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Reprint edition published in April 2020.

Reading Level: 15-55 years

No newspaper story is thought to be properly slanted unless it deals in personalities. The most complex themes are stated in terms of particular people. Television reinforces the process by appearing to bring every kind of person, famous or unknown, right into the heart of almost every home.

At the same time so much happens at such a fast pace around us, that even famous people get quickly forgotten. A new generation does not know what they looked like. Very often it has little incentive to know what they did. As long as 1906, a well-known writer complained that, "history is made faster than it can be recorded." Given the greatly superior methods of recording, the remark remains true, even today.

To understand the contemporary framework of reference, it is necessary to know about people from all parts of the world and about scientists and media personalities as much as about writers, leaders and social reformers. What is happening has to be placed in its context in space and time. Gandhi, Lenin and Marx are as "relevant" as any people nearer at home might be. Newton, Picasso, Einstein influence our lives at least as much as any three politicians.

It is a more fascinating and certainly a more controversial task to select which lives deserve special attention than to pick a test team or to choose the 100 best tunes.

This book is a humble effort to compile life sketches of great men in different fields, so as to act as a source of inspiration and motivation for every individual to excel in his/her field of activity.

The aim of this book is simple: to give a view of our times through the lives of some of the eminent figures who have most influenced them.