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Hazrat Nizamudin Dargah on Diwali

14 Nov
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Photo: dome of St. Peter’s basilica, interior: combined design of Bramante, Sagallo, Michelangelo and Giacomo della Porta, and part of Bernini’s baldacchino; “…theater and audacious confidence…”

13 Nov

The sense of theater and audacious confidence of the Italian Baroque always blows me away — a slap in the face to the snobbery of modernist minimalism — more is more…

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Diwali photos from the Guardian (re-post)

13 Nov

Many are gorgeous; these two were real knockouts though.  See all of them in full size:

A woman places earthen lamps, or diyas, on the threshold of her home on the eve of Diwali in Hyderabad, India  Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images

A devotee lights oil lamps at a religious ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

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Shubh Diwali folks

13 Nov

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Walter Dalrymple in 1985 — να ‘σαν τα νιάτα δυο φορές, τα γηρατειά καμμία

13 Nov

Photos: Armenians, when does it end?

12 Nov

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Photo: Roman Bondarenko…

12 Nov

…who died yesterday after fracas with unidentified Belorussian officers. Was delivered to hospital with cracked skull an hour and a half after being bundled into a van. He was 31.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Tum mere bas raho

12 Nov

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Arabs and the classics: “Am I gonna have to put up with this preposterous idea forever?” Probably yes…

12 Nov

…unfortunately. Or at least for as long as our fear of being labelled an un-p.c. racist makes us overcompensate in the other direction in terms of how we view the history of Arabs/Islam. And for as long as our post-Christian Christianophobia makes us unable to relate to Byzantine civilization and ignore the extent to which it was the keystone civilization of western Eurasia for a millenium and a half.

Yes.

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JFK: Once upon a time, when journalists were reasonably smart and presidents were funny and smarter.

11 Nov