Sound of silence

  52. Copy Cat Children   We Indians have an obvious preference for the male child as the first offspring of a couple. And   the child should not only be male, but should   also look like his father. In song and story that sentiment may have takers. But how boringly repetitive the society would be if   all the children grew up to become carbon copies of their father or mother!   variety being the spice of life, the purpose of creation is not at all to make clones of people.   Seeing the mad rush of new gen parents one would feel that their desire is not to have children but to have robots as their progeny. A crop of little monkeys that jumped according to their commands.   The number of mothers   insisting on getting the best of everything for their children is legion. I feel pity for   nervous, fidgety   mothers   waiting impatiently outside examination halls, causing tension not only for themselves but also for their children. There is tension in every home having school goin

  51.Had She Been Here   One day when I was returning home from office I asked the driver to make a detour. To my old school master’s house. Reaching there I went to the door and pressed the calling bell. But there was no response. No one came to open the door. Nor was there any sound from within. Is he not there? I peered into the room through an open window and found that the fan was on. That meant that he was indeed in the house. Then why this delay? At last the master himself came and opened the door, with profuse apology. ‘I am sorry I am late. I was in the kitchen preparing noodles for my son who had come back from school. It was then I heard the calling bell. I thought I should put on a shirt...’ he paused for a while, thinking of something and then added with a tinge of sadness: ‘Had she been here!’ If she heard the sound of the calling bell when she was busy in the kitchen, she would immediately rush to the door, open it and usher in the guest. She would then take the

  50. GOVERNMENT IN LIMBO England was shaken and shattered by the demise of Queen Victoria. Winston Churchill, who was a young man then, asked Sir William Hardcourt in sorrow: ‘What will happen now?’ Sir William said with a smile: ‘Since I am worldly wise I am telling you, nothing will happen. ’ For the first time in its democratic history when none got majority in the elections, the people of India asked themselves, ‘What will happen now?’Many felt that a minority government was a political absurdity destined to run on stilted legs. The general assessment was that a coalition government was something like a tattered and patched up coat. And like the chorus in a Greek drama the people asked in unison ‘What will happen now?’ We understood that what Sri William said was right. Nothing happened. Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister. People understood that a Thrishanku parliament, or a hung parliament, also was a parliament. The only thing is that a hung Prime Minister is to behav

  49. THE CHARIOT RISING SUN ROLLS In Greek mythology the Sun God Apollo moves around Heavens daily in a chariot driven by white steed. It is as a result of this that day and night and the seasons occur. Once Phaeton, the son of Apollo, had a wish: to move around in the chariot with grandeur like his father. He got in the chariot. The horses bolted. The son of Apollo got flustered, unable to control the horses in their flight. During this time Nature lost all its moorings. It was as though the sun, the moon and the stars were about to be flung away from their positions. Exposed to the extreme heat the skin of the handsome men of Africa became dark and ugly. There was only one way to save the universe from total ruin. Zeus, the greatest of the Gods, threw his fiercest weapon, lighting, at Phaeton and killed him. Will the son of Apollo start his chariot race again? Will history repeat itself? These are the questions heard in the corridors of history as one hears the rumblings of

  48. WAS THE PRIME MINISTER A CHINESE SPY? The Prime Minister who went down the sea in a diving gear did not come up again. Even after the search by the naval helicopters or the expert divers no trace of the Prime Minister could be found. It was when people thought that the sea had swallowed him that the journalist Anthony Grey came up with a news which startled everyone. That the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt was a Chinese spy. A spy who used to leak secrets to China for money before he became politically important. He was forced to continue as a spy even after he became Prime Minister. Ultimately when things reached a stage that the secret would be out Holt went for a swim in the sea off Victoria coast as preplanned in a secret understanding with China. In his book ‘The Prime Minister Was A Spy’ Anthony Grey disclosed that the Prime Minister boarded a waiting Chinese submarine which took him to China without anyone’s knowledge. The famous West German Chancellor Willy B

  47. WHO SHOULD SIGN THE DEATH WARRANT?   The emperor who used to issue death warrants for the traitors chose to issue the last death warrant for himself. The emperor who was in his sick bed called his personal physician and said: I am fed up. I don’t want to go on. I want to bid farewell to this world. You should help me in that. With tears in his eyes the court physician carried out the royal decree.   Years later the world came to know of this secret from the diary of the physician. The death of George V of England was due to euthanasia. What is euthanasia? Direct euthanasia is speeding up of the death of patients suffering from incurable diseases through the administration of certain drugs. Indirect euthanasia is stopping to administer those life giving medicines which help to prolong the life of terminally ill patients. The general consensus is that both these methods are deplorable. The legislation to permit euthanasia failed to get through in America. But the live

  46. IMPEACHMENT Edmund Burke roared in the British parliament. ‘I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanours.             ‘I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has betrayed.             ‘I impeach him in the name of the people of India……’ The British people, both high and the low alike, thronged the gallery of the House of Lords and lined up the sidewalks outside parliament to witness the sensational trial of the century. Tha magic of Richard Sheridan’s oratory, that kept the entire house spellbound for five hours a day, was such that there were people willing to shell out even a thousand pounds to obtain a copy of its full text. There were also people who would bribe a big sum for entry into the trial court. However great and efficient an administrator might be, he should in the final reckoning be accountable to the parliament and the people. The impeachment helped to furth