Chapter's summary : Text and Summary of Prose and Poem

Summary           ' Not for Sale ' by an anonymous writer is a heart touching story of a young couple madly in love who overcome all obstacles for the sake of their love and togetherness. The author was on a vacation when he came across a painting of a young woman . The painting was extraordinary and very expressive. He wished to buy it. But the woman in charge of the shop denied saying that the painting belonged to the owner of the shop and he did not wish to sell it. However, the painting was so touching that it kept haunting the author. Whenever he got a chance, he would drive all the way through Taos and to the gallery and see the painting. Finally, the woman shopkeeper told him the story behind the painting. Two young students, a man and a woman, fell madly in love while they studied painting and arts in New York, far from their homes . They decided to get married and have a promising career in painting.           How...

Summary          The lesson is a message by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam the great scientist who had a vision for India. He was also the 11th President of India. Dr. Kalam who had recognized the untapped talent and strength of youth and children has voiced his feelings for bringing it out. By transforming the 540 million youth and bringing out their potential, we can transform India into a developed nation. He insists for extending education in the rural areas and to the underprivileged. He has focused on the freedom of children to question and to keep thinking. He focused on the role of students in this crucial era. How, according to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, do the youth of India constitute a resourceful segment of our society? To Read the Summary of "Breeze in the Old Building", Please click the below link >> Summary          Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, a born scientist, was hailed as the missile man of India. He was earnestly proud of I...

Summary           Breeze comes to an isolated house in the outskirts of the city. No one lived there only the gatekeeper who kept a over the house. It was all shut and smelt musty. It seemed the companions of breeze did not want her in. They felt jealous of her as she seemed to be cheerful and happy outside the house. The house was old and had become a home to many birds. Being far from the main road, it seemed forlorn and out of the sight of human beings.  Breeze recalls her happy days. Her comrades rise to meet her but she refused. She was not a welcome in the deserted house, Her conversation with wind told of the pathetic condition of the house. Soon after going around the house she decided to leave. She was scared of the air. The description of the house tells it was once a well kept house. But now the occupants could not allow anyone to enter their privacy. The old occupants have no say in it and have to leave? To Read the Sonnet 25 by William Sha...

Summary        Naveen Munshi, a college dropout was hugely interested in Magic. He once chanced upon a show on Ventriloquism by Akrur Choudhary. Fascinated by this new art form wherein the performer spoke in different voices and that too without the movement of lips, he was determined to learn it from the great maestro himself. But Akrur Babu humiliated and refused him. Angered Naveen learnt and mastered the art on his own. Encouraged by the response he got from his uncle and close friend he decided to do it the professional way. He needed a puppet. Naveen based his puppet's looks on Akrur Babu. The puppet was named Bhutnath or Bhuto for short. He became an instant hit and went on to give several memorable performances. For the History behind 'The World and India in 20th Century', Please click the below link >> Here           Akrur Babu paid him a visit and told him that he had begun to receive cat calls when he had been on sta...

Summary | On Fear           A.G. Gardiner in his essay "On Fear" talks about fear as an essential component of life. There is no person who is without it. Some experience it every moment, some know how to handle it and others just ignore it. It depends in which category one falls. Gardiner has beautifully discussed about fear with a number of examples from the life of a great men. People want to do risky things just to experience what fear is? Sometimes fear makes us act immediately without reasoning. This may be fatal at times. People with practical thinking feel less while people will imaginatively mind fear no more for the mind keeps thinking on it again and again till it become a seeded fear in the mind. Is taking risk always advisable? Explain from Swinburne's experience.    A.G. Gardiner, a British journalist and essayist, wrote a number of essays which are uniformly elegant, graceful and humorous. His uniqueness lay in his ability ...

          "Of course," he said, "she wanted to know why I had done such a thing, and when I told her, she laughed a short sweet laugh, most satisfactory to the younger ear, and said, "Nobody ever thought you were a coward, my boy." I said that was all very well, but how could I tell till I tried? "But you won't do it again? she said. I replied, "Of course not-where would be the fun?" For Summary of the Chapter, Please click the below link >> Summary        It was not that he had no fear: it was that he wanted to convince himself that he was able to master his fear when the emergency came. Having discovered that he had fear under his control there was no sense in taking risks for the mere sake of taking them.           Most fears are purely subjective, the phantoms of a too vivid mind. I was looking over a deserted house situated in large grounds in the country the other day. It had been emptying ...

