Allô Chatrath

     

 I visited Assisi in December 2023.  Assisi is a hill town in central Italy’s Umbria region. It was the birthplace of St. Francis (1181–1226), one of Italy’s patron saints. The Basilica of St. Francis is a massive, 2-level church, consecrated in 1253. Its 13th-century frescoes portraying the life of St. Francis have been attributed to Giotto and Cimabue, among others. The crypt houses the saint’s stone sarcophagus.          

  What have Ronaldo and David got in common - besides both being very handsome? No, no. There is no evidence to show that David too played football.   Both have very long necks....... 

  Look at this charming French actress Adele Haenel. In the photo on top,  she is looking askance towards her right and in the photo below that her gaze is on the left side.   I saw her film 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' nominated for Cannes Festival two years back, on MUBI. It revolves around the painting of a portrait of an aristocratic family's daughter by a lady painter.    I found the film to be refreshingly different as it goes on to depict a delicate relationship between two young ladies. ...Just excellent.   Adele, in real life, is a political activist with supposedly far left views

                                                       Rough indicative map of the Americas   In South America, Bolivia has the highest percentage of indigenous population at about 41% as per 2022 figures.  Guatemala in Central America, as indicated by the 2021 census, had over 43.5% of its population self-identifying as indigenous. Guatemala's indigenous population is primarily made up of Mayan groups. The rough number of indigenous people in North America in 1494, as the rough estimates indicate, was around 10 million. This number today is estimated to be only between 4 and 7 million. Any idea where have the remaining 3-6 million indigenous inhabitants disappeared?

                             Grashneshwar Verul Jyotiralinga Temple.  Photo source: Wikipedia I had gone to visit the world famous Ajanta and Ellora caves in Maharashtra a few years back. I took a conducted tour in a bus, which took me to Ellora, and thereafter to the Grashneshwar Verul Jyotiralinga nearby. The guide, a deeply religious man, had a quick darshan and then stood near the gate to help the passengers. The gate was only three feet high and one had to bend considerably to get into the compound of the temple. Sir, have you had the darshan? He asked me politely. No, I replied and added rudely, and nor do I have an intention of doing so. He was taken aback. Let me explain, I said, and told him my story of how cruel cancer had crippled, chewed and killed in slow motion my deeply devout and religious wife. I lost faith in god the day she died, I told him. He listened quietly and did not utter a word...

                                                                          Bologna Museum    I took this photo in Bologna, Italy two years back. Lucio Dalla OMRI was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He was born in Bologna. He also played clarinet and keyboards. Dalla was the composer of "Caruso", a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso, and "L'anno che verrà". Statue of Sekhmet, the pwerful Egyption Goddess, was on loan to Bologna Museum from Egypt for two years. #kjschatrath #Egypt #sekhmet #Bolognamuseum       What a creative sign outside a bar in Bologna, Italy. Sadly it was closed when I crossed it in 2022. #Bologna #Italy #bar #kjschatrath    

                                                              Indicative map of South America How little do we in India know about South America. Unfortunately for some of us America means USA! In reality there is North America , the Central America and the South America- each comprising of several sovereign independent countries.    One is surprised to see the hard facts. Here is a comparison of the land mass of various continents and of some important countries:   Africa: 30.37 million km² North America: 24.71 million km² South America: 17.84 million km² Russia: 17.68 million kms ² Europe: 10.53 kms² Canada 9.98 million kms² USA: 9.86 million kms² Brazil: 8.51 million kms2 India: 3.28 million kms² Argentina: 2.78 million kms² Greenland: 2.16 million kms²   One would notice that Greenland is decidedly smaller than...