32E – ENGLISH III

UNIT – I – PROSE

1. Sweets for Angels - R.K Narayan

Once there lived a man called Kali. Kali’s home was a brick pyol attached to a locked up

deserted house in Royapuram. There weretwo fellow occupants also, Kuppan, the rickshaw-

puller who used drop from his work in the middle of the day, sometimes bringing in, just for

display, relaxing on the back cushion of the rickshaw, and he is drunken sailor wanting to

return to the harbor, Kali’s other companion was Pachai, who begged at bus stands

pretending to be blind. None of these were having a family. He lived quite contentedly. All that

he needed in a day was about a rupee and that he earned by carrying bags of rice from a lorry

to grain store at the market. At other times he liked to sprawl on the pyol and watched little

children going to a school nearby. It filled him with delight. He often remarked to Pachai that

“How do these babies read so much! What is the use of wooden dummies like you and

me! We cannot really count even our own earnings.” He looked admiringly at the children, at

their pencils, books and slates, and often thought, “I wish they had taught me how to use

these. Evena tiny tot among them holds a pencil and writes so confidently.” The children

were unaware that there was a man who is worshipping them as he sometimes softly walked

behind them, and stood at the school gate, staring far into it.

The hums coming from the yellow building was music to his ears. It always filled his heart with joy. It

was an emotion that could not be satisfactorily explained.

The next day he felt elated. He had carried several sacks of grains on the previous

evening and he was given extra pay for that day. He kept all his coins hidden within the

stuffing of an old pillow, otherwise Kuppan would stop working and drag him to a grog shop

and his other friend might stick close and froce him for a loan. At about eleven Kali felt

hungry. He went to a street tap, some women were waiting to fill their pots. After

they left him to use tap. It was great he had bath and got fresh up and watched all the

pedestrians moving around until the water was ceased. He got up, dried his body with a piece

of cloth, and combed back his hair with his fingers. He felt hungry. He smelled a delicious

flavor of biryani in the air. He went to the nearby Hotel, ate his bellyful. He returned to his

pyol and slept instantly. He opened his eyes at about four ‘o’ clock in the afternoon. He got

down from the pyol and walked along till he came to a coffee hotel on the main road. He felt

proud that he could afford to sit in a chair and order coffee. He touched his money

bag. After two cups of coffee he felt refreshed and came out.

While receiving change at the counter, he heard the school bell ring. This put him in mind

of the children. He thought of going back to his place to see them, they will soon be passing

down. His eye fell on a sweets and edible of all fascinating colors and shapes in a shelf beside

the counter. He asked for a packet of sweets and the vendor made a neat parcel of it. He saw

school children already coming down the road. He held out the package towards

three children who came chattering among themselves. They did not notice him. He felt

disappointed. He felt somewhat shy in the presence of these angels. Then came a pair, a

young fellow wearing shorts and carrying a broken slate under his arm, and his sister wearing

green ribbons. He stepped up before them and asked, “Want to have some Sweets?” He

opened and held up the package. The younger of the two took a piece and ate it with great

relish and joy. Meanwhile more children arrived and surrounded Kali for sweets. He

was delighted. The street was blocked a skids surrounded and children snatched sweets from

Kali. Traffic came to a standstill. A Passerby stood around, wondering what was that

crowd. Somebody asked a child, What’s all this? The child answered, “Sweets. That bearded

man gave us sweets. Who? That fellow!” The man dashed forward and caught Kali by the

wrist. Klai got surprised immediately the man shouted saying “Help! Help! Here is the

kidnapper of children.”

