My father Paneer Gurdeep was born in a small remote village in India. Being a young man full of ambition he hustled the streets as a purveyor of mysticism. Put another way he dealt hashish from Kashmir to temples throughout the region to the mystics who became even more mystical after ingesting copious amounts ofContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter One: My Distant Past”
Category Archives: literature
RKS Literature: Napalm Nightmare (Bryce Courtenay)
“When I came to I was lying on a large raised platform together with several wounded Korean and Chinese soldiers. The bloke next to me was sitting up as if he was frozen into position, with his hands clasped about his knees. He was a blackish brown colour, the skin on his body so completelyContinue reading “RKS Literature: Napalm Nightmare (Bryce Courtenay)”
RKS Literature: Life in the 1930’s at the Colored Orphan Asylum in Harlem (Bryce Courtenay)
“The idea of a black orphan aspiring to rise above his or her predestined station in life simply never occurred to them. Children such as Jimmy who were demonstrably bright were regraded as potentially dangerous. They would only become frustrated in later life and, as a consequence, turn to crime. It was better to subdueContinue reading “RKS Literature: Life in the 1930’s at the Colored Orphan Asylum in Harlem (Bryce Courtenay)”
RKS Literature: The Suffering and Mercy of War (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)
“The war was merciful to men, it took them away. The women it left to suffer to the end of their days.” Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”, 1968.
RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Imprisonment of Soviet Soldiers Who Fought in The Second World War: Seen as Spies! (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“Only a prisoner in his first years of sentence believes, every time he is summoned from his cell and told to collect his belongings, that he is being called to freedom. To him every whisper of an amnesty sounds like the trumpets of archangels. But they call him out of his cell, read him someContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Imprisonment of Soviet Soldiers Who Fought in The Second World War: Seen as Spies! (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: Comrade Rusanov as a Proud Soviet Stoolie for Stalin (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“Rusanov was not afraid of any of them. He had helped establish the guilt of them all, more boldly and openly as time went on. On two occasions he had even gone to the confrontation, raised his voice and denounced them. At that time it was not considered the least shameful to do such aContinue reading “RKS Literature: Comrade Rusanov as a Proud Soviet Stoolie for Stalin (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: Soviet Party Bureaucrat Thinks He Deserves the Best (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“There was nothing wrong in a man in strengthening his material position with the help of a good salary from the state and a good pension (Pavel Nikolayevich’s dream was to be awarded a special, personal pension). Such a man has earned his car, his cottage in the country, and a small house in townContinue reading “RKS Literature: Soviet Party Bureaucrat Thinks He Deserves the Best (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: Cancer Ward Patients Like Chickens Waiting to Have Their Heads Cut Off (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)
“But here in the clinic, sucking an oxygen balloon, eyes hardly able to roll, the tongue keeps on arguing, “I’m not going to die! I haven’t got cancer!” Just like chickens. A knife was ready and waiting for them, but they all carried on cackling and scratching for food. One was taken away to haveContinue reading “RKS Literature: Cancer Ward Patients Like Chickens Waiting to Have Their Heads Cut Off (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: The Cancer Patient in the Hospital a Grain of Sand (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“You, see, you start from a completely false position. No sooner does a patient come to you than you begin to do all his thinking for him. After that, the thinking’s done by your standing orders, your five-minute conferences, your program, your plan and the honor of your medical department. And once again I becomeContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Cancer Patient in the Hospital a Grain of Sand (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: Physicians are of the Highest Order (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“The sternest and most solemn of all was that of the nurse Olympiada Vladislanova. For her the morning rounds were like a divine service for a deacon. She was a nurse for whom the doctors were of a higher order. She knew that doctors understood everything, never made mistakes and never gave wrong instructions. SheContinue reading “RKS Literature: Physicians are of the Highest Order (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”
