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Seeing the response received by previous posts on the blog I decided help ya fellas out by posting more critical summaries on the Additional English syllabus feel free to read through and take print outs.

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Father (Prafulla Roy)

The story is a conglomerate/ fabrication of various evidences cemented and compounded  in such a way that it takes us back to the time/period/instance when Hindu- Muslim riots were the call of the day and no entity was left affected by the vengeance and torment afflicted in the society. The macro theme in this long short story emphasizes on appeasement/reconciliation between father and daughter and sister and brother  who after 30 years of warfare happen to meet  in the Calcutta that took manika or khuku couple of years  hunting/ delving for her family and in return Father shekharnath though  spotted someone coming towards the house /crossing the threshold but felt  an aura of nostalgia , dismal and melancholy encompassing/embodying him and bolted his door and did not bother to open it till she left the home  . He had throb inside that was killing him for the reason he flew away and daughter being abducted, At this juncture, when he is getting an opportunity to meet his daughter he felt guilty- remorse for he had to leave his family behind in that desperate condition to save the left ones skin from the riots/uprisings/insurrections/disturbances/unrests/rebellion/revolt going out in mirpur town of Bangladesh. Narrator of the story has considerately disguised characters of story in such a moving picture that the father who believes in humility is taken over/provoked by the brutal setback when his wife was murdered and daughter being seized by rabbles.

Story delves the path of leaving behind  the  prejudices  being paved and flagged by Hindu – Muslim riots and following the turbulent trajectory of the partition.

Essayist  has vivaciously disguised the story from existing period to the primeval  times  which revives the protagonist about his doleful / mournful/gloomy /despondent memories that have seized  away his beloved wife and daughter from him due to the rage of time and cold blooded people . Title is competent and suggestive to the story as it implores 2 sub themes under it:

1.      Guilt that has left father crestfallen and down casted due to  impulsive situation that made him shift his township in no time and daughter being left abducted by mobs  ,past 1947 riots.

2.      Grief , woe , despair and misfortune that encased/wrapped/shrouded/encircled  him and his only son left , due to family being tarnished by the belligerence marked by Hindu Muslim insurgents.

Mother has been featured as the one who was always apprehensive and worried about her daughter and she played this part so well because she has been guided by such orthodox , conservative and conformist  beliefs of Brahmin folk.

*Hemlata’s thoughts and ideas , her worries and concerns , were all enclose by a strong iron frame beyond which it was impossible for her to ever stray *

These lines portrays how her thoughts were left undaunted by her husband and with the climax of the story husband felt guilty and was submerged/plunged in the forlorn of not being able to save his daughter from the hands  of throng.

The best moment can be priced as the one when Shekharnath was stimulated and provoked/triggered by the dictum of his son,*it’s terribly wrong , Father , that Didi will never come back home to us*

This led air of camaraderie recuperate/reincarnated inside his heart and in no time he leaves for airport amidst the cold blanket of fog encircling the town with his grandson. He embraced her daughter with the cuddle of pride, sorrow and joy and tendered her with the trinkets her mother has left  for daughter.

So, beginning on a peaceful and sanguine note story culminates in dynamic manner leaving behind no antipathies and resentment in heart of none of the characters pictured in the story.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL (BINOO K JOHN)

Author has been journalism for 18 years and this can be starkly seen in the essay how well he weaves the words to mark the stigma on Indian English. Hazarfundas of Indian English is nonfiction by him and the abstract /essay has been weaved from the book.

The author of this essay has immaculately throne light/poignantly ridiculed on how the use of English in Indianite way has influenced / persuaded/manipulated our mother tongue and native English. How we Indians have blissfully flouted all the rules and improvidently scampered the sovereign English. How higher echelons of government officials  has muffled the language and has boisterously ruled it on Indian papers ranging from court papers to day to day hand-outs .Author has ridiculed and rebuked the use of English in alternative forms of Hinglish, tamglish, malglish which has left the language with no logic and coerciveness.

He describes the pitiful sin of conglomeration of literal and metaphorical or idiomatic usage of English by nation’s patrons. Author has also cited various examples throughout the essay that describe the indolent/ apathetic use of this language. Getting along with splendid English seems no more a cup of tea for Indian generations. Author awfully describes the deplorable usage of English and marks pity for the concierges/STICKLERS of English language. English has been constantly twisted and curled to suit Indian needs and pander to the Indian tastes.

As far as pronunciation is considered it seems to be a pandemic problem. If you happen to read an Indian newspaper it would make you laugh out of laughter this is how we have made a blend of English and Hindi to comfort ourselves with its intensified usage of English language. How  would this line sound to a white men who happens to take a glance at morning headline *FM mange MORE*.With the influence of English in computer programming, paradoxically, Indian virus of English have made an attempt to worm their way into the heart of Queen’s language .

Even Bollywood has not left an attempt to stereotype the queen’s language into fairly/COMMONLY used pedestrian English. Author  has vividly shown the spoof of Indian English by mentioning example from Bollywood genres that says MYSELF HINDI TEACHER, MEET ME IN BACKSIDE WHEN MY PERIOD IS EMPTY. When talking about grammatical rules, Indians like other users around the world, have hiccups with punctuation marks, more so the apostrophe.

The chapter finally delves and states that how English has become the voice of the day and how it has geographically knocked out/EXTENSIVE ranging from an in nard village of Tamil nadu to the mega malls of glitzy metropolises. Lastly, off and on, efforts are made and clarion calls issued by educationalists to take to correct English. But as globalization manifests and outsourced jobs become the vogue, India is confident it is very much in picture, despite its adoption of Indian- English.

Letter to a Dear Friend (L Kharma Wphlang)

Letter to dear friend is a heart touching poem where poet nostalgically portrays the doleful recklessness done to the native land by the people ‘off ‘/‘of’ the land .The poet has used irony and vivid imagery throughout to describe the nature‘s blemishes and the innocent people’s tribute/gratitude to/for the native land.  The poet inevitably touches upon postcolonial/neo-colonial issues towards its conclusion and portrays a society devoid of sensitivity and humanity.

Dear friend, your letter lies on

My table, and now this reply, this

Calling to mind, your softness for

This land

The poet is replying to the last letter written by his friend who asked about his people, his land.

Here, I am well, I am older,

Sadder, perhaps, at the seasons longing

Us another day. Our limbs and

Songs are getting weary all the time

In response, The poet tells he is getting older with shades of days and night and passing of springs and autumns, in the succeeding lines the poet has used personification to mark the idea that with passage of time our songs, our ancientness, our culture are getting as drowsy and old as the limbs of an old man which are in lurch of rest every time. For this he thanks to the westernisation followed by ‘our’ people.

But I am grateful for strong mercies

A stark sarcasm for the following lines

You ask about our hills- well,

They are still there, - the stones

And rivers too—they are being

Pimped for tourists and lately,

In many places disembowelled

Mercilessly. Their clothes are carried

Away to the lowlands and

Their names are sometimes being

Changed.

In this section the poet talks about the nature and the surroundings, how they hereby mountains, hills, have been eviscerated and how mankind have intermitted with the natural courses of rivers just to welcome overseas people and keep them happy. Foreign people are not behind in the race of devastation they are the one who have mercilessly removed the clothes of nature and welcomed the aura exhaustive industrialisation.

Tell me good friend, is it

Possible to change the nature

Of a mountain spirit

Or the course of a river?

The Poet has a doubt and the mystified meaning says it is possible to alter with the outer appearance but the essence and the bliss that we get from the place is hard to change.

About my people, nothing much has

Changed. Fools parading as leaders

Distribute words to the hungry and

The rich have started importing

Dreams from the west

The poet tries to stigmatise the post and pre-colonial ruling of so called white collared officials and bureaucrats who in name of democracy are ruling since independence but their methods of ruling has been same even after 65 years of independence. They have been tagged as’ imprudent’/ ‘profligate’ who just have job of money minting and are playing a chase game. The rich and the elite class are aping westernisation and are trying to bring revolution and reincarnate the whole land

They are peculiar breed, the leaders

They have an eel for tongue

A mint for brain

Peculiar means a clumsy / weird people. ‘eel for tongue’ poet tries to bring the tool of anthropomorphism whereby animating men’s tongue with eel which is a fish with elongated tongue  who feeds on preys called predators similarly these leaders they are good in manipulating things by window dressing and alluring people to get into their rattrap with the power of word. Mint of brain signifies as mint is strong in nature so are the clever brains of such ‘peculiar’ cluster.

Since you asked, I mention these

Things. When you write next,

I may have interesting things to

Report – may be about advent

Of acid rain or even the disappearance of

Some villages for mining a rare mineral.

Please keep in touch, you shall hear

From me, this record of bitter things.

Closing the chapter of doleful verses the poet puts sarcasm and casts the reality that future is going to be a much sadder tale with the invention of life killing activities and invasion of human brains to incept new inventions.

ENTERPRISE (NISSIM EZEKIEL)

Introduction to poem and poet:

Nissim Ezekiel is a very thought provoking and coercive poet whose poem *Enterprise* is written in form of allegory ’extended metaphor’ that is suggestive of *THE JOURNEY AS A METAPHOR FOR LIFE.* With his convivial inception of the poem, the poet implores the mortals –the idea of team spirit, need of keeping alive the high energy levels at any point during any project and the role of the individual in a team project. With the high energy I remember a maxim that says something similar to this –

Life is not a 100 metre race it is a marathon that need to be swiftly and constantly trekked.

IT STARTED AS A PILGRIMAGE,

EXALTING MINDS AND MAKING ALL

THE BURDENS LIGHT.THE SECOND STAGE

EXPLORED BUT DID NOT TEST THE CALL

THE SUN BEAT DOWN TO MATCH OUR RAGE

So, in this piece of the poem, the poet talks about how the journey in quest of knowledge, wisdom, intellect and erudition started and everyone is obscured about the stride they were following. They were moving /progressing ahead in this journey of life in order to find solace and tranquillity. Unaware about their trajectory still they had reason to travel – travel in all 4 seasons of earth.

WE STOOD IT VERY WELL, I THOUGHT,

OBSERVED AND PUT DOWN COPIOUS NOTES

ON THINGS THE PEASENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD,

THE WAY OF SERPENTS AND GOATS

THREE CITIES WERE A SAGE HAD TAUGHT

The Poet explores the idea that process of self- exploration happens in the perpetual journey of life. WE  represents the throng/herd/ flock of people  drifting/ travelling as a team, as they trespassed  the threshold they penned /scripted various manifestations and incidences that glazed them in  the journey of life. SERPENTS  Vis snakes  symbolizes the evil and sinister that will be one colour of life whereas GOATS that emphasizes the peace and tranquillity will be another vibrant colour of life so how both these colours need to be concocted  in order to experience bliss of life is the lesson being learned at this juncture. By now, they have travelled/voyaged 3 cities and have started cognizing the lessons one after other.

BUT WHEN THE DIFFERENCES AROSE

ON HOW TO CROSS A DESERT PATCH,

WE LOST A FRIEND WHOSE STYLISH PROSE

WAS QUIET THE BEST OF OUR BATCH.

A SHADOW FALL ON US AND GROWS.

So, here comes whirling point –point at which they*group* started getting detached and how the differences started unveiling. As in the trespassing of desert their occurred some feud that made a friend separated from the GROUP – this friend was the one who was the most prodigious and astute of all of us and represented the strength of the group. Losing out this one marked the symbol of bad omen following us and that would halt our journey into next colourful event of life.

ANOTHER PHASE WAS REACHED WHEN WE

WERE TWICE ATTACKED, AND LOST OUR WAY.

A SECTION CLAIMED ITS LIBERTY

TO LEAVE THE GROUP, I TRIED TO PRAY.

