The Gardener

-Rudyard Kipling

Characters:

Helen Turrell

-a woman of thirty five, unmarried and independent

-an unwed mother

George Turrell

                        -the imaginary brother of Helen

                        -an Inspector of Indian Police

                        -the supposed father of Michael

                        -a drunkard and careless father

Michael Turrell

-Helen’s son (but she says he is her nephew and son of George)

-a young boy who quits his study to join the Army, gets into war and is killed

     Everyone in the village knew that Helen was a dutiful woman. She had looked after the son of her only brother George Turrell. They knew that George was a black sheep for his family. He was an Inspector of Indian Police. He fathered a son from the daughter of a retired non-commissioned officer. He had fallen off a horse and died a few weeks before his son was born.

     When the boy was born, Helen had lung problem. So, she had gone to the south of France. She met the boy and his nurse at Marseilles. Due to the carelessness of the nurse, the baby suffered seriously from an attack of infantile dysentery. So, she dismissed the nurse and brought the baby to her Hampshire home. Helen had to pay money to the mother who belonged to a poor family. The rector christened the boy as Michael. He was exactly same as his father.

    Helen had told him not to call her ‘mummy’. When the boy became six, he wanted to know why he couldn’t call her ‘mummy’. She had allowed him to call her ‘mummy’ only at bed times.

     Helen revealed this secret to her friends. When Michael knew this, he got furious and promised not to call her mummy even at bed times. He said that he would hurt her as long as he lived. He would hurt her worse when he would be dead. Then, they wept together.

     When Michael was ten, he asked Helen for his family status. At last, he spelled different names from the history and concluded that it wouldn’t make any difference. Helen only cried. Then, he said they wouldn’t talk about the matter anymore.

    After the end of every term of his public school or at festivals and holidays, Michael and Helen would spend time together. Helen would provide him with love, care and money.

     After Michael finished his high school education, he was to go to Oxford. But he enlisted himself into the army. Helen protested, but Michael was happy to be there. At the time of separation, Michael had time only to send Helen a wire message of goodbye.

     Michael’s battalion reached France. A month later, he was killed by a shell-splinter that dropped in the early morning. He had written Helen that there was nothing to be worried about a while before.

     The whole village was now experienced on war. After some days, Helen got a letter from Michael’s office about his missing. Many friends and villagers of hers tried to make her calm by telling similar stories about other people. But Helen’s world had stood still because she knew he had died.

     After some time, Helen received an official letter about Michael’s death with his silver identity disc and watch. The letter also informed about the place where Michael’s body had been kept.

     Helen collected all the information about the place from an officer and departed from her place. On her way, a woman helped her with more information.

     The woman and Helen reached a hotel after a train journey. They met Mrs. Scarsworth there. She came to Helen’s room and told her that it was her ninth visit to the cemetery where her lover’s body had been buried. She had been lying all through. She wanted to relieve herself by telling the truth to Helen.

     Next morning, Helen went alone to the place where she could find Michael’s grave. The place was in the process of making. There were twenty one thousand graves. So, Helen faced a great difficulty in finding Michael’s grave.

    She found a gardener kneeling behind a line of headstones. Without any formal salutation, he asked her who she was looking for. She replied that she was looking for her nephew. The man looked at her with infinite compassion and told her to follow him. He said he would show her where her son lay.

     After a while, Helen saw the gardener busy at his work as she was returning from the cemetery.

Purgatory

-          W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

           

In this play, there are four characters. Two of them are real. They are: a boy and an old man. Other two, the old man’s father and the old man’s mother, are ghosts.

            The boy is the old man’s son. He is sixteen years old. Walking along a road, they have arrived near to a ruined house and a bare tree. The boy is tired of hearing his father’s continuous talk.

            The old man shows the house and the tree to the boy and asks him to study them. He says that the house was not ruined and the tree was not bare before. He says that all those who were involved into bringing the house in such a pitiful condition suffer for their wrong-doings. Those who have done wrong to others may get purified only after getting the others’ help. Those who have done wrong to themselves will depend upon the mercy of God.

            There is only a stone in the place where once there was the old man’s house. The house belonged to his mother. She was a rich woman. She had a servant for training her horses. Later on, she married the servant. Her mother never spoke to her again.

            The old man’s mother died after she gave birth to him. After his mother’s death, his father spent everything in the house. His father committed a great crime by deceiving his mother. But his mother deceived herself by having a faith upon her treacherous husband. So, she is alone in her remorse even after her death.

            The old man’s father did not send him to a good school. He learnt to read from a gamekeeper’s wife. He learnt Latin from a Catholic curate. He got a lot of information of his country and people by reading many bulky books of history.

            When the old man was sixteen, his father set the house on fire. So, he was enraged and killed his father with a knife. Then, he threw his father’s body into the fire. He ran away and became a street vendor.

