The Cabuliwallah

The Cabuliwallah

-          Rabindranath Tagore

Literal comprehension:

The cabuliwallah is from Kabul. His real name is Abdur Rahman. He works as a peddler in India. He goes to Kabul once a year to visit his wife and little daughter. In the course of selling goods, once he reaches to the house of writer, Rabindranath Tagore. Then his five years daughter, Mini calls him 'Cabuliwallah! A Cabuliwallah'. When Cabuliwallah goes to visit Mini she is afraid because he is wearing loose solid clothes and a tall turban. He looks gigantic. When the writer knows that Mini is afraid, he introduces her with him. The Cabuliwallah gives her some nuts and raisins. Mini becomes happy from next day, the Cabuliwallah often visits her and he gives her something to eat. They crack looks and laugh and enjoy. They also feel comfortable in the company each other. The writer likes their friendship. But Mini's mother doesn't like it. She thinks that the peddler like Cabuliwallah can be child lifter. However, Mini and the Cabuliwallah becomes intimate friend.

The Cabuliwallah sells seasonal goods. Once he sells a Rampuri shawl to a customer on credit. He asks him for the money many times but he doesn't pay. At last he denies buying the shawl. The Cabuliwallah becomes very angry and stabs the customer. Then he is arrested by police and taken him to the jail. He is jailed for eight years. When he is freed from jail at first he goes to visit Mini surprisingly. It is the wedding day and he isn't allowed to visit her. When he shows the finger of a piece of paper to the writer, he permits to meet Mini who is in wedding dress. The writer knows that the Cabuliwallah has no money to go back to his house so the writer cuts of the wedding expenses like a light and bands and gives one hundred rupees to the Cabuliwallah and sends him to Kabul.

 

Interpretation:

 

The writer may be trying to show the attitude of peoples towards the foreigners and poor peddler. Although the Cabuliwallah is very simple and honest, writer's wife suspects him as a child lifter, also tries to cheat him by not paying his money. The story also shows the plight of the people due to poverty. If the Cabuliwallah had enough money, he would not come to India leaving his wife and daughter in Kabul. The writer seems to shows that temper ruins anyone. If Cabuliwallah didn't stab the costumer, he wouldn't have to go to the jail. This story is also full of feelings of humanity. The writer cuts off the wedding expenses and helps the Cabuliwallah.

 

Critical Thinking:

 

Although this story is full of the feeling of humanity, some ideas of the writer are skeptical. Does a man leave his children freely with a stranger? Does a peddler give things to others children freely every time? Does the Cabuliwallah stab the costumer? Can we find anyone who helps others by cutting off weeding expenses? So, I don't agree with the writer totally.

 

Assimilation:

Before reading this story, I also behaved with the foreigners hatefully. But this story changed my attitude towards them. I know that all the people of the world are brothers and sisters. This story also grew a sense of help in my minds towards poor and needy people. Before reading this story I neglected such people. But the kindness of the writer towards the Cabuliwallah gave me a good lesson. Now I will also devote my life for the service of needy people.

To Know a Fly

Vincent Dethier

Literal Comprehension:

'To Know A Fly' is an essay based on scientific experiment. It has presented the view that every scientific experiment is to be carried out consciously and carefully because any experiment carried randomly may not give appropriate and acceptable result. The experiment always begins with act of faith over reality, cause and effect relationship, discovery by reason, our senses. It continues with an observation and a question. The scientist in fact alters the condition, observes a result and draws a conclusion. Therefore a man willing to conduct an experiment needs to be careful and conscious enough in this concern, since the most commonly committed scientific sin is the lack of proper experimental control.
The text presents one example of carefully carried out experiment and the next the randomly conducted experiment. Once a gentleman by cutting off flea's hind legs draws a conclusion that it hears from the hind legs since it couldn't jump despite his order and he had already tried by amputating other parts of it. Similarly the next man concluded from his experiment that the intoxicating quality lies in glass not in water and even not in other alcoholic substances like bourbon, rum, scotch, rye, and gin and so on since all these substances were mixed with water. This kind of confusing correlation with cause and effect gives rise to fallacy and scientific sin.
Finally, the text presents the extraordinary capacity of fly to test and identify the sweetness in substance. This is the most fruitful experiment conducted through shrewd observation. It extends out its proboscis and tastes the food item to ensure either it is sweet or not. It is too much sensitive. It tastes the food through the proboscis.

Interpretation:

As a piece of scientific writing, the text is trying to present the importance of experiment and alerts that one must be careful and conscious to carry out the experiment. Otherwise, it harms more than it helps. Similarly, presenting an experiment on fly informs the reader that nature has given every creature with own distinct qualities. In this, it is useless to regard human as superior creature in the world.

