Special concert in Linz

I was thinking about a topic for a new blog and I came across the idea to share with you my impressions of a concert that I visited last Thursday.

It took place in Linz in the "Brucknerhaus" and was performed by the Military Music group of Upper Austria. I went there with one of my best friends who asked me to join her. She is member of the band of our city. Her whole band and she visited the concert and I joined them too. 

The concert was actually a fond-raisor for people in need or a state of disaster. It started at 8 p.m. and lasted until half past 10. 

We listened to eight compositions which varied from classical music to modern one but what touched me the most was the piece of music called "memoriam". It was played for a recently in a car accident deceased member of the Military Music who was only 19 years old.

All in all, the concert was a great experience because it was simply amazing listening to the great music produced by about 50 people working together and doing their best!

Happy diwali! :-)

I'm not sure if anybody of our English course has heard of "Diwali" and for that reason I would like to explain it to you :)

It's a festival celebrated in India by Hindus and Sikhs ( Sikhism is a religion that is, in the first case,believed by people, the Sikhs, living in northern India. That state is called Punjab. )
The date depends on the appearance of the new moon, so it varies every year between the end of october and the beginning of november. This year, it is celebrated today, on november the 13th.

You could compare Diwali with Christmas because it is seen as the biggest festival of Sikhs, also known under "The festival of lights" Historically seen, the Sikhs celebrate the return of one of their Gurus, Guru Har Gobind, who had won against Jahangir, the forth Mughal Emperor. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahangir for further information :) )

Diwali is celebrated differentely all over the world but I can say that most people of the Punjab tend to set up special,small candles, called Diwa, in the whole house so that it's beautifully enlightened. By doing so, they wish to bring happiness, prosperity and healthiness to their homes. Families usually come together and children get presents or money. "Mithai", which are traditonal Indian sweets, is eaten and the whole house is cleaned up for "receiving" the three wished things mentioned above.

I personally really enjoy spending Diwali with my family but this year I couldn't because I wasn't at home due to my studies in Graz. That saddened me a little bit but still, I'm looking forward to next year to hopefully spend this big festival with my family. :)

Even though I know that there's hardly anybody whom I know who celebrates this festival, I still wish you all a HAPPY DIWALI! :) 

 This picture shows the "Diwas".

 Indian sweets, the so called "Mithai".

This is a photo of the biggest Sikh temple in the city Amritsar which is also the capital of the state Punjab. It is not only famous because it is covered with gold but also for the overwhelming Diwali that is celebrated there by enlightening the whole temple.

Bollywood

I guess everybody has heard atleast once about "bollywood" but there are still many people who have no clue what "bollywood" actually is. So, in this post I'll try to explain and give you an short idea about it.

Bollywood is the name of the colorful and romantic Indian film industry. The name itself is a mixture of the words "hollywood" and Bombay because the first bollywood movies were nothing else than copies of american films. The first part, the "bo-" of the term "bollywood" refers to the Indian city Bombay which could be described as the core of this film industry due to the fact that most of the films were filmed here or atleast used to be.

Even though my parents left India and settled down in Austria, I was still tought the indian culture which is even today, despite of living in Austria with a completely different culture, very important for me. And even if there are many people who think that it's rubbish I have to say that not watching bollywood movies as an Indian is unthinkable^^

In Austria, the films are seen as "kitschig" like my Austrian friends describe it. The austrian audience is simply not used to several songs that are about five minutes long and occur half-hourly. Apart from these features, it usually takes you about three hours to watch one bollywood movie which, I guess, is quite exhausting if you are not used to it. Also, there is mostly the same main plot: the first part is an introduction and you could describe it as "positive" part. The storyline continues until there's a sudden turning point which is usually very dramatic and could be seen as the "negative" part. After that, the plot continues again and in the last part which is again "positive", the problems of the "negative" parts are solved and in most cases there's a happy end. 

I think that bollywood is a kind of film category that is not suitable for everybody as for example the Austrian audiences are used to hollywood which is different to bollywood. Nevertheless, the Indian film industry has become more and more famous in the last few years even in Europe and there's a small but still a number of people who enjoy watching these movies despite of not being Indian.

This is Sharukh Khan, the most famous Indian actor. He has played a role in many Indian blockbusters which have been translated to many languages and have even been on RTL 2.

"In guten wie in schweren Tagen" is probably one of the best and most famous Indian movies starring Sharukh Khan, who falls deeply in love with a girl but his parents are against their marriage. 

Finally, the following video is one song taken from this movie which shows Sharukh Khan dancing and singing surrounded by a colorful and impressive setting. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqXbV_JD_7g

I hope that now you know a little bit more about bollywood and feel free to ask me questions if you are interested about this topic! :)

Look & think twice

I took this picture a few days ago in front of the "Hauptgebäude" of the university of graz.

At first, I thought that there was something written down in arabic but when I took a closer look,I realized that actually the scripture was written in german.

I think that there's a great idea behind this poster that makes people aware of the fact that the first impression of something or someone does not necessarily has to be the same as in the beginning.
The statement of the poster came to mind because we dealt with the topic "stereotypes" in our english lesson today and especially when talking about this topic, you should look twice or atleast take a closer look before judging someone or something.