BUT IN OTHER PARTS OF VENICE, IT WAS THE TIME OF LOVE.......

Portia was one of the richest ladies in venice. she was as wise as she was beautiful. however, bassanio fell in love with her more for her wealth and beauty than for her wisdom. but she, poor woman, never realised it. there is in every woman's life a time when love overcomes widom. for Portia, that time was when she met Bassanio. she had heard many bad things about him, how he had seduced many beautiful women, how he had wasted his vast fortune in drink and pleasure, how he lived on debt, and the very clothes he wore were paid for by the purse of his friend Antonio. but when she met him, she forgot it all. he told her that he was rich, she believed him. he flaunted wealth and personal beauty infront of her, and she fell in his trap. against everyone's advice, and amongst many other worthy suitors, she agreed to marry him. she did not realise that he loved not her, but her wealth, he only wanted to marry her to reverse his fortune.POOR GIRL.....

The very day that she agreed to give her hand, portia's dreams were shattered. bassanio recieved a letter saying that Antonio was in debtor's prision, so he told her everything, how he was poor, how he had borrowed 30,000 ducats to please her, how Antonio, his friend, was going to lose his life because of that debt. She hated him then. but she was a kind hearted woman. she could not let someone else die. so that night she married banquo. she shared with him all her wealth, though she knew that he would waste it. she saw what he really was for the first time, but she was helpless, she could not break the engagement. bassanio left her alone, on their wedding night, taking all her money,and with his friend Gratiano, went to free his friend. Gratiano, who had seduced Portia's maid nerissa, also left his bride alone on their wedding night.

Jessica was my daughter. she was brought up motherless, but i do not think she ever missed her mother. jessica was born long after i became rich, so she never had to struggle like i had. she did not understand me, or my hate for christianity. she loved me, i knew, but she was the kind of woman in which the love of a lover outweighs all other loves. her lover came, a christian merchant named Gratiano. i do not know if Gratiano really loved my daughter, or if he, like bassanio, was after her wealth. but i did not approve of her marriage to him. so she ran away with him, leaving me, her old father, all alone in the world.

this made the monster inside me even more angry. i hated Gratiano, because he was a christian, and because he was Antonio's friend, and disinherited jessica from my huge fortune. it was cruel, and maybe it was wrong, but i wanted to punish her.

Portia, as i have already said, had already married Bassanio, and given him all her wealth. but she still was worried about Antonio. so she dressed as a lawer,Balthazar, and followed her new husband. Nerissa, her maid, dressed like a lawer's clerk and also followed. though Portia was a woman, she was well educated and understood the law very well. she was determined to save antonio WITHOUT spending her wealth.

she was a bravewoman, and she would be my downfall.

when portia came to the court, it was already packed. the duke was presiding, and he, along with everyone else in the hall was looking at me with such disgust and revulsion as i have never seen in my life. but i was used to cruel looks, and i knew that they could do nothing to stop me. it gave me a great sense of power, being able to feel the helplessness of all these christians, in front of me, a jew. but then portia, dressed as Balthazar, arrived. i can still remember how the atmosphere changed with her arrival. everyone looked at her, and desperately hoped for a miracle to save antonio. i wasn't impressed, i underestimated her. i did not think such a young lawer could do what others had failed. i had my knife and scales ready, and was prepared for a quick trial.

THEN COURT PROCEEDINGS BEGAN.

Balthazar [portia] began by telling the court about the value of mercy, and requested me to have mercy on antonio and let him go. she was a wonderful orator, but her words didn't move me. i refused. i said that it was not mentioned in the contract so it was against the law.

Bassanio got agitated and insulted me by calling me a jew and tried to force me to 'break the law to save a human life'. but i would not give in. and unexpectedly, Balthazar supported me.

I was encouraged by this. I called her a 'Daniel in judgement'.

but then she asked me to take money, which Bassanio was ready to repay, many times over, but i refused. i said that it was not justice.

in the end, after many pleas, Balthazar seemed to give up, and i called antonio and told him to be ready to die. he was calm. he was ready for death.

but then balthazar turned the tables on me. she showed me the contract, and said that though i had a right to antonio's flesh, there was nothing mentioned about blood. so, in cutting off Antonio's flesh, if i spilt even one drop of blood, i would commit a crime and have all my lands taken away from me. furthermore, if i took more than one pound of flesh, even by the weight of a single hair, i could be accused of murder, and hung on that charge.

thus ended shakespeare's 'merchant of venice'. Antonio's ships, which were supposed to have been lost, came to port and all the troubles of the merchant of venice came to an end.

years and years later, you shall still remember my name......................................

everyone who has been cruel, everyone who has been miserly, shall be compared to me. you shall remember me, and you will despise me. for i am SHYLOCK, the infamous moneylender of venice, who you have all read about, and all despised, in Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice'.

My name was shylock, and i was born in one of the poorest alleys of venice. my mother was a jew, i did not know who my father was...

my mother brought me up, turning her money, her possesions, her honour, to dust, just to pay for two square meals a day. you have heard of antonio, the merchant of venice, and you have heard of banquo, the rich man with the wonderful wife. i was not brought up the same way they were. they were born with silverspoons in their mouths, too rich to ever value a poor copper coin, too high in caste to ever feel any harm on their honour.but i had to struggle, from the moment i learned how to walk, to earn a little for our tiny family. i was a beggar on the streets, a servant in another's house, just to earn my daily bread. my mother loved me, and helped me, but she died, soon after i first began to be rich. in venice at that time, all the people were christian, but i was a jew. so outside a very small community of other jews, i had no friends. jews in those days were not allowed to practise any profession except moneylending. so i became a moneylender. i became extremely rich, because i never wasted a single ducat. when people owed money to me, i made sure that they paid me back, i never showed mercy. you may call me cruel for that, i suppose, but tell me, when i was poor, no one had ever cared for me, no one had ever shown me mercy, then why should i help others? as it was, even after my money lending business prospered, many people like antonio still insulted me and despised me. they called me a dog, a miser, a jew. they insulted my caste, my creed, my religion, my gods. they spat on me and my kind in public.

Antonio was very well known in venice. poor people, if they were christian and did not have the money to pay me, went to him to borrow money. he took little interest, and was kind to them, so they worshipped him and hated me. Antonio was full of himself.

he never missed a chance to insult me and show me how wonderful he was. i could not reply. i could not tell him that his money came from trade, and if people did not pay him back it would not harm him.but all my wealth, everything i owned, had been earned from the moneylending business. if it failed, i would have nowhere and noone to turn to.

i hated him, and my hate turned me into a monster. i was quiet, but i would have my revenge......

Antonio had a lover, a best friend. His name was bassanio, and he had been born in one of the richest houses in venice. but he was a waster, he had unmindfully wasted all his money. and now he had come to Antonio to ask for money, to marry a beautiful and rich lady named portia, who was an heiress to a large fortune.[much like PARIS HILTON:)] He had told her that he was very rich, so he needed to impress her with expensive clothes. so he asked Antonio for 30,000 gold ducats. Antonio's ships, in which he had invested all his money,were at sea, so antonio could not pay banquo the money. ANTONIO loved BASSANIO so he came to me to borrow the money.

ANTONIO was my worst enemy, so when i saw him, i started insulting him. i did not want to lend him the money. i thought it would go to waste. but then the monster inside me thought of a plan. i would lend him the money, but i would make him sign a contract that if he did not pay me the money back on time, he would have to give me a pound of his flesh. Antonio was desperate. he signed the bond, and from then on his life was in my hands. i had decided that if he did not pay me back, i would cut the flesh off his chest, near his heart, so that he could bleed to death.

i wanted his blood......this would be my revenge.

my wishes came true. Antonio's ships were lost at sea, so he could not pay me back on time. i took him in custody, and got ready to kill him.

i knew the law had no power to stop me....

TO BE CONTINUED........

Your words i have heard, love,many a time'

but i have pushed them away, at the back of my mind.

my heart, empty and heavy,has waited for your song,

then why have you waited,so very long?

The courage to dream, and the inspiration to hope,

why have you waited so long to show me?

my best years are lost, my youth is wasted

then why do you call me know?

Why do you urge me to run, to fly,

when i have no longer legs to walk.

why do you grant me love and care,

when i can no longer bear them?

Where was this oasis, which you show me know,

when i searched every grain of sand in the desert?

no, it is cruel, i cannot bear what you show me now,

i have no reality now,love,nothing left to give.

nothing i can do, nothing i have left

i can do nothing else;

simply keep on dreaming.

They first met on an internet chat site. he was a recently graduated software professional, she was a student in the same field. he lived in x city, she lived in y city. he was an atheist, she was a devoted, god loving person. it was a slow romance. they knew nothing about each other, not even their real names. on the site, when they first met, he called himself mark, she called herself laura.

they needed no other name.the chemistry was instantaneous, and after countless emails, they knew and loved eachother more than anyone. they wrote to each other everyday, through good and bad times, like when he lost his first job, when her parents died, when he broke up with his wife(yes, he was married) , when she left her boyfriend and job and moved to another city. then after almost five years, he got a mail....

dear mark,

guess what, i'm in your city! i've joined a multinational company as a trainee and we might meet eachother, face to face, at last!

laura

he replied.............

gr8, i'm so xcited! when shall we meet/ where?

but the rightdate took time to fix. she had problems settling down to her new post, getting used to her slavedriving boss, pleasing her colleagues, finding a cheap flat, meeting deadlines.

at the time, he was also having trouble at his office, though he was in a high post. errant employees, stupid trainees, impossible deadlines and the mess of work delayed the actual meeting for more than two months.

they finally met, at a Barista, on tuesday, 2nd may 200X

only to realise that they already knew eachother. 'LAURA' was 'MARK''s new trainee. MARK was LAURA'S slavedriving boss.

Now YOU choose the ending..........................

(we will still call him mark, and her laura)

mother

sometimes, your advice and words

seem to cause nothing but hurt

sometimes your stories and cares

seem like boring tales, nothing to share

sometimes, you really annoy me,

with your do's and don'ts incessantly

but that's when i forget you are my mother.

that's when i forget,

your hours in the kitchen,

that's when i forget the times you dried my tears.

that's when i forget

how you defend me.

when all say i'm wrong,

and i'm in the depths of despair,

you pull me up with a smile...

but when i'm lost again,

in my teenage heaven,

you pull me up once a while.

Yes, i'm angry, very angry at you,

when i feel that you really don't care;

but that's because, i care a lot,

about the relationship we share.

Schizophrenia, from the Greek roots schizein (σχίζειν, "to split") and phrēn, phren- (φρήν, φρεν-, "mind"), is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality, most commonly manifesting as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking in the context of significant social or occupational dysfunction. Onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood,with approximately 0.40.6% of the population affected. Diagnosis is based on the patient's self-reported experiences and observed behavior. No laboratory test for schizophrenia currently exists.

For this reason, Eugen Bleuler termed the disease the schizophrenias (plural) when he coined the name. Despite its etymology, schizophrenia is not synonymous with dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder; in popular culture the two are often confused.