Personality of the day - Mohammed Ali


   



mohamad ali  ws born on 17 january 1942. at the christening ceremony he ws given the name of cassius Marcellus clay bt when he grew up, he adopted the Muslim religion and changed his name Mohammad Ali. even frm his childhood , Mohammad  Ali had burning desire to become a famous boxer. His his dream came true whn he won the olympic gold medal. it ws because of of his unsurpassable boxing skill and colourful personalty tht  he ws called Ali the great . in his perfessional career, Mohammad Ali earned more than 60 lakh dollars and took part in 61 bouts fr 549 rounds.
         In the rome Olympic , he won the light heavy weight gold medal . After turning perfessional, Mohammad Ali challenged world champion, sonny Liston on february , 1964 and snatched the world title fr nt acccepting the  USA's compulsory military serivce decree. In his bid to become the world champion again ,Mohammad Ali ws  beaten by Joe Frazier . bt Ali did nt lose heart nad avenged his defeat beating Joe Frazier in 1974 and became
the world champion again. After this he ws beaten by Leon Spinks bt in 978 he proved tht he ws really great by beating spinks.
          Mohammad Ali's attempt to become the world champion fourth time ws foiled by Larry Holmes whn he defeated Ali badly, bt by tht time age had started having its affect and Ali's boxing ws nt wht had been in the past.


        Mohammad Ali ws nt only the great boxer within the ring bt he also gave new dimension to th popularity of boxing, all over the world . The period betwean the retirement of Ali and emergence of Mike Tyson in boxingworld seems blank.
           He is now suffering frm parkinson's disease bt his daughter Laila Ali is creating waves in women boxing.

                                                           MEENA KUMARI
                                                                                         
                                                    THE QUEEN OF TREGEDY
Meena kumari traditionally known fr perfecting the role of the tragedienne in films,in actually the embodiment of the woman as essence rather than flesh .in a career spanning three decades ,she chiselled the contours of two role models and created some kind of the woman as wife and the woman as mother.


           The first role she almost perfected ws in the guru dutt classic sahib bibi aur ghulam
 (1962) as the protagonist , chhoti bahu. fighting fr her rights in the 19th century feudal milieu of bengal,chhoti bahu ws the epitome of the partivrata nari(devoted wife).she  may have been viewed as an iconoclast by her family members, bt her iconoclasm too ws born out of desire to be the perfact spouse.
           
            Nothing more and nothing less. languishing in her boudoir while her husband chhote babu(rehman),an autocratic,purely hedonistic zamindar followed the dictates of his manhood in distant brother , chhoti bahu plotand achemes to bring the prodigal back to her .she rebels against social and religious  and injuctions, resorts to alcohol, dances and desperately tries to seduce her husband, so tht he might remain faithful. bt all along her profligate ways--- drinking and aggressively seducing ---- were condemned by her own conscience. Even as she let down her hair and lifted the cup of liquor to her lips, she bemoaned the fact tht she ws breaking the behavioural code prescribed fr good hindu wives.  yet the fact tht  these transgressions were peramount in any woman's life---- a good wifes's dharama deified her further. here ws a neglected woman who in the sober 1960's ws throwing herself at a man's feet in a drunkrn stupor, aggressively demanding satiation. bt the fact tht this act ws depicted as a glorious sacrifice (chhoti bahu ws sacrificing her religious virtuosity) nt only sanctified it, also created a prototype fr the sixties savitri (a typically faithful wife) fr her husband's well being, this celluloid savitri could even compromise her religious sanctimony for the observance of a greater duty. tht of the woman as wife.




              in dushman, her propriety sets straight the men (rajesh khanna) who murderd her husband. khanna , an alcholic, awomaniser and a truck driver is forced to stay with the window and her family as punishment meted out by the courts. the sentence comes as a godsend. fr the widow's virtuousness and unwavering propriety cures him, nt only of his profligate  ways, bt it clieanses his soul too.


             in gulzar 's mere apne the mother -figure weaves her cleansing magic, nt on an individuals , bt on groups of individuals .the old woman and her talisman of goodness makes her an oasis of peace in the midst of a city torn apart by gang warfare. whn everything fails to cure the anarchic hoodlums of their overriding lust to kill,plunder and loot it is the mother figure wo manages to purge the city and the humans of their evil.


            Reverence then ws the only virtue permissible to Meena Kumari's celluloid image .
for meena kumari represented a rarefied concept of traditional womanhood tht ws divested of all its physical antecedents .if beauty , nt sensuality , ws the defining characteristic of her physicality , then pain nt purity ws th keynote of the metaphore for melancholia , whr suffering and self -secrifice became more pleasurable than  satition and self-appeasement .


            it wsn't incidental tht meena kumari perfacted the role of the virinal nautch-girl in kamal amrohi's pakeezah. fr it ws only meena wd her metaphorical sancity and  overriding penchant fr tragedy who could infuse body and saul into cinema's biggest oxymorn.           

MOTHER TERESA(1910-1997)

DIVINE ANGEL






Agnes gonxha bejaxhia ws born to aldanian parentss in the town of skopje,macedonia. at thw age of 18, she  entered the roman catholic order of the sisters of our lady of loretta in ireland. after she recieved training in dublin and darjeeling, india, she her vows. in 1929, as sister teresa, she became part of a group of loretta nuns in calcutta and taught high school there fr nearly 20 years. while wrking as a teacher , she deeply moved by the incredible suffering of the sick and dying she encountered daily on the crowed city streets. on september 10, 1946, while riding a trainin darjeeling, she recivedwht she believed to be a clear call frm God to leave the sisters of loretta and to devoted her life to wrking fr impoverished of the city while living among them.
Granted permission by the pope to leave her post at the convent, in 1948 mother teresa began her lifelong ministry among the poor two years later, she and her workers wr approved by the archdiocese of cacutta as the new order of the missionaries of charity . th order ws later recognized as a pontifical congeregation under the direct jurisdiction of Rome.
                    Woman joining this religious community took four vows upon acceptance. in addition to the traditional clerical vows of poverty , chastity  and obedience, missionaries of charity took fourth vow pledging srvice to the poor.
                     The basic belief underlying mother teresa's wrk ws tht the poor symbolized christ and tht by serving them , she and her sister wr serving christ. the sisters saw their primary mission as a religious one although they carried out their wrk in various ways as nurses and social wrkers.
                      In 1952 mother teresa opened the nirmal hriday(pure heart) home frdying destitutes in culcatta. since tht time she hs extended hr wrk to five continents. her book about her life 'gift frm god' ws published in 1975. in recognition of her achievements , she received the presidential medal of freedom from the united states, bharat ratna in 980 and numerous other prestigious awards.
                      The angel of mercy conquered the world by serving the poorest of poor, became a citizen of india in 1962. her selfless service wd a smile amongest the most downtrodden people made her a most revered figure on the world arena.
                     The vatican has announced tht mother teresa would be beatified by the spring of the 2003 . beatification is the last step before sainthood. mother teresa is regarded by the pope as a much needed role model of holiness fr the modern world.

                                                    LENARDO DA VINCI(1452-1519)
                                       
                                                               UNIQE GENIUS





One ideals of perfection in mankind is tht of perfect balance.a man whose brain is many sided and can grasp the details and see the inner
laws of arts and sciences, and yet have creative faculties as well as analytic whose body s healthy and beautiful and vigorous, worthy temple fr tht brain whose personality is pleasant
and kind , and whose whole being is animated by a spirit of lofty enterprise such a man has he gifts of life in just
balance, he approaches completness. such a man ws leonardo da vinci the greatest light of the italian renaissance, whose many sided genius in unique in the history of the world.
Lenardo da vinci ws known in Florence as a  youth of charm and address, a man of wit, singer and poet a rising painter ,sculptor and architect. bt they do nt know him as we do today , as one finest painter the world has seen , a draughtsman ,sculptor, architect mechanician , miltary and civil engineer , natural philosopher, a poineer in many realms of science an anticipator of galileo, newton, bacon,
harvey, watt, fulton a genius whose versatility has never been paralleded in the history of the world .
This man , one of the greatest lights and most dynamic forces of italian renaissance, ws born in 1942. he ws the illegitimate son of lawyer ser piero antonioda vinci , whence his family took its nam . his mother , catarina, afterwards married another man , and leonardo ws brought up entirely in his father's house.
Drawing and modelling were the favourite tasks of his childhood , and this led his father to place him under verrocchio, the florentine artist.leonardo came under the tutorship of verrocchio in 1470 . he rapidly became a perficient painter , and we know he ws employed to finish and assist in wrks undertaken by master . in june 1472 we find the name of lynardo di ser piero da vinci entered in the account books of the florentine guild of painters as an indipendent artist .
Wd the exception of an unfinished canvas of the adoration of the kings in the uffizi at florence nearly all of lenardo's early wrk has been lost it said tht he painted one of the inthis period of hid life he did a water colour cartoon of the fall and painting of the medusa. he had already begun to make his mark too as an architect and sculptor, and we are told tht while still a youth, he executed a number of fine heads in terra cotta.
He ws the first painter to go nature fr his example. he owed nthng to old classical rules and patterns. leonardo, again ws the first painter to realize the effects and to appriciate the beauties of light and shades he attemted to reproduce their interplay in his picture --- a mighty advance frm the simple concentration on colour and frm of the old school.
Bt leonardo didn't stop there . he had an insatiable thirst fr knowladge. he not only saw, and attempted to reprouduce, the beauties of light and shades he wanted to know the laws tht governed them. he studied optics and physiology of the eye .
Had his notebook been published at the time of his death science and scientists would have been saved century of labour bt they wr neglected until the ninetenth century , whn it w found tht leonardo had anticipated discoveries in every sphere.
As a writer he helped to mould italian prose. as a theoretician in art he discoverd and laid down immortal pronciples . a century before bacon, showed a finer grasp of the principels of experimental science than bacon did.
He designed an aeroplane whish , if he had some agent such as the petrol engine would have flown . he anticipated the use of steam sketched a steam cannon and designed paddles fr ships he even made drawings fr breech loading cannons. some of the machines tht he constructed and designed such as the saw in the marble quarries of carrara have survived fr ver four centuries.
He ws the originator of the science of hydraulics and discoverdthe camera obscura . he ws convinced of the molecular structure of water had knowladge of sound and and light waves and ws the first to study the structure and arrangement of flowers and foilage. and he ws great philospher. His virtues are nt ended as a man  he ws handsome strong enough to bend horse-shoes, charming tactfulathletic he ws popular and desrved to be he w generous and loyal friend and devoted to his followers and pupils.
There can only be one summary of leonardo da vinci tht almost perfact example of the civilized mind wedded to a healthy body he ws the complete man.
His most celebrated painting the mona lisa(now in louvre, paris) ws done in 1506 the face of the woman portrayed is famous fr its strange and subtle smile

