Look on a Poem 'Once Upon A Time '

Once Upon A Time …

Gabriel Okara is a Nigerian writer. His poems show great sensitivity, perceptive judgments and a tremendous energy. Okara also shows a concern regarding what happens when the ancient culture of Africa is faced with modern western culture, for example in his poem, 'Once Upon a Time'.

Once upon a time, son,

they used to laugh with their hearts

and laugh with their eyes:

but now they only laugh with their teeth,

while their ice-block-cold eyes

search behind my shadow.

A Poetic Person who asking to his  son .  The entire poem has the man talking to his son. There are no other voices in the poem, and the son remains mute throughout the entire poem.  The past, according to the poet, is better than the present.

Learn  -   Acquire knowledge of a subject or a skill through studying

Unlearn -  Something that you have learned, forget it or ignore it

  Relearn -  Learn again 

Change - how people change over the years and become false and untrustworthy

Influence - the influence of the white western world on African nations; countries like Nigeria were more honest before being developed by the west.

Dishonesty/hiding true intentions

Innocence/childhood.

How these process apply in poem:

So I have learned many things, son.

I have learned to wear many faces

like dresses – homeface,

officeface, streetface, hostface,

cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles

like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too

to laugh with only my teeth

and shake hands without my heart.

I have also learned to say,’Goodbye’,

when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:

to say ‘Glad to meet you’,

without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been

nice talking to you’, after being bored.

In this material and artificial world, the poet has learnt many things – especially wearing many faces . Poet learned how to ‘laugh with teeth’ he also learned even when shaking hands with others, they are very artificial and hence mechanical. Learned all formal things. Persona unlearn the things which he learned. He expresses a desire to unlearn whatever he has forced himself to learn, in order for him to gain his sense of self back. And then he want to relearn  as before.

So show me, son,

how to laugh;

show me how I used to laugh and smile

 once upon a time when I was like you.

Effect

We sympathise with him because he recognises how he’s changed, and because he wants to return to how he was. We relate to him because we can all  understand the feeling of not wanting to be dishonest with ourselves and two faced.

Apart from above things poem also deals with these idea , like as Mannerism , Behaviorism, Change in  Human Nature, Factor of Time , Living in  the world of Illusion, effect of Urbanization and Globalization.

Short Story I WANT TO KNOW WHY by Sherwood Anderson

Short Story I WANT TO KNOW WHY by  Sherwood Anderson

Adolescent stage is a very significant in everyone's life. It is the duration after childhood before Adulthood. It is a strange stage of life where a person is generally governed by dreams, passion and ideas. Many leading writes like Dickens, Narayan, Bond, and Tagore have highlighted some aspects of this stage in their fiction.

The most obvious stylistic device in this story is Sherwood Anderson’s use of the first-person narrative voice. The naïve speaker finds it difficult to tell his story; he fumbles for the right word, the accurate description.

Sherwood Anderson 's story I WANT TO KNOW WHY also highlights the world of teenager. In the present story he depicts how a teenager boy's ideal person turns from hero to zero.

The setting of the Story is Home town of narrator, Backerswille. The narrator of the Story depicts the frustration of an adolescent who is highly shocked &disappointed to find his model person, ideal to be an ordinary human being. The Story disturb and confuses the young boy at the end as he realize that people aren't always as good as they seem. So what it means? It means that very difficult to find original face of Human being, why many of the people who have artificiality in their nature.

 Here in this story innocent boy who is in search of something that would be like ideal. There is also some symbolism in the story which may be important. To the narrator the horses represent or symbolize everything that is good in the world. 

“I Want to Know Why” can be compared to “Death in the Woods” (and numerous other Anderson stories) in its rendering of sexual awakening and confusion. here  ending of the story is also interesting as it becomes clear to the reader that despite becoming aware of the realities of life. There is also a sense that the narrator is innocent of human nature and a person’s need or desire to impress others. This is noticeable by Tillford’s bragging and attributing Sunstreak’s success to himself rather than to the horse. 

Any innocent face more governed by sentiments, passion rather than Understanding.

