Great Writers of The World : Part 2

Charles Dickens [1812-1870] (Oliver Twist)

One of the most famous English writer of all times. I have read (or half-read) a few novels during my college years. I remember to read "Great Expections" many time over ,ah to just get more marks, failing to appreciate the master piece truly.

Critics appreciate one of his novel , which is in my reading list, "Oliver Twist"as under:

"Relatively to the other works of Dickens Oliver Twist is not of great value, but it is of great importance. Some parts of it are so crude and of so clumsy a mlodrama, that one is almost tempted to say that Dickens would have been greater without it. But even if he had been greater without it he would still have been incomplete without it."

A good many of his work available on-line

Contd...

Great Writers of The World : Part 1

Hello everybody, this hot summer has made me lazier.

I recently placed an order for a pocket book titled "Great Writers of The World" providing brief introduction to the some great writers of the world and their literary works. Following is the list of the writers along with a book of each respective writer , which I intend to read, as it is said to be his/her greatest work. I am publishingthe list to remember my goals for extra reading.

1. Arthur Canon Doyle. (THE SIGN OF FOUR)
Famous for his legendry detective character Sherlock Holmes, and the story narrator Dr. Watson who is believed to be resemblance of the author himself.

I have purchased the entire work of Doyle a couple of years back very cheaply. I believe copy rights on the works of the author have expired and are available to public domain. (UPDATE : Stories of Sherlock Holmes available here)

SIDE NOTE : I have read somewhere that the so called famous statement of the detective "Elementary, my dear Watson" has actually never appeared in the stories. (I will need to check this)

Contd....

CRY : Child Relief and You

CRY stands for Child Relief and You. CRY is an Indian non-government organisation (NGO) that works towards restoring basic rights to underprivileged Indian children.

CRY was started by seven young people in December 1978. One of them, an airline purser called Rippan Kapur, was the moving spirit behind the whole thing. Their objective - to do what they could to improve the situation of underprivileged Indian children. Their first office - Rippan's mother's dining table.

Unusually, the founders of CRY chose not to found a grassroots-level implementing organisation working directly with and for underprivileged children. Instead, they opted to make CRY a link between the millions of Indians who could provide resources and the thousands of dedicated fieldworkers struggling to function for lack of them. They saw their role as enablers and in so doing created an institution that is a unique model of a community movement that takes responsibility for its weakest and most vulnerable members and motivates and catalyses change on their behalf.

CRY focuses on the 4 basic rights of children. These were defined in 1989, by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty to which 191 countries, including India, are signatories.

the right to survival - to life, health, nutrition, name and nationality
the right to development - to education, care, leisure, recreation
the right to protection - from exploitation, abuse, neglect
the right to participation - to expression, information, thought and religion

CRY works to ensure that these rights are available to all categories of underprivileged children, including street children, girl children, children bonded in labor, children of commercial sex workers, physically and mentally challenged children and children in juvenile institutions. 26 years after it began work, CRY has made a profound difference to the lives of more than 1.37 million Indian children, by channelising the resources of over 125,000 individuals and organisations. In doing so, it has shown that lasting change happens when individuals believe it can happen and do what they can to make it happen.