            The boy thinks that his father is mad. He doesn’t see anything except the bare walls when the old man sees the picture of his mother and father. The old man hears the sound of hoof-beat but the boy does not hear that, too. The old man says that he was conceived by his parents when both were drunk.

            Meanwhile, the boy tries to steal the old man’s money. He also demands his share of the property. He threatens to kill his father if he is not given his share of the property.

            The old man thinks that his mother’s soul is remorseful because she gave birth to the murderer of her husband. If his son grows older, he will also marry a woman and continue the pollution. So, he decides to finish the cause of the pollution. And he stabs his son with the same knife that he had used to kill his father. Still he realizes that his mother’s soul is not free. So, he prays to God for her release.
Watch the drama: PART I
                           PART II  
                           PART III

I Have a Dream

- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68)

           

One hundred years ago, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the slaves in the United States of America were free. It gave them joy. But Negroes are still not free. They are discriminated everywhere by the whites and they are still very poor. They are the exiles in their own land.

            The American constitution has guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all the citizens. But America has failed to provide the rights to the Negroes. It is time to end the racial injustice and develop brotherhood between the Whites and the Negroes. Only then, the promises of Democracy will become real.

            If America does not fulfill the demands of the Negroes for equality and justice, the result will be terrible. The Negroes should be granted the citizenship rights. Otherwise, peace will not return in the country.

It is important to get the demands fulfilled by means of peaceful movement. Physical violence should not take place. It is also important not to distrust all white people because there are some Whites who support the Negroes.

            King says that they want the police to stop beating Negroes. They also want the Negroes to be able to stay in any hotel in the country. They want the Negroes to be able to improve their position in the society, to be able to vote and to have Negroes to vote for.

            The Negroes who are suffering police brutality should be hopeful for getting freedom. So, they should not be sad. They should go back their homes and work for change.

            King says that despite the difficulties and frustrations he has a dream that is deeply rooted in American dream. He has a dream that one day all people will be treated equally. The Negroes and the Whites will be able to sit down together like brothers and that everyone will be free. He has a dream that his four children will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by their actions.

            If America is to be a great country, all people in all the different places must be free. All people, of all colours and religions, must be able to join hands and sing together, “We are free at last!”
(see video of I Have a Dream)

A Child is Born

-Germaine Greer (b. 1939- )

               

There are many ways of managing childbirth in traditional societies. They are accepted culturally and collectively. So, a woman who is going to give birth does not have to worry about the procedures.  Her anxiety about the childbirth is managed with taboos and prohibitions by the rituals. She earns enough confidence with them. The support of her husband and other kinsfolk increases her sense of security and her conviction that she can conduct pregnancy.

               

On the other hand, childbirth is unattended in a modern society. The hospital staff are often uncooperative about breast feeding. Childbirth is taken as a tragedy to be prevented. Though infant and mother mortality is less in modern society, the mother does not get psychological support from the family and the others.

               

In many traditional societies, a woman does not become a member of the new family (the family of her husband) until she has borne a child. The bride, too, longs for the child who will stand in the same intimate relationship with her as she has with her mother. The modern society regards this practice as backward, cruel and wrong.

               

In a traditional society, a woman loses her name and becomes known as the mother of her first child. Her surname also sinks into the surname of her husband. In some societies, the child’s relationship with the extended family is considered more important than with the parents. So, they are born under the group’s pressure, not at the parents’ choice. They are very curious to see the baby and they celebrate the birth. A pregnant woman is rewarded the chance to visit her mother and relatives.

               

In Bangladesh, children under the age of five or six are looked after by the whole family. All the children of the joint family are looked after together. They don’t play with toys as they would do in Britain. They play with natural things which they themselves make. All the female members of the family have a very strong relationship with them.

               

Sometimes technological changes cause social problems. One of the most problematic areas of modernization is the impact of Western medicine in traditional societies. In a poor society, modern hospital facilities are expensive. So, a hospital cannot be established without foreign aid. Moreover, the peasant communities are skeptical about western medicines. As a result, many women lose their lives during childbirth.

               

If there is no one at home to welcome the child, to praise the mother for her courage and to help her raise it, women will not be ready to give birth. If we succeed in crushing all pride and dignity out of child bearing, the population explosion will take care of itself.

The Children Who Wait

- Marsha Traugot (1951)

               

In this essay, Traugot discusses the changing trend of adoption in America. Now, a lot of families accept the children for adoption who were not adoptable in past.

               

Twenty years ago, there were certain criteria for the adoption of a child. Firstly, the child had to be white. Second, he or she had to be an infant, i.e. below 18 months old. Third, s/he had to be a normal and healthy child. Single parent adoptions were also not possible. Until about 1960, middle or upper class childless white couples adopted healthy white infants. Handicapped children were more or less regarded as damaged goods. Minority and mixed racial children were virtually ignored. So, these children waited.

               

This situation remains no longer. Children once labeled not worthy to adopt are being placed with substantially more types of families. It has been possible because of various civil rights movements, birth control, changing mores, and social science researches. The black civil rights movement raised the consciousness of the people and encouraged international adoption. Liberal whites started adopting black and mixed-race infants.

               

The women’s movement changed people’s attitude toward birth control, abortion and marriage. As a result, fewer unwanted babies were born. Even unwed mothers were allowed to keep their babies. They kept their babies with themselves with the support of their families. Because of all these things, the number of healthy infants drastically reduced. They became scarce. This severe scarcity of the normal children turned childless couples’ attention toward the other children, the waiting children.

               

The research has shown that the children kept in foster care suffer from various problems such as pseudo-mental retardation, learning disabilities, mental illnesses, delinquency, sexual perversion, etc. Moreover, keeping them in foster care is very much expensive. So, today’s social workers give emphasis upon ‘matching’ for child adoption. First the workers evaluate the child’s personality, cultural background and emotional state. Based on these factors, the workers search appropriate family for the child.

               

To find potential adoptive parents for a child, the adoption agencies go through certain steps. First, they look through the families listed to them. If they don’t find any of them suitable, they register the child with the regional or state adoption exchange. This agency distributes a photo and description of the child to all other agencies. Sometimes, they hold monthly meetings and sponsor parties where the prospective parents and the children get chance to meet each other informally. Finally, when the match cannot be made, the child welfare organizations depend upon media blitzes. These are often aggressive like commercial advertisements. They are quite effective. 

Women’s Business

- Ilene Kantrov (b. 1950- )

               

This essay is about some successful American business women. Lydia E. Pinkham was the pioneer among them. In 1879, she prepared a vegetable compound. She advertised it as the best remedy for the falling of the womb and all female weaknesses.

               

Pinkham used clever marketing techniques. She supported women’s rights, temperance and fiscal reform through her advertisements. She not only sold her product but also provided practical suggestions about diet, exercise, and hygiene to her customers. However, she exploited traditional feminine fears to promote her product. As a result, she earned a huge profit.

               

The other businesswomen also followed Pinkham’s footsteps. They often cultivated the image of mother or grandmother. But to earn profit in the market, they often forgot the feminine ideals. Margaret Rudkin and Jennie Grossinger were the examples of such businesswomen.

               

The businesswomen transformed their home crafts into successful businesses. They mixed their sense of women’s tastes with courage, creation, and marketing innovations.

               

Pinkham started marketing her herbal products only after the collapse of her husband’s real estate business. Before that she had applied her knowledge about folk remedies in her own family for many years. Margaret Rudkin had started baking wheat bread for her ill son. Later, she expanded this knowledge into a successful business. Elizabeth Arden produced and sold many cosmetics. She also included hairstyling, ready-made and custom clothes, and advice on nutrition and exercise into her business. Arden’s competitor Helena Rubinstein published and sold a book about dieting to her customers.

               

The female entrepreneurs believed that they were not only earning profit but also contributing for social and moral cause of women’s uplift. Gertrude Muller sold her childcare products with pamphlets she wrote about child raising. Annie Turnbo-Malone marketed her “poro” system of hairdressing as a vehicle for the uplift of her race and a passport to economic independence for women.

               

The businesswomen also contributed greatly to hospitals, schools and cultural organizations. But they put profit ahead of altruism. They were not different from their male counterparts in cheating their customers.

The last voyage of the ghost ship

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928- )

               

(This is a story of a boy who sees a ghost ship at night. Nobody believes the boy’s story even though the boy thinks he has really seen the ship. This story is written in the stream of consciousness style. Therefore, it is not divided into sentences or paragraphs. The whole story is one long continuous sentence.)

               

The boy says that now people will see who he is. They did not believe him in the past.

               

Many years ago, the boy saw the huge ship for the first time. He saw it at a night in March. The huge ship didn’t have any lights and it didn’t make any sound. It was moving towards the village. Something was broken on the ship, so it couldn’t find the correct path in the water. It hit rocks in the water, broke and sank to the bottom of the sea. Nobody heard any noise from the ship hitting the rocks and breaking.

               

The next day, the boy didn’t see anything unusual, so he thought that maybe he had only dreamed about the ship and it wasn’t real.

               

Exactly one year later, during the night, the boy saw the same ship again. This time he was sure that he was not dreaming. The boy told his mother about the ship he had seen. She did not believe her son. She thought that her son was going to be mad.

               

The boy’s father had died 11 years before. Since then, the mother had been spending her time sitting in a chair and thinking about her dead husband. Now the mother’s chair had become old. She needed to buy a different chair. She took a small boat to go to a place where she could buy a new chair. The boy went with his mother. While they were in the boat, the mother showed the boy that there was no broken ship at the bottom of the sea.

               

That night the mother died sitting in her new chair. After that four other women died while sitting in the same chair. The people in the village thought that the chair was bad and threw it into the sea. Now the boy had no parents. He had to steal fish so that he could have something to eat.

               

A few years later, on the same night in March, the boy was watching the sea again. He saw the same ship. He made a lot of noise to wake up the villagers to see the ship. But when the people got up the ship had already broken and gone to the bottom of the sea. The villagers didn’t see anything and did not believe that there was a ship. They beat the boy for making a disturbance and scaring them. The boy was angry at the villagers because they did not believe him. He made a plan to show them the ship so that they would believe him.

               

One year later, on the same night in March, the boy stole a small boat so that he could get near the big ship. He took the boat to the place where he had seen the ship in the past. When the ship arrived the boy lit a lamp in his boat. The big ship saw the light on his boat and began to follow him. The boy led the ship towards the village.

               

When the ship got close to the village, it blew its loud whistle. All of the people in the village woke up because of the loud noise and came out to their houses. The ship came into the ground by the village and stopped moving in front of the church. Now all the people in the village saw the ship and believed the boy. He felt happy.

(This is a symbolic story. The lantern is the symbol of revolutionary idea. The boy is a visionary rebel youth. The ship is the revolution in the form of the vision or dream of the boy.)

A Story

                                                                           -Dylan Thomas

This is a story told by a young boy. He has presented the adults’ world from his own point of view. The story presents a description of an outing (picnic) to Porthcawl.

               

The boy was living with his uncle, Mr. Thomas, and aunt, Sarah. His uncle was a very big man, but the house was small. The uncle dropped a lot of food on his clothes when he ate. He used to speak loudly and had red hair. He had a small shop in the house. The boy’s aunt was small and quiet. The boy compares her to a mouse. As she walked around the house quietly, he also compares her to a cat. The aunt spent a lot of time cleaning the small house. Whenever she was angry with her husband, she would like to hit him on his head with a china dog. But she couldn’t do it unless the boy’s uncle lifted her up.

               

One evening, the boy was sitting in his uncle’s shop when some of his friends came in. They talked about their annual outing (trip). Mr. Benjamin Franklyn said that he had collected enough money for bus fair and 20 cases of beer. He was angry at Will Sentry because he was continuously following him. Then they started playing cards. The boy felt that the shop would burst any time. The boy slept on his uncle’s waistcoat.

               

On Sunday evening, while the boy and his uncle were eating sardines, Mr. Franklyn and Will Sentry came in. Mr. Franklyn had brought a list of the people who wanted to go on the outing. Everybody had fully paid. The uncle saw the list and approved the names.

               

The aunt had overheard their plan. So, she became angry. She threatened her husband that she would go to her mother’s house. She told her husband to choose between the outing and herself. The uncle chose the outing.

               

For the rest of the week, the boy’s aunt was quiet. On the Saturday morning, the morning of the outing, the uncle found a note on the kitchen table. The aunt had left. Every year this happened, but the uncle had to take the boy with him this time.

               

It was a beautiful August morning. The men had hired a bus for their outing. They would stop at every public house and drink alcohol. The boy had to wait outside. Even when the bar was closed, they would drink behind the locked doors. There was a river on the way. When they saw it, they got off the bus and jumped into the cold water.

               

It was dusk. All the thirty people of the group were wet and drunk. They did not take care of anything that was going around them. They stopped at another public house for drinking.

               

Without reaching Porthcawl, which was their destination, they started their journey back home. On the way they stopped at a place. They took out all the remaining cases of beer and sat down in a circle in the field. They started drinking and singing while old O. Jones cooked sausages and mashed potatoes with a kerosene stove. The moon was shining above their heads. The boy felt sleepy. He slept against his uncle’s waistcoat.
Listen A Story by Dylan Thomas.
Part I and Part II.

About love

-Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

(This story tries to tell us that love is mysterious. Every story of love is different from the other. The three events about love that Alyohin, the narrator, describes prove this fact.)

Alyohin, Burkin and Ivan Ivanych were eating together when Nikanor, the cook, came to ask them about their preference for dinner. He was a man of average height with fat face and small eyes. He was clean-shaven. Alyohin told his friends the story of love affair between Nikanor and his beloved Pelageya. She was a beautiful woman, but loved a drunkard and violent man like Nikanor. When he was drunk, he used to swear at and beat her. He wanted her to marry him. But she did not want to marry him and was willing to live with him just so because of his violent nature. He didn’t like it. Alyohin wondered why Pelageya hadn’t fallen in love with somebody else better than Nikanor.

Alyohin thinks that love is a great mystery. Many questions about it are unanswered. No writings or sayings about love till now have been able to provide the solution. Each case of love is different from the other. So, generalization about love is not possible.

In Alyohin’s opinion, the Russians always flatter love and seek the reason and result of love. It’s an obstacle and source of dissatisfaction. When he was a university student in Moscow, he loved a girl and lived with her. She was always worried about the money Alyohin would provide her.

The sky was grey and it was raining outside. So, all the three friends could not go out. Meanwhile, Alyohin started telling his friends his own love story. He seemed to forget the loneliness of his bachelorhood for some time.