Concept of IMAGINATION given by I. A Richards

Concept of IMAGINATION given by IA Richards

INTRODUCTION

literary Criticism has found itself as an important and independent branch. In the modern times, Literary Criticism has established new horizon. I. A Richards and T. S. Eliot are considered as The Father of New Criticism.

                        

Simple means of IMAGINATION :  

The faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.

According to I. A Richards, we can define the term Imagination at least in six distinct sense. He discusses Various meaning and concepts of the same term. Since Imagination is an abstract noun, it can be defined in many different ways.

      1) The first concept of IMAGINATION is very common that is the production of vivid images, usually visual images, already sufficiently discussed. It is the commonest and the least interesting things which is referred to by Imagination.

      2)   Another concept of IMAGINATION is the use of figurative language. People who naturally employ Metaphor and simile especially when it is of an unusual kind are said to have Imagination.

   3)The Third is, a narrator Sense is that in which Sympathetic reproducing of other people 's states of mind, particularly their emotional states is Imagination.

   4)Moreover, a different concept of IMAGINATION is the inventiveness the bringing together of elements which are not ordinary connected.

   5)Fifth concept According to I. A Richards is that Imagination means a kind of relevant connection of things ordinary thought as disparate which is exemplified in scientific Imagination. The technical triumphs of The Arts are examples of this kind of Imagination.

    6)Finally, we come to the sense of Imagination with which we are here most concerned. It is closely connected with Coleridge 's great Contribution to Critical Theory.

In this words Imagination means......

"That Synthetic and magical power,

to which we have exclusively appropriated

the name of Imagination....... "

   It is a sense of novelty and freshness with Old and familiar objects, a more than usual state of emotion, with more than usual order.

   At the end of the article, I. A Richards refers Wordsworth 's pantheistic interpretations of the imaginative experience, in' Tintern Abbey ', which is in verifying form has been given by many poets and critics.

Imagination plays very vital role in creation of literature.

Three Years She Grew As a Lucy Poem by Wordsworth

Three Years She Grew As  a  Lucy Poem by Wordsworth

            Series of five poems Composed by Wordsworth between 1798- 1801.  Three Years she grew is made of seven , six line stanza each have AA BC CB rhyme scheme . This poem is one of a  set of usually   called “ Lucy Poems ”. The identity of Lucy never been discovered.

Imagination was intellect reason apply with the elements….

        Poetry is intense emotions

            recollected in tranquility …..

Lucy poem emphasizes the abstract ideals of nature beauty,  love, longing, death.

  Nature then expounds on what is means to be nature’s lady for several stanzas . The poem becomes the beautiful elegy written to woman who had died & who Wordsworth admired not only for  her beauty, but also for her connection to nature, which Wordsworth  felt was the highest possible achievements.

Three  Years  She  grew  in  sun and  shower,

Then  Nature said,  “  A    lovelier  flower

On earth  was  ne’er  sown;

This  child I to  myself  will take ;

She  shall be mine , and I will make

A  Lady  of my own .

Very  beginning of the poem, typically romantic in its emphasis on harmony between humans & nature . The beauty and  innocence  of children, the resemblance of children to flowers, and the sadness potentially provoked by the death of the children. The entire poem, is typical of Wordsworth’s emphasizes on beauties of physical nature, an emphasis that is one of the chief characteristic of romantic poets.

A girl grew up among the basic nature’s elements of “sun and  shower” phrasing that already prepare us for comparison . Apparently girl was appealing that personified nature, in a sense, to adopt the girl as her own. Wordsworth believes in general, that human beings profit from  their contacts with the beauties  of nature, & in this poem the girl is an unusual specific instance of nature’s beneficial influence.

Nature will motivate the girl to grow in the right ways  by  encouraging  or kind proper impulse .In  several  stanza  it is  described  that  she will be  everywhere, playing with the  beautiful animals, in valleys, in mountains, being a part of the rocks , the earth , the heaven , cloud, the trees and storms Lucy will be living  with  Nature enjoying  it and Lucy will be in Constant communication.

