sullenees - in varying proportions these are the ingredients of all ill temper. Judge if such
sins of the disposition are not worse to live in. and for others to live with than sins of the
body. There is really no place in Heaven for a disposition like this. A man with such a
mood could only make Heaven miserable for all the people in it.
-Henry Druromond
Questions
1. What is the popular notion about “bad temper”?
2. How is bad temper “the vice of the virtuous”?
3. Which class of sins is worse, and why – since of the body, since of the disposition ?
Page 393
4. Mention some evils of bad temper.
5. Why according to the author will there be no place in Heaven for bad tempered folk?
6. Find words from the passage which mean; breaking up; running; scandalising; souring;
easily or quickly offended.
4
Yes, there were giants before the Jam Sahib (the great Indian cricketer, Kumar Shree
Ranjitsinhji, better known to the world of cricket as Ranji). And yet I think it is
undeniable that as a batsman the Indian will live as the supreme exponent of the
Englishman's game. The claim does not rest simply on his achievements although, judged
by them, the claim could be sustained. His season's average of 87 with a total of over
3,000 runs, is easily the high-water mark of English cricket. Thrice he has totalled over
3,000 runs and no one else has equalled that record. And is not his the astonishing
achievement of scoring two double centuries in a single match on a single day - not
against a feeble attack, but against Yorkshire, always the most resolute and resourceful of
bowling teams ?
But we do not judge a cricketer so much by the runs he gets as by the way he gets them.
"In literature as in finance," says Washington Irving, "much paper and much poverty may
co-exist." And in cricket too many runs and much dullness may be associated. If cricket
is menaced with creeping paralysis, it is because it is losing the spirit of joyous adventure
and becoming a mere instrument for compiling tables of averages. There are dull,
mechanic fellows who turn out runs with as little emotion as a machine turns out pins.
There is no colour, no enthusiasm, no character in their play. Cricket is not an adventure
to them; it is a business. It was so with Shrewsbury. His technical perfection was
astonishing; but the soul of the game was wanting in him. There was no sunshine in his
play, no swift surprise or splendid unselfishness. And without these things without gaiety,
daring, and the spirit of sacrifice cricket is a dead thing. Now, the Jam Sahib has the root
of the matter in him. His play is as sunny as his face. He is not a miser hoarding up runs,
but a millionaire spending them, with a splendid yet judicious prodigality. It is as though
his pockets are bursting with runs that he wants to shower with his blessings upon the
expectant multitude. It is not difficult to believe that in his litttle kingdom Nawangar
where he has power of life and death in his hands he is extremely popular for it is obvious
that his pleasure is in giving pleasure.
-A.G. Gardiner
Questions
1. Correct the following statistics, if necessary:-
(a) His season's average of 87 with a total of over 3,000 runs is easily the high-water
mark of English cricket.
(b) Thrice he has totalled over 3,000 runs, and no one else has equaled that record.
(c) He scored two double centuries in a single match on a single day.
2. "Many runs and much dullness may be .associated." Prove this.
3. Mention some reasons why cricket is losing its lustre.
4. What gives cricket its "character"?
5. How should real cricket be played ?
6. Describe in your own words the secret of the Jam Sahib's wizardry with the bat.
7. Make a list of “do’s” and “don’ts” for a promising cricketer.
Page 394
5
Supposing you have to make a payment of Rs. 100, you can do so in rupee-coins; but it
would be cumbersome to pay in nickel or copper coins, because they are heavy to carry
and also because it takes much time to count them. The Government therefore permits
you to make the payment in rupee-notes. What are these rupee-notes really? They are a
kind of money, right enough, although they are made of paper instead of metal. You can
use them in just the same way that you use ordinary money. The reason why they are
made of paper and used is that they save the trouble of carrying metal coins about - of
course, paper is lighter than metal and they also save using silver and other metals when
they are scarce.
