Arupedia

The evolution of internet came with the promise of making facts available at the click of a button. But day by day facts are becoming elusive, available only to those who have the skill to trace them.

A fact can be verified by anyone. That Ashok was an Indian king in the ancient period is a known fact supported by evidences and accepted by all. But the moment we say that he was a great king, we are moving away from the fact to an opinion.

A fact speaks for itself. The same may not be true for an opinion. It may be based on facts. It may not be. The fact based opinions can prove to be helpful for a society, while the hollow, unsubstantiated ones can be very harmful.

In today’s world it is pivotal that we foster critical thinking, research skills in young minds by which they are able to distinguish between facts and opinions. To help them understand which opinions are based on facts and which facts are based on opinions so they can make informed decisions.

Everybody knows Jim Corbett as a hunter, wildlife expert and as an established writer. But I was more interested to discover the life that he lived at Mokama Ghat, a small village on the bank of Ganga in Bihar. He had spent about 20 years of his life there with the Railways. I wanted to understand his character as a professional and as a human being.

And I was not disappointed. I got one full chapter on that in the book. I did have some knowledge about that though. Corbett himself has described it in the last chapter of his My India. But this book has brought to light several other aspects of his character.

If you want to be a successful human resource manager, you need to take good care of human resource under your command. This book reveals how Corbett used to take care of the needs of the people working under him. He made them work hard, 16 hours a day, and get tons and tons of goods loaded on the ships/rail at Mokama Ghat.

Corbett used to be very compassionate and concerned about the daily needs such as food, income and education of his workers. He was instrumental in opening the first high school in that area with the help of a local person named Ram Sharan who had been closely associated with Corbett.

D C Kala has been able to reveal several of these attributes of Jim Corbett in the book.