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Showing posts with label Personality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personality. Show all posts

Remembering Karl Marx




Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 in Trier (Rhenish Prussia). His father was a lawyer, a Jew who converted to Protestantism in 1824. The family was wealthy, educated, but not revolutionary. After completion of the Gymnasium in Trier, Marx entered the university, first at Bonn, then in Berlin, and studied law, after that history and philosophy.

After completion of university studies, Marx moved to Bonn reckoning for a professorship, however this path was barred by the government's growing opposition to classical liberalism and the Young Hegelians.
Hence, he moved to Cologne in 1842, where he became the editor in chief for the radical newspaper Rheinische Zeitung ("Rhineland News") which he continued to do so till 1848.
In 1843, Marx married Jenny von Westphalen in Kreuznach, his childhood friend, with whom he was engaged as a student. His wife came from a reactionary Prussian aristocratic family. Her older brother was Prussian minister of the interior in one of the most reactionary periods. 

Marx then went to Paris, where he mingled with many famous radicals. On 28 August 1844, Marx met the German socialist Friedrich Engels at the Café de la Régence. Engels showed Marx his recently published The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, convincing Marx that the working class would be the agent and instrument of the final revolution in history.

In 1847 Marx and Engels joined a secret society, ‘the Communist League’, took a prominent part in the Second Congress on November 1847 in London and then wrote their famous, work  published in February 1848 ‘Communist Manifesto’. With the clarity and brilliance of genius, this work outlines a new world-conception, consistent with materialism, which also embrace the realm of social life; dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development; the theory of the class struggle and of the world-historic revolutionary role of the proletariat—the creator of a new, communist society.

On the outbreak of the Revolution of February 1848, Marx was banished from Belgium. He returned to Paris, whence, after the March Revolution, he went to Cologne, Germany, where Neue Rheinische Zeitung was published from June 1, 1848, to May 19, 1849, with Marx as editor-in-chief. The new theory was splendidly confirmed by the course of the revolutionary events of 1848-49, just as it has been subsequently confirmed by all proletarian and democratic movements in all countries of the world. The victorious counter-revolution first instigated court proceedings against Marx (he was acquitted on February 9, 1849), and then banished him from Germany (May 16, 1849). First Marx went to Paris, was again banished after the demonstration of June 13, 1849.

He then immigrated to London and settled there in 1849, till his death. In London, Marx required financial support from his collaborator and friend Engles, for, just as some men are addicted to gambling, Marx was addicted to reading and writing, and these activities did not produce much of an income.
In 1867 the first volume of Das Kapital was published, a work which analysed the capitalist process of production.[166] Here Marx elaborated his labour theory of value, which had been influenced by Thomas Hodgskin.

Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, when not confined to bed by illness, Marx regularly spent ten hours in the library of the British museum studying and writing.

Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011)

Born as Sathyanarayana Raju in November 23, 1926 in Puttaparthi, his devotees claimed he started singing Sanskrit verses, of which he had no knowledge, one day in March 1940 after being apparently stung by a scorpion. Within two months, the teenager claimed to be a reincarnation of the more famous Shirdi Sai Baba, who had reportedly stated before his death in 1918 that he would reappear in the then Madras Presidency eight years later.

As time went by, and he came to be recognised for his mane and flowing orange robes, the boy transformed into Sathya Sai Baba, frequently producing with a flick of his hand 'vibhuti' (sacred ash) and small objects such as Shiv lings, rings and necklaces. Puttaparthi became his base, eventually transforming the once small village into a lively pilgrimage centre, with its own railway station and air strip.

Chronicles

November 23, 1926

Sathya Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju to Eswaramma and Peddavenkama Raju Ratnakaram in Puttaparthi village, Andhra Pradesh.

As a child, he was described as "unusually intelligent" and charitable. He showed exceptional talent in drama, music, dance and writing.

Puttaparthi, where Sathya Sai Baba lived his entire life, has transformed from a small remote South Indian village to a modern village with an extensive university complex, a specialty hospital, Chaitanya Jyoti (a world-religions museum that has won several international awards for design), a planetarium, a railway station, a hill-view stadium, an administrative building, an airport, and an indoor sports stadium.

1940

Sathya was apparently stung by a scorpion and he lost consciousness for several hours.

After the incident, he showed a noticeable change in behaviour, dubbed by his family members as bizarre and his doctor as hysterical.

Later that year, Sathya, 14, proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, who had died 8 years before Sathya was born


1944

A temple for Sathya Sai Baba's devotees called Old Mandir was built near Puttaparthi.

