It took Leo Tolstoy about six years to write the classic War and Peace. Cervantes published Part I of Don Quixote in 1605, but it was 10 years later — in 1615 — before he…
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Never give up!
This happened in November 2009. A South Korean woman celebrated after passing the written exam for a driving licence – on her 950th attempt. After four years of trying, 68-year-old Cha Sa-soon…
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Henry Ford
Henry Ford dropped out of school at the age of 15. He walked from his family’s farm in Dearborn, Michigan, to Detroit, and found work in a machine shop. He would eventually…
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Humble beginnings
In the year 1873, there was a country-bumpkin who applied for a sales job at a store in upstate New York. He looked like anything but a potential salesman to the owner,…
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Let me be thankful….
Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, was robbed one day. He wrote in his diary: “Let me be thankful, first, because I was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my…
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The Gandhi ‘talisman’
To a friend, who was tormented by doubts, Gandhiji wrote a letter. The letter was mislaid, but on a later occasion the words were recalled to memory and transcribed. The following is…
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A man of courtesy
Bapu was always the soul of courtesy towards young and old, rich and poor. An incident illustrative of this side of his character was described by Giralda Forbes in the Catholic World of Calcutta.…
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‘Nothing too small for him’
Acharya Kaka Kalelkar, who was with Gandhiji in Bombay at the time of the Congress Session there in 1915, relates the following story revealing how great the latter could be even in…
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What made Gandhiji wear only loincloth or dhoti
Ninety-five years ago on 22nd September 1921, Gandhi made a momentous decision to change his attire. From the elaborate Gujarati attire, he decided on a simple dhoti and shawl. This epoch-making decision was…
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The troublesome tooth
When Gandhiji was staying in London towards the close of 1906 pleading with British statesmen the cause of his countrymen in South Africa, he developed a toothache. He was busy with his…