Hello there....

quote:

---

Originally posted by Taramati:
[b]Just wanted to introduce myself as a new member.[/b]

---

[url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1438265.cms]Durga Khote began her acting career during what was perhaps Indian cinema's most significant milestone—the advent of the talkie:[/url]

quote:

---

She played Rani Taramati in Ayodhyecha Raja, the Marathi film industry's first movie that talked.

I, Durga Khote chronicles the life and times of this gutsy woman of substance. Acting was a profession that was thrust upon her.

---

[url=http://yakshagana.com/Nautanki.htm]The story of Queen Taramati:[/url]

quote:

---

Raja Harischandra is the story of an ancient Hindu King who is steadfast in honoring his words. One day Sage Vishwamitra, in order to test him, appears in his court and tricks him into a promise by which he relinquishes his throne, jewels, palace - everything. In the end he is obliged to pay dakshina, a fee offered to the Brahmins. Unable to pay, the honor-bound king serves as a slave at cremation ground. His wife, Queen Taramati, is reduced to working as a domestic servant in the house of a rich man. Their young son is bitten by a snake and dies. Taramati carries the dead child to the cremation ground, but the truthful Harischandra will not cremate him because she cannot pay the fee. She begs him to chop off her head to spare her from further humiliation. He blindfolds his eyes and draws the sword. At this moment, Vishwamitra appears, admits the glory of the truthful Harischandra, receives his son and restores him to the throne. The story has been celebrated in ballads, plays, musical dramas and poems all over India. Films have been made from the theme. Every Indian child knows the story and is moved by the scene of Queen Taramati walking in the street with her son's dead body in her arms.

---

[url=http://www.forget-me.net/en/Gandhi/day2day3.txt]A diary of Ghandiji's actions in 1920:[/url]

quote:

---

Speech before a ladies' meeting held at Kadiani Vadi in Ahmedabad.

As from the women at Dakore, from the women at Ahmedabad also, Gandhiji begged for alms of four kinds.

The third thing he wanted from all women was the observance of the swadeshi dharma. We became slaves for the very reason that we gave up the swadeshi dharma, he said, and then gave the same argument as he did at Dakore to refute the plea that Khadi was too heavy for wearing. He asked the women, "If you know only how to make thick rotis (unleaved disks of bread) and some other woman knows the art of preparing thin ones, will you eat your self-made thick rotis or beg of that other woman to give you her thin ones? You cannot perform your swadeshi dharma by wearing mill-cloth, even of Indian mills. If you wear Indian mill-cloth, you will make it dearer and the poor classes who are its consumers will suffer." Gandhiji then said, "Without first undergoing trouble there is no happiness for man. It was because Rama suffered exile for fourteen years, that he was able to free Sitaji. King Nala became immortal only after he went through great sorrows. The truth that lay in Harishchandra, queen Taramati and prince Rohit became a resplendent sun and shed its light over the world only after the three passed through harrowing troubles. So instead of shying at hardship and feeling ashamed of wearing a thick Khadi sari, you ought to wear self-spun and hand-woven cloth only." He then added, "It is necessary to take God's name; but you cannot gain salvation by a parrot-like repetition of Ramnam. If Rama dwelt in heart, pity and fellow-feeling would make a lodgment in it, and if they did, the person would abstain from a behaviour that causes pain to others. Take my word for it that if you don't wear handspun and hand-woven cloth, thousands of our women will have to remain naked or wear only a tattered clothing. Even today I can show you thousands of pure women like Damayanti in our country. I asked a woman to have a bath. She answered back, 'Give me one sari to change for this and then I will gladly have a bath'. This is the tragic state of our country at present."

---

Quite a handle.

Heh. Sometimes the simplest explanations are the right ones, huh?

Welcome to babble. Hope you enjoy babbling!