However, within a couple of years, the space became too small to accommodate his followers.

So a new building was constructed around the old mandir and was designed by baba himself.

Known as Prasanthi Nilayam, this mandir is the nucleus of Sai's mission of Dharmasthapana.
1954
Sathya Sai Baba established a small free General Hospital in Puttaparthi.

It is located adjacent to the ashram precints.

It started as a small two-bed hospital and has blossomed over the years to a full-fledged Super Speciality hospital.

In 2001, another Super Speciality hospital was opened in Whitefield, Bangalore.
1963

Sathya Sai Baba suffered a stroke and four severe heart attacks. On recovering, he announced that he he will live until the year 2022 and will be reborn eight years after his death, in 2030, as Prema Sai Baba in Mysore.

He added that Prema Sai Baba will announce his identity to the world in 2044 at the age of 14.
June 29, 1968

Sathya Sai Baba made his first and only trip overseas, to Uganda. During a discourse in Nairobi, Sathya Sai Baba stated, "I have come to light the lamp of Love in your hearts, to see that it shines day by day with added luster.

I have not come on behalf of any exclusive religion. I have come to tell you of... Love.”
May 1968
Sai Baba established Dharmakshetra or Sathyam Mandir in Mumbai. It is on the top of a small hillock in Andheri.

Dharmakshethra, sometimes called Sathyam, is one of three special spiritual centers established by Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the others being Sivam (established 1973) in Hyderabad and Sundaram (established January 1981) in Chennai.
1972
Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT) was established as a public charitable trust to run schools and other institutions set by him.

Today, SSSCT owns assets worth Rs 45,000 cr. Some of the projects run by the Trust includes super speciality hospitals, charitable educational institutes and a water project that provides drinking water to 1.2 million people
June 1993

Four male devotees, who were close to Sai Baba, broke into their guru's private quarters late at night armed with knives.

Sai Baba managed to escape through a secret flight of stairs and raise the alarm. Police shot all the four the intruders in Sai Baba’s bedroom.

Two of Sai Baba's personal attendants were also killed that night
March 1995
He started the water project to provide drinking water to 1.2 million people in about 750 villages in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region in Anantapur.

The project ran into some major controversies.

A second drinking water project supplies water to Chennai through a rebuilt waterway named "Sathya Sai Ganga Canal.

It was completed in 2004
2005

Since 2005, Sathya Sai Baba has used a wheelchair and his failing health has forced him to make fewer public appearances.

In 2006 he suffered a fractured hip when a student standing on an iron stool slipped, and both boy and stool fell on Sathya Sai Baba.
March 28, 2011

Sathya Sai Baba  was admitted to the super-specialty hospital in Puttaparthi

April 24, 2011



Three days after he was put on life support following a multiple organ failure, Sathya Sai Baba passes away at 7.40 am.





Source:- TOI, Mirror

Lalit Modi

Time Line
  • 1985: Modi arrested in US on drugs and abduction charges. Plea bargain gets him deferred term
  • 1986: Returns to India citing bad health. Joins family business
  • 1991: Marries mother’s friend Minal Sagrani
  • 2004: Becomes vice-president of Punjab Cricket Association
  • 2005: Becomes president of Rajasthan Cricket Association
  • 2008: IPL is launched; BJP loses power in Rajasthan
  • 2009: IPL taken to South Africa; Modi loses RCA elections
  • 2010: Loses RCA elections again; Kochi team scandal surfaces

When the Modi family under the leadership of patriarch KK Modi was flourishing in India as their company Godfrey Phillips went on to be become India's number two tobacco company.
In Nigeria, Pessu Aswani had set up a booming business, dividing his time between Lagos and London. His good friend Murli Chellaram was also part of the prospering Indian diaspora in Africa. Years later, Aswani's daughter Minal married to Jack Sagrani, who lived in Nigeria, London and finally worked in Saudi Arabia for Inlaks. While Minal was pregnant, Sagrani was caught in a scam and jailed in Saudi Arabia for several months. He was unable to visit his wife even when she delivered their daughter Karima in London. After Sagrani and Minal parted ways, she stayed in the Gulf for a few years before finally moving to Delhi, where she was a frequent resident at her friend Bina Modi's house at A-1, Maharani Bagh.

