#australia indian radio station

[johnkatsmc5]

Rainbow Generator "Dance Of The Spheres"1978 Private + Krozier & The Generator "Tranceformer" 1982 double LP Australia  Psych,Ambient,Experimental,Space Rock,Spoken World,Electronic,Synth Prog

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https://open.spotify.com/album/6b1iMRNaVFy24mcmEjWb1p

https://open.spotify.com/album/2fxxtqnwQn6w1P4jBZDZaQ

Rainbow Generator "Dance Of The Spheres"1978

Official reissue of a record originally privately pressed and released in Australia in 1981. Tracks on this album were selected from recordings of live shows and rehearsals conducted at Fission Chips studio between the dates of January 7th and 26th 1981, these being the last performances by the group prior to Geoffrey´s death. These tracks were originally recorded on a four-track TEAC and were subsequently transferred to an Otari eight-track, when they were overdubbed by David and Keith, and were then mixed and mastered at Fission Chips. Dedicated to the memory of Geofrey Crozier 1947 - 1981.....~ Rainbow Generator are Australia’s first true experimental electronic music group. Consisting of David Labuschagne AKA Mojo, and Rob Greaves AKA Ras. Starting in the mid-70’s, the pair took it upon themselves to begin exploring the possibilities of the sonic dimension and with an ‘open mind’ began investigating the interface between psyche and sound. In 1976 David established the ‘Lectric Loo’ studio in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Known to the ‘heads’ as simply the “Loo”, the 3-story building was owned by the Department of Main Roads, and slated for demolition. So, it was that the entire block became a haven for squatters, and while Mojo had the main 3-story building to himself, the rest of the buildings were taken by a hotch-potch of people that included Anarchists, a Clown School and a collection of other random squatters. Recording in the ‘Lectric Loo’ provided them the ability to record freely. In 1975 they began to experiment, putting Mojo’s Fender Strat through effects pedals, playing with sounds while manipulating shortwave radio stations and also challenging convention by playing the insides of instruments. By 1976 they had built a kit synthesizer and shortly after purchased a full Roland 100 Synthesiser set-up and were on their way. In 1978, with little resources, or any form of distribution they released their sole LP ‘Dance of the Spheres’. As Mojo puts it, “we were intent on making music with whatever we could beg, borrow, buy, and liberate. Albeit with scant regard for the rules or conventions or niceties of the game. Ultimately, it was all an act of love, of joy. Not just an adventure; it was a musical odyssey”. This odyssey continued their exploration of the interface between psyche and sound. Fusing genres and boundaries, Dance of the Spheres incorporates elements of 70’s psych and folk with spoken-word and of course the emerging sounds of the synthesizer and drum machines. Furthermore, the addition of traditional instruments such as the didgeridoo and the classical Indian instrumentation technique of a Raga add a timeless layer, all seamlessly complementing the other elements and launching the album to another dimension....~ Line-up / Musicians - Rob "Ras" Greaves / All keyboards and all other instrumentation - David "Mojo" Labuschagne / Guitar and all other instrumentation Guests: - Damien Burnett - Didjeridu (track 3) - Naomi Lego - Vocals (on Essence and Rainbow Raga) - Tor Davis - Vocals (on City of the Sun) Tracklist Polyploid Spex Quiblings Query Wandjina Asymptote Embryonic Eye Essence Shockwave Rider City Of The Sun D.Lirium Rainbow Raga 'Ssence

Krozier & The Generator  "Tranceformer" 1982 double LP

One of the rarest Australian synth post-prog vinyl artefacts. Combining shamanic spoken word with nodding kosmische instrumentation fuelled by Australian synth technology....~ Credits Guitar, Synthesizer, Drum Machine [Rhythm-Machine] – David Mow Liner Notes [On sticker] – Anton Newcombe Percussion – Keith Casey* Producer [Reissue] – Andy Votel, Doug Shipton, James Pianta Remastered By – Gareth Mallinson Synthesizer, Drum Machine [Rhythm-Machine] – Robert Greaves Vocals – Geoff Krozier Tracklist House Of The Sun 2:33 Khan-Khallili Razaar 3:18 The Devil May Care 8:01 Slave Traders 2:33 Land Of Unclean Spirits 3:54 Perhaps Reincarnation 2:02 House Of The Joker 8:15 Take A Look 4:42 Temple Of Exotic Delights 14:23 Feed You To The Sharks 1:43 Lapis-Lazuli 6:35 I´ll Be A Sphinx For You 1:30 Doubting Thomas 1:30 Paid Your Money 7:18

Rainbow Generator "Dance Of The Spheres"1978 Private + Krozier & The Generator "Tranceformer" 1982 double LP Australia  Psych,Ambient,Experimental,Space Rock,Spoken World,Electronic,Synth Prog

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[radiobrisvaani]

Radio Brisvaani is Australia’s leading Hindi FM radio station, offering a mix of music, entertainment, and news for the Indian and South Asian communities. Broadcasting nationwide, the station features popular Bollywood tracks, live talk shows, and cultural programs, making it a go-to platform for listeners seeking to stay connected to their heritage. Radio Brisvaani caters to a wide range of audiences, including Indian, Punjabi, Bengali, Sri Lankan, and Fijian communities, offering engaging content that covers current affairs, local events, and more. It’s the perfect blend of tradition and modern entertainment.

[eyecache]

@prinita.thevarajah on @southasia.art, 11/11/2019 to 11/19/2019

“Hello, Prinita @prinita.thevarajah here. This week I’ll be sharing my thoughts about Eelam cultural identity formation through Tamil cinema (Kollywood) and the Eelam diaspora.

Eelam Tamils are native to Sri Lanka and constitute the largest diasporic Tamil community outside of India. Not all diasporic Tamils share a collective sense of Tamil identity, though Kollywood has been crucial in marking  and maintaining one’s Tamil identity in the diaspora, especially where Tamil communities often hold minority status. As an Eelam kid in Australia, I often looked towards Kollywood to shape my understanding of what it meant to be Tamil. The child of Eelam refugees who fled Sri Lanka in the 80s as war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted, ongoing violence carried out against Eelam Tamils halted our community's capacity in developing a 'popular culture’ of it’s own. To be an Eelam Tamil is to be part of a community whose territorial, cultural and ethno-linguistic identity have been so heavily discriminated against to the point of genocide. The trauma of war seeped into our identity formation, and our fragmented diaspora while incredibly resilient, had not one single cultural representation to rely on. So, despite a lack of representation, Kollywood became the pillar that Tamilness sat upon. And while the articulation of Dravidian identity and Tamil nationalism is profound in Kollywood, the struggles of Eelam Tamils fit well within the profound self proclamations of Tamil language, culture and tradition propagated by Kollywood, but solidarity failed to materialize on the screens.

This week I want to explore representations of Eelamness in Kollywood, highlight artists in the diaspora contributing to an Eelam cultural renaissance and ask - what does it mean to re-imagine Eelam popular culture and how can we reclaim our Eelmaness by de-centering Indian ideals of Tamilness?

Despite yearning for a Eelam identity that is whole, I cannot discount the profound impact Kollywood has had on molding me into a proud Tamil. As a child in Sydney, my Appa contributed to Inbathamil Oli (Sweet Sound of Tamil) - a 24 hour Tamil radio station.

He would take me along to spend overnight shifts at the station, and I would listen on fondly to his musings over the air. The theme song for the station was Mettu Podu from the film 1994 Tamil film, Duet. 20 years on, the song still sticks with me as an anthem for the strength, resilience and beauty of the Tamil community.

ஆண் : தங்கமே தமிழுக்கில்லை தட்டுப்பாடு ஒரு சரக்கிருக்குது முறுக்கிருக்குது மெட்டுப் போடு Tamil will never be lacking & I will make music to proclaim it! எத்தனை சபைகள் கண்டோம் எத்தனை எத்தனை பகையும் கண்டோம் அத்தனையும் சூடங்காட்டிச் சுட்டுப் போடு We have seen many fights We have been through many wars Forget them all and be free of them! மெட்டுப் போடு மெட்டுப் போடு என் தாய் கொடுத்த தமிழுக்கில்லை தட்டுப்பாடு Make music, make sound With the tongue of Tamil my mother gave me Tamil will never be lacking

MATERIALIZED AS TRAUMATIZED// Today I want to focus on the representation of Eelam Tamils in Kollywood as one that is flattened without nuance: a people in constant agony and despair, solidifying us in our state of trauma. It is certainly necessary to provide an understanding of the ramifications of genocide for Eelam Tamils. Where historically, our struggle has been erased: the denial of genocide and failure by the international community to intervene or hold the Sri Lankan state accountable for war crimes, the depiction of the plight of Eelam people in Kollywood is assumed to be informative. But I ask, why all trauma and no strength? If Kollywood could make room for us as broken people, why not also portray our vigor and irepressibility? How do we see ourselves as Eelam people when the only representation of us in popular culture is a community that is defeated?

Historically, Kollywood has been uninterested in Tamil diasporic subjects. It's preoccupation has been in the entrenched ideas of Tamil culture, tradition, modernity and ethno-linguistic nationalism. The praxis of Tamil cinema is guided by the everyday practices of Tamil lives in Tamil Nadu and fails to incorporate the question of identity that the diaspora grapples with. Consider that the political struggle of Eelam Tamils heralded a new phase of militant Tamil nationalism, created a society that reformers and poets of Tamil Nadu could only imagine, and waged a war for liberation that was of epic proportions in both triumph and tragedy. It is a grievance that a culture industry in the ‘heart of Tamil civilization’ did not give adequate artistic due in its mainstream medium to an achievement that is claimed by many a Tamil nationalist to have been the ‘height of Tamil civilization’

It’s clear that diasporic Tamil identities are shored up as an anomaly to normative Tamil cinematic identity. Looking closer at the 2000 film Thenali shows the vexed and complex relationship between the Eelam Tamils and those from Tamil Nadu.

