No account of Napoleon Bonaparte can be completed without a reference to Josephine. Napoleon married her in 1796. At that time, she was six years older than Napoleon. Prior to this, she was a widow, whose husband had been guillotined a few days before the fall of Robespierre. She had two children from her first marriage and had practically no means. However, she did not loose heart.

 

She was very much impressed by the vehemence of Napoleon’s passion and the intensity of his glance. She at once agreed to marry him when the proposal came. She was very much impressed by the self-confidence of Napoleon, who continued to believe till the end that he was “The Man of Destiny”. Napoleon had addressed her in these words: “Do they (Directors) think that I need their protection in order to rise? They will be glad enough someday if I grant them mine. My Sword is at my side and with it I can go far.” Josephine has written thus about her inner feelings: “This preposterous assurance affects me to such a degree that I can believe everything may be possible to this man, and with his imagination, who can tell what he may be tempted to undertake?”

 

Napoleon had his happiest time with Josephine. As a matter of fact, she was the only woman for whom he really cared. Even Madame Walewska who gave him a son never took her place. It is rightly said that Napoleon conquered Europe and put it at the feet of Josephine. According to Napoleon, “Had there been no Josephine, there would have been no Napoleon.” It was she who inspired him. She could amuse him by her indignation and move him by her tears. She was his only refuge from his only family. She was the one person in the world to whom he could say what was really in his mind. He could be natural-self with her alone.

 

Unfortunately, all the members of Napoleon’s family were against her. Napoleon also foolishly thought of marrying a princess and having a son from her to succeed him. That created trouble and ultimately Josephine was divorced in 1809. Soon after that, she left the Tuileries and began to live alone at Malmaison. It is there that she died. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 when Napoleon left Paris for the last time, he went to see the last memoirs of Josephine.

 

Hardy put the following words into the mouth of Napoleon after his defeat at Waterloo:

“I came too late in time

To assume the prophet on the demi-god

Apart past playing now. My only course

To make good showance to posterity

Was to implant my line upon the throne.

And how shape that if now extinction nears?

Great men are meteors that consume themselves

To light the earth. This is my burnt-out hour.”

 

It has rightly been said that Napoleon Bonaparte committed a blunder of his life when he divorced his beloved Josephine. When he divorced her, he cut his life in half and threw away the better half of it.

 

------------- Birajini Samanta Ray

 

I grew up with his music. I grew up trying to moonwalk like him. I know almost ALL his songs and lyrics by heart. I always wanted to dance and move so smoothely like him. I admired him so very much. I respect and love his work from the ultimate core of my soul. His music took me through some of my toughest times. His song BEN always made me feel that I'm not alone. His song BEAT IT brought out the devil-dancer in me. His song BAD made me feel it's ok to be me, with all my flaws. His song BLACK OR WHITE and HEAL THE WORLD revolutionised our Thinking. BILLIE JEAN is my ultimate 'move it' song. All of MJ's songs are a huge part of me now.


Jacko created a new dimension in Music...one that got etched in Music history, that belongs to him and him alone. Jacko is a Music legend no matter what people say about his personal life - not that it matters anyways. I have great respect for MJ & for his work, and I know that people who judge him can never achieve what he achieved in his short life. He is a genius. His work excelled all the negative publicity he got towards the end of his life. Those who cannot see his expertise are poorer for not being able to recognise his unique genetic brilliance.

 

He is Body, Soul, Rhythm, Precision, Technique, Brilliance, Performance, Dedication, Professionalism, Strength, Heat, Devotion, Passion, Talent, Charisma and LOVE. Jacko you beat it mate! WE LOVE AND MISS U! The world is poorer today for losing you way before your time. Thank You for the great music and the passion that you brought to our lives! Your legacy will never die. There will never be another Jacko and there will never be another dancer like him. No one else in the world can MOVE like u MJ!

Young Jawaharlal’s first agitation was a demand for more frequent birthday parties. It was a demand which found favor with his mother. But authority, in the form of his father, frowned on the idea. You have a birthday party year, said his father, Motilal Nehru. Can’t I have one every month? Asked Jawaharlal. Definitely not, said his father. And so Jawaharlal had to be content with only one birthday a year. It is the sad lot of small boys throughout the world to have only one birthday party a year; but Jawaharlal was lucky to have even that, because in India most of the children were too poor for parties.

Motilal Nehru was a successful, hard-working lawyer. Whenever he gave  a party for Jawaharlal it was a magnificent affair. Early in the morning the small boy would be weighed in a huge balance against some bags of wheat and other foodstuffs which were later given to the poor. He was then put into his new clothes. Early portraits show Jawaharlal in a variety of costumes: embroidered pantaloons and coat with jeweled slippers; sometimes a sailor-suit or a Scot kilt! After he had been dressed up he would be given his presents and then there would be a feast.