Soon a big crowd came and various persons held up the children and asked excitedly,” Did he

give you sweets? Oh why did you accept? Don’t you know what is happening? You

know five children are missing in a school, and ten children have died of poisoned sweets in

our street. I saw with my own eyes children dying on the roadside.” Over this another

shouted, “It is a regular gang. They are from the Himalayas. It is a monstrous sect,

every member of it has vowed to sacrifice a 100 children. See how he looks! He is not

of these parts.” The children gazed on Kali from a distance and moved back, “Oh, how

frightful he looks with his beard!” The result of all this talk was that a crowd was pounding

and tearing at Kali the more he resisted, the more violent they grew. They chased him from

place to place. The whole city seemed to be after him now. They pushed him down and sat

on his chest. He tried to ask, “What have I done?” But nobody let him speak. Blood came

down and dripped on his tongue. He felt suffocated The police arrived. They had to

struggle their way through the crowd and get at Kali only by the use of their batons. Two

weeks later, Kuppan and the blind beggar stood beside Kali’s bed in a hospital. When the

nurse moved away Kuppan leant over and whispered, You can come back to our old pyol and

people won’t hurt you anymore because they will think you are someone else. The doctor

shaved off your beard and every hair on your head. Did you know it? The blind man added,

you will be all right soon. But hereafter leave children alone. What have you to do with

them? Through the gaps in the bandage swathing his head, Kali’s eyes twinkled as

he murmured, Here after I’ll turn and run as if a tiger chased me, if I see the tiniest tot ahead

of mein a street. Meanwhile a kid approached and offered him sweets saying uncle please

accept my sweets, It’s my birthday. Here the story ends

2. My Lost Dollar – Stephen Leacock

"My Lost Dollar " is a story narrated in first person by the author Stephen Leacock. The

one line summary is that he tries in many ways to get back that one dollar he lent his friend

Todd for paying his taxi to go to Bermuda. It is made to be funny by using exaggeration on

the amount one dollar and on friendship. There is humour made out in the efforts of the

author, all efforts going in vain. The author picked a tale of two friends who are found in

common place. The author lends one dollar to Todd in the name of friendship and in kind.

After Todd goes to Bermuda, he had not forgotten about it. He expected Todd to return it as

soon as he could. But Todd avoids it as if he had forgotten it. After some days, Stephen gets

a letter from Todd. He mentioned the temperature in Bermuda but not about the dollar.

When Todd returns to the town after three weeks and then Stephen meets Tedd at the railway

station. The author does not explicitly ask for the dollar. Instead he puts in a word that they

hire one taxi to go to Montreal. Stephen said that to remind Todd about one dollar he paid for

taxi ride to Bermuda. Todd does not agree and then suggests that they walk. So he did not

get the hint of the author. The entire evening they spent talking about Bermuda. All that

while Stephen expected Todd to remember the one dollar that he owed him. But he did not

explicitly mention that. Perhaps it was the embarrassement in asking directly. It could be

that in friendship one should not explicitly ask money lent to friends and that too small

amount like a dollar.

Perhaps it is a shame to ask directly. Then he inquires about the currency in Bermuda and its

value as compared to the American Dollar. He expected that Todd would remember that one

dollar. Todd seemed to have forgotten about that dollar completely. At dinner later, Todd

says causually that Poland does not per her debts. Finally Stephen gives up the dollar from

Tedd. He adds the name of Tedd to the list of people owing him one dollar and have

forgotten about it. Also, he gets a thought that just as Todd has forgotten to return one

dollar, perhaps he himself also forgotten to return money he borrowed from others. He does

not remember any names. He wishes to start a Honesty Movement for paying those the odd

dollars (small amounts) that he borrowed earlier. Honesty is important. The author leaves a

final comment in humour that he did not want Todd to see the copy of the book with this

story and read this story. The moral of the story is that small or big, one should return the

money owed to others. That amount may be important for the lender. Further, it gives a

great pain to the lender, if the borrower totally forgets about money borrowed. An honest

man remembers the help done by friends.

3. The Loss of the Titanic – Sir Arthur, H. Rostron

In 1887 Rostron joined the Red Gauntlet as a second mate. In December 1894 he passed his

exam for his extra master's certificate. A month later he joined Cunard Line as Fourth Officer

on the ocean liner RMS Umbria. Rostron became First Officer aboard the RMS Lusitania in

1907, but was transferred off her the day before her maiden voyage. He had to wait until

1911 to command his first passenger ship, Pennonia, and in January 1912 he was given

command of RMS Carpathia.

Rostron was asleep in his cabin when news of Titanic reached him. He immediately ordered

the ship to change course and raced towards the Titanic’s reported position. At nearly 60

nautical miles away, Carpathia was the closest ship to Titanic and it took her three and a half

hours to reach Titanic’s position. Carpathia rescued 710 passengers and crew before returning

to New York. It was no doubt due to Rostron’s quick thinking, his preparations on board

before any survivors were picked up and the speed with which he got to the scene that so

many survived.

Captain Rostron gave evidence to both the US and UK inquiries. He was honoured for his

efforts on both sides of the Atlantic, including a gold medal from Titanic’s survivors. Cunard

rewarded him with command of the Mauretania. He served throughout the First World War

and retired in 1931 when he wrote his autobiography ‘Home from the Sea’.

Captain Rostron died of pneumonia on 4 November 1940.

UNIT – II – POETRY

1. Ulysses – Alfred Tennyson

Tht little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d

Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when

Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

As tho’ to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains: but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to fail

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me—

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Summary: Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home “by this

still hearth” with his old wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the unnamed masses

who live in his kingdom.

Still speaking to himself he proclaims that he “cannot rest from travel” but feels compelled to

live to the fullest and swallow every last drop of life. He has enjoyed all his experiences as a

sailor who travels the seas, and he considers himself a symbol for everyone who wanders and

roams the earth. His travels have exposed him to many different types of people and ways of

living. They have also exposed him to the “delight of battle” while fighting the Trojan War

with his men. Ulysses declares that his travels and encounters have shaped who he is: “I am a

part of all that I have met,” he asserts. And it is only when he is traveling that the “margin” of

the globe that he has not yet traversed shrink and fade, and cease to goad him.

Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain stationary is to rust

rather than to shine; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple act

of breathing, whereas he knows that in fact life contains much novelty, and he longs to

encounter this. His spirit yearns constantly for new experiences that will broaden his

horizons; he wishes “to follow knowledge like a sinking star” and forever grow in wisdom

and in learning.

Ulysses now speaks to an unidentified audience concerning his son Telemachus, who will act

as his successor while the great hero resumes his travels: he says, “This is my son, mine own

Telemachus, to whom I leave the scepter and the isle.” He speaks highly but also

patronizingly of his son’s capabilities as a ruler, praising his prudence, dedication, and

devotion to the gods. Telemachus will do his work of governing the island while Ulysses will

do his work of traveling the seas: “He works his work, I mine.”

In the final stanza, Ulysses addresses the mariners with whom he has worked, traveled, and

weathered life’s storms over many years. He declares that although he and they are old, they

still have the potential to do something noble and honorable before “the long day wanes.” He

encourages them to make use of their old age because “ ’tis not too late to seek a newer

world.” He declares that his goal is to sail onward “beyond the sunset” until his death.

Perhaps, he suggests, they may even reach the “Happy Isles,” or the paradise of perpetual

summer described in Greek mythology where great heroes like the warrior Achilles were

believed to have been taken after their deaths. Although Ulysses and his mariners are not as

strong as they were in youth, they are “strong in will” and are sustained by their resolve to

push onward relentlessly: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

2. O Captian! My Caption!

Whitman wrote this poem shortly after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. It is an

extended metaphor intended to memorialize Lincoln's life and work. The Captain represents

the assassinated president; the ship represents the war-weathered nation following the Civil

War; the "prize won" represents the salvaged union. The speaker, torn between relief and

despair, captures America's confusion at the end of the Civil War. It was a time of many

conflicting sentiments, and Whitman immortalizes this sense of uncertainty in "O Captain!

My Captain!"

Whitman's poetry places a lot of emphasis on the individual. This particular poem explores a

variation on that theme: the self vs. the other. The speaker struggles with balancing his

personal feelings of loss with the celebratory mood resulting from the successful voyage.

While the Civil War claimed many lives, it led to the reunification of the Union, so many

Americans felt similarly divided. In Whitman's poem, the speaker believes that he should be

part of the "other" group, celebrating the return to safety. However, his inner thoughts set him

apart from the crowd as he tries to reconcile his emotional reaction to the Captain's death.

"O Captain! My Captain!" is the only Walt Whitman poem that has a regular meter and

rhyme scheme. Often hailed as "the father of free verse," Whitman tended to write his poems

without following any kind of ordered poetic form. However, "O Captain! My Captain!" is

organized into three eight-line stanzas, each with an AABBCDED rhyme scheme. Each

stanza closes with the words "fallen cold and dead," and the first four lines of each stanza are

longer than the last four lines. Because this poem is an elegy to the dead, the more traditional

format adds to its solemnity. Additionally, the regular meter is reminiscent of a soldier

marching across the battlefield, which is fitting for a poem that commemorates the end of the

Civil War.

3. The Unknown Citizen

“The Unknown Citizen” is a parody of an elegy (a poem to commemorate someone who has

recently died). This elegy is delivered by "the State"—the government and its institutions—

rather than by a loving friend or family member. Through this, the poem pokes fun at and

implicitly critiques the modern world for granting too many far-reaching powers to the state,

showing how the state oppresses those unlucky enough to live within its grasp. In particular,

the poem looks at how this oppression is achieved through surveillance—through the state

knowing everything about its inhabitants. The title is thus ironic, as there's little that the

state doesn't seem to know about the dead man. Overall, the poem argues that freedom is

impossible in a society that so closely watches its citizens, even under the guise of helping

them live a supposedly good life.

Though on the surface the poem is praising the life of the dead “unknown citizen,” it only

does so because this person lived a textbook example of an obedient, non-questioning life. In

the poem’s world, a good citizen is one who does everything they’re is supposed to. Indeed,

that’s why the speaker—the creepy “we” of the poem—begins by offering what is probably

the highest compliment in this dystopia: “there was no official complaint” against the dead

man (according to the Bureau of Statistics). In other words, he never did anything wrong. If

he had, the state would “certainly have heard” about it—revealing the frightening reach of

their view into people's lives.

This points to one of the poem’s main criticisms of the state: its over-reaching surveillance.

The state treats life as a kind of science, improvable only through increasingly detailed data

sets—and denying life any sense of mystery, joy, or freedom in the process. There is one way

to be, this implies, and the surveillance is there to help (or, more likely, force) the individual

to be that way.

Accordingly, the state encroaches on every aspect of the dead man’s life. Indeed, the poem

reads pretty much as a list of all the ways that a state can violate its citizens’ freedoms. The

state approves of the dead man’s life because it knows so much about him: his working life,

sociability, opinions on the news, his personal possessions, his attitude to his children’s

education, and so on. There is a kind of parable at work here, as the poem implies that a state

with too much power will only use that power to sink its claws deeper and deeper into

people’s everyday lives.

And not only does this oppressive state spy on its citizens, it also co-opts their language. So

while an alternative view of humanity might prioritize, say, happiness, a tight-knit

community, and moral virtue over everything being done correctly and by the book, the state

here has already got that covered. “Community,” “saint[lines],” and happiness have all been

re-defined to fit what the state wants, not just taking away people’s freedoms but eroding the

ways in which they can even conceive of those freedoms.

Overall, then, Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” reads as a cautionary tale to modern

society—asking people to question the relationship between the state and the individual, and

to examine whether their government upholds the right values in terms of what it means to

live a good life. Ironic and a little funny, yes, the poem nevertheless offers a stark and bleak

picture of a sinister world in which genuine freedom is impossible.

UNIT – III – SHORT STORIES

1. Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus, son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope, grows up in Thrace, a land long noted for the

purity and richness of its divine gift of song. His father presents him with a lyre and teaches

him to play it. So lovely are the songs of Orpheus that the wild beasts follow him when he

plays, and even the trees, the rocks, and the hills gather near him. It is said his music softens

the composition of stones.

