Confusion over Deepavali date – Oct 22 or Oct 23?

http://www.theantdaily.com/Don-t-miss-these/Confusion-over-Deepavali-date-Oct-22-or-Oct-23/

Confusion over Deepavali date – Oct 22 or Oct 23?
Sonia Ramachandran

PETALING JAYA: The festival of lights that also signifies the triumph of good over evil is an important celebration for Hindus all over the world. However, there seems to be a little confusion lately as to when Deepavali or Diwali actually falls.

In 2013, the confusion was between Nov 2 and Nov 3 and this year, it is between Oct 22 and Oct 23.

If you type in Deepavali in your Google search engine, Oct 23, 2014 will immediately pop up.

In Malaysia, however, Deepavali officially falls on Wednesday, Oct 22, though here too there was confusion.

His Majesty’s Government Gazette No 43367 of Dec 6, 2013 states that Thursday, Oct 23, 2014 which was published in the July 29, 2013 Gazette as the date for the public holiday for Deepavali should be replaced with Wednesday, Oct 22, 2014 for the celebration.

This is apparently according to the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple Devasthanam.

Malaysia Hindu Sangam president Datuk RS Mohan Shan told theantdaily that the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple Devasthanam had given this information to the government two years ago.

“Like how we explained to the people last year, Deepavali falls on Chaturdashi Tithi. The early morning bath taken by Hindus on Deepavali day is considered a bath in the holy water of Ganges and this should fall on Chaturdashi Tithi, not Amavasya Tithi, which is considered the day of the black or dark moon.

“The last two years has seen the Chaturdashi Tithi and Amavasya Tithi falling far apart when in the past, they used to fall on the same day with Chaturdashi Tithi falling in the morning followed by Amavasya Tithi in the afternoon. Only now is it falling on separate days. The assumption that Deepavali should fall on Amavasya Tithi is wrong because it shouldn’t be during the black moon,” said Mohan.

According to www.wordnik.com, the definition of “Tithi” is: “The lunar date based on the Hindu calendar. 

There are 30 tithis in each lunar month. Tithis begin at varying times of a solar day and vary in duration from approximately 19 to 26 hours.”

Mohan said the government should obtain information on when Deepavali falls from correct sources such as the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.

“This is because we really calculate the dates properly before announcing anything. From last year we are the ones who are printing the Panchangam (Hindu calendar and astrological almanac) for the Hindu community in Malaysia.

“If the temple had done their calculations properly, they would not have provided the wrong date in the first place,” said Mohan.The change of dates reportedly caused confusion among state departments too with no one seeming to know why the change was instituted.

Norizan Kulob, the Johor state deputy secretary, was quoted as saying that the decision to change the public holiday for Deepavali was by notification from the Prime Minister’s Office through two letters, though he was unsure of the reason why the change was done.

Malaysia’s closest neighbour down south, Singapore, is also celebrating Deepavali on Oct 22.

Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower website states: “The Hindu Advisory Board (HAB) has confirmed that Deepavali will fall on 22 October 2014 (Wednesday) instead of 23 October 2014 (Thursday). Hence, 22 October 2014 (Wednesday) will be gazetted as a public holiday.”

According to BBC’s multifaith calendar and the website www.visitlondon.com, Deepavali is on Oct 23.

But one can’t be blamed for the confusion.

After all Indian websites are showing both Oct 22 and Oct 23 for the festival with different states celebrating on either one of the dates.

The government of Tamil Nadu’s website states Deepavali falls on Oct 22.

According to a circular by India’s Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Diwali (Deepavali) falls on Thursday, Oct 23, 2014 but “In certain States, the practice is to celebrate the occasion a day in advance, i.e., on "Narakachaturdasi Day". In view of this, there is no objection if holiday on account of Deepavali is observed on "Naraka Chaturdasi Day (in place of Deepavali Day) for the Central Government Offices in a State if in that State, that day alone is declared as a compulsory holiday for Diwali for the offices of the State Government.”

If the country where the art of calculating the date itself originates from has its own people celebrating on both dates, then there should be nothing wrong if Deepavali is celebrated on either date.

A full circle

Watching 'Game of Thrones', you soon realise that we, as a species have gone through a lot. Ever since our primate forefathers landed their feet on the ground for food, their ever insatiable appetite for food, wealth, mate and power just kept on increasing.

In the process of scooping their desires, not everyone got their chance of fair play. The playing field was lopsided skewed in favour of the bold, the strong, the giants amongst us and the perfectly abled bodies. The fairer sex, the lame, the old, the handicapped all lost in the quest. 

Like dwarf Tyrion Lannister who uses wit and deception and Stark's paraplegic son who uses his supernatural powers, the lesser beings always used other ways to survive. 

After seeing so much of devastation and heartaches left by man's actions, the survivors must have thought of another way of going about things. In rolled in the concept of an overseeing superpower that monitors our every move. A power who will assess our actions and inactions to mete out appropriate justice, if not in the present world at least in another better world.

Soon this wave of fire spread like heatwave the world over. When military forces crumpled due to corruption and inefficiencies, the theologians filled the vacuum. With the overwhelming powers and wealth, they did the same thing as the sorcerers, slashing and killing, this time with the self professed blessings and approval of the Divine forces.
Growing lethargic with killing and devastation, the world stayed hopeful by drafting common grounds for truce. At the their minds, the desire to control still ran deep. This time, money was the new power which could bring the world t the knees.
The losers of the economic onslaught, fearing of subordination, decide to withdraw into a cocoon. They decide to coil into an umbrella of the comfort of the old scriptures and try to relive the old times with its out dated justice and carnage. Just as their ancestors did many generations ago, they feel that God is on their side. And they mete out justice and protocols as if they had a direct audience with the the Almighty overseer. They insist that there are certain ways of doing it (each with their own, that is the problem) and there seem to be no comprise and no backtrack!

This is what it means to be old

Here I lie, on the hospital bed, with tubes from all my orifices. Every movement of my body reminds me that I am still alive! The nagging pains, the squeaky joints and the laboured breaths are testimony of my continued existence. Alive but barely alive. Of course I want to be alive as long as I can and would like to postpone the Reaper's appointment as much as I can.
I realise that all the people that I have hurt and the people who cursed under their breaths for my annihilation are the same people who are by my side, attending to my needs. The hurtful incisive expletives hurled at me for my ruin in the most cruel way and me to them, have all been forgotten. In its place are prayers for the Maker to ease my pain. Words are just words. Most of the time, people do not say what they mean and mean what they say. At the spur of the moment, we all say so many things. Lest we forget, sorry does not miraculously reattach a shattered china no matter how many times we apologise or roll out tear blood stained tears. Deep inside, blood is thicker than water. The skin quivers when our loved one is in jeopardy.
I saw a Tamil movie from the 70s recently, before my mishap which landed me here in the hospital, bedridden. Tamil movie industry, in the 60s and 70s try to be philosophical with its films which tend to infuse lessons in life, friendship, morality, honour and societal more in its story-line and dialogue. There was a scene (Vetri Vizha, 1972) where an old man's adult children ridicule their father's wish to re-marry at the age of 60 after spending almost his whole life as a widower and a single parent. This old man, feeling neglected by his kids who themselves have their own families, thought he needed a companion to pull him through his twilight years of his life as he willow into senility. Unfortunately, the people around him equate matrimony only with conjugal needs and consummation. Companionship and camaraderie is not in the equation at all. To them, he is just a commodity that had reached the end of shelf life awaiting the thrash bin.
And here she is, my other (better) half, albeit her loss of youthfulness, trying to perform her duties in spite of the ups and downs that happened in our life.......

Early talkies

Imitation of Life (1934)

This is the earlier version of the 1959's offering of the same name, based on a story written by Fannie Hurst in 1933. There were however, certain alterations to the story to pacify the sensitivity of the American public. As we all know, the blacks were lesser beings in US then and this story narrates a friendship between a white and black single lady struggling to stay alive and to tackle the identity crisis that the black lady's fair skinned daughter has who is ashamed of her African roots.
Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert) is a widow who drags her suitcase from door to door trying to sell her pancake syrup, the business her husband used to do before his demise. She has a demanding but loveable 2year old daughter. Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) accidentally lands at her house, wrongly, as she was looking for a job. One thing led to another and Delilah is offered to stay at Bea's home, taking care of her daughter while she work in return for a place to stay.

Louise Beavers - one of the pioneer black actors to set

the mold for others to follow. She reminds you of Mammy

(Hattie McDaniel), the maid in Gone with the wind (1939).

