Vyga Flowers

Prabhat K. Mukherjee  (1873—1932), a younger contemporary of Rabindranath Tagore, was a popular writer, especially of short stories in Bengali. He was educated in India and in England, but his literary idols, apart from Tagore, were from France: Balzac and Maupassant. He was also known as Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay. The narrator of this story meets this little girl named Alice and has a lot of sympathy for her and her mother. Alice works as a typist and her mother make cakes to sell them on Saturdays. Because the narrator is an Indian, the mother and daughter expect that he might be able to see a distant person in the ring and what is he doing (the art of crystal gazing!). The narrator realizes that this superstition is not only confined in India! The narrator is not able to see anything in the ring but later on in the story when we see that the mother is ill then, the author lies that his brother is okay. After some time the news of the death of the brother comes and the n...

QUEST FOR A THEORY OF EVERYTHING BY Kitty Gail Ferguson Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. At an early age, Hawking showed a passion for science and the sky. At age 21, while studying cosmology at the University of Cambridge, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Despite his physical disabilities, he has done ground-breaking work in physics and cosmology. His several books have helped to make science accessible to everyone. Born to Frank and Isabel Hawking, he had an ordinary childhood. But by the time he was eight he was seriously thinking about becoming a scientist. In 1959, at the age of seventeen, Hawking went to Oxford to study natural science and to specialize in physics. Later he took a Ph.D from Cambridge specializing in theoretical physics. At the age of twenty-one he contracted a rare disease, “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”. It was a terrible disease. There was no known cure for this. In 1965, he got married to Jane .Jane li...

I WILL FLY by Dr. APJ ABDUL KALAM “I Will Fly” is an adapted version of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s speech. Dr. Kalam believes that the ignited mind of the youth is the most powerful resource on the earth, under the earth and above the earth. He inaugurated a programme called “Sasthrayaan” at Paravur in Kerala which means the propagation of science. The mission of Sasthrayaan was to ensure the preparation of about two thousand students from different schools to make them eligible for engineers, scientists, doctors and civil servants. Kalam’s inaugural address was on the topic “Science Empowers the Nation”. After the address, many raised their hands to ask questions. Abdul Kalam shares in this unit the relevance of a question asked by a teenager. The boy expressed his fear to talk to his teachers and friends. He admitted that he had not yet asked any question in his class. The boy really wanted to become a marine engineer. Dr. Kalam was completely surprised. He appreciated the boy for as...

HIS FIRST FLIGHT by LIAM O’ FLAHERTY The short story “His First Flight” by Irish author Liam O’ Flaherty is about a family of seagulls. He narrates vividly how a frightened seagull learns to fly. This story is a metaphorical representation of a human’s need to be independent and confident. This story highlights the importance of independence and self confidence. At the same time it emphasizes the utmost need of living beings to remain involved in family life. Once a young seagull was standing alone on a rock in the sea. He was very much afraid of flying. His parents taught his sister and two brothers how to fly and dive for fish. They tried their level best to teach the young seagull to fly but in vain. One day his parents thought a plan to teach him the art of flying. All the members of the family flew away to another rock and left him alone. They did not give him anything to eat. The young seagull was maddened with hunger. He even tried to walk to the edge of the rock. He stood...

AND THEN GANDHI CAME      Jawaharlal Nehru writes about the timely arrival of Gandhiji to Indian politics in his book “The Discovery of india”. He emphasizes the dynamic leadership of Gandhi. He describes Gandhiji as a beam of light that removed the darkness.  Nehru thus makes the right assessment of Gandhiji. When the First World War came to an end people expected peace, relief and progress. But it brought repressive rule and martial law. People felt that they were being humiliated. Large numbers of people became unemployed. People were in great confusion. They did not know how to free India from poverty and misery. It was at this critical period that Gandhiji came. It was like a powerful current of fresh air. It pierced the darkness that surrounded the people and he taught the lessons of fearlessness and non-violence. Gandhiji was an ordinary man. He was one among us. He exhorted the people to stop their exp...

SUNRISE ON THE HILLS – BY H W LONGFELLOW A reading of the poem “SUNRISE ON THE HILLS” by H W Longfellow makes one feel like drawing parallels from the Romantic poetry which is rich with mellifluousness and sensuousness. This is a poem of nature; senses. The poem bears testimony to Longfellow’s Romantic fervour and mysticism The poem starts with the grand glorious return of the Sun after a period of absence (night). The poet sings of the nature’s delightfulness in receiving the first rays of the sun. This can be felt in every element and activity of nature, – the woods, gales, vales, clouds, landscapes, etc. The lifting of the clouds unveils the beauty of nature. The day hasn’t passed its maidenhood. She (the Nature) is still young and fresh with her “mellow blush”. The whole poem is resonant with sounds untellingly telling about the progressing daytime. As for figures of speech, there is the use of Simile in the first stanza, where one sees shattered, fading clouds compared t...

DEATH THE LEVELLER BY JAMES SHIRLEY: AN APPRECIATION “Death the Leveller” is a powerful poem by James Shirley which reminds us that death is a force that haunts all human beings. It is also treated as a funeral song. It says that death is a great  leveler.The  high and the low, the mighty and the meek, the rich and the poor are all equal before death. This is a very common idea, but Shirley gives depth and vividness to this common truth. Human glory will not last long. All success and victory are mere shadows, not substantial things. When death catches hold of someone with icy hands the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak must yield. We have no weapon to fight against this almighty fate. The poet discusses the concept of artificial success and victory. In the last stanza, the poem ends with the idea that only our good deeds will be remembered for ever. We can simply boast of our mighty deeds but they don’t have permanency. The scepter and the crown are symbols o...