Thenali (Kamal Hassan) is an Eelam man from Jaffna. He is a hyper anxious neurotic used by his psychiatrist to derail the career of Dr Kailash. Thenali falls in love with Dr Kailash’s sister, Janaki. The film follows an enraged Dr Kailash’s attempt to eliminate Thenali despite Thenali’s naive quest to please the Dr. Subtle distinctions portray the disparate identity of Eelam Tamils. From the Dr Kailash questioning why Thenali speaks Tamil differently, to Thenali painted as a miserable jest juggling irrational fears as a result of having his home raided by soldiers, his father attacked and mother raped. The film seeks to other Thenali, the traumatized Eelam man who just can’t seem to get it right. Towards the end of the film Dr Kailaish adopts words from the Jaffna dialect, but immediately corrects himself upon realization. If Thenali is the oppressed Eelam Tamil, Dr Kailash is a metonymy for India, whose help Thenali seeks again and again, refusing to see anything wrong in the doctor or his intentions, elevating him to the position of a divine being.

The political history of Tamil Nadu is riddled with moments when the people of Tamil Nadu and the state have been sympathetic to the cause of the Eelam Tamils, resulting in policies allowing Eelam Tamils to stay as refugees and also in offering us financial aid. Much like the fluctuation between compulsions that drive its foreign policy and the sympathy for Tamils expressed in Tamil Nadu, Dr Kailash declares his predicament that he is unable to disclose the thoughts he harbours. At the point when he thinks he is close to eliminating Thenali, he declares, ‘there is no joy in living as in watching destruction’, a statement that resonates deeply with the oft-repeated criticism of the Government of India and Tamil Nadu’s silence in the wake of the Sri Lankan army action in 2009 that resulted in the deaths of 100 000 Eelam Tamils

The film features the song "Injerungo" (slide 5&6) which supposedly includes Jaffna slang - but ask anyone actually from Eelam and they’ll tell you that Kamal Hassan missed the mark almost completely - Eelam kids, what do y’all think

Kannathil Muthamittaal (2002) is probably Kollywood’s most comprehensive take on the human cost and emotional toll endured by Eelam Tamils, complete with visceral descriptions and images of war torn Sri Lanka. The film tells the story of an Eelam girl, Amudha who is adopted by an Indian Tamil couple, and the family’s journey back to Sri Lanka to reacquaint mother and daughter. Her biological parents abandon Amudha to join the ‘rebel cause’ who we can assume is the LTTE. Rather predictably, considering the labeling of the LTTE as a terrorist organization, there is no overt reference made to the group. The rebels are depicted as armed men who speak Jaffna Tamil and the audience are left to form their own interpretation. Much like Thenali remains silent about the cause of Thenali’s oppression, Kannathil Muthamittaal resists making explicit reference to the cause of conflict or parties involved. Expectedly, the film holds arms traffickers responsible for the plight of Eelam Tamils, as opposed to the Sinhalese government, erasing actual genocidal intent since 1948. After visiting the island and witnessing the helplessness of the Eelam people, Amudha and her family return to Tamil Nadu. The underlying message is that the Indian Tamil is both politically and culturally superior and more empowered than the Eelam Tamil.

A common thread in both Kannathil Muthamittall and Thenali is that in the traumatized portrayal of Eelam subjects, Kollywood domesticates Eelam Tamils for an Indian Tamil public. Eelam Tamils are removed of their political agency and are presented as an object of pity. Rather than demanding concrete political solidarity, an abstract humanitarian sentiment is requested. As if to say, “ooh, look how they suffer. Let’s marry them. Or adopt them. Assimilate them into our safe lives. Let us be their providers.” Charity is the gesture appealed for, but there is always something fundamentally depraving in charity.

Tonight I want to make space to think about what it looks like to reimagine and reconstruct an Eelam Tamil cultural identity, away from Indian Tamil ideals.

An accurate portrayal of the political, social and existential condition of the Eelam Tamils is yet to be found in Kollywood. And as Eelam Tamils, we reject being labeled as Sri Lankan as to do so means aligning with the very state that attempted to erase our existence. What does this then mean for our capacity to develop as a people within the island? The North-East of Sri Lanka, the Tamil homeland, is one of the most heavily-militarized regions in the world. Currently, according to the Adayalaam Centre for Policy Research, in the Mullaitivu District - where the last phase of armed conflict was fought - at least 60 000 Sri Lankan army troops are stationed. That’s 25% of the 243 000 military personnel of the whole country. Our people in Eelam are under constant surveillance and control, the military's presence in Eelam facilitates displacement and land grabbing that consequently destabilizes and disrupts the day to day activities of our community. Survival becomes the goal with the preservation and development of culture an understandable after thought.

Considering the impossibility of any free Eelam Tamil cinema developing under the Sri Lankan state, we turn to the diaspora. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide against Eelam people, and as we move into the new decade, it's vital to reflect and consider deeply the history we pave forward as a community. How are we creating stories for ourselves away from the narrow narrative that has been bolstered by Kollywood? How are we reclaiming the identities that the state of Sri Lanka tries to squash daily? At what point do we move away from memorializing genocide to depicting our resilience and expansiveness?

In the pursuit of an Eelam identity that is total, fragmented identities of caste, kinship, class, and region are devalued, uniting diasporic Tamils and strengthening our affinity to ūr. I want to spend the next few days exploring what it looks like to embrace our Eelamness fully as a diasporic people. I believe that in doing the work to understand and articulate ourselves wholly, we as diaspora Eelam Tamils begin to heal the trauma that has trickled down through our bloodlines. Our narrative has a destiny that is full of autonomy, solidarity and collaboration.

HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE/READY/RAW

I begin my imagination on the embodiment of diasporic Eelamness by exploring the legacy of Mathangi/Maya Arulpragasm, M.I.A. Not to revere or glorify, instead to honor and applaud her immense strides to give us visibility while fully embracing the multifaceted and radical notion of being an Eelam Tamil. Maya remains one of the only widely known representations of our community, from our community. That she is as revolutionary, innovative & resilient as she is is a reflection of the immense talent, ingenuity and pure force of Eelam people. Through her art, she amplifies the placelessness and the cultural and political contradictions that come with being an Eelam Tamil in a hyper-globalized world. The fact that she is so often dismissed, ridiculed and as of late ‘cancelled’, is clarification of her power in undermining and challenging unequal systems of control. From flipping off the Super Bowl to being banned from Sri Lanka, Maya is an unapologetic weapon of freedom.

Maya is a DIY artist guided by her trajectory from refugee to icon. Her strength in bringing bits and pieces together: beats, words, images, ideas - to create something new while centering her narrative as an Eelam woman, epitomizes the journey of an Eelam Tamil. Against a culture that glamorizes reality & equates beauty to consumption, Maya provokes a discussion about how the minority live, closing the distance between here and everywhere else. To be a diasporic Eelam Tamil means to be gaslighted by an entire nation, and yet moving uncompromisingly forward in being deeply inspired in our current contexts to bring change, revolutionize & decolonize. And while M.I.A. cannot go back home, we can.

Sunshowers came out when I was 9 years old. One Saturday morning, I crawled out of bed to watch music videos and inhale cereal and suddenly become entranced when Maya appeared, the hypnotic jungle beats blowing my mind. Up until then, the most representation I had as an Eelam kid was my reflection on a blank TV screen.

Reflecting on the music video now and it's images of brown women organizing, I draw parallels to the ideals and aims of the Women's Front of the LTTE. While it is not productive to linger on what could've been, I do believe that a radical imagination will set us free - and perhaps, this was Maya's intention, to provoke profound fantasies to revive the legacy of our ancestors.The aims of the Women’s Front were to: secure the right of self-determination of Tamil Eelam, to abolish oppressive caste discrimination and feudal customs such as the dowry system; and to eliminate all discrimination, secure social, political, and economic equality.

At the end of verse 1, Maya chants 'like PLO, I don't surrendo', making reference to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, emphasizing the interconnectedness of struggles throughout the world and the need to collaborate with and show solidarity with groups of people who experience similar discrimination under colonization. How can transnational, decolonial solidarity allow evolution to our identity as Eelam people? What does it mean to maintain the radical, non-violent goals Eelam within the diaspora?

BIRD FLU

2006/The track draws on the sonics of urumi/gaana that most Eelam kids will recognize. You know the sound cos when you hear it you can’t stop moving: it’s an infectious outbreak/dance break. Maya swims in a sea of folks who look like they could be my Anna or Thangachi - the visuals look like the homeland. It’s the noise of freedom, the resistance of dominant interpretation. Within the sonic dance break of Bird Flu, Maya cultivates themes of militarized warfare and global dispossession spins them into a collective resource for imagining the alternate for Eelam Tamils.

Running with this idea of ‘flu’ and ‘contagion’, with the sound and it’s accompanying visuals, Maya emphasizes the need to spread ideas of alternative utopian possibilities, collectivity, belonging, and pleasure in the midst of & despite devastation by warfare. For me, Bird Flu provides a refreshing moment of criticality—an opportunity to reactivate our political imaginations and reconceptualize eelam community.

SRI LANKA JUST ELECTED A WAR CRIMINAL AS PRESIDENT and I continue my attempt to unravel Eelamness. With the ache in my heart and rage in my chest I ask: how do we move forward?