Critical Thinking:

The text presents the ideas on scientific experiment and its importance. Naturally, one must be conscious and careful but in every experiment such excessive consciousness doesn't work. Since many scientific discoveries are taking suddenly and in random experiments. No scientist works being fixed on his invention.Whatever the discoveries take place, it is sudden and strange.

Assimilation:
As I went through the story, it really impressed me. I used to think that experiment is just to get the conclusion and they are easy. Everything is there and to experiment is to mix the things and observe them carefully. But now I know that to perform experiment needs a lot of care and knowledge. More than that, after reading it, I came to know and accept the fact that nature has equally empowered its creatures with distinct qualities.

How Sane Are We?

Anuradha Chaudhary

Literal Comprehension:

The Essay "How Sane Are We?" by Anuradha Chaudhary is based on environmental problem. Basically, she presents her ideas that human beings have been too much irresponsible and indifferent to the conservation of the environment and she predicts that it will make their life quite difficult. She believes that due to human indifference, rapid urbanization and industrialization, the environment is getting heavily polluted. Mainly she believes that the gases produced from the industry, mishandling the chemicals and the excessive use of CFCs have greatly contributed for the destruction of ozone layer which causes skin cancer, green house effect and other various epidemics. Similarly, people have been greatly suffering from other various natural calamities such as flood but still people don't seem concerned to the direction of its preservation. Finally, she believes that if it continues, it will be impossible to continue life on it.

Interpretation:

The text being a piece of a study of environment centers on the environmental problem. Here, the text asserts the importance of environment on human life and it must be preserved for the sake of continuity of human life. Presenting such ideas, the essayist is appealing to all to preserve the environment.

Critical Thinking:

So far the essay presents the ideas on environmental problems and issues, it is very appreciative in a sense that it warns the people and makes them conscious for the conservation of the environment. But the essayist only concerns on the destruction and only destruction. She completely ignores the positive signs and steps carried out in this concern. As a result she appears to be so partial and full of biasness.

Assimilation:

As I read this story, it has made me draw my attention towards the degraded environment of Kathmandu. Seeing its condition, it is true that we have really been too much indifferent and irresponsible. People here in Katmandu are suffering from various environmental problems, such as air pollution, water pollution, lack of open space and so on. As a result, life's getting too much difficult. Similarly, due to the river pollution, the aquatic life is also much affected. If it continues, there will be too difficult to sustain life in the days to come. So it has compelled me to take some action for its improvement.

SMARTER KIDS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LETTER T AND V

SMARTER KIDS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LETTER T AND V

LITERAL COMPREHENSION

T he essay begins with the basic note that the television is creating a big gap between the parents and the children today.Today children are seen more busy in the television in the home.They rarely interact with their parents.In 1961 , the average child began to watch the television program from the age of 8 . Their are a lot of myth of parents about the children watching television today.TV spoils the eye ,brain .Kids are turned violent and aggressive in their future because of bad television.A survey also proves that watching television makes the children become smarter and in cognitive development.however writer supports the educational programmes .He debunks the myth of watching television.

INTERPRETATION

The writer actually focuses in the cognitive development of the children and the impact of watching the television.Educational programs in the television enhance the child's performance in their studies and makes the children kind ,cooperative and tolerant.He also warns that violent programs hamper the cognitive development of the child. It also hampers the creativity of the child.Although parents are responsible for rearing and caring their child.

CRITICAL THINKING

Watching the television is very good if utilized in a good manner.Many educational fact ,data about the science and technology could be known to children also from television.But the authenticity of these data are questionable and survey may be fowl too sometime.There are both the positive and negative aspect of watching television actually.Those channels which ruined the character and behaviour of the the children must be banned actually.so even writer doesn't seem to be that stiff in his own point that watching television can bring about the cognitive development.


ASSIMILATION

After going through the text , i assimilated that though children watches TV , we must be careful on the nature of program they watch and the duration of the time .So, instead of avoiding child watch television, we should make them watch good educational program for their overall development.

A Sound of Thunder

- Ray Bradbury

Literal comprehension: The story “The Sound of Thunder” is written by Ray Bradbury. In this story, he presents a picture of our environment, and asks his reader to think about our future world. The story has emphasized on eco –balance, and evokes the reader to think about the future.