Thus  Nature spake - the  work was  done

How  soon  my Lucy ‘s race was run !

She died , and left  to me

This heath, this calm , and quiet scene;

The memory of what has been ,

And never more will be .

It is only in the end that the reader  finally learns that- what  happened to Lucy (she died as soon as she reached maturity ) and  why the speaker  is writing the poem out of grief.

Nature declare that her work is done. Lucy  is  no more  there…!

Analysis of Break,Break,Break

Break, Break, Break - Alfred Tennyson.

Break, break, break
On thy Cold grey stone, O Sea!
And i would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

'Break, Break, Break ' provide almost a perfect example of masterly lyric. The real poetic beauty of the lyric could be seen and felt in the lines that are loaded with poignant suggestion, especially those that hint at the death of Poet' s friend, Arthur Hallam.

Poem can be left open to Interpretation to its true meaning. Some Say that poem reflects the dying of religious and theory of evolution being introduced to society. Another Interpretation of this poem could be his possible love for his best friend "Hallam". His death resulted in a lifelong depression for Tennyson.

The speaker addresses the ocean directly, telling the waves to "break, break, break" onto the stony shore. After telling the sea to keep doing its thing, the speaker regrets that he can't express his thoughts.

The speaker thinks it's all well and good that the fisherman's kid is shouting and playing with his sister. Repeating the same sentence structure, the speaker says it's great for the sailor who is singing in his boat.

The waves have changed slightly, and we see that time is passing, despite the tragedy that the speaker has suffered. Mournfully he says that the happy old days when his friend was alive will never return.

He doesn't come out and describe the dead friend, though – he just lists a series of missing things: the "hand" and the "voice." The lost friend is described as a series of absent parts.

It Focusing on themes likes Sadness, Death , Time, etc. A feeling of pathos runs through this brief lyric. The mood one is deep sorrow. The poem arouses a corresponding feeling of grief in the heart of reader. Here reader feels the pain of Poet which he expressed through words. The poem has a slow, sad pace, although it is written in a meter and rhythm which express the movement and noise of the Sea - waves.

My Point of View Regarding Novel ‘To The Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf.

  My Point of View Regarding Novel ‘To The Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf.

 For the touch of this creation, I remember one quote ..

“ Light never Died , Sound never Travels”

we can see the light , we are not seeing live , it is little late –whatever we seeing is late , it is travelling from eyes to light .

Stream of Consciousness

I want say something about ‘Stream of Consciousness’ technique means we can say that its complex narrative technique. In this Stream of consciousness technique the story develops through the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. This technique is used by modernist writers. here in this novel Virginia Woolf used Stream of Consciousness Technique that deals with different subjects like –Complexities of human relationship, struggle of female artist, everyday battles with near and dears etc. With the use of Semicolons, Parentheses she beautifully narrates the novel. And which is also different from traditional narrative structure. Use of direct and indirect monologue and free association draws reader towards character’s inner world and their thinking process. The flow of thoughts is represented by means of long-winding, interconnected sentences.

In direct interior monologue in  To The Lighthouse

In “To The Lighthouse" Virginia Woolf succeeds in producing a much subtle effect through the use of this technique. This novel contains a great deal of straight, conventional narration and description but the interior monologue is used often enough to give the novel its special character of seeming to be always with in the consciousness of the chief characters.

Characters, Presented Through their own and through other’s Consciousness

Virginia Woolf Shoes us a particular person in this novel not only through the Consciousness of that person himself or herself, but also through the

Consciousness of the other persons. We are given the interior monologues of the various characters in this novel, and it is largely through the twin devices of stream of Consciousness and the interior monologue that we come to know the various characters. Thus we see Mrs. Ramsay not only through her own Consciousness but through the Consciousness of Mr. Ramsey, the child James, Lily Briscoe, Mr. Tansley, and Mr. Bankes. Similarly we come to know Mr. Ramsay not only through his own Consciousness but also through the Consciousness of Mrs.Ramsay, the young James, Lily Briscoe, and Mr. Bankes. In fact, every character in the novel is presented to us through his own Consciousness and also through the Consciousness of the other characters. At the same time, the characters are occasionally presented to us directly by the allknowing author of the novel, and also sometimes bits of conversation or dialogue between the characters.