This was few years after Minal and Bina's son Lalit had returned from the United States after being convicted in a drugs and assault charge (On March 1, 1985, while a sophomore at Duke University, Modi was arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. On April 2, 1985, Modi and another student were indicted on second-degree kidnapping, a misdemeanor charge of assault inflicting serious injury and conspiracy to kidnap).
Minal and Lalit's courtship began at the Maharani Bagh home, and the two sprang a surprise a few months later by expressing the desire to marry each other. Their declaration of love led to one of the biggest commotions the Modis have ever witnessed. While Bina Modi felt betrayed by her friend for allegedly luring her son, who was ten years her junior, into a profitable marriage, KK Modi told Lalit that he would not give his consent for the marriage.
After days of negotiations, angry outbursts and threats, sources say that Lalit finally had his way. Permission was granted for the wedding (which took place on October 17, 1991), a maintenance allowance was promised by the family, and Lalit was included in the Godfrey Phillips as a director.
MUMBAI CALLING and VENTURES
Since Lalit and Minal's wedding had caused such a stir in the social circle in Delhi, they decided to move to Mumbai.
It was the early nineties when the cable and satellite broadcast business was taking root in India. Global broadcasters, even in the non-news genres, weren't allowed a free entry. Modi was quick to seize the opportunity and Modi Entertainment Network (MEN) was born. In 1993, MEN signed an ambitious joint venture with the US-based media conglomerate Walt Disney. WD India Pvt Ltd, the new company in which Walt Disney had 51% stake and MEN held the rest, was given the mandate to introduce Disney's merchandise in the Indian market. The merchandise business was housed under Walt Disney Consumer Products and the broadcast venture was with Buena Vista TV India.
In 1995, Walt Disney also entrusted MEN with the responsibility of distributing its popular sports channel ESPN. ESPN was one of the first channels in the country to go paid. He managed to convince ESPN that with cricket in their pocket, people will readily pay a fee to see the channel. ESPN was soon one of the leading sports channels in the country. Soon, MEN signed similar deals with Paris-based Fashion TV, Dubai-based sports channel Ten Sports and DD Sports.
In 2002, he launched an online lottery business in Kerala called Sixo. He later went into the real estate business in Rajasthan, with a company called Amer Heritage City Construction Pvt Ltd, his wife Minal, is a director. Modi’s last attempt was the idea of launching the country's first local travel-and-living channel, Voyages.
"Son-in-law Gaurav Burman, wife Minal, son Ruchir, step-daughter Karima Sagrani, Lalit Modi, daughter Aliya"
Lalit’s marriage with Minal spawned the connections that now rule IPL. Here, with daughter Aliya and son Ruchir.

THE TURNAROUND


Things started to turn around, when Lalit's friend Vasundhara Raje took over as Chief Minister of Rajasthan in 2003. Lalit knew Raje through her school friend Bina Kilachand. Soon after he shifted to Jaipur, where he not only took over the cricket establishment using a legislation which brought the state cricket association under the purview of government, but also created a storm for his alleged involvement in the sale of some heritage havelis. In a 2006 event organised to raise money for the Elephant Fund, initiated by Mark Shand, the brother of Prince Charles’s wife Camilla Parker Bowles, Vasundhararaje was spotted with Lalit and Kavita Chellaram, wife of Suresh Chellaram, now part-owner of Rajasthan Royals.

Modi's fortune further escalated after he entered the Board of Control for Cricket in India representing Rajasthan-- first as a dealer who helped the Pawar group defeat Jagmohan Dalmiya -- and then as a money-making whiz kid who finally came good business-wise. The BCCI's profits soared over a billion USD in 2006 with Modi in its midst. Two years later his brainchild, the IPL, took cricket's economics to a different level.
FAMILY TIES
Lalit Modi's family and friends are an integral part of the IPL. Minal's sister Kavita is married to Suresh Chellaram who owns a majority share in the Rajasthan Royals franchise which incidentally had the lowest bid amount at the auction in 2008.
Lalit’s step-daughter Karima is married to Gaurav, son of Monica and Vivek Burman of the Dabur group. The marriage caused a stir in the Burman family similar to the one in the Modi family when Lalit and Minal tied the knot. Gaurav is a stakeholder in Global Cricket Venture, a firm that has the digital, mobile and internet rights of the IPL. His brother Mohit Burman is a co-owner in Kings XI Punjab, which he owns as part of the consortium consisting of his childhood friends Karan Paul and Ness Wadia, and Wadia’s ex-girlfriend Preity Zinta.
One of the owners of Kolkata Knight Riders is also an old friend of Lalit Modi’s. Jay Mehta, son of Mahinder Mehta, who owned Saurashtra Cements, and Lalit are childhood buddies.
 
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