A few years ago I watched astonished as Jeff, my huge, scary German- Shepherd dog, became a little pup and followed my nephew around the room, nuzzling into his ear and behaving as if he’d found a long lost friend: All my nephew had done had been to walk into my house, kneel down and cuddle my huge fellow, then tickle his tummy and roll him over.

 “Mama!”

 “Yes my son?”

“The exit polls said, I and that thirty one year old boy would win in Bihar!”

“I know my son, but they were wrong! On top of it you lost quite miserably!”

Niceness, nearly lost out in the four years that the White House was occupied by a boorish, loud, arrogant president, and though many reasons have been attributed to his downfall, despite fulfilling many of his promises, most voters, at least a little over half of America, wanted someone nice back in the saddle!

The quarreling in the house at the end of the road, had been going on throughout the night and finally the neighbours, unable to sleep called the police.

“Sir,” said the inspector as he entered the house and looked at the elderly couple. “You both are making too much noise, the neighbours can’t sleep!”

“Officer,” cried the weeping wife, as she ran to the policeman’s side, “he is transferring me out of this house, out of my home.”

It was just the other day while shopping with my daughter, I noticed I was paying more attention to the pavement I was walking on than the display in the shop windows. I wondered for a moment and realized I was so scared of slipping on the uneven tiles that I didn’t dare look up, “You’re growing old Bob,” I said to myself and pondered over that not too happy a thought till I chanced to read this article by Douglas Mac Arthur: