently controlled policies affect ERISA governed claims. This is because outside of the fact that a policy is controlled by ERISA, these plans are identical to the others.
Normally, if an insurer denies a claim, a policyholder can allege simple breach of contract in a civil court. It is also true that a court may ultimately hear such disputes in ERISA policies. However, the claimant must first exhaust all internal appeals processes created by the insurance company before going to court. An Athens ERISA lawyer could help policyholders comprehend their policies and take appropriate legal action.
Failing to collect benefits on an insurance plan is a frustrating experience. It is reasonable to expect that plans will provide payment when their provisions are triggered. However, insurance companies make their profits by refusing to pay claims. When these refusals occur on policies governed by ERISA, the process for appeals becomes much more complex.
An Athens ERISA lawyer could help you exhaust the applicable insurance company appeals so that you can get the coverage you deserve. Contact an attorney today to learn more.


text: 108 STAT. 4370 PUBLIC LAW 103-425—OCT. 31, 1994 "(A) in a Senior Executive Service position and is not a career appointee as defined under section 3132(a)(4); or "(B) in a position of a confidential or policy-determining character under schedule C of subpart C of part 213 of title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations. "(b) No senior politically appointed officer may receive an award under the provisions of this subchapter during a Presidential election period. "§4509. Prohibition of cash award to Executive Schedule officers "No officer may receive a cash award under the provisions of this subchapter, if such officer— "(1) serves in— "(A) an Executive Schedule position under subchapter II of chapter 53; or "(B) a position for which the compensation is set in statute by reference to a section or level under subchapter II of chapter 53; and "(2) was appointed to such position by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.". (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— The table of sections for chapter 45 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 4507 the following: "4508. Limitation of awards during a Presidential election year. "4509. Prohibition of cash award to Executive Schedule officers.". Approved October 31, 1994. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—H.R. 3499: HOUSE REPORTS: No. 103-598, Pt. 1 (Comm. on Post Office and Civil Service). SENATE REPORTS: No. 103-396 (Comm. on Governmental Affairs). CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 140 (1994): July 19, considered and passed House. Oct. 7, considered and passed Senate, amended. House concurred in Senate amendment.


I think the very first time I was interested in making art was my discovery of the Internet during my childhood. I spent hours visiting wallpapers galleries and was fascinated by CG artworks. I was wandering who created them and how. A bit later, I joined video games teams on the web and on the forums I discovered for the very first time digital art. So I started to learn Photoshop with free tutorials and later on I discovered matte painting and digital painting. It's only 2 years ago approximately that I started to take art a bit more seriously.
I'm inspired by a lot of different things: one of my biggest influence has always been video games and of course, the concept artists who worked on them. There is also movies, mangas, music, nature and a huge bunch of digital artists.
I only work digitally. I'm still experimenting and trying to improve my skills, I'm currently working on very different kinds of works and techniques. I love to use photomanipulation as much as digital painting. It's not rare that I use both techniques for the same artwork. It gives a rather unique feel to my works.
It varies a lot. Of course, if the project is comissioned or for an art group, a specific theme is given but I always tend to go to the dark side of things. I think I like the idea of creating something dark and gloomy but also very beautiful in its own way. One of my favorite thing is to create unique universes with amazing environments or mysterious characters.
I don't think my art has a specific color, it depends on the mood, the theme and the setting of the piece. I may have a slight preference for cold tones but I try to challenge myself and try new things with each new work.
Haha there are so many things I'd like to improve! I don't know if one life will be enough. I wish I could paint anything with ease so I still have to study a lot anatomy, faces, values, composition, etc… I really want my works to differ from others by the lighting and mood… and of course the originality.
Q8: Describe yourself with 3 words capturing the essence of DesignSpartan.
I think this HERE is my first finished digital painting. I feel a bit weird when I look at it now, it feels very easy to paint yet I couldn't say where the idea came from. I didn't study birds or anything, I just had this idea in mind and needed to paint it. I think the best works come this way but today I wouldn't paint something new without a bit of reference studies.
Oooh… a lot of things changed, I worked hard to understand and apply better compositions, lighting, values, colors, etc… My technique is better and now I try to challenge myself with each new painting. I think my "style" – if I have one – is still the same. My inspiration is still quite dark and the pleasure remains intact.
For me, art is a way to escape reality or to explore myself. I can create beautiful worlds as much as something more conceptual and intimate. I think the common point is to always try to make viewers feel something. The strenght of art is emotion.