OUR LEADER SAID HE SMEALT THE SEA

So, now the line marks that life is a never ending journey as you cross one hurdle there is something next awaiting/looming for you. In this continual process the poet dolefully marks about battle of labyrinth and another section of people who were prophesying to leave the GROUP before another unarticulated hurdle in form of turbulence envelops them, at this juncture/seam leader / protagonist gives them a sign of relief by demystifying the group about the aura of sea he could smell and the beautiful and vivid colour that was awaiting to welcome us.

WE NOTICED NOTHING AS WE WENT

A STRAGGLING CLOUD OF LITTLE HOPE,

IGNORING WHAT THE THUNDER MEANT,

DEPRIVED OF COMMON NEEDS LIKE SOAP

SOME WERE BROKEN, SOME MERELY BENT

As they are roving they couldn’t see a single ray of hope – a light that would add colour of joy and tranquillity within these mortals who are in lurch of calmness and serenity. The only symbol was the straying cloud but that too intermittent by the sun. At this phase they are divested/deprived of elementary /indispensible necessities of life (soap‘s unavailability speaks of the pain and agony they are experiencing). They were lost in the forlorn with their heart broken and no hope left to embolden them to keep pace with the life.

WHEN FINALLY, WE REACHED THE PLACE,

WE HARDLY KNEW WHY WE WERE THERE.

THE TRIP HAD DARKENED EVERY FACE.

OUR DEEDS WERE NEITHER GREAT NOR RARE

HOME IS WHERE WE HAVE TO GATHER GRACE.

By the concluding paragraph, the lines leave an indelible imprint on the mind of the readers and leave them thought provoking. Throughout the voyage of life do many deeds, we make so many mistakes, face trails and travails, faces windfall and misery but the only lesson we need to learn is never put a full stop to this journey because: HOME IS WHERE WE HAVE TO GATHER GRACE-

Implies these different phases are different colours, different experiences of life and in order to knit a serene life we have to conquer / surmount every phase with dynamism and vitality. Conquer yourself first and then explore the world.

STOLEN FROM SOMEONE ON FB :P

Father -(Prafulla Roy)

Father (Prafulla Roy)

The story is a conglomerate/ fabrication of various evidences cemented and compounded  in such a way that it takes us back to the time/period/instance when Hindu- Muslim riots were the call of the day and no entity was left affected by the vengeance and torment afflicted in the society. The macro theme in this long short story emphasizes on appeasement/reconciliation between father and daughter and sister and brother  who after 30 years of warfare happen to meet  in the Calcutta that took manika or khuku couple of years  hunting/ delving for her family and in return Father shekharnath though  spotted someone coming towards the house /crossing the threshold but felt  an aura of nostalgia , dismal and melancholy encompassing/embodying him and bolted his door and did not bother to open it till she left the home  . He had throb inside that was killing him for the reason he flew away and daughter being abducted, At this juncture, when he is getting an opportunity to meet his daughter he felt guilty- remorse for he had to leave his family behind in that desperate condition to save the left ones skin from the riots/uprisings/insurrections/disturbances/unrests/rebellion/revolt going out in mirpur town of Bangladesh. Narrator of the story has considerately disguised characters of story in such a moving picture that the father who believes in humility is taken over/provoked by the brutal setback when his wife was murdered and daughter being seized by rabbles.

Story delves the path of leaving behind  the  prejudices  being paved and flagged by Hindu – Muslim riots and following the turbulent trajectory of the partition.

Essayist  has vivaciously disguised the story from existing period to the primeval  times  which revives the protagonist about his doleful / mournful/gloomy /despondent memories that have seized  away his beloved wife and daughter from him due to the rage of time and cold blooded people . Title is competent and suggestive to the story as it implores 2 sub themes under it:

1.      Guilt that has left father crestfallen and down casted due to  impulsive situation that made him shift his township in no time and daughter being left abducted by mobs  ,past 1947 riots.

2.      Grief , woe , despair and misfortune that encased/wrapped/shrouded/encircled  him and his only son left , due to family being tarnished by the belligerence marked by Hindu Muslim insurgents.

Mother has been featured as the one who was always apprehensive and worried about her daughter and she played this part so well because she has been guided by such orthodox , conservative and conformist  beliefs of Brahmin folk.

*Hemlata’s thoughts and ideas , her worries and concerns , were all enclose by a strong iron frame beyond which it was impossible for her to ever stray *

These lines portrays how her thoughts were left undaunted by her husband and with the climax of the story husband felt guilty and was submerged/plunged in the forlorn of not being able to save his daughter from the hands  of throng.

The best moment can be priced as the one when Shekharnath was stimulated and provoked/triggered by the dictum of his son,*it’s terribly wrong , Father , that Didi will never come back home to us*

This led air of camaraderie recuperate/reincarnated inside his heart and in no time he leaves for airport amidst the cold blanket of fog encircling the town with his grandson. He embraced her daughter with the cuddle of pride, sorrow and joy and tendered her with the trinkets her mother has left  for daughter.

So, beginning on a peaceful and sanguine note story culminates in dynamic manner leaving behind no antipathies and resentment in heart of none of the characters pictured in the story.

Train To Pakistan- Khushwant Singh

The novel 'Train To Pakistan' sheds light on the atrocities of the partition of India and the trials and tribulation faced by both the Hindus and the Muslims during the dissection of India which was brought about by the British.

Partition that has left many scars in the hearts of several Indians and those tragic  days which still haunt the new India, the memories of that tragic period still makes people shiver,  are brought alive through a great novel by Khushwant Singh. This story is set across during the time when India was butchered into two nations of India and Pakistan. This book was first published in 1956 when the horrendous memories of the holocaust were still afresh in everybody’s minds. The present edition released on the occasion of its 50th anniversary includes the heart-rending photographs contributed by Margaret Bourke-White (who is?). The Images provided by her go very well go with the inner sense of the story and show the intensity of the Partition and the exodus of over a million immigrants, the largest in human history. It is well known that the Partition was carried out upon instigation of the British and based on communal lines. While  the politics behind this tragic incident is what is most talked about,  , this piece of fiction by the author has attempted to bring forth the sufferings faced by commoners.

The story primarily revolves around a fictional village located along the borders, named by author as Mano Majra. The story begins with a vivid description of how the village was like. It is followed by a dramatic incident that took place there one night. Ram Lal, the village money lender is killed by a neighbouring village’s dacoit, Malli. Now the story shifts to its main characters Juggut Singh, Iqbal and Hukum Chand. Juggut Singh is arrested as murder suspect by the police. He is portrayed as local badmaash of the village who loves only daughter of half blind mulla of the village named as Nooran. On the other side, Iqbal, a social reformer, is a visiting commie in disguise who wants to mobilize support for the socialist party of India. Then we come across the character of Hukum Chand who is the village magistrate.

The descriptions of various characters in the story are presented in great detail that may allow the reader to form picture of what all happened. The village is portrayed to be a peaceful and harmonius place until the seeds of hatred and suspicion were sown . The story can be viewed from different angles. If it was a love story between a Sikh boy and Muslim girl, it was also a story that depicted the brutalities suffered by the people generated as a result of partition. Not just this, it also tried to show how people viewed famous personalities like Mahatma Gandhi in some way or the other. The bravery of Juggat Singh is brought about in the story, when he attempted to save several innocent lives and his lady-love, Nooran too. The crisis began when the horrifying train with corpses entered the village. Moreover the brutally mutilated bodies evoked the furies and drove the Hindus of Mano Majro to shoo away the Muslims who were till then their good friends and kin-like. Various situations that lead to one incident from another and the author weaves a heart-wrenching story in the backdrop of Partition.

The story by Khushwant Singh even being a work of fiction is very close to reality in terms of the scenes that are created. The story has a tone that is quite depressing and touches the core of the heart. This book is a must read for all those who want to get a glimpse of what had happened as consequence of one of the most saddened episodes of not just of  the history of the subcontinent but also in human history.

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