Noun - Adjective

As we had seen last time, nouns in Spanish can be either singular or plural. But, unlike in English, adjectives in Spanish can also be singular or plural. Also, nouns in Spanish can be either masculine or feminine, and so can adjectives.

BASIC RULE:

• Singular nouns are accompanied by singular adjectives
• Plural nouns are accompanied by plural adjectives
  
• Masculine nouns are described by masculine adjectives
• Feminine nouns are described by feminine adjectives
  

In other words, the adjectives chosen to describe nouns must match in both number and gender.

To make the adjective plural, follow one of these steps:

• If it ends in an unstressed vowel, add -s.

• If it ends in a z, change the z to a c and add -es.

• If it ends in another consonant or a stressed vowel, add -es.

To make a masculine adjective feminine, follow one of these steps:

• If the singular masculine adjective ends in an -o, change it to an -a

• If the singular masculine adjective ends in any other letter, the feminine form is the same

Govinda Govinda

Govinda Aala Re Aala Zara Matki Sambhal Brij Bala..
Although todays not a friday..still some photos of the Govinda celebration are in order



After yesterdays all night long celebrations at some places...today is the day of Govindas.
Here is an article on Janmastami and Govinda celebrations.

Janmashtami

Tonight we celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna.Every year mom prepares for this joyous occasion a huge variety of sweets.Krishna or Vishnu is said to love not just sweet but also decoration...so the house is decorated with flowers as well.

Such festivities always bring a smile on my face. There is so much going on..everyone seems to be enjoying themselves..and there are lots of special dishes to enjoy( thats the best part..he he). And the best part is there are so many occasions to celebrate!!

Coming back to Janmashtami...here are a few songs dedicated to The Lord on his birthday!




Sung By MS Ofcource...

Signs Of A Changing Time

When did Mumbai become so intolerant!??

This is something I have been wondering this past week...When did bullying become the norm of modern society?..When did the politicians get the right to destroy a city??

The whole Marathi signboard issue has raised such questions and many more.When MNS was formed it was touted as a different party.It boasted of highly educated party members instead of the usual criminals as the core party think tank.
Then where did they go wrong??What made them think that anyone would support such arm twisting techniques???

I am not against having signboards in Marathi...What I don't understand is the demand to have Marathi as the largest font...does increasing the font size increase the value of languages??

Marathi, like all Indian language is rich and powerful.Lets not demean it by fighting over the size of it's text.Instead lets try and popularize the various abhangs of the great Marathi Saints.Dont force it down peoples throats..give them a chance to enjoy it and discover its beauty by themselves.

And Please Please Lets Be Tolerant!!

Benediction

Here is the video of Maitreem Bhajata, sung by M.S.Subbulakshmi. The magical voice of MS makes this song even more wonderful. MS had sung this song at the UN World Council as well...I wish some of the leaders had taken the meaning of the song to heart.



About the song:
This benediction was composed by His Holiness Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamy, the Sage of Kanchi, Known to all Indians as the "Paramacharya". It was rendered at the United Nations on Oct. 23, 1966 on the occasion of the UN day, by Bharat Ratna Smt. M.S.Subbulakshmi.

The Acharya (1894-1994) was revered by people all over the world for the simplicity in his life and his profound knowledge of virtually every subject of concern to humanity. Very few had known about his deep and extensive knowledge of linguistics and the importance of the subject in understanding the basis of the scriptures of the country. He had mastery over several world languages as well. His lucid presentation of linguistic aspects of Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, English, Greek etc., along with the connections to History, Names of villages and places, etymology, was sheer joy to those who listened to his discourses

Here are some more peoples thoughts on this song
From Stanford
The Avial Blog

Maitreem Bhajata

In the time of so much violence and enmity, here is a small prayer and an invocation to God

Maitreem Bhajata...people...Make Friends and not enemies...

[Image - Acharya]

Wat a Cube!!

The Beijing National Aquatics Center is no ordinary cube. I think it is a wonderful example of modern architecture and deserves the epithet of a superstructure.

To the less informed, The Beijing National Aquatics Center, also known as the National Aquatics Center and better known as the Water Cube is an aquatics center that was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

It is unlike any other sport complex.The name 'Water Cube' comes from the fact that the structure looks like it is made up by water bubbles.To get this effect, the building was constructed using innovative materials like ETFE(Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) rather than traditional materials like concrete and glass.This new material is what makes this structure stand out.ETFE is a type of plastic, developed as an insulating material for the space program by NASA.It also helped in making the building eco-friendly as it lets in more light than glass and also because of its insulating properties , it saves on heating costs as well.

The design of the building is also very innovative.The outer wall is based on the the pattern that is formed by taking a slice through foam.It looks simply amazing!!Dont believe me??Have a look yourself.


You can find more info about the water cube at it's official site.

Gender Bender

Ah!..Gender in Spanish!!

The first thing to remember is that in Spanish almost everything has either a masculine or feminine gender. There is no neuter gender.

Also depending on the gender of the subject the entire sentence has to change.The basic rule is that masculine nouns go with masculine adjectives and articles, and feminine nouns go with feminine adjectives and articles.And if you use a pronoun to refer to a masculine noun, you use a masculine pronoun; feminine pronouns refer to feminine nouns.

Confused already??..Its only the start!!

BASIC RULE
Nouns and adjectives that end in -o (or -os for plural adjectives) generally are masculine, and nouns and adjectives that end in -a (or -as for plural adjectives) generally are feminine.

For eg.

• the man: el hombre (masculine article, masculine noun)
• the woman: la mujer (feminine article, feminine noun)
• a man: un hombre (masculine article, masculine noun)
• a woman: una mujer (feminine article, feminine noun)
• the men: los hombres (masculine article, masculine noun)
• the women: las mujeres (feminine article, feminine noun)
• the fat man: el hombre gordo (masculine adjective, masculine noun)
• the fat woman: la mujer gorda (feminine adjective, feminine noun)
• some men: unos hombres (masculine determiner, masculine noun)
• some women: unas mujeres (feminine determiner, feminine noun)
• He is fat: Él es gordo. (masculine pronoun, masculine adjective)
• She is fat: Ella es gorda. (feminine pronoun, feminine adjective)

So as you can see, the articles, adjectives and pronouns all change with the gender of the subject.

Happy I Day!!

Wishing everyone a very happy Independence day...the irony however is that is has become just another "day".It is now no different than other days that we celebrate; like valentines, new years and so on.

Somewhere in all theses years of freedom that we have enjoyed, we forgot the importance of freedom.The sense of patriotism is sadly missing from my generation.The argument put forth by many is that the reason for this is the fact that this generation never experienced the absence of freedom.
But I beg to differ. This can't be the only reason.No, the cause of this deteriorating patriotism is the absence of respect towards the nation from it's very leaders. When the people who run the nation pay only lip service in the name of patriotism and terrorize innocent under its guise, how can the masses be expected to hold a fervent love for the country.

I and my friends are not pessimists. I truly believe that some day India will rise to be the worlds superpower. But looking at how things are going and the people leading this country, I wonder if that dream will ever come true. May be 'Bharat Mata' will have to rise herself to lead this nation to its glory

Jai Hind!!

When our voices are one

The past week has seen an escalation in the sectarian violence in J&K. At a time of so much unrest and fractions within the nation, let us remember a few words from this song..one of my favourite patriotic songs..

(...In a school musical based on this song I played the part of the Kannadiga.It was my first appearance on stage...Ah...old memories)



Mile sur mera tumharaa, Thoo sur bane hamaraa.... sur kee nadhiyaan
har disha se behkee saagar mein milee. Baadalon ka roop leiker
bharse halke halke... Mile sur mera tumharaa.. thoo... sur bane
hamaara.. Mile sur mera tumhara...

Chaain taraj tahin nyay taraj
ek but baniye saayen taraj

Tera sur mile mere sur de naal
milke bane ek nava surtaal

Mile sur mera tumharaa....tho sur bane hamaara..

Mohnja sur tohi desa pyara mile jadein geet ashaanjo madhur tarano
bane tadein
Sur ka dariya bahte saagar me mile badlaan da roop leike barasan
holle haule

Isaindhal namm iruvarin suramum namadhakum.. Dhisai veru aanalum
aazi ser aarugal Mugilai mazaiyai pozivadu pol isai ...Namm
isssaiiii.... Thik thakida thathikakidA....thaka thimi thaka junu

Nanna dhwanige ninna dhwani-ya, seridante namma dhwaniya..
Naa swaramu nee swaramu sangammamai, mana swaram ga avatarinchey

Ninde swaramum ningalude swaramum otthucheiyum Namudeya swaramai....


