No related posts.

By refusing to take bribes, the Madurai collector has earned 18
transfers in 20 years, a modest house and bank balance and lots of
respect

On a hot summer afternoon, on Madurai’s busy main road, the district
collector, U. Sagayam, saw a young man talking on a cellphone while
riding a motorbike. He asked his driver to wave the man down, got down
from his car and meted out instant punishment: plant 10 saplings within
24 hours. Somewhat unconventional justice, some might say. But that’s
how Sagayam works.

‘Lanjam Thavirtthu, Nenjam Namartthu’ (Reject bribes, hold your head
high), says a board hanging above Sagayam’s chair in his modest office.
That’s the code he lives by, even if politicians are incensed they
cannot bend him their way-he’s been transferred 18 times in the last 20
years-and has made enemies of both superiors and subordinates. “I know I
sit under a dangerous slogan and probably alienate people,” he says.
“But I have been the same Sagayam from Day 1. Standing up against
corruption is not for a season. Nor is it a fad. It’s forever.”

Two years ago, as district collector of Namakkal, he voluntarily
declared his assets: a bank balance of Rs 7,172 and a house in Madurai
worth Rs 9 lakh. Once, when his baby daughter, Yalini, who had breathing
problems, was suddenly taken ill, he did not have the Rs 5,000 needed
for admitting her to a private hospital. At that time he was deputy
commissioner (excise) in Coimbatore and there were 650 liquor licences
to be given out. The going bribe for each was rumoured to be Rs 10,000.

Sagayam started cleaning up Madurai the minute he landed here. The main
bus terminus at Mattuthavani looked more like a bazaar, with shops all
over the bus-shelters and no waiting place for passengers. Even a police
outpost had been turned into a shop. The system was well-oiled with
haftas to local politicians and policemen. Sagayam quickly went through
the rulebook, cited the relevant clauses and cleaned up the entire area.
But didn’t it hit poor shopkeepers who lost their livelihood? “A
violation is a violation,” says Sagayam, “but we will help them
rehabilitate.” Nageshwaran, a taxi-driver and one of Sagayam’s many
fans, says, “He’s strict and hasn’t taken even ten paise in bribe during
his career. He’s like the upright collectors they show in some films, a
real hero with integrity.”

Sagayam’s masters degrees in social work and law come in useful in his
role as an administrator. He knows the rulebooks in detail and is not
afraid of using them, however powerful the opponent. No wonder then that
Sagayam’s career is marked with the scars of countless battles.

When he was in Kanchipuram as revenue officer, he took on the sand
mafia, ordering them to stop dredging sand from the Palar riverbed.
Large-scale dredging had made the area flood-prone. The mafia sent goons
to assault Sagayam, but he did not budge and would not take back the
order. He also took on a mighty soft-drink mnc when a consumer showed
him a bottle with dirt floating in it. He sealed the bottling unit and
banned the sale of the soft drink in the city. In Chennai, he locked
horns with a restaurant chain and recovered four acres valued at some Rs
200 crore.

Given such credentials, it wasn’t surprising for him to be picked by the
Election Commission to oversee elections in Madurai, as famous for its
temples as its political gods. During the last polls, Sagayam took on
M.K. Azhagiri, the local MP and son of former CM and DMK supremo M.
Karunanidhi. He conducted voter awareness campaigns in colleges; the DMK
petitioned the court twice, seeking to end what it said was an attempt
to influence voters, but the court demurred.

Sagayam’s wife Vimala has stood by him all these years but she was
rattled by some of the threats during the elections. “He always says if
you are right, nobody can hurt you,” she says. “But sometimes it becomes
difficult.”

Sagayam takes a hands-on approach to his work. He holds a Monday ‘durbar’,
at which anyone can meet him with their complaints. During tours of the
district for review meetings and inspections, he will suddenly stop a
school bus to talk to children or duck into a school to take a class.
When students tell him they want to be IAS or IPS officers, he asks, “It’s
all well to say now that you’ll be honest, but will you remain unbending
about not taking bribes throughout your career?”

Some months back, while driving to a village, he found a 92-year-old
woman cleaning rice. She said she had to work in order to eat. He
immediately sanctioned Rs 1,000 as old-age pension for her. When
60-year-old Vellamma met him during a tour of Uthappanaikkanoor village
this week and asked him to grant her a pension, he said, “I can do that.
But do you want me to send your son to jail too-for abandoning you?” He
said it with a smile, as a joke, but he has in fact taken action against
children who don’t take care of their aging parents.

“I believe, as Mahatma Gandhi said, that India lives in her villages,”
says Sagayam, who also idolises Subhash Chandra Bose. His years as a
collector-he has slept overnight in village schools many times-have
convinced him to better the lot of villagers by strengthening the
village administrative officer (VAO) system. Many VAOs have never
visited villages and often stay miles away from where they should be, in
cities. In Namakkal, his action against errant VAOs had them ganging up
with politicians to get him transferred. Over 5,000 villagers protested,
saying they wouldn’t let Sagayam go. The politicians had to retreat.

Sagayam says he learnt honesty on his mother’s knees. He is the youngest
of four sons of a farmer from Pudukottai. “Our adjoining field had mango
trees and my friends and I would pick the fallen fruit,” he says. “But
my mother made me throw the mangoes away, saying I should enjoy only
what is mine.” Now his daughter Yalini wants to become a collector. When
she has an argument with her brother Arun, she asks her father, “Is he
really your son? He just told a lie!” Both of them are proud of their
father. Recently, after a long time, the Sagayam family went on a
vacation to Kullu in Himachal Pradesh. While visiting a gurudwara, a
stranger came up to their father and asked him, “Aren’t you IAS officer
Mr Sagayam?” Yalini and Arun have not stopped beaming.

–
One Man with courage is a Majority

No related posts.

No related posts.

Easy availability of pornographic content on web is severely responsible for the growing Pornographic addiction. This is a highly common problem with teenagers and the people in their twenties. Moreover, this ‘Devil’ doesn’t even spare the retired lads.

Making resolutions and then breaking them is general affair for a porn addict. He is not able to suppress this urge of watching porn and masturbating. This act of pleasure surely gets converted into an obsession.

I have some very effective ways to help you with this addiction:

1. CHANGE YOUR POOR EATING HABITS, eating more than required cause laziness and one tends to feel inactive and tired, thus indulging into Porn, just to releive his or her mental fatigue. So, cut down your food intake.

2. AVOID ALL ELECTRONIC GOODS WHEN AT BED, all mobile phones, laptops, i pads etc. should not accompany you to your bed.

3. LISTEN TO MOTIVATING SONGS, music is the finest doctor when it comes to addiction. So listen to any motivational song when free and alone.

4. DO NOT STAY ALONE, try and stay with your family members, friends etc. Even at night sleep with some elder or at least share a room with someone.

5. PISS AND FLUSH, yaeh! pissing whenever you sense an erection or an urge to see porn really proves helpful. So, just piss and flush your urge.

6. AVOID TALKING TO YOUR GIRL/BOY WHEN AT HOME, talk to your girlfriend/boyfriend when your are on a walk or are outdoors for any other reason.

7. CHALLENGE YOURSELF and try to gather as much positive energy as possible, pray to the God, do yoga etc. and challenge this poor habit or urge of yours. The stronger the will to get rid of this addiction the better all these steps will work for you.

And have faith in God. Almighty helps those who desperately need a helping hand. Have faith , nothing is beyond God.

No related posts.

1. IIT Bombay (Top JEE students join every year)
2. IIT Kanpur
3. IIT Delhi (Location factor pushes it up in its ranking)
4. BITS, Pilani University (Admissions only on basis of Merit.)
5. IIT Kharagpur (Oldest IIT has excellent faculty, research)
6. IIT Madras (Placement factor lets it down)
7. IIT Varanasi(ex-IT BHU) (New Tag was just final step in making a complete package)
8. IIIT Allahabad (established in 1999)
9. IIT Guwahati (Not so good location and not up to the mark placements)
10. ISM Dhanbad (Petroleum and mining placements make it to number 10)
11. College of Eng., Anna University, Guindy
12. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Warangal
13. New IITs (Without campuses but academically and students input still moves IITs up)
14. BIT, Mesra, Ranchi
15. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Trichy
16. Delhi College of Engineering, New Delhi
17. Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh
18. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Suratkal
19. Motilal Nehru National Inst. of Technology, Allahabad
20. IIIT, Hyderbad
21. Bengal Eng. and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah
22. MANIT, Bhopal
23. PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore
24. Thapar Inst of Engineering & Technology, Patiala
25. Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur
26. Malviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur
27. VNIT, Nagpur
28. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode
29. Dhirubhai Ambani IICT, Gandhinagar
30. Osmania Univ. College of Engineering, Hyderabad
31. College of Engineering, Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam
32. Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi
33. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
34. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Rourkela
35. SVNIT, Surat
36. Govt. College of Engineering, Pune
37. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar
38. JNTU, Hyderabad
39. R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore
40. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur
41. University Visvesvaraya College of Eng., Bangalore
42. VJTI, Mumbai
43. Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore
44. Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore
45. SSN College of Engineering, Chennai
46. IIT Roorkee
47. College of Engineering, Trivandrum
48. NIT Durgapur, Durgapur
49. SIT, Calcutta
50. Mumbai University Inst. of Chemical Tech, Mumbai
51. Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai
52. P.E.S. Institute of Technology, Bangalore
53. Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune
54. Amrita Institute of Technology & Science, Coimbatore
55. National Institute of Engineering, Mysore
56. B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore
57. Laxminarayan Institute Of Tech., Nagpur
58. Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad
59. IIIT, Pune
60. Amity School of Engineering, Noida
61. JNTU, Kakinada
62. S.J. College of Engineering, Mysore
63. Chaitanya Bharathi Inst. of Technology, Hyderabad
64. IIIT, Bangalore
65. SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai
66. SASTRA, Thanjavur
67. Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bangalore
68. The Technological Inst. of Textile & Sciences, Bhiwani
69. IIIT, Gwalior
70. JNTU, Anantpur
71. M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore
72. Gitam, Vishakhapatnam
73. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur
74. Manipal Institute of Tech, Manipal
75. SV University Engineering College, Tirupati
76. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Raipur
77. Vasavi College of Engineering, Hyderabad
78. The ICFAI Inst. of Science and Technology, Hyderabad
79. NIT- National Institute of Technology, Patna
80. Cummins Colleges of Eng. of Women, Pune
81. VIT, Pune
82. Shri Ramdeo Baba K.N. Engineering College, Nagpur
83. Muffakham Jah Engineering College, Hyderabad
84. Karunya Institute of Technology, Coimbatore
85. D.J. Sanghvi, Mumbai
86. Sathyabhama Engineering College, Chennai
87. Kongu Engineering College, Erode
88. Mepco Schlek Engineering College, Sivakasi
89. Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana
90. Hindustan Inst. of Engineering Technology, Chennai
91. SDM College of Engineering, Dharwad
92. R.V.R. & J.C. College Of Eng., Guntur
93. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
94. K.L. College of Engineering, Veddeswaram
95. Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology, Nadiad
96. S.G.S. Institute of Technology & Science, Indore
97. Jabalpur Engineering College, Jabalpur
98. Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering, Trivandrum
99. G.H. Patel College of Eng. & Technology, Vallabh Vidyanagar
100. Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneshwar

No related posts.

No related posts.

No related posts.

Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Kansas, the daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart. At the age of three, she was sent to live with her grandmother (her namesake), mainly because the old woman needed company and a distraction from the deaths of her mother, her son, and her daughter-in-law, as well as the poor mental condition of her husband Alfred. The grandparents (or grandmother) raised Amelia during her early childhood. She liked their home in Atchison, Kansas, especially her large bedroom with views of the nearby river, and she enjoyed her life with them: learning to read at five, and secure in a place where it seemed that almost everyone was family. But her grandmother was timid, and a worrier, and did not approve of Amelia’s tomboy tendencies, so Amelia kept her pony-riding, tree-climbing, snow-sledding, and hunting activities to herself. Her parents were only 50 miles away, and she summered with them, so she remained close to them during these years.

