Raja (play)

Raja (Bengali: রাজা), (also known as The King of the Dark Chamber in English translation), is a play by Rabindranath Tagore written in 1910. This play is marked as a symbolic play as well as a ‘mystic play’. The story is loosely borrowed from the Buddhist story of King Kush from Mahāvastu. A short stage version of Raja was published under the title of Arupratan in 1920.

Sen described Raja as ‘the first really symbolic drama by Tagore.’ The theme of the play is ‘the secret dealing of God with the human heart.

References

Suikoden V

Suikoden V (Japanese: 幻想水滸伝V, Hepburn: Gensō Suikoden Faibu,  (listen) ) is a role-playing video game developed by Konami and Hudson Soft and published by Konami for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console and the fifth main installment of the Suikoden video game series. It was released in 2006, and has sold around 200,000 copies in Japan.

Loosely based on a classical Chinese novel, Shui Hu Zhuan by Shi Nai'an, Suikoden V centers on the political struggles of the Queendom of Falena, and takes place 6 in-universe years before the events of the first Suikoden. The player controls the Prince of Falena and travels the world, acquiring allies and dealing with the problems of the nation. The game features a vast array of characters, with over sixty characters usable in combat and many more able to help or hinder the Prince in a variety of ways.

Gameplay

Suikoden V is a role-playing video game and thus features many of the usual traits. The player controls the Prince and travels with him around the world map, advancing the plot by completing tasks and talking with other characters. The Prince can also recruit new characters to his cause, which often involves a short sidequest. In towns, the player can gather information, sharpen character's weaponry, learn new skills, and buy equipment; wilderness areas generally feature random encounters with monsters.

Raja (elephant)

Raja (Sinhala:රාජා ඇතා - Raja Atha) (also known as Maligawa Raja) was a Sri Lankan tusker elephant belonged to the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Kandy. Raja participated at the annual Esala procession in Kandy for around 50 years and was the sacred casket bearer of the final Randoli perehera for 37 years. He was one of the most celebrated elephants in Asia during his lifetime, and was world famous for his noble behavior. On August 20, 1986 former Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene declared Raja as a national treasure, in recognition of his valuable services to the religion and culture of Sri Lanka.

Early years

It is believed that Raja was born in the jungles of Eravur in Batticaloa District circa 1913. He was captured along with few other elephants by a group of men headed by a Muslim man named Umaru Lebbe Panikkar in November 1925. Panikkar is a name given to the men who mastered capturing elephants in the eastern parts of the country. The young elephant Raja had been purchased by Tikiribanda Mampitiya Disawe of Giragama Walauwa in Kandy for 3300 rupees, a huge sum at that time, along with another young elephant named Skanda. With a permit issued by the British government, both the elephants were brought by train to the Kadugannawa railway station and then to the Giragama Walauwa on December 11, 1925. Arambegama Kirihamy was appointed as the mahout of the young elephants. He attached the young elephants to the female elephant he was looking after, who became the foster mother of young elephants.

Orca (novel)

Orca is the seventh book in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. Originally published in 1996 by Ace Books, it was republished in 2003 along with Athyra in the omnibus The Book of Athyra. Following the trend of the Vlad Taltos books, it is named after one of the Great Houses and features that House as an important element to its plot.

Plot introduction

Vlad and his friend Kiera the Thief investigate a financial cover-up following the mysterious death of an Orca tycoon.

Plot summary

Reunions

Kiera the Thief sends a letter to Vlad's estranged wife Cawti, offering to meet and tell her of Vlad's most recent adventures. In return for not telling Vlad some of Cawti's secrets, Kiera insists on making some omissions from her story. The rest of the novel is Kiera's story, seemingly without the omissions she makes to Cawti.

Vlad contacts Kiera from the city of Northport and asks her a favor: break into the mansion of the late Orca businessman Fyres and take any documents she can find. She agrees if he will explain why. He tells her that he went to Northport to find a healer for Savn, a Teckla boy whose mind was damaged during the events of Athyra. A local healer, whom Vlad calls "Mother" because he cannot pronounce her name, agrees to help Savn if Vlad will help fix her problem: she's being evicted from her cottage. Vlad navigates through a labyrinth of business records to discover that Mother's land is ultimately owned by Fyres, who only a week ago died on his yacht.

Jaws (film)

Jaws is a 1975 American film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Shot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.

Orca Symphony No. 1

Orca Symphony No. 1 is the fourth studio album by Armenian-American singer Serj Tankian. The album takes the form of a classical symphony. A professionally sampled studio version was released on November 30, 2012, while the live recorded version was released on June 25, 2013 through Serjical Strike Records.

A sample of the first act of the album was released on Tankian's SoundCloud page on May 2012.

Background

Tankian achieved fame as part of the American rock band System of a Down. Although the band experimented with various sounds, it wasn't until the band went on hiatus in 2006 that Tankian was free to launch his solo career and experiment further.

Tankian's experimentation with classical composition began with Elect the Dead Symphony. The live album featured the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra performing reworked versions of songs from Tankian's debut album Elect the Dead. His second album, Imperfect Harmonies, blended classical with traditional rock elements. Tankian described the album as "music that has sat in the vat and matured", referring to the album's influences from several genres.