Browsing: Sita

Happy peaceful Diwali to all from our over-crowded Hindu universe – Lakshmi for prosperity, Ganesha for wisdom, Krishna for joy and the Sindhi Jhule Lal for getting the boat to shore!

The triumph of good over evil, light over darkness. This simple sentiment is at the heart of the great festival of Diwali which is celebrated in the Hindu Diaspora all across the world. This year it falls on November 7. In this Diwali 101, everything you ever wanted to know about Diwali – check out the videos.

This festive season, welcome to Nina Paley’s animated film ‘Sita Sings the Blues’, yet another retelling of India’s great epic, Ramayana. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it, as some have done, ‘Sitayana’ for it tells the tale from the perspective of Sita, not unlike the oral retellings through the ages by village women that made Sita the focus of the story. Only here the story is told through the jazz tradition of torch songs, of a lovely, smoky voiced lament more often heard in a dark New York lounge or bar, than in the rural outposts of India.

Syndicated comic strip artist and first time filmmaker Nina Paley has learned to make some mighty creative lemonade with the lemons handed her by life.