Free Association in To The Lighthouse

The chief technique in controlling the movement of stream of consciousness in fiction has been an application of the principles of psychological free association .Levels  the writing expresses and make it possible for the writers to deal as much as possible the characters.

The Aesthetic Significance

Technique breaks out the traditional narrative structure. By the help of this technique the character may think about other upon seeing related things recall old memories at familiar sights and thing on another thing or person upon seeing on the consciousness shift freely among.

Use of Parenthesis () and Brackets in the novel . Brackets used in ‘ Time Passes ’- it signifies Death, Quickly Things goes on .Parenthesis tell something that is Parallel ,Meeting thoughts etc.

 Here Joseph Blotner has describe the two types of famous myths.

 A) The Pagan Myth

 B) Oedipus Myth

                    

The pagan myth represented primordial goddesses and it is described the major role of female with the idea of Karl Jung. It is mentioned the female role like the mother, and mother remain in the center , mother is controlling one and all . In this myth Rhea is presented as a mother, Demeter is presented as a wife and Persephore is presented as a Daughter. The importance of this myth in this novel is that here these three role is reflected in only one character that is Mrs. Ramsay.

The male phallic symbol represents feminine Mrs.Ramsay how?

Here the female phallic symbol is The window and the male phallic symbol is The lighthouse. The female phallic symbol shows the life giving identity and power and male phallic symbol (The lighthouse) is praising the light in a way Mrs.Ramsay praising herself. Love and stability is described in to the character of Mrs.Ramsay. 

Oedipus complex. This complex we find in James character who was a youngest son of the Ramsay’. He loves his mother deeply and feels a murderous antipathy toward his

father with whom he must compete for Mrs. Ramsay’s love and affection.

 India in “ To The Lighthouse”

In the very first part begins with this dialogue

“Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow,

Said Mrs.Ramsey.” But you’ll have to be up with the lark. ”she

added ”

This dialogue proves that she is a loving and traditional mother who loves her child a lot. And, to give him consolation that tomorrow is whether will good we will go for the ‘Lighthouse’. In that time Mr. Ramsey said that-

“ but.” said his father, stopping in front of the drawing room window”

“It won’t be fine.”

This dialogue is the image of father image in the ‘patriarchal society.’ And second dialogue about the ‘power position’ of men in the house. India is ruled by the men. here also  Mrs.Ramsay’s character presented  as “Indian Nari” Mrs. Ramsey is a wife, a mother of eight children, House wife. Mrs. Ramsey is also at the center of her family. Mrs. Ramsey’s talent of bringing people together an art.

The novel is both the tribute and critique of Mrs. Ramsay

Yes it is relevant to say that novel is both tribute and critique of Mrs.Ramsay. Woolf reflects her own pain in the character of Mrs. Ramsey . Woolf reflects her own life in the character of Lily as modern woman. Mrs. Ramsay is a round character which remains from beginning to the end in the novel, first she is physically living and then in minds of people she remains live. Along with Lily Briscoe we also as a reader, Throughout the novel wants to understand her character and her life as a whole. How she deals with all family members and makes family united. She plays the role of a wife, mother, and house keeper.

She is a match maker and gives much importance to the marriage According to her all men and all women should definitely be married . Mrs. Ramsey is the idealized woman type according to Victorian values.

In the Novel Woolf  beautifies this character as well as it also seems that she is criticizing this character. And by drawing her as a motherly figure Virginia Woolf also tributes her.

On the other very well Portrait by Woolf, she represents Lily as a role model for women she defies the patriarchal society  Lily ignores the patriarchal rules and she aims to take her social role with her with becoming an artist.

   

   Last reference which seems as like , as we know that Indian women considered For House hold things, her work was to take care of children and Home. but today it is different picture that what we see in the society, there is  a change .