When she was seven, her father Edwin took the family to the St. Louis World’s Fair, where, on riding the Ferris wheel, she learned that she rather enjoyed heights. She learned to build and make things with her own hands, once making a crude roller coaster out of two-by-fours, a packing box, and roller-skate wheels. She was an avid reader, and even as a child read Harper’s Magazine for Young People, and the novels of Dickens and Thackeray. One of her favorite poems was “Atalanta in Calydon” by Algernon Charles Swinburne; it’s a poem about a warrior maiden, who hunts and kills a boar with Meleager.

From the first grade, she attended the College Preparatory School in Atchison. It was a tiny place, with only about 30 students, housed in a building that used to be a stable. Amelia was bright, but her independent spirit and lack of interest in recitation did not endear her to the teachers. In high school, cheerleading was not enough for her, she wanted to play on the basketball team.

Like Pappy Boyington, her family circumstances were unsettled, marked by moves and alcoholism in the family. The odd family arrangement (Amelia living with her grandparents in Atchison, her younger sister Muriel with the girls’ parents in Kansas City) lasted until Amelia was ten, when she rejoined with her mother and father.

Her father Edwin, was well-educated, but tended to the impractical; money just slipped through his fingers. His in-laws, the Otises, helped him out a lot (including taking care of Amelia), but Edwin’s extravagance remained a problem. In 1908, he got a new job, with the Rock Island railroad, which required him to move to Des Moines. Now, the arrangement with the Atchison grandparents was no longer feasible, so Amelia joined them in Iowa, and saw her first airplane, at the 1908 Iowa State Fair. For a few years, Edwin did well, moving into a newer, larger houses almost every year, as his income grew. But his spendthrift nature won out, and he kept living beyond his means, and increasingly turning to alcohol. He moved out for a time, but Amy (Amelia’s mother) implored him to return.

The death of Amelia’s grandparents, the Otises, was the final blow. The Otises were quite wealthy, with an estate worth over $170,000 (a huge sum in those days). While the will sought to provide for the grandchildren, it excluded Edwin and Amy. A lengthy, messy struggle ensued. During this time, Edwin had lost his job, and was forced to accept a menial position in St. Paul, which required another family move, to Minnesota.

In the 1913-14 school year, at St. Paul Central High School, where Amelia was more in control of her own destiny, she did very well, keeping a grade point average in the high eighties, with a curriculum including Latin, German, and Physics.

In 1916, she matriculated at Ogontz, a highly-regarded women’s college, what used to be called a “finishing school,” outside of Philadelphia. In her three semesters there, Amelia played field hockey, studied Shakespeare & Latin, and attended concerts of the Philadelphia Symphony. When the United States entered World War One in 1917, Amelia was drawn in and served as a nurse with the Volunteer Aid Detachment (VAD) of St. John Ambulance Brigade.
Flight

She took her first ride in an airplane in 1920. After her flight with barnstormer Frank Hawks, she said “As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly.” Indeed, within a few days, she took her first flying lesson, in a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. Six months later, she bought her own airplane, a yellow Kinner Airster, that she dubbed “The Canary.” Like Gabby Gabreski, she was not a naturally gifted pilot, but she persevered, built up her flying time, and even broke the woman’s altitude record in 1922.

The mid-Twenties were difficult years for Amelia. Her mother finally divorced Edwin, thus ending that part of Amelia’s family life. She studied at Columbia for a time, but lack of money compelled her to withdraw. She had a long-term engagement to one Sam Chapmen, but they never married. She was active in aviation and social work, living in Medford, Massachusetts for a time. She flew whenever she could, distributing ing free passes to a carnival on one occasion, and was active in Boston aviation cirles.

She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic on June 18-19, 1928. The flight was the brainchild of Amy Guest, a wealthy, aristocratic American expatriate living in London. Aware of the huge publicity that would accrue to the first woman to fly the Atlantic, the 55 year old Mrs. Guest had purchased a Fokker F7 trimotor from Commander Richard Byrd, to make the flight herself. Her family objected, and she relented, as long as the “right sort” of woman could make the flight. The “right sort” would take a good picture, be well-educated, and not be a publicity-seeking gold-digger. The Guest family hired George Putnam, a New York publicist who had promoted Lindbergh’s book We, to look for a suitable women pilot. He selected the little-known Amelia Earhart, and introduced her as “Lady Lindy”.