Jawaharlal was surrounded on all sides by grown-ups. He did not have other children to play with. And perhaps that’s why, as he grew older, he wanted to spend more and more time with children, the missing playmates of his childhood. There was his father, a strict but loving man who wanted his son to grow up to be like an Englishman and join the Indian civil service. The boy’s mother doted him. And it was to her that he went whenever he wanted some thing. Writing home from Naini Tal, where he was sent for a holiday in the summer of 1904 he asked his mother for books, he addressed her, “ if any book comes in my name it may be taken and the price paid. And these books that come should be sent here…”

He was a bookworm from a very early age. Swaroop Rani liked to have Jawaharlal all to herself and did not go out of her way to try and find friends for him. There were various aunts and uncles who came and went, but very few seemed interesting to the thoughtful, brooding boy. He had english governesses but they left little impression on him. Perhaps his best friend was an old man, Mubarak Ali, who had been with the family for many years. Not only did he tell Jawaharlal stories from the Arabian nights, but he also gave him vivid accounts of the happenings in 1857, when the first organized revolt against British rule had taken place and the uprising had been partly exterminated; but instead of had become sad and gentle and understanding. Jawaharlal looked upon the old man as a fount of wisdom.

His mother and one of his aunts also told him stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha, the great Indian epics; but he preferred reading to listening, and by the age of nine he was beginning to discover books for himself. His irish tutor, Brooks, did much to encourage and guide Jawaharlal’s literary tastes. Among his early favorites were Kipling’s jungle book and kim, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in wonderland and more. His love of books and the english language was to grow with the years, and one day he would be an author in his own rights. Until he was fifteen, Jawaharlal received most of his education at home; but it was Motilal’s ambition to send his son to a public school in England. What were the Nehrus doing in Allahabad in the year 1889, when Jawaharlal was born? Their ancestors came from  Kashmir, that lovely mountain valley blessed by providence with green meadows,wild flowers, majestic glaciers and enchanted streams.

According to Motilal, his grandfather’s great grandfather was a Sanskrit and persian scholar of some eminence in Kashmir. He attracted the notice of Emperor Farruk when the latter was on a visit to Kashmir. The family migrated to the imperial city of delhi around 1716. Some villages and a house situated on the banks of a canal were granted in Jagir to Pandit Kaul. Because he lived beside the canal ‘nehru’ came to be attached to his name and he was known as Raj Kaul Nehru. In later years ‘Kaul’ dropped out and the family adopted ‘nehru’ as the surname. During the unsettled state of the throne and the country following the assassination of Farruk, the family fortunes suffered. The jagir dwindled into zamindari rights, the last holder being Motilal’s great grandfather, Pandit Mausaram Nehru.

Jawar=harlal’s grandfather, Pandit Gangadhar Nehru, was the Kotwal, or officer-in-charge of the police station at delhi. This was shortly before the revolt of 1857. A miniature painting of Pandit Gangadhar still exists. It shows him wearing Moghul court dress with a curved sword in his hand. He might easily have been taken for a moghul nobleman if his features had not been so distinctly Kashmiri. He was fair and had a red beard and gentle blue eyes. The Nehru family lost all its possessions during the revolt of 1857. Joining the exodus of refugees from delhi, the moved to Agra. There pandit Gangadhar died in 1861, only 34 years old. Three months later his son, Motilal, was born. The burden of looking after the family fell upon the Motilal’s elder brother, Nandlal, who was already earning a living.

Motilal’s early education was confined entirely to persian and arabic and he only began learning english in his early teens. When motilal grew up he joined ht muir central college at Allahabad where he was very popular with his British professors. Motilal always got on well with british, even when he was opposed to them. They admired his forthright nature, his manliness, and the ease with which he moved in their society. Until he joined the freedom movement, he always dressed like an Englishman. The legal profession provided lmost the only opening for young educated Indians, and so it was not surprising that Motilal decided to become a lawyer. He had just begun his legal practice when his elder brother, Nandlal, died. The burden of supporting the family now shifted to Motilal.

Motilal prospered. He started practice in the district courts of Cawnpore and, being eager to succeed, worked hard and established himself as a successful lawyer at an early age. In 1886 Motilal moved to Allahabad to practice in the high court. At first he lived in Mirganj in the old part of the city. Jawaharlal was born there, on 14th November 1889. Later they moved to the civil Lines where most of the Europeans lived. It was in 1889, when Jawaharlal was ten, that Motilal bought Anand Bhawan a big house with spacious lawns and a swimming pool. In later years Jawaharlal often remembered the swimming pool. “During the ling hot summer days”, he wrote, “ I would go for a dip at all odd hours, many times a day. In the evening many friends of my father’s came to the pool. It was a novelty, and the electric light that had been installed there and in the house was an innovation for Allahabad in those days”.

Jawaharlal became a good swimmer. But motilal, though full of enthusiasm, could just manage to get from one end of the pool to the other!. The house was dominated by motilal. So were the law courts. In a letter written in 1905 he proudly stated: “My absence from the High Court for any length of time does not make any difference to my practice. I am taken for a magician! To my mind it is simple enough. I want money, I work for it and I get it”. One does not hear so much of Jawaharlal’s mother; but she was a brave little woman who was one day to prove her mettle when both husband and son were caught up in the freedom movement.

Motilal had visited Europe several times. In 1905, he realized his ambition of having Jawaharlal admitted to Harrow, one of England’s most famous public schools. Jawaharlal Nehru did not travel alone. This  united family was not to be separated so easily. Father , mother,son and baby sister, all set sail together.

