My dear Billy,
Our Prime Minister has adopted a new leitmotiv lately. Wherever he goes, whatever the occasion, whenever he speaks –  whether he is speaking at a religious ceremony or on the occasion of the inauguration of a supermarket or the opening of a new road – he lashes out vehemently at journalists and declares that it is very easy to sit in a corner and write, whereas the real fight is waged on the battlefield. “Come on the arena and invest your sweat and blood,” he challenges the journalists.

My dear Billy,
My old friend Santosh Kumar Mahadeo, in his weekly column in Le Matinal last Friday, made an earnest plea for greater mental sanity in the world.

My dear Billy,
We are now in that period of the year when many school leavers are awaiting that much awaited and much dreaded call for an interview.

My dear Billy,
It might interest you to know that the provisional injunction that was pronounced against two important press groups here has been lifted by another court order.

My dear Billy,
Now that the HSC results are known, and the scholarships lost and won, our school leavers are about to negotiate a very crucial stage in their lives.

My dear Billy,
We have often been confronted with warnings and admonitions like “suffer or perish”,  “do or die”,  “adapt or perish.”

My dear Billy,
People today are so busy trying to cope with life and living that they fall victim to stress or trauma and tension. Many do spend considerable amounts on doctors and drugs. A few are on opiates and sedatives, while quite a number are on narcotics.

My dear Billy,
One of the most earnest supplications we make to God in our prayers is “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.” But do we really forgive those who have wronged us?

My dear Billy,
Have you noticed how much trouble people go through in order to look younger than their age? They will buy a whole paraphernalia of cream, powder, and other cosmetics for their face, body, hair, etc; just to give a lie to their number of years.

My dear Billy,
When you hear of certain crimes and the sheer violence with which they are perpetrated, you start wondering whether God is still in command or whether He has not abdicated and ceded his post to Satan. For it is hardly conceivable that men can bring themselves to such degrees of heinousness under the very eyes of the Almighty.