When Sri Lanka repeatedly assigns power to murderers and thieves, Kollywood tries to cement us as wounded and the rest of the world exclaims ‘oh Sri Lanka! That’s near India right!!???!!?' how are we as a community dealing? Where our experiences of genocide are dismissed transnationally, how do we divert fury and desire for validation of our struggle to healing? How are we to heal when the scab keeps being torn open? What are our responsibilities, as artists, to bring rejuvenation and radical change?

As we grieve for the homeland, I encourage you to think about the privilege that comes with being in the diaspora. Our access to resources expands our capacity to strategize and organize: we cannot limit ourselves. Christopher Kulendran Thomas is an Eelam artist based in London & Berlin. Thomas’s 'New Eelam’ disregards the boundaries of the white cube to project an alternate reality of citizenship and ownership. Provoking the art world itself, Thomas is interested in how his work as an artist can bring structural and social change. New Eelam is presented as a real estate start up of sorts with a housing model grounded in collective international co-ownership: subscribers pay the same amount to access different houses across the world. Working alongside an architect and team of real estate, finance, law and tech folks, Thomas seeks to provoke conversations around property and migration. Our identity as a people is one that is marked by consistent displacement and disruption. We are dispersed but profoundly connected. New Eelam imagines a future that brings autonomy in migration and allows us to maintain the idea of an Eelam the transcends borders. Freedom of movement increases opportunities to collaborate, and our collaboration as a diaspora is essential in the liberation and legacy of Eelam.

When the riots began, My Thatha was the principal at Jaffna College in Killinochi. His school shut down immediately and when I was 6 months, he moved to Sydney and into our home on Burlington Road. Being in a war affected refugee household brings with it a plethora of traumas & my relationship with my grandfather was my safe space. He is an artist - and his idea of child minding was reciting Thirukurral to me as I listened at his feet, entranced: my fingers often swirling in acrylic paints or homemade clay. When I was scared, he would serenade me with sangitham, gamakas cartwheeling from his belly through his chest. Sometimes at night I would tip toe out of the bedroom I shared with my parents and older siblings into Thatha’s room. More often than not, he would be in a state of hypnosis, brushing away at a canvas with images that usually resembled home. Reflecting on this time in my life, I understand that creative expression was Thatha’s device for healing. Not only did his art allow him to reconnect with Eelam, but it also allows him to rewrite and reimagine his narrative.

My attempt to dissect our Eelam Tamil identity has been perplexing yet empowering. As a community heavily persecuted against within the island, distressingly traumatized within the diaspora and yet profoundly capable and irrepressible, I wonder - how can we as a community of diasporic artists begin to shift our narrative? They burnt down the Jaffna library for a reason, they saw our vision and were threatened by it. How can we harness the collective rage we feel productively in a way that not only allows for the liberation of our own people but inspires expansive radical change?

My fellow Eelam people, I challenge you to think large - move away from the commodified and the curated, the white cube and other structures and systems that attempt to contain our ideas. I encourage you to think about art as a a movement for change as opposed to an aesthetic. Organizing is a form of art, protest is a form of art and so is survival. We must use our creativity as an imaginative space that provokes discussion, dialogue and education across struggles. How, through our art, can we make the invisible, visible while listening and working alongside our Eelam community at home?”

Original posts available here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Wanted to repost this from @southasia.art on Instagram because of how informative it was. 

[nightcoremoon]

weird opinion but christians aren't religious.

ok so like, jews generally follow god's rules, muslims follow allah's rules, hindus probably follow their gods rules, so on and so forth. and overall they do it out of faith; they do it because they want to honor the deity who loves them rather than because society forces them to.

granted the zionists and the radical extremists and the zealots do exist but as loud minorities and thus are statistical outliers & don't matter.

christians are... a different breed.

"if you aren't x branch and dont obey y rules you'll go to hell so we'll fucking murder you" is pretty much the main driving force behind a significant portion of christianity in history. the catholics, the protestants, the orthodoxy, all are built on a foundation of fear, anger, and hatred. it's shaped the way society developed; in the 4 nations that did the most genocidal imperialist colonialism- England, France, Spain, and Italy- a combination of convenient coastal locations, naval prowess, military tendency, christianity, and ultranationalism lead them down a path of missionaries, holding bibles in one hand and bloodstained knives in the other. the religion is inseparable from the culture and inseparable from the horrible things done in the name of their god, and the resulting cancers of society we feel today from the campaigns of slaughter. xenophobia. capitalism. savage barbarism via sensationalized capitol punishment. misogyny. queerphobia. gender fascism. classism. racism. all of these issues in the "civilized world" stem predominantly from those four nations and the disease ridden pestilent filth some call pilgrims.

here's something interesting:

there are less than 1 million rastafari in the world.

there are less than 5 million shinto in the world.

there are less than 25 million jews in the world.

there are less than 30 million sikhs in the world.

there are roughly 100 million african cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are less than 400 million chinese cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are about 500 million buddhists in the world.

there are about 1.1 billion hindus in the world.

there are about 1.2 billion nonreligious people in the world.

there are 1.6 billion muslims in the world.

and one final statistic

there are over 2.1 billion christians in the world.

the jewish count is a highball, rounded up, and includes several different definitions of jewish including people who are only one quarter. so for every single person who is even remotely jewish, there are more than 8 christians. for every hindu, there are 4 christians. for every atheist, agnostic, or "other", 2 christians. this frightening statistic should set off warning bells for everyone who is involved in a discussion about religion. and anyone who knows BASIC world history and can correlate data at all can probably piece together what I'm putting down.

now, I may be slightly biased here considering my eclectic religious beliefs. now, I personally believe that there is some primary force of energy that may or may not manifest itself as a humanoid being, that engineered the most basic laws of physics in the universe: atomic magnetism. as can be inferred by planck's constant and its implications, our universe is digital, written in binary. an electron either moves or doesn't move. there are no other options. so I genuinely believe in some form of intelligent design; whether it's a bearded guy on a cloud, some dude with six arms and an elephant for a face, just a big swirling pool of ectoplasm, or a big ol' plate of spaghetti and meatballs, something is out there that we are physically incapable of contacting from our plane of existence, just as a drawing on a piece of paper cannot reach out to interact with the world: a gif will move on its own but it will never acknowledge our existence, even if it could think by itself. and all the different mythologies of the world- egyptian, greek, norse, shinto, whatever- very well could be the agents of that unknown "god". perhaps anubis, ra, and bastet are just angels with animal heads that all of the peoples of ancient egypt saw and were like oh I guess this must be a god. maybe zeus and loki were the same person with a magic dick who fucked a bunch of animals in both greece and the scandinavian countries and spawned all of the horrible half-animal monstrosities that, idk, made vishnu think "well I have to kill that" and caused the biblical flood or something. maybe the jewish god gifted wisdom to siddhartha for sitting under a fig tree for 6 years through the angel pomona [roman goddess of fruit, had to google that one], so buddha gets his wisdom from demeter and is in nirvana right now right a step up from hades on yggdrasil the world tree keeping an eye on his charge persephone. any theory could theoretically be true but we ants of humans will never fucking know because we can't just point a telescope at the magellanic clouds and say "look, there's amaterasu with russell's teapot, and she's having tea with... *rubs eyes* lemmy kilmister??? wow I guess gods are real after all!" it's impossible to know the secrets of our universe because of the very restrictive nature of the universe itself. is it a circle? is it a donut? WE DONT FUCKIN KNOW.

we cannot know what religion is truthful.

""anyone who says that any one religion is more or less true than any other is a fucking moron, and if they're suggesting that White Western European Colonial Imperialist Protestantism is the one true faith, they're probably a fucking racist colonizer who beats his wife/sister and burns gays at the stake. and considering how that exact demographic is typically the one that murdered people for not converting to their religion, I don't think they have the intellectual non-deranged ability to make those logical connections.

again, I'm not saying that there AREN'T a lot of people of every religion who are evil assholes who contributed to mass genocide. israelites killed palestinians. shiites killed sunnis. hutus killed tutsis. danes killed geats. turks killed armenians. the ottoman empire has as much blood on its hands as the holy roman empire. germans who called themselves aryans but weren't actually aryan killed jews. but all of these tragedies were isolated incidents rather than repeated patterns over the course of two thousand years. not like christianity was and is.

just look at the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, & India's British Raj. Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, by extension Protestantism and Catholicism, are the shared factor between the long and bloody history fraught with massacring indigenous populations who wouldn't convert religions. native americans, indigenous canadians, latin americans but predominantly mexicans, the eastern chinese, coastal africans, aborigine aussies, indians- coastal coastal coastal. true the western chinese and the mongols/hunnu and xinjiang muslims haven't exactly been on civil terms and the silk road has always been a battleground and the middle east was already tenuous before murrica bombed them for oil but those happened in such a spread out area among asia which is FUCKING HUGE, MIND YOU! but also that's three high traffic places with massive diversity, it's human nature to have conflict, but not nearly to the same level as all of the shit christianity has done to the world. it's impossible to separate the religion from the cultures; victorian england without protestantism is just dirty people who die at 15 from having their 3rd child. italy without the catholicism is just grass and cheese. france and spain without religion are just kingdoms that fought wars with england for forever and now just make food that's one part delicious and three parts horrifying. religion is directly responsible for a significant portion of the evils those countries committed. one religion in particular.