As Alyohin went to the university, his father had borrowed a lot of money to pay for his studies. So, after he finished his study he went back home. He had decided to work hard in the farm to pay off the debts though he did not enjoy working there.

Alyohin had been elected a judge in the town. So, he had to go to town frequently for court cases. Once, he met another judge, Luganovich, in the town. The man invited Alyohin to his house for dinner. At dinner, Alyohin met his wife Anna Alexeyevna. She was almost 22 with a six-month-old baby. As soon as Alyohin saw Anna, he fell in love with her. He felt he had never met such a charming woman before. Anna and her husband looked happy and satisfied in their conjugal life.

Alyohin returned to his village Sofyino, but could not forget Anna. In the late autumn when he went to the town again, he met Anna at a charity show. She asked him about his well-being and said that she could not forget him during the summer. The next day, he lunched at Anna’s house. Then, his visit to Anna’s house became frequent. Every time that Alyohin went to town he would go to visit Anna. Slowly, he became more familiar with Anna’s family.

Luganovich was almost forty. He was a simple, kind and straight-forward person. He was always ready to help Alyohin on his wife’s request. Alyohin would exchange many articles as gifts with Anna and her husband. They were wealthy, so Alyohin would borrow money from them. Alyohin was jealous of Luganovich because he had such a beautiful wife.

Though Alyohin and Anna loved each other secretly, they were unable to express their feelings to each other. Alyohin could not express his love to Anna because he did not want to break up her nice family in which he was so much trusted. Anna was also in conflict in her mind. She was in confusion whether to accept Alyohin’s love for her or not. She had no courage to betray her mother, her husband and her two children.

After some years, Alyohin and Anna had started going to the theatre together. People had started talking about them. Later, Anna suffered from nervous prostration. She would be irritated quite soon. She had started feeling her life dissatisfied and ruined.

Meanwhile, Luganovich got an appointment in another place. So, they had to leave the place. Anna was going to see a doctor in Crimea. As she had already said goodbye to her husband and children and the train was about to speed, Alyohin ran into her compartment to give her the basket she had almost forgotten. When their eyes met together, they could restrict themselves no more. They embraced each other and cried. Alyohin confessed his love to her. He kissed her the last time and parted from her forever.

When Alyohin finished his story, the rain had stopped and the sun had appeared.

The boarding house

- James Joyce (1882-1941)

Mrs Mooney and her husband had a butcher’s shop where they sold meat. After his father-in-law’s death, Mr Mooney drank a lot of alcohol and spent all their money. He would fight with his wife in front of customers. One night, he chased her with a big knife. So, Mrs Mooney left her husband, sold the butcher’s shop and started a boarding house.

Polly, Mrs Mooney’s daughter, worked at the boarding house. She was nineteen years old. Many young men used to live in the boarding house. Mr Doran was one of them. He had a love affair with Polly. Mrs Mooney knew this, but, at first, she pretended not to know anything. She wanted her daughter to marry Mr Doran. Finally, when the right time came, Mrs Mooney interfered.

Mrs Mooney decided that Mr Doran should marry her daughter. If he didn’t become ready to marry her daughter, she would publicize about the relationship in the society and he would probably lose his job. Everyone would know about Mr Doran’s immoral deeds. She was almost sure that he would prefer marriage with Polly to the loss of his job.

But Mr Doran did not want to marry Polly. His family would not accept her because she wasn’t educated. She could not speak English correctly. But he knew the bad consequences of not marrying Polly. Therefore, he was worried. He had already done a mistake by having relationship with her. The society would certainly find his fault in it.

When she was sure Mr Doran had no other option than to marry her daughter, Mrs Mooney decided to talk to him. The readers do not hear their conversation, but are hinted that Mr Doran is, at last, ready to marry Polly.

Listen The Boarding House.

The Tell-tale Heart

                                                                                                        - Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

The narrator is suffering from severe nervousness. He has an acute sense of hearing. He says he can hear everything. But he is not ready to accept that he is mad. He can tell his story calmly.

           

The narrator lives in a house with an old man. The old man is very nice to him. He also likes him. But he hates the old man’s eye. He has a pale blue eye that is like the eye of a vulture. So, the narrator plans to get rid of the eye after killing him.

           

Before he killed the old man, the narrator was very nice to him. Every midnight, he went to the old man’s room. Then, he slowly opened the door and pushed his head inside. He turned on the lamp, but he could not see the vulture eye. When the old man was asleep, the eye would be closed. So, he could not take it out. He repeated this action for 7 consecutive nights. In the mornings, the narrator used to be friendly with the old man so that he would not suspect him.

           

On the eighth night, at midnight, the narrator did the same thing. He opened the door of the old man’s room very slowly and wisely. It was very dark in the room. But the old man heard the narrator’s chuckle and woke up. While turning on the lamp the narrator made a noise and the old man got up. He asked in fear who there was. The narrator did not answer and patiently waited for an hour. But the old man did not go back to sleep. He was very much afraid.