While the flight instantly made her world-famous, she was little more than a passenger in the Fokker tri-motor “Friendship.” They took off from Trepassy, Newfoundland, and after a 20 hour and 40 minute flight, landed in Burry Port, Wales. When they went on to London, another huge mob welcomed them. The pilots, Wilmer Stutz and Louis Gordon, were all but forgotten in the media frenzy surrounding the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

No related posts.

“It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it.”

John Crowe Ransom was born 30 April 1888 in Pulaski, Tenn., the third of five children of Methodist minister John James Ransom and his wife Ella Crowe Ransom. John Crowe attended the Bowen preparatory school in Nashville, completing a rigorous program in classical languages, English, history, mathematics, and German. Entering Vanderbilt University at 15, he continued his classical studies. He was a Rhodes Scholar at University College, Oxford, from 1910 to 1912, reading widely in classics and philosophy. In 1914 Ransom accepted an instructorship in English at Vanderbilt, where he immediately began the method of teaching that, through texts written in the late 1930s and early 1940s by his former students Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren (the “New Critics”), was to dominate the teaching of literature in American colleges and universities for nearly 30 years: close analysis of individual texts with emphasis on the uses of language.

Except for army service during World War I, followed by a term at the University of Grenoble, Ransom remained in the English department at Vanderbilt until 1937 (teaching many summer sessions in other colleges and programs). His first volume of poetry, Poems about God, appeared in 1919.

In the fall of 1919 Ransom began meeting with the group that would, in 1922, begin to publish the Fugitive, a magazine whose name signified flight from “the high-caste Brahmins of the Old South” (according to Ransom’s foreword). Ransom, an already-published poet and a respected teacher, was sought out for advice and judgment by such younger members of the group as Donald Davidson and Allen Tate (and later Warren, Andrew Lytle, Jesse Wills, and others). The Fugitive, which lasted 19 issues, from 1922 to 1925, and expired not for lack of funds but for want of an editor, published the bulk of Ransom’s mature poetry, collected in the volumes Grace after Meat (1924) and Chills and Fever (1924). In 1927 Two Gentlemen in Bonds was published, containing some of Ransom’s best poems: “Dead Boy,” “Blue Girls,” “Janet Waking,” “Vision by Sweetwater,” “Antique Harvesters,” and “The Equilibrists.”

In God without Thunder (1930) Ransom proposed that new rationalistic theologies were destructive of the religious sense, for they destroyed a person’s respect for the mysterious universe and elevated “science,” which analyzes and uses “nature” rather than fearing and loving it. Ransom’s religious ideas were coordinate with his defense of the South in “Reconstructed but Unregenerate,” his essay for I’ll Take My Stand (1930), and other essays about the South in contemporary society, such as “The South Defends its Heritage” and “The South—Old or New?” For the former Fugitives and others who published I’ll Take My Stand, the respect and love for nature associated with farming, especially family subsistence farming, were intimately bound up with the best social values of the culture—filial piety, kindliness, good manners, respect for the past, contemplativeness, and appreciation not only of the natural world but of art.

The publicity focused upon I’ll Take My Stand and a series of debates related to it made the agrarian position a focal point for discussion of broad cultural values of American society. In an essay for a 1936 collection, Who Owns America?: A New Declaration of Independence (edited by Herbert Agar and Allen Tate), Ransom retreated from the extreme agrarian position, acknowledging that the South must accept industrialization in order to preserve economic autonomy. By 1940 Ransom had called the agrarian ideal a “fantasy” in the Kenyon Review, thus making public and final his defection from the economic position he had defended a decade before. The espousal of humane values—including respect for the mysteries—was not recanted but became the center of Ransom’s poetic theory in The World’s Body (1938), The New Criticism (1941), and later essays.

Ransom accepted a teaching position at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1937 and founded the Kenyon Review two years later. During Ransom’s editorship of the Kenyon Review (1939-59), he published important works by such southern writers as Andrew Lytle, Randall Jarrell, Caroline Gordon, and Flannery O’Connor. Although Ransom had left the South and had abandoned the agrarian program, he remained a staunch spokesman for the aesthetic and ethical values formulated in the essays and poems of his Vanderbilt period. He died 2 July 1974 in Gambier, Ohio.

No related posts.

But, people are still reluctant to buy these hybrid vehicles and are worried whether these comparatively expensive vehicles will actually pay off ??

In actual sense the answer to this question depends upon what you buy and how you drive. The roads do make slight difference too.
First of all the cost of the hybrid cars is largely affected by the sort of system it is fitted with. Simply, a Honda Insight (fitted with a mild system) will cost far less than a highly luxurious sedan from Lexus.

When talking about the milege the non-hybrid counterparts will always provide a less mileage than a hybrid counterpart. To stick to an example, a Ford Escape 2009 (hybrid) provides a mileage of about 34miles per gallon on the highway which when compared to the 28 miles per gallon, provided by the non-hybrid model.

But still lest check out the pros and cons of the hybrid cars and see whether these hybrids really help reduce the expenditure or not?

Hybrid cars do reduce the gas consumption. If you are a person who seldom drives on the highway and is more used to the city roads then the hybrid system can save you thousands of dollars in an year and few dollars daily.

But for the people who regularly drive on the highway might not feel the difference. They might not appreciate the savings made by a hybrid car.

The hybrid engines re-power the battery on stopping and thus the local commuters can avail the maximum benefit by purchasing the hybrid cars.

But one should never forget the fact that these hybrid cars will be your contribution towards the nature.

No related posts.

Toshiba recently entered the notebook market, but its fine products represent that it is very much familiar with small. The NB205-N310 topped all lists as soon as it entered the market. The notebook besides providing the longest battery life till date, as was promised, also provides some of the well brought out designs in the market.

The features with NB205-N310, deliver the work they are supposed to, but with a far more precision.

The battery life, as was estimated, is 9 hours 30 mins only. This is the longest battery span, any notebook has ever had. Thus this feature alone makes it worth owning. But, my friends, this is just a glimpse of NB205-N310. By the time you finish this post, I am sure you would have made your mind to buy this piece.

If you have never had a finger massage, you can try one at the stunning keyboard of NB205-N310. The keys are designed are chiclet-sized and have cutout keys, which are large enough to provide the ultimate comfort your fingers demand while tying. The touchpad is tough comparatively smaller.
This thoughtful design and structure, makes this the best notebook mousepad ever. The laptop also has the burly mouse buttons at the southern edge and thus reducing the stress on hands while working.

The NB205-N310 is armed with three USB-hub ports, a Webcam, ethernet, a VGA out, SDHC card reader, headphone and microphone. Also a wireless WAN (optional).

As already mentioned this Toshiba notebook brings in a lot of well experimented designs. The color reproduction is normal and sufficient to support 1024 by 600 pixels. It has a 10.1 inch lustrous screen. Thus, producing sharp pictures. These features provide the a style to NB205-N310, which adores both the brand’s and bearer’s name.

At the end, it has an Internet accelerator which provides the necessary protection to the hard drive in case of falls.

These features certainly make this new Toshiba product a healthy and cheap fish for the IT department officials.
There is a lot more for a Toshiba fan, to explore in this device.

No related posts.

She took the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, made herself pure and fit for divine communication. Later in her life, as Mother Teresa, she regarded her life and works as an expression of God’s love on earth. When she was eighteen, Neptune entered her 9th house-the area of education, higher learning and yearning to be with God. There was a call to be in union with the higher forces of the universe and she heeded the call. She left her home in Skopje, Yugoslavia and became a nun in Dublin, Ireland. She was changed forever; she came to be known as “Sister Teresa.” Her life was transformed as she dedicated it to doing God’s will. The order she joined ran convent schools in India. She later went to India to teach and eventually adopted it as her home and the base for her saintly work.

On September 10, 1948, while on the train heading to a retreat, she had a remarkable spiritual experience. There was another message form God, instructing her to leave the convent and to help and express God’s love to those who are poor, suffering and downtrodden. In this year, she started her special mission; she left the convent to seek the poor. She attracted 12 followers who were very devoted to her cause. They sought the most miserable of society and lived with them. Early in the existence of their order they endured abuse and humiliation but they persevered. In 1950, the Vatican established the Missionaries of Charity and Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa. Unlike other missionary orders, they took and additional vow- a life of dedication to the care of the poor and the needy.

In 1952, the House for the Dying was opened, caring for the helpless and guiding them to die in dignity. In 1957, they started to work with the outcast of society-the lepers. Wherever there was a calamity, missionaries from her order were present, giving moral support and helping raise funds for the people in distress. Mother Teresa’s strong dedication has won her many admirers and supporters worldwide. By her selfless example she has proven that despite economic issues that divide people, human beings are the same-they share the same pain and sorrow. Her work has transcended national and religious boundaries.

She has won the support of world leaders and other benefactors form different backgrounds, hence, she did not have to worry about the source of funding for her projects. In 1985, then US President Ronald Reagan honored her with the Medal of Freedom. In 1996 a poll was made and she was voted second to Princess Diana as the World’s Most Caring Individuals.

Mother Teresa has helped millions of people who were suffering and have inspired the rich and the poor alike into another way of compassionate living. Some individuals were born to embody a universal principle that if more people would emulate would lead to a more peaceful and spiritual planet; Mother Teresa was such a light, she pointed us a way to be closer to God, through the path of service.

No related posts.

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), India’s first prime minister, was the chief architect of domestic and foreign policies between 1947 and 1964. Born into a wealthy Kashmiri Brahman family and educated at Oxford, Nehru embodied a synthesis of ideals: politically an ardent nationalist, ideologically a pragmatic socialist, and secular in religious outlook, Nehru possessed a rare combination of intellect, breadth of vision, and personal charisma that attracted support throughout India. Nehru’s appreciation for parliamentary democracy coupled with concerns for the poor and underprivileged enabled him to formulate policies that often reflected his socialist leanings. Both as prime minister and as Congress president, Nehru pushed through the Indian Parliament, dominated by members of his own party, a series of legal reforms intended to emancipate Hindu women and bring equality. These reforms included raising the minimum marriageable age from twelve to fifteen, empowering women to divorce their husbands and inherit property, and declaring illegal the ruinous dowry system (see Life Passages, ch. 5).

The threat of escalating violence and the potential for “red revolution” across the country seemed daunting in the face of the country’s growing population, unemployment, and economic inequality. Jawaharlal Nehru induced Parliament to pass a number of laws abolishing absentee landlordism and conferring titles to land on the actual cultivators who could document their right to occupancy. Under his direction, the central Planning Commission allocated resources to heavy industries, such as steel plants and hydroelectric projects, and to revitalizing cottage industries. Whether producing sophisticated defense matériel or manufacturing everyday consumer goods, industrial complexes emerged across the country, accompanied by the expansion of scientific research and teaching at universities, institutes of technology, and research centers (see Education, ch. 2; Science and Technology, ch. 6).

Jawaharlal Nehru demonstrated tremendous enthusiasm for India’s moral leadership, especially among the newly independent Asian and African nations, in a world polarized by Cold War ideology and threatened by nuclear weapons. His guiding principles were nationalism, anticolonialism, internationalism, and nonalignment. He attained international prestige during his first decade in office, but after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956–when New Delhi tilted toward Moscow–criticisms grew against his inconsistency in condemning Western but not communist aggression. In dealing with Pakistan, Nehru failed to formulate a consistent policy and was critical of the improving ties between Pakistan and the United States; mutual hostility and suspicion persisted as a result (see United States, ch. 9). Despite attempts at improving relations with China, based on his much-publicized five principles (Panch Shila–see Glossary)–territorial integrity and sovereignty, nonaggression, noninterference, equality and cooperation, and peaceful coexistence–war with China erupted in 1962. The war was a rude awakening for Nehru, as India proved ill-equipped and unprepared to defend its northern borders. At the conclusion of the conflict, the Chinese forces were partially withdrawn and an unofficial demilitarized zone was established, but India’s prestige and self-esteem had suffered. Physically debilitated and mentally exhausted, Nehru suffered a stroke and died in office in May 1964. Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy of a democratic, federal, and
secular India continues to survive in spite of attempts by later leaders to establish either an autocratic or a theocratic state.

No related posts.