they don't practice religion the same way as the rest do. they aren't faithful to their god. they don't follow his rules out of love but out of fear. they execute dissenters without a second thought, heresy they cry. they execute women and little girls for being free thinking or having sickness associated with mercury poisoning in the water, witch they cry. they slaughter men women and kids alike in the name of cramming their beliefs down the natives throats, we're chasing out the snakes they cry, we're bringing god to your godless people they cry, we're just civilizing you they cry. they shit in the streets and proudly display rotting corpses and leave the impoverished disabled and starving to die alone and whip their slaves and rape teenage girls and scrap in the streets while sopping wet with spilled ale over insignificant insults and stab people to death in the night and never even fucking BATHE, and they have the nerve to say the natives were uncivilized. the nerve. because hey. they read a magic book they stole from a culture who stole from another culture who stole from another culture, mistranslating each time from hebrew to greek to italian to english, and they think they're better because their skin is white.

christians never evolved. their mentalities have stayed the same. all thatms advanced has been technology. that's it. they're still the same evil disgusting degenerate bastards they always were. they just have the money they stole to buy stained glass windows, rosary beads, giant tacky metal statues, bigass robes, leather, and printing presses. and as time passed they used the money they continued to steal to buy cars and websites and radio stations and commit felony tax evasion and secretly molest children and line the pockets of the politicians.

all of their holidays are stolen from pagans anyway.

so fuck christmas. fuck easter. fuck lent. fuck the golden calf christian holidays that the tiny minded fragile snowflake conservatives lose their collective shit over because the pandemic response common sense stipulations won't let them buy the shit they can't afford with money they shouldn't have for people they don't even LIKE, all in the name of tradition, tradition! the rituals that worship something so much worse than satan or baphomet or pan or whatever: the dollar. they buy all the new shiny shit they can, at the expense of the chinese kids that the corporate pigs outsource to, buy the pine trees and the coca cola vunderbar and the fake mint corn syrup Js and watch the same shitty cookie cutter white supremacist hallmark fash movies and stuff their kids full of enough sugar to go into a goddamn coma when the african slaves who pick the cocoa beans will never get to know what actually being a kid will ever feel like because they're gonna die from falling into a combine harvester and be eternally forgotten to history and no christian will ever give a shit because they don't fucking care about what they don't see on their safe space news or hear on their safe space radio or read on their safe space social media. they think their worst sin is eating cheeseburgers so instead they'll go eat a mcchicken or chick fil a or an arby's chicken sandwich instead but not at popeyes because "that place is sketchy" and by that they mean they don't wanna eat where black people eat, that's why cracker barrel was so popular for so many white christians for so long because it had racially segregated seating until barely 20 years ago.

they don't love jesus. they love a paper doll they shove into their back pockets until every other sunday where they go to a fucking mall with a baptism waterslide and raise their hands like a bunch of dumbass weirdos and away to adult contemporary indie schlock with the word jesus pasted into a boring-ass hetero romance song, pat themselves on the back, then go to starbucks to scream slurs and misgenderings at 14 year old starbucks baristas who give them a cappamochalattechino instead of a fucking carmamochalattechino because you mumbled under the mask you didn't even fucking cover your nose with because you don't give a shit about the virus beyond how it inconveniences you.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. until you suggest the slightest infinitely small inconvenience to them that would alter their holiday plans even the littlest smidge. then they would kill you if not for the police. don't get me started on them because you know by now what I'd say about those fuckers. but they'll gladly wear shirts about how they'll kill you. how they'll go back 200 years. how they'll murder you and watch you slowly suffer because their primate brains shoot a million endorphins when they watch things die by their hands because they never evolved a sense of empathy, compassion, or morality beyond how wearing a cross necklace will remove any of the consequences they will face in their afterlife.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. unless you're gay or black or trans or Not Christian™ or mexican or disagree with them about politics economics sociology science technology music or movies. assimilate or die. assimilate or die. assimilate or die.

they don't deserve special treatment for their false idols.

they aren't better than jews or muslims.

they're worse.

so much worse.

and they should be stopped.""

-Nightingale Quietioca

save as draft arch draft bookmark draft where did I put my keys contra code kontra kode I need to remember this and copy it buzzwords keywords find it later please god tumblr don't bork on me this is good stream of consciousness repackage repackage change the words this is a great character study if I do say so myself thanks 3am me you're welcome 3am me

[greatworldwar2]

• Battle of Madagascar

The Battle of Madagascar was the British campaign to capture the Vichy French-controlled island Madagascar during World War II.

Following the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia east of Burma by the end of February 1942, submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy were moving freely throughout the north and eastern expanses of the Indian Ocean. In March 1942, Japanese aircraft carriers conducted the Indian Ocean raid upon shipping in the Bay of Bengal and bases in Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This raid drove the British Eastern Fleet out of the area and they were forced to relocate to a new base at Kilindini, near Mombasa, in Kenya. The move made the British fleet more vulnerable to attack. The possibility of Japanese naval forces using forward bases in Madagascar had to be addressed. The potential use of these facilities particularly threatened Allied merchant shipping. If the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarines were able to utilise bases on Madagascar, Allied lines of communication would be affected across a region stretching from the Pacific and Australia, to the Middle East and as far as the South Atlantic.

On December 17th, 1941, Vice Admiral Fricke, Chief of Staff of Germany's Maritime Warfare Command (Seekriegsleitung), met Vice Admiral Naokuni Nomura, the Japanese Naval Attaché, in Berlin to discuss the delimitation of respective operational areas between the German Kriegsmarine and Imperial Japanese Navy forces. At another meeting on March 27th ,1942, Fricke stressed the importance of the Indian Ocean to the Axis powers and expressed the desire that the Japanese begin operations against the northern Indian Ocean sea routes. Fricke further emphasized that Ceylon, the Seychelles, and Madagascar should have a higher priority for the Axis navies. By April, the Japanese announced to Fricke that they intended to commit four or five submarines and two auxiliary cruisers for operations in the western Indian Ocean between Aden and the Cape of Good Hope, but they refused to disclose their plans for operations against Madagascar and Ceylon.

The Allies had heard the rumours of Japanese plans for the Indian Ocean, the British Chiefs of Staff discussed the possibility that the Vichy government might cede the whole of Madagascar to Japan, or alternatively permit the Japanese Navy to establish bases on the island. British naval advisors urged the occupation of the island as a precautionary measure. On December 16th, General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French in London, sent a letter to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in which he also urged a Free French operation against Madagascar. Churchill recognised the risk of a Japanese-controlled Madagascar to Indian Ocean shipping, particularly to the important sea route to India and Ceylon, and considered Madagascar's ports as the strategic key to Japanese influence. By March 12th, 1942, Churchill had been convinced of the importance of such an operation and the decision was reached that the planning of the invasion of Madagascar would begin in earnest. It was agreed that the Free French would be explicitly excluded from the operation.

On the 14th, Force 121 was constituted under the command of Major-General Robert Sturges of the Royal Marines with Rear-Admiral Edward Syfret being placed in command of naval Force H and the supporting sea force. The operation was planned to commence around April 30th,1942. This was to be the first British amphibious assault since the disastrous landings in the Dardanelles twenty-seven years earlier. The task was Operation Ironclad, it would include Allied naval, land and air forces. The Allied naval contingent consisted of over 50 vessels, drawn from Force H, the British Home Fleet and the British Eastern Fleet, commanded by Syfret. The landing force included the 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group, No 5 (Army) Commando, and two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division, the latter en route to India with the remainder of their division.

Following many reconnaissance missions by the SAAF (South African Air Force), the first wave of the British 29th Infantry Brigade and No. 5 Commando landed in assault craft on May 5th, 1942. Follow-up waves were by two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division and Royal Marines. All were carried ashore by landing craft to Courrier Bay and Ambararata Bay, just west of the major port of Diego-Suarez, at the northern tip of Madagascar. Air cover was provided mainly by Fairey Albacore and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers which attacked Vichy shipping. They were supported by Grumman Martlets fighters from the Fleet Air Arm. The defending Vichy forces, led by Governor General Armand Léon Annet, included about 8,000 troops, of whom about 6,000 were Malagasy tirailleurs (colonial infantry). A large proportion of the rest were Senegalese. Between 1,500 and 3,000 Vichy troops were concentrated around Diego-Suarez.

The beach landings met with virtually no resistance and these troops seized Vichy coastal batteries and barracks. The 17th Infantry Brigade, after toiling through mangrove swamp and thick bush took the town of Diego-Suarez taking a hundred prisoners. The 29th Independent Brigade, headed towards the French naval base of Antisarane. With assistance from six Valentines and six Tetrarch light tanks of B Special Service Squadron they advanced 21 miles overcoming light resistance with bayonet charges. Antisarane itself was heavily defended with trenches, two redoubts, pillboxes. On the morning of May 6th, 1942 a frontal assault on the defences failed with the loss of three Valentines and two Tetrarchs. Another assault by the South Lancashires worked their way around the defences but bad terrain meant they were broken up into groups. Nevertheless, they swung behind the Vichy line and caused chaos. The radio station and a barracks were seized, in all 200 prisoners were taken.

With the French defence highly effective, the deadlock was broken when the old destroyer HMS Anthony dashed straight past harbour defences and landed fifty Royal Marines from Ramillies amidst the Vichy rear area. The marines secured the French artillery command post along with its barracks and the naval depot. At the same time troops of the 17th Infantry Brigade had broken through the defences and were soon marching in the town. The Vichy defence was broken, although substantial Vichy forces withdrew to the south. Hostilities continued at a low level for several months. After May 19th, 1942 two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division were transferred. By June 1942, the 22nd (East Africa) Brigade Group arrived on Madagascar. On September 10th, 1942 the 29th Brigade and 22nd Brigade Group made an amphibious landing at Majunga, another port on the west coast of the island. No. 5 Commando spearheaded the landing and faced machine gun fire but despite this they stormed the quayside, took control of the local post office, stormed the governor's residence and raised the Union Jack.

the Allies intended to re-launch the offensive ahead of the rainy season. Progress was slow for the Allied forces. In addition to occasional small-scale clashes with Vichy forces, they also encountered scores of obstacles erected on the main roads by Vichy soldiers. The Allies eventually captured the capital, Tananarive, without much opposition, and then the town of Ambalavao, but the devoutly Vichy Governor Annet escaped. Eight days later a British force set out to seize Tamatave. Heavy surf interfered with the operation. As HMS Birmingham's launch was heading to shore it was fired at by French shore batteries and promptly turned around. Birmingham then opened her guns up on the shores batteries and within three minutes the French hauled up the white flag. Tamatave fell into British hands. The last major action took place in October, at Andramanalina, a U-shaped valley with the meandering Mangarahara River where an ambush was planned for British forces by Vichy troops. The King's African Rifles split into two columns and marched around the 'U' of the valley and met Vichy troops in the rear and then ambushed them. The Vichy troops suffered heavy losses which resulted in 800 of them surrendering.

An armistice was signed in Ambalavao on November 6th, 1942, and Annet surrendered two days later. The Allies suffered about 500 casualties in the landing at Diego-Suarez, and 30 more killed and 90 wounded in the operations which followed September 1942. With Madagascar in Allied hands, they established military and naval installations across the island. The island was crucial for the rest of the war. Its deep water ports were vital to control the passageway to India and the Persian corridor, and this was now beyond the grasp of the Axis. This was the first large-scale operation of World War II by the Allies combining sea, land, and air forces. In the makeshift Allied planning of the war's early years, the invasion of Madagascar held a prominent strategic place. Free French General Paul Legentilhomme was appointed High Commissioner for Madagascar.

[sareesinthewind]

Photo 1: Parasakthy and Sundha 1961 in Colombo Photo 2: Parasakthy and Sundha in the 80s in Chennai Photo 3: Sundha  as a BBC newsreader 1982 in London Photo 4: Sundha interviewing a young Mathematics prodigy from Tamil Nadu from Radio Ceylon studios 60s in Colombo Photo 5: Sundha was also a talented photographer, and this is one of the photos he took and cheekily edited on his film camera Photo 6: Sundha performing in one of the radio dramas, Radio Ceylon 1950s Photo 7&8: Front and back cover of ‘Mana Osai - Reminiscences of a Broadcaster’ a book about Sundha Paraskathy Sydney, Australia *note that uncle refers to Parasakthy’s husband, the late Sundharalingam. In 1948, uncle, as a young boy,  had listened to the running commentary of Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession. Back then in Jaffna nobody had a radio at home,  so the school principal hired one for the kids to be able to listen to Gandhi’s tributes. Uncle said that he and many of the children cried. Uncle was so amazed at how something happening in a distant land could move people in his village in Chavakacheri.  In his wonderment at how this was possible,  his dream to one day become a radio announcer was born.  Sri Lanka started broadcasting in 1923, three years after Europe started the BBC. The transmitter was built using equipment from a captured German submarine. Colombo Radio, later known as Radio Ceylon, started broadcasting in English first and later added Sinhhalese and Tamil . As the station’s popularity grew in India,  Hindi was introduced, which also catered  for the Hindi-speaking businessmen in Colombo. While uncle was studying at Jaffna Central college, he stayed in a hostel and would listen to the 9pm All India Radio news on the public radio installed in Subramanian Park while the other students would be engrossed in their studies. At the age of 21,  uncle started working in Colombo,  having skipped his university entrance exam to earn money. There he found himself working in the office next to Radio Ceylon.  One of his colleagues was a radio drama artist and invited uncle to join him. Uncle fell in love with the stage and soon became popular for his theatrical talents.  When a vacancy opened up for a news reader, he applied and was appointed to the job.  By the fifties, radio had become a big craze in Jaffna, but very few people could afford a radio and our parents also didn’t want us to get distracted by listening to film songs and dramas.   Even if we could afford a radio,  my family didn’t have electricity. We had a simple life and education was our main focus. Uncle’s family also didn’t have electricity and had to go to a neighbour's house to listen to his broadcasts.  While at Radio Ceylon, he was seconded for a ministerial post as press officer with the option of returning to his job as a news announcer when he wished to do so. 

His duties included reading the papers and giving the minister a summary of daily events as well as interpreting speeches from Sinhala to English or Tamil. He also accompanied different Sinhalese ministers on their trips, bearing witness to their acts incitement of discrimination against the Tamils. He would often come home and tell me how sad he felt. His next job was as a simultaneous interpreter in parliament, a service provided for the Members of Parliament . Most of the Members spoke only Sinhalese or English and uncle worked as the Tamil translator.  

Because parliament only sat for a few days a year, uncle had a lot of free time, which he filled by voicing jingles for advertising companies and performing in radio plays .

The stage was like a second home for him. He had so much confidence in all three languages. In 1969, he and another interpreter were selected to do the simultaneous interpreting for the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20.  These Sinhalese and Tamil interpretations, which were done non stop for three days,  were broadcast by Radio Ceylon all around the country and region, capturing that awe-inspiring moment in history.  The US Embassy in Colombo trained the team, which included Tamil and Sinhala scientists, for about a week, so that they were familiar with the technical terms. They also had to go through a simulated landing. Uncle found the American English difficult, but managed to successfully complete the task. Though Sinhala chauvinism escalated  well before the eighties, we never imagined  it would eventuate in the pogroms and violence that followed, culminating in the atrocities of 2009. 

When the Sinhala Only Bill was passed in 56, uncle had to read it out as news on Radio Ceylon and had to cover stories of its implementation. Uncle was also a news reader during the 58 ethnic riots and the 76 and 78 pogroms. 

Uncle's time at Radio Ceylon, his time in parliament and our years in India, the UK and Australia as a refugee during which time he yearned to return to our country of birth, had a profound effect on him. His resulting grief stayed with him right until his last days in Australia. In 1959, I graduated with a BA in Arts from Peradeniya University. My family never thought I would get a place in the university, as it was a difficult entrance exam. In those days, the  results were announced in the English newspapers. But in our home, we only read Tamil newspapers. My father's friend saw the results and sent the paper to our home, with my name underlined, through another friend. I also had the option of entering a Teachers Training College to study teacher training, which required a less competitive mark than university studies. My school principal, the late Miss Thambiah, however encouraged me to enrol in university and promised me that I would have a job back at our school, Vembadi Girls’ High School, when I had finished my degree.

