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 Notes elective English 202
Unit 1: The Linguist by Geetashree Chatterjee
Answer : Introduction
Geetashree Chatterjee is an upcoming writer and her stories have not gained popularity but this
is the reason for including her work in this curriculum. Chatterjee is a short story writer who
writes down her feelings without any qualms, which make them, heart rendering. Apart from
writing short stories, Chatterjee writes reviews, blogs, commentaries and poems. Her blogs
Panaecea and Speak Your Heart Out are storehouse of her works. She has also written stories
like
Maamone and Illusion.
This unit talks about a short story The Linguist and let the readers explore the world of two
college friends and their bond of friendship

1.1 About the Author

Geetashree Chatterjee was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, brought up in Delhi, is a graduate
from Delhi University. She also holds a Diploma in Personnel Management & Industrial
Relations.
She has worked with the Petroleum & Natural Gas Sector for 22 years (including 13 years in
HR).
She loves listening to Hindustani Classical Music, now; she is an avid listener of music. She is
also fond of other art forms such as painting, sculpting or dancing.
She is not exactly a passionate reader; however, particular topics and subjects might compel her
to read. Like reading, writing was never on her mind. It was not even a hobby or least a passion.
However, it suddenly happened to her. She just began to express her feelings and experiences on
paper. Though she has always been intrigued by the beauty of language – be it English, Bengali
(her mother tongue) or Hindi, writing was not on the cards. However, it began probably as a
sort of replacement therapy for music.

1.2 The Linguist – Summary

The story is about two friends, their friendship, jealousy, freedom and happiness. Nalini and the
narrator are good friends and share common interest for literature. When the narrator is told
that Nalini is getting married to a linguist professor living in abroad, she was jealous. Soon that
day came when Nalini left the country to live with her intellectual husband abroad. Here the
narrator got busy with her job and several years passed. One day both friends meet at a get
together and the narrator becomes aware of Nalini’s troubled married life. The narrator is quite
amused to know that Nalini had to deal with the high expectations of being a linguist’s wife. She
realised may be Nalini’s life was not all rosy abroad. However, the story ends when the friends
meet accidently in CP, Delhi.
Notes The intrinsic theme of the story is driving pleasure out of the misfortune of others.
This character trait is present in almost every individual and spares no one. However, any
individual characterising this trait cannot help but feel guilty afterwards.
Unit 2: A Dream within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Answer : Introduction
Almost all the writers use some sort of inspiration to write their work, but what is their source
of inspiration? Most of the people usually think that ideas or inspirations come to writers
naturally. However, the fact is that writers have to get inspired or get ideas from somewhere.
One of the most common inspirations for writers is their personal experiences and thoughts.
Edgar Allan Poe, his writings took inspiration from his tragic life, his dysfunctional brain and
the time he lived in. Poe was affected immensely by his tragic life.
The poem A Dream within a Dream is one of the many masterpieces written by the acclaimed
writer. In the poem, the poet is explaining the situation of bidding farewell to his love. It seems
that his love is going away from him and he does not want her to go away. This unit is designed
to make you aware about the times and life of Poe and his works. His one
of the most famous poems, A Dream within a Dream is elaborately explained with critical
analysis.
2.1 About the Poet
Edgar Allan Poe was a brilliant American poet, journalist, short story writer and literary critic.
In his lifetime, he had the distinction of being one of the first American writers with more
cultural cache in Europe than in the United States. The writing of Poe has inspired various
thinkers and writers including H. P. Lovecraft, Jules Verne and Charles Baudelaire. He is also a
contributed in the development of the literary genres of mystery and science fiction. The
collection
of his writing is diverse and includes classics such as The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of
Nantucket, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Purloined Letter to name a few.
Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 19 January 1809. His father and mother were
around the
same time when he was born and after a few years, his mother passed away. According to
Leonard Unger, “Poe’s mother’s death shaped his life (Unger 1079).” Poe was taken in by John
professional actors and members of a repertory company in Boston. Poe’s father left
and Frances Allan. The couple gave him a respectable upbringing but never officially adopted
him. This was why Poe felt like an outcast. Due to all this, he suffered from depression, which
made his writings very beautiful.

Beautiful Summary of “A Dream

Within A Dream”
The poet (Edgar Allen Poe) is describing the situation of bidding farewell to his love. It
seems that his love is going away from him and he does not want her to go away. The
entire poem and his set of feelings are described in two different but related stanzas.
In the first stanza, the lover is bidding the final farewell to his love by the sweet gesture
of a final kiss and parts from her. It seems that the decision to end the relationship and
to part away was taken by his lover, who did it very confidently and bluntly.
The poet is deeply sad but still, takes the blame on him by saying that it is not your fault
and he may be day dreaming about the love which he, now feels was never his. He now
feels that somehow the love has flown away. He feels that this end of the relationship
had happened all of a sudden, like over night or just within a day. He does not even
remember when and how it really happened. He could not even visualize when and how
his love went away from him.

