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1967
Light My Fire - The Doors
All You Need is Love - The Beatles
Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry

1975
Why Can't We be Friends? - War

1983
Every Breath You Take - The Police
Stand Back - Stevie Nicks

1987
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - U2

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Pretty good day for top songs, in several years.

Oh, and happy birthday. Aren't we August people special?

Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged | 

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The annual "festival" of Raksha Bandhan, which is meant to commemorate the
abiding ties between siblings of opposite sex, usually takes place in late
August, and is marked by a very simple ceremony in which a woman ties a
rakhi ? which may be a colorful thread, a simple bracelet, or a decorative
string ? around the wrist of her brother(s). The word "raksha" signifies
protection, and "bandhan" is an association signifying an enduring sort of
bond; and so, when a woman ties a rakhi around the waist of her brother,
she signifies her loving attachment to him. He, likewise, recognizes the
special bonds between them, and by extending his wrist forward, he in fact
extends the hand of his protection over her. The thread-tying ceremony is
sometimes preceded by the woman conducting aarti before her brother, so
that the blessings of God may be showered upon him, and this is to the
accompaniment of her enunciation or chanting of a mantra, which may be in
Sanskrit or one of the other Indian languages.

In Punjabi, for instance, the mantra says: "Suraj shakhan chhodian / Mooli
chhodia beej / Behen ne rakhi bandhi / Bhai tu chir jug jee", which can be
roughly translated as follows: "The sun radiates its sunlight / the radish
seeds / I (the sister) tied the rakhi / brother, may you live long." After
the conclusion of the ceremony, she places a sweet in her mouth, and he
might return the gesture. The brother bestows a small gift upon his sister,
generally in the form of a small sum of money, such as Rupees 51, 101, 251,
or 501.

It is doubtless possible, from a feminist perspective, to view raksha
bandhan as another _expression of patriarchal culture, however
well-intentioned. It is, after all, the brother who extends his protection
to his sister, and the woman who, in a manner of speaking, agrees to place
herself under the protection of her brother. Against such a reading, one
could well argue that the festival seeks to celebrate simply the
affectionate ties between siblings of opposite sex, and that the
brother-sister nexus is, comparatively speaking, innocent. This is scarcely
to say that the relationship is devoid of power, or that there are not
habitual practices and customs which define the relationship. But the real
significance of raksha bandhan may lie elsewhere. Though it has been common
in most societies for the woman to leave her natal home at marriage for her
husband's home, in India this is firmly entrenched as a social practice,
and has often had undesirable consequences.

Women who are subjected to harassment or life-threatening behavior on
account of dowry by the husband's family have often been reluctant to
return to their natal home, and similarly parents are reluctant to take
back their married daughters on account of the immense stigma attached to
the return of a married daughter. There is ample evidence to suggest that
the problem of dowry has unquestionably been aggravated by the social
sanction placed upon married daughters residing in their natal home.
Consequently, raksha bandhan can be viewed as an occasion for reasserting a
woman's ties to her natal home. The brother conveys a message to his sister
that she has not been abandoned by her biological kin; similarly, the woman
conveys a message to her husband's family that she can well count upon her
natal family to come to her assistance.

Though in principle raksha bandhan is an observance between biological
siblings of the opposite sex, the practice often extends more generally to
people of the opposite sex who are not biologically related, or who are not
related as siblings. On raksha bandhan day, a number of women may tie the
rakhi around the Prime Minister's wrist (unless the Prime Minister be a
woman), and similarly soldiers can expect to have women tie rakhis around
their wrists.

Everywhere, especially in north and western India, females might tie a
rakhi around the wrist of boys and men without sisters. A man might acquire
a muh boli behen, that is a sister who in every respect is such except in
biological fact; or a woman may tie a rakhi around the wrist of her male
first cousin who is without sisters. Imagining a person of the opposite sex
as a sibling is certainly one way of obscuring the problem of sexual
desire, and Indian texts are rife with the observation that men should look
upon women as their sisters and mothers.

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Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged |