Remembering Mother Teresa

It was probably 1985 or 1986, when University of Delhi had conferred Honorary Degree on Mother Teresa. I was in the Students Union from Kirori Mal College and had the opportunity to be present for the occasion. I was a little hesitant to go as there was a dress code.for the function. My friend Sanjeev Mishra gave me his tie and coaxed me to go. Finally, I witnessed the function, which otherwise I would have certainly regretted. We posed for photograph with her ( I am still trying to get a copy of it)and took her autograph on the brochure for the Convocation at Sir Shankar Lal Concert Hall.She signed her name with the message, "God Bless You'.This is her life history -Born on. Aug. 27, 1910, was Albanian, originally named Agnes Gonxha Bejaxhiu,...

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IN THE EYE OF A STORM

As the report compiled by Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal a decade ago, on ways and means to improve the lot of the backward castes and classes continues to rock the country, few, if any, remember the other contributions of the one-time Chief Minister of Bihar to the state and country.Here, his grandson Suraj Yadav profiles his crusading grandfather and the compulsions which drove him to become a champion of the downtrodden.For nearly ten years two successive Congress governments sat over the Second Backward Classes commission report submitted under the chairmanship of B.P. Mandal, and the intelligentsia, the press, the champions of merit and others conveniently closed their eyes to its existence obviously thinking that the report would be consigned...

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