Noted Dutch post-impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, was not always an artist. In fact, he wanted to be a church pastor and was even sent to the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879.…
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The man with big ears, and big dreams that took India to the moon
Aug 11, 2019: On August 12, 1919, a baby boy was born in the home of Ahmedabad’s leading textile mill-owner; his siblings looked at him and declared he had big ears, “just…
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The good doctor of Malkangiri
When Kumulu Kirsani, a tribal teenager, fell seriously ill on a dull grey morning on September 17, 2019, all the ills that keep Odisha’s Malkangiri district backward seemed to conspire against him.…
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Harakchand Sawla: Charity begins on the footpath
A young man in his twenties used to stand on the footpath opposite the famous Tata Cancer Hospital (Tata Memorial Centre) at Mumbai and stare at the crowd in front of him…
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Life is baeutiful
Do you remember the name of your kindergarten teacher? I do, mine. Her name was Mrs. White. And I remember thinking she must be some older relation of Walt Disney’s Snow White,…
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‘Dear teenage boy at the skate park’
A visit to the local skate park took an unexpected turn for a mother and her little girl. The mother of a little girl aspiring to be a skateboarder has posted a…
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Erik Weihenmayer: Blind to failure
Scaling Mount Everest requires the enthusiasm and boosterism of a physical-education teacher combined with the survival instinct of a Green Beret. You have to want that summit. Erik Weihenmayer, 33, wasn’t just…
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Night and day
Rabbi Isadore was a wise teacher. A student asked, “How is one to know the precise time when night ends and day begins?” One student volunteered, “It is when one can distinguish…
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Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
This story is about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was…
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The greater treasure
There is a Sufi story told of how a poor farmer had journeyed to Delhi to beg for some financial help from the great Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. After some days…