Excuse me while I pass out (from happiness)

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

OMG! I FINISHED THE DISGUSTING LITERATURE!!!!!!!!!!!! I still have secondary sources, and more importantly lots of archaeology and like nine humongous volumes of what all along I have thought will be my #1 most valuable primary source. But I can organize that tomorrow! Ahhhhh!!!! I have been reading like a maniac! It makes my brain feel very strange! Thank you whoever you were who taught me speed reading stuff in college! I couldn't have done it without you! Well, okay, I also found I had already read a few literally years ago and my notes were neatly filed so all I had to do was get them into my current more easily used format. Anyway, I HAD to get past those horrible disgusting gross guys! Bye-bye! I'll never visit you again except in my notes and own writing!!
........And HELLO CIVILIZATION!!
a closer view of what I could see from my windows at Cambridge:

Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Getting all the facts

Again from 2010 language study...

So often when I'm having trouble remembering a vocabulary word for French or German, it really helps to look it up in a better dictionary. Once I get more of the nuances of meaning I often understand the word much better. Like, I kept seeing auch used in German writings apparently to mean really, but my little list I had just said it could mean also, so I "just couldn't learn" that word. Now knowing more about it makes me much more apt to remember it.

Olde Luxury Air Travel

My husband just returned from an overseas trip to Asia to attend a wedding, and I've been thinking about air travel and would love to combine it with time travel! How beautiful it used to look. Here's an amusing article on it; I love their opener "Before inflight movies and Wi-Fi, passengers passed the time by reading books or newspapers. Or by caressing their necklaces and gazing off into the middle distance," to go with their opening picture at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/vintage-airplane-photos-golden-jet-age/index.html . (I'm putting some about air travel food at my http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/ .)

Watch those so-called translations

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

For the first time, I ran across a book that called itself a translation of an ancient Sanskrit work but seemed suspect to me -- modern-sounding religion, modern-sounding culture, etc. Sure enough, when I unearthed an older translation and compared them, this work was a modern paraphrase, and to make it worse was an abridgment! Though even the older translation abridged a little -- but she was very open about that, listing the passages she'd omitted -- I'm quite sure because for an 1800s lady the disgusting parts were not to be publicized! (This omission explains a lot about Mr Disgustings being thought to be wonderful, though.)

A tip for you: Stick to respected publishers for your Sanskrit translations, such as university presses and Motilal Banarsidass used to be at least (now they're awfully into popular religion, maybe to keep in business). This actual abridged paraphrase that called itself a translation but was definitely not that was published by a no-name religious publisher.


Current time travel apparatus location: New Delhi, India

Sanskrit word of the day

uddhrish = to be excited with joy; to do anything with joy or pleasure; to make merry or in high spirits, rejoice, cheer
-- that's me sometimes -- as my brilliant daughter says, I'm the queen of over-excited

GET YOUR FREE VOLUME III HERE!

The third (and last!) volume of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers is finally available to all time travelers!




For more information on what this volume covers, see the ad copy on the right-hand side of this computer site.

Access your own free copy through this link:   Volume III Lifestyles in Early South Asia .

Note: Parents and teachers can make sure material is appropriate for their charges in the "ratings" in the right-hand side of the computer site (so far the mobile site does not display those properly). 

Life in India

A glimpse at life in India, as chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

Today: Whew. Lot of work on three quite different projects. Some very interesting stuff about ancient Indian music and even theater stages I must run by a musician cum actor friend AKA my brilliant son....This wide variety of work keeps up my interest but makes my mind whirl! I could just work on one a day...but I'm trying this because they're all so important to finish ASAP and I think I'd be unhappy if I felt even one were being neglected. Anyway, it'll calm down when I get through the high stacks of books I put out in an over-enthusiastic moment. And I must remember half of the mind whirling may be the doctor's office's free infection I got at a recent check-up! included free with all consultations! no extra charge!

Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

German phrase of the day

A glimpse at life in India, as chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...


Ich kann nicht schlafen, weil es so viel Lärm gibt! (I can't sleep because there's so much noise!) (too true lately if we open our windows)

Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Thoughts while rewriting

Years ago. From my journal as I created Lifestyles in Early South Asia, while I was still hundreds of pages from finishing...

Patience, patience...
I've got about 500 pages left of my work with my super rough first draft. Patience is a great virtue for me here; if I hurry through, I'll just have to do the rewrite again. I can't help, though, but compare it with how I was able to edit novels in one weekend when I headed a book line -- but, yikes, the writers had done their work, I had done my work by contracting decent writers, plus the novels were like 100 pages, not 700 to begin with, and also I didn't have to keep 650 very complex pages in mind (in my work's case of earlier eras) except in novel series just to know the characters...
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India 

GET YOUR FREE VOLUME II HERE!

The second volume of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers is at last available to all time travelers!



For more information on what this volume covers, see the ad copy on the right-hand side of this computer site.

Access your own free copy through this link:  Volume II Lifestyles in Early South Asia .

Note: Parents and teachers can make sure material is appropriate for their charges in the "ratings" in the right-hand side of the computer site (so far the mobile site does not display those properly). 

Français du jour

From 2010 language studies thoughts...

