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A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી; Devnagari मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी), (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience—a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence—Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma (Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or “Great Soul,)” an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore. In India, he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: બાપુ, bāpu or “Father”) and officially honoured as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community’s struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women’s rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on many occasions, in both South Africa and India.

Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

(source here)

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This week, answers to readers’ questions about telling a friend to stop her sob story, when a money promise falls short and other issues.

See the rest here:
Social Q’s: There’s Woeful, but Whoa!

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A father who once felt a religious vocation joins his churchgoing son.

Go here to see the original:
Generation B: A Child Turns to the Fold

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No White House relationship is more amusing than the unlikely duo of David Axelrod, the president’s 54-year-old chief adviser, and his 24-year-old assistant, Eric Lesser.

Link:
And Now, Starring in the West Wing: Ax & Lesser

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Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman were two of the producers of the original Woodstock festival 40 summers ago. Lately, they have been trying to pull together an anniversary concert this year, they really have, but you have to understand, man, it’s complex.

Part of the problem is that they have a few disagreements.

“The first conversation we had about Woodstock for this year was probably nine years ago,” Mr. Rosenman said last week.

“We started thinking about it about a year ago,” Mr. Lang said in a separate interview.

While the partners’ most promising idea — a one-day mini-Woodstock in Prospect Park in Brooklyn this August — fizzled when they could not find sponsors, that doesn’t mean others haven’t coaxed a few more marketing miles from the creaky Woodstock bus.

Dozens of projects are planned to commemorate the August 1969 concert, including an Ang Lee movie called “Taking Woodstock,” a Heroes of Woodstock concert tour (with Jefferson Starship and Melanie) and at least 13 books, including one for children co-authored by a second cousin of Max Yasgur, the farmer who lent his land in Bethel, N.Y., for the original event. Target is set to run a “Summer of Love” promotion featuring licensed Woodstock merchandise, like beach towels with the symbolic white dove perched on a guitar neck.

But Mr. Lang, 64, and Mr. Rosenman, 66, who, with the family of another original partner, control Woodstock Ventures, which owns the trademarks, have so far failed to deliver a solid plan to commemorate their own historic achievement. Time, it would seem, has run out for pulling together the kind of anniversary blowouts the partners were behind in upstate New York in 1994 and 1999 — the former a three-day, mud-slathered event that attracted 300,000 fans, the latter chiefly remembered for a riot.

Some obstacles are rooted in the personal and philosophical differences between Mr. Lang and Mr. Rosenman that date back four decades.

“Joel is a much more bottom-line-oriented person,” said Mr. Lang, wearing a dark blue T-shirt, jeans and white tennis shoes in his offices in a loft in Chelsea. “I’m more of an intuitive person, a loose thinker.”

MR. ROSENMAN, who was a musician when he was young, disputes being characterized as the stiff suit and Mr. Lang as the dreamer, a dichotomy, he says, that began appearing in the news media four decades ago, when Mr. Lang was doing most of the interviews. “Michael was by far the most businesslike of us when it came to calculating profits and the advantage of one deal over another,” Mr. Rosenman said.

Mr. Lang wants a Woodstock concert show this year because, he said, “Woodstock is relevant on the anniversaries.”

Mr. Rosenman is not in such a rush. “If it’s not the best lineup and the best setting and the right feeling about the community that develops,” he said, “we shouldn’t have that event.”

Their partnership started in 1969, and also included Artie Kornfeld, a record producer, and Mr. Rosenman’s then-business partner, John Roberts, who died in 2001. Mr. Kornfeld and Mr. Lang sold their shares in Woodstock Ventures to the other two men for about $65,000 in the wake of disagreements and debts after the original Woodstock, but Mr. Lang returned as a minority owner before the 1999 festival.

Although Mr. Roberts’s children are consulted regularly about Woodstock-related decisions, they do not perform the role their father once did, as a buffer between Mr. Lang and Mr. Rosenman.

“John,” Mr. Lang said, “was the bridge.” He and Mr. Rosenman speak frequently, often during Mr. Lang’s twice-weekly commutes to the city from the town of Woodstock, N.Y., where he lives with his second wife and twin 7-year-old boys. Mr. Rosenman lives on Central Park South. One measure of their differences was the challenge of getting them to pose together for a photograph. After much back-and-forth scheduling, Mr. Lang refused to enter Mr. Rosenman’s building to meet him.

They are dickering over many issues, both men say. Should the next official Woodstock be held live or as an online-only event? Should it be postponed until the economy improves? Should it include nostalgia acts or contemporary bands? In the city or country? Free or not?

Mr. Rosenman said Mr. Lang did not show up for a recent meeting the two were supposed to have with Kevin Wall, a producer of the Live Earth concerts in 2007.

Read the rest of the article here:
As Woodstock Turns 40, No Agreement on Tribute

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