Orpheus charms Eurydice with his music, but Hymen brings no happy omens to their

wedding. His torch smokes so that tears come to their eyes. Passionately in love with his

wife, Orpheus becomes mad with grief when Eurydice dies. Fleeing from a shepherd who

desires her, she steps upon a snake and dies from its bite.

Heartbroken, Orpheus wanders over the hills composing and singing melancholy songs of

memory for the lost Eurydice. Finally he descends into the Underworld and makes his way

past the sentries by means of his music. Approaching the throne of Proserpine and Hades, he

sings a lovely song in which he says that love brings him to the Underworld. He complains

that Eurydice was taken from him before her time and if they will not release her, he will not

leave Hades. Proserpine and Hades cannot resist his pleas. They agree to set Eurydice free if

Orpheus will promise not to look upon her until they safely reach the Upperworld.

The music of Orpheus is so tender that even the ghosts shed tears. Tantalus forgets his search

for water; Ixion’s wheel stops; the vulture stops feeding on the giant’s liver; the daughters of

Danaus stop drawing water; and Sisyphus himself stops to listen. Tears stream from the eyes

of the Furies. Eurydice then appears, limping. The two walk the long and dismal passageway

to the Upperworld, and Orpheus does...

2. At the Chruch Door

One day I visited the Saint Patrick Church in New York. A young Brazilian man approached

me. He smiled and said, “How nice to meet you here. I really need to tell you something.” I

invited him to have a cup of coffee with me. , I told him the nuisance my trip to Denver had

been and suggested him a visit to the Harlem on Sunday in order to listen to a religious

service.

The young man, who should be around 20 years old, listened to me silently. I told him how I

had just finished reading a fiction book about a terrorist group that does a holdup at the Saint

Patrick’s Church. And how well the author described the scenery — that it caught my

attention to many things I had never seen in my visits to the place before. Hence, I had taken

the decision to visit the church that morning. We spent almost an hour together. At the end,

we said goodbye and I wished him a good trip. “Thank you,” he said, as he left.

That was when I noticed that his eyes were sad. I realised that this young man had wanted to

talk to me. During the time we were together, I took control over the situation and the

conversation. By trying to be friendly, I filled up all the space and didn’t allow a moment of

silence. Perhaps, he had something very important to share with me. Perhaps, if at that

moment I were really open to life I would also have something to give to him. Perhaps, so

much my life, as well as his, could have changed radically after that meeting.

But ever since, I try to keep alive in my memory the scene of my departure and the sad eyes

of that young man. That was the time when I didn’t know how to receive what was destined

for me, I was not able to give what I wanted to. The priest, José Roberto, from the

Resurrection Church of Rio de Janeiro was leaving early one morning, when his car was

surrounded by three teenagers. “We spent the night away, priest,” said one of them in a

defiant tone. “Can you imagine where we have been to?”

Like any normal human being, José Roberto preferred to keep quiet. He imagined what a

night awake in that city means, he felt afraid for the chances these boys must have taken, he

thought of the worry of their parents. The teenager who started the conversation ended up

answering his own question: “We stayed at the Nossa Senhora de Copacabana Church,

adoring the Virgin. We came out from there so euphoric walking up to here, singing high,

laughing, talking to everyone. At least one person asked us: “how is it that all of you, so

young, aren’t ashamed to be drunk at this hour in the morning?”

The priest José Roberto started his car and went to his appointment. On the way he asked

himself many times: “I too judged them by their appearance and I committed an injustice in

my heart. I wonder if any human being will ever understand Jesus’ sentence “For in the way

you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you?”

3. How Much Land Does a Man Need?

“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy is a short story about the corrupting

power of greed. At the beginning of the story, a woman comes from town to visit her younger

sister in the country. They debate whether country life or city life is better; the younger sister

says that in the country, there is no chance of husbands being tempted by the devil. Her

husband, Pahom, agrees. He reflects that peasants are too busy in their work to be tempted

and that their only problem is that they don’t have enough land. He thinks that if he only had

enough land, he would not fear the Devil: but the Devil, who is in the kitchen with him, hears

this and decides to test him.

