History

It was another usual flight that took off from the runaway with the passengers deeply immersed in their usual reverie. There was nothing strange, nothing wrong, with the glorious sunshine painting the azure sky orange. It was a near perfect day. A day when it seemed nothing could go wrong.However, as the flight was coasting in the sky, a flock of geese seemed to be determined to take a peek into the engine’s interior. What happened next was simply unbelievable. The Geese were sucked into the propellers and the plane started losing altitude. The pilot, thankfully remained calm and used his skill and expertise to land the plane in water. Quite a lucky goose eh?

Peter Ferdinand Drucker, one of the greatest management thinkers of our time, was born in 1909 in Vienna. After working in Germany for a few years as a newspaper reporter, he fled the country in fear of persecution from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. He was awarded a doctorate in Public and International Law from Frankfurt University. For a short time, he worked as an economist and journalist in London before moving to the United States in 1937. By the time of his death, He had authored more than 30 books. The first book titled “The End of Economic Man: Origins of Totalitarianism” was published in1939 was positioned as a call for ‘united action against Fascism’. His last book titled “The Practice of Management” was published in 1954 and is considered as his most important work. His is a voice that cannot be ignored in this era of rapid change.

The Sea of Poppies is an adventure that spans the Ganges delta, the back streets of Canton, the crowd Calcutta and the high seas of the Bay of Bengal. The first to a promised trilogy by Ghosh, it is a historical account of the nineteenth century India, when the British was consolidating their rule while running roughshod over the traditions and rights of the people they ruled. His technique, which was also Scott’s, is to supply the maximum information that the story can support. For example, he has read the description of the great Sudder opium factory at Ghazipur published in 1865 (a little late, but it will do) by the factory superintendent, JWS MacArthur. Given that there are probably not 20 copies of MacArthur’s Account of an Opium Factory on earth, Ghosh is amply justified in using it. His device is brilliant. He has Deeti rush in terror through every single shed of the factory in search of her dying husband. The colorful lingo that alternates between Pidgin English of the lascars, the Hinglish of the British and proper English of the educated Indian Rajah brings the characters alive, and is a telling example of Ghosh’s mastery of the medium.

John Steinbeck was probably the most influential American novelist of the Depression years. His novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labour, with a streak of worship of the soil. In 1939, Steinbeck published what is considered his magnum opus- The Grapes of Wrath. It is the story of Oklahoma tenant farmers who, unable to earn a living from the land, move to California where they become migratory workers. The novel begins with a vivid account of summer in Oklahoma, and a wonderful description of a turtle’s effort and struggle to overcome hurdles and cross a dusty road. As the book progresses, the reader realizes just how significant and allegorical the turtle’s cameo is. ”The Grapes of Wrath” is probably as essential as any piece of teaching, for a better appreciation of humanity and humaneness.