Tag Archives: somerset maugham

INTERESTING FACTS FIGURES AND QUOTES–EPISODE 26

August 18, 2019article, beautiful lines, causerie, column, facts, General awareness & Knowledge, general knowledge, gk, interesting facts, kamlesh tripathi, quote, quotes and lines, shravan charity mission, snippet, Uncategorizedaeschylus, ahmad rasool khan, alfred tennyson, ammunition, anglo-saxon, arundhati bhattacharya, asshole, athenian, aurangzeb, bal mundan, bc, beethoven, bertrand russel, bihar, brexit, british pound, buddha, cambridge analytica, carole cadwalladr, china, country, currency, damascus, earthern pot, egypt, english, Hindu, india, john dryden, Kabir Das, Kesaria, khafif khan, krishna, kushinagar, Lichhavi, Lingam, medico, motihari, mughal, mythology, ordnance factory, parinirvana, patna, philosopher.greek, plato, rama, referundum, saffron robe, sbi, schizophrenic, Shiva, Shivratri, silicon valley, somerset maugham, stupa, symphony, syria, vaishali, victorian, violinshravancharitymission

Silicon Valley lives in a bubble and its gods are oblivious of the havoc they have caused. Their technology is wonderful but is subverting elections and you are accessories to it. Liberal democracy is broken and you (Silicon Valley) broke it—says Carole Cadwalladr, the Welsh journalist who had exposed Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s messing with the Brexit referendum.
Shiva alone is usually not represented by a deity, and instead, is depicted by the lingam. Hindu mythology speaks of Krishna and Rama as avatars, they were born and they died. They are said to have worshipped Shiva. Other Gods also take physical birth, but Shiva neither takes birth, nor dies. Shiva incarnates himself in a human body, an occurrence that is celebrated during Shivratri.
The British pound is the world’s oldest currency still in use. It is 1,200 years old. Dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, the pound has gone through many changes before evolving into the currency we recognise today.
Egypt is considered one of the oldest countries of the world and was first settled around 6000 BC. The first dynasty was believed to be founded around 3100 BC. India and China are the other two world’s oldest countries.
Damascus the present day capital of Syria is widely believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city of the world, with evidence of habitation dating back at least 11,000 years. Its location and persistence have made the city a nexus for civilizations that have come and gone.
Let me remind you about the great mystic Kabir Das the legendary poet and saint who celebrated the breaking of his earthern pot. For him it meant emancipation from the daily drill of trudging far for filling water. Where, he further alludes to the joy of renouncing the false sense of self-pride.
Kesaria is a place in Bihar about a 90 minute detour enroute to Patna from Motihari. This was where according to the legend, Buddha performed his ‘bal mundan’ and assumed his kesaria (saffron) robe.
Buddha spent his last night in Kesaria en route from Vaishali to Kushinagar where Buddha believed, he attained Pari-nirvana, forseeing his end. When he asked his Lichhavi disciples to disperse and return to Vaishali. He gave them his alms bowl, to still the chorus of dissent. After his death, they built a mud stupa to house the bowl.
The Ordnance Factory Board that supplies ammunition to the Indian army has 41 factories.
Writer Somerset Maugham, a medico who never practiced, learned to play violin to tide over his loneliness in his old age. Bertrand Russel would regularly listen to Beethoven’s ethereal symphonies to fight his sporadic schizophrenic bouts. Victorian English poet Alfred Tennyson started playing the piano at 70 when he felt that his poetic prowess was waning.
Contrary to the general belief that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb abhorred music, some accounts say that the Mughal court chronicler Khafif Khan mentioned in his court despatches written in Persian that Aurangzeb’s chronic insomnia at the age of 78 was cured by the court musician Ahmad Rasool Khan.
In any merger the biggest challenge is always integration of human resources–Arundhati Bhattacharya, Ex-Chairman, SBI.
The direction in which education sets a man will determine his future life–Plato Athenian philosopher.
The Greek tragedian, Aeschylus was right when he said, ‘the first casualty of war is truth.’
John Dryden, English poet wrote, ‘beware of the fury of the patient man.’
If you have surrounded yourself with assholes, you’re going to be more of an asshole.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