To be continued….! See you in the next part about NEHRU!

Anyone know about the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu ??? but I am sure that all indians and even all human beings know about her. Because Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is the name of the great human being MOTHER TERESA, a lady of peace and service .

FAMILY LIFE:

 

Our mother mother  teresa was born in 27^th august in year 1910 in skjope,yugoslivia. Her  father name is Nikolle Bojaxhiu  and her Mother Name is  Drana.  she was the youngest in her family with one brother and one sister and her  Brother Name  is Lazar and Sister  Name  is  Aga. Her  father  died when she was eight.  Her  mother raised her as a Roman Catholic in her early years and she was inspired by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service.

 

AGNES TO SISTER TERESA

Due to inspiration of stories of  the lives of missionaries and their service, she was decided that she should commit herself to a religious life in the age of 12. In 1928, at the age of  18, she left her home and  traveled to Loreto Abbey in Ireland to learn English and begin her life as a Loreto nun in sisters of loreto. When she was 21, she  took her first vow(promise) in the year of 1931 on 24^th may. At that time she changed  the name Teresa from agnes  after St. Teresa of Avila, patroness of the Missionaries. After that she called as a sister Teresa.

Teresa  as a teacher

The  Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India and so She came to India to teach Geography and History at St. Mary's, a Loreto school, in Calcutta, West Bengal in the year of 1928.due to hardwork and sincere, She became the head teacher and took her final vows(promises) as a Loreto nun in 1937. Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta

DAY OF INSPIRATION

On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced a wonderful experience while traveling to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. she described that god spoke to her, while she was praying  she said that she got a order from god  to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. she later described this incident as "the call within the call".

Sister Teresa returned to the convent in Calcutta and requested for leave to work in the slums, but her request was refused. After two years she was given special permission from the Loreto Order to work in the slums. Sister Teresa finally left the Loreto convent on August 16th 1948 to work for our people. She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948 and she started a school in Motijhil  and  she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving.

SISTER TERESA TO MOTHER TERESA

As she left the loreto convent, she changed her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton saree  decorated  with a blue border. During the first year of service, She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. She   even experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. But due to her sincerity in service, she  got permissionfrom vaatican  on 7 October 1950 to start  Missionaries of Charity. After that , she was called as MOTHER TERESA

MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY

Missionaries of Charity was  described as "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." By Teresa itself. It is started with 13 members in calcutta

After this, her daily routine become simple. She Wake up at 04.30 am and attending two hours prayer with all sisters. After  a  Light Breakfast. she walked out to work in the slums, dressed with blue bordered white sari and a bag on the shoulder  to teach the children, and  work with the sick, the dying or those suffering from leprosy and collecting , preparing  and give out food to people  and raise the funds for the needy people.

SOME SERVICES OF HER:

She received medical training and education in Paris  And She started a dispensary, handing out bandages, medicines and food, donated by people.in 1948, she started a school under trees to educate poor children.  In 1952,she opened Nirmal Hruday ,a House for the dying people. As the Missionaries of Charity took in increasing numbers of orphan  children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a home for them and  she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart in the year of 1955.

 

In year 1969,she opened Shanti Nagar,a City of peace and also she opened Opened Prem Nivas ,a A leprosy village.

In the year of 1971, she opened  Nirmal Canady home near Dumdum airport, Calcutta for refuges/victims of Pakistan – Bangladesh war

In the year  1981, Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priest  and in 1984 she founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries

AWARDS BY OUR MOTHER TERESA

She  was called as "Saint of the Gutters“, due to dedication  the majority of her life in helping the poorest of the poor in India

In 1962, she was awarded with  padmashri award

In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia.

In 1971, she was awarded with pope john xxiii peace prize  by pope paul vi

In 1972, she was awarded with  nehru award

In 1979 due  to  devotion towards the poor won her respect throughout the world and the nobel peace prize.

 

In 1979, she won  balzan prize

In 1980, she was awarded with  bharat ratna by Indian government

In 1982, She was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia

In 1985, she was awarded with  medal of freedom

She got Special Award for Excellence from the Indo-American Society at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta Sunday, March 16, 1997.

HER LAST DAYS

In 1983, During a visit with Pope John Paul II, She had  first heart attack and she suffered with it. In 1989 , She suffered another and more serious  heart attack and due to this heart attack  a pacemaker was installed .  On 13^th September 1997 , a women of peace  slept in peace. All leaders from india andc from all other countries felt very bad for Teresa’s death

A FEW LITERATURE BY HER

“Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing; nakedness is lack of human dignity, and also that beautiful virtue of purity, and lack of that respect for each other.”

“ I realized that I had the call to take care of the sick and the dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless - to be God's Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of Missionaries of Charity.”

"Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,—Listen and do not hear—the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me—that I let Him have [a] free hand."

 

CONCLUSION:

Mother Teresa stated that she came to service for poor after she got order from god. In this , I don’t want to discuss about  presence or absence of god. If the god   was responsible to change Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu as mother teresa to earth means, then there is nothing wrong  to trust god.