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  Kalidasa’s Meghadhuta - With a...

  M. Venkataraman

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  The Meghadhuta also known as Meghasandesam is one of the beautiful works of Kalidasa. It is a poem in Sanskrit Language consisting of 117 verses. It is actually one of a few minor compositions of Kalidasa. Being one of the greatest poets of Sanskrit Literature, he has produced epics like the Raghuvamsa Mahakavya and Kumarasambhavam and dramas like Abigyana Sakuntalam. 
  The ideas contained in this poem is simple but romantic. Alaka is a mountain in the Himalayas. The god of wealth, Kubera is the king of this place. He has a group of divine attendants working for him. These attendants are known as Yakshas. One of these Yakshas was very much smitten and obsessed with his wife. Hence, he ignored his duties. Kubera, therefore, cursed him and banished him into the woods on planet Earth. The Yaksha came to a mountainous place called Ramagiri named after Lord Rama near the present state of Chattisgarh in India and was residing in an ashram there. 
  The Yaksha spent several months on the mountain. Thoroughly dejected, the love-lorn Yaksha keeps thinking about his wife. His wife also keeps thinking about him all day and all night. It is the time of monsoon. The Yaksha sees a rain cloud passing by. He requests the cloud to carry a message to his wife. The Yaksha then starts to describe the route that the cloud should take to meet his lover. This forms the crux of the verses of this poem. 
  The works of Kalidasa are synonymous with the beauty of nature, lyrical poetry, dramatic stories, great heroes and sensuous heroines. The Meghadhuta focusses mainly on sensual love and the beauty of nature. Kalidasa’s genius lies in making these two subjects flow into each other in this work. For example, Kalidasa picturises the rivers as sensuous women, and he advises his friend namely the cloud to take interest in the rivers along the way on his journey from the plains to Alaka.

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  The Black Man's President -...

  Michael Burlingame

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  In a little-noted eulogy delivered after Lincoln's assassination, Frederick Douglass called the president "emphatically the black man's president," the "first to show any respect for their rights as men." Douglass pointed not just to Lincoln's official acts and utterances, like the Emancipation Proclamation or the Second Inaugural Address, but also to the president's own personal experiences with Black people. 
   
   
   
  But Lincoln's description as "emphatically the black man's president" rests on more than his relationship with Douglass or on his official words and deeds. Lincoln interacted with many other African Americans during his presidency. His unfailing cordiality to them, his willingness to meet with them in the White House, to honor their requests, to invite them to consult on public policy, to treat them with respect whether they were kitchen servants or leaders of the Black community, to invite them to attend receptions, to sing and pray with them in their neighborhoods—all those manifestations of an egalitarian spirit justified the tributes paid to him by Frederick Douglass and other African Americans. 
   
   
   
  Historian David S. Reynolds observed that only by examining Lincoln's "personal interchange with Black people do we see the complete falsity of the charges of innate racism that some have leveled against him over the years."

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  Between the Lines -...

  Eric Simonson

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  In the spring of 2022, the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company boldly, and perhaps cavalierly, re-emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic with a brand new, 43 million dollar, state-of-the-art theatre. Director Yasen Peyankov insisted he cast the premiere production - a brand new, adaption of The Seagull - with as many Steppenwolf ensemble members as possible. This meant coaxing one non-actor, director and writer Eric Simonson, into coming back to the stage after a 33 year absence. Taking a leap in the dark, and battling the demons of stage-fright, confidence and homesickness, Simonson took up the challenge and started on a journey into the great theatrical unknown. Part diary, part history of the Chicago Theater Renaissance, this memoir takes the reader behind the scenes of a Steppenwolf classic, and inside the head of a man desperate to rediscover the joy and craft of acting.

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  Like A River To The Sea -...

  Jack Grandcolas, Alan Shipnuck

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  The story of heartbreak to triumph in the wake of a tragedy. Their first date in college was a U2 concert and after that Lauren and Jack Grandcolas were inseparable. He was mesmerized by her sweetness, fierce intelligence and eyes that were as blue and alive as the ocean. They married and settled in San Francisco, each pursuing their dreams in the business world. After a decade of trying, Lauren finally got pregnant at the age of thirty-eight. On September 6, 2001, she flew to New Jersey—her beloved Little Grandma had died and following the funeral Lauren shared the joyous news of her pregnancy to lift her family’s spirits. Flying home to Jack on September 11th, she arrived at Newark airport early and walked on to a flight for which she hadn’t been ticketed: United 93. During that terrifying flight, Lauren left a calm and reassuring voice mail for Jack which remains a testament to her courage and selfless love, even in the face of her own mortality.Like a River to the Sea is a story of love overcoming loss. In this moving memoir, Jack Grandcolas brings to life his college sweetheart while taking the reader through his long journey to make peace with the loss of Lauren and their unborn child. Jack is honest about the depth of his despair and his battles with depression, PTSI, and heavy drinking. As he digs himself out of the deepest hole imaginable, Jack learns universal truths that will help anyone confronted with tragedy.Like a River to the Sea is also a deeply personal look at an event of historical importance. Jack takes us inside the White House to meet with President Bush and to the precipice of a still-smoldering hole in the earth outside of Shanksville, Penn. The book goes aboard United 93 in its final minutes, when this brave collection of Americans fought to retake control of the plane, ultimately preventing the hijackers from completing their mission and becoming the first heroes in the war against terror.As with Jack’s life, Like a River to the Sea is defined by the boundless depths of human love. Eighteen years after losing his wife and their unborn baby, Jack finally remarried, and his new bride so honors the love between him and Lauren that her wedding ring includes stones that Lauren once wore on her finger. This is the magic of Like A River To The Sea, which begins with heartbreak but becomes a story about the triumph of the human spirit.

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  Constellations and Consolations

  Sarah Sands

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  Following  the sudden death of her brother, a former chorister and a celebrated cabaret star, the author embarks on an extraordinary journey, geographical, spiritual and musical in her wish to understand the mystery of her brother’s soul.  
   
   From the Norfolk coast to the Baltic Sea, she follows the tides of ideas and music behind a pilgrim map that her brother had left for her and finds it is a route to peace and joy. 

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  Unruly Saint - Dorothy Day's...

  D.L. Mayfield

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  In 1933, in the shadow of the Great Depression, Dorothy Day started the most prominent Catholic radical movement in United States history, the Catholic Worker Movement, a storied organization with a lasting legacy of truth and justice. 
   
   
   
  Day's newspaper, houses of hospitality, and ministry of paying attention to the inequality of her world would eventually become world famous, just as she would become a figure of promise for the poor. The ways in which Day and her fellow workers both found the love of God in and expressed it for their neighbors during a time of great social, political, economic, and spiritual upheaval would become a model of activism for decades to come. 
   
   
   
  In Unruly Saint, activist, writer, and neighbor D. L. Mayfield brings a personal lens to Day's story. In exploring the founding of the Catholic Worker movement and newspaper by revisiting the early years of Day's life, Mayfield turns her attention to what it means to be a good neighbor today. Through a combination of biography, observations on the current American landscape, and theological reflection, this is at once an achingly relevant account and an encouraging blueprint for people of faith in tumultuous times. It will resonate with today's activists, social justice warriors, and those seeking to live in the service of others.

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