Socrates trial and execution Information

It looks like the author has tried to make a subtle point in this book. What he is saying is that the execution order for Socrates had public backing. It wasn't a malicious verdict by a group of conspirators with a personal score to settle. Still it doesn't add up to much. After all, you cannot take someone's life based on lame assumptions like Gods getting angry because they were teased by a wily old guy. Doesn't matter whether such a verdict had the sympathy of a hundred or a thousand people. It was another blasphemy charge leading up to an innocent scholar's death.

Information about Writing Novel

I often touch on the different aspects of fiction writing in my blog, Writer's Edge[http://www.writers-edge.info], but I don't think I would presume to tell anyone else how to write their book. We all develop our own methods, sometimes different ones for different novels.

For example, right now I am working on my third book. The story idea arrived whole in my mind (a rare occurence for me!), so I wrote up a quick outline: beginning, middle, end. Some writers call this a "framework" for a book. Then I expanded the outline and found I needed a cheatsheet on each character, a list of settings, a chronology of events, and a chart of relationships (it's a complex middle). I tried having all this on the computer in one file of MSWord documents, but I really needed a faster reference method that wouldn't take me out of the page itself. I printed out the charts and tables and posted them on a bulletin board near my desk. I couldn't possibly keep all this information straight in my mind before I write the book.

Having this novel pretty much completely outlined allows me to focus on the writing craft now. After several decades of writing, I know that this procedure works much better for me than just writing and seeing where it goes (nowhere, usually).

For you, I would suggest that you first get a better grasp of the language, if you're going to write in English professionally. Never pass by an opportunity to practice good writing and to demonstrate your skills.

Ancient Case Information

Lets examine portuguese case: they engaged in forced conversions and aggression against everyone including even the nasranis. They tried their maximum to convert as many people as possible. Eventually even the christians/nasranis here could not tolerate them. And they got ejected by the dutch.

British case.....they tried conversions directly till 1857, when missionary excesses led Hindus and Muslims to unite against them.

Britishers may have been highly organized. But they were no mongols or mughals. If the hindus and muslims of the subcontinent sneezed together, the british would have landed in arabia. British colonials- around 80,000 to 2 lakh of them controlled the Indian subcontinent, through their sheer organisation skills and by recruiting locals. They could not risk letting missionaries scot free, as they

understood the risk of hindu muslim unity.

Politics in Indian Cricket

Ganguly is known for pissing in when he is out of the tent! Kallis has the kind of bowling to back the team even when there are poor scores by batsmen. Let's see now. Australia was dismissed for 47 in SA. That gave a platform for SA to win the test. Indian bowlers have been ineffective for quite some time, with rare glimpses of brilliance. That's why we lose when our batsmen fail.

The big 3 headed mainly by Dravid have been carrying the show on their capable shoulders. India had been able to bat the opposition out of the game. So when we have a rare failure of all three, like in Australia, the Indian team starts to look very ordinary. And in England, Dravid stood tall. A little support from Tendulkar or Lax would have seen India put up a better show. Okay, here's another tidbit. when was Kallis ever asked to keep wickets, change his place in the order and generally get kicked around like Dravid has been. Or for that matter, has Tendya ever succeeded when he came down the order in ODIs? Did he ever come down the order once he wrested the no. 4 position? Even when Dravid carried his bat at the Oval and must have been dog tired, did Tendya volunteer to open? This is what we are doing to the best no. 3 batsman we have ever had! Given our circumstances,Dravid is any day superior to Kallis or Ponting!

We Indians have this knack of pulling down our best. to me Dravid is the best batsman, in Tests at least, that we have had! And Ganguly has been a waste of God given talent, who never worked to enhance his strengths or reduce his weaknesses. Who is he to comment on Dravid anyway?