Tomaar shoor moder shoor srishti koroor koi ekshoor[2]...
Sriishti karoon woi katha

Toma mora swarer milan srishti kare chalbochatano

male sur jo taro maro, bane aapno sur niralo

majhya tumchya julta tara madhur suranchya barasti dhara


Sur ki nadiya har disha se behke saagar mein mile...
Baadlo ka roop leke barse halke halke..
Oh...Mile sur mera tumhara tho....sur bane hamara...

Mile Sur mera tumhara
tho sur bane hamara tho sur bane hamara
tho sur bane hamara

A long break

Back again after a weeks break!!!..just did not find time to post. I know, it a lame excuse...but thats the truth.

Lots happened this week...so have lots to post about in the nest few days...Now only if I could keep some time just for blogging and not fall asleep...

opening cermony

Some videos of the opening ceremony....my fave part is when the performers run around on the globe...simply wow!!!


China Dance Performance - video powered by Metacafe




2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony - video powered by Metacafe

8.8.8.8.8.8

Today at 08.08.08pm 08/08/08, the millions around the world witnessed the opening ceremony of what is slated to be the most spectacular Olympic there can be. Only I was not one of the millions; instead i spent that hour in my class studying... :(

But it's all right..reached home in time to watch the lighting of the Olympic torch and caught the rest of the highlights on the news channel later on.
Here are some neat pictures of the opening cermony.

The Olympic rings were raised in the stadium

Performers walked around a floating sphere while the Chinese singer Liu Huan and the British singer Sarah Brightman sang the official theme song for the Games

Performers created a spectacluar light show

The former Chinese gymnast Li Ning carries the Olympic flame around the top of the stadium
Li Ning lights the Olympic flame

Fireworks explode over the Bird's Nest stadium

Soldiers stood to attention as fireworks went off

The number 8 is believed to be lucky by the Chinese...but in India some consider it to be unlucky as well!!Hope this Olympics turns out to be lucky for Indians..keeping my fingers crossed

As a kid I always wanted to become an architect. And even now there is nothing I like more than observing the city's architecture..From the old British colonial buildings to the super modern skyscrapers that now dominate the skyline, I find all of them really interesting. It's also no surprise that one of my favourite show on T.V is Superstructures on NGC.

So in keeping with my love for architecture...I plan to post some buildings and structures that I think deserve an applause...be it for their innovative design or their mega scale.

Let me start with Mumbai city...One of the best structures comming up in this city has to be the Bandra-Worli sealink. Though nothing compared to other sea-bridges in the world, it is still the most advanced one in India.

It is also very important in terms of traffic management in Mumbai.At present, Mahim causeway is the only link connecting western suburbs to island city of Mumbai. The existing north south western corridor is highly congested and during the peak hours results in a bottleneck at Mahim Causeway.It is hoped that the construction of the project link will provide an additional fast moving outlet from the island city to the western suburbs & provide much needed relief to the congested Mahim Causeway.

Purals in Spanish

BASIC RULE : If a word ends in a consonant, add -es. If it ends in an unaccented vowel, simply add an -s.

So... un albol --> dos arboles
un perro --> tres perros
el actor --> los actores
el medico --> los medicos
la ciudad --> las ciudades
la maestra --> las maestras

If the word ends in a stressed vowel, then add -es

el hindú --> los hindúes

Some words follow the general rule in terms of pronunciation, but a change in either a letter or an accent mark is needed. In plurals of words that end in -z, the -z changes to -ces for the plural.

For eg.
un pez --> cautro peces

Adios mi amigo --> Adios mis amigos

Eclipsed

Today the some parts of the world witnessed the rare phenomena of a total solar eclipse. Here in Mumbai, we had only a partial eclipse...

Here are some snapshots of today's moments

Light from the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, makes silhouettes of a man and camel in China's Gansu Province

The different stages of a solar eclipse above the Jiayuguan fortress along the Great Wall of China.

A total solar eclipse darkens China's 14th-century Jiayuguan fortress in Gansu Province