Summary | Start Where You Stand           The poem ' Start Where you Stand ' is a motivational poem. The poet inspires us to forget the past as it will pose a hindrance in making a new start. He asks people to close that chapter of the book of life and make a new start that will pave the way for a better future. He reiterates the need to stop looking back and to start a fresh from where one is standing now. He assures that if we make a new start and get success the world will not care about our defeats. Time is fast paced and there is much to do, so we need to start acting and not keep brooding over the woes and despairs of the past . The poet encourages by saying that the future for one who does and dares. Failures of the past will not stop but triumphs of the past will help. So he wants everyone to gear up and get into the fight and face it boldly. The past should be left as ancient history, for yesterday is dead and today is alive. He concludes advising ...

  Summary                 Rabindranath Tagore in his poem ‘Clouds and Waves’ has expressed his tribute to a child’s imagination.                A little child is called by the folks in the sky and the waves in the sea to join their play from the dawn of day till the night sets in. The child expresses its his/her inability to reach them up. They ask her to come up to the edge of the earth and they would lift her. She refuses the temptations and goes to her mother. She prefers playing with her mother. She tells her they could play the game of the cloud and moon, and the waves and the strange shore. She seems to be blissfully enjoying her playtime with her mother and refusing the tempting invitation from the clouds and the waves who are strangers. The poem reflects an innocent child’s enjoyment is being with her mother who can be a close ...

Summary           'Elegy' means a mournful poem about death. Thomas Gray's 'Elegy written in a Country Church Yard' is worth nothing because it mourns the death of only commoners and not of great and famous people.                The poet, a city bred visits a village and looks at the rustic scene but is surprised to see the sounds of men and beasts fading away. The scene is beautiful but not joyous. The day ends just like other days.                The poet is alone but not tried. Describing a few things, the poet tries to bring in some vitality into his solitude and the stillness of the scene. With these descriptions, Gray creates the backdrops of his melancholy reflections about eternal truth. For Whole Poem and M.C.Q., please click the below link >> Poem         ...

Summary             I Remember, I Remember is a reflective and emotional poem. It recalls the nostalgic memories of the poet's childhood. The poet reminiscences the joys of his childhood comparing it with the present state of adult pensiveness. He remembers occurrences of joy that he received right from the beginning from his childhood's morning where the sun and other natural objects were kind to him. He recalls the beautiful flowers in their exotic colors that made him happy. The laburnum in the garden, still a living tree, reminds him of his dear brother who is no longer alive to see it growing. He recalls the days of his childhood which were full of happiness and joy and in contrast the present is full of sorrow and unhappiness.           In the next stanza, we find a combination of the past and the present. Then he was all energetic and high in spirit but now he has no energy to even lift his brow. The pool wat...

Summary           In this narrative poem, the poet gives a scary picture of superstition driven India. It carries Ezekiel's stringent of satire against the many maladies that affect Indian society. It also explores the benign love of a mother for the child which itself is a conspicuous feature of Indian-ness.           The poet vividly brings out the emotions experienced when a scorpion bites his mother. The pain, the suffering which the author undergoes after being stung by a scorpion on a rainy day is described here.           A scorpion crawls into the poet's hut on a rainy day and hides under a sack of rice. It bites the mother and quickly moves of the hut. Hearing the agonizing cry of the mother the peasants thronged into the hut and tried various techniques to negate the poisonous effect of the scorpion's bite. For the whole text and M.C.Q. of this Poem, please click the below link below...

Summary           Neither out Far nor in Deep, a short lyric, is a subtle satire on the human nature of neglecting or escaping from the concrete reality before them and obsessively seeking to find the unreal, the unknowable and the inaccessible. Sea symbolizes the theoretical, by turning their back to the land that is a reality, the concrete and the inevitable. The poem is set at a seaside where people go to enjoy the beauty of the vast sea on a holiday and enjoy on the batch. They watch the waters of the sea and sing its praises, completely forgetting the land from where they come.                They look at the ocean, out of wonder, which is the source of truth. The vast ocean and the ships sailing in them deport them to an unknown destination. For Below requirement, please click the given links Neither Out Far Nor In Deep  -  M.C.Q. Neither Out Far Nor In Deep  -...