In Jaffna, education was mainly segregated into male and female schools. In certain schools, at the higher levels there was mixed education. So university was where I first met men, outside my immediate family. It was also the first time I met Sinhalese students. There were about fifty Tamil students and two or three hundred Sinhalese students. We enjoyed  our single rooms and ate in a dining hall with fork and spoon. We were served a lot of beef and so I became a vegetarian. University is where I tasted cheese for the first time. Our education was free, and our living expenses were minimal. Those of us who remember the days of no ethnic divide,  will remember university as a wonderful experience. Those days we had the best of everything in Sri Lanka - free education and free medical services. Everything was good, till the politicians  of the majority community poisoned the minds of the  people against the minorities living in the country. I think that now it's too late for change. The poison has sunk in too deep.   After my studies, I returned to Jaffna and started teaching at my high school. I was so happy and I had many dreams of helping my siblings, who were excelling in their studies. But a marriage proposal to uncle came my way in 1961 and though I had a lot of ambitions and wasn’t keen on it, it was my parents wish and so I obliged.  After our wedding, I joined uncle in Colombo where we had a comfortable life, like most middle class families. I got a job at the Muslim Ladies College in  Bambalapitya Colombo. Teaching in a multicultural environment was another unforgettable experience.  Our move to Chennai in 1980 was not my decision and nor was I in favour of it. Our only daughter Subhadra had just sat for her OL exam and was keen to continue her bharathanatyam studies, while we wanted her to attend university. It came as a rude shock when one morning in January 1980  uncle asked me to sign my retirement papers. He explained there was an option for lady teachers to retire after twenty years of service, which i had just completed, and I could avail myself of that facility. He said I could go to Chennai to educate  Subhadra in the Fine Arts (music and dance), while at the same time help her to get a degree in Arts/Science. My school principal refused to endorse the papers as  I was in the process of  being appointed as  principal of the newly built  Colombo Hindu Ladies College. I was appalled!  Who would throw away everything so good? I was in a dilemma but my husband solved it for me. He said “a decision has been made, let us not go back on it”. He said that Tamils couldn’t live in Sri Lanka in peace anymore and that political unrest was  simmering.  He said that he no longer wanted to live like a fugitive in his country of birth ‘his தாய் நாடு’ and that after translating the venomous speeches of the Sinhalese Members in parliament, he had spent many years of sleepless nights. He said that at least in Tamil Nadu we would feel a sense of familiarity and could continue to be part of the Tamil culture and language.  He reminded me that we had to seek refuge in a Muslim friend’s house during the 1977 pogrom and that our daughter had no chance of entering university with the government’s standardisation policy which penalised Tamil students. So in Jan 1980 I retired and we left for Madras, our home for the next twenty years. There were only three other Tamil families from Sri Lanka who had settled down in Chennai after the first pogrom in 1958 and they all welcomed us graciously. Mr and Mrs Sivapathasundaram had made Adyar their home, the suburb which would become our home too.  Mr Sivapathasundaram  was a  renowned  broadcaster at Radio Ceylon and a popular Tamil writer on par with Indian writers.  He was the one who gave the name Thamilosai to BBC Tamil Radio. We realised theirs was a life of struggle even after spending nearly three decades in Tamil Nadu. Our years in Chennai were also tough, and those who came to visit us were shocked to see how we were living in a single room annex. In 1982, we received a surprise phone call from the BBC asking uncle if he would come and work as the Tamil radio producer for one year, while  Mr Shankaramoorthy, the then producer, took one year of medical leave.  In uncle’s previous trips to the UK he had acted in some of the BCC Thamilosai’s radio dramas and so they were familiar with his talents.  Subha had entered Stella Marie’s College, so we put her in the college hostel and set off on our year long UK adventure.   We could have stayed on after our contract was over by taking part in radio programmes, however uncle said that he wanted to listen to carnatic music and hear Tamil in his ears - காதிலே தமிழும் பாட்டும் கேட்கவேணும் ! So after our stay in the UK was over, we flew straight to Colombo, with the hope of settling back there.  After about 10 days of visiting our families  in Jaffna, uncle, again said that he felt something bad was going to happen and he wanted to get back to Chennai.  I again didn’t want to leave. I missed our family and they missed us.  We had nobody in Chennai.  Uncle however insisted that we had to return to see our daughter Subha and once again said “I don’t want to be a second class citizen in my own country”. We arrived back in Chennai in May 1983. In July when the pogrom against the Tamils started in Colombo, those who had money, got on planes and arrived at our doorstep. Over the following six months, at least a hundred Tamils made their way to our home straight from the airport.  We helped them find temporary accommodation to begin with, then a  home and a school for their children. We became local guardians to hundreds of children, as this was a government requirement. There were number of challenges we faced as guardians - illness - exam failures - two missing students - but we were thankful we could help them.  Those who could afford to sent their children to other foreign countries. Thanks to the BBC, we had a telephone, which became so useful for the many Eelam Tamils who would line up outside and inside our home to use it. One night, we had more than 20 people sleep in our tiny annex. Those nights were tough, but what were we to do? Uncle, who looked to life’s positives, would often tell us that he was grateful that we got out in time and didn’t have to go through the trauma of watching our people being massacred. He was even more thankful that we were in a position to be able to help those that did escape.  After hearing of the massacres and the burnings of the 83 pogrom, the people of Tamll Nadu became sympathetic to our cause and opened up their homes for rent. MGR, was the Chief Minister at the time, and said all Eelam Tamils could be accepted into schools in Tamil Nadu. For those who didn’t have money and escaped the island by boat, they were kept in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, and their plight was and still is an incredibly sad one. Many are still there with very little protection or hope for a better future. We were the lucky few and though we never returned to live in our country, we have a lot to be thankful for.  In the years that followed, uncle became BCC’s Thamilosai correspondent for Tamilnadu, which allowed us to continue living in the India and provided us with a permanent income. Thanks To BBC, we were also able to get a visa to visit our daughter in Australia.  After uncle passed away in Australia after a tragic accident in 2001, I did not want to go back to India and all my family members had left Sri Lanka by then. I stayed on with my daughter's family as a refugee for 12 long years. It was a period of struggle and great uncertainty, thanks to the Australian government.  I was finally granted Australian Citizenship in 2017.  END In 1999 Dr Maunaguru, a close friend, turned audio recordings by uncle about his life into a book titled ‘Mana Osai -Reminiscences of a Broadcaster‘.  Uncle was not keen on the book idea, but he agreed on one condition that the book when published  would be distributed free - he said everyone has a story to tell so it's not fair to make money off it.  Aunty’s grandson Senthan is now also a radio broadcaster and co-hosts the popular podcast Stuck in Between.  

[radiohaanji]

https://haanji.com.au/fih-pro-league-indian-womens-hockey-team-defeats-olympic-champion-netherlands

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.1

AD 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded. 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I. 1431 – The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista. 1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall. 1523 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels. 1569 – Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations. 1643 – First meeting of the Westminster Assembly, a council of theologians ("divines") and members of the Parliament of England appointed to restructure the Church of England, at Westminster Abbey in London. 1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar). 1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France. 1770 – Lexell's Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi). 1782 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. 1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago. 1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales. 1846 - Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone. 1855 – Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States. 1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London. 1862 – The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum. 1862 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. 1863 – Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins. 1867 – The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday. 1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence. 1873 – Prince Edward Island joins into Canadian Confederation. 1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale. 1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union. 1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower. 1881 – The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States. 1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect. 1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada. 1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium. 1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable. 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. 1901 – French government enacts its anti-clerical legislation Law of Association prohibiting the formation of new monastic orders without governmental approval. 1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race. 1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal. 1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis. 1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer's Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker. 1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded. 1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States. 1923 – The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration. 1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport). 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft. 1932 – Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed. 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek. 1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein. 1942 – The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished. 1943 – The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis. 1946 – Crossroads Able is the first postwar nuclear weapon test. 1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established. 1948 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan. 1949 – The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family. 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins. 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave. 1958 – Flooding of Canada's Saint Lawrence Seaway begins. 1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries. 1960 – The Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) gains its independence from Italy. Concurrently, it unites as scheduled with the five-day-old State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. 1960 – Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state. 1962 – Independence of Rwanda and Burundi. 1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail. 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent. 1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto. 1967 – Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission. 1968 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established. 1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries. 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States. 1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place. 1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira. 1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government. 1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman. 1980 – "O Canada" officially becomes the national anthem of Canada. 1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board. 1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA. 1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station. 1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany. 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague. 1997 – China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh. In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary are transferred to the National Assembly. 2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. 2002 – Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes. 2003 – Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong. 2004 – Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC. 2006 – The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway is conducted in China. 2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces. 2008 – Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections. 2013 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union. 2020 – The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement replaces NAFTA.

[bisexualshakespeare]

[ID: a series of simple drawings with text over it telling good news from The Happy Broadcast. I'll include their sources where I can find it. Doctors and HIV researchers announced the fifth case of a patient being cured of HIV! The man is also the oldest person ever to be cured, and had lived with HIV since the 1980s. (source)

one charger to rule them all! European Union just approved a plan to require a single charger (USB-C) for all devices, for iPhones to electric toothbrushes. (source)

UK is planning for more than one thousand "bee bus stops." In a bid to save pollinators, bus shelter roofs are being turned into gardens for bees and butterflies. (source)

More cubs and less poaching mean that the Indian rhino has recovered from being close to extinction. Fifty years ago only 100 Indian rhinos remained in the wild. Now there are over 4000! (source - note, source says they were as low as 200)

Animal testing could slowly be replaced with experiments using "artificial human tissue" thanks to the groundbreaking work of researchers in Austria. Amazing! (source)

It really is the Year of the Tiger! Population study finds there are 40% more tigers in the wild now than in 2015, giving hope to the endangered species. (source)

Astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann, of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, will be the First native American woman to travel to space. Representation! (source)

This is a huge win! Some of the world's biggest mining companies have withdrawn requests to research and extract minerals on Indigenous land in Bazil's Amazon rainforest. (source)

There's a radio station in New Orleans for people with a visual impairment. Volunteers every day read to listeners news headlines, grocery ads, stories for kids, novels and even horoscopes! (source)

Millions of Alzheimer's patients have been given hope after a new drug has been shown to slow memory decline by 27% over 18 months. Experts called this the "beginning of the end" of Alzheimer's! (source - note, this source doesn't say it's "the beginning of the end." It says it will "make a big difference for future generations." )

Scotland become the first country in the world to make tampons and other menstrual products available free of charge in public spaces in a bid to end period poverty. (source)

Tiny mealworms may hold part of the solution to our giant plastics problem. New research shows mealworms can not only eat toxic Styrofoam, but that they can break it down safely! (source)

A new California law requires grocery stores and other food suppliers to donate all edible food waste to a food bank or food rescue. This needs to go worldwide! (source)

Good news for the ozone layer! New study shows the ozone layer has passed a 'significant milestone' as harmful chemicals drop by 50% since 1980s. (source)

Solar FTW! There are now enough solar panels installed throughout the world to generate 1 terawatt (TW) of electricity from the sun, enough capacity to generate power for all of Europe. (source)

Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts. New data shows us that from otters to red deer, and from wolves to bison, numbers are rebounding by the millions! (source)

After a rough few years of bleaching and wild weather, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is making a coral comeback. The highest coral cover in 36 years! (source)

In Panama, nature just got basic legal rights! A new law grants nature the "right to exist and regenerate" meaning the government will have to respect the country's ecosystem in all future policies. (source)

end ID /]

[cybermoonmoon]

From my Pandemic Journal. March 17th, 2020

The Virus is now in all 50 States. Including Hawaii. Island countries now hit. Caribbean New Zealand Australia Madagascar. I can give you my subjective view of local Brooklyn things. Traffic is much lighter. Daytime streets empty. I could set up a table in the middle of the four lane Parkway sit have lunch and not have a single car pass.

Went to laundry. My local is taking only ten loads a day. I was number 12. My friend the owner let me in. She said she was making exceptions for old customers. Post Office open only for drop offs. Stamps from vending machines only. UPS still taking limited packages.

The markets are re-opened. This after the mayhem of the rushes. Shelves perhaps 30% empty. No meats no dairy limited paper goods. I assume the distributors are not topping off the locals. A wait and see. Still no local papers I could find...except the New York Times. They said they’d print no matter what. 