Now when his love has gone away from him, he feels as if it was a dream. Not just a
dream but a dream within a dream. This means that he was daydreaming and now this
dream of day dreaming has also been broken.

Now in the second stanza, the poet is standing at the shore of the sea with sand grains
in his hands. He wants to hold this sand. This sand symbolizes time. Just like he wanted
to hold the time when his love was with him, he wants to hold it, but it is not really
possible. Time does not stop for anyone and nothing is permanent. Just like he cannot
stop the sand from falling from his hands, he could not stop the love of her life.

The poet very beautifully highlights the nature of the sand to be like his love. Both the
sand and love is golden, which symbolizes the essence of beauty. He is, moreover,
scared of the big wave which is washing away the falling sand. He uses the metaphor
pitiless for this wave since it is taking away from him, something which is very much
dear to him. The poet is weeping in tandem as every grain of the lovely sand, which he
wants to hold so dearly, is flowing away and getting washed by the water of the beach.

He regrets this passage of time, and understands that nothing is permanent. With the
passage of time, things change and so are relationships. No matter how dearly you
want to hold back the love of your life, still it is not in your hands. You cannot stop them
from going away from you. It is just the dream which you saw to live with them is left
with you, which gives pain in your heart now. All what happened with him has become a
dream, and he seems that all what had happened that is the golden time of his love
when they were together and now the end of that golden time with the parting of his
love, all has come like a dream.
Unit 3: Chitra by Rabindranath Tagore

Answer: Introduction
Humanitarian, writer and poet, Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to be bestowed the
Nobel Prize for Literature. He also played a major role in the revival of the modern India.
Tagore is most commonly known for his poetry, but he has written articles, plays, novels and
short stories. He took a keen interest in a widespread range of artistic, cultural and social
endeavours. He has been described as one of the first 20th century’s global man.
“So I repeat we never can have a true view of man unless we have a love for him. Civilisation
must be judged and prized, not by the amount of power it has developed, but by how much it has
evolved and given expression to, by its laws and institutions, the love of humanity Tagore’s
involvement and literary work challenged the contradictions of an unfair and unequal
world system and developed a new understanding of the society and the world in order to found
a concrete and universal humanism. The writings and paths of Tagore is a reflection at the
highest level of the interrelationship between the universal and the particular in understanding
the complicated procedures of modernity.
In this unit, you will learn all about Tagore, his life and works in diverse fields. How his
writings brought cultural as well as literary changes in the society and how he influenced
literature and people. You will also learn in detail about his play Chitra and will be able to
understand it.

3.1 About the Author

Rabindranath Tagore. the youngest of thirteen surviving children was born in the Jorasanko
mansion in Calcutta, India to Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) and Sarada Devi (1830–1875).
The Tagore family came into prominence during the Bengal Renaissance that began during the
age of Hussein Shah (1493–1519). The original name of the Tagore family was Banerjee,
however,
being Brahmins, their ancestors were called ‘Thakurmashai’ or ‘Holy Sir’. During the British
rule, this name stuck and they began to be known as Thakur and in due course the family name
got anglicised to Tagore. Tagore family patriarchs were the Brahmo organisers of the Adi
Dharm faith. The loyalist Prince Dwarkanath Tagore was his paternal grandfather. He employed
European estate managers and visited with Victoria and other royalty. Debendranath had framed
the Brahmoist philosophies adopted by his friend Ram Mohan Roy, and became pivotal in
Brahmo society after Roy’s demiseDid u know? Rabindranath Tagore is best known for being
the first non-European to be
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
Unit 4: Ode to the West Wind by P B Shelley

Answer: Introduction
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was an ostensible romantic poet, who taught the English
literature with his original and impeccable works. His immaculate writings are example of his
greatness and mastery in writing poetry. Therefore, his works reflected an great rejection for
oppression and injustice in the society with the help of his revolutionary forms. Thus, he is
“grown up with violently revolutionary ideas, which contrasted with those of his fathers.”
Shelley’s realisation of life was very mature since his early years of schooling. From a young
age, he was in a favour of justice and human rights. Therefore, he “saw the petty tyranny of
school masters and schoolmate as representative of man’s general inhumanity to man, and
dedicated his life to a war against all injustice and oppression.” Shelley was deeply concerned
with the imaginative aptitude purporting to the desired facet Notes
ever sought insistently by active minds. He believed that “the moral customs of a particular era
are the result of imaginative vision of great men, and he discovers the ideal aspect of other
people, which are no already embodied in existing moral codes.”
Ode to the West Wind is one of Shelley’s best known works in which the poet explains distinctly
the activities of the west wind on the earth, on the sea and in the sky. Then the poet conveys his
jealousy for the unlimited freedom of the west wind, his aspiration to be free like the wind and
to spread his words among humanity. In the unit, you will learn about the life and works of
P B Shelley, his major themes, motifs, symbols and analysis.

