Intriguing Unicorns

We have come across and have been fascinated by many imaginary and fictitious animals. As children, we have fantasized about imaginary animals like the fire breathing dragons and the one-horned unicorns. These fictitious animals have been associated with our magic world of fairies, elves and gnomes. However, it is better to refer to an unicorn as a legendary rather than a fictitious animal. This can be said after paintings of one- horned unicorn like creatures have been found in prehistoric cave paintings in certain places

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The popular image of a unicorn is that of a horse, with a single, spiraled horn, emerging from its forehead. The horn and the blood of a unicorn were supposed to have magical powers. Its horn was said to have neutralized poison. Many scientists believe that it is because of this reason, that unicorns were hunted and killed and removed from the face of the earth, in the sixth millennium B.C.

The unicorn or variants of it have been made popular stories across diverse cultures. However, this so-called legendary animal has never been regarded with fear. It has been loved and regarded because of the mysticism surrounding it.

As I have said earlier, unicorns have been found in cave painting, as symbols and also in seals and coins in diverse cultures. In Southern Africa, aboriginal paintings of a one-horned, unicorn like animal have been found in caves in Namaqualand. In France, also cave paintings in Lascaux, of one-horned horses, resembling unicorns,  have been found. An animal in Chinese mythology, called the qirin, have been found, which resembles an unicorn. The Japanese version of the unicorn is called the Kirin and is a derivative of the Qirin. However, the Japanese Kirin resembles a unicorn to a larger extent. There is said to have been passing references of the unicorn, even in the Bible.

In a civilization, as old as that of Indus Valley, unicorn like animals adorn seals and coins. The Alicorn, another variation of the unicorn is said to have had wings. It can be said to be more of a Pegasus like animal. The horns of an alicorn were said to have been made into drinking cups and had been used by kings in India, as they were said to have possessed powers of neutralizing any poison. Unicorn horns were also said to possess aphrodisiac qualities and it was said that unicorns could determine whether a woman was a virgin or not. Another interesting anecdote about the unicorn is that the royal throne of Denmark is made out of the horns of a unicorn. The wild unicorn is said to be tamable only by a virgin woman.

The skeleton of an unicorn was supposed to have been found in the Harz mountains of Germany. This fossiled skeleton of the unicorn showed that it had only two legs, contrary to popular belief. The motifs of the unicorns, in Greek and Roman cultures were said to have been influenced by motifs from India in the medieval times.

Author: Jayeeta Sinha Roy

Ghazal....Love frozen in a tear

A ghazal is a mystical blend of ‘shers’ or couplets and melody. It is usually a combination of about five to twelve shers, put together, with the main theme usually explained in the first sher itself. Ghazal is characterized by a repetition of a rhyme and a refrain, with the rhyme, immediately presenting itself in front of the refrain .It is essential that all the lines in a ghazal follow the same meter. The Ghazal in essence, is regarded as poetry, though; with time it has achieved prominence as a genre of music.

 It is important to note that, each couplet or sher is a complete piece of poetry in itself, and that traditionally, the shair or the poet tries to introduce his name in the final sher or couplet of the ghazal, either in the first, second or the third person. The themes of ghazal usually center around love and longing, sorrow for ones beloved, which usually culminates with heartbreak.

It is commonly believed that the most ancient form of Ghazal can be traced back, In Arabia in the 8^th century. The fore bearer of modern-day Ghazal can be found in Persia or Iran and was known as the Qasida. A traditional Ghazal adheres to a number of rules of Matla, Maqta, Beher, Qafiya, Radif, Khayal, and Wazan.

A Ghazal, in short, is a collection of couplets (called sher) which follow the rules of Matla, Maqta, Beher, Qafiya, Radif, Khayaal and Wazan. The traditional complete ghazal has a matla, a maqta, and three other shers in between. The first two shers of a ghazal have the form of a qatha (a specific variation of which is a ruba'ee; most familiar to modern readers from Khayyám'sRubayyat).

 Ghazal became famous in India during the Mughal era around the 12^th century. Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869), Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) Altaf Hussein Haali (1837-1914) were names to reckoned with in the Indian Ghazal scenario.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) was instrumental in taking the ghazal outside the perimeters of India. He was primarily instrumental in popularizing ghazal to Europe and during his time in the 19^thcentury, ghazal became quite popular in Germany. Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866) and August Von Platen (1796-1835) were other Europeans who highlighted the beauty of Ghazal to Europe. Agha Shahid Ali, the Kashmiri-American poet was instrumental in making the Ghazal popular in America.


Author: Jayeeta Sinha Roy

একলা

Translated by Somnath Chattopadhyay.... from, 'The Incurable Loner'

যদি পারতাম

Translated by Somnath Chattopadhyay...from "If Only I Could"

Flying Saucers!!

Man has always been fascinated and intrigued by life in other planetary systems and galaxies. With his imagination, he has created pictures of aliens, and they have mostly been painted in malevolent shades. Over the ages, man has always visualized the alien to be vicious looking, arriving on planet in flying saucers, with intentions of conquering it. These flying saucers were so called because they resembled upturned saucers. Sightings of flying saucers have been recorded from very early times and almost every civilization has maintained a certain amount of account related to seeing strange glowing objects in the sky. A section of researchers have even tried to
prove that sightings of UFOs go back as early as the Biblical era and that, certain chapters in the Bible endorses this belief of theirs.

The term Flying Saucers was coined in the 1940s and this was later changed to UFO or unidentified flying object. However it has been observed that most of the claimed sightings have been later proved to have been some other objects like the reflection of a weather balloon, or a reflection of certain metallic objects or at times even airplanes. However, the skepticism and the controversies surrounding the UFO s still continues. There are many international bodies like the Center for UFO Studies or the CUFOS, which has a team of dedicated academicians, scientists and investigators , who are relentlessly trying to pursue and unearth the truth behind the UFO phenomena.

Over decades, millions of people have claimed to have seen UFOs and also extra-terrestrial life forms, but their claims have been ridiculed at by the media and has also been rubbished by the governments. This phenomena has still not been substantiated by any scientist and still remains unexplained. A section of the U.S. population is of he firm belief, that the government and the CIA have definite proof of UFO bases in certain strategic areas but owing to certain unknown reasons, have desisted from letting the general population know about this secret.

Another aspect of the UFO phenomena is that people have reported alien abductions. That is many people have claimed to have been abducted by aliens and to have been returned to their points of abductions after a series of experiments. The extent of truth in such claims still remains to be determined, however, strange implants have been found in some people who have claimed to have been abducted. The International Center for Abduction Research or the ICAR, is an international body which is dedicated to the unearthing of information related to the abductions of humans by aliens. This body helps individuals in coping with the variety of crisis that arise from the abductions through processes like hypnosis.

UFOlogy is the term, which has been coined to denote studies dedicated to everything related to the UFOs. UFO s according to some people should be the abbreviation of Unconventional Flying Objects. It is a truth that certain sightings of UFO s are actually sightings of experimental and unconventional aircrafts, still there have been accounted sightings which have remained largely unexplained.

1971, Moon. Apollo 14, In this shot, the shape of the 

object looks like the one of a flying saucer with lights! 

Reference: NASA AS14-70-9836/37.

Author: Jayeeta Sinha Roy