The library was closed. A note said open two days a week with shorter hours. However, a security guy told me they’re going offline...closing for the duration on Friday. The take outs except for the chains were shut. The Haitian Chinese Hispanic, and Indian take outs all closed. Everyone wearing masks. Pharmacy open limited hours. 

On local talk radio New Yorker's open up when shit hits the fan. Folks telling their personal war stories of this thing. On the street to the degree we speak some blessing each other. I’m hearing the "B" word as I go about. 

I'm listening to WQXR while posting this. These guys are the last Classical Music Station in the region. We used to have several. Listen Live here... https://www.wqxr.org/

They're programing music for this event. This to help, and calm folks. Giving good information, and beautiful music. Some host's reading emails from listeners. Just now several emails from musicians laid off as all concerts are cancelled for the duration. Artists and Musicians of all genres are all listening to 'QXR. ...as am I. ‘Mentioned people are saying "...Bless you". I do this as well...western rationalist though I more or less am. 

A Blessing is an intent of good...a positive affirmation to another. 

We all have an idea of what's coming. Given how badly the Feds have acted so far. This is so terrible that's it's beyond mere blame of any head of state or party. It's just happening, and we are all in it. The whole world the whole country is shut down. We’re all making do. So be calm be brave be kind be safe.

As I post this on the evening of March 17th, 2020. I hear Saint Marks with her new bells barely two years old in her 120 year old steeple. Saint Gregory's further down with her 80 year old brass. Both chiming as the sun sets. With a hymn of Bells, and Blessings on the lips of many. That's Brooklyn or my part of it on this dusk. Be brave be safe be kind be well.

[jasonblaze72]

Finding Happy Episode 10: Release Date, Spoilers & How To Watch

The Finding Happy Episode 10 Release Date is here, and we have compiled all the hot details about the same in this piece. Let's recap Finding Happy Episode 9 before getting to Finding Happy Episode 10's Release Date, and Finding Happy Episode 10's streaming details. The last episode was highly entertaining and premiered on November 12, 2022. It was titled finding a chance.  We saw that the HR department at D-1 Media is looking into the leaked footage. We also see that when Yaz finds it difficult to reveal the truth, Porter cancels her guest appearance on the show. All this chaos did lead to an argument and a falling-out between Yaz and Chanel. We also saw that Jamila is desperate to start a family. Yaz tries to improve her relations with Porter but erroneously interprets a shared moment. Toward the end of the ninth episode, we see that when things at the office start to fall apart, Yaz tries to look for a new mentor—the radio personality of a competing station, who might be able to save her career. The upcoming episode will drop a few more twists and drama so let's learn more about the same. Also read: Significant Others Episode 4: Release Date, Spoilers & How to Watch Finding Happy Season 1 Story So Far However, this irritates Yaz, who exhibits new emotions that we may have never witnessed before. Yaz, therefore, requests that Shaun bring all of the items that belong to her from his home. We see her flirting with a really attractive man later while in the church, and we know this will melt her heart. Finding the Surprise, the sixth episode of Finding Happy, shows us that the family is enjoying their yearly reunion. Yaz will now face new difficulties due to her failure to tell her parents about her ambitions. Raymond, her father, is currently in the area. Additionally, there is a tonne of conflict between Cassandra, his new lover, and Marilyn, his ex-wife. Yaz's relationship with Shawn experiences yet another round of turbulence. He made an effort to surprise her by visiting her place of employment. He is, however, made even more envious by the fact that he must now compete against Porter. Finding the Worry, the show's seventh and most recent episode, revealed that Yaz's coworker Chanel had decided to take significant action in Yaz's favor. The designer flagship meal she prepared for her was called Ya Girl Yaz. Chanel asks Yaz to try daring styles she may not have previously worn as the event gets closer and closer. Later, we observe that D-1 Media's executives inform Porter that Princess Charles requires additional space for expansion, indicating that Yaz would finally have a space "apart" from them. Finding a Good Day was the title of the eighth episode. We observed that Yaz, fearing termination, took time off work to hang out with Jamila after learning that the film she had covertly recorded of Princess Charles had been exposed. The two cousins go to the Black Hair Museum, where they have a conversation regarding Jamila's secret, which Yaz can relate to, which can impact her relationship with Dexter. Yaz informs Jamila about the recently leaked footage, which causes Jamila to want retribution from Chanel. Despite keeping his secrets hidden, Dexter shares Jamila's happiness at the excellent news. Finding Happy Episode 10 Release Date? Finding Happy Episode 10 Release Date is Saturday, November 19, 2022. Finding Happy Episode 10 will air on Bounce TV at 8:00 pm in the US. Fans can also stream Finding Happy Episode 10 at the following time outside the US: British Summer Time: 1.00 am (November 20, 2022) Indian Standard Time: 5.30 am (November 20, 2022) Singapore Standard Time: 8.00 am (November 20, 2022) Philippines Standard Time: 8.00 am (November 20, 2022) Japanese Standard Time: 9.00 am (November 20, 2022) Korean Standard Time: 9.00 am (November 20, 2022) Australia Eastern Daylight Time: 11.00 am (November 20, 2022) https://youtu.be/Z8Tn1PfUQaY Finding Happy Episode 10: Where To Watch Finding happy episode 10 will stream at the above-mentioned times for international viewers on Bounce TV's website.  What To Expect From Episode 10 Of Finding Happy The episode is titled Finding Dynasty. Yaz is hired as the MC for hip-hop artist Lil Young Baby's hearing party, but when the numerous guys in her life show up unexpectedly, she is forced to adjust. When Jamila asks Yaz for assistance after making a devastating discovery, she finds herself in a tough spot and has to make the most important life decision. Happy streaming! Also read: Andor Episode 9: Release Date, Spoilers & How To Watch Read the full article

[lebaethnicmedia]

Leba are Indian and South Asian media advertising and marketing specialists and are well placed to service your needs. We offer the opportunity to advertise in some new digital media options such as YUPPTV and Gaana. The digital options range from banner ads, audio ads and video. Call us today on 03 8554 0300 or visit  https://www.leba.com.au/indian-media-advertising-services/ to see how we can assist in your communication needs.

[slapshot-to-the-heart]

Move Together

Hey friends! Here’s Part VII for the Chaos and the Calm series. The singer whose work this is based on, James Bay, actually has a new album, Electric Light, out on Friday- I highly suggest you all take a listen when you get the chance! Please don’t forget to reblog if you liked it, helps more people get exposed to the stories we love! I’m also so excited when people talk to me, give me feedback and suggestions and any kind of conversation, so please feel free to pop into my inbox! Thanks again to @harrystylesgotmeknockedup for being my resource for all things British!

Masterlist

Move Together

November 2019

Home now, end of the night/It's colder to turn on your side/And I know you're up in two hours/But we didn't get tonight/We don't have tomorrow/So don't ruin now

Hearing the click of the front door, indicating that Harry was finally home, Alex sat up slightly, rubbing her eyes and looking to her watch for the time. 2:41. As much as she had genuinely loved getting to tour Europe with Harry, and thankful that her firm had granted her the ability to work remotely, she was grateful to be back in her own bed.

Tour, for the most part, had been a series of give and takes, of compromises and sacrifices that had to be made. She got to visit cities she never would have gotten the chance to— Prague in particular was breathtaking, and she made a chuffed Harry promise to bring her back one day— but seldom stayed in any place for more than two or three days. She got to be with her boyfriend and make some amazing friends in the band and crew, but they were all living out of suitcases in unfamiliar hotels and tour buses. She got to fly first class for only the second time in her life— Harry insisted on ‘nothing but the best’ for their flight to Los Angeles for the Grammys earlier that year— but she had to adjust to the presence of sometimes hundreds of fans at airports, hotels, and radio stations. Who, for some reason, seemed to be interested in talking to her. She didn’t quite understand why anyone would want a photo with her, but was nevertheless more than happy to snap one if there was time.

But the moments that made all the bad times so, so worth it were the ones that she got to spend with Harry, watching him onstage. Watching him do what he loved filled her with a kind of joy so all-consuming and unimaginable she couldn’t even begin to describe it. Whether he was performing a song he about her or not, there was no place Alex would rather be than in the wings of the stage, playing the part of ‘proud girlfriend.’ She had told him at the start of tour that she wanted to go into the pit to watch the show, feeling like the experience of watching from backstage would be something of a half-truth, and Harry had yielded after a few minutes of pestering. “Just don’t want yeh getting hurt, love,” he had said. “Harry. They’re your fans. They’re not going to hurt me,” she had countered. So for the first five shows, she had slipped into the front just before the show, but her plans were faulted when, one night, a particular Italian crowd had gotten a little too boisterous during Kiwi and had jostled her too much for comfort, well, Harry’s comfort, that was. Alex insisted she was fine, but Harry put his foot down, and from then on, her place had been with the crew behind the scenes. She missed getting to interact with fans and experience the concert the same way they did, but was able to spend time with people she otherwise didn’t connect with. In fact, more than one concert she had spent in the lighting booth; as an artist herself, she was enthralled with the design and intricacy of the whole production, and was even allowed to help out with the lights for the last show.

So, even with seemingly endless drawbacks, the experience was one she wouldn’t change for the world. Interrupting her thoughts, Harry walked in just then, grimacing when he saw that Alex had woken up to greet him. “Why are yeh still up, Lex?” He asked, clearly tired himself.

“Wanted to see you when you got home,” she responded. “Didn’t realize it would be so late.”

He sighed. “Me either, love.” He had finished the European leg and had a few weeks to go before he left for a three-week stint in Asia and Australia, but had been roped into sticking around the studio to work on some new material that he and a few co-writers had been tossing around. It also wasn’t that he wanted to stay away from Alex. He’d get caught up in writing a song, or fiddling with the mixing, or recording harmonies, then look at his watch and realize it was past midnight. Being away from Alex was the last thing he wanted, especially now that they were living together. They both knew all the problems that could crop up with sharing a space with someone, and it would do neither good if Harry wasn’t there half the time to work out their inevitable issues. He knew that he should be better, tell the guys he was sorry, but needed to get home to his girl, but a tiny part of him— and he hated himself for it— wished Alex would just drop it. It was his job, and she had said a million times that she knew what she was getting into with their relationship. “Give me ten minutes to get in bed, yeah?”

Alex nodded, but Harry could tell there was more she wanted to say but was holding back. For his sake or hers, he wasn’t sure. Harry went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and stripped down to his boxers, crawling into bed behind Alex. It only took seven minutes. She knew that he wasn’t trying to be distant, that it wasn’t entirely his choice to stay so late and spend so little time with her, but that didn’t take away the fact that his absence was causing a wedge to drive in between them.

“I’ve got to get up at six for work,” Alex said softly, more to herself than anything. Harry felt a pang shoot to his chest. He had promised her that he would be careful with her, careful with her heart, and he was breaking that promise. “Is it— is it always going to be like this?” She continued. “I mean, it obviously was pretty much a non-issue when I lived in Brooklyn, but now that you’ve got someone to come home to, someone physically sharing your life, I’ve got to ask.”

“Is it always going to be what, love?” Harry asked. Stupid of him to ask, he already knew the answer but somehow felt that it would be better for whatever reason if he spared himself the emotional pain of having to address it himself.

“Is it always going to be late nights, seeing you for a few hours when we’re in bed, hurried phone calls and cancelled dinner plans?”

He winced. They had planned a dinner a few weeks after their return from Europe; they wanted to officially celebrate moving in together. Harry had booked a table at an Indian place a few blocks away that they both loved and Alex had bought a new dress. He was meant to meet her at the apartment at seven for them to walk over for their seven thirty reservation, but the time had come and gone and he hadn’t shown. She had hated having to call the restaurant and cancel their reservations, and it was clear that the woman on the other end of the phone knew that something wasn’t quite right, but she didn’t pry.

Alex wasn’t the type of person to really hold grudges, malice wasn’t something she was too fond of. So she told Harry she forgave him, she told him she understood, but in reality she was hurt.

How we gonna move together?/Just come closer/If we don't move together, just come closer/How we gonna breathe?/How we gonna be together?/Just keeping the peace/Between the sheets

“That’s not what I want it to be, love. I’m sorry that it’s been that way for the best few weeks. It’s not fair to you, it’s not fair to me, and it needs to change.” Harry said. Alex nodded, moving closer and leaning her head up against his back. He felt her hand moving up and down his back, as if she was trying to will away his worries, and Harry wished that he could stay in that moment forever.

Being in a relationship with someone who was willing to admit their mistakes, who wasn’t too proud to compromise, was a concept so new and almost foreign to Alex that she didn’t really know how to deal with it. It was true that she had never been in love with anyone like she was with Harry, but she had had her fair share of relationships before. Most were brief, shallow flings, but there were a few in university that she was genuinely invested in, that she could see moving beyond superficiality. Peter was everything she thought she wanted: intelligent, creative, curious, and really freaking attractive. But his downfall, and what made them ultimately fall apart, was how stubborn he was. Communication was never the couple’s strong suit, and whenever Alex would try to bring it up and tell him that they needed to work on it, he seemed to refuse to believe that there was a problem. Blinking a few times, Alex tried to get the thoughts of him out of her head. Peter was old news, someone so far gone from her life, and she had no good reason to dwell on what was a non-issue. A non-issue because of the wonderful, caring man she was laying beside. “We can’t keep pushing this off. It does need to change. But how?” She asked.

Harry rolled over in bed, facing Alex. “We need somethin’ concrete, an agreement that we’re both going to stick to, but something that’s practical, you know? ‘S much as I want to, I can’t promise that I’ll always be back home early  or that I’ll always be able to stick to schedule.”

“And I wouldn’t want you to promise that,” Alex said. “I want you through the thick and thin; I knew what I was signing up for, no matter how much I might try to tell myself otherwise.” She paused for a moment. “How about two or three times a month, we just commit to getting out of the house and doing something together? Doesn’t have to only be dinner, we could go to a movie, breakfast, walk around Central Park…” She trailed off.

Harry gave a soft smile. “That sounds great, love. And how about I call you if I’ll be staying at the studio past ten or so? I don’t really want you waiting up for me, but I know nothing I say will really be able to stop you if you want to, you’re stubborn as they come,” he said with a chuckle.

So maybe don't give me cold, cold shoulder/Before you go, turn around, let me hold you/And let me stay in the dark of the morning/Just more one thing

Alex hovered her hand by Harry’s cheek, and he could tell, not for the first time that night, that she was holding back something to say. “Out wit’ it, love,” he said gently, causing Alex to crack a brief smile.

“I can never hide anything from you, can I?”

“Nope,” Harry said. “And yeh shouldn’t have to. Now what’s on your mind?”

Alex took a moment, collecting her thoughts. “Don’t you think it’s about time we tell everyone about us? You know, proper go public?”

His brow furrowed. “I thought we were? I mean, I called you my girlfriend at the Grammy’s, didn’t I?”

She nodded. “Yeah, and I’m totally not trying to imply that you’re not paying enough attention to me or trying to be needy in any way, you’re amazing and I love everything that you’re doing already—”

“Calm down, love,” Harry said, stroking his thumb over one of her shoulders. “I know I haven’t been as public with us as I could have been, but I think I thought that’s what yeh wanted, to be out of the spotlight?”

“And that’s still true,” Alex started. “I think, though, that I’d be fine being a little more open, though, you know? Pictures and stuff, and you can talk about us in interviews if it’s brought up, I guess?”

He lifted his eyebrows suggestively. Slapping his forehead none-too-lightly with the palm of her hand, Alex struggled to keep in her laughter. “Not like that, you chav! I trust you—” she took a quick look at him, “mostly— to keep private what ought to be private.”

“Of course, love.” For Harry, he would have been just as willing to go public with their relationship from the first day on. There was nothing more he wanted to do than to shout to the world how lucky he was, how in love he was with Alexandra Diana Jones. But he knew that wasn’t what was best for them at the beginning, that it wasn’t what they needed. They needed time to themselves, time to establish a relationship and norms and everything else they needed to give their relationship the best possible shot at working out. And Harry was a man of his word; his mum had never taught him to be anything other than honest, kind, and respectful. So when he told Alex that things would move at her pace and their relationship would only go as fast as she was comfortable with, he meant it with every fiber of his being. Needless to say, then, when Alex gave him the go-ahead, he was nothing short of over the moon.

For Alex, the decision was one that had been a long time in the making. She didn’t want Harry to feel as though she was suffocating him with all of her rules; she found herself more often than not questioning the validity of her requests, constantly second-guessing herself and deciding that she had made the wrong decision. It wasn’t a matter of her wanting to be hidden from the world; she had known as soon as One Direction had made it onto X-Factor that anytime she was linked with Harry would be far from normal, but she needed time. That had been her mantra for the first few months of their relationship, that she just needed more time. She knew that the moment they went public, the second they made their big debut as a couple, that any semblance of normalcy she had previously would be gone. She had seen what it had done to other “celebrity couples,” though she despised the term and found it inaccurate for their circumstances, and selfishly wanted to protect them from that. She wanted to be able to keep Harry to herself, at least for a little while, until they were exposed to the world, bound to be scrutinized and analyzed and picked apart to no end. But now was different. She had had enough time, felt like they had eased into their relationship enough, that she felt she had held off for long enough. She knew that it was inevitable, and most people were probably observant enough to know that they were in a relationship even without explicit confirmation. But there was something comforting about the concrete nature of an affirming tweet or photo on Instagram, as ironic as it may seem.  

“Glad we’ve got that sorted out, yeah?” Harry murmured softly. “What d’you say we finally get to bed? Don’t want you too tired tomorrow morning, mm?”

Alex nodded, snuggling herself closer to Harry, who gladly wrapped his arms around her back, holding her to his chest. “Yeah.”

Alex woke up a few hours later, Harry having gone on an early-morning run and leaving her with a heartfelt good morning post-it and a pot of coffee on the warmer. Opening her phone, she went to check Instagram, seeing a notification for a new tagged picture from Harry. It was a photo of her from that morning, still sleeping, hair sprawled out on the pillow. The caption was simple, but its few words spoke volumes. My love @alexdjones

[radiohaanji]

Sikh Truckers & Students Unite to Construct a Gurdwara in Mildura

This Gurdwara was built by Sikh Truckers & Students – and their journey is nothing short of inspiring! 🚛🏗️🙏 In the heart of Mildura, a group of dedicated Sikh truckers and students came together to create a place of worship, love, and service. Through Langar Seva, they are feeding hundreds, offering support to the community, and keeping the spirit of Sikhi alive.

From long hours on the road to hands-on labor, these unsung heroes are proving that when faith meets determination, miracles happen. Watch this heartwarming story and witness the power of community, selfless service, and unwavering dedication.

👉 Don’t forget to LIKE, SHARE & SUBSCRIBE to support this amazing cause! 💛

#SikhTruckers #Gurdwara #LangarSeva #CommunitySupport #MilduraGurdwara #Sikhi #FaithInAction #Seva #TruckersLife #InspiringStories

Watch Now: https://youtu.be/xt5tkuGEtDo?si=jTK8RAlKU9a1f6sv