4.1 About the Author

Shelley declined to accept life as it is lived and attempted to persuade others of the lack of any
requirement for doing so. He believed that life would be wonderful and an experience directed
by love, “if tyranny, cruelty and the corruption of man by man through jealousy and the exercise
of power are removed.” Shelley implored the people to release their potential power that could
change their standing in life, so he calls upon them to: their tragically short lives

Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 near Horsham, Sussex, into a wealthy family that ultimately
achieved minor noble rank—the poet’s grandfather, a wealthy businessman, received a baronetcy
in 1806. Shelley’s father, Timothy Shelley was a country gentleman and a Member of
Parliament.
When Shelley was 12, his parents enrolled him into Eton, a prominent school for boys.
At school, he discovered the writings of a philosopher William Godwin. Shelley devoted plenty
of time in reading his works and became an ardent believer. The young man enthusiastically
embraced the principles of equality and liberty promoted by the French Revolution. He also
dedicated his great passion and convincing power in persuading others of the appropriateness
of his beliefs. He enrolled at Oxford in 1810 but was expelled the following spring for taking
part in authoring a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism as atheism was considered an
outrageous idea in religiously traditional 19th century England

4.5 Summary of the Poem

The speaker prays to the “Wild West Wind” of autumn, which scatters the dead leaves and
spreads seeds so that they can be nurtured by the spring. He also calls out to the wind as
“destroyer and preserver,” and asks it to hear him. The speaker calls the wind the “dirge/Of the
dying year,” and explains how it stirs up violent storms, and again begs it to hear him. The
speaker states that the wind moves the Mediterranean from “his summer dreams,” and cleaves
the Atlantic into uneven craters, making the “sapless foliage” of the ocean shudder, and asks for
a third times that it hear him.
The speaker says that if he were a dead leaf that the wind could bear, a cloud it could carry, or a
wave it could push, or even if he were, as a boy, “the comrade” of the wind is “wandering over
heaven,” then he would never have needed to pray to the wind and invoke its powers. He pleads
with the wind to lift him “as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!”—for though he is like the wind at heart,
untameable and proud—he is now chained and bowed with the weight of his hours upon the
earth.
The speaker asks the wind to “make me thy lyre,” to be his own Spirit, and to drive his thoughts
across the universe, “like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth.” He asks the wind, by the
incantation of this verse, to scatter his words among mankind, to be the “trumpet of a prophecy.”
Speaking both about the season and about the effect upon mankind that he hopes his words to
have, the speaker asks, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”

4.2.3 Symbols
Mont Blanc
For Shelley, Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain peak in the Alps, signifies the
everlasting
power of nature. Mont Blanc has been in existence forever, and will last eternally, an idea that
the poet explores in Mont Blanc. The mountain fills the poet with motivation, but its coldness
and
unreachability are frightening. Eventually, Shelley ponders if the mountain’s power might be
futile, an invention of the more dominant human imagination.
The West Wind
Shelley uses the West Wind to represent the power of nature and of the source of imagination.
Unlike Mont Blanc, the West Wind is depicted as dynamic and active in poems like Ode to the
West Wind. While Mont Blanc is immovable, the West Wind is an agent for change. Even as it
destroys, the wind supports new life on earth and social development among humanity.
The Statue of Ozymandias
In Shelley’s work, the statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, or Ozymandias,
represents
political oppression. In Ozymandias, (1817) the statue is broken into pieces and abandoned in an
empty desert, which suggests that tyranny is temporary and that no political leader, especially
an unfair one, can expect to have lasting power. The broken monument also signifies the
deterioration of civilization and culture. The statue is, after all, a piece of art made by a creator,
which along with its creator have been destroyed, similar to all living things.
Unit 5: The Vendor of Sweets by R K Narayan

Answer: Introduction
R K Narayan’s art is a triumph of ironic transcendence. His irony is a rich compound of
extensive
humour and sympathy, gentle contempt and amiable mockery. The method is ‘to mock at the
thing dearest to one’s heart,’ and, of course, irony is always compatible with the most intense
feelings. In irony, there is no scope either for the arid realms of dreary non-sentimental thinking
or for a lavish and hysterical sentimentality. Delicate irony is a measure of detached observation
and it light up the character of a person while exposing his weaknesses. It stimulates love in us
for the person whom the author intends to be loved and here R K Narayan succeeds
marvellously.

An outstanding gift of R K Narayan as a writer is his capacity to affect, as it were, a comedic

Notes
catharsis. The cathartic happiness so urgently needed in these days of arid cackle of dry-bones of
humour bitter, disillusioned or cynical. In R K Narayan, we have laughter intensely happy, not
in the least tainted by cynicism and never by bitterness. There is pure sentiment and good
humour corrected from cheap sentimentality by detached and loving irony. The result is pure
aesthetic delight, happiness and peace.

5.1 About the Author

R K Narayan was born in Madras (now Chennai), Madras Presidency, British India. His father
was a school headmaster, and Narayan did some of his studies at his father’s school. As his
father’s job entailed frequent transfers, Narayan spent part of his childhood under the care of his
maternal grandmother, Parvati. During this time, his best friends and playmates were a peacock
and a mischievous monkey. Kunjappa is the name given to R K Narayan by his grandmother
Parvathi.
His grandmother taught him arithmetic, mythology, classical Indian music and Sanskrit.
According to his youngest brother R K Laxman, the family mostly conversed in English, and
grammatical errors on the part of Narayan and his siblings were frowned upon. While living
with his grandmother, Narayan studied at a succession of schools in Madras, including the
Lutheran Mission School in Purasawalkam, C.R.C. High School, and the Christian College High
School. Narayan was an avid reader, and his early literary diet included Dickens, Wodehouse,
Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy. When he was twelve years old, Narayan participated
in a pro-independence march, for which his uncle reprimanded him; the family was apolitical
and considered all governments wicked.

5.2 Summary of the Story

R.K Narayan’s The Vendor of Sweets (1967) like his other books is composed in simple, lucid
English that can be read and understood without turning and returning the pages after a single
read. The compositional language is no doubt, plain – to such an extent that even a young school
child’s vocabulary will be able to comprehend the sense of the tale. Nevertheless, the message
that is being sent to the readers is delivered in the best possible manner.
Jagan, a college-educated man in the late fifties has made a success of his sweet shop. However,
he grew quite rich as a sweet-vendor, his main interest and concern was his only son, Mali.
Mali’s mother died of brain tumour several years back. The barrier between the father and the
son came into being the day the mother died. It might be that Mali, a little bewildered and
dismayed, felt obscurely that in some way his father was responsible for his mother’s death.
Jagan was an advocate of nature cure. Jagan’s love both for his wife and his son was deep and
unwavering. The tragedy is that when he lost his wife, he lost also any affection that his son
might have had for him. Jagan’s love for the son was so much that he hastened home from his
shop in the evenings thinking that the boy would be lonely.

However, Mali did not rise to his expectations and he preferred to be alone and detached. It led
to a total estrangement between the two. Even after having lived twenty years with his son,
Jagan knew very little about him. Jagan was very proud of his son but he had no control over
him. Mali gave up his studies and went to America. Mali’s letters from America only added
Jagan’s worries. Jagan could not think of his son eating beef. He was a true Gandhian and a
vegetarian. During India’s freedom struggle, he had been arrested for hoisting Indian flag. He
lived a very simple life. He ate food cooked by his own hands. He never used sugar or salt since
he believed that they were detrimental to health. As recommended by Gandhi he spun on his
charka and used clothes made of khaddar. Jagan could not use toothbrush, as he feared that its
bristles were made of pig’s tails. The Bhagawad Gita was always in his hand and he read it
whenever he was free. Thus, Jagan was a model of traditional Indian values whereas his son was
the other extreme, a representative of modern Western values. Spirituality in him gave way to
materialism. After three years of education in America, Mali returned home accompanied by a
Korean-American girl name Grace.
When Mali announced to Jagan that the girl was his wife, Jagan was shocked. Still he loved
them,
gave due respect and allowed them to stay in his house. He accepted Grace as his daughter-in-
law.
She also behaved admirable towards him. Soon cracks developed not only between Jagan and
Mali but also between Mali and Grace. Jagan was unwilling to finance a huge amount of money
for Mali’s establishment of story-writing machine. It was too much for Jagan when Grace
announced to him that Mali and Grace had been living together without being married.
Moreover,
Mali was not even willing to marry her. The ever-growing tension in father-son relationship
reached its climax when Mali was caught red-handed for breaking the prohibition laws. Then
there came in Jagan’s life the moment of self-realisation and of decision. He managed to break
away from Mali and his scheming and vicious world, which he could not approve. He escaped
from the chains of paternal love. Jagan abandoned the world and retired into a life of spiritual
devotion. He was altogether unaffected to hear that Mali was in jail as the police had caught him
with liquor in his car. He thought that a period of jail might be good for the young man. Jagan
then asks his cousin to make sure that Mali stays in prison for some time, so that he can Notes
learn his mistakes. Jagan also gives some amount of money to the cousin so that he can buy a
plane ticket to Grace so she can go back to her hometown

5.4 Main Themes

It is possible to read The Vendor of Sweets as a merely amusing story, which depends for its
comedy on the improbable and fantastic. However, there is much more in it than is apparent on
the surface. While it seems to tell the amusing story of an eccentric and obscurantist father and
his upstart son, and the game of hide and seek they play with each other, in fact it is built on a
few
inter-related themes of which the most readily obvious is the father-son motif. The others are
youth versus age, the generation gap, tradition versus modernity, East versus West, and search
or quest. The quest motif is the most meaningful in the novel and encompasses all the others.
Jagan the protagonist of the novel, by virtue of the circumstances of his life, engaged himself in
different kinds of search. However, he is not a deliberate and self-conscious quester, nor is he
capable of sophisticated intellectual inquiry. What is more, he is hardly aware of some of the
searches he is involved in.
Identity and Self-renewal
In The Vendor of Sweets, once again the theme is man’s quest for identity and self-renewal.
The protagonist Jagan is a sweet-vendor by profession, follower of the Gita in thinking and
talker of Gandian principles but he indulges in double-dealing in matters of money, and also
cheats sales-tax authorities. He comes to realize that money is evil when his son, Mali, comes
back to India with a Korean girl, Grace and asks for money for his business. Jagan finds new life
or a new birth in his retirement, when he surrenders his business to his cousin. His fragile
Gandhian self-regard collapses before his much-loved son’s strange actions; and after Mali ends
up disastrously in prison as a result of driving drunk around Malgudi, Jagan has no option but
a Hindu-style renunciation of the world, bewilderment and retreat to a simpler life. Nevertheless,
even here his ideal of Sanyasa is spurious as he still holds the purse string.
East-West
East-West conflict is the major theme of the novel. It is the conflict between a genuine Indian or
Eastern father and his Western-bred son. The relationship between Jagan and his son Mali might
be read as the clash between Eastern and Western cultures. As characters, Jagan and Mali are
contrasted in many ways: while Jagan keeps a strict, religiously founded diet, Mali has begun
eating beef and drinking alcohol after his stay in America. While Jagan prefers to walk
everywhere,
Mali insists on getting a car. While Jagan’s labour is manual, he is a vendor of sweets, Mali want
to go into industrial business.

Generation Gap
The conflict between the old and young generation, their ideals and the generation gap makes
‘Vendor of Sweets’ a memorable story. As one opposing British rule in his youth, and sticking to
those ideals as a grown man, Jagan Notes
fails to see that his son does not share those same ideals. It is not apparent whose fault it is that
Mali does not want to follow his father, his own or Jagan’s.
Unit 6: How Much Land Does a Man Need Notes
by Leo Tolstoy

answer: Introduction
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian author best known for his novels War and Peace (1869)
and Anna Karenina (1877) which is considered the greatest novels of realist fiction. Many also
regard Tolstoy as world’s best novelist. In addition to writing novels, Tolstoy also authored
short stories, essays and plays. In addition, a moral thinker and a social reformer, Tolstoy held
severe moralistic views. In later life, he became a fervent Christian anarchist and anarchopacifist.
His non-violent resistance approach towards life has been expressed in his works such
as The Kingdom of God is within You, which is known to have a profound effect on important
20th century figures, particularly, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi.
Tolstoy first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s for his Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based on his
experiences in the Crimean War, and followed by the publication of a semi-autobiographical
trilogy of novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1855-1858). His fiction output also includes
two additional novels, dozens of short stories, and several famous novellas, including
The Death of Ivan Ilych, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. Later in life, he also wrote plays

and essays. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his
extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual
awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social
reformer.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount,
caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas
on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were
to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, Jr.

6.1 About the Author

Leo Nikolaivich Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 to Princess Marie Volkonsky and Count
Nicolas Tolstoy. Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, the Volkonsky manor house on the road
to Kieff in Russia. It was here that he was to spend the majority of his adult life. Leo was the
fourth and last son of the family; they also had one daughter. Tolstoy’s mother died when he was
18 months old, an event that would forever affect his feelings about women and motherhood.
His father died when Tolstoy was nine years old, and the children grew up with a variety of
aunts. According to Tolstoy, one of those aunts, Tatiana Yergolsky, “had the greatest influence
on [his] life” because she taught him “the moral joy of love.”