Mr. Eckels was tempted by a sign put on the wall of a safari company which claimed to take the hunter back to any time in the past and hunt any animal they wished. After paying the charge, he got into the Time Machine which would take him in the past. There were four other men with him .The machine took them sixty million two thousand and fifty five years back in the past. Eckles was surprised to see the beauty of the jungle and was eager to shoot a dinosaur. But he was warned by the safari leader not to shoot any animal without his permission. More that that, there was a path set in the jungle which was floating six inches high above the ground level ,and the path was made of anti-gravity metal . Eckles was reported that he had to be careful not to fall from the path, so that he wouldn’t touch anything in the past .Because killing one ordinary animal in the future .The life of thousands of animals would be threatened if accidently killed an animal .Then Eckles was given the information that dinosaurs he was going to shoot has been marked earlier .The safari leader had marked the dinosaur which would die naturally shortly after. This means that they were shooting the animal with no future. But when the dinosaur came close to him, Eckles couldn’t face it and went to hide himself in the Time Machine .The hunters faught with their life and killed the dinosaur. It was shoot on the spot where it would die naturally few seconds later .Then Eckles was asked to take out the bullet from the dead animal so that no unnatural object left in the jungle in the past era .The dead body was left on the jungle to be disposed of naturally because the life of hundreds of insects depended on the dead body of that dead dinosaur.

Interpretation: The story may be trying to tell us something about the eco-system, eco-balance and trying to criticize the modern world .The modern people have grown selfish, they don’t think about the future. The earth has been polluted because of human activities, and global warming is increasing .By talking the readers millions years back in the past , the writer is probably trying to give the message that killing even a simple animal at the present may have devastating effect in the future.

Critical thinking: The story is beautiful but there are a lot of situation which are not agreeable .It is possible that we go back in the past era with Time Machine? Can anyone face the deadly animal like dinosaur? Does anyone get crazy about killing such animals like dinosaur?

The Cabuliwallah (summary)

-Rabindranath Tagore

A Cabuliwallah named Rahaman reached near the house of the writer. He was a peddler and sold seasonal goods. Mini, the five years old daughter of the writer, saw him. The writer was busy on writing his story. When Mini called him, he came towards her. When Cabuliwallah came towards her house, Mini got afraid and went to her mother. But, the writer called her and introduced with Rahaman to remove her fear from her mind. The Cabuliwallah gave nuts and raisins to her. Then Cabuliwallah became a regular visitor to Mini’s home. They became good friends.

Rahaman sold seasonal goods. Once he had sold a Rampuri sawl to a costumer on credit. But when he went to collect his money, the costumer didn’t give the money. It made Rahaman so angry that he stabbed the costumer with knife. Rahaman was charged for attempting murder and was sent to jail for long time. When he was released from the jail, he directly went to the writer’s house. There was a ceremony in the writer house. Mini was going to get married. At first, the writer didn’t allow him to see her. But Rahaman gave nuts and raisins for her and gave it to the writer. He then took out the hand print of his daughter from his pocket, and declared that he also had a daughter like Mini in his house. Seeing the condition of the Cabuliwallah, the eyes of the writer filled with tears. He called Mini who was in wedding dress, and introduced with Rahaman. Rahaman was surprised to see mini grown up. He remembered his own daughter and expressed the concerns about her. The writer got sentiment, and so, he offered hundred rupees to Rahaman by reducing some of the festivities like bands and electric lights. But the writer got happy to realize, that he was helping father who is going to meet his daughter.      

Arranging Marriage in India

- Serena Nanda

This essay is written by Serena Nanda. She is a professor of Anthropology in a college in New York. In this essay, Nanda describes how marriages are arranged in India.

Arranged marriage is very much popular in India. Even educated and prestigious families choose the process to marry their children. The writer found it very surprising that the bride and the groom hardly get any chance to have a conversation before they get married. Because she thinks that romantic love experience is important before getting married. In India, the parents seek the suitable candidate for their son or daughter. A lot of things are put into consideration such as the person’s appearance, level of education, personality, family background, cultural background, caste, position in the social class, etc. The candidates may get chance to meet each other only if the parents find it suitable. There is no objection from the parents if any candidate finds it objectionable. The process may take a long time.

Serena asked an Indian girl Sita, who was a college girl graduate and whose parents were trying to find suitable boy for her, how she can silently accept the boy who is completely unknown to her. Sita replied that her parents would never ask her to marry a boy with whom she wouldn’t be happy. They can take many things into consideration and would find a right match.

Serena returned to India again six years later. She found many positive aspects of arranged marriages. In America, marriages are soon broken in divorce but the marriages lasted lifetime in India. It was surprising to her. She had arranged many marriages in America, so she thought she would try one in India. One of her friends in India had a son. Though the family had a prestigious background, her son was in a military force. Many families in India would not risk their daughter’s life by giving her hand to a person who is in such a risky job. But then, the boy had left his job and had joined his father’s business.

Serena tried to find a reasonable candidate for him. She learned many things during the process. The mother of the boy asked Serena to consider the height and the color of her son. Serena proposed a girl who had four sisters. But the boy’s family refused it saying that they couldn’t have grand marriage. Serena proposed another girl but again the family found her too educated and so not suitable for their son. Another girl was rejected because of her weight and that she wore glasses. At last, Serena was successful to find a match. It took more than two years for her to find the right match. Then Serena realized why arranged marriages lasted so long in India