           

When the narrator turned on the lamp, he saw the old man’s eye. When he saw the eye, the narrator became very angry. He also heard the sound of the old man’s heartbeat. It increased his anger. As he heard the sound growing louder and louder, the narrator made the lamp light bright and yelled. The old man also yelled. He threw the old man on to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him. The old man shrieked only once and died.

           

After he had killed the old man, the narrator dismembered the corpse. He separated different body parts and hid them under a wood plank on the floor.

           

At 4 am, three policemen came. The neighbours had informed them about a shriek they had heard in the house. They wanted to search around the house.

           

The narrator told the policemen that it was his own scream in a bad dream. He also told them that the old man was absent in the house. The policemen searched the house but didn’t find anything wrong. Then they all sat in the old man’s room and started talking to him in a friendly way. The narrator sat on the plank over the old man’s body.

           

Suddenly, the narrator began to hear a low, dull, quick sound. It grew louder and louder. The narrator wished the policemen had gone away. The narrator talked loudly and walked to and fro on the floor. The policemen were still talking to him cheerfully. The narrator guessed that they had already known about the murder. The narrator could not stand the sound anymore. At last, he confessed his crime and told the policemen what he had done and where he had hidden the body.
Watch The Tell-tale Heart.

Two Long Term Problems

- Moti Nissani

Scientists are worried about what is happening to the world. It is becoming much polluted. The pollution has caused many diseases. Many types of plants and animals are disappearing, whereas human population is going up. The population growth has caused careless use of natural resources and production of harmful poisons and waste materials. Soil erosion, desertification, and deforestation are also growing.

           

The human population is growing fast because more people are born than die. Because of development in nutrition, sanitation and health, people live longer. Nepal’s population has reached from 9 to 23 million in less than 50 years. With the present annual population growth rate of 2.5% (given in the essay), Nepal’s population will be almost 46 million by the year 2026.

           

There is no benefit of over-population. More people will need more food. More trees will be cut. The environment will be more polluted. Crime and conflict will also rise. So, the quality of life will decrease. The more people the world has, the more severe these problems are likely to become.

           

The population growth can be controlled. Modernization, literacy, media campaigns, family planning measures and contraceptives, and equal economic, educational and legal opportunities for women can help in this effort. But action is needed.

           

The population growth and modern life style of people have caused deforestation. Forests are cut down to turn the land into farmland. The demand of rich people in the west for beef is also causing forest land to be changed into grassland for cattle farming. Rich people’s demand for wood and paper products is also causing the destruction of forests. Many forests are also destroyed by pollution, tourism activities, construction of houses and factories, and similar practices. The destruction of forests causes greenhouse effect, acid rain, loss of plant and animal species, landslides, soil erosion, droughts, and weather extremes.

           

We can save our forests by controlling our numbers and wants. For this, investment on family planning efforts and education should be increased. Special or extra tax should be imposed upon those who use wood products. The preservers of forests should be provided with financial incentives. Reforestation or planting of trees can be another effort for conserving forests. Smokeless chulo (stove) which can give enough heat with less firewood should be encouraged for use in the village households.

           

If we want, we can have fewer people and more trees. We know how it can be done. But we lack wisdom, courage, and compassion to convert this knowledge into reality.

Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star

-M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry

This essay is written by two American geographers, M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry, who spent 15 months in the Karnali region. It was published in the National Geographic in 1971.

The essay explains how Karnali is economically linked with the lowland regions to the south, or Nepalgunj. The people of the hilly areas of Karnali bring local products like medicinal herbs, hashish, hand-knit sweaters, and blankets to sell in Nepalgunj. They buy other necessary items like clothes, aluminum and iron wares, spices, jewelry, sweets, etc.

           

This essay also describes other problems of the hill people. They met a Chhetri woman who was left by her husband. Her husband had left the village 15 years before in search of a job in Nepalgunj. Now, she wanted her husband back.

           

In a forest at 9,000 feet, they met some people processing silajit. They were going to sell it in Nepalgunj. They could not process silajit at home because they had left home hurriedly to avoid a bad star.

           

The writers found some women cutting the green branches of saal trees to feed their animals. The trees were almost bare, but the villagers did not know about the bad effects of deforestation. They had to feed their animals.

           

When the writers arrived in Nepalgunj, they saw, smelt, and heard many things that they had not in the hills. They also watched the hill people buying different items. They bought cotton cloth, aluminum, ironware, spice, and jewelry items. One of their porters bought distillery equipment. He wanted to earn a lot of money preparing liquor in Jumla.

           

The geographers returned to Jumla to finish their project. They learned a lot about the hill people. Their land produces very little amount of crops which is hardly enough to feed themselves. So, they need other activities besides farming to survive. Therefore, the hill people are always ready for the dangerous and unsafe journey.