Last line of the Novel

Woolf reflects her own life in the character of Lily as modern woman. In a Crucial moment, which occurs in silence, Lily Briscoe decides that she will not marry and that she will paint.  It just makes that role an awkward fit. Lily Briscoe also understands what she is giving up because she is half in love with Mrs. Ramsey or the ideal of Mrs. Ramsey. Painting Mrs.ramsey’s portrait, Lily paints what inspires her and what inspires her and what condemns her as a woman artist.

The moment also parallels James ‘s ability to see the lighthouse and his father anew but holds singular importance for the structure of the novel . Mr.Ramsay , Mrs.Ramsay and Lily Briscoe makes three distinct attempts to harness the chaos that is life and make it meaningful . Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay both intellectual and social attempts to order life fall short. only Lily’s “vision” that is unable her to separate .

By the end of the novel ,Lily ,a serious and diligent worker, puts. into practice all that she had learned from the materials around her – the changing light , the view of bay. her artistic achievements suggests a larger sense of completeness in that she finally feels united with Mr.Ramsay and rational.

Use of German term 'Künstlerroman'

  The meaning of Kunstlerroman means the novel about somebody’s life or Artist’s novel.

According to this meaning we can say that in this novel many biographical catches included by the author.

Like
1)Mrs. Ramsay’s character drawn as a mother of Virginia.
2) Deep philosophical thinking of Virginia reflected in the dialogue of the novel.
3) 8 siblings of author drown as children of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay.
4) Drown herself in water.(suicide)

“Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is luminous halo (things remain tomorrow) semi-transparent envelop surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.”

Commonwealth Literature' Does Not Exist- by Salman Rushdie

Commonwealth Literature' Does Not Exist-by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie is one of the key representatives of contemporary Commonwealth literature. As an Indian-British novelist, he is world famous for his novel Midnight Children (1981), which won the Booker prize. Most of his books are set in India and have a particular emphasis on history. He is classified as a magical realist writer.

What is Commonwealth?  

The original phrase “the Commonwealth” or “the common weal” comes from the old meaning of “wealth” which is “well-being”. The term literary meant “common well being”.

Commonwealth means British nation and  political community founded for the common good .Commonwealth deals with public welfare.

What is Commonwealth literature?

 Commonwealth literature has been generally used to  refer to the  Literature of colonies , former colonies  and dependencies of Britain excluding the literature of England .commonly it shows the nationality .  

In Commonwealth  literature Does not exist Rushdie pointed that Indian Society and Indian literature  have a complex and developing relationship with the English Language . This kind of Post-Colonial dialectic is propounded as one of the unifying factors in ‘Commonwealth literature’, but it does not exist , or at least is far more  peripheral to the problems of literature in Canada, Australia, even South Africa . later he said that English literature has its Indian branch. by this he describes  that it is literature of the English Language .this literature is also Indian Literature .

English is an Indian Literary Language , and by it he thanked to writer like Tagore, Desani, Mulk Raj Ananad, Chaudhari, Anita Desai, Raja Rao, and other . the category Commonwealth  literature as a ghetto, created by those practice English Literature Proper. He also talks about The Idea of Language Politics, Commonwealth literature means MASTER Slave Relationship . Commonwealth literature is positioned below English Literature .

Midnight’s Children and The Reluctant Fundamentalist both Movie presents with Post colonial aspects .

Midnight’s Children  and The Reluctant Fundamentalist both movie presents with Post colonial aspects .

Views on Movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Introductory Part :

 Yes..in this movie we may find colonial and post colonial aspects .it is about the political power, superiority. It is also presents idea of American believes Pakistani.

Muslim seen as a Negro seen by Whiteman .A Muslim fellow who is suffer with or without fault. There’s a double meaning to the title of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” filmmaker Mira Nair’s great, fascinating and composite drama based on the 2007 novel by Mohsin Hamid about the roots of extremism. On a superficial level, “fundamentalist” refers to religious identity, one unfortunately most often associated with Islamic terrorism these days. And the story  about an ambitious, Pakistani born Wall Street financial analyst who becomes disillusioned with the United States after 9/11 .