text:
Q: ExampleComponent.vue is not working Laravel 7 I tried lot of ways to fix this problem from stackoverflow, laracast, google but nothing works,
-> I think my vue.js is not loading or working(Im using sublime text, all files showing highlighted or colored text except ExampleCmponent.vue file), npm run watch successfully but vue devtools also not deteceting any vue.
-> I also tried:
<div id="app">
     <example-component></example-component>
 </div>

Im sharing screenshots with you please help me out if possible:
ExampleComponent.vue

home.blade: i also tried without #id tag->

chrome:vue devtools:

here is app.js:

I tried:
Laravel 5 VueJS not working
https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/vue/example-component-not-working
https://laravel.com/docs/7.x/frontend

A: What you have done here is called Fronend-Scaffolding. You still need to Compile Assets.
Open your webpack.mix.js and add your .js & .scss files. Once done, confirm files are in public /js /css folder.
mix.js('resources/js/app.js', 'public/js')
    .sass('resources/sass/app.scss', 'public/css');

Then, add below lines in your blade.
// use mix() for cache bursting. Or simply stick with asset()
<link href="{{ mix('css/app.css') }}" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="{{ mix('js/app.js') }}"></script>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Lenoir's fire line charge is one of the last of its kind.
City officials discussed at a budget retreat Friday whether the charge has outlived its time. But they decided to postpone making any changes to it.
Like so many things in Lenoir, the fire line charge can be traced back to furniture. Based on the size of the water lines required, some businesses that install fire sprinkler lines are then required to pay taxes for them. It originally was conceived as a way to subsidize the cost of a large fire department made necessary by the presence of large industries in the city.
Most cities have eliminated their version of the tax as industries downsized or moved away, but in Lenoir it still brings $230,000 a year into the city coffers.
The fire line charge came to be in 1991, when Lenoir was a manufacturing stronghold.
"This is a problem that is caused by the fact, and I don't want to paint with too broad a brush here, but it's caused by the fact that a lot of these buildings are not being used for what they were originally made for," Perdue said.
He and Mayor Pro Tem T.J. Rohr argued the charge is too much of a burden on businesses.
The charge was originally a way to push some of the costs of a large fire department back on the industries themselves.
Other council members and city employees say the charge is still necessary. The factories may be empty, but they're still here, after all. And they can still burn.
Fire Chief Ken Briscoe pointed to a fire at the Bernhardt building Thursday as an example. The department was able to respond so quickly that there was virtually no damage.
Rohr suggested phasing the tax out over a period of two or three years.
Others, including Councilman Merlin Perry and Councilman Lewis Price, couldn't see how the city could adjust the budget to make up for losing almost a quarter of a million dollars in revenue, even over a longer span of time.
Briscoe was torn. Though the money goes to the general fund, not the fire department budget, it still allows him to have a robust department.
On the other hand, people rarely die in buildings with fire sprinklers. He wants people to have them.
The tax is brought up from time to time. It was last discussed in 2011. But no action was taken then, and it's not likely any action will be taken this fiscal year, based on discussion at Friday's budget retreat.
It may be gone someday. Rohr expressed particularly strong support for eliminating the tax.
But most council members couldn't conceive of eliminating revenue in a year already plagued by budget troubles, they said.
"Is there a reason we're still doing this?" Perdue said.