What makes these mere pieces of paper bear the value of the number of rupees that is
printed upon them? Why should a piece of paper, with “100” printed on it be worth
twenty times as much as a piece of paper with "five" printed on it - and also worth a
hundred times as much as a silver rupee-coin? The reason is that Government guarantees
that the piece of paper is worth the amount printed on it and promises to pay that amount
to anybody who wishes to exchange this paper for the rupee-coins. Also, if you think
about it you can easily realize that crores and crores more of rupee-coins would have to
be minted, if all paper-money were abolished.
Perhaps you may ask, "Then why not have paper money only ? Why use silver and nickel
and copper at all ?" The answer is - because money must as we have already said, be
something so useful that everyone wants. Also because the metals are the best form of
money; and thirdly because it would be impossible to print just the right amount of paper
money that would keep prices at their proper natural level. If any Government prints too
much paper money, then prices go up at once. The supply of money is increased and
therefore its value (in food, clothes, books, houses, land, tools and everything else) goes
down.
You may think at first that it is queer to talk of having too much paper money and that
money is so nice and useful that you cannot have too much of it. But if you think that, I
am afraid you are forgetting that money is only useful for what it will buy; so it is no
good at all having more money if there are no more things to buy with it. The more
money there is, the higher will be the prices of everything. The same thing happens with
rupee-coins as with paper money. But it is not likely to happen, for this reason : it is very
easy to print a great deal of paper money, but not at all easy to increase the amount of
rupee-coins. Silver has to be dug out of mines, and very difficult to get; so the amount
there is if it keeps very steady and changes very little. In fact that is one of the chief
reasons why it was chosen to make coins of.
-Ernest F. Row
Questions
1. Why does the Government allow payment to be made in paper notes?
2. What is more valuable, to have 100 rupee-coins in silver or a Rs. 100 note, in paper?
3. If metal is so cumbersome, why should we not have only paper money?
Why should we not print as much of it as possible?
4. What is the real use of money?
5. Why should the prices of commodities go up when there is plenty of paper money?
6. Why does the Government print only a certain number of paper notes, and not as many
as it likes arbitrarily?
6
You seemed at first to take no notice of your school-fellows, or rather to set
yourself against them because they were strangers to you. They knew as little of you
as you did of them; so that this would have been the reason for their keeping aloof, from
you as well, which you would have felt as a hardship. Learn never to conceive a
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prejudice against other because you know nothing of them. It is bad reasoning, and makes
enemies of half the world. Do not think ill of them till they behave ill to you; and then
strive to avoid the faults which you see in them. This will disarm their hostility sooner
than pique or resentment or complaint. I thought you were disposed to criticize the dress
of some of the boys as not so good as your own. Never despise any one for anything that
he cannot help - least of all, for his poverty. I would wish you to keep up appearances
yourself as a defence against the idle sneers of the world, but I would not have you value
yourself upon them. I hope you will neither be the dupe nor victim of vulgar prejudices.
Instead of saying above "Never despise anyone for anything that he cannot help," I might
have said, "Never despise anyone at all"; for contempt implies a triumph over and
pleasure in the ill of another. It means that you are glad and congratulate yourself on their
failings or misfortunes.
You have hitherto been a spoilt child, and have been used to have your own way a good
deal, both in the house and among your playfellows, with whom you were too fond of
being a leader; but you have good nature and good sense, and will get the better of this in
time. You have now got among other boys who are your equals, or bigger and stronger
than yourself and who have something else to attend to besides humouring your whims
and fancies, and you feel this as a repulse or piece of injustice. But the first lesson to
learn is that there are other people in the world besides yourself. The more airs of childish
self-importance you. give yourself, you will only expose yourself to be the more thwarted
and laughed at. True equality is the only true morality or wisdom. Remember always that
you are but one among others and you can hardly mistake your place in society. In your
father's house you might do as you pleased; in the world you will find competitors at
every turn. You are not born a king's son, to destroy or dictate to millions; you can only
expect to share their fate, or settle your differences amicably with them. You already find
ii so al school, and I wish you to be reconciled to your situation as soon and with as little
pain as you can.
- William Hazlitt
Questions
1. Can you tell who is writing to whom in this passage? What would you call this kind of
writing - a speech, a diary, a letter, a sermon?