Shravan Charity Mission is an NGO that works for poor children suffering from life threatening diseases especially cancer. Our posts are meant for our readers that includes both children and adults and it has a huge variety in terms of content. We also accept donations for our mission. Should you wish to donate for the cause. The bank details are given below:

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

(The book is about a young cancer patient. Now archived in 7 prestigious libraries of the US, including, Harvard University and Library of Congress. It can also be accessed in MIT through Worldcat.org. Besides, it is also available for reading in Libraries and archives of Canada and Cancer Aid and Research Foundation Mumbai)

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

(Is a fiction written around the great city of Nawabs—Lucknow. It describes Lucknow in great detail and also talks about its Hindu-Muslim amity. That happens to be its undying characteristic. The book was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival of 2014)

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

(Co-published by Cankids–Kidscan, a pan India NGO and Shravan Charity Mission, that works for Child cancer in India. The book is endorsed by Ms Preetha Reddy, MD Apollo Hospitals Group. It was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival 2016)

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

(Is a story of an Indian salesman who is, humbly qualified. Yet he fights his ways through unceasing uncertainties to reach the top. A good read not only for salesmen. The book was launched on 10th February, 2018 in Gorakhpur Lit-Fest. Now available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

INTERESTING FACTS & QUOTES EPISODE 21

June 11, 2019facts, general knowledge, gk, parable, quote, quotes and lines, snippet, Uncategorized, word power idioms phrasesartifacts, ashvatta, christopher columbus, church, england, facts, gdp, general awareness, general knowledge, george mikes, gk, households, kamlesh tripathi, kilo calaries, lpa, lucky 7, mam ramaswamy, mountstuart elphinstone, newspaper, nss, orwellian, shravancharitymission, silver spoon, skymet, snapchat, somerset maugham, southwest monsoon, unescoshravancharitymission

Floccinaucinihilipilification: is the longest non-technical word in the English language. It means an estimation of something as worthless. It has 29 letters which is more than the entire 26 letters of English Language.

Antidisestablishmentarianism: The word has 28 letters which again is more than the entire 26 letters of English language. It means opposite of disestablishment often used in the context of the Church of England.

Let’s not forget Christopher Columbus was looking for India when he lost his way to America. Funnily in his ‘letter of the first voyage’ explaining why he was looking for India, he mentioned the word ‘gold’ 17 times, while he mentioned the word ‘Lord’ and ‘God’ only once.

‘Lucky 7′ is the world’s favourite number. There are seven days in a week, seven colours in a rainbow, seven notes in a musical scale, seven seas and above all seven continents.

Anytime you ask people about happy moments in their lives, they have to really think hard. But ask them about unpleasant or sad moments they will come up easily with many.

Fake news: There are some 560 million or say (56 crore) internet users and 354 million or say (35 crore) smartphone devices that are either willing recipients, distributors or even victims of this growing phenomenon in India. In many cases all three.

Law of ‘diminishing returns’ means: Every incremental acquisition (maybe a costlier car) gives less incremental happiness than the earlier acquisition did.

Around 56% to 58% of GDP is generated by private consumption.

Meteorological department’s first 2019, southwest, monsoon forecast, puts it at, “near normal”, or 96% of the long period average (LPA) of 89 cm. Private forecaster Skymet Weather said, the monsoon would be below normal at 93% of LPA.

From a long term perspective, India is currently in the midst of a dry epoch. Government says that between 1951 and 2007, southwest monsoon has shown a decreasing trend. This monsoon provides about 75% of India’s annual rainfall, significantly influencing food production.

‘Break water to storm’ is a type of phrase which means that we take a measure or make a structure with concrete or with rock at a sea shore to protect coastline from dangerous wave and storm which often take place in sea. Some are naturally created and some barriers made manually are known as breakwater.

Ashvatta trees are those whose roots are in the air and branches touch the ground, symbolizing the subtle truth that the world we observe is the inversion of the real.

Orwellian is an adjective describing the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society.

MAM Ramaswamy- Chennai industrialist holds the record for the most wins in Indian Turf (horse-racing) history.

Barely 4% of all households in India are headed by women. Over 70% of currently married men are household heads compared to 3% of married women.

