PRINCESS DIANA

When you seek happiness for others, you find it for yourself.

Lady Diana Frances Spencer, (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor, née Spencer) (July 1, 1961–August 31, 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. From her marriage in 1981 to her divorce in 1996 she was styled "Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales". After her divorce from the Prince of Wales in 1996 Diana ceased to be the Princess of Wales and also lost the resulting Royal Highness style, She received the title normally used by the ex-wives of peers, Diana, Princess of Wales under Letters Patent issued by Queen Elizabeth II at the time of the divorce.

Diana was often called Princess Diana by the media and the public, but she did not possess such a title and was not personally a princess, a point Diana herself made to people who referred to her as such. Contrary to belief, being Princess of Wales does not make one a princess in one's own right. It merely indicates that one was married to a Prince of Wales. Princesses in their own right only exist by creation of the monarch or by birth. Diana was in fact the first non-princess to be Princess of Wales for centuries. Previous Princesses of Wales, such as Alexandra of Denmark or Mary of Teck were already princesses by birth when they married a Prince of Wales.

An iconic presence on the world stage, Diana, Princess of Wales was noted for her pioneering charity work. Yet her philanthropic endeavours were overshadowed by her scandal-plagued marriage to Prince Charles. Her bitter accusations via friends and biographers of adultery, mental cruelty and emotional distress visited upon her, and her own admission of adultery and numerous love affairs riveted the world for much of the 1990s, spawning books, magazine articles and television movies.

From the time of her engagement to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her death in a car accident in 1997, the Princess was arguably the most famous woman in the world, the pre-eminent female celebrity of her generation: a fashion icon, an image of feminine beauty, admired and emulated for her high-profile involvement in AIDS issues, and the international campaign against landmines. During her lifetime, she was often referred to as the most photographed person in the world. To her admirers, the Princess of Wales was a role model - after her death, there were even calls for her to be nominated for sainthood - while her detractors saw her life as a cautionary tale of how an obsession with publicity can ultimately destroy an individual.

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PRINCESS DIANA

PONVANNAN

Life allows no rehearsal. It’s just a straight ‘Take'.

“We are very different from each other. I’m a complete pessimist and he a diehard optimist. I get easily provoked while he’s always cool,” laughs Charanya looking relaxed and radiant in a muted green and brown sari. “But we are a contented couple,” adds husband Ponvannan as they speak about the success behind their 14-year-old marriage, home and career.

Today both Ponvannan and Charanya have established themselves as capable character actors. She’s busy doing Telugu films too.

If Charanya’s portrayals in films such as Raam, Em Magan and Thavamai Thavamirundhu proved her calibre as a character actor, Karuththamma,Pasumpon and Paruththi Veeran showcased Ponvannan’s dynamism.

“When I accept a role, I give a lot of thought to my make-up and body language and as I’m a director too, I see the scene in its entirety,” he says. Be it the cunning politician in the recent Muththirai, the upright police officer in Anjaadhae or the shrewd Customs official in Ayan, Ponvannan’s performance always makes an impact. But as a director, he is still to get his due — Jameela, his second film, which was selected for the Shanghai Film Fest, won him accolades here and abroad.

“As I told you, equanimity is my asset. I don’t worry unduly about things that don’t happen my way. But I keep myself abreast of the latest in filmmaking. And I’m a keen observer. It isn’t as though cinema is the only medium of expression for a creator. Who knows, I could write books or take up public speaking. I’ll make it as director one day and even if I don’t, I know I have it in me,” he says. “Didn’t I tell you? He sees only positives,” smiles Charanya.

Back to the past

Cinema was never on Ponvannan’s agenda, when he came down to Chennai. “As an avid painter my only dream was to become a drawing master in a school in my hometown, Erode. Of course, writing has always been a passion and we had a literary circle which met regularly.” It was in this regard that he met writer and journalist Valampuri John, which led to a stint with Kovai Thambi’s Motherland Pictures and later on with Bharatiraaja as assistant director. Simultaneously roles kept happening.

Charanya’s career began on a very high note, with Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan. “I had just joined the undergraduate course in Nutrition at WCC, when a photographer followed me up to my home one day, for a picture to be used on the cover of Kungumam. It was a women’s magazine then. My father wasn’t for it. ‘She commutes by bus every day. She may face problems,’ he said. But the photographer convinced him,” recalls Charanya. The cover caught the eye of Mukta Srinivasan, and soon she found herself catapulted to the status of Kamal Haasan’s heroine!

Surprisingly her graph seemed to slide downwards despite solid roles in films such as Manasukkul Maththaappu and En Jeevan Paadudhu. “That was because it was an era of rustic films, when every film had the heroine having a bath with her skirt tied around her chest. I’d vetoed all those offers and hence the choices were limited. Yet I have no regrets. I’m modern in outlook, but as a heroine I could never do certain things,” she says.

Priorities changed and marriage and children made her opt for home. K. Balachander brought her back to television with “Veetukku Veedu Looty”. “Till then I didn’t know I could do comedy. But director Chanakya talked me into it.” Her big screen re-entry began with Vael, in which she played Surya’s mother and there’s been no looking back since. “I’ve never had qualms playing mother. And I’m not unduly bothered about how I look on screen. I have to suit the part, that’s it. Anyway I don’t accept insipid roles.”

Are character actors treated well at the workplace? “Let him answer it first. We never see eye to eye on the issue,” she laughs.

Ponvannan’s contention puts things in perspective. “Time is money and work is the priority. Personal problems don’t have a place here. This is the only profession where seniority isn’t seen as a qualification and treated with the deference extended to say an experienced doctor or lawyer. You have to be practical.”

But films wax eloquent on values … “Is it their mistake if you think that those who espouse lofty ideals don’t follow them? Cinema is a dream factory where lies are sold,” is his calm reply.

Appeasing Charanya isn’t easy. “You know about the caravan culture. Nobody is faulting it. During outdoor shoots while a heroine is able to change her costume and use the washroom in the total privacy of her caravan, dancers have to dress up behind bushes. And what are her pluses? That she’s from Mumbai, she’s young and most important, she doesn’t know a word of Tamil!”

At a recent function where Charanya was invited to receive an award, her request for two passes for her daughters, was turned down. “But when I go over there I see an actor who wasn’t receiving an award enter with a huge coterie and the same organiser providing seats for all of them. When we talk about the industry which has made us popular, I’ve also got to be vociferous on such issues,” she says, as Ponvannan shrugs his shoulders with a smile.

He sums up his stand when he says, “Life allows no rehearsal. It’s just a straight ‘Take.’ Similarly once a shot is canned it can’t be changed. So without getting worked up about things, it’s much simpler to concentrate on your job and keep giving your best.”

( INTERVIEW WITH MALATHY RANGARAJAN FOR HINDU ON JULY 24, 2009) 

MAYA ANGELOU

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. 

Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.

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HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong

Probably the best loved of American poets the world over is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Many of his lines are as familiar to us as rhymes from Mother Goose or the words of nursery songs learned in early childhood. Like these rhymes and melodies, they remain in the memory and accompany us through life.
There are two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's poetry. First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and melody. Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may be forgotten.
Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems are easily understood; they sing their way into the consciousness of those who read them. Above all, there is a joyousness in them, a spirit of optimism and faith in the goodness of life which evokes immediate response in the emotions of his readers.
Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of American writers to use native themes. He wrote about the American scene and landscape, the American Indian ('Song of Hiawatha'), and American history and tradition ('The Courtship of Miles Standish', 'Evangeline'). At the beginning of the 19th century, America was a stumbling babe as far as a culture of its own was concerned. The people of America had spent their years and their energies in carving a habitation out of the wilderness and in fighting for independence. Literature, art, and music came mainly from Europe and especially from England. Nothing was considered worthy of attention unless it came from Europe.
But "the flowering of New England," as Van Wyck Brooks terms the period from 1815 to 1865, took place in Longfellow's day, and he made a great contribution to it. He lived when giants walked the New England earth, giants of intellect and feeling who established the New Land as a source of greatness. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and William Prescott were a few of the great minds and spirits among whom Longfellow took his place as a singer and as a representative of America.
The first Longfellow came to America in 1676 from Yorkshire, England. Among the ancestors of the poet on his mother's side were John and Priscilla Alden, of whom he wrote in 'The Courtship of Miles Standish'. His mother's father, Peleg Wadsworth, had been a general in the Revolutionary War. His own father was a lawyer. The Longfellow home represented the graceful living which was beginning to characterize the age.
Henry was the son of Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow. He was born February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. Portland was a seaport, and this gave its citizens a breadth of view lacking in the more insular New England towns. The variety of people and the activity of the harbors stirred the mind of the boy and gave him a curiosity about life beyond his own immediate experience. He was sent to school when he was only three years old. When he was six, the following report of him was received at home:"Master Henry Longfellow is one of the best boys we have in school. He spells and reads very well. He can also add and multiply numbers. His conduct last quarter was very correct and amiable."
From the beginning, it was evident that this boy was to be drawn to writing and the sound of words. His mother read aloud to him and his brothers and sisters the high romance of Ossian, the legendary Gaelic hero. Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' was a favorite among the books he read. But the book which influenced him most was Washington Irving's 'Sketch Book'. Irving was another American author for whom the native legend and landscape were sources of inspiration.
"Every reader has his first book," wrote Longfellow later. "I mean to say, one book among all others which in early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies the desires of his mind. To me, the first book was the 'Sketch Book' of Washington Irving."
Longfellow's father was eager to have his son become a lawyer. But when Henry was a senior at Bowdoin College at 19, the college established a chair of modern languages. The recent graduate was asked to become the first professor, with the understanding that he should be given a period of time in which to travel and study in Europe.
In May of 1826, the fair-haired youth with the azure blue eyes set out for Europe to turn himself into a scholar and a linguist. He had letters of introduction to men of note in England and France, but he had his own idea of how to travel. Between conferences with important people and courses in the universities, Longfellow walked through the countries. He stopped at small inns and cottages, talking to peasants, farmers, traders, his silver flute in his pocket as a passport to friendship. He travelled in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and England, and returned to America in 1829. At 22, he was launched into his career as a college professor. He had to prepare his own texts, because at that time none were available.
Much tribute is due him as a teacher. Just as he served America in making the world conscious of its legend and tradition, so he opened to his students and to the American people the literary heritage of Europe. He created in them the new consciousness of the literature of Spain, France, Italy, and especially writings from the German, Nordic, and Icelandic cultures.
In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter, whom he had known as a schoolmate. When he saw her at church upon his return to Portland, he was so struck by her beauty that he followed her home without courage enough to speak to her. With his wife, he settled down in a house surrounded by elm trees. He expended his energies on translations from Old World literature and contributed travel sketches to the New England Magazine, in addition to serving as a professor and a librarian at Bowdoin.
In 1834, he was appointed to a professorship at Harvard and once more set out for Europe by way of preparation. This time his young wife accompanied him. The journey ended in tragedy. In Rotterdam, his wife died, and Longfellow came alone to Cambridge and the new professorship. The lonely [Longfellow] took a room at historic Craigie House, an old house overlooking the Charles River. It was owned by Mrs. Craigie, an eccentric woman who kept much to herself and was somewhat scornful of the young men to whom she let rooms. But she read widely and well, and her library contained complete sets of Voltaire and other French masters. Longfellow entered the beautiful old elm-encircled house as a lodger, not knowing that this was to be his home for the rest of his life. In time, it passed into the possession of Nathan Appleton. Seven years after he came to Cambridge, Longfellow married Frances Appleton, daughter of Nathan Appleton, and Craigie House was given to the Longfellows as a wedding gift.
Meantime, in the seven intervening years, he remained a rather romantic figure in Cambridge, with his flowing hair and his yellow gloves and flowered waistcoats. He worked, however, with great determination and industry, publishing 'Hyperion', a prose romance that foreshadowed his love for Frances Appleton, and 'Voices of the Night', his first book of poems. He journeyed again to Europe, wrote 'The Spanish Student', and took his stand with the abolitionists, returning to be married in 1843.
The marriage was a happy one, and the Longfellow house became the center of life in the University town. The old Craigie House was a shrine of hospitality and gracious living. The young people of Cambridge flocked there to play with the five Longfellow children - two boys and the three girls whom the poet describes in 'The Children's Hour' as "grave Alice and laughing Allegra and Edith with golden hair."
From his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, Longfellow got a brief outline of a story from which he composed one of his most favorite poems, 'Evangeline'. The original story had Evangeline wandering about New England in search of her bridegroom. Longfellow extended her journey through Louisiana and the western wilderness. She finds Gabriel, at last, dying in Philadelphia.
'Evangeline' was published in 1847 and was widely acclaimed. Longfellow began to feel that his work as a teacher was a hindrance to his own writing. In 1854, he resigned from Harvard and with a great sense of freedom gave himself entirely to the joyous task of his own poetic writing. In June of that year, he began 'The Song of Hiawatha'.
Henry Schoolcraft's book on Indians and several meetings with an Ojibway chief provided the background for 'Hiawatha'. The long poem begins with Gitche Matino, the Great Spirit, commanding his people to live in peace and tells how Hiawatha is born. It ends with the coming of the white man and Hiawatha's death.
The publication of 'Hiawatha' caused the greatest excitement. For the first time in American literature, Indian themes gained recognition as sources of imagination, power, and originality. The appeal of 'Hiawatha' for generations of children and young people gives it an enduring place in world literature.
The gracious tale of John Alden and Priscilla came next to the poet's mind, and 'The Courtship of Miles Standish' was published in 1858. It is a work which reflects the ease with which he wrote and the pleasure and enjoyment he derived from his skill. Twenty-five thousand copies were sold during the first week of its publication, and 10,000 were ordered in London on the first day of publication.
In 1861, the happy life of the family came to an end. Longfellow's wife died of burns she received when packages of her children's curls, which she was sealing with matches and wax, burst into flame. Longfellow faced the bitterest tragedy of his life. He found some solace in the task of translating Dante into English and went to Europe for a change of scene.
The years following were filled with honors. He was given honorary degrees at the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge, invited to Windsor by Queen Victoria, and called by request upon the Prince of Wales. He was chosen a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the Spanish Academy.
When it became necessary to remove "the spreading chestnut tree" of Brattle Street, which Longfellow had written about in his 'Village Blacksmith', the children of Cambridge gave their pennies to build a chair out of the tree and gave it to Longfellow. He died on March 24, 1882. "Of all the suns of the New England morning," says Van Wyck Brooks, "he was the largest in his golden sweetness."

HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

Henri Frederic Amiel was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic.

Born in Geneva in 1821, he was descended from a Huguenot family driven to Switzerland by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Losing his parents at an early age, Amiel travelled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe, and made a special study of German philosophy in Berlin. In 1849 he was appointed professor of aesthetics at the academy of Geneva, and in 1854 became professor of moral philosophy. These appointments, conferred by the democratic party, deprived him of the support of the aristocratic party, which comprised nearly all the culture of the city.

This isolation inspired the one book by which Amiel is still known, The Journal Intime, which, published after his death, obtained a European reputation. It was translated into English by Mrs. Humphry Ward.

Although second-rate as regards productive power, Amiel's mind was of no inferior quality, and his Journal gained a sympathy that the author had failed to obtain in his life. In addition to the Journal, he produced several volumes of poetry and wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael and other writers. He died in Geneva in March 1881.

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE

A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.

Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, James Freeman Clarke attended the public Latin school of Boston, graduated from Harvard College in 1829, and Harvard Divinity School in 1833. Ordained into the Unitarian church he first became an active minister at Louisville, Kentucky, then a slave state and soon threw himself into the national movement for the abolition of slavery.

In 1839 he returned to Boston, where he and his friends established (1841) the Church of the Disciples which brought together a body of people to apply the Christian religion to social problems of the day. One of the features which distinguished his church was Clarke's belief that ordination could make no distinction between him and them. They also were called to be ministers of the highest religious life. Of this church he was the minister from 1841 until 1850 and from 1854 until his death. He was also secretary of the Unitarian Association and, in 1867-1871 professor of natural religion and Christian doctrine at Harvard.

Clarke contributed essays to The Christian Examiner, The Christian Inquirer, The Christian Register, The Dial, Harper's, The Index, and Atlantic Monthly. In addition to sermons, speeches, hymnals, and liturgies, he published 28 books and over 120 pamphlets during his life time. Clarke edited the Western Messenger, a magazine intended to carry to readers in the Mississippi Valley simple statements of liberal religion, and what were then the most radical appeals to national duty, and the abolition of slavery. Copies of this magazine are now of value to collectors as they contained the earliest printed poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a personal friend and a distant cousin. Clarke became a member of the Transcendental Club alongside Emerson and several others. Many of Clarke's earlier published writings were addressed to the immediate need of establishing a larger theory of religion than that espoused by people who were still under the influence Calvinism, or as an American phrase states the "Hard-shelled Churches."

For the Western Messenger, Clarke requested written contributions from Margaret Fuller. Clarke published Fuller's first literary review—criticisms of recent biographies on George Crabbe and Hannah More. She later became the first full-time book reviewer in journalism working for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. After Fuller's death in 1850, Clarke worked with William Henry Channing and Emerson as editors of The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller, published in February 1852. The trio censored or reworded many of Fuller's letters; they believed the public interest in Fuller would be temporary and that she would not survive as a historical figure. Nevertheless, for a time, the book was the best-selling biography of the decade and went through thirteen editions before the end of the century.

