2186 You too Shakespeare!

2102 -...every tune you have ever heard is just a different combination of 7 swaras

2083- The 5 Most Famous Limericks and Their Histories

(by Allison VanNest • May 05, 2015)
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Edward Lear’s first influential limerick collection, A Book of Nonsense, hit bookstore shelves nearly 200 years ago. Lear didn’t invent the limerick, however; the snappy five-line poems probably sprang to life on the streets and in the taverns of 14th century Britain. Over time, people from all walks of life — children, scholars, drunks, beggars — have delighted in the witty limerick. Here’s a brief history of five of the world’s best-loved limericks.
(1)Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock showed up in “Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Songbook” in 1744. The famed tale of the timepiece-dwelling mouse appeared beside “Bah Bah, Blacksheep” and “Lady Bird, Lady Bird,” among others. No one knows for certain who penned the book, but it was one of the world’s first attempts to entertain children with literature.
“Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
And down he run.
Hickory dickory dock.”
(2)The Man from Nantucket
The Man from Nantucket serves as inspiration for limericks both dirty and pure. Perhaps you’ve even heard a “Rated X” ending to this story-starter. However, the original Nantucket limerick was quite tame. It appeared in Princeton University’s humor magazine, the “Princeton Tiger,” in 1902:
“There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.”
(3)Speaking of Geography . . .
Princeton wasn’t the only publisher of geographically themed limericks. Lear chose Peru as his muse at least once, as shown by the following:
“There was an Old Man of Peru
Who watched his wife making a stew.
But once, by mistake,
In a stove she did bake
That unfortunate Man of Peru.”
Lear’s story of the unlucky Peru gent blazed a path for hundreds of amateur Peru poems to come, many of which are less than chaste. Middle schoolers excel at crafting this kind of literature, from what we hear. Perhaps a Peru limerick or two lingers in your own adolescent memory.
(4)Shakespearean Limerick
Shakespeare, limerick, Grammarly
Even William Shakespeare practiced what some would call the lowest form of poetry. The following limerick about imbibing spirits appeared in “Othello, Act II, Scene III”:
“And let me the canakin clink, clink.
And let me the canakin clink.
A soldier’s a man.
A life’s but a span.
Why, then, let a soldier drink.”
The Bard also used limericks in “King Lear” and “The Tempest.”
(5)Ogden Nash
Poet Ogden Nash coined the phrase, “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” Some limerick fans insist he wrote the following limerick about a pelican:
“A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill can hold more than his beli-can.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I’m damned if I see how the heli-can.”
This clever verse has also been attributed to Dixon Lanier Merritt, a humorist who lived at the same time. Nash died in 1971 and Merritt in 1972.
Crafting a Limerick
Limericks are “closed form” poems that adhere to a strict template. Want to write your own? Follow these guidelines:
The last word in lines 1, 2, and 5 must rhyme and contain 8-9 syllables each.
The last word in lines 3 and 4 must rhyme and contain 5-6 syllables each.
Of course, what fun are rules unless they’re broken — or at least bent — every once in a while? Consider this limerick by Zach Weiner of the comic “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal,” which coherently flows both backward and forward:
“This limerick goes in reverse
Unless I’m remiss
The neat thing is this:
If you start from the bottom-most verse
This limerick’s not any worse.”
Now we challenge you to write your own limerick. It’s fast, easy, and incredibly satisfying. What will yours be about?
(FB, Grammarly)
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2047- "If”

Rudyard Kipling
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If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
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1378- Khushwant Singh, journalist and writer, dies at 99

NEW DELHI (AP) — Khushwant Singh, the self-proclaimed “dirty old man of Indian journalism”, a journalist, editor and one of the country's best-known as well prolific writers for more than six decades,whose work ranged from serious histories to joke collections to one of post-Independence India's great novels, died Thursday at his New Delhi apartment. He was 99.

He received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award.

His wife died in 2002. He is survived by his daughter Lata and a son Rahul.
His self-written epitaph says humorously, “Here lies one who spared neither man nor God; Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod.”
RIP!
"we look at some of his most important works - a difficult task given the immense body of work he leaves behind.

Train to Pakistan (1953)
In the summer of 1947 when India is being partitioned, the hamlet of Mano Majra comes to terms with the new reality of India and Pakistan, Hindus and Muslims. The truth is brought home when a ghost train arrives in the isolated village, carrying bodies of hundreds of refugees. It is left to a boy and a girl, from different religions, to rise beyond this abyss of religious hatred.
I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1959)
Set in British India, Kushwant Singh's second novel is about a magistrate loyal to Britishers and his nationalist son who believes in using the gun to drive out the Britishers. The son is arrested and the father is given two choices - either the son betrays his comrades or get hanged.
A History of Sikhs (1963)This two-volume book is considered the most comprehensive and authoritative book on the Sikhs.
Based on solid research, it is written in a way to be accessible to even the lay reader.
The Company of Women (1999)
A work of fiction, Khushwant Singh wrote this novel at the age of 84. A comment on hypocrisy in the Indian society, the book tells the story of Mohan Kumar who believes "lust is the true foundation of love". The book was talked about for its unbridled sexuality and brazen views on man-woman relationship.
Truth, Love and a Little Malice (2002)
His image was not something Kushwant Singh was ever overtly concerned about. His autobiography which delves into his personal life and all those he met during the journey was controversial yet true to its title. Right from his first relationship to important political events he witnessed to his familial roots - all find a place here and are handled unabashedly and truthfully.
Why I Supported the Emergency (2004)This bold and thought provoking collection of essays on India's Emergency explained the reasons why Khushwant Singh supported the proclamation on June 25. In the book, he goes to point out the mistakes which were made then and which, he says, must be avoided the next time conditions require suspension of democratic norms for the preservation of law and order. The book was edited by Sheela Reddy."


(Hindustan Times)
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1369- Be an illiterate to be rich!

"The verger"
a story by W. Somerset Maugham

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Its gist is-

" The new vicar of St. Peter's Church is astonished to learn that the long-serving verger, Albert Foreman, is illiterate. When Foreman refuses to learn to read, the vicar feels he has no choice but to fire him.

On the way back to his lodgings, Foreman notices that there is not a tobacconist shop in the area. Needing work, he decides to open one. He also takes the opportunity to propose to his landlady, Emma. Their fledgling business is very successful, and Foreman soon sets up another shop, run by his stepdaughter and her husband. Over the next decade, Foreman starts up more and more shops, becoming a wealthy man in the process and depositing his profits at the bank.

The bank manager recommends that he invest his sizable savings in order to get a better return on his money, forcing Foreman to reveal that he has not been able to because he cannot read. When the stunned manager asks (rhetorically) if he knew reading, where he would be if he could, Foreman replies that he would be the VERGER of St. Peter's."
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