''Awed By A Knock On The Door''

''Isle Of The Dead''

It was one of those misty, windy, moonlit November night in the sea side small French town!We were invited to a piano recital by our 9 year old son Mattis-Joti's piano teacher's husband, the Armenian old is gold Gabrell at the Music Conservatory Mattis attends!

Gabrell was playing Rachmaninoff!Though Gabrell didn't play 'Isle Of  The Dead', on the way back walking,  my head was still filled with it!It must had to do with Gabrells playing intensely well one after another joyful Rachmaninoff coupled with the effect of last few months one after another outrageous news coming out of my home country Bangladesh: the burning of Buddhist temple; the burning of slums and more than 100 garments workers burnt to death in Dhaka!I was thinking what made Rachmaninoff to compose his 'Isle Of The Dead' symphonic poem!Did he at all go through the pain as the painter of the same title went through?

Victims Of Map: Palestinian Poems

Victims of a Map Published in 1984, is a bilingual (Arabic / English) anthology presenting three undeniably influential Arabic-language poets: Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, Samih Al Qasim and Syrian Adonis.  At 165 pages  this is a slim volume, Editor and translator Abdullah al-Udhari offers an introduction to the book as well as a brief introduction to each poet.

If Only Monty Python Was Making, ''Life Of Muhammad''

Everybody knows that French cartoon magazine Charlie Hebdo has published caricature of  Prophet Muhammad this week and fearing backlash  French government has closed embassies around the world!What the heck that got to do with Monty Python?

Monty Python's ''Life of Brian'', a 1979 British comedy film tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish man.Brian grows frantic when he finds that some people have started to follow him around, with even the slightest unusual occurrence being hailed as a "miracle". One day after slipping away from the mob, Brian runs into Judith, and they spend the night together. In the morning, Brian opens the curtains to discover an enormous crowd of people outside his mother's house, all proclaiming him to be the Messiah. Brian's mother protests: "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy".

The Great Bangladeshi Flood And The Islamist, Marxist Bloodbath To Follow

The Bangali River  is one of the main rivers in the northern part of Bangladesh .Scientists are concerned about the current condition of the Bangali River, every year the river Jamuna is moving 80 m  closer to the Bangali as a result of erosion of its banks.A stretch of only 300 m  separates the two rivers, an alarming sign for the continued existence of the Bangali River.What's theses all got to do with either the Islamists or the Marxists?

Olympic Gold For GlaxoSmithKline

    Demonstrators protesting GlaxoSmithKline's policies regarding generic AIDS drugs in Bangkok, 2004

Here goes the 1st London Olympic gold for corruption to the British pharma GlaxoSmithCline which pleaded guilty to a massive health care fraud in US and agreed to pay a record $3 Billion fine.On 2nd July, 2012 US Justice Dept reported that the criminal charges against Glaxo that made it to pay in billions involved the distribution of  unlicensed drugs.The suggestion was that the company did it by bribing the doctors who again are among the highest earners.

Syrian April Fool Or The Godfather Effect:First Lady Playing The Outsider Kay Adams

 Above wife Kay Adams(Diane Keaton) with the would be Mafia Don Michael Corleone(Al Pacino)!Kay was an outsider to the Sicilian American clan!

Madonna responds to the 'Girl Gone Wild' age ban

Youtube has recently put an open public viewing ban on Madonna's video of the song 'Girl Gone Wild' and asked the singers team to edit certain parts before submitting it back for public viewing!It's reported that to ensure a lift on the ban, Madonna's team are currently working to edit out all shots of bare bottoms and a particular scene of simulated masturbation.