From my fabulous French textbook: Sans que nous nous formions aux disciplines de la recherche, nous ne pouvons rien faire d'important....Nous ne pouvons rien faire d'intéressant sans que nous nous formions aux disciplines de la recherche....Sans que nous rédigions les résultats de nos expériences de sorte qo'on puisse les étudier,  notre travail va être inutile. (About the importance of knowing how to research, in order to do anything of importance or even of interest; and the importance of writing it up -- my word du jour -- rédiger.) 

 

A Glimpse at My Writing Life in India

A glimpse at life in India, as chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

I for like the 2nd time in a year took my supposed-to-be-monthly day off. I finally remembered that when I don't take that day off, because I feel I'm behind or something, I end up accomplishing less because my brain is just tired or something. Though I did historiographical stuff today, as I was in the mood to read nonfiction. Unfortunately the thing that was supposed to be The Super Fun Moment of the Day Off didn't work out because the antique store I wanted to visit seems to be closed. Oh well, it always had ridiculously inflated prices anyway so I never bought anything, and apparently others caught on as well. We find lovely Indian antiques through a retired general down the street, including my cool filing cabinets -- which I always thought had to be ugly and dreadful until I met these. You can see my manuscript cabinet here, the dark rosewood one just behind my desk with the South Asian atlas and dictionaries on top of it. At the moment I'm sitting at the table with the blue lamp you can see near the window in the photo.
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India


My favorite-so-far Instagram

Just this morning I discovered Jesse Lauzon's witty wonderful work.


 Here's a favorite: https://www.instagram.com/p/BnQ43GYnLrC/?taken-by=jesselauzon . And a favorite bit of it:
If you collect old things (please tell me that you collect old things too) then you'll know that old books aren't that hard to find....With so much choice the difficulty is in narrowing the search. Old cookbooks, old fiction? Maybe nature or garden or style?........Please and thanks to all of the above. I've never met an old book that I didn't want and these days it's the really very old ones that I save. It's the crispy crunchy fragile ones from a time when books were treasures that I treasure now.

A fancy dinner c1889

As I posted at my https://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-to-serve-meals-in-1889.html ...



I've been learning that at a nice dinner you would want to...
Keep the dining room "neither too hot nor too warm; the temperature should never exceed 60 degrees"! Brr!

You'd want salt at each place. Why? So your guests don't need to ask your servants for it, of course.

You'd have a floral centerpiece, of course, but also, at each place, a "bouquet" for each lady and a boutonniere for each man. I vaguely remember having a fancy meal in Philadelphia in the 1970s where this was still done.

You'll want a menu card at each place as well.

Also on the table:

  • a plate of radishes and/or olives
  • a plate of celery (without this and the above, it would "look like a boarding house table"!)
  • little dishes of black pepper and of red pepper
  • 2 fruit stands, 1 on each side of the floral centerpiece, with the best seasonal fruit
  • assorted cakes next to the fruit (though the fruit and cakes aren't actually eaten until late in the meal)
  • your wines, liqueurs

The glasses at each place include a green one for the sauterne and a red one for the Rhine wine, of course, plus glasses for sherry, Champagne, Latour wine, Chambertin red wine, and water (the last one is placed closest to each person's plate).

You may wonder if there's room for the rest of the food on the table. Well, probably not; M. Filippini suggests your servants hand it around and serve it, and gives detailed instructions.

Surprises and not-surprises in my language work

From 2010 studies again...

I was surprised to discover while on my nearly-month-long trip that I knew a bit more French than I thought I did. I had some French magazines and a book to read, but no dictionary, so I was forced to try to read without looking up words I didn't at first recognize. This made me pay more attention, and made me dredge my memory for vocabulary and verb endings -- and lo and behold, I could make more sense than I expected. I guess what I learned was how to skim in French, searching for as much meaning as possible. I didn't know all the words, but enough to make sense of some simple writings.

I noticed when I got home that I am actually almost halfway through my great reading-French textbook, so it's not surprising that I can read something by now without a dictionary handy. However, it's also not surprising that when I downloaded a history magazine in French a couple days ago that I found that its style was much more complex than I had been reading on my trip, and with lots of new vocabulary (unfortunately many to do with assassinations, which is not fun). I still have loads to learn! (Though would be perfectly happy to skip the gross bits, thank you.)



But I think the moral of my story today is, try to skim your foreign language at some point. You might know more than you thought you did. 

Merci Français pour votre grammaire allemande

From language study in 2010...with a link that still works!

One of the best grammar sites I've run across for German is in French!
 http://projetbabel.org/mf/

Snippet of Chapter 39

To give you a better idea of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers; this is from the summarizing play in Volume II:

German ideas

As chronicled in your researcher's journal 2010 as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



If these professors were my German professors I'd feel in very good hands, and I'd be using German immediately:
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~ger101/syllabus.html (unfortunately this no longer works...)
In contrast, texts like I tried made me feel as if a drowning person without a clue was trying to teach me how to swim. Unfortunately for me, their -- and their text's -- emphasis is on spoken Deutsch. However, I got ideas for my own "syllabus," like making sure I know the Akkusatif by a certain point, and words for government stuff soon for my speciality...
Current time travel apparatus location: Vancouver

GET YOUR FREE VOLUME I HERE!

The first volume of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers is at last available to all time travelers!


For more information on what this volume covers, see the ad copy on the right-hand side of this computer site.

Access your own free copy through this link: Volume I Lifestyles in Early South Asia  .

Note: Parents and teachers can make sure material is appropriate for their charges in the "ratings" in the right-hand side of the computer site (so far the mobile site does not display those properly). 

