“Aloof yet witty, plain but direct, regal yet casual. MAK Pataudi was so many contradictory things that eventually you stopped trying to classify him.” (Mudar Patherya) The first Indian to captain the Oxford University cricket team; a member of the first Indian team to win a series against England; captain of India at the age of… Read More from Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
Tag: visual impairment
Search the website
Samuel Johnson
A brilliant man of humble origins, who is barely remembered and less appreciated, Johnson wrote the most famous of English dictionaries, and a wealth of other critical and creative contributions, despite struggling with both poverty and a range of health conditions. Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield, son of a bookseller, on September 18, 1709. … Read More from Samuel Johnson
Jorge Luis Borges
“The history of the universe…is the handwriting produced by a minor god in order to communicate with a Demon.” If I ever had to choose my favourite author, it would be a difficult thing to decide between PG Wodehouse and Jorge Luis Borges. And I would defend the contention that they have much in common. Borges is… Read More from Jorge Luis Borges
Helen Keller
“The public must learn that the blind man is neither genius nor a freak nor an idiot. He has a mind that can be educated, a hand which can be trained, ambitions which it is right for him to strive to realise, and it is the duty of the public to help him make the… Read More from Helen Keller
Al-Ma’arri
In February 2013, as chaos raged through Syria, a small group of men from the Al Nusra front, the local Al Qaida affiliate, gathered in the town of Maari, near Aleppo. They were there to settle scores with the most distinguished sons of that town, one of the most famous poet of the whole Muslim… Read More from Al-Ma’arri
Horatio Nelson
Who is the greatest British military leader of all time? Which disabled person prevented the invasion of England? Who was the most heroic naval commander in our history? The answer could only be Nelson, the man of contrasts: a man of high ideals, who abandoned his wife for a floozy; a person of supreme courage,… Read More from Horatio Nelson
John Milton
“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life” (John Milton, Areopagitica) Perhaps the greatest ever unread English poet? At school, Milton was on the English syllabus alongside Shakespeare, and so we studied two books of Paradise Lost for A Level, just as we… Read More from John Milton