Soon, a local landowner decides to sell her land, and Pahom and the other peasants of the

Commune attempt to buy it together as communal land. When the Devil “sow[s] discord

among them,” they instead break the land up and buy individual plots. At first, Pahom is

delighted with his land, but as he gains more success, he becomes increasingly disgruntled

when other peasants trespass on his land and his neighbors’ livestock wander in. Eventually,

he begins to fine trespassers and sues a peasant named Simon whom he believes has cut down

some of his trees. Simon is acquitted, as there is no evidence against him. The people of the

commune greatly resent Pahom for his fines.

Partially due to the trespassing peasants and livestock, Pahom feels that he is still “too

cramped.” When a traveling peasant from beyond the Volga River informs Pahom that in that

area, land is better and plentiful, Pahom investigates and eventually moves there with his

family.

With three times the land he had before, Pahom is initially content. But he does not have the

right land to grow wheat, as he had before, and thus has to compete with other farmers and

peasants to rent land and must cart the wheat he grows long distances. He begins to desire

“freehold land” so that his land will all be together—and all his own.

When Pahom hears that another landowner is in financial difficulty, he begins arrangements

to buy his land for too cheap a price. However, before the deal is settled, a stranger comes to

him and tells him that the Bashkirs, a group of people in a neighboring country, are selling

their excellent land at extremely cheap prices, provided that the purchasers bring gifts.

Moved by his greed, Pahom again goes to investigate.

The Bashkir leaders are charmed by Pahom’s gifts to them, and they tell him that they will

sell him however much land he wants for a thousand rubles. Pahom is skeptical of this

unconventional offer, but the Bashkirs assure him that the deal is sound—however much land

he can walk around in one day will be his. If he doesn’t make it back by sundown, however,

the land and money will be forfeited.

Pahom believes that he can walk thirty-five miles in a day. He decides he will make a circuit

of this area and then can sell or rent some of the land to others and make a profit. While he is

sleeping, he dreams that the Chief of the Bashkirs is laughing outside his tent. He moves

closer and sees that the laughing man is not the Chief but the peasant who first came and told

him of the Bashkirs, and then he sees that it is not the peasant but the Devil himself. Pahom

dismisses the dream upon waking...

UNIT – IV – AUTOBIOGRAPHY

1. My Experiments with Truth

First, the structural deets: Gandhi's autobiography is divided into an intro, five parts with

chapters, and a closing. Most chapters are short and cover a brief episode or two in his life.

His account is pretty much in chronological order. The intro outlines his quest for truth, and

the closing sums it up, so they show the big-picture message.

Part One gives us Gandhi's birth (October 2, 1869), childhood, teens, and time in England.

He's influenced as a kid by his religiously tolerant political official father and devout mother.

At age 13 (!), he's married to Kasturbai in a child marriage, meaning she's a teenager, too, and

their parents are the ones who decide they should get married.

After a few years, she becomes preggo with the first of Gandhi's four children. Once Gandhi's

father dies, a family friend suggests Gandhi go to England to study law to keep the family a

high status one. However, his caste tells him it's against their religion for him to travel

abroad.

Meanwhile, his mother is worried he'll lose his way in the foreign culture and start drinking

alcohol, eating meat (his family is vegetarian), and sleeping with women other than his wife,

who's to stay at home in India while her husband has his big adventure. Gandhi tells his caste

he's definitely going to England, and they can go ahead and kick him out…which they do.

As for his mother's concerns, Gandhi takes serious vows not to touch alcohol, meat, or other

women. With that, he's off to England. After being called to the bar (i.e., after officially

becoming a lawyer), he returns to India.

Part Two tells us all about his time in South Africa, where he goes to work with a law firm.