Summary                Reminiscences of a Parisian Model narrates the journey of a model from an ordinary home loving girl to a super model at the Pierre Cardin. But it also brings out her desire to go beyond her outward journey by trying to discover her inward journey. In spite of having been a model for several years and working for Pierre Cardin in Paris, her love for her country has given her a wider perspective of life. The ups and downs of her life have helped her absorb and learn, share and spread happiness, transcending geography, culture and relationships. She feels fulfilled that she can retain her roots while being open to other systems of knowledge and belief. For the Whole Chapter of "Reminiscences Of A Parisian Model", Please click the below link  >> Text Why is learning important? Learning is very important as it is the door to success in life. In the chapter Reminiscences of a Parisian Model', Anjali Mendes narrat...

Summary | Convocation Address                This is a convocation address by Varghese Kurien, a renowned Indian and social entrepreneur to the students of the South Gujarat University on 16 January, 1988. Mr. Kurien was well aware about the problems of poverty in India so he wanted the future employees of India in any field to deal with the problem faced by Indian people and he also wanted the graduates to solve them. The co-operatives in the field of dairy industry which was launched by Mr. Kurien in Anand of Gujarat had become a successful effort and had made Mr. Kurien quite confident that in other parts of India also such revolution in dairy industry could be brought about.                He was also aware that the traders who traded with the farmers gave very less profit to them and the entire profit went to the private traders. After Kurian's effort of organizing, the dairy industry flourish...

Where Have I Kept The Poem? | Jayant Parmar           'Where Have I Kept The Poem?' is one of the poems of Jayant Parmar written in Urdu. It was translated into English by Baider Bakht. The poem focuses on the fact that poems cannot be created with the help of reference books nor with the help of instructions given by great poets. It cannot be created at a fixed moment of time. It has to spontaneoulsy flow from the depth of the heart which could happen at anytime. It is not necessary that one sits with a paper and pen to pen down a few lines from memory. The poem is written in simple prosaic form and has no rhyme. He just talks about the process of writing a poem. For Below requirement, please click the given Links Where Have I Kept The Poem? - M.C.Q. Where Have I Kept The Poem? - Full Poem           The poem begins with a question that the poet asks for bringing out the poetic effect. He makes a frantic search for his poem eve...

Summary | How Do I Love Thee? How Do I Love Thee is a sonnet that presents the idea of love as powerful and encompassing all. It expresses the poetic persona's passionate feelings for her husband Robert Browning. The poem has a flexible rhyme and a positive language. The poem opens with a rhetorical question. The interrogative mark at the end of the end of the first line makes the poem seem light hearted and playful. For full poem, "How Do I Love Thee?", Please click the below link 'Poem' >> Poem   She tries to count the ways in which she can express her passionate love for her husband. She brings out the quiet intensity of love by saying her love is deeper and broader and higher than where her soul can reach. She then compares love to weighty important concepts like 'Being and ideal grace'. Then she brings out the quiet intensity of love through a domestic picture she paints by sun and candle light. Love is positive and a powerful force that express...

Ozymandias | P.B. Shelley This famous sonnet of P.B. Shelley mocks at the wordily power glory and grandeur of the kings and great men. He tries to bring to light that even the greatest of kings and men in power turn to dust with the passage of time. Pride and arrogance do not last unto posterity. They get wiped out with the ravages of time. The poem talks about the proud and arrogant king Ozymandias who had a huge statue of himself made. But the ravages of time had shattered it and only the lone and level sand of the desert remained. This conveys to us that God's creation is eternal while man's creation gets destroyed with time. For the whole poem 'Ozymandias', Please click the below link 'Poem' >> Poem The poet met a traveller who had just returned from an ancient land. He talked about a broken statue he had seen in the vast desert. Only the two vast legs of stone were left while beside on the ground lay the visage (the face) half sunk in the sand. The fa...

Summary | P. T. Usha : Against All Hurdles 'P. T. Usha : Against All Hurdles' is an article written by Vinod Nair. It was published in the TImes of India. The article tells us in brief about the ups and downs of P. T. Usha and her daunting spirit. P. T. Usha not only won in athletics but also faced the problem of life boldly. She was an extraordinary child in the field of athletics. She never gave up. Born in an ordinary family and 2nd of the six children, P. T. Usha kept falling ill. For Whole Text of "P.T. Usha: Against All Hurdles", please click the below link >> Text She overcame her first competitor in school in class IV. She was told to make a career in athletics by her uncle. After she became a champion of the district, she got admission in G. V. Raja Sports School, Kerala. She topped in the admission test in 1976. After winning many trophies, she was spotted by her coach O. M. Nambiar. She participated in a number of international athletic meets. Apart f...