Group+Three

  =Come See All That India Has To Offer!!    =

 

==**This 7 day San Diego State University Alumni cruise around India will be memorable. We will take you along both the west and east coasts and will dock at 7 different ports of interest. Aboard the ship there will be live entertainment, as well as a daily practice of yoga. Musicians from San Diego State University will amuse your ears while you eat. Also joining us from SDSU will be a professor of Indian culture who will hold lectures on the influential lives of Ghandi and Mother Theresa. Bikram Choudury, the founder of Bikram's yoga, will be hosting a seminar about the practice of yoga and teaching a class.**==

**West Coast:[[image:2495083224_5bdd86852a.jpg width="313" height="331" align="right"]]**

 * 1) ==//**Kandla in Gujarat**//==
 * 2) ==//**Mumbai in Maharashtra**//==
 * 3) ==//**Mormugao in Goa**//==

//**East Coast:**//

 * 1) ==//**Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu**//==
 * 2) ==//**Paradip in Orissa**//==
 * 3) ==//**Calcutta in West Bengal**//==

**Music**
==Aboard the cruise there will be four evenings with live entertainment. One of which will be accompanied by a fantastic traditional Indian meal. Along the west coast of the trip the first two performances will be Hindustani preformed by SDSU's World Music South Indian Ensemble. Along the east coast the following two will be Carnatic music.==

==**There are multiple genres of music in India such as pop, folk, and classical. The classical music differs from region to region in India. In the southern area of India it is predominately Carnatic music. While in the northern and central parts Hindustani music is dominate. Carnatic music dates back 2500 years ago and was founded by Purandaradasa. He introduced the Mayamalavagaula as the basis for music instruction and also fused the bhava, raga and laya into his compositions. Carnatic music is a krithi based classical music which is what distinguishes it from Hindustani music. Hindustani music began around the 13th century AD and is strongly influenced by Vedic philosphy, native Indian sounds, Hindu musical traditions and also the Mughals of the Persian performance practices.**==

==**Before attending our cruise San Diego State University has an upcoming event with the very musicians that will be preforming on the cruise.** Please visit their website: http://music.sdsu.edu/, to find more information about their event.==

**Smith Recital Hall**
media type="youtube" key="uuzU1G_gudU&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425"

http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/instruments.html

**Hinduism **
  ==**Hinduism dates back as far as 3,000 BCE. There are about 1 billion followers of the religion today, most of whom live in India.**   == ==**The Contender Ministries website state that the Hindu belief system is a lot like the caste system. There are 4 basic castes, each with their own responsibility to being. " The elite caste is the Brahman, or priest caste. Second are the Kshatriyas, or warriors and rulers. Third are the Vaisyas, or merchants and farmers. Finally, the fourth caste is the Shudras, or laborers. Outside the caste system are the untouchables. The untouchables are the outcasts of Hindu society. Though outlawed in India in the 1940s, the untouchables are still a very real part of Indian society. One does not get decide his or her caste � that matter is decided when one is born into a particular caste." ([|http://contenderministries.org/hinduism/hindubeliefs.php)**] **==  ==**One of SDSU's own professors of religions of India,** Sthaneshwar Timalsina **will give an informative lecture on Hinduism. What is Hinduism? What is the belief of Hindus? What is practiced? As well as many other important facts about the religion. Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina earned her PHD from Martin Luther University in 2004.**==

**Start each morning with a good stretch!**
==**Every morning at 8am our certified Bikram yoga instructor will teach a hatha yoga class designed to extend your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. During the course of the 90 minute meditation, freshly oxygenated blood is rushed throughout the body. Yoga mats, fresh towels, and water is provided for participants. We do require that you dress lightly, for women: bathing suits or shorts, and men: swim trunks. The room is heated to 105°F which is needed to properly warm and stretch the body for this particular practice. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; color: rgb(0, 14, 255); text-align: center; display: block;"> **==

== **Bikram's yoga consists of 26 asanas or positions; 12 of which are standing poses and 14 poses are done on the floor. Some poses get the heart pumping and are equivalent to a cardiovascular workout. Bikram's yoga is for beginners as well as intermediate. Your own practice determines the level of your class. We begin each class with a breathing exercise and end each class with a breathing exercise. Yoga is a wonderful way to relax, meditate, and teach yourself self-discipline. So please, come and take part in an enlightening ritual that you will definately feel better after doing.** ==

<span style="background-color: rgb(236, 255, 0);">

== Born in Calcutta in 1946, Bikram began Yoga at the age of four with India's most-renowned physical culturist at that time, Bishnu Ghosh. Bikram practiced Yoga at least four to six hours every day at Ghosh's College of Physical Education in Calcutta. At the age of thirteen, he won the National India Yoga Championship. He was undefeated for the following three years and retired as the undisputed All-India National Yoga Champion. ==

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; color: rgb(153, 30, 174); text-align: center; display: block;">Influential Citizens of India **
==**Mother Teresa of Calcutta was an influential woman of India. Born** **Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu** **she became a missionary with the Sisters of Loreto at the age of 18. At 21 she took her first religious vows as a nun and chose he new name, Teresa. For the next 17 years Mother Teresa taught high school in Calcutta. It was ultimately the poor living just beyond the walls of the school that acted as a driving force that pushed out of the school and onto the streets with these poverty riddden people. Mother Teresa is quoted as saying that this was "the call within the call". In 1950 she founded Missionaries of Charity. According to Mother Teresa, the mission's was to offer hospitality to, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."**==

**Mother Teresa was truly a gift from heaven. Even after her death in 1997 she still continues to inspire people around the globe.**
==**Gandhi was, and still is, an influential man from India. He was born 1869 in western India. At a young age Gandhi studied law but at the age of eighteen he combined that knowledge with philosophical pursuits in order to fight for what he believed was right. Having read Henry David Thoreau's //Essay on Civil Disobedience// Gandhi began to utilize the disobeying unjust policies approach to the cast system in India. He invented the satyagrana which means a nonviolent approach. He used this as a means of bringing attention to social injustices, such as the struggle for Indian independence. This approach was also useful to Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement. Fasting was a type of satyagrana that Gandhi used to draw attention to the causes he fought for.**==

==Join SDSU lecturer Steven Schlesinger in a wonderful lecture of the life and times of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Mahatma Gandhi in the auditorium next to the library on the third afternoon of the cruise.==

Fun Fact: Chess was invented in India evolved from a game called Chaturanga
=<span style="display: block; font-size: 150%; color: rgb(248, 27, 207); text-align: center;">The Arts and Festivities of India =

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: normal;"> ===Dr. R.R.S. Chauhan, a curator from the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi will join us on our cruise to hold a seminar where he will introduce us to art created by some of India's most influential artists. Among the pieces he will share with us will be works done by Amrita Sher-Gil. Sher-Gil was of mixed Sikh-Hungarian parentage, "an Indian with a measure of European blood, she returned to India to shed her acquired skin... She saw her country with new vision and has left a legacy of pictures, simple and grand... as a tribute to the Indian countryside and its people." (Mitter, 45)=== ===Also joining us will be a surprise lecturer from the Comparative Literature Department of Jadavpur University in Kolkata. She will be giving a seminar on the famous Rabindranath Tagore. Born in Bengal in 1861, Tagore is considered the national poet of India. Not only did he compose the national anthem of India but he also wrote many stories and poems that have become pillars of Indian culture. "The university that he founded at Shantiniketan has educated some of the most important people in India. In 1913, Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Tagore was also active in the INdependence Movement. He was knighted by the British in 1915 but returned that honor in 1919 to protest the Amritsar Massacre. Most of Tagore's writing is set in his native Bengal, bringing to life the people, land, and culture of that region. He died in 1941." (Swan, 110)=== ===Another famous guest speaker on the cruise will be John Shors, the author of __Beneath A Marble Sky__. This historical novel follows the life of Princess Jahanara, the daughter of the emperor Shah Jahan and his favorite wife. The Taj Mahal which is the 8th wonder of the world was built as a mausoleum for the emperor's wife Mumtaz Mahal. John Shors is an incredible writer from Colorado who has been able to weave together a magical story of love and courage. As an author, he is very talented and gifted because his story which is written from a woman's point of view is told so realistically and elegantly, that John Shors must have been Jahanara in a previous life. He will be conducting a writer's workshop and giving tips on researching.===



=== Every evening we will partake in an Indian festival. The entire cruise will be a celebration. Although we are only visiting the coast of India for a week, we will be able to experience the traditional festivals that occur all year round. ===

==Diwali is the festival of lights and lasts for five days. It is a major Hindu holiday and India's most popular festival. To celebrate this auspicious holiday, snake charmers, fortune tellers, and puppeteers will entertain us. We will all get to eat yummy and delicious sweets and also get to watch fireworks. Diyas, which are lamps made out of earthen bowls that are filled with oil and a burning wick will decorate the entire ship. Children in India float their diyas in the Gandes River. It is a common belief that if your flame does not blow out while it is still in your sight, then your wish will come true! We will be releasing biodegradable diyas into the sea from out cruise ship. Passengers will see that Diwali truly is a magical festival of lights.==

==Holi is a festival that marks the coming of spring. Everyone dresses in white and throws colored water and colored powder at each other to celebrate the end of winter. We will all meet on the upper deck to participate in this unique and colorful tradition.==



==Rakshabandhan is a festival that celebrates brothers and sisters. The sister ties a rakhi onto her brother's wrist and in return he promises to always offer her protection. The rakhi is a bracelet made out of colorful thread and decorated with beads. Its a very sweet and beautiful family holiday. Rakhis can be given to males that are not blood related as a sign of loyalty and friendship. We will celebrate this holiday by creating our own rakhis that we can later give to our brothers or someone else who is important to us, when we return home.==



= <span style="color: rgb(0, 5, 255); text-align: center; display: block;">FILMS AND BOLLYWOOD = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 34, 255);"> = ==The film industry in India is huge and very successful. Mumbai surpasses even Hollywood, which is how it earned its nickname Bollywood. Indian films are mostly musical and contain several song and dance numbers. The soundtrack to movies are recorded and available in stores before the movie even hits the theaters. It is common in India for the actors to use playback singers. Playback singers are the original singers from the soundtracks and the actors just lip synch while filming. Major movie stars use the same playback singers often, similar to a movie star in the US who uses the same stunt double in different movies.== ==Besides being extremely music orientated, they are also usually PG. Romantic couples rarely kiss on screen, yet due to their well written scripts and expressive acting, the sexual tension can be cut with a knife! On our voyage passengers will be able to disembark at each port to join local Indians in the nation's favorite pastime, going to the cinema!==

[[image:http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200707/r156657_566842.jpg width="632" height="426" align="center"]]
= = == = =

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> Literature & Library

 * Want to get into the spirit of India, before your feet ever touch foot in the country? Then we have an extensive library stocked with the heavy-weights of Indian Literature. Just come to Room A17 on floor three and you will discover a grand library with a connecting coffee house complete with relaxing seats.

**

== **Indian Literature is thought to be the oldest in the world. That is one long time span, and add to it, the many languages that are spoken in the country. Any serious student looking to get into Indian Lit will want to start with Hindu Literature like the Vedas which are the sacred teaching of Hinduism. Open yourself to something distinctly non-western which will allow you to easily assimilate a multitude of Indian customs once you understand the cultural history that connects it. Other works are Ramayana and Mahabharata.** **According to the Ramayana Index (of internet sacred texts), the first tale is a romance between the ancient king Rama and Sita. The is a demon named Ravan who is the king of Ceylon. Rama goes to war against Ceylon and ultimately wins back his wife. The Ramayana Index states that there are some parallels between very old text and another ancient text- the Iliad of Greek fame.**==


 * [[image:ramayana.jpg align="left"]]

The second epic, Mahabharata is extremely long, about three times as long as the Bible reports the Mahabharata website. The book was written “between 300 BC and 300 AD” states the website, a 600 year gap which allows the book a broad swathe of history in which to be written. “It has the honor of being the longest epic in world literature, 100,000 2 line stanzas,” writes the website. It is an epic storyline of kings and mysticism. **

<span style="color: rgb(0, 1, 255);">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 1, 255);"> =__The White Tiger__=



On October 14, 2008, an Indian man named Aravind Adiga won a cash prize of $50,000 in a Man Booker Prize for Fiction for the novel he wrote called “The White Tiger.
==The novelist is only 33 and his novel was his first ever written. He is by the way the second Indian “debut” novelist according to the Bookerprize website. The novel has been call “compelling, angry and darkly humorous” according to the website. Another reviewer said that the novel was a picture of India presented “from the bottom of the heap” according to the website.==

According to the New Yorker, the novel follows Balram, a driver who kills his employer and uses it as a way to escape a corrupt feudalistic system in his village.
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
Midnights Children might seem like a combination of Heroes and Indian Literature but it is a lot deeper (depending on who you ask) than that. The theory goes that in the hour that India received its independence, around the stroke of midnight, 1001 children were birthed, all with special or magical powers according to an editorial reviewer from Amazon.com. This novel is said to be steeped in politics, darkly funny and hopelessly angry writes the review. This book shows us Indian culture, a general overview through one man.

__The Satanic Verses__
== Sometimes a book can outlast being banned, outlaw and derided. And sometimes an author can survive and even flourish after death sentence, which sent him into hiding. Salman Rushdie in The Satanic Verses follows two actors who are transformed in the wake of airplane accident. The book contains a lot of wrangling over religious philosophy, draggling things held sacred into a vulgar everyday usage, which offended many Muslims. Source: Amazon.com ==

<span style="color: rgb(0, 1, 255);">

=<span style="color: rgb(0, 1, 255);"> = = = = = = =

= = =**<span style="color: rgb(0, 1, 255);">A short essay on Indian Writing Today **=

==We are also honored to be joined by lecturer Salman Rushdie, and Indian Writer who is responsible for the writing the Satanic Verses as well as the novel Midnights Children, he will be presenting a speech on the state of Indian writing today. This speech is abated from an essay he wrote in the Vintage Anthology of Indian Writing.== ==In the following essay I will describe a piece of writing by Salman Rushdie, who answers his critics and the critics of the English Indian genera in general. All credit is due to him. These are his ideas.== ==Indian literature has grown by leaps and bounds since the independence of India in 1947. However the standard bearer for Indian Literature globally has been the English language. To quote Rushdie what has been written in English "is a stronger and more important body of work than most of what has been produced in the 16 official languages of India ," Some accuse Rushdie and other Indian writers who write in English of betraying the authenticity of their culture and promoting a continuation of linguistic colonialism foisted upon them by the British. The book The Vintage Book of Indian Writing was published in 1997, fifty years after India 's independence. It mines the rich literary tradition between these fifty years to produce the best that Indians fiction and non fiction writers have to offer-in English. Such is the transforming power to transatlantic colonialism. For an Indian writer to write in his native language as a form of staying true to his roots, would be to deny himself or herself a vast world market which would be able to read his or her work if it was in English.==

==English has a strong hold on the Indian world according to Rushdie. The writer talks about the plethora of English words that have yet to be replaced by an correspondent Indian word. According to the writer, attempts have been made in various fashions to remove the English language from the educational or social discourse, but most of them to no avail said Rushdie. English is here to stay. Rushdie said that the interplay of the Germanic language on the native Indian dialects creates a version of English that is sometimes referred to as ‘Hinglish.’==

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Food=

__Indian Bread__
==**This stuff is called Na****an and is is amazing! It is this fluffy, warm and doughy, (yet not too doughy) bread that can be dipped into curry and comes** **with in kinds of flavors like buttered or garlic. Naan is a type of flat break with yeast.**==

Coming in all types, curry is this spicy or sweet sauce that is often mixed with meat and served with rice.
==Amazing. Wikipedia talks about something called Curry addiction where the curry ingredients stimulate endorphins in the body, causing a naturals high which brings a crazing for hotter curries. Whether this is true or not, there is a good chance you will be craving more curry!==

__Mangoes__
**
 * Yes, the national fruit of India is the mango.
 * Perhaps we would have imagined something a bit more exotic but the mango it is, and it has been present in India for since there has been a recorded Indian his ** [[image:Mango.jpg align="left"]] ** tory. There are more than 100 types of mangoes, and they come with all types of looks, varying greatly on the size, shape and color spectrum according to [|www.iloveidia.com], a internet embassy of all things Indian. Mangoes may be eaten rip ** ** e or utilized in different dishes. **