Disgusting ancient sources

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

I so loathe Mr Disgusting! He must have been the worst sort of dirty old man. As he's not even very helpful on ancient culture, I'd never read more of him, except that he's supposed to be India's #1 ancient writer. Do people actually read this stuff before they announce such a title?

Current time travel apparatus location: San Francisco

German learning woes

from 2010...

Oh dear. Complaining again. Please, teachers/textbook writers, these do NOT help me, and probably few others: guessing games (where one gets far too accustomed to wrong answers); gross overgeneralizations (like I just saw a respected textbook say that a verb is "always" in 2nd place -- of course it isn't, and thankfully I saw a good explanation in April Wilson's German grammar); words completely out of context.

What REALLY works for me, and makes me learn very quickly and happily: CAREFULLY CHOSEN words with CONTEXT via lots of reading PRACTICE, building and building on itself. (Surely spoken language would work similarly.) It makes me feel like I'm really learning something and am not in a whirlwind of unknown words. Yeah, I know you know your language, you don't have to show off; you have to allow me to read at least almost every word. I really don't mind if I have a vocabulary list of 150 words per lesson to do that; I want to read something real-ish at least, and read it well. (I need a compromise between the "This is a pencil; this is a green pencil; this is a red pencil" and the "Gobbledy gook Gobbledy gook Gobbledy gook Theonewordyou'vetaughtsofar Gobbledy gook" approaches.) It also really helps if it's laid out/DESIGNED well; I can barely see a couple cheaper German dictionaries I bought ages ago, and not much better my big one; and a book I've tried to use runs all its sentences and columns together in a weird way and it's difficult to see which goes with what -- don't tell me that a language that had such beautiful script decades ago has forgotten design, Germany is known for attractive and practical design. My French textbook does this stuff like PERFECTLY. Wish the same guy's German textbook didn't cost a gazillion dollars/euros because it's out of print and many others agree with me that he's fabulous. I'm beginning to wonder if I need a teacher's edition of some college textbook in order to teach myself.


(A lot of my woes were solved when I finally just went to Germany and found some fabulous learning sources...)

A VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

How They Lived Press is releasing my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers. Watch here for how to access a FREE copy!



Time traveling among my ancestors

WOW. NOW I understand why people get so caught up in researching their genealogies. Just a week or so ago I started looking at mine, because I have a couple relatives who have been telling me for years that it's interesting. I've already found a bunch of knights and a lot of castles! and 2 kings and 2 queens, omg, and most surprising to me a SAINT. That I did not expect, though I had hoped for hard-working honest people.

I am probably totally wrong, but I wonder looking at some obvious errors in judgment! (not by the saint!) in a few ancestors if that's at least a bit of the reason why I was warned against them by my respective parents, that it was some words of wisdom being handed down the generations: my dad and his dad warned against poorly designed or nonexistent wills, and an ancestor who was a shopowner in 1700s Boston had a bad will and it was contested so long that all the original inheritors died! Another ancestor, centuries earlier, helped against a king and oops lost his castles as a result, and I've always been warned to be very careful if/when one feels the moral/ethical necessity to rebel against authority.

I'm back to the 900s following one line and still have many other lines to pursue! Wouldn't it be fun if the documentation actually went back to when my Lifestyles in Ancient South Asia ends, 700?! I doubt it though, and most of my ancestors' documentation petered out long ago, even as early as the late 1800s.

Another wonder: the earliest ancestor whose documentation dies out was the one least loved of all I have heard of! He's said to have been a cruel man, and my great-grandmother left him though that was extremely frowned upon in those days. I was afraid to look at his ancestry but then thought Oh, I'd just worry he had a zillion criminals or something, and then there was NOTHING about him. Which may mean the very thing I was afraid of, but at least I don't know, which can be as in Ignorance is bliss.

But the brave great-grandmother's line is going on and on and is very interesting! Though isn't the royal line -- so far -- aren't all of us related to everybody else at some point? I did find where I share a very-great grandfather with George Washington!


a very-great grandfather's stained glass window; 
he was born in Wales, died in England 


a less-great grandmother who was a queen-consort of Sicily; 
she was not Italian, though, but French

I also got confirmation of ancestors who were Native Americans, and another brave very-ish-great grandmother who climbed a mountain carrying my also-very-ish-great grandmother and very few belongings to escape the slavery of the American South in the Civil War era! So far no ancestors "owned" humans, but of course my line is not perfect -- and of course I'm not responsible for that!

But it's a very interesting feeling -- not only is the history fascinating, but I have a weird awareness of how VERY many people are back there! plus how very connected every single person is...

PS Btw, I'm mostly using others' work so far of course since I'm just starting, though when I run across a primary document it is so very fun....And NOTE by far the best information I have found is TOTALLY FREE online -- I got very short free-trial memberships elsewhere and found extremely unreliable information that wasn't even presented in a decent way and whose websites kept crashing! I just start with a google search now and it's going ever so much more quickly and reliably...I take my own notes in MS Word, with a separate doc for each generation; I gave up on writing it down as a graphic family tree, I'd need paper far larger than my studies' floor area...

hahahahaha

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...