God’s Grandeur

                -Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89)

(In this sonnet, Hopkins praises the magnificence and glory of God in the world, blending accurate observation with lofty imagination.)

The world is full of God’s greatness. It is reflected in the world like the light from a gold foil. God’s greatness lies in every particle of the world. When mustard grains are crushed in the press, trickles of oil slowly come out and are collected into a mass. In the same way, God’s greatness that is distributed to different particles comes into existence. But why do men not obey God?

Many generations of people in the world have been working very hard. They work like machines. They are always after money and riches. The nature is empty and the men are barren in their hearts, but they do not feel so because of their illusion.

Despite men’s careless use of natural resources, they are not going to finish. The natural resources are refreshed to be used again. Though the sun sets in the west in the evening, it rises again in the east in the next morning. In the same manner, the process of natural refreshment never stops because the Holy Ghost (God) loves and cares the world.   

Traveling Through the Dark

-William Stafford

One night, the speaker found a dead deer on a side of the Wilson River road. The road was narrow, so there was not enough space for his car to change the direction. In such a situation, it is a good idea to throw dead animals down the deep gorge beside the road.

The speaker stopped his car and got off. He could see a recently killed doe in the tail light of the car. The carcass had been cold and stiff. When he dragged her, he found her to be pregnant.

The speaker touched her side and felt that it was warm. The baby was alive inside. It was waiting in vain to be born. He was confused.

The car engine was making a low and continuous dull sound. It wanted to move ahead. It was also throwing out warm smoke which looked red in the rear light of the car. There was a dead silence around the place. 

He thought for a moment about all the travelers at night and took a decision, i.e. to work rationally rather than emotionally. He pushed the dead doe into the water. 

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

-William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

(This poem occurs in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2. Ariel, a character of mysterious existence, sings this song to Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, who mistakenly thinks his father is drowned.)

The speaker of the poem, Ariel, says that the Prince’s father is already dead, and that his body is at the bottom of the sea 30 feet below from the surface. His bones have been changed into coral. His eyes have become pearls. And no part of his body has been useless. Everything has been completely changed into something more valuable and useful. Therefore, the Prince’s father, according to the speaker, has got a meaningful death.

The Prince need not worry about his father’s death because the sea beauties are ringing the death bell to show respect to his father.

The poem is musical. It has onomatopoeia (e.g. ding-dong), alliteration (e.g. Full fathom five thy father lies), assonance (e.g. nothing/doth) and rhymes (e.g. lies/eyes). 

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

-          William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Paraphrase:

            Now I am old and weak. I cannot protect myself properly. When I was young, strong and wealthy, I always drew attention of my friends and women. I used to sit beside the fire and discuss love and politics with other young men and women. That was before I was changed by time.

            The young boys are preparing to fight with their rivals. The greedy and dishonest politicians are using them to satisfy more of their hunger and thirst for power and money. But I am not worried about them or my country. I am pondering upon the time that has changed me.  

            No woman looks at me now. But I cannot forget all the beautiful women I loved in my youth. I spit into the face of time that has changed me.

Analysis of the Poem:

            The poem presents the poet’s reminiscences of his young life. Thinking about past is more agonizing when it was better than the present. The speaker, a retired old man, looks at his present state and contrasts his time of youth with his state in the old age. He is not satisfied with his present state. He thinks the time is guilty for his pathetic new condition. So, he hates time and wants to spit into its face.

            The old man is in a pitiful condition, so he is pessimistic in his view to life. He does not see any hope. So, he does not see any utility of the youths' movements. He regards them as ‘crazy rascals’. He also hints that even the youths will one day become as helpless as he is.

            The old man seems to be alone and unhappy. Perhaps his family members decided to leave him alone due to his lecherous behavior. It is also possible that he never got time to marry and have a settled life because of his promiscuity. Anyway, he seems angry and unhappy at his present state.

            The poem is a well organized one. It has three stanzas. Each stanza is of one sentence, and compares his past with his present. In the first stanza, he talks about his past popularity and present loneliness. It also reveals his past political activeness. In second stanza, he presents the present political scenario around him. But he says he doesn’t have any interest in the political activities. In the third stanza, he again talks about his present state of being neglected by beautiful women. He compares it with his past playboy status. But each stanza repeats the refrain ‘time has transfigured me’.  It is the dominant idea in the poem. 

Grandmother

The speaker of this poem remembers his grandmother in this poem. His grandmother is already dead, so only her reminiscence is with him. He remembers his grandmother’s shape well. So, he could easily recognize her even from afar. He also remembers ‘the purple scarf’ that his grandmother used to wear and ‘the plastic shopping bag’ that she used to carry. She was a simple village woman. She was not rich and fashionable. His grandmother used to love him very much. He would know his grandmother’s hands just by feeling them on his head. His grandmother’s hands used to be ‘warm and damp’ whenever she put them on his head. The phrase 'warm and damp' refers to love and compassion his grandmother had for him. His grandmother’s hands would smell roots because she used to work in the farm. She was a farmer. He says he can recognize his grandmother’s voice even if it comes from the tombstone. His grandmother’s voice used to be very much inspiring for him. So, he still imagines his grandmother inspiring him with her words. He feels like ‘a sleeping fire at night’ from which someone is stirring ashes whenever he remembers his grandmother’s inspiring voice.