Fascinated with Delilah pancake, Bea decided to start a small restaurant with Delilah as the cook. Business prospers. Upon advice of a patron, Elmer, they decide to sell their pancake flour.
Time flies. They move up the ladder of prosperity. The girls have good education and Bea is the most talked about hostess of parties.
In comes Stephen Archer, an ichthyologist (a scholar in study of fishes) to one of these parties and love blossoms.
Fredi Washington acts as Delilah's daughter, Phoela. She cannot stand her mother's appearance and her black school. The later part of the movie deals with the showdown between Delilah and Phoela as well as between Bea and her daughter, Jessie who falls for Stephen!
In the end, Bea decides not to wed Stephen for her daughter's sake. Delilah dies and Peola returns to the fold of the family.
I was surprised that in 1934, they had already released talking movies (talkies). In fact, commercial production of talkies went as far as 1920s.
Claudette Colbert, the heroine, had a very successful acting career that lasted till the 1980s! (1919 all the way to 1987!) Lousie Beavers was such a loveable character. Fredi Washington, as her daughter, went on to be a civil right worker.

Identity crisis?

Imitation of Life (1959)

Even though the movie was supposed to highlight the identity crisis of a white-skinned mullato girl, there are other side issues in the story. Living in the modern world of telecommunication, media and advertisement, young minds are forced to accept a certain standard of beauty and norm as set by the media moguls. Hence, the insecurities of self-image and a warped sense of ideal beauty. A person born with a dark complexion, a person with non-Caucasianoid features, and one in the above ideal body weight are all considered misfits. And all need correction and immediate correction, that is.

This movie stars Lana Turner (who was seen in 'The Postman Always Rings Twice') and Juanita Moore, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Cora (Lana Turner), a widow with a young daughter, befriends a black single mother, Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) when her daughter goes missing at the beach. A freelance photographer, Steve, also came to be their acquaintance as he photographed Cora and Annie's daughters, Suzie and Sarah Jane.

As Suzie and Sarah Jane had become good friends and Annie had nowhere to go, Cora decided to take her in despite her joblessness and her struggle. Annie agrees to work for free, taking care of Suzie for a roof over her head in return.

Over the years, the four go through thick and thin. Steve becomes part of the family even though his advances to Cora are rejected, as she has big plans for herself in the field of acting. 

Fast forward, Sarah Jane grows up in a white environment, comfortable with her pale complexion and deeply embarrassed with her mother's features as it reminded her of her black ancestry.

Cora becomes a prolific actor. Steve climbs the corporate ladder.

Cora is too busy to attend to her daughter's needs, but Annie fills in the gap. Even though her mother is always with her, Sarah Jane cannot communicate with her. In fact, she hates the sight of her. She ventures out to the bad side of town to befriend some old white thrash bloke. Upon discovering her black ancestry, the bloke bashes her up. We have to remember that we are dealing with, before civil liberties and black power movements.

Sarah Jane runs away from home to work as a dancer in a seedy dance joint, disappointing her rather pious mother.

On a side issue, Suzie has a crush on Steve, straining her relationship with her mother.
Here we have two mothers both being ostracised by their offspring - Cora for not spending enough time as she was earning a good life for the family and Annie for caring too much and meddling in her affairs.
The heartbroken Annie dies, and Sarah Jane comes scurrying home in regret.

The bottom line, there is no one formula that fits all in parenting. Too much or too little concern in children's affairs may prove disastrous. But as a parent, we all have to impart all our life experiences to them so that there is not in limbo when encountering such a catch-22 situation. The young, however, feel that the parents' way of looking at problems is so passé!

Winter is coming

Game of Thrones (Seasons 1-4, 2011-2014)

Even though I kept telling myself not to plunge into another miniseries, the power of persuasion seem too overpowering. Or perhaps I was just too weak! The bombardment from the media, social media and friends seem overwhelming. They make it sound like it is the best thing that happened to mankind since sliced bread.
They even made a game which suggested the most likely 'Games of Thrones' characters you are paired to based on a series of simple questions. (I got Tyrion Lannister, an achondroplastic dwarf who compensates his lack of stature with witty wise cracks, sarcasm and shrewdness, I wonder why.)
You see one, you had seen them all, the miniseries and soap operas. They all capture the minds of its viewers by rekindling the primal desires of man. Almost every one of them glorify, if not make it no big deal, to engage in unsanctioned union of the sexes, clandestine, extra-, pre-, or anything but marital.
Everybody's action is laced with malice. Nobody does anything with the pureness of the heart. The words that culminates from the lips do not come from the heart. Uttered vocals are pure ornaments to lubricate the conversation, not reflections of the heart and the mind.

