Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 49

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Today's Topics:

   1. Awards and recognitions (Nelson Lopes)
   2. Children are parent's most prestigious treasure (Nelson Lopes)
   3. Read; Obituary Sir Mark Tully obituary (Vivek Pinto)


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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2026 13:06:45 +0530
From: Nelson Lopes <[email protected]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!"
	<[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Awards and recognitions
Message-ID:
	<CACCOymK1tJGvn-CM678GqUUVzPHtXXQ_1makv0Qgqpw0yORj_Q-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
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Awards  and recognitions

Awards serve as incentives and a springboard to rise to greater heights of
excellence in chosen fields. They encourage individuals to redouble their
energies and reaffirm that sincere effort was worthwhile. Often, meaningful
actions are not motivated by the anticipation of recognition; rather, they
are inspired by one?s ability to achieve with distinction what is possible
within one?s means. Undoubtedly, many such noble deeds benefit humanity and
enrich the society in which we live. Intentions driven by
self-glorification, fame, popularity, or financial gain are hardly worthy
of esteem.

The recent incident of former U.S. President Donald Trump actively
canvassing for the Nobel Peace Prize is a novel and unprecedented attempt.
Even the gift reportedly presented by the recipient, Mrs. Machado, ought to
have been politely declined. An award is neither to be solicited nor earned
as a trophy for public gloating.

Awards are external incentives meant to acknowledge meritorious service
that advances human causes and addresses contentious issues deserving
attention. Awards that are canvassed are in extremely poor taste.
Politically motivated recognitions seldom represent the highest order of
honour. There also exist awards that can be quietly secured by paying a
requisite fee. Many such organisations actively canvass and invite gullible
individuals, feeding a false sense of pride and glory. These so-called
honorific gestures merely boost the image of those hungry for publicity and
carry no intrinsic value.
Today, awards abound in almost every sphere of human activity?politics,
education, music, sports, arts and culture, cinema, and more. Organisations
often seek mileage and visibility through such honours. We frequently
witness the felicitation of individuals who no longer need awards, yet
whose image provides a booster dose to stagnating organisations seeking
relevance. In contrast, standard and prestigious awards are governed by
objective, well-defined parameters, conferred annually and based purely on
merit.

If the purpose of an award is public display and self-promotion, it
reflects poor taste. Flimsy awards conferred at the drop of a hat are
meaningless; their impact fades sooner rather than later. Our actions,
achievements, efforts, and sacrifices should not be hinged on temporary
gratification or personal glorification.
Awards conferred without expectation?and without striving for them?are
precious in their worth and value. Awards should neither promote nor
advertise organisations, but rather recognise selfless work of outstanding
merit.
These honours are confined to files, display cupboards, and when recipient
pass away they no longer hold the esteem. They just assume decorative or
ornamental  significance and will soon be a dustbin product .The successors
aren't  too concerned of its worth or value

:Nelson Lopes
Chinchinim

Nelson Lopes
Chinchinim
https://lopesnelsonnat.wordpress.com


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Message: 2
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:27:26 +0530
From: Nelson Lopes <[email protected]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!"
	<[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Children are parent's most prestigious treasure
Message-ID:
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**Children Are Parents? Most Precious Treasure**
 Children are parents? most precious treasure, A family?s pride, a lifelong
pleasure. They are enduring wealth, beyond all measure,
 Blessed with prayers for health beyond all treasure.

Yet times have changed?migration draws them far,
Leaving parents alone, wherever they are.
In frail old age, some are left behind,
In care homes, longing hearts confined.

Once, a son was a hedge in parents? decline,
 A pillar of strength through the passage of time.
Daughters too were a bond secure as gold,
A promise of care when parents grow old
.
At times, daughters-in-law may view with disdain,
Ageing parents as burdens causing strain.
Helpless elders then silently endure
Physical pain and wounds unseen, unsure.

The son becomes referee in domestic strife,
 A silent witness to tensions of life.
 Separate homes are often firmly sought, Autonomy prized, compassion forgot.


 Parents invest their lives, their means, their years,
With sacrifices, struggles, hopes, and fears.
They deny themselves without greed or claim,
To meet every need, to shield from pain.


 Birth itself is a priceless parental gift,
Guidance, growth, and life?s steady uplift.
Moral duty binds both rights and care?
A balance of love, responsibility fair.

 To hurt or isolate parents brings no gain,
 It plants deep regrets and lifelong pain.
 A parent?s blessing is a divine grace;
 Its absence leaves sorrow no time can erase
.
 One day, children will stand where parents stood, And understand what once
was misunderstood.
 The truth remains, old and wisely sown:
?You reap what you plant??the seed you?ve grown.


 History repeats, in ways profound and true,
 Lessons return, as life comes full view.
 Respect today shapes tomorrow?s role, In the unbroken cycle of heart and
soul.


Children must treat parents with dignity,
 Knowing dependence comes with age?s fragility.
Love, affection, and care they rightly deserve? With sensitivity and
patience, relations preserve.

Nelson Lopes
Chinchinim

Nelson Lopes
Chinchinim
https://lopesnelsonnat.wordpress.com


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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2026 02:21:12 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read; Obituary Sir Mark Tully obituary
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9zJKGojaLxrgoKU=q+2e+Fpf+B-7HBeF2yTfvLmpbWv7A-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Simon O' Hagan
Published in: *The Guardian*
Date: January 25, 2026
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/25/sir-mark-tully-obituary

BBC correspondent and author whose sensitive reporting from India made him
a revered public figure in the subcontinent

In 2017 Mark Tully was making a documentary for the BBC World Service to
coincide with the 70th anniversary of partition ? the moment that marked
the end of British colonial rule in India
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/india> and the creation of Pakistan. As
Tully toured locations across the subcontinent, it was clear that his
standing as the BBC?s ?voice of India? still endured, even though he had
ceased to be its correspondent in the country more than 20 years earlier.

Everywhere he went ? the documentary?s producer, Frank Stirling, recalled ?
he could not walk down the street without people coming up to him wanting
to shake his hand. In the eyes of the Indian public, Tully, who has died
aged 90, was more than a foreign correspondent; he was a public figure,
known throughout the country thanks to his authoritative but sensitive
reporting on often tumultuous events.

Prominent among these events were the Bhopal disaster, the siege of the
Golden Temple in Amritsar, and the assassination of the prime minister
Indira Gandhi, all in 1984, with Tully demonstrating a deep understanding
of the country?s complex and combustible politics.

Tully?s name was synonymous with India to a degree that didn?t happen with
colleagues serving in other posts around the world. He was the BBC?s Delhi
bureau chief from 1972 to 1993, and its South Asia correspondent for
another year after that. His beat took in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka. BBC <https://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc>chiefs visiting India
depended on him to show them round and open doors.

The sense of belonging Tully felt in India stemmed not just from the fact
that he had been born there. The country fuelled his fascination with the
spiritual side of life, and that fascination fed into his broadcasts.

>From 1995 to 2019, after retiring from reporting duties, he was the main
presenter of the Radio 4 <https://www.theguardian.com/media/radio4> programme
Something Understood, in which he explored the meaning of life through
selections of poetry, prose and music. But Tully, who had studied theology
at Cambridge University with a view to entering the priesthood, was never
regarded as a sermoniser.

?I still cling to Christianity and identify myself as Christian,? he told
Radio Times in 2019. ?But living in India with so many religions around me,
I no longer believe that Christianity is the only way to God.?

Tully was born in Kolkata, the son of William, an accountant in one of the
leading managing agencies of the British Raj, and his wife, Patience (nee
Treby).

He was sent to the UK for his education, attending Twyford school in
Winchester and then Marlborough college. His time at Trinity Hall,
Cambridge, was followed by further studies at a seminary, but ?I was always
rather rebellious and I didn?t like the discipline?, he said in an
interview with the Unesco Courier. ?Also, I was a good beer drinker.?

Tully returned to India to take up an administrative job with the BBC in
1965 before becoming a talks writer with its Eastern Service in 1969. Three
years later he took on the role that made him famous.

Operation Blue Star ? to give the Amritsar siege its official description ?
provided Tully with the subject of his first book, co-authored with Satish
Jacob, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi?s Last Battle (1985). The incident was, he
said, ?one of the most extraordinary battles in military history?, in which
the Indian army laid siege to the Golden Temple complex before attacking
the Sikh fundamentalists who had occupied it in pursuit of the goal of
their own homeland. Tully was on the spot as mortars exploded and gunfire
was exchanged.

His other books included From Raj to Rajiv (1988); No Full Stops in India
(1991); India in Slow Motion (2002), co-authored with Gillian Wright;
India?s Unending Journey (2007); India: The Road Ahead (2011); and
Upcountry Tales: Once Upon a Time in the Heart of India (2017).

Most of his reporting was for radio but he made appearances on the TV news
and in 1996 he presented the BBC TV series The Lives of Jesus, and wrote an
accompanying book.

Tully?s departure from the BBC was controversial. Trouble started brewing
in 1993 when he delivered a lecture at the Radio Academy in which he
accused the then director-general, John Birt, of ?turning the BBC into a
secretive monolith with poor ratings and a demoralised staff?, adding that
he didn?t ?think Mr Birt understands what the BBC was or what it should
become.?

He was transferred from staff to a two-year contract, the protracted
wrangling over the terms eventually leading him to resign. His long tenure
at the helm of Something Understood then began, and he remained in Delhi.

Knighted in 2002, he was also the recipient of two of India?s highest
honours ? the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, both in recognition of
distinguished service.

In 1960, Tully married Margaret Butler, with whom he had two daughters,
Sarah and Emma, and two sons, Sam and Patrick. He lived with her on his
visits to London, while sharing his Delhi home with Wright, his partner.
Once asked about this arrangement, Tully described it as ?complicated?.

.William Mark Tully, broadcaster and author, born 24 October 1935; died 25
January 2026


End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 49
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