He gets kicked off a train due to "color prejudice" (which is what he calls racism), and he

decides to fight back—non-violently, of course. He continues studying religion and founds

the Natal Indian Congress. He heads back to India for a while, where he meets his mentor

Gokhale and others, but is soon recalled to South Africa to continue "public work," which is

his term for what we today might call activism.

In Part Three, Gandhi develops his spiritual practice of self-restraint by taking

the brahmacharya vow of celibacy—by now, he's had his four sons, all with Kasturbai—and

develops his political power by leading an Indian ambulance corps in the Boer War. He

returns to India, where he attends the Indian National Congress and stays with Gokhale, his

mentor. He also practices law there. When his second son becomes very ill, Gandhi refuses

the doctor's advice to give him meat broth, which goes to show how seriously our author

takes his religious ideals. Gandhi is full steam ahead by this point for sure.

Part Four has Gandhi fighting the Asiatic Department in the Transvaal, giving legal advice to

Johannesburg Indians in land acquisition cases, organizing an Indian Volunteer Corps for the

Great War, and more. He tells us about his religious studies, his experiments in diet (fruits

and nuts only: dang), and his thoughts on the brahmacharya vow. He's glad to be celibate,

saying that life with sex is "insipid and animal-like." He feels the self-restraint of celibacy is

a purifying practice that makes him a better seeker of truth.

Part Five shows Gandhi at the height of his political power. He founds the Satyagraha

Ashram in Ahmedabad, secures help for peasants in Champaran, fights the Rowlatt

legislation, suspends Satyagraha after people become violent, edits newspapers, and gets a

non-cooperation resolution passed by the Nagpur Congress. And that's just some of what he

does politically.

There's also his decision to drink goat's milk when a doctor recommends it for a terrible

illness. Gandhi had seen all milk as an animal product, like vegans do today, but decided he

needed strength for his public work and that his vow to his mother not to touch milk only

encompassed buffalo and cow milk. Gandhi writes that even if drinking goat's milk doesn't

violate the letter of his vow, it violates the spirit, and he feels quite conflicted and pained over

his choice.

And that's a wrap!

2. I am Malala

Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 to a Pashtun family in Swat Valley, Pakistan. She grew

up in and around school, as her father's lifelong dream had been to found a school;

thus, Malala valued education from an extremely young age. Two brothers followed her:

one, Kushal, is two years younger than she is, and the other, Atal, is seven years younger than

she is.

Life in Mingora, Swat's largest city, was easy for the first part of Malala's childhood. The

family had little money at first, but as her father’s school began to do well, they were better

off. In school, Malala was always at the top of the class, contested only by her best

friend, Moniba, and her rival, Malka-e-Noor. Pakistan began to change after the 9/11 attacks

happened. Power continuously shifted, as did the nation's international reputation. One

autumn, an earthquake devastated Swat Valley, leaving its people suffering and vulnerable

and eager for some sort of leadership.

When Malala was ten years old, the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group seeking to

implement its brutal version of sharia law in the region, came to Swat Valley. It was led by a

man named Fazlullah, who at first appealed to many people because of his charisma and

rationality. The Taliban began to implement many strict rules: CDs, DVDs, and TVs were not

allowed in the home, women must remain in purdah, and girls could not be educated. For

Malala, this last rule was unacceptable. She and her father began to speak out strongly and

publicly against Talibanization. Malala even began to write a diary about life as a girl under

the Taliban, using a pseudonym so it could not be traced to her.

At last the Pakistani army said that they had struck a deal with the Taliban to institute sharia

law in Swat in return for peace, but unfortunately this peace did not last. The situation got so

bad that scores of people left Swat Valley, fleeing the Taliban—Malala's family tried to stay

for as long as they could, but eventually they left as well. They became IDPs (Internally

Displaced Persons), living outside of Swat for three months before they were able to return

when the army announced that the Taliban had allegedly been driven out of the valley.

Once she returned to Swat, Malala began to gain more national and international fame for

being an advocate for girls' education. Similarly, her father continued to speak out loudly.