6.6 How Much Land Does a Man Needs – Summary

The protagonist of the story is a peasant named Pakhom, whose wife at the beginning can be
heard complaining that they do not own enough land to satisfy them. He is a man of humble
means who lives a decent life. However, after his sister-in-law has bragged that city folk have a
much better life than country peasants do, Pahom bemoans the fact that he does not own land.
He states, “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” Little does he know that
the
Devil is sitting close by and listening?
The Devil says, “All right! We shall see about that. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of
that land I will get you into my power.”
Shortly thereafter, Pahóm manages to buy some land from a woman in his village. He works
hard, makes a profit and is able to pay off his debts and live a more comfortable life. However,
he is not satisfied and, after a peasant told him about the opportunity to own more land, he
moves to a larger area of land... Pahóm grows more crops and amasses a small fortune, but it is
still not content. Now another character tells him of another opportunity to own more land.
Pahóm hears (from a tradesman) about the Bashkirs, a simple people who own a huge amount
of land deep in Central Asia. After a long trek, Pahóm meets the Bashkirs on the vast steppe. He
is prepared to negotiate a price for as much land as possible, but before he can do so, the
Bashkirs
make him a very unusual offer, the same one that they make to anyone who wishes to buy land
from them. For one thousand rubles (a large sum in those days), Pahóm can buy as much land as
he can walk Notes
around in one day. He has to start at daybreak and mark his route with a shovel at key points
along the way. As long as he returns to the starting point before sunset, the land that he has
marked off will be his. If he fails to return on time, he will lose his money and receive no land.
He is delighted, as he believes that he can cover a great distance and has chanced upon the
bargain of a lifetime.
Pahóm is certain that he can cover a great distance and that he will have more land than he could
have ever imagined. That night, Pahóm has a surreal foreboding dream in which he sees himself
lying dead at the feet of the Devil (who changes appearances – peasant, tradesman, chief of the
Baskirs), who is laughing.
The next day, with the Bashkirs watching from the starting point, Pahóm sets off at a good pace
as soon as the sun crests the horizon. He covers a lot of ground, marking his way as he goes.
At various points, he begins to think that he should change direction and work his way back, but
he is constantly tempted by the thought of adding just a bit more land. The day wears on and, as
the sun begins to set, Pahóm discovers that he is still far from the starting point. Realizing that
he has been too greedy and taken too much land, he runs back as fast as he can to where the
Bashkirs are waiting. He arrives at the starting point just in time just before the sun sets.
However,
as the Bashkirs cheer his good fortune, Pahóm drops dead from exhaustion. His servant buries
him in an ordinary grave only six feet long, thus ironically answering the question posed in the
title of the story.
Unit 7: The Agony of Win by Malavika Roy Singh

Answer: Introduction
You will read the short story The Agony of Win by Malavika Roy Singh in this unit. Singh is a
short story writer who has written a couple of short stories, several of which have been published
online.

7.1 About the Author

Malavika Roy Singh was a financial analyst before taking up writing full time. She left her
corporate job to fulfil her great desire for writing. An avid reader, Singh is fond of reading
science fiction, thrillers, fantasy and fiction. Her passionate desire to read fuelled the longing for
writing in her.
Singh lives in Noida, India and spend most of her time in reading, writing and cooking. She is
a great short story writer and indulges in writing for blogs and magazines.
Did u know? Miracle at House No 3 is Malavika Roy Singh first attempt with writing a
fantasy novel.

7.2 The Agony of Win – Summary

The Agony of Win is a simple short story about a woman who falls for her sister’s husband, Sunil.
She goes on to have an alleged affair with Sunil, which both of them tries to keep under wraps.
However, Amrita is aware that she is not doing the right thing but is completely smitten by the
Notes
charms of her brother-in-law. Without thinking of the consequences, she comes closer to Sunil,
betraying her twin sister and family. What happens to her clandestine relationship is the crux of
the story.

7.4 Analysis
If you know you are doing something wrong then you should be prepared for the consequences.
That is what happened with Amrita. Another latent theme of the story is that not anybody
should sacrifice his or her self-respect and self-esteem for anything in the world. People should
also not let others hurt their self-respect and self-confidence.
When Amrita realised the true nature of Sunil, she decided to end things. This throws the light
on the fact that you are responsible for your actions. If the other person is doing a wrong thing,
it is his responsibility and not yours. However, in this case, both Amrita and Sunil did the wrong
thing. Sunil’s selfish nature is clearly depicted in the scene in which he proclaims that he is a
married man with a family to take care of. His denial in lending a helping hand to Amrita and
later calling her to sort out things is the final blow to their clandestine relationship.
A person is responsible for his or her own happiness, if you depend on others to make you
happy, you are probably in for a big surprise. Also, do what you think is right and appropriate for
you and what will make you happy. However, your happiness should not become the cause
of someone else’s misery.
Unit 8: Love Lives beyond the Tomb by John Clare

Answer: Introduction
John Clare was an English poet, the son of a farm labourer, who came to be known for his
celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His
poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered
to be among the most important 19th century poets. His biographer Jonathan Bate states that
Clare was “the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever
written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self”.
Though Clare had limited access to books, his poetic gift, which revealed itself early, was Notes
nourished by his parents’ store of folk ballads. Clare was an energetic autodidact, and his first
verses were much influenced by the Scottish poet James Thomson. Early disappointment in
love—for Mary Joyce, the daughter of a prosperous farmer—made a lasting impression on him
and served as a source of inspiration.
Clare, who grew up in a household with a father who could barely read and a mother who was
illiterate, was a powerful user of the English language but one who was never comfortable with
its grammatical conventions. In a modern society increasingly comfortable with spoken poetry
rather than words on a printed page, Clare’s work seemed newly significant. Public fascination
likewise resulted from the fact that Clare was institutionalized in an asylum in later years.
The precise nature of his illness is elusive, his madness seems at least to have begun with his
realization that he was at fundamental odds with the artistic culture in which he worked, and
that life, as a result, was beginning to twist its way around him.
Unit 9: The Traveller's Story of a Terribly Strange Bed
by Wilkie Collins

answer: Introduction
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824–23 September 1889) was an English novelist,
playwright,
and author of short stories. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone,
Armadale and No Name.
A skilful manipulator of intricate plots, Collins is remembered as a principal founder of English
detective fiction. Critics, although as popular in Collins’s day as the works of such Victorian
luminaries as Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Thackeray, frequently dismissed
his novels of intrigue and suspense, as sensationalist fiction. By the 20th century, Collins began
to receive recognition for his innovations in the detective genre, for his unconventional
representation of female characters, and for his emphasis on careful plotting and revision, Notes
a practice that foreshadowed modern methods.
After Dark is Wilkie Collins’s first collection of six short stories, published in 1856. Collins
provides a narrative framework, ‘Leaves from Leah’s Diary’, set in 1827. Leah Kerby’s husband,
William, is a poor travelling portrait-painter forced to abandon his profession for six months in
order to save his sight. Leah realises that if she acts as amanuensis William can support them by
turning author. This situation may have been prompted by a period of eye-trouble suffered by
Collins’s father. In the preface to After Dark, Collins also acknowledges the painter W.S.
Herrick
as his source for the facts on which ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ and ‘The Yellow Mask’ are based.

9.7 The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed – Summary

‘The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed’ was originally published on 24 April 1852 as
Collins’s first contribution to Household Words.
Faulkner, the narrator, tells how as a young man he visited a low class-gambling house in Paris.
After breaking the bank, he accepts accommodation rather than risk taking his large winnings
home late at night. The canopy of the four-poster bed is attached to a screw by which it can be
lowered from the room above to suffocate unsuspecting victims. Unable to sleep, Faulkner
discovers the danger, escaping to return with the police.
Did u know? Greville Phillimore (1881) used the same plot in Uncle Z: and for ‘The Inn of
the Two Witches’ (1913), a tale by Joseph Conrad who claimed never to have read Collins’s
story.
Unit 10: Beggarly Heart by Rabindranath Tagore Notes
Answer: Introduction : _ Rabindranath Thakur, anglicised to Tagore sobriquet Gurudev, was a
Bengali polymath
who reshaped his region’s literature and music.
_ Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic
strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political
and personal.
_ Tagore was a prolific composer with 2,230 songs to his credit. His songs are known as
rabindrasangit (“Tagore Song”), which merges fluidly into his literature, most of which—
poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—were lyricised.
_ Tagore influenced sitar maestro Vilayat Khan and sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and
Amjad Ali Khan.
_ Rabindranath Thakur, anglicised to Tagore sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath
who reshaped his region’s literature and music.
_ Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic
strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political
and personal.
_ Tagore was a prolific composer with 2,230 songs to his credit. His songs are known as
rabindrasangit (“Tagore Song”), which merges fluidly into his literature, most of which—
poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—were lyricised.
_ Tagore influenced sitar maestro Vilayat Khan and sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and
Amjad Ali Khan.
10.11.1 Summary of the Poem
The poet writes that when the grace from the world and life of the human is lost, he urges the
Lord of Peace to fill himself and the world with his eternal peace, which will make everyone’s
life a harmonious one indeed. Tagore gave all through his life, through his paradisiacal
imagination that envisioned a world of love, equality, honesty bravery, and spiritual unity of
all the mankind. He sees the present humanity is infected with the greed, wealth and power and
further leaves it to those who do evil to turn away from evil doings and horrific moral slumber.
Tagore prayers for India and in turn he prays for the whole Humanity to experience the true
peace and harmony in life by giving up evil and taking up good deeds. The Poet longs for
deliverance from the evil deeds and wants to enjoy freedom in reality.
10.11.2 Critical Analysis
Beggarly Heart is a part of Tagore’s masterpiece Gitanjali. His love for humanity by enforcing
the
values of humanity such as peace and harmony overall. Tagore’s poetry Gitanjali reflects his
desperate efforts to see the world to live in peace and harmony in reality. He strives hard and
hard to foster the values of humanity and bring the happiness in the land by encouraging the
masses to love one another, live in peace and lead a harmonious life full of contentment.
Tagore’s goal is to channelize the streams of nationalism to the direction of universalism by
freeing human soul from all bondage and pettiness of the world and thereby transcending itself
into a search for universal love and brotherhood that the Lord provides to the mankind.
Tagore chants this little prayer from his heart especially for those who are spiritually challenged
and waits with great expectation for a benefitting and satisfying answer from God. When the
heart is hard and parched up, make or become dry through intense heat: extremely thirsty, come
upon Him with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song.
When
tumultuous; very loud or uproarious: excited, confused, or disorderly; work raises its din; aloud,
unpleasant, and prolonged noise: (din something into) instil information into (someone)
by constant repetition: make a din; on all sides shutting him out from beyond, come to him, his
lord of silence, with his peace and rest. Before answering anybody’s prayer God keeps His
silence for reasons unknown. Then at the moment that we least expect, things start moving in a
mighty way that will start transforming all areas in our lives and around us. When his beggarly
heart, meagre and ungenerous: poverty-stricken, sits crouched. Adopt a position where the
knees are bent and the upper body is brought forward and down: (crouch over) bend over to be
close to a crouching stance or posture, shut up in a corner, break open the door, his king, and
come with the ceremony of a king. When desire blinds the mind with delusion; an idiosyncratic
belief or impression that is not in accordance with a generally accepted reality: the action of
deluding or being deluded; and dust, God–the Supreme Ultimate–He is the holy one, He is
wakeful, come with His light and His thunder. These are the signs that God will reply in a
mighty way.

Unit 11: Next Sunday by R K Narayan

Answer: Introduction
R K Narayan is the grand old man of Indian fiction. Besides fiction, he was also a good non-
fictional
essayist. That’s why he won the first Indian Sahitya Akademi Award. All his books of fiction
and
non-fiction are excellent and must read by anybody who can read English. His language is very
lucid and transparent. He writes for children and adults. His career spanned seven long and
illustrious decades from the 1930s to the 1990s. As our study of paper is restricted to only
R K Narayan as a non-fictional essayist, it is better to deal with his essays instead of novels and
short stories. Almost throughout his career, R K Narayan wrote non-fictional pieces/essays.
They were written at various times, which indicated his growth of mind as a writer like William
Wordsworth. Starting with pieces written as a weekly contribution to the ‘Hindu’ in the late
1930s, Narayan’s interest in the short form led him to comment, over the next few decades, on
just about every aspect of the world around him that held his interest.

11.5.2 Next Sunday

Next Sunday is a collection of weekly essays by R K Narayan published in 1960. The book
provides insights into Narayan’s writings and perspectives and the protagonists of his works -
the middle class common man. The book also includes his reflections on the themes of and
actions in his novels and short stories.
Next Sunday is the first essay in “Writerly Life”. Here, R K Narayan says that everyone looks
forward to Sunday. It is a day on which there are many things to do. A man plans to do the work
of 48 hours that day. He wants to get up late. However, he is disturbed and gets up in a
disappointed
mood. It is not a good way to start the day. The charm of the day is lost at the very start. By the
time he begins his work, the Sunday nearly has gone. He begins to notice the things in the house.

He had no time to examine those things on other days. He is a hobbyist. He likes to repair things
with his own hand. He wants to hang a picture, repair the radio and oil the watch. He sits like a
great god in his workshop. However, he is unable to do anything because he finds many
instruments are missing somewhere in the cupboard. The boys of him who stand near him want
to escape from their father’s scolding. Suddenly he sees his children playing in the next house.
He finds that his children are not developing on the right times. He punishes them. The man
finds that half the Sunday is left. There are only a few more hours left. He remembers his
promises. He wants to fulfil them. He gets up after his rest. He thinks that he can take his family
out on that day. Then he remembers how he spent the previous Sunday with children, howling
with hunger at the bus stand. He says to his children to stay at home that day. He promises to
take his family out ‘the next Sunday’.
In “The Crowd”, R K Narayan says that he likes Crowd. In a crowd, a man can attain great
calmhe
can forget himself for a few hours. He has seen many crowds when he is in Madras near radio
stand at the Marina, Flower Bazaar road, Central Railway Station platform and Parry’s corner to
Moore market. There he was watched humanity in a dazzling variety and shape of colours,
forms, voices, appeals and activities. He likes crowd at a temple festival. The misanthrope hates
a crowd, misses the charm of life.
In the essay “Coffee”, the author describes the story of Coffee and the way it came to India.
Bababuden, a Muslim saint came from Mocha, bringing with him a handful of seeds and settled
himself on the slope of a mountain range in Kadur district, Mysore state. This range was later
named after him, and anyone can see his tomb while making a short trip from Chikmangulur.
Later he describes the process of Coffee-making, which everyone does, but he gives many
precautions for making tasty Coffee.
Thus R K Narayan’s early essays cover a range of subjects which are common such as
‘Restaurants’,
‘Gardening without Tears’, ‘Of Trains and Travellers’, etc