2. What reasons does the author give for not harbouring a prejudice against others?
3. What are some of the blessings of living with others in the same class or the same
school?
4. Paraphrase:-
(a) True equality is the only true morality or true wisdom.
(b) To be the dupe or victim of vulgar prejudices.
(c) Settle your differences amicably with them.
5. "Contempt implies a triumph over and pleasure in the ill of another."
Who are those who feel like this and why ?
6. The author says that "in the world you will find competitors at every turn." But
competition is a very good thing. Why does he seem to warn his son about it ?
7
Unquestionably a literary life is for the most part an unhappy life; because, if you have
genius, you must suffer the penalty of genius; and, if you have only talent, there are so
many cares and worries incidental to the circumstances of men of letters, as to make life
exceedingly miserable. Besides the pangs of composition, and the continuous
disappointment which a true artist feels at his inability to reveal himself, there is the ever-
recurring difficulty of gaining the public ear. Young writers are buoyed
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up by the hope and the belief that they have only to throw that poem at the world's feet to
get back in return the laurel-crown; that they have only to push that novel into print to be
acknowledged at once as a new light in literature. You can never convince a young author
that the editors of magazines and the publishers of books are a practical body of men,
who are by no means frantically anxious about placing the best literature before the
public. Nay, that for the most part they are mere brokers, who conduct their business on
the hardest lines of a Profit and Loss account. But supposing your book fairly launches,
its perils are only beginning. You have to run the gauntlet of the critics. To a young
author, again, this seems to be as terrible an ordeal as passing down the files of Sioux or
Comanche Indians, each one of whom is thirsting for your scalp. When you are a little
older, you will find that criticism is not much more serious than the bye-play of clowns in
a circus, when they beat around the ring the victim with bladders slung at the end of long
poses. A time comes in the life of every author when he regards critics as comical rather
than formidable, and goes his way unheeding. But there are sensitive souls that yield
under the chastisement and, perhaps after suffering much silent torture, abandon the
profession of the pen for ever. Keats, perhaps, is the saddest example of a fine spirit
hounded to death by savage criticism; because, whatever his biographers may aver, that
furious attack of Clifford and Terry undoubtedly expedited his death. But no doubt there
are hundreds who suffer keenly hostile and unscrupulous criticism, and who have to bear
that suffering in silence, because it is a cardinal principle in literature that the most
unwise thing in the world for an author is to take public notice of criticism in the way of
defending himself. Silence is the only safeguard, as it is the only dignified protest against
insult and offence.
-P.A. Sheehan
Questions
1. Why is the Literary Life mostly an unhappy one?
2. What are the ambitions of a young author?
3. Are editors and publishers sympathetic to young authors?
4. What are some of the ordeals awaiting the young authors from the critics?
5. What attitude should an author adopt in the face of bitter critics?
6. Explain: Sioux Indians; abandon the profession of the pen; laurel-crown; to run the
gauntlet; hounded to death.
7. Write in simple English: the pangs of composition; buoyed up by the hope; mere
brokers; thirsting for your scalp.
8
Then one day there passed by that way a Pashupata ascetic. And he said to the Brahman :
"My son, what are you doing here ?" So he replied: "Reverend Sir, I am performing
penance, for the expiation of sin, on the banks of the Ganges." Then the ascetic
said:"What has this miserable puddle to do with the Ganges," And the Brahman said :"Is
this, then, not the Ganges ?" And the ascetic laughed in his face, and said .'Truly, old as I
am, I did not think that there had been folly like this in the world. Wretched man, who
has deluded you ? The Ganges is hundreds of miles away, and resembles this
contemptible brook no more than Mount Meru resembles an ant-hill.' Then the Brahman
said :"Reverend Sir, I am much obliged to you." And taking his pot and staff, he went
forward, till at length he came to a broad river. And he rejoiced greatly, saying: "This
must be the sacred Ganges." So he settled on its banks and remained there for five years,
bathing every day in its waters. Then one day there came by a Kapalika, who said to him,
"Why do you remain here, wasting precious time over a river of no account or sanctity,
instead of going to the Ganges ?" But the Brahman was amazed, and said; "And is this,
then, not the Ganges ?" Then the Kapalika replied -."This is the Ganges! Is a jackal a lion
or a Chandala a Brahman ? Sir, you are dreaming." Then the Brahman sighed deeply.
