Pen Portraits-19

MICHAEL COLLINS (Irish)  (1890  -  1922)
Irish nationalist.
To the British he was the most dreaded man in the Empire. But he was sheltered and fed by the common folks of Ireland who did not think twice about running messages or arms for him. Without the ‘civil support’ he could have achieved nothing. Mao’s ‘fish in the [...]

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Frauds At High office

In an ecosystem one finds a species around which life forms manage the web of life. Such an order is achieved not by any common consent but in the way each life form exercises its own oneness. Off the coast of South California sea otters are ‘keystone’ animals. By knocking out the keystone what delicate [...]

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Pen Portraits-18

SIDONIE GABRIELLE CLAUDINE COLETTE (French) (1873 – 1954)
Writer.
The outstanding French woman writer of the first half of the 20th century, whose novels largely concerned with the pleasures and pain of love, are remarkable for their exact sensory evocation of sounds, smells, tastes textures and colours. Reared in a village in Burgundy where a kind and [...]

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Weekend Story

THE REMARKABLE HALF-HALF ©
Not so long ago there lived in Green Acres a toad who thought very highly of himself. He was yellow in colour. As yellow as a buttercup in full bloom. Among so many toads clad in drab colors his yellow always stood out. Besides he had his warts all in right places [...]

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Blank Page of your life

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) was described by his first teacher as ‘impenetrably stupid.’ Balzac similarly was written away as useless.Einstein was not expected to set the world on fire either. Many more instances could be cited where those who were in authority so lightly dismissed those youths who didn’t fit their mold. Are lives of men [...]

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Raging Bull-1980

Raging Bull is a 1980 biopic on Jack La Motta and directed by Martin Scorsese. Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin wrote the script from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story.
The ageing boxer in the beginning sequence alludes to the “I shouda have been a contender” scene from On The Waterfront complaining that his brother should [...]

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Pen Portraits-17

GEORGE CLEMENCEAU (French) (1841  -  1929)
Statesman.
Clemenceau stood for the principles of the French Revolution – authoritarian, democratic, patriotic; he was a 20th Century Jacobin.
The French politician who had the most nicknames (Le Tombeur des Ministères, Le Tigre, Père la Victoire) and fought the most duels, he began his career as a radical deputy and outspoken [...]

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Pen Portraits-16

JUAN DE LA CIERVA (Spanish) (1895  – 1936).
Engineer.
The man who invented the autogyro was born into an artistocratic family at the turn of the century. Brooding over the crash of his first plane, he set out to design an aircraft that would be stall-proof and capable of flying very slowly.
Four years of experiment led to [...]

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Reflections on the Golden I

A Spartan of Ancient Greece did not fight merely for himself. But also for others. His Spartan living began from the day he was born and his whole life was spent in service of the city-state. What moral sense one can hold without giving the individual his due?
A nation may hold me under its obligation [...]

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Pen Portraits-15

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (Roman)  (106  -  43 B.C.)
Statesman, Scholar, Lawyer, Writer.
He was a staunch upholder of republican principles during the civil war that destroyed the Roman republic, is remembered as Rome’s greatest orator. After studies in Greece and Rome, Cicero firmly established a reputation at the bar by 80 or 79. Actively involved in politics [...]

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