I know it's not meant to be funny, but it just keeps making me laugh: A "letter accompanied by a present" arrives for the king. The king "rises quickly and puts the present respectfully upon his head."
(I realize it's not funny because I've seen people do this touching-to-the-head respectful gesture. Also, this silly translation makes it sound like he balanced it on his head and walked around with it or something, whereas he probably just touched it to his head briefly. This is from a play from the 400s AD, Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitram.)
Current time travel apparatus location: Pondicherry, India

Some pleasant -- and filling -- time travel to TODAY in 1788

Continuing my journey via John Byng Viscount Torrington, this time from his A Trip into Sussex, 1788, of August 16 as I share this:

A long lane of ascent (whence we had fine views of the vale...) brought us into the old road at the village of Lamberhurst; where finding a desire of stop, and a strong wish for dinner, we put up at an excellent public house, the Checquers; and had instantly spread before us, in a clean sanded parlour, a cold fillet and a cold quarter....After the insolence and noise of our inn at Tunbridge, civility and quiet afforded additional pleasure. But judge of my surprise when...I had the bill to pay, our charge for the good dinner -- plus cheese, and my horse's hay and corn -- was only 3 shillings! This inspired us in our evening's way....

...From Flimwell continues a ridge...commanding rich prospects, and adorn'd by neat cottages and genteel houses....In this row...stood our inn the Queens Head, of nice aspect; nor did it deceive us, for everything was neat and comfortable. Our baggage had been brought here from Tunbridge by a footman....After tea, and after purchasing at an elegant shop a pocket comb and shoe strings, we walk'd half a mile to the green [where they watched cricket and toured a church]. It was near dusk when we return'd....In this inn has been lately built a new large room for quarterly assemblies; and, at the back of it, a neat and pleasant bowling-green...about which we walked with our conversable landlord. We supp'd on mutton chops and apple tart; and I drank somwhat more than enough of port wine to dispell a snuffling acquired by the damp [inn] room in the morning [in Tunbridge]. 

Snippets of Chapter 6

To give you a better idea of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers:



Snippet from Chapter 47

To give you a better idea of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers; from a unique chapter in Volume III:



Snippet of Chapter 7

To give you a better idea of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers; from the beginning of its Volume II:



Another post from Ms. Complainer

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...during one of the particularly difficult parts...


"I didn't whine," I said with a sniff. "I merely was voicing my disapproval of [my source's] personality, mentality, morality, and lifestyle."
 -- by the wonderful Robert Goldsborough in his Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe: Fade to Black

...Of course one shouldn't judge by one's own culture, mores, etc., and there's plenty to complain about my own culture and ethics [note from 2018: especially nowadays of my country!]. However, I can't help being disgusted by a man who preys on women -- though at the same time I truly do value what I learn about ancient lifestyles from such sources, and I hope I do a good job of using them with as much respect as I can muster in my actual writings.

As I've spent most of my morning doing all I possibly can to avoid this disgusting source, though, I think I'll do my monthly-day-off today! I totally agree with something else I read today: "Today I just need to surround myself with some beauty." From the wonderful [but now defunct] littleemmaenglishhome blog.


Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore aka Bengaluru, India

A good toothpaste ad

Noted while I researched my Lifestyles of Early South Asia book...

From the 400s! "His pearl necklace glowed under the light reflected by his teeth." Haha.
(from Kalidasa's Raghuvamsham 5.52)

SUCH a handy Sanskrit word

You've probably had it on the tip of your tongue any number of times.

nabhitva = the state or condition of being a belly button

Snippets of Chapter 1

To give you a better idea of my Lifestyles in Early South Asia: A Sourcebook for Time Travelers:



 

Travels in India

Various travels in 2010...

pictures from Hampi:




We visited several places in India on this trip, though all fell later than my period. The one site we were going to go within my period involved 6 hours of very dangerous driving on a 1-lane but 2-direction tiny road, so we skipped it, hoping someday to get a plane ride closer to it....

We saw abandoned temples, some from the 1200s, in Belur and Halebid (though we prefer the better preservation and daily-life scenes in Somnathpur).

We also saw Hampi (1300s-1500s), which I liked; it's an incredibly huge site of abandoned stone buildings in ruins from invaders. However, to get there and back involved an overnight train ride, and though we had the very best they had (in a tiny compartment with an actual door and beds with cushions and air conditioning, one of only three such compartments on the entire very long train!), I am apparently a complete wimp and could not put up with the billowing dirt, smell of cigarette smoke from outside, urine-filled unisex bathroom with staring men standing outside, and especially the urine-soaked wet cushions and blankets. The hotel was the worst of the trip too, but they do their best and are clean enough. It also had a wonderful monkey population, as you can see. Overall, the Hampi trip was fascinating like all of India, but also like all of India you only seem to be able to either bask in amazing luxury at affordable prices or be bombarded with nauseating trauma!

We also toured Srirangapatna and saw Tipu Sultan's 1700s summer palace and fort and what remained of his normal home.

We toured 1900s palaces in Mysore. Here's a photo of part of a 1900s suite to which we were very surprised and thrilled to be upgraded to at Metropole hotel in Mysore (highly recommended even if you don't get upgraded); foreign guests of the maharaja were housed here! Though with different furniture in those days. The door you see leads to a nice verandah.

Yup, pretty accurate

Some god was addressed as "you are he whose knowledge has originated from the stoppage of all physical and mental functions; you are he who appears as truth on account of the cessation of all other faculties." (Mahabharata XIII.17.129)

Haha

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

Ah, typos. This time it's RIGHTEIOS, as in more than one right-ee-o (though I'm quite sure they meant to type righteous). 

Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Don't forget...

The next time you bathe don't forget to "sanctify your bath water with religious aphorisms." (Mahabharata VII.82.9)

A perfect vacation in Singapore

2010 travels in Singapore...


...We stayed in a hotel (Siloso Beach Resort) just across a little street from a beach on Singapore's Sentosa Island. The hotel is built around lush greenery, even to the extent of building rooms around the trees! We felt like we were living in a rainforest! Our first day we'd arrived at 7 am after a longish plane ride so just vegged out on the beach, taking advantage of the free tram and bus service on this island. We ate both lunch and dinner at a place with lots of food outlets and common seating, sampling fascinating Oriental fare, including my husband's favorites -- "tadpoles" -- little balls with tails made of that seaweed gelatin-like substance and maybe juice. Yes, it's weird to the average American -- and apparently European, judging by a tiny little Scandinavian girl who stopped by our table, barely clearing the top, to stare at the dish and say "bluh" or something.

The next day we did most of our historic stuff, taking the free train to the mainland/city and then buying our little cards to ride buses and trains all over. We enjoyed very much the World War II reenactment at the Battle Box, complete with wax figures from that famous Madame T?'s place in London. You could hear and see the British discussing their dire straits….This and the fabulous Italian restaurant where we had lunch are set in the beautiful Fort Canning Park. We walked in beautiful, peaceful residential neighborhoods that day too, and ended up at Raffles Hotel of course, which is a pilgrimage place for writers! I of course had to buy a leather thingie with a notebook tucked inside with Raffles' logo, and a book with its history and pictures of its amazing suites, and a tea towel with an old ad for them that proclaims that they even have electricity (provided, the book says, by their own generator).

The next day we went to Underwater World on "our" island, an aquarium. I had to go twice to my favorite exhibit there -- a moving sidewalk that takes you slowly through the middle of a huge curving tank, where stingrays and huge fish were swimming above and beside you! We also saw dolphins having a great time -- and though it was so hot by that point and the dolphin pool was outside, like all of Singapore it was planned perfectly -- right there I got a delicious strawberry-yogurt-ice shake so was fine. Well, especially with the ridiculous hat with a crab on top that I got for my dad and then "borrowed" for that day (sorry, Dad!).

After lunch that day we went to Fort Siloso on the same island. There and elsewhere I appreciated how they are very careful to state when they're not certain about a facet of Singaporean history. Later in the day we took a wonderful walk through a jungled area and saw two very pretty waterfalls. We ended our day with dinner and then a cable car up to the top of a hill from which we could see the sparkling city on one side and its zillions of huge lit-up ships on the other (Singapore is one of the world's largest ports).

The next day (our last) of course we had to do shopping -- though the sushi chef among us went instead to a famous sushi place in the city. Then we took a cab-van the hotel got for us, and the driver played a Jackie Chan DVD for those of us who could tear our eyes away from the lush greenery and fascinating architecture of Singapore (including the only buildings I've ever seen that look like a ship blew up onto their top).



We truly had a perfect vacation. I think one big reason I loved it was not only its interesting history and beauty, but how extremely well organized and clean it is! I loved the little cards for various transportation, breakfast, shopping discounts, even a restaurant, all credit-card sized! Photos I have seen online and in books do not capture Singapore, and my fantastic experiences at its wonderful airport and even its free tours from the airport did not prepare me for this beautiful, wonderful vacation.

My Biggest Problem

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...


My biggest problem in my work is...Many of my primary written sources are religious and all which too often comes with that -- abuse of women and children and warmongering come to mind -- and I am not. Thus I find the vast majority of them horrifying, or at best boring.


But the facts remain that I find the history itself fascinating, and that very little has been done in a scholarly fashion on it, so here's my chance to further some knowledge of humankind...


But sometimes I do need to remind myself: There's no need to spend ages over a written source that's horrifying; I know how to skim, how to extract the daily life details for which I am even glancing at such horrid works. I've created a reminder to take breaks when I'm in the midst of one of these crackpots' works.

I think this will help distractions...

A glimpse at life in India, as chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...which reminds me strongly of how very dangerous and horrible it was to live in India. Never again!!!!


We have hired a full-time guard which already makes me feel calmer and more able to focus on my work.

Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Haha

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

In writing up from ancient notes, I ran across a few notations, from a badly translated AND badly typed version of one of the epics, that I found hilarious.

"I am doubtful of the means as to how to smile them down in battle."
"wooden sacrificial ladies"
"What toe countries?"

Yes, indeed, what toe countries?

Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India 

Playing with writing ideas

It was interesting to look back on when I decided, on January 3-4, 2011, to completely rewrite my history of ancient lifestyles in South Asia, using a very different approach...

I'm playing with the idea of just allowing myself to really have fun with this project. I've actually tried to be slightly stodgy in my writing for this monster project, which is probably silly of me -- especially since I write ever so much better when I'm having fun. Someone in publishing told me the story of how a friend who wrote novels when they just had fun with it wrote ever so much better too. These things do come through....But I do also plan to investigate the market for this sort of approach quite soon.

The very next day I posted,

Looks to me like the books that are published on lifestyles are almost all written well or illustrated well. Of course the most wonderful ones are both, but a publisher can't always afford a heavily illustrated book for most audiences. There's a great-looking one on Paris, eg, but that would have a much huger audience than, oh, mine! They can also demand a price about 5x more than the barely illustrated books I saw. But I see that both academic and popular presses publish books with a lighter though very reliable approach. It's just I've seen so few in my subject area that I wondered, but I'm seeing a lot to do with Europe including ancient Greece etc. It's about time to have a good synthesis like I'm dreaming of and spending an inordinate number of years working on! 

Yawn...SURPRISE!

A god remarked in the Ramayana, "That bear suddenly came out of my mouth as I was yawning."
(Ramayana I.17)

German words of the day

When I was really studying German in 2011...

sich aus'ruhen = to relax, to have a rest

ruhe = peace, quiet, calm, rest, silence

A Mystery Solved

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...

I was wondering about some Sanskrit literature stuff, and M.R. Kale (1923) explained it well for me. Thank you, Dr. Kale! Way too often the very best, patient, thorough work on these Sanskrit writers is from people long ago (though of course there are fabulous ones today too, such as Patrick Olivelle)
 Current time travel apparatus location: Pondicherry, India

Patrick Leigh Fermor, AKA Mr Wonderful Writer

I adore Patrick Leigh Fermor's writings on his travels! Look how he sees some long-ago history (from Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople, about a walk that began in 1933)...

"On the fringe of allegory, dimly perceived through legendary mist and the dust of chronicles..."

And how's this for a rare perspective on war and peace: Of a time of peace: "For a while, generations of house-martins could return to the same eaves each year, and storks to their chimneys, without finding everything in ruins."

More Vocabulary-Learning Ideas

From intensive language study notes from 2010:

A lot of these are adapted from my newly acquired LANGENSCHEIDT BASIC GERMAN VOCABULARY, which I love. I'm going to try them out with the language I'm studying but know the least, German.

1. AMAP study your vocabulary by topic. (More below re this.)
2. At least after you've learned the most common terms you need, go 1st in your vocab books/lists to topics you like or require most.
3. What works best for me is to learn 1 page or 1 spread of most vocab books at a time, though it depends on the list....
  a. They suggest you study all of that portion, then
  b. cover either the foreign or the translation and see if you remember them.
  c. Work on any necessary.
  d. Then quickly review your whole portion again.
4. DO memorize any example sentences that you find really helpful for difficult words.
5. Whenever you need a good portable review, of any words you keep forgetting -- from vocab books, from your reading, etc. -- consider
  a. the homemade wide paper flashcards I described in an earlier post that you can fold in half with the foreign on eg the left and the translation on the right. (Both on the same side of the actual paper so you can open them up to see the whole story.)
  b. Add any really helpful example sentences to the cards, per #4. (Which side is up to you if you don't need the translation.)
  c. Organize the cards by topic for when you're learning them, clipping them together. (Choose whatever topics are most helpful for you, and change as you wish.) (Though this does give you a clue, it's supposed to stick in your head better that way. You can always mix them up for a super review time.)
  d. To keep track of what you already have cards on so you don't redo them, type up just the foreign term in eg MS Word and use the software to alphabetize it; occasionally print out a fast-print small copy if you often work on your cards away from your computer. (If you're making and using them in the software of course just keep an alphabetized copy for reference.)
6. After you're done with 1 topic in a vocab book/list, review old topics. (This is a good reason to do most-required/wanted 1st, so they get the most reinforcement.) IN add new cards per #5 for important stuff you're forgetting.
7. Put into your calendar to review quite old but necessary cards you've pretty much learned and set aside. After a while if you keep reading/otherwise using words, you'll probably be able to set some/many cards aside permanently.

Tea in UK, early 1930s

from The Provincial Lady in America (when the heroine was still in England, at an Agricultural Show, with her husband, Robert, July 10):
Robert says...What about some tea?
We accordingly repair to tea-tent....I drink strong tea and eat chudleighs, and cake with cherries in it.
 I read about chudleighs at the very helpful and admirable http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/tivertonchudleighs.htm ...

Probably not a good text for a Mother's Day greeting card

"The man said, 'Many are my mother's virtues, and I acknowledge her claims upon me; but my virtues are still more numerous.' Then he described her faults in a couple of stanzas." (Jataka Tale No. 546)

(By the way, I have a great mom! With many more virtues than I!)

A diary entry

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



Finished up the handful of secondary sources I wanted to look at about now. Only one was useful, and I've mentioned it. One other would have been useful; it was done well for its time. But I'd already looked at all her archaeological and written ancient sources and more, and her work is old enough that more archaeology and more translation has been done since then, so her conclusions were based on too few sources so would have just messed me up. Just started on my first Chinese source (translated, yes) for an ancient outsider's perspective.

Also feeling much more peaceful about the German question. I'm learning things I think the textbook should have already taught me, and things are making more sense. One of my graduate degrees is in education so it really really annoys me to have poor teachers!
Current time travel apparatus location: New Delhi, India

Time traveler in an alternate universe

...or perhaps just a reflection of the rationality in England even in those days.

The days of religion (or, as now call'd, of superstition) are past; and in a few years, all the cathedrals must tumble down: how they have lasted so long appears to me a miracle!
                          - John Byng, Torrington Diaries, "A Tour in South Wales, 1787"

Betcha this never happened to YOU

"Last night the deity that dwells in my parasol asked me 4 questions."

