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Journalism of Courage
September 22 might seem just another day in time, with no great events to mark it as extraordinary. But you realise how each day holds the seeds of human potential when the calendar reveals a few secrets. For instance, today is the birth anniversary of some pretty interesting people who impacted on our lives as we live them now. In 1694, it was the birthday of Lord Chesterfield, better known as the English milord who wrote instructive letters to his illegitimate son on how to be a gentleman. In 1752, Lord Chesterfield effected the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, which the whole world now uses.
In 1791, this day saw the birth of Michael Faraday who discovered the principle of the electric motor. In 1922 came Chen Ning Yang, the Chinese physicist who disproved parity and won the Nobel in 1957. But my favourite, because of my obsession with American musicals, is the person whose death anniversary it is: American composer Irving Berlin, who passed into the Unknown in 1989 aged 101. He was born Israel Baline in Russia, the youngest son of a cantor. The family migrated to the US in 1893 and settled in New York8217;s Lower East Side Remember him when you see The Gangs of New York, the movie that8217;s just come to India.
It8217;s sad that he died so insecure. Tagore8217;s The Gardener could have helped: Beauty is sweet to us, because she dances to the same fleeting tune with our lives/Knowledge is precious to us, because we shall never have time to complete it/All is done and finished in the eternal Heaven.