The average protein intake of a person in India through normal diet has dipped 6-10% in the past two decades with almost 86% of rural and 70% of urban population not getting the government designated 2400 kilo calories per day. While the richest get over 2518 kilo calories each day the poorest get less than 1679 kilo calories—a difference of almost 50%.

US and India are able to export only about a quarter of what they import from China.

In the 1950s private health costs were, just between, 5% to 10%, of the total health bill of the country. Today, the position is reversed and the change has not been in slow motion. There has been an eight fold increase in the number of private hospitals between 1980 and now. This is why, the NSS records, as many as 24% of rural households and as many as 18% of urban households fall into the debt trap on account of medical expenses.

According to the most recent national survey, around 5 crore people in India are pushed below poverty line due to high out-of-pocket health expenditures.

As of the last count there were 20 lakh major temples, three lakh major mosques and thousands of churches in India.

In the recent past UNESCO estimated that India had lost 50,000 artifacts till 1989. I would say the number is much bigger. India has been able to recover only about 40 pieces of stolen heritage since independence. Fascinatingly 27 of these have come back only in the last 4 years.

With half of India’s farm less than half hectare in size many of its farmers need decent jobs to escape poverty.

In past centuries people suffered from a severe lack of information which made it difficult to verify what’s true. Today we suffer from too much information, so people are too distracted to investigate the truth.

Mountstuart Elphinstone was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population.

In a single day there are a 50 million exchanges on snapchat. 1.15 billion opinions on facebook, 500 million twitter feeds and a multitude of reactions on newspaper and TV.

And now some interesting lines:

These days, to find fools is not difficult, and to find people who fool others, is even easier.

Tradition is a guide and not a jailor—said SOMERSET MAUGHAM

George Mikes (Hungarian born-British journalist) said this of Englishmen and queues: ‘An Englishman even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.’

India has always been a difficult country for Indians.

If you are not born with a silver spoon, you better become a spoon.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

Share it if you like it

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****

SPINDRIFT

April 13, 2015article, articles, casual causerie, causerie, column, short article, short srticle, short story, snippet, spiritual, story, Uncategorized, vignettebhootnath, camus, capt hameed, chandrakanta, col vinod, devaki nandan khatri, english novels, find, finding, hindi novels, Humphry Bogart, kafka, somerset maugham, spindriftshravancharitymission

Finding is such pure joy. And how rare, too! It had been several years since I had picked up anything when I found a penknife, a Hindi thriller and a five rupee coin, the last named beaming at me from below the seat of a ramshackle bus plying in our very own metropolis. Recalling that Elvis ditty ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’ I closed my eyes, stiffened my sinews and commended my soul to God before picking up the coin glistening in the errant sunbeam which had chanced through one of the innumerable slits in the roof. Nobody noticed. The conductor did raise a quizzical eye brow but that was about all. The term ‘conductor’ through over use has lost its semantic substance. The fellow is basically a logistics manager and with training can outsmart any sophisticated route operator. Even a funambulist might take a cue from the number of jobs he juggles while on board the boneshaker. This perception is wholly reserved for our country. Now coming back to the treasure trove -the Hindi thriller was a disappointment- not a patch on the Col Vinod and Capt Hameed era whodunits. Hindi detective fiction since then has been on the decline, virtually on the ‘endangered species’ list. Such a sorry state is inexplicable considering the vast treasure of Indian fiction available in genres like Sorcery, Witchcraft, Tilism, and detective fiction. ‘Chandrakanta’ and ‘Bhootnath’ had once fired the imagination of generation of readers and also contributed immensely to the popularity of Hindi language. These works of Devaki Nandan Khatri have outlived the copyright regime and are in the public domain since the early 60s. That is why they were churning out Chandrakanta serials decades ago paying scant regard to the original text and plot. But perhaps I am digressing.

In a life time frittered away looking at the mirror I scarcely noticed the ‘sixpence lying at my feet’. I was never much of a chance finder. At times one does strike a gold mine but the instances are so far removed that they vanish like the may snow drift. Once while waiting to get my vintage Ambassador car serviced I came across an unclaimed copy Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. I was familiar with the works of Maugham and therefore happy to add to my collection of Moon and the Sixpence and Eyeless in Gaza. The neo-intellectuals in my college days would talk of Camus, Kafka and Maugham in the same breath. Perusal of their works was considered the hallmark of intellectual prowess and was a sure passport to the local salons where deipnosophists abound. Photograph of Camus in a trench coat and fedora with a cigarette dangling loosely from the corner of the mouth, looking very much the Bogart of the noir genre, was one of the most widely reproduced photograph of the time.

HUMPHRY BOGART

God’s largesse did not end with the book. This time it was a crumpled hundred rupee note with remnants of superfine khaini , the closest western variant being the snuff, much in vogue among the aristocracy of Europe in the days of yore. This bonanza came my way while going to Ranchi town from my college campus at Mesra. It was not one of those savoury trips one looks forward to but an undignified exit due to hostel vacation orders. As the college had been closed sine die it was being hotly debated whether to push homewards or to foregather in some cosy pastoral retreat for some good times together. It all depended on the pelf and riches.

Emboldened by the find I decided to join the merry revelers, home being at ‘Lands End’. Though I put the money to good use I still haven’t been able to figure out what made the fellow to ‘crumple it’ and to tuck the promissory note under the seat. Perhaps he was a chance finder like me and had acted the way he did to avoid detection by fellow passengers. Of course he would take the booty away while disembarking. Another plausible theory was that he has merely stored the surplus khaini there for a rainy day quite forgetting the king’s ransom in the form of a crumpled note.

I might add, that now and then, perhaps a ball pen, pocket comb or a sparsely populated purse or some such trifles, no matter how well supplied one may be with, cannot be acquired without a thrill. Think of a Blackbury or a Rayban thus found. We all live and learn. A defeatist may venture something like “it takes all sorts”.

The essence of finding something which brings to us unalloyed joy is half unexpectedness and half uniqueness. There being no aposematic forecast, no intuitive premonition and the ‘gift’ coming to you by chance: no one is to be thanked, no one to be owed anything. “Something for nothing … ” Ay, there’s the rub…”. Shakespeare has put these things so beautifully. To look for the thing is to transform the whole plot-to rob it of its ‘sublime suddenness’-perchance to become even concerned or greedy.

In its larger context we may use the word discovery-something akin to Columbus discovering America or was it the West Indies. Our concern for trifles and small findings are at once so stimulating and pure joy that to meddle with it would only appeal to a killjoy. Yet there are people who have an unsavoury sense of the sport!

I recall the small rustic game or charade being played out by stringing a purse or paper money (bill or note) or any such desirable object which the casual walker gleefully stoops to pick up. The pranksters conveniently hidden from view have a field day as they pull the string leading the unsuspecting wayfarer on a merry chase. There are many clever variants which the fun-seeking lads have in their repertoire. In this cyber age of ours such diversions may seem blasé. But for a country whose half the population lives below poverty line there may still be some relevance left in such innocuous and simple pastimes.

One common thread which runs through this serendipity is the absence of haste. My once rural seat and current urban dwellings present contrasting styles in time management. Reckon a simple activity like breakfast. Absence of haste is anathema to modern spirit. For most commuters it is always charged with disturbing quiet. The unnerving scenario of buses disappearing round the corner and the cacophony of traffic jams brood over the chota hazri , transforming mild God-fearing men into wild harpies as they sprint out like bats from hell. Down at the rural seat the meals are leisurely and indolent- a perfect epitome of laid-back country life of a cultured man. It is a breakfast of ease and languescent mood, a meal of ‘soft murmurs and rustling papers’.

Circumstances afford little options. This harum-scarum age of ours has everything excepting time where brutish bolting of food is the in-thing. However, a quiet leisurely, laid- back meal by the crackling logs in winter has its unwavering charm.

Let’s take a little time off for ourselves.

“We look before and after

And pine for what is not”

A.K.Tripathi,

Guwahati-2015

*****

Shravan charity mission

Our NGO works for poor children suffering from life threatening diseases especially cancer: We cover our blog with short stories, children's stories, articles, book reviews, vignettes, spiritual, episodes, poetry, analysis, news report, general knowledge, quotes for the benefit of our readers.

Tag Archives: somerset maugham

INTERESTING FACTS FIGURES AND QUOTES–EPISODE 26

INTERESTING FACTS & QUOTES EPISODE 21

SPINDRIFT