A Cosmic Dance

Experience the powerful prose and poetry of Joyce Rupp with the beautiful full-color art of Mary Southard.

Cosmic Dance won the 1994 Guyana Prize for Literature. Dr. Vayu Sampat is brought two stories: of the rape of a young girl by a powerful state official, and of a seemingly altruistic gift of blood. The first is an all too common event, the second all too rare in a society where the strong feed off the weak, and everything has its price. What challenges him is that both stories cross the lines of race in a society divided between Indians and Africans. Involvement in these events, against his will, is the catalyst which forces Vayu from a path of comfortable routine into the chaos of uncontrollable circumstance in which all his assumptions are challenged. When the cataclysm comes, Vayu barely escapes with his life, but he at least has a future to confront. Cosmic Dance, set in the authoritarian, post-colonial Caribbean state of Aritya (Guyana in disguise), is a fast-moving, tense and bloody political thriller whose characters draw the reader into the events from page one. It deals acutely with issues of race and gender and the interplay between intention and chance in human affairs. No novel penetrates more deeply the political corruption at the heart of 1980s Guyana, but no Indo-Caribbean novel deals more honestly with the nature and sources of Indian racist feelings towards African-Caribbeans. Whether at the superficial level of 'people like us/people not like us' or at a deeper level of poisonous caste-based antipathies, Khemraj's novel looks at how the rightful search for justice in a climate of interethnic hostility can be undermined from within. The novel also has its subtext an inquiry into the meaningfulness of a Hindu worldview as a way of making sense of the catastrophes the characters experience. Harischandra Khemraj worked as a teacher in Guyana. He won the 1994 Guyana Prize for Literature. He currently lives in the USA.

Annotation This book focuses on a new world-view: the harmony existing between systems that are so strongly interdependent they behave as a single entity. Woven throughout a variety of esoteric and scientific inquiries is the underlying sense of the unifying principles of science and a spiritual outlook.

Stephen Ellcock brings the art gallery directly to the people with this eclectic collection of more than 240 inspiring images designed to stimulate, uplift and deliver joy. Designed to stimulate and inspire, All Good Things is an exciting, eclectic collection of over 200 images from world-leading museums as well as lesser-known collections. In a finely calibrated procession of image, quote and myth, Stephen Ellcock leads us through the Realms of Creation - from the Stars to the Seas, the Natural to the Supernatural - to give us his extraordinary world vision. A treasure trove of 3,000 years of artistic creation, scientific enquiry and pan-global magical, philosophical and religious traditions. The best of the world's beauty, creativity and curiosity in a single book. 'Stephen's collection of glorious images is one of the most reliably edifying and entertaining things in my day.' Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Please note this is a fixed-format ebook with colour images and may not be well-suited for older e-readers.

*A semi-philosophical, semi-aesthetic appreciation of the great stone structures of the past*Boasts an abundance of color photographsStone is a material that takes many million years to form. As a result, it offers a sense of permanence. Craftsmen and designers of an earlier era were able to use it most effectively to produce masterpieces of art and architecture. The primordial aspect of stone is perhaps why we feel so full of energy when wandering in areas with an abundance of this material. Stone offers magnificent natural compositions in the vast expanses of the countryside, but man's intervention elevates stone constructions to a whole new level of beauty.The builders of Mahabalipuram, Ellora, Elephanta, Angkor Wat, Badami, and Hampi were concerned not only with creating shelter in harmony with the natural landscape, but also with the numinous sense of elation one experiences when confronted with the architecture of these places. There was a time when man respected the landscape, seeing it as a reflection of his devotion to the creator of this universe. These primordial men also practiced a lifestyle that did not adversely affect the sustaining powers of the earth. Cosmic Dance in Stone is largely a collection of photographs and illustrations that show how their creations, wonderful landscapes of stone, have been devised to transcend space and time. It is an attempt to discover how the designers of the past envisaged structures that could link us to the stars and help us realize the nature of our existence.