Jimikki

Jhumkas as they are known in North India and Jimikki as they are known in South India are an ethnic traditional Indian style of earrings. I always liked jimikkis. They are worn by celebrities such as bollywood actresses or actresses in the south indian film industry or models and they are worn by ordinary women of India. They are available in jewelry stores in gold or silver, encrusted with diamonds, gemstones, pearls or gold beads. Very small jimikkis can be worn every day but the larger ones can be worn only on special occassions. Jhumka or jimikki is so popular that it forms the subject matter of songs from hindi and malayalam movies. Most recently two songs featuring the notion of jhumka or jimikki became viral. Earlier, while growing up in India because these kind of earrings were very common I did not think much about what they symbolise. I thought these were traditional old-fashioned earrings. But from the songs I felt as though these earrings are symbolic of tradition, and elegance. Here are a few images of jimikkis I gathered from the internet. At the time of my wedding my mother gave me her jimikki which was made of gold. I like them very much.

Shipping companies

The famed biblical red sea--that   great sea parted by God to rescue the Israelis from captivity is in the news again. This time it is because Houthi rebels have been disrupting the commercial ships traversing the red sea. Two shipping companies operating container ships along the red sea were disrupted causing a higher demand for ships and an increase in freight rates. Thus A.P Miller Maersk,  a Danish shipping company whose ships are traversing Red Sea shipping lanes said their profits jumped after continued disruptions in the Red Sea shipping lanes. There is a robust demand for its container ships. Freight rates are high. In its report on Thursday the company said net profit rose to $3.05 billion from $521 million in the same period the prior year. At the end of last year Houthi rebels began attacking commercial vessels that sailed the red sea and therefore these commercial vessels were forced to find longer routes to avoid the red sea. The disruption created a shortage of vessels and port bottlenecks pushed freight rates up. Overall revenue in its ocean business rose to 11.11 billion from 7.9 billion as freight rates rose 54% on the year. Maersk said profitability in the main shipping business was substantially higher in the third quarter compared with the second because the higher container demand from prevailing supply chain disruptions in the Red sea and Gulf of Aden. German peer Hapag Lloyd followed Maersk by also raising its full year guidance last week as it continued to also see strong demand and higher freight rates. This story is connected to the US dockworkers strike because, as the WSJ story says, "container lines have also benefited from the early peak shipping season this year as retailers moved early to stock up for the holiday season ahead of the US dockworkers strike in October."

28 days to Thanksgiving and 55 days to Christmas-2

Another year I thought of the word woodlands for a Christmas decoration theme. I gathered branches of trees, twigs etc to give our home a wooded look.

Star made out of twigs for our nativity.

I brought this tall branch of a tree and painted it white and hung handmade pompoms on it.

Lots of trees--paper trees, feather trees and trees from stores contributed to the woodland look.

I made Christmas themed pillows by hand. These may also have contributed to the Woodlands look.