rantlust

Posted by papi on June 09th 2008 in Architecture, Art, Far East, Raves, Religion, Travel
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“You know it might be just this one anonymous glory of all things, this rich stone forest, this epic chant, this gaiety, this grand choiring shout of affirmation, which we choose when all our cities are dust; to stand intact, to mark where we have been, to testify to what we had it in us to accomplish.”

The quote is Orson Welles talking about the cathedral at Chartres, and it’s from the movie “F for Fake” but it could just as easily have been about the topic of this post. Borobudur - a tapestry of stone, a rich stone forest, an epic chant. I’d read about Borobudur in history textbooks, as the lesser known sibling of Angkor Wat, and I’d long had a desire to visit the temple and see for myself if it matched up to its formidable reputation. Earlier this year, an anthropologist friend researching urban planning in the nearby Javan city of Jogjakarta urged me to visit, and I did not need to be asked twice.

Borobudur is located about an hour away from the city of Jogjakarta in East Java, brooding over the surrounding paddy fields. It is rather too close for comfort to the active volcano Gunung Merapi, and the latter has over the years been a constant concern for the safety of the temple. However, Borobudur has survived not only the vagaries of Merapi’s explosions and numerous earthquakes, but even human attempts to destroy it. It still stands largely intact, a testament to the endurance of faith.
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Posted by crewcut on July 02nd 2006 in Far East, India, Movies, Religion
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One of the last scenes of Superman Returns, which I watched all the way to the credits, shows an Indian nurse going to check on our injured hero, only to discover that he has flown out of the window.

On remarking to my wife that it was nice to showcase an Indian playing the role of the nurse, especially with Indians being one of the largest ethnic segments of nurses in the US/UK/Middle East, her immediate response was that the movie may have been localised for each region. Western audiences would see a Caucasian nurse, Far Eastern audiences would see an Oriental, and so on.

It could be possible. There was a Malayalam movie called Harikrishnans, which originally had 3 different endings, each tailored to different religious demographics. With the controversy that it created, they finally released the movie with only one ending.

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Posted by anupcs on February 01st 2006 in Europe, Far East, Finance
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San Francisco is ranked by the Economic Intelligence Unit at 40 in their biannual ranking of the world’s costliest cities. Forty? Are they shitting me?

Anyway, it’s Sayonara Tokyo and Hallo Oslo. The latter is the most expensive city in the world. Not what I would have thought. Of all the cities in the top ten, only Osaka and Tokyo are not in Europe.

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Posted by renéejo on January 31st 2006 in Far East, Society, Women
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Japanese men are known for their workaholic ways. In fact, their devotion to work is so much that losing a job is a terrible loss of face and often results in extreme measures such as suicide. The married ones often end up neglecting their wives in the process. This is about to change. Some men got together and formed the Nihon Aisaika Kyokai or the ‘Japan Doting Husbands Association’.

Today is being designated as the ‘Beloved Wives Day’ by this jolly troupe. Their goal for the day is to head home early (by 8pm) and spend quality time with the wives and tell them how much they are appreciated. Maybe this day should be adopted worldwide. (I know Valentine’s day is around the corner but that’s all about greeting card and chocolate manufacturers, isn’t it?)

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