Pakistan was shaken up when the United States Navy SEALS conducted a raid on a

compound in Abottabad, where Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, had

apparently been hiding out for years. Meanwhile, signs showed that the Taliban had never

really left Swat Valley, and Malala's father continued to fear that he would be targeted. Then

one day when Malala was on the bus home from school, a strange man pulled the bus over,

asked for Malala by name, and shot her in the face.

Malala was taken to an army hospital in Peshawar and given an operation that gave her brain

space to swell where the bullet hit it. Everyone prayed that she would survive, but they were

unsure. A pair of British doctors came from Rawalpindi to assess her and the hospital, and

determined that she had to be moved if she was to survive. First they moved her to a high-

security army hospital in Rawalpindi, but then she was moved abroad to Birmingham, UK,

where she was treated more extensively. Her family followed her ten days later; they did not

return to Pakistan, instead settling in an apartment and then a house in Birmingham. In the

aftermath of her shooting, Malala became an international sensation, using her newfound

fame to speak out on a larger stage for girls' education

UNIT – V – GRAMMER & COMPOSITION

1. The Model Auxiliaries : An auxiliary verb (such as can, must, might, may) that is

characteristically used with a verb of predication and expresses a modal modification

and that in English differs formally from other verbs in lacking -s and -ing forms

2. Subject Verb Argument – Concept & Rules: A simple subject-verb agreement

definition implies that the subject of the sentence and the verb of the sentence must be in

agreement in number.

Let’s take an example to understand this concept.

Example 1: The dog is playing with his ball.

In this case, the subject of the sentence is ‘dog’ and the verb used is singular in nature, ‘is

playing’.

Example 2: The dogs are playing with their ball.

In this case, the subject of the sentence is ‘dogs’ and the verb used is plural in nature,

‘are playing’.

Subject-Verb Agreement Rules

Let’s explore a series of subject-verb agreement rules required to ace questions based on

Sentence Correction.

RULE 1: When two subjects are joined by ‘and’, the verb is plural.

For example: My friend and his mother are in town.

RULE 2: When two singular nouns joined by ‘and’ refer to the same person or thing,

the verb is singular.

For example: The captain and coach of the team has been sacked.

In case these were two different individuals, two articles need to be used: The captain

and the coach of the team have been sacked.

RULE 3: Indefinite pronouns (everyone, each one, someone, somebody, no one,

nobody, anyone, anybody etc.) are always singular.

For example: Everyone is selfish.

We do not use 'are' in this sentence.

This rule does not apply to: few, many, several, both, all, some.

RULE 4: When the percentage or a part of something is mentioned with plural

meaning the plural verb is used.

For example: 40 of every 100 children are malnourished.

RULE 5: When the subjects joined by ‘either or’ or ‘neither nor’ are of different

persons, the verb will agree in person and number with the noun nearest to it.

For example: Neither you nor your dogs know how to behave.

Either of the books is fine for MAT preparation.

Always remember that, when either and neither are used as pronouns, they are treated as

singular and always take the singular verb.

3. Dialogue Writing

This is a great example. Watch L'Engel intertwine scene description with dialogue.

Calvin licked his lips. "Where are we going?"

"Up." Charles continued his lecture. "On Camazotz we are all happy because we are all

alike. Differences create problems. You know that, don't you, dear sister?"

"No," Meg said.

"Oh, yes, you do. You've seen at home how true it is. You know that you're not happy at

school. Because you're different.”

"I'm different, and I'm happy," Calvin said.

"But you pretend that you aren't different."

"I'm different, and I like being different." Calvin's voice was unnaturally loud.

"Maybe I don't like being different," Meg said, "but I don't want to be like everybody

else, either.

4. E-mail Message: An email message is a text, typically brief and informal, that is sent or

received over a computer network. While email messages are usually simple text

messages, attachments (such as image files and spreadsheets) can be included. An email

message can be sent to multiple recipients at the same time. It is also known as an

"electronic mail message." Alternative spellings for the term are "e-mail" and "E-mail."

5. Reports