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Sirensongs

Sirensongs: Indologist At Large

About Me

*Nutshell: Native Tennessean now living in south Asia.*Official third-person version: Sirensongs came to India in 2002 to further her six years of study of the ancient temple dance, Bharatanatyam. Apprenticing with a revered master in Madras, she learned a great deal; however, most of it was not about dance. Disillusionment and childhood memories of "Tintin in Tibet" led her to adventures all over India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal....If you're still reading: I am a Dalai Lama-head. So far this year I have seen Him about 8 times. Yes, I feel a little more enlightened....Besides Bharatanatyam, I have also studied Sri Lankan, Manipuri, Odissi, classical ballet, yoga, and Spanish Flamenco dance. During my years in India I've taught English at Auroville Language Lab (Tamil Nadu) and the Rangjung Yeshe Institute of Buddhist Studies (Kathmandu).... I hold a certificate in Spoken Sanskrit from Rashtriya Samskrt Samsthan (deemed university, New Delhi) and am a lifetime member of ABHAI (Assoc. of Bharatanatyam Artists of India).... My writing and photographs appear all over the freaking internet; check out www.sirensongs.blogspot.com....I am inordinately proud of my ability to read street signs and bargain (successfully) with taxi drivers in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, French and Nepali.... My Tibetan, however, is still a total disgrace.*Quote: "Why do people come to India to 'find themselves'? India is where you go to LOSE yourself...."
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My Interests

Indology, Eastern culture and spirituality, Samskrtm, anthropology, learning new alphabets and languages, ritual, budget travel, political humour, social change, intercultural communication, vegetarianism, Bharatanatyam and Asian classical dance.

I'd like to meet:

People who don't want anything from me.

Music:

Dead Can Dance; Patti Smith; the Velvet Underground; L. Subramaniam; Iggy & the Stooges; Saturday morning cartoon theme songs; PiL; Ramones; hard 70's funk; B52s; Certain General; Gang of Four; James Brown; Hun Huur Tu and Tuvan throat singing; Sur Sudha; Public Enemy; the Exotic Ones; the Shakers; early Fairport Convention; Jimi Hendrix; AC/DC "Back in Black"; Cream; Art of Noise; New York Dolls; big band and swing (Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman)

Movies:

I like movies about eccentric outsiders & loners, and their odyssey - can't imagine why. BARAKA; Kundun; Matewan; the Fisher King; the Matrix; Pee Wee's Big Adventure; Scrooge with Albert Finney; A Charlie Brown Christmas; the Big Lebowski; Baraka; O Brother Where Art Thou?; the TAMI Show with James Brown; Wayne's World (1 & 2)

Television:

Pee Wee's Playhouse; the Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher; Just Shoot Me; Sherlock Holmes Mysteries; The Simpsons; original Looney Tunes; Maude; Mary Tyler Moore; Eyes on the Prize PBS series; Peanuts holiday specials

Books:

Mark Twain; Rudyard Kipling; VS Naipaul; The Wisdom of Forgiveness by the Dalai Lama; Cynthia Heimel; Dave Barry; Empire of the Soul by Paul William Roberts; the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

Heroes:

Patti Smith, Muhammad Ali, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Annie Besant, Swami Vivekananda, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mata Amritanandamayi, Gloria Steinem, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King Jr. and figures of the US Civil Rights movement; all the Tibetan monks and nuns in jail for resisting Chinese rule; the Chinese student who stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square.

My Blog

I moved my blog

Well, it's been exactly a year since I posted here. In case you haven't realized it yet, I MOVED MY BLOG to: http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com...where I now update about twice a week. It's just too m...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:58:00 PST

Diwali Walli Goes Nepali

Diwali walli* goes Nepali Festivus maximusKathmandu and Lalitpur, Nepal *Wallah: someone who is particularly expert at or specializes in a certain activity or profession. Walli: feminine of...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sun, 22 Oct 2006 10:23:00 PST

Going Postal

I go to the P.O.Kathmandu, NepalThe Kathmandu Valley is the world's largest open-air museum. Priceless historic carvings, statues and monuments are strewn casually, even carelessly, around. Old men si...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:15:00 PST

The Umbrella Man

The Umbrella Man Shelter and shadeKathmandu, NepalI finally found an umbrella man, on my way to CIWEC clinic. He sits by the roadside under a tiny blue-tarp lean-to. He's little more than a...
Posted by Sirensongs on Mon, 04 Sep 2006 02:23:00 PST

India Censors Blogosphere!

Okay, you heard it here first - The World's Largest Hypocrisy. India Censors Blogs India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order to ISPs Friday to block several websites. The list is...
Posted by Sirensongs on Tue, 18 Jul 2006 02:48:00 PST

Future Tense

This week's viewer mail! Science fiction aficionado Darkhorse in Nashville (don't say Nashville, where? there is only one Nashville) writes: Dear Siren: Here's a review from the Washington Post of Riv...
Posted by Sirensongs on Fri, 16 Jun 2006 08:20:00 PST

No, damnit....

No, damnit....   How now, Red Mao? Kathmandu, Nepal No, damnit...I didn't get it together to post the Maoist Rally photos from yesterday. Not yet. But I have a good reason (some kind of food pois...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sat, 03 Jun 2006 08:42:00 PST

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

 The Sincerest Form of Flattery You can't tell your own story using someone else's voicePlagiarism is all in the news these days, but it's old hat (tired topi?) around these parts. I don't know ...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sun, 07 May 2006 11:26:00 PST

Paint It Black

During my recent imprisonment in Delhi, I did manage one afternoon of urban freedom in order to see Jantar Mantar the open-air observatory, which made for some very cool photos, and saw some real live...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sun, 26 Mar 2006 07:27:00 PST

Feringhee: The India Diaries

Meddem you enjoy? There's lots more where this came from over at the official Sirenspot: Feringhee: The India Diaries feringhee (feringhi, ferinji, firanghi): hindi/urdu word (poss. persian derivatio...
Posted by Sirensongs on Sun, 19 Feb 2006 09:14:00 PST