The recurring theme in every soap, immaterial whether it is in English, Spanish, Tamil, Hindi or Portuguese, is the unabashed zest to seize power at  all cost and to mastermind the downfall of their enemies. Many episode-hours are spent in to planning and executing their fall from grace. The journey towards this end is embroidered with pleasing displays of the beauty of the human flesh, obnoxious wealth with overindulgence in decadent life styles. A mountain is created from a mole hill when non issue become a life and death situation.
The dialogue in 'Game of Thrones' is quite intriguing, poetic and deep, sometimes. Despite, the criticism over its overt unnecessary display of smut, it hails in the script department though. The lines are so philosophical, sarcastic, witty and profound, all in one.
My verdict: Stay away from miniseries.

Conquest of a concrete jungle

SCKLM 2014
It all started like a dream within dream scene from 'Inception'. At one moment, I got up thinking that it was time to go, only to realise that it was only 1am. I had planned to arise at 0310hrs to get ready with my regalia to face the 2014 Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Full Marathon 42.195km challenge. I went back to sleep. In the next moment, I was shocked to realise that it was daytime and the sun was high. "What happened? Oh, even my buddy, who is to face his first FM must have slept through it all - he did not even call.", I asked myself. "Am I dreaming or is it for real?".
I pinched myself to realise that it was real. I told myself, "Well, it is okay. There will always be another day, another run."
Then at a different level of consciousness, I checked my watch again. It was 1.30am! I had not missed my alarm after all. With that type of interrupted slumber, Raj and I got ready for over Sunday morning challenge. Raj was soon to be inducted to the exclusive club which comprise 1% of the world population, one who had completed a full marathon.
The run started dot by the stroke of 4.30am at the iconic Dataran Merdeka clock tower which had witnessed many an important event in Malaysia and also graced many P. Ramlee movies. This time around, the trail took a different route altogether, covering mostly the eastern part of the city and its symbol of modernisation - the giant elevated highways of AKLEH and DUKE.
Almost 5,000 hardcore runners started at a time when the city was enveloped by thick haze. The powers that be made us believe that the API levels were low but our simple visual inspection proved otherwise.
It seems to be the curse of SCKLM. Last year they had to postpone the run in June for haze. This time around, they thought they were smart to schedule it in October but the haze caught up with them!
From Dataran Merdeka, the convoy of runners went along towards KLCC. The perception that I had was that perhaps KL should also be labelled as the city that never sleeps, like New York, as even at time, the roads were swarming with vehicles and people.
Along Jalan Ampang, in front of Zouk, a whiff of beer filled the air. Pretty lasses were lining the road. I thought to myself, "Wow, the organisers have even organised cheer leaders to cheer us up!" I hit myself on my head when I realised that they were jaywalking moths with their potential one night stands. Were they just finishing their duties for the day, or were they starting?
Through Jalan Ampang, we finally reached AKLEH. At the 10km mark, suddenly I saw many people walking around without shoes. I thought some woe had befell them. What a pity, so many of them. Then it struck me. They were only fulfilling their divinely duties as I heard the call for suboh prayers. Duty calls!
The rest of the run was just visions of concrete structures of erection of modernity in the concrete jungle of KL. Perhaps they should renamed the run 'Run in the Concrete Jungle' like Ali-Foreman's 'Rumble in the Jungle'!
Even though the sun was kind as it decided not to show its face all throughout the morning, the temperature and humidity was still high, bogging down the mood and zest to run.
Anyway, we weathered through.
Raj finally finished his run after fighting his inner demons with his undying zest to complete the challenge and join the privileged club!
A good outing though which ended with a spread of the coveted banana leaf rice in an over glorified Indian restaurant in Bangsar. Maybe, I have been pampered with loved laced food by so many people elsewhere or the post run euphoria numbed the taste bud or perhaps I was expecting too much after hearing too many going gaga about their spread, I thought it was just so so!