MILKHA SINGH

THE FLYING SIKH


Born on october 8,1935 at gobindpura near kotmandu in district muzaffarnaghr of west punjab now in pakistan . he is the only athlete who won gold in asian games and commonwealth games and also bettered an olympic record.
milkha singh ran in athletics contests in 70 countries. of the 82 conetest he participated in, he won in 79. participated in 200m. and 400m. in 1956 olympicswd the perfomance of 22.6 and 49.9 seconds, respectively . created a  new asian record 45.6in 400m. in rome olympics games(1960), though obtained fourth position. bt even though 41 years have since passed, no indian athlete has been able to achive that record of 20.7 seconds fr 200m . set on january 30 , 1960 has not been broken  so far. he ws a mamber of the 4 X 400 . realy team which returned a timing of 3:08:8 in tokyo olympics(1964). won  the 440 yards in cardiff commonwealth games in 1958.
milkha singh won four gold medals  in two asian games in 1958 and 1962 . that iclued two golds in 200m. (21.6) and 400m(46.9)in 1958 asian games at tokeyo. again won gold in 400m(46.9) and ws a mamber of 4X400m relay team which got gold medal (3:10:2) in 1962 jakarta asian games. national champion in 200m and 400m frm 1957 to 1960 he is married to athlete nirmal kaur and settled in chandigarh . his son chiranjiv(jeev) milkha singh has become a star golfer ininternational arena at a young age wd several prestigious wins.
the govt of india awarded him padma shree in 1959 and he won world helms trophy fr being one of the greatest athletes of 1959.
he recently , refused to accept arjuna award fr his life time achievments because of dirty manipuions involved in the selection process.

Amrita pritam



Amrita Pritam (Punjabi: ਅਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਮ, amritā prītam, Hindi: अमृता प्रीतम, amr̥tā prītam) (August 31, 1919 – October 31, 2005) was an Indian writer and poet, considered the first prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist, and the leading 20th-century poet of the Punjabi language, who is equally loved on both the sides of the India-Pakistan border, with a career spanning over six decades, she produced over 100 books, of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were translated into several Indian and foreign languages.[2][3]
She is most remembered for her poignant poem, Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu Amrita Pritam was born in 1919 in Gujranwala, Punjab, now in Pakistan,[2] the only child of a school teacher, a poet and a scholar of Braj Bhasha, Kartar Singh Hitkari, who also edited a literary journal.[8][9] Besides this, he was a pracharak – a preacher of the Sikh faith.[10] Amrita's mother died when she was eleven. Soon after, n 1935, Amrita married Pritam Singh, son of a leading hosiery merchant of Lahore's Anarkali bazaar. In 1960, Amrita Pritam left her husband for poet Sahir Ludhianvi (Abdul Hayee).[27] The story of this love is depicted in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket. When another woman intruded into the love life of Sahir, Amrita found solace in the companionship of the renowned artist and writer Imroz. She spent the last forty years of her life with Imroz, who also designed most of her book covers. Their life together is also the subject of a book, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.[28][29]
.she and her father moved to Lahore, where she lived till her migration to India in 1947. Confronting adult responsibilities, and besieged by loneliness following her mother's death, she began to write at an early age. Her first anthology of poems, Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves) was published in 1936, at age sixteen, the year she married Pritam Singh, an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood, and changed her name to Amrita Pritam.[11] Half a dozen collections of poems were to follow in as many years between 1936 and 1943.


She died in her sleep on 31 October 2005 at the age of 86 in New Delhi, after a long illness. She is survived by her partner Imroz, daughter Kandlla, son Navraj, daughter-in-law Alka, and her grandchildren, Taurus, Noor, Aman and Shilpi

missing noxi   :sad: