KABULIWALA-RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Kabuliwala is a short story written by Rabindranath Tagore. It is a story which deals with Kabuliwala(Abdul Rehman Khan) and his customer Mini. Kabuliwala is basically a hawker who comes to Calcutta from Afganistan. He befriends a small bengali girl called Mini who use to remind him of his own daughter Amina back in Afghanistan. Though he was not in touch with his daughter, her memories didnt fade away from his mind. Later things went wrong and one of Kabuliwala's customer didnt return his money. When asked for returning, the customer starts abusing which makes Kabuliwala aggressive and he stabs the customer when he refuses to stop abusing. This brings prisonment to Kabuliwala for 10 years. On the day of his release he goes to see Mini, but discovers that Mini has grown up and was about to get married. Her parents were reluctant to let a murderer see their daughter. However after many pleas Kabuliwallah was allowed. Kabuliwallah brought wrapped in a piece of paper, nuts almonds,raisins for her, thinking Mini was still a small child who use to resemble his daughter. The sight of Mini in a bridal wear kindled in him the memories of his daughter, who he never thought would grow up like Mini. He had tears in his eyes. Her dad identified Rehman, as a father and gave him a bank note, so that he could go back to his country and see his daughter whose finger prints he carried all the time. This story is all about the beautiful realation between the daughter and the father. Though separated physically, the memories sustain our love for our child. Only we need a spark to light up those memories. Such was the case with Mini who woke up the affection in Kabuliwala, for his long forgotton daughter in a far away land, thus its like this.
Sanchita Bagchi.
Roll no-2

Indian Women of the last Millennium

Indian Women of the last Millennium

Are women and men more alike than they are different? And where they are different, are women inferior or superior? Such questions have been debated since biblical times, and especially in the years after 1000. But what about the woman in India? The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. In modern India, women have adorned high offices and the incumbent President of India is a woman. There have been many women who shone like bright stars in the millennium gone by. But let us take a look at maybe, some of the most prominent of them who have adorned the Indian firmament in the last millennium.

Of all the characters in the epic mutiny of 1857 and 150 years later there is one name which stands tall over all others and yet ironically was one who was neither the initiator of the mutiny; nor among the leaders until the last stage. Yet, in many ways she was alone in her magnificence, a singular figure among a gallery of heroes. She was Lakshmi Bai from that small town immortalized forever, Jhansi. She was the Rani of Jhansi. After loosing her husband and son at a very early age, she was an image of patriotism. With her adopted son strapped to her back, using a sword with both hands while on horse-back, this heroine died fighting for the freedom of India. She was queen of a small state, but the empress of a limitless empire of glory, her name etched in gold in the heart of Indian History.

The only living star of the millennium, amongst women in India, is Lata Mangeshkar, the melody Queen of India. Lata Mangeshkar has ruled over the hearts of millions of music lovers throughout the world for the last forty years by the magic of her melodious voice. She has already sung over 30,000 songs in a variety of languages. To honor and give recognition to her works, Lata Mangeshkar is also known as the Nightingale of India.

In spite of her ups and down in her native India, she was voted Woman of the Millennium by BBC. Indeed, she was Indira Gandhi, the first woman Prime Minister of India. Her charm, intelligence and charisma made her a powerful statesperson, much loved and admired by her people. Indira Gandhi will be remembered for her commendable efforts in the development and progress of science, space exploration and irrigation.

Small in stature, yet she walked the pages of Indian History, like a colossus. One who will never be forgotten even in the millennium to come. Her mission was to serve and free the downtrodden from hunger, pain and suffering. She was in the eyes of the people a simple and truly humane person. Yes she was Mother Teresa, who according to me is the Indian Woman of the millennium. Born to Albanian parents in a small town in Yugoslavia she entered the order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto at the age of 18 and took the name Teresa. The order immediately sent her to India where she experienced what she described as a "call within a call" to aid the desperately poor of India. That same year she became an Indian citizen. She began her work by bringing dying persons from the streets into a home where they could die in peace and dignity. In 1950, she founded a religious order in Calcutta called the Missionaries of Charity. The order provides food for the needy and operates hospitals, schools, orphanages, youth centers, and shelters for lepers and the dying poor. Mother Teresa died a very peaceful death on September 5, 1997 leaving behind her a legacy, a legacy of selfless service to people in need.

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ROLL NO. 13

Hills like White Elephants – Ernest Hemmingway

Hills like White Elephants – Ernest Hemmingway

An Analysis

Ernest Hemingway's "Hill's Like White Elephants" consists mostly of a dialogue between a pregnant girl and her husband, who would like her to have an abortion. The story defines a two-part theme. The first is a commentary about the way selfishness can corrupt a relationship. The second comments on life and what it means to bear life. This story is developed in a short period of time by Hemingway's use of two central elements, character and setting. Though the setting is heavily symbolic, and characters are drawn mostly in dialogue, both are strongly evocative of the theme.

Though Hemingway's descriptions in "Hills like White Elephants" are few, he uses every word to create a well defined setting. The story is set in the 1920's, which would have been present time when it was published. The story takes place in Spain, at a train station bar, somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid. It is a hot summer in the country, and there is very little shade. The man and girl sit outside at a table that looks over the train tracks and countryside. There are also other smaller details which Hemingway uses to refine the setting. These include, the bamboo curtain over the bar door, and felt coasters.
Even these small details in setting carry vivid symbolism that adds to the overall theme of the story. The story's opening description of the hot summer hints that there is trouble between the couple and leads into their heated discussion. There is no shade for either of them to hide in. They have to face a decision that could ultimately ruin their relationship. The first scenic hint that this story is about giving life comes with the way the girl sees part of the valley as brown and dry. This image symbolizes what her womb will be like when the abortion is over. Later she looks out over the fertile side of the valley and a cloud passes over it, symbolizing the loss of fertility that can come with abortion. She has a choice to make between death or fertility and life. Hemingway even uses something as seemingly insignificant as the curtain as a symbol. . The curtain is a barrier, much like the cervical opening is to the womb, which the man disturbs by walking through it in the end. Each element of the setting is in someway used to symbolize and develop the theme of the conversation between the two characters.
The topic of the conversation and the way both characters handle it, is the main element that draws their characters into sharp round focus. Though the girl does not want to talk about the issue, they do anyway. From this, the reader gets a clear picture of how each character feels, and reacts to such a brash topic. The man seems to think its no big deal to have an abortion and is drawn as a manipulative jerk. The girl, on the other hand, is submissive, but would like to keep the child growing in her womb. Both characters are drawn quickly, but very effectively, by thier viewpoints.

The man in the story is the villain. He is the one who knocked up the girl, and doesn't want to take responsibility. He tries to convince the girl that having an abortion is the only thing that will help their relationship. Apparently he has grown cold towards her since she found out that she is pregnant. She asks him if he will love her again if she has it done. He insists that he already does love her, but the reader can see that his selfishness, in only wanting her, has already began to take its toll on the relationship. He tries to convince her that the surgery is a "simple operation," all they do is "let the air in." He tries to tell her that everyone is doing it these days. He is a manipulative person who has no respect for life. He also manipulates her further by saying he doesn't care if she does it, that he would be ok if she didn't. He doesn't really mean it. He continually pushes her when she doesn't want to talk about it. He really has no respect for her. He corrupts their relationship with his selfishness, which eventually causes it to fall apart. The girl places close together the man’s manipulative nature in that she is submissive, willing to please, even though she feels otherwise. She is thinking about the life she carries inside of her, but she wants the love of her husband. She tries to avoid the conversation, so she won't have to deal with what he is making her do. When she does talk, they end up ordering several drinks. She seems to want to drown out her misery. One of the most character defining places in the story is when she says, "And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible." She wants a full life with her husband but because of his attitude towards the life within her it is impossible. He says they could have everything, but "No once they take it away, you can never get it back." She knows they can't have everything. They can't have their child. She values life, but to save her marriage she feels she has to submit to her husband. By the end of the story she doesn't want to see his selfishness anymore and she tells him to stop talking. She knows deep down that the abortion will cause their marriage to fail, but she doesn't try to stop it. So the commentary on the workings of selfishness in a relationship is compete.
Nearly every line in "Hills Like White Elephants" has a purpose for story development and commentary. The setting and dialogue illustrate both the value of life, as well as how selfishness can ruin a good relationship. Through the development of each element, Hemingway emphasizes his double theme and also creates a well rounded, meaningful piece of literature.

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ROLL NO. 13

Analysis – My Son the Fanatic by Hanif Kureishi Analysis – My Son the Fanatic by Hanif Kureishi

Analysis – My Son the Fanatic by Hanif Kureishi

The short story, ‘My Son the Fanatic’ is written by the British author Hanif Kureishi and is set in a possibly middle-class suburban-city of England. The short story is told in a third person perspective and has two main characters, Parvez, the father and Ali, the son. Parvez is an immigrant who has lived in England for at least 20 years, given that this is the period of time he has worked as a taxi-driver there. It is also suggested that the neighbourhood where the main characters live, is home to a lot of immigrants, seeing that the father mainly works with people from his own country and where the people have to work hard to achieve what they wish for. Parvez, for example, working for long hours and spending a lot of money paying for the education of his son.

The short story unravels the difficulties and challenges, a huge amount of immigrants face in their new country, especially the difficulties involved in finding a place to belong. Parvez, the father of the teenage boy Ali, begins noticing changes in his son’s behaviour and at first sees this as a good thing. He believes that his son is finally growing out of his teenage attitude and taking more responsibility. However, when Ali begins throwing out valuable belongings and his friends start avoiding him, Parvez gets seriously worried and feels as if his son is ungrateful and that he himself has done something wrong as a father. Finally he opens up to his colleagues who instantly believe that Ali has a drug problem and that he is selling his things to afford drugs, which later is revealed to be incorrect, seeing that he is giving his belongings away to charity. Parvez begins watching every movement Ali makes, but cannot find that anything is physically wrong with his son. Shortly but suddenly he finds out that Ali has become interested and fascinated by the religion Islam and that he spends all his time praying or going to the mosque. While Parvez feels relieved, he cannot help feeling frustrated and afraid at the same time. After telling his friends at the taxi-driver office about his son’s sudden interest in religion, they become unusually silent and this makes Parvez even more nervous.

Parvez’s wife, and mother of Ali is given very little importance by Parvez. As a matter of fact, he does not see it fit discuss any thing with her, regarding Ali. On the contrary he finds it comfortable to turn to his English prostitute friend, Bettina whom he has befriended while at work as a taxi driver. By their actions towards each other, it is fair to believe that their relationship goes deeper that they like to admit.

Ali, Parvez’s son is good looking and resembling his father. His exact age is not determined, though he seems to be a teenager, soon to move out of his teens. He did have an English girlfriend and before his behaviour changed, he was a very good student and had a lot of friends. It is not made clear when or why Ali’s interest for religion occurred, but one thing is obvious: his interest for Islam, in many ways had gone a bit too far. Ali develops a sharp tongue and his friends pull away from him, something which he does not seem to mind. He encloses himself into his own little world where nothing which is against his belief can be accepted. Ali’s fanatic behaviour when it comes to religion and his urge to have something to belief in, might be owing to his desire and need to have somewhere to belong and something to indulge in, which can give him a sense of belonging.

On the other hand, his son was now a religious fanatic and Parvez’s dream of seeing Ali excelling in a number of fields like cricket, football and swimming, getting a good job as an Accountant, getting married to the right girl and settling down with a family begin to crumble. Parvez expected his son Ali to be totally westernized, as a ‘Britisher’, eating pork, sausages, consume alcohol, socialize, etc. as he always says ‘This is England. We have to fit in’.

Conversely, Ali sees Britain and the West as immoral, oppressive, corrupt and “a sink of hypocrites, adulterers, homosexuals, drug takers and prostitutes”. Ali’s identity is not British, nor does really see himself as his father’s son. Instead, Ali seems to define himself in opposing to his father’s ideals. He is against drinking, gambling and socializing with women and as persecuted and oppressed by a country he has never left.

Ali is full of rage at the sinfulness of Western culture and speaks of the ‘millions and millions of people’ that share his beliefs. He hates that his father consumes alcohol and has a relationship with an English prostitute. Parvez is dumbstruck and makes no further attempt to understand these beliefs or even to discuss or debate them. His reaction is, instead, to consider evicting his son from the family home and ultimately his inability to understand leads him to resort to violence with Parvez beating his son, to which his son’s only response is the statement “So who’s the fanatic now?”

The short story ‘My son the Fanatic’ woven around immigrants, focuses on the relationship between a father and his son, a relationship which slowly but most certainly declines and is broken down bit by bit. Parvez’s anger is most likely disguised fear. He is afraid that his son will be ill treated by people who do not accept his belief and that he will get his life destroyed because he becomes to be caught up in his belief that he will not accept anybody else.

The short story is also well written and informative. It does address an important subject; the urge for us to belong somewhere, might lead us onto an unexpected road and that we should not be too hasty to condemn other people’s need to do the same, even though it might be in a different way than we had liked.