(Jataka Tale No. 546)

Aujourd'hui / Heute / Adyadina

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...




Enjoying the Chinese guy. Especially oh-by-the-way mentions that there was a dragon here and there. Spending a lot of time on my languages lately, but they're tools I need to acquire ASAP...and they're so much fun! Excuse me French/German/Sanskrit scholars if I'm misusing those words for Today...I don't expect to be able to actually write intelligently in these languages.
Current time travel apparatus location: Pondicherry, India

French thoughts du jour

from study in 2010...

From the granddaughter of Ingrid Bergman, the beautiful Elettra Wiedemann you may have seen in Lancome ads: "La Beauté: C'est une question de ressenti. Une femme de passion qui a confiance en elle est toujours rayonnante....Le beauté n'est pas seulement dans l'harmonie du visage, mais aussi dans l'humour et dans la spontanéité."
(And now for a very brave try at translation: Beauty: It's a question of feeling. A woman of passion who has confidence in herself is always radiant....Beauty is not only in the harmony of a face, but also in humor and in spontaneity.)
-- from Mai 2010 of Clin d'oeil (Canadian French)

Helpful secondary sources

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



I should mention a book that so far has been very useful. It's written well and -- what I adore -- very concisely and carefully. It's Gavin Flood, editor, The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), written by various scholars. (Of course it includes the important point that Hinduism is really not one religion nor is it a collection of sects...) And I would also like to mention that both Blackwell and Routledge publishers have been very reliable for me so far.
Current time travel apparatus location: New Delhi, India

Vague

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



How helpful, Mr. Archaeologist cum Historian. "These finds are from Gupta and later times." Well, that would include the day you found them, wouldn't it? At least tell me why you're being vague, if you actually have a reason other than carelessness, like someone -- or the weather -- messed up everything. It's especially annoying because it's very few finds, but very interesting ones, but I can't use them for my work because I very much try to avoid anachronisms and who knows if these are Gupta or later...
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

A word on my complaints

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



I know, no one is perfect, and as I've mentioned here there are many fabulous archaeologists and historians working in South Asia. But the non-fabulous ones, especially those published by purportedly scholarly publishers, annoy me. I know how hard it is to do a decent job, but perhaps because I (most days!) work so hard on it I really find it annoying when someone else stops working far far short of a decent goal -- and some publisher thinks it's worthwhile to publish them.
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Another discarded secondary source

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



Yikes. I hope my next secondary source offers something useful. The one I tried just now tries to say stuff about ancient India by using writings about ancient Sri Lanka from ancient Sri Lanka, completely ignoring the fact that they were separate entities (though of course by this time they were having some contact and mutual influence). The writer also had the audacity to reference some reliable sources that I happen to have in my library; when I checked the references, the reliable author was saying nothing of the sort. It's like writing "The planet Mars is 20 miles across" and referencing a specialized astronomy book on Mars which of course does not say that.

I've heard so many painfully polite, oblique references to the deplorable state of history in certain groups in India, and I'm seeing 'way too many examples of that.
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

More secondary source problems

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



OK, that's nice, Mr. History Guy. You're listing your sources, and they're primary sources. But you're abbreviating their names without a List of Abbreviations, and the abbreviations are ONE LETTER long. What is M? Manu? Mahabharata? Megasthenes? -- to name 3 of the extremely common sources for looking at some early South Asian thought. Or are they less common? Maitrayani Samhita? Mahaitareya? Mundakopanisad? The many Minor or Major Rock Edicts? Milandapanha? Manava Grihyasutra? Mahavastu? Mahaprajnaparamitashastra? Muduraikkanri? Malaipadukadam? Maitreyavyakarana? And those are just some of the sources starting with M in translation that I already used. Of course, I just would need to check those; hopefully one of them is what you mean. But really why be like this?

You see my problem.
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Be careful with Indian-published books

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia...



Not again. I learned years ago that many Indian publishers -- including some highly respected ones -- put whatever the year is that they are PRINTING a book on what I would call their copyright page, even if it were really PUBLISHED a century or more earlier. Occasionally they'll just reprint the original, sometimes they'll slap in a new introduction. I always try to figure out the real date before buying a book, because in some areas scholarship really has progressed. Well, I just learned that a so-called 2004 book purporting to be from Oxford India was written in 1920! 1920! I know, it's just different front-copy norms, but when it specifically says "First published 2004" as well as "Copyright 2004" on the copyright page, I expect the book to be 2004-ish, not something I could quite frankly get free on the internet, and which much worse is far behind in its scholarship. The introduction was done in 2004, but even the introduction's author's contribution to the work was written in 1991 and published elsewhere. That's a long while ago in this particular field, unless all one is interested in is the history of history. Please, Messrs. Publishers, consider saying things like "an historical collection" or "an historical work on x" and mentioning dates on earlier works in your front matter, like the permissions you would surely need for some of your reprints -- hey, I've never seen permissions in these books either....I never ran across this in America. Could it possibly be connected to some very different idea in India, which has had such terrible problems with international piracy stuff? The no-permission-mentioned is highly suspicious to me.

Sorry I'm sounding like such a dreadful curmudgeon these days! So many secondary sources do this to me! But others make me very happy...

