Gurdaspur Diary: A tribute to the letter ‘T’
Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves. The darkest hour is just before dawn. These two idioms start with the letter ‘T’. What takes the cake, however, is a social media post forwarded by businessman Arun Hastir which is making waves in Gurdaspur. Hastir has produced an essay ‘A tribute to the letter ‘T’ written by Shashi Tharoor, an author, politician and a former international civil servant who served for three decades in the United Nations. Tharoor is a logophile when it comes to vocabulary and his command over Queen’s English is indeed praiseworthy. Tharoor has written an essay titled-A tribute to the letter ‘T’ in which all words start from this letter. Here it goes: The tongue’s terrible tendency to tell tall tales totally tarnishes traditional trans-communication theories. The tempestuous tirades traceable to the tongue testify to the traumatic tactics of this tiny tab of tissue. Thousands that take the time to think, try to tame the tumultuous torrent of the too talkative tongue. Temporarily, the tide turns. Towering tempers turn to tenderness. Then, tragically, the trend tapers. The tongue trips, teeters, then takes a tumble; the temptation to trifling twaddle triumphs. Take time to tabulate this timeless truth: to train the tongue takes the tremendous talent of trust. Theology teaches that trust thrives through toil. Therefore, throttle the testy tongue! Terminate the trivial topics that tinge the tenor of talk! Trim the trashy, tasteless terms that transgress traditions of truth! Trounce the trite themes that toady to thoughtless tattling! Theoretically, the tantalising target of a true, tactful, temperate tongue torments and teases those that tackle the task. To tell the truth, thrilling triumph throngs the tracks of the tough, tenacious thwarter of tawdry talk !! Educationists say this essay should be pasted on notice boards of schools and students and staff should be asked to study it, rather than reading it. Thank you Mr Arun Hastir.
Pakistan Ahmadiyyas miss out on event
Due to political instability in Pakistan, Ahmadiyya Muslims miss annual convention Qadian: The annual convention of the Ahmadiyya community, also known as Jalsa Salana, held at Qadian last week had something missing. Unlike on earlier occasions, the community members from Pakistan did not come as the situation in that country was not stable. The first ever convention was held in 1891 in Qadian and there were 75 members who were in attendance. Over the decades it has mushroomed into one of the biggest events of any religion held in Punjab. Sentiment against them runs so strong that one of that country’s most illustrious figures, Nobel Prize winner in physics, Abdus Salam, faced persecution throughout his life. When he died in 1996, he was buried in his home town of Rabwah (Pakistan) without following proper protocol commensurate with his status. The next conference will be held in December this year. (Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal)