The poet has used some special words in the poem to create the images of his grandmother. ‘Her shape’, ‘the purple scarf’, ‘the plastic shopping bag’, ‘a rock’ and ‘sleeping fire’ appeal to our sense of sight. ‘smell of roots’ appeals to our sense of smell. ‘warm and damp’ appeals to our sense of touch. ‘a voice’ and ‘her words’ appeal to our sense of hearing.

‘Grandmother’ is an attempt by Ray Young Bear, an American Indian poet, to search for his identity. He is a member of the Sauk and Fox (Mesquaki) Indian tribe of North America. So, he wants to set his own identity in the contemporary American society. ‘Grandmother’ in the poem represents his people’s history and culture. Most of the people of this tribe were farmers, so their hands smelled roots. They would wash their hands after the farm work and would have wet hands. The glorious history of his tribe often inspires him and he feels love for his people and identity. Because of the inspiration he gets from the history, he feels like a sleeping fire at night from which someone is stirring ashes. It means, he is slowly growing conscious of his identity.

A Worn Path

-Eudora Welty (b.1909-2001)

(This story presents an old lady’s unconscious heroism.)

Phoenix Jackson is a very old woman who has a little grandson. She regularly makes difficult journeys from her village to the town and back home to get medicine for her ill grandson. This story presents one of the journeys she makes from her village to the town.

It is a December morning. Phoenix, who is very old and small, with her head tied in a red rag, is walking along the path through a pine forest. She is walking slowly, moving side to side, with the help of a thin, small cane made from an umbrella. She is wearing a dark striped dress reaching down to her shoe-tops, and an equally long apron. Her shoe laces are not tied. Her eyes are blue. Her skin is wrinkled. Her hair is smelly. While walking along the path, she is frequently switching at the bushes on the both sides of it.

While walking up the hill, Phoenix has so much difficulty. While coming down the hill, her dress gets caught on a bush, but she is cautious enough to save her dress from being torn. She sets her dress free from the thorny bush with great effort.  After that, she realizes that it is going to be late.

On the way, Phoenix has to cross a bridge. It is made of a log laid across the creek. She is frightened. Having crossed it with much difficulty, she takes rest under a tree. Meanwhile, she has a dream. In her dream, a little boy gives her a slice of marble cake on a plate. While trying to catch it, she wakes up and finds her hand in the air.

Phoenix resumes her journey again. At a point of her path, she has to cross a barbed wire fence. She is careful not to let her dress be torn. So she creeps and crawls, spreading her knees and stretching her fingers like a baby trying to climb the steps.

Phoenix now passes through the old cotton field and enters a field that is full of dead corn stalks. She has a difficulty in finding her way through the high corn stalks. In the middle of the field, she finds a scarecrow. At first, she takes it as a man, then as a ghost. She is very much frightened. She finds a spring flowing silently on her way. She drinks the water and praises it for its sweetness.

A little further, a black dog who is hanging his tongue jumps out of a nearby bush in front of her. She tries to hit the dog with her cane, but she herself falls into a nearby ditch. She immediately loses her consciousness. She can’t come out of the ditch when she gains her consciousness again. After a while, a young hunter arrives there. He helps her out. He is carrying a dead bobwhite in the bag hanging on his back.

Phoenix sees a nickel fall out of the man’s pocket onto the ground. So, she thinks of stealing it secretly. She asks the hunter to chase away the dog which knocked her into the ditch a while ago. When the hunter goes away to chase the dog, she picks up the nickel from the ground and puts it into the pocket of her apron.  At the same time, a bird flies away and she thinks that God saw her stealing the money.

The hunter comes back a while later and points his gun at Phoenix. But she is not afraid. For this, he wants to give her a dime. He feels in his pocket, but doesn’t find any coin.

Finally, Phoenix reaches to the town. It is the Christmas time, so the town is well decorated with red and green electric lights. She stops on the sidewalk. A lady comes along in the crowd. She is carrying presents covered in colorful papers. Old Phoenix asks her to lace her shoes. The girl readily ties them for her. She thanks the lady and reaches to a stone building where she gets medicine for her grandson. There is the doctor’s office. The nurse who knows her informs the others that she is a regular visitor. She also asks about the condition of her grandson, but Phoenix sits quiet. She has forgotten about her grandson while on the way. After the nurse’s repeated queries, she regains her mind’s composure and recalls her purpose of the journey. She is there to get a soothing medicine for her grandson’s ailing throat. She would get the medicine on charity.

The nurse gives Phoenix a nickel as a gift of Christmas. She wants to buy her grandson a little paper windmill with the money.