And he said, "Sir, I am enlightened by you." And he took his pot and staff, and went
forward.
Page 397
But he was now very old and feeble. And long penance had weakened his frame and
exhausted his energies. And as he toiled on in the heat of the day over the burning earth,
the sun beat on his head like the thunderbolt of Indra, and struck him with fever. Still he
gathered himself together and struggled on, growing weaker and weaker day by day, till
at last he got no further, but fell down and lay dying on the ground. But collecting all his
remaining strength, with a last desperate effort he dragged himself up a low hill in front
of him. And lo! there before him rolled the mighty stream of Ganges, with countless
numbers of pilgrims doing penance on its banks and bathing in its stream. And in his
agony he cried aloud : "O Mother Ganges ! alas ! alas ! I have pursued you all my life
and now I die here helpless in sight of you." So his heart broke, and he never reached its
shore.
-F.W. Bain Questions
1. Explain the allusion to Mount Meru and the comparison between it and an ant-hill.
What was "the thunderbolt of Indra" ?
2. What is a "Pashupata" ascetic, a Kapalika or a Chandala ?
3. What do you suppose is the intention of the author in telling this very sad story ? Quote
phrases from the text to show the pathos.
4. Comment on the significance and the author's use of the following expressions:-
(a) "This is the Ganges ! Is a jackal a lion ---?"
(b) "O Mother Ganges ! alas ! alas !"
5. What is the purpose of the words : "Reverend Sir, I am performing penance, for the
expiation of sin .
9
One common mistake that many people have made is this: they have thought that it
would be a very good thing if everybody had exactly the same amount of money, no
matter whether they worked hard or lived quite idly. They forget that very few people
would work at all if it were not for the money their work brings them, and that without
work there would be no money. And they have imagined that if all the money in the
country were equally divided everybody would be rich. Now that is a very great mistake,
because there simply is not enough money to make everybody rich. If it were shared
equally all round every one then would, on the basis of the calculations made in 1935,
receive only about Rs. 65 a year. Today with a rise in the price level it might be Rs. 150 a
year. That may be more than you receive now or it may be less, but would certainly not
make you really rich. It is quite true that there are in this country a small number of very
rich people; but they are so few in comparison with the whole population that even if they
were to share out all their wealth among the rest, it would make very little difference. It is
said that if you flattened out that great French mountain Mont Blanc, the highest
mountain in Europe, and spread it over the whole of France you would only raise the
level of the land by about six inches. See if you can think out what that has to do with the
question I have been talking about.
Many people, unfortunately, seem to think also that Government can always pay out
money quite easily and in any quantity, and they forget, of else they do not know, that the
Government can only pay out money that it has received in taxes - money that the tax-
payer has had to work for.
And now here is one final mistake that I should like to warn you against, Don't ever
imagine that there is any thing to be ashamed of, or anything undignified, to grumble
about in having to work hard for your living. If when you start work you can go into a job
that suits you, so that you can really enjoy the work itself, so much the better: I hope that
is what will happen, But if the work is not exactly the kind that you would choose, you
must try to remember that you are helping to produce the things that other people need;
you are "doing your bit" and playing your part In the work of the world- You are like a
wheel, even if it is only 5 very tiny wheel, in the great world-
Page 398
machinery of trade and industry that is always busily at work providing for the wants of
hundreds of millions of people, and you must "put your back into it" and see to it that
your particular task is always done as well as you can possibly do it.
- Ernest F. Row
Questions
1. Why is it really necessary to work?
2. If all the money in the world were equally divided, everybody would be very happy.
Do you agree?
3. The author tells us about flattening Mont Blanc and the little difference it would make
in raising the level of France. What is his point in giving us this example?
