Karna was Suryaputra. Bhishma was Gangaputra. Surya is the source of light that is knowledge. Karna used to see a Sun when he closed his eyes. He was given at birth an armour that would always protect him. He was a born archer and a soldier, a Kshatriya by birth. On behalf of his devoted friend Duryodhana he went on a military expedition. He defeated any king who resisted him and brought back a great number of crowns. Never once did he meet with defeat until he met Arjuna.  Why, was his question. Parasurama was a great Rishi and a guru.

Man is becoming socially conscious. He has discovered the value of education. A newspaper discovered that their advertisement income was steadily increasing. In tabulating it and categorising it, the number one income - the maximum advertisement income for them - was from educational institutions. There are over 200 engineering colleges in the South. Where did the private engineering colleges find their capital?  Some say it is all black money. Maybe it is true. But black money or white money, in a poor country like India, how can MONEY be found?

Sivakasi has become All-India famous because of crackers, printing presses and general entrepreneurship. He who was an errand boy the last year, becomes the owner of a small establishment this year. In a small way, all great towns of India have become Sivakasis now. India is awake in one aspect. She has become self-confident. For the generation that was in colleges during 1947, this is heartening and welcome news. The poverty of India at the dawn of Independence was appalling and oppressive.

There are two themes that have captured human imagination. One is positive and the other is negative. Man's longing eternally for Romance is the first. The second is a craving for justice in life which expresses as a desire to wreak vengeance on those who inflicted the injustice. The boss takes the rewards of our work to another. The heart burns forever. One is punished for a crime he has not committed. Even in the most helpless conditions, the heart never fails to protest. A father discriminates and one son is a victim. No son can forget it.

Mercedes was the fiancée of Edmund Dantes, the hero of The Count of Monte Cristo. She was an orphan Catalan girl of Marseilles. Dantes was falsely imprisoned. Fernand, Mercedes' cousin, persisted in courting her who had given her heart to Dantes. After about a year, Fernand lied to her, saying that Dantes had died in prison. She married Fernand. The fisherman Fernand rose to become a Cabinet Minister in Paris. They had a son Albert. After fourteen years, Dantes escaped from prison, acquired wealth and culture, and came back to France. He looked for her.

Skill, capacity, talent, ability, efficiency, education, general knowledge, wealth, status, high caste, birth or any such endowment is PARTIAL, while culture is of the whole. Experience gives skill; several skills yield capacity; skill raised by capacity is talent; ability to change the skill from one field to another is ability; efficiency is to achieve more with less; academic training gives education; memory of information results in general knowledge; capacity to produce results in work is wealth; power and wealth combine to create status; caste is by birth.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, the famous French novelist. The Mother said that Dumas, Victor Hugo, etc. had life knowledge. Edmund Dantes was the hero. After meeting Faria in prison, Dantes learnt geometry, philosophy, science, fencing, etc. He became Faria's mental child. Faria had been the secretary of Cardinal Spada of Rome. The Cardinal had an enormous wealth. For fear of the King and the Pope, he hid it somewhere safe. The Pope poisoned him and no one knew what had happened to the treasure.

The vehemence with which Edmund Dantes reacted to his arrest was extreme. The warden found him violent and dangerous. It was true. He was confined to a solitary cell. In utter despair, Dantes tried to starve himself to death after a prolonged struggle with his fate. By this time one year had passed. One day, he found a stone in his floor moving and slowly an old man emerged out of the hole. He was a priest. From the next cell, he had been trying to dig his way out. By a miscalculation, he ended up in Dantes's cell.

Edmund Dantes was a shipmate. He was 19. His captain, who was ill, gave Dantes a letter to Napoleon in Elba and then died. To a shipmate, the captain's word is an order, especially when it is a dying wish. It never struck Dantes that in France of that day to visit the Emperor in exile would warrant the anger of the government. He visited Napoleon on Elba, gave him the letter, received a letter for someone in France from him. Nor did he take care to hide the possession of that letter.