Devinez...

Dans un nouvel édifice, les propriétaires ont décidé de nommer les étages comme suit : janvier pour le rez-de-chaussée, février pour le premier, mars pour le second et ainsi de suite jusqu'à décembre. Curieusement l'édifice de 12 étages compte 365 employés, dont 52 directeurs, assistés de 7 chefs de division.
Sachant tout cela, comment appellent-ils l'ascenseur ?

Si vous connaissez déjà, gardez le secret quelques jours encore, d'accord?

The river's secret

But out of all secrets of the river, he today only saw one, this one touched his soul. He saw: this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment! Great be he who would grasp this, understand this! He understood and grasped it not, only felt some idea of it stirring, a distant memory, divine voices.
(...)
"Did you," so he asked him at one time, "did you too learn that secret from the river: that there is no time?"
Vasudeva's face was filled with a bright smile. "Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke.

the river is everywhere at once,at the source and at the mouth

"It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"
(...)
Slowly blossomed, slowly ripened in Siddhartha the realisation, the knowledge, what wisdom actually was, what the goal of his long search was. It was nothing but a readiness of the soul, an ability, a secret art, to think every moment, while living his life, the thought of oneness, to be able to feel and inhale the oneness. Slowly this blossomed in him, was shining back at him from Vasudeva's old, childlike face: harmony, knowledge of the eternal perfection of the world, smiling, oneness.
(...)

Siddhartha listened. He was now nothing but a listener, completely concentrated on listening, completely empty, he felt, that he had now finished learning to listen. Often before, he had heard all this, these many voices in the river, today it sounded new.

he had heard all this, these many voices in the river, today it sounded new.

Already, he could no longer tell the many voices apart, not the happy ones from the weeping ones, not the ones of children from those of men, they all belonged together, the lamentation of yearning and the laughter of the knowledgeable one, the scream of rage and the moaning of the dying ones, everything was one, everything was intertwined and connected, entangled a thousand times. And everything together, all voices, all goals, all yearning, all suffering, all pleasure, all that was good and evil, all of this together was the world. All of it together was the flow of events, was the music of life. And when Siddhartha was listening attentively to this river, this song of a thousand voices, when he neither listened to the suffering nor the laughter, when he did not tie his soul to any particular voice and submerged his self into it, but when he heard them all, perceived the whole, the oneness, then the great song of the thousand voices consisted of a single word, which was Om: the perfection.

-Herman Hesse, Siddhartha-

Chai

I started really wondering how tea came to be called chai in so many languages: Hindi, Russian, Chinese, Swiss-German, and now also in English. A chai latte is a regular item on most coffeeshop menus. Tea, the Indian way, black leaves with milk and sugar, is my favourite drink! It seems the key link is the Mandarin connection. So here's what I found:

Tea
1655, earlier chaa (1598, from Port. cha), from Malay teh and directly from Chinese (Amoy dialect) t'e, in Mandarin ch'a. The distribution of the different forms of the word reflects the spread of use of the beverage. The modern English form, along with French thé, Spanish te, German Tee, etc., derive via Dutch thee from the Amoy form, reflecting the role of the Dutch as the chief importers of the leaves (through the Dutch East India Company, from 1610). First known in Paris 1635, the practice of drinking tea was first introduced to England 1644. The Portuguese word (attested from 1559) came via Macao; and Russian chai, Persian cha, Greek tsai, Arabic shay and Turkish çay all came overland from the Mandarin form. Meaning "afternoon meal at which tea is served" is from 1738. Slang meaning "marijuana" (which sometimes was brewed in hot water) is attested from 1935, felt as obsolete by late 1960s. Tea bag first recorded 1940; tea ball is from 1895.

-Online Etymology Dictionary-

Holi in Montreal

Where else but in Montreal could a Mauritian come home to find a phone message from a Russian threatening to douse her in colours at next year's Holi festival because he has just returned from the celebration where he was invited by a Pakistani Muslim?

PS: I decided to give the BBC link to avoid controversy. Another link I found questioned the religious foundation of the celebration. I'm not sure if there's one right.

musing...

"What is the purpose, I wonder, of all this restlessness? I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias."

-Vikram Seth, From Heaven Lake-

A 'why'?

Why is rain called rain? Why is it not called leaf, or potato or chair?

This etymology source doesn't really help. It still doesn't tell why drops of water falling from the sky feel and sound more "rain"-like than "leaf"-like or "potato"-like or "chair"-like.

If you had never known the word and suddenly saw it written somewhere, how would you have drawn rain?

femme

être femme et porter en soi l’espoir d’une autre vie,
pleurer ses peurs et offrir ses amours,
sentir par ses pores la douleur, le souffle, le non-dit
appréhender la vie, la créer en la buvant doucement

pas l’égalité, mais la liberté d’être
pas la supériorité mais la liberté d’être
pas la soumission, mais la liberté d’être
pas la dépendance, mais la complémentarité peut-être

plus que mère du fils, fille du père, épouse du mari,
être femme, non pour être tout ça

être femme ET être tout cela.

V.S.

Dancing words...

I discovered a site where you can make words dance and draw :)

Here's one of my attempts! To see it, you need Internet Explorer and not Mozilla for the window to pop up. Then press Enter on the TypeDrawing website. Tadaa...my drawing.