Kavya Shivshankar wins National Spelling Bee championship
Kavya Shivshankar, a 13-year-old Indian-American girl from Kansas has won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship 2009.
Kavya was declared the Spelling Bee champ after she correctly spelt “laodicean” at the end of the championship finals which comprised 11 students from all across the country, seven of whom were Indian-Americans.
Kavya is an eighth grader student from Olathe in Kansas.
She holds Nupur Lala, the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, as her role model. She had participated in the 2006, 2007, and 2008 national finals-tying for 10th, 8th, and 4th place, respectively. She wants to become a neurosurgeon. Tim Ruiter, 12, a seventh grade student from Centreville, Virginia was declared the runner-up while Aishwarya Pastapur, 13, from Springfield in Illinois got the third position.
It is for the second time in a row that an Indian-American has won the Spelling Bee championship.
Last year, Sameer Mishra from Lafayette, Indiana, got the top position after he correctly spelt ‘guerdon’. Ragashree Ramachandran from Sacramento, California was the first Indian American to win the championship in 1988. Nupur Lala from Tampa, Florida won it in 1999.
Among other Indian-Americans to have won the championship were Pratyush Buddiga from Denver, Colorado in 2002, Sai R Gunturi from Dallas, Texas in 2003 and Anurag Kashyap from San Diego, California in 2005.
In all, 293 spellers participated in the National Spelling Bee Championship in Washington for the past three days, with the finals being held last night
Spiced Buttermilk
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1 cup Buttermilk - Made from 4 parts water & 1 part yogurt
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2 dry red chillies - Broken ( I used Byadagi)
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1 tsp grated ginger
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1 tsp crushed cumin seeds
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A pinch of Asafoetida/Hing
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A handful of Curry leaves
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Salt as per taste
Method:
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Mix together all the ingredients mentioned above.
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Adjust salt as per taste & Mix well
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Serve Cold
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You could even chill it in earthrn pots for that added taste.
Enjoi !!!
NOTE: You could even use green chillies instead of red chillies for a slightly different taste.
CONTINUITY IN BHAGAVADGITA
CONTINUITY IN BHAGAVADGITA
It is not realized by many that there is a vital connection between one chapter and the next one in the gita.
Arjuna was despondent in the beginning and second chapter opens his eyes to give him confidence, strength and courage. He is told then about the techniques of karma yoga and renunciation of the fruits of action. The methods to control the senses and mind and to practice concentration and meditation are dealt with next.
The lord then describes His various manifestations in order to prepare Arjuna for the vision of the glorious cosmic form. When Arjuna understood the nature of jeevanmukta after experiencing the magnificent cosmic vision, he gets the knowledge of the field and the knower of the field, of the three gunas and the purushOttama. He also knows divine attributes and the three kinds of faith.
In the end, he understands the the essence of sanyasa (renunciation). Then he exclaims, “my lord, my delusion is destroyed; I have attained knowledge through your grace. All my doubts have gone completely and I will act as per your advice”.
Shivashankararao
SOME INTERESTING QUOTATIONS
Here are some quotations which may be of interest.
Shivashankararao
“Christianity in India needs the Vedanta. We missionaries have not realized this with half the clearness that we should. We cannot move freely and joyfully in our own religion, because we have not sufficient terms and modes of expression wherewith to express the more immanental aspects of Christianity. A very useful step would be the recognition of certain books or passages in the literature of Vedanta as constituting what might be called an ethnic old testament. The permission of ecclesiastical authorities could then be asked for reading passages found in such a canon of ethnic old testament at divine service along with passages from the new testament as alternatives to the old testament lessons.”
-R. Gordon Milburn
CHRISTIANITY AND BHAKTI MARGA.
‘ in attempting to understand how Christianity is likely to relate itself in the coming years to Indian thought and become a living force in the country, I am inclined to think that it will lay much emphasis on mystic experience.”
-J Apaaswamy M A.(Harward), D Phil (Oxen), an eminent christian.
“………..India’s religious genius has expressed itself in systems of philosophy, religious practices and sacred books often most diverse. The immediate task is to make clear the relation between the real spirit of Christianity and the real spirit of India’s religious life……”
Schopenhauer writing on the the impact the Vedanta will in due course have on the west said,
” … the access to which opened to us through the Upanishads, is in my eyes the greatest advantage which this still young century enjoys over the previous ones….”
“… I believe that the influence of the sanskrit literature will penetrate not less deeply than did the revival of Greek literature in the fifteenth century….”
Will Durant, the American philosopher-historian says,
” One cannot conclude the history of India as one can conclude the history of Egypt, Babylonia or Asseria. For that history is still being made , that civilisation is stil creating…..”
“ It is true that even across Himalayan barrier India has sent to us such questionable gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess and above all, our numerals and our decimal system. But these are not the essence of her spirit; they are trifles compared to what we may learn from her in the future. As intervention, industry and trade bind the continents together, or as they fling us into conflict with Asia, we shall study its civilisations more closely and shall absorb, even in enmity, some of its ways and thoughts. Perhaps in return for conquest, arrogance and spoilation, India will teach us the tolerence and gentleness of the mature mind, the quet content of the unacquisitive soul, the calm of the understanding spirit and unifying, pacifying love for all living things.”
Swami Vivekananda said,
” The whole world requires light. It is expectant!! India alone has that light, not in magic, mummeries and charlatanism, but in the teaching of the glories of the spirit of real religion- of the highest spiritual truth. That is why the lord has preserved the race through all its vicissitudes unto the present day. Now the time has come.”
Translator
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