Showing 254 articles
ART AS A JOURNEY WITHIN – An Interview with Olivia Fraser
Author: The Acropolitan Magazine Editorial teamMarch 28, 2022
For centuries art has been a natural means to express one’s inner journey – be it as a community or as an individual search. So has it been for Olivia Fraser, who has used her art to uplift, to produce wonder and beauty, and to find the ‘inner essence’ of things. Olivia Fraser moved to [...]
Stones of Time
Author: Zarina ScrewvalaMarch 28, 2022
“Sometimes there’s only a hint, a possibility. What’s magical, sometimes, has deeper roots than reason.” – Mary Oliver, Such Silence If you have visited Stonehenge on the Salisbury plains of England, perhaps you sensed a powerful feeling of mystery, of something hard to define. To the eye they are a series of immense standing [...]
Matrix 4 Film Review
Author: Pierre PoulainFebruary 24, 2022
The Movie The Matrix, released in 1999, and its two sequels (Reloaded and Revolutions), released in 2003, have together been an international phenomena. The first movie in particular, was known as a modern version of Plato’s Myth of the Cave, and the two subsequent parts are of the same universe – the real world and the [...]
Are we all Culturally Appropriating?
Author: Gilad SommerFebruary 8, 2022
The concept of cultural appropriation originated in academic circles in the 1980s. In the last decade, it had gained popularity, especially in the US, aiming to give autonomy to minority populations and to prevent the use of cultural elements to denigrate these populations and reinforce prejudice. Nevertheless, like many other things in the political correctness [...]
The Science of Space – Vaastushastra
Author: Sashikala AnanthJanuary 3, 2022
As a student of Sri V Ganapati Sthapati, and then from her association to the School of Architecture of Madras University, for over 30 years Sashikala Ananth has been investigating the classical Indian science of architecture, known as Vaastu, combining both textual knowledge and practical field application. She has distilled her experience in her books [...]
A Gross National Happiness and Education as the Noble Sector of Public Good: A Conversation with Professor Thakur S. Powdyel
Author: The Acropolitan Magazine Editorial TeamJanuary 3, 2022
New Acropolis Culture Circle recently interviewed Professor Thakur S Powdyel, Bhutan’s first democratically elected Minister of Education (2008-2013). An educator by choice, conviction and passion, he is respected for moving Bhutan towards fulfilling the country’s constitutional mandate for education. As a recipient of numerous international awards such as the Gusi Peace Prize and [...]
A Sufi Transformation: Baba Bulleh Shah
Author: Sukesh MotwaniNovember 7, 2021
Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch (Bahawalpur, Punjab) in present-day Pakistan, where his father, Shah Muhammad Darwaish, was a Paish Imam and teacher. Most historians confirm that Bulleh Shah worked as an adolescent herder in the village. Despite his poverty, however, he was [...]
Akbar, The Great Enigma
Author: Manjula NanavatiNovember 7, 2021
During the Renaissance, while Europe was experiencing a gigantic shift of ideas in almost every aspect of knowledge, in India, was born a man who, as Emperor of Hindustan, would use his indomitable courage and a restless search for wisdom to weave a similarly audacious social, political, and spiritual vision in the Indian subcontinent. His [...]
Mastering the Bow
Author: Harianto MehtaNovember 7, 2021
Yogastha Kuru Karmani First establish being in yourself, and only then perform action. Introduction Amidst a series of mystical verses compiled in the Bhagavad Gita, this is one of the fundamental instructions that Krishna transmits to a distraught Arjuna, when faced with the prospect of killing his own cousins in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in [...]
The Darshanas: Six Schools of Indian Philosophy
Author: Manjula NanavatiAugust 25, 2021
“Truth is one. Sages call it by different names.” – Rig Veda The six darshanas are philosophical systems, or schools of thought, that take their authority from the Vedas. As implied by the meaning of the word darshana, to see or to experience, the six disciplines offer unique points of view, six separate windows from [...]
A Parent’s Search for New Education
Author: Riddhi PatelAugust 25, 2021
What is it about a musician or a doctor that makes him more than a simple technician, one that has developed an expert ability to discharge a particular skill? Beyond the mechanics of these professions, we may find a sincere pursuit of something higher; values such as Beauty, Harmony and Goodness. This came to light [...]
The Story of Cinderella – An Inner Voyage
Author: Akanksha SanghiAugust 25, 2021
I recently had the opportunity to investigate my all-time favourite fairytale, Cinderella, in a new light. I realised that we can infact extract very practical principles to apply in our daily lives. But for this, we need to look at the story that we are so familiar with, through a new lens, leaving behind our [...]