Inspiration : Warrier's Collage on Sunday November 2, 2025

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday November 2, 2025 Friends This edition of Collage was not planned. Until 6 45 a m on Thursday when I was reading "Band of Survivors" by John Rosengren (Reader's Digest, July 2024). 15 month old RD was picked up for random reading that day from my accumulation of material kept for future reading. Not necessarily by me! Regards M G Warrier A Cover Story Band of Survivors https://youtu.be/NV7g1f4job0?si=f3WdnRdYiXAqIpbu We have come across several survival stories in the past. In our own life or in the life of one of the near and dear ones, we have seen crossroads which gave way to will power or modern medicine. Here the story talks about someone who walked into his nineties after facing dead ends several times from his childhood. Meanwhile, all through, he kept his passion for music live and is on the stage attracting crowd, dancing, performing and telling his story, as if he is just an eye witness. Saul Dreier, born in 1925 in Poland enjoyed a normal childhood, surrounded by friends, a loving family and the constant hum of music (his father was a musician and was an officer in the Polish Army). For Dreier, life took an unexpected turn in 1939, when he was 14, when invading German troops marched into his hometown Krakow. In 1941, Dreier had to watch helplessly when soldiers dragged his grandmother into the town square and shot her dead. Weeks later, Dreier, then 16 and his sister Helena were separated and he was shifted to the Plaszow labour camp where his new identity (86540) was tattooed on his forearm. He was made to work in 12 hour shifts. He recalls : "Singing helped me survive. If you don't eat but you work hard and you sing, you forget you haven't got food" B Media I 1) Report from Kerala on the eve of Keralappiravi Day, 2025 https://youtu.be/QqytBq3mH_c?si=sVa1D0msLfm-oWLe 2) Ten years ago, I posted this message at my blog : https://share.google/IiMeMELRrzFAWNiHy II Gold management October 29, 2025 Chat Room Gold management This refers to the report "RBI is Speeding up Bringing Gold Home" (Economic Times, October 29). Once upon a time, India had to carry physical gold to pledge and borrow a small amount of foreign currency. Hopefully, such situations will not repeat and the lesson learnt in 1990's will continue to guide the country in the management of forex reserves. The move to expedite bringing back solid gold held abroad needs appreciation, as in the long term it's safer to retain our assets within our reach. A related issue is the need for an institutional arrangement for managing domestic gold stock. Whether we call it Gold Bank or Indian Gold Corporation or something else, the need of the hour is a statutory body responsible for accounting, standardising and managing the country's gold stock, irrespective of the ownership of the gold. M G Warrier Mumbai C Band of Survivors Band of Survivors https://share.google/dflDgb9vUXY9cexsV D History World War II : Casualties World War II casualties - Wikipedia https://share.google/tyeTJbx3ep5Xpouj2 Have we learnt the lessons? E Collage Books 📚 Malala Yousafzai She was just fifteen years old when she was shot in the head at point-blank range for daring to speak out against the Taliban and fight for her right to an education. In an instant, she became the most famous teenager in the world. Millions of people knew her name, but in the years that followed her shooting - as she became a Nobel laureate, a bestselling author, an Oxford graduate, a wife - she began to feel less and less sure that she really knew herself. Buckling under the weight of all her different identities (heroic schoolgirl, reckless college kid, good Pashtun daughter, overachieving academic, global activist icon), Malala realised she needed to figure out who it was she really wanted to be. That journey to self-discovery is the story of this book. https://amzn.in/d/dcp767w