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ROLL NO. 13

The Old Man & The Sea - Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway portrays the Old Man as a crafty, determined fisherman; one who is ultimately in-tune and a part of nature. He completely understands his world, or maybe not understands, but simply knows.

The Old Man goes out on the 85th day of his no-luck fishing streak with an almost uncanny knowledge that he will catch something to make the wait worthwhile.

"Eighty-five is a lucky number," the old man said."How would you like to see me bring in one that dressed out over a thousand pounds?"

He predicts the fish accurately to the weight .Moments before he hooks his catch he mentions how he will do well today.Those levels of accuracy can not come from mere coincidence, but rather came from an experience of knowledge.

The Old Man respects and loves every aspect of nature.The sea itself is female to him, as if that is an expression of his intimacy and closeness with it.

"He always thinks of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her."

Fish that the Old Man hunts and catches he treats almost as brothers, and certainly as people.Yet he still hunts them with every last dying breath, as that is the way of the fisherman, the way of the world.he tells of a fish he caught and beat to death while it’s faithful mate stayed nearby the entire time .He feels terrible about such a thing, yet not even a sliver of a thought of not killing this fish even crosses his mind.The best example of his respect is his brotherly love and admiration, which he expresses emotionally towards his catch.

"Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day

"The fish is my friend too," he said aloud."I have never seen or heard of such a fish.But I must kill him.the old man somehow captures the fish and comes back to his village with the fish but while getting the fish to the village there were sharks on the way .the old man reaches the village .when the villagers go to see the fish by catching its tail and lifting it up there were only bones left, since the sharks ate the fish .but it still was one of the biggest fishes amongst the villagers that the old man had caught.the old man didnt give up and finally caught a fish which was bigger then anyone's fish of the fisherman.

by -callum pereira

roll no-29

"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World"

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" starts with the children playing on the beach with the waterlogged body of a dead man and ends with the town changing the appearance of their doors and buildings to honor this dead man they never knew.This dead stranger, who "has the face of someone called Esteban," according to the oldest woman in the town, is treated to a cleaning by all the women in this town. They notice the vegetation and dirt they are rubbing off of him is from "faraway oceans and deep water". He is not one of them. This adds to his mysterious, exotic nature. They clean him up and stitch him a set of clothes. Then, they sit around him, fascinated by his huge size and his beauty. This handsome drowned man who lived his entire life away from this tiny village is suddenly now almost being worshiped by the villagers. They imagine him having the best house and the "happiest woman" for his wife. They imagine that "he would have had so much authority that he could have drawn fish out the sea simply by calling their names".The women in this tiny little village look upon Esteban and "secretly (compare) him to their own men, thinking that for all their lives (their own men) were incapable of doing what (Esteban) could do in one night". They make assumptions based on Esteban's looks and begin to fantasize about his accomplishments. This causes a great deal of discontent with the men in their own lives, the men who have most likely loved them and provided for them. Now, a handsome dead man shows up on their beach,they become enamored with his looks and the strength he most likely possessed and seem to be willing to trade away the men in their lives now. They see him as "the most peaceful and most obliging man on earth," when in all reality, he was just a man. They see him as perfect. Only Esteban's exotic, mysterious, fade of perfection is left for the villagers to mourn.

by- callum pereira

roll no -29

ADVENTURE

ADVENTURE

An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome.The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports.

Adventurous experiences create psychological and physiological arousal, which can be interpreted as negative (e.g. fear) or positive (e.g. flow), and which can be detrimental as stated by the Yerkes-Dodson law. For some people, adventure becomes a major pursuit in and of itself. According to adventurer André Malraux, in his La Condition Humaine (1933), "If a man is not ready to risk his life, where is his dignity?". Similarly, Helen Keller stated that "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

Outdoor adventurous activities are typically undertaken for the purposes of recreation or excitement: examples are adventure racing and adventure tourism. Adventurous activities can also lead to gains in knowledge, such as those undertaken by explorers and pioneers. Adventure education intentionally uses challenging An adventurer is a person who bases his lifestyle on adventurous acts. An adventurer or adventures is a term that usually takes one of three meanings:

One whose travels are unusual and often exotic.

One who lives by their wits.

One who takes part in a risky or speculative course of action for profit or position.

The people who like adventure often do it to experience an arousal among them or even to feel free . People mostly go to websites to search a place where they can do adventurous activities.Nowadays people doing adventurous activities are to be seen on a wider range .

Adventure is not a thing which you can sit at home and experience it , you need to be out in the unknown to experience it.

DONE BY- CALLUM PEREIRA

ROLL NO- 29