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text:
Pagina-afbeeldingen
The General Assembly's Missionary Magazine: Or Evangelical ..., Volume 2
pride, vanity, and lust, look down into the grave and see yourself the food of worms and serpents; when you are perplexed with doubt, fear, and anxiety, look up to heaven and see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. That this same Jesus, who is ever ready to succour them that are tempted, having been tempted himself with all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, that he may preserve you unhurt and unspotted in the midst of this evil and adulterous generation, and present you faultless, in the robes of his perfect righteousness, before the presence of his Father with exceeding joy, is a prayer offered up in the same earnestness of supplication, with which he prays for his own soul, by, my dearest Charles,
Your affectionate brother in the faith of Christ,
To Mr. Charles Poynz,
Spa, Germany.
O. HORNE.
EVANDER AND THEODOSIA.
THE subsequent relation is taken from "Bean's Advice to a new married couple;" a work, which has obtained great celebrity in Great Britain, and which deserves a place in the library of every christian family. The book is, indeed, but little known on this side of the water; but the extract which we are about to make, will give no unfavourable impression of its merits, both as it regards the sentiments it contains, and the manner in which those sentiments are delivered. We cannot too earnestly recommend the present performance to the perusal of every one who wishes to form a just estimate of the duties belonging to the married state.
"EVANDER and THEODOSIA were both the offspring of pious parents. Their union was a natural one: it had all the qualities that accompany an attachment founded not merely on similarity of religious views. It was such an affection as they could neither suppress, nor direct to another object. But though their attachment was not produced by their religion, it was nourished by it. Whatever they saw in each other's person or temper to unite their hearts, was heightened by the satisfaction they had in each other's piety, and the consequent prospects of spending a harmonious life, and a blessed eternity together.
"Their hands were joined; and the delicate reserves that religion taught them hitherto to observe in each other's company
now being unnecessary, they entered on a state blessed with all the enjoyments that an unshackled affection could yield to minds seasoned with the benevolence and purity of christianity. Their equal regard to God diminished not one enjoyment in which a fond couple could share, but was, on the contrary, an additional source of pleasure. They "delighted in God," and they delighted in the society of each other.
"Their unanimity, their visible, though unstudied interchanges of kindness, their peace, and unaffected abstinence from whatever was immoral, had an assimilating influence on their family; and served to give considerable effect to that religious order they had established. The invisible world being in a great measure habitually before them, they both in their respective departments attended to those who were under them (whether children or servants) as having the charge of immortals.
"Such was their behaviour towards their children, that it seemed as if the training them for an eternal state was, in their views, the principal purpose for which divine Providence gave them an offspring; and to this business they applied themselves with pleasure. They began early with the infusion of religious ideas into the minds of their children, wisely limiting themselves, at first, to those few great principles which are the foundation of all religion. On these points, simple as they are, they did not expect to produce conviction in the infant mind. Yet they conceived, that one way to prevent the introduction of evil, was to pre-occupy the mind with that which is good. And it never came once into their thoughts, that they should be blamed for enforcing a truth on children, because the disciples were too young to see that truth in as clear a light as their instructors did. They had none of the quirks and refinements of sceptics in their method of education. They went to work in a straight forward way: what they had learned they taught: they trusted they knew "the way of salvation," and they endeavoured to lead their children in the same path.
"Impressed with the infinite importance of this part of a parent's duty, they took pains in it. To conduct a business of such consequence, in a desultory way, was, in their opinion, but a smaller degree of that criminality which neglects it entirely. It therefore did not content them, to inculcate religious ideas; they aimed, in dependence on God, to induce moral habits. The genuine christian as distinguished, not more from "the children of this world," than from those equivocal religionists, who seem to belong neither to the church nor to the world, was the model they
kept in their eye. To see this simple character in their children, to see them avowedly on the Lord's side,' yet free from all affectation; evidently desirous of living a useful life, yet neither vain nor obtrusive; was a hope they expected not to realize, without great pains taken on their part. They counted the cost and determined to pay it; hoping thereby to obtain that divine blessing on their endeavours, for which they constantly prayed; as fearing, from what they knew of the depravity of human nature, that, without it, their labours would fail of success.
"But this pious care was not confined to their children; it extended to every member of their family." "They had the reward of seeing the most blessed effects follow their ruling over their house in the fear of God. It was subject, like other houses, to mortality; but this event was softened by the manner in which it was met, both by those who departed and those who were called to give them up: the former being enabled to die rejoicing in the truths of that gospel which had been inculcated in the family; and the latter, to find a relief under the painful stroke that separated one friend from the other, in the well-grounded hope of meeting again in a better world.
"Among other events of this sort that interrupted the enjoyments of the family, was the death of Theodosia. I will not detail to you every particular of her last illness, but just present you with the concluding circumstances.
"Her disease was of the lingering kind; a circumstance of peculiar advantage, for manifesting the influence of religion in death. Evander approached her bed-side one morning as usual, to inquire how she had passed the night; to whom she replied in the following terms: Thank you, dear Evander. I should be glad for your sake to be able to say, I had a better night than usual. I know how such a report would gladden your heart, but I am not able to give such an account of myself. Indeed, I find myself going apace, and I had determined before I had the pleasure of seeing you this morning, to endeavour, before my illness renders me any weaker, to gratify a wish I have almost through life indulged. I have never felt much solicitude about the kind of death with which I might finish my course. One thing only I have been desirous of; it was, that I might not leave the world without being able to make such a declaration of the mercies of God, as might encourage those who are walking in his ways, and admonish those who are not.' She was going to tell her husband what was the wish she desired to gratify, but was interrupted by seeing the tide of grief suddenly rising in his breast. They graspVOL. II. Gg
ed each other's hand, and some minutes were spent by them both in the silent indulgence of tears.
"When this effusion had in some measure subsided, she began: We have thought of this before; and I trust we shall both be sustained in this last conflict. To you, indeed, the hardest part of the trial is allotted. You love me; and therefore unworthy as I am of such a regard, you will feel a loss. I have, indeed, something here, for which I could think it worth while to live. It is you. It is my children. But there is One above, for whom I can willingly leave you all, dear as you are to me. I hope to be with him. Unworthy as I am of the least of his mercies, I trust I may warrantably rejoice in him, as the God of my salvation. I have endeavoured to know him. He has not suffered me to live in a state of indifference towards him. Grace has taught me what I am, and what I want. It has taught me to look for present peace and everlasting happiness, in making the mediation of a crucified Saviour the ground of my trust, and his example the pattern of my conduct; and that grace encourages me to hope for the forgiveness of my sins through his blood. In this hope of salvation through him, and the sense I have of my infinite obligations to the God of all grace, I rejoice in the prospect before me.
"I have a confidence in you, that sets me at ease with respect to the care necessary to be taken of my dear children; but above all, I am enabled to leave them with God. Thus have I little to lose, in comparison of what I have to gain, in leaving this world; but you, my dear Evander, have yet to maintain the christian conflict. Be, however, of good cheer. God is all-sufficient.
"You have often encouraged me in my religious course, permit me to make my last recompence to you in kind. God, I know, will bless you. He will keep you amidst the snares of life, direct you in all the labours and difficulties of the family, and support you in the last hour as he does me. Then shall we meet again. I do rejoice in this expectation.
"I thank you for all your tenderness, care, and kindness; for all your admonitions, reproofs, and counsels; for all the candour with which you have interpreted my failings. I am thankful for the example you have been enabled to set me, and for the care you have taken of my soul. You have watched over me in this respect, and I trust I shall have reason, as a creature designed for a future state, ever to bless God for bringing us together.' She meant to say more, but her affections weakened the power of utterance; and she withal saw it was too much at
present for Evander. He would have replied, but the occasion allowed him no command of himself. He would have prayed, and fell on his knees by her bed-side; but stopping in the middle of the first sentence, he wept and retired.
"Reflection and prayer in his closet, restored to him the power of supporting another interview with Theodosia. He rejoiced with her in the prospects of everlasting felicity. He thanked her for having so well filled up her station in life; and kneeling down, he blessed the Father of mercies, for having vouchsafed to them that knowledge of himself, the influence of which had hitherto sweetened their society, and now relieved them both under the pain of separation.
"When he had risen from his knees, Theodosia expressed a desire that all the family might be admitted into her chamber, when Paternus, their parish minister, should make his visit. 'For,' said she, our family worship has been one of my greatest enjoyments. I should like to join once more with all my household in this act; and if I leave it to another day it may not be practicable.' Not long after Paternus entered the room; to whom, after the customary inquiries were answered, the proposal of Theodosia was mentioned. Paternus was pleased with it.
"In a little time all were ready. Every domestic was admitted into the chamber. The servants were arranged at some distance from the bed, but in sight of Theodosia, who was raised by pillows, supported by two of her children. Paternus began by reading a portion of the fourteenth chapter of St. John's gospel, to which he added a few reflections, calculated to infuse into the minds of this little congregation a desire to die the death of the righteous.' They were preparing to conclude with a prayer, when they were desired, by Theodosia, still to keep their seats. 'Paternus,' said she, addressing herself to the minister, will you permit me to interrupt you for a few moments, while I declare, in the hearing of my family, my faith in that Redeemer whom you have preached unto us?' She was desired by Paternus to proceed.
"The testimony of a dying woman," continued she, "ought to have some weight with those who hear it. I here then declare, that nothing supports me in the prospe f of an approaching eternity but faith in a crucified Saviour. On him alone I depend for salvation. On the merits of my Redeemer, I ground all my hope of future happiness. And this I declare, in presence of my husband, children, and servants, that they may remember
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