Mira Nair for The Reluctant Fundamentalist won the Peace Award at the 2013 German Film Awards and she won the award  1st Century Award at International Film Festival of India 2013.

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist is technically proficient with solid acting and cinematography” and lauded the film as "its message is so ambitious and careless

that some of its power is rob. There is stereotypical questions in Film.

Cast

Riz Ahmed as Changez Khan.

Kate Hudson as Erica.

Liev Schreiber as Bobby Lincoln.

Kiefer Sutherland as Jim Cross.

Om Puri as Abu, Changez's father.

Shabana Azmi as Ammi, Changez's mother

Cololnial and postcolonial aspects in movie

 “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” will likely make some people mad, because of the way it holds the U.S. responsible for the repercussions of its actions in the world. Like Changez himself, the film has a complicated relationship with the superpower. There’s love there, to be sure. But because there’s love, there’s also the belief — expressed with all the pain and fervent hope you might imagine — that America, and Americans, can do better. As post colonialism is the study of a culture after a physical and political withdrawal of an oppressive power. In the case of Changez Khan .

“ what freedom of expression ? without the freedom to offend it ceases to exist”

Here it is happens with Changz Khan in American colony where he faces problems, Americans  looking as Muslim as well as he is one of the part of terrorist, yes geographically he belongs to same land but it means that the man have as like other . he suffer a lot in the case of   erica with her he wants to makes a lifelong relationship but he can’t . the reluctant fundamentalist is an assimilated Muslim forced into anti-American radicalism by America itself.

Changez delivers a tribute at Sameer's funeral, as Lincoln recuperates in a hospital, recalling Changez's words as he listens to the recording of the interview "

Looks can be deceiving. I am a lover of America...

although I was raised to feel very Pakistani."

It is all about search for identity , power-superiority , relationship crisis.

Analysis on Movie “Midnight's Children

If literature is in part the business of finding new angles at which to enter reality , then once again our distance, our long geographical perspectives, may provide us with such angles. Midnight's Children enters its subject from the point of view of secular man. Here in Midnight's Children it was not raised narrowly Muslim environment. Saleem sinai makes use, eclectically, of whatever elements from whatever sources he chooses.

Beginning of the movie narrator speaks this words ‘I was born in the city Bombay once upon a time’

It is about the culture .To speak a language is to appropriate it’s world and culture. Here in this movie presented four generation .it is the story of two boys were belongs diffternt caste The compound story centers on two boys born in Bombay at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, which is the moment Indian abrogated British rule. One child (Saleem) is born into riches; the other’s family is complicated, but he (Shiva)would supposedly be raised by poor wandering musicians. Except the babies are swapped at birth. Saleem, raised in the well to do family, narrates the story.  

 Saleem and his counter part turned rival, Shiva. Along with multiple narrative threads that involve the actual dramas of war, poverty, birth and death, the story dips into magical realism.(Parvati) the young girl have to do some magic that is call Magic Realism .

In the end, Rushdie assures us that the riot of color and incident and allusion he's narrated was actually, at heart, always just about love, which will come as a relief to viewers confounded by what's come before.

Along with multiple narrative threads that involve the concrete dramas of war, poverty, birth and death, the story dips into magical realism. All children born between midnight and 1 a.m. on that historic date harbor special power .in movie reality of india presented at the time of Emergency, it is all about political crisis .

Midnight's Children attempts.... It s a point about pessimism. It has been criticized as allegedly despairing tone. The point of view of the narrator is not entirely that of the author. Story of saleem does indeed lead him to despair. But the Story is told in a manner designed to echo, as a closely. That s why the narrative constantly throws up stories. The form multitudinous, hinting at the infinite possibilities of the country - it s the optimistic counterweight to saleem 's personal tragedy.

. 

Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie

Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie is Diasporic writer . who is an Indian-born British essayist and fiction writer. ‘ Imaginary Homeland’ is a collection of essay which covers variety of topics . ‘ Imaginary Homelands’ in this essay , he talks about the experience of London seminar (1982).

Essay begins with the lines ..

"An old photograph in a cheap frames hangs on a wall of the room where I work ."

