THE NP CHRONICLE : 10TH OCTOBER

The NP Chronicle 

10th October

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), better known as R. K. Narayan, was an Indian writer and novelist known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. In 1980, he received the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1981 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Narayan is the author of more than 200 novels, as well as short stories and plays. His work portrays his characters' social context and everyday life, often in between traditional life and modernity. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who similarly set much of his work in a locale of his own invention and explored ordinary life with humor and compassion. Narayan's short stories have been compared to those of Guy de Maupassant for their compressed narratives.

In a career that spanned over 60 years, Narayan received many awards and honours, including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan, India's second- and third-highest civilian awards, and in 1994 the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour of India's National Academy of Letters. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

Source: Wikipedia

"The difference between a simpleton and an intelligent man, according to the man who is convinced that he is of the latter category, is that the former wholeheartedly accepts all things that he sees and hears while the latter never admits anything except after a most searching scrutiny. He imagines his intelligence to be a sieve of closely woven mesh through which nothing but the finest can pass."

-- R. K. Narayan

"Life is about making right things and going on.."

-- R.K. Narayan

Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of over 225 novels, known for romance published under her own name. She also writes police procedurals which have elements of science fiction under the name J. D. Robb, and has published as Jill March and (in the U.K.) Sarah Hardesty.

Source: Wikipedia

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

-- Nora Roberts

Henry Cavendish (/ˈkævəndɪʃ/ KAV-ən-dish; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper, On Factitious Airs. Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment and gave the element its name.

Royal Institution

Cavendish, known for his reclusive personality, conducted research notable for its accuracy and precision. His work included researches on the composition of atmospheric air, the properties of different gases, the synthesis of water, the law governing electrical attraction and repulsion, a mechanical theory of heat, and calculations of the density (and hence the mass) of the Earth. The experiment he devised to measure Earth's density, which also informs calculation of the gravitational constant, is now known as the Cavendish experiment.

Source: Wikipedia

"Young people must break machines to learn how to use them; get another made!"

-- Henry Cavendish 

Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli (/ˈrɑːdʒəmaʊlɪ/ RAH-juh-mow-li, born 10 October 1973), is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. Known for his epic, action drama, and fantasy genre films, he is one of the most prolific and the highest-paid directors in Indian cinema. Rajamouli is a recipient of various national and international honours including a New York Film Critics Circle award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, two Saturn Awards, four National Film Awards, five Nandi Awards, and five Filmfare Awards. In 2016, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, for his contributions in the field of art. In 2023, he was included on the Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Source: Wikipedia

Bhanurekha Ganesan (pronounced [ˈbʱaːnuɾeːkʰa ɡaɳeːʃan]; born 10 October 1954), better known by her mononymous stage name Rekha, is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi films. Acknowledged as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema, she has starred in more than 200 films and is the recipient of several accolades, including one National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards. She has often played strong and complicated female characters, from fictional to literary, in both mainstream and independent films. Though her career has gone through certain periods of decline, Rekha has gained a reputation for reinventing herself numerous times and has been credited for her ability to sustain her status. In 2010, the Government of India honoured her with Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour.

Source: Wikipedia

Today is:

▪︎ World Mental Health Day

▪︎ World Homeless Day

▪︎ World Day Against the Death Penalty 

▪︎ National Post Day in India

▪︎ Fiji Day

▪︎ Birth anniversary of R. K. Narayan, Nora Roberts, Henry Cavendish, S. S. Rajamouli, Rekha

▪︎ Death anniversary of Guru Dutt, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Jagjit Singh, Joan Sutherland, Orson Welles, Edith Piaf

FIJI

Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an archipelagic country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi (where tourism is the major local industry) or Lautoka (where the sugar-cane industry is dominant). The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain.

Fiji holds various global rankings across sports, press freedom, travel, and governance:

*Category Rank Details / Source* 

World Press Freedom Index 24th Placed 24th out of 180 countries (with 10th place globally for journalist safety)

Passport Mobility (Passport Index) 51st Mobility score of 97 countries

Rugby League Men's World Rankings 7th Maintained 7th place globally (Fiji Bati)

FIFA Men's Football Ranking 153rd Moved to 153rd globally

Military Power Rankings 151st – 158th Ranked 151st on Military Power Rankings / 158th on the ATLAS Index

University Rankings 

 433 (QS Asia) University of the South Pacific ranked 1201–1400 globally; Fiji National University ranked 451–500 (THE World) and 433rd (QS Asia)

Source: Wikipedia