In 1855, Clarke purchased the former site of Brook Farm, intending to start a new Utopian community there. This never came to pass, instead the land was offered to President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War; the Second Massachusetts Regiment used it for training and named it "Camp Andrew". In November 1861, Clarke was in Washington, D.C. with Samuel Gridley Howe andJulia Ward Howe. After hearing the song "John Brown's Body", he suggested that Mrs. Howe write new lyrics; the result was "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Clarke was an advocate of human rights. Being a Boston Latin School alumnus, he served on a committee of the Massachusetts Society for the University Education of Women which was greatly instrumental in the establishing Girls' Latin School in 1878. Tempered and moderate in his views of life, he was a reformer and a conciliator and never had to carry a pistol as fellow preacher Theodore Parker did. He published but few verses, but at heart was a poet. A diligent scholar, among the books by which he became well known is one called Ten Great Religions (2 vols, 1871-1883).

James Freeman Clarke was one of the very first Americans to explore and write about Eastern religions.

A portrait of Clarke painted by E.T. Billings hangs in the Boston Public Library. 

ROBERT H. SCHULLER

Build a dream and the dream will build you.

Robert Harold Schuller was born in Alton, Iowa. He was raised on his parents farm nearby, in a small, close-knit community of Dutch Americans. The Schuller family were adherents of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest Protestant denomination in North America. Robert knew from the age of four that he wanted to be a minister of the church.

After graduating from the tiny high school of nearby Newkirk, Iowa, he entered Hope College, in Holland, Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. While home for the summer he saw his parents home and farm utterly destroyed by a tornado. Eight other farms in the neighborhood were destroyed, but the Schullers were the only family to rebuild. Robert and his father bought a nearby farmhouse and dismantled it piece by piece, rebuilding it on their own property. At summer's end they were once again at home on the farm, and Robert was ready to return to Michigan to pursue his religious studies at Western Theological Seminary. In 1950 he received his Masters of Divinity.

The young Rev. Schuller married Arvella DeHaan of Newkirk, and the newlyweds moved to Chicago, where the newly ordained minister took up his first assignment, as pastor of the Ivanhoe Reformed Church. During his ministry, the congregation grew from 38 to over 400.

In 1955, Schuller's denomination, the Reformed Church in America, called on him to build a new congregation in Garden Grove, California. With only $500 in assets, the minister found it difficult to find a building for the new congregation. At last, he decided to rent a drive-in movie theater, the Orange Drive-In. On the first Sunday, 100 persons attended services seated in their cars, while Rev. Schuller preached from the tarpaper roof of the snack bar.

Many in the Reformed Church considered this an undignified setting for divine services. but Rev. Schuller loved preaching under the open sky. The Garden Grove congregation grew rapidly. In 1961, Rev. Schuller opened his first permanent church building, the world's first walk-in/drive-in church designed by the distinguished architect Richard Neutra.

In 1968, Dr. Schuller founded New Hope, the world's first live, church-sponsored 24-hour counseling and suicide prevention hotline. Since its inception, it is estimated that over a million people have dialed this hotline and received immediate counseling.

The Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church Leadership opened in 1970. More than 20,000 students from different Christian denominations, Catholic and Protestant, have graduated from the Institute. The same year Dr. Schuller began regular television broadcasts from his church. This program, The Hour of Power, has been broadcast on hundreds of stations around the world, and its peak, could be seen on 200 stations in the U.S. and Canada alone, while an estimated 30 million people watched the broadcast every week.

The Garden Grove congregation continued to grow; when a larger building was needed, Rev. Schuller commissioned the renowned architect Philip Johnson to build a new building, all of glass: the Crystal Cathedral. After almost insurmountable difficulties, this 2,736-seat architectural marvel was dedicated in 1980, "To the Glory of Man for the Greater Glory of God." For the next 30 years, one million people visited the Cathedral annually, for regular Sunday worship, for conferences, seminars, workshops and for two annual pageants, The Glory of Christmas and The Glory of Easter.

n 1992, Dr. Schuller fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams with the opening of the Fuqua International School of Christian Communications, funded by the generous donation of Mr. J.B. Fuqua, of Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Schuller served for many years as Chancellor of the school, where ministers from all over the world hone their preaching skills.

Dr. Schuller is the author of over 30 books, six of which have found a place on The New York Times andPublishers Weekly best-seller lists. Robert and Arvella Schuller have five children, all active in Christian ministry. In 2006, Dr. Schuller stepped down as senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral and was succeeded by his son, Robert A. Schuller, but father and son differed over the direction of the church and the younger Schuller left the Cathedral in 2008. The remaining Schuller children, led by pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman, continued to manage the affairs of the Cathedral.

The deep economic recession of 2008-2009 drastically reduced contributions to the Crystal Cathedral and other so-called mega-churches. Burdened with a $36 million mortgage, and debts of over $7.5 million owed to its vendors, Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy protection in the autumn of 2010. Sunday services and Hour of Power broadcasts are expected to continue during bankruptcy proceedings.