Here in this essay he remembers his past life .he saw a hanging picture on the wall .it was of 1946 on  when he was not yet born. He remembers famous sentence from L.P. Hartley’s novel ‘The Go-Between’ - ‘Past is the Foreign Country’. Rusdhie begins with memory, it is about India, somewhere it is like that ‘Anxiety’. He says that Bombay is a city built by foreigners. He recalled his past memory, past Bombay. He also remembers saleem’s theme song.

"Mera joota hai japani
Ye patloon Inglistani
Sar pr lal topi Rusi
Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani"

He tells about his one topic of ‘Midnight’s children’ –Indian Pessimism. He says that Indian writes of England are the same animals. He asks what ‘Indian’ means outside India. Art is a passion of mind and the imagination works best when it is free.

He writes all this by saying that all things are a kind of imagination and he writes about India’s culture. He Articulate Nation and Nationalism . Here we connect with Bhabha’s idea of Nation : Nation, like Narrative , lose their orient in the myth of time and fully realize their horizons in the mind’s eyes. Such an image of nation or narration might seen impossibly romantic and excessively. her Rushdie’s idea of ‘Home’(locality)truly imagination, and it is symbolic one. because we can choose where we shift. We engaged with Home but in real sense it a imagination, there is not specific land (Home) society gives the name & identity. Each things and object signifies iidentity, all these things are imagination. Diaspora deals with Authentic. it is like ‘Bhel’, mixing of different things, numerous idea, and culture, than it is tasty. So whole essay about his recalling the days of India. It is Journey of Indian days, which is part of his memories.

Top of Form

Doctor's word (Short story) by R. K. Narayan

Doctor's Word (Short Story)by R.K. Narayan

      Critics have noted that Narayan's writings tend to be more descriptive and less analytical. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner , who also created a fictional town that stood for reality.

   It is very simple story and it gives aesthetic delight too. story focusing on Dr. Raman who is one of the major character ,he is known as a straight-forward and to the point Doctor. He reasons that he might as well tell the truth about his prognosis for his patients, since nature will take its course one way or the other. and the other major character Gopal,who is very sick. Dr. Raman is suddenly told that his good friend from boyhood, Gopal is seriously ill. 

  Dr. Raman goes to his friend, and gives Gopal an injection, and he and his two assistants perform some type of operation on Gopal. Gopal becomes conscious and asks his friend Dr. Raman if he can expect to live. If not, Gopal must immediately sign his prepared last will and testament. Dr. Raman takes a break, then comes back and lies that Gopal is in good shape and must rest. 

          The doctor realizes that the man could die that night. For Gopal is very sick (dying in Dr. Raman's judgment) and requests a truthful prognosis in order to settle his will and avoid the "endless misery for his wife and children" that an unsettled will would entail, a realistic eventuality with which Yet, if Dr. Raman reveals his pessimistic opinion, which he does to his assistant, i.e., that Gopal will not survive the night, then it would "virtually mean a death sentence and destroy the thousandth part of a chance that the patient had of survival."

As we know that what is the role of Doctor, Doctor never behaved with emotion ,his work with what is the way that he survive the life of patient, Doctor always deals with truthfulness. but here in this fiction Dr. Raman does "a piece of acting" and assures his friend and patient that he will live. Gopal replies, "If it comes from your lips it must be true . . . . " Gopal lives and Dr.Raman remarks to his assistant.

"How he has survived this attack

will be a puzzle to me all my life."

  In other words, this story's concern is not only with professional ethics but also with the tension that often arrives when personal ethics and professional ethics intersect and conflict meta-ethics for professional morality" in the journal Ethics.it wad also mentioed in ' Vanity Fair' that..

"Human is more important than the Science , religion,and literature.”

   In Narayan’s stories it has been observed that the stories begin with the characters but in a skilful manner during his narration of the character, Narayan plants a situation. The build-up generally deals with how a character reacts in that situation. So, we can say that...

Literature is the product mind and heart.

My Reviews on Attenborough’s Gandhi by Salman Rushdie

 Attenborough’s Gandhi

           Literature is self-validating. That is to say, a book is not justified by its author’s worthiness to write it, but by the quality what has been written. There are terrible books arise directly out of experience, and extraordinary imaginative feats dealing with themes which the author has been obliged to approach from the outside.

  Salman Rushdie is  a provocative  writer who likes to remain in controversy for one or the other things. He compares migration to translation .‘ Imaginary Homeland ’ is a collection of Rushdie’s essays . Reading ‘ Imaginary Homeland ’ is an collection essays , review and interview  which were made for 1981 to 1996.these essays deal with Political, Social, and literary topics. Rushdie's  in his essay colonialism and the ironies of culture, film, politicians, the Labor Party, religious fundamentalism in America, racial situation  and the preciousness of the imagination and of free expression.

              The film is about a biography,not a political work .even if one aspects this distinction, one must reply that  a biography, if it is not turn into hagiography,(see only one side) aspects of the subjects as well as loveable side.Attenborough’s Gandhi –essay deals with the Indian leader called Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

        Looking at Postcolonial wayIn this essay he deconstruct the movie ‘Gandhi’ by Attenborough. Ben kinglsy has played role of Gandhiji this movie. Beginning of the essay he saying that “ Deification is an Indian disease”. In India , Gandhi is higher than anyone but he has a question (Postcolonial mind always with questions)which he asked to people many a time  – “ why should American academy wish to help him by offering in temple eight glittering statuettes to a film.”inanswer Rushdie might be viewing Gandhi as a mystical  person. India is the fountain head of the spirituality .Gandhi is the famous figure and leader of India. Here in the movie Attenborough has compred Gandhi with Christ. He also said that anything can be achieved through submission, self-sacrifice, and Non-violence.

              First of all, why they have chosen Gandhi? Not any other patriotic figure or spiritual figure like Sardar Patel?ShubhaBhose? Why no Tagore? The answer is that theey want to represent Gandhi as Torch- bearer of Non-violence .if the opposition and the independence movement is important they can choose Bose, but Bose is not chose as he is enough strong and intelligent that he could push out to the Britisher with Violent.

                In the Attenborough has not presented Gandhi’s thought about ‘ Brahmcharya’ . The book ‘ My Experiments with the truth ’ is not fully justified we know Gandhiji’s notion and practice about Brahmcharya, the matter is of ambiguity .Jwaharlal Nehru has been presented as the disciple of Gandhiji. While actually he sharing the same stage with Gandhiji. In this movie he is very minor character and follower of Gandhiji. Mohammad ali Jinnah is presented as villaneous figure for India .actually Jinnah has same intellect and passion for India as Gandhiji as ,in movie his character presented as Count Dracula.

                In the movie , Attenborough didn’t include speech of NathuramGodse Because  he knows that no one like to watch or listen NathuramGodse as he has killed ‘ Mahatma’ in that case Nathurama villain and if he has included this portion into movie than this movie might not be selected as a Oscar winning movie .here we can say that Richard Attenborough has chosen the events in the movie is distorted history.In the movie NathuramGodse is not named , he is a member of the Hindu-fanatic RSS, who blamed Gandhi as a reason for the Partition .in the movie he is in crowd that represents him differently.Godse was not the representative of the mob because he was not alone in his work .movie also omits Gandhi’s fondness for Indian billionaire industrialist. He died in  Birla house in Delhi.

Rushdie Criticizes the Amritsar massacre Dyer’s action at Jallianwala Bagh.

                There are many powerful sequences in this movie. For example the Amritsar massacre. In court martial an Englishman asks the question about Jallianwala Bagh to Dyer. The scene say that his actions were those of a cruel and immediately after condemned by Anglo-Indian. It was false. The British in Punjab in 1919 were afraid of Second Indian  mutinity. When Dyer goes to England , he has welcomed as a hero. So meaning was completely changed .

                Thus Rushdie gives his reviws about Attenborough’s film and at end ,he writes that a very significant line.

“ Rich men like emperors, have always had a weakness for tame holy men, for saints”