4. Which is the best job in the world? Why must you embrace it lovingly?
5. What is the meaning of: “put your back into it?” “doing your bit”?
6. Paraphrase :"You are like a wheel…..millions of people."
10
All Great Thinkers live and move on a high plane of thought. It is only there they can
breathe freely. It is only in contact with spirits like themselves they can live
harmoniously and attain that serenity which comes from ideal companionship. The
studies of all great thinkers must range along the highest altitudes of human thought, i
cannot remember the name of any illuminative genius who did not drink his inspiration
from fountains of ancient Greek and Hebrew writers; or such among the moderns as were
pupils in ancient thought, and, in turn, became masters in their own. I have always
thought that the strongest argument in favour of the Baconian theory was, that no man,
however indubitable his genius, could have written the plays and sonnets that have come
down to us under Shakespeare's name who had not the liberal education of Bacon. How
this habit of intercourse with the gods makes one impatient of mere men. The
magnificent ideals that have ever haunted the human mind, and given us our highest
proofs of a future immortality by reason of the impossibility of their fulfilment here, are
splintered into atoms by contact with life's realities. Hence comes our sublime discontent.
You will notice that your first sensation after reading a great book is one of melancholy
and dissatisfaction. The ideas, sentiments, expressions, are so far beyond those of
ordinary working life that you cannot turn aside from one to the other without an acute
sensation and consciousness of the contrast. And the principles are so lofty, so super-
human that it is a positive pain, if once you become imbued with them, to come down
and mix in the squalid surroundings of ordinary humanity. It may be spiritual or
intellectual pride that is engendered on the high plane of intellectual life. But whatever it
is, it becomes inevitable. An habitual meditation on the vast problems that underline
human life, and are knit into human destinies-thoughts of immortality, of the littleness of
mere man, of the greatness of man's soul, of the splendours of the universe that are
invisible to the ordinary traffickers in the street, as the vastness of St, Peter's is to the
spider that weaves her web in a corner of the dome-these things do not fit men to
understand the average human being, or tolerate with patience the sordid wretchedness of
the unregenerate masses. It is easy to understand, therefore, why such thinkers fly to the
solitude of their own thoughts, or the silent companionship of the immortals; and if they
care to present their views in prose or verse to the world, that these views take a sombre
and melancholy setting from "the pale cast of thought" in which they were engendered.
-P.A. Sheehan
Questions
1. On what plane must great thinkers live and move?
2. Is a liberal education necessary to produce great literature?
3. Why does the reading of a great book, according to the author, make one melancholy
and disappointed?
4. What are the things that make it hard to understand the average human being?
Page 399
11
Although religion does not inhibit the accusation of wealth, although it does not hold up
large fortunes as evil, the tenor of its teaching, by and large, is to induce an attitude of
indifference to worldly things, things which gratify one's lower self and keep one
engrossed in money-making. The student should be made to realize that the real goods of
life are spiritual, love of things of the spirit and service of one's fellowmen, joy of an
ordered disciplined life. These are blessings money cannot buy. What is wealth before
such things of the spirit? Of all religious teachers Jesus Christ has dealt more
comprehensively than any other with the problem of wealth in all its aspects. He may be
called the greatest exponent of the science of the wealth. With only four words "Blessed
are ye poor!" he changed altogether the values which man attached to human existence
and human happiness and acquisition and possession of wealth. Real bliss consisted, he
taught, not in riches nor in anything else which the world regarded as prosperity or
felicity, but in the joy and happiness derived from being at peace with one's fellowmen
through perfect love and fellowship and selfless service and sacrifice.
The word "poor" on the lips of the Master had a spiritual significance - the poor so far as
they were poor in spirit, humble before God, simple, God-fearing, teachable, faithful. It
could surely not have been his intention to hold up destitution and privation as a blessing
in itself. That would have turned life into a terrible ordeal and it would have been
heartless to exhort the poor to believe that money was not necessary for one's sustenance
or the joys and blessings of life. Even things of the spirit cannot be had without money.
Extreme poverty is as liable to lead to the stagnation and impoverishment of the soul as
excessive wealth. Not outward poverty but inward spirit was what Jesus Christ desired
and demanded. Every religion asks a man to regard his wealth as a trust. Giving in charity
for the relief of the poor and public welfare is not merely an act of compassion, not
merely d religious duty, but also an act of social justice. All the gospels of wealth are
based on the fundamental concept that none can claim an absolute or inherent right to
property. Everyone holds it in trust from God to promote the good of mankind. AU rights
to private property are subject to this primary obligation to God and man.
- RP Masani
Questions
1. What, according to the author, is the meaning of "indifference"? "Is it applicable to all
religions?
2. Which are some of the real goods of spiritual living ? Is it easy to make the student
realise this?
3. In what sense can it be said that Jesus Christ has dealt more comprehensively with the
problem of wealth ? Did Mahatma Gandhi teach a similar doctrine ?
4. What do you understand by the phrase : "poor in spirit" ? In that case, would it be more
perfect to give-away all your belongings and property and live like a pauper ?
5. Describe some of the drawbacks of poverty and show how money is absolutely
necessary in life.
6. Write a short paragraph developing the idea contained in the following: "Every
religion asks a man to regard his wealth as a trust."
7. Bernard Shaw has said that poverty is a crime. Do you agree ?
12
The third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its
knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the gods, yet we use them like small
Page 400
children. For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines were
made to be man's servants; yet he has grown so dependent on them that they are in a far
way to become his masters. Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and
waiting upon machines. An the machines are very stern masters. They must be fed with
coal, and given petrol to drink, and oil to wash with, and they must be kept at the right
temperature. And if they do not get their meals when they expect them, they row sulky
and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all
round them. So we have to wait upon them very attentively and do all that we can to keep
them in a good temper. Already we find it difficult either to work or play without the
machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we rule the
animals.
And this brings me to the point at which I asked, "What do we do with all the time which
the machines have saved for us, and die new energy they have given us ?" On the whole,
it must be admitted, we do very little. For the most part we use our time and energy to
make more and better machines; but more and better machines will only give us still
more time and still more energy, and what are we to do with them ? The answer, I think,
is that we should try to become mere civilized. For the machine themselves, arid the
power which the machines have given us, are not civilization but aids to civilization. But
you will remember that we agreed at the beginning that being civilized meant making and
liking beautiful things, thinking freely, and living rightly and maintaining justice equally
between man and man. Man has a better chance today to do these things than he ever had
before; he has more time, more energy, less to fear and less to fight against. If he will
give his time and energy which his machines have won for him to making more beautiful
things, to finding out more and more about the universe, to removing the causes of
quarrels between nations, to discovering how to prevent poverty, then I think our
civilization would undoubtedly be the greater, as it would be the most lasting that there
has ever been.
- C.E.M. Joad
Questions
1. Instead of making machines our servants the author says they have become our
masters. In what sense has this come about ?
2. The use of machines has brought us more leisure and more energy. But the author says
that this has been a curse rather than a blessing. Why ?
3. What exactly is the meaning of "civilization" ? Do you agree with the author's views ?
4. "Making more beautiful things" What does this expression mean ? Make a list of die
beautiful things that you would like to make and how you would make them.
5. Mention some plans you may have to prevent poverty in the world. Who would receive
your most particular attention, and why ?
6. The author uses phrases like, "fed with coal"; "given petrol to drink"; "oil to wash";
"kept at the right temperature" What machines would require these things ?
13
The other day we heard someone smilingly refer to poets as dreamers. Now, it is accurate
to refer to poets as dreamers, but it is not discerning to infer, as this person did, that the
dreams of poets have no practical value beyond the realm of literary diversion, The truth
is that poets are just as practical as people who build bridges or look into microscopes;
and just as close to reality and truth, Where they differ from the logician and the scientist
is in the temporal sense alone; they are ahead of their time, whereas logicians and
scientists are abreast of their time. We must not be so superficial that we fail to discern
the practicableness of dreams. Dreams are the sunrise streamers
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heralding a new day of scientific progress, another forward surge. Every forward step
man takes in any field of life, is first taken along the dreamy paths of imagination. Robert
Fulton did not discover his steamboat with full steam up, straining at a hawser at some
Hudson River dock; first he dreamed the steamboat, he and other dreamers, and then
scientific wisdom converted a picture in the mind into a reality of steel and wood. The
automobile was not dug out of the ground like a nugget of gold; first men dreamed the
automobile and afterward, long afterward, the practical-minded engineers caught up with
what had been created by winging fantasy. He who looks deeply and with a seeing eye
into the poetry of yesterday finds there all the cold scientific magic of today and much
which we shall not enjoy until some tomorrow. If the poet does not dream so clearly that
blueprints of this vision can immediately be drawn and the practical conversions
immediately effected, he must not for that reason be smiled upon as merely the mental
host for a sort of harmless madness. For the poet, like the engineer, is a specialist. His
being, tuned to the life of tomorrow, cannot be turned simultaneously to the life of today.
To the scientist he says, "Here, I give you a flash of the future." The wise scientist thanks
him, and takes that flash of the future and makes it over into a fibre of today.
- Glen Falls
Questions
1. Are poets dreamers? In what sense?
2. Is a poet a practical man? In what way?
3. Are dreams, according to the author, useful to the world? Why?
4. What was Fulton's achievement?
5. If the poet did not dream, what would happen?
6. In what way is the poet a specialist?
14
This romantic life in Kashmir was drawing to its end after three glorious months. Miss
Joan was leaving a week earlier than Mrs. Rhodes, and about two days before she left I
took her alone to the hotel for dinner. We walked to the hotel in perfect silence, a silence
so heavy that I could hardly breathe. The hotel seemed to be far away and yet not far
enough. That night, as I served her at table the temptation to touch her was overpowering,
and I had almost forgotten myself when I dropped her coffee cup, which made me pull
myself together and realize my position and my caste. On the way home there was a
bridge over the canal to be crossed. She stopped on the bridge without a word, so I
stopped beside her looking on to the calm water of the canal shining between the gigantic
chenar trees. In the distance a gramophone was playing and the music floated over the
water. We stood for a long time without saying a word to each other. I think the parting
was disturbing her. There was something which she could not have explained and which
she was trying to express. It might have been just a fancy of her own, or it may have been
the subconscious knowledge of the secret, consuming passion of her attendant that was
affecting her on this calm and beautiful night as we tarried on the bridge. It seemed to me
that we stood there for ages, as if neither of us dare break the magic spell of night and
music. Our houseboat was only a few yards from the bridge, and the Goodnight was the
only word that passed between us as we parted - everything then went into the darkness.
The Mail lorry came up to the bridge to take her away from the romantic city of Srinagar
and away from me. -After she had taken her seat I put awoollen rug over her knees to
keep her warm on the journey, and she handed me a ten-rupee note as a parting gift and
sweetly said Good-bye. I watched her wave her hand till the lorry was out of sight. Then I
realized what I had lost, and lost for ever.
- Hazari
Page 402
Questions
1. What was the matter with the attendant as he walked with Miss Joan to the hotel? Why
did they not talk to each other?
2. After reading the passage can you give reasons to show what caste the attendant
belonged to?
3. The author mentions the chenar trees of Kashmir. Give a brief but graphic description
of these trees.
4. "I think the parting was disturbing her." Was it the romantic atmosphere of the
surroundings, the thought of having to leave Kashmir, the kindness of her attendant, or
thoughts of home that were the cause of the disturbance?
5. Why does the author call Srinagar a romantic city? Give the meaning of "romantic."
Show how it may apply to Srinagar.
6. Why did Miss Joan give the attendant a ten-rupee note? Do friends do such things?
15
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall
redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of
the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A
moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the
new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It
is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of
India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are
filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good
and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which
gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again.
The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the
greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough
to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a
sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom
we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this
sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Neverthless, the past is over and it is the
future that beckons to us now. That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant
striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall
take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means
the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The
ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every
eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work
will not be over.
-Jawaharlal Nehru
