Achilles dragging Hector's lifeless body

Messenger Boy: Are the stories true? They say your mother was an immortal goddess. They say you can't be killed.
Achilles: I wouldn't be bothering with the shield then, would I?

Messenger Boy: The Thesselonian you're fighting... he's the biggest man I’ve ever seen. I wouldn't want to fight him.
Achilles: That’s why no one will remember your name.

Delhi High Court reserves order on unauthorised schools

22 November 2007

The Delhi High Court has reserved its orders on a petition, filed by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Social Jurist, seeking directions to the Delhi government to curb the menace of unauthorised schools, mushrooming in the capital.

A bench comprising Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, after hearing arguments of the petitioner Ashok Aggarwal, who had sought directions to be passed to Delhi government to monitor the unauthorised private schools in the capital, reserved its judgement.

Ashok Aggarwal and Anuj Aggarwal of Social Jurist had approached the court to regulate all the unauthorised schools running in the capital. There are more than 10,000 schools which are running without any approval or permission of the government and about six lakh students study in these schools.

These schools have not any monitoring system or guidelines and proper fee structure nor proper teaching staff. Every school should be regularised and follow some guidelines which are uniform for each school, said Ashok Aggarwal.

(UNI)

Alexander the Great (July 20, 356 BC – June 10, 323 BC)

While in India, Alexander took ten of the Brahmins prisoner. These men had a great reputation for intelligence, so Alexander decided to give them a test. He announced that the one who gave the worst answer would be the first to die, and he made the oldest Brahmin the judge of the competition.

Which are more numerous, Alexander asked the first one, the living or the dead? "The living," said the Brahmin, "because the dead no longer count."

Which produces more creatures, the sea or the land? Alexander asked the second. "The land," was his answer, "because the sea is only a part of it."

The third was asked which animal was the smartest of all, and the Brahmin replied: "The one we have not found yet."

Alexander asked the fourth what argument he had used to stir up the Indians to fight, and he answered: "Only that one should either live nobly or die nobly."

Which is older: day or night? was Alexander's question to the fifth, and the answer he got was: "Day is older, by one day at least." When he saw that Alexander was not satisfied with this answer, the Brahmin added: "Strange questions get strange answers."

What should a man do to make himself loved? asked Alexander, and the sixth Brahmin replied: "Be powerful without being frightening."

What does a man have to do to become a god? he asked the seventh, who responded: "Do what is impossible for a man."

The question to the eighth was whether death or life was stronger, and his answer: "Life is stronger than death, because it bears so many miseries."

The ninth Brahmin was asked how long it was proper for a man to live, and he said: "Until it seems better to die."

Then Alexander turned to the judge, who decided that each one had answered worse than another. "You will die first, then, for giving such a decision," said Alexander. "Not so, mighty king," said the Brahmin, "if you want to remain a man of your word. You said that you would kill first the one who made the worst answer." Alexander gave all of the Brahmins presents and set them free, even though they had persuaded the Indians to fight him.

- http://www.e-classics.com/ALEXANDER.htm (source)

Aim of life

“The aim of life is no more to control mind, but to develop it harmoniously...not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here below...and not to realize truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in-the actual experience of daily life; social progress depends not upon the ennoblement of the few but on the enrichment of all... Democracy or universal brotherhood can be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity in the social, political and individual life."
(Page 124 of Jail notebook)
-Bhagat Singh

Teachers should not perform election work in duty hours: HC

New Delhi | Wednesday, Nov 7 2007 IST

The Delhi High Court today directed the Directorate of Education not to send primary school teachers to collect field information relating to electoral work during teaching hours.

Hearing a petition claiming that teachers were spending most of their time in performing election duties, the court said the teachers should only be assigned tasks, such as collecting information for electoral rolls, after office hours or on holidays and must be paid renumeration for the work.

The petition said that MCD teachers were spending time on election duties at the cost of education of students in the primary schools.

Taking exception to the ''pathetic condition'' of MCD-run schools, a bench, comprising Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice R S Sodhi, told Director, Education Indra Yadav to take immediate steps to improve the situation. ''Why do you have to wait for people to file complaints and shed their grievances about the pathetic condition of the schools? Why can't you take timely action on your own,'' the bench said.

Ms Yadav told the court that as the MCD was a large institution with many departments, it could not devote much time to its Education department. ''There is a proposal to merge the MCD schools with the Schools run by the Delhi administration,'' she said.

The petitioners -- Ashok Agarwal and Anuj Aggarwal of an NGO Social jurist -- had placed before the court photographs of schools showing the bad condition of the toilets, blackboards, classrooms and other infrastructure. Although the MCD had pumped in money in primary schools, there was no proper infrastructure, Aggarwal contented before the court.

Ms Yadav said that her department had recently formed a public grievances cell to address the problems faced by the schools.
The court said the MCD should mend matters on its own and there would be no need for a grievance cell.

-- (UNI) -- 07DI53.xml