PS -- I asked a friend of mine who worked for Oxford University Press in New York, and he pointed out a VERY important point -- how do I know Oxford India books I'm getting aren't pirated? I don't even look at obviously pirated books being sold on city streets, but still....That would explain a lot of the breathtaking typographical problems too. Some Oxford India books I've bought -- AT A DIFFERENT STORE than these with problems (Landmark is the good store) -- are fabulous, such as the very talented Patrick and Suman Olivelle's translations of Manu and of major Dharmasutras. Though I do notice they typeset their own books!!
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

Of different cultures

From an hilarious article "Why I Would Make a Perfect Alien Liaison" at http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/10/alt-text-alien-liaison/ .

"I am nonjudgmental and not inclined to make assumptions. For instance, if aliens descend upon the planet, incinerating the trees and crops with a wave of fire before sending out screeching flying drones to pluck people from the streets and drag them off to labor in the mercury mines of Pluto and the plutonium mines of Mercury, I will consider the possibility that it’s what their culture considers a ceremonial message of peace."

...I often said when I lived immersed in a violent culture -- hmm, and now when I am immersed in a country with an evil "leader" -- that culture is not always neutral as I was taught by some, that it can be evil...

Hotel fun in the 1930s plus...

...was had by reading the delightfully designed, written, and of course illustrated book by Barry Zaid, Wish You Were Here: A Tour of America's Great Hotels During the Golden Age of the Picture Post Card. Most I enjoyed were from the 1930s, though it goes into the 1950s...



By the way, Mr. (Dr. perhaps) Zaid's degrees are in ARCHAEOLOGY and architecture and literature!! No wonder I love his work! Wow, and he lived in Pondicherry at one point, a beautiful-in-many-places though very challenging-to-live-in city.

Does anyone actually read this stuff?

As chronicled in your researcher's journal as I researched my history of early lifestyles in South Asia, during one of the rare times I was looking at a secondary source...



That's a cliche question, but now I think I know why people ask it. The secondary-source purportedly scholarly book I'm reading now, from a purportedly scholarly press (though I've run into many problems with them before), is nonsensical in parts! I know what she's trying to say in general, though so far she could have said it in about 2 sentences, especially since she's citing no decent sources, and even included a very popularized type of history book for a point she thinks is crucial. But what bugs me even more than her longwindedness and lack of sources -- this is terribly common in this field -- is the frequency of sentences that have absolutely no meaning. I seriously think no one did read this book before it was published -- and that either her English is abominable or the typesetters left out random lines from her manuscript. Well, I'll keep trying for a while...

And now it's almost an hour later and I'm editing this. I have given up on this person because of what she DOES say relatively clearly. She actually states there was no agriculture until (her term) "medieval" times in India, and says that a tribe of 2004 CE is the same as a tribe of c900 BCE. Right. Much more telling to me, she believes that the Indian epics are historically accurate. That explains a lot.
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India

French past participles

Again from 2010 work on languages...

Wow, they aren't kidding when they tell you to be sure to learn your past participles. You're lost after a certain point without them. So, of course, here's a wordle.net "poster"!

Français du jour

From 2010 studies again...

Favorite new word today: approfondir, to go into more detail about.
Favorite sentence today, in that it is something good to know: On s'aimait guere l'entendre parler parce que sa voix etait si aigue. (One did not very much like to hear her speak because her voice was so shrill.) (I am still not able to put in the accents, though now I've learned many of them...)

Wow, how generous

Someone offered to sacrifice not only himself but his mother, wife, brother, and friend. I wonder what they thought of that. (Jataka 546)

Thoughts on learning vocabulary, especially re flashcards

From 2010 while I was doing intensive language work for my ancient history research...

In general, I try to learn in context, and to read as much as possible so the words just seem normal. To build a larger vocabulary, I use a variety of vocabulary books or other lists, trying either to finish one spread or placing a bookmarker where I've gotten to. I also listen some, preferably with subtitles etc, though my focus is on learning to read. Also, I don't even try at times when nothing is getting through, because of stress or tiredness or whatever; if this happened continally of course I'd need to make some changes in my life.

I only use flashcards when I've tried for some time and the words just aren't sticking; NOT making a flashcard is a wonderful reward for having learned a word.

I investigated yet again software for learning some French and some German words, but...I don't like the work of putting in the words. Premade flashcards or stacks rarely have what I need. I don't like how ugly a lot of them are. I don't like the guessing games that some software features such as multiple choice; seeing wrong answers just teaches me wrong. I don't like my past experience that one software I worked with stopped working and even before had all sorts of bugs. I don't like that I can't review when my computer is off (though that is not super often anymore, and many do let you print pretty cards).

I've decided to stick with my paper flashcards solution: I cut paper (preferably attractive but consistent, and also a bit thick) into strips the width of the paper, using up the whole sheet and ending up with strips maybe 8-1/2 by a bit under 2 inches. I fold them in half so they're now 4ish inches across. On the left in a color of waterproof ink I like I write the foreign word, on the right the English word. I do not give myself clues like using blue for verbs or whatever. (However, I do use different colors of ink and/or paper for different languages.) Then I use them: I review them, making stacks of Definitely Need to Review Again, Don't Need to Review for a Couple Months, and Don't Need to Review for a Long While If at All. If I still am having trouble, I open up the strips (THIS is why I prefer this method to normal flashcards) so I can see both the foreign language and the translation, and study them that way for a while. Eventually maybe I'll play games with them like Concentration or something??


(I